The Five Expressions of Christ
… Why the Ekklesia Still Needs the Fivefold Ministry

One of the great misunderstandings in the modern church is the belief that the fivefold ministries described in Ephesians 4:11 are simply leadership titles. They are much more than that:

The Apostle Paul writes:
“And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and some teachers … for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry; for the edifying of the Body of Christ.”

The fivefold ministry is not about hierarchy or position. It is about the continued expression of the ministry of Jesus through His body on the earth.

Jesus carried the fullness of all five of these expressions. When He ascended, He released these ministry graces into His Body so The Ekklesia could continue His mission in the world. In other words, the fivefold ministry represents five dimensions of the ministry of Christ, flowing through His people. When these expressions are functioning together, the church begins to reflect the fullness of Christ.

Let’s look at each of these dimensions one at a time, beginning with … THE APOSTLE.
 
Apostolic Authority … BUILDS & GOVERNS

Apostolic ministry carries the grace to establish foundations, set direction, and advance the Kingdom of God. Apostles think beyond programs and events. They think in terms of structure, alignment, and mission. Throughout the New Testament, apostles functioned as builders. Paul described himself as a wise master-builder who laid foundations for the church.

Apostolic leaders ensure that the church is not simply active, but that it is actually building according to heaven’s blueprint. Apostolic grace brings order, vision, and movement. It keeps the church from drifting into maintenance or institutional survival.

Apostles help the church answer questions like:

• Are we aligned with the mission of Christ?
• Are we building something that will last?
• Are we advancing the Kingdom, or simply maintaining activity?

Where apostolic authority is present, the church gains direction, structure, and Kingdom momentum.

In next month’s entry, we will look at ... THE PROPHET.

APOSTLES STILL EXIST

The Christ-appointed apostolic gift TO The Church did not end when the last of the original apostles died … PERIOD! Anyone who believes that, in all probability, belongs to a “church” that is built upon the foundations of men, not God!

 EPHESIANS 2:20

The Apostle Paul makes it crystal clear that the authentic New Testament Ekklesia is built upon the foundation of the ministry of apostles & prophets, with Christ Himself as the cornerstone!

• a foundation is not laid for the building to stop; it is laid so the building can continue!

God still sends apostles because the church still needs establishing. An apostle is not a title for influence, it is a grace for order. Apostles plant where nothing exists, correct what drifted, and align what became comfortable. They confront mixture, set doctrine, and restore direction when the church forgets why it exists.

Paul did not just preach … he established churches, appointed leaders, corrected error, and guarded The Gospel. That work did not “cease” with history, because the mission did not end; it continues TO THIS DAY!

We kept pastors, but removed builders; we kept gatherings, but lost foundations. And when foundations weaken, confusion increases. The apostolic is not about hierarchy, it’s about alignment. God still sends apostolic voices because Christ is still building His Church.

The early church was not sustained by inspirational messages/teachings alone. It was sustained by structure, correction, and spiritual authority. Apostolic ministry guards truth so the church does not slowly reduce The Gospel into little more than personal preference.

Many modern-day church leadership structures resist apostles, because apostles disturb comfort; they challenge hierarchy; they call for repentance, doctrine, holiness, and obedience. But a church without apostolic order eventually becomes guided by culture instead of Christ.

The Great Commission was not finished in the Book of Acts … so the sending did not stop in the Book of Acts. God is still raising-up builders, not businesses; spiritual fathers, not self-centered celebrities; establishers, not just speakers; holy altars, not performance platforms.
The apostolic has not ceased; the church has just stopped recognizing it!
 
But don’t be mistaken; don’t be misled … Christ IS still building, and He still sends those who plant, correct, and align that which belongs to Him.

APOSTLES STILL EXIST!

APOSTOLIC CHURCHES & HUBS
vs
PASTORAL CHURCHES & DENOMINATIONS
 
Let me state UP FRONT … this is NOT an effort to discredit or diminish the value of pastoral ministry. Pastors are essential; shepherds are vital to the health & life of the Body of Christ! Care, coverings & discipline matter deeply to us all.

I HONOR pastors!
We NEED pastors!

That said, many of us are recognizing how far today’s church has wandered away from THE NEW WINESKIN that was set in place by Christ Himself, through the Holy Spirit-inspired teachings of the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 4:11-16; a wineskin that was never intended to be changed! And today, there is a rising cry for the restoration of a church that looks less like natural maintenance, and more like supernatural ministry; less like New York, Atlanta, Orlando, or Houston, and more like Antioch!

That said, we are all still learning! We are all still seeking the face of God. And we MUST BE willing to allow Him to reform the structure that we have embraced for far too long … WE ARE NOT ABANDONING THE PAST; WE ARE RESTORING THE FOUNDATION!
 
TWO (2) MODELS; TWO (2) EMPHASES

• The “pastoral” model is primarily focused on management & maintenance; centered on ministry to the felt needs of those who gather in a physical structure
• The “apostolic” model is about reformation & realignment; centered upon the divine mandate to train & equip all saints, building unity & maturity into the entire body (EPHESIANS 4:11-16)
• The “pastoral” model emphasizes gathering believers; centered on the care and comfort of those who gather
• The “apostolic” model” emphasizes expanding spiritual influence over territories; transforming & commissioning the saints as the agents of Kingdom governance (MATTHEW 16:18-19)
• The “pastoral” model leans heavily upon business-like systems & concepts; too often weak or void of supernatural power
• The “apostolic” model proves itself through the release of Kingdom authority; often confirmed through miracles, signs, & wonders … the fruit of the apostolic (I CORINTHIANS 4:20)
• The “pastoral” model, often intentionally, neglects … even rejects the biblical 5-fold administration of the New Testament Church
• The “apostolic” model intentionally trains, equips, activates, and commissions the biblical 5-fold administration of the New Testament Church (EPHESIANS 4: 11-16) 
• The “pastoral” model often leans heavily upon intellect-based decision making
• The “apostolic” model follows the pillar of fire .. PRESENCE before process (EXODUS 13:21-22)
• The “pastoral” model focuses on identity through the building of organizational & physical structures
• The “apostolic” model focuses on identifying & tearing down spiritual strongholds over cities, regions, states & nations (ACTS 19:23-27)

 
UNIQUELY DIFFERENT MINISTRY FOCUSES
 

• “Pastoral” ministry shepherds people
• “Apostolic” ministry trains, equips, commissions & deploys people into their assigned spheres of Kingdom influence
• “Pastoral” ministry almost always functions within established structures (norms)
• “Apostolic” ministry carries divine anointing to build what is needed, but does not yet exist
• “Pastoral” ministry seeks to maintain what is
• “Apostolic” ministry pioneers what Heaven declares is coming (ISAIAH 43:18-19)  

 
WHY DOES ALL OF THIS MATTER?
 

• Saints need care … but regions, states & nations need government
• Sheep need shepherds … but regions, states & nations need pioneers; builders; apostles
  
  

The solution to the needs within today’s church in NOT found in abandoning the pastoral, rather in providing pastors a thriving apostolic ecosystem!

And THIS is why apostolic churches & hubs matter. THIS is why understanding Antioch matters. This is why the restoration of proper alignment matters.

It’s time to RIGHTLY discern the “new” … to restore the ONLY true “wineskin” ever created, that is capable of stewarding the New Wine!

This is NOT about “hierarchy” for ego, power, or control … it’s about divinely appointed function, foundation, and governance of the affairs of The Kingdom of God upon the earth. It’s not about titles or positions, it’s about obedience & authority; it’s about Kingdom advance.

The church is shifting … from care-only to commission-driven; from consumerism to missional.
And the hungry are humbly crying out …

LORD, EMPOWER US TO BUILD AGAIN!

God has already given us all we need to operate in The New Wineskin!

In Ephesians 4, The Apostle Paul (under the inspiration of Holy Spirit) tells us EXACTLY how Christ (The Head) designed His Church (The Body) to function ...

11) Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. 12) Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. 13) This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.

14) Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. 15) Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. 16) He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.

When the Resurrected Christ ascended to the right hand of The Father, He was given ALL authority, both in Heaven and on earth. And it's from that position that King Jesus set in place Heaven's strategy for the administration of His Church. This administration was comprised of five (5) distinct gifts: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. Together, they form the 5-Fold Ministry ... THE ONE & ONLY wineskin of the New Testament Ekklesia! And, according to scripture, these 5 gifts TO the Body have one common goal: "to equip the saints for the work of ministry". That was Heaven's "wineskin" from the beginning, and it has not changed! The tragedy is that the HOLY Catholic Church was stolen by the ROMAN catholic church, and the New (Testament) Wineskin was forfeited. And in less than 75 years after this theft took place, the New Testament Church entered The Dark Ages.

But I believe that we are living in the moment in which God is restoring the New (original) Wineskin! He has been speaking to the Christ-appointed apostles & prophets (Ephesian 2:20) about this restoration for decades, and it is now happening. The problem we face is that most Christians today have no idea what is meant by the "5-Fold Ministry", nor do they know how to set it in place. They have either:

1) never been properly taught Ephesian 4:11-16 ... OR WORSE
2) been intentionally taught WRONGLY

Either way, any doctrine that overlooks or eliminates this New (Testament) Wineskin is a "doctrine of demons" ... deceptive teachings, originating from demonic spirits, that led people away from biblical truth, often by twisting scripture, promoting self-focused desires, or forbidding things that God created as good.

If we are are ever going to become The Church God intended, Christ prophesied & paid for, and Holy Spirit birthed, we are going to have to rightly understand the Ephesians 4 Five-Fold Ministry!                  

Practically speaking, a wineskin is a leather bottle used for holding wine. A "new" wineskin gives fermenting wine room to expand. But when a wineskin gets old, it becomes brittle & inflexible ... thus no longer useful. That's why Jesus said, "No one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skin, the wine will be wasted, and the wineskin will be ruined." (Luke 5:37)

Across today's western church, when we pray for awakening and/or revival, we are pleading with God to pour out HIS new wine into OUR old wineskin!

There have been times throughout history when God has been gracious, to an extent, to do that. There have been great moves of The Spirit, even though the Church was increasingly becoming an old wineskin. But the results, unfortunately, have been tragic.

The best example, I believe, is The Welsh Revival of the early 1900s. About 125 years ago, awakening & revival swept through the small nation of Wales. It is recorded as one of the greatest moves of God is world history. The Spirit moved from country-to-country, transforming the entire nation. It's recorded that people just walking down the street would be hit by the power of Holy Spirit, fall to their knees, and start confessing Jesus as Lord. Every part of Welsh society was affected ... drunkenness disappeared & crime became non-existent. There were cities in Wales that reported there were no unsaved people remaining!

Those who have studied revival, me being one, love to talk about The Welsh Revival! But, unfortunately, few are willing to admit the condition of Wales today. One would assume that a movement of God like the one that took place in Wales would result in a permanent change in a nation ... that for generations to come, people would continue to talk about the great revival that swept across their country. But that has NOT happened.

While the Welsh Revival was an outpouring of NEW wine, the Welsh Church proved to be a OLD wineskin! It's legalistic, man-made structure quickly quenched the results of revival. If you visit Wales today, you will find one of the least Christian countries in Europe. Many estimate that only about 5% of the Welsh people today are born-again. New Age, witchcraft, and Islam are rapidly growing. It's tragic, but most of the modern-day population of Wales say that they have never even heard of The Welsh Revival! Those who DO claim to have any knowledge of it, think of it as a "legalistic movement" that happened back when the nation was weak & lacking direction. Unfortunately, the old wineskin was ill-prepared to hold the new wine, thus the wine was wasted and the wineskin was ruined.

God DOES NOT want that to happen again! He is calling us to prepare a NEW wineskin ... one that will righty hold AND STEWARD His new wine. That's why He said, "New wine MUST BE poured into new wineskins."

New wine ... a fresh outpouring of God's Glory ... IS COMING; but a new wineskin must rise up in this hour to hold it! That new wineskin, I believe, will only be found in the restoration of the Acts 2 Church!                
    

"No one pours new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the new wine will burst the old wineskins, and the wine will be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined. Instead, new wine must be put into new wineskins. And no one, after drinking old wine, wants the new wine, saying, ‘The old is better!’"  (Luke 5:37-39)

The modern-day church IS NOT what Christ intended the church to be ... there, I said it! Now let's discover why that is true.

When the 1st Century church was infiltrated with paganism, God's glory departed. After almost 300 years of VIRAL growth, the shift from the BIBLICAL "catholic" [universal] Church to the ROMAN Catholic (pagan) church resulted in the Spirit of God departing ... His supernatural power was lost and, to this day, we've still not fully recovered!

Because many remnants of paganism still remain in The Church, we've grown accustomed ... even accepting of them. Though much of The Church has rejected praying to "patron saints" and the pagan trappings that are associated, the fact remains that the way we "do church" still owes more to Constantine, than to the New Testament scriptures.

God will not waste His Glory in pagan temples! To use the analogy Jesus used ... He will not pour new wine into old wineskins.

I hear today's Church crying out for new wine ...

* "Lord, do it again!"
* "Lord, we want Your power!" 
* "Lord, pour out Your Spirit!"  
* "Lord, send revival!"

But I hear Him asking ... "Where is the wineskin to hold it?" 

I believe that God WANTS TO pour out His Spirit upon His people, but He is demanding a new wineskin to contain it ... and He has given US the assignment to create it!

In next month's blog, we'll start addressing the question ... WHAT IS A WINESKIN?      

God's Word has already given us the blueprint for the ONLY wineskin that can hold His new wine. In Ephesians 4, He tells us how HE designed the church to operate:

“ ... He ascends into the heavenly heights, taking his many captured ones with him, and gifts were given to men.” He “ascended” means that he returned to heaven, after he had first descended from the heights of heaven, even to the lower regions, namely, the earth. The same one who descended is also the one who ascended above the heights of heaven, in order to begin the restoration and fulfillment  of all things. And he has appointed some with grace to be apostles, and some with grace to be prophets, and some with grace to be evangelists,  and some with grace to be pastors,  and some with grace to be teachers. And their calling is to nurture and prepare all the holy believers to do their own works of ministry, and as they do this they will enlarge and build up the body of Christ. These grace ministries will function until we all attain oneness into the faith, until we all experience the fullness of what it means to know the Son of God,  and finally we become one into a perfect man  with the full dimensions of spiritual maturity and fully developed into the abundance of Christ."

When the resurrected Jesus ascended to The Father's right hand, He was given ALL authority in Heaven and on earth. From that position, as the reigning King of the Universe, Jesus gave His Church its God-ordained administration. This administration was made-up of five (5) distinct gifts: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. Together, these make-up The Church's "FIVEFOLD MINISTRY".

It should be noted that, if they believe in an oversight administration of The Church at all, many have taught that there are only four (4) gifts listed in this passage, combining "pastor-teachers". Still others deny all-together the existence of New Testament apostles & prophets.  Both of these errant theologies violate the fundamental principle upon which the very context of this passage is established ... that Christ carries ALL AUTHORITY over His Church; man's interpretations otherwise are false teaching. The Greek text of this passage clearly indicates that there are five (5) distinct gifts to The Church.

According to Ephesians 4, these five (5) gifts have a common goal ... "to nurture and prepare all the holy believers to do their own works of ministry". That was God's plan for His Church, and it's what He is calling His Church to return to in this hour!

I believe that God's been speaking to His people about the restoration of this administration for quite a while now. I can remember hearing talk about "The Fivefold Ministry" 30 years ago! The problem is 1 of 2 things:

1) church leaders have not studied to show themselves approved in this matter

OR WORSE, THEY ...

2) refuse to teach it, because it threatens the "power-structure" of the modern-day church

Either way, the result is that most Christians today have no idea what is meant by "Fivefold Ministry", nor do they know how to set it in place. But if we're ever going to become The Church that God intended, that Jesus prophesied, and that Holy Spirit was sent to empower, we're going to have to allow Him to destroy the OLD wineskin, and beckon Him to establish the NEW!

[Review from Part 1]

For the modern-day church to operate in a New Testament administration, there has to be a new mindset. Let's create a clear comparison between the man-made pastoral church and the Christ-ordained apostolic (5-fold) church; they are two COMPLETELY different "operating systems". Trying to get a pastoral church to operate in a 5-fold administration is like trying to run Apple software on a Windows PC ... they are simply not compatible!

In order to compare and contrast, I want to outline three (3) basic components of ministry:

I. The Goal of Ministry
II. The Role of The Saints
III. The Role of Leadership

Last month, I wrote about I & II. This month ...

THE ROLE OF LEADERSHIP

In the pastoral church, the role of the "pastor" is to shepherd [care for, nurture] the saints. Few will admit it, but pastors are not highly motivated to train & equip. Their job descriptions state that THEY are the "educated & qualified" ministers, and that the saints should come to them for ministry.

The result?

People become dependent upon "the pastors"! Many Christians have been taught & trained to rely upon their pastors for spiritual life & growth.

I'm NOT an "end-times" teacher/preacher. Years ago, when I was serving as an associate pastor in a local church, a man in the church came to me asking questions about certain passages within the Book of Revelation. I had never really studied, and certainly never TAUGHT on the passages in question, so I humbly suggested that he study the book for himself in an effort to find the answers he was seeking. I may of well have suggested that he build a rocket ship! The idea of "studying" The Bible to find your own answers was a completely foreign concept. I was "reported" to the Sr. Pastor, and reprimanded for not knowing the answer to the man's question.

My spirit as a young minister was crushed, but my heart for the man was grieved. In a less amount of time than it took for him to schedule a day/time to meet with the Sr. Pastor to "tattle" on me, he could've researched and ordered an entire set of audio teachings on his question! Worse yet, in less time than he would've spent listened to the those teachings, I believe that he could've studied the passages himself, asking Holy Spirit for revelation, and he could've experienced the joy of realizing that God can speak & reveal to every believer! All he knew ... and had been trained to do ... was to depend upon the pastor for the answers to questions about The Bible!

Please understand ... this testimony is not an effort to criticize or shame. It's simply a personal illustration of what I see to be the predominant church mindset today. No one in the churches this man had ever attended had ever suggested that studying The Bible was a skill that every born-again saint can, and SHOULD learn! He'd obviously been led to believe that such questions are to be submitted to an educated & "qualified" pastor.

In comparison, the Apostolic Church is focused upon equipping every saint to be a confident student of The Word. In the Apostolic Church, the mark of a successful leader is that he/she knows how to raise up a congregation of saints who know how to seek out and discern the ways of God, and to be effective in ministry to self AND others.

In the New Wineskin Church, our worst possible NIGHTMARE is to have a crowd of people who are completely spiritually dependent upon "hired" ministers. Our greatest JOY is to train & equip the saints to be completely confident in their own ability to do the work of ministry!              

For the modern-day church to operate in a New Testament administration, there has to be a new mindset. Let's create a clear comparison between the man-made pastoral church and the Christ-ordained apostolic (5-fold) church; they are two COMPLETELY different "operating systems". Trying to get a pastoral church to operate in a 5-fold administration is like trying to run Apple software on a Windows PC ... they are simply not compatible!

In order to compare and contrast, I want to outline three (3) basic components of ministry:

I. The Goal of Ministry
II. The Role of The Saints
III. The Role of Leadership

THE GOAL OF MINISTRTY

The PASTORAL CHURCH is NEEDS-driven. A true pastor wants to make sure that every member of his flock is fully cared for. I learned a phrase in my Master's studies that sums-up the pastoral approach to church administration ...

"Preach to a broken heart and you will never lack for an audience."

It's a good thing to meet needs. There are times when all of us need a pastor to comfort and encourage us. But if that is the primary gift within the church, we have a REAL problem. God has far more for His children than to simply be comforted and well-fed!

In comparison,  the APOSTOLIC CHURCH is VISION-driven. In an apostolic 5-fold administration, your needs WILL be ministered to, but more importantly, you will develop a full awareness of your personal calling in life ... your Kingdom destiny! In a 5-fold environment, the goal is for every believer, every Saint of God, to be trained and equipped to advance into the fullness of his/her destiny.

THE ROLE OF THE SAINTS

The PASTORAL CHURCH views the saints as "members"; worse yet, as laymen (discussed in last months blog). As sad as it sounds, laymen are viewed, thus treated as "amateurs" ... 2nd tier Christians. Ministry is not their responsibility; that is what the pastors get paid for. It's OK for laymen to do some low-level ministry assignments approved-of by the pastor, but if they REALLY want to be acknowledged as ministers, they need to go to seminary to be formally trained.

In comparison, the APOSTOLIC CHURCH recognizes ALL Christians as "ministers". Every single believer is called to do the works of Jesus, and it is the role of the 5-fold administration to train and equip them to do so! The bottom line is simple ... if the saints of the church are not ministering effectively, leadership is failing!

*************************

I believe that The Role of Leadership is SO important, that I will write specifically about it in next month's blog!


       

In last month's blog, I introduced the topic of the "Pastoral Church" as the only paradigm of church leadership that most people today are familiar with. This month, I want to dig a bit deeper into that topic ...

         PASTOR
    ] [
           CONGREGATION

In the "Pastoral Church" model, there is a congregation ... made up of "laymen". The dictionary defines "laymen" as: those without knowledge or training. 

            WHAT A TERRIBLE WORD TO BE USED TO DESCRIBE THE SAINTS OF GOD!

"Laymen" is not a biblical word! God never intended for The Church to be made-up of a group of people without knowledge or training. On the contrary, His Word makes it clear that ALL SAINTS are to be fully trained & equipped to do the work of ministry. (Eph. 4:12)

Yet, most churches today are, indeed, filled with laymen! Their knowledge of God is limited to a few Bible stories and some proof-texts. Expectations are fairly simple ... attend, give money, listen to teachings & preaching, live good moral lives, and MAYBE tell someone about Jesus if it's not too uncomfortable or inconvenient. They are not taught to PROCLAIM The Gospel, heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the leper, and cast out demons!

Then there is the pastor. The position of "pastor" in most churches today has very little in common with the biblical office of pastor. The job of modern-day pastors does not involve working alongside the 5-fold leaders to equip the saints to do the work of ministry. On the contrary, he/she IS "THE minister". Whatever ministry is to be done, it is the job of the pastor to do it! The pastor is expected to take care of the "laymen", who are viewed as a "flock" ... of needy sheep! It is the job of the pastor to feed, comfort, assist and protect them.

This is the paradigm that most Christians know today, and it's difficult for them to imagine their church operating any other way. It is assumed as the norm, and has been increasingly so over the past 1,750+ years!

In the church we know, the pastor "runs the church". He/she is the administrator; the spiritual CEO who oversees and performs the ministry of the church. He visits the sick, prays for people, distributes benevolence to those in need, counsels people, consoles the grieving, oversees all teaching and does the preaching on Sunday mornings. The pastor carries out all ordinances of the church ... communion, baptisms, weddings, funerals, etc. At fellowships, he prays over the crowd, blesses the food, and designates who goes first in the food line. It's all his job; he does it all!

The pastor is the one who knows the mysteries of God. If you need to know something about God, you ask the pastor. It is his/her job to know those things ... he/she has the "inside track" to all things God!

In the church we've all grown-up in, "Pastor" is the highest office. When people visit a church, the first thing they often ask is "Who is the pastor?". That identifies who is "in charge" ... the one who does the ministry, and the one to whom we are to look to get our needs met.

While there are always some good things that can come out of a pastoral model, it was never God's intended model of leading His Church. The pastoral model is, indeed, a VERY OLD wineskin, created out of the ways of men, and absolutely incapable of holding and stewarding the fullness of God's presence & power. To experience RESURRECTION POWER, The Church must become a New Wineskin!

And this is EXACTLY why He is calling for change in this hour ...        
 


  

The Era of the Pastoral Church is OVER!

Most, if not ALL of the churches you have known over that past several decades have practiced this simple paradigm ...

        PASTOR
    ] [
           CONGREGATION

There is a pastor (s); there is a congregation. This is what I refer to as the "Pastoral Church".

In a Pastoral Church, each church has a "pastor(s)", and it's that pastor's job to "minister".  

A Pastoral Church is not structured to effectively "equip the saints" to do the work of ministry. For over 2 decades, I strove to function as a part of this approach to church administration ... it almost destroyed my life, my marriage, and my family!

Recently, in a discussion about this topic, a pastor shared with me that he had recently proposed to the "deacons" of his church (there's the 1st problem) that he wanted to start a ministry training class, to train his "members" (there's the 2nd problem) for altar ministry. The chairman of the deacons rebuked him and informed him that the deacons had "voted" (there's the 3rd problem) to "disallow him" (there's the 4th problem) from doing so! The deacon's position was, "We don't want you to train members to minister; that's what we pay YOU to do"!

Unfortunate[y, most modern-day churches, ESPECIALLY traditional denominational churches, would ascribe to this mindset! The pastor is THE minister. His "job" to do the ministry. This is a business-CEO paradigm, not a Kingdom paradigm!

Maybe even more unfortunate is the mindset that many pastors feel threatened by the thought that members of the congregation could/should minister. After all ... what if they proved to be more effectively than the pastor? Many pastors have bought into the idea that their "job security" lies in the fact that they are more qualified than the "laymen".

In the Pastoral Church, "laymen" are the mere "members" of the congregation. The word "laymen" means ...

laymen ... one who is untrained; without knowledge 

Simply put, this is not an acceptable biblical concept within the Body of Christ! The born-again children of God are SAINTS, not laymen! God never intended for His Church to be filled with people who are "untrained" or "lacking knowledge". Read Ephesians 4:11-16!

But in the traditional Pastoral Church, that is how "members" are taught to view themselves. They "attend" church, sing some songs, listen to a talk, give a offering (maybe), and never imagine that there is much more. They drive to a church on Sunday morning, sit in nice, neat rows of pews or chairs, follow a man-prescribed "liturgy", and head home thinking they have done God a "service" ... mere RELIGION!

The REAL tragedy of that way of thinking? Every single one of those people have supernatural "spiritual gifts" either available TO them, or lying dormant WITHIN them ... waiting to be developed to transform a lost & dying world! If the "laymen" of the church get born-again & baptized in the Holy Spirit, it would unlock a whole new world ... a restoration of salvations, miracles, signs, wonders ... the things that made the 1st Century Church the most dynamic, transformative entity upon the face of the earth!

The problem is, in most modern-day churches, the saints are never encouraged to discover, understand, and learn how to activate their spiritual gifts. Thus, they never get trained to operate in their supernatural abilities and the church is reduced to little more than a corporate gathering of "hearers of The Word", with few "doers"!

The result? Today's churches function at a low (if at all) level of power, and the lost & dying world is not being reached ... certainly not TRANSFORMED!

This is NOT the paradigm ... the model of ministry that the Early Church was birthed into, or functioned in! The Early Church was birthed into an APOSTOLIC, 5-fold model (Ephesians 4) ... and it was never intended to change!          

  

The Church did not “just happen”!

The day after Pentecost, Peter didn’t simply wake-up with a random thought ...

“Hey guys, let’s start a church! Let’s go find a plot of property with a building on it, put out a sign promoting the launch of the ‘First Church of Jerusalem’, and start canvassing the streets announcing the first service coming on Resurrection Sunday!”

The church was divinely planned!

In Matthew 16:18 Jesus prophesied, “I will build MY Church”. The church was a crucial part of His plan when He came to the earth. He spent 3½ years preparing the first group of Apostles to establish the church. He built their faith, through experience, by personally demonstrating God’s power to preach The Gospel, heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, and cast out demons. He sent them out two-by-two to replicate the miracles, signs, and wonders that He had performed in their midst.

In His post-resurrection appearances, Jesus built upon His earlier teachings by giving very specific instructions. Acts1:1-2 tells us that Jesus was taken up into Heaven “after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles He had chosen.” The word “instructions” is the Greek word “entellomai” which means “to give orders or commands”. The NASV translates it like this …

“…about all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when He was taken up to heaven, after He had given orders by the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom He had chosen.”

Jesus was not leaving the apostles with some helpful hint or suggestions; He was giving them ORDERS! He had a specific plan … a God-ordained strategy for how the church was to be established. And it was absolutely expected of them, that they follow His plan. The things we see the apostles do in the early chapters of the Book of Acts reflect the seriousness with which they carried out that plan.

The result? As the church followed Jesus’ plan, IT FLOURISHED; it grew as a supernatural organism. The Body of Christ quickly became known for their demonstrations of supernatural abilities that led to the lost coming to faith in Jesus, the sick were healed, the dead were raised, the lepers were cleansed, demons were cast out, and entire territories were transformed!

It was no accident that the members of the early church operated in supernatural abilities. That is exactly what Jesus’ apostolic plan called for! Unfortunately, less than 300 years later, that plan was abandoned for a new plan, a “pastoral” plan formed in the minds of men, and the church began its descent into the “Dark Ages” … an approximate 1,000-year period in which the power of the Holy Spirit was replaced by the intellect of men.

In next month’s blog, we will dig-in to the specifics of The Pastoral Church!              

SACRED COW MAKES GREAT HAMBURGER!

The shift we are now in … Old Wineskin to New Wineskin … has been coming for the better part of the last 5 DECADES. God has given us plenty of time to get rightly positioned! And yet, in the hour we now find ourselves, it is clear that many churches have chosen NOT to prepare!

I hear a lot … and I mean ALOT … of talk coming from churches that claim to firmly BELEIVE in the biblical teaching of a New Wine coming to The Body of Christ, yet they remain in the bondage of OPERATING in the Old Wineskin! I am often asked, “What do you think makes it so difficult for churches to actually shift”?  

My answer is simple … IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO MAKE A WINESKIN WITHOUT KILLING A COW!

It seems that the structure of the western church has become a “sacred cow” that is making it very difficult to shift into a new wineskin. That sacred cow, unfortunately, is fed by the largest majority of Christians in America by the prevailing assumption in most churches that “pastors” are supposed to hold the primary office in the church.

It’s time to KILL that sacred cow! But to do so, we have to understand that the paradigm of the modern-day church today …

                        PASTOR
                    ][
                CONGREGATION

… scarcely resembles the church launched in Acts 2, by the apostles. The founding apostles never imagined a church made-up of a CEO pastor, leading a congregation of “laymen” (I will discuss that flawed term in a future blog)!
 
Have you ever done a word-search of the word “pastor” in the Bible? I have an app on my electronic devices called “STRONGS KJV” … I recommend it! I typed in the word “pastor” and hit the return key: not a single result! I typed it in the plural of the word … “pastors”, and was directed to Ephesians 4:11, where it says, “He gave some … as pastors.”

Is it just me, or is that a STUNNING reality? The sum total of all biblical teaching about “pastors”, is that … THERE ARE SOME! The startling fact is that in the original text of scripture, "pastors" are only mentioned one (1) time!

Are you aware that no church in the New Testament is described as having "a pastor"? The Apostle Paul wrote many letters to the churches he founded. Have you ever realized that in all of those letters, he greets elders, deacons, & the people that were meeting in houses across the city/region? He never even mentions pastors, as overseers of the body!

In I Corinthians 12, when Paul ranks the ministries within the church, he says … “First apostles; second prophets; third teachers …”. Pastors are not mentioned in the list. WHY? Because “pastor” was not the predominant office in the New Testament Church! This, IN NO WAY, minimizes the importance of pastors within the Body of Christ. It simply makes clear that pastors are not mantled to plant OR lead churches!

I recently did a study of the New Testament, seeking to find out how many times each of the 5-fold offices of Ephesians 4:11 are mentioned. I’m not sure that most modern-day churches are ready for the results:

Apostles: 87 times
Prophets: 157 times
Teachers: 121 times
Evangelists: 3 times
Pastors: 1 time

Now think about what the American church has done. Most do not even believe that apostles OR prophets even exist anymore! They’ll let teachers teach a Sunday School class, as long as they use a resource approved by their denomination. They might invite someone they acknowledge as an evangelist to come in once or twice a year, to lead “evangelistic services”. Yet they will commission a “search committee” to go out and locate a man or a woman (maybe) who can be brought in for a popular vote of the people, to elevated a "pastor" to the spiritual equivalent of a business CEO ... to run the church, and oversee all of its ministries.

Can you see why the western church is in such a mess today, with not a single evangelical denomination reporting a net growth in over 2 DECADES (Barna Research Group)? Again, hear me CLEARLY … pastors are important, even VITAL to the life and health of the New Testament Church. Every church should have pastors! But the biblical truth is …

              PASTORS WERE NEVER INTENDED TO PLANT AND/OR LEAD CHURCHES!             

Just as the Jewish people who returned to Israel after 70 years of bondage in captivity had to revive their long-lost land, I believe that a REMNANT CHURCH is being called out of “Babylon” in this hour to revive the long-lost wineskin of the 1st century ekklesia that was birthed in the Book of Acts … but has grown progressively lost over the past 1,700+ years! And just as the Jewish people had to RE-possess their inheritance, we too must rise-up to RE-possess what was promised & provided to us in The Upper Room!

It's time to lay aside the pseudo-identity that has been developed through comfort, convenience, & compromise, and return to our intended identity set-forth in the Acts 2. Though we are IN this world, we were not commissioned to be OF it! Such a separation from the religious ways of the world will, according to scripture, bring persecution. But be encouraged … such persecution will only ACCELERATE our calling.

There is a rising remnant of hungry, fiery Jesus-followers who are beginning to step onto the long unwalked path of those who, at the dawn of the New Testament church, understood they were purposed to CHANGE the world, not become LIKE it! And it’s beginning to appear that these radical last-days Jesus-followers are determined to reclaim the mantle that was carried at the on-set. They are choosing to live their lives not pursuing worldly power, but pursuing the power of The Spirit.

It's time to align with those who are willing to STAND, as did the 1st century believers, in faith, hope, courage, and victory … no longer being overcome BY the world but, in the supernatural power of God, overcoming IT!

In other words, it’s time to move away from our union with the world and its religious ways and, once again, rise-up into our RADICAL identity as CHRIST-ians!

THE REMNANT CHURCH IS RISING!

The bottom line … MIRACLES WERE NEVER INTENDED TO CEASE!
 
In fact, such miracle ARE still taking place today … in the places where the truth is taught and the people believe! There are millions of believers in the world today for whom miracles are a [SUPER -TO-THE] natural part of life. I know, because I AM ONE OF THEM!

It is being reported today that, in China, 50-75 million believers have come to faith in Jesus Christ as a result of witnessing the miraculous power of God being released through Jesus-followers. Deng Zhaoming, the chief editor of the ecumenical Chinese magazine Bridge, recently wrote, “In the church in China, at least 50% of Christians claim to have become followers of Christ as a result of witnessing remarkable healings taking place within their families, at the command of those who claim to believe in Jesus.”

Be assured, miracles are not reserved for those who lived long ago, nor just those who live today in foreign lands. Miracles are intended for YOU … TODAY! God wants every believer to live a supernatural life, bathed in the divine empowerment (grace) of an Almighty Creator! He intends for The Church to operate in the same power NOW, as it operated in THEN … at its creation in Acts 2. The problem is not that miracles, signs & wonders have ceased, it’s that the modern-day church has ceased to “equip the saints” to be who they were empowered to be on The Day of Pentecost! Most Christians today have never been taught to operate in the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit!

So, to wrap up this series of blogs on Living a Supernatural Life, I’ve highlighted two (2) very important things about the early church …

• it moved in CONTINUAL REVIVAL! By the ever-present & active power of the Holy Spirit, it grew explosively; nothing or no one had the power to stop it!
• it moved in SUPERNATURAL POWER! Jesus-followers were viewed as “miracle-workers”. Signs. wonders, & supernatural healings were an expected part of the life of the church!
  
  Neither of these things “just happened”; they did not occur by accident. They were a divinely-designed part of the plan that Jesus had for His church. In the days ahead, I will begin to write more specifically about that plan!  

Irenaeus, writing 100 years after the completion of the New Testament, boasts that the church in his day “frequently” saw the dead raised to life as the result of the prayers of Christians. He goes on to describe other kinds of common miracles …

“Some most certainly and truly cast out demons. Others have the knowledge of things to come, as also vision and prophetic communications; others heal the sick by the imposition of hands, and restore them to health. And, moreover, as we said above, even the dead have been raised and continue with us for many years.”

Augustine, in the early 5th century, was one of the most influential theologians in history. Early in his ministry, Augustine held a cessationist view. However, after witnessing first-hand many miracles wrought at the hands of Christians, he began to document all he was observing. Over a two-year period, he compiled a list of more than 70 well-attested miracles … including the healing of blindness, breast cancer, pout, paralysis, hernias, and other conditions and diseases. Augustine also recounted miracles in which demons were cast out, and the dead were raised. He even documented cases where farm animals were cured! Toward the end of his life, he wrote a retraction of his earlier cessationist beliefs, and went on to devote much of his personal time to the ministry of healing. Yet, one of the tragedies of the false doctrine of Cessationism is that, to this day … even though Augustine renounced his beliefs … many cessationists still quote Augustine to support their false beliefs!

Examples of documented miracles literally FILL the pages of church history. Here are just a few:

Justin Martyr (2nd Century) …  “Many of our Christians have healed and do heal, driving possessing spirits out of men, though they could not be cured by all the other exorcists, or by those who used incantations and drugs.”

Theophilus of Antioch (2nd Century) … “Physical healing is evidence that the power of the resurrection is already working in us. Death is being put to flight.”

Irenaeus (2nd Century) … “Those who are His disciples do, in His name, perform [miracles] so as to promote the welfare of men, according to the gift which each one has received.”

Theodotus (late 2nd Century) confirmed that the signs of the Spirit, healings and prophecies, were still being performed is his day.

Origin (3rd Century) … “Christians expel evil spirits and perform many cures and foresee certain events.”

Novatian (3rd Century) … “The Holy Spirit places prophets in the church, instructs teachers, directs tongues, gives power and healing, does wonderful works … and orders whatever gifts there are to make the Lord’s church perfected and complete.”

Tertullian (3rd Century) lists a wide range of diseases he has cured. He also describes a number of times when Roman officials who, in times of persecution, dismissed charges against Christians because a friend of relative had been healed by a Christian.

In his book Healing and Christianity, Morton Kelsey writes … “The prevailing acceptance of healing as a norm in the Christian church appears from many sources. In the very early Shepherd of Hermas, we find a fascinating reference to those who did NOT undertake to relieve illness and distress in the Christian way. He, therefore, who knows the calamity of such a man, and does not free him from it, commits a great sin, and is guilty of his blood.”

Kelsey concludes … “Healing was a part of a total framework in which Christians were educated; a reality of religious experience in which they participated. For if they were to follow the teachings of Christ, it is hard to see how they could do otherwise.”

Simply put, the documented evidence is overwhelming that one of, if not THE most prominant characteristics of the lifestyle of early Christians was that they carried supernatural abilities that could not be explained by men.

Supernatural people, set apart in a natural world ... and it drew the lost to faith in Jesus Christ! 

Many today have been taught the false doctrine of Cessationism, which teaches that miracles, sign, & wonders were given in the early church to simply validate the onset of The Gospel, but not intended to be a continuing part of the Christian life. Most cessationists believe that the supernatural disappeared by the end of the first century.

While those who attempt to teach Cessationism often create elaborate arguments to support their view, it is impossible for them to escape the fact that there is absolutely no Biblical support for what they teach. The closest you can come to a passage that could be construed as cessational, is I Corinthians 13:10 …

“But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away with.”

Cessationists attempt to teach that “that which is perfect” is referring to the New Testament, and that “that which is in part” points to prophecy, tongues, healing … all things supernatural, and it all will cease. In short, when the New Testament was complete, all supernatural gifts ceased.

The simply-stated problem with this argument is that nothing in I Corinthians 13 even remotely suggests that “that which is perfect” is referring to the New Testament! Even the dispensational theologian, Charles Ryrie, admitted that the “perfect” in this verse is pointing to JESUS … His 2nd coming! That admission, from within the very ranks of the cessationists, discredits the arguments of Cessationism. If the “perfect” is the 2nd coming of Jesus, then I Corinthians 13 suggest that, not only are the supernatural gifts of The Spirit supposed to continue until Jesus returns …THEY ARE NECESSARY!

II Timothy 3:5 warns us of a time when Christians will possess “a form of Godliness”, but will deny its supernatural power. The word “power” in the Greek language, is the word …

dunamis: force; specifically, miraculous [supernatural] power; usually, by implication, a miracle itself           
 
It’s the same word translated “miracles” in I Corinthians 14! Christ never intended for His church to merely APPEAR Godly; He paid the ultimate price for a church that would OPERATE in His power!

Not only is there an absence of Biblical support for Cessationism, it is an idea strongly refuted by the evidence of history. A careful study of church history actually PROVES that the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit did not cease at the close of the 1st century, but actually continued to increase. Miracles, signs, & wonders continued to be a vital part of the life of every Jesus-follower, as the New Testament Ekklesia exploded across the known world!

Want proof? Next week’s entry will give you PLENTY!  

I Corinthians 12-14 describes miracles, healings, tongues, and prophetic words as ordinary occurrences in the early church. In synaxis gatherings, it was EXPECTED that some would prophesy, some would speak in tongues, others would interpret, and some would carry an anointing to release healing and perform miracles, etc.

The Apostle Paul asks in Galatians 3:5 …

“Does He who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, do it by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?”

I love Paul’s insinuation … miracles ARE occurring within the Galatian churches! The commentary of this verse in The Interpreter’s Bible, says …

“There can be no question that 1st Century Christians lived in the daily expectation of miracles.”

In The Decline and Fall of The Roman Empire, Edward Gibbon described life in the early church like this …

“The primitive Christians perpetually trod on mystic ground.”

Why would this necessarily be the case? Could it be because they constantly felt like they were being assaulted … in the natural AND the spiritual? Thus, the supernatural manifestations of The Spirit in their midst would have been their source of strength and encouragement! They were comforted by visons, exhorted by tongues & interpretation of tongues, instructed by prophesy, and delivered from danger, sickness, and even death, by the supplication of the saints.

The obvious question that rises, at least for me is … ARE THE CIRCUMSTANCES SURROUNDING CHRISTIANS ANY DIFFERENT TODAY?          

Think about it ...

The New Testament Church was born on The Day of Pentecost, in Acts 2. What is the ENTIRE focus of that chapter? An honest answer is MIRACLES … a great outpouring of miraculous power:

• the roar of a rushing mighty wind in The Upper Room … that was no only heard in the room, but throughout Jerusalem!
• a pillar of fire entered the room, then supernaturally divided into individual flames that then rested upon every person in the room!
• the manifestation of the supernatural ability to speak in unknown tongues that, as they existed the room, were understood by every person that heard … IN THEIR OWN LANGUAGE!
• a manifestation of God’s presence so prominent that it caused the apostles to appear drunk!
  
  

It is beyond question that the New Testament church was BIRTHED as a supernatural entity, and its inception was marked by miracles!  
 
In Romans 15:18-19, The Apostle Paul wrote that he led Gentiles to salvation … “by the power signs and miracles, through the power of the Holy Spirit.” To Paul, miracles were not an optional extra in the Christian life; they were not just a curiosity. To Paul, miracles were essential to the process of evangelism … a DEMONSTRATION that His words were true! He did not want men’s faith to rest upon his intellectual arguments, rather on a demonstration of God’s power (I Corinthians 2:4-5).

It's time for believers to BELIEVE again! The Greek word for “believe” is the word:

pisteuo [Strong’s G4100] – to demonstrate faith in; to believe in by putting into action.
 
Do you see it? BIBLICAL “belief” cannot be separated from ACTION! It was the actions of New Testament believers that served as the most powerful evangelism tool in drawing people to Jesus … not religious words and arguments! In fact, it’s hard to find an instance in the Book of Acts where someone chose to follow Jesus, apart from miracles, signs, and wonders.

BOTTOM LINE: New Testament believers are supposed to be SUPERNATURAL people!    

In John 14:12 Jesus promised ...

"He who believes in Me, the works that I do, you shall do also; and even GREATER works than these shall you do, because I go to The Father."  [emphasis added]

I cross paths with few Christians today who seem to actually take this verse seriously! There is almost no expectation these days for believers to actually do the same things that Jesus did ... and certainly not "greater things". Yet, unless you can prove to me differently, I find this verse to be just as much of a promise as John 3:16 ... maybe even a COMMISSION!

If we truly believe the Word of God, we have to see that Jesus is making an incredible offer here. He is saying that, if we truly believe in who He is, and are willing to exercise our faith in His promises, we WILL see MIRACLES, SIGNS, & WONDERS ... both IN and THROUGH our lives!

There is no "fine print" here; no exclusions or exceptions. And this offer DID NOT expire with the death of the last of the 1st Century apostles, nor at the canonization of the 66 books of The Bible!

The early church walked in the reality of this promise, and so can ... SHOULD we!

How did the early church do it? What attracted pagans to Christianity, to the extent they would risk persecution ... even death ... to align themselves with Jesus-followers? I believe I have the answer to that question, but it's an answer that many Christians today will have a hard time accepting!

Bible historians tell us that the PRIMARY reason for the 1st Century church's explosive growth was a common belief that those who followed Jesus carried supernatural abilities! Men like Kenneth Scott Latourette, Phillip Schaff, Morton Kelsey all note in their historical writings that the primary testimonies of most 1st Century converts centered around the undeniable fact that those who followed Jesus did unexplainable things "in His name"! Schaff described the church's reputation for miracles this way:

"The Jew and the Chaldean could scarcely rival [the church's] exorcists, and the legends of continual, miracles circulating among its followers."  (History of The Christian Church, Vol. 2)

Such respected historians tell us that word spread like wildfire across the pagan world that Christians posessed supernatural powers to perform miracles, heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, & cast out demons. Sound familiar? (Matthew 10:7-8) It is recorded that pagans would ridicule, even persecute Christians at times, but when their children were seriously ill they would often seek out Jesus-followers for help.

How did the early church gain such a reputation as healers and miracle workers? Well ... unless we choose to deny the eyewitness accounts recorded throughout the New Testament, the answer is not hard to find! In the book of Acts, and throughout the epistles we read how believers operated in "charismata" (spiritial gifts) ... the divine enablement of God to operate in the supernatural realm. To deny the miraculous abilities possessed by the early church is to reject the clear testimony of scripture.

I'm not sure why that truth is so hard for so many modern-day believers to grasp. Yet, while many Christians today are known for many things, I dare say that being supernatural is not even on the list!

To this day, I believe that THE factor that ought to set BELIEVERS apart in this natural world, is our ability to operate in the SUPER-to-the-natural realm. I believe is was, is, and always will be God's plan for the church. He never intended for His people to operate apart from His power. From a New Testament perspective, a church absent of supernatural power is like a car with no battery ... tons of POTENTAIL, but no POWER to accomplish it's purpose!

As we read the New Testament, it is undeniable that the church was PROMISED miracles, it was BIRTHED in miracles, and it GREW in miracles. Miracles were an expected part of the lifestyle of every blood-bought,  born-again, Spirit-filled follower of Jesus and ...

I BELIEVE THEY STILL ARE TODAY!


           

I've been a pioneer my entire life ... an explorer, fearless & unafraid to challenge the status quo, a norm-buster, a paradigm shifter! Unfortunately, since my 20s, that has resulted in me being an outcast in most religious circles.

In my 20s, as a youth pastor in a prominent denomination, my approach to youth ministry was so radically different than most, that other youth ministries in my area would have little to do with me. While the norm at that time was to build a bunch of disconnected little "k" kingdoms, I was passionate about tearing down "church" walls and building THE Kingdom. I tried for over 10 years to affect change, to little avail.

In my 30s, I decided that if I was going to be taken seriously, I needed to move beyond the 4 walls of a local church, and step into the broader arena of my denomination. I resigned my position as youth pastor, and launched a national ministry aimed at broadening my efforts to affect change. For the next 14 years, I traveled the nation & the world within that same denomination, attempting to tear down those same walls and build THE Kingdom. Long story short? Over that 14 year period, my propensity to challenge the doctines of men within the denomination Ied to me being "black-listed" by the denomination I had served faithfully for over a decade.

By my mid-40s, now free from denominational ties, once again I endeavored to challenge the status quo of modern-day "CHURCH-ianity", by planting & building a regional Kingdom Center aimed at unifying churches in a central region of the state ... once again to place focus on building THE Kingdom, rather than continuing to feed the mindset of building the little "k" kingdoms of the world. And for the next 20 years, I poured my life into that endeavor. The result? While there were many joys & victories along the way, the end result was the same ... outcast by man's religious system! And so, on October 27th, 2024, we closed the doors of the Kingdom Center!

 And then it hit me ... THE PROBLEM IS THE ENTIRE SYSTEM!

Most Christians would be SHOCKED to know that what we call "the church" in today's society has little, if anything to do with the fulfillment of what Jesus prophesied in Matthew 16, and what God & Holy Spirit birthed in Acts 2! The structural system of religion that men have created over the past 15-hundred years ... while it presents a FORM of godliness, it absolutely "denies the power thereof" (II Timothy 3:5).

Bottom line? If we want to see a restoration of the New Wine that was poured out in The Upper Room, we have no choice in the 21st century but to return to the New Wineskin that was created in the 1st century ... that was NEVER supposed to be replaced! It's time to return to the ORIGINAL!

I'll be writing more over the next few weeks about THE SHIFT that I believe is now occurring. Finally, I believe I am positioned to affect real change!  



               

A RETURN TO ACTS 2
NEW TESTAMENT LIFE … RESTORED!
syn*ax*is | a gathering; a coming together; a reunion
 
UNDERSTANDING SYNAXIS 
The word used for house-to-house gatherings in the Early Church was SYNAXIS … a Greek word that means “a gathering; a coming together; a reunion”. A synaxis was an on-going “family reunion” of believers, outside the corporate setting. A synaxis was a very specific kind of gathering, with a very specific purpose. While synaxis gatherings are mentioned many times throughout the New Testament, the book of I Corinthians gives us the clearest picture of what took place in these meetings. The teachings of the Apostle Paul in the book of I Corinthians reveal that synaxis gatherings were designed to accomplish at least five (5) specific things:

* Fellowship
* Praise and Worship
* The Lord’s Supper (Communion)
* Opportunity for believers to understand, develop & begin to exercise their spiritual gifts
* Development of a “Go ye therefore …” mindset
 
Every week, the members of the early church gathered in synaxis … some on more than 1 day! These house-to-house gatherings were incubators for encounter with the supernatural power of Holy Spirit among the people of God. In synaxis, believers were led to discover, develop, and practice their spiritual gifts. It is in the context of synaxis that the goal of Ephesians 4 is fulfilled … God’s people are equipped for the work of ministry. The undeniable presence & power of God that moved in synaxis, soon necessitated the building of temples to protect the unity & purity of teachings within the exploding Ekklesia. Thus, temple (corporate) gatherings became incubators for vision, celebration and teaching.

We believe synaxis was a major key to the success of the Early Church. When believers are built up in vision and faith through corporate gatherings, and given opportunity to exercise their gifts in synaxis, a revival dynamic is created. The Body of Christ should no longer be content as a passive group, dependent solely upon a congregational identity. We are a growing army, operating in the supernatural power of God to change the world!

It's time for a restoration of SYNAXIS!
 
CLUSTERS (ABIDE Groups) … “The new wine is found in the clusters.” (Isaiah 65:8)
In recent days, God has been revealing a deeper understanding of the way people gathered in the Early Church … the explanation for how The Ekklesia exploded in such a short period of time. We are beginning to sense this may be the new “wineskin” for the New Wine (Glory) He is preparing to pour out upon His people in the days ahead. We believe that new, faster, and more innovative ways of communicating and demonstrating the power of God are rising quickly. Could it be that these new ways will come forth through small, intimate gatherings in homes, developed for more personal interaction among God’s people, and aimed at gaining fresh direction and divine strategy to overcome in the world around us? CLUSTERS (ABIDE Groups) will enable us to effectively minister to and more effectively mobilize The Body, communicate quickly, and advance our influence into the region around us. How we gather, equip and empower the saints, and strategize will be the key to advancing The Gospel of The Kingdom in the days ahead!

The New Wine Network

For years, I have been saying that God is preparing to do a “new thing” within the Body of Christ. The truth is, in the founding documents of The Epicenter in Burnet, TX in 2005, I wrote …

“The vision God has placed in my heart is best defined within a small-group paradigm. That is to say that the identity of the New Testament church was never intended to be defined through a congregational mindset, rather through a relational mindset. In other words, congregations should not seek to give rise to a “small-group” ministry, rather a successful network of small-group ministries will inevitably result in a purposeful congregation.”

I’m sure that if I wanted to spend the time to look back and pinpoint where that vision was abandoned, I could … I just don’t want to! What I DO believe I am supposed to do in this hour is return to that vision. Because I believe that God is calling the New Testament Ekklesia back to its God-ordained purpose, and it has been clearly proven that THAT purpose has not been effectively carried out through the congregational model of the modern-day church.  

Since 2020, I have been resounding the words of the prophet from Isaiah 43:19 (MSG) …

“Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand-new. It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it?”

Without even fully understanding what those words were poining to, I just knew I was hearing them! I now believe they were pointing to this hour … the hour in which the primary identity of the New Testament Ekklesia is no longer to be centered around “congregational” gatherings, rather RELATIONAL gatherings!

When the newly birthed Ekklesia exploded forth from the Upper Room in Acts 2, with literally TENS OF THOUSANDS of people being born-again over a span of just a few short weeks, those people did not leave Jerusalem and return to congregational gatherings at local temples. They carried what they had experienced in Jerusalem back to their homes and began to gather “daily” to share with everyone they came in contact with. The product of those house-to-house gatherings suddenly produced an entirely different purpose for their temple gatherings. No longer did they gather at their temples to merely listen to religious teachings from The Law, they now gathered to celebrate what the Spirit of The Living God was doing in their midst … day-in & day-out, week-in & week-out! In other words, temple gatherings ceased to be centers for mere religious EDUCATION, and became places of great CELEBRATION. And the result? The 1st Century Ekklesia went viral!      

I believe, in this hour, that is exactly what God is wanting to restore as the “new wineskin” … the FINAL wineskin that is being prepared to hold the “new wine” … the FINAL outpouring of His Spirit upon the earth, prior to the return of Jesus! And that is why Front Line Ministries has made the decision to close the doors of The Epicenter after 20 years of “corporate” identity in the Texas Hill Country. We believe that we are being called to pioneer a return to the original “wineskin” of Acts 2 … the wineskin we believe was never supposed to be lost!

Welcome to … The New Wine Network!