Kingdom: Equipping the Church to Minister in Love & Power
“As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” – John 20:21
There is a movement happening in the Church in New England right now. The Lord is raising up everyday believers – farmers, tradesmen, engineers, retirees, business executives, stay-at-home moms, professors, and college students alike – to not merely fill pews or run programs, but to minister to others in the power of the Holy Spirit; to see bodies healed, emotions rightly ordered, captives set free, relationships restored, and lives transformed. The Kingdom of God is coming near.
This is the work of Encounter Culture, a ministry partner of the Anglican Diocese in New England. In addition to running Encounter Weekends, which are powerful spaces to step into the freedom of the Gospel, the ministry also offers an eight-week course called Kingdom Ministry Training, led by its founding director, the Rev. Amy Howard.
From its inception at a tiny church plant in Maine to a thriving regional ministry bordering on national and international influence, Kingdom has equipped hundreds of individuals in the Church to simply lead people to Jesus in healing prayer and prophetic ministry. As Adam Nute of New Hampshire puts it, “[Kingdom] gave me a new perspective of what living empowered by the Holy Spirit looks like and the authority we are given in Christ. It helped me see that we should not stick ourselves on the sidelines but are able to participate in the work of Christ, bringing healing to us and those around us.”
Rev. Amy elaborates, “it is so evident that the Lord cares about people who are in pain, and that it matters to him that the Church is equipped and passionate to do what he did when he was on the earth – and not by just a few professionals. There has been a desperate need in the Church [for equipping.] There is too much unresolved pain that no one knows how to deal with. What we find is that just a little bit of language and a few tools can help us live a genuine healing Christian life together and make that available to the world.”
It is that desperate need that gave rise to Kingdom over 10 years ago. Rev. Amy shares the story:
Rev. Amy teaching on healing in 2019 in Bangor, Maine.
My friends approached me at a playground when we were with our small children and they said, ‘we want to know how to hear the Lord in prayer and how to pray for people.’
I said, ‘well I’m sure there’s a book we can all read together, I’ll find one.’
They said, ‘no we want to know what it is that you do. You teach us.’
I had three small kids, and was pregnant with the fourth, and I said, ‘Lord, if you want me to do this, you’re going to have to make time because I have no time, and I don’t know where to start...’ And then a moose just randomly showed up in our yard. When my inlaws drove over to see it they said, ‘don’t you have something you should be doing today? We would like to watch the kids.’
And so for six weeks we met: I assembled the best teaching I had heard and added to it the little experience I had… and over the years I felt the slow movement of having the privilege of gaining my own experience and the experience of ministers and teachers around me…
Kingdom Ministry Training begins with scriptural foundations for healing ministry and goes on to explore different kinds of healing and methods of healing prayer, including leading people through prayers of repentance, inviting Jesus to redeem traumatic memories, and how to hear and share God’s heart for others in prayer. At its core, Kingdom is about learning to love others well in prayer.
What sets this course apart from a purely theological and cognitive exercise is the weekly hands-on practice. Rev. Amy says, “we’re going to practice what we’ve learned; now the Lord is here so we are practicing, we’re not pretending.” There is an expectation that the Lord is present to heal an injury or memory or sense of self even in a teaching setting, and more often than not, he does.
““I wasn’t sure what to expect from [Kingdom], but besides learning a lot about healing prayer, I was able to practice what was learned immediately after each session, experiencing the joy of the Presence of the Holy Spirit, and seeing the healing of brokenness and pain. Immediately after the training I was able to join an Encounter Weekend as an apprentice... which gave me great confidence to pray for people myself.”
In the last two years, Kingdom has become accessible to groups of believers up and down the east coast from New Brunswick to Florida. One big reason is the leadership and investment of Gerry and Rev. Barbara LaChance. With Gerry’s background in running businesses and Rev. Baraba’s decades of experience in healing ministry, they are now sowing their expertise into how to run Kingdom in a way that gives the most people access. Practically what makes this expansion possible is local site leaders. Rev. Amy teaches the content to everyone and then coaches site leaders during the week as they learn to lead their teams of growing prayer ministers and to create a safe and responsible culture of healing ministry in their individual congregations. Kingdom isn’t about handing anyone a DVD packet to watch alone, it’s about raising up the entire Body of Christ to the work of ministry.
“Being an online site leader, was challenging and amazing. The good news is that there is no “A” team. God can use anyone with a willing and teachable heart. I got to watch people be healed, and pray over others in the group. The most important thing about the Kingdom Ministry Training is it’s not only a class, but it’s learning how to live in the kingdom on a daily basis.””
As Rev. Amy explains, “our concern needs to be growing up in love, not controlling outcomes. The Church’s job has always been to generate mature, obedient, self-giving, intimate-with-Jesus Christians, and to balance that with not needing to control all the outcomes to the degree that only the elite squad gets to participate and play. That doesn’t mean everyone is a pastor or everyone gets a microphone, but it does mean that everyone can pray for their friends and neighbors.”
““Going to an Encounter Weekend and being in that space with other participants and prayer ministers with the intention of experiencing God’s healing power opened my eyes to a whole new side of Him that I never knew. It made me realize that He was always ready and always willing to redeem, and that I could partner with Him in that… I knew I wanted to be available to help others meet God in the same way I had. So, I went through Kingdom in order to learn to be present to what God wants to do in His people, and to have the tools necessary.”
The ministry of healing in the Church has faced chronic challenges throughout history from emotional and spiritual manipulation, poor or false theology, sensationalism, scandal, accommodating unbelief, and even fearing the ministry of healing. But Rev. Amy is so passionate about the real possibility of a ministry that is both healthy and grounded while eager to see God move in love and power. She says, “let’s have a strong theological framework for healing and for suffering and for our place in it. Anglicans have so much to offer in that realm, most just need a little push out the door. But to have the courage to stand in the tension between what we see in the Gospels and what we see on the ground around us – that is the sweet space for what we’re doing in the diocese right now: giving courage, giving language for healing, repentance, forgiveness unto encounter with Jesus, and growing up in love until the Kingdom comes.”