A Kingdom

A Kingdom, A People & A River
A New Paradigm For the Post Modern House Church Movement


Parousia Weekly Update Letter For The Week of November 9, 2005

"When a prophet is accepted and deified, his message is lost. The prophet is only useful so long as he is stoned as a public nuisance calling us to repentance, disturbing our comfortable routines, breaking our respectable idols, shattering our sacred conventions" (A. G. Gardiner as quoted by Arthur Wallis, "In The Day of Thy Power").

In This Issue:

Personal Reflections On 5-Fold Ministry Equipping

Dear Friends,

No comments. Just the letter!

Blessings,
Maurice

Personal Reflections On 5-Fold Ministry Equipping

Much to my own amazement, we have now completed our fourth weekly meeting dedicated to understanding the 5-Fold ministry of Ephesians 4. It has been both an interesting and a challenging time, especially since I have never led anything like this before. For me, this is “on the job training” and I am learning as much (if not more) as everyone else. As I reflect on what God is doing through all of this, a hand full of things stand out to me, and I would like to comment on them.

“Of Servants, Fools & Kings – Two Competing Views of 5-Fold Ministry”. For the past several weeks God has planted me in 1 Corinthians Chapter 4. You received my first “installment” from 1 Corinthians 4 in my October 6 e-letter entitled “Morons, Inc.” (which many of you said you enjoyed). I then made the “mistake” of making up a two-page outline for the chapter and thinking I was “done.” When my wife saw the outline she looked at me and said, “You aren’t really planning on using this are you?” That was not a good omen (I’ll spare you the details and just say, She was right!). I scrapped the outline (and have removed it from the website) and dove back into the chapter to see what I had missed. The answer was, “just about everything!” I had taught through 1 Corinthians in the past, but this was quite different. Never before had I seen the application of Chapter 4 to issues of leadership & 5-fold ministry. Midway into my “new” study I was literally in tears at what I was seeing and hearing, and I re-titled my study “Of Servants, Fools & Kings – Two Competing Views of 5-Fold Ministry.” I believe it will become an integral part of our on-going 5-Fold equipping. I am now at 6 pages of notes & observations and nearly finished. It has made a profound impact on me personally and upon my understanding of 5-fold leadership in house church. I hope to have the new study completed and posted on our “School of 5-Fold Ministry” page on our website by the end of this week.

I really didn’t know what to expect (or what to do!) when we began this equipping journey. I wasn’t expecting to spend a month studying 1^st Corinthians 4. I also thought we would spend more time examining and discussing the specific callings (apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, teacher). Instead, God has sent us down a different path. He has spent this time emphasizing the importance of character over calling & gifting.

The Importance of Character Versus Gifting.

“From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadow shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.”
The Lord of the Rings:
The Return of the King

In the very near future (in the next 3 or 4 weeks) I hope to send you an article I’m been chewing on for nearly a year, entitled “Of Hobbits, Heroes And Spiritual Warfare.” It represents my personal reflections on the role of “mythology” in Christi an apologetics, along with thoughts regarding spiritual leadership and warfare which I have gleaned from “The Lord of the Rings” movies. With the coming release of “The Chronicles of Narnia” movies (along with the attendant “hyper- Christi an-hyping”) I think the timing may be right. In the mean time, you’ll have to endure the blatant “Tolkeinisms” which have punctuated my thinking.

An amazing thing has been happening in our midst during our 5-fold equipping meetings. God is calling out and raising up people who have been cast aside and rejected by much of the traditional church. One of our leadership team made the observation that there seems to be an unusual number of prophetic people in house churches. His conclusion was that they have been driven out of traditional (yes, even charismatic and Pentecostal) churches and that house church has become the only safe place they could find where their gift might be exercised, recognized and appreciated. I think there is some truth to this. But there is more. We have people in our midst who have, in the past, walked in powerful anointing and ministry (if I gave you the details you wouldn’t believe it). But then they entered into a prolonged season of wilderness wandering where their ministry seemed to be over, God seemed to be silent (despite an intercessory pray er life that would put most of us to shame)and their personal lives seemed to head in the opposite direction of their calling (we’re talking 10 or 15 years of this). But now, God is speaking to them again, His anointing on them is growing and their lives seem to have come “full circle” in preparation for what is to come. “From the ashes a fire shall be woken, A light from the shadow shall spring . . .”

This really came into focus last Friday evening as we listened to a tape by Graham Cooke on the life of Joseph. It was all about character development versus gift/calling. Several people were deeply touched by it as the Holy Spirit revealed to them that the purpose behind their years of “distress” and “wilderness wandering” was to develop their character in preparation for God demonstrating His power through them in ministry. They suddenly saw that when it comes to our personal distresses and wilderness wanderings, “God allows in His wisdom what He could easily prevent with His power.” (That’s a profound “OUCH”!) Why? Because God in His wisdom is more concerned with developing our character than He is with delivering us from our circumstances. “Renewed shall be blade that was broken . . .”

Now, why is this so important, and why has God led us down this particular path with respect to 5-Fold ministry & equipping? As Graham Cooke observed, “You will destroy with your character what you build with your gift.” (O.K., I heard you moan on that one too. Trust me, the whole evening was like that!). Anointing and gifting can happen in a moment, but character requires growth (and time). We each need to “grow into” our gift and calling. Our wilderness wanderings and personal distresses are simply God’s process for developing us in such a way that our character matches our calling and gift. It was true of Joseph, and it is true of us today. It is in the course of our wilderness wanderings and personal distress where God desires to set us free from our personal “baggage” – anger, fear, bitterness, woundedness, etc. – and prepare us for ministry with character which matches our gift and calling. “The crownless again shall be king.”

This message by Graham Cooke has had such a powerful impact on our people that I am working to convert it to an MP3 recording so that we can post it on our website on our “School of 5-Fold Ministry” page so that you can download and listen to it yourself. I think it, too, is going to become an integral part of our 5-Fold equipping track.

The Importance of Modeling. I think we should have a standing rule in house church ministry that goes something like this: If you can’t model it so that the simplest person in the room can see, understand and repeat it, then you probably shouldn’t be doing it! Apart from a brief foray into 1^st Corinthians 4, I have done surprising little “teaching” on 5-Fold ministry. And yet, things are functioning! Much of our time has been spent in pray er, worship and ministry. But during that time we have modeled what ministry looks like and everyone has had opportunity to be “hands on.”

I am increasingly convinced that we learn (and teach) more by personal modeling than by didactic teaching (although didactic instruction is important, which is why it too must be part of what we do – see affective versus cognitive learning below). I see this in Matthew 11:29 where Jesus said: “Take my yoke upon you and learn of me.” Note that the “taking of the yoke” is intended to result in our “learning of him.” I hate to point out the obvious, but that’s modeling; Jesus models and we learn. Paul also speaks of this in 1^st Corinthians 4 when he tells the Corinthians, “I exhort you therefore, be imitators of me” ( 4:16 ). The Greek word here (mimeomai) means “to imitate,” hence, “to follow.” The word “does not refer to one who mimics, nor even to one who follows as a disciple, but to one who actually internalizes and lives out the model that has been set before him.” It is a uniquely Pauline word, appearing 11 times in the NT and ONLY in Paul’s letters. Paul, too, understood the important role of spiritual modeling. It is my pray er that this “DNA” of modeling will become part of the DNA of all our house churches.

Affective Versus Cognitive Learning. Now that I have talked about the importance of modeling (see above), allow me to offer some “learning theory,” taken from Module 7 of our new house church equipping workbook. Allow me to quote myself: Let me begin this section with a story from the Great Welsh Revival of 1904. This revival came to be called “the singing revival” because of the tremendous amount of worshipful singing that occurred at many of the meetings. Nearly every church in Wales was filled to capacity 7 nights a week for 18 months, and over 5% of the population of the nation professed Christ for the first time and joined a Church! But the revival was frequently criticized for a lack of Bible teaching & preaching. A well respected London Journalist (and Christi an) named W. T. Stead traveled to Wales to personally witness the revival. His articles, which appeared in several Christi an publications, popularized the revival in London . He was asked specifically about the lack of teaching & preaching in many of the services. Here is Mr. Stead’s observation as it appeared in The Methodist Times for December 15, 1904 :

“Do you think that teaching is what people want in a revival? These people, all the people in a land like ours, are taught to death, preached to insensibility. They all know the essential truths. They know that they are not living as they ought to live, and no amount of teaching will add anything to that conviction. To hear some people talk you would imagine that the best way to get a sluggard out of bed is to send a tract on astronomy showing him that according to the fixed and eternal law the sun will rise at a certain hour in the morning. The sluggard does not deny it. He is entirely convinced of it. But what he knows is that it is precious cold at sunrise on a winter's morning, and it is very snug and warm between the blankets. What the sluggard needs is to be well shaken, and in case of need to be pulled out of bed. 'Roused,' the Revival calls it. And the Revival is a rouser rather than a teacher. And that is why I think those Churches which want to go on dozing in the ancient ways had better hold a special series of pray er meetings that the Revival may be prevented coming their way.”

I share this story for several reasons, not the least of which is that house church (along with the revival which I believe will soon be coming to the house church movement in America ) is a rouser as well as a teacher. The modeling which I described in my earlier observation highlights an important difference between cognitive learning and affective learning. Cognitive learning has to do with imparting information and facts. This is where most teaching in the traditional church takes place today: “Thy Word have I had in my notebook, that I might not apply any of it in a practical way!” Affective learning has to do with engaging our emotions in a way that leads to changed behavior. It is the difference between the head and the heart. This, I believe, was W. T. Stead’s point.

Do you remember what the pastor of your church preached on six months ago? What about six weeks ago? No? Now, do you remember the last time you saw someone healed or delivered from demonic oppression? You can probably remember most, if not all, of the details! That was a “teachable moment” when affective learning (experiencing the power of God to heal) opened the door for cognitive learning (teaching on what Scripture says about God as our healer, etc.). We see this idea at work in the early house churches of the book of Acts: And they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to pray er. And everyone kept feeling a sense of awe” (Acts 2:42 -43). The early church devoted itself to the apostle’s “teaching.” The word for “teaching” here (didache) refers to formal instruction regarding a body of doctrine. That was the “cognitive” side. But they also devoted themselves to fellowship, taking meals together and pray ing together (what I would call “affective learning” activities). The result was “a sense of awe” which led them to change their behavior (read the rest of Acts 2:43ff to see all the ways that the behavior of these early converts changed). In other words, what they were being taught (cognitive learning) was directly related to what they were experiencing (affective learning) on a daily basis. Teaching was not divorced from real life. So too, in our house churches. We need the formal “didactic” teaching that leads to cognitive learning. But we MUST couple it with that “experiential teaching” which leads to affective learning and changed lives. Cognitive learning and head knowledge alone will lead to pride (1 Corinthians 8:1) and sterility devoid of genuine practical application (i.e., changed lives). Experiential learning alone will eventually devolve into mysticism, sentimentality, error and an experience contrary to truth.

Remember that formal cognitive teaching alone (the kind of teaching most of us Christi ans are familiar with) is not “the secret ingredient” to either a successful house church or successful 5-fold equipping. God wants us to experience the entire body in all its various parts/gifts functioning together as we share meals together & worship together; through one person bringing a teaching, another person bringing a song, another pray ing for healing for others in the group, another exercising a gift of intercession to pray over those in need, and another bringing a prophetic word. All of these things working together will result in both cognitive and affective learning with the result that lives will be changed and the saints will be equipped and encouraged for greater service!

Come & join us this Friday. This coming Friday will be our 5^th evening together for our “School of the 5-Fold”. Yes, there is still time for you to join us! The River of God ’s Spirit is preparing to flow in great power & blessing. Are you prepared to “run with the horses” and to lead in this coming move of God? Come and join us this coming Friday evening at 6:00 pm at 1114 N. Rudolf, roughly 3 blocks east of the intersection of Argonne and Boone in the Spokane Valley . If you get lost call 926-7743. Bring your favorite potluck dish, an open heart, a hunger for God and maybe even a friend. Details posted on our website at www.parousianetwork.com/school_of_5_fold_ministry.htm.