DEFINITION OF TERMS

THE CONCISE OXFORD DICTIONARY
SERVE:
SERVANT:
SERVICE:
MINISTER:

BIBLE DICTIONARIES
SERVANT OF THE LORD
MINISTER.
TRANSLATION OF 'SERVANT' FROM HEBREW TO ENGLISH
...EBED
...ABAD
...SAKIYR
...SHARATH

Ever since the time when Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, mankind has used this knowledge as a means of exerting authority, one over the other.

The classic way this has been done throughout the millennia has been through an authoritarian structure of, first of all, the family, the basic production unit of early society, and in much more recent times, of business, today's modern production unit.

Other elements of society, such as the army, government and spiritual organizations have developed structures along similar lines, amended to suit their particular requirements.

The 'church' in all its multitudinous variants, has nearly always patterned itself upon this proven worldly example.

Each church or denominational grouping will claim that Jesus is the 'top man' from whom all others take their instructions. The Pope, Bishop, Overseer or whatever name may be given to the most senior human within the organization, will then interpret this. From there, 'God's will' will be transmitted down through the various layers of the hierarchy until it finally reaches the people.

Even 'independent' churches generally follow this traditional pattern, but with less layers of 'management between pastor and people. The pastor - or maybe the elders and deacons - will assume control, passing their instructions from God directly to the congregation. But the same principle applies. It's just that the layers are fewer.

´You´ve only got to look at my face to realise I´m a very integrated person with no hangups at all..

1. Misinterpretation of God's Words
The basic problem under this authoritarianism type system from a church perspective, is what happens when the 'leader' at the top of the pyramid, the one who hears from Jesus, hears incorrectly. Instructions to those below are at best, a mix of God's desires and ones own, at worst, entirely those of the leader. For no human has 100% of the truth, 100% of the time. If one did, he or she would either have reached perfection, or else be God himself!

I have met only 2 people who claimed to have achieved perfection, and in both cases it was soon obvious they hadn't. For the essence of the Christian walk towards maturity is submitting our 'fallen' worldly nature to our 'born again' godly one. Even the great apostle Paul, experienced this - and he wrote two thirds of the New Testament!

So even the godliest person will make mistakes in the interpretation of what God says to and through us.

However, when they exercised their free will and became 'independent' of God, we saw the introduction of a new authority structure, based on the principle of one dominating another. The perfect first example of this is found two chapters later, immediately after the fall, when Cain exerted the ultimate authority by murdering Abel, as he was angry with him.

Abel murdered by his brother Cain (Engraving based on a picture by Vanderwerf).

So mankind's sinful desire to dominate is reflected in the authoritarian style of organisation that so dominates the world and permeates the church.

3. Authoritarianism
…is not God's way. No matter how humble a person is, the insidious nature of an authoritarian, worldly organisation structure will eventually pervade, to a greater or lesser extent, ones personality. So you frequently see leaders starting off as servants in God's will, but gradually formalizing their structures along worldly lines until finally, dogma takes over from Spirit and another denomination or movement emerges, usually under the domineering authority of the person to whom the initial revelation was given. So the Jesus example of servanthood reverts to the worldly way of domination. In fact, it is quite remarkable how similar the 2 words 'domination' and 'd(en)omination are!

...is to get back to a management structure of 'servanthood', both in our lives and the church. This first existed in the Garden of Eden and was later, perfectly modeled by Jesus.

As we will see next week, the transformation from Man's Order to God's Order is achieved through applying a 'mirror image' to traditional organisation structures. By turning the world on its head, by turning the world upside down. Surely, these are highly accurate descriptions of the life of Jesus! He caused a revolution and we need to, too!

This teaching looks at the future 'Bride' church, based on a mirror image of the world's management structure principles. A church putting God's people first.

Then we ask the challenging question, "Who should be leading this radical, God based, organisation?" The answer might surprise you!

It is sobering to think how far away we so easily get from God's Word and His purposes for us. But in these awesome days He is drawing us back towards where He desires us to be. Thank you Lord.

NAPIER

Our family lives in Napier, recognized, along with San Francisco, as being the Art Deco capital of the world. On the 3rd of February 1931 at 10.46am an earthquake, 7.8 on the Richter scale, hit Napier and the surrounding areas. The epicenter was 15kms north of the town. 258 people lost their lives and most of the buildings in the town centre were destroyed either by the quake or the fires that followed. The few that survived were either of wooden construction or the most recently built concrete buildings, which had been reinforced with steel. The entire Hawke’s Bay area had to be resurveyed because of the movement of the land and this began immediately. By May 1932 nineteen new shops were ready and one month later 129 were completed. The Art Deco style was fashionable at the time and it suited the need in Napier for a safe form of construction to protect the town from future earthquakes. It was also a cheap building method being basically a concrete box. Many of the building owners received nothing from their insurance companies, which deemed the quake to be an act of God, not covered by their policies. The new buildings were all constructed of reinforced concrete, the material that had proved itself in the quake. In January 1933 the almost completed reconstruction was celebrated by the New Napier Carnival. Now each year in February the Art Deco Trust stages a festival. The entire area was tilted upward by up to 2.1 metres causing the water in the Inner Harbour, 300hectares of shallow lagoon, to drain out to sea and by the next day most of the water had gone. The Harbour Board began a drainage scheme and by the mid 1930s some areas were producing crops and although salinity is still a problem in some parts, the old sea floor is now a richly productive area. The Airport is situated where yachts once sailed and suburbs now stand on the former swampy southern reaches of the lagoon, which became totally high and dry. The total area raised was 40 sq. kms. A great place to live - now! I lost an Auntie in the quake, who was killed on only her second day at school.