What Are You Inheriting?

The 21^st Century Retooling of the Church – Part LII

“Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you game me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger and you invited me in. I needed clothes and you clothed me. I was sick and you looked after me. I was in prison, and you came to visit me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and fed you, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invited you in, or needing clothes and cloth you?’  The king will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of those brothers of mine, you did for me.’” (Matthew 25: 35-40)

What is the reward in the infamous passage of “the sheep and the goats” found in Mathew 25?  The reward is collecting your inheritance, alias the kingdom of God that was prepared for you since the creation of the world!  If you feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, cloth the naked, visit the sick, and visit those in prisons, your reward is the kingdom.  The 21^st Century Church needs to ask “what is the kingdom”?  What is this reward I am working so diligently for?

Today churches strive for big congregations, excellent worship and preaching from the front stage, a professionally looking program, large children’s programs, dynamic high powered youth programs, a vibrant small group ministry, fiscal stability, and growth in numbers.  What is their reward?

“I was a stranger and you invited me in.”  I ask, “into where?” I don’t think this scripture implies into what we think is a church facility today, but into your own home, hospitality is the key. We invite friends in to “Super Bowl Parties” in our homes, but do we invite strangers?  Did you ever make your home a home to the homeless? Are you willing to invite a stranger in for a “coffee” or “tea” just to socialize with them, befriend them?  Did you ever invite an “x-con”, one just released from the hell of prison, to come into your home and be part of a loving Christian family to detoxify them from prison life? When is the last time you have taken care of someone sick who was not a family member?  Have you reached out to a widow or widower or the elderly living in your community?  That is what Jesus is talking about: individuals touching individuals. And the reward is your inheritance of the kingdom of God – changed lives.  When you do these things people see Jesus in YOU!

So programs by the government and church are nice because it looks like a group effort, but it is so easy to hide behind the “program’s” coat tails and let others do it, professionals or nonprofessionals.  If you take your Christian faith seriously, then YOU have been called to do it!  If the 21^st Century Church is to be an effective Church, then YOU have to do it. I have to do it. Together the body of Christ has to do it.  Taking care of the poor, the sick, the hungry, the widows, their hurting has always been themes central to the gospel, not taking care of “business”, no matter if it is “church business” or our own “personal business”. 

What is this kingdom of God Jesus has given us as our inheritance?  Jesus explained it in parables, so only those the Holy Spirit chose to understand it would, and the rest would wonder about its mysterious meaning.  The same is true today.  The Holy Spirit MUST be the agent to reveal the kingdom to us. The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, so small, yet when planted becomes a huge tree of expanse.  YOUR little faith, planted in the Word of God, both written and living, can produce branches of fruit. That is the kingdom. There are so many more parable. I challenge you to read them.

The 21^st Century Church has nothing to do with buildings, with programs, with developing staffs, with growth in numbers; it has to do with YOU!  If you have a heart for evangelism, release it and do it!  If you have a heart for nurturing, caring, or hospitality, a shepherding heart, release it and care, share, nurture!  If you have a heart to dig into the Word of God, the Bible, to find revelation and truth, dig, do it!  If you have the heart to commune more with God, seek his presence, seek it, do it!  If you have the heart for the body of Christ, for its development, then let it develop in you, receive it!  If Jesus has prepared an inheritance since the creation of the world for you, receive it!  RECEIVE THE KINGDOM!

Am I “Anti-Clergy, Anti-Staff?

The 21^st Century Retooling of the Church – Part LI

At the local church I have attended, we have had three pastors in the last 12 years, all home grown.  12 years ago, a pastoral team of a husband and wife, worked their way up the ranks of leadership to become senior pastors, leading the church into the prophetic and buying a property to build upon.  They never pastored in the new building, for they left for Colorado to participate in an international ministry.  The middle pastor, as the youth pastor, vowed that he had no desire to use the position as a stepping stone, but would remain with the youth throughout their spiritual journey.  He has come and gone as well as almost every youth he vowed to remain beside.  The current pastor started out working with youth, then moved to the church’s business manager before accepting the call to become the Senior Pastor when his former pastor resigned.  All three had attended Bible school, desiring to go into “full time professional ministry”, working their way up the ranks.

There is more fingers on one of my hands than times the first pastor has visited since moving to Colorado.  The middle pastor left the profession to become an insurance man, opting not to attend our church even though he has been invited to do so.  If he did, there would be people in the congregation who would still address him as “pastor” (plus his first name).  We have hired multiple “worship leaders” over the past 12 years, several home grown, one while on a cruise with one of our pastors.  None of them are any longer part of our congregation.  The same is true with those who were paid staff members leading youth or the children’s ministry.  They too have gone.  Often we are told that in order to go “up the ladder” of church leadership, we should start with the serving heart of a janitor.  Amazingly our janitors and secretaries have remained, even though they are at the bottom of the salary scale in the church structure.

So, am I anti-clergy or anti-staff?  Well, I am tired of the “professionals” telling “nonprofessionals” in the church that we, the “nonprofessionals”, are the Church, with the “professionals” producing unity in the “body” or “family”, yet when the “professionals” become “nonprofessionals”, they feel they “must” leave and are no longer part of the “local body” or “local family”.  While in leadership, relationships were built, integrity was developed, yet all that is thrown out with “a resignation”! Why do we have to have estrangement with the severing of professional relationships with nonprofessionals?  Often the severing of the ways of a pastor from the local body produces a schism with the pastor’s sheep feeling loyal to him and not the local body to which they were birthed into.  Why?  Were they engrafted into the “pastor’s” ministry instead of the “local body’s” ministry, a real danger within the church.

A radical change to retool the 21^st Century church would be the acceptance of the five fold ministry as passions and points of view of believers in the local body to equip “the saints”, other believers in the local body, to nurture, care, and develop one another into doing works of service in an effort to “mature” the saints, the local believers, in the image of Jesus Christ and bring unity to the local body of Christ.

I grew up in a local church that advocates the multi-leadership “free ministry”, where multiple leaders are developed into “eldership” who do not receive a “salary” for service. Their “calling” is for “life”, thus there commitment is to serve their local congregation for “life”.  Wow, to have “life” sentence to serve a local congregation.  This concept isn’t novel; it has history.

In America, we think we have to run our churches like we run our business.  Our businesses are world renown, influencing the financial institutions world wide.  Why would we not want to model our churches after than? The answer is simple:  The kingdom of God has NEVER been pattern after worldly patterns; in fact, they are usually just the opposite. True Christianity always influences and affects the world too!  In fact, in a more powerful way!

Church Shopping List: What Are You Looking For?

The 21^st Century Retooling of the Church – Part XXXXIX

While sitting in a restaurant this weekend, I could not help but overhear the people at a neighboring table discussing their spiritual lives, and what they were looking for when “church shopping”.  It made me stop to think about how American’s “shop” for a church like they shop for groceries or a new outfit. The list could included:

-  A good pastor who preaches “the Word of God”

-  A style of music I like during worship

-  A friendly atmosphere

-  One that has “life”, a mixed age group church

-  An excellent children’s and youth ministry

Today, all those “wants” on this list are fulfilled by a “staff” rather than by the congregation itself: A pastor, a worship leader or choir director, children’s & youth pastors, small group pastor or administrator.  The bigger the staff, the more appealing it becomes because less is demanded of the one attending.  One can get all these dividends without much being required.

Would church look different if the five fold were in effect, if the church actually prepared “the saints” for the work of “service”? 

The church would have to prepare the “saints” to read the Word, the Bible, themselves, and study the Word through the leading of the Holy Spirit, birthing the “teaching” spirit within it.

Worship would true “body ministry” time with all five passions present: teaching through the teacher, ministry through the pastoral, activation through the prophetic, and birthing through the evangelist, while over sight and order is established through the apostolic.  “Worship” would be defined by the make up of the congregation giving back to the Lord what he has given them.

The pastoral gifting within the body would not only create a friendly atmosphere, but develop one beyond that level, one of caring and nurturing.

Life would be created by activating the Logos, written Word, into the Rhema, living Word, as believers would live out their faith, walk the walk of their faith journeys together, sharing with one another, developing community.

Gifting in the five fold is developed across all ages from the self-centered small child, through the rebellious youth stage, through the seeking of finding oneself in their twenties, through developing families and parental skills, through development of character and leadership.  The equipping of the “saints” is developmental.  Church, in the past calls it sanctification.

So instead of looking for a church that will bring me comfort and meet my needs and likings, maybe we should look for a church that would “prepare” or “develop” my spiritual life and growth for the “work” of “service”.  That is a different mindset maybe we, as Christians, should develop.  

Retooling: From Child To Adult; The Church Growing Up

The 21^st Century Retooling of the Church – Part XXXI

This past week, our local pastor taught from Titus 2, exhorting what older men and women and the younger men should do, their roles and responsibilities.  There were six bullets of what older men should do, five bullets with five sub-bullets for older women, only one for young men, and young women weren’t even mentioned.  The only thing for young men was “self control”.  I joked with a friend that as an older man more is expected of us, and for a young man it is controlling his testosterone level!  Older women are to guard their young ladies from these young men! We all laughed. 

But as I thought about it later, I realized that growing up has its challenges and its benefits.  There are men in their 30’s, some even older, who still play video games all day and are going nowhere. They need to “grow up”.  Often the only difference between a father and his son is the price of their toys. The father’s need to “grow up”.  The Bible says, “Once I was a child, and thought as a child, but now I have put childish things away.”  There is a time to put away those childish things and “grow up”.

If the 21^st Century Church wants to be effective, then many of its believers need to “grow up”.  We call ourselves “children of God” and often revel in remaining a “child” in the process called sanctification, or spiritual growth.  I once was in a small group made up of six adults and fourteen children.  Most of our efforts were taking care of the fourteen children rather than continual development of the six adults.  The church often finds itself in the same situation, spending most of its time and energy on the “children of God” rather than helping them in their spiritual growth toward “the maturity of Christ”, in their effort to be more Christ-like.

The church needs a new mindset on how to “develop” a Christian from childhood to adulthood.  Educational and intellectual knowledge is not enough. I truly believe Ephesians 4 holds the key to this development of “equipping, preparing, the saints, the believers, for the work of the service” in an effort to bring unity in the Body of Christ and Christ-like maturity to the individual believer.

The 21^st Century Church needs to take the birthing process of an evangelist, to the nursery and preschool care of a new believer through a pastor/shepherd, through spiritual adolescence with the teacher and prophet, to the release of adulthood through an apostle.  “Growth toward Release” is the goal of the five fold in developing a believer.  Like a child who trusts and is dependent on his father for his care and development, the Christian believer trusts the Church for his care and development in teaching him how to trust their “Father”, God, as Jesus taught and modeled throughout his life.  If the Church teaches a believer to “trust” the Holy Spirit, the spirit of Jesus Christ, the Spirit of the Father God, the believer can then be released  to do the work of the service because he is prepared, equipped.

Instead of focusing on programs, church services, styles of worship, staffing needs, and doctrinal differences like the church has done in the last two centuries, the 21^st Century Church needs to focus on the preparation, the equipping, of Christian believers, their development from being a “child” of God to being “mature” in the likeness of Christ.

Retooling: Raising The Bar Of Expectations

The 21^st Century Retooling of the Church – Part XXVI

In public education I have been told that students will perform better if you raise the bar of expectation.  You only get what you expect.  I have seen expectations erode over the years as a public school teacher in the name of good grades, honor rolls, and parental approval.  It is a common belief that if you lower the expectations, you reduce the chance of failure, yet many still fail. Why?  Because we do not expect much from them, thus motivation dwindles, replaced by student “entitlement”.  Students expect passing grade without the effort, motivation, nor work that is needed to successfully achieve. They feel “passing” is a “right”, not a “privilege” or something “to be earned”.  As we have watered down expectations, we, in the United States, have seen student performance erode to new, lower levels, falling drastically behind other countries who still value education, motivation, and aren’t afraid to keep higher expectations.

I have seen this influence the church too!  My question to the leadership of the 21^st Century Church is, “What do you expect from those who make up the Body of Christ?  As long as there is staff to cover the church’s needs, then not much is expected except for the finances to cover the paid staff’s salaries and benefits.  That is where most churches are today. 

What should we, the Church, expect from each other as members of the Body of Christ?  Should we raise the bar of expectations, or just allow people to filter in and out of our churches according to their needs, wants, and whims?  How can those believers who expect the church to “serve” them be changed into ones we can expect to serve others?  That is raising the bar.  How do we get people to raise the bar of service if they expect to be served and have no idea how to serve others? 

This is where the five fold is a necessity for the 21^st Century Church, because the purpose of the five fold according to Ephesians 4 is to “prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 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.”(NIV)  To raise the bar, the Church needs to “prepare” God’s people for “works of service”.  We need to birth, care, nurture, and develop believers into “servers”.  It is a process!  We need to do this until “we all reach unity in the faith”, and today with all the divisions in the body of Christ that would have to be a miracle, a “God Moment”!  It seems not to be short term, nor close to fulfillment. The knowledge that needs to be taught, trained, and developed in a believer is not “academic”, but “in the knowledge of the Son of God.”  It is “knowing”, “experiencing” God in our everyday lives. All this caring, training, and developing for the purpose of becoming “mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”  You cannot raise the bar any higher than that!

It take the Church, the entire body of Christ, to do this development of spiritual character of service in each and every believer, that is why you need the five different points of view and passions, working together, to create this unity, this knowledge, and this maturity.  No Sr. Pastor, nor paid staff, can attain the bar that has been raised this high.  It takes the entire body, you, me, and all our other brothers and sisters in the Lord together in the effort. The challenge of the 21^st Century Church is to transform the reputation of “pew sitters” to “active participants” of service.  How do you do this?  You do it through birthing, caring, nurturing, and developing each and ever believer toward the goal of knowing their God and maturing into the full measure of Jesus Christ. This is what the five fold is all about!

I think if the Church began working toward this raised bar, they would see those believers who love Jesus respond in service.  If the leadership allows their sheep to be released to serve, there would be an evangelistic explosion and development in the Church. 

But the cry could be that no man can attain that status.  Wrong!  There was one man who did, Jesus. God sent Jesus, His Son, to the earth to prove that man can do it when if the “fullness of Jesus Christ”.  He then released the Holy Spirit to the earth to teach man the process of how to attain this knowledge and maturity.  Until the Church releases and allows the Holy Spirit to do what he is suppose to do through those he has been training to do “the works of service”, the bar will remain low, and the response and fruit minimal.

Retooling: Evangelism, A New Model: How It Works

The 21^st Century Retooling of the Church – Part VI

Today’s image of an evangelist is a man standing behind a pulpit formally preaching a three-point sermon or a man on the street with a bullhorn, or a lone figure handing out gospel tracts, leaving a paper trail behind him. He is the central figure of all activity.  We need to retool the evangelist’s image in the 21^st century to becoming not a lone figure doing all the evangelizing, but a team player, which is a completely different mindset to the art of evangelism.

If a believer in Jesus Christ has a passion to win the lost, but frustrated in the technique on how to reach them, the other four points of view and passions of the five fold team would help.  They need to tackle the project as a team.

The first step would be corporate prayer and worship by the group.  “Listening” would be the key, for the group would want to unanimously hear the Will of the Father for this given situation.  A Railroad Crossing Sign reads “Stop/Look/Listen”.  The group would have to do stop what they are doing, look to Jesus, and listen to the still small voice of the Holy Spirit to tell them what to do. 

The hard part is the second step, the “doing”: being “obedient” to what they have seen and heard, for there lies the solution to the problem. Jesus often modeled this approach, often going in solitude to seek His Father’s will to which he always got answers.  The obedient part came in walking on the water, feeding the 5,000, raising a widow’s son from the dead, healing the sick, and the biggest challenge, the Cross.  He did all that through obedience, and all proved to be effective evangelistic tools.

Once a strategy is agreed upon, all five points of view is heard and accepted in unity, the third step of “release” occurs.  The evangelist is “released” to “birth it”; the shepherd is “released” to set things in place to “maintain it” after the birth of the new lambs; the teacher is “released” to make sure the plan is “scripturally sound”, and the Bible will be the central rock, the foundation, for the new lambs growth; the prophet is “released” to “worship”, to do “spiritual warfare”, to help with “prophetic evangelism”, and to bring “Rhema life” into the endeavor; and finally now that the “Big Picture” or “team strategy” has been “released” by the Holy Spirit to the group, the apostle is now “released” to “see over” all that is to be done while “releasing” each of the other four in their passions and directions while maintaining unity in Spirit and in purpose. The secret to "equipping the saints" is "releasing the saints" in the passions, gifting, and point of view they already inhabit.

The fourth step, I believe, is the most difficult: each member of this group has to practice I John 3:16 beside John 3:16, that is they have to “lay down their lives for the brethren”.  This method of team evangelism and Body growth will only work if each and every participant is willing to lay down his life, his agenda, his passion, his gifting, his point of view for the other four and “serve”, “serve”, “serve”. Ephesians 4 is all about “equipping the saints for the work of the service.”

Step Five: Once the group has heard in unison and is released, a beehive of “obedient” activity begins as each of the five fold “sets in order” that which they have been “called” to do by “serving” one another in a unifying effort that will win the lost, build, develop, and maintain the Body of Christ while bringing unity, not division.

Current and old mindsets of the way Church has done “revivals”, has always brought divisions, new factions, new splint off groups, but by retooling the way the 21^st century Church does “revivals”, “renewals”, “rebirths”, “evangelistic endeavors” through this five fold group approach, unity will be its benchmark, not division, a totally new concept to the Church!

What In The World Does “Equipping The Saints” Mean

A Challenge to the Church and Its Believers

Does the Church take Ephesians 4 seriously?  I do not know of a local church where I live that takes “equipping the saints for the work of the service” seriously.  There are courses, books, tapes, messages, etc. on “discipleship”, but what does the Church do to actually equip those in their local body of believers? 

Does “equipping the saints” mean “educating them”?  Do the saints need courses and degrees, educational academia, or constant Bible studies to be equipped?  It is easier to “equip the staff for the work of the service” than the saints.  Why?  In public education, we are always faced with “professional development”, and I guess the church has bought into that mentality too in its institutionalizing of clergy & staff.  Years ago we called that process for believers, the saints, “sanctification”, growing in the likeness of Jesus Christ, but “sanctification” had nothing to do with formal education, nor with “professionalizing” Christianity.

So if “equipping” doesn’t mean formally educating the saints, what does it mean?  What is the Church suppose to be doing if it is “equipping the saints for the work of the service”? 

“Engagement” may be the answer, the buzz word, but what does “engagement” mean?

Maybe we should be asking who or what are we serving, who are we to “engage” with?  What is “the service” we are equipping the saints for?  Are we to serve “the system” or the “institution” or the “tradition” of the established church?  For what reason, or what result?  Are we serving “the lost” in an effort for them to be “found”? Are we to serving the unchurched, the nonChristian, those living in their communities that don’t go to church in order to bring them into our community of faith? 

I propose that seminaries, Bible colleges, and Bible schools basically teach “how to equip the church to maintain itself”.  Often they teach church lingo or linguistics, church manners, church laws of does and don’ts.  We do not necessarily teach how to “go into the world”, but we teach how “not to be part of the world”, how to be “set apart”!  Jesus sent out 70 as recorded in Luke 10:1-23, giving them specific directions before releasing them, (like vs. 9: Heal the sick who are there and tell them ‘the Kingdom of God is near you’), then rejoicing at the out come of their endeavors (vs. 21 “At that time Jesus full of joy through the Holy Spirit said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of the heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure’).  Jesus didn’t equip the wise and learned, he equipped God’s children for the work of the service. He never founded a Rabbinical School of Learning or a Bible College, he just hung out with “the people” in small and large groups.

In up coming blogs, maybe we can look at this “phenomena of equipping the saints”, but the Church must define what “equipping the saints” actually means in practicality before it can move ahead with actually “equipping”.

How Did Jesus “Equipping The Saints”?

What Did Jesus Do!

Empowered them to cast out devils and heal the sick

Feed the hungry

Raise dead of widow of only son – moved with compassion

Wept – with compassion

Forgive – Woman caught in adultery

Give peace or wipe off dust

Walked out faith with 12 individuals for 3 years

What In The World Does “Equipping The Saints” Mean?

A Challenge to the Church and Its Believers

Does the Church take Ephesians 4 seriously?  I do not know of a local church where I live that takes “equipping the saints for the work of the service” seriously.  There are courses, books, tapes, messages, etc. on “discipleship”, but what does the Church do to actually equip them. 

Does “equipping the saints” mean “educating them”?  Do the saints need courses and degrees, educational academia, or constant Bible studies to be equipped?  It is easier to “equip the staff for the work of the service” than the saints.  Why?  In public education, we are always faced with “professional development”, and I guess the church has taken that model in its institutionalizing of clergy & staff.  Years ago we called that process for believers, the saints, “sanctification”, growing in the likeness of Jesus Christ, but “sanctification” had nothing to do with formal education, nor with “professionalizing” Christianity.

So if “equipping” doesn’t mean formally educating the saints, what does it mean?  What is the Church suppose to be doing if it is “equipping the saints for the work of the service”? 

Maybe we should be asking who or what are we serving?  What is “the service” we are equipping the saints for?  Are we to serve “the system” or the “institution” or the “tradition” of the established church?  For what reason, or what result?  Are we serving “the lost” in an effort for them to be “found”? Are we to serve the unchurch, the nonChristian, those living in their communities that don’t go to church in order to bring them into our community? 

I propose that seminaries, Bible colleges, and Bible schools basically teach “how to equip the church to maintain itself”.  We teach them church lingo or linguistics, church manners, church laws of does and don’ts.  We do not necessarily teach how to “go into the world”, but we teach how “not to be part of the world”!  Jesus sent out 70 as recorded in Luke 10:1-23, giving them specific directions before releasing them, (like vs. 9: Heal the sick who are there and tell them ‘the Kingdom of God is near you’), then rejoicing at the out come of their endeavors (vs. 21 “At that time Jesus full of joy through the Holy Spirit said, 'I praise you, Father, Lord of the heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure’).  He didn’t equip the wise and learned, he equipped God’s children for the work of the service.

In up coming blogs, maybe we can look at this “phenomena of equipping the saints”, but the Church must define what “equipping the saints” actually means in practicality before it can move ahead with actually “equipping”.