4C
Wednesday, August 16.1995
KUCAMPUS UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Mustard Seed Fellowship delivers members from sin
Edmee Rodriguez / KAMSAN
Some followers concerned about atmosphere at KU
Members of the Mustard Seed Christian Fellowship, 700 Wakarusa Drive, pray during a service. The conversion methods of the fellowship are more forceful than traditional churches, and followers of the Mustard Seed Fellowship attempt to save KU students by randomly spreading their beliefs on campus.
By Rachel Sontag Special to the Kansan
Rebecca Studebaker looks up from the coffee-stained table after a passionate impromptu debate on creation vs. evolution. She knows the Bible and prays that the anthropology student sitting across from her at The Country Kitchen can be saved.
"Can you see me glowing? Look into my eyes. I'm with God," Studebaker whispers, her face flushed. "When you get saved, you are born again into a new creation. You become a baby in His Kingdom."
Studebaker is one of many college-age members of the Mustard Seed Christian Fellowship, a local Christian church, 700 Wakarusa Drive. Its evangelistic philosophy demands that born-again members go into the world to help others find the same happiness that they have found in the power and passion of Jesus Christ.
It is the Christian hope that all will accept Jesus, but conversion methods of the traditional churches are less forceful than the Mustard Seed Fellowship, which preaches the power of God through the Holy Spirit.
That spirit is alive for Studebaker and other true Mustard Seed believers, she said. The supernatural gifts of faith, miracles, healing, prophecy, discernment of spirits and speaking in tongues are happening in Lawrence.
"Call it a Holy Revolution," said Paul Taylor, associate pastor of the Mustard Seed Christian Fellowship. "This is what the world is dying for. It's happening right now, all over the country. The Holy Spirit is actively moving through Christians who are open and willing to create and
release his love."
The Rev. Kevin Vogts of the Redeemer Lutheran Church, 2700 Lawrence Ave., said he worried that churches like the Mustard Seed Fellowship intermingled false teachings into the gospel. For example, the Mustard Seed practice of speaking in tongues contradicts some traditional church's beliefs. Vogts said that the belief states that only one
person should speak at a time and someone must always interpret what is said.
Still, the Mustard Seed members are expecting a huge Christian revival on college campuses in the future.
The fellowship was started 25 years ago in Lawrence by two KU students, said Hugh Wentz, who works with the fellowship.
The students bought a house on Tennessee Street and turned it into a Christian Center. Anyone was welcome to stay as long as they attended the nightly evangelical meetings.
"It was unbelievable," Wentz said. "People were being saved left and right."
But, Studebaker believes that Lawrence today is filled with sin.
She finds it rampant in coffee shops, bars, music stores and book shops.
Studebaker also sees an anti-Christian stance in the liberal atmosphere of the KU campus, and she said she was determined to make a change. In an attempt to save the entire campus, Mustard Seed members spread the Christian gospel to students randomly.
If sinners or non-believers are
given the opportunity to live for Christ but choose not to, they will go to hell, said Taylor, the group's associate pastor.
"Until the whole world lives for Christ, we are doomed to destruction," Taylor said.
Despite the fellowship's good intentions, Scott Disher, Lawrence graduate student, said he was annoyed when evangelical groups approached him on campus. He felt as if Christianity was being wrongly forced upon him.
"Jesus wanted people to come to him," Disher said.
But Jennifer Marshall, a Mustard Seed member, maintained her belief that evangelizing was crucial.
"You let them know where you stand and what you believe," she said. "If you live your life according to Christ, they will come to you."
Coming to know Christ and the Holy Spirit is a physical experience for Mustard Seed members. The experience often happens on Sunday evenings when the fellowship gathers and is slain in the Holy Spirit.
"To be slain is to be so overwhelmed in the Spirit's presence that it literally makes you so weak that you can't stand up, and you fall to the ground surrounded in the Spirit," Studebaker said. "When it overcomes you, you have to yield to it."
During a typical Sunday meeting, the church is alive with vibrant Christian music and people with open hands reaching skyward. Hysterical fits of uninhibited-laughter also come from those who have been slain in the Spirit and are lying on the church floor.
"I had a vision of tentacles growing eyeballs," Studebaker said of her first vision. "I took hold of the hands of a woman and the powers of the Holy Spirit came through her hands.
See MUSTARD SEED, Page 5C.