STUDY LEAVE REPORT : Frank Campbell
Kenneth Copeland Ministries Europe 2012 Victory Campaign : London, May 2012
A. Introduction
Yes, we had a lovely time in London, thank you, but – in case anyone asks – it was not a holiday, and certainly not a rest! This was the first time in 20-odd years of ministry I’ve ever taken Study Leave, and in so doing dragged my wife and myself away for five whole days from the rural idyll of Ale & Teviot to the revitalised Docklands in the east end of London.
The KCM Europe Victory campaign, celebrating 30 years of ministry this side of the Atlantic by Kenneth & Gloria Copeland, was held in the ExCeL Arena, a short bus ride [the 241 or the 473, since you ask!] from the new Olympic Stadium and … much more perturbing to the flesh … the biggest temple of Mammon in Europe, Westfield Centre at Stratford! We stayed in a hotel on the ExCeL site, in a 6th floor room boasting a marvellous view – of the Dockland Light Railway! What more can one ask? Trains passing the window every 3 minutes! Ecstasy!
We were not there, alas, for me to train-spot!! There was a serious purpose to this, and it was to listen to what Ken and Gloria had to impart. Some of us of a certain age may recall Billy Graham filling football stadiums up and down the country to preach the message of new life in Jesus, and perhaps we thought the day of big evangelistic events was gone forever.
But consider this. Saturday evening at the ExCeL, and fully two hours before the start of the 6th and final service a queue had built up almost to the water’s edge as Christians from all over the capital, all over the country, all over the continent, as far away as Uzbekistan [and Ancrum] came to be fed the Word of God. Thousands of believers, of all ages, from all sorts of churches, coming hundreds, indeed thousands, of miles, to praise God together.
The worship time was beautiful and uplifting – yes, even though we didn’t know most of the songs! – given an additional edge by the whole-hearted participation of so many Christians of African and Caribbean origins from the local, mainly independent, churches in and around London who had worked so hard to make the Victory Campaign possible.
Ken started preaching at 7.pm. At 10.45.pm, when the auditorium was due to close, he was still bouncing about the stage, still as fresh and full of enthusiasm for sharing God’s Word as he had been at the start of the 1st session on the Thursday. Ken even had enough steam left in the boiler to close the service by picking up the microphone and leading the 3,000 or so present in “How Great Thou Art”.
And when it was all over, Ken and Gloria and the ministry team would fly home to Fort Worth, TX, and when I say “fly” I don’t mean on a scheduled flight. Ken pilots his own plane. This from a man who is 75! I wouldn’t mind that level of energy at 55! Clearly he must be doing something right! The message Ken & Gloria share is, in essence, quite straightforward – taking God at His Word and standing firm on it, whatever.
The Message translation of Acts 10 reads : Peter fairly exploded with his good news: "It's God's own truth, nothing could be plainer : God plays no favourites! It makes no difference who you are or where you're from—if you want God and are ready to do as he says, the door is open. Open to what? Ken & Gloria would say : to receive everything God has for us, bought and paid for by the sacrificial death of Jesus by which we are redeemed from the curse of the Law and released to enjoy the blessing of Abraham by faith [Galatians 3.13f]. The 6 sessions at the ExCeL helped us to explore that – very positive – theme.
B. Who are Kenneth & Gloria Copeland?
Kenneth Copeland, the only son of insurance manager A W Copeland and his full-blood Cherokee wife Vinita [Owens], was born in 1936 in Lubbock, West Texas, Ken did not initially enthuse over the Baptist beliefs of his parents and was attracted rather to rock & roll music. Indeed, by the age of 20 he had a hit record, Pledge of Love, at No.14 on the Billboard national charts and No.1 on the local charts. Life as a pop star seemed to beckon as Ken appeared on American Bandstand and featured next to Ricky Nelson in Dig Magazine.
However, all did not go according to plan. Sound financial management was not Ken’s long suit and, in spite of taking a more respectable career path as a pilot, he soon ended up – as he freely admits – “supernaturally in debt” ; owing the equivalent of a six-figure sum by the time he met Gloria Neece, five years his junior, proposing to her on their first date.
Gloria jokes now – it probably wasn’t quite as funny then! – that she “married Ken and his [debt] notes”. Their early married life was spent in a rented apartment with a roll-away bed, a coffee-pot they cooked in, and an elderly black-and-white television with a picture two inches tall. In the absence of a fridge, they stored their food on the porch to keep it cool.
Into this most unpromising situation came the supernatural intervention of God. As Gloria – who had never been much of a churchgoer – sat reading a Bible given to Kenneth from his mother, she saw Vinita’s inscription on the title page. Matthew 6.33 : “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness ; and all these things shall be added unto you”.
Perhaps it was the prospect of “things being added”, but Gloria prayed, "God, take my life and do something with it." Soon after Gloria gave her life to Jesus, Ken did likewise and, after a 5-year struggle, Ken obeyed the call of God and moved, with his young family, to Tulsa, Oklahoma, to enroll at Oral Roberts University in spring of 1967.
Later that year, with the family finances still in dire straits, Ken was walking along the bed of theArkansas Riverin Tulsa when the Lord dropped thevision of the ministry into his heart : to preach the gospel to the nations – a call that would include using every available voice to preach the uncompromised message of faith to meet the needs of people worldwide.
Ken applied his existing skills to become chauffeur and pilot to Oral Roberts, a responsibility that would involve him in a formidable schedule of crusades and tent meetings. As well as learning first-hand from Oral Roberts, whom Ken hails as his “spiritual father”, Ken & Gloria also devoured copious quantities of tape-recorded teaching from Kenneth Hagin. Within less than a year, that “supernatural” debt had been supernaturally cleared.
For 45 years, Ken & Gloria have sought to fulfil that calling spoken on the river-bed. Their ministry includes their own children and their spouses, and now their grandson Jeremy is involved. KCM have offices in the UK, Australia, Africa, South America, Canada, Ukraine and Singapore, as well as the “head office” at Eagle Mountain, near Fort Worth.
Every year, KCM undertake a series of “Victory Campaigns”, such as the recent celebration at the ExCeL, of which the most prominent is the South-West Believers’ Convention, held at Fort Worth, where Ken & Gloria are joined by various ministers whom they have “discipled” just as they had been “discipled” by Oral Roberts and Kenneth Hagin.
In addition, there is a daily TV broadcast, “Believers Voice of Victory”, available in several different languages. In the UK, this is carried by the God Channel and TBN Europe.
C. What do Kenneth & Gloria Copeland stand for?
The following are taken directly and without commentary from the KCM website
Statement of Faith
We believe in one God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Creator of all things.
We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, was conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, was crucified, died, was buried, was resurrected, ascended into heaven, and is now seated at the right hand of God the Father and is true God and true man.
We believe the Bible in its entirety to be the inspired Word of God and the infallible rule of faith and conduct.
We believe in the resurrection of the dead, the eternal happiness of the saved, and the eternal punishment of the lost.
We believe in personal salvation of believers through the shed blood of Jesus Christ.
We believe in sanctification through the Word of God and by the Holy Spirit, and we believe in personal holiness, purity of heart and life.
We believe in divine healing, through faith in the Name of Jesus Christ, and that healing is included in the Redemption.
We believe in water baptism, in the Baptism in the Holy Spirit as distinct from the New Birth, in speaking with tongues as the Spirit of God gives utterance (Acts 2:4), in the gifts of the Spirit, and the evidence of the fruit of the Spirit. We believe that all of these are available to believers.
We believe in the Christian's hope : the soon-coming, personal return of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Mission
The mission of Kenneth Copeland Ministries and Eagle Mountain International Church is to teach Christians worldwide who they are in Christ Jesus and how to live a victorious life in their covenant rights and privileges. The fulfillment of that mission takes place when those believers become rooted and grounded enough in God's Word to reach out and teach others these same principles.
We are called to lead people, primarily born-again believers, to the place where they operate proficiently in the biblical principles of faith, love, healing, prosperity, redemption and righteousness, and to the place where they can share those principles with others.
We are called to assist believers in becoming rooted, grounded and established in the Word of God by teaching them to give God's Word first place in their lives (Colossians 1:23, Psalm 112).
We are called to reveal the mysteries, the victorious revelations of God's Word, that have been hidden from the ages (Colossians 1:25-28).
We are called to build an army of mature believers, bringing them from milk to meat, from religion to reality. We are called to train them to become skillful in the word of righteousness, to stand firm in the spiritual warfare against the kingdom of darkness (Hebrews 5:12-14, Ephesians 6:10-18).
We are called to proclaim that "Jesus Is Lord" of Kenneth Copeland Ministries, Eagle Mountain International Church and staff on a worldwide scale through the local church and the use of television, campaigns, conventions, books, recordings and personal correspondence, multiplied through the financial support of other ministries of like purpose.
D. Reflections on KCM’s Statements of Faith and Mission
Statement of Faith
The opening of the Statement of Faith is entirely in line with that of the Church of Scotland : Trinitarian, consonant with the Apostles’ Creed, receiving the Word of God as the supreme rule of faith and life. The later parts may be a shade uncomfortable for some. However, each point of possible contention has demonstrable Scriptural authority behind it. The Bible references quoted below are representative and by no means exhaustive.
We believe in the resurrection of the dead, the eternal happiness of the saved, and the eternal punishment of the lost. Matthew 7.13f, 10.32f ; Mark 16.16 ; John 3.16-20 ; Acts 4.12.
We believe in personal salvation of believers through the shed blood of Jesus Christ :
Romans 5.8-11, 8.1-4 ; 1 Corinthians 15.3-8 ; 2 Corinthians 5.17-21 ; Galatians 3.13f
We believe in sanctification through the Word of God and by the Holy Spirit, and we believe in personal holiness, purity of heart and life : Romans 8.5-17, 12.1f ; 2 Corinthians 7.1 ; Galatians 5.16-26 ; Ephesians 5.1-21 ; Colossians 3.5-17 ; 1 Thessalonians 3.4-12
We believe in divine healing, through faith in the Name of Jesus Christ, and that healing is included in the Redemption : This is the subject of Section F of this report.
We believe in water baptism, in the Baptism in the Holy Spirit as distinct from the New Birth, in speaking with tongues as the Spirit of God gives utterance (Acts 2:4), in the gifts of the Spirit, and the evidence of the fruit of the Spirit. We believe that all of these are available to believers : Acts 1.5-8, 2.1-4, 8.14-17, 10.34-48, 19.1-6 ; 1 Corinthians 12-14
We believe in the Christian's hope : the soon-coming, personal return of the Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Thessalonians 4.13-18 ; 1 John 2.28 ; Revelation 3.11, 22.20
Mission
The Mission Statement of KCM may raise one or two Presbyterian eyebrows, but again the case for it can be argued from Scripture. It is based firmly upon the concept of covenant.
We note first the old covenant between God and Abraham instituted in Genesis 12-15, sealed in the blood of animals, whereby God promises :
I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you. I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse ; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you. [Genesis 12.2f]
Do not be afraid. I am your shield, your very great reward. Look up into the sky and count the stars if you can. That’s how many descendants you will have! [Genesis 15.1,5]
Crucially, from Abraham’s point of view, this covenant is based not on his performance – which, in view of his monetary aberrations [!] at Genesis 12.10-20 and Genesis 16, is no doubt a matter of some relief! – but on God’s unconditional grace received by faith. Genesis 15.6 :
Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith.
God’s covenant with Abraham is seen as a direct linear progression of His creation of, and commission to, Adam [Genesis 1.26ff], re-iterated to Adam’s descendant Noah [Genesis 9]. The descent from Noah to Abraham is physical [Luke 3.34-38] but also spiritual, according to Jewish rabbinical tradition which identifies Shem, son of Noah, with Melchizedek.