Evangelism: Savoring Tips & Guidelines

How Do You Prepare God’s People For Works of Service? Part V

Even though every believer should do evangelism, most of us do not know how to do it or feel very awkward when trying to evangelize.  Here are some tips:

- Natural Story Telling: Evangelism should be a natural response of just telling the story of our own spiritual journey.  Often just telling how you met the Lord, what has comprised your spiritual journey, how your journey has become a lifestyle are all ways of evangelizing.  I remember once when some friends were evangelizing, I just shared about how making Jesus Lord of my life and the power of the Holy Spirit had an impact on my spiritual walk. This left a dramatic impact on those I shared it with, and they not only made Jesus their Savior but also Lord and were willing to receive the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. Evangelism can be as simple as telling your personal story.

- Personal Evangelism: Evangelism is most effective when one on one. Even though we Christians spend millions on television and radio programs, one on one evangelism is still the most efficient and impactful method. There is nothing that beats personal contact, eye contact, and personal discussion and care.

- Building Relationships: Often building relationships of trust, respect, and care open doors for people to want to hear our stories, our message. Relationships are key to communications in the kingdom of God, and establishing them with unbelievers is of essence if we are to win them for Jesus.

- Outside The Walls: Evangelism should occur outside the walls of our church buildings. We need to quit relying on the Pastor and his staff to “give” an evangelism message through their sermons.  Evangelistic sermons have their place and effectiveness, but should not be a substitute for our individual sharing with people in the work place, those we recreate with, our neighbors and friends. 

- Vulnerability: Care is the best thing we can give an unbeliever. Everybody needs to feel cared for. If you build a relationship with a person who thinks you genuinely care for them, they will listen to you and believe that what you said is valid.  Evangelism is all about care: Jesus cared so much for us as sinners that he was willing to lay down his life on the Cross for us.  A key component to evangelism is your willingness to lay down your life for others, just not Christians, but non-Christians too. Only when you are willing to lay down your life and expose your life, will others become vulnerable and open up and expose their lives to you. 

- Stay Simple: Try to refrain from talking “Christian-eze”. Keep your message simple and sincere. Don’t talk down to them as if you are a saint, and they are an ain’t; talk face to face, eye to eye, peer to peer.

-Win With Love: We often think of Bull Horn Evangelists with a Hell-Fire & Brimstone Condemnation message, emphasizing a need for a savior.  What kind of God do we want to portray? What kind of God do we want to offer? True, there will be a judgment day, but we are living in an age of Grace, so we should extend grace, mercy, forgiveness, unconditional love, and a willingness to go the second mile in spit of who they are or how they act towards us. “Loving them into the kingdom” is far more effective, especially for their later spiritual growth, than scaring “the hell out of them”!

- Just Be Who You Are In Jesus; Be Genuine, Not A Hypocritical Phony:  Two men hung on either side of Jesus. The three were peers as “condemned criminals”, but the one criminal recognized that Jesus was innocent; he had done no wrong, yet he was suffering the same fate as the two who had “earned” their death sentence.  Jesus’ righteousness stood on its own, recognized by one of the criminals, rejected by the other. The one who acknowledged it was assured by Jesus to be with him in heaven, the other not. Don’t try to be some spiritual giant, someone who you are not; just be yourself in Jesus. Allow the Holy Spirit to use you and speak through you, and let the unbelievers whom you are a witness to draw their own conclusions. Hopefully it will be the same as the criminal who is with Jesus in heaven today.

Hopefully these are some tips that can be useful in your journey toward evangelism, the telling of what Jesus is and has done in your life.  Evangelism, like faith, is simple. Just be genuine, be yourself, be caring, and keep it simple.

Evangelism: Mid Wife, Coach, Husband, Mentor, Model

How Do You Prepare God’s People For Works of Service? Part IV

How do “equip” or “prepare” someone for evangelism? Good question. In the past the churches that I have attended have had many “evangelistic sermons” by visiting evangelists, or the local pastor preached on the topic of evangelism, or a Bible Study group studied evangelism through some book written on the topic.  No one ever went with me out of the streets or took me along when they evangelized until I broke from the church where I grew up to aide a minister who was starting an inner-city church in our area. He was an evangelist at heart, for that was his passion. Often I went with him on his evangelistic excursions and watch him work.  That was the best training that I ever received on evangelism; when someone actually walked it out with me.

Evangelism is all about birthing. Women understand the process better than men for they have experienced labor pains, birthing pains, the joys associated with the actual birth, the instant motive to mother at birth, etc. When I was born, my father was not allowed to be present. When we had our children, I was allowed to not only go into the birthing room, but was allowed into the Operating Room during a Caesarian procedure.  Today entire families can be in a birthing room as the mother sits in a bathing pool while all witness the birth.  Experiencing a birth is a wonderful memory etched in one’s life forever. It is a joyous moment, a fulfilling moment, an exciting moment, a moment filled with hope and promise filled with dreams for the future.

A father learns that a pregnancy is a nine-month ordeal, not just an instantaneous event. The mother goes through different stages throughout the pregnancy: throwing up, sickness, urges, cravings, cramps, discomforts of a child on her bladder, kickings, movement, and eventually contractions. At birth, all those discomforts and miseries vanish into ecstasy and joy, but pre-birth is a process.  Often when evangelizing one-on-one we forget that there may be trials, discomforts, and even pain in the process of leading one toward the saving grace of Jesus.  It may take days, weeks, months, even years of constantly serving, sharing, extending grace to an unbeliever to prepare his/her heart and spirit to receive the grace he/she so drastically needs.  The most effective evangelistic strategy is “walking with” the unbeliever through this stage of his spiritual journey in unconditional love and grace so that they can see their need. Later we will see how after birth, one needs to also have someone “walking with” them through nurture, care, development, and spiritual growth. The Church is all about “body ministry”, not being alone, but having someone “walking it out with you.” 

I once attended a mass evangelistic rally with Dr. Tony Campolo as the speaker/evangelist. Since it rained, the event was held indoors, and the crowd was predominately people who already had accepted Jesus as their savior. Dr. Campolo asked how many people there had accepted the Lord through television or radio. A sparse few raised their hands.  How many through mass evangelism? A handful of hands were raised. How many through one-on-one, someone speaking to you personally? Hundred raised their hands.

So how do we equip or prepare someone to be an evangelist? We walk it out with them. Go in pairs, mentoring, modeling by doing, being involved with people’s live, releasing people when they are ready to branch out on their own and take someone with them, multiplication.  The greatest investment we can give to someone is “our time”, not our money. Spending time with them, developing an atmosphere of trust, care, grace, and unconditional love are the tools for effective evangelism. There may be trials, temptations, failures and even falls, disappointments, and pains along the way, and they will probably fight you all the way, resisting the invitation you give them, but that is part of the “pregnancy” phase.  In faith, one has to “believe” that the unbeliever will become saved, will receive the saving grace from Jesus that will have eternal consequences, will walk beside them and believe for their “miracle of salvation”, and will bathe them in prayer.

There is no greater exhilarating experience than the moment one becomes “born again” nor when someone else accepts the invitation of a “born again” experience with Jesus Christ. It is like a mother at birth: the miseries and pains are forgotten; the joy of (eternal) life is rejoiced.  Most mother’s experience multiple births in their lives, and an evangelist is the same. A believer pushed by the evangelistic spirit immediately seeks another pregnancy to produce another spiritual birth.  They are driven by the passion for birth and rebirth. Evangelists are truly spiritual midwives. 

So how do we equip believers to be effective evangelists? Walk it out with them! Model by “doing”, then allowing them do “do” it before releasing them to be on their own, hopefully for them to take someone else under their wing to model and multiply the process.  It is not about academic education of understanding the topic of evangelizing, but about actually “doing it with others”. That takes time; that is the price of investment into the kingdom of God.

“Twenty-Teeners” Church Questions

 Drives My Generation of Christians NUTS!

“Where do we get the term ‘saved’ from?”

“Who invented the 4 Spiritual Laws handed out on tracts?”

“Where did the “sinner’s prayer come from?  Jesus never used it?”

“Am I not to tithe unto the Lord?  How is that tied into financing the church as an institution?

How dare the “twenty-teeners” ask such bold questions that seem to be at the essence of the 20^th Century Church’s thrust on evangelism.  Millions have been “saved” using the “sinner’s prayer”.  How dare they question its validity to our church’s cultural tradition.  I do remember when my children were smaller they asked a thousand questions which I thought was a positive experience because they were inquisitive. One of the first inquisitive words they learned was “why”, not to justify what was being done, but to know how things worked, the rationale behind it all.  Why should I be shocked now when they ask such pertinent questions? 

Questioning can be good; it part of the “twenty-teener” make up.  My generation of church leaders have become critical of Rob Bell because of his approach to questioning.  He just wrote a book about heaven and hell, and how his generation is questioning it from the standpoint of the Lord’s prayer of “thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”  Do we experience a little of heaven and hell already on earth? Rob’s questioning in this generations exploration of finding Biblical truth to their generation as C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce was to my generation.  I think there is a lot of common ground, but we are looking at it from generationally different points of view, thus questions.  It amazes me that Jesus did not use the lecture, alias sermon, approach when teaching as my generation does, but he is forever asking questions and speaking through parables, much of which this new generation is doing.  Could their approach to teaching be more Jesus centered than our way of teaching? Hmmmm…..

As a “church kid” it was hard for me to understand what “saved” meant because I had tried to live a righteous life under the church norms that I was taught by my parent’s generations.  I once wished I had been a junkie, a drug addict, been a pimp of a prostitution ring just so I had a good testimony of being “saved” from something drastic.  I thought being “saved” was turning from an old life through repentance and moving on in a new life, but found many of my friends returning to the altar to get “saved” again, or as they called it, “rededicating” their lives.  I thought to be “saved” meant a new beginning…. Now, through asking questions, I too am beginning to examine of the meaning of terms I just took for granted, instructed  never to question.

I’ve met the man who invented the 4 Spiritual Laws for Campus Crusade for Christ, who has gotten to the point of almost dispising them.  Yes, he found an effective way of evangelistically sharing the gospel to his generation during his time, but “canning” his approach over decades has become redundant and ineffective most times. I still remember seeing a 60 yard long paper trail of tracts thrown on the ground as litter at the York Fair. “But if one was saved, it was all worth it,” was the evangelistic cry of denial of its true effectiveness.

As for the sinner’s prayer, it may be something more of my generation. I had no idea of its origins so I went to the entrusted source Wikipedia which attributes is full thrust to 19^th & 20^th century evangelists like Dwight L. Moody and Billy Graham as well as Campus Crusade while also contributes to its weaknesses as not being Biblically based nor at times said in sincerity. I, personally, never said the sinners prayer to get saved, but knew God was real while sitting in the sunshine in a chair in our living room. My parents, coming from their generational bias, wondered if I had been “saved” because I never went forward in an “evangelistic revival meeting” at their local church.  I later discovered that John Wesley also “found” God as I had.  The “twenty-teener’s” questions about the sinners prayer may be more valid than I want it to be.

My children don’t question the Biblical principle of tithing, but question tithing to “what”. In his ebook The Future is Now: How God Is Moving In The 21^st Century, Kent R. Hunter of Churchdoctor.org fame says, “The flat world reflects the repulsion today’s young adults have for institutions that act institutionally. The key for understanding this is that if a church persists to be hierarchial, it will not attract young adults. This concept is reflected in the teaching of low-control/high-accountability.  Most churches from the modern era have become extreme, with layers of bureaucracy, politics, bylaws, rules and regulations, titles, offices and all the trappings of institutionalism. This does not fit the relation world that now exists.” They want to tithe, to the kingdom of God, but not to an institution with all its entrappings of building, maintenance, management, staffing, programs, etc. They want to be relational, not heirarchial.  Tithing to my generation usually supports a hierarchal system of pyramid professionalism.

So maybe all their inquisitive questioning is valid.  At least it is forcing me to look at it from a different point of view. After a while all the questioning about drives my generation nuts.  Hmmm, maybe they got us where they want us! LOL (as they would text)!

Is The Church Generationally Two Different Worlds

Are We “Worlds” Apart?

Linguistics is such an art!  When thinking of church leadership, I think of pastor, elders, deacons, church boards, etc.  Recently I met with a “twenty-teen” minded church leader who is a facilitator, director, planner, implementer, spark igniting, social networking overseer of a local church.  Well, I call it a church; he choses to refer to it as a gathering of people who tell their stories, build relationships within and outside current church norms and boundaries, and facilitate these relationships on a social networking level or in a deeper personal level.  As Kent Hunter refers to flat worlding (see earlier blogs about the 21^st Century Church), my friend and his “twenty-teen” generation, as I now call them, are not the least interested in church hierarchy.  In fact that turns them off.  They don’t look at church from a business model sense like my generation with budgets driven by tithing, but merely from a loose relationship angle.  Church offices and titles make no sense to them, relationships do.  Social networking keeps them on a sociably equal level with each other.  On Facebook, Myspace, and Tweet, there are no social levels, no societal hierarchal levels of importance.  You are on an equal platform of “esposure”, and “vuneralability”. 

He told me that although he still meets with a pastor’s group for prayer and fellowship periodically, he feels a detachment, almost an alienation to the old guard. He understands where they are coming from because of history, but they can not understand going the other direction, toward the future.  What will the Church look like in 2025?  The old guard would be content if the Church still had its present structure, for that is what they identify with in their generation to their culture, but there is now a different culture and a different generation.

For examples, the way we view the Great Commission is changing.  My generation sent out “missionaries” to foreign countries or supported grand Billy Graham Crusades.  “Twenty-teeners” are beginning to despise Billy Graham three point techniques as “archaic” and ineffective to their generation.  Billy Graham, Oral Roberts, Pat Robertson, are all spiritual giants to my generation tried to breed their children to follow them in ministry.  It is hard for them to realize, but their grandchildren are not responding well to their strategies.  It is a new culture, a new world.  Tent Evangelism of Oral Roberts, Billy Graham city wide Crusades, and  Pat Robertson’s view of Christian television, the advanced technology of his generation, is giving way to the internet, the world wide web, and social networking.  Their grandchildren would preferably only listen to a “podcast” of one of their sermons in the "archive" section if they were interested at all.

Evangelism has changed.  Billy Graham preached the world was going to hell in a handbag, and repenting and turning to Jesus was the answer.  Christians were not to be part of the world, but saved from it, thus the “Leave It Behind” series became popular to my generation, but is ineffective to “twenty-teeners”.  Their “missional” outlook is to “infiltrate” the world, not avoid it. 

“Life is how you live it”, is a common theme to both generations. My plain, almost Amish, conservative dressed background emphasized that “our lifestyle” proved to be our testimony, thus we were not verbal about our faith, for our outward appears defined our stand on righteousness.  Church dress, as defined in the 50’s through 90’s, has all but disappeared in the current seeker friendly church atmosphere.  The “twenty-teener” blends into his culture, preferring to listen to secular music to pick out spiritual principles that to church hymns and choruses, the reversal of my generation’s experience who went from pure secular music to contemporary Christian music. Both generations are trying to “live out their Christian faith” but in structures that are defined by their culture.  To the “twenty-teeners”, the dividing line between secular and church mindsets are getting muddied.  I am sure the “old guard” will combat this new movement with their own defined “righteousness” movement, judging and condemning this “new works of God” as being unholy, secular, and unrighteousness.  They’ve done that throughout Church history; why change now?

“Old School Church” is predictable because it has history; “New School Church” is unpredictable because it is looking ahead and has no history, only a walk of faith.  As my “twenty-teener” friend conveyed to me, “It is like Abram walking in faith into a land he is not familiar with.”  That’s the pioneering spirit; that is the spirit that moves the Church forward.  It challenges the Church from stagnation to flow again.  Quiet calm lakes are great for a quiet day of fishing if you can stay awake, but white water rafting on a fast pace stream creates a rush!  I felt this spiritual rush in the movement of God in the 1960-70’s, but eventually found myself in the stagnation of an established lake.  I empathize with the “twenty-teeners” because they are ready for their generational rush that will change their culture for Jesus Christ.

Jesus prayer as recorded in John 17 is to protect his Church who he is leaving behind in the world.  He knew the tuggings and temptations of the world, yet he knew that his mission was to come and die for this world!  He’s died; He’s risen; and by his Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the Church is moving forward.  Both generations are in the same world, but are looking at it generationally and culturally different. God, fulfill the calling of John 17 and bring unity to your body of Christ, the Church in this century to these two generations. May this “movement of god” bring unity among us! amen….

Evangelism in the 21st Century Needs A Paradigm Shift

A Look at Kent Hunter’s “The Future Is Now: How God Is Moving In The 21^st Century Church

I came across an ebook by Kent R. Hunter of Church Doctor Ministries entitled “The Future Is Now: How God Is Moving In The 21^st Century Church.”  I would like to quote from this source since it is so good, and then add a few of my analysis to it. 

From Chapter 12 – All About Story; All About Networking, Hunter says:  “As mentioned earlier, evangelism, as we have come to know it, is no longer effective. Not too long ago, I heard a sermon from a modern-aged pastor who has not yet learned to think and speak postmodern. It was all about how to give your testimony. The focus was on telling people what life was like before you knew Christ, how you met Christ, and, in the “three-part sermon,” how your life is different after you met Christ. This is ancient history . It is not the way to reach people today.

Most do not know what it means to “meet Christ” in the postmodern 21st century. The audience is, most often, not lapsed Christians. Increasingly, they are second generation non-Christians: they have never been to church, their parents never went to church, but, perhaps, their grandparents went to church. The postmodern approach is focused on reaching people with whom you have a relationship — your social networks. In the context of a relationship, the most effective scenario is connecting in their life with a parallel in your life. This works best when you can honestly share how you believe God helped you. Telling your story is witnessing. This is a radical change in the way many churches have operated in the past. Many have focused on evangelistic programs, memorizing outlines, sharing Bible passages, and answering a lot of questions Post moderns do not ask: “Are you ready for heaven?” What?

Witnessing is sharing your story. It works best unrehearsed, unpolished, from the heart, spontaneous, and REAL.”

I remember taking a Lay Speaker Course through the United Methodist Church where we were taught Billy Graham, the great 20^th Century Evangelist’s, three-point sermon format for evangelist sermons.  I have personally met the creator of the original “Four Spiritual Laws” famously used by Campus Crusade for Christ.  I have been part of York, PA’s only united city wide crusade in 1974.  I remember an evangelist came to our local church in the 1990’s for a week to teach us local believers how to evangelize. This person claimed they never went to a city without success, seeing souls won for the kingdom of God.  At the end of that week the evangelist/teacher left shaking his head; not one lost person had been saved that week!  Methods of evangelism have changed.  Hunter shares how the current use of Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and texting can be effective tools for “social networking” relationships, no matter how shallow. These can be the tools to establish friendships before evangelizing.  In the past, the evangelist hardly ever established relationships, he/she just charged like a bull in a china closet handing out tracks, leaflets, or even shouting through a bullhorn.  The message was more important than either the messenger or any relationship the messenger could establish.  That has all changed in the 21^st Century.

Rather than the 20^th Centuries evangelist questioning you, “If you die tonight, do you know where you would go?” or “Are you ready for heaven?”, Rob Bell in his book Love Wins challenges the 21^st Century reader to examine the Lord’s prayer of “Thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” to see if there is some heaven on earth after conceding to the fact that there is hell on earth.  What happens here on earth is of more concern to the 21^st Century evangelist than of his predecessor who exposed only the calamities that were happening on the earth as a sign of the end times and the need to repent and recognize that you need a savior.  Setting up networking of relationships, then working out your salvation through the day to day experiences in the now through telling your story is more of the thrust for the 21^st Century evangelist. Being “unrehearsed, unpolished, from the heart, spontaneous and real” is felt to be a more genuine approach to evangelism today.

Also I believe that the passion of a five fold evangelist is “birthing”, so the 21^st Century evangelist will do more than spread the gospel message of salvation, he will be “released” to “birth” things.   Birthing, naturally, is all about the product of a relationship between a man and a woman, so why wouldn’t an evangelist think relationally today?  If the Church is relational, then why wouldn’t the 21^st Century evangelist be effective in birthing relationships within and without the Church?  This is definitely a different mindset in the way the Church must look at the role of the evangelist. The 21^st Century evangelist would not have to be a clergy, or a professional, but any believer with the passion to birth, yet allowing others to develop (the passion of the pastoral shepherd).  Throughout history the evangelist birthed, then dropped the new believer to win more of those “lost’.  Today, the evangelist still majors in birthing, ready to drop the birthed project for others to develop, teach, spiritually guide, and oversee.  That is what five fold evangelist faces in this 21^st Century.

Is One's Personal Narrative the Key to Evangelism

A Look at Kent Hunter’s “The Future Is Now: How God Is Moving In The 21^st Century Church

I came across an ebook by Kent R. Hunter of Church Doctor Ministries entitled “The Future Is Now: How God Is Moving In The 21^st Century Church.”  I would like to quote from this source since it is so good, and then add a few of my analysis to it.

From Chapter 7 – Church As A Movement, Hunter says:  “Witnessing, in the true sense — what Jesus says in Acts 1:8 — is the key. This means that one of the most revolutionary and powerful “evangelistic programs” any church in the 21st century can accomplish is to patiently, gently, and continually ask people to share what God has done in their lives lately. In time, that becomes a cultural lifestyle for everyone in the church. In the early stages of the spiritual journey, witnessing does not include Bible passages or preaching. What receptive and interested people want to hear is how God has worked in your life recently. Witnessing has become much easier and must become, once again, the lifestyle of all Christians — not a program, effort, or the pre-occupation of just a committee.”

As a retired English teacher, I love narratives.  I have taught them, wrote about them, and even written them.  Narratives have always been an effective way of just telling one’s personal story. The four gospels are basically narrative accounts of experiencing Jesus’ life on earth and the book of Acts, a narrative of the birth of the Church. As a child at church, I remember singing the old church hymn “I Love To Tell The Story”.  Is the power of the narrative coming back?

In the 1980’s I was part of the Lay Witness Movement through the Board of Discipleship of the United Methodist Church.  Lay Witness Missions were basically teams of laity who were invited to invade a local church for a weekend to stay in the homes of the locals, participate in small group discussions, fellowship over pot luck, cover dish dinners, and share their personal narratives of what Jesus was doing in their lives.  It was a powerful ministry.  Common people, the saints of the Church, shared their narratives with one another for an entire weekend.  Even the Sunday sermon was replaced by someone sharing their personal testimony and allowing response to it.

In 1993 I got to go to South Africa for 16 days at the invitation of the United Methodist in South Africa to participate in Lay Witness Weekends in Pretoria and Capetown during the elections when Mandella was running for President.  I could fill blog pages telling of the power of that movement and trip.  I do remember that  South African Missioners, as they were called, or South Africans who would share their testimony or narratives at these weekends, had what I called “canned” testimonies. They recited their narrative to their coordinator just as they would always recite it if called to share.  We, Americans, on the other hand, would not just give our “salvation story” but also what Jesus was doing in our lives now.  We would go with the flow of the Holy Spirit, sharing differently each time we were called.

I did not know it, but we were under the South African Church’s microscope during those missions.  I remember getting a thank you note when returning back in the states.  Included were reflections on their part of what they observed from the weekends.  I was fascinated by one comment, “there is freedom in Holy Spirit.”  They saw the power of sharing our narratives in the “now” rather than reciting a planned dissertation.

I love to tell my stories: how I accepted Jesus, the need for more empowerment in my spiritual walk, wrestling with the supernatural in my natural world, the physical healing of being burned by the hot water from a car radiator, how I prayed with a man in the Super Dome in New Orleans who was healed instantly, how my 10 year old son gave prophetic words to a lady changing her life, my Lay Witness Weekend Missions to well over 50 local congregations, my trip to South Africa, leading a Bible School parade in Jamaica through their small town, going from not being able to physically talk about Jesus to one who can’t be quiet now, etc., etc., etc.

I sit in the church I currently attend that has approximately 350 people attending, and am shocked that I can not tell you the personal stories of more than five people in that congregation.  I wonder, “Who are these people? How did they get here?  How did they get to know Jesus?” Where are they in their spiritual walk?”  Churches need to allow the saints to tell their stories, so their brothers and sisters in the Lord can know who they are in Jesus.

It is good to see that Mr. Hunter recognizes the need for the return of the narrative.  In the ‘70’s, Christian testimony books like The Cross And The Switchblade and The Gentle Breeze of Jesus were powerful narratives that influenced my Christian walk.  I even wrote and published I Was A Stranger And…., a narrative account of the Ilgenfritz family taking in to their personal home and lives over 100 people over a ten year period including my wife and I and the birth of our oldest son.  Christian publishers shy away from printing narratives today, yet the narrative still has the power of being personal, being about a real person, being just a story, and being an effective tool of evangelism.

Why The Five Fold As The Next Movement or Revival to the 21st Century Church?

A Review Of History From Dr. Bill Hamon

As the Church faces a new century and new movements of God, how will it respond?  Dr. Bill Hamon claims, “When this occurs [a new movement], some of the pastors and denominational leaders will take a neutral attitude, ‘Hold steady; do nothing; wait and see.’  Others will accept the new truths and ministries and incorporate them into their own teachings, ministry, and ways of worship, but some will reject and condemn the movement.

Those who do not like the movement and want nothing to do with it will find examples of ministers or members who have been confused or hurt by their involvement in the movement to prove that it is not of God.  They will also focus on little phrases or particular teachings of the leaders of the movement and make them sound unscriptural, out of order or cultic.  Those who oppose and persecute the movement will declare publicly that it is not of God and forbid their members to participate. The leaders of past movements, independent groups, and denominations will finally issue an official document declaring that this movement is not condoned by them and is therefore not of God.  Those who were leaders of God’s established order until the new movement came along are the ones who fight what is new the hardest.¹”

 So why do I, the author of this blog, propose the five fold as the next movement of God.  Hamon takes a historical view at this proposal.  Hamon has charted the change produced by the Restoration Movement since its inception in the 1500s with the Reformation.1

                  Year Restoration Movement               Major Truth Restored

                  1500 Protestant Movement                      Salvation by grace through faith (Eph. 2:8,9)

                  1600 Puritan Movement                           Water Baptism, separation of Church and State

                  1700 Holiness Movement                          Sanctification, Church set apart from the world

                  1800 Faith Healing Movement                   Divine healing for the physical body

                  1900 Pentecostal Movement                      Holy Spirit baptism and speaking in tongues

                  1950 Latter Rain Movement                       Prophetic presbytery, praise and worship

                  1960 Charismatic Movement                      Renewal of all restored truth

                  1970 Faith Movement                                 Faith confessions, prosperity

                  1980 Prophetic Movement                           Prophets and gifts of the Holy Spirit

With this Hamon also teaches that in each of the last five decades of the twentieth century, one of the five fold ministries (Eph. 4:11) has been reemphasized or restored, and certain Biblical truths and ways of worship have been reactivated in the Church by the Holy Spirit.²

                  Decade Five Fold Ministry                  Movement/Revival

                  1950’s Evangelist                                 Deliverance Evangelism

                  1960’s Pastor                                       Charismatic Renewal

                  1970’s Teacher                                     Faith Teaching Movement

                  1980’s Prophet                                     Prophetic Movement

                  1990’s Apostle                                     Apostolic Movement

I, the author of this blog, have personally experienced the effects of all five of these movements during my life time.  Because of the institutional mentality of the church, I have seen the church make “offices” out of the five fold, usually held by positions of leadership, usually the senior pastor, bishop, staff, etc., not the grass roots laity.  When there is a movement of God, it affects the grassroots of every believer, the priesthood of believers, not just the institutional hierarchy. This, I believe, is the biggest change to Hamon’s chart.  God’s Spirit through this next move of God will continue to be upon all flesh. (Acts 2)

I believe the Holy Spirit is shaking out, developing, teaching the five fold as passions and points of view that, when equipped, developed, and released, can bring maturity in individual believers while bringing unity among the five if they are willing to “lay down their lives for their brethren.” (I John 3:16).

The five fold will bring accountability to the Church unlike it has experienced since the first century because its foundation is on “service”, different passions “serving” each other and receiving the “services” from each other.  This accountability is based on “relationship” not on hierarchy of position of power or influence.

I agree with Kent R. Hunter and Dr. Bill Hamon that the wind of change, the wind of the Holy Spirit, is blowing, and we are seeing just the beginnings of the next great move of God upon the 21^st Century Church.

 ¹ Dr. Bill Hamon, Prophets and the Prophetic Movement:  God’s Prophetic Move Today  (Shippensburg, Pa: Destiny Image, 1990), 107.

 ² Ibid., 44-45.

Can the Muslim God Be The Christian & Jewish God Too?

Allah, Yaweh, and the Father

In religion we emphasize our differences thus dividing us.  The Muslim faith has its Sunni and Shite factions, Christianity Protestant and Catholic, and Jewish its Orthodox and Reform.  Even under each of these banners there are multiple sects with distinctions of division themselves.  After a while it is hard to distinguish who are why all the divisions, often built on theology. But is there any common ground?

The three all have the same patriarch, Abraham, who wondered with his people to a land that was foreign to him.  Abraham and his wife Sarah had a problem: they had no children, no heir to Abraham’s fortunes.  Dismayed over the dilemma, Sarah suggests that Abraham have a child to Hagar, her hand maiden, which he did producing his first off spring, Ishmael. Later an angel visits Abraham and Sarah and prophesies that in spite of her elderly age Sarah will bear a child, which she does, and names him Isaac. In her jealousy she demands that Hagar and Ishmael be kicked out of the family, thus the beginnings of the Arab/Israeli conflict and later Muslim/Jewish faiths that exist today.

Abraham believed in one God, and even attempted to sacrifice his only son to him until God supplied a lamb in the thicket to become the sacrificial lamb.  The Muslim and Jewish faith claim that this happened on what is now known as the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, thus today there is a Muslim Mosque on top of the edifice and the Wailing Wall, a section of Herod’s Temple, beneath. It is also the place where Mount Calvary, the site where Jesus was crucified and the Garden Tomb is located.  All three religions claim that real estate as sacred grounds to their faith.  That is one thing the three have in common.

The other commonality is that father Abraham was a monotheist, one who believed in one God, and all three also recognize that as a tenant of their faith.  Muslims call him Allah, Jews Yaweh, and Christians the Father.  All three recognize the same Godhead, but with a different name. God having different names in not new, for in the Jewish faith the name for God El is used 250 times in the old testament, Elohim over 2570 times, El Shaddai 48 times, and Adonai over 300 times. So in essence, can we surmise that all three faiths worship the same God, the God of Abraham?

The difference comes in the way they perceive the role of Jesus.  To the Muslims, Mohammad is their sacred prophet. They recognize Jesus as a prophet, but not to the degree of Mohammad.  To the Jew, Jesus was a good rabbi or maybe even a prophet.  But to the Christian Jesus is the Son of God, the Sacrificial Lamb for the sins of mankind; he is more than a prophet. 

So if the Christian Church is to evangelize the world dominated by these three religions, could it not start by drawing together our similarities, father Abraham and his faith, then build on his legacy of redemption, salvation, forgiveness, reconciliation, etc. through Jesus as a fulfillment of Abraham’s faith? Instead of throwing rabbis, imams, and pastors into the theological rings of debate to battle it out through theology quoting from their Korans, Torahs, and Bibles, should we not focus on Jesus and his fulfillment of their faith?   Should we not look at relationship rather than religion?  Like the three major religions, there is a separation of faith, a schism, a divide, that can only come through one source, Jesus.  Jesus is recognized in all three religions, so we can build on that recognition to share his real role in relationship to Allah, Yaweh, the Father.

While on earth, Jesus tried desperately to teach about his Father, Yaweh, Allah, whatever man called him.  Over and over again the Jew rejected his teachings, but some got it, some understood.  It amazes me that in Jewish cultures, they will embrace many religions, but will reject even their own who recognize Jesus as their Messiah.  A tool for a global, world wide evangelism could be just examining the relationship of Jesus to the God of Abraham as the item that could unite us in faith.

It amazes me that on Mount Zion the Jewish faith built their temples, the Muslim faith built their mosque, and if allowed, the Christian faith would have built its cathedral, but on that very same site Abraham received a sacrificial lamb for his son Isaac and all three faiths received their sacrificial lamb in Jesus on the Cross on that very site.  Maybe the beginning of world wide evangelism should begin with our similarities, the recognition of Abraham as their patriarch of our faith, his belief in one God, the same God of our faith, and the role of Jesus as the fulfillment of our faith.  I know of an effective Christian ministry to the Arabs in the Middle East whose foundation is the recognition of our similarities of faith, but the fulfillment of our faith in Jesus.

In a time of anti-semitism and muslim-bashing in America, the American Christian Church needs to find a way to reach out to their Jewish and Muslim Americans to find common ground in faith with them.  As relationships are built, barriers fall, trust begins to be established, and then the door opens to share the fulfillment of our faiths in Jesus. This may be a key in the 21^st Century world view of evangelism.

Social Networking: Needs A Pastor; Needs A Savior?

Intrapersonal or Interpersonal Skills?

I’ve marveled when standing on the bus ramp at our Middle School, student’s texting and tweeting each other while standing only 10 feet apart!  One girl bawled out a guy for not answering her texts even though she sat only two tables away from him in the cafeteria.  There is prestige to having a huge following on Tweet or have hundreds of “friends” on Facebook.  What has happened to the eye to eye oral communication skills?  How many friends of bf’s, best friends, can one have on Facebook?  We can know a lot about somebody through social networking, but how much of them do we really know?  How long will it be before someone “proposes” marriage through a Tweet or Text or Facebook entry? How many tweets would that generate?  How many replies on a Facebook strain would it create?

The pastoral/shepherding aspect of the five fold is getting to be more and more needed to teach “caring” and “nurturing” skills to people who chose communication on an intrapersonal level.  “Being there for someone” is important to the 20-somethings, not only on a communications level, but on an emotional level.  Social networking allows 24/7 access to communicate, but lacks eye to eye, physical touch, oral communications and body language that makes communications personal and intimate.

How does a person know that you really care for them unless you are physically present at the moment?  Everyone needs a shoulder to cry on at times.  Physical shoulders are not available on social networking.   Women love a “good cry” where they don’t want verbal communication or even someone to solve their problems.  They just want another human to “feel their pain”, empathize with them, just “be there” for them.

With a culture that is getting more physically detached from one another, how will that effect the mental health of individuals when in need?  How will it effect the hurting when the physical or mental pain is beyond strain? 

Because of the mentality of 24/7 communication needs, how will the spiritual shepherd have to change his mentality of availability to a generation that demands 24/7 availability?  What does “being available” even mean to this generation?  How is “fellowship” being redefined? 

“In the beginning was the Word….” Christian spirituality has always been around the “Word”, alias communications.  How is the “Word” to be communicated to this generation? The rolling 3 point sermon resonating in a Southern Billy Graham style is being replaced by what? His message of a broken relationship with God can still resonate as this generation looks at salvation as restoring that communication that was lost because of sin.  How is the evangelistic message to be communicated to this social networking generation?

To my generation, Peter, Paul, & Mary sang, “The Times They Are A Changing” accusing parents for not understanding the new language, the new communications of the youth and their movement.  With a new generation comes new forms of music, new forms of speech, new forms of messages or communications around old themes and new ones.  We, the Church, need to acquire new mindsets, new avenues of communicating age-old messages:  Jesus, salvation, the gospel, sanctification, etc., particularly if we are to reach, nurture, care, equip, train, and release this generation for Jesus.

Evangelism Doesn’t Have To Be Painful; Does It?

A Different Look At Labor Pain

We have come to believe, especially if you are a woman, that birth is equated with labor “pains”.  I remember watching the monitor attached to my very pregnant wife to warn me of the next contraction.  It gave me time to embrace for a super hard hand squeeze, and comment about never getting into this condition again, questioning why she married me in the first place if what “I” did has now caused her so much pain!  Why pain with childbirth?

From the Biblical perspective, labor pains came as the price for sin.  When Adam and Eve sinned and were banished from the Garden of Eden, pain with childbirth became one of the prices of sinning upon the woman.  Amazingly, even though a mother experiences severe contractions signaling the coming birth, all that pain seems to vanish when life is evident, a child is born.  The fruit of “motherhood” is sheer joy, wonderment, awe, and immediate nurturing. Labor pain signals the struggle of what has been intimately nurtured and cared for in the safety of a mother’s womb that is now being threatened prior to actually experiencing birth.

Spiritually, there is usually pain before a birth.  Often we do not feel we “need” a savior until there is something to be saved from.  Pain can be one of those things: the pain of life, stress, loss, hurt, abandonment, loneliness, failure, guilt, etc., etc.  An evangelist is haunted by the “lost” living in pain because they do not know Jesus.  The “lost” have always been painted and portrayed as suffering.  We speak of sharing the spirit of evangelism to a lost and dying world that suffers an incredible amount of pain. Pain exists prior to spiritual birth because the price of sin is about to give way to life. “The wages of sin is death” but through Jesus we can have eternal life. Death is about to be defeated to life.  Those who have to “labor” in the painful world of the lost sense and feel those labor pains.

I have heard prophets claim to feel the “labor pain” of a revelation that they feel is about to be “birthed in the spirit.”  They feel the conflicts that oppose that which needs to be birthed.  Prophets claim they cannot “birth” the revelation, dream, or calling to life, only sense and feel the labor pains of its coming birth.  It takes an evangelist to birth!  Evangelists major in birthing!  The prophet needs the evangelist like a pregnant women needs a midwife or a doctor to help birth the child.  She could birth the child herself, but it it much easier and safer if someone takes her through the process. That is what an evangelist can do, go with you through the process of your spiritual birth even though you could do it yourself.

Some of the darkness moments spiritually usually come before the light, what looks like defeat discourages us just before the dawn of victory, what hurts even hurts worse before we receive our healing, what we fear faces us before our faith overcomes it.  It is this struggle that only an evangelist seems to understand.

Evangelists need the pastoral, the teaching, the prophetic, and the apostolic influences around their lives so they too will not be swept into the pain that those they work with face.  The evangelist needs the passions and gifting of the other four to feed, nurture, and protect his spirit when constantly on the front lines against the kingdom of darkness.

What amazes me about evangelists, like a mother who just gave birth, they too can lay aside all the pain it took to birth a spiritual newborn when that “new birth” receives Jesus into their life. What is different in the spirit compared to the natural is that a true evangelist does not possess the strong nurturing capabilities that earthly mothers possess, because their passion to win the lost drives them to move on to win the next one who is lost over the passion of nurturing newborns.  This is why an evangelist needs the pastoral gift by his/her side.

Jesus said that those who are sick need a doctor, and that spiritual doctor is the evangelist.  I feel, though, that the evangelists needs a whole hospital staff of shepherds, teachers, prophets, and apostles to secure that safe, caring, and nurturing atmosphere when there is a new birth, for that will free the evangelist to go back to the birthing room of life and begin to work through the labor pains of the next birth.  God bless evangelists!

Evangelism: The Challenge of Releasing the Pastoral Spirit

Discipleship Vs. Developing Maturity, “Attaining To The Whole Measure Of The Fullness Of Christ”

Let’s challenge the traditional mindsets we have towards “discipleship”, and ask the Holy Sprit to reveal some truths about the pastoral passion of the five fold as a new mindset to the way the Church is to think.

Rebirthing:  If there are spiritual births, then we need spiritual nurseries!  The pastoral spirit of the five fold is needed for this mindset to be addressed.  Is the goal “discipleship”, making “followers” of Jesus, or it to help believers in Jesus Christ to “become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ”? (Eph. 4:13)  There is a vast difference between just “following” someone and “maturing into their likeness”. When people see a Christian, he/she should see Jesus Christ. That is the goal of pastoral development. If this is truly the goal of the Church, then it needs a “rebirth”, a “renewal”, a “new mindset” toward the way it thinks of caring, nurturing, and developing the “Gods people, for works of service.” (Eph. 4: 12) This may cause the Church to shy away from current mindsets of discipleship programs, mentoring programs, big spiritual brother or sister programs, etc. and begin thinking of ways to personally one-on-one development one’s spiritual life by sacrificing one’s own time to “invest” in the kingdom of God by “investing” in helping another fellow believer mature more in the likeness of Jesus Christ. Development takes time, the one thing Americans do not want to sacrifice.  In a fast pace internet world, Americans want instant “now”.  Speed is the key to accessing information, but now in the kingdom of God.  God has taken centuries to prepare for his Son, Jesus, to come as a sacrificial lamb for the sins of mankind, and is still taking centuries for His return to a Church without spot or wrinkle.  God is allowing “developmental” time for His Church in preparation for His Son’s return.  If God is taking His time to develop his Church into the image of His Son, maybe we, the Church, must recognize too that development takes time.  For most of us Christian it will be an earthly lifetime. We live on promise that after death when we go with Him, Jesus, we will be like Him, in his fullness!  The Lord’s prayer states, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” so it is the will of the Father to “develop” His people into the likeness of His Son both here on earth and in heaven.

Of course here is where we begin to ask questions:  How do we develop Christians into Jesus’ likeness?  The answer is: WE CAN’T!  Only the Holy Spirit can, for he has been called to draw all man unto Him, Jesus.  He knows what the “likeness of Christ” is in its maturity being part of the Trinity.  We need to ask the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the evangelistic spirit of “rebirth”, “renewal”, and “revival” for ways to bring life, Rhema life, the Living Word, into the spirit of every Christian believer, so that the written Word, the Logos, becomes alive in us.  The gospel of John begins explaining that Jesus is the Word from the beginning and that “the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.”  Because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, the Christian faith believes that today God’s Spirit through Jesus is not only among us, but in us when we chose to accept Jesus into our lives. Our bodies become the “temple of the Holy Spirit”, the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

To develop into the maturity of being Christ like, we must put the written Word, the Logos Word, within ourselves by personally reading our Bibles. Then we have to allow the Holy Spirit to activate that Word to become the Rhema Word, the Living Word, so we become little “Words”, little “Jesus’”, little “Words in the flesh” because the Spirit of Jesus, His Holy Spirit is in us, now his temples. 

Becoming “Words” in the flesh, living “Words” in the Spirit gives a new dimension to how we need to develop Christians in becoming “mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”  This is why my prayer is for me and you to look at the pastoral passion of the five fold in different ways than we have in the past as the Holy Spirit instructs us in the process of growth, caring, nurturing, and developing into the “fullness of Christ”.

Evangelism: “Rebirth,” “Renewal,” “Revival,” and “Revelation”!

A Possible New Way Of Looking At Rebirthing, the Evangelistic Spirit

In a previous blog, we examined the difference between “reproduction”, making all the things the same, and “rebirth”, a choice to make “all things new” (II Cor. 5:17).  It is a known fact that the Church preaches about “rebirth,” for “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come,” yet as an institution it is extremely slow at embracing change or newness.  Tradition trumps newness.  Jesus challenged the Jewish traditions of his day who rejected is “newness,” the fulfillment of all their messianic prophecies.  Paul too challenged his Jewish heritage and traditions visiting Jewish houses of worship before being rejected causing him to reach out to the gentiles.  If Jesus faced tradition in his time as well as Paul’s, why would we think that we would not have to do the same?  In the kingdom of God, renewal, rebirth, and revival always challenge the “traditions of men”, as the Bible calls it.

So in this blog I would like to challenge some of our current Church “traditions” by brainstorming possible “rebirths”, renewals, rethinking of how we do things as a Church, renew mindset that have been established as to the way we think of evangelism.

Rebirthing:  A Call To The Lost:  How are we to reach the lost today? We, the Church, have done it in the past through Evangelistic Crusade, by handing out gospel tracts, by knocking on doors, by using a bullhorn on a street corner, by sharing “The Four Spiritual Laws.” Many methods have been tried, and all the above methods have tasted success, but is that the way to go because they have become “traditional” methods of evangelism?  I have shared in previous blogs about some rather creative evangelistic methods that have been done, but is that what the Lord wants at this time at this place in history?

I contend that we, the Church, need to begin to listen to, and more importantly, be obedient to what the Holy Spirit tells us to do about evangelism. Can the Holy Spirit stir up the teacher of the Logos Word, the Bible, to find scripture that would address the sin, the darkness, the loneliness, the hurting and the pain that those who do not know Jesus face, so there will be a hunger for renewal, for a rebirth based on the scriptures? Ofcourse!

Can the Holy Spirit move the prophetic spirit to bring life to those scriptures so that the written Logos Word can become the Rhema living Word in those who chose to accept, follow, and be obedient to Jesus? Ofcourse!

Can the Holy Spirit reveal the proper climate, atmosphere, and conditions needed to care, nurture, and develop those who make Jesus their choice in their spiritual journey toward maturity in the fullness of Jesus Christ in their lives? Ofcourse! 

Can the Holy Spirit reveal the “big picture” of how to pull this all together to move the kingdom of God forward, for not only is the kingdom of God at hand, but is now available to God’s Church to move forward.  Are the spiritual hands of God ready to be at work in this evangelistic endeavor? Ofcourse! 

Now, with all this in place, can the evangelist offer “new birth” to anyone who chooses Jesus because the Church is behind them, beside them, a part of them in unity, for the five fold’s purpose is to also bring unity in the body of Christ, (Eph. 4:12)? Can the evangelist be free in the blessing of the entire Church to offer “rebirth”, “renewal”, “revival”, and “revelation” by offering anyone willing to accept “newness”, for accepting Jesus brings an end to the old, and makes all things “new”, a “renewal”, a “rebirth”, what a revelation?  Ofcourse!

So maybe we should rethink how we, the Church, does evangelism in reaching the lost!

Rebirthing:  A Call To Those Found:  I love sunrises, the rebirth of a new day, every day.  The sunrise brings new birth to God’s creation everyday.  With the reduction of the time of the sunlight, creation slowly dies, thus producing seasons.  The shortness of days, winter brings death, but as the scriptures reveals the mysteries of God, without death we cannot have life, thus the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The days increase with spring bringing life, eventually the longer days of summer produces fruit for harvest when the daylight again begins to diminish.  So is the yearly cycle, the life cycle of all created, all living, especially spiritually!

Can the Church also go through these seasons as its “revelation” of “the Son” increases or decreases?  Is there seasons of “Son”-light that effects the Church?  The Dark Ages supports this through history as what decreased “Son”-light in the revelation of Jesus can do. Is the Church in a season of “revelation” of Jesus Christ today, so it can “mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ,” (Eph. 4:13) in its preparation for the Lord’s return?  Do we, the Church, need a “rebirth”, a “renewal”, a “revival”, a new “revelation” of Jesus Christ? Ofcourse!  So the evangelistic spirit of “rebirth”, “renewal”, “revival” and “revelation” is needed more today than any other time in Church history. Believers must radiate the “whole measure of the fullness of Christ” to appear Christ-like as the Holy Spirit reveals Jesus to each believer in their own personal life.  The church to must radiate this same appearance in preparation for the Groom returning for His Bride in His likeness.

So we need the Holy Spirit to guide us individually and to guide us corporately as the Church into renewing how we approach the evangelistic spirit in reaching the lost with the message of “rebirth” as well as guiding the Church into renewing our revelation of Jesus Christ individually through maturing in the likeness of Jesus and corporately brining unity in all the Church does, even in its evangelistic thrusts and endeavors.

Evangelism: A “Choice”!

Not Reproduction, But Rebirth

Whenever there is revival, evangelism spearheads it because the evidence of “new birth” prevails.  Jesus shares with the woman at the well, a Samaritan, not a Jew, a woman not a man. He broke the social code of his day.  He also chose to reveal being the “Messiah” to her, not one in his inner circle of disciples, but a common woman, a non-Jew, not a theologian or priest, so his mode of evangelism could be looked upon as controversial for his time, but we can not refute its effectiveness.  The woman went back to her village, her people, and began to testify what Jesus, a Jew, just did for her.  So did Jesus use this same evangelistic approach in every village he visited?  Did it become the “model” for his disciples to emulate in the future? No!

Paul had to learn the power of diversity in effective evangelism.  What proved profitable in one village got him stoned in another.  What was effective with one culture proved to be ineffectual in another, yet we, the Church, today still try to find the perfect “model”, the perfect “program”, the perfect “form or structure” to do evangelism.  When Billy Graham did mass crusades in arenas, evangelists sprung up in tents and arenas everywhere emulating what had worked for Dr. Graham.  Since his three-point sermons were effective, every evangelical seminary in America taught their budding ministers how to preach three-point sermons.  Americans will travel from coast to coast to catch seminars on formulas, programs, and structures that have proven successful to other churches, hoping to emulate them, but that is not necessarily how the Holy Spirit works nor is it the true “evangelistic spirit” of rebirth.

Evangelism is not “reproduction” but “rebirth”.  In the natural world “reproduction” is synonymous with “rebirth”, for when human beings “reproduce” they get more of the same, more human beings.  This is not true in the spirit world, for you have no family tree, no grandparents, no parents who give you spiritual birth.  It is a choice YOU have to make. Jesus said, “YOU must be born again!”  YOU have to make the decision to “accept” Jesus, to “follow” Jesus, to “worship” Jesus, to be “obedient” to the Spirit of Jesus Christ. You will not get to enter the kingdom of God because of your parents, grandparents, nor through any other earthly relative.  Jesus even professed how you must leave your parents in order to learn his truth because it all comes back to YOU personally, not your heritage. Your decisions, your reactions, your responses to Jesus Christ is central to your salvation. The Old Testament system of genealogies is gone; it has yielded to the new testament system of your “choice” of accepting Jesus that makes “all things new!”

Evangelism is all about getting people to make Jesus “their choice.”  Accepting that choice is what brings revival when “all things become new.”  We were born naturally, reproduced, but spiritual we have to chose a “rebirth”, a total newness.   This is what Nicodemus wrestled with when confronted with his choice of being a disciple of Jesus.

So what does “rebirth” mean to us individually and to us as a Church if it does not mean just “reproducing”, restructuring someone else’s ideas, plans, programs, or methods?  As an earlier blog suggests, do we just produce “little boxes… that all come out the same”?  Must all Christians look alike? Act alike? Think alike? Believe alike? Or is there diversity because each individual is an unique creature, who makes his/her own choice, so his/her “uniqueness” can be touched and transformed into something totally and uniquely “new”?  If the answer is “yes”, then I believe there is a “rebirth” spiritually.

So rather than looking at a program that works for a church somewhere else, let’s allow the spirit of uniqueness, the spirit whose purpose is to draw all men to Jesus, the Holy Spirit, to lead and orchestrate our endeavors.  Truly the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ is the evangelistic spirit that draws all men to the Father, God, through the cross, resurrection, and obedience of Jesus Christ.  It is also the spirit of “truth”, and can lead the “true” way to be effective producing “choices” for rebirth.  We think of the lost as needing “rebirth”, but we must also realize that we, the Church, also need “rebirth”, a “retooling”, a “rethinking”, a “new mindset” if we wish to experience another spiritual Renaissance or “revival” that will not only make “all things new” to individuals who “chose” it, but also the Church as a whole!

There’s A Whole Lot Of Shaking Going On (Continued….)

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

It has been a whole week since I last wrote a blog, and sometimes I need just to be quiet.  I love to be in a worship experience and just “listen”.  That occurred last night when Kent Henry came to our church.  I have been in and out of Ken Henry events over the last three decades, and have learned to respect him for his ability to listen to the Holy Spirit and change with times.  I have watched him physically grow from a dark haired “cool dude” appealing to youth to a grey hair of wisdom.  Kent is still Kent; still digging deep for Jesus.

Now you have to understand, Kent Henry concerts are not quiet, band jamming, bass driving, drummer letting loose, background singers singing with all their might, and Kent doing his thing.  In the past I would have been engulfed by it all and just join into the activity, but last night the Holy Spirit drew me in, being aware of my surroundings, but just focusing on Jesus and “listening” to the still small voice as the decibel level increased in the sanctuary.

When Kent read from the book of Lamentations, Jeremiah cried out the doom that Israel was about to face, a woeful song, as Kent actually began to sing the scripture as a Jewish cantor. That is when the Lord again beckoned me again about this “shaking”, reinforcing that in American “institutions” are and will continue to be shaken.  We have seen the financial institutions shaken over the last four years, almost bringing America to its knees.  People learn to “trust” in the stock market, forgetting that it rises and falls, and many financial plans collapsed with the shaking.  Now educational “institutions” are being shaken, not only at the public school level, but also at the higher educational levels.  The family as an “institution” has been attacked and badly battered over the last two decades as what use to be abnormal and dysfunctional is trying to be recognized as the new normal and status quo.

Then the zinger: I heard, “Why would the Church be exempt, particularly when it has become an “institution” too?” Ouch!

I have struggled for years over the questions of how do we allow the Church as an “organism” to become an “institution”, or what is the process needed to free the “institution” to go back into an “organism”.  “Organisms” have life: “institutions” have structure.  How do we put life into our structures?  How do we structure life in our churches so that they don’t become institutionalized (program driven, staff driven, numbers driven, budget driven)?  When we get stuck in a path, sometimes it takes “a whole lot of shaking” to release us from the rut in which we have entrenched ourselves.

Sometimes the very structures that we built that gave form to a movement become the very barriers that prohibit the continual movement of the Holy Spirit.  I have done an in depth study on the “blue print” of Herod’s Temple, the temple at the time of Christ, which vividly displays the “barriers” that structure has produced, prohibiting one from entering the Holy of Holies, the very Presence of God.  Barriers dividing Jew from Gentile, male from female, priest from laity, serving priests from passive priests, and everyone from the High Priest who only once a year had the privilege to enter the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement.  By the time Jesus arrived, “structure” was in placed; Jesus always challenged the “structures” of his time.  He did a whole lot of shaking, eventually causing an earthquake at his crucifixion, and the freeing of himself from the structures of a sealed tomb at his resurrection.  Jesus knows how to challenge an institution to produce life, an organism. He sent the Holy Spirit to orchestrate the transformation of institutions back to organisms.

So what does the Church have to do? It’s first inclination is to “RE-structure” itself, with “new” programs, “new” staff, “new” personnel.  That is where the Church is missing the mark.  The Holy Spirit is not about “RE-structuring” but “renewing”.  Dumping the old is part of the gospel message, for in Christ Jesus “all things are new”.   Renewal, rebirth, being “born again” is the heart of the evangelistic message, a message that Church better be prepared to hear or it will hear the song of Jeremiah to this generation, the song of lamentations. The evangelistic message is for the “lost”, and as a Church sometimes we must admit that we have “lost” our way, always in need of a Savior, always open to renewal, change, regeneration, rebirth.

Evangelism: Is It Like A Computer Menu?

Retro-Blob: Saved on my computer on June 16, 2004

I have had the privilege of attending many mass evangelistic crusades in my life.  At my first week long Billy Graham Crusade in Baltimore, Md., Dr. Graham was greeted as a celebrity to which he commented, “The last time my Lord came to town as a celebrity, in one week they crucified Him.”   Being a part of the outdoor Jesus Festivals in the 70’s which drew tens of thousands was awesome.  Most impressive to me was the Promise Keepers “Standing In The Gap” Crusade that saturated every inch of the Mall area of Washington, DC from the Capitol building to the Washington Memorial encompassing well over a million men.  The total silence created by praying men on their faces impressed me beyond words!

In spite of the large crusades that win souls for Christ, I still have to ask what happens to all of the souls that were just won for Christ!  One day while working on my computer, I had to save a file.  I became astonished when pulling down a menu screen I discovered over 30 different choices of formats to save my file.   I was apprehensive knowing that if you do not save the file under its proper format, you could not call that document up later under a different format.  With no standard set by the computer industry, all this diversity didn’t flow together.  In fact it opposed one another.   ¨

This made me reflect on one of today’s attitudes of the church.  When a new convert is saved, he is automatically labeled a Catholic, or Protestant, or Pentecostal, or an Evangelical, or a Fundamentalist, a Conservative or a Liberal, a Main Line Denominational, or an Independent, etc.  Even under those main divisions there are subdivision ie. Protestant: Presbyterian, Episcopalian, Methodist, Baptist, Mennonite, Church of God, Church of God in Christ, Church of the Brethren, and even Lutheran.  Under these subdivisions are even smaller groups: several kinds of Baptists, Lutherans, Mennonites, etc.!

When one is “saved” and labeled, he/she too is formatted through doctrine and theology by those who lead him/her into that decision, and has trouble functioning under or with another program or label.  Like the computer system, an argument over which program (or church organization) is better, more efficient, etc. propagates.

Some believe that  the church, like the computer industry, has no one standard (except the one they personally believe in), so all its diversity doesn’t flow well together either!  This belief is based on a false premise.  There is one standard by which all new born Christians are saved (or formatted), Jesus Christ.  Only through Jesus can one be saved, have eternal life in the Kingdom of God, have peace with his maker, the world, and with himself.  The only thing that can make diversity unite in the church is Jesus Christ by His Holy Spirit.  Mass evangelism proves this.  The invitation is not to become one of the above church labels, but to ask Jesus into one’s heart, being born again in Jesus Christ, creating a new spiritual life.

The church needs to quit fragmenting itself with labels that aren’t compatible with other labels in its own body!  Let’s pray and work for a body of Christ that is centered, focused, and moving forward with only one goal and aim, that of an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ!  If that is done, then the Church will never have a menu bar to be dropped bringing division again!

Retooling: Change vs. Stagnation

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

The business world amazes me, particularly when someone is “on top of the business world” because of an innovative idea they have.  If they just stay with that idea, someone else will challenge it in a free market, improve on it, and soon put you out of business.  “Change” is a basic ingredient in the business world, for stagnation will eventually bring bankruptcy.  If Henry Ford stuck with only his Model-T Ford as the standard of his car, he would still have a market, but only to the nostalgic buyer, a very minimal market.  His business would have closed down by now!  The auto industry has new products, new gadgets, new improvements on their cars every year or they will not survive.  The car radio was replaced by the 8 Track, then by the cassette player, then CD player, then surround sound sub woofer deluxe sound systems, now talking GPS systems, and probably soon no-hand social networking communication capabilities while driving. All these have nothing to do with the engine, gears, tires, transmissions, etc., but all have become necessary products for change to increase sales, to sustain market life.  Change prolongs life in the business world; stagnation eventually spells disaster.

Why do we not think that this principle could or should also apply to the Church, one of the slowest institutions of change on the planet.  The evangelistic theme of the Church is “changed lives”, but should not the evangelist spirit also bring “change into our Churches”?   Should not the “evangelist” not only cry out to the lost, but also to the Church, “you must be born again”?  “Rebirth” is “Change”!  When the church becomes stagnant, it needs the evangelistic cry to bring it life.  Ask Nicodemus, the typical “church-person” of his day, doing all the right things in his religion for his God, even as a leader, but the evangelistic voice of Jesus told him, “You must be born again.”  At first he could not grasp the concept because of its literal meaning, but I am sure he finally “got it” which brought change in his life, or he would not be recorded in the Bible.

As religious people, we are repudiated by the cry of “you must be born again”, because we think we have it all together.  We think our spiritual birth is enough, but unfortunately rather than growth we often choose stagnation, happy at where we are in our lives and in our faith at the moment, and we get stuck!  Growth is not allowing ourselves to get stuck through constant change, or getting un-stuck through repentance, a turning of what doesn’t work to obediently following the Holy Spirit’s direction toward what does.  A body of water has to flow to continue to sustain life in it or it turns into the Great Salt Lake or the Dead Sea, so must we!  Instead of the stagnation of “religion” which we think brings safety and stability, “relationships” bring life flow, so we must ask ourselves, to we need change in our relationships to bring the flow?  Do we need a “rebirth”?

What is the “evangelistic cry” going forth to the Church today?  What is it saying? What is its plea?  What is the “evangelistic cry” saying to you as a believer today?  Let’s just not look at the lost (which is hard for the evangelistic spirit to do!), but lets look within and ask what is the Holy Spirit saying to us, believers in Jesus Christ, through the evangelistic spirit.  I would love to hear your comments on what you hear its cry to be? 

Retooling: Evangelism is “Just Doing It”!

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

I truly believe that the reason Jesus came to earth was to “reveal the heart of the Father”.  In a previous blog (Mon. Dec. 12, 2010) I shared how the word “agape” as in “agape love” is God’s love.   Agape love as translated in old Hebrew means “revealing the heart of the Father”.  Jesus’ mission on earth was “to reveal the heart of His Father”. He said, “If you have scene me, you have seen the Father,” and  “I and the Father am one.”

Jesus spent hours in seclusion praying, seeking the will of the Father,” and the Father was always faithful and revealed His Will to His Son.  The key to seeking the will of the Father is being obedient to that will when it is revealed to you.  Once you know His will, then “Just Do It”!  Just Act!  Those in the first century sought the Will of the Father wanting to reveal the Father to their generation, and God was faithful and revealed Himself to them.  All they had to do is “Just Do It”, “Act”, thus the book of Acts was birthed.

Evangelist also want to reveal the “heart of the Father.” To do that they will go to no length to reveal Spirit of Jesus Christ to the lost and dying world, which is the heart of the Father.  Evangelists are in the “revealing” spirit.  They “Just Do It”!  You can’t stop a believer who has a passion to reveal the heart of the Father; they can’t help themselves. They “Just Do It”!  New believers in Jesus Christ just want to tell others, the evangelistic spirit, to anyone one and everyone about their “new” experience of being “born again”. They “Just Do It”!

The five fold ministry is all about release, not holding back, “Just Doing It” out of obedience so that “the heart of the Father” is being revealed.  Does the Church want revival?  Then let the evangelism “Just Do It”.  Revival always starts with evangelism.  We need to let the evangelist “reveal his heart”, the heart of evangelism, the Father’s heart to the lost.  We need to release the shepherd to “reveal his heart”, the heart of compassion, care, and nurturing to the new babes in Christ.  We need to release the teacher to “reveal the heart of the Father” through his written word, the Logos Word, the Bible so that scriptural truths will be revealed.  We need to release the prophet to “reveal the heart of the Father” through the living word, the Rhema word, ro reveal how to live out our faith in our daily life.  And we need to release again the apostle to “reveal the heart of the Father” through the Church, through the giftings, callings, passions, and points of view that make up the body of Christ to bring unity.

You, me, and fellow believers in Jesus Christ must individually and corporately seek the will of the Father God, asking Him through His Son Jesus Christ, and the Spirit of Jesus Christ “to reveal His heart” to us today.  God is always faithful.  He is in the reveal business, for the last book of the Bible is even called the book of Revelation, a book to reveal Jesus Christ to us.  The Father “will” reveal His heart to you, me, us as a body; now you, me, us…, we must be obedient to what “heart revelation” he exposes.

He reveals; we respond….. how? We need to “Just Do It”!

Evangelism: The Great Gulf; Eternal Perspective

C.S. Lewis’ “The Great Divorce” A Must Read

Over the holidays I reread C. S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce, a must read for everyone.  The insights he gives should motivate anyone who has an evangelistic spirit!

The plot: Through an dream, Lewis takes his readers on a bus trip through hell to the plain regions where the ghost like creatures from hell meet face to face with the solid people from Heaven.  Lewis unveils all the excuses, hurdles, alibis, etc. people use for not getting into heaven.  Can those in heaven persuade their loved ones in hell to change locations or is there truly a great divide, a great divorce, a great chasm between the two?

What stuck out to me this time as I read through it is how heaven and hell overlap while we are on the earth. Lewis shares how with the spiritual birth here on earth is the beginning of an eternal life with Christ and when one is in heaven, they will look back on their earthly experience only through righteous eyes.  On the other hand, those who reject Jesus on earth, their experience on earth will be as close as they ever get to heaven, and will look at their earthly journey as negative.

An evangelist has to have the point of view of “eternal” perspective in everything he/she does.  Every decision is an eternal decision to an evangelist.  The continual journey in this new spiritual life experience is not his major concern as he focuses on the next person who needs to be born again, spiritually born.

The shepherd, teacher, prophet, and apostle can learn from this perspective that every thing they do also has eternal ramifications as the new lamb, the new born in the spirit begins his/her eternal walk in Jesus, giving each a new perspective in the meaning of sanctification, the growing into the likeness in Christ.

If we look at each of the five fold from an eternal perspective, we get a different, more meaningful insight.

Retooling: The Missionary Mentality

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

I have been on short-term missions trips.  We go into a country for a very short time, then leave it.  We might have had an immediate impact, but I question any long-term impact.  I remember the feeling I had in Jamaica seeing all the youth groups and short term mission teams at the airport who came to do mission work and vacation, yet Jamaica is still a poor country. The same with Haiti.

The way the church handles missionaries is despicable.  We send them out, patting them on their back for following The Great Commission, only to have them return in a couple of years to “beg for money”, ooops excuse me, “raise support” from the churches and people who originally sent them out. 

I went to a Mennonite Church Plant Seminar in the ‘80’s where they were preparing one or two couples to go out and “plant” new churches.  I know of a couple that followed through, only to abandon the project in five years because they became overwhelmed doing it alone.

Maybe we need to “retool” our mentality of how to prepare, support, and do missions.  The five fold model as described in my last blog may be an answer, for if it works at home, it could also work abroad.  If a diversely gifted five fold team seeks the Holy Spirit how to evangelize and develop an area for the Kingdom of God, they will probably get unique solutions due to being in a different culture with a different language and lifestyle with a different perspective than the way we see it. 

What is the most effective way “evangelize” in a Moslem nation when it is a crime to do so?  How do you show God’s unconditional love, mercy, and grace to a culture that has never received it before?  How do you “serve” those in a way their culture accepts your service without them being skeptical of your motives?  The discernment in a five fold team would be perfect for this endeavor.

We have to rethink how we teach in a different culture.  We need not build “Bible Schools”, but allow a person with a teaching passion to learn their culture and produce practical applications of kingdom principles to teach them gospel truths. Jesus modeled that with his twelve disciples.  He never started a rabbinical school of theology.  He just walked with them in their Jewish culture, teaching them principles through their culture.

A prophet would set the ground work for spiritual warfare, particularly in pagan cultures. “We wrestle not with flesh and blood, but with principalities in high places.”  Prayer, worship, and discernment, and a need for intimacy in knowing the “heart of the Father”, the “will of the Father” is mandatory when invading a kingdom in darkness for the kingdom of Light.

How does the culture do “family”?  The shepherd would have to nurture the new converts to teach them how the “family of God” functions, body ministry.  This is a challenge if the culture permeates a dysfunctional, non-Biblical, family lifestyle.

Of course, the apostle would have to be aware of the culture where his team is present. He needs to encourage the evangelist to birth the endeavor in a sensitive, loving, with grace manor, not like a bull in a china closet approach that has often been done in evangelism that maybe won one soul, but turned of multitudes away. He would make sure the shepherding component was in place for when harvest began, that the teaching would make sense to those in the culture they are trying to reach, and join the prophet in the spiritual warfare needed to succeed.

Retooling missionary work to a five fold team work is an unique possibility that has the potential to not only evangelize an area, but build up and establish the Faith in that area.  If the team then “equips those saints in their culture for the work of the service,” they can leave to establish new church plants as Paul did in his missionary journeys, only to return to reinforce, and support those they have “equipped”. 

We need to break the old mentality that missionaries stay for life in the culture they once penetrated. The “natives” of the culture always look up to them, not as equals, but as icons on pedestals. The key to five fold ministry is “release”.  The missionary team needs to be “released” of their passions and points of views when they first come to minister, but then “equip” and  “release” their work on the believers of that culture who can effectively reach their own people for Jesus.

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!