I received an email today from Jim Yost, a missionary/church planter in Indonesia. In the email he made the comment:
We're part of the house church movement in Indonesia though I shy away from titles anymore like "cell church", "G-12", "house church" because it makes us start thinking exclusive like one is a better improvement on the other. So I come back to saying "community-based ministry" and that can include them all.
I think this mentality is incredibly healthy. You see, I don't think it's about the "type" of church that you are a part of. For a season of my life, I was a part of a 10,000 plus member "Mega" church, in that church I heard some of the best teaching every single week. That church, in Tulsa, OK, did an incredible job of reaching out to the community that it was part of. My Brother, in Waco, TX, is a part of a "Cell" church that is one of the most missional, church planting churches I've ever seen. They've seen cells planted all over the world. In England and here in the states, I have friends who are part of denominational churches that are incredible lights in their communities and are very open to planting all types of structures.
Do each of these churches have strengths AND weaknesses, absolutely. Right now, on our spiritual journey, God has us meeting in living rooms in a "House" church. But, I think it would be arrogant and stupid for me to think that we have some kind of monopoly on good, healthy church. Are there things that I think are really, really good about the community and life that we have, YES! But, I also know that we have a lot of weaknessees as a a movement. I think we all need to take a Kingdom mentality of BOTH/AND rather then EITHER/OR and look at church in a region as the body of christ, his Church. Let's figure out ways to bless each other, learn from each other, and work together to reach this world for Christ.
2 replies on “Kingdom Mentality”
After the 80’s when a mentor put me onto small groups as a tool to help the church, and the 90’s when I explored and seminared in cell, and the new century in which I became a part of a cell church, and now a house church, I can see how one can be trapped in thinking, “ah, now I have arrived!” Much better to do as you are suggesting
and be Kingdom minded, accepting the form God gives you and accepting others’personal journey and the environment God places them in.
Kingdom Plantings
There has been much teaching and mis-teaching about this issue of planting and reaping. As we progress into Christ we must mature. The Kingdom of God is Progressive Kingdom. Without progression there is only stagnation. One should readily discern the difference between the out hewed cisterns as opposed to living waters in… Jer 2:13 For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.
The point is briefly stated that the fountain is flowing and alive however the cistern is stagnant and inert.
The question is one of growth into maturity. As you grow things must change. Everything must change… how we know God, how you view your brother and sisters, what you pray for, what and where you seed is planted. No change is indicative of no growth, which leads to less of the life of Christ which leads to only more of you. How sad.
Some want more of themselves. And they seek assistance from the Living God in having it so. They would be taught of His Principles and Truths to support what they would have hold and be. They would seek approval of their self centered existence. They would take the truth of the Kingdom and use it’s authority to secure self acceptance and material gain.
Not so with the Sons of God.
We are instructed in the things of a mature man in the realm of Sowing and Reaping in the following verse…
Hosea 10:12 Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you…
Let us take some time and look at this wonderfully instructive promise of our Father.
Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy…
The general Principle of Sowing and Reaping is well known to most Christians and the worldly alike… Luke 6:38 Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again…
However to the mature son as he progresses into heavenly things understands that the nature of the field where the seed is sown becomes increasingly important… Gal 6:7-9 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. 8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. 9 And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not… So we see that where the seed is planted is of more importance than what is the nature of the seed. Of a truth the nature of seed and field are in effect one in the Kingdom. It is the sphere of the harvest that is Gods ultimate concern. Remember that God is not mocked. And the thing sown will have spiritual results in being either corruption or life.
We are to sow as He sowed… unto death as a corn of wheat… John 12:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground.
Note: The measure of mercy has nothing to do with the amount of sowing. We don’t have enough seed to receive the amount of mercy we need. But take heart… 2 Pet 1:3- 4 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: 4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. It is because of that indestructible seed that He has placed in us that we are empowered to plant in His righteousness in order that we are able to obtain mercy.
break up your fallow ground for it is time to seek the LORD … Our ground needs to be prepared in order to get the seed ‘in’ it rather than merely ‘on” it… The initial anointing is always only ‘on’. We need to move to a realm of ‘in’ then deeply into. Ready your selves for the Word of the Lord. The good ground of the Lords earth (dirt) needs to be prepared individually as well as corporately. We need to do our part and seek the fullness of what God has in store for us.
It does not all come at once. Even though we are give all things in Him. Truth is presented as a Progression of Present Truths. This is true for us as well as David. There were a progression of anointings that David received. The three anointings speak of a 30 60 and 100 fold progression ‘in’ Christ.
David received a First then Second and Third Anointing
First Anointing (30)… 1 Sam 16:13 Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brethren: and the Spirit of the LORD came upon David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up, and went to Ramah…
The oil was poured on as the exulted son… as in Salvation
Second Anointing (60)… 2 Sam 2:4 And the men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah. And they told David, saying, That the men of Jabesh-gilead were they that buried Saul…
The oil was smeared on as King of praise (Judah)… as in the Baptisism of the Holy Ghost
Third Anointing (100)… 2 Sam 5:3 So all the elders of Israel came to the king to Hebron; and king David made a league with them in Hebron before the LORD: and they anointed David king over Israel…
The oil was rubbed in as Lord of all (Israel) as the to be Matured Man.
In the context of Hosea 10:12 these three fold things are also spoken of as breaking up the ground (30), sowing (60) and reaping (100).
till he come and rain righteousness upon you.. The Rain here is Gods part of this thing. It is the rain of the anointed word that will cause this process to occur. Let us continually mix what we have heard with faith as the teaching of the things of the Lord are poured our upon (in… deeply into) us.
Note… Don’t eat your seed… that is use the things of the Kingdom to be consumed upon fleshly desires. But plant it unto death that eternal life may come forth
The small seed of righteousness sown will greatly multiply in size and quality… Isa 2:3 And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem…
The end of where and in what dimension that you will reap is up to you… Deut 30:19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.
Now we have a choice to make… We are not told to hang around receiving and wait till Jesus comes back, as seems to be the current mindset. However we have been commanded to activity function in and through the thing of the Kingdom… Eph 4:15 speak the truth in love,(in order that we) may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ… We must speak (plant) in order to grow and reap. Speak that is, out of an abundant heart that has progressively come to know the love of the Christ. Speak to the world certainly, and habitually to each other. As the next verse indicates… Eph 4:16 From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.
2 Cor 9:6 But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.