Let's Resurrect the Church
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CHAPTER THREE – HOW TO PREPARE FOR YOUR OWN CHURCH
Let’s go back to the beginning BEFORE you actively start to plan your own church or any other evangelistic project. Although I want you to enjoy your Christian journey with as much flexibility as possible, I recommend you construct a progressive order and time frame for your progress (Berlinger, 103-106). For example, treat the first three years of your Christian journey as being a learner driver. In Australia, before you can get your open license, you have to start as a learner which means you have to display ‘L’ plates on your vehicle, and always have a fully licensed driver sitting next to you. Right from the beginning make sure you ask God in your prayers to bless you with the spiritual gifts especially the gift of prophecy.133 This is exactly what the Apostle Paul urges us to do, therefore it is biblically sound (1 Cor 14:1).
Then, if you are staying close enough to Christ,134 God will prompt you, over the course of several years, via the Holy Spirit as to what He wants you to do. Then at least get some basic theological qualifications. I recommend not starting your own church until you have at least ten years of experience as a devoted Christian. According to John Piper, one of the important marks of a spiritual leader is that he “… can put himself in the place of a variety of learners and therefore explain hard things in terms that are clear from their standpoint … is concrete, not abstract, specific, not general, precise, not vague, vulnerable, not evasive …” (Piper, The Marks of a Spiritual Leader).
Joyce Meyer says "… and I will be honest with you. I am not going to make any bones about it. It probably took maybe eight or nine years for me to realize all the different things the enemy used to steal my joy. And to keep praying through it and studying, and working through it and working through the emotions of it until I can pretty much say right now that 99 percent of the time I enjoy my life …" (Sermon titled "It is Time to Unpack Your Baggage"). Kimberly Long says that "… Those who are entrusted with leading worship must do deep spiritual work in order to be equipped …" (Long, 36). Please believe me that these ‘marks’ of spiritual leadership take at least a decade to master, because you have to go through many situations in many different ways, and go through thousands of different encounters with people before you have mastered them.135
And, despite the mountains of study I have done in the first nine years of my Christian journey, it took me into the ninth year to be able to break down the doctrines of ‘The Kingdom of God’,136 such as ‘Righteousness’ into simple language I believe a stranger in the street could understand. Yet, this should have been taught to me at some time during the five years I attended churches. TAS puts righteousness as the most important theological doctrine, and says the whole book of Romans “… is really gathered into that idea of God requiring righteousness, of man being unable to provide Him with it, and Jesus Christ stepping into the breach and satisfying God in this matter on man’s behalf ...”137 And Romans 14:17 says: “… The kingdom of Heaven is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit …”
So, why isn’t this doctrine a high priority in churches? I think the current generation of Christians were not taught by passionate Spirit-filled Christians. But, as far as I am concerned, that era must be buried NOW. We are out of excuses, especially considering the volumes of wonderful teaching material now available on the Internet and other electronic media. In my first book HTBAC I said that new Christians only need to know the basics of righteousness because the total width, breadth and depth of righteousness is complex and complicated.138 The Apostle Paul wrote about six chapters on righteousness and faith in the book of Romans.139 The Apostle Peter said that some things Paul wrote are “hard to understand” (2 Pet 3:15-16 NIV), and TAS says "… words with us have become so common as to be robbed of a great deal of their strength …" (TAS, His Great Love, 15-16).
Therefore, I believe the main reason churches do not teach righteousness as a priority is because the majority of Christian leaders themselves do not understand anything other than the basics. I know, I know, a lot of Christians have great minds and many have degrees in theology. But TAS says "… it is possible to have great acquisitions and qualifications in the academic realm, to be doing big things in that realm, and yet to find that the simple things of the Lord Jesus Christ are to you as a foreign language …" (TAS, The Gospel According to Paul, 87).
But, now that I am beginning to understand some of the deeper parts of righteousness after nine years as a Christian, I realize how important it is to be taught every part of righteousness from the basics, otherwise you cannot get as close to God as you could be. In other words, you cannot see everything from God’s perspective until you get deeper and deeper into your understanding of righteousness (Tumblin, 70-71). According to Campbell-Reed and Scharen "… pastoral imagination not only sees the empirical realities, but also with eyes of faith perceives the presence and work of God, and what a fitting response allows for participating in God. Cultivating a capacity for perception is fundamental to ministry as a spiritual practice …" (p. 125-126; Bell, Learning, Changing, and Doing …, 105). TAS says, "… If only we could grasp the thoughts of God better! There is such a lack of spiritual receptivity. This is because there is a lack of spiritual life; we can only understand the thoughts of God to the degree we walk in them …" (TAS, The Rights of God, 38).
And, may I say, if you stick at righteousness by learning a little bit more every week or two, as I have been doing, it gives you greater joy, just like opening a surprise birthday present. If you don’t get that feeling most of the time, then you are not as close to God as you CAN be and SHOULD be. Even after nine years and thousands of hours of Bible study (Parker 168; Josh 1:8) and Bible study aids, when I come across some little bit of information about God that clicks inside me, I feel excited and sometimes overwhelmed. I think to myself: ‘Wow, now I understand what that bit of the Bible really means’.
As a general rule of thumb I would not start a church prior to thirty years of age. This is based on personal experience and a biblical principle. I became a police cadet at age seventeen and was not very world-wise, but at least by thirty I had been through a few cycles of good and bad times (Goodman). Notice that Jesus had to wait until age thirty to become a High Priest. (TAS, The Spiritual Meaning of Service, 4-5), and "… David was thirty years old when he became king …" (2 Sam 5:4) I understand that Jesus was born and lived under the Old Testament Law, and one of the requirements of that law was that you could only become a High Priest at thirty. I am not saying that locks in ‘thirty’ as a magical number, but if the most important person in eternity, Jesus Christ, had to wait until thirty, I think you can safely use it as a guide or benchmark.
Modern Christianity is so hyped up on having young pastors for no good reason other than following the non-Christian world into this insidious mistake. Mark Driscoll was a very popular young American pastor who had to step down as pastor of the very church he planted back when he was twenty-five. In an interview with Brian Houston in June 2015, among other things, Mark said he should have spent a longer time “… under godly, spiritual authority …”, and said he would not recommend any twenty-five year old doing what he did, because twenty-five is too young.140 (Devil: 1 … Church: 0).
TAS covers it beautifully where he says “… it is in the very nature of true spiritual leadership that the leader has to have in his own being through experience that to which he seeks to lead others. He has gone the way before. He has tasted what he calls others to taste. He is no book leader; what he says to others and urges them toward comes out of his own life at great cost …” (TAS, Leadership, 11, 14-16; TAS, The Rights of God, 22; Goodman). Trebesch "… challenges pastoral leaders to consider their own stories of conversion, growth, and leadership toward assisting them in developing similar types of processes for people in their congregations …"141
Kyle Small cites several pastors in his essay, one of whom said "The seminary … spoke often on the necessity to keep your personal life out of the pulpit. This is hogwash, an
d it doesn't work. Congregations want to know about the passions and trials of the pastor. Life is excitement and it drives us to make things happen. I share my new knowledge and passion with my people …" (Small 65-66). I believe this can be best achieved through servant leadership.
In Chapter Six of this book, titled "Church Governance", I discuss the ‘servant-leader’ model that I believe is the only way for an individual owner / pastor to successfully operate a church (1 Pet 5:1-4).142 Although Rick Gray provides us with a short definition of servant leadership (Gray, 136; Mk 9:35, Jn 13 vide Echols, 121), Thomas Frank, Scott Cormode and Michael Jinkins believe terms such as 'servant leadership' are not defined very well, "… remain vague and subject to the whims of ideological parties or assertive personalities … [and] can mask the realities of power relations in any organization …" (Frank, The Discourse …, 21-23; Frank, From Connection .., 124-128). Karl Vaters also says "… Sadly, too few people in positions of authority know the difference between being a boss or being a leader. Mostly, because we haven’t grasped servanthood …" (12 Ways to Know …)
Cormode says "… the chief responsibilities of the Shepherd are to empower individuals and to design processes not structures. The Shepherd believes that the people define the goals of the organization … and Shepherds emphasize participatory governance …" (Cormode 79-80). Jinkins proposes "… a recovery of the pastor's identity as … a humble guide in the mysteries of God, one who leads among and with and on behalf of the people of God modestly assisting them in becoming theologically conscious of that transcendence which is God's promise and God's threat to all we are …" (Jinkins, 7, 19).
Thankfully, Frank continues on to say that "… many organizations have adopted the lingo [of servant leadership] in order to reinforce values of participation and consensus. But if the leader is only a consensus-builder, argued management scholar Shirley Roels, deferring to the wishes of the group and serving as 'a conduit for the desires of followers,' (Echols, 121) she or he may erode the organization's capacity to gather its resources and address its continually changing environment …" (Frank, The Discourse …, 22).
I agree with Roels that, in essence, a servant leader cannot succeed by being a passive, soppy sentimentalist,143 and Echols says that "… One of the criticisms of servant leadership is that it may underestimate the need for leaders to hold followers accountable …" (Echols, Transformational / Servant Leadership…, 105). It is these types of concerns that I address in my servant leader essay at the end of this book by providing specific ways to put servant leadership into practice, including the fine balancing act of how to use power and authority responsibly (Martin, Mind the Gap …, 1-2; Martin, Dwelling in the DL, 129; Echols, 121; Echols, Transformational / Servant Leadership … 112-113; Bell, Learning, Changing, and Doing …, 99-102).
In his e-mail response to my essay (also at the end of this book), Dr. Hill says "… this is a unique piece of work … your creativity brings this piece alive as a new and distinctive work - a quite difficult task indeed. The ideas you present in this paper are scholarly, theologically rigorous, oriented toward practical ministry, and astute. You make new and interesting connections between old ideas and synthesise those connections into exceptional ideas of your own. You are thinking with great originality. You have put away old cliches and worn-out ideas in favour of fresh new insight …"
As a side note, I believe Frank's comments show that it is almost impossible to successfully introduce servant-style leadership into the mainstream religions. But, in any case, please don’t rush into starting your own church. The most important part of Christianity is to be devoted to learning more and more about God every day, and to get closer to God every single day through prayer, Bible study, reflection,144 worship and praise.145 Isabel Docampo says "… we must enter into this practice of self-critical reflection as a dynamic, spiritual discipline. Since God's Spirit is continually challenging, changing, and maturing us … remaining faithful involves a journey of continual conversion …" (Docampo, 33).146 TAS says “… they (Joshua and the Israelites) lodged before the Jordan three days, before going over it. This is not something to be rushed into; this is not something to be done just as the result of impulse …” (TAS, The Holy Spirit, the Church, and the Nations, 94).
So, God comes first every single day of your life (TAS, The Gospel of the Kingdom, 49-50). Very early on in my Christian journey, in my daily prayers, I would ask God to bless me with the spiritual gift of prophecy. I never asked God specifically to enable me to start a church or write a book, and it never occurred to me to start my own church or write a book. I kept it simple. I recommend you also pray in this manner. God loves it when you completely humble yourself to His will and not try to corner Him to bless you with the ability to start your own church (Alexander, Let Him Who Boasts ….). Then, I think it was around the year 2009, I received a random prompting from the Holy Spirit to write a Christian book. This is how I believe I recognized the prompting. I was saying general prayers and I heard a quiet and clear ‘voice’ in my mind that told me to write my own book.
Yet, I only completed and published my first book as an eBook in the year 2105. I was not going to rush it. And almost daily for the few years leading up to publishing the book, I would ask God in prayer to guide me in every aspect of writing the book. That’s what you have to do: seek God's help continuously. In the year 2012 I believe I received a similar prompting through the Holy Spirit to start my own church. As I write this line in March 2016, I have not yet started my own church. This is simply because I believe I need to do some more study of certain Christian principles such as my example about God’s righteousness above. And that doesn’t worry me, because I believe waiting patiently for God’s prompting is classed as active faith in Christ which will be rewarded by God (Greg Jones, 117; Gal 5:22 AMP). For example, ever since receiving that prompting to start my own church in 2012, I continue to ask God in prayer to prompt me through the Holy Spirit as to how, when and where to start my own church.
I haven’t received another prompting about it since 2012, and I sometimes get impatient about the length of time. God could make you wait for a couple of months, years or even a couple of decades. TAS says "… It is easy to make a big start, with a good deal of noise and activity and high expectations of something big which we think God is going to do, and then to lose heart because of disappointments and delays … what is He doing? He is making a servant; to Him this is more important than the actual service which is being done … His delay, His hiddenness, His seeming indifference, are all the testing means by which He develops true faith in His servants, and works something of His own Spirit into their very constitution. It was easy for Him to send the rain; what was more difficult but infinitely more worthwhile was to enable His servant [Elijah] to go on watching and praying for the full seven times, never despairing, never doubting, never giving up …" (TAS, Faith's Persistency). So I say; always continue to study the concept of patience and pray to God asking Him to help you remain patient. It is extremely hard to be patient if you are passionate about something, but it is important to wait, and humble yourself under God’s wing (Ps 91; Alexander, Let Him Who Boasts …).
The book of Job is not just ANOTHER great lesson about patience: it is THE great lesson about patience (James 5:7-11). Yet, if you just read through the book of Job, it doesn’t seem to fully sink in. I found that you have to study the book of Job then study books and articles about the book of Job and after a while Job’s troubles and patience will sink into your spirit and will inspire you to be patient throughout your Christian life. It continues to work for me: therefore, I am confident it will work for you. TAS says "… In our own spiritual experience we often find that not least of our trials is the fact that God seems slow to respond, so inexplicable in His ways; sometimes it would appear that He is careless or indifferent …" (TAS, Faith's Persistency)
But you have to study Job and other biblical examples such as Abraham waiting 20 years for the promise of
God; (Gen 12:2-4, Gen 17:15-17; Fielder, Pressures …); Leah being miserable because she “was not loved” by Jacob (Gen 29 & 30); and Hannah waiting for a baby while Peninnah provoked and irritated her, and the priest, Eli, accusing Hannah of being drunk (1 Samuel 1). You will know that the lessons of Job, Abraham, Hannah and Leah have ‘sunk’ in when you get to the stage that you feel as if these beautiful heroes are relatives of yours. In any case, the Bible says that Christians are the “spiritual descendants” of Abraham.147
So, as far as God is concerned, you are directly related to Abraham. It might take time for this to sink in, but just keep at it until it does; and never, ever, ever give up until it clicks. It may take weeks, months or even years. That’s why you have to be patient over very long periods of time as a Christian because it takes a long, long, long time for many parts of the Bible to really come 'alive’ in your heart.148 But, this is you living out the modern day version of Job, Leah, Abraham and Hannah (TAS, The Rights of God, 61-62). Let me encourage you: it is a fantastic feeling when you get that deep with Christ that many of the Old Testament figures feel alive to you. This is YOUR reward; just as Job had to go through unbelievable trials and testing to obtain HIS reward. Please do not start your own church until you feel some emotional attachment to these Old Testament people (Tyson, 127-130).