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Part II
The
Second
Phase of the Church
Corporate
Relationship Concept
Chapter 11
A Journey in
Church Life
"Ship
ahoy!" The journey is about to begin! Batten down the hatches,
we are about to depict a young man's experience on the high seas,
telling how everyone works together on the
ship (the body of Christ) to get the job done
from the family house church to the
corporate setting of the church. This is how God wants to build His church,
even in the eye of the storm. It's
practical, developed from the ground up, and it releases each believer to
perform the task to which God has called him or her.
Sergei pressed his hand against his head,
trying to keep his migraine headache from
thumping. The pressure didn't stop the pain, but it
helped. With books scattered across the
table and pencil in hand, he attempted
to study for tomorrow's exam at Moscow
university. "Maybe I'll feel better if I eat something," he thought.
But
then he remembered. All his snacks were gone. He had spent
his last rubles last night for some fresh baked bread—that staple of
Russian life—now joining the growing list of scare foods. "I don't have time to
wait for hours in a long line, anyway," he thought. "Besides, I'll get one meal
at school tomorrow."
"It's ironic," Sergei thought. "For my growing
up years I was taught and believed how Communism
was so appealing: everybody works for
the greater good, no one is allowed to go hungry or homeless
or jobless, no one gets rich at another's expense. But it was all a
cruel joke. Communism didn't work .... but, what have our new "freedoms" brought
us?"
Sergei couldn't help but feel bitter toward
those in power who had dismantled the old system before putting a new one in
place. The
economy was in shambles . . . he didn't even want to think about
his upcoming trip home to Siberia. His overworked mother was not
well. He was going to postpone his next year in school to help out at
home.
Although he looked forward to seeing his mother and younger
brother and sister, Sergei dreaded his encounters with his dad
who rarely talked to the family but drank
himself into oblivion every night after he came home from work. "One more reason
communism didn't work," mused Sergei, "there was no incentive to work.
Dad knew he would get what he needed regardless of how he performed. The system
made a cripple out of him."
Sergei, an idealistic and motivated young man had studied hard and was getting a
good education. But of late, he wondered, "What
is the point? I'll just end up like all
those around me, disheartened, angry,
without hope." Sergei paused a minute in his depressing reverie. "Yes,
he thought, I've long ago lost my childhood dreams." Sergei pressed his
fingertips fiercely into the side of his forehead. Life seemed as bleak and as
painful as his migraine.
Too
depressed to study any longer, Sergei reached for the TV controls.
Maybe he needed some diversion, a little entertainment.
""Cartoons!" Sergei smiled as he settled back in his chair. "Just what
the doctor ordered!" He had seen this series of cartoons before at
home with his younger brother and sister in
Siberia. It was the American "SuperBook" series broadcast regularly in
Moscow.
The stories of modernday kids time-warping into the land of the Bible had always
piqued Sergei's interest. Was that story really in the Bible about a man named
Daniel surviving a den of lions? And that man, Jesus—did he really heal a blind
man?
Sergei had checked a Bible out of the Moscow University library
to see if it was true. It was! In fact,
there were many interesting stories
within the pages of the Bible. But the claims made by Jesus, who they
called the Christ, were they real? Sergei didn't know. He had always been taught
there was no God.
But
he had always been a little troubled by that incidence he witnessed
as a kid. Sergei frowned, remembering. He was walking home from school
one day with his neighbor and friend Zhanna. As they
neared their homes, they saw an official
looking car parked in front of Zhanna's house.
Two
KGB agents were pushing Zhanna's father into the car; her
mother and sister were crying hysterically
as they stood in their doorway. Zhanna had rushed, wild-eyed, to her
family in the doorway. "Go! Go home!" was all she said.
Sergei ran, frightened. "Why did they take
Zhanna's father?" Sergei asked his parents.
"Because he is insane," they laughed. "He insists on dedicating himself to a God
who does not exist!" Sergei never thought it was amusing though. A silly belief
in God didn't seem worthy of the punishment of being incarceration in a mental
hospital or prison.
Although Sergei had denied it up until now, there
had always been a nagging thought in his mind, "Why would someone sacrifice
everything, for a belief in God? Was there more to it? Was he missing a piece to
the larger puzzle of life?
Suddenly he had to find out! He shuffled through a
stack of papers for a flyer given to him on
the street last night. Here! It was an invitation to a rally at a local
stadium. A man would be speaking about God.
When Sergei arrived at the stadium, he was surprised. There
was
a very large crowd already assembled. He had attended sports
events here before, but he never expected so much interest in a "God" event!
" Hey, Sergei!"
friends from school waved to Sergei as he passed by to find a seat in the arena
crowded with young people. "Maybe I'm not
the only one who wants to know more about God, after all," Sergei smiled.
A group of
talented musicians sang. The songs spoke of "giving
praise to Jesus" and "ascribing greatness to
God." Then the speaker got up to speak. His words were dynamic and
direct. "God created you to have a friendship with you. He has a plan and
purpose for your life," he said. "He is interested in each one of you
personally. That's why He sent His only Son
to die for you and take the punishment for your sins. He loves you so
much."
Sergei
was soon caught up in his words, "Everyone has sinned, but if you put away your
sin, by asking for forgiveness and receive Jesus Christ, He will come in and
make you a new person. He will give you hope. He will give you a future." The
evangelist invited all
who wanted to come to stand at the front of the stadium for
prayer.
Something stirred deep in Sergei's
consciousness. For the first time
in his life, in one stark, appalling
instant, he saw the ugliness of his
sin. His selfishness pierced him. Tears stung his eyes as he headed for
the front of the stadium. Jesus Christ was the missing piece to the puzzle of
his life! He needed hope for the future. He needed to be loved unconditionally.
He needed Jesus!
Sergei was
born again that day. Supernaturally, he knew that everything in his life was
becoming new. His heart was changed. He
felt as if he had just broken out of a prison. Jesus Christ had touched
him deeply and personally.
Eagerly
he listened as the evangelist explained the necessity of meeting with other
believers so that they could be strengthened in their faith. The evangelist
handed out a Bible to the many who had
responded, along with literature telling about an organization called
Home Fellowship Leaders International
which would mail out a booklet
entitled, "How to Start House Fellowships," to anyone interested.
Sergei's long trip home to Siberia
by rail flew by. He devoured the Bible. Spiritual truths, so long hidden
from his agnostic mentality, blossomed and grew in his heart.
By the time Sergei reached home, he was fairly
bursting. His family was amazed. Sergei was always
an enthusiastic and motivated young man—but he was absolutely focused now. He
had a vision and a purpose for life. It was
not hard to see that he had something they needed. During the next few
weeks, Sergei's entire family, including his dad, were saved. Heaven rejoiced!
Since there
was no Christian church meeting in Sergei's home town, he prayed to find other
believers, in addition to his family, with whom to fellowship. Soon Sergei
"miraculously" ran into another young man in his home town who had recently been
saved. He, too, had the first spiritual seeds planted in his life when he
watched the SuperBook series on public TV.
Sergei and Alexi started
meeting together to study God's Word. Like the evangelist had directed, Sergei
sent for a booklet entitled, "How to Start
House Fellowships," and soon Sergei and Alexi started one of their own.
Friends and family began attending and everyone eagerly studied the Bible,
prayed and fellowshipped together, some-times for hours on end.
Although their knowledge of the Bible was limited, it wasn't long before they
grew up spiritually as they studied the Bible along with the regular Bible
lessons, tailor-made for small groups, which were supplied to them through the
mail. The Holy Spirit was teaching them and leading them in truth.
When Sergei started to see a pattern in God's
Word of believers who had the Holy Spirit come upon them, he wanted this same
power. He noticed that after the first Holy Spirit baptism on the Day of
Pentecost, many more believers were baptized with or had the Holy Spirit come
upon them. A few examples were: The Samaritan Christians—"For as yet He had
fallen upon none of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord
Jesus. Then they laid hands on them, and
they received the Holy Spirit" (Acts 8:17); (Sergei noticed that these
Christians already had the Holy Spirit
in
them when they were saved, but now they had the Holy Spirit come
upon
them); Cornelius and his company—"While Peter was still
speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word"
(Acts 10:44); The Ephesian believers—"And when Paul had
laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came
upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied" (Acts 19:6).
Sergei
suddenly realized that Jesus Christ wanted to give the Holy
Spirit to those who ask: "If you then being evil, know how to give good gifts to
your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to
those who ask Him!" (Luke 11:13). So Sergei asked God to pour out His Spirit
upon him. Of course, God is always willing and eager to give good things to His
children. He poured out His Spirit on Sergei and Sergei sensed an anointing of
power come on him. He was overflowed with the Holy Spirit! Upon relating his
experience to others in the group they, too, were baptized with the Holy
Spirit.
The group became like a family. Everyone found their niche. Although no one
claimed a title, it was evident to all that certain people were gifted by God to
function in a special way in the group.
For example, Sergei was gifted in teaching. He taught from God's Word all that
he was learning, and the group grew spiritually as the Truth was revealed. A
young woman, who always took the time to listen to those with a problem, took on
the responsibility of pastoring those in the group.
One young man was continually
bringing in new people to the home group—he was the evangelist. He
enthusiastically told everyone he met about Jesus. Others prophesied and
exercised other gifts of the Spirit such as the word of knowledge or word of
wisdom.
People felt needed and secure in this "family."
God's Spirit was fresh and sweet. Word got out and new people continually came
in to see what was happening. Most of the curious were subsequently saved.
Before long,
with twenty people in all, the group had grown too
large to meet in Sergei's home. Sergei and
the group decided to "multiply." According to the literature they
received in the mail explaining how small groups can grow, Sergei knew they now
had enough disciples trained so they could easily reproduce themselves.
It was an exciting time! Sergei kept five
people from the old group, and started a "new" one,
giving them room to grow. The remaining fifteen remained with Alexi, who was
appointed as the new leader of that group.
Sergei, as a "father" to both groups, gave oversight to them.
In another several months, both groups were
bursting at the seams
again! Three more new groups were started
and God graciously supplied the disciples to lead out. Sergei continued to
oversee all of the work, regularly meeting with home group leaders for
prayer and fellowship and to discuss strategy for the future.
Sergei, as a young Christian himself, knew he
did not have all the
answers for the problems encountered in
certain people's lives. When several women, burdened by the problems of
alcoholic husbands needed special counsel,
Sergei consulted with the people at the Moscow headquarters of "Home
Fellowship Leaders International" who gave him counsel and advice about
ministering to these problems. The groups continued to grow by leaps and bounds.
All
that Sergei could do was stand in amazement at what God was doing with everyday
people. When there was a need within a group, everyone pitched in to help. There
was a genuine sharing, helping and caring for one another attitude that
permeated the groups. "Oh God," Sergei prayed, "Help us to make an even greater
impact on all the loneliness, isolation and
need in the world around us!"
Sergei knew
that it was especially important for leaders to receive
encouragement and counsel. So he started meeting with them as a group
periodically. During these times, they prayed for each other and received more
training, especially teaching them how to continually release and encourage
their home group members to use the gifts God gave to them to build up the
"family."
Sergei had
learned much in a year's time. He had spent a lot of
that time on his knees! But he was feeling a
bit overwhelmed. In his next letter
to headquarters, he asked, "Could you please send someone to help build
proper foundations for our groups? We have so little experience! Help!"
It was clear
that Sergei's group of cells needed a visitation by an apostle to help design
and lay the groundwork for the work in this area of Siberia. The apostle's
experience and wisdom would keep them from making unnecessary mistakes.
Returning to our analogy of a ship, as
designer, the apostle would
help them to know what the purpose of their
voyage would be, where they were headed and where they would go after
they reached a certain destination. He would
encourage them to continually receive fresh vision for their church so
that they would not become stagnated and dry.
From a
group of twelve apostles working together in Moscow, one apostle was sent out to
the fledgling church in Siberia. When the apostle arrived to check out the work
Sergei had done, he was impressed.
Without formal training, but obviously led by the power and anointing of the
Holy Spirit, Sergei was overseeing many home groups that were powerfully and
visibly impacting his area of the world. After meeting with Sergei and the cell
leaders, and visiting many of the cell
groups to get a feel for the tone and overall kind of groundwork already
laid, the apostle made suggestions and gave advice.
Since the apostle's job is
one of function and not to set policy, the
apostle was not there to set up a creed or
doctrine for the church in Siberia. Rather, he was there to see that
everyone was released in their gifts and functioning properly in the body of
Christ. He especially recognized that Sergei
had the anointing on his life to oversee
all of the cell groups in his locality. In
light of that, he laid hands on
Sergei to raise him up as a bishop/overseer for this group of house
churches.
Sergei was now commissioned as "captain" of this fleet of boats and it was his
job to continue to make the decisions necessary to
solve problems as they came up and make
sure that their goals as a group were accomplished. He also needed to
guide the boats on a similar course so that
they could get to where they were going (have the same basic
vision)—always an important consideration!
Notice:
When a leader is appointed to oversee a
series of home groups (like Sergei's
appointment) the corporate
church phase is begun.
Sergei, as an overseer, was
accountable to the apostle. But he was also still a
part of a home group where he was accountable to God and those believers for the
way he lived his personal life.
It was
hard for the apostle to say good-bye, but it was time for
him to go. He had come to love the young
people in this region and felt a deep burden for them. His time of
sharing communion with the cell groups told him that this group was healthy and
balanced in their faith. Before he left, he assured the leaders that he would
spiritually cover them, and return soon to check their progress.
With
the apostle's spiritual covering, the home groups exploded!
Because they were now empowered and
protected by the Holy Spirit in a new
way, unity flowed throughout the network of home groups and more and more
people got saved.
On the advice
of the apostle, Sergei decided to bring all the home groups together for a
monthly corporate meeting. These were times of high celebration, with praise and
worship led by talented music ministers and special speakers.
Over the
next years, the corporate church operations began to unfold
even more. Sergei's fleet of "boats" now included a large "ship"
(corporate church). Now that they were tied
into a large ship, Sergei's home groups had access to a lot of specialty
ministries aboard the large ship—like
support groups for widows and alcoholics and those struggling with
life-controlling addictions, counseling ministries,
youth activities of all kinds, singles
ministries, children's ministries,
music ministries, many diverse missions opportunities, seminars and much,
much more was made available. From time to time, all the
cell groups would board the ship to
participate in these various ministries.
Many newly saved people were coming on board
and finding their
place immediately in small groups
(lifeboats) so they could continue to be flexible, spiritual families.
They learned quickly how to deploy the lifeboats so they could go out at a
moment's notice and rescue the lost. Most of the small boats remained in the
waters beside the ship and kept on the same course as the large ship since they
were all of the same mind and vision as a church.
The home groups were the mainstay of the
church. They had the
mobility the large ship didn't have. They
could minister at the grass roots places, close to where people where.
They were the heartbeat of the entire church
and it was from these groups that apostles, prophets, teachers,
evangelists and pastors were bearing fruit and continuously
being raised up to serve in the corporate or larger body of Christ.
Evangelists, homegrown in the small groups, were sent out to a new area, to
start all over again by telling people about Christ and
rallying new small fleets of
boats to work in unity to build the church.
Before long, another ship with a captain would
be sailing the seas.
But these were not "ships passing in the
night." Absolutely not. These ships and fleets of boats both reached out
to help each other whenever they could, all
the while recognizing their own church's unique calling and
responsibility to do the job to which they were called.
Some ships
(churches) were called to be hospital ships, ministering to broken people in
need of healing. Other ships were missionary ships, outfitted for long, arduous
journeys to faraway places. Each ship knew its calling. Most important was the
fact that new believers were coming in and finding their, place within the body
of Christ as the Holy Spirit anointed each
one to use their talents and giftings for His glory and to build the
church. Disciples were being made.
As overseer
of the church, Sergei had an awesome responsibility
which he did not take lightly. Most days he
fell on his face before the Lord, pleading for His wisdom. He knew the
entire ship needed to function together as a team and totally rely on Jesus or
it was all over. Many times he asked the navigator's (prophet's) advice on
church matters and thus avoided unnecessary hardship.
As a leader, he served the people gladly,
"watching over their souls without resting" because
he knew he would give an account of his service to God (Hebrews 13:17). It was
an awesome responsibility, but Sergei served an awesome God. Nothing was too
hard for Him!
As long as
fuel was kept in the tanks, Sergei knew the power of the engines would move them
forward. The fuel of Sergei's church was the work of the Holy Spirit. As each
person yielded to the Holy Spirit, the anointing of God on the group moved them
forward.
Sergei
listened carefully to the apostles and prophets advice. Even
so, sometimes Sergei found himself in the
midst of a ferocious storm at sea (a
satanic attack on all sides). Sometimes, amidst steep seas
with southwesterly gales blowing and gusting
furiously, Sergei hung onto the wheel and cried out to God.
It was then, with the ship staggering and straining, that he was most grateful
for the unity of his crewman and passengers as they battled the storm together.
He couldn't do it without them. The old and the young worked side by side.
Without everyone working together during these harrowing storms, the ship would
have been driven way off course many times or even lost completely.
Sergei paid close attention to the prophet's advice because his excellent
navigational skills helped to direct the ship over into the
eye of the storm. Once out of the storm,
Sergei still paid close attention to the prophet's words from God,
because he needed the great navigational skills of the prophet to keep the
church in the eye of the storm.
Sergei was determined to keep his eyes on the One who commanded
the waves of the sea. His seagoing experience told him that the sea (the
world) could be grim and powerful, but God was more powerful still.
As
captain, he was determined to make it through yet another storm because then he
would once more be given the gift of time while in the eye of the storm. Time
would allow him to train more people of courage and discipline, so that they
could go to the aid of those in distress at sea. Time would allow him to bring
them on board and train and disciple them so that the cycle could continue.
Sergei looked straight ahead toward the "shining sun that shines ever brighter
unto the perfect day."
No,
the sea would not conquer Sergei. His eyes were focused on the not too distant
future when his ship would sail into the harbor after its final voyage. Along
with many others in the body of Christ, they would be presented as the
Bride—pure and spotless. Sergei's eyes misted, just imagining the scene. Oh, to
see the Bridegroom!
"Meanwhile," Sergei put his hand lovingly to the wheel, "I am
going to keep my eyes
on Jesus, the author and finisher of my faith."
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