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New forms often emerge out of old forms. An adaptive change…not too unlike the Theory of Evolution…new forms emerge through incremental improvements over long periods of time…

However, there are also times when new forms crash suddenly onto the scene…as in 7 Days of Creation…usually as a direct result of a technological innovation…or a political or spiritual or cultural revolution…

The Printing Press was one such revolution that predicated a new form of mass media through publishing and print circulation. The ‘Common People‘ received the Bible into their own hands for the first time without intermediaries or hierarchies. Information that was ‘hidden from the public’ by powerful elites, or the establishment could now be circulated in the 1000’s through printed paper tracts. This combined with other ground shaking changes around the 15th Century to form what was known as the Reformation. The World changed from that moment on…

In more recent times the Internet has done a similar thing for direct communications to the masses through the innovation of social media platforms such as facebook, twitter and instagram. Revolutionary changes took place in what has been termed ‘The Arab Spring‘ through online digital media as protesters took to the street and you-tubed and twittered the persecution they faced from ‘the authorities’ during their peaceful pursuit of freedom…the Obama campaign was also viewed as a triumph of social media in relation to government formation through his online and offline electoral campaign leading up to his presidency…

New forms emerge at times when significant paradigm shifts occur in society…for example a shift from modernity to postmodernity…as a whole generation emerges that views life completely differently from their predecessors…

The turn of the 21st Century brought with it seismic shifts; a convergence of technological advancements (smart handheld and mobile technology), sociological shifts (particularly in the area of sexuality) and a redrawing of the map of friends and supposed enemies on an international scale (a change from say- Capitalism versus Communism to Western Civilisation versus Radical Islam)

On a National and Continental Level in Europe there has been significant ‘shaking’ of the main ‘pillars’ of society (7 Spheres); from the financial crisis of 2008, to the exposing of corrupt government officials and expenses scandals, media phone tapping, beloved children’s entertainers and celebrities arrested for child sexual abuse as well as more revelations of catholic priests endulging in the same plus child pornography and shootings and unusual violence at public schools…

When the societal foundations are destroyed like this what can the righteous do?
It’s particularly in times like these that Kingdom Agents have the opportunity to ‘shine their light’…to ‘model a city on a hill which cannot be hidden’…Jesus spoke more often than not about ‘The Kingdom of Heaven’

His Kingdom was not of this world…however…his apprentices were to petition the government of heaven that the constitution of heaven would become a working reality right here  on the earth. The direct clause was this phrase;

‘On Earth as it is in Heaven‘
Of course…Jesus’ apprentices are not only to petition the heavenly government, but also to form representative government here on earth….Jesus called this His ‘ekklesia‘; His city council or parliament (what King James 1st translated as ‘church‘) who would act on behalf of the King.

Jesus’ apprentices were to go even further than this…when gathered across cities and regions they are His ‘government’ or ‘city council’…BUT when scattered they are His Kingdom Ambassadors or Agents

Among citizens of any nation you have those who are innovators, those who are early adopters, those who are early and late majority and those who are laggards in the bell curve of innovative change that filters through large bodies of people until the ‘yeast’ goes through the whole batch of dough…

A New Wave is emerging in the Church Sphere…a move from Church to Kingdom…and there are a few innovators and early adopters who are already perceiving and acting on this shift…

The Kingdom is broader than the church and it’s ethos and praxis affect every sphere of life

In these times that we are living in, when everything that can be shaken will be shaken in all Spheres (family, religion, education, economy, government, media, arts+entertainment)…this is the very moment…the very time to emerge from the underground…from the hidden simple organic, missional communities and house churches of all forms and types….to the public sphere…from the oikos to the polis…from the household to the public square and the market place…

But not simply re-emerge into the big and the public in the very form that many ‘shook off’ from the 20th century…a set of clothing that now no longer fits the purposes of God for this generation or the society that has since been shaped by network dynamics…but emerge with the ‘new forms’ crafted in the secret forges of hiddenness and darkness, in the desert and away from the crowds, when our backs were against the wall, no-one understood what we were building in there and we had only God to go to for comfort and affirmation and direction where we pioneered new paths that would be celebrated by generations yet unborn…

NO!!!…we will resurface as new forms hubs that form networks of innovation that criss-cross continents…

Now as we emerge from the earthquakes and tsunamis that have radically altered the landscape of our nations and societies, and as those things that can be shaken have been shaken…we begin to peer out from the safety of the caves that we dug during the times of turbulance and see both the devastation caused by man-made systems and philosophies. But we see also the opportunity to showcase Kingdom solutions to the problems of this world  in all spheres of society…

When the human institutions of society crumble…it creates a vacuum, a unique opportunity for those things that cannot be shaken to rise to the surface…for those who spent their time wisely waiting on God and receiving his blueprints whilst in caves in the desert…it’s now time to bring your inventions to light, but do it with caution, with both shrewdness and innocence… 

The Kingdom of God is unshakeable…and those who build on it’s solid foundation build with the kind of materials that last when seismic shifts take place, when tectonic plates collide and a Whole New World is Born from the ashes…

NOW is the time to innovate New Forms of Education

NOW is the time pioneer New Forms of Government

NOW is the time to champion New Forms of Media

NOW is the time to start-up New Forms of Enterprise

NOW is the time to foster New Forms of Extended-Family Communities

NOW is the time to redefine New Forms of Church

NOW is th time to rethink and redesign the sphere of arts and entertainment to create New Forms

‘Since we are receiving a Kingdom that is unshakeable…’ (Heb 12:28)…let your light shine…boldly go where no-one has gone before…

Receive the heavenly blueprints

Build according to the heavenly patterns

Let New Generations Arise

Rebuild, Restore, Renew the Ruined Cities

Innovators, Pioneers, Entrepreneurs…go Change the World…

(If this article resonates with you, we’ve written more on this sort of thing in our complete edition book called Kingdom Mission by Peter J Farmer & Stuart Simpson…

Or perhaps we could connect for Kingdom Roundtables that bring together Kingdom Agents working in different spheres of society and longing for a 21st Century Reformation across Europe…