The three-day "No Surrender" solemn assembly this weekend features prayer leader Dutch Sheets, and marks the anniversary of a failed peace talk in New York on Sept. 11, 1776, between British Lord Admiral Richard Howe and Second Continental Congress members Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Edward Rutledge.

That meeting, held two months after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, came at a time when the British seemed to be winning the Revolutionary War. Howe offered to end the conflict if the Americans would return to British rule. They refused, and the war continued for seven more years, resulting in America's independence.

Joseph Askins, founder of New York-based Living Faith Ministries and organizer of the No Surrender event, believes something similar is happening spiritually today as the nation faces mounting pressure to leave its Christian roots and become secular.

"We're being intimidated into surrendering what our founding fathers created into a secular-humanist society that ... is trying to do away with Judeo-Christian principles and anything to do with God until there's a disaster," Askins said. "And we're now also, going back to Sept. 11, 2001, [facing] an onslaught by Islam to take over this nation and try to intimidate us into giving them what they want."

The event includes prayer and worship services on Friday and Sunday, as well as a re-enactment of the 1776 peace conference Saturday at the historic Billopp House on Staten Island, N.Y.

"I believe while we're there [at the Billopp House] the Holy Spirit's going to impart to us what He wants our part to [be] in seeing that our nation awakens, which I believe is already beginning," Askins said.

On Saturday, participants also will remember the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack. Askins, who owned a computer company before going into full-time ministry, said he was at Ground Zero minutes after the bombings and stayed for eight days, partnering with Street Life Ministries give out food and water to police and fire fighters digging survivors from the rubble.

He said the message from 1776 is just as relevant for fighting terrorism and evangelizing Muslim nations.

"I believe the Islamic terrorists were trying to instill a spirit of fear in the people of the United States to get us as a nation and the church to stop what we were doing in dealing with radical Islam around the world and also stop the inroads the gospel was having in Muslim nations," Askins said.

"Just as British Admiral Howe and the Hessian Soldiers tried to intimidate Benjamin Franklin, Edward Rutledge and John Adams to give up at the peace conference on Sept. 11, 1776, the Islamic terrorists on Sept. 11, 2001, were sending a message to leave Islam and Muslims alone or else we'll bring the fight to your shores," he added.

Sheets, Colorado-based author of the best seller Intercessory Prayer, said the "no surrender" theme is needed at a time when many Christians don't believe the nation can turn back to its Christian roots.

"I think there are a lot of Christians in America who have given up on America in the sense that we could ever be as turned toward the Lord as we once were," Sheets said. "And I just can't accept that. I refuse to accept it. I believe there's a great awakening coming. And I believe part of the outcome will be a returning to our roots and our calling as a nation from the beginning."

For Askins, not surrendering has political implications as the midterm election approaches. "It's not surrendering to the spiritual forces that are at work using flesh to try and come against the furthering of God's kingdom in the earth," he said.

No surrender "means everything," he added. "It means the reformation of our society."

Askins isn't expecting a multitude but has partnered with several prayer networks, including Concerts of Prayer Greater New York and Cindy Jacobs' Reformation Prayer Network, which has been praying for each state to return to its covenant roots through its Root 52 prayer tour. He believes God will respond if Christians declare that they won't give up on the U.S. reclaiming its Christian roots.

Sheets believes this generation has much to glean from the pioneering spirit of the nation's founders.

"If we don't have a generation that rises up and says we're willing to leave the safe place, the settlement, the safety of the familiar and stop being conformists and say we're going to buck the system and we're going to take this thing back to where it needs to be-if we don't see that happen, we're in real trouble," he said, adding that he believes such a generation is emerging.

Askins agrees that the hour is critical. "The heart of the men in 1776 was, ‘We're not going to surrender to tyranny,'" Askins said. "And we're to say no surrender, whether it costs me my life, my family, all that I have.

"For God's glory, we want to see this nation shift back," he added. "There is no other nation in the history of the world that has had the blessing and all that we have been afforded. And it's not because of we as a people ... it's because of who our God was. If we take Him away, we'll lose those blessings."

The head of an international advocacy organization for persecuted Christians is calling on a Florida church to cancel its plans to burn the Quran Saturday, saying the move could bring a backlash of attacks.

Carl Moeller, president of Open Doors USA, said the protest to commemorate the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks could endanger Christians in predominantly Muslim nations and violates Jesus' command to love one's neighbor.

"The burning of Qurans will only confirm what many Muslims believe - that Christians hate Muslims," Moeller said. "That is exactly the opposite message we as Christians want to send."

Indonesian Christians also warned of possible backlash after Muslims organized a protest Saturday condemning the proposed "International Burn a Koran Day."

Terry Jones, pastor of Dove World Outreach Centre in Gainesville, Fla., which is leading the Quran burning, said his group wants to warn of the dangers of Islam.

"Islam and Sharia law was responsible for 9/11," Jones told AFP. "We will burn Qurans because we think it's time for Christians, for churches, for politicians to stand up and say 'no. Islam and Sharia law is not welcome in the U.S.'"

This week, Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, warned that the church's move could endanger U.S. troops.

"It is precisely the kind of action the Taliban uses and could cause significant problems," Petraeus said in a statement. "Not just here, but everywhere in the world we are engaged with the Islamic community."

On Monday, hundreds of Afghans reacted to the proposed Quran burning by torching a U.S. flag. "We know this is not just the decision of a church. It is the decision of the president and the entire United States," Abdul Shakoor, 18, told the Associated Press (AP).

Roughly 3,000 people protested the Florida church's plans in Indonesia on Saturday in a demonstration organized by an international Muslim group called Hizb-ut-Tahir (Party of Liberation).

After the protest, the Indonesian Protestant Christian Churches Union (PGI) sent a letter to President Obama asking him to prevent the burning, AFP reported. "We're deeply concerned as it could create tension here in Indonesia," PGI chairman Andreas Yewangoe said.

Jones said the church planned to proceed with its plans but was "weighing" the decision.

"We have firmly made up our mind, but at the same time, we are definitely praying about it," Jones told CNN Tuesday morning.

Later in the day, he told the AP that he wonders how many times the U.S. can back down. He said he has received more than 100 death threats and carries a gun.

"We think it's time to turn the tables, and instead of possibly blaming us for what could happen, we put the blame where it belongs - on the people who would do it," he said. "And maybe instead of addressing us, we should address radical Islam and send a very clear warning that they are not to retaliate in any form."

Since mid-August, he said, thousands have been flocking to revival services being held four nights a week at the convention center in Mobile, Ala., where Kilpatrick now leads Church of His Presence.

Kilpatrick said a spiritual outpouring began July 23 during an annual church conference. Visiting British evangelist Nathan Morris preached, and "we basically had another Father's Day," Kilpatrick said, referring to the day in 1995 when a five-year revival broke out at his former church, Brownsville Assembly of God in Pensacola, Fla.

"It was the same kind of outpouring," he said of what is being called the Bay of the Holy Spirit Revival, a reference to its location near Mobile Bay. "It was spontaneous; it was totally unplanned. The power of God came down in such a way."

Morris was supposed to leave the following day to minister in Hawaii but decided to stay because he and Kilpatrick believed something was stirring.

In many ways the services in Mobile are "like déjà vu all over again," Kilpatrick said. Hundreds have come to Christ, which also was a hallmark of the Brownsville Revival, but he said the miracles are more numerous.

"We saw signs and wonders and miracles in Brownsville also, but not to this frequency," he said. "It's much, much more frequent here."

Last week, wheelchair-bound gospel singer Delia Knox stood up and took steps around the platform for the first time in more than 20 years. A video of the event received more than 70,000 hits on YouTube in less than a week.

Kilpatrick said the congregation Knox and her husband pastor, Living World Christian Center in Mobile, went wild when they saw the 13-minute clip Tuesday night. He said that night Knox decided to try walking again.

"She didn't rise up out of the wheelchair, she jumped up out of the wheelchair," he said. "We had to grab her."

Kilpatrick said she is still regaining the strength in her muscles. But he said her doctors reportedly said what she's done so far is "absolutely a miracle," noting that she had been unable to feel her legs before last week.

Rebekah Barberree said she had been unable to rotate her neck and could barely raise her hands after a car accident in 2003 led to back surgery in 2006. But while attending a revival meeting Aug. 3, the Crestview, Fla., resident said she suddenly realized she was looking up and stretching her arms in worship. "I've been able to do everything I wasn't able to do before," she said.

Carrie Thomas of Picayune, Miss., said doctors told her there was nothing else they could do for her stepson, Caleb Petty. The 10-year-old had been suffering from two malignant brain tumors, one of which was large and inoperable.

During a revival service on Aug. 19, Thomas said Morris announced that God was shriveling up a brain tumor. "I just knew it was Caleb," she said.

When doctors took X-rays the following day during an appointment that had been scheduled three months before, they reportedly found no sign of the tumor.

"I was so shocked," Thomas said. "The fullness of what God has done for him, I don't think it's fully sunk in because it was just a few days ago that we realized, hey, he can actually play sports, we won't be having to make all these trips back and forth to the doctor. It's like every day God brings more of the realization of what He's done, and it's truly awesome."

Ralph Casebolt, pastor of Oasis of Life in Kansas City, Mo., said doctors sent his wife, Debbie, home to die after breast cancer spread to her skin and lungs. Her lung function was so poor she had become dependent on an oxygen machine. Still, he drove her to the Mobile revival because the couple had long believed God was going to heal her.

They spent two weeks attending revival services. After the first week, Debbie Casebolt said she stopped using her wheelchair because she felt strong enough to walk on her own. "I sat in the chair, but I never would stand for very long periods of time because it would make a pain go through my body," she said.

Then last Saturday night, she noticed that she was singing along in worship, holding long notes and not stopping to catch her breath. When she removed her oxygen, she says she was able to breathe deeply on her own.

"It was so awesome just to be able to breathe," she said. "Just to be able to walk forward with no oxygen was a miracle in itself."

When she returned to her doctor this week, she says he told her the X-rays showed significant improvement in her lung function. She says she has gained strength, and though the cancer is still there, she believes God will remove it.

"We're just standing on what God is saying and what He's doing," she said. "[Although] ... He hasn't finished it completely, we're just walking with the Lord through this."

Kilpatrick believes this is a season when God is going to begin to pour out His healing presence, and he's praying that revival will spread.

"I don't believe it's just going to happen here; I believe it's going to start happening all over," he said.

He said many Americans are worried-about health care, the economy and the future. "And I think one of the things the Lord is doing-not the only thing-but I think one of the things the Lord is doing is He's showing the American people, ‘I can take care of you. I can heal you. I can be your physician.'"

"He took care of Israel and ... God's going to take care of the church," he added. "He's going to take care of His people."

Known for its popular worship music, Sydney-based Hillsong has planted churches around the world, including in London; Paris; Stockholm; Cape Town, South Africa; and Kiev, Ukraine.

Hillsong founder Brian Houston said the new congregation will not compete with other established churches in New York, the most populous city in the U.S.

Hillsong New York will be led by Carl and Laura Lentz and Hillsong United frontman Joel Houston. Although Joel Houston will be based in New York, he will continue to serve as creative director for Hillsong's global outreach and minister with Hillsong United, a youth-oriented worship band that has sold millions of albums worldwide.

Roughly 250 interested members currently meet occasionally in "connect groups" as Lentz and Houston continue to search for a venue in a city known for its pricey real estate. Regular worship services are expected to begin no later than January, Lentz said. And an introductory Encounter Night featuring Brian Houston and other key international leaders is scheduled for Oct. 17.

But more than its location or worship music, Lentz hopes the New York church will be known for members who are committed to serving others.

"Church is not just a service, it's a community of believers dedicated to preaching the gospel and helping people," Lentz wrote in a recent blog. "Churches have services, and we plan on having some amazing, soul-winning, Jesus-glorifying services, but this community of believers is more than a weekly meeting."

A graduate of Hillsong's Bible school, Lentz was a minister at Wave Church in Virginia Beach, Va., before he and his family moved to Brooklyn, N.Y., in July. He said the city that never sleeps has been keeping him up at night—and that's a good thing.

"It's been very difficult to sleep and not because of the honking taxis, but because of the possibility," he told Charisma. "It's just like, ‘Lord, help us to have the kind of vision that's required for a city like this.'"

Though some question whether there's a need for another church in New York, Lentz said with the number of people living in the city—8.4 million to be exact—there's room for thousands of churches. 

"I've personally been able to invite probably around 30 people who have never been to church—never," Lentz said. "And that has shocked me."

"There are just so many people to reach," he added. "When you're here, you understand you've got to link arms with as many churches [as you can] because every church has a lane that they run in, and we need all churches clicking on all cylinders."

Lentz said he's found New Yorkers to be surprisingly kind, and they've forced him to broaden his vision for the Big Apple.

Delia Knox, a popular singer who pastors Living World Christian Center in Mobile, Ala., with her husband, Bishop Levy Knox, had been paralyzed since a car accident on Christmas Day 1987.

But a YouTube video shot during a revival service Friday night at the Mobile Convention Center shows Knox telling British evangelist Nathan Morris that she can feel his hands on her legs. As he and other ministers continue to pray for her, she suddenly stands up from her wheelchair and later walks across the platform as the crowd leaps and screams. (Watch video below.)

Knox's healing, which has received more than 28,000 hits since it was posted on YouTube Monday, is one of dozens of miracles Kilpatrick said have been reported since revival broke at his Mobile-area church, Church of His Presence, in late July.

The former pastor of Brownsville Assembly of God in Pensacola, Fla., where a five-year revival began on Father's Day 1995, said the services in Mobile looked like they had the making "of another powerful revival."

"We have miracles taking place, we have souls being saved, the glory of God has moved back in like it did on Father's Day 1995," Kilpatrick said of what is now being called the Bay of the Holy Spirit Revival.

"Already things are happening quicker than they did even at Brownsville," he said in late July. "The word's spread. I think it has the potential to be a really powerful revival."

Weeks before Knox's healing, Kilpatrick noted that the signs, wonders and miracles were more numerous at the Bay of the Holy Spirit meetings than at Brownsville, with the blind seeing, the deaf hearing and people being healed as they watched the services online.

Look for further reports on Knox's healing and the Bay of the Holy Spirit revival.

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The sister of kidnapped heiress Patty Hearst once aspired to be an entertainer whose glamorous life would be featured on the TV show Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. But today Victoria Hearst is a born-again Christian who says she's "having way more fun" leading an evangelistic ministry in Colorado.

Reared as a Catholic, Hearst is the granddaughter of newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst and youngest daughter of Randolph Hearst. The family was thrust into the public eye in 1974, when Hearst's sister Patty was abducted by domestic terrorists and later accused of robbing a bank to aid them in their cause.

Patty Hearst was imprisoned for almost two years before President Jimmy Carter commuted her seven-year sentence in 1979. President Bill Clinton granted her a full pardon before he left office in 2001.

Victoria Hearst says she never doubted her sister's innocence and was instrumental in lobbying for her pardon. "It was just clear that she was not enamored of these people and didn't join them voluntarily, that she was just trying to stay alive," she said.

Victoria Hearst became a Christian years later in 1995 when a "miserable" relationship brought her to a breaking point. "[He] treated me so badly, I finally said, ‘I can't do this anymore,'" she said. 

She fled to her vacation home in Colorado and spent the next week reading a Bible a friend gave her. "I just read and cried and read and cried," she said. "And I was just a sponge. I was like, ‘God show me the truth here.' And the Holy Ghost was wonderful. He showed me the Word. He said, ‘Here's the Bible, and here's man's tradition.' He just showed me the truth and the error."

While watching TBN one night, she prayed the sinner's prayer and eventually ended the relationship with her boyfriend. She said that marked a turning point when she decided to give the Lord all of her life.

"I just took my hands off my life and had just reached that point where I just said, I don't know what I'm doing anymore because what I've been trying hasn't worked," she said. "I gave it over to God, and He's been driving ever since, and it's been way more fun."

Hearst moved from New York—where she'd been pursuing a career as a dancer, singer and actress—to Ridgeway, Colo., a town of just over 1,000 in the state's southwest. She began teaching dance to young girls and leading a choir at an area men's prison. In 2002 she opened Praise Him Christian Ministries in a 10,000-square-foot facility that houses a Christian bookstore and youth center.

Hearst hosts Christian conferences at the facility, and for the last six years she has sponsored a two-day evangelistic festival called Night Vision that features popular Christian artists such as Third Day, Michael W. Smith, Tye Tribbett and Francesca Battistelli. Drawn from the idea that Christians are to be light in the darkness, the event drew 10,000 people each day when it was held in Olathe, Colo., in July.

"It's kind of to show them, we can rock, we can dance, we can have a good time and have a great life, but we're not doing all the stuff that's going to hurt you," she said. "... And kids get to go to heaven at the end of it; that's not too shabby either."

Bible teacher Billye Brim, director of the Prayer Mountain in the Ozarks in Branson, Mo., and a spiritual mentor to Hearst, says Hearst is a natural evangelist in a town with a strong New Age influence. "She's very evangelical in her heart," said Brim, who first befriended Hearst's father, who came to faith a few years before his death in 2000 at age 85.

"She does the work of an evangelist, and she does it in very unique ways," Brim continued. "The part of Colorado where she is, is a very unique place. And she's a Christian voice speaking out in very unique ways."

Hearst hosts a radio show where she evangelizes and gives conservative political commentary. She is also an ardent ally of Israel and has supported humanitarian work in the Jewish nation as well as Night to Honor Israel events in the U.S. in cooperation with the advocacy group Christians United for Israel.

Hearst says since she accepted Christ, her life has taken some unexpected turns-toward evangelism, youth and prison ministry instead of fame.

"It's funny how God has just changed my heart," she said. "He's equipped me financially, He's equipped me as far as having this show business background, given me a mouth to speak with. ...  Instead of using that in the world, I'm using it in God's world. And it's a lot of fun. I'm having a lot of fun.

Authorities last week recovered the bodies of three Christian relief workers who had been kidnapped and killed by members of the Pakistani Taliban in the flood-ravaged country, area officials said.

Swat District Coordination Officer Atif-ur-Rehman told Compass that the Pakistan Army recovered the bodies of the three foreign flood-relief workers at about 7 a.m. on Aug. 25. An official at the international humanitarian organization that employed the workers withheld their names and requested that the agency remain unnamed for security reasons. Military sources who withheld news of the deaths from electronic and print media to avoid panicking other relief workers granted permission to Compass to publish it in limited form.

"The foreigner aid workers have been working in Mingora and the surrounding areas," Rehman said. "On Aug. 23 they were returning to their base at around 5:35 p.m. when a group of Taliban attacked their vehicle. They injured around five-six people and kidnapped three foreign humanitarian workers."

Pakistan has been hit by its worst flooding in decades, with the United Nations now estimating more than 21.8 million people have been affected. Foreign aid workers are involved in relief activities across the country, including Swat district in Khyber-Paktunkhwa Province in northern Pakistan. At least 8 million people require emergency relief, with hundreds of thousands reportedly isolated from aid supplies.

An army Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) source said rangers have been deployed in Swat and other potential target areas to help provide security for relief workers.

"The Taliban had warned about attacks on foreigner aid workers and Christian organizations," the ISPR source said. "All the international humanitarian organizations have been notified, and their security has also been increased."

Rehman noted that the Taliban also has been trying to bring relief to flood victims.

"The Taliban are also trying to support the flood victims, and many other banned organizations have set up camps in southern Punjab to support the victims," he said. "They intend to sympathize with the affected and gain their support."

The president of advocacy organization Life for All, Rizwan Paul, said the bodies of the three relief workers had been sent to Islamabad under the supervision of the Pakistan Army.

"We strongly condemn the killing of the three humanitarian workers," Paul said. "These aid workers came to support us, and we are thankful to the humanitarian organizations that came to help us in a time of need."

Pointing to alleged discrimination against minorities in distribution of humanitarian aid, Paul added that Christians in severely flood-damaged areas in Punjab Province have been neglected. The majority of the effected Christians in Punjab are in Narowal, Shakargarh, Muzzafargarh, Rahim Yar Khan and Layyah, he said.

"The Christians living around Maralla, Narowal, and Shakargarh were shifted to the U.N.- administered camps, but they are facing problems in the camps," he said. "There are reports that the Christians are not given tents, clean water and food. In most of the camps the Christians have totally been ignored."

Life for All complained to U.N. agencies and the government of Pakistan regarding the discrimination, but no one has responded yet, he said.

"There have been reports from Muzzaffargarh and Layyah that the Christians are living on the damaged roads in temporary tents, as they were not allowed in the government camps," he said.

In Sindh Province Thatta has been flooded, and around 300 Christian families who tried to move from there to Punjab were forbidden from doing so, a source said. Meteorologists are predicting more rains in coming days, with the already catastrophic flooding expected to get worse.

Kashif Mazhar, vice president of Life for All, said that in the northern province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa conditions for Christians are better as there are Christian camps established, and Garrison Church in Risalpur is also providing aid to victims.

"It is discouraging to see that the Christian organizations are wholeheartedly supporting the victims regardless of the religion or race, but in most of the areas the Christians are totally ignored and not even allowed to stay," Mazhar said.

Foreign targets are rarely attacked directly in Pakistan, despite chronic insecurity in the nuclear-armed state, which is a key ally in the U.S.-led war on Al Qaeda and the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan. On March 10, however, suspected Islamic militants armed with guns and grenades stormed the offices of a Christian relief and development organization in northwest Pakistan, killing six aid workers and wounding seven others.

The gunmen besieged the offices of international humanitarian organization World Vision near Oghi, in Mansehra district, of the North West Frontier Province. Suicide and bomb attacks across Pakistan have killed more than 3,000 people since 2007. Blame has fallen on Taliban and Al Qaeda-linked militants bitterly opposed to the alliance with the United States.

The U.N. decided last year to relocate a limited number of its international staff from Pakistan because of security concerns. Its World Food Program office in Islamabad was attacked in October last year, with five aid workers killed in a suicide bombing.

Then on Feb. 3, a bomb attack in the NWFP district of Lower Dir killed three U.S. soldiers and five other people at the opening of a school just rebuilt with Western funding after an Islamist attack.

Prophetic minister Rick Joyner said he believes President Obama "wants to know the real Jesus." But the MorningStar Ministries founder is teetering in his own view of which faith the president practices.

In a ministry blog Monday, Joyner responded to a recent Pew Research Center poll that found 18 percent of Americans think President Obama is a Muslim—up from 11 percent in March 2009—and 43 percent don't know what religion he practices.

Joyner said after reading Obama's books during the 2008 presidential election he was "95 percent" sure the president was a Christian, even if a "superficial" one. But now he's not so certain.

He said he is "about 55 percent persuaded that Obama is a Christian" and 45 percent convinced that he is possibly a Muslim. "And at times I have been more persuaded that he is a Muslim," he said.

Joyner pointed to moves the president has made in recent months to reach out to Muslims while distancing himself from some evangelical Christians. Most notably, President Obama observed the National Day of Prayer privately in 2009 while publicly commemorating the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

"In judging Obama's faith, many are simply using the basic reasoning that ‘if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck—it's a duck!'" Joyner said.

"No doubt President Obama is acting more like a Muslim, and doing far more to promote Islam, while at the same time demonstrating disdain or hostility toward Christians and Christianity," he continued. "The fruit of his actions bears strong evidence that Obama is indeed a Muslim, or at the very least has far more affinity for Islam than Christianity."

Joyner said many of his Christian friends have long believed the president is a Muslim who is intent on harming the U.S. Joyner himself has been an outspoken critic of President Obama's health care overhaul, and he formed The Oak Initiative last year to influence politics with conservative Christian values.

Still, Joyner—known for his prophetic-themed books The Final Quest and The Call—said he is unwilling to label the president a Muslim.

"I would believe [the president is a Muslim] except for one thing—I inquired of the Lord about this and feel that I have been shown something else—that deep in his heart he wants to know the real Jesus, just as many Muslims do," Joyner said.

"He has had a hard time finding Jesus in His people," he added. "He has had bad influences to shape his life and bad counselors now. I'm praying for the Lord to raise up a Joseph or Daniel to help him."

Joyner believes the nation's strength is being "devastated" under the Obama administration and says Christians should pray for the president. "The greatest victory of all could be Obama's illumination and conversion, which could lead to him becoming one of our great presidents," he said. 

President Obama has repeatedly described himself as a Christian, and a group of more than 70 Christian ministers came to his defense last week, blasting media and political leaders who continue to question the president's faith.

The ministers—including Bishop T.D. Jakes, World Vision President Rich Stearns and Pentecostal pastor Sammy Rodgriguez—said the president has been "unwavering" in confessing Christ as his savior.

A White House spokesman also said the president is "obviously" a committed Christian. "His faith is very important to him, but it's not something that is a topic of conversation every single day," said White House spokesman Bill Burton.

If the Iranian government knew Christians were learning how to grow a church in the middle of their Muslim nation, the converts could lose their freedom—or worse, their lives.

But that hasn’t stopped pastors with the underground church in Iran from secretly attending classroom sessions led by Dave Anderson, a founder and longtime trainer for EQUIP, the organization led by Christian leadership guru John Maxwell.

“Some of them are arrested trying to leave Iran to attend training and some are arrested when they try to re-enter,” says Anderson who has taught biblical leadership in 13 other countries. “Some are on death lists, but they still come.”

The pastors, many of whom are business people or related to high-ranking government officials, travel to a secret location to learn how to grow their churches, build a team and find people to join their churches.

Anderson says the idea behind EQUIP’s curriculum is to pass it on to others. “We teach the most influential people,” he says. “And they teach other people, who then teach it to others—and it really has an exponential effect.”

Hosted in Sweden for the first time in 55 years, the triennial event was held Tuesday through Friday with a focus on equipping churches for spiritual leadership in the next century. Speakers included Brian Houston, pastor of Hillsong Church in Australia; Young Hoon Lee, pastor of Yoido Full Gospel Church in Korea; and German evangelist Reinhard Bonnke.

"We need the wind of the Spirit to sweep over the Pentecostal movement to renew the evangelistic zeal and empower us for the challenges of this century," said Bishop James Leggett, former general superintendent of the International Pentecostal Holiness Church (IPHC) and chairman of the host organization, the Pentecostal World Fellowship (PWF).

Members of most of the classical Pentecostal denominations were present, including leaders from the Church of God (Cleveland, Tenn.), Church of God of Prophecy, Assemblies of God (AG) and IPHC. Jack Hayford of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, spoke during daytime sessions, along with Oral Roberts University President Mark Rutland, Swedish pastor Ulf Ekman, and Magnus Persson, pastor of United church in Malmo, Sweden, and Copenhagen, Denmark.

The Pentecostal World Conference, held at Stockholm's historic Filadelfia Church led by Niklas Piensoho, drew roughly 2,000 participants, including a sizeable number of emerging leaders.

"It was impressive to see a large number of young adults attending this gathering of leaders from most of the worldwide Pentecostal organizations and movements," said Doug Beacham, executive director of World Missions Ministries for the IPHC. "There was much emphasis and prayer from older Pentecostal leaders toward mobilizing and releasing younger Pentecostal men and women as effective communicators of the gospel in this century."

Leggett agreed. "One of the major issues facing Pentecostals is to make sure that 100 years after Azusa Street, we are faithful in passing on to the next generation the reality and the power of Pentecost," Leggett told Charisma. "The Pentecostal movement will need continual renewals of the Holy Spirit to be effective in the 21st century."

For the first time, the general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC) addressed the Pentecostal gathering. Olav Fykse Tveit said Pentecostals and the broader Christian community need one another.

"I do believe that we share in a great hope that the search for Christian unity will grow and that the World Council of Churches and Pentecostal churches will find new ways of witnessing to our unity in Christ and sharing in God's mission," he said. "That you have welcomed me here today is one such sign of hope."

Pentecostalism, which grew out of the Azusa Street Revival in 1906, has become one of the largest Christian movements in the world, representing a quarter of the world's 2 billion Christians. In the U.S., roughly 25 percent of all Christians identify themselves as Pentecostal or charismatic, according to a Barna Group study released earlier this year.

Today most of the movement's growth is in Africa, Asia and Latin America, an area known as the Global South, but it has slowed in the West.

"We see a huge growth in Africa, Asia and Latin America, but in the U.S. and Europe, it is still or going backwards with some exceptions," Leggett told the Swedish Christian newspaper Världen Idag. "To reverse the trend in the West, we must come up with an alternative to what this world offers."

During his address on the opening night of the event Tuesday, Leggett challenged Pentecostals to reclaim their faith in the Holy Spirit.

"We need an experience like the disciples [who] were in the Upper Room at Pentecost," he said, according to Världen Idag. "And then we also need to leave the church and take to the streets and give of what we got. ... We as a movement was created and formed in the supernatural, and we must continue to live in it."

In what some see as another sign of a leadership shift taking place from the West to the Global South, the Rev. Prince Guneratnam, senior pastor of Calvary Church, an AG congregation in Malaysia, was named chairman of the PWF after Leggett stepped down at the close of the gathering Friday.