The Rise Of The Professional Clergy

Why Should/Shouldn’t My Church Embrace Change? Part XII

How did the clergy rise to power and create this divide?  Frank Damazio in his classic book The Making of a Leader (Portland, Or: Bible Temple Publishing Co., 1988, p.9) explains, “Another major cause of the Church’s unbiblical division between the ‘clergy’ and the ‘laity’ is the professional status the church accords to clergy. The process of elevating clergy to the status of ‘professional Christian’ follows a claim of logic that looks like this:

Since the:                              clergy          =   priesthood

and the:                                priesthood    =   profession

then:                                    profession     =    professional

  Therefore:                             clergy           =    professional.

Those considered to be in the clergy, therefore, were looked upon as ‘professionals’. Those who received a theological and ‘professional’ education were considered to be part of the clergy, or at least, well prepared for a particular denominational ordination. Neither of these ideas, however, are Biblical.”

Here we are in the twenty-first century still maintaining the belief that the only clergy can be professionals, those who have made a career out of what is called the “full time ministry.” Because they are paid out of the laity’s tithes and offerings, many in the laity feel they do not have to do ministry because “that is what we pay our pastor and staff to do,” so they outsource their obligations.  I have heard the Pareto Principle quoted that “20% of the people do 80% of the work.” I have no idea if that is valid, but very few of the non-clergy in most churches do very much of the work. The paid staff does it! Some believe the “lay” in “Laity” justifies being passive. I believe that clergy and laity want it that way. The clergy do not want to give up their pulpit, control, and power, and the laity enjoys being passive with no requirements placed on them except financial!

The hierarchal organizational church of the Dark Ages advocated the two class system: The clergy were educated and spiritual; most of the laity illiterate and secular. The clergy were set apart to draw near to God; the secular needed the clergy for confessions, the resolving of sins, penance, baptisms, marriages, and the giving of sacraments.  What brought the Church out of the Dark Ages? The invention of Guttenberg’s printing press, the Age of Enlightenment, and the Age of Reason when the laity learned to read the Bible themselves.

Martin Luther questioned the mother church’s institutional structure, power, practices, and doctrines that bred enormous wealth and corruption. His discovery of “justification by faith” and John Calvin’s “justification by grace” brought a spark of life back into the organism. As believers read the Bible for themselves, they began questioning official church dogma for interpretation, and life seeped back into the Priesthood of Believers.

Although Luther did not actually pen the term Priesthood of Believers, he did initiate the principle that all believers in Jesus were peers, equals in the faith, and could do many of the things that the organized church had prohibited them from doing. Ironically, as much as Luther advocated the concept of Priesthood of Believers, he felt forced to accept a hierarchal leadership model when State governments began to endorse State religions as Germany went Lutheran, the Czar went with Russian Orthodoxy, and England’s King Henry VIII formed his own church, the Anglican Church. Those rejecting State run religion fled to America where they placed the Separation of Church and State into their Constitution.

Some Tough Questions Being Asked?

 Why Should/Shouldn’t My Church Embrace Change? Part X

In my last post, we were challenged during an Engagement Period, a period between where we currently are (Caterpillar Stage) and where we would be after a transformation (Butterfly Stage) during a metamorphic process by asking if we could face some tough questions without being offended or defensive? What might some of the questions be?

-       Must you be a church member to belong to the Family of God?

-       Does accountability to leadership have to come from a domineering hierarchal position? Can it come on a linear relationship where leadership could be in front of you to lead, behind you to protect, or next to you for fellowship?

-       Should we accept a clergy/laity divide as normal and acceptable?  Is there a Priesthood of Believers where all believers are equal in the body of Christ?

-       Does church government have to be run by boards, committees, and hierarchal leadership which creates power struggles and church politics? Can it be run on peer relationships and giftings among believers through the five fold that builds a consensus through service?

-       Can church positions be determined by passions and acts of service rather than through titles and positions of office?

-       Can pyramidal leadership who “oversees” through control step down beside or next to their brethren in a linear relationship to “see over” what the Holy Spirit is already doing among His people, then release them to do it?

These are tough, soul searching question that we need to ask during the cocoon (Engagement Period). Our caterpillar mentality will want to hold on to traditions while our butterfly mentality will want to be open to change and acceptance. Only a willingness by the saints (clergy, laity, & staff) to engage with one another as peers, equals in the faith, can one move the transformation of a caterpillar of status quo to a butterfly who will soar. All parties will have to accept one another as peers, as a Priesthood of Believers, with diverse giftings, opinions, and points of view that are valid.

Are you willing to lay down your cause, your opinion, your personal theology at the foot of the Cross for the lives of your brethren in order to come up with a consensus?  Truly, transitioning from a caterpillar to a butterfly will never come easy, but it must be done!

The Next Move Of God: Metamorphosis?

Why Should/Shouldn’t My Church Embrace Change? Part IX

An infestation of caterpillars, multi-segmented, squishy-bodied, ravenous eaters who move in cumbersome, accordion-like fashions can kill foliage. Incredibly, they spin cocoons, havens of transitions, and emerge as a butterfly! I am not sure what happens in that cocoon, but metamorphosis transforms a caterpillar into a different bodied structure suitable for flying.

Two thousand years later, the church has become a multi-segmented body of hundreds of different sects and denominations that have become an infestation. If the Lord is to return to a Church without spot and wrinkle, a reconstruction is necessary if it is to fulfill its purpose of John 17, “I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity.” The Church will have to trust the Holy Spirit and embrace new mindsets.

Because the transformation in a cocoon is relational, everything will have to be taken back to the Cross. The Cross is a painful place, so transformation will not come without pain. Through the Cross the Holy Spirit is teaching Christians how to “engage” with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit through righteousness (John 3:16), and how to “engage” with one another relationally (I John 3:16) by “laying down your life for your brethren.”

Three stages make up the metamorphic cocoon process: the caterpillar stage, the engagement period, and the butterfly stage. To see how this works, let’s take the caterpillar church mentality of “You Must Believe And Behave In Order To Belong.” To become a member of most local churches, you must sign a statement agreeing with their professions of faith, theological beliefs, church bi-laws and behave like a Christian and fit in to church culture to be accepted as an official member by church leadership.

Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us,” challenges that concept. Before we even had a relationship with Jesus, he accepted us and paid the price for our sins on the Cross. As fallen man, we can be redeemed through Jesus, reinstating a right relationship with the Father. I John 3:16 states, . “We know love by this, that He (Jesus) laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” We are now called to lay down our lives for others. That is a new mindset because we have not thought of that relationally. Jesus never accepted sin, yet he died for the sinner. Jesus accepts mankind in both his fallen and redeemed state; it is man’s decision to accept being in a right relationship with the Godhead and his fellow man!

To understand the butterfly stage, you have to understand the social networking generational mindset of “acceptance”. To become a Facebook friend, you need only to push the “accept” button. This opens the door for further communications, which leads to sharing, accepting, or rejecting each other’s belief systems. Rather than behaving to be accepted, accepting Jesus will bring a supernatural change  in a person that naturally happens. In the butterfly stage, “Belonging Begins A Relationship That Produces Believing And Behaving,” which is completely opposite of the way the church currently thinks.

In the dating game, boy asks girl for a date (Caterpillar Stage). She accepts. They begin building a relationship and trust while discussing their belief, goals, and dreams. They get “serious” about their relationship (Engagement Period). After working through tough issues, final acceptance comes in a life commitment of marriage, now belonging to one another (Butterfly Stage).

What transition (Engagement Stage) is needed to change mindsets towards acceptance instead of judgment, tolerance rather than being demanding, be relational rather than structural, being an organism rather than an organization? These transitions are not easy. These transitions will not come without pain, anguish, and self-searching. They can only come if we are willing to ask the tough questions without being offended or defensive and seek those answers through relationships through the Cross.

The Next Move Of God: Metamorphosis or Urban Renewal

Why Should/Shouldn’t My Church Embrace Change? Part VIII

I personally have witnessed grass root revival through the Jesus and Charismatic Movements of the last century. I have witnessed the rise of CBN, Christian Broadcasting network, and the fall of the PTL empire under Jim & Tammy Faye Baker. None of these movements were birthed through the institutional church, who became its critics. In fact the organized church still does not fully embrace the Baptism of the Holy Spirit with the gift of tongues. They stifled prayer and praise meetings held in believers homes claiming they needed “proper oversight” by pastors, elders, and church leaders, taking the control out of the hands of the laity. Today, “mega-churches” with enormous budgets and staff expect the Holy Spirit to bring revival into their exclusive facility among its members. It just doesn’t work that way! Revivals have always originated outside of institutional church structures.

Sixty years after Jesus’ death and resurrection Jerusalem would be destroyed, Israel would cease as a nation, the Levitical priesthood would be dissolved replaced by a rabbinical system. Revival meant “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. [II Corinthians 5:17]” The Torah became known as The Old Testament, all things new in the Holy Spirit became The New Testament. Two thousand years later, Israel would be restored as a nation, but not their Temple or form of worship. What was once the new movement, the Church, now has become the organized religious institution as their believers flocked to enormous church buildings under a professional hierarchal structure of pastors. Will this repeated pattern again lead to its destruction, or will God chose to move within this already established framework to rework and recreate a new form or structure? Will the church embrace an urban renewal approach to revival where old buildings, old structures, have to be condemned and demolished before new structures can be reconstructed, or will it experience a metamorphosis, an internal restructuring done in the secrecy of a spiritual cocoon?

Although unprecedented in history, can revival, for a change, actually occur within the current structural framework of the church rather than outside it? In our next blog, we will examine the possibilities of a metamorphic change in the church.

The Clash Of Cultures: Traditions or Relationships

Why Should/Shouldn’t My Church Embrace Change? Part VII

A friend of mine wished to host a Biker BBQ in a church parking lot as an outreach to the Biker community. Monies raised would support a Christian orphanage in Guatemala. His dilemma was the church’s “Sunday Worship Service” overlapped the time of his Biker BBQ.  The church at first embraced his endeavor having a “Biker Sunday” featuring a Harley Davidson motorcycle on the church platform. This exposed the clash of cultures as Christian bikers and church people participated in the church activities inside the building while the non-Christian bikers party hearty in the parking lot.

Why do churches feel you have to enter their culture before they will accept you? Why do Christians expect non-Christians to come into their unfamiliar church world rather than infiltrating the culture of the non-Christian? And they call this “outreach”? Only a handful of believers with an evangelistic passion were willing to skip “church” to serve chicken to the bikers and hang out with them, speak their language, and accept them for who they are, not what we, as Christians, wish them to be. Only after “church” was over did the church people filter to the parking lot to buy chicken, often sitting in their own clusters.

When is the institutional church going to realize that programs in their own facility is not the most effective way to evangelize the non-churched? One-one-one relationships built daily with friends, neighbors, and casual acquaintances in their familiar territories will build trust and open doors to share Jesus. Meeting them at their level is far more effective.

When Dr. Anthony Campolo of Eastern College spoke to a group in York, PA, he asked, “How many of you got saved through a mass Crusade, like Billy Graham’s?” One or two hands were raised. He continued, “How many of you were saved through radio or television?” Another couple hands were elevated. “How many through a church service? A dozen or so hands were raised. “How many of you met Jesus through one-on-one contact with another believer?” Eighty-five percent of those present raised their hands. The passion of individual believers to evangelize is far more effective than organized church programs. The organized church will spend a massive amount of money to support an evangelistic crusade program believing it is worth it if only one person gets saved. Common believers can do that daily at minimum cost just by building one-on-one relationships with people they know.

Maybe as a church we need to reexamine how we do evangelism. Only a change of mindset can take the church out of their culture into the world to be light and salt to it!

Offices Or Passions, Desires, and Points of View?

Why Should/Shouldn’t My Church Embrace Change? Part VI

Should we envision evangelists, shepherds, teachers, prophets, and apostles of Ephesians 4:11 as church offices and leadership titles, or are they diverse passions, desires, and points of view found in common believers in Jesus Christ?

Ephesians 4:7 & 8 reads, “7 But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8 Therefore it says, ‘When He ascended on high, He led captive a host of captives, and He gave gifts to men.’”

He gave ”gifts to men’” to equip the saints for works of service. These saints will worship by giving back their gifts to the Lord and to other saints that will build up the body of Christ to attain unity of the faith and acquire the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature the brethren into the fullness of Christ. . That’s receiving and giving; that’s being fluid.

The gift of evangelism became prevalent in the 1950’s as “You must be born again” became a popular theme, but the church opted to train their clergy to become professional evangelists rather than equip the saints to evangelize.

The 1960’s introduced communal living as believers tried to nurture and care for one another, but five respected Christian pastors formed the Fort Lauderdale Five in an effort to bring stability. Instead their influence became too controlling and dictating for which they had to repent of spiritual abuse.

The 1970’s was the decade of the teacher, and I think every professional clergy thought of himself as a teacher whose cassettes and CD’s could be purchased. Unfortunately the laity who bought all those tapes, did all those Bible studies, and earned Biblical degrees became frustrated when the clergy refused to give up their pulpit or gave them no outlet to release their teaching voice or passion.

The prophetic movement of the ‘80’s began as a grass root movement among believers but quickly turned to super pastors now not only being evangelists and teachers but also prophets. Again the prophetic voice among the laity became silent.

By the end of the century, many mega-church pastors, overseers, and bishops bestowed the title of apostles because they oversaw networks of independent churches or denominations. I have never met one of these apostles who were laity because only clergy were qualified, yet I have met many believers who see the big picture of the Church and network believers in serving one another.

The purpose of the five fold, “for the equipping of the saints for the work of service,” has been lost. A fluid, fivefold church would have emphasized giving and receiving among the saints. One’s weakness is another’s strength. All five NEED to RECEIVE from EACH OTHER and GIVE to ONE ANOTHER. The fluidity of giving and receiving is central to building relationships through the five fold.

I ask, “Who is your church investing in?”

The data of your local church budget will reveal that answer. Most church budgets support the building and maintenance, and salaries and professional development for staff, and program needs. It feeds the organization, not builds up the organism, the believers. Is your church investing in you and your fellow believers or in the building, programs, and the professional staff?

The five fold is about relationships which bring Jesus into believer’s lives. It is for birthing, feeding, nurturing, and caring for the organism through “service”, not for keeping the organization solvent and running smoothly.

Is My Church Fluid Or Structured?

Why Should/Shouldn’t My Church Embrace Change? Part V

 Is my church fluid or structured?

I have a simple definition for worship: “Worship is giving back to Jesus what He has already given you.” We, as believers in Jesus Christ, are only stewards here on earth, so giving back to Jesus, worship, should come natural. Worship is the ebb and flow, the giving and receiving. The Holy Spirit receives from the Father and the Son and gives it away to the saints, the believers in Jesus Christ. Jesus, as a man, did the same while on earth as an act of worship to His Father. As believers we are to do the same.

Since we are free to worship anywhere at anytime, one does not need a formal structure or a designated place in order to worship. Unlike the organizational church structure where you are told when to stand, sit, sing, be reverent, pray, greet one another, give financially, take notes, listen to the sermon, respond through an altar call, and leave after the benediction, worship flows naturally among His people. If you are given an original song, sing it; a Biblical insight, teach it; a word from the Lord, prophecy it; an urge to pray for some one, lay hands on them, or give them a word of encouragement, just do it!  Obedience to the Holy Spirit is the key to being fluid.

The majestic mystery that drives a fluid service is found in the thread that is sewn through the tapestry of worship by the Holy Spirit who speaks with clarity. You can always find a message, theme, or lesson taught by the Holy Spirit, which brings awe, anticipation, excitement, and a reverence among those participating.  

A fluid service of worship builds and reinforces relationships, strengthens believers’ faith, and taps into the heart of the Father. That which is unseen that is birthed in faith and released among God’s people strengthens the Church. Jesus allowed Thomas, who doubted, to physically see and touch his wounds to boos his faith. That single act sealed their relationship for eternity.

Relationships among peer believers are also strengthened by being fluid. Confession to one another brings healings and repentance. The laying on of hands can produce powerful results, for the “touch of faith” can produce a powerful bond. God’s love flows through personal touches! That flow from the river of life is being fluid.

 In a fluid service, what the institutional church reserves for only the clergy can be done by any believer in Jesus. Any believer can participate in baptisms, share in communion, pray, and share the Word of faith with one another. It allows the flow of Jesus, the flow of the Holy Spirit, to bring life to the organism. It encourages the giving and receiving among the saints as a body called the Church. If brothers and sisters in the Lord are willing to “lay down your life for your brethren” (I John 3:16), then the flow of God’s love will administer to and threw his believers and become a natural thing to do.

There is life in being fluid that produces an expectancy, anticipation, and assurance that the Holy Spirit will speak, flow, and move! The organized church says, “No way!” to the saints being fluid fearing they may lose control, swing from the chandeliers, bark like dogs, fall on the floor, speak in tongues, etc. The organized church believes that stability can only be achieved through proper leadership being in control, so they stifle the flow among the saints in an effort to control. As the tap of control is tightened, the flow is reduced to a drip and finally one last drop.

So I ask, “Can you as a believer in Jesus Christ trust the Holy Spirit, or must you trust only the control of your church leadership?

Is My Church An Organization Or An Organism?

Why Should/Shouldn’t My Church Embrace Change? Part IV

The Church in the book of Acts is active, alive, vibrant, moving, expecting the unexpected, walking in faith, and led by the Holy Spirit. It is a narrative about men figuring out this new Jesus movement. Although founded in Judaism, “Behold, all things are new.”

Acts and Paul’s Epistles reveal the Jewish faith as being stagnant, ruled by tradition and self imposed laws, cautious and highly organized, while governed by a top heavy hierarchy. It was slow, cumbersome, avoiding the unexpected while demanding control, seeking a Messiah, and persecuting this new Jewish sect called the Way. Acts also records life being birthed amongst this highly regulated religious world. Without God’s Presence in their Temple, they were just going through the motions. Spiritual life in their system was lost, but God was birthing a new spiritual organism in their midst, the Church. God majors in birthing, and He gave new life to a faith that had lost its way. He gave them their promised Messiah, Savior, King, and High Priest in Jesus, yet they rejected him.

Organisms have life; organizations provide structure. Organisms have movement while organizations, often stagnant, live off the benefits of their structure. Organisms build peer relationships and multiply; organizations use hierarchal leadership to support their structure. Unfortunately, organizations often stifle organisms in an attempt to control. It is easy, yet unwise, for growing organisms after multiplying to seek organization and structure. Structures rise, and structures fall. The Twin Towers that rose above the New York’s skyline have proven that.

I ask, “Is my church an organism built on relationships, or is it an organization built on structure?” Of course, I want to answer, “organism built on relationships”, but I know better! The Church is relational, saints as equal peers growing into the image of Jesus Christ, but in actuality, it is often all about structure and organization.

We seek safety, comfort, and stability from structure, but usually at the cost of personal relationships with our peers.  We often are willing to sign covenants agreeing with stated tenants of faith, theological proclamations, rules and regulations, and agree to disciplinary procedures in order to become members of a religious institution rather than working on building intimate peer relationships with other believers in the faith.

The clergy/laity divide is evident in this struggle. Laity, as an organism, thrives on building relationships with other believers while the professional clergy thrives on elitism through organizational, hierarchal structure for leadership. The clergy demand for laity loyalty and financial support to maintain the organization has often sucked the life out of the organism.

Throughout church history, the organization often snuffed out sparks of organism life, calling them heretical. They have opposed almost every movement of God outside the sphere of their control, but since the Great Reformation, the sparks eventually became flames of revival that caused change and brings the organism back to life.

Today, would you classify your church as an organism or an organization? If your answer is an organization, but you wish it to become an organism, your only option is to embrace change!

Is Changing Church Culture Really That Difficult? Yes!

Why Should/Shouldn’t My Church Embrace Change? Part III

 The American church finds itself numbed by affluence. “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing.” (Revelation 3:17) Yet it is experiencing spiritual decay, complacency, severe apathy, and has become ineffective.

Today, the health clinics and hospitals founded by the church to meet the needs of the poor have become huge private, for profit, health conglomerates. Even the government’s efforts through the Affordable Health Care Act have dwarfed any of the church’s attempt.

Churches were known for taking care of the poor, but now the secular government has taken on the cause. Soup kitchens have given way to the Federal Food Stamp Program. Orphanages replaced by Children’s Social Services. Caseworkers and probation officers replaced Christian ministries while the homeless and mentally ill have been abandoned by both the church and the government.

The prophetic voice of Revelation 3:17 cries out, do you “not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.”  In spite of this warning of revelation, the church is still slow at embracing change and being relevant.

I have been a product of Christian church culture all my life by being raised, attending, and being active in church. I know nothing else. What scares me is that I find myself leery to embrace change the older I get, yet after experiencing abusive church leadership several times, I find myself currently not attending any form of institutionalized church. Instead my wife and I met with another couple around a round dinner table while experiencing a time of healing, spiritual revitalization, and trust building. The Lord is showing us the power of building relationships in Jesus with each other. After much discussion, crying on one another’s shoulders, praying, seeking the Lord, and just hanging out, we have learned to allow the Holy Spirit to teach us his written (Logos) and living (Rhema) Word. We have again been challenged to “trust the Holy Spirit,” something we had lost when enabled under abusive leadership. Because of embracing change, I now feel like a bird in flight, freed from his cage of religious security, while soaring into a new faith adventure with others.

Not only is the church slow to embrace change, but so am I, because change produces challenges, conflicts, transitions, uncertainty, unexpected surprises, and unpredictability. It forces you to forfeit control to faith in Jesus and the leading of His Holy Spirit.

I thought this blog was about the church, but it is also about me personally, for the church and I are interchangeable if it is built on relationships, which are central to the gospel. After a life centered in church culture, I find change also difficult. Yes, changing church culture is a big deal, its personal, and can be difficult.

Change!

Why Should/Shouldn’t My Church Embrace Change? Part II 

We seldom run towards change; we flee from it. Why? Stability and comfort are found in the familiar.  Fearful of the unknown, we seek control. Historically, the church has disciplined, expelled, and even burned at the stake those who advocated drastic change.

The church still sings hymns by composer dead for over 150 years. The order of worship has remained the same for hundreds of years. For centuries the church celebrated mass in Latin, a dead language no longer spoken by anyone except the church.

Traditions are part of religion’s tapestry. Tradition and oral history still rule the day in the Jewish faith. Even in Jesus’ day in a Temple with a functioning priesthood who celebrated festivals and feasts God’s Presence was missing, so they relied on their traditions to bring stability. They still do today!

The church was skeptic of the Jesus and Charismatic Movement that impacted my spiritual life, opposing the principle of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, the gifts of the Spirit, and speaking in tongues.

The older one gets, the more one resists change. When set in one’s ways, one leans on the dependable and avoids the unpredictable. This mindset usually opposes change and a spirit of revival.

What would happen if a movement of God affected the church as it did to Judaism in Jesus’ day? 60 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection, the Temple and Jerusalem would be in ruins, and Israel would be a scattered, homeless, persecuted people for 2,000 years. Rabbis, not priests, would maintain oral history, holidays, and hold on to their traditions to maintain their faith. Judaism looks nothing like it did in Jesus’ day.

Revival produces change that often destroys existing structures while building new ones. During revival the doctrine of the Priesthood of Believers has challenged the clergy/laity structure of the church. Martin Luther advocated the Priesthood of Believers but was unwilling to change existing church structure when revival did occur.

Since the 1800’s, the five fold has reemerged in the church through revivals but has been opposed by the clergy who later embraced them by making them hierarchal offices of leadership. Can the church embrace the possibility that maybe evangelists, shepherds, teachers, prophets, and apostles are not offices or titles but diverse passions, desires, and points of view found among normal believers in Jesus? What would happen if the church took seriously the call of Ephesians 4 to “equip the saints for works of service”? That would require a tremendous amount of change and new mindsets!

Would my local church embrace such a metamorphic change? Could it lay aside old structures that once were effective and useful for newer structures that would be built on peer relationships? These are the questions we will ask and attempt to address in upcoming blogs. Is this all hypothetical theology and paradigm prognostication, or should we be taking the question of “Should or shouldn’t my local church embrace change?” seriously?

Are Churches Infallible?

Why Should/Shouldn’t My Church Embrace Change? Part I

In the archives room of old denominational church I starred at a 1911 black and yellow photo of the Sunday School orchestra, 100 strong! Incredible. Now only a handful over 100 people attended this church regularly on Sundays. Where have they all gone?

I recall hearing Larry Lea call the nation to pray the Lord’s Prayer while offering books, workbooks, teaching tapes, etc. on the topic. His popularity propelled him into the forefront, as his Texan congregation swelled into a mega-church until scandal brought a collapse, and numbers drastically fell. Where have they all gone?

A local pastor took his church from humble beginnings and built it into a mega-church seating thousands. A choir of over two hundred sang in one of two services. After years at the helm, the founding pastor decided to retire. His replacement immediately faced challenges as soon as he took what appeared to be a prestigious position as Senior Pastor of this large church. Scandal broke out in his staff and worship team, and today only 1/3 of the seating capacity is used in only one service. Where have they all gone?

Mark Driscoll started in his garage, and grew his ministry into a multi-campus Mars Hill network of churches in the Northwest, boasting over 12,000 in attendance before the rubber bands of an abusive leadership environment snapped bringing its downfall and his resignation in less than a year.

The largest local evangelical church in our area, who even hosted a young Billy Graham, released their pastor for not giving enough altar calls. He had more of a pastoral heart as a shepherd rather than being an evangelist. Half of the congregation left with him forming a new church, now a mega-church. The former church has since dwindled to under two hundred attenders and even did a name change. Where have they all gone?

There are so many other examples that I could give. As churches grows in number, they begin to believe that they are infallible, maintaining their large numbers forever. History will prove them wrong. Many large churches often have a charismatic pastor. When he leaves or retires, numbers dwindle. Churches who offer excellent programs, professional sounding music, and highly entertaining sermons see their numbers dwindled when people feel like only a number. Still others have phenomenal children’s ministries and high powered youth programs, yet they dwindle when the twenty-somethings leave for college, career, and to experience their own spiritual journeys.

History records that a church unwilling to embrace change is doomed to become traditional and eventually will see their numbers dwindle. As a local church becomes highly organized and institutionalized, it loses its identity as an organism. Churches are not infallible. Many American cities now host an abundances of church buildings that have witnessed suburban flight, reducing their numbers. Many majestic edifices of past glory days now sit as beautiful mausoleums of stain glass and empty wooden pews.

In the following series of blogs I will ask you, “Is your local church willing to embrace change?” Historically the church is reluctant to embrace change, opting to remain steeped in tradition, guided by institutional regulations, and cemented in unbending theological doctrines, tenants, and beliefs. Let’s look at the state of the Church today and what it may look like if it is willing to go through a period of transition and change. What will that change produce? What will that change look like? Are we willing to embrace change, or will we continue to sing with conviction the old hymn Give Me That Old Time Religion because “it is good enough for me.”

Johnny Appleseed, the Evangelist

Five Fold Spirit Of Evangelism

This book was read to me often as a child!

Johnny Appleseed, an American frontier legend, is known for wearing a tin pot for a cap and planting apple seeds throughout Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, and Ontario. Jonathan Chapman, alias Johnny Appleseed, planted nurseries rather than orchards and left them to a pioneer to sell the trees on shares or sold the land and orchard to a settler. A frontier law required 50 apple trees to be planted if one wanted to settle a land claim. Chapman would plant 50 or more trees then build a fence around them to prevent animals from entering. He owned more than 1200 acres when he died. Chapman was also an avid missionary for the New Church (Swedenborgian), visiting remote frontier cabins wherever he went. Ironically, his tart green apples were excellent for making hard cider, and many of his trees fell to the ax during the Prohibition period of American history.

Johnny was known for planting seeds, literally and spiritually. Being transient he left the maintenance, upkeep, reaping and transaction of selling trees and apples to local settlers. He was never at one place very long, for he would move on in an effort to plant even more trees and establish more nurseries.

He, like a five fold evangelist, majored in planting seeds and birthing.  His constant movement to a new location to establish yet another new nursery or grove of apple trees left the pastoral care of his trees to others who would reap the benefits.

Evangelists are relentless in their zeal to plant spiritual seeds and win new souls to Jesus Christ. It is not that the maintenance of these nurseries was not important; it was the drive, the zeal to plant new trees and birth new souls that drove Jonathan Chapman forward. That pioneer spirit is what drove Americans to this new frontier and drives evangelists to birth new ministries even today.

Often an evangelist is a pioneer, forging ahead into an unknown wilderness to birth a new life or a new business. Sowing seeds is his method; birthing newness and life is his ambition. John Chapman, alias Johnny Appleseed, did both.

What The Church Can Not Afford

Embracing the Five Fold– Part XVI

….. because we can not afford NOT to embrace the five fold and its benefits.

If the five fold is the passions, desires, and diverse points of view in the Body of Christ among its Priesthood of Believers that already exists in the Church, the Church can not afford to continue to be passive about ignoring these five giftings among its laity that is called to birth, care, nurture, and equip the saints for the works of service, then release them to serve!

Now is the time for the Church to again listen to the voice and leading of the Holy Spirit sent from the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ to teach the Church, his saints, all things.

Now is the time for transitioning from religious traditions to building functional peer relationships for support and accountability.

Now is a time of building up the Body of Christ as a Priesthood of Believers, peers in Jesus Christ, to have believers grow individually into the image of Jesus and corporately unifying the Body of Christ.

Now is a time for equipping through care, nurturing, teaching, and drawing near to the Father; then recognize the time for releasing.

Now is the time to realize the need for some serious structural changes in the way we do and govern the Church by continually building relationships.

The present church cannot afford to continue to enable its laity and still expect them to be active. It cannot afford to keep the laity passive when they are to be salt and light to the world. It must not only recognize the clergy/laity divide, which is not Biblical, but begin to embrace one another as peers in the Priesthood of Believers.

The present church must also realize that it cannot be faithful to its traditions if it wants to embrace change, revival, and unity. Radical Christianity demands new mindsets!

The 21^st Century Church needs to invest in its people, the saints, not in its staff, the paid professionals. God invested in His people through the shedding of Jesus’ blood on the Cross. If believers in Jesus Christ have been called to lay down their lives for their brethren, then the 21^st Century Church has got to start having its leadership be tolerant of other Christian camps and begin accepting and embracing one another, supporting one another, equipping one another, and releasing one another in their spiritual journeys with Jesus.

It is time for the Church to again embrace the Holy Spirit for its guidance, wisdom, and teachings., a time to again trust the Holy Spirit, and a time to learn how to trust one another.

If the 21^st Century Church is in a time of transition, it’s people cannot afford to remain passive, stagnant, and inactive, for now is the time for “Acts”-tion, the returning to when the Church was alive, active, challenging through change, and influencing the world for Jesus.

Church, let’s embrace change, transition, redevelopment, a retooling, a revamping, a regenerating, responding to the call and voice of the Holy Spirit in individual Christian development as each believers strives to be more Christ-like, and the church becomes unified.

Church, let’s admit the five fold is already among us, part of our spiritual DNA make up. We can afford to embrace the five fold because! Jesus paid the price, now are we willing to pay the price of "laying down our lives for the brethren"? 

Let’s do it!

Home Grown Always Tastes Better Than Canned…

Developing Local Leadership For the Local Community– Part XV

….. because home grown leaders are birthed, nurtured, taught, equipped, and released by the local church, the priesthood of believers, to serve their local community. 

Today’s church leaders emphasize developing disciples out of the laity, but they do not promote developing lay leadership that would replace them. Why? They quote the Great Commission of Matthew 28:19 which commands to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” They equate disciples with everyday believers who are the laity, but they believe that leadership does not lay with the laity but with the clergy, thus laity does not “qualify” for leadership.

The five fold is drastically different. The purpose of the five fold is to equip the “saints”, the disciples, the laity, for works of service. Jesus had twelve disciples, who were not Pharisees, Sadducees, or Jewish leaders, but common ordinary laity, fishermen, tax collectors, etc. Jesus “equipped” them for “works of service” and empowered them with the Holy Spirits. Their “Acts”-tions proved them to be evangelists, shepherds, teachers, prophets, and apostles as they began to lead this new movement, first from their hometowns and Jerusalem eventually to all parts of the known world. They were homegrown boys raised and equipped by Jesus in their home country of Israel.

Later Saul of Tarsus, a Pharisee of Pharisees, gets literally knocked off his horse when confronted by Jesus, converts to becoming a believer, and spends time “deprogramming” his Pharisaical beliefs while “redirecting” his zeal, his passions, his drive into the five fold giftings of serving others through Jesus. He becomes an evangelist, a teacher, a shepherd, a prophet, and an apostle by the actions of service he does.

Paul goes into a city, visits the synagogue first trying to convert his fellow Jews, gets rejected and “redirects” his zeal toward the gentiles who receive him. He spends two years or less “equipping the ‘local’ saints for works of service”, then leaves them to begin a new work in another city. He develops homegrown people, new disciples in Jesus, into leadership to fully replace him when he moves on to a new location. He does not call in the “Big Boys” from the Church at Antioch” to come lead his new church as their “pastor”, their clergy, but raises local leadership from the local laity.

Jesus loved sowing and seed parables because he knew that once a seed was sewn, takes root, it grows if properly cared for, becomes mature and ripe, and is harvested.  Why hasn’t the church learned that once a seed is sown and takes root (a person accepts Jesus as his/her Savior), they too will grow if nurtured and cared for properly (through the five fold). A purpose of the five fold is to “mature” a saint into the image of Jesus and have him/her ‘grow up’ in the faith. When mature, ripe, ready for harvest, the local church needs to release them to do the works of service for which they have been trained.

It is the job of local church leadership to “care & nurture”,  “equip”, and “release” fellow peers, believers in the faith, the Priesthood of Believers to do their calling of “service” to others. It’s local leadership training and equipping hometown believers in Jesus how to “serve”; then allowing them to “serve”! Like the woman at the well, when she met Jesus and realized he was not only a prophet, but the Jewish messiah, she ran and told her hometown friends.  Even the demoniac, once released of his demons, wanted to also go with Jesus, but was commanded by Jesus to stay in his hometown.

Through the five fold, we can “equip”, train, care for, nurture, develop and release hometown people to more effectively reach their hometown friends for Jesus! 

If Taking Care Of Others Is Mandatory…..

Now What? How To Maintain the “Organism”– Part XIV

….. because it requires us to be our brother’s keeper through service and love.

In the previous blog we have established that taking care of others is mandatory in the kingdom of God. Jesus, his disciples, the early Church, and the Church today has been commissioned to take care of others. Serving others is central to the gospel! The parable of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25:31-46 paints a picture of judgment as hanging on the balance of those who serve and those who don’t.

“How do you serve others without having it become an institution later on down the road?” has been a questioned asked by the church for centuries. How do you keep the Church as an organism, a living being, from becoming an organism, institutionally structured? Answer: By keeping it simple by everyone serving each another.

If we can get past the mentality that the five fold is NOT about offices, titles, and positions in the church, but passions, drives, and points of view of individual believers in Jesus Christ, we can begin to understand this simplicity.

If a believer has a passion, is driven, to win the lost for Christ, he is filled with life through rebirth. We, the Church, need to nurture that life by equipping it, encouraging it, then releasing it with the support of the other diversely different giftings and passions the Body of Christ has to offer. An evangelist’s single vision, driving passion, is to win the lost, to bring birth and new birth. Seeing the big picture of the entire Church, like that of an apostle, is too overwhelming for him/her. He/She doesn’t even think about nurturing the “newborn” in Christ, nor how the “newborn” needs fed on the Word of God, nor how to teach them to hear the voice of God on their own. They immediately look for more who are lost, so they can be found. More who are spiritually dead, so they can have a new birth in Jesus Christ.

Since the Church is composed of people, Believers in Jesus, who are evangelistic, nurturing, teaching, prophetic, and apostolic, it can effectively serve others to meet any need that the Holy Spirit brings before them without forming an organization. They are an organism who just “does it” out of obedience to the Holy Spirit! Any one of the five can rise when needed with the support of the other four. Jesus never founded nor formed an “institution” called the church, he just equipped and empowered a small group of individual believers whom He released together through the power and leading of His Holy Spirit who would change the world. That’s the Jesus way!

Jesus equipped them with spiritual gifts, the five fold passions, authority, and the power of the Holy Spirit and released them to make the Logos Word a “Rhema” Word, just as He did when He ministered on earth. That “living organism” is the Church! It is all about “living”: living relationships as a living organism experiencing a resurrected life that is alive in Jesus Christ! It is that simple.

Rather than flow with the life of the organism, that is the leading of the Holy Spirit through the use of spiritual gifts and five fold passions, man chose to organize structurally, eventually creating institutions. Organizational institutions kill the simplicity of the simple truth that individual believers, themselves, yet together, must serve, serve, serve others! It is not an option; it’s mandatory! That is how the Church should function.

Being Your Brothers Keeper Is A Requirement

Taking Care Of One Another In the Body of Christ – Part XIII

….. because it requires us to be our brother’s keeper through service and love.

Genesis 4: 8 Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.”[d] While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. 9 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” “I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

Ever since the time of the fall of man through sin, man has refuted, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Man has become self-centered, taking care of number one, oneself.  Even in the church today, though unspoken, the question remains, “Am I my brother’s keeper,” especially if my brother is not from my local congregation, sect, or denomination, or even if he is not a Christian.

But the Bible says, “I John 3:16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.”

Taking care of others is mandatory in the kingdom of God. One of Jesus’ last acts on earth was to take care of his mother, Mary, a widow, giving her to John even though he had several brothers and sisters.  The early Church created deacons to “serve” widows, orphans, and the poor. When Jesus spoke to the 5,000, he didn’t leave them hungry but fed them. His first miracle was water into wine at a wedding. When he saw a mother whose only child had died, he raised her. Serving others was central to Jesus’ ministry.

Serving others is the keystone to the five fold. Each individual gifting is not to isolate itself in its gifting from the other diverse giftings in the Body, but serve and support the other four. The giftings of birthing, nurturing, caring, teaching through daily life, drawing nearer to god and hearing his voice, and working together as a family are all gifts for the purpose of serving each other. Every believer in Jesus needs an evangelist, a shepherd, a teacher, a prophet, and an apostle around him to help him/her grow and mature spiritually into the image of Jesus Christ and to bring unity to the corporate Body of Christ.

Unlike Cain who murdered his brother then tried to justify his actions, IJohn 3:16 exhorts us to lay down our lives for our brother just as Jesus laid down his life for us in order to expose the gospel.

The Church is a community of believers, not an organized institution. Faith is when individual believers just lay their hands on the sick who become healed rather than building huge health conglomerates whose bottom line is finances. Service is giving a cup of water to a child or a stranger who is thirsty, not building a huge welfare system with food stamps.

Will you hear Jesus say, “Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in;  naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’  The righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink?  And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You?  When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’  The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.” (Matt. 25:34-40)

Taking care of others is mandatory in the kingdom of God.

Trust And Obey; Who Me?

Trust And Obey For There Is No Other Way To Be Happy – Part XII

….. because it forces every believer, me, and the entire priesthood of believers, us, the church, to ask the question, “Do I totally trust the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, and can I trust my fellow brothers and sisters in the Lord?”

In my youth, I remember singing the old Hymn Trust And Obey. The chorus rang out, “Trust and obey, for there is no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust in obey.” Wow, what truth! But…..

Who do you trust?

 I remember singing the old Hymn Trust And Obey. The chorus rang out, “Trust and obey, for there is no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust in obey.” Wow, what truth! But…..

Who do you trust?

Who are we to trust?

Can you trust your priest, pastor, or church leader to treat you as a peer, or will he be demanding and lead an abusive hierarchal structure?

Is the Bible, the Logos Word, to be trusted, or do you question its authenticity?

                 Can the Holy Spirit be trusted, or will following Him just make everything weird?

                  Do your trust your brothers and sisters who follow Jesus Christ, or do you mistrust them as being hypocrites and fear being hurt by them?

                  If one can’t trust the Bible, the Holy Spirit, his brothers and sisters in Jesus, and his church leadership, how can he obey them? In battle, you must trust your commanding officers who lead you into a conflict and obey their orders. You are not to shoot them in the back and disobey all orders, yet Christians are known for doing just that.

“Trust and obey, for there is no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust in obey.”

                The church isn’t happy because many have lost trust in their Bible, the Holy Spirit, their leadership, and each other!

                  The ffive fold is all about trusting four other very diversely different people in Jesus whose passions, drives, and points of view are vastly different from yours. Your natural desire is to not trust someone who is different from you, but by not trusting them, you produce division and skepticism. Trusting one another through the five fold will bring individual maturity in Christ and unity in the Body. Only the supernatural can do that, so the question remains, “Can you trust the supernatural”? Can you trust that which you can not see, touch, taste, hear, or smell because your trust has to be built on “faith”, that which is not seen, touched, tasted, heard, or smelled? To your natural sense of reasoning, faith makes no sense, so can it be  trusted?

                  So I sing the chorus again, “Trust and obey, for there is no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust in obey.” Really, can’t there be another way in spite what the chorus proclaims? But I want to be happy especially in Jesus? I guess my only option is to “trust and obey”, so I guess I better get start right now!

Every Believer is Special, Gifted, & Equipped

The Great Commission, Golden Rule, & Love One Another – Part XI

….. because every believer is special, gifted, and equipped through Jesus to do the Great Commission, the Golden Rule, and to love one another.

The Great Commission: (Matthew 28:19) Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

The Golden Rule: (Luke 6:31) Do to others as you would have them do to you.

Love One Another: (John 13:34-35) “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Ephesians 4:8,11-13 states “8 When he ascended on high, he took many captives and gave gifts to his people.” Jesus is in the gift giving business. He gives the gift of salvation, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the five fold giftings, etc. for the purpose of equipping His saints to fulfill the Great Commission to “go and make disciples of all nations.”  If Jesus is going to release us, to be sent by Him, He will first prepare and equip you, then send you.  “11 Christ himself gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”

The five fold is all about the Golden Rule. You are to “serve” others, sacrificially, as Jesus did even to the point of giving your life. Each of the five is to give their passion and desire, that which drives them to others in support and to fulfill the calling of the Great Commission. They must also be reciprocal in receiving back the diverse giftings of the other four to bring nurture, care, and accountability to their lives.

Of course all this is done out of love: God’s agape love and man’s philo or brotherly love. As disciples of Jesus Christ we are commanded to “love one another,” no matter if our brethren are different or diverse . We are commanded to ACCEPT them as PEERS. IF WE DO, “everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

As Christians we do not have a good track record of loving fellow brethren outside our spiritual camps. This caterpillar mentality must cease, for it has never brought good fruit, only division, hurt, and dissention. We need to go through a cocoon transition so we emerge as a butterfly, fully accepting one another in love. The fruit will be maturity in Christ-likeness for individual believers and unity in the corporate Body of Christ. That is what the five fold is all about.

Today’s Church needs the five fold to birth, nurture, develop, care, teach, and to draw us, the Priesthood of Believers in Jesus Christ, near to Jesus, by making disciples by equipping each one for service, then being released, “sent out”, the Great Commission.  Jesus “invests” in each believer by equipping them, giving them gifts for service, so we, the Church, must also invest in each other through service.

So “go” and “do” through ‘love”, then you have fulfilled all three of these verses.

Being A Missionary At Home

Why I Would Want The Five Fold In My Church – Part X

….. because it equips the local body to serve the local community through Jesus.

I could never understand the mentality of short term mission trips. Christians come to help clean up impoverished, underdeveloped neighborhoods, built new building structures (usually church buildings), help with children’s Bible Schools, help build orphanages, visit the elderly, etc., yet they do not do the same in their own local communities at home when at home. Why?

I marveled at watching a local church get the invitation to use a vacated community center for anything they wanted, no strings attached, but all they could come up with was ideas for programs since no one in their church lived in that community. They were ready to treat the “project” as they would a “mission’s trip”. They would come into the community when convenient, but not commit to living in that community to live out their faith daily through common experiences with those who lived there.

Church doesn’t have to be held in a building to which you drive to, meet for an hour or two, then leave for a week. Church can be held in your home, like the first century model. If held in your home, you are anchored in your community or neighborhood.  The five fold would be perfect to be an effective ministry locally.

A person with an evangelistic passion would want to win the lost and birth the ideas the Holy Spirit would give the five fold group. The shepherding person would care for his/her neighbor, bringing cover dishes to the sick, meeting physical needs of the poor, minister to the hurting, and give advice and direction to those seeking. A true five fold teacher of the Word would not be an ivory towered theologian, but would want to make the Logos Word, the written Word, a Rhema Word, or a living Word in the personal lives of his/her community. A prophetic person would want to have his neighbors draw near to God, find God for themselves, commune with God when they have discovered him, and join in joint worship with their Christian neighbor. The apostolic person would marvel in what the Holy Spirit is doing through the many diverse members of the Body and network them to become more efficient and supportive in ministry. All this in their homes. All this in their own personal neighborhoods. This happened at the birth of the first century Church, and it can happen again. They identified their gatherings by naming them after their designated locations, communities, neighborhoods (ie. Church of Corinth, of Philippi, of Rome, etc.).

                  Before the days of automobiles, churches were local, and were very much part of the local community social life. Today, on Sundays, Christians pass each other when driving to the church of their choice several miles away because there they “preach the word”, or have awesome worship, or have a dynamic youth ministry and children’s ministry, or are contemporary or traditional, or whatever….. We have fallen into the attitude that church is all about what we want, not about serving others. It is not about loving your neighbor as yourself when your neighbors doesn’t drive to the same destination.

                  Let’s ask the Holy Spirit to show us what to birth in our own local neighborhood, how to effectively win the lost by showing “grace” by sacrificially loving them through service while demanding nothing from them, how to make the Logos Word a Rhema living Word that touches lives, how to make God real to them to draw them into His Presence, and how to minister to the whole man through the whole Body of Christ. That’s the mindset that birthed the Church; that’s the mindset that will revive the Church!

Sacrifice Beyond the U.S. Marine Model

Why I Would Want The Five Fold In My Church – Part IX

….. because it requires sacrificial service, the laying down of your life, for others.

U.S. Marines have a built a code of conduct through relationships that even the church hasn’t been able to match in the last couple of centuries.  A Marine will sacrifice his life for his buddy, lay down his life in battle to save his buddies; and even carry out a dead body from a combat zone so the enemy cannot desecrate it. That is the honor of the U.S. Marine Code.

The first century church was built on such a code since martyrdom was a reality, but since the easing of persecution, the code has been dropped. Today there is division, bickering, judging one another, and criticism about anything and everything different from the mode and code of worship one follows. Tolerance for other sects within Christianity is at an all time low. Rejecting one another, then shooting the wounded is common place.

Yet, what was Jesus’ mission on earth? It was to lay down his life for mankind, to be the sacrificial lamb for the sins of man. It was to suffer and die on a cruel Roman cross. Yet Romans 5:8 records, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” He didn’t die for the righteous but the unrighteous, not for the godly but the ungodly. He became more than a martyr because not only did he die for the sins of mankind, but he rose from the dead to conquer death. Because of Him, the dead can now live! Ephesians 4:8 records, ““When he ascended on high, he took many captives and gave gifts to his people.”. Like the Marines, he carried the dead, through a resurrection, to heaven with him and equipped those who remained on earth.

                  At the Cross, Jesus fixed broken relationships. Being the sacrificial lamb, he bridged the gap between God and mankind because of sin. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) Man again could be in right standing with his God.  He also bridged the gap between man and mankind. “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.  If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?” (I John 3:16-17)

                  It is now each believer’s responsibility to look out for his brother. Unlike Cain and Abel, we ARE our brother’s keeper. We are to take care of a brother or sister in need. We are to serve one another in spite of our diversity. We are to receive from other brothers and sisters even outside of our spiritual camps.

                  What better avenue for service than through the five fold where one has to give his gifting, passion, and desire to serve others, and the others reciprocally give back him. The five fold is all about give and taking the talents Jesus has given us for service.

                  As Christians, lets begin to carry one another’s cross, be willing to die for others, live by a spiritual code that is stronger than even the bond between two Marines. That is the calling for the body of Christ for today.