apostolic migration
I want to go back a couple of posts and include a little more detail on Wolfgang's 5 Steps of Apostolic Migration. Incase you are confused he is talking about the enormous paradigm shift required to move from institutional church (which he refers to as the Babylonian system) to what he would suggest as Biblical church. Whatever your feeliong about that the fact remains that it is not a simple matter of switching paradigms like jackets; in our own setting we have found that it has taken most of the 3 years we have been going to make this transition fully.

Here are the 5 steps or stages that people generally undergo as illustrated by this diagram:
And a link to the full article.

Point - 2: This is where most Christians are today as this new move of God unfolds. This is the point of “happy clappy” churchianity where most people are content with where they are in their church experience. When you talk to them about the need for a new paradigm their response is basically, “I have no idea what you are talking about.”

Point - 1: This second point or step in apostolic migration represents people who are no longer satisfied with “happy clappy church” as they have known it. These are people who have heard from God about more authentic expressions of church. They have begun to move in their spirits, but their bodies and their money have not yet moved. They are frustrated pilgrims. Some will move to the next step, while others will not.

Point 0: Welcome to the wilderness. This third step represents frustrated pilgrims who have finally left the old paradigm and are now “out of the system,” but they do not yet know that there is a new paradigm to move into. And there is a reason for this. God knows that it is easier to get a person “out of the system” than it is to get the old system out of the person. For this reason God engineers the wilderness as a place of “spiritual death” to the old, a place of “religious detoxification” where God deals with our “baggage.” It is in the wilderness that God seeks to heal our hurts, wounds, bitterness, anger and other personal “baggage” left over from our journey out of the old. Not everyone “survives” the wilderness experience to emerge healthy at the next Point. Some people are unable to “let go” of the past (past wounds, hurts, betrayals, etc.) in order to embrace God’s future plans. Like the Israelites in the wilderness, some long to return to Egypt , while others perish in the wilderness. But for those who allow God to do his work of “religious detoxification” they begin to experience an alignment of their spirits, both with what God is doing and with other people in whom He is doing it. And soon, it’s time for them to emerge from the wilderness and to step into the next stage of their journey.

Point + 1: This is the stage or point at which people choose to leave the past and the wilderness behind and to “cross over the Jordan ” into the new paradigm of what God is doing. This requires both a leaving (of the old) and a cleaving (to the new). It requires us to “uncovenant” with what has gone before, and to make a new covenant with God’s new unfolding paradigm. It is often at this point that a person’s commitment or lack of commitment to the new paradigm is revealed through statements like, “You mean I must do house church exclusively?” Such a response reveals that the person hasn’t yet caught the vision of God’s new paradigm and is still trying to “straddle” both worlds (the old versus the new). It means they aren’t quite ready to emerge from the wilderness because they haven’t yet fully died to themselves and to the old. In the words of psychologist Dr. Phil McGraw, “You either get it, or you don’t.” This refusal to die to the old while embracing the new can be illustrated from the life of David & Jonathan. In 1 Samuel Chapter 20 David and Jonathan entered into a covenant of blessing with one another and their descendants. Jonathan, the son of King Saul, was the rightful and appointed heir to the throne of Israel . Both he and David knew this. But David was the one anointed by God as the next King. Jonathan saw the future and recognized that the future belonged not to him but to David. David would be King and the reign of the “house of Saul” would soon end. For this reason Jonathan covenanted with David for the future blessing of his descendants (1 Samuel 20:42 ). But the chapter ends with this statement, “Then he rose and departed, while Jonathan went into the city.” In other words, even though Jonathan had recognized the future and covenanted with David, he had not “uncovenanted” from Saul and his system. Jonathan returned to the old and died with his father Saul. When it comes to the new thing God is doing, the new paradigms He is raising up, we must both enter into a covenant with God for the future and “uncovenant” ourselves from the past.

Point + 2: Welcome to the house church movement and the new paradigm that God is raising up in our day. At this point you have died to yourself and the past and have embraced the new thing God is doing. Your work isn’t over. In fact, it’s just beginning.

New Paradigms Arising

So, where are you on this “Apostolic Migration” into God’s new paradigm. Can you place yourself on one of these five “Points”? The simple yet profound truth is that a fresh wind of God’s Spirit is beginning to blow, and it is beginning to challenge the “listening and available” church with new paradigms for the future. The “new thing” God is now unfolding is not simple an “upgrade” of the old. It is a radical shift or change from an old wineskin to a new. Welcome to the house church movement, the new channel through which the River of God ’s Spirit is preparing to flow. When this conversion is complete and a new group of leaders has been prepared, then the River of God ’s Spirit will flow . . . and yes, house church will “take off” in ways we cannot yet imagine.

Many thanks to the guys at The Parousia Network for doing this.

posted by alexander @ 9:12 AM    2 comments  

2 Comments:

Wolfgang's comments are very similar to points made in Kiwi Alan Jamieson's book: A CHURCH FAITH: Faith Journeys Beyond the Churches. In this very helpful small book, he discusses those who hit the 'wall' in the e(vangelical)p(entecostal) c(harismtic) churches, i.e., that point where it no longer is safe to ask the hard questions, that place where people are told, simply, BELIEVE. His progression is (1)disillusioned followers, (2) reflective exiles, (3) transitional explorers, and (4)integrated wayfinders. The book simply underscores what Barna (and others) are saying: many are leaving the church (as we have known it), not because they are losing their faith, but because they want to keep their faith.

By ZooMuse, at 11:10 AM  

Hi Alexander

I responded to your Apostolic Migration post with a few comments on my own blog describing my journey of Paradigm Shift.

I was at St. Tom's in Sheffield on Friday and they have managed to radically restructure church there to be a flexible new wineskin.

I am in a place where I want both to restructure / reform the old along the lines of what they are doing in Sheffield and to plant new churches which have no real constraints from the institutional churches of the past. Both will be doing Kingdom stuff, but I recognise that the latter has the greatest potential for movement to develop.

By Ross Garner, at 11:14 AM  

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