Mindset To Rethink: Lights, Camera, Action: Sight And Worship

Supernaturally Natural: Rethink The Way We, The Church, Worships Corporately - Part XX

from Supernaturally Natural: Chapter 15 manuscript by Anthony Bachman

Mindset to rethink: Lights, Camera, Action; sight and worship!

 The lyrics of the old hymn are, “Once I was blind, but now I can see. The Light of the World is Jesus. Come to the Light, t’is shinning for thee. Sweetly the light is shinning on thee. Once I was blind, but now I can see. The Light of the world is Jesus.”

Sight is also a powerful tool in worship since Jesus is the Light of the world.  Without light there is no sight, only darkness. Even the smallest flicker of light from a single candle in a large dark room can penetrate the darkness. One ray of light piercing a darkened sky brings attention towards its creator.  Worship puts the “spot light” on Jesus, and light is a spectrum of colors. When we enter the His Presence, Jesus, the Light, reveals the spectrum of light producing powerful supernatural images about Himself.  The Glory of the Lord is the light of Jesus.

Einstein’s theory of relativity is an attempt to prove that if one travels “the speed of light”, time stands still; all time is in the “present”.  All days are “today” in the kingdom of God. God’s Presence is always in the present, for he is the “I AM”!  All this, just through studying light! Sight is crucial to worship? Sight can bring revelation. Once I was blind; but now I can see. Bring on the supernatural sight of revelation when in Your Presence, Jesus!

Mindset To Rethink: Is Silence A Mark Of Reverence?

Supernaturally Natural: Rethink The Way We, The Church, Worships Corporately - Part XIX

from Supernaturally Natural: Chapter 15 manuscript by Anthony Bachman

Mindset to rethink: Is Silence a mark of reverence?

Even though the Bible exhorts us to “make a joyful noise unto the Lord”, we have nurtured this mentality in church that silence is reverence; loud volume is disturbing.  I guess music has the power to create atmospheres, sooth souls, rouse passions, bring relaxation, create excitement, and even bring reverence.  Although I do not recall in the scriptures where they sang a closing hymn and went into the night, music has been part of Church culture since the first century.

Music is powerful in setting up a worshipful atmosphere, but it style varies according to taste and culture.  I have heard a heavy Christian rock band hold its tumultuously loud note drawing believers into an atmosphere of worship as I have heard silence call one to worship, so volume isn’t the issue.

I have heard two groups of identical styles of music play, one highly entertaining, the other group drawing its audience into an atmosphere of worship. What made the difference even though the styles of music were the same? The answer lay in whom was their audience, to whom did they play for?  The entertaining group got applause, cheers, and their name glorified as the top marquee band of the night. The other group could care less what their physical audience thought or did, for their direction was “upward” to the Father and His Son seated on the Throne playing their music as “sacrifices of praise”.  The Father and Son are touched and give back their musical gift to them through the Holy Spirit, and the audience before them is touched. The band’s name is not glorified, the name of Jesus is.

The key to music in worship is neither the volume, nor the beat, nor even the lyrics though all are influential, but the key is the direction to which it is played and to whom it is played for.  Music played vertically can be a powerful supernatural agent to pierce the natural setting of an audience before the performer that creates the cross of Jesus Christ always producing results. The vertical is touched by the gift of music, and the horizontal is also touched by that same gift. That is true worship.

Have we forgotten that Satan was once in charge of music in the heavens?  He fell from his position not because of the volume level, not because of the beat, nor the lyrics, but because of whom the music glorified.  His self-gratification of glorifying himself, not glorifying the Almighty God brought his down fall. I have seen the same happen to Christian groups, musicians and singers who lost vision of whom they were playing to and for no matter how “good” they sounded or how “professional” they were.

Music is a powerful tool for worship, for through it we can hear the “heart beat” of God. We, as true worshipers, must be in tune to that heartbeat, in unity with that heartbeat, in the flow of that heartbeat.  That heartbeat sets up true worship. We must not forget though that the Holy Spirit must be the conductor of such a worshipful symphony.

Another Mindset Up For Scrutiny – The Role Of The Five Senses In Worship, Taste

Supernaturally Natural: Rethink The Way We, The Church, Worships Corporately - Part XVIII

from Supernaturally Natural: Chapter 15 manuscript by Anthony Bachman

Mindset to rethink: Can anything taste better than grilling?

“Taste and see that the Lord is Good.”  What does God taste like?

Where I live we have a lot of “all you can eat” restaurants that for a fix price allows you to practice the sin of gluttony.  Fake mash potatoes, vegetables out of gallon cans, pastas, and bread and bake goods to fill you, plus plenty to drink.  We do not think we have “gotten our monies worth” unless we leave the place about to puke. Quantity is fabulous; quality is questionable.

When my sister became a gourmet chef, my mindset and attitude toward eating changed. Gourmet cooking is all about eating for “taste”.  The first time I ate at a gourmet restaurant, my first impression was shock at the “small portions”.  When those small portions were placed in my mouth, I did not want to chew and swallow with speed to increase my intake, but stopped chewing, savoring every morsel, sucking out as much taste as I could with every bite. The taste was heavenly, enriched, and full.  Each bite became an exotic experience unto itself. “Oh’s”, “ahhhhs”, and “mmmm’s” preceded every bite. When finished, I did not feel gluttonously ill, I felt pleasantly satisfied.  Each loaf of bread, each blanched vegetable, each tenderly roasted and seasoned piece of meat, each succulent dessert was created for “taste”, and the chef succeeded.

Jesus knows about taste, for his first recorded miracle was making water into wine at a wedding that was so tasteful that the groom got bawled out for leaving the best wine for last. 

Did you ever wonder what was on the menu at the “Great Feast” that is to be held in heaven. I remember the painting of the long table, set for supper, but no food is yet placed on it. Will it be turkey and mash potatoes like Thanksgiving? Will there be ethnic foods? Will there be fruits? Oh yeah, being spiritual, “fruits of the Spirit”! I should have known?

My daughter and some of her friends have begun to go eat with the homeless several nights a week by buying pizza, chicken, etc. and eating it with them on the streets. What they have begun to taste is more than the pizza; they have tasted friendship, bonding, caring.  They got a “taste” of missions, a “taste” of service, a “taste” of who Jesus really wants at his banquet as taught in his parable where all his guests have excuses not to come, so he tells his servants to go to the highway and byways.  They have experienced a “taste” of church outside of its walls.  By giving back to the Lord food he has provided to them, they got a “taste” of true worship.

“Taste and see that the Lord is Good.”

Another Mindset Up For Scrutiny – The Role Of The Five Senses In Worship, Smell

Supernaturally Natural: Rethink The Way We, The Church, Worships Corporately - Part XVII

from Supernaturally Natural: Chapter 15 manuscript by Anthony Bachman

How do we get the mindset of allowing the supernatural, the Holy Spirit, to include the five senses into worship instead of naturally trying to create a multi-sensory atmosphere? 

If you have ever attended a Roman Catholic, or Eastern Orthodox, or High Lutheran church service, you nose becomes a vital part of the activity.  When the priests, pastors, or altar boys come down the aisle in the procession, one usually swings incense spewing aromas throughout the sanctuary. The foundation for such an act comes from Temple worship where the Altar of Incense represents the prayers ascending toward heaven. Can you imagine the menagerie of aromas that were produced in the Temple with the incense and the massive “Grill’n” of all that meat and grains on the Altar?  Smell played a vital part of the Temple worship in Jesus’ day.  For most churches outside the three mentioned above, little is done with smell. 

Mindset to rethink:  Can we honestly believe that the Holy Spirit could bring smell into a supernatural worship setting?

 A friend of ours wanted his newly acquired house spiritually “house cleaned” because pictures on walls were being moved and other weird things were happening.  He did not know of the house’s history, but he sensed occult activity must have present there.  Our small house church fasted once a day weekly in preparation for the upcoming spiritual battle. Only after feasting on a Thanksgiving Day meal, one of the brothers announced that he thought tonight to be the night to go into action.

One lady babysat as the rest of the adults piled into a van and headed to his abode.  Outside his house we decided to have Communion before embarking on the “house cleaning” adventure.  We broke bread and shared the cup in preparation for the Battle that was the Lords. The owner anointed each doorpost with oil before sending me first into each room with my guitar claiming musicians always led the army into battle in the Bible. In each room would we do spiritual warfare, then worship as we proclaimed in faith the cleansing of the room.

With only one room to go, in the foyer outside the door several of us saw a manifestation before our eyes of a pentagram on the floor recognizing the location of previous occult activities. We worshiped, performed spiritual warfare, and in unity proclaimed the room clean. When we went into the last room, nothing evil manifested itself. As we began to worship we all noticed a sweet aroma just like that in the communion cup that we had shared earlier shared in communion.  No one said anything, but eye contact with each other confirmed that we all smelled it.  The Holy Spirit had manifested supernaturally the aroma of the communion cup verifying the success of our mission. By the way, the family that lived there never had a weird thing happen to them in that building for the rest of the time they lived there.  Yes, the Holy Spirit can produce a supernatural aroma to bring glory to Jesus for what He has done on the Cross and through His resurrection as our deliverer. “I AM your Deliverer.” That is worship.

What Is Our Mindset With Technology

Supernaturally Natural: Rethink The Way We, The Church, Worships Corporately – Part XVI

from Supernaturally Natural: Chapter 15 manuscript by Anthony Bachman

A Mind Set: Technology And The Church

I have been told that the twenty-thirty’s age group is multi-sensing. They are use not only seeing the big screen with digital sight and sound, but also smell can also accentuate a movie theater. Try going by the popcorn machine before going into the theater without salivating. That generation uses “touch” screens on tabletops and tables.  Since today’s younger adults multi-task daily, their involvement in church has demanded that be natural in a church setting too!  Technology allows you to text message during services, “stream” your services on line through the Internet, “podcast” your Sunday programs so that they can be downloaded during the week, blog with each other or get in Christian Chat Rooms, join “communities” or “families” on Facebook or MySpace, and who knows what in the near future.  I remember the “old days” when Pat Roberson founded Christian Broadcasting Network with technological reaching the world. Today God.TV.com can reach anywhere in the world where there is computer and Internet accessibility.

When studying the history of major revivals, one discovered that they parallel with new technology. Johanne Guttenburg’s invention of the printing press led the Church out of the Dark Ages into the Age of Enlightenment. The masses could now read for themselves the scriptures.  Many preachers utilized radio in the early nineteen hundreds.  Billy Graham has successfully utilized television to take the gospel all over the world.  Now we are in the computer age.

It is getting natural to use technology to get out the message, thus we have huge mega-churches with tremendously huge screens projecting images of those on the front stage so people in the far back can still see them. I know of churches where you can plug in our computer, palm pilot, I-phone, etc. to call up the sermon outline to follow during its delivery. Why buy a Bible? There are web cites that feature the Bible in multiple translations for study purposes.

But I do know one thing about technology, if you turn the power off, if the batteries die, you lose the function of this splendid technology. The same is true with the church, when the power, the supernatural, is turned off, church can become naturally dysfunctional. Can the supernatural compete with what is natural in today’s technology as far as getting out the gospel? You know it can, because it has for centuries.

Part XV –The Arts Are For Art Galleries Because Most Art Is So Worldly.

Supernaturally Natural: Rethink The Way We, The Church, Worships Corporately – Part XV

from Supernaturally Natural: Chapter 15 manuscript by Anthony Bachman

Mindset to rethink:  The arts are for art galleries because most art is so worldly.

 Only the Sistine Chapel in Rome houses qualified “religious” art.  Anyhow, where does art fit into our natural order of worship? “Don’t you know that the National Endowment for the Arts is an end times satanic instrument of perversion, lewdness, and immorality,” so many churches profess.

Some of the greatest art that exists was done for the Church, yet the Church has lost touch with the power of the arts over the last century.  I grew up in the plain Anabaptist tradition that frowned upon even having musical instruments in the Church. Forget about a positive mindset toward the arts.  “Meeting Houses” were plain, and the only artwork that I remember seeing in the church as a kid was the picture of Jesus as if he just shampooed and blow-dried his hair producing a glow.  Quilts could be colorful, creative, and sold at auction, but nothing as colorful as they in the church building.

I feel the Holy Spirit is supernaturally bringing the arts back into worship.  It is a chance to give back to the Creator the creative talents He has given you.  “I AM your creator.” 

Fictional Writing: For the longest time, Christian publishers shunned really creative work in place of testimony books, Bible study books, and inspirational type literature.  I was thrilled when I read Frank Paretti’s “Piercing the Darkness” or C.S. Lewis’ “Chronicles of Narnia”, or “Screw Tape Letters”, “The Great Divorce”, or his Science Fiction trilogy.  All of these works expose the supernatural in a very natural way that only fiction can do.  We are not usually threatened by the supernatural when it is in fiction, because we know it is just fiction.  It is when the supernatural is reality that we squirm.  We do not realize what underlines the whole premise of these books, Biblical principles of Truth.  If the Lord gives a writer the talent to write creative fiction teaching Kingdom of God principles with the motive to “give those principles away” for others to read teaching them the rich principles of truth in the gospels, let him give it as an act of worship. 

Poetry: As you can see, I have trouble writing my thoughts in a few pages. This manuscript has turned into pages and chapters, so I admire poets who have an unique ability to get the most out of precise language. If there are talented poets in your congregation, do they get an opportunity to read their poems publicly back to the lord to bless your congregation? Years ago when I lead an open prayer and praise meeting, I recall one lady reading the most beautiful poem as her offering, prayer, and form of worship. Her poem dealt with the theme of life, death, and grieving. She thanked me so much for “allowing” her to read because it was the first time since her loved ones death that she could express how she felt.  This gave her an outlet to give her poem back to the Lord with whom her loved one currently was with in heaven.

Painting: Painting and the arts can be a visual creative expressive of worship.  In worship services that advocate the arts as part of their worship, I have seen the flow of paint accent the flow of the Holy Spirit.  As the Holy Spirit threaded its theme throughout the worship session, that theme came even more visually alive through the talent of a gifted painter who had allowed the Holy Spirit to direct his work as a sacrifice of praise visually.  It is a tribute to the Creator, Jesus, to see how the Holy Spirit can weave a tapestry of gifting by various artists of various genres into one theme.  To weave such a tapestry of such varied talent can only be supernatural. 

Dance: Dance was something I did not even do secularly, might as well as an act of worship, but it is very scriptural.  I know of a friend who owns a dance studio that teaches dance to only Christian themes and music.  Their recitals are awesome because it not only accents the talents of the participants, but it is done as an act of worship where the dancers get to give their talents back to the Lord. Like the music field, the Church has often rejected impromptu, nonprofessional dancers as being “worldly” thus nullifying the possibility of someone who loves to dance and is gifted to give their talent back to the Lord in worship. Rejection forces them to have to seek outside the church for a place to express their talent, and we wonder why they don’t return back to church? 

I know that David danced before the Lord “with all his might” and totally embarrassed his wife.  What would motivate a man of such prestige to look so foolish? The Presence of God!  He danced when the Ark of the Covenant was being brought to Jerusalem.  God’s Presence was returning to David’s kingdom after a time of absence.  When in the Presence of God, dancing becomes a supernaturally natural form of art.  When covered by the Holy Spirit, His Presence makes you do whatever you are doing “with all your might”, just like David.

I remember going to Love Inn, a Christian Fellowship in Freeville, New York in the 70’s led by Scott Ross. Phil Keaggy and his band were just part of the musical worship team at the time.  What I do remember of that evening was one of the leader’s wives who got up and began doing this interpretive dance to the free music and worship that flowed at that moment.  It was so graceful, so beautiful, and it accented the lyrics to the song being played.  Interpretive prophetic dance can be quite enhancing to a Spirit orchestrated concert.

If in our worship we allow freedom to reign during our worship service, the arts will arise in the midst of that freedom.

Holy Spirit Creativity Versus Man’s Replication: One last example of the supernatural creative arts versus the natural came during two Jesus Festivals in the mid-70. At Jesus 74 in Mercer, PA, it was hot during the day, and rained every night after the last speaker or music group concluded. On Saturday, the last night, several campers got their Coleman lanterns fully lit and placed then on an elevated knoll to the back of the natural amphitheater. There was a thunderhead with lightning flailing in the distant giving a Mother Nature fire works show of its own.  Between the two was the lit stage that said “Jesus”. That night the Holy Spirit fell. I witnessed entire youth groups getting slain by the Holy Spirit. The surrounding huge tents were filled with people getting saved, baptized in the Holy Spirit, healed and delivered. The simplicity of a cross of Coleman lamps with the lighting in the distance set the whole supernaturally charged atmosphere.

At Jesus 75, leadership scripted their version of the cross scene during their Saturday night program. They naturally thought it would look neat if they passed candles to the crowd and have a lit figure of a cross in the center of darkness. They changed their mind when they wanted the center darkened, and candle light around the darkened cross figure. Chaos reigned as candles were tossed all around as people tried to get it right. After quite a few flair ups, candles were stationed properly, the view looked awesome from above as an aircraft flew over for pictures.  I sat in amazement because the supernatural simplicity of simple Coleman lamps proved to be far more effective that the natural scripted version that was attempted a year later.

Part XIV –Can Only Train Musicians Write And Produce New Music?

Supernaturally Natural: Rethink The Way We, The Church, Worships Corporately – Part XIV

from Supernaturally Natural: Chapter 15 manuscript by Anthony Bachman

Another mindset to rethink:  Only trained musicians can write and produce new music.

Wrong.  When a New Testament Priest enters the Holy of Holies, the Presence of God, giving sacrifices of praise musically, they just may come out of that experience with a “New Song”. 

The book of Revelation again highlights worship filled with singing “New Songs”.  When in His Presence, the believer, the priest, gives back to the Lord God what he has given to his believer or priest.  If singing a Sacrifice of Praise, a vocal confession in song, a new tune with new lyrics, may be created by the Creator himself, for “I AM your Creator”.  We can sing the “Song to the Lamb”, or the “Song of Forgiveness”, or the “Song of our Healing”, or the Song of Deliverance, or the Song of Promise Fulfilled, or the Song of a Savior.  They are all new songs.

I feel the Church has yet to tap into this rich resource of supernatural worshiping power.  As the Lord God Almighty continues to reveal himself to us, new songs will become the supernaturally natural flow of Holy Spirit orchestrated music.

Also what the church naturally thinks of Special Music will also be put under the scrutiny of our mindset microscope. Usually “Special Music” came as natural progression in the order of worship prior to the sermon.  It naturally consisted of very talented singers with impressive voices that would “entertain” us with the talents.  If you were a monotone, you could not even make the mass choir, might as well being featured as “Special Music”. 

At Parkesburg, I was impressed one Saturday night, when a young lady became “special music” that night.  She came to the podium and sang the “Lord’s Prayer” in a new tune, one that I had never heard before, nor has heard since, but it was gorgeous.  It was her “new song” that she was giving back to her Creator, Jesus as an act of true worship! She did not know there was any other version of that prayer other than hers.  Now she gave it back as worship.  Her act of worship caused the rest of the believers present to also enter back into the flow of worship, back into the flow of corporate Body Worship as Priesthood.

Part XIII – A New Mindset To Develop: Allow The Holy Spirit Be The Orchestrating “Conductor” – Singing A New Song

Supernaturally Natural: Rethink The Way We, The Church, Worships Corporately – Part XIII

from Supernaturally Natural: Chapter 15 manuscript by Anthony Bachman

A new mindset to develop: Allow the Holy Spirit be the orchestrating “conductor”.

Singing a “New Song”:  Another observation that I have made is that when there is true revival, when musicians enter into His Presence, new songs are birthed.  True revival produces new music, new songs.  The Wesley brothers wrote hundreds of new hymns to be sung for the hundreds of Camp Meetings that sprung up everywhere.  I remember during the early Jesus movement days, tunes being placed to scripture and sung so that believers could memorize scripture easier.  The whole “contemporary music” scene in the Church came basically out of the early Jesus movement days.  Each generation with their own revival movement produce their own new music.

Part XI – Music Ministry Must Set A High Standard To Be Excellent Worship.

Supernaturally Natural: Rethink The Way We, The Church, Worships Corporately – Part XI

from Supernaturally Natural: Chapter 15 manuscript by Anthony Bachman

 Another mindset I need to change:  Music Ministry must set a high standard to be excellent worship.

I attended a “worship service” at a Presbyterian church that had a paid choir: awesome voices, tremendous harmony, a phenomenal music experience, but I left feeling inferior. I attended a “worship service” and an Evangelical church that had a talented worship leader surrounded by an incredible sounding band with background singers augmenting his “leading”, but again I left feeling inferior. I attended a church where a little child sang a song to Jesus in her infant toned voice, alone, with simplicity, and I left blessed.

We need to examine our mindset of music with worship services.  My children were very fortunate because we went to a relatively small church with a lady who had played a gifted Pentecostal piano who was willing to “worship”, give her talent back to the Lord and away to young people.  Doris was also the lady who taught the course on how to “listen to God” and practiced what she taught.  In their early teens my oldest son played drums while wearing a “More Drums In Worship” T-shirt. My younger son played and acoustical, electric, and bass guitars with the church’s worship team since the age of thirteen.  Their close friend excelled on the saxophone and became a front line player on “sax row” in a prestigious high school jazz band, later going to college and majoring in his instrument. Another fellow in his late twenties played bass guitar.  A young lady, high school age, played a beautiful violin. All these young musicians came into the nest of the mother hen, Doris, who nurtured them not only through learning music, but also teaching them spiritual principles that went with worship music: how to listen to the conductor, the Holy Spirit.

The local body of Christ personally invested in my sons as musicians.  A man approached my youngest son on his sixteen-birthday, retrieving a beautiful red electric bass guitar from the trunk of his car as a gift “to sow seeds of faith” into his life. Just weeks later the local church and individual “gifts” from its members sent the entire worship team to a Worship Conference in Texas. There my younger son learned how to play a “slap” bass in only one week.  Later he would excel in his high school jazz band, winning individual awards for his bass playing, and be accepted into college with the bass as his major instrument.  My eldest son has also played drums in worship bands and excelled in mixing soundboards.

Not only do I have to thank our local church for allowing those in the congregation to financially give gifts so that both of my sons and my wife to attend that Worship Conference, but also thank Doris for her investment, her giving back of her talents to the Lord, her giving her musical knowledge to my sons. She taught them how not only to play background for singers, but how to listen to the conductor, the Holy Spirit, in order to set accompany effective ministry.  This taught them how to play for hours as visiting evangelists and prophets ministered to our congregation. She also taught them how to prophetically minister to people just through the playing of their instrument all while they were in their teens.  Doris earned my ultimate respect when she was willing to “lay down her life” (I John 3:16) for her brethren.  She was willing to lay down her musical life, step back at the appropriate time, and allow the boys and their friends to move forward in the Spirit musically.  She weaned them from her influence to the Holy Spirit’s influence, a real gift on her part!  Soon the old Pentecostal piano worship style changed into a more contemporary rock style that exists today as their worship team grew together.

If we would have been in a church with an organist and pipe organ and no outlet for drums and guitars, it would have forced my sons to join garage bands, rock bands, etc. because of their talent and love for music. We have failed to allow them an outlet to give back to the Lord the talents He has given them.  Our Parasitical attitude towards “style” of music has driven multitudes of youthful musicians to the play outside the church to fulfill their musical talents and dreams.  How sad! We should be ashamed.   Just listen to how many famous secular musicians have their musical roots in the Church.  Unless they become “gospel” singers or musicians, most churches would have rejected them because their “style” of music isn’t “spiritual”, excuse me “religious” enough! 

If we had attended a mega-sized church, a large church, my sons again would not have had the opportunity to learn from experience.  Hearing tapes of their playing even when in their teens, musically impresses me today. They kept musically getting better because as they put it, they wanted to “raise the bar” on their skill level. When their skill level got “professional” large churches sought their service, but the beginner, intermediate, or even descent musician would never get to play with the worship team and learn by experience as my sons had the opportunity to do.

In a very small church of less than fifty, I had to play a twelve-string guitar and “lead” worship because there was no one else to do so.  I do know one thing, in spite of my lack of musical talent, I still worshipped, and so did the congregation.  In spite of my musical talent, or lack of it, I got to worship in South Africa where I got to give back to the Lord and give to South African children the many songs I use to play with my children as we sang in our living room together as a family.  The Lay Witness movement in South Africa now has “The Sheep Song” as well as others because of me.  Although the skill level of a musician is crucial, it is not the musician’s skill level that drives worship; it is his being in tune to the Holy Spirit that brings results.

Part IX – Mindset: Look At The World Through Experience Rather Than Intellectual

Supernaturally Natural: Rethink The Way We, The Church, Worships Corporately – Part IX

from Supernaturally Natural: Chapter 15 manuscript by Anthony Bachman

(First Section)

Stretching our mindset: Maybe we should look at the world through the Jewish, “lamad”, mindset rather than the Western Culture mindset, the experiential way rather than the intellectual.

Western culture has strongly influenced the way today’s Church worships and thinks.  The early Church’s way of processing God and His Ways came through experience and the heart.  Processing only through the intellect only came after the Roman influence became apparent later in the Church’s history.

The Jewish way of teaching, the lamad method, examines the heart and life’s daily experiences rather than the intellect. Saul, the Pharisee of Pharisees, had a resume containing being taught by some of the most phenomenal, famous rabbis of his day.  This caused Saul to have great influence with the Sanhedrin, the Jewish governing body, until he supernaturally got knocked off his horse.  All that Saul had previously learned in the natural became void.  He had to experience new concepts like grace, mercy, forgiveness, humility, and faith before he could again teach.

Now Paul, he discovered how little he really knew about God. Only until he learned to experience God by entering His Presence to get fresh personalized revelation through the Holy Spirit of whom truly God and Jesus are did he get ready to propagate the Gospel as its ambassador.  He had to learn to “know” God, not just know “about” God. 

To the Jew, the lamad, the experience and conditioning of the heart, is central to understanding.  Just read the writings of David in Psalms, or the love poems of Solomon in the Song of Songs, or the teaching and parables of Jesus who made his disciples “experience” living in God, in real time, in the present. God sees men through the “heart”.  David cherished “the heart of God” and became known as “a man after God’s own heart”.  Solomon wrote a romantic love ballad about the heart of God.  Jesus’ mission on earth was to expose the “heart of the Father”, another important concept by which another entire book could be written.  We need to examine a different mindset than just the western. We need to learn to know the “heart of the Father”, and experience what is supernaturally natural to Him.

Part VIII – Mindset: To Go Into “Fulltime Ministry” You Need An Educational Degree

Supernaturally Natural: Rethink The Way We, The Church, Worships Corporately – Part VIII

from Supernaturally Natural: Chapter 15 manuscript by Anthony Bachman

Another mindset that I need to change: To go into “fulltime ministry” you need an educational degree.

Over the centuries Church has developed a Western mentality that the intellect is what separates the clergy from the laity, the learned from the unlearned. Seminaries and universities prepare believers for “fulltime professional ministry”.  We preach our sermons and teach our Sunday Schools, Bible Schools, and Bible Studies from an intellectual perspective, not an experiential one, thus it is hard to understand and allow the Holy Spirit to work in and through our experiences and emotions to get an understanding of God.  Intellectually it is hard to explain the Presence of God, unless it is where he intellectually rationalized who God is and what he does.  We want to “explain” God in the natural, intellectually and rationally, rather than “experience” God.  Intellectual theologians base western theology on intellectual Bible Studies.  A higher level Theology Course is difficult as they study the theories of the great theologians with their intellectual themes over the centuries.

But as we have seen in earlier chapters, the B.A. Degree or B.S. Degree a New Testament believer, a New Testament priest needs is a “Born Again” and “Born of the Spirit” degree, which they both must experience.

Part VII –You Can Give Financially To Someone In Need And Not Have To Go Through the Church Treasury.

Supernaturally Natural: Rethink The Way We, The Church, Worships Corporately – Part VII

from Supernaturally Natural: Chapter 15 manuscript by Anthony Bachman 

Stretching our mindset: You can give financially to someone in need above your tithe and offerings that do not have to go through the church treasury or church financial channels.

If a person is in need, give!  If the Lord had met your need, worship by giving it back to the Lord and/or giving it away! That is true worship.  “But I will lose tax credit if I don’t give it through church channels,” you may protest.  What is your motives, tax credit or giving to a need?  If your intentions are pure, and you are being obedient to what the Holy Spirit has revealed and told you, you better be obedient and give.  Ask Ananias and Sapphira who played games with the Holy Spirit in their giving practices and were struck dead!  You are only a steward of the Lord’s money anyhow. You give, and He will give back! When Jesus faced “April 15^th in America, tax time, his disciples caught a fish with a coin in its mouth, paying their taxes. That is what I call the supernatural fulfilling the natural in real life situations.

People and the church as a body have financial blessed me several times in my life because of needs that arose.  I would only be honored to “give back” to someone in need as an act of worship.  It is a shame if I am robbed of that experience. Giving to someone in time of their need at their home is worship, and it does not have to occur at “church”.

Part VI – Mindset: Miracles, Healing, etc. Can Happen Outside The Confines Of Our Church Building

Supernaturally Natural: Rethink The Way We, The Church, Worships Corporately – Part VI

from Supernaturally Natural: Chapter 15 manuscript by Anthony Bachman

Stretching our mindset: Miracles, healing, etc. can happen outside the confines of our church building. 

God’s Presence, His Holy Spirit, isn’t confined to a cubical Holy of Holies without any access, but has been released because of the torn veil due to the cross of Jesus Christ.  We, his believers, his priesthood, have access ANYWHERE, ANY TIME to His Presence by His Spirit! 

I have been burnt by hot water from an overheated car radiator. A brother in the Lord at that moment prayed that I would not experience any pain. That prayer was answered. Even though rushed to the hospital where cold compresses were placed on me for an hour as I cranked off a tremendous amount of heat, even though I had a water blister the size of a ping pong ball from my bottom ear lobe the next day, even though the nurse dressing my wound had one of those “oh my gosh” looks and the doctor reluctant to promise that it will not scare, I never once experienced pain, never took pain medication, and today there is no scaring.  Now, if I come upon a car accident, why can I not pray on the spot for the victim, giving him the healing that I received from my car accident?  I can worship in public without being offensive or weird. I can just give Jesus to those who need him when in need.

My wife and her family have struggled with mental health issues over the years, yet the Lord has been faithful in helping us get through very difficult times.  Can we not reach out to the homeless, the hurting, the many who are also facing mental health issues wherever they are?  Of course we can.  We don’t need to bring them to church; we need the Church to go to them. Jesus always did.

Unfortunately, it is often easier to give to a need of someone outside the church than it is to give to someone inside.  Do you send someone to the “pastor” or his “staff” when there is a need, (which is not scriptural) or are you personally willing to give them Jesus?  Are you willing to teach them how to get into the very Presence of the God Almighty and His Son Jesus, so that the Holy Spirit too can teach them the nature and character of God?  I am not trying to bypass pastors and invalidate their ministries; I am just trying to validate Jesus ministry through His People, His Priesthood, His Body of Believers.  We would not have to “push” every case we think we cannot spiritually handle to the pastor if we, by faith, allow the Holy Spirit to supernaturally penetrate the natural problems we face.  That is the “Cross” in action!  That is the Logos Word becoming the living Rhema Word in action!  That is taking it to the people as Jesus did, not having the people “come into” our “houses of worship” if they wish “to find God”.

Part V - Mindset: All Believers In Jesus Should Be Allowed To “Give Back” To The Lord As An Act Of Worship

Supernaturally Natural: Rethink The Way We, The Church, Worships Corporately - Part V

–from Supernaturally Natural: Chapter 15 manuscript by Anthony Bachman

Another mindset that I need to change: All members of the New Testament priesthood, believers in Jesus, should be allowed to “give back” to the Lord God Almighty what He has given them as an act of worship!

Our second guideline to worship is “Whatever the Lord gives you, give back and/or give away.” Have the believers in Jesus Christ, his royal priesthood, received anything from Jesus this week?  I certainly hope so!  If Jesus has given them His grace, His mercy, His love, His compassion, His tender heart, His Spirit, His healing, His deliverance, His provisions, and on and on, then why do we prevent His people from giving back to Him what He has given them, or the chance to give it to others during our “worship” services?  We have prevented worship and its instinctive flow? We have prevented our brothers and sisters in Jesus from entering into the Holy of Holies, His Presence. Our Pharisaical attitudes should hear the echoes, “Woe to your scribes, your Pharisees, you lawyers, your hypocrites…” that we find throughout the four Gospels. As the children song says, “I don’t want to be a Pharisee, cause they’re not fair, you see”, or “I don’t want to be a hypocrite,” “I just want to be a sheep, baa.” 

If someone has been healed this week, why not let them profess before the congregation of their experience with “the Healer”, Jesus Christ, as a Sacrifice of Praise.  Then why not allow them to give their healing away by the laying on of “their” hands and praying for others in their midst to be healed. “Lord, you have healed me; I give the gift of your healing that you gave me this week to this person whom I am laying hands on right now,” could be their faith confession and personal prayer!  You have confessed the supernatural healing power of Jesus in your life; now you are giving that supernatural healing power to another in need.  There is usually a supernaturally natural response from God who heals, for “I AM your healer.”  When God reveals himself, “I AM”, thus you are IN HIS PRESENCE!  This can happen anywhere when you worship by giving away those things Jesus has given you. Are we going to “trust” the Holy Spirit to not only “draw us near” but also “draw us into” the Presence of God, or do we naturally try to do it ourselves, which doesn’t get supernatural results.  Confession of what Jesus has done, and keeping it in the present by healing others raises the faith level of any congregation.

You know there is power in confession. If you are a member of a church over one hundred members, you probably do not know everyone that attends.  I often look out across a congregation and wonder what are all the different stories, all the different journeys that are housed in this one place at one time. You never get to know their journeys if they sit there in their natural church poses of quietness, “reverence”, sober faced, lifeless looks. Their lives have been touched by the supernatural in accepting Jesus as their Savior.  Just hearing their supernatural experience builds faith in others. Let’s bring on the confession of their faith journeys to build up my individual faith and the congregation’s family faith as we hear their confessions together.

Lets get stretched even farther.  Does Jesus only heal in the synagogue or the church?  When in the synagogue many of the Pharisees were critically, judgmentally looking at Jesus as a “law” breaker if he heals. He told people to “stretch out your wither hand” or “arise, take up your bed and walk” when in the synagogue only inflaming the adverse reactions from the Pharisees.  That Parasitical attitude, unfortunately, still prevails in most churches today. I actually heard from the front platform of a large mega-size church, the senior pastor inform his congregation that there were people in their local community who believe in miracles and warned them to be on alert for them as if they were dangerous. He told his congregation that they were not to be trusted. He became defensive as most Pharisees do by justifying that his church believed in healing, and the elders would pray in a side room with anyone who requested to be prayed for healing after the service, but assured his congregation that they did not believe in miracles as these people.  I thought, where are these believers in the supernatural? Bring them on, I want to meet them!

Part IV – Mindset: Worship Teams and Worship “Leaders” Do Not Have To “Lead” Their People Into Worship

Supernaturally Natural: Rethink The Way We, The Church, Worships Corporately - Part IV

from Supernaturally Natural: Chapter 15 manuscript by Anthony Bachman

A mindset that I need to change: Worship teams and worship “leaders” do not have to “lead” their people into worship nor into the Presence of God.  Allow the Holy Spirit to do that! 

Do we need a worship leader or a worship team to musically bring us into the Presence of God during a church service?  Any believer in Jesus Christ, a New Testament Priest who acknowledges Jesus Christ as his High Priest, can enter the Presence of God ANY TIME, ANYWHERE, not just in “church”.  It is the Holy Spirit’s mission to “draw all men” to Jesus. Unlike the Old Testament priesthood where Levites were to “draw near” to God, the New Testament priesthood can even go farther than just be “near” God; one can actually come “into” His very Presence!  The Priesthood can be “in” the Presence, not just “near” it. 

We can let the Holy Spirit supernaturally orchestrate our worship, or we can opt to do it naturally ourselves.  Are we willing to face the “cross” of the supernatural invading, crossing, dissecting the natural?  Is it really safe to trust the Holy Spirit? Can we trust the Holy Spirit to lead believers into a worship atmosphere if His job is to draw all men unto Him, Jesus?  Who do we trust?  Again, we face the issue of “trust”!

I propose that it is the job of the Holy Spirit to lead us into an intimate relationship, into the very Presence of God through Jesus Christ to edify the Father and His Son.  Worship leaders or teams are only vessels that can be used to help do so, but they do not lead us into worship, the Spirit of Jesus Christ should if we allow His Holy Spirit to do so!

Part III – Who Is Responsible For A Worship Service?

Supernaturally Natural: Rethink The Way We, The Church, Worships Corporately – Part III

From Supernaturally Natural: Chapter 15 manuscript by Anthony Bachman

Those early believers had witness the most supernatural series of events in history, Jesus’ death on the cross and his resurrection, yet they were to wait for the Holy Spirit to come as promised.  I am sure there was excited anticipation for that event even though they did not know in what shape the Holy Spirit would present himself. The same can be true for our churches today!

Can we dare to have a different mind set about the way the Church does corporate worship?   Dare we allow the Holy Spirit, the “creative” spirit of the Creator, Jesus Christ, to be free to activate life, expectancy, and anticipation in our gatherings?  Dare we “let go”, lose control, of the order of the gatherings to allow the Holy Spirit to be the “conductor” to lead one of the greatest “worship symphonies” we have ever witnessed?  Is there really safety in trusting the Holy Spirit, or will letting go produce chaos, shaking, falling down, barking, swinging from chandeliers, just down right embarrassing weirdness?  Haven’t we yet learned:

“There is safety in trusting the Holy Spirit!”

Let’s think outside the box, for the box should not exist since the ultimate box, the Holy of Holies, the Presence of God, has been released with the torn veil to his New Testament Priesthood no matter where they congregate. Let’s just have two simple guidelines for worship: 1) Worship is coming into God’s/Jesus’ very Presence which can happen ANYWHERE since His Spirit, the Holy Spirit, is free to flow and operate ANYWHERE, ANYTIME.  2) Whatever the Lord gives you, give it back and/or give away.

First, whose responsibility is it to “prepare” for Sunday’s worship experience? Is it the Pastor’s who spends hours “preparing” his sermon as the “feature” and “ultimate” teaching/preaching experience of the service?  Is it the Choir Director’s or Worship Leader’s who spend hours preparing his choir, worship team, and musicians for the musical experience of the service?

I propose that we as priests under the order of Melchizedek, New Testament priests, believers in Jesus Christ, should be responsible for the “whole” service.  What is required of us, as churchgoers, in preparation for the Sunday morning service? Usually the only preparation required is writing a tithe check. Other than that we often expect the clergy or his professional staff to orchestrate and “lead” worship.  All I need to do is be a “dumb sheep” and follow their lead!  Nothing more is expected; nothing more is required; everything will be done naturally and in order; nothing more is given.  Everyone knows their positions, their requirements, and their responsibilities so that there will be no surprises and the service will go “without a hitch”.  Soon the service week after week becomes routine, becomes comfortable, and it becomes the natural way we do things.  How safe; how boring! We wonder why soon the youth are asking, “Where is the life?” “Why is church so boring?”

When this occurs, it is time for a supernatural invasion when the church has to face the cross, the vertical supernatural dissecting of the horizontal natural.  Will your church ALLOW IT?  We become the very barriers that we have tried to tear down throughout this book! Don’t you see it? We keep ourselves and everyone else in our congregation, in our church, from entering the Holy of Holies, his very Presence when we don’t require nor allow the priesthood to worship.  It is hard to admit when we have become Pharisees! OUCH! Not me!

Part II – My Story & The Church’s Challenge

Supernaturally Natural: Rethink The Way We, The Church, Worships Corporately – Part II

From Supernaturally Natural: Chapter 15 manuscript by Anthony Bachman

Anthony Bachman, blog's AuthorThe summer of 1974 proved to be a life-changing year for me. That is the summer that I had to learn to trust the Holy Spirit.

I began to hunger for God. As the Youth Advisor of the church that I was attending, I found myself in a precarious position. I had organized many evangelistic endeavors for the youth under my leadership, yet I saw no fruit. I was doing “everything right”, but seeing no fruit. I wanted to see fruit! I became hungry for God.

By the end of that summer my hunger was satisfied.  I would go to the Mennonites First Conference on the Holy Spirit in Landisville, PA and make the commitment of Jesus as my Lord, not just only my Savior. I would then receive the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. Reading my Bible feverishly, I began to highlight passages in various colors. Studying the Bible came alive. For a fortnight I sat under the teaching of Malcolm Smith, a phenomenal Old Testament Teacher, and another fortnight under Gerald Derstine, an ex-Mennonite whose life had been dramatically changed by the yielding to the leading of the Holy Spirit.   Malcolm SmithMy boundaries were extended when traveling to the other side of the state to  attend Jesus 74, a hippy-type” Jesus rally featuring leading national teachers and contemporary Jesus Bands.

I had the distinct privilege of attending several Saturday night meetings at the Presbyterian church in Parkesburg, PA led by a senior saint Presbyterian pastor, Jim Brown. This “Prayer and Praise” meeting, where people came from all around the world to attend, had been vibrant for almost twenty years.  Watching Jim lead this meeting taught me how to the Holy Spirit can work in an organized structure of worship that allowed fluency and flow in its meetings.  Although structured, he allowed that for “special music” that was never planned, testimonies from those in the audience whom he did not know, and ministry to people throughout the service, and bringing order and unity back into the flow by having everyone holding hands while singing the Lord’s Prayer.

“There is safety in trusting the Holy Spirit!”

What would happen if the church allowed the Holy Spirit to unconditionally run the “order of worship” on a Sunday? It is hard to totally let go and yield to the Spirit, but what might happen?

I got a small glimpse of what might happen when I attended a church and saw a dramatic change in their order of worship. Their routine consisted of a two-part service, the former naturally turned into a hymn sing while the later comprised of a sermon. This group’s tradition allowed for anyone to call out a page number from their hymnal/chorus book, and everyone would sing. One hour of singing, one hour of teaching became their natural routine until one Sunday when their routine changed every so insignificantly. On this one Sunday rather than just singing, one person had enough courage to stand and read a scripture that came alive during their private devotional time during the week following by someone yelling out a hymn number as everyone sang. The theme of the hymn paralleled the scripture. Then another person stood and gave a testimony of how that scripture and that hymn applied to their life. Son another arose also giving another scripture, another a testimony, another a hymn number, all sang. When it was time for the sermon, everyone witness the amazement of the theme of the sermon being exactly what the thread of the Holy Spirit had been throughout the time of sharing and singing. This first week viewed as interesting, different, but naturally everyone did not expect it to happen again.

They were wrong! It happened again the following week with even greater vigor. Soon everyone began to “expect” this phenomenon of the Holy Spirit orchestrating the service, and again the theme of the scriptures, testimonies, singing, and the sermon were woven into a tapestry of worship. People could not wait until the next week, for their expectancy grew to the point of “anticipation” that the Holy Spirit would not only show up but also orchestrate the service.

“There is safety in trusting the Holy Spirit!”

How can we get our churches, our congregations, to have an atmosphere of expectancy, of anticipated excitement?  By allowing the Holy Spirit to activate every beleivers’s participation in the service.

There Is Safety In Trusting The Holy Spirit

Supernaturally Natural: Rethink The Way We, The Church, Worships Corporately - Part I

From Supernaturally Natural: Chapter 15 manuscript by Anthony Bachman

“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is Jerusalem.”

Jesus declared, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.  You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.  Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”  (John 4:19-24)

“There is safety in trusting the Holy Spirit!”

“There is safety in trusting the Holy Spirit!”

“There is safety in trusting the Holy Spirit.”

“There is safety in trusting the Supernatural!”

In the next series of 27 blogs I will challenge the Church with different mindsets about corporate worship if we are to allow the Holy Spirit to “lead” and “teach” the Church in “all truth.”  Allowing the Rhema Word, the living Word, to activate the Logos Word, the written Word, the Bible, in all the Church does will produce life, expectancy, excitement, and fruit when believers come together to worship.

Actually the following blogs are taken from a manuscript that I have written entitled Supernaturally Natural, Chapter 15 Rethink the Way We Worship Corporately.  I apologize for the length of some of the blogs, but I tried to cut down the chapter into segments, some short, some long. Hopefully the “mindsets” sections will challenge the way we as a Church currently thinks about doing corporate worship, while also encouraging us to allow the Holy Spirit to reshape the Church to prepare the Bride for His return.  Incase we have forgotten, “there is safety in trusting the Holy Spirit”. If we learn to trust the Holy Spirit, then we will worship in “Spirit” and in “Truth” as John 4:19-24 has so amply shown us.

I hope that you take the challenge of this adventure and the challenge of different mindsets towards what worship is and how to do it individually and corporately, which I will try to post daily until its completion.

What Next? 21st Century Revival? When? Where? How

What Is The Next Move of God For This Generation, the 21^st Century

Landisville Camp Meeting Ground, Lancaster, PAIn the early 1970’s I went to a Mennonite Camp Meeting Ground and attended the Mennonite’s First Conference On The Holy Spirit.  It was an old place, with old buildings, and a huge covered amphitheater for mass meetings.  I remember the front stage filled with Mennonite youth singing a copula who then went into free worship singing “in the spirit”, a heavenly sound that I will never forget. 

I Googled “camp meetings” to see if there are any within a 50 mile range of my house. I found an article that said Pennsylvania was once the largest area featuring over 175 Camp Meetings during the summer, but today there is only 15 Camp Meeting Grounds in existence in PA, and only 5 that are operational.  After the initial shock, I realized that Camp Meetings were God’s Holy Spirit movement 200 years ago, yet two centuries later, some are still holding onto its history and tradition.  The “Great Awakening” happened in the 1700’s, “Camp Meetings” in the 1800’s, large “City Wide Crusades,” “Jesus Rallies”, and “Azusa St. and the Pentecostal Movement in the 1900’s.  We are in the first decade of the 21^st Century, and I ask, “What evangelistic movement of revival is going to be identified with this century?”  How is the Holy Spirit going to move outside the establish church buildings in this century? Is he going to do this century something more shocking that Azusa St. in the last century?

The good signs of God’s mass evangelistic movements is the soul winning; the down side is usually new schisms, new groups, new denominations being birthed rather than the movement bringing unity in the Body of Christ.  Also, with new technology comes new movements: Guttenberg’s invention of the printing press and his mass printing of the Bible ushered in the Age of Enlightenment.  Radio ushered in the movement for World Wide Evangelism, and television took Billy Graham out of large tents and placed on a World Wide stage by televising his mass evangelistic meetings. 

Now with the World Wide Web, what is next?  IChat, Skype, etc. might bring video conferencing with worship to an universal level: two or more different locations worshiping at the same time, conferencing at the same time, and being led by the same Holy Spirit which is “universal”, yet “intimate”.  Can a prophetic word given in Ireland, speak to the brethren in New Zealand, and confirmed by the brethren in the U.K. and U.S.A. at the same moment through the internet?

Is it possible that the five fold could come forth locally, nationally, and universally as the different gifting of each of the five ministers and receives from the others, but the result of this movement being “unity and maturity” into the Body of Christ, preparing the Church to be “without spot or wrinkle” for the return of the Lord?

In Jesus Christ, “all things are possible”, so Lord, my prayer is that what ever You have for the Holy Spirit to do for this century, for me as a believer, for this generation, and for the Church as a whole: Bring It On! Church, be prepared for another movement of God, orchestrated by the Holy Spirit, lifting up the name of Jesus, glorifying the Father in heaven. 

Wouldn’t We Love To Be Accountable To Those Who Serve Us?

Service/Accountability Series: Part 6 – Accountability Through Service

Instead of having the feeling that we are accountable to an individual or group who is “above” us, would we not feel more comfortable being accountable to someone who is in relationship with us as our “peers” but whom we respect?

With most bosses there is a distance, almost a self imposed alienation, because of the pyramidal hierarchy of leadership we have come to know in western civilization.  Even the westernized church has fallen for this type of leadership.  Some seminaries teach not to get close to your parishioners because you will be moved every five to eight years.  The Gospel is all about an intimate relationship made with God through Jesus Christ and what he did on the Cross.  The “family of God” is all about relationships with each other, yet the higher up in leadership one climbs in church hierarchy the more distant one becomes from God’s people.

The five fold pluralistic model I presented in my last blog breaks down these barriers of distance.  One becomes intimate friends with other people who have different points of view and passions than oneself, but are willing to use their gifts to serve you.  It is dynamic to have someone motivated about the “new birth” and the birthing process around you, someone to nurture and disciple your daily walk, someone to teach you the Logos Word, and someone to translate it into the Rhema or living Word, and even someone to guide and coordinate everyone’s gifting toward serving you!  Would not your natural response be to submit to their service?

How does this submission look like?  Basically, the giving back of your gift to impact their life causes a bonding, or a relationship, through Jesus Christ.  If you are accountable to four different points of view and passions than your own, there is a better chance of someone seeing you drifting off the mark and gracefully brining correction before there is a crisis.  Your service to them also opens their eyes to your point of view or passion bringing unity in uderstanding.

I have been taught that sin is “missing the mark”.  There are times that I have sinned, missed the mark, because I did not have a true spiritual shepherd walking me through daily tasks in my life to guide and demonstrate how to walk in faith and love.  I have missed the mark when making the Logos Word the final word through my legalistic interpretation, only to have someone theologically correct me or someone point to the Rhema or living out of the Word.  I have missed the mark because I did not have someone give me proper over sight, helping me work with the different passions, points of view, and mindsets to bring unity instead of division.  I have sinned……

There are four steps to accountability: 1) Stop, 2) Look, 3) Listen, 4) Be Obedient To What You Have Seen and Heard!  The Cross demands accountability:  Vertically – Stop, look to the Father, listen for His heartbeat, listen to His still small voice, then be obedient to the revelation that you have seen and heard.  That is how Jesus functioned as a human while on earth.  Horizontally – Stop, look to others in the Church, the Body of Christ with different points of views and passions, listen from their perspective of point of view though different from yours, then be obedient to what you have seen and have been told.

The result: Accountability at a new and greater level than the Church has experienced in centuries. A balanced, protective, growing discipleship that will continue to develop a believer into being more Christ-like, more maturing into the image of Jesus Christ.  That is the accountability that the Church needs today.