ABOUT HEART REVOLUTIONWhy hold a conference on the subject of
the Heart Revolution? For some time the Lord has been speaking quite loudly to us about implementing a strategic cultural shift within our own church at a leadership level that will ensure a significant impact upon the heart of our entire church culture. The depth of what God does in the heart of leaders holds the greatest promise for the transformation of the church. As cultural architects, leaders have the privilege of creating a culture that intentionally carries people in the direction of building community in a manner that fully reflects the core values articulated by Jesus. There can be no doubt that Jesus called His disciples to do life together in community from the heart and not from a functional, performance-based paradigm. This lies at the heart of Jesus' prayer for supernatural oneness in John 17. The core value of 'living from the heart' reflected in the entire body of Jesus' teaching was powerfully juxtaposed against the prevailing religious paradigm of His day that placed the focus upon outward appearance. As we have journeyed together in church life we have reached the conviction that we must relentlessly battle against this inevitable drift into a functional performance culture that looks good on the outside but which lacks the centrality of really doing relationships with one another from the heart. If the leadership culture of every local church really embraced the radicalism of doing relationship from the heart it would result in nothing short of a real spiritual revolution. Hence, the concept of the 'Heart Revolution.' The purpose of this conference is to bring into sharp focus the essence and the goal of Jesus' teachings on the heart, namely, the emergence of a community of believers who open up their hearts to one another at such a core level that they learn together in community how to position themselves to receive from one another the fullness of the ministry of Jesus and the Father in a way that will result in a powerful transformation of their hearts. At the centre of this supernatural transformational paradigm is a wholesale deliverance from every expression of the old orphan heart and a glorious transition into the true heart of sonship in a way that God's people really get healed at a core level. This cultural shift has to begin at a leadership level and leaders have to model this apostolic paradigm of living together in community with open hearts that are on a powerfully transformational heart journey. We must allow our fellow leaders to minister into the deepest places of our heart and that requires a new level of vulnerability and transparency. Jesus never called leaders in the body of Christ to live from their heads as managers. Instead he calls them to live from the heart as mystics who value fresh encounter with the Father heart of God to fuel them in their capacity to lead the church prophetically. The old paradigm of managers who lead from the head and not the heart is being replaced by the paradigm of mystics who are encountering the glory of God. This is becoming absolutely indispensable! Managers who cling desperately to the old paradigm are like dinosaurs doomed to extinction. God is sweeping their inauthenticity aside because the emerging generation will not buy it. In case you haven't noticed it, the next generation has a serious gag reflex when it comes to inauthentic leaders stuck in an old religious paradigm! Doing leadership out of the old functional, managerial paradigm has not resulted in the kind of heart transformation that Jesus has always been searching for. The evidence is everywhere apparent in leadership teams that are still largely defensive and self-protective and that have not entered into a deep deliverance from the old orphan heart. How can we expect churches to grow in the manner that Jesus and the Apostles anticipated if the leaders of those communities are still thinking and acting like orphans? Our behaviours and our internal belief systems will inevitably find us out whether we like it or not and they will end up on visible display for all to see! |
It is time for the "doctors of the heart" to arise within the church to promote a wave of supernatural heart healing for the people of God. But the healing of the heart presupposes a revelatory knowledge of the heart and this prophetic knowledge of the heart only increases in our midst as we walk out an authentic heart journey with the Father. So much of the church is still being destroyed through a lack of knowledge of the heart. The revolution must begin with leadership teams who say a resounding 'Yes' to the call of Jesus to live from the heart together in community.
We reached these conclusions in our own journey together as a leadership team. Our convictions have been deepened and substantiated as we have observed leadership cultures around Australia and overseas that have not fully embraced or implemented the radicalism of the call of the Father to establish this uncompromising relational paradigm that will produce the kind of apostolic heart transformation that characterised the first century church. Along the journey we have encountered others who have arrived at these same convictions as they have also observed the sharp contrast between the New Testament paradigm of the heart and the outward focus of managerial, performance-based church cultures. God has knit our hearts together with people like Paul Manwaring and Stephen and Mara Klemich who have embraced the heart paradigm and are who are working within the church internationally to transition the body of Christ into a way of journeying together that allows the deep wounds of the human heart to be fully healed. The heart journey requires us to move out of our old defensive patterns that keep one another at arm's length in order to make room in our hearts for others to walk with us in the kind of 'into-me-see' that results in genuine heart healing. We have come to the conclusion that it is a defining mark of true sonship to let others into our heart for the purpose of deep level healing. A major heart revolution of epic proportions is required to shift the 21st century church into the apostolic and prophetic paradigm that will really transition many sons to glory. The Heart Revolution conference in Byron Bay 2015 is a significant step toward promoting a cultural shift that brings us into alignment with the heart of the Father for this generation of believers. We invite you to bring your entire leadership team to this intensive training and equipping event that will strategically catalyse your entire team into the apostolic paradigm outlined in the New Testament. We hope to see you there! Phil & Maria Mason Spiritual Directors TribeByron Bay, Australia 
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