What does God Want? Worksheet

I would remind you that this "course" is not intended to be a "How to" kind of course.  Rather it is a journey where you will be expected to answer questions that I will pose with the intent of provoking you into action.  Learning without changing is nothing more that gathering trivia.

After each post/lesson, I will provide a worksheet so that you can sit down with those you consider to be the movers and shakers in your church and beginning the process of examining how your church does business and deciding where you want to go.

General Information

1. What is the name of your church? - 
2. When was it established? -
3. What was your church known for?
4. What is the name of the community/neighborhood your church serves?
5. What problems or special needs does your community/neighborhood have?

Purpose Vision

1. What sorts of plans have you made to reach your community?  Have you carried out those plans?
2. Which of your community's social services (if any) have you partnered with?
3. If I asked someone in your community what purpose (if any) does your church have with regard to the community, how would they answer?
4. If you church died tomorrow, would anyone outside of your congregation miss it? Why or why not?
5. How is your community better because your church is there (besides bringing the Gospel closer to them)?

I welcome any suggestions and improvements.  These are meant to be living documents that change and improve with time.

What does God want

All too often the question that we are not dealing with is "What does God want?"  When I asked this question in the context of what God wanted from me, I got my calling.  I was redirected from my personal course over a period of years.  I had planned to work for Bill Gates and make lots of money, but my plans were set aside when God had me move out of our home and into a trailer parked behind our church in Oak Harbor WA, and into Seminary at Fuller Theological Seminary's NW extension.

When we listen to God and obey the leading of His Holy Spirit, then we can find ourselves in places we could never have imagined.  For me, that was Ukraine.  After I finished my degree at Fuller, I thought that all I needed to do was to continue to serve in the church God had planted me in and one day I would get a church of my own.  But God changed my plans through a series of seemingly minor events.

We had friends in Ukraine who had gone over there from our home church to work with YWAM (Youth With A Mission) in Kyiv (Kiev).  They had repeatedly told us that we would love it over there, but I was not the least bit interested.  But God had a plan.  One of my spiritual heroes, Dick Addison, a former Baptist Missionary who had spent 20 years in The Congo, said that we needed to take a mission trip to Ukraine.  I was skeptical, but I prayed and was quickly answered by the Holy Spirit and encouraged to go.  I cannot say that I was keen on the idea, but if I was going to go I was going to be prepared even if I had a bad attitude.  The people in our missions team were very vocal about what they wanted.  They wanted to visit an orphanage, they wanted to visit a prison, they wanted to teach in the Ukrainian churches.  But my thought was, "What do the Ukrainians want us to do for them?"
As a result, we let the church we were going to partner with in Ukraine (who we were to come in contact with through our friends already living in Ukraine) make all the plans for outreach, orphanage visits etc.  Maybe our resources were greater than those of the Ukrainian church but the Ukrainian church had a better idea of what they needed than we did.

I was completely unprepared for what God was going to do in my heart

If you are interested, here is The Rest of The Story

What did I learn?
I learned that my expectations, as learned from my church and seminary experiences, do not necessarily line up with God's plans for me in His Church.

So we are back to the Key Question for this post.  What does God want?

• What does He want for our churches?
• What does He want for our Communities?
• What does He want for all humanity?
• What does He want from His people
• What does He want from His leaders in The Church?

So let me address these questions based on what I read in the Scriptures.

Let me jump in the middle here.  What does God want for all of humanity?  He wants them to come to know Him.  We can see a recurring theme running through the Bible where God reaches out to his people, repeatedly and repeatedly his people turn away from Him.  The Good News (a.k.a The Gospel) is God saying, "Hey I love you, trust in my Son, Jesus, and you can experience Me in the best possible way,  I don't guarantee that nothing bad will happen to you, but I promise to never leave nor forsake you."

So when I say all of humanity does it mean "ALL".  Yes, it means that God's Salvation is available to everyone, but not everyone will accept it.  They may be hindered by their own poor choices or they may have been rough-handled by someone(s) claiming to represent God.  They may not have heard the Good News because no one had made the effort to tell them.  They may be encumbered by a belief system or a culture that is antithetical to Christianity.  But God's Grace and Mercy are there for anyone who would call upon His Name. I think we can safely say that God's desire is for every man, woman, and child to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ repeatedly, in a manner they can understand.  And should they come to the Saving Knowledge of Jesus Christ, that they would find a church which prepares them to be obedient disciples of Jesus Christ.

So, What does God want for His People?  I think that comes in three parts.  First, He wants his people to live a life that Glorifies Him.  Jesus tells us that if we love Him then we will obey Him. Second, he wants us to live in unity with each other.  John tells us that if we don't love our brother or sister (in Christ) then we don't know God. And finally. I would say that what He wants for us is to carry out the Great commission; making disciples (those who obey and honor God with their lives) of the whole world.  As we are told in the Bible, "How can they know Him if no one has told them".  We need people who diligently make a point of telling their neighbors, their coworkers and if called, those in the far-flung corners of the globe about the Good News of Jesus Christ.  And if they cannot go to the far-flung corners of the earth, they should consider supporting those who are called to do so.

The Church is not a fortress where we hide from the world.  God's people, The Church, is an outpost and training center for invading the kingdom of darkness.  We are an invading force.  Our job is not to complain about the wrong in the world, our job is to right the wrong in the world, by being salt and light and loving the unlovable.  We can speak the truth in love but I don't see our job as reforming our government but rather redeeming/saving people from the clutches of Satan by loving people as Jesus' example taught us, going to where the sinners are not demanding that they come to us.  How this is articulated or carried out in your church is between you and God.

What God wants for His churches is for them to shift their focus from being inwardly focused only caring for themselves to being outwardly focused, seeing the world as the object of ministry and seeing themselves as God's instruments toward that end.  For that to happen we need to ask, "What does God from His leaders in the church?"

In light of Ephesians 4:11-15, I would say that the purpose of the leaders in the church would be preparing God's people to do the work of ministry (service).  A leader's job is not to just exercise their gifts, but to help the people of God, the Church, to discover their gifts so that they can be reaching out to each other and to those outside the walls of the church, going wherever The Master bids them go.

Our job as leaders in the church is to empower and release people into ministry rather than having them sit and listen week after week with little opportunity to become active participants in the sharing of and the work of the Gospel.  This may mean that you will have to release people in your church to serve in other churches, cities or countries.

I have been released twice.  The first time at my request and the Holy Spirit's leading which resulted in our going to Ukraine.  The second time I was released was from Meadows Fellowship of Las Vegas NV by Pastor Ron Flores and I was sent to help Blue Diamond Foursquare Church and Pastor Bill Dahlquist.  I think this is healthy.  In fact, recently, I was talking to Pastor Ron at a Foursquare Southwest function where he was sharing with me how many people he has sent out.  That, in part, is the picture I am hoping to paint.  A church that holds its resources open-handed and is trusting God to bring the increase as they practice what my former senior pastor at New Covenant Fellowship of Oak Harbor called the 1st rule of the Kingdom.  Which is, "Whatever God has given you, Give it away!" But I am a bit ahead of myself here.

So that last question I would like to pose in this post is "What does God want for your community?"  It still comes back to Every man, woman and child hearing the Good News of Jesus Christ in a way that they can understand so that that they can have an opportunity to accept this Good News.  But looking at communities, I might say that God wants to transform them.  If they are places where people and drugs are sold casually then God would want to see that community redeemed.  I think He would equally want to transform a community that glorifies wealth and materialism into a place that values people the same way Jesus does.  I would also expect that a church in a community would be looking to partner with the various public services that are there in that community like, schools, fire stations, hospitals, emergency services prisons and child services.  If true religion is taking care of the widows and orphans while not becoming polluted by the world's values, then we should be working to influence public services so as to Glorify God and to reach out to the brokenhearted and to see the captive set free.

Now that I have posed these questions and suggested my perspective, it is now your turn to ask yourself these questions in the light of your church and your community with the guidance of the Holy Spirit and your leadership team.  The "how" you will have to find for yourself.  The amount of resources out there for evangelism and discipleship is great and varied.  You will have to find something that works for your people and your church. You don't have to reinvent the wheel, you just need to get some wheels on your wagon.

Introduction to Missional Church

While I was serving as a missionary in Ukraine, I was exposed to the concept of Missional Church through a group called the "Antioch Movement of Ukraine."  An American inspired, Ukrainian-led group of folks who were and still are passionate about reaching their country for Christ.  What they were teaching resonated with what God had already been speaking to my heart about; there is something wrong with our current attractional model of church.  Their teaching challenged a lot of things, the role of leaders in the church, a church's place in the community.  I hope to address all of these issues and revisit what God showed me.

I have to give credit to Dwight Smith and to Saturation Church Planting International in part for the inspiration to write this some 4 years after I left Ukraine.  The Holy Spirit has been working on my heart for some time and what you will read is my Pentecostal, Spirit-led interpretation of what I have both been exposed to and have taught during my 7-year tour in Ukraine.

I plan on asking a series of questions to help direct this journey into Missional Church.  It is not enough to just share new or good ideas.  We need to question what we are doing and why are we doing it.  Jesus did this and in so doing incurred the wrath of the existing religious system.  I think we need someone to shake the tree every now and again to see what sort of fruit is there.  If we cannot stand some close scrutiny into the what and why of our church model then there must be some weakness.  If our foundation is firm then we can stand a bit of shaking and examination but if our foundation is built on non-biblical concepts then we may find that things will crumble under closer examination.

This and the following articles are not meant to be a "How to" or D.I.Y course.  It is an ongoing conversation between you, The Word of God, The Holy Spirit, the other leaders willing to come on this journey and the questions that I will pose.  There is more than one way to "Run a church" but doing it without the Holy Spirit's guidance or doing it a certain way just because it seemed worked for someone else is foolishness.  A church is not a business it is a training outpost for the invading forces of the Kingdom of God.  Not to say that there isn't some need for some business sense.  That is why we need people with gifts of administration. But what must be foremost in our minds is that this is His church, His people, His purposes that we serve.  The church doesn't exist merely to give us something to do or so that we can be employed.  Being a leader in God's Church is a calling and a commission.  We serve at His pleasure to further His plans and intentions.

This series of posts in this blog is meant to be revisited again and again, as you seek God's purpose for your church and examine and reexamine what you are doing, asking, "Lord, show us the way.  Lord lead us in your purposes and intentions."  This is not meant to be a casual read but rather a stretching and illuminating look at your own throughs intentions as compared to God's plan for His Church.  We cannot assume that we have it all together and that everything is just fine.

This journey is not meant to be taken alone either.  If it is your intention to redirect the course of the body of believers that God has given you then you will need others alongside you as you wrestle through this material.  We need each other.  God, the Holy Spirit has given a variety of gifts and gifted people so that the whole body can be built up.  You will need to take those whom God has called to be your co-labourers along on this journey as well.  You may serve as their trail guide, but ultimately your job will be to get everyone willing to go on this journey to the destination that God has foreordained.  It means that there are going to be a lot of discussions and self-examination if you are to reach God's intended goal.  He may have accepted you as you were, but God's intention was never to leave you as He found you.  This applies to the whole church.  As God's ordained leaders you must do everything in your power, with every gift God has given you to lead God's people into the fullness of God's will for them.  As I have heard it put one way, "Ministry is messy".  That's okay.  We are going to stub our toes, knock our heads and slip and fall here and there, but be of good cheer, God is with you and will never leave nor abandon you.

It's all too easy to find ourselves resting on our laurels and running on autopilot.  We must be reminded that we have an adversary who prowls around looking for who he might devour.  He has agents sent into our body to distract and destroy.  They may appear as well meaning people but they are there to disrupt God's plan.  I have seen too many people who have been wounded and crushed by such people.  People who have a form of religion but deny the power of God, who know nothing of the counsel of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. They are informed only by their opinions of what they have heard others say which tickled their ears.

Leadership cannot be achieved in the pulpit alone.  Leaders need to be in the trenches working hand and hand with those who are learning to be subjects of the Kingdom of God.  Releasing them into ministry so that they too can become Kingdom builders.

So if you are fully desiring to do the will of God to follow the path He has set before us, then I encourage you to stay the course, to not become weary in well doing.  Run the race as to win, not turning aside from the task no matter how much effort may be required.  Count the cost.  If you want to continue to just "play church" then this is not for you.  But if you want everything that God has for you and people God has given you, then stay with me, asked the hard questions like Jacob, wrestle with God and demand the blessing needed to accomplish his will.

The following questions will give you a small peak at what we intend to tackle.  It's huge, but we will take it one step at a time as God directs our steps.
The Key Questions for pursuing the path of Missional Church



What does God want:

• for your community?
• for your region?
• for your country?
• for the world?

1. What is the purpose of The Church?
2. How do you biblically measure success in your church?
3. Why is your church located where it is?  What is significant about its location?
4. What is your plan for reaching out to your Circle of Accountability?
5. What does a New Testament leader look like? What are Leadership gifts?
6. What other perspectives can we look at in leadership or what are leadership functions
7. How do we reproduce leaders?
8. How can we more effectively communicate the vision God has given you for the church?
9. How can we better empower the Body of believers to minister in their own gifts
10. What will it take to move from a traditional church to a Missional Church
11. What is your strategy for passionately directed prayer?
12. What don't you know about the community around your church and how can you find out more?
13. What is your plan/strategy to bring the Gospel closer to those in the community around your church?
14. What is your plan for incorporating new believers into the life of the church? 
15. What is your plan/strategy for multiplication - planting new daughter churches?
16. What is your strategy to find other churches to join your efforts to reach the city for Christ?
17. What is your strategy for being partnered with a church in another part of the world?
18. What are some strategies you can put in place to help the necessary resources be released into the purpose/vision of the church?
19. What is your plan for self-examination to keep you on the course God has led you to?

So if you are willing to ask these questions of yourself and your church body and if you are willing to take action on the answers revealed, I invite you to stay with me on this journey.

I cannot promise that I will post often, but when I do, it will be well thought out and challenging,