His Glory... His Power... His Family
We want the presence of Jesus in our lives and at church meetings radiating from our homes into church and from the church back into our homes and neighborhoods. And we want God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit to receive the entire glory of any good that we do on His behalf.
We desire to be multicultural. Our bodies have way more in common than not in common. Our common enemy tries to convince us otherwise.
We want to look like and act more like Jesus every day. And we pray to be instruments of the Holy Spirit at Beam Church, in our neighborhoods and within our communities, being able to provide spiritual resources for member growth and transformation.
"If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us." 1 John 1:8-10
Beam Church leaders claim "Chief Sinner" status as the Apostle Paul did. We testify to what Jesus has saved us from. What qualifies us to lead is we've made many, many mistakes from which we've learned. We have been "the least of these" in church sitting on the back row embarrassed of our misery wishing we could find a way to pull it all together. We've been picked up by others and had our bills paid for when we couldn't pay them ourselves. Bankruptcy? Yup. Almost divorced? That's right... several times. Angry with God? No doubt. Wishing we weren't alive wondering why we were born? Too many times to count.
The flip side is the Lord has broken through, in His perfect timing, many times having rescued us from the devourer. We marvel at his love and power to transform us.
We think THE most important characteristic church leaders need to exhibit is this... Have they seen the resurrection glory of Jesus Christ manifested in their lives? We can say absolutely "yes" to this question.
And we feel that we are the epitome of the following scripture... "But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong." 1 Corinthians 1:27
It is our hope for the Holy Spirit to be on stage with and through His power (1st Corinthians 1:17, 2:1, 2:4) in all church meetings. It is also our hope that members would wean themselves off of the desire for church entertainment and sermon eloquence. We want and lovingly ask for you to engage with us and with the Lord. The Apostle Paul was clear, even mentioning this three times in one of his letters, that he came with the power of the Holy Spirit, not with human "entertainment" (paraphrased from "Human Wisdom, Eloquence, Persuasive Words").
We love worshipping God. He deserves our worship. We value all singing voices regardless of talent. 1st Corinthians 14:26 speaks of "When you come together each of you has a hymn". Please come to church meetings with a hymn. Let the meeting leader know. We want you to sing. There may or may not be an official worship leader. Regardless, members with hymns will be recognized.
It is our hope that supernatural love will manifest from heaven in the following ways and more:
"The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." James 5:16c
Pray, pray, pray... as individuals?... "without ceasing at home and in the marketplace"... as a church?... before meeting times, at the altar... after the meeting times...
Because of God during the age of the patriarch's, Jesus during His ministry on the earth and the Holy Spirit during the beginning of the New Testament church in the Book of Acts, each manifesting themselves in power amongst their people, we will expect and see the same from the Holy Spirit at Beam Church and within our surrounding community in our own days. (Matthew 28:18-20, Mark 16:15-18, Luke 9:1-2)
Eloquence, public speaking ability, and persuasive words will not be highlighted, focused toward, or depended upon. Because it was important to Apostle Paul to bring the power of the Holy Spirit with him in his ministry, it will be important to us to surrender to the Holy Spirit and operate in such a way to invite His power to be up front and center.
Therefore Preaching and teaching will be Spirit-led. When messages are brought, they will be by bringing to bear two gifts sets (Tag-Team) through five-fold office leader and member strengths. In other words, in one meeting the Holy Spirit might say, "I want teaching about prophecy and I want someone gifted in evangelism to finish the meeting with a call for salvations". With this strategy, two members or speakers will be bringing a message. The next meeting the Holy Spirit might want someone with an Apostolic office to teach on church growth followed by someone pastorally gifted speaking on love within the church. Each speaker would get fifteen to twenty minutes. The topics and combinations of speakers are endless. Also, leader and member prophecies will be be accentuated during the services. (1st Corinthians 14:1 and 14:29-32
Prophecy is simply hearing the voice of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit through the power of the Holy Spirit.
It came as a revelation years ago to the writer, that "what good father would stop speaking to their children"? And we know that God the Father is the perfect Father. Apostle Paul says, "We've heard many people say, ‘Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy'", "... the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouraging and comfort", "... but the one who prophesies edifies the church" and "But if an unbeliever or an inquirer comes in while everyone is prophesying, they are convicted of sin and are brought under judgment by all, as the secrets of their hearts are laid bare." The later of these is obviously loosed power to hear the Voice of God by the Holy Spirit in meetings.
The writer can testify regarding the hundreds of times he's either received or has been given Prophetic Words from the Holy Spirit for the benefit of others that later on turned out to be correct, including his own testimony where the Voice of the Holy Spirit saved him and his family.
We will eagerly desire the Lord's Voice in our midst. But we will also keep in mind, for order sake, that "The spirits of prophets are subject to the control of prophets." So, we prefer to get to know you before you loose a Word during a church service. And it would be healthy to bring it to the meeting leader first.
Revelation 12:11 "And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the Word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto death".
Beam leadership has no desire to take away members from other churches. We have zero desire for billboard advertising, marketing schemes and being viral on social media. Jesus would go away and hide as He was going viral. And the early church grew by three thousand people in a day without social media. We want to grow with the lost being saved and those bound up becoming free. The Holy Spirit will lead us all to different people with whom to minister. And because The Great Commission says... "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit", was spoken to all of the disciples, weekly testimonies of witnessing to the lost and seeing the Holy Spirit move in an infinite number of ways will be accentuated.
Normalcy within the church has been Pastor-led, Pastor-driven and Pastor-taught. Basically the churches across America are dominated by Pastor's. Because Apostles and Prophets were called the "Churches Foundation" in Ephesians 2:20, we feel these offices should give vision and over-site to our local church. The offices and rolls of Pastors, Teachers and Evangelists will be recognized, honored and used as the Lord leads.
We all need some measure of Inner-healing, when we come to Jesus bowing our knees. And then we begin the process of trying to walk on the "narrow path that leads to life". Along this path we can stumble. When stumbling is habitual and destructive, rest assured, the enemy has set up a stronghold that has the believer stuck. This is when the Holy Spirit needs to come with inner healing or deliverance. And when church members desire inner healing from strongholds, we want to offer ourselves through the power of the Holy Spirit to set you free.
Inner Healing might come by the laying on off hands at the end of our services when there is an altar-call. There are also ministries, that members have been trained in, that offer Inner Healing ministry.
The writer has benefitted greatly from inner-healing over the last twenty-eight years. The ministries about which the writer knows have the names of Sozo, Freeing the Captives, Restoring the Foundations, Heartsync, Rock House, Theophostic, and Freedom Prayer. And there are many other expressions of the Power of the Holy Spirit in deliverance out in the world. It is our desire and hope that all members of Beam Church would be operating in each of the ministries in some capacity, each with their different trainings. It is our desire to see all of us get free from bondages. We are glistening with hope about this element of church life. May Jesus be praised.
Please know that there are Psychiatrists and Trained Counselors who provide tolerable recovery. And there are pharmaceutical medicines prescribed by licensed professionals that provide measures of tolerable recovery as well. Beam Church leadership doesn't come in between or interfere with patients and their healthcare teams. Anyone ceasing a prescribed medicine, should consult their healthcare provider.
There are on average approximately 550,000 adoptable children without parents in the U.S.
When they age out of the government system, in most cases, they are extremely dysfunctional human beings having not had parental love, parental sacrifice and parental discipline. The Bride of Christ, His church, is responsible for these children. In scripture and during Prophet Jeremiah's time, Israel was exiled due to idolatry and not adopting the orphans. And we have a medium sized metropolitan city of orphans in the U.S.
We strongly encourage adoption at Beam Church. The story of The Good Samaritan" is applicable here. The Good Samaritan didn't have to pray about a strong need that was right in front of him.
It is high on the planning list by Beam Church leaders to devote significant funding toward those who want to adopt children.
The writer would add that Evangelist Heidi and Rolland Baker are changing a nation by going from town to town, starting churches, raising up a Pastor and then asking them to begin adopting the local children. Why reinvent the wheel? Holy Spirit, we pray for you to show us the way.
Tithing by believers into their local churches is scriptural (Malachi 3:10) and spiritually healthy. The Lord says, "test me in this". To tithe is a test of two aspects of our spiritual lives, trust in God and giving to others. We have no desire to guilt anyone into giving. But we do want to point members in all healthy directions.
Beam Church leaders want to model Paul the Apostles leadership style by working and ministering at the same time as not to be a burden on Beam Church ministries. Therefore, we will not take a church salary freeing up all funds for a greater good. We will expect church staff to work in the marketplace while ministering on staff as well. There may be some unexpected exceptions..
Our approach to distribution of donations will be church bills first (lease payment, utility bills), members needs second, neighborhood support third and missionary support fourth. "Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever." 1 Timothy 5:8. We see our neighborhood as our secondary church family as well.
We will try to adhere to some form of schedule during meetings. But, again, the Holy Spirit is in charge and meetings may move past the scheduled ending time. Our goal is to please the Lord with our schedule.