Family Gathering, Coro, Venezuela 2013. Turning the Hearts of the Fathers to the Children and the Children to the Fathers
Apostle John Boney signalled the start of the six days of celebration and fellowship in Coro, Venezuela with the reminder that this was not a conference. This was a family gathering. The family has always been central to God’s plan to establish His Kingdom in the Earth.
Apostle Boney cautioned that our growth and maturity in God depends on our being rightly connected to each other within a family structure prescribed by God with levels of responsibility and authority. Apostolic ministries, as the ministries with the blueprint for the building up of the House of God, have a vital paternal function and responsibility for the building of the House of God and the establishment of the Kingdom of God in the earth.
The Word of the Lord was clearly sounded in Coro:
The Father wants meaningful family relationships to replace conventional understandings of church so that He may reproduce His Life in the earth and raise up a family of mature sons to take possession of the government of the earth. The conventional practices—the way we “do” church—must give way to life-changing relationships among us as individuals, families and communities. The Life of God is accessible to us through our relationship with other members of the Body, through a prescribed structure of spiritual authority within the local church and through foundation ministries, apostolic and prophetic whom the Father has invested responsibility for the establishment of the House.
Ministries, individual or collective, acting without accountability to the local church and apostolic and prophetic ministry cannot reproduce the Life of God, neither can they establish the governance of God in the earth. The season of independent ministries is over.
The church must prioritize parental training of children as a critical requirement for the establishing of the Lord’s governance in the earth. The specific role of fathers in the training of children must be re-emphasized by the local church. Sunday school and children’s ministry must not replace parental instruction. The importance of raising children who can receive and apply divine truth to their lives is central to the producing of a generation through whom God’s Kingdom can be seen to come on earth.Reunión familiar, Coro, Venezuela 2013Volver el corazón de los padres hacia los hijos y de los hijos a los padresApóstol John Boney marcó el inicio de los seis días de celebración y compañerismo en Coro, Venezuela, con el recordatorio de que esto no era una conferencia. Esta fue una reunión familiar. La familia siempre ha sido central en el plan de Dios para establecer Su Reino en la Tierra.Apóstol Boney advirtió que nuestro crecimiento y madurez en Dios depende de nuestra razón de ser conectados entre sí dentro de una estructura familiar establecida por Dios con niveles de responsabilidad y autoridad. Ministerios apostólicos, como los ministerios con el anteproyecto para la construcción de la Casa de Dios, tienen una función paterna vital y la responsabilidad de la construcción de la Casa de Dios, y el establecimiento del Reino de Dios en la tierra.Recognizing the “family” as the divinely provided framework for realising the establishment of the Kingdom of God in the earth is consistent with the Father’s work in creation. The natural is first, then the spiritual (1 Co. 15:46). The entire order of creation relies on reproduction according to genetic programming:
All organisms reproduce after their own kind.
An organism’s appearance, character and mannerisms are consistent with its biological family.
Paul’s letter to the Ephesians declares that “the manifold” or many-featured wisdom of God would be demonstrated to principalities and powers in heavenly places through “a family” bearing the name of the Father through Jesus Christ. Family suggests not only a genetic relationship but an order through which the family operates in the critical task of maintaining itself and raising up a new generation.
Conventional understanding of “church” has typically represented church as any one of a number of things:
a physical place where Christians meet for formal religious rituals (services)
people who believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God
a series of rituals carried out in any physical location by people who call themselves Christians.
Speakers at the family gathering were emphatic that none of these applications of “church” can complete the work of establishing the government of God in the earth. In our “gathering together” and our relationship as believers, there must be an arrangement that provides the spiritually prescribed structure that nourishes, supports and serves to develop and mature the body of Christ—the family of God—in the earth. As with the human family structure, there are responsibility positions that are provided to care for, protect, and train developing family members. While there can be “structure” without life, there can be no reproduction and development of the life of God in a people without a meaningful structure.
The Solitary
Apostle Boney reiterated throughout the six days of fellowship that people do not survive in isolation. This is an undeniable fact of the specie. The unguarded and untrained infant perishes. The adult alone has limited means for survival and will not thrive in isolation.
A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in his holy habitation. God setteth the solitary in families: he bringeth out those which are bound with chains: but the rebellious dwell in a dry land. (Psalm 68:5 & 6)
In the economy of God, fatherlessness is equated with captivity and bondage. This is as true for individuals as it is for churches and ministries that are not rightly connected with the father ministries provided by the Lord. Alternatively, some are fatherless because they rebel; they refuse to be accountable to those ministries responsible for God’s family governance in the earth. Those who seek independence cut themselves off from the supply of the life of God that flows through a Body whose members are rightly connected to each other “…the rebellious dwell in a dry land. (Psalm 68: 6)
The overarching theme of the family gathering in Coro, Venezuela 2013 therefore, directs us to consider with urgency the following
Individual relationship with our physical family unit
The home is the primary place for our testimony as members of Christ. The people for whom we have responsibility—as parents or spouses—or to whom we are accountable as dependents should be witnesses of the life of God in us. Bro. David Clemetson declared the importance of leaders having the testimony of a right relationship with spouse and family.
Our relationship, as individuals, with the local church or as members of a family group with the local church.
Family groups, or people who live alone as individuals, must ensure that they maintain right relationships with the local church and the spiritual leadership within the local church. Our families share in the life of God and receive the ministration of the Spirit required for healthy growth and development as they are embedded in the larger family of God expressed through the community of believers. Where young people do not have fathers in their homes, or lack fathers who are believers and can instruct them in the Lord, they are encouraged to seek the covering and admonition of leaders in the church. Likewise, men in the church were encouraged to be sensitive to the needs of the young people in their churches, especially those who had no fathers.
The relationship of the local church with apostolic ministries that are responsible for the nurture and establishment of the church in the earth completes the divine family arrangement that provides for the total needs of the Body of Christ, the family of God, in the earth.
Life through Others
Apostle John Boney reminded the gathering that the idea that we receive our life directly from God as independent units is false and contradicts the operations of God in both the natural and the spiritual world. While as individuals, we do have a responsibility for building a personal relationship with God, we come into full maturity through connectedness with different members of the body and particularly those members invested with divine authority and responsibility for the care of the Body.
The Lord, as God over all things, is ultimately responsible for the individual, the family, the local church and the global church. He has conferred particular responsibilities to different ministries and offices in the church for specific aspects of the work.
Parent Training
Bro. David Clemetson invoked church leaders to emphasize the preparation of a generation for God. To this end, attention needs to be paid to the children, particularly those in the critical developmental period from 0 to 8 years old. The strategy for this preparation is two-fold:
Abandon traditional children’s ministry and Sunday school and allow children to remain with their families for the impartation that comes from God when the local church gathers.
Prioritize parent-training. The primary responsible for raising up a godly seed lies with the fathers in the family, and with the parents together. The responsibility of the church is to train parents, to equip them to raise their children in the fear and admonition of the lord. Bro. Clemetson referenced God’s testimony of Abraham: For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him. Genesis 18:19
Fathers need to urgently pay attention to time spent with their families, ensuring that time lost to unprofitable activities, particularly media entertainment, is replaced with meaningful interaction and activities that build up the family in the Lord.
Family Gathering 2013 in Coro, Venezuela, challenged us all to rethink “church.” The Kingdom of God is established in the earth as a generation of sons mature, taking possession of the reins of government. The sons can only be birthed and come into maturity in an environment where members of the Body of Christ are in right relationship with each other, and with the Head of the Body through the divinely prescribed order for God’s family.
To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord: In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him. Wherefore I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory. For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. Ephesians 3:10-15
