"Losing the Leaders!"---Part 1.

On any given Sunday, the routine is the same:  He gets up out of bed early, makes his coffee, and sits down desperately trying to hear a word from the Lord.  He knows that soon he will have to break away from this relentless pursuit to get ready to go to work.  Go to work!  When did it become just a job?  When was it just a means to meet the needs of his family?  It didn’t start out this like this.  When he was a young man, his heart burned within him to preach the Word of God.  He was convinced that even if the past generations had not completely reached the masses, he had such a special anointing from God that he would reach them!  God had chosen him to speak the eternal truths of heaven.  He felt it!  God was going to use him to bring about a revival.  He had often fantasized about it, and how it would all play out.  Yes, other churches were ritualistic, cold and even dead; but not his church!  They would burn with a passion for Jesus and operate with the anointing of the Holy Spirit.  Then it happened!  A church was available, he went and preached, he and his young wife prayed, and God gave him his church.  He couldn’t believe it!  It was actually beginning to take form, just as he had imagined.  The first Sunday came, and the people were kind to him and patient, yes, very patient.  However, six years into his new pastorate, and he was still waiting for revival.  He’s still waiting for some type of indication that the religious traditions and “churchy” events would metamorphosis into something real, something tangible, and something powerful, but it never happened!  He needed a change!  Perhaps, as the Bible says, he was just the one who was to plant the seed and someone else was to water it.  Yes, that must be it!  So, he petitioned those over him in the Lord, and he resigned his church and took another one hundreds of miles away.  

            This was a new phase in his life and ministry; surely this would be the church where he would tap into the passion of his original call.  His wife was unhappy with him, because now she was farther away from her Mother and Father and the rest of her family.  They didn’t know anybody in this strange new city.  However, four years later, and still no great revivals!  The process begins again, and now after 21 years in ministry and five different churches, in five different cities, the passion has died.  Drudgery has taken the place of passion and joy, and just being able to meet his mortgage payment on any given month, is victory enough.  Now, here he sits, early on Sunday Morning, trying to hear from God!  But,…. Nothing!  How he wishes there was some way, some means, which he could support his family and leave the ministry.  He often fantasizes about meeting someone who recognizes his natural abilities and offers him a wonderful paying job.  Oh, he would still go to church, of course!  But he would do whatever ministry he could do, from the safety of the security of stable income and a time clock that actually turns off at the end of the day.

            Time to go!  The people are expecting him, the pastor, to give them some fresh new word from the Lord!  Not that it matters he thinks, they won’t do anything with it!  So, he gets out an old sermon he preached three years ago, gives it a new title, revamps it a little and gets dressed to deliver “God’s Word.”  As he leaves for church, he can’t help but wondering, “Where’s the power?”

·         Fifteen hundred pastors leave the ministry each month due to moral failure, spiritual burnout or contention in their churches. ·         Four thousand new churches begin each year, but over seven thousand churches close. ·         Fifty percent of pastors' marriages will end in divorce. ·         Eighty percent of pastors and eighty-four percent of their spouses feel unqualified and discouraged in their role as pastors. ·         Fifty percent of pastors are so discouraged that they would leave the ministry if they could, but have no other way of making a living. ·         Eighty percent of seminary and Bible school graduates who enter the ministry will leave the ministry within the first five years. Ninety percent of pastors said their seminary or Bible school training did only a fair to poor job preparing them for ministry. ·         Eighty-five percent of pastors said their greatest problem is they are sick and tired of dealing with problem people, such as disgruntled elders, deacons, worship leaders, worship teams, board members, and associate pastors. Ninety percent said the hardest thing about ministry is dealing with uncooperative people. ·         Seventy percent of pastors feel grossly underpaid. ·         Ninety percent said the ministry was completely different than what they thought it would be before they entered the ministry. ·         Seventy percent felt God called them to pastoral ministry before their ministry began, but after three years of ministry, only fifty percent still felt called.

        This scene would seem silly if it wasn't being lived and played out all over America every week!  Pastors who started out with passion are now apathetic as they week after week, simply try to survive. In fact according to recent polls, the pastoral ministry is quickly becoming an “endangered species.”  Consider the following statistics, gathered from the web site “Life Line for Pastors.”   

What do these alarming statistics show us?  The pastoral ministry is in trouble!  Not only is it in trouble, but these statistics show us two additional problems that is just as alarming.  First, when the “heads” of the local Christian congregations are feeling so empty and devoid of passion, what is their preaching and teaching of the Word of God like?  It’s a relatively simple concept:  “If the gas tank is empty, the car isn’t going to move!”  Perhaps there is a direct correlation between the “emptiness” of the pastoral ministry and the ineffectiveness of the American Christian church.  If the pastors of our local fellowships don’t have anything to “give,” then the members of our local fellowships are receiving nothing of spiritual depth and spirituality.  The members are not challenged, because their pastor’s aren’t challenged. 

Secondly, these statistics show us something as equally alarming as the previously mentioned two issues.  This issue can be summed up in a question, in fact the question of this book.  “Where is the power?”  Simply put, if the pastor’s of local congregations are feeling burnt out and looking for an “exit” door, then how powerful can their church’s ministry be?  Since the Christian Church’s ministry is constantly involved in “power-encounters” with the flesh, the world, and most importantly, the enemy’s kingdom, without power, there can be very little effectiveness.  NO-POWER = NO-EFFECT!  And given the fact that most of our churches in America have many empty pews, and given the fact that many “outside” the church view those of us inside the church as out of touch and ineffective, then we are DESPERATELY in need of power!  We are in need of the power that was intended to be the “norm” for the Church of Jesus Christ.  However, looking at the emptiness and ineffectiveness of the Church in America as a whole, one is prompted to ask:  “Where is the power?”

Recently I have begun a kind of new hobby.  Nothing really exciting, but nonetheless, it has been kind of interesting and certainly quite telltale of what the Church of our Lord is busy doing, and more importantly, what we are NOT doing.  I have begun reading church “signs” and advertisements in newspapers and bulletin boards.  WOW!  What an education I have received in this little fascination of mine!  Most of the advertisements for the local churches around me are usually about:  Church dinners, rummage sales, music concerts, community awareness activities, special guest speakers (brought in to keep those who are already in the church, “pumped-up” and “plugged-into” the church!), etc.  Now, while there is nothing intrinsically wrong with any of these things, I have yet to see a sign advertising for community wide church repentance, or praying for healing over the things that divide the church, or a meeting to focus on unity and what we have in common (Jesus) and ignoring what we differ on.  Nope, not one sign like that!  Many churches, who have been strategically placed within our cities, are doing absolutely NOTHING in encountering the strong-holds of the enemy within those communities!  And the very saddening thing is, that if those churches DID finally encounter those true spiritual strongholds, there’s a very good chance they wouldn’t know WHAT to do, or have the POWER to do it with!  Now, this is not a “rant” against the church, there are enough within the world who are doing that!  Rather, this is an attempt at helping us within the church to see that we have a “Power Problem!”

This fact came to bear very strongly upon me a few years ago.  At that time, I felt a strong burden to have our church contact the area Christian churches within a 5-mile radius of our church.  We wrote a letter informing them that they were not alone, we were praying for them, and we were asking God to give them souls for their labor.  Basically, we were encouraging our Brothers and Sisters in the Lord within the perimeter we had established.  The first thing that shocked me was the fact that a lady in our church who works with demographics, determined that there were 256 Christian churches within a 5-mile radius of our church!  Are you hearing what I am saying?  Two hundred and fifty six churches besides our church, within a 5-mile radius in Knoxville Tennessee! 

The second thing that was a bit shocking was some of the responses we received from the pastor’s of those churches.  There were many who thanked us for our prayers and concern, and informed us on how timely this encouragement was.  However, one sticks out vividly in my mind.  The Pastor had written us to tell us that he was sitting in his office contemplating leaving the ministry because of burn out and depression, when he received our letter.  He informed us that he began to cry, and realized for the very first time, he was NOT alone!  WOW!  Such a simplistic act that had such God-timed results!  He also informed us that he would NOT be leaving the ministry.  At this news, we rejoiced!  However, as much as we rejoiced in this wonderful news, I was immediately struck with some overwhelming questions.  “If there are these many churches within a 5-mile radius within Knoxville, why were there still homeless?  Why was there still prostitution?  Why were there still hungry?  Why were there still meth dealers?  Why were there still strip clubs?”  Well, you get my point! 

The answer is quite simple, yet quite alarming.  The Church of Jesus Christ in Knoxville Tennessee, for the most part, is POWERLESS!   We have the “churchy” things down pat.  We have the “religious” things down pat.  But we do not have the “Jesus” things infused with power down pat! (end of part 1). 

...And I Sat Down and Wept!

"...The wall of Jerusalem has been torn down, and the gates have been destroyed by fire.”  When I heard this, I sat down and wept. In fact, for days I mourned, fasted, and prayed to the God of heaven!"

Nehemiah 1:3b-4 NLT.

It was a late Autumn day in Susa.  Nehemiah had received some visitors who had just returned from Judah.  He asked them how the returning exiles were doing and how things were going in Jerusalem.  The answer he received was not what he wanted to hear.  They told him that things were not well; they are living in trouble and disgrace; and the wall of Jerusalem had been torn down and the gates had been burned with fire!  Nehemiah's response was appropriate for him as he though of his beloved city, the city of God, and what had become of it................"I sat down and wept. In fact, for days I mourned, fasted, and prayed to the God of heaven!"  That seems like the correct response!  

I cannot help but think that there is a parallel to this story today.  Anyone who is sensitive to the "moving's" of the Holy Spirit can tell you that one of the things they are "sensing" from Him, is that things are NOT well with the Church in America!  In a purely metaphorical sense,.................."The wall of Jerusalem has been torn down, and the gates have been destroyed by fire!"  Now, I want you to understand, I am NOT being negative here.  I simply know what I sense by the leading of the Holy Spirit, and what the facts of the Church in America tells us.  Consider these statistics from "Into Thy Word Ministries":

• Every year more than 4000 churches close their doors compared to just over 1000 new church starts!
• Every year, 2.7 million church members fall into inactivity. This translates into the realization that people are leaving the church.
• From 1990 to 2000, the combined membership of all Protestant denominations in the USA declined by almost 5 million members (9.5 percent), while the US population increased by 24 million (11 percent).
• At the turn of the last century (1900), there was a ratio of 27 churches per 10,000 people, as compared to the close of this century (2000) where we have 11 churches per 10,000 people in America!
• Given the declining numbers and closures of Churches as compared to new church starts, there should have been over 38,000 new churches commissioned to keep up with the population growth.
• Half of all churches in the US did not add any new members to their ranks in the last two years.

........And consider this excerpt from a recent book we went through on our Wednesday Night Study at our Church..........

David Kinnaman, president of the Barna Group (a research organization focusing on religious trends and information), asserts that the primary issue that today’s culture has with Christianity is that it no longer resembles its Founder.[1]

In his book Unchristian, Kinnaman studied the Mosaic (born between 1984 and 2002) and Busters (born between 1965 and 1983) generations of the United States, which currently comprise approximately 77% of America’s population. With respect to Christianity, Kinnaman notes a growing tide of hostility and resentment, a statistic which is trending downward from a positive study that was done by his Barna group only one decade before.

He discovered that of the non-believers surveyed that were aware of the term “evangelical” (as it relates to Christianity), nearly half had a bad impression, 47% had a neutral impression, and only 3% had a good impression

These are just some of the statistics that are out there and available for any believer to study and analyse.  My response may seem dramatic, but I feel a bit like Nehemiah..........."...The wall of Jerusalem has been torn down, and the gates have been destroyed by fire.”  When I heard this, I sat down and wept. In fact, for days I mourned, fasted, and prayed to the God of heaven!"

I am personally CHALLENGING EVERY Follower of Jesus who reads this blog to begin to pray on a regular basis for the following:

• More of the Glory of Jesus to be seen!
• Deeper intimacy with Christ!
• Spiritual sensitivity!
• Genuine Revival!
• An outpouring of the power and gifting's of the Holy Spirit! (Charismata)
• An increase in the miraculous:  Signs, Wonders, and Healing's to endorse the veracity of the preaching of the Gospel and bring glory to the Father through the work of the Son!
• The advancement of the Kingdom of God!

On Tuesday evenings at 7 pm, we are having a time of prayer at 5-different "stations" in the church.  This time of "Stationed Prayer" is for the singularity of purposeful prayer for the Followers of Christ, who are at this prayer time.  In other words, ........ WE'RE ALL PRAYING FOR THE SAME THING!

Please become a part of this MOVE OF GOD to mobilize the Body of Christ in America to UNITED prayer!

Thank you and God bless you!

Pastor Steve

Modern Apostles and Prophets!

There are several weapons that the devil has formed and uses against the Church of Jesus Christ in America.  Some of those weapons have been used very successfully by him to keep the Church off track, keep it weak, keep it bond in mere religious activities, or utterly destroy it.  In the very near future, we will be addressing some of these weapons in detail.  However, for today’s blog posting, I would like to discuss one of the most successful weapons the devil has ever used against the Body of Christ.  And, what makes this weapon so destructive and successful, is in many cases the Church is helping the devil perpetuate this weapon.  What is this weapon Steve?  It is the division of the Ministry Leadership or “Ascension Gifts” that God established for His Body the Church!  Let’s take a look at these Leadership Gifts God gave to the Church:

Ephesians 4:7-8 & 11-13 NIV.

⁷ But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. ⁸ This is why it^[a] says: When he ascended on high, he took many captives and gave gifts to his people.” … ¹² to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up ¹³ until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

These five Leadership Gifts given by Christ Himself make up the Leadership Offices of the Body of Christ.  The craftily devised attack of the devil, is to get many segments [Isn’t that an interesting use of words?] of the Church to believe that some of these Leadership Gifts are no longer needed or in use today.  Just for a moment, think what would happen if with your car you accepted the engine, the battery, the cooling system but REJECTED the steering wheel and the transmission!....... You wouldn’t get very FAR!  This is the EXACT plan of the devil for the Church!  Get many to believe, and even teach, that certain parts of the Leadership “Engine” of the Church is not for today;……………… And the Body of Christ doesn’t get VERY FAR!

The division created by the devil within the Leadership Structure of the Church is this:  For the most part, EVERYONE accepts the gifting and offices of Pastor, Evangelist, and Teacher.  However, many of these same people, blinded by this cleverly devised plan of deception by the devil, deny the remaining two Gifts of Leadership within the Body of Christ, namely Apostle and Prophet!  The Apostle and Prophet, which according to the Apostle Paul, just happens to be the “Foundation” of the Church God established, with Christ Jesus as the “CORNER STONE!”  Isn’t that interesting?.......... Those gifts that are relegated to the past ONLY, just happen to be the ones that Christ uses as the FOUNDATION of His Church! 

Ephesians 2:19-20

¹⁹ Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, ²⁰ built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.

1 Corinthians 12:28

²⁸ And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues.

These 2-Gifts just happen to be the Gifts that when used properly, establishes Churches, corrects Churches, corrects the Body of error, speaks the Words of the Lord, points out sins, strengthens Pastors and Churches, and hears “what the Spirit is saying to the Church!”  Now, if I were the devil, ……….. THOSE are the two gifts I would try to eliminate, and sadly, he has been extremely successful!  He has been successful even among those who claim to be Spirit-Filled, for even among these Believers, there are many that do not even recognize these Gifts and Offices! 

Interestingly enough, one has to remember that it is Christ who gives these Gifts to the Church, to develop, strengthen, and establish HIS body.  Also interesting, is the fact that Jesus was either referred to, or modeled, each of these Gifts He was giving to the Church!  Let me show you:

Of course we know that no one can dispute the fact that Jesus, in His ministry here on earth, was the consummate Evangelist, winning MANY souls to the Kingdom of God!

But, He was also referred to as “Teacher” as well…

John 3:2

² He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”

Jesus was also referred to as our “Shepherd” (The term for “Pastor”)…

1 Peter 2:25

²⁵ For “you were like sheep going astray,” but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

……..Also asProphet…..

Matthew 21:11

¹¹ The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”

….And, as Apostle……

Hebrews 3:1

Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, whom we acknowledge as our apostle and high priest.

However, the devil knew that he could not leave a vacancy, a giant “hole” in the Leadership of the Church, so he cleverly rearranged the Gifts given by God to the Church, and with the Churches support, we elevated those with the Gift of Administration to the Leadership “slot” that was meant for the Apostles and Prophets.  Now please understand, the Gift of Administration is a VERY needed Gift, given by God Himself to the Church!  However, in most Denominational Structures, those with this gift, lead those denominations in place of the Apostles and Prophets.  What is so unfortunate is, many within the Body of Christ don’t even recognize the absence of these 2-Foundational Leadership Gifts nor the “rearranging” of the remaining Gifts!  But someone may ask:  “But Steve, the Church of Jesus Christ in America has done some wonderful ministries, and has helped many people and causes!  If we were absent of these two Gifts, why was this able to be accomplished?”  And in response I would say:  “This is very true!”  A lot of good ministry has been done through the Church, but, what might have been accomplished IF we had the proper Leadership Structure in place?”  Let me illustrate my point this way.  My Family and I live in Tennessee but we like to go to Florida every now and then for vacation and we usually drive there.  Now, if we got in the car and put it in REVERSE and got on the highway and drove all the way to Florida in REVERSE, we would certainly get there EVENTUALLY, but imagine how much faster we could get there driving FORWARD?  We have done a LOT of good through the Church, with the INCORRECT Leadership structure!  Imagine what could be done with the CORRECT Leadership Structure in place!

The Lord is reminding HIS Church, that HE has put together a Leadership structure for His Church, and more and more Followers of Jesus are beginning to see the truth and absolute necessity for the Modern Day Apostles and Prophets, to complete the task of advancing His Kingdom to the WHOLE WORLD!

Resurrection at Christmas!

The following article is one that I wrote for the Church of God Evangel, and was published in the December 2012 issue.  I am posting this here on my blog, not for attention, but for the purpose of glorifying Christ and creating an atmosphere of faith, for you, the reader.

We are sitting on the brink of the last Reformation before the return of Jesus.  Myself and many others, are sensing, with holy expectation, the outpouring of the power of the Holy Spirit that has been prophesized!  Signs and Wonders, healings, and the miraculous are beginning to be manifested among the worship and ministries of the Remnant Kingdom People!  With this backdrop, I offer the repost of this article!  May it serve to generate in you the faith to believe, and the hunger for more of Him!

---Pastor Steve Gardner

 

_________________________________________________________________

 While Pastoring our first church in a Milwaukee suburb, my wife put together a Christmas party for the congregation. It was a cold night, but we were having a wonderful time of fellowship, food, and singing carols . . . when suddenly one of our members came running in and said there had been a terrible car wreck on the church’s front lawn. 

We called 911, and I ran outside. The car was literally wrapped around a tree in our front lawn. Hanging upside-down tangled in the car’s wiring was a 16-year-old boy. He had only recently received his driver’s license, and on that night had decided to race. A freezing mist had begun to fall, and the boy lost control, and now was dangling from his car. 

The wiring soon gave way and the boy fell to the ground. An EMT (emergency medical technician) and I knelt down beside the boy, and the EMT said, “Pastor, he’s dead!” 

“Check him again,” I asked.

The EMT felt for a pulse, checked his breathing, and announced to me again, “Pastor, this boy is dead!” 

I couldn’t believe it! How could this hap- pen to this family so close to Christmas and at our church? The voice I heard next was the Lord saying to my spirit, “Have the people begin to pray for this boy’s life, claiming it in My name. I am going to show My power to this community!

I shared this with the people, and we began praying. Sensing the leading of the Holy Spirit, I laid my hand on the boy and said, “In the name of Jesus, live!” Immediately the boy took a deep breath of air, blinked a few times, and opened his eyes! He was alive!

I told the boy what had happened and led him to ask Jesus into his heart. Later that night at the hospital, the stunned parents thanked me, and I informed them what Christ had done for them. Two weeks later, that boy came into our church on crutches and thanked us for praying for him.

Revival broke out in our church, and our community was impacted. People talked about how those Pentecostal people at the Church of God prayed for a lifeless teenager, and God brought him back from the dead! 

The power of the Holy Spirit has not diminished. He still ministers through those who earnestly seek more of Jesus and His power, to bring glory to our King.