Archive for August 2010
Transition is coming but the church is breech
THE CHURCH IS BREECH
If you have been following the ministry recently you know that I’m zeroed in on a critical issue—an issue, in my opinion, that can result in the further fracture of the church, or in a powerful reformation that will shock the world.
Sunday at our Revival Church staff meeting, there was a strong prophetic word that must be given attention.
The message was that the church is in a time of massive transition, much like you’d find in a delivery room. When the mother is transitioning into the process of birth the room is filled with chaos and even confusion for the untrained, nervous or unprepared.
We are seeing this same chaos and confusion in the church today. People are scattering, searching for traction, for fresh new life that they sense is near.
Then, the person who gave the message declared, “The church is breech! The church is breech!”
Of course, a breech delivery is a cause for serious concern. The chance of death to the coming baby is much greater than in a normal, head first birth.
Immediately, God revealed to me what the word meant. What the meaning of a breech church was.
The confusion, frustration and wounding that’s impacting so many Christians is resulting in an intentional divorce from pastors and leaders. It’s a movement that either greatly minimizes or even renounces governmental church leadership.
It’s a feet first movement. The church is breech.
A common cause for a breech delivery is prematurity. Premature babies tend to deliver breech, and we need to consider this for the church. We can’t allow our dissatisfaction and impatience to cause us to move out ahead of leadership.
Many believe this chaotic transition, this reformation in the church is the answer to their frustrations and pains that they experienced in the organized church. They feel it’s a transition out of body life and away from human leaders.
That is a devastating and terribly incorrect analysis.
The coming reformation will in fact highlight God’s established apostolic leaders and will call the church to rally around them in radical unity and advance into the darkness of the world.
Further, there’s an incorrect mindset that every Believer is identical. That we all have equal giftings and equal authority in every situation. Usually this idea is embraced as a defense measure after feeling slighted by Christian leaders. I understand the pain that this can bring, but the answer isn’t to artificially level the playing field. God loves us all passionately, but he does flow through us differently. Our abilities and responsibilities vary.
Those with a gift of healing have a greater grace to heal people. People with the gift of helps can function in that role much more easily and efficiently than others. If someone has an ordination from God into a prophetic office, he or she will be receiving information that most others won’t. Apostles have breakthrough ability that’s unique to that office.
As we embrace true biblical order, and understand that we can’t cut off the heads (small ‘h’ vs. the capitol ‘H’ reserved for God alone—God is the Head and he establishes heads of ministries) of God’s ordained leaders simply because they have disappointed us.
Man will always disappoint, but it’s God’s wisdom that has resulted in the establishment of significant responsibilities, anointings and missions through them. It’s always been this way, cover to cover in Scripture. God raises up men and women to lead. We can’t avoid it.
So, it’s time to gather together in love, passion and mission as God readies a massive advance of God’s government that lies just on the other side of our current birthing room season of transition.
You are NOT the church : The scattering movement : What about church online?
THE SCATTERING MOVEMENT
To say that I’m concerned would be a gross understatement. There is a scattering movement in the nation that’s causing deep harm to the mission of the church. This scattering of believers is so widespread that we are seeing theologies and philosophies emerging that support the idea that it’s actually healthy to disband and withdraw. It becoming common to hear people say things like, “The church isn’t a building,” or, “I am the church, so I don’t have to go ‘to church’.” The idea is that people have become so wounded or dissatisfied with their experience in the church that they have decided that it’s not only better but actually biblically acceptable to minimize participation in an organized church setting. This mindset is threatening the corporate mission to a terrifying degree.YOU ARE NOT THE CHURCH
If we understand the meaning of the word ‘church’ we could never presume that we alone are the church. That idea is contrary to the origin of the word (ekklesia, meaning “assembly”). In fact, that word has secular origins. It literally means an assembly of people who have been called together by an authority in the city or region. Wow! That sheds a lot of light on what the church is. The church is an assembly of people organized under defined governmental leadership. It’s a regular gathering of people who are deeply agreed and in pursuit of mission advance under God’s apostles, prophets and other governmental leaders. Further, the pure definition of the word reveals that it isn’t used as easily in the context of the global company of believers as it is in the regional and local gathering of believers. The definition reveals that it’s a well defined local group vs. a loosely defined larger group of people (who mostly don’t know each other at all). We can’t be a part of the church if we aren’t gathered together with other parts of the church. Church is corporate. Additionally, the church is a group of people who assemble, fellowship, pray and respond together to apostolic teaching. That can’t happen in a more nebulous global context. The church has inherent in it’s core call the expectation of assembly and a corporate response so as to ensure the local mission is fulfilled. Again, a fulfilled mission can’t be realized without this type of intentional and faithful participation at a local level where communication and commonality are clearly defined.WHAT ABOUT HAVING CHURCH ONLINE?
I agree that there is much to enjoy and gain from this amazing technological world. We can watch church services online (I was watching one myself just tonight), listen to worship, meet Christians in forums and on Facebook, pray for one another and involve ourselves in Kingdom business in very unique ways. However, if this is the limit of one’s involvement, there are some key issues to be considered:- DEVOID OF APOSTOLIC LEADERSHIP—There is most probably (there are exceptions) no clearly defined apostolic leadership involved. We have to know who we’re called to serve with. We have to all hear, together, in our local congregation, how we are to respond in mission advance. What’s God calling our leaders to focus on? How are we to participate? What are the goals? What steps must we take to prepare ourselves to see this come to pass?
- LACK OF STRATEGIC CORPORATE INTERCESSION—While not impossible, it’s very hard to involve ourselves in the number one purpose of the church this way—corporate intercession. We just have to be together to pray with unity and consistency if we are to have the sufficient strength to see significant impact.
- NO ACCOUNTABILITY—Accountability and discipline are nearly non-existent outside of the context of the local church. Most who flock from the church and into alternative spiritual activities do so to avoid conflict, accountability and correction from leadership. We have to understand that this is a critical part of the refining process. We must be receptive and humble and ready to be challenged—even if the leaders God established for us are exceptionally flawed and out of touch with our needs.
- PROMOTES MISUNDERSTANDING OF THE PURPOSE OF THE CHURCH—It can quite easily reinforce a wrong understanding of the purpose of the church. I would say this is the most serious issue. The prevailing thought these days is that the church is there for us. Whatever needs we have, we can get many of them met in the church. So, we attend if we are ministered to. Or, we may determine that we can get what we’re looking for without regular church attendance. So, the church becomes unnecessary to us. Friend, this concept is a defilement of the church. I can’t say it any less striking than that. We are called to gather together with other believers primarily to intercede for the nations. We are there to give, to leave offerings, to serve, to minister, to pray, to grow. The church isn’t primarily there for us, we are to be there for the mission of the church. We may say that we don’t need the church but have we considered that the church needs us?
The best sermon I’ve ever heard : New teaching and notes
First—Friday I taught at New Wineskins Ministry on “Becoming Unoffendable,” and my son Skylar ran up to me when I was done and said, “Dad, that was the best sermon I’ve ever heard!” And, get this, it was nearly two hours long!
Go to www.detroitrevivalchurch.com/teaching and search for “Unoffendable” and listen to that sermon. I regularly hear that it’s one of the most powerful messages people have ever heard.
Also, I strongly urge you to listen to Sundays teaching on the Prophetic Mandate for the Church. I’ll include those notes below. It’s also found at www.detroitrevivalchurch.com/teaching and as of today it’s the most recent message (should be right on top).
I discuss four key messages that we’re mandated to run with including the pandemic of ‘false assurance of salvation’.
Here’s the notes. (The first segment is from last week’s sermon and this week’s picks up at “The Terror of Hell”):
Some Key Prophetic Mandates for the Church
1. Introduction
a. We’ve been given a clear mandate at Revival Church to help introduce revival to Detroit.
i. This means the way things are now must morph into something very different.
ii. The most successful way to ensure the coming outpouring remains for decades is to introduce reformation before it arrives.
iii. It’s the upper room strategy—respond to an extreme lifestyle call and carry it out forever.
iv. Do you ever get frustrated when a new road is under construction forever?
1. This situation is just like a road under construction—hundreds of thousands will benefit from it. But, it’s still being built. We are not those who are frustrated, we are the ones with the hard hats and gloves on. We are the workers!
2. The fact that it’s a long term project doesn’t frustrate us because we understand the scope of the project. We know it takes a long time to pull together a work force, to survey the area, to bring in the bull dozers, to dig, to lay asphalt… for it to harden, and on and on.
3. We need the work force to simply show up for work every day.
4. Greek: technites- an architect, one who plans, calculates and constructs a building
5. Have you ever gotten frustrated watching construction workers just standing there by the side of the road doing nothing while you are backed up in traffic?
b. Hebrews 11:8-10 (ESV) 8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.
1. The process of building is critical
2. This passage is true for individuals, and it’s also true for mission driven churches.
3. Luke 6:46-49 (ESV) 46 “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? 47 Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: 48 he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. 49 But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.”
4. Now, the enemy understands what a unified group of people who are determined to build can do.
5. In fact, he borrowed this Godly strategy himself and was on pace to do great things for his kingdom.
6. Just as the Holy Spirit is calling us together to build, an unholy spirit was orchestrating things behind the scenes here.
c. Genesis 11:1-8 (ESV) 1 Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. 2 And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3 And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” 5 And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. 6 And the LORD said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.” 8 So the LORD dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.
1. We are seeing the enemy do to the church what God did to his mission—people are being scattered.
2. So, our goal, and God’s goal is for us to put on the hard hats, pick up the shovels and have one language.
- Rom 8:31 What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?
i. If we agree, if we align ourselves together in the purpose of God for Detroit- who can stop us? Who can be against us?
ii. Every noble work is at first impossible. Thomas Carlyle
1. On the contrary, if we are not aligned, we cannot win- we need each other, in a place of agreement, in a place of health and maturity and fully devoted to taking city for Jesus!
2. I challenge you—take inventory of your alliances. Who and what you are aligned with will determine your destiny.
3. Agreement is a powerful force.
ii. Matthew 18:18-20 (ESV) 18 Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 19 Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”
1. This is usually used when talking about prayer—but this is really talking about mission.
2. Do you see the focus is on being together and warring against the enemy and moving ahead in agreement?
iii. You know the old saying, "United We Stand, Divided We Fall." This saying is applicable within the church too. In the battle for Stalingrad during World War II the Russian commanders ordered their soldiers not to give up any more ground. Any soldier who fled from the Germans was shot on the spot. The Russian commanders knew that if even a couple of soldiers fled their post the Germans would have an opening through which they could pour into the city. Likewise, when the church is divided, Satan finds it so much easier to attack and to conquer.
1. We have to know that we are aligned, agreed, together and committed as builders, workers and warriors.
iv. Tonto and the Lone Ranger were riding through a canyon together when all of a sudden both sides were filled with Native American warriors on horses, dressed for battle. The Lone Ranger turned to Tonto and asked, "What are we going to do?" Tonto replied, "What you mean ‘we,' Whiteman?"
v. 1 Cor 1:10 I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.
1. In a Peanuts cartoon Lucy demanded that Linus change TV channels, threatening him with her fist if he didn't. "What makes you think you can walk right in here and take over?" asks Linus. "These five fingers," says Lucy. "Individually they're nothing but when I curl them together like this into a single unit, they form a weapon that is terrible to behold." "Which channel do you want?" asks Linus. Turning away, he looks at his fingers and says, "Why can't you guys get organized like that?"
2. So, what must we be agreed on?
2. The Terror of Hell
a. Intimacy
b. Salvation
a. Many in the church will be surprised one day, just as you were surprised in the dream, to find themselves under the control of demons as they are taken to hell.
a. Proverbs 14:11-14 (ESV) 11 The house of the wicked will be destroyed, but the tent of the upright will flourish. 12 There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death. 13 Even in laughter the heart may ache, and the end of joy may be grief. 14 The backslider in heart will be filled with the fruit of his ways, and a good man will be filled with the fruit of his ways.
b. Matthew 7:21-23 (ESV) 21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
b. This message is probably the number one mandate from God for me.
a. It’s all about two things:
i. Intimacy- seeking, knocking and finding Jesus, hunger, desire
ii. Lawlessness- in control of ones own life, not surrendered, not responsive, following Jesus on one’s own terms like the Rich Young Ruler.
1. There’s an anti-authority, anti-submission, scattering spirit in the church today, and it’s exceedingly dangerous!
2. 2 Peter 2:9-10 (ESV) 9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, 10 and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority.
c. House of prayer movement
a. The house of prayer is not a splinter movement, it is a call to calibration for the entire church.
b. Luann Zettle- "..a house of Prayer for all Nations..yep, totally agree with you John. Biblically this is so clear. And there are SO many I know that do see it that way. But, I think the biggest problem is that we don't know how to get there from here. The current church structure just seems to throw prayer in as an "add-on" or an additional ministry/program or that 10 minute exercise we do in the morning as opposed to the driving furnace of the Church, through which all other church Life flows. And i agree. IHOP,KC looks a lot more like Church than most anything else I've seen. "
3. Reformation in the Church
a. 20 Elements of Revival
b. Ancient and emerging
c. Dangerous scattering in the church
d. Cares of life
e. Misunderstanding of the purpose of the church
i. A wrong understanding of why we go to church will immediately result in a faulty understanding of how to participate.
ii. Many are saying that they don’t need the church anymore, or they only need the church a few times a month. This is an indicator of a wrong understanding of what the church is.
iii. Have we ever considered whether the church needs us?
iv. Can you imagine the USA military being strong if the soldiers only reported one day a week? No way! America would have been defeated and held captive long ago—and this is what has happened to the church.
v. Old paradigm- God first, family second, ministry third
vi. New paradign- all of it happening in the same places at the same time
1. We’ve come to believe that our families are healthier as we sit in front of the TV together instead of in the prayer room.
2. We might have a measure of personal health as we participate at a low level, but it comes at the expense of the church.
f. Some are saying that the Kingdom must advance out of the four walls of the church and into society. I agree! But, this can only happen if we are strategy minded and mission oriented in a place of burning prayer within the four walls of the upper room.
4. Encountering God
a. Making it easy for people to thoroughly enjoy God
b. We want people to know God, not just know about God.
c. 2 Chronicles 7:1-3 (ESV) 1 As soon as Solomon finished his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple. 2 And the priests could not enter the house of the LORD, because the glory of the LORD filled the LORD’s house. 3 When all the people of Israel saw the fire come down and the glory of the LORD on the temple, they bowed down with their faces to the ground on the pavement and worshiped and gave thanks to the LORD, saying, “For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.”
5. Prophetic Atmosphere
a. A command center for the region.
b. Manitou Springs—a revival command center for the nations.
Prophetic Mandate
First—I thought you’d enjoy notes from our Revival Church staff meeting. I charted Elements 1-10 from my book 20 Elements of Revival. You can see the PDF here: www.detroitrevivalchurch.com/files/20ElementsofRevivalChart1-10.pdf
Yesterday’s teaching on the Prophetic Mandate is ready to listen to at www.detroitrevivalchurch.com/teaching.
If we are looking to lead a generation of fire-breathers, we simply have to go deeper, burn hotter and give more then the wild radicals that are multiplying on the face of the Earth.
Here’s the notes:
1. Introduction
a. We’ve been given a clear mandate at Revival Church to help introduce revival to Detroit.
i. This means the way things are now must morph into something very different.
ii. The most successful way to ensure the coming outpouring remains for decades is to introduce reformation before it arrives.
iii. It’s the upper room strategy—respond to an extreme lifestyle call and carry it out forever.
iv. Do you ever get frustrated when a new road is under construction forever?
1. This situation is just like a road under construction—hundreds of thousands will benefit from it. But, it’s still being built. We are not those who are frustrated, we are the ones with the hard hats and gloves on. We are the workers!
2. The fact that it’s a long term project doesn’t frustrate us because we understand the scope of the project. We know it takes a long time to pull together a work force, to survey the area, to bring in the bull dozers, to dig, to lay asphalt… for it to harden, and on and on.
3. We need the work force to simply show up for work every day.
4. Greek: technites- an architect, one who plans, calculates and constructs a building
5. Have you ever gotten frustrated watching construction workers just standing there by the side of the road doing nothing while you are backed up in traffic?
b. Hebrews 11:8-10 (ESV) 8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.
1. The process of building is critical
2. This passage is true for individuals, and it’s also true for mission driven churches.
3. Luke 6:46-49 (ESV) 46 “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? 47 Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: 48 he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. 49 But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.”
4. Now, the enemy understands what a unified group of people who are determined to build can do.
5. In fact, he borrowed this Godly strategy himself and was on pace to do great things for his kingdom.
6. Just as the Holy Spirit is calling us together to build, an unholy spirit was orchestrating things behind the scenes here.
c. Genesis 11:1-8 (ESV) 1 Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. 2 And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3 And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” 5 And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. 6 And the LORD said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.” 8 So the LORD dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.
1. We are seeing the enemy do to the church what God did to his mission—people are being scattered.
2. So, our goal, and God’s goal is for us to put on the hard hats, pick up the shovels and have one language.
- Rom 8:31 What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?
i. If we agree, if we align ourselves together in the purpose of God for Detroit- who can stop us? Who can be against us?
ii. Every noble work is at first impossible. Thomas Carlyle
1. On the contrary, if we are not aligned, we cannot win- we need each other, in a place of agreement, in a place of health and maturity and fully devoted to taking city for Jesus!
2. I challenge you—take inventory of your alliances. Who and what you are aligned with will determine your destiny.
3. Agreement is a powerful force.
ii. Matthew 18:18-20 (ESV) 18 Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 19 Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”
1. This is usually used when talking about prayer—but this is really talking about mission.
2. Do you see the focus is on being together and warring against the enemy and moving ahead in agreement?
iii. You know the old saying, "United We Stand, Divided We Fall." This saying is applicable within the church too. In the battle for Stalingrad during World War II the Russian commanders ordered their soldiers not to give up any more ground. Any soldier who fled from the Germans was shot on the spot. The Russian commanders knew that if even a couple of soldiers fled their post the Germans would have an opening through which they could pour into the city. Likewise, when the church is divided, Satan finds it so much easier to attack and to conquer.
1. We have to know that we are aligned, agreed, together and committed as builders, workers and warriors.
iv. Tonto and the Lone Ranger were riding through a canyon together when all of a sudden both sides were filled with Native American warriors on horses, dressed for battle. The Lone Ranger turned to Tonto and asked, "What are we going to do?" Tonto replied, "What you mean ‘we,' Whiteman?"
v. 1 Cor 1:10 I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.
1. In a Peanuts cartoon Lucy demanded that Linus change TV channels, threatening him with her fist if he didn't. "What makes you think you can walk right in here and take over?" asks Linus. "These five fingers," says Lucy. "Individually they're nothing but when I curl them together like this into a single unit, they form a weapon that is terrible to behold." "Which channel do you want?" asks Linus. Turning away, he looks at his fingers and says, "Why can't you guys get organized like that?"
2. So, what must we be agreed on?
2. The Terror of Hell
a. Intimacy
b. Salvation
a. Many in the church will be surprised one day, just as you were surprised in the dream, to find themselves under the control of demons as they are taken to hell.
a. Proverbs 14:11-14 (ESV) 11 The house of the wicked will be destroyed, but the tent of the upright will flourish. 12 There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death. 13 Even in laughter the heart may ache, and the end of joy may be grief. 14 The backslider in heart will be filled with the fruit of his ways, and a good man will be filled with the fruit of his ways.
b. Matthew 7:21-23 (ESV) 21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
b. This message is probably the number one mandate from God for me.
a. It’s all about two things:
i. Intimacy- seeking, knocking and finding Jesus, hunger, desire
ii. Lawlessness- in control of ones own life, not surrendered, not responsive, following Jesus on one’s own terms like the Rich Young Ruler.
1. There’s an anti-authority, anti-submission, scattering spirit in the church today, and it’s exceedingly dangerous!
2. 2 Peter 2:9-10 (ESV) 9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, 10 and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority.
iii.
c. House of prayer movement
a. The house of prayer is not a splinter movement, it is a call to calibration for the entire church.
b. Luann Zettle- "..a house of Prayer for all Nations..yep, totally agree with you John. Biblically this is so clear. And there are SO many I know that do see it that way. But, I think the biggest problem is that we don't know how to get there from here. The current church structure just seems to throw prayer in as an "add-on" or an additional ministry/program or that 10 minute exercise we do in the morning as opposed to the driving furnace of the Church, through which all other church Life flows. And i agree. IHOP,KC looks a lot more like Church than most anything else I've seen. "
3. Reformation in the Church
a. 20 Elements of Revival
b. Ancient and emerging
c. Dangerous scattering in the church
d. Cares of life
e. Misunderstanding of the purpose of the church
i. A wrong understanding of why we go to church will immediately result in a faulty understanding of how to participate.
ii. Many are saying that they don’t need the church anymore, or they only need the church a few times a month. This is an indicator of a wrong understanding of what the church is.
iii. Have we ever considered whether the church needs us?
iv. Can you imagine the USA military being strong if the soldiers only reported one day a week? No way! America would have been defeated and held captive long ago—and this is what has happened to the church.
v. Old paradigm- God first, family second, ministry third
vi. New paradign- all of it happening in the same places at the same time
1. We’ve come to believe that our families are healthier as we sit in front of the TV together instead of in the prayer room.
2. We might have a measure of personal health as we participate at a low level, but it comes at the expense of the church.
f. Some are saying that the Kingdom must advance out of the four walls of the church and into society. I agree! But, this can only happen if we are strategy minded and mission oriented in a place of burning prayer within the four walls of the upper room.
4. Encountering God
a. Making it easy for people to thoroughly enjoy God
b. We want people to know God, not just know about God.
c. 2 Chronicles 7:1-3 (ESV) 1 As soon as Solomon finished his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple. 2 And the priests could not enter the house of the LORD, because the glory of the LORD filled the LORD’s house. 3 When all the people of Israel saw the fire come down and the glory of the LORD on the temple, they bowed down with their faces to the ground on the pavement and worshiped and gave thanks to the LORD, saying, “For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.”
5. Prophetic Atmosphere
a. A command center for the region.
b. Manitou Springs—a revival command center for the nations.