Century One

Leadership roots

2011-07-06T05:28:00.001-07:00

It is a matter of history that much of the development of Britain came from the Roman Church. Early into the second millennium these Islands became a vassal of the Holy Roman Church. A vassal is a nation who are allowed to conduct themselves with their own character and tradition yet be firmly under the control of the powerful force over them. An example was in Jesus time when the Romans were in the lands. The nation kept its general modus operandi, yet, it was under the iron fist of Rome. A basic bible course would speak of the 'pax romana' the 'Roman peace' that occurred because of their presence but it was always under the threat of being nailed to a tree for defying their statutes.

The influence of the Holy Roman Church however was not all negative. Britain developed in many ways and the foundations of what Rome called 'greatness' was sown into the culture, character and practices of the nation. Make no mistake, the reason we are in the position we are in on a global scale is founded on the influence of Rome! In the construction of a nation there were obvious problems. Because Rome was a form of Godliness but nullified by ritual and sacrament, God was unable to work through people. This led to The Dark Ages and these times were horrific for the common man. It was at this time that leadership developed. It primarily developed in the Monarchy and churches. It is no coincidence that after the Reformation, incredible leaps of progress were experienced (and still are) because people were incrementally becoming more free to contribute and the overarching influence of Rome was opposed. God can work through people now the oppression of the Church was lifted.

Leadership works by replicating the way someone leads. If Henry the Eighth, for example, wanted a subordinate rank of leaders, he would bestow upon them his powers. This means that Henry would replicate his leadership to others. They would then do likewise, bestowing their powers to others. In the dark Ages the only form of societal rank anyone would get was by being part of the dynasties of influence in the land. That, or be connected to The Holy Roman Church. Of course you always have the 'peasants' who aspired to become, not because of personal sense of achievement and notoriety, but the way you rose through society directly affected personal wealth and the ability to eat, drink and live securely. So rising in status, profile and notoriety was encouraged and it was how society worked. It is in this system we find a present day problem in the way people lead, especially in Church.

Britain's interaction with the Holy Roman Church has dictated a way to lead and practice leadership. To examine this we need to expose the mindset of the Papal role. The Pope is the 'papa,' the Father of Roman Catholics. The fundamental confusion is over the following text:

¹³ When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”

¹⁴ They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

¹⁵ “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

¹⁶ Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

¹⁷ Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. ¹⁸ And I tell you that you are Peter,^[a] and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades^[b] will not overcome it. ¹⁹ I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be^[c] bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be^[d] loosed in heaven.” ²⁰ Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

Catholics see Peter rise from among the disciples and see him as leader. They take the above passage to mean that Jesus was saying on the man, Peter, Jesus will build his church. Except... Jesus was saying that 'based upon the revelation of this truth, Peter, I will build my church.' So if a man has been bestowed the type of leadership Jesus has over people then all authority, power and glory has been passed on! The Papal succession then, assumes it has the ability to work beyond the Bible, and assumes authority over people and even nations. It is what leadership means that is still strongly prevalent in our western cultures. Through the history of Britian, through Popes, Kings and Nobility these elements have become institutional givens in our society of leadership:

authority over people
superiority
elitism
rank
'protect the realm'
the right to dispense justice
the right to create legislation
the right to be right without question

Leadership has authority but it is among people not over people. Jesus was clear about this to the sons of thunder in Mark 10. Brothers and sisters are not superior or inferior, have no rank or elitism.. we are family! The new 'protect the realm' is when 'vision' is 'my way or the highway.' To be clear: these qualities have been central to the development of the nation for in industry, to get people to produce. But the church is not about production it is about being. Today our Monarchy dispenses its will through Parliament and you and I unquestionably carry out this will! Think about it.... since school it has been taught and we practice things that came from where?

All the countries that have subsequently been invaded by, discovered by, or whose constitution has been replicated on Britain, are all affected by this scourge of church leadership. There are degrees by which westerners work in the way described above and common sense says that we cant be dictators. While some do dictate, many are wanting to find a way where we can be family, abide in Christ and even be salt and light to this world. My hope is the insight into how we lead can inform us and allow us to identify what it is in our leadership practice that makes us do what we do. The problem is that all the above attributes of leadership directly appeal to the flesh in such a powerful way, the Christian will fight tooth and nail to protect it.

The problem with our sinful condition is that we replicate the pride that was found in the heart of Lucifer. Our flesh is yet unredeemed and it wars against the Christian's redeemed spirit, the battlefield being the mind. In our flesh we want to be in charge, superior, elite, the decision maker, the one to set the pace, cadence and attributes of other's comings and goings. We want to control, make the rules, be over. Every Christian on planet earth is either on a journey to realising this, knows this and it isn't as important as 'leading' or is doing everything possible in partnership with God to live opposite to this.

The good news is that people can lead and this be less a problem. However, to eliminate all the things that support this problem in leadership we need to address the environment of leadership in church. This is a vast subject and involves de-constructing the special halls, special titles, special rituals that even the forward thinking warehouse churches have. Then the difficult part is truly hating that which will strive to be over, superior, ranked etc over others. Choosing to be servants of others as a lifestyle means living opposite to the lust of the flesh for power and the culture of the nation we live in. Turning this around, I believe, is a key to God's future for the western world. If we cannot live beyond self, we will sentence our children and theirs to a downward spiral of a disintegrating empire.

Not on my shift!

' Core investment' and the church 2

2011-05-21T11:43:00.000-07:00

In the first part of this blog I outlined the biblical position that Paul the Apostle (and all the Apostles taught the same) and Jesus both stated that the old thing, the done thing and just anything (ODA) leads to wrong practice. And what we do in this world always leads to processes and conclusions. God wants us to grow, transform and thrive and thus be different in this dark world. Now here is a problem to this plan:-

Many churches today have leaders who are core invested into the done thing rather than God's plan for his people. It is difficult for Christians who feel they must lead because like the first century Christians, they asses the environment they are born into and repeat the generalities around 'church.' However, the practices constitute part of a change that is taking place over hundreds of years. The Reformation was a change in Theology and the last hundred years rise in the work of the Spirit is a restoration despite the outrageous excesses and abuses we see. What was never reformed from the Roman Catholic Church was their practices. Good people with good theology are enjoying the working of the Spirit but in a context that was of the old ways (thanks to Constantine's standardising Christianity to the old practices).

So people experience a measure of 'blessing' because some elements of God's will and purpose are in situ. However, it's a little like Manchester United turning up with Chelsea at a cinema. The players run around the seats trying to score yet it is a nonsense. The teams are there, the football is played, much is in place and we can say for sure, 'A football match is in play.' But while this is outworked in a cinema, we all know it does not lead to the purpose, a competitive game of football. In the same way, God's people meet together, God is praised, the wine and bread are there, the word is preached.... it has all the elements of Church! However, it isn't effectively outworking the purposes of God. It can't, because while we are doing things to outwork our faith, we are not 'being' who we are. We keep doing church when we are, intrinsically, church! So if we are the genuine article, why do we set about doing things that underline, qualify, re-iterate, complicate this fact?

So many are core invested in doing church and this hinders being church. God wants his people to be core invested in their brothers and sisters because we are all in Christ. It is my challenge to today's Christians communities to examine this reasonable call to reform church practice. There are no badges, profiles, status or hall of fame. It's about being who you are, and just that. You can't just start a biblical house group either. We all need to let all the 'doing' blee out of us. It's hard but God will lead you in this. 'Being' is freedom, joy, peace, love... much more rooted in Christ that some of the things we do to produce these things. If you conclude that this can't be right because 'what's in it for me?' That is exactly what 'doing' church does! It makes you invest in IT instead of investing in HIM. Many hold these two in tension. Being what you are makes you invest in HIM then, by default you invest in HIS... your brothers and sisters! There nothing more beautiful and amazing on the planet than people prioritising the 'inchrist-ness' of each other and valuing, celebrating 'family.' Place a 'doing' mentality in the middle of this and we revert to 'task.' Let me be clear, there is 'task,' 'function' and 'works' in our faith. But without being the church together and being met by our brothers and sisters, works are done by people who are not contrasting the world.

"Hey Christian, I can hear your words and see your good works but YOU are not changed!"

BEING changed is what changes this world.

Most of us defaulted into doing church and there's nothing wrong with the smaller biblical home groups meeting monthly, say, to have the big praise parties, communal prayer or an event. Having practised what God wants for ekklesia, we can enjoy a life together doing all sorts of things to celebrate our faith, but lets not define these things as church/ekklesia.

I challenge the communities of Christians in the UK to meet to fully debate this issue in brotherly love and unity in Christ. Just please be prayerful that your objections to part 1 and 2 of this article are because of my error in scripture / outlook and not because you feel offended. My motives for bringing this to your notice is not to question motives or cast aspersions. It is mainly to appeal to the reasonable conclusions that when the church do what the word of God says, God's power can explode through this foolish, weak and pathetic vision of 'church.' Let us not forget that a naked, bleeding, battered body nailed to a tree looks foolish, weak and pathetic yet Salvation itself lies here.

feel free to pass this on and explore these observations which are rooted in the New Testament.

Blessings,

Gary Ward
Brother.

The church and 'Core investment' 1

2011-05-21T02:20:00.000-07:00

Our core investment is a way of describing what you are committing your time, resource, finance etc to. Obviously you wouldn't be doing this if you were not somehow utterly convinced (to the core) that it is a valid pursuit. For many Christians their core investment comes from a clear leading from the Lord and most are happy to say it is their 'calling.'

Lets park the core investment of the individual for a moment. Most Christians believe that the meet in a prepared hall, have leaders to preside over the meeting and preach the word of God after singing songs, taking an offering and sharing bread and wine, is generally church. (give or take a few testimonies, drama, psalm reading etc etc). However contemporary or not defines how progressive you are but essentially the same basic elements. The form of church then, seems a constant. We must also include the Roman Catholics here because however skewed their Theology, add the smells, bells and extra sacrament around 'church pie,' it's still the same elements of practice. We are going to see why this matters shortly.

In the Old Testament God wanted people to core invested into the practice of meeting together to symbolically because all that was tangible about God was symbolic. That means while people could experience their Lord, the mechanism where he would really save them and really live within to outwork his purposes was impossible until Jesus completed his work at Calvary. So faith and practice was being core invested in meeting in special places, observing the priesthood, singing, listening to the leaders, carrying out prescribed acts etc. This would have created a shared sense of community, a shared sense of purpose, a oneness like much of the church experiences(and in doing so feels blessed). However, this is not God's purpose for the church age.

Jesus' death, resurrection and ascension meant the Holy Spirit could come and live in us. Previously there was no way of having our sin-state dealt with. Now we can live a life of repentance and God really lives in us. With this in view, there is no need to symbolise or ritualise God in any way. Paul the Apostle warns the Galatians about doing the 'old thing' and 1 Corinthians warns about doing 'the done thing' and it is just common sense that you cant just do anything. But in some ways, we can't blame the first Christians for defaulting to what they knew, or doing the thing they saw around them. The Jews were in error for thinking they needed to distinctify their origins but mostly the first Christians looked around them and did what they had learned from an early age. Their culture was full of Greek wisdom in practice. This was man's reasoning and conclusions from the thoughts of men. It led to a logic in leadership and practices that honoured the celebrity of the age - the orator, philosopher, the sage. So they defaulted to that and Paul corrected them, clearly pointing out in the first 4 chapters why they do this.

So what do you do when your entire background and upbringing is based on the plan of man's reasoning and wisdom? Perhaps it would be good to find what God's plan is? In order to both avoid the old thing, the done thing and just plain anything (Old/Done/Any), the Apostles all taught to meet as described in 1 Corinthians. The net result of this is meeting in a non-O/D/A environment with the basics of what would foster 'family.' So the bare bones of the New Testament church practice of meeting in homes with a meal, leaders but not hierarchy and open and equal sharing was taught by all the Apostles. But when all said and done, the point of this more what would come of interacting as brothers and sisters rather than the form in which the meet. Because of the completed work of Christ, it was more about not doing the O/D/A and facilitating our spirit filled life. A cursory view of the scriptures will show that our purpose of being saved is to do with the Spirit's work and leading within us as we interact with our brothers and sisters. if you like, the only contract we have as Christians is to outwork our common 'inchristness' as brothers and sisters.

It is matter of fact that whichever way up this lands, Jesus did tell his disciples at the Last Supper that whenever you meet together , THIS DO in remembrance of me. So no surprise that Jesus puts forward the idea to the Apostles that meeting as discussed is the way church should be done.

In terms of 'core investment' I wanted to outline my reasoning for part 2, which is the next post on this blog.

Jesus, CEO?

2010-12-05T14:15:00.000-08:00

  I only know of a few leaders who have discovered that they need to do what the bible says and practise church biblically which means the leaders are not central to the show. It results in less likelihood that the leaders will 'accidently' have their profile raised, their status enhanced and their notoriety expanded. I can understand the logic - bigger profile = bigger platforms = more people reached. But, the logic is flawed.

To think that spirituality works the same way as a company or business is profound error. I have a business and the challenges are around visibility, marketing and image. I want my product to become notorious for its value. If the way we think people can be won relies on the Christian becoming notorious we are simply wrong. Jesus did not speak of marketing, or visibility or image. "But we are supposed to be light!" Yes, but this is what we are before we attempt to gain notoriety. The very act of having a level of notoriety and telling others to aspire to this creates a debilitation to the Christian in most Churches. If we ask someone who already is light and salt to aspire to the leaders levels and measurements they miss what they are already, just by being in Christ. The way the early Church won the known world was because each individual had leaders who didn't ask them to aspire to anything but taught them to be who they are in Christ.  In this way everyone knew they were entirely capable of going into their own contexts and winning people over time for Christ. Spirit filled and met by the Christian family in ecclesia, they had no-one telling them they needed "XYZ" to become more effective or "ABC" to validate their Christian life. Preach Christ, and people will be shown why they are light rather than feel they need to arrive at 'pastordom' or something.

In our western context, to look to the leader who is stood at the front is natural. Since being 5 years old this is how leaders have presented themselves. People who become Christians or experience church see this form of leading and do what they did since the conditioning started at 5 years of age in reception school. They sit and accept that because the person at the front is...er... at the front, they must know what they are doing and if a few more people are also sat listening to the leader then 'who am I to question this?' Leadership in other contexts involves a person talking, instructing or proposing but the difference is those listening are able to question, debate, correct, comment, validate and cheer the leaders contribution. In other words leadership is not always done the same and there are freedoms across the board for everyone in the conversation. In this way people feel they are in the process, valid, affirmed by their presence and important to the group. The Bible says that people should 'be persuaded by" leaders. This was made into 'submit' by King James in order to have a level of control over the people. Strange how things have changed little, even that particular text.   Let us not forget also that Britain was a vassle of the Holy Church of Rome and in this time of great development, the 'way to lead' was lifted straight from the way the RC Church leads. They got their leadership from the ungodly tribes and cultures. So, if your church has people with titles, status or profile, you are practising a Roman Catholic structure. If you meet in a special building that has chairs lined up to face the front where a series of praying, singing, talking, preaching takes place, this is the RC Church practise. Then there's hierarchy and so on....

So Rome had a developing influence but with a cost. Business, if modelling Rome, will have the structure to see success. The church however does not exist for the same reasons as a business. Business revolves around product or service. The church has neither unless you invent one. Evangelism is seen as the product of the church. While a Christian's heart needs to be broken at the thought of someone spending eternity without God, evangelism is not the primary reason for the church's existence. The enemy has told Christians that evangelism is the end product of the church and this is a lie. Christians being encouraged and built up is the end result of church. Evangelism is the consequence of this. Because most churches believe evangelism to be the product, they fail to prioritise the encouragement and up-building of the brothers and sisters. The result is Christians going about their lives not having been met by God's extended family. Unable to be a contrast (light) they have a message without substance. Someone who has been met, affirmed, loved, cared for, validated, understood etc... will be a contrast and therefore any message will be backed up with an authentic witness. This can only occur within the context of the church practise Paul and the other apostles taught and with people who are losing their own life not setting up an environment where, 'oh I never realised this would draw attention to me me me!'.

To finish, it would be good if the business-like-church was actually like that. At least be a business if you're going to say this is how God is leading you (which he isn't). Leaders, we are told, measure their leadership by who is following them. Surely this is not true if the people following are not able or wanting to think for themselves or challenge the system? True leaders gain following from free thinkers who have their own opinions yet find a leader able to accommodate them unconditionally. What is difficult about having people who agree with you stand in a room every week? Incredibly I know some leaders who cant even keep that going!

Also, it is my understanding that business was about creating an economy with a product or service. Most churches rely on giving to run their comings and goings while the leaders act like they are ingenious business leaders. Iv'e seen Pastors talk to each other like they created their own wages by ingenuity, hard work and acumen. In reality all they have done is extracted people's money and forgot to explain that the Tithe was Israel's taxation system meant for Israeli's who live in Israel.   Giving? Yes. But if the individual wasn't compelled by OT Law to provide a set amount the leader wouldn't know how much was coming in. Wow! Maybe then the leader would have to live by faith. Imagine that!

An open letter to the Christian Family

2010-10-03T08:04:00.000-07:00

Church: The Dilemma

Gary Ward

If you are reading this it may be because you have heard that our family have some ‘other than’ view about Church. We are keen that no-one get the wrong end of the stick and we don’t end up in the ‘nutter’ department, at least for our church-views anyway :>) In a nutshell, we believe that the church that the Apostles championed in the first century was more like the light groups than what happens on Sunday morning. We like the vision of the light church because Sunday morning and light groups are both termed ‘church,’ and we agree with this. Our position however is that light groups are church scripturally whilst Sunday morning is church socially and culturally. Whichever way up these land, people meeting together to worship, pray and hear the word of God is ALWAYS good and none of the approaches are ‘wrong’ per se.

Our reason for meeting together with other Christians is because we are in Christ and we are brothers and sisters. It matters little if that is on Sunday or Thursday or the set up of the meeting. However, if God wanted Christians to meet in a certain way as seen in 1 Corinthians, we believe we should listen. My exploring this area has spanned 10 years doing The Century One Project and hopefully these observations will help. Check them out, all Major Christian scholars agree with this -

The New Testament Scriptures, especially 1 Corinthians, shows a group of people meeting possibly in several different places or maybe a larger group. They gathering centred around a meal and they had open and equal sharing. The church had leadership but echoing the words of Jesus to the sons of thunder in Mark 10, Paul underlines that hierarchical leadership is not what God intends for his followers. We also need to take note that the Bible only describes believers meeting in homes. So,

Non-hierarchical leadership. Centred around a meal. Open and equal sharing. Home based. Sounds like a light group to me! But here’s what happened historically in the ensuing centuries- After the Apostles died the next important leaders were the early church fathers. These did amazing work to defend the emerging doctrines we have today. They fought tooth and nail in an environment of hostility and persecution. One thing that occurred however was the church Paul and all the Apostles agreed and taught began to change its form. Some of the early church fathers, either as a compromise to help the times or for more earthy reasons based on Man’s pride, did the ‘done thing’ when man sets up a group. Paul reminds us that the culture and system of the world is very strong and the church must push against this. The Early Church Fathers set up provincial Bishops, had the church meet in prepared halls and professional ministers came to teach people the things of God.

“So?” you may ask, “what’s wrong with that?” If we observe what happened to the Law at the hands of the Elders we can perhaps see what occurred with the Church Fathers. Jesus was asked constantly why he allows the disciples to flaunt the ‘Tradition of the Elders.’ Jesus did this on purpose because the Tradition of the Elders (halakah) were rules that Men had invented to stop people breaking the Law of God and thus incurring God wrath. So, for example, the Law says people cannot grind wheat on the Sabbath. So that no-one accidently walks through a field and wheat drops into their shoe and they unknowingly grind wheat, the elders banned people from fields on the Sabbath! In scripture we see Jesus purposefully leading his disciples through a field on the Sabbath. These ‘fence rules’ then, were supposed to help people avoid breaking the Law of God but over time they became a rigid set of traditions that OVER-RULED the 613 Laws of God. Not only that, but over time ANOTHER set of fence rules were made to protect the first set! Crazy, but true! In the same way the Early Church Fathers departed from the Apostles teaching that was teaching to be held to and followed the established way to conduct a group of people. The instructions for Church practice were ignored and Man again built his own version of what Church should be like. The Church Fathers motives may have been to protect Christianity in the same way the elders wanted to protect the breaking of God’s Law. A good idea but not what God wanted.

Gradually church met in special temples with special people leading the service. The meal had been replaced with bread and wine whilst the leaders taught the people what the word of God means. The distinctive of the church that the Apostles taught disappeared in this order: First church practice, what people do for church changed. Secondly the gifts departed from the church. Lastly the theology went away. This became the standard way to meet and in the fourth Century a ‘Christian’ Emperor made this the state religion. From here, the Catholic Church grew and the world had 1000 years of dark ages.

In the 16^th century there were widespread rumblings in the known world. All over Europe, scholars were waking up to the fact that the Catholics were stealing from poor people, controlling people but more importantly, their teaching had little to do with the Bible. The more famous of the ‘reformers’ was Martin Luther. His cry was ‘sola scriptura’ which means ‘by scripture alone’ (we live out our Christian lives). From here grew the ‘Protestant’ movement, people who protested against the Catholic Church practises. So Theology was being restored to the church. In the early 1900’s strange things were occurring in churches and this became clear that, for some reason, the gifts of the Spirit were returning to the church. Ironically, this also heralded histories most significant progress in industry and technology – the 20^th century!

It appears that God is restoring the church in the reverse order to how it lost its distinctive... Theology with Luther, the Gifts restored circa 1900. The thing that has yet to be restored to church is Church practice, what people actually do for church. We believe that God wants people to meet how the Apostles taught. But here’s the problem- Britain’s heritage includes Catholicism in the very weft and weave of its development. The way we lead, the way institute behaves and the society we engage every day is steeped in Rome! It has other influences but anyone born in Britain has been brought up with the cultural, educational and societal hangover of the Roman Catholic Church.

This is also true of what we accept in our Church practice. Ouch! I know it’s hard to hear but it’s a challenge I believe we all have to face. The long and short of it is none of us are responsible for how we meet, we were born into it and accept it. My own journey started with asking the simple question, “If Jesus said we will see greater things than these” {things he was doing!} then where are they? Where are the days of acts where 5000 people are saved in one day? My conclusion is that like a radio that has many pieces of circuitry, they are no good in my hands! It needs to be in a form where when power flows through it, it produces sound. The amazing truth about the church that the Apostles taught was that in its foolishness, its weak-looking existence, it is placed firmly in Jesus’ hands! This way, He can flow through it. Basically that’s the reason why light groups are ‘church’ scripturally for us and Sunday morning is ‘church’ culturally. Light Church then, for us, is not just a good idea that promotes community, it is God’s idea in form!

My heart is that the Church returns to meeting in homes. It seems to me that people can experience God’s extended family in an environment that encourages this – the home. Also, encourage the idea that we are all one under the head of the Church, Jesus. Open and equal sharing has everyone able to express themselves and minister to the body in smaller groups where it is easy to do so. Becoming elevated either by self promotion or by people putting others on a pedestal is blindingly obvious in such a small group where Christ is centre to the subject matter. Furthermore, When people are met by people who love them and are able to express this through the body, they are built up and encouraged. When people are met with affirmation, affection, love, warmth, understanding and all the characteristics of a Godly community, they don’t need the motivation or directives to go and win people. They are tangibly different to this cold, dark, mean, loveless world. Different attracts, especially when it is a different that everyone is looking for.

Lastly, it would be ideal if Jesus told us that this is what we are to do for church. He did! The last supper was what we are to do when we meet together. We are to remember Christ with a meal that includes bread and wine. We are to have him central and no individuals directing, but all are able to share. “Whenever you meet together, this do” said Jesus, “in remembrance of me.”

Love in Christ

Gary Ward and Family.

Authentic Christian Living - more thoughts

2010-09-27T03:23:00.000-07:00

Jesus said the entry level requirement for discipleship is to be 'losing your own life.' What a negative marketing strategy for something that God wants to be embraced by the lost! "Come to Jesus and DIE!!! However, the only way God can have us become a transformed individual is by this process. The problem is a little like the present position of the England football team after the world cup 2010. To play for England you have to be English. The strange thing is, the manager is Italian and the idea is that his success can be imported to the team. They were very poor in the world cup and this confirmed my thoughts. I would rather see an English manager lead the team and the team find its own true level that attempt to bring in outside influences that may bring about imported success at some stage. To me there's no point in winning if the entire outfit didn't reflect the true state of English football. Its cheating! In the same way, many Christians import things from the outside to aid Christian living. This doesn't allow the individual to have a reality check on the true state of their heart, like the England team, it draws from foreign elements to gain authentication. Jesus has an authentic way that involves 'losing your own life.'

So what mechanism has 'losing your own life' got in God? There are two ways in which we can live our Christian lives. Firstly, we can change our behaviour and practices in order to live like God wants us to. This seems fine until we realise that we are able to bypass the real state of our core self and change behaviour based on expectations of the pastor, pride, people, performance etc. God didn't tell us to be-have, he told us to be-changed! The way 'losing' works is by eliminating all the elements that would protect our core self. God sees our core self but he wants us to see it! So here's an example- Peter: "ill never deny you Jesus" (bypassing core self) Pete later : "Jesus who?" (the core self). When this was revealed to him, and I'm sure many things not recorded, he was able to be changed. The reason is because when we see the true state of our hearts we are broken and crumple to our knees in repentance before our Lord. This way we can offer our core self to God, not just perceived behaviours that we think constitute a Christian walk. The result is that when God has worked in a transforming way, practices and behaviours naturally pour from the believer. These become the catalyst for change in this world rather than just surface adjustments, expected Christian nuances and controlled temperament which leads to 'having a form of Godliness, but denying it's power.'

The way we can ensure we are aware of our core selves is to ask ourselves a series of 'ouch' questions:

Am I committed to give up the conditioned responses of Christianity to be ACTUALLY changed?
Am I ready to undertake the process of exploring my true heart motivations, warts and all?
Is my Christian environment asking me to be-have or allowing me to be-changed?
Does preaching, leaders or discipleship courses change my core self or just ask for a change of behaviour?
Do I want to be changed at core level to perhaps NEVER be a prominent minister/ministry?
Can I distinguish between God's expressed will for me to be transformed and the expectation on me to perform?
Have I imported 'managers' to play karaoke to Jesus in my life?

The challenge to Christianity is authenticity. We have rightly appealed for Godly character to be formed but have we settled for Caricatures? Does our insecurity or lack of faith lead to being more like a Christian than more like Christ? Do we fail to question our church environment because it perpetuates 'self' when self needs to be cross-bound? I don't want England to win the world cup with imported help and I don't want to take another step in Christ unless it is entirely managed by my Creator.

Gary Ward

The Ego's need for Genius

2010-01-03T14:10:00.000-08:00

One of my main passions is to refocus the nature of gifts in the church. Many Christians have been taught that they are a gift to the church, an idea that has led to inflated ego and a value system being imposed upon God's children. The bible says we are given gifts and like all gifts they need to be passed to the one they are meant for. Taking on the identity of a gift is error in the church as God is the giver of every gift and we simply pass it on to others as led.

I was recently watching a talk by writer Elizabeth Gilbert and she pointed out something very interesting. She said that genius used to be something that was detached from your being and the genius would work through you to create. If God works through Christians then it could be fair to say that this idea fits with Christianity. I have no problem at all imagining that a third party such as an angel can work through us in our general field of creativity and this also applies to demonic forces should we let them. I wouldn't force this into a doctrine and right now I am just playing with ideas.

That said I have always been struck with Eph. 2:10 For we are God's workmanship... the word workmanship is 'poema' in the original Greek. The word 'poem' comes from this. Amazing! God's creativity is worked through us! You have a genius working through you and he is the great 'I Am.' we need no other! The drive for Christians to develop some kind of identity for themselves is driven by the misconception that a gift is their own identity.

The idea that 'genius' was a third party working through a person disappeared as Europe strove for self importance in the Renaissance . Instead of 'having' a genius people 'became' a genius! Identity was taken on by the person and if you take this to its logical conclusion you will agree it can lead to the 'have's' and the 'have-nots.' From here we then have a class system imposed upon gift, talent and ability. Does this sound familiar? Isn't gift, talent and ability rewarded at different levels in this world? Of course, that's how society sees our roles, tasks and functions on earth. When this set of values is imposed on church we have a problem. How can a 'have' and 'have-not' system work amongst brothers and sisters?

It doesn't, yet millions of Christians exist within these wrong attitudes to 'ability'. The truth is that God is your Genius! He wants to work through you and your only challenge is to find how God can work through YOU! Don't be fooled into thinking that others are somehow superior or you are less-than amongst brothers and sisters. And don't be thinking creative genius is just how you paint, act or sing. God's Genius does not fit into our narrow perspective. It is far reaching and involves every step of our interaction with this world. Enjoy being you.

Finding God as your Source

2009-12-28T10:28:00.000-08:00

There are loads of people who acknowledge God to varying degrees. Some are happy to pay a weekly homage in church but others follow the Bible and try to have God become their all. I believe the latter is part of the fulfilling life we can lead in Christ - to find God as our source. You don't need qualifications or a special insight to have God become your source. You simply need to know that God loves you and wants to be the one that becomes your dependence. God wants this because he thinks you are amazing despite the flaws and failures we all have and experience. I meet so many Christians who know what I have written above but find it difficult to make it a reality day to day. Read on to explore how to make God your source every day of your life.

I have worked with young people for many years and I observe how they grow as young adults into a world that tells them what I call the 'ten acquired laws of western living.' These are acquired attitudes that present a problem for some young people. These laws also plague some adults:

1. Others will only think well of you if you present an acceptable image to them
2. What others think is the key to feeling accepted.
3. Because my life is boring, it must be a mistake.
4. You need to accumulate self worth by talent, gifts and ability.
5. How I feel about myself is the indicator of truth about me.
6. I must be lame to have low self esteem.
7. My aim is to be like a person who is respected, even famous!
8. Everything in this world tells me I should be a someone, but I'm not!
9. Others seem to be happy about who they are.
10. I feel frustrated, even angry, about not being happy with me.

We are assessed by this world
The key to all 10 of these laws is to have God become your source for all the issues described. Every one of the laws have a common thread that connects them all. This connection is that the person who feels like this is recognising that this world, society, other people are stakeholders in your life. Simply put, they aren't unless you allow them to be! It is true that we have to live in and interact with our communities but we need to take charge of them, not them take charge of us. If you assess your life by anything that lies in this world you will at some point become utterly miserable. Young people are trained to assess themselves against others by the exam system for example. You are graded at an early age. Many become unstuck as this accepted system of education tells us that we are part of a structured labelling system. This can become a yardstick to tell us what we can and can't become.

We are valued by this world
Our language has examples of how we buy into the assessment of fellow human beings. Some people dont 'measure up.' Measure up to what? The second we answer that question is the moment we have graded a human being. Grading is a short step from valuing. "Listen to your superiors!" This is what I was told about adults and teachers in school. A superior directly infers that in some way I am inferior! This world we live in has systems of value, worth and grading and if we listen to it we will have to accept the pigeon holes and labels it dishes out. Ever been told about the 'career ladder? It exists because the perception is that someone on a higher rung is higher, therefore better than you! I know people who recognise the folly of the above but only a Christian can re-source their value system.

God accepts us in this world
God shows us through the Bible initially that his love for you is not based on performance or status. He loves the intrinsic you! So if we are going to begin to depend on God you can stop looking to your own gifts, talent and ability as a measure of how you fit in this world. "So you have riches, fame and attention.... God, who made this world loves me with nothing added, just me, as I am!" Many who acknowledge that God loves them still struggle with the fact that they feel useless. The church doesn't help! The majority of western churches are geared around 'task.' Churches should be working in social action in communities and many do an amazing job. Within the congregations however, the people are generally urged to find their gifts and abilities and serve God there. There's nothing wrong with this IF the basic principles of Christianity are present. In the first century the Apostles taught that church was about brothers and sisters being together in Christ. This is the primary reason for church existing and the New Testament contains chapter after chapter of of this 'being' in Christ. So many Christians know God loves them but concentrate on what they have to do for God rather than 'being.' A 'doing' philosophy takes us into the area of grading and measuring. Pastors are seen as 'superiors' and many sermons are how we fail to 'measure up' in our service to God.

Shifting your perspective
Our lives in Christ have no directive to do anything that lies outside of who we are already. In other words, you already are all you will do in Christ. The gifts are all spiritual gifts and spiritual gifts cannot be enhanced, customised or upgraded by anything from this world. So on a church level you are already equipped for what you can do for Christ. In churches that have the worldly system of measuring and grading you simply are not able to be yourself. It is the needs and requirements of the leadership of the church that decide how you fit and function. One ministry couple told me they 'release' people for ministry. Whose holding the people that need releasing? Often those who are leading churches do so because they have experienced the need to feel valued and some because they want to feel superior. The drive to fill the feeling of emptiness brought on by low self esteem is worth being involved in the 'people business.' It is a difficult job but the pay-off is worth it. Feeling fulfilled doing 'God's work' hits the spot, but would you feel fulfilled NOT doing anything? This is an indication of how dependant you are on 'doing' when the whole point of Christian life is 'being.'

In Christ we are equal
What I have described in church is also true of this world. ALL your formative years will be based on your pending career. The higher up the ladder you go, the more you will service the list of 'laws' above. Fitting and functioning will be your grading and measuring tools. Money and notoriety are pay-offs here. Status, profile and fame are also carrots on the road to filling the gaps. Christians have no need to engage the way this works. It isn't just opting out either! God made all people spiritually equal so to have measurement, superior/inferior mindsets and grading structures is nonsense. Ill address the 10 'laws' above from a Christian perspective:

1. It matters what God thinks of you and he thinks you're ace!
2. God accepts you the way you are.
3. You are friends with the Lord of the Universe. Is that boring?
4. God values who you are, not what you can or cant do
5. The truth about you is God loves and cares for you. Does that feel good?
6. Facts are indicators of truth. Fact: God thinks you're ace!
7. You are related to God Almighty. Fame at last!
8. The Lord of the Universe knows your name. Now are you a someone?
9. Who you are is a child of God.
10. See 9.

The church was designed by God to be based in a family environment around a meal with open and equal sharing. Leadership was nothing to do with presiding over people and service was something people did naturally rather than a platform for superior/inferior placing. It was the Roman Catholics that produced the worst kind of abuses where religious class was concerned. Today's Protestant church still suffers from the structural anomalies that Roman Catholicism still adheres to. They structured the church in such a way that places man in charge of the comings and goings of the things of God. Not fully free from the mindset and structure of the Roman Catholics, the church tends to make 'calling' a reason to remain in the God-rejecting system. Some Christians need to be in charge to fill the gap of low self esteem and occupy a position that makes them feel important. Because they don't acknowledge the observations above, they become people who grade, assess and value people based on their own lack. They call this their anointing. Out from the church go people with a message that is not outworked in their own life:

God loves and accepts me! (but my value system still subject to the opinions, systems and rules of man).

Lost people see this and are happy to remain untouched by the 'Good news.' Some ministers have told me that the way people meet doesn't matter and what they do God tells them to do it. Increasingly though, the case for reform of church practice is becoming more and more urgent. Whilst wanting to build up the body of Christ and make people whole, the church adheres to the worldly value system that comes directly from structure. People exist within an environment of expectation but cannot meet the expectations. The reason is because making God your source requires a person to withdraw from all the things trying to be sources. By being in the church that is in the New Testament, God takes away the temptation for man to fill the gaps with status, position and profile. Of course, any gathering of people can become manipulated by people but it is easier to identify someone not free from their own need to be superior to others. Any one who needs to gain value and self esteem from their own position and status would most likely run from an environment where everyone is equal. With no outlet for being in charge and feed the monster, the only place to find value, worth and self esteem is in God!

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of modern day church

2009-12-05T12:12:00.000-08:00

The Good.
Having hung around 'church' in the UK for 20 years or so, its interesting to reflect from time to time. There's a lot of good happening in Christianity today and its always amazing to see people just living to please God and getting busy doing things to be his witnesses in this dark world. Projects that get loads of people focussed on Jesus can only be good, and when they become Christians it is fantastic news. My own journey is day to day educating the hard to reach in communities in the UK for TLG a Christian Charity. I share the desire to see people repent and follow Jesus. I also take my hat off to anyone who steps up to the plate and gets involved in God's work.

The Bad
Most church leaders are not at all aware of the following information: The practise of meeting in a hall with a central leadership directing the meeting is not what God intended for Church. The model where leaders preside under or over the congregation is anti-scriptural and leads to a separation amongst equals. This in turn leads to people following people instead of following Christ... the whole point of being a disciple. Paul the apostle meets these issues head on in 1 Corinthians and goes on to underline the practise all the apostles taught and agreed upon - a fellowship meal - a family environment - leadership but no hierarchy - open and equal sharing. Historically the church can be seen, starting with the early church fathers, to stray from what the apostles taught about meeting together. Having great social action programs is Good but if the hub of the activity is not biblical, this creates a problem for good people who want to genuinely out-pour their lives for God. Our example of rejecting God for some human-leader is 1 Sam 8 and the first 4 chapters of 1 Corinthians.

The Ugly
Some church leaders are aware of the above and do nothing about it. And that is ugly. Knowing scripture warns of mixing 'the done thing' with 'my agenda' should be enough. However this isn't enough. If you aren't doing God's thing then you are just doing what Man does. Didn't we see all that before? Didn't we repent and turn from wicked ways? Yet many live in two worlds, the world of wanting to please God and the world of ugly self promotion. The separation among leaders and the congregation is allowed to become the springboard to polish the narcissism which all humans are plagued by. If we understood what it took to have all authority, power and dominion handed to Jesus so he could be our leader and head of the church, we would be on our face with our crowns offered to him. But alas... so many get caught up in the 'self,' missing that 'Bless' has 'less' as the main point. Some church leaders need to study the one thing Jesus hated - the practices of the Nicolatians. The word means 'suppression of the people.' So many leaders are presiding over the people and this makes them subject to that leader, especially in this institutional society we live in. If you are reading this and feel it strikes a chord then do get in touch.

Yours in the fight for truth.

Gary Ward

Stuff God wants us to know. 1

2009-10-15T08:06:00.000-07:00

Jer 33:3 'Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.'

Thinking that becomes part and parcel of everyday life can be termed as 'institutional conditioning.' This is when something is unquestionably and routinely accepted by ourselves. Christians are good at taking on new concepts and mulling over information as that is part of our responsibility as God's children. However there are aspects of Christian life that are not questioned and therefore routinely accepted, not realising the dangers.

A fun example is 'who said Australia is 'down under?' I can accept that since it was discovered fairly recently by people from 'up top' it will be termed 'down under.' Given that there is no up or down in space the whole idea of direction is a man made suggestion. Australians consider themselves to be down under also, thus also buying into it all. It doesn't really affect anyone if we consider whose down or up in this world but there are some things readily accepted in life that do affect people. History has set things in motion based upon perspectives someone had long ago. These things become the fabric of our society and no-one questions them. An example that harms people is the class system. Sure, the terminology may have started with observing peoples socio-economical status in relation to others but then became a tool used for political ends. Some people are refused jobs because of postcode prejudice. Certain areas are labelled as socially challenged because of labels assigned many moons ago. This thinking is part of our society and while the evidence of the classification is in our towns and cities, has the branding of people set many up to fail? Labels become concepts and that's a short step from concepts speaking back into the situation and producing accepted paradigms.

In my life I have never been handed a book or seen a documentary on why our leaders govern the country the way they do. I've had to accept so much of 'the done thing' because...er.. its the done thing. Again, to answer why things are done a certain way we can point to history, decisions made by men and women to set in motion ideas that will govern people and systems to meet an end result. I sometimes feel pressured by the thought that I can't come up with a better idea so just accept the way it is done. This is a wrong way to think. Just because I may not suggest solutions doesn't mean that I cannot recognise the problems. Class systems, government and geographical anomaly may be impossible to change but we can and must address whether institutional conditioning affects church practise.

The Bible tells us to pray and not be angry about the way things are in the way this world is run. Too many Christians have the same kind of auto-acceptance about church. "It's just the way it is, God must have led the church here." But we all know how far off the mark Roman Catholicism is... did God lead that? Whilst staring at the man made religion of Roman Catholicism many Christians cannot cope with the thought that there still may be a way to go before we are rid of those elements still lingering in church structure and systems. Whilst preaching "God led us here" don't forget all the spectrum of denomination today came from the Great Reformation, a protest against Roman Catholicism. Whilst ironing out some of the Theological issues the emerging Protestants did not stop doing doing what the Roman Catholic priests did, preside OVER God's people.

Given our propensity to readily accept what we were born into, isn't it of the utmost importance to make sure 'church' is not subject to institutional conditioning? Moves have been made towards not doing the done thing where church is concerned. Leaders may have removed the garb, made the preaching relevant to today and produced user friendly environments. However, in our society anyone who steps up to the responsibility of leadership will be automatically in a hierarchical system. How so? Because western history, society, culture and what we readily accept in day to day life accepts hierarchy and rank as standard.

If you don't want church leadership to automatically equate to rank you will need to do three things:

1. You will need to tell people who you lead that they should not see you the same as the teacher, policeman, army officer, supervisor or parent, all of whom are in a ranked position in this society for all their lives.

2. You will need to get rid of all the things that reinforce the idea that you are in a higher ranked position. This means forsaking position, status, labels, privileges and all visual confirmation you are the superior officer ie. the platform, pulpit, front row, titles and church structures that rank the people who attend.

3. You will have to live as a brother who may or may not be a leader amongst your sisters and brothers. What you do will have to become secondary to who you are among others.

The primary reason the church has been hindered in effectiveness despite centuries of activity is because the progress made in what the church looks like and how she appears in society has not changed what she is. Christians are not institutional because we belong to the state or don't, we are institutional because we readily-accept-and-never-question the historical amendments made to what church should do. Leadership doesn't look the same as the Roman Catholic church but it sits in a society that will see church leaders as priest-types, set apart, more than brothers or sisters.

So what form does leadership take if not following the post-Catholic model? How will people who are institutionally conditioned be led if the leadership model is of another nature? The answer to these questions lie in the need to remove anything that promotes the priestly rank and other things that hinder the nature of Christians gathering together for ecclesia. When we do this we find much of what we do, and how we do it, is there to serve the priestly rank and all that means in practise. Scripture shows Paul and the other apostles in agreement to teach church as a smaller gathering in family environments around a meal. Each contributed, not just the few professionals. God in his wisdom wanted us to live under the exclusive leadership of Christ and all that would promote the priestly rank was avoided.

We were born into this world where invisible rules and practises worm their way into our consciousness. Our contentment with 'the done thing' should never be blind acceptance. Only God can open our eyes to the extent of how we have been shaped by the environment of this world. We are a product of church history but not subject to it so can you become free by taking the bold and courageous steps toward biblical church?

Do you need a "systemectomy?"

2009-10-05T02:20:00.000-07:00

My journey from inherited church to biblical church

Gary Ward

I believe the scriptures contain a church pattern for meeting. Based on Paul's correction of the Corinthians, Jesus' words to his disciples and historical records, church is home based, non-hierarchical, open and equal sharing around a meal containing bread and wine. The church we inherited is not in the bible and comes from the Roman Catholic practices.

Doing something different for church, even because the scriptures tell you, is only half the story. The real challenge to anyone wanting to do what God says is our own transition from being part of the system to being free. If anyone recognising they should be following biblical directives doesn't have a personal revolution in their own hearts, they will still be all that works against the Lords will. The whole point of reforming our practice is to give freedom to brothers and sisters in Christ. Therefore the personal revolution is paramount. There's no 'how-to' involved with this simply because only God can work with your heart. The 'systemectomy' can be so difficult that many do not complete it. This involves the cross and the first stage is realising the extent to which we endorsed, embraced and entertained the system.

In 1998 I was in Australia and I spoke a message to a youth group called 'Are you a human being or a human doing?' This reflected the birth of some realisations going on in my life as I worked as an evangelist in a Pentecostal church in the UK. I struggled with the leadership's attitude towards those who weren't as 'useful' as others. Using 'service for God' as a benchmark for suitability, a system of membership was used to reflect commitment to the leader's vision. As a leader amongst this system and other abuses, I struggled to see how the leadership team were serving the people. Of course many hours of work was put into the leadership roles for sure, but the fact remained that no matter how much actual work was done, they were in a system that placed them ranked above the regular brothers and sisters in the church. Jesus told James and John that they should not be concerned about superior placing but those who are the greatest are servants. This has nothing to do with putting a 16 hour day in, it is everything about superior and inferior placing amongst brothers and sisters where Jesus said "Not so among you..." Eventually this and other observations about church per se led to an inner conflict. The general party line from church leaders was under scrutiny and it conflicted with God's word/will. After some time I felt God telling me to leave that church and the reaction of the leaders to this confirmed how man-led it really was. It needs to be stressed that we never sowed discord among the church over this. I had no plan 'b' so we went to another similar church which, in time, bore similar characteristics to the one we left.

Meanwhile I was able to step back from the system and it was then God was able to show how church history, human wisdom and hierarchical leadership structures is keeping most of the Church in inherited dimensions rather than scriptural directives. Reduced in effect, it is the lost who pay the price of the man-led church system.

I had to repent because I had also enjoyed my position at times. I was faced with the fact that I too enjoyed the trappings of leadership. This was a time of great breakage. Most people would not say they want to be over people in leadership and many say it goes with the job. However, we are all subject to a fallen, floundering heart. Unless we acknowledge and actively work against this, we gravitate towards wanting to be over people. Is this just me? No... it is in all people because being superior is one of the foundational elements of sin. The root of pride is wanting to be over, Satan tried to raise his throne above the Almighty. Being a Christian does not solve the deeper heart motivations. Some people enter ministry because they genuinely want to help mankind but at some point everyone involved in ministry will entertain what I call 'the King thing.' This is the fallen desire to rule and reign in some capacity on earth and it comes straight from the pit of Hell. This unchecked heart motivation has hindered the church for centuries. It is exampled in the Roman Catholic Church with explicit ranked leadership. Its effects can be seen in the local church where the 'king thing' heart motivations are less explicit yet still present.

Here's a test. How did you react to what I just wrote? Like me I'm sure you want to become all you can be for God. I'm certain that like me you have had things in life to remove and things you need to add as God reveals our hearts. What I have just wrote above is scripturally possible yet the reaction from many is absolute outrage. We will fight tooth and nail to protect our position and status but this is a strange reaction to the suggestion that something hinders The Lord! Wouldn't we want to investigate? I have had the full spectrum of reaction at this biblical suggestion but curiously no real biblical refute. It is a scathing comment on our present condition and instead of responding with rational enquiry, it causes reaction. It can be repented of.... only if someone can acknowledge the scale of the problem and then work against it by practising church. God's design gives little chance for our hearts to buy into 'the King thing.'

On my journey I came across some good people who put flesh on the bones to my experience. I read some good books and also found that some of the authors had bought into 'the King thing' again but this time in the name of biblical church. Its a subtle thing that needs thorough acknowledgement or we will find another way to become the 'King.' I'm guessing that few ministers begin with pure motives but because the ministry is ranked in leadership, few will escape the lure and grip. Even someone reading this and being aware will not stop it. It needs to be taken to the cross and that means repenting. This, in turn, means partying to something that does not give opportunity for the heart to again buy into the King thing. You need to count the cost. It is not your fault or mine that we inherited systems and structures for church. But it is yours and my responsibility to become free from it all when we learn its length and breadth.

The transition time took a while and there are no charismatic fixes to this. We need to allow 'ministry' to bleed out of us and lay down our callings. Don't worry, the world will not go to rack and ruin! Jesus is in charge. He is more interested in your freedom than your feelings so be ready to face some truths about the general state of being and also things personal to just you. You'll know when the enemy is in on the act because you will feel accused as opposed to loved, nurtured and sustained. Jesus knew this time would come where he can take us to a deeper knowledge of himself and be part of the church as found in scripture. There are no dangling carrots here! No promises of millions flocking to biblical churches! It is a hard road with no ego-reward. This thinking is so new it may take hundreds of years to become the mainstream. But when the heart is dealt with, our involvement with church become about truth, love and serving Jesus alone. Much of how we were driven for God's Kingdom you will find is tinged with our own desires and need for notoriety. With the Kingdom safely placed back in Jesus hands, we can then see what his leading is, free from the auto-suggestions of the system. Your calling may have been valid but it needs to take place in the right environment, a biblical one, not a post-Roman Catholic system.

The following are a few things to observe and think through whilst moving from inherited church to biblical church:

You would do anything for Jesus. Can you do 'nothing?'
Others may not be ready to see what you see.
Don't isolate yourself.
Meet like minded people, we can help with that.
Don't return fire on the mockers.
Its not the people that are at fault. Love people.
The system defined some of your experience.
Others defined their experience through you.
The system is not the Devil.
The Devil uses systems.
In this world 'being' comes from 'doing.'
In God 'doing' comes from 'being.'

If you can genuinely see this through you will experience one thing: the truth. This is only about truth but there are a growing number of people who believe and are acting on what Jesus said to his disciples about following him. Its time to lose our own lives, what we have bought into in our Christian lives. No more forging out our notoriety or fame. This was about Jesus Christ only and his Glory. Step aside, let Jesus lead his church again. For more on this read the blogs or contact me by comment.

Gary Ward

Brother in Christ

An answer to inaugurated/preterist eschatology

2009-10-02T06:19:00.000-07:00

Luke 9:18-36

A growing number of people are beginning to believe that AD70 was the beginning of the Coming Kingdom and we now are actually living in that time based on passages that contain verses like this:

^{Luke 9:27}I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God."

The context for this verse starts with Jesus asking who people think he is. Peter saying he was the Christ wasn't just a nice thought, but with John the baptist and Elijah as possibilities in the public domain, people were aware of the significance of Old Testament history. The conversation about Jesus' identity and the ramifications of this on people is at the very crux of anything he could have said regarding 'Kingdom' speak. After all the King has requirements on his subjects in his Kingdom. Then he says some will not taste death before they see the Kingdom of God and this has given rise to opting for the significant date of AD70, when among other things the Romans destroyed Jerusalem, being the start of the Coming Kingdom. Josephus tells of terrible times of great suffering. Lets park for a while the fact that healing and prosperity are standard in the coming kingdom yet are strangely missing from our present dispensation and investigate what "seeing" the Kingdom of God actually was.

As we are all aware the Old Testament would be building up to the coming of the messiah and the completed work. We see many significant characters but two stand out more than most. These are Moses and Elijah. Moses story is better known and we cannot consider Moses without mentioning Joshua. Combined, they made sure the chosen people of God entered the Promised Land. Moses did not enter yet bodily died before he set foot in the place.

Elijah's journey is not as well understood but has similar elements. Apart for his life's work the main significance her is his exit. Elisha with him, he was called at the Jordan and at Gods command purposely took the same exit route from the Promised Land that Joshua had taken to go in. So significant was this route the prophets came to comment at the significance by saying Elijah would be taken from the earth. Moses and Elijah were both ones who established major principles that would become foundational to God's Kingdom in as much as they set the next generation of leader into an entirely different ball game. Through them God was able to establish his principles that changed the circumstance of the next generation. What Moses and Elijah set into motion are part of our experience as Christians today as a direct result of what they set into motion as principles in the Old Testament.

Having had the 'you are the Christ' conversation, telling them he would rise and reminding them they should daily abandon their own lives to follow, then he makes the statement about seeing the kingdom of God before dying. After this some went up the mountain and Moses, Elijah and Jesus.... glowed! usually the glowing is cited as 'they saw the Kingdom of God because they glowed' but what we are seeing is more than that:

Moses died and was buried. Elijah left the earth bodily. These exits were forerunners of how Jesus fulfils two composite elements of God's Kingdom. Firstly Jesus took on our sins, died and was placed in the ground (Moses?). This puts an end to the function of the Law as schoolmaster. Secondly Jesus rises bodily from the earth thus echoing all that Elijah established in his exit with Elisha**. We now know he was able to do both these things because he resurrected. In Christ all is fulfilled and anyone familiar with the Old Testament would know that the promised Messiah would bring all things together and make sense of what can often seem, even to the Jews, as disconnected events in their history.

Seeing the kingdom of God then is not living in the coming Kingdom. The disciples who saw this witnessed in one event the individual composite parts of the Kingdom of God and because the whole conversation began with 'who is...,' it is right for Jesus to tell them some would see the characterisation of God's Kingdom within the context of identity, the who's who of God's Kingdom. Its a little like seeing the early American presidents and their image speaks of their contribution to American constitution for example. Also with Jesus the man, we peer past the Jew and see how he lived, died and rose again to save us.... he represents salvation. Those seeing the three on the mountain that day were seeing God's Kingdom in much the same way.

All this is backed up by the fact that the writer of the gospels ties the transfiguration to 'seeing the kingdom of God' by saying 6-8 days later (or... after that statement....this happened).

So that's just one verse quickly explained.... I'm sure there's a heap more.

** Elijah's exit was establishing the principle of repentance and there are blogs here that explain this huge topic.

Angry people change the world!

2009-09-28T09:13:00.000-07:00

I read this article and thought it was a great answer to people who swerve biblical truth by calling you angry and all the other things used to remain in a place of unswerving arrogance:

Its from DavidFosterLive.com and while I'm not aware of the rest of his writing, this is pretty spot on!

10 ways angry people change the world:

: Things change. But whether they change for the better or not depends on what people do; not just any kind of people, but angry people. Yes, you heard it right. It’s angry people who change the world. Comfortable, satisfied, stuck-in-a-rut, trying-to-protect-my-turf people don’t change the world. They nurse the status quo, which I’ve heard is Latin for the mess we’re in.

It’s absurd to say that the way to change things is to make people angry. Most angry people are not constructive, but destructive. But it’s just as foolish to think that things will change when everyone is fat and happy.

So here are ten ways that angry people change the world:

1. There’s a wrong that must be righted, now. We’re talking about a serious wrong; a principle, not a preference. Something is violated that leaves a gaping hole in the ethical fabric of life.

2. The wrong is in the circle of my influence. There are two circles we have to always be aware of: the circle of my concern, and the circle of my influence. In the circle of my concern, I can pray, study, think, consider; there’s not much I can do. It’s only in the circle of my influence where I can make a positive change. Where there is a wrong that must be righted within the circle of your influence, you have the seed for a true revolution.

3. The wrong moves from a bother to a burden. With a glaring wrong in front of you, it’s hard to ignore it. It’s an ethical thing, a principle; a violation of what’s right, good, and just about life and it bothers you. The minute it becomes a burden, something you can’t shake or run away from, it becomes your responsibility. You become the missionary, the mover of the movement.

4. “Someone ought to do something” becomes, “I must.” Everyone talks about the things that ought to be different. These things are many. But the must-dos and must-haves of life are few.

5. The passion becomes a vision. The real meaning of passion is to suffer. That’s what angry people do when there are wrongs that must be righted. They suffer. And when that suffering becomes intense, a vision arises; a picture of things not as they are, but of how they could be if something happened.

6. Other like-minded people catch the vision. The visionary now talks to his friends and shares. He must. He can’t keep it inside. It’s a burden that can’t be bottled up.

7. First steps are taken. This is the hardest thing to do; to take initiative, to take first steps when those first steps seem to be so woefully short of meeting the need of revolution and change. But they’re necessary. They’re always small, usually done in obscurity by lonely, angry people with a vision.

8. Results are small, but promising. This, again, is a tenuous point in the process of change. We’re looking for big results. We want to make small input and have big output. That simply doesn’t happen. First results are small, but promising leading in the right direction.

9. More people buy into the mission as missionaries. Results attract support. Results attract people. Movers and shakers like being around new things that are arising and happening. And when they come around the mission, they become missionaries.

10. Eventually, the movement creates APB. APB stands for Abundance, Prosperity, and Blessing. Over time the vision of how things ought to be, and should be, and must be, translate into vision. Surrounded by people with steps, great things happen.

Here is the formula for how angry people bring about great change:
W+AP+V+MAP+T=REVOLUTION Simply said, a wrong, plus angry people, plus vision, plus more angry people, plus time, equal revolution.

What is Church? 4 How to leave a church.

2009-09-17T10:26:00.000-07:00

While Jesus was about his business he customarily went to the synagogue, the place where he was brought up. He opened the scroll and told the people there that the messianic passage was about him and he was off! Of course, only he could use the scripture that way but many have been to their peers and announced they need to go and do what God wants them to. Jesus, stating the scripture was fulfilled there and then, left each person there with a decision: "Was this genuinely the fulfilment of this scripture, ie. is Jesus the Messiah?" The scripture tells us two common things that occur in churches-

1) "Isn't this Joseph's son?" To these people Jesus could never be anything else, he was in a box, pigeon-holed by those who had seen him raised from young. Jesus knew this and wasn't about to ask permission!

2) "Surely you will quote - 'physician heal yourself.'" This means the one who heals is the one who needs healing, a well know proverb. Jesus knew they would think like this as they relied on a system of suitability rather than God's calling for people to leave. In churches there are many criteria, key performance indicators and tests to see whether someone is 'ready' to be 'released' by the church leaders. With God, man's lists and criteria for you are ridiculous!

Some churches have forgotten that Jesus is the shepherd and Christians are sheep and the last time I checked, shepherds lead their sheep. The reason we have this example from Jesus Christ is because Christians need to know that God can call people from amongst you at any time! No matter what your opinion is about the why's and whatfors, the scriptures tell us that God DOES call people without the permission of you or the leaders!

As I noted in previous blogs, Jesus had a belligerent attitude towards the system and those who preferred man made plans over God's will. He pointed out to the people that in the history of Israel, God's messengers, Elijah and Elisha were rejected by Israel. Jesus reminded them that they were sent to the Gentiles! For the hearers this carried a threat that they were in danger of again rejecting God's Messenger and, in fact, the Messiah! This angered the people and they dragged him to a cliff edge to throw him off. Jesus went on with what he had to do and so must anyone who feels called by God.

In 2000, called by God, I wanted to leave a church and the leaders behaved just like those Jesus came across. The sad part of the story is that, like Jesus' experience, that church was, and still is, good people simply caught up in man's systems and structures. Because these churches are in a system, some see those who aren't as bad people! Here are a few things we need to observe when we are in a man made system :

1) Those working with the approved system will be 'sent' by the leaders as they are no threat

2) People get fed up with control. This is not rebellion, it is wanting what's theirs... freedom!

3) People do not need an approved path to move on to. Obeying God is called a "step of faith."

4) People can lose the plot if they leave a church. That's their own look out! God loves them too!

5) People who leave through arrogance return. Didn't the Prodigal tell us that?

6) If they don't return, they were not a Prodigal. You were wrong.

7) If you have a criteria for someones readiness for ministry, you must be Jesus, the Christ because you know all about their core workings/motives etc.

8) If you need to turn people toward your point of view when wanting to leave church, you're probably not called by God.

9) Jesus shows us our bad experiences do not mean we are automatically disaffected.

10) Those approving of church hierarchies click here!

If you want help in setting up a church in a home let us know and we can help you return to biblical church and the freedom we were all supposed to live in. Love one another people!

What is Church? 3 How God works with Christians

2009-09-16T09:26:00.000-07:00

The Church is made up of many people and even though there are many (c)hurches we are all one Church. Each person has things within their being that are growing and developing. One of these things are the Fruits of the Spirit. These are listed for us in Galatians ch 5 as love, joy, peace, goodness, kindness, gentleness, patience, faithfulness and self control. These 9 fruits are present in all Christian lives, some juicy fruits in one area and maybe a shrivelled core in another! We are all developing and growing! I'd love to have 'ready to pick' fruits in every aspect of my life, and ill bet others would love for me to have them also!

Because these are the Fruits of the Spirit we can assume that these are also attributes of God's dealing with us. I have observed that the fruits have three distinct categories:

The fruits of 'being'

These are Love, Joy and Peace. These are what God's motivating attributes are. He does things, even tell us off, with the combination of these fruits at work. Have you ever wondered what someones motive is? Isn't it better when someone does something out of love, with joy and with a peaceful demeanour. God's like that in his relationship with us. If we remember that we can always see how God never means harm no matter how terrible we feel about our circumstance. We can see and understand it is the making of us.

The Fruits of 'doing'

When things happen in our lives we can sometimes wonder what the source is. Aware that we have an enemy, often there are questions over who's at work but we do know that when God does something it is always good, kind and gentle. Even God's rebuke is gentle, as opposed to how we often beat ourselves up with harsh judgement and condemnation (if your'e anything like me!). With love, joy and peace God does things that are good, kind and gentle. How cool is that? Conversely, the enemy weaves counterfeit strategies that can seem like God. However, they lack the Godly attributes we are discussing here.

The 'anchors'

Love, joy and peace are attributes of 'being' and goodness, kindness and gentleness are attributes of 'doing.' If God's work with a person falters or is not received correctly, God gives relational anchors in which he set out his terms of work. He will be patient with us, self controlled and faithful. Amazing! God shows his terms but lets not forget these are fruits in our life to be outworked to other people!

Can we relate to others with love joy and peace? Are our works always good, kind and gentle? Do we offer others unlimited patience, self control and faithfulness? It's certainly a struggle to be like God but hey, we are all growing and developing. Church is about relating to our brothers and sisters and we have all the tools we need to become natural, sweet and in season, just like fruits!

What is church? 2 : The Christian Protestors

2009-09-15T10:26:00.000-07:00

No-one likes to be categorised especially where their faith is concerned. The term 'protestant' means that we belong to those who decided, with Martin Luther, to have the bible as our guide and look to God, not Rome, for our inspiration and guidance. In literal terms the reformers PROTESTED against the Roman Catholic corruption that, for example, told peasants their monetary contribution could have people sprung from purgatory!

Anyone looking at Martin Luther's work at this time would have to agree that among the many reformers of the time, he was at the forefront of the move towards the reformation of Theology. However, he also had some unbalanced views of some things thus making him entirely human. In the main, his writing about the church at the time was an unleashing of much sarcasm, constructive critique and passion. It appears that he had little care for those who wanted a nice liturgical responses and polite rhetoric. To those who were conditioned by the Roman Catholic sanctimony, he was downright rude!

Today, us Protestants need to remember that someone had to get in the faces of the Roman Catholic hierarchies and tell it as it is. Luther actually got to speak to the Pope who could have had him put to death! Today Protestants appear to have forgotten their roots! If Luther type criticism was to be vented today most would either call it the devil or shoot the messenger! In his day people listened because even the catholics could not disagree Luther's perspective, it was irrefutable. What he had was an illumination on what God's word says, in a Christian world that had gone mad. Its true that we don't follow Luther, we follow his reforms. But without his approach, attitude and backbone we would all be sat fiddling with rosary beads and worshipping Mary.

To affect a system and structure Luther needed God's intervention. However, for some reason God chose him with all his bad manners and quirks. Let me hazard a guess as to why....

Martin Luther was not the first to be faced with a system and structure that had arisen from the hands of Man. Jesus was born into something that caused him to pioneer the belligerent attitude. The 613 Laws God gave to the Israelites had been added to throughout time as the elders brought in additional rules to stop people breaking the Law of God. So, thousands of new man made rules came into being in order to stop people inadvertently displeasing God and bringing a curse on the nation. Over time another set of rules were instituted to protect the first set! These 'fence' rules, entirely man made, became more sacred than the Law of God!

An example of 'man made' versus 'God given' was seen when Jesus walked through a field on the Sabbath. The problem was that maybe a grain would get in the footwear of the walker and grind the grain thus breaking the Sabbath Law and incurring God's wrath! Jesus blatantly, publicly and hysterically broke the traditions of the Elders and led his disciples to do the same. During this time Jesus had been doing miracles and demonstrating he was the Messiah. If the religious officials witnessed a 'miracle,' a complex set of testing came into being. This included official meetings, waiting times, questioning the one healed and so on. Jesus was doing many miracles every day so the religious officials were run ragged.

Jesus provoked, pressed their buttons, wound them up- on purpose! He didn't do it because he was bitter, hurt, angry, demonised, bored or rebellious. He did it because he was called to stand for God's truth in a world that had gone nuts! Anyone could have said Jesus was ministering out of all of the above, especially those who dragged him out of his synagogue to the edge of a cliff!

To escape man's systems and structures we need someone to be more concerned for our freedom than our feelings.

Gary Ward

1 What is church?

2009-09-12T03:17:00.000-07:00

I want to provide an answer to this question without being technical , particularly quoting bible verses. That said, it is vital that the bible is the source of the information rather than what the church has become in the 21st century. What I mean is not looking back into the bible and imposing what we see and do in scripture. When people think of Christianity and 'Church' they often default to the Roman Catholic Church. This ritualistically impressive invention was birthed by Emperor Constantine in the 4th century while attempting to make the church and state one element. Most churches still have elements of Roman Catholic church practice in their leaderhip structures, ritual and 'temple' mentality. In actual fact the church started off in homes with people sharing a meal, focussed on the Lord Jesus Christ, risen and present by His Spirit.

It is Family.

The scriptures tell us that when someone becomes a Christian they become part of God's family. Other Christians are 'brothers' and 'sisters,' all having one Father. To come together and meet would therefore not be a duty or observance but a relational desire. Jesus was challenged by his mother as he taught some strangers and he told her that the strangers were his brothers and sisters. So the family is central to our understanding about church.

It is commanded.

When Jesus had the last passover meal with his disciples he told them that the wine represented his blood and the bread his broken body. This was part of the meal and he told them to do it in remembrance of him. So, to have a meal of which bread and wine are part is a direct command from Jesus when people meet together. We know he was saying this because he did not drink the last of 4 glasses of wine that are normally drank during passover. He left the last one saying he will not drink it until we are in heaven together. Bearing in mind that at this point he said 'do this in remembrance of me,' it places the full meal as central to the entire idea of 'church.' (email me for more on this)

It is different.

In the time of Jesus and the Apostles, the mindset was to do with the temple, philosophy, human wisdom and accomplishment. The celebrities of the day were anyone with great ideas about life and suchlike. It was likely then that the church would have to have a whole new mindset to make sure it didnt become like any old organisation with the usual characteristics - big boss, membership, aims and objectives list etc. Inevitably some churches did. A guy called Paul was given the job of steering the people to avoid the pitfalls. We can see a letter he wrote to the Corinthian church in the New Testement. Here he corrects them of a number of issues. When we look closely at what he was saying we can see he was telling them to stay faithful to the simple, meal based family gathering. Sadly the church looks like the one he was correcting than what God wanted them to do. Paul was an 'Apostle,' one sent with a message for the church and all the other Apostles were teaching the same thing.

It has purpose.

The bible tells us that church is to build up and encourage one another. People meeting together with love, acceptance, affirmation, belonging, support, peace and warmth contrasts the push and shove of this world we live in. People are impacted by this experience and because God gives people roles and tasks within the family, everyone is cared for. When people experience this they enter their world as people who are different. When people ask about what is different in their demeanour and responses to life, it is an opportunity to talk about Jesus. Today many feel the purpose of the church is firstly to tell people about Jesus. Sadly, neglecting the nature of their meeting together, they are not much different than everybody else in this world. The message communicated is that christianity is just another organisation when actually it is a wonderful family.

It is cultural

The temptation is that church moves with the times and responds to shifting culture. Many churches today attempt to attract people by being socially and culturally modern. Hit music, top fashions, slick leaders and state of the art venues add to the race to be relevant. God's idea was that wherever people are, it is possible to have 'church.' Everyone needs to eat and people meeting in a dwelling with food are the basics of church. God catered for all people in every age through time in his command at the last passover meal. Those choosing relevance over revelation change the nature of church and no matter how big, loud, shiny or popular, if it isnt God's plan, it is something else.

It looks foolish

A small group of people eating a meal, all chipping in about their faith, praying, singing..... sounds weak and feeble to me. Yet this is what God considers to be his plan for salvation! Many are heading for making Church replicate all that people find attractive, trendy and relevant about life, therefore attracting peoples interest. Like every other aspect of Christianity it takes faith to make it work. Making a church relevant seems like hard work to me when God wants simplicity and numerically low groups. The cross, says the bible, is foolishness to those who are perishing. This act is what saved us and we access God's grace by faith. We must accept God's plan for church by faith, dropping our ideas of what we think works or trying to copy what makes business work and grow. It's by faith!

Feel free to comment on this, especially on how most churches go beyond what the bible teaches. "Do not go beyond what is written."

Are you a practicing Christian?

2009-08-29T07:46:00.000-07:00

Ive been thinking around the issues surrounding 'church' and what that means in light of scripture. One recurring phrase is whether someone is a practicing Christian. The general idea is a 'practicing Christian' goes to church and that is the difference between practicing and non-practicing. I disagree with the terms and definitions.

A Christian is someone who has decided to follow Jesus. In doing so they have repented of sin and having been cleansed by the blood of Jesus, restore their relationship with God. How they relate to other Christians is important as we are in one big family. However, it is not the interaction with other Christians that defines any part of the status of 'Christian.' Someone who has become a Christian doesn't have to do anything to verify, clarify, ratify or amplify their faith. It is positional, a factual thing. Its like saying your relatives, sisters or brothers have to do something to make it a reality.... they just ARE your sisters or brothers, its a fact!

Its important to stress that I believe people should be part of a church if they can. I believe church should be practised a particular way for Christians to grow and prosper the way God wants them to but that doesn't affect their status as Christians, just growth, maturity etc. Increasingly the issues of church attendance are being cited as evidence of your Christian status. So long as we tell people that their faith is not the central issue in Christianity, we promote religiousness. This robs life and the potential for people to be genuine salt and light. Sad day for the lost. A sadder day for Christians who are relying on a bunch of people in a room on Sunday for their Christian experience!

God: co-pilot or auto-pilot? - reasoning together 1

2009-08-27T07:21:00.000-07:00

Jesus was both fully man and fully God all at once! This is known in Theological terms as 'the hypostatic union.' To attempt to explain how this occurs is impossible as it delves into the nature of spiritual beings, something we know little about.

One thing is certain, we are spiritual beings and when we become a Christian God dwells within us. I want to point out the danger and error of thinking that this becomes a fusion, the same type of union Jesus had within himself. It wasn't the Spirit of God 'coming down like a dove' that made Jesus become both entities. It was his identity, his intrinsic person as the Son of God that made this occur in fullness. If we think that when God comes to live in us when we become Christians it is the same thing we could encounter dangerous errors that can lead to all kinds of misunderstandings. With Jesus, the Holy Spirit came upon him, not within him. He WAS God so already contained the Spirit - his Spirit. With us it is obviously different.

We get indwelled by God's Spirit when we truly get born again. When we are baptised in God's Spirit, that is when the Spirit comes upon us. If we make the mistake of thinking the indwelling Spirit fuses with ours then it is a short step to thinking that everything we think of is , by definition, of God. This is dangerous because as we reason this out, it follows that a person believing they have a fusion of God and their own spirit, they have no way to gauge where their own thinking stops, and God starts, and vice-verca.

I offer the following description of how the indwelling Spirit works with us:

1) We have a spirit inside us, this is your own spirit, created by God but not God. It's you!

2) God comes and dwells within us by His Spirit when we repent and are made clean

3) The Spirit of God's role is to challenge our behaviour/motives with the aim of transformation

4) We are also led by the indwelling Spirit and given choices to follow or resist

5) In no place in the Bible do we find the Spirit losing His own identity, or us becoming robots

If a person assumes that theirs and God's Spirit is fused or somehow combined then they are struggling to find this in scripture. Such a person also runs the risk of confusing what elements of their thinking, decisions, direction or invention are themselves or God. If they assume that their own existence is fused with God, then they can never be wrong! It means that their outworked plans are, by definition, God's work! End of!

If we live in a correct mindset about how the Spirit dwells in our being yet separate from our own spirit, we can begin to find how we work with God on earth. The bible tells us we need to be living according to the Spirit (Rom 8). This means in our thinking, decisions, direction or invention we are open to prompts, leading, nudges, commands or demands within our inner being. Assuming we are open to this we can, step by step do God's will in God's way. It also gives us the latitude to be mistaken or wilfully do our own thing. It is entirely possible then to have an idea of what God wants (to see people saved) but outwork it in our own way (go and take a church model that is in contra-distinction to the scriptures). If however, you believe God is your auto-pilot and what you feel led to do is God, then you are in error. God is our co-pilot. he assists us but we have the controls and we always have the choice to follow his direction. I also believe that sometimes God can take over the controls. I also believe he lets us crash sometimes! You remain you, and God remains God. As stated, I have no clue how this occurs within us! I just know it is my yielding to God that will see Him able to work through this life.

As with everything, I would welcome comments on this!

Essential Bible Teaching by Beresford Job

2009-08-25T07:24:00.000-07:00

This is possibly the clearest case for returning to a simple, home based, none-hierarchical family based meal for church!

Biblical Church - Part 1 from CCF on Vimeo.

Does church structure matter to Christians?

2009-08-24T11:03:00.001-07:00

I was led to post this after a stimulating discussion. I was challenged with being over concerned with structure. Here I would like to explain a couple of ways the structure of church, what we do, directly affects Christians who are in the structure. I hope it explains why I am concerned.

Social Conditioning
Since being children we have a few invisible 'rules' imprinted on our lives. Hierarchical structure is something that is introduced increasingly from the age of 3. Through School, College, University and the work place we grow accustomed to this system of organisational leadership. Organisational leadership is vital to make armies, schools, business and hospitals for example, work well. When a person becomes a Christian and enters a church there is no need to question why there is a similar tiered approach to leadership. People expect to see a prominent leader, a few understudies, managers, supervisors etc and it is likely in peoples minds, because of the imprinted pattern of this hierarchy, they see the higher ranked person as their 'superior.' Even if a church leader does not demonstrate superiority, it is resident in the social conditioning of the people who are following the leader. When we see the clergy/laity divide it isn't always the leader who is promoting him/herself. Structure affects us in this way because {the bible teaches} we are brothers and sisters. In Mark 10:35-45 Jesus tells his position seeking disciples that authority structures are "Not so among you." Paul underlines this as he corrects the Corinthian Church in Chapters 1-4. To bring superior/inferior paradigms into the church does two things:
1) Diverts the individual to place undue status or importance on a person thus diverting their 'followship' by varying degrees from Christ onto the leader: 1 Corinthians 1:¹²What I mean is this: One of you says, "I follow Paul"; another, "I follow Apollos"; another, "I follow Cephas"; still another, "I follow Christ."
2) It dis-empowers those under the leadership because we all know that people in higher positions are there because they are more able/talented/skilled. If that is the case, I am 'less able' by evidence of my positioning. This forces brothers and sisters into being more like members of a company than a family.

Institutional Environments
As well as being trained for most of life to respond to ranked leadership, there are also the auto-responses created by how we physically meet. Most people have sat in a classroom for almost all their childhood. We grow accustomed to what it means to sit on seats facing the front. At some point the teacher is going to appear and teach us. This means fingers on lips, don't shuffle on your seat and for goodness sake, DON'T try to offer any insight into the talk! Paul the Apostle however tell us in 1 Corinthians Chapter 14:26

What then shall we say, brothers? When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church.

This isn't going to happen if we are sat in a classroom with our institutional programming! So.... structure denies the church input from 99% of the people, something God felt was vital.

King David
It is crucial that we understand the two ways in which God related to King David. David had a heart after God's own. This meant in his father/son capacity God saw David had a good heart. This did not mean that what David partied to was always approved by God. In fact God had David become King of Israel, a position that represented the rejection of God (1 Sam Ch 8). There was never a time when God suddenly decided the pagan system of Kings was all fine and dandy. So David's 'being' was approved but his 'doing' was a system that amounted to God's rejection. God had David fulfil this role as it is better to have a listening man in a bad system. God does not want good men in bad systems. It was a compromise. God wants good men in his plan! Check previous blogs to see how today's church leaders occupy the kingly position in God's family. In the New Testament their issues were not altogether different from ours. They had the input of the Jews and the Greeks. These were the social conditioning and institutional environments of the time. In view of the fact that all kinds of weird and wonderful wisdom and philosophies would beset all kinds of cultures through the ages, wouldn't it be sensible to have these elements to counter the spirit of the age...

1) Small groups in family settings to promote 'God's extended family' - our 'in-Christ-ness'
2) None hierarchical leadership to allow Jesus to be head of His church
3) Equal and open sharing demonstrates everyone has an important contribution
4) A meal containing the bread and the wine as part. "THIS do in remembrance of me"

So... with people, food, and a dwelling, people could have church. Unimpressive? Weak? Foolish? Pathetic? Unworkable? Some say this about a man hanging on a cross.

Gary Ward

OR DATIOUS? How new is new church?

2009-08-20T01:18:00.000-07:00

Just a quick one to ask questions over some of the new church projects shouting (about themselves) being some daring, couragious approach to 'doing church.' You can call your vision what you want and some people will follow the promise of 'new' and 'bold' but to be any of these things you need to ...er... to be new and bold? Most of todays church outreaches are following the same old formats that have seen only a percentage of long term disciples made compared to the amount of money that is piled into salaries and resources needed to make it 'work.' The formats we see people merging to seem to follows the Hills success in Sydney. Essentially these follow buisness formats where leadership is tiered, following one visionary leader.

The bible is clear about what church is and also what it isnt (read 1 corinthians). Anyone doing works to further God's Kingdom has a definate thumbs up from me for sure, but "IN WHOSE NAME" is a growing concern among bible believing Christians. Read 'the numbers game' on this blog for more about the myth of 'filling halls for Jesus.'

I would like to arrange a meeting with several church leaders to discuss the bible's version of church and theirs. Sadly over years public discussion has been avaoided by such *extremely bold or daring; recklessly brave; fearless* leaders. Funny that!

The Numbers Game?

2009-08-16T06:53:00.000-07:00

Recently I saw footage of a church that had grown numerically relatively quickly. The leader(s) were vocal in equating the growth with God's overall approval of what they do. While on one hand being able to tell many people about God's love can only be good, in the long run is counter-productive to God's overall aims and objectives for people.

Whatever is preached and however support systems are employed, God still wants people to be in families, not organisations. Filling halls with people is not difficult. Muslims do it every Friday, football stadiums do it routinely and Rock bands can draw the thousands to the gig. For sports or music a big crowd is an indication of the success. when the concert or game is over, the gates are closed and everyone goes home. The product is assessed by the size of the paying customer. Islam has a religious obligation to meet in the Mosque. So with church, which is it?

If people meeting in a church is for religious obligation then no leader can take credit because the reasons for gathering lie in the obligation not the personal achievement of the leaders involved. If the reason for gathering is because of 'product' then what is the product that people are investing in? Most leaders in churches will say that people gather because the Lord draws them to their more genuine or special anointing. More honest leaders will admit they are offering church to the masses to fit with what people want in terms of entertainment, bling and easy listening. Even the most challenging message is ineffective in an organisation style church because it is anonymous. In a family, a challenge is personal and pertinent because you are known on a deeper level among brothers and sisters.

God's long term aims are to see people transformed into being like Christ and be salt and light to the people in their lives. While the slick program, trendy auditorium and articulate front - men may tell people the component parts of living an authentic Christian life, it is the environment that is missing. It doesn't matter how many people are in the church, it doesn't matter how successful the evangelistic mission is, what matters is that people are being anchored for a lifetime relationship transforming into the image of Christ. Sadly, statistics show that despite the budget, gifting, worship band being the best in the world, the 10 year turnover is consistent in every church that relies on marketing and product.

The 10 year turnover shows that apart from a core group, usually the people the leader gets on with best or simply live locally, a person will take around ten years to either:

1. leave the church discouraged and disillusioned

2. leave the church to pursue an authentic christian experience

3. wander around other churches, never finding a family

4. stay in the church, lie down and accept the 'way it is'

5. stay in the church in the back third, disillusioned and discouraged

6. become one of the inner circle by swallowing and following

7. decide to never question the leaders and hope you 'get picked' sometime

8. throw the entire idea of God away and pretend it never happened.

9. stay in church and commit to a life of arguing and questioning

10. pursue 'biblical church' and find out how Jesus leads his church.

Authentic Christian living has never relied on numbers to somehow validate the experience. God wants people to be being changed so this dark world can not just hear about a living God but see God's work IN those who say they follow him. That will change a world, not just fill a hall.

The Gary Ward school of discipleship

2009-08-15T12:39:00.001-07:00

As if....

Can't Jesus still disciple people then? Does he need my help? Not likely.

He is risen, alive and more than able to disciple you in the normal course of day to day living. Jesus instructed his followers to make disciples. this doesnt mean do the discipling. It means bring them into a position where they can be discipled under Jesus. How can a man know the inward workings of the heart? They can't but Jesus can, and does.

Dont be fooled by organisations who offer internships and courses. Sadly, many rely on your money to pay for over budgeted projects that originated to provide some blokes' salary and make him look good. You may not be aware of this but some churches offer you to pay for courses from Open College Network Style training AND recieve money from the college bodies when you complete!

I guess this isnt wrong if the project tells you that this is an education facility but many pass this lucrative business off as a spiritual aid to discipleship.

You need your bible, a dialogue in prayer, your fellowship of believers and someone who can answer your questions.

And time.

(that can be a tough one!)

Look at the parable of the seed that grows all by itself in Mark 4. This is like someone who comes to Christ and through the normal day to day running of life, the Holy Spirit can bring about all the discipleship that is needed.

Discipleship is spending time with Jesus. Most discipleship programs act as if Jesus is not alive and is incapable of doing his job with his people. Sadly, there are those whose discipleship programs are actually control mechanisms to keep people attending and giving. This is another example of the problems relating to institutionalising the church.

'Radical' Thinking

2009-08-15T12:20:00.000-07:00

Ok, lets clear something up. Radical does not mean a fashionable type of Christianity with lights, a smoke machine and punk youth leaders praying the Lords prayer in a Michael Cain voice. Radical means to go to the roots of something. If you were to get radical about a tree, you would look at the seeds and the way the tree grew from there. Seeds, roots and beginnings all speak of 'radical. 'If we were to get radical about Christianity, we need to go to the place where it all started.

With this in view, we are offering some radical thinking on the church and how we are to practice Christianity. in short, we are attempting to be true to what the Christians did at the time. If we take away the things that were added to the church over history, we find a church to be an altogether different thing than what we have today.
Organic Church
The biggest difference is the nature of the church. Somehow we've got all messed up with the mission. It's understandable really. This world is a dark place and God makes it clear that his heart is for the lost to return to him. Today, many take to the streets armed with the gospel message. They have been told that the lost respond to this message and accept Christ as their saviour. While that is true, it is not exactly what the New Testament says is the way people are switched on to God. A closer look at what Jesus said and what Paul wrote would reveal that it is changed people who change the world. At some point a gospel message will be shared, but firstly the gospel must have changed the individual. "The parable of the egg" shows this subtle shift in understanding clearly.
Christ like before Christ talk
So the transformation in our lives must first impact individuals before they want to know God by their own choice. then they will ask what the truth is about God. This seems clear and many would agree with this premise. However,
evangelistic mission and church gospel meetings cannot possibly work to this premise. Why? because the nature of both assume that a message is the key. If people are in continual relationship with others and their transformed lives are making an impact on the individual, why do they need a preacher to tell them about Jesus? Why cant the individual do this on site, in the mall, at the gym, in the workplace?
Ready for mission?
Ive done tons of street evangelism where I thrust leaflets in people's faces. At one stage we entered the arts and did drama. Although a little more entertaining, it still amounted to anonymous faces receiving just information. If the leaders in a church believe that the message alone is the means of salvation, they will gear all their comings and goings to having people spread a message. This is not a bad thing by any means. People do act upon information. But if the church geared itself to making sure people are built up and encouraged in the Lord, then maybe more people could have effected more people, not just confident, trained experts.
Christ, not mission centred
The New Testament speaks of a gathering called 'ekklesia.' It was based around a full meal where each was able to share openly with each other. For more information on the why's and whatfors of how the church became how it is today go to www.century1.co.uk This form of gathering supported by the writings of Paul the Apostle in 1 Corinthians Ch 14:26-40 especially, indicates that the radical, first Christians were more concerned about being Christ Centred before evangelism ever entered their heads.
What about.....
There are of course scriptures that seem to show that we are to go and simply spread a message. Jesus told his disciples to go and preach the gospel in all nations. We see this at the end of Marks gospel. These were Apostles. If you are an Apostle then nothing will stop you preaching in all nations. Also be aware that if this is the case, nothing will stop droves of lost people coming to the Lord wherever you preach. If you are preaching in the towns and city streets and people aren't coming to Jesus, you are simply annoying them. I know of big mission organizations that spend time, finance and resource producing elaborate gospel presentations. The result? little or no impact. If you aren't an Apostle then simply live life, be changed and witness to people when they ask. One bloke in Acts got someone baptised after explaining the scriptures to him. He was an evangelist and especially gifted in this area. There's also the instance where Peter preached to large crowds and loads got saved. If these were standard ways to get people saved, Paul and the other contributors to the New Testament would have made a very big deal out of it. What did they do? Instead of glorifying the few examples where people came to the Lord by a sermon, they wrote of what is was to be in Christ and encourage one another.

The disciples and Paul had seen Jesus, they had walked and talked with him. Paul was somewhere inactive for 14 years before doing and writing what he did. This doesn't mean don't do anything, its more of an appeal to honestly examine whether it is just a message that challenges people or a life lived with Christ as centre, being transformed daily.

Please, please, tell people about Jesus but make sure your church environment is authentic. It should be helping produce Christ centred transformation in your life, not a program of evangelistic events pushing Christian propaganda!!

Spiritual Abuse

2009-08-15T12:17:00.000-07:00

"Abuse" is a very strong word. In every case of abuse the central factor is the misuse of power. This is the context in which the word is used.

No-one would condone abusive situations when confronted by the realities. Abuse becomes a stark reality when you are the one involved. We reel in disgust at the story of the child who has been abused or the wife who displays bruises from her husbands fists. These are issues that must be acted upon as they all spring from a disregard for God's word. There is another form of abuse that is largely unseen and occurs all over the planet all the time. This is spiritual abuse. Because it is something intangible we ignore its seriousness. However this is a problem that claims the spiritual life, and sometimes the physical life, of many Christians. The fact that God appears to condone the ministerial treachery many experience is just too much for some. What is the truth behind spiritual abuse?

I believe that the systems and structures most ministers party to in their work are to blame. It is true that some ministers know that they are devastating a life but most are following some procedure that they see as 'scriptural'. If Christians do not understand this, they can forever remain a seeping wound. It is easy and often feels good to pin the blame on individuals who were involved in 'what happened'. However, to properly deal with the problem of spiritual abuse, we need to see what is behind it. It will be no surprise to learn that the way church is erroneously practiced is largely the problem. Men who place themselves in a tiered leadership structure in church are asking for trouble. In industry men can do their work in these ranked systems as constitutional boundaries protect those under these bosses. If there is an infringement, unions can represent the employee and ensure the correct procedures are administered. With this knowledge, those in industry generally work towards getting the 'product' out of the door to the people. Each are rewarded for their work and most of the time everything runs smoothly. In church it is different.

Ministers automatically slip into a ranked structure for a three reasons. Firstly, the Early Church Fathers erroneously began ranking church leaders. This practice remains in the church today yet is entirely opposite to scripture. Secondly, it appears logical to create an organisational structure with divisions and sub divisions to get a job done. However, the bible has no church directive to get a job done. We know there is the desire to see lost people become Christians, this is God's heart for those still bound by darkness. But this is not described as a job or a 'product' that the Church should aim towards. rather, it is more a natural consequence of being in Christ and meeting biblically. The church should meet for encouragement and upbuilding but mission has become the drive for most. Thirdly, the truth remains that the heart of man will relish the opportunity to be over other people. It is a biblical and historical fact that when man has anything from kingship to a leadership position in a local church, he is in great danger.

The heart of man is not capable of leading the spiritual life of others. Spiritual life bears no resemblance to organisational/project/industrial life. Spiritual life needs family and the warmth of brothers and sisters. Spiritual life needs the Lord of life to be central to what they do, not a mission or a vision-based end product. With these considerations we can begin to understand how the church has been playing into the hands of unhelpful situations. How can a man manage spiritual life? He can't. Only Jesus Christ can do that. What we see today is mere men making decisions about the lives of spiritual people. It ends in problematic situations.....sometimes misuse of power. Those who swallow and follow the papal directives from thousands of pulpits risk an even bigger problem. They become so convinced their elected Man Of God is their spokesperson that the leading of the Spirit always comes from that person. The result is people who are living their life with two mediators. They have their church leader and then Jesus. Jesus has always been and always will be your leader. A time comes when you either choose the leading of God or the leading of the church leader. Many church leaders react by assuming the church member is rebellious or has attitude problems. While this can be the case, most are being led by God and should obey.

Those who even today experience the darkness and depressive hangover of an abusive situation can find answers and understanding in these truths. If it is possible to see what happened as God's way of setting you free from the hierarchical leadership, you will begin to be healed. Men do act in atrocious ways towards each other to serve their own purpose but behind this is an erroneous system that flies in the face of biblical directives.

Our fight is not against flesh and blood. If you need any more help with this contact us. If you want to know more about how to live as a spiritual person in God's plan for church, contact us.

Understanding the Bible

2009-08-15T12:13:00.000-07:00

When we learn that the Bible is God's word, it's little wonder that we try to take on as much information from it as we can. It is right and good to chew over God's word, examining the characters and learning a new mindset (Rom 12:1-2). The word of God can reveal more of God to us, his nature and his being. We can stand in awe at the incredible work that he has done, especially in sending Jesus to secure eternal salvation for those who will follow. While a healthy intake of the word of God is bound to help us immensely, we must not forget the reason why the word of God is given to us. It has been brought together to introduce us to the author: God! It is in this context, being in the presence of Almighty God, we can better understand the Bible.

In our institutional/hierarchical worlds we can easily fall into the mistakes that have beset many well meaning Christians. This world tells us that the more you know, the more superior you are. We see this in most institutional systems on this earth. With the bible the exact opposite is true: The more you know, the more humble you are! As God is revealed to you through the scriptures it is no ticket to swank around with a head full of Greek declensions. True revelation brings about humility and a heart that is ready to truly serve our brothers and sisters and those beyond 'our own'. Like John the Baptist when the Lord came into his ministry, we want to become less to make way for his work.

Revelation is not about knowledge that is stored in the mind. It is about how the person of Christ is given dimensions in your life. True revelation changes and transforms where knowledge alone simply provides and stored information. As the truth about Christ and the salvation he has gained permeates our beings, we begin to see how fickle and temporary this world is. We begin to see how we are often anchored here in this world when we can be anchored in Christ. As we live our lives, the Holy Spirit helps us to become sourced in Christ, not in this world.

With this in view, it is vital that we approach the bible without a view to gain knowledge, rather, be transformed. Today's church structures don't help with this. Tiered leadership produces a natural rank. Those with genuine contributions to make are silenced by the system that places the educated on platforms. the temptation is then to see education as a way to express a genuine gift. This is how we can approach the bible with a information mindset rather than having transformation as our reason for enquiry. We must remember, whatever our circumstance, our purpose in Christ is transformation, not to seek out position. Unfortunately many who know they have a spiritual gift wander around looking for a place that will allow them to express it. Ministers often call this insubordination, and sometimes the accompanying attutudes are less than impressive. However, they are also called into question as they party to an unbiblical system that has made spiritual gifts into a specialized science.

This is among many reasons why God wanted the church to be open partcipationary style, not pulpiteering or heirarchical. You, no matter who you are, can share Christ.

Who is your Preacher?

2009-08-15T12:09:00.000-07:00

Everyone on the planet has a source through which they live their life. 'Information' is the biggest issue around because we act upon information. Subsequently, what we do affects ourselves and others. Music, media, politician, religious spokesperson, personal hero, pastor or celebrity; all can provide information on how we are to be or what we are to do. For example, masses of people want to look like a particular version of a human being. The right shapes, clothes and attitudes have neglected the simple and profound truth that you are unique! Theres only one of you! The need to be accepted and 'fit in' came from information pumped into the media. It is all usually geared around product and money making.

We have the ability as free thinking individuals to manage the information we recieve. Most of the time we do not consider ourselves to be recieving information when we actually are. So many things we come across in everyday life contains information. With the help of the Holy Spirit, we can identify the 'usual suspects' in the information war. We usually treat certain areas in life with care, rightly managing the info that comes from the source. There can be ways in which the Holy Spirit is unable to help us identify potential dangers. These areas involve our permissions and levels of permission.

No-one should live without the help and advice of others. It is dangerous to close our lives to all human counsel because the Lord can use others. The body of Christ, when free from the institutional rank-and-routine format, is vital to our growth in Christ. When we take the advice or counsel or guidance of other people and elevate its importance we can go astray. When we give certain respected, educated, revered, talented, wise individuals too much scope in our lives, the Lord is crowded out of that area. Even the smallest degree of permission in an area can hand control to a man or woman. Can it be argued that the Lord, should he desire, can speak louder than any person on earth? Is it true that we can 'have an ear to hear' the voice of the Lord over that of our trusted mortal? Maybe so, but when we give permission in our lives to a person on earth we begin taking on their mindset, philosophy and their own version of their Christian experience. A time may come where the two voices conflict. Sadly, many experience this and because they have accepted the 'clergy culture', they default to flesh and render more control to the Pastor, Vicar, Priest or Pope. I am convinced that this is how the system of clergy and laity becomes control, manipulation, containment and stagnant religion without anyone lifting a finger..... it's just the way we are wired. That's another reason why God designed church to be safe, free and Christ centred.

Their information, even if you pray over it and 'lay it before the Lord,' is in danger of replacing the Lord's leading. The body of Christ is their to help you grow and act as a 'voice' of sorts. We must be clear on a few things about other Christians before readily accepting their 'leadings,' 'prophecies,' or 'things they feel.'

There are no Christians more informed about you than you.
No one except Jesus can know your heart.
Jesus is alive and able to lead without any help.
The appearance of God's 'special anointed' is unbiblical.
You must outwork your own salvation.
People have different functions but not levels of superiority.
Sometimes 'helpful' people (including leaders) need to be needed.
God uses people but the interaction always gives you a choice.

It is far easier to rely on people to deliver the 'word of the Lord' than embark upon a Christ-led Christian walk. We can go all our lives never facing the reality of who we really are. The pseudo world of minister, leader or author led Christianity can never delve into the heart attitudes that lurk within. We can even construct a world where everything is manufactured as 'real Christianity.' This inauthentic way to live is caused by the systems and structures readily accepted in Christendom today. The aim of the Lord's work is to cause change in our lives. We are changed into Christlike attitudes and actions follow. If these changes are driven by any outside information influence then we miss the real change Jesus intends within us. This change is sourced within, in the heart of the individual. Christ alone through the work of the Holy Spirit can cause this to occur. Today we see so many ways to change our christian walk, our witness and our worship yet most deal with technique, formula and prescription. It is the inner life that truly makes us salt and lighte. If you cannot accept that we need to return to Christ centred meeting then go the whole hog and buy a tee shirt saying 'SALT and LIGHT' on the front. This is about as much use as living in the artificial man-serving kingdom of NOD that sends millions to hell every waking day. WHO IS YOU PREACHER?

Gary Ward

Reasons for reform 2

2009-08-15T12:02:00.000-07:00

Jesus opposed the practice of tiered leadership, rank and hierarchy in Mark 10:34-45

James and John were wondering if they could sit on Jesus' throne alongside him in glory! This caused problems with the others who were following Jesus. This occasion reveals a fundamental problem with the heart of fallen man even while in the direct presence of the Lord! James and John felt they deserved some kind of special reward for their sacrifice of following. These two said to Jesus "We want you to do for us whatever we ask." While it is ok to ask Jesus to do things for us, we must have the right perspective about who Jesus is. We are his disciples, not the other way around.

The heart of man is vulnerable to seek rank and figure in tiered leadership. To be over other people, in charge of something or be 'the boss' is a desirable position. The world system has rank and tiered leadership and uses it in its functions. When God's chosen people rejected God (1 Sam 8:7-21) Samuel was instructed to tell them what would happen if they had a king like the other nations. The resultant warnings showed how the king would become central to the flow of the land not God. It is here we also see rank introduced to the nation's structure. This came about as man rejected God! This biblical fact does not change over time! Attempts to defend the position of being 'over' other believers in 'spiritual Israel' is highly questionable in light of the historical debacle of choosing 'Kings.'

Rank and hierarchy belong to the 'other nations' and had no part of God's spiritual leadership of the nation. In the light of this it is no wonder the Church struggles to impact and influence society. It has taken on the structure and system of the very thing it attempts to contrast! Even the most Christlike Christian cannot be fully used while partying to the system!

Paul never included rank or hierarchy in his epistles. He only ever wrote to 'brothers and sisters.' Leadership was a crucial function in the ecclesia but was not hierarchical like the world's was. Today we see leaders in prominent tiered leadership positions. When challenged, many claim they are serving the people in their leadership to fall in line with Mark 10:42-45 and they need to be in authority. They say that although they are over other Christians in rank, it is a 'relational rank.' If they have leadership gifting then it will be apparent without an office. True authority does not come from labels or position. Uniform of any kind is enforcement not endorsement. Jesus left official positioning and ranked structure when he separated from the synagogue (Luke 4:19f). Rank of any kind works against the spiritual Lordship of Jesus Christ. Paul and the other authors of the New Testament epistles do not describe a system and structure, simply a way for those who are in Christ to meet. What this meeting has become hinders the work of the Holy Spirit through believers.

Feeling Forgiven

2009-08-15T11:57:00.000-07:00

For various reasons people can have problems feeling that God may not forgive them. Faith is about taking on God's truth no matter how strong you feel otherwise. Over time we find faith replaces doubts and we find it easier to accept incredible truths that Jesus has done what he has done. No matter how holy others seem or make themselves out to be no-one will ever be up to scratch! Our responsibility is to respond to our shortfalls with repentance, putting plans into place to not go down the sinful route. We all want to be perfect and one day we will stand before the Lord whole, with no inclination to sin.

Jesus is our advocate, like a lawyer before God. He deals with it all. Sometimes there are deep rooted reasons why we feel like we are some 'special case' who never seems to be able to stop sinning. The truth is that everyone is struglling in some area of life. Sometimes we meet people who seem 'oh-so-perfect.' We can feel intimidated by their super Christian life and how they seem victorious over all sin. Here's a fact: If you live your life without being aware of some area that needs the Lord's work then you are deluded. Of course you could live in isolation from the world, couped up in a safe room with no outside influences to challenge your life. If this is you then you are not living your life to the full. Holiness is important but we cannot wrap ourselves in cotton wool in order to appear sinless! get out into this world, be salt and light and allow your own shortfalls to be made known to you. This is God's grace at work!

Some Christians don't understand Jesus words in Mark chapter 7. In short Jesus was saying that we should not assess the status of our righteousness by the amount of evils we can see in this world. The fallen heart of Man is capable of making anything into a river of sin! So as we live our lives be sure that there will be new challenges to deal with as time goes by. This is not an indication of your weakness, but a sign that you are living a Christian life sensitive to what is right and wrong. There are three types of righteousness:

Made Righteous: God made you righteous through Christ's finished work

Self Righteous: Your own actions are right.... because you say so!

Traditio-Righteous: You make up additional stuff based on man's wisdom

Sadly many of today's clergy have their own traditions as sacred as God's word. About three months after getting married we were expecting our first child. The pastors wife was less than happy for us. The reason was because it was considered 'wise' to wait 2 years after marrying before considering children! A fair comment I guess, but this had become more a law than general advice! Advice is all well and good as long as it doesn't become a commanding voice.

A story of the history of the Church

2009-08-15T11:55:00.000-07:00

God says eggs should be poached

God says we should poach eggs because when
we eat them, they make us fit and
healthy in a world full of sickness.
That's it. Call off the search! It's
God's word so that should be enough.
Everyone understands this so those who
believe in egg begin to poach eggs and
eat them. Healthy people exist among a
world full of sickness. The sick see
the healthy people and ask them why they
are healthy; they answer... poached
eggs! God says we should poach our eggs
and eat them. The sick person asks "how
can I poach eggs?" After a short
discourse on poaching eggs, the sick
person goes away and poaches their own
eggs. They become healthy. Job
done!

Over time some of the leading egg
poachers decide that it would be better
if we made an omelette. These are
thrown together quicker, have more
ingredients and taste better. Soon
everyone is making omelettes! They eat
them, they taste nice and you can even
have your favourite ingredients in the
mix. Strangely those who are sick seem
unconvinced of this omelette lifestyle.
Generations live and die enjoying
omelettes yet confused as to why only a
few sick people ever get well.

Some study this phenomena. They examine
the ingredients.... eggs and stuff.
What can be the problem? We're not
missing anything out! The things we have
with eggs are harmless cultural
variants. Could it be the pan? The
heat? The omelette eaters? The
Antiegg?

Time goes on. Some experienced omelette
makers are employed to provide cuisine
omelettes. The leading omelette eaters
defend their omelettes as being the
best. Some question these eggsperts but
soon learn that those with more eggs
have more eggs for a reason: God trusts
them with eggs. Experienced omelette
makers continue to dish out the goods
weekly as the Omelette of God. Some
cook, most eat. The cooks become
revered. How special is it to be the
maker of omelettes? Eggrachies emerge
to reflect the level of eggcellence in
cooking omelettes! Generations learn to
never question the omelette or the
cook.

The omelette becomes sacred and holy.
Convinced that omelettes are the way
forward, some translate the word 'poach'
as 'omelette.' Some write books on the
best ingredients for effective
omelettes. Purpose driven omelettes,
the prayer of omelettes and the Alpha
omelette all become standard works
regarding omelette eating. Still, only
few sick people become omlette eaters.
The reason still revolves around the
antiegg and the deggle, the unseen evil
whose destiny is to burn in heggl.

Omelette groups emerge. Some like one
ingredient with their eggs and some like
others. The groups meet together and
their favoured ingredient is
celebrated. Omelette eaters go to the
street offering omelettes to sick
people. Few take the omelette. Those
who do often quit omelettes soon after
trying them.

One day an omelette eater decides that
he is quite capable of making his own
omelettes. After a diet of the same old
ingredients, he begins to question why
the omelette is not making people better
as it should. He consults God's word and
is shocked to find that eggs should be
poached and eaten by each person. He
tells his cook that he wants no more
omelettes and the cook gets eggstreamly
irritated. He leaves the egg-house and
pursues the poaching discovery. The
cook, in true eggressive fashion, tells
the other cooks that this ex omelette
eater has gone bad.

After a while he meets others who have
discovered that God said we should poach
eggs and eat them. This was eggciting
news for this poached pilgrim. He began
a wegg site and wrote a book, begging
people to re-eggsamine the word of God
regarding poaching. After consulting
fellow poachers over his findings
regarding poaching and the like, he
began asking questions why we need cooks
when we can all poach eggs and eat
them. He began asking why we need the
house of egg when the egg is in us all.
He found that the first poachers left
poaching instructions and the way fellow
poachers can help each other. None of
this involved the ingredients that were
to constitute omelettes. In fact, the
way the egg is prepared was the very
centre of all what would bring about
egghouses, cooks, omelettes and sick
people remaining sick.

Having eaten and sometimes even prepared
omelettes for people, he could
understand how omelette eaters remain
omelettized. However, poaching is God's
way and that's that. Those who have
eggxited the omelette way and taken on
poaching can confirm that they are
getting more healthy day by day. When
more people begin poaching it could have
an effect on the sick people in the
world. That was eggsactly what God
wanted.

Maybe some day we can all realise that
God wanted eggs to be poached and
eaten. Omelettes, no matter how well
cooked, do not have the desired effect.
Poached eggs were supposed to change the
eater and that change was to be seen by
those who had no egg. Eggs and poaching
instructions could be passed on to those
who saw the effect of poaching, but
omelettes could never do this.

Omelettes remain the egg of choice and
are offered to the eggless on a daily
basis. Stop making omelettes and get
back to the poaching that God
instructed. Then you will be able to
show people how to poach their own eggs
and be changed themselves.

Gary Ward
self declared egg poacher of the year

Reasons for reform 1

2009-08-15T11:48:00.000-07:00

Tiered leadership structure is unbiblical, as pointed out in 1 Corinthians chapters 1-4

Paul the apostle confronted the Corinthians with a few issues concerning how they were following men because of gift and function. This had led to Paul himself being subject to their judgment as they questioned his apostleship.

There were divisions in the church based on how one considered another leader in, or associated with, the church. Paul could have simply told the church to make sure they follow Christ but instead goes on to underline the true nature of the Corinthian problem.

It is not worldly ability that makes them able to see the powerful message of the cross, yet the Corinthians had returned to esteeming and hankering after those with such abilities. These divisions had caused quarrels amongst the brothers just as it had when James and John asked to sit with Christ on his throne (Mark 10).

Having pointed out the problem of elevating people because of gift and function, 'as the world does' Paul appeals to the Corinthians to have no differences between them.

Chapter four ends the general rebuke before going into specific issues occurring in the church. In this chapter he writes with some irony, >"you are already rich, you have all you want. You have become Kings!"

Like the Corinthian church, everyone knows that kings preside over other people. Paul tells them of his own lifestyle as an apostle, clearly showing that he lived a life of pauper proportions. This contrasts the attitude of the Corinthians. They were happy to make the gifted, educated and talented into 'kings' and those with these attributes were happy to be regarded that way! Paul is reminding them that there will be a time when they will be kings, but at that time all God's people will reign with Christ in his coming Kingdom.

He recommends Timothy to them because he will remind them of his 'no divisions' lifestyle. Paul uses the language of relationship when describing his association with Timothy. Calling him his son again underlines the fact that there are no ranked divisions between himself and Timothy even though Timothy was learning from Paul.

This initial rebuke ends with Paul asking them if they want him to come to them biblically with gentleness and love or in an authoritarian rank - with a whip!

Today's Church are happy to lift up certain gifts and functions. Not everyone has a Corinthian attitude of reigning as Kings, but still function in tiered rank. Paul called this structure worldly. It also caused divisions and arguments. This is what we find today in the denominations and infighting within Christendom. It also accounts for the weak and insipid effect that Church has on society as ranked leadership makes people anything but Christ-centered.

Sadly, many do not recover from the spiritual abuse caused by 'Kings' in ranked leadership structures.

This is why Century One exists: to stand for truth, righteousness and justice when it's easier to do the done thing.

The 9:23 Decision

2009-08-15T11:45:00.000-07:00

Luke 9:23 and following verses are about the cost of following Jesus. The Lord used the illustration of someone carrying thier own cross to describe what he was saying. Someone carrying their own cross had been sentenced to death and on their way to the place where they would be crucified. Being a disciple of Christ was like being on the way to death. This death is a death to self, our own lives and works out over the span of our lives as we journey with Christ.

Today the gospel is spoken from platforms to people who have come to recieve information. Sadly, much of what is spoken is half the story. Through the illustrations, jokes and 'around the houses' methods of communicating these truths, the hearers are left with a choice. What should be communicated is that they are to die to self. It appears that the 'death' message isn't very popular in these days. It has been interpreted as not wanting the big home, the flash car or the stash of cash! While this may be a by-product of living an authentic Christian life, the 'death' message speaks of something internal - something in the depths of the heart.

One of the consequences of sin is that people tend to lean towards self in the comings and goings of life. It is easy to identify the areas where we can stop doing something or replace selfish thoughts and actions with kindness, gentleness etc. This is good but the whole point of Christ being within by the power of the Spirit is that we change. This change genuinely stops us from being self-orientated instead of 'painting over rust.' overcoming issues in life often causes much wrestling and struggles. This occurs because the motivation to change came from expectations to live the Christian life and not the inward death. Expectations, checks and measures come from a variety of sources....your self, the Pastor or vicar, other 'more perfect' Christians or those famous christians we meet in books, TV or music. We can spend a lot of time dissapointed, feeling like a substandard Christian because of the so-called 'challenges' we hear in sermons. These elements breed religious responses while all the time there is a genuine way to die to self.

Luke 9:23 tells us we must be in the process of going to our deaths and that is the condition of being a disciple. A constant, continual process of rendering our own flesh to the cross. For all who die to self there is a conclusion to carrying your own cross and that is being on the cross! Being aware of what needs to be done is not a proof that God has instigated the change. There is a biblical principle that Christians know as repentance but is a much more effective tool than we have believed.

In the Old Testament Samuel went to God because the nation wanted Kings, 'like other nations.' God, forever abiding with the will of Man allowed this, declaring it as their rejection of him. From this point, despite some good Kings in Israel, the spiritual climate went from bad to worse. Eventually God sent Elijah to be his voice in a land of apostacy. Elisha comes later and they eventually exit the land. There is good reason to believe that this exit from the land was done to mirror the entery into the land. If we compare this to our lives we can see an overall comparison: God had an idea that the people live in a land flowing with milk and honey. This was rejected by God's people and their own environment became contanimated with sin. This is like our lives if we do not do God's will. The provision of God for the people of the land was to have Elijah and Elisha go the other way. they went out the same way Joshuah came in. There was a cost, Elijah was taken but it meant Elisha was twice as effective. It also meant the curses of Deuteronomy had ended as a consiquence of sin. This is the principle of repentance being established.

We need to decide to live a life of death to self. This means by truly repenting. Here are the important observations of the exit from the land that constitute true repentance:

Elisha and Elijah embarked on a purposed journey
Elisha had to choose to follow even through discouragement
They headed to a place that represented decision making, the desert
God will take away 'the old thing'
God will make you able to re-enter that area equipped and empowered
It is 'a difficult thing'

So repentance has a much more powerful effect when we discover that it has an establishing element in the Old Testament. Someone once said that the Old Testament is the movie and the New Testament is the script. This certainly fits with the story of repentance and the way we die to self.

Jesus the Trouble Causer

2009-08-15T11:35:00.000-07:00

Have you ever used the phrase, "I don't want to upset the apple cart?" I have used this several times when I don't want the 'done thing' to be affected by my input. In recent years however, I have seen it as my duty, and sometimes joy, to make sure that apple carts are duly upturned!

Is it anarchy or some sense of angry reaction to authority figures? No, it's a calculated response based on a simple yet profound truth: apples were not meant for carts... they were meant for trees!

Apples, when assigned to the said cart, are in the process of being handled. Their destiny is to be distributed to the masses. They may be delivered to a market or grocery store for sale to the health conscious customer. Wouldn't life be different if we all had an apple tree in our garden? Apples would never see a cart and best of all.. they would be free!

So what has this got to do with anything? The answer lies in the way the Church has presented herself to non-believers. Most people, when approached with the ultimate question, "do you believe in God" are willing to divulge a tentative 'yes' based on the concept of a higher being. Even if these stirrings take the form of the Christian ethic of the Saving Messiah, most do not want to become a part of the people who also believe this truth. Why is this?

From family to industry
For years the Church has labelled people with a faith of sorts who do not go to Church as unable to repent from sin. They like the hedonistic lifestyle too much so cannot cope with the concept of a Holy God. There is some truth in this. People do choose hedonism over responsibility. However, there are also reasons why the notion of attending a religious building with all the rank and file procedures leaves many with a bad taste in their mouths. The reason the church has this affect is because apples were meant for trees, not carts.

Christianity was never supposed to be handled in such a way that it needs to be appealing to the masses. It was never supposed to be 'sold' in the marketplace of choice. When someone takes people who believe in Christ and organise him or her as they see fit, they are in effect placing them in a contrived system that has no roots in the bible. Christians were never supposed to become part of an organisation that tells you how to be, what to do and where to do it. Like apples, they appear naturally in the place where they are growing.

The Church needs to apologise to a world that truly longs to see an authentic expression of Christ on earth. This body of people existed in the first century. Today, Church leaders do not wish to take the biblical directives and see them as instructive. Christianity was becoming a global apple cart as early as 95AD. In the 4th century Emperor Constantine made this pseudo Church and state one and the same. The religious buildings, pope-like preachers and subscription-type giving was all a result of this awkward marriage. Martin Luther did much to adjust the wrong biblical thinking behind this but nothing was adjusted in terms of practice. We still see, even in the most modern approaches, institutional structure. Those who dearly wish to follow the living Christ are actually following the directives of a dead Emperor.

Institutional-lies
Why, in the face of biblical data, poor outcomes and historical interference, do we still meet in this style? The answer is in the fact that 'apple cart' organisation is all we know. Also, for some, the lure of picking, assessing, placing, polishing and shipping apples is just too much to resist! This affinity to be over people and 'in charge' is not only a problem in the Church. Every organisation, without exception has the marks of 'institute.' Even if it is not apparent, all establishments that have an end result, a product, bow to the institutional system. Most will say they have a team in charge but there is always an individual who is the decision maker. There may be several ranks under this individual or team. In the end there are usually a tier of people dealing with 'the product'. The ranked organisation, leader led, product driven establishment are the three simple marks of institution. When we engage the institute in our school, education, training or work life, we can see the benefits of organised structure. Simply: It gets the job done! It is at this point, when considering the Church, we run into the problems. Church was never supposed to bear the marks of the institute. Yet it is this system and structure that drives those with spiritual questions away from the doors of the Church. But doesn't the church have a 'product'? Isn't the spreading of the gospel a 'product' of sorts? The answer is 'yes' but the purpose of the Church is not primarily to do this. Apple carts were not the way to make this happen. The tree, with juicy fruits hanging from the branches was sufficient to catch the attention of the one searching for spiritual nutrition.

Now here's the science..
The first century Church also wanted to do the done thing by making an institution. Jesus had clearly opposed the gentile systems and structure of hierarchy in his conversations with James and John (Mark 10). He slammed the religious officials of the time (Matthew 23) with their hierarchical structures; apples were flying everywhere when Jesus spoke! Paul the Apostle also warns the Corinthian church not to take on the 'wisdom' of their culture by having divisions between them. An objective look at 1 Corinthians chapters 1-4 will show that their divisions were not horizontal but vertical. They were following the men who had outward displays of gift/talent/ability. This is exactly how our institutes work. We place those with higher levels of ability in a higher position... institutional rank. The Church was to be different. 'Not so among you' came Jesus command to flee the gentile system of hierarchy. It was not the people that were subject to Jesus' disdain, it was the system. We cannot conclude then, that hierarchy is a problem with individuals. It is itself a problem as a systematic approach to organisation in Church.

The primary reason that institutional formula was not to be present among the Church was because the factor that placed you in the Church was of spiritual nature. The Christian has had a spiritual revolution in meeting the living Christ. Therefore how the individual relates to, and is related to by the Church must be spiritual first and foremost. The uniting factor then, with Christians is not belief itself, but their spiritual position. 'In Christ' is the bottom line. With spiritual position as the foundational consideration in the lives of Christians, therefore the Church, it is absolute folly to impose a rank of any sort in the body of believers. How can spirituality have rank? We are all created spiritually equal! Our abilities and talents are acquired in this world after our life is given to us.

An argument to this could be that we all have diverse spiritual gifts. This is a good consideration but we need to understand the nature of a gift. It is true that a gift is given to us by God but do we also understand that the gift to us is not for us but to be passed on to the body of Christ? There are no gifts that are meant for the benefit of the one who gives it! Yet when labels are placed on the gifted person ownership is taken of the gift. At Christmas the Father gives his child a bike. Because he has given the bike doesn't mean he is now 'Bike-ist!' In the Church the Vicar or Pastor for instance is so-called because of what they are gifted by God to give. In doing so they have become Tesco's! All who need care and support...go to the Pastor. The biblical answer is not Tesco's. The answer is to go to God and he will lead you to the appropriate tree and it's fruit. That way we can be helped by God's answer, not the answer of a contrived system.

'In' the world but not 'of' it
With this in view, when we rank spiritual gifts, it is placed in a format that is devastating to spiritual function. Those who are searching after spiritual answers, or even the God who created them, have a sense that the institutionalised Church is somehow wrong to mimic the systems and structures that have contained and suppressed them for years. They are right! The Church is entirely wrong to endorse the system. Spiritual people deserve to be in an environment where all are equal regardless of gifts/talents/abilities. When a person begins to live from their gifts/talents/abilities it is a short step to disaster. Their concerns go from meeting the needs and requirements of the people to their own position, possession and progression.

These three considerations constitute the basis for every single case of strife, injustice and warring on this planet today. Christians are supposed to be outward looking, yet the institutional structures they find themselves in, forces this inward assessment. Today's Christian leader wrestles with the passion and desire to be outward and facilitating, and the inward leanings towards position, possessions and progression. Christendom is heaving with 'how to' formulas. 'Be a good leader, have prosperity, be purpose driven' are today's Christian catch cries. These are not present in the New Testament. What we find is chapter upon chapter of how to 'be' in Christ. There's little on what to 'do'. Even the instructions for meeting are given in the simplest of terms. Meet like a family, have a meal where you remember Christ and share your gift. What is the purpose of this meeting? Answer: Encouragement and building up of the Christians! How complicated can we make this? 'Very', it seems! The institute can get things done but does not allow the freedom to be who you are. Jesus leading his Church towards affecting this dark world depends on you being you with no artificial controls or additives. The Bible has no record of institutional Church, the experts all agree that the first century Church met in the simplest of formats, and let's face it... It's not exactly working the way Jesus said it would.

Beat the System!
Jesus upset many apple carts. Having left what had become a religious system in the Old Testament, he went on to point out the corruption. Even when leaving the temple where he was brought up, Jesus couldn't help reminding the officials that God doesn't always work for the benefit of Israel. They wanted to kill him there and then! At every opportunity Jesus flouted the traditions of the religious officials and even taught his disciples to do so. They were furious and threw every accusation they could at him. However, Jesus knew what God's word said, so all the man made traditions that had become a ring of steel around the people should never bind the people again. Because we have the similar traditions and man made religious fences today, I have no problem following Jesus in his apple cart ministry. Like our Lord, I want to see righteousness more than I want popularity. I want to see this world witness an authentic, biblical Church upon this earth more than I want status and profile.

Next time you go to Tesco's and see the pretty apples all lined up in a row, remember they have been handled, treated and manipulated to look that way. The lights shine upon their polished skins. They all look the same. While we can all polish ourselves and present a flawless image, most of us know we aren't really that person. If we're honest, we all have maggots! We all have areas of blemish and sourness. We are not all the same.

Can you dig it?

2009-08-14T01:45:00.000-07:00

The story of Elijah and Elisha is an incredible story. I believe the elements of 2 Kings chapter 2 constitute one of the most important events in OT Biblical History yet it is rarely seen as important. I will unpack the relevance of 2K2 in subsequent blogs but here I want to highlight Elisha's walkabout with the Kings. This happens in 2 Kings 3 when the kings join forces to defeat the Moabites. The assembled armies soon run out of resources in the desert on their way and they look to 'the man of God' for assistance. In the Old Testament there was a system where people were allocated by God to fulfil certain tasks. These tasks were often accompanied by signs and wonders and they would be recognised as someone God accompanied, thus becoming 'the man of God.' Today there is a clamour to be seen to be 'the man/woman of God.' In these New Testament times God still leads people to fulfil certain tasks but there is no system of 'haves' and 'have-nots.' If someone seems to be accomplishing in forwarding God's Kingdom today there are a few guidelines I would recommend:

1. Check that people involved are not claiming they are superior or special. In the New Testament no-one has special or superior status. They didn't in the Old Testament but as in those days we still lift the 'famous christian' high.

2. Is this work genuinely and miraculously showing God's accompaniment or is it a business method at work? Receiving money from people for product or passion is not a miracle. It is business. God can guide giving but as paul said it is not under compulsion... free will.

3. Is there a human benefactor taking money or status beyond 'wages' or reasonable respect?

4. How are people treated by the work? Ask people who have left!

5. What are the roots and shoots? in other words, who do they associate with and are these Godly people etc?

Elisha told the kings that he wouldn't even look at them if it wasn't for the presence of the Godly. We should take that advice and weigh even the renown Godly ventures before throwing support their way. Elisha went on to demonstrate a vital principle that applies to us today. Having worshipped God he told the people to dig ditches. The self important kings had work to do! When the water came the capacity to hold the water was increased by the ditches. Today many place themselves as kings of organisations and churches. God's ways are always consistant, his work is to excavate our lives in order to make us more like Jesus. If we elevate ourselves we can only expect a man-made experience. If however, we hold back on self promotion and personal notoriety, we will be better placed for God to make us more and more like Christ, the central purpose of our christian life.

There are many organisations and churches who do not seek notoriety, fame or claim miraculous intervention over a collection plate. It is the way they have accepted a business or institutional structure and constitution that suggests they encourage hierarchy and superior/inferior paradigms. Because the human heart LOVES to be special and superior, often those involved in structured churches and organisations succumb to behaving this way. The answer isn't to just 'guard your heart,' it is to repent of our associations with anything that fosters self-ism or even the dangers associated. Here is a list of Biblical charachters God used and the status they recieved on earth:

Jesus: man of sorrows, rejected, beated, crucified, left position to do God's will

Paul: beaten, imprisoned, rejected, traveller, left position to do God's will

John: beaten, rejected, exiled

Isaiah: outspoken, sawn in half

Jeremiah: Just read it!

Ezekiel: Just read it!

Moses: Criminal, exile, overworked, undermined, missed opportunity

Jesus our Lord

2008-09-08T08:19:00.000-07:00

The sharp end of the stick where moving away from the institutional expressions of church are concerned must be about how it affects your relationship with Jesus. Firstly we need to understand what it is to elect Christ as the true Lord of your life. We need to get rid of all the things we buy into that make us decentralised on God. I know a Pastor who has the tag line of his church 'Christ centred' yet he dominates the stage and is constantly filling the peoples ears with his product and his own 'wisdom' I believe we can help each other out in life but NEVER to take any percentage of the attention off the living source Jesus. Sadly many men are church icons, telling the congregations that they are their disciples or at least living this principle out.

A relationship with God is something we should all be working towards being unfettered. Reliance's, scaffolding, life support systems all exist in the church and work towards us becoming more plugged into the dust. We need to be plugged into our heavenly source: Jesus and that is an amazing thing. We begin to see who we really are in the light of his love, we experience his first hand love as we draw upon him, not a sermon, to sustain us in times of need. We rejoice even in hard times because it is these that excavate the soul to contain more of God's Spirit. We can nurture the raw faith it takes to truly trust in that which is unseen. Gone are the pseudo-faith claims that are really business plans. Gone are the hope in some unseen cloud to win the neighbours when we really need to be light and life. We key into the realities of supernatural ordinariness instead of living from goose-bump to goose-bump.

er.... whats that you say?

2008-09-08T07:35:00.000-07:00

At this time the evangelical/pentecostal types in the church are wondering what has happened to a couple of their hero's. Both have been subject to that old chestnut 'sin' and have been found out. I don't think that they have sinned is the problem, its the fact that they have hero status at all. Its happened before and it will happen again, man will raise the profile of someone and over time they will be found out. My particular issue about one of the men concerned was that he was putting forward unbiblical teaching about angels and such like. I'm not talking about the grey issues we have our own points of view about, I mean things that encroach upon the core beliefs of Christianity and present weird and wonderful opinions as fact.

Many have told me that I shouldn't be so worried, 'let God sort it out' but I simply can't! It is our responsibility to discern the error and be alert! It appears we are all worried that if we question the strange teachings of some platform superstar we are judging. No. Judging can only be an issue if conclusions are brought with no data. If something occurs and we have data, we must act according to scripture in dealing with the issue. Nowhere does Jesus say, 'tho leavest thy brains at thy house' when approaching false teaching. Jesus said we would know by their fruit and fruit is measured by scripture. Its not rocket science!

It's going too far when having reached a conclusion about a ministry that is misguiding or teaching erroneous stuff, we then lambast the individual. I cannot judge the motives of an individual but I can comment on its scriptural validity. Interestingly my communications about certain ministries with other Christians have led to them taking pot shots at my motives while telling me to not judge! Here's my motive for raising the issues:

The Word of God is our standard, our datum edge and our compass. If I hear or read of anyone who is knowingly or unknowingly using it wrong, it is my responsibility to protect my brothers and sisters from such error.

Done in love we can all exist in a safe environment, free from the false teaching and misleading statements from those who know better

Do you live by faith?

2008-05-03T09:32:00.000-07:00

It says in more than one place in the New Testament that 'the righteous will live by faith.' Faith is relying on the unseen. The biggest example is how we as Christians believe in God who is not seen. It's unreasonable yet we choose to believe in Him... that is faith. When I teach that the church should be small groups meeting in homes around a meal with everyone contributing... and that will cause revolution... people think I am out of my mind. The reason is that methods for success in organisations are tried and tested and the church utilises these methods to outwork the purpose of 'church.' Doing the done thing is not living by faith! Its living by methodology and human planning.

The church that has no resemblance to what 'works' seems foolish and powerless. However this is exactly what God wants! We need faith to be part of something just because he says so, not because we think it has the right components or the elements of something that has worked before. It takes no faith to attend a church whose visions and plans are straight from modern day business techniques. Still my Bible tells me 'the righteous shall live by faith.'

Paul the Apostle told the Corinthians that they should meet around a full meal with bread and wine as a part. He also told that faltering church that their heirarchical divisions were not good. He also told them that when they meet together each should have a contribution. In churches we find the meal reduced to a token gesture, heirarchies in abundance and a small group of 'experts' speaking to the crowd.

I communicate to many ministers who feel that the existance of the church to this point in history is validation for their practice. If validation is gained by existance then the Roman Catholics are also doing the right thing! Validation by existence is a weak argument and underlines that we need to see the church in scripture.

I want to see people become Christians but I believe it would be a revolution if people simply returned to New Testament church practice. Why? because God says so. How? I dont know..... but thats faith for ya!

The search for significance

2008-04-29T10:50:00.000-07:00

Today a work colleague asked me a question: "what is the purpose of our lives in God?" Ten years ago I would have answered 'to be used by God to fulfil his plan and purpose,' and to some extent I believe that today. However I thought about this and had a few interesting observations. In the western world we seek our identity through becoming who we want to be. We pursue activities, careers and what we say are callings. One thing is for sure, we all search for significance in one way or another. Even our families can only provide a portion of our significance because one day we do ask 'what is the purpose of our lives in God.'

I think we have been nudged all our lives into thinking that our significance lies in how we live our lives and we need to live in a relationship with Jesus Christ to even begin the search for significance. In the chat with my colleague we discussed the fact that we are significant by virtue of our BEING! In Christ we are unique and are personally known by God. Mind blowingly he thought of us before creation and knew about your life even then! I also believe that God wants to be with us as much as we want to be with him! Because our societies constantly envelop us with the value of status, materialism, celebrity, what attributes make us 'count' we hardly consider the intrinsic value of our lives before we measure ourselves by this worlds values. If we can see past the imposed value systems we can begin to see that God loves us in our stripped down state. He loves US! We are significant by virtue of our being. What confuses the issue is when we try to compete in a world full of wrong values. We can lose self worth, self esteem and individuality if we are trying to be someone by ever unattainable standards. With God you are accepted by being you!

Sadly many leadership structures re-enforce a value system that claims prosperity, status, profile and celebrity are blessings and should be pursued. there's nothing wrong with these things as long as the heart isn't buying into them. I'm not sure anyone this side of heaven can resist the seduction of the worlds value systems.

I will never sell out to this worlds values. They are condemned to this earth.

They are dust.

The Greater Commission

2008-04-27T11:39:00.000-07:00

Ever asked 'what is church for?' If you have you probably get the standard answer 'to save the lost.' I understand that. However, I believe the church's primary responsibility is not to save people but to BE the church. Unless the church is overflowing with the Holy Spirit's life, we risk entering our communities with just words. This brings about a minimal response from those we are encountering. We need God's power and it starts with 'church.'

I believe there are elements that make us feel like we are equipped to impact society and sometimes it works. Here and there people respond to the gospel. However, many give up over time as people simply fail to respond to the gospel message. Can it be that we are filled with other things which crowd out the Spirit's power? Even though Jesus said being a disciple is about losing your life, we see many who the church has given them profile, status and sometimes self worth. Many are filling holes of self esteem with their position in church life. I'm all for being encouraged by the body of Christ but these deeper issues are only truly found IN CHRIST.
We can only overflow with what we are filled with and for many it is 'church.' It needs to be Christ.

If we consider Paul instructed the Corinthians to meet around a meal (1 cor 11), meeting in homes not halls with open and equal sharing (1 Cor 14:26f) we can see how simple church was. When Jesus said "this do in remembrance of me" at the last supper, while he was speaking of the bread and wine, the context was a small group eating a meal with Jesus at the centre! With absolutely no instruction to have clergy, the house of God and reducing the meal to a sip of Ribena and a lump of bread, there is certainly a case for re-examining 'church and how it has become tampered with over years.

We can only overflow with what we are filled with. How we do church is CRUCIAL to being a free flowing vessel through which God can burst into society. A friend who Pastors a church told me she left a mission with an aching heart for the lost but this person is not willing to even entertain the possibility that we need to change the way we do church. Contact me if you need more on reforming church practice.

Empty Message?

2008-04-27T01:44:00.000-07:00

There are those who shop around the marketplace of religion wondering what 'the answer' is. I believe faith in Jesus Christ is the answer as this opens the door to a relationship with God. Ive been accused over the years of having a blind faith or a western mindset. In other words I only believe the Jesus story because my upbringing was saturated with a bias towards Christianity. I can see how this accusation is true of Muslim countries as they are forbidden to even speculate on other 'truths.' My faith in Jesus has grown and much of that has been because of the incredible knitting together of Biblical data. Having looked over other 'holy' scriptures I can assure you there are tales of amazing ventures. None can match the Bible which over 1500 years, 40 different authors on three different continents still shows the consistent message of an incredible God.

One of the most incredible occurrences is the Transfiguration (Luke 9:28f). Here we see a meeting between Elijah, Moses and Jesus. If there was a board meeting in eternity you would expect to see these three at the table without doubt! Here they were chatting on the mountain in full view of the disciples who were invited. What was the purpose of this event being outplayed in the public eye, forever to be recorded in the bible? If we look who was there we see significance: Moses took God's people to the edge of the Promised Land and died, buried in the ground. Elijah exited the Promised Land and was taken alive, bodily, in a whirlwind as Elisha looked on. We now know that Jesus was buried in the ground AND taken bodily into heaven. This was possible through the resurrection! He died and was buried like Moses thus fulfilling that era and by ascending in heaven fulfilled the era that Elijah spoke of. In Christ then we have the fulfilment and completion of all times, wrapping up the saving work of God on planet earth.

We simply have to walk in his footsteps and be led by the Holy Spirit.

No other book has the forensic nuts and bolts like the Bible. It is a miracle manuscript designed to point us towards entering a relationship with God. Choose Jesus.

"Give me back my church!"

2008-04-26T06:01:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my first blog. A huge point of debate right now is the way 'church' is being examined by all kinds of Christians. Good people will arrive at their expression of church this Sunday readily accepting the format and functioning. Over the last few years it seems that God has been shaking up the accepted leadership structures and speaking to people about 'church' and what it is. Some have walked away from what has been identified as 'man's idea about church' and began to explore God's idea. More than a few times I have been told to just concentrate on the important things like our relationship with Jesus. I agree! What many fail to see is how our practice church and our relationship with Jesus are connected.

We live in New Testament times but the Old Testament principles have much to show us. In Samuel's day the people wanted to elect a King to lead them like pagan nations. God told them through Samuel (1 Sam 8)that this would have socio-political implications on the nation. Chillingly they were told that God would not hear their prayers if they chose to use the system and structure of 'Kings'. The entire move amounted to the rejection of God but being ever merciful God allowed them to choose the pagan system.

In the New Testament we have Paul instructing the Corinthians how to meet. Careful not to replace the essence of being 'in Christ' with a manual-style operations book, Paul crafts the instructions in the corrective narrative. We see in Corinthians and history a church meeting in homes around a meal consisting of bread and wine. We see open and equal sharing... and we see revolution! It wasn't long until, like those people in Samuel's day, the church reverted back to a mixture of Old Testament practice and what any old organisation did in the day. In short the church lost the power as it blended into the institutional ether of the time. Emperor Constantine secured a thousand years of 'dark ages' by officially backing this form of religious practice. I believe the Scriptures show us what man is capable in the rejection of God's rule in the favour of the plan of man. As the New Testament outplayed, man again rejected God's plan for Church and the last 1800 years have seen the consequences.

Today many feel blessed by their experience of church but they mix up who they are and what they do. King David shows us someone whose heart was after God's own yet he existed in a structure and system that amounted to rejection of God! The fact that you are loved by God is a blessing but it does not mean that the way church is practiced is in line with what God has planned. We are easily impressed by the small signs that Christianity is doing well but the first century church contributed to halting the mighty Roman Empire! Millions hear the gospel every day around the world but sadly there are minimal acceptances. Why is this? As God said to the people of Israel when they rejected his plan,

"When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, and the LORD will not answer you in that day"

Many are returning to the simple yet powerful format for church. They are handing their crowns back to Jesus and returning to the biblical plan for church. Some however continue to stand by the way things are citing "culture" or "numbers." The truth is Jesus is saying "Give me back my Church".... can you hear his voice?