Thursday, October 12, 2017

Being the Body of Christ

Last week Frank Viola sent out another in a series of articles on the Kingdom of God.

Viola addressed the reality that Christian leaders today don't work together.

He suggested two reasons. The second he mentioned struck me powerfully.

Viola cited Watchman Nee's book, What Shall This Man Do? as capturing a key principle that explains the failings of Christians today to advance the Kingdom.

Nee's book notes the distinctiveness of the ministries of Peter, Paul and John. Nee points out that each of these men were crucial in the advancement of the Kingdom of God in the early days...

...but each served a different function.

Peter was an evangelist, Paul was a builder of the community of believers and John was a restorer of the body when it began to move toward ruin...he was a prophet.

A compelling strength of the early Christian movement is that it was a able to maintain connection with the power of the Spirit by embracing each of these three very diverse ministries.

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Perhaps the most compelling weakness in Western Christianity today is that it refuses to allow the Spirit to empower servants of Christ with each of these diverse passions and abilities.

In my group, as is the case of many in which there is numerical decline, only the Paul...community building...sort of giftedness is embraced.

As a result, the group fails to reach new people and to live in the attitude of repentance John calls for over and over again in Revelation 2 and 3...

...and it may, very well, be on the verge of extinction.

We must allow the Spirit to empower ministry as He wills.

We must repent.

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