What is it Going to Take?

The world is in upheaval. 
Nothing is what it used to be. 
How is the church handling the current situation? 
Are we cowering down and waiting for things to go back to normal?
or 
Are we looking for opportunities to share Christ with a hurting, confused, angry, lonely depressed people, people without focus, without purpose and without hope? 

Now is the time to re-evaluate everything we hold dear. 
If we are born of an incorruptible seed, then its time for that seed to germinate and produce in us what its purpose is. 
 
The question we should be asking is: 
What is it going to take to reach your people group? 
My community, my town or city, my ethnic group, my nation. 

NOT: What can I can do? 
NOT: What have others done before us? 
NOT: What is possible? 
No, the answers to all these questions limit our best possible outcomes to the extent of my current faith. 
Jesus did not call us to go and live within the realms of our possibilities but our impossibilities. 
He did not not ask us what we thought we could do, but commanded us, "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel."

He did not form a committee, or take a vote. 
He came with a purpose, to establish the kingdom of God on earth and redeem mankind.
He commanded his followers to make disciples. 
Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”  Matthew 28.18-20  

I believe it's time to 

RETHINK CHURCH. 

It's time to get onto doing what Jesus commanded, instead of playing religious games and kidding ourselves that we are doing God's will.  

Jesus said, 

"Go ye, Disciple nations"
We have largely, stayed home and got fat.

Our thinking, for the most part, has been limited to growing a congregation in a building. 

People want answers, people want hope, they want reality, they actually want what God offers them, the chance to live in the life of their original design, as God intended, but how will they find it? Most unbelievers would never step inside a church, so how will they hear the message of His love. How will they get to experience His love, and become a part of His family through becoming a new creation.  

I was recently challenged greatly by the message of Chris Galanos from Experience Life Church in Lubbock Texas in his book "From Megachurch to Multiplication."  After growing a conventional church to mega church status in under 8 years he started to question the way they were doing church, how valid were their goals and why was he not thinking like some of the missionaries their church supported and others, that were thinking in terms of how to reach an entire ethnic group, a state or even an entire nation. 

While his church was lauded as one of the USA's fastest growing churches, and thinking in terms of thousands (they had already seen over 10,000 commitments to Christ) the people he was gleaning from were thinking in the millions. 

Whatever you believe God has called you for, I believe it is time to rethink. 
Rethink vision, rethink purpose, rethink goals, rethink strategies. 

If we always do what we have always done, we will always get what we have always got. 

If what the church has done in its efforts to reach the world over the last approx 1700 years has achieved its goal of winning the world and making disciples OF all nations - not just in all nations, (since the Roman Empire institutionalised the church) then we can go back to doing what we did before, but if it appears that the previous methods and strategies did not do as Jesus commanded then maybe its time to rethink. 

E-Life church's journey towards movement, may not be for everybody, it will certainly challenge the status quo if you act on it, but at least it seems to be one church's attempt to answer the question "What is it going to take to reach your people group?" 

 

ORDER From Megachurch to Multiplication
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Rev Dr Howard Sands 

With over 40 years of ministry experience in over 26 countries on every continent, from village home meetings in developing countries to crowds up to 50,000, from stadiums to street meetings, he is equally comfortable, from pastoring local churches, special guest at church meetings, keynote speaker at conferences, youth conferences, pastors and leaders training, Bible college lectures, outreaches, outdoor crusades, tent crusades and business leaders equipping. 

Howard brings a refreshing dynamic to understanding who you are in Christ and will help to lift your congregation or conference from where they are in their experience to where God says they are in His word. He is strongly word based, Spirit led and tangible healings and renewed relationships with the Lord are often experienced at his meetings.

See ministry and business overview here https://about.me/HowardSands

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What’s in a Seed?

Howard Sands (c) 2010

What’s in a Seed?
Great Oaks from Little Acorns Grow.

     Discover how this principle has, is, and will, apply in your life.

re discover the journey of your life, and how, where you are now is just a part of the journey to where you are going. Small beginnings, cold winters, hard times, refreshing rains and summer joys are all part ofg the journey to where you are going. 

Life is In Stages

Seeds

Genesis 1:12

The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

Genesis 1:29

Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.

The right kind of seed – every seed produces

The seed of the Holy Spirit was planted in you – keep that seed only growing

Leviticus 19:19

" 'Keep my decrees. " 'Do not mate different kinds of animals. " 'Do not plant your field with two kinds of seed. " 'Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material.

Deuteronomy 22:9

Do not plant two kinds of seed in your vineyard; if you do, not only the crops you plant but also the fruit of the vineyard will be defiled.

Planting  - theres a death to self

John 12:24

I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.

Underground growth,  - the seasons –winter necessary

Genesis 8:22

"As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease."

Shooting – there’s extreme joy with new birth – natural and spiritual -

Mark 4:27

Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how.

Isaiah 61:11

For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign LORD will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations.

Seedling

Young tree – beauty and strength in a growing young tree = this is just the early phase not its destiny. 

It is still has a valid ministry – provides shade and beauty,

Birds still rest on it and make nests in it

Leaves still exchange carbon di oxide for oxygen to give life

Binds the ground together with its roots so rains don‘t destroy & degrade the land

But this is not its destiny. 

Hosea 14:5-6

I will be like the dew to Israel; he will blossom like a lily. Like a cedar of   Lebanon he will send down his roots; his young shoots will grow. His splendor will be like an olive tree, his fragrance like a cedar of Lebanon

Must survive the Weather/ elements – storms of life

Young trees are supple – know how to take the battering winds

Tall mature tree  

Matthew 13:32

Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches."

Luke 13:19

It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his garden. It grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air perched in its branches."

1 Corinthians 3:6

I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.

Cut down

Isaiah 6:13

And though a tenth remains in the land, it will again be laid waste. But as the terebinth and oak leave stumps when they are cut down, so the holy seed will be the stump in the land."

1 Kings 5:6

"So give orders that cedars of Lebanon be cut for me. My men will work with yours, and I will pay you for your men whatever wages you set. You know that we have no one so skilled in felling timber as the Sidonians."

To the saw mill to be cut to lengths

1 Kings 5:18

The craftsmen of Solomon and Hiram and the men of Gebal cut and prepared the timber and stone for the building of the temple.

Endure the pain – stay securely anchored in Him

Hebrews 6:19-20

19We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, 20where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.

2 Timothy 2:3

Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus.

Stored in the timber yard

1 Chronicles 22:14

"I have taken great pains to provide for the temple of the LORD a hundred thousand talents of gold, a million talents of silver, quantities of bronze and iron too great to be weighed, and wood and stone. And you may add to them.

Sold to the builder

Cut shaved shaped nailed

2 Kings 22:6

the carpenters, the builders and the masons. Also have them purchase timber and dressed stone to repair the temple.

House – a great house – a palace – a temple – a city

This is the destiny of the seed

2 Chronicles 2:3

Solomon sent this message to Hiram king of Tyre: "Send me cedar logs as you did for my father David when you sent him cedar to build a palace to live in.

Hebrews 11:10

For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God

You’ve been working towards it

Don't lose heart in the winter. 

Don't stop growing through the storms of life. 

Don't give up when you're cut down.

Don't say I can't when you're being cut and shaped. 

Don't think your time will never come when you seem to be forgotten when you're lying in the timber yard,

because everything you do is determining

how your palace will work out.