THE REAL "A" TEAM AND THE MISSION IMPOSSIBLE

... Then one day this chippie, a few trawlermen, a government bean counter, a doctor, an academic, a writer, a few housewives and mothers, a prostitute, and a whole bunch of other social misfits and outcasts got together and said, "Hey guys, what say we make a team and do the impossible?" .... and they did!

Some of you might know these people by another name - Jesus Christ and the first disciples. But that really misses the whole point of the power and plan of God. I think we should choose a new name for us the disciples of Christ Jesus, who are ALL in the same team as those first disciples. I think we should call ourselves "THE 'A' TEAM OF THE LORD".

Sadly so many churches these days and in history have gone down the corporate path of "churchianity" with almost universally disastrous results. Yes some of them may appear very successful from a corporate point of view, but like the church at Sardis while they may have all the appearances of being successful, large, alive, and rocking in the eyes of men they are moribund and spiritually dead in the eyes of The Lord. Corporate success and corporate performance has never been a measure of spiritual success and spiritual performance and never can be. They are quite literally concepts that are alien to each other and don't really work together very well if at all. Corporate churches are "regular army", stiff, formal and largely inflexible. Full of rules, regulations, drills, strict uniformity and conformity, ranks, protocol, strict chains of command, unquestioning obedience, rule book battle plans, pomp and ceremony. The Lord however works with 'A' Teams. An eclectic bunch of rather eccentric, sin damaged, somewhat flawed individuals. Each one a unique mixture of amazing strengths and a whole lot of really strange and odd weaknesses and habits. So unique that one can't help wonder how each even managed to be in the same place at the same time, let alone work together on the same team. And yet work together they do, without rules and regulations, pomp and ceremony. With nothing even resembling a uniform look, or behaviour, or even the ability to stand in a straight line let alone march in the same direction.

They work so well because they are not united by an allegiance and obedience to a mixed plethora of ad hoc traditions, rules, regulations, uniformity, conformity, and ever changing hierarchies. They are united by ONE thing only ... LOVE. Love of their Father in Heaven, love of their sovereign Saviour, Lord and King, Christ Jesus, love of and obedience to, the ONE Holy Spirit that dwells in them ALL, and love of, and a desire to be obedient to, the ONE and ONLY word of God, and, not least of all, love for one another. THAT is what binds them together, THAT is what makes a bunch of raggle-taggle, sin damaged, outcasts and misfits the mission impossible accomplishing 'A' TEAM of the Lord. And it drives the world crazy because what binds the 'A" Team of God together and makes it both a team as well as uniquely invincible and successful ... is not of THIS world and it's culture of corporate thinking.

What a lot of churches do not understand is that corporate church thinking is very much Old Testament thinking. The Old Testament is where we find large, lavish, ornate temples and synagogues, structured and formalized worship services, hierarchical and structured organisational charts of exactly who has what authority, who has what duties and responsibilities where and when. It is where we find all the rules and regulations, do's and don'ts, transgressions and appropriate punishments. ... And it didn't work!

Jesus came to highlight that the  Kingdom of God was not in the things AROUND you. If it is not WITHIN YOU, you are not part of it, and if it is within you nothing AROUND you can separate you from it. No church has the power, authority or ability to stand between you and Christ Jesus. Indeed NOTHING on Earth, OR in Heaven for that matter, has the power, authority or ability to come between you and Christ Jesus, or to oust you from HIS Kingdom. If Christ is WITHIN you, you are part of God's 'A' Team whether the world thinks you should be or not. It is the Holy Spirit WITHIN YOU, not your outward appearance or the opinion of, or conformity and uniformity with, the expectation of others, that bears witness to your membership of it!

(Romans 8:16 (KJV) "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:")

Remember that the person you have to be acceptable to is NONE - other than The Lord Himself.

D.J. Ludlow

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"The Real ‘A’ Team And The Mission Impossible" may be copied, used and distributed

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IT'S NOT ABOUT SHEEP FARMS!

What a lot of churches do not understand is that corporate church thinking is very much Old Testament thinking. The Old Testament is where we find large, lavish, ornate temples and synagogues, structured and formalized worship services, hierarchical and structured organisational charts of exactly who has what authority, who has what duties and responsibilities where and when. It is where we find all the rules and regulations, do's and don'ts, transgressions and appropriate punishments. ... And it didn’t work!

Jesus came to teach us many things. One of them was that the  Kingdom of God was not in the things AROUND you. If it is not WITHIN YOU, you are not part of it, and if it is within you then nothing AROUND you can separate you from it. No church has the power, authority or ability to stand between you and Christ Jesus. Indeed NOTHING on Earth, OR in Heaven for that matter, has the power, authority or ability to come between you and Christ Jesus, or to oust you from HIS Kingdom. It is not about the churches of men, it is about the Kingdom of God.

Sadly so many churches these days and in history have gone down the Old Testament corporate path with similarly disastrous results. Yes some of them may appear very successful from a corporate point of view. Large well structured, well oiled, smooth running corporate machines housed in large, architecturally designed, luxuriously appointed, rather expensive, corporate style buildings replete with offices, auditoriums, theatres, multifunction rooms and halls, etc. They have great looking organisational charts with all sorts of departments and departmental directors, corporate plans and visions for the future, corporate in-house training and team building plans, impressive goals and performance targets, etc. And above all, that necessity of all successful corporations, a carefully, nurtured, protected, and projected "corporate image".

BUT they have forgotten that they are called to be shepherds, not sheep farmers.

What is the difference between a shepherd and a sheep farmer? A sheep farmer looks after the FARM. A shepherd looks after the SHEEP! A good sheep farmer will sacrifice sheep for the sake of the farm. A good shepherd will always sacrifice everything for the sake of the sheep. A sheep farmer measures success by the wellbeing and state of the farm. A shepherd will measure success by the wellbeing and state of the sheep. A good sheep farmer will always put the interest of the farm above the interest of the sheep. A good shepherd will always put the interest of the sheep above even his own. A sheep farmer treats the sheep as if they belong to him. A shepherd knows the sheep in his care do not belong to him and he is accountable to another for each and every one of them. A good sheep farmer will consider a loss of 1 per 100 sheep as an excellent outcome for his farm. A good shepherd will leave the 99 in order to save the one who is lost. A sheep farmer loves his farm. A shepherd loves the sheep!

Like the church at Sardis many of today's churches may be corporately alive and rocking, but they have become spiritually moribund and dead. They have lost their first love and now love and serve the church corporate more than they love and serve the Lord's sheep that are in it. They have forgotten that Jesus did not come to build a corporation, He came to save people. He came not as a corporate executive nor as a sheep farmer, but as a shepherd and a servant of His Father's flock. Corporate executives care about the corporations they build and run. Sheep farmers care for their farms. Shepherds care only for the individual needs and wellbeing of each and every sheep entrusted into their care. Servants care only for the individual needs and wellbeing of each and every member of the family they serve.

We must always be careful to remember that in the house of God there are only THREE things you are called to be and not one of them is a corporate position. You can be called to be a Shepherd, a Servant, and ... a sheep! Administration is indeed a gift from The Lord through His Holy Spirit. But it is a gift designed to SERVE the needs of shepherds, servants and sheep, not to master and control them.

D.J. Ludlow

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"It’s Not About Sheep Farms!" may be copied, used and distributed

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Copy RIGHT!

S.H.A.P.E. is a very popular course designed to help people understand how GOD has individually and uniquely  shaped them to serve Him and to fit into the team HE is INDIVIDUALLY hand molding and shaping to serve HIS purposes and become HIS people at one with their God.

John 17:20 "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that ALL of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: 23 I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me."

Sadly so many churches seem determined to take the people GOD has shaped and try and hammer them into the shape THEY and THEIR church thinks they should be. To make people in THEIR church branded and idealised image.

Church leaderships often forget that they are not meant to be in the business of making clones of themselves. Their sacred responsibility to God is to help HIM make clones of Jesus, and if they do not include themselves as among those who need to change then perhaps the beam in their eye has caused them to lose sight of their own imperfections. Unless you are claiming to be perfect you are neither a role model to be emulated nor a judge to pass sentence. The Lord has already given us the perfect role model and the perfect judge .... And it is neither us nor any of our imperfect Earth born churches by a long, long, way.

We are called to fellowship, not to judge one another, nor to shape one another to our many and varied ideas of what a "good Christian" should look like and act like. We are called to fellowship with fellow believers as one among equals in order that we might support, encourage, protect, share with one another, and to lift one another up as Christ Himself works in each and every one of us individually to grow each one of us into Himself by the path HE has chosen for us to take. Our journeys begin from very different places. The paths our lives take are many and varied. But the oneness we share is in our destination. Let us therefore try not to trip others up or tread on their toes along our way.

REMEMBER THAT THE CHILDREN OF THE LORD ARE BORN OF GOD, NOT FASHIONED BY THE HANDS OF MEN AND THE INDWELLING HOLY SPIRIT IS THE STAMP OF HIS COPYRIGHT UPON US ALL..

D.J. Ludlow.

Provided it is done freely and without charge

"Copy RIGHT" may be copied, used and distributed

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by brothers and sisters in Christ

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A BUTLER IN THE HOUSE OF GOD.

Mark 10:42-45 "Jesus called them together and said, "You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them.  Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant,  and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.  For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

Mark 10:42-45 should be required reading for all who would aspire to any position of leadership in a church. In a democracy people elect those who will have power and authority over them. In this passage Jesus reminds us that the Kingdom of Heaven is not a democracy, it is the household of the FAMILY of The Lord. And a family household works very differently to a democracy.

If you want to understand the advice of Jesus to those who would seek leadership in His Church  it helps to understand how the large manor houses of England work. In each house there is always one and only one leader, one and only one head of the house, the father. But the household itself was run by servants. But even the head of all the servants (usually the head butler) still had less standing and authority than the youngest or least member of the family. Servants did not have authority OVER  the family, they had responsibility TO the family.

Consequently should a member of the family decide to become a servant they do not gain any greater authority or privilege than the authority and privilege they already possessed as children and heirs of the Father. What they gain is .... greater responsibility TO the family and to the Father.

In  Mark 10:42-45 Jesus reminds us that even though He is the firstborn heir of the Father He chose to become the head butler in the house of His Father in order that He may serve and care for His brothers and sisters who are also joint heirs of the Father. Already having all authority over the household of the Father as the firstborn Son, Jesus took upon Himself responsibility TO the household of the Father. He became its head butler.

If we want to serve in the household of the Father we are not called to become a great leader, we are called to become ... a great servant. But not just a servant, a servant UNDER the authority of the head butler of the household of God .... The firstborn heir of the Father, Christ Jesus Himself!

D.J. Ludlow.

Provided it is done freely and without charge

"A Butler In The House of God" may be copied, used and distributed

(in its entirety only, including this notice)

by brothers and sisters in Christ

to the profit and glory of The Lord alone (ttpagoTLa)

By special permission of 

D.J. Ludlow copyright 2014

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