Foundation

Are the first century church growth strategies obsolete after two thousand years? Why hasn’t the twenty first century church with all its technology outsmarted the growth of the gospel movement of the early church? Did we miss something about the growth strategies that Jesus and the disciples laid out? The communications tools today are far better but have we missed on the founder’s principles for church growth?

If we choose to keep today the same message from two thousand years it also make sense to apply the church strategies from the first century that is laid out in the Bible.

Tools of gospel movement

Every technological tool whether it is relating to communication or travel no matter how advanced it is still a tool. A tool’s function is to only aid to an approach or path. It is only good as the management of the organization using it. Modern communication tools can definitely aid the gospel. There is no doubt about it. But winning souls doesn’t do any good without the involvement of the Holy Spirit. The work of the Holy Spirit whether it is first century or twenty first century has not changed. Human ability may have has outmatched previous generations but Jesus remains the same, yesterday today and forever. Therefore what He has spoken works in all ages.

Relying on the tools instead of relying on the Holy Spirit is like running a company without a CEO

Great reformers like Martin Luther decided to step outside the status quo of the religious framework of his times. The Lutheran Church as an institution claims the legacy of Martin Luther later also became institutionalized like the Catholic Church. The Methodist movements and Presbyterianism among others contributed to revival and reformation in past. However they missed embracing the vibrancy of a simple people organization of the church as in the book of Acts. Since we are far from the pattern of a biblical movement, revival and awakening has some elements of organized religion.

History of Non-proft

In the post-industrial America, the non-profit status was an addendum to the way corporations were set up. It was thus convenient for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and other tax entities to recognize charities and church organization for governmental purposes and incentives. Thus the “church” had confined to ways corporations are run and a subset of corporatism. The biblical church cannot be structured as a religious human institution defined by tax codes and business laws. Whether one comes from an institutional model of a Catholic tradition or the American corporatism model of evangelical churches, a fresh look at the approach Yashua introduced the kingdom of God is beneficial. Capitalism and Socialism are less than three hundred old and relatively new kids on the block. Christianity has been sleeping with Mammon since Emperor Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire.

The two popular routes in corporate world are structuring an entity to do an organized business or organized non-profit. The first embarks on the notion that profits are the cure to all. The latter focuses on the welfare of the consumers of a nation on the basis of democracy. As a subset of corporations, religious non-profits accommodated a religious framework instead of a non-religious one. However as the reliance on the Holy Spirit took a second place to meeting materialistic needs first material safety became the central focus. Many religious organizations miss to see a comprehensive biblical movement. As a result, organized religious and non-profits have become materialistically solvent but spiritually bankrupt. It is not enough to accept Christianity as a form of ethic measure and still operate as slaves to Mammon.

Kingdom of God in everyday lives need to be at the center of human service and not the material security as in a materialistic civilization.

Organized movement versus organizing a movement

Building according to the apostolic church of the book of Acts can get our hands dirty. It is first and foremost about getting to know the Holy Spirit and walking in intimacy with the Lord before the administrative part. It is a tough job, sometimes even monotonous to work with the Lord. Bottom line, a gospel movement is a hands-on job. A gospel movement is about translating the cause or problem or dilemma or faith that we face into one thing and one thing alone–action. It requires endless fortitude to hang in to see it form and mature. Sometimes the process of building can include breaking up, to rebuild, append or all of the above.

Beware that the gospel movement does not become another organized religion or organized non-profit. Most of the social groups today are organized top-down with clear agendas, staff and finances. The top-down organizing is how most profit corporations are structured. When a gospel movement is organized like a corporation it produces corporate fruits.

Bottom-up approach is different from organized religion or building a non-profit from a corporate mindset. Although churches and corporations have two different motives, in the past they have worked very similarly since they are both registered and structured as corporations. Since we have moved away from the biblical movement we have made many adjustments, compromises, and largely yielded to a materialistic security as a rule of thumb. As a result the religious and social projects have amassed large real estate and financial assets like their corporate counterparts while remained spiritually bankrupt.

A kingdom movement is not organized as a typical philanthropic initiative or a social betterment service with a non-profit gesture. To the core, it is simply a movement of people working with the kingdom of God addressing every root and branches of evil through prayer and action. Such a movement is a threat to every existing power structure, whether they are non-profit or for-profit. The kingdom of God is movement by itself and we the people cooperate with the kingdom above.

Kingdom of God

When Yashua first introduced the gospel He used the term kingdom of God. He introduced the concept of the kingdom which means a realm or rule. He introduced various aspects of this realm coming to earth in a new way. He explained the gospel from a holistic paradigm from the very beginning of His ministry. His work of the kingdom was not completed until He was crucified. Yashua explained this new realm of the kingdom of God through the gospel parables in His ministry. After His atonement and resurrection, the path to enter the kingdom was sealed by the message of Peter in Acts chapter 2 and the apostles thereafter. Today many believers have a limited understanding of the kingdom of God. We are quick to explain the way to enter the kingdom of God by asking people repeat a sinner’s prayer. It is not at all a bad step but it is only the kindergarten. Lack of awareness of the realm of the kingdom of God and its operation causes growth stagnancy.

There are two reasons to organizing KOP as a bottom-up approach unlike organized religion or building a non-profit from a corporate mindset. In the past, religious organizations and corporations though have two different motives have ended up working very similarly. Largely religious institutions have made adjustments, compromises, and have yielded to a materialistic result or adhered to material security as a rule of thumb. As a result the religious and social projects have amassed large real estate and financial assets like their corporate counterparts while remained spiritually bankrupt.

The world is yet to see a comprehensive kingdom movement

We are thankful for all the past biblical revivals and reformations that have helped open our eyes. We are grateful for the great men and women of God who sacrificed their lives for the gospel.Being a kingdom progressive is different from the ‘progressive’ mentality in politics.

The progressive mentality of going all the way in with the Lord is a good thing. The Lord is bidding us to go deeper with Him every day. “It’s not that I have already reached this goal or have already become perfect. But I keep pursuing it, hoping somehow to embrace it just as I have been embraced by the Messiah Jesus.” (Phil 3:12). It takes continuous progressive thinking when it comes to pursuing Christ. When it comes to Biblical Christianity there is always room for reaching forward beyond how much we knew the Lord in the past. “Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead” (Phil 3:13). The humanistic progressives in the church are set to stay as much as possible from anything to do with the kingdom of God. Their end goal is humanism. It is not a bad idea to build a human kingdom following the footsteps of Nimrod but we know from the Bible that it is not the best pursuit in life if we call ourselves Christians.  We know what happened to Nimrod and his venture. The Tower of Babel had the majority votes. They still ended up failing.

 Several Christian movements of the past made big impacts such as the Moravian Missions, Methodism, Evangelism movement of 21st century. There have been several non-violent movements that were successful in the past. They stood for certain elements of the kingdom of God such as emancipation, equality, and freedom. The civil rights movement led by Martin Luther King Jr was great. But the world is yet to see a comprehensive biblical movement.  A kingdom movement is not a democratic movement as most people organizations are. It can also happen with a few provided we are rightly connected to the King and the kingdom of God.

The kingdom movement is a revolutionary movement to see the kingdom of God to be fully manifested among us.