Finding God as your Source

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

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

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?"

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

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!

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.

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

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

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?

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?

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

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

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?

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?

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?

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

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

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!!