USCAL REGION 5 REVIEW | MONTGOMERY, AL
We started with prayer and prophetic ministry. Three things became clear:
PROPHETIC INSIGHTS
1. There is s shaking in the church and in the nation – so that those things that are weak can be REMOVED and the things which are strong can be REVEALED.
2. The Body of Christ is like a torn tapestry or a tattered flag that has been though war. God wants to repair the separation and heal the broken places in the church, weaving it together until the divisions are no longer noticeable.
3. This will result in some old dreams coming back to life. These dreams are like pieces of a puzzle coming together to create a grand masterpiece. Everyone has a part to play.
The composite of all these prophetic words reveals a picture of what we are endeavoring to accomplish in USCAL – to construct a relational safety net across the nation that unites, strengthens and enables dreams to be fulfilled.
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WHAT WE GOT RIGHT AND WHAT WE GOT WRONG
What is the purpose of 5D and what problems does it solve?
The dialogue began with an explanation of 5D. Its genesis comes from the assertion that the Apostolic/Prophetic Movement is stuck between gears. We have disengaged from the last season but not fully engaged in the next one.
Exactly what is the next season into which we need to engage?
Three things:
1. We need to engage the next generation
2. We need to engage all five-fold ministry leaders together
3. We need to engage in the local church
5D helps address all three problems by giving local churches and their leaders a pattern for discipling and equipping the next generation with all five dimensions of Christ’s anointing in equal proportion.
Is this going to be the same thing we’ve heard before in the Apostolic/Prophetic Movement?
No, we don’t think so. We believe this is a fresh, new approach on the function of the five-fold ministry gifts.
In order to engage people in the next season, present leaders must steward the five-fold ministry gifts with humility and Godly character.
It was agreed that many leaders in the initial stages of the Apostolic/Prophetic Movement superimposed a language of hierarchy upon the operation of the five-fold ministry that created impediments to the people they were needing to engage…
NAMELY, ✅ Next Generation, ✅ Other Five-fold Leaders and ✅ Local Churches.
As a consequence of focusing on titles and hierarchies, the movement was increasingly isolated within an aging generation of leaders, many of whom function outside personal involvement in a local church.
Meanwhile, young pastors and church planters are developing thriving churches outside the influence of our movement. This has created a separation between ministries sharing the same spiritual stream. This void has produced a deficiency of apostolic vision within many of these these congregations and a lack of spiritual depth that the prophetic dimension provides.
Movements are messy. Pioneers don’t always get it right. But they create something that has never existed before – or at least, has been lost to time. Perhaps many early leaders felt compelled to focus on titles for sake of clarity and to find traction among other organizations.
They were experimenting with new paradigms of leadership that had no precise roadmap other than the Bible, which is easier to implement in theory than it is in practicality.
But they accomplished their task and cleared a path for the next generation! Well done! Mission accomplished! Both their successes and mistakes have become a source of wisdom for the emerging generation of leaders. We owe them a great debt of gratitude.
The Apostolic/Prophetic Movement is now at a critical time in its history where it needs to honor the previous generation of leaders for their accomplishments while giving serious consideration to the next generation of leaders who are responsible to navigate the next phase of our movement.
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THE CHURCH OF THE CITY
Does every local church need to be fluent in all five-fold dimensions or should we take a more compressive view of the church in our city in order to see all five dimensions at work?
A deep discussion ensued to see whether or not it’s realistic to expect every local church to be proficient in all five dimensions. Some congregations, by virtue of their spiritual DNA, may be more prophetic. Others may be more apostolic or pastoral. While some may lean towards being evangelistic or teaching oriented.
👍🏻 This is the right question to ask!
The assumption is that each church can carry a specific anointing reflected in the five individual gifts of Christ.
The concept of a single church in the city is a healthy concept that reinforces unity. It helps people understand that each local church is important. This is an image of a unified tapestry within a city that completes the five-fold dimensions corporately as a whole. This concept builds alliances among churches and unifies them for a greater work of the Kingdom of God within a city.
Many legitimate points were made during this part of the discussion that focused on the positive results of this concept.
However, if we do not develop all five dimensions in each local church, then to expose the saints to all five dimensions, they would have to move from church to church to get their full training. This would inhibit people from grafting deep within their own spiritual household and possibly add the existing migration of “church hoppers” in every city.
While churches of a city might coordinate their efforts and have a rotating training in all five dimensions from church to church, the likelihood of this happening is remote. It seemed much more reasonable to develop saints with all five dimensions in each local church where people worship among a unique spiritual family rather than relying on a model that shuffles them from place to place.
Besides, if the five-fold equipping gifts represent the defused anointings of Christ into five separate gifts, then to have Christ active in each local church means all five should be present.
Based on this part of the dialogue, the group agrees that yes, it’s best to have each local church proficient in the language and function of all five gifts so that the saints in each church can be exposed to the influences of all five dimensions of Christ operating in their home church so that the saints can be fully equipped within their own spiritual family.
This led us to focusing on what 5D looks like in the personal lives of the saints within a local church.
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IMAGE BEFORE DOMINION // CHARACTER BEFORE GIFTING
How and when should leaders focus on implementing 5D in their church, small group and/or spiritual sons and daughters?
What surfaced quickly in the dialogue about making disciples is the need for character development BEFORE gift development. These are two separate but equally important tracks for every believer’s maturity. Using creation as a model, the group noted that Adam and Eve were created in God’s image BEFORE they were given the Dominion Mandate.
● Therefore, character development should precede gift development in the discipleship process of a young believer ●
This was a very helpful part of the conversation. The group concluded that 5D has been primarily focused on the gift development track while not addressing the character development track that must come first.
Only after a person’s character has been sufficiently molded in a Christlike pattern can they be rightfully equipped. Otherwise, we are equipping carnal Christians who will likely replicate the problems in the Corinthian Church instead of equipping “saints” as Ephesians 4:12 prescribes.
SAINTS
Gk: ἅγιος, hagios
Holy, sacred, set apart
(for God’s special purposes and work)
What are the specific character traits are we trying to develop?
In the macro, we are commissioned to make disciples in the image of Christ – people who are Christlike. And, If it is true that the five gifts of Ephesians 4:11 are expressions of Christ, then a Christlike character must somehow reflect those five influences.
So, these questions were asked:
▶︎ What are the specific character traits that we need to develop in a person that prepares them to be apostolically influenced and aligned?
▶︎ What are the specific character traits that we need to develop in a person that prepares them to be prophetically influenced and aligned?
▶︎ What are the specific character traits that we need to develop in a person that prepares them to be evangelistically influenced and aligned?
▶︎ What are the specific character traits that we need to develop in a person that prepares them to be pastorally influenced and aligned?
▶︎ What are the specific character traits that we need to develop in a person that prepares them to be academically influenced and aligned?
This precipitated a brainstorming session that took up much of the second day’s session. We had difficulty assigning specific character traits to one particular five-fold dimension. It was even hard to try and differentiate character from characteristics.
After many attempts to make an adequate list of character traits that corresponded with each of the five-fold gifts, it was pointed out that the answer may lie within the context of Ephesians 4!
In verses 1 and 2 Paul writes, “I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”
We concluded the qualities enumerated in Ephesians 4:1-3 might be considered character traits that could be assigned to each of the five-fold ministry gifts in order, giving us a list of character traits that can be focused on each of the five dimensions.
Based on the original Greek words, here’s how they correspond:
HUMILITY (tapeinophrosynēs/prautētos) ▶︎ Apostolic Dimension
We believe that humility is one of the most important character traits we desire in making 5D Disciples. Humility prepares people to exercise the apostolic grace properly.
ENDURANCE (makrothymias) ▶︎ Prophetic Dimension
We believe that endurance becomes an important character quality for those moving in an prophetic dimension where directions from God are often not fulfilled immediately and where the enemy of attacks relentlessly.
LOVE (agape) ▶︎ Evangelistic Dimension
We believe that disciples must have love developed in their character to truly love people enough to walk with them and eventually introduce them to Christ.
UNITY (henotēta) ▶︎ Pastoral Dimension
We believe that unity within one’s own heart and among the brothers and sisters in the church is a vital character quality to be developed.
PEACE (eirēnēs) ▶︎ Teaching Dimension
We believe peace within a person’s mind and heart is a necessary character quality that enables people to teach others by word and by deed.
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QUALITIES OF A 5D DISCIPLE
If a person was equipped in equal proportion by all five dimensions of Christ’s gift, what would that look like?
This was the final question we posed with the answer yielding the following traits of a 5D Disciple. Here are the qualities we identified:
The Qualities of the APOSTOLIC DIMENSION in a disciple include:
Strategic
Wisdom
Vision
Holistic worldview
Kingdom Oriented
Faithfulness
Tenacious
The Qualities of the PROPEHTIC DIMENSION in a disciple include:
Bold in Truth
Discerning
Sensitivity to the Spirit
Uncompromising
Secure
Worshipper
Intuitive
The Qualities of the EVANGELISTIC DIMENSION in a disciple include:
Burden for Souls
Enjoyable personality
Joyful
Hopeful
Culturally Aware
Empathetic
Approachable
The Qualities of the PASTORAL DIMENSION in a disciple include:
Confidential
Accepting
Forgiving
Emotionally Stable
Optimistic
Protective
People Oriented
Trustworthy
Listener
The Qualities of the TEACHING DIMENSION in a disciple include:
Teachable
Love and Hunger for Word
Knowledgeable
Simplistic
Practical
Reflective
Successful
Obedient
We talked about the need for a qualitative assessment for each one of these dimensions. This tool could provide the help people need to discover their strengths and weaknesses in all five dimensions so that they could be given a customized roadmap for their journey forward.
Stay tuned!