Wanted: Prophetic Leaders for Ministry!

The more I read about Prophets in the Bible, my fascination for “Prophetic Leadership” and “Prophetic Ministry” gets stoked!  Admittedly, I had never truly approached the topic with an open heart; I was one-sided and closed minded.  God has not only changed my perspective on Biblical Prophetic ministry, but he has shown me that it has been my calling all along.  For this I was born!

“The task of prophetic ministry is to nurture, nourish, and evoke a consciousness and perception alternative to the consciousness and perception of the dominant culture around us” - Walter Bruggeman, The Prophetic Imagination  

The Hebrew word, Navi means “to call” and can carry the connotation of calling and being called.  Old Testament professor, Rickie Moore suggests, “The Old Testament navi was indeed ‘one who had been called out by God to call out’” (The Prophetic Calling: An Old Testament Profile and its Relevance for Today, p. 17).  Bruggeman’s emphasizes the creative/poetic aspects of “calling out” the dominant culture (i.e. “Royal Consciousness”).

It sure seems like the dominant culture today, which is guilty of saying, “things are fine” includes everybody - yes, including the local church.  Somehow the message of the Gospel in America has turned into “Believe in Jesus and you can go to heaven one day when you die.”  There are numerous versions of the same basic premise; namely, that heaven is the goal, man is the center and God is our servant.  The problem I see with a heaven-bound theology is life between the prayer and death becomes frustrating and God turns into a genie in a bottle.

I have had the privilege of sharing the gospel in prisons, ships, fox holes, jungles, deserts, in the air and under the sea.  I have many relationships with unbelievers and believers, abusers of substances and spouses, rich and poor.  I find that the hardest culture to reach is Born-and-Raised-in-Church/“religious” types.  My friends in AL-ANON know and lives of confession and repentance.  On the other hand, I cannot help but notice that a life of transparency, “vulnerability,” and confession in the midst of community is a rarity in Church. 

Prophetic leaders not only understand the nature of the current situation in the Western Church, but they see it from God’s perspective - and it breaks their heart.  Prophetic leaders feel God’s brokenheartedness for those who profess faith in Christ yet live enslaved to a spirit of criticism, pride, and fear just to name a few.

The ministry has me and my family moving every 2 to 3 years, which has given us a great opportunity to “feel the pulse” of several local churches on the West/East coasts and in Hawaii.  From our perspective, God is renewing his church; There is a revival taking place now.  Local churches are moving out of steeple-type buildings and into storefronts, movie theaters, elementary cafeterias and coffee shops.  The harvest is plentiful yet the prophets are few.

Here am I send me!