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."