The Frozen Church is Thawing
A month ago, I had a dream.
In that dream I was walking through the downtown, urban section of a city. I came across a storefront church. It was bustling with young, urban attenders that were very much of the hipster variety. Everything about this church had the buzz of “cool.”
After hanging around for a while with people I didn’t know, I found out that the person I was hanging with invited me to preach but I was totally unaware. The leader of this church had asked me to preach on servanthood, but he was wanting a message on servanthood so that he would have an easier time recruiting people to serve the ministries of this church. He had no interest in servanthood as a value in the Kingdom.
From the front of the building, we walked into the sanctuary with the pastor and his assistant. The sanctuary was actually a stadium-style ice rink. The pastor asked me to sit in the highest row, which is where he spoke from, but the worship of the meeting actually took place at the bottom of the stadium out on the ice. As the worship progressed, I began to realize that this church’s worship was a very detailed production/show and that everyone was dressed very formally. There was an orchestra, dancers and because an ice rink was central to this church, they even had ice skaters. Somehow I had ended up in dressed in a suit but had no shoes and was feeling very awkward about it.
Then suddenly towards the end of the “worship time” it became clear that the ice rink was melting. But it wasn’t just the ice in the rink at the center of the stadium that was melting, but the whole building. Unbeknownst to me the entire building was made of ice and was beginning to melt. The stadium seats, the floors, and even the walls were melting and cracking. It disrupted the whole service and we could not continue. I woke up with this phrase on my spirit: “The frozen church is melting.”
Interpretation: I believe that this is a warning to the church, particularly in the West. The church built on entertainment, cultural relativity, and business values will begin to come undone. This will be in large part due to “atmospheric change” that the church in the West will find itself in. I’m unclear about whether this will come from greater hostility toward the church from society in general or a greater intensity brought to bear on the church by the Lord Himself, resulting in more fervency in the body and a rejection of these values. But one thing is clear: a Christian organization built on man’s organizational values that feeds a consumer mentality in the body of Christ in order to further the success of one or two leaders will be a recipe for a “melting church.”
Hebrews 12:26-27: “At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, ‘Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.’ This phrase, ‘Yet once more,’ indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain.”
Application: The call then, based on all of this, is to repent. We need to repent of those areas where we’ve been working for our fulfillment and notoriety instead of the Lord’s glory and the advancement of the Gospel. We need to reject human leadership values and church structures based on marketing principles and not God’s word, even if you can vaguely construe Scripture to justify your approach. Go back and do the things you did at first when Jesus was your first love. Begin again to follow Jesus, listen to His voice, and look to Him and His word for how you and your church can begin to follow Him based on what He values.
Now: Do you see anything in the interpretation or application of the dream that I missed? If you do, please feel free to leave a comment in the comment section below.
Photo Credit: Flying Through a Crack in the Ice by NASA Goddard Photo and Video
4 responses to “The Frozen Church is Thawing”
Leave a Reply
Cluster Map
Pursuing Glory 
I would agree with your interpretation of the dream. I too am in an organic church. The Lord showed me several dreams and visions that I will post for you to pray about and see what the Lord says to you about them.
The End of Church As We Know It
Let me share a dream I had. In the dream, I saw a wooden coffin and inside the coffin, I saw a church with 2 very large pillars outside. also saw the lid of the coffin resting on the knuckles of 2 hands and the hands in turn were resting on the coffin like one would do just
before nailing it shut. So, as you can imagine, there was very little light left in the coffin because of the lid of the coffin being almost on the coffin. Getting back to the church I saw inside the coffin, I saw thousands of people coming out of the church and jumping out of the coffin as fast as they could. However, there were 2 groups of people who refused to leave,
in fact; they had their fists held in the air. These 2 groups were standing by the 2 very large pillars I had seen earlier in my dream. These pillars had names. The name of the first pillar was religion and the name of the second pillar was politics.
The interpretation of the dream was given by Pastor Guy and is as follows:
A coffin is what you bury the dead in. The coffin in your dream is
religious tradition holding the church (the people in the church) in
captivity from following Jesus. The two large pillars outside are the
gods of the church. The hands belonging to the knuckles in which the
lid of the coffin rested on were the hands of the Lord holding the lid
from closing all the way till those who were going to leave this
traditional church made it out.
The hands which were resting on the coffin like they were about to
shut it was the hands of the spirit of anti christ who was shutting
out the light through lies and deception. This will be a time as the
parrabel in Matt 25 of the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten
virgins.
The foolish virgins will be those remaining in the coffin and refusing
to repent from their gods of religious politics and accept the life of
Christ. Those coming out of the coffin are those who recognize the end
is here and they came out from among them as God said to do in 2 Cor.
6:14-18. The door is about to shut and be sealed.
Some additional things the Lord showed me John 5:25 NIV84
25 I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.
Those who hear are the ones coming out of the casket.
The people who standing by the pillars refusing to leave are the ones of whom Jesus says that they are trying to kill Him because there is no room in their hearts for His word. Which is why they did not leave the church in the coffin and why they will try to kill any move of God that would cause people to want to leave the coffin. They prefer the darkness of the coffin where their deeds go unexposed John 3:19-21 NKJV
And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.
A Dream About An Earthquake in Tucson, Arizona
I had a dream early the morning of March 1, 2012 about Tucson having an earthquake. The dream was real enough that I wanted to and intend to purchase earthquake insurance for my house. I personally believe that the dream is indicating both a spiritual and physical event about to hit Tucson. What comes to mind as I write this is the vision from Ezekiel 37 regarding the valley of dry bones. “So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a noise. And behold, a shaking! And the bones came near, a bone to its bone”.
(Eze 37:7 MKJV) Some of these bones are buried and we walk over them not knowing that they even exist. So an earthquake would definitely reveal that which was hidden from view, at least that is what I am thinking.
The Hebrew word used for shaking here is, ra‛ash, and following is the definition of the word:
A masculine noun referring to an earthquake, a shaking, a rumbling, a commotion. It indicates a quaking of the surface of the earth (1Ki_19:11-12); the quivering and shaking of a warhorse as it engages a battle (Job_39:24); or the brandishing, shaking of a javelin (Job_41:29 [21]). It refers to the roar and commotion, the clatter of a battle itself (Isa_9:5 [4]); or the preparations for war (Jer_10:22). It depicts the noise of a rolling chariot wheel, hastening into battle (Nah_3:2). It is used of the sounds made by the Lord’s chariot appearance and movement (Eze_3:12). It stands for an earthquake itself, a great shaking, trembling (Amo_1:1; Zec_14:5).
When I spoke to my former Pastor regarding the dream he said the following, ” it’s very similar to a prophecy that several shared with me 4 years ago in Tucson. The urgency seemed to be centered around the airbase at that time. For whatever reason. I pray it’s a spiritual awakening, but the concern has been there about disaster”.
The Lord gave me a word the following day about the dream of the Earthquake I had which was, ” the dead in Christ will rise first”. I have been seeing in visions of tombs opening up. What I feel the Spirit saying is that the, “dead” here have to do with His church. The earthquake will wake the church here in Tucson. In addition, the , “dead”, are spoken of in Ephesians and says the following, “But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light. For this reason it says, “Awake, sleeper, And arise from the dead, And Christ will shine on you.” The word, “sleeper”, here comes from the Greek word,”καθεύδω katheúdō which means to be spiritually asleep, i.e., secure and unconcerned in sin, or indolent and careless in the performance of duty. The word, “dead”, comes from the Greek word, “νεκρός nekros”, which metaphorically means, spiritually dead, destitute of a life that recognizes and is devoted to God because its given up to trespasses and sins; inactive as respects doing right; destitute of force or power, inactive, inoperative.
(Eph 5:13-14 NASB)
A Vision of the church being separated from its Foundation
The Lord showed me a vision and in the vision I saw a huge church. In the aftermath of the, “earthquake dream”, which I had shared, the church building itself had been separated from its foundation so that the foundation on which it was built was exposed for all to see. The church building was beside the foundation and was no longer hiding the foundation upon which it had been built.
These are just a few of the dreams and visions that the Lord has been giving me concerning the church. I am posting them here to acknowledge that you are hearing and seeing correctly. The Lord has big changes in store for His church.
Tony
Thanks for the comment. I appreciate the confirmation. The Lord has been dealing with me on the need for greater revelation regarding the shifts coming to the church. I’m hoping and praying that the shaking that’s coming reveals the true church, wherever it meets.
Thanks so much for the input.
What I see that is of interest in your dream is your bare feet. Your feet being bare symbolize humility. You went to this church humble of heart to serve God. Those in the church wore skates which are used for the show in order to entertain.
You were feeling awkward because of your bare feet, but actually the ones who should have felt awkward where those in the church. God uses the humble, not the proud. In this world, serving God might make us feel uncomfortable and awkward at times. We should be proud of our bare feet.
I have somewhat of a different take on the fact he wasn’t wearing any shoes. I don’t see humility here at all being the issue although I could see where you could get that. What I see is the bare feet are a symbol of slavery. In biblical times, slaves did not wear shoes, only their masters did. If you remember the story of the prodigal son, when he came to his senses and returned to his Father, one of the things given to him was shoes. The reason I see him feeling out of place is because he was being treated as a slave and being used to recruit other slaves to the machine of the mega church.