THE RADICAL CHURCH

Part 1: KNOWING AND OBEYING GOD                                                            Ref: A Fresh Breeze is Blowing (Adapted from New Wine Skins)
By  Nate Krupp, Preparing The Way, Publishers, Salem, OR, USA  http://www.radchr.net/

Introduction

I believe God is saying, "For 1,700 years you have done it your way. Now you are going to do it My way." This new move of God is characterized by the following:

1. From serving God to knowing God. An intimate relationship “yada – yada – yada”

Genesis 4:1  And Adam knew (yada) Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord.

2. From a Gospel of "easy-believism" to the Gospel of the Kingdom.

From “making a decision” from “accepting Jesus as Lord” to preaching "the Gospel of the Kingdom"

Galatians 2:20 "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me.

3. From the efforts of man to the works of God.

We must learn to "do God's work in God's way." The days of putting out a sign, starting some programs, and conducting services to do God's work are over!

4. From insecure, wounded people to people made whole by Jesus Christ.

The word "salvation" means soundness, deliverance, wholeness. Jesus wants to heal us and set us free - body, soul, and spirit - to live a life of total victory.

5. From being told by man what to do to learning to hear God's voice and doing what He tells you to do.

For too long we have gotten our revelation and  guidance from others

6. From clergy-dominated services and programs to mutually-participating communities of believers.

We are used to attending "a church" and participating in "a service" led by "the minister, clergy, or pastor."

We need  to experience "koinonia," to share their lives with each other in church and in our homes. (Acts 2:42-47). (1 Corinthians14:26, Ephesians 4:15-16, Hebrews 10:23-25). (1 Corinthians, chapters 12-14). Train – Equip – Release   THE SAINTS!!!                            PART 2

7. From one-man leadership to team, servant leadership.

The early Christians worked in teams: Jesus sent the twelve and seventy out in pairs; Paul always had associates (Barnabas, Silas, Timothy, Titus, Priscilla and Aquila, etc.) working with him; (Acts 14:23, 20:17-32, 1Timothy 3:1-7, Titus 1:5-9, 1 Peter 5:1-5).

Today God is loudly calling His Church back to the simple patterns of the Early Church where those in leadership walk in humility (1 Peter 5:5-6), work in teams, are submitted to one another (Ephesians 5:21), are servants (Matthew 20:25-28), and are coaches, releasing all others into ministry (Ephesians 4:11-12).

8. From being "meeting" oriented to being "relationship" oriented.

God doesn't care how many meetings we attend - or don't attend! He is concerned about relationships.

Let's put a priority on one-to-one and time together.

Let's restructure our church services to be times of building relationships with God and with one another.

    “Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.” James 5:16

9. From gathering in church buildings to gathering in homes.

Jesus never erected any buildings and He never said anything to His disciples about erecting buildings.

The Early Christians gathered in their homes (Acts 2:46, 5:42,11:12-14, 12:12, 16: 40, Romans 16:5,16:2; 1 Corinthians 16:19,Colossians 4:14, Philemon 2)

10. From looking inward to looking outward.

It is easy for all of us to become involved in our own lives and forget others. (Matthew 25:31-46).

 The Bible further exhorts us to not look out just for our own interests, but also for the interests of others (Philippians 2:4)..Take the offensive, begin to function as an army, and go out to evangelize the world, trample on the devil, and take this world back from him and deliver it to Jesus.                            God is looking for soldiers!

11. God is calling His Church afresh to be deeply involved in:

a. evangelism - taking the Gospel to every person in your nation

b. missions - seeing the Gospel taken to the yet 12,000 unreached people groups.

c. social justice - seeing the oppressed of earth - the refugees, the homeless, the poor, the disadvantaged, the minorities, the oppressed, the disfranchised - have a chance to live productive, wholesome lives.

d. all of society under Lordship of Christ - seeing every segment of society - the home, the schools, government, banking, business and industry, the media, the arts, sports, etc. - called to return to a Biblical foundation and brought under the rulership of the living Lord Jesus Christ.

12. From big, expensive programs of evangelism to the simple, Spirit-led witness of "the little people"

God is emphasizing that the world will be evangelized by the simple, Spirit-led witness of every day people who love Jesus with all of their hearts - sharing Him by life and word everywhere they go.

13. From the subjugation of women to a release of women as equal partners in the Kingdom of God.

Based upon a look at all of Scripture, women are increasingly being released to be fully and freely led by God's Spirit to manage their home (Titus 2:5), to be fully involved in the life and ministry of the Church (Acts 2:17-18)

14. From financial "sloppiness" and cover-up to financial integrity, accountability, and disclosure.

The Body of Christ and the world recently have seen a major example of financial mismanagement, cover-up, and fraud

15. From denominations to "the church of a city".

There exists today over 20,000 denominations and many more Christian organizations.

In the New Testament we find that all of the believers in a given city were identified as "the church in (that city)," i.e., "the church in Jerusalem" (Acts 8:1), "the church in Ephesus" (Revelation 2:1), etc.

16. From being related to one another organizationally to being related to one another in the Kingdom of God.

. God is bonding people of various backgrounds and affiliations together for His own purposes. We need to be open to these divine connections, allow these relationships to develop as the Spirit leads, and be used by God as He would choose.

IT IS NOT ABOUT RELIGION OR DENOMINATIONS OR TRADITIONS. IT IS ABOUT KNOWING AND LOVING ONE ANOTHER AS CHRIST LOVED US THAT WE MAY BE HIS SERVANTS AND NOT THE SERVANTS OF MAN.