By Kami Klein
When God sets out to restore your life he will create an intricate pattern impossible to see until the pieces fall together. God uses special people he places in your path to guide and encourage, helping to weave your way on the path to His blessings. There is no doubt that Tommy Barnett, co-founder of the Dream Center in L.A., Pastor of Phoenix First Assembly (now the Dream Center Church), was powerfully used in the restoration of Jim Bakker’s life and a very special piece of the miraculous story of bringing Jim and Lori Bakker together.
On Tuesday, January 21st at 11 a.m Pastor Tommy Barnett will be our guest on a very special show taping of The Jim Bakker Show. For Jim and Lori, it will be a reunion with a truly beloved friend. We encourage you to be here on Grace Street as they share with you the incredible ways in which Pastor Barnett brought healing, joy, forgiveness, purpose, and promise into their lives through his amazing obedience to our loving God. You will be so encouraged by the Power of Faith, seeing the blessings the Lord wished for Jim and Lori and for the promise that our God IS a God of restoration.
Pastor Barnett includes the incredible restoration of Jim Bakker in his new book, What If?: My Story of Believing God for More… Always More. In this book, he looks back over a lifetime of walking with God, being directed by the Spirit, and boldly taking risks to reach more people with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Along the way, he has built great churches and organizations to meet the crushing needs of broken people and restore those who have strayed far from God.
We hope you can be here on Tuesday, January 21st at 11 am to meet Tommy Barnett on The Jim Bakker Show! If you are unable to attend, The Jim Bakker shows usually are aired about a week after taping, check here for air dates so you don’t miss it!
You will be blessed!
A partnership between Free Chapel church and the LA Dream Center is opening a transitional home for youths between 18 and 23 who are coming from the foster care system.
The residence, called Freedom House, will also help young adults who are dealing with the probation system.
“More than a transitional home, we are believing Freedom House will be a place where students come to know the love of Jesus Christ, that He is our only hope and our Savior,” Pastor Jentezen Franklin of Free Chapel told The Christian Post. “…We are just so privileged to be a part of the dream … we can provide resources but we can’t do the other things that they do so well, the programs the facility.”
Pastor Matthew Barnett of the Dream Center told the Christian Post “the hope of America is in dynamic partnership of churches working together.”
Statistics show that up to 50 percent of foster kids end up homeless or in jail after they reach 18 and are forced out of the foster care system. Barnett says they hope the Freedom House will help individuals make “positive lifestyle choices” that promote physical and mental well-being.
It’s hard to imagine that at 74 years of age, there is still a dream that lives as vibrantly in my heart today as it did when I was very young. But the dream does live – and it lives by the strength and the inspiration of God because He is the One who put it there!
The vision hasn’t changed to build a retreat center… to build a place for God’s people that is like a City of Refuge. I have people who say, “Why are you doing this? Why are you doing the same thing again?” The answer is very simple: I only have one string on my fiddle. I mean I’m a one-string fiddle and I don’t have another one. I’m doing what is in me and for the first time I understand it. I can’t change it because it was established in me by God! Continue reading →
The Los Angeles Dream Center is mobilizing opposition to a potential ban on feeding Los Angeles’ homeless residents.
L.A. City Councilman Tom LaBonge introduced a motion that would prohibit all organizations, including religious ones, from providing outdoor food services to the needy. LaBonge said such activities “get in the public’s right of way” and they can have “negative impacts to the surrounding community.”
The Dream Center and supporters have started a petition drive to show that the public does not support the restrictions on feeding those in need.
“If feeding were to be banned or restricted, it would cut off our lifeline to not only feed the homeless but families,” Pastor Matthew Barnett told The Christian Post. “Tens of thousands of people would be impacted. Mobile trucks are the only way to reach people. We’ve been doing this for nearly twenty years. Mobile outreach meets people in their world and that’s where the impacts are made.”
The National Coalition for the Homeless, based in Washington, D.C., said they will be mobilizing to help the L.A. effort.
“It’s mean-spirited to deny hungry people food and wrong for the city council to ban charitable acts,” Jerry Jones of Coalition said. “If volunteers want to feed homeless people, the city shouldn’t be throwing up roadblocks, they should be thanking them.”
