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!

Can Worshipers Worship, Or Must They Always Be Led?

A Contrast In Styles

Recently I attended a funeral at an old established church.  When entering the foyer to the right was what use to be a gymnasium, now packed with hundreds of chairs, with a drum set and microphones on the front stage.  This was for the “contemporary” service.  The funeral was in the “sanctuary” with its pews, altar, split pulpits, huge hanging cross suspended from the ceiling, side wedding chapel and full pipe organ.  This was the home of the “traditional” service.

It made me think of the diversity in the body of Christ.  Even within a local church context there was division over personal preference, basically over styles of music and order or worship.   The older crowd, who strongly supports the edifice financially, prefers the “Old Rugged Cross”, “How Great Thou Art”, and “It Is Well With My Soul” over contemporary chorus, who would rather read a liturgy from the back of a hymnal than a projected overhead slide. Meanwhile the younger “contemporary” crowd enjoys the flexibility of folding chairs over pews, and repetitive choruses over lengthy five verse hymns in King James English, and the high tech video clips.

What they had in common is volume: “traditional” pipe organ preludes echoing off the walls with resounding vibrations, or “contemporary” choruses with more electric bass and pounding drums through a high quality sound system. The only thing that was the same in both services is the sermon; amazingly, the same sermon to different audiences!  Styles of music and worship have changed with its audience, but not the presentation of the Word by the senior pastor or staff member, and in both services the clergy let the congregation know that the delivery of the Word transcended over they styles of worship present.

In spite of differences in musical taste and presentation, neither service still allowed its worshipers, those in the congregation, to be the initiators of corporate worship. Worship leaders and choir directors with liturgists still lead the worship. The congregation was always asked to “follow” never to “lead” worship.  Worship never originated from those in the pews or folding chairs.  Both allowed you to give financially through your tithe and offering, and sing along with the pipe organ or worship band, and to greet one another informally with a hand shake and a “God bless you,” but never gave the worshiper an opportunity to give a testimony of their living faith, to read scripture that inspired them through their private devotions that came alive in their daily walk, nor a time to pray with one another or minister to one another.

We have produced another “great divide” on our churches, even at the local level, in this case because of age preferences, traditions, and styles of worship and music.  We have allowed two different congregations to be established under the same physical roof: an aged one dwindling due to a dying population but still rich with tradition meaningful to their spiritual walk, and a younger one establishing their traditions they eventually will want to hold on to as they age.  It amazes me that we preach about the “unity of the Body of Christ”, yet the church is one of the most segregated institutions in our society because of race, age, and culture. We seem not to welcome diversity in our worship experiences, but segregate it instead.

What would happen if we allowed the worship to flow out of those attending?  If “new songs” actually originated from within them but shared with all?  If scripture from the Bible, the Logos Word, would be shared and actually activated by them into the Rhema, or Living Word, in the midst of all who are worshiping?    If those worshiping actually “anticipated” the Holy Spirit to arise in and among them individually and corporately rather than follow the safety of a planned out experience?  If those attending would actually feel accountable for anything and everything happening in a service or all would just sit in silence until the Holy Spirit moved?  Where life would flow out of those attending the service toward one another?

Instead we opt for our own selfish preferences, what pleases me, what I like, what I seek, what would best benefit me, and those in my family!  That is the independent spirit that crushes “body ministry”.  Christianity is about giving out, sending out, the flowing outwardly of our inner faith.  It is not about “us” but about Jesus to a dieing, hurting, suffering, hungry, lonely, sick world.  When we encourage our Christian believers to “reach” deep within themselves to find Jesus, we then have to give an opportunity for our Christian believers to be “sent out” and “flow out” of that faith that is deep within them and reveal Jesus to the world and to each other.  What better place to practice that than in the safety of our own Church fellowship and gathering. That place should be a place of worship, a place of releasing, a place of giving, a place of flowing.

We need to rethink how we do “church” at “church” when the “church” gathers if we are really God’s “church”!

The Rewards of Retooling, Renewing, Revival, Rebirth!

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

I started this series out because of a news article about the retooling of Harley Davidson in York, PA, and the impact it has had on renewing the company and the vision for Harley.  This week, Harley came out with its quarterly earnings, now $133 million profit!  They are not making any more bikes than they did in the past, but their financial financing sector has increased.  The fact of fiscal responsibility of Harley has changed, and the company has gone from deep concern to productivity and profitability.

I am going to conclude this series on the “retooling” of the church with the challenge Harley Davidson has thrown out to the church.  Last Sunday, at my home church, Cityview Community Church in York, PA, the vision for this years “Biker Bar-BQ” Rallies were unfolded. The second Sundays of May, June, July, August & September, from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m., Cityview is hosting a Biker Bar-BQ where they feature a half of Bar-BQ’ed chicken, a pulled pork sandwich, baked potato, cole slaw, applesauce, and drink for $12 with the proceeds going to support an orphanage in Guatemala that our local church has literally help build from the ground up over the years and supported financially.  This endeavor will reach out to bikers, churched and non-churched people, while aiding orphans in a third world country.  Last year they held Biker Rallies on Saturdays, but “retooled” their efforts to do it on Sundays this year because that is when Bikers ride! I invite you to join us on the Second Sunday of the month for fellowship, fun, and food this summer!

Innovative evangelism, innovative change, lead by the Holy Spirit has been my theme throughout this thread of blogs.  The challenge comes when and if the bikers decide to return to Cityview.  Will pastoral components be in place for new converts to aide their new spiritual growth?  How do we change our teaching away from “church-ism” linguistics, so the unchurched can understand?  How can we prophetically speak into their lives, helping to make their new experience in Christ real, a live, a day to day walk, a true turning from the old to the new?  Who will be “seeing over” their new walk in Christ so that there will not be “over-sights,” or mistakes? These are the challenges that the five fold can help address if lead by the Holy Spirit.  This is the retooling, the revival, the renewal, the rebirth that I am addressing.

This is the experience of the local church I attend, but I want to challenge whomever is reading this blog to also take the plunge and allow the evangelistic spirit, the pastoral spirit, the teaching spirit, the prophetic spirit, and the apostolic spirit to arise in their local church.  Allow them to arise, but bond them together through the “laying down of one’s lives”, the service to each other, and the accountability to each other.  The weaving of this tapestry will bring a work of art never seen before in your church.  One that will help you and those in your church grow toward “maturing in the image of Jesus Christ” while bringing “unity in the body of Christ.” 

If the Church is willing to be retooled this way, I guarantee you that the results will even be more profound than those Harley Davidson announced this week, because they will have “eternal” rewards far exceeding the material rewards we face on earth while the kingdom of God is being advanced, and the retooling of the Church continues through the Holy Spirit.  This is true renewal!  This is true rebirth, the rebirth of the Church!

Keith Green’s “Asleep In The Light” Again Comes To Light!

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

I can’t shake this question, “Who Is My Brother’s Keeper”?  It keep resounding in my head. “Who is My Brother’s Keeper?”

In church yesterday, we sang a chorus about revival and an awakening.  I can’t help remember Keith Green’s classic song, “Asleep In The Light,” and the impact it had on me when it was first released.  The church needs to again listen to its lyrics:

Do you see, do you see all the people sinking down? Don’t you care, don’t you care are you gonna let them drown?  How can you be so numb not to care if they come? You close your eyes and pretend the job’s done. “Oh bless me lord, bless me lord,” you know its all I ever hear. No one aches, no one hurts, no one even sheds one tear, but he cries, he weeps he bleeds, and he cares for your needs. You just lay back and keep soaking it in. Oh, can’t you see it’s such a sin. ‘Cause he brings people to your door, and you turn them away, as you smile and say, “God bless you, be at peace,” and all heaven just weeps ‘cause Jesus came to your door and You’ve left him out on the streets.  Open up, Open up, and give yourself away. You seed the need, you hear the cries, so how can you delay?  God’s calling, and you’re the one, but like Jonah you run. He’s told you to speak, but you keep holding it in, oh, can’t you see it’s such sin. The world is sleeping in the dark that the church just can’t fight ‘cause it’s asleep in the light. How can you be so dead when you’ve been so well fed. Jesus rose from the grave and you, you can’t even get out of bed. Oh, Jesus rose from the dead. Come on get out of your bed. How can you be so numb, not to care if they come? You close your eyes and pretend the job’s done. You close your eyes and pretend the job’s done. Don’t close your eyes, don’t pretend the jobs done. “Come away, come away, come away with me my love. Come away, come away, come away with me my love.”

The lyrics are so relevant today, almost 30 years after they were written. Here we are praying for an “awakening” and the price of that “awakening” streams through my mind through Keith Green’s lyrics. In order to experience this “awakening” will take “brokenness”.  Brokenness is always an ingredient to revival.  Until we completely surrender to the Lord, allow His Holy Spirit to take the lead, we will not experience the revival we seek.  The “Great Awakening” of the 1700’s swept America with the call of repentance.  That cry is going forth two and a half centuries later!

It may be prophetic, but I believe the church in America is about to get what it has been praying for.  Joining the cause of smaller government, budget reductions, and tax relief, will come the responsibility for the Church to do Mathew 25 as I shared in my last blog.  A response to Keith Green’s song will become a reality.  The sleeping giant, the Church, will again be called to rise up and take care of the poor, the sick, the widows, the elderly, the lost, the dying, etc.  It will take sacrifice, faith, grace, mercy, and love, all ingredients the Holy Spirit has to offer.

I remember standing in a crowd at an Jesus rally in the ‘70’s hearing Keith sing his song and thinking what a “tough” word it was.  His prophetic message hasn’t softened, but our response to it has.  Awake church!  Now is the time for retooling, redoing, reviving, renewal, rebirthing, but it will come with a price.  My questions is “Is the Church willing to pay that price” or better yet, “Am I/You willing to pay that price?” And the questions still resounds in my head, “Who is My Brother’s Keeper?”

American Greed: Sheep And The Goats? Come On American Church!

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

“Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.” Jesus said those words, yet the political climate today, especially among fundamental evangelical believers, is not to give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s but keep it because it is “my money.”  In America we have looked to the government to supply services that we deem necessary, not the church.  We expect the government to educate our children, feed the hungry, provide for the homeless, care for the aging, supporting the mentally ill or the mentally or physically challenged, aide our libraries, fund our police and fire departments, snow removal, crime and prisons, etc., etc., but at no or little cost to us, the taxpayer.

Thirty-seven years ago we had a Superintendent of Schools where I work say that we could do almost anything we wanted as long as “it was at no cost to the district.”  That motto has become the school district’s mantra until a financially anorexic school district faces insurmountable challenges with state budget crunches.  Slush funds are dwindling, taxpayers are crying for relief, so they are asking staff to freeze pay, take cut backs, give up the power to negotiate, and bust teacher unions. 

American’s don’t want to invest in anything unless it benefits themselves.  That mentality births and feeds greed.  We are told to invest in the stock market to become rich, to produce jobs, but the rich are getting richer and the poor poorer, and jobs are getting out sourced.  The same attitude that prevails educational finances has also become the mantra for government.  You can do anything as long as “it is at no cost to the taxpayer,” unless it benefits the politician. 

What happened to investing in your children, our youth?  What happened to taking care of the elderly?  What happened to aiding the poor, the misfortune, the hurting?  What happened to the sacrifice for those who are defending us in our arm services?  What happened to civil responsibility? 

This attitude has even filtrated the Church in America where many attend, requesting physical, moral, and spiritual support from the Church at “no cost to the church ‘attendee’” if they do not tithe.  But that which we Americans are crying out against, so we can live in our houses defined by the number of bathrooms, two car garages with new cars, watching our large flat screen high definition televisions while our kids play video games and talk on their expensive phones, are the very things the Church is suppose to do.

Maybe we should hear the cry of Mathew 25:41-46: Then the King will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you game me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’  They will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ Then they will go away to eternal punishment.” The sheep and the goats, the saints and the ain’ts, the doers and the not doers is a strong powerful parable that is relevant to the American attitude today.

Church, if America is telling the government not to do the above, and “we the people” are the American government, then the American Church must step up and tell their people to “feed the hungry, water the thirsty, take care of strangers, cloth the naked, provide health care to the sick, reform the prisons and reach out to prisoners who have served their time.”  Jesus said that we will be judged by those criteria! The retooling of the American church will have to re-address how the church faces these issues and challenges.  If there was ever a time for the Church to move forward in influence, it is now as the general population backs away from the very things Jesus has instructed us to do. American Church, let’s be the sheep we have been called to be, the doers!  Let us lead in a time in our history where Americans are looking for leadership. 

“Walking Away" From The Walk?

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

I have been reading about early Church history of the first three centuries and the writings of the early Church Fathers.  I can only imagine the second century Church’s challenge of facing change.  The believers are several generations away from the original apostles and believers who actually saw Jesus on the earth.  They could not go back to the Paul’s, Luke’s, Peter’s actual face-to-face encounters with Christ unless they were written down.  “Faith”, the believing in the unseen, now became stronger because the Church was removed from first hand accounts of Jesus.

Now was the time for change; now began theological debates about the person and divinity of Jesus and the Trinity.  The “experience” of “walking with Jesus” was being replaced by reason, thus theology (Theo = God. -ology = study; thus study of God). Doing theological exegesis on doctrine became the norm by prominent church leaders.  The “walking experience” with God became the sitting on one’s butt “studying” about God.  Wars have been fought over theology, major schisms developed, heresies born, challenged, then crushed, and historically, fragmentation of the Body of Christ, the Church, became its fruit.  “Power” over who runs the church, alias church politics, over came the inverted pyramid of service that the kingdom of God appropriates.  Several centuries after Jesus’ death and resurrection, the major split between the Eastern Orthodox Church centered in Constantinople and the Western Church centered in Rome became prevalent.

What happened to the personal walk of each believer?  What happened to the Road to Emmaus experience several disciples experienced shortly after the resurrection?  What happened to the daily walk by faith?  Matters of the mind, reason, took over matters of the heart, the Jewish Lamad way of perceiving things?  Intellect and reason now superseded experience and faith.  We, the Church, still face this battle even today.  People with earned intellectual religious degrees lead the church over older Christians who have spend a lifetime faithfully experiencing Jesus in their lives.  At least in the Western world, knowledge still supersedes faith in church structure and leadership.

How can the Church return to the teaching of “service”, the inverted pyramid of one carrying a lot of people on their shoulders than ruling over a lot of people?  Historically, the most effective form of evangelism is when there is one-on-one sharing of one’s “experience” of Jesus Christ in one’s life.  Even though Jesus had to question his disciples, “Who do you say that I am?”, he still chose to “walk” with them for the last three years of his life so that they could “experience” him.  Even though he did a lot of “teaching” to them those three years, it was still the “walking out of their experiences” with him that would prepare them for apostleship,

They saw and experienced the one-on-one evangelism of Jesus talking to the women at the well and the revival it created in her hometown. The feeding of the 5,000 and the raising of the dead of the women's only son, and "Jesus wept" when hearing of Lazarus's death displayed the pastoral spirit in Jesus. They sat under Jesus’ teaching, though they had trouble understanding it until the Holy Spirit had been released to become their instructor.  They met and walked with the prophetic living Word, the living Son of God, the fulfillment of scriptures where again they did not realize its truths until the Holy Spirit later revealed it to them.  Finally their three-year “walk” with Jesus and later their Emmaus “walks” with the Holy Spirit would prepare them for apostleship.

God had established the five fold, the passions of servanthood, through service, to prepare His Church.  The passion of spiritual birth was born through evangelism, the passion of nurturing and caring was fulfilled in “walking” and providing for His disciples, the passion of teaching was released through Jesus, the Living Word, as he attempted to instruct his disciples how to “walk” out their faith through daily experiences, the passion of the prophetic was released in the fulfillment of the Messiah, the Living active Word in mankind, right before their eyes, and the passion of the apostolic was birthed through these “walks” with Jesus and fulfillments through the Holy Spirit.  I propose that this is the pattern the Church should seek if it is to “equip” or “prepare” the “saints for the work of the service.”

Unlike the early Church fathers, two centuries removed from Jesus’ appearance on earth, we, the twenty-first century Church are two millennium removed.  We should have learned that a walk of faith through “reason” and “knowledge” only brought on a long period called The Dark Ages which had its grips only broken by the Reformation when God’s spirit was again released on God’s people for the works of “service” to the kingdom of God rather than the religious kingdom of the church.

History has proven the Church needs change, yet is slow and reluctant to embrace it.  The Church was birthed and built on principles of the kingdom of God, sacrifice and service.  Power and might produced by the Holy Spirit were replaced by political power and might.  The church changed from an agent of “serving” to an institution “to be served.” 

“In the last days, I will pour out my spirit on your sons and daughters,” boasts the book of Acts of the Apostles.  That pouring has begun at the closing of the last century.  Now it is time to allow the Holy Spirit to take that “new birth”, that evangelistic out pouring of the Holy Spirit, and begin to develop it pastorally, through nurture and care, while teaching its believers through day to day experiences, grounded on the Word of God, the Bible, and released into a living work known as the Church, through the reestablished apostolic over sight.  The five fold is about to be developed no matter if you believe it or not! Are you willing to embrace it?

Accountability Through Diversity: Little Boxes, Little Boxes Made of Ticky-Tack?

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

I remember the song in the ‘60’s called Little Boxes by Malvina Reynolds. The lyrics read, “little boxes, little boxes, little boxes filled with ticky-tacky; little boxes on the hillside, little boxes all the same.  There’s a green one, and a pink one, and a blue one and a yellow one, and they are all made out of ticky-tack, and they all just look the same. 

And the people in the houses all went to the university where they were put in boxes, and they all come out the same. And the doctors and the lawyers and business executives, and they put them all in boxes and they all came out the same. 

And they all play on the golf course, and they drink their martini’s dry, and they all have pretty children, and all the children go to school, and all the children go to summer camp, and then to the university where they put them all in boxes and they all come out the same.

And the boys go into business and marry andraise a family in boxes made of ticky-tack, and they all look just the same. There’s a green one, and a pink one, and a blue one and a yellow one, and they are all made out of ticky-tack, and they all just look the same. ”

Churches are no different, for Baptist produce “Baptist boxes”, Lutherans produce “Lutheran boxes”, Pentecostals produce “Pentecostal boxes”, Non-denominationalist and independents produce “Independent boxes”, etc.  No matter what label the church group, they produce “their own kind”, their “little boxes”.  All these different boxes boast of being under the same label called “The Church” because they all try to produce the same image, but they look different because they look only as their own kind.

Can an individual local church produce different boxes?  It is tough, but it can only be done if there is diversity in the church itself.  My blogs have been about that diversity, known as the five fold: the recognition of evangelists, shepherds, teachers, prophets, and apostles in every church.  There are believers in almost every church who have the burden to win the lost, who want to nurture and care through hospitality, who want to teach the Word, the Bible, who want closer living, intimate spiritual walks with Jesus, and who have a burden for the Church as a whole.  They are already there! What a diversity of points of view or passions, but how do you get these diverse dialects to speak the same language, the language of the Church, the language of the active, living Word of God?  I propose only through relationships and accountability to one another.

It is amazing that opposites attract in marriage; what was the weakness of one they find to be the strength in their spouse.  Diversity is often the very strength of a marriage though it does bring it own conflicts when it seems the two are not speaking the same language.  Communications is a key to a successful marriage.  Even though each spouse can be coming from a different point of view, a different passion, what seems like a different language, only through constant dialogue, communicating with one another can a strong lasting marriage be molded, formed, or bonded.  The same is true with the Church.  Diversity is its strength, and only through continual communication between God and His people through the Holy Spirit and between God’s people to each other can meaningful, successful relationships be established in the Family of God.

An evangelist can give new birth to others, a shepherd can give nurture and care, a teacher can give the foundation of the Word of God, the prophet can give spiritual life, and the apostle proper over sight seeing over the other’s gifting while drawing their diversity into unity.  This unity through diversity can only be done when each and every one of them is willing to give to the other, but also receive from the other, from their strengths.  This giving and taking by “laying down one’s life” for each other brings accountability like has never been seen in the Church for centuries.

The Church’s calling has not been to produce “little boxes” labeled with their groups identity, but reproducing, developing, and equipping its people to grow into the image and maturity of Jesus Christ, bringing unity to this diverse body.  People should see Jesus when looking at a believer, not a Baptist, a Lutheran, a Pentecostal, an Independent, etc.  The Church needs not to major on the minors, producing little boxes, but major in the birthing, nurturing, and developing of people into the image of Jesus Christ, a major undertaking!  Only through this development will come true accountability!

Who Is Accountable?

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

When a company retools, to whom are they accountable?  It could be to the shareholder, the investor, or to management, or to the working force.  In order to make a profit, all three must work together and be accountable to one another, or a product will not be produced nor a profit made.

If we are to retool the Church, to whom will the Church be accountable? To whom are those in the Church to be accountable to?  At the end of the last century, may “independent” churches, trying to avoid becoming a denomination or being part of a denomination, were birthed, held together by loosely held associations with other independent churches or totally independent from anyone.  The Missional Movement came in to existence in order for these loose federations to communicate with each other without being accountable to one another. I attend a church that is independent and currently is not under anyone’s umbrella of protection, guidance, or advice beyond the local church.  What does that say to the Body of Christ, the Church, as a whole?  To whom are we to be accountable to if anyone?

Inside the local church structure, to whom are we to be accountable?  I am told the Pastor, Elders, or leadership team.  I have been taught that I need to give a tithe to the local church to support this leadership team and/or staff as part of my accountability to them.  What then is their role of accountability towards me?  Are they accountable to me in some way? How?  I attended a church of near 3,000 this past Sunday, and realized that there is no way the pastor even knows, or even has met with each member of his flock over the past year.  The people feel accountable to him as their pastor, but what is expected of him towards them: a sermon each week, but not a personal relationship?

The church is built on relationships, and true accountability is a give and take situation.  It is reciprocal. I John 3:16 says that we need to lay down our lives for our brethren, but we cannot do that without a relationship.   Any mega-church knows that it has to have a small group ministry if it is ever going to “disciple” its flock.  I recently heard Kent Henry pointed out that during the last decade we, the church, have opted for high-tech, rear projected screens, with internet, social networking capabilities, high quality sound systems and lighting, producing an entertaining product attracting large numbers of people, but we have failed in “discipleship”.

What is a “disciple”?  What is “discipleship”?  Ephesians 4 calls it “equipping”, or preparing, “the saints for the work of the service”.  What does “equipping” mean? What actually is “the service”?  I believe that effective equipping can come only through building and establishing relationships that are accountable to one another. Only through relationships can effective “serving” or service be taught.  If we “serve” one another through relationship, we establish accountability to one another.  Think of your best friends.  Why are you best friends?  Your intimate friendship is based on the accountability of your intimate relationship.  You accept one another, even at your worse, and you listen to one another giving and taking advice.

The church has to recognize that accountability does not come by positions or offices held in a church, even though the Bible teaches to honor those in leadership, but in relationships with one another.  Big Brother programs have been effective toward needy children, but the church needs a Mature Believers in Christ program where older men build relationships with younger men, older women build relationships with younger women, not as another church program, but in actual relationships that take time, nurture, and care.  If that is established then the reciprocal will happen when the young will then take care of the old, the widow, and the widower. The book of Titus deals with this endeavor.

So how is the Church to be retooled? It should be retooled through relationships which will produce accountability.  Anything less will become just programs, changing every month or every cycle, the very trap many churches find themselves in today.  Let’s focus on relationships, the laying down of our lives for each other, which is a deep relationship of accountability.

Is The Church Our Brother’s Keepers?

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

We count on the government for programs, programs to take care of the homeless, the poor, those without medical insurance, those with mental, physical, or learning handicaps, those struggling with drugs, those released from prison, the elderly, preschool, public school, fire and police protection, etc., etc.  As a Christian, I ask what do we count on the Church for here in America? Spiritual guidance, of course, is of essence, but the church is no longer the social hub of American society, nor supplying “services” to the poor, the sick, the aging, and hurting as it once was.  Many hospitals and institutions of higher learning boast the name of past church influences. With all the government budget cuts, what influence can the church reclaim?

People are looking for someone who cares, who will give guidance, hope, answers to tough questions, and courage to face tough situations, but doesn’t demand a monetary payment for their kindness.  They are not necessarily looking for professional services, but acts of kindness from every day people, friends, neighbors, Christians who care.

If the church embraced the five fold they would have an evangelist who would give hope, offer a new birth or a renewal spirit.  They would have pastoral gifting, individual believers reaching out with care and faith when helping people through difficult situations reassuring them that they are not alone as they face and walk through their struggles.  They would have a foundation of faith through the Word, the Bible. They would have spiritual guidance of learning that the Written Word can become the Living Word, walking out spiritual principals through the prophetic.  They would have the assurance of over sight, someone seeing over their welfare and the welfare of others as a whole body, a family. 

So the Church needs to reevaluate its role in American society, retool itself to be more effective to those in need, and rethink how it does church.  The challenge is will the church continue to just rely on tradition to get it through, or become innovative and creative, allowing the Holy Spirit to retool it to meet the needs of the hurting and lost, and exposing the Kingdom of God to the world.

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

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

When a bar tender prepares a mixed drink, often he puts the proper ingredients into a glass, then places a “shaker” over it and shakes the ingredients together!  Without the shaking, the drink will not be as good, individual tastes will be too strong or too weak. A whole lot of shaking can make a good drink.  On the other hand, if you get sedimentary water from the stream that is cloudy, you can let it sit, and the sedimentary sinks, producing what looks like clear water.  Unfortunately a whole lot of shaking of that jar produces what was originally in the jar, a muddy, unclear mess.

A whole lot of shaking can produce two results, a good blend or a messy one!  The church is often afraid of allowing a whole lot of shaking because it “naturally” expects the results to be a messy one.  Shaking can bring cloudiness to a situation.  Only through filtration can the water again be pure.  So what is the filtration device for the Church to use? I propose that the filtration device is the Cross through the Holy Spirit. 

As I have said in earlier blogs, the only way to experience the “supernatural,” the vertical relationship with the Godhead is allow it to penetrate, to dissect the “natural”, those horizontal relationships we have.  That vertical dissection to the horizontal produces the Cross.  Only when we take “messy shake-ups” in our lives to the Cross can we bring clarity to situations by allowing the Holy Spirit to work in our lives.  Because of the cross and resurrection, Jesus’ mission to life as a human, the Son of God, the Living Word in the flesh, he could now go back to the heavenlies to sit at the right hand of God the Father to intercede for the saints.  His job is now one of intercession on behalf of those whose faith believes in him.  Only upon his return could the Holy Spirit be released to “bring all men unto Him”!

Only through the filtration of allowing the Holy Spirit to work in and through our lives can we filter out the muddy mess to produce clear “living water.”  Jesus said, “If a man thirsts, let him drink from the living well”, drink life through the “living water,” Jesus Christ.  Only through “shaking, then filtrating can we get the pure water we seek.

On the other hand, a whole lot of shaking can bring a blend of different tastes, liquors, drinks, fruits, etc. into a totally invigorating concoction of a drink.  Those tastes which tasted good individually taste even better when blended together.  There strengths together become the strength of the drink only after a whole lot of shaking and stirring.  In order for the five fold, the evangelistic, pastoral, teaching, prophetic, and apostolic passions can come together is if the Holy Spirit does “a whole lot of shaking” to bring them together, and I think the Church is beginning to experience that “shaking”.  At least that is my prayer of faith.

For this to become an actuality, there needs to be a shaking, exposing the impurities that lie in the pure “living water” of Jesus Christ in his Body, the Church.  After the working of the Holy Spirit to bring purification, then more shaking can produce the blending of five different points of views, five different passions into one, producing maturity in the Body of Christ and unity. 

That purification process for the believers in Christ will come in a brokenness, a willingness to “lay down their lives for their brethren”, and a hunger for God in a degree never felt before by the Church. It will be the Church again facing the Cross, the cross roads of the “natural” and the “supernatural”, allowing Jesus to be King and Lord, and allowing the Holy Spirit to do what He has been sent to do!

Often in my previous blogs I have asked, “Can you/we/I trust the Holy Spirit?”  If we can’t trust the Holy Spirit, the out come will only be muddied waters when the shaking begins.  If we can, then we will drink from “living water” and eventually enjoy a “blend” like never before experienced, a refreshing, a renewal, a rebirth.

Have you gotten it by now; there is a whole lot of shaking going on!

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.

There’s A Whole Lot Of Shaking Going On

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

When there is revival, a whole lot of shaking is going on!  Things get stirred up; change is imminent.  Often with revival comes messy situations with all the stirring.  When I cook in our kitchen, I usually make a mess to clean up because there is a whole lot of stirring, a whole lot of shaking, a whole lot of baking.  Getting all those different ingredients into the bowl is one challenge, keeping them from spilling out on the counter is another.  Only after the stirring comes the baking which solidifies all those different ingredients into one solid object, usually to be consumed.

As a public school teacher, I know that there is a whole lot of shaking and stirring going on, politically, and through educational reform.  Facing budget cuts in Pennsylvania, the education system from its State sponsored Universities down to its public schools are facing tough decisions.  Teaching, which has been looked upon as a stable profession, is about to get its legs cut out from underneath them.  As I said in earlier blogs: Teachers were revered in the ‘70’s because of the space program, respected in the ‘80’s due to Reaganomics, but in the ‘90’s it began to be the scapegoat of our society, being blamed for everything and labeled as failing.  That attitude was reinforced at the turn of the century as education was not only to blame, but also looked upon to fix itself.  Now in the second decade of this century it is asked to not only take the blame, fix it, but sacrifice for its good while American society itself is unwilling to do the same. 

While teaching The Diary of Anne Frank this year, I realized today’s students don’t understand the sacrifice it took at home to support our troops in World War II. They have no idea what a “ration book” is, nor the need for one.  We want our Ipods, Ipads, the access of the internet, social networking, and our 72 in. 3D digital TV’s with hundreds of channels for entertainment.  Our houses are measured by the number of bathrooms and how many car garage it possesses. Sacrifice?  We are supposedly in a “sluggish” economy, yet we still live as if in the boom days of the last century.  Americans always want “more”, never satisfied with what they have.  We want the new and improved Iphone, video game, software program, or electronic gizmo as soon as it come out.  Everything is instant; everything is throw away. How can we understand sacrifice?

We were told by Bush to invest in 401 plans in the Stock Market instead of pension funds before its crash during the last months of his presidency.  We are told private health care is better for all, when millions of our own Americans have none and can’t afford any because of low wages.  The rich are getting richer, and the Warren Buffets, Bill Gates, and Donald Trumps are idolized as the saviors of our society, living like fat cats as the middle class disappears. These men won’t preach sacrifice, and I am sure they will not practice it either. There is a shaking going on.

I almost feel like a Jeremiah, or other prophets that saw a whole lot of shaking going on in their time, and it did not look favorable, but they spoke out.  They usually met ridicule and were not popular with the political movements of their day, but they spoke out.  I feel that public education is just a microcosm of American society.  The American church also reflects the mores and attitudes of American society. If the pillars of American society are being shaken, then I am sure the pillars of the American church are also feeling it.

So I ask, “How should the American church react to all this shaking, all this stirring, all this cry for change?  How much is the Church willing to embrace.  Do they want revival to meet the challenges of a changing society?  It will take a “total surrender” and a “total breaking” of the believers of Jesus Christ if they are willing to surrender to the Holy Spirits lead and directions during this time of change and challenges.

If industry had to retool to survive the changes in this century, and now education faces a retooling, why does the Church feel it will be exempt?  The cry is a cry of a prophet, “prepare ye the way!”  Instead of being reactionary, the church must be a “leader” in this change, so let’s face the music and the time, and begin to accept the fact that America’s church needs retooling too!

What Are You Inheriting?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

New Ministries, New Strategies, & New Techniques

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

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

Republicans want to cut the budges nationally and in states throughout the country causing cuts in “services”.  Half way houses for prisoners, drug programs, mental health housing and programs, welfare programs, are losing their funding, facing the possible closing of their doors.  Americans have come to expect Uncle Sam to meet the needs of those down and out, not Jesus.  Church, once the center of social life in America with churches on every corner and a defender of social justice in the ‘60’s & ‘70’s, has become a once a week event in huge edifices with high tech productions. 

The question that needs to be asked is what will be the role of the 21^st Century Church in feeding the hungry and the homeless, prison reform and social injustice, and reaching out to the lost, the sick, and the hurting? I would like to propose the effectiveness of the five fold.  It may take all five different perspectives that the five fold has to offer to tackle some of these challenges.  It will take the spiritual insight of the prophet, the Biblical soundness of the teacher, the nurturing of a shepherd, the rebirthing of an evangelist, and the over sight of an apostle to lead an united front in addressing these fronts.  By seeking the Holy Spirit’s guidance, new ideas and strategies can come in place leading the Church back into a positive influence that can change the world.

Through apostolic over sight, new strategies of evangelism can be birthed by the evangelist.  The shepherding passion and point of view of the five fold would seek creative ways to meet the needs of the poor, the sick, and the hurting.  The prophetic would seek the spirit’s guidance in leading the way while being checked by the Biblical principles taught by the teacher. New ministries through new strategies using new techniques can be administered in unity through the five fold.

It just may be the Church’s role in replacing Uncle Sam when meeting the needs of the hungry, the thirsty, those in prison, those alone, those needed clothes.  As the church to may be stripped of its “affluency” of wealth, it may gain back its “influency” by meeting the needs of Mathew 25, changing the world.

Am I “Anti-Clergy, Anti-Staff?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Affluence” Can Be Replaced By “Influence”

The 21^st Century Retooling of the Church – Part XXXXX = L

The Mid-Century mark of blogging about the “retooling of the 21^st Century Church” is dedicated to the principle of “influence” over “affluence”, the very force that is needed to bring change to the American Church.  “Affluence” is when money speaks, the power of the dollar dictates policy; “influence” is measured by “change” (sorry, not a pun on monetary coins intended here)!  How does the replacing of the dollars in the offering to change bring about change in the way the church does business, or should it even matter?

Budget reductions brings reduction in staffing, in funding projects, re-examining commitments to other outside ministries, etc., which, when we look at as church business, diminishes its “influence”.  Actually it just may make those who attend the church to be more active, more out going in their faith, more supportive of service projects demanding their time, more caring about what the church is doing, creating more “influence” in the community around them.

With budget cuts nationally and locally, those social programs once deemed necessary are liquidated for the cause of saving money.  Programs targeting the poor are slashed.  It is looked upon as it is no longer the government’s problem to take care of the poor.  Property tax funding public schools is under attacked by tax payers who no longer have children of their own in public schools with the attitude of “why should I sacrifice of someone else’s child”. “They (undefined) needs to take care of their (undefined) own! They (undefined) are not my responsibility.”  When pronouns are generally used, prejudice can be detected. 

I hear it’s the “taxpayer’s money, my money, that is funding all this. I should be able to control my money, not the government.” All the while we, the American taxpayer, are living in our large homes with two or three car garages, their value determined by the number of bathrooms on the premise, large screen tv’s and entertainment centers in multiple rooms to fill our thirst for entertainment, children playing video games, Googling on their computers, or texting and tweeting their friends rather than playing with them in their ¾ acre lot of a yard.  The “affluence” of wealth in America has had a direct correlation of the American church’s role of “influence”, paying others to do what the Church, the people of God, should be doing?  The “retooled 21^st Century Church” needs to change its mindset of operating out of “being affluent” to serving by “influencing”.  This needs to be developed not only how it deals with matters within the church, in house, but also outside its walls.  The power of the Great Commission is not to be held within the walls of “affluence” of the church, but by its “influence” of reaching out to a dying and desperate world, looking for help and answers.

So how does the Church gain back its “influence”? Through “sacrifice”, “service”, and “selflessness”, three central themes of the gospel of Jesus Christ which are all contrary to the “affluent”!  If we miss any of the above three when doing something, we missed the target, and missing the target is the definition of “sin”.  

“Failing Christian Schools, Christian Teachers, Christian Students?”

Who Is To Teach the Poor?

Jesus said that we would always have the poor, but I ask then, “Whose responsibility is it to educate the poor?”  Often the poor remain in their economic state because they cannot or do not take the opportunity to be educated.  At the public middle school where I teach, we just showed our 8^th graders the video Separate But Equal about Brown vs. the Board of Education lawsuit and the unanimous Supreme Court decisions that ushered in integration in the late ‘60’s.  In the Bible belt South, Whites, who were Christians, did not believe it was their duty to educate the Negro; in fact during the height of slavery it was even forbidden because, at least, they recognized the power of education.  In this country, because the Church was unwilling to educate the poor, the responsibility has fallen on secular government to meet the need through our public school system.  Again, because of lack of action and not meeting its responsibility, the Church has given up its influence in society to the local secular governing body.

So I ask again, “Whose responsibility is it to educate the poor?”

Christian or parochial schools in America do not function on “the Great Commission” principle of “going out” or even “reaching out” as it has adopted a “separate and proud of it” mentality. Quoting that we need to be “in the world, but not part of it” rather than “the Great Commission”, the gospel is not going out into public schools like it could be, thus the Church is failing in its calling.  The Church does not look at public schools as a field ready for harvest, which it is, for it is filled with thousands of students needing a Savior, needing directions, needing love and acceptance.  Public school administrators look at “religious” groups as complaining, dissatisfied, a threat, and possible law suits rather than as “servants” aiding in the education process.  

Christian schools can be dogma centers for their local religious persuasion.  Because I believe in the Baptism in the Holy Spirit and the evidence of speaking in tongues, I cannot teach at our local Christian School because the leaders have written it into their bylaws.  As scary as it may be to a public school administrator if I began rattling off tongues instead of Shakespeare, the issue of speaking in tongues is not a prerequisite or a term for not hiring me in the public school. The Baptism in the Holy Spirit actually gave me more love for the lost, more compassion for the hurting, more drive to fulfill the “Great Commission” in a public school setting, making me be more “salt” and “light” to a bland and dark world, and because of it I have become a better teacher, reaching out my faith in a secular setting!

Like our churches, Christian schools invite people “in” to their buildings and society norms and rules, not reaching “out” as the “Great Commission” commands.  If a student doesn’t follow the Christian school’s moral codes, he is dropped and returned to public school who is forced to deal with what the church could not do as an educational institution.  Many look at public schools as “failing” schools filled with “failing teachers”, but I contend that if a student can’t see the love of Jesus and the compassion of Jesus toward him in a Christian school filled with Christian teachers and Christian students who are taught about “missions”, Christ’s love, and the “Great Commission”, then Christian schools are “failing schools”, Christian teachers are “failing teachers”, Christian students are “failing students” in what is most important to their Christian faith and heritage, sharing Christ’s love to the lost!

Politically, “vouchers” are the answer to the “conservative, religious, right” politician, because it would funnel more money, originally marked for public education, into religious institutions if the student and his parents choose to do so.  But is Christian education about receiving more money to build a bigger institution, or about reaching out to the poor student from a dysfunctional family with no direction or purpose who will probably challenge authority figures and break the Christian school’s moral codes in his rebellion, only to be expelled and sent “back” to the educational field they tried to flee?

So I ask again, “Whose responsibility is it to educate the poor?”

Church Shopping List: What Are You Looking For?

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

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

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

-  A style of music I like during worship

-  A friendly atmosphere

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

-  An excellent children’s and youth ministry

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Retooling: 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?