The Cross: From Pain To Gain; Evil and Judgment to Goodness and Mercy

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

From Accusation, Persecution, Judgment, and Death to Resurrection Power

In past blogs I have shown that when the natural, our everyday routine life, is intersected by the supernatural, that intervention by God, we experience the Cross.  I call those moments “God Moments” because He intervenes into one’s life.  What I have forgotten was the cross is also a place of pain.  Jesus faced extreme pain on the Cross.  At Gethsemane he saw beforehand the reality of what he was about to face and knew it would be painful, yet he proved to be obedient. 

The Cross is a place of death.  Romans used it to torture, for sheer cruelty. When we take something to the Cross, we are taking it to a place of death, but with Christianity, we take things there because we know that the lying it down at the Cross will produce only one thing, a resurrection with power.

I like the promise of the Resurrection, the power, the life, but the pain of the Cross is totally against my flesh and desires.  I wish there was a spiritual “pain killer”, but I do not know of any.  Jesus said to “take up your cross and follow me.”  The “following” I want to do, but counting the cost, facing the pain is difficult.

If we wish to retool the Church for the 21^st Century, we need to realize that everyone/anyone who has a pastoring/shepherding spirit will help people to face their painful Crosses.  Psalms 23 states, “Though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, I will fear no evil. Thy rod and thy staff will comfort thee.”  The rod and the staff is that of a shepherd. The Valley of the Shadow of Death is the foot of the Cross, the place of pain, but the place one can travel with a pastor/shepherd.  The rod and staff is for protection, direction, and support.

The believer with the passion to care, nurture, and develop is not afraid to “walk through” trials, no matter how dark with another person.  It takes a special kind of believer full of faith to take this walk, this passion, this drive, this desire to reach out to the hurting, the confused, the lost.  “Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever.”  One with the pastoring/shepherding spirit majors in “goodness and mercy”.  While rest of the world judges when facing the Cross, the pastor/shepherd extends “goodness and mercy”.  Where there is no “mercy”, there is no resurrection power.

What is the secret of the Cross is that God can take what seems to be the “ugliest”, “cruelest”, most “unjust” scene in the history of mankind, and transform it into a resurrection beauty with compassion and justice.  In spite of the pain, the Cross always leads to gain, because the mercy of God takes us through it, and I thank him for giving the church the gift of a believer who cares, nurtures, and develops His sheep.

Retooling: Caring, Nurturing, Developing Is Never Ending

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

Pastoring, nurturing, developing, and caring for someone is a process; something that continues in time with a relationship.  When one first becomes a parent, he/she does not realize that they are now a parent “for the rest of their lives”.  One’s roles may change during the process, but those they are parenting will always look up to them for what they have done and are doing.  It is continual, often seeming never ending!

The way parishioners have been wired to think of pastors and pastoring throughout the last couple of centuries must be revamped, retooled.  Our mindset of a “pastor” has been one of a paid professionally trained man of God who tends to his/her flock. Their assumed and unofficial job description is to care for the flock. Because of their title, we expect them to be and do all things: an evangelist, an orator, a Biblical scholar, a counselor, a person to perform life cycle services like christening, weddings, and funerals, a business man, a director, a teacher, a person always in touch with God, an overseer, etc., etc.  I have no idea how a person can be gifted and prepared for all those areas and do them effectively alone, but that is the assumed job description, plus more.

I believe we need to have a mindset change. That is why I would rather refer “pastoring” as “shepherding” so the stereotype mindset disorder will not interfere with what we all should be doing, and some with passion.  Every believer should help nurture those younger than themselves in the Lord, who are less fortunate, or in need, for there are times we fall in and out of all those categories. Printed on our Statue of Liberty is “No Man Is An Island; No Man Stands Alone.”  If the secular world knows that principle, the Christian world needs to understand and practice it as the “Body of Christ”, and pastoring/shepherding is a key component of that principle.

The Christian community, the Body of Christ, has always been a caring, nurturing, developing community when the “pastoral/shepherding” spirit is alive, recognized, supported, and active.  It is a community of “grace”, “mercy”, extending “forgiveness”, and providing “protection”.  When you remove the “pastoral/shepherding” spirit, this same community can become accusatory rather than a listening ear, vindictive rather than giving goodness, judgmental, shooting their wounded rather than providing healing.  Many Christians who church-hop have been victims of an environment that lost its “pastoral/shepherding” spirit.  Other Christians, who place their hope in the new “pastor” who is only short term, or who falls, or who does not meet their unrealistic expectations, also become hurt because of the loss of the “pastoral/shepherding” spirit.

So what should our mindset be?  What retooling needs to be done?  Of course with any revival or reformation, it begins with “me”, my recognition that a pastoral/shepherding spirit resides in me because the ultimate Pastor/Shepherd, Jesus resides in me.  I, as a believer in Jesus Christ, a Christian, need to realize that I am my brother’s keeper. I am to “love my neighbor as myself.”  I, like Jesus, “cares” for you, me, my neighbor, even my enemy.

With that comes the recognition that there are those who have a passion, a desire, a drive to serve through caring, nurturing, developing one into Christ likeness through compassion and love.  These believers in Christ we need to learn to release in their passion of caring, nurturing, and developing with encouragement and support any way we can.  Shepherding can be a Body ministry of many individual believers pouring the love of Christ into a person in many ways as they develop and grow in Christ. Pastoring/Shepherding is all about relationships, so the more healthy relationships one can develop in Jesus, the healthier we will be physically, psychologically, and spiritually.

When the Church retools its craft of Pastoring/Shepherding, it will be done through relationships: caring relationships, nurturing relationships, and developmental relationships. Wow, a challenge for the Church and its mindsets as the Holy Spirit retools.

Retooling: Pastoral Gift “Sent Out”, Not An Invitation to “Come In”

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

Pastoring, or shepherding, should not just be done in a church building setting.  The Great Commission is a call to “Go Out” into the world.  Those hurting in the world need someone to care for them, to nurture them, to help develop them; someone just to love them.  We, the Church, need to provide that “sent out” pastoral touch to the world.

The elderly couple next store still strives for their independence, but during poor weather and visibility with the fear of driving in the dark; they need pastoral care, so go to the pharmacy, grocery store, etc. for them.  The single guy across the street is often home alone most week day nights, probably lonely; take some snacks and go spend sometime with him or invite him over to your house.  The couple that has toddlers spends 24/7 with the kids, give them two prepaid movie tickets and babysit their kids so they can have a night out. The stay at home mother spends all days with children; she craves for “adult conversation”.  Women, make her part of your day by walking with her and the kids, having tea or coffee sporadically with her, calling her on the phone.  These are just a few practical examples of “pasturing”, “shepherding”, taking care of others.

In a five fold setting a pastor/shepherd and an evangelist are indispensable for each other. If a believer cares for unbelievers, those they care for are more likely to receive the evangelistic gospel message with less resistance.  Pastoring cultivates or prepares the ground, plants the seeds of faith, service, and care, so the evangelist can reap the harvest easier.  Also those that the evangelist births, needs a spiritual pastor to nurture them.  The purpose of the five fold is to “equip” the saints for the “work” of the “service”.  

Pastoring/shepherding is “work” for the purpose of “serving”.  The more you serve; the more productive you become.  My question is how do we “equip” a person with a pastoral passion to be “sent out”? Today the church would say with proper Bible training, probably several years of formal Bible School or Seminary.  No, my question wasn’t how do you make or develop a person to become a professional pastor, but how do you “equip” a person with a pastoral passion to be “sent out”? 

You “equip” him with those things he needs to “care” for others, those things needed to “love your neighbor as yourself”.  If it isn’t good enough for you; it isn’t good enough for your neighbor.”  Why do we give our left over clothes to those in need that aren’t good enough for ourselves any more, rather than giving our best. We need to give as “unto the Lord”. Are we to give only “what’s left over” to Him, or do we give our best? One year, when reaching out to two families we fellowship with who were in need, we gave every person in our group new, fresh, whitey-tidies, alias underwear and under clothes.  It was one of the neatest Christmas parties that I have been a part of!

“Equipping the saints” also means giving other believers, my brother and sister in the Lord, my gifting to aid their effort. That is why a pastor needs an evangelist, a teacher, a prophet, and an apostle around him/her to help “equip” him in a joint “body” ministry, where the church is not an individual but a body, a group of believers pulling for the same common good, the kingdom of God.  The pastorally gifted believer CAN NOT nurture, disciple, develop, or care for the sheep ALONE! He needs the teacher to teach “how to walk this walk of faith practically, not how to talk it without walking it. The teacher needs to be part of this pastoral endeavor. The prophet needs to get their head out of heaven all the time, and recite “thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven”.  Helping the pastor nurture these infants in the Lord in how to listen to the voice of God and be obedient is aiding in the pastoral role.  The apostle “covers” these infants, coordinating endeavors to make sure the toddlers in Jesus are fed physically and spiritually, nurtured and developed properly physically and spiritually in their growth into the likeness of Jesus.

Pastoring/Shepherding CAN NOT BE DONE ALONE, it needs a five fold ministry team or effort to effectively care for, nurture, and help grow a sinner into a saint, and a saint into the image of Jesus!  God bless a person with a passion to pastor/shepherd.

Retooling: Taking the Pastoral Gift Out Side The Church Walls

The 21st Century Retooling of the Church – Part XIII

Pastoring or shepherding is the point of view or passion to care for, nurture, disciple, and develop someone toward maturity.  It is the true form of parenting.  As a new born, humans are totally helpless. The only things we can do is breath, sleep, poop, and pass gas.  Often a newborn has to be taught how to eat, what to suck in order to be nurtured.  A newborn has to be diapered, bathed, rolled over, burped, etc.  As it is growing it has to be taught how to walk, talk, eat with a spoon, communicate, dress itself, and be potty trained.  Later it has to be taught how to read, draw, write, and develop one’s thinking process.

In the Christian world one is taught, “You must be born again,” alias the salvation message.  If you accept Jesus Christ as your personal savior, your are considered a new born, for “behold the old has passed away, the new has begun.” As human beings, spiritually we need to be “taught” how to walk, talk, and believe in faith. We need to learn the Word, be taught how to listen to the Holy Spirit’s still small voice, how to be disciplined, obedient to the Word, the Bible, and how to live out that Rhema Word in our daily lives.

I contend that we can also pastor out side our church walls.  We can help care for, nurture, and develop one to be a successful, loving, positive, caring person, and hopefully then lead them into the Presence of God by having them accept Jesus as their Savior.

In my forty years as a public school teacher, I have tried to pastor the faculty, my peers.  I turned what I called the Den of Iniquity, the Faculty Room, which was a haven of complaining about students, staff, and administration, a gossip center, into an area of encouragement, support, and laughter, but it has taken years.  I headed the purchasing candy, crackers, snacks, soda, coffee, etc. as a service to them. Profits afforded us to send flowers when a peer was hospitalized or severely ill, purchase personalized coffee mugs with a picture of the staff or building with their personal name on the back in an attempt to bring unity.  Profits were also used to finance events to bring our staff together in purely a social environment, building friendships.  Transforming this environment changed the entire educational climate of our building positively.  It took a lot of work, time, and sacrifice, but the dividends have produced positive fruit.

We all can be positive role models sharing a pastoral spirit to those around you.  I have taken new teachers under my wing to praise, to listen to, and to encourage instead of criticizing and gossiping about them, spent time with discouraged teacher helping them through their dark days, sent encouraging emails to a stressed faculty in an effort to make them laugh, popped my head into as many of my peer’s room in a day as possible just to give a positive greeting to get them out of their protective, secluded world of just their room.

Pastoring, or shepherding, should not just be done in a church building setting.  The Great Commission is a call to “Go Out” into the world.  Those hurting in the world need someone to care for them, to nurture them, to help develop them; someone just to love them.  We, the Church, need to provide that “sent out” pastoral touch to the world.

Retooling: The Broken Heart Of A Family Facing Mentally Illness?

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

My heart goes out to Jo Anne & John Hinckley, Amy and Randy Loughner, or the parents of Seunge-Hui Cho because their sons all faced mental illness and performed horrendous acts of violence placing them in the annals of American history: John Hinckley for attempting to assassinate President Reagan, Jared Laughner for the recent shooting of Congressman Gabriella Giffords, and Seunge-Hui Cho for the largest single mass shooting at Virgina Tech University.   I cannot even imaging the emotions, the feelings, the shock of hearing how your son released his inward maelstrom of darkness, confusion, and pain, called mental illness, violently on others.  I can hear these parents questioning themselves, “Where did we go wrong?”, “Could I have done more as a parent?”, etc.

Both the Hinckleys and the Chos were church attending families at the time of their son’s shootings, but I have never heard what their churches did for them prior or after the fatal events caused by their siblings?  Just like questioning, “What could I have done to prevent this?” was asked by the parents, the church also needs to ask that question.

When it comes to Mental Illness, the church faces quite a dilemma: on one hand it believes in healings, citing physical healings in the past, but I have never personally met nor heard of a healing from a severe mental illness.  This challenges my personal faith as a Christian.  When my wife was in the midst of the darkness of her major depression she had a simple prayer, “Father, You are faithful and will always be faithful; by Your faithfulness heal me.”  That prayer still haunts me, for even I question why a faithful and loving God did not immediately respond to His child’s request.  That is one question I will be asking Him when in heaven. The church also has to face a history of failure in addressing how to minister to mental illness with a track record of supporting the practice of throwing the mentally ill in prisons, institutionalizing them, and also infamously condemning them as “witches” in Salem, Mass., hanging them or burning them at the stake. 

The church can respond with a loving, caring, pastoral touch to the victims of mental illness and their family members engulfed in all that swirls around mental illness.  Pastoral/shepherding care could help identify problems before they explode, seek help, prevent withdrawal, encourage treatment, support one during treatment, and stand beside the families of those whose loved ones face mental illness.  If parents, family members, loved one come to the church asking questions or seeking support, what does the church have to offer?  That is a serious question the church must face if it is to be effective in American society today?

When my wife was swallowed in the maelstrom of darkness, confusion, and doubt caused by major depression she questioned her religious teachings of salvation, wondering about the condition of her darkened soul at that time and its out come in eternal perspectives.  How do we as a church respond?  Sitting through church services and long sermons has not been the answer, nor being in touch with the church’s people only once a week, if that, because of the urge to withdraw.  The “reaching out”, the “sending out”, the essence of “The Great Commission”, the gospel, is often lost to even those within the church to each other.

If the Church is to retool for the 21^st Century, it must re-examine its views on pastoral care to its parishioners, its family, those who make up the local Body of Jesus Christ called the local church, especially when facing challenging situations like severe physical and mental illness.  The church must ask itself, “Who Is My Brother’s Keeper?” before it can begin to redefine the “pastoral” or “shepherding” role of the Church in American society and the world in the 21^st century.

American history is proving that when the Church loses its “pastoral role” of caring for its people as well as those outside its family, then Americans look to their secular government to do what the Church has failed to do.  Instead of tithes and offerings in the Church financing pastoral ministries, we, the Church, are forced to look at secular tax payer dollars to finance secular pastoral efforts, usually in the form of governmental programs, and are the first to criticize those programs for doing what we have failed to do.

Church, it is time to pick up our pastoral role and be effective!

Retooling: Who’s My Brother’s Keeper If He Is Mentally Ill?

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

When the shooting of President Reagan, the student killings at Virginia Tech, and the recent shooting of the Arizona Congresswoman was first announced, my heart sank.  Even before the news outlets began to try to dig into the background of the shooters, I sensed what was happening:  a victim of mental illness must have gone over the edge, and I was right.  The news media had their headline story, a shooting, and a chance to bring to light a dilemma America faces in the way we view mental illness, but they shied away again from the latter. Why?

In light of my series on Retooling the Church and looking at the role of a “shepherd/pastor”, I am asking the Church of America, “Who’s My Mentally Ill Brother’s Keeper”?  Because of its stigma, the misunderstandings of the disease, and its effect on victims and family members, as well as the unscientific diagnosis of the disease in a very modern medically conscience society, America and the Church have failed to come to grips with this issue of mental illness although the outcomes of its tragedies have effected our nation.

Politically: America is in a heated debate over this pastoral question of “Who Is My Ill Brother’s Keeper”.  Democrats say “We the People”, the American government is by advocating health care reform for all Americans, including the unstable mental health population.  The Republicans say “We the People”, the government should stay out of it, let the public sector prioritize it, finance it, let “them”, whoever that is, take care of it because we aren’t going to touch it.  Amazingly a Republican President and a Republican Congresswoman have been struck down by it, yet Republicans, like most of us in America, just wish that it would go away rather than face it because we don’t know what to do about it.

Church:  How do you take care of something you do not understand? Although the Church knows about “grace”, “mercy”, “forgiveness”, having heroes like Mary Magdalene, the ultimate adulteress before meeting Jesus; the demoniac that had schizophrenic tendencies cast into a herd of pigs, who sits quietly by Jesus’ side begging to be a disciple of his after his deliverance, and the healings of “multitudes” of people mentally and physically in the New Testament, they often are still the ones who throw stones of “condemnation”, “judgment”, and “non-forgiveness” at the mentally ill because of lack of understanding.

When my wife went through a severe episode of mania followed by major depression, I asked during that time, “Where is the Church?”  Not only did my wife need a shepherd, but so did I, the hurting family member, but none came.  I cried out for help, but no one responded.  At first I became critical of the church for their lack of response, but now I understand that it was because of the stigma of mental illness and lack of understanding about the disease or how to face it.  One feels awkward when they do not have answers to your many questions about what they do not understand themselves.

I have written a manuscript called Stripped, about my walk as a care taker through mental illness, discovering that not only the victim of mental illness but also every member of their family gets stripped of their dignity, their worth, their hopes, their visions, their dreams, their sense of belonging to a “normal” society, or group, or Church.  Because of its “limited audience” on the topic of mental illness, no publisher will touch my manuscript.  Again the stigma of mental illness surfaces, even in the publishing world.

The person with a caring heart, a nurturing heart, a parental heart, a compassionate heart has the passion and point of view of shepherding, a pastoral calling. The Church needs to allow this person to arise in its midst to reach out to all who are hurting , for that is the gospel.  One of the biggest “red flags” that someone is getting close to the dangerous edge in mental illness is their withdrawing.  If the Church had a “pastoral” arm of the five fold ministry active in their midst, it would identify the problem in its early stages, seeing this withdrawal, and move forward with help, thus preventing many of the “extreme” tragedies we have read about with mental illness.

“Who’s My Mentally Ill Bother’s Keeper”?  It is easy to push it off secularly and say the government’s, or push it off religiously and say the Church’s.  The American government and the Church are “we, the people”, so let’s not forget that maybe it is “our” personal responsibility to get involved, get educated, break through the stigma, and reach out to those who struggle physically and mentally. We should be our brother’s keeper!

Retooling: From “Acts Of Kindness To Institutions” – How Did We Get There?

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

Today my blogs in this series shift from the evangelist to the shepherd/pastor in the five fold ministry.  A shepherd majors in “acts of kindness”, nurturing, caring, disciplining, developing, sustaining, maintaining, actually walking the walk of faith in daily life.  The evangelist births the “new born” in Christ; the shepherd nurtures and develops that “child of God” towards the likeness and image of Jesus Christ.  He walks out the spiritual walk with this new toddler in everyday practical terms.  Bottom line: he is “there” for them.

We, who have been Christians for quite a while, can look back at those “spiritual” mothers, fathers, and mentors who have profoundly influenced our spiritual lives with great gratitude.  Their “sacrificial acts of kindness” exemplified the Christian walk in Jesus.

I truly believe that “shepherding” is a calling and gift from God. It is instilled in the believer in Jesus Christ.  Jesus, the ultimate shepherd, even when suffering on the cross made sure he told John to take care of his mother.  He was putting in line the Church’s role to take care of the widows in his day. “Caring” is the heart beat of the shepherd/pastor.

I cannot stress enough how we, as believers in Jesus Christ, should be caring for one another in the Body of Christ, older men mentoring young men in the faith, older women mentoring the young ladies, reaching out to one another to meet needs, sacrificially.  That is what “body” ministry is all about, and a shepherd’s passion, desire, and point of view is to meet the needs of members of the Body, the Family of God, and nurture the young in the faith toward maturity in Christ.  Shepherding is the backbone to spiritual development in Jesus.

The “acts of kindness” by people who “care” are powerful tools of ministry whose fruits are life changing.  Physical and mental development is central to my teaching as a public school teacher at the Middle School level. The giggly, hyperactive, braces wearing 12 yr. old girl proclaiming “he’s so cute” turns into a 14 year old girls who just stares at guys in awe, speechless. It is developmental.  A Shepherd majors in “developmental” strategies to help a young believer in Christ “develop” into the likeness of Christ, such an important cog in the five fold ministry.

I wonder how Church who allows their influence of developing people for Jesus to slip through their fingers when they begin to “institutional” their efforts.  In an earlier blogs I have shown how the “C” in YMCA has been lost and has been replaced as a place where you can hang out if you’re gay as portrayed in the Village People’s song “Y.M.C.A.” which is played at sporting events all across America. Many hospitals carry the names of their “religious roots and founders” only to have lost the “religious” influenced that birthed them.  We have become accustomed in allowing institutions to take care of our widows (nursing homes), our homeless (shelters and Rescue Missions), our sick (huge health care systems), our poor (State welfare systems).  The church as an institution has reneged its influence to social and government institutions thus forfeiting the Christian influence that was the backbones of many of these institutions when first conceived.

How does a ministry become an institution?  When it looses its influence of “personal care” for “efficiency”.  As an institution gets huge, its quality of personal care diminishes.  I have seen it in institutions in and out of church across the world.   How do we keep a ministry from becoming an institution? Simple, by allowing the “shepherding” or pastoral component of the five fold ministry to come back to the Body of Christ as it was originally intended.  Just as one-one-one evangelism is the most effective form of evangelism, so one-on-one personalized ministry is still the most effective form of shepherding or pasturing.

Today’s church “pastor” (office, profession) can’t be the proper shepherd it flocks needs if he/she is to be all things to all men.  The person filling the office or profession can’t be an evangelist, shepherd (counselor), Bible teacher, spiritual prophet, and apostolic over seer all at the same time to everyone.  That produces burnout, frustration, and hurt.  We need to allow the five fold back into the make up of the body of Christ.  We need the “shepherd” to return to shepherding its flock.

Retooling: Evangelism is “Just Doing It”!

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

I truly believe that the reason Jesus came to earth was to “reveal the heart of the Father”.  In a previous blog (Mon. Dec. 12, 2010) I shared how the word “agape” as in “agape love” is God’s love.   Agape love as translated in old Hebrew means “revealing the heart of the Father”.  Jesus’ mission on earth was “to reveal the heart of His Father”. He said, “If you have scene me, you have seen the Father,” and  “I and the Father am one.”

Jesus spent hours in seclusion praying, seeking the will of the Father,” and the Father was always faithful and revealed His Will to His Son.  The key to seeking the will of the Father is being obedient to that will when it is revealed to you.  Once you know His will, then “Just Do It”!  Just Act!  Those in the first century sought the Will of the Father wanting to reveal the Father to their generation, and God was faithful and revealed Himself to them.  All they had to do is “Just Do It”, “Act”, thus the book of Acts was birthed.

Evangelist also want to reveal the “heart of the Father.” To do that they will go to no length to reveal Spirit of Jesus Christ to the lost and dying world, which is the heart of the Father.  Evangelists are in the “revealing” spirit.  They “Just Do It”!  You can’t stop a believer who has a passion to reveal the heart of the Father; they can’t help themselves. They “Just Do It”!  New believers in Jesus Christ just want to tell others, the evangelistic spirit, to anyone one and everyone about their “new” experience of being “born again”. They “Just Do It”!

The five fold ministry is all about release, not holding back, “Just Doing It” out of obedience so that “the heart of the Father” is being revealed.  Does the Church want revival?  Then let the evangelism “Just Do It”.  Revival always starts with evangelism.  We need to let the evangelist “reveal his heart”, the heart of evangelism, the Father’s heart to the lost.  We need to release the shepherd to “reveal his heart”, the heart of compassion, care, and nurturing to the new babes in Christ.  We need to release the teacher to “reveal the heart of the Father” through his written word, the Logos Word, the Bible so that scriptural truths will be revealed.  We need to release the prophet to “reveal the heart of the Father” through the living word, the Rhema word, ro reveal how to live out our faith in our daily life.  And we need to release again the apostle to “reveal the heart of the Father” through the Church, through the giftings, callings, passions, and points of view that make up the body of Christ to bring unity.

You, me, and fellow believers in Jesus Christ must individually and corporately seek the will of the Father God, asking Him through His Son Jesus Christ, and the Spirit of Jesus Christ “to reveal His heart” to us today.  God is always faithful.  He is in the reveal business, for the last book of the Bible is even called the book of Revelation, a book to reveal Jesus Christ to us.  The Father “will” reveal His heart to you, me, us as a body; now you, me, us…, we must be obedient to what “heart revelation” he exposes.

He reveals; we respond….. how? We need to “Just Do It”!

Retooling: The Missionary Mentality

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

I have been on short-term missions trips.  We go into a country for a very short time, then leave it.  We might have had an immediate impact, but I question any long-term impact.  I remember the feeling I had in Jamaica seeing all the youth groups and short term mission teams at the airport who came to do mission work and vacation, yet Jamaica is still a poor country. The same with Haiti.

The way the church handles missionaries is despicable.  We send them out, patting them on their back for following The Great Commission, only to have them return in a couple of years to “beg for money”, ooops excuse me, “raise support” from the churches and people who originally sent them out. 

I went to a Mennonite Church Plant Seminar in the ‘80’s where they were preparing one or two couples to go out and “plant” new churches.  I know of a couple that followed through, only to abandon the project in five years because they became overwhelmed doing it alone.

Maybe we need to “retool” our mentality of how to prepare, support, and do missions.  The five fold model as described in my last blog may be an answer, for if it works at home, it could also work abroad.  If a diversely gifted five fold team seeks the Holy Spirit how to evangelize and develop an area for the Kingdom of God, they will probably get unique solutions due to being in a different culture with a different language and lifestyle with a different perspective than the way we see it. 

What is the most effective way “evangelize” in a Moslem nation when it is a crime to do so?  How do you show God’s unconditional love, mercy, and grace to a culture that has never received it before?  How do you “serve” those in a way their culture accepts your service without them being skeptical of your motives?  The discernment in a five fold team would be perfect for this endeavor.

We have to rethink how we teach in a different culture.  We need not build “Bible Schools”, but allow a person with a teaching passion to learn their culture and produce practical applications of kingdom principles to teach them gospel truths. Jesus modeled that with his twelve disciples.  He never started a rabbinical school of theology.  He just walked with them in their Jewish culture, teaching them principles through their culture.

A prophet would set the ground work for spiritual warfare, particularly in pagan cultures. “We wrestle not with flesh and blood, but with principalities in high places.”  Prayer, worship, and discernment, and a need for intimacy in knowing the “heart of the Father”, the “will of the Father” is mandatory when invading a kingdom in darkness for the kingdom of Light.

How does the culture do “family”?  The shepherd would have to nurture the new converts to teach them how the “family of God” functions, body ministry.  This is a challenge if the culture permeates a dysfunctional, non-Biblical, family lifestyle.

Of course, the apostle would have to be aware of the culture where his team is present. He needs to encourage the evangelist to birth the endeavor in a sensitive, loving, with grace manor, not like a bull in a china closet approach that has often been done in evangelism that maybe won one soul, but turned of multitudes away. He would make sure the shepherding component was in place for when harvest began, that the teaching would make sense to those in the culture they are trying to reach, and join the prophet in the spiritual warfare needed to succeed.

Retooling missionary work to a five fold team work is an unique possibility that has the potential to not only evangelize an area, but build up and establish the Faith in that area.  If the team then “equips those saints in their culture for the work of the service,” they can leave to establish new church plants as Paul did in his missionary journeys, only to return to reinforce, and support those they have “equipped”. 

We need to break the old mentality that missionaries stay for life in the culture they once penetrated. The “natives” of the culture always look up to them, not as equals, but as icons on pedestals. The key to five fold ministry is “release”.  The missionary team needs to be “released” of their passions and points of views when they first come to minister, but then “equip” and  “release” their work on the believers of that culture who can effectively reach their own people for Jesus.

Retooling: Evangelism, A New Model: How It Works

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

Today’s image of an evangelist is a man standing behind a pulpit formally preaching a three-point sermon or a man on the street with a bullhorn, or a lone figure handing out gospel tracts, leaving a paper trail behind him. He is the central figure of all activity.  We need to retool the evangelist’s image in the 21^st century to becoming not a lone figure doing all the evangelizing, but a team player, which is a completely different mindset to the art of evangelism.

If a believer in Jesus Christ has a passion to win the lost, but frustrated in the technique on how to reach them, the other four points of view and passions of the five fold team would help.  They need to tackle the project as a team.

The first step would be corporate prayer and worship by the group.  “Listening” would be the key, for the group would want to unanimously hear the Will of the Father for this given situation.  A Railroad Crossing Sign reads “Stop/Look/Listen”.  The group would have to do stop what they are doing, look to Jesus, and listen to the still small voice of the Holy Spirit to tell them what to do. 

The hard part is the second step, the “doing”: being “obedient” to what they have seen and heard, for there lies the solution to the problem. Jesus often modeled this approach, often going in solitude to seek His Father’s will to which he always got answers.  The obedient part came in walking on the water, feeding the 5,000, raising a widow’s son from the dead, healing the sick, and the biggest challenge, the Cross.  He did all that through obedience, and all proved to be effective evangelistic tools.

Once a strategy is agreed upon, all five points of view is heard and accepted in unity, the third step of “release” occurs.  The evangelist is “released” to “birth it”; the shepherd is “released” to set things in place to “maintain it” after the birth of the new lambs; the teacher is “released” to make sure the plan is “scripturally sound”, and the Bible will be the central rock, the foundation, for the new lambs growth; the prophet is “released” to “worship”, to do “spiritual warfare”, to help with “prophetic evangelism”, and to bring “Rhema life” into the endeavor; and finally now that the “Big Picture” or “team strategy” has been “released” by the Holy Spirit to the group, the apostle is now “released” to “see over” all that is to be done while “releasing” each of the other four in their passions and directions while maintaining unity in Spirit and in purpose. The secret to "equipping the saints" is "releasing the saints" in the passions, gifting, and point of view they already inhabit.

The fourth step, I believe, is the most difficult: each member of this group has to practice I John 3:16 beside John 3:16, that is they have to “lay down their lives for the brethren”.  This method of team evangelism and Body growth will only work if each and every participant is willing to lay down his life, his agenda, his passion, his gifting, his point of view for the other four and “serve”, “serve”, “serve”. Ephesians 4 is all about “equipping the saints for the work of the service.”

Step Five: Once the group has heard in unison and is released, a beehive of “obedient” activity begins as each of the five fold “sets in order” that which they have been “called” to do by “serving” one another in a unifying effort that will win the lost, build, develop, and maintain the Body of Christ while bringing unity, not division.

Current and old mindsets of the way Church has done “revivals”, has always brought divisions, new factions, new splint off groups, but by retooling the way the 21^st century Church does “revivals”, “renewals”, “rebirths”, “evangelistic endeavors” through this five fold group approach, unity will be its benchmark, not division, a totally new concept to the Church!

“Retooling”: The Way We Think Of An Evangelist

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

In the past we have thought of an evangelist as a profession, someone academically trained at a Bible College or Seminary who now does “evangelism” for a living.  This immediately puts pressure on the person and the church to “provide” financially for their needs.  That is why there is always an offering at evangelistic meetings.  A nonchristian often looks at this as a pay for performance tactic, and the media has always questioned the validity of money with ministry.

The Church needs to rethink, or retool its thinking, on what is an evangelist.  An evangelist has a spiritual calling, a spiritual gift, a passion to win the lost, a drive to help the lost find their way into the kingdom of God, a point of view skewed by this drive and passion to see the overwhelming need to save that which is lost.  The evangelist sees the fires of hell, the insane distance between fallen man and his God, the anguish of not personally knowing God, and the dread of knowing that anguish and torment is eternal unless the “good news of Jesus Christ”, the gospel, is preached to all in that state, to save them from their eternal damnation and separation from God into a personal relationship, fulfillment, and intimate union with God whom they had been separated from through the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

We have to “retool” our mindset that an evangelist has to be a professional. No, he is any believer in Jesus Christ who is driven by this passion to save the lost by birthing them into the Kingdom of God through Jesus Christ.  That is the way an evangelist thinks. That is his point of view.  He sees only the lost and their birth. After their birth he is driven to win more to Christ, not necessarily nurture them in their new walk and life in Christ, that is why he needs the other four passions and points of view of the five fold around him.  A true evangelist is driven by this point of view no matter if he is pain or not.  Let’s take finances out of the equation right now to understand the true nature of an evangelist.  Money is not the issue, passion, drive, point of view, and calling is!

We all have an evangelistic spirit within us, and need to share the gospel with the lost.  One-on-one evangelism is still the most effective means of winning the lost.  We must also recognize that in the Body of Christ there are believers who are “driven” by a “passion” because of the way they see the world through their spiritual eyes, their point of view.  Often believers with this passion receive opposition from the very church that should be supporting them, developing them, nurturing their calling, and “equipping them for the work of the service”.  What is your local church doing to “equip” those who recognize this drive and passion within themselves?  Better yet, what are you doing as a supporting member in the Body of Christ to help “equip” those who recognize their drive and passion?  That is the retooling we need to look at and perform.

“Retooling”: A New Way To Support An Evangelist

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

In the past an evangelist has usually been a parachurch ministry, not part of a local ministry.  He/she would come in, hold meetings, then leave.  The only “support” given to the evangelist was usually financial through offerings.  Often the evangelist could be someone whom no one knew personally, only as an acquaintance, since the only time they would be part of the local congregation was during their meetings.  Being on the road so much, it was hard for an evangelist to establish personal lasting relationships.  Some denominations have looked upon the evangelist as a stepping stone for young preacher to get experience and name recognition before earning their own pulpit and church.  The young evangelist may be a good preacher, but how does he learn “body ministry” if on the road so much? 

It is time to “retool” how we think about an evangelist as a person and his passion, vision, and point of view.  I never think it is God’s will that an evangelist should be a traveling loner.  Personally, he needs a close Brother/Sister in the Lord who has a shepherding heart to nurture and guide his personal daily walk, not a Board Of Directors who looks over the “business” of being an evangelist.  He, like the rest of us, needs personal care that only someone with a shepherding heart can give.  A shepherd knows his sheep, and the sheep know their shepherd, so a shepherd would known when it was appropriate for the evangelist to release his passion at home or on the road and when to be home with his family.  An evangelist can save thousands of souls, yet easily loose his own family, his own treasure, if his priorities are not in order. A Shepherd helps him prioritize his life and his calendar.

An evangelist needs a teacher.  The Word of God, the Bible, is central to the heart of the message of an evangelist.  “Redemption”, “rebirth”, “repentance”, “conversion, turning from one’s sin”, “sanctification”, etc. are all Biblical themes at the heart of an evangelist’s message.  If an evangelist isn’t grounded in the Word, his message will be watered down and ineffective.  A teacher can help supply Biblical principles to aide the evangelist.  Also every person needs a partner in Bible study, and this duo would be dynamic.

An evangelist wants to see “rebirth” and “new life”.  He not only wants to plant the Logos word into those who are listening to his message, but also wants to “birth” a Rhema word, an active word, into their lives.  Evangelists want to see changed lives, lives now living for Jesus.  Who better to help guide him in his endeavors than a prophet?  With the evangelist always being on the front lines, the front runner, a prophet needs to bring him back into the Presence of God to personally be refueled.  A spiritually arid evangelist will not produce fruit unless he too drinks the living water and feeds on the living bread found in personal and corporate worship that a prophet can supply.  Also the prophetic voice is a powerful voice when giving an evangelistic message.

Currently, evangelists have Boards to govern or oversee their work.  Often boards become “yes” men to encourage and propel the evangelist, not iron sharpening iron.  Usually Board Meetings become “business” meetings, not ministering meetings toward the evangelist own personal needs.  The evangelist needs an personal overseer to “see over” not only his ministry, but his own personal life.  Someone who sees the Big Picture, who will release him in his passion of evangelism, yet will release the other five fold ministries to minister to the evangelist.  He knows when an evangelist as a person needs pastoral care, thus preventing the disasterous fall of many previous spiritual giants; when an evangelist needs a teacher preventing inherent false teaching or doctrines; when an evangelist needs a “black and white” seeing prophet to call forth righteousness and draw the evangelist back to the source of his spiritual strength. 

We need to retool our thinking that an evangelist is not alone, but part of a team, that what he “births” can be nurtured by others, that he too needs body ministry for his own spiritual health, that he is part of a family, a group who cares about his own personal life and direction.  Drawing in an evangelist into a team, a family, a body of Christ in order to be released is a “retooling”, a new mindset, we need to consider for his health and welfare.   

Calling All Evangelists – That Means Me?

The 21st Century Retooling of the Church - Part II

If evangelism means “rebirthing” and “renewing”, it means “retooling”.  How is the way we look at evangelism to be retooled?  Well, I believe evangelism will shift from one body, one person, speaking to the masses, to a mass of believers uniting as one body to speak to 1) a lost and dying world, and 2) a divided and disarrayed Church, both unprepared for Jesus’ return.  An emphasis will move from small local church bodies of believers to being part of the universal Body of Christ.  Even though we have an identity as in individual believer, and an association in the coming together as a small group body, the Church is about to be part of a major “graft into the vine” if it is to be “effective” in the 21^st Century.

Technology always has help ushered in an evangelistic era.  After a century of not embracing change, the Church found itself in the midst of what has been deemed “The Dark Ages”.  The evangelistic spirit was almost diminished, and the challenging the Church hierarchy, institutional structure, and theological dogma was labeled heresy with burning at the stake as its source of enforced terror.  Guttenberg’s printing press, a new technology, ushered in the “Age of Enlightenment” and “The Reformation” eras, allowing the Priesthood of Believers to read the Word, the Bible, while being taught by the Holy Spirit that resided within themselves, a definite “retooling” of the way the Bible was to be taught and received.  With the new technology of the World Wide Web, the Internet, why would there not be a “reemphasis”, a “retooling” of the way the Church is to think of itself, the world, and global evangelism and unity of its Body?  The Church is again faced with a “retooling” period of its history as it embraces the possibilities of this new technology and the effect it has on itself and the way it sees the world, and I am sure that the “evangelists” of this new mindset will face the “burning at the stake” of its generation by the established Church who is unwilling to retool and remain unproductive and spiritually bankrupt, another Dark Ages. 

I do not want to live in another Dark Age Period, but in an Age of Enlightenment as illuminated by the written Logos Word of God, the Bible, into a Rhema Living Word of God in each and every believer in Jesus Christ who is willing to be “equipped for the work of the service”.

So we need new mindsets, a “retooling” of the way we think of Church and do Church in the 21^st Century if we are to impact this World Wide mindset before us.  Instead of denominations, we will be forced to go back to the Church by locality.   In Paul’s day, when the world wide view was limited, he looked at the Church of Philippi, the Church of Corinth, the Church of Thessalonica, etc. as his sphere of Church influence.  The 21^st Century World Wide Web Church may have to be looked upon as “continent” localities: not just The Church of North America, but also The Church of Asia, the Church of Australia, the Church of South America, the Church of Africa, the Church of the Orient,  The European Church, etc.  Denominational lines will have to fall as they have in today’s Church of China, as the Priesthood of Believers have been forced to unite in order to survive. 

How is the 21^st Church going to invade spiritually the global challenges of Islam, of Hinduism, of Buddhism, of the various forms of the 21^st century paganism, etc.?  History has taught us not through military means like the Crusades, but through “evangelistic crusades”, as Billy Graham and other evangelists have called them in the past century, only “retooled”.  The only way the Spirit of Jesus Christ can penetrate these areas is through a “retooling” of the way the Church perceives an evangelist and evangelism in the 21^st Century.

The “retooling” will require a new “point of view” of how the Church sees itself and the world.  The Great Commission is still in effect, even in a greater measure, as a “retooled” World Wide view is envisioned.  “Without vision, the people perish.”  With this “retooled” vision will come a “retooled” passion that can only be “birthed” out of an evangelistic Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, His Holy Spirit.

A “Rebirth”, not a “Recovery” – Calling All Evangelists

The 21st Century Retooling of the Church - Part I

In previous blogs I asked “Who will be the next Billy Graham?  What will be the next evangelistic movement in history? “  To those questions I reply, “You are the next Billy Graham! The next evangelistic movement may be the retooling of the 21^st Century Church”.

In the make up of the five fold ministry model of accountability, responsibility, and service, who better to ignite a renewal, a revival, than the one who majors in birthing and rebirthing, the evangelist.  Evangelism demands change, for “the old has gone; the new has come!” (2Cor. 5:17) Conversion to Jesus Christ takes the total “turning away from the old” and “embracing the newness in Jesus Christ”, yet the Church, as an institutional structure, is known for “holding on to tradition, the old ways, that old-time religion,” not wanting to release the old rather than embrace the “newness in Jesus Christ” that has brought rebirth, renewal, and reformation in its history. 

Martin Luther, John & Charles Wesley, Alexander Mack, Johann Guttenberg, William Tyndale, and many others challenged the ingrained institution of the Catholic Church in their day, some paying with their lives, others with their reputations, but ushering the Great Reformation, changing Church history.  We have seen Whitefield’s influence on Wesley, taking the Church out of the building and into the forest and fields in England and log cabin itinerant preachers taking the gospel to the American frontier where there weren’t any church buildings.  We studied great mass Evangelistic endeavors in huge tents, arenas, and stadiums, again outside built Church structures.  I witnessed the Jesus Movement of the ‘70’s meeting in farmer’s fields for the weekend that ushered in the Charismatic Movement, again outside organized Church structures.  Then why will the Church not recognize that to experience “rebirth”, “renewal”, or “revival” it must think outside its existing Church structures physically, theologically, and practically?

But every believer in Jesus has experienced a personal “rebirth” and “renewal” reviving their lives.  If you are a Christian, and the evangelistic “experience” is so central and vital to your spiritual life, you qualify as a believer in Jesus Christ, to “release” that “evangelistic experience” within you to help “retool” the 21^st Century Church (See my blogs on the Priesthood of Melchizedek).  We are the ones who are called to be “equipped for the work of the service” (Eph. 4).  We will not be individual Billy Grahams, but part of a priesthood of believers, a body, who will “evangelize” the world for Jesus in the 21^st Century.  We are part of a priesthood of believers, a body, who the Lord Jesus is preparing for His return.  His return depends on our preparation as a Body, thus a retooling is needed as part of that preparation if we as a Church are to be “without spot or wrinkle”.

You and I are the “evangelists” of the 21^st Century.  Let’s examine what that means in the next blog.

Will Our Economy Dictate Retooling the Church?

A Challenge To Go From Staff To Saints

A close friend of mine, when visiting our local church, noticed that our church bulletin listed budgetary needs for the year.  Our local church looked as if it was going to fall short of their projected yearly goal.  My friend related how his previous church in totally different section of the country also was experiencing a windfall of budgetary projections.

Budgets project future spending.  During prosperous times the process is easier and more fulfilling than in lean times, but it is funny how money effects our lives, or lack of it, even the church.  He then said the budgetary windfall at his previous church caused leadership to make painful decisions of staff layoff, but soon discovered that the local saints, members of the congregation, were now volunteering to do what the hired staff use to do.  More people now being involved at no monetary cost.

When staff is present, it is so easy to “dump” what we, Joe Average Christian, should be doing ourselves on them because “that is what we pay them to do”!  We idly sit back, apathetically, watching them do the work of the kingdom, oooops church system, while all we do is criticize them for not doing it the way we think it should be done.  No staff: we are now forced to put our money where our mouth is, in our own actions.  We are to be “doers” of the Word, not just hearers, not transplant everything upon a hired staff.

World wide economics might force necessary changes in the way Western civilization does Church.  The Church of China has had to go underground, and is spiritual healthy even though persecuted.  The “Fat Cat” American edifices of large buildings and staff during times of prosperity may have to rethink their structure, system, and go back to their roots of strength: the laity, the common believer, the pew congregant to solve its challenges.

So the questions remains:  How is the Church to “retool” itself through economic tough times?  I propose by “equipping the saints for the work of the service” is the process of “retooling the Church of the 21^st Century”! This will have to take another “Age of Enlightenment”, spiritually, rather than intellectually in order to perform correctly.

America listens to its industry and economics.  In York, Harley Davidson Motorcycle Co. has drastically released half of its work force who made “nice salaries”, retooled its assembly line, is selling less product than previously, but is now making a substantial profit.  A dying, almost bankrupt, Detroit automobile industry has been forced to do the same.  Americans call it ingenious, companies saved!  The Church too is experiencing layoffs of staff, needs to retool itself by “equipping those believers under their banner”, and will also reap spiritual rewards.  Unlike American economics which strives for “recovery”, the Church strives for “rebirth”, a topic called evangelism which we will dissect when studying the new mindset of the five fold ministry.  Who best to “rebirth” a church that needs “retooled” than an evangelist?

Every time the Church has gotten financial rich, affluent, it has lost its “influence” as “salt and light” to the world. The 21^st Century Church is about to go through a change of “affluence” to “influence”! Bring it on!