The Work of the Lord

The Work of the Lord

By Gerald Chester www.strategieswork.com


Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. 1 Corinthians 15:58

What does the phrase “the work of the Lord” mean?

For many, the phrase refers to church planting, missions, evangelism, pastoral care, preaching, and teaching—work deemed to be the purview of the institutional church and/or a para-church ministry.

At first glance, this definition seems to be the sense of the phrase in 1 Corinthians 16:10, where the term is used in reference to Paul and Timothy. In the above text, however, Paul issued an imperative to the Corinthian believers to “give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord.”

The challenge is that the Corinthians were carnal (1 Corinthians 3:1–3). First Corinthians recorded numerous problems among these Christians, such as, division, partisanship, turf-battles, spiritual insensitivity, failure to grow, sexual immorality, lawsuits, paganism, out-of-order meetings, abuse of spiritual gifts, misunderstanding of Scripture, and confusion surrounding the gospel.

How could Paul expect this unruly group of people to give themselves “fully to the work of the Lord”? Immature believers cannot be expected to plant churches wisely, conduct mission outreach, effectively evangelize, care for hurting people, preach a clear gospel, or adroitly teach truth. How could these carnal Christians give themselves to the work of the Lord?

May I suggest that the key to this conundrum is to broaden our understanding of the phrase “the work of the Lord”?

The apostle Paul wrote that one of the primary purposes of salvation is to release us to do the specific work that God uniquely created each of us to do (Ephesians 2:8–10). This means that God creates everyone with intent and purpose; therefore, everyone’s life work counts.

Furthermore, the word work in Ephesians 2:10 is the English translation of the Greek word ergon, which refers to all types of work, not just what we consider to be church or para-church work. God created each of us specifically for certain work that He wants us to do.

Sin is the major impediment that blocks us from finding and fulfilling our work assignments. Christ is the remedy for sin. Therefore, salvation enables us to be free enough from sin so that we can discover and fulfill our life purpose. The challenge for each of us is to give ourselves to the work of the Lord, that is, to grow in Christ so that we can find and fulfill our life purpose. Even carnal Christians are commanded to do this and therefore on some level they must be able to.

Here is your business tip. Everyone is blessed when they obey God. The best workers in any organization will be people who obey God by embracing Christ deeply enough to transform their lives and, as a result, seek to discover and fulfill their divinely-ordained life purpose. Employers should seek to call each worker into his or her individual, divinely-ordained work so that each worker can do the work of the Lord that has been assigned to them. Concurrently, as the workers are doing the work the Lord, they are enabling their organizations to obey God by fulfilling each organization's purpose. Hence, those organizations are then better aligned with God. Therefore, both workers and employers are blessed when workers find and fulfill their individual life purposes. This is the work of the Lord.

A Place for the Lord

A Place for the Lord
by Chip Brogden
“Foxes have their dens, and birds have their nests; but the Son of Man has no where to lay His head (Matthew 8:20).”
How may we prepare a place for the Lord Jesus? What is He searching for? Where is the place of His rest? Many of us have traveled “outside the camp” in search of something more in tune with God’s own heart. I believe the most important calling we have is to prepare a place for the Lord Jesus, to give Him somewhere to lay His head. We will find that the purest, simplest expression of the Church is that which satisfies the Lord’s heart and gives Him a place.
A LONELY JESUS WITHDRAWS
“News about Jesus spread fast, and crowds of people were coming to hear Him teach and to be healed of their sicknesses: but Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed (Luke 5:15,16).”
Many of us share a remarkable testimony. I have spoken with several who can confirm my own experience. It is this: while sitting or standing within the church service many of us have had the sense that Jesus is quite lonely, in spite of all the praise, worship, and things which are done in His Name. I recently found a book published nearly twenty years ago in which the author claims to have experienced the same feeling. It is as if Jesus is on the outside looking in. After much prayer we have come to understand that most of what is done in the name of “church” is not for the Lord at all, but it is for us.
Perhaps this explains why Jesus often withdrew Himself to a lonely place, and why perhaps He is withdrawing Himself from much of what is being done “in His Name”. If someone asks why we do not participate more often in meetings or in gatherings, all we can say is that, most of the time, the Lord’s Need is not being met in those places.
Jesus often withdrew to a lonely place. More and more, we are finding Christians in these “lonely places” who are praying, waiting, and wondering. I believe this is the first step towards finding a place for the Lord - sensing the Lord’s Need for such a place.
“The time is coming - in fact, the time is now - when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. They are the kind of worshippers the Father is looking for (John 4:23).”
If there are true worshippers, then there are false worshippers. If there is spirit and truth worship, then there is a kind of worship which is unspiritual and false.
We will not dwell on what is false, for we are already too familiar with it.
The question before us is: how may we prepare a place for the Lord Jesus? What is He searching for? Here we have some insight into what the Father is looking for, and since the Son is the express image of the Father, we know they are both looking for the same thing. Are we that kind of place? Is the Lord at home with us? Has the Lord found what He is looking for in us?
(Not in a legal sense because we are His children and He loves us no matter what we do, but in a relational sense, in a fellowship and communion sense.)
These questions are irrelevant to those who are only concerned with their own needs. Church, God, the Universe, everything revolves around them and their needs. All decisions are made respective to their own needs, wants, desires (real or imagined). No thought is ever made to meeting the Lord’s Need, seeing that His desire is met, making sure He has found spirit-and-truth satisfaction in us. That is why I say most meetings and gatherings do not meet the Lord’s Need. How can they? They are seeking to meet man’s need.
The object of this message is to provoke and challenge us towards a higher end, that the Lord may find a Place in us where His Need is met, and our needs are forgotten.
IN SEARCH OF A PLACE TO REST
“He was in the world, but even though He made the world, the world did not know Him. He came to His own people, and they would not receive Him. But the ones who did receive Him also received the power to become sons of God, yes, everyone who believed on His Name (John 1:10-12).”
The world did not know Him, and His own people would not receive Him. This, in spite of that fact that He is the Heir of All Things, and apart from Him no one and no thing was made. We see it in the synagogue, when one moment they are wondering at the gracious things that He said and marveling at His teaching - but by the end of the message they are trying to throw Him over a cliff. There are many such examples.
It is important for us to understand that, for the most part, the Lord Jesus is shut out and rejected from His own creation (in many ways, He is shut out from His own Church). It is not an issue of Lordship or Deity, for He remains King of Kings. The issue is always fellowship and communion. For the most part, according to the Scriptures, Jesus Christ lacks the intimate relationship He desires with His people.
Yet, there is a remnant of people who DID receive Him, and they received power! What about them? This is what we want to know: how may we prepare a place for the Lord, where He finds satisfaction and heart-rest, in the midst of a crooked and perverted generation, in the middle of so much darkness?
IN SEARCH OF SPIRIT AND TRUTH
The Lord is seeking spirit-and-truth-worshippers to commune with. In your group, in your meeting, in your heart of hearts - has He found what He seeks?
“Look! I am standing at the door, knocking! If anyone can hear Me, open the door! I will come in to you, and we will have fellowship with one another (Revelation 3:20).”
We have often quoted this verse in the context of salvation, but it should be noted that Jesus spoke these words, not to lost sinners, but to the Church of Laodicea. Even with His own people He does not force the door open, but He patiently knocks, and waits.
Before we can prepare a place for the Lord as a Body of believers, He must have ready and frequent access to us as individual disciples. In Laodicea the situation is so bad that the Lord makes His appeal to the individual heart to take Him in. We are in much the same condition today. The issue is not salvation, but fellowship and communion.
Indeed, the corporate Life of God’s people will only rise as high as the individuals represented. That is to say, if there is no spirit-and-truth worship in our prayer closet at home, we cannot expect spirit-and-truth worship when we gather together. So often we come to a gathering expecting to “enter in” to a place in God. Instead, the gathering of believers should be the celebration and continuation of Who we have already entered into.
The worship, the adoration, the laying down of self, the ministry to the Lord, must be on the basis of the individual “Marys” who sit at His feet every day to hear Him, and the individual “Annas” who never leave the Temple, but minister to the Lord with fasting and prayers day and night. As we continue to ponder these things, may the Lord find an open door to our hearts.
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem! You kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to you. How often I have longed to gather your children together under my wing, as a hen gathers her chicks, but you would not allow it. Now your house will be empty. You will not see Me again until you say, “Blessed is He Who comes in the Name of the Lord (Matthew 23:37-39).”
Some ask how the Lord Jesus can feel any sense of loneliness or loss when He has so many children already. The answer is quite apparent. If you have three, or five, or even ten children, would you not grieve over the loss of one? How much more does the Heavenly Father long for all of His children! The Shepherd leaves the ninety-nine in search of the one. Such is the heart of Christ.
Now Jerusalem represents that which initially gave the Lord satisfaction, but no longer. It continues in the tradition and ceremony, in the outward things, yet it does not recognize Who the Lord Jesus is. The place of His rest used to be the Temple, but even it has become a “den of thieves”.
He longs to have them, to gather them under the shadow of His wing: but they would not allow it.
There is a place where the Lord is received: but it is outside of Jerusalem, away from the religious establishment, away from the scribes and teachers of Law, away from the Pharisees, Sadducees, theologians, Bible scholars and hypocrites, even away from the Temple in all its splendor.
Just east of Jerusalem, in a little village, in a single house, He finally finds what He has longed for.
BETHANY TYPICAL OF A PLACE FOR THE LORD
“Jesus and His disciples entered into a village, and a woman named Martha opened her home to Him (Luke 10:38).”
We know from the context of other Scriptures that this village is Bethany, which means “House of Figs”. Bethany is the place where Mary, Martha, and Lazarus reside.
You’ll remember that Jesus visited the Temple in Jerusalem, drove out the money-changers, and spent the night in Bethany. At some point He became hungry, and went to a fig tree expecting to find figs, but found nothing but leaves. So He cursed the fig tree, and it withered.
The fig tree represents “Jerusalem”. Again, the Lord’s Need is not satisfied, and this situation with the fig tree is meant to convey a spiritual truth. The Lord is “hungry” if you will, searching for something that resembles fruit, something pertaining to Life, but finding nothing but leaves - an outward show of greenery, but nothing of any substance or sustenance. But in Bethany, the House of Figs, He will find fruit.
In discussing how we may prepare a place for the Lord, we will take Bethany to be symbolic of that which satisfies the Lord’s heart and meets His Need. We are not making a case for “house churches” or making a case against “institutional churches”. We are hoping to impress upon you that what satisfies the Lord and meets His Need has very little to do with the outward appearance or geographical location. What makes a “Bethany” is not how they “do” church or how they meet (leaves) but Life (fruit).
There are seven characteristics of “Bethany”, and we will look at each of them accordingly.
1 - The Lord is welcomed and received.
“Jesus and His disciples entered into a village, and a woman named Martha opened her home to Him (Luke 10:38).”
The Scriptures mention or indirectly reference Bethany seven times. We are still in Luke 10:38 because everything we have discussed so far leads us to the first characteristic of a “Bethany”, a fruitful house, a place for the Lord. First and foremost, Bethany is the place where the Lord is received.
We have seen how the Lord is largely shut out and rejected by most of the world, even standing at the door and knocking to gain entrance into the Laodicean church. Not so with Bethany. Here the Lord gains the entrance that He has been long searching for. As such, He gains a Testimony in the earth, a golden lampstand from which His Light may permeate darkness. That is why the Churches of Revelation are typified as lampstands.
I believe this “receiving the Lord” is a definite thing, an intentional thing (and I’m not talking about “receiving the Lord as your personal Savior”). We have heard people say they hope the Lord “shows up” at their meeting or service. What kind of an invitation is that? “Lord Jesus, we welcome You, we receive You: not as a spectator, but as the honored Guest.” Now that is an invitation to fellowship. Where two or three are gathered together in His Name, He is there. It is not so much trying to get Him to “show up” as it is acknowledging, welcoming, and receiving Him as in the midst already. But He must be recognized, and our “home” must be opened to receive Him. Is there not some preparation involved?
Some who seek “the Presence of God” often covet some feeling in their emotion. We are not after “the Presence” or some powerful encounter: we are after HIM, and if we are used to seeking some kind of feeling or experience then we must make the distinction between Christ and our feeling. That is not to say we should never feel anything; but whether we are emotionally or physically affected is beside the point. The true worship is spirit and truth, not flesh and blood. Hence, Bethany receives the Lord as His, for Who He is, to minister to Him and to meet His Need.
2 - The Lord’s Word is heard while we sit at His feet.
“Martha had a sister named Mary, who sat at His feet and kept on listening to His Word (Luke 10:39).”
As we consider what it means to prepare a place for the Lord, a “Bethany”, we come to the second characteristic of this place - it is where the Lord is able to speak, where hearts are open to hear and to perceive what He is saying and doing.
There are two elements here: she sat at His feet, and she heard His Word. We must sit at His feet and hear for ourselves. We can hear His Word through other vessels - the pastor, the teacher, the prophet, a devotional, a television program, a book. In spite of an abundance of vessels we are very dull in our hearing. We are well-versed in “the things of the Lord”; nevertheless we are quite shallow. Why? We have missed the Lord for ourselves. We have not sat down at His feet personally, we are consulting and conferring with flesh and blood, receiving second, third, or fourth-generational teaching. If this is our situation then we have no root in ourselves and we are apt to wither during the heat of the day.
You must sit at His feet and hear Him for yourself. Entering into the Lord’s thought, becoming acquainted with His Ways as well as His Word, takes the sort of love-devotion Mary demonstrates. The Greek here is continuous action: she “kept on listening”. Martha listened too, but when she arose to prepare dinner, Mary remained. As we progress we will see that Mary has discovered spirit and truth, and from henceforth she is always at the feet of the Lord in one way or the other.
That is where it begins: the disciple sitting at the feet of the Teacher, lingering there well beyond what is usual and customary, hanging on His every word. So Bethany satisfies the Lord because that is where He is able to directly deposit Himself into listening hearts.
3 - Christ has the preeminence as the One Thing among many things.
“Martha, Martha. You are worried and troubled over many things: but only one thing is needed. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her (Luke 10:41,42).”
Now we come to the third characteristic of Bethany. The place we are preparing for the Lord’s satisfaction will be a place where He has the preeminence, where everything else takes its place beneath Him. So Bethany stands for Christ having the preeminence.
We have written elsewhere concerning the One Thing which is needed. We will not repeat ourselves again, except to say that this One Thing relates to Christ filling all things as the Preeminent One. If we see that God is working all things together according to this Purpose of summing up everything into Christ, towards the One Thing, then we will naturally seek those things which are conducive to this, and we will naturally shun those things which are not.
Later we see Martha continues serving, but everything is all right - there is no complaining about Mary, and everything seems to go on as it should. It is not that service, fellowship, or preparing meals is a bad thing: it simply has to be in the right order. It is not that we cannot perform many good works and spiritual duties: but the work of the Lord must never have preeminence over the Lord of the work. In our experience, most strife and discord between Christians is the result of becoming embroiled in the “many things” and forgetting that “only one thing is needed.”
The solution? Paul said, “This one thing I do.” We must be single-minded. As we seek first the Kingdom of God then all the other things will find their proper place beneath Him. Bethany continually speaks of the One Thing, and in the midst of much distraction and turmoil, it reminds us to take our place at the Lord’s feet and keep first things first.
4 - The exceeding preciousness and worth of the Lord Jesus is recognized.
“As Jesus was reclining at the table, a woman came to Him with a jar of expensive perfume and poured it on His head (Matthew 26:7).”
We come to the fourth characteristic of Bethany, that is, the place where the Lord’s Need is met, where His heart-satisfaction lies. Now we see that Bethany represents the recognition of the preciousness and the worth of the Lord Jesus.
This sounds like a very simple thing, but it gets right to the heart of the matter. The complaint from the disciples was that this perfume, worth more than a year’s wages, could have been sold and the money given to the poor. Those who witnessed this event and protested were in essence saying, “He’s not worth it.” They viewed such pouring out as a waste.
“Unto you who believe He is precious (I Peter 2:7).” To those who appreciate the exceeding preciousness of the Lord nothing is too much for Him. Nothing poured out upon Him is a waste. Whether He is anointed with tears, or with perfume - He is worthy of all. Now when Christ is revealed to us and we begin to grow up into Him, our hearts are illuminated and we begin to grasp something of the preciousness of the Lord. The natural response is spirit-and-truth worship. This cannot be achieved with better music or dynamic worship leaders. Apart from revelation, apart from seeing, we cannot value Him in any deep sense. Worship is our response to revelation.
We want to appear to be busy doing for God, busy at our “ministry”. But there is a place where we simply “waste” ourselves on Him, and outwardly we appear to be doing nothing. Would that more believers would “waste” themselves more often, ministering to the Lord, sitting at His feet, hearing His word, ministering to Him in secret prayer and fasting! Then when they do rise up to work, how much more fruitful they will b!
5 - Resurrection Life is manifest as we are decreased and He is increased.
The fifth characteristic of Bethany is its manifestation of Resurrection Life. Most Christians want the Life of the Lord in abundance like Lazarus, but they are not willing to lie dead in the grave until they stink. In other words, they are not willing to accept the death of self that they may have the Lord’s Life. They do not mind if the Lord is increased, but they themselves do not want to be decreased. Notwithstanding, Resurrection Life is not the avoidance of death, it is passing through death in order to overcome it. The one who loses his life will find his True Life, and the one who grasps his life will lose it. Lazarus cannot experience resurrection until he experiences death.
When the Lord finds a place for Himself, a “Bethany” of believers gathered together, His own Life will be there as well. Just as we cannot have the Life without having the Law of that Life, so we cannot have the Lord without having the Life of the Lord. And, just as surely as we experience His Life working in us through the Spirit, we will experience His Death working in us through the Cross.
It is not too difficult to find a meeting or a service in which you get a sense of death, not of Life. The music, preaching, and fellowship may be well and good: but you come away hungry and deflated because the Lord’s Need is not met. The measure of the presence of the Lord or the blessing of the Lord upon a meeting, a work, or a people is always the Life. Let us not judge by outward appearances. Remember that it is not the leaves of the fig tree, but the figs, which contain the Life. The fruit of the Spirit is the outward manifestation of the inward Life.
Resurrection Life is that which has died, but now lives. It has the mark of the Cross upon it. It has passed through death once, and death can no more touch it. If we have not already passed through death then we are constantly fearful of dying, but the one who has already died and lives again has nothing more to fear from death. As we are decreased through the daily carrying of our cross, Christ in us is increased, and the strength of His Life is matured through our weakness. Bethany comprises all these things.
6 - The Lord Himself is celebrated as we “waste” ourselves upon Him.
“A dinner was given in Bethany to honor Jesus (John 12:2a).”
In John chapter 12 all the people we have discussed thus far come together into one setting. Martha is still serving, but there is no friction as before, and we surmise that she has found the proper balance between being and doing. Lazarus reclines at the table with Jesus, and this speaks of the fellowship of resurrection. His very presence at the table with Jesus is a testimony of overcoming, is it not? And of course, Mary worships at the feet of the Lord.
The dinner is given to honor the Lord, to fellowship with Him, to meet His Need, to give Him the glory due His Name. It is a celebration of HIM. So the sixth characteristic of Bethany is it celebrates the Lord Himself. Whereas praise celebrates what the Lord has done, worship celebrates Who He is. Praise can sometimes become “me” and “I” oriented (the Lord saved ME, healed ME, set ME free, gave ME power, etc.) but worship can never be centered on anything but the Lord.
Keep in mind, of course, that in the midst of this outpouring of affection upon the Lord Jesus, satan is right there to cause a distraction. Whenever someone decides to prepare a place for the Lord then you can be sure that it will not be an easy piece of ground to maintain. The flesh will try to intrude. Those who do not know any better will present a problem. They will enter the assembly of saints with their own expectation of how things ought to be, and will endeavor to make their opinion known. They have not seen the Lord, they have yet to appreciate the worth of the Lord Jesus, and will view such pouring out of ourselves as “waste”.
We note that Jesus always defended His worshippers, they never had to defend themselves. But if we must suffer for something, I can think of few things better than being accused of “wasting” ourselves on the Lord. Bethany is hallowed ground because it represents one of the last places of real estate on the earth where all activity centers around Christ as All in All. This alone makes Bethany priceless.
7 - An ascendant spirit and a heavenly testimony is evident.
“Jesus led them out towards Bethany, lifted up His hands, and blessed them as He ascended up into heaven. The disciples worshipped Him, and returned to Jerusalem full of joy (Luke 24:50-52).”
The seventh and final characteristic we note from the Scriptures concerning Bethany is that it represents an ascendancy between earth and heaven, between the kingdoms of this world and the Kingdom of God. Bethany is where “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” is fulfilled as a precursor to its ultimate fulfillment in all the earth.
The Church is primarily heavenly. “He has raised us up together and made us sit together with Him in the heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6).” We are not suggesting that the Church does not exist at all on the earth; but we maintain that the Church is heavenly, not earthly. Though it is on the earth, it is not of the earth. Though it is in the world, it is not of the world. Much is made of us going to heaven when we die, but the goal is not so much to get the earthly into the heavenly as it is to get the heavenly into the earthly, and by extension, to maintain the Testimony of Jesus as something over and against this present darkness. Bethany provides the ground upon which the heavenly is made to bear upon the earthly.
Bethany has a heavenly savor. There is an ascendant spirit there which lifts us up to the heavenlies. If there is a failure in the Church today it is this: we live as natural, earth-bound, flesh-and-blood people who speak great things but do not live what we speak. There is no heavenly distinctiveness about us, little reality about us which suggests this other-worldliness of which we claim. We live as “mere men”, religious men, even spiritual men, but not as citizens of heaven.
Nevertheless, I believe that as we prepare a place for the Lord this ascendant spirit will break forth upon us spontaneously. It is one thing for us to try to act heavenly, and it is quite another thing for us to enter into such communion and fellowship with the Heavenly Man that we simply begin to exude His heavenliness, as the priest in the Holy Place exuded the fragrance of the sweet incense. The Kingdom of Heaven is where Christ has the preeminence and fills all things: and if this is the case with us individually, or corporately, then it can be said of us that the Kingdom of Heaven has arrived.
PREPARE A PLACE FOR THE LORD
“Wherever two or three are gathered together in My Name, there I am in the midst of them (Matthew 18:20).”
When we take everything the Scriptures say relating to Bethany we have an idea of what it means to prepare a place for the Lord. To summarize, Bethany is the place where:
- The Lord is welcomed and received;
- The Word of the Lord is heard while we sit at His feet;
- Christ has the preeminence as the One Thing among many things;
- The exceeding preciousness and worth of the Lord Jesus is recognized;
- Resurrection Life is manifest as we are decreased and He is increased;
- The Lord Himself is celebrated as we “waste” ourselves upon Him;
- An ascendant spirit and a heavenly testimony is evident.
Perhaps you are saying, “Oh, that I could find a place where believers gather together towards this end! How I wish I could find such fellowship! I am out here in the desert with no place to go.” Brother or sister, my challenge to you is this: stop looking for such a place, and be such a place.
Perhaps you are in a lonely place because the Lord desires to use you to establish a place in the wilderness for Him. If the Lord has impressed His Need for such a place on your heart, then declare your heart a “Bethany” place and take this up between yourself and the Lord. Give the Lord some ground to build upon. Give Him His place. Do not look for multitudes of people. It is better to have one, two, or three gathered together as the Lord’s Bethany than to have hundreds or thousands of people gathered together as something other than Bethany.
Is there anyone in all the world who can truly meet for the purpose of ministering to the Lord and “waste” themselves in worship, giving no thought to their own need, but laying down their lives wholly for the Lord’s satisfaction? I pray something is stirring within someone to seriously consider this before the Lord. Many are called, but few are chosen. May He quicken this word to our hearts, and whosoever will, let them hear.

One Flock, One Shepherd

One Flock, One Shepherd
by Chip Brogden
“Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand, and His arm shall rule for Him: behold, His reward is with Him, and His work before Him. He shall feed His flock like a Shepherd: He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young (Isaiah 40:10,11).”
“And I will set up ONE shepherd over them, and He shall feed them, even my servant David; He shall feed them, and He shall be their shepherd. And I the LORD will be their God, and my servant David a Prince among them; I the LORD have spoken it (Ezekiel 34:23,24).”
“I am the Good Shepherd; I know My sheep, and My sheep know Me - just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father - and I lay down My Life for the sheep. I have other sheep which are not of this fold. I must bring them also. They will hear My Voice, and there will be One Flock, and One Shepherd (John 10:14-16)”.
The Church is compared to many things in the Scriptures. It is described (among other things) as a Bride, a Body, a City, a Flock of sheep, and a House of Living Stones. Each represents a particular truth, but not the entire truth, so we really should be familiar with each of them that we may adequately comprehend God’s thought for the Church. The Bride represents union with Christ; the Body represents Life; the City represents refuge and peace; the Flock represents unity; and the House of Living Stones represents God’s work and residence among us.
I’d like to talk about the Church as the Flock.
May we see before God that there is One Flock, the Church; and One Shepherd, Jesus Christ. There are not many flocks with many shepherds. God established centuries ago that His preference is One Flock and One Shepherd. How did this come about?
In Ezekiel 34, the Lord complains that the shepherds of Israel were feeding themselves and not the flock. They abused the sheep and took more than they gave. They failed to bind up the broken, or seek out the stray, or protect them from the enemy. They ruled with force and cruelty. They allowed the sheep to fight amongst themselves. They permitted the flock to be scattered and devoured. So the Lord vows that He will get rid of these shepherds and install One Shepherd, David, to care for the flock and gather them together into one place.
Obviously God is not talking about literal shepherds in a literal field in Israel, nor is He planning to bring King David back from the dead to tend to literal sheep. The Lord here is speaking of Jesus Christ, who is known as the Root and Offspring of David. He is also known as the Son of David and the Seed of Jesse. All of these titles mean the same thing. This speaks of His earthly lineage, and it also speaks of His heart towards His Father. David is described as a man after God’s own heart. In the same way, the Lord Jesus Christ is totally in touch with and attuned to the heart of God. He is truly a Son of David.
Just as there is One Body with many members, so there is One Flock with many sheep.
THE GOOD SHEPHERD IS ONE SHEPHERD
Jesus is the Good Shepherd. Let us realize that the Lord Jesus Christ is the only One Who totally pleases God in every way. “This is my beloved Son - hear Him.” Jesus Christ alone perfectly satisfies the heart and will of God. He is perfectly obedient to Him in all things. No one else in heaven or on earth is worthy. No one else may take the scroll, read what is written therein, or even look upon it.
Because the flock was abused and scattered by hirelings, the wisdom of God declared that He would shepherd the flock Himself and gather them together again, not just from Israel, but from all over the world, encompassing both Jews and Gentiles, loving and caring for them. Has this happened yet? Yes, the word of the Lord has already come to pass. When did He gather the flock together under One Shepherd? He did it when He raised Christ from the dead and established the Church. Jesus Christ is the Good Shepherd Who lays down His life for the sheep.
In John 17, Jesus says, “I pray that they may be one.” This is more than a cry for unity in the Body, it is a cry for One Flock under One Shepherd. May I say that all who share in the Life of the Lord are already gathered together into One. The One Flock is the Ecclesia, the called-out-of-the-world assembly of those who have the revelation of Jesus. The One Shepherd is Jesus. This is so plain that it cannot be missed.
David looked ahead to this day and declared, “The Lord is my Shepherd.” We might put it this way, for the meaning is the same: “The Lord is my Pastor.” How does that sound? How would you like to have Jesus for a pastor? Psalm 23 is talking about the Church, and Jesus is your Pastor. Of course it’s talking about our individual relationship with Christ, but remember He has more than one sheep. It is not just you and Jesus walking around by yourselves, hand in hand. There’s a whole flock in mind here. It’s talking about what it means to be under the Shepherd’s care as one of many sheep. David is describing the One Flock with One Shepherd. How glorious and beautiful was his insight.
Jesus plainly said, “I am the Good Shepherd.” In John 10 He tells us the difference between the Good Shepherd and the hireling. He even says that ALL who came before Him were thieves and robbers. That’s why God sent the Son to Shepherd the flock for Him. No one else is worthy. Apart from Him we are all hirelings. We just love ourselves too much. In the same way that no one is worthy to open the seal and read the contents of the scroll except for Christ, so no one is worthy to shepherd the flock of God but Christ. The Lord declared that He would tend the flock Himself, and so He has done so and is doing so through the Lord Jesus Christ.
THE UNDERSHEPHERDS SERVE THE CHIEF SHEPHERD
Yet, there is such a thing as human beings who are called to the work of the ministry as pastors and shepherds. They are God’s gift to the Church along with apostles, prophets, evangelists, and teachers, to build up the Body and bring them into Christ. Since there is no question that God has chosen the Lord Jesus to be the One Shepherd, why would the Lord see the need for setting pastors in the Church for its edification? What is the nature of a New Testament pastoral ministry?
After Jesus was raised from the dead He commissioned Peter by saying, “Feed My sheep.” Please see that the sheep belong to the Lord Jesus and Peter is being told to feed them. The Lord did not say He would give Peter some sheep of his own to take care of or rule over. He is not giving Peter anything to have as his own. He did not tell Peter to go start a church and begin gathering people together in his own name. Neither did he tell Peter to go get himself elected to take the place of Jesus as the new leader of the disciples. In fact, no one has ever been elected to take the place of Jesus after He was taken up into heaven. Why? Because He is still the Head, and He is still the Good Shepherd. He never laid aside that role. Do you see this? “Feed MY sheep,” Jesus said. Whose sheep are they? The Lord’s sheep.
So now we have some insight into how this works. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, commissions undershepherds to feed and care for His sheep. We know that Christ is our Meat, Bread, Milk, Honey, and Water. So to feed the flock is to bring them to Christ as their Source. This is a holy work. This is much more difficult (humanly speaking) than preaching a three-point sermon once a week.
How is God going about the process of bringing everyone into One Flock under One Shepherd? He is doing this through undershepherds. A true pastor is but an undershepherd, and the Lord Jesus is the Chief Shepherd. There are but two classes of shepherds: the undershepherds, who are many; and the Chief Shepherd, who is One. What does the undershepherd do? The undershepherd serves the Chief Shepherd. He (or she) is supposed to be out herding the sheep into the One Flock, bringing them to Christ, feeding, caring, and watching over the Lord’s possession.
If God intends on having One Flock under One Shepherd then we know that nothing belongs to any individual. Frequently we hear men speak of “my people”, “my flock”, or “my church”, as though they possessed something. Let us see instead that the undershepherd owns nothing, but is a steward over God’s possession. The Scripture plainly says that we are the sheep of His pasture. Everything belongs to the Father, Who has committed all things into the care of His Son, the Good Shepherd. No undershepherd can claim anything or anyone as belonging to him personally. If we only realized this we would immediately begin treating the Lord’s sheep with greater respect and humility. How can a man lord over something that doesn’t belong to him? How can he abuse and mistreat what is not his?
Let me ask you this question: what do you think the Lord will do to an undershepherd who rules the Lord’s flock with cruelty, abuses the sheep, scatters them in all directions, and lets the enemy come in to tear them apart? Will the Lord just shrug His shoulders, or will He visit that undershepherd and avenge the sheep? It is such a holy trust. We must tread lightly with the sheep and minister to them in fear and trembling. We dare not entertain thoughts of doing as we please with the Lord’s possession. It is not a frivolous thing.
THE HIRELINGS WILL BE JUDGED
Here is where many people err. They think to themselves, now that I’m a pastor I’m in charge of these sheep, and they better start submitting to me. They need to support my vision for ministry and give me the honor and glory due my name. And so on. You’ve seen and heard the type. But again, the sheep do not belong to us. Jesus says that the Father gave Him the sheep, and no man can snatch them out of His hands. Certainly He is not going to just turn around and give them away to some earthly man.
This is the spiritual reality. But when we look around, what do we see happening? We see first of all that the flock is scattered and divided. Next, we see that the flock is diseased and wounded. Then, we see that the flock is ruled by individual shepherds. It appears that the earthly facts do not live up to the spiritual reality. On the one hand the promise is fulfilled in the Good Shepherd, and on the other hand the conditions described in Ezekiel 34 still remain.
What usually happens? Many who claim to be pastors parcel up the flock among themselves, fighting over individual sheep, endeavoring to gather them together into their own little fold with themselves as their own little shepherd. They are not working on behalf of the Chief Shepherd, but on their own behalf. Jesus said, “He that is not gathering with Me is scattering.” This is what hirelings do. They claim to be gathering people together but they end up scattering the Lord’s flock. They want the wool and the fat for themselves. They take more than they give. They don’t truly care for the sheep. They are not undershepherds, but hirelings. Read Ezekiel 34 and see if you have experienced this for yourself.
I know all about hirelings because I was one for many years. I did not work for the Chief Shepherd, but for the denomination. I saw the sheep as the fruit of my ministry, not as the Lord’s possession. So eventually the Chief Shepherd removed me from tending His sheep. Later, only when I learned that the sheep indeed belonged to Him, He permitted me to feed them as His undershepherd. This time the hirelings came and removed me. They permitted me access to “their” sheep as a fellow hireling, but not as an undershepherd. For to be an undershepherd of the Chief Shepherd brings shame to the hireling.
How do you think the Chief Shepherd is going to respond to the situation we have today? First of all, do you think He is totally blind to what is going on? Far from it. What will He do with these hirelings? Why, He will remove them from tending the flock and will call the sheep to follow after Him. May I say to you that no man can snatch a single lamb out of the hands of the Good Shepherd. He knows His sheep, and they know Him. When He calls they will come running.
So it happens that when sheep find themselves within something other than the One Flock, penned up in a cage with a hireling, the Lord will call them out and unto Himself, and the hireling will eventually be judged. We don’t have to take matters into our own hands. The Lord will see to it. I am so thankful that He judged me and is making me into what He wants me to be. Now I work for Him, and no man.
THE ONE IN CHRIST TRANSCENDS ALL HUMAN DIVISIONS
We hear a lot of talk about trying to unify the Church, but until we see that we are already One Flock we will just keep on talking about it and never experience it. We must see before God that He has already made us One Flock under One Shepherd. This is not some future event, but a spiritual reality, waiting for us to enter into.
Permit me to say that from the vantage point of heaven there are only two groups of people: the ones with Life and the ones with no Life. And we cannot say someone does or does not have Life by judging them according to the outward appearances of how they worship, where they worship, or what earthly organization they do or do not belong to. God really and truly does not calculate the members of the Ecclesia by looking at the membership rosters of our denominations, counting heads on Sunday morning, reviewing our baptismal records, or seeing how many home church groups are meeting together. You may or may not find Life in any of these places.
We can point to all the denominations, sects, movements, factions, and individual churches as proof that we are not in unity. Outwardly speaking we are divided. Outwardly speaking I doubt we will ever be in unity. Wheat and tares, sheep and goats will continue to be mixed together until they are separated at the end of the age. But we should see that God neither recognizes nor endorses any of our labels, organizations, and associations. It is not that God is for or against the Baptist denomination, or the Pentecostal denomination. He simply overlooks all of it. It is of no account to Him and has no bearing on His eternal purpose. You can be in, out, for, or against whatever you please, but God is not looking at that either. Of course it’s terribly important to earthly-minded folk, but those who are seated in heavenly places with Christ view things differently.
Now when someone says he goes to the First Baptist Church, I can say, “Praise the Lord, brother! Do you have Life?” And when someone says she goes to a house church, I can say, “Praise the Lord, sister! Do you have Life?” And when people say they don’t know where to go or what to do, I can say, “Praise the Lord, brothers and sisters! Do you have Life?” I’m not looking to the outward anymore, but to the inward. You see, if the Life is there, then the Son is there, and that’s all that interests God. He that has the Son has Life. And if they need to get in this or out of that then the Life will instruct them. Who am I? We cannot call unclean what God has called clean. We cannot reject whom the Lord accepts.
Let me state here and now that man, not God, started every denomination, institutional church, and house church on the face of the earth. Some may be following God’s will, some only think they are following God’s will, and most are just doing what they want to do with no thought to God’s will. We aren’t interested now in explaining how or why they do what they do, we simply wish to state that man does all these things, not God. The Kingdom is within you. There is only One Church, and that is the Church that Jesus is building. There is only One Flock, and One Shepherd. Everything else is periphery.
When we see how much of this is man’s doing we are liable to become upset over it all, but God just bypasses and transcends the boundaries we put up between one another. God is just too big to confine Himself to working within one little sect, whether they are “in” or “out” of the religious system. God has never blessed a denomination, and He never will. He blesses people, not movements. He judges people, not systems. He only sees one thing, and that is His Son. He only gives us one thing, and that is His Son. If you have the Son, you have Life. If you do not have the Son, you do not have Life. This is the only thing God is looking for.
GETTING BABYLON OUT OF YOU
This is what I am most afraid of: that we begin thinking anyone who doesn’t have the revelation to “come out of Babylon” is spiritually dead. I made this serious error when God first began to show me the True Church and spoke to me concerning the One Flock. I was still judging by outward appearances. So let me clarify: you can no more come out of Babylon by leaving a church than a leopard can change his spots by leaving the jungle. Babylon is a mindset, a paradigm, a religious spirit, if you will. Some of the people who claim to have left Babylon are still bound by Babylon. They still think, talk, behave, and relate to others as Babylonians. They haven’t really come out, they just stopped attending church services. If that’s all there is to it, how simple it would be! How easy to tell the difference between the “true” and the “false” if that’s all we have to look for!
Just as we are called to be in the world but not of the world, some people are called to be “in” Babylon but not “of” Babylon. Some have been called by God to walk in the midst of Babylon and represent Him there as a Daniel or an Ezekiel. Some have been called by God to come out of Babylon and represent Him in Jerusalem as a Nehemiah or an Ezra. Not everyone is a Daniel, and not everyone is a Nehemiah. Eventually Babylon will be judged and there will be a New Jerusalem. All the “Daniels” and all the “Nehemiahs” will each give an account of themselves to God. So let everyone be where the Lord has called them to be. Most of all, whether we leave or stay, go out or go in, let it be by revelation, not by the words of some earthly man or teacher.
Some emphasize the actual meeting together and are engrossed in the details of where, how, why, and what we’re supposed to do when we meet. I say bring people together who have Life and the rest of it will take care of itself. We know that the Law was given to people who had no Life. The Law must teach us outwardly, but the Life will instruct us inwardly. When we don’t have Life then we have to depend upon a rule or method or tradition or law. Some say that’s too simplistic, just getting together like that. Well, that’s the idea. You see Life just doesn’t start flowing when we come together into some kind of meeting. Life is present at all times. You don’t turn it on and off like a spigot. Community isn’t something we can create in a test tube, it’s a daily adventure and releasing of Life as we go about the ministry of one-anothering wherever we happen to be at that particular moment in time.
THE TRUE FLOCK IS ONE FLOCK
How do we achieve unity? We do not. Rather, God reveals His Son to us as the Head of the Church. If we see the Head, if we know the Good Shepherd, we will come to know the Body and the Flock. We cannot say we love God if we do not love our brothers and sisters. We cannot maintain communion with the Head if we are separated from the Body. When we follow One Shepherd as One Flock then we will be in one accord. If we are one with the Head, we are one with the Body, even if we are not gathered together. But, if we are not one with the Head, we are not one with the Body, even if we are gathered together in the guise of unity.
Our prayer for the Church is that we would all come to the unity of the faith through the revelation of Christ. All who see Him will be like Him, for they will see Him as He is; and as He is, so are we, in this world.
Today, God’s heart is One Flock with One Shepherd, with the Son filling all in all. May the Church fulfill His desire. Amen.

The Ministry of One-Anothering

The Ministry of One-Anothering
by Chip Brogden
Every Christian is called to the ministry of One-Anothering. We are to love one another, serve one another, submit to one another, instruct one another, encourage one another, help one another, forgive one another, and so forth. This is our spiritual service. This is your ministry to the Body of Christ and the basis from which every spiritual gift should operate. It would be profitable for you to do a study of all the places in the New Testament that mention “one another”. There are a considerable number of references. You will immediately benefit by seeing that Christianity is not for hermits. There is no place for individualism in the Kingdom of God, for we are a Body of many members, each fashioned together into interdependence. You will also see that we are called to live very simple lives of quiet service to our brothers and sisters. It is neither complicated nor difficult.
People ask me all the time, “How do I know if I’m called to the ministry?” I answer by saying you are definitely called to the ministry. They think perhaps I am a prophet or I can see something that they cannot. Then I have to clarify it by explaining that all of us are called to the ministry of One-Anothering. No one is exempt. How that will eventually work itself out in your life is a wonderful mystery that you will have to discover for yourself. Only don’t look to do some great thing to begin with, just find some brothers and sisters and begin your practice of One-Anothering.
Others will ask, “But how do I know if God is calling me to a full-time ministry?” My response is that He is calling all of us to the full-time ministry of One-Anothering. I’m missing the page in my Bible that talks about a part-time commitment. There’s no such thing as a part-time ministry, a part-time minister, or a part-time Christian. It is either all the time or none of the time.
The problem with many people who aspire to some “full-time” ministry is they want to do some great thing, something immediately visible, appreciated, and recognized that will take up all their time and support them so they won’t have to work at a “secular” job. They want to start up at the top with a title and a position but they don’t know anything about the ministry of One-Anothering. They want to preach, or teach, or sing, or be up on center stage someplace.
I have counseled more than one young man who believes the Lord is calling them into some ministry. Certainly their motives are sincere, and they desire to do a good work. But upon close examination you find that they have a certain idea or presupposition about what ministry is. They imagine that having a ministry means people will come and hear them preach. They think about what it will be like to stand behind the pulpit and talk, hearing people say, “Amen!” and “Preach it, brother!”. In some cases they are looking to me to wave my hand over them or speak some word to them which will confirm their calling and give them clear direction. Or they will talk about giving up their “secular” employment so they can be in the “full-time” ministry.
HOW TO GO INTO MINISTRY THE WRONG WAY
When I was twenty-three years old I sensed that it was time for me to take a big step and enter the ministry “full-time”. I knew I was called to the ministry and I was already an associate pastor in our church, but I was impatient and anxious to devote all my time to what I thought ministry was all about - preaching and teaching. I thought going into the ministry “full-time” was some great event that would be accompanied by trumpets and heralds. I wanted to be sure of the Lord’s leading so I fasted and prayed to see if He would approve of my plans (please note how I worded that). For three days I did not eat or drink. At the end of the three days I quit my job and announced to everyone that now I was in the “full-time” ministry.
After about three months of being in the ministry “full-time” I had preached in three churches and mailed out a newsletter so everyone would know where to send their money. It wasn’t long before there was no food in the house, so we began visiting friends and relatives for “fellowship” in hopes that they would invite us to stay for dinner. We depended on the church to pay our phone and electric bills. About this time I found out that my wife was pregnant with our second child. Of course, we had no insurance.
When things were really tight I remembered a man who owed me money an hour’s drive away. Since it was dinnertime I asked my wife to fix something for me to eat on the way to this man’s house. She gave me a single Beef Jerky and a thermos of Kool-Aid because there was nothing else. Eventually I went to the food ministry our church supported and asked if I could help load trucks in exchange for one of the boxes of food. For the next few weeks we lived on microwave pizzas and frozen tortellini which we had to boil and learn to serve in a variety of interesting ways. I understand now how the Hebrews were able to complain about manna from heaven after eating it for so long. To this day I will not eat tortellini.
Eventually we had to leave our house since we couldn’t pay the rent. We moved in with my wife’s parents and lived out of a single bedroom. Since we had no money to put our things in storage, we wrapped them in plastic and put them in her parent’s garage. Meanwhile someone had told me about a small church that was looking for a pastor. It paid the amazing sum of $100 a week, which sounded like a king’s ransom to us at the time. So we went.
The church was able to increase our pay a little over time, but it was soon clear that I would have to leave the “full-time” ministry and go back to the “secular” job market to support my family. I remember when this first dawned on me, and how deeply my pride was offended. I remember praying as I drove over the Tar River bridge to get home, “Lord, I’ll do anything if You will only let me stay in ‘full-time’ ministry.” I didn’t want to go get a job because I thought that would be interpreted as a lack of faith. The following week I was offered a job, and I took it at the insistence of my wife.
Why am I sharing this with you? Am I holding this up as a model of what it means to suffer for Jesus? Is this an example of what it means to be in the ministry? By no means. I was committed, no doubt about it. Somebody might say it happened that way because you didn’t have enough faith. Maybe, but I bet I had more faith at twenty-three years old than you did. I could out-pray, out-fast, out-preach, and out-work anyone. As Paul said, “I labored more abundantly than them all.” But as the saying goes, fanaticism consists of continuing to do something when you have forgotten why you are doing it.
SPIRITUAL MINISTRY IS PRACTICAL
I have since learned (after many more trials and tests) that the loftiest spiritual service will never cause us to neglect our most menial earthly duty. If you are not faithful with respect to earthly things, who is going to commit spiritual things with you? Paul’s letters always begin with the spiritual reality and end with the earthly responsibility. This is why he urged people to remain where they are when they are first called. That is to say, if you are a husband, love your wife. If you are a wife, love your husband. If you have children, raise them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Be there for them. If you will not take care of your family, no matter what spiritual excuse you offer, you are worse than a pagan. And if you will not work, you will not eat.
BALANCE is the Holy Grail that we so desperately need to re-discover in the Church today. This is Paul’s counsel, and it is sound. His example was to work with his own hands to provide his own support so he could make the Good News available without charge. Technically, yes he could receive support, and he did on occasion, but most of the time he chose not to do so. When he said his last goodbye’s to the Ephesian elders at Miletus he could testify that in his three years of ministry in Ephesus he had coveted no one’s gold, silver, or clothing, but had worked to support himself and those with him so as not to be a burden to the church. What a glorious testimony!
How different were the false apostles who followed after, claiming all the support they could muster and refusing to work, eating and drinking everyone else’s groceries, robbing the widows and making merchandise of the Good News. Yet this is precisely what many who claim a “full-time” ministry do today.
Our idea of ministry is narrow and ill-defined. Most folks have one notion about ministry - preaching in a church. If I am preaching in a church, I am a minister. But if I am waiting on tables or washing dishes or working in an office or doing other menial, secular things I am not a real minister. This is the way people have been led to believe.
As a pastor I was supposed to attend ministerial conferences and gatherings. After the introductions, the first question we asked a new acquaintance was NOT how many in your church are growing in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, but rather, “How many people do you have on Sunday morning?” The second question we asked was, “Are you full-time or bi-vocational?” The size of your church and your status as full-time or bi-vocational helped establish the pecking order. I noticed the pastors with large churches and “full-time” ministries were typically selected to leadership positions within the denomination.
One of these successful pastors spoke once and “encouraged” those of us with small churches by saying, “God is with you, too.”
But I noticed that whenever these pastors would gather together everyone would talk about how hard it was and how they were just trying to hold on for dear life. The bigger the church the more stressed out the pastor was. They were walking around with the weight of the world on their shoulders, trying to deal with so many problems. They were so enmeshed and caught up in themselves that they seemed almost catatonic. I would come home from these meetings depressed.
I began thinking to myself, what is wrong with this picture? Why am I aspiring to do this full-time? Why am I seeking to advance myself within this group of nervous wrecks? What do I stand to gain, but more problems and stress? How did we get so far removed from the New Testament? Why are we so concerned about numbers and size when we aren’t faithful to what little we have to begin with? Why are so many pastor’s wives taking antidepressants? Why are so many pastor’s kids in serious trouble? What am I doing here? What will my family look like in twenty years?
This began a process through which God radically changed my perception of ministry. It was the beginning of the end of my career as a preacher for Organized Religion. I gave up my little penny-ante ministry and took my place with the One Flock under the One Shepherd. I do not regret that decision, for what I received is far greater than what I gave up.
THE LAW OF THE SPIRIT OF LIFE IN CHRIST
Friends, the situation as I have described it is not God’s intention for ministry. I have learned that there is something called the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:2). I have seen this in operation and I know when it is at work in someone’s life and when it is not. I can look within myself and instantly know if I am cooperating with the Life or not. I give thanks to God for teaching me this, and I pray He will grant all of us to see it, for it will set captives free. Let me explain how the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus relates to our work and ministry in the Lord. It is summed up in this maxim: God will not LEAD you where His grace cannot KEEP you.
That is to say, when we undertake the work assigned to us by the Lord we will find the Life of the Lord is present to give us all the inner spiritual strength to see it through to completion. I am not saying everything will go smoothly and you will never have any self-doubt or fear. Far from it. But listen to what Paul says:
“We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed (II Corinthians 4:8,9). His secret? “I labor according to His mighty power which works in me (Colossian 1:29).” Not I, but Christ. This is the secret to the Christian life and it is the key to all fruitful spiritual work.
The majority of people in Christian service are given methods, plans, formulas, books, tapes, seminars, conferences, education, and training in order to fulfill their ministry. There are currently more pastors than there are churches for them to pastor. These young people fresh out of college are sitting around waiting for churches to open up to them so they can come in and begin their ministry. They are looking forward to the day when they can put all they have learned into practice. What happens when they finally get elected to pastor their first church? They make a mess of the whole thing.
I worked with a fellow like this. I can truthfully say today that I love him, but at the time of our working together I came close to breaking his nose on more than one occasion. I’m sure he felt the same way about me! He was intelligent, articulate, and well-educated. He was committed to his idea of ministry. We cannot judge his heart, but we can look at the fruit of his pastoral ministry and see all the people damaged as a result of his best intentions and efforts. After driving off a sufficient number of people and putting the whole congregation and staff into an uproar, he came under such stress that his body rebelled and he was sick for three weeks. Suddenly he “felt called” to accept another church in another state, where we can only pray that he will not make the same mistakes.
What is missing? How has the Church reached such a pitiful condition? We give people a method, but God desires us to cooperate with His Life working through us. This is a spiritual matter. This cannot be taught in a classroom. People cannot pay a tuition and get a degree and say that they are now fit to shepherd the flock. A thousand times no!
BEGIN YOUR MINISTRY TODAY
When anyone comes to me now and wants my advice about “going” into the ministry, the first thing I seek to do is upset all their ideas about ministry and talk to them about being a servant, taking the back seat, being hidden from view, lowering yourself, and practicing the art of One-Anothering.
The ministry of One-Anothering doesn’t require a platform, a pulpit, a building, a budget, or a Board. You can start immediately, with no training and with no experience, and you don’t have to quit your job or do anything dramatic. You cannot be voted in, and you cannot be voted out. The Life you possess qualifies you to be in the full-time ministry of One-Anothering. Your wounds are your credentials. You can go to your brothers and sisters right now and say, “The Lord has called me to the ministry, and I am beginning it today.” Love, pray for, encourage, and serve the saints. So many times we have observed individuals who claim to be called to some great work but they neglect the basic principles of One-Anothering. There is no competition for the lowest position, so let all who love the Lord go there first and become a servant.
So what if we can’t preach, teach, or sing? Is that all there is to the Lord’s work? Hardly. You could begin a ministry of affirmation. Just make it your mission to encourage everyone you meet, building them up in the Lord. Most people tear each other down, so determine in God that you will lift up and encourage the Church at every opportunity. Keep a list of addresses and every so often send them a little note. That is a simple way to start. The possibilities are endless!
You see, ministry is not some great, profound, extraordinary thing, but ordinary things done in an extraordinary way.
Whatever our age or stage of spiritual growth we are called to the Ministry of One-Anothering. It is a rewarding call. Only let us walk in love and work diligently according to the Law of Life (not in our own strength) and we will do well. Let us learn to buy up the opportunities and redeem the time. The servants are not greater than their Master, but the servants may aspire to be as their Master. I pray the Lord will raise up more servants as a result of these words. Amen.

The Person of Peace

The Person of Peace

Hello Friends

We have had several conversations recently about finding a person of peace in western culture. The context of Luke 10 is clearly eastern where three generations and families of several siblings plus servants could make up a household. To live among them and teach the person of peace to become the pastor/elder of their family and friends and to see that multiply through family patterns is what is happening right now through many third world cultures and these patterns are fueling rapidly multiplying church planting movements.

What does this look like in the western world where individualism is the norm and extended family relationships are not? Does the teaching of Jesus in Luke 10 extend across all cultural boundaries? Of course it does. This is Jesus we are talking about! In the west our families tend to be various sorts of interest groups. The problem is not with the harvest. Waiting for the harvest to come to you? Jesus never said they would! He commanded his disciples to pray for laborers who would go and then sent them out as the answer to their own prayers. Some contemporary western examples....

The team leader of a multifaceted ministry in England joined the local cricket club and got involved in all aspects of the club. The result? Several club members baptized as followers of Jesus.

A friend in Germany heard clear instruction to go to her local pub. "Lord, I have never gone alone to a pub in my life and now?" She went and joined a table of several ladies who were esoteric spiritualists gathered for their weekly talk. They accepted her into their conversation. After a few weeks of listening and softly answering a few questions they invited her to take a whole evening and share about her relationship with Jesus. She did so just last Thursday night. Interesting house of peace!

Another German friend began to hang out in a local park with the homeless, punks and other people on the edges. The result? Several baptized followers of Jesus and a community of Jesus in the park. One man has a story of horrific childhood abuse and had been living on the street for 15 years.

Want to be a pastor? Why not become the pastor (well, coach/trainer) of your son's sport team? A close friend did that and met a dad that he felt drawn towards. At a certain point that dad stopped showing up at his son's practices and games. My friend kept calling but the dad never picked up until Christmas Eve. He picked up and began to talk about being in total despair and on his way to commit suicide. That was the first of many talks and now this dad has become a follower of Jesus.

What about your work? Live your life, do your job, meet needs, share simply and see what God will do. Dutch friends did that as personal trainers at sports club. One lady began asking questions and on a trip to her home, my friends noticed a bible on the table. "Why do you have a bible on your table?" "We are trying to understand it but we need someone to help us." That couple will be baptized this Sunday and renew their marriage vows as well.

We have had a great time with friends in Western Europe. July 2 through 10 we will be in Central Asia sharing with our team there. Your prayers and financial support are deeply appreciated.

For Harvest
Steve & Marilyn Hill

Good For Us

Good For Us
by Chip Brogden
“…Peter said unto Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles…” (Luke 9:33ff).
The Greek word for “church” is “ekklesia”, which means “called out ones” and came to mean the assembly (or local expression) of those who had been called out and set apart. This assembling together is not something we do on our own. It is the work of the Lord. We are not the Church because we gather ourselves together into a meeting or a group. Anyone can organize themselves into a meeting for whatever purpose they wish. But we are being assembled by the Lord Himself into a spiritual temple, a House of Living Stones. Jesus is building His Church, and Jesus is assembling His people. Our meetings are external and visible, but this assembly of Living Stones is internal, invisible, spiritual and eternal. I pray that God will deliver us from “meetings” and show us His Son. Then we will see that we have already been assembled together into the Church that He is building upon the revelation of Himself.
We cannot build the Church, for Jesus is building it. Similarly, we cannot assemble ourselves together; the Lord has to do that as well. I am not saying we cannot have a meeting, but I am saying that a meeting is not what makes us the Church. There are many such meetings we can host or attend, but that does not make us the Church. People frequently ask me if I know where they can go to find fellowship. After examining them at length I determine that what they are really looking for is a meeting. Well, meetings are everywhere. You do not need me for that. I am afraid that I cannot recommend “meetings”, I can only recommend brothers and sisters who love the Lord.
Now the Lord wants to assemble us together into a spiritual Temple, but if we look around it is clear that we are divided over several issues. We could go down the list and name them all. We could take time to talk about denominations, organizations, doctrines, beliefs, customs, and the like. We could draw up a list of one hundred or one thousand divisions, but the heart of the matter is this: have we seen the Lord? If we have seen the Lord then we do not need to see anything else: this revelation of Him is sufficient. And, if we have not seen the Lord, it is a waste of time to try and discuss anything else along the lines of doctrine or teaching.
So the question is: have you seen the Lord? I do not mean in a dream or a vision, but I mean have you seen the Lord because the Father has revealed Him in you? It is possible to pray a prayer, but not see the Lord. It is possible to perform good works, but not see the Lord. It is possible (and quite common) to attend church meetings all your life, but not see the Lord. Two men who claimed to know Jesus walked with Him on the road to Emmaus, but they did not know Who He was until their eyes were opened. Many people are in the same situation. We cannot see Him until the eyes of our heart are opened, and when we are thus illuminated from within, we will see Him, we will know Him.
If you have read the Scriptures you know that many who say, “Lord, Lord” and do mighty things in the name of the Lord are, in fact, not known by Him at all, and will have no part in the Kingdom of God. This ought to bring us to our knees. This ought to cause us to search our hearts. Do we really know the Lord? Have we really seen Him? Has God revealed His Son to us?
When we look at the history of God’s dealings with man we see a pattern emerging, and this pattern is illustrated for us in the Mountain of Transfiguration, an event recorded in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Here is the pattern. First, the Lord sovereignly reveals His glory to us. Then, we try to grasp the Lord with fleshly hands. Finally, the Lord moves on, and we must either move with Him or stay where we are. Let us look at each point more particularly.
HE WAS TRANSFIGURED BEFORE THEM
We are saying that the revelation of Christ is sufficient; that is, if we have seen the Lord Jesus, then nothing else matters, and in time, everything else will take care of itself. But if we do not have the revelation of Christ, if we only have our idea of Who He is, or if our knowledge of Him comes to us from somewhere or someone other than the Father Himself, then it does not matter how much we may read the Bible, attend meetings, or hear people preach. We will be “ever learning, but never coming to the full-knowledge of Truth”. This explains how it is possible for someone to perform many works in the Name of Jesus, and yet the Lord Himself says, “I never knew you.”
The Lord reveals Himself to us in a variety of ways, and every testimony is different. Peter received the revelation of Christ while fishing. But Thomas received the revelation of Christ only after the Lord appeared to Him and showed him His wounds. Paul received the revelation of Christ on the road to Damascus, as he was on his way to kill Christians. One man says Christ was revealed to him as he stood watching a tree in the dead of winter. Christ was revealed to me as I sat in my backyard, arguing with the Lord over the Bible.
What do these experiences have in common? They are spontaneous unveilings of Jesus Christ. Without warning the Lord simply reveals Himself, and whereas we were blind before, today we see. It is like walking out of one room and into another room, closing the door behind us. We are the man born blind in John 9. It is not that he can improve himself, or gradually come to the place where he can see something. He is BORN blind, and he can see nothing but darkness until the Lord, the Light of the world, makes him see. So many blind people hope to improve their seeing through sermons, meetings, and more teachings. But one moment of seeing is worth ten thousand years of learning. It is better to sit at the feet of an ignorant man who has seen the Lord than it is to be instructed by the most educated Bible teacher who is blind to the things of God.
Frequently when I speak along these lines I am asked, “What do I have to do to get this revelation of Christ?” And the answer is there is nothing TO do, and nothing you CAN do. But we are confident in saying that it is the nature of the Father to reveal Himself. The Father longs to reveal the Son to us. The only condition is that we likewise long to see Him, to know Him, as He is. The revelation of Christ is like a single ray of sunlight, without warning, breaking through the thick clouds of this world and knocking you to the ground - inwardly speaking. It may or it may not be an outward thing, and it may or may not be something dramatic. But when we have seen Him, something “clicks” on the inside. We know we have been changed.
It can be likened to the Mountain of Transfiguration. The Lord Jesus took Peter, James and John with Him high onto the mountain to pray. Presumably they were in the habit of doing this, as the Scriptures record several instances of the Lord at prayer. But on this occasion, His appearance was changed, and His glory was revealed to them. It was a sovereign act, an unveiling. There was no warning, no special preparation. Peter, James and John had nothing to do with it. In fact, they were sleeping when it happened. I hope that will reassure those of us who think there is something we have to do in order to get the revelation of Christ. No, it is all of grace. In fact, until we rest from our works and our words, we are unlikely to see the Lord.
Now we have primarily discussed the revealing of Christ to us personally, but there is also a corporate revelation as well. What we receive of the Lord personally ought to be received on behalf of the Body, and not merely for our own personal benefit. Even so, there is an unveiling of the Lord that occasionally occurs when we are gathered together in the Name of the Lord. After all, He says that “where two or three are gathered together in My Name, there I am in the midst of them.” This is the simplest expression of the Church - the called-out assembly. Not two or three thousand, not two or three hundred, not two or three dozen - just two or three, and the Lord is there. We are so concerned for numbers. The real issue is not how many are gathered, but is the Lord with the ones so gathered? I would rather be with two people and have the Lord with us than to be in a crowd of religious people with whom the Lord is not present.
It is in this corporate revelation of Christ that we find a danger, and Peter expresses it nicely when the first words out of his mouth are…
“IT IS GOOD FOR US”
Here is a point that needs to be made. When the Father is pleased to reveal His Son to us, it is for His glory, not ours. So often we seek spiritual things because we desire a name, or power, or glory for ourselves. This is not permitted in the Kingdom where Christ is All in All. What we see of the Lord is for His glory, and not our own.
But just observe how quickly the Self comes into the picture. “Master, it is good for us to be here!” Good for us. Good for us. Good for us. We hear this sentiment all the time. “Isn’t it good to be in the house of God today?” “I really enjoyed the message.” “I loved the music.” “What a lovely service.” “I’m so happy I found this little group.” Or, “I didn’t get anything out of that message.” “The music was awful.” “They don’t have anything for my kids.” I, I, I. Me, me, me. Good for us, or not good for us. The music, the preaching, the service, everything is for us, for our needs.
This is why we continually stress that the reason we do not attend or sponsor meetings with any regularity is simply because the Lord’s Need is often not met in these meetings. Self permeates so much of what we do (or do not do), even in spiritual matters where Self is supposed to be denied. Peter is a man full of himself. So his reaction to the glory of the Lord is, “It is good for us! Let us build for You…” This is how many works, denominations and ministries are begun. The Lord sovereignly reveals something of His glory to a handful of people, and they begin to build something - a church, a movement, a denomination - in order to contain that glory. Or, the Lord visits His people in a particular meeting or setting. It is good for us: so we decide to meet again the next week in hopes that we can experience more of the same. And so on. We believe if only we can find the right combination of music, or teaching, or worship, or people, then it will be “good for us” every time we meet. Soon, however, the Life is gone and the glory is departed, but the meetings continue!
“I will build My Church,” Jesus says. That is Life. “Let us build for You,” Peter says. That is Death. To see if a thing is living or dead we need only trace its source. Not only is “let us build” wrong, but “let us build FOR YOU” is equally wrong. Each is motivated by the same thing: “It is good for us.”
What Peter did not realize, and what we, too, fail to perceive, is that the glory is in Christ, and not in a method, a meeting, or a movement: and it is for Him, and not for us. How quickly “It is good for us…” turns into “Let us build for You…” How subtle our flesh is! How often in the name of “fellowship” have we have built something “for” the Lord Jesus that really serves our own agenda?
“LISTEN TO HIM”
Scripture records that Peter did not know what he was saying, even while he was offering to build something for Jesus. Jesus gave him no reply. Instead, a cloud enveloped them, and a voice spoke: “This is My beloved Son. Listen to Him!”
The Father is continually pointing us to the Son as All in All. He is working all things together towards the fulfillment of His Purpose, which is for Christ to have the preeminence in all things. So it is at this point that the Lord Jesus begins to descend into the valley, and the disciples must decide if they will stay on the mountain or follow Him down. The mountain is full of light, power, and glory. But the valley is full of darkness and demons. “It is good for US to be HERE, Lord! Let us build something for You!”
How many tabernacles on the mountaintop have been made in the Name of Jesus - when Jesus has long ago descended into the valley? How many people and places claim the presence and glory of God, when the glory has long ago departed? I can think of several instances in which the Lord genuinely moved in a group, church, or meeting long ago, and now that group, church, or meeting has built an entire movement around the experience. What began in the Spirit is now perpetuated by the flesh, and “it is good for us”. It is a shame that some people cannot realize that there is no presence, or glory, or power, or anything apart from the Lord Jesus. We can claim to have the presence, the glory, and the power, but if we do not have the Lord Himself, then these things are only spiritual counterfeits.
Jesus multiplied the loaves and the fish, and the crowd thought, “It is good for us to be here!” But Jesus left during the night and crossed the lake. The people woke up the next morning to find Him gone, and crossed the lake in a desperate attempt to locate Him. But when they found Jesus, He said, in essence, “You are only following Me because I filled your stomachs with food.” It is important to make this distinction, because I am afraid that if something is deemed “good for us” then we will begin to follow IT and miss the Lord. John records this episode in order to signify that the real miracle is not that the Lord gave them bread to eat, but that the Lord gives Himself to us as Living Bread. Which would you rather have, a full stomach, or eternal life? The presence of God, or God Himself? The glory of God, or God Himself? Do we want salvation, or a Savior? Do we want a healing, or a Great Physician? Do we want what the Lord can give us, or Who the Lord is?
Christians seek many spiritual things: anointing, power, gifts, blessing, fruit, wisdom, prosperity. I pray the Lord will make us thoroughly and completely dissatisfied with THINGS, even the things He gives us, and make us hungry and thirsty for Himself. May we judge things not by whether they are “good for us”, but whether they are good for the Lord, whether His Will is done in them, whether His Need is met by them, whether His Purpose is fulfilled in them, whether His Son is seen through them. He is the Only One, the Beloved Son of God. May the Lord be transfigured before us! Amen.

Shifting from Religion to the Kingdom of God

Shifting from Religion to the Kingdom of God
By Timothy Johns www.rocktribe.org


Facilitating a Paradigm Shift from Religion to the Kingdom of God

Helping God's people transition from the Christian religion to a dynamic relationship with Jesus Christ - advancing His kingdom 24/7 as a lifestyle in every area of life.

Helping people change the way they view and experience reality is no easy task. Some call it a "paradigm shift". Thousands of stories describe just how difficult it is to get a large segment of the population to see and do things differently. One story concerns the Swiss watch industry. Not long ago, the Swiss led the world in making the finest watches. These watches were powered by springs, which drove moving gears. Watches were built like this for hundreds of years, and no one expected or desired a change. Thousands of companies and millions of workers had a vested interest in the traditional watch paradigm. Any change was a perceived threat to the old paradigm watchmakers which, in turn, supported its work force. Along came a creative Swiss engineer who designed a completely different kind of watch. It was digital, powered by a small battery with no moving parts. He took his new paradigm watch to the largest Swiss watch companies, and every one of them scoffed at his idea. Finally he decided to attend an international trade show and make his patent available to all bidders. Texas Instruments and Seiko paid relatively small sums for the idea and the rest is history. Because the Swiss refused to see and apply the new paradigm, they lost approximately 80 percent of their market share. Once dominant, they became almost irrelevant.

How about those Wright brothers and their flying machine? Most people thought that no object that heavy could ever fly. The so-called scientific experts were convinced that even if they could make an airplane fly, it would serve no practical purpose. The new paradigm of transporting millions of people by jet-powered airplanes over great distances was inconceivable to 99.999% of the population less than a hundred years ago. And think of wireless phones and internet, two more staggering examples of a paradigm shift in communication.

An even more dramatic paradigm shift is occurring worldwide, one that will cause global transformation. It is the change from the Christian religion into the reality of Christ and His kingdom. Christianity as a religion is declining everywhere, including in the United States. However the Kingdom of God is an ever-expanding reality that will ultimately be the ONLY reality on earth. (see Psalm 2 and Revelation 19-22)

One version of Christianity is a religion invented by people. It is much different from the Kingdom of God, led by Christ the King. Religion is an attempt to reach God and improve our lives now and for eternity by obtaining some state of heaven through human ideas, efforts, and strategies. Religions are designed so that we can remain in power while attempting to get God and others to do what we want, in the way we want it. Religion is a clever enterprise to stay in control, so we can function as our own god. At the same time we try to manipulate the One True God into serving us by using religious language, rituals and sacrifices. But the Kingdom of God is initiated by God, for God's own glory, and involves His will, done His way, by His Spirit, all the time, and in every area of life. He is a living King, who rules another dominion or realm of reality. He has every intention of fully bringing His rule and realm onto Planet Earth through His sons and daughters by His Holy Spirit.

Christianity as a religion is nearly dead in Europe, where only 1-3% of the population identifies themselves as Christian. However the Christian religion is being replaced by another more aggressive religion called Islam. What does Europe, America, and the rest of the world need? Do we need more religion, even if it's the Christian religion? Absolutely not! The earth needs the Lordship of Christ, His powerful, compassionate kingly rule over all of life... a paradigm shift from religion into the Kingdom of God. We need the Reclaiming Of Christ's Kingdom all over the world. That is why we named our international spiritual family, "The R.O.C.K.". It reminds us of the centrality and supremacy of Christ, and our only mandate - to advance Christ's kingdom in every area of life.

Here are a few of the changes that will occur in order to produce this kingdom "paradigm shift":

1. From a secular humanistic people-centered worldview, to a God-centered biblical Kingdom worldview.

2. From emphasizing the clergy or priest as the primary minister, to the priesthood of all believers.

3. From religious activities in a church building, to practicing faith everywhere.

4. From practicing religion in church services, meetings, programs and events, to constantly exchanging the life of Christ to everyone, all the time, anywhere.

5. From restricting our spiritual lives, to a certain day and time to "being and doing" church all the time.

6. From a religious institution, to a spiritual family that connects deeply with one another.

7. From unifying around doctrine and church policy, to unity around the Person of Christ, core values, kingdom vision, and covenant relationships.

8. From a transactional leadership model, to a transformational leadership model.

9. From an institutional model - organizing based on political power, position and pay, to organic relational servant leadership - everyone submits to Christ in one another.

10. From compartmentalizing faith so that it affects only certain areas of life, to integrating Christ's will and ways into every dimension of life - body, soul, spirit, finances, sexuality, relationships, time, work, play, etc.

11. From emphasizing church work as the main way to serve God, to advancing Christ's kingdom everywhere, all the time, in all arenas of life. This includes marriage, family, community, friendships, work, media, arts, education, social services, and civil government.

Janet and I have committed our lives to training and modeling this paradigm shift from Christianity as a religion, to Christ and the Kingdom. It has been a long and hard journey for us personally. We have had our own religious baggage to deal with, let alone helping others to change. However we are enjoying sweet victories. A viable Kingdom family has been forming in the inner city of Kansas City, which has impacted the neighborhood, even helping to reduce crime. We practice being and doing the church as a lifestyle. From small ways (like raising chickens and planting gardens together), to more dramatic ways (like planting small covenant families - house churches), we are trying to be part of this global Kingdom revolution. Our international family is growing in size and depth as we help others move out of religion, and into Christ and His kingdom.