The Emerging Church
By Greg Austin
I believe this: In this critical hour in earth's history, the Holy Spirit of God is leading those "who have an ear" into a new dimension of revelation and glory. Any return to the status quo, business-as-usual church experience will sound the death-knell to the full desire of the Spirit of God.
I'm convinced that God is raising up a NEW VOICE, a NEW FACE and a NEW HEART in the earth. I read an article on a recent flight that stated that Great Britain reports less than 2% church attendance. Something is gravely wrong when the land that felt the footsteps of Spurgeon, Whitefield, Wesley, Wigglesworth and others has deteriorated into the state it currently languishes in. In America, the echo of Azusa Street has faded into oblivion. The times of Jonathon Edwards have become merely historic and not dynamic. Aimee Semple McPherson, John G. Lake, Oral Roberts, all shook the land, but are now represented by so little. Those who are seeking to plumb the depths of God's Spirit and His well of wisdom must look beyond former personalities and movements for direction and understanding. What God is doing is BEYOND. God told Daniel to "seal up the prophecy" because it would require a future generation to understand. There is a new generation which has risen with understanding, and those who will hear "what the Spirit says to the churches" must listen intently.
As I watched the faces of young leaders at a staff meeting in a world-renowned church recently my heart ached to just get up and shout to them,
"You can change your nation! Get up! Get full of God! Get His Power and His Resource and His Word and His Wisdom and His Enablement and storm the nations with His love and grace and mercy!!!!!!!!!!
I love the men and women God has raised up in the past generation. God has uniquely placed and is using them in this hour. Could it be though that God wants to use the former generation to provide strength and stability, while developing an entirely new generation and new concept of changing the earth? I believe something significant is contained in the Darlene Zscech song, "Touching Heaven, Changing Earth." Greater concern on "touching heaven" will produce a changed earth. The focus has been on doing "things." Developing programs, producing strategies has caused the church to focus on the "doing." God is looking for those who will concentrate on "being." If our concerns should turn from the next ministry emphasis to an emphasis on heaven, on worshipping, loving, and hearing God, and on building deep, spiritual relationships with others in the Body of Christ, the resulting transformations in our own lives would have a powerful impact on the earth!
We've got to touch heaven! We've got to become more connected with heaven than we are connected with a denomination or church! Until our supreme connection is with heaven, all our best attempts to change our world will fall flat.
This is where the heart of ministry will derive from in the coming days - from men and women who have sought the face of God and who have found relationship with one another through which the very essence of Jesus may be seen by the world.
The emerging church cannot be as churches have been, or we will no longer have a reason to exist. Let God lead into the deep, into uncharted waters, into latitudes no one has explored.
This is FLESH and BLOOD and not ORGANIZATION and BUILDINGS.
God is building something far more substantive than an organization or a building. He's building His church. It was good to be in staff meeting and to observe the "machinery" of a great church. Let us REFUSE to imitate yesterday's anointing and discover fresh anointing for today.
