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All rights reserved. This book is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. This book may not be copied or reprinted for commercial gain or profit. The use of short quotations or occasional page copying for personal or group study is permitted and encouraged.

Unless otherwise annotated all Scriptures are taken from the NEW KING JAMES VERSION. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. - Scripture quotations marked (NAS) taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960,1962,1963,1968,1971,1972,1973,1975,1977,1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. - Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. - Scripture quotations marked RSV, are from the REVISED STANDARD VERSION® of the Bible, Public domain. - Scripture quotations marked ASV, are from the AMERICAN STANDARD VERSION® of the Bible, Public domain.

Supplemental Material on Apostles, Prophets and Pastors is a chapter from the book “The House of His Choosing”, by Jim Wies, copyright 1999-Destiny Image, used by permission of Destiny Image Publishers, 167 Walnut Bottom Road, Shippensburg, PA 17257 www.destinyimage.com

INTRODUCTION

This small book has been 35 years in the making. It was formed out of an ongoing study of the blueprints of Scripture; a passion to see a manifestation of the church as it could be and should be; a practitioners perspective, having been involved in various leadership rolls in a number of churches in a variety of settings over three decades; and having engaged in traveling ministry for several years, taking me into a wide range of churches of all kinds. I’m still looking for the perfect church. I’ll let you know when I find it.

CHAPTER ONE

Is the Church obsolete?

Viewing church in light

of the cultural, social and

technological changes

of today

Is the church becoming obsolete? Wow! This writer was shocked at the words that reverberated through my mind and heart. Somehow I felt this was a significant and profound question for a man who has given his life to the church as a pastor and teacher for 30+ years.

When I think of the word “obsolete”, my memory takes me be back to the 8 track music player that I absolutely had to have in my first car, as a teenager. A few of us still have a box or two of those old bulky tapes in a garage, but nothing to play them in. Sitting here typing into my word processer, I also remember my first manual typewriter, and the accompanying bottle of “white-out” for the spelling mistakes I would inevitably find when I finished typing. Some people believe that the church as we know it is obsolete. They may have a fairly strong point.

Today we are in an amazing age of advanced technology and communications. To drive home the point, consider the invention of the transistor, a little less than 70 years ago. Of course the transistor is a common component of most of our commonly taken for granted electronic items from radios to telephones to sound systems, TVs, microwave ovens, computers, etc. Transistors show up in places as diverse as airplanes, cars, broadcast stations, recording studios, remote controls, air conditioning, etc.

In fact, technology has increased so fast that many people are alive today who were here before television, Xerox, penicillin, polio shots, frozen foods, plastic contact lenses, digital watches, birth control pills, radar, credit cards, splitting the atom, lasers, frisbees, ball point pens, dishwashers, clothes dryers, electric blankets and air conditioning. They would have never heard of Big Mac’s, instant coffee, daycare, group therapy, nursing homes, FM radio, tape decks, CD’s, cordless keyboards, cellular phones, artificial hearts, ram, megabytes, hard drives, software or word processors.

This shift that we are in surpasses the transition from agricultural to industrial and industrial to technological. It is historic. Our past experiences and our current knowledge may not be adequate in this new age of communications.

The church is in major transition as well. Most people know that the church, as it has been, is neither satisfactory to God nor adequate to the task before us in these closing days of this present age. World population is presenting the possibility for a larger harvest of souls than has even been seen in the cumulative total of the previous 2,000 years. Meanwhile, the question that begs to be asked is “Are we trying to package a timeless message in an outdated methodology?” The challenge before the church is how to preserve and propagate an eternal and universal message in the context of a rapidly shifting civilization.

Consider that we only crossed over our first billion in population less than 150 years ago, and now there are approx. 7,000,000,000 on planet earth. An amazing population growth statistic tells us that there are more people who have been born within the last 100 years than in the past 2,000 years combined. And prior to the 20th century, the fastest man had ever traveled was 35 miles per hour. Advances in technology, communications, travel, education, and social media are compelling us to rethink our entire approach to spreading the Gospel and the way we “do” church.

Of course, nothing takes God by surprise. Thousands of years ago the Lord spoke to the prophet Daniel of these days. “But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” Daniel 12:4

It is estimated that a weeks worth of the New York Times contains more information than a person was likely to come across in a lifetime in the 18th century. It is estimated that 4 exabytes (4.0x10^19) of unique information will be generated this year. That is more than the previous 5,000 years. The amount of technical information is doubling every two years. For students starting a 4 year technical degree, that means that half of what they learn in their first year of study will be outdated by their third year of study.

Life as we know it is changing faster than most people can comprehend. The top 10 demand jobs in 2010 did not even exist in 2004. We are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist, using technologies that haven’t been invented, to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet.

Predictions are that by 2049 a $1,000 computer will exceed the computational capabilities of the entire human species.

Combining computer technology with the internet has increased our capability to access knowledge at a dizzying speed. There are over 31 billion searches on google every month. In ’06 it was 2.7 billion. YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world with over 100,000,000 videos.

Wiki is a Hawaiian term meaning “Quick”. Wikipedia, a web based encyclopedia that is a relatively new entry into the world of encyclopedias, has over 15 million articles. Studies show it is more accurate than Encyclopedia Britannica.

How is all of this impacting our church culture? The typical Christian hears an average of 7 different preachers/teachers in any given week.

Religious issues pollster George Barna pointed out that close to 25%, or one in four adults in America, downloaded a church podcast in the past week. XPMedia.com is a good example of the excellent resources available on the internet for free video teachings and sermons from a wide range of ministries.

Barna refers to a group of believers he calls “blenders” who look for multiple sources of inspirational input into their lives. More and more sincere Christians are taking this more eclectic approach to feeding their spiritual appetites.

This can stress out local pastors, tempting them to become more legalistic in demands, or they can seek wisdom in this transition. Gone are the days when a pastor can think that he/she has primary control over the spiritual influence of his/her parishioners. Leaders must learn to function with an open hand realizing that the world is at the fingertips of everyone.

While followers of Jesus know that the message of the Gospel is timeless and universal, it’s becoming obvious that the church must embrace and fully use the technology of the future if it wants to fulfill it’s destiny. We need to recognize and adapt to some radical cultural, social and technological changes, while certainly remaining rooted in the eternal truths of Scripture to stay relevant in these exceptional times.

Martin Luther, in his day, changed how we do church forever. His courage to stand against the status quo is still being felt after 500 years. What most people don’t realize is that the protestant movement was fueled by a new invention that had recently appeared on the scene called the printing press. It enabled the printed word to spread. And the very first book published on this invention was the Gutenburg Bible. Johannes Gutenberg, the inventor of the printing press, is now the man who is acknowledged as the number one most influential person of the last millennium.

But what about the inventions of today? The church would do well to recognize the significance of the incredible transformation happening now with information technology, the social networking phenomena, and other factors as we consider the question “Is the church obsolete?”

INTRODUCTION

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE