How Far Can You Fall?

The Pinnacle Of A Pyramid Is Really Up There!

I am tired of a hierarchal pyramid church structure telling me that we are a “family”, the family of God, where we play different roles like mother, father, child, pet dog, etc., but we are equal as family members. I know very few Christians who view their pastor as an equal. His position dictates his spirituality, thus one elevates his stature, often out of noble causes like respect. Church elders, deacons, and board members are treated differently again out of respect to an elevated position. The pastor is looked upon as a super Christian, the leadership as superb Christians while regular none titled members feel inferior, rejected, and sometimes even lost.

I have been impressed, but the last three pastors at our local church have been home grown, birthed, nurtured, and equipped in the faith by our own local body. The last two were saved as youth, went off to seminary only to return to their home church, became Youth Ministers, and eventually given the reigns of leadership as senior pastor. What has been tragic is a pattern I have seen develop over the last two decades: People come, get inspired, become active, given leadership positions, directed up the hierarchal ladder in positioning until they have attained top positions as elders or pastors.  The trouble comes when they resign. The last two resigning pastors left so they would not be in conflict with the new pastor. 80% of resigning elders also left the congregation over disputes or conflicts. Those respected as leaders because of the “character” of their lives, abandoned the character of the family when conflict rose its nasty head, and the fall from high up leadership down the bumpy pyramidal wall became rocky and brutal, forcing resignations, hurt, and despair. Leadership preaches how to solve conflict, but have not modeled it very well in the past.  This is not only true for my local church, but churches everywhere, and it got to stop.

We need to look for “linear” models of leadership, not hierarchal ones. We need leaders beside their people, not above them, so when someone falls, there won’t be permanent damage by falling a great distance. That is why we MUST apply I John 3:16, the laying down of our life for our brethren, as a mandatory Christian practice. If we are laying down our life, one will fall on top of you when they fall, not fall beneath you to be trampled. We can pick each other up together! That is body ministry!

Instead of diversity and our weaknesses hindering us, if we embrace the five fold as a linear ministry of equal peers accepting one another as a priesthood of believers, our strengths will breach each other’s weaknesses, and the body as a whole will be strong.

I have a personal friend who has been so damaged by the revolving door of pastors at his church over the years, that he now is skeptical about building a relationships with any new pastor, which is a lonely position to be in. Just because someone is paid as a professional does not elevate his spiritual status nor eliminate his need for fellowship and relational commitments. We have to think linearly.

Attending a funeral yesterday brought home the feeling of lost no matter how many times you attend funerals. Grieving comes with loss. Every time a pastor leaves a congregation there is lost, but we do not look at it that way, nor give the congregation time to process it that way, but immediately build hype about the expectations of a new leader with new hope, new life, and new direction. Families grieve over loss. The Family of God, the local church, needs to do the same, or embrace those who have fallen from their hierarchal positions to allow them to be regular pew sitting Christians again. They are equal brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus; let’s treat them that way if they allow us.

I am tired of the awkwardness of hierarchal changes in leadership structures, looking at the fall of one as being the potential for rise for another. True linear leadership never “lords” or “hovers over” nor “micromanages” those below them, but walks beside them. Jesus is the true example of that process. He always walked with his disciples.  When ascending to heaven, above his brethren, he sent his Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, to not only walk with believers but personally indwell them. “Do you not know your body is the Temple of the Holy Spirit?” Even his Spirit is not in a hierarchal position over you, but with you, in you, being a part of you! Relationally, as believers in Jesus Christ, that is where we should be with each other, then no man can fall far, only into the arms of the one beside them! That is commitment; that is unity; that is the truth of Body of Christ if we follow linear leadership. We must be our brother’s keepers, even when they have fallen! 

The Five Fold Option?

Part IV: Possible Linear Pattern To Evaluate!

If we are demolishing old structures and looking for new, what possibilities are there? One may be the five fold model under the following pretenses:

• The five fold is not offices or positions but passions, desires, and points of view that drive a believer in a certain direction.      
• The five fold is not part of a hierarchal system of professionals with titles over nonprofessional believers.
• The five fold is evidenced by what one does, what motivates that person, what drives them, not who they are or what position they hold.      
• The five fold is a linear process of believers walking beside other believers in their Emmaus walk of faith together, not hovering “over” someone.
• Since each of the five fold separately has divided the Church so far in history, each must learn to serve each other and submit to one another, being willing to “lay down their lives for their brethren” in order for it to work.

Each of the five fold:

• Is a peer to the others, an equal in the faith, that is driven by a passion, desire and point of view.     
• Needs the other four, for one’s gifting, or strength, augments the other’s weaknesses.
• Needs the other four to become balanced in ministry and approach.     
• Walks beside one another serving, not ruling. (Jesus modeled this when on earth as a man.)     
• Is relational to the others either birthing, nurturing, teaching, developing, or networking through service     

Every local church, body of believers:

• Needs an evangelist to birth new converts, birth new projects, be the midwife to what the Holy Spirit is doing    
• Needs an shepherd to nurture, care and develop the sheep in practical day to day faith.      
• Needs an prophet to bring spiritual life to a church, draw others into worship, and listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit through obedience.       
• Needs a teacher to keep everyone grounded in the Word, the Bible through apostolic teaching rather than religious dogma      
• Needs an apostle to network people serving people from their strengths and callings      
• Needs the five fold to bring birth, develop maturity, and cultivate unity.     

The five fold is a linear model worth evaluating to see if the Holy Spirit can be released among God’s people in the spirit of service.

Demolition Or Historical Preservation?

Part III: Demolition… Ka-Boom! There She Falls!

Isaiah 57:14-27:  It shall be said, “Build up, build up, prepare the way, remove every obstacle out of the way of My people.” For thus says the high and exalted One who lives forever, whose name is Holy, “I dwell on a high and holy place, and also with the contrite and lowly of spirit in order to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite. “For I will not contend forever, neither will I always be angry; for the spirit would grow faint before Me, and the breath of those whom I have made because of the iniquity of his unjust gain I was angry and struck him; I hid My face and was angry, and he went on turning away, in the way of his heart. I have seen his ways, but I will heal him; I will lead him and restore comfort to him and to his mourners, creating the praise of his lips. “Peace, peace to him who is far and to him who is near,” says the Lord, “and I will heal him. “But the wicked are like the tossing sea for it cannot be quiet, and its waters toss up refuse and mud.  There is no peace,” says God, “for the wicked.”

I love historic sections of cities, the “old section” of town that is rich in heritage and history. What happens though when it turns into the “slum” of the city. Slumlords become tenant renters never fixing up their place, trash is strewn throughout the streets, crime, prostitution, and drug selling is found around every corner. At this time the section of the city gasps for life, shakes in fear, and loses hope. Soon “death” hovers over the streets instead of “life”. Something needs to be done when so much “life is lost”!  This is the time for renewal; cities call it urban renewal; churches call it revival.

Revival demands change: individual changed lives as well as structural institutional changes. If we keep the same institutions, we get the same results, and the slum mentality will remain in a new environment until it eats away at any progress that was made. Often total demolition is a necessity before renewal can be birthed or maintained.

Isaiah pointed out that to “build up, build up,” first “ remove every obstacle out of the way of My people,” needed to happen. Demolition to religious structures had to be done before renewal was to begin. The Tabernacle had to give way to a Temple when the nation Israel was established. The Temple eventually had to be destroyed, never to be rebuilt, when Christianity was birthed because Christianity professed that the believers’ bodies were the temples of the Holy Spirit, not physical structures. Old structures had to give way to new ones. The previous “Books of God” were now called “the Old Testament” giving way to the new “Books of God” called “the New Testament”. Old influenced the new, but a time came for the old to be old, gone, done away with, “Ka-boom”! It was replaced by something new, something better! That is how God has worked historically as recorded in the Bible, and will continue to do so!

I have written blogs in the past on excerpts of a manuscript I have written called “Metamorphosis” where I believe the Church is going from their current caterpillar stage into a cocoon stage that will “restructure” what a caterpillar looks like. In fact what comes out of that caterpillar will not look like a caterpillar at all; it will be a butterfly, a completely new structure. The old will be gone; behold the new!

What will this new structure look like? Well that is what almost 500 of these blogs have been written about.  I believe we will have a new structure build around the five fold as passions, beliefs, and points of views of average, normal believers in Jesus Christ who have linear relationships with each other of “laying down their lives for their brethren.” This sacrificial love will transform the way we do Church in function, worship, and personal relationships. It will be revolutionary in our thinking, because it will be a new structure. Old hierarchal clergy/laity structures will fall as well as institutional, organizational mindsets based on those structures.

If everything we do becomes relational, either vertically with the way we worship the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, or horizontally, the way we accept one another, it will force us to rethink how we do Church, what is the Church, and demolish old mindset while openly receiving new ones, new revelations as the Holy Spirit reveals.

“Ka-boom”! Another structure falls, another organization, but in its place a butterfly, an organism suitable for flight into the heavenlies, replaces it, a better structure, a better form, a re-form, a newness: revival!

Organization or Organism

Part I: Can We Keep An Organism From Eventually Becoming An Organization?

Organism

Definition: noun, plural: organisms  (Science: Biology) - An individual living thing that can react to stimuli, reproduce, grow, and maintain homeostasis. It can be a virus, bacterium, protist, fungus, plant or an animal.  Supplement - Word origin: Greek organon = instrument. 
Related forms: organismic (adjective), organismal (adjective), organismically (adverb). 
Synonym: living thing, living being, individual. (http://www.biology-online.org/dictionary/Organism)

or·ga·ni·za·tion noun \ˌor-gə-nə-ˈzā-shən, ˌorg-nə-\

1) a company, business, club, etc., that is formed for a particular purpose 2) the act or process of putting the different parts of something in a certain order so that they can be found or used easily 3) the act or process of planning and arranging the different parts of an event or activity

Full Definition of ORGANIZATION - 1  a :  the act or process of organizing or of being organized;  b :  the condition or manner of being organized 2  a :  association, society <charitable organizations>  b :  an administrative and functional structure (as a business or a political party); also :  the personnel of such a structure. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/organization)

It is so easy to go from being an organism, “a living thing, a living being, an individual, to becoming an organization, an administrative and functional structure. We discover how to bring life or a solution to a problem, then immediately want to organize it to make it more “efficient”.

For example, many hospitals were birthed as a “living” effort to reach out to the sick, especially those who are poor, but once established it becomes an organization to improve its “efficiency” which has brought us to America today where we have developed entire “conglomerates” whose bottom line is the business model of dollars and cents rather than for care for the poor. What started as a good cause, became an efficient system, that eventually becomes all consuming and overwhelming where the organization becomes more important than the original cause. An example is the YMCA, originally a British Christian outreach program for physical health and cheap housing, who now has lost the “C” and is known strictly as the “Y”, and is memorialized by the Village People propagating the gay population in San Francisco in their hit song, “YMCA”.!

This phenomenon also happens with the Church. A person shares one-on-one the gospel producing fruit with several others now believing. As they share their faith, the group grows in size. As it does, they soon believe they can meet more needs if they organize resources to make it more efficient, thus structure and order is formed. Soon structure and order leads to tradition, and we begin to lock in our organization standards which eventually become set in stone, and the movable, fluid, organism is stifled, if not crushed. It is also the dream of some churches to organizationally grow into “religious conglomerates” known as mega-churches where maintaining the huge system becomes an albatross to the effectiveness of the ministry.

We, the church, spend so much time and effort into organizing structures, services, and activities to be more efficient, believing that is the definition of “good stewardship”, rather than spending it on relationships and personal one-to-one contact with our neighbors and other believers. Soon we are willing to “invest” our finances to hire a professional staff to fill organizational positions to perform religious activities rather than staying personally involved in one-to-one relationships, and we wake up discovering we have also become “the institutional church”, though we tend to deny that truth. 

What If You Tithed Your Time?

A Different Mind Bending Concept About Tithing

Being a church member, unfortunately, usually breeds passivity. Sadly, we need only “attend” church services to be looked upon as a Christian in most cultures. Attending Sunday morning worship and one activity listed in the bulletin per week satisfies our stature.  We are so dependent on the professional staff to do everything, that they “enable” us by doing their job effectively. No wonder we do not feel part of the life of the local church.  Usually churches that are professionally programmed driven usually ask only one major form of activity from their casual members; their financial giving.  The offering is a central piece of every Christian program. Sometimes pre-offering speeches can be longer than the sermon, and “tithing” is a quarterly sermon theme.

What would happen if we Americans would tithe from what is most precious to them; their time?

What would the church staff do if each and every member in your church was willing to volunteer 4 hours, 1/10^th of their 40 hour work week to the church? The staff would probably generate more programs for them to attend! Really, if you have 100 members in your church each giving four hours, what would they do with 400 hours of volunteered time each week? A 500 member church with 1,000 free hours? Sounds like a cell phone plan!

If I would ask that question during a staff meeting I may get suggestions like: janitorial work, building maintenance, shrubbery trimming and clean up, painting, secretarial work, running off bulletins, up dating data base of members for email, newsletters, and mailings, etc., all institutional chores, but what happened to feeding and clothing the poor, caring for the widows in the congregation, hospital and jail visits, etc.  Most staff hired by churches are program related where they are highly visible, but who does the invisible tangibles that empower a church?  What they would list on a whiteboard as suggestions would show the priorities of that church.  With 400 hours a week of volunteering would force a change in priorities.

What would happen if the members spent their volunteer time forming nonprofit businesses in a service sector like a lunch time deli where they would feed and serve their community in a nonchurch financially profitable atmosphere?  How about a “Foot Wash”, fancy name for a car wash reflecting the foot washing passion of Jesus to the community, not as a fundraiser for more church activities, but for community benevolence. How about a moving company to help low income families and church families in moving to a new residence? These business would not only produce financial profits, but “help equip the saints for the works of service,” the Ephesians 4 principle as well as produce entry level jobs for young people, the homeless, and those wanting to start a life of financial independence while serving. Actually these acts of service are great evangelistic efforts, touching the secular community, and grafting them and the local church into stronger community bonds.

What impact would volunteered tithing hours have on the elderly if church members did not just visit them for ten minutes on a Sunday afternoon during visiting hours, but instead took them to their doctor and dentist appointments, or helped maintain residential housing that is beyond the physical capabilities of an aging widow, so she can still have the freedom of living in her home instead of being forced into an assisted living situation?

What freedom would it give a parent of a physical or mental handicap child if volunteers would spend time with that child, freeing them to go shopping alone, going to the athletic club for their own health, or just have a badly needed date without the pressures of caregiving 24/7?

These possibilities only scratch the surface; allow your imagination to soar at the possibilities of how “active” how “alive” a local church would be if we tithed from our most sacred resource, our time. I cannot find in the scriptures where Jesus asks for our money, but he does request our time when he says, “Follow me.”  “Following Jesus” will always change the way we think of doing church, the way the community sees church, the way the “staff” would have to operate, and the way we would chose church leadership.

What do you think? What impact would “tithing of our time” change the way your church would do “church”? What would “church” then look like? How would the church manage all those volunteers and hours without hiring a “case manager”, another full time professional position? Let’s hear from you! 

I Have Been Replaced, So I Am Now Free To Move On!

What Does “Equipping The Saints” Mean? – Part XIII

It is easy to find the Senior Pastor during the majority of Christian church services: they are up front, on a platform elevated in front of all, or by the exit door shaking hands receiving compliments, “Nice Sermon”, or in a formal procession at the beginning of the service but is the central figure of everything that happens during the service.  He/she, and only he/she, is entitled to give the sermon, the official interpretation of the Word of God.  He/she is considered “a man/woman of God” unlike any other in the congregation, so he is revered, honored, held in high esteem. When he/she dies or decides to leave “the ministry”, there becomes a huge void, causing a search for another professional out side the confines of the local congregation to be brought in to “fill” the vacuum left by his leaving, but this is not the model of leadership during the first century of the Church. 

I do not know historically when the Church strayed from its Ephesians 4 calling to “equip the saints for works of service”, but it must have happened early in Church history.  By the end of the first century the Church was entrenched in the Bishop clergy/laity hierarchy model, diminishing and eroding the power of the saints ever since.  Although the Church claims “to make disciples of all men”, it has failed in “equipping” them for “service”. A Sunday Church “service” is still basically a “clergy” led “service” with the laity, the saints, being reduced to enabled followers. That is not the Biblical model set out by the 12 apostles in the first half of the first century.

I have yet to belong to, or even visit a church, where the “senior pastor” just sat in the midst of the congregation with “apostolic oversight”, just seeing what the Holy Spirit is doing with His people because the Senior Pastor had trained and equipped his congregation to do everything that they once expected him to do!  What! A laity giving the sermon or homily that had just been revealed to him through the Holy Spirit! A laity singing a prophetically motivated new song that ministered immediately to congregation in the unity of the theme being laid out by the Holy Spirit instead of “special music”, or a choir anthem, or being led by a worship team!  A member of the congregation taking the microphone, telling of a testimony of what Jesus was doing currently in their life that just so happened to go along with the Holy Spirit’s theme!  Someone sharing an originally written poem!  Someone painting, drawing, etching, or molding an original piece of art during the service!  Members of the congregation not having to be ushers to “collect” offerings, but every member of the congregation giving into containers during the time of worship as their “acts of worship”, their “acts of giving”!  The gifts of the spirit flowing among the congregation to minister to the hurting, to meet needs, to give directions, to give encouragement and edification, to make the Logos Word, the written Word, now become the Rhema Word, or the living Word, among them!  Members of the congregation “breaking bread” together and “sharing the cup” as a communal body of faith rather than a religious rite or practice!  All this happening while the Senior Pastor and his laity leadership team just blend into the congregation, “seeing over” in amazement what the Holy Spirit is doing in their midst, bringing unity through worship and purpose among themselves!

If leadership has “equipped the saints for works of service”, then leadership needs to “release” their congregation “to serve”.  Where is the safest place to release them to serve? Amongst the body of believers when they are gathered, for if they fall and stumble, which often is the best way to learn and practice, then “grace” and “mercy” can be extended so that they do not look at their stumbling as a “set back”, or “back sliding” as carnal Christians call it, but as a positive teaching method, to show them correction, to “equip” them to get up and stand strong so they do not stumble again!  We claim “Christians aren’t perfect; just forgiven”, but in our church services we propagate a climate of perfection: everyone smiles, everyone hides their hurts, everyone shakes hands and pats each other on the back as if they are old buddies. If the service is planned to the “T”, basically controlled, there will be no evident problems. If anything “unpredictable” happens, we will subdue it, for if someone is “out of line” we bring immediate judgment and condemnation to bring correction instead of allowing mercy and grace to weave their healing balms.  We claim that Jesus’ precious Holy Spirit is the pilot of our program and we the co-pilot, but we fly the plane, not allowing the Holy Spirit to break free or through our scheduled, protected, well-organized programs.

Why do God’s people, Christians, fear, as in fright, not reverence, the Holy Spirit? They are afraid if they release the Holy Spirit amongst themselves things will get “out of line”, “out of order”, people will “swing from the chandeliers” even though the church has only fluorescent lighting!  We fear chaos and confusion instead of expecting peace and unity, and we forget that the Holy Spirit’s goal is to bring “all men” to Jesus Christ, producing unity, not division!  We belittle the person of the Holy Spirit because of our lack of trust in Him, thus we belittle the person of Jesus Christ, because the Holy Spirit IS the SPIRIT OF JESUS CHRIST!

Leadership complains about how much is expected of them, and no one is going to do it if they don’t! That’s a lie: equip your saints, then release those saints which will also release leadership to move on to the next things Jesus through His Holy Spirit has for them to do!  Paul operated this way when starting churches: equipping the new saints over approximately a two year period, then released them to stand on their own so that he could move on to the next place the Holy Spirit was leading him toward to birth, equip, and release even more!  Church, maybe we should step back and examine Paul’s example as an apostle to understand the power of the laity, the saints, if they are properly equipped, trained, encouraged, nurtured, guided, then released to do ministry.  If you do that, you are blessed when you just sit amongst them and watch them “do it”! Wow! What a blessing that would be!

Surrounded By Care; The Five Fold Phenomenon

What Does “Equipping The Saints” Mean? – Part XII

We have been looking at what it means to “equip the saints for works of service” as out lined in Ephesians 4.  Part of equipping is surrounding a person with those things that will make them successful.  That is the power and beauty of the five fold; the strengths of many support the weaknesses of one.  Because the five fold is a team effort, a family effort, a community effort, no man is an island.    Personally, I have learned to realize that several attempts at ministry in the past to which I have been involved were not as successful as they could have been because I did not have that support of diverse passions, desires, and ministries around me. My weaknesses help hinder the success of ministry, but I had no one around me to support and lift me up through their diverse passion in the time of my weakness.

Let’s say that you have the pastoral passion of shepherding; you love to care for others and nurture them physically, emotionally, and spiritually toward maturity in Jesus Christ.  To get the full potential results of your ministry, you need the other four (evangelist, teacher, prophet, & apostle) components of the five fold to aid, abate, support, and equip your ministry.  You need an evangelist to birth “babes in Christ” so that you have someone to nurture.  You need the aide of the teacher to “ground” these new believers in the Word of God, the Bible, the aide of the prophet to teach them to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit for themselves and how to make the Logos Word a Rhema, or Living, Word, and the aide of apostolic oversight to monitor their spiritual growth from birth through maturity.  Shepherding is only one part of the entire picture in equipping a saint in his spiritual journey!

Without added support, one can feel swamped, over extended, and eventually burnt out trying to be all things to all men. Often in the current pastor/laity model of most small churches, the burn out rate among clergy is staggering because the congregation expects their pastor to be strong in all five areas when he/she may be gifted in just one or two of them, and we expect him/her to do it alone because he is a professional.  We need to change our perspective of ministry from a solo effort to a team approach of five.  Ministry should be a “team effort”: the strengths of those around you should shore up your weaknesses and free you to minister in and through your strength.  Ministry should be a “family approach” where all are members of the family of God; as in most families, members count on one another in order to succeed. Ministry should be a “community”: a community is made up of many different, diverse components that aide each other for the good of the group.

The key word of “equipping the saints for the work of service” is the word “service”.  We have to learn not only how to serve, but also be served.  If we become too arrogant, to independent, rejecting help from our brethren, we will rob them of the joy of servicing us. The reciprocal serving back and forth is the key to the success of the five fold ministry as a team ministry. It is a give and take situation. One’s strength and passion, mixed with compassion, can be a very effective tool at aiding, abetting, and supporting another brother or sister in the lord with a different passion than our own.

In conclusion, we need to accept the fact that we cannot do it alone; the kingdom of God is too big for just me or you to do it all. We are a body in Christ, the Church, so there are many other parts, people, whose gifting, though drastically different from our own, are needed to maximize the ministry of the gospel. Divisions will diminish if divergent passions serve one another, draw from one another, aide one another, and equip one another. Truly, then will we see a powerful Church with effective ministry.

What Does “Equipping The Saints” Mean? – Part X

Equipping Through Community

Can you imaging your local church going from approximately 120 to 3,120 in one weekend. That is what happened to the church at Jerusalem because of Pentecost.  Churches today pray for “revival”, but if 3,000 were saved in one weekend, what would your church do with these new converts?  How would they nurture them, disciple them, effectively teach them the Word particularly if they did not have a religious background, and live out what they learn?  Initially everyone would gather because of the excitement of the newness of the movement, but eventually numbers would begin to dwindle. With the new income from 3,000 people coming into their coffers, today’s churches would react by hiring more staff and starting a new building program to house all the people. All looks glorious at the beginning, but as numbers dwindle, so does the financial support, and soon layoffs occur and the huge building becomes a fiscal albatross.

In the Old Testament, priests were created to commune with God. They were a select group, one-tenth of the population, exclusively from the tribe of Levi.  In the New Testament the priesthood was no longer a selective group but a collective group of anyone who had accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior.  The Old Testament elevates the priest, but nowhere in the New Testament does it talk about being a priest, only establishing a “royal priesthood”.  It is the collective group that is elevated.  It is the community of faith, the believers corporately in Jesus Christ, the Church. I contend that it is the Church’s job to prepare and equip these new believers corporately to do the corporate work of service. How did this community get established?

The book of Acts vividly points out in its early chapters that this new movement of believers in Jesus Christ met in homes.  They “continued to break bread together”, in other words, fellowshipped with each other. They just did not “hang out” with one another on Sundays, but daily ate meals together, fellowshipped with one another, talked with one another, shared their day, their lives, intricately becoming a part of each other.  They accepted their differences, but began to blend into a group, a community, a family, a body, the Body of Christ, the Church. 

They began to sacrificially give, not to build a “church” building to hold the growing numbers in their congregation, not to add new staff, for there was no staff with academic degrees to hire, not to build a Bible School or Theological Seminary to advance the academia of this new movement, but they laid their finances at the feet of Jesus, literally at the feet of the Apostles, who used it to feed the poor, take care of the needy, the widows, the homeless, and the hurting. Deacons arose “to serve tables”, or do the work of service to those in need.

By fellowshipping together, living together, participating in each other’s lives on a daily basis, “relationships” were born and established.  Christianity is all about “relationships”.  John 3:16 points us to our relationships with God the Father through his son, Jesus Christ, re-establishing a broken relationship caused by sin, yet sanctified through the Cross.  The vertical relationship with God and man has been restored. I John 3:16 points us to our relationship with each other through the principle of “laying down one’s life” for each other.  People who are willing to sacrificially do that, as Jesus had done during his life, will discover that it develops a very close community, a community that even persecution can not dissolve, a community built on intimate, committed relationships.

Soon passions of “service” arose from this new group: some wanting to go out and evangelize, telling those who have not heard about this gospel, this “good news”; some wanting to nurture those who were already in their midst, to help them grow toward maturity in their new faith in Jesus Christ; some who discovered that all this had been foreshadowed and written about in the Torah, the Old Testament, among the prophets and the writings of David and Solomon, and diligently began to search the scriptures to reveal the truth; some to make sure this new revealed scriptural truth did not become just academic nor legalistic, but continue to be pliable, active, living.  In spite of this diversity, they continued to fellowship in unity of faith and purpose. They learned to give to one another and take from one another, thus causing their relationships to deepen even further.

When persecution finally did hit Jerusalem, the Church had already prepared and equipped their believers to move on in their flight for safety to all different regions throughout the world, and the Church continued to grow, develop, mature, preparing and equipping another generation to “serve” their God and “serve” one another.  Soon the Church was no longer looked upon as a new Jewish sect, but a vibrant, living, organism to be reckoned with, challenging all the already existing religions and leaders of its day.

 As we have institutionalized the Church over the centuries we have lost the sense of community among believers, instead establishing divisions among us through clergy and laity and through denominational distinctions, labels and beliefs.  We claim to be one body, but are so fragmented, divided, and even hostile towards one another because of our divisions.  Large portions of our church budgets finance large institutions and magnificent edifices while minimal amounts go toward the poor, the widows, the homeless, and the hurting.  To reestablish the power of the first century Church back into our institutions, we will have to first again establish community and the willingness to “lay down our lives” for one another, breaking bread with one another, fellowshipping daily among one another.  We will have to establish community back into the Church.

Preparing And Equipping Toward Maturity

What Does “Equipping The Saints” Mean? – Part IX

It is basic to human nature to want to feel needed, to fulfill a purpose, to feel appreciated, to hear someone say, “What would we do without you?”  Unfortunately we often enable people in order to get the gratitude we think we deserve. What kind of parent would we be if our twenty-eight year old son still thanked us for doing their wash, feeding him, financially supporting him while he plays computer games all day, drive him everywhere, and are a part of every decisions he makes, but he shows his gratitude by saying, “What would I do without you?”  We would be considered a failure as a parent. The adult child is nowhere close to becoming independent because he has learned that you will enable him every step of the way.

Most church’s attempt at spiritually parenting is usually a disaster, for we enable those who come into our door. We greet them, pamper them, preach to them, pray for them, tell them what to do, when to financially give, when to stand, when to sit, when to be social, and when quietness is reverence.  We teach submission to authority to the point that authority tells one everything they should or should not do, never allowing them to figure it out themselves or let their conscious be their compass. When that authority or leadership leaves, everyone gasps, “What are we going to do without you?” while beginning to look for a replacement.

Enabling and equipping are opposites. When we equip people, we are preparing them to stand alone, no longer needing our assistance and care, and actually propelling them to accomplish feats beyond our capabilities. Enabling enslaves the person, keeping them in a position of control, continuing to draw them toward dependency. Jesus never enabled. He prepared and equipped his disciples to be able to stand alone once he left earth to return to his rightful place beside his Father in heaven. He built their faith on the Word of God while releasing the Holy Spirit to “teach them all things”.  In fact, he said that they would do “greater things” than he did during his earthly stay.

Apostle Paul would kick into the evangelistic mode when entering a new town or city. When new followers accepted Christ he kicked into the shepherding/pastoral mode and began to nurture them in the faith, using his teaching skills to make the written Word relevant while prophetically living it. He would see over what the Holy Spirit was doing amongst the whole group before leaving.  When he left, he left a fully sufficient, independent church of believers standing on their own faith. They did not have to have Paul around any more. They freed him to move on to his next evangelistic project. He had prepared them and equipped them.

Paul, and older brother in the faith, also prepared and equipped others younger in the faith in becoming apostles, future leaders. He and Barnabas journeyed together, but eventually Paul took young Mark under his care. Even though their relationship was rocky on his first missionary journey because of Mark’s immaturity, Paul eventually praises Mark, supports Mark, encourages Mark to continue in leadership, and the rest is history.  Preparing and equipping means walking beside a brother or sister in the Lord in their journey, not preaching at them or having them read numerous books on the topic.  As we have scene Paul used this principle and so did Jesus who walked with the 12 disciples.  It is not an academic exercise but a physical and spiritual one. It is the walking out, and working out, of one’s faith walk together. It is a daily walk, an intimate walk, a relational walk that prepares, builds, and equips others.

A key component after preparation and equipping is releasing.  Paul had to release each new church to stand on its own. He equipped them with the Word, the Holy Spirit, with spiritual gifts, with community, and the tools needed for leadership; now they had to stand alone.  All that preparation and equipping would be useless if he had not released them.

We as a Church need to rethink what preparing, equipping, and releasing means in our relationships of discipling and nurturing our brothers and sisters in their spiritual growth. As parents we celebrate when our sibling graduates from high school or college, gets married, and becomes a parent, all steps in growing up and becoming independent from our parental care.  The empty nest syndrome is the realization that our sibling has left the nest, our home, and established their own, gotten married or become independent, and may become parents themselves now supporting their own siblings. Most churches I know do not experience an empty nest syndrome as they have prepared and equipped their own laity, their own believers in Jesus, to become independent enough to go out and start their own church, their own ministry, their own acts of service producing growth. They do not reproduce others to replay themselves!

As we learn about the passions of our fellow believers in Jesus, we need to encourage them to grow in their passion, to develop relationships of equality with others who have different passions than their own, to learn to support one another by laying down their lives for one another, to prepare them by encouraging self reflection, developing a private discipline devotional time of Bible study and prayer, giving them an outlet to share what they have seen and heard during these times. We need to equip them with the Word, the Bible, teach them the literal Word of God, the Logos Word, and how to live it, the Rhema Word, and surround them with community, the Church. Then we may see a change, a transformation, from dead-beat Christians, enabled Christians to active, living, growing, nurturing, and supporting Christians. If we see those changes, we have prepared and equipped successfully.

What Does “Equipping The Saints” Mean? – Part I

Our Spiritual Library’s Story

I’ve been thinking about what does it mean to “equip the saints for the work of service”?  In most Westernize churches that means intellectual training: reading books, taking courses, and holding intellectual discussions.  If I am in a men’s ministry group, I will probably have to read a book called “10 Ways To Be A Better Christian Man” or “How To Be A Better Christian Husband”. If in a small home group atmosphere, I may be asked to read a book that every small group is reading to keep the message consistent throughout the body or read articles that complement the Pastor’s sermons.  If in a youth group, “How To Win Your School For Christ” may be the reading of choice. If in a women’s group, “Thousands Of Ways To Submit To Your Husband” could be another satirical title. If being a new attender, you might be asked to read, “What We Believe” book, or if you are a developing church leader, you might be asked to read “25 Steps Towards Righteous Leadership”!  If you attend a mid-week service, you might read “Missions, A Call To The World” to keep you informed of the church’s missionary endeavors.  If you are an “active” member, you could be reading multiple books at one time!  Then when meeting as a small group, you discuss whatever book you have read: “meet & discuss” sessions.  Application of what you have read will probably be done on your own, but at least you got to discuss the matter.

Being a Christian of over 50 years, I now have accumulated a large library of books (most of which I have now discarded), have taken a multitude of courses, have sat through thousands of teachings and sermons, have taken online/workbook individualized courses, have attended a multitude of conferences, to specifically train me for what?  When I get to heaven, will I have to read “10 Steps To Get Into Heaven” so Peter and I can discuss it before allowing me to enter?

The Bible says that we are not only to be hearers of the Word, but doers! Unfortunately, very seldom has reading a Christian themed book lead me to become a doer of its material.  I have become “aware” of its topics, “informed” of its topics, and maybe even “intellectually stimulated” by its themes, but usually not motivated to actually “do it”!  Why does almost everything in Western Christendom have to be intellectualized?  The Jewish culture, which is where God decided to immerse Himself, operates out of the heart, the emotion. King David is known as a man with God’s heart, not God’s head.  His son, Solomon, is known as the intellect, constantly trying to intellectualize his faith unlike his father. Knowing God with your heart means experiencing God!  Experience goes beyond just intellectualizing it, for if you feel it, you “do it” in order to “know it”!

Maybe to start out asking how we are “to equip the saints for the work of service”, we should ask how we can help people “experience” God for themselves, and stand beside them, behind them, next to them in “their” walk of faith, in “their” unique faith journey.  What can we do to “support” them in their walk, their growth, their journey?  Finally, can we “release” them to “do it” on their own, without our guidance, in other words, “grow up spiritually”, become mature in the faith?  How can we teach them to depend on the faithfulness of the Father, depend on Jesus, depend on the Holy Spirit rather than depending on an older mature Christian or a professional staff member?  Can we “release” them so we can move on as well as they move on in our faith walks?

Being an English teacher who emphasized reading good meaningful literature, it is ironic that I am saying that we need to at some time place aside the books written by other authors, and begin to write about our “Acts” of faith, our spiritual walk, what we are “doing” for the kingdom of God. This is not to put us under legalism of a “works” kick, but to free us to walks the journeys we are equipped to walk. 

In order to understand how “to equip the saints for works of service”, I propose that we need to first understand that this journey will NOT just be just an intellectual journey, but a journey of the heart, a journey of our emotions, a journey of experiencing our faith, a faith journey in Jesus, lead by the Holy Spirit.  We will continue to walk in this journey in the next series of blogs!

A Christian Response To The Mentally Ill

A Reaction To The Newtown Shootings

Another mass shooting in the U.S., another news spectacle, and another tie with mental illness.  True, the tragedy of twenty young innocent children and six adults is horrific, and the news media is placing the magnitude of the pain of the parents, family, and community under the microscope as if it is incomprehensible, but can you imagine the pain, the guilt, the embarrassment, the shame, etc. that the brother of the shooter is feeling who lost his mother, and estranged, mentally anguished troubled brother while being blamed at first for the shooting because of stolen identity. Those of us who have loved ones who face severe mental illness cringed because it just could have been our loved one who made the news.  We are use to blame, to manipulation, to fear, to ridicule, to misunderstanding, to embarrassment, to the pain and stigma that mental illness can bring when engulfing our loved one. The secular world is questioning gun control as a possible solution, but missing the underlining cause for the shooting: mental illness. What should the Christian response be to all of this blackness, darkness, abyssfull behavior?

Mercy: God’s Presence in the Temple’s Holy of Holies was above the “mercy” seat protected by two cherubim. What is mercy? Police officers at a Crisis Intervention Training course sponsored by the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill recently could identify. If someone has a gun against your temples in your head, you are at their “mercy”; you have no control over if they will pull the trigger or not. It is out of your hands, and you are at the total will and actions of the one whose finger is on the trigger. Then you beg for “mercy”. For one facing severe mental illness, the mental disorder they are facing is the finger on the trigger; they are at the “mercy” of the disease, but God never pulls the trigger; He extends “mercy” often through forgiveness, unmerited favor and kindness in spite of who we are, what we are like, or what we have done.  Our actions, attitudes, and sin qualify us for the trigger to be pulled, but God opts to not pull it, drop the gun, and extend a hand of help and hope instead. In the midst of darkness, He is light; in the midst of hopelessness, He is hope; in the midst of confusion, He brings clarity; in the midst of insanity, He can bring sanity.

Grace:  In the midst of all the pain, confusion, and maelstrom of emotions, God extends unmerited favor, kindness, and love. When we deserve the worst, He extends His best.  In place of judgment and condemnation, He extends unmerited favor. In place of engulfing guilt, He extends forgiveness and peace. In place of bondage, He gives freedom. Those fighting mental illness probably know more about grace than we who don’t have to face it.  Depression brings darkness, hopelessness, anxiety, fears, and uncertainty, yet God’s “grace” offers light, hope, stability, and peace in the midst off all this.  Often many negative deeds and actions by one fighting mental illness is actually a cry for help and “grace” to be extended their way.

Connectivity:  Mental illness brings disconnectivity. There is a feeling of detachment from one’s feelings, social relationships, family, friends, and life in general.  Those standing in the peripheral circles around one’s life now look distant, as they withdraw, not sure how to respond, creating even more disconnectedness. Soon the one fighting mental illness feels “detached” from everyone; he/she becomes a loner.  This is when they find themselves in a dangerous position.  The Christian Gospel is all about “connectivity”: 1) man disconnected from their God can be reconnected through forgiveness from the Father, God, through the shed blood of Jesus Christ, their sacrificial lamb; 2) man disconnected from each other can be reconnected through reconciliation, forgiveness by each other, bringing restored relationships; 3) man disconnected with his mind, his emotions, himself can be restored through God’s healing touch restoring “the mind of Christ” in one’s mind and a “heart for God” with one’s emotions.  The Body of Christ, the Church, is all about connecting with one another, reaching out to one another, and restoration of relationships.  It is exactly what those battling mental illness need.  Instead of isolation and loneliness, the Church must offer them fellowship and acceptance.

Often when one battling dark depression picks suicide as a viable option they do not want their attempt to succeed; they want someone to intervene because it is actually a cry for help?  Judgment, criticism, and isolation are just what the person doesn’t need, but usually gets from us who do not understand their conflict, the darkness that they are experiencing, nor the emotional pain that torments their very existence. We Christians, the Church, need at those moments to not ostracize them, criticize them, nor ban them to isolation and loneliness. It is then that we need to “connect” with them, for that is the gospel. That is the hope they are looking for.

Many are asking, “What can we do to prevent another disaster like the one this weekend?” Hopefully we will extend “grace”, show “mercy”, and help them to connect with their God, their family, and people who will extend “grace” and “mercy”.  

A Look At Past Revivals And Present Realities

What Mess? Let’s Have Some Soup!

I attend a local church who fifteen years ago emphasized equipping the saints, teaching each individual Christian to read the Word of God and dig for its truths themselves, to listen to the Holy Spirit themselves, to learn to be obedient to what the Word and the Spirit was telling them individually and corporately.  From a passive onlooker’s point of view, it looked rather messy.  Different people with different passions with different understandings with different points of view all extending their faith in different directions with different giftings, etc., etc. It looked like there was no single purpose for direction. I have been through the Charismatic Movement which released individual believers in Jesus Christ to be priests of the Holy Spirit which exploded in diverse ways, looking extremely messy. Freedom released often looks messy! Revivals, being free in the Spirit, for some reason, always turn out messy!

Since then, the church has been struggling with “how to clean up the mess” as they focus on the mess, but they can not lose sight of the creation that the Lord is brewing.  When I make beef vegetable soup, it is quite the process: preparing a stock of rich beef broth with a touch of chicken broth for diversity and taste, cutting beef into small chewable size chunks, dicing carrots, celery, zucchini, and string beans, mincing onions, slicing tomatoes, trimming broccoli and cauliflower into edible size morsels, adding pinches of salt, oregano, and pepper, thinly slicing mushrooms, dumping in a complimentary size portion of peas and corn, and adding the right amount of olive oil, then letting it cook while simmering, allowing all the juices, all the ingredients, all the special flavors to infiltrate each other into a marvelous concoction that only my soup spoon can handle when finished. As I step back to inhale its intoxicating rich aroma while it simmers, I am shocked at the condition of the kitchen: a TOTAL MESS!  Although I now spend up as much time cleaning up the mess as in preparation of the soup, I CAN NOT loose sight of that cooking masterpiece on my stove, still simmering, still blending, still in the process of being a culinary masterpiece.  Good soup takes time!  Unfortunately, the church often looks and works at cleaning up the messes and looses sight of the pot, still cooking, still simmering, still in the process of making a masterpiece: delicious soup!

Do you stop the pot of soup from cooking? Do you turn off the dial that brings the heat that causes the chemical creations of all those diverse vegetables and broth to blend together? No.  The soup is not ready yet! Only when there is a think layer of “oil” floating on the top created from the blending of the entire creation do you know that the soup is thick, the soup is blended, the soup is ready to eat! Get out your soup spoon, but not before it is done or you will miss the richness of properly blended soup!  We need to “wait upon the Lord” until the “oil” of his Holy Spirit is upon the finished product before we, as humans, mess with it again!  If we want the richness of what the Lord is doing, we must be patient, allow His process to work towards its completion!

It is alright to clean up the mess around the creation that we made for its preparation, but it is not wise to mess with or abort the project when it is simmering, stewing, going through the laborious process towards completion. God is still at work! He is the creator; let’s not mess with his creation, only clean up our messes! 

I see this generation who has seen the mess created by past movements of God fearful to let go and release again that same spirit that might bring more mess, especially right after a clean up. I understand; I hear you, but don’t forget: the pot is still simmering, stewing, blending, ….. The preparation work is done; the clean up is done; now is the time for waiting for that “oil” to rise from the project to signal its time of maturity.  If you are patient, you will benefit from all the preparation, the mess it created, the clean up, and the long cooking time. Remember: WITH PATIENCE YOU GET TO EAT THE FINISHED PRODUCT! REJOICE! Get your soup spoon ready!

I would be devastated if my wife came into the kitchen when it had its mess and tried to shut it down and throw my creation away. She would remind me, point out, and emphasize the mess, MY MESS, that I made! She would demand CONTROL back of HER kitchen because of MY mess! She may get angry, may raise her voice, or may give me the “evil eye” that only mothers and wives can give at precisely the right moment to get their poignant point of their displeasure across! She may even continue to NAG me about MY mess even while I am cleaning it up! And if really angry, if really feeling intolerant, if really feeling offended, she may take the lid off the pot, complain about the “film” of “oil” that is floating on top, and throw all its contents away!  After all the mess is cleaned up, after all the emotions are deescalated, after emotional damage has occurred to all involved, there will again be an immaculate clean kitchen, but NO SOUP!

That is how most churches have handled the mess of change caused by the Holy Spirit which we call revival. They choose to throw the Godly workings of that revival out because of the mess that was created. The Church still wants the benefits of revival, but without the mess.  The benefits of revival is the soup, but after throwing the soup away, you can not get it back!

Church, let’s be patient. Many in the past have “prepared” that which is brewing, stewing, bubbling in our midst today. We need to recognize that there was mess in the preparation, and it is OK to clean up after making our messes, but please, please, please, don’t throw out the pot of soup, God’s product, or it will be forever lost! Instead rejoice together by getting out your soup spoons in preparation of the “feast” the “banquet” that the Lord has prepared for us to enjoy TOGETHER!  

America & The Church: Facing The Challenge Of Community

 The Need For The 5 Fold – Part II

The Issue: How To Develop Community

The Black population in America cherishes community, and speaks of it boldly when talking of their corporate experience.  Their sense of community was developed through centuries of slavery and suffering, for only through their own personal bonding together did they have a corporate sense of purpose and understanding.  The Leave It To Beaver communities of the 1950’s featured neighborhoods that did social activities together, worshiped together at local corner churches, while serving and helping one another, but by the Archie Bunker All In The Family and Ray Ramano Everyone Loves Raymond eras, America experienced dysfunctional families and communities.  Families no longer sat on their porches visiting, sharing in community picnics and fairs, sitting together around band shells to be entertained but passed one another in their cars traveling to different destinations for social, religious, and business purposes. Today “personal visitations” is becoming obsolete, as Social Networking through Smart Phones enables communications and becoming “bf”, best friends, through Facebook, texting, emailing, Skyping and FaceTiming, etc. while even sitting in the same room, muting oral communications as fingers fly across their phone’s keyboards. Technology redefines community, so how should the Church adjust to redefining community.  First Century times featured breaking bread together, eating together, fellowshipping or hanging out together. Distant correspondence came through letter writing even most of the population were illiterate. With the invention of the printing press, that changed, as people could entertain themselves by reading a good book and local libraries became part of the community. By the twenty-first century with the Internet and World Wide Web one does not have to even leave their personal dwelling or living space to communicate with the world, anyone, anywhere as long as there is Internet connection.  The sense of community has gone through small towns and neighborhoods to a world wide view.

One of the challenges America and the Church faces in the 21^st Century is how to define “community”, the bonding of relationships.  Several churches sensing demographic change in the late 20^th Century changed their church names away from denominational traditions to “community” churches, hoping to maintain an old paradigm of past years, but now with a new generation, new mindsets, new technology, and a new way of looking at the world, the Church has to have a paradigm shift if it is to be effective in birthing, establishing, influencing, and impacting 21^st Century community.  “Church” is a community of believers, and the church has to determine how to define “church” in a changing demographic world influenced by technology, redefining what “church”, “doing church” and “meeting at church” as well as what “a church service” means.  How does it do that?

At the local level, I believe doctrine of Priesthood of Believers must be again unveiled, teaching the role of every believer in their faith walk individually and corporately, called the “church”.  Are we willing to respect past history and traditions, but be willing to lay them on the altar and allow the Holy Spirit to do a new thing for this new generation?  Are we willing to provide “new wineskins”, new forms, new mindsets, and new visions and points of view for new ideas, directions, and ministries of service to be birthed, generated, and maintained by the Holy Spirit?

If there was ever a time the five fold was needed, it is today to “discern” where the Holy Spirit is leading for this generation!  By having an evangelistic, shepherding/pastoral, teaching, prophetic, and apostolic spirits come together to lay down their lives for one another, serve one another, and support one another, the Church can corporately listen to the “still small voice” of the Holy Spirit for guidance and direction.  If they seek the “voice” of God in unity, they will also hear him in unity. God does speak when we are willing to listen.  The challenge comes in what to do when he speaks, for the Holy Spirit demands “obedience” to what has been “revealed” by the Heart of the Father through the voice of the Holy Spirit.  For the Church in the 1st Century and the 21^st Century, “obedience” defines “righteousness”!

When the Holy Spirit gives direction to a local church or congregation, then the evangelistic spirit among them must be “released” to birth this new sense of community; those believers who exemplify the shepherding/pastoral spirit must be “released” to minister to one another to develop and sustain that community; those with a teaching spirit need to be “released” to exhort the written, the Logos Word, the Bible, to ground them in Biblical principles defining community; those who flow in the prophetic spirit must be “released” to make this grounded Logos Word a Rhema, living word to bring “life” to this community; and those believers given the gift of the apostolic spirit, the God ordained ability to see the big picture must be “released” to “see over” what the Holy Spirit is doing amongst the group and allow them to “release” the other four passions to do “the work of service” to birth, develop, maintain, grow, and reproduce this aspect of community which the Holy Spirit defined. That is how the five fold works.

The way the Church defines and does “community”, does “church”, by the end of the 21^st Century hopefully will look drastically different than it did in the 10^th, 15^th, 20^th, and even beginning of the 21^st Centuries. Jesus has empowered his Bride, the Church, to move toward change, to birth, develop, and maintain a Church without spot or wrinkle to prepare the Bride for the return of its Groom, the return of Jesus.

America & The Church: Facing The Challenge Of The Elderly

The Need For The 5 Fold – Part I

The Issue: The Elderly

One of the last things Jesus did on earth while on the Cross in pain was to take care of his mother upon his death.  He instructs his beloved disciple John to take Mary as his mother.  He “releases” John to not only “take care of the widows” but to “take care of his mother, a widow”.  We never hear much about Joseph, his father in the gospels except at Jesus’ birth and searching for his 12 year-old son who was at the Temple doing “his Father’s business”. The narration of Joseph is then silenced, I assume probably through death, for Mary is alone at the Cross, given to John to be cared for.  In Paul’s apostolic letters, the Church is always exhorted to take care of the elderly.

The Church always has asked, and still does: “How are we to take care of the elderly, the widows?” Are they to build “Assisted Living Homes” and “Nursing Homes” that are popular today, or teach their followers to have their parents move in with them as their responsibility?

With the large number of Baby-Boomers in America, a growing “older” population is begin to wonder, to worry, to fear its future. Who will take care of them? Their parents lived in the Post-World War II prosperity, establishing retirement funds and government programs to take care of them when aging.  The Baby-Boomers are trying to follow their father’s footsteps, but with the prosperity era closing as everything is becoming “world-wide” instead of nationally centered, prosperity is being shifted globally affecting the wealth of America. The younger generation, now in their 20’s & 30’s, do not have employer financed Retirement Programs, but are offered personal IRA, Individual Retirement Funds, that they personally finance in spite of lower wages and a dwindling middle class.  As the wealthier get wealthier, and the poor remain poor, the middle class is finding a large chunk of itself now falling under the poverty level. What future for “old age” do they have when barely maintaining a current cost of living?

How is the American Church to address this dilemma? This blog’s purpose is not to specifically answer that question because it does not have specific solutions. What it does have to offer is a tool that can effectively come up with an answer: the five fold.

As a church locally or nationally, it needs to pull together its resources of evangelists, shepherds, teachers, prophets, and apostles to address the question and come up with the solutions. Reading Acts 15 may help, for the early Church found itself engulfed in a church political question about the Jew/Gentile relationship and how it would effect the Church and its future. They faced the tough questions, challenged the hypocritical attitudes of its time, make the question personal to Peter, Paul, & the others present, called on the Holy Spirit for a solution, and came to one in unity.  They then released the evangelist to “birth” or announce their decision among the entire church, released the shepherd particularly among the Gentile Church with guidelines on how to maintain, grow, and develop this new organism, the Church, released the teachers to teach their congregations how to “live out” this word of unity they now had, released the prophets to make this written edict, this written word a “living word” by actually sending out people from their midst, whom I believed were prophets, to help the Church now make this decision a “living decision”, and released the apostles to not have to “do” the work, but only “see over” what the Holy Spirit just decided and “release” all the others to use their gifting, passion, and point of view toward the unifying good for the entire Body of Christ, the Church.  That is how it works!

To answer the question “how to take care of the elderly, the widows”, the Church at large, particularly the church locally who needs to implement the answer among themselves, needs to bring together their diversity of passions and points of view, their evangelists, shepherds, teachers, prophets, and apostles to ask the Lord through His Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus Christ for “revelation”, to reveal the answer to all present that will bring “unity” in vision, direction, and purpose upon a solution to the problem, then release each of them to use their gifting to make this written agreement a living agreement. In old times a man was only worth the value of his “word”; his “word” was his bond”, but the “word” was of no use unless nor valued unless it was “lived out”!

The uniqueness of “trusting the Holy Spirit” is that he may tell one group specifics on how to “take care of their elderly” differently than he may another individual group because of different societal norms and values and traditions of that group.  One way may be effective in one area that would not be effective in another.  One area may be strong in family values, thus calling upon individual families to be the strength of their joint ministry, while in another location where the family has disintegrated, the church at large might have to become the family to teach individual families how to function Biblically, how fathers are to father properly modeled by their heavenly Father, mothers to mother with godly nurturing, siblings to encourage one another, not challenge, fight, nor kill one another, etc. See the Holy Spirit knows and will reveal “the heart” of the local church and what is needed for “heart restoration” in solving the problem.

Once the answer or solution has been “revealed”, for “revelation of Jesus Christ” is at the heart of the workings of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, then the church needs to “release” the evangelistic spirit in its midst to “birth” or “rebirth” that solution in their midst, “releasing” the shepherding spirit to grow and develop that solution based on Godly principles taught by the teacher through the Word of God, the Bible, whose relevancy will be “revealed” through “releasing” the prophet to make it a “living” “active” solution, to be “seen over” by proper apostolic oversight, those who see the big picture of the entire solution process, but who are willing not to do the work, nor control what is being done, but continuing to “release” the other diverse giftings, passions, and points of view toward the unifying solution to the problem.

That is how the five fold is to work to solve problems.  Church, lets face our challenges, especially taking care of the elderly, the widows, the senior saints who have labored for decades for the cause of the gospel as they enter the fall season of their lives, by trusting the Holy Spirit for solutions, Biblically based, by actively living out the solutions to resolve the issue until the challenges dissipate.  This is the first century Church model as outlined in the book of Acts; this is the twenty-first century Church model we, the Church, needs to implement and exercise in our time, today.

The Great American Debate: Who's My Brother’s Keeper?

A Look At Who Is To Help The Poor, The Widows, The Severely Sick, The Homeless?

 After every American Presidential election a lot of evaluations, introspections, and analysis occur. Questions are asked by the losing party to analyze what went wrong, what oversights did they have, etc.  One of the big questions during this election was “Who is my brother’s keeper?”  The Republicans said the private sector; the Democrats said the government; and I asked if it is the Church’s responsibility.  Americans are so self-centered when voting. As a lady on one Republican TV add asked, “Mr. Obama, what have you done for my family since you were in office?” What is in it for me: a job, benefits, educational opportunities, etc.? It is not what is best for the country; Americans have lost touch with what sacrifice means during an election year. What is in it for me?  I think the turning point of this election came with Hurricane Sandy, for the reality of “Who’s My Brother’s Keeper” came alive as the private sector held TV concerts asking people to donate $10 to the American Red Cross, while President Obama came on location, promising to cut through the red tape so people could reestablish their homes, their dreams, their fortunes. Government responded better than the private sector did, enough to sway the vote to reelect the President.

“Who Is My Brother’s Keeper” I have asked in previous blogs and cannot get that question out of my head. The best example that hits home for me is the issue of mental illness, which I have addressed in previous blogs. My wife supposedly has health coverage through the private sector and Medicare A, governmental coverage, because of her disability. After a year of three inpatient visitations, Medicare has yet to pay for anything, and since I am retired, I pay a huge out of pocket sum to my private sector provider, plus copays, additional bills because of non-network providers, and forever calling my private sector health provider over billing errors, bills, and administrative headaches, etc.  

With inpatients, the private sector hospitals dealing with mental health try to bandage serious problems and have the patient discharged by the 21^st day because of pressure from the private sector health provider who bottom line is to make a profit.  The health and welfare for the patient isn’t the top priority; payment to keep our huge American health system afloat is. Where I live, the health system is the highest county employer, the largest county institution, even greater in number than government workers.

If the private sector doesn’t want to be my brother’s keeper unless the bottom line, a profit, is made, nor the government due to political pressure, then is it the Church’s responsibility?  I have learned that most churches are clueless on how to handle mental illness, nor any understanding how to reach out to the person inflicted by the disease nor the family who is the caregiver. 

What does a caregiver do when hospitals will not take in their sick loved one inflicted with a serious mental disease unless they are able “to physically hurt themselves or someone else”? What does the caregiver do when hospitals work hard to “release” the patient as quickly as possible, even when they are not medically stable to be released due to pressure from health insurance providers? What does the caregiver do when their loved one, who is still very ill, is released back into their care with little if any supportive resources available for the caregiver? What does the caregiver do when their “religious family” inadvertently avoids them because they doesn’t understand their dilemma due to stigma, further isolating the ill person and their caregivers?

At least in America’s mental health world, everything is dumped on the caregiver: the coordinating of multiple doctors of all kind of medical persuasions due to addressing side effects, the financial burden of all the “bills” the others do not want to cover, and the extreme pressure and tension of being the caregiver 24/7 when at the mercy of slow working drugs, over booked psychiatrists who meet for only 15 minutes to “re-address” drugs, and ineffective recovery programs.

….. And if the mentally ill person doesn’t have a loving caregiver or family, their future probably holds poverty, program and institutional dependency for the rest of their lives, nonstop taking of powerful mind altering drugs, possible conflicts with the law if they become medically noncompliant resulting in criminal records and possible incarceration, and possible homelessness.

All this can be avoided if we follow the Biblical principal, “I was a stranger and you …” took me in, clothed me, fed me, visited me in prison, in the hospital, in a homeless shelter. We need to be like the Good Samaritan who was willing to help a Jew, a non-Samaritan, a stranger, who was physically beaten down, paying for his medical coverage and housing until he could again stand on his own.

Church, are we expecting our Samaritans, the non-Christian institutions, to take care of our hurting brethren, or are we going to step up to the plate and begin reaching out to the physically and mentally ill, the hurting, the homeless, the rejected and dejected? This is why the power of “shepherding” in the five fold model needs to be revived and supported by the other passions and point of views for effective ministry. With all these challenges, the five fold is needed more now than ever.

How Is Your Church Bent?

Leadership Defined By Releasing Diversity

Often a local congregation’s “bent” or “uniqueness” that distinguishes it from the other local congregations, lies in the gifting of its leadership.  If its leadership is evangelistic, the local church is evangelistic.  If the leader ship is pastoral, nurturing, shepherding in emphasis, the local church is known as a caring church. If the leader is a theologian, the church is known for a pastor that “preaches the Word of God.”  If it nurtures the spiritual development of its congregants to hear the Holy Spirit for themselves, then it is known to be prophetic.  If it is has “strong, dominant” leadership, it may be known as apostolic. But can we find a church that emphasizes and develops all of these? Currently, I can’t, but I believe it is God’s will to have all these passions, voices, and points of view in a diverse local congregation, and that it would be healthy in the birth, development, training, and releasing of Christians as they mature through different levels of their Christian spiritual growth.

We know that the key to spiritual Christian growth lies in its leadership, but in the current church models, we lay everything at the feet of our professional pastor to be all things to all people, who are so diverse in their talents, so diverse in their learning styles, and being “children,” spiritually are often spoiled rotten! Often, the result is burn out! So, we usually define leadership with going with your strength, thus each individual church gains its identity as a evangelical church, a nurturing church, a strong teaching church, or a prophetic church through the strength of its pastor.  I propose that true five fold apostolic leadership is not about going with the strength of the leader, but he releasing the strengths of those around him, particularly those of different gifting, voices, passions, and points of view.  It is the administration, encouragement, equipping, and releasing of these people to reach their destiny, their passions for the common good of the entire church that is the key to true leadership of a five fold apostle.

So this defines a new paradigm shift in the way the church should look at leadership. Leadership in the five fold model is defined “by laying down your life for your brethren.”  It is not about you at all; it is about the other brethren.  It is selfless love, unconditional love.  The only way to bring unity in the body amongst all its diversity is to learn how to “lay down your life for your brethren,” particularly those who are different from yourself.  Often we think that leadership is making replicas of ourselves, but that is not the case with the five fold.  We do not reproduce ourselves, we release others to be themselves.

To achieve this leadership will have to learn the depths of “grace” and “mercy.”  Often leadership finds itself in judgmental positions, but James 2:13 proclaims “mercy triumphs over judgment,” so leadership will have to learn how to extend mercy to whom they are leading and that will be by laying down their lives for them rather than being “over” them.  When you are “laying down” you are never above anyone!  Only then will one understand what “the mercy seat” is all about when in the presence of the Lord.  You will also have to learn the true meaning of “grace”, unmerited favor, for you will have to extend grace, that unmerited favor, to your fellow brethren whom you are laying down your life’s for. 

The Five Fold Is Already In Your Church; I Sincerely Hope So!

Ways The Church Might Change: Point 10

[In a previous blog I have outlined 10 possible changes the Church may face in the future. This is point 10 in the series: God has been reestablishing the evangelist, pastor, teacher, prophet, and apostle back into the Church. They are in the Church now!  This generation has to be open to allowing the Holy Spirit to bring them together through submission and releasing one another to operate in their passions, callings, and voices to bring unity to the body of Christ and being effective.]

As you have seen throughout this series, I believe revival in the Church will come through relationships vertically with the Godhead and horizontally among believers while demanding total trust in the Spirit of Jesus Christ to lead the way.   If you have read my series on metamorphosis, you would also know that I believe that the Church is in a time of transformation, a cocoon stage, where the current slow cumbersome caterpillar structure of the Church is being transformed into a complete different structure, a hard shelled resilient structure of a butterfly that will allow it to fly.  The Church is in a period of change, but as members of the Church, the Priesthood of Believers, the Bride of Christ, are we willing to embrace these changes?

One of the changes that is occurring is the reestablishment of the five fold of Ephesians 4 back into the church as passions, gifts, points of view, and voices in individual believers to make them more Christ-like and bring unity within the Church that has not existed for the last 20 centuries.

Every local Christian church needs an evangelistic passion to win the lost and proclaim the message, “You must be born again” of “the water and the spirit”.  With revival is always a powerful movement of new believers in Jesus Christ.  The evangelistic spirit is the spirit of birthing, and every local church needs that spirit in order to grow in number.

Every local Christian church needs a pastoral, shepherding spirit that nurtures, cares, develops, equips, trains, and releases their believers towards ministry, “works of service”.  The evangelist births, but the pastoral/shepherd nurtures these newborns through their spiritual childhood and adolescence to prepare, equip, and train them in Christ-like character development to release them to be able to stand and advance the kingdom of God as mature believers. The pastoral/shepherding spirit is the spirit of development, and every local church needs that spirit in order to grow in character in Christ-likeness.

Every local Christian church needs the teaching spirit. The Word of God, the Bible, is the foundation of all that happens in the Church. Every Christian, without exception, needs someone to help them understand the Word of God for themselves through the tutorage of the Holy Spirit.  Every Christian needs to memorize scripture, exercise the knowledge of knowing or recalling scripture, and bases everything they do upon the Word of God. The teaching spirit sets the foundation for the Church, so every local church needs that spirit in order to stand firm.

Every local Christian church needs the prophetic spirit, the capability to hear the still small voice of the Holy Spirit for themselves, as well as being able to take the Logos Word, the written Word, the Bible, and make it the Rhema Word, the living Word.  The 1^st Century Church took the Logos Word, what today is known as the Old Testament, and made it the Rehma Word, the living word, as they lived out their new faith and recorded it, thus the New Testament.  The prophetic spirit activates life into the Church, so every local church needs the prophetic spirit to move forward in living out their faith.

Every local Christian church needs the apostolic spirit, the ability to “see” what the Holy Spirit is doing and saying and be obedient to it, the ability to identify giftings in other believers and equip and train them in their Christian development, and the ability to release other believers in their gifting, their calling, their destiny in Jesus Christ.  Instead of administrators in a business sense, the Church needs developers and investors in other Christian believers, people with spiritual parenting skills. The apostolic spirit brings unity, direction, harmony, and stability to the Church, so every local church needs the apostolic spirit for direction and over sight.

Now for the shocking conclusion: I believe all these spirits are already in people in your local congregation. The five fold is already present, seeking to be manifested right among yourself.  All we must do is embrace the Holy Spirit to birth, develop, and release these passions, visions, and points of view among us, the believers in Jesus Christ, the Priesthood of Believers.  They need to be “activated” among the laity in order to be effective. Clergy/laity labels must cease, so all believers in Jesus Christ can be empowered, developed, equipped, and released into their destiny in the kingdom of God.  The key to the next revival is that it will touch “all” believers in Jesus Christ, not just the professionals, nor the old establish believers, nor the chosen few.  It will be a massive world wide movement to remove the “spot and wrinkles” of the Bride, the Church, in preparation for the Groom, Jesus’ return.  It will impact Church structure like no movement in history has, not even the Great Reformation.  I prophesy that the way my great-grandchildren do Church as adults will look nothing like the pew sitting, hymn singing, pulpit preaching church services of my great-grandparents.  Church, if we want REVIVAL, we must be prepared for change, and be open to what the Holy Spirit desires to lift the name of Jesus and establish the Kingdom of God over the entire earth! Revival, come!

Obedience Versus Sacrifice: Does The Church Understand Either!

 10   Ways The Church Might Change: Point 8

[In a previous blog I have outlined 10 possible changes the Church may face in the future. This is point 8 in the series: “To obey is better than sacrifice” the Bible says.  We need to learn and exercise “sacrifice” in our Christian lives and learn to exercise “obedience” to what the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, the Bible, is saying to us as believers.  America’s churches today live in abundance, losing the essence of the principle of sacrifice. America’s churches need to learn “obedience”, not only to the written Word of God, the Logos, the Bible, but to the living Word of God, the Rhema, through the Holy Spirit.”]

I love to watch the History Channel on my cable TV.  My parents are in their latter 80’s, and their generation is dying off.  I feel they are the last generation of Americans that really know what “sacrifice” is all about.  They lived through the Great Depression of the 1930’s, where sacrifice was the norm.  That prepared them to sacrifice even more to support the troops during World War II when fighting the demagogue dictators of the world to preserve ideals like democracy and freedom.  My dad sacrificed for me, doing anything he could to see I became the first college graduate in my family.  He wanted me to live better than his generation, which came to be at the expense of losing the principle of sacrifice to my generation and those under me.  America, today, is on top of the economic world, proudly, but with pride comes the fall. Americans are not willing to sacrifice what they have for future generations; they want it now, the plastic credit card age of obtaining immediately at paying for it later.  Our children will pay for our greed as America finds itself in debt and at the mercy of its creditors.  We have lost the principle of sacrifice to power, wealth, and greed, to which America needs to repent if it wishes to keep it status as a world power and influence.

I Samuel 15:22 asks: “Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord?”  He answers his own question at the end of the verse: “Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice.”  If we as Americans have trouble understanding “sacrifice”, how much more difficult is it to understand “obedience”?  Obedience to what, you ask? Answer” “as in obeying the voice of the Lord”! 

If the 21^st Century Church, the Body of Christ, the Priesthood of Believers expects to see REVIVAL, it has to relearn how to listen to “the voice of the Lord” for themselves.  Every believer in Jesus Christ can be like little Samuel, who, as a young man, had to recognize that he could hear the voice of the Lord personally for himself.  Levi, the High Priest, could not hear that voice even though he was in leadership at that time.  He had to rely on Samuel.  I remember when I personally learned that lesson, and like little Samuel, I was shocked at that possibility.  Over the years I have tried to nurture, to fine tune, to hone in on that skill.  I would rather sit, worship, and “listen” than stand, praise, and petition during my prayer times now, individually and corporately as a priest and as a priesthood.  Listening to the voice of the Lord is a special gift only believers in Jesus Christ can have because that still small voice comes through the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ that resides in its temple, our physical bodies. The scripture says, “Do you not know that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit?”  Because of this, we, believers in Jesus Christ, can hear “the voice of the Lord” individually and corporately.

I was thrilled when discovering and practicing this gift, but it came at a price!  That price is OBEDIENCE!  We can hear the voice of the Lord, but if we are not “obedient” to that voice, we become as the Children of Israel who saw salvation at the hands of 500 years of slavery to the Egyptians vanish because of one man’s, Mose’s obedience to what he heard the voice of the Lord tell him. After their salvation experience they became known as the Children of Disobedience while in the Sinai Dessert trying to walk out their salvation experience, never to reach the Promise Land. Individually, and corporately they failed!  They were not willing to be “obedient” to what they “heard” from God.

How does the Church, the Bride of Christ, the Priesthood of Believers fair today on the “obedience” meter?  It is hard to say.  First, they have to be “listening to the voice of the Lord” before they can be tested for “obedience”.  As a child, when my parent spoke, that voice demanded blinded obedience.  If not, punishment was administered to bring “correction” with the ultimate result being “obedience to that voice” in the future. As I got older, when a parental voice spoke, I jumped and reacted in “obedience”. The same is with our spiritual lives.  Having the privilege of hearing the parental voice of our heavenly Father through the voice of Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ demands obedience.  Disobedience brings “conviction” because of God’s “grace” rather than harsh disciple for the purpose of “correction” is the rule of thumb for a loving God. I know personally, for I have experienced being disobedient to something the voice of the Lord told me to do, and the heaviness of conviction of my disobedience is something I never want to experience again.  Even though judged and condemned by my conscience disobedience, the grace of God has reconciled me, forgiven me, and restored me to the place of still being able to hear the voice of God, but now wanting to be obedient to that voice.

If I personally want revival in my life, and corporately want to see revival in the Church, then I have to be willing to learn how to “hear the voice of the Lord”, and more importantly be obedient to what I have heard. God is not impressed with sacrifices, for he sacrificed His Son, Jesus, on the cross so we no longer have to do sacrifices; all he wants is our obedience! If we want revival, we need to nurture our spiritual ear to hear and our willingness to be obedient no matter the cost!

Laying Down The Principle Of Selfless Blame

10 Ways The Church Might Change: Point 7

[In a previous blog I have outlined 10 possible changes the Church may face in the future. This is point 7 in the series: “Laying Down One’s Life”, vertically in our relationship to God and horizontally in our relationship with each other, is central to the gospel. On the Cross, Jesus “laid down his life” for us!  On the Cross, we must “lay down our life” for God and for each other.  Without understanding this principle, we cannot function in plurality, nor as a priesthood, nor as an unified body.”]

I explained in a previous blog, point #2, about the importance of the vertical plane between God and man and the horizontal plan between man and his fellow man that dissect each other making up the context of the Cross.  Also in my last blog I addressed the issue of the body of Christ, the Priesthood of Believers, the Church, as a pluralistic body of diversity, yet a single entity as one. The question that needs to be asked is, “How can such a diverse body be united and remain united?  The answer lies in putting the two blogs together.

In order for the Church to be united it has to embrace the doctrine of Priesthood of Believers, that in spite of its extreme diversity, common, everyday believers are the backbone of the Church, and it is they who have to step forward and perform the duties that are necessary for the Priesthood of Jesus Christ to succeed as one united distinct unit.  The Church’s diversity in the past is the very thing that has torn it asunder when what makes them different is the very thing they stood up for bringing division. Then what can keep the Church united; what will be the glue?  As I have suggested earlier, the answer likes in I John 3:16 where we, as believers in Jesus Christ, are to “lay down our lives for the brethren”.

My first reaction is that “attitude” can never be attained, for there is no historical proof.  Historically, the opposite, division, has always resulted, so why would I believe in the impossible.  I know scripturally it says, “all things are possible in Christ Jesus who strengthens me,” but this dimension goes beyond the vertical relationships between God and man through Christ Jesus, it goes between man and man.  As man, Adam, a creation of God, are we willing to consciously make the decision ourselves to be “selfless”? Can we willing lay down our life for the common good of the unit, the Body of Christ?

Jesus, as a man, as flesh and blood, as the Son of God, came to earth to be obedient for the cause of laying down his own life, willingly, for the brethren.  He proved that such a deed can be done only through “Christ Jesus who strengthens me”, but just as Jesus experienced on the Cross, it could be extremely painful.    Being Christ-like means one has to be utterly “selfless”; it is not about me, but about the kingdom of God.

So what does it mean to be selfless, to lay down your life?

Jesus, when on the Cross, never played the “blame game”? The Church has debated over the centuries, “who is to blame for Jesus’ crucifixion?”  Some blame the Romans and Pilot washing his hands clean of a case for political gains of an innocent man being accused by a ruthless mob.  Some have blamed the Jews, the Sanhedrin, or Jewish governing body, for Jesus’ crucifixion.  The great reformer, Martin Luther held this anti-semantic view during his life which became the seeds for the Spanish Inquisition and the Holocaust later in history. Some blame it on the sins of you and me, a favorite theme of modern day Evangelical evangelists.  Jesus did not blame the Romans, nor his fellow Jew, nor you or me, for while on the Cross his attitude came out in His own words, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”  His crucifixion was preordained by God, the Father, himself; even prophesied by prophets of old. It was going to happen because it was part of God’s eternal plan. There IS NO BLAME!  Even blameless, selflessness is being willing to take the blame even though it is unjustified; that is what Jesus did! As the Sacrificial Lamb, he took the blame even though he was innocent, willingly, selflessly, for the good of mankind!

“Laying down your life for your brethren” must begin with laying down and crucifying one’s “blame game”.  It doesn’t matter who is right or wrong. What matter’s is God’s will, God’s eternal plan, and if that plan is to lay down the blame, carrying the unjustified burden and accusations even thought you may be right, even at the expense of one’s reputation and life, then do so! That is being “Christ-like”! It was never God’s plan for the Priesthood of Believers to be blaming and condemning one another for their faults, sins, and short comings; It was God’s plan to extend GRACE to cover his/her faults, sins, and short comings.  The Church preaches grace; now it is being called to LIVE GRACE TOWARD ONE ANOTHER!  Impossible, you may first shout, but again “all things are possible in Christ Jesus who strengthens you!”

Church, brethren, the Body and Bride of Christ, the Priesthood of Believers, let’s begin to “lay down our lives to/for one another”, “selflessly”, “without blame” while extending “grace”; for then we will see the miracle of the fulfillment of the unity of the Body of Christ for which Jesus prayed in John 16.  No prayer goes unanswered, and neither will this one, particularly if Jesus himself prayed it and fulfilled the answer to that prayer!  At the cross, being willing to “lay down one’s life”, blamelessly, selflessly is where REVIVAL begins. Church, let’s let the REVIVAL begin there with ME!

The Paradox of Pluralistic Singularity In The Church

10 Ways The Church Might Change: Point 6

[In a previous blog I have outlined 10 possible changes the Church may face in the future. This is point 6 in the series: Plurality will replace individualism.  The New Testament emphasizes “the priesthood of believers”.  No where does it edify the individual priest (except Jesus as our High Priest). In America, we emphasis the Bill of Rights, the rights of each individual, but that is not the case in the Bible.  In the kingdom of God we have no “rights”. We under the loyal service, the Lordship, of our King and High Priest, Jesus Christ, thus a member of a “royal priesthood”.  Instead we live under the “grace” and “mercy” of our Lord Jesus Christ, always “serving” others.  The Great Commission is always outward, not inward.  Change is coming in the way the Church understands the doctrine of “the priesthood of believers”.]

The gospel is full of what seems to be paradoxes that turn out to be truths.  For example the Bible speaks of plurality often as a singular form. The Godhead is plural (Father, Son, Holy Spirit), yet it is singular (“There is only one God.”). We talk of the Trinity as the three in one, the singularity of one with a tri-faceted nature. The Church, the Priesthood of Believers, is another example, for the New Testament speaks of it as a single entity, yet it is made up of plurality: peoples of many cultures, races, nationalities, and labels who are extremely different but all believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior, Lord, and High Priest.  The Church, referred to singularly, is composed of plurality, a multi-faceted nature.

In the Old Testament, the priesthood was established so man could “draw near” to the God that he had alienated due to sin and present sacrifices to atone for his sins.  In the New Testament, because of what Jesus did on the Cross as an atonement for all sin, any man can now “draw near” to God just by asking Jesus into his heart. Scripture says, “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.”  Since God’s Spirit, His Holy Spirit, can dwell in our bodies, our temples, that qualifies us to be Priests unto the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ once we have made this step of faith.  All these priests combined, in plurality, make up the Priesthood of Believers, or the Church, singular.  Nowhere in the New Testament does it refer to priest in the singular sense, other than Jesus being our High Priest, but it refers to priests, the Church, as the Priesthood of Believers, in the singular.  Many are One = the Church.  That is why the “priestly prayer” of John 16 is so important, because Jesus recognizes the power of many only if they are ONE! That is why he prays for their unity.  The singular Godhead functions in plurality, so the singular Church can also function in plurality.

So how can something as diverse as the Body of Christ, the Church, the Priesthood of Believers, function as ONE? Simple:

1) The Church has to recognize the plurality of the Trinity: the Godhead of the Father, the atoning sacrificial Lamb of obedience and service of the Son, Jesus, and the releasing of the Holy Spirit upon all believers after Jesus’ ascension back to his Father.  The Church has to recognize the role of the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ in their midst today, why he is here, and what he is doing.  They have to learn to listen to his voice, and most importantly, be obedient to what the Holy Spirit directs them to do. The voice of the Holy Spirit is the voice of Jesus Christ, the High Priest, to his people, the Priesthood of Believers, the Church.

2) The Church has to recognize the plurality of its own make up, the diversity within the Body of Christ as equals, one, functioning as one.  Ephesians 4:7 says, “When He ascended on high, He led captive a host of captives, and He gave gifts to men.”  The people of God, the Believers of Jesus Christ, the Church, is very diverse because its people have many giftings, many talents, many passions, many visions, many voices, and many points of view, yet they are to speak with one voice: JESUS.  Everything they say and do should point to JESUS even though it may be in different ways, different dialects.  The Church has a plurality of messengers and styles of presentations, but only one singular message: JESUS.

3) The Church has to not only recognize its diversity but accept it as its strength. It needs to clean up its message, thus the need for apostles, even today, and establish apostolic teaching that will unite the church not divide it by doctrine and theology, so the Church can speak with one voice: JESUS. The voice may sound slightly different due to the accents of diversity, but the united message will always be the same: JESUS.

4)  After accepting all this diversity,  this plurality, the Church has to learn to “equip the saints”, these diverse creatures, for “the work of service” to proclaim one singular message: JESUS.  The Church has to be willing to “release” these saints to do the work.  But logistically, from an institutional standpoint, how do you do that? SIMPLE: by allowing Jesus to be the High Priest of His Priesthood of Believers and speak through His Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, to his priests who must be obedient to what they have been told by Him. Only then will the plurality of the Priesthood of Jesus Christ, the Body of Christ, the Church speak as a single voice with one message: JESUS!