Supporting the Equippers Part 2: Establishing Us in Christ

When I was at the ripe age of 19 two men came into my life whose influence would prove to be invaluable.  These two men laid the firm foundation of Christ in me. Their names were Jim and Rob.  They were true equippers.  Jim was a prophet who spoke a truly life changing word from God to me that sealed the reality of my heavenly Father in my heart for the rest of my life.  He also birthed in me a genuine hunger to hear my Father’s voice. Through Jim I came to understand that hearing God is everything in our walk with Him.  Man truly does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
Rob was a married man who had a pastor’s heart.  He took me under his wing as a younger brother and began teaching me through our one on one conversations how to hear Father and live in Him in the practical realities of life. He fine-tuned my ability to hear God and through the home fellowship to which we belonged, Rob helped me learn how to bring what God was currently speaking to a group of people.  He actually trained me to teach prophetically.  Then when Lilly and I started dating, Rob prepared me to be a good husband, not only through his example, but also by sitting down with me regularly to chat about my relationship with Lilly.


If one were to ask me to place a monetary value on the equipping I received it would be impossible to come up with a number.  What price do I place on hearing Father’s voice?  What value does one place on being grounded in Him?  How much should one pay for a marriage that has successfully weathered some of life’s most difficult storms and still remains strong?  Coming up with a monetary value is impossible because the things of the Spirit are worth far more than those of the temporal.  But when I look at the fruit that is in my life because of the labor of these two men, there is not a doubt in my mind that these men deserved “double honor” (monetary compensation) for their labors.  How much did these men receive?  Not a dime.


Jim was the associate pastor of the church we attended and later became the pastor.  It was one of three congregations in the area that were headed by a board of elders.  Jim never received a salary.  He always had to support himself and his family by holding down a fulltime job.  Rob was the worship leader who not only spent his time counseling, teaching, and pouring into the lives of others, he also spent his days mowing lawns for his landscape business to support his growing family.  That may seem all well and good, but here is the real problem.  The church we attended taught the necessity of tithing.  Lilly and I were faithful tithers.  But out of all of that money that went to the church, how much of what we gave actually went to Jim and Rob?  Not a cent.  Kind of strange being that they were the ones who actually did the work in my life that remains to this day.


Let me straight out say I am a firm believer that tithing is over.  It’s just as much a part of the old covenant as sacrificing animals and not eating pork.  But I don’t have the time or the energy to unpack that here.  Let me just say that even though I don’t believe in tithing, I am a firm believer that if you choose to attend gatherings in a building and enjoy being served by a salaried staff it is only right that you contribute reasonable amounts to cover the cost of those things.


Tithing may be dead but giving to those who are true equippers is very much alive and well in the New Covenant.  One only has to look at the life of Paul to see that.  The problem is so many have been damaged by controlling religion and false equippers that they have closed their hearts and wallets to those who pour into others that which is invaluable.  Just as I showed you from my past experience, we approached equipping from an institutional mindset instead of a relational reality.


The institutional church was viewed as being the storehouse.  We gave to that because it gave us access to all the goods.  I think of it like paying the monthly membership fee at an athletic club.  You pay the fee because you gain access to all the amenities, equipment, and classes the club has to offer.  So it doesn’t matter if you’re actually being equipped by your friend the plumber or the pastor, your check still goes to the Christian organization you attend.  Writing out those checks becomes as robotic as paying bills.


In a relational reality we live aware of the needs of those around us and are actually mindful of giving financial support to those who are genuinely equipping the body.  We are still giving to the storehouse but we recognize the storehouse is not a manmade organization but the person in our lives who is laying the foundation of Christ in us.  And we don’t only give to the equippers while we’re receiving from them.  The fact of the matter is very few are in the place of maturity in Christ to be asked to give while they’re being equipped.  Paul recognized this when he wrote to the immature Corinthians and stated that although he had the right to ask of them for support he refused to do it.  Instead he received from others to support him while he equipped the Corinthians.  It is crucial that those of us who have been equipped don’t just take the foundation we’ve received and go our merry way.  Rather, as mature believers it is our turn to recognize what we have received and identify those who are equippers in the body and support their work in the lives of others so they don’t have to be a burden on the weak and immature.  The world has a term for this, “Pay it forward.”


As I stated in my last article, yes we are all equal in the body of Christ, we are all brethren.  One does not have more value than another.  (In truth, the equippers are actually the LEAST among us.  But more on that in my next few articles.)  Yet, don’t tell me nineteen year old Loren who was just sorting out this journey was functioning in the kingdom at the same level of effectiveness as seasoned Jim and Rob.  You can’t tell me I didn’t need what they had.  Nor can you tell me any other Joe or Jane Christian could have laid the foundation in Christ that these men did.  It took two mature brothers in Christ functioning as a prophet and a pastor, loving me enough to lay their lives down for me at their own expense for Christ to be formed in me.  I don’t think the question is whether we should support equippers financially?  I think the real question is what would I give to see the rest of the body of Christ equipped and grounded in Him?


In Part 3 we’ll discuss identifying the true equippers from the fakes.


Loren Rosser

Supporting the Equippers Part 1: The Standoff

Those of you who are fans of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit certainly recall the riddle standoff between Bilbo and Gollum.  Well here’s a riddle for you.  (I promise I won’t eat you if you get it wrong.)  It weighs very little but weighs much on hearts and minds.  It is silent but also speaks volumes.  You carry it with you but you can’t take it with you.  And the mere mention of it to believers immediately sparks strong reactions and flashbacks associated with words like manipulation, corruption, and control.  Give up?  It’s money!

It has come to my attention that as was the case with Bilbo and Gollum, there is currently a standoff of sorts taking place within in the body of Christ among those who are moving away from systems of religious obligation towards liberty and genuine relational connections regarding the support of those who function as equippers.  I think this is an extremely important issue that needs to be addressed, and Lord willing, resolved.  As we’ve been moving towards greater liberty in Christ many of His followers have been discovering the pure joy of having their burdens lifted. There is currently a growing conversation about helping the poor and the oppressed.  However, it is my concern that we are willingly or ignorantly oppressing some of our own brothers and sisters by withholding from them their due and the resources necessary for them to function at the level Father desires.


Before I go any further let me flat out tell you I am not after a dime of your money.  I don’t need it nor do I want it.  I’m blessed to have a very good job that more than meets my needs.  This article isn’t about me, which is the exact reason I wanted to write it.  So often the only people who speak up for the equippers are the equippers themselves.  Due to past hurts, wounds, and abuses in the body of Christ, people immediately view them as being self-serving and place them in the same category as the manipulators they encountered in the past.  So these men and women go on pouring out their lives for us (because that’s the kind of people they are) and we gladly receive from them or have received from them in the past.  But why is it we will gladly receive from them that which is eternal but are often not even willing to reciprocate with that which is temporary (money)?

I can hear many saying, “But aren’t we all equal in the church?  We are all brethren!  I don’t get paid for functioning in my gifts!”  First of all let me say, neither do I!  I podcast regularly, have written numerous articles, produced videos, have spoken to congregations, and have even volunteered my time to feed the poor.  And guess what?  I didn’t get paid a cent.  But you are correct; no part of the body is superior to another.  We are all brethren in the body of Christ.  We are a family with one Father.  This isn’t about equality; it’s about function and necessity.  Although I’m very active in encouraging and building up the body of Christ I don’t have invitations to go to places like Uganda, or people asking me to come equip their groups all over the U.S. as one brother I know who is a prophet currently does.  He manages to scrape up enough to go to a few places, but he is unable to function anywhere near the capacity needed to meet the demand simply because the resources aren’t there.  The ox has been muzzled.  And he’s not alone.  I know of a handful of these people who are genuine equippers in the body who bless and have blessed numerous people and are helping and have helped many come to maturity who are obscenely underfunded to accomplish the work to which they’ve been called.  And just so there is no misunderstanding, these equippers aren’t building buildings, trying to start “ministries”, or make names for themselves.  They are doing nothing but helping individuals become grounded in Christ.  

I can hear some asking, “Well, if God wants them doing these things, like travel and all, why doesn’t He provide for them?”  That question actually reminds me of what I call “magical thinking” that I often encountered in my years in charismatic circles.  It’s waiting for that check from out of nowhere to appear in the mail box.  It’s waiting for God to make money magically appear in your bank account.   It’s waiting for God to become our personal genie.  It’s waiting for God to do Himself what we’re too darn lazy and selfish to do for others.  
  
Allow me to show you the ridiculousness of that mindset.  Do you think Father wanted the African Americans in the United States to be oppressed and excluded from the rest of society?  If you know anything about the heart of God then you know the answer is a resounding “No!”  Then why didn’t God just make it stop?  You know, just magically make a law pass congress ending the oppression.  We all know that’s just not reality.  He works through people, especially His body.  It took a man after His heart, Martin Luther King Jr., to do something about it, God’s way.  God doesn’t move magically, He moves through people, His body. 
   
I remember back when I was first moving away from organized religious Christianity hearing believers make statements like, “Just think of all the good we could do without having to pay for all this overhead!”  There were ongoing conversations about how shedding all the religious trappings would free up so many resources that could be poured into furthering the gospel around the world, feeding the poor, and so forth.  Now I sit outside the walls of organized religion and I’m scratching my head.  I ponder whether those conversations were really about furthering the gospel and helping the poor or if we were really looking for an excuse to close our pocket books.  I guess my question is how long are we going to stew in our old wounds and hold back our resources from the kingdom needed to release these equippers?  How long are we going to keep justifying muzzling the ox?  Do we truly want to see the body of Christ come to maturity and the kingdom advance or is that merely Christian correct terminology?

To be continued…

Loren Rosser

Mutant Jesus

This week my wife and I were selected to participate in the screening of a new Christian movie titled The War Room created by the Kendrick brothers (Courageous, Fireproof, Facing the Giants). We've participated in these events before and they're a whole lot of fun for movie buffs like us. You actually get to be a movie critic. A marketing company has you watch the movie at a selected theater with a selected audience before it's released and then fill out a questionnaire afterwards to get your take on it.  If they get too many negative opinions from the screening audience on certain aspects of the movie they'll actually go back and reedit or reshoot some scenes to improve it. This was the first time for us that the movie we viewed was a Christian flick.

I don't want to review this movie yet because I want to wait until the final cut is complete. They may end up changing many of the things that bothered me. I doubt it, but I do believe in miracles.  I'll just say the version I saw had all the usual problems that plague Christian movies. Those problems are: they're too preachy, the message is forced and feels unnatural/unrealistic, they have a cheesy TV movie feel, they tell instead of show (this isn't radio, it's film), and they don't treat their audiences as being intelligent by over explaining everything instead of letting the audience connect the dots and have the thrill of discovery.  However,  many of the people in the audience that were obviously Christians seemed to love it.  Their cheers and other reactions made that quite apparent. 

Over the next few days I was bothered by my experience at the theater and I had a difficult time verbalizing why. I mean it's just a movie, and a clean one at that. We've all seen corny movies, so what's the big deal?  But there was something bigger going on here that really grieved me.  What was grieving me wasn't just the movie alone.  Rather the movie was merely the symptom of a much bigger more wide spread problem plaguing Christianity that has gone on for decades.  And most folks don't only tolerate it, they're so blind to it they participate in it, identify with it, and cheer it on.  The thing I'm talking about is mixture.

Christians for centuries have been fed a concoction of Jesus plus a whole bunch of crap that is horrid for them.  Christians with any level of discernment would never drink the crap by its self, so just enough Jesus is mixed in with it to make it palatable and down the hatch it goes!  After drinking the elixir long enough people can't even tell Jesus from the crap.  They actually have linked the two and think they're one and the same.  I could show a crowd Jesus and they'd cheer.  Then I could show them some religious chains and they'd cheer just as loudly.  I could show them a pitcher filled with water from the springs of life and they'd cheer.  And I could show them a pitcher filled with religious poison and they'd cheer. 

I can't even put into words strong enough just how blind and accepting many people are of the mixture. They can't even see that they are putting weights and burdens on people.  They can't see they are shackling them and stripping them of their identities in Christ.  They can't see they are moving in the exact opposite direction from God's heart.  And there comes a point that many have reached that when Jesus Himself shows up mixed with nothing they can't stand Him.  They can't even recognize Him apart from the crap that they've been fed. They turn and call Him and His ways heresy.  They ridicule those who drink of only Him as being heretics, embittered, and spiritually dangerous.  They've become drunk on the elixir of religious obligation.  They're in love with mutant Jesus and all his demands, rules, regulations, and quests for power and prestige.  Just as the Israelites worshipped the false god Ba'al, confusing him with the living God, so many Christians worship mutant Jesus as being the real Jesus. For these Christians, trying to peal the real Jesus away from all the crap is like trying to peal two pieces of duct tape apart that are stuck together on their sticky sides.  In their minds Jesus IS the religious nonsense and the religious nonsense IS Jesus. 

This so breaks my heart beyond words.  This is the message the movie was carrying, but it's an ever so common and widely accepted message.  It's Jesus plus chains.  Jesus plus burdens.  Jesus plus the law.  Jesus plus death.  And of course many Christians are so accustomed to the mixture they cheer on the message.  For me, I ache. I weep.  I grieve.  And I write.  And I create podcasts.  And I produce videos.  And I connect with other brothers and sisters in Christ who have embraced Jesus alone.  All with the deep desire and dream that one day the mixture will no longer be tolerated.  That those who have been drunk on the elixir will grow sick of it, throw it out, sober up, and drink of Jesus alone.  I yearn to see a people who shed the nonsense, live in Christ's liberty, and love as He loved.  There are many of them out there.  But I can't be still until all my brothers and sisters are free.  This is my passion.  I may not see it in my life time.  But I've felt for years that this is a big reason why I'm on this planet.  This is what I see my Father doing and I'm happy to labor along side Him in His vineyard.

Twenty-one years ago Father gave me Isaiah 45 as the passage for my life.  He's confirmed it numerous times by numerous people since.  It was written during the time of Israel's captivity in Babylon. It's about God breaking the gates of Babylon before Cyrus and giving him the treasures of hidden darkness for the sake of Israel His chosen.

Loren  Rosser

In the World but not of the World

A new episode of Untangled is up!  What does it mean to be in the world but not of it?  Many Christians seem to place all the emphasis on not being of this world.  They set down laws and set out on quests for holiness to keep themselves separate from the world.  But is separation from the world something to which we aspire and achieve or something that Christ has already done in our hearts?  It's also interesting that many believers place all the emphasis on not being a part of the world and seem to miss the part about being IN THE WORLD. One only has to look at Jesus to see that we're supposed to be immersed in our culture, loving those around us. This is what David Fredrickson and Loren Rosser discuss in this extra special podcast.  It's extra special because instead of the usual Skype conversation, David joins Loren in his home in Dallas, TX.