Chadwick_Mohan_HouseChurch_July_2_3

Continue on from where we left out yesterday. Is that is that fine? I'm just gonna give a quick

overview of where we were yesterday and then we got deep into

What we want to see today

God is setting apart a people for himself for all eternity. Okay, that's the

Overarching understanding of what God has been doing all through ages right from the beginning even before the beginning began

God

His plan

Have you really look into the Old Testament New Testament the Old Covenant New Covenant?

The whole gamut of things from Genesis chapter 1 down to Revelation chapter 22

Genesis 1 · chapter mention Revelation 22 · chapter mention

You see that God is doing just this one thing

He's setting apart a people for himself for all eternity so that his people will be his people

That he will be their God

That we will be his people and that he will come and dwell amongst us

that that relationship

That intimate that is what he longs for

And that is why he inaugurated what he inaugurated because he knew at the end of it is all going to be worth

It doesn't matter whether there was sin that corrupted the human race or people would turn astray

Right in the beginning he would provide for for the lamb was slain even before the foundations of the earth

And that lamb that was slain before the foundations of the earth became a reality on Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary

And he died he rose again, and he continuously inaugurated and say hey

I am setting apart a people from myself for all eternity

And it does not belong to one ethnos or one kind of people is all kinds of people all different races all

different language groups because I have to split them out in language groups because they were turning out something else and

Therefore I would be very specific in my purpose is of what I want to do across the entire world

And he would continue to do just this one thing

Set apart a people for himself for all eternity so that we will be his people that that intimate relationship with the community will continue on

And that because we are as people that we would collaborate with him that we will

Cooperate with him to set apart more people for himself for all eternity and that is what God has been doing in Acts 29

God set apart a people for himself for all eternity in the greater Vancouver area and now God is setting apart more people for himself or

himself for all eternity and that's what we have ended up with six of our groups and

That's where the spirit is moving. That's what the spirit is doing in Acts 29

So

He's setting apart more people for himself for all eternity so that this group of people a community of disciples of Christ

Will grow and become one family

And that these families

Will have no walls of division between them, but will be able to develop one mindedness

I

Will say one mindedness is about we are all about this one same spirit

We have one God one father

One Lord Jesus Christ

Is the same spirit that moves amongst us or we have one faith

Which is the one teaching?

Apostles

Delivered to the churches

We have one baptism

Because to that we have been inducted into this one family

Which is that one body

Although we meet together in small different communities because that's the way by which we would be able to know one another and

Experience what is loving one another bearing patiently with one another?

Being patient with one another being kind to one another being gentle to one another can be produced in a mass

Therefore we we are actually small little communities of faith small little communities of disciples of Christ who are growing up to be this one

Family built around this one father one Lord Jesus Christ one spirit and around this one faith

Which is what is the teachings of Jesus delivered through the Apostles?

By the spirit that needs to be saturating all of our families that we are not clashing with one another around

philosophy because we have the same philosophy because what is the philosophy philosophy is something that you you actually

govern your entire life around is a set of principles that govern your life is a set of principles that you process life through and

Therefore this one teaching or that teaching of Jesus Christ

Delivered by the spirit to the Apostles that the Apostles picked up and delivered to the churches must

Saturate each and every one of us so that our lives will be processed the way we live our life

Before our God before this watching world

Will be the same

Because we have this one philosophy which is coming from this one teaching

That the Apostles delivered to the churches. So this is a picture of how Christ

What is teaching his teachings actually?

Are in sync with his nature and because we practice his teaching in our lives

We actually reflect this nature and the problem is as a single person

We are not able to reflect his nature to the fullest and that's why he is creating a body is creating a community and

the communities together reflect this

Manifold wisdom of God to this watching world and that's how Christ is revealed

And because of this oneness the people around who are the watching world are able to see

Jesus reflected through these communities and they want to actually inquire why there's joy

That is there and why this love is

Existent and that's the reason why they want to join these communities because they know that in the world

There is trouble in the world. There is peace listeners in this world that this joy and love is

Non-existent and that needs to be found in our communities

that attracts the watching world

And brings them back through Jesus to the same father and

They're grounded in this teaching by being baptized and inducted into our families

And this is what continues on and on and on and and this community is actually replenish

Multiply and occupy this entire world. That's the plan right from beginning

And in this process God has appointed the apostolic

Who are these apostolic leadership they are a set of gifted leaders

Appointed

by Christ

For his church

To spearhead

The progression of the gospel

The progression of the gospel

So they can evangelize

Strategic cities

Establish local churches and

Entrusted to the leaders

So that the leaders can continue on the work within this or web out

This progression through the multiplication of other churches

Or other communities and that that's why God has given a set of leaders within the body

Not that they are any special than others who are in the body

but they are being gifted with this tough task of

Penetrating places that are

impregnable and

they progress the gospel and

shatter through the the forces of darkness in order to actually

Evangelize and bring a set of people fresh

And they are established and there's an interesting that takes place and this is what we we talked about a little different from

A little different vocabularies than what we used yesterday, but this is the picture of where we stopped yesterday

Any questions

I

Work is continued by the local

webbed out and occupied and replenished the entire world.

The oversight is still when they have the confidence

that when they leave, ravaging will not come into their face.

Even when Paul left Ephesus, the warning that he was giving the Ephesian elders in Acts 19, Acts 20 is this.

He's saying, guys, I may not see you again. So they weep, break down, cry.

But then he goes on to say, hey, I've not eaten of you.

I've made sure that I worked for my own living and I've not been a burden to you.

But now I want to warn you that when I leave, ravaging wolves will come from outside

and people from within are going to come up and distort the teaching.

The way by which we lose the essence of Christ is the dilution of teaching

or another teaching that comes in and it destroys the churches.

And therefore, elders are guardians.

Elders are defenders of the teaching.

Elders are the teachers of the teaching and the defenders of the teaching.

And their responsibility is that and that while the teaching is saturated in the lives of people,

that they begin to live out the teaching. They learn, they live, and they teach one another.

So that Christ and his teachings get saturated in our lives,

we begin to live out the teachings of Jesus.

And that creates the beautiful picture of Jesus to the watching world.

And that is the way by which people are added into the church because that's how

we continue to collaborate with Christ in setting apart more people for himself for all eternity.

And sometimes it can be added into the same community because we don't have enough space or not leaders

that we actually have another locale or another house or another building.

And it doesn't matter whether we meet under trees or meet in a building or meet in a house or underground.

The same thing happens because it's not the place. It is about the people. It's about the community.

Yes, a letter to the Ephesians is written after Paul left.

The middle letters of Paul are called the prison letters.

So whenever Paul was not able, so there are three ways by which Paul established the church.

One, while he was with them, he taught them. That's the way he established.

Secondly, when he was not able to be with them, he wrote letters to them,

reminding them of what they taught them, what he taught them.

Thirdly, how does he establish when there becomes a little excessive problems in certain places.

He had to send his key men.

That's why after some time, Jacob can't just be a lonely man because he can't handle.

Till Vancouver, Greater Vancouver and six house churches are there, Jacob can't handle it.

But the moment it becomes New York, the moment it becomes certain parts of Southeast Asia,

where there are planting of churches and appointing of elders, there needs to be team members.

God bless certain team members are rising up, certain team members are rising up.

But then we got to leave Timothy in Ephesus because after some time.

So one of the churches that have enough material to process is the church in Ephesus.

Because you have Acts 19 and 20 that talks about the inauguration of it and the commissioning of the elders.

Then you go to the book of Ephesians where you have an idea of what is happening in our own Ephesus.

And then he writes first Timothy because now Timothy is in Ephesus.

And then you have Revelation chapter two, an assessment of the church in Ephesus.

And therefore you have enough materials of how a church through two to three generations has existed.

And so the New Testament has enough materials for us to have a full grasp of what Christ was doing with the churches.

Now we can't say we don't know what to do.

Can we go on? Everybody? Is it okay? Let's go on.

And so this entire process to the leaders yesterday, I had to summarize it as two important things.

The centrality of the church and the priority of the apostolic leadership.

Why priority? Not because they are special, but because they need to move.

They need to enter into new territories. They need to penetrate and progress the gospel.

And that's why if they don't move, the church becomes stagnant.

That's the group of people that continues on to the second part.

The first part is God is setting up a people for himself.

Now all that the elders are actually doing in a particular place is to make sure that we are a people of God.

That's more internal.

And then there is a set of leaders that rise up from within the church that actually go into new territories.

And that's the apostolic leadership.

And that's why if the church needs to continue to do the reason why the church is inaugurated,

we got to prioritize the apostolic leadership as the ones who are spearheading,

the ones who are penetrating, the ones who are progressing the gospel.

That's why we are summarizing this as the centrality of the church and the priority of the apostolic leadership.

And so I'm going to be talking today more from a perspective of Act 29 being a network of six house churches

that has an apostolic leadership in and through Jacob and a team that he is slowly but surely developing around himself.

That has a worldwide mission.

And therefore the church that is part and parcel of the Greater Vancouver Rites here

has a lot more responsibility than to take care of yourself because there is an apostolic team that resides at the Antioch right here.

So if you want to go back to the biblical basis for an Antioch church,

if you go to Acts chapter 12, verse 25 or 26, can someone read this with me?

Acts 12:25

And then let's go to Acts chapter 13, verses 1 down to 4, then let's read Acts chapter 14, 23 to 28.

Acts 13:1 Acts 14 · chapter mention

Can we have the readings together so that...

Can we all read it together? Is there a way to project these verses directly?

24 and 25? Okay.

I think 26. 26. What does 26 say?

Okay. Read 25.

Oh, that's not 26.

I think so. Yeah.

25? That's 25? Okay. 24. Okay.

So the word of God continued to spread in

verse 25. And Barnabas and Saul at the end of the chapter, they returned from the Antioch.

Then read 11, 26?

Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul.

And then he found him.

And many found him.

He brought him to Antioch.

So for a whole year...

Okay. Barnabas and Saul met with the church.

And taught great numbers of people.

Okay. So this is what they did for an entire year.

Barnabas came into Antioch. He found that there is such a move of the spirit,

but there's nobody to really establish the church in the right way.

And therefore Barnabas goes and picks up Saul from Tarsus, comes into Antioch,

and they invest into the church for a whole year.

And you need to understand that the New Testament understanding of the

early church of investment is every day.

They kept meeting again and again.

If you really see Paul talking to the Ephesian church for three years, night and day.

Three years, night and day.

Those guys didn't work beyond certain times, I think.

They all came together, they met together, they established...

They felt the urgency of the work so much that they spent so much of time

establishing themselves in the teaching.

Out of what has been established as a year-long process within the Antioch church,

you see Acts 13, verse 1 to 4,

Acts 13:1–4

that God actually picks and raises up prophets and teachers from amongst them.

And unless we really get established in the teaching,

the full gamut of the teaching for a period and a sustained period of time,

there is no raising up of the kind of leadership that is needed for the church.

And so we've got to give up on the sporadic every now and then teaching

into a sustained, continuous...

So in 2010, when God spoke to our hearts, we started to...

So every Friday, it was once in a week,

but I had to do five groups every Friday,

cut down everything that I needed to cut down.

Friday evening was one group, Saturday morning was one group,

Saturday afternoon was one group, Saturday evening was one group,

Sunday evening, these are five groups of people

that I taught for three years continuously every weekend.

It doesn't matter whether I was sick,

there are days that I had to go through a surgery,

that I was...

You saw a picture of me introduced on the sofa?

That was the position from the groups of people,

Friday, Saturday morning, Saturday afternoon, Saturday night, Sunday evening.

I'm just trying to salvage what you damaged.

And that's the...

Literally, I was not able to sit,

I would not give up on sustaining and establishing the church.

Then out of that group came Benedict, Manova,

out of that group came Jerry, Annette,

out of that group came Suman,

out of that group came all of the leadership at this point in time

that are actually spreading across the nation.

Sustained teaching,

the product and the end product of that outcome

would be raising up of quality leaders.

We got to do that within the church.

And so what happens is prophets and teachers are rising up,

who are able to take care of the local Antioch church,

then the spirit is able to set apart

Paul and Barnabas

for the work of the mission.

And they set off because the spirit wants the church to set them off.

And the elders of the church actually commissioned

and said, Paul and Barnabas,

you don't have to sustain us

because we will be able to take care of this extremely well.

You go on what God has called you to do,

which is the penetration and the progression of the gospel

into new places.

And therefore, if you go down to Acts 14, 23 to 28,

they have traveled all those places,

but there are three places called Iconium, Lystra and Derby or Derb.

And these are like close cities, one to another.

And they sit down and establish this group of people

and appoint them as elders.

But then after they finished the work,

Acts 14, 28 says they came back to Antioch.

And they told them all the great exploits

that God has done in and through them.

And they rest there.

And they continue on.

So Jacob can go, come back, refresh and help the Antioch church.

But his mission may not be Greater Vancouver

because Greater Vancouver has been handed over

to a set of elders who will guard.

A set of prophets and teachers,

a set of elders who will be able to guard the teaching

and continue on to replenish the six down to ten and twelve

and fourteen and fifteen because that's our job.

That's not Jacob's job after that.

And so when this is done,

after some time Paul wants to go again

and now you have a problem with Barnabas.

And therefore you have a problem with Barnabas.

Barnabas is so interested in his sister's son

that he goes off with John Mark 2 Cyprus.

And you see a flourishing church in Cyprus

that continues to establish.

But Paul is on this mission because his focus is straight.

He goes on and he goes back to Iconiola to Derby

where Timothy is picked up.

As a young apprentice along with the apostolic team

doing menial odd jobs

over a period of time,

at least the timeline is if it is 18 years

that Timothy was picked up.

It was 30 years by the time he was given this commission

in 2 Timothy 2.2.

What you have heard.

And so it's a long haul process.

It's not just, hey come on, you have come into the team

and therefore you're an apprentice and tomorrow

you will be an apostolic leader.

No, you are a young apprentice

within an apostolic team

and it takes a period of time

before things can be handed over to you.

There may be a lot of jobs that

we can leave you in Hanoi for a period of time

to dismantle certain things or to take care

or leave you in Indonesia, Jakarta for a period of time

or leave you in New York

so that you would have some time of rest.

But it is a long haul.

Apprentice to becoming a master craftsman

is at least a long haul period.

Not just one year, two years.

It's going to be, with my experience of Theo, Ben,

all these guys, it takes at least 10 years

before they begin to become accepted by people

in their giftedness.

Therefore there is no quick fix in this.

There is no easy solutions.

There is no instant work that can be done.

So the guys who are going to be committed

for the apostolic team are apprentices

that join in and over a long haul

become master craftsmen to whom territories

and teams are handed over to.

This is the goodness.

This is the goodness.

That you don't have to perform now.

You just have to sustain through.

You got to see even the development of Paul himself.

From the time he had the encounter

to the time Barnabas picks up, close to 10 years.

Any questions?

Yes.

So the apostolic, that's why we are...

The quick clarification is that's the reason

why we don't go apostolic,

but we get an understanding apostolic

in a sense like the sent out ones.

The sent out ones.

And apostolic doesn't mean apostle.

Apostolic means the fivefold giftedness

or whichever fold you want to call it.

The fivefold manifold giftedness.

This is a gifted team that functions.

And they function to progress and penetrate the gospel,

plant and establish churches, and raise up elders.

They are equipers who actually equip the body

and make sure that the unity and oneness

is around the teaching.

And they deliver the teaching.

So they are...

You've got to go back to the tape

and download on what we...

But this is not like how we have processed.

You are an apostle, you are an evangelist.

No. Is Paul an apostle? Yes.

Is Paul a prophet? Yes.

Is Paul an evangelist? Yes.

Paul a pastor? Yes.

Paul a teacher? Yes.

Is Paul a father? Yes.

And therefore it's a function that needs to be given

within the body that we all provide.

And some over a period of time, long haul,

can actually mature into a particular giftedness

in which they are sharpened by the spirit

because there are others who are already functioning

in other giftedness.

That's for this is a team.

It's a gifted leadership team that actually penetrates

and progresses the gospel.

That's how you need to start processing these things.

Then what has happened is that the Pentecostal Charismatic

Movement has made it title and individual gifts

apart from the church and therefore the context

of their function is lost.

And therefore that is how it's skewed

and we have a lot of confusion.

If you go back to the context of the New Testament,

it is actually in and through the churches.

Apostolic teams come out of the church,

commissioned by the church,

they go to plant and multiply churches.

And therefore they originate from churches

and end up with churches.

They originate from churches and end up in churches.

Today the Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist,

Pastor, Teacher has nothing to do with the church.

They are organizations that they do whatever they do,

partnering and raising up partners.

I do not know for what.

I'm going back to the timeline of church history.

33 AD, Jesus ascends.

First hundred years.

Very clear apostolic.

Here it is about the centrality of the church

and the priority of the apostolic leadership.

That's the hundred years.

And slowly the first three hundred years,

this begins to a little distort

because of the rising up of the church fathers.

Because there are over several,

at least several churches that are spread across

the then known Roman world.

So we can very clearly say the first three hundred years

has been very much centrality of the local church

and the priority of the apostolic leadership that existed.

But then comes Constantine.

And with Constantine accepting Christ and the Crusades

and all those cross and all of that,

he's bringing a whole new religion called Christianity.

And therefore you are deviating, number one,

who is a Christian gets diluted.

Before a Christian is about being a disciple of Christ.

Now after Constantine, anyone who is in the Roman Empire

and citizen of Rome is a Christian.

So that's the big dilution that takes place.

If you are a disciple of Christ, then you are a Christian.

That's how they named the people in Antioch.

And suddenly, third century, Constantine comes in and says,

if you belong to Rome, then you are a Christian.

And it doesn't matter what you practice and where you practice,

Constantine made Christianity as the state religion.

And suddenly appoints buildings, which are government buildings,

where from Monday through Saturday, courts happen,

all the public affairs of the city happen.

But on Sunday, mass began to happen.

And therefore Constantine began to appoint leaders

that were city leaders who also took care of the church state religion.

And that is how quickly, who is a Christian diluted,

church became a building.

Church was a community of disciples that met together in catacombs

and underground caves in Rome suddenly had posh buildings.

Buildings with porches and cross on top with steeples.

Now we have not been able to come out of this.

Thirdly, mission.

Mission became from planting and multiplication of churches to become war.

You conquered nations and you,

the entire idea of crusades and campaigns that we have today

comes from the idea of Constantine who said,

let's go war, capture that nation,

and the moment Roman Empire captured that nation, they became Christian.

Four, leadership.

Before it was matured disciples.

Here it became gifted administrators.

Five, leadership development.

Here it was the churches actually developed leaders.

Here slowly they started to move out into monasteries.

Because those guys couldn't stay with the world,

and therefore they removed themselves from the world.

But this effect took by the 11th century that people were not even wanting to touch the ground,

that they sat on top of pillars.

And that's why they were called pillar saints.

And they removed themselves into the caves,

and they actually went into contemplation and meditation.

They had great things to write about,

but so removed from the natural relationships with the world.

And therefore theology became out of practice so much.

This continues on from 3rd century to 10th century.

10th century there is a split between the Eastern church and the Western church,

because the church in Constantinople,

in and around Antioch,

they rebelled against the papal dictates,

and they said, no, we will not follow you.

And the Eastern church divided itself from the Western church.

But by the time it is 15th century, you have Martin Luther rising up,

and this entire Protestant movement starts out.

And so Protestant movement is coming back and giving these four important statements

of the Protestant reformers.

One is sola fide.

I explained yesterday.

Number two is sola gratia.

This is faith alone.

Salvation is by faith alone.

Salvation is by grace alone.

And they recover what is called the gospel.

Sola fide, sola gratia.

Sola scriptura.

And priesthood of all believers.

They never recovered the church.

They continued the same form of church.

They never recovered the leadership.

They continued the same appointed priests.

Just like how a priest is in the Catholic church,

there was a Protestant priest who slowly became the pastor,

and he becomes the senior pastor of the church.

It is the same Catholic order that continues on.

They recovered the gospel,

and that is where Reformed theology is still stuck.

With great respect for Piper, MacArthur, Keller,

but still they are stuck only with recovery of the gospel.

And they have taken the gospel and see the entire scriptures

through how Luther, Zwingli, and Calvin saw it.

And they are stuck there.

The first hundred years, Lutherans, they concentrated on this.

The second hundred years, Baptists.

They concentrated on one aspect added onto Luther,

which is immersion baptism.

The form of baptism.

There were wars, and there were Anabaptists,

and other types of Baptists who killed one another

just on the basis of whether we should dip and immerse people or not.

John Wesley and Charles Wesley brought in this entire idea

of methodically studying scriptures in small groups,

and they really pushed the idea of the ecclesiola and ecclesia.

That means those who sit down and methodically study the scriptures

are the real church within the church building.

That's how we call them Methodists.

They sit down and study scriptures in an orderly fashion,

and there were small groups within the church building

that met either before the mass or after the mass,

where they actually formed their small groups.

And Wesley was someone who rode on horseback

going to cities after cities to evangelize

and to call the church back to its original intent of the gospel.

So that's the first 16th century, 17th century, 18th century.

19th century is what is the use of studying scriptures

if we can't live a holy life or put the scriptures into practice,

and the whole holiness movement came into being.

We've got to live holy lives.

If we have to study the scriptures and live this old life,

what is the use of studying scriptures?

We've got to live a holy life,

and the whole holiness movement came into being.

And then the entire fallout is that we are trying to be holy,

we can't live holy, and therefore there's something that is missing,

and therefore they sat down to read the scriptures,

they stumbled upon Acts chapter 2, and they said,

Acts 2 · chapter mention

hey, we need the Holy Spirit in order to live this holy life.

And that's how the Pentecostal movement started 100 years ago.

While the Pentecostal movement started 100 years ago,

the Spirit started to move, and the movement thought the Spirit started to move.

The Spirit can say whatever He wants to say.

They left the word which was the forte of the previous groups of people.

Luther, although they recovered the gospel and they were solid with that gospel,

and they have theology of the gospel extremely well,

and they held onto the core extremely well.

The Pentecostals, because of the movement of the Spirit that they did not concentrate on the word,

that they started to split and splinter constantly.

Now one of the things that happened is that the Pentecostal movement,

the initial Pentecostals were the Ascetics of God, the Church of God,

the Four Squares of God, these are initial Pentecostal movements that were also.

They all emphasized on the speaking in tongues as the initial evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

They were so very focused on that that the other gifts were sidelined.

And that's when the Charismatic revival began in the 50s,

where all of the gifts are to be experienced, not just speaking of tongues.

And therefore the whole set of people begin to emerge called the Charismatics.

While the Charismatics were on the move,

that someone in the Baptist Church began to experience,

hey, maybe not everybody is called to be a pastor.

There are other giftedness in the body, and that's how Dr. Billy Graham actually,

he said, if I am an evangelist and not a pastor, what am I doing in the church?

And therefore he left the church in a sense of not, he did not leave the church.

He said, I am evangelist, I am not a pastor.

And therefore he starts out an organization called BGEA,

Billy Graham Evangelistic Association,

which is the primary model for what is called as FIONC in the US,

which is a non-profit, non-church entity.

And it is not government, it is not church,

but it is the Christian organization format that begins to take shape around Dr. Billy Graham,

because he makes the statement that I am not a pastor, I am called to be an evangelist,

and therefore I can't really pastor a church, I need to be going and sharing the gospel.

Out of this root comes the whole charismatic evangelist with Oral Roberts, Catherine Kuhlman,

of that tradition comes Dr. Benny Hinn,

and all those evangelists that we talk about, and all the evangelists back in India with all kinds of ministries,

either named after them or around Jesus.

One of the two is a very typical thing, it will be the Benny Hinn International Ministries,

or Oral Roberts Ministries, or it would be Jesus Calls, Jesus Comes, Jesus Goes,

all kinds of ministries and organizations that emerge out,

but they actually are shaped around the parachurch format of the NGOs,

and Christian non-governmental organization patterns.

And so, the evangelists all come out of the church, and that's the 50s and 60s.

The 70s and the 80s, the prophets suddenly woke up from within the church,

and the church pastors became the king of the local churches,

and they would not let anybody operate, and therefore they become the CEOs and the kings of the churches.

That prophetic cannot exist in the churches, the prophets began to come out,

and prophetic associations, conglomerations began in the 70s and 80s.

By the time you come to the 90s, suddenly church growth movement with Peter C. Wagner,

coming with this clear understanding after McGavran's and Fuller,

they came up with this entire strategy called church growth movement,

and they started to understand how churches are growing and why some churches are growing,

and Paul Yong-Hee Cho in Korea becomes the key model which they study,

church growth movement, the church growth international starts and Fuller,

and does a lot of research around, comes to this grand big conclusion

that maybe a pastor of the large growing church is not a pastor, he must be an apostle.

And so they begin to name those churches that have the capacity to grow into huge numbers as apostles,

and then slowly apostles come out of the churches,

and they form the apostolic, not apostles, circles or networks of apostles across the world.

And therefore everyone actually begins to believe the church,

and it has nothing to do with the church at the end of it.

The pastor becomes the king of the church, and all the others are existing outside the church,

feeding off the church, but not building the church,

but building these each and every individual ministries with the churches following what the Catholic Church follows,

which is the buildings and the crowds and the mass and the communion and the motivational teachings.

Teachers actually went off to the Bible colleges and they became the scholars and teachers,

so all of them have left what the source of where people need to exist in and function together as.

And so the apostolic is about being sent from the church to form churches.

Today everyone is doing whatever because we believe that I am doing what,

so slowly with the onslaught of from being community oriented to becoming highly individualistic in the culture,

therefore every individual has an individual call from God.

And it's a corruption of the world's philosophy of individuals,

because I have a unique call and I build things around me,

versus God has commissioned the community,

which there are apostolic leaders who progress.

That has been distorted completely, which is what is found in the New Testament.

Now we became Chadwick International Ministries.

See, I am as nice.

So we start to look in for our identity in this entire gamut of what God is doing,

because that's exactly what sells in the world,

because that's how you can market who you are.

That's why you are sought after,

because you have a niche, you have something you need to offer that people want.

We have destroyed this entire idea of what the church is,

what the apostolic priority and the centrality of the local church is supposed to be.

Therefore it's like nobody can actually say what the church is,

because nobody wants to define what the church is.

Nobody knows what the church is.

Everything is mission, everything is ministry.

I visit the hospital, it's the hospital ministry.

I go to a few places, I become an evangelist.

Therefore each thing is built on individual call,

and individual giftedness or individual life work.

Yes, each one is given a set of good works to be doing,

but it's built around that individual set of work

and a whole host of people working for that individual person.

We've lost the plot.

Humpty Dumpty has fallen and broken,

and nobody knows how to put Humpty Dumpty back in its place.

And that's the reason why we can't actually,

the greatest challenge is most of them have their theology set around reform.

And therefore in the 21st century, even today,

every reference is back here to what Luther said,

what Henry said, Galván said.

No, we've got to go back to the way of Christ as apostles,

to build back what we need to build as a church.

And that's the process we are in.

While not negating all that God has done through the history,

good, bad, ugly, all becomes lessons.

Not that we don't have to study all of them.

We can truly see that in the light of the scriptures,

not as models to be followed and emanated.

So we actually go into things like,

I want to be like, not what the scriptures says,

I want to be like Jacob, I want to be like Dr. D.G.S. Sennagran,

I want to be like Oral Roberts or Benny Hinn.

That becomes the shaping of our call.

No, that's not, I'm sorry, it's not.

You can't.

With all due respect and honor, flawed methods.

Maybe even they did what God wanted them to do in that season.

Let's give the due respect.

But that's not what.

We have not recovered the church.

We have not recovered the apostolic leadership the way it needs to be.

We have not recovered what leadership is supposed to be.

We have not recovered missions.

So we've got to recover who is a Christian,

we've got to recover what's a church,

we've got to recover what's mission,

we've got to recover what's leadership,

we've got to recover what is leadership development,

and we've got to go back to the way of Christ as apostles

and build it for the 21st century in our own context and in our own situations.

Now what happens in India and Chennai may be different from what happens in greater Vancouver.

But the principles and the foundational principles in philosophy are the same.

The forms and the culture differs.

Questions?

The more steeped into a lot of traditions, the more.

For me, New Life Assemblies of God is a big challenge

because you are already in a 100-year tradition of Assemblies of God.

And therefore you have ways and means by which you do.

And the larger the number, the greater the difficulty.

What I call this Titanic is going at neck-breaking speed.

We don't know when it will hit the iceberg.

What we keep doing is create enough lifeboats.

Because the Titanic does not have enough lifeboats.

We're not going to salvage.

When the government says, let's close down this,

and so this obsession to become larger and larger without truly...

Nothing wrong in gathering all the people on a Sunday.

That's nothing wrong in it because it really helps you develop one-mindedness around the teaching.

There can be a teacher who can actually rally people around and focus.

But we don't truly have these smaller groups of people.

As long as we can gather all the good,

but not at the cost of the smaller groups of communities

because the church is not the crowd.

The church is the community of disciples of Christ.

Cell groups is like a halfway home.

In a large church, cell groups can be halfway home.

But if it stops, it stops as a halfway home.

It's not the real thing.

But we need to really move them to truly existing communities of disciples

with elders amongst them who guard the teaching

and who are truly maturing and reflecting Christ to the watching.

And that's why we are beginning to use communities of disciples,

Christ communities, households of faith,

various other language and vocabularies that we need to add on.

Biblical church, 21st century church, worldly church, traditional church.

Absolutely. I sat in a forum in Lausanne just before coming here.

With the 800 workplace ministers.

They hate the church. They don't like the church.

They believe that church is a failure.

Because what they process is true.

Institutional, denominalized churches that has power struggles and elections.

I came out of an election of the Assemblies of God of India

where people took more papers on the ballot to vote.

It was no different from the general elections of India.

People were writing, they grabbed four more papers to write a person's name.

Canvassing, taking place.

And sometimes you feel like the Pentecostals are not,

are just following the other groups of people where the bishop election goes on.

They are no different because corruption is everywhere.

Thank you.

We got to come to the reality of it.

When the government says church, they are not talking about the community of disciples.

So there is, you need to understand that there is what they call as,

Now church is a technical term established by the world.

Within regards to our community, I think, so I find it very hard.

So when I am getting up in the morning and I am going to New Life Assemblies of God Church in Little Mount,

I am beginning to, I am going to the building.

I consciously keep working on my vocabulary.

I am saying I am going to the building, office building.

Because I grew up in the days of my life when I grew up as a person in the church.

And grew up in the church.

My natural tendency is when I think about Little Mount Chennai,

I am thinking about that location and the building.

That is New Life Assemblies of God Church.

On a Sunday morning as a gathering of churches,

I think it is a common understanding among those people who come to our small communities.

It makes a common understanding for people who just come Sunday morning.

But it is a clear understanding for all those guys who are part of the community that for the church is their community.

I don't think we have any problems calling the small group as a church.

That is not a problem at all.

As long as we have that group, before you declare a church a church, make sure the church is a church.

So don't be quick to name a church.

Study groups are not churches. Prayer groups are not churches.

All the elements that we drew out yesterday with regards to the community of disciples growing up to be a family

with a clear understanding of learning, living and teaching the principles of Christ,

a clear understanding of good life, good works, good homes and good news with elders and deacons in place.

Because the crucial thing is, elders and deacons are not in place, you can't really have a church.

So there are halfway homes that I have to.

So when I am deconstructing a Magda church back home and reconstructing it as a network of churches,

I am not able to declare everything a church.

So I have to name some things as life groups, some things as churches.

And so we are now.

Just around.

So just because some of the teens gather together in a group, that doesn't become a church because it's a homogenous community.

A homogenous community is not a church. A heterogeneous community is a church.

A family is an individual because there needs to be elders and deacons in order because that's what Paul is actually delivering in the middle letters.

There needs to be elders who shape intergenerational in the youngsters.

And so these things are all part of a parcel of what I just saw before it becomes because we are deconstructing and reconstructing.

And so we are in transition.

I can't declare an analogy to be a network of house churches.

No, it is not. It is still a Pentecostal assemblies of God, denomination, institutionalized church.

But amongst that church. And therefore I love this term that Luther used to once and Wesley uses it often.

Ecclesiola and Ecclesia, which is there is a church, there is a real church within the building or the structure of the denominationized church.

And therefore I can tell within analogy that's a real church within the assemblies of God church.

And that church is not 25,000 people.

There's a crowd of 25,000 to 40,000 that actually swells up on a New Year to 70,000 people.

That 70,000 is not the church.

But I can tell with clarity that 58 homes within the English are churches because I know the elders of the church.

I know that they are about the teachings of Jesus Christ delivered through the apostles.

I know that they are maturing and are able to counsel, defend the teaching and shape the lives of people.

But there are, apart from that, totally 104 groups, but all 104 groups are not churches.

Out of the 104 groups in the English, only 58 are churches.

I'm saying, I'm working towards here, by 2020 can we have at least 70 house churches?

So the New Life Assemblies of God English can be a network of 70 house churches.

There are 1,322 Tamil groups across the city.

But all 1,322 are not churches.

There are small groups, out of which I can authentically talk about around 200-210 groups that are truly.

And so this is the true, if you really take the census of the church at New Life Assemblies of God,

which is 70,000 on a celebratory weekend to 25,000 to 30,000 on a,

so you've got to understand on our first week we hit 40, on the last week we hit 30.

So that means within the first week, communion week, there are some communion Christian crowds

that come because they have to take communion.

And I do not know where they go in between.

To the last week I think they take rest in their homes.

Because they have, maybe they're on a holiday or they feel like maybe we should do three weeks in a month.

I don't know what the pattern is.

These are real statistics of what we have studied through the church.

I'm going to outline the seven things today.

Then I don't know how we are going to go with the hospitality that you're giving.

Can't you delegate that to someone else?

You're in the beginning of it.

Just that the spirit has moved to that for the church.

And Acts 29 can't be stuck in the Sunday evening.

That's the only sense that I have of the church when I came in yesterday.

That's where the spirit has moved on.

It's important that we catch up with the spirit,

rather than be laid back and think that Jacob is going to lead this church.

Because Jacob, I believe with all of my heart that Jacob is actually moving on to other territories within even North America.

Because this morning we had some conversations.

Certain places need a place like New York.

You can't just hit from another place.

You need a residence.

Either someone placed there so that Jacob can go in and out, or Jacob needs to set up a place.

I'm not saying New York is the next.

I'm talking generically with a specific idea of New York.

And I'm not saying it's going to happen.

But that's where the spirit is moving on for the church.

And I have enough evidence and concurrences.

So we need to quickly measure up.

And this will not happen if...

So that move will quicken the process.

I've seen until I've moved, people don't rise up.

Because they always see me there.

Always see me there and they want to suck the best out of me.

I'm saying the size of the church depends on the capacity of the shepherd.

And the size of the meeting place.

So these are two factors.

I can't actually have a cramped in hall.

You've got to understand culture.

You've got to understand culture too.

Again, in India I can cramp.

But not in Vancouver.

You become 8 to 10 people in a living room.

You already have some people complaining about enough carbon dioxide here.

So you've got to understand that these dynamics change with culture and context.

But for me the real essence of it is, can the elder truly handle?

You've got to understand that yes, Jeevan could be an elder.

But if there is a marital issue that someone is experiencing, you can talk theoretically.

Ask Jacob about it.

It's the purest form of theory.

Can I proceed?

Yeah, not distorted by any experience.

Pure, divine.

But it would be a challenge because Jeevan may have to depend on another couple.

And that's why I think Jeevan would need, at this point of time, if he still wants to continue like Jacob,

he will not be able to fully cater to the new families that are going to come into this.

You understand?

Actually, the church is a family of families.

It has families and individuals.

And that's the reason why the instruction to the appointment of elders is so specific around the family.

If he is not able to take care of the family well, how can he actually take care of the...

So sometimes eldership truly...

I'm not saying that singleness can't be an elder.

Single people can be elders.

And that's why eldership is not a single person.

Eldership is a team.

Eldership is a team and therefore Jeevan needs to be supported by another couple who is mature.

In order to, at this point of time, to help the dynamics of a family that comes.

How do we deal with a child who is so very... not behaving well?

Or a teenager who's moving into the teen and sometimes me...

I have a boy who's moving into the 12.

Just now I understand the dynamics of how those people who have actually had teenagers,

they come and speak as if their entire life is lost.

I never used to understand that.

Now I'm beginning to understand it a little.

Because there is, whether you like it or not, there is an element of theology in practice.

Theology is good. Biblical understanding and teaching is good.

But theology in practice is the only way by which we...

And it does not... So that's the reason Jeevan can be an elder.

Not that Jeevan can't be an elder, but he needs support from another family.

If we have to really build a church.

Jeevan can deliver the teaching, but teaching in practice needs another couple standing shoulder to shoulder with Jeevan.

You've got to release him out of the singleness.

Yeah, come.

For a context of greater Vancouver, a non-Indian would be much better.

If you have some burden over Hanoi.

Yes.

If we are willing to repent, because I have to repent of my ways.

There's only one way by which Christ is building. That's his way.

And the Christian organizations and churches are building our way.

We have our own traditions.

We have our own set that we believe is a better solution than what Christ offers.

That's the greatest challenge of the Christian world today.

Because we believe that there is an innovative way and a creative way by which we can do what God is wanting to do.

That is the downfall of Christianity as a religion.

Because we have become a religion. We have become a force to reckon with.

We are political. We have power. We have money.

And we have lost ourselves to man.

We have to come out of it.

And give up these things in order to build.

And I see that there is a whole host of people rising up.

Because I'm seeing things happen not because someone is going and teaching.

Because I'm seeing this happen if someone truly is wanting to follow the Spirit and not follow.

So one of the couples from our church actually left nine years ago from our church.

And one of the prayers that God asked them to pray is,

Lord help us not to build another New Life Assembly of God's Church in Maranasi.

And they sought the Spirit to do what is needed for them.

So I'm coming to them after six years with these teachings.

And they're saying this is exactly what we are doing because we follow the Spirit.

And we didn't want to ape or model in religion.

Because the problem with us is we model something that we see.

And Christianity is modeling.

Therefore that's why everyone wants to be a Hillsong Church.

Everyone wants to be a Bethel Church.

Everyone wants to be Joel Osteen's Church.

Everyone wants to be a Pastor Mohan's Church. That's my dad.

Everyone wants to be Pastor Bolthagya's Church.

Back in an Indian context.

Sorry that's not what you're called.

So I think this is enough and more that the scriptures have been written and sealed clearly.

The problem is we don't give attention to scriptures.

We give more weightage to our innovative ways and means,

which actually ends up into a secular corporate philosophy of how we can build corporations and organizations.

So we actually go by what the world does with all sincerity.

And that's why we have marketing.

We have social media posts.

And we have so many things.

Yeah, did you know there's a very clear statistic on those churches that are on media are the churches that are growing today.

It's mass communication.

And those churches are brilliant. It's growing. Leaps and bounds.

And you see immediately you can associate the top money spent is on media.

Media is virtual reality. There's no real thing about it.

Discipleship is about one on one.

Rubbing shoulders with one another.

Eye to eye.

Communication. Relationship. Authentic.

The other world is virtual reality.

Artificial intelligence, virtual reality. Google hits.

How do you keep your page up?

How can you actually have presence?

This is not about God's presence. This is about media presence.

How can you be out there in the faces of people?

That's exactly what all of the church conferences have become.

Not that we can't use all these things.

We are not against media.

But if you really don't do what Christ.

Not against media. Not against. We can't be in our social media. No.

I'm not saying that. I'm saying if we don't really do what we are supposed to be doing.

I have pastors within the city that have struggles because someone else's video is having on YouTube doing much better than theirs and they're discouraged.

Because I'm in constant touch with some of them personally.

They open up their lives and you know what's the struggle?

The struggle is not anything else. They are not sinful.

The struggle is that pastor who is almost like an equal to them in the city.

And their post is doing much better on YouTube.

Especially those who are singers.

I have a war that goes on because somehow this YouTube likes is associated with money too.

These are new problems that are not heard of before.

Reality. These are realities of real church world.

Let me go to seven things that I'll come back in August and do.

Tomorrow, yes. I don't know whether you'll...

We'll start like this with an introduction and go with questions.

These are seven things. Apostolic map.

I'm just going to lay them down.

Number two.

Church-based apostolic mission.

Yesterday's mission is sometimes not church-based.

And most of the churches are not mission-based.

And therefore we are really building this again a new vocabulary just to explain the centrality of the churches and the priority of the apostolic leadership.

See, bam. Church-based apostolic missions.

Apostolic map.

God has... I'm going to give short definitions.

God has given a field to apostolic leaders.

Apostolic leaders along with apostolic bases, which is like an anti-op church here, need to know the field that God has handed over to them.

It may start small and as we progress can expand, but we need to have a sense of the field that God has given the apostolic leadership along with the apostolic base.

In that field we got to progress the gospel by the planting, establishing and multiplication of churches.

And we say churches, these are authentic discipleship communities who are fully embracing the idea of the church.

Number three, we got to set up the leadership in place as both apostolic leadership and as local eldership within churches.

We got to recognize both of these leaderships and develop themes around these two sets of leadership that is found in the New Testament.

So while we have a map, a field that God has handed over to us, we progress the gospel in strategic cities, we plant, establish and multiply churches.

We clearly develop the leaders so that the churches can be taken care by the local eldership and this apostolic theme grows on so that we can saturate the entire map that God has given us.

Number four, identify strategic churches within the field to mature them and make them bases.

We have the Greater Vancouver as our original base, but over a period of time as we plant our churches in New York and as we plant our churches in Baran and as we plant our churches in Hanoi and as we continue on, there are other churches and other cities we become strategic bases which we need to launch further.

So first for Paul it was Antioch, but then his strategic base shifted into Corinth for one and a half years and then it shifted over to Ephesus from where he was actually launching.

See that what happened for three centuries gave rise to around 12 other churches in and around the entire circular road around Ephesus.

So I'll explain more and more, but identify strategic churches within the field.

Now you're planting churches, you're setting the leadership, while you're setting the leadership over a period of time you know that there are other strategic churches that will become based by which you can launch from their themes.

Number five, get the local churches to engage in holistic transformation process.

And I'll explain to you what is this holistic transformation process, which is basically how these communities in a particular area engage themselves in the world so that there can be a webbing out of the churches and replenishing of churches in that particular locality.

Get the local churches to engage in the holistic transformation process.

So how do we equip the churches, enable leadership within the churches, we engage them in the communities where the church exists and we expand and multiply churches.

Equip, enable, engage, expand. Equip, enable, engage, and expand.

In their local community, identifying what are the local causes that we need to be engaged in, who are the people that we associate with so that we will bring about transformation of the city or the place.

The good lives, good works, good families, good news, while we equip, enable, engage, and expand.

Number six, we've got to develop funding for spontaneous expansion.

We are still a church in the world, therefore we've got to really understand the dynamics of money because we are still in the world, but we need the funding for spontaneous expansion.

How can we steer away from mammon but use the money for the sake of the progression of the gospel?

How in this individuals, families, churches, church networks participate with the apostolic team in for the progression of the gospel, developing funding for spontaneous expansion.

Number seven, when Jacob becomes 72 or 74 plus, at least by then he needs to find a team of people where he can pass him on the baton.

Baton or the, what do you call it, baton, baton, whatever you want to call it.

Hand it over. It doesn't mean that you need a sit, but by then the intergenerationally there are churches that are transferred in the local eldership.

Intergenerationally they are transferred in the apostolic too.

And the greatest challenge is sometimes transitions happen in local churches, but transitions don't happen in apostolic leadership because apostolic leadership are unique in that sense.

But we need to find the gifted leaders to pass on so that the apostolic is not sidelined.

And suddenly the network of churches that you established become larger and bigger and stronger with a lot of money power and slowly the apostolic,

which was the force by which these things happen, drains down and becomes an administrative group.

That's how many of the apostolic leaders who start out great mission end up a board that they hand over to.

And the board is actually sitting down and seeing how they can maintain things and have lost their apostolic edge.

So how do we pass on? So these are seven.

This is through the New Testament and out of all the New Testament studies I was able to pick them up and slot them into these seven.

Tomorrow we can't finish all. We can start something.

Yeah, we'll try.

Six is developing funding for spontaneous expansion where individuals, families, churches and church networks actually develop benefactor funding specifically for.

And tomorrow I'm planning to have a conversation with the doke to mention, Isaac,

on how can we develop something called a global Christian entrepreneurs forum or entrepreneurs network

where entrepreneurs right from the beginning are shaped around the idea of church based apostolic missions

while they do entrepreneurship with a clear understanding of setting apart a funding right from beginning for the progression of the gospel,

the planting and the establishing of churches because where the Christian funding is going at this point of time is for because of the postmodern orientation of issues.

And therefore if there's no water and somewhere money goes there.

A lot of good works have been funded or justice. International justice mission is one of the greatest funded organizations today.

Compassion International has all good causes. The issue is not, it's needed.

Not that money shouldn't go there. But the problem is the money is somehow not being channelized into the progression of the gospel,

which is where the heart of where Christ is moving the church to be.

So how do we create this entire philosophy around spontaneous expansion funding?

Better media. We should harness. Not that we shouldn't harness, but we must make sure that we use the media for the right reason.

If we use the media and we truly build disciples as because I think knowledge can be transferred through any form,

but discipleship doesn't take place. KTs can happen. Media is a great source for KT.

And it doesn't matter whether I sit and talk or you watch on a media. I think the 21st century mind is perfectly fine whether I'm live or not.

But what can happen is KT. But the interactions that I have with Jacob, KT is knowledge transfer.

Sorry, that's a very Indian term I think. On an IT world, KT is a very common term, but...

Nairi world, sorry. I come from India.

Knowledge transfer. So today media can be a great knowledge transfer, but there's something that happens in the spirit that happens when you rub shoulders,

when you shake hands, when you eat together. There's something that happens when you eat together that does not happen when you are not eating together.

Yeah, I think it would slowly move into 3D holograms and projections. I think the possibility of where the world is going is very real.

You can.

Virtually immersed. You can even feel wet.

Because there will be sprays that will come out of your computers, make you wet and you dry up.

There's no end to technology and where the church can go, but the essence of this entire thing is relationships and relationships always feels...

I can actually communicate with my wife anywhere in the world with so much of travel, but that's nothing like being there.

You feel the emptiness after the Skype call or the WhatsApp call.

You're inviting people home, meals, chats, sitting together.

Relationships, true, authentic ones. It can't be mass produced.

It needs to be shaped.

I think at least to a point where you're confident of your church elders.

In fact, gathering of the churches together is so important, at least in the initial phase, because one-mindedness of these churches are needed.

So it's always good to rally them around initially over a period of time depending on the person and their ability and maturity and their loyalty.

There's so many factors of the elders. Because as elder can actually have a lot of influence on this community and if he is able to teach the right teachings, they will always be united together.

But if there's a distortion of teaching, they will always chop that portion of the network off.

Or it can be even personal struggles, personality clashes with the leadership.

These are the downsides to all of this, that really, at least in the initial maturing stage, till it becomes mature, gathering them together is crucial and key.

And until persecution hits. At one point of time if persecution hits and you can't gather together, you can't gather together.

And that's why I believe before those days come. At least it's facing right before us in India.

In the north of India, cities are okay. We still can manage gathering together.

But more and more and more while we are, especially in Varanasi when I'm talking about this couple that went and built, they have actually reached out 460 villages now, out of which there are 172 house churches that are.

But in the district amongst all of this is a place called Jaanpur.

In Jaanpur, this last year, the pastors had to flee away from the city, from the town, because they couldn't, because they were sought out to be killed or beaten.

So we can't gather them together. They met together in their own homes.

So the reality of persecution will push us there anyways.

You don't think that it's part of Vancouver, greater Vancouver, but for us back home, it is something that faces us right on our faces now.

China exists that way. Hanoi does that.

So we are part of a church that is facing the reality of you can't gather on Sunday evenings together in this manner.

At that time, we got to work out what is available. But till, because this is luxury. Let's enjoy this luxury.

We'll thank him big time tomorrow. So for now, it's just, thanks Chad.

So we'll do this song, So Will I. And when you sing it, sing it thinking of that thing he drew on the board where you're sitting.