There has been much said of late about the ineffectiveness of the traditional church in America and to a small degree Esther and I agree. George Barna and others have looked at one current trend and seen the exodus of some from traditional churches. Our observation is that many of these churches have lost the fire and passion that their founders once embraced whole-heartedly. The founders of many denominations would most certainly not recognize the church that was so passionately birthed through them. Today little of that fire remains but the individual churches still survive because members long dead, have left large endowments to support the work.  

As we have traveled around the United States in prophetic ministry Esther and I have seen the spiritually weakened condition of many churches that once were ablaze with the fire of God. Please understand that we passionately love the church and believe in it even as the Lord does. We love all the churches no matter what condition they may be in. What grieves us so much is that few who attend these churches can recognize what has actually happened and fewer still want to change it or know what to do even if they could spear-head such a change. 

What is God's solution to all this? Is He throwing the local church on the spiritual scrapheap as some would have us believe? Is He bringing a revolution to the earth that will sweep away the local church condemning it to the fate of the dinosaur?  We have been witnessing a remarkable emergence over the past several years that answers these important questions. It is the evolution of something new that is pouring from the very heart of God.

As prophets we have seen discontent cause the pendulum of change to swing wide many times when it comes to the local church. With each swing another group embraces what they feel is present truth and begins to run with it. Some of what is birthed is actually from God while other things are destined to become fringe elements driven by the hurt and personal agendas of those promoting them. The present time is one more example of this ongoing, necessary swing. In the 70's it was the charismatic wave and in the 80's it was the prophetic wave. In the 90's marketplace ministry came and then in 2000 the Apostolic wave finally hit the shore. This was followed closely by several brands of "3rd day" theology and then several other ideologies that were all basically anti-local church or anti-organized religion.  

What we and many other national prophets have noticed is that these waves came to the church not to bring a revolution  to it but to cause an evolution of it. What has evolved and is taking the place of the traditional church in America today is the "hybrid church". Those who can really see in the Spirit have recognized that God is orchestrating a systematic change in the fundamental DNA of the local church. It is a wonderful, breathtaking exchange that is long overdue. Instead of people looking to Sunday as the main feeding ground for the rest of the week, Sunday has become the main leading ground to impart and unify corporate vision for impacting the local community. This is significantly different from what was here just a few years ago. Such a change has made us all adjust the core of what we view the local church to be. This is in fact a Kingdom view that comes from God's perspective and it is in perfect alignment with His design in the Book of Acts.     
 

Before Acts we see the Temple as the main focus for the church. However, when the Holy Spirit came and He was given free reign, the hybrid church God created embraced both the corporate gathering and the ministry of the saints from house to house. It threw off much of the tradition of the past but still embraced the biblical call for believers to connect to a local assembly. It began to thrive on the power of common vision but encouraged the unified diversity of personal ministry development through small group settings. It allowed for the strength of a large focused group but empowered believers on an individual basis to develop their own unique ministry expression. It gathered believers together in a strong corporate setting but trained and released them into the marketplace to transform the world around them. It sought to be relevant to the generation it was in but did not reject the foundational truths that anchor it in the faith. By it's very nature it was devoid of rigid hierarchy but understood the need for believers to recognize and submit under true, God-ordained authority. 

The church of the Book of Acts is the same church that is emerging and raising it's voice in the nation today. Those who have accepted and are flowing with this shift are seeing a harvest of souls like never before. One of the leading proponents of this is Bill Johnson. The dynamic flow found in his school of ministry and local church is the proof of what we are saying. Through this model new church plants are becoming common-place instead of rare. Small group meetings are thriving in local neighborhoods under the authority of the local assembly and these are transforming the environment around them. The impact of this is being felt block by block until whole sections of cities have been touched, entire cities have been changed, regions have been impacted and states transformed. This is the strategy for the taking of nations and it is from the heart of God.

The "hybrid church" is fired with a vision for the future, hungry to get beyond the walls of a building, released by those in authority and passionate to demonstrate the Kingdom of God to those who desperately need to know Him. It is this kind of church that is destined to be a world-changing force in these historic times. Those who accept no substitutes and will not get distracted from what God is doing will most certainly pave the way for what is yet to come. Esther and I plan to be in that company of believers and our prayer is that many hearts like ours will be joined together in solid local churches as we prepare the way of the Lord.