THE LOCAL CHURCH

THE LOCAL CHURCH
 
 - an cxerpt from Ben's soon-to-be-released book - "WITH ME".
 
Shortly after the “in the same country” revelation, Brenda and I were in Mozambique with a team of about twenty North Americans.  Again I had an experience where a statement went through my mind.  It was early one morning and I was just partially awake.  It was a statement that had never crossed my mind before, nor did it have a place in my theology. 
 
Common sense would dictate that I shouldn’t repeat this statement in a book, especially in a chapter for pastors.  I have no desire to offend pastors, since a significant part of our ministry and family income flows through pastors who invite us to speak in their churches.  I may be somewhat lacking in wisdom or intelligence, but I am sharing this because of a passion to reach the lost throughout the whole world and build the Kingdom of God. 
 
So please understand that having been in pastoral ministry for about thirty years, I am not trying to insult or offend pastors.  I must also say that we are seeing a wonderful trend among pastors and churches to correct the problems we will discuss in the following paragraphs.  But please read on and see if you can agree with me that God desires to bring some changes in the way we “do” church.
 
The statement that I heard was this:  “The biggest hindrance to the spreading of the gospel is the local church.”  What a shocker!  It didn’t make any sense to me either.  I know that “local churches” send and support thousands of missionaries and do street evangelism and soup kitchens, etc., etc. 
 
So what was the Holy Spirit saying to me when He said the local church was the biggest hindrance to the spreading of the gospel?  I believe God was shocking me and challenging me to analyze the statement until it made some sense. 
 
I had to study the wording and definitions.  First the Holy Spirit focused me on the word “local”.  Then I had to think of the concept of “spreading the gospel”.  I also realized that the enemy has never been able to stop the spreading of the gospel, even with persecution.  But I realized that almost all Christians are at least somewhat submitted to the vision and philosophy of some “local” church. 
 
Thus that local church has significant control of what individual Christians do with their gifts and callings in the Kingdom, as well as their finances.  Therefore if the local church does not foster and promote missions and evangelism outside of it’s four walls, it can greatly reduce the amount of missions and evangelism that would occur if they did foster and promote those ministries.
 
The biggest help in understanding the statement came from studying the word “local” itself.  When I finally got to a dictionary on the internet, this is what Webster had to say about the word “local”.  I have highlighted several significant parts of the definition, which I copied directly from Webster’s Dictionary on the internet.
 
Main Entry: 1lo·cal Pronunciation: 'lO-k&lFunction: adjectiveEtymology: Middle English localle, from Middle French local, from Late Latin localis, from Latin locus place -- more at STALL1 : characterized by or relating to position in space : having a definite spatial form or location2 a : of, relating to, or characteristic of a particular place : not general or widespread b : of, relating to, or applicable to part of a whole3 a : primarily serving the needs of a particular limited district b of a public conveyance : making all the stops on a route4 : involving or affecting only a restricted part of the organism : TOPICAL5 : of or relating to telephone communication within a specified area
 
These definitions are quite interesting.  Read them carefully, noticing the concept of “not widespread”, “limited” and “restricted”.   I have often found Webster’s definitions to be a great source of understanding and inspiration.  Daniel Webster was an amazing Christian and his definitions often reflect it.  For instance look up the word “glory” for some great insights.
 
At any rate, I believe that the term “local church” is not the best term, but unfortunately the definitions of the word, “local” do describe our western churches to some extent.  Keep in mind that I was there in Mozambique with Rolland and Heidi Baker, where we had just been on several outreaches to villages which were totally Muslim.  Most of the people received the Lord.  Many powerful miracles happened, accompanied by mass conversions. Churches were being planted frequently throughout the region.  I was witnessing the biblical standard of “spreading the gospel. 
 
In contrast, in the western church we often primarily serve the needs of “a particular limited district”. (See definition above)  Our vision that motivates and drives us as pastors is so often the building of “our” church, not the universal body of Christ or His Kingdom.  I speak as a former pastor, knowing my own experience and being acquainted with many others in pastoral ministry.
 
We tend to be too satisfied with “affecting only a restricted part of the organism” of the Kingdom of God.  So much of our local church structure in our culture is geared to the strength and security of the people who are involved in the particular local church, basically the leadership and their followers.  As leaders, we often want to bring them in and keep them in.  We want to count “nickels and noses” to quote a speaker I recently heard.  We focus on the sheepfold much more than the harvest field. 
 
Part of the reason for this is that almost all church leaders are called, “pastors”, even if their gifting is one of the other ministries.  We have senior pastors, associate pastors, youth pastors, children’s pastors, seniors pastors, singles pastors and a few other types of pastors.  Those who fill these rolls feel the expectations of people to “pastor” their group. 
 
Many of them actually need to be freed up to be apostles, prophets, evangelists and teachers.  True pastors are very important and necessary, and the majority of them are incredibly hard workers and have great hearts for the flock, but they can’t do it all.  And they can’t do a really great job of something God never called them to do. 
 
Apostles will proclaim the “Kingdom” mandate to bring the Kingdom to the King and cast vision for accomplishing greater things for God.  Prophets will stir up the spirit of the warriors and shake up those who are “at ease in Zion”.  Evangelists will carry the gospel to the ends of the earth and the teachers will bring appropriate levels of revelation to the babes and also to those who are more mature.
 
The dominant “pastoral” control of the direction and focus of the church does not emphasize the Kingdom, it emphasizes the “local” church, its people and leadership.  Finances are directed to the needs of the flock and the shepherds, while very little in comparison goes to outreach and harvest.
 
The gospel is spreading in Africa and especially in places like Mozambique, Uganda and Nigeria, because most of the focus is on the Kingdom and the task of going and getting the Bride of Jesus Christ, rather than managing and growing the local church.  Thousands of new churches have sprung up, but every church leader is made to be so aware of the heart of Jesus for the lost.  Those called “pastors” are also released to be evangelists who take in orphans and spread the gospel throughout their villages and surrounding communities.  Many are more apostolic in gifting and plant numerous churches and help train leaders.
 
Rolland and Heidi Baker and other “trailblazers” are shaking up the western church whenever they minister in churches and conferences here.  Western leaders are made to wonder what is going on when so much is being accomplished by so few who are using such unsophisticated methods and styles of ministry. 
 
Our professionalism and pursuit of excellence (which is a good thing) is being overshadowed and outdone by those without education and sophistication, who function mostly on passion, simplicity and love for Jesus and the lost.  I, myself, have been radically renewed in my mind, just observing them, and have now powerfully witnessed what I have preached about for so many years – the restoration of the book of Acts in our day.
 
The expression “local church” was of course never used in the Bible.  There was the church of Ephesus, Corinth, etc., and the “church that is in your house”, but they didn’t use the limiting word “local”.  The church of the city would work as one unit, interacting with the apostles and prophets and teachers who would come and go, but a portion of the church of the city could meet in a house and still be “the church”. 
 
The word, “church” means “called out”.  Unfortunately, too many times our main focus is on calling people “in”.  We want them “in” our “local” church.  And of course, they need to be part of a church and nourished into some level of maturity.  But God is calling many young and old Christians “out” of the safe, the secure and the comfortable and into the more unpredictable, unsafe harvest fields of the world.  It takes work, sacrifice and it requires taking a risk.  Protection is needed for new born babies, but young men and women want adventure and challenge.  Unfortunately, many weary and burned-out leaders are at the stage where they desire peace and security for themselves, more than they want to lead their people on risky adventures into uncharted territory.
 
But make no mistake about it – going after the harvest is the most thrilling and fulfilling thing we could ever do.  Just ask any of the team members that journeyed with us to Mozambique, who saw the miracles and the hundreds of Muslim hands raised to accept Jesus at every single outreach.  Ask a young lady named Liz.  Ask her parents or her sister, Sarah.  Ask the older missionaries who didn’t formerly believe in the supernatural power of God.  Ask the almost two hundred “Holy Given” mission students on the field, who flocked to Mozambique to learn from Rolland and Heidi Baker, their associate, Lesley-Anne Leighton, and numerous other outstanding contemporary Christian trailblazers.
 
So how do we apply this?  As leaders we need to search our hearts and motives.  How passionate are we about the harvest?  Are we and others encouraged and activated to do the work of an evangelist?  Are we “Kingdom” leaders or just “local” church builders? 
 
When we build the “local” church, and achieve some level of “success” in doing so, there is a lot of personal blessing that comes to us as pastors in the area of prestige, financial security and influence.  That can be a reward for faithful and difficult work, but it can also be a subtle and wrong motive for that success.  When we simply focus on building the Kingdom however, we often have to lay those things down.  We may have to “lose” our life before we “find” it. 
 
We found the above to be true when we made commitments to overseas trips without the finances.  We almost came home to financial disaster, but God had put faith in our hearts to believe for miracles and He came through for us, and we didn’t have to tell anyone our needs.
 
Recently I visited a church where I was not speaking, and I heard numerous complimentary references to the local church and the denomination.  But there was no mention of supporting other churches or denominations or working in harmony for the harvest and the Kingdom.  In the same community, a local church had a sign which read, “We don’t put on a show, we preach the Bible.”  This was clearly a dig against a newer church in the community which was growing rapidly, and clearly revealed a spirit of competition.
 
And I find that is all too typical.  We want to be right and we want to be successful.  It produces the “local church” and “our denomination” or “our movement” mentality that pervades the western church.  We want to build what will make us look and feel successful.  It is such a subtle and pervasive drive within us.  Again, I speak from experience, not to judge or criticize, but to motivate you as I have been motivated by others.
 
It would be helpful to change much of our terminology that boxes us into the old mold and compares us to other churches and movements, as if we are in competition with them.  The expression “our church” may be a dead giveaway of our concepts.  We may be running the risk of having taken ownership of what belongs only to God.
 
Perhaps the term “mobile church” would convey a better concept.  We want to be known as people who are the church wherever the church is needed.  When we think of “church”, we should not be thinking of a building or anything that boxes us in.  We should be thinking of God’s people out in the community, serving Him in every part of society and coming together frequently to exchange “war stories” and encourage one another.
 
Jesus told us to go into the world and make disciples, and said, “I will build MY church.”  Let’s go out of the box and into the harvest.  Let’s make disciples of Jesus and not of ourselves.  Let’s help Him build His church and be His stewards of His church but not the owners.  Let’s fulfill our apostolic call if we have received one and not be held back by a label that doesn’t really fit us. 
 
Let’s rethink our financial budget and focus more on “out there” and less on “in here”.  Let’s empower the younger people who possess the zeal and energy and send them to places where God is moving, without fear that we will lose control of them or that they will join another church or movement.  Fear of loss is a terrible chain around many leaders’ necks.  That chain is a very useful tool for our enemy to keep people from fulfilling their destiny.  I don’t want to criticize the church, but I have seen it too often.
 
The best way to restructure our churches is to ensure that apostles and prophets and evangelists are released into leadership, along with the pastors and teachers, and given freedom to function in their giftings.  They should be chosen not based on their personal proclamations of who they are, but based on humble service to the body through their respective giftings.  Apostles and prophets, being foundation stones in the house of God will see the bigger picture and, along with the evangelists, they will care more about Kingdom issues than internal ministry.
 
Confidentially, pastors, we are discovering very quickly that there is a whole generation of young people, as well as folk of all ages, that are really tired of “church” as we have traditionally know it.  They love Jesus, but want to be led into something more challenging than sermons on how to fix their problems.  They want to be equipped to impact and change the world.  God put that desire in them.  If we say, “They’ll mature eventually and become less idealistic and more realistic and find their place in the local church” we will have really missed our opportunity to mobilize God’s army to win the world for Christ.
 
Of course they won’t be mature at the beginning.  And they will have character defects.  But we don’t have to give them titles or positions.  They don’t need to be deacons or elders.  We just have to empower them to serve Jesus.  God gave me a word of wisdom in Mozambique that goes like this:  “The youth of today will be matured and refined in the fires of revival.”  Preaching guilt and condemnation won’t mature them, but letting them partake of true revival will.  I experienced it in my own life, and I have seen it in many others, including those who went with us on our recent trip to Mozambique.
 
I mentioned above the concept of “spreading” the gospel.  The thought came to me that we spread peanut butter on our bread, after we extract a clump of it from the jar and place it on the slice of bread.  We don’t leave it in a lump in the middle.  We spread it to every part of the bread.  In the west, we often have the gospel in lumps we call churches, but God wants to spread it over the whole city or region or nation. 
 
I don’t have all the answers.  I don’t even know all the questions.  But I’m sure we can do better than we are doing now if we get low enough in the presence of Jesus and ask Him what we can change to bring our ministry into conformity with His vision for it. 
 
God never rejects a humble heart, but He has promised to resist the proud.  Humility needs to be worked at.  Pride doesn’t.  It comes naturally, even to us in ministry leadership.  It has infected us all and keeps coming up like last summer’s weeds that you’ve already pulled over and over again.  I have been in pastoral ministry for almost thirty years and I know the battles that I and my fellow-pastors in our communities had to deal with all the time.
 
Before concluding this chapter, I want to report the exciting news that changes are happening in the western church that are extremely encouraging.  Just in the past few years and especially the last month or so, I have heard of numerous cases of churches doing things that were unheard of in previous decades.  Many apostolic “pastors” have led their churches to give large amounts of money to help other churches in their cities.  In addition, they have given more of their personal time and resources for missions projects and evangelism, often working sacrificially to help other ministries in their cities to flourish.
 
Some of the leading examples of a “Kingdom mindset” included Colorado Springs pastor, Ted Haggard, author of “Primary Purpose” and now president of the American Association of Evangelicals.  Other wonderful examples include Bill Johnson of Redding California and Che Ahn of Pasadena, California. 
 
But many others in smaller ministries are also leading by example.  Right here in Douglasville, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta, where we are presently ministering, a young fiery pastor/evangelist, named Vance Murphy, leads a fairly small church that joins forces with another ministry in Kentucky, establishing “Father’s House” homes for abandoned children in many nations.  In nine months, since we met in Mozambique, he has gone to India, the Ukraine, Brazil and Guatemala, helping abandoned children in these needy nations.  In addition, they serve the poor in their city in various outreaches.  They are such an example of Kingdom passion and a church that is not just “local”, a church that embraces the apostolic, prophetic and evangelistic ministries along with the pastors and teachers.
 
I know that it seems like finances are not available for such adventures for most church leaders.  Even though I loved missions, having journeyed to other nations four times, when we started a new church in a small town, I never left North America for eighteen years.  We had a very tight budget and although much of our ministry was reaching out to the lost, we had very little immediate impact on the Kingdom of God at large.
 
The good news is that today, there is a major shift in Kingdom financing.  And I believe that every church leader who catches the vision and feels the passion for the great Kingdom harvest, which is now in full swing, will see miraculous provision to finance those who want to be a part of the harvest.  God is moving in powerful ways among the youth, as we so clearly witness in meetings from city to city.  The older generation is becoming more challenged to help finance the younger generation and there is a tremendous increase in short term mission trips by both younger and older Christians.
 
God is also raising up many “Market Place Apostles”, who are being used to generate large amounts of money to support world wide evangelism.  Exciting new technologies and business opportunities are being released from Heaven at this writing to empower the harvesters.  God knows how ripe the harvest is and He is not willing to let it be lost for lack of finances. 
 
Let’s get excited, renew our minds, shift our priorities and participate in the world wide harvest.  Let’s spread the gospel, make the whole world our parish and let Jesus build His church. 
 
May those with spiritual ears hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches.  Amen!