Scattered Moves of God

The other day I had a very interesting dream.

I was investigating a move of God in the eighties. And the investigation was so complete in the dream that on waking up I realised that some questions I had been having were fully answered.

It is interesting that I was not even thinking of what was disturbing me as a move of God. I had been wondering about two ministers whose commitment to the straight and narrow had waned over the years as their ‘success’ in ministry had soared.

I was able to trace the move beyond those two characters to a whole generation in a particular area of influence which could also be traced to a particular radical young minister from across the globe.

This radical influenced some young people who then crossed the seas to impact their agemates, probably not as radically, but radically all the same.

The good thing is that this radicalisation was in the discipleship context and so was very solid as it changed the whole person.

These young missionaries were connected to a church, which meant that most of those discipled settled in that church. Even the ones who did not move to the church never disconnected from it.

In that church, there were two distinct youth groups; the discipled and the undiscipled, though the age difference was minimal.

And the difference was evident even to a casual observer.

These radicals were mature and responsible and sold out to ministry. The other was all fun and games.

It goes without say that these radicals were given responsibilities and positions in church without reservations. Some were made elders in their twenties, even before becoming husbands.

The church thrived due to that discipleship and passion for ministry.

As the church was blossoming, other churches in the city of course noticed.

They then came for those radicals, one by one, and made them pastors without requiring them to even go to Bible school. And they were all up to task. Some were called to lead Christian NGOs and ministries. Some became pastors outside the country.

The ones who remained were the ones who had already been offered solid positions in the church, some very senior.

What then happened?

The group dispersed.

The ones remaining were less than a handful but they held very senior positions in the church.

They could not disciple much in those big offices since managing the structure became more urgent.

Though the structure is now a mammoth, it has lost its connection to what made it what it is; discipleship and passion for missions and ministry.

Looking at that structure today with that hindsight is painful because it now kills everything that made it what it is.

Where did the rain start beating it?

It scattered its core. It destroyed its nucleus.

In its search to transform the city through sending pastors to many churches, it forgot to maintain a solid base from which other leaders could be produced.

Yet look at what made the first church thrive.

And Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles. (Acts 8:1)

Whatever happened, the core remained untouched and unmoved.

They were then able to manage the growth.

When a revival breaks out in Samaria, they are able to send Peter and John to verify and validate it.

But not only that.

Many such centres cropped up as the church grew.

Antioch was one such for the outreach to the nations.

They in turn send out Barnabas and Saul who report back after a successful mission.

These are autonomous centres, but not independent ones.

When the gentile church has a conflict with some Jewish leaders, the Antioch centre sends some of their leaders to the source of the whole movement for consultation with the view of establishing some consensus.

For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee: (Titus 1:5)

It is impossible to manage growth without elders.

And I think God has waited this long to give me this message because he has launched me into the office of the elder as I have written elsewhere.

Elders are the insurance God has provided for any spiritual structure, be it a church or anything else with spiritual roots.

As I was writing this, I remembered something that has disturbed me for long, something I had gotten a completely different diagnoses for even in my writing.

I have written about these radical young men who must have contributed to my passion for missions in my childhood (the seventies).

They had a ministry targeting the unreached frontiers and produced a magazine that I avidly read.

I loved those young people and though I had never seen them in person, I knew them through their articles better than I knew our circuit minister (of the methodist church)

Then I came to Nairobi and was shocked when I started seeing them in person so that my desire to get close to them vanished.

Why?

They had all become pastors and bishops and there was nothing smelling of the unreached in them.

What happened to their passion for the unreached?

I think the same dynamic took over.

Churches love passion, especially young passion.

They were slowly invited to pastor churches due to their commitment to the mission of the same.

And because these young radicals saw this as an opportunity to expand their vision by bringing in organisational strength to their vision, they accepted the challenge.

But the organisation has its own dynamic, inertia and mass.

This means that the passion of an individual does not have the capacity to move the structure in the direction he desires.

He is therefore drawn back instead of pushing the structure in the direction they had probably called him to take them.

So these young radicals get scattered by being absorbed in churches that they could not take with them to the unreached, probably receiving a token of a missions office or something similar so that they remain.

Their nucleus of course was destroyed due to that scattering.

The team will then die because each now has his own pastorate, a pastorate they will not be able to guide to missions in a hundred years because of its inertia.

What then could have been the solution?

Forming a board of elders would for me have been the solution; elders who were not open for taking any positions anywhere else so that the vision is entrusted to them.

These elders could have been the ones in charge of ensuring that the vision is pursued wherever these radicals went.

These elders could have been holding those radicals accountable for pursuing the call they had pledged themselves to.

Those elders could have ensured that the radicals continue having regular meetings to ensure that they were still in pursuit of the passion that had united them.

And with those elders in place, it would have been possible for those radicals to know when they had drifted too far from their vision to consider running away from distractions.

Why am I writing this now yet we are told to stop crying over spilt milk?

The first reason is that God has told me to.

But even more important is that God has not stopped raising radicals for His purpose of reconciling the world to Himself.

I have only written about only two moves of God. But I know you can see this everywhere you look.

It is therefore instructive for us to pursue God’s solution.

Remember the first church and replicate it.

And the qualifications for the elders are clearly spelt out in the scriptures.

Allow me to add something I know some are wondering about.

Who are those elders? How does one go about getting them?

I am convinced that the elder does not have to be passionate about what the radical is passionate about. But he must be passionate about God and His call in whoever He calls.

This elder must be consistent in his relationship with God, sold out to serving God wherever he is.

He could be a businessman. He could be a civil servant. He could be farmer.

But he must be someone who has been a believer for long and whose walk of faith is admirable all over.

He is someone who is secure in his relationship with God so that he can accurately guide these radicals to a solid pursuit of their vision.

Jethro was not superior to Moses in spiritual stature. But he knew God enough to show Moses the way to effective leadership.

That is what I mean.

The elder is the sandpit to dip into when I am burning to stop me from burning up before accomplishing my assignment. He is the heat sink to regulate my temperature to manageable levels.

He is the person who is not scared to tell me to my face that I have changed the trajectory of my ministry.

He is the person I can listen to because I know he loves God enough to want to walk with me though he might not understand my passion. And this because he also has a passion for God’s work.

An elder is never a yes person. But he will love you enough to guide you to polish and sharpen your vision.

He does not need to be a financier of supporter in the material realm. But he is a giant in the spiritual realm.

He will pray with you and hold you accountable to your commitments because he is not awed by your accomplishments since he has enough of his own through his long walk with God.