Mega-church Meta-church

MEGA CHURCH TO META (BEYOND) CHURCH

VictorChoudhrie, July 18, 2010

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21Steps to transit from being a barren church to a millionaire of souls

1.Rewrite the job description of the professional clergy from that of apulpit orator, sacrament dispenser and tithe gatherer, to that of ashepherd who feeds hisflock to be healthy and reproducing, byencouraging them to practice the priesthood of all believers withauthority to baptize, break bread and equip fishers of men. He mustmodel a flat church structure wherein brothers and sisters submit toone another, pray one for another, serve one another, exhort, forgiveand love each other. John13:34-35; Matt.18:21-22; Eph. 5:21

2.Move from meeting in temples to gathering in ‘houses of peace’.‘Goddoes not dwell in temples made by human hands’; rather He dwells inhuman hearts. For we are the mobile walking and talking temples of theliving God, with a maximum of organism and a minimum of organization. Luke 10:5-9; Matt. 10:11-13;Acts 7:48-49; 2 Cor. 6:16

3.Phase out programmed Sunday ‘services’ while implementing informal,small gatherings. The Bride of Christ must have intimacywith her Lordevery day, not only for a couple of hours a week, lest she becomeunfaithful. However, discourage cross-gender disciple-making, lestchemistry foul things up. Acts2:46-47; Heb. 3:13

4.Replace Mosaic tithing withChristian sharing, thereby harnessing theenormous, financial resources, hospitality and goodwill available inChristian homes. Believe that God is going to work a work among thenations through you, which will leave you utterly amazed, and alsoprovide resources for it. Deut.8:17-18; Acts 5:32-34; Hab. 1:5

5.Dispense with wafer-and-sip Holy Communion and promote breaking ofbread with simple Agape meals (love feasts) from house tohouse, thatbelievers take with glad hearts, ‘and the Lord added to His numbersdaily’. The Lord served roast lamb, bitter herbs, bread and wine ‘in ahouse’ for the Last Supper. Father God had lunch with Abraham under atree and discussed Sarah’s pregnancy, Sodom’s ruin and Lot’s rescueplan. Acts 2:46-47; 1Cor.11:20-23; Gen. 18

6.Replace professional music with believersspeaking to each other inpsalms and spiritual songs, making melody in their heartsto the Lord.OT worship required the sacrifice of four-footed beasts; the NTcelebrates by offering two-legged Gentiles as a living sacrifice. Themeta-church is a discipling hub and not a singing club. Eph 5:19; Col3:16; Rom. 15:16

7.Shift from being a spectator-oriented church to a ‘metastasizing’,interactive, participatory, prophetic church. Empower men,women andyouth, to get the dragon off the driver’s seat. We, the seed of Abrahamare blessed; “with multiplying I will multiply you and your seed willpossess the gates of the enemy”. It is time Abraham’s seed got on thedriver’s seat. 1 Cor.14:26-31;Acts 13:13; 18:4; Gen. 22:17-18; Gal. 3:27-29

8.For a powerful synergy, metamorphose mega-churches into city, regionaland national networks of ‘meta’ (beyond) churches. Insteadof gatheringunder one roof, have them gather under a thousand roofs, just like themega church at Jerusalem planted meta-churches across Judea, Samaria,Antioch, Corinth, Rome and beyond (Gk. meta) that grew in faith and innumbers (both quality and quantity), daily. Rom. 16:3-15; Acts 1:8; 16:5

9.Infect the barren Bride with themultiplication virus. A healthy maturefemale (Bride) implies that she is ready to have babies. Rebecca, theBride of Isaac, was blessed by her family to have millions of children.The time has come for the Bride of Christ to stretch her tent to theleft and to the right, to the north and to the south, to producemillions of meta-churches, and fill the earth. Gen. 24:60; Isa. 54:1-5; Acts 1:8

10.Know your identity inChrist: You are a royal-priest, made so by theblood of the Lamb. Dismantle the ‘Reverend’ culture that divides clergyfrom layman. Like Melchizedek, the royal-priest of Salem (City ofPeace), who served bread and wine, took a tithe and blessed Abraham,bring godly governance to your city. Catch the vision of cloningroyal-priests for every city, and run with it. 1 Pet.2:9; Rev.5:10;Hab.2:1-3; Isa. 9:6-7; Gen. 14:18

11.Challenge purposeless churches to enunciatea clear vision and to layout a road map to translate that vision into action plansto ‘dogreater things than these’. Armed with maps, stats and the GreatCommission, go two by two and teach the divine arithmetic of plantingjust one multiplying church every month. In ten short months, even theleast shall plant a thousand meta-churches. John 14:12; Acts 16:5; Luke10:1-2; Isa. 60:22

12.Unglue from their pews all those Christians who sit, soak and stagnate,and send themto heal the sick, raise the dead, tread on snakes andscorpions (expel demons), bind the ‘strongman’, plunder hispossessions, and demolish the gates of Hell. Doggedly pursue demondemolition drive until ‘the kingdoms of this world have become theKingdom of our Lord and His Christ’. Matt.11:12;12:29;16:18-19; Mark16:17-18; Luke 10:19; Rev.11:15

13.Resurrect from being a dead organization to a living organism.Replaceall extra-biblical, cosmetic titles like Director, Chairman, CEO, andSecretary by appointing five-fold ministry-gifted Elders, likeapostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers, as equippers.Healthy feeding and leading will keep the flock thriving and fertileand build bridges with the ‘other sheep which are not of this fold’. Eph.4:11; Tit. 1:5-9; John 10:16

14.Empower every Sunday school, bible school, prayer cell,women’sfellowship, and cottage meeting, by calling them full-fledged,authentic churches. They must make disciples who baptize, break bread,equip laborers and send missionaries, and, like the school of Tyrannus,change the spiritual demography. 1Cor. 16:19; Col. 4:15; Acts 19:8-12

15.Filter out non-performing goats who come only for hatching (babybaptisms), matching (weddings) and dispatching (funerals), and replacethem with sheep who take careof the hungry, thirsty, naked, strangers,sick and prisoners. Culling the non-productive sheep is anintegralpart of the ‘best practices’ of sheep rearing. God chose David toshepherd Israel because he took care of “the ewes great with young”. Matt. 25:31-46; Psa. 78:70-72

16.Simplify disciple making.Get a Bible and invite a couple oftruth-seekers for a meal where the main dish is – The Lamb. Redefineauthentic church as wherever two or three friends meet to eat, togossip the gospel, and to multiply. Meta-church is the most costeffective strategy for city penetration and reaching the ends of theearth. Acts 2:46-47

17.Replace seminary training with sharingthe whole wisdom of God fromhouse to house. Sound doctrine is the ability to convincethose whooppose. The lost of this world do not need scholars as much as theyneed spiritual fathers and mothers who bring many spiritual sons anddaughters to glory. Acts20:20, 27; Tit. 1:9; 1 Cor. 4:15; 2 Tim. 2:2; Heb 2:10

18.Reorient your personal paradigm. Your business, workplace or home,wherever you spend most of your time, is your ‘primary nuclear church’.It matters little whether you are the CEO, or the janitor or thekitchen queen; you are afull-time minister there and accountable. Adamand Eve were accountable for the Garden of Eden, and they failed.

19.Recognize ‘Hi, there,’ ‘Hello,’ handshaking, Sunday church as your‘secondary, optional church’. A church that does not sendyou out to‘raise your holy hands to pray everywhere’ and equip you to make Christ‘high and lifted up’ in your home, workplace and neighbourhood is notworth going to. 1 Tim.2:8; Isa. 6:1

20.Re-set your priorities to preachChrist where He has not been named.For this you do not have to go to church from Sunday to Sunday nor workfrom paycheck to paycheck. You are “ordained” to be fruitful, tomultiply, and to fill your home, workplace, neighborhood and the citywith the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover thesea. Matt. 6:33; Rom.15:20; John 15:16; Gen. 1:28; Hab. 2:14

21.Adopt a ‘completion mindset’. Evaluateyour ministry by the GreatCommission as its mandate, and for benchmarks the numbersof disciplesmade, baptized, equipped and sent out. Aim to become a millionaire ofsouls. Why not? After all, you believe in a great, awesome God for whomnothing is impossible. At the very least, like Peter, shoot for 3000baptisms by every Pentecost. Or like Paul, plant a multiplying churchevery day, till you can claim that there are no more places left herefor you to ‘fully preach the gospel’, not just with words, ‘but withsigns and mighty deeds’. Acts2:41; 16:5; Rom. 15:19, 23

Shalom and Shalom again
Email: [email protected]
Date: July 18, 2010

Victor Choudhrieis a cancer surgeon by profession. He is a Senior Fellow of theAmerican and British Colleges of Surgeons. He left his position asDirector and CEO of the Christian Medical college, Ludhiana, Punjab,India, in 1992, to take up a full-time Church planting ministry incentral India. His wife, Bindu, is also in a full-time church plantingministry, equipping women to be house-church leaders and trainers. Theynow have disciples making disciples in some forty countries. Theirs ispresently amongst the fastest growing movements deploying volunteerswith no paid workers in the field. God has blessed this ministryabundantly. In the year from Pentecost 2009 to Pentecost 2010, over onemillion underwent a ‘holy dip’ through their ministry partners. Largenumbers of grassroots level leaders have been trained, who,subsequently, have planted tens of thousands of house churches acrossIndia and abroad.
Books written byVictor Choudhrie include: TheEkklesia: theChurch in your House; TheApostolic Gardens; ThePrayer Warrior; TeachingCards and FromMega Church to Meta (Beyond) Church, soon to be published.Electronic copies are available on payment of US $10 via PayPal: [email protected]

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