ARTICLE

“…My Tipping Point…”

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Watch Ahead

As we take stock of life and take a look towards the future and being wise looking back over the events of days gone, for this is true wisdom when we can draw from our past and now to mold the future.  As we do this I am sure we all have different thoughts of what the future holds.  Even as we consider the past we would have different thoughts about what got us to this point.

We all get asked in the light of world events what does this mean?   I have to say some times I don’t know helps us Lord in the changes that are rushing towards us all.   Several years ago I picked up a book called “The Tipping Point”, I am told it has become rather a buzz statement for many, with many taking it up to sum up their feelings of now.    The notion is that everything comes to a point of balance, one that is ready to tip and throw its weight towards a certain direction.   Many things can tip the balance, it could be  a reasoned thought, an emotional response, or a circumstance that tips the balance and takes you over an edge.    In other words the statement we often used to hear of  “its got to break” has now moved into a roller coaster a movement, beginning a direction that seemingly has its own momentum.    So many people I talk to feel as if they are either on the approach to or at the point of just starting over, on the edge of their own “tipping point.

Whatever way we consider, the past, the present and the future I have come to one conclusion, that echoes out loudest over all my thoughts, and I have shared this in several settings over the last 3 years.  It was so loud in my thinking that it drowned out every other thought in my mind; it is “what got me here will not get me there”.   An understanding formed in me, that what ever brought me to know what I now knew, whatever had positively assisted, empowered and served me/us, was not sufficient to carry me/us into tomorrow.  A now, new moment had arrived, in every new moment there is a new encounter, which is necessary to envision and equip the day.   Moses saw God in the burning bush, Abraham met God for his journey and new pilgrim life style, even Jesus encountered the Father in the Garden to face he cross, earlier he encountered the Father at his baptism in preparation for the wilderness and the 3 ½ years of function.

Wherever you are, I think the tipping point is becoming a life-style, not just a moment but also a way of life that we are always negotiating.  There is in fact a cost to be considered in every tipping point, be it into an event, a way of life, or a life choice, that will not even allow us to return to where it all began.

A place of no return so to speak, a rub-icon crossed?, this all sounds high and mighty, but we make these kinds of decisions daily.    Decisions effecting people and relationships, how we use our money, our job/vocational choices, we even see it in the small events of life as they may be.    Please realize that most lives are a sequence of small events and we cross rub-icons daily that have no pain attached but certainly are transformational in terms of our friendships and families – people, what we do – time, and the final resource in our lives, money and how we dispose of and work our money – finance.

Can I encourage you to think out of the box before you negotiate the “tipping point” and set your roller-coaster along life’s chosen pathway. Clear the house, your life first with start by determining I QUIT!   This I Quit will help the process of going over the edge taking that step forward I will give you just 4 “I Quit”

Quit making excuses

Quit complaining

Quit living in fear

Quit complaining 

Having chosen to negotiate my “tipping points”, having then welcomed them these “tipping points”, they have in turn set up various directions of life for me over the last 8 years.   It has caused much re-evaluation of resources, hearts, and direction as events and situations continue to present themselves.   I have had to remodel my view of life and more than that, remodel my view of God himself.    Which of course allows the remodeling of how we function.  Knowing this discovering View of God that will determine how well we all live.

Following all that I am excited over the phase we have now began to live though, a phase that clearly brings multiplication in a new way into my thinking.   Seeing Apostolic networks possibly becoming Apostolic families, heavily relational rather than organizational, realizing that we should not replace the single grace that so empowered many and much in last 30 years + with another grace, endorsing a Papal system again, but seeing the release of multiplication of apostolic graces across the countries and world in this phase.    Many networks or movements are giving way to family expressions with a relationship life flowing across them and through them, which is releasing the possibilities of continual multiplication.    It must then continue to fill the world we live in with organic family expression of Christ.

It’s a time not to be nostalgic in any way but to seize the new phase and take hold of the circumstances that now face each of us.

Love of God, it’s His Essence…

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The face of Africa

Just a short note and a testimony, well one of my short notes:- Note – I depart Thursday 4 August for Zimbabwe and Zambia, to kiss the soil of a wonderful Continent, it will be a busy schedule so please pray the love of God towards  us enabling us to minister to the people we meet in every way.     The 1st weekend will be at a  Family Conference with Cleopas Gwavava, followed by the next week a Leadership School in Gweru with Charles Kudzerema and Bernard with leaders from Zimbabwe and Mozambique, the 2nd weekend in Zimbabwe will conclude with a Celebration Conference for the Churches there about.   Will then travel up to Zambia for the Restorers Conference in Mwinilunga, Zambia with Roma, Catherine and our family there.

After being with Cleopas  7 of August will be privileged with the arrival of John Casey along with Peter Topliss for further time in Zimbabwe, they depart on the 15 August following the Leadership School and Conference, leaving me to travel into Zambia where I will be joined by Gary & Janet  Pleasant along with Pat Broom and one or two others from the USA.     A busy few weeks ahead, I will commence my return on the afternoon of the 24 August arriving home in London  at 7 Am on the 26th August.

Please pray for the mind and heart of God to be seen heard and touched as we minister there.     I thought I would also take this moment to tell you that  I will not have internet connection for quite some time, so my weekly attempt at  blogging will not come to pass, sorry to all readers, but I will be back-end of August or September.

Now for the story, where can I start, where better than to state, God is so gracious to us all!     I was involved in a conversation today, with a friend and ministry of Christ of mine, talking about the love of God,  and his whole aim to bathe the whole of creation-Cosmos in his love.   God is Love we say, its his essence, who he is, discovering the God of love is so important to each one of us.  The way in which we discover his love, whether it be through an action, a feeling, a concept, Fathers heart, mothers touch, his nurture, also tells us about ourselves.       The important matter is that  we are overwhelmed by the love of God.   The challenge is that the love of God,  his own essence is to be shown through us, we are to be an extension of his love in the world in which we live.    We are told that the world may know him, as we love one another, as they see his essence in and through our lives, in other words the essence of God captures, overwhelms us and we become the extension of him becoming that love, his essence to our world,  what ever world we work and live in.

Zambia & Zimbabwe

I believe that creation is really God bringing of himself, everything that was in him, making it seen,  the garden was in him, humanity being expelled from with in him, the cosmos was in him, we are returning back to him at the end of time, returning from where we where sent the mind and heart of God, and his ultimate purpose in the eternal Son will continue to be displayed.   We are thrilled to encounter his love in so many ways so that we might become one with his essence and be the continual flow of his essence to our time space world.

In Deuteronomy its says that “the love of God was made evident upon his children”, what does that look like?   The evidence of his love, so many ways, inner peace, a life filled with the realm of God breaking in on us, a continual consciousness of Christ in life, his supply as we have need.     Let us be the display of His love every day throughout our lives.

Back to last weekend, Sandra and I had the joy of being with Gods people in Exminster, not the usual Sunday meeting but truthfully a gathering of Gods people around food, brunch in the open air of Devon, we share food, life, Christ and the word together, it was great to touch life with the love of God.    Allow me a moment to paint a little background here for you , so that you will fully understand this testimony,  on leaving Africa in early May Sandra and I concluded that  we needed to get a 4 wheel drive vehicle to enable the ever-increasing influence in Southern Africa, acknowledging that some roads, towns and villages can only be negotiated by  4 wheel drive vehicles, both in SA and in neighbouring nations in which we work.    On leaving Africa we just said, some time, don’t know how or when but we need to seek God for a 4 wheel drive vehicle, we don’t have any money for it, but we will have to see when we are ready.

Anyway back to Devon after returning to Adam and Karrie’s home we had a visit from a couple called Paul & Sarah ???? who are part of the church there, they asked to speak privately with us.  They had heard us share during the morning and both agreed that they needed to do something, and that it was right.   God had spoken to them, to pass on a Land Rover Defender to us for the work in Africa, WOW how amazing, and moving for us, God heard our thoughts not even prayers but our conversation back in May.   God, His love made manifest in Paul and Sarah’s heart and made manifest to Sandra and I, to receive the  fulfilment of a need for Africa HIS LOVE IS SEEN in this matter.   We never cease to be Amazed with Gods’ miracles, his protection, cover, healing and provision he is a miracle God and a God that supplies through His people “as every joint supplies”.   I know that Paul and Sarah will find God, sowing in the way they did,  will bring a return from a loving generous God, a God who wants us to sow ourselves, displaying his essence, and becoming the supply of God.   Now all I have to do is get the sign of his love to Africa, donating it to a charity for us to extend the gospel.

 Be his essence in your home, work place, street where ever, that his love, who he is might fill all, that Christ might fill all in all, as Paul put wrote it

Mission – Missional – Missionary

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Face our Mission

Mission? What’s it got to do with me?

How, and where do you start when you are asked to write something on mission,  my thoughts go to the challenges of a coming Kingdom and the changing of the  world around us, causing me to conclude  that mission has to have a focus towards  the Ultimate Goal of God,  i.e. “all things summed up in Christ”, “Christ filling all things”.

I was once asked by a well know teacher  “are you doing anything today that will continue when time is finished and Jesus returns?”,  “yes” I replied, he continued with a further question, “are you doing anything that you will not be doing after his return?”  My answer was “yes” his reply  “why?”   In others words keep your eye on the ultimate, in all you put our hand to.

I cannot read any scripture without realising that the Father and the  Holy Spirit have a preoccupation with the Christ.    Our work and involvement must therefore, have this same preoccupation, we must be fully occupied with Christ, other wise the task ahead will overwhelm us and we will lose our way.   As a matter of fact the entire occupation of the heavens is Christ.    It is so easy for us to focus and emphasise one particular spiritual truth, value, virtue, gift, or good work and yet miss Christ, Christ who is the embodiment and incarnation of all these things.

All mission and commission looses its way and purpose without holding on to the ultimate of goal of God.

I was recently provoked by the following question “why was I born in the West, with all  the privileges of the culture  I find myself in?”   As I pondered on this question my first thoughts were ones of a great gratitude for all I have been given and entrusted with.  Then, I compared my lot with the 2/3rd of the world around me and began to ask why, why God was I born here?   As I considered the privileges we are surrounded by I was amazed at what God has made available to us.  The privilege of freedom, the privilege of finance, even in a world that is in the middle of recession we have so much compared to those that live on less than a $1 a day.

I cannot depart far from the scripture story that started with the debate for position amongst the young men and women that followed the Christ,  debating who would get the best seat in the house.     While this debate went on Jesus told them of a landowner who distributed money to each of his servants, for them  to invest /steward the entrustment in-order that on his return a profit would be seen.   This profit in turn would open up  further entrustment opportunities, not of finance but of city rulership – those who are faithful with little becoming  rulers of much.

This narrative deals with a number of thought patterns, for example the disciples idea of Kingdom coming NOW.  The immediate and sudden NOW, putting Jesus on the throne NOW.  The story is however a story of PROCESS, this being working with and stewarding our entrustment to bring about Gods’ full intent.   We are living in days when regardless how much or how little we have been given, we have to see this PROCESS OF STEWARDSHIP.  We must deal correctly with what we have been given in order to see the influence of God, and Christ filling all in all taking place, as we do, so we will be entrusted further.

So why were you and I born in the nation you were?  which ever nation that may be ,  we must  steward correctly that with which we have been entrusted, so that we might bring an end to poverty,  never mind how tight things are in the midst of recession, we still have a charge to steward the little and the much.

We have been positioned and entrusted with ability to

1          Redistribute – wealth, justice, liberty

2          To bring Christ into every sphere of life and society

3          To break poverty – and dependence for all

Poverty is not fundamentally the  lack of money, but it is the imprisonment into a dependence on others for liberty, finance and personal freedom.   I would like to eradicate ‘dead aid’, where money has simple been poured in time and time again with no sense of building creating only  future dependence.   I would like to  invest in people, and take away the cause of  dependency on some one else for resources. Through our kindness and giving of money  in some cases, often unknowingly, we have added to the poverty mindset and sustained  imprisonment.    We have given much, equipment, tractors, seeds, houses, computers, etc., when our hearts and emotions moved us.  What we failed to realise was that  when what ever we gave  broke down, needed  new tyres, parts or repairs the people once again became dependant on  another hand out – lets break poverty and take away dependency.   It is  not about ceasing giving, far from it, but it is about wisely entrusting to men and women, training in self sustainability and providing them with the mind-set of continuing long after the initial help.  This is long-term empowerment, this is our mission.   Giving people the ability to advance handing them the stewardship of their own advancement.

 After all the advancement of each person in a way that is Kingdom of God thinking will bring about heavens occupation “Christ filling all in all”

Kingdom, its only getting started…

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Changes that have occurred through the decades due to a Kingdom proclamation and Life style
The following statements are in no way conclusive; they are just meant to be short statements of changes I have noted that have been brought about through considering the Kingdom, of God in instruction and practice.   Each statement has a weight of scripture and instruction behind it.   I have not attempted to fill this  out in any way, I simply wanted to make a statement and let it sit there and provoke thought in you.   We could debate for many long nights over them, I also know that as I am a frustrated dyslexic you will need time to pull out and understand what I mean for a number of the statements….. but see how you get on and feed back as we continue to develop a Kingdom understanding
  • Kingdom will place the King at the centre of all.   It establish a Christ-Centred gospel, not a doctrine, not a denomination or stream but in practice a relationship based life working together for this to be seen in revelation, established instruction and practice therefore through a lifestyle
  • We do not plant a church we go and EMBODY the Kingdom
  • We have a head – no other head is required Christ is our head.  There  is   not a hierarchical structure but servant hood to the Christ
  • Ministry and Life are the same,  It’s not about filling a post but about being yourself in the ministry and in the market place of life
  • What the Kingdom looks like in its fullness is still to be answered, it’s certainly not gathering around a church structure
It is a People movement (Eph 4:11) – a people who are Eph 4:11 in character for our world and in our world, being the Apostolic, prophetic people of God in their corporate nature.
The restoration of ministries (Eph 4) is more about the Restoration of Christ to the body and not just a restoration of ministries otherwise we will become hierarchical once again
  • A Corporate ONE people – how to live in diverse harmony!
 What keeps us apart/separated, is there any thing legitimate? – a relationship based on the diversity of Christ in expression, a true Holy Spirit people are a diverse people by nature of what the Holy Spirit is producing and therefore there is a great need of a Holy Spirit lifestyle to be able to live diversely.
  • The question is asked What are we to be to one another?  The implications and practice of this is a due to a Kingdom understanding.
  •  Finance & Kingdom, the Father wants to develop a world financial system not just a tithe, the establishment of a tithing people with a social responsibility/creational responsibility to see the tithe in regard to the Kingdom being larger than church money only, discovering a world economy system to bring justice and a stewardship
  • Property – a fatigue regarding owning church buildings etc has effected many
  • Forgiveness and Servanthood are central  while we work to produce communities that are forgiving and serving to our world
  • The message of the Kingdom is a DECONSTRUCTION message, deconstructing anything that is not Kingdom in function and action
  • Relevant question being asked – how far does Kingdom extend?  –  And to what end?
THE KINGDOM OF GOD HAS BECOME OUR REFERENCE POINT 
The church is an emerging church – constantly emerging and changing, being the nature of God  it is still arriving, it represents an age to come not just a history
The Kingdom has brought hope and seeks to realise the promises of God with in communities, as we do this we become a blessing, blessed to bless,  a servant people with signs of the Kingdom following, as we live God’s future NOW!
  • Churches for so long moved in Kingdom teaching, the teaching  was often taken on board as a way to get to where they wanted to be, rather than it becoming a way of life, it’s a challenge when no one wanted to change to be transformers
  • We stopped only reading apostle Paul’s view and refocused on Jesus – the humanity of Jesus and love has become the characteristics of the church – we will get the gospel wrong if we do not refocus on Jesus (writers and commentators such as NT Wright, Jonathan Yoder, David Bosa, Leslie Newbigan influencers)
  • The church is a Sign and a Servant of the coming Kingdom, a servant that points beyond to a reign that will fill all
  • The church is a ‘pilgrim’, on a ‘becoming’ church journey
  • The kingdom gives rise to a community and not vice versa, church is a product of mission before being an agent of mission
  • Family is the correct form of Government it should be seen as the correct practice of church government, then the fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, sons, children will then be gifted as elders, apostles etc
  • Kingdom demands an INCLUSIVE PRACTICE V EXCLUSIVE Practice which is displayed in action and attitude
  • We do not chase God out of a place neither do we call spiritual and secular divides into being any longer, but see him, the Christ, in every place.
  • Kingdom is not about gathering, collecting many, but the essence of the Kingdom is seen in generosity – giving away what we have – people, money, time etc., sending and releasing
  • Kingdom is about being a fathering people, an apostolic prophetic people… in our world and not about having a few of these people resident in a local church, it is about bringing the atmosphere of Christ to our society and cosmos.
  • The Gospel of the Kingdom makes possible full participation with God in the redemption of the  world – cosmos
  • To let the church exist without the Kingdom is to be without Jesus (NO King/rule) and thus with no proper identity as a people of God
  • Who you are as a people of God is tied into the Kingdom, to bring identity – image and likeness which cannot come outside of the Kingdom otherwise people become a commodity and church will produce  a consuming commodity rather than a Governing Family
  • The Kingdom is about identifying with Jesus, it’s about Jesus not a methodology, it’s about his glory (John 17 church given glory)and his life (not I that live).   Not an event, ritual, creed or religion – A JOURNEY OF TRUST AND ADVENTURE.
  • The GOOD NEWS is not about being saved and seeing sins gone, but about THE KINGDOM COMING
  • We have come to abolish the ‘Secular Space’ it is ‘modernist’ thinking, note the Kingdom is everywhere Kingdom means there is no realm without God, how can then can we create one space, not a dual space (secular – spiritual)?
  • We are a community and because we are a community we are DIVERSE
  • Incarnation means the combination of sacred and secular
  • A people of God who are becoming and have become CONTRIBUTORS
  • The Kingdom brings about a Church that is about being SENT and about being PRIESTS to their space
  • To teach on prayer is to ask for the Kingdom to come!  Your Will be done, not my needs – God supply me; my stuff – this is my identity; and my rights – this is why I was saved  for me? –  the ‘new trinity’ my needs,wants and desires, the Kingdom of God asks for the Father’s will to come and be done
  • A necessary question due to Kingdom ‘if Jesus was here what would he be doing?’
Leadership
  • There is a Leadership move from hierarchical to non-hierarchical   Why – priesthood of all believers and  Servant leadership
  • leadership by Persuasion/appeal rather than control, issues of power are exposed and challenged by the Kingdom of God
  • Servanthood replaces dominion; forgiveness absorbs hostility
  • Leadership to equip for the world, not just equipping a church paradigm
  • Keeping the community in the story – this is Kingdom leadership focused on the Kingdom of God
  • The Kingdom challenges leadership behaviour that is based on power, control, submission and authority – Leadership is to produce a peaceable community, non-hierarchical priesthood of all believers, with a relationship to its head – Christ
  • To move from the Vision of a leader, to a Vision held by ALL, and the will of God
  • To teach on prayer is to ask for the Kingdom to come!  Your Will be done
Culture/World 
  • Engagement not removal – GO not come to us – commission for missional life
  • Responsibility not Judgment (Levitical priesthood V Melchizedek priesthood)
  • Mission – goes into, not drags out of – demands people maturity – consumer mentality with everything performed at the at the front undermines this maturity, as only a few do for all, rather than all do for a world
  • Service not conformity
  • Missional not Missionary
General
  • Character focused – not gift
  • Sanctification – the bride making her self ready
  • Gift is you, be yourself do not perform
  • Waking up to the fact that we have been told we need to die but now waking up to how we need to live (eschatology had an escapism view, creation being burned up view, this is  not any longer the predominant view, it’s now redemptive and restorative) – it’s not just trying to believe in Jesus to get to heaven.   It’s about being increasingly alive to Jesus and God in our world – bringing heaven to earth –  INCARNATION LIFE STYLE AND WALK.
  • God wants US to solve the problem by redeeming acts not us waiting for him do it
Socially 
  • Hands and Feet of Jesus
  • Justice view – partnership, removal of poverty not charity provision
  • A new world system if we are to posses a generation
  • How to be a manifestation of Christ and an explanation of the Father through love and Justice (John 1:18 “explain the Father” NASB)
  • If we are not bringing justice and transformation to the world we should ask, “do we have the right to exist?”
  • Mission defines us more than worship – Putting my whole family into the chaos (Genesis 1, Incarnation etc) in order to see what it means for the Kingdom of God in operation!
Theology
  • It has exposed an eschatology of truth with a responsibility for creation and challenges, changes an escapism view and teaching it is much more about redemption, transformation, restoration of our world
  • Kingdom removes all ideas of escapism and brings transformation forcefully
  • This changes our worship, church structures and societal contact – Works of Service
  • The Earth is the Lords not only the church
  • “God loves” – he sent his Son for the creation “cosmos”
  • The Gospel is PARTICIPATING IN GODS REDEEMING ACTS
  • Kingdom – reign of God is about life in the Garden (Creation, Cosmos)
Our attitudes and lifestyle can be summed up in being:
Authentic, real, relational, organic, simple
To be and maintain a Family
Paradigm culture change in  the way we have been and will educate
Acknowledging we are in a reformation on all these levels
A foundational lesson for us all is that our ‘View of God determines how well you live’  – necessary that our world view is constructed through an ever arriving God.   He is still disclosing himself to us that we might live free and well according to what we see according to the Christ filling all in all this heavenly Father creator God filling our view
Hey I am only getting started

Declaring the Kingdom of God

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We have over the years been schooled into an understating of Kingdom, which has brought its own challenges.   Each of us comes from a reality into which we have been educated, instructed and worked, all of these paradigms  groom our thinking.   Many of us are still coming to terms with what we call “KINGDOM” the scriptures and the revelation of God regarding what we call the central message and only message of Jesus, The Kingdom of God is still unfolding.   It would be dangerous to state I know it all, have it all, and be the fount of all knowledge,  as there is the breath of God which is ready to unpack yet more.

Kingdom in itself is different to every  other kind of teaching, it has a life in itself, it has within it, the voice and the message of the King.  Teaching can be taught and returned to within a teaching cycle but this Kingdom message once introduced will allow the rule of the Father to flow into every area of function and practice.   In essence once introduced it has a way of touching into areas not previously considered.    We can talk about the rule of God and the implications of that manifesting in my finances but before we know it Kingdom is working and marriages come under scrutiny, parenting, relationships, etc…..  The Kingdom of God seems to have a life of its own, the rule of God invades our lives at every level.

I would even go as far as to say that the Kingdom of God ‘deconstructs’ everything, practices, theology and functions to bring the rule of God to bear.   Everything we do is deconstructed, but not in the way commonly accepted, deconstruction has had a negative connotation attached to it in some circles,  but what we see is the Kingdom deconstructing in such a  way that anything that is not  representative of the Kingdom of God is challenged.   The Spirit then works to bring about  change to enable the Kingdom to flow.  Therefore we should expect that how we live on Sundays, or Mondays to Fridays will  all  have to come in line with this Kingdom.

Jesus, John the Baptist, and the apostles went about proclaiming the kingdom–not the church (Matthew 3:2, 4:17, 10:7; Acts 28:30-31). The influence of the Kingdom is through out all creation, the rule of God holds all things together, within this rule we have the Church, Church and the Kingdom being one yet one word describes a called out people under the rule of God – Church and the term the rule of God over all and in all creation – Kingdom.   So we then say ‘although the church is in the kingdom, it is not the entire kingdom”.     When my children were very young there was a British children’s program called ‘Playschool‘ in the middle of the 30 min program they would be asked a question regarding the topic under focus “Which window shall we look through children?” was the question, a round open window, a square one, and a third shape were then all displayed.    Through one of three windows a view of the world would be seen.    Life surrounds it self with similar views, we choose to look at life’s issues and practices through our own reality windows, this is so plain to see regarding the understating we live by in regards to the Kingdom of God.    That is,  if you and I see through a Kingdom of God shaped window/reality we see the Kingdom and the Church as one, they are synonymous, one movement of God which cannot and must not be separated, are seeing through the Kingdom or the Church shaped window is the foundation of our world view, our perceive paradigms.

I have come across some folk who use the excuse, “well I am given to the kingdom” – meaning they want the liberty to be independent rather than live and understand the structures of the church,  yet a Kingdom understanding makes the Church and Kingdom one in such  a way that it cannot be separated, one being the product and the other continuing the proclamation etc.   Then you have those who look  only through a church window, a local church window  and see a conflict between the two, the church and the Kingdom.    Watchman Nee had an impact on some of the separation of Church and Kingdom, I would suggest that was unhelpful, as they are one and the same,  the Church is in the Kingdom, but the Kingdom and the rule of God is greater.    We must not see separation but see only one message, one Kingdom, one people of the Kingdom and one message proclaimed by the people.

So be careful and ask yourself the question,  “what window am I looking through?”

“Kingdom” denotes the rule of God over the whole cosmos, not just one  single entity here on the earth, like the church.  In spite of this, most preaching today has as its goal, to get people to make a weekly two-hour commitment to come to a building on Sundays and give tithes to support that building! This is because a spirit of religion has captivated the church and blinded the minds, so that we now have a very limited church mindset, instead of a kingdom perspective. This has had a negative result and the Spirit is again addressing a change so that the Kingdom message can have its full and ultimate effect.

While considering this let me suggest the following contrasts between these two mindsets:

A kingdom mindset will release all saints/all people of God, the called out ecclesia, as ministers in the marketplace, empowering them to make a radical, foundational transformation in that community. A church mindset trains people to serve in its church structure, especially on a Sunday, Sundays are solely an implication of the chosen expression decided upon, in this format  we work on getting worship teams, stewards, children’s and crèche workers, catchers, etc, etc, these may be necessary due to the choice of shape we have decided upon rather than being the true  ‘works of service’ to our world and communities.

A Kingdom mindset will work and believe to create wealth, to transform a community and ultimately a nation. A church mindset motivates giving to build our own church programs.

A Kingdom mindset is a holistic approach that integrates the gospel with politics, economics, and public policy. A church mindset insulates the gospel from politics and public policy.

A Kingdom mindset will see the Bible as a blueprint, as a guide to structure every aspect of society that brings us to realize that everything in  life is spiritual.  A church mindset views the Bible merely as a book that enables us to escape the world, enter heaven, and be spiritual.

A Kingdom mindset enables the church to embrace and love their surroundings the  un-churched communities. With a church mindset churches only embrace converted individuals within their faith communities, and see a big separation between the church and world,  staying with a siege mentality and retaining their separation.

A Kingdom mindset will train people and prepare them for all of life. A church mindset trains people for church life and activity.

A Kingdom mindset nurtures leaders who are world changers and “culturally creative” who articulate truth to society. A church mindset nurtures leaders who speak religious language relevant only to church people.

A Kingdom mindset speaks of the rule of God over the entire created order.    Church mindset speaks of the rule of God through church offices and gifts, deacons and elders over those in a church congregation.

A Kingdom mindset Ministries of God will release people to their vocational callings in the marketplace. A church mindset controls people by marginalizing their marketplace callings and emphasizing only their Sunday ministries, ministries within their structure.

A Kingdom immerses people into their world, that they become influencers at every level to their world, enabled to be effective in society and every walk of life.  A church mindset involves a spirituality that separates from the natural world, it keeps us thinking of escape from a fallen world rather than be partakers of the Restoration of the Cosmos that God so loves.

A Kingdom mindset is a working toward a Restoration of a world where Christ fills all walks, all ways and the whole of creation.  Those with a church mindset merely strive for a particular expression, stream, denomination, and structure of Christianity to be filled.

A Kingdom mindset churches equip 100% of the saints to fill up all things in every realm of life (Ephesians 4:10-12). Those with a church mindset have as their primary goal to equip the 2-3% of the congregation called to be full-time church pastors, ministers, and missionaries.

YOU have a Kingdom message, a Christ rule, to bring the ultimate intentions of God to bear on the whole of the cosmos “God so loves the cosmos (world) he gave” Kingdom is the giving, taking root and affecting the whole of  life.   I have written these to provoke further discussion, enable us to discover what God is still bringing to us in our understanding of the Kingdom, these thoughts are not conclusive stances necessarily they are listed to provoke debate so come and talk.   Neither must I say are they statements made between any particular shape or model of church function (mega, simple, home, celebration, cell, the list is endless) it is an attempt to grapple and consider a biblical grasp of Kingdom and Church of our century.