Last week, in discussing how the Lord refers to Himself as "the Lord of armies" more than ten times as much as all of His other titles, He obviously considers this aspect of His leadership as primary to His purpose. We will see this aspect becoming primary in the church in the times to come, but we must always keep in mind that the Lord's ways are higher than our ways, and His military demeanor, in many ways, will be different from the world's ways.
As we have covered before, the Lord is the Creator who loves diversity so much that He even makes every snowflake different. Yet, in the military, the great devotion and much of the training is toward uniformity. They wear uniforms; learn to march in line; and pilots learn to fly in formation. Doesn't this seem to be in basic conflict with the Lord's devotion to diversity? From a lower, human perspective it might, but not from the higher, heavenly perspective.
If you look at your yard, every blade of grass in it is unique in some ways and uniform with the others in some ways. If you get down on your knees, you may be able to see how every blade has a unique size, and to some degree a unique color, or other aspects that set it apart from the other blades. If you stand up, or look at a higher perspective, it looks increasingly uniform.
For years, I have spent some time studying the U.S. military because of the radical change it has gone through since the 1960s. It is such a large bureaucratic, traditional organization in many ways, and yet it has also become one of the most innovative, creative military forces that has ever existed. Not only does the U.S. military seize modern technology, it creates it, often running years, if not decades ahead of what seeps down to business and industry.
Even before these times, the greatest military leaders in history have always been the most creative ones. They would think of new strategies and ways to use the forces or assets available to them which others had not thought of. This was the secret to Napoleon's success, who thought "out of the box" like no one else in his time, and is still studied by probably every significant military force in the world today.
The truly creative musicians and artists are those who know the fundamentals so well and are so disciplined in them that they can extend them without creating chaos, but rather a higher level of harmony. You will find in every field, including sports, business, and even in ministry, that those who are the most successful, and who can be the most creative, are those who do the basics best. This ability to know the basics and do them well while being able to think creatively is especially true for the most challenging leadership of all—leadership in times of transition.
Going back to the three phases of work, which we derived from the three phases of the tabernacles and temples, Phase I is the initial saving stage where the purpose is basic rescue. This would be the revival stage or pioneering stage in mission work. This stage takes a special mentality which God has gifted but a few with, though almost all want to claim it. In disaster response, this is where you will find the most chaos, but also witness the most dramatic miracles, and therefore will have the most excitement.
In military terms, these Phase I operators are the Marines who hit the beaches first and the Special Forces who dropped behind the lines. Ideally, these troops should be relieved after the beachhead is established and the main force has landed. Once their objective is accomplished, they need to be pulled out, have their wounds healed, their casualties replaced, and their equipment needs to be restored in order to be ready to go into a Phase I operation again.
Special Forces such as Delta Force, Navy Seals, and Air Force Combat Controllers may be some of the most effective fighters in the world at their type of combat, but they are not trained to fight in the trenches in standard combat operations and would be wasted there. When they are not in actual operations, they live for training to hone their skills more and more. They are also taught to be resourceful and innovative, being able to see and evaluate their positions and the conditions, as well as those of their enemy, to seize every advantage and opportunity as quickly as possible.
This is one reason why we started our Special Forces Missions (SFM) training, and they will form into our SFM teams. Their training and deployment is very specialized. As I write this, they are in a jungle in Central America. Next year, they will be based in a remote part of Africa. As they develop, we expect them to be able to go into almost any situation, anywhere, and do the work of the ministry, saving lives and saving souls.
Our SFM training physically, mentally, and spiritually is far more challenging than our other School of Ministry students go through, but they are a specialized group. However, to put them into a typical church pastorate would be foolish. Neither they, nor the church, would likely survive it.
Likewise, only a small percentage of our students would even qualify to go through this training, and they would have a hard time making it where our SFM go. I think our general School of Ministry graduates could do well in either Phase II or III operations, but they should go on to specialize in one or the other for maximum fruitfulness. We also expect some of our SFM people to transition into Phase II or III operations in due time, into which I would expect them to bring considerable resourcefulness and creativity.
I had a leading from the Lord to study our U.S. Special Forces, as well as the whole military, for an understanding of what the church is going to be like in the time to come. I am convinced that it was the development of Special Forces that injected a devotion to excellence and increasingly higher standards that soon impacted the whole military. Now, a general recruit going into the army is probably better trained than Special Forces were just a couple of decades ago, and the Special Forces keep going higher. The development of weapons, tactics, and strategies are keeping pace too. We will see this also happening in the church, which in some ways is also a huge bureaucratic organization, steeped in tradition.
Some of the greatest Christian missionaries who have ever lived are probably alive and serving today. Even so, overall between 90 and 95 percent of Christian missions are either ineffective or counter-productive. Those who are accomplishing something are so mismanaged that they are usually devoting 90 percent of their resources to what is probably producing less than 10 percent of the fruit. Now these are generalizations, and do not apply to all, but they are generally true. This must and will change.
Most of the ineffective missionaries would probably be much more effective if they were in the right places, serving in the right phase of ministry. Many who are trying to be Phase I were created to be Phase II or III. Many are trying to be Phase I, II, and III all at the same time, and therefore cannot do any of them well. This is the result of a basic lack of coordination within the body of Christ, and will only be remedied when we come into more unity.
One example of this was when we started digging wells in Africa. We quickly happened upon information that about 5,000 wells had been dug in the general region of Africa by other ministries and missions, but only a small fraction of them were still working. Why? Because no one had put them on a maintenance schedule or trained the locals to maintain them. Many were no longer working for the lack of a $5 part. We should be thankful for those who had the devotion to dig them in the first place, but how much better would it be if we had a more long-term vision for them and established a basic maintenance schedule to keep them working?
This was symbolic to the way missions in general had been done there. Phase I, digging the well, had been effectively done, but there was no Phase II establishing and maintaining that had even been set up. Then Phase III, multiplication by teaching those who had received a well to learn how to dig one, and having those who received a well learn how to give by helping their neighbors, did not seem to be in anyone's mind.
Crusades in Africa are often done the same way. Millions are coming to Christ in Africa, which we should all rejoice in, but how much more and lasting fruit would there be if apostles, prophets, pastors, and teachers followed the great evangelists into a region and established the believers in the faith?
Right now pastors of large churches in Africa only have one sermon, the one they heard when they got saved, which is what they preach week after week. Thank the Lord for such faithfulness, but with the abundance of great teachers we have in the West we should be able to help establish some of the best ministry schools in the world, anywhere in the world. Right now most of this teaching just goes to those who already have too much!
Much of this is going to quickly change because the possessiveness and territorial attitudes that have prevailed over much of the church are being broken through. Mature leaders are being raised up who are secure enough not to be threatened by those who are different from them, but are starting to recognize how the differences complement each other instead of conflict with each other. There are Phase I, Phase II, and Phase III movements in the body of Christ, and if they start working together, will become the most powerful and effective force on the planet. Remember, unity does not just increase our authority, but it multiplies it, just as it was promised that one could put a thousand to flight, but two would put ten thousand to flight.
We have nothing to lose and everything to gain by unifying under one Head, who is Christ. The first to do it will receive the greatest rewards. Why wait? What could we do this week to bring interchange, increasing trust, and increasing unity in the church? One thing I have tried to do for many years now is do at least one thing each week that will help to bring unity to the church. Sometimes it is trying to introduce different ministries to each other—sometimes it is writing letters of introduction. I host roundtables and invite people from different streams to speak at the same conference, etc., but if this was one of the main things on the Lord's heart, I want to keep it as one of the main purposes on my heart. I have also noticed that the more I do this, the more it encourages others to do it. What would happen if all of us started promoting unity in the church? Someone is going to do this—why not us?
