There are many ways that the church’s nature is going to change, and one of the most basic is that we will be taking on a military demeanor. We are called to be an army, and we will see the church become one of the most powerful, disciplined, and effective forces the world has ever known before the end of this age. As we have also covered, there are basic ways that we will be different from any human army because the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. We were sent to save lives, not take them—to set people free, not conquer them.  

One element that an army has that the church could really use is in training and positioning their people. When you enter the army, the first thing you do is go through basic training. When it is determined through a battery of tests what your skills are, you are then sent for more training in that area. Next, you are sent to a unit with a specific job to do that you know, and everyone you work with knows. Because everyone in the army goes through basic training, everyone is a soldier, and if the need arises, any clerk, cook, or technician can grab a gun and help hold the line.

This is basically what Ephesians 4 states that the church should be like, requiring everyone to be equipped to do the work of the ministry.

“From whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love” (Ephesians 4:16).

To be successful in anything, you have to be able to do the basics well, but this is presently one of the greatest areas or weaknesses in the body of Christ today. The most successful people in any field will be those who do the basics best—who practice them continually regardless of how far they advance in their field. However, it is rare in the body of Christ today to find a church, a movement, or denomination that teaches the basics well. Some of those who have a reputation for doing this have been found to be doing this poorly, if not the worst. This is not just my opinion, but studies they have completed on themselves reveal this. In the largest Pentecostal denomination, it was found that only 25 percent or their people had received the baptism in the Holy Spirit. They believe in it but just have not received it.

Likewise, I have talked to well-known Baptist evangelists who believe less than half of the people who are members of Baptist churches are actually born again. I started asking Baptists I met when they were born again, and I almost always received the same admission that they never had and usually did not even understand it. We started saying more than twenty years ago that it was time for the saved to get saved, and that is more true now than it was then. It is easy to attend church faithfully and have never been born again or committed your life to the Lord. Some attend church faithfully their whole lives and have never done this. In a true army, no recruit could slip through the cracks like this.

I know of pastors in large churches who became angry when hundreds of people from their congregation responded to an altar call for basic salvation. I heard one say that the visiting preacher had just heaped condemnation on his people. The truth is that many are in our churches, and many have been there for years that have never been born again or given their lives to the Lord, and they would have if they had just been asked! Many of these have been there so long that they are too embarrassed to respond to a public altar call, so we need another kind of on-ramp for these folks. You can be sure it will strengthen your church if the people in it are saved!

This is not to condemn anyone, even the leaders who may have been negligent, but it is to bring correction. If we do not correct this, we will certainly be condemned when we stand before the Lord when we give an account of how we took care of those entrusted to us. Even so, we do not need to embarrass anyone who needs to be born again. We do need to give clear teachings on how to be born again with opportunities given on a regular basis for people who are attending our churches to repent of their sins, putting their trust in the cross of Jesus for their atonement, to be baptized in water and the Holy Spirit to seal their commitment, and to commit their lives to the Lord in obedience to Him and for true discipleship. 

Of course, I have shared this before and will again. Just as Moses recited the whole Law again just before the people were to cross over to the Promised Land, which is where we get the book of Deuteronomy, we need to repeatedly back up and check the basics before going on to greater things. I will be covering some in-depth issues in the coming weeks in this study, but let’s never, ever forget the basics.