POWER FLOWS THRU STRUCTURE

This is an extremely important concept I learned from Dr. David Lim.

Lim is a proven spiritual leader who has served as pastor of Grace Assembly of God in Hongkong & as President of the Asia Pacific Theological Seminary in Baguio City, Philippines. You may have read his book Spiritual Gifts: A Fresh Look. 

One of the pastors in our weekly meeting was having real headaches getting her people to come out to the weekly prayer meeting on Wednesday evenings at the church. When we would visit her church on Sundays, she would announce the service & encourage the people to attend. But rarely would more than just a few show up.

A few months ago we began to discuss this concept of power flowing thru structure in our weekly meeting, & she changed how she did the weekly prayer meeting. Instead of holding it at the church, she asked families in the church to host it on a rotating basis.

To her amazement, the people took ownership of it & really got involved. Now, every week it is a time of rejoicing & effective prayer together. Being an expectant mother, she can’t always be there. But, no problem – it still goes on, & the people are seeing a lot of answers to prayer. They are excited to be a part of it.

Power flows thru structure. Her people are experiencing God’s power because the change in the structure facilitates an occasion where they can more readily be touched by His power & grow together.

Too often we try to get the people in our churches to conform to what the schedule, program, organization, building, etc. requires. But all the time our responsibility is to help them conform to the image of Christ, not to the structure that is in place.

What is the purpose of an organizational flow chart, service schedule, church building, etc?

If it is not serving the ultimate purpose of glorifying God thru the making of disciples in the image of Christ, it may be time to look at some kind of change.