You See Bones, I See an Army (cont,)

By Floyd McClung, here are my highlights from the first half of Chapter 2.

You don't have to go to a Bible school for four years to be a leader in the church.  In fact, Jesus defined leaders in the new way of doing things as servants.  If leaders are servants, anyone who serves God's people through their gifts, leads.

We win battles by fighting in the opposite spirit.  Instead of violence, we fight with peace.  Instead of anger and hate, we fight with love and forgiveness.  Instead of power, we fight with humility.  Instead of demanding our rights, we fight with meekness and transparency.  Our weapons are not those made with human hands, but they are fashioned in the hearts of humble people.

Such a focus of serving and engaging our culture will continually drive humble and fearless people to their knees in dependence on God for fresh outpourings of the Spirit.

Being "full-time" for God is not about being called to a religious vocation or the mission field but about realizing that no matter what our vocation or where we live, we are called to represent the heart of God and share the love of Jesus all the time.  Holistic spirituality means that making money and earning a living is not the primary purpose of any occupation, but being there for God - active, subversive, and courageous - is our calling and purpose.

The apostles of the church are not all up-front, highly charismatic personalities.

An apostolic church is a church that is gripped by the imperatives of Jesus to preach the good news and plant new communities of faith.  Apostolic leaders are missional.  That is, they align themselves with the mission of God.  An apostolic leader is one that believes the whole church is a sent church.  Their defining values are to win, gather, and multiply kingdom-minded communities that reach unchurched people, impact culture, and touch nations.  Apostolic leadership is God's mechanism for mobilizing his people.

Institutional churches have ignored the role of the evangelist, prophet, and apostle.  Pastors and teachers have had more than their share of recognition.  It's time to restore greater balance to all five of the equipping gifts that Paul describes in Ephesians 4, but not in a top-down, command-and-control structure.

Apostolic leaders encourage holy dissatisfaction, risk taking, questioning, and experimenting.

I have found personally that to the degree I am caught up in maintaining church structures, something in me dies.  My creative gifts and energy turn inward and I am less effective in every way.

In a real sense, a true biblical maverick acts in a prophetic manner by exposing the lies that the dominant group tells itself in order to sustain its shared illusions.

Being incarnational means relating to people in ways that allow us to identify with people without compromising our message.

Paul preached, gathered the new believers, taught and baptized them, and then trusted the Holy Spirit in them to empower them to live their faith in their culture, not apart from it.

That's enough for now.  There's more, lots more.  Think about these statements.  Do they agree with your view of church?  Do they make sense?  Are they totally different from what you've always believed and experienced?

Have a blessed sunny Monday.