Churches, ministries, or organizations that only minister to large groups will tend to be more shallow in their messages and the equipping of their people. However, churches that only minister to small groups can be deeper, but they, too, can become imbalanced and prideful if they are not joined in some way to a larger group to gather with at times. The healthiest churches tend to be those that have a large gathering for all, yet have a vital small group ministry as well.
As we discuss levels of maturity and levels of ministry, it is a delicate matter. This can create an opening for discrimination and stereotyping, which can be wrong, but like it or not, they are necessary at times. Everyone does it to a degree, regardless of whether they admit it or not. In fact, used rightly, discriminating and stereotyping can be used beneficially to help those who are subject to the discriminating. Just as you must keep infants away from the table where tough meat is being served, or they can choke on it, you discriminate against them for their own safety.
You can discriminate for a group, not against them. Affirmative Action is an example of a government program that discriminates in order to aid a specific people group. You will not hear a minority crying “discrimination” or “stereotyping” when it comes to that program, but it is actually a form of discrimination for minorities and against majorities. This is not a value judgment on whether this is right or wrong, but that it is a fact.
Discrimination not only can be a good thing, used rightly, but it is essential when organizing any group for a purpose. In the military during basic training, gifted people are separated in one area from those who are not. For example, when going through flight training, a person may be brilliant with great multitasking ability, but if he is prone to motion sickness, he will get discriminated against and washed out—for his sake as well as the rest of the force being trained.
Likewise, effective intercessory prayer groups will learn to discriminate against some who are not really devoted to prayer, but may talk too much (sometimes in the guise of a prayer) or otherwise cause a disruption. As Francis Frangipane likes to say, “In prayer and poker, four of a kind beats a full house.” Unity is much more important for prayer than numbers. Likewise, we have strategic prophetic teams that someone has to demonstrate a prophetic gift and a certain amount of maturity before being included in them. If we opened these up to everyone, they would quickly lose their ability to function.
As we have discussed, it is now estimated that the majority of Christians in the U.S. are no longer in a local church fellowship. People have left the fellowship of a local church body for various reasons, but most of those reasons would not exist if there was a clear path toward spiritual advancement and maturity provided. A great frustration will manifest in many ways when people are not challenged to go on to maturity and have a clear path for doing so. Even so, just as schools that lower their standards for promotion are also lowering the quality of the education they provide, standards are important. If you want high level effectiveness, you will have to require high standards.
It is clear in Scripture that we can be as close to the Lord as we want to be. Nowhere does it say that we cannot do what Enoch did—getting so close to the Lord that He just takes us directly to heaven. Nowhere does it say that we cannot be a better prophet than Isaiah, Elijah, or even John the Baptist. In fact, we are all called to exceed what they walked in and actually become like Jesus! He even said that we could do greater works than He did! (see John 14:12) Think about that. He gave us the opening to go as far or as high as we want to go. What a God!
A primary key to mobilizing is vision casting and what greater vision could we possibly have. The Lord also made it clear that the path to fulfillment is to take up our crosses daily, not living for ourselves, but for Him. He basically told us that we must humble ourselves to be exalted, and we have to die in order to live. There is a cost to true discipleship, but it is worth it!
In the Lord, the discrimination is based on heart issues, such as faith, patience, courage, endurance, and above all, love. We can have great knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom, but if we do not have these, we will be poor leaders in His kingdom.
In 1986, I was told by the Lord that some of the most effective leaders of the future church were going to come from professional sports, because what they were learning in sports was essential to a vital church life, and the church did not teach them. This had to do with training, role playing, and teamwork, as well as performance evaluation for determining who got in the game, and who waited, watched, learned, and trained to raise their standards so they could get in the game.
Spiritual competition can be a wide open door for evil, but it can be used for good when it calls others to higher standards. This is why the Apostle Paul talked about the Christian life being like running a race (see Hebrews 12:1). You do not run a race against yourself. I was given a word in 1989 that helped me to understand how this could be used positively. I was told by the Lord that multi-level marketing businesses understood some vital kingdom principles better than the church did. This amazed me as much as the word about some of the greatest leaders coming from professional sports, but it did not take me long to understand what He meant.
In multi-level marketing, only those who help others prosper. In that system, it is actually hoped that some will recruit better than you do, because you will do even better. In Christ, the same is true—our reward will obviously be based on others we have helped. Paul calls them “our crown.”
Another factor in multi-level marketing is an important kingdom truth that much of the church is missing and could really use. When I asked a friend, who was one of the most successful multi-level marketers, what he felt the reason for the success of the system was, he replied that it was the fact that in this system everyone: 1) knew how high they could go, 2) where they were at that time, and 3) what they needed to do to get to the next level. Basically, the path to advancement was made clear. For us, this would be the path to Christian maturity and bearing the most fruit in our lives.
