Another Mystery Of The Gospel: The Fingerprints Of God

 Different Prints But The Same On The Hand Of God

Throughout my life I have been asked, “Have you felt the hand of God on you, son?” by Church fathers?  Physically, not really; spiritually, definitively! Well, if his hand has been on me, and we take those fingerprints to a lab to test them, what would we find?  We might find each finger to be uniquely different, yet dramatically the same.

One finger may have the print of a passion, gifting, or point of view that sees the world as being lost, hurting, needing a Savior, and has the passion to proclaim the message of salvation, redemption, reconciliation, grace, mercy forgiveness, etc. to everyone and anyone who does not know Jesus.  It would also be a print of birth and rebirth, a desire to start a new by turning from old ways only to embrace new ones. We call that the evangelistic spirit, but upon closer examination of that fingerprint, all we would see is the fingerprint of Jesus.

The next finger may have the print of a passion, gifting, or point of view that sees a hurting world but is driven to give comfort and care to those hurting.  It may also see other believers as needing to be nurtured in their every day walk and faith journey towards maturing into the fullness of Jesus Christ.  We call that the pastoral shepherding spirit, but upon closer examination of that fingerprint, all we would see is the fingerprint of Jesus.

Another finger would have the print of a passion, gifting, or point of view that sees the world only through the Logos Word, the written Word of God, the Bible, desiring to imprint and embed the written scripture in the heart and spirit of every believer and nonbeliever.  His desire is for every believer to worship in “spirit and in truth.”  Grounded in the “truth” of the written word, the Logos Word, he would want to release the “spirit” of that Word into a living, active, experiential Rhema Word. We call that the pastoral teaching spirit, but upon closer examination of that fingerprint, all we would see is the fingerprint of Jesus.

Another finger would have the print of a passion, gifting, or point of view that sees the world needing to commune with God.  Built upon the evangelist having man bridge the gulf of his relationship with God through salvation while being nurtured through pastoral shepherding and grounded on the Word of God through the teacher, this fingerprint would want each believer to be in the right relationship as a believer with the God whose fingerprints are on their life.  We call that the prophetic spirit, but upon closer examination of that fingerprint, all we would see is the fingerprint of Jesus.

Another finger would have the print of a passion, gifting, or point of view that sees the Church as a whole.  It’s individual print would be complicated because it would have the pattern of an evangelist, pastoral shepherd, a teacher, and a prophet, yet a distinct print of its own, for it could see all the distinctive prints in its own, yet the beauty all the prints united together for the maturity of individual believers in the image of Jesus and corporately for the Body of Christ.  We call that the pastoral apostolic spirit, but upon closer examination of that fingerprint, all we would see is the fingerprint of Jesus.

So which finger is the pointer finger, the finger pointing the way?  It could be any of the five: the evangelistic finger pointing the lost to be found, the pastoral shepherd finger pointing nurture and care to the hurting and development and growth to believers, the teaching finger pointing our chapter and verse scripturally in the Bible instructing one how to live it out daily, or even the prophetic finger pointing always pointing to Jesus in everything the believer does, or even the apostolic finger which is like a thumb, resting on top of the other four fingers but whose job is to make the hand “grasp” or hold on to something only through the use of all five fingers.

Which is the ring finger?  Traditionally the wedding ring is placed on the fourth finger, but again it could be placed on any one of the five fingers because each one individually works in conjunction with the other four by being served by and serving the other four.  This brings accountability and unity to the entire hand.  Each of them is instrumental in making and preparing corporately the “Bride of Christ”, The Church.  Each has a function that brings “oneness” that only marriage can to diversely different people.

If we are made in the likeness of God, as I have been taught in Church all my life, then in child like faith I can assume he has five fingers on his hand.  Those five fingers could have the pattern and print of an evangelist, pastoral shepherd, teacher, prophet, or apostle on them, yet upon closer examination they are all the same for their print is the print of Jesus.

Fingerprints: Unique but United: Another Mystery Of The Gospel!

 A Different Way To Look At A Handshake?

While watching an YouTube video of an old Keith Green concert, I liked Keith’s comment, “What is neat about finger prints is far away they all look alike; you get up close they are all different.”

That is what I like about the five fold in believers of Jesus:  From a distance, each believer looks the same, but when you get up close and personal you find out that they have different passions, different points of view, a creative uniqueness only the Creator himself could have created in them.  Individually there is a difference, a uniqueness, but if broken, if hungry, if willing to listen to the Holy Spirit then be obedient to his revelation, if willing to die to self, and if willing to lay down his life for his brethren through service, there can be a drawing together of the saints in unity to appear to be the same.  All one sees is Jesus!  Wow, to look at a distant, then to look under a microscope all one sees is Jesus: that is the goal of Ephesians 4 for both the individual believer in Jesus Christ as well corporately as the Body of Jesus Christ, the Church!

The Holy Spirit is allowing itself in this age to be fingerprinted.  Every believer has the Holy Spirit with in themselves for the Bible says, “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit?” But each believers fingerprint, although they have the same Holy Spirit, is an unique print by the Creator, Jesus.  Each believer houses “the fullness of Christ”, yet displays only parts of Him at a time: different points of view, different passions, differing gifting, different fruit, different manifestations, etc.  If each different finger print allows itself to serve other fingerprints that look different than their own, reach out to them, and accept them reaching out to yourself through a handshake, you can have unity in the spirit.  Throughout history, a hand shake signified the man’s word:  his word was his bond, sealed through a handshake.  Spiritually, the same it is true for the Word, the Logos Word and the Rhema living Word is still a man of God’s bond, sealed together in a corporate sense through the unity of the Body of Christ.  The Church’s fingerprint is the unity of all the individual fingerprints, all being the fingerprint of Jesus Christ.

New technology also allows identification by putting one's eye up to a scanner which reads the individual pattern that makes up the back of one's eye.  Isn't it amazing that the print of what we see also defines us. Do we see the light of Jesus or just darkness.  Is that light implanted on the back of our spiritual eyes defining who we are in Jesus.  How we "see" Jesus (spiritual sight) and how we feel spiritually (touch) gives us our identity in Him.  As an English teacher I learned point of view is how we see or perceive something.  As believers we see Jesus differently, yet we see him the same.  Our diversity lies in our point of view, our sameness lies in the unity in Christ where he appears the same. We see Jesus differently, our different points of view, yet we see Him the same way, as a Church.  

Diversity is the Church’s strength for every believer’s prints either in their point of view, perception, or feeling in Jesus Christ is unique, yet corporately are the same!  Another mystery of the gospel!  Lets allow that diversity, reaching out for a handshake through service, one to another, and sealing that handshake as the bond of our word, the Word of God, bringing unity to the Body of Christ. 

Yes, the finger print of Ephesians 4 is upon us, embedded in each of us who are believers in Jesus Christ, and also the Church as a whole. If they fingerprint your life, would those fingerprints reveal Jesus?

The Spirit of Creativity in the 21st Century Church

Final Review of Kent Hunter’s “The Future Is Now: How God Is Moving In The 21^st Century Church Book

I have thoroughly enjoyed Kent R. Hunter’s of Church Doctor Ministries ebook entitled “The Future Is Now: How God Is Moving In The 21^st Century Church.”  I have sent it to several of my friends who have repsected his insights which have created many good discussions over a cup of coffee or an ice tea. Again, thanks Kent for sharing those insights to the public.

One truth I have again realized is that the Holy Spirit is a creative spirit.  It is not God’s will to box in nor control the Holy Spirit because He will do His will His way to bring glory to Jesus Christ.  Hunter’s comments about “low control – high accountability” as being one of the keys to this generation of believers is so illustrated through the Holy Spirit.  When we do not try to control Him, He works in phenomenally creative ways while being totally accountable to the Father, God, and His Son, Jesus Christ. So one of the keys, bottom line, to revival or accepting the next movement of God, is again, “Can you trust the Holy Spirit?”  If the answer is in the affirmative, then let go and let him work creatively in you and in the Church.  If the answer is in the negative, then you need not read these blogs anymore.

Why is this principle of trusting the Holy Spirit so important?  Well, I am proposing a model of low control – high accountability through the five fold ministry where you allow the evangelist, pastoral shepherd, teacher, prophet, and apostle to be who they are, allow their passions and points of view to flow freely in “service”.  While pouring out their gifting to the churched and nonchurched alike, they need to be accountable to the other four points of view that differ from theirs by being willing to “lay down their life” for the brethren:  serving their brethren while allowing themselves to be served by the brethren who differ in giftings from themselves.  This builds relationships that brings true accountability.

Now the way most of us in the Church think, what model, what paradigm am I proposing?  I have shared through various blogs the five fold star of accountability in a circle that can rotate bringing to light any and each of the five fold gifts when needed to lead a five fold team effort.  But how is this to exactly work?  That is the job of the Holy Spirit. 

If the Holy Spirit is free to lead, then the beauty of creativity will flow. For example, when in a problem solving situation, the five fold group or team of believers can join together in corporate prayer and worship with the single purpose to lift up Jesus and “listen” to His still small voice for direction and guidance.  When this occurs, the Lord will speak; the key is “obedience” to what has been “revealed”, again accountability to the Head of the Church, Jesus Christ.  The revelation will come to the entire group, but the pastoral shepherd’s passion and gifting may be what is needed to arise and come to the forefront to solve the problem, or the prophets, apostles, teachers, or evangelist.  When one arises and comes to the front, the other four always are covering his back in support.  The results: maturing the saints into the image of Jesus Christ which brings unity in the body of Christ.

What comes out of it is creative solutions that are effective and impacting.  This will be done differently!  This is difficult for the Church who likes traditions, stability, and predictability, not newness, constant change, and having no idea what the Holy Spirit is going to do next!  But in a climate of newness, constant change, and unpredictability there is freshness, excitement, and an “anticipation” of what the Holy Spirit will do next.  This is the culture created in true revival in a true movement of God.

True revival features newness: the evangelistic spirit of birthing and rebirth, the creative arts again surfacing in the Church, new songs, new forms of worship, new ways to creatively express the gospel, new ways to get the message of Jesus to the world, new ways to evangelize and develop believers into the fullness and image of Jesus Christ, and new ways to bring the Church together as the Body of Christ.   Let the “newness” begin; let the Holy Spirit flow creatively!

Staffing Or Equipping: The Challenge of the 21st Century Church

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

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

From Chapter 15 – The Church Staff: A Dysfunctional Business Plan, Hunter says: “At the risk of sounding non- academic, the traditional approach for training church workers has outlived its sensibility. It is no longer possible for many to leave seminary with an $80,000 debt, take on a $40,000 annual salary, provide for a family of four, pay off bills, live near the poverty level, and function with a clear mind to accomplish adequate ministry.... It is no longer economically feasible for the system to survive.”

In the 21^st Century, the Church has to look towards different avenues for Church leadership in economic hard times.  We have been programmed to believe that the local church has to be lead and staffed professionally. I grew up in a church that still have the “free ministry”, as they call it.  They have seven “elders” who do everything that most church pastors do while still holding down secular jobs.  This duel leadership has served them well, causing them to “raise” leadership from with in their own body of local believers rather than looking outward to professionals coming in to supply leadership.  Equipping their youth to be future leaders is a must if their system is to survive.  (Most church Youth Groups are not focused in training leadership for the future for their local church when their church will look toward professionally bringing in pastors when needed.) Financially, with out budgeting for staffing needs, which is usually a large chunk out of most church’s budgets, they take offering for different needs as they arise.  I witnessed a night over $10,000 was raised to complete a church in a third world country, and only a dozen people were in attendance when the offering was taken! They have freedom in their giving when not under constraints of “meeting the budget” heavy laden with staffing and building maintenance items.

Most of what Hunter says in his ebook I have totally agreed with, but I do find a differencing of opinions when he said, “Equipping those called to ministry should be a seamless discipleship process in the context of the local church. It begins as a casual volunteer, then moves to a more involved volunteer, to a full-time volunteer, to the part-time paid volunteer, to the half-time paid volunteer, to the full-time paid staff person. It is at this point when many will take further biblical training. Most will obtain further education while they remain in their community and on the job. They will use long-distance learning or attend an occasional short-term, short-burst, boot-camp-type courses of no longer than two weeks away from family and church community.”

There are two misnomers about Hunter’s way of thinking: 1) discipleship leads to professional development and 2) training must come from our traditional westernized Bible college, seminary, educational system.

Hunter is still thinking in terms of a discipleship training that leads to a professional “full-time paid staff person.”  We have to ditch the volunteer/staff division (also known as laity/clergy rift) by responding to Ephesians 4’s call to “equip the SAINTS  for the work of service,” not equip the staff or staff in training for the professional work of ministry. The “full-time ministry” as in full-time “professional” ministry myth must be addressed.  The Church has been called to equip the “saints”, that are already employed, who are already the salt and light to the world in their secular job, to “serve” those in the secular world and those in the body of Christ.  Paul was a tent maker as well a “preacher/pastor/parson/rector/minister”!  He made tents and socially hung out in tents not in a church building.  He did not get insolated like most of today’s clergy do.  He had to stay in the world to impact the world for Jesus.

The second point:  The academic, thinking, westernize approach apposes the Jewish, lamad, experience approach of teaching.  If the Church is to be based on “head knowledge”, then degrees are important, but if it is to be based on “heart knowledge”, then the development of practical everyday “experiences”, the “doing the principles, not just knowing them” becomes of importance!  Theology, intellectual Biblical interpretation, divides; practical every day living, experiencing, working out one’s faith individually and most importantly corporately in community unites.

Again, I feel, another viable option for the 21^st Century Church is the five fold.  It’s goal is not to make believers, the saints, into professionals, or highly educated individuals, but to bring them into the “maturity” of being in the fullness of Jesus Christ, Christ-like as well as bring unity corporately.  It has nothing to do with finances, nor the influence of finances upon the Church.

The questions is how the Church is to equip the saints, something the Holy Spirit is only beginning to teach the Church.  I feel instead of developing from volunteer to half volunteer, half professional to full-time professional, the five fold has so much more to offer the “saints”.  The evangelist “births” the saints into the kingdom, the pastoral shepherd nurtures, cares and develops them through daily life experiences, the teacher teaches from every day life lessons by challenging their faith based on the Word of God, while the prophet works on making the Logos Word taught by the teacher the Rhema Word, or living out one’s faith while learning to commune with God, and finally the apostle “sees over” what the Holy Spirit is doing in individual’s lives and corporately as a community of faith.  What is produced: a more mature Christlike believer being developed into the image of Jesus Christ, and a unified community of faith working together to equip, care, develop, nurture, and release each other and new believers to “serve”.

The 21^st Century Church needs to embrace a “saint” based ministry system rather than a professional ministry system, facing the challenges of how to equip, develop, care, maintain, nurture, and release the saints to “serve”.  My Prayer: Holy Spirit come, be our teacher, show us, the Church, how to develop the five fold to mature the saints into the image of Jesus Christ while brining his Body into unity.

Evangelism in the 21st Century Needs A Paradigm Shift

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Turning The Church Inside Out; Going Beyond Its Walls

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

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

From Chapter 11 – Mission At The Margin, Hunter says:  “Unfortunately, many churches in North America theoretically ascribe to the Great Commission (which says “go”), yet follow the Old Covenant of “y’all come.” This was the Old Testament approach: take a pilgrimage to the temple at Jerusalem; that is where you will find God. The Old Covenant described Israel as a light to the nations. The nations were to be drawn to that light like mosquitoes are drawn to your porch light. There they would find the light. There they would visit God — in the temple, on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Jesus turned this inside-out. The New Covenant calls for God followers, who now know the Messiah personally, to go, take that Good News about Jesus “to the ends of the earth” (read, “to the ends of your social network”). Many churches of the 21st century, to be effective, will need to let Jesus turn their churches inside-out (read, “turn their people inside out” — in their worldview of doing church, being church).

Where is the best place to hold a Bible class? Answer: anywhere but at your church. No unchurched person is going to pass you by at the church, recognize you as a friend, and say, “Hey, what are you doing?”, providing an opportunity for you to invite him to join the group. This is not going to happen in the church building. However, it will happen at Starbucks, Denny’s, or in a park. The destination mindset of the modern era will be reversed in this postmodern era. Anything that can be done outside the building should be done away from the church, for missional reasons. This has facility implications of major proportions for any church that is building, relocating, or expanding.”

I have always heard the mantra, the building is not the Church, we are the Church, yet the building still exists as our central point of contact for almost all Christian endeavors.  The Christian Community meets there; the family of God lives there; Sunday worships service is almost always there; offices of Church business are housed there; we expect “revival” to happen there; we even built coffee shops to attract the addicted American caffeine addicts to come in, and, forgive us, for God and the Holy Spirit to show up there.  We do have the Old Testament Temple mentality, forgetting that the veil was rent, and God DOES NOT house himself in a building, nor is boxed in.

What would happen if we took Hunter’s advice and have church at Starbucks rather than having the caffeine fiends come into our building.  But church people would react, “How would we do worship?  Can we set up a corner stage and have our worship team play?  Can we hand out church bulletins?  I guess the pastor could give his sermon in the midst of the worship team’s instruments.”  Wrong! Try menus instead of bulletins, fellowship around tables instead of worship blocks, the telling of personal narratives of one’s faith around cups of java instead of a sermon.  How about paying the tab instead of passing the offering plate?  You know, the unchurched would easily some to eat food or drink coffee while listening to casual conversations rather than sit in pews, listening to music they don’t know and can’t identify with, and being asked to financially support the program.

Evangelism is the sharing of one’s spiritual narrative outside church walls to those whose lives are outside the church.  Those inside the walls already know the story and often hear it repeatedly every Sunday throughout the year. Pastoral shepherding is walking with people through their daily lives, helping them to face life’s challenges, supporting them through difficult times.  In the church it appears as if everyone has it together.   Preaching in the church supports “religious semantics” while casual conversations while sharing one’s personal narrative is none offensive, none threatening, and easily understood.  I’ve been around the prophetic linguistics in churches, but have seen the power of a believer who is obedient to the Holy Spirit’s voice and direction when told to serve others outside the church walls in everyday life.  In church, we are use to the pastor and the worship team on stage, orchestrating the show, program, or as church calls it, Sunday morning service, but outside the church one could casually meet people and direct them to those whose gifting better suits the current need.  Even the five fold is more powerful outside the church walls than within. 

I have seen churches based in Malls when Malls where the faux, popular place to be. When the mall aged, called for urban, or Mall-renewal, the gathering of believers, the Church, could relocated where ever the Holy Spirit led.  The cloud by day and pillar of fire by night could be followed since those following it were not constrained by the confines of a building structure.  I know of a church that started in a night club, is now located in a movie theatre, but is thinking of buying a building to bring stability (and less work in set up and tear down.) A building is more convenient, but in the process they are losing their vision to be out their with the nonchurched.

So the Great Commission “to go” needs to be redefined and reestablished outside the boundaries of church building facilities if the Church, its priesthood of believers, is to be effective in the 21^st Century.

Low Control and High Accountability is Crucial in the 21st Century Church

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

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

From Chapter 7 – Church As A Movement, Hunter says:  “Ironically, most modern churches operate from a position of high-control and low-accountability. With boards, committees, votes, nominations, and meetings, many churches represent a very high-control posture. Some denominations represent the epitome of high control. They are disasters waiting to happen, with an extreme level of organizational bureaucracy.

At the other end of the balance, most present modern-era churches reflect low-accountability. People can gossip frequently and no one will hold them accountable. Many feel an independent isolationism from one another in the church. They have inherited an environment in which “your fellow Christian’s sinful behavior is none of your business.” This is the exact opposite of the New Testament approach to church culture, which is low-control, but with high-accountability. The New Testament teaches we should “speak the truth in a spirit of love” (Ephesians 4:15). Jesus taught that we should follow His teaching in Matthew: confront one another privately; if that does not work, take a witness; if it continues, take it to the church — or church leadership (Matthew 18:15-17).

The reemphasis of proper balance in control and accountability explains why many of the new and cutting-edge movements of Christianity include accountability groups.”

Hunter advocates low control, high accountability as keys to the effectiveness of the 21^st Century Church.  In old Charismatic jargon, one might ask how to keep the flow flowing in each believer.  During the Charismatic Movement many spiritual gifts that had been dormant for centuries began to again to surface in the Body of Christ.  But often “freedom in the Spirit” was directly opposed by the high control of the hierarchy of the institutional Church which eventually capped this freedom of flow by control.  Independent Prayer And Praise Groups that sprung up everywhere producing spiritual life, increased prayer life individually and corporately, and encouragement for regular believers to grow in Christ were eventually controlled by the institutional church by becoming “home groups” or “small groups”, closely and heavily monitored by the institutional church.  Anything outside their doctrinal code or comfort zone was diminished.

The key to the success of the five fold in the 21^st Century Church is the Church’s willingness to “equip” then “release” these five giftings, passions, and points of view.  Those in leadership have to allow the saint whose passion and point of view is to evangelize to evangelize.  To allow the saint whose passion and point of view is to shepherd, nurture, care, and develop to be pastoral in his gifting and passion.  To allow the saint whose passion is to bring the Logos Word, Biblical interpretation to become a Rhema Word, an experiential living out the Word.  To allow the passion of the saint whose desire is to commune with God to be prophetic. Finally, to allow the saint who sees the big picture, the body of Christ, locally or nationally, to be able to “release” the others, in freedom, to do it without control, only “seeing over”, not “overseeing” what the Holy Spirit is doing in their lives.  That is low control.

High accountability comes when the believers of faith, those in communion as the local body of Christ, are willing to practice I John 3:16, knowing love as being willing “to lay down your life for your brethren.”  In the five fold, that accountability comes in “serving” the other four out of your passion, gifting, and point of view, but it also means “receiving” the “service” from the others whose strengths are your weaknesses.  Only when one “dies to himself” can he become “alive to the service of his brethren.”  This concept is so foreign to the current Church, but I believe will become a cornerstone in the 21^st Century Church as it develops.  The five fold could be the ultimate accountability group for the Church in this century.

Unlike today’s institutional church leadership structure where Board meetings, Pastor/Parish Committee Meetings, or Elder’s Meetings become business meetings, often featuring a strong dose of church politics, the five fold structure is not built on a power structure of oversight, but on a “service” structure to and from each other through relationship and laying down ones life for each other.  I have never experienced a church leadership meeting of death, everyone dieing to themselves for the sake of serving the others, though I have attended some dead leadership meetings where everyone pushed their agenda, opinion, or power position.

Low Control and High Accountability are keynotes to the five fold structure of “equipping the saints for works of service.” (Eph. 4)

Relationships in the 21st Century Church

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

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

From Chapter 6 – Flat Changes Everything, Hunter says:  “The flat world reflects the repulsion today’s young adults have for institutions that act institutionally. The key for understanding this is that if a church persists to be hierarchical, it will not attract young adults. This concept is reflected in the teaching of low-control/high-accountability. Most churches from the modern era have become extreme, with layers of bureaucracy, politics, bylaws, rules and regulations, titles, offices, and all the trappings of institutionalism. This does not fit the relational world that now exists. It is not an effective platform for sharing the Gospel. The flat world Thomas Friedman [his book The World is Flat (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2005)] describes simply indicates that now people relate horizontally. Not so many decades ago, it was required to get the “secret information” held, for example, by seminary professors at a seminary institution. Now, students can find any of those books on Amazon while sitting in the comfort of their own bedrooms. The flat realities of our present world are a great blessing for the church that returns to the biblical realities of the priesthood of all believers…. The way churches operate and make decisions is often called church government. The institutional and corporate models that betray biblical truth — on more levels than one can imagine — will be replaced by a way of decision-making that models an apostolic theocracy.  The word “theocracy” means the rule of God or will of God. It reflects the primary driving force in which churches make decisions: seeking what God wants.”

Hunter hits on several themes I have reiterated throughout these blogs: “This (flat world) concept is reflected in the teaching of low control/high accountability.”  The five fold, as I propose it, is a process of “releasing” individual believers in Jesus Christ to do their passion, exercise their point of view, with all the gusto, energy, and heart and spirit felt motivation that is in them with the accountability piece of submitting to the other four passions/points of view through “service”, serving one another.  Low control, freedom in being released in the Church, with high accountability, submitting through service and being served by four distinctly different passions and points of view that differ from your own by laying down one’s life for their brethren.

Another key theme: the priesthood of all believers.  In my ebook, The Blue Print and my accessory workbook, Breakthrough To His Presence, which I hope to soon offer through this web site, I address this topic. The premise of these books is a study of the actual blue print of Herod’s Temple, the temple Christ himself personally visited, and how the physical divisions of the inner courts exemplifies the walls and barriers that keeps a believer from entering the Holy of Holies. When Christ died on the Cross, the veil in the Holy of Holies was torn from top down, breaking down all these barriers, allowing His Spirit to dwell in any and all believers in Jesus Christ. The Blue Print is a fictional account of this principle while Breakthrough To His Presence is a Bible study workbook of scriptures that actually break down these barriers.  In essence, Jesus broke down hierarchal barriers of his time to free the priesthood of believers according to the order of Melchizedek. 

The last principle he described as “an apostolic theocracy” model of “seeking what God wants.”  Although we may differ on the role of the apostle, it excites me that Hunter recognizes the importance of the five fold in a “God’s Will” seeking model.  I believer that all five are empowered to lead when called upon by the Holy Spirit with the backing of the other four to help implement it.  If something is to be birthed, the evangelist will rise and lead with the support of the others.  If something needs nurturing, care, or developing, the pastoral shepherd will arise. If something needs to be Biblically based, the teacher arises.  The prophet arises when the relationship through communication between God and mankind needs emphasis. Finally the apostle will arise to see the big picture, releasing the other four to do their passions freely as he “sees over” what the Holy Spirit is doing. 

Hunter is correct in his assumption that the church must become relational rather than hierarchal. I John 3:16 of “laying down your life for your brethren” is relational and brings accountability.  The Church must struggle with the reality of what I John 3:16 (horizontal relationships) mean to John 3:16 (vertical relationship) in order to understand how the Cross effects the 21^st Century Church.

Good stuff Mr. Hunter!

(Since my ebooks are not yet uploaded, if you email me at popnozall@gmail.com, I will send you a copy in PDF format of The Blue Print and/or Breakthrough To His Presence FREE if requested by the end of June, 2011 [if I am tech savvy enough to do that!).

A Look At How God Is Moving in the 21st Century Church

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

Kent R. HunterI came across an ebook recently that spoke to my spirit.  I said “Right on!  Someone is receiving an insight of what the Holy Spirit is doing in this century.”  Kent R. Hunter of Church Doctor Ministries posted an ebook entitled “The Future Is Now: How God Is Moving In The 21^st Century Church.”  I would like to quote from this source since it is so good, and then add a few of my analysis to it.

 From Chapter 3 – Holy Discontent:  “What is the work of the Holy Spirit that occurs underground, before an awakening in a church? It is a move of God with certain individuals within churches. It represents a holy discontent, which can also be described as a spiritual restlessness.”

“Those individuals who feel holy discontent, however, are core members of the church. They are the tithers, generous givers, volunteers, love the pastor, are loyal to the church. But they wrestle with holy discontent. Because they are mature Christians, they do not vocalize this discontent to others. But, to themselves, they often express their discontent by saying, “I just think our church could do better.” They feel their church under-achieves: “I really believe our church should have a greater impact on our community.” They would say, “In the big picture of things, I just feel Christianity should have a greater impact on our culture.” Because they are loyalists, they do not want to spread what seems to be negative feelings. 

In truth, these individuals have been spiritually marked, in my perception, as frontline leaders for an awakening. The key for churches is to identify these people and provide a platform for them to know there are others who have this same holy discontent: they are extraordinarily loyal to their church, but want it to become more effective. Their “restlessness” is not only holy, but positive. They are beginning seeds of what will grow into a spiritual movement in the church. But it will happen if, and only if, they are nurtured, provided a platform, and encouraged by the leadership! Therefore, it is my perception, as an analyst, that these are people who should be brought together into a Vision Team (which is a more positive approach than calling it a “Holy Discontent Committee” — anybody want to join?).

On the other hand, people with holy discontent, if not nurtured, will eventually leave the church. Not in an angry or even public fashion. They still love their pastor and feel loyalty to the church. They leave with extreme frustration, recognizing there is no platform, no outlet, and no one seems to want to listen. It appears, to them, that no one wants to make their church more effective for reaching the lost and impacting the culture. They seek another church for missional stewardship reasons: “I only have one life to live, and only so much money to give. I want to invest in a church that is making a difference. I’ve tried everything, and it just doesn’t seem like our church wants to move forward...or can’t. I have to go where I can contribute, making a Kingdom difference.”

Those churches that provide a platform — a Vision Team — develop a direction that will lead the church in the coming awakening and the subsequent revival. Those churches that miss this opportunity and do not provide an environment for those with holy discontent will actually lose some of the most valuable contributors (in every way) to their church and will actually become weaker, increasing the demise of their churches. This is the “pruning of the vineyard.” Jesus taught about branches that are cut off, which do not produce fruit (John 15:2). Leaders in churches who recognize the work of the Holy Spirit in these people will provide a platform and harness what the Holy Spirit is doing, or, they will lose them.”

Many who I know who love the Lord, love the Church, who are foundations in their local church, and are seeking the next move of God have experienced this discontent over the last couple of years, trying to figure out what is happening, where the Spirit is leading, what is the next revival.  They fear that if revival does come, it usually happens outside the borders set by the current institutional Church, and usually brings more division, more denominations.  What many of my friends desire is a movement of God, a revival that will bring unity in the body of Christ , not discontent and division. 

I remember the Charismatic movement, which touched my life, and I became frustrated because there was no platform provided by the institutional church at that time to share the fruit of what was happening in my changed life in Jesus.  I only felt resistance to what God was doing from the church.  Decades later the church embraced those changes when “proven”, but unfortunately lost out in the freshness of the movement. 

I truly believe the five fold will part of this next movement of God because as Ephesians 4 so amply shows the fruit of the five fold to be maturity of the saints into the image of Jesus and unity in the body of Christ.  I have seen maturity, or spiritual growth, from past revivals in the lives of the saints they touched, but never unity.  That is why I feel this next movement of God to be different. 

Equipping Series – Part VI: Accountability In The Church

 “Ephesians 4” Call To Equip The Saints For The Work Of Service Through Accountability:

I believe the five fold passions and points of view are in every believer in Jesus Christ since the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ indwells them.  So how do we allow the artesian well of the Holy Spirit to surface effectively in all believers to bring maturity and unity to the Body of Christ?  That is the calling of the five fold ministry of the Church.

If you allow each of the five fold to arise as a separate entity, you have set yourself up for church splits, theological battles, divisions, and spiritual anarchy in the Church which has been the pattern historically for centuries.  How can five passions that are so different and can be so divisive if practiced alone, be so powerful and unifying to the Body of Christ, His Church?  The answer is in one word: accountability. 

Each of the five must be accountable to the other four through service, through humility, with a spirit of receiving not rejecting, with a spirit of encouragement not criticism, with open accepting arms, not closed ones in opposition. In short, practicing I John 3:16-18, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. We ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.  If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has not pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?  Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in the truth.”  I am tired of the Church talking about unity, claiming to be one Church under Jesus Christ, but never practicing it.  The Church needs to take "actions" in the "truth" of the gospel and start brining maturity to its believers and unity to the Body.

In other words, we can’t “pick up” anything until we “lay it down”.  Let’s lay down our lives, lay down our previous mindsets, lay down traditions, lay down previous theologies that have divided the Body of Christ, lay down our defensive critical spirits towards other camps, groups, etc. under the banner of Christianity.  Let’s lay them on the altar of as an act of worship.  Allow Jesus to do with them as He wills: either burn up and destroy them, or like Daniel’s personal experience in the lion’s den, protect them and allow them to arise with life, or make them totally new and give them back to us.  Allow the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ then to teach, implement, and develop in the Church what Jesus’ will is for that which you have been willing to lay down.   Jesus had to lay down his life in order to become resurrected.  The Cross always precedes resurrection.  Let’s lay down horizontally everything in our spiritual and physical lives and allow the supernatural power of God, vertically, to intersect, invade that which we laid down, horizontally, and we have “The Cross”.  Only through The Cross whose vertical intersection (John 3:16) of our horizontal relationships with our own brethren (I John 3:16) can bring the humbleness, the brokenness, that which is needed to make five different passionate points of view to “see in unity” in the “Revelation of Jesus Christ”, the Church, as a whole!

Each of the five fold must serve the other four in humility, to minister to their points of weakness, so they can be effective in their callings, their missions, their passions.  Each of the five fold must allow the other four to serve them in humility, to minister to their points of weakness, so they can be strong and effective in their mission, calling, and passion in the Kingdom of God.  Accountability comes through giving and taking through service!  Each must give through service to the other four and receive through service from the other four in order for the five fold to be effective.

The Church has not seen this kind of accountability since its birth centuries ago, for this form of accountability is not through hierarchal leadership but broken servanthood from and to one another, nor is it through power or position but through equality.  You not only use your passion to serve others but are freed to develop, grow, and use your passion by being served by other brothers/sisters in the Lord.  No one passion or point of view is “the leader” or “the head” under this form of accountability, but is shared jointly and rises to leadership only when called upon by the Holy Spirit.  When the spirit of evangelism is needed, the evangelist will arise with the backing of a pastor/shepherd, teacher, prophet, and apostle and will be free to minister in their evangelistic calling.  When the spirit of shepherding, of teaching, of prophecy, and the apostolic spirit is needed, they can arise with the backing and support of the other four.  Their backs are always covered while being free to do what they do best, their passion to serve Jesus Christ in his gifting to them!  What a refreshing, healthy, harmonious way to minister.

Although we do not see it in our current system of leadership and hierarchy in our church structures, the five fold can become a reality when everyone is willing to lay down their lives for each other.  That happened in the book of Acts where they freely gave, freely received, freely ministered, and felt freedom and support when the Holy Spirit released them into ministry. Trusting the lead of the Holy Spirit individually and corporately is the key to the effectiveness of this accountability system and the power behind its success.

My prayer is that we, the Church, embrace what already exists in our churches, the evangelistic, pastoral, teaching, prophetic, and apostolic spirits which already exist in its individual believers in Jesus, begin to lay them down on the altar, relinquish control to the Holy Spirit, allowing our Supernatural God to vertically dissect our horizontal world of relationships, The Cross, to produce a powerful resurrected Church. Let's quit talking about it; let's just do it! 

Are We Preparing Christians To Be Professional Clergy, Church Leaders, Energetic Participants, or Enablers?

 What Are We Preparing Christians To Become? Or Are We Preparing At All?

What does today’s Church prepare those who come through their doors, into their fellowship and family to be?  For some churches, the ultimate is to have someone get the “calling” to go into “full time ministry” (alias professional ministry).  For other churches it is leadership training.  Still others hope that everyone who comes through their doors will become energetic participants who are in tact with what programs the church is offering.  Unfortunately most church become enablers, where leadership is doing most of the work and those coming expect them to do it for them.

I have personally felt the pressure of being labeled a good candidate for professional ministry since my teens and have been approached to make that decision in my life.  In my career interest survey given in high school, College Minister ranked #1 among my career choices.  Why have I not chosen ministry or being a campus chaplain as a career move?  Because of prayer where I got a red flags and a distinctive “no” at an invitation for a calling to professional ministry.  Seeking the Lord’s will for my life, I knew that I was to be a teacher of the “word,” and for 40 years I have taught 8^th grade grammar, spelling, reading, writing and literature. Upon retirement, I still feel led to be a “teacher” of the Word, but not necessarily professionally, thus this blog.

I have been through leadership training in the Church of the Brethren, the Mennonite Church, and even United Methodist Church, as well as in Church Planting, and have helped in the birthing of an inner city church, and two home group churches, yet in the current church that I have attended I have had very few leadership opportunities over the last 14 years, but have had a lot of training.

I have responded to invitations to be involved or engaged in various church programs.  I even had the opportunity to head the youth branch of the only major evangelistic Crusade to ever be held in the city where I reside.  I have helped out with Bible Schools, Sunday Schools, prophetic conferences, etc.  I have responded to requests of need to help supplement a church program.

When involved with birthing new churches, or maintaining small group churches, or developing church plants, a vibrancy of spiritual life has help propel me into leadership because of meeting overwhelming “needs” when there is only one pastor and no staff in ministry.  Unfortunately, with the growth churches, and the expanding of staff, the “need” for my services has not been as great, thus a season of inactivity.  It is so easy to allow the pastor and his staff to supply spiritual food through sermons or teachings rather than individual disciplined Bible Study, having them pray for you or tap into prayer chains instead of individual intercessory prayer or personal quiet times of listening for the voice of the Holy Spirit to speak to me personally, or to visit the sick, do prison ministry, open my home for hospitality or ministry, etc. because of my busy schedule.  It is so easy to go to large churches to “blend in”, not being asked to do anything but having all their “ministries” available for “my needs”.

So what is the Church suppose to be doing?  Ephesians 4 claims it is to “equip, prepare, train the saints, those who believer in Jesus Christ, to do the work of service.”  The saints, the everyday believers, are not just to be “hearers of the Word, but doers.”  They are to become the Rhema Word, living out of the Logos, Biblical Word.  They are to be equipped, trained, and prepared to win the lost (evangelism), to nurture, care, and comfort (pastoral/shepherding), to discipline their lives through reading, studying, and allowing the Holy Spirit to teach them the Logos, the written Word (teacher), to profess and carry out the Living Word, the Rhema Word in their daily lives (prophetically), and to “see over” what the Lord is doing with his body, the Church, corporately.  They cannot be a Lone Rangers.  Then once trained, they need to be RELEASED  to DO IT, the work of service! 

Is your pastor the in-resident evangelist, pastor, teacher, hearer of the voice of God, and over seer of the local church?  If he leaves, gets sick, or dies, who is to replace him, another professional?  Or has he trained others under his leadership to do the “work of service” as an evangelist, shepherd, teacher, prophet, or apostle? Does everyone in leadership have to have a college, seminary, Bible College, or online Biblical degree? Or have they “earned” the title of evangelist, shepherd, teacher, prophet, or apostle because the are “doing” the “works of service”?  They are doing it.  The doing earns the adjective in front of them, not the “degree” or the “title of office”.

So I close by asking the question again, “What are we preparing our Christian brothers and sisters to be: professional ministers, trained church leaders, energetic, active participants, or enablers?”  How can the church begin to “equip” the every day believer in Christ so they become “active, equal participants submitting to one another while serving one another” to develop others into the spiritual likeness, called maturity, in Jesus and brining unity to the Body of Christ?

The Church Needs A Chiropractic Approach To Revival: An Adjustment!

How The Church Can Adjust To An Artesian Well Flow

The Holy Spirit is in the Church because it dwells in the “temples”, the bodies, of believers in Jesus Christ.  But how is the church as an institution to react when the Holy Spirit surfaces as a flow out of the believers in their structure?  History shows that most of the time, the institutional church tries to “cap” it rather than let it flow.  By “capping” it, one “controls” it.  The question always falls on “who is in control” and “can you trust the Holy Spirit” to be in “control”?

Almost every church Sunday Morning Worship Service is a very controlled environment.  I joke that it is a morning “controlled” by the pastor, worship leader/choir director, and a scripted program.  In most churches there is given very little room, if any, for the flow of the Holy Spirit to surface from the average pew sitter in the church, except at offering time when the institutional church hopes for a large flow of money to support its institutional system. 

This past weekend I attended my nephew’s confirmation celebration in a traditional Lutheran church.  Given a bulletin, every part of the service was preplanned.  Prayers were written and read by the pastor, congregation knew how to respond in unison verbally or in song, when to stand or sit, when to sing, when to be quiet, when to turn during the processional and recessional, when to participate in communion, etc.  Several scriptures were read, all liturgy was ecclesiastically correct, all passages theologically sound.  It was Pentecost Sunday, the celebration of when the Holy Spirit was released on the Church, yet in this service there were no cracks in the preplanned service for the artesian well to surface, to flow out of the “participants” at the service.  The service was all about receiving, even receiving communion, but not about giving nor allowing the flow of the Holy Spirit from its so called “participants”.  Church members are allowed to be acolytes, altar boys, carrier of the Bible or cross in processions, lay reader of scripture, and ushers, all pre-orchestrated planned positions, but the pastor controlled the flow of the service.  The Holy Spirit can flow out of him through his sermon, comments, the laying on of hands, etc., but not the “congregates”, thus an established the dreaded line between clergy and laity and what each can and can not do.

I am not just picking on the Lutherans, for last night I attended a "worship/prayer" service in the I.H.O.P. style where almost the entire service was scripted. Each participant received the script when entering. Confession, repenting, and intercessory prayers were all read by participants. When the mic was open for "spontaneous" prayer, no one responded because the scripted prayers and the pre-chosen scriptures had covered every point. Music was fantastic; program went smooth, but the artesian well was never tapped nor flowed. The preplanned, well scripted, well thought out program capped the well.

It is a little different at the present church that I attend though the services aren’t as scripted through a bulletin, but the pastor and the worship leader drive 95% of the service.  The congregation is allowed to give their monetary offering, greet one another through hand shakes, hugs, and informal chit chat, and even allow if someone flows prophetically through giving a prophetic word, which is starting to become more of a rarity and only being done by some of the “old timers”.  In a church rich in Pentecostal, Word, Prophetic, and Apostolic history, spiritual gifts flowing in the Sunday morning service is getting scarcer and scarcer.

How is the institutional church to respond to an artesian flow of the Spirit of Jesus Christ arising from the tombs of inactivity in believers?  What happens if a “pew sitter” gets a prophetic message arising from with in?  Can he give that message instead of the sermon? Probably not! Everyone knows the pulpit is a guarded commodity of its pastor.  Even when absent on vacation, illness, etc., it is filled by guest speakers, other pastors, and very seldom from those with in their own local spiritual family.  Most churches don’t equip, prepare, or train any of their members to “replace” the pastor and the sermon if needed.  What if a “pew sitter” gets a “new song”, an original scripture based song arising from within?  Where in the service could that song come forth?  Would it have to be first approved by the worship leader, then written down so the worship team could play it?  That is not spontaneous!  What if a “pew sitter” has an original poem flow out of himself/herself?  Where can they spontaneously give it? Oh, they are to write it down, give it to the pastor, have it submitted to and approved by the worship committee, and printed in the bulletin several weeks later!  An artist? Forget it, for there is no outlet to paint a picture, sketch a drawing, allow a flow of visual artistic creativity to spontaneously flow during a Sunday morning worship service in most churches!

I remember the beauty of hearing an entire congregation “singing in the spirit” in the ‘70’s & early 80’s!  The harmonies were angelic, never to be repeated, powerful with passion and compassion.  Where is there an avenue for “corporate” spontaneous flow of the Spirit in today’s church services? 

If we truly want the flow of the Holy Spirit to arise from the tombs of inactivity, tombs of doubt and disbelief, tombs of complacency, tombs that lacked spiritual self discipline, then we need to give permission to allow the Holy Spirit to dig deep into the wells of every believer in our congregations, into my life and yours, to expose the silt of sin laying dormant on the bottom, and allow the Holy Spirit to erupt from with in, clean up the silt of sin, then rise and flow out of each believer to overflow onto others who are spiritually dry.  If this be the case, then we will have to reexamine how we “do” church, how we “do” worship, how we “relate” to one another in the body of Christ, how we “serve” one another, and how we “lay down our lives” for our brethren.  This simple flow of the Holy Spirit from with in will force the Church to face dramatic changes.  Hey, this sounds like revival!

A Challenge To Churches Outside the U.S. To Respond

How Is The Five Fold Being Released Among You?

Before a spiritual revival hits an area, there must first be a spiritual hunger.  Unfortunately, even though the economic mood is tense, unemployment as a challenge, health care for everyone a national debate, I do not feel that the American Church is hungry enough for revival.  Revival brings change, and most of the churches in the U.S. feel they are doing fine, still feel they are spiritual leaders globally, feel elitist to most of the churches in third world countries and the rest of the world.  There is not that desperation nor brokenness that comes with a need for God.  The U.S. Church lacks to desperation for God that fuels revival.

The U.S. still feels it leads in spiritual teachers, worship music and musicians, finances, technology, and mega-church structures and organizations, but it lacks the grass roots hunger that ignites revival: brokenness, hunger and thirst.  Something like embracing the reality of the five fold passions, vision, and points of view that already exist in their edifices is foreign to the U.S. church because it would demand change in structure and the way it does “church”.

I follow on my Facebook page Alan Hirsch because of his experience with the five fold when he lived down under in New Zealand before coming to the U.S.  I try to glean from his experiences and wisdom.  There are places in this world where the Church is allowing the five fold gifting, passion, points of view, and passions to arise and be birthed, nurtured, and released within the Body of Christ.  Unfortunately, the American church has not been that receptive to the change that such an acknowledgement would bring if the five fold was embraced and the Holy Spirit released to initiate, orchestrate, develop, and be released in American churches.

I am calling to the Church outside the United States.  If you are seeing the release of the five fold in your church, could you please comment back as an encouragement to we believers in Jesus here in America. Place an entry on Fiverevealed.com Facebook page, so that I and other believers in Jesus can dialogue with you. 

I truly believe that the five fold already exists in our churches; we just need to recognize that fact.  Then we need to ask the Holy Spirit how to make Ephesians 4 applicable to our churches today.  How are we to equip the saints for the work of the service, win the lost in the 21^st Century, nurture and care for those in the Church, teach with an apostolic anointing of unity, prophetically move forward and listen to he voice of the Holy Spirit and the heartbeat of the Father, and be able to see over all that the Spirit of Jesus Christ is doing in his Bride, his Body, the Church?

I also believe that the Church outside the U.S. borders will probably be more open to this movement in God than the American Church.  Much of the spiritual leadership will arise through experiencing the five fold in this new dimension, then releasing those who have practiced it, experienced it, to share with the rest of the global Christian community.

Church outside the borders of the U.S., I ask you to respond!

Believers In Jesus Christ: Accept My Apology For Being Narrow Minded Not Global?

New Mindsets For Me and the Church

One of the purpose of these now over 300 blogs over the last two years has been to challenge mind sets that we have established in the current church setting.  Before this website, my vision for the Church was focused around my local congregation or the Church of this area.  Posting on the website has made me think beyond York, Pennsylvania to the entire United States, but now I have had to “upgrade” my mindset to think internationally.  I have noticed that many of the hits to this site have come between 1 and 5 in the morning E.S.T.  which means Europe has shown an interest.  So to those members of the body of Christ outside the U.S., I apologize for limiting my view, but hope to develop a larger, world wide view of the Church as I address the use of the five fold to the entire Church, the Body of Christ.

This does not mean we need a “Global Council of Churches” to dialogue and recognize each other. Facebook allows normal everyday believers to dialogue and recognize each other with only one bond of unity: Jesus.  We, believers in Jesus Christ, can talk about Jesus to each other.  It is all about establishing relationships, not religious structures, so we do not need to create a Facebook, Text, Tweet, or Blog for Jesus as an established, official structure, webpage, or web site, but allow the Holy Spirit to flow freely among its believers to communicate, network, and bond together.  It is amazing that technology has been created to do this!

Just two decades ago, radio and television were still the only method to get the gospel out to the entire world.  Today any individual who has an Iphone with GPS capability can communicate with anyone throughout the world.  The way the Church thinks of evangelism to the world is “upgrading” from Church Evangelism.1 to the new and improved Church Evangelism.5.5! We must be open to new methods of evangelism as the world opens up to every believer. The most effective evangelism has always been one-to-one communication, and today’s technology allows that, so we need to rethink our mindset.

As far as pastoral/shepherding, I know I need to rethink how I communicate with brothers and sisters in the Lord globally.  How to encourage, communicate, and bond in fellowship with believers in Europe, Asia, the Far East, down under in Australia, and even with my brothers in the Lord in China!  The world is only a click away on my computer or Iphone!  Facebook has allowed a networking that needs to be developed effectively by the Church to communicate with its many members the world over. So I invite any believer in Jesus Christ to be “my friend”, my “brother/sister in the Lord” on my Fiverevealed Facebook Page.

Prophetically, living out the gospel is of extreme importance.  Getting or receiving a “word from the Lord” to or from another brother or sister in the Lord from anywhere in the world is powerful.  Knowing what the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, is doing throughout the world must be shared, and we are in an era of being in the realm of that possibility. If I get a prophetic word about something outside the U.S., I will take the step of faith and post it!  That new mindset will even stretch me and my faith.

The Apostles teaching brought unity in a very small area of the world at its birth in the first century.  The only way to bring unity is again establish the simplistic gospel of truth that unites the Church, not propagate the doctrines and dogmas that have divided it.  World Wide teachers of the Word need to concentrate on the truths of simplicity of the gospel to bring unity! The apostolic needs to arise.  The seeing over the entire body of Christ, the Church is drastically needed to prevent more schisms and divisions.  Revivals in the 21st century must bring unity, not division if the Bride of Christ is to come together to usher in the age of the Lord’s returned as prophesied in the Bible.  A 21^st Century apostle needs to discern the prophetic and they need to encourage, help coordinate, facilitate, and network this huge global body of believers to be as effective as it can be in changing the world globally for Jesus Christ, flow within the global church, sense the urge of evangelism to key areas of the world that have not heard the gospel, feel the need for nurture and care to the global body of Christ in their development. They need to bring unity through apostolic teaching, 

Forgive me for my narrow sightedness; Lord open my eyes, my mind, and my spirit to what you are doing globally and to the Church as a whole.

Social Networking: Needs A Pastor; Needs A Savior?

Intrapersonal or Interpersonal Skills?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Again, I Repeat: “Passion” Released Brings “Productivity”

The Releasing of Passion in the Five Fold

Recently I met with my local pastor, contemplating my future upon retiring from being a public educator for forty years, asking him how I would now fit into the local body of Christ that he was leading.  His response was to ask me a question, “What are you passionate about?”  My response, “teaching!”

I ask you today, “What are you passionate about in your walk with Jesus?”  What drives you?  What gives you a sense of fulfillment?  For some its missions, others evangelism, hospitality, visitations, caring and nurturing, teaching, seeking God through worship, listening to the voice of God through obedience, marveling at the workings of the Church as a whole, etc.  There are many things one can be passionate about in Jesus. What is your passion?

I believe one of the keys to the five fold is the “releasing” of these “passions” among the saints.  Ephesians 4 challenges us to “equip”, prepare, the saints, the everyday believers in Jesus Christ, for the work of “service.”  If we prepare the saints and allow them to be passionate about the work of the gospel through service, we will witness a productive Church. 

Often the church has based itself around a certain day to worship, a certain building or place in which to worship, a certain group of people, the staff, to perform needed duties, rather than releasing those who worship, whose bodies are the Temple of the Holy Spirit, and who have been called to perform the work of service: the saints, the people who ARE the CHURCH! 

This time of year there are graduations everywhere, celebrations of years of preparation, only to now be released.  Students who are clueless about survival in the world as adults, but academically prepared, released to become adults, released to use those things they were taught in real world situations.  If they have been “prepared” effectively they will become productive.  If what they learned has become their “passion,” that passion released will produce “productivity” and they will earn the title of becoming successful.  Without passion, they become just another cog in the system.

When you think of Church, what drives you?  What are you passionate about?  If released, what would you want to do?  What preparation do you need to dove tail with your passion so that you can be productive for Jesus? Those are the questions each of us and the Church as a whole needs to be asking! 

The church must also ask the question, “What structures my be in place for this to happen, and what current structures have to be removed for this to happen?”  In urban renewal, often old structures must be condemned, torn down, and removed, before new structures can be built to bring life back into that urban area.  The church does not do a very effective job at condemning existing structures that were once productive but have become “traditions” now blocking “renewal”.  Urban renewal always brings opposition from the established entrenched ones, and so does spiritual renewal. 

I believe the five fold is a possible structure that would bring renewal to the Church if allowed to be led by the Holy Spirit at the cost of its members be willing to lay down their lives for one another, a high price for the prize.  All through these 300 blogs I have written, I have challenged you and I as believers, and you and I as the Church to tear down some old structures, once valued with reverence, but now becoming a blockage for spiritual renewal.  I have learned it is easy to lay on the altar the waste, the sin, and the failures of our lives for Jesus to renew, but find it difficult to lay on the altar things that I love, things that have been productive in the past, things that I value, yet they are the very things that must be laid on the altar for the Church to continue to move forward.  Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal those structures and how to remove them; then ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the new structures you are to be “passionate” about and release that passion.

Spiritual Parenting

An Analogy: The Five Fold To Parenting

I believe the five fold is in each of us!  We possess the ability to birth, to nurture care and develop, to teach, to bring life, and to oversee.  This is most evident in parenting.  No one ever realizing what parenting is until they are in it and faced with its challenges.  One also doesn’t realize that parenting becomes a life long ambition though its roles may change with the aging of their children, but once a parent, always a parent. So it is also with the five fold.

Parenting doesn’t begin until there is a birth.  Without a birth, there are no parents.  You don’t even think like a parent until a birth occurs.  The birthing process is a joy, but the work of parenting begins when you bring the newborn home and witness long hours without sleep, endless diaper changes, changes to your life style, your feeling of privacy, and trying to figure out who really controls your life, your children or yourself. Parental supervision implies the proper protection of those under your care.

Parenting becomes pastoral as the rest of their childhood lives are under your care to nurture, develop, and keep up with their developmental stages as they work toward maturing as an adult. This is when one realizes that parenting is a life long calling, a life long commitment.

Parents are natural teachers, because little children “imitate” their parent’s behavior.  We learn best by experience. We say we will never “be like my mother/father”, but when we become parents we are shocked to see our parents in our life’s mirror of ourselves, because one of the most effective ways of being a parent is being taught to be one by example.  That is usually why one puts away their wild single searching lives, hopefully not to be dug up by their children when they reach that stage in an effort to “settle down” and be responsible.  Hopefully a “teachable” spirit can be instilled in a child through proper nurture, care, and above all earned respect by what we did as a parent.

Parenting requires a prophetic spirit, a spirit of bringing life into situations.  Parents lay down the law, establish rules with their children, but unless they bring love and life into what can be teachable life situations children only remember the law, not the reason for laws to protect and bring life.  You invest your “life” into your children to bring “life” in them.  Cat Stevens song Cat In The Cradle exemplifies what happens when life is not invest in your children. They give back your investment in them when you are old and they take or don’t take care of you!

Parenting requires over sight.  “Seeing over” what your children are doing is the key to their success.  Parents need to know that their children are doing, thinking, and acting.  If you ignore your children, then proper and effective parenting ceases. If you ignore a garden, weeds take over and the garden becomes nonproductive!  When I first needed a username for my first email account as instructed by my tech-savvy children, I chose “popnozall”, for “pop knows all” so my children were aware that where ever they went on the internet or used the computer, pop would find out, because he knows all.  They believed it when I had to practice it!  Over sight, properly seeing over your children, is monumental in the proper growth and development of your children.  Neglect proves disaster.

So it is with the Church!  Spiritual parenting cannot begin without a birth, a new birth, a spiritual birth of one accepting Jesus as their savior, king, personal, hopefully, best friend, confidant, etc. Without a new birth, there is no need to parent.  The pastoral role is the nurturing, caring, developing role of parenting, the day to day living out of one’s spiritual walk.  Parents need help from their families in this walk, and what better family than the family of God, the Church, to aide in proper parenting spiritually and physically in everyday living!  Although the Church can supply spiritual teaching, it is still the individual parent’s responsibility to teach their child how to read the Bible on their own, how to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit, how to trust the Holy Spirit, how to walk out one’s faith journey, etc. by example, but the corporate body of Christ, the Church can aide in that walk.  The Church should be prophetic, applying the living out of the principles that are taught.  With out this prophetic spirit, this walking out physically what truth lies spiritually, there will be only limited spiritual life if a believer.  The Church should also provide oversight, the “seeing over” what the Holy Spirit is doing in the lives of its children, its believers in Jesus.

So the five fold is natural in the parenting in life, and natural in the parenting spiritually.  I will continue to challenge you and encourage you to embrace the five fold in your spiritual life and in the life of your church.

Can Worshipers Worship, Or Must They Always Be Led?

A Contrast In Styles

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Rewards of Retooling, Renewing, Revival, Rebirth!

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Walking Away" From The Walk?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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