Three Streams

“Give me back my church” I think those were words that John Wimber heard from the Lord. This conviction was at the heart of John’s call to plant the Vineyard churches. The truth is that today God is still speaking to leaders and saying ‘Give me back my church’. The reason I say that God is speaking primarily to leaders is simply due to the fact that it is leaders who are in control of the church. This is generally the case across the board, except in perhaps some baptist churches where it is the congregation who hold the power. In the case of the baptists, they need to remember that church is a theocracy and not a democracy. That is, each individual does not have a right to be heard, but each individual has a responsibility to discern the mind of Christ and work with the congregation to discern the collective mind of Christ.

I have said several times in this blog that three things need to take place in the body of Christ today, restoration, reformation and revival. We cannot have one without the other. There was a point when I thought the restoration of good biblical theological truth along with an encounter with God (revival) would be all it takes to get us sorted out. How wrong was I! The realisation came upon me that New Wine needs New Wineskins! Many pastors have tried to change the Wineskins i.e through cell church, G12 etc however this has simply been a patching up of the old garment. It has been nothing other than a few cosmetic changes to a structure which needs to be demolished and built from scratch on the solid foundation of Christ, the apostles and prophets.

There are two essential issues for todays church they are 1) The headship of Jesus Christ 2) The priesthood of all believers. In otherwords the Lordship of Christ in all things and the obedience and functioning of His saints. One effects the other and it is no good to pay lip service to these two great truths. I hope to write more about these two issues in the coming days. For just now I would suggest to anyone who is serious about these things to read the following book.

I’ve almost finished reading this book by Wolfgang Simson, I only bought it on Saturday, which is a good indication that I am enjoying this book! The book can be read online by clicking on the following link.

Wolfgang Simson: Houses that Change The World: The return of the house churches

Check out the following quote from this book…

“German Church Growth researcher Christian A. Schwarz suggests that we are in the era of the Third Reformation. The first reformation happened in the 16th century, when Martin Luther rediscovered the core essence of the Gospel: salvation by faith, the importance of grace, and the centrality of scripture. It was a reformation of theology. The second reformation occurred in the 18th century at the time of the Moravian and Wesleyan movements, where personal intimacy with Christ was rediscovered. It was, he says, a reformation of spirituality, which, born on passionate knees in front of a loving and personal Savior, gave birth to a whole new era of enthusiastic missions and evangelism. However, all of this was still very much pouring new wine into old wineskins, and sewing new patches onto old cloth. The Roman Catholic Church and Mass System was very close to the Old Testament temple-centred worship patterns, complete with frankincense, priests, sections for the lay people and clerics, and an altar. Luther did reform the content of the Gospel, but did not change the basic structure of the ”worship service”. This reformed-Roman-Catholic-Jewish meeting-pattern was baptized by Baptists, anointed by Pentecostals, misused by Cults, renewed by Charismatic Christians, put into uniform by the Salvation Army, dry-cleaned by Quakers - but was never really radically changed. The ”services” were still essentially performances, audience-oriented masses, usually formal and liturgical religious events, where many spectators and consumers observe a few very involved religious specialists performing for them and with them. The third and last part of the Reformation is, therefore, a reformation of structure. It is not suggesting to make a few cosmetic changes or alterations here and there, but to build according to New Testament patterns altogether. If that means that we have to start all over again, then this is exactly what it means, and this will be what it will take.”

This is an awesome quote packed with awesome truth! However it had another impact on me, it confirmed my conviction about the threefold process needed today; restoration, reformation revival!

If you ask a reformed believer what is the solution for the church today he will tell you it is a second reformation. The reformation in his mind will be exactly the same as the first one! That is, a retrun to the ‘five solas’ or the five points of calvinism especialy justification by faith and the truth about God’s sovereignty. Why does he think this? Because these things have been lost again.

Ask someone who comes from the evangelical revivalism tradition what the solution is and they will tell you, its revival! A fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Why is this? Beacuse peoples Christian experience is less than new testament.

I agree that both of these are needed, however, if restoration (of biblical truth) and revival (truth experienced) is not accompanied by reformation of church practices and structures the other two will be short lived and their effectiveness limited. We need a radical shift in our understaning and practice of church today. Just one example, incase you think I am tripping on about nothing, how many Christians talk about ‘going to church’? How many Christians refer to their buildings in which they gather as THE church? This is totally contrary to what the New Testament teaches! You cannot go to church, you are the church! The building is not the church, the people are. Again, theoretically the people will pay lip service to this truth but carry on their tradition while failing to realise that such an understanding is hindering their self realisation of what it means to be the body of Christ. What is just as bad is this is that the church has come to be defined as an organisation or even worse a denomination. This is only the tip of the ice berg, the problem is much more deeprooted and widespread than this.

God is moving, we are on the threshold of the return of Christ. God is seeking to prepare his true bride. The Spirit of the Lord is saying ‘Give me back my Church’.