Unleashing the Church

By Phillip Walker, PhD

THE FROG IN THE KETTLE
Have you heard the story about the frog in the pot? Place a frog in a
pot of cold water, slowly heat the water. The frog does not notice the
increased heat because it is so gradual and done slowly over a long
time. Eventually, the water reaches the point of boiling, and the frog
expires without ever making a move to get out of the pot!
The Global Church is much like the frog in the kettle. In many parts of
the world, churches have moved from being a relevant spiritual force in
their communities, to being a lukewarm center of social activity.
This is clearly seen in the marketplace, as Christians have become
tasteless salt and dim lights in the workplaces where they are called to
serve. Like the frog in the pot, we feel the church is reaching a boiling
point.
In history, when the local church becomes the primary focus as
opposed the Church as the Body of Christ the water begins to heat up
rapidly. When the local church moves from discipling its members to
purpose and becomes the hub of ministry, the true Church loses its
focus of being light and leaven in the community and workplace.
Community churches and denominations need to step back and ask
the simple questions, what is our primary reason for existing? While
there are many choices, at the center is the calling of the church is
found in Ephesians 4:12-13 (NLT) 12 Their responsibility is to equip
Gods people to do his work and build up the church, the body of
Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith
and knowledge of Gods Son that we will be mature in the Lord,
measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.
To dial
back the hot water means to return to the calling and purpose of God.
The community church is where Gods people, the real Church, gather
together under Godly leadership to be discipled to the purpose for
which it was created. We believe this is corrected through programs
like International Christian Ministries' (ICM) Discipling Marketplace
Leaders program.

It is time to get out of the water and unleash the church.

A CALLING IGNORED
In 2004 the Lausanne Commission recognized the critical need for
community churches and marketplace business leader to join forces to
be an ever brighter light to the world around them. They made the
following recommendations:
We call upon the Church worldwide to identify, affirm, pray for,
commission and release business people and entrepreneurs to exercise
their gifts and calling as business people in the world among all
peoples and to the ends of the earth.
We call upon business people globally to receive this affirmation and to
consider how their gifts and experience might be used to help meet
the worlds most pressing spiritual and physical needs through
Business as Mission.
The role of the local church is to disciple its members to be Gods
ambassadors in and through their daily actions, seven days a week.
This discipling to the purpose of being light in the marketplace ensures
that business people will live out their calling as Christs ambassadors,
and move out of the four walls of the church into the four corners of
the marketplace. This leads to increased members, giving,
commitment and godliness of all members of the local church.
RENITA REED-THOMPSON
For several years Renita Reed-Thompson worked in the field of
business development through Christian nonprofit organizations in
West Africa. She found the work to be successful as business owners
grew in wealth and jobs were created, there appeared to be little
connection between business life and community church life. Instead,
the focus was on building successful businesses, increasing the
prosperity of the owners.
Making matters even more challenging, as Renita looked for guidance
in addressing this problem from leaders in the Business as Mission
(BAM) movement, she was told that a link between business and
pastors would not work. At this point, she cried out to God for direction.

She did not want to be involved in producing wealth and prosperity

without fulfilling Gods call to see every believer transformed to be
more like Jesus.
DISCIPLING MARKETPLACE LEADERS
It was during this time Renita met Dr. Phil Walker, President, and cofounder of ICM. Through their conversations, Dr. Walker affirmed
Renitas sense of disconnect between businesses and church and
encouraged and challenged Renita to take the work she was doing in
the church. He invited her to visit ICM's Africa Theological Seminary,
located in Kitale, Kenya, and once there she began teaching pastors
about the important role they have in discipling business leaders.
With the encouragement of Dr. Walker, Renita launched a Discipling
Marketplace Leaders (DML) pilot project in Western Kenya, targeting
six churches in three towns, and over 250 businesses. In each town,
one church acted as the control church, and one church participated in
the DML pilot project. In the project, pastors were taught to disciple
and encourage business people in their communities while opening up
their churches to being centers of training, mentoring and equipping,
using a curriculum Renita developed.
After 18 months, the research produced the following results in the
project churches:

Growth in membership, attendance, giving

Growth in participation of business people in overall church activities
Growth in spiritual formation through discipleship
85% increase in sales for participating businesses, on average
120% increase in household income for business owners, on average
DML has left the pilot stage and is proving its viability in other areas
and countries.
The health of a community church is measured by the health of its
members as they live out their calling to glorify God in all aspects of
their lives. As business people see this as true for the workplace, they
increasingly discover new opportunities to go and make
disciples beyond the walls of the local church.

There is a clear, Biblical call for each person to be discipled to purpose

to be the church every day of the week in every part of the community.
As it continues to grow, the goal of ICMs Discipling Marketplace
Leaders is to help every Christian understand that they are called to
ministry seven days a week as they carry out their work and activities
in the Marketplace: from business to government to education. Gods
real Church, His people, are the hands, feet and heart unleashed from
the building to building the Church in the lives of individuals.
UNLEASHING THE CHURCH
As we are discipled to the purpose of being the Church in the
community, we become unleashed from the four walls of the church
building to be light in the Marketplace. Peter repeats to Old Testament
call in 1 Peter 2:9 (NLT) , for you are a chosen people. You are
royal priests, a holy nation, Gods very own possession. As a result,
you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the
darkness into his wonderful light.
We have been called to show others the goodness of God to see the
transformation of our communities with the light of Jesus Christ - and it
is clear that this is not primarily done in a building, but in the
community. Our goal is to help community church leaders disciple their members for
the purpose of living for Jesus in business, education, and government. As members come
to the realization that their calling to the community arena is just a sacred as the pastors
call to the pulpit, we will see the true Church, Gods people, unleashed to take the Good
News of the Kingdom to the whole world. Learning to live for Jesus in the local
community equips them to live for Jesus in the Global Village and provides them with a
vision and assurance that in Christ, I can do all things (Phil. 4:13).
CONCLUSION
The first century Church committed itself to seeing Christ manifested in
their lives. They focused on living for Jesus. They gathered together to
worship, share the sacraments, pray and most importantly grow in the
grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus (2 Peter 3:18). The proof of
the vitality of the Church is what they do in their families and
communities. There were far more time and energy expended in living
for Jesus in their work than attending programs in their churches.
When community church programs shift from training and equipping
there is also a swing from the Church as Gods people to the church as
the local building.
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It is time to check the heat of the water! Are you content and
complacent or are you learning to reach beyond yourself and the next
program to be Gods light to people around you? A genuine test of
every community church is not the pews warmed but the lives
changed. Lets work together to unleash the church from the building
to shine the love of Christ in the community.
Want to know more about Discipling Marketplace Leaders? Visit our
website Here, or email us at: infodml@icmusa.org.
Also see an expanded version: Here