Starting Right - strategies for changing values and structures in a sector of society

blog photoRecently I attended an Arthur Burk Seminar for "social entrepreneurs" called Starting Right. In the past, receiving from Arthur has been akin to taking a drink from a fire hydrant-- and this time was no excepiton. I have attempted to organize the download of material below. May your spirit capture the essence of that which flowed in the seminar, and may you choose to strategically grow in authority and dominion. May you take the calculated risks necessary--in accordance with your design to be a dangerous change agent for the Kingdom of God! 

 

Social Entrepreneurs change the values and structures in a sector of society.
There is a sequence:

  1. Lead with the Spirit (rather than focusing on the structure)
  2. Change the values first (then the structure will change)
  3. Make progress weekly
  4. Use many resources
  5. Build sustainably!

Being a social entrepreneur requires skill and spiritual dominion:

  • Skill sets alone are not good enough…. you need spiritual dominion
  • When encounter difficulties/problems-- go to God:
    • Is this You or the enemy?
    • Where am I in scripture? (many times God will show you in the form of an event or incident in scripture—look for the hidden things in that passage which will give insight and wisdom into your situation)
  • Lean into God—to produce changes in the Spirit what can’t be done otherwise.

We get discouraged because our expectations do not line up with what God does promise.
God only makes 3 guarantees:

  1. God Monitors all things- everything surrounding you and your life is monitored by Father God
  2. Everything that happens to you is Metered by God: everything is “Father filtered”
  3. Your life will have Meaning: but it will be meaning on HIS terms and may not look like what you were expecting.

What is NOT guaranteed: success, peace, joy, your time table, safety, understanding.

The western church culture uses pain as a measure of success in our Christian walk.
REPUDIATE PAIN AS A METRIC OF ANYTHING!

Lead with the Spirit
Our inclination is to deal with structural issues first to make social change in an environment—this is backwards

  • Deal with the spiritual ream first before dealing with the structure
  • Build spiritual authority
    • We need to become big spirited so God can do things His way
    • We need to grow in our ability not to be overwhelmed in the spirit!
  • Need to settle you Father issues: know who provides! (God!—not your skills, not the church, not others)
  • ALLOW God to choose what He will do
  • Renounce the lie of powerlessness
    • Poverty spirit
    • Spirit of slavery--- the spirit of slavery requires liquid assets to get things done—the slave wants the finished product. The spirit of sonship sees the raw materials available to get the job done.
      • Get the scales removed from your eyes to see the raw materials and value the “wealth” that you have! (think older brother in the prodical son story—he was desiring the “liquid assets” that were dispersed to the younger brother (operating in a slave mentality) and missed the fact that EVERTYTHING the father had was available to him!)
  • Break unscriptural social contracts
    • ex: "God owes you an explanation"—lay down your right to know why!
  • Reframe your definition of success
    • Pain is not a metric of success.
    • Success in a venture is not guaranteed—MEANING is guaranteed (on God’s terms)

When we are immature in our relationship with God, we need instant confirmation that we are doing His will. As we mature, it may take YEARS until we get the confirmation of whether we missed it or not! We need to trust that there will be meaning whether or not we can see it at the time—this promise is the foundation of our relationship with God.

What are you doing to cooperate with God to get something done that He has deposited in you?

The victim spirit often gets in there telling us it is right for things to be wrong. The devil often offers his best right before God offers His best!

It’s often easier to do 3rd level synchronization when nothing is going on than when something is going on—because when something is going on --we try to control it!

Remember: Pain is not a metric of whether or not you are walking in the will of God!!

Change the Values First (and the structure will follow)
The problem is people’s belief system.

  • Identify the stronghold
  • Identify the core value opposite of the stronghold
  • Grow in authority and dominion in the opposite spirit thru a thousand small right choices
  • Our cooperation with God will produce asymmetrical results
  • The “good life”—is not necessarily the “God life”

The Story of Telemakus—example of 3rd level synchronization social entrepreneur—his actions ended the coliseum games and initiated a change in the tide of the culture which actually lead the Roman Empire to fall! One man who followed God and brought down an empire! Now that is social change!

Telemakus was a monk who lived in the 4th century. He lived a simple life. (1st level synchronization.) Was asked to go to Rome--- didn’t know how he was going to get there or what he was supposed to do once he got there (3rd level synchronization). Once he got there, he ended up following the crowds into a coliseum during a gladiator fight. He was so appalled at what was going on that he cried out “in the name of God desist!” His cry was unheard, so he walked further down in the stadium and cried “in the name of God, desist!” still unheard, he walked into the midst of the gladiators and ultimately was killed there, crying out “In the name of God desist!” There was a silence, and one by one, the crowd left. His dying act caused a shift in the cultural acceptance of the games – they lost favor with the people—and since the games were also a means of income for the Roman Empire, the loss of it significantly impacted the economic stability of the Empire, which eventually led to its fall.

Now think about this in terms of our cultural perspectives of:

  • Success: (his attempt to intervene and stop the event didn’t look terribly successful at the time)
  • Peace: (this was not likely a peaceful process) • Joy (I am thinking he was not particularly feeling the “joy of the Lord” at the time)
  • Timetable: (he never saw the results, and his was the first ripple in the process that did not reach its culmination for years)
  • Pain: (if he believed that experiencing pain was a meter of being in the perfect will of God, then he would have avoided the whole situation and likely missed his destiny!)
  •  Safety: (God used him to change a nation, and apparently his safety was not guaranteed in the process)
  •  Understanding: (there is no indication that Telemakus understood why God was asking him to go to Rome, or what the ultimate purpose was. It is likely that even at the time of his death he felt like he had failed and had no idea of the way his death would impact the Empire. 

Note that God Monitored the entire situation.
He Metered and filtered what He believed the monk could endure.
Telemakus' life had insurmountable Meaning (albeit after his death)
As he was led by the Spirit, Telemakus came in the opposite spirit, and changed the values which ultimately took down the structure. one act producing asymmetrical results.

We change values by telling our stories: TELL YOUR STORY
Sound was God’s first and most important tool. God spoke creation/structure into being.
Genesis 1: the earth was without form and void. Lack of directionality—free fall—can’t get out of it—no way out, “outer darkness”

  • The first thing God did was MOVE TOWARD IT PERSONALLY!
    • God does messes—as we experience this , then we can walk in it
    • When we are messed up, he moves toward our brokenness
  • Then He imposed his dominion over the darkness
  •  Next, He released sound and created with sound Spiritual structures ride on sound.

God has taken you thru incredible things—the pain you have gone thru—the choices you have made give you a moral right to speak into peoples lives.

  • Being right—versus having the moral right to speak into others lives.
  • Speaking right things are pointless if you don’t have the authority to speak with things you speak!

We are change agents of the Most High with the power of God behind us.

Tell your story—not your vision.

Make Progress Weekly

  • If the devil can convince you that you’re blocked—he’s won
  • You have to be obedient or disobedient. There is no middle ground.
  • Embrace changing values at the expense of personal pain! • Voluntarily embrace pain for what you value
  • 3 biggest stumbling blocks: 
    1.  “It’s too hard” 
    2. “You don’t understand”
    3. Belief that God’s standard is too high—so applying discipline is unfair

God is not worried about his reputation (or yours in some cases!):

  • Elijah was told to move in with a gentile widow- in a small town- can you imagine the gossip? Then the widow stops shopping for 1 ½ years--- did they think that was Elijah stealing for her too??
  •  Reece Howard who had a reputation for healing the sick, healed a man, who then died! Go figure!

God’s agenda transcends our reputation.

  Envision it!

  • God often gives us a picture of what we are working towards in the future—though it may get “reframed” along the way
  • Dreamers—taste and savor the end product before it happens
  • Daily step into whatever God brings before you even when you don’t understand why—“I believe—help me in my disbelief!”
  • Engage in whatever God brings before you—whether or not you can see how it fits or not
  • When the student is ready, the teacher will show up!

It is OK to have process!

  • It is OK to “be”
  • Today you are a source of pleasure and power in God’s hand! God is strategic
  • Savor the fact that God is not intimidated by your brokenness!
  • We are a card in God’s hand: He plays the card that you are—not worrying about the card that you’re not.
  • Again: God plays the card that you are, not the card that you wish you were or think you should be!
  • God always has one more move…..

Get out of survival mode:

  • When we are in survival mode we don’t take risks because doing nothing is safer than taking the risk.
  • Much of the church is operating in survival mode.
  • How do you spell faith? R*I*S*K! (thank you John Wimber!)

 

When embarking on a project we want to do the outside work first— Start with your spirit because HE knows where He’s taking you and you don’t!

  • There is an uprising in the church of monastic communities—praying and fasting for external change—But they have no earned authority.
  • Remember: speaking the right thing is pointless if you don’t have the authority to speak the things you speak!!
  • Instead, you need to look at the organization/government/city you want to change, find out the iniquity operating there—the principle of God being violated and embrace the value that is the opposite.
  • Only after a thousand small righteous choices will you gain the earned authority to bring about social change in the environment.