SOCIAL NETWORKING WORLD, WHO ARE YOUR FOLLOWING AND WHO IS FOLLOWING YOU?

Mr. Rodger Is Dead, But His Neighborhood Has Expanded!

You cannot control who “follows” you when you tweet; in fact the more that follow, the greater prestige it holds, the higher level of privileges you earn.  One simple “tweet” can touch as many as has “chosen” to follow you, and the power or retweets can impact thousands instantly.  On the other hand, Facebook and Google+ turn the tables where you choose, you “invite” people as “friends” or in a “huddle”.  You control your relationships to the level you with to communicate: to a one, or a chosen few, or a larger group, or public to the world! 

In my world, I was taught that you are not a “leader” unless you have a following.  Today everyone is a leader because everyone has attracted a “following” no matter how shallow the relationship.  Relationships are what defines this generation.  I have taught 8^th grade for 40 years, so I understand this concept, since relationships with peers and peer acceptance is the cornerstone of 8^th grade social life.  Academics are secondary in the mind of an 8^th grader seeking peer contact and peer acceptance.  Social network is an 8^th grader’s dream come true.  They now “know” how “accessible” they are with the number of “followers” they can attain on Twitter, or how many “friends” they have accepted on Facebook.  They can feel “peer acceptance” through social networking.  I know one student who has “befriended” almost every student in her high school electronically.  Of course, the opposite can be true with “cyber-bullying” where one’s reputation can be ruined or damaged in an instant through the power of instantly communicating a slanderous lie or damaging gossip. 

Technology is moving so fast that public education cannot keep up with it.  I have no idea why parents think schools are responsible for “cyber-bullying” when they have no control over the social networking of their students.  I think that it is because parents do not understand the whole social networking world in which their children are immersed.  Schools are wrestling with the question of IPhones, Smart Phones, that have WiFi capabilities because schools cannot control or block their reception to the internet.  If parents did not put filters on their phones, they have an open world to the good, the bad, and the ugly of the social networking, internet, world wide web world.

So institutions have to face the “flat world” of this younger generation, for the nature of such institutions is control from the top on down, to set policies, to dictate what one can and can not do under their institutional guidelines.  They are not sure how to relate or control this this “horizontal” movement of peer acceptance and accessibility.  The church as an institution is no exception, for the institutions of denominationalism, sectarianism, mega-churchism are being challenged by the horizontal relationships of the “priesthood of believers”.  The institutional church has yet to ask the questions of how it can relate to this new phenomenon which is quickly becoming a world wide movement that are breaking beyond institutional barriers in the name of accessibility and acceptability.

8^th graders want to be “accessible” to their friends.  8^th graders want to be “acceptable” to their friends.  Government, school, churches, etc. will need to address how they can become accessible and acceptable to a growing “world wide” population that thinks relationally, horizontally, opposing vertical or institutional structures.  The younger generation has defined new lines as the way to think globally, socially, economically, and religiously. The next few years, months, weeks, days, should be interesting as we watch this evolution and the clashes it can produce.

THE UPCOMING BATTLE THE CHURCH WILL FACE:

Yeast Forces Relationships To Yield To Religion; While Revival Forces Religion To Yield To Relationships

I remember the emotions, conflicts, and circumstances of the 1970’s when our world was being turned upside down and torn apart. (Look at Sunday, July 17^th’s blog “Church, the Winds of Change Are Blowing)  There was quite an “anti-establishment” movement that swelled on campus during my college days.  Speakers challenging “systems” and “structures”, both politically and religiously, were invited on campus to speak. The “social gospel” of its time was the politically correct gospel of what was happening across American, yet there was an underground group of Christians on campus who clung to their faith in Jesus Christ and forged their relationship with Him and God and other “believing” Christians.  If history repeats itself, I predict we will see this underground revival movement again.

The attitude of questioning everything was the emphasis of my college freshman orientation, but when I questioned the “institution” of the church and church run college, I met opposition.  I was a pacifist because of my beliefs in Jesus, who never showed nor taught violence. Peter, defending what he thought was Jesus’ kingdom, cut off the ear of a guard. To his surprise Jesus immediately replaced and healed the ear. Jesus even taught to “love your enemy; do go to those who despise you.” This view went counter to many students who declared themselves pacifists because of political reasons or moral reasons opposing the War in Viet Nam.  It was not popular to be a “Jesus Freak” at that time.

When I challenged the college’s views on “religion”, I had the opportunity to sit down with the President of the college who told me to “sit back for the next four years, change my ideas, and I will be glad I did.”  In essence he said my view of faith and relationships was all wrong, and his “institution” would instruct me correctly.  At the end of four years I found the religious institution on campus in shambles, spineless, and had its “life” in Jesus Christ diminished. Our campus went from a required chapel format to a volunteer chapel few attended, from a strict dorm code protecting women to 24 hour open house in our dorms promoting “overnight” promiscuity, and from an alcohol prohibition image to full blown drug parties.

My generation became verbal, sometimes even violent for causes that would cause change to our world. Not all changes were good, but we were vocal about what we wanted and demanded.  Today’s younger generation is quiet, receptive, and fears being vocal as “institutions” continue to influence and control their lives.  They accept this as status quo, just the way it is, rather than challenging it.  Thus they accept without questioning health care at an enormous expense to themselves, political bipartisanism that was the “fear” of our founding fathers that stalemates everything politically in their generation, debt from a previous generation, or debt for “college” that no longer promises jobs, an economic CEO pyramidal structures of large, politically and economically powerful corporations that shape their work world, and a world that no longer promises security for when they age.  I predict that will all soon change.

There is a “flat world” mentality among this younger generation, seeing the “world” rather than just local, state, or national through relationships.  They talk, communicate, blog, tweet, text the world.  Those throughout the world have become their “peers” who they “friend” on Facebook, who become an identifiable “huddle” on Google+ according to relationship.  Relationships electronically are beginning to be defined by commitment: family, friends, work, acquaintances, or public. When upset, they speak vertically, relationally. Ask the Egyptians about that!  They do not have to be “verbal” “in your face” as my generation felt they had to be, they can be “verbal” “electronically” from their bedroom, dorm room, den, coffee shop, any business location offering WiFi.  They are a mobile group, and a moving “tweet” on an emotional topic can cause thousands to “repeat” the message to the masses in minutes.   Things can happen at a moment’s notice. Change can come rapidly, sometimes almost instantaneously.

The time is ripe, for that is how the Holy Spirit works during revival: instantaneous at a moment’s notice by the Holy Spirit to the masses.  I do not know how revival will manifest itself to this younger generation, but I guarantee you that when it does, it will happen swiftly and powerfully because they are a “relational” generation! There is an institutional church in China and an underground church.  The institutional church is controlled by structure religiously and secularly; the underground church is fed and led relationally.  The government cannot control relationships in their masses. The Chinese government opposes the freedom of expression and passing information that the Internet allows, yet the Chinese Christians are communicating.  American Christian churches have become institutions, icons of our supposedly religious freedom, who do not practice tolerance and acceptance even among themselves, but there is a “networking” that is not “institutional” among flat-liners, flat-worlders, flat-breaders, of relationships as peers who are about to arise and challenge the institutions of their day.  We are on the edge of revival, the precipice of change, where this generation’s voice will arise verbally through the electronic networking available to them.  They are about to do what my generation dreamed of doing: change their world. 

HOW SPIRITUAL “YEAST” INFECTION WORKS!

If It Is Institutionalized, It Has Plenty Of Time To Rise

“’Be on guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.’ Then they understood that he was not telling them to guard against the yeast used in bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”  Matthew 16:11-12

Harvard UniversityYale UniversityCheck out history:  How many times have hospitals, colleges, universities been founded by the Church to propagate the gospel to fulfill the great commission? The YMCA, Young Men’s Christian Association, was founded as a Christian evangelistic tool in England. (See earlier blogs) only to lose the “C” in its name and be memorialized by the Village People as a place where gays can hang out.  Institutions like Harvard, Yale, and the college I attended, Elizabethtown College, all started out as “Bible Colleges”, built on Biblical principles, to promote strong Christian values and prepare men for the Great Commission for Jesus Christ.  Today their Religion Departments embrace every conceivable religion in the name of “religion tolerance” rather than the principle of “the only way to the Father is through the Son”, Jesus.  How did we get from birthing “ministries” to developing institutions that keep their religious heritage only historically?

With time and heat, yeast makes bread rise!  When putting “yeast” into bread dough, one has to “knead” it, work the yeast throughout the dough with their hands, then allow it to “rise”.  Only after the yeast laden dough has risen, do you put it in the oven to bake.  Out comes a fresh loaf of bed with a hard crust with soft warm bread encased in it.  Bread without yeast becomes flat bread.  Communion bread is often flat bread.  Manna was yeast-less flat bread, supernaturally supplied by God as the Israelites were “on the move” through the dessert.

So why does Harvard, Yale, Dickenson, and Etown, institutions of higher education, look so different today to when they were founded when it comes to their faith?  Yeast! Jesus, in Matthews 16:12 defines the yeast as “the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees”, the teaching of which he is so vastly critical. “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees….” he says often.  They are the only group, the religious scholars of his day, which he is strongly judgmental against!  These institutions were founded on a Rhema, living word, application of the Logos Word, the written Word, the Bible.  Over the years the Rhema, or living application of the Logos Word has been diminished to the academic westernized head knowledge view of faith rather than the Jewish Lamad heart knowledge view.  Today, Etown’s “Department of Religious Studies” features multiple courses of various nonChristian courses with its campus minster promoting the “story telling of various faiths” through tolerance to gain understanding.  In fact, the news sources today revealed that Etown’s “Dept. of Religious Studies” has been chosen by President Obama to be part of a White House movement of exposing, tolerating, and accepting of many religious views in America, and being a role model for that cause.

Leffler Hall of Performing Arts at Elizabethtown CollegeRhema Word, living Word, is founded on “relationship” with the Father God vertically and with their body of Christ horizontally.  It is founded on the Logos Word, the Bible.  When the yeast is applied into the mixture, the “teaching of scholars emphasizing academic head knowledge”, the intellect becomes more important than the actual relationship, thus the sucking the life out of and eventually killing the Rhema Word.  I saw the eroding of the Logos Word at Etown in the early ‘70’s when I attended.  I had an Old Testament Survey professor completely tear down the validity of the old testament scriptures to the point it was easier to believe Grimm’s Fairy Tales than to believe the Bible.  Only one professor taught about “faith” and actually used that term in his course, and his course was the hardest to get into while the professor won the award for top professor on campus by the student body in spite of the jealously of his peers.  The rest of the religious professors of the time were into social justice, nonviolence, and peace movements.  The yeast has eroded the curriculum to the point that “Christianity” is looked upon as only “one of the many world religions” taught by the Department.  Now, Jesus and the Church of the Brethren are only looked at historically, not relationally.  By offering many options, Jesus is no longer taught as the “only way”.  The yeast has risen.  With the “baking” of time, a protective “crust” now covers the Department, protecting it from any challenge by the Church.

Revival is the only instrument that can penetrate the crust of “institutional religion”, the bread baked with yeast.  Revival emphasizes the “living Bread”, the Rhema Bread, Jesus, and the evangelistic spirit of the five fold can penetrate the hardened crust of “yeast” raised bread.  Revival demands “flat bread”, “yeast-less” bread because God is on the move.  There is no time for religious dogma, doctrines, exegesis of every passage, or the studying of Greek and Hebrew; it is a time when God speaks to His people, the priesthood of believers in simple but powerful terms that bring life, power, and faith. 

The institutional intellectual religious system will oppose any “revival spirit” through its pyramidal hierarchal structure. In Jesus’ time the Sanhedrin, composed of Jewish intellectual rabbis who opposed this new Jesus movement, could not understand how Jesus’ “uneducated” disciples could speak, teach, and live with such authority.  But the flat lined, flat world, flat bread “relational” newly born Church would rise “without” yeast because it would be a “moving”, “living” organism of relationships.  As long as it moves, does not get stagnant, the yeast can’t rise.  With stagnation, the yeast rises, and the Church experiences “Dark Ages” in its history.  “Yeast” forces relationships to yield to Religion; while “Revival” forces Religion to yield to Relationships.

“YEAST” INFECTIONS ARE NO FUN, SO MY WIFE TELLS ME!

How To Rid The Church Of “Yeast Infections”!

In my previous blog I talked about how the church has no time for “yeast” during revivals, when God is on the move.  “Yeast”, properly “kneaded” takes time to rise before being baked by the heat which produces a loaf of bread with a “protective crust”.  The fleeting movement of Passover did not allow time for the “kneaded” process. The Israelites “needed” to get moving because it was time for freedom, time to display God’s power, time to move through the Red Sea on a quest to the Promise Land.  Even in the dessert there was no time to “knead” bread, thus no “need” for “yeast”, for God was still on the move leading His people by a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.  In the dessert he produced “yeast”-less bread called manna, collected daily or it would rot.  Manna has not use to “stay around”, for God was on the move.

Today, I am embarking on a topic my Christian sisters can blog about better than I can, for I, personally, thank heavens, have never experienced: “yeast infections.”  Being married, I have seen the pain, discomfort, and irritability caused by them through my wife, but just seeing the “fruit of discomfort” caused by them, I, in the imbecilic lack of knowledge on the subject, can only write about the second hand results.  I can safely draw the inclusion that “yeast infections” are not nice, not wanted, and should be banned!

Spiritually, the Bride of Christ, body of Christ, the Church, is experiencing “yeast infections,” and it ain’t pretty!  “Yeast infections” never are!  Jesus warned about the “yeast”, the teachings of the Pharisees and Sadducees of his and our day.  It still scares me that Jesus forgave sinners, the unclean, the down and out of his society, for forbidden ones, yet he severely criticizes the religious leaders of his day: “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees.” Although we Christians will never admit it, there are Pharisees and Sadducees in our midst.  We definitely will not admit it, but defend it, if we are actually ones ourselves! It is painful when one makes that discovery, I know from personal experience, for I am a “recovering Pharisee” in my own right.  “Yeast” naturally rises over time, and being a Christian for 50 years has given it plenty of time to rise in my Christian walk, but when there is revival, there is no time for it to rise.  If I want to see revival, I must clean the “yeast” out of my own life?  How about you? Where do you stand on the “Pharisee” meter if you have been a Christian for any length of time?

“Yeast” is the “teaching” of traditional, structural “truth” over time.  That definition, I am sure, could be highly debated by the Pharisees of our time, but this “yeast’s” fruit has been division in the body of Christ, not unity. I personally believe it is time to 1) recognize the five fold as being the “norm” in a God moving revival and 2) the Church needs to reinstate the apostolic and revive the “apostolic teaching” recorded in the book of Acts.

Why do we need the five fold? To prevent and cure “yeast infections” in the Bride of Christ, the Church.  The fruit of the five fold, as outlined in Ephesians 4:14-16 is “Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament grows and builds itself in love, as each part does its work.”  Through “serving” one another, laying down one life for one another through submission and accountability and following the Holy Spirit, “sectarian teaching” through the teaching gifting in the five fold should be checked by the other four passions and points of view. As the teacher continues to study the Logos Word, the Bible, unity, balance, and truth will prevail through the Rhema revelations through the prophet, the birthing of those revelations through the evangelist, the daily working out of those revelations in practical life experiences through the pastor/shepherd, with correct oversight, the seeing over what the Holy Spirit is doing and teaching while releasing the other giftings to fulfill the big picture by the apostle, all prepares the ground work for the “apostolic teaching” as found in the book of Acts.

The restoration of the “apostolic” passion and point of view into the body of Christ, the priesthood of believers, will usher in the restoration of “apostolic teaching”, a teaching that will bring unity not division, simplicity not complexity, power and life not stagnation, and clarity instead of cloudiness. The tossing “back and forth by the waves”, and the blowing “here and there by every wind of teaching” will be diminished if not eliminated by the apostolic speaking “the truth in love” causing individual Christians and the Church as a whole “in all things” to “grow up into him who is the Head, that is Christ.”  Results: “Every supporting ligament” of the body of Christ “grows and builds itself in love, as each part does its work.”  Unity not sectarianism; One Body of Christ not multiple sects, denominations, groups, mega-churches, etc. all under different banners; and one Head speaking for there will be only one “mouth” to this Head, speaking the same message of truth throughout the “whole” body of Christ.

The gospel is simple, yet we, the Church, have made it complicated over the centuries. The gospel is unifying, yet we, the Church, have brought only division among ourselves. The gospel is truth, yet we, the Church, prorogate the lie that only our sect has the “true” insight into “all things”, not the rest of the body of Christ.  The way to fight the “yeast infection” in the Church today is to embrace the five different passions and points of view as found in Ephesians 4:11, allow the Holy Spirit to design them according to God’s plan for the purpose of unity in the body of Christ and the “growing up”, the maturity, of individual believers as well as the corporate Church into the fullness and image of Jesus Christ through the true restoration of the apostolic and the apostolic teaching to the Church.  The cure to “yeast” infection is Jesus Christ and responding to the constant “moving” of the Holy Spirit. 

“YEAST” DRIVEN BREAD IS “KNEADED”; BUT GOD’S “LIVING BREAD” IS “NEEDED”!

There Ain’t No Pharisees In My Church, Right?

“’Be on guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.’ Then they understood that he was not telling them to guard against the yeast used in bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”  Matthew 16:11-12

There were two predominate sects in the Jewish faith at the time of Christ, the Pharisees and the Sadducees.  The Pharisees would be described today and right wing evangelical fundamentalist in the Church today while the Sadducees would be “the others”, or as in the eyes of the Pharisees, anyone who isn’t like “us”. That pharisaical attitude is alive and well, in fact, alive and strong in the Church today, going far beyond the sects of Christianity that I have pictured.  Every Christian sect thinks they have the inside tract on “true” theology.  That is what makes them different from the rest.  The “proper” discernment of “truth” is what sets them apart from the rest of the body of Christ, as if the rest of the body of Christ is in error.  Hmmmm, 99.99% of the body of Christ is in error, but we are not! Does that make sense when looking at the body of Christ as a whole?

Jesus warned about the “teaching” of the present day institutionalized religious leaders.  In the Jewish tradition, the Talmud, which is an accumulation of “interpretations” of what the Torah was said was larger than the Torah itself.  Take a high level graduate course on “Theology” at a seminary, and you will see what I mean.  The simplicity of the gospel is expounded in complexity as theologian upon theologian proposes their interpretation upon scripture, dissecting it historically, grammatically in Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, or whatever, and against other philosophies and interpretations.  The “yeast” is rising. 

When the children of Israel were freed from centuries of slavery, they did not have time to use “yeast” in their bread, because yeast takes time to rise before it is baked.  They didn’t have “time,” for God was on the move.  Once freed, they didn’t bake bread like they did in Egypt because God supplied “manna,” a godly bread substitute, daily.  They still did not have time to bake bread with yeast, for God was still on the move led by a pillar of fire by night and a cloud by day.  He was on the move 24/7.

“Revival” is when “God is on the move”!  When revival hits, the Church doesn’t have time for committee meetings, counsels, position papers, defining dogma and doctrine, and months and years for seminary training.  God is on the move.  There is no time for the “yeast” to rise!  During revival, the Holy Spirit supplies fresh “manna” daily to his people.  There is no need, nor time, for yeast. 

So what is the “yeast”?  According to Matthew 16:12: “the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” During revival the Holy Spirit becomes the teacher, not the doctrinal church hierarchy of its time.  The Holy Spirit teaches simple truths clearly, powerfully, and quickly to the masses in unity.  These simple truths are what I call the “apostolic” teaching that needs to be reinstated into the Church, the truths that transcends the Pharisees’ and Sadducees’ teachings in today’s Church structures. They are the “same” truths for every “sect” or part of the body of Christ, the Church, that do not differ because of the “yeast” of teaching that always brings division and sectarianism in the Church.  They are truths, powerful truths, freeing truths, truths of grace, mercy, and forgiveness, simple truths, easy to understand, easy to apply in one’s everyday life, truths that apply to every believer in Jesus Christ anywhere.  They are truths that unify the body of Christ, not divide, and no one sect or group has the inside scoop on what they are.

As we move toward revival in the Church, these truths will be opposed by the pharisaical “yeast” of our day, the entrenched theology of distinct sects within Christianity.  As we have seen in previous blogs, revival features a “flat world” approach of equality of peers, the priesthood of believers, not a pyramid type clergy/laity structure.  Pyramidal clergy/laity structure produces “yeast” because naturally it has time to “rise”, usually in the form of “traditions”.  Jesus warned of these “traditions of men.”  With time, in a pyramid form of structure, “yeast” will naturally rise.  During revival, there is no time for “yeast”.  The Holy Spirit teaches for that moment in time to his people in that moment of time, the simplicity of the gospel, the good news, to bring freedom from bondage no matter if it is secular or religious.  Religion is leery of revival; the secular unsure of it, but both end up opposing it.  Revival is always on the move!  But once the season of revival is over, with time, the “yeast” sets in to digest, interpret, and theorize the revival, rejecting most of the revival’s universal truths, and implementing some of the truths over the period of several decades when it makes it their norms, although watered down in form and truth. 

Want revival? Beware of the “yeast”!  Prepare to be on the “move” when there is no time for “yeast” for rise.  When in the dessert of daily living, “yeast” bread will bake when heated forming a protective crust, but “manna” bread will bring life, freedom, and must be picked daily.  Old manna rotted. “Yeast” laden bread is “kneaded”, but God’s living bread, daily manna, is really what is “needed” each day because God’s people were on the move. Jesus said, “I am the bread of life.”  Let me tell you, Jesus’ bread is “yeast”-free, pure manna, Godly nutrient!

THE HOLY SPIRIT CAN BE IRRATIONALLY RATIONAL

The Holy Spirit Never Seems To Do It “My Way”

The old crooner Frank Sanatra use to bellow his famous line, “And I Did It My Way.”  Isn’t that the tune almost all of us like to sing, for we love being in control; we love to do the rational, the well thought out, what we consider as “normal” or even “safe”.  We often shy away from allowing the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ to lead our lives because he never seems to do things the way I would like him to do them, rationally.  Most of the time he seems to choose to do it irrationally, not the way I think is “normal” or “safe”.  This is how we often get in the way of revival by stifling the Holy Spirit’s lead.

For example, let’s look at 3 examples of how he has chosen men for leadership:

Old Testament – Moses would have been my choice too to lead the Israelites out of hundreds of years of bondage because he knew the Egyptian hierarchal system.  He knew how to work their politics as an insider. Shoots, he was a C.E.O. at one time!  He knew how to work their economics for he was in charge of overseeing their economical work force, the slaves building Egypt’s phenomenal building program. In my rational thinking as an American, he’s the man to “lobby Pharaoh”.  God chooses to work differently.  He allows Moses to be ostracized from “the Egyptian system” of hierarchal leadership and begins to teach him relational leadership among, of all things, sheep and nomadic sheepherders all leading to a relational confrontation with God himself manifesting himself as a flaming talking bush.  What becomes important for the rest of his life is his relationship to the bush.  He cannot build a relationship with pharaoh nor the Israelite people for they always pose opposition.  Only his continual fellowship with God, going into the Holy of Holies, is the key to his success.  What at first looked like an irrational move now looks very rational to us.  God is irrationally rational.

The Gospels – Rationally, if I am about to start a “kingdom of God” campaign I need a Public Relations Department who will get the word out: audibly through a radio campaign, visually through a television campaign, in print through all the local papers, through the internet with a social networking campaign, etc. As an American I know, advertising is the key to the success of this campaign.  So God is about to launch his “kingdom” on earth, so he sends someone to “prepare the way”.  He does not do an advertising campaign to get the right person; he does not take resumes. He chooses instead the town “hippie”, a man in sheep’s skin that eats a diet of locust and honey.  All he says is, “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.”  That alone creates a stir like none other that will eventually, literally, make him his “lose his head.”  People respond and he baptizes them, thus John the Baptist.  He is only the message bearer, for he even sends his disciples to Jesus to ask if Jesus is the messiah, the fulfillment of the message John is proclaiming.  Because of this doubt, Jesus refers to him as “least in the kingdom.”  So God chooses the “least in his kingdom” to proclaim one of the most profound kingdom proclamations in history; how irrational is that?  But in order for Jesus’ influence to move forward, John had to decrease in order for Jesus to increase.  Now the choice seems more rational.  Again God proved that he is irrationally rational.

New Testament – The early Church has a new leadership crisis: one of the 12 is a traitor, has committed suicide, and has tainted the leadership image of this new Church from its very beginning. In one of the early chapters in the book of Acts, the eleven decide they need a twelfth.  Rationally they should announce the vacancy to the existing Church, take resumes, form a committee to conduct interviews, and have the 11 vote on the replacement or maybe meet in the upper room for a “church council”.  Wrong!  The Holy Spirit leads them to “cast a lot”! What! Take two straws, one short, one long, and have one of the candidates pull it. How irrational is that? By the way, Matthias won!  I wish the book of Acts would tell us more about Matthias and what he did after his “lot” was cast! He becomes an “apostle”, now one of the twelve, an equal, to anchor this new Church.  We didn’t know it, but God knew that he was the man of the hour.  It was another irrationally rational decision.

The Old Testament priest use to make godly decisions through the Urrim and Tummin, which today we are not really sure what they were, but basically it was like the method like casting lots to choose Mathias.   We do not understand the Urrim and Tummin, nor the casting of lots to make key decisions, but that is how God works at times, irrationally rational.  We think God thinks like man, rational, but God thinks like God and to us that looks irrational.  Man needs the thinking of God, Godly thinking. The Church calls that righteousness.

But the bottom line is this: Can we trust the irrationally rational thinking of God, for that is how the Holy Spirit works?  Can we trust the Holy Spirit?  The answer to that questions is the key to unlocking true revival for the Church, for the Church, you and I who believe in Jesus Christ, will never see revival if we can not trust the Holy Spirit, nor expect the irrational to ever be rational to our way of thinking.  We need to lay down our misconception and myth that the Holy Spirit will do irrational things to embarrass us if we chose to follow him. Moses, John the Baptist, and the 11 disciples did and look what it did: freed a nation, establish a kingdom, and provided leadership to a new born Church, that’s all.  Is that weird, or is that awesome?  Let’s look toward the awesomeness of the Holy Spirit, that which is irrationally rational and not only believe in him, but trust him!

Two Generations: From “Anti-Establishment” to “Anti-Institution”

President Richard Nixon fighting against the "anti-establishment" movement at a press conference.The Possibility of Bonding Two Attitudes of Two Generations?

Protests against the War In Vietnam, the Civil Rights Movement, the Women’s Liberation Movement, the escalation of the anti-abortion/pro-life debate, the gay community coming out of the closet and protesting in the streets, the epidemic of aides, and the Drug Revolution were all earmarks of the “Baby Boomer” generation as they reached their late teens and early twenties in an effort to turn their world around. That generation coined the term “anti-establishment” in a quest to question the existing institutions of their time.  Today’s “Twenty-Teeners”, those who will be in their twenties between 2013 through 2019 are feeling the strain of now two decades of military endeavors in Iraq and Afghanistan, social profiling against Mexicans and Muslims, the still continuing debate between anti-abortionists and pro-lifers, the possibility of acceptance of civil gay marriages, an overburdening health care system that they can not afford, and a possibility of a severe economy restrains, and a never-ending two party stalemate in government as their earmarks.  Like their predecessors almost 50 years earlier, they too have this anti-establishment mentality toward institutions.  I believe the next social and political revolution in America will be over this “anti-institutional” mentality.  The time is ripe for this to arise.

The “twenty-teeners” have a “flat world” view.  They see everything socially on a horizontal plane based on relationships empowered by the internet and the current trends in “social networking”.  Relationships are of the utmost importance, thus the influence of MySpace, Facebook, Google+, Tweeting, blogging, and texting as “communication tools” in this “relationship” generation.  They are beginning to show their abhorrence towards pyramidal structures or establishments or institutions. They cannot find mutual horizontal relationships in a CEO business climate with those above them, but can social network with their peers while sitting in the cubby-holes at work.  They do not see horizontal relationships in the currently political process where party members have become puppets of their party’s political bosses causing stalemate after stalemate, wishing horizontal relationships would be used to bring bi-partisanship, horizontal relationships to solve problems. They are having trouble understanding a clergy/laity mentality in the Church rather than a horizontal relationship of believers in the body of Christ.  They are turned off by church as an institution while seeking church as something “relational” between them and their God and them and their peers.

The perfect family of the 1050's: "Leave It To Beaver"America was pictured for its greed in the tv program "Dallas"Like their anti-establishment predecessors 50 years ago who fought against the “Leave It To Beaver” pristine 1950’s nuclear family and the moral standards of their generation, this anti-institutional group of “twenty-teeners” is fighting against the “Dallas” image of rich CEO magnets greedily running our economics and politics while hording our financial resources.  I predict that this “horizontal” bond of “relationship” seekers, no matter how strong or how shallow, will mold into an economic, political, and cultural force that will challenge the way the world does business, politics, follows social morals, as well as the way they see, think, and “do” Church on not only a local, state, regional, and national level, but most of all on a “world wide” level.

Economically we are beginning to realize how small countries like “Greece”, “Spain”, and Middle Eastern countries can bring economic woes to entire world markets.  People can “E-Trade” themselves in the Stock Market rather than going through traditional “brokers” anywhere in the world through the internet, thus the Stock Exchange of the United States has investors from all over the world.  The same “world wide” information is now available to everyone throughout the world, not just the socially and politically privileged as in the past.  Information is vast and fast, affecting the scope of they way we have to think about education. The world view and the way we view the world is changing; thus the clash of two different generations, two different mindsets, two different points of view.

In spite of their differences, there may be some commonality between the two generations, for as youth, they both seek to dethrone the political and economic “established” “institutionalized” powers of their times for horizontal freedoms, fluidity of thought and ideas, and a challenge to change their worlds they live in for the good.  It is a shame that the “anti-establishment” generation is now the “institutional” providers, maintainers, and developers, the very thing they opposed in their youth.  Maybe the time is right for both generation to look ahead, as peers, as equals, in a horizontal relationship to move forward as we face the change of the future.

Pyramid Structures Produce Programs; Horizontal Structures Produce Relationships

Approaching Problems From Two Different Points Of View

Hierarchal, pyramidal, institutional structures major in producing programs as solutions to problems.  That’s the problem with education; it has gotten too pyramidal where those at the top dictate to those at the bottom how they are to teach when it has been years since those at the top have even taught a class in the classroom.  The most effective teaching occurs at the grass roots level: teacher/pupil. 

I have always said as a public educator that the most important days of the school year are the first three even though not much “academic” instruction happens.  Those days feature handing out materials, setting before the students yearly expectations, and of course going over the rules.  What happens is boundaries for relationships are established those days.  What will and will not the teacher allow, expect, and actually do.  What relationship will the teacher build with his students and vice verses?  As a teacher you want to build a relationship of open communication, respect, and a desire to reveal your passion as a teacher and the subject you teach, not a relationship as a tyrannical dictator or their “friend”.  8^th graders, 13 year olds, are ruthless to their peers, their so called friends, for peer acceptance heads the top of their list.  They will establish a “friendship” with you, only to abandon it and stab you in the back to establish a “friendship” with someone else who is socially acceptable or popular.  Loyalty, stability, and dedication to most friendships at this age and level is a rarity. I do not want to establish this kind of relationship with my students, for they will dump me when my back is turned to be accepted by their peers.  They want a friendship with a teacher as one who cares for them, listens to them, accepts them for who they are (although they are unsure of what that is), and covers for them to save face with their peers.  Classroom management is all about “relationship management”.  The relationship between the teacher and student is a balancing act that will directly effect the willingness of the student to learn, be accepted, and succeed.

The institution looks at it differently. If there is a bully in your classroom, rather than allowing you to work at the root of the problem as relational, working on how to change the attitude and habits of the person seeking dominance over weaker vessels, the institution develops a “Bullying Program” and tells their teachers how to “implement” it!  If students have low self-esteem, a common malignant 8^th grade problem, rather than dealing with it relationally, the institution introduces a “Self Esteem Program” to reward good behavior and pat every student on the back.  Students go through “Drug & Alcohol” Programs, learning just how to say “No” all through their elementary, middle, and secondary educations, only to strive to go to “partying” colleges and universities who ignore underage drinking making partying the socially accepted practice.  Rather than letting teachers develop what works best with each class, for every class, every student is different, the educational hierarchy will pull teachers out of teaching, instructional time to “teach” them how to “teach” through some new “Educational Program”, or “Inservice Program.” 

The institutional church is no different. Rather than “ministering” relationally, as an institution you establish programs.  There is soon an “Evangelistic Program” and a “Discipleship Program” or a “Supporting Missionary Program”, “Youth Program”, “Children’s Program”, “Senior Citizen’s Program”, “Widows Program”, etc.   The whole church docket has been filled with “programs” who desire is to create relationships.  But because the institution sets the guidelines of how these relationships are to work, they stifle the Holy Spirit’s creativity to move among His people.  If the Church just allowed the Holy Spirit to work relationally with His people on a horizontal level of peer equality and acceptance, then they wouldn’t need all these programs.  People would just “do it” under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  Unfortunately institutions love to regulate, control, set directives, etc. rather than allowing their people be a free flowing.

Although both camps want the same outcome, relationships, we can see that they come from two totally different points of view. The hierarchal group comes from organization perspectives (committees) to “understand” the problem through “education”, then set up programs (directed plans of implementation) to implement the findings of their committees, while the horizontal group just “does it” through relationships built with people under the guidance of the Holy Spirit which produce effective relational results.  No wonder it is hard for the institutional church to understand revival, for during revival the Holy Spirit is in charge and moves without committee meetings, program development, and program implementation.  He just moves through His people, His way, at His time.  Usually His way does not follow the guidelines or directive of church committee meetings nor programs.

New Winds; New Revival: Go With The Flow, Not With The Program

Revivals Instantly Touch Entire Communities; Emergent Movements To The "nth" Power?

Duncan Campbell who witnessed a true revival wrote in his dissertation When God Stepped Down:  Now, you might ask me, "What do you mean by revival"? There are a great many views, held by people today, as to what revival is. So, you hear men say, "Are you going out to the revival meetings?", "We're having a revival crusade", and so on. There's a world of difference, between a crusade, or a special effort in the field of evangelism. My dear people, that is not revival. As I already said from this platform, I thank God for every soul brought to Christ, through our special efforts, and for every season of blessing at our conferences, and at our conventions. We praise God for such movements, but is it not true that such movements do not, (as a general rule) touch the community? The community remains more or less, the same, and the masses go past us to hell, but in revival the community, suddenly becomes conscious of the movings of God; beginning with His own people. So that, in a matter of hours, (not days) in a matter of hours, churches become crowded. No information of any special meeting, but something happening that moves men and women to a house of God, and you'll find within hours, scores of men, and women crying to God for mercy before them that kneel at church. You've read history of revivals, the Jonathan Edward revival in America, that was what happened, and the Welsh revival, that is what happened, and the more recent Lewis revival, that is what happened.

As we, the 21^st Century Church begin to hunger for revival, we need to remember that revival transcends any “program”, any “church structure”, any “preplanning” on our part.  It is a sovereign move of the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ by His will while doing it His way at His time.  In the book of Acts it not only happened at the Temple in what the Church now calls Pentecost, but also at the house of Cornelius, by the chariot of the Ethiopian eunuch, and even before Christ’s ascension to the women at the well.  At the house of Cornelius it would affect the Jewish culture, at the house of Cornelius the gentile culture, by the chariot of the Ethiopian eunuch an entire nation, and at the Temple the entire known civilized world at that time.

Revival changes entire communities, nations, and cultures.  In America The Great Awakening of Jonathan Edward’s time would change the existing American Puritanical church and evangelize an entire scattered frontier.  The Camp Meeting movements under Wesley would grow to over 1,000 of them in one summer.  The drive for righteousness would spur the “prohibition” movement causing alcohol to go underground until the revival fires would die and the church’s complacency would return before it would be repealed.  When revival is in its fruition, it changes the “culture” of cities, states, and entire nations.

The American church is great for programs and networking, trying to create a revival spirit, but usually falling short.  The later part of the 20^th Century saw the ecumenical movement trying to get everyone to “dialogue” in an effort to begin to break down religious walls and barriers.  In the beginning of the 21^st Century the emergent church movement tried to “network” churches and ministries in loose relationships rather than denominational bonds.  Now the social networking culture is forcing the church to think world wide rather than local, regional, or even national, so revival will take on a totally different form than it has in the past, probably in a world wide perspective.  Today’s social networking is in its infancy, also stressing even looser relationships while transcending today’s acceptable church norms.

So what form will revival take to this generation?  Will it be in the wilderness as in Jonathan Edward’s day or in the forests during Camp Meetings in Wesley’s day, on a lonely island as in Duncan’s day, or in farmer’s fields as in Jesus Rallies during the Jesus movement of the 1970’s?  Probably in none of these ways, because when social networking, I discover, at least on this blog, that I get “hits” from 1-4 a.m. in the morning, from the U.K. and Europe as well as from Australia & New Zealand and even Africa.  Our commonality is in the English language, or barriers are only time zones.  Our platform is not the isolated frontier, or the shade of the forests, or on blankets sitting in a farmer’s field, but on the platform of the whole wide world.  With that platform, true revival will not only touch localities and nations, but it could and should touch and affect the entire world. 

The revival Spirit of the 1^st Century touched the “entire known world” of Paul’s day.  The revival Spirit of the 21^st Century will also touch the “entire known world” of our day.  I have studied the great revivals of England and Europe and of America, but know little personally of the revivals in Africa and Asia, but they have also experienced revivals.  In a day when the Muslim religion looks as a threat to the Jewish and Christian religions, there needs to be a movement of God that transcends all of these religions whose heritage is traced to the same man, Abraham, and to the same God, the God of Abraham who went to sacrifice his son on what is today the Temple Mount. At the same geographical locations where the original Pentecost took place stand a Muslim Mosque, the Jewish Wailing Wall, a remnant of Herod’s Temple, and Golgotha, the site of Jesus’ crucifixion as well at the empty tomb at the base of the Mount.  Three religions all fighting for the same geographical square mile, yet holding world wide influence. Why couldn’t or wouldn’t God’s all powerful, all present Spirit transcend all three religions in the greatest revival in history to usher back Jesus’ Second Coming? 

America, quit being self centered, wishing for revival to hit only America.  Who knows what “world wide revival” will look like, nor the scope of its power, but church beware, prepare, and be open to what is about to occur: the greatest revival under the banner of the God of Abraham, through His Son, Jesus Christ, lead by the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ.  It will be in a new form.  You will be forced to accept it or reject it. Two at the millstone; one accepts one rejects. Who will you be?

New Winds; New Revival: Revivals Always Bring Misunderstandings!

To Understand One Another, The Generation Gap Linguistically Will Have To Be Bridged At The Cross

Revival usual occurs at the grass roots of the church out in the open, not behind their closed doors.  When it occurs, it produces tension between the “established” church and its mindsets with the “new movements” and what appears to be new mindsets.  The key for true, effective, powerful revival is to bring the two sides together.  In the 1700’s, Wesley misunderstood Whitehead’s attempts to go “out” to the coal mines to preach to the miners as they left work, criticizing him for not having them come “in” to the church to hear the gospel.  When the misunderstanding was cleared by Wesley not being able to deny the fruits of Whitehead’s endeavors, he embraced the new movement and took the lead in creating the outdoor Camp Meeting movement that revolutionized evangelism in America and help spearhead America’s Great Revival. If the misunderstandings are not cleared up, then the rival brings schism, division, and conflict in the body of Christ.

I recall the enthusiasm many of us in our twenties had when returning from an outdoor Jesus Rally in the mid-1970’s after hearing some inspirational teaching from a speaker who tried to encourage his youthful audience to grow in Jesus toward eventual church leadership.  He quoted the passage from Timothy that “it is good to aspire to become an elder.”  When our local pastor heard of it, he was shocked, offended, and threatened, thinking we were going to try to usurp his power and authority as pastor.  That was his pyramid, hierarchal mindset at the time. That was never our intention since we were only thinking horizontally, relationally, but that “misunderstanding” effected how we were allowed to “minister” at the local level.  

I can see the possibility of this same misunderstanding occurring during this next revival because of the generational gap at how each looks at leadership and accountability in the Church.  The “established” church thinks hierarchal like a business model while the “new thinking” group looks linear, horizontally relational.  Today’s many independent and megachurches have developed high control, low accountability models. The church leadership has tight control of those “under” them with not much of an umbrella, if any, accountability above them, especially if they follow a “strong pastor” format.  This is why my generation has seen so many “spiritual giants” fall from ministry.  This “turns off” many in the new movement who think linear, building relationships with other Christians, not caring about dogma, doctrine, and labels as much as “fellowshipping” with their peers, the living saints, under the banner of Jesus.  The rigid horizontal, pyramid church structure always collides with the vertical, relational, reform structure.  Only if both camps allows the other to intersect it (the horizontal and vertical), then you have THE CROSS.  Only at and through the CROSS of Jesus Christ can love, understanding, acceptance, and unity be found. 

As I have wrestled over the five fold ministry of Ephesians 4 over the last two decades, I always wondered how there could be unity from five completely different passions and points of view which historically always brought division. In my 20^th century church mentality I could not ever see or imagine how that could happen.  The vertical, pyramidal, 20^th century church structure would not permit it since they made each of the five fold ministries “offices”.  Senior Pastors now obtained the title of “apostle” or “prophet”.   How else would the church see it since the pyramid, hierarchal church structure was embedded in the church?  With this new wave of thinking horizontally, stressing relationship, I can see some daylight that there is a possibility for unity in the five fold if they are looked upon as points of view or passions for every believer in the priesthood of believers in Jesus Christ.  If relationships are built so strong in Jesus between members of the body of Christ that they are willing to embrace I John 3:16 of “laying down their life for the brethren”, then the groundwork would be laid. 

In the pyramidal, hierarchal structure that I have lived through, I can truthfully say that I do not know any brother or sister in the Lord who would actually lay down their physical or spiritual life for me, nor I for them.  I would “feel obligated” to do it for my “superiors”, my pastor and staff, but never for each other.  In the linear, vertical structured based on I John 3:16, it would become natural in building a deeper relationship with those in the body of Christ.  Through reciprocal “serving” of one another, trust would be built, and accountability would be established which the vertical, pyramid structure of leadership would not understand nor embrace, thus the conflict, misunderstanding, and division that revival normally produces.

It is my prayer and desire in these blogs to help bridge the gap between the old, 20^th century vertical structure with the new, 21^st century horizontal structure by having them “intersect” making a CROSS.  At that point of intersecting, at that point of allowing the supernatural vertical relationship with God the Father through His Son, Jesus, with the nurturing of the precious Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ, can the miracle of unity be found.  Both different points of view, different mindsets, different understanding can realize and understand that they are saying the same thing in Jesus, only linguistically different, for the kingdom of God principles are the same for both groups or camps.  That is why I think this upcoming revival which we are only feeling the birthing pangs, the beginning contractions, here in America, will be the birth of the Church maturing individually and corporately in Jesus Christ, the fulfillment of Ephesians 4.

Church: A Warning About Semantics & Linguistics

 Ephesians 4 & John 17 Wants An United Church; So Watch What Words You Choose

A discussion on Facebook caught my attention.  Those advocating a more horizontal relational approach to the Church were beginning to sound as if the “church” was the enemy.  As we are facing change in the Church, this is not about “we” versus “them” mentality, for that has been the cause of division that “revivals” have historically always produced.  Jesus is to come for a Church without spot and wrinkle, so we need to quit throwing tomatoes at one another producing spots and wrinkles and begin “practicing” laying down our lives for our brethren (I John 3:16), in other words, being “doers” of love through sacrifice, service, and laying down our lives for each other.

My hearts desire is to see revival in my lifetime in the Church that does not divide but unifies.  The Church is the corporate body of believers that is very diverse.  Not only should it reach out to the world, but it needs to reach out to each other.  I am so tired of “brethren bashing” of other believers who do not practice my doctrines, my morals, my theology, my uniqueness, etc. in the body of Christ. Christians not only love to throw stones at each other, but they shoot their wounded.  Supposedly Christianity is about peace, mercy, and forgiveness, not about hostility, judgment, and defining “righteousness” as something only my Christian sect practices. Unfortunately the church extends the latter rather than the former to each other.

Weight your words carefully or it will bring division.  During the Charismatic era, I remember saying a stupid thing, “I wonder if my pastors have the Holy Spirit.”  Daaaa, yes, they had it, for their bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, and without the Holy Spirit they would not be Christians.  What I meant was, “I wonder if my pastors have embraced the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.”  My linguistical handicaps caused pain and misunderstanding.

Yes, we, the Church, must embrace change if it is lead by the Holy Spirit, but we must be careful in how we word what we mean or we can come across as elitist spawning the culture of division and criticism.  Isaiah 57:14 says “Build up, build up, prepare the road! Remove the obstacles out of the way of my people.”  Often, we Christians are the very obstacle that needs to be removed.  I can not tell you the last time, if there even was a last time, when I heard a minister/pastor/beleiver praise another minister/pastor/teacher/beleiver from another Christian camp as being “right on”, “respectable”, and was willing to work with their camp.  We are worse than the bipartisan politicians in Washington who oppose each other no matter what.  We, the church, oppose everyone and anyone that is not exactly like our theological persuasion in the body of Christ, getting us nowhere.  The kingdom of God is at a stalemate because of our dig in your heals attitude toward our own brethren. Lord, “remove the obstacles out of the way of my people” is my prayer!

I sympathize with the movement of God toward the relational, toward the priesthood of believers, toward the decentralization of a pyramidal church structure, but I will not criticize my fellow brethren who are under that structure.  I believe the Lord wants to unify both camps.  Do we not have one father, one Lord and Savior, one Holy Spirit and one Church? 

If you have read my numerous blogs in the past, you know I am for a five fold structure built on a relationship of laying down your life for your brethren to serve and be served.  I believe accountability will arise out of those unique relationships, passions, points of view only when they “serve” “unconditionally” one another.  I am a fool enough for Christ to believe he can bring the very points of view and passions that have divided the Church so far in history, and make them the catalyst for renewal, revival, and UNITY only when the Church is willing to allow John 3:16 (our vertical relationships with God) to supernaturally dissect I John 3:16 (our horizontal relationship with out own brethren) creating the CROSS. 

Church, renewal and revival begins with repentance, and it begins with us!  Let’s not let the kingdom of God continue to be a divided kingdom for even Jesus warned “that a kingdom divided can not stand.”  Satan is our enemy, not the Church no matter what form it is in!  Church, let’s start a revival by finding another brother or sister in the Lord that is not of your persuasion, sect, or local, regional, or national group or denomination and lay down your life for them for an entire week! A month! A Year! A Decade! For the rest of your life!  Find a different believer in Christ, not of your camp, each week and continue to serve them.  Forget about ideology, theology, race, religious persuasion, sex, or age; if they believe that Jesus is the Son of God, our Savior, our Redeemer, our Lord, they are family members, so treat them as one.

This next movement of God is all about relationships, so Church, let’s start with the relationships that already exist in our own body, camp, or family, and begin to “remove the obstacles” to “prepare” the way to “build up” not tear down the road to revival! Let’s watch what we say and how we say it!

New Winds; New Revival: Can The Church “Afford” Professionally Paid “Staffs” In The Future?

The Price of Professionalism

Kent R. Sterner of the churchdoctor.org fame wrote in his ebook “The Future Is Now: How God Is Moving In the 21^st Century Church” in Chapter 15: Church Staff A Dysfunctional Business Plan: “Staffing the church in the 21st century is going to change dramatically. The new economy is changing the way the world works…..  At the risk of sounding non- academic, the traditional approach for training church workers has outlived its sensibility. It is no longer possible for many to leave seminary with an $80,000 debt, take on a $40,000 annual salary, provide for a family of four, pay off bills, live near the poverty level, and function with a clear mind to accomplish adequate ministry…..  It is no longer economically feasible for the system to survive.”

Jesus never founded a Christian University, a Bible College, or even a Rabbinical School of Theology, or a Seminary; he just established a “relationship” with 12 unlikely “pastor/clergy” candidates with no academically  religious background, and invested in their daily lives.  Most of his candidates would rather go “fishing”, collect taxes for revenue, etc. than study!  Sounds like many people I know today! Through Jesus’ relationship with these 12 common men, the foundations of the Church was laid, not through an educational system establishing a hierarchy causing a clergy-laity division. Jesus just prepared 12 men relationally for a ministry that would defy the Sanhedrim of his day, the established pyramidal religious structure of his day, who would marvel at these “untrained men” who spoke and ministered with “authority” while relationally changing the world.

The Church has followed the secular thinking that “education” is what is needed to change social conditions. In a public school setting, I have seen course after course, seminar after seminar, lesson after lesson educating students about bullying as if that would change their conduct and behavior. It hasn’t.  It could change the way you think about bullying, but it can’t change a bully’s heart nor his need for power and domination or attention. Church, you know that only Jesus can change a person’s heart!  With a “change of heart” and building of a “relationship” with the bully personally on equal terms takes away his power. Problem solved. The Church has the answer to social ills, but does not exercise its power or influence spiritually or relationally. That mindset is changing with the “twenty-teeners,” those in their twenties and thirties during 20013-2019 years, who look for relational, horizontal answers instead of hierarchal dictatorial solutions that have failed in the past.

The “Log College” in Carlisle, PA was founded in a log cabin during the 1700’s to train “itinerate” preachers to become circuit riders who would ride their horses anywhere anytime to present the gospel to the frontier in direct opposition to the “established” colleges and seminaries of Princeton and Yale who majored in the academics rather than practical everyday relational experience. These “lowly” trained men with little academia would usher in the great “American Reformation”, the last “great” movement of God in America. according to Kent R. Sterner, to the awe of the established Sanhedrin of their day, the established American church.

Instead of “equipping the ‘saints for the work of service” as commissioned in Ephesians 4, the church has historically opted to “equip” the ‘called’ “saints for the ‘professional’ work of ‘staff development’” in a clergy laden hierarchy church structure.  Jesus never advocated a pyramidal structure of church leadership, rebuking his disciples for fighting over who would sit on his right or his left in the kingdom of god.  “Service”, a theme of Ephesians 4, is the key for kingdom of god development.  Jesus showed this when washing his disciples feet, for while on earth he came “to serve, not to be served,” he told them.  He never “lorded” over the 12 in his relationship with them on earth, but served them, thus the difference between secular thinking of leadership and the kingdom of god experience of leadership.

Instead of building a huge seminary, university, and college campus, in an effort to build a pyramidal, hierarchical church structure, the Church needs to rethink, restructure, and develop a relational horizontal structure of how to train, nurture, develop, care for, equip, release, and send out its believers, its priesthood of believers, to effectively propagate the gospel to all the diversity of cultures throughout this globe.

As “professional” Christians become unemployed Christians, being forced to going back to tent making like Paul in the 1^st century, they will become more in touch with those in the world around them. The distinctive divide between “the saints” and “the world” will become grayer as the Church becomes more influential in the world.  More non-churched people will be relationally socializing with church people instead of church people creating their own protective social bubble that is immune from the “world” as now exists.  My heart goes out for those who have followed today hierarchal church dream of entering the “professional” ministry while incurring tremendous debt while being “trained”.  Something is wrong with that picture.  The Church will have to revamp how it trains its believers (old church calls it discipleship) that will not have huge price tags and debt placed upon it.  Discipleship will be done “relationally”, not academically in the future Church.

Will we see the day when a church building closes because the congregation could not "fill the pulpit" because they could no longer "afford" their pastor or his staff?

New Winds; New Revival: A Challenge To The Roman Catholic Church

 The “Catholic” Church As Horizontal; The Roman “Catholic” Church as Vertical

If you ask any American Roman Catholic when the Charismatic movement, or Holy Spirit movement, was initiated into their church, they will tell you at Duquesne University of the Holy Spirit in Pittsburg, PA at a conference in 1967.  The Holy Spirit fell on a group of Catholics that would forever influence the Roman Catholic Church, even to the heights of its Pope, Pope John Paul II.  Even today, there is a charismatic branch with in the Roman Catholic church. Pope John Paul II embraced the role of the Holy Spirit ‘s influence on the Church, but I am not sure if the next movement of God will be as graciously received by those in authority within the Roman Catholic church structure.

The “twenty-teeners”, as I call the, those in their twenties and thirties during the years of 2013-2019 A.D., are embracing a vertical movement of God, one built on relationships, not hierarchal by position of authority with in the Church.  Through “conversations” in person or through the world wide internet, or telling their faith “stories” (old school church called them testimonies) while conversing with Christians and non-Christians in a social media patform, this generation is developing a system of horizontal networking through relationships now matter how strong or how shallow.  I can see the biggest opposition to this new movement of God coming from those religious systems built on hierarchy, a pyramid of power, affluence, and influence.  Unfortunately that is the backbone of the Roman Catholic Church as well as every Protestant denomination or independent church with strong clergy leadership. 

Recentgly the current Pope just set up his own “Twitter” account so that he can bless all his multitudes of “followers” several times a day.  It appeared to be his attempt at becoming “social networking” literate. I think he is missing the point of the power this technology because it is used by “normal everyday” people communicating on a platform to other “normal everyday” people, their peers, from a position of horizontal acceptance and availability.  There is no “pope” of social networking, no hierarchical structure one must follow when Facebooking, Google+ing, Tweeting, texting, MySpacing, or blogging. It is a horizontal means of peer communications.

I have the same platform as the Pope when social networking.  He may have more “followers”, but my voice is also out there and cannot be stymied unless Corporate Headquarters bans me from using their social networking product.  Taking someone off line will be the hierarchal attempt of controlling the vertical in the future if there is a “power” struggle.  Joe Smuck’s blog or Tweet or social networking message has as much validity as the Pope’s dictum in Latin on his Tweet or blog!  Hierarchically, that is a threat!

This has already been demonstrated when the hierarchical communist Chinese regime tried to ban certain social networking platforms realizing its influence and power among the “masses”.  They are looking at how to control the masses to hear only their political voice which opposes the many social networking voices on a vertical level.  Social networking’s power gives every user the potential to use their voice if anyone is listening and to listen to many other voices. Social networking is a threat to a hierarchal tyrannical political system. The dictatorial Arab leaders of the Middle East are finding out the power of the mass social networking platform through opposition from the “peoples’” movement  who are demanding more freedoms. One of the themes of the “twenty-teener” age is “less control” not more in direct opposition to hierarchal dictatorial structures.

Social networking is an advocate of the “priesthood of believers.”  In the New Testament, you never hear of a single “priest” in the kingdom of god, only a “priesthood” which means “many.” In the kingdom of god so many voices can be heard, but a corporate voice can, will, and must be heard, the voice of the Holy Spirit.  The “catholic” church’s voice, as advocated in the Apostles Creed, the universal Church of all believers, can and will be heard through social networking.  The Church can now hear from any believer anywhere in the world through today’s technology.  The “Word” does not have to come out of Rome or the United States or South Africa or some secluded monastery or cave in the Alps or even China, but from any believer in Jesus Christ who is technologically connected with the “world wide web.” 

That is why the “apostles’ teaching” must be restored to the Church, as mentioned in my previous blogs, for with so many different voices from so many different languages and dialect and with such diversity in the Body of Christ, the Church, a single message of simplicity and unity must be presented and heard.  Not a message from a “doctrinal” decree, but a message of unity from the Body of Christ through the flow of the Holy Spirit.  As you can see from my previous blogs, the purpose of the five fold in Ephesians 4 is to bring maturity in Christ to the individual believer as well as the Church as a whole.  The Holy Spirit will, can, and does speak with that singular voice directed from the throne of God.  The “universal catholic” church of all believers will hear, recognize, and obey that voice of the Holy Spirit in unity, not the dictatorial edicts and decrees from established hierarchal religious structures as the “Roman Catholic” church has practiced through the centuries. This is the new view, the new wind of revival, the new mindset of the 21^st century Church.

New Winds; New Revival: A Look At The Role Of Women

 “Old School” Church Bashing to “New School” Church Acceptance

As in all the congregations of the saints, women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission as the Law says.  If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church. I Corinthians 14:34

Submission in the kingdom of God is by “choice”; submission according to the world’s view is by “force”.  The Church has majored in “forcing” their women into submission for centuries, and the Jewish culture’s perspective even goes back further.  Paul, once Saul, the Pharisee of Pharisees, falls back into his pharisaical past by quoting “as the Law says” to justify his judgment. Paul, what happened to the “grace” of Jesus Christ? The “living” Jesus always extended “grace” rather than “judgment”; ask the woman caught in adultery, the woman at the well, the woman who touched the hem of Jesus’ garment, Mary Magdalene, and so many more recorded in the four gospels… gosh, they were all women who were extended grace.

What happens if the Holy Spirit decides to use “women” in its next movement of God? He has used them in the past!  Acts 2:17-18 records the prophecy found in Joel: “In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. You sons and daughters will prophesy…. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.”  

Christ’s Time:  It amazes me that we, men, fail to recognize that in Christ’s time it was the women who had faith in the resurrection while the men doubted the resurrection’s validity having to “see it to believe it” (Mark 16:11, Luke 24:10-11);  that women had hearts of a servant while the men argued over authority rather than servanthood (Mark 11:35-37); women were forgiven and free to forgive (Luke 8:1-3) while men judged rather than forgive (Luke 8:36-39).  It was the Sanhedrin’s duty to pressure a women “suspected of unfaithfulness” to confess, then stone her, yet Jesus “forgave” a women “caught in adultery” eliminating every male from throwing stones at her.

Men, why are we still throwing stones at our women when Jesus forbad the practice centuries ago?  “He who is without sin” may throw the first stone.  Jesus, a sinless man, has been the only male to qualify, yet he chose “grace” over “judgment”.  If we are men of God, followers of Jesus Christ, then we should follow his lead and drop our stones and pick up our women in grace and acceptance.

20^th Century: In a country where culturally women are “forbidden” to lead, South Korea, Pastor Cho finds himself in a dilemma for his men are not responding to the Holy Spirit’s call for small group leadership in his local church, but the women do!  They start leading “small home groups” and the church explodes to over 750,000 people attending just one church!  I wonder how many of his peers quoted I Corinthians 14:34 to him then? He became a model for “mega-church” growth!

21st Century: The “twenty-teeners”, as I call them, those who will be active in the Church in their twenties & thirties during the years of 2013-2019, communicate horizontally.  Going through the hierarchical structure of “authority” and “rule” does not impress them, nor influence them. Papers and church rulings over procedural positions passed at church conferences or handed down from men in high church positions is superfluous to them. They see Christianity from a horizontal prospective of relationships (I John 3:16) rather than a vertical prospective of authority by position.  They see that we are not only to be “hearers of the Word”, but “doers” and recognize and follow the “doers”, not the talkers or dictators.  They don’t care the sex, race, social position, or occupation of the “doer”, but they just recognize and respect him/her for “doing”.  This is a different mind set for the establish church.  The “twenty-teeners” look at pyramidal structure as “Egyptian” and relational structure as “kingdom of God”.  If forced to choose, they will choose horizontal relationships.  

"Rivetting Rosie" of the 20th Century is now "Blogging" Betty of the 21st Cnetury!21^st Centuries view of women:  If the “twenty-teeners” look horizontally then “authority” by position becomes a nonentity. Who cares about “positions of authority”?  If women are serving, they are servants. If they have a following horizontally through relationships, then they are leaders because, by definition, a leader is only a leader if someone is following them.  I “follow” several Christian women who “blog”, so by definition, they are leading me, challenging me, prying me, prodding me along through Christian dialogue, sharing their faith journey with mine.  There is no “authority” question in their blogs.  By blogging on the internet, they are no longer in a “church building”, so by I Corinthians 14:34 standards, they don’t have to be quiet and only allow their husbands to blog. Like in Jesus’ time here on earth, they still have faith, still serve, still financially support, and still forgive and tell it through their faith stories, their journals of their faith journeys, their blogs. 

Today: Today’s Christian women “chooses” to “submit”, give of herself, to her husband, her Christian and non-Christian friends with whom she has built a relationship out of her relationship with Jesus Christ, not out of the bondage of authoritative hierarchical dictatorial authority from men cramming I Corinthians 14 down her throat, not as her peer or even friend, but as a power move of authority.  Church, when the winds of revival blow, the “old school” bashings need to stop, stone throwing must cease, and we must yield to grace through our relationship with Jesus Christ. “He who is without sin, throw the first (I Cor. 14:34) stone……” 

Who Is To Teach The Apostolic Teaching!

Probably A Person With An Apostolic Point Of View

So who is called to “teach” this apostolic teaching today?  Self proclaimed apostles who use to be bishops, or prophets who now claimed a “higher calling”, or senior pastors of huge megachurches or networks of independent churches? I am leery of titles in the hierarchal structure in today’s church.  I cringed when on web site there was Apostle Dr. So-in-so and his wife Prophetess Dr. So-in-so.  At the top of their hierarchal local church structure they both boasted higher educational degrees and titles to validate their superiority among their peers. They appeared to be super Christians.

The five fold is for every believer to believe in the supernatural invading and dissecting their natural world.  It is not for super Christians seeking labels and positions.  Even the disciples fought among themselves at who would sit on Jesus left and right in the kingdom, totally missing the whole kingdom of god principles Jesus was teaching them.  When the Holy Spirit came, and they allowed the Holy Spirit to be their teacher, they began to understand and live these principals as apostles, becoming the foundation of the Church.  This foundational teaching is called the “apostles’ teaching.”

An apostle sees “the big picture”, loves to put things in order, and loves to “release” people and their giftings to further the kingdom of god.  His teaching must reflect the big picture, a message that is universal to “the whole body” not just for sects within the body like is in Christianity today.  His teaching must reflect the divine order set forth by Jesus in all its simplicity, his mission in life recorded in the Old and New Testaments, his death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and ruling at the right hand of the Father. His teachings must also reflect a goal of “equipping the saints for works of service” but then “releasing them in their gifting” to further the kingdom. 

I personally do not believe an apostle has to be a paid clergy. An “apostle” is not a profession with a hierarchal job description. It is not a person with the most “seniority” in a local or regional body of believers.  It is a person, a common believer in Jesus Christ, who has the point of view of seeing the whole Church, the body of Christ, and a passion to release people already in that body to further the kingdom of god and set things in order for the return of Jesus Christ to a bride that is without spot or wrinkle.  The five fold are “spot” and “wrinkle” removers under the watchful eye of the apostle who “sees over” what the Holy Spirit is doing and follows that leading. 

So who is called to “teach” this apostolic teaching today? Like the gospel, the answer is simple: the apostle!  An apostle sees the universality of the Church, the power and influence of the Church working out its salvation corporately, being the Bride, preparing itself for its Groom, the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, while “seeing over” what the Holy Spirit is doing individually in the passions of the evangelist, pastor/shepherd, teacher, and prophet to bring corporate unity through the Holy Spirit and the Cross of Jesus Christ.

If there is ever a day the Church needs apostles, it is today, for only through them and their teaching  will we no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is Christ. Eph. 4:14-15

The Need For Apostolic Teaching!

Are You Tired Of Being Tossed To And Fro?

Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is Christ. Eph. 4:14-15

In my youth I remember listening to a local religious station that had 15 minute blocks of teachers, constantly all day: preach, preach, preach.  Unless you were a Christian, I have no idea why you would listen to that station.  Almost everyone of them gave the “salvation message” and a call for “financial support from listeners like you.”  After several hours of various “salvation messages”, I remember Jimmy Swiggart’s program as something refreshing because it had to do with Christian growth and something different called the Baptism in the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in tongues.  Well not much teaching could be done in fifteen minutes when five minutes was introduction and another five pleading for financial support, so he had to speak in “series” that may last all month.  As son as he was done, the next radio preacher to come on preached against the Baptism of the Holy Ghost, claiming the gifts died with the apostles, and Swiggart and others were examples of the “beloved” who were to be deceived in the end times as recorded somewhere in the book of Revelations.  This was followed by a Bible Prophecy program teaching from the books of Daniel and Revelation claiming that Henry Kissinger was the anti-Christ because if you studied the numerical Jewish alphabet the numbers from the letters in his name added up to 666.  What a fiasco!  And this was Christian radio!  This is what Christianity in America looked like?

Today, the internet has exposed Christianity as a hodge-podge of theology that divides and polarizes the body of Christ.  I watched a YouTube video of an affluent pastor talking about the different streams of the emergent church movement, pointing out their fallacies.  Although boasting to be more mainline historically, he refuted being a denomination or label, but actually a correct branch of the emergent movement. Are you confused? Of course his interpretation and his sect’s interpretation were the only “correct” interpretation. 

Every branch of Christianity feels they have the “truth” and all of the millions of believers world wide who do not share their views on theology are down right wrong somehow!  We even have Christian Talk hosts who love to pull witch-hunts on famous church leaders for the sake of so called truth by revealing heresies, false doctrine, and false teaching.  There life has become a crusade fighting everyone and anyone in the Church who is not under their theological umbrella.  Of course their views are never in error.

Are you tired of being tossed around and blown here and there by all these so called bible teachers and self proclaimed prophets as defenders of truth?  Whose right?  Are any of them on base? What good is Christianity if there isn’t basic doctrine?  Can’t we go back to the time the book of Acts was recording the “acts of the apostles” who had a simple message.  There was simplicity to the Christian message.  There was power in the Christian message.  There was unity in the Christian message because of what was called “the apostles teaching”.  The apostles taught the same message that Christ in the flesh had taught them and that the Holy Spirit taught them after Jesus’ ascension. 

I have come to realize that the salvation message is the same for those in a denomination church, or evangelical church, or denomination church, or emergent church, etc.: We are sinners in desperate need of a Savior, and Jesus is that Savior. It is that simple!

Why I Need The Five Fold In My Life! A Self Confession

 I’m Tired of Getting Ripped Off By Failure When Being Alone

Personal History:  Over the last four decades I have been involved in “church” at almost every level. Some would credit me as being a “good Christian” because I went to Vocation Bible School and sung in the choir as a child, have attended and worked at church camps through my youth, as an adult taught Sunday School, aided in birthing an inner-city urban church, lead two different home churches, participated in leadership in a church plant, headed a youth ministry at my home church and regionally where I lived, lead the youth component of a major city-wide evangelistic Crusade, coordinated Lay Witness Missions in dozens of churches in the Mid-Atlantic region, took lay speaker courses and filled pulpits, earned a Master’s Degree in Biblical Studies, been in church leadership positions as an elder, taught Bible courses, participated in prophetic presbyteries, became faculty advisor for a public school Christian club, and even have my own blog site writing hundreds of blogs on the five fold which you are currently reading.

But, to tell you the truth, unfortunately, the inner-city urban church no longer exists, neither do any of the home church where I participated, nor does the church plant where I once was an elder.  I resigned from my home church office as Youth leader and struggled as a regional Youth Coordinator.  Lay Witness Missions are now scarce if not history.  My pastor said I should earn a Master’s Degree so “doors would open”; since earning that degree, no doors have opened.  I no longer get invitations to fill pulpits. Our local church no longer has prophetic presbytery teams, thus the almost disuse of that gifting. I write on a blog on a topic from a point of view that is unique to most of the Church, not its current acceptable standard.  Some people would credit me as a “good Christian”, but the data, the evidence, appears to show the contrary, a failure.

I have pondered my failures for hours, days, years, ruminating over them, analyzing them, trying to figure out what happened even though I was pure at heart, I thought spirit led, but the accuser, satan, always gets the upper hand by putting me down, condemning me as a “failing Christian.”  The reason I have failed is because in almost every one of those positions I found myself doing whatever I was doing alone.  Don’t get me wrong; Jesus was with me through them as well as other Christian brothers and sisters, but when involved with an evangelist in church planting, or church birthing, or in an evangelistic Crusade, I flowed evangelistically, but I did not have the support of a pastor/sherpherd, teacher, prophet, or apostle around me for protection, guidance, and accountability.  I had tastes of pastor/shepherding in small home groups, but again I did not have the other four giftings around me to share their points of view, insights, and accountabilty.  I have taught Bible School, Bible Classes, Sunday School, and even developed my own Christian course, but did not have the other four around me to make the “head”, “academic” knowledge into practical “living out” daily the kingdom of god knowledge to those I taught.  I have dabbled in the prophetic, but saw the independent spirit of the prophet if not submitting to the other four five-fold passions and points of view.  I even got a taste of the apostolic as a coordinator for Lay Witness Missions by “releasing” those on my team to share their evangelistic testimonies, care for those they stayed with for the weekend, share the truth of the gospel through mini-teaching, and working prophetically by listening to the small voice of the Holy Spirit all weekend, but did not have the opportunity to continue those giftings once our team left.

I have tasted each of the five fold passions, points of view, and giftings in my faith journey, but realize the importance of them in the context of a “body ministry”.  I need an evangelist around me to bring life and rebirth. I need a shepherd to care for me and the rest of the flock. I need a teacher to make the writing Word of God a living Word of God.  I need a prophet to challenge me towards intimacy with God.  I need an apostle to “see over” what the Holy Spirit is doing in my life, then “releasing” me to be free in my passion while setting up an accountability factor through relationships around me. 

I confess: I’ve blown it, often. I have failed even when my intentions were pure.  I have become self defeated because of the constant bombardment of the accuser, satan, constantly exposing my failures. In spite of all of this, I still have a yearning, a belief, a faith that all this can work, and will work if only the different points of view in Christianity would have one point of view, Jesus, if all the different passions in Christianity had one passion, a passion to “serve”, a passion to be intimate with the Father through Jesus and His precious Holy Spirit, a passion to “lay down one’s life for his brethren.”  The golden rule is to love god and your neighbor. Hey, Church! Let’s not only love God, but lets also love our Christian brothers and sisters, our family, by laying down our lives for one another!  That is the power of the five fold! You in the Church who have different passions and points of view than mine; I NEED YOU!

“Twenty-Teeners” Church Questions

 Drives My Generation of Christians NUTS!

“Where do we get the term ‘saved’ from?”

“Who invented the 4 Spiritual Laws handed out on tracts?”

“Where did the “sinner’s prayer come from?  Jesus never used it?”

“Am I not to tithe unto the Lord?  How is that tied into financing the church as an institution?

How dare the “twenty-teeners” ask such bold questions that seem to be at the essence of the 20^th Century Church’s thrust on evangelism.  Millions have been “saved” using the “sinner’s prayer”.  How dare they question its validity to our church’s cultural tradition.  I do remember when my children were smaller they asked a thousand questions which I thought was a positive experience because they were inquisitive. One of the first inquisitive words they learned was “why”, not to justify what was being done, but to know how things worked, the rationale behind it all.  Why should I be shocked now when they ask such pertinent questions? 

Questioning can be good; it part of the “twenty-teener” make up.  My generation of church leaders have become critical of Rob Bell because of his approach to questioning.  He just wrote a book about heaven and hell, and how his generation is questioning it from the standpoint of the Lord’s prayer of “thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”  Do we experience a little of heaven and hell already on earth? Rob’s questioning in this generations exploration of finding Biblical truth to their generation as C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce was to my generation.  I think there is a lot of common ground, but we are looking at it from generationally different points of view, thus questions.  It amazes me that Jesus did not use the lecture, alias sermon, approach when teaching as my generation does, but he is forever asking questions and speaking through parables, much of which this new generation is doing.  Could their approach to teaching be more Jesus centered than our way of teaching? Hmmmm…..

As a “church kid” it was hard for me to understand what “saved” meant because I had tried to live a righteous life under the church norms that I was taught by my parent’s generations.  I once wished I had been a junkie, a drug addict, been a pimp of a prostitution ring just so I had a good testimony of being “saved” from something drastic.  I thought being “saved” was turning from an old life through repentance and moving on in a new life, but found many of my friends returning to the altar to get “saved” again, or as they called it, “rededicating” their lives.  I thought to be “saved” meant a new beginning…. Now, through asking questions, I too am beginning to examine of the meaning of terms I just took for granted, instructed  never to question.

I’ve met the man who invented the 4 Spiritual Laws for Campus Crusade for Christ, who has gotten to the point of almost dispising them.  Yes, he found an effective way of evangelistically sharing the gospel to his generation during his time, but “canning” his approach over decades has become redundant and ineffective most times. I still remember seeing a 60 yard long paper trail of tracts thrown on the ground as litter at the York Fair. “But if one was saved, it was all worth it,” was the evangelistic cry of denial of its true effectiveness.

As for the sinner’s prayer, it may be something more of my generation. I had no idea of its origins so I went to the entrusted source Wikipedia which attributes is full thrust to 19^th & 20^th century evangelists like Dwight L. Moody and Billy Graham as well as Campus Crusade while also contributes to its weaknesses as not being Biblically based nor at times said in sincerity. I, personally, never said the sinners prayer to get saved, but knew God was real while sitting in the sunshine in a chair in our living room. My parents, coming from their generational bias, wondered if I had been “saved” because I never went forward in an “evangelistic revival meeting” at their local church.  I later discovered that John Wesley also “found” God as I had.  The “twenty-teener’s” questions about the sinners prayer may be more valid than I want it to be.

My children don’t question the Biblical principle of tithing, but question tithing to “what”. In his ebook The Future is Now: How God Is Moving In The 21^st Century, Kent R. Hunter of Churchdoctor.org fame says, “The flat world reflects the repulsion today’s young adults have for institutions that act institutionally. The key for understanding this is that if a church persists to be hierarchial, it will not attract young adults. This concept is reflected in the teaching of low-control/high-accountability.  Most churches from the modern era have become extreme, with layers of bureaucracy, politics, bylaws, rules and regulations, titles, offices and all the trappings of institutionalism. This does not fit the relation world that now exists.” They want to tithe, to the kingdom of God, but not to an institution with all its entrappings of building, maintenance, management, staffing, programs, etc. They want to be relational, not heirarchial.  Tithing to my generation usually supports a hierarchal system of pyramid professionalism.

So maybe all their inquisitive questioning is valid.  At least it is forcing me to look at it from a different point of view. After a while all the questioning about drives my generation nuts.  Hmmm, maybe they got us where they want us! LOL (as they would text)!

Pentecost Generationally

 Will This Next Movement Of God Bring Unity Of Language?

Many of my generation of church goers fear speaking in tongues, some even to the point of being in denial claiming it “died” when the original 12 apostles died, failing to recognize that millions of Christians world wide speak in tongues.  But this exemplifies the gap in the church’s mindset culturally today of my generation. American culture says if it fits my American culture and I see it in my experience (of course, grounded in the Word of God, the Bible, Amen!), then it is relevant and correct. If I do not “see” tongues in my church, then it does not exist! That’s my generation’s mentality.  Tongues was looked upon as “unintelligent gibberish” that needed “interpretation” in ones own personal language and dialect so all could understand it.  The first century Church’s experience with tongues is believers speaking in languages they did not know and all kinds of people of different language and dialect understanding their message.  This is how the Church was birthed. Tongues to the “twenty-teeners” is the art of “communicating” with the rest of the “world” through the internet and social networking in their cultural language, yet all speaking the language of Jesus Christ.  That language will not be in American English culture as the internet is now positioned, but in a language transcending the American culture where churches in China, Asia, South America, Third World Countries, tell Americans about their faith and how to walk it out.  The Church will begin to speak the language of “Jesus” supernaturally by his Holy Spirit.

The Great Commission is looked upon generationally differently today.  My generation looks at it as the physically “sent out” generation of missionaries, people called, commissioned, and financially supported by local churches.  Once sent out, the local church would only see them every five years when they would have to return to “build up their financial support.”  Parachurch ministries such as Mission Aviation, Wycliff Bible Translators, Youth With A Mission, or even Compassion International were all effective tools of mission work to my generation. 

Today the “twenty-teeners”, can do “mission” work right from their Iphone.  Their mindset of the Church is naturally global, not small town community as their grandparents.  The World Wide Web allows them to communicate literally with the world through all kinds of social platforms.  Their mentality is that they can be in touched with an actual Nigerian, relationally building conversations with them, rather “sending out” missionaries.  This generation “sends out” texts, tweets, blogs, Facebook messages, etc. to the actual people in their native land, a totally foreign concept to my generation.  Instead of funneling through a missionary, they can have direct contact with the actual people in their native culture, working out their faith in their culture.

This also breaks down denominational lines. Missionaries in the foreign field have “tolerated” each other even if from different persuasions of Christianity for the sake of the gospel as they work toward a common goal of sharing Jesus with a foreign culture to theirs.  Today, the “twenty-teeners” don’t care for labels, so when social networking, they don’t care what Christian label you carry; they only social network about their relationship with Jesus in their culture to another culture.  “Twenty-teeners” are actually more “engaged” in the actual missions process than my generation.  They can learn about cultures other than their own easier through internet connections than my generation ever dreamed of doing.  The world is their stage, not the small confines of the local community as my generation found itself.

“Twenty-teeners” don’t try to change culture, only change lives in any culture for Jesus Christ.  Early missionaries to the Americas tried to change Indian culture to European Christian culture.  The same is true with many missionaries to third world countries.  The “twenty-teeners” will try to change any culture into “kingdom of God” culture that transcends any foreign culture to oneself.  The American way is not the “kingdom of God” way, nor is the European way, as the westernized church has forced on the world so far throughout history. 

Paul learned that “Jewish culture” was not  the new “kingdom of God” culture although that was the culture he was familiar with.  He once was the “Pharisee of Pharisees”, the ultimate religious leader of his former culture, but Jesus knocked him off his horse, and completely new mindsets of “kingdom of God” thinking had to be established in his life. In fact he transcended the culture so both Jews and Gentiles could be part of the “kingdom of God”, something he had to defend at the Counsel in Jerusalem in Acts 10.

Generationally, today the Church is in a period of rapid transformation from being a “westernized” religion, or a historically Jewish based religion, to a “world wide” religion with powerful implications. The world wide culture is only being established now, and the Church needs to be a defining part of that!  Reformation always comes when the Church took new technology to advance the “kingdom of God”, them empowerment of the “priesthood of believers” who would effect not only their culture, but other cultures foreign to their previous experiences.  Lord, thank you for letting us enter the birthing of a World Wide Reformation.

Is The Church Generationally Two Different Worlds

Are We “Worlds” Apart?

Linguistics is such an art!  When thinking of church leadership, I think of pastor, elders, deacons, church boards, etc.  Recently I met with a “twenty-teen” minded church leader who is a facilitator, director, planner, implementer, spark igniting, social networking overseer of a local church.  Well, I call it a church; he choses to refer to it as a gathering of people who tell their stories, build relationships within and outside current church norms and boundaries, and facilitate these relationships on a social networking level or in a deeper personal level.  As Kent Hunter refers to flat worlding (see earlier blogs about the 21^st Century Church), my friend and his “twenty-teen” generation, as I now call them, are not the least interested in church hierarchy.  In fact that turns them off.  They don’t look at church from a business model sense like my generation with budgets driven by tithing, but merely from a loose relationship angle.  Church offices and titles make no sense to them, relationships do.  Social networking keeps them on a sociably equal level with each other.  On Facebook, Myspace, and Tweet, there are no social levels, no societal hierarchal levels of importance.  You are on an equal platform of “esposure”, and “vuneralability”. 

He told me that although he still meets with a pastor’s group for prayer and fellowship periodically, he feels a detachment, almost an alienation to the old guard. He understands where they are coming from because of history, but they can not understand going the other direction, toward the future.  What will the Church look like in 2025?  The old guard would be content if the Church still had its present structure, for that is what they identify with in their generation to their culture, but there is now a different culture and a different generation.

For examples, the way we view the Great Commission is changing.  My generation sent out “missionaries” to foreign countries or supported grand Billy Graham Crusades.  “Twenty-teeners” are beginning to despise Billy Graham three point techniques as “archaic” and ineffective to their generation.  Billy Graham, Oral Roberts, Pat Robertson, are all spiritual giants to my generation tried to breed their children to follow them in ministry.  It is hard for them to realize, but their grandchildren are not responding well to their strategies.  It is a new culture, a new world.  Tent Evangelism of Oral Roberts, Billy Graham city wide Crusades, and  Pat Robertson’s view of Christian television, the advanced technology of his generation, is giving way to the internet, the world wide web, and social networking.  Their grandchildren would preferably only listen to a “podcast” of one of their sermons in the "archive" section if they were interested at all.

Evangelism has changed.  Billy Graham preached the world was going to hell in a handbag, and repenting and turning to Jesus was the answer.  Christians were not to be part of the world, but saved from it, thus the “Leave It Behind” series became popular to my generation, but is ineffective to “twenty-teeners”.  Their “missional” outlook is to “infiltrate” the world, not avoid it. 

“Life is how you live it”, is a common theme to both generations. My plain, almost Amish, conservative dressed background emphasized that “our lifestyle” proved to be our testimony, thus we were not verbal about our faith, for our outward appears defined our stand on righteousness.  Church dress, as defined in the 50’s through 90’s, has all but disappeared in the current seeker friendly church atmosphere.  The “twenty-teener” blends into his culture, preferring to listen to secular music to pick out spiritual principles that to church hymns and choruses, the reversal of my generation’s experience who went from pure secular music to contemporary Christian music. Both generations are trying to “live out their Christian faith” but in structures that are defined by their culture.  To the “twenty-teeners”, the dividing line between secular and church mindsets are getting muddied.  I am sure the “old guard” will combat this new movement with their own defined “righteousness” movement, judging and condemning this “new works of God” as being unholy, secular, and unrighteousness.  They’ve done that throughout Church history; why change now?

“Old School Church” is predictable because it has history; “New School Church” is unpredictable because it is looking ahead and has no history, only a walk of faith.  As my “twenty-teener” friend conveyed to me, “It is like Abram walking in faith into a land he is not familiar with.”  That’s the pioneering spirit; that is the spirit that moves the Church forward.  It challenges the Church from stagnation to flow again.  Quiet calm lakes are great for a quiet day of fishing if you can stay awake, but white water rafting on a fast pace stream creates a rush!  I felt this spiritual rush in the movement of God in the 1960-70’s, but eventually found myself in the stagnation of an established lake.  I empathize with the “twenty-teeners” because they are ready for their generational rush that will change their culture for Jesus Christ.

Jesus prayer as recorded in John 17 is to protect his Church who he is leaving behind in the world.  He knew the tuggings and temptations of the world, yet he knew that his mission was to come and die for this world!  He’s died; He’s risen; and by his Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the Church is moving forward.  Both generations are in the same world, but are looking at it generationally and culturally different. God, fulfill the calling of John 17 and bring unity to your body of Christ, the Church in this century to these two generations. May this “movement of god” bring unity among us! amen….