The 21st Century Church - Part One

When we think about the church today, that is the Christian Church, there are many images that come to mind. Some see the church as an institution, one of values and standards and morals that is mostly out of touch with society. At least that’s how those not part of it often see it. Some will say the church is simply another organisation which adheres to a certain moral code, mainly existing to establish a social structure. In fact most people, because of the churches high profile in society, will have an opinion of the church. But the real question is how does God and in particular Jesus view his church?

When Jesus in Matthew 16:18 states to Peter previously known as Simon, and pronounces him Petrus meaning rock he declares “Upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.” This amazing declaration not only of Peter and the transformation of a weak and feeble fisherman into an immovable force but also the declaration of the church which Jesus would himself build as an unstoppable force to be reckoned with begins what has to be a different church than what we see today.

The early church not only was unstoppable but literally turned the known world upside down and scripture along with secular reports from writers such as Josephus tell us that thousands began flocking to the church or the movement as it was also known. Reports of people being healed by simply passing under the shadow of the disciples or being set free of demonic bondage by a spoken command was common practise. The church was on its way and yet this was merely the beginning and start of what God had planned for his bride in waiting.

And so two thousand years have passed and we the church of today must ask the question, are we who Christ intended us to be? Do we within the walls of our fine cathedrals and lofty office places portray the image of Christ in all that we do? Would Jesus, if walking amongst today, say “well done good and faithful servant” or would he cringe and turn away saying “I do not know you”. Although harsh and unthinkable to someone who knows of the incredible love that God has for his creation and especially his church, this must always be at the forefront of our hearts and minds in wanting to continually please God and not man.

It is this difficult question that I would like to ask, not only of the church as a whole but even as myself, a part of the incredible body of Christ on this earth. Knowing that He, Christ is returning to a bride that is “without spot or wrinkle” as scripture tells us.

The Responsibility of Leaders

As a leader within the church, it is often spoken about the influence we have over our congregations or greater audience. Indeed due to the very nature of our work it is easy to see how this influence can go to our heads and it is then and there that we often hear of leaders falling in shame.

But what is not often spoken of is the responsibility that leadership carries within the body of Christ. It is this responsibility that I have been examining as  I have studied scripture in recent days and in particular Malachi and the minor prophets.

The minor prophets, in my opinion, give incredible insight into God's reaction to man's sins whether they be of Israel, the greater community of believers and in particular those who are called to give leadership He has intrusted with care.

Throughout these books God gives his response to our wickedness and sinful ways, and whilst it is easy to say that Christ brought us a new way through our faith in Christ and all he did on the cross, a way which we would define as grace, we must also remember that sin carries consequences.

Just as James reminds us that "faith without works is dead", so too is grace without holiness. Over and over again we see the Lord both in the old and new testaments admonishing his people to "be holy as He is Holy". The message of grace that we often preach in Romans and elsewhere in scripture comes to us as a double edged sword that is grace gives us the ability to live and be holy. This message I believe has been distorted in recent years. We often see grace as a get out of jail free card which can be pulled at any moment when the sense of guilt and shame arise.

As leaders we have a responsibility to teach the whole word and truth as it appears and not sugar coat it so as to fill church pews and by it make ourselves look good. Indeed I believe this is the very message that Malachi brings to priests which could be interpreted to of those leading the church today.

Malachi chapter 1 speaks of blemished sacrifices and as we examine this scripture we immediately say "we are no longer under the old covenant but the new" and therefore these scriptures do not relate to us, especially if we are gentiles who have been grafted into the vine. Yet, I sense the warnings of Malachi are just as relevant today then when they were written.

Paul commends us to give ourselves as "living sacrifices" and it is during his time in Ephesus in particular that we see this workout in his life the most graphically as we read in Acts 18:18-23. It is here that Paul takes a vow and finally completes this vow by shaving off his facial hair and brings it to the temple as an offering.

The blemished sacrifices we read about in Malachi represent our response to our sin. As discussed earlier, we often sugar coat sin by waving the wand of grace and calling all good, but as we read in Malachi all sin carries consequence and all leadership carry the responsibility to ensure the church lives out their "salvation with fear and trembling" as Philippians indicates.

Leaders therefore carry a heavy responsibility to lead the church in righteousness, holiness and in such a way that sees The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit honoured and glorified. It is this role which I believe the Lord Jesus would call those who wish to serve the body as ministers back to. Remembering that in the last days only a remnant will remain.

Love Those Who Hate You

Over and over again, we are told in the gospels ‘Love your enemies. Bless those who curse you. Be good to those who hate you. Pray for those who persecute or mistreat you to show you are the children of your Father Who is in heaven, for He makes His sun rise on the good and the wicked, and sends rain to fall on the righteous and sinner. If you only love those who love you, what reward can you have? Even the wicked do that’ (Matthew 5:44 to 46). Might I say that this message is the same today even as it was during the time of the Roman Imperium which controlled and dictated to the lives of millions of people when this message was first written.

As a Christian and therefore follower of Christ, it is easy to be put off by what we hear in media. In a world which seems to be growing in hate and discord, as we have recently seen by the actions of a few in the form of ISIS, it's easy to become hard and even hateful towards those who would try to take peace from us. Yet the message of Christ and throughout the New Testament continues to sing aloud as it did thousands of years before. Love those that hate you!

As we draw near to the return of Christ, Jesus himself warns us in Matthew 24:9 “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. ¹⁰ At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, ¹¹ and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. ¹² Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, ¹³ but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. ¹⁴ And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

It is during these times, such as we see today, that every Christian believer must hold to the truth and Christ's calling to "go into all the world" with a message of love and grace especially to those that hate us. It is through their hatred towards us and our response to continue in love that the world will see Christ in us and ultimately more come to the knowledge of God's love towards them.

It is not enough for us to say we love them, we must always display this love in action. As we begin a new day, let's pray that the Holy Spirit will lead us to someone somewhere that we can display Christ's love for them. Remembering one of the most recognised scriptures of all time John 3:16 says “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

2021

Whilst in prayer and study of Ezekiel two weeks ago, I felt the Holy Spirit speak to me about things to come in the future. In particular it was regarding the year 2021 and a time of great testing and trial for the Christian Church.

As I was reading the book of Ezekiel and how the Lord had previously warned Israel of their sin and as they had not obeyed him would come under pending judgement, the Lord spoke to me by His Spirit that the Church too would come under great tribulation and persecution beginning the year 2021.

This is naturally not to say the church in many nations is not already under tribulation, as we can see in many third world nations. And indeed it is these Christians that I believe will be best prepared for such events.

Why you might ask this year? We see in the natural what is happening in Iraq and Syria in 2014 not only with Christians but all who withstand the new Islamic rule of Isal. As a result we see in the natural the affliction of not just a few but literally thousands of people. Whilst this in itself sounds terrible, I believe the spiritual attack against the church in coming years beginning 2021 will be far greater.

How this will start I am unsure, nor do I by any means proclaim to be a prophet or would I dare to call this a prophecy, but merely a warning for the Church to be aware of pending tribulation and to prepare itself.

The question that remains is how does the church prepare for something like this? The only answer I can give at this time is to continue to develop a sincere and close relationship with our heavenly father be it through our Lord and the work he has achieved on the cross for us and an obedience to the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Zechariah 4:6 tells us "It is not by might, nor by power but by my Holy Spirit says the Lord.." The Holy Spirit remains today as the leading influencer of the body of Christ and it is only through our sensitivity to his promptings and soft voice that we can truly walk as sons of God as Romans indicates.

I have just returned from a brunch date with some pastors we know nearby, conversation quickly began to centre around Isal and what is happening in Iraq. As we speak they tell me the Lord spoke to them back in 2011 that they had 10 years in which they were to prepare the church for a time of trials and tribulation. Interesting to note that 10 years from 2011 is 2021. This confirmed to me that 2021 will be an important time for the church especially in the Western World.

In closing let me re-iterate, that I am not a prophet nor proclaim this to be a prophecy but sense this is what the Holy Spirit has revealed to me. I am therefore open to correction and interpretation by other men and women of God who may have greater spiritual insight to these issues and welcome such replies.

God Bless

The Dilemma of Leadership

It's been sometime since my last blog and therefore a lot has been going through my mind. I hope then that this blog is not too confusing...

As a pastor of many years now and therefore a leader, I have for a long time battled with what I call the dilemma of leadership. A strange title I know, but let me explain. As pastors the book of Ephesians instructs us to "train the saints for ministry...". I can honestly say this has been my heart and desire and would almost proudly confess to doing this for the period of my ministry. I have become aware though, self preservation often gets in the way of being true to this calling.

As pastors and leaders within the body of Christ, our very existence relies on the body of Christ (the church) needing and wanting us. Indeed you could argue that some of the salaries that pastors receive almost mandates this as we often need to validate these enormous sums. Not that I have ever been the recipient of such wages in my time, but I do know of some pastors, who will remain nameless, who are on CEO or corporate type remuneration packages. And this is not for me to judge whether or not this is right or wrong, but the question still remains, when we are on so high wages is there then a need to validate these wages. I would argue YES there is!

This then creates a dilemma. If pastors feel the need to validate their wages and therefore their very existence within the body of Christ, are we the body who employ them creating monsters of our own demise? Why is this you might ask? Well, if the body of Christ in general are the very ones who are called to be doing the ministry, in effect pastors and leaders should be doing themselves out of a job.

In a world of big budgets and high pressure roles it is easy to forget why we are here. Peter calls the church to be a "Royal Priesthood..." and indeed when we examine God's original plan for mankind it is obvious he wanted all to be ministers and not just a chosen few. It is easy though as pastors and leaders to budget for our various departments and objectives when we know we have the body contributing to the income based on a tithe or 10% giving. Yet this was never God's intention to lower the body of Christ to a place where our only contribution was through our giving at the offering time. Indeed His plan was that we would be doing the very things that Jesus did when He walked the earth.

I believe we have gotten things confused or even back the front, the real role is for the believers of Christ to be in every way fulfilling the great commission of Christ and the role of pastors and leadership to help and support the body in this mission. In the same way, our programs have taken pre-eminence over people, yet it was the programs that were created to help and reach out to the people. Perhaps it is time to put things right and give the body of Christ the mantel and platform it should really have and ask the leadership to serve as we were once called.

Wait Upon The Lord

One of my most favourite scriptures has to be Isaiah 40:31 which says, "But they that wait upon The Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up on wings of eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not fait."

Waiting is not one thing I do well, as a choleric personality, I often want to take things into my own hands. Doing, is something I live by, but learning to trust The Lord and in His promises is what I need to remind myself of continually.

What exactly does this waiting really mean? Strongs concordance says it comes from the Hebrew verb "qavah" which means to stretch, then for tension. Waiting is therefore not a passive word indicating someone who is in a relaxed state twiddling their thumbs, but someone who is pursuing The Lord and all His promises for their lives.

The pursuing or stretching in this case however, is having a trust and hopeful expectation of what The Lord is going to do, not an attempt on our own parts to make things happen but to have faith that The Lord has an answer to all circumstances.

I wonder if this is what the Israelites were thinking in Exodus 32 as they were waiting for Moses to come down the mountain after receiving the Ten Commandments? Unlikely not, as in their inpatients they crafted through Aaron the golden calf. This inpatients, I think is often repeated in our own lives when we need answers. Whether it be a miracle or simply direction for the ensuing year, we grow weary of waiting and often take things into our own hands, not trusting The Lord is able.

Ephesians 3:20 tells us "now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work in us". As we learn to trust The Lord that He has all things in hand, I believe this is when we ultimately begin to see what The Lord really is able to do in us and through us.
God bless and Shalom!

Go into all the World and make disciples

Jesus in his last command to the church from Matthew 28 said "Go into all the world and make disciples...". Today I was contemplating this scripture and started to think, what does this ultimately look like. Naturally we know what a disciple of Jesus looks like, someone who in turn is producing the same sort of fruit that Jesus produced in his life, that is doing the very things that Jesus did when he walked the earth. Healing the sick, making the blind to see, the lame to walk and proclaiming the year of the Lords favour. This is not limited to the natural but also the spiritual.

So we know what disciples look like, but what does the making of disciples look like, how do we practically engage in the making of disciples? Is their a formula or program or even flow chart that can demonstrate how this takes place? I doubt there is and if there were I am confident that everyone would know about it.

In no way am I going to claim to have THE answer, but I would like to share a simple observation I have made in my own life.

Whilst at home today, I decided to start a fire in our combustion fire to warm the house up. Naturally when we start fires there are a few elements necessary to make a good fire. Firstly, we need fuel, something that can burn and in turn can sustain the flame. Secondly, we need heat or at least a flame as a source of ignition. Thirdly we need oxygen, for when there is no oxygen the flame cannot be sustained. When all of these elements are in place, we can make fire, but naturally it also requires something or someone to bring all these things together. There are potentially many ways in which these elements can come together, for example in nature, especially in warm dry climates like Australia where many fires are ignited from lightning setting aflame many of the grasses and dry branches that are found across this parched landscape.

What is interesting about fires or flames is that when they come into contact with materials such as tried up branches it takes very little for them to catch alight. In deed scientist tells us that it is the simple transference of heat to these items that see them catch fire. This was displayed when I finally got my own fire place alight, to continue to see my home maintain it's heat, all I needed to do was place more logs on the already burning fire, they inturn began to burn.

This I believe is a way in which we ourselves make disciples of Jesus. When we are alive, alight and inflamed with the very Spirit of God and the presence of Jesus, it takes very little for those around us to also become alive. Proverbs 27 in the bible also speaks of this, "as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another." This I would say is a very organic or natural way in which we can make disciples but of cause it is not the only and limited way to do so.

The pre-requisite for others to be inflamed by the power of Jesus within each of us is that we must first be full of his love, power and presence. I pray that I can be this person every day of my life and when I am not, that I can be full of His grace.