2013: Sink or Swim . . . Together!

Statistics may tell us many things, but they do not always tell us the truth. God’s redemptive action in history always trumps statistics. The ten spies reported the facts. God had  a higher reality.

However, to deny trends or to deny what statistics indicate is like playing in the band while the Titanic is sinking. Denial of the obvious is a particularly unique form of spiritual blindness. All the false prophets promised Israel that things were not that bad, and that their captivity wouldn’t last long. Their message found willing listeners. They were wrong.

All indicators are that the church in the West is in decline, not only numerically but also in substance and influence. Some might argue that if we are talking about “institutional” forms of “Christendom”–the nineteen or seventeen hundred-year-old counterfeit of Jesus’s kingdom–”good riddance” might be an appropriate response. Alas, the problem is unrelated to the structure of our gatherings, the quality of our theology, or the effectiveness of our practices, but rather the condition of our hearts.
Every time I point out a negative fact or trend, regarding our true state, I am met with: “but our church is not like that,”  “you shouldn’t criticize the church,” “there’s no such thing as a perfect church,” “we are the pure remnant,” “you should come and hear my pastor,” and other canards of denial. Funny, how a collection of wonderful churches, full of wonderful people, doing wonderful things for Jesus, results in overall spiritual and societal decline. Of course, MY church is wonderful,  the “other guy’s” church has problems.

Shiloh was a place of many wonderful interactions between God and Israel. However, it was reduced to a pile of rocks and overgrown vegetation when the substance of the life of God was lost in favor of much talk about God. External conformity to God’s demands without corresponding internal transformation is the DNA of decline.
A fire unattended and unfueled inevitably goes out. There’s a reason Paul exhorted Timothy to “fan the flame” of his faith: it’s prone to going out! An irrelevant pile of ashes of historical glory provides neither heat nor light. Real Christianity is always present. It’s hot. It’s alive. Anyone who actually lives like Jesus is really alive from the dead, will be a threat to people (and the institutions to which they belong) who have a philosophy of resurrection based on the Bible. We can handle a baby in a manger or a dead man on a cross. A baby and a dead man are not threats to how we want to do “our religion.” Let anyone actually live out of His resurrection life, well, that won’t be tolerated.  It’s a bush that doesn’t burn, and a fire that needs no fuel. That will not be allowed. It’s unmanageable.

Occasional, isolated, and cheerful exceptions at a local level, do not negate the overall trend in the West.  As leaders, we need to sound a clear alarm. The Church Universal, the Bride of Christ, is an eternal, unstoppable force. God’s redemptive reach is uniquely effective when impossibility and brokenness produce a cry for deliverance within hearts humbled by unpleasant circumstances. God’s hold on the future, and His determination for His bride, are not in question. Our participation with Him in it, is another matter.

Any local expression, regardless of how “wonderful our pastor” is or how “dynamic our worship team” is or “how relational we are,”  is not guaranteed existence and continuity: Ephesus–gone; Thessalonica–gone; Sardis–gone; churches in North Africa–gone; Europe–secularized, etc. You and I, and our “wonderful assemblies”  are not immune any more than our predecessors. When the talk of God exceeds the life of God, we are on the pathway to extinction, not withstanding our pious rhetoric and prayer for “revival.” God is not interested in reviving Bible philosophy clubs that happen to have a great lecture, great music, and a nice meal once or twice a week.

You can have a lovely private stateroom on a cruise liner, but if there’s a hole in the hull, the pleasantries of your stateroom will not save you from going down with the ship. Any of our local situations might be quite positive. However we will sink or float together in this matter. There is ONE Body. Daniel went into captivity with Israel. Jeremiah was not spared the rigors of Israel’s “divine chastisement” at the hands of a Babylonian invader.

Incarnational living in Christ does not exempt any of us from the travails of the culture we may worship or live in.  Rather, we will be the representative agents of God as we go into captivity together. God will “seed” us among the captives. The first Son was seeded into earth’s darkness and captivity, and all subsequent sons and daughters will be also.

Let each of us, in our assigned spheres of life and ministry, be sober and more resolute than we have ever been. Let’s burn. Let’s be hot. Let’s be light. Let’s remember that the ultimate act of spiritual warfare is not prophetic intercession or a spiritual warfare conference. It is a converted/transformed, soul who lives a transformed vibrant life in right relationship with God, one another, and humanity.
I pray God give each of us divine energy for every day that we have breath, that our lives may count for something other than American creature comforts and perpetuation of a way of life that may be filled with material blessings, but does not reflect Jesus’s kingdom interests.

In it together with you to the end . . .

Copyright 2012,  Dr. Stephen R. Crosby

http://www.swordofthekingdom.com.
Permission is granted to copy, forward, or distribute this article for non-commercial use only, as long as this copyright byline, in totality, is maintained in all duplications, copies, and link references.  For reprint permission for any commercial use, in any form of media, please contact stephcros9@aol.com.

Transformational Leadership

Kriston Couchey talks about transformational leadership.

Strategy and Tactics in the Kingdom

I was asked by a friend to develop an outline for strategic and tactical operations that could be used for the kingdom of God. The best way I could find to approach the subject was to draw on my experiences as a firefighter - paramedic. I’d like to explain the concepts we use in the fire service regarding strategies and tactics and then draw some analogies on how they apply to the kingdom.

Without going into great detail about the history of fire ground operations, let me briefly explain why formal protocols were developed to deal with fire ground operations.

Fire agencies did an exhaustive review of line of duty deaths and disabilities. In looking at them, they saw some dangerous patterns emerge. A major one was the fact that firefighters who operated on their own or became involved in tasks not assigned to them became victims of the incidents they responded to.

Firefighters are passionate people who respond when they see a need. It gives us the ability to do the crazy things others won’t. But our passionate nature can drive us to do things impulsively. And some of those impulsive behaviors get us in trouble.

Fire ground operations generally fall into two categories. They are:
1) Things we want to accomplish. These are referred to as strategies.
2) Actions we can take. These are referred to as tactics.

The things we want to accomplish are usually stated as strategic goals and objectives. If we want to put out a structure fire within 15 minutes, without the loss of life or property, we can state that as our main goal. Once the main goal is stated, everything that follows must support that goal. Anything proposed which doesn’t support the goal is rejected. Defining goals helps focus the efforts on what is most effective and prevents us from doing things that are distractions. Once the goal is established, the next step is to define the objectives we’ll use to achieve the goal.

Objectives are strategies we can employ which support and help accomplish the goal. If our goal is to put out a structure fire without the loss of life or property, our objectives might look something like this:

1) Establish a water supply
2) Perform a search of the property and remove occupants
3) Extinguish the fire
4) Verify that the fire hasn’t spread to other locations
5) Protect, remove and secure personal property

Once our objectives have been defined, we can assign teams to do certain tasks. If the teams perform the tasks correctly, they will accomplish the objectives. When all the objectives are met, we will have achieved the goal.


Teams perform tasks >> Tasks accomplish objectives>> Objectives accomplish the goal

Firefighters involved in fire ground activities almost never work alone. In recent years, firefighter safety has been taken more seriously, resulting in the development of a system requiring a team of at least two people for most of the things we do. Two firefighters assigned the same task are called a team or task force.

A team may be assigned to take pike poles into a room and pull down the ceiling after the hose teams have put out the fire in that room. (This is a common practice, which enables us to inspect the void spaces between floors to make sure the fire hasn’t spread to hidden areas)

Once assigned to this task, the team is authorized to engage only in this activity until it is completed or they are assigned a different task by the incident commander. While it may be tempting to do other things as they see needs that appear to require immediate attention, firefighters must focus on their task and avoid being distracted. Allow me to illustrate:

A team assigned to pull ceiling hears what sounds like a trapped firefighter nearby. Perceiving an immediate need, they drop their pike poles and begin searching for the trapped firefighter. Not being able to see well, they follow the sounds which become faint and then disappear completely. The firefighters are not aware that the trapped firefighter was rescued by the RIT (Rapid Intervention Team) that was sent to find him. But now, the team of would-be rescuers are themselves, lost somewhere in the building. Not only that, but the fire has now spread through the ceiling, because they abandoned their assignment of pulling ceiling. As the fire spreads, hose teams are sent back in to try to put out the fire and the RIT is sent in again to locate them, putting more people at risk.

This example is an all too common reality. The safety of those involved and the success of the mission can be completely compromised by the actions of just one or two members who can’t resist the urge to step outside of their assigned tasks. When we engage in activities outside our assigned task, it's called freelancing.

Freelancing causes death and disability because the individuals doing it are involved in dangerous activities, often without a partner and usually, without anyone knowing where they are or what they’re doing. Once the freelancer finds trouble, getting them help is a huge problem. If they run out of air or become trapped, they can die before a rescue team finds them.

In an effort to reduce death and disability and to maximize efficiency, fire training agencies developed a system of controlling what happens on the fire ground. This system is called the Incident Command System (ICS). Knowing the importance of assigning tasks and limiting freelancing, the ICS system assigns a position and task to everyone on scene, which (if followed) provides a safe, consistent flow of operation. A position describes who you are, like a commander, support officer, or firefighter. A task is what you do while occupying that position. Here are just a few of the positions and tasks you might find in the ICS system:

1) An individual assigned to the task of coordinating the overall operation and communicating clearly the goals and objectives to all team members. This person's position is the incident commander (IC).
2) An individual assigned the task of seeing to the safety of all team members. Their only task is to observe the teams in operation and correct any unsafe activity. This person's position is the incident safety officer (ISO)
3) An individual assigned to oversee the medical needs of all team members. They also coordinate the actions of the medical team. This person's position is the medical officer.
4) An individual who communicates with the press about the incident. This person is the public information officer (PIO)
5) Rapid Intervention Team (RIT) this team is on stand by for the purpose of rescuing any team members who get in trouble.

This isn’t a complete list, but it illustrates a few of the different functions (tasks) and positions that team members might be assigned to. Depending on the type of operation, other positions can be added and if the team is small, one person might fill several roles. The beauty of the ICS system is that it can be expanded almost infinitely or adapted to a small operation.

Application In The Kingdom
In conducting kingdom operations, we might consider using some of these concepts to operate with greater safety and success in the things we do.

Let’s address one objection first; many of us have no interest in anything pertaining to the kingdom that appears structured or has levels of authority among believers. We’ve been burned already by people on power trips and something like this would be hard to swallow.

Unlike the formal structure of the fire service, which has the threat of disciplinary action for those who don’t follow orders, the application in the kingdom carries no such threat. We don’t appoint chiefs and promote people to captain or lieutenant in the kingdom. Newbies don’t wear yellow helmets signifying their inexperience. Although the denominational church has a love affair with hierarchies of power, in the kingdom, we are equals. No one Lords themselves over another if they are in obedience to the instruction of Christ.

When we come together on a mission, we must have one thing in common. We must agree on who our King is and know that we take orders only from Him. We should also seek to be with men and women of the same heart and mind concerning the kingdom and the missions we accept. That common bond of love for the king and trust in His leadership of the team allows us to rest in His guidance and protection of us. If we’re confident in Him and in the team He has assembled, we have nothing to fear in carrying out our tasks or allowing others to carry out theirs.

Let’s consider some of the benefits of working on a mission that uses an approach to accomplishing goals, strategically.

Consider whether you’ve ever gone on a mission where the goals and objectives became clouded and it wasn’t clear to some members why they were there in the first place or what their task was. These situations lead to confusion, mistrust and ultimately a breakdown of the team and a failed mission. If we were to have a member whose task was to communicate these things clearly then fear, doubt, confusion and disagreement would be minimized.

Consider whether you’ve ever had an assignment go poorly or fail because team members became severely sick and all the efforts turned toward keeping them alive, instead of accomplishing the goal. If a team trained and equipped in divine healing were assigned to every mission, you’d know in advance how that problem would be handled if it were to come up, which would increase the confidence of all team members in their ability to handle the enemy’s harassment and complete the mission.

Consider whether you’ve ever been blindsided by an enemy presence that no one saw in advance and the mission was cancelled because you didn’t have the resources to handle the opposition. Now consider what might happen if a team were employed whose task was to spy out the enemy and report back to the team before the mission began and to continually assess and report on what the enemy is doing during the mission. How much more confidence would you have if this team were a part of every mission?

Adapting this model for the kingdom is really just a mater of deciding on a goal (What has God asked you to do?) Define the objectives (What things must be accomplished to achieve the goal?) And once the team is gathered, discuss the particulars of who does what and when. Once a plan is agreed upon, it becomes the blueprint for the mission.

If we were to use some of the elements and safeguards used by the fire service, which have been proven to reduce loss of life, we might create an environment where we’d succeed more than we fail and where no one’s safety would be jeopardized.

Viewing The Shift

By Ron McGatlin

The goal of the ministry of the church.

The primary goal is not a bigger group, more activities or better services, it is not even benevolent acts, nor greater prosperity, and not even more and better evangelism, neither is it healing or emotional healing and deliverance. All of these and more are the results of the goal of the "ekklesia" (assembly of called out ones). The goal is Christ formed by the Holy Spirit in a people becoming His character and His nature in the world producing the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

This is the work of the Holy Spirit in the humble and not a work of man's prideful efforts. The Holy Spirit brings the life of Christ within replacing our dead self-life. It is Christ being formed within by the same Spirit that raised Christ Jesus from the dead.

Romans 8:11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

The major fruit of the Spirit flowing from the Christ within is love. Unconditional love flowing from a pure heart leads to all the other fruits of the Spirit including joy, peace and faith to name a few. (Galatians 5:22:KJV)

The love of Christ flowing from a pure heart is the most powerful world changing force. Fear, pride, lust, greed, envy, and every evil work can be overpowered by love from a pure hearted ekklesia touching and changing our household and those who abide within then spilling out to the world.

Paul spoke clearly the goal of ministry to Timothy.

1 Timothy 1:5 NIV: The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

The Church is moving to embrace the goal expressed in the early church.

For a number of years the prophets have proclaimed a coming paradigm shift and the return of functioning apostles to help lead toward the new landscape. Many in the past have also added that they had no clear picture of what the new landscape of church would look like.

Now that the shift is in process and the new landscape is coming into view many are extremely surprised and even astonished. Some doubt that it is God doing the shifting. In reality we are all in a state of transition and are at different places in the journey of transition. And some have not yet taken the first step toward following this movement of the cloud and pillar of fire.

Some key words of this season are: intimacy with God, Father's love, "Christ in you", Holy Spirit saturation, soaking, God's manifest presence, transformation, reformation, church without walls and more. Relationship is a major concept of the shift - first intimate relationship with God and then with one another. The love and gifts flowing through relationship are becoming the primary structure replacing institutional structure.

Without brokenness leading to real repentance and real humility it is impossible to relate to God intimately. Intimacy with God is primary. Without intimately relating with God through the Holy Spirit it is not possible to see what is shifting and how it will look. To begin to view some light on the shift it is absolutely necessary to get in close contact with the Holy Spirit and get out of the mind set that our particular flavor of religious system or structure is the final destination. The Spirit must reveal to us that our "system" is NOT the church. We do not go to the church nor join the church. We are added to the church and we are the church. The church is the "ekklesia" (assembly of called out ones). Most every Bible teacher has taught about the priesthood of the believer but it has not really been fully practiced in the past. The "clergy/laity" system made it impossible for the full reality of the priesthood of the believer to come forth.

The church is NOT passing away - the systems are passing away.

In the confusion of the transition some think that anarchy and rebellion are coming against the church and attempting to throw off the leadership of apostle, prophet, evangelist, shepherd and teacher. If there are any such people out there I personally have not come into contact with them and they are definitely wrong. Let me assure you that the new paradigm will bring forth many times more gifted leaders than we ever had in the passing systems. The Holy Spirit will have freedom to bring forth multitudes of gifted men and women who have in the passing systems been relegated to pew sitting, or limited jobs within the system.

In recent decades many have become discouraged and have left religious systems in search of more reality of God. Often these pilgrims have spent years in a wilderness type experiences. Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness before joining with others to fulfill his purposes. Moses spent 40 years in the desert before joining with others and moving toward the fulfillment of His life ministry. Paul also endured a wilderness season. Many scattered wilderness dwellers who had left the old are beginning to re connect and find their place in the ekklesia. For the most part they never wanted to leave God but had to leave the life limiting traditional clergy/laity structure. It is not the way of God to remain isolated from the rest of the body forever though the wilderness experience may have served a purpose and seasons of separation alone with God are often significantly used of God.

We are now coming to understand the difference between leadership and headship.

There is one head of the ekklesia. There are no people to stand as head over the ekklesia or to represent the head to the mature believers. The head is Christ Jesus flowing through the Holy Spirit and living in all his people.

Then you ask, what is leadership?

Leadership implies being in front of a moving group that is following. It simply means those further down the road. They are all on the same road. The mature lead the immature until they are matured and then they lead other immature in turn. Spiritual maturity is being able to clearly hear God and then being able to fully obey. If we are childish and yet have a self-life - if we are plagued by unhealed inner wounds and inner needs that drive us, we will not clearly hear God and will lack the ability to fully obey or carry out the instruction or direction from God.

Another word for mature is elder. Now, we need to lose our understanding of an elder from the passing system of church offices. We also need to lose our understanding of apostles, prophets, evangelist, pastor and teachers as church system offices. Elders lead by example training and assisting the immature. They shepherd and oversee. They allow the maturing disciples to watch them and their lives. Then the elders release the maturing disciples to do the work while they watch. Then they leave them doing the work and relate to the mature ones no longer as sons or daughters but as grown brothers and sisters who are themselves now mature or elder.

The servant gifts of apostle, prophet, evangelist, shepherd and teacher are already in the people while they were yet immature but cannot flow out to others until they are mature (elder). Therefore elders may be by their gifting apostles, prophets, evangelist, shepherds or teachers. The practical reality of the masses flowing and exercising their spiritual gifts greatly multiplies the leadership of the ekklesia. This greatly increases the discipleship and evangelism of the Body.

All this takes place in a multitude of generic family style groups and public gatherings where Christ in the people by the Holy Spirit connects with the manifest presence of Christ from the throne by the Holy Spirit and the true Head is joined to the Body.

This living Body of believers released to function as priests and kings will provide millions more leaders to lead the immature in multitudes of local groups and to flow from group to group bringing the gifts God has given them.

The Holy Spirit will guide everyone who can hear and obey.

Those who cannot yet hear and obey will be led and trained by elders who are matured through much affliction, humbled and purified by the love of God experience, to the point that they can clearly hear and obey. This is God's original design to bring forth the Body and Bride of Christ into the world. Christ being formed in many bodies networked together by the Holy Spirit as the one Body of Christ. It is Christ in you that is the hope of glory and the method for the kingdom of God to function on earth as it is in heaven.

Be careful not to be misled.

It can be easy to be mislead by the fierce reactions of those who are not yet understanding the shift and are fearful of the loss of the systems that have served us for so long. Also do not be mislead by those who would attempt to hijack the developing movement with a repackaging of the passing system practices with new labels.

The shift is not all about how or where groups come together. You can have the old system traditional church in a house or at work and simply continue the traditions of men in a different venue. Or you can have a Christ led first century style assembly in a house or a red brick building. The move is about Christ truly becoming the head in a practical real way and not just in word only.

Consider the timing.

This shift is a work of God through the Holy Spirit and is occurring over a period of time. This will NOT all happen today or tomorrow. It may be years or it may be hundreds of years before this transition season is over. It would be a huge mistake to get into the flesh and try to bring about by human effort what God is doing. It would be equally problematic to try to run ahead of the work the Holy Spirit is doing. Feeding from the tree of knowledge of good and of evil led us into the perversions of the past. Partaking from the tree of life of intimate relationship with God to clearly hear Him and fully obey His direction will cause us to walk precisely in His will and timing. For today and the near future it is certain that the presentation of church will have many and varied transitional models that God will use as much as he can.

Many factors will affect the transition including world political conditions. In increasing parts of the world, the true church is underground because of governmental and religious extreme persecution. While in other places freedom and favor for the church may be increasing.

The Early Church (Ekklesia) Model

In the early church the gifted but humble apostolic servant leaders lived among the people and taught them publicly and from house to house. They ate together with gladness and simplicity of heart. A multiplicity of elders (spiritually mature leaders) cared for the city church that met in houses and gathered publicly daily on occasions.

Acts 2:46: So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart,

Acts 20:17-20: From Miletus he (Paul) sent to Ephesus and called for the elders of the church. And when they had come to him, he said to them: "You know, from the first day that I came to Asia, in what manner I always lived among you, "serving the Lord with all humility, with many tears and trials which happened to me by the plotting of the Jews; "how I kept back nothing that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you, and taught you publicly and from house to house,

Pursue Love, It Never Fails,

Ron McGatlin

www.openheaven.com. Used by permission.