Mega-church Meta-church

MEGA CHURCH TO META (BEYOND) CHURCH

Victor Choudhrie, July 18, 2010

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

1. Rewrite the job description of the professional clergy from that of a pulpit orator, sacrament dispenser and tithe gatherer, to that of a shepherd who feeds his flock to be healthy and reproducing, by encouraging them to practice the priesthood of all believers with authority to baptize, break bread and equip fishers of men. He must model a flat church structure wherein brothers and sisters submit to one another, pray one for another, serve one another, exhort, forgive and love each other. John 13:34-35; Matt.18:21-22; Eph. 5:21

2. Move from meeting in temples to gathering in ‘houses of peace’. ‘God does not dwell in temples made by human hands’; rather He dwells in human hearts. For we are the mobile walking and talking temples of the living 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 intimacy with her Lord every day, not only for a couple of hours a week, lest she become unfaithful. However, discourage cross-gender disciple-making, lest chemistry foul things up. Acts 2:46-47; Heb. 3:13

4. Replace Mosaic tithing with Christian sharing, thereby harnessing the enormous, financial resources, hospitality and goodwill available in Christian homes. Believe that God is going to work a work among the nations through you, which will leave you utterly amazed, and also provide 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 of bread with simple Agape meals (love feasts) from house to house, that believers take with glad hearts, ‘and the Lord added to His numbers daily’. The Lord served roast lamb, bitter herbs, bread and wine ‘in a house’ for the Last Supper. Father God had lunch with Abraham under a tree and discussed Sarah’s pregnancy, Sodom’s ruin and Lot’s rescue plan. Acts 2:46-47; 1 Cor.11:20-23; Gen. 18

6. Replace professional music with believers speaking to each other in psalms and spiritual songs, making melody in their hearts to the Lord. OT worship required the sacrifice of four-footed beasts; the NT celebrates by offering two-legged Gentiles as a living sacrifice. The meta-church is a discipling hub and not a singing club. Eph 5:19; Col 3:16; Rom. 15:16

7. Shift from being a spectator-oriented church to a ‘metastasizing’, interactive, participatory, prophetic church. Empower men, women and youth, to get the dragon off the driver’s seat. We, the seed of Abraham are blessed; “with multiplying I will multiply you and your seed will possess the gates of the enemy”. It is time Abraham’s seed got on the driver’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, regional and national networks of ‘meta’ (beyond) churches. Instead of gathering under one roof, have them gather under a thousand roofs, just like the mega church at Jerusalem planted meta-churches across Judea, Samaria, Antioch, Corinth, Rome and beyond (Gk. meta) that grew in faith and in numbers (both quality and quantity), daily. Rom. 16:3-15; Acts 1:8; 16:5

9. Infect the barren Bride with the multiplication virus. A healthy mature female (Bride) implies that she is ready to have babies. Rebecca, the Bride 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 the left and to the right, to the north and to the south, to produce millions of meta-churches, and fill the earth. Gen. 24:60; Isa. 54:1-5; Acts 1:8

10. Know your identity in Christ: You are a royal-priest, made so by the blood of the Lamb. Dismantle the ‘Reverend’ culture that divides clergy from layman. Like Melchizedek, the royal-priest of Salem (City of Peace), who served bread and wine, took a tithe and blessed Abraham, bring godly governance to your city. Catch the vision of cloning royal-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 enunciate a clear vision and to lay out a road map to translate that vision into action plans to ‘do greater things than these’. Armed with maps, stats and the Great Commission, go two by two and teach the divine arithmetic of planting just one multiplying church every month. In ten short months, even the least shall plant a thousand meta-churches. John 14:12; Acts 16:5; Luke 10:1-2; Isa. 60:22

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

13. Resurrect from being a dead organization to a living organism. Replace all extra-biblical, cosmetic titles like Director, Chairman, CEO, and Secretary by appointing five-fold ministry-gifted Elders, like apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers, as equippers. Healthy feeding and leading will keep the flock thriving and fertile and 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’s fellowship, 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. 1 Cor. 16:19; Col. 4:15; Acts 19:8-12

15. Filter out non-performing goats who come only for hatching (baby baptisms), matching (weddings) and dispatching (funerals), and replace them with sheep who take care of the hungry, thirsty, naked, strangers, sick and prisoners. Culling the non-productive sheep is an integral part of the ‘best practices’ of sheep rearing. God chose David to shepherd 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 of truth-seekers for a meal where the main dish is - The Lamb. Redefine authentic church as wherever two or three friends meet to eat, to gossip the gospel, and to multiply. Meta-church is the most cost effective strategy for city penetration and reaching the ends of the earth. Acts 2:46-47

17. Replace seminary training with sharing the whole wisdom of God from house to house. Sound doctrine is the ability to convince those who oppose. The lost of this world do not need scholars as much as they need spiritual fathers and mothers who bring many spiritual sons and daughters to glory. Acts 20:20, 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 the kitchen queen; you are a full-time minister there and accountable. Adam and 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 send you 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 not worth going to. 1 Tim. 2:8; Isa. 6:1

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

21. Adopt a ‘completion mindset’. Evaluate your ministry by the Great Commission as its mandate, and for benchmarks the numbers of disciples made, baptized, equipped and sent out. Aim to become a millionaire of souls. Why not? After all, you believe in a great, awesome God for whom nothing is impossible. At the very least, like Peter, shoot for 3000 baptisms by every Pentecost. Or like Paul, plant a multiplying church every day, till you can claim that there are no more places left here for you to ‘fully preach the gospel’, not just with words, ‘but with signs and mighty deeds’. Acts 2:41; 16:5; Rom. 15:19, 23

Shalom and Shalom again
Email: greettheekklesia@gmail.com
Date: July 18, 2010

Victor Choudhrie is a cancer surgeon by profession. He is a Senior Fellow of the American and British Colleges of Surgeons. He left his position as Director and CEO of the Christian Medical college, Ludhiana, Punjab, India, in 1992, to take up a full-time Church planting ministry in central India. His wife, Bindu, is also in a full-time church planting ministry, equipping women to be house-church leaders and trainers. They now have disciples making disciples in some forty countries. Theirs is presently amongst the fastest growing movements deploying volunteers with no paid workers in the field. God has blessed this ministry abundantly. In the year from Pentecost 2009 to Pentecost 2010, over one million underwent a ‘holy dip’ through their ministry partners. Large numbers of grassroots level leaders have been trained, who, subsequently, have planted tens of thousands of house churches across India and abroad.
Books written by Victor Choudhrie include: The Ekklesia: the Church in your House; The Apostolic Gardens; The Prayer Warrior; Teaching Cards and From Mega Church to Meta (Beyond) Church, soon to be published. Electronic copies are available on payment of US$10 via PayPal for vchoudhrie@gmail.com