Concerns regarding the failure to fully recognize the centrality and primacy of the Gospel of the Kingdom in the church body and pulpit today have been spreading for some time! Here at One Hundred-Fold Ministries, we have it as our mission to declare and celebrate the Gospel of the Kingdom and the teachings of Jesus with all boldness (Acts 28:31). We think that a Kingdom- centered mind and lifestyle will gather the church behind the unifying theme of this good news. We believe that there is an evangelistic revival in store for a new generation of believers by presenting the benefits and purposes of this Kingdom Gospel. We believe that there is an untapped blessing of personal peace, hope, community, grace, and purpose for every believer who lays hold of the blessings in this Gospel!

It’s not just us! Others agree!

Pastor Brian Hathaway from New Zealand, wrote a seminal book on the Kingdom of God entitled Beyond Renewal – The Kingdom of God (Word Books, 1990)

In this work, he floated a Kingdom Manifesto. It is a brilliant and comprehensive look at the practical doctrines embedded in the Gospel of the Kingdom. Brian challenges the reader to prioritize the Kingdom of God in both thought and personal practice.

From this point forward in this blog, I am quoting from Brian’s work. The clarity and urgency he employs in communicating the urgency of this timeless Jesus Agenda serves as a readable primer for those of us still trying to wrap our minds about all that Jesus was hoping for us to understand when he said, “Seek first the Kingdom of God!” Take your time reading but enjoy!!

“The Preamble to the Kingdom Manifesto¹

It is with growing conviction and excitement that we present to you this Kingdom Manifesto statement concerning the Kingdom of God which is the rule and government of God over all of life, individual and corporate, private, and public.

In many places around the world, there is an increasing interest and awakening to the realization that when Jesus Christ the Son of God commanded His disciples to pray ‘Your Kingdom Come’ and ‘Seek first the Kingdom of God’ in everyday matters, He expected it to have a profound motivating effect on His followers of that day and down through the ages.

Many churches in the 21st century have forgotten this central theme of Jesus’ person, work and teachings or have not yet fully discovered the dynamic of these commands. But increasingly, Christians are enthusiastically exploring, studying, and allowing the Holy Spirit to lead them into fresh understanding about the Kingdom of God. Clearly the Kingdom of God was the central theme in the teachings of Jesus. It is much more radical than most Christians have conceived. We believe that the Christian community needs to recapture and apply the importance of this message.

This statement does not include all the issues that encompass an understanding of the Kingdom of God, but we believe that it covers some of those that are of greatest significance in our country at this time. We believe that the content of this statement encompasses views held by the Church orthodoxy throughout the 2000 years of its history.

We present this Manifesto to you as a vision of the possibilities of a wholehearted commitment to the Kingdom of God by the people of God.

We confess that all too often:



• We have ignored the centrality of the message of the Kingdom of God in the teaching of Jesus
• We have failed to recognize that love is the definitive mark of the Kingdom of God – loving the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind and our neighbors as ourselves
• We have limited the expression of Christ’s Kingdom within society to the institutional church
• We have emphasized the individual and personal aspects of the Kingdom of God to the neglect of the corporate and communal
• We have neglected the physical and material implications of the Kingdom of God and concentrated on the moral and the spiritual
• We have divided our lives and activities into secular and sacred categories
• We have failed to occupy our proper position as servants in the affairs of Government, education, business, economics, trade unions, media, arts, science, welfare and medicine as the Creator’s salt and light to the world so that those areas of life might more clearly reflect Christ’s justice, hope, peace, and joy
• We have prayed ‘Your Kingdom Come’ and ignored the command of Christ to ‘Seek it first’ in our personal and societal lifestyles.
• Therefore we repent of our failure to let Christ be King in these areas.
To this end we offer this KINGDOM MANIFESTO as a call to new obedience to our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Pastor Hathaway and his cohorts then go on after this preamble to present their much longer and very comprehensive manifesto.

One Hundred-Fold Ministries is intending to address these issues with various curricula, interventions for youth, pastoral training, small group study guides and social media options. We will redress these failures by seeking new insights through Think Tank experiences of various disciplines, creative Spirit-led endeavors in both church and non-church communities, with robust theological debates and the development of working models embodying principles of the Kingdom of God.

One Hundred–Fold Ministries is just getting revved up! Come join the conversation, Backyard or otherwise! This is Dave Scherrer and please consider connecting with your thoughts at dave@100foldministries.org.

^{1 This preamble has been modestly edited to remove references specifically to his audience of New Zealand proper.}