Love One Another

There are a lot of angry voices in the world. In the news, in politics, social media - you hear them everywhere. Many of these voices claim to be followers of Jesus. It can be so confusing. Fortunately, Jesus told us how we can spot a real follower of his. This is what Jesus said: “I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34-35 (CSB) The idea here is: love is something one does - it can be seen. These loving actions are a true marker of a follower of Jesus.

 

In the letter that James, the brother of Jesus, wrote in the New Testament, he says explicitly that this is so. James wrote: “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that —and shudder. You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did.” (James 2:14-22 NIV)

 

The apostle John agrees with James when he wrote: “We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.” (1 John 2:3-6 NIV)

 

What then did Jesus command? How did Jesus live? The apostle John in his gospel gives us the answers to these questions. John wrote that Jesus said, “If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.” (John 15:10-12 NIV) You can spot a true Christian if they are a loving person who follows Jesus – who is learning to love like Jesus loved. This is how Jesus lived.

 

Love grows in a Christian like a fruit. It may start small, but it certainly grows. I encourage all Christians to obey Jesus’ command to love one another, growing this fruit. And I encourage all those who are seeking the real and living God to look for Christians who love like Jesus commanded. They can help you know the Truth.

Playing the Music

 Playing the Music

 

I was asked a difficult question this week by a man who was seeking understanding. He asked me, “What is the biggest problem the church has in communicating its message to our society?” I was stunned for a moment trying to think of my answer. I then remembered something I had read recently (I don’t know where), which was an excellent summary of this issue.

 

My answer went something like this: Bach was a great composer. His music was some of the best that was ever written. Yet when someone who is not yet skilled tries to play a Bach cello sonata, it doesn’t sound very good. If your only exposure to Bach’s music was through people who couldn’t yet play it very well, you might conclude that Bach wasn’t a very good composer. The problem wasn’t the music, but how it was being played. So too the church’s problem in communicating its message to our society is not a problem with the message, but how it is played.

 

The church’s message, its music if you will, is the greatest and most beautiful ever written. But it is also, like many of Bach’s compositions, very difficult to play well. Our music has lines like “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life”. (John 3:16) Or “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34-35) The church’s ability to communicate this first line has to do with how well they play the second.

 

Like all music, to play it well takes practice. One has to put in the effort to master the material. It is not enough to just know which note follows which, although that is very important. To play music well, it has to become part of you. Your focus is on the music itself, not the mechanics of playing.

 

When Christians learn to love well, our message can then be heard. We won’t obscure it with a mechanical rendition, or by faking what we have not yet mastered. There needs to be examples from those who play the message well, so the rest of us can know how it should sound.

 

Fortunately, such examples exist. Jesus Himself is the message, and an example of how the message is to be played or communicated. The apostle Paul encouraged us Christians to “Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.” (Romans 15:7) When we do this, Jesus, and Jesus’ message, is heard clearly. The music is being played well.

 

So to those who are not Christians, I want you to remember that the music of Christ’s message is much deeper and more beautiful than anyone of us can ever play it. Hopefully, from time to time, you see glimpses of the grandeur of the music God wrote through Jesus. I invite you to come and learn, and become a person who truly loves God and people. 

Exponential book review

I have been reading a new book called Exponential: how you and your friends can start a missional church movement by Dave and Jon Ferguson and published by Zondervan © 2010. I was intrigued with the title before I ever read the book. Since I am presently considering how to plant more churches I wondered if the Lord had anything in store for me within its pages.

Can you imagine me feelings when the first words of the first line of the first chapter were “You can do it!” Conflicted would be the best description. On one side hope popped up her head and grinned. On the other side past experience frowned and lightly shook his head. Who to believe? So I read on.

Dave and Jon were telling me how they started with four of them at a restaurant dreaming about how to reach the 8 million people of the Chicago metro area. Dave drew his plan on a napkin. It consisted of circles, circles of influence. This dream sat in the back of mind for several years. Then, with the prodding of a friend, he started to take his dream seriously. The Lord brought Acts 1:8 strongly to his mind. It reads: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." (NIV). So then he decided that his dream was consistent with Jesus’ purpose and was granted the power of the Holy Spirit to do the impossible. By the help of the Holy Spirit they would “help people find their way back to God”. This became their mission statement.

They decided that the best way they could do this was to begin a church that had a high impact on the community it was in. This was to be accomplished by not only planting a church, but they wanted to plant many churches and then have a movement of reproducing churches.

The foundation of this potentially exponential reproduction was that everyone was to have an apprentice. If everyone was reproducing their ministry in someone else, then the expansion would not be limited due to a lack of leaders, artists, or helpers. There would be no lack.

All the growth necessary to build large community impacting churches is built upon the principle of this simple reproduction. Each person who had any responsibility was to have an apprentice – someone they could impart to who would either someday replace them or do the same thing somewhere else. The main thing that was to be reproduced in your apprentice was to hear God and do what he says. At this point Hope sat up straight in her chair next to me and smiled.

The rest of the book takes you on a journey through their structure for reproduction. It involved teaching everyone to ask God how they were to go into the world and find a way to help those they find find their way back to God. They taught people to go into the world and not just to only bring people to some meeting. They commissioned everyone to think about how they could start a church or small group. This led to the kind of growth which led to more churches which led to a movement of churches which led to spinning of other movements of churches. They really believe that “you can do this”!

As I tried to hear what God might be telling me through this book, I wondered. How did these guys find so many potential leaders? Did they just attract them by their personality? Did God just give them to them? Is it a matter of call alone? After all, does God really call each of us to start churches as the Fergusons state? I have a lot to think about. That is why I am tardy in getting this review posted on my blog. There is a lot to think about.

Meditation on Babel, human nature, and the Church.

At the dawn of human history we have the story of the tower at Babel. Here we see man’s ingenuity and unity used at cross purposes to God’s plan. God wanted humanity to spread out over the earth, but mankind centralized in order to build a name for themselves through their city and tower to heaven. This is part of the corrupted human nature; to use people for projects, like city and tower building, instead of releasing people to fulfill God’s plan for their life.

This project had many earmarks of godly motivation. After all, the tower’s destination was heaven. It was a product of unity - they had all agreed to build it together. Additionally, mankind would be in community; it would be a unified community project building a tower to heaven. Everyone would want to stay here because we have the only tower to heaven on earth. Why not? If we became rich and famous in the process, who could blame us?

The Church has never been free from the influences of human nature. As much as we like to talk about the moving of the Spirit of God in and through God’s people, the corrupted version of human nature has never been far away. Because of this, how we have done ‘church’ has also been influenced by this vision of Babel - to build a name for ourselves as we build a tower to heaven. The ministries of the church have come under this same influence. After all, what is ministry but the serving of the people of God to help in the fulfillment of the purpose of the church?

To the extent our vision of church is conditioned by Babel, to the same extent the ministries of the church serve to help centralize power and use people more and more efficiently in accomplishing this purpose. To the extent that our vision of the church is conditioned by the command of God to go into all the world, to the same extent our idea of ministry is releasing and expansive.

Jesus made this distinction when he spoke of the kind of leadership that is to be in the church. In Matt 20:25-28 Jesus said "You know that in this world kings are tyrants, and officials lord it over the people beneath them. But among you it should be quite different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must become your slave.” Paul wrote to the Corinthians the he did not “lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy, because it is by faith you stand firm.” (2 Cor 1:24 NIV) And Peter wrote once to the elders that they should ”shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of God; and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness; nor yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples to the flock.” (1 Peter 5:2-3NASU)

Over and over again the Bible says serving as an example is the type of leadership that is to be in the body of Christ.

Knowing that a picture is worth more than a thousand words, Jesus gave some people as gifts to the church. Ideally they are both examples and instructors of how to follow Christ. They are our leaders. If we want to know how to follow Jesus, we can look at the pictures God has given. I feel that ordination is how we, as a group, identify those people who are given to us by God to be that picture of how to follow Christ. They have the responsibility of informing us, by word and deed, what it means to be a follower of Christ.

The danger has always been that these leaders would use their position of influence for their own gain, or that they would want to build a city and a tower. No part of Christianity has been immune from this. But here, at Tree of Life Church, we hope that we see enough of the problem to avoid some of the pitfalls. How it will look in the final analysis we have yet to see.

Church Leadership is Tied to Purpose

A friend of mine at church offhandedly said something very significant. He made a joke that while I was gone in Russia that I was hardly missed. I would like to explain why I feel his comment is important.

To do this, I will need to do some teaching about what it means to be a church. This is because I feel that his comment touches on the purpose of our gatherings. It’s not that I want to teach myself out of a job, but when I’ve taught, those who’ve learned won’t need me to help them do theirs.

When I use the word church, many different things come to various people’s minds. Some think of a large stone building with spires and stained glass windows. Others think of a universal group made up of believers from all places and times. Others think of denominations, or those who believe in and live in certain locale, like Oregon or the USA.

The reason people think these things is because we use the word church to mean all these different things at different times. The meaning of the word church, in its primary sense in the New Testament, isn’t any of the above. Most of the time it is used as descriptive of a specific gathering of believers. This is why Paul, for instance could say that “in the church” or the “churches (plural) of Judea”. In secular Greek the word is most often used of the town meeting where the citizens would gather together to exercise their rights and handle their responsibilities. This use is seen in Acts 19:32,39,41. Somewhere between 85-90% of all uses of the word church in the New Testament refer to this local assembly. So when we see this word, we should assume that it is referring to this specific gathering unless the context indicates otherwise.

Why is this important? Because it is in our gathering that we express ourselves as the church. This is where God’s purposes for the churches begin their fulfillment.

When God made man in his image it necessitated plurality. God is triune. Male and female were necessary to complete the image. “Let us make man in our image - male and female He made.” Only as communities do we reflect all the elements of the image of God. Just the very fact that John tells us that God is love is enough to show that to express the image of God there needs to be more than a solitary subject to do it.

Jesus, in John 17:20-23, prayed "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 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. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: 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.” This unity of the Spirit is seen as concretely love.

In John 13:34-35 Jesus said, "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." The world is able to know that Jesus is of God when we are one through our love for each other.

Facilitating that love and being an example of this love, is the primary responsibility of the leadership in the churches. Yet so often leaders have taken upon themselves many other responsibilities, responsibilities that are God’s. Additionally, leaders have structured churches to be pictures of something other than love.

For instance, in the older church structures, like the Catholic’s and Eastern Orthodox, each in its own way is representing the plan of salvation. Each has the communion as the focus of its service. The Catholic Church has the Pope as its head. He stands in for Jesus in the structure of the church. The Eastern Church also has its head. Even in the so called free churches, such as Baptist or Methodist, they all have someone in Jesus’ seat both locally and denominationally. These office holders have the role that can be described as anywhere from king to CEO, depending
on their checks and balances.

It is my opinion that this role actually disguises Jesus’ role in the churches rather than clarifies it. Peter writes in 1 Peter 5:1-4 “To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder, a witness of Christ's sufferings and one who also will share in the glory to be revealed: Be shepherds of God's flock that is under your care, serving as overseers — not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.” In this passage Peter indicates that there is only one chief shepherd. The rest of the elders/pastors/overseers are under Jesus. From this we deduce that, since in every church there is to be a plurality of elders, that they operate by consensus endeavoring to discern Jesus’ will in helping the rest of the body of Christ find their own ministry - their own Spirit empowered expression of love.

Paul wrote in Eph 4:11-16 that “It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service [ministry], so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” Note, once again, that that the purpose of the people God gave to the churches as gifts to be helpers was that they would prepare God’s people of works of service – ministry - later defined as the work of growing in love.

In all our efforts to organize, to teach, to do stuff, it is easy to push into the background our purpose in doing all of this. Things take on a life of their own. We look at ministries as offices to be filled rather than relations between people. Our ministry is how we help others to love God and other people. It is an expression of
who we are.

There are no permanent offices in the church other than elders. Even elders don’t have to be chosen immediately. If everyone used their gifts and abilities to encourage everyone else to love God and love people, our job would be done. But learning to love isn’t the easiest thing. For most of us it is the hardest thing we will ever do. For many people it takes a lifetime to even begin to get proficient at it. If I as a leader do not guide you into a dependent relationship with Jesus I have not completed my ministry. Jesus is the object of our love.

This is why my friends comment was so suggestive. If I am hardly missed it means to me that I have been doing my job of guiding our church into dependence upon God instead of me. Through the Holy Spirit we can get our needs met by God himself. This is true success. Paul said it this way:

1 Thess 3:8 For now we really live, since you are standing firm in the Lord.

Phil 1:27 Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel.

Church Government

I think that even my title begs the question. We are so used to thinking that the church needs government that such a title passes under gaze so easily that we do not even give it a moments thought. But do churches need government?

My answer is yes, they do. Any time you have more than one person doing things, joint decisions have to be made. The larger the group, the greater the need to be able to coordinate and decide. Who sets the meeting times? Consensus? Ever try to set a meeting time that everyone wants? Someone always has to give in because it will not be the optimum time. What happens when a dominating person, someone who loves to be first as John wrote, keeps hijacking the meetings and trying to draw disciples after themselves? Who deals with this person? What of a person who is sexually seducing people and won't quit, although they have tears when caught? Someone needs to have the authority to handle these situations for the group.

But this is not the type of government that pops into your mind when you read the title on this article, is it? The kind of government that has a sole purpose of serving the group through leadership. The kind of government who's delight is finding and doing the will of our Lord Jesus - not in ordering everyone around so the governors vision and hope gets accomplished to the expense of everyone else's.

But is even this vision of leadership simply a product of the egalitarian age we American's are now living? It very well could be. I can see how in some other culture you can have loving, servant leadership and yet have it come in the form of a hierarchy. It is remarkable how little the Bible actually teaches on how to implement church leadership in practical ways.

But the Bible has lots to say on the ATTITUDES of a leader. We can know the heart of a leader. As so often the case, the Bible is interested more in the attitude by which we do something that what we do. I doubt if we be judged on what we accomplished as much as by the motivation from which we did them.

Jesus warned us of those who would do great miracles and prophecy in His name yet he would tell them that He never knew them. Nothing wrong with what they did, just the way they did them.

We can have all sorts of culturally relevant ways to govern - to provide leadership. What is more important is how and why are we doing it.

Prophetic Nature of the Church

Moses was having a bad day. The whole nation was complaining that they wanted meat, and God was ticked off. People were dying and crying and Moses was tired of carrying the whole weight. So Moses told the LORD, “If this is how you are going to treat me, put me to death right now — if I have found favor in your eyes — and do not let me face my own ruin."

Moses needed help. But God had a solution other than killing Moses. He told Moses that not only was he going to provide meat for the whole nation; he was going to provide them enough meat for a month! And he was also going to get Moses some help. He told Moses to gather together 70 elders and the LORD was going to put some of the Spirit that was upon Moses upon them.

Moses couldn’t believe his ears. Impossible as it was to provide that much meat out in the wilderness, Moses told the people what the LORD had said and gathered together the elders at the meeting tent. Then the LORD came down in a cloud and took of the Spirit that was upon Moses and put it upon the 70 leaders. When this happened they all prophesied. Even two guys who were supposed to be there but stayed behind in the camp also received the Spirit and prophesied.

Now Joshua, Moses’ aide, didn’t like the way this looked, and told Moses so. But Moses replied, "Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the LORD's people were prophets and that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!"

Would Moses get his wish? Nearly every prophet in some way prophesied of a coming time when God’s Spirit would be outpoured. It would be the day of the King and the kingdom. Before the day of Pentecost, after Jesus’ resurrection, the Apostles asked Jesus if this was the time that the kingdom would be restored. This was just after Jesus had taught them over the last 40 days about the kingdom. Jesus didn’t rebuke them for still not understanding, but told them that “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Jesus’ answer, as always, went to the heart of the issue. In lieu of an immediate full and complete manifestation of the kingdom - the restoration of the kingdom – there would be an outpouring of the Spirit in power so that the people of God could be a witness to Jesus throughout the whole world.

As Joel had prophesied, one of the results of the outpoured Spirit would be prophecy. Throughout the book of Acts, when people had the Spirit come upon them, they often prophesied. Paul wrote that we should all “eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy”. Why did Moses and Paul want God’s people to be prophetic? Why does the Holy Spirit desire to manifest himself in the church through prophecy? Is there some aspect of the kingdom of God, and of our witness to Jesus, that cannot be seen apart from the prophetic?

What is prophecy? The prophet Amos wrote, “God has spoken, who can but prophesy?” John, in the book of Revelation, writes that the “Spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus.” Prophecy is where someone, under the direction of the Holy Spirit, says what God is saying to a person, a group, a nation, or a situation. The person acts as God’s voice. This may be about the future, but is also often about the past and the present. In Revelation chapters 2-3 Jesus is seen speaking to the 7 churches. He reveals, through what he tells John to write, something about himself, something about how he sees them, what they have done, are doing, what they should do and what Jesus himself will do. This is the essence of prophecy. It is God personally communicating through his servants his intentions to others.

This is the kind of help Moses needed. He needed others to come alongside and be God’s voice to the people. The load was way too much to bear for one person. Paul wanted us to eagerly desire the supernatural ability to be God’s voice to others. Why? Because Paul wanted us to help each other know God in reality, not just in our imagination. We all want God to genuinely enter into our lives and interact with us. Without prophecy, God can be too distant, intangible, and transcendent. With prophecy we can hear God’s voice in a tangible way. So “if an unbeliever or someone who does not understand comes in while everybody is prophesying, he will be convinced by all that he is a sinner and will be judged by all, and the secrets of his heart will be laid bare. So he will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, "God is really among you!" It is to this reality of God among us that prophecy is meant to be a witness. This is how prophecy builds us up in our faith. Through prophecy we can see Jesus active in our midst.

The gift of prophecy needs to be reclaimed by the church. It has fallen on hard times through misunderstanding, misuse, and abuse. Even the basis for this gift, the outpouring of the Spirit, is either discounted or misapplied. Paul warned us not to be ignorant of these things of the Spirit. Yet much of the body of Christ lives as if prophecy is irrelevant. Because of this, our witness to the world that Christ is among us is often without power. Our impact on the world is not what it could be. And why should we have impact if all we are offering is just another set of ideas and practices, albeit good ones? Paul never wanted the gospel to be presented in this way.

Paul, in writing to the Thessalonians, said “For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction.” They knew that God chose them because the gospel came to them in more than just words, but also in the power of the Spirit. He also wrote to the Corinthians “my message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.”
One of my deep disappointments regarding the emerging church movement is its apparent rejection of the practice of the gifts of the Spirit. In its effort to distance itself from the excesses, doctrinal immaturities, exclusiveness, and fundamentalism of some of the previous ‘Spirit’ movements in the church, it has turned a deaf ear to many of the more dramatic types of genuine Spirit manifestation. Although this is not without some justification, I think that Paul’s exhortation to the Thessalonians that they should not despise prophecy is also applicable to us today.

The passage in Thessalonians reads like this: “Do not put out the Spirit’s fire; do not treat prophecies with contempt. Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil.” As with all of Paul’s exhortations, there was a good reason for giving them. If we could not put out the Spirit’s fire, why would he have exhorted us not to put it out? But what did Paul mean by the Spirit’s fire? Does anyone besides me hear echoes of the words of the prophets? Without the fire of the Spirit the distinction between the holy and the profane would be blurred. Fire marks the line of that which is totally devoted to the Lord from that which is not yet so devoted. But it is the Spirit’s fire, a fire not of our own making. Yet that cannot mean that the Spirit’s fire can burn without our consent and complicity. If it could burn in such a way, without our consent, then how could we put out the Spirit’s fire? So for the fire of the Spirit to burn in us we need to agree with the Spirit. This results in a passion for the things of God – love, holiness, faith, compassion, forgiveness, truth, justice, fidelity, and so on. By agreeing to live like this we are in step with the nature of the Holy Spirit. The more we are consumed by these virtues the more we are ‘on fire’ by the Spirit.

Yet there is an aspect of the Holy Spirit’s fire that manifests itself in the supernatural, in things that happen that defy natural explanation, which we also need to consent to. This will bug the rationalist who must have all things explained in a natural, causative way. The difficulty in explaining the supernatural is that it cannot be explained naturally. How come everyone isn’t healed, or why did God answer that prayer but appears not to have answered this other prayer? The rationalist wants rules so it will work the same way every time. There probably are rules and principles governing the manifestation of the supernatural power of the Spirit of God, but they are not natural rules. This is not magic. It is a relationship with the supernatural Being who made it all and who desires to share his life and power with his children.

Our witness to Christ is that he is real. Prophecy, done rightly, will help to confirm our affirmation that Jesus is risen and is truly among us by the Spirit of God. This is why Jesus wanted the disciples to wait until they had been “clothed with power from on high” before they began their witness. Jesus didn’t want the gospel to be just another religion. He wanted the world to know that he is really the Son of God, the Son of the One-and-Only-Who-Made-it-All. They would need the power of the Spirit to declare this in a manner consistent with the message. Only by a demonstration of the character and power of the Spirit can the church be truly incarnational.

Will Moses get his wish? The potential is there. God has poured out his Spirit. The Church needs to decide if it can have the faith to receive it in order to hear God and say what God is saying. Maybe then we all can be, each in his own way, a prophet of God.