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The Sending – Part 3

08 Wednesday Jul 2015

Posted by miltrodriguez in Christ, Christian Life, Church Life, God's Purpose

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

Body of Christ, Christ the Head, Christian Life, Church, church growth, Church Life, church planting, Eternal Purpose, expression of Christ, God's Mission, Jesus Christ, organic church

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Image courtesy of Danilo Rizzuti at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Welcome to part three!

In this final contribution to this extremely important and yet ignored and misunderstood topic, I hope to share some final thoughts on the more practical end of being called, prepared, and sent by the Lord Jesus Christ for His work.

The Goal and Purpose of the Sending

First of all, let me explain what I see as the goal of all sending. The goal is for the Lord’s work. But what IS the Lord’s work? Here again, this is an extremely misunderstood topic. This gross misunderstanding comes from a foundational lack of vision and revelation of God’s eternal purpose. It only stands to reason that if you do not understand the purpose of something, then you will end up abusing it. I have written quite extensively on this vast topic here. In a nutshell, God’s purpose is to have an expression of the fullness of His Son. To have an image or living expression of this gloriously full and rich Christ. This image or expression is referred to in the N.T. with many different pictures such as the Body, the Bride, the House, the City, the Vine, the New Humanity, the Community of God (or household), and many more. In other words the Church! Of course, when I use that word it is definitely not in the sense of any man-made or conceived of organization or institutional system.

In the mind of God, all roads lead to His Church!

This is the central thought of all of the scriptures. Christ and the Church.

You can easily see this if you (without religious bias) read the first two chapters of the bible (Gen. 1 & 2) and the last two chapters of the bible (Rev. 21 & 22). In Genesis you see the original purpose and intention of God for creating mankind (see Gen.1:26-28). In Revelation you see the fulfillment of that eternal purpose as typified in the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21 & 22).

So, considering this (and much more) we are definitely not stretching things at all when we make this statement: God’s work is to build His Church!

There is no other work of God. All “works” of God will lead to (in some way) the building and edification of His Church.

If you read the narrative story of the New Testament carefully (with spiritual eyes) you will see that this is true. God’s goal is that the all things would be summed up or headed up in Christ and this takes place in and through the Church (Eph 1: 9,10,22,23).

I know that some of you may be saying, well Milt, what about evangelism, and missions, and healing, and miracles, and helping the poor? Well, I would say that these are all good works but that they are to take place in and through the authentic expression of the Life of Christ on earth. In other words, the Church! Read the book of Acts people! It is the story of the early Church moving in and through the Spirit. It is the flow of the life of Christ out through His Body to the people caught up in the world system.

It is not the story of independent people doing independent things in an individualistic way!

It is the story of the corporate Christ (the Body) living and moving by His glorious life!

Wow! What a difference from most of what we have seen!

“I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth. Now he who plants and he who waters are one; but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building. According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it. For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” (1Co 3:6-11)

Here, we see that Paul very nicely breaks things down for us concerning the Lord’s work. There are those who plant and there are those who water. First of all, what are they planting and watering? The Church! That’s very obvious from the context. So, in general, we now can see that there are two aspects of the Lord’s work; planting and watering.

Planting and Watering

Paul tells us that he planted and Apollos watered. By looking at the ministries of these two brothers we can understand what that means.

  • Paul, a planter, a wise master builder: Paul and his companions basically did two things. They preached Christ and planted churches. Of course, it was a different situation they had then from what we have here in the United States and the western world. But in some ways it is very similar. Paul was sent (in the beginning) to the Jews. Or, we could say, the religious folks. This caused problems because these people had a mindset and filters filled with religious baggage that hindered them from beholding the living Christ (see 2 Cor. 3). So, in that sense, he had a similar situation that we face in modern America. However, later he did go almost exclusively to the Gentiles and that was more like a situation we have in some of the present third world nations that are “heathen”. However, the goal was always to bring about the Church of the living God in different localities. Evangelism, healing, miracles, etc. had a purpose… that purpose was always to bring about the Body of Christ!
  • Apollos, a waterer, a teacher: This brother had a real gifting in the area of teaching the Body of Christ (see Acts 18:22). Paul would send him places where he had planted churches so that he could encourage the saints through teaching the scriptures (see 1 Cor 16:12). Sometimes, this “watering” is simply for others to come and encourage the saints in a new or struggling church. We have seen this many times in our own experience. It is very powerful and very much needed! Some believers from one church can go and encourage (water) those in another church.

So we can see clearly that there are two general areas of the work; planting and watering. Notice with me that these “pictures” all have to do with Life!

Now, we will see that there are three areas (or stages) of the Lord’s preparation for a worker.

  • The wilderness

  • The community life

  • The training

We can clearly see all three of these in the life of Jesus and in the life of Paul of Tarsus.

Of course, in the life of Jesus as the eternal Son of God he had already experienced “community life” and “training” before eternity. He received this experience by living in the community life of the Godhead. However, he still needed to have the “wilderness experience”. As a man he had never experienced an emptying of himself and a lowering of himself. He had never experienced the dryness of the desert before. He had also never experienced community life with humans before. Of course, he had much rich experience living community inside of the Triune God, but now he needed to share and live that same life, that divine life, with other humans! This, he lived out for over three years with the twelve and others. And then, as he had been trained by the Father, so he trained these others to go out into the world and do his work.

Paul also went through a similar experience. First, he had his “desert” experience when he departed to Arabia (Gal. 1:15-18). Apparently, he received his revelation of the gospel in Arabia and Damascus. Then, he received his community life experience in Damascus and in Antioch. Scholars don’t totally agree as to the length of time Paul spent as a brother in the churches but they mostly agree that it was around 11-14 years. The main point here is that he was not a new believer or a novice in the things of the Lord when he was sent out! The same is true of Barnabas, Silas, and all of the others. It appears that Paul was mostly trained by the twelve in Jerusalem (Gal. 1:17) and by Barnabas in Antioch (Acts 13:1). Barnabas had many years experience in the Jerusalem church and then some in Antioch.

The life of the local church being a “training ground” for workers before they are sent out is an almost completely forgotten and abandoned practice. Of course, the work itself (as we are describing it here) is also almost a completely abandoned practice! It is usually deemed that if someone feels called to “the work” of the Lord they must go into another institutional situation called a bible college. Of course, there may be some value to that, but in reality there is absolutely no substitution for the authentic community life of the organic Body of Christ! How can you impart an experience that you yourself have never had? Believe me, I am speaking from years of experience when I say that it simply doesn’t work.

Training

Then, we see both Jesus and Paul training new workers. Of course, Jesus trained the twelve for over three years. But notice how he trained them. He sat down with them and taught them how to study the bible! Right? NOT!!!

He simply lived by the life of his Father right in front of them!

They got to see how divine life is lived out in and through a human vessel. They got to see how divine life responds to all kinds of situations in the human experience such as: popularity, notoriety, misunderstanding, rejection, opposition, persecution, scorn, ridicule, and ultimately crucifixion. They got to see Him plant the first Church in and among themselves!

Paul also trained new workers. This happened while he was planting the church in Ephesus. He brought several brothers to Ephesus who were in the churches that he had already planted.

  • Titus from Antioch

  • Timothy from Lystra

  • Gaius from Derbe

  • Sopater from Berea

  • Aristarchus from Thessalonica

  • Secundus from Thessalonica

  • Two others added later from Ephesus: Tychicus and Trophimus

Of course, he had taken Timothy with him on his travels after his third visit to Galatia. It is also believed by many scholars that these men went on to plant churches throughout Asia Minor. Some of these churches are listed in the book of Revelation chapters 1-3 and Colossians.

The Sending

As we have already seen, the actual sending out of workers into his harvest is not solely an individual matter. It is something that is done by the Holy Spirit AND the Church! When these believers were sent out it was because they were not loner, independent individualists! They were loved, supported, and prayed for by the saints in the churches.

“Now there were at Antioch, in the church that was there, prophets and teachers: Barnabas, and Simeon who was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. While they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then, when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away. So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia and from there they sailed to Cyprus.” (Act 13:1-4)

Some Resources on This Topic:

Finding Organic Church by Frank Viola

The Untold Story of the New Testament Church by Frank Viola

The Church and the Work by Watchman Nee

The Glorious Church by Watchman Nee

The Acts of the Apostles by F.F. Bruce

Theology for the Community of God by Stanley Grenz

The Stewardship of the Mystery by T. Austin-Sparks

The Community Life of God by Milt Rodriguez

10 Myths About Organic Church – Part 9

24 Friday Feb 2012

Posted by miltrodriguez in Christian Life, Church Life, God's Purpose

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

Christ, Church, God's Mission, Jesus Christ, Missional Church, organic church

Myth #9 – Organic Churches Always Become Ingrown

Many people have the impression that all organic churches are only concerned with themselves and have no burden or vision for the poor or the lost. Now, I do admit that there are some who have fallen into this trap. In fact, I was part of such a group for a season. There was no apparent revelation for the heart of God concerning the poor, oppressed, and those who do not know Him. They became very ingrown like a stagnant pond where the water was not flowing out in any way. Let me say upfront that this attitude is very dangerous and will definitely become toxic and hinder the spiritual and numerical growth of the group.

Simply put, the Body of Christ is to express the Person of Christ. Just as your physical body expresses the life inside of it, You! So, the Body of Christ is to express the Person living inside, Jesus Christ Himself. This includes all aspects of His life, character, and mission.

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me. Because of this He anointed Me to proclaim the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me” to heal the brokenhearted, “to proclaim remission to captives, and to the blind to see again,” to send away the ones being crushed, in remission, “to preach an acceptable year of the Lord.”
(Luk 4:18-19)

It is very apparent from this passage (and many many others) in the gospel that Jesus came to bring life and life abundantly (John 10:10). He came to minister to those who were sick, to the oppressed and downtrodden, to the sinners. God definitely has a heart for the poor and the lost. There is no question about this. So what is the problem?

The Problem is a Matter of Life

The problem is that many believers who leave the institutions swing the pendulum one of two ways. Either there is a total abandonment of anything that smacks of doing or serving the Lord, or there is a total swing into more doing and serving because the institutions are just not doing enough. There seems to be a dichotomy afoot here.

The Subjective Only Crowd

These are the folks who leave the institutions and just want to “be”, not “do”. They are “burned out” from doing good works and serving the Lord in the system. They want to get to know the Lord in a deeper way and discover what body life is all about. They want to stop doing and start knowing and being. Many are repulsed by anything that even looks like working for God in any way.

Now, I completely sympathize with this crowd, but only to a point. When I left the religious system I was burned out from so called ministry as well and I strongly desired to know the Lord in a deep way and to discover Him in His Church. I needed to “detox” from many of the mindsets and paradigms that went with being institutionalized. The problem comes in when people stay only in this place which is very natural for those who only have a understanding of the individual Christian life.

If you get together a bunch of believers who are in this place and put them into a living room and propose that they “do organic church” what can happen? They can now all “feed” one another in their subjective only mindset and never take that to it’s conclusion. When we see Christ for Who He truly is (Head and Body), and that the purpose of the Body is to express the life of the Head, something different happens! We will come back to that in a moment.

The Objective Only Crowd

This bunch leaves the institutions because they believe they have found a better way to fulfill the great commission and flesh out the heart of God for the lost and the poor. The subjective is usually totally ignored and its all about the good works and reaching people. These groups are usually extremely evangelistic and/or concerned with social action and taking the “church” to the streets to reach the people.

Now, of course, this is all true. The problem is in the dichotomy. But there IS a third way.

The Holistic View

These are not two mutually exclusive parts! They are both part of the whole. However, most groups outside of the religious system will gravitate to one way or the other depending upon their backgrounds and church experiences.

I believe the answer is to start with the subjective with a view to the objective. Beginnings are extremely important! The foundation of a group is everything and if that foundation is something other than Jesus Christ Himself than it will be off. And if the foundation is off, the whole building will be off. Our Center, Life, and Head must be the Person of Christ Himself. Of course, this includes everything that He is and does. But it primarily needs to start with the New Covenant. Something Paul called the Gospel.

” … to whom God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the nations, who is Christ in you, the hope of glory; whom we announce, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man full-grown in Christ Jesus”
(Col 1:27-28)

This “mystery” of Christ in you (you all) is what Paul announced. It was his gospel. This good news was a Person, the person of Jesus Christ. But it was this Person in a particular location: in you! This is where we must start or we will end up in doing good works with our own human effort and not by Christ. It’s not enough to do something for Christ, we must do things BY Christ! In other words, it must be Christ Himself doing those things in and through us.

“I have been crucified with Christ, and I live; yet no longer I, but Christ lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith toward the Son of God, the One loving me and giving Himself over on my behalf.”
(Gal 2:20)

So we can see that we must start with the Person of Christ and learn to live by this Lord Who lives inside of us. This means a continual death to ourselves and our own lives by living in His life. Both death and resurrection must work in us continually. But this is not a life lived in isolation! It is a life lived within the context of His Body. So we are living by His indwelling life TOGETHER!

The result of this Life will be the holistic expression of Jesus Christ in and through His Body. This includes His heart for the Church to be a light to the nations. This includes His heart for the poor and oppressed. And if this expression is not happening, then there is something seriously wrong with the life of that group.

God wants the fullness of His Son to be expressed in His Body. That includes His character, His nature, His life, His mission, and His work.

” … and He “put all things under His feet” and gave Him to be Head over all things to the assembly, which is His body: the fullness of the One filling all things in all;”
(Eph 1:22-23)

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