Retooling: What’s In Your Toolbox?

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

What’s in your toolbox?  Usually old tools, tools of stability, screw drivers, pliers, a hammer, a vice grip, a level, etc.  Recently specialty tools have invaded my box, special screw drivers with special tips, bent tools to reach in hard to get places, and multiuse tools.  Tools that were used on m 1971 Chevy Nova are useless on a new 2011 car.  If you buy an “ensemble yourself” piece of furniture, unique screws, bolts, and tools are included.  Why, as a church, do we still use “medieval tools” or even “last century tools” when facing the 21^st Century when we do church?  Why is the Church known as one of society’s institutions that does not embrace change quickly or effectively?  Only a few decades ago did the Roman Catholic Church allow mass to be done in a native tongue rather than in Latin, yet maintains the same structure for centuries?  “This is the way we have always done it,” is often the mantra for those who do not embrace change within the church.  Often the church boasts of rich “traditions” rather than effective ministry.  

So what should the Church’s toolbox contain if it is to be retooled?

Evangelist:  Instead of the old tool of mass evangelism as “Crusades” in sports arenas or special events held in church buildings, the retooled version may look like mass evangelism through social networking and the internet, but the power of personal evangelism through one on one communication and care is still the most effective.  In an age of impersonal electronic communication, actual one on one, face to face friendship and care is still the most powerful. Also the evangelistic tool must be a “creative” tool, being adaptable to new situations and change rather than already defined strategies to be copied.

Pastoral:  The term “pastor” will be retooled from being defined as a “professional Christian” to a passion or gifting to care for the development and nurture of believers toward being more Christ-like. Everyday believers can exhibit their “pastoral” gifting of service to help develop the new converts birthed by the evangelist.  It will be common believers reaching out to new and developing believers in an effort to grow together in to the maturity of Christ.

Teacher:  As an educator by profession, I have been taught and experienced that lectures are the most ineffective way to teach, particularly in an era where unlimited information is a click away on one’s computer. In an intellectual, data driven, test oriented, educational degree based society today, culturally and theologically the Western world needs to move away from teaching by lecture (sermons) “about” subjects to “experiencing” subjects by living, or actual application, of the principles to be learned.  Jesus never founded an intellectual theological institution to educate his followers, but he walked and talked with them personally for three years, teaching them kingdom principles for their practical lives. The sermon may become a relic of a tool replaced by field trips outside the established church building into the world the Church has been commissioned to serve.

Prophet:  Instead of thinking as a prophet as an isolated old testament figure hiding in the wilderness or causing waves that would want a king to banish him, or even an isolated new testament figure giving prophetic words, the new retooled prophet would look like a believer in Jesus Christ who has learned to listen to the small voice of the Holy Spirit, knows the heartbeat of the Father, and is willing to be obedient to what he has seen and heard.  Also the retooled prophet is not “isolated” from the body of Christ, but an integral part of the body of Christ by aiding through prophetic evangelism, aiding the pastoral effort through worship, prophetic teaching, and being the spiritual eyes and ears for the body as a whole.

Apostle:  Some teachers in Christian circles teach that the apostolic died when the last first century apostle physically died. I am sorry, but the Holy Spirit has resurrected the apostolic with power.  The apostolic will not be a “mantle of office” occupied by Senior Pastors or self proclaimed Church leaders, but a passion, a gifting, a point of view that would “see over” what the Holy Spirit is doing in the body of Christ, and encouraging and releasing the other four passions of giftings to prepare, equip, and develop Christians to be more Christ-like while bringing unity to the body of Christ, something the Church has not experienced in centuries.

So the tools in the Church’s toolbox may need restructuring for today’s specialized world, diverse cultures, and differences in a society that is beginning to think world wide instead of local.  Local corner churches with their spiral steeples are being replaced by practical multi-use buildings, or no buildings at all in a Facebook, MySpace, web sited, internet world.  Apple II E computers are dinosaurs, lap tops are being challenged by I-phones, and software changes yearly in a technological savvy world, yet the Church drags its feet to retool itself to meet this changing world.  We need to reevaluate as a Church what is in our toolboxes and how effective those tools are, then being open to add new, specialized tools to meet the needs of the 21^st Century generation.

Retooling: A Changing World; A Changing Church?

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

I remember the late 1960’s and early 1970’s as if it were yesterday.  It was a turbulent time.  I thought the moral fabric of America was not only being tested, but torn apart.  The jeans worn by the youth of the time, tattered, torn, and filled with holes, symbolized the fabric of America.  J. F. Kennedy, our President, Robert Kennedy, a Presidential candidate, Martin Luther King, and Malcolm X all died by an assassin’s bullet while George Wallace became a quadriplegic.  Beatniks gave way to Hippies as America went from getting high on poetry and literature to getting high on LSD and other drugs as their heroes too began to fall and succumb from drug overdoses. Unlike the Women’s Suffrage movement at the beginning of the millennium, the Women’s Liberation Movement burnt bras and brandished breasts in a cause challenging the morals and structures that had defined the fabric of the American family and society.  Gays and Lesbians, for the first time took to the streets, coming socially “out of their closet” demanding rights and changes.  The Civil Right’s Movement not only showcased peacefully led, but violently received, demonstrations through peace marches, but also experienced riots and looting in the Watts area of Los Angeles leading to violence and the burning of cities across America.  Tens of thousands began marching in protest of the War in Vietnam, the first unpopular war, the first war America would come home defeated rather than the victors, a war defined by the tens of thousands of body bags returning America’s youth literally back to its native soil.  Music reflected a new mantra: “Parents, you don’t understand, for the times they are a changing,” to “If you aren’t with the one you love, then love the one you are with.”  The youth of America did not trust their government calling it the “Establishment”, watching its Vice President resign over a scandal, then its President step down in disgrace rather than be impeached because of the Watergate scandal only to be replaced by a the only President who would not be “elected” as a President or Vice President into office. The “Father Knows Best” TV show image of the typical American family gave way to Archie Bunker and “All In The Family”. Those were changing times!

In the midst of all this the Church tried to remain and appear to be a constant, steady, unmovable rock in the midst of what looked like a turbulent ocean, thwarting off the waves of cultural change that were breaking on its beaches.  The “Bible Belt” that ran through South was now faced its hypocrisy as the Church was exposed as one of the most discriminatory institutions in America with Black churches, white churches, but few if any racially mixed churches.  Even in the North, churches too displayed this division not only theologically, but racially.  Church life of two Sunday services, a mid-week service, choir practice, youth groups, and Bible Schools were yielding in influence for the social fabric of America to public school activities, Sunday soccer leagues, organized youth sporting events, the collapse of Sunday “Blue Laws” making Sunday shopping routine, NFC and NASCAR becoming the gods of Sunday afternoons rather than “visiting” or doing family activities.  Image is important to the “structure” of the institutional church, and it “appeared” to be a rock, but these societal waves were beginning to erode its influence.

What the institutional church feared the most were the waves from within its structure for change, which it felt it had the influence or control.  The wave of revival always is opposed by the institutional church, but eventually  erodes formal structures, and whose ripples affects not only Christendom, but the world.  Believers with an evangelistic spirit, wanting to reach those caught in this change, the lost, birthed the Charismatic Movement and the Jesus Movements.  Those concerned with the shepherding/pastoral spirit birthed the Shepherding Movement.  Teacher arose out of nowhere producing cassette “teaching tapes” for the masses to hear, spewing forth a multitude of doctrinal and theological differences.  The voice of the prophetic spirit began to arise, something new to an institution that had lost its “ears to hear”.  What was missing was the apostolic spirit to oversee all this, thus 20^th century revival was messy, producing many mistakes, even casualties. Yet in the midst of all of this, each of these “five fold spirits”, points of view, and passions influenced the Church during this time. These spirits changed the way the Church worships today, its music, its attitudes toward discrimination and prejudice, its way of viewing social injustice, and even in its structure as new churches were established but not under the banner of denominationalism.

All that was the last century, the 20^th century, but now we are in the 21^st Century.  How is the Church responding to: a  global world, opened up by the internet and world wide web? Social injustice locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally exposed by twenty-four hour world wide news networks and images from smart phones transmitted by ordinary people in the midst of conflicts?  the change of community from local “town meetings” and “town churches” to relationships built around Facebook and other social media tools?  starving people  who sought “foreign aide” from governmental relief organizations that have been cut back due to budget cuts and a collapsing world wide economy?   a strong Islamic influence? Eastern religions left their talons of religious influence in American society in the second half of the 20^th century, how will the Church face the Islamic influences of this century?  and a generation reading their Kindles, I-Pads, and I-phones rather than their King James, 1600 and something edition of the Bible?

Beautiful but empty cathedrals in Europe are visible epitaphs of the resistance to change of the Medieval Church to the changing Renaissance, Reformational Church movement of its time.  Beautiful but empty church buildings with their wonderful architecture and stained glass windows dot the American landscape have become the epitaph of a Church unwilling to face change in our generation.  Our mega-churches, loosely formed bonds between institutional religious groups, and over all church structures too will fall and crumble, leaving only beautiful but empty tombs if the Church doesn’t embrace change now.

I propose that the 20^th Century Church has seen the evangelistic birth of all five passions and points of view of the five fold during its century.  Now it is time for the 21^st century Church to embrace them, allow the Holy Spirit to develop them bringing maturity to individual believers in Christ-likeness and unity as a body of believers to prepare the Church for the Lord’s return.  The Church is to be “without spot and wrinkle” for Jesus’ return. The 21^st Century is a time for the Church to face its “spot and wrinkle” remover, through the Holy Spirit, and through the five fold.

Retooling: Can Budget Battles Affect The Church?

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

The evening news tonight shifted from unrest and protests against dictators in the Middle East to unrest and protests in Wisconsin and Washington over up coming budget battles that could cripple Federal and State governments.  With all these budget cuts, particularly of public services, how will the 21^st Century church respond?

Will a shift occur away from the expectancy that the government will take care of us to looking to the Church for support?  The public is rebelling about having to pay for services while still expecting them.  I know in Central Pennsylvania the mindset exists that service oriented professions should “sacrifice” for the public good, thus salaries for public service jobs have always been quite a bit lower than the national average.  The public still wants the services, but wants the providers to “sacrifice” rather than paying for it.

I would not be surprised if the public begins to look to the Church to “sacrifice” their services to meet their needs and wants. Will the Church be asked to respond through more food banks, rescue missions, counseling services, community service projects, programs, etc.?  Will people in a confused, restless society look to the Church for tranquility, peace, and safety as it has in past history? 

This whole “Retooling” series began with the layoffs of Harley Davidson, the retooling of that company, turning it from the brink of financial ruin to a profitable business.  Now with budget cuts, even church staffs are being laid off and cut backed, yet parishioners are still expecting the same services.  How is the church to react to this challenge that affects its internal structure and the world about it?  If there was ever a time for the evangelical spirit to arise, the pastoral spirit to reach out, the practical teaching spirit to be released, and the prophetic spirit to move, with the oversight from the apostolic spirit, it is now!  But to have these spirits, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus Christ to arise, reach out, be released, move, and provide over sight, then the church will need retooling on how it thinks, the mindsets it harbors, and the way it does business, oops, I mean the way it does church.  If there has ever been a time for the church to re-examine the five fold and its possibilities and potentials, it is now, in the 21^st Century.

Retooling: From Child To Adult; The Church Growing Up

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

This past week, our local pastor taught from Titus 2, exhorting what older men and women and the younger men should do, their roles and responsibilities.  There were six bullets of what older men should do, five bullets with five sub-bullets for older women, only one for young men, and young women weren’t even mentioned.  The only thing for young men was “self control”.  I joked with a friend that as an older man more is expected of us, and for a young man it is controlling his testosterone level!  Older women are to guard their young ladies from these young men! We all laughed. 

But as I thought about it later, I realized that growing up has its challenges and its benefits.  There are men in their 30’s, some even older, who still play video games all day and are going nowhere. They need to “grow up”.  Often the only difference between a father and his son is the price of their toys. The father’s need to “grow up”.  The Bible says, “Once I was a child, and thought as a child, but now I have put childish things away.”  There is a time to put away those childish things and “grow up”.

If the 21^st Century Church wants to be effective, then many of its believers need to “grow up”.  We call ourselves “children of God” and often revel in remaining a “child” in the process called sanctification, or spiritual growth.  I once was in a small group made up of six adults and fourteen children.  Most of our efforts were taking care of the fourteen children rather than continual development of the six adults.  The church often finds itself in the same situation, spending most of its time and energy on the “children of God” rather than helping them in their spiritual growth toward “the maturity of Christ”, in their effort to be more Christ-like.

The church needs a new mindset on how to “develop” a Christian from childhood to adulthood.  Educational and intellectual knowledge is not enough. I truly believe Ephesians 4 holds the key to this development of “equipping, preparing, the saints, the believers, for the work of the service” in an effort to bring unity in the Body of Christ and Christ-like maturity to the individual believer.

The 21^st Century Church needs to take the birthing process of an evangelist, to the nursery and preschool care of a new believer through a pastor/shepherd, through spiritual adolescence with the teacher and prophet, to the release of adulthood through an apostle.  “Growth toward Release” is the goal of the five fold in developing a believer.  Like a child who trusts and is dependent on his father for his care and development, the Christian believer trusts the Church for his care and development in teaching him how to trust their “Father”, God, as Jesus taught and modeled throughout his life.  If the Church teaches a believer to “trust” the Holy Spirit, the spirit of Jesus Christ, the Spirit of the Father God, the believer can then be released  to do the work of the service because he is prepared, equipped.

Instead of focusing on programs, church services, styles of worship, staffing needs, and doctrinal differences like the church has done in the last two centuries, the 21^st Century Church needs to focus on the preparation, the equipping, of Christian believers, their development from being a “child” of God to being “mature” in the likeness of Christ.

Retooling: Service Based; Not Service Driven

Five Fold Must Be Relational – Part XXX

I have shared the five fold as a point of view or passion, that which drives a person, but the bottom line is that the five fold is all about relationships, relationships between people with different passions for the unity of the body and the maturity of the saints.  The five fold is to “prepare the saints for the work of the service.”  Service is central to the five fold, but the dark side could be if a principle that is “service based” becomes “service driven” rather than relational.

Luke 10:38-42 records the “service driven” Martha actually complaining to Jesus about her sister, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself?”  He replies, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

What was the better is the basic principle of how the five fold must work: Mary was sitting at the feet of Jesus listening, building a relationship.  Mary was so “busy serving” she did not take the time to listen to the voice of Jesus.  In John 11:21 little miss organizer, who likes to have her ducks in order, confronts Jesus over her brother’s, Lazarus’, death, “Lord, if you would have been here, he would not have died.”  She had even prepared for Lazarus’ recovery if Jesus had come. What she had forgotten is that God majors in “preparation”, and she could have listened to Him in the flesh if she would have taken the time.  God sent the prophets to prepare for Jesus’ coming.  He sent John the Baptist to “prepare” the way. Like Mary, I would not have sent a “hippie” who eats locust and honey but a “learned” rabbi who had studied the Word, but God knows better.

In John both girls go and meet Jesus, but their encounter is different. Martha confirms her belief of the resurrection and her confession of Jesus as the Messiah; Mary weeps, moving Jesus to Lazarus’ tomb producing his actual resurrection.

The five fold, as outlined in Ephesians 4, is all about “preparing the saints for the work of the service”, the Martha syndrome, yet anchored in the relational, the Mary syndrome, as it is to bring unity in the body and develop the saints into maturity of being Christ-like.

If the 21^st Century Church is to be retooled, it has to be anchored in the relational: 1) their “personal” relationship with Jesus Christ and Father God (John 3:16); and 2) their relationship with each other, their brothers in the Lord, their neighbors, and others (I John 3:16).  Only through those relationships, the Mary syndrome, will the fruit of service, the Martha syndrome, be evident.

Retooling: The Holy Spirit, The Agent of Restructuring

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

Who is the agent to construct this restructuring process of the Church?  Who is the one who is willing to bring change even though the changes may not be popular?  Whose is the one to take the “heat” when opposition comes because of the change?  The answer: The Holy Spirit.

We, the church, always give the verbiage that we want “renewal”, that we seek “revival”, even dream of another “reformation”, yet we want it within the bounds or perimeters that we establish as “safe”.  That is not how retooling works.  Retooling calls for drastic measure during drastic times to save a cause, and nothing is safe or with in perimeters.  It is a total restructuring effort.  I believe that is why most true revivals have been “messy”.  The Holy Spirit is messing with our mindsets, our safety zones, our traditions.

Insanity has been defined as “doing the same thing over and over, getting the same results, yet still doing it the same way.”  Retooling will not allow the repetition of what doesn’t work with the hope that it just might work. It is scraping the old and constructing the new.  Old buildings, structures, must be torn down before true urban renewal can be built.  The same is with the Church.

It is important to know where one came from, but it is even more important to know where one is going, yet tradition seems to oppose revival.  We say we want renewal, but we do not want to give up the old way because of its sentimental value to us.  As the saying goes, “We want our cake, and eat it too.”  True renewal, revival, and reformation demands a total break, “the old is gone; the new is here!” Yet can we trust the Holy Spirit in making the break.  That is what faith is all about.

So what will the Holy Spirit do to bring this change?  I have no idea; it’s not my call.  He is in charge.  All I need to do is be obedient to what he says because he always does the Will of the Father.  His job is to bring glory to the Father, so if we can’t trust him, who could we trust.

Retooling: The Restructuring Of The Church

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

To the question I asked in the previous blog, “Who is in control of our churches?” I wish I could reply “the Holy Spirit”, but in reality I know that we are far from that.  Leadership meetings are not time of quietness, tranquility, peace, calm, and time to listen to “the still small voice” among us.  It is not a time to then respond to what the group hears the Holy Spirit is saying in unity of purpose and direction.  In theory we would like to believe it is; in actuality, the truth of the matter very seldom is it ever that way. Then what is our option?

I believe the five fold is not about offices, or power, or about church political influences as the pre-21^st Century church has made it out to be, but of points of view, gifting, and passions that are spirit born in every believer in Jesus Christ that is just waiting to be released in them if given the proper conditions.  If leadership is not based on titles and offices, then what is its basis?  I propose though “service”.  It is what “you do” that makes you a leader, not what you say, nor what title you have been given. You are not a leader unless someone is following!  Who is following you?  If your personal life exemplifies Jesus, then the lost will be attracted to Jesus as their savior, not to you.  If you care, nurture and develop them, they will naturally follow you. Sheep follow their shepherd’s leading. If they see the power of the Word in your daily life and the living out of that Word, they will hunger and thirst for righteousness and the Word too for themselves.  People follow in response to “your service”.

When the disciples were fighting for positions in this new kingdom of God that was being established, arguing over positioning of who would be on Jesus’ left or right, they were soundly rebuked because the kingdom of God, the Church, is not built on a pyramid position as the secular world of corporate America.  There is no C.E.O. or President of the Board, etc. “on top” of the Church structure.  The structure of the Church under the kingdom of God is an inverted pyramid of how many you are “serving”, bearing their weight on your shoulders, rather than how many who are under you “serving you” and your every wish and command.  The retooling structure of the 21^st Century Church should be built on “service”, not political power, influence, or office.  Under the new retooled structure there would be no need for “offices” because people would not have to be told what to do, they would do what they see those whom they are following doing: serving!

Evangelism would be retooled because an evangelist would have to “serve” those they wish to win into the kingdom.  Most believers came into the knowledge of the saving grace of Jesus Christ, not through large evangelistic meetings and efforts, but through a everyday believer they admired or were willing to listen to who shared heart to heart with them about Jesus. That kind of evangelism has produced longer, lasting, effective results than did huge evangelistic programs, meetings, crusades, or endeavors.

The way we look at pastoring/shepherding would be retooled because the emphasis would be on “service”.  Even Jesus, as a human being, could only “serve” or “shepherd” twelve men over a three year period effectively.  Small groups, not as a program, but as a reality of number is essential in one’s development.  That one-on-one instruction by “experiencing” life with a younger believer in his daily walk is powerful and will stick with that person for life.  Pastoring/Shepherding is all about Walking the Walk With the person!  It is not about preaching, formal classroom teaching, nor lecturing, as the pre-21^st century paradigm has been for the Church, but in the actual involvement in the every day life to teach kingdom of God principles.

As a public school teacher, I know the truth that class size has on the effectiveness of one’s instruction and development of his students.  The smaller the group; the greater the effectiveness. The ultimate, one-on-one instruction is always the most powerful.  As a Christian for 50 years, I have heard thousands and thousands of sermons, teachings, and intellectual dissertations “about” Jesus, the Gospel, and the kingdom of God principles, but I question the effectiveness of all that “time” of vocal instruction by an instructor sharing their knowledge with me.  One of the purposes of the five fold is to increase our “knowledge of the Son of God”.  A retooled teacher will be one who instructs “about God” but exemplifies through his own life of service “who God is in his own life” based on principles grounded in the Word of God, the Bible.  Personally “experiencing” God will be the retooled way of teaching instead of formal, written or oral instruction “about God”.

“Listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit” and being obedient to what the Holy Spirit “reveals” is the retooled way the retooled 21^st Century Church would have to operate.  What is the voice of God, the voice of Jesus, the voice of His Holy Spirit saying at this moment, at this time, to this particular body of believers while fulfilling the written Logos Word, the Bible?  Upon hearing, obedience will be required, thus the need of the prophetic spirit to be “serving” in each and every local body of believers, the local church.

Finally, a retooled 21^st Century Church would have to rethink the role of an apostle in service.  The apostle is capable of evangelizing, shepherding, teaching, and releasing the prophetic spirit, but chooses not to do himself, instead releasing others to do it as he trains, develops, equips them in their growth into the likeness of Jesus Christ.  A retooled apostle “sees over” his domain of influence, not “over sees” it. He has the innate capability of seeing the big picture, and knowing what to do with it to “complete” the art piece!  He leads the other four of the five fold through “service” and by “example”.  Respect arises from “what he does or does not do by allowing others to do it”.  There is never an issue of “control” because everything is done out of “service”, who he is shouldering, who is covering.

The structure of this “retooled” structure is new, and I am sure will be controversial to the established structure that has reigned over the centuries, but its effectiveness in ministry and bringing unity to the body of Christ as the Church, the Bride, in its preparation to be “without spot or wrinkle” for the returning of Bride, Jesus, in undoubting.

Retooling: Is Leadership The Question Of Control?

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

In the world of church politics, who controls you local congregation?  Are you under a strong pastor format where he dictates how God is leading him thus the rest should follow?  Does you church “board” wheel in the power checking and directing everything your pastor is or should be doing?  Or does your church “board” rubber stamp the pastor’s efforts to show support?  Does your pastor surround himself with “yes” men or with men who will “sharpen” him as steel, challenging him, questioning him, yet guiding him and backing him? Does your leadership team “micromanage” everything and everybody, or they free wheeling allowing almost anything to happen?  How is one chosen to be on a board: through elections, through appointments, through offices held, through power and influence, through financial contributions?  Church is often run like a business, so are their businessmen on the board or just spiritual advisors? 

“Who really is in control of your church?”  That is the question the 21^st Century Church has to ask itself, for from the answer to that question will come their whole format, structure, and purpose of leadership.  Is the pastor in control? Should he be?  Just because you pay a man financially for his efforts does that make him a leader? There is usually one paid staff member for 100 parishioners, volunteers, non-paid participants in a local church. What leadership is in the 99?  Pastor/Parish Committees have always been a pain to most pastors, for they can discipline, fire, or turn on any pastor if they wish.  Most board meetings, pastor/parish committee meetings, leadership meetings turn into business meetings if the church has allowed itself to become an institution.  “Taking care of business” is at the top of the agenda.

Is there any other options out there that the 21^st Century Church could exam that would be totally different in its effort to “retool” itself.  When an industry “retools” itself there is drastic changes:  middle level management looses their jobs, workers are furloughed, laid-off, or released. A total restructuring occurs.  Like I Corinthians 5:17 records, “the old is gone; the new has come”.  The long assembly line of humans is replaced by robotics run by only a few engineers as productivity and profit margins increase, all because of the retooling effort.  The financial structures have been attached, re-evaluated, and new priorities in the budget set while lower priorities are cut.  The “retooling” process is never a pretty one, nor a pain free one, but usually produces uncertainty, doubt, and opposition at first because it advocates change.

So what could cause a violent change in the effort of “retooling” the 21^st Century Church, a change that would produce an initial response of uncertainty, doubt, and opposition?  I propose that it would be a change in the leadership structure, the leadership paradigm of the pre-21^st century era.  Usually change comes painfully slow in the institutional church; ask any Roman Catholic.   Industry left off the most important part of I Corinthians 5:17, for it reads “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old is gone; the new has come.”  The secret of “retooling” the Church is found “in Christ”.  If the “retooling” is not founded in Jesus Christ, it is of no use.

I propose to propositions to examine. First, industry brings in an outside C.E.O. to examine the current structure, then hack away at it to retool it, no matter how many jobs are lost, or profits temporarily diminish in an effort to “save the company”.  Who is the figure to lead the “retooling” of the 21^st Century Church?  The Answer: The Holy Spirit!!!  But again, as an individual and as a corporate body the question arises: Can we trust the Holy Spirit who will probably slash all the unnecessary structures, mindsets, etc. that we, the church, have accumulated into what we think is “church” today.  Again “If anyone [any structure, any program, any position of influence] is in Christ, he [it] is a new creation.”  Like industry, those in the current structure who like the old way, the old time religion, will meet these changes with uncertainty at first, then begin to doubt their validity, and finally oppose them.  The church has a historical track record of opposing any change.  In fact I judge the validity of any renewal or reformation movement by the opposition it gets from the church of its time.

Second, the structural change I propose “in Christ” that would be a totally “new creation” would be five fold leadership model of “service” designed to “equip or train the saints” for “the work of service” in an effort to “bring unity to the body” while thirsting and hungering for more “knowledge of the Son of God” in an effort to help every individual believer in Jesus and the Church as a whole to be more “mature” striving for the “full measure of Jesus Christ” in our lives.   We need to look at this proposition in more details in up coming blogs to see the effectiveness it would have on the 21^st Century Church, and the opposition it will face from the existing church.

Retooling: Redirecting Our Focus

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

So where are individuals to redirect their focus?  How is the Church to redirect its focus? Good questions with tough answers.  Christians and churches need to realize that their focus and what they do with it will have eternal consequences.  If as Christians we believe that accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior is our “new birth” spiritually, and our time on earth is “working out our salvation”, or “sanctification”, or spiritual development until our fulfillment with Jesus in heaven, then we have a lot of “working out” to do during our life time. How do we do that as a Church?

This is why I am so adamant about the influence of the five fold on the 21^st Century Church.  It provides the tools for total birth, development, and fulfillment during one’s life here on earth.  The evangelist’s passion is to win the lost.  “You must be born again,” is his plea, then finding ways into leading one into this new birth, this new life in Jesus.  The pastor/shepherd then is driven to “walk the spiritual walk” with them, caring for their development into being Christ-like.  Jesus spent three years “walking” with his disciples through their spiritual development, teaching them of His relationship to His Father, setting forth kingdom of God principles that they would use for the rest of their lives before releasing them into apostleship upon his leaving earth.

The teacher wants to anchor the spiritual development upon the Truths in the Word of God, the Bible, while the prophet is eager to teach a developing believer into what it means to be in the “fullness of Jesus”, both developing one toward maturity in Jesus.  Finally a believer in Jesus Christ can offer an apostolic covering of over seeing one’s personal and corporate spiritual development, calling upon the other four passions and giftings to augment a believer’s growth toward maturity in Jesus Christ.

All this preparation is at the expense of the final “releasing” of the believer to “go out” in the power of the Holy Spirit, grounded on the written Word, the Bible, and activated into a Living, Rhema, Word of “service” while continually growing in the maturity of the fullness of Christ.  If it took Jesus three years to develop his disciples, and Paul several years to develop a church in a city before releasing them for “service”, it will take us several years of care, nurture and development before we too must release those under our care to exercise their passions, develop their own character, and continue to move forward toward the maturity in Christ.  The five fold is not only for preparation, but also for releasing.

I know of no local church, personally, that trains everyone in their congregation to “serve”, then releases them to actually do it, to actually serve. That is one of the biggest challenges facing the 21^st Century Church: the process of nurturing, developing, then releasing believers in “the work of the service”.  To do so will take a major retooling.  We as a Church must accept the fact that we must do “church” differently if we are to be effective in this century and in the times to come.

Retooling: Restoring Church Life As The Centerpiece Of Our Calendar

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

As a child in the mid-20^th century, I went to church Sunday morning, came home to a big meal, then naps or rest, then returned to church later that evening for another service.  Wednesdays featured “mid-week” services also in the evening.  Thursday was choir practice, and Friday or Saturday was Youth Night.  Five times a week I was “at church”.  My church experience became the hub of my social life as well as my moral and spiritual life. 

Today the “minivan/SUV mom” transports kids to sport’s practices, dance, karate, or gymnastic instructions, private tutoring sessions or lessons all to enhance their children, to give them experiences, all in an effort to help them succeed and have a fulfilled childhood.  Instead of spending time together at home or at church, time is spent in the minivan/SUV traveling, thus the need for electronic gismos to pass one’s time in one’s vehicles rather than socializing.  School activities, sports, dances, and clubs have replaced church commitments.  “Traveling teams” go to various cities all over the country, competing on Sundays, attracting youth even further away from church commitments.  Church is no longer the hub of social, cultural, moral, and spiritual activities, but a place to go “conveniently” some time on the weekend where it best fits one’s schedule in the midst of multitude of activities.

The Jewish faith, Muslim faith, and Catholicism still emphasis formal religious training, but I see other forms of Christianity allowing their influence of training to slip through their fingers.   I have heard the argument that religious training should be centered in the home, not church activities, yet the home is now an abandoned abode to business, attributing to producing dysfunctional family.  We also look for quick fix solutions than taking the time to develop patterns and habits to create solutions in the proper time consuming way.

I look at many of my childhood religious activities as business, yet they did have a strong positive influence on my moral character.  Today, I see adults being drawn to churches with strong children and youth ministries, just as they are drawn to strong sports and activity programs for their children, rather than drawn to a church that will require time spent to develop moral character, a Biblical foundation, and a development toward making an individual mature in Christ-likeness.

Developing is a process, and if the Church is to birth, care, nurture, and develop a person physically, psychologically, morally, and spiritually into the “knowledge of the Son of God” attaining the maturity of the “fullness of Christ”, it will take time.  It will have to be the center focus of their endeavors, their day, and their calendar. If the goal of the Church is to “prepare” the saints for the “work of the service”, teaching them the “knowledge of the Son of God” while developing them toward maturity in “the fullness of Christ”, it will take a refocusing of our individual lives, and the retooling of the Church as a whole to reach that goal.   Individually, we will have to recommit to a Christ centered life of development, nurture, and care.  Our social calendar will have to change.  Corporately, we, the Church, have to commit to retooling, rethinking, and reevaluating what our purpose is as a Church and how to strive toward that goal.  If it is to “prepare the saints for the work of the service”, then a major overhaul is needed institutionally and individually.  Our lives and our calendars will have to drastically change.  The changing of our calendars and the refocusing of our priorities are two of the biggest challenges facing Americans in the 21^st Century as individuals and as a corporate body called the Church.

Retooling: Raising The Bar Of Expectations

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

In public education I have been told that students will perform better if you raise the bar of expectation.  You only get what you expect.  I have seen expectations erode over the years as a public school teacher in the name of good grades, honor rolls, and parental approval.  It is a common belief that if you lower the expectations, you reduce the chance of failure, yet many still fail. Why?  Because we do not expect much from them, thus motivation dwindles, replaced by student “entitlement”.  Students expect passing grade without the effort, motivation, nor work that is needed to successfully achieve. They feel “passing” is a “right”, not a “privilege” or something “to be earned”.  As we have watered down expectations, we, in the United States, have seen student performance erode to new, lower levels, falling drastically behind other countries who still value education, motivation, and aren’t afraid to keep higher expectations.

I have seen this influence the church too!  My question to the leadership of the 21^st Century Church is, “What do you expect from those who make up the Body of Christ?  As long as there is staff to cover the church’s needs, then not much is expected except for the finances to cover the paid staff’s salaries and benefits.  That is where most churches are today. 

What should we, the Church, expect from each other as members of the Body of Christ?  Should we raise the bar of expectations, or just allow people to filter in and out of our churches according to their needs, wants, and whims?  How can those believers who expect the church to “serve” them be changed into ones we can expect to serve others?  That is raising the bar.  How do we get people to raise the bar of service if they expect to be served and have no idea how to serve others? 

This is where the five fold is a necessity for the 21^st Century Church, because the purpose of the five fold according to Ephesians 4 is to “prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”(NIV)  To raise the bar, the Church needs to “prepare” God’s people for “works of service”.  We need to birth, care, nurture, and develop believers into “servers”.  It is a process!  We need to do this until “we all reach unity in the faith”, and today with all the divisions in the body of Christ that would have to be a miracle, a “God Moment”!  It seems not to be short term, nor close to fulfillment. The knowledge that needs to be taught, trained, and developed in a believer is not “academic”, but “in the knowledge of the Son of God.”  It is “knowing”, “experiencing” God in our everyday lives. All this caring, training, and developing for the purpose of becoming “mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”  You cannot raise the bar any higher than that!

It take the Church, the entire body of Christ, to do this development of spiritual character of service in each and every believer, that is why you need the five different points of view and passions, working together, to create this unity, this knowledge, and this maturity.  No Sr. Pastor, nor paid staff, can attain the bar that has been raised this high.  It takes the entire body, you, me, and all our other brothers and sisters in the Lord together in the effort. The challenge of the 21^st Century Church is to transform the reputation of “pew sitters” to “active participants” of service.  How do you do this?  You do it through birthing, caring, nurturing, and developing each and ever believer toward the goal of knowing their God and maturing into the full measure of Jesus Christ. This is what the five fold is all about!

I think if the Church began working toward this raised bar, they would see those believers who love Jesus respond in service.  If the leadership allows their sheep to be released to serve, there would be an evangelistic explosion and development in the Church. 

But the cry could be that no man can attain that status.  Wrong!  There was one man who did, Jesus. God sent Jesus, His Son, to the earth to prove that man can do it when if the “fullness of Jesus Christ”.  He then released the Holy Spirit to the earth to teach man the process of how to attain this knowledge and maturity.  Until the Church releases and allows the Holy Spirit to do what he is suppose to do through those he has been training to do “the works of service”, the bar will remain low, and the response and fruit minimal.

Retooling: Bringing Back The Unexpected

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

When in a “spirit-led” Church service, one always expects the unexpected.  Who would have thought those meeting in an upper room would speak in tongues of fire that night, who would then witness at the Temple speaking in tongues that foreigners understood?  Who would have thought that Ananias and Sapphira would be struck dead because of “playing with the Holy Spirit” rather than being “obedient to the Holy Spirit”?  Who would have thought Peter, in prison, would walk out his cell, past the guards, and knock at the door of a prayer meeting, shocking not only the guards confronted with missing prisoners but also believers who just witness their prayers being answered?  The unexpected always happens with the arrival of the Holy Spirit.  Soon you begin to “anticipate” it as being the “new normal” because the Holy Spirit’s Presence always produces “life”.

Order and freedom in the Spirit always oppose one another, producing friction in the Church.  Order brings predictability; freedom in the Spirit brings the unexpected.  Order brings control; freedom brings spontaneity.   Order brings a feeling of safety through familiarity, tradition; freedom in the Spirit to brings safety but in very different unfamiliar ways.  Order asks, “Can we trust the Holy Spirit?”  Freedom in the Spirit proclaims, “We can not help but trust the Holy Spirit?” 

Where is the 21^st Century Church placing its “trust”? Of course they would say, “in Jesus”, the logical, correct answer, but what does that logically mean?  Jesus, currently, is not on earth in human form, but resurrected and seated at the right hand of the Father interceding for His saints, but the “Spirit of Jesus Christ”, his Holy Spirit, is on earth, seated within each believer to be activated, brought alive through each believer’s faith journey.  The “trust” of the 21^st Century Church has to be in the Holy Spirit if it wishes to produce spiritual life.

As an advocate of the five fold, I feel it is the Church’s duty to birth that Spirit through an evangelist, develop that Spirit in each believer in Jesus Christ, make sure that Spirit is grounded in the written Logos Word, the Bible, so it can be activated as the Rhema or Living Word in each believer, and that Spirit nurtured, developed, and equipped to be released on the world and into the Church.  The Spirit of Jesus Christ, His Holy Spirit, is the key to unlocking the power of the 21^st Century Church.  The Word is the foundation; the releasing of Spirit is the key.   Jesus prophesied that would be a day when true worshipers would worship in Spirit and in Truth: grounded on the Word, released in the Spirit. The two that seemed to be in discord will be the very cord of unity.

Today’s churches thrive on reproducing “programs” that were other church’s successes rather than relying on the Holy Spirit to reveal what is best for that congregation.  Revelation always out-performs replication.  The church runs to conventions and conferences to see what the latest “trends” are that have worked for other congregations, returning with the effort of reproducing and instituting them in their local congregation.

The 21^st Century Church needs to allow the “Creator” of the heavens and the earth to “create”, not “replicate”.  The United States use to be known for its “creativity”,  “ingenuity”, and “entrepreneur” spirit.  Japan and Korea would come and reproduce items the U.S. had created cheaper. Items “Made In Japan” or “Made In Korea” where known as cheap replicas.  These products never match the “creator’s products in quality, just surpassing them in quantity.  The Church has fallen into the same trap.  Mega-churches have produced quantity, large amount of believers, often through reproduction of “programs” tried by other churches, at the expense of the quality of its individual believers.  Because of its size and staff, the creative spirit of its common believers, the pew sitters, is diminished.  Even though they will not admit it, quantity of believers over rides the quality of each believer.

How do we develop “quality” in a believer? By allowing the Holy Spirit to teach the believer, nurture that believer, develop that believer, then be released in that believer usually through unconventional means, because that is usually how the Holy Spirit works.  Much of the meaningful “spiritual life” that has had a direct impact on my nurturing and developing as a believer in a spiritual journey has come through those unconventional means lead by the Holy Spirit, not through the organized, controlled instruction under the banner of the institutional Church. 

The Holy Spirit led Jesus to the wilderness to teach him the “power of the Word” and how to use it against Satan.  He did not lead Jesus to a Rabbinical seminary, or the local Mega-synagogue to be “taught” intellectually how to use, analyze, critique, and theologize the Word through an exegesis. Jesus “experienced” the power of the Word while being the Living Word.  We, as 21^st Century believers, need to “experience” the “power” of the Word while being the “living” Word today.  We need to “expect” the “unexpected”.

Retooling: Bringing Back Anticipation, Excitement, and Life

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

I recall going to a Prayer and Praise meeting in the mid 1970’s in somebody’s home where you actually “anticipated” that the Holy Spirit would show up.  You never knew in what form or how he would manifest himself, what gifts would be released, if healings would become present. All you “knew” was that everyone who attended “anticipated” the Holy Spirit’s Presence to be in their midst, producing great “excitement”. 

We were amazed that there was a spontaneous Prayer and Praise gathering somewhere in the county where I lived every morning, afternoon, and evening of every day of the week.  Most often they were in people’s personal homes.  There was no set agenda to their gatherings.  Only one thing could be assured: Not only would believers in Jesus gather; but the Holy Spirit would show up in their midst. 

I attended on several Friday nights at the home of a man who had polio. He would sleep in an iron lung in his bedroom, yet come out and lead singing at the Prayer and Praise session in his home.  I lead a group for six weeks around a campfire prior to a local evangelistic crusade. There I witnessed testimonies, sharing of scriptures that had personally touched people, a women read a poem she had written bringing finality of her grieving process, and the gifts of the spirit being released on the last night.  You found yourself “excited” about wanting to come back each week because you “anticipated” that the Holy Spirit would show up bringing “excitement” while producing “life”.  Amazingly none of these spontaneous groups were directly under the banner of the institutional Church of its time.  They were all created out of the need for spontaneity, out of the need to find an outlet to express oneself spiritually, out of a hunger to know God, have an intimate vibrant relationship with Him, and actually see Him work in lives of common people, out of the need to find “life” within a church structure.  Unfortunately, most of these groups dissipated when the local churches felt they needed to “oversee” and eventually control the activities that these groups advocated.  With the control, which opposed the freedom that had created the anticipation, excitement, and life within the group became stagnation bringing eventual death.

One exception came at the Lower Octorara Presbyterian Church in Parkesburg, Pennsylvania where the Rev. Jim Brown, set aside his traditional liturgical church service format, practices, and traditions for an open Prayer and Praise format on Saturday nights for over a twenty year period where people from all over the state, country, and world packed out his facility in a worship atmosphere lead by “unplanned” special music and personal testimonies from those who attended.  I attended several of these sessions the last year that they were held and marveled at how the church building was always filled to capacity, the singing vibrant, and the testimonies original and powerful.  Before the service ever began, you could feel the excitement and the anticipation of what the Holy Spirit would do that night.

The 21^st Century Church needs to retool, rethink, re-evaluate establish mindsets of how it does worship.  Many churches have professional worship teams and choirs that sound awesome, but have lost the spontaneity that small group worship sessions once harbored. Well orchestrated programs have replaced the “anticipation” of the “unexpected” that the Holy Spirit brings.    Professionally delivered sermons by Senior Pastors and staff have replaced the spontaneous sharing of personally testimonies of common believers that want to share what God is doing personally in their lives.  With everything so well planned by the leadership of the church, there is nothing to “anticipate”.  Everything is predictable. The excitement is gone because nothing is required of the common believer in a well scripted service except his “financial” contribution.  Although the music and sermon were excellent, the parishioners, the common believers, leave the service with little if any spiritual life or renewal because nothing was expected of them.  Leadership did not anticipate their involvement since they produced the worship and teaching atmosphere, and the service fulfilled the needs of “release” musically for the musicians on the platform and intellectually for the preacher, but did not necessarily fulfill the needs of the congregation because they were not afforded the opportunity to be “released” in their gifting or passions.

The 21^st Century Church has to examine what “releasing” means: releasing the “believer” to be what he has been developed and equipped to be in Jesus. Allowing this releasing to be done in a safe, loving, and developing atmosphere where mistakes can be made and lessons can be learn while one grows spiritually in “their faith walk and journey”. 

Although my local church believes it has made changes, when my children, now adults living away from home, return to visit, they claim “nothing has changed.”  It is the same predictable “order” of worship as when they were a child. The faces of the clergy who gives the sermon and the worship team who plays the instruments have changed, but the agenda is the same. The only thing different is the “style” of music played, reflecting the current worship leader’s bent of leadership, or the delivery by the current pastor in his sermon.  It is “assumed” that the Holy Spirit is already there, not anticipating His Presence.  There is little excitement in a “planned, orchestrated” worship service because there is no participation of the congregation except to sing “word-fed” choruses on overhead projectors or hymnals in traditional settings, give an offering, and sit quietly, acting attentive during the delivery of a well prepared professionally delivered sermon. Little arises from the soul or from the heart of the common believer because very little is “required” from him.

The 21^st Century Church must “retool” how it does “worship” by allowing, an actually advocating the releasing of the gifting, talents, compassion, and passions of the believers in their midst, allowing them to spontaneously give back song, testimony, inspiration, and scriptures that have touched their lives.  It needs to find a way to allow church services to be “believer” or “body of believers” driven, not clergy and staff driven.

Retooling: Trust or Mistrusting the Five Fold?

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

It has been almost ½ a century since the grass root Charismatic movement or Jesus movement was birthed, touching tens of thousands of Christian believers.  Its influence still felt today.  It has made the Church look at how it worships, influencing it music, introducing spiritual gifts back to the church, challenging many of its traditions.  Allowing the Holy Spirit to flow freely in the midst of tradition and order has brought tension, for any renewal movement in church history has met opposition, usually from within. 

Today, many of these influences have been “tempered”, “absorbed” through the “osmosis” of control, and presented as a belief of the church but with little evidence of its use.  It has now been several decades since I have been in a joint, nondenominational meeting where there was evidence of speaking in tongues with interpretation, prophetic utterances, the entire congregation singing in the spirit, the laying on of hands for healing and the Spirit’s empowerment, and the manifestation of deliverance from demonic influences.  Because of the church’s demand to control these types of events, it seems as if all is quiet on the Western front today. Control has “tempered” this movement that challenged the religious establishments of its time.

In the 1990’s the “prophetic” movement and later the “apostolic” movement left its impact, but the church categorized them, as they did all five fold ministries, as “offices” as Senior Pastors and self proclaimed prophets now boasted of their banner of being an apostle.  Only clergy boasted of those titles, but the church would not recognize the prophetic or apostolic as a passion, desire, motivation, point of view or gifting that was touching the grass root believer of the Church.

Because of some of the misuses and misunderstanding during these movement, the 21^st Century Church has produced a spirit of skepticism over the five fold, seeking control to insolate itself from any more damage.  Yet in the midst of any renewal or revival movement comes newness, self insightfulness, re-examination, and change.  With any movement of renewal, revival, or reformation comes the question of “trust”.  Can we “trust” what this new movement is advocating?

I believe the foundations to the five fold has been laid through the 20^th century as the Church was forced to grope with the truths presented and released in the various movements of renewal and reform throughout that century.  Unfortunately, the church, as an organization, has tried to bring the influence of these movements into the protective covering of its influence, often damping them into submission. 

I believe the church needs to take a “new” look, a “renewed” look, a “reformational” look at the five fold.  If it allows it to be a “grass root” movement among all of its believers, and embraces it as passions and point of views of its individual believers for the unity of the common good, we may see a new resurgence of the five fold in the 21^st Century. Any time the power, influence, and control of the professional religious clergy is challenged by the newness and freedom of the common believer, tensions will increase; history records that clash.

Of course, this blog advocates the freedom of individual believers to be released to flow in their evangelical, pastoral, teaching, prophetic, or apostolic passion or point of view to be used in an interdisciplinary setting, relying on each other’s gifting, passion, and point of view that are is different from their own in an effort to bring unity and resurrected power back into the Body of Christ to make the Church effective in the 21^st Century. Continue to join me in my journey as the Holy Spirit continues to reveal the truth, power, and passion of the five fold when released into his care.  Can we trust the Holy Spirit is still the bottom line question the church and every believer in Jesus Christ must ask.

Retooling: We Have To Start Listening

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

If the 21^st Century Church is to be retooled, one crucial change is if it is willing to “listen” to the still small voice of the Holy Spirit.  There is always the temptation to have organization and control instead of fluidity of the Spirit.  Allowing the Holy Spirit to flow freely is always a risk because we give up control.  As I addressed in an earlier blog, the bottom line is, “Can we trust the Holy Spirit?”

Personally, as I have learned to allow myself to “listen” to the Holy Spirit, my frustration with the organized church has risen.  When in a worship setting, while the congregation, or Body of Christ, is in the midst of singing, praising, and adoration, I love to just sit quietly and listen, something that is contrary to my very nature since I am an extravert.  I have learned that listening is of not much value if you do not act on what you hear in obedience.  This is where the frustration and tension builds.

When the Body of Christ, the believers of Jesus Christ, come together to worship, God’s Presence can always be found in the midst of His congregation.  The Spirit of Jesus Christ can always be found in the midst of his people, particularly when they gather in worship.  It is in these moments that the Spirit often speaks.  The Church needs to evaluate how is to respond when the Spirit speaks and moves among his people.

I have found myself actually getting a homily, a mini-sermon, while in this listening mode, but I have become frustrated because there is no outlet in the church service to release this revelation.  I feel the restriction because of the mindset that the “sermon” has already been planned and can only be delivered by the clergy who is in charge of the service.  The sermon has become the centerpiece of most Christian church services today. I have been at awe when the pastor’s prepared sermon was the exact message that I received while in the listening mode in worship.  Isn’t it neat how the Holy Spirit works.  When I have gotten a prophetic word about an individual during corporate worship, I have been obedient and gone to them with the message, which has always been “right on”, ministering to them right where they are at that time. My obedience has always produced positive fruit.

Church bulletins, liturgy booklets, etc. give order and direction to a church service, ensuring order and tradition. There is “safety” in following a planned agenda, for we are always in control knowing where to go and what is expected.  But when we “anticipate” the Holy Spirit’s arrival and give him freedom to move, then our planned agenda is in jeopardy, for we are delegating our control over to the Holy Spirit to move as he pleases.  Again can the 21^st Century Church “trust” the Holy Spirit to arrive, to move, to speak, and to “maintain” what we believe is order?

If the 21^st Century Church is to allow the Holy Spirit to be released in its midst, then the five fold is crucial to bring that “safety” that the church is seeking while allowing the Spirit to move freely.  The evangelist will encourage the “newness” of the “birthing” process that the Holy Spirit brings. The pastor/shepherd welcomes the Spirit’s movement as it touches the spirit and soul of those he is disciplining towards their maturity in Jesus.  The teacher will be amazed at how the Holy Spirit can make the Logos, written, Word into a Rhema, living, Word. The prophet will be in his element of comfort, while the apostle will marvel while “over seeing” how the Holy Spirit brings unity among these different motivational passions and points of view.  The “free” worship service, lead by the Holy Spirit , under the umbrella of the five fold, will bring fruit, be spontaneous, an operate in unity.  There is “safety” in “trusting” the Holy Spirit. That trust is one of the biggest “retooling” issues that the 21^st Century Church has to address.

Retooling: Teaching, Theology “Divides”; Application “Unifies”

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

Are you “Pre-Trib”, “Mid-Trib”, or “Post-Tribulation” in your theology of the “End Times”.  Are you an Evangelical, Fundamental, Pentecostal, Main Line Denominational, or an Independent in your label of Christianity?  Do you believe in “once saved, always saved” or do you believe that salvation is a process where one “works out his salvation”?  All these are “theological” differences that divide the Body of Christ, producing heated debate and “draw the line in the sand” divisions.

On the other hand the “application” of spiritual principles through “service” (the central motivation for the five fold) always bring “unity”.  I remember worshiping beside a lady at a Jesus Rally in the ‘70’s who claimed to be a Byzantine Catholic, not having any idea what a Byzantine Catholic was or stood for, but I do remember us worshiping in “unity” together not caring about any labels that usually brought division theologically.  Service Project days where several churches get together to clean up, fix, repair, etc. local communities through “service” always erase labels and brings “unity”. Rather than most meetings of the local Council of Churches encouraging a “dialogue” over their differences to create an atmosphere of “tolerance”, it would be far more effective if they just “serve” one another, creating an atmosphere of unity of purpose.

Application of the gospel can bring resistance, though; usually from the theological communities opposing their effort.  Jesus always had the Pharisees criticizing what he was “doing”, and the Sadducees looking over his shoulder. Only time has changed, but not the forces of opposition.  The Pharisees argued that it was not proper to heal on the Sabbath theologically; Jesus just applied the principles of healing and healed no matter what day.  He fed the masses when they were hungry, healed those who were ill, delivered those who need deliverance.  He just “did it”, applied the truth, not argued over what was the truth. The Pharisees of today’s Church will still oppose the application of the gospel somehow in an attempt to bring disunity.

The five fold is to “prepare the saints for the work of the service”; it is to release the saints to apply their faith in everyday situations through “service”.  Its purpose is to bring the Body of Christ together, not divide it, to bring believers in Christ into the maturity of being “Christ-like”, to bring the fullness of the gospel to a dying world and a struggling church.

I, personally, propagate application over theology. “Doing” gets things done; “arguing” and “debating” always stalls the “doing” process.  Like Niki’s slogan that when wearing their sneakers “Just Do It”.  The 21^st Century Church should follow that when being a Christian, a follow of Jesus Christ, one should “Just Do It”!  That is called “application”, the “service” that the five fold is equipping the Church for….. for the “doing” of the gospel.

Retooling: Teaching, An Application

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

Teaching is not just dispensing information but more importantly the application of that information.  You can teach grammar, but if you don’t apply it to editing in the writing process, it doesn’t make sense.  Often students gripe, “Why do we have to learn this?”  Until the learner buys into the application of a principle, it is difficult to teach that principle for them to apply.  This also applies also to the Church.  Why learn all these Biblical principles if one is not willing to apply them?  If you just “study” them, it becomes “religion”; if you “apply” them, it becomes “life”.

“Book work” produces theory and theology, not necessarily application.   In science class, one can read and memorize science facts, but applying them in a laboratory situation is far more effective.  We, the Church, have fallen into this trap of “book work” in teaching the Bible as a book to research, memorize, and analyze through literary criticism, producing theology. In many churches, men’s & women’s group, small groups, share groups, etc. base their gathering on “studying” a how-to live a Christian life/principle book, often learning about a topic, but not necessarily actually applying it.  Educational degrees are based on theology.  Walking out one’s faith is based on application.

Don’t get me wrong, or misread me; the Bible is the core, the basis of everything the Christian teacher teaches. My emphasis is on “application” of those Biblical truths.  In the gospels, Jesus “applies” the Word when battling satan in the wilderness, as Jesus refutes, but “the Word says….”  Satan knows the word too, but theologically twists it, and, of course, never applies but opposes its principles. Jesus wins the battle because Jesus IS the Word made flesh, the Living Word, the Rhema Word.  When you “live it”, you “apply it”. Jesus IS the “Living Word”, the “Applied Word”.

In the Gospels, you don’t see Jesus leading weekly Bible studies, but walks with his disciples showing applications of the Kingdom of God principles as he goes.  He is not in a classroom setting, but a real world setting.  Because He had not yet “fulfilled” the Word, he often taught in parables that were only understood by his disciples after his fulfillment or after the Holy Spirit was released by Jesus to teach the understanding of his kingdom of God principles and parables.

If the 21^st Century Church is to be retooled, it has to recognize who “The Teacher” is.  Of course, Jesus is “The Teacher”, but upon his ascension to heaven, he sent His Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, to earth to teach the truth of the gospel so it can be an applied, living gospel. Instead of Theologians being the teacher, the 21^st Century Church has to recognize the Holy Spirit as the teacher, for the Holy Spirit lives in the heart, the life of each and every believer in Jesus Christ.  Revelation comes through the Holy Spirit to every believer making the Logos Word, the written word, the Rhema, or living word.

Retooling: Teaching – From Facts To Faith

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

A major retooling has to occur in the way we “teach” our faith, the kingdom of God, and the Gospel, or Good News if we are to impact our constantly changing word in the 21^st Century.  The church still operates under the medieval mindset of head knowledge of facts being poured out by an educated clergy upon the uneducated masses, the laity, causing a class distinction, a division in a Church whose foundation, Jesus’ will, is to be unified.  What freed the medieval church from this entrenched mentality came with the technology revolution of the printing press that freed the believer from hearing the oral dogma of the Church from their pulpits to allowing the Holy Spirit to teach the Logos, or written Word, to the masses through the printed Word.  The masses, or laity, then began to allow the Holy Spirit to release the Rhema, or Living Word, back into the Church as its members, the laity, began to have the desire to “live out the Word”, and the Great Reformation was birthed.  Spiritual life began to come back into the Church.

Today the Church still feels the tension between the medieval design of only the intellectually trained teaching the word and allowing the Holy Spirit to instruct the masses, the laity, how to walk out this Living Word.  I chuckle how the male dominated leadership structure in churches allow women to raise their children in a godly manner daily through mothering at home and maybe even permit them to teach the children in a Sunday School, Children’s Church setting, but will not allow women to teach adults because it is only men’s work, as if women are intellectually inferior when it comes to instruction the ways of God. 

My dad has always proposed that the way you bring up a child in his first five years is the path the child will follow for the rest of his life.  If the child is raised Roman Catholic, he will remain in the Roman Catholic tradition; if raised Protestant, he will remain Protestant.  The Roman Catholic Church, realizing this truth, is the only major Christian organization to institute a massive successful system of parochial schools to train their children in their intellectually driven religious dogma.  They teach their members to respond to the gospel intellectually through their clergy for the rest of their lives, thus the medieval system of education is deeply entrenched.  I feel the 21^st Century Church needs to break out of that mold.  We will look at the power of teaching our children in the next blog.

The 21^st Century Church needs to learn how to release facts into faith, a written Word of Laws into a living Word of Grace and Mercy.  The five fold approach would help instruct the Church in “equipping the saints for the work of the service,” for it is a pluralistic approach with evangelists, shepherds, prophets and apostles along side teachers and walking with fellow brothers and sisters in the faith in service, then releasing them to serve. This walking out one’s faith in daily life with other brethren by your side in service, to serve, rather than the clergy/laity mentality established in the medieval Dark Ages, is a novel idea in the way we do Church, particularly in the Western World.

Jesus taught by experience, not by intellect.  He wants you to experience the Cross (Take up your Cross and follow Me), experience inner healing, physically, mentally, and spiritually, experience faith, not just talk about it, experience relationships since He is a relational God. To “know about God” is one thing, but to “experience” God is quite different.  The key to changing the 21^st Century Church’s mindset is to recognize that the Church must “experience” God more than it needs to “know about God”.  I guarantee you, we will know more about God when we experience God.

Retooling: Teaching – Field Trips?

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

Going on field trips is always better than in-classroom experiences.  Even studying the topic of the local sewage plant was better on the road than in class.  Experiencing the Holocaust by walking through the National Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. proved way more effective than just reading The Diary of Anne Frank out of one’s literature books.  Experiencing history rather than just reading about it has always been the goal of a social studies or history teacher.

The same is true with the Church if it is to be retooled for the 21^st Century.  Experiencing Jesus is more important than just reading or listening to a sermon about him.  Experiencing faith is always more powerful than reading about faith or hearing a lecture about it. 

Field trips are recorded throughout the New Testament:  The Road to Emmaus with the disciples being taught along the way, the parable of the Good Samaritan along the road, Phillip and the Ethiopian Eunuch trying to decipher the mysteries of the book Isaiah, the woman at the well, Zacheas sitting in a roadside tree, Saul getting knocked off his horse receiving the revelation of whom he had been persecuting, are only a few of the recorded field trips, but every situation proved to be powerful.

How would taking spiritual field trips throughout the neighborhoods surrounding our church buildings effect what goes on inside those buildings? What would the church learn if it “hung out” with its neighbors instead of investing hours in committee meetings?  What effect would the church have if the Men’s Bible Study decided to hang out at a local bar just talking to the men there and allowing the bar tender to not play “pastor” to his despairing visitors for at least one evening.

Servicing opportunities like meeting the needs of the widows, the elderly, the ill, and the poor always produces powerful fruit.  Even the serenity of a men’s fishing trip, like the disciples experienced on the Sea of Galilee, has its impact.  The church has had a mindset for centuries that the lost needs to come “in” rather than the church being sent “out”, yet the Great Commission is all about being sent out.

Even if a scholar has studied the scriptures, read all the books on theology of salvation, but never personally experienced the saving gospel, all his knowledge has been in vain.  If he has had read volumes of books on evangelism, but has never lead anyone into the saving grace of the Lord, all his reading has been in vain.  The “experience” is always better than the “head knowledge”. 

Maybe instead of “rethinking” about the 21^st Century Church, we need to be “experiencing” the 21^st Century Church.

Retooling: Teaching – Theology: “Gag A Magot”!

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

The suffix “ology” means “study of”; the prefix “theo” means god.  “Theology” = “Study of God”! Really? How do we study about God?  Western thought advocates through head knowledge.  Jewish thought advocates experience through the heart.

When earning my Master’s Degree in Biblical Studies through Christian International, I had to take a theology course.  It was one of the most intellectually difficult courses that I have ever attempted.  On a given topic, theologian after theologian was quoted on what “they thought” the meaning of a passage to be usually in a dialogue only a trained graduate level intellectual could understand.  Often I would read a paragraph two or three times until its meaning became clear. Instead of an survey through the Old Testament or New Testament course, which is considered an undergraduate course, graduate level courses focus on key beliefs or motifs as theologians over the centuries debate its meaning. 

My concern was always how does these “advance” courses advance our “Christian walk” in the Lord. Do these courses cause a believer to be a better “doer of the Word”, not just a listener. Usually not, because they are all head knowledge.

Yet in Christendom today, our leaders are still “developed” and “promoted” on what they learn, not how they apply it.  Then they try to “dispense” their knowledge through sermons which we have been told is the keystone of a Sunday morning service.  In some segments of Christendom, churches envy if they can have a pastor with a Doctorate Degree.  In many churches, staff is always taking “courses” to promote their positions and careers.

If we are to retool the 21^st Century Church we must ask, “Did Jesus propagate this strategy?”  Even though Jesus was called rabbi, or teacher, he never founded a Bible School, a Theological Center, or a University; he chose 12 misfits, who the leaned of his time quickly recognized as being “untrained”.  Jesus always battled the Sadducees and Pharisees, the intellectual religious leaders of his day.  He was NOT one of them, in fact opposing them.  Would Jesus oppose the clergy/laity system today if he was physically here? Probably.

Jesus “walked the walk”, not just “talked the talk” nor “debated the debate”.  He took his disciples on constant field trips to teach lessons of “the kingdom of God is like…..”  He taught them how to “experience” the kingdom of God, not “understand” it.  Now don’t get me wrong, the Holy Spirit, who has been sent to be our teacher, reveals the “mysteries” of the gospel to those who seek it, but knowledge of those “mysteries” is only good if they are applied to the walk of faith a believer is taking.

Today if a person is serious about his faith, we say he is “called” into the ministry, having him leave his local congregation to be trained at a Bible college, then a Seminary, only to be sent somewhere else, usually not returning to the local congregation, which first developed him.  I believe the five fold is to “equip the saints for the work of the service”, at least that is what Ephesians 4 states.  I believe the local body has been “called” to “equip” the local body to “serve” the local body. For that to be done, the 21^st Century Church has to be retooled to have local believers impact their local community.  We will look at this challenge in following blogs.