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

 The Only Way To Be Released Is To Release

One of the hardest things about parenting is releasing!  What! They’re 16 already, and its natural to want to be released from the “bondage” of going everywhere with your parents and counting on them for everything! They want the car keys, a driver’s license, to drive on their own? If we want them to be successful adults, we have to release them!  What! An 18 year old going off to college where there is drinking, partying, peer socializing in ways that were taboo when they lived at home! Can they morally stand on their own?  Be responsible enough to make 8 o’clock classes, develop their own proper study habits, hygiene habits? Release them!  I think it is harder for the parent experiencing an empty nest, than it is for the yearling to establish his/her own nest.  Both need to release each other: the caregiver from constantly giving, and the recipient from always receiving. It is a process called “growing up”!

Paul even is fascinated by what it takes for an immature Christian to “Grow Up” in the faith. When they are young in the faith, new in the experience of faith walking, they often stumble as new walkers do when first learning to stand on their own.  Paul calls them “carnal Christians”, those who would rather remain spoon-fed, diaper changed, cuddled and pampered rather than “growing up” and standing on their own.

The key to a Christian believer “growing up” from the perspective of the five fold who has birth them (evangelist), help them develop and grow in the faith (pastor/shepherd), taught them the Word, the Bible (teacher), guided them into how to hear from the Lord on their own (prophet), and help them to see the big picture of the Church, the family of God, as a corporate group (apostle) needing one another, is to “RELEASE”.  If we have done a proper job of “preparing” and “equipping”, no one can stand on their own unless “released”!

If we have become “enablers”, it is difficult to release, because who will do it for them if they cannot do it themselves?  Most church leadership looks at their members as never being “mature” enough to be released, thus constantly enabling them, then wonder why they haven’t grown or become independent from them! In spite of having a “heavy foot” on the gas pedal, a parent has to “release” their son/daughter to drive, even if it takes an accident to teach them why they need safe driving habits. Who hasn’t done “really stupid things” in their 20’s that they never want to admit about in their 40’s or 50’s as part of their learning process of “standing alone”, “growing up”!

When Jesus “discipled” his 12 disciples, they acted like 20 year olds, fighting for positions, trying to figure things out practically on their own, inserting foot in mouth, and often lacking the “faith” needed for the coming call.  Jesus, the Teacher, the Shepherd, had not only called them, birthed them, their Evangelist, he now was in the process of nurturing and developing them.  He was preparing them, equipping them, for what lay ahead. He didn’t freak out over their falls, their failures, their short comings, he kept pouring himself into them, willing to lay down his life for them.  He was “preparing” them!  Once he ascended into heaven, he then “equipped” them, sending His Holy Spirit. Now they were ready!

On Pentecost he RELEASED them! They were on their own, now grown up!  They were no longer called disciples nor thought of as disciples; they were apostles and began to walk, think, and act like apostles, standing tall, standing on their own.  They had been released, and were now called to “see over” what the Holy Spirit was doing to the Body of Christ, His Church, His Bride, for the purpose of “preparing” and “equipping” others to be “released” for the “kingdom of God” was no longer at hand; it was in full “Acts-tion”! They were released, a live moving forward. 

The book of Acts does not record the stupid 20-year old actions of their Pre-Pentecost experience, but records the “Acts-ions” of what they are doing as “grown up” Christians!

That is the goal of the five fold: To help the believers “Grow Up”!

And the only way to allow a child, a teen, an adolescent, to “grow up” is to eventually “release” them!  The final step to the “equipping the saints for the work of service” is the “releasing” of them.  It’s a “hands-off” policy, so the hand of God can be on them for the rest of their Christian lives of “service”.

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

Then How Is A Teacher To Be An Equipper?

After reading my last blog, you might have asked, “What is the role of the teacher in the five fold if they are ‘NOT THE TEACHER’”?  It is a different mindset than what the Westernized intellect has established.  The key may be found in how we define “equipping”?

Hypothetically, let’s say you want to “explore the North Pole”, the top of the world.  How do we prepare you for the trip; how do we equip you?  Well, Westernized intellectual thought would say to study, research, dig out all the information we can find about the North Pole, sub-zero weather conditions, climate, etc.  We want to “know”, intellectually, everything we can!  We go to school, earn a Bachelor’s, Master’s, even a Doctorate Degree in a specified area so that we become experts in the field. We rent a dog sled, because that is how early explorers got there, and go on our journey only to die by hardships; we freeze to death!  We knew everything about the journey, but did not “equip” ourselves for survival!  It takes more than intellectually “knowing” about a topic, but actually “experiencing” a topic.  If we survived enough to recuperate to go on a second expedition, we would invest in proper parkas, insulated boots and specialized gloves, proper heated, motorized equipment instead of dog sleds, etc. We will have learned from “experience” what is needed to succeed. It is a harsh climate out there! Those who follow us can read our written works, our journals, study our efforts, but it would not hurt them to call, visit, interview, and ask in depth questions from us about our “experience”.  Even with that, until they “experience” the frigid North for themselves will they truly be able to relate, to “know” what it is all about.

So it is in “learning” about faith in our spiritual journey.  Even though we have written accounts from the patriarch, Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob, and accounts of Moses’ journey, Samson’s story, Daniel’s faith adventures, the many prophet’s journey, the disciples walk, and even the church’s history in the book of Acts, we still do not fully understand the truths these men have learned until we “experience it ourselves”!  That is where the rubber meets the road; where it all is transformed from theory to actuality.

The drive of a five fold teacher is to “prepare” a person for their personal journey that he is about to “experience”.  To “equip” the person with all he needs for when he is ready to do the journey alone.   Walking with a brother/sister in the Lord, beside him, next to him through life’s experiences, teaching Kingdom of God principles to practical life applications is Jesus method of teaching his disciples. When the teacher is gone, hopefully you can stand on your own for he has “prepared” you to do so.  It is more than mentoring, for IJohn 3:16 says we ought to “lay down our lives for our brethren”.  I have had several Christian mentors in my life, but they were not willing to sacrificially lay down their lives for me when needed. Jesus, the ultimate teacher, was ready to “lay down his life” so his pupils, students, disciples, apostles, so they could stand on their own after his resurrection and ascension. He had prepared them.

He also “equipped” them.  He gave them everything that they needed upon his departure to stand on their own.  The same Spirit that descended upon Him at his baptism was given to them when the Holy Spirit fell upon them!  He had been led by the Spirit to the dessert, to places of quietness, to crowded areas, places of mass ministry, to the sick to heal them, and even to Jerusalem to the Cross to fulfill his life’s calling!  He has given each Christian believer that same Holy Spirit to “teach him all things”, to “say the right things for them when needed”, to “lead them, guide them”.  He has “equipped” them with “spiritual gifts” for effective communications with Him and through Him.  He has given them “faith”, “hope”, “love”, “peace”, “spiritual armor”, purpose, etc. Like the parka’s, transportation, etc. of the North Pole explorers, Jesus has given those things not only to “survive”, but those things needed to “strive”, to succeed to the goal!

The ultimate dream of a five fold teacher is to have his students “experience” God, faith, agape love, forgiveness, repentance, righteousness, holiness, obedience, etc. on his own, using the principles of the kingdom of God that they were taught when walking next to them in life’s experiences.  When they “experience” God on their own, standing firm in the faith, moving forward in the Spirit, toward the goal, the prize of the Kingdom, Jesus, as a five fold teacher you can have the satisfaction that you have succeeded!  That is the goal of a five fold teacher.

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

 It’s Not Your Job To Be The Teacher

I have been a public school teacher for 40 years!  For forty years teaching has been my job.  That is how I financially supported my family.  It became my identity, defining who I am.  I would introduce myself as, “I am Anthony Bachman; I teach 8^th grade at Spring Grove Middle School.” Being acknowledged as “Teacher of the Year” by my school district during the last year of my career was a fulfilling honor, signifying my professional growth as a struggling “new teacher”, maturing into a master teacher, gleaning from other educators that I admired, being willing to change with the times, the climate, the new swing in educational philosophy over a four decade experience.  All that changed in June of 2011 when I retired”.  Then I discovered that I was still a teacher, in spite of my new employment status, for it was what drives me; it’s my passion.

I was fortunate having Clarence Barnhart who received the honor of being one of the Top 10 Qualifiers for Teacher Of The Year for the state of Pennsylvania as my educational mentor.  He was dynamic, creative, highly organized, motivated, loved kids, love coaching by introducing track to athletes and developing them for High School, great at intramurals, willing to try new ideas while incorporating multi-disciplines into his teaching style.  Rather than lecturing and showing filmstrips and films about the Revolutionary War, he taught students how to research history for themselves, how to dig for answers, how to discover history nationally, state wide, and even locally.  His students not only “knew” their history but “experienced” it!  That is what teaching is all about: not only knowing your subject matter, but experiencing it, living it, consuming it, making it part of your being!

As I began my retirement, I spent time reading my Bible.  I soon realized that Jesus’ model of teaching differed from my Westernized thought and experience.  Jesus never took a “course” or “earned a degree”, but confounded the spiritual intellects of his day at the Temple when he was only 12 years old!  He “earned the respect” of being called “rabbi”, teacher, for what he taught and how he taught with “power”.  Now a successful rabbi, he never founded a College or University on “new Jewish thought”, but chose 12 of the most unlikely candidates in which to invest his “teaching” career. He walked with them, discussed one on one with them, lived with them, ate with them, taught them through life experiences, even taking them to Jerusalem and to face the cross and his resurrection.  Their education continued on the Road to Emmaus, as they were explained “all things” and the fulfillment of the gospel by Jesus.  With his ascension, their education came through the Holy Spirit who taught them that in Christ there is no difference between male nor female, Jew or gentile, master or slave, nor rich or poor.  How I taught for forty years as a public school teacher was so foreign to the way Jesus taught in his three-year career as a rabbi, or teacher.  I taught academics; Jesus taught experience.  I taught intellectual theory; Jesus taught practical everyday life style.  I taught through my intellect; Jesus taught through His Spirit!

Just as I became a “professional” educator and thought my way was the correct way; it is easy to become a “professional” Christian, a member of the clergy, who can feel his way is the correct way.  We have been “trained” to think and act “professionally”, intellectually.  It’s our job!  It is the way we identify ourselves.  It becomes who we are, and if the Holy Spirit shows us that our mind set is foreign to the actual ways of teaching the gospel, we become defensive and personally assaulted. At least I did as a professional educator.  All my higher educated role models, professors, lectured “what they knew through their P.H.D. degrees” to us students; all our higher elevated role models, senior pastors, Bishops, etc., preach, religiously lecture, to us “what they know through their theological doctorate degrees”. Their methods of teaching are the same, yet “lecturing” has been proven one of the most ineffective ways of teaching! Having students “experience” their material is far more effective.

In “equipping the saints for the work of service,” we often feel we, the teachers in the Church, have to teach the materials that we are most comfortable with in our own faith journeys.  Here is the hard lesson that I have had to learn: I AM NOT the teacher; Jesus, His Holy Spirit, IS the teacher. Jesus, upon his ascension to heaven to sit at the right hand of God, promised to send the Holy Spirit “who will teach you all things”. He is the teacher. Jesus continually taught through example while being a human on earth. His teaching HAS NOT ceased, for His Holy Spirit has been sent to CONTINUE the job.  We need to get out of the way and allow the Holy Spirit to teach!

If someone opens the Bible on their own, the Holy Spirit can teach them its truth; it is called “revelation”. He, the Holy Spirit, is the “revealer of truth”!  Some of the best teaching comes through private daily devotions when it is only the individual believer with the Holy Spirit reading the Word, the Bible, together privately.  The Holy Spirit “recalls” those passages in the believers every day life, making the Logos Word, the written Word, the Rhema Word, the living word.  Not only does the Holy Spirit help the believer in Jesus to “hear” the Word in their private time together, but calls them to be “doers” of the Word, experiencing it!

Bottom Line: If we are to be teachers helping to “equip the saints for the work of service”, we need to teach them how to hear the Holy Spirit on their own, how to be obedient to what has been “revealed”, seen & heard, and learn to walk out their faith on their own, relying only on the Holy Spirit.  Then we have “equipped” them properly.  It has nothing to do with the intellect; it has everything to do with “obedience” to the Holy Spirit, so let’s allow the HOLY SPIRIT to be the TEACHER! It’s just NOT our job! It’s HIS!

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

Our Spiritual Library’s Story

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lesson Learned From The Church In China

Thoughts By Watchman Nee

I’ve been reading some of Watchman Nee’s writings, seeing how the Holy Spirit was preparing the Church of China for the upcoming persecution with the coming of the Chinese Communist Party coming into power in the 1950’s. They would outlaw westernized religion while imprisoning their leaders and later any believer professing faith in Jesus Christ. Watchman Nee, as well as countless others professing Christians would die in prisons because of their faith.

Active vs. passive:  Some unique insights that I have seen through his writings is his emphasis on never allowing Christian believers to be “passive” in their faith. He was not a fan of the sermon from the pulpit to the congregations passively sitting in their seats that he called “worker’s meetings”.  He encouraged active participation by all Christian believers that he called “church meetings” because the entire church, the body of Christ, the priesthood of believers, the average Christian would participate.  This set the groundwork for every believer to be responsible to be active for Christ once persecution hit the Church. When Christian organizations were destroyed, the faith of individuals could not be diminished.

Meeting Places: He did not believe in building buildings called churches. He thought the Church was God’s people, and where ever they met they had church. This philosophy became vitally important when persecution hit, because it is easy to burn down and destroy a building, but it is harder to tear down and destroy one’s faith, particularly if it is an active faith. The church met in homes, rented rooms, public buildings, etc. It became fluid. I understand that today the underground Chinese Church still meets in homes, rented rooms, warehouses, etc. whereever they can.

Organizations: Unlike his Westernized counterparts, Nee did not feel obligated to form Missionary Societies or highly structured organizations, but gave “workers” leave way to birth and develop new churches as the Holy Spirit led.  When the Communist Party came to power, there was no central organization or leadership for the party to direct its persecutions toward. This set the groundwork for the “fluidity” that the Chinese Church exhibits today.

Finances:  Nee felt faith for one’s finances was mandatory for every full time worker of the gospel. A set salary with “benefits”, he felt, hurt one’s faith for believing God to provide all one’s needs.  Also costs of ministry wer also upon the “worker”. This prevented debt, budgets, perks, and the power of enablement through entitlements. Again, this turned out to be a powerful principle for the underground church to utilize during a time of persecution.

Unity & Division: Nee frowned on the theology that constantly divided the unity of the Church as a whole. He felt that the only division would be geographical.  All the Christians who fluidly met in, lets say, Washington, D.C. would be known as the Church of Washington, while those in Baltimore, MD, would be the Church of Baltimore. There was to be no divisions between sects meeting in a given locality.  If you were a Christian, one who was saved, redeemed, and sanctified through Jesus Christ was a member of His Church, your were part of that local body of Christ. This kept sectarianism from dividing the body, and is monumental in the way Christians in China think of themselves individually, locally, and corporately today.

Holy Spirit:  The listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit and being obedient to that voice was crucial in Nee’s ministry, and is crucial in the ministry of local churches today in China.

Because of the silence of the underground Church in China, which is understandable even today because of persecution, I personally do not know how and if these principles are being used, but I do know that they probably were and are effective for ministry in this setting today.

The  Church of China has been tried and tested through persecution. The way they “do” church and “are” the Church may look and feel quite different their Western Christian counterparts, but, I feel, we in the West can learn much from them about being active or passive, where to meet, setting up our organizations and finances, dealing with Unity and Division in the body, and trusting and being obedient to the Holy Spirit for all things and guidance. 

When the communist walls of the U.S.S.R. fell, many westernized churches sent missionaries back there to establish westernized formed churches; when the walls of communism eventually fall in China, I think that it will be the Chinese underground Church who will send missionaries to the United States rather than the West returning to their land.

I pray for the day when I can see and verify how the five fold is operating in the free, underground Church of China. I know it is there!

A Look At Past Revivals And Present Realities

What Mess? Let’s Have Some Soup!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Plurality Is Better Than Singularity

The Need For The 5 Fold

Five = One Is Better Than Doing It Alone!

Often there is strength in numbers. I remember receiving a phone call from a girl in distress who claimed to be fighting a spiritual battle in her head. She felt satan had been hassling her, and she did not know what to do about it. As we began to pray about it, she received a revelation that changed her life. She said, “Wow, it is like I can see the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost standing beside satan. Three against one! But with you and me together, it is now five against one; satan doesn’t have a chance!”

There is power in plurality. God knew that it was not good for man to live alone, thus Adam had Eve, the Lone Ranger had Tonto, Snoopy had Charlie Brown, and so on. “Where two or more are gathered, there I am,” Jesus said. In the midst of plurality you find Jesus!  That is one of the secret mysteries of a true five fold model: five different passions, drives, and points of view, yet when unified in purpose and in mission by each laying down their lives for each other through service they become a dynamic force for the kingdom of God!  There is a dynamic power when “5=1”! When five different drives, though diverse, go the same direction in unity together; they are unstoppable! “Satan doesn’t have a chance!”

If that is true, then why does the church not openly embrace the five fold?  Bottom line: Control. Who is in control? In the five fold model that I have presented over these 350 blog pages, each believer has to relinquish control and “release” those diversely different from themselves to be who they are in Christ Jesus in freedom. The Holy Spirit must be in control! We are only vessel’s of God’s Spirit, living temples. As soon as we try to take control, power politics become the issue.  Most Christians, sometime in their life, has fallen victim to “church politics” as parties fight for who is going to control the church and the church’s doctrines and direction. The only way to avoid church politics is to relinquish your need to be in control, be submissive to the Holy Spirit’s control, and blindly, in faith, obey his leading.  That will lead to being submissive to the other four in humility, which will lead to unity in purpose, direction, and ministry: 5=1!

5 different voices = 1 united voice; 5 diverse passions & drives = 1 unified direction; only when 5 different people are willing to lay down their lives for each other in service, humility, and submission = 1 body, with 1 Lord, Jesus, following 1 Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus Christ!

It’s a dynamic theory, a work in progress, a goal that I am shooting for in my life time, a dream for unity in the Body of Christ, His Church, His Bride, which he will return for during his second coming. 

America & The Church: Facing The Challenge Of Community

The Need For The 5 Fold – Part II

The Issue: How To Develop Community (Continued)

Today’s churches look for programs and models that have been proven “successful” by other churches and pattern their program after it. The five fold doesn’t recreate; it creates. “In Jesus Christ all things are new,” as the scripture says.  The Holy Spirit can direct one local church to do one thing, yet has another church do something completely different.  The Holy knows the hearts of men, so it knows what we are or are not willing to do, our faith levels, our commitment, our foundations of faith. 

If your church wants to reach out to the urban neighborhood, you might pattern other ministries: begin with a door to door evangelistic thrust handing out tracts about your new ministry, offer a soup kitchen, create a community food and clothing bank, develop a Rescue Mission or drug free half way house, etc, but do these proven and highly effective ministries fit with your congregations gifts?  Will your church be over taxed eventually causing burn out if they tackle on all of this? Do you have the resources needed?

On the other hand, if examined from a five fold perspective, the five gather to “seek” the voice and direction of the Lord in what to do to revitalize this neighborhood.  During time of prayer and worship, the evangelist cries out in intercession for the lost, the shepherd sees the overwhelming need in the community and begins to prayer for provisions and direction, the teacher searches the scripture for a relevant scriptural foundation to base this endeavor, the prophet seeks the presence of the Lord, desires to hear from Him,  and seeks a living gospel, and the apostle intercedes with the other four for the cause of the whole project.  The Lord may first direct the team to do nothing but pray and intercede for a time, or canvas the neighborhood to feel its life or pulse, or walk the streets just to talk to people and begin basic relationships, etc.  Out of those faith walks may come hints of direction.  The Holy Spirit may reveal the needs, desires, atmosphere, and character of the community, giving the five a “sense” of the proper direction. Soon the needs, dreams, desires, wants, wishes, and challenges of the community become clear, and the Holy Spirit gives the five a plan to implement. Now they have to be obedient and “just do it”, not doubt.

Often the believer with an evangelistic bent leads off the endeavor, birthing the project.  As it begins, the shepherd kicks in and begins maintaining an effective infrastructure.  Both of their efforts come in line with Biblical examples taught by the teacher and are given life through the prophet while the apostle is amazed at what the Holy Spirit is doing, releasing the other four in the freedom to minister according to their desires and passions effectively.

Instead of a soup kitchen, the Holy Spirit may make the members of this church open their homes to strangers, released prisoners, drunks and drug addicts helping them to kick their addictions, feeding them around their own kitchen tables while building relationships, making them feel part of a family, being accepted just where they are.

Service is always central to the five fold, for Ephesians 4 says we are to “equip the saints for the work of service.” The more the church community serves the neighborhood, the more the neighborhood looks at your church not as a religious institution but as a group that builds relationships and serves.  When the religious barrier drops, the effectiveness of service through relationships thrives.

Each neighborhood has its own flavor, its own uniqueness, its own personality and character from the diversity of people living there, the culture they have creative, and even the architecture and history, so the plan to conquer it for Christ has to be personal, unique, and diverse to be effective and can not be a copy of another church’s work.  This is the power of the creative work of the Holy Spirit, and what better avenue to funnel that creativity than through the five fold giftings, passions, and point of views to bring unity in one’s community and neighborhood through diversity?

America & The Church: Facing The Challenge Of Community

 The Need For The 5 Fold – Part II

The Issue: How To Develop Community

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

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

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

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

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

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

America & The Church: Facing The Challenge Of The Elderly

The Need For The 5 Fold – Part I

The Issue: The Elderly

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How Is Your Church Bent?

Leadership Defined By Releasing Diversity

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

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

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

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

The Need For Church Hopping

The Need For the Five Fold

If you took a poll of your current congregation, of those who are considered “new” who have come to your church over the past year, the past 12 months, you might discover why they are there.  Most “new” people today are not newly born Christians but Christians who are hopping from church to church. What has drawn them to your local congregation?  You need to also ask what has drawn those away from your local congregation over the year?  The results of why may surprise you.

I know of evangelical minded congregations that are mainly evangelistic in nature: offering an altar call at every service and often seeing people responding to that call.  If everyone who got “saved” remained in that church, it would instantly become a mega-church and remain that way because of its constant growth pattern.  Unfortunately, many who are spiritually born in that kind of church climate and atmosphere eventually leave because they think they have mature or grow beyond what that congregation offers.  Often they are hungry for growth.  As a toddler becomes school age, he wants to leave mom and go to school to be “a big boy or girl”.  Spiritually, that happens too in Christian growth.

That growth may cause one to seek further nurturing, in depth Bible study with teaching, a desire to listen to the small voice of the Holy Spirit and be obedient to it, a chance to be socially active in one’s community through food kitchens and clothing banks, to become advocates for those who have experienced social injustice, and so on…. The current congregation supplied what was needed for a time or season, but one’s spiritual growth spurt has urged one to move on in another direction, during another season, to experience

another step of faith in one’s faith journey.

Often these transition times are painful, for church is all about relationships.  I am a proponent of equipping the saints, but the hard part is releasing them to move on in their gifting, their calling, their destiny. It is hard to release a sheep to join another herd, and because of that when the sheep is pleating to be released we often send them out into the wilderness alone, bewildered, frustrated, and seemingly lost instead of helping them toward another flock, or congregation, where they can be fed and properly released when mature in the faith.

Unfortunately, rather than investing in equipping the saints and developing their Christian character, numbers have often been the barometer to measure a church’s success.  Last decade it was how many church members are on one’s roll that provided the data needed for supposed success.  Today, mega-churches are envied for their numbers as large auditoriums measure the success of a church.  The church needs to look beyond numbers, and look toward Christian development.

How do you judge success in Christian development? If your congregation is over 50 years old, over two generation of believers, how many members, average church people, have been developed and released as evangelists, shepherds, teachers, prophets, or apostles?  What is a mature Christian to be doing in order to be considered a “success” in the Christian world? Is he out winning the lost, nurturing the newborns, teaching those younger believers in the ways of the Kingdom and truths in the Bible, proclaiming the written word, the Bible as the Rhema word, the living word, listening to the small voice of the Holy Spirit for himself and being obedient to it, or seeing over the Christian development of his fellow believers, equipping, encouraging, and releasing them in their destiny, or is he still “coming” to church every Sunday to do “church” by sitting passively in the pew to listen to yet another sermon, shake hands with the saints, and tithe to financially support the local congregation’s institutional efforts. I am sorry, but the latter is what is filling up most churches on Sunday.

People naturally grow physically, mentally, psychologically, and if “born again,” spiritually.  That individual spiritual growth, if not fed by the local congregation, will produce restlessness in an individual to move on to another congregation that can fulfill that need to grow causing a person to leave their current congregation.  This restlessness may be destructive to relationships, and the church is all about relationships.  Most church hoppers have been “hurt” by some Christian somewhere.  Christian churches are often hospitals for the wounded: those not knowing Jesus who have been hurt by the world and need a spiritual healing and a spiritual life; and those who know Jesus and have been hurt by fellow Christians in their Christian walk.  I am not blaming local churches for this phenomenon, because children make mistakes when growing. They challenge authority. But Christian churches do not allow you to make mistakes, nor challenge authority.  Most churches really do not have “parenting skills” needed to nurture their “children” properly, so that they can release them as mature Christians when it is time to “leave home” and “be on their own”!  Most churches groom dependence, not independents.

Only when we, the church, get to the point that we take Christian growth seriously will we embrace the five fold, for in it there is a model for birth, for nurture and care, for grounding theologically, for development spiritually as a person, a believer in Jesus Christ, a building of trust in the Holy Spirit, and a protection through proper oversight and development.  I believe if we had true five fold churches, church hopping would become history, looked upon as a weird phenomenon that once happened in churches.  Why would you want to hop to another local body if your spiritual development was birthed, continued, and completed in your current local body? That is my vision of the five fold.

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

Ways The Church Might Change: Point 10

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Can The Church Trust The Holy Spirit Enough To Have Revival?

10 Ways The Church Might Change: Point 9

[In a previous blog I have outlined 10 possible changes the Church may face in the future. This is point 9 in the series: Empowerment by the Holy Spirit will trump positions and offices.  The Holy Spirit fell on ALL, men, women, & children in the Upper Room on Pentecost in fulfillment of the book of Joel.  On that day the royal priesthood of believers was established and the Church, the body of Jesus Christ, was birthed. With revival comes empowerment by the Holy Spirit producing radical change in individual lives and corporate structures.  The only way the Church will see revival is through empowerment by the Holy Spirit.  The Sanhedrin, the Jewish governing body, knew these Galileans, these disciples, were different. They were not educated but were empowered from on high.]

With true revival comes empowerment.  It has been quite a long time since I have attended a spontaneous gathering of believers who have no agenda but to be obedient to the Holy Spirit’s leading, where the Holy Spirit orchestrated the gathering and the direction of their fellowship, worship, and ministry. Gatherings that were highly unpredictable, but created a sense of excitement, a sense of urgency to what the Holy Spirit would say and do through His people.  Even as various spiritual gifts arose during the meeting, there would always be a clear meaning, a crisp direction, a definite theme or message that was pertinent for the group at that time in their spiritual lives. 

No man could orchestrate a gathering like that, but many have tried to recreate it. I recall at Jesus 74, an outdoor Jesus Festival on a farm in Mercer, Pennsylvania, one evening as the keynote speaker was giving the evening message, a thunderstorm was approaching from a distance producing a natural light show. Several campers retrieved their Coleman gas lanterns, fired them up, and laid them in the shape of the Cross on the hillside by the main arena.  It was spontaneous, beautiful, effective, and added to the theme of the evening. The following year the powers that be at Jesus 75 tried to recreate that same atmosphere as they planned and orchestrated candles to be handed out. When properly cued, people were to light them as a plane flew overhead to film the event. At first they handed candles to people who would make up the shape of the Cross, so the Cross would be lit. Then someone changed their mind and wanted the area round the cross area to be lit outlining the dark figure of the Cross.  Soon people were throwing candles in all directions producing confusion, chaos, and igniting tempers.  Finally, upon cue, candles were lit, the plane flew overhead, but the event was never as effective as its predecessor a year earlier because it was man-orchestrated trying to recreate what was Holy Spirit-orchestrated a year earlier.

True revival demands TRUST, TRUST in the Holy Spirit. Most churches are skeptical at what the Holy Spirit will do, because often the Holy Spirit goes outside the bounds of what the church has labeled as normal or acceptable behavior. Revivals are often messy. To prevent that, the church wants to keep “order”; “order” means “control”.  If the Church wants revival, guess who has to be in “control”? The Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ!  Jesus is the head of the Church, so the Church has to learn to lose control and give the control back to the head.  “But what happens if…” is the cry I most often hear.  Bottom Line: You need to ask these questions: Who is in control? Can you TRUST the Holy Spirit?

It has been well over a decade since I have attended a meeting that was spontaneously led by the Holy Spirit that was totally unpredictable about what was going to happen but created an excitement of expectancy.  It has almost been that long since I have attended an unplanned, unrehearsed, unorchestrated meeting where the agenda was open and the gifts of the spirit would flow freely among the priesthood of believers, and out of the manifestation of those varied gifts would come a theme, a message.

Now I am not saying that the Holy Spirit is not in today’s congregational church services, for where two or more are gathered, there Jesus is, but I am saying that we now have such preplanned, highly orchestrated, professional sounding and orated presentations called worship services that there is very little time or space allowed for spontaneity by the Holy Spirit through the diversity of the Christians present.  It goes too smoothly, very professionally, and is highly predictable.  Churches with multiple weekend services feature genetically the same format for all services, even down to the exact sermon preached and music sang. Everything is so predictable; there is no room for spontaneity buy the laity.

True revival is lead by believers in Jesus Christ who are willing to listen to the Holy Spirit and are obedient to what they are told, no matter how ridiculous it may sound.  It does not have to be led by high church offices or a professional staff, only by anyone willing to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit is incharge and is looking for willing, obedient vessels through which to speak and minister.

What the spirit of revival is looking for is willing vessels who will allow themselves to be empowered by Jesus Christ to perform whatever the Holy Spirit asks them to do.  It can be men, women, and even children. All it takes is a willingness and an openness to be “empowered from on high”, just like Jesus’ disciples were during and following their Pentecost experience.  Holy Spirit come; Holy Spirit empower your believers!

Obedience Versus Sacrifice: Does The Church Understand Either!

 10   Ways The Church Might Change: Point 8

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Laying Down The Principle Of Selfless Blame

10 Ways The Church Might Change: Point 7

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Paradox of Pluralistic Singularity In The Church

10 Ways The Church Might Change: Point 6

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How Prepared Is The Church?

 10 Ways The Church Might Change:

Point 5 – Part 2

[In previous blogs I have outlined 10 possible changes the Church may face in the future. This is point 5 in the series: Church offices will be replaced by leadership built on relationships, not position.  Because of what one does, will one be respected or rejected. This will not be based on works, but on grace, mercy, and obedience to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Leadership will be established by those who are willing to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit and be obedient to that voice.]

I believe that revival in the 21^st Century Church will demand leadership built on relationship among the local brethren. That was also the pattern of the 1^st Century Church.  Paul, listening to the direction of the Holy Spirit, was lead to a city to evangelize or proclaim the gospel or “Good News” of redemption of Jesus Christ to a dying and degenerate world.  With new converts, Paul then led them through teaching and personal modeling in this new Christian lifestyle of “holiness”, “righteousness”, and walking in faith, grace, mercy, and acceptance that was foreign to their old ways of life and surrounding culture.  As they grew in this faith journey with Jesus led by the Holy Spirit, Paul then trained and equipped them for leadership, so when he left their area, they could stand on their own and grow in faith and in numbers.  He never controlled them, only equipped, trained, and encouraged them in their growing faith, in their studying of the Word of God which where Old Testament Scriptures, and relying on the Holy Spirit to interpret those in light of this new Christian culture for Jews and gentiles.

Can you image how grateful the Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Galatians were to their inbreed leadership who were trained and equipped by Paul and other visiting apostles like Barnabas, Apollos, and Timothy for leading them into the knowledge of the salvation of their souls through the death of Jesus Christ on the Cross and the power of his resurrection, for developing, training, and equipping them to walk a life worthy of Christ Jesus, and release them into the gifting of the Holy Spirit for their personal growth and the edification of the entire body of believers? 

I know that my wife and I have been spiritual parents to three sets of youth throughout our lives.  They still call us Mamma B & Poppa B, but it gives us great pleasure to see their spiritual growth now that they are adults.  They have deep respect for us, and that respect is reciprocal as they continue to grow in Christ.  As spiritual parents, it is hard to describe the satisfaction of seeing the fruit of your investment. I can understand Paul’s letters to those he has trained and equipped as he sees them grow in their leadership skills.

When there is a revival, there is immediate growth, and often the need for leadership is great.  The proper training and equipping of the saints prior to a revival is a necessity, for once revival starts, there is no time for training because so much happens so quickly.  When the cause of evangelism begins to produce new babes in the Lord, those with leadership skills in properly nurturing and care, pastoral skills, are needed to develop and walk out this faith journey with these new converts.  As they grow, they needed grounded in the Word, thus the need for leaders with teaching skills. They need direction, guidance, and to learn to know the voice of the Holy Spirit and how to be obedient on their own, thus the need for a prophet.  Finally, there is a need for someone to pull it all together, to bring together the efforts of the evangelist, pastor, teacher, and prophet for the purpose of spiritual growth and unity in the body of Christ, thus the apostle. 

In a day where many are leaving the professional ministry due to burnout, the Church needs to reevaluate how it trains leaders and for what purpose if they truly want to see and be a part of revival.  The laity, the saints, need to be drawn out of their passive modes that we have enabled with, and train them for the works of service.  Then the Church will be ready for revival.

I truly believe that the Church as a whole has not yet seen revival because it is not ready for it. “Prepare ye the way” is a strong Biblical theme throughout the Bible.  The way is “prepared” before the major event occurs.  John, the Baptist, was the forerunner of the Messiah, “preparing the way”. The Church, the Bride of Christ, is to be without “spot and wrinkle” in preparation for the Groom’s, Jesus’, return.  I believe the Church is in a season of “preparation”, so that will require change.  Change in the way we train leadership; change in the way we worship together; change in our leadership structure; change in how we do “body” ministry; and change in our attitudes toward Christian brethren who do not practice their faith exactly the same way we do.

What is the Church going to do during this transitional time of preparation?  Are they going to continue their current attitude of doing nothing while clinging to past traditions, or are they going to embrace change no matter how radical it may look.

When, not it, world-wide revival hits, the Church needs to have prepared evangelists, pastors, teachers, prophets, and apostles by equipping them and releasing them to serve.  It is a monumental task, but world-wide revival is a monumental event. It is the event that will unify the church while removing its “spots and wrinkles” in preparation for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, the ultimate world-wide revival.

The Christian Dilemma: Relationships Versus Religion

 10 Ways The Church Might Change:

Point 5 – Part I

[In previous blogs I have outlined 10 possible changes the Church may face in the future. This is point 5 in the series: Church offices will be replaced by leadership built on relationships, not position.  Because of what one does, will one be respected or rejected. This will not be based on works, but on grace, mercy, and obedience to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Leadership will be established by those who are willing to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit and be obedient to that voice.]

“The Word of the Lord”, the voice, is greater than the messenger.  “The Word of the Lord” can be written, as in the Bible, or spoken, as in a sermon, a testimony, or a prophetic utterance.  The message is always more important than the messenger. Ask John the Baptist who is “least in the kingdom of God” according to scripture, yet he was the messenger of a profound message ushering in the Messiah, the Priestly King, the Son of God.  The same is with relationship in relation to leadership in the kingdom of God. The relationship is more important than any office or position.

Even though Jesus built relationships with each of his twelve disciples, they had trouble at first understanding this principle, for they wanted to know who would be positioned on Jesus’ left and right when establishing rank in the kingdom of God.  Positioning of rank is secondary in comparison to the relationship one has with the person.  Your relationship to Jesus Christ is always more important than any position you hold in his kingdom or in church, yet we have twisted that principle when it comes to church leadership.  In our current church structure position and influence based on profession and offices trump relationships. Church “boards” are often composed of people with job positions and titles: ie. elders, deacons, pastors, pastoral staff, etc.  Often “boards” do not function out of relationships as brethren in Christ, but out of politics by position.  Church politics supersede the washing of one another’s feet when it comes to church business meetings. Like the Jewish Sanhedrin of old, they often become instruments of passing judgment rather than extending grace. I know; I have attended and been part of them on both the passing and the receiving of judgment!

I believe the 21^st Century Church will be confronted by the Holy Spirit on how it conducts it’s “business”. American churches often follow American business models when conducting church budget operating out of projected budgets rather than having “storehouses” (Malachi 3:10). Almost every local church seems to always be begging for money to meet its budget rather than operating fiscally from a “storehouse” mentality. Joseph’s recorded wisdom of storing 7 years of plenty for seven years of famine not only saved the Egyptian empire but made it great and powerful. A large part of many church budgets go toward financing staff and building maintenance. Benevolence and missions has remained only a small percentage of most church budgets.  Often we have treated benevolence and missions as a tithing, only 10% of the budget for things outside our institutional needs.  The way a church conducts its business tell a lot about its ministry.

Twice I have been part of a small home church where almost all of our tithing went to benevolences and missions since we had no staff nor building.  We bought “underwear” as Christmas gifts for the needy families in our group.  Because we had “relationships” with them on an everyday basis, we knew their needs, not only spiritually but physically.  “Relationships” were central to all we did or accomplished since we had not become an “organization” or an “institution” with “institutional needs”. 

I grew up at New Fairview Church of the Brethren where the “free ministry” of seven uncompensated “elders” with lifetime commitments lead their congregation. Their commitment not based on monetary pay has allowed their congregation to give large portions of their finances to benevolent needs and missions, and I have never heard of their leadership ever being in need. The only difference between their leadership and those professional “pastors” in their denomination is pay and benefits.  Another difference is in respect.  New Fairview people respect their leaders because they have committed their lives and ministry to them physically and spiritually for life.  There is consistency in leadership because it is home grown, built on relationships, with a lifetime commitment.  They do not have a “professional” change in leadership every five to ten years. Their change comes upon the death of older elders, and a “calling” of new leadership from amongst their ranks.

In the next blog we will continue to look at this theme in light of the 21^st Century Church

The Need For The Apostolic To Provide True Revival!

10 Ways The Church Might Change:

Point 4 – Part 2

[In previous blogs I have outlined 10 possible changes the Church may face in the future. This is point 4 in the series: Relationships will replace religion. Religious programs, westernized theology, and methodology will be challenged, torn down and replaced by the global movement of the Holy Spirit bringing unity, not division. Denominations and religious sects will vanish, being replaced through relationships with the Holy Spirit and between brothers and sisters in the Lord. The Apostolic will return ushering unity in theology, purpose, direction, and doctrine.  Truly there has been and is only ONE Church, the body of Christ, the priesthood of believers in Jesus Christ.]

I believe that the “apostolic” is the ability to “see over what the Holy Spirit is already doing!”  It is seeing “the big picture” of the Church as a whole.  It is not the apostle that is bringing the “big picture” together, for he does not “oversee” by controlling it; he just has the privilege of “seeing over” what is already happening by the Leading of the Holy Spirit before his eyes and helping to facilitate that picture through releasing others in the Body of Christ towards its fulfillment.  Any believer in Jesus Christ can be apostolic in vision, passion, and point of view if their heart’s cry is the Church as a whole, as a body, as a total functioning entity. 

The 21^st Century Christian with an apostolic leaning will have to be above the fray of sectarian divisions within the body of Christ over doctrine, theology, and traditions.  Saul, later named Paul, who was a Pharisee of Pharisees, a member of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish Religion’s governing body, who debated against the Sadducees, another Jewish sect, had to be reprogrammed, rewired, re-theologized by the Holy Spirit upon his conversion to Christianity in order to have the proper apostolic vision that he would need to take the gospel to the gentiles. Those 21^st Century Christians with an apostolic view, passion, and point of view are currently under the same scrutiny that Saul/Paul faced in his time.

Although this infant first century Church looked upon itself almost as another Jewish sect with Jesus not only as its leading rabbi but Messiah, it took Paul challenging them with apostolic insight at the Council in Jerusalem (Acts 15) for them to recognize the error in their theology toward gentiles, repenting, and not only accepting gentiles but writing letters of encouragement towards their progress.  “Circumcision” was the issue debated in the first century Church, not just tolerance, but “acceptance” of gentiles (people unlike themselves) was the key to the Church’s massive growth after their decision.  The Church has gone from a Jewish sect to basically a major gentile religion.  Today the church must not be just tolerant of other Christian sects, but “accepting” of them as brethren if the 21^st Century Church is to move forward in unity, power, and purpose.  That message of “unconditional acceptance” among brethren is an apostolic theme for today! In fact the 21^st Century apostle takes it further: I John 3:16: You know love by this that you lay down your life for your brethren.  The 21^st Century apostolic teaching will be about “laying down your life for your brethren” just as Jesus did for us on the Cross.

So part of the World-Wide-Revival of the Church in the 21^st Century will be the restoration of the apostolic passion, vision, and point of view, re-establishing apostolic doctrine to bring unity in the Body of Christ, the Church, to fulfill Jesus’ own Priestly Prayer of John 16 before he was to return to his Father in heaven.  “Seeing” the workings of the Holy Spirit toward that fulfillment will be the joy of the 21^st Century Christians with an apostolic calling on his/her lives.