If redemption is a thread going through the entire Bible, it is the wisdom of God to find out where that thread started, and what seed truth surrounds that first occurrence.  In doing so, we peer into God’s heart to understand this love story that is patient that all would have their names written in the book of life, and thus have entrance into God’s glorious city.

Gen 3:6-7
. . .he took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings. NASU

The need for redemption starts here, in Genesis 3:6,7. Take your first notes here. The thought of nakedness is what happens  immediately after disobedience. Compare Rev 16:15-16 (“Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes, so that he will not walk about naked and men will not see his shame.”) And they gathered them together to the place which in Hebrew is called Har-Magedon. As God closes the plan of redemption, and draws men to the Har-Magedon, He reminds us of where this all began, and that nakedness had to be dealt with.

The second note to make in Genesis 3:6,7 is man’s response to being unclothed: he took from the earth, and in his own effort covered his nakedness. Religion is man’s attempt to deal with nakedness through works, and through the law. But, in the end, what comes from the earth will be dust, and has no redemption ability.

Gen 3:17-19
Cursed is the ground because of you;
In toil you will eat of it
All the days of your life.
18 “Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you;
And you will eat the plants of the field;
19 By the sweat of your face
You will eat bread,
Till you return to the ground,
Because from it you were taken;
For you are dust,
And to dust you shall return.” NASU

The ground is cursed and thus fig leaves and vegetation can never redeem man. There is only one acceptable vegetation: Jesus the tree of Life, who is the root of Jesse, and called the BRANCH. This vegetation was cut off from the land of living (ISA 53:8), and when grafted to it will produce fruit that remains throughout eternity.

First Instance of Redemption

Gen 3:21 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.

Sometimes something in scripture can stare you in the face and because of its brevity you miss it. I knew this scripture passage well but one day I saw it: Genesis 3:21 is a very important scripture. It is God response to our nakedness. It is God’s start of the plan of redemption. God exchanges man’s vegetation and efforts to cloth himself with the only acceptable clothes: sacrifice. For it is here that God slays an animal, takes its skin, and cloths man through the spilling of blood. It is here that God acts out redemption. It is here that God prophesies that there will be a blood shed, a sacrifice given, that will cloth man eternally, and be the LAST sacrifice. Every animal slaughtered, and every drop of blood that spilled to the ground prophesied of that day on the cross. They pointed to it.

This next picture we see in redemption breaks forth from this seed truth. Cain and Abel contrast the picture of acceptable sacrifice further. Cain offers that which is from the earth, while Abel offer that  which cost a life–a life that pointed to the cross. The sacrifice of vegetation led to jealousy, and jealousy lead to murder. Ironically, the offering of blood leads to producing fruit, and the offering of vegetation to the works of the flesh.

Gal 3:26-28 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. NASU

The plan of redemption allows us to walk as a son of God, clothed with Him, and adorned with His radiant beauty. We see both bookends: on one side we see God covering Adam’s nakedness, and on the other end we find our true identity as the bride and city of God, joined to Jesus, and remaining clothed for eternity in Him. Our identity is in Him, and there is nothing more for Him to do. It is finished. The plan of redemption is complete. So what about our life after accepting redemption? Why do we seem naked at times, hiding ourselves from God? Why do we struggle to have faith? And, why do we find it hard to finish the race well? Many that preach the finished work message miss the most relevant message for us who are believers: the message of how to really walk.

2 Peter 1:2-11. . .seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.

For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature. . .. Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins. Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble;  NASU

Redemption is not just about our entrance into the city of God. It is also about our walking in way that we are Jesus’ pleasure on this earth. We are to walk pleasing Him. We are to practice diligence, moral excellence, God’s knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love. All through the New Testament we see that not only our identity in the finished work of redemption defines us, but also what we do with that redemption. None of these qualities are done through vegetation, as with Adam. They are done because grace is supplied, and everything pertaining to His divine nature and promises have been granted to us.  We have a body like Adam’s, but we have a treasure inside. It is up to us whether we make use of the treasure. It is up to us to choose to walk and stay diligent. If all I have done is received the gift of redemption, understanding my identity in the finished work, yet not truly walk as one who is from a different kingdom, I am not guaranteed not to stumble.

I choose to practice these things because of His redemption. I choose to have mercy on myself when I do stumble. And, I choose to be able to say that this year I will walk in a more mature way than last year. We are a people called and chosen to be the New Jerusalem. We need to walk like we are now residents of that great city.

January 8, 2012

John Robert Lucas

http://templebuildersministry.com

I consider myself a grace minister, and a minister of the finished work of Christ. Other ministers calling themselves grace and finished work ministers are now spreading a bit of leaven with this message in a way that we must differentiate the error.

So, what am I seeing that is causing the most recent stir: an article “3 Reasons Why I Don’t Preach on Repentance” by Paul Ellis.

Mr. Ellis takes the approach in his article that he is the new order of grace ministry and those teaching contrary are religious. His argument is that unbelievers and Christians should not turn from sin. Yep, that is the new grace teaching. repentance now means changing your mind. Which is somewhat semantics, because if you turn from sin, you have changed your mind about sin.

The new doctrine, along with similar new grace doctrines, creates a new splinter in the church that all who teach repentance are religious, acting under law. But, the author fails proper principles of interpretation in his analysis. Quoting from the article, these are the statements made by this new grace doctrine:

1. repentance put people under law
2. It does not lead people to salvation
3. We’re called to preach the gospel, not repentance

Much of this article is semantic language issues where the author claims to be interpreting the literal meaning of the Greek word better than how the religious use it. The issue is that a concordance search on New Testament repentance is established by context. Simply read in Revelation where Jesus is calling Christians to repent from the wicked that they are doing. Sure, they were changing their mind, but Jesus is calling the church to TURN THEIR BACKS on sin. Sorry, if that is law, then Jesus is instituting some form of law as well as grace.

Many who have been born again TURNED FROM THE SIN of the old man as they made that initial decision. Along with receiving the message of truth, which was born in their heart, they are saved. This is not to be contested. The Spirit led them to turn from sin, and no grace teaching can take this away. Alternatively, Christians at times must turn away from sin as well. They need to turn their back on it with a decision, and hold fast with discipline. It is the grace of Jesus that shows us the sin, helps us to make the decision, helps us to turn our back on it, and then that same grace keeps us free. See. . .grace is intertwined with repentance.

The grace ministers are moving towards a doctrine that diminishes Christian responsibility and discipline, calling them law, and those that teach them the religious. But in the end, their followers will not attain the life in the Spirit without these vital elements of our life. Sure, it would be great to do whatever we want, whenever we want, with whomever we want, but in the end it is death–death because we are not WALKING with Jesus in close union.

The true grace and finished work message has to help you WALK in the Spirit, in the Light, in His ways, in such a way you walk free, you walk outpouring fruit and gifts, and reflect Jesus, who is our grace. Grace can itself become law.

Why are the grace ministers doing this? They want to lighten the load on weighed down Christians. Christians tend to self-impose doctrinal burdens on themselves to the point they accomplish little. They are always sin-conscious, and they always feel guilty because they are not fulfilling some scripture or Christian service. I get that. And you can amass a large audience with a grace gospel that calls everything law, those teaching it as religious, and since the cross is a finished work, take it easy on yourself.

Only that it was this easy. It is not. Living as a baby Christian in the outer courts of God may resemble that to some degree–that is–until the enemy attacks and you are not prepared to respond. But more so, when you enter into the courts of God, it gets better, and it gets harder. The mountains you are called to go up are higher, you have to sacrifice more of your precious personal time, you are introduced to new challenges that could have been avoided ny staying down the mountain, by staying out in the external courts. For those who dare to enter into the Holy of Holies, 100 fold, service to God, those experiences with God makes all that outer court activity look silly. But, just before you can get cocky, you are faced with giants never encountered. Then, you are brought to enemy maneuvering that is beyond your ability to calculate. It is then the full measure of grace is at hand to give you His eyes to see the giant for what it really is, and to counteract all the tactics of the enemy with pure Wisdom.

As you see. These grace ministers are seeing fragments and are excited, yet confused. Who’s right? Well, Jesus of course. What message looks like Him? What doctrine has the savour of incense that satisfies the Father? What grace teaching resembles the wisdom that produces maturity?

Do not let man confuse you with silly semantics on words such as repentance.

I always ask why.

Why did the minister teach a message that strips away turning our backs on sin?

What was the real risk that those who turned their back on sin would have ended up being law-oriented pharisees?

I predict that we will continue to see grace type of articles like this more frequently, and those propagating them trying to create a following of people who feel like they are special because they believe it and the rest of Christendom is religious.

John Robert Lucas

November 2011

http://templebuildersministry.com

http://johnrobertlucas.com

The word prophetic represents a prophetic-type message for today’s church. However, in my research I found that the term prophetic means different things to different Christians.
On the Temple Builders website I use the term probably more than I should, but I use it in hopes of attracting segments in the church who I think may be responsive to the Temple Builders message.

Webster defines:
pro•phet•ic \pre-”fe-tik\ adjective
1 : of, relating to, or characteristic of a prophet or prophecy
2 : foretelling events : predictive

For a nutshell definition, Webster is not too far off. Simply put, if a minister has a message that is prophetic, they have the characteristic of a prophet. Normally we think of an Old Testament prophet that predicts the future. Thus, a large body of Christians define prophetic as futuristic ministry. End time prophecy fits nicely into this package with authors such as Tim LaHaye (Left Behind Series), Hal Lindsey (Late Great Planet Earth), and Jack Van Impe. We call this type of prophecy eschatology.

Some that teach end-time prophecy declare that they are not prophets, though. However, if one unfolds to others the meaning of obscure scriptures relating to the last days—that person is acting as a prophet—they are prophetic, whether they admit it or not. If they happen to be wrong, God may considered them to be false prophets.

Movement Prophets

Prophets of the Bible include all prophets, New Testament and Old Testament. Many of these prophets did not prophesy about end-time prophetic events; though, they did foretell what God was about to do in the near future. Also note: some prophets, as John the Baptist, performed no miracles.

In modern times, we witness groups of Christians labeling themselves as “prophetic”, or “prophets.” These prophetic people often encamp together. For some, the term prophetic is defined when thinking of certain ministries from certain movements. Though many of us hate to be classified, we end up in some type of segment of the church anyways. Here are some examples:
Faith movement prophets:

• Hilton Sutton (ABC’s of Bible Prophecy)
• John Hagee (Day of Deception)
• Charles Capps (End Time Events)

Prophetic movement prophets (this is a loose identification):

• Rick Joyner/Morningstar Ministries (Prophetic Vision for the 21 Century)
• Mike Bickle/IHOP (Growing in the Prophetic)
• Bill Hamon (Personal Prophecy Series)

Latter Rain / Sonship movement prophets:

• Bill Britton (Prophet on Wheels)
• George Warnock (The Feasts of Tabernacles)
• William Branham (The Seven Seals)
• Kelley Varner (Corporate Anointing)

Sometimes prophets are carbon copies, but in the case of the Latter Rain prophets, they are similar in just certain aspects. In a way, I can fall into many of these camps on a certain doctrine or style of ministry. One of the things I enjoy, but also called to do is study and understand these different camps, with their associations. This is normal, and what you find is the next generation is always a bit more progressive, though that constraint is self-imposed in most cases. No matter how old you are in age, you can still be progressive.

In my career, I have a network of like-minded consultants, and it is normal for us to help make each other successful. It should be no different in the Church. The danger comes when you can no longer think outside the box, when you cannot break out of your circle of alliances. This limits and at some point can corrupt.

Take note: Some of these prophets now call themselves apostles, but they are still considered prophetic.

Sometimes, we hear of modern-day prophets that predict events that are supposed to occur soon. Obviously, this is the most risky because you can quickly be revealed as a false prophet. Think back to the May 2011 doomsday prophecy by Harold Camping. This is a list of ones that I know about:

• Kim Clement (Sound of His Voice)
• Paul Cain (The Word and the Spirit)
• Bob Jones: Not the university

The Elijah List is a prophetic website that features: John Paul Jackson, Graham Cooke, Dutch Sheets, Rick Joyner, Bill Hamon, and many more. This site is indicative of a segment within the prophetic movement. If you want clarification of this network of prophetic ministers, this site features a few of them.

Real Prophetic

So what does prophetic really mean?

It simply means any ministry effort that can be compared to a biblical prophet. Note, however, it is not an “office of a prophet” as some call it, but a gift of a prophet. It is not a position one holds; it is an action one does. Sorry to burst any bubble but if you still believe that the 5-fold ministry are offices that you hold, you are still reading that scripture wrong. It is a gift, not an office. I speak more about the difference in the Temple Builders series.

John the Baptist was given a message and mission to prepare Jesus’ way. Today, you may be given a message and mission that God uses to prepare the world for the final coming of Jesus. The preparatory part of that message and mission can be called prophetic. It is futuristic in nature because God is telling you where and how to build, and as a builder you see God’s plan as an architect.

Are you a visionary?

As another example, Agabus the prophet bound Paul’s hands and spoke a personal word to Paul, foretelling Paul’s future. Though there are many counterfeit activities abroad, they are counterfeiting the true prophetic activity of this kind of foretelling. So, personal foretelling is scriptural regardless of other falseness that you may witness. However, not all prophets act as Agabus.

Just observe the Bible prophet example, and the term prophetic is defined. The worse thing you can do is pigeon-hole the term prophetic to mean your favorite Bible prophets, or the current prophets of the day. Even if you once moved as a prophet, that does not indicate that you are still in sync with God. It is unbelievably easy to get out of sync with God. Emotional words, using a prophetic vernacular, maintaining association with other prophets, or experiencing prophetic worship do not guarantee you that your words are present truth prophetic words. If it were just that easy. Instead, God has us go through dry spells where our words drop to the ground in lieu of a character building lesson. And we do not get back a present truth message or fresh manna until we learn it. And, usually, the lesson grinds you into the earth. Sorry, but that is God’s reality.

I perceive God is speaking a preparatory word to His people to prepare His bride. I believe future prophets will not be interested in telling you about ways you can escape impending doom. They will not interested be interested in explaining how all the events of Revelation will manifest themselves. Instead, they will desire to speak a word that causes you to go to God’s next level for your life—in maturity. God’s present truth prophetic word is a word sounding a trumpet; it sounds an alarm to get ready, but also sounds the trumpet for God’s future prophetic festivities.

Though I observe many ministries making loud soundings of prophetic utterance, I perceive God’s true prophetic utterance is much quieter in the earth right now, in 2011. This utterance is heard by those that desire Him, and Him alone. To find God’s prophetic, you must desire to know Him more than anything that can overshadow His voice. It is then—God’s thunderous voice is distinctly heard.

Finally, I think you can expect is a shift away from the most popular ministers selling books, broadcasting to thousands, and who are the most respected. I see a day in the next few years where God is raising up a bunch of unknowns–voices in the wilderness, the most unlikely candidates.

It is how one functions that makes them a prophet, and that functioning is not a switch that turns on 24/7. That means you can be called with a gift of a prophet and only use that gift as needed. Many times end up at a client and play the role of a senior business analyst; at other times, a business intelligence solution advisor, and at other times a project manager. God uses different gifts as He has need, not your need. He is the Client so to speak. We serve His need, not what we want to push.

John Robert Lucas

I remember a few years ago where it was so normal for a popular minister to deliver a powerful, anointed message from God, and as soon as the service ended they bolted for the door. Because I worked behind the scenes it became clear that there was an “in” crowd of fellow ministers who would fellowship after the meeting, but it was always restricted to that tight circle of friends. It was a day of elite ministers.

Today, the same spirit abounds, but with less of the elitism. If we give a powerful word, we really and truly feel like we have done our job. We are tired, and we find it awkward to reach out a build new relationships. In spite of all of this, there is a duty on ministers that requires us to reach out, to leave comfort zones, and to receive grace to seek out those new and unlikely relationships that are God appointed.

The response for those more introverted is that they are uncomfortable, it awkward striking up a conversation with someone they do not know, and it is simply too much effort. Some may be hindered by the risk of the other person not responding well, or  reciprocating. For those that are naturally introverted, it is most hard because it is not a natural personality trait. Regardless, we have to get past all of this.

I can tell you from someone that might have been the most introverted teenager, with all kinds of inner hurts, and low confidence until I was in my late 20′s, and that is was painful for me to break out. It is, however, the way of God for all of us to break out, and no minister is excluded, no matter how successful or popular.

So, first ask yourself, when was the last time you approached someone out of the blue, totally random, and initiated a conversation? And did, you follow-up with that conversation with a phone call, an email, a Facebook invitation? One thought that the enemy will plant is, “wait for them to respond”? I can tell you now, that if I waited for someone to call me, to reach out to me, I would have few personal friends, and my career would be half as successful, and ministry would be overall weak, with little of God’s approval. As we use to say in 1980, God will speak through a donkey. Ministry perfomance, crowd response, popularity, mean little to God. But man esteems them as success.

When I am on a new project, at a company such as Walmart, I always sought out others to grab lunch or dinner with. If they worked for me, I really wanted them to take part in after hours relationship building. In the professional world, this is what we do. For me, it goes a little further, though. Whether ministry or career, I simply like people and want to know more about them. What their interests are, their ambitions, and what makes them tick. I also do my part in making their careers successful, not just my own. I am not alone in the corporate in doing this. Other successful leaders do the same, and they treat the lowest person in the ranks equal to everyone else.

So, why in ministry do we find leaders more preoccupied by their ministry, and their tight circle of friends? Human nature. You have to make yourself break out of it, and for some of us, the break is most difficult. I had such a broken, hurting heart that it took years for God to do that healing and make me fit to be used.  If I had not been connected to the body of Christ, it would have taken longer, if at all. God used so many people to reach out to me and pull me from the pit of despair, hurt, loneliness, right after I was born again. I was fragile and could have easily fell away, and ended my life tragically.

So, where are you at? Are you in that broken, hurt place? Then reach out for help. Find a part of the body that will be your support, even if you have to drive far to find it. Allow people to enter your life, even though it seems risky.

Are you successful in ministry but are not creating new relationships that will be eternal? Then drop any spiritual pride that normally comes with being used with God and reach out. If you minister in the pulpit, you should be the last one to leave. If there is a line to see you, your job is not over because the line ends. Take contact information. Go out and seek others. Be random if you have to. You may think it is totally random, but that may be when God puts His greatest stamp of approval on your life.

In the end, you must be a minister that rescues people from the pit, building enduring realtionships to mature those rescued people.

5 steps to applying this article in your gatherings

First, who does this really apply to, just the Pastor(s)?

This applies to everyone, but I have an expectation that anyone who is a leader, or on the ministry team, including worship leader(s), should make steps now in this direction. But, additionally, those in the congregation who feel they have attained a level of spiritual growth and can outflow God’s life, and the fruit of the Spirit, should also be challenged and start stepping out.

1. Before and after service, do not just greet people, look around and allow God’s Spirit to target someone you should greet, and ask some questions to. Maybe, before you approach them, rehearse in your mind a couple of starting questions. Take a small step forward and just make progress.
2. Allow God to pinpoint at least one relationship that God wants you to cultivate. That means you can ask a specific question about how they did at work, how their vacation was, and then probe deeper based on the response. Again, rehearse in your mind if needed.
3. Follow up! If they are on Facebook, Twitter, or email, get the contact information and make sure that you connect with them when you get home. Better yet, get their phone number and invite them to your house for dinner, or at least out to eat.
4. Grow a relationship. Find something in common that you can do together, like hiking, a sport, or go to a museum. Different settings help grow a relationship.
5. Demonstrate Christ to them. Be more interested in them than you. Ask them questions, probe, take interest in what makes them happy, and then encourage. There is nothing worse than someone who tries to build a relationship but it is one way. Which means, you also have to talk about yourself. You have to even given your struggles, weaknesses, and do not be afraid to speak of you successes. It is not always bragging, we are sharing our joy.

In a home church or group setting, the dynamics are different, and much easier, so I think you can challenge yourself by just seeing and doing. But I will not talk about the logistics in those settings because they usually lend themselves to this practice already. When I attended a home church a few years ago, we spent all Sunday afternoon together and became a family. This is certainly a model of church gatherings that accomplish relationship building.

On Sunday morning, most services end and the large percentage of attendees exit the building quickly. They think it is over. Not so. It is just beginning.

John Robert Lucas

July 2011

At the start of my career I was pretty technical. As I grew into the career, I had to reinvent myself as a leader, losing the hands-on technical skills. Sure the hands-on is fun, challenging, and can be a good retirement career, but many are called to be leaders, too. So, I reinvented myself to manage, talk, and conduct myself as a leader in my industry.

As I continued my career,  I had to transform again into a leader that could also function as a Project Manager in a very specialized field, which assures that I would never be commoditized, and I would stay employed at a higher salary. Well, you would think that I had arrived, but I had to reinvent myself again; this time to leverage past abilities that were now stagnant. This time I had to transform into a Leader, who can manage projects in a specialized field, but also drive solutions for the US’s largest corporations, by using business objectives assure success. This type of role functions as a business advisor in addition to the other skills.

Finally, at least for this writing, I had to yet reinvent myself to add the function of being a strategist. So, I now function by forming strategies that align with business priorities, driving solutions and constructing a roadmap to meet all objectives. I had to add other soft skills such as risk management, priority setting, and thought leadership to make the package somewhat complete.

Thus is the training God gives us in our life. GOD WILL TRAIN  YOU AT THE WORLD”S EXPENSE. As long as you can see the need, adapt to what is required to meet that need, and make steps that go forward, you are reinventing yourself. It is the way of God to then use those abilities, which are instilled by grace, and anoint them for His purposes in the kingdom. When God has need of you, He calls at the appointed time.

How does this translate into kingdom work?

In the corporate world, I have to write strategies , thought leadership white papers, business and technical roadmaps, business needs, and  transfer all that knowledge of to the client. In the kingdom, I have to execute the messages of the Lord with the same precision, quality, skill, and transfer that in the best way that I can communicate. In the corporate world, this is not a perfect process, and the kingdom has the same constraints, but the amount of edification that occurs because of this reinventing is off the charts compared to staying mediocre.

My encouragement to you is that God accomplished this in me without any obvious advantage. I decided in the 70′s to only complete the 10th grade in high school. I moved out and lived on my own when I turned 16, and started working manual labor jobs for several years. I was raised with no knowledge of scripture and was a heathen until I was saved in 1979. God set in my path many divine appointments with other believers. It is through being connected to His body, that God did His work.

I know the one stand out that made me successful and will make you successful: a passion for knowing Jesus, and craving His words and His ways. Be hungry for God’s ways, and be willing to breakout of mainstream christianity. In business, I am not mainstream. If I were, my value would be diminished. In the ways of God, you will find that if you ascend no higher than those around you—you will miss God’s high call for your life.

Do not be afraid to reinvent yourself by accepting the challenge to change. Maybe that change is a strong focus in expository scripture study, or maybe it is drawing much closer to Jesus, and obeying the Holy Spirit’s promptings. Whatever it is, you just have to decide to do it and do not fear. Do not look back. Do it in the natural world, and do it in the spirit. But make sure you are reiventing yourself.

Good and bad, the journey you are on will transform you, even the times when it seems like God is far from you—He is nearer than you think!

John Robert Lucas

http://templebuildersministry.com

July 2011

In regards to types of christian teachings, we tend to coin new phrases to differentiate ourselves from something that is more commonly accepted. In this case, the term “Message of the Finished Work.” or “Grace” message is popularized. Sometimes the new phrase is just a re-branding of the same old thing. At other times, it is a new perspective, but essentially the same principle or doctrine. Yet, there are times when a teaching will add something that has never been widely taught, or has been misunderstood. Even further, sometimes the teaching will radically reinterpret scripture to mean something totally different than how the modern church understands it. So, when one says “I teach the Finished Work or Grace Message, or the Finished Work of Christ Message”, it can mean lots of different things.

It is best to start a definition by establishing common denominators. For this term, the following seems to be widely agreed about the cross:

• Jesus perfectly accomplished His work
• Jesus left nothing undone or incomplete
• Jesus left nothing unfinished or deficient
• Jesus left nothing unaccomplished or lacking
• His work was totally sufficient.

Since Jesus paid it all, nothing needs to be added to His finished work.

So the message at its core is about resting in what Jesus already did, and not laboring to receive or to some how earn inheritance. It is done!

The term Grace Message is used interchangeably, and contrasts the grace aspect of the message compared to mainstream Christian doctrines that are works and law oriented.

Most evangelical Christians I have met in my 32  years of being saved would say a big amen. There should be no controversy. But, the addons to this message are what differentiate the message, and this article will differentiate some of the differences.

Finished work message = understanding who you are

History of the Core Message

Back in the 1940′s, a message emerged that focused on who you are in Christ, much of which came had roots in the Latter Rain Revival .  Out of this movement came authors such as Bill Britton, George Warnock, Kevin J Conner, and Kelley Varner, which continued writings that are indicative of what we would call the Finished Work or Grace Message. Other names for the type of teachings espoused are Sonship, Manifested Sons of God, and the Apostolic Reformation or Movement, though no one likes to be labeled. An important principle to remember is that all these messages have common denominators yet divert its message into many different theology viewpoints.

The one component that you can learn from these authors is the fact that types and shadows are very important as a principle of interpretation, and that we gain understanding in both who we are in Christ and the prophetic through this brand of Finished Work Message.

Today, the message has blended into so many spheres of influence that we can only bubble up some of the most important aspects of the message, and examine some of the differences when these terms are thrown around by contemporary ministers. In many circles there has been a departure from these principles of interpretation, or they are simply absent because of the lack of progression.

The Core Message

The Finished Work Message states that we are the righteousness of God in Christ positionally– because of the finished work of the cross. Thus, if the white walls surrounding the Tabernacle of Moses represents God’s righteousness, and we have entered into that tabernacle by accepting Christ, the Father only sees the righteous walls of Jesus, not you. When God sees you, He sees His Son. Your only part was to enter in. Additionally, when you entered into the tabernacle, you abide in Him because the Person of Jesus is that tabernacle. At the root, this is who you are, and this is the basis for the Finished Work and Grace Message.

So, I taught this tabernacle message in the early 80′s, thus you could have called me a “finished work” teacher. But in reality, the message was not new, it just added another perspective on that simple truth. If we can see a picture like the tabernacle, it helps us to understand and walk in it better. The Bible is full of these types and pictures that even show the intricate detail of who we are in Him. We understand even better when we combine these pictures with truth such as: Eph 1:7-8 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. NASU

As this message progresses, we learn to not return to the cross every time we do something wrong. We learn we are not bound to oppression by other Christians, being force-fed doctrines, or to obey a list of do’s and don’ts. There is a grace we rest in that receives deliverance from anything that does not look and act like Jesus Christ, and that grace allows us to do much more than we can imagine. In all, the message is a victory message, opposed to a draining, joy robbing, works doctrine, that self-inflicts us with our shortcomings–daily.

Adding Detail to the Finished Work Message

I see the Finished Work Message dealing with the prophetic as well, describing what the last day church looks like. How will the bride make herself ready? What are the things that she is doing that demonstrate the finished work of Jesus to the world? And this message gives the needed guidance to train the bride how to make herself ready. This is the type of finished work message that aligns with the Temple Builders message.

What is the finished work message accomplishing? Its objective is to get us to see who we are in Christ to the point that we will start walking in that reality. We will truly walk by grace, not under law. We will cease to be sin conscious. We will stop a life preoccupied with christian works to make us feel righteous before Him. Then we flip it by saying that the revelation of knowing who we are in Him propels us to good deeds, obedience, and becoming a mature temple builder. We will start understanding the desert life–the dealing of God that are painful, and learning their lessons.

As we add detail to the message, controversies appear because we start deviating from the core message. A heretic deviation comes when we go too far with a truth, losing balance, or we start getting goofy with scripture interpretation. However, a progressive deviation occurs as Jesus reveals more of His plans and purposes for your life, and for the church. These plans may not align with the denominational church as a whole. The original message from the latter rain revival immediately progressed from the core message by teaching against the doctrine of pre-tribulation rapture is a heretical theory, not a scriptural fact.

In addition, heretical deviations also occur when we think we have a better revelation of grace and start to relax our call to obedience, stop building, start sinning more, or shun discipline. We know that if the righteous seed is pure, we are now destined to become God’s tree of righteousness in the Earth, but that may not happen even with a revelation of the finished work. This is where the practicality of understanding God’s ways come into play. You can be walking in the grace revelation and still be cruel to others. You can understand that you are His righteousness and still be lazy. You can fully understand the finished work on the cross, and choose to practice homosexuality until the day you die.

The idea is to stay balanced, and do not forsake the discipline of the Spirit. Learn of His ways and His correction, staying humble.

Balance to the Message of Grace

How do I spot deviations in today’s grace message?

• Does the message of grace hold Christians accountable? It should!
• Does the message downplay rewards in heaven, or consequences of disobedience in eternity? Your walk should have fruit that remains, and that fruit will be rewarded.
• Does the message try to label scriptures as old covenant? Both OT, NT, and the Gospels all have applicable truth for your daily walk, and will also prophesy to a day that will come. Scriptures have a strict meaning, but also have interpretations that instruct us in God’s ways.
• Does the message brand scriptural observances such as water baptism, the Lord’s supper, the sabbath, as useless? Jesus is the Sabbath, and there is a great revelation of that rest, but God allows for duality of meaning to observe a day of physical rest as well.
• Is the message theoretical and you find it hard to apply in your current trial? A good finished work message will help you to practically walk out your salvation.
• Does the message remove the role of the Holy Spirit convicting Christians? A new doctrine suggests that the Spirit does not function in convicting Christians. However, without the Spirit showing us our sin, disobedience, or false thinking, none of us would mature.
• Does the message oppose types and shadows of who the church is? For instance, does the message say that you are NOT the bride, essentially removing this prophetic picture of the body of Christ? We ARE the bride of Christ and messages should not spread confusion of our prophetic identity.
• Are the defenders of the message acting in the spirit of humility? Or, do they dismiss critics as religious and law-oriented? Many times you can tell a message by the character of the people following it.

Latter Rain Purism

In today’s church, we are 64 years removed from the Latter Rain revival. During any revival or movement, God never straightens out your doctrine perfectly. Most of the time, some doctrines are changed to align with the mind of Christ, and others main be misaligned for years. The Holy Spirit has His own timetable for revealing, and when He does, those with ears to hear and eyes to see will continually be transformed to Jesus’ mind on every matter. So, 64 years later we have progression. We also, however, have heretic deviations.

I always find myself with different eyes than many of the ministers and authors that I may feed from. My point of view on grace is certainly a contrast with most grace teachers I know. The most problematic issue I have is what they leave out:

• Christian responsibility, with a focus on the God-kind of discipline
• Victory without emphasis on the pain and struggles that it takes to achieve it
• The church’s destiny

The 3 D’s

In my blog The 3 Ds to get to the next level: Decision, Discipline, and Diet, my focus is God’s challenge to us personally. The grace message has to be relevant, and understood easily. This in turn will allow us to apply its principles to our life. However, it is HARD. Jesus said that the gate into the kingdom is difficult. We figure that only applies to our entrance to the kingdom. If we think that, we would be wrong. Christian growth is hard as well. We will have to learn to make the right decisions, allow God to instill discipline in us, and feed on the diet that God approves, forsaking the doctrines of man.

The lack of emphasis in today’s Finished Work and Grace Message on the 3 D’s will cause us to stay in bondage instead of experiencing the end goal of what the message is about: liberty. A wise man must learn to evaluate what a ministers DOES NOT say as well as what the do say.

 Victory without Struggle

I wish there was a doctrine that I could adhere to that would allow me to focus on just victory, and the end game would be nothing but success. I would think that most would agree that both history and our daily struggles reveal that there is a price to be paid for true victory. If we want the church to achieve victory that the Grace message desires, we have to teach the church how to respond as Jesus would in any situation. We also have to teach the church how to deal with falling short of the response that please Jesus. Along with that is the understanding of the strategies of the enemy, how to tactically have the faith that overcomes, and to leverage all the gifts that God provides us.

The Temple Builders message has always focused on the purpose of affliction and enduring more than any aspect of the Christian message. I think the reason is because this is how I have to live my life daily. I have to deal with circumstances, the enemy attracts, and worse of all: myself. I tend to be my worse enemy when it comes to doing the things that please God most. I teach this message knowing that many struggle the same way that I do, and there is hope, grace, and enduring faith in a well-balances Finished Work and Grace Message.

Our Destiny

I have always focused on the church’s destiny because we need to have an image on the inside of us where we are going. Every good runner sees a finishing line. Every successful CEO sets financial and organizational goals that will increase revenue and profit. And, every minister should teach the church what spiritual maturity really is, what Jesus’ destines for each one of us  in this life, and then the ultimate conclusion to all the plans and purposes of God in this age of redemption and victory. If the destiny is portrayed accurately and with balance, the how to get there methods will fall into place.

What is Spiritual Maturity?

One of my greatest frustrations, though, is that most ministers mischaracterize God’s mind on all these things. If you were to form a round table discussion with a group of your Christian friends, asking them to describe in detail what they think spiritual maturity is, you will be somewhat surprised in the differences within your sphere of friends. Some may answer with works, law, extreme grace, ministry gifts, or accomplishments, none of which are correct. Some may even believe that the ministry popularity, church size, or number of books authored are some kind if indicator of spiritual maturity. Again, incorrect answers. I think a sort, correct answer would be to focus on the fruit of the Spirit, and the attributes surrounding that fruit. Enduring faith that looks like Hebrews 11 is also a true indicator.

If you look at most of us, we are just common folks that walk out this life day by day. We simply want ministers that can give us the manna that we need to grow in a way that pleases Jesus. To accomplish this task, we need ministers to abandon man’s doctrine that is oppose to the mind of Christ. They need to feed from the Tree of Life and learn the Spirit’s word for all they meet. And, they need to make sure that is fresh manna, and bold enough to be contrary to the sphere of their ministry friends when there are disagreements. I would say that ministers need to think for themselves, but more accurately they need to get the mind of Christ on every doctrine and church matter. The church is needlessly struggling to grow because ministers have yet to learn balance is teaching God’s word, and to properly exercise understanding the principles of interpretation combined with Holy Spirit revelation.

Our Personal Destiny

Have you ever heard a minister giving what seemed to be a revelatory message yet it seemed totally applicable to your life? Sometimes these messages help straighten our thinking with the result of indirectly influencing our faith. But alone, these messages are not enough. These messages most show us how to deal with our struggles today. They must show us how to have faith in that grace that many ministers theoretically espouse.  The messages must deal with our hangups and idiosyncrasies.  The messages must help us through periods of grief and tragedy. Finally, the messages must help us to attain the things we know we are destined for.

We must teach the grace doctrine with method to achieve it in our daily life. In other words, how did the minister achieve it in their life? How did they take the doctrine and overcome their the numerous obstacles? What personal faults did they have to deal with? (We all have hangups!) How did they learn to respond as Jesus in life’s toughest circumstances such as losing a loved one? And, how did they deal with sin?

Why is it that the minister does not want to his or her weaknesses? Yet most great success stories are comprised of doubt and lack of confidence, mistakes, and  outright failure. It is what we do in spite of these things that bring us to victory that pleases Jesus. All of us must truly understand that the capability of God in us can achieve the “greater works.”  We are all success stories in the making. It is the job of every minister to push us towards that success!

The Church’s Final Destiny

I hope to publish my third Temple Builders book called The Final Push to the Summit. In that book, my desire is to conclude the Temple Builders message by carving out the final goals and destiny of the bride. Already some ministers are trying to thwart our destiny by teaching that the church is NOT the bride. Thus is our inner battle in the church today. We battle whether the church will be raptured, how the types and shadows should be interpreted, and how the Book of Revelation ends it all. The who, what, how, why, and when are hotly debated–to our disgrace. Even the most like-minded Christians in the Grace message do not agree on numerous doctrines.

Today’s ministers must get a grip on how all this plays out. One minister is preaching that hell and the Lake of Fire are not literal, while others are damning half the church to eternal damnation. On one side of the coin we have ministers teaching that there is no church age, and that the Book of Revelation is in the past, while others teach that tomorrow they could all be taken to heaven without any further purpose for the church. Still, others simply forfeit the destiny of the church and give it to the physical Jew. This is all enough for the average Christian to just live life without regard to the future, hoping it all works out–this is not our destiny!

The Finished Work Message includes many principles that a grace minister might teach, but we need to complete this message with balance and truth. Jesus only has one point of view for these doctrines. Imagine what would happen if Jesus came to our congregation and sat next to us listing our doctrines, one by one. I can hear Him say on many of them, “what were you thinking?”. We inherit a lot of goofy doctrines from misguided men. Others, we are simply confused and start guessing. The Finished Work Message brings life, though. It produces genuine fruit. He enables us to do what pleases Him. And, it builds in us an understanding of Jesus’ opinion on every subject, scripture, and controversy. In the end, it is about being in Him.

The gospel is good news, and the good news is that the work of the cross is finished and there is nothing to add; there is not left for Jesus to do inside our spirit. However, Jesus is not done. He is dealing with our mind and our will, and consequently what we DO. He is actively working through His body to build the true temple of God. Jesus is the Temple Builder, and He is the Branch that is growing up in that temple. That part IS NOT FINISHED. Thus, the Finished Work is not really finished, and grace is not yet walked in a way where we have finished this race.

Temple Builders: The High Calling book seeks to build a proper foundation for this last day message. In addition, please visit our content on the Temple Builders Ministry website and our Facebook Page.

John Robert Lucas, author of Temple Builders the High Calling

August 27, 2011 [revised 2/19/2012]

http://templebuildersministry.com

When you look at the business model changes of HP and Netflix of recent weeks, you see that they did the right thing in wanting to change a business model that was doomed to lose corporate revenue and profitability. What these 2 examples failed to consider is that change should be well thought out and must be truly strategic, with mapped out goals, and milestone achievement checkpoints. HP and Netflix haphazardly changed the course of their companies and cost one CEO his job, and the other having to make a public apology stating that he did not think properly strategize.

So—why should the church rethink anything? I mean. . .most churches have positive cash flow, they are happy with their Sunday morning activities, and, though the church may not be growing in numbers, contentment abounds. However, all of these make sense in religion but are illogical for the Jesus we serve. The Jesus we serve is not only about total abandonment, not knowing what to expect next from the Spirit’s prompting, but Jesus is building a church who will be the light of this world set on a hill—a bride joining with her Husband, and a people who bring down a glory from heaven through their walk—that all may know that they are the bondslaves of their Lord, bearing His mark.

There is a remnant of people in this day and in the church system who have a void, an aching, and even disappointment of what church is suppose to be. This remnant knows that things must change in our local churches if we are to achieve the VERY big plans God has reserved for us in the last days. I mean. . .look at our church services lately. . .do we really look like the glorious last day church?

The case study for me today is a church I went to in Wilkesboro, NC, this morning. This is a church and ministry that is always willing to shatter church paradigms. They are not afraid to be expressive in worship, be somewhat unstructured, and to let spontaneity reign. There are things I like about this church/ministry: they created a genre of their own progressive worship music. . .check. I have CDs of the guest worship leader, who also lives nearby in this rural foothills town…check. They are not afraid to be expressive in worship. . .check. They are trying to do church different. . .check. But it all falls apart from there for me.

My issue with this particular church gathering is as follows: Dancing at the altar is TOO expressive and pretty DISTRACTING to say the least—I really did not know the human body could move that way. Corporate worship was pretty non-existent, with teens on PDAs in the back, some adults on a couch next to the coffee shop in conversation, and disengaged people in rocking chairs in the back. Seems like dysfunction run amuck. So, I am game. . .what do you have in your changed paradigm?

The one thing I expected from this church was our local custom of general friendliness. But no, this church changed the paradigm with a new, man-made model that resulted in a people who cannot breakout to even do the simple things of greeting visitors, let alone create real relationships. Yep, they did the traditional service break to greet visitors and not one person greeted my lovely wife, 3 daughters, and our guest—even though they were close to the front and surrounded by church members. I have watched their worship leaders in the past and have always noticed that they stay to themselves and do not greet people they do not know. This is an oddity for our area and almost every local church. Again, a paradigm shifts but matters are even worse than the former state.

This brand of worship is progressive, and this music artist is somewhat famous, but our popularity on earth is never an indicator of our popularity in heaven. Worshipping with anointed songs and talent have nothing to do with how well we are building His church, though it will aid in that building. So, this church gets my vote for one of the unfriendliness church you can visit. Unfortunately, it is a prophetic type of church with music I have more of an affinity to than any other local church. Thus, the frustration with misguided men of God who do not understand the importance of people, and willing to put preference before edification.

I am an analyst by trade so it is normal for me to look back from a different perspective and see how we do church. If you lead worship and are unwilling to greet a visitor, or to create meaningful relationships with new church goers, then what are you really doing? The same can be said for any church leader.

We Need to Break Out

Companies that break out start by doing self-analysis. They hire consultants like me to assess their current state, and then provide them a future state with a roadmap on how to get here. Many companies are not looking for tweaking their current models, they look for overhauls. I am at a large company this week where a new executive officer was just hired and the first course of action was to assess, strategize, and then reorganize his entire staff. This is painful to their employees, but to achieve something that is great, and that breaks out—requires a shake up. I prophesy to the church that she needs a great shake up in how she does church.

As one who does an assessment, the first thing I do is look at the gaps. We call this a gap analysis. So where are the gaps in church? Well, as in business, we cannot list all of them so we relegate ourselves to prioritizing. So, the first thing off the list is our preferences. GOD REALLY DOES NOT CARE ABOUT YOUR PREFERENCES ANYWAYS. At least not in how we do church. So, how do we gap? When I go to a client, I first have to know well my set of best practices. We are always gapping what we know are best practices, a set of repeatable processes, and what we already know a company needs to do to be successful. On the other side of the gap we have the company’s deficiency; where they do not measure up.

When a company is on uncharted ground, we learn to be somewhat pragmatic. We know the company still has to achieve certain tangible goals, so we can take this high level strategy and drive it down to where they need to be. Rethinking church requires us to take a hard look of what we have done, are doing, and have plans to do, and taking a step back to see a bigger picture.

Another key ingredient is innovation. If all we do is use best practices, previous models of success, and historic practices, we are not truly bringing innovation to the church and our gatherings. We serve a creative, innovative God, and the church needs to flow in that attribute if they want to see measurable change.

Step 1: Make church relational

The case study earlier pretty much shattered this goals to pieces. Though they may have created affinities of like-minded folks, the lack of making visitors feel welcomed, or driving them off with odd contortions of dance, will thwart any success they hope to achieve. So, then, what are we really trying to achieve? Great welcome packages? Nope, that is not it, though it may be of help. Train better greeters? Certainly part of the strategy for larger churches. Have a service break where there is congregational hand-shaking and hugs. Yep, all of these things are helpful. The scripture say to not forsake the assembling; however, attending church and doing all these things does not mean you are fulfilling this scripture.

So where is the paradigm shift? Home groups? More church functions? We have done all of these for years and they do have great value. A home church that I use to attend did something that worked well for us: they ended what was a pretty typical service, but afterwards we spent Sunday afternoon together, always with a full lunch that served as many as 60 people. About 8 years later, they are now in a building church and keep that same church gathering model. The close relationships that were built here can be put in my portfolio of best practices to do this gap analysis. The one thing I know: this is the pattern and is repeatable. At other times and in other churches I had similar experiences using the same principle: after service, break bread! That means, you build relationships over the dinner table. Surely, you can go hiking or to museums, but eating is something you can do regular.

The second component is break out of comfort zones by training anyone who makes claims of leadership or Christian maturity to prove it–prove it by targeting someone you have no relationship with, and start conversation. 5-Fold ministry, church government leaders, and worship leaders are NEVER to be recluse or timid. There is no room for that type of immaturity going forward if we want a mature church. As others see good examples, this will breed the right kind of behaviour. If we are praising our ministers as being spiritual and they are not doing these things, we are wrong every time, and it send a poor message to the people on what “spiritual” means. Does it mean ministry talent? NEVER.

The third component is affinity. In the home church, most of us were homeschoolers, with kids about the same ages. Some have families of 10 kids. Because we are homeschoolers, too, there is a natural affinity. Natural affinities are an environment that create relationship deeper and quicker. This is a undeniable part of life. If you have certain spiritual affinities such as the same gifts, this is a part of building relationships. However, the risk is that the church becomes filled with cliques and everyone goes to their tight circle of friends. The way of God is that we have these close friends, but we are never reclusive or exclusive from the rest of the body.

There are realities dealing with affinities that are inputs into our strategy. Recently, one pastor wanted to do a pradigm shift by starting new relationship groups that would meet early Sunday morning, before service. It could be a good strategy except for two factors: (1) people will just view it has Sunday school becasue they are using teaching material, and will just skip and and attend the service. (2) They segmented the groups by age and nothing more. If your goal is to create relationships, affinity has to be a driver. For instance, I could build a relationship VERY quick with someone who is in the same specialized field, even though we may have little else in common. Or, when we were in home church, we were mostly homeschoolers. This is a strong affinity in the church and that is where most of my wife’s relationships have come from. One church we went to had homeschooling families. Unless there is another affinity to take that place, relationships will be difficult to build. Lastly, affinities can be built from spiritual aspects. If you are a prophet in the wilderness with a unique message and find someone else in the wilderness with that same message, you will bond very quick.

If you only attend Sunday morning service and hit the door as soon as you are dismissed, and this is your only interaction with the local church, you are wrong every time, and are surprisingly still forsaking the assembling of yourself together. If you are a leader who is “wore out from the anointing” and do not see it as your duty to break out and create new relationships, you are wrong every time. The church of the future will be a church knit together in love from tightly built relationships.

Step 2: Bring Innovation to your Gathering

Part of most corporate strategies involve elements of innovation. Depending on the type of company, innovation might be the key driver of change. In a gap analysis of the church gathering, it is pretty easy to break down elements of the meeting: introduction, worship, announcements, offering, preaching, and altar call. I have seen lock boxes in the back replace the offering. Sometimes, other singing or acting elements can be added to the mix as well. The order is pretty consistent, and most services after attending for several weeks are predictable for the next 10 years or more. And many like it so.

Where Step 1 is mandatory, Step 2 needs for us to be pragmatic, evaluating each church’s situation. In the corporate world, I am tasked with developing a future or end state, and a roadmap to get here. It is always custom, tailored to each company. Sometimes a company wants us to use a cookie cutter approach to implement, but that is never feasible. There are elements of a strategy that are repeatable in every situation, but for the most part I use custom approaches.

Innovation is our goal for this step. When we break it down further, we might end up with these subset goals:

• Make services fresh where people can stay engaged throughout the service
• Create an environment where corporate worship strikes a balance of progressive and innovative, but not weird
• Assure that preaching and teaching meets the needs of new converts and mature Christians, who may have ministries of their own
• Find the right balance of structured and unstructured to provide innovation, but yet stay productive

With our example church in Wilkesboro, NC, they allow folks to hang out all over the building, eating, drinking, having conversations, using PDAs, dancing, and in rocking chairs far in the back. So, when we do assessments in the corporate world, we measure the results of the current state. Well, the outstanding characteristic for this church is unfriendliness. The course of action might be to disassemble the current model in lieu of a brand new model that encourages the right things. In this case, teaching Christian responsibility of making guests feel welcomed comes to mind.

If your church is stagnant and not growing in numbers, look at the elements in the service. Be bold. Form a strategy and execute to that strategy. Look at the worship first. Is it progressive, or is it top 40 stuff that wears people out frequently. Worship requires an influx of fresh music, regularly, to stay innovative. Also, picking from different camps of music may help. If all you are doing is Hillsong, how innovate are you if you are excluding the other 90% of worship songs?

Step 3: Put the Last Nail in the Coffin of the One Man Show

Scripture does not endorse a one man clergy system to run a church like a CEO. I do understand, though, that this is where we are, and most cannot change it in the near future. To be clear: A church is led by a team of elders operating in consensus. There are no one man shows. If you want to read further, let me point you to Frank Viola’s Reimagining Church: Pursuing the Dream of Organic Christianity . As far as the plurality of leadership in the church, Frank gets it rights and interprets the scriptures well. I had this revelation in a personal devotion, but Frank’s book was a good scriptural validation for me.

So, what do we do in the interim? If you are a current bishop or pastor, reading Frank Viola’s book will help. If you are in the congregation, just make sure that you view your main leader as one who is simply serving and using s gift. Enjoy the gift where God leads you to, and do not allow yourself to be coerced. So. . .would I start a church as a one man church? Yes, I might. But as a strategy I would transition it to a team of elders at some point. It is also scriptural for one to have a gift of Apostle and start a church then leave but maintain fatherly influence.

This is the last point and step to rethinking the church: we must bring the whole church model to the next level of equal and plurality of leadership, losing the focus of a one man church dominance. This also eliminates a slew of works of the flesh that breed from our current model such as nepotism, pastoral abuse, and proliferation of false doctrine, not to mention the slew of fallen pastors into sin such as drug abuse, sexual immorality, and adultery, which often leads to divorce. This is a model that is proven, and I have personally built eternal relationships through.

Conclusion

Most churches may be willing to do subtle changes to avoid attrition. Successful companies that are trending to high growth are doing so as a result of quick, radical change—a new paradigm. We need trail blazers. We need leaders with a new vision. We need church on a whole new level.

Step 1 is most important. Anyone and everyone can start achieving this now through invitations to lunch or dinner, or sticking around after service ends to have productive conversations. Take small steps now, then you can worry about how you will step up your game next month.

Hebrews 10:24,25: let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

Without the proper context, church attendance is a mere ritual.

In business strategy it is about what, where, and then how. What are we building? answer that question first and find concensus. Then figure out where we are at now. Many executives ask me to not pull any punches, be transparent, and do not be afraid to “call their baby ugly.”  THEY WANT CHANGE. Many pastors, however, rarely possess this type of courage.

HOW we implement the new model is so important because the details can throw your plan off the rails. For our earlier church example, they could have simply moved the altar dancing to the rear of the building. That way you encourage one goal, yet meet the goal of bringing in new folks, making them feel comfortable. In all, I suggest having an attitude of being pragmatic. Surely business is different than a church gathering, but what is the same is the principles of change and innovation.

John Robert Lucas

October 2011

Research at:

http://www.ReimaginingChurch.org (Frank Viola’s site that includes the entire “ReChurch” series of six volumes that all work together)

http://bible.org/article/who-should-run-church-case-plurality-elders

Occasionally, the Lord will give me a clear word—a word that I am usually not too pleased to get, “Step it up son.” This means He is pushing me up to the next level of the mountain, when I was comfortable at the altitude that I had already attained. For all of us, there is a time in our walk where God urges us up to the next level. We can resist, and many times life will go on as normal, as if nothing happened. The one thing you can count on is, if you are walking close to Jesus, you will not escape a push, whether gentle prompting or forceful compelling, to come up higher.

Recently, my cardiologist strongly suggested I give up caffeine. I took the advice of the doctor and decided to give up caffeine. To get to the next level of good health for me, this was needed. But the doctor’s advice would be ignored except that I DECIDED. Where you are today is a result of many decisions—even daily decisions—that you have made over the course of your life. These include good and bad decisions.

Luke 14:28-30: For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it?  “Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish. NASU

When God urges your to the next level, your response should be a decision. With decision comes commitment. Since there are different levels of decisions, we should count the cost. Without counting the costs, we will have a well-meaning but short-lived decision.

Getting to the next level with God may not be as easy as something tangible such as giving up caffeine. It is not unusual for the Lord to ask you to follow the initial decision with even more hard choices—choices such as giving up a hindrance, sacrificing your free time, or laboring harder in His kingdom. As a project manager, I accept new projects that take me out of what I am comfortable doing. To step it up means I have to deliver skills and capability to meet the new demand. In God’s kingdom, you are always being prepared for a new demand, a new task that God is assigning you, and change is always in your future.

We are living in a day—a day of preparation—a day preparing us for THE day of the Lord. It is not trivial, and what is ahead is much more grueling than most Christians  envision. There are those suffering in a pit, about to perish, and God is placing them directly in your path. If we refuse to make the decision to come up, we will be impotent when we arrive at that place where we are needed to rescue. Instead, we will not know how to react, how to hold out the hand of Jesus.

We may think that God will magically give us supernatural abilities in that moment, but we would be wrong in that thinking. The scripture and the Holy Spirit were sent to you for preparation and maturing. Peter was mightily used in Acts Chapter 2. But God kept preparing him. . .it is a process that never stops. He is always dealing with you. It is your heart He is after, and when He gets it, He can flow through you to REACH THE WORLD!

Discipline

If making a decision isn’t hard enough, now comes discipline, the part of serving God that balances law versus grace, sets free for some and puts others in bondage, and causes many to simply stop serving God well.

If I made a decision to give up caffeine, I must have discipline or the decision is useless. The discipline starts early in the morning when I am semi-comatose, trying to regain some kind of consciousness in the world. My body yells out, “strong caffeinated coffee”. There is only one thing standing in the way of that craving that was formed over 35 years: discipline. For me, it is not just saying no, it is replacing that coffee with another hot beverage. I had to show my body who was really king in the situation.

When God speaks to you about coming up higher, He is usually targeting one area. Instead of me giving up every bad thing I put in my body, I am dealing with the one: caffeine. In your walk, He may be saying it is time to use that gift that you have had on the shelf. No doubt, there are those with all kinds of creative gifts that use them for the world system, if at all. He is calling those to come up higher with the gift. In this example, you focus on making a decision to come up higher with that gift, and then discipline to do what it takes to fulfill the call of God.

Sometimes, God will call you to a place of maturity that is drastically different than where you are walking today. I can tell you this: If you answer that call, the discipline will involve fellowship with Jesus and His body, passionate worship, and learning to listen to the Spirit as He unfolds scripture to you, even though your church may not believe that way. There is a boldness and confidence we must all have in our relationship with Him.

Discipline is not law or bondage. It is required. It is what we do in the world to be successful, and it is what God requires in the Spirit to be mature. Ultimately, anytime you do come up higher, you are walking as a maturing saint, not a stagnant saint.

Diet

In my book “Temple Builders: The High Calling,” there is a chapter called Sit at God’s Table. In that I describe diet in detail, but as it relates to coming up to the next level, diet is a critical component.

One of the things that holds us back is we get right the decision and discipline but are lacking a change in spiritual diet. I observed many years ago how certain camps of ministry, with very popular teachers, would have a following that acted and believed just like they did. Then observing both the teachers and followers many years later, they still acted and believed the same. . .maybe a little bit more battered, though. Why is this? One of the things that must come up higher is the inputs you receive, what you are feeding on. If you feed on your favorite ministers all the time, or ministers in that same circle, expect a very narrow range of understanding God’s ways. Contrastly, if the leaders you listen to are ones always going to the next level, your diet change is most likely fractional; you may need only a change in diet that aligns to the specifics of the NEW call to step it up. We  need a pragmatic approach to our diet, and totally spirit led, without hestitation or constraint.

What should you do then? Change your diet to suit what God is calling you up to. God is faithful to lead you to the right teacher or scripture if you truly hunger and are willing to forfeit immature thinking. If your ideas about scripture or God’s ways can no longer be challenged by the Holy Spirit, you will only get so far in the preparation process. So, what about if I serve Him with passion, doing great works, am I stagnant? My answer is: think what you could have become.

If you are willing to be that one, you may end up in the desert for years, but one day God will unveil you at the appointed time, even as God unveiled Jesus at the age of 30, not 29, to the world.

In managing new projects, the subject matter always changes. I could just manage a plan, but my preference is to understand the subject matter well so I can manage all the moving parts of the project and ask questions that no one else is asking. In the kingdom, it is not just about understanding the basics, or prayer and worship, it is about the subject matter. If God is preparing you for the day of the Lord, that is an important subject matter that He will at some time unfold to you, and I can tell you that most ministers have that subject matter wrong or obscured. Ask yourself this: what subject matter do you need to learn to get to that next level; what inputs are you missing; where are the gaps. Allow the Spirit to fill those gaps at any cost!

Conclusion

We live in a different day than our predecessors. But most Christians do not realize it. They are waiting for God to give them a pass on dealing with the harshness coming to the world. I prefer to go my merry way and focus on just my career and maintain a church-accepted lifestyle of reading the Word, prayer, and church attendance. But I am not wired that way, and my suspicion is that you are not either.

Are you being dealt with? Is He prompting you? Is He challenging you to come up hither? Maybe it is time. You can choose to remain the same and tomorrow may be normal. But is that what you really want? Isn’t our utmost desire to be a friend of Jesus, to be His pleasure on the Earth.

John Robert Lucas

October 29, 2011

http://templebuildersministry.com