Defining Church, Part 6

Issues of Leadership

Matthew 16:18

18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church (ekklesia), and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. NIV

Correct building of church (church, being a system of correct human existence and ruler-ship in the earth) is not possible without the consideration of certain realities. During the Pentecostal-Charismatic dispensation, the Bible Schools would teach us theology and then launch us into the realm of building. “Study” (and in fact correct study) is important but is not sufficient to producing church builders. We want to explore the kind of “context” that must be in place for church to be built to its rightful position.

Considerations and Context for Church Building

1) Understanding the “whole counsel” of God

2) The Issue of Leadership

Last week we looked at the whole issue of understanding “the whole counsel” of God as a prerequisite for correct building in the church. The second issue we need to consider and relook in this process of building church to its rightful position is the issue of leadership.

What is Leadership?

Leadership is the process of bringing people progressively into the character, purpose and kingdom of Christ.

Leadership is not the ability to plant many churches; neither can it be measured by numerical expansion of a church community. This (planting of many churches or numerical increase) may take only an evangelistic gift or in other cases, good marketing campaigns. One can plant many churches or experience numerical expansion without necessarily taking people to Christ. The Antioch church, one of the powerful church communities in the Book of Acts was planted by believers (Acts 11:19-27, Acts 13:1). These believers are not necessarily recognised anywhere as leaders. They were simply discharging their evangelistic ministry and a church got started. Barnabas came in later to help provide leadership in Antioch.

Matthew 23:13

13 "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.

Matthew 23:15

15 "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are.

NIV

In Mathew 23, Jesus is confronting Pharisee positions of leadership. He says Pharisees travel over land and sea to win a single convert only to make him twice as much a son of hell as they are. This reveals several principles that we all want to understand and run away from:

· Jesus confronts evangelistic passion and activity that is not coupled with proper development of people into Christ and His kingdom. The Pharisees are passionate about winning souls only to bring them to greater levels of distortion in terms of values and lifestyle.

· “They make converts twice the sons of hell as they are”: this means that we can only lead people to the current state of our lives. The state of the life of the leader (at any given point in time) is the destination of the people. We cannot lead people to character positions (or destinations) we ourselves have not arrived at.

· Jesus confronts the tendency of the Pharisees to “shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces”. Remember we are saying that leadership is the ability and process of bringing people progressively into the character, purpose and kingdom of Christ. The issue here is that the Pharisees have not entered and are preventing people from entering. This means that we are only able to lead within the scope of our “development in Christ” and not simply through “anointing” (although anointing or grace definitely have role to play). If the Pharisees have not entered into the kingdom, then it does not matter how “anointed” they can be, they will not be able to lead others into the kingdom. Let’s think of the kingdom of God as a system of regulation of human life.

· The “shutting of the kingdom” is through:

- The demonstration of erroneous lifestyle positions by leaders.

- The demonstration of erroneous ministry patterns and wrong operational emphases in the churches.

- Erroneous or “misaligned” doctrinal positions in the churches.

Leadership is the process of bringing people progressively into the character, purpose and kingdom of Christ.

The only way of measuring true or effective leadership is by looking into the development of the people. That is, in order to test leadership, we have to go beyond the “vibrancy” of the church service on Sunday morning, go beyond our domes and auditoria, go beyond the numbers and look into the quality of lives that are being produced inside the churches. The leader is as good as the quality of people he is producing.

1 Corinthians 11:1

1 Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.

NIV

The scripture in 1 Cor 11:1 does not only quality the definition of leadership provided above but it also reveal the following:

· Leadership begins with a correct sight of Christ by the leader.

· Leadership proceeds from the ability of the leader to “imitate or follow” Christ.

· True leadership is therefore based not on the “anointing” or “gifting” but on correct relationship with and following of Christ (by the leader).

· True leaders lead from a platform of being disciples of Christ.

· “Discipleship-in-leadership” means that there is a spirit of learning, inquiry and childlike-ness that must characterise anybody who is leading in the church. This in turn, puts one in a position where they can learn from anybody, even from the very people they are leading.

· “Follow me as I follow” means that what qualifies us to lead is our commitment to be transformed under the leadership of Christ Himself. The word “follow” does not simply define a big crowd that likes the personality, gift and charisma of some leader. The word is “active” and indicates the following:

- Following (by people) indicates an active relationship between the leader and the people.

- Following (by people) indicates that people are observing patterns and values in the life of the leader that they are importing in their lives. That is, following here is not a passive liking of somebody; it is a progressive process of learning through the life of the leader. It is important to note that “following” has a learning element in it and a practising of what one is learning.

· We lead from the volume of the quality of our own lives. It is for this reason that Paul points us to issues of godly lifestyle, mature character and good marriage or family as prerequisites for becoming elders and deacons (or administrators) in the church (1 Tim 3).

· All of this means that leadership in the church is not merely an academic discipline, it is a process based on personal transformation and discipleship.

1 Corinthians 11:1

1 Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.

NIV

Leadership is the process of bringing people progressively into the character, purpose and kingdom of Christ.

True and effective leadership cannot be measured by the “organisational development” of our churches but by the maturity of the people inside our church organisations.

Leadership is therefore the ability to stand before the people as a resemblance of the nature of Christ. What causes growth in the people is not a “powerful sermon”, it’s not the exercising of spiritual gifts but it is the ability of the leader to model a life that is consistent with the nature of Christ.

Hebrews 13:7

7 Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. NIV

Concerning faith

The saints here are encouraged to “imitate the faith of their leaders”. Faith here is not simply the ability to believe God for things. If we read the entire chapter of Hebrews 11, we realise that faith is sight of God, His nature, patterns and intents that produces internal persuasion, correct alignment & accurate human action in the earth. In Heb 11 we see the kind of faith that made people take decisions, by faith Abel offered a better sacrifice, by faith Moses instituted the Passover etc. In this capitalistic age, faith has been reduced to material-financial accumulation. In Hebrews 11 we see rich and poor people all categorised as people of faith. Others…went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated (Heb 11:37). As a matter of fact, the foundation of Hebrews 11 is Hebrews 10. In chapter 10, the saints are being commended for having been able to go through suffering. It goes on to say “you joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property…” (Heb 10:34). Faith is then defined in Heb 11:1 in the context of what the saints are going through as revealed in Hebrews 10. The word “faith” is defined in the Greek dictionary as “persuasion”. And so therefore faith defines “a spiritual state of conviction”, it does not define an activity or physical accumulation. Actually, the word says “these ancient fathers died in faith but did not receive the things promised…and God was not ashamed to be their God” (Heb 11:13-16).

· “They died in faith”: faith is an internal state and position; it is not primarily physical accumulation.

· “They did not receive”: faith cannot be defined as the ability to ask and receive things from God.

· “God was not ashamed to be their God”: these patriarchs were actually approved and validated by God.

Faith is human actions that are produced by a sight of God and as such, faith is not premised upon the desires or ambitions of man but upon the intents and purposes of God.

Imitating the faith of your leaders

Leadership is the ability to stand before the people as a resemblance of the nature of Christ. We lead from the platform of a developed character and not simply from the platform of anointing and gifting.

Hebrews 13:7

7 Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. NIV

Faith here is defined as “the way of life” developed as a result of the revelation of God’s nature. The leaders spoke the word that produced a certain way of life in their lives.

This is how the New King James version puts this scripture:

Remember those who rule over you, who have spoken the word of God to you, whose faith follow, considering the outcome of their conduct.

The phrase “way of life” means: “behaviour, conduct, mode of life”. To “imitate the faith of your leaders” is then to import a value system and lifestyle positions that the leaders have developed and modelled before the people out of their revelation of Christ. How many of our leaders can point people to their character, values and lifestyle positions today? People cannot import a value system where it is non-existent.

Leadership is the process of bringing people progressively into the character, purpose and kingdom of Christ.

The Leadership Ethic of the Kingdom of God

Ezekiel 34:1-4

1 The word of the LORD came to me: 2 "Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them: 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Woe to the shepherds of Israel who only take care of themselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? 3 You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock. 4 You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally. NIV

There is an established leadership ethic of the kingdom of God. This is seen in God’s rebuke of leaders (shepherds) in Ezek 34. This ethical position is that we can not take financial-material resources from the people (the wool of the sheep) when we are not assiduously ensuring that they are being developed under our leadership. We have to ensure that as leaders we are industrious enough as we work at developing resources (positions of understanding, lifestyle positions) that will empower the lives of those under our care. It is unethical to receive financial-material resources into the coffers of the church when the very people who are giving are being destroyed in their personal lives, marriages, families etc. due to our inability to resource them relevantly.

Leadership is Representation of God’s Nature before People

We have made this point as we looked into 1 Cor 11:1 but I also want to look at the same principle from the angle of Numbers 20 (the story of Water from the Rock).

Numbers 20:9-12

9 So Moses took the staff from the LORD's presence, just as he commanded him. 10 He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, "Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?" 11 Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank.

12 But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them."

NIV

Here we see God judging Moses (leadership) because of Moses’ failure to represent God’s nature before the people. There are some things that we begin to learn about God here:

· God does not measure leadership based on the ability to discharge ministry (Moses struck the rock, water came out and people drank). If you were standing from a distance watching at all of this you were going to celebrate Moses based on his ability to meet the need of the people. God was looking at the same situation differently. God’s view of leadership is that leaders are not here primarily to meet people’s needs every Sunday. That is, God is interested in the process of leadership and not simply in the result of leadership. Leaders are here “to honour God as holy before the people they lead”. How do they do this? By modelling patterns and principles that reveal the nature of God to people. For example, leaders must demonstrate “the servant-hood of Christ” before the church by serving the people, refusing to be “celebrated” by people.

· Leadership is the ability to represent God. Effective Leadership is therefore determined by the leader’s capacity to represent God through his developed character and ways. Representation of God further means that the leader must have sight of God’s nature and must also understand the ways of God.

Although we are Called as Leaders, we need to be developed into Leadership

Hebrews 5:8-10

8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered 9 and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him 10 and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek.

NIV

· Jesus was a Son: this points to the fact that God calls us into leadership long before we start the process of personal development.

· Jesus learned: this points to the fact that calling does not exempt us from developing understanding of leadership and its responsibility.

· He learned from what he suffered: God teaches us leadership by developing our characters through daily and practical life experiences. There must be something about the leader that allows people to see that this man or woman is going through the same challenges we are going through. This sense is created in the hearts of the people deliberately through many creative ways. For example, when a leader wears expensive clothing (in relation to the people he is leading), enters into the meeting late and does not talk to the people, this creates mysticism about leadership where people begin to wonder whether “the anointed one” is going through the same issues that they are going through. “Moses was in the assembly in the wilderness” (Acts 7:38). So not only was Moses in the assembly or in the midst of the people, he was right in the conditions that the people were facing, i.e. the wilderness. This “learning” process indicates the existence of positions of humility inside the life of the leader. This in turn makes people to identify with the leader, opening their hearts for impartation.

David, an Icon of Correct Leadership

Ezekiel 34:20-24

20 "'Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says to them: See, I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. 21 Because you shove with flank and shoulder, butting all the weak sheep with your horns until you have driven them away, 22 I will save my flock, and they will no longer be plundered. I will judge between one sheep and another. 23 I will place over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will tend them; he will tend them and be their shepherd. 24 I the LORD will be their God, and my servant David will be prince among them. I the LORD have spoken.

NIV

In Ezekiel 34, God is rebuking both shepherds (leaders) and immature saints who cannot live in co-existence. God is confronting the infighting within the church and eventually reveals His solution. The solution is to be “David, my servant”. God here points to the fact that His solution for the current state of the church is the restoration of correct and effective leadership that is able to lead people out of deficiency to correctness in Christ by representing the nature of Christ. We see here that leadership is God’s system of redemption. The church is desperately in need of leaders who can bring Christ to a place of visibility through their own lifestyle; not leaders who can only bring a manifestation on Sunday. These are the kind of leaders who will not lead in the shade or from a distance leaving people confused and blind as to correct standards of God. These are leaders who will not lead through organisational structures but through the visibility of their pristine character before the people. These are therefore leaders who will not simply be known by their anointing and gift on Sunday but by their lifestyle positions and value systems on Monday, Tuesday etc. God is restoring such leaders because He is bringing His church to its ordained state.

Defining Church, Part 5

Matthew 16:18

18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church (ekklesia), and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. NIV

Christ spoke about “building His church” and “building” communicates a very deliberate process to produce an intended objective.

We started to look into mechanisms the Lord is using to build His church. I want to continue to explore the whole issue of building because it is very important in the development of church in the earth.

Correct building of church (church, being a system of correct human existence and ruler-ship in the earth) is not possible without the consideration of certain realities. During the Pentecostal-Charismatic dispensation, the Bible Schools would teach us theology and then launch us into the realm of building. “Study” (and in fact correct study) is important but is not sufficient to producing church builders. We want to explore the kind of “context” that must be in place for church to be built to its rightful position.

Considerations and Context for Church Building

1) Understanding the “whole counsel” of God

The first thing we will look at in this article is the whole issue of “God’s counsel”.

Act 20:27 "For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God, NKJV.

We can never really build correctly without firstly understanding “the whole counsel” of God.

The word “counsel” is defined as: intention as a result of reflection, the counsel preceding the resolve, aim, a decree, purpose, will or volition. The word is also used to describe “the assembly of the council” (or a parliament-like gathering).

This word expresses the inward predisposition (or inclination) and bent (or resolve and determination) from which active volition (or decisions and choices) proceeds. Hence this word does not simply define what God is saying or doing but it focuses on internal platforms and motivations that give shape to the speaking of God. It is one thing to know what God is saying, it is another thing to know the inner motivations that give shape to the speaking of God. In most cases, the church has always had access to the speaking of God but has seldom understood the inner motivations that give shape to the speaking of God; as a result, the church has often not worked out the purpose of God accurately or fully.

To further understand this word, let us look at Eph 1:11.

Eph 1:11 In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, NKJV.

Note here that Paul separates “will” from “counsel”. We often go as far as understanding His will or purpose but fail to understand “the counsel” (i.e. the inner motivations) giving shape to the purpose.

Paul is then saying in Acts 20:27 that he has not only proclaimed God’s purpose to the elders in Ephesus but he has also proclaimed the inner motivations of God giving shape to His purpose.

Paul says “God works all things according to His counsel”, so therefore the activity of God or the workings of God are informed by His counsel.

God’s counsel produces purpose and activity.

We said that this word also describes “a parliament-like meeting”. In this context, the counsel is the inner motivations and deliberations that produce a set of purposes and actions. For example, a parliament may pass a piece of legislation designed to prevent child-labour. One cannot just run with the legislation (on child-labour) without understanding the inner motivations and deliberations that produced the legislation in the first place. It’s like; the constitution of the country can never be above the underlying motivations (counsel) that give shape to that constitution. So whenever the underlying motivations change, it goes without saying that the constitution or legislation must also change.

To make yet another example, if a parent instructs a child to have a bath every evening, until that child grows to understand the “counsel” or inner motivations giving shape to the instruction, that child will see this as an unnecessary burden. The underlying motivation in this case may be to produce a hygienic family. The question then is, when we hear God, are we hearing “an instruction to have a bath” or do we understand the “counsel” giving shape to that instruction. Are we hearing Him say we must start or be part of churches or do we understanding His counsel informing His speaking.

Consider this scripture:

John 15:14-15

14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. NIV

Jesus here highlights two different positions. One is represented by “a servant” who simply performs the instruction without understanding the basic motivations that led to the instruction. The other position is represented by “a friend” who performs instruction out of an intimate understanding of the underlying platforms that form the basis for the instruction.

Jeremiah 23:16-18

16 This is what the LORD Almighty says:

"Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you;

they fill you with false hopes.

They speak visions from their own minds,

not from the mouth of the LORD.

17 They keep saying to those who despise me,

'The LORD says: You will have peace.'

And to all who follow the stubbornness of their hearts

they say, 'No harm will come to you.'

18 But which of them has stood in the council of the LORD

to see or to hear his word?

Who has listened and heard his word?

NIV

The word council here in the Hebrew describes “a company of people in close deliberation, intimacy, consultation, assembly”. In its root meaning, the word means “to sit down together, to consult, to take counsel”.

According to this scripture, we do not qualify to proclaim God’s word until we have understood the inner motivations in the heart of God. And so therefore to be prophetic is not to simply hear God but it is also the ability to understand God’s inner motivations that drive His speaking.

Isaiah 55:10-11

10 As the rain and the snow

come down from heaven,

and do not return to it

without watering the earth

and making it bud and flourish,

so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,

11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth:

It will not return to me empty,

but will accomplish what I desire

and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

NIV

God speaks because there are certain things He wants to achieve. He does not speak in order to give us an encounter or a religious experience. In order to hear correctly, we always need to go beyond “what He said” to understand “the desire” that drove the speaking.

Matthew 16:18

18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. NIV

Now that we have understood the principle of “God’s counsel” let us then look into Jesus declaring for the first time that He would build His church. We will now realise that the declaration came from “an underlying motivation and desire” for something. There is counsel that informed and drove God to actually build the church in the earth. Anybody involved in church building, anybody involved in teaching and preaching must be sure to understand this counsel of God. This means that the thing that drives “the process of church building” is not so much leaders’ desires, dreams and visions for the church but God’s counsel.

This kind of perspective, reasoning and sight into God’s processes allows us to begin to interpret things differently, where we can ask ourselves a set of questions and come up with different answers. For example, some of us may be familiar with the Restorational Moves that were kick-started by the Reformation of Martin Luther, the German Reformer in the 1500s. Since the 1500s till now, God has been systematically and progressively restoring and bringing the church to its ordained place. Perhaps the most familiar movements for most of us will be the Pentecostal Movement in the 1900s and Charismatic Movement in the 1950s. I want to pick on some of these movements and ask the question, “What was God really doing”, what was the counsel (underlying intent) behind what was happening?

· In the 1980s, God restored the office and ministry of the prophet back into the church. We know that the prophetic is a mechanism of sight into or of accessing God’s purposes and we also know that when God brings us to a place of sight into His purposes, He is expecting that we conform and obey. So what was God after? What really was He doing, what was the underlying motivation (counsel)? God was building a church (a people) that would walk in the accuracy of His purposes by obedience and thereby partner with Him in advancing the kingdom. God was not restoring the prophetic ministry so that we would have “spectacular church services” every Sunday. The question is - what happened? I think we generally produced spectacular church services and failed to walk in the accuracy of God’s purposes. We were left with the ministry and activity of prophesying and lost sight of the counsel of God, to produce a people of accurate understanding of and obedience to the purposes of God.

· In the 1990s, God restored the office and ministry of the apostle back into the church. As per the article that came out last week, we know that the apostolic grace deals with the understanding of God’s designs and architecture for human life. That is, the apostolic is a mechanism for understanding God’s designs. So what was God doing? What was His underlying motivation? God restored apostolic ministry in order to produce a people (church) who have an understanding of correct designs for human life, but what happened? We got excited with the title of “apostle” and most of us quickly shifted offices from “pastor” to “apostle”. We didn’t even spend enough time to consider correct definitions of an “apostle”. Many became and still become apostles under wrong definitions. We thought apostleship was a “promotion” from pastor-ship. God’s heart motivation was to produce a church that is design-oriented, a church that understands correct designs for human life and therefore a church that can build correct life (correct lifestyles, families, communities and systems) and a church that can teach nations on the correct structures of life as Isaiah prophesied in Isa ch.2.

These two examples, which I hope most if not all of us can relate to, reveal the reality of God’s counsel as the activator of God’s activity in the earth. Moreover, the examples show us that if we do not process the doings of God correctly we are most likely to miss the intent for which God does certain things.

Therefore church that is built without due consideration of God’s counsel runs the risk of being wrong structurally and of missing the mark operationally, even though it may seem to be functioning well.

Defining Church, Part 4

In the previous article we began describing a true political process as that involved in the formation, development and regulation of human existence. We defined Kingdom Politics as an internal revelation of Christ that produces a sense of justice, activating a process of serving and developing humanity to a place of correct and equitable human existence. You cannot touch God and not become political in your orientation. To know God is to defend the cause of the poor and needy (Jer 22:16). Put differently, the knowledge of the Lord (or spiritual growth) must produce a sense for justice and equality inside our hearts.

Now all that I’ve described as the true ekklesia (church) needs to be built. The saints need to be brought to a place of kingdom political orientation so that they can go into the systems and communities God has placed them in and advance the cause of the Kingdom.

Matthew 16:18

18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church (ekklesia), and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. NIV

Christ spoke about “building His church” and “building” communicates a very deliberate process to produce an intended objective.

The big question then is how is Christ building His church?

Ephesians 4:8-16

8 This is why it says:

"When he ascended on high,

he led captives in his train

and gave gifts to men."

9 (What does "he ascended" mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? 10 He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) 11 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12 to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. NIV

Ephesians 4 gives us some answers concerning the building plan and process of Christ for the church:

· Christ is building His church through the fives graces or gifts called Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors and Teachers. This is what is otherwise known as “the five-fold ministry”.

· These graces (or building dimensions of Christ) are given to various people who are called by Christ to serve in the church.

· It is important to note that “pastor” is mentioned here as one of the 5 graces or building dimensions of Christ, i.e. “pastor” is not to be used as a generic description of a person who leads a church. People who lead churches are called “elders” or “overseers” (1 Tim 3:1&2, Tit 1:5&6, 1 Pet 5:1&2).

· The description of a church leader as “pastor” comes from a Pentecostal-Charismatic dispensation and it basically came about because “pastor” was a dominant grace that people were used to. The usage of “pastor” in this context also often carries a wrong meaning of one who spends the rest of his life visiting the saints, drinking tea in people’s homes and sharing a “sermon” on Sunday.

· In a typical church structure, you will have a Pastor on top and then a group of elders who serve under the pastor. This is not necessarily consistent with Biblical descriptions. There must be a team of elders led by what we may call a “Senior Elder”, a “Primary Elder” or a “Set Man”. Paul ordained “elders” in churches (Acts 14:23, Tit 1:5).

· Paul designated church leaders as “elders” because a church leader is not always a pastor in terms of grace, an elder can be an apostle, prophet, pastor etc.

· The term “elder” also communicates a powerful idea of one who governs over lives. The term “elder” is borrowed from ancient Cities which were led by elders. These elders would meet at the gate to discuss the affairs of their cities, pronounce judgement and take important decisions. Elders are leaders not just of a church service but of a community. “Elders” played the same role then as that played by Mayors today. Elders were constructors and developers of human civilisations.

· The other issue to consider is that one can have a calling into one of the five ministries or dimensions of Christ (apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor or teacher) and still not necessarily serve as a church leader in a local assembly. For example, Paul was called as an apostle and was sent by the Antioch church in Acts 13. Paul did great exploits, he developed doctrine, started churches, raised the dead etc. and yet he was not part of the eldership at Antioch, he actually went to Antioch to report on his trips (Acts 13:26-28).

Ephesians 4 gives us some answers concerning the building plan and process of Christ for the church (cont…):

· Christ is building His church through the release of His five building dimensions into the church: apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher.

· These five ministers are called to “equip or prepare” the church (saints) for the work of the ministry.

· The word “equip” means “to make fully ready”.

· The “work of the ministry”: the word “work” means “labour, performance, toil”. The word “ministry” means “service, to serve a master”.

· “Work of the Ministry” is not just “ushering or Praise and Worship” on Sunday (and there is nothing wrong with these), it is kingdom responsibility God is calling the saints to engage in, in the development of human life within the nations and systems these saints are placed in. All saints are positioned either as Esthers, Josephs, Daniels or Adams within systems and communities and need to be equipped to be able to advance the kingdom.

· The concept of the “work of the ministry” must be connected to the concept of being “the ekklesia” – we are called to serve humanity.

· The “work of the ministry” implies that saints are called to what we may refer to as “kingdom service” (remember the word “ministry” is the word “service”). There are specific things God is calling each believer to fulfil in the advancement of human life.

· We have to make the saints “fully ready” to serve in the kingdom (kingdom service).

The Example of Adam, the First Believer:

Genesis 2:7

7 the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

NIV

Genesis 2:8

8 Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. NIV

Genesis 1:28

28 God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."

NIV

Genesis 2:15

15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. NIV

Adam was put in the “garden” not to enjoy life but to actually work. He was built by God with certain competences that would allow him to serve the Kingdom in this way. He had responsibility over the development of life (Gen 1:28). He was called to rule and so by implication, called to serve because ruler-ship in the kingdom is service (Luke 22:26). The opposite is true in the church today. People get saved and are introduced to a God who is more like “Father Christmas” and so get deactivated in as far as getting involved in the business of development of human life is concerned. It is true that God wants to provide for our personal needs but the same God wants labour; He wants us involved in the development of human life.

Ephesians 4:11-12

11 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12 to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up NIV

It is the duty of five fold ministers and church leadership to get the saints ready for kingdom service. This means that we have to add the “equipping” element to our meetings.

Key Objectives of this Building Process (Eph 4)

· The church must be built and brought to a place of kingdom service (vs.12).

· The church must be built and brought to a place where it is no longer “an infant”; it must come to a place of maturity in the nature of Christ (vs.13).

· The church must be built and brought to a place of unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son (doctrine), vs.13.

Moving toward Maturity in Christ: Confronting the Issue of Infancy

Colossians 1:28

28 We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. NIV

1 Corinthians 3:1-4

1 Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly-mere infants in Christ. 2 I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. 3 You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men? 4 For when one says, "I follow Paul," and another, "I follow Apollos," are you not mere men?

NIV

Ephesians 4:14

14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. NIV

A true building process must produce a mature Church.

What are the Characteristics of Infancy? (1 Cor 3:1-4, Eph 4:14):

· Inability to co-exist with others: are we building churches where there is co-existence or people still mobilise themselves along the lines of race and class? How is it that church in South Africa is still very much built along the lines of Race and Class?

· Living by individualistic principles of this world as opposed to communal principles of the kingdom: have we built a true sense of community in the hearts of the saints or our Sunday meetings are gatherings of “strangers” who have no sense of shared life, pursuit and existence.

· High levels of gifted-ness coupled with undeveloped character (the Corinthians’ Problem): do we still have the tendency to celebrate the manifestation of gifts and put a blind eye on the character of those who are ministering? Who is laying hands on you? What kind of life do they live?

· Inability to have a well-developed kingdom expression in the midst of “waves and winds of doctrines” of this world (i.e. values, perspectives, philosophies and ideologies of this world): when we hear people proclaim with passion principles of communism, capitalism or any other ideological position do we suddenly feel small realising that we do not have an ideology of our own? Have we realised that the kingdom of God is a complete ideological system?

As long as these characteristics still define church then we know that we have not come to a place called “maturity”.

Church Building: the issue of Architecture

Here is how the word “architecture” is defined in dictionaries:

• Architecture is the profession of designing buildings, open areas, communities, and other artificial constructions and environments, usually with some regard to aesthetic effect. Architecture often includes design or selection of furnishings and decorations, supervision of construction work, and the examination, restoration, or remodeling of existing buildings (Source: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/architecture).

• Architecture is the art or science of building; specifically: the art or practice of designing and building structures and especially habitable ones (Source: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/architecture).

• Architecture is the art and science of designing buildings and other physical structures (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Architecture).

• The art and science of designing and erecting buildings; a style and method of design and construction; Orderly arrangement of parts; structure (Source: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/architecture).

Matthew 16:18

18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church (ekklesia), and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. NIV

Every building process requires architecture.

God does not build anything without having architecture for it first:

· The nature of God is the architecture behind the formation of the entire system of creation (Rom 1:20). The Psalmist says that heavens declare God’s glory, the skies proclaim the work of his hands; day after day, they pour forth speech (Ps 19:1-4). This is the Psalmist’s way of saying that creation proclaims the architecture of God to humanity.

· God is the Architecture of human life; He is the “image and the likeness” by which we were formed (Gen 1:26).

Abraham saw God as an Architect of life (Heb 11:10).

It has become tradition in the church that when a person is called to start a church, that they pay attention only to “what God said to them” and not go on to consider the architecture of what they are called to build. And so in most cases, we build churches out of programmes and not out of architecture of God, only to find that what we are building may have a lot of programmes and vibrancy but often lacks structure and design. We assume that what excites God is the quantity of what we are building. In Ezek 40:1-4, Ezekiel sees an angel carrying a “measuring rod” standing in the temple. This angel had come to measure the correctness of what had been built (not just the quantity of what had been built). It is true that God wants all men to be saved but it is equally true that God wants correct building.

As we saw in the definitions above, the word “architecture” deals with design, building, orderly arrangement of parts as well as style and method of design and construction.

1 Corinthians 3:10

10 By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. NIV

Paul, the apostle talks about the grace of God in his life - the grace that made him “an expert builder” (NIV) or “a wise master-builder” (NKJV).

The word “wise master-builder” is “sophos architekton” in Greek. The word “architekton” is the word from which we get the English word “architect”. Let us consider the elements of the grace Paul is talking about here:

· “Sophos” (a wise man): this word is related to the word “sophia” used in Eph 3:10 as “wisdom”. This word “sophos” was used to describe respected ancient philosophers. The word defines one who is skilled in the affairs of life. Philosophers are people who had the understanding of the basic platforms, patterns and principles upon which life was built. Now Paul describes the apostolic grace as the ability to understand God and the basic structures upon which human life is built.

· “Architekton”: this word is described as “the chief constructor, the master builder”. The Architekton (architect) functioned as the chief constructor who supervised the building process to ensure that it was correct.

Paul says apostles are wise master-builders, meaning that true apostles are defined by the ff. characteristics:

1) Wisdom: the understanding of the basic shapes, principles or philosophical platforms upon which life is built. This understanding does not come about through one’s natural intelligence but it comes through a deposit from God (it is God’s grace that makes an apostle).

2) Architecture: the understanding of the correct structures of human life (not just the correct structures of church organisations).

3) Building: the ability to bring to formation platforms, patterns and structures of life that have been perceived in God.

This is the signature anointing of a true apostle. There are other things that characterise apostles or apostolic grace like pioneering etc. but what we see in 1 Cor 3:10 (wisdom, architecture and building) is the signature of authentic apostolic ministry.

Apostles are therefore not primarily defined by church planting (because the saints planted churches in Acts 11), miracles (because the saints are also supposed to manifest the gifts of miracles and healing in 1 Cor 12). These things can manifest in an apostle’s life but are not basic definers of apostolic grace. The apostolic grace deals with the comprehension of correct architecture for the construction of human life.

Paul continues in Eph 3:

Ephesians 3:1-6

1 For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles-

2 Surely you have heard about the administration of God's grace that was given to me for you, 3 that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. 4 In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5 which was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God's holy apostles and prophets. 6 This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.

NIV

Paul in Eph 3 talks about the grace being his comprehension (“my insight” in vs.4) of the correct structure of human life. The correct structure of human life is the removal of ethnic dominance and the establishment of new platforms of human life where there is integration, justice, equality and shared life. This is the foundational doctrine upon which the early church was built. This is the architecture Paul brought to the early church.

Apostles are philosophers, architects and builders of the Kingdom of God.

So we see here that the apostolic grace introduces us to the reality of architecture. The thing that makes us build churches is not the anointing or programmes but it’s the design for correct human life.

There is a huge difference between having architecture for the church organisation and having architecture for human life within that church organisation. Many churches easily grow numerically but only to find that life within the organisation is collapsing. This Capitalistic age has infiltrated the minds of those sent by God to build the church in that we want to measure results on numbers, accumulated resources and finance. How many believers did Noah have? Only 8 as seen in 1 Pet 3:20. Did Noah impact his world? Yes! How many solid believers did Christ leave in the earth? Only 120! Did He impact the wider humanity? Yes, and He continues to. Impactful building is not so much the accumulation of numbers but it’s the ability to establish correct platforms and structures of human life.

Considering Architectural Dimensions (or Components) for Correct Church Building

The first realisation that must hit anybody truly called by God to build is that building church is not to be confused with building a church organisation, building church is nothing but building human life in its totality. It is very possible for one to have a vibrant church organisation and church service but weak human life within that organisation. Leaders today travel over land and sea to get plans and resources that will help them build big church organisations but I always wonder about the nature of human life within these organisations. If anybody is called to build church, they are essentially building human life and they must therefore be able to see into various architectural dimensions (or components) of that human life. What are these?

· Correct Internal Positions: the word of the Lord must speak into the establishment (by believers) of correct internal positions. Remember Jesus said we must first clean the inside of the cup and then the outside will also be clean (Matt 23:26). God looks at the internal nature of believers, He doesn’t look primarily at their outward appearance (1 Sam 16:7), if this is the case then there must be more time spent on how to build correct inner life. Believers must be equipped on how to put off their old inner lives and put on new inner positions (Eph 4:22-24, Col 3:9&10). These inner positions have to do with developing correct heart positions, internal attitudes, inner values and mentalities.

· Correct Behavioural Patterns & Lifestyles: Jesus also talks about the outside of the cup becoming clean. Salvation must bring about real and practical transformation at a level of one’s behaviour and lifestyle. The word of the Lord must therefore speak into this architectural dimension also.

· Correct Relational Platforms and Community: humans generally don’t know how to relate and people can get saved and still don’t know how to relate. The kingdom of God emphasises the issue of believers coming out of individualism and stepping into community. At the end of the day, all prophets and the law are (or the Word of the Lord is) summed up in this one law, “love your neighbour as yourself” (Matt 22:37-40, Rom 13:9). Those speaking the word of God must equip believers on how to develop correct relationships, what platforms must such relationships be built upon?

· Correct Marriage, Family and Parenting: this is another very important architectural component of human life. Those speaking the word of God must speak into issues of correct marriage and correct family. The saints must not struggle and have to figure out themselves how they need to build their marriages and families. Proclaimers of God’s word must have a clear sense of how a correct family looks like. This is why the word of God puts “correct family building and parenting” as one of the requirements of becoming an elder (1 Tim 3:4&5, Tit 1:6).

· Correct Systems of Life: all saints have to engage with systems of life in one way or another. This could be their workplace, work organisation, business etc. those speaking the word of God must educate the saints on how a correct system looks like.

· Correct Philosophy and Ideology: “Ideology” is the lenses through which the saints analyse life on a daily basis. “Ideology” is a body of ideas that reflects the beliefs and interests of a nation; the set of beliefs by which a group orders reality so as to render it intelligible (Source: Collins Dictionary). A belief system must produce ideas about life or life perspectives. It’s only in Christianity where people have a belief system that does not translate into ideology. Islam produces a set of perspectives by which Muslims see life. God has a perspective about life and the development of doctrine must consider this reality. Any doctrine that gives people a set of beliefs without empowering them with perspectives through which they develop a Worldview is essentially faulty and leaves such people vulnerable to “foreign ideological positions”. This is why God says “my people are wondering over all the mountains and every hill (Ezek 34:6).

These are the architectural components or dimensions that we cannot afford to be blind to. These cannot remain our blind-spots. We have to resist the temptation to produce “nice church services” and start the process of producing “equipping houses” that are seriously engaged with the development of human life in its various forms, where saints are truly empowered to go back into the world and advance the cause of the Kingdom of God.

Defining Church, Part 3

Matthew 16:18

18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church (ekklesia), and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. NIV

The “ekklesia” was a body of citizens gathered to discuss the affairs of the state (Vine’s Dictionary). The word (ekklesia) refers to the gathering of competent citizens of a city-state in order to decide issues regarding laws, office appointments, and public policy (Mounce’s Dictionary).

Jesus did not intend to build a “synagogue”, a mere gathering of people for religious purposes. He is building church, a system that redeems people from the world system (Babylon) to develop them as effective agents of the Kingdom of God in the earth, capable to advance the Cause of the Kingdom. For a long time we, the church have positioned ourselves alongside other world religions and not against other systems of human development. While the church has a real spiritual mandate to bring people to a place of progressive personal transformation and correct relationship with God, it however must see itself in the category of “United Nations” or any other such global system involved in this issue of developing human existence.

Exploring Some Prophetic Scriptures

Let us explore prophetic scriptures in the Word of God that reinforce the idea of church as a system of development of human existence. Before we do so I would like for us to explore a scripture in Acts 3:19-21.

Acts 3:19-21

19 Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, 20 and that he may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you-even Jesus. 21 He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets. NIV

The word “repent” here that Apostle Peter is using is not a word that primarily defines “an emotional feeling or moment”; it is a word that emphasises the need for “change of minds”, “perspective change” or “paradigm shift”. The word emphasises the need to come to new correct realisations and definitions concerning God and His Kingdom.

Peter goes on to say that Jesus will not be sent back (the second coming of the Lord) until certain things God spoke through the prophets are fulfilled in the earth. Church has always fallen into a trap of “an imminent return of Christ”, that Christ may come back anytime. It is true that He wants to come back soon (Rev 22:12); it is true that He wants to bring this mortal age to conclusion, that there must be no more delay in the advancement and completion of His purpose (Rev 10:6&7, John 4:34) but it is also equally true that He will not be sent back until church brings to fulfilment God’s prophetic imperatives in the earth. There has been times when people even predicted the dates of the Lord’s coming and to their disappointment, it did not happen. Paul had to address these same issues with the Thessalonians. According to Peter, the only way of hastening the coming of the Lord is by engaging in His prophetic demands. He (Christ) must remain in Heaven until “the days of restoration”. The word “restoration” defines a process of bringing things back to their original order; to reconstitute something to a place of health and soundness.

According to Acts 3:19-21, it is prophetically correct to engage in a process of redefinition of church that allows us to begin to function exactly as God imagined it before the world began. As mentioned before, this is what will hasten the coming of the Lord.

Prophetic Scriptures defining Church and its Operations

Isaiah 2:1-4

1 This is what Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem:

2 In the last days

the mountain of the LORD's temple will be established

as chief among the mountains;

it will be raised above the hills,

and all nations will stream to it.

3 Many peoples will come and say,

"Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,

to the house of the God of Jacob.

He will teach us his ways,

so that we may walk in his paths."

The law will go out from Zion,

the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

4 He will judge between the nations

and will settle disputes for many peoples.

They will beat their swords into plowshares

and their spears into pruning hooks.

Nation will not take up sword against nation,

nor will they train for war anymore.

NIV

We can agree here that “the mountain of the Lord’s temple” or “the house of the God of Jacob” is church. These are just metaphors that Prophet Isaiah is using to describe something he was seeing in God. The prophet is using the language of his day to describe a reality that would only manifest in the future. If Isaiah was a prophet living in the days of the Book of Acts he was going to use the word “church” instead of “house of the God of Jacob”.

If we agree that Isaiah is in fact describing church, let us then see how he describes it:

· The issue of elevation: the first thing that becomes a trigger to this whole process is “elevation” taking place within the church. “Elevation” here is in the form of standards (or values) and wisdom emerging from the church. So Isaiah says that church must begin by elevating its value system and wisdom in the midst of the nations, if this does not happen then the nations are not coming. Church is a Pillar and a City of truth (1 Tim 3:15, Zech 8:3). The mechanism that helps us set the values and that helps us release wisdom and insight in the church is “doctrine”. Unless the very system of impartation (teaching processes) changes, there will be no new standards and there will be no new higher wisdom in the church. Eph 3:10 says God wants to express His wisdom through the church. “Wisdom” here is not simply a process of pulling the best minds from the world into the church; wisdom is sight of God that produces a sense of understanding of correct structures of human life. The wisdom of God has nothing to do with our natural IQ levels but it comes as a revelation. The word “wisdom” used in Eph 3:10 is the same word that was used to describe “the learning of ancient Greek philosophers” (that some of us studied about at Tertiary education level). And so “wisdom” is basically “new systems of knowledge” coming from God to church (in fact Isaiah does say that law will come from Zion). Wisdom is new systems of knowledge that impart understanding of how human life must be built in the same way that ancient philosophers gave insight upon which most systems of the world are built today. This elevation will give church visibility in the nations, like the lamp that must be put on the table for all to see.

· Nations and many peoples will stream to church (the house of the Lord) to be taught “the ways”: this point connects to the issue of elevation and church producing new knowledge systems in the earth. We have to develop what the Bible calls “the ways”. The word “ways” is described as “a road, the course of life, mode of action, and as a custom”. God revealed His ways to Moses (Ps 103:7). This word indicates that the church must begin to focus on developing knowledge systems, patterns of life, cultural systems that can in fact be exported to the nations. All of this is part of our gospel. We preach a complete gospel of the Kingdom of God (Matt 24:14) which Jesus, John the Baptist and apostles preached (Matt 4:17&24, Matt 3:2, Acts 1:3, Acts 8:12); we are not only preaching a message of salvation. “Salvation” is only one portion of the gospel of the kingdom of God. It is the gospel (message) of the kingdom – the kingdom of God is an entire system of life. This means we are not qualified to preach the message of the kingdom if we have not understood the kingdom itself (as a system of life). Without the development of “the ways” then nations are coming to nothing, in fact they will never come. According to Isa 2, nations are not coming to a church service primarily but to a developed system of life.

· Church as a Teacher of Life: Isaiah says nations will come to be taught. The word “teach” here is defined as “to flow as water, to point out as if by aiming the finger, to direct, inform, instruct” etc. The word therefore defines the prophetic space church has in the development of humanity. Church here has the responsibility of giving direction to humanity’s development.

According to this prophecy, it is clear that in the mind of God, church must function beyond the church service and engage itself in the business of human development. Church must produce a system of human existence (not just church organisations) that the nations can import.

Deuteronomy 4:5-8

5 See, I have taught you decrees and laws as the LORD my God commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land you are entering to take possession of it. 6 Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, "Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people." 7 What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the LORD our God is near us whenever we pray to him? 8 And what other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before you today?

NIV

Becoming an Ekklesia of God demands that we begin to consider the politics of the Kingdom of God (Kingdom Politics) and establish the political dimension of Christ in the saints.

Defining Kingdom Politics:

We said politics deals with the formation, development and regulation of human existence. God is the One who formed human existence (Gen 1:26, Acts 17:26) and He is actively developing it. God therefore demonstrates politics to us.

Kingdom Politics: is an internal revelation of Christ that produces a sense of justice, activating a process of serving and developing humanity to a place of correct and equitable human existence.

· Kingdom Politics begins with a personal sight of Christ’s nature. It begins with seeing Christ as a system of Equity and Justice. Jeremiah says “to know the Lord is to defend the cause of the needy and poor” (Jer 22:16). We cannot claim a knowledge of the Lord and yet be stepping into positions of injustice, greed and materialism. A sight of God’s nature brings one to a place of justice-consciousness.

· As a personal sight of Christ, kingdom politics is a deeply spiritual process. That is, kingdom politics is not Party Politics and it is not Political Science. There are Politicians out there who have no understanding of justice and equity, otherwise if they did they would not be squandering Public Resources the way they do, causing deprivation and human suffering. There are Political Scientists who have an academic understanding of Politics and yet do not possess it as their nature and mentality. Kingdom Politics is the impartation of the nature of God into our lives. He is a God of justice. So therefore kingdom politics is nothing but coming to positions of Christlike-ness.

· As a personal sight of Christ, kingdom politics is not for the immature, it is activated by correct processes of personal growth in Christ.

· Kingdom Politics is discharged through a spirit of serving humanity. In the kingdom of God, ruler-ship is service and to be the greatest is to be the servant of all (Luke 22:26-27, Mark 10:43-45). This means that kingdom politics is not position-oriented; it is less about occupying positions in structures of Government and more about practically serving humanity. One day people came to David and said “while Saul was king over us you were the one who led Israel” (2 Sam 5:2). This is the testimony the church should have in the nations.

We are identifying the revelation of Christ as a trigger for the activation of Kingdom Politics. Let us examine the messages Paul used to preach:

· The first thing that Paul said was that Christ was revealed in him (Gal 1:15-16). So whatever Paul preached constituted his revelation of Christ.

· Paul preached removal of injustice and ethnic dominance. He told the Gentiles that they were “heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus” (Eph 3:6). This was not a “nice Christian sermon”, this message sought to de-throne Jewish dominance and establish ethnic-racial equality.

· Paul preached socio-political cohesion. He told the Jews and Gentiles that God was “removing the dividing wall of hostility” and forming out of them “one new man”. He spoke about Jews and Gentiles having equal access before God (Eph 2:14-18). Again this was no “nice Christian sermon” this message was a deeply political message that sought to establish new and just platforms of human existence. The question here should be where was the Politician of the day? Where was the Roman Empire and its institutions of governance?

· Paul preached about “redistribution of wealth” from the rich to the poor. He spoke about Christ as a system of equality (2 Cor 8:13-15).

The messages of Paul were therefore not mere sermons but they represented the philosophy of the kingdom of God.

As a matter of fact, John the Baptist did the same thing, he spoke about redistribution of resource from the poor to the rich (Luke 3:10&11) within the church. How come then we preach a gospel of “prosperity” that promotes greed, materialism and a neglecting of “my brother”.

The gospel of Paul was therefore not filled with “spiritual-superficiality” and “momentary glory” that fades away (2 Cor 3:7-11), it spoke on prevailing issues of life and revealed Christ (a system of life) as a solution to the crises of humanity.

Origins of Kingdom Politics

· Kingdom Politics originates from God’s nature. He is a God of justice (or a God of correct and equitable human existence), Isa 30:18, Ps 9:16. The word says we must partake of the nature of God (2 Pet 1:4) and actually imitate Him (Eph 5:1).

· Kingdom Politics is also seen in the Adamic Mandate in Gen 1:26-28. The mandate was “to rule”. Ruler-ship is a political term. However, ruler-ship in the kingdom of God is not holding positions, it is serving and developing life (Luke 22:25-27). The ruler shepherds the people (Matt 2:6), i.e. the ruler establishes processes and systems of human development. Adam was the pattern of Christ (Rom 5:14) and so what Adam fell from we are now reclaiming through Christ (1 Cor 15:45-49). Adam was mandated with kingdom politics in the earth, we are now walking into the reality of this dimension of Christ.

Kingdom Politics and Positions of Son-ship

Romans 8:19

19 The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. NIV

There are many things that define true son-ship. We know that Adam was the son of God (Luke 3:38) and Christ came as the son of God (Matt 16:16, John 3:16).

We want to understand what true son-ship really means? What positions of existence is a “son” church called to?

Psalms 2:7-9

7 I will proclaim the decree of the LORD:

He said to me, "You are my Son;

today I have become your Father.

8 Ask of me,

and I will make the nations your inheritance,

the ends of the earth your possession.

9 You will rule them with an iron scepter;

you will dash them to pieces like pottery."

NIV

Revelation 12:5

5 She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. NIV

Psalms 89:19-29

19 Once you spoke in a vision,

to your faithful people you said:

"I have bestowed strength on a warrior;

I have exalted a young man from among the people.

20 I have found David my servant;

with my sacred oil I have anointed him.

24 My faithful love will be with him,

and through my name his horn will be exalted.

25 I will set his hand over the sea,

his right hand over the rivers.

26 He will call out to me, 'You are my Father,

my God, the Rock my Savior.'

27 I will also appoint him my firstborn,

the most exalted of the kings of the earth.

28 I will maintain my love to him forever,

and my covenant with him will never fail.

29 I will establish his line forever,

his throne as long as the heavens endure.

NIV

Generally, the principle of son-ship speaks of a perfected church in Christ. Over and above this, we also realise that whenever we see God speaking about “His son” He is really talking about a church that becomes a system of ruler-ship and government in the earth (through service and human development and not through coups or through taking over positions of influence, although this is good as well – in the scriptures we see Daniel, Joseph and Esther).

The son will shepherd the nations. “Shepherding nations” is nothing but engaging in processes of human development out of maturity in Christ.

The first son, Adam was a ruler (Gen 1:28), Christ is a Ruler (Rev 1:5) and so the “son Church” must become a ruler in the midst of the nations. God says He will “set our hand over the sea (i.e. masses of humanity, Rev 17:1&15)”, Ps 89:25. For these things to take place there must be a radical shift in our concept of God, definition of church, building processes (teachings) and operations. If we declare these things without practically implementing certain changes then they become just pulpit rhetoric.

According to the Prophetic Scriptures, there must be a Church generation (saints) that arises to fulfil its Political Mandate in the Nations.

There are already many believers within the church, who have a true political stirring from the Spirit but who do not necessarily want to engage in Party Politics and yet do not have a Doctrinal basis and or an Operational space within the church to function. God has come for us and is revealing Himself afresh so that the nations can see Him correctly.

Isaiah 52:14-15

14 Just as there were many who were appalled at him —

his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man

and his form marred beyond human likeness —

15 so will he sprinkle (i.e. shock) many nations,

and kings will shut their mouths because of him.

For what they were not told, they will see,

and what they have not heard, they will understand.

NIV

We are building a new system of church, a new priesthood and a new representation of Christ in the earth.

To be continued…