Since I am currently involved in securing a campus for our international ministry as our US Kingdom Center homebase, I compartmentalized a revelation that is really expanding in and through me about “securing kingdom assets.” Let me expand the scope of the application and implementation to the nations!
In anticipation of what is coming next, Kingdom leaders prepare and position God’s people for function before the season arrives. We do not measure the effectiveness of our leadership by what we did or what we are doing, without the broader revelatory perspective of what is coming next. That is, we begin with the future to measure our present level of success.
Will we be ready for tomorrow?
In this scenario, securing kingdom assets cannot be measured by our present facilities, tools, provision, and arsenal. We must accurately anticipate what is coming next in order to secure kingdom assets for the future.
When people sold houses and lands and laid the increase at the apostle’s feet, they were accurately anticipating what was coming next, not merely responding to what was happening at that moment. While I very well aware this strikes a discordant tone with most commentaries and analysis of behavior upon the part of the believers, especially with people who attempt to build the response into principles, Simon Peter’s message is “Rescue yourself from this twisted generation, (completely cut off from its inheritance and purpose).”
The people could remember the words of Jesus about the destruction of Jerusalem. They could hear the words of Simon Peter. They could discern the appropriate response to the moment, so they secured kingdom assets by selling what soon would have no value. They anticipated that the kingdom was going to be relocating, and the trend continues as the center of the kingdom moves from Jerusalem to Damascus and onto Ephesus as disaster stalks Israel right up to 68-70 AD.
Securing kingdom assets means accurately anticipating where you need to be in five, ten, and twenty years, just as the preparation and positioning of leaders in those anticipations influences “design and build” leadership development. If a kingdom leader cannot accurately anticipate the personal destiny of a leader they are fathering with five, ten, and twenty years in mind, they are not preparing and positioning inheritors for kingdom purpose at all!
Applying this fathering leadership to physical assets is vital right now!
The Next Season
The change coming to church-anity is so great, radical, and revolutionary that only leaders with vision for five, ten, and twenty years down the line will make great changes, radical shifts, and revolutionary reforms. Consider what is temporary and what is coming next in the context of reformation.
- The assets you have now were probably designed for something you are not doing currently and will be even less tomorrow. So, evaluate your campus, staff, tooling, weaponry, and investments immediately!
- Reschedule your payment process with this in mind to reallocate existing income toward something not now on the horizon that you will only be able to see naturally as you crest the next hill.
- Reset your leadership team with regards to priorities of anticipation: bring in some forward thinkers to replace those entrenched in preserving history more than investing in the unforeseen. Get prophetic thinkers in place. Root our managers interested in maintaining what will be obsolete. Replace people resistant to change. Move visionaries up and managers down. If you have not offended the bureaucracy lately, you are way behind the timeline of change!
- Broaden your alignments to include new leaders in intercession, prophetic leadership, and apostolic order. Think about how you will restore kingdom culture, and replace of church culture at the expense of the present level of comfort. Expect an exodus of leaven and stale bread. Expect an increase of passion.
- Shake what can be shaken. Some things will shake into place. Other things will be shake out-of-place. Expect to be shocked at the outcome.
- Consider radical retooling. Consider how the buildings you possess fit or do not fit your future needs. Refocus upon discipling with an encounter facility that operates off site. And, remove all barriers to a reculturalization of your constituency so that race, age, economic status, and country club mentalities no longer influence the culture of your ministry.
- Sell property. Cash in what’s waiting for a rainy day in May. Go through your entire support portfolio of ministries and expect to come to the conclusion that you need to shift your priorities of support.
Secure Kingdom Assets
Does not mean only land and buildings. It means investing in tomorrow by investing in people more than grandeur. Sell the stain glass windows as art and invest the money in a school of leadership for the next spiritual generation. Auction off the memorials. Redesign the platform to tone down the tradition. Offer an exit plan to leaders producing things inconsistent with your assignment and mission.
The kingdom assets are first people, then places, then tools. Get the best tools you can afford with the idea that they are all temporary because you will improve them as soon as you can afford better. Invest in people with passion who are teachable and transformable. Ignore all the other pressures and false expectations that make you a servant of the people instead of Jesus.
Let me say it like this: if you the servant of people you are an unsecured kingdom asset.
Kingdom assets answer to kingdom assignments. The things that impress Jesus often do not impress people, so invest in what will impress Jesus. You must choose who you intend to impress.
I can describe a ministry who highest priority of “excellence” was actually a priority to build a country club church that would impress people with money. When your assignment is revival, international missions, and city transformation, you cannot impress people as a strategy for success. You are saying that people with money are key to transformation when Jesus says people with passion are key to transformation. Getting football player, TV personalities, judges and attorneys, doctors and professionals into your minstry should not require that you produce assets that please them.
How often have secured the wrong assets while leaving the kingdom assets unsecured?
We do not begin with the strong and mighty. We produce the strong and mighty! We cannot shortcut to securing kingdom influencers by seeking the support of this world’s influencers. We betray the purpose of God by investing in the purposes of man.
Architecture Both Spiritual and Physical
The Kingdom Center as homebase for international ministry will become increasingly important – even vital – and kingdom Ecclesia will form and formulate around that Kingdom Center homebase for regional, national, and international function.
The Kingdom Center architecture matches the spiritual architecture of Kingdom centered leadership. Securing kingdom assets for Kingdom Center function means reappropriation of assets to a new, radical set of priorities.
