Kingdom Churches – October 2010 Jeffrey Christopherson “Jesus said, 'What is the Kingdom of God like? How can I illustrate it? It is like a tiny mustard seed that a man planted in a garden'..." Luke 13:18-19 (NLT) We, at the CNBC, have been asking God for an historic miracle. Something that no group has ever been able to do in our nation’s history. Something that is totally impossible in human effort. We are asking God to start 1000 new community transforming and reproducing churches across Canada within the next 10 years. In order to be a part of something like this, our spiritual forefathers have always emphasized that it had to be done in God’s way; only He can do the impossible. So, we began to take a close look at the kind of church that we start. If we were going to see God’s hand, we must cooperate with God’s ways; therefore, we must start churches that reflect His priorities - Kingdom churches. I was recently studying Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 16 and saw a series of questions and answers that Jesus posed which speak with clarity to the heart of this issue. Q1: What does Canada think of Me? If you were to do a simple thumbs up/thumbs down survey of Canadians, the results might not be that surprising. God? Thumbs up. Jesus? Thumbs up. Spirituality? Thumbs up. The Church? Thumbs down. Canadians like our product, just not our delivery system. Interesting. In Matthew 16:13-14, Jesus asked His disciples what the average Israelite thought about Him. The answer was, “you are the equal to any religious hero we have ever known.” Pretty high praise, if you were not the Son of God. If we ask Canadians the same question, we might hear, “He was a prophet, a great teacher, a benevolent and sacrificial religious leader.” Q2: What is the Truth about Me? Verses 15-17 describe the impetuous Peter shooting up his hand demanding to be the first to answer. In seemingly miraculous fashion, Peter actually gets the answer right; “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God,” he exclaimed. Time well spent with Jesus had led the fisherman to, what seemed to be the only obvious conclusion; Jesus was the long awaited Messiah, the one and only hope for redemption, the Agent of Creation come in the flesh. Score one for Peter. Q3: What is the Purpose of this Truth? This is where things get a little thornier for God’s people. There seems to be two answers for the Canadian church. The easy, theological blurt-it-out-without-thinking answer, and the more thoughtful and dangerous way it is practically worked out. In verse 18, Jesus said that the Peter’s answer of His own supreme Lordship was to be the very foundation of the Kingdom church. The very purpose of the statement, “Jesus is Lord,” was to be the roadmap for how Jesus’ church would operate, not merely a theological test of conforming orthodoxy. In short, it would be Jesus’ church only when Jesus was literally and practically in charge. Q4: What is the Power of this Truth? This fourth question is where the rubber meets the road for our work in Canada. With 45% of our CNBC churches not baptizing even one new believer last year, and with 78% of our CNBC churches not ever multiplying themselves in order to reach a new community or new people group – we have to ask ourselves, “where is the power of Lordship of Christ in our convention?” Jesus said in verses 18-19, that the power of the church that lived as if Jesus actually was the King would be absolutely unstoppable. Hell’s gates would be trashed like popsicle sticks against the onslaught of the obedient people of Light. Darkness’ manipulative ways would be no match for wonderful Good News lived and offered freely by the church. Clearly, as we look at questions 1-4 we see a deficit in our land. Perhaps the next question might help us find our way. Q5: How can the churches of the CNBC experience the Power of this Truth? It seems that Jesus gives us a straightforward plan in verses 21-25: 1. I toss my plan in order to know God’s plan. In verse 21, Jesus explains the normative spiritual process in four key words, “go, suffer, be killed, be raised.” These four ideas are repeated throughout Scripture as the keys to power. I first must ‘go’ and leave my comfort zone. I must ‘suffer’ by understanding the limits of my flesh. My dependency on human effort must ‘be killed’ in order to experience God and His ‘resurrecting’ power. Sadly, the seduction of the church growth movement has so influenced the North American church that we construct plans - one part business, one part religious - that instruct us to behave exactly contrary to Jesus’ example. We stay, we don’t suffer, we don’t die to ourselves, and we never experience the unstoppable life of Christ. No power, just the illusion of safety. 2. I resist the dark temptation of Good Stewardship. Verses 22-23 describe the human response to the normative spiritual process. In Peter’s second bold declaration, “Never Lord!” he scored no points with Jesus. To Peter, good stewardship of the Messiah meant preserve, protect and keep safe. To Jesus this sentiment of consolidation and good stewardship was not inspired from heaven, but from the very pit of hell. Peter was not as concerned with the Kingdom of God as he was with his own stability, security, and position. Some might say in the CNBC, “Why should we start new churches, we should be strengthening the ones we have!” While in some cases and in some situations this might be the very wisdom of God, in many cases this sounds much too similar to Peter’s dark words. So, if consolidation and good stewardship are not the secret to God’s strength, what is? 3. I cooperate with the Normative Spiritual Process. Again, we find Jesus repeating the pattern of how we experience God’s power instead of our own weakness. In verses 24 we find the instructing words of, “come, deny, cross, follow” which parallel Jesus’ earlier self-prophecy of “go, suffer, be killed, be raised.” It seems that very limits that the Son of God had put upon Himself as he walked this earth is exactly the process that Jesus asks of His disciples. Jesus caps it off with the revolutionary yet counter-intuitive idea that “saving ourselves” means losing everything and “losing everything” means “finding our life.” So as I give leadership to a church, I must ask, “Where is Jesus asking His church to go?” What comfort-zone will I be leaving as I come after Jesus?” “What should be denied by the people of God?” How has our affluence preoccupied us from the significant? What temporal loss might be suffered in order to gain an eternal blessing? “Where is our cross?” In what ways do we need to die as a church in order to experience the life and power of Christ? What do we need to let go of? What excuses or painful histories or insufficiencies do we need to bury once and for all? And finally, “what would we look like if we were raised with Christ?” What would following Jesus look like on a week-to-week basis? Would it be business as usual, or something quite unusual? Would our engagement with the community around us be affected? Would Canada’s opinion of the church be changed? Would Canada be changed?