Becoming Ungrafted

The Practical Steps to Being Completely Abandoned to God as a Worship Community

The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.

-Psalm 24:1

The following is a guide for those who seek to become fully ungrafted to the World. Being "ungrafted" means individually and corporately ending all contractual obligations to the World System that God set in motion through Cain to administer the affairs of World inhabitants. This firm decision requires forsaking any 501c3 contracts or other such obligations that cloud the pure devotion an assembly would have for its true love, Jesus Christ.

This is offered as a practical step-by-step guide, and while it is comprised of real actions that mobilized members of an assembly may take, it is quite general in nature. Each assembly must carefully examine its own particular situation and prayerfully lift that to God. He is faithful to do miraculous things to liberate those in World contract bondage. That may require acceptance of His timing — this is nothing other than the thoughtful understanding of the truth that no matter what happens, He will liberate those who want it, in whatever way that is. This unconditional abandonment to His provision, however, is part of the beauty of seeing His glory revealed.

It must be emphasized in the strictest, most explicit terms — these instructions will only benefit an assembly if stakeholders are authentically devoted to Christ and clothed in His righteousness. This primer is only applicable to them. Should an assembly attempt this while the congregants' beliefs are aberrant or behavior iniquitous, it will be clobbered by the agents of Cain authorized to prosecute with the full strength of law enforcement.

The Basic Steps for an Assembly to be Ungrafted

1   Individual

The most important step for an assembly to move toward the goal of having a thriving community ungrafted to the legacy of Cain is that each individual put his unwavering trust in Jesus Christ. Read "Becoming De-Catholicized" for a comprehensive understanding of what any given individual may do to shed undue allegiances with the World.

Please note that the "World" here refers to the World System, as opposed to the "world" of Psalm 24:1, which is merely a reference to all that God created. The critical point here is that God owns it all anyway. In this sense He does "own" the System as well, which He exploits to accomplish His ends. God is very clear showing us the distinction between the Kingdom and the World and He does give us the wisdom to discern that.

The only way Caesar can make a claim on any given individual's productive value is if that individual lets him do so by signing on to his power over his affairs. Everything is first about what is in one's own heart with regard to the object of his true affections. Is that Caesar, or is it God?

Through careful examination of history and current events seen by Scripture's light, it should be understood that Caesar is in his position because God put him there. Being ungrafted means neither remonstrating against him and his assigned duties, whatever they may be, nor entering into an association with him that would compromise the integrity of one's worship of God. The full breadth of this website is designed to elucidate this truth.

2   Community

Personal devotion to Him must then be manifest with and among others, since His call is for His own to thrive in community. This is not optional, and is indeed the very essence of the eternal Shalom community described throughout Scripture. Since becoming ungrafted entails a firm disassociation from Caesar's incorporations, and accomplishing this is very difficult without community, the emphasis of this guide will be about doing this together with disciples who also share a commitment to this effort.

Therefore, being ungrafted in this sense means frequently and intentionally joining with others to pray purposefully, read Scripture thoughtfully, worship expressively, and serve one another intimately. Believing on Christ must be demonstrated with others, not as a laborious chore but a joyous endeavor. In this sense congregants really don't need to do a thing — He will do it all. They just need to ask Him.

A critical component of this is the establishment of a covenant among all members of this worship community. Its development will progress through the following areas addressed here, but the key is that all are in agreement about general expectations of behavior that are biblically driven and God honoring.

Yes, a covenant should be written down. This enables the community to be in gracious, open interaction with secular officials who will be watching what those bound by the covenant do. Please note something very important which is missed by so many desiring to thrive in the ungrafted church: Much of what secular officials expect in the law are items that should be in your covenant! Let's be honest, much of those things are terrific things!

If city ordinance says you must have at least twenty feet of open space between building and street, then include that in your covenant. If county regulations insist that if food is served particular sanitation procedures must be followed, then comply with those very reasonable requirements. This is why it is crucial to reclaim the gifts of lawyers and business managers from the World. God extends abundant gifts in these two areas, we should be employing them! Sadly, the church isn't, but more about this is in the section "Ministry" below.

3   Leadership

Those with leadership duties must speak boldly to the assembly. They must base their words on the Truth — building their case for being ungrafted on the Rock. Let the Lion loose! Pastors, elders, and board members must be so immersed in Jesus' words that they begin to see how much they've been heeding the World's more widely disseminated "applications" of Scripture. Review 501c3 Q & A for a thorough treatment of how churches formally request the World's services.

A church that decides to become ungrafted may endure some measure of withdrawal, in the sense that they are now being weaned from the World System, and its congregants are now expected to actually do what Christ asks without relying on the letter of the law to constrain them. From this, those still devoted to the Catholicist Nation should be allowed to leave, no matter how wealthy they are. Accept that it will be sorrowful when the truth is discovered about those in it only for the tax break. (Ironically, this is beside the fact that one fully given over to His love is free from undue tax liability to begin with!)

When assembling a board of elders, it is imperative that all seven of the motivational gifts of Romans 12 be represented — only one per person! This means there should be at least seven members. The direction of a church's overall ministry gets derailed mostly because the board does not have the full breadth of counsel from everyone who must be in the mix for genuine success.

The use of these gifts is illuminated in the next section, and described at the end of this piece.

4   Ministry

All congregants must then seek the use of the gifts of the Spirit from among those who truly want to see. This means wisely enlisting the vibrant support and active service of professionals who fully honor Scripture and are well-versed in the fields of law and finance. That inventory of the gifts in Romans 12 should be wholeheartedly cultivated, every one of them: prophecy, teaching, encouraging, serving, comforting (mercy), accounting (giving), and administering. Every person in an assembly has one of them, and he/she can do that gift beautifully as led by the Spirit. The problem is the World System has done a fine job of co-opting them, especially the latter two.

A critical task of those who have the gifts of accounting and administering — which are usually fulfilled by those who work in law and finance — will be to establish and maintain a pool of capital from which those in community may draw to further distance themselves from the usurious practices of the World System. The Kingdom would then grow exponentially, as Jesus said it would, by merely discarding our devotion to World things; He even specified the degree to which it would grow — see Mark 10 to find out what that is. The very tricky part is that that those administrators must be wholly given over to Christ to make it work. It isn't just the lawyers and financiers, it is the ministers and elders too who are used to living richly in the World's ivory towers!

There is no reason this pool of capital shouldn't be so large that it may be used in abundant measure for homes, schools, and businesses of those in the assembly. This concept is not new — many churches and religious organizations have had such pools for centuries. What has happened is that churches have corrupted themselves by slipping, some diving head-first into the sewage of the World and its exploitive practices. This guide is designed to move congregations committed to being de-Catholicized to abjure that realm. The World's banking and investment system is managed by Caesar on behalf of liars and thieves, and those in the Kingdom are living in Christ by His love — there is an infinitely wide gulf between the two!

Part of the church's task of being ungrafted must also involve rejection of the thoroughly unbiblical conception of tithing.* A tithe is merely a church tax, and the word itself means "small amount." What an insult to a God who has already given us the entire Kingdom! A piddly ten percent? Sowing for Him does not mean mindlessly giving, but industriously working out everything one has in great abundance resulting in profound bounty for all.

How much exactly, then, must one give? Keeping accounts is reasonable, yet this too involves prayerful discourse with others over Scripture. Those gifted in finance and reclaimed from World Service will help a lot! Again, it can't be emphasized enough: with Christ doing it all anyway and trusting in Him to do it, I truly believe it'll happen much more easily than you think. See The Acts 2 Church for more of a guidepost in this area.

Also, I have set aside an entire page devoted to the concerns about being ungrafted as a business organization, one that is not necessarily a church assembly but may be tempted to be incorporated as a World-sanctioned entity.

5   Assembly

It may be necessary to set up an entirely new assembly with no obligation to the World at all. If "Maple Street Community Church" was a 501c3, that church may be perpetually registered in the System as that entity and subject to Caesar's rule over it. All the arrangements for a new ungrafted assembly to meet will depend on the congregants' complete abandonment to Christ, and out of that their earnest obedience to Him in deftly mobilizing His gifts to achieve this.

It may also be the case that a church's leadership is so intractably Catholicist that it would never consider becoming ungrafted. With prayer and fellowship, a group may need to begin anew in covenanting together and establishing an ungrafted worship community. This will require focus, industry, and ongoing conversation, as well as a humble forbearance and a sustained dependence on Jesus and His words.

This will certainly involve setting up clear accountability at all levels within the the community. Those who are following Jesus and His words will have no trouble detailing appropriate responsibilities among stakeholders.

6   Kingdom

The lives of the congregants should be so transformed that those around them actually see what it means to live wholly for Christ, and the Kingdom of God will explode in their very midst. It must be emphasized that with this abundant joy may very well come persecution and hardship. Jesus even categorically said it would come. Committed Catholicists will revile those committed to truth and grace, and may even work to sabotage their efforts. Many of them are, after all, highly trained in arts of war by the best World operatives.

To the extent that intractable World devotees work to plant themselves into an assembly — whether seasoned Jesuitized humanists or unwitting "fellow travelers" — the more the congregants' spirits are absorbing what God really means by charity, truth, grace, law, fellowship, worship, and discipline, they will be able to incisively distinguish between what is of the World and what is genuinely of the Kingdom. Even better, they will be able to fully comprehend precisely what the proper course of action must be in any given circumstance.

A critical note: Once a congregations' life starts to become manifest, it is important that the assembly remain among those in the World. No running off to the woods to start a remote commune. An ungrafted church has no reason to fear, it is the very power of Christ on earth. Jesus asks us to be in the mix with others — we are His light! But it only works if the light is bright and pure. God clubs are always exposed as just being another place where the World does its business.

7   World

"For God so loved the world..." The final step will be a sustained effort requiring the most resolute endurance those in the assembly can have. Rigorously exercised wisdom will be needed to address relationships with local World officials, such as city councilpersons, city managers, or county officers like supervisors and assessors. They should be duly respected when addressing prudent transparency about an assembly's conduct, gathering, places of worship, and even how much it pays for reasonable services rendered. Again, this is not about protesting any legitimate payment even if it is a tax or registration fee. It is simply about having the proper relationship with governing authorities.

This does not mean allowing them to cleverly subvert the assembly's newfound commitment. Christ says very simply "Love your enemies." He never says one must enter into codependent interactions obsequiously enabling sinful behavior. He asks His disciples to simply stand with Him, love with His love, speak Truth, and be Grace. If one is doing precisely what Christ has asked of him, World operatives should leave him to live out the Kingdom as the Spirit leads. It is also possible they will mistreat him with deceit, exploitation, or even murder, but it is by His strength that he will not only hold up but know exactly how to respond.

Remember, He holds His own in His hands. Nothing that anyone can try to do will separate them from His love and care. Even better, a governing official may be so blown away by His glory shown through these people, he may genuinely want to be His as well. Being Jesus' flesh and bones they will have helped usher another person into God's Kingdom. The angels rejoice because of this — why wouldn't we do all Jesus explicitly tells us to do to see that happen?

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Scripture   |   Homepage   |   Site Map

Being Ungrafted as a Business Organization

A Note About Contracts  |  A Note about Civic Duty

A Psalm for Being Ungrafted

(A page with more detailed questions and issues about being ungrafted is under construction.)

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The seven motivational gifts as elucidated in the 12th chapter of Romans:

 

Prophet — someone who can share truth in bold and uncompromising ways. (This individual is the most marginalized by the church, much because true prophets are mistakenly thought to be merely fortune tellers, holy rollers, or wild-eyed cranks, and mostly because too many Catholicized individuals feel very threatened by penetrating exposure of their real condition.)

Teacher — someone whose occupation is providing riveting understanding of those truths.

Server — someone who lives to industriously get the nuts and bolts of ministry done.

Encourager — someone who has the natural, buoyant conviviality to inspire others.

Caretaker (known by the term "mercy") — someone who has an instinctive attention to deep personal needs and knows how to gently meet them. (This individual is the most common in churches today, to the extent that each person is expected to be this type at the expense of another gift that one may have. It is a very unfortunate result of the mass infiltration of humanism in churches. Biblically, just as much love can be expressed from the use of any of the other gifts.)

Giver — someone who can assemble and manage resources. It definitely involves handling the standard measure of value (money), it may involve being blessed to generate great wealth to use for Kingdom advancement, and as such it is critical that this person be extraordinarily unselfish in his or her devotion to the Kingdom.

Organizer — someone who knows how to run an organization, and can compellingly identify and arrange who does what, when, and where. The giver and the organizer are the two the World has seduced the most into believing everyone must have System contracts. They are, however, so essential for the pure and free church to process being ungrafted and there is no greater immediate task than to reclaim their abilities for Kingdom work.

 

I should add that the idea that each of us has one motivational gift is amplified by verse 14 in the fourth chapter of Paul's first letter to Timothy. It is also given strength in the 12th chapter of his first letter to the Corinthians in which he explains how much each individual needs others in a worship community because they have gifts he/she does not have.

The steps to being ungrafted in thumbnail form:

*A brief note about tithing for the reader who insists that it is biblical. Tithing was indeed commanded by God in the Old Testament, a tenth of one's produce for proper maintenance of righteous items like the temple. The principle of giving to provide for community needs in some significant way is always godly, however the new covenant of truth and grace is one that includes the expectation that followers of Christ and laborers in the Kingdom sow — note the word: sow not just give — all of themselves in His service. While tithing is indeed biblical in a certain sense, we must make sure that the sense God intends for it is the one we are heeding. I am convinced a church listening too attentively to what the World says it should do can't understand this.

 

 

This page was originally posted by David Beck at yourownjesus.net on April 10, 2009