Building
community
One of the essential
questions for any organization is how to engage the members and unite
the membership. In the new age, people will be looking for community
and they will want an organization that builds a sense of belonging
by making them feel that they are participating in the life of the organization.
In other words, a successful organization must be a team effort that
builds community instead of a one-man show that concentrates power in
the hands of a small elite.
In the Age of Pisces, churches usually had a centralized power structure
in which a small elite enforced its will upon the members. People had
to comply or leave. This centralized power was often built on fear.
If you did not follow the directions of the ruling elite, you would
not be saved.
In the new age, this approach will not work. People will not believe
that the outer organization is the key to salvation. Therefore, you
cannot scare them into submission.
This leaves the question of how an organization can unite the membership
by setting goals that engage the members and resolve conflicts. If centralized
organizational power can no longer resolve conflict, then how can you
overcome division and conflict? It can only be attained if the organization
finds some way to reach beyond the relativity of the carnal mind.
Most churches were started by a leader who had a connection to the spiritual
realm. Therefore, the leader could bring forth directions and teachings
through this connection. If the members accepted the spiritual direction,
conflict would be resolved and the members would be united. Therefore,
a direct connection to the spiritual realm should be considered an invaluable
part of any spiritual organization.
To understand why, you only need to look at the history of many spiritual
and secular organizations. If an organization does not have some mechanism
that allows it to rise above the relativity of the carnal mind, and
the power struggle that inevitably results from it, then the organization
will either fragment through conflict or it will become rigid through
centralized control.
Any organization is faced with numerous questions that must be answered.
To find viable answers, the organization must find a way to reach beyond
the carnal mind. If the organization does not have a direct link to
a higher level of consciousness, then the organization will inevitably
be caught up in the eternal human power struggle. One aspect of this
power struggle is the battle between the rebels and the judges, as described
in a previous discourse. However, there
are numerous other aspects of the carnal mind that come into play.
The only means of survival and growth for a spiritual organization is
to have and maintain a direct link to the spiritual beings that serve
as the mentors and teachers of humankind. Many churches no longer have
their original founder, and therefore they have lost the direct link
to the Ascended Host. Such churches have two options:
- The church can
reason that no one else could possibly attain the direct connection
experienced by the original founder. The inevitable outcome is that
the organization will be caught up in the human power struggle.
- The church could
consider that there might be an alternative way to establish and maintain
such a connection. In the Age of Aquarius, numerous people are meant
to embody their Christhood. As a person builds this Christhood, he
or she can serve as a link between the material universe and the spiritual
realm. Such a person can serve to bring forth new ideas, directions
or even new spiritual teachings that can revitalize an organization.
If the messenger be an ant
The very nature of individual Christhood is that as a person builds
his or her Christhood, that person establishes a link that reaches beyond
the carnal mind. Therefore, through that Christhood, the individual
can serve as a messenger between the material world and the spiritual
world. It follows, that any person, who has attained some level of Christhood,
could potentially serve as a messenger for bringing forth specific ideas
and specific answers to the questions faced by an organization.
A messenger is simply a person who reaches beyond the carnal mind and
the physical octave to bring back an idea or message from the spiritual
realm (for more information, click
here). Throughout history, the Ascended Host have used numerous
people as instruments for bringing forth new ideas. What does it take
to be such an instrument? It takes an open mind and heart, and also
a certain knowledge about a specific topic. For example, if a spiritual
teacher wants to bring forth a new form of technology, he is likely
to work with a person who is an expert in the field.
When you transfer this to a church, you realize that any organization
faces numerous questions that involve many fields of knowledge. Therefore,
if the church wants to find the best possible answers to these many
questions, it must draw upon experts from a variety of fields. It is
not likely that the top leadership will have a representative from each
of these many fields. Therefore, the governing body of any church must
be open to drawing upon experts from the broader membership. Only by
allowing this broader input, can the organization build community and
engage the members.
In this respect, it should be clear that "expertise" doesn't
necessarily mean that one has a degree or a position in society. Some
people have built a deeper understanding of a certain topic. Therefore,
they might be able to bring forth an idea in fields for which they have
no outer expertise in this lifetime. The motto should be that if the
messenger appears in the form of an ant (a humble and seemingly insignificant
animal) the organization should still listen to the message.
This, of course, requires great humility among top leadership, and traditionally
this quality has been lacking in many organizations. It might be wise
to remember that God is no respecter of persons and that the first shall
be the last and the last the first. Do not limit God’s ability
to speak through a person who has no official position. Be not forgetful
to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
The goal of the Ascended Host
When you consider the many questions facing any church in today’s
rapidly changing world, it becomes obvious that no group of leaders
or experts can sit down and analyze all of these questions with the
outer consciousness. There is simply no way to answer these questions
with the lower consciousness, no matter what level of spiritual attainment
or expertise people might have. The only way to find viable answers
is to reach into the spiritual world and bring forth an answer that
comes directly from the spiritual Masters.
Remember that most churches started because the founder had direct communication
with the Ascended Host. This is the process that has built and sustained
any organization sponsored by the Ascended Host. Why would anyone assume
that the Masters suddenly want this process to stop? Why would anyone
assume that, because the founder of an organization is no longer present,
the Masters no longer want to communicate with the members and leaders
of that organization? Why would people not simply reason that the organization
has entered a new phase, and it needs to find a new way to communicate
directly with the Ascended Host?
The true goal of the Ascended Host is to help each person establish
a direct link to their Christ self and through that to the spiritual
teachers that serve to help all people. In the Age of Pisces, only few
people had attained a high level of Christhood. Therefore, many spiritual
organizations were started by one person who had an attainment beyond
that of most members.
In the Age of Aquarius, this must change. Millions of people are meant
to build personal Christhood. Therefore, the goal of a spiritual organization
is no longer to have one person who can communicate directly with the
Ascended Host and have everybody else be blind followers of that person.
The true goal of an organization is to bring everyone, who is willing,
to a point where they can commune with the spiritual world through their
Christ selves.
Let no man take thy Crown also applies to your involvement with a spiritual
organization and a spiritual leader. If you allow yourself to think
that because you have found a spiritual leader, you no longer need to
establish contact with your Christ self, then you have sabotaged the
role of that leader. If you allow yourself to think that because you
are a member of a certain organization, you can simply follow the outer
rules and doctrines and you no longer need to establish direct contact
with your Christ self, then you have sabotaged the role of the organization.
An Aquarian leadership model
Any church needs to acknowledge that the organization must embrace a
leadership model that is suited for the Age of Aquarius. In this leadership
model, there will not be one person who plays a dominant role in the
organization. The concept of having one dominant leader is a Piscean
model that will not be successful in the new age.
The Ascended Host do not simply support one person or faction all of
the time. They seek truth wherever it can be found. They support the
individual who is willing to reach for a higher understanding of the
issue, and that person might not be in a leadership position. If a spiritual
organization is to succeed in the Age of Aquarius, it must embrace the
idea that no one person can always have all the right answers.
It has been said that the Aquarian age is the age of the Holy Spirit.
The most important statement ever given about the Holy Spirit is this,
“The Holy Spirit bloweth where it listeth.” You cannot imprison
the Holy Spirit in a set of rules and doctrines and you cannot confine
its expression to a certain group of people (such as church leadership).
This has been elaborately demonstrated by the Orthodox churches of the
Piscean age, and there is absolutely no need for any church to prove
it one more time! The paradigm that should be considered by any spiritual
organization is as follows:
- The organization
will only succeed by embracing ideas that come from the spiritual
realm.
- For every question
that is confronting an organization, the Ascended Host have an answer
that will bring the organization forward.
- The Ascended
Host are perfectly willing to give these answers to the organization.
However, the Masters are not willing to grant one person a monopoly
on receiving these answers. The reason is the need for many people
to build individual Christhood.
- To receive communication
from the Ascended Host, an organization must accept the idea that
top leadership will not always have the right answers.
- Instead, any
member of an organization could be used by the Ascended Host as instruments
for bringing forth the best answer to a particular question.
- The leaders of
an organization must be willing to look beyond a small circle of people
and look to the broader membership for answers and ideas that are
needed to bring the church forward.
Basically, the Aquarian age paradigm is that an organization cannot
have a small group of leaders and a large group of followers. In the
new age, the members of a spiritual organization must rise to a higher
level of involvement and stop seeing themselves as followers. All members
must accept personal responsibility and become more involved with the
organization. Only organizations that allow and encourage such participation
will succeed in the new age.
If both leaders and members of a church will fully embrace this paradigm,
the organization can take a quantum leap forward. Existing members will
recommit themselves to the organization, and many new members will be
attracted. People are hungry for community, but that community must
give them the freedom to express their Christhood.
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Copyright
© 2003 by Kim Michaels |
