CRM - Empowering Leaders

InnerCHANGE is a Prophetic Community in the Church

As prophets, we advocate for a shift in the axis of missions toward incarnational ministry among the poor, a realignment of the Church’s agenda such that justice and mercy regain their biblical priority, and a recognition of the supernatural role compassionate ministry among the poor plays in revival and church growth.

Prophets in Lifestyle

The lack of proportion in missionary deployment that awakens our mercy and compels us as missionaries provokes our sense of justice as well and compels us to go forth as prophets.  In the same way that we do not sentimentalize poverty, we do not gloss over our Church’s neglect of the poor either.  Neither do we throw pietistic paint over the materialism we see encroaching upon us as God's people.

Our prophetic expression is sometimes verbal, but more often it’s one of lifestyle.  In choosing to live simple lifestyles appropriate to our poor neighbors and pursue the values of the Kingdom of God, we find ourselves modeling “downward mobility” when our culture is upwardly mobile.

While our culture aspires to an exaggerated independence, we find ourselves seeking interdependence in community with our neighbors and fellow staff. Finally, we find ourselves seeking out the powerless, ‘the moved and shaken,’ when our culture obsesses with the movers and shakers.

God’s Special Identification with the Poor

InnerCHANGE functions prophetically to call attention to specific aspects of God’s character, that although He is “the high and exalted One,” dwelling in a “high and holy place” (Isaiah 57:13), He also “humbles Himself to behold the things that are in heaven and in earth. He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap” (Psalm 113:5-6).

We believe God uses InnerCHANGE to remind His Church that God specially identifies with the poor, that the one “who is gracious to the poor man lends to the Lord” (Proverbs 19:17).

Justice and Mercy Restored to Priority

InnerCHANGE also exercises its prophetic gifting in calling for the agenda of the church to take priority over the structure of the church.  We live in a “church growth age,” an age when the Church has been encouraged to preoccupy itself with structural concerns—configurations of small groups, dimensions and aesthetics of rooms, and mechanics of worship services.

These are important concerns and InnerCHANGE has been fortunate in its ready access to the church growth movement to be able to gather fresh insights. However, the weight of Scripture suggests that church growth is more an issue of pursuing God’s agenda than devising structures, however appropriate.  In particular, we strive to refocus attention on what Christ called the “weightier provisions” of His Father’s agenda, justice and mercy (Matthew 23:23).

“I hate, I reject your festivals.
Nor do I delight in your solemn assemblies...
Take away from me the noise of your songs...
But let justice roll down like the waters...”
Amos 5:21-24
“... give yourself to the hungry,
And satisfy the desire of the afflicted,
Then your light will rise in the darkness...
And the Lord will continually guide you...”
Isaiah 58:10-11

We remind ourselves that acting in the role of prophet does not entitle us to be critics; that prophetic expression must be distinguished from passing judgment. Neither is the prophetic exercise overwhelmingly negative.  It is our privilege to recall the Church to the promises that attend working with the poor, as well as the task.

The ‘Other Miracle’

One of the most striking messages we feel compelled to declare is that ministering among the poor is the ‘other miracle,’ the overlooked sign of the Kingdom.  In Luke 7:22, Christ cites various signs and wonders to verify that He is the expected Messiah, the Son of God:

“Go and report to John what you have seen and heard, the blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have the gospel preached to them.”

This passage suggests that working among the poor is by nature so “upside-down”, so contrary to the world’s impulse, that it has the ability to impact and convict the same way dramatic healings do.  Isaiah 58 and other passages offer a similar message, that if we minister to the needy, our “light will break out like the dawn,” and we will be called “the restorer of the streets.”

Compassionate concern for the poor is also a favorite way our Lord identifies Himself.  Again, this is evident in Luke 7:22 when Christ in effect recounts His “resume.”  As members of Christ’ body, ministry among the poor should also be part of our authenticating process.

If ministry among the poor is both authenticating and soaked with the supernatural, it should occupy a more central or strategic place in our efforts to embody the gospel in a postmodern culture.  Historically, much has been made of the role of prayer in revival—deservedly so.  On the other hand, compassionate ministry among the poor is not often cited as a factor for Kingdom expansion despite evidence that this has been the case.