Vision for Brisbane Church Team
Please note: this is a “living document”. It will be enhanced over time.
Authority and Identity
Who we are
- We are part of the church in Brisbane. And we belong to Jesus Christ. Churches do not belong to men, but the care of them may be entrusted to a number of men. God is leading us to form a very missional apostolic team at this stage. We are to build on a foundation of Jesus Christ and biblical evangelism. More on this later.
Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. (Acts 20:28)
Elders do not need to be appointed by men, although they usually are. At the end of the day, it is the Holy Spirit, who is the ultimate authority on the earth today, who has the right to lead the way, and set people in ministries and so on.
Without leadership, we get chaos. But leadership should be bringing the best out in everyone, and getting them moving forward in their gifting and calling. That will benefit the most people long term.
What Needs to Be Restored
Things could be talked about. We all know in part, see in part, prophesy in part and so on. Many good elements are already present. There are churches which help the poor, speak in tongues, pray, sing to God, teach the Bible, organise small groups and more.
Turning from darkness to light is foundational.
I [Jesus] now send you, 18 to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified[d] by faith in Me. (Paul in Acts 26:17-18)
Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel [f]of the kingdom of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1:14)
We see that the Gospel of the Kingdom needs to be taught and preached. Jesus taught and preached the Kingdom of God.
And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people. Then His fame went throughout all Syria; and they brought to Him all sick people who were afflicted with various diseases and torments, and those who were demonized,, epileptics, and paralytics; and He healed them.
(Matthew 4:23-24)
“how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him, 4 God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will? (Hebrews 2:3-4)
God the Holy Spirit will still confirm the message of the gospel / Good News of the Kingdom with signs and wonders, various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will.
The true gospel of the Kingdom is not limited to a plan to barely get you into heaven by somehow accepting Jesus and accepting a message of forgiveness of sins, through grace. It includes these things but also includes a message of repentance – turning from darkness to light – faith, the Holy Spirit, casting out demons, water baptism and following Jesus, obedience to God, righteousness, peace, joy in the Holy Spirit and casting out demons.
Demons are there in Christians all too often even if someone has a theology which says they are not, or can’t be.
“And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. 16 He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. 17 And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues;
Mark 16:15-17
Early Stages Ministry
- Team forming
- Clean Up Ministry
Team Forming
God is leading us to come together as a team to see the restoration of this kind of ministry on a weekly basis. At this stage, we need a strong foundation of evangelism and gospel preaching with signs and wonders, supported by prophetic ministers.
We need to pray for each other in the team DAILY as we will all face challenges and opposition from Satan. Guaranteed.
We have victory through obedience to the Lord.
Doing Spiritual Clean Up Ministry
We need a team to cast out demons. Any Christian or unbeliever who comes to us seeking deliverance from evil spirits will be urged to repent and receive healing and deliverance from the gracious hand of the Lord through us.
It is not safe or sustainable to cast out demons as an individual operating alone and without prayer support. This means, you can do it for a while, but in the end, something will go wrong unless you have the right prayer support. You will get out of your depth and be unable to handle the satanic opposition without support from the Body of Christ.
God In, Devil Out
Our immediate plan is to teach and preach the gospel in such a way that those coming get the the devil / demons OUT of their life, and get the Holy Spirit IN, and start to become houses of prayer and full of the Spirit themselves, especially through much prayer in tongues and in the Holy Spirit.
This is the first step for everyone. It is also an ongoing commitment. When a person is committed to following Jesus in this way, they should be baptized in water by full immersion.
Getting people continually filled with the Holy Spirit, delivered from demons and onto the Word of God and self-discipline WILL result in a great flow of both the fruit and the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Activities in Meetings
Remembering Jesus in the Lord’s supper as He commanded us.
Singing praise to God.
Praying for people, and leaders in society.
Preaching / teaching the gospel.
Gifts of the Holy Spirit.
We need to know people before we allow them to minister in the gifts, or to lay hands on anyone.
Bible Reading and Teaching
2 or 3 speakers.
Eating together
Giving – our focus will be on the poor and on missions.
Other Activities
Planning outreach as led by the Spirit.
Fellowship activities
Song Writing
Testimonies that Glorify God
Development of Ministries
Counselling and Hearing People’s Stories
Mentoring
How Ministry Gifts Can Unfold
We learn by doing, not by being suppressed. But we need to learn in a safe environment which is regulated enough to be safe.
Principles
Learn to Be Succinct
Seek God before meetings, get something from the Word or the Spirit and learn to communicate effectively in as few words as possible. Make it powerful, potent and short.
Prepare by Being Filled with the Spirit and Studying and Meditating
If you haven’t prepared yourself, don’t expect to take up meeting time and be heard in depth. You should find another time to do that. There are times outside the meetings to be spent on counselling and fellowship and encouragement and hearing the story of all that has happened.
To be effective we need to give ourselves to:
Praying in tongues
Meditating on the word
Fasting from food at times and keeping our appetites under control
Different Kinds of Ministry
Some are more evangelistic, some more prophetic, some excel in teaching while others excel in grace to pastor and gently lead people into wise living without driving them away. We need all this grace. We don’t want to become unbalanced by giving all the focus to just one or two types of ministry.
We could say there are 4 basic types of ministry gifts with apostolic leadership being able to move in any of them as required.
Seeking the Lord for Corporate Vision
Hopefully we will be led to come together more than once per week so we can pray. Maybe we will do this online if that is the most convenient way forward.
Long Term Vision
Many of us are called to be pioneers or team members in pioneering works. The long term vision is to send and multiply laborers in the harvest who will be effective in multiplying churches through the operation of the various forms of ministry that God gives by His grace.
So we want to be able to GIVE financially to support missions. We also want to be able to give to the poor.
Buildings and So On
We should be adaptable. Larger meetings and house meetings can have their place. We need to adapt to the needs at the time.
House meetings are a low cost way to do church. BUT they place an enormous burden on the host or hostess. This is not sustainable for many Australians who are bi-vocational. Therefore, unless people come together to help, or the burden can be shifted around, we won’t try to put all this load on people, unless they are so led to do that.
Rented buildings
We have now rented the church building at Mt Gravatt Showgrounds for 5 and a half hours 1pm to 6:30 pm on Sundays – cost is $200/week.
We need to collect offerings or receive contributions. Again, the burden should not fall on one or two people.
Rented buildings can allow for mass deliverance.
Children and Teenagers
We want to include children as much as possible in the meetings we do. If people are called especially to teach children, we can embrace that. It is a lot of work.
This means, we must keep our teaching and preaching also relevant to children, making it applicable and helpful for them as well.
We may need to hire two buildings eventually – one for children’s ministry.
Music
We can have karaoke videos, we can have guitar accompanied music. We want it to be so that people can hear themselves sing, rather than passively watch a bunch of professionals and kind of mumble along.
Learning to praise God well from the heart is important. It drives the devil away, creates an atmosphere of comfort and Holy Spirit anointing, and gives expression to joy and thankfulness.