Former People of Praise slogan:
"The World's A Mess, Join the Solution. A People, A Place, A Revolution."
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The POP is an “ecumenical charismatic Christian community” that was founded in 1971 in South Bend, IN. The formation of the group followed the Catholic Church renewal (not revision) of the early 60’s known as Vatican II. The group was created alongside similar communities such as Word of God (now The Sword of the Spirit). These groups are all offspring of what is known as the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. The POP is ecumenical in the sense that they accept members from all Christian faiths; although over 90% of the current members attend Roman Catholic Church’s. They are charismatic in the sense that they believe in, and employ, such things as speaking in tongues, prophecy and faith healing. The POP has had some trouble with growth – while being in existence for over thirty years they currently only have approximately 3,000 members; this number includes active/inactive members and also children. Some of you may be familiar with Trinity Schools. The POP owns and administers three private Christian High Schools, located in Eagan, MN, South Bend, IN and Falls Church, VA.
If satan is real, he created the POP in the pit of hell.
I was a member of what the group calls the campus division - a section of the POP that is composed of mostly, but not exclusively, college students. The campus division carries out evangelism and citybuilding work of the POP. That's right, citybuilding. The POP believes the Lord Jesus Christ has called the community to build 200 cities and recruit 200,000 members in the next 40 years. This citybuilding idea was originally presented to me as if it were a prophecy from God, but now the POP has lightened the divine influence of citybuilding and considers it a goal. I'm guessing they themselves realized how unrealistic and audacious the plan is, and saving themselves from being labeled as false prophets, chose the secular terminology of a 'goal' to describe their work.
