Spring 1985
A New Day for Pinecrest
Wade Taylor
President

The Lord is bringing about an enlarged vision and a fresh understanding of His purpose in bringing Pinecrest into existence as a ministry to the Body of Christ.

It is our intense desire and prayer to see this come to its full fruition and development in each of our lives and in Pinecrest as a ministry.

The Lord is bringing us into a greater understanding of Divine principle and order. Thus, the Lord has begun to stir the staff, the students and the families here at Pinecrest with a fresh new desire for an increase in worship, His abiding presence and working in each of our lives, and in our function as a local Church.

The Book of Acts sets forth the progressive revelation of the Lord’s pattern for the Church. We see at first a Church which was bound to the Temple in Jerusalem, yet as they responded to the problems that arose in the Church, they gradually developed into a New Testament Church.

God always pours new wine into new wine skins; therefore, the most far-reaching development is found in a Church that was not bound to the traditions of the past: the Church at Antioch. One of the concepts that the Word teaches us about the development of ministry for the Body of Christ is set forth by the example of this Church.

Paul and Barnabas developed effective ministries as they functioned as part of this Church. For two years, as the ministered with others in Antioch, the Holy Spirit developed them to the place where they could be set in the Body as Ministers of the Gospel and then sent forth by the Church to other areas of need.

Apollos was a man with great potential, yet through the influence of the Holy Spirit working through Aquila and Priscilla, he came to a further revelation at Ephesus. When Apollos came to the time that he should go forth in ministry, he went as Paul and Barnabas had gone; not with a degree or diploma from a theological school as his qualification, but with the recommendation and authority of the local body, which stood behind him in prayer and support.

How often have we seen a young person, on fire for God, sent off to a Bible College to come back a cold, professional Theologian, totally ineffective to minister the anointed Word? In the New Testament, ministry was not trained in a professional manner, but arose through the ministry of the Church under the assistance and direction of the local ministry and eldership. This does not discount Bible school, but rather challenges them to return to the pattern of the local Church in training lives for ministry.

We at Pinecrest have been led to move away from the concept of an institutional Bible College and move toward that of a resident teaching Church. Instead of instructors teaching in an academic format, we seek that of teaching elders imparting the Word in an anointed atmosphere of worship and spiritual receptivity.

We still have classes, schedules and homework, but we do all this as active members of a functioning local Church. Since we really learn best by doing, this brings about a further development in the lives of those who come to Pinecrest to meet the Lord and to learn of Him.

The Lord’s people are desirous today to hear what the Lord is saying to His Church. As John the Baptist was the voice of one crying in the wilderness of his day, so a people are being trained at Pinecrest to become a voice for the Lord in our day.

It is most important for us to remember that the Church is not a static entity, but rather, a building made of living stones. Not just stones, but living stones. This concept of living stones alludes to the fact that we must be abiding in Him. The Lord Jesus said little about Church order, yet He spoke much about a living abiding relationship with God. We could have perfect Church order, but if we are not abiding in Him we would be perfectly dead.

As we develop this fellowship with our Lord, the Holy Spirit then gives us understanding and established a Divine order so we will be able to function together as a Church in our services and class rooms. Here, in His presence, we learn of Him and are trained and made ready for the outworking of His will for our lives.

Thus, our goal at Pinecrest is to exalt and magnify the Lord Jesus Christ and by His grace, bring each one into a closer love relationship with Him

Then, as we adhere to this pattern, many will be equipped for ministry and will be sent forth to the nations for His purposes.

Editors Note: What Wade was expressing here was part of the heart and soul of what spoke to when he was caught up before The Throne of God in late 1959. Here Wade addresses that God is seeking to pour the anointing and power into new wine skins, and equating the old wine skins with "Churches bound to the traditions of the past." This is a highly important revelation.

 

For all who read The Banner I personally invite you to go look in the telephone book and find a Reformed Jewish Synagogue in your area. And go and visit it during a sabbath service (Friday evening) Upon entering if you are male they will give you a Yamaka to wear, put it on and sit and observe the furnishing of the synagogue, observe the order of the service, observe the traditions regarding the word of God.

 

And go home and pray about these things in relation the the churches and meetings you attend. Know that everything in the synagogue has meaning. Every price of furnature, gesture, prayer, form was all created in Babylon as a replacement for the temple that was destroyed.

 

So when we adopt their system and name it a church, the question comes what does God see and hear when he looks down at their Canters (Worship leaders) Their offerings of praise and worship -- He sees a synagogue which he never called Israel to build, he sees something that was meant to replace the sacrifice and offerings of the temple.

 

This is not the house meetings (House churches and House fellowships) that Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit established in the book of Acts, and to understand what they were one needs to understand first and foremost that they were not synagogues inhabited with ruling Rabbi's who's words and traditions were equal or above scripture. In the houses of prayer Christ built these things were not so.