The Day of Lone Ranger is Over

by Robert Holmes

The Lone Ranger: the popular comic hero of mid-western USA. Cutting a rugged and imposing figure in the pale moonlight, calling his beautiful horse, “Hi ho Silver, away!” Behind him was Tonto, the faithful American Indian buddy who appeared from time to time to assist him. The Lone Ranger was exactly as his name suggests – a singularity, an anomaly, alone.

“The bell that rings to a sermon, calls not upon the preacher only,
but upon the congregation to come:
so this bell calls us all… No man is an island, entire of itself.”
John Donne (1572-1631)

It is my observation that, by and large, Christians tend to be loners. We may attend church together, we may sit in a building facing the same way together but we rarely work together in the Kingdom. Ministers, itinerant preachers, crusade evangelists and prophets all tend to be loners. Is this really the Biblical pattern? Is this God’s best for the body – each to his own? I don’t think it can be.

“Your watchmen shall lift up their voices… together for they shall see eye to eye, when the LORD brings back Zion” (Isaiah 52:8 NKJV)

Do you see the call – especially in the prophetic? We are supposed to be lifting up voices together (both in unison and in harmony). We are supposed to be singing the same song, praising the same God, facing the same direction together. But where have you ever seen a team, a choir, a chorus of voices speaking for God? Seeing eye to eye means looking one another in the face with honesty and integrity; speaking what we hear. There is no solo here, there is no overarching rock-star ministry. It is no singularity, nor even the “four tenors” of famous men. It is an entire body – a company.

Our culture

Australian, New Zealand and American culture is fairly “frontier” minded. We sing songs like, “I did it my way,” and we admire the self-made man. Our heroes are singular supermen (or little bands of highly specialized “few good men”). We have almost no team spirit at all. But that is not so with all of us.

By contrast the Aboriginal, Indian, Maori, Inuit and Islander culture is fairly “community” minded. This was brought home to me very strongly when Mario and I established an Indigenous Food Garden concept in Cootamundra. After seven years of research and development we invited local Wiradjuri tribe leaders to come and see. We hoped to learn and also to impart what we knew. That day we sat down on the lawn in a learning circle – where everyone was treated as equals – and shared our knowledge of bushfood. Learning together; acting together.

Old Testament style

Of course I am not throwing stones at any particular leader here. I only write and speak of this subject because it is in my own heart. I was saved into a hierarchical denominational church – with one clear leader. As I grew in the prophetic I had stellar, individual examples to follow like Paul Cain (who was without peer) and as it turns out, friendship might have helped him later. As I reflect on many of the conference topics and preaching examples I was being given at that time I see that they were stand alone, “saviour” types.

We admired Micaiah, Malachi, Ezekiel, Joseph and Daniel. Our modern day heroes were men like Reinhard Bonnke, William Branham, Billy Graham and Ted Haggard. But really, how realistic is that modeling? How useful (indeed how Biblical) is it? Does God have in mind a bunch of caped crusaders, a wild and unaccountable group of stellar individuals like the Lone Ranger who will whisk in and save the day?

The sad fact of moral failure by so many of our leaders led to some hard introspection for me, and a re-evaluation of the leadership models I found in Scripture. Now I see other examples there like:
* Moses – who appointed seventy elders to judge with him;
* Jacob/Israel – who had twelve sons;
* Samuel – who visited five cities each year, worked with local elders and raised up schools in every place;
* Elijah – who fathered four schools of the prophets;

“If you want to go quickly, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.”
Old African Proverb

New Testament style

The New Testament is also full of teams. John deferred to Jesus when he showed up. Jesus raised up twelve (and the seventy two who went out two by two). He promised, “I will send you apostles and prophets (plural) some you will persecute others you will kill” (Luke 11:49) and established the church on the team foundation of apostles and prophets (Ephesians 2:20). The early church raised up and sent teams like Paul and Silas; Barnabas and John Mark.

Consider the prophets (plural) who came down from Jerusalem to minister at Antioch (Acts 11:27). That’s mind blowing right there. The prophets (plural) of a city knew each other, prayed with each other, flowed together and as an entire group went together on itinerant ministry! I cannot think of even one city on this planet that can say that about their prophets!

And don’t quote Kansas City to me. As amazing as KCF was in raising up prophets, each and every one of them are stand alone ministries. Indeed as David Pytches points out in “Some said it Thundered” there was often division among the prophets there. He cites “duelling prophet Sunday” as a prime (but not the only) example. “Now in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse. For, to begin with, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you; and to some extent I believe it.” (1 Corinthians 11:17,18).

Here’s another thing I have never seen: the embodiment of Paul’s experiences at Corinth. He writes, “When the prophets speak let the others weigh what is said.” (1 Corinthians 14:29). Now I have seen a conference at which “prophets speak” (usually two or three visiting dignitaries). But in that case no one stops and weighs what is said. There is no discussion, only affirmation. I have also seen local prophets made to write down their revelation one by one and submit them to the pastor (who presumably weighs what is said?) But never have I seen a plurality of prophets speak for God and a plurality of people corporately weigh that utterance. Never.

Just think of the harm that could be avoided if we walked together – weighing our words together – holding each other accountable. Travelling from one city to another together with the camaraderie and fellowship, the strengthening and encouragement. Together we would have a stronger witness.

Walking together

As Solomon points out, “Two walking together is better than one who walks alone. When one falls, the other can pick him up and carry him on.” (Ecclesiastes 4:12). Again this power was highlighted to me recently at a Board meeting for Storm Harvest in December last year.

The full board (minus one) was there and after we had worked our way through the admin/accounting/legal agenda we turned to spiritual matters. The board as a whole was uneasy about our relationship with a certain outreach. They had raised this with me two years before and asked me to address certain failings and oversights in that ministry (which I had done).

They said, as one, “Robert we want you to consider shutting down our ministry work and partnership in that nation – altogether. We feel that it is time they stood on their own. They are not us, we are not them and we cannot allow this to go on.” It was not a command, it was the gentle request of brothers and sisters. It’s sad that it had to come to this (not because of the misbehavior of the staff overseas) because of my own blindedness to the situation and my previous unwillingness to end our work there.

Such is the rescue or working together, such is the safety of walking together.