CHANGING CHURCH - CHANGING EARTH

Changing Church - Changing Earth
by Greg Austin www.gregaustin.org

(The following was written ten years ago, in 1998. Reading it again today caused me to edit a few lines, but the text is largely the same as when I first wrote, and is more applicable today than it was a decade ago. GJA)
 
In this critical hour in earth's history, the Holy Spirit of God is leading those "who have an ear" into a new dimension of revelation and glory. Any return to the status quo, business-as-usual, traditional church experience will only frustrate the full desire of the Spirit of God.
 
I'm convinced that God is raising up a NEW VOICE, a NEW FACE and a NEW HEART in the earth. On a recent flight I read an article that reported that in Great Britain less than 2% of the population claims to attend church at all. Something is gravely wrong when the land that felt the footsteps of Spurgeon, Whitefield, Wesley, Wigglesworth and so many others has deteriorated into the state it currently languishes in.
 
In America, the times of Jonathon Edwards have become merely historic; indeed few Christians today can even recall the story of a Great Awakening that once shook the very foundations of the nation. The echo of Azusa Street has faded into oblivion even as Street by that name was turned into a narrow alleyway. Aimee Semple McPherson, John G. Lake, Oral Roberts, Billy Graham all shook the land, but their efforts are now represented by so little.
 
Those who are seeking to plumb the depths of God's Spirit and His well of wisdom must look beyond former personalities and movements for direction and understanding. What God is doing is BEYOND. God told Daniel to "seal up the prophecy" because it would require a future generation to understand. There is a new generation that has risen with understanding, and those who will hear "what the Spirit says to the churches" must listen intently.
 
As I watched the faces of young leaders at a staff meeting in a world-renowned church recently my heart ached to just get up and shout to them,
 
"You can change your nation! Get up! Get full of God! Get His Power and His Resource and His Word and His Wisdom and His Enablement and storm the nations with His love and grace and mercy!!!!!!!!!!"
 
I love the men and women God raised up in former generations. God uniquely used them in their own times, but God is not mired in the past and He is not satisfied with what has been.
 
The previous generation of leaders knew and experienced God within the dimension of their own understanding. It was an understanding that we now recognize as part of an “Old Wineskin” of revelation, manifestation and tradition. And God continues to use these men and women and their understandings of Christian ministry in this hour. And so, as I write this, my mind presents to me a mental image of a bridge. Could it be that God desires – intends – to use this former generation to provide strength and stability for a new generation and a New Wineskin, while developing this entirely new generation and new concept of changing the earth through God’s glory?
 
I believe something significant is contained in the Darlene Zschech song, "Touching Heaven, Changing Earth." Greater concern on "touching heaven" will produce a changed earth. The focus has been on doing "things:" Developing programs and producing strategies has caused the church to focus on the "doing." Growing churches, gaining numbers and increasing budgets began to replace growing in Christ and gaining spiritual knowledge by the Spirit. Maintaining inherited ministries, and “doing” the work of the ministry provided a playground for our spiritual enemy as hell initiated the subtle shift in focus from “being” to “doing.” And while we were “doing” we lost sight of the “touching heaven” aspect of our faith. What we called “church” became an organization, a machine and an institution; it devolved into a corporation and ceased to be the corporate Body Jesus left in the care of eleven men two thousand years ago.
 
God is looking for those who will concentrate on "being." If our concerns should turn from the next ministry emphasis to an emphasis on heaven, on worshipping, loving, and hearing God, and on building deep, spiritual relationships with others in the Body of Christ, the resulting transformations in our own lives would have a powerful impact on the earth!
 
We've got to touch heaven! We've got to become more connected with heaven than we are connected with a denomination or church or a religious system that promises water and produces sand! Until our supreme connection is with heaven, all our best attempts to change our world will fall flat and we will find ourselves in jeopardy of spiritual mutiny.
 
This is where the heart of ministry will derive in the coming days – from men and women who have sought the face of God and who have found relationship with one another until the very essence of Jesus may be seen by the world.
 
This emergent church cannot be as churches have been, or we will no longer have a reason to exist. My heart cries to a young, eager and zealous generation: Let God lead you into the deep; into uncharted waters, and into latitudes no one ever has explored.
 
Make no mistake: This is FLESH and BLOOD and not ORGANIZATION and BUILDINGS and GROWTH CHARTS and sanctimonious SCORE CARDS.
 
God is building something far more substantive than an organization or a building. He's building His church. That church has little or nothing to do with buildings, budgets and Big Name personalities. Observing the machinery of yesterday’s church may be instructional, but what we need in this hour is relational. Please, turn your heart and your ear from the former things and the former ways – Refuse to imitate yesterday's anointing and discover fresh oil for today.
 
Do not remember the former things, Nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness And rivers in the desert. The beast of the field will honor Me, The jackals and the ostriches, Because I give waters in the wilderness And rivers in the desert, To give drink to My people, My chosen. This people I have formed for Myself; They shall declare My praise. (Isaiah 43:18-21)