Adapting and Responding To One’s Environment

Organism, to Organization, to Institution Series – Part 9

(A single cell organism is a building block of life. When multiplying, how can you prevent it from becoming an institution where the organism can easily die or become lost in its structure? The following blogs in this series will examine the Church as an organized institution or an organism built on relationships.)

Let’s look at the church through the eye’s of Katrina Scherbern’ view or Organism Organization where she defines seven characteristics. Let’s look at her fifth and sixth one:   

5.     Living things respond to their environment

6.     Living things adapt to their environment

Being “Missional”, a current church buzzword, is associated with going beyond church culture by responding and adapting to one’s environment. When the church loses being salt and light, it loses its brilliance and flavor and becomes ritual and lifeless.  The concept of being in the world but not a part of it does not mean to be exclusive.

Jesus commanded to love your neighbor as yourself, but when immersed in only a Christian culture, loving becomes easy, not sacrificial or forgiving. Loving your neighbor means responding to those outside one’s cell and adapting to their environment. Jesus was also criticized in his day for eating with tax collectors, prostitutes, Samaritans, those unclean by Jewish Law, but He knew His Church would one day be outside the realm of Jewish tradition and open to the gentiles.

Again the five fold is important in implementing this principle. The evangelist is needed to rebirth, so that all things are new!  A shepherd’s nurture, caring, and kindness is effective in bringing about acceptance, then openness in receiving the gospel. Teachers are needed to teach the practicality of how to love your neighbor, not just preaching at them. Prophets can “read their mail” as Jesus did to the woman at the well in order to bring them into the kingdom of God. Apostles have insight as to how to be the most effect cell in winning new people into their group, how to nurture and develop them, spiritually feed them, and release them when mature.

An five fold church or cell, led by the Holy Spirit will seek direction on how to win the lost, nurture and care for their needs too, ground them in the faith, bring spiritual life to their stagnant one, and help them grow and develop. All this is what Jesus meant when he told Apostle Peter to feed My sheep.

If the Church is to win the world for Jesus, it must infiltrate the world and environment where it has been placed. As different cells have different purposes, so a church cell can be an urban cell, a suburban cell, a cell with outreach, a cell with compassion, a cell with… on and on. Diversity is important to the nature of the body of the Christ, and responding and adapting to different environments can only come through diversity.

Living Things Reproduce

Organism, to Organization, to Institution Series – Part 8

(A single cell organism is a building block of life. When multiplying, how can you prevent it from becoming an institution where the organism can easily die or become lost in its structure? The following blogs in this series will examine the Church as an organized institution or an organism built on relationships.)

Let’s look at the church through the eye’s of Katrina Scherbern’ view or Organism Organization where she defines seven characteristics. Let’s look at her forth one:       

4.     Living things reproduce

As I said in my last blog: My “little girl” became a woman, who as a mother birthed another “little girl”, a grand daughter for me.  That is how living things work; they grow, mature, and multiply.

Reproduction should be a natural expression of a developmental life. Most Christians today who do not grow spiritually, who are encouraged to remain passive, not active, who have their spiritual passions stifled by leadership or structure, never reproduce.

Again reproduction is a natural process in the five fold. The evangelist majors in reproduction. His cry is, “You must be born again,” being born of the water and the spirit. Life never begins unless there is birth; reproduction is a necessity for spiritual life. A new Christian, one just born into the faith of knowing Jesus Christ, has an enthusiasm, which is contagious. It brings life to the entire body, the cell! Evangelistic churches or church plants breed enthusiasm.

But more needs to be reproduced than just the evangelistic spirit. Shepherding, nurturing, caring, needs to be reproduced in the cell to assure growth in the cell and when it multiplies. Sound apostolic teaching with truth revealed in the Logos Word and lived out through the Rhema Word are necessary ingredients to a health cell, or church. A revelatory spirit for truth and a desire for intimate worship also needs nurturing in order for the cell to divide properly. Finally, apostolic networking needs reproducing so both cells remain the same in Jesus Christ. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

If an individual believer and a local church is not reproducing itself over a period of time, it needs to look into why? Sects like the Cloisters of Lancaster and the Shakers are dead sects, having only their community buildings as museums of remembrance. Without spiritual reproduction, their cells died and their organism died with it. 

Living Things Grow And Develop

Organism, to Organization, to Institution Series – Part 7

(A single cell organism is a building block of life. When multiplying, how can you prevent it from becoming an institution where the organism can easily die or become lost in its structure? The following blogs in this series will examine the Church as an organized institution or an organism built on relationships.)

Let’s look at the church through the eye’s of Katrina Scherbern’ view or Organism Organization where she defines seven characteristics. Let’s look at her third one:       

 3.     Living things grow and develop

Therefore, I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.

He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.

As a result, we are no longer to be children tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ. (Ephesians 4:1-4, 11-15)

The purpose of the five fold is for “growth and development” to “equip” the “saints” towards individual “maturity” “to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ” and towards corporate “unity of the faith”.  If a cell, a local expression of the body of Christ, is to grow, it must embrace the five fold to give it life: birth, nurturing, caring, developing, spiritual insight, foundational through the Word, and networked together in unity.

Living things grow and develop. My children were destined to grow; they couldn’t help themselves. Developmentally, they passed through infancy, childhood, adolescence, young adulthood eventually into becoming a mature adult. My “little girl” became a woman, who as a mother birthed another “little girl”, a grand daughter for me.  That is how living things work; they grow, mature, and multiply.

The hard thing to learn is that spiritually we can become stagnant, in active, passive, stale, and eventually die. The church is no different.  Spiritually, we do not develop and grow naturally as our human body does, but we can chose when and how we can grow and develop.  Paul acknowledged this dilemma in I Corinthians 3:2 when he wrote, “I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able.”

Spiritual life is determined upon how willing we are to grow and develop in Jesus! That is why the five fold is essential in supplementing a Christian’s spiritual diet through nurture, care, learning the Logos Word, and living it as a Rhema Word, and seeking revelatory truth through the Holy Spirit, the teacher and revealer of truth, and through apostolic teaching and guidance.

A Church that is alive as a living organism is one willing to grow and develop its members, its saints, by equipping them, then releasing them in the faith to bring multiplication. That is the blueprint for cell life.

Living Things Obtain And Use Energy

Organism, to Organization, to Institution Series – Part 6

(A single cell organism is a building block of life. When multiplying, how can you prevent it from becoming an institution where the organism can easily die or become lost in its structure? The following blogs in this series will examine the Church as an organized institution or an organism built on relationships.)

Let’s look at the church through the eye’s of Katrina Scherbern’ view or Organism Organization where she defines seven characteristics. Let’s look at her second one:        

2.     Living things obtain and use energy

Living things have been creative for activity. The Church was never originally designed to be a passive institution with a subclass called the “laity”. This class, called the “saints” in the Bible were active. After the four gospels, the book of Acts is written to record the acts, the actions, the activities of those followers birthing the Church. The church is not dormant!

When visiting a local church, one leaves and often assesses their visit as just visiting an “active” church they call “alive” or a “passive” church they call “dead”.  Cathedrals are impressive in size, architectural, and artistic value, but when empty they are just empty tombs of remembrance. Without activity among God’s people in a place, death is evident. It is like you want to yell, “The tomb is empty; the Lord is risen!” To find that risen Lord you must look with in a gathering of his people. “Where two or three have gathered together in my name; I am there in their midst.” A gathering of saints produces life when Jesus is in their midst.

We must rethink our use of the word “church”, for we attend church, by going to church, and being the church at our church buildings. Confusing? The church is a gathering of saints with Jesus in their midst, that obtain and use His energy through His Holy Spirit. Churches that have life, are centered around the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ who brings supernatural life naturally to that group.

As a proponent of the five fold, I believe that when all five are present, there is life. An evangelist birth’s spiritual life, shepherd nurtures, cares, and develops that life, the teacher instructs that life through daily living based on the Word, while the prophet brings revelatory truth to that life. An apostle networks all the different facets, or organelles, in that cell, and together they all make up the workings within the cell that brings life, multiplication, and growth individually and corporately.

We as a church, have to quit grieving the Holy Spirit that produces that life and stifling the energy He produces. We have to allow the organelles within the cell to function as they have been created, so they can continue to attribute to the health and welfare of the cell as a whole. 

Living Things Are Made Of Cells

Organism, to Organization, to Institution Series – Part 5

(A single cell organism is a building block of life. When multiplying, how can you prevent it from becoming an institution where the organism can easily die or become lost in its structure? The following blogs in this series will examine the Church as an organized institution or an organism built on relationships.)

Let’s look at the church through the eye’s of Katrina Scherbern’ view or Organism Organization where she defines seven characteristics. Let’s look at her first one:       

1.     Living things are made of cells

If the Church is to be an organism, not an organization or institution, it must be made up of cells. I believe a cell is where “Where two or three have gathered together in my name; I am there in their midst.” A gathering of saints constitutes a cell.

Cells were not created to be denominations or independent Christian sects. Paul visited a metropolis, a city, where he preached the gospel, saw people saved, and nurtured them by equipping them for the works of service for when he would move on to another city. These cells would be self-sufficient, not relying on a hierarchal network to over see them and dictate dogma. They were usually small and met in hopes that built a 24/7 community of active faith.

There was to be no division among these cells, only multiplication. Paul writes in I Corinthians 1:11-13 (NAS), I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe’s people, that there are quarrels among you. Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, ”I am of Paul” and “I of Apollos,” and “I of Cephas,” and “I of Christ.” Has Christ been divided? Paul was ot crucified for you, was he? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you ot mere men? (I Corinthians 3:4)

The only distinction between churches in the 1^st Century was by location: ie. Church of Philippi, Church of Corinth, Church of Ephesus, etc. I am sure that in each of these cities were several cells, local bodies of believers, that made up the tissue of fabric of the spiritual life of the city in which they lived.

Pastor Cho of South Korea discovered the power of cell groups, as these small groups began to nurture the local saints, equipping them for their everyday life, and his church grew into one of the largest in the world. Ironically, as the Holy Spirit often does, God’s ways proved better than ours as most cell groups were led by women in a male dominated culture when the men did not step up for leadership.

If the Church as a whole is to be a living organism, it must be made up of living cells, local bodies of believers meeting with Jesus in their midst. 

Fighting the Cancer

Organism, to Organization, to Institution Series – Part 4

(A single cell organism is a building block of life. When multiplying, how can you prevent it from becoming an institution where the organism can easily die or become lost in its structure? The following blogs in this series will examine the Church as an organized institution or an organism built on relationships.)

In this series opening blogs we defined an organism, told how the cell is the central component to life, and how the levels or organs of life, working together, affect the organism as a whole.

Different components within the cell, the local church, bring life to it. Its diversity should be displayed through different passions (evangelist, shepherd, teacher, prophet, and apostle), who serve one another by laying down their lives for the brethren. A purpose for the cell is to “equip the saints for the works of service”. After new converts have grown and been nurtured toward maturity in Christ, cell division should occur where the talents of the saints are released for the purpose of producing two cells, two local churches, all under one banner, the Church. This is the new paradigm for church planting: cell division of an equal splitting apart for the purpose of growth and renewal.

Tissues, organs, and organ systems are similar in that their purpose is to work together to perform special activities in unity.  Historically local churches have bonded over doctrine, forms of worship, church and leadership structure etc. and formed denominations or independent Christian sects. That is not why they were created. Although similar in structure and function, they must “work together” to get the desired results, not oppose one another.

We need Body parts that emphasize evangelism, who shepherd and build communities, who nurture care, and build up saints, who challenge the Logos written Word to be the Rhema living Word, and who network others in an unified effort. We need the five fold, led by the Holy Spirit to bring, maintain, and nurture spiritual life to the Body of Christ.

As molecules, organelles, and cells, we need each other to build the tissues, organs, and organ systems to make the Body effective, bringing it life, and continuing its growth. I believe this can be done through building relationships, not through hierarchal structures. The combination of molecules and organelles makes a cell. Cell combinations create tissues that develop organs and maintain life to birth, build, nurture, and mature the body. That is the structure of the Church.

Cancer is when cells go amok, rapidly dividing without a purpose, fighting to become independent of one another, not willing to bond or work together for the growth, livelihood, and nurturing of the body. Cancer, this uncontrollable dividing among cells, eventually shuts down organs and systems resulting in death.

We, as a Church, need a revival, a renewal, a new reformation to rejuvenate life back into the organism by working together by serving one another. Instead of fighting for our independence from one another, we need a bonding that only the Holy Spirit can do. We can only stop the cancer, not through surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, but through embracing an attitude of laying down one’s life for their brethren in service for the purpose of building up one another and bringing unity and health to the entire Body of Christ, the Church.

Organization of Human Organisms

Organism, to Organization, to Institution Series – Part 3

(A single cell organism is a building block of life. When multiplying, how can you prevent it from becoming an institution where the organism can easily die or become lost in its structure? The following blogs in this series will examine the Church as an organized institution or an organism built on relationships.)

In Katrina Scherben’s video Organism Organization found on YouTube, Katrina attempted to explain her theory of The Organization of Human Organisms. She claims…

Atoms make up

    Molecules which can make

      Organelles that are inside cells that make up

         Cells that are the smallest structural and functional units of life that make up

            Tissues that are made up of cells that are similar in structure

             and function, which work together to form a special activity.

                Organs that are made up of tissues that are similar in structure and

                function, which work together to form a special activity.

                    Organ Systems that are made up of organs that work together to

                     form a special function for the organism.

                   (There are 11organ systems in the human body.)

                           Organism, the total body

Over the centuries, the church created a hierarchal, institutional, leadership pyramid led by Popes, the Bishop of Canterbury, Apostles, etc. who headed Bishops, Cardinals, and Senior Pastors who ruled over boards, presbyteries, and committees who instructed their pastors and priests to organize programs and services staffed and financed by volunteers who were parishioners. This produced a system that has brought division, bickering and disunity.

Local churches, cells, are to support one another (the body) through service through a linear relationship, for no cell, tissue, organ, or organ system is more important than the other. Each is to support the other. It leadership and followers should literally be walking beside one another as Jesus did with his disciples. Each body part is diversely different but must support the other differing body parts in order for the body to function as a whole. How this functions will directly influence the spiritual growth of every believer while bringing unity to the Body of Christ.

The Creation Of The Atomic Cell Theory

Organism, to Organization, to Institution Series – Part 2

(A single cell organism is a building block of life. When multiplying, how can you prevent it from becoming an institution where the organism can easily die or become lost in its structure? The following blogs in this series will examine the Church as an organized institution or an organism built on relationships.)

In Katrina Scherben’s video Organism Organization found on YouTube, Katrina states that “all matter (living and nonliving) are made up of tiny units called atoms,” and  “1. All life forms are made from one or more cells; 2. Cells arise from pre-existing cells [There is no spontaneous generation.]; and 3. The cell is the smallest form of life.”   

In light of our Church analogy, all cells (local churches) are made up of combinations of atoms (diverse believers). As the Periodic Table lists all the known forms of combinations of atoms that form elements, so each local church body (cell) is made up of different combinations of talents from gifted believers. As an advocate of the five fold, I believe that each believer has the passion, talent, drive, and point of view of either an evangelist, shepherd, teacher, prophet, or apostle, but you need all five present to have a healthy, living, active cell (local church).

1. The life form called the Church, or the Body of Christ, is made from one or more cells (local churches).  There are “unicellular” organisms, but the Church is generally “multicellular”, composed of of multiple local churches.

2. Cells arise from pre-existing cells [There is no spontaneous generation.] Today’s church plants try to birth new churches through spontaneous spiritual generation using a missionary model. New church plants should arise from pre-existing local churches instead. The purpose of the five fold of Ephesians 4 is “to equip the saints for the works of service”. The local church should be multiplying its evangelists, shepherds, teachers, prophets, and apostles within the existing organism, and birth a new church by “releasing” their saints by “sending them out” as a five fold team when multiplying.

3. The cell is the smallest form of life. The local church is not an entity among itself. It is not to stand alone, but bond with other cells (as we shall see in future blogs) to become a tissue or body part. Each local church, one small cell in the Body of Christ, has its own purpose, passion, and activity that is to support the whole tissue, organ, and Body.

Currently there are millions of cells, local churches globally that are like a cancer, some multiplying, others dying. Multiple cells that multiply unnaturally or overbearingly can bring damage and even death to body organs or the body as a whole. This has happened with denominationalism and various independent religious sects that have brought division, not unity, to the body.

How do we stop the cancer? By understanding the Organization of the Human Organism, the Body, can we see each cell’s real purpose in its effort to support life.

The Creation Of An Organism

Organism, to Organization, to Institution Series – Part 1

(A single cell organism is a building block of life. When multiplying, how can you prevent it from becoming an institution where the organism can easily die or become lost in its structure? The following blogs in this series will examine the Church as an organized institution or an organism built on relationships.)

In Katrina Scherben’s video Organism Organization found on YouTube, Katrina explains how an organism becomes an organization.  She defines an organism through seven characteristics:

1. Living things are made of cells
2. Living things obtain and use energy
3. Living things grow and develop
4. Living things reproduce
5. Living things respond to their environment
6. Living things adapt to their environment
7. Living things have different levels of organization.

Scherben emphasizes that all 7 characteristics must be present for the organism to be living. Missing one can bring eventual death.

In Genesis, God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likneness…..” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them. God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiple, fill the earth, and subdue it.

The Church was birthed to be a living organism, not a lifeless institution or a dead religion. “For where two or three have gathered together in my name I am there in their midst.”

Gathered believers find their energy, grow and develop, reproduce, respond and adapt to their environment through their cell, the local church. Gathering, growing, reproducing, and adapting come through built relationships among God’s people. The local church is to be active, not passive, a living organism who multiples through reproduction to grow, so all seven characteristics are needed to remain alive!

Instead of building buildings, cathedrals, and mega-churches and hierarchal structures with Senior Pastors, priests, bishops, cardinals and popes, God’s intention was to build a living body, a living organism composed of cells working together for the whole. Each cell may have a different function, appearance, and purpose, but is created to support the life of the whole body. Kidney failure can destroy a body. Digestive problems can cause great pain. Heart failure brings certain death. The shutting down of organs brings certain death.

Cell division is for the purpose of reproduction and growth. Uncontrollable cell division is called cancer, which also causes death. When there is cell division and reproduction, what should the church do? Should it organize, institutionalize, or develop a supportive life system?

We will look at these phenomena in upcoming blogs.

The Five Fold Spirit Cries Out

 Why Should/Shouldn’t My Church Embrace Change? Part XXXXI

I am convinced that God wants a metamorphosis, a total transformational reconstruction of his Church through the leading of the Holy Spirit. When facing the unknown, particularly the supernatural, man gets nervous. God does not need man’s approval, for He is in total control. Man’s natural tendency is to hold on to control and to familiarity. Historically, the Sanhedrin functioned this way against the prophets of old, against Jesus, and against the new Church. Throughout history, religious officials have often opposed movements of God.

Can we trust what visibly we cannot see and is not tangible, which defies logic and reason, the supernatural, the Holy Spirit? In times of uncertainty, in whom do we place our trust?  ”Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen, for by it the men of old gained approval. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible,” (Hebrews 11:1-3) so any movement of God has to come out of the “word of God” by “faith” because ”what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.”

Trusting the invisible Holy Spirit and the Word of God is how men of old gained God’s approval. There is no other option but to trust the invisible, the Rhema Word, the Holy Spirit.

“But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:23,24)

That is why the five fold is so relevant.

The apostolic cries out, “When He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.” (John 16:13)

The evangelistic spirit announces, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:5-8)

The teaching spirit cries for the Logos Word, ”For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”(Hebrews 4:12)

The prophetic spirit proclaims a living Word, ”For you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God.” (I Peter 1:23)

The Art Of Governing the Church

Why Should/Shouldn’t My Church Embrace Change? Part XXXX

Isaiah prophesied,  “For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6) Really, what form of government is resting on his shoulders? Church government? If so, What is that to look like?

The secular political world is all about power and control. Agreement is rare, compromise is common, fighting and squabbling the norm. Corruption hangs around the corner awaiting opportunity, and position and titles are important, yet all claim to be “public servants”.  Today’s church government is patterned after the secular, for men are given titles, positions called offices, and claim to be servants to their congregation. Some churches are congregational where members hold the power, other churches have elder boards, and still others have strong senior pastors with full authority. Since churches are institutions, they are governed by secular guidelines, their own bi-laws, and legal paperwork to remain tax-exempt. The first century church was not governed this way.

The first century Church was governed by consensus among believers as peers in Jesus Christ. Consensus does not mean 100% agreement nor majority rule where 49% still disagree. Consensus was when every believer was willing to lay down his personal agenda and lay down their lives to serve one another allowing the Holy Spirit to guide the Church.

The Holy Spirit led the first century Church into accepting” diversity by making all believers peers in Christ. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28) Today’s church can no longer segregate itself by sex, race, title, economic status, or denominations. It has to learn to “accept” one another, not be judgmental.

In the five fold, no one person governs, the whole body does by trusting the Holy Spirit and each other. The “government rests on His shoulders.” Ironically, the Holy Spirit is not above” believers in a pyramidal paradigm, but indwells each believer. Gods Spirit is among His people for a consensus from the heart. If Church leadership is linear, every believer serves beside his brethren as an equal peer. No one stands alone or above others. All are “to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.” (Ephesians 4:15-16) That is how the Church governs itself; through body ministry.

Headship does not mean being “over” others, but beside one another as peers. Even in marriage, Eve came from Adam’s side, not his head or foot. Figuratively, they are joined at the hip! I believe that it is God’s will for believers to be “suitable helpers” (Genesis 1:24) as a wife is to her husband in order to be “one flesh” in the Body of Christ. If you are willing to ”lay down our lives for the brethren” and serve one another, people will naturally follow you, making you a leader.

Paul did not serve and govern the first century church alone. He had Barnabas, Timothy, Silas, Mark, Pricilla & Aquila, Tychicus, Onesimus, Aristarchus, Luke, Demas, Nympha, Archippus, Epaphroditus, Apollos, and many others who stood by him. Church leadership should be pluralistic. Ruling or lording over others creates church politics. Ruling by serving one another as a peer, as a brother and sister in the Lord, brings life. Life creates an organism. Properly governing the Church through Christ-like relationships is the only way the church will restore itself from being an organization to again being an organism. That is why the 21^st century Church must address a new mindset of governing itself.

The Pyramid Verses Flat World Views

Why Should/Shouldn’t My Church Embrace Change? Part XXXVII

Since the pyramidal, C.E.O. leadership model is so entrenched in our capitalistic culture, almost every American institutional system is patterned after it. The masses are its foundation; its strong leaders dictate from its apex. President Harry Truman cemented this mentality politically when proclaiming “the buck stops here.” Economically, the minimum waged masses produce the product while the C.E.O. gleans its massive profits.  The American dream is to gain wealth, prestige, and power by rising to the top of the pyramid.

American education, which once sported spinster teachers in one-room schools, now supports a myriad of school administrators who dictate school policy that is also known for not embracing change very quickly. The students, the foundation of this pyramid, are lost under this crushing pyramidal system and mandatory test taking.

Doctors who once owned their “own practices”, did “home visits”, and carried their own little pharmacy in a black doctor’s bag, have been forced to join huge “Health Care Conglomerates” and become their employees. Even a greater pyramidal institution has developed through the Heal Care Insurance Industry and The Affordable Health Care Act, which you now must join by law.

The church has become another imbedded American Institution with the laity as its base supporting a professional leadership structure of pastors and priests.

Like their counterparts of the ‘60’s, the Millennials, today’s young adults, are challenging pyramidal structures through their Internet mentality. Their Facebook world requires you to be a “friend” in order to communicate. When “accepting” them as a friend, one becomes your peer, your equal. Your voice is as valid as theirs. Data and numbers are important to them, and the masses influence the Internet as the Wikipedia phenomena has exemplified.

The Millennial “unchurched” have trouble understanding the clergy/laity divide when they relate to each other as equal peers, have trouble with lectured sermons when they are use to a comment section to blogs on web sites, being told when to stand, sit, sing, financially give, and leave when they are learning to stand on their own. The Millennials leave with more questions than they get answers, and their voice is not validated. They just want to be accepted for who they are, but find church acceptance as being conditional. Millennials are looking for peers, not professionals.

The five fold model extends unconditional love and acceptance through grace; people who are committed and willing to lay down their lives for one another. Through the five fold they can find a way to be born again, nurtured in maturity, and accepted for their diversity.

As a believer in the faith, do I want to remain passive, in the protected safety of the status quo, institutionalized, pyramidal structures, or am I willing to accept and embrace change where my peers are my equals as I attempt to reach my generation for Jesus? The choice lies with each one of us, individually, and corporately as the Church.

The Five Fold Is Already In The Church!

Why Should/Shouldn’t My Church Embrace Change? Part XXXV

In the 1980’s and ‘90’s, my family was active in Lay Witness Missions through the United Methodist Church, a powerful lay ministry composed of pot-luck dinners, small group activities, while staying overnight in local parishioner’s homes. A lay coordinator would be assigned to invite a team of visiting missioners to come share their faith journeys. He would also help establish committees to involve the local parishioners in participating in the weekend.

The weekend featured several covered dish dinners, adult small group sessions, Youth activities, and a Children’s Ministry. In Friday night’s small group adult session, only three questions were posed: 1) What do you expect for your church this weekend? 2) What do want for yourself this weekend? and 3) Why did you come tonight? Some came for the food and fellowship. Some confessed they came because their spouses made them. The answers to these three questions were quite insightful.

Some wished to get closer to God, to grow in their faith, or to hear how the Lord was working in other’s lives. One wanted to see others get saved while another hoped for more Bible studies, prayer groups, and small groups to be established in the future. The need for the five fold was prevalent in all these groups: to win the lost, to nurture the saints, to study the Logos Word and transform it into the Rhema Word, to get closer to God, and to see the church as a whole unite and come alive.

Even though the weekend had a formal schedule, it still remained fluid. The Lay Witness Coordinator functioned as an apostle: he did not “control” the weekend, but counted on the Holy Spirit to lead it, monitoring the Holy Spirit’s activities through visiting missioners and in local parishioner’s lives. Flexibility was a key to the weekend’s success.

My wife and I were part of a 23 member team of Americans to participate in Lay Witness Mission in Johannesburg, Pretoria, and Capetown, South Africa in 1993, while under the watchful eye of local South Africans. They wrote to us what they learned about the experience, “There is safety in following the Holy Spirit.” Wow! They got it! The Holy Spirit was in charge, we are only vessels of service and obedience to His voice.

In every Lay Witness Weekend that I have participated, I have met a local believer with an evangelistic zeal. “You must be born again” was understood in every local church. There were believers with pastoral, shepherding hearts who wanted to see spiritual growth among their members. The desire for simplistic biblical truth was prevalent. Yearning for more intimate worship and drawing closer to the Lord was evident individually and corporately. The voices of the five fold were all present. The five fold was already embedded among members in a local church. Believers just needed to be equipped, encouraged, and released in them. As a local church yields to the leading of the Holy Spirit and to the building up of peer relationships in Jesus, the release of the five fold will become more evident. Often the holdback to releasing the five fold through the Priesthood of Believers is the structure. If structure prevents continual revival, then the church must face a metamorphosis, a transitional rebuilding of relationships while being open to new forms or structures.

The Accountability Cycle

Why Should/Shouldn’t My Church Embrace Change? Part XXIX

The five fold accountability circle forces each participant to serve one another while receive from one another. Because it can circulate, no one gifting is top dog, but any of the five may arise to lead when needed with the other four in a supportive role.  The giving and receiving from one another prevents believers from becoming passive and brings life back into the organism.

But the critics cry, “Who’s in charge? Where does the buck stop?" Being in charge to them means someone being “responsible” at the top of the pyramidal structure of leadership. That is not so with the five fold. In the five fold, trusting the “Spirit of Jesus Christ” is mandatory. The five fold will fail if any of the five doesn’t put their trust in the Holy Spirit, for He is in charge.

“Trusting one another” as peer believers in spite of our diversity is compulsory. Instead of arguing over differences, being defensive, becoming aggressively defiant to other Christian sects, the church needs to extend grace, mercy, trust, and acceptance to one another as peers, equals, needed parts of the Body.

In this circle of faith, if you can’t trust your spiritual brother/sister in Christ to your lift or right or across the table, who can you trust? Being one in Jesus as peers is the only way to create unity.

When it comes to leadership, how does this wheel of service work? Isn’t the apostle to be “at the top” as the “overseer”? No! The being an apostle is not a position, title, or an office; no one is “above” the other. The apostle IS NOT an administrator, a management consultant, a C.E.O., a President, or a Chairman of the Board. He is just a peer to other believers who just so happens to have the passion, vision, and point of view to see the big picture of the Church as a whole and the knowledge of its parts and how they work together.  Anyone of the five could “lead” according to how their passion, gifting, or point of view addresses a need or situation that the five together are facing. When another person feels his passion is needed, the wheel can rotate so that they take the lead and the others follow supplementing his work. It doesn’t matter what direction the wheel rotates, so any of the five can rise to lead with the others giving support to meet the current need of the group.

The Shepherd Connection

Why Should/Shouldn’t My Church Embrace Change? Part XXVII

Let’s examine how the shepherd can relate to the evangelist, teacher, prophet, and apostle to bring maturity to individual Christian growth and unity to the Body of Christ. Strong relationships are reciprocal, so lets see what the shepherd can give to the others and receive from them and why they need each other.

Shepherd/Teacher: The shepherd and teacher can work hand in hand because their focus is on “maturing” the saint into the image of being a  godly, Christ-like person. This faith journey must be grounded in the Logos Word, the Bible, yet lived out in practical everyday life as a living Rhema Word. Who better to walk out this new life with a shepherd than a teacher? Since “all things are new” when being born again, a teacher is necessary to instill Biblical principals as a foundation. A convert who has a shepherd on one side and a teacher on the other walking with him is a fortunate person. The five fold can offer that!

Shepherd/Prophet: When facing the challenges of everyday life, one can lose focus and be distracted. The shepherd works daily with a a new convert’s spiritual walk, but the prophet keeps one’s focus on God, his Son, Jesus, and through the Holy Spirit. The shepherd teaches one to walk with God; the prophet teaches one to hear from God through the voice of the Holy Spirit. The more righteous the walk, the more obedience to the voice is required, the more mature a Christian becomes into the image of Jesus. The shepherd and prophet need one another in their own practical daily walks and spiritual journeys.

Shepherd/Apostle: Even with all the nurturing that you have received, did you ever ask how you “fit” into the picture of your local church or the Church as a whole? As the shepherd works with your development toward becoming a “mature” believer in Jesus, the apostle specializes in networking the pieces together, seeing over what the Holy Spirit is doing in each believer’s personal life and the life of the Church as a whole. As the convert grows, the apostle “sees over” the walk he had with his shepherd and networks him with other teachers and prophets. The apostle doesn’t control the sheep nor tells the shepherd what to do, but he “serves” them to assure the growth of the sheep and the spiritual health of the shepherd.

The Evangelist Connection

Why Should/Shouldn’t My Church Embrace Change? Part XXVI

Let’s examine how the evangelist can relate to the shepherd, teacher, prophet, and apostle to bring maturity to individual Christian growth and unity to the Body of Christ. Strong relationships are reciprocal, so lets see what the evangelist can give to the others and receive from them and why they need each other.

Evangelist/Shepherd: An evangelist’s strength is in birthing. His passion is for the lost to find their way into the kingdom of God. Nurturing and caring for new converts is his weakness because his passion drives him toward winning the lost. Every evangelist needs a shepherd beside him whose strength is to nurture, guide, care, and “parent” these new converts in their faith journey. Since the sheep may get sick, wonder off, or even die, it is mandatory for the shepherd to be available 24/7 for his sheep. Personally, an evangelist needs a shepherd to speak advice into their own personal life to temper their zeal. The shepherd, on the other hand, needs the evangelist’s zeal to motivate his own life.

Evangelist/Teacher: An evangelist needs a teacher to ground his personal ministry in the Logos Word, the Bible. If it isn’t scriptural, it’s questionable. Also the teacher can make the Logos Word real by making it a Rhema living Word, applicable to everyday life, not just theological. This is to prevent new believers from becoming Pharisees, followers of institutionalized, structural, lifeless religion. Jesus was severely critical of Pharisees. A teacher needs an evangelist to keep his faith fresh, active, and alive. An evangelist needs a teacher to walk with him through his daily faith journey. Their passions are necessary to keep a believer in Jesus a living organism.

Evangelist/Prophet: To prevent legalism, the evangelist needs a prophet whose passion is to draw near to God. Rather than relying on programs and events, the evangelist needs to rely on the Holy Spirit to produce creative, relevant ways to share the gospel to win the lost. Personal prophecy can be an effective evangelistic tool as Jesus demonstrated with the Samaritan woman at the well. Words of wisdom and knowledge can be beneficial to winning the lost.  Since the evangelist majors in birthing, who better to work with than a prophet who majors in the spiritual. Prophetic evangelism could revolutionize the way the Church does ministry.

Evangelist/Apostle: An evangelist has a narrow view of seeing only a lost and dying world that need Jesus. An apostle sees the big picture, the Church as a whole. The apostle sees birthing as only the beginning of a process towards maturity in Jesus, so he directs new converts to the right brothers or sisters to be nurtured, cared, taught, and spiritually guided. An apostle needs an evangelist to birth vision and projects the group as a whole will develop.

King Authur, Camelot, and the Five Fold

Why Should/Shouldn’t My Church Embrace Change? Part XXV

The best way for me to understand the interaction of the five fold is to be a romanticist and travel back to the days of King Arthur and his round table in Camelot. When sitting around the round tables, all the knights were considered as equal, even to Arthur, when united. As long as they were willing to die for one another they remained united and stood strong. As soon as one knight felt strong enough to stand alone and oppose the others, the coalition would crumble into disarray.

That is also the picture of the Church historically who claims to be one body but has had a myriad of disapproving knights who have opposed the rest, bringing disarray and division to the Church. If there is such diversity and strong will among its ranks, how is the Church to keep the bond of peace and its commitment toward one another?

The Five Fold Round Table: ”For the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ…..  from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. (Ephesians 4:12,13,16) The purpose of the five fold is to birth, build, and release a mature man in the image of Christ while uniting the Church. It addresses both individual and the corporate growth of the Church. In the upcoming blogs we will examine how the five can function relationally in practical ways, by supporting, encouraging, and releasing their passions through service to one another while receiving them reciprocally. This is the plan that can effectively draw the five fold into one.

How The Five Fold Works Relationally

Why Should/Shouldn’t My Church Embrace Change? Part XXIII 

If the five fold is to be a viable option for church structure, the Church will have to be a fluid, living organism for the Priesthood of Believers. The five fold must be viewed as passions, desires, and points of view by common believers in Jesus. Formal structures are not important; the building up and maintaining of peer relationships in Jesus is. If you pattern building a church solely on the blueprint of a five fold structure, it will fail, but if it is built upon the strength of five fold’s diverse passions who support, encourage, and stand by each other by willing laying down their lives for one another, the five fold will be an effective, powerful force of transformation unlike the Church has seen since the first century. Let’s examine each of the five passions, desires, and points of view.

Evangelist: An evangelist, who carries the weight of a sin depraved, dying world who needs Jesus, majors in “birthing”. They seek and serve to save anyone who doesn’t have a personal relationship with Jesus. Often new converts exhibit evangelistic zeal because of their newly found joy and peace in Jesus and want others to experience it.

Pastoral/Shepherd: The shepherd, who majors in nurturing and care, loves to do what Jesus told Peter to do, “Feed my sheep!” (John 21:17) Just like an evangelist wants to hang out with the lost, shepherds love to hang out with the sheep. They eat, sleep, walk, and talk to their sheep giving them guidance, directions, and keep them spiritually healthy to grow. They are people persons who think of others before themselves. There is no formula to be a good shepherd; all one needs is to care, love the unloved, hug the unhugable, accept the rejected, and invite the outcast.

Teacher: When we think of a Christian teacher, we think of a Bible scholar, but that is our Western mindset. The Jewish mindset is the Lamad method of “experiencing” what you learn from the heart, not the mind. Jesus taught the Lamad by walking with his twelve disciples teaching them how to “experience” the kingdom of God. That is why he taught in parables. Five fold teacher use both the academic and experiential approaches.

Prophet: A prophet’s desire is draw near to God, so listening to and being obedient to the voice of the Holy Spirit is central. He longs to be in the flow of the Holy Spirit in whom he has put his trust. He cherishes making the Logos, written, Word the Rhema, living, Word. The Word without spiritual life becomes legalistic, bringing bondage. Jesus gave his “life” in order to release the “spirit life” in man from any bondage.

Apostle:  An apostle majors in networking believers and “seeing over” what the Holy Spirit is already doing. Unlike hierarchal leadership, a believer with an apostolic passion is never “above” those he “serves”, but next to them as equal peers in Jesus. He is to never “lord over them,” but kneel in service by washing their feet. Jesus did this as an example for us. A believer with an apostolic point of view never controls anyone because he is never ‘in control”, the Holy Spirit is! He just “serves” as a shepherd to the Church!

In all five of these giftings, the Holy Spirit must be in control, for He does the work through us; that is what is unique about the five-fold.

Purpose & Mission of Five Fold: For Unity In The Body Of Christ

Why Should/Shouldn’t My Church Embrace Change? Part XXII

To understand the five fold relationally, one must understand its purpose and mission. Is the five fold to be offices to govern the church or are they passions desires and points of view of believers in Jesus? Let’s continue to look at their purpose and mission.

For Corporate Unity in the Body of Christ

                  “…..Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.” (Ephesians 4:16)

The five fold is not only for individual maturity in Christ, but also corporate maturity as a Church, preparing itself as a Bride for its groom, Jesus! The “cocoon” stage of the Church’s transformation is its preparation as a Bride. Ephesians 5:27 states, “That He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. Paul is addressing marriage in this passage, but in verse 32 he clarifies his real intentions, ”This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.”

Over the centuries, as the Church has been transformed from an organism to an organization, it has become tarnished and wrinkled to the point of almost being unrecognizable between her and the rest of the institutional world. It is time to bring life back into her, transform her back into an organism, washing the stains through His shed blood and power of the Holy Spirit to bring back its whiteness and purity. Because of the heat of persecution and transformation that will iron out the wrinkles, a cocoon stage is warranted. When the Groom, Jesus, returns for his Bride, the Church, she will be alive, beautiful, holy, and blameless! Wow, that’s faith, for it is hard to picture that through my natural eyes, but God sees it through the supernatural! That is Godly vision!

Godly vision for us may come through the five fold. God’s evangelistic vision sees the Bride “reborn” into a new image without “spot or wrinkle” but “holy and blameless.” God’s shepherding vision is “presenting to Himself the church in all her glory” by nurturing and caring for her. Jesus did not leave her as an orphan, but sent the Holy Spirit to her. He then ascended, giving “gifts to men” by forming them into “apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers to nurture His Bride. God’s teaching vision gave life back into the Church by making the Logos, written, Word a Rhema, living, Word, so that the church would be an organism again.  God’s prophetic vision allows the Church to see itself as He does, a Bride without “spot or wrinkle”. Finally, God’s apostolic vision allows the Church to see the “Big Picture”, God’s Eternal Purpose, the reason and purpose for God to created mankind “in Our image, according to Our likeness”, and God’s desire to restore a fallen man and commune with him. If God can restore a fallen man, He is also capable of restoring a fallen Church!

Prophets and Apostles: Five Fold As Passions, Desires, & Points of View

Why Should/Shouldn’t My Church Embrace Change? Part XIX

What is a prophetic passion and point of view? Prophets desire to draw near to God! Old Testament priests were created so man could draw near to God. Today, because the Temple’s veil being rent at Jesus’ death, any member of the Priesthood of believers may draw near to God at any time at any place!

A prophet also desires to hear the voice of the Spirit. Since every believer in Jesus has that capability, the challenge lies in being obedient to what one hears. The Holy Spirit constantly spoke in the book of Acts when the Church was an organism, but obedience is required. Ananias and Sapphira sold a parcel of land but fell dead after lying to an apostle. Their offense? “Why is it that you have agreed together to put the Spirit of the Lord to the test? (Acts 5:9) The five fold prophet knows not to toy with the Holy Spirit, but be obedient.

The desire to draw all men to God can be a bond between a prophet and an evangelist. Jesus used the prophetic to draw the Samaritan woman to the living water he offers. People have criticized the prophet for being too heavenly minded to be any earthly good. Being heavenly minded is their passion; the no earthly good may be their weakness, so they need a shepherd or teacher by their side.

What is the apostle’s passion? Seeing the big picture of the Church as a whole. He loves networking the other four passions to bring unity and Christian maturity. Being an apostle has nothing to do with administration or governing people. It has to do with serving people through relationships with one another; it is the ebb and flow of the Holy Spirit.

Even an ordinary mother can qualify as an apostle if she sees the big picture and experiences all five passions and point of view in her life. She has experienced birthing, has nurtured and cared for her family, has taught her children, wants every family member to draw nearer to God, and often sees the big picture of the family as a whole while networking family members to serve each other rather than bickering and fighting. What my mom? Yes!

The institutional church has apposed women in leadership over men because they look at it hierarchally, as a question of authority. The five fold is not about position or structure; its about relationship. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise. (Galatians 3:28-29)” Relationally, all are members of the Priesthood of Believers, equal peers. If a mother has experienced making her family a living organism, why wouldn’t she be able to do that with her Church family?

A five fold apostle can relate to his peers since he/she has also experienced the five passions in his/her past. He/She understands the different points of view through the lens of their passions, and can network the five together. He/she allows one to lead while the other four passions support and encourage that leader by serving through their own personal passion while laying down their life for one another. The apostle knows about networking because it is all about relationships.

Instead of isolation among the five diverse passions in the church which brought division, destruction, and devastation, the apostolic believer can bring his diverse brothers/sisters together to function in unity as a body, as a Bride, as a Priesthood, as a Church. It is all about relationships; all about trusting one another; all about trusting the Holy Spirit; and all about laying down your life relationally for each other.