Reinventing the Ekklesia 

It required the genius of theologians and clergy to create the murky mess we are in today. The sublime was probably never in knowledge based seminaries and sermon delivering churches. The lack of Spirit led apostolic/prophetic leadership and members who are “overcomers” rather than bench sitters are the most critical issues facing the church today. The church has lost her mission to demolish the gates of hell and make disciples of all nations. Instead, she has compromised and has become a major stronghold herself. She no longer has the road map for the salvation of the lost or the mandate to saturate the earth with “Apostolic gardens” and restore it back to the original Paradise. She has discarded the mantle to inherit the earth. There is an urgent wake up call for a candid and worldwide spiritual audit. The time has come to question everything we do as church. 

The present church structures, practices, ecclesiology and theology are part of the problem and not the solution. For a total solution we need to go back to the original NT model. 

Yeshua Conducts Performance-Based SWOT Analysis: The church has miserably failed to penetrate the vast spiritual hinterland of the world in the last 2,000 years. A SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) of the seven ekklesias of Revelation was conducted by the Lord Himself. This was an evaluation of the whole Body. It was not based on their leadership, doctrine, anointed sermons, music, worship, buildings or church programs but on their ability to overcome overt and covert demonic deceptions. These city churches were meant to be a “Golden Lampstand,” a source of light to the Gentiles who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death. 

Most churches do not have an appraisal system for their performance. For a candid feedback they should be turning to their real stakeholders, the lost people of this world. 

Ephesus, the best ekklesia, mentored by the apostles John and Paul, lost her first love in just thirty-five years. She did not repent and exists no more. Others had the Jezebel spirit of adultery or the Nicolaitan practice of one man domination, or idolatry. Yet others were busy chasing the money trail like the prophet Balaam. Yeshua asked Peter, “Do you love me more than these?” and then asked him to feed the lambs and not fleece them. All these sins are now rampant in the apostate churches. The churches were pronounced “Guilty” and worthy of indictment if they did not take immediate steps to rectify the situation (Rev. 2-3).

We should be thinking salvation of cities and regions, not just individuals and congregations. Yeshua spoke directly to Tyre,  Chorazin, Bethsaida, Sidon, Capernaum and Jerusalem.  

Yahweh spoke to Malachi the last prophet saying, “From sunrise to sunset, My name shall be great among the Gentiles” (Mal. 1:11). Yeshua’s last command to His disciples was to “Go and make disciples of all nations (Gentiles); baptize, equip and send them to make more disciples” (Matt. 28:19). Paul’s angry and anguished cry before his execution to the spiritually deaf, dumb and blind Jews was “Let it be known to you that the salvation of Yahweh has been sent to the Gentiles and they will hear it” (Acts 28:26-28). Yet we never conduct a brainstorming session or a cold clinical diagnostics of our failure to impact the Gentiles. Yeshua came to demolish the works of the Devil (1John 3:8), to seek and save that which is lost (Luke 19:10), to set the captives free (Luke 4:18) and build His ekklesia. This must continue until all nations, tongues and tribes are discipled (Matt. 16:18; 28:19).  

A disciple is a learner who follows both the teachings and the teacher. The sermon making minister has the option to obey and become a disciple making minister or remain irrelevant.

Another parameter of our judgment is community transformation; “I was hungry, thirsty, a stranger, naked, and sick and in prison.” The church needs to get out of her state of suspended animation, put on the whole armour of Yahweh and do the good work of destroying the unjust systems and demonic structures in society that dehumanize people. But Yeshua did not come to do just humanitarian work, “The poor shall always be with you”; He came to demonstrate the kingdom of Yahweh. While we must take care of all those who come in His name, “I was hungry”, they must be converted into lasting fruit, “And the poor have the gospel preached to them”, otherwise “good works” have no value (Math. 5:16; 11:5; 26:11).

Only sheep can reproduce sheep and goats can reproduce goats. Pastors, preachers, evangelists and theologians cannot produce disciples. Only disciples can reproduce disciples.

Every minister needs to seriously ask himself, “If Yeshua were to come today, how many of my flock would qualify as sheep and how many as goats?” A minister needs to first change from being a Sunday orator to being a disciple making minister and then convert all his goats into sheep by changing them from mere Sunday worshippers to disciple makers, (David S. Kirkwood).

The Church changes the Goal Posts: The word saviour comes only fifteen times in the Scriptures whereas the word Lord comes over six hundred times. Yeshua is not just a saviour but He is the Lord. He has all authority in heaven and earth. The Lord has decreed and declared that we should go and make disciples of all nations and make them obedient to Him. All those goats in sheep’s clothing in the pews and pulpits who are listening to the prosperity gospel are in for a shock because they have knowingly or unknowingly rejected His command. Yeshua cannot be their Lord unless they obey. The overriding agenda of the ekklesia is to finish the unfinished task of making disciples of all nations (Matt.24:14; 28:19; Rom. 11:25). A lack of understanding has resulted in the church losing the road map of salvation for millions.

It is the traditionalists who pose the greater threat of stifling the life out of the ekklesia, not the heretics outside. It is criminal intimidation to enforce mindless submission and keep concocted legends, distorted manmade traditions and rituals. This has done the greatest damage to the spread of Christianity (Col. 2:20-22). 

Yeshua said that you shall know the truth and the truth will make you free; free to worship in spirit and in truth, neither in Jerusalem nor on Mount Gerizim in Samaria but anywhere and everywhere, any day and any time (John 8:32; 4:20-24). Obviously the church does not know the truth (Yeshua). If she did, she would instantly set her captives free and worship in Gentile homes. (Malachi 1:11) 

A layperson is an insignificant nobody; his opinion of no consequence. He has the value of a dumb milk cow. Scripturally, every believer is a royal priest and must carve out a niche of the kingdom, in order to practice his priesthood (Luke 12:42).

It is time for the church to dismantle the terrorist tactics of keeping members as hostages. She must release her prisoners to go and fulfil the agenda of discipling the nations, which has been gathering dust for the last 2000 years. Yeshua came to set the captives free.

Freedom is not Free; it has a price tag. Salvation is not free. Yeshua paid for it with His own blood. Being Faithful is not free because it requires that you be faithful until death (Matt. 17:20; Rev. 2:10). Being a Disciple of Yeshua is not free; it requires that you bring forth abundant, lasting fruit (John 13: 34,35; 15:8,16). To be a Follower is not free; you must deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Him (Mark 8:34). Being a Friend is not free; you must obey His command to disciple all nations (John 15:14; Matt. 28:19).  Being a Brother is not free. “Whoever does the will of the Father is My brother” and the will of the Father is that none should perish but all should come to the knowledge of the truth and be saved (Matt. 12:50; 2 Peter. 3:9; 1Tim. 2:4). Even Repentance needs to bring forth fruit worthy of repentance (Matt. 3:8; Acts 26:20). 

Araunah the Jebusite offered free oxen to David for burnt offering. David refused saying, “I will not offer anything to Yahweh my Elohiym that has cost me nothing” (2Sam. 24:22-24). It is time for believers to count the cost before calling themselves Christians.

Do not be deceived: salvation is not assured nor is going to heaven free. Salt without saltiness is worthless just as faith without works is dead (Matt. 7:21; Jam. 2:26).

Most Christians cannot lose their light because they were never a light to the Gentiles. Nor can they lose their saltiness because they were never the salt of the earth in the first place.

With the increasing fundamentalism in many countries, there is a less freedom to preach. We can expect an increase, both in the frequency and severity of persecution. A Chinese pastor remarked, “God loves China more than other nations; that is why He sent persecution to us.” The Chinese ekklesia today is the biggest ekklesia in the world with one hundred million strong believers and growing. Persecution refines and filters, leaving only quality Christians. Only quality Christians can produce quality Christians.

Noisy worship is a common cause of persecution. Sadly the same lips get zipped when the sacred meets the secular in the market place (Heb. 13:13:13-15). Scripturally, the very label “Christian” assures persecution (2Tim.3:12). The worst form of persecution is no persecution—the Devil does not think you can do any damage to his kingdom and hence are not worth the bother. 

Accelerated growth, rapid multiplication and consequent persecution are the norm. A church that is not remodelling communities by restructuring social and economic inequalities and nurturing an inclusive culture is separatist and isolationist.

In the face of severe persecution, the disciples filled the city with Yeshua’s doctrine. What comes out of the pulpit today is unadulterated hogwash because it does not build us up to damage the Devil’s domain and fill the city with Yeshua’s doctrine (Acts 5:28, 29, 32; 20:32).

Traditions are like the Indian curry with hot spices. They add nothing to the nutritional value but leave your palate on fire at dinner and lots of sound and fury at the other end in the morning.

The word “church” conjures up images which do not fit into the NT pattern. It is better to call her an ekklesia, an assembly or a gathering. “The English word “Church,” Scottish “Kirk” and German “Kirsche” are named after the Greek enchantress named “Circe” who turned men into swine. Sadly the process continues. Throwing pearls before the swine is no fun because they love to wallow in the mud of traditions (2 Pet. 2:22; Mark 7:8, 9, 13). We need a few pigheaded guys who are willing and determined to go whole hog to break out of the institutionalized pigpen (Gal. 5:1; 2 Cor.3:17; 2 Pet. 2:19; Jam. 1:25).

Christian leadership is all about leading a cross-generational, multi-cultural and trans-national gathering, dressed in white waving palm branches, to celebrate before the King of kings. 

Unleash Awesome Fire Power: The ekklesia exists, not to protect man’s traditions which are costly perversions, but to fulfil Yahweh’s plan. Yeshua came to proclaim liberty to the oppressed and set the captives free. His church needs to do the same before it preaches liberty to others (Luke 4:18). Until Christians are released from the cage and “allowed” to soar, and become priests and kings, the grand plan of world evangelism will remain buried (Matt. 24:14). 

The highest return comes from moving from independence to interdependence. While secular businesses pursue partnerships and go global, churches, instead of cementing alliances to build synergy, insist on hoisting their own flags. (Bobby Gupta) 

The bad news is that today, most of the 40,000 denominations are suffering from senility and out of date. Tens of thousands of their retail outlets (churches) have succeeded in keeping two billion Christians of the world unengaged and condemned to sit in the pews as cash cows until they are ready to shift six feet underground in the church cemetery. The good news is that there is a huge build up of a new generation of believers with awesome firepower ready for an immediate meltdown of Satan’s kingdom. Again the bad news is that the cross-cultural missionaries (Outsiders), do not realize their rapidly diminishing role and refuse to hand over the baton to the sons of the soil (Insiders). 

Reducing the church to a particular place and time or to mere words is minimizing an understanding of the kingdom. The kingdom must come in a demonstration of power, vibrant growth in faith and a daily increase in numbers (1Cor.2:4; Acts 16:5).

Missions can make missionaries, seminaries can transfer knowledge and denominations can imbibe traditions but they can never make you priests and kings. All those condemned pew sitters need to metamorphose into royal priests who multiply the kingdom of the King. They must become stakeholders in the business of possessing the planet earth. The King did not give more money to the faithful servant to multiply his business but gave him the rulership of ten cities to multiply His kingdom (Math. 25:21). 

The King commanded us to “Seek His kingdom and His righteousness first”. Kingdom comes with the King. Righteousness (dikaisune) does not mean being religious. It is a legal word which means obeying the dictates of the King. Do not plan to meet Him in Heaven. He is already in your midst. All you have to do is to obey His commands. If you don’t, then “the kingdom will be taken away from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruit thereof”. Remember, the kingdom comes with violence and shatters your existing kingdom. If you are still living “as always”, you have a different king ruling in your midst (Math. 6:33; 11:12; 18:20; 21:43).

The Church is the Biggest Stronghold: Christ anoints a new convert with a new heart and a new spirit but the modern church insists on anointing him with Western culture. It was not the apostles, but the black hands of Simon of Cyrene that helped Yeshua carry His cross (Matt. 27:32). There are 3,500 ekklesias being planted everyday worldwide, the majority of them non-white, so the ekklesia already has an Eastern aroma just as it did before Islam replaced it in the 7th century. Breaking links with the West has become an urgent issue as the oriental culture and ethos will no longer permit violation by Western culture. If these links are not broken, Christ will remain unknown and unacceptable, cloistered within the four walls of Gothic buildings. The church must flow with the people without rejecting their culture, images and terminology, through which millions understand their spirituality, morality and social justice.

The first millennium belonged to Europe, the second to the Americas and Africa in the West. Now the third belongs to the East, to preach Christ with eastern flavor, not the western culture.

Missionaries were dismayed by the plurality of the cultures. Instead of using them as entry points, they decided to homogenize and worse still, imposed their own culture resulting in shallow Christianity. Yeshua never said, “Go to church.” He said, “Go and tell others what great things Yahweh has done for you” (Mark 5:18-20). 

Churching the unchurched is the bane of Christianity. Yeshua taught us to allow the yeast to leaven the whole community. We need millions of Crypto Christians who stay below the radar and quietly catalyze their communities. Churching them leaves the rest of the community not only unleavened but hostile. 

Madras city has 300,000 church members, but there are twice as many non-baptized believers outside the institutionalized church.  They practice a Churchless Christianity.  This is where vigorous and vibrant church growth is taking place. (Herbert Hoefer)

Prayer as a Stronghold: Jews were good at praying. So it was strange that the only thing they ever asked Yeshua to teach was, “Teach us how to pray”. This is because they saw His intimacy with the Father when He prayed. Prayer is not a shopping list but intimate fellowship with the Father. Our battle is not with flesh and blood, but sadly most of our prayers are in the flesh and remain earthbound (Rev. 8:3,4). We are seated in heavenly places to shoot the arrows of the manifold wisdom of Yahweh at the principalities and powers and rulers of darkness. This will result in Satan falling like lightning from heaven (Eph. 2:6; 3:10; Luke 10:18; 11:1).

Instead of bombarding Yahweh with a torrent of words, we must pray like Samuel, “Speak Lord, your servant hears” and Yahweh will have a chance to tell us what He wants done (1Sam. 3:10).

Yahweh commands, “Ask Me and I will give nations for an inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession.” Inheritance (Nachalah) is what you get for free from the Father. Like the family deed it is limited. Possession (Achuzzah) is what you seize by force and there is no limit to it (Psalm 2:8). Adam was given the Garden of Eden as free inheritance with a mandate to subdue the earth and have dominion over it. Abraham was given the land of Canaan and ten tribes as his inheritance with the mandate to possess the gates of the enemies. In the New Order, your neighbourhood and worksite is your free inheritance but the ends of the earth is for your possession by making them disciples. (Gen.22:17; Isa. 61:5-7; 66:12; 2 Cor. 8:14).

Prayer is not just fruitless crying out to the Lord but it is also labouring for the harvest. Elohim chided Moses for crying aloud and commanded him to stretch out his rod over the sea (Exo. 14:15,16). The process of harvesting includes battling with the demons of weeds and predators, watering and manuring the crop, reaping the harvest, bringing in the sheaves, threshing, gathering and getting ready for the next harvest. 

It requires tear-soaked prayers, sweat and sometimes even bloodshed to make the Gentiles fellow heirs of the Body. Sadly the church is full of spiritual derelicts who pray but do not act 

The Untouchables or Dalits (Crushed): Eighty percent of Christians in India come from Dalit background. All human rights are denied to Dalits; there is no education for their children, their women are sexually abused and their men are used as slaves.  They are humiliated in a myriad of other ways. The discrimination continues in subtle ways even in the church. Dr. Ambedker, the architect of our Constitution, along with millions of Dalits converted to Buddhism, because it looks more indigenous than an institutional church with its foreign stigma, was a monumental blunder. Still the church did not learn anything. 

In the West, they take off their hats while entering a religious place whereas in the East we take off our sandals. Decoupling from Western culture is an urgent necessity. We must not appear spiritually and culturally bankrupt by looking apologetically to the West for approval for everything we do as church. 

Any commanding lead the church had with Dalits is rapidly evaporating. They hold the church in contempt because of the widening faultlines between Dalit and the high caste Christians. Christianity cannot be a religion of unequals and must be reformed. Christ in us must annihilate caste, class, race and gender inequalities. 

The high caste Brahmins, mostly educated in Christian institutions, constitute only 3% of India’s population but dominate government, politics, economics, the media, the judiciary system, religion and the Silicon Valley. The Christians also constitute 3% of the population but are invisible in the public arena and in nation building. Something went terribly wrong in the way we played church. Our beneficiaries are now ruling over us and even persecuting us. To reverse the process, we need to take the bull (high castes) by the horn and learn the skills necessary to turn them to Christ. For this the spectators will have to be trained into skilled bull fighters.

Dalit women cannot convert to Christianity because the church insists on removing ornaments which are not religious but symbols of their wedding vows. While the church is focused on external symbols, Yahweh looks at the heart (1 Samuel 16:7). Complying with man-made church rules results in their death sentence. 

Even though the Gospel is trans-cultural; structures, systems, context, culture and circumstances influence its outcome. 

Indigenisation: In the first ever mega-apostolic convention in Jerusalem (Acts 15), all the Jewish customs were declared null and void. Idolatry, adultery and eating strangled animals and drinking blood continued to be forbidden. Astonishingly, in the next chapter Paul, the master contextualizer, circumcised Timothy in broad daylight because he was going to minister to the Jews in Jerusalem. Later he shaved his head and offered the hair at the Temple along with other acts of purification including offering an animal sacrifice. He ate the meat sacrificed to idols which was sold in the market and encouraged others to imitate him. He contended with Peter for not eating with the Gentiles (1Cor. 10:25-28; Gal. 2:11-14). It is alleged that whenever Paul went to a synagogue, he put on his Pharisaic gown just to have ready access to the Bima, the Jewish pulpit, to argue his case. He did all these highly controversial acts for the salvation of his people, the Jews, for whom he had a great burden (Acts 15:20; 16:3; 18:18; 21:24-26). 

While Yeshua and Paul practiced indigenization, the institutionalized church has a pathological obsession for a Western church culture which effectively slams the door on other cultures. The Jews needed regulations for worship and an earthly sanctuary made with human hands but the New Covenant does not. All it requires is a change of human heart (Heb. 9:1,11; 2 Cor. 6:16).

Yeshua did not tell the Samaritans to worship in the Temple.  He told them that they can worship in truth and spirit anywhere. A church that has no heart for the lost is truly lost.

The ekklesia needs to go to the people, not to convert them but to restore them to the image of their Creator. Yeshua lived in Galilee of the Gentiles so that those who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death would see a great light. The church exists to lighten up the lives of the lost people and restore them into beacons of light (Matt 4:15,16; 5:13; John 4:14, 40; 7:37).  

The British did a lot of good but failed to understand the culture. Worse still they left behind a legacy of an Anglicized Christ.

The Higher Castes: High castes form only 15% of the population while the Other Backward Castes (OBC) constitute nearly 45% of the more than one billion people of this nation. They have hardly been touched by the gospel. There are many crypto believers among them who cannot “convert” because of sociological reasons. The westernized church insists on changing their culture, names, dress code, life-style, mode of worship etc. These higher castes do not need the handouts of the church as they are financially better off. Their sacred books are full of the hidden Christ, including the concept of Mahadeva, the Most High Yahweh, the El Elyon (Alah) of Melchizedec who became wagwai Bramha (the Word); he became the sacrifice, Prajapati yagna. To them “Jesus of Nazareth” means nothing, but “Yeshua of Ramah” (Ramah is the place where he was born), ignites immediate interest as Ramah is one of their main gods (Matt. 2:18). They do not connect with the Anglicized Christ, but with the humble Guru of the masses. The word “Christian” has negative associations for our Hindu and Muslim brothers. The worst possible sin is to corral them into a church compound and make them socially and spiritually offensive in their own communities. They need to see Yeshua (salvation) incarnated in their own culture and context to form their own communities of faith. 

We know that Allah has revealed 99 names to the sons of men that they may worship him. But the one name, the one hundredth name, he has told only to the camel. And the camel, he is not talking.(A Muslim proverb: Quoted by Kevin Greeson)

Millions pray to Allah, Khuda, Rabb, Parmeshwar, Dewa, including God (earlier a Teutonic deity) and hundreds of other pagan expressions. His original name is Yahweh. The Jews call Him Ha Shem (The Name). Yeshua always called Him the Father. Yeshua, means “He shall save” (Exo. 3:15; Matt. 1:21). No one likes to have his name changed. The English word “Jesus” means nothing. 

The sacred books of the Magi mentioned a star that would herald the birth of a King. This induced them to take a 1,000 mile camel ride across the desert. Similarly, Yahweh has put the “Unknown Yeshua” in the epics of people of other faiths. Acquiring these most powerful entry points and bridges, where in lie buried the secret keys for unlocking their mind’s eyes, is the first step towards a successful ministry.

William Carey, hailed as the “father of modern missions” who gave us the slogan, “Expect great things from God and attempt great things for God” not only translated the Bible and its portions in 46 languages but also translated the great Hindu epic, The Ramayana into English and the New Testament into Sanskrit.

Hindus and Muslims are not interested in the Christian religion but definitely interested in Moksha/Nirwana/Nijat (Salvation), which they would like packaged in their own expressions and metaphors. The first step is to make them better Hindus or Muslims by revealing the hidden Christ in their own sacred books.  

Even though the basic ingredients of the food are the same, local herbs and spices have to be added to suit local taste buds. Even so the gospel must be dished out in a palatable form.

Conversion Vs. Restoration is not just semantics but it is of vital importance for conceptual clarity. The Scripture does not teach us to convert the people of one religious system into the Christian religious system. They are already created in the image and likeness of Yahweh. For the present they are like prodigal sons who have gone astray. Our job description is to restore and reconcile their relationship with the Father (Acts 26:18). 

The commands of Yeshua are non-negotiable but cultural issues can supersede apostolic traditions (1Cor. 9:20-22). To penetrate a culture, we need to radically change our paradigm. Local cultures are the wild olive trees from which any idolatrous branches bearing evil fruit must be cut off and Christ grafted in. Thus without changing their culture people can continue to use their cultural roots for sustenance and yet bear good fruit (Rom.11:17-24; Gal.4:19; 5:22; Phil.1:11; Col. 1:27; Matt. 7:16-20; 12:33).

The Hebraic foundations of our faith and transforming discipleship cannot be fully understood unless we return to biblical matrix from which it emerged. We urgently need to conceptualize and restore this timeless truth. (John Garr)   

It is the oppressors, the caste, class, race and gender discriminators, the land usurpers of the indigenous people, that need to repent and convert. The Dalits (oppressed), who become the followers of Yeshua can celebrate their glorious liberty in Christ. (Sunil Sardar)

A Hindu brother thinks of a spiritual man as one who renounces the world, prefers contemplation and meditation and teaches quietly while seated. Their perception of a Christian preacher is of an actor and performer pacing up and down the stage yelling his lungs out. In the West, conversion is an individual decision, but in the East it is a household decision. Injudicious pressure to join the church can cause families and communities to fall apart. An elderly Muslim brother commented, “You expect Muslims to go to the church which is impossible, but you and me coming to each other’s house for a meal is not only possible but desirable.” (Susanta Patra)

The Jewish believers have never called themselves Christians but only Messianic Jews. There is no reason why their Semitic cousins should not be called Messianic Muslims and Masihi Hindus.   

A new “convert” has a powerful testimony but the church insists on him waiting to share it until the fire has gone out of him. Yeshua gave the highest priority to connecting His new converts to their inheritance, often without waiting for the formality of baptism. He sent the demonized man of Gadara, the Samaritan woman, the cripple and the blind back to their communities as powerful witnesses. Their testimony changed people’s lives and they gained an eternal inheritance for themselves. The ekklesia must have the foresight to encourage new believers to become “functional and fruitful followers of Christ” immediately, instead of destroying them by making them “cultural Christians.” 

The sign of the ekklesia is the seven branched lampstand (Menorah) and not the cross, popularized by Constantine in AD 310. A church that is not a beacon of light to the Gentiles and not connecting them to Christ and show them the beauty of their heritage is a counterfeit church (Rev. 1:20; 2:1; Acts 13:47).

The nations (Gentiles) are our inheritance. Yeshua has placed us wherever we are as His witnesses to connect us with our inheritance (Isa. 54:3; Psalm 2:8; Acts 1:8; 1John 2:27).

Churches that cater only to Christians need an urgent audit. The ekklesia exists to finish the task of discipling all nations (Matt. 24:14). Yeshua said that the harvest is ready but the labourers are few (Luke 10:2; Matt. 9:35-38).

The institutional church has now become corrupt to the core. With false birth, baptism, death and marriage certificates and fake ordination and Ph.D. credentials for sale, not to mention the scandals of money pilfering, sexual abuses, property grabbing, report fudging and numerous other sins, the church is no longer the ambassador of Yahweh. The church has a choice in the words of Peter, “Repent and be converted (revert) that your sins may be blotted out for refreshing (revival) to come; so that all the families of the earth can be blessed” (Act 3:19, 25).

Messiah commanded us to give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to Yahweh what belongs to Him but most Christians will rob both of them to keep what rightly belongs to the Apostles. No church in the Scriptures catered only to Christians. Yeshua said, “My house shall be a house of prayer for ‘all’ nations.”  

Is there hope for the dead church? The answer is a resounding “Yes!” If Yahweh can revive dry bones then He can certainly revive His church. But the barren church must first put on ashes and sackcloth and “enlarge her tent, stretch forth her habitation, break forth to the right and to the left, make her seed inherit the Gentiles and restore desolate cities” (Eze.37:1-14; Isa. 54:1-3). We need to evaluate whether we are skilled in finding the lost sheep and making disciples or only in fleecing the flock and making them twice as fit for hell? 

The Cultural World View: Cultures imparted by our mothers, family and the community mould our mindsets which do not change easily. Israel saw the mighty acts of Yahweh but reverted back to idolatry repeatedly. Imposing church culture of shadows (traditions) destroys the cohesive fabric of the society. It breeds contempt towards the new convert, the Kafir (infidel). A Muslim questions from Quranic mindset while a Hindu insists that gods incarnated in different forms but all paths lead to Supreme God.

In a Christian ministers’ meet, the standard questions are who will marry the young and bury the dead, serve the Lord’s Supper, baptize babies, and deliver sermons? According to their worldview, all these activities belong within their domain even though there is not a single verse in the Scriptures to substantiate this. While Hindus and Muslims focus on primary issues of faith, sadly for Christians, secondary issues of traditions dominate their thought process. 

Yeshua asked about the worldview of the lawyer who came enquiring about eternal life. “What is written in the Law and how do you understand it?” The weakest link in modern day evangelism is imposing our worldview on others without making any attempt to understand their cultural make up (Luke 10:26,27).

The Athenians expected Paul to tell them about a foreign god. But Paul visited their pagan temples, studied the objects of their worship and made full use of heathen literature when he addressed them at Mars Hill. He made known to them their own “Unknown God” (Acts 17:23, 28). Just as the whole USA is not like Hollywood, everything in other religions is not evil. Scripture teaches us that we are to keep whatever is good, noble, true, just, pure and lovely, and whatever has any virtue (Phil. 4:8). 

There are divisions of people groups, languages and ethnic groups, and each group needs distinct strategies, bridges, tools, approaches and specifically trained workers. (K. Rajendran) 

Thousands of unemployed youngsters, driven by economics, are being trained in Bible schools to be cultural misfits by introducing them to the “jeans and T-shirt culture.” They command little respect among the village elders who do not accept them as religious authority but see them as foreign implants. Millions are being spent to train and support them, but despite triumphalistic reports, the return on investment is just peanuts. They are being trained as evangelists and not as church planters. They know the scriptures but not the mechanics of discipling or ekklesia planting. Entry points, bridges from other religions, spiritual warfare, mentoring multi-generational disciples and other relevant topics, which are powerful predictors of CPM, are not taught. Hence the number of baptisms and church plants per missionary, are extremely poor. Drop out rate from the Bible schools and their attrition rate later on from the ministry are unacceptably high. Joshua commanded a huge self-supporting army. Nehemiah built the Jerusalem wall with a volunteer force in fifty-two days. The Antioch church sent Saul and Barnabas as self-financing missionaries. Paul appointed self-supporting elders in every city. We need to make a complete U turn in the way we do the gospel. 

We are training the wrong people, with the wrong motives, in the wrong place, by the wrong teachers in the wrong traditions.

The theological graduates cannot earn a living other than by doing ecclesial programs for a salary. Instead of lecturing to captive Christians, they should be trained like Paul to dialogue with intellectuals of other faiths. Yahweh is at work among peoples of other faiths. “In Him there is no partiality and every nation who fears Him and works righteousness, is accepted by Him.” Watch out non-performing Christians! The new converts are coming from the four winds to partake of the Messianic banquet sprinkled with exotic herbs and spices (Acts 10:34, 35; 15:14; Zech 2:9; 8:20-23; Luke 13:29; 22:30).

The church is a repair shop for fixing broken hearts and spirits. But we have replaced the mechanics with the academicians.

Economic Stronghold: Poverty does not translate only into empty belly but the shame of it ravages personality, destroys relationships and robs the joy of life (Chasdei Yosef). Yeshua came to restore the joy of abundant life. But the church tacitly condones the politics of economic deprivation that benefits only the rich by exploiting millions who toil at the bottom of the pyramid for less than one dollar a day. We worship Mammon, the god of wealth. We are economic patriots without conscience who admire our millionaires. It is the poor who build our houses but themselves live in shacks. They build schools but cannot educate their children; build hospitals but cannot afford medical treatment. They live in villages, slums and shanty towns. The saddest part is that they are the people who break their backs to put food on our tables, clothes on our bodies and roofs over our heads.

The present world economic order, by the rich - for the rich, ecology destroying industry and carbon emitting tailpipe transportation resulting in booming prosperity for a few and damning poverty for many, are biblically untenable. Billions of dollars worth of Bailout packages encouraging consumerism with borrowed money is not going to work. With the modern financial system in tailspin making millions jobless, Yahweh is orchestrating the return of the meek to the green jobs and land based economy to inherit the earth.

Billions of dollars were lost by Christians who invested them in “secure” stocks. This money could have been easily put at the financially insecure apostles feet who would have transformed the world by now. Salvation without an “economic conversion” is meaningless. The road to eternity passes through the poor neighbour’s house (Mortimer Arias). Zacchaeus the hated tax collector went from house to house returning the ill gotten wealth after the Lord proclaimed, “Salvation has come to this house” but the rich young man lost the Kingdom by hanging onto the security of his earthly riches (Col. 3:5; Isa 5:14; Luke 19:9; 18:23).

Self-help groups give loans with interest that promotes debt and retails pseudo Christianity to the poor and then ruthlessly recover loans. The best barometer of Christianity is “generosity”, giving even to the enemy without expecting any return. Not very practical but very biblical. Not teaching the poor to give, deprives them from the blessing of giving to break the curse of poverty (Luke 6: 34,35).

There is no difference between a godless person and a regular Christian when it comes to the vulgar display of consumerism and materialism. Both are devout Mammon worshippers.

Baptisms in Africa outnumber those in Europe, North and South America combined, and those choosing to become followers of Christ in Asia do so at a rate five times greater than Africa. Yet the economic reality is that an average pastor in those nations cannot afford to buy a Bible to read, a bicycle to go and preach and food on the table to share with others. (Fred Palmerton)

Yahweh baptized Israel with all their possessions in the Red sea; similarly Christians should be baptized along with all their possessions. “No one called his possessions his own but they had all things in common.” (1Cor.10:1-5; Exo. 12:37,38; Acts 4:32-36)  (Panjabrao Jharbade)

Levites, the custodians of religion, were in full time ministry and tithed their mint and cumin but not their position, power and security. They were rejected by the Lord. Full time ministry and tithing do not guarantee our salvation without the servanthood but fruitful role modelled by Christ. Mother Teresa saw the face of Yeshua in the poor of the gutter but failed to convert them into lasting fruit.  

To be invited to the Lamb’s banquet, you need to first invite the fatherless, the widow, the cripple and the Gentile to your house. To occupy mansions in heaven, you need to first fix their fallen tents (Luke 14:21; Deut. 16:11; John 14:2; Acts 15:16).

Kingdom-Economics: “Yahweh has already blessed us with all spiritual blessings” (Eph.1:3). Yeshua came so that we may have abundant life (John 10:10). Meanwhile, the adversary has usurped all the power, glory and the wealth of the nations and he gives it to whomsoever he likes (Luke 4:6). Now Yeshua has given us legal power over all the power of the enemy (Luke 10:19). All we have to do is to bind the strongman in the Name which is above all names and plunder his illegal possessions (Acts 4:12; Matt. 12:29). If you are still poor and lack everything, then you have not exercised your authority. The Devil is always seeking Christians who do not know their authority and he devours them for breakfast, lunch and dinner (1Peter 5:8). Praying alone is no help. Submit to Yahweh and use your authority to rebuke the strongman and appropriate what legitimately belongs to you. 

The biblical way to break economic strongholds is to have potluck meals (break bread) with our deprived neighbours; then every valley shall be exalted and every hill made low. (Isa. 40:3-5)

Holding a secular job and being a fulltime missionary are normative in the NT (Acts 20:33-35; 1Thess.4:11; 2 Thess. 311). They are not mutually exclusive—as exemplified by Yeshua, himself a taxpaying citizen (Matt.17:24-27). Peter owned fishing boats (Luke 5:3); Paul told Philemon to charge his debt to his online Bank account (Philemon.1:18); Lydia was a seller of purple clothes (Acts 16:14) and Phoebe was a multinational business woman (Rom. 16:1,2). Most of the top New Testament leaders were redeemed professionals and business people. 

Millions of Christians spend 9 AM to 5 PM quality time in the secular world with colleagues and clients in the office, the government and the market place. What is missing is a genuine critical analysis of the church’s unengaged apostolic workforce and the strategy for their deployment. The church needs to retool them to be effective work place ministers to change the secular into celestial gardens.

Green Economy: In the new dispensation, economy will not be driven by money, the market or Mr.Mammon but it will be garden based. There will be no Canaanites (merchants) (Zech. 14:21; Rev. 18:11-19). When the curses are broken (Rev.22:3), there will be a “green revolution” with abundance of food, and a “white revolution” with plenty of milk and butter, with overflowing of sweet wine and honey. These will grow in your own land (Amos 9:13-15). Even in the cities they will have kitchen or roof or window gardens. You will not need any money to buy as every thing will be free (Isa 55:1) and no one will be unemployed as everyone will be busy tending their gardens. Everyone will love his neighbour by sending home-grown fresh fruits and vegetables. 

Educational Stronghold: Our educational system introduces an unhealthy spirit of competitiveness early in life instead of caring, sharing and building relationships. The neo-rich have captured the best schools, thus depriving the poor of a good education. In many families there is hyper-parenting, putting abnormal pressure on the children to excel in school, in the hope of future bulging pay packets. For this, the parents are willing to pay whatever it takes, even bribing officials to fudge the mark sheets. Naturally this competitive, acquisitive and consumerist criminal spirit has percolated into our businesses, politics, administration and religion. 

There is no such thing as secular. Yahweh owns it all.(Ps 24:1) 

Education must produce change agents who bless communities. It is not about producing job seekers but job creators who make the excluded into included, by offering the best for the least.

Yahweh gave Adam and Eve a choice, but they foolishly chose knowledge instead of intimacy with the Father. Their eyes were opened but they could no longer see their Creator. All they could see was their nakedness. This is the kind of “enlightenment”, secular (Godless) education, ideologies and religions offer.

It is well known that there is no difference between Christian and non-Christian children when it comes to cheating, telling lies, stealing and other crimes in the school. Both the parents and the schools have abandoned the primary objective of equipping the children for societal transformation.  In the rat race for money, wealth and power, we are educating our children to be Mammon worshippers. This is an endorsement from Hell. 

The greatest challenge facing the church is to convert  “cultural Christians” into fruitful “functional Christians.” Education must include learning fruit bearing practices.

There is no difference in the IQ (Intelligence Quotient) of children from differing background. The discrepancy lies only in the opportunities available to them. The exploitative system does not allow poor children to get into our own good schools. The hypocrisy is that Christian educationists go abroad begging for money in the name of the poor but in practice misuse the facilities for building up private empires. 

Preferential admission to rich children while neglecting the legitimate claims of the poor creates a permanent spiritual and digital divide and commits violence to development of egalitarian transformational leadership. 

Mission Schools have lost the Mission: Our schools have been usurped by liberals who believe in pluralism. An Absolute Yahweh cannot be preached, Judeo-Christian principles cannot be taught and no one becomes remotely Christian in our schools. 

The British started the educational system in India but the high caste Brahmins objected to their children sitting next to the untouchable Dalit children. Sadly many mission schools also stopped admitting Dalit children. The carnage continues today by charging high fees or fixing high marks as merit to exclude admission of Dalits. Most prestigious Christian institutions hardly have any Christian students. In fact they do not have Christian teachers so how can they impart Judeo-Christian values. It is tragic that the education system which was started by the church to restore dignity to the poor has now become the citadel of gross violations of human rights against her own people. The digital divide between literate Hindus and comparatively illiterate Christians is alarming. We have become the tail and not the head. 

We need to equip Christians for political, judicial, administrative,  and other influential posts, not to compromise with the system but to provide a radical alternative and replace the system and precipitate a godly government. The missionaries taught us to be separatists and not wholistic, resulting in the lack of leadership for the penetration of the secular world. The church needs to get out of the debris of historic blunder and equip Christians to be professionally competent, socially relevant and spiritually vibrant. 

If the church had not kept the Dalit Christians out of her educational institutions, they would have been governing the nation by now. (Vishal Mangalwadi) 

Daniel knew that in the last days knowledge would increase. But worldly knowledge does not save. Only the gospel has the power to demolish ideological strongholds, make carnal knowledge captive, restore liberty and transform people. (2Cor. 10:3-5; Dan. 12:4)

Secular education does not transform. During an eclipse, a professor of astrophysics took off his clothes and sat cross-legged in a Yoga position, worshipping the sun, believing a Dragon had swallowed it. On being questioned, he had no conflict. He said, “When teaching academics from my head knowledge, the sun is a furnace of nuclear energy, but in my heart I believe that he is god and I worship him.” 

Scriptural Position: Yahweh is the fountainhead of all knowledge and life and the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge (Prov. 1:7). Academics has nothing to do with godly wisdom. A carnal mind is enmity against Yahweh (Rom. 8:7). The lack of godly knowledge destroys families and communities (Hosea 4:6). The Devil, the god of this world, shuts the mind’s but godly knowledge opens our spiritual eyes and leads to repentance (Job 42:5,6; 28:28; 2Cor.4:4). Sound knowledge teaches us to walk in the light and apply biblical truths in our daily lives. It includes the ability to win souls (Titus 1:9). A healthy fear of the Lord leads to miracles and multiplying ekklesias (Acts 2:43; 9:31).

Health Stronghold: In the wilderness, Yahweh commanded Israel to keep His statutes in order to avoid all the diseases which afflicted the Egyptians (Exo. 15:26). The only time that Israel had any disease was when they rebelled against Yahweh and were bitten by fiery serpents (Deut. 29:5; Num. 21:5-9). We may only see an incomplete physical cure taking place after our prayers because we do not obey Yeshua’s command to “Heal the sick and preach the kingdom” (Luke 9:1,2; 10:9). 

The ekklesia should be a strong vocal advocate of universal, excellent, accessible and affordable health care for all.

A healing ministry does not just consist of providing curative services in a mission hospital. It involves planting apostolic models of health, healing and wholeness for the entire community. Our health system is frankly iniquitous, brutal and often fatal for the poor. Poor nutrition, filthy water, rotting garbage and absent sanitation cause 80% of diseases, and are signs of demonic influence. Naturally the basic health indicators are getting worse. 

The ekklesia is a healing community for hurting people in the midst of despair, pain and suffering. The healing ministry is to console (2Cor. 1:3-5), to reconcile (2Cor. 5:19), to love (1 Cor. 13:1-13), to minister (Matt. 25:31-46), to show compassion (Matt. 9:36-38) and to heal (Matt. 10:8; Mark 16:18). The ultimate mission of Yahweh is the healing of the nations. (2 Chron. 7:14; Rev. 22:2). (Toshi Sanglir)

Christ in us is the only hope of Gentiles. But only when we become seeker-driven, then we remove the aroma of eternal death from those who are perishing. (2 Cor. 2:16; Col. 1:27,28)

Yahweh’s Prescription: Isaiah prophesied: “Surely He (Yeshua by His death and resurrection) has borne “all” our sickness and diseases” (Isa. 53:4,5). Peter asserts it as an accomplished fact: “By His stripes you were healed” (1Peter 2:24). You no longer have to pray for healing, it is there for you to merely appropriate it. It has already been bought and paid for and you are His purchased possession (Eph. 1:3,14). You can pray for somebody for healing till you are blue in the face but nothing will happen, certainly Yahweh will not heal, until the person concerned or his intercessor believes in the Word, walks in faith, receives his healing and refuses to believe the Devil’s lie. You do not pray for healing because healing already belongs to you, but pray for your unbelief. Yeshua always said, “Thy faith has healed thee.” Healings take place in crusades simply because faith healers raise their faith levels up several notches. You can do the same but unlike them, do not make the mistake of abandoning the physically healed but disciple them into the kingdom, lest you come to judgement (Matt. 7:20-23; 9:22; 8:13,17; 17:17-20; Heb. 11:6).

Yeshua commanded us to visit the sick (Matt.25:35-40). There are profound implications to this command because you will wipe their tears and bring healing and the joy of salvation into their lives. 

Every time you speak life and health, you give marching orders to Dr. Death to pack up his bags and get out (Prov. 18:21).  

Political Stronghold: Yeshua is the King of kings and He shall reign eternally with His saints. The Scripture says, “The Government is upon His shoulders” (Isa. 9:6). The church is the authentic government because Yeshua is the head of the ekklesia and we are His hands, feet and “shoulders” (Eph. 1:22,23).

Corrupt people are elected on the basis of money, muscle power, race, class and caste factors (Isa. 59:14-16). This inherently corrupt system needs to be changed. The church avoids politics as she fears pollution and precisely for this reason that the government continues to be corrupt. Interestingly every day we pray, “Thy kingdom come and thy will be done on earth... ” but then we do nothing about it. How can dirty politics change unless godly people reign on earth? 

“Christians should not participate in politics” is a lie straight from Hell. Yeshua will sit on David’s throne and the law shall go forth from Zion. He died to make us priests and kings to reign on earth and inherit it. (Mica 4:2; Isa. 16:5; Rev. 5:9,10). 

The destiny of our nation depends entirely on the sons of the King who are busy praying for their own families, jobs and ministries but not for the nation. Without supplications, intercession and thanksgiving, the rulers will not come to the knowledge of the truth and be saved (1Tim. 2:1-4). In the absence of prayer cover, even good leaders become corrupt. We must become kingdom minded and pray kingdom prayers for the healing of our nation. 

If My people will repent, pray and seek My face then I will heal your eretz (land, nation, country) (2 Chron.7:14).  

Yeshua never got involved in social, political, legal and financial problems of this world to make it a better place to live. Instead He demonstrated, lived and preached a radical alternative, how life looks under the reign of Yahweh. His empire offers a different foundation and framework for life that is completely different in values and principles of this world. (The Starfish Vision)

Those who work for wages are hirelings but the sons do not work for wages, they own it. The King is looking for sons and daughters who will take ownership of His creation. He will not give it to servants. He has delegated the authority and the mandate to manage the planet earth to His heirs. Through prophecy, priestly intercession and direct intervention we must subdue the earth and have dominion over it. Then the gates of Hell will be shattered and righteous governance will come and we shall reign on earth (Gen. 1:28; John 1:12; Gal. 4:6,7; Rom. 8:14,17,19; 2 Cor. 6:18; Rev. 5:10).

The institutional church offers membership and laymanship for a fee while the Father offers sonship and rulership for free. 

City Church is a Stronghold: The evaluation of the seven ekklesias in Revelation was a city-wide audit. These ekklesias were to be witnesses to the city but miserably failed. In fact they were polluted by the sins of the city. Yahweh is going to be a city dweller so He is especially keen to get the cities cleaned up (Rev. 21:1-3; Isa. 54:3). The authorized agency is the whole city church. The churches must transcend denominational differences and move from mutual confrontation to cooperation to bless the city.

With Lutherans singing liturgy, Baptists baptizing, Presbyterians appointing elders, Brethren teaching sound doctrine, Methodists in midweek accountability classes, pacifist Mennonites finding “men of peace” in every locality, Catholics doing humanitarian work and Pentecostals speaking in tongues to the Gentiles, we should so gridlock the city, that no stray fish can escape the net. Interlocking and cross pollination will cure all denominational doctrinal delusions.

Kingdom of Priests to the Nations:  Yahweh is not only Yahweh of the Jews and Christians but the Yahweh of all nations. He sent Joseph and Moses to Egypt in the South, Daniel and his colleagues to Babylon and Jonah to Nineveh in the North. Israel suffered when Yahweh sent them in diaspora as slaves. They spread their prayer mats and prayed for Jerusalem but Yahweh told them to pray for the Babylon, “Because in its welfare is your welfare”(Jer: 29:7). Yahweh’s heart bleeds for Babylon, where He found Abraham. Esther an orphan girl in diaspora took part in a beauty contest and was crowned “Miss Persia” and became the queen. She fasted and prayed and took a stand against the genocide of the Jews. She had the enemy Haman hanged on the gallows and proclaimed the name of Yahweh from India to Ethiopia (Esther 1:1; 4:14). Yahweh appointed Israel to be, “A Kingdom of priests to the nations” (Exo. 19:5, 6) 

but the Jews did not believe that their holy Yahweh could work with Gentiles and Samaritans. They chose to be temple-centric and put a notice, “Gentiles keep out”. 

Yeshua’s blood makes us a kingdom of priests to the nations (Rev 5:9,10). He said, “My house is for all nations”. Yahweh is nation-centric and Diaspora (dias=scatter; spora=seed) continues to be His strategy for reaching the nations. Stephen’s death resulted in thousands of ekklesias. Peter wrote to the pilgrims in dispersion to be Priests to the nations (1 Pet. 1:1, 2:9). (Bob Newton)

All the important events in the OT took place at the city gates. Abraham, Job, David and many others sat at the city gates where important decisions were made. Rebekah, the bride of Isaac, was blessed to have ten thousand children to possess the gates of the enemy (Prov. 31:23; Gen. 22:17; 24:55-60). The upper room prayer closet was not a dark room but had two windows, one facing the city gate and the other the temple, enabling the Jews to pray for the important events in the city (Matt. 6:6). The venue has shifted but being visible and audible in the decision making City Council and judging every evil must continue to be high on the agenda of Abraham’s descendents (Deut. 16:18; 17:2-10).

The Ekklesia must be a breeding place for birthing inheritors who must pastor the whole city. People must be restored in the image of Yahweh and the land into fruitful garden to bring shalom to the city to receive Christ the King (Ps. 46:4; Rom. 8:17-23; Isa. 54:3). 

The Bride of Christ does not need pastors, she needs midwives to appropriate Rebekah’s blessing to birth tens of thousands of inheritors, who will go and possess the gates of the enemy.

The Land is Defiled: Adam and his son, Cain, defiled the land with disobedience and the shedding of blood so that it would not yield its strength but grew weed. In the Garden they only had to tend and protect the garden but now we have to till the cursed land with the sweat of our brow to produce cursed food. All people born are also cursed because they come out of the cursed land and shall return to it. Today the land continues to be defiled by the sins of the people—bloodshed, adultery, idolatry, exploitation and the shifting of land boundaries etc. Yahweh made a covenant with Abraham for the land of Canaan and the ten iniquitous tribes (Gen. 15:16-21). Yahweh then commanded him, “Arise and walk through the length and breadth of the Promised Land” and Abraham marked the territory with seven altars where he offered sacrifices (Gen. 13:17,18). Yahweh has now made a fresh blood covenant with us for the possession of the land and the people with dire consequences for those who tread the covenant underfoot (Heb.10:29; Luke 24:47).

Every year a Jew offered a basket of firstfruits and announced “I have taken possession of the land flowing with milk and honey, given to me as my inheritance (Deut. 26:1-10).

When sin abounds, the land vomits its people, i.e. sends them as refugees (Leviticus 18:25-29). There are millions of refugees today. Many are without home and hearth in their own countries. The land is cursed by bad relationships within the family. Yahweh sent John the Baptist to turn the hearts of the fathers to their sons and of the sons to their fathers. If that does not happen then He will smite the earth with further curses (Luke 1:17; Malachi 4:5,6). 

Solomon’s dedicatory prayer was in the context of locusts, pestilence and desolation of the land and its people and their healing though prayer of repentance (2Chron. 7:12-14).  

 

The Adamic, Noahaic, Abrahamic and Mosaic covenants are all “people and land deeds.” “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.” Even Yeshua’s Great Commission is the same: “Make disciples of all nations, to the ends of the earth.” Yahweh has given us the land and its people as our eternal inheritance. We must break the land curses by prayer walking its length and breadth like Abraham and establishing altars (house ekklesias), where from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, sinners with broken and contrite hearts can be sanctified, washed, and offered as a living sacrifice, in Gentile homes (Matt. 5:44; Rev. 22:3; Mal. 1:11; 1Cor. 6:9-11). 

World poverty and hunger can never be removed nor a green revolution possible without dealing with sin and breaking of the land curses (Rev. 22:3). Then only there will be so much food production that sweet wine will drip down from the mountains and the ploughman will overtake the reaper  (Zech. 13:2; Amos 9:13).

The seminaries need to make a complete paradigm shift from planting Trees of Knowledge to planting Trees of life in the apostolic gardens to be on the same page with Yahweh.  

Ecology: The disastrous ecological changes taking place spells the death of the creation. We are destroying creation through chemical pollution of the land, pesticides in the food chain, even mothers’ milk now has a dangerous concentration of poisons, water contamination, poisonous emissions from vehicles, and in a myriad of other ways. While in Yahweh’s economy there is enough for everyone’s need, there is not enough for our greed. All this avarice is causing an environmental catastrophe. Yahweh says that He will destroy anyone who destroys His creation (Rev.11:18). In the meanwhile the creation is waiting for the sons of Yahweh to go green through eco-friendly activities so that we do not hand over a damaged planet to our grandchildren (Rom.8:19-22).

We need Green Christians with green faith to break generational and land curses to restore peace with the plundered planet, the inheritance given to us by our Father. (Anand Veeraraj)

Yahweh asked Abraham to bless all the households (mishpachah) of the earth; this presumably included their property. Yeshua asked us to say peace to the house and only indirectly to the man of peace. It is not just the salvation of souls that is an indicator of abundant life, but clean air, pure water and wholesome food are also the benchmarks. Wherever “awesome threesomes” gather, there is an authentic ekklesia. Because He is present, we have all the power and authority needed to salvage the creation and restore the original greenscape (Gen.12:3; Luke 10:5; John 10:10; Matt. 18:20).

Violence and Terrorism: Terrorism was birthed in the Garden when Papa Adam and Mama Eve disobeyed Yahweh. Today the earth is still being smeared with blood along sectarian divide. This is bringing more curses on the earth. Terrorism breeds in shantytowns. The presence of unjust societal structures result in lack of creative opportunities for the youth to break out from the shackles of poverty and frustration resulting in vengeful hearts.

Every believer has been given the ministry to reconcile the world through Christ (2Cor. 5:17-21). We, as ambassadors of Christ, should be conducting a peace process through intercession and direct negotiation with extremists. Instead of finding ways of infiltrating militant strongholds with the gospel, we, the emissaries of the Prince of Peace, choose to remain boxed in our own strongholds. Hence by default, we are guilty of the making and maturing of terrorists. We give the “Judah’s kiss of death” by not removing the veil of darkness from them.

We need to intercede until the terrorists turn their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks and learn war no more but instead learn to walk in His ways (Mic. 4:2,3). 

The media inform us about all kinds of atrocities, injustices and brutalities taking place in the city every day but Christians, the champions of compassion and justice, remain as silent spectators. The passive mindset is so perfidious and ubiquitous that many Christians will not even go and help a neighbour in need. 

The best way to prove that we love an awesome Yahweh is to love our awesome neighbours. Christians must take a stand against injustice and wrongdoing. We must dare to dream and conquer the world for Christ. For us surrender is not an option.

Spiritualism is a Multi-Billion Business: God men and gurus of all shades, who are in reality mind controllers, air their wisdom to multitudes on TV. The sale of CDs, VCDs, audio tapes, literature, medicines and health products, talismans and trinkets, idols and   materials pertaining to various faiths such as incense, rosaries, coconuts, flowers is escalating. Added to these are health products, Yoga, religious tourism and art and culture, all with religious overtones. Devotional music tops the list as a money-spinner. There is a spate of religious building mania afflicting all religions including Christianity. Some Christians think that Yahweh can be worshipped only in a sacred building, in spite of the fact that Yahweh’s residential address is the human heart (Acts 7:48,49; 2Cor. 6:16). 

For hyper-acceleration, spawn culture specific ministries using first generation converts to reach the priests of their original faith through their sacred texts and cultural lingo (Acts 6:7).

The TV channels showing foreign celebrity evangelists are largely ignored by people of other faiths and mostly viewed by westernized Christians. But the motivational talks do not mature them enough to do any damage to the demonic world. Still the celebs will not outsource to the natives. Even where they do, it is to their clones who preach through a Western filter and have an insignificant impact on other religionists. In the meanwhile in Yahweh’s scheme of things, crusades and other large gatherings have substantially come down due to persecution, fuelling small but fruitful gatherings.

Yahweh is not looking for decision cards but disciples. The popularity ratings should not be measured by the number of Christian listeners but by the seeker/mentor contacts established.

 

What few gains are made are lost due to the poor quality of follow up. Writing stereotyped letters and sending gospel packets is not the answer. Broadcasting is like throwing seed to birds unless there is someone on site to bring it to fruition. There is an urgent need to indigenize and outsource the follow up to church planters on site. Electronic media is a very important tool for the penetration of the Gentile population. It should not be wasted on ever-learning and never-practicing Christians (2Tim. 3:7). Professional speakers and singers need to be replaced by those who can disciple people of other faiths through interactive participatory programming. Indigenization does not just involve worship and music but includes using the nuggets that Yahweh has put in their sacred texts.    

In this age of advanced telecommunications, emails, mobile phones and faxes, it should be possible to connect a seeker to a local mentor for one on one discipling within hours.

The Stranglehold of Media Over the Youth: The Devil controls the world through media barons who decide what we should see, hear and read. They stigmatize Christ, denigrate the Bible and conduct hate campaign against Christianity. The demonic power of the media seduces our children with many kinds of sexual, social and religious propaganda. It is a major stronghold that is destroying the church as nothing else. Many parents are not at home, abdicating their responsibility to the media which has become surrogate parent for their children. Naturally they do not honour their parents. This cuts down their life span (Exodus 20:5). Still the first priority of most Christian homes is to acquire a colour TV, set it on a pedestal and worship it for hours daily. The Scripture says that the enemy will come through the window and destroy your children (Jer. 9:21). Look at the TV cable that brings pornographic internet signals, streaming through a tiny hole in the window frame. What is decimating your family must be of concern to you.

The hippies came while the church slept and India gave them hashish, free sex and Hare Krishna. Now thousands of Jews are coming to the Dalai Lama and they are getting the same mix plus Buddhism while the church is still sleeping.  

Generation X is well-informed, brash, computer savvy, willing to chill out with drugs, sex, alcohol and anything that is cool as dictated by Hollywood. They are being sexualized beyond their age—being sexy is the ultimate accolade even though they lose their self worth in the process.

For them money is the sole measure of success. Eating unhealthy fast food and a sedentary life style is resulting in obesity, spinal problems, diabetes, impotency and hypertension, accelerated aging and premature death. The seduction of our children through films showing pornography, evil extraterrestrial creatures, occult and deifying movie actors and sports heroes as demigods, should be giving us sleepless nights.  

The shrinking space in the church’s agenda for the restoration of unregenerate youth should be searing our conscience.

The Virtual Ekklesia: The workplace today is rapidly becoming younger, more flexible, multicultural and demanding, encouraging people to work from home by creating a virtual office. Similarly, the future ekklesia will be borderless, flexible, adaptive and open with multi-generations working and worshipping as equals. The ekklesia will be a catalytic enabler of people for truth and freedom. Everyone will be a Yeshua brand ambassador and customer (sinner) focused. This will create fresh ideas and act as a huge growth driver. Young people with similar aspirations in London, New York, Paris, Beijing, Tokyo and Delhi are converging rapidly. The ekklesias must urgently find a unified strategy for getting their names written in the Book of Life before they hit the bottomless pit. The address of the virtual ekklesia will not be a sacred building but a home or the workplace.

Cyber Ekklesias for a Cyber Generation: With broadband Internet facilities reaching remote villages in developing countries, governments are planning e-governance and multinationals are planning computer-based strategies to market their products. Since the youth will not come to the terrestrial church, the church needs to go and plant cyber ekklesias to connect with them. This ekklesia will not be the traditional sermon based model but a chat room based interactive model.

Millions of modern youth live in the cyber world. We need to go and chill out there and disciple them within the cyber culture, context and lingo. Yahweh said, “Even if you make your nest (satellite) among the stars, I will get you” (Obad. 1:4). 

The church stands guilty of misusing the youth as praise and worship leaders decaying worship to singing high-octane choruses ad nauseam. But the heart wrenching cries of the lost youth are drowned in all these religious decibels. Shouting “Glory, glory!” does not glorify Yahweh but bearing abundant fruit does (John 15:8,16). 

Who is a follower of Christ? Not those who say Lord Lord. Yeshua said, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” It is the fishers of men who are the genuine followers of Christ. 

The church should be seriously embarking on digital diplomacy drive aimed at on-line discipling. Our youth could do wonders if they realized that the real act of worship is discipling lost youth and offering them as a peace offering. It is time to unshackle our youth and equip them to be fishers of men in cyber cafes, coffee houses, discos, hangouts and chat rooms.

We need to convert all our musical Christians into high-tech followers of Christ to go fishing in cyberspace for e- discipling.

Legalized Legitimate Sins: Yeshua prophesied for this generation, “As in the days of Noah, they ate and drank and got married. In the days of Lot, eating and drinking continued unabated but they also went to the stock market to buy and sell and forgot to get married” (Luke 17:26-29). Many women are watching pornographic Internet sites to bring zing to their jaded sex lives and jealous that their teenage daughters have more active sex lives. Marriage is out and pornography, sodomy, abortion and divorce are now legitimate legalized sins. Gays are trying to ban the Bible legally as it hurts their feelings. With globalization, the harlot is now truly sitting on many waters (Rev. 17:1-6). 

Those wanting to go to seminaries, beware. Only one minister in ten finishes well. Nine out of ten fall victim to liberalism, adultery and the pursuit of Mammon. Increasingly, ministers are being caught with their pants down with shady ladies. The liberals control the church through shallow rationalists who major in the natural but minor in the supernatural (2Tim.3:1-5). The Dragon fights through the unholy trinity of religious mindset, hierarchical governance and perverted monetized morality. Gold, glitz, glory, gays and gals are destroying ministries. But Yahweh is extra-dimensional and is not limited by time, space and the rational mind.

How can justice roll like a river and righteousness like a mighty stream unless Christians take their butts off the pews to go and deliver people from darkness and translate them into the kingdom of His dear Son? (Amos 5:24 Col. 1:13,14)

Sins are being legitimized by acts of Parliaments.  A perverted vocal minority is pushing through these laws, even though the great silent majority is against them. In Spain, government sponsored school textbooks teach children how to have abnormal sex not only with humans but also with animals. This is because the church herself is living in the flesh instead of keeping His laws and statutes. She has become the tail and not the head (Isa. 30:15-17; Deut. 28:13, 44). The crafty old serpent has dug his fangs deep and bruised her heel and left her gasping.  

In the New Testament ekklesia, the apostles loaded their guns with Prayer and the Word and went with both barrels blazing at the Dragon and changed the world (Acts 6:4).

Iconic leaders make us feel like grass hoppers. Wise ants without a leader gather food in summer, weak conies build nests on high rocks, locusts advance without a king and spiders invade palaces. It is the ordinary believers who need to be galvanized into action to invade and possess demonic kingdoms (1Cor.1:26-30; Josh.13:33; Prov.6:6-8; 30:24-28).

Gender Discrimination: According to Gender Gap Index, women have made great progress in economic, political, education and health fields but in the church, the gender gap continues unabated. It is time to bundle out all gender benders and put gender back on track and restore New Testament values in the Yahweh’s family. 

In the past, the women were just a piece of property. The Pentecost changed it all. Men, women, children, Jews, Black, white, Parthians, Medes, people from Mesopotamia, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia and  from every nation under heaven. In Babel they were confounded because they could not understand each other. But now they were confounded because they clearly understood in their own language. People from all nations, tongues and tribes were worshipping with one accord without gender, class or race discrimination. The women then fuelled the explosive growth of the gospel until men took over and propelled it into dark ages (Acts 1:14; 2:5-11).

In the modern day expression of the Pentecost at the Azusa Street in 1906, the revival was started by a black woman named Neely Terry, in a church led by a woman pastor named Julia Hutchins. Later it shifted to the house of Richard and Ruth Asberry until the house collapsed under the sheer weight of the people and shifted to Azusa Street. Their black leader William Seyamour, spoke in tongues for the first time in Ruth’s house church. After Seymour’s death, his wife Jenny became the pastor of the Azusa Street church. Men, women, children, Blacks, Whites, Hispanics, Chinese and Asians, rich and poor freely worshipped as one Body. There were no choirs, musical instruments, sermons or collection boxes. Hundreds came every day. A core group of eighteen Afro-American women led the movement. After the Catholics, they are now the biggest church worldwide with five hundred million Pentecostals and Charismatics. Sadly, the Pentecostal church today is the worst offender when it comes to oppressing the women.

The church is totally disoriented about the role of women. In 1Timothy 2:12 and 1Corinthians 14:34,35; Paul did not disenfranchise women in general but only “wives” (Greek Gune can be translated both as woman or wife) from teaching their husbands in public. Not allowing women to participate contradicts the context of the prophecy of Joel 2:28,29, where men, women and sons and daughters are to prophesy. Prophecy is done in public while the speaking in tongues is to be done in private. In a Spirit led church, the speaking is done by the Holy Spirit and not by men or women who are merely conduits.

Hence restricting women would amount to resisting the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 14:3).

Misinterpreting Paul and disenfranchising half the workforce is a delusion orchestrated by the Deceiver. The woman was only deceived but it was through the wilful sinning of man (Adam) that death came into the world. Yahweh not only forgave Eve but also blessed her saying that her seed shall crush the head of the enemy (Gen. 3:14,15; 1Tim. 2:14; Rom. 5:12; 16:20). Women have always outnumbered the men by a large margin as missionaries. The Taliban like attitude against women must be sent to ground zero. We must find more creative roles for women than as sandwich fixers and cookie pushers during coffee breaks in the men’s meetings. Woman was not an after-thought but only after fearfully and wonderfully creating her, did Elohim exult, “It is very good” (Mark15:40,41;Acts 17:4,12; Ps. 139:14; Gen. 1:31).

The Women Pastors: Even though men were the priests in Israel, it was the women who announced the commencement of the Sabbath and the feasts and made sure that everything was in order. All the house ekklesias mentioned in the NT had women pastors—Mary, the mother of Mark, Dorcus, Priscilla, Lydia, Phoebe, Apphia, Nympha, Julia and many others. In many cases their husbands’ names are not even mentioned. The men were mostly out on business, so the women facilitated the ekklesias and did such a remarkable job that Paul sent greetings to them (1 Cor. 16:19; Col. 4:15; Philemon 1:1,2). Women have a natural aptitude for multitasking, which is an essential skill for a good pastor.  

The Jewish women bred prolifically, often producing ten to twenty children. Women are the symbols of multiplication and there is no earthly reason why the Bride of Christ should not be repeatedly pregnant and multiply prolifically (Exo. 1:19). 

It was a sad day indeed when men gave up earning their bread and planting ekklesias, stayed back at home, replaced the women as pastors and became professional religious service providers.

The Sandwich Generation who are neither young nor old but are burdened with growing children, aging parents and heavy personal commitments, are the most prolific ekklesia planters. The fastest growing ekklesia today is “the kitchen ekklesia” where women simply walk into a neighbour’s kitchen and help with the chores and share the gospel. Ordinary housewives start nearly 80% of the ekklesias. Repenting and washing their feet is the key to acceleration.

Tithing is a Stronghold: All wealth belongs to Yahweh who gave us the power to earn wealth for fulfilling the covenant He made with our forefather Abraham to be a blessing to all the Gentiles (Deut. 8:17,18; Gen. 12:3). The purpose of all our wealth is to fulfil the Great Commission. Hence, all money and gifts must be expended for apostolic purposes. (Acts 4:25, 27; 5:2). Eventually the resources must come from the harvest field, but the initial seed money must come from elsewhere to kick-start a movement. 

Money must follow the apostles and not the other way around. A sinner-centric budget is a true indicator of a church’s maturity. 

The institutional church is plagued by extra-biblical baggage that devours all her resources, leaving mere crumbs for evangelism. If all fruitless churches were shut down, billions of dollars would be saved and millions released to go as shepherds to find the lost sheep and feed them in their own house churches (John 10:16). Our mandate is not to fill the church but to fill the earth with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea, so that every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Yeshua is Lord (Hab. 2:14; Phil. 2:9-11). For this, the church needs to be an economic powerhouse fuelling social, cultural, political and spiritual changes. 

There is no such thing as tithing (tenth) in the NT. It is all about extravagant giving. Yahweh is not looking for those who are legalistic about tithing but those who are willing to gladly spend and be spent for the gospel (Acts 5:1-11; 2Cor. 12:15). 

Many books have been written about the teachings of Yeshua and Paul but hardly any on their fiscal management. Imitating Paul implies working with your own hands to support yourself and your ministry as well as the poor. Tens of thousands of bivocational house church leaders at the grassroots level are doing just that. The highest returns are investment on their training. They are maximizing every penny spent on their capacity building, which is resulting in a huge harvest of souls (Acts 20:33-35; 1 Cor. 4:12; 1Thess. 2:9, 3:6-12, 4:11, 2Thess 3:7-12; 1Tim. 5:8; Gal. 6:10; Eph. 4:28).

Traditional church donors feel morally bound to support partner institutions even if they are dying. Business foundations, however, come with “security first” attitude and even ask for a matching grant because they do not want to take the risk of ownership. This is to avoid dependency by increasing donor base. They come with expansion and diversification paradigm and favour leveraging rapid growth and multiplication models. This outcome oriented catalytic funding has added millions of new souls. Earlier the funding agencies used to give on the basis of trust and relationship and the missions responded by changing entire religious landscapes. Now young executives coming from corporate background ask endless questions, all related to the outcome, which cannot measure integrity, character and commitment. Many mission leaders equipped with laptops and PowerPoint are spending precious time donor hopping, lusting for Yankee dollars. They then buy up local ministries to inflate their statistics. The donors need to know that Yahweh owns it all and that they are mere conduits (1Tim. 6:10). The relationship must be that of partnership and not controlling. Equally a white man should not be seen as a walking ATM machine—press the right buttons and the money spills out.  

George Muller ministered to thousands of orphans based on faith and prayer. He proved that those who take God at His word and yield to His will, He is the same yesterday, today and forever: that the days of divine intervention and deliverance are past only for those with whom the days of faith and obedience are past. Prayer still works wonders. (Pierson & Wright: Quoted by Liz Adleta) 

The Flip side of Missions: The missionaries extracted the new believers from their communities, (“Come out of her My people” (Rev.18:4) and herded them into mission compounds. They made converts rather than disciples, divided them into denominations and imposed cross-cultural leaders and a uniform language. They banned tribal culture and now their youth are addicted to Western music, drugs, sex, and AIDS. They discouraged Christians from getting into business and politics. Now non-Christians provide all businesses and professional services while the Christians work as servants. This is unbiblical (Lev. 25:45-48). Meanwhile, the remaining tribals have become gospel resistant and even hostile. 

The institutionalized church is incarcerated in a narrow box of mindless submission, uncritical faith, unquestioned practices and a miniaturized understanding of Christianity. 

The mistrained ministers must be rewired to into self-supporting fishers of men. It is a shame to waste money on church buildings, training and supporting myopic ministers when thousands of villages and tribes have yet to hear the gospel.(P.C. Muanthunga)

Mentoring: This is a new buzz word. It means many things but mostly discipling, an overused word. In Greek mythology Odysseus left his son Telemachus under the care of Mentor who became a teacher, counsellor and a father figure to him. In the Scriptures, Moses was a mentor to Joshua, Elijah to Elisha, Yeshua to the twelve and Paul to Timothy. Mentoring is not just transferring “head knowledge” by seminaries nor is it imparting hands on “practical” skills by missions. Most leaders like to train in large numbers (quantity issue) whereas Yeshua focused on a few (quality issue). Yeshua’s mentoring process was “relational”. It was dynamic and spontaneous. It was straight from His heart to their hearts and it changed their character. Structured programs imparted by hierarchical system incapacitates the mentor and the mentee and produces positional leaders (do as I tell you) rather than relational leaders (I am you friend). (Phil Arendt / Vasantharaj Albert) Mentoring takes place on the job and implies keeping up with the mentee until skills and insights are passed down to several generations.  The dynamics should produce zero positional leadership and exclusively birth relational leadership. A variation on Model, Assist, 

Watch and Leave (MAWL) is a MODEL for mentoring disciples:

1. Model: “You became our followers and the Lord’s.” (1Thess, 1:5, 6)

2. Observe: You became examples to us.... (1Thess 1:7, 8)

3. Delegate: “Commit these to faithful men who will be able teach others.”  (2Tim.2:2) 

4. Encourage: “You must continue in the things you have learned” (2Tim. 3:10-17) 

5. Leave: For this reason I left you to appoint elders” (Titus 1:5-9)

Each generation must leave to start another 2Tim. 2:2 cycle and like Paul, follow up and mentor multiple generations of disciples. Paul left young Titus in Crete and authorized him to equip and appoint elders. Paul did not ask Timothy to “teach all and sundry” but to “commit only to faithful men.” Paul focused on a few for maximum impact. Being accountable for multiple generations of disciple makers is critical for any sustainable Ekklesia Planting Movement (Bill Smith). Cross-cultural missionaries are like temporary scaffolding and must be removed early to allow the burden of authority to gravitate onto local pillars (Rod Gilbert). 

Paul, a champion multiplying mentor, planted a church in spiritually barren Ephesus and used the Hall of Tyrannus (a tyrant) as a training hub for global missions. Within two years he released a chain of Asian leaders like Epaphras, Philemon, Trophimus, Tychicus, Archippus, Nympha, Apphia and others who mentored more disciples and planted churches and changed all of Asia. 

The Bride must be obsessed with her Lord’s mission, but how do you teach passion, compassion and obsession in seminary? Instead, seminary may be the best place for curing an infatuation.

  

Baptism of the Feet: The organized church is facing oblivion because the clergy, speaking from the comfort and security of an established church, focus on education through knowledge-based sermons. A Spirit-led believer, on the other hand, goes out and speaks to the lost from the heart focusing on planting pilgrim ekklesias. It is not the academic eggheads, but practitioners with itchy feet who are needed (Rom.10:15). Yeshua refused to wash Peter’s head but insisted on baptizing his feet. Most Christians have enough head knowledge of the scriptures; all they need is to baptize their wayward feet, converting them into “beautiful feet that carry the gospel of peace where sin abounds so that grace may abound even more” (John 13:9, 10; Rom. 5:20; 10:14-17). A mere cognitive approach is impotent unless “Christ in you becomes the hope of glory for the Gentiles” (Col. 1:27). 

Stable, self-supporting and sustainable churches are all good ideas, but not necessarily God idea. Sending 2x2 where Christ has not yet been named is definitely a God idea.

The Choke Chain: Many churches throttle their laymen by keeping them on a leash. When the dogs get together, they quarrel according to their denominational delinquency. Show them a rabbit (direction) and remove the choke chain (traditions) and they will go for the rabbit. Only after the choke points are removed, can they make a decisive dart in the right direction. A core vision with basic discipling skills must be instilled in every believer, to plant pilgrim churches everywhere. 

Before teaching in seminaries and preaching from the pulpits, skills to tenderize and pulverize the demonic strongholds must be acquired. (Neil Gamble) (Luke 10:19; Mark 16:17; Matt 12:29) 

Paul, a graduate of Gamaliel Seminary, trained his disciples in the midst of lashes, imprisonment, hunger, perils of drowning and threats from heathen and false brethren.  Yet he became all things to all men in order to save some (2Cor.11:23-33; 1 Cor.9:22). However our theologians, cloistered in the comforts of seminaries, are trained for overkill by nitpicking from the Greek and Hebrew. They learn so much about words that they miss the message. At best they are condemned to holler from the pulpit or at worst, they become managers without any formal management training. Yeshua trained His disciples as fishers of men in streams full of drowning human beings. Fishing can never be taught in a classroom. Seminaries must give up passing on information only and make the training intensely practical, aimed more at “skills” for salvaging perishing souls; otherwise their product will continue to be noisy decorations on the pulpits, irrelevant to the lost of this world.  

Seminaries lay the foundation on academic sand and send them to pastor the saints, while Yeshua sanctified His disciples with truth and sent them to disciple the sinners (John 17:17-20).

Choose your coaches carefully. There are seminarians who sit on the beach to teach you how to swim. In case of disaster they abandon you because they themselves do not know how to swim (make disciples). Then there are those who like to teach swimming from a yacht. They are more interested in the yacht than in their trainees (empire builders). Finally there are those who actually get into the water to train you to swim and as soon as you have learned how to swim, they leave you (spiritual fathers). (Anuroop Swamy) 

Despite claims of uniqueness, outdated, cookie cutter, and stereotyped syllabi plague all curriculums. Many teach comparative religions without imparting the skills to disciple Hindus, Muslims or Buddhists. Lecture/sermon method must be replaced by Socratic discussions in Schools of Tyrannus through reasoning, disputing, confounding, persuading, and convicting all comers daily, so all those who dwell in Asia can hear the gospel (Acts 6:9; 9:22,29; 15:7; 17:2; 18:4; 19:8-10). Bereans were “more noble” not only because they searched (Gk, anakrino means to scrutinize, investigate, interrogate, examine even judge) the Scriptures but their interaction resulted in many influential women and men becoming believers (Acts 17:11,12). Seminaries should be evaluated on the basis of their impact on the spiritual landscape and not on their academics.  

The Dysfunctional Body: In a medical condition known as Guillen-Barre syndrome, a demyelinating neuritis, a loss of sensation and muscle control slowly inches up the body until everything, including the hands and feet, and finally the breathing muscles are paralyzed. The person dies unless life support systems are instituted. The head, however, remains quite clear. A similar malady has hit the church. While the head (Yeshua) remains clear about His objectives, the Body has become dysfunctional (Col. 2:19).

The church is full of dysfunctional members who have ideas and insights, who pray and study the Scriptures but who never act.

The essential difference is that the traditional system is a one way communication while mentoring is a two way street. Lecturing is time effective but mentoring is time consuming. Lecturing transfers information but keeps them forever in milk drinking stage as there is nothing to implement. Mentoring is not just one on one process. Yeshua mentored in the context of team building. Mentoring initializes chain reaction of multiplication by passing on skills and insights to others from day one. Lecturing does no such thing.

It is a great pity that pastors have been reduced to a microscopic view of managing one congregation whereas they should be having a telescopic view for managing the Kingdom.

A sermon that has no application and nothing to implement is a hollow rhetoric. A pulpit orator needs no syllabus because he expects no change in the people he is talking to, but an apostle needs competencies to remove evil structures, to transform sinners into saints without removing their cultural cushions and to rebuild desolate communities into Gardens of Shalom (Isa. 32:13-20).

A Letter from an Atheist: An atheist writes: 

“Do you consider yourself to be compassionate of other humans? If you’re right, as you say you are, and believe that, then how can you sleep at night? When you speak with me you are speaking with someone who you believe is walking directly into eternal damnation into an endless onslaught of horrendous pain that your ‘loving’ god created, yet you stand by and do nothing.

If you believe one bit that thousands every day were falling into an eternal and unreachable fate, you should be running the streets mad with rage at their blindness. That’s equivalent to standing on a street corner and watching every person that passes you walk blindly directly into the path of a bus and die, yet you stand idly by and do nothing. You’re just twiddling your thumbs, happy in the knowledge that one day that ‘walk’ signal will shine your way across the road. Think about it. Imagine the horrors Hell must have in store if the bible is true. You’re just going to allow that to happen and not care about saving anyone but yourself? If you’re right then you’re an uncaring, unemotional and purely selfish (expletive) that has no right to talk about subjects such as love and caring.”  (Excerpt from an email to Pastor Ray)

The church is out of sync with the people. Will people of other faiths ever come to the church and what use that be anyway?   

The Dirty Fighter: Yeshua came to destroy the works of the Devil. He chased out demons every day. The principalities, powers and rulers of darkness build strongholds in our minds and cause spiritual blindness. The Devil goes around like a roaring lion, constantly looking for someone to devour. The whole world is under his wicked control. Yeshua gave us the authority over all the power of the enemy and told us that unless you bind the strongman first, you cannot plunder his possessions. He gave us the keys of the kingdom to demolish the gates of Hell and build His church. Strangely most Christians are either ignorant or have very shallow understanding of spiritual warfare. This does not mean that you go looking for sulphur breathing demons in every nook and corner but there is an urgent need for teaching on demonology. Our training must include tactics of engagement with an adversary who is an expert on deception and a dirty fighter who does not respect rules. (1John 5:19; Luke 9:1,2; 10:19; 2Cor. 4:4; 10:3-5; Eph. 6:10-18; Math. 12:29; 16:18,19; 1Pet. 5:8)

Faith is not only Believing but also Acting on Yahweh’s Promises: Many men of character and dedication work hard but this is not enough. The priests of Baal were very hard working and dedicated people who jumped up and down slashing themselves until their blood flowed, but no fire came down to burn the sacrificial bull. Even though they were sincere, they were sincerely wrong (1Kings 18:26-28). Elijah worked much less, but he was obedient and the fire came down. What about the people? They had come to be entertained by the priests—not unlike what happens in our churches today.

The house ekklesia is not just an ultra low cost substitute but is liberally endowed with people with gifts and talents and the freedom to use them. We must make a shift to the micro-ekklesia paradigm, to finish the mega task of discipling the nations.

We know that the just shall live by faith (Romans 1:17), but we also know that faith without works is no good (James 2:17). All the NT and OT great men were men of action. Abraham believed on the promises of Yahweh and it was counted unto him as righteousness (Genesis 15:6), but his faith had to be proved by walking the length and breadth of Canaan to take possession of the Promised Land for his descendents who at that time did not exist (Gen. 13:17,18). Yahweh told Joshua three times to be strong and courageous (Josh. 1:5,7,9).

Courage is essential if you want to take possession of your inheritance; otherwise you have already made the decision to stay in the wilderness and perish. You need to battle with the priests of modern day Baals who work iniquity as false prophets, deceitful workers, frauds faking righteousness and dark angels of light both within and without the church. Your courage must be proved by your ability to take the perilous path of confrontation with the phoney while dodging their fiery bullets (2Cor. 11:13,14; Eph. 6:10).

Knowledge, passion and courage are not enough in themselves. Paul had plenty of these but even he made a mess of things in Damascus and Jerusalem and had to be shunted to the deserts of Arabia. It needed Barnabas to mentor him to make him fruitful (Acts 9:22:31; Gal. 1:17). 

  

Orthodoxy, biblical knowledge, loyalty to the church, tithing and religious status can make you feel faithful but cannot make you fruitful. For that you need to find a mentor like Barnabas (Matt. 7:16,20; John 15:8; 15:16; 2Peter 1:3-8).  

“Let us go forth and fight the good fight of faith” should be the catchcry of all soldiers of the cross. Yeshua is our Commander and we are His soldiers. The ability to deftly wield the double-edged sword of the spirit against a brutal and merciless enemy cannot be learnt while sitting in the pews but only in the war zone. We need to junk all the rusty old traditional tools and use the best weaponry available to dismantle all demonic landmines (1Tim. 6:12; 2Tim. 4:7; Isa. 55:4; Heb. 4:12; Eph. 6:17).

The Horizontal Ecclesiastical Ladder: There is no Clergy/Laity divide in heaven so why should it exist here? Hell, however, has a special welcome waiting for the privileged and mighty (Isa. 14:9; 5:13-15). Only those who carry their cross daily will make it to heaven. In the earthly ekklesia of Yeshua the ecclesiastical ladder consists of:

1. “Persons of peace” who open their homes as the church’s concrete expression of love in the neighborhood (Luke10:5-9).

2. “Believers” who believe in Godly promises that they can pray for the sick, expel demons and boldly preach (Mark 16:17-20). 

3. “Disciples” who mentor and agonize for multiple generations of disciples (John 15:8,16; 2Tim. 2:2; Col. 2:1,5).

4. “Fivefold ministry gifted equippers” who equip saints and release disciplers into the harvest field (Eph. 4:11-13; Acts 16:5).

5. “Elders” who are of good character, good managers of their household and hospitable, who can convict sinners and are accountable for multiple generations of disciples (Titus 1:5-9; Heb. 13:17).

6. “Ambassadors” who are willing to go to regions where Christ has not yet been named (2Cor. 5:17-20; 10:16; Rom. 15:20). 

7. “Priests” who offer Gentiles with broken and contrite hearts as a spiritual sacrifice (1Cor.14:24-25; Rom.15:16; Ps. 51:17).

8. “Kings” who reign on earth as servant rulers (Rev. 5:10).

9. Finally, to inherit the kingdom, we can all leap frog to the top rung and become “Witnesses” (martyrs) and have our names written in the Book of the Lamb (Acts 1:8; Rev. 21:27).

Hirelings convert perfectly good Christians into dumb sheep while good shepherds go out into the field to find dumb sheep and convert them into good shepherds (John 10:10-16).

Yeshua Started the First House Ekklesia: Preaching to multitudes does not produce leadership. Yeshua’s method was to invest Him in a few simple people and build them up to be competent world changers. He defined His ekklesia, “Where two or three congregate in My name, it is a congregation.” It is an authentic ekklesia because it has all the power in heaven and on earth” (Matt.18:18-20). 

Programs and activities do not translate into spiritual growth and maturity. The church is a factory for producing disciples and not a warehouse for storing them (Jonathan David). 

Yeshua started the first house ekklesia when He invited a couple of fishermen to come to His abode. The ekklesia lasted only one day but the interaction so impacted them that they not only became His disciples but they immediately went out and found others who also became His disciples (John 1:38-51). There was no worship, singing or shouting Hallelujahs, no anointed sermons, not even a collection for His ministry.  All He did was to make disciples. 

Yeshua founded a non-hierarchical ekklesia whose primary function is to worship Yahweh by discipling the nations. 

Methodists a Showcase: Francis Asbury, a twenty-six year old disciple of John Wesley, started his ministry in the USA in 1771. At that time there were only three hundred Methodists and four ministers. By 1816, there were two hundred thousand Methodists and two thousand ministers. He travelled three hundred thousand miles on horseback. (Don’t feel sorry for the horse—he changed many horses but never his methodology!). He focused on unchurched people, equipping and empowering unqualified, ordinary people as local leaders who marched with the people to the frontiers in the West. They spoke extemporaneously with passion in their heart language and planted self-governing congregations who did not have to take orders from a distant authority.

The Mainliners stayed in the comfort of established churches in the East. By 1840-50 there were over a million Methodists who dominated the religious landscape. Astonishingly, just when a landslide victory was in sight, the Elders made the suicidal decision to replace all their amateur but performing ministers with “properly qualified” ministers. This disintegrated and decomposed the movement. (www.steveaddison.net) 

Apollos was a brilliant scholar and an eloquent orator but it took a tent-making woman named Priscilla to cut him down to size and teach him the perfect way of Yahweh (Acts 18:24-26).

The United Methodists (UM) now have 35,000 churches in the USA of which 7,000 have less than 25 members and 3,000 have less than 15 members—not very different from house ekklesias. However they still need finances for greasing their organizational gears. For all their worth, these 35,000 UMCs plant only about 100 new churches a year. This is sad because the amateur leaders of the original “Midweek Classes” model of John Wesley could easily exceed this within a few weeks and for a fraction of the cost. (Extracted from Global Ministries UMC). 

Most Christians are so busy attending other peoples’ meetings that they have little time for making their own disciples. 

Interactive house ekklesias have great potential in the West because from childhood, Westerners are embedded in the Judeo-Christian culture of asking questions. They are also blessed with a logical mind. Once convinced, they can act without the shackles of caste, community and gender that Eastern cultures face. Already these are happening in Holland, Norway, the UK, the USA and many other nations. 

Initially in the West it is the Christians who leave their frustrating pews for interactive sofas to find fulfilment, but they often continue to be inward looking, whereas in the East, it is the new converts who flock to the house ekklesias to be discipled and who add to the statistics. The club house gatherings need to shift into seeker-driven multi-site paradigm to be effective expanders of the kingdom. (Tony Dale)