The Need for The Apostle

Seeing the Big Picture

The Smaller Image ... Only A Part of the PictureThe five fold is like five different points of view, seeing the same image, but from different perspectives. The evangelist just sees birth and birthing, the pastor/shepherd sees caring and nurturing, the teacher sees only the written Word of God and its application, the prophet sees only black and white spiritually in an intimate relationship and the living out of the Word, but the apostle sees the big picture.

Unfortunately for the apostle, who sees the big picture, he cannot do the big picture himself: he recognizes his need for the other four! Thus the need for the five fold if we wish to see the Body of Christ in unity being used in its full potential, in the fullness of Christ Jesus!

At school I use a program called Rasterbator for Windows, at home PosterRazor for Macs. These programs enlarges a picture, into 6 foot by 8 foot documents, by making pixels.  If you look up close at only one section, you cannot make out what the picture is, but if you walk 10 feet away, the pixels turn into recognized objects as you begin to see the big picture in clarity.

The Big Picture: The Church As A WholeThis is how it often is in the church with different perspectives in the body of Christ.  We only see in the light of the little cluster of church that we go to, or our denominational or influential group.  Very few have the ability to see the Big Picture, the Church of Jesus Christ in its entirety.

Seeing that Big Picture is truly the gifting of an Apostle.  For those who refute that apostles are not for today, I am sorry they do not recognize the need for men and women in the body of Christ who can see the Big Picture of the Body of Jesus Christ today that goes beyond the divisions tunnel vision has produced.

Laying Down One’s Life

The Key: The Husband in a Marriage Model

Part III

When Jesus died on the cross he bore the sins of the entire world upon his shoulders.  He carried all of mankind’s sins.  He became 100% responsible for those sins and was willing to carry that responsibility because of His obedience to His Father.  None of those sins were “his fault”, for He was without sin, sinless.  He carried 100% of the responsibility with 0% being His fault.  You have to see the revelation that He got from His Father to reveal to the world: 100% responsibility with 0% fault.  There lies the revelation that unlocks the mystery of marriage and the relationship of the Church.

Men, as head of your Christian households, are you willing to take 100% of the responsibility for your wife even when it is not your fault.  This whole business about being “Christ like” has nothing to do with faults and blame.  It is about taking on your responsibility for you and your wife, 100% of it!  When you do that, I guarantee that she will be 100% willing to submit to you.

I can hear you crying even now, “That is not fair!”  True, the cross was never fair.  Everything possible was stacked up against Jesus, the physical, the emotional, the spiritual realms were all in opposition to what He was doing the day that He died on the cross.  The physical and mental torture that He went through from the time that He was in the Garden of Gathsemene until his death on the cross is indescribable, but He did it out of obedience to the Father, to reveal His Father’s heart, and it was totally unfair to Him because He was sinless.  If the cross was fair, then you would have to have died for your own sins, but Romans 5:8 states, “God demonstrates his own love [the heart of the Father] for us in this:  While we were still sinner, Christ died for us.”   So, He died, for your sins and mine, and that wasn’t fair.  Fairness is not part of being Christ like.

Our Christian marriages should also reflect this same Christ like attitude, “revealing the heart of the father” to my wife so much that I am willing to take 100% responsibility for her even though it may not be any of my fault, not because she loves me (which would be conditional love) but because I want to be obedient to the Father and am willing to lay down my life unconditionally.  I am not doing this as a reaction to her, but as an action from the Father.  I love my wife enough to lay down my life for her in obedience to the Father. Now this would mean that as a man, a husband, I have to nurture an intimate relationship with the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, so that I would look to Him and expect to hear from Him about every area and every situation in my life, my wife’s, and my children’s.  My acts of obedience to Him would produce only one reaction from my wife, submission.  Isn’t it amazing that usually the times she chooses not to submit is the very same time when I have chosen not to be obedient to the Father and not be Christ like.  I guarantee you that if we men would act out of obedience to our Father in a Christ like attitude, having the mind of Christ towards our wives, revealing the Heart of the Father, they would come running to us obediently, which is known as submission.  But guys, it takes our actions for their reactions.

 Christ loves “revealing the heart of the Father to” you, me, and the Church, by laying down His life for you, me, and the Church because He was obedient to the Father, not you, not me, nor the Church.  Jesus’ actions was purely done in obedience to His Father, so must ours.

Laying Down One’s Life

The Key: The Husband in a Marriage Model

Part II

Let’s look first to the sanctity of Christian marriage before we look at the Church, for their lies the understanding we need to solve this mystery.  Although Ephesians 5:22 starts with an exhortation to the wives to submit to their husbands, I want us to look at what they are to submit themselves to!  What is the role of the husband in a Christian marriage according to this passage in Ephesians?  “(a) Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, (b) cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.  (c) In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies.  He who loves his wife loves himself.   After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the Church -- for we are members of his body.  (d) “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”

Let’s look at the first part of this passage:   “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy.”  We need to put John 3:16 beside this passage to understand it.  “God so loved (revealing the heart of the Father) to the world gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  Men, we are suppose to love (reveal the heart of the Father to) your wives, just as Christ loved [revealed the heart of His Father to] the church and gave himself up for her.  Men, our purpose in marriage is to reveal the heart of the Father to our wives, but the question remains, “How do we do that?”

At a church men’s retreat the speaker taught us what that meant through a simple diagram. 

All throughout Jesus’ life, He was always obedient to the Father because He wanted to reveal the heart of His Father to the world.  He often tried to teach his disciples “If you have seen me you have seen the Father, because I and My Father are one”.  Often Jesus would retreat to desolate places to spend time with his Father, only to return and do miracles, because the way Jesus operated in ministry was by looking to his Father, by listening to Him, then by being obedient to what he had seen and heard.  That is the life of obedience, the life style Jesus followed.  Everything Jesus did, everything, was done out of obedience to his Father, so it would be obvious that the two of them were one!  The reason Jesus died on the cross was because his Father told him to do it.  He did it out of obedience to his Father.  He did it out of love.  He did it to “reveal the heart of His Father”.  That revelation came through obedience.

God placed Adam on earth to inhabit it, but as we all know, Adam sinned and the rest is history.  The “heart of the Father” was to restore Adam, or man, to the rightful position for which he originally created.  In order to do that satan, who had become prince of the air or earth, had to be defeated.  Only the shedding blood could restore the broken covenant with God, so He sent His Son, Jesus, to die for the lost and rebirth his body, the Church.  God loved the Church so much that he was willing to give His Son’s life for its redemption.  Jesus, in obedience to the Father to reveal His Father’s heart, was willing to lay down his life for his brethren to restore them to what they were originally intended to be, children of God.  At Jesus’ death on the cross and resurrection came the redemption and restoration of God’s children with Adam being the first child and now Jesus being the first child through redemption, and the Church as we know it today was born.  Jesus loved the Church so much that He was willing to die for it’s redemption only because he was willing to be obedient to His Father, wanting to reveal the heart of his Father to His creation.

Laying Down One’s Life

The Key: The Husband in a Marriage Model

Part I

Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord.  For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which He is the Savior.  Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.  In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies.  He who loves his wife loves himself.  After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the Church -- for we are members of his body.  “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”

This is a profound mystery - but I am talking about Christ and the church.  However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. (Ephesians 5:22-33)

“Relationships.....”

 How often have we heard that scripture in terms of horizontal relationships between man and women, husband and wife, but have you ever looked at this scripture in terms of brother to brother, or sister to sister in their relationship to each other in the Church?  It is easier, I think, at times to grasp the vertical relationship between God and fallen man and his redemption than it is to understand the “profound mystery - but I am talking about Christ and the church” both vertically and horizontal in relationship.

I have heard multiple sermons on why Jesus came to earth, dying for the sins of man, and His ascension into the heavens, back to be with the Father, sitting on his right hand interceding for the Church.  I have also heard sermons about the rapture, the time when He is to return to earth to get his church and take them with Him into heaven.  I have also heard the Ephesians 5:22-33 passage read at weddings as instruction to the couple about to be wed in a Christian wedding.  Often in my Church of the Brethren background I heard it coupled with the I Corinthians 11 chapter in sermons about how women should submit to their husbands and justifying the practice of requiring their women to wear head veils at all times as an outward sign of submission.

 I have not heard this passage referred to the Church except for the rapture, when, I was taught, Christ would return for his “radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.”   I was told from the pulpit that the second coming of Jesus could come at any moment, “at the twinkling of an eye”, “when you would least expect it”.  Years ago fear was implanted in many believers when told from pulpits that they should never be in bars, movie theaters, or other undesirable places because what if the Lord would return at that moment?  Yes, Jesus is coming back to a “radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.” When I see the state of today’s church, I do not worry about the Lord’s return being today or even soon, for the stains, wrinkles, and blemishes of the church are very prevalent to me.  How is the church to rid itself of its stains, wrinkles, and blemishes?  “This is a profound mystery - but I am talking about Christ and the church.  However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.”  Maybe the answer to this mystery can be found in the model of marriage as Christ has proposed.

Five Fold Rooted In Tradition

“Swimming Egyptians Bring Closure”

As a child I remember singing “I have decided to follow Jesus… No turning back, No turning back.”  I also loved to listen to Keith Green’s So You Want To Go Back To Egypt on his early album.  Growing up as a Church kid, the idea of no turning back really didn’t have the impact on me as it did with those who had dabbled in the world before coming to Christ.

As I was reading my Bible this morning, the Passover story, it hit me how wise God’s wisdom really is.  Moses had been doing nothing but listen to Pharaoh’s harsh words due to a hard heart and constant complaining by the Israelites for the circumstances they now faced.  Israelites majored in whining, and they found their backs to the seas with the Egyptians charging their way with the purpose genocide. Then Moses raises his hands and the sea parts, winds blow, dry land appears, and the huge throng of Israelites crossed safely.  After their safety was secured, Moses drops his hands, the walls of water collapse, and all the Egyptians flunk their swimming tests. The results: dead Egyptian bodies floating a shore all along the coast as a testimony to God’s greatness.

Then it hit me: The collapsing walls of water were not only to swamp the Egyptians to their death, but they were to close off any way or path “back to Egypt”.  Physically, the break was complete.  Israel could not physically go back, so they had only one way to go: forward in spite it being only desert to the naked eye.  That is so how it is in our spiritual life.

What would be immortalized in the Jewish tradition was not their desire to return to Egypt as had been their attitude before crossing through the watery wall, but the glorious deeds of the Lord who prevented death’s sting by passing over their door and His delivery from the Egyptians.

As the book of Corinthians boast, “all things are new in Christ Jesus.” The Christian walk is not “rewalking” the past; it’s a total break from it.  It is always a forward walk in faith.

For Moses and his Israelite brothers and sisters, God had been his Salvation, the evangelistic spirit. Now they would witness God as their pastor, shepherd, provider, leading them by faith, feeding them miraculous manna daily in a way they had not previously experienced. They would be given the Law on Mount Sinai, as God through Moses would teach them God’s principles, commandments, and statutes. Israel would experience one of their own, Moses, have am intimate prophetic experience to the point Moses would glow with the glory of the Lord radiating from him. Finally they would experience God’s faithfulness as He would lead an entire nation to the land He had promised. 

God showed His salvation, His maintenance and provision, His instruction of His Word, His commandments, His statutes, His intimacy with mankind, and His oversight of the big picture, doing what he had promised to the patriarchs hundreds of years later.  If God provided this to the Israelites, why would He not do it to His people today? The five-fold is rooted in the history of His people, and needs to be released in the present to His people today.

Wine and Wineskins

“Something Just Doesn’t Feel Right”

What do you do when something just doesn’t feel right?  Especially when you tend to do “all the right things”, but you don't see the fruit. When I was twenty-one, right out of college, I headed the youth ministry at my home church, emphasizing evangelism. I did all the right things, said and taught the right things, and did the right programs, but something was missing. Something just didn’t feel right.  I thought I was doing all the right things. Not seeing fruit I desired, I started a spiritual journey that led me to face Jesus not just as my Savior, but also as my Lord.  There I was faced with the reality of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, which I accepted, and it changed my life, taking me in a totally different direction that has produced fruit.

Here I am today, a Christian for almost 50 years, and I again sense in my spirit that something just doesn’t feel right.  I love the church, been raised in the church; the church has been the center of my social life and spiritual life.  I’ve raised my family in the church.  I have invested my time, efforts, focus, and money in the church, and the church has done the same for me, yet here I am fifty years after my spiritual birth in Jesus questioning the structure of the American church, the institutionalizing of the American church, the direction of the American church, even how the American church does church (whatever that means?).

Today I heard a 55 yr. old man share how he was challenged by the statement, “If money was not to play in it, what would you want to be doing with your life?” His answer was, “Not what I am doing now,” so he was willing to retire to begin his spiritual journey. It has led him to Metro Ministries in New York for four months as an “intern” helping with an inner-city busing children’s ministry.  He comes back home to our church which is about to “release” their children’s ministry staff personnel due to budget restrains even though she has been on staff longer than anyone else at the church. Somehow, I sensed that even with his “internship”, this guy seemed not to “fit” into our local church and their structure, staff, or direction.  We have had several youth go to Bible colleges, or short and long term mission’s projects, etc., yet come back home, only to feel a “misfit” into the current puzzle of our local church. Don’t get me wrong’ I am not criticizing the local church, but questioning why people serious about God who move out in faith don’t “fit in” when they return to their local congregations which they have learned to love.  Why do they feel alienated and often rejected?

I experienced the same thing forty years ago, going to Jesus Rallies in the 70’s & 80’s and early Creation Festivals, attending Conferences after Conferences for three decades, spending six weeks during the summer at a Christian Community seeking God’s direction, and going to Parksburg Presbyterian Church for Saturday evenings for spirit lead Prayer and Praise sessions, only to feel alienated when returning to my home church where I wanted so desperately to “give back”.  Something just never seemed right, never the right fit.  Even today I have “earned” a Master’s Degree in Biblical studies at the advice of a pastor so that “doors would be open form me,” yet no door has been opened for over a decade since I have not gone into “full time ministry” as a profession, but opted to remain as a public school teacher for almost forty years. Have I missed the mark?

The Church has desperately duirng the last couple decades tried to contain the “revival spirit” within its own structures, but history proves that isn’t the way it works.  “New wine will break through old wineskins; new wine needs new wineskins.”  But what does the new wineskin look like in 2010 for the next decade? When I sense that something just doesn’t feel right, that is probably my sense that God is up to something different and new.  Am I willing to stop what I am doing (which isn’t producing much fruit anyhow) and begin to stop, look, and listen to the Holy Spirit for guidance as to what is the next step personally for me and corporately for the Church?

I question my studies on the five-fold ministry as passions and points of view rather than offices because they make sense to me, but do not “fit” into today’s church structures. Apparently today’s church structures aren’t the wineskins that will be open to take in this new wine, and if they did, they would see their current structures (cast or vats) erupt and break, spilling out this new wine. So my prayer today is “Lord, show me the necessary wineskins to pour this new wine into so that it will produce fruit for your Glory and your kingdom.”

The Cross - Dueling "Johns"

“The Dissection of Two Johns”

Vertical: John 3:16-21 For God do loved the world that he have his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned.  But whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed, but whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.

Horizontal: I John 3:16-18 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can we the love of God be in him?

*Thompson Chain-Reference Bible (International Version), 1990, B. B. Kirkbridle Bible Co. Inc.

The Simplicity of The Cross

“Supernaturally Natural”

How do you get five different passions, five different points of view to focus in unity on one single purpose or goal or issue and be in agreement? It is nice to study each of the five fold singularly in how they operate and view the world and the Church, but their purpose is to make the Church and each believer more Christ-like, in the fullness of Christ, to bring unity to the body of Christ, not division (Eph.4).  My first reaction is that it is impossible for the Church to do that, for history has proven that.  Then again I know that “we can do all things in Christ Jesus who strengthens us,” so the question is “How can the five of them not only survive or tolerate each other, but augment and support each other in the effort of bringing unity in the Church?”

The questions and the solution seem complex, but the answer lies in the simplicity of “The Cross”.

Our natural life is built on relationships.  Because of sin, most of our relationships lead to conflict, entanglement, separation, and even hurt. We face divorce, strained relationships in our family and with those we love, disenfranchised relationships at work, socially, and even in the Church.  History, generally, is recorded as conflict after conflict, by wars and conquerors.  Sin has become “natural”, conflict “natural”, until it is dissected by the “supernatural”; then all this changes. When Jesus invaded our “natural” world, He “supernaturally” made a way when there seemed to be no way. He gave his life on the Cross, the price paid for redemption for sin, and then rose from the dead to conquer sin and death.

The simplicity of the Cross is that the “supernatural” dissected the “natural”.  Now we can live in the “supernaturally natural” through Jesus Christ who restored relationships through the Cross.

What we need to examine in future blogs is John 3:16, the vertical relationship between God and His people with I John 3:16, the horizontal relationship between God’s people.  Only after examining those relationships can we begin to understand what it means to “lay down one’s life for one’s brethren”, the only way the differences of passion and view of the five fold can be focused in unity: on Jesus and on the Cross. “All things are possible in Christ Jesus”; especially the possibility of Unity in the Church, and the fullness of Christ for His believers thanks to “The Cross”

Can The Church Survive?

If You Take Away Its Buildings And Staff

I have been taught that the Church is not its building; the Church is its people.  Europe adores its cathedrals, the United States its stain glass historic churches.  Today “mega churches” are building edifices so thousands of people can attend multiple services supported by huge staffs. If history repeats itself, what will these mega structures be like when its congregations is whittled down, or the people abandon it, or if a future congregation can no longer afford monetarily to maintain the building? 

"Knock, Knock!" " Who's There?" " No one." "No one who?" "'No-one'-der you are knocking. The Church is not here, but out service!"If you close down the church building and disbanded the staff, would the Church, the people, survive as a body or would they be disband?

History records that the Church would survive! After Judas’ famous kiss of betrayal, the twelve and all their supporters fled, disbanded. To Rome and the Sanhedrin it probably looked like this new movement disbanded because their leader had fallen, yet how wrong they were, for when their leader had risen from the grave, they faced a formable force that would change the world. Pentecost would revive a disbanded group of believers into a powerful world changing eternal force. How did the Church survive? I learned in my Survey to New Testament course with Dr. Carl Zeigler at Elizabethtown College that the “church was formed on the blood of the martyrs.” History has proven that the greater the persecution, the greater the strength of the Church.

In our lifetime we have seen the Church of China go underground due to the persecution against it, but what did God do to prepare his Church for that moment? I enjoy reading Watchman Nee and some of his teachings because they were for forerunner of the China Church going underground.  He was a teacher called to teach at a crucial moment.  I understand the China underground Church is a live and well, but doesn’t “look” at all like its American or Westernized counterpart. What might we learn from them?

If we were forced in American to nailed our church doors shut, closing our edifices, and if we dissembled our clergy and staff system, would the Church in America survive? Sure, because its God’s people, but what would it look like?  Did America’s churches “prepare the saints for the work of the service”?  There is where I begin to wonder?  Do we have to face persecution before we decide to “prepare” God’s people?  Are we Americans arrogant enough to believe that we will always have huge edifices, large clerical support systems, and a vibrant church life? Look at Europe today who once boasted the same! 

I would like to blow the trumpet, call the universal Church of Jesus Christ to arms to prepare God’s people for the work of the service before persecution raps on its doors wanting to shut them.  Shutting those doors may look tragic, but those close doors may produce new doors that will be opened to and by the Spirit of God to move among His people.

Let’s continue to dialogue on what it means to “equip the saints” and how to do it, as well as what it means to “lay down our lives for our brethren” (I John 3:16)! Only by laying them down will we be able to pick each other up!

Five Fold In Each Of Us

Watering The Seed

If we are to have “the fullness of Christ”, and Jesus is in us, then, I guess, each believer has each of the five fold within themselves.  Every Christian should be trained to lead the lost into the saving grace of Jesus Christ, the evangelistic spirit.  Each Christian has that shepherding, caring gift within themselves, often evident in parenting.  Each believer has the ability to allow the Holy Spirit to teach them truth through the Word, the Bible, the teacher.  Each Christian should desire an intimate relationship, the prophetic, and every believer has the ability to see the body of Christ, the Church. In essence, we have a little of all five of the passions of the five fold already in us if we have accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior and invited His Spirit into our hearts.

As a believer, we should experience each on of them at different times in our walk or journey with Jesus.  They are like seeds in us.  Some we will water and feed, marveling at their growth. Others we will allow to lay dormant if we choose or use sparingly.  Those seeds we water and feed eventually become our passions, those things that drive us.

Personally I have led several people to the Lord’s saving grace.  My wife and I have parented/shepherd three different groups of people who call us ma & pa or Momma and Poppa B.  I have spoken prophetic words over people, and I have had the honor of seeing the big picture of the Church because of my many different experiences with each expression of the five fold.  But teaching has been my passion, professionally and spiritually, and I have worked hard on preparing myself to teach.  Teaching is not only what I do, but what drives me.  I can’t help myself. Even in these blogs I teach, but I have had to recognize that I have done the other four giftings too.

How do you water and feed these seeds.  Through development, that step by step journey or walk of faith, believing for those things not yet seen or evident; believing for the lost to be found, the sheep to be shepherd, those new to the Word to be grounded in the Word, people not only believing Jesus but intimately knowing him, and those believing for the unity of the Body of Christ. Faith is the key to this spiritual journey.

So stop and think about the times you have manifested some of these traits. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal your next step in this spiritual journey. Then strive to water and feed those giftings that will develop into passions.  Again the five fold is not about offices or titles, it is about developing passions for Jesus.

Let’s water and feed our seeds.

Teaching Or Preaching

A Fine Line

In the world of public education, as a teacher, I am told that I need to pretest my students to see what they “know” or “don’t know” about the subject that I am about to teach, to see if they have any prior knowledge and/or experience with that subject, then teach the subject, and conclude with a post test to evaluate or assess what they have comprehended from my lesson.  Unless you are in a Bible School or Seminary somewhere, where they are to teach by this model, you will probably get most of your religious training through sermons by your pastor or staff.

Most preachers assume the lack of knowledge by those to whom they are directing their sermon (although I have heard literally hundreds of sermons on some of the same topics over my life span.  You can get over 80,000 free sermons on www.SermonCentral.com ).  I have never been to a church that has asked their people in the congregation to give their “prior knowledge” on the topic of the sermon that is about to be delivered.  The sermon is then very academic, point by point, backed by scripture after scripture, as most in the congregation sit there comatose, a few taking notes that will fill up their Bibles until the binder breaks. I think preachers would be petrified of the results if a posttest were given a week after the service to see how much had been retained!

Preaching has become the religious form of lecturing, expounding the knowledge of the presenter upon the unlearned one.  As an educator, I am taught, and I have learned from first hand experience, that lecturing is the most ineffective way of teaching (ask any college student), for lecturing just puffs up the presenter’s ego that he knows more than you do and is gracious enough to share his knowledge.   Hands on experiential lessons are always a step up. Learning “about” a given poem, doesn’t compare in effectiveness as “experiencing” the poem.  Learning “about” forgiveness through a sermon, doesn’t compare in effectiveness of actually “experiencing” forgiveness.

Christian teachers, preachers, and pastors need to learn and teach that “the Holy Spirit” is the teacher, not themselves.  That is a totally different mindset. When Jesus asked Peter, “Who do you say I am”, Peter gives all the answers of what other men and scholars say.  When confronted personally, he gives the correct answer, “You are the Messiah”!  Jesus then reveals the source, the teacher of the lesson, “Flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, The Holy Spirit did.”  The Holy Spirit has been sent by Jesus and His Father to teach and reveal to His believers all Truth!  Let’s begin to allow The Holy Spirit to “teach” and “reveal”, and we become only facilitators or vessels to guide the lesson as the Holy Spirit directs.

If the Holy Spirit is in each Christian, then allow that Spirit from within each person to teach and reveal the truth that is needed in each individual’s life.  The Holy Spirit knows how to bring forth the truth of the lesson, always revealing Jesus Christ in it. 

In an internet age, facts can be “Googled” on almost any given topic, but what the person has to determine is if that fact is truth.  You can find people on the internet who have denied that the Holocaust during World War II even existed, but the truth is that it did exist by the countless accounts of people who have “experienced” it personally. The key to this generation’s learning is distinguishing false facts from true facts.  The Holy Spirit has been sent to be that mediator to “teach all truth” to believers in Jesus Christ. Church “teachers” need to allow the Holy Spirit to teach, and be as amazed as those learning to see the “posttest” being “truth” and “life” exposing the “revelation” of Jesus Christ in their personal life and in what they do!  Their fruit will expose their new knowledge of that truth and revelation.  This is what “wisdom”, as Solomon discovered and recorded in his book called Proverbs, is all about!  The “truth” and “revelation” of that different mindset is what we, as teachers, must learn before we teach it to those under our tutorage.

Follow Or Flee

Leadership By Office or Service?

When you serve, others following your lead and serve too!Leadership should never be based on position, but on service, for you only “respect” the leadership that serves you. You are willing to follow and become loyal to them.  From those who dictate and control, you flee.

If anyone should know “service”, it should be the Church.  Jesus washed his disciples feet to show that even He, the Son of God, the Messiah, came to serve not to be served.  When the disciples fought over who should be on his right and left in the kingdom, Jesus soundly rebuked them, reminding them that His kingdom is built on service, not position; the least is the greatest.

In the field of public education, I have had trouble finding administrators who will serve rather than dictate, especially young administrators who think they have to “prove” themselves in their new position.  Administrators administrate. Good administrators see over their domain of influence, by serving those under their leadership to free them to do what they have been trained to do for the good of the entire building, school district, etc.

In the world of Public Education “professional development” is like “equipping the saints for the work of service”. To become a teacher you have to earn a Bachelor’s Degree, then have six years to earn a Master’s Degree.  To reach the top of most pay scales earn another 60 graduate credits (or two more Master’s Degrees).  What other profession has to earn a Bachelor’s and three Master’s Degrees to reach their pinnacle?  They also have to earn Act 48 Credits of “Professional Development”, which means more conferences, workshops, In-Service Training usually lead by administrators who are trying to teach, not administrate.  In spite of all this training many administrators, school board members, and most of the general public do not look at the teacher as a “professional” because of this mindset that they always need developed and teach in “failing schools”.

I am sorry, but the church has a lot of the same mentality.  Pastors and staff, like administrators, are always trying to develop their congregations, not necessarily equip them.  “Professional Development” in the church is called “Discipleship Training”.  Many a Senior Pastor administrates his church as a Superintendent of School administrates his district.  I am not criticizing the people who are pastors or staff personally.  I am criticizing their “leadership” style, for both the School Administrator and the Sr. Pastor or Pastor is missing the mark if their leadership style is not built on service.

School Administrators are to serve their students, the parents, their teachers, their custodial, secretarial, and kitchen staffs, and free everyone under his influence to do what they have been trained and are gifted to do!  Any administrator who actually “serves” has an awesome task.  The Superintendent is to serve his principals, not dictate and make them accountable to him for everything they do.  He needs to serve his principals, so they can serve their elementary or secondary school staffs.

The purpose of a “serving” leader is never to dictate, but to “free” those under his domain or sphere of influence to do what they have been called to do, and be willing to do anything in his power or sphere or domain of influence to free them to succeed.  I will gladly “serve” any administrator who “serves” me, and I will “serve” any Sr. Pastor, Pastor, or Staff member who “serves” me.  That’s leadership, setting the model that others will follow. You serve; they follow and serve too! Any stand-offish administrator, by his very nature has created a distance by “position”, while any administrator who “serves” draws those under his leadership near. The same is with leadership in the church. 

As we shall see in future blogs, Church leadership is built on service, not dictation or control.  Without service, the church is nothing but another institution where people follow out of fear or control and flee when given the chance.

Equipping The Saints

Who Should Lead The Charge?

In my last blog we ended with the dilemma of the Follow Up Committee during a Lay Witness Missions Weekend: [Actually this committee, unknowingly, was being assigned the task of “equipping the saints for the work of the service” (Eph. 4), but none knew how to do that or felt they possessed the power in the local church structure to initiate and develop it.  This is where most of our churches are today!  Who should lead this charge of developing?  How should it be done? Are there programs out there to do it?  Is a “discipleship” programs enough?]  Let’s individually look at these questions.

Who Should Lead The Charge:  Simple question; simple answer: “leaders”, of course. Should those leaders be the clergy or their staff?  Can leadership come from within the congregation itself?  I have been told that “you are not a leader unless someone is following your lead;” again a simple truth. Often in our churches the pastor and/or his staff leads programs, for the church, at least here in America, has become program oriented. Unfortunately they can become discouraged when discovering that no one is responding to or following their program.  Usually the program is then blamed, then dropped, but it may not have been the program that failed; it may have been the lack of leadership that headed or oversaw the project. When the program ended, if you discover that no one is with you either physically, emotionally, or spiritually, you failed as a leader.

The question still remains: Who Should Lead The Charge:  How about people who have a passion, a vision, a point of view and understanding for what is to be taught?  How about a team approach composed of each of the five fold giftings?  An evangelist majors in birthing; let him birth it.  He will creatively birth it with passion that will catch fire with others. Someone with a pastoral/shepherding heart will sustain it, maintain it, by applying it to one’s daily life.  A teacher can teach the Biblical principles upon which is its foundation, anchoring it in the “Truth”, in the Word of God.  A person with a prophetic mindset will strive to bring the Rhema Truth, the Living Word of God, and direction by focusing and centering it on Jesus.  This is what brings life into the project.  Finally, someone needs to over see these efforts, the apostolic mindset, for they see the big picture of what needs to be done, but can not do it by themselves.  This person IS NOT the committee’s chairperson, as we think of them today, because they do not rule, head, nor control the committee, but just sees over what the Holy Spirit is doing in the committee and reports to them what he sees and hears.

If there is birth, maintenance, development, solid teaching, spiritual renewal, direction, and life, and proper oversight, whatever the Holy Spirit has implanted on the group will come into fruition, producing a following because of this “team’s leadership style”.  This is not a trial by committee, but life through releasing and developing passions, views, giftings, and points of view of people who are probably in your congregation right now!

One of the hardest, but most powerful, lessons learned being in the “leadership” position as coordinator for a Lay Witness Mission was the realization that when you eliminated me, the coordinator, and the local pastor’s presence, the Holy Spirit moved in a mighty and creative way among his people.  Once at a two charge parish the Pastor and I had to leave the first service to attend the second parish. The first had not finished their service yet, so it was given over to the Lay Witness Team who ministered in freedom, witnessing an altar call, the likes which this church had never seen before, and lives were transformed, birthed, encouraged, etc. while the Pastor and I went to the second service at another location.  God’s People have been given gifts and talents from their Creator.  Let’s not stifle them; but encourage them, release them, allow them to lead.

Leadership is not a position; it is a results of what one does and who is now following by “doing” it.  If Pastor, Staff, or other form of leadership is leading something, and no one is following or doing what they are leading, they have failed. Let’s allow the Holy Spirit to lead and only be vessels following His leading.

Lay Witness Lesson Learned

Five Fold Already Exists

Check Out History of Lay Witness Mission through Aldtersgate Renewal ServicesI believe the five fold ministry already exists in our Churches today. When I was a Lay Witness Mission Coordinator, through the board of evangelism in the United Methodist Church, I was amazed to see these five different passions, visions, point of view raise their heads when given an avenue to express themselves in almost all the churches where I participated in different denominations.

Friday night during the first session of the weekend, small groups we asked, “What would you like to see happen to your church these weekend, and what would you like to see happen to yourself.  Before they would talk about their personal life, they would share their vision or passion for their local church or the church’s faults.  Some would express that their particular church should reach out to new people (evangelistic mindset), others wanted it to be more service oriented like starting a food bank (pastoral mindset), some else would express the need for more young people to come, a rebirth of the church (evangelistic mindset), another would chime in the need tor solid teaching in the Sunday School curriculum (teaching mindset), the topic for the need for a vibrant spiritual growth and life would always arise (prophetic mindset), and someone would be concerned about the life of the church as a whole with its components needed a recharge (apostolic mindset).  The mindsets were all there, crying out with the need to either be encouraged, recognized, developed, or released. To the personal question about what each person expected for themselves, a generic answer usually ensued of “getting closer to God” (Which is a major objective of the five fold ministry).

Often the pastoral/shepherding passion revealed itself through small group coffees Saturday mornings, or shut in visitations in the afternoon, or hosting visiting missioners in ones home. 

Saturday night’s small group requested each individual draw a “spiritual map” of their journey in faith that would depict where they were in relationship with Jesus.  If someone did not have a relationship, the leaders of the group could lead them into the kingdom of God for evangelism was the emphasis of the weekend. The small group would then go into the church’s sanctuary, which was low lit, with quiet music or total silence, and could sit in the pew and allow the Holy Spirit to speak to them. There was not set agenda for this part of the evening allowing the most powerful moment of the weekend to occur as the Holy Spirit, being freed of the influence of man, would begin to minister to each person’s uniqueness, their heart’s desires, their passions, their prayer requests, their personal lives that proved life changing.  Often I would see the passion, and vision of each of the five fold be rebirthed during these times of personal confrontation between individual man and the Holy Spirit.

I felt the most challenged committee formed for the weekend was the “follow up” committee, because they felt the need to have something in place to keep the Spirit of the weekend alive and continual. Because the Lay Witness Mission is a program, they would try to instill other programs, hoping that they would be life sustaining.  Actually this committee, unknowingly, was being assigned the task of “equipping the saints for the work of the service” (Eph. 4), but none knew how to do that or felt they possessed the power in the local church structure to initiate and develop it.  This is where most of our churches are today!  Who should lead this charge of developing and equipping?  How should it be done? Are there programs out there to do it?  Is a “discipleship” program enough? We will look at these questions in our next blog.

Five Fold Revisited

Blessing and Blessed

Barry and Sandy Falkenstine - see http://www.healinghouse.org/Falkenstines.htmWe had a pleasant surprise at the church I attend this Sunday.  The pastoring couple who lead our church through the ‘80’s and 90’s visited.  They were the ones who taught our congregation to listen to the voice of God, be stretched in the Spirit, and introduced us to the prophetic movement.  Sandy was a gifted teacher but motivated through a strong prophetic gifting.  Her husband, Barry was also a teacher but exercised an apostolic slant seeing over the congregation while placing things in order.  During their tenure it was an educational experience for me seeing the prophetic working a long side of the apostolic.  Often they clashed, but most times they augmented each other.

Today our current pastor, Steve, gave an excellent foundational sermon on who Jesus is. Upon the conclusion of the service Sandy, the prophetess, got up and confirmed the spiritual significance of the teacher’s Word.  I thought, “How fortunate is the teacher in having a prophet to confirm his word,” adding to its significance.

Steve then invited Barry to give a closing benediction or blessing.  There stood the man who oversaw this congregation for a decade and a half, who was willing to give up his congregation upon the leading of the Spirit, and now over looked what the Holy Spirit had been doing over the last decade since his departure and blessed it.  It was a touching moment for Barry, Steve, and the congregation as a whole.

Although there is an evangelistic and pasturing/shepherding presence in this church, it still lacks the strength of someone with, vision, purpose, and point of view of these two passions in this body, but, I believe, that will come as God continues to develop the five fold among God’s people in this congregation.  It was a day of enlightenment and encour

Five Fold Interdisciplinary Team

What Is It?

I believe that the five fold ministry must be a team ministry, not individual ministries trying to make up a team.  It is five different points of view, five different passions, five different people (apostle, prophet, pastor, teacher, evangelist) who are to work together to equip the saints for the works of “service” in Christ-like unity.  It cannot be five different individuals with five different agendas, for the results of this relationship will surely bring disaster and hurt to the Body of Christ.   I truly believe that this paradigm may be the wave of the future for the Church, a totally different mind set, but there are several things that must occur in order for this team to ever be united or effective.  I will mention them here, but go into more detail on these points in future blogs.

In order to teach, develop, and establish the principle of “service” rather than control, each of the five fold must learn to “serve” one another as well as being “served” by the others.  This will develop a system of accountability never seen before by the Church. Because of their different passions and points of view, they can bring accountability to one who may stray from their own passion and minister to them through love and service to free them in Christ.

Each member of the five fold team will have to face a different mind set of the cross.  John 3:16 defines their personal relationship vertically with the Godhead while I John 3:16 defines their personal relationships horizontally with one another. Jesus laid his life down for us (John 3:16); are we willing to lay down our life for our brethren (I John 3:16).  What does it actually mean to “lay down our life for our brethren”?  We will look at this key principle in more depth in future blogs too.

Each member individually as well as the team will have to always seek “the heart of the Father” in all matters, listen to the leading of the Holy Spirit, and be obedient to what they have seen and heard.  This modeled by Jesus himself produced effective ministry. That model must again be instilled in the Church.  This will be the process of how the team will lead through service.  They will have to teach and exhibit forgiveness in its purest form, which will take away the blame game and divisiveness and division that currently exists in the Body of Christ.

Can there be actually unity in the Body of Christ?  Yes! But, I believe, it will take a radical different mind set towards ministry based on the priesthood of believers, the freeing, equipping, and releasing of each believer in Jesus Christ, not just the professional leadership as been the history of the Church over the last century. The Groom, Jesus Christ, is getting ready to return for His Bride, the Church, that is to be without “spot or wrinkle”.  I believe that this five fold model may be an instrument to bring unity, maturity, and Christ-likeness back into the Church.

An Apostle

What It Is

An apostle is:

... a broken man before God.  He realizes that nothing he does is of any value without God.  Without God he is powerless, defeated, of little worth.  With God he “can do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens me”.  He must be a humble man, submitting to and serving others.  He does not dictate; he listens.  He does not command; he serves.  He does not dominate or control; he leads through service and surrenders control to the Holy Spirit. 

...  a broken man before man.  He realizes he cannot be of any value to God if he cannot be in proper relationship with whom he is in agreement in ministry.  His perspective is seeing the “big picture”, but realizes that he personally cannot accomplish that picture without other brethren and sisters who have different passions, desires, and perspectives than his.  He needs the body of Christ as they need him.

... a man who allows the Holy Spirit to be in control.  He does only what the Holy Spirit tells him to do, not what he thinks that he should do.   That is how Jesus, the ultimate Apostle, operated while on earth, doing only what His Father showed or told Him to do.   As Jesus tried to teach his squabbling disciples, the leaders in the Kingdom of God who wanted to sit at his right hand or his left, that they did not understand Biblical leadership, an apostle will be one who will have to support or sustain those under his care, not rule them by placing them under his feet.  He will spiritually place the serpent, satan, under his feet and crush him, but not the saints.  In the Kingdom of God you serve those under your authority, not lord it over them.  Jesus is the prime example.  All those under His authority he served while on earth.  He never dictated to them.  He just served them, washed their feet, loved, cared, nurtured, and eventually died for them.  The apostle is one who believes in I John 3:16 because he is willing to lay down his life for his brethren because Jesus laid down His life for him!  A true apostle is a very humble man because he has had to be broken of all pride and self-centeredness before he could ever perform his talents in ministry.  An apostle is a mature man or women in Christ, for he has to exemplify Christ in every area of his life while all eyes are watching him as a witness.  Everything he says and does influences others toward Jesus Christ.

 ... a man who has an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ, seeking at all times to know the heart of the Father, so that he can reveal it to the Body of Christ through teaching and service.  He is a man whose perspective is to see the big picture, the entire “Body of Christ”, the embodiment of Jesus Christ here on earth.  In order to see over this Body, he has to have a revelation of the big picture.  He has to have the revelation of the Father’s heart in all matters.  He has to reveal that Father’s heart, which is love to the entire Body of Christ.  He has to be willing to take 100% responsibility of what is happening in the Body with 0% fault so the present Body of Christ can be effectively healed.  The current church is so divided, so diverse, so hurt, so polar on so many issues and beliefs that they have majored in blaming each other faction within the Body for the Body’s faults.  A true apostle will not be a fault finder playing the blame game, but will take his responsibility head on to bring unity, Christ likeness, and maturity to the Body of Christ, to set it in order for the good of the Church.

... a man who allows the other four in the five fold interdisciplinary team members to minister to him as well as to them through him.  He allows others to serve him, yet he always serves them.  He has to lay down his pride by allowing others to minister to his needs and weaknesses.  It is a give and take relationship.  The apostle is such a giver, but he must also learn how to receive so those who are ministering to him can be free to minister in their talents to him that are so different from his.  By allowing others to minister to him, he is allowing and equipping others to do the work of the service of following Christ, the purpose of Ephesians 4.

 ... a man who will submit rather than control.  He will be able to submit to the different passions, desires, and perspectives of the other four team members, for that must be his strength.  There are others far more gifted and anointed in evangelism, pastoring, teaching, and prophesying than he.  He needs to glean from them, not control them!  He must continually set them free, not put them in bondage. When the five fold team meets, he will not lead them into a business meeting, but into worship, praise, and prayer, seeking and leading them into the presence of God to seek His face, to listen to His voice, and to obtain His heart in order to get the answers and/or direction that the team seeks and needs.  He wants everyone present to experience God’s love, revealing the heart of the Father together in unity, in Christ likeness, in maturity.  That is true leadership!  One of the other offices may rise in his passions or desires by taking leadership because he has the anointing, talents, and point of view that is best suited for the ministry needed at that specific moment.  It is an awesome task to lead, yet not be in control, allowing the Spirit to be in control and lead rather than one’s self, to remain a vessel for service rather than dictating.  It is an awesome task to lay down one’s own pride and ego to allow others who are driven in different passions and points of view than your own to rise to the need of ministry.  It is an awesome task to serve rather than be served.  It is an awesome task to remain broken before God, and even more... before those you serve and work with you.

* From Revealing and Releasing Jesus manuscript by Anthony Bachman page 104-105 

An Apostle

The What It Is Not:

The last of the five fold interdependency team to be restored to the Church has been the apostle.  In a day when the office is only now being restored, the understanding of the apostle’s role in the five fold ministry is also in its infancy.  First, we need to understand what the apostle is NOT in a five fold interdisciplinary team before we can understand what he is.

He is NOT:

... “the big cheese”, the “head honcho”, the “head man”, or the “top gun” of the five fold interdisciplinary team.  He is only one man in service with four others, his peers, his equals, his brothers in Christ Jesus who have different passions, desires, and perspectives than he.  The buck may stop with him at times, but he is not the “chairman of the board’, the “C.E.O.”, or the “President”.  The Church is not a business establishment; it is the body of Christ, a body of believers, made up of a New Testament priesthood who are to lay down their lives for each other, not lord over each other.

... in charge. He who rules under his own authority and power, or rules authoritatively without love, rules to “keep order” instead of “setting things in order”.  As a result he will lead the Church back into apostasy and dead works, which was the pattern of the second and third century Church leaders who lead the Church into the Dark Ages.  We need not have another papal church hierarchy and government.  We need to learn from Church history, or we repeat its faults.

... the most important ministry or office in the five fold interdisciplinary team.  The apostle will be ineffective if he does not have the passions, desires, and perspectives of the other four ministries around him.  If his pride motivates him to establish superiority in the five fold team, he will face division, strife, opposition, etc.  That is not the spirit of Ephesians 4, which is to bring unity in Christ.  His four peers in ministry are his colleagues, his peers, his equals, not his ministerial board nor his staff.

... in a power struggle.  The relationship of the apostle to the other four ministries in a five fold team is not like the present relationship model of a pastor to his church board, session, pastor-parish relations committee, etc., but is one of peers, friends, brothers and sisters in Christ who are laying their lives down daily for each other.  Church politics should diminish and even become extinct before the brokeness of Jesus Christ.  The purpose of the five fold is love, revealing the heart of the Father, in unity, in Christ likeness, and in maturity.  This mean everyone is laying down their lives for the other through service.  When everyone is doing this, there cannot and will not be a power struggle.

* From Revealing and Releasing Jesus manuscript by Anthony Bachman page 104.

How About Apostle Paul

Birthing, Developing & Establishing

Some segments of the Church believe that Apostles are basically evangelists sent abroad to establish new churches, aka. missionaries.  Paul went through Asia Minor using each of the five fold gifts to establish churches, then developed those passions in God’s people, establishing them so that he could leave and do the process elsewhere.  He made return trips or wrote letters to “see over”, not “oversee” what had been planted, watered, and now harvested. 

Paul entered a town first visiting the synagogue to proclaim the gospel to the Jew, God’s chosen. After their rejection, he would take the gospel to the Gentiles who would receive the good news of Jesus Christ.  Paul’s teaching skills often kicked in when talking to Jews in the synagogue or Greeks on Mars Hill.  His pastoral/shepherding skills would help the new believer to walk out this new found faith in their daily lives, breaking break together, praying with one another, etc. His prophetic skills would direct his path, telling him where to go and when, as well as manifesting miracles.  He needed all four of these skills to “birth” a church, and usually brought another brother with him on his journey who also had talents, passions, and points of view to share.  With the church birthed, developed, and established, although still in its infancy, Paul and associate would move on to another location, not stay and control, or oversee, their establish work.

Moving on, Paul, usually through letters, would “see over” the works he established, not lord or “oversee” them.  He would share his opinion or point of view with these churches in his letters, but he always trusted the Holy Spirit to do the work, not himself.  The Holy Spirit worked in him and would work in others believers as well!

Paul would establish churches to survive and grow on their own. He did not bring in “leaders from Jerusalem” to “run” the church in his absence. He did not bring a “Jerusalem hierarchy”, or denominational paradigm, to run and rule these new churches. The people he birthed, developed, and established were the life of the church, they remained, so he established them.  Often a traveling apostle, like Apollos, or an encourager like Barnabas would return to support their efforts, but they did not stay. Each had a role, a passion, a gifting, a point of view. Paul would write, “I planted, Apollos watered.” Acknowledging different passions, gifting, and point of view brought unity, not division like in today’s Church.

 Paul never established “St. Paul’s Church of said denomination”, but established a church named after the city where it was located, ie. church of Corinth, church of Ephesus, etc., each with its own personality and make up (as Revelations 2 & 3 so vividly depicts). Maybe we, the Church, need a different mindset toward a common believer who has a passion, vision, and point of view of seeing the Big Picture of the Church and encourage him to exercise them. 

The Point of View of An Apostle

Seeing The Big Picture

The topic of apostolic leadership has had its controversies in the Church.  Apostles are not Sr. Pastors who claimed to become bishops, then prophets, then Apostles because people follow them. Apostles are not Sr. Pastors to the greater church.  Apostles are not like dinosaurs, who are extinct, as some theologians claim, who were no longer needed when the written Word, today’s Bible, was cannonized. Then what are they?

I would like to add to the controversy by sharing a different perspective of what an apostle is. I believe the five fold ministry of the Church is about “passion” and “point of view”, not of office.  It is about what drives a believer in Jesus Christ and how he sees things.  The evangelist is driven to save the lost; he/she is not driven to shepherd or care for the new sheep, nor teach them, or instill prophetically intimacy in them. The apostle may at one time functioned like an evangelist or pastor/shepherd or teacher or prophet, but their passion is for the Church as a whole. Their point of view or vision is seeing the Big Picture. 

Because of this unique vision and point of view, the apostle can empathize with each of the other four passions or points of view because he/she cannot do all of them by themselves.  The apostle needs the other four in order to function properly.  If he/she tries to do it all, he/she will burn out and be no use to the Body of Christ.

One of the functions of an apostle is to prepare the Bride, the Church, for the Groom’s coming, the return of Jesus Christ.  He is to come for a Church that is without spot and wrinkle.  I can testify of the many spots and wrinkles that I have even created, might as well other believers. I believe that the prophet and apostle together will be the “spot” and “wrinkle” removers in the Church in order to prepare the Bride, the Church, by seeing the Big Picture.

Another function of the apostle is to equip the saints for the work of the service.  He alone cannot do it, so he needs to use his evangelistic skills, his pastoral skills, his teaching skills, and his prophetic skills to teach, develop, and establish the believers in Christ to do the work of “service”.

“Without vision the people perish,” and the Church so drastically needs believers among themselves who have the vision to see the Big Picture and strive to equip God’s people to fulfill it.  That is the point of view of the Apostle.