God is Excited
Those who are familiar with my writings may be surprised by the title to this piece; nevertheless it is what I am sensing in my spirit in the last few weeks. What is exciting God is a movement that constitutes a new reformation, not inside the walls of the church but inside the walls (boundaries) of the cities of the world. (The majority of the human population, for the first time in history, now live in urban areas, and this is increasing.) This transformation goes by various names, but in this paper will be called “marketplace ministry movement” (3 M). The term “marketplace” includes everything outside of traditional “church work”. Although this teaching has existed for some years, I want to commence from three months ago.
1. A Dream
Late on the morning of the 27th March I had a very clear dream. It appeared that I was on a building site inPerth, my friend Phil Greaves (a builder) was there and I was having strong discussion with the workers. I was advocating to those present the need for an on – site mediator of conflict resolution, but was having difficulty articulating exactly what I meant. My wife Donna, a schoolteacher, appeared from the background and said, “What you are talking about is like the pastoral care (a term widely used even in secular schools) we offer to students.” (I sensed she and Phil had an understanding I could not fully express.) The pastoral care in question would bring the presence of Jesus into the marketplace. (I believe Donna is a pastor in the school world but not in the church. Phil runs a business that employs many ex –offenders and the like who Jesus the Good Shepherd has gathered to him.)
2. The Interpretation
Church professionals (like me) do not know how to reach into the Monday –Friday world where people spend most of their lives. God through Jesus wants to fill the whole creation with his Son, through the church. “He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things….And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.” (Eph4:10;1:22- 23).
The scattered sheep that Jesus seeks are not to be found in church buildings, but in the world. No amount of Christian gatherings will produce unity, only our going into the world to find the hungry, thirsty, sick, naked, prisoners etc. of Matthew 25:31- 46. A focus on large –scale events like Church Together and the annual Hillsong conference is an error of priorities. The 5 ministries of “apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher” (Eph4:11) are to “equip the saints for the work of ministry” (4:12), not where we are found, but where the saints are found- outside the institutional form of the church.
3. What Have we Done?
It is a scandal before God and men that about 75% of the budget of the church goes on buildings and salaries. There will be no lasting revival in Australia until we undo the cynicism in popular culture which says the church (Salvo’s excepted) are only interested in you for your money. Since when has it become acceptable to God for his servants to become wealthy through the preaching of the gospel - “the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” (Matt8:20), “I coveted no one’s silver or gold orapparel”(Acts20:33). Instead of being alongside workers in their trade, we now have traders in the house of God. Instead of seeking for and supporting those called to the ethical and spiritual transformation of the marketplace, we have committed the sin of the wealthy religious leaders of Jesus day, “To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!” (John 2:16).
The Christian circus of conferences, books, CD’s, videos etc. is making a few very wealthy, but failing to penetrate as salt and light a society that is increasingly corrupting (Matt 5:13- 16).
From the time of the Roman Emperor Constantine, who allied the state with the church, powerful political agents (Liberal and Labor are now both into this) are happy to appear at Christian events that do not challenge the status quo. The church sphere is given dignity and autonomy while the state/world/marketplace is given autonomy because of the distant nature of a God who is pictured as removed from everyday life. (Paul exposes these fallacies as pagan in his Areopagus speech in Acts 17.)
4. Where is God going?
He is trying to turn the church inside out, so that inside of being self- focussed and attractional in emphasis it is genuinely focussed on the lost in the world (not, “getting them into church”). Instead of the hub of the church being superstar charismatic personalities with their jokes and (in some cases) boasts, our heroes will become ordinary people who sacrifice for Jesus in the office, school, sports club, factory and home.
This radical change of wineskin (Mark 2:22) will means apostolic churches (Eph 2:20), assemblies of God (1 Cor 11:16), churches of Christ (Rom 16:16), Christian brethren (Acts 15:23) etc. will be found scattered all over the city in localities that have no special religious features at all. This “church without walls”, where only the location and not ecclesiastical property/signs/mottos etc. is a marker of identity, will facilitate unity like never before.
Most dynamically and excitingly, this means the whole people of God will be mobilised for mission into an everyday environment with which they are intimately familiar. Let me quote someone who has seen this (as I have) in action inArgentina,
“The first thing I noticed was everyone moved in the anointing for ministry. It was not resting on a few. I don’t mean they all were doing ministry in the church, but I could clearly see that everyone was immersed in and partaking of the ministry anointing that we usually see “at the front” or “on the leaders”…But in Argentina the Christians just soaked the ministry anointing up and took it out. I saw the same thing happen in the restaurants and shops. The presence of God was there and the Christians were all ministers in the marketplace. No wonder they have revival! The Lord began giving me the scriptures showing how the gospel is the blessing of God to the ungodly. We are called to minister it in a way that breaks the curse, yet I had been a man of complaining, accusation and even cursing the ungodly. As I began to repent and bless others around me and teach the church to bless, marvelous things began to happen…I’m becoming a man of blessing.” (Terry Somerville)
5. A Resistance to be encountered
There are some folks who have been believing and praying for this sort of transformation for decades. What has always held back true revival, so that it has never broken out in a sustained manner within existing religious forms, is that we have made the church into an idol, we have confused it with the kingdom of God (which is everywhere) and even made church growth a greater passion than Jesus.
Some emphases, such as Peter Wagner’s “New Apostolic Reformation” and leadership obsession within elements of the contemporary churchapparatus, are moving in the exact opposite direction to the Holy Spirit.
This means that as “marketplace ministry movement” (3 M) spontaneously grows (Mark4:27;Col2:19) we should expect misunderstanding, opposition and even persecution from power figures in the church. Why? “For he (the marketplace man, Pilate) perceived that it was out of envy that the chief priests had delivered him up” (Mark15:10; Acts5:17;13:45).
6. A Prophetic Picture
God is calling faithful stewards (1 Cor 4:2; 2 Tim 2:2) together into kingdom – centred relationships across this city. These believers may not be spectacular in appearance (2 Cor5:12;10:10), but because they have been faithful with little Jesus can trust them with much (Luke16:10- 12). This was brought home to me recently by a picture inspired by the Spirit; it confirmed a dawn experience in prayer inArgentinaover a decade ago.
On the left hand side is a clear white beam of light, it approaches an empty cross. There are blood stains at 5 points on the cross corresponding to where Jesus was pierced: the head beam, the position of the feet, the 2 hands and Jesus side. If these 5 points are joined laterally and vertically a diamond shape is formed. When the pure light passes through the diamond, a spectrum emerges on the other side of the cross.
The white light is the light of Christ (John 8:12), the 5 blood stained points represent faithful people who know the crucified life (Gal 2:19- 20), the diamond shape or prism represents relationships/connection between these people in Perth. The spectrum that is refracted through these cross –centred relationships represents the shekinah glory of God, as in a rainbow signifying the reign of grace and the end of judgement upon our city (Gen 9:13- 16; Rev 4:3).
This word is submitted for testing and in the context of calling together the faithful for prayer. If you are interested in starting or joining a 3 M (marketplace ministry movement) in your locality or sphere of employment, please contact Jeroen Bruins <jereva@iinet.nat.au>