March 2004 Newsletter

WHAT IS GOD’S GOAL FOR THE CHURCH?

Even after Jesus had risen from the dead, His apostles did not comprehend His kingdom or the way the Gospel is to work in this age, between the resurrection/ascension of our LORD and His return. In Acts 1:6, they were still asking questions based on a worldly, temporal view of Jesus and His kingdom. Today in much of the church the attitude of many in leadership in the Body is permeated by worldly, temporal thinking. Most seem afraid to ask basic questions of God and His Word. Rather men shore up their own traditions and ways of doing things, particularly their institutions and power structures, against the Word of God. So many are unwilling to question, to challenge, to speak the Word of God only, and unwilling to step out in obedience to the calling of the LORD, "Follow me and I will make you become fishers of men" Mk.1:17. Simon and Andrew "immediately left their nets and followed Him" v18.

IT IS TIME FOR THE FIVEFOLD MINISTRY TO EQUIP THE SAINTS

All over the church world, there are high levels of dissatisfaction. Many saints and generally younger leaders in the church, are no longer prepared to go along with the system, whether it be the mainline traditional church order, or even the supposedly successful pentecostal church.

WHAT IS THE BIBLICAL NATURE OF CHURCH MEMBERSHIP?

There are and always has been viable alternatives according to the word of God. One of the basic questions that troubles church leaders is ‘church membership’. The saints are referred to as the church members not referring to their God-given place as members in His body, 1 Cor.12:18 but referring to their membership of the local fellowship. There seems to be an ignoring of the commands of Jesus to make disciples, Matt.28:19-20, and to raise up workers for the harvest, Lu.10:1-2.

JESUS SAID TO MAKE DISCIPLES

It does not matter how many souls our church or denomination or ministry win to the LORD, it will never fulfil Jesus’ command, because the commands of Jesus go far beyond winning souls and filling seats in church buildings. I was speaking to a pastor not so long ago who is on the staff of a very large church [numbering tens of thousands] and he said ‘our vision, and our church, is evangelistic’. Great! Those brothers take the Great Commission seriously in terms of preaching the gospel and gaining converts, Mk. 16:15-16. However the church of Jesus Christ is more than evangelistic. It is apostolic! It is prophetic! It is pastoral! It is to exercise an awesome teaching ministry that changes the new believers into committed disciples, everyone of them, then equipping them to go out to preach the gospel and make more disciples! While ever we continue to build local churches where believers are gathered together, preached to, taught to some extent, but never discipled and equipped for ministry, we are not fulfilling Jesus’ clear command.

++HAVE YOU THOUGHT OF ATTENDING OUR MIDYEAR TRAINING SCHOOL?++

MINISTRY TRIP REPORT

Recently a team of four from RMA in Toowoomba went on a ministry trip for eight days travelling 2900kms. We actually visited 11 towns and cities, meeting with brethren in every place. We had at least 18 different fellowship times, 15 of them being in homes, the other 3 being held in public halls. We came home enriched because of the experience of ministry and fellowship in each place and the enhancement of relationship with various saints. However the highlight of the trip was a weekend of ministry on a farm property north of Proserpine. We have been there to house church meetings before, but this time our hosts had recently withdrawn from a mainline denominational church because of the unbiblical direction of that church. They asked for water baptism, which had been denied them in the denomination they had grown up in and served in for many years. Up to 20 people gathered for the meetings: there were four significant teaching sessions, there was a real baptism in the creek on the property – some said it was the most significant experience of baptism they had ever witnessed – there was wonderful fellowship over meals.

Each one has something to contribute

On the Saturday evening 17 gathered and we asked the Holy Spirit to lead the meeting, following the instructions in 1 Cor.14:26-39, and for one and a half hours we experienced an awesome time as the Lord prompted various ones to contribute and lead in the meeting in anointed gifts according to the Word.

The key to any successful meeting is the anointing

On the Sunday morning 19 saints gathered and again we experienced a profound time in the anointings the Lord released. One sister who could not come on the Saturday and who had never been to a house church before, shared how she was so blessed to have experienced such an anointing in the midst. She said she did not need individual prayer as the Lord had already ministered to her wonderfully.

Healing the wounded, restoring them to minister

A brother had shared privately how he had been deeply wounded by a pastor in a church. This lead to him not flowing in an anointed gifting that he had previously been able to minister in powerfully. We were able to minister healing and restoration to this brother and then he lead ministry through the word of knowledge, firstly for healing needs and then stepping out to speak words from the Lord over people’s lives. We were in awe as we witnessed this wonderful healing. It was like watching a person being able to walk again who had been crippled. The crippling was of the person’s ability to exercise the spiritual gift God had given him.

Other ministry news

Another team has arrived from a southern trip visiting house churches. They also have come back with awesome reports of what God did in the midst.

We also welcome Pastor Jean and Bruce Manning home from India. Jean had been away for nearly 2 months, going firstly to Myanmar and then on to India, Bruce having joined her for the Indian leg. Jean will forward reports in due time.

DISCIPLINED READING OF THE SCRIPTURE

In late September last year, we at SHILOH embarked on a disciplined reading of the Scripture. Initially we decided to read the 4 gospels in 30 days, there being 89 chapters. This was so successful, encouraging everyone who was involved, that we continued reading through the New Testament, 3 chapters per day and we completed the New Testament before Christmas. We were enjoying this so much, we decided to read the whole Bible through in 2004. There are 1189 chapters in the Bible. To cover all the chapters we are reading 2 chapters from OT and 1 chapter from NT, five days per week and on the other two days reading 4 chapters from OT. We began our reading in Genesis 1, Psalm 1 and Matthew 1. We recommend such an approach to Scripture reading and study to all.

Training Day at SHILOH – Saturday 17^th April, 10.30-5pm – more details to come.

Mission Trip to Mauritius and Africa from March 16^th to April 27^th – if wish to be on an e-mail information for prayer list please notify us.

Training Day at SHILOH - Saturday 1^st May, 10.30-5pm – welcome home for team from overseas. Ministry led by Paul Galligan

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