by Ric Benson

The fundamental purpose of the Christian church, and therefore every local Christian congregation, is to work with God in the realization of His kingdom. It is the kingdom of God that powerfully and predominantly lies at the heart of the teaching, life and action of the Lord Jesus and it is this kingdom that pervades His parables, His miracles and His passion. Sadly the significance of this teaching has been sadly ignored and neglected by the modern church.

The concept of the “kingdom of God” (or interchangeably the “kingdom of heaven”) is found more than 100 times in the first three Gospels, twice only in John’s Gospel (although eternal life and the kingdom of God are interchangeable concepts), is the centre of John the Baptist’s proclamation concerning Jesus, is directly associated with Jesus’ presence – particularly in healing the sick, casting out demons, and as an explanation of Jesus’ ministry and teaching – and it underpinned Jesus’ public inauguration of His ministry recorded in Luke 4:18-19 ( taken from Isaiah 61)

It is impossible to understand the purpose and mission of the local church without understanding the purpose and characteristics of the kingdom of God. It is also impossible to fulfil the Great Commission – to make disciples where we are by living under God’s rule and reign (Matthew 28 and Mark 16), the Great Commandment – to impart God’s unconditional love through our lives (John 13), the Cultural Mandate – to be engaged in and with the world but not conformed to its lifestyle (John 17), the Creation Mandate – to exercise responsible dominion over the physical world (Genesis 2), or to outwork the prayer Jesus taught His disciples to pray which included the phrase “God’s will be done on earth as it is in Heaven”, without understanding what the kingdom of God really means.

Fundamentally, the kingdom of God is the rule and authority of God Himself being worked out on earth. In this rule and authority, God intervenes to rescue, preserve and save His people, put right the wrongs of this world and manifestly establish justice and righteousness, not through redemptive domination which is based on the use of superior counter force, but through the redemptive power of compassionate, loving servanthood as modelled by Jesus. Jesus’ kingdom, although manifesting itself visibly through the lives of those in it, is not in the present essentially a physical earthly reign of the Messiah as the Jewish people longed for, but an inner reign of God that had powerful effect in consequently transforming society. Ultimately of course the kingdom of god will result in a new earth with Jesus physically reigning.

In Jesus’ healing and exorcism ministries, in His miracles, in His forgiveness of sins, in his ministry amongst the poor and marginalized and in inclusive openness to people from all levels of society, Jesus proclaimed that the kingdom rule had begun in Him, but in His teaching, demonstrated that although the kingdom had been inaugurated in Him, it would not be fully established until His return. So in Jesus’ teaching and example of the kingdom there is an important tension between the “here and now” and the “yet to come”. Ultimate justice and righteousness will only be established by His return.

The two greatest dangers to Christian teaching and practice lie in the two extremes of teaching on the kingdom of God. One is that it will come at the end of time when Christ returns (catastrophism/future focus), and the other is that it is entirely about the here and now (gradualism/present focus).  The former teaching fails to address the current pain and needs of the world, whilst the latter projects a reliance on social action and change, or a spiritual triumphalism promising more than it delivers. These two extremes need to be held in tension for a true “kingdom” balance. In the birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, and the giving of the Holy Spirit to the church in Acts 2, the reclaiming of the earth and everything in it back to God’s original plans and purposes has been inaugurated. In the return of Christ to rule in power, the consummation of the kingdom will take place, never again to be undone.

Biblical teachings present us with six fundamental tension points or polarities that are central to the mystery of God’s reign. Understanding the kingdom biblically requires recognizing these polarities and preserving a balance in them.

1. 1. Present versus future.
      Jesus said “The kingdom of God is near” (Mark 1 :15), but also that we should pray for God’s kingdom to come (Matt. 6:10).
   2. Individual versus social.
      Jesus said the kingdom is like hidden treasure an individual person might find (Matt. 13:44), but he also said, “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32). He talked about being born again in order to see the kingdom (John 3:3) but also described it as a feast to be shared (Luke 13:29).
   3. Spirit versus matter.
      Paul said, “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God” (I Cor. 15:50), and Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36). But Jesus associated himself with the healing and liberation of the Jubilee (Luke 4: 18-21) and Revelation speaks of a kingdom in which God’s people “will reign on the earth” (Rev. 5: 10).
   4. Gradual versus climactic.
      Jesus said the kingdom is like grain that grows gradually in a field (Mark 4:26-28). But he also said its coming would be like the midnight cry of the arriving bridegroom (Matt. 25: 1-6). [17]
   5. Divine action versus human action. The kingdom of God is like a returning king who settles accounts (Luke 19:11-27). It is God who rules and reigns (Ps. 99: 1-2). Yet, the kingdom is also something we must seek (Matt. 6:33), and Christians can be “fellow workers for the kingdom of God” (Col. 4:11).
   6. The Church’s relation to the kingdom; the tension between seeing the church and the kingdom as essentially the same or as clearly different. Jesus said to the Apostle Peter, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 16: 19). But he also spoke of the kingdom as future and said that not all those who worshiped him, but only those who did God’s will, would enter the kingdom (Matt. 7:21).
      . . . Any biblical theology of the kingdom will need to wrestle with these polarities.

Jesus’ teaching and ministry demonstrate that the extent and nature of the kingdom and the rule of God is all-encompassing – affecting every level and arena of human life and existence. His inaugural reading of Isaiah 61 (recorded in Luke 4:18-19), is so powerful because it announces the integral and holistic nature of the coming kingdom, which will only be fully established when the whole of the created order, so deeply affected by the fall, is healed by God’s renewal and re-creation, and “shalom” – God’s peace on a personal, interpersonal, physical and cosmic level is restored. Shalom is the ultimate goal of the kingdom. So this kingdom of which Jesus speaks and the related Gospel of the kingdom is holistic…it is good news to the economically disinherited (Luke 6:20), as well as to the spiritually poor (Matthew 5:30, good news to the socially and politically disinherited, good news to the physically disinherited, and good news to the spiritually and physically bruised and oppressed. The year of the Lord’s favour, Jubilee, isn’t just a heavenly hope, but an embodied hope on a recreated earth, of which we are the first fruits and should be about the Father’s business.

The work of the kingdom, although embracing the giving of “a reason for the hope that lies within us with gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3:15), is not only about proselytising but about standing with God in relation to a fallen and hurting world because it is required by God and is right to do so. Such a stand then gives a powerful apologetic for evangelism and mission. The work of the kingdom emanates from living under God’s rule with integrity. This removes hidden agenda, impure motives, self-aggrandisement and self-promotion, showcasing our ideology, and the use and abuse of others for our purposes. We are not charged with “bringing the kingdom of God to earth”, for only Jesus Christ can do that, but by being an agent of the kingdom in joining God in what He is already doing through His Holy Spirit by encountering people and transforming lives.

The Gospel of the kingdom of God needs to be understood so that evangelism can be recalibrated. “Gospel”(euangelion) was not a technical religious phrase, but a secular phrase in wide use, co-opted by Christians to express what god was doing in and through Christ. The specific meaning was that it pointed to a messenger who would run (or ride a horse) ahead of the king across the hills, coming from a place of battle, entering and declaring to the city victory over enemies. It was a public announcement about a public event intended for the public realm of life…because of the victory, and announcement off the victory, the city would now have a new beginning and a different reality. The messenger would appear, raise their right hand and yell out “rejoice, we have won the victory.” So in the case of Jesus, He comes from a place of battle (in the wilderness with Satan), and enters Galilee preaching the euangelion of God…with the good news of victory…public news that has public implications for the public realm. In our case, we need to let people know that Jesus has battled the powers and principalities, has won the battle, thus providing for all who live in Christ freedom, liberty, hope and purpose, and the lifestyle of the kingdom lived by those who proclaim this message give proof of their claims thus pointing others to Christ. Anything less than this is reductionist doing a disservice to Jesus and his kingdom.

Kingdom people, kingdom communities, and kingdom mission all are engaged in announcing and demonstrating the “good news” of God’s redemption in relation to a fallen and hurting world. Such announcement and demonstration is much more than evangelism and social involvement. It is a total engagement of all we are and all we believe in with the needy world around us. It embraces what we say, what we believe, how we act, how we care, and how we relate – all of which should be firmly based on the full counsel of the Word of God and an integration of the two great commandments of loving God with all our heart, soul and mind, and loving our neighbour as we love ourselves (Matthew 22:37-40).

Living as kingdom people and kingdom communities requires us to intentionally define and continually action kingdom principles throughout the church community and on into the world at large. Being a kingdom community calls us to engage in a balanced way in all of the following principles and implications as a way of life;

1. Submission to Christ – Lordship, obedience, faithfulness, discipleship, sacrifice
2. Worshipful living – praise, worship, celebration, thanksgiving, faith
3. Intentional stewardship – stewardship, giving, kingdom investment
4. Passionate pursuit of God – prayer, Bible reading, worship, surrender
5. Growth in Christlikeness – incarnation, fruit of the Spirit, Christ’s character and teaching
6. Biblical focus – Word-centred, teaching, theologizing, authority
7. Relationally Connect – Outreach, community, incorporation, embracing all, recognition of human dignity, neighbourliness,
8. Full Participation – commitment, sacrifice, focus, involvement, service
9. Compassionate Caring – justice, mercy, grace, love, care for poor and marginalized, active participation in causes, employment of time, talents treasure and testimony
10. Spirit Empowerment – healing, deliverance, boldness, spiritual gifts, spiritual warfare against powers and principalities
11. Evangelistic Outreach – audio-visual presentation of the Gospel of the kingdom with an apologetic of the hope that lies within given in gentleness and with respect, especially to the church’s local community
12. Missions Engagement – promotion of the kingdom of God particularly to places that have not heard

Discussion starters
The following statements are provided to provoke discussion.

1. For too long the evangelical church has reduced the Gospel of the kingdom which Jesus preached, to the Gospel of salvation. Whilst the Gospel of salvation is of fundamental importance, such a limited emphasis has left many either still-born as Christians, or totally ignorant as to what life in Christ should be about and what participation in the kingdom of God requires of them.

2. In recent days, the evangelical church seems to have discovered or rediscovered the notion of the kingdom of God, and has made significant moves to realign with the broader kingdomimplications ie. Rick Warrens PEACE Plan. The P E A C E Plan is an initiative begun by Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California. Senior Pastor Rick Warren’s stated intention in launching the P. E. A. C. E. (or PEACE) Plan is to involve every Christian and every church in every nation in the task of serving people in the areas of the greatest global needs. The tag-line is ‘Ordinary people empowered by God making a difference together wherever they are’. P E A C E is an acronym for the stated methodology for achieving the plan: “Promote reconciliation – Equip servant leaders – Assist the poor – Care for the sick – Educate the next generation.”

3. In a so-called “post-modern era” (a reaction to the failings of the modernist era) which exhibits to a greater or lesser degree some or all of the following tenets:

(1) Self is rejected as the Centre
(2) Reason and logic is not enough
(3) Enlightenment is rejected
(4) There is no objective world
(5) There is no metanarrative
(6) Science is not the full answer
(7) The physical world is not enough
(8) Authority is not to be trusted
(9) Life is a journey
(10) Truth is relative

only an authentic “kingdom “ emphasis by the Christian church will make significant impact in our fallen and needy world. Such a proclamation will assist in removing the accusation of hypocrisy so often levelled at the church and excite people to the real cause of Christ of reconciliation, redemption and restoration of our world.

4. Jesus’ first recorded teaching is the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). This teaching is timeless, radical and profound and provides the basis of living in the kingdom of God under God’s rule. Such teaching is diametrically opposed to the way the majority of Christians live and is seen by many pastors as too demanding or outdated for their congregations to entertain. Sadly, however, the Christian life as it was meant to be lived cannot be experienced until such teaching is seriously embraced. We have a responsibility as Christians to personally and corporately align with and live out Jesus’ kingdom teaching and by so doing proclaim with integrity the full message of the Gospel which will again excite people to convert and participate.

Application Questions

1. If the above statement is an accurate descrption of the Kingdom of God and associated implications and responsibilities, what needs to be done in and thru churches to more realistically advance the Kingdom?
2. Where and why has the church lost its kingdom identity and emphasis, and what can be done to realistically restore it?
3. Today’s churches seem to gravitate to a particular emphasis of the kingdom at the expense of other expressions. Is it reasonable to expect that any church could embrace, much less balance the six priorities expressed in the material?
4. When evaluating your church against the description of the Kingdom given above, how do you rate (on a 1 - poor to 10 outstanding basis) and what would be the most significant thing you as a pastor could do to improve your rating?

REFERENCE MATERIAL
Important theological reflections and frameworks concerning the kingdom, sin, shalom, the mission of the church, vocation, and the story we’re in.

Beasley-Murray, G. R. Jesus and the Kingdom of God: Eerdman’s Publishing /Patternoster Press 1986
Brueggemann, Walter. Living Toward a Vision: Biblical Reflections on Shalom. Shalom resource. New York: United Church Press, 1982.
Duncan, Malcolm Kingdom Come – The local church as a catalyst for social change: Monarch Books 2007
Jones, E. Stanley. The Unshakable Kingdom and the Unchanging Person. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1972.
Mouw, Richard J. When the Kings Come Marching in: Isaiah and the New Jerusalem. Grand Rapids, Mich: W.B. Eerdmans Pub. Co, 1983.
Munroe., Myles. Rediscovering The Kingdom – ancient hope for our 21st Century world: Destiny Image Publishers 2004
Munroe, Myles. Kingdom Principles – Preparing for kingdom experience and expansion: Destiny Image Publishers 2006
Munroe, Myles. Applying the Kingdom – rediscovering the priority of God for mankind: Destiny Image Publishers 2007
Plantinga, Cornelius. Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be: A Breviary of Sin. Grand Rapids, Mich: Eerdmans, 1995.
Schuurman, Douglas James. Vocation: Discerning Our Callings in Life. Grand Rapids, Mich: W.B. Eerdmans Pub. Co, 2004.
Snyder, Howard A. Models of the Kingdom. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1991.
Stackhouse, John G. Making the Best of It: Following Christ in the Real World. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.
Wink, Walter. Engaging the Powers: Discernment and Resistance in a World of Domination. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1992.
Wink, Walter. Naming the Powers: The Language of Power in the New Testament. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1984.
Wink, Walter. The Powers That Be: Theology for a New Millennium. New York: Doubleday, 1998.
Wink, Walter. Unmasking the Powers: The Invisible Forces That Determine Human Existence. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1986.
Wolterstorff, Nicholas. Until Justice and Peace Embrace: The Kuyper Lectures for 1981 Delivered at the Free University of Amsterdam. Grand Rapids, Mich: W.B. Eerdmans Pub. Co, 1983.
Wright, Christopher J. H. The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative. Downers Grove, Ill: IVP Academic, 2006.
Wright, N. T. Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church. New York: HarperOne, 2008.
Wright, N. T., and N. T. Wright. The Last Word: Beyond the Bible Wars to a New Understanding of the Authority of Scripture. [San Francisco]: HarperSanFrancisco, 2005.

by Henry Drummond

I, John, Saw the Holy City, New Jerusalem, Coming down from God out of Heaven…And I saw no Temple therein….And His servants shall serve Him; And they shall see His Face; And His Name shall be written on their foreheads. (Rev 21:2, 22:1)

I SAW THE CITY

Two very startling things arrest us in John’s vision of the future. The first is that the likest thing to Heaven he could think of was a City; the second, that there was no Church in that City.

Almost nothing more revolutionary could be said, even to the modern world, in the name of religion. No Church–that is the defiance of religion; a City–that is the antipodes of Heaven. Yet John combines these contradictions in one daring image, and holds up to the world the picture of a City without a Church as his ideal of the heavenly life.

By far the most original thing here is the simple conception of Heaven as a City. The idea of religion without a Church– “I saw no Temple therein”–is anomalous enough; but the association of the blessed life with a City–the one place in the world from which Heaven seems most far away– is something wholly new in religious thought. No other religion which has a Heaven ever had a Heaven like this. The Greek, if he looked forward at all, awaited the Elysian Fields; the Eastern sought Nirvana. All other Heavens have been Gardens, Dreamlands–passivities more or less aimless. Even to the majority among ourselves Heaven is a siesta and not a City. It remained for John to go straight to the other extreme and select the citadel of the world’s fever, the ganglion of its unrest, the heart and focus of its most strenuous toil, as the framework for his ideal of the blessed life.
The Heaven of Christianity is different from all other Heavens, because the religion of Christianity is different from all other religions. Christianity is the religion of Cities. It moves among real things. Its sphere is the street, the market-place, the working-life of the world.

And what interests one for the present in John’s vision is not so much what it reveals of a Heaven beyond, but what it suggests of the nature of the heavenly life in this present world. Find out what a man’s Heaven is– no matter whether it be a dream or a reality, no matter whether it refer to an actual Heaven or to a Kingdom of God to be realized on earth–and you pass by an easy discovery to what his religion is; And herein lies one value at least of this allegory. It is a touchstone for Christianity, a test for the solidity or the insipidity of one’s religion, for the wholesomeness or the fatuousness of one’s faith, for the usefulness or the futility of one’s life. For this vision of the City marks off in lines which no eye can mistake the true area which the religion of Christ is meant to inhabit, and announces for all time the real nature of the saintly life.

City life is human life at its intensest, man in his most real relations. And the nearer one draws to reality, the nearer one draws to the working sphere of religion. Wherever real life is, there Christ goes. And He goes there, not only because the great need lies there, but because there is found, so to speak, the raw material with which Christianity works–the life of man. To do something with this, to infuse something into this, to save and inspire and sanctify this, the actual working life of the world, is what He came for. Without human life to act upon, without the relations of men with one another, of master with servant, husband with wife, buyer with seller, creditor with debtor, there is no such thing as Christianity. With actual things, with Humanity in its everyday dress, with the traffic of the streets, with gates and houses, with work and wages, with sin and poverty, with these things, and all the things and all the relations and all the people of the City, Christianity has to do and has more to do than with anything else.

To conceive of the Christian religion as itself a thing–a something which can exist apart from life; to think of it as something added on to being, something kept in a separate compartment called the soul, as an extra accomplishment like music, or a special talent like art, is totally to misapprehend its nature. It is that which fills all compartments. It is that which makes the whole life music and every separate action a work of art. Take away action and it is not. Take away people, houses, streets, character, and it ceases to be. Without these there may be sentiment, or rapture, or adoration, or superstition; there may even be religion, but there can never be the religion of the Son of Man.

If Heaven were a siesta, religion might be conceived of as a reverie. If the future life were to be mainly spent in a Temple, the present life might be mainly spent in Church. But if Heaven be a City, the life of those who are going there must be a real life. The man who would enter John’s Heaven, no matter what piety or what faith he may profess, must be a real man. Christ’s gift to men was life, a rich and abundant life. And life is meant for living. An abundant life does not show itself in abundant dreaming, but in abundant living–in abundant living among real and tangible objects and to actual and practical purposes. “His servants,” John tells us, “shall serve.” In this vision of the City he confronts us with a new definition of a Christian man– the perfect saint is the perfect citizen.

To make Cities–that is what we are here for. To make good Cities–that is for the present hour the main work of Christianity. For the City is strategic. It makes the towns: the towns make the villages; the villages make the country. He who makes the City makes the world. After all, though men make Cities, it is Cities which make men. Whether our national life is great or mean, whether our social virtues are mature or stunted, whether our sons are moral or vicious, whether religion is possible or impossible, depends upon the City. When Christianity shall take upon itself in full responsibility the burden and care of Cities the Kingdom of God will openly come on earth. What Christianity waits for also, as its final apologetic and justification to the world, is the founding of a City which shall be in visible reality a City of God. People do not dispute that religion is in the Church. What is now wanted is to let them see it in the City.

One Christian City, one City in any part of the earth, whose citizens from the greatest to the humblest lived in the spirit of Christ, where religion had overflowed the Churches and passed into the streets, inundating every house and workshop, and permeating the whole social and commercial life–one such Christian City would seal the redemption of the world. Some such City, surely, was what John saw in his dream. Whatever reference we may find there to a world to come, is it not equally lawful to seek the scene upon this present world? John saw his City descending out of Heaven. It was, moreover, no strange apparition, but a City which he knew. It was Jerusalem, a new Jerusalem. The significance of that name has been altered for most of us by religious poetry; we spell it with a capital and speak of the New Jerusalem as a synonym for Heaven. Yet why not take it simply as it stands, as a new Jerusalem? Try to restore the natural force of the expression–suppose John to have lived to-day and to have said London? “I saw a new London?”

Jerusalem was John’s London. All the grave and sad suggestion that the word London brings up to-day to the modern reformer, the word Jerusalem recalled to him. What in his deepest hours he longed and prayed for was a new Jerusalem, a reformed Jerusalem. And just as it is given to the man in modern England who is a prophet, to the man who believes in God and in the moral order of the world, to discern a new London shaping itself through all the sin and chaos of the City, so was it given to John to see a new Jerusalem rise from the ruins of the old.

We have no concern–it were contrary to critical method–to press the allegory in detail. What we take from it, looked at in this light, is the broad conception of a transformed City, the great Christian thought that the very Cities where we live, with all their suffering and sin, shall one day, by the gradual action of the forces of Christianity, be turned into Heavens on earth. This is a spectacle which profoundly concerns the world. To the reformer, the philanthropist, the economist, the politician, this Vision of the City is the great classic of social literature. What John saw, we may fairly take it, was the future of all Cities. It was the dawn of a new social order, a regenerate humanity, a purified society, an actual transformation of the Cities of the world into Cities of God.

This City, then, which John saw is none other than your City, the place where you live–as it might be, and as you are to help to make it. It is London, Berlin, New York, Paris, Melbourne, Calcutta–these as they might be, and in some infinitesimal degree as they have already begun to be. In each of these, and in every City throughout the world to-day, there is a City descending out of Heaven from God. Each one of us is daily building up this City or helping to keep it back. Its walls rise slowly, but, as we believe in God, the building can never cease. For the might of those who build, be they few or many, is so surely greater than the might of those who retard, that no day’s sun sets over any City in the land that does not see some stone of the invisible City laid. To believe this is faith. To live for this is Christianity.

The project is delirious? Yes–to atheism. To John it was the most obvious thing in the world. Nay, knowing all he knew, its realization was inevitable. We forget, when the thing strikes us as strange, that John knew Christ. Christ was the Light of the World–the Light of the World. This is all that he meant by his Vision, that Christ is the Light of the World. This Light, John saw, would fall everywhere–especially upon Cities. It was irresistible and inextinguishable. No darkness could stand before it. One by one the Cities of the world would give up their night. Room by room, house by house, street by street, they would be changed. Whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie would disappear. Sin, pain, sorrow, would silently pass away. One day the walls of the City would be jasper; the very streets would be paved with gold. Then the kings of the earth would bring their glory and honour into it. In the midst of the streets there should be a tree of Life. And its leaves would go forth for the healing of the nations.

Survey the Cities of the world today, survey your own City–town, village, home –and prophesy. God’s kingdom is surely to come in this world. God’s will is surely to be done on earth as it is done in Heaven. Is not this one practicable way of realizing it? When a prophet speaks of something that is to be, that coming event is usually brought about by no unrelated cause or sudden shock, but in the ordered course of the world’s drama. With Christianity as the supreme actor in the world’s drama, the future of its Cities is even now quite clear. Project the lines of Christian and social progress to their still far off goal, and see even now that Heaven must come to earth.

HIS SERVANTS SHALL SERVE

IF any one wishes to know what he can do to help on the work of God in the world let him make a City, or a street, or a house of a City. Men complain of the indefiniteness of religion. There are thousands ready in their humble measure to offer some personal service for the good of men, but they do not know where to begin. Let me tell you where to begin–where Christ told His disciples to begin, at the nearest City. I promise you that before one week’s work is over you will never again be haunted by the problem of the indefiniteness of Christianity. You will see so much to do, so many actual things to be set right, so many merely material conditions to alter, so much striving with employers of labour, and City councils, and trade agitators, and Boards, and Vestries, and Committees; so much pure unrelieved uninspiring hard work, that you will begin to wonder whether in all this naked realism you are on holy ground at all. Do not be afraid of missing Heaven in seeking a better earth.

The distinction between secular and sacred is a confusion and not a contrast; and it is only because the secular is so intensely sacred that so many eyes are blind before it. The really secular thing in life is the spirit which despises under that name what is but part of the everywhere present work and will of God. Be sure that, down to the last and pettiest detail, all that concerns a better world is the direct concern of Christ.

I make this, then, in all seriousness as a definite practical proposal. You wish, you say, to be a religious man. Well, be one. There is your City; begin. But what are you to believe? Believe in your City. What else? In Jesus Christ. What about Him? That He wants to make your City better; that that is what He would be doing if He lived there. What else? Believe in yourself–that you, even you, can do some of the work which He would like done, and that unless you do it, it will remain undone. How are you to begin? As Christ did. First He looked at the City; then He wept over it; then He died for it.

Where are you to begin? Begin where you are. Make that one corner, room, house, office as like Heaven as you can. Begin? Begin with the paper on the walls, make that beautiful; with the air, keep it fresh; with the very drains, make them sweet; with the furniture, see that it be honest. Abolish whatsoever worketh abomination–in food, in drink, in luxury, in books, in art; whatsoever maketh a lie–in conversation, in social intercourse, in correspondence, in domestic life. This done, you have arranged for a Heaven, but you have not got it. Heaven lies within, in kindness, in humbleness, in unselfishness, in faith, in love, in service. To get these in, get Christ in. Teach all in the house about Christ–what He did, and what He said, and how He lived, and how He died, and how He dwells in them, and how He makes all one. Teach it not as a doctrine, but as a discovery, as your own discovery. Live your own discovery.

Then pass out into the City. Do all to it that you have done at home. Beautify it, ventilate it, drain it. Let nothing enter it that can defile the streets, the stage, the newspaper offices, the booksellers’ counters; nothing that maketh a lie in its warehouses, its manufactures, its shops, its art galleries, its advertisements. Educate it, amuse it, church it. Christianize capital; dignify labour. Join Councils and Committees. Provide for the poor, the sick, and the widow. So will you serve the City.

If you ask me which of all these things is the most important, I reply that among them there is only one thing of superlative importance and that is yourself. By far the greatest thing a man can do for his City is to be a good man. Simply to live there as a good man, as a Christian man of action and practical citizen, is the first and highest contribution any one can make to its salvation. Let a City be a Sodom or a Gomorrah, and if there be but ten righteous men in it, it will be saved.

It is here that the older, the more individual, conception of Christianity, did such mighty work for the world–it produced good men. It is goodness that tells, goodness first and goodness last. Good men even with small views are immeasurably more important to the world than small men with great views. But given good men, such men as were produced even by the self-centred theology of an older generation, and add that wider outlook and social ideal which are coming to be the characteristics of the religion of this age, and Christianity has an equipment for the reconstruction of the world, before which nothing can stand. Such good men will not merely content themselves with being good men. They will be forces–according to their measure, public forces. They will take the city in hand, some a house, some a street, and some the whole. Of set purpose they will serve. Not ostentatiously, but silently, in ways varied as human nature, and many as life’s opportunities, they will minister to its good. To help the people, also, to be good people good fathers, and mothers, and sons, and citizens–is worth all else rolled into one. Arrange the government of the City as you may, perfect all its philanthropic machinery, make righteous its relations great and small, equip it with galleries and parks, and libraries and music, and carry out the whole programme of social reform, and the one thing needful is still without the gates.

The gospel of material blessedness is part of a gospel–a great and Christian part– but when held up as the whole gospel for the people it is as hollow as the void of life whose circumference even it fails to touch. There are countries in the world–new countries–where the people, rising to the rights of government, have already secured almost all that reformers cry for. The lot of the working man there is all but perfect. His wages are high, his leisure great, his home worthy. Yet in tens of thousands of cases the secret of life is unknown.

It is idle to talk of Christ as a social reformer if by that is meant that His first concern was to improve the organization of society, or provide the world with better laws. These were among His objects, but His first was to provide the world with better men. The one need of every cause and every community still is for better men. If every workshop held a Workman like Him who worked in the carpenter’s shop at Nazareth, the labour problem and all other workman’s problems would soon be solved. If every street had a home or two like Mary’s home in Bethany, the domestic life of the city would be transformed in three generations.

External reforms– education, civilization, public schemes, and public charities–have each their part to play. Any experiment that can benefit by one hairbreadth any single human life is a thousand times worth trying. There is no effort in any single one of these directions but must, as Christianity advances, be pressed by Christian men to ever further and fuller issues. But those whose hands have tried the ways, and the slow work of leavening men one by one with the spirit of Jesus Christ.

The thought that the future, that any day, may see some new and mighty enterprise of redemption, some new departure in religion, which shall change everything with a breath and make all that is crooked straight, is not at all likely to be realized. There is nothing wrong with the lines on which redemption runs at present except the want of faith to believe in them, and the want of men to use them. The Kingdom of God is like leaven, and the leaven is with us now. The quantity at work in the world may increase but that is all. For nothing can ever be higher than the Spirit of Christ or more potent as a regenerating power on the lives of men. Do not charge me with throwing away my brief because I return to this old, old plea for the individual soul. I do not forget that my plea is for the City. But I plead for good men, because good men are good leaven. If their goodness stop short of that, if the leaven does not mix with that which is unleavened, if it does not do the work of leaven–that is, to raise something– it is not the leaven of Christ. The question or good men to ask themselves is: Is my goodness helping others? Is it a private luxury, or is it telling upon the City? Is it bringing any single human soul nearer happiness or righteousness?
If you ask what particular scheme you shall take up, I cannot answer. Christianity has no set schemes. It makes no choice between conflicting philanthropies, decides nothing between competing churches, favours no particular public policy, organizes no one line of private charity. It is not essential even for all of us to take any public or formal line. Christianity is not all carried on by Committees, and the Kingdom of God has other ways of coming than through municipal reforms. Most of the stones for the building of the City of God, and all the best of them, are made by mothers. But whether or no you shall work through public channels, or only serve Christ along the quieter paths of home, no man can determine but yourself.

There is an almost awful freedom about Christ’s religion. “I do not call you servants.” He said, “for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth. I have called you friends.” As Christ’s friends, His followers are supposed to know what He wants done, and for the same reason they will try to do it–this is the whole working basis of Christianity. Surely next to its love for the chief of sinners the most touching thing about the religion of Christ is its amazing trust in the least of saints. Here is the mightiest enterprise ever launched upon this earth, mightier even than its creation, for it is its re-creation, and the carrying of it out is left, so to speak, to haphazard–to individual loyalty, to free enthusiasms, to uncoerced activities, to an uncompelled response to the pressures of God’s Spirit. Christ sets His followers no tasks. He appoints no hours. He allots no sphere. He Himself simply went about and did good. He did not stop life to do some special thing which should be called religious. His life was His religion. Each day as it came brought round in the ordinary course its natural ministry. Each village along the highway had someone waiting to be helped. His pulpit was the hillside, His congregation a woman at a well. The poor, wherever He met them, were His clients; the sick, as often as He found them, His opportunity. His work was everywhere; His workshop was the world. One’s associations of Christ are all of the wayside. We never think of Him in connection with a Church We cannot picture Him in the garb of a priest or belonging to any of the classes who specialize religion. His service was of a universal human order. He was the Son of Man, the Citizen.

This, remember, was the highest life ever lived, this informal citizen-life. So simple a thing it was, so natural, so human, that those who saw it first did not know it was religion, and Christ did not pass among them as a very religious man. Nay, it is certain, and it is an infinitely significant thought, that the religious people of His time not only refused to accept this type of religion as any kind of religion at all, but repudiated and denounced Him as its bitter enemy. Inability to discern what true religion is, is not confined to the Pharisees. Multitudes still who profess to belong to the religion of Christ, scarcely know it when they see it. The truth is, men will hold to almost anything in the name of Christianity, believe anything, do anything–except its common and obvious tasks. Great is the mystery of what has passed in this world for religion.

I SAW NO TEMPLE THERE

“I SAW no Church there,” said John. Nor is there any note of surprise as he marks the omission of what one half of Christendom would have considered the first essential. For beside the type of religion he had learned from Christ, the Church type –the merely Church type–is an elaborate evasion. What have the pomp and circumstance, the fashion and the form, the vestures and the postures, to do with Jesus of Nazareth? At a stage in personal development. and for a certain type of mind, such things may have a place. But when mistaken for Christianity, no matter how they aid it, or in what measure they conserve it, they defraud the souls of men, and rob humanity of its dues.

It is because to large masses of people Christianity has become synonymous with a Temple service that other large masses of people decline to touch it. It is a mistake to suppose that the working classes of this country are opposed to Christianity. No man can ever be opposed to Christianity who knows what it really is. The working men would still follow Christ if He came among them. As a matter of fact they do follow anyone, preacher or layman, in pulpit or on platform, who is the least like Him. But what they cannot follow, and must evermore live outside of, is a worship which ends with the worshipper, a religion expressed only in ceremony, and a faith unrelated to life.

Perhaps the most dismal fact of history is the failure of the great organized bodies of ecclesiasticism to understand the simple genius of Christ’s religion. Whatever the best in the Churches of all time may have thought of the life and religion of Christ, taken as a whole they have succeeded in leaving upon the mind of a large portion of the world an impression of Christianity which is the direct opposite of the reality. Down to the present hour almost whole nations in Europe live, worship, and die under the belief that Christ is an ecclesiastical Christ, religion the sum of all the Churches’ observances, and faith an adhesion to the Churches’ creeds. I do not apportion blame; I simply record the fact.

Everything that the spiritual and temporal authority of man could do has been done– done in ignorance of the true nature of Christianity–to dislodge the religion of Christ from its natural home in the heart of Humanity. In many lands the Churches have literally stolen Christ from the people; they have made the Son of Man the Priest of an Order; they have taken Christianity from the City and imprisoned it behind altar rails; they have withdrawn it from the national life and doled it out to the few who pay to keep the unconscious deception up.

Do not do the Church, the true Church at least, the injustice to think that she does not know all this. Nowhere, not even in the fiercest secular press, is there more exposure of this danger, more indignation at its continuance, than in many of the Churches of to-day. The protest against the confusion of Christianity with the Church is the most threadbare of pulpit themes. Before the University of Oxford, from the pulpit of St. Mary’s, these words were lately spoken: “If it is strange that the Church of the darker ages should have needed so bitter a lesson (the actual demolition of their churches), is it not ten times stranger still that the Church of the days of greater enlightenment should be found again making the chief part of its business the organizing of the modes of worship; that the largest efforts which are owned as the efforts of the Church are made for the establishment and maintenance of worship; that our chief controversies relate to the teaching and the ministry of a system designed primarily, if not exclusively, for worship; that even the fancies and the refinements of such a system divide us; that the breach between things secular and things religious grows wider instead of their being made to blend into one; and that the vast and fruitful spaces of the actual life of mankind lie still so largely without the gates? The old Jerusalem was all temple.

The mediaeval Church was all temple. But the ideal of the new Jerusalem was–no temple, but a God-inhabited society. Are we not reversing this ideal in an age when the church still means in so many mouths the clergy, instead of meaning the Christian society, and when nine men are striving to get men to go to church for one who is striving to make men realize that they themselves are the Church?” Yet even with words so strong as these echoing daily from Protestant pulpits the superstition reigns in all but unbroken power. And everywhere still men are found confounding the spectacular services of a Church, the vicarious religion of a priest, and the traditional belief in a creed, with the living religion of the Son of Man.
“I saw no Temple there”–the future City will be a City without a Church. Ponder that fact, realize the temporariness of the Church, then–go and build one. Do not imagine, because all this has been said, that I mean to depreciate the Church. On the contrary, if it were mine to build a City, a City where all life should be religious, and all men destined to become members of the Body of Christ, the first stone I should lay there would be the foundation-stone of a Church Why? Because, among other reasons, the product which the Church on the whole best helps to develop, and in the largest quantity, is that which is most needed by the City.

For the present, and for a long time to come, the manufactory of good men, the nursery of the forces which are to redeem the City, will in the main be found to be some more or less formal, more or less imperfect, Christian Church. Here and there an unchurched soul may stir the multitudes to lofty deeds; isolated men; strong enough to preserve their souls apart from the Church, but shortsighted enough perhaps to fail to see that others cannot, may set high examples and stimulate to national reforms. But for the rank and file of us, made of such stuff as we are made of, the steady pressures of fixed institutions, the regular diets of a common worship, and the education of public Christian teaching are too obvious safeguards of spiritual culture to be set aside. Even Renan declares his conviction that “Beyond the family and outside the State, man has need of the Church . . . Civil society, whether it calls itself a commune, a canton, or a province, a state, or fatherland, has many duties towards the improvement of the individual; but what it does is necessarily limited. The family ought to do much more, but often it is insufficient; sometimes it is wanting altogether. The association created in the name of moral principle can alone give to every man coming into this world a bond which unites him with the past, duties as to the future, examples to follow, a heritage to receive and to transmit, and a tradition of devotion to continue.” Apart altogether from the quality of its contribution to society, in the mere quantity of the work it turns out it stands alone. Even for social purposes the Church is by far the greatest Employment Bureau in the world. And the man who, seeing where it falls short, withholds on that account his witness to its usefulness, is a traitor to history and to fact.

“The Church,” as the preacher whom I have already quoted, most truly adds, “is a society which tends to embrace the whole life of mankind, to bind all their relations together by a Divine sanction. As such, it blends naturally with the institutions of common life–those institutions which, because they are natural and necessary, are therefore Divine. What it aims at is not the recognition by the nation of a worshipping body, governed by the ministers of public worship, which calls itself the Church, but that the nation and all classes in it should act upon Christian principle, that laws should be made in Christ’s spirit of justice, that the relations of the powers of the state should be maintained on a basis of Christian equity, that all public acts should be done in Christ’s spirit, and with mutual forbearance, that the spirit of Christian charity should be spread through all ranks and orders of the people. The Church will maintain public worship as one of the greatest supports of a Christian public life; but it will always remember that the true service is a life of devotion to God and man far more than the common utterance of prayer.”

I have said that were it mine to build a City, the first stone I should lay there would be the foundation-stone of a Church. But if it were mine to preach the first sermon in that Church, I should choose as the text, “I saw no Church therein.” I should tell the people that the great use of the Church is to help men to do without it As the old ecclesiastical term has it, Church services are “diets” of worship. They are meals. All who are hungry will take them, and, if they are wise, regularly. But no workman is paid for his meals. He is paid for the work he does in the strength of them. No Christian is paid for going to Church. He goes there for a meal, for strength from God and from his fellow-worshippers to do the work of life –which is the work of Christ. The Church is a Divine institution because it is so very human an institution. As a channel of nourishment, as a stimulus to holy deeds, as a link with all holy lives, let all men use it, and to the utmost of their opportunity. But by all that they know of Christ or care for man, let them beware of mistaking its services for Christianity. What Church services really express is the want of Christianity. And when that which is perfect in Christianity is come, all this, as the mere passing stay and scaffolding of struggling souls, must vanish away.

If the masses who never go to Church only knew that the Churches were the mute expression of a Christian’s wants and not the self-advertisement of his sanctity, they would have more respectful words for Churches. But they have never learned this. And the result in their case of confounding religion with the Church is even more serious than in the case of the professing Christian. When they break with the Church it means to them a break with all religion. As things are it could scarce be otherwise. With the Church in ceaseless evidence before their eyes as the acknowledged custodian of Christianity; with actual stone and lime in every street representing the place where religion dwells; with a professional class moving out and in among them, holding in their hands the souls of men, and almost the keys of Heaven–how is it possible that those who turn their backs on all this should not feel outcast from the Church’s God? It is not possible. Without a murmur, yet with results to themselves most disastrous and pathetic, multitudes accept this false dividing-line and number themselves as excommunicate from all good.

The masses will never return to the Church till its true relation to the City is more defined. And they can never have that most real life of theirs made religious so long as they rule themselves out of court on the ground that they have broken with ecclesiastical forms. The life of the masses is the most real of all lives. It is full of religious possibilities. Every movement of it and every moment of it might become of supreme religious value, might hold a continuous spiritual discipline, might perpetuate, and that in most natural ways, a moral influence which should pervade all Cities and all States. But they must first be taught what Christianity really is, and learn to distinguish between religion and the Church. After that, if they be taught their lesson well, they will return to honour both.

Our fathers made much of “meetness” for Heaven. By prayer and fasting, by self-examination and meditation they sought to fit themselves “for the inheritance of the saints in light.” Important beyond measure in their fitting place are these exercises of the soul. But whether alone they fit men for the inheritance of the saints depends on what a saint is. If a saint is a devotee and not a citizen, if Heaven is a cathedral and not a City, then these things do fit for Heaven. But if life means action, and Heaven service; if spiritual graces are acquired for use and not for ornament, then devotional forms have a deeper function. The Puritan preachers were wont to tell their people to “practise dying.” Yes; but what is dying? It is going to a City. And what is required of those who would go to a City? The practice of Citizenship–the due employment of the unselfish talents, the development of public spirit, the payment of the full tax to the great brotherhood, the subordination of personal aims to the common good. And where are these to be learned? Here; in Cities here. There is no other way to learn them. There is no Heaven to those who have not learned them.
No Church however holy, no priest however earnest, no book however sacred, can transfer to any human character the capacities of Citizenship–those capacities which in the very nature of things are necessities to those who would live in the kingdom of God. The only preparation which multitudes seem to make for Heaven is for its Judgment Bar. What will they do in its streets? What have they learned of Citizenship? What have they practised of love? How like are they to its Lord? To “practise dying” is to practise living. Earth is the rehearsal for Heaven. The eternal beyond is the eternal here. The street-life, the home-life, the business-life, the City-life in all the varied range of its activity, are an apprenticeship for the City of God. There is no other apprenticeship for it. To know how to serve Christ in these is to “practise dying.”

To move among the people on the common street; to meet them in the market-place on equal terms; to live among them not as saint or monk, but as brother-man with brother-man; to serve God not with form or ritual, but in the free impulse of a soul; to bear the burdens of society and relieve its needs; to carry on the multitudinous activities of the City–social, commercial, political, philanthropic–in Christ’s spirit and for His ends: this is the religion of the Son of Man, and the only meetness for Heaven which has much reality in it.

No Church however holy, no priest however earnest, no book however sacred, can transfer to any human character the capacities of Citizenship–those capacities which in the very nature of things are necessities to those who would live in the kingdom of God. The only preparation which multitudes seem to make for Heaven is for its Judgment Bar. What will they do in its streets? What have they learned of Citizenship? What have they practised of love? How like are they to its Lord? To “practise dying” is to practise living. Earth is the rehearsal for Heaven. The eternal beyond is the eternal here. The street-life, the home-life, the business-life, the City-life in all the varied range of its activity, are an apprenticeship for the City of God. There is no other apprenticeship for it. To know how to serve Christ in these is to “practise dying.”

To move among the people on the common street; to meet them in the market-place on equal terms; to live among them not as saint or monk, but as brother-man with brother-man; to serve God not with form or ritual, but in the free impulse of a soul; to bear the burdens of society and relieve its needs; to carry on the multitudinous activities of the City–social, commercial, political, philanthropic–in Christ’s spirit and for His ends: this is the religion of the Son of Man, and the only meetness for Heaven which has much reality in it.

No; the Church with all its splendid equipment, the cloister with all its holy opportunity, are not the final instruments for fitting men for Heaven. The City, in many of its functions, is a greater Church than the Church. It is amid the whirr of its machinery and in the discipline of its life that the souls of men are really made. How great its opportunity is we are few of us aware. It is such slow work getting better, the daily round is so very common, our ideas of a heavenly life are so unreal and mystical that even when the highest Heaven lies all around us, when we might touch it, and dwell in it every day we live, we almost fail to see that it is there. The Heaven of our childhood, the spectacular Heaven, the Heaven which is a place, so dominates thought even in our maturer years, that we are slow to learn the fuller truth that Heaven is a state. But John, who is responsible before all other teachers for the dramatic view of Heaven, has not failed in this very allegory to proclaim the further lesson.

Having brought all his scenery upon the stage and pictured a material Heaven of almost unimaginable splendour, the seer turns aside before he closes for a revelation of a profounder kind. Within the Heavenly City he opens the gate of an inner Heaven. It is the spiritual Heaven–the Heaven of those who serve. With two flashes of his pen he tells the Citizens of God all that they will ever need or care to know as to what Heaven really means. “His servants shall serve Him; and they shall see His Face; and His Character shall be written on their characters.” They shall see His Face. Where? In the City. When? In Eternity? No; to-morrow. Those who serve in any City cannot help continually seeing Christ. He is there with them. He is there before them. They cannot but meet. No gentle word is ever spoken that Christ’s voice does not also speak; no meek deed is ever done that the unsummoned Vision does not there and then appear. Whoso, in whatsoever place, receiveth a little child in My name receiveth Me.

This is how men get to know God–by doing His will. And there is no other way. And this is how men become like God; how God’s character becomes written upon men’s characters. Acts react upon souls. Good acts make good men; just acts, just men; kind acts, kind men; divine acts, divine men. And there is no other way of becoming good, just, kind, divine. And there is no Heaven for those who have not become these. For these are Heaven.

When John’s Heaven faded from his sight, and the prophet woke to the desert waste of Patmos, did he grudge to exchange the Heaven of his dream for the common tasks around him? Was he not glad to be alive, and there? And would he not straightway go to the City, to whatever struggling multitude his prison-rock held, if so be that he might prove his dream and among them see His Face? Traveller to God’s last City, be glad that you are alive. Be thankful for the City at your door and for the chance to build its walls a little nearer Heaven before you go. Pray for yet a little while to redeem the wasted years. And week by week as you go forth from worship, and day by day as you awake to face this great and needy world, learn to “seek a City” there, and in the service of its neediest citizen find Heaven.

by Ian Lehmann

To be passionate about something you need to be willing to sacrifice for it. I know I have lost my passion when I am more concerned about the price I have to pay than the glory that Jesus will receive! ~ Floyd McClung

The fivefold ministry exists to release the church. There is much talk today about apostolic leaders, but what God is really after is an apostolic church! ~ David Shibley

This paper focuses on a spiritual transition that God is unfolding within His Church for His kingdom purposes. We are standing in a major spiritual paradigm shift that is challenging us in how we view church and do ministry.

PARADIGM SHIFTS
A paradigm is ‘a set of rules and regulations [written or unwritten] that does two things: [1] it establishes or defines boundaries; and [2] it tells you how to behave inside the boundaries in order to be successful.’
Every paradigm will, in the process of finding new problems, uncover problems it cannot solve. It is those unsolvable problems that provide the catalyst for triggering a new paradigm shift.
Some people, though, assume that sooner or later the paradigm they are presently practising [which has been mostly successful] will solve all the rest of their problems. It seems only a matter of enough time and money.  People without a future will revert to their past!

Note the following insights:
 A paradigm shift, then, is a change to a new game, a new set of rules.
 The optimal time to search for a new paradigm is while the old one is still successful. ‘Once plateau and decline have set in, the energy and resources needed to move to the new paradigm might be harder to marshal.’
 Paradigm paralysis occurs when an individual or organization holds on too tightly to one paradigm.
 Projecting the past into the future proves fatal to those who want to survive. Plans that perpetuate the known present into the future are deadly because they lull an organization into a false belief that it is prepared for the challenges and opportunities on the way.
 Paradigm pioneers usually arise from the edge, not from the centre of the existing paradigm. Often the future of our ministry exists just outside the boundaries of the prevailing paradigm, impossible to see.
 When a person offers us a paradigm-enhancing innovation – one that improves upon what we are already practising – we see that easily.
 But when someone offers us a paradigm-shifting innovation, we find ourselves resistant to it, because it just doesn’t fit the rules that we are so good at.
 We need God’s wisdom to anticipate the future and embrace a new paradigm shift. As Barker points out: ‘It is in the future where our greatest leverage is. We can’t change the past, although if we are smart, we learn from it. It is in the yet-to-be future, and only there, where we have time to prepare for the present.’
 ‘When a paradigm shifts, everyone goes back to zero.’ Whatever your position was with the old paradigm, you are back at the starting line with the new paradigm.

Paradigm shifts are opportunities for significant reflection, adjustments and change. They are reflected in the historical biblical account, as God journeyed with His people, both corporately and individually:
 Abram, called from Ur of Chaldees to be Abraham, the Father of faith [Genesis 12:1-22:19]
 Joseph, from son of Isaac to second in command in all of Egypt [Genesis 37:1-41:45].
 Israel, from captive people to possessors of the Promised Land.
 Israel, from a tribal confederacy to being ruled by a King [1 Samuel 8].
 Saul, from son of Kish to King over Israel [1 Samuel 10].
 From the Old Covenant to the New Covenant.
 From the ministry of Jesus with the disciples to the establishment of the early church.

As we examine the broader panorama of God’s history, Hans Kung demonstrates that paradigm shifts have characterized the growth of Christianity. He identified six key paradigm shifts in the history of Christianity:
 Early Christian apocalyptic paradigm.
 Early Church Hellenistic paradigm.
 Medieval Roman Catholic paradigm.
 Reformation Protestant paradigm.
 Enlightenment modern paradigm.
 An emerging paradigm that he has tentatively called the Contemporary Ecumenical paradigm.

THE PARADIGM PROCESS
We should not be frightened that the church is emerging into a new or different paradigm. This reflects the reality that the body of Christ is a living organism, able to impact any cultural or historical era.
What we need to ask is: Where is the impetus for the ‘paradigm shift’ coming from?
All God’s work begins with His Word!
God’s Word launched creation and continues to precede His work, even to this day [Genesis 1:1-3; John 1:1].
 God sent His Word to meet the critical needs of society and bring the dark Ages to an end. God gave the word justification [Habakkuk 2:4; Romans 1:17] to Martin Luther.
 Another need arose and God gave the word sanctification [1 Thessalonians 5:23] to John Wesley.
 The word that sparked the Holiness movement was separation [2 Corinthians 6:17].
 Power [Acts 1:8] came to the Pentecostals.
 Renewal [Romans 12:2] to the Charismatics.

In each of these ‘moves of God’ there is a combination of the prophetic and the apostolic [Ephesians 2:20]. It is how the Body of Christ has responded and handled these moves of God that needs to be examined! Each revelation was important because it changed the course of Church history, which in turn influenced the destiny of generations.

As Edwin Cole highlights: ‘Immediately following the word, the pattern of revelation and the process of crystallization begins. Nothing is wrong with any true word from the Lord, but everything is wrong with the crystallization of it.’
There is a principle that we need to learn before we examine the pattern and the process:

IT IS EASIER TO OBTAIN THAN TO MAINTAIN!

Cole sets forth the following pattern and process:
Revelation ► Inspiration ►Formalization ►Institutionalization ►Crystallization ►Secularization.

 Revelation: Understanding God’s word always comes by way of revelation. God does not explain Himself, he reveals himself!

 Inspiration: Inspiration is the result of revelation. Revelation inspires change through the forceful power of a new affection. The fresh affection drives out the old and brings in the new.

 Formalization: The changes brought by inspiration are developed, codified and formalized. A desire develops for acceptance and association with those who have received a similar revelation and share common goals and purpose. It is at this point that denominations can develop.
Note: At this critical point of development people need a fresh revelation from the Lord. A new ‘word’ will incorporate new inspiration and stave off the degenerative tendency [reformans reformanda].

 Institutionalization: Over time, formalization will evolve into institutionalization. People move through the motions without passion. ‘Doctrines and creeds congeal, and desires arise to maintain the status quo. It is here where, if new revelation is not sought and embraced, which in turn produces progress, then technical and mechanical procedures set in and men commit to maintaining the status quo of the initial thrust.’ At this stage the political can replace the prophetic.

 Crystallization: The result of institutionalization is crystallization. New revelation is no longer integrated because of a hardened, unresponsive and negative attitude. At this stage, prejudice and faultfinding intensifies and people can become cynical.

 Secularization: Crystallization leads to secularization. There is a return to what existed before the initial revelation
God needs to intervene!

Kung notes that ‘a massive crisis in Christianity makes a massive answer urgently necessary. Christianity should become more Christian. A reform is radical, it ‘goes to the roots,’ only if it brings something essential to light again.’ This insight is reflected in Wagner’s comments: ‘The New Apostolic Reformation is an extraordinary work of God at the close of the twentieth century, which is, to a significant extent, changing the shape of Protestant Christianity around the world.’

We need to note these realities:
 The current reformation is not so much a reformation of faith, but a reformation of practice. Luther’s great rediscovery of ‘the priesthood of all believers’ never resulted in ‘the ministry of all believers’. The priesthood of all believers became a theological principle rather than a ministry transforming principle in the Protestant Reformation.
 This current reformation is not so much against corruption and apostasy as it is against irrelevance.
 The first Reformation returned the Word of God to the people of God. Now a second Reformation is needed to return the Work of God to the people of God. This is reflected in the renewed focus on Marketplace apostles and the commissioning of people into their world Monday to Saturday to fulfil their God given callings.

In this reformation of ministry practice Wagner notes the following characteristics of Apostolic Churches:
 The church is driven by vision and values.
 The pastor leads the church.
 The formation of Apostolic Networks: issues of organizational purpose and structure.
 Contemporary worship styles.
 The church is outwardly focused.
 Ministries evolve and develop within the local church.
 Finances and faith are proactive.

EXAMINING THE PARADIGMS
Using the insights of Loren Mead, The Once And Future Church: Reinventing The Congregation For A New Mission Frontier, we will examine three paradigms that have been evident through church history:
 The Apostolic paradigm
 The Christendom paradigm
 The Emerging paradigm

THE APOSTOLIC PARADIGM [33AD – 320AD]

 This church was a local community, a congregation ‘called out’ [ekklesia] of the world. It was a community that lived in the power and values of Jesus [Acts 2:42-47].
 The world outside of this community was hostile to what the church stood for. The world was not neutral; it was opposed to what the community stood for.
 The church came to see that its front door was the frontier into mission. This defined their reason for existence. The church’s people were required to engage their world and witness to their Lord right in the midst of the hostile environment.
 The roles of the believers fit their mission to the world. The power to engage in that mission – the crossing of the missionary boundary – came from the Holy Spirit.

THE CHRISTENDOM PARADIGM [320AD – 1900’s]

 This new paradigm began to emerge with the conversion of the Emperor Constantine in 313 AD and progressively grew as Christianity became the official religion of the Empire.
 In this paradigm, by law the church was identified with the Empire. There was now no separation between church and world in the Empire. Citizenship has become identical with one’s religious responsibility.
 Since the boundary between ‘church’ and ‘world’ was blurred, the missionary frontier disappeared from the doorstep of the church and became a task of foreign policy, far off.
 Mission was no longer the direct responsibility of the ordinary person. The missionary frontier on the edge of the Empire became the responsibility of the professional. Imperialism and mission, in this paradigm, were inseparable.
 Within the Empire there could be no distinction between sacred and secular.
 The local representation of church in this paradigm ceased being a tight community of convinced, committed, embattled believers supporting each other within a hostile environment. Instead, it became a parish, comprising a geographic region and all the people in it. No place in the local arena was seen as ‘outside’ the church.
 The parish pastor became a community chaplain, a civil servant and a local holy person.
 The vastness of the Empire/church demanded a unity of administration and order. To assure unity in administration, theology and politics, discord had to be minimized and standard structures developed. In Christendom, there could be only one church within one political entity.
 The ordinary person did not join the church as a matter of will, but as a matter of birth; to be born into the parish was to become a part of the community and the church.
 The ordinary person’s Christian responsibilities were defined: be a good, law abiding citizen; pay the required taxes; support the efforts to enlarge the empire and reach the pagan world; be obedient to one’s superiors; support the system with one’s prayers and life.

As Mead notes:
‘The paradigm’s importance for us lies in the fact that most of the generation that now leads our churches grew up with it as a way of thinking abut church and society. And all the structures and institutions that make up the churches and infrastructure of religious life, from missionary societies to seminaries, from congregational life to denominational books of order and canons, are built on the presuppositions of the Christendom paradigm – not the ancient, classical version of the paradigm as it was understood centuries ago, but the version that flourished with new life in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.’

THE EMERGING PARADIGM [1900’s - ]

 The death of the Christendom paradigm was heralded with the introduction of the phrase ‘ministry of the laity’. This phrase recognizes that the laity does have a direct call to ministry. A ‘lay person’ is not the same as a ‘citizen’.
 It can no longer be assumed that everybody is a Christian. In any geographic area the majority of people may have no interest in the church whatever. Congregation has forever separated from parish.
 People can no longer assume that the community is a part of the religious world, living out values derived from the Gospel. Christians now have a responsibility to address issues in the community.
 The front door of a church is once again a door into mission territory, not just a door to the outside. Everyone who moves through that door is personally crossing a missionary frontier and is involved in mission [whether they recognize that reality or not].
 The outside boundary of the congregation is porous and permeable; people move in and out with little awareness of their responsibility for mission and little knowledge of what the congregation is all about.
 The culture that used to pretend to teach the faith no longer does so; the congregation has not discovered the patterns and disciplines for nurturing its people or newcomers to the faith.
 The environment beyond the boundary is ‘ambiguous’. Ambiguities from the environment have migrated into the congregation itself.
 Key questions: How will it constitute itself for the new mission that this new world calls for? How will it communicate the message of good news? How will it differentiate itself from its environment? How will it address ambiguity in its own life and values?

THE NEW APOSTOLIC PARADIGM

 In the new Apostolic Paradigm the focus is on the whole people of God expressing their apostolic identity, as a sent and commissioned people, in their relationship with the world.
 The distinction between clergy [senior pastor etc] and laity has been abolished – all believers are a part of the whole people of God.
 The church is viewed and reconfigured as an ‘apostolic centre’; it is not the central focus for the people of God – the place where they traditionally gather on Sunday and build their life around. The central focus of the apostolic centre is the equipping of the people of God for works of service in the world – their primary mission context.
 Within the whole people of God, God has gifted and established the five-fold ministries, to equip, empower and release the people of God into their missional callings.
 The apostolic centre is planted within its mission context. Both the church gathered [Sunday] and the church scattered [Monday – Saturday] are in mission. Mission shapes their reason for existence, their ministry training and their lifestyle through the week 24/7.
 There is a dynamic engagement between the people of God in mission and the ever present and accessible mission context through the recognition of market place ministries and the commissioning of people into their callings and destiny.
 The apostolic centre [church] is a teaching/training centre networking with other churches, which are like minded, forming a learning community.
 The emphasis on Empire [Christendom paradigm] has been replaced with a focus on Kingdom of God – the declaration and establishment of the king and His kingdom in the world – the ever present mission context – through the commissioned people of God.

TRANSITIONING INTO THE NEW PARADIGM
The New Apostolic paradigm is not simply a cosmetic makeover of the Christendom paradigm or a re-badging of a former ministry model. Simply, the former ‘pastoral centre’ model, which has existed in various forms since 320AD needs to be severed and put to death.
In the transition from the pastoral centre to the apostolic centre there are significant mindset changes that need to be embraced and built into our lives. ‘Mind-sets are the thought processes of people groups who have developed a way of thinking over centuries of time. Mindsets are not easy to change.’
Note the following transitions:

PASTORAL CENTRE ► APOSTOLIC CENTRE

INSTITUTION
PASTORAL CENTRE [MINDSETS] ► APOSTOLIC CENTRE [BIBLICAL
PRESUPPOSITIONS]
Church [Inward focus] ► Kingdom [Outward focus]
Heritage driven ► Vision driven
Maintenance focused ► Mission focused
Building walls ► Building Bridges
Q: How big is your church? ► Q: How big is your influence in the
city/community?
LEADERSHIP
HIERARCHICAL STRCTURES ► FUNCTIONAL STRUCTURES
Pastoral ► Apostolic
Hierarchical ► Team
Position/power ► Function/servanthood [5 fold]
Bureaucratic ► Pioneering
Holding ground ► Taking ground
Imitating procedures ► Applying principles
Shepherding ► Releasing
Gathering ► Empowering
Nurturing ► Equipping
Sustaining ► Sending
Maintaining ► Strategizing
Containment ► Conquest / breakthrough
Control ► Commissioning
Maintain order ► Establish order
Spiritual carer / shepherd ► General / father
Siege mentality ► Faith confession

PEOPLE OF GOD
CLERGY / LAITY ► WHOLE PEOPLE OF GOD
Attending church [Sunday] ► Being church [24/7]
Encouraging the saved to ► Equipping the saints for works of
attend the service service
Measuring attendance ► Measuring impact / influence
Involved ► Discipled

MINISTRY
PROGRAMME ► MISSIONAL CALLING
Programme ► Calling / destiny
Ritualistic prayer ► Warring prayer
Serving the community ► Transforming / redeeming the
Community

MISSION
MISSIONAL ENTERPRISES ► MISSION AS A LIFESTYLE [24/7]
Mission committee ► Missional attitude / awareness
Church controlled ► Spirit initiated through the whole
people of God
Doing mission ► Being a people in mission
Condemning the city ► Blessing the city and praying for it

PARADIGM REFLECTIONS
As leaders reflect on these paradigm shifts, Carol Childress of Leadership Network has suggested some key questions that need to be asked:
 ‘What perceptions about the past keep us from seeing the present? What perceptions about the present keep us from seeing the future?’
 ‘Do our present paradigms allow us to fully minister to the diversity of our congregation and reach the unchurched population?’
 ‘How do our theological paradigms shape our methodological paradigms?’
 ‘Where is our church most vulnerable to be by-passed if the rules change and we go back to zero?’

There are major paradigm shifts that must occur in our churches as we respond to new ministry opportunities in this new millennium:
 The shift to an apostolic leadership model for church leaders.
 The shift from a refuge mentality to a mission mentality in church ministry approach.
 The shift to a kingdom focus away from churchianity.
 The adoption of the learning community as a methodology for ministry preparedness.

As Reggie McNeal notes:
‘Like first-century leaders, new apostolic leaders face a new world. The shortage of experts and an increasingly challenging ministry environment serve to place them in similar situations. Motivated by the mission, coached by the Spirit, resourced by prayer, and encouraged by each other, this new breed of church leaders spells hope for the future. The exploration of this new learning frontier for church leaders is just beginning.’

by Murray Averill

E Stanley Jones (1972, The Unshakable Kingdom and the Unchanging Person, p35): ‘The Christian Church, while it holds within itself the best life of the Kingdom, is not the kingdom of God. … the Church is potent to the degree that it obeys the Kingdom and embodies the life and spirit of the Kingdom. The Church is not an end in itself, the Kingdom is the end.’

Principal: The mission of the Church is the extension of the Kingdom.
Corollary: The Church has disappointed to the degree that it has failed to be engaged in the extension of the Kingdom.

We have not rejected the kingdom – we have reduced it (E Stanley Jones, p30).

 
* E Stanley Jones (p58-9): ‘You have a Christian stomach. It works well in a Christian way and badly in an un-Christian way. The same can be said of every organ of your body. … The laws, principles, and attitudes of the kingdom of God are the built-in basis of health – obey them and you fulfill yourself as a person and your body will be at its maximum best.’

Northside Christian Church: a mission, a vision and a plan – to extend the Kingdom.