FRONTLINE CHRISTIANS IN A
BOTTOM-LINE WORLD LINDA RIOS BROOK
© Copyright 2004 – Linda Rios Brook All rights reserved. This book is protected by the copyright laws of the United States of America. This book may not be copied or reprinted for commercial gain or profit. The use of short quotations or occasional page copying for personal or group study is permitted and encouraged. Permission will be granted upon request. Unless otherwise identified, Scripture quotations are from the New International Version of the Bible. Please note that Destiny Image’s publishing style capitalizes certain pronouns in Scripture that refer to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and may differ from some Bible publishers’ styles. Take note that the name satan and related names are not capitalized. We choose not to acknowledge him, even to the point of violating grammatical rules. Destiny Image® Publishers, Inc. P.O. Box 310 Shippensburg, PA 17257-0310 “Speaking to the Purposes of God for This Generation and for the Generations to Come” ISBN 0-7684-2966-8 For Worldwide Distribution Printed in the U.S.A. This book and all other Destiny Image, Revival Press, MercyPlace, Fresh Bread, Destiny Image Fiction, and Treasure House books are available at Christian bookstores and distributors worldwide. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 / 09 08 07 06 05 04 For a U.S. bookstore nearest you, call 1-800-722-6774. For more information on foreign distributors, call 717-532-3040. Or reach us on the Internet:
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DEDICATION This book is dedicated to Dr. C. Peter Wagner, whose courageous leadership and apostolic voice has legitimized the ministry of thousands of men and women who are called and anointed by the Holy Spirit to change the fabric of the culture through the workplaces of the nation.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The work of many leaders in the field of marketplace ministry is gratefully acknowledged and noted in this book. In particular, I am deeply indebted to Rich Marshall and Os Hillman who have been encouragers to me, opened doors, and generously shared from their own works to expand and define the perspective brought forth in this book. I also wish to thank Chuck Pierce for his faithful obedience to deliver words of encouragement as well as mid-course correction to those of us on the front line, whether we wanted to hear them or not.
ENDORSEMENTS I have 84 books on Christian ministry in the workplace in my personal library, and I have read them all. Many of them are excellent, but in my opinion, Frontline Christians in a Bottom-Line World now takes the number-one position on the list. Linda Rios Brook skillfully combines experience in the workplace and insightful understanding of the Bible with a keen ear that hears what the Spirit is saying to the churches today. C. Peter Wagner Chancellor, Wagner Leadership Institute President, Global Harvest Ministries Frontline Christian in a Bottom-Line World will transform and greatly inform your life! This awesome book is filled with revelation gathered from the Scriptures as well as experience and great wisdom on how marketplace ministries work. I highly recommend this book for every Christian as essential reading. Apostle John P. Kelly LEAD Ministries The real value and contribution of Frontline Christians in a Bottom-Line World is the concrete way Linda Rios Brook wrestles with making her faith relevant to her daily life. It is refreshing to encounter one who is at once both vulnerable with her own life and so forceful in her interpretation of what is going on in the
workplace. She has thoughtfully laid herself open to criticism in an effort to provoke the reader out of complacency into action. This is an important read for anyone searching for answers in a chaotic world. Jack Fortin Executive Director of Lifelong Learning Luther Seminary Linda Rios Brook is definitely on the front edge of what God is doing in the marketplace (workplace) ministry movement. Her book, Frontline Christians in a Bottom-Line World, takes us beyond the informative and inspiration stage of the movement into sound and practical equipping. Her book will be a valuable tool for ministry in this coming move of God. Rich Marshall Author, God @ Work Linda Rios Brook brings an honest perspective into the challenges and opportunities of marketplace ministry. Frontline Christians in a Bottom-line World is an excellent read for those who seek to integrate their work and faith. Larry Julian Author, God Is My CEO Linda Rios Brook has made a wonderful contribution to the faith@work movement in this book. Linda’s insights help us refocus the way we do church and how workplace leaders and pastors need to relate to one another for the purpose of building God’s Kingdom in the marketplace. God has given Linda fresh insights into His strategy for releasing men and women into their God-ordained calling as ministers in the workplace on scale with vocational ministry. Os Hillman, Director International Coalition of Workplace Ministries Like great seismic plates under the earth, current structures for “church” are groaning against inevitable change. Linda Rios
Brook sees it coming. In this rare integration of fivefold perspectives, Linda offers prophetic insights supported by biblical teaching. She brings apostolic perspective based on enormously relevant business experience, and she does it all with a heart for Jesus and pastoral care for those currently leading what is soon to be a very different landscape for effective ministry. Heads up! Jay Bennett Managing Partner of Dunkey and Bennett P.A. CEO, Kingdom Oil Linda Rios Brook’s book creates a new paradigm for the Christian business leader, which is strongly biblically based, and if implemented, will change the way the Christian business leaders conduct themselves and carry out Christ’s mission. Dennis Monroe, Partner Krass Monroe Speaking the language of the marketplace is becoming vital as we seek to effectively reach the nations. Linda’s book brings clarity and a redefinition that opens fresh understanding to those ready to be on the cutting edge. Rick Kendall Apostle, Body Network Linda has the unique ability to penetrate the heart of the issues that have birthed the faith in the marketplace movement. This book is a must read for every Christian businessperson who feels called by God but confused about how to answer the call, bringing isolation and often guilt. This book is also a must read for every pastor who has business people sitting in pews instead of actively engaged in ministry! Dennis and Megan Doyle Owners, Welsh Companies, Minneapolis, Minnesota Co-founders, Nehemiah Partners
CONTENTS Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Chapter One Chapter Two
Defining Reality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 God in a Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Chapter Three
Working for Attila . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Chapter Four
It’s Time to Preach a New Message . . . . . . . . . 71
Chapter Five Chapter Six
To Change Directions, Change Leaders . . . . . 85 The Greater God’s Call, the Uglier the Camel That Takes You There . . . . . . . . . 105 The Lord Establishes a King and a Kingdom to Displace Another Kingdom . . . 125 Do You See the Trouble We’re In? . . . . . . . . 145
Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine
Apostles of the Church and Apostles of the Workplace Need Each Other . . . . . . . 165
Chapter Ten
Getting Out of the Pig Business. . . . . . . . . . . 179
Chapter Eleven It’s Time to Tell the Whole Truth . . . . . . . . . 189 Chapter Twelve I’ve Said All That, to Say This . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
FOREWORD It is with great joy that I write the Foreword to this book. As a prophet and Bishop of Christian International Ministries Network, I have been pioneering the truth of ministers in the marketplace and saints in the workplace for 15 years. We have conducted many conferences on saints in the workforce arising to demonstrate the Kingdom of God in their area of work. My book, The Day of the Saints, introduced the reality of saints being the extended church, alive and active in the workplace in all kingdoms of this world, such as business, government, education, medicine, and so forth. However, in her new book, Frontline Christians in a Bottom-Line World, Linda Rios Brook advances the revelation and truths of how all this works. Pulling upon her 25 years of owning businesses and managing people, Linda drives home some of the most valuable truths on this subject and takes the church into realms that we have not ventured into since the first-century church. She has dared to put into words what others have not understood or held back from declaring. The truths she grasps from the life experiences of Saul, David, Daniel, Joseph, Jehoshaphat, and other biblical characters are some of the greatest practical and applicable truths available to the Body of Christ. This book is destined to become one of the best books for teaching on kingly ministers in the marketplace. The controversial question as to whether there are fivefold ministers in 13
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the extended church the same as there are in the nuclear church is addressed with wisdom and grace. Being a pioneer of the prophets and prophetic ministry for the last 50 years, I really appreciate Linda’s understanding and experience in prophetic ministries. She speaks and writes not only by relying on her research of other people’s revelations and experiences, but she has lived the life of a kingly minister in the marketplace as well. She properly presents the relationship and ministry of the prophet and the king. Kingly and priestly prophets are to play a vital role in making ministers in the marketplace and saints in the workplace a workable role. Linda gives much insight on work ethics and success principles for God’s apostles and prophets in the marketplace. Much wisdom and insight will be gained to help those called to be Christ’s ministers outside the four walls of the local church, who are today called ministers in the marketplace and saints in the workplace. Members of the Body of Christ are living members in their work outside the local church, the same as their activity inside the local church. They are what we call 24/7 Christians— twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. There is no secular work versus spiritual work to a 24/7 church member. Jesus also served as a minister in the marketplace of business. He was the CEO of His own building contractor business. History says that Joseph, Jesus’ stepfather, died when Jesus was 15 years old. He was left with His mother, three brothers, and two sisters to support. Being the CEO of His own company, He most likely hired His brothers and others to work for Him. It is amazing that of the 33 years of Christ’s life on earth, 15 years were spent growing in stature and wisdom as a mortal human being, 15 years as a kingly minister in the marketplace, and three and one-half years as a priestly minister. Jesus was a full-time minister for His God and Father during those 15 years in the marketplace the same as He was during the three and one-half years. Linda concludes with a presentation of the realities of the Kingdom of God. Jesus came to purchase, birth, establish, and mature the Church to co-labor with Him in implementing the Kingdom 14
F OREWORD of God throughout all the earth. When the seventh and last trumpet sounds, all Heaven will declare that all the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our God and His Christ. Jesus will need many saints with experience and wisdom to help Him rule and reign all the kingdoms that become His on New Earth. Thanks, Linda, for providing some vital present truth that will enable many to fulfill their destiny as extended church members demonstrating the Kingdom of God in their workplace. Your book will also be used as a teaching tool in equipping the saints to fulfill their ministry in all areas of this world. God bless you and all who read this book. Dr. Bill Hamon, Apostle Bishop, Christian International Ministries Network Author The Day of the Saints Apostles, Prophets and the Coming Moves of God Prophets and Personal Prophecy Prophets and the Prophetic Movement Prophets, Pitfalls, and Principles The Eternal Church
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CHAPTER O NE
DEFINING REALITY This is an old story, but it makes an important point. Once upon a time there were two mice, a mother mouse and a baby mouse, and they lived together in a large house that was also home to a fat tomcat. The mother mouse was a good mother in that she was careful to warn her baby never to venture out of the mouse hole without her for fear the cat would pounce on the little one. One fine day while mother mouse was out, baby mouse peeked out of the mouse hole and looked across the long hardwood floor into the dining room, where upon the dining room table he spied a chocolate cake. He knew his mother’s warning, but there is only so much temptation a two-ounce mouse can resist. Looking both ways and seeing no sign of the cat, the baby mouse bolted across the floor headed for the chocolate cake. Halfway across the floor, the cat appeared from nowhere in hot pursuit of the baby mouse. Just as the cat was in striking distance of his prey, like a bolt of lightning, the mother mouse pounced on the back of the cat and crawled up to where she could speak into his ear. She said only one word: “bowwow.” The hair on the back of the cat bristled as he forgot all about the chase at hand and sped away under the bed in a nearby room. When safe inside the mouse hole, the mother mouse said to her offspring, “My child, if disaster is to be averted, never forget the importance of knowing how to speak more than one language.” 17
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As a student at the Wagner Leadership Institute a couple of years ago, I wrote down an important statement from John P. Kelly, LEAD (Leadership Education for Apostolic Development) in Fort Worth, Texas: “The job of an apostle is to define reality.” Respected church leaders such as Rich Marshall, Ed Silvoso, C. Peter Wagner, and many others are attempting to do just that. They are urging their peers in the organized church to consider learning to speak an additional language in order to avoid a pending disaster of miscommunication of enormous proportions and unfortunate consequences in the Body of Christ. It is no longer possible nor reasonable to ignore that there is a tidal wave called “marketplace ministry” coming to a church near you. This wave has the potential to interrupt even the best theology as to how the ministry of the church ought to happen. Without consulting anyone, God has begun to plant a new branch of the church in an unlikely place. It is the church of working people, and it meets in offices, factories, hospitals, airports, government buildings, and other places where people go to work Monday through Friday all across the nation. The people who attend this church also attend a local church. They are Kingdom minded and passionate lovers of Jesus, but they experience Him quite differently than do those who are members only of the traditional church. They are fluent in the languages spoken in both churches. Presently, for the most part, they are comfortable with their dual membership, but this is in danger of changing.
F RUSTRATED BY THE FAILURE OF THE T RADITIONAL C HURCH
It is my observation that workplace believers are increasingly dissatisfied with their perception that the traditional church seems unable or unwilling to do what they perceive the job of the church to be. They are concerned that if the purpose of the church is to extend the Kingdom of Heaven, there should be some evidence of impact upon a culture that is systematically dismantling the biblical pillars of our nation and sapping the souls of their children. 18
D EFINING R EALITY Believing businesspeople work on Mars Hill and are finding it increasingly difficult to be taken seriously in evangelism by their unsaved peers, who read newspapers. The headline writers seem to take particular interest in reporting how mainline denominationalism contradicts, argues, and reverses its positions on issues once considered non-negotiables of the faith. Consider the following statement printed in the Wall Street Journal, August 9, 2003: This week, the Episcopal Church’s triennial Convention was the site of a media frenzy. On Tuesday, church leaders meeting here took the unprecedented step of approving as bishop a practicing homosexual, the Rev. Gene Robinson.1 Some workplace believers are becoming concerned that the traditional church is busy trying to make friends with the enemy. Regardless of their accomplishments in their professions, these men and women are further frustrated with their perception that they themselves can do very little to impact what the church either will not or cannot do. They view what they believe to be an increasingly politicized church as one which, in their understanding, has either forgotten or no longer believes the mission of the church is to heal the sick, preach the gospel, cleanse the lepers, and cast out demons. In other words, displace the kingdom of hell with the Kingdom of Heaven. If this were actually happening, we should be able to point to at least one transformed city in Ameri ca. Unfortunately, we cannot. These believers in the workplace tend to be conservative and Spirit–filled, and they understand the Bible in a simple way: It means what it says. This causes them to be perplexed as to why much of mainline denominationalism does not seem as certain about the authority of Scripture as it once was. Their concerns are found in the widely publicized and schizophrenic positions of churches on issues such as abortion, homosexuality, same-sex marriage, and clergy abuse. The increasing public debate among denominational leaders over matters the workplace church believes to have been settled in 19
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Scripture 1900 years ago has led many to conclude the “church” is uncertain as to what it believes, is bogged down in bureaucracy, and cannot affect the culture that seems to be in a moral freefall. Some have come to believe there is more genuine spirituality in the workplace than in many churches. The emerging leaders of the workplace church are concerned that the traditional church leaders are fiddling while Rome is burning. There are other voices from the traditional church roster who have taken note of what is rising up in the workplace and are issuing a genuine plea to their peers in the mainline church to get in front of the freight train headed toward them before it crashes right through the front door of the sanctuary. We will look at this issue in more depth in Chapter Eight.
B UILDING A NOTHER K IND OF C HURCH
This book is an urgent request to those who are in positions of authority within the traditional church to take notice that what is happening in the workplace is a genuine move of God. Church leaders are being urged by their concerned clerical peers to learn to speak a second language before it is too late for them to have influence in what God hath wrought at work. Church leaders must become aware that the people who sit in the pews on Sunday are fast about building a new and different kind of church on Monday. It is a real church and it is fueled by a growing dissatisfaction with the traditional church, which real-world people perceive to be largely irrelevant to their lives. Consider this statement by Doug Sherman, author of Your Work Matters to God: “Our surveys reveal that 90-97% of Christians have never heard a sermon relating Biblical principles to their work life.”2 In his book, God @ Work. Rich Marshall writes the following. I have been a pastor for over 30 years and fully understand the drive to recruit workers for church programs. But the truth is, we will not see our nation transformed by God through this strategy. We have been trying it for years and have not seen our cities transformed. It is time to rediscover 20
D EFINING R EALITY the activity of God in the world. I tell you right now it will not look very much like most Sunday morning congregations.…I also look forward to the time when Monday morning marketplace ministry is as recognized and regular as ministry on Sunday. 3 No one should be surprised this is occurring. The yellow flags were up and flying as early as the 1980s, but few in church leadership took the warnings seriously. As a result a phenomenon not seen since the first century began to pop up in the neighborhoods: the home church.
T HE H OME C HURCH
The home church should not be confused with small groups. Small group or cell group participants meet together regularly in someone’s home, but they retain membership in and attend a traditional local church on Sunday. Home church people, on the other hand, have left the local church and unless something drastic occurs, they are not going back. Dan and Lori Schultz of Forest Lake, Minnesota are an example. Lori explains it like this. “We were in a mainstream church when it began going in a direction that put the work of the Holy Spirit in a box. A dispute arose between the leaders and the pastor who wanted to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. The pastor was subsequently removed. We felt that we were supposed to stay in the church and we did for six months, though we were increasingly dissatisfied and wanted something more from the Lord. Finally, we felt we had an undeniable call of the Lord to start something in our home.” The Schultzes began their home church in December 2001. Like most home churches, their church has a name: Renovare, which is Latin for “restore.” When the number of attendees grew to 35, their home was too small and they moved their service to the conference room of an office building. Lori Schultz admits that one of the problems of home churches is what to do with the children, since no specific programs are available in 21
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the home church environment. Still, they have no plans to return to a traditional church. It may or may not be coincidental that the rise of the home church began at approximately the same time the home school movement began. Both began for the same reason: a general dissatisfaction with what institutionalism had to offer and a belief that their children were at risk. Both began in similar ways. Neither had a champion. They arose from the grass roots of America. Neither asked permission nor announced their plans to any prevailing authority. They were “not,” and then one day they “were.” Neither home schools nor home churches were taken seriously 20 years ago. Today no one really knows how many there are. Many would argue that today the greatest potential threat to support for traditional public education is the home school. It is my belief the greatest threat to the typical local church is the home church and what has begun to emerge from it: the church of the workplace. The difference is the public school system has begun to recognize what threatens it in terms of funding and participation. The typical church, for the most part, hasn’t got a clue.
T HE W ORKPLACE C ENTER OF W ORSHIP
From the relationship, relevancy, and indeed zeal of the home church, a natural evolution has occurred. Because there remains the desire in the hearts of small groups of people to connect with other groups of people for a larger corporate worship experience, yet another type of worship center has begun to emerge. These centers of worship do not call themselves churches. They may identify themselves as a house of prayer or a prayer center. They do not meet on Sunday, but rather on a weeknight. Except for the day of the week when they gather, an independent observer might have a hard time distinguishing a ministry center from a church. These centers usually have long unstructured worship as a centerpiece for the evening, followed by a teaching from the Bible. Typically, such a center is under the leadership of a businessperson rather than a professional pastor. The leaders are so 22
D EFINING R EALITY unschooled in proper church protocol that it isn’t unusual for them to forget to take an offering. The Impact Center in St. Louis Park, Minnesota is just such a place. The “pastor/teacher” of the Impact Center is the Chief Investment Officer and partner of Quantitative Advantage Investments located in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, a firm with more than 700 accounts and $125 million under management. Tom Fox started the Impact Center in April, 2001. When one looks at the scope of Tom’s professional responsibility, obviously he is not a man with time on his hands. Why then would he take on the leadership of the Impact Center? When asked, Tom makes two revealing statements: “I am doing what I was born to do,” and “I wanted to create a safe environment for the Holy Spirit.” Tom describes himself as a “stealth red” and as a teacher of the reds. (I will explain the term “reds” later in this chapter.) He uses the term “stealth” because by day, he is clearly a financial executive tending to the affairs of his business and his clients. One night per week, he moves in the power gifts of the Spirit. How do the neighborhood churches regard the Impact Center? Tom says, “No one was there to teach me how to minister from the realm of the Spirit. Some of the other churches would probably say that the Impact Center is unbalanced because its focus is worship, the Word, and encountering Jesus. That’s it.” Many of the 90 or so people who regularly attend the weekly service at the Impact Center are in their home church on Sunday.
A N EW FORM OF C HURCH IN THE WORKPLACE
C. Peter Wagner of Global Harvest and the Wagner Leadership Institute has referred to the move in the workplace as the “extended church.” Others refer to it as workplace ministry. But make no mistake, it is a church and as it gains momentum, the nuclear or traditional church will not be able to ignore or deny that what is happening in the workplace is not only authentic ministry, but it is spreading with or without the permission of ordained, seminarytrained church leaders. This will happen if for no other reason 23
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than the simple fact that leaders who are building the church of the workplace are together in common pursuit five or six days a week at work. They are in the local church building only one day a week. Because the new apostles of the workplace church are busy laying Kingdom foundation in their cities, they are broadly recognized as the leaders of the new thing God is doing. For example here is a representative example of what some would argue is the leadership of the church in the business world in Minnesota: Jeff Siemon and Jeff Hagen—Search Ministries Jay Bennett—Dunkey and Bennett P.A. Dennis Doyle, CEO—Welsh Companies Tom Whitney, Executive Director—CBMC Minnesota Dale Witherington—Welsh Companies Chuck Ripka,Senior Vice President—AMCAP Mortgage and Financial Tim Lively, Owner and CEO—Healthstar Staffing Ron Soderquist, President—Priority Associates Minnesota Mark McCloskey, Dean—Center for Transformational Leadership at Bethel Seminary Dan Frawley, CEO—Iconoculture Joe Komerick, Area Director—Navigators Would these leaders agree that they are apostles and what they are doing through their common pursuit of faith in business is a new form of church? Maybe, maybe not; but if it quacks like a church, it’s a church. This church in the workplace does not care what denomination it is. It encompasses Catholics, Protestants, Evangelicals, and charismatics altogether, all at once, and with ease. It does not care whether its members speak in tongues or not. It does not prefer dunking over dousing and does not argue as to whether babies can be dunked, doused, or dedicated. It has no opinion on dancing, the lottery, social drinking, or pants on women. The church at one worksite does not consider itself in competition for members with 24
D EFINING R EALITY a church at another worksite. And perhaps most interestingly, it does not care which church, if any, its members attend on Sunday.
C AN THE T RADITIONAL C HURCH AND T OGETHER?
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E XTENDED C HURCH W ORK
One of the first to identify what is occurring at work in America, and an expert in the field of church growth, Dr. C. Peter Wagner, notes in his book Changing Church: There is a cultural divide between the extended church and the nuclear church. Each of the churches, the nuclear church and the extended church, has a distinct culture. Peter Tsukahira says, “Culture contains values and expectations that lie beneath our conscious thoughts. There is a church culture and there is a business culture. Although the two coexist in the believing community, it is as if they have different values and goals, speak different languages, and have entirely different customs.” This fact must always be seen in the context of an overarching kingdom culture which applies equally to the nuclear church and the extended church.”4 Dr. Wagner goes on to say, “The cultural gap is deep and it is wide. Each culture has its own rulebook. This is simply Anthropology 101. Most extended church leaders understand both rule books, while most nuclear church leaders understand only one rule book.” 5 If this is true, it follows that nuclear church leaders, for the most part, only speak the liturgical language of his or her particular denomination. What will happen if there is a failure, or indeed a refusal, on the part of the nuclear church to learn the rules that will govern the burgeoning church of the workplace? What if it refuses to learn to speak the language the people in the pews speak every day except Sunday? Dr. Laura Nash states in her book, Church on Sunday, Work on Monday, that unless it is careful and mindful of what is happening at work, the church will miss completely the desire 25
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of most people to connect what they do at work with their sense of spiritual meaning. She states, “In fact this attitude [of church leadership] may be the largest act of self-marginalization mainstream churches have engaged in.”6 On the other hand, is there a pothole in the road for the extended church as well if it does not have a proper relationship to the traditional church? The answer is yes, without a doubt.
I NEFFECTIVE AND I RRELEVANT T EACHING OF THE N UCLEAR C HURCH
Members of the workplace church believe what they are engaged in doing is the extension of the Kingdom as Jesus told them to do it. Many are convinced the traditional church has lost its primary purpose and no longer believes that saving souls and robbing hell is what church is supposed to be about. In other words, Kingdom has given way to political correctness. Whether their perception is true or not no longer matters. Workplace people are bottom-line thinkers; and the bottom line, as measured by whatever criteria or public survey one may choose to enlist, indicates the same deplorable moral conditions. In their minds, further debate on the effectiveness of the traditional church is pointless. Therefore, it is unfortunate but true that the workplace church leaders are not asking the nuclear church leaders to teach them anything. Why not? Some would answer it is because what has passed for adult Bible education in our churches for so long has insulted their intelligence. George Barna warned the church in 1998 in his book, The Second Coming of the Church: “A growing number of people have dismissed the Christian faith as weak, outdated, and irrelevant. The profound practical irrelevance of Christian teaching, combined with the lack of perceived value associated with Christian church life, has resulted in a burgeoning synthetic faith.”7 This is very hard to hear, but the church must hear it if it hopes to turn the tide of perceived irrelevancy. Many working Christian adults are convinced the teaching of the church in which they hold membership is irrelevant and unbelievable, served up to them by a group of nice but simpleminded people who do not know very much about how the world works. “Forty-seven % of 26
D EFINING R EALITY people when surveyed said that the teaching and preaching they receive is irrelevant to their daily lives,” according to a survey by the London Institute of Contemporary Christianity, a ministry founded by John Stott.8 Os Hillman, Director of International Coalition of Workplace Ministries, reports: Most church members have never been intentionally trained to apply their faith in their work life where they spend 60-70% of their waking hours. When a survey is asked of the average congregation, “How many of you have been intentionally trained to apply your faith in your work life?” very few hands are raised. Church leaders are often surprised because they feel they are equipping their people. The disconnect is because the teaching they receive is often not relevant to the level of application most Christians desire and need to apply in their workplaces.9 Therefore, workplace believers are not asking the established church to equip them for the new work God is doing because they are largely convinced the church does not know the first thing about it. This is dangerous. Never mind denominational culture and protocol. A lack of biblical literacy among extended church leaders is to go to war without any ideas as to how to win. Failure to understand the rules of engagement and history as they go forth to subdue the dark kingdoms of the earth and to take dominion over them, is to court disillusionment if not disaster. Are these new leaders sincere and on their way to Heaven? Yes they are; however, in their zeal they might run right past it. In many, if not most cases, church pastors simply do not understand the passion that fuels the new apostles of the workplace. There is a reason why.
W HAT D O FINANCIALLY STABLE P EOPLE W ANT F ROM THE C HURCH?
The church as we have known it has done an excellent job of tending to the needs of the poor, the widows, and the homeless. It has done an equally miserable job of addressing the needs and 27
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concerns of working people who have become rich or at least financially comfortable. Some defend this position by saying the rich do not need the spiritual resources of the church so much as do the poor. Some others think there is another reason why the financially sufficient people are an unreached people group in most congregations. Frankly, the poor and displaced are easier to manage. Their choices are limited and they are therefore thankful and submissive to whomever addresses their many needs. The well-to-do have many resources with which to address their basic needs. They do not look to the church to provide them with food and shelter. If they don’t want these things from the church, what do they want? It is important to answer this question because the apostolic leaders in the workplace will most likely come from this economic sector.
L EADERS J UST WANT TO LEAD
The answer is simple and complex at the same time. They want the church to do its job to transform society and they want to be participants in it, not observers of it. They want to use their spiritual gifts and they want to lead. Leaders lead. It is part of their DNA. Whether or not they have the title of leader does not affect their behavior. In any given situation, project, or committee, leaders by nature make the assumption they are there to lead. If they are not allowed to lead, they move on to the next project. There is genuine concern among some church pastors that if these leaders are really trained and released in their gifting for ministry they will no longer submit to the local church. This may indeed be true because most do not submit now. A workplace leader may have a cordial relationship with the pastor, but it is rare that what the pastor thinks affects his behavior. Consider this quote from a church member, Al Perkins, president of a marketing firm, from Barna’s research in The Second Coming of the Church: I guess I’ve become one of the men who really threatens the pastor and some of his confidantes because I think 28
D EFINING R EALITY what we do and the way we do it are so totally out of touch with the real world. I’m all for empowering people to live simpler, more fulfilling lives, but I don’t think you can achieve that by stepping back in time and ignoring modern realities. I think you achieve it by resetting the rules of the game and creating space to integrate your faith views and your lifestyle. The church aggravates me because here I am a leader in the business world and they [the church] stick me on a committee that hasn’t accomplished squat in three years; it just meets and meets and meets and meets. I finally figured out that I’ll never be a leader in this church because real leaders threaten the pastor. 10 Leaders who are arising in the workplace church, by their nature, are accustomed to fast decision-making in high-risk environments. They are without fear of consequences or concern that some of those decisions might possibly be wrong. They call it risk and reward. No guts, no glory. These emerging apostles, if you will, have a bias for action and are willing to risk making mistakes. Tom Peters in his groundbreaking book of the 1980’s, In Search of Excellence, would have described these people as having the “ready, fire, aim” mentality.11 They trust their intuition and are willing to launch a project or a venture of considerable size without having any idea as to how it is actually going to work. They assume they will figure it out as they go along because they usually do. They have a history of being right. The risk is that when they are wrong and make a mistake, it is generally big and public. The willingness of these new leaders to walk way out to the end of the limb, coupled with the “no fear of consequences” part, makes nuclear church leaders very nervous. Furthermore, this new workplace church has a distinct advantage over the traditional church. Its apostles have all the money. What will happen if the cultural divide between the churches is not addressed? Should the workplace leaders completely abandon the 29
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nuclear church, they will take their money with them and they will have no pangs of conscience whatsoever about it. This is because these working ministers are deeply rooted in performance-based compensation. It works like this. Their frame of reference for any organization, including the church, is that it ought to be measured in the same way the shareholders of a publicly held company measure performance. If a secular company performs well, it makes lots of money and everyone keeps his or her job. If the company fails to perform well, it goes into bankruptcy or gets handed over to someone who can make it perform. If a church cannot meet its financial obligations, the reality of the working class concludes that the church must not be performing very well. Following this thought pattern, continuing to put money into something that does not seem to work all that well, does not appear to be a very good investment. If nuclear church leaders have any interest whatsoever in avoiding territorial wars between the two churches, does it not seem like a good idea to know who these workplace fast-guns are likely to be and what makes them tick? Having been among their ranks, I know them quite well. Let me therefore try to describe them.
“T HE R EDS” IN THE B ASKET
They are what I refer to as the “red” people and my opinion is that they represent approximately 10 percent of the people in the nuclear church and 90 percent of the people in the church of the workplace. Let me tell you how I came to call them “the reds.” I asked the Lord to give me an analogy to explain them. He gave me a picture of a laundry basket, full of dirty clothes. I cannot tell you how disappointed I was. Ignoring my desire to feel scholarly, I felt the Lord was telling me to walk through what a person does with a laundry basket. I suppose, I thought to myself, the obvious answer is a person is supposed to wash the clothes. But what must a person do first? the voice inside my head asked. 30
D EFINING R EALITY Of course, clothes of many different colors cannot be washed together. They must be separated so the stronger colors do not bleed onto the clothes of a lighter color. The color that must never be washed with any other color is red. No matter how many times it has been washed before, red will always bleed when it gets wet. Then the Lord showed me that the laundry basket is like the church—full of all kinds of people of different spiritual colors. Clothes of different colors can peacefully coexist for a long period of time in the laundry basket as long as they don’t get wet. Before the water comes, however, they must be separated. So it is with what is happening between the red people of the workplace church and the other colors of the church. For a very long time, they have been altogether in one basket and not very concerned or even aware of one another. Then suddenly the Lord began to release a river that cut a new path through tradition and got everyone in its path wet.
“T HE C HOSEN” V ERSUS “T HE C ALLED”
To understand why this is very disruptive, one must first understand the character traits of red people. “People who want to mix God and business are rebels on several fronts. They reject the centuries-old American conviction that spirituality is a private matter. They challenge religious thinkers who disdain business as an inherently impure pursuit. They disagree with business people who say that religion is unavoidably divisive.” 12 The reds are people who are “chosen” rather than “called” of the Lord. What does this mean? Jesus made a provocative and puzzling statement when He said, “For many are [called], but few are chosen” (Mt. 22:14). Often when we hear this verse exegeted, we are led to understand that many are called to God’s service but only a few are acceptable or worthy of the call. I would like to offer a different understanding as to what it means to be “called” and “chosen.” I suggest a better understanding of this verse is “many” (one might argue “all”) are “called” of the Lord into Kingdom building or expansion. The called may either accept or reject the calling. Whether they accept or not has 31
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nothing whatsoever to do with their salvation or with their standing as a child of God. It is a matter of free will and free choice and whether or not they will fulfill God’s “A” plan for their lives. If they do not heed the call, plan “B” is still a pretty good one. But they will never know where “A” might have led them. The chosen, however, have no real choice in the matter. For reasons only known in the mind of God, certain people are predestined to be linking pins in the purposes of God. One might say they are essential to the progression of history. (The call and assignment of Cyrus 200 years before he was born is the undeniable argument for this supposition.) The hand of God is so heavy upon their lives the Hound of Heaven will not easily let them do anything other than fulfill their eternal destiny in pushing the Kingdom forward and the enemy back. They will “come to Jesus.” It is only a matter as to whether they will come the easy way or the hard way. Jonah was such a person as was Paul. The Lord went to extraordinary lengths to “persuade” these chosen men to fulfill their purpose in history. It was determined and purposed by God; the work they were created to do was of such consequence to the Kingdom that God would insist they come in and do it. For example, the only real choice Jonah had was whether he would go to Nineveh via the traditional way, by boat, or if his reluctance would make it necessary that he first be swallowed by a whale and vomited up on the beach before being fully persuaded to do it God’s way.
M Y P ERSONAL “R ED” STORY
I named the reds because I am one of them, although I did not always know what I was. In all my years of church involvement, trying to fit in with many denominational paradigms, and mostly failing to do so, I finally figured out why. When all of the polite rhetoric between us was said and done, the church leaders I knew (and I knew many) simply did not understand the purpose of the church the same way I did. This is not to say I was right and they were wrong, but that we saw things in a completely different way. This difference in worldview caused us to make different assumptions as to what the primary purpose of the church ought to be. 32
D EFINING R EALITY Right or wrong, it is important to understand many if not the majority of the red leaders in the rising church hold the same worldview I held. I am now somewhat convinced my assumptions may have been misassumptions in terms of being applicable to the nuclear church. But at the time, that was the only church I knew any thing about. No one knew the church of the marketplace was in the womb. Misassumption number one was I thought the purpose of the church was to fulfill the edict given to Adam and Eve. I assumed what God had said to be the purpose of mankind in the beginning was still the purpose of mankind. “Subdue the earth and take dominion over it.” When man failed in the original charge, Jesus came for the purpose of not only saving the human race from something, but saving it for something. That something was to do what God had said to start with. “Subdue the earth and take dominion over it.” I thought everyone who had a job in the church must naturally agree when Jesus told the disciples to preach the gospel, heal the sick, cleanse the leper, and cast out demons, He really meant it. He meant it because that was the method we were going to employ in our quest to “subdue the earth and take dominion over it.” Even though I never saw this mandate reflected in any church vision statement, I did not catch a clue this was apparently not on the list of church goals. Misassumption number two was I did not believe the church and the workplace were different things. I believed who we were and what we did in church was what we were and what we were to do at work. If there was a wall between the two, I simply did not see it. However, many other people in both venues did see it. After being told by important people in the marketplace and in the church that one could not be a Bible teacher and a media executive at the same time, I began to wonder if it might possibly be true. After all, what could I possibly know about it? Never mind that I had studied and taught Scripture for 20 years while managing network affiliated television stations at the same time. 33
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Being the president and general manager of a CBS affiliate in Texas, then an NBC affiliate in Florida, then another NBC station in Minnesota, and ultimately being an owner and managing partner of a Warner Brothers affiliate in Minnesota was my occupation for more than 20 years. Nevertheless, I positively knew I had a call of God on my life to teach the Bible. I did not think this unusual, amazing, or incongruous in any way even though I was repeatedly told by the church and the workplace that it was not only unusual, but it was impossible to be in two camps, serving mammon and serving God at the same time. Again, I wondered if this might be true although I never served mammon and could not see why anyone would think I did. I painfully discovered I was too Christian for my secular friends and too secular for my Christian friends. So, I began to look around to see if there was anyone else who saw the church/work connection the same way I did. When I visited a new church, I would peruse the congregation and ask myself, “Is there anybody here like me?” At first, the answer appeared to be “no” so I began to suspect the traditionalists were right and I was not really called of God, but merely odd. That, however, was 20 years ago. What I did not know then was all of the working people like me who were also called of God, were hiding in the closet.
T HE FRONTIER “R EDS”
If the idea of bringing the workplace into the church was a problem, the idea of church in the workplace was a bigger one. Before the wall between spirituality and the workplace would come down, there would be many men and women, most of them unknown except in the spirit realm, who would pay a very high price to bring it down. But bring it down they did. They made the world safe for people who refuse to be schizophrenic between being a person of God inside of the church building and a person of a different nature at work. These pioneers were the first generation of the reds, those with a fervent call to the Kingdom and to their vocation. They had 34
D EFINING R EALITY a breaker anointing before it became popular. They conquered the workplace and insisted it accept them as they were created to be: people of the Kingdom who are called to business. Now these same people have taken aim at the church and are insisting on the same thing: that they be accepted as people of business with a high call to the Kingdom. The red people are the drivers behind and the leaders in front of the church of the workplace. I did not always know the “reds” were a class of people all to themselves. Odd as it may sound, red people continue to make the assumption that everyone else sees the world, the church, and the Kingdom the same way they do. Assuredly, they do not.
M IXING “R EDS” IN THE C HURCH
Most pastors know what color their church is. They may have everything under control with a good mix of pastels and primary colors, but no reds. This is not necessarily a good thing or a bad thing, but just an observation as to how things are. There may be a great deal of satisfaction with how the mission of that particular congregation is playing out. Therefore, when a pastor of a pale pink church sees red people come in the door, he may not feel thrilled or delighted because he has seen their kind before. Red people can truly be a color-coordinated church’s worst nightmare. This is true if for no other reason than because the reds think everyone in the church is red or would really like to be red, and it is just a matter of getting sufficiently zapped by the Holy Spirit. The reds are completely unaware that most of the people in the church who are of different colors, and who have perfectly legitimate and holy ways of “doing church,” do not want to be red. They like the color they are and they do not want to be tossed into the river of God with the reds bleeding all over them. This is why red people do not fit comfortably into most well behaved churches. They are firefighters; and if there is no fire, they will start one. A fire in the church can be like fire in a car. It is fine in the engine, but it is a disaster in the backseat. The workplace church is full of red people who are going to “do church” no 35
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matter whom they may bleed on in the process. The interesting observation I have about this is that the church of the workplace does not seem to mind.
T HE R EALITY OF W ORKPLACE M INISTRY How much better would it be if the apostles, pastors, and teachers of the nuclear church would be willing to learn the rules of the workplace and how to speak the language so the red people could be given advanced training and equipping for Kingdom taking? How much better would it be if leaders on both sides could agree the place where people work is the field to which they are called and is a legitimate form of ministry? What would happen if we would only agree that the ecclesia exists wherever the “called out ones” happen to be? To quote Dr. C. Peter Wagner from his remarks at a LifeWorks seminar in May, 2003 in Hartford, Connecticut, regarding the leaders of the workplace church, “Only one day a week does it matter which nuclear church they happen to belong to.” John Kelly was right. The role of an apostle is to define reality. What then is the reality of this thing we call workplace ministry? Is it a fad or a legitimate move of God? And if it is a move of God, why is it? Why not leave well enough alone? I suggest that because what worked for a while does not work now. Not convinced? Consider the introduction from Ted Haggard’s book, Primary Purpose : Our bookshelves are full of Christian books and videos. We have churches on every major street, more staff people than ever before, large Sunday school departments, cell systems, mega and meta church seminars. We have Christian bumper stickers, political action groups; huge para church ministries and extensive social programs. We have built huge churches, ministries, universities and homes and in the midst of it all, we have lost every major city in North America.13 36
D EFINING R EALITY Michael Marsh has been quoted as saying, “If you want something you have never had, then you must do something you have never done.” John Maxwell has said, “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always had.” Is the indictment in the quote from Primary Purpose one we will let stand? If not, then what must we do differently? At a mini mum, we must rethink how we do church.
E NDNOTES 1. Katherine Kersten, “Gospel of Inclusion Shortchanges Scripture,” Wall Street Journal (August 9, 2003), reprinted in the Minneaspolis Star Tribune. 2. William Hendricks and Doug Sherman, Your Work Matters to God (Colorado Springs, CO: Navpress Publishing Group, 1987), n.p. 3. Rich Marshall, God @ Work (Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image Publishers, 2000), 2. 4. C. Peter Wagner, Changing Church (Ventura, CA: Regal Books, to be published August, 2004), n.p. 5. Wagner, Changing Church, n.p. 6. Dr. Laura Nash and Scotty McLennan, Church on Sunday, Work on Monday (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2001), 9. 7. George Barna, The Second Coming of the Church (Nashville, TN: Word Publishing, 1998), 96. 8. www.licc.org-uk/culture John Stott – London Institute of Contemporary Christianity 9. Os Hillman, The Faith and Work Movement, (Cummings, GA: Aslan Group Publishing, 2004), 38. 10. George Barna, The Second Coming of the Church, 79-80. 11. Tom Peters, In Search of Excellence (New York, NY: Harper Collins, 1995), n.p. 12. Marc Gunter, “God and Business,” Fortune magazine (July 16, 2001). 13. Ted Haggard, Primary Purpose (Lake Mary, FL: Creation House, 1995), 17. 37