MANIFESTO

This is a challenge to believers and church leadership in the USA. The Church in the USA is in crisis

 and many of us don’t even realize it. Jesus is coming to demand once again the lordship over his own

 Church. He said: “I will build my Church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.”

 (Mat. 16:18) Below you will find 10 points that I believe do little more than begin to sketch out the

 problems we are facing and what a possible solution might be. I am trying to keep it on the

 positive side. May the wisdom and favor of God cover you in 2013…!

1.      We need to focus on Christ as the center of all things in our meetings.

Our meetings have become man centered both in the worship and the word. Many churches have changed significant aspects of their meetings to accommodate unbelievers. When we do that we will end up with happy unbelievers attending our churches. (John 5:39)

2.      We need to focus on the foundational aspects of the faith—the incarnation, death, resurrection of the Son of God, and the descent of the Holy Spirit (Pentecost). By and large we have forgotten these things and spend little time considering them.

3.      We need to value of the Lord’s Supper (Eucharist, covenant meal)

We have overreacted to the catholic extremes of transubstantiation etc. but forgotten the clear statement of Christ, “This is my body” (Mat. 26:26) We who say we take the Bible literally, what are we going to do about that?

The covenant meal is a major source of life for us but since it is taken today by most of us without Faith or knowledge, it does us little or no good and may even do us harm. (1 Cor. 11:24-34)

4.      We need to refocus on the word and it should be taught and read in every meeting. We need to focus on the Gospels—the teachings of Jesus as the focal point of all that we do and actually make a serious effort to live them out. (John 5:39)

5.      We need to bring prayer back into our meetings. Not just a nice little short one before or after the preaching but significant intercession. Believers need to learn to pray the psalms, not just the sweet ones but the warfare psalms. The Psalter was the prayer book of the first century Church, all of it! They used it effectively and turned the pagan world upside down.

6.      We need to take our focus off of money; Jesus didn’t call it mammon for no reason. “No one can serve two masters…” (Mat. 6:24)

7.      We need to focus on true holiness, without which “no one will see the Lord.” (Heb. 12:14) The moral laxity of the American Church is frightening. It is a stastical fact that the American Church does not live any different than the non-believers in regard to their morals. For instance the divorce rate among evangelical Christians in the US is actually higher than among non-believers. The root of this problem is bad theology. A warped concept of grace is taught on many fronts, we are told that God is uproariously happy with us no matter what we are doing ‘in the body’. The judgment seat of Christ where believers will appear is seldom mentioned and when it is, the concept is presented much like a Sunday school picnic where every kid gets a prize.

8.      We need to distance ourselves from the false prophetic, and in general from unbiblical and flakey phenomena. Many ‘prophets’ are prophesying out of a mixture of what is coming out of their own human spirit and revelation that comes from familiar spirits. Some of the most respected names in the prophetic movement have been caught in serious moral compromise and few seem to be bothered by it. Much damage has been done to what might be a true blessing if handled correctly.  

"An astonishing and horrible thing has been committed in the land:

the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own power; and My people love to have it so. But what will you do in the end?” (Jer 5:30,31)

9.      We need to learn what true fellowship is. A handshake a hug and a ‘God bless you’ in a meeting is not fellowship. Koinonia (Gk. for fellowship) is a profound concept that runs deep, requires risk, sacrifice and goes beyond time and space. (1John 1:3)

10.  We need to admit (as church leaders) that our efforts in teaching the word have not produced the results that we thought it would— in bringing believers to full orbed maturity. Teaching is important but we need to dedicate ourselves to press in one on one and in small groups with faithful disciples and work with them as Jesus did with his disciples.