The Seven “C’s” of Great Visionary Leadership

1. Confidence - security to carry out the vision - the opposite is a driven, insecure, controlling person

2. Capacity - emotionally to endure opposition to see the vision become a reality - the opposite is a person who is emotionally fragile, emotionally unstable or emotionally unhealthy

3. Competence - skills to organize people and manage resources to see the vision come to pass - the opposite is a person who lacks the skills to lead the people around them through each season of growth as they fulfill the vision

4. Calling - from God to persevere and endure - the opposite is a person who is acting in the flesh, who has human enthusiasm for a vision or dream but not the leading of God’s Spirit

5. Character - necessary to live righteously as they see the vision come to pass - the opposite is a person who yields to temptation and is compromised by pride, or immorality, or ungodly behavior

6. Concepts - knowledge from the Bible to build on truth and sound doctrine - the opposite is a person who teaches false doctrine or is easily deceived by false prophets or false teachers

7. Core-values - that are apostolic in nature and kingdom oriented in order to sustain and give quality and depth to the vision - the opposite is a person who is guided more by an unbiblical world view and cultural blind spots than by kingdom values, a person who at the core of their being is a prisoner of worldly values

Five Stages of an Apostolic Movement

One has to look no further than the Book of Acts to find a pattern of how apostolic movements evolve and develop. The five stages of growth described below are based on the assumption that just as there are natural stages of growth for us as human beings, so God has designed movements to evolve and growth through natural growth stages.  Each stage of growth is intended by God to teach us certain life skills and character traits that prepare us for the next stage of life.

Each new stage is preceded by a crisis, and if that crisis is seen as an opportunity and not a threat, the movement can successfully navigate the crisis and move into the next stage with fresh understanding and wisdom.

It is possible for movements to grow unequally, that is, they can move from one stage to another without learning all the lessons that should be learned in the previous stages. This “uneven” development is quite normal in human development as well. An adolescent can have the physical maturity of an adult, but the emotional maturity of a child.

However, if an apostolic movement is to survive, it will have to assess it’s strengths and weaknesses on a regular basis, and adjust accordingly. Wise movement leaders draw on the wisdom of others from outside their movement.

Stage One - Creativity – Acts 1-5 – Jerusalem

This stage is characterized by creativity, fresh life, new initiatives of advancing the gospel, and a strong sense of God’s presence and blessing. There is happy chaos in this stage of new beginnings, but the new life and blessings are so great that they overshadow the weaknesses of the movement.

Leadership presence and style in the first stage in Acts was strong, active, directive, but non-hierarchical. This allowed the apostles to serve the fresh move of God’s Spirit, but not to the extent that they created dependence on them as leaders. The spontaneous growth of the churches meeting in homes was encouraged. These house churches were holistic in that they integrated all three major components of church: worship, mission and community. Disciple making was not confined to a structure but a spontaneous way of life in the church.

Challenge to move into next the next season: The Challenge of Re-structuring

To move into the next season of life in the church there was a great need to release new leaders, create more systems & re-structure to respond to the challenges of a growing church movement. That included delegating leadership, helping existing members/leaders find the right role and place for their gifts, and continuing efforts to preach the good news of Jesus far and wide. In one sense, the creative stage of growth and the building stage, described below, are complimentary and essential for the church to move into the third stage of reproduction. Failure to encourage creativity, and failure to build systems and structures to serve the movement, will inevitably lead to slowing down the growth and to eventual death of the movement.

Stage Two - Building – Acts 6-12 – Jerusalem, Judea & Samaria

This stage of growth requires re-structuring to accommodate growth, and in most instances, suffering and sacrifice to advance the gospel. While restructuring, to meet the needs of a growing church movement, the apostles in the book of Acts continued to preach the gospel. Don’t relent in apostolic thrust during seasons of alignment and restructuring or the momentum of apostolic mission will be lost. Acts 6:5-7 are key verses. Some of the men chosen to carry out the practical work of the church were also apostles. The goal of building/restructuring must always be reproduction. Those in management roles should carry the DNA of the movement with just as much fervor as those in senior apostolic leadership.

Challenge to move into the next season: Challenge of Releasing

To release your best people, trust God to multiply more leaders. Releasing leaders involves first of all prayer and listening to the Holy Spirit, then choosing to trust God for more leaders to take their place. If you hold on to them, you will lose them.

Stage Three - Reproduction – Acts 13 – 28 – Antioch, Asia, Europe, Africa

In the third stage, a movement hits it’s stride as a rapid multi-generational growth takes place. The mother church is no longer the sole center of mission in this stage. There are multiple mother churches and centers of mission that are growing and reproducing. Senior leaders cannot control this life, but they can and should serve it through discipling leaders, teaching, visiting, writing, and speaking into the life of leaders of new “movements within the movement”.

Senior leaders must continue to model the values and vision for the movement to reproduce the same DNA. This may call for key leaders to move out in new pioneering initiatives, leaving behind the comfort of established roles of leadership. It will definitely require all the leaders to be hands on in making disciples among the lost. Paul and Barnabas, pastoral leaders in the church in Antioch, led new church planting initiatives and mission trips to regions beyond, and thus reenergized the church in Antioch, but also impacted the movement in Jerusalem.

Challenge to move into the next season: Challenge of Maturity

New life means new problems. The vision and values must be strengthened and deepened in multiple cultures and locations as a movement grows. Traveling teams of visiting pastors, teachers, prophets, evangelist and apostles are needed.  Some of the challenges to be overcome include nationalism, parochialism, false teaching, leadership compromise, loss of vision, and conflict.

Stage Four - Coordination – Acts 15 – Jerusalem

When movements are growing rapidly in multiple locations, one of the challenges is maintaining doctrinal purity and leadership purity/integrity. Such challenges must be responded to promptly, but without over-reaction. The apostles and elders did not over-react to doctrinal crisis in the early church, nor did they create unnecessary rules and requirements to choke the movement’s growth. They met, listened, debated, and then communicated their decisions promptly, wisely, clearly, and personally. The crisis of doctrinal conflict brought the leaders of the early churches together, it did not separate them. Every apostolic movement will face similar crisis if it is growing rapidly. Senior leaders in the movement would be wise to do what the apostles did in Acts 15: listen, debate, understand, and submit to wise senior leadership, like that of James when he summarized the essence of the issue they faced, and then gave clear direction for moving forward in unity. If necessary, call in such leaders from outside the movement to help it overcome the crisis, but make sure such leaders carry the similar apostolic DNA.

Challenge to move into next season: Challenge of Kingdom Collaboration

Leaders in movements and apostolic networks must reach out to one another and build across network and movement lines to share resources and lessons learned from strategic breakthroughs. This will require a willingness to not take credit for breakthroughs, not brand the movements they serve, and see themselves as under leaders, not over leaders.

Stage Five - Kingdom Collaboration–Acts 20-28 Romans 15-16 Rome, Spain, Africa

Every movement must be reborn in every generation. Church must continually be re-imagined and re-invented. The way this happened in the book of Acts was to continually start new church planting movements, and to provide training and fresh beginnings within each movement as it plateaued. New movements are born out of the same values but in with different emphasis and different expression, and often, in different locations. There is a temptation in existing movement for the new apostolic leaders to turn their apostolic fervor and creativity inward, and not outward toward the lost. If the apostolic gifts of the church are not directed toward church planting, the creativity of those gifts are often dissipated on creating more programs that do not lead to disciple making outside the church walls. Apostles will pioneer! The challenge is to pioneer new churches in places where the gospel has not yet gone.

Challenge to move into next season: Release and Encourage Emerging Apostolic Leaders to Start New Church Planting Movements

What will it take to change our colleges and seminaries?

"The men that will change the colleges and seminaries here represented are the men that will spend the most time alone with God. It takes time for the fires to burn. It takes time for God to draw near and for us to know that He is there. It takes time to assimilate His truth. You ask me, How much time? I do not know. I know it means time enough to forget time."

- John Mott

You are commissioned to supernatural ministry

You are commissioned to supernatural ministry!

Matt 16:18

Jesus said, "I will build my church"

Serving God will give you purpose. He builds his church through you! That is His purpose. Only the Holy Spirit can save people - but, He does it through you.

Matt 16:19

Jesus said, "I will give you the keys to the kingdom".

He is saying, "To the degree you are yielded to me, I will work through you". The promise is that we will overcome "the world, the flesh and the devil". The key is a yielded life.

John 16

"I will send the Holy Spirit to be your helper"

If you stay close to Holy Spirit, He will help you!

You exist to fulfill the purposes of God

Thoughts shared by friends Bob and Joanne Leach with CPx students this morning as they are commissioned for church planting outreach:

John 15:16 "You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you".

- God chose you... amazing!

- God appoints you to go...

- God promises you fruit...

- God declares He will hear your prayer...

You exist to fulfill the purposes of God!

Making Covenants With God

David Grieved Well

There are times we must get alone with God and grieve, like David did in the psalms. We cannot grow spiritually, we cannot keep a clean heart and a tender spirit, if we dont know how to grieve before the Lord. If we grieve well we will not accumulate resentments...take up offenses...blame God or others.

There are things we lose in life...do not rush pass them. Grieve what is lost as an act of worship, as an expression of honest trust before the Lord.

Spiritual leaders are sometimes so occupied with caring for others and standing strong, that they lose touch with their own hearts. As I read through 1 Samuel about the life of David, I'm impressed that he grieved his losses as a way of worship, of giving his disappointments to God.

To grieve well is to trust God, it is a way of making covenant with God, to bow our heart and will, to declare to the Lord that "in all things You are at work for Your glory and my good".

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

"Unless a man obeys, a man cannot believe."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer from The Cost of Discipleship, page 66

The Next Big Thing

"THE NEXT BIG THING IN YOUR LIFE AND MINE SHOULD BE THE NEXT THING GOD TELLS US TO DO, WHETHER IT LOOKS BIG OR LITTLE IN OUR EYES. The very fact that God tells you to do it makes it big! Our next big thing is the next person God puts in front of us to love or to serve in His name. It is the next action He tells us to do, whether it be big or little in our own estimation. It is the next encouraging word we can speak to someone who needs to be built up, the next hug we can give to the lonely, the next act of mercy we can show to the poor, the next smile we can give to the depressed, the next prayer we pray, the next commandment we obey"

Danny Lehman from The Next Big Thing

African Family Structure Speaks to the Heart of Being a Missional Church Community

My friend Bruce Chitambala from Zambia gave me some great insight into how to communicate “church” to emerging African leaders. Bruce said he has learned to speak of church as family not as institution. As soon as we speak about church in the more traditional way, it conjures up salaries, positions, titles, education and power. But when we speak of church as “family”, then we are speaking the language of Africa. Everyone understands family is about belonging, sharing, honoring, and upholding the family values.

My African friends seem to view family and extended family in a deeper and often more profound way than myself and others of us from the West. Church as family is about belonging and caring and serving together.

Mission Agency or Mission Church?

Which are we? Local church or apostolic mission agency? 

I have pondered this question for years. IS it God's will for all he does to happen in and through local churches? Or is there a role, biblically speaking, for mission agencies?

I have worked on the side of the mission agency, then served as pastor of a local church, and now am part of a movement that seeks to integrate the two. I believe God never intended His church to be separated from His mission.

A friend recently used a picture of a new plant tied to stick to give it support. Think of the plant as the local church, and the stick as the mission agency. The stick is there to give support to the plant until it can stand on it's own.

Some gifted great apostolic leaders are pastors as well, and many pastor/apostles prefer to do everything in and from the local church, with good reason, as I explain above. The danger for apostolic/pastors, or their blind spot, so to speak, is their lack of cross-cultural church planting. They assume the model of church that has been successful for them in their culture, works everywhere. In this context, the mission agency can play an important role of providing expertise, wisdom gained from years of cross cultural church planting. Even for a apostolic/pastor who has visited many nations, there is the danger of thinking they understand the culture and context of planting church planting churches.

I believe there is one God, one mission of God, and one people to fulfill that mission, the church. The local church therefore, is to be the primary apostolic agency in the earth today. There is a place for trans-local agencies and ministries, but they are biblical and empowering to the degree they are sent from local churches and are committed to planting new local churches. 

Why is this important?

1. If we separate mission organizations from church communities, we have separated the mission of God (the great commission and the great commandment) from the people of God, the church.

2. Mission agencies and para-church organizations are practical structures that exist to serve the church and her God-given mission in the nations.

3. Missional activity that is separated from local churches are in actuality church people who don't acknowledge they are the church, so they don't function as church consciously and intentionally. This results in unhealthy mission organizations that are driven by goals and not community, and anemic local churches that are robbed of her apostles and evangelists.

4. Mission organizations that don't see themselves as church often draw away from local churches her apostles and evangelists; they model independence from the church, which has weakened local church communities. This reinforces the idea that to be apostolic you need to join a go-getting mission agencies or organization, which in turn weakens the church.

5. One of the freshest things happening in the church worldwide right now is the Spirit inspired trend of local churches and local church networks reclaiming the apostolic mission of God without being dependent on agencies and organizations. What is the role of mission agencies, then? To connect local churches to the harvest to plant more churches, to serve as bridges of God, providing cultural expertise and mission wisdom for local churches to engage in the great mission of God to reach the world with the transforming power of the gospel.

6. The local church is most natural structure for getting the gospel into the culture of a people, and therefore, the primary way God brings transformation to a city or nation. Missionaries come and go, but the local people stay. They are there, assigned by God to carry His good news throughout a city or nation.

7. Missionaries sent by agencies or by apostolic sending local churches are in effect, outsiders, sent to raise up locals, the "insiders". It is the local people, the insiders, that are best equipped by virtue of language, culture and being born in a place, that are the best ones to carry on the generation to generation work of the kingdom of God.

I believe that to the degree that we are holistic (local church and trans-local mission agency married in creative and empowering relationship) we are in sync with what the Spirit is saying to the church today. To the degree we separate these two dimensions of the church, the local church and the apostolic mission of the church, we are dualistic and unbiblical.

For more, I address this issue in greater depth it in my book, 

You See Bones, I See an Army: Changing the Way We Do Church

I also recommend ‘Shaping of Things to Come’ by Hirsch, and the weightier ‘Transforming Mission’ by David Bosch.

Tested by Defiance

1 Samuel 17:24-25

Our enemies will defy us, and sometimes our friends will, too! Goliath defied the army of Israel – out of a proud and evil spirit. 1 Samuel 17:25 says, “So the men of Israel said, ‘Have you seen the man who has come up? Surely he has come up to defy Israel...’ ”

Defiance can be defined as everything from outright insubordination to passive lack of cooperation, from boldness in the face of evil to insolence toward servant leaders. The fruit doesn’t always indicate the root. There can be different causes for the same kind of behavior.

A wise leader discerns what type of defiance they are up against when people resist their leadership. There are emotional processes at work between people that can cause people to react to one another, like ice bergs colliding in the sea – the biggest issue is often what is unseen in the area of emotions and sensitive areas of ego and identity.

Sooner or later, you will meet a person who will defy you, or you may feel you must defy a person. The temptation is see defiance only as sinful rebellion, and not see more deeply what causes the rebellion, or what role we might play in provoking a person to rebellion and defiance. Most importantly, a discerning leader prayerfully discerns how God wants them to respond to the someone they see as defiant. Below are ten examples of ‘defiant’ behavior in the Scriptures, and ten different motivations for people’s defiance to leadership.

Ten kinds of defiance:

1. The Goliath defiance – deceived, evil defiance

2. The John Mark defiance – youthful, homesick defiance

3. The David defiance – sexual compromise defiance

4. The Absalom/Micah defiance – wounded child defiance

5. The Saul defiance – insecure leader defiance

6. The Jonathan defiance – wise leader defiance

7. The Bethsheba defiance – discerning spouse defiance

8. The Barnabas defiance – “stand up to a pushy leader” kind of defiance

9. The Apostles defiance – resisting ungodly leadership defiance

10. The Sloth’s defiance – the defiance of a lazy man

Courage and Security

Someone wrote to me after listening to my 3 minute podcast on Saul and his struggle with lack of courage and deep insecurity. I wrote back with some practical suggestions that have helped me on my journey. Here they are:

1. I cried out to God for revelation of his love for me as a father and for understanding of who I was to him...

2. Godly men laid hands on me and prayed for revelation and for healing from deep wounds and insecurities - and kept on praying for me over time

3. I started on a journey of exploring the Father's love through prayer and scripture meditation. I took hold of my place in Christ by faith as Paul describes in Ephesians 1 and Romans 5:17b

4. I started identifying lies i was believing about myself and started speaking God's truth over my life. A great help to me at that point was the book, The Search for Significance by McGee. I saw lies in that book that I had been believing.

5. I prayed every day for a new revelation of the spirit of adoption and rejoiced in it by faith.

6. I learned every day to confess negative emotions to God that I had toward people - hostility, fear, hurt, jealousy - and to receive by faith the Father's love. I learned to confess the sin of negative emotions without condemning myself but as simply the result of working through my heart issues.

7. I got involved in reaching out to others with the gospel - it is impossible to get over insecurity and lack of courage without going on mission with God to make him known to others all around us. Boldness and courage are the result of obedience, not the other way around.

I hope this is helpful. I describe these processes in much more detail in my books, The Father Heat of God and Finding Friendship With God.

Samuel Style Leadership Versus the Saul Style of Autocratic Leadership

A lot of people have written to me in the last few days asking me to share more about the Saul Syndrome. Rather than focus on a negative leadership style, I would prefer to share about the positive strengths, the life-giving strengths, of Samuel's leadership, and in the days and weeks to come, I will write and podcast more about David's leadership. I have learned a lot about the strengths of Samuel in his interactions with Saul and David in first seventeen chapters of 1 Samuel. Below are some of those qualities, what I am calling the "Samuel Style" of leading. Samuel was a man trained in God's School of Leadership. He was a man who responded early to the voice of God - and he not only obeyed God, but he internalized that obedience into an inner security and confidence that allowed him to lead in a godly, confident, strong style of leadership.

1 and 2 Samuel is about leadership.... and 1 Samuel 17 is a unique and special chapter about leadership. David followed in the footsteps of Samuel...he followed in the footsteps of his mentor, in the “Samuel Style” of proactive leadership. The “Samuel Style” of leadership teaches us that leadership is primarily a mindset, an attitude, a healthy self-confidence that is imparted to others. People can hold a leadership position, but without this mindset, a person becomes a keeper of the prison walls, not an innovator and creator and liberator with God.

The Samuel Style type of leader is someone who has clarity about his or her own God given life purpose and goals, and therefore, someone who doesn’t become confused or lost in the emotions of others swirling about them. The Samuel Style leader is a person who can separate from others while remaining connected to them, they have their own identity but can connect to the hearts of other people by respecting them, engaging with them in healthy debate, loving them, and seeing their strengths – as well as their weaknesses. Samuel Style leaders build bridges of loving respect between themselves and other people.

A Samuel Style leader has a healthy self-confidence in the sense that they know who they are and what they want to do in life. That enables them to maintain a Godly, emotionally healthy perspective on what God is up to in their nation, their culture, their city or neighborhood, their church and their work or family. They don’t get thrown off-balance by the emotional issues of others, including those who are corrupt or violent or victims. They are able to manage well their own responses to the responses and reactions of people. Therefore, they are able to take stands at the risk of displeasing others without becoming manipulative. No one does this easily, but most leaders who are healthy, inspiring leaders ...do this ...and continually improve their capacity to do it.

When a self-directed, initiative taking, imaginative person is consistently being frustrated and sabotaged by others around them, like Saul did to David, we can be sure they are surrounded by Saul-Syndrome people who are highly anxious risk-avoiders. They are fearful, insecure, reactive, and anxious. These are persons who are more concerned with good feelings than progress and breakthroughs...they hold others hostage by the “victim” mentality of their culture, often because they themselves are being held-hostage by victims.

David was a man who was not a prisoner or victim of the armies raging against his nation, nor was he a prisoner of other people’s insecurities and relational issues, nor of the giant who was defying him and his people. He was not held hostage by the overpowering presence of fearful leadership modeled by Saul. David was a leader, a confident, imaginative person who followed the example of Samuel.

Samuel Style Leaders:

1. Confident in themselves – they know their own goals and purpose

2. Permission giving to others

3. Values based – Samuel style leaders don’t rely on rules and policies but values and relationships, they don’t try to control behavior but teach values behind behavior

4. Positive and encouraging - Samuel style leaders see the potential in others, like a young David, people that others overlook

5. Lead by an inner sense of what God is saying to them – and encourage others to hear God for themselves as well

6. Not sabotaged by the relational issues of other people – they carry on obeying God and pursuing the goals they have in life and don't let the emotional swirl of unhealthy relationships around them undermine them

7. They don’t make the problems of others their problems, and they don’t allow others to make their personal problems their problems

8. They take responsibility for themselves and allow others to do the same Samuel learned his style leadership even though God placed him under Eli, a weak and ungodly older leader. Samuel learned true submission, not the doormat kind of doing anything a leader asks of you without thinking for yourself.

Godly submission is an attitude of respect, honor and willingness to serve another person. SUBMISSION IS NOT being CONTROLLED, but submission doesn’t have good fruit in our lives until we can obey leaders when we disagree with them, without making a big fuss about it.

Healthy submission allows us to connect to the heart a leader and follow what they ask of us out of respect for them. Submission is not blind obedience, but an attitude of honor and respect. With this kind of submission, you can submissive, or what God has called you to do.

If a leader is an autocratic, controlling leader, at some point, God frees us from that leader, like God freed Samuel from Eli and freed David from Saul. We can tell the difference between godly, strong willed, assertive leaders like David and Samuel, and a controlling, autocratic leader like Saul, by contrasting the lives of Samuel and Saul, or contrasting the leadership style of Saul and David. Just because a leader is assertive and strong willed does not mean they are controlling.

Both Samuel and David were strong leaders who expected submission, but they were not controlling leaders. The qualities of a Samuel Style leader I describe above will help you set goals for yourself for being a healthy, confident, godly leader, and not a controlling leader. Being secure in who you are in Christ is the most important thing you can do to be that kind of leader.

How Do You Recognize A Leader That Can Change a Nation?

By human standards, David was not qualified to be a leader. He was too young, too untrained, too “wrong family”. David became a warrior...but his tender spirit was his defining trait (See The Maxwell Leadership Bible, page 340). David was defined as a man by two things:

• tender heart - he spent time alone with God in tender intimacy to build a personal relationship with God

• tough spirit - he was made tough and could fight God’s battles as a warrior that God could call on to fight his battles

David began his leadership journey as the last of the family hierarchy, the one on the bottom. While his brothers looked down on him, God lifted him up. When his family bypassed him, God did not. God sees who you are, God sees who we are as a nation, and he doesn’t forget his promises to us. God sees the young leaders He wants to bring out and He uses you and me to do that. God uses intentional relationships to disciple His future leaders.

David’s life demonstrates this truth: faithfulness in small things is rewarded by God, faithfulness in physical things - for David that was taking care of the sheep - is rewarded by spiritual rewards, and faithfulness serving another man’s plans and vision, is rewarded with your own spiritual responsibilities to take care of for God. Faithfulness results in larger assignments of influence and greater responsibilities of leadership.

David grew into a warrior one step at a time: he first fought the lion and the bear, then he fought Goliath, then the Philistines. And that is still how he grows young leaders, one step at a time, one battle at at time.

How do you recognize a David in our midst? 1 Samuel 16

1. Don’t look at good looks - verse 7

2. Don’t look at his family or race - verses 8-11

3. Don’t look for existing recognition - verse 8-9

4. Don’t look at his past - verse 11 (keeping the sheep)

5. Don’t look at what others look at - verse 3

God On Mute

"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" What an alarming question for God to ask God. No word from heaven. No miracle. No sign except the darkness itself in the middle of the afternoon. Jesus legitimatized for all-time the need we have for exclamation. He demonstrated that the explanation may not come when we think we need it most. Although we will never suffer In the way Jesus did on that day, there are Good Friday seasons in all our lives when pain, disappointment, confusion or a sense of spiritual abandonment may cause us to ask God the ultimate question, "why?"

Pete Grieg, from God on Mute

God on Mute is one of the best books on prayer. I love Pete's honesty - it is one of the most authentic books ever written.

People Group Definitions

Below are some important definitions to help us think about making disciples of all nations in Africa.  A people group is a distinct tribe, ethnic group, or race. Examples in Africa are the Fulani, Xhosa, Hausa, Yoruba, Oromo, Berbers, Larim, and Somali’s. There are 100 million Arabs in Africa, and over 65 million Berbers. There are 30 million Hausa in Nigeria, Ghana, Chad, Niger, Cameroon, Sudan and Ivory Coast. There are 30 million Yoruba in Nigeria and Benin.

- An “unreached people group” is a people group that does not have a sufficiently strong church among them to evangelize every person within their tribe/race/people. For a people group to be reached, a reproducing church must be planted in that group that is strong enough to evangelize every person in their group.

- An “unevangelized people group” is one where every person has not yet heard the gospel in a language they can understand. For a people group to be evangelized, every person must hear the gospel.

- An “unengaged, unreached people group” is one that no one is committed to reaching with the gospel. For a people group to be “engaged”, some person or some other people group or a church must commit to reaching that people by planting a growing, multiplying indigenous movement of churches among them.

- There are 926 distinct unreached people groups in Africa’s 55 countries. There are approximately 1.1 billion people in Africa. Over 300 million people in Africa are Muslims who have never heard the good news of Jesus. 

The Gospel of the Kingdom

Introduction: In the inter-testamental time, the time between when Malachi was written and Matthew wrote his gospel, there was no prophet to speak for God – or from God. During this time, a longing grew in the hearts of the people of Israel, a longing not only to hear from God, but also for God to rescue his people. The longing of the people was likened to the time when David reigned. His kingdom was a time when:

1. Their enemies were defeated

2. Worship was restored

3. Their was peace and prosperity

In the writings during this period of time a phrase was coined, words were found to express the longing of the people of God. They spoke of a kingdom to come that was liked David’s kingdom, but far greater than David’s. They called it the “kingdom of God…”

When John the Baptist appeared suddenly, prophesying and speaking for God, there was great rejoicing. The people asked him if he was the one who was going to usher in the “…Kingdom of God…” His response:

“I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”Matthew 3:11

So when Jesus came striding on the scene, and spoke these words,

“The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”

The people knew what Jesus was saying. The time of their waiting was over. God was getting ready to break in and deliver them. They believed…

1. Their enemies were going to be defeated

2. Glorious worship was going to take place in Jerusalem

3. A time of unparalleled peace and prosperity was going to break loose upon them

Each of the three gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, begin with this story. The disciples made the connection. God sent a prophet to prepare the people for one ushering in the kingdom of God. Jesus was the one who had come to deliver his people.

But then things went bad. The one who preached the kingdom, who stirred their hearts to great heights of expectation, disappointed them. The very Roman soldiers he was supposed to overthrow, arrested him. He was killed on a cross, where Moses said blasphemers and law breakers were to be put to death.

The Great Misunderstanding: the kind of kingdom God was setting up. They wanted a power kingdom, a kingdom that would free them from the Romans and feed their stomachs.

The Greater Misunderstanding: the kind of king who ruled in the kingdom of God.

The people of Israel thought the messiah king was coming once. They did not foresee that he would come two times, first to introduce his kingdom, then to finally establish his kingdom. They believed when Messiah came he would set up his kingdom on earth. Period. End of Story. The age of the future would suddenly invade this age, and history would end.

The spiritual leaders of Jesus day believed the kingdom of God was coming for them, to bless them, to prosper them, to set them free. They did not see it as a kingdom for others, a kingdom for the poor, the powerless. They did not see themselves as the oppressors that God’s kingdom was against.

What kind of kingdom is the Kingdom of God? 

• The kingdom of God is an already – and a not-yet kingdom. We live with tension: the king has come but has not fully come. He came as a servant, he will come as a mighty warrior. He heals sicknesses, but we still live with disease and death. He defeated Satan, but he still prowls around, seeking people to devour. We live in this tension of being between…most theological error comes because people try to force the kingdom to fully come NOW. Demand healing NOW, they demand Satan be bound NOW, they demand prosperity NOW, they demand gay marriages be banned NOW.

• The kingdom of God is an under kingdom – not an over kingdom. There is no such thing as a Christian nation NOW. We have two glaring examples of that not working in our immediate past: South Africa and the United States.

• The kingdom of God is a grassroots kingdom – not a skyscraper kingdom. There is an incredible growing, grass-roots movement taking place all over South Africa. I find it in every town and city in this nation. People caring for those impacted by AIDS. Job schemes. Savings clubs. Housing initiatives. Business training programs. Not a few, scores, hundreds, maybe thousands of tens of thousands. Examples:  Out side Durban in a squatter camp a small band of young people living among AIDS impacted people. Mama Gladys in Port Elizabeth. A home for babies in Johannesburg. Every church is involved. Many business people. Living Hope in Cape Town. A white family moved into Mamelodi, then bought a burned out school building and now run a home for disadvantaged children. A Professional hunter named Rufus in the Eastern Cape who attracts clients from America so he can take them into the villages of the Transkei.

• The kingdom of God is an every day kingdom – not a one day a week kingdom. Bill and Ann Eames – Hope Crafts. Neil and Mandi Hart in PE.

• The kingdom of God is a full time kingdom – not a part time kingdom. Wendy Ryan – journalist who started a sewing class, that turning into a business that has grown out of control.

• The kingdom of God is a church based, disciple making kingdom – God sends his church into every sphere of life to advance the kingdom by making disciples and transforming society through life on life discipleship. The church has it’s greatest impact will goes into the world, not by asking the world to come to it. It is an incarnational kingdom...

• The kingdom of God is a horizontal kingdom – not a vertical kingdom. John Broom – retiring from Meadowridge Baptist now meeting with businessmen who are burned out and fed up with hype and religion but want to do the kingdom. Sunday church is half-time, and the game is played all week in the market place, the education classroom, the government office, the sports field, and in the factories, mines, and offices where people meet people

Conclusion: What is happening in this country could gain enough momentum to transform the whole nation. What does that kingdom based, discipleship oriented , local church driven transformation look like? Not power and control over the government, not erasing all sin and passing laws to control the hearts of the unredeemed, but life on life influence, small communities of faith, and large celebrations of believers celebrating what god is doing all week long in their lives.

What it does mean is a movement Jesus followers, spontaneously growing and multiplying, led by ordinary people who are making disciples, gathering in homes and shops and soccer fields and schools, equipping leaders, and planting simple churches that are not dependent on buildings or theological specialists.

Transformation means a grass roots movement that becomes so pervasive you can change laws because you have changed so many hearts.

Transformation means servant leaders who lead by example, by their tireless efforts to serve and uplift the poor and oppressed.

Transformation means a change in the way people treat each other. A transformed South Africa is a South Africa where crime goes down because poverty has been removed from our nation, every family has a home, every child has a decent education, and every person has a job. Transformation means Christians get off their back sides and form street committees to watch out for each other, not waiting for big brother to do it for them.

Transformation means …

-       Holistic not dualistic spirituality

-       Apostolic not hierarchical leadership

-       Simple every day church, not complicated, performance church

-       Incarnational not attractional mission

-       Membership through belonging not just believing

I am amazed how many people believe in the priesthood of the believer, church is people not buildings, and God calls us all to obey the great commission, yet fall back into old paradigms of mission and church as soon as the conference finished.

God wants your life to make a difference now. Don’t wait for permission to do something, you have been given the power to do something!

Change

Change. Few people like it. Except those who thrive on change, such as visionaries, entrepreneurs, and pioneers. In today's world, change is normal due to the rapidly expanding availability of information on the internet and the global nature of the world economy.

There are three dimensions to change:

Arena of change - the circumstances

Agenda of change - what God wants to do

Agents of change - The people God uses to bring about change

We often confuse the three. We can blame people, the agents of change, when God is actually using people, even our critics or enemies, for his agenda. In Acts, God used Roman emperors to bring about change in the church. Circumstances can be an agent of change, such as health, death in the family, a job loss, and other factors in life. Difficult circumstances can bring us to the river's edge: shall we take the risk and cross over, or do we wait for the current to die down and go forward slowly on safe ground? Perhaps, we don't go anywhere... just stay here where is it is predictable and safe?

Examples in the book of Acts of the arena, the agenda and the agents to bring about God planned change:

- Acts 4:1-35

- Acts 6:1-8

- Acts 7:54 - 8:8

- Acts 16:6-15

Discernment is required... do you have grace to carry on? What is God up to?

Some questions to ask as you wrestle with the question of transition and change:

Are you experiencing the peace of God’s spiritual fruitfulness where you are?

Are you utilizing your God given spiritual gifts to be the person God created you to be?

Have you lost grace for your present circumstances?

Are you experiencing a "holy frustration" that is preparing you for a transition to the "other side of the river?"

Are you reacting to the agents and arena of change in your life?

Randy Alcorn on Heaven

"We must work to resist the bewitching spell of naturalism.  Sitting here in the dark world, we must remind ourselves what scripture tells us about heaven.  We will one day be delivered from the blindness that separates us from the real world.  We'll realize then the stupifying bewitchment we've lived under."

Randy Alcorn, "Heaven"

Randy Alcor on Heaven

"The truth is exactly opposite of naturalism's premise… in fact the dark worlds lamps are copies of the sun, and it's cats are copies of Aslan.  Heaven isn't an extrapolation of earthly thinking; earth is an extension of heaven, made by the Creator King."

Randy Alcorn, "Heaven"