Well the answer to the above question is “Only by the grace of God”. Not only is this answer true because it’s God’s grace that calls us, equips us and put us where he wants us to be, but its also true because we have made such a mess of church that its a flippin’ miracle that we have worked at all. Few, if any churches have had access to the ministries of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers and even if they had those ministries available, our understanding of the those roles has been faulty and often confused with the role of elders. If we also add in the necessary legal constraints of trustees or denominational structures and then mix all of that up with our erroneous view of ekklesia and of God’s house, then its no wonder we are in a mess. If you are struggling to see this let me give you a picture.
I might see in a cook book a picture of a lovely cake so I decide to make it. The recipe says take some ‘flour’, but I read that as anything that sounds similar so I take some ‘flower’. It then says add ‘currants’ so I pass electricity through the flower. Of course it then tells me to add nuts, well you know where I am going now, I add a hand full of metal nuts. The recipe then tells me to cook on a low heat for one hour so I find an oven that is near the floor and, well you get the picture. What comes out won’t look or taste anything like the recipe, much like most of my usual attempts at baking cakes!
When I was visiting Bethel in Redding they talked about what the church is like if its led by a single ministry gift like a pastor or a prophet without the influence of the other Ephesians 4 giftings.
A church with just a pastor. If a church is led by a pastor alone then it is focussed on the needs of its own people. They feel safe and cared for and the cry of the church is “We meet your needs”. Of course they don’t meet all of the needs like the need to be taught, challenged, envisioned etc. Usually these churches just grow old together.
A church with just a teacher. Well the good news is the teacher focusses on the Bible, but they are inclined to say “You can be right and agree with me or be deceived”. Because a teacher is occupied with getting it right they can often give off the impression that everyone else is wrong. (Not a great ministry to encourage unity) The final outcome for this kind of church is split after split until nothing is left.
A church with just an evangelist. This anointing understands that the main ministry on earth is about winning the lost. So this church is totally geared up for seeing salvation. It will have an enormous front door and an even bigger back door as people leave because, at best they become cogs in the machine, or at worst they are just notches on the leaders bible. Incidentally I came back from that US trip and recounted these thoughts to a group of full time Christian leaders which included an evangelist. When I said that all five ministry gifts are needed for a balanced team, he immediately argued that seeing the lost saved was the most important ministry of the whole church. Case proved I believe. The outcome for this church is that it will eventually leak people who are worn out or keep people who feel guilty and worn out.
All three of the above interpret church life from the culture around them and so when only these ministries are part of a churches leadership, the church reflects the culture it is in, meaning that you get a natural expression of the supernatural.
A church with just a prophet. Well I gave an illustration of this earlier when I spoke of my friend in Canada. The anointing focusses on the activity of the spiritual realm. They see the supernatural and draw everyones attention to the unseen world. People get stirred up as the prophet puts people into places that he sees God showing him, but these post and opportunities are based on facts that can’t be naturally weighed and so people feel insecure or manipulated and usually remove the prophet or the church doesn’t last.
A church with just an apostle. The apostle is entirely focussed on the blueprint from heaven. As a master builder he knows the way it should be and wants to see it come on earth. If the apostle is the key leader without the other ministries it’s very exciting for a while, but people don’t feel cared for or taught. These kind of churches tend to hold lots of conferences and big events which cause a superficial fizz. People come to these ministries for the events, but go somewhere else for their church.
Today we have pastors, teachers and evangelists in leadership, but we have very few apostles and prophets based in city churches and so we have learned to build church with a focus on earth and not on heaven.
Someone once said that:
'Ministry is the thing God gives us to do to keep us occupied whilst he gets on with the real work.'
The longer I have been in full time Christian service the more true that seems to be. Even though we have spent two thousand years getting church wrong, God has been wonderfully faithful to his plans and purposes. Perhaps some might think that therefore, all of my ramblings will only cause us to occupy ourselves with something else while God brings about the culmination of his creation. However, I don’t believe that God would give us scriptural designs for his ekklesia and not see it built. I want to be part of the church which Jesus is building, everything else is shifting sand.
The flippin’ Reformation.
Historians tell us that in the 16th century the church went through a reformation and a counter reformation. But did it? Surely if something reforms it re forms. What happened as a result of men like Calvin, Luther, Zwingli and their Catholic counter parts wasn't reformation. It actually began the process of blowing the church apart into tiny pieces which could never function as the ekklesia Jesus is building. Its time for a real reforming of the church. The question is, are we going to be the generation like that of Martin Luther that is prepared to obey scripture and set about a reformation in our life time?
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