The SOBER Church: God's Agenda is Wholeness!!!

By Ebony Vaughan

The Sober Church offers a transformative perspective that emphasizes the interconnectedness of spiritual and psychological realities, promoting wholeness and growth in every aspect of life. By embracing this reality, The Sober Church encourages the spirit filled believer to delve into their inner selves and cultivate a greater understanding of t

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ebony Vaughan
• Release date: Jun 7, 2024
• ISBN: 9798990836419

Book preview

Acknowledgements

I thank God for my husband, Vincent, my children, Joshua and Jessica, and all of my family. You have continued to be a source of support, encouragement, and love through every assignment.

My deepest gratitude to my Apostle Kenneth Robinson and Pastor Lenyar Robinson for your support and spiritual leadership over the last twenty years. Your faithfulness to your call and assignment, Dream Nation, is to be honored and commended.

I consider myself blessed for the many friends who pray for me as I birth every assignment.

Finally, I want to acknowledge and honor the powerful gifts of Apostle Kenneth Robinson, Archbishop Ralph Dennis, Apostle Daren Lee, Apostle Jonathan Patterson and Pastor Charles Anderson. Thank you for taking time to allow me to glean from your spiritual insight, knowledge, wisdom and expertise with this assignment.

God is so faithful!

Foreword

Today’s complexities of human issues and dilemmas demand from the church a more comprehensive approach to bring solutions to a hurting world. The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown light on the fragility of our current models of ministry, pushing many to their capaci ty limits.

The post-pandemic church has the challenge of addressing the residue of mental, emotional, financial, and spiritual pain from a more holistic approach. This new digital world with all of its technological advantages in innovation, business, and communication still leaves many people with holes in their souls simply because God has reserved that area for himself. Out of these societal pressures have emerged leaders who are not afraid to challenge the status quo, even if it is the church, to bring healing and wholeness to lives. That’s what Ebony Vaughan has done in The Sober Church: God’s Agenda Is Wholeness. Writing from the perspective of a clinician and minister in the body of Christ, she brings a unique insight from her profession, life and thirty years of ministry into how the church can bring wholeness today. This book is great for those of us who have been searching for new wisdom and understanding on how to reach and minister to this hurting and confused generation. Also, it serves as a reference guide for how the church in her own sobriety can bring wholeness to a broken world. The timing of this book is prophetic, because the pandemic exposed the proliferation of mental illness in our families and churches.

Ebony gives the most accurate prophetic forecast to address God’s plan for wholeness in the church. She reveals that God has always had a plan to minister holistically to his creation, but our limited paradigms and traditional approaches to hurting and broken people perhaps have hindered him. The scripture says, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him (Acts 10:38, NKJV). There were times when Jesus Christ would heal, like he did the ten lepers, but only one returned to give thanks. Consequently, when that one leper returned with gratitude, Jesus said, Arise, go thy way. Thy faith hath made thee whole (Luke 17:19, KJV). This man received more than healing; he received wholeness. Paul the Apostle wrote to the church at Thessalonica, from the heart of God, Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thessalonians 5:23, NKJV). This passage of scripture clearly reveals that we are a tri-part being and need God’s touch in our whole being and lives. The biblical meaning of wholeness is the state of being perfectly well in body, soul (mind, will, and emotions) and spirit. Ebony shares in this book that this was God’s original design for man before the fall and is now attainable once we receive Jesus and become new creatures in him. She provides apostolic strategies, prophetic insight, and the practical wisdom we need to sober up the church to bring wholeness to a broken creation. Each of these carefully constructed chapters will empower all of us who desire God’s agenda of wholeness to become the sober church. This book is a must-read for the body of Christ today and for all who are desiring to be made whole.

Dr. Kenneth Robinson

Preface

The Sober Church is a book about the impact of mental health on the church—God’s people and their ordained place to worship. It identifies ways in which people can use the word of God and his creation to address the emotional, mental, and psychological complexities of being human. This book is designed to examine the intention of God as it relates to mental health and also to help us identify the paradoxical practices within the institution of the church (the place) that work against God’s agenda of wholeness.

The Sober Church will also help people to gain an in-depth awareness of the concept of wholeness as it relates to the condition of the church and its people. The church is both the people who worship God and the building/place where believers come to worship. The Bible tells us of the story of Peter in Matthew 16, in which Jesus told Peter upon this rock, meaning upon Peter’s belief he would build his church. Peter possessed a conviction that Jesus was the Christ and the son of the living God. I believe Jesus told him that upon that conviction he would build his church, and the gates of hell would not prevail. In this verse there is a precedent set in the body of Christ: if we believe in him, there shall be victory in our lives.

Church is also described as a place of worship where the people of God assemble themselves together to find fellowship, build their faith and fulfill their call to servanthood. This is not the only place this call is fulfilled, but church is the training ground for spiritual gifts and fivefold ascension gifts to be developed and/or cultivated. Ephesians 4:11–13 (AMP) says, And [His gifts to the church were varied and] He Himself appointed some as apostles [special messengers, representatives], some as prophets [who speak a new message from God to the people], some as evangelists [who spread the good news of salvation], and some as pastors and teachers [to shepherd and guide and instruct], [and He did this] to fully equip and perfect the saints (God’s people) for works of service, to build up the body of Christ [the church]; until we all reach oneness in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, [growing spiritually] to become a mature believer, reaching to the measure of the fullness of Christ [manifesting His spiritual completeness and exercising our spiritual gifts in unity]. Spirit-filled believers are able to cultivate their spiritual gifts within the context of the church, by gaining a greater understanding of the word of God, how the gifts of the spirit operate, and their function on the earth. Gaining practical experience within the church community allows spirit-filled believers to discern and demonstrate their spiritual gifts under the guidance and accountability of mature believers and leaders. Through serving others, participating in prayer groups, ministering in various capacities, and receiving feedback, individuals can grow in their understanding and gain confidence in operating in the gifts of the spirit. With this new confidence, the spirit-filled believer is empowered to activate their gifts wherever they go, whether in the church or in their profession.

There is often a culture and climate within the church that perpetuates a mindset that can be in competition with God’s agenda for wholeness. The complexities of our human nature and doctrinal beliefs have often created discord, dissonance and division in our relationship with God, his word, and the church. Everywhere you read in the Bible, Jesus and those who walked with him had to deal with human experiences—the psychological, emotional, social, and spiritual aspects of our lives. When these areas are in alignment with God’s agenda for wholeness, powerful things happen. This book seeks to uncover these paradigms to lead to the fulfillment of God’s agenda for his people and in his church.

Sober living from a natural perspective means refraining from drinking alcohol. However, biblical soberness has to do with the spirit-filled believer’s ability to experience soundness in mind, to exercise self-discipline, to use wisdom and prudence in making decisions and, more importantly, not to be controlled by their emotions. It enables spiritual maturity, resilience and consistency in commitment to God and his purpose. By embracing biblical soberness, we can experience greater freedom, peace and effectiveness in our walk with God and in our interactions with others. 1 Thessalonians 5:6 (AMP) says, So then let us not sleep [in spiritual indifference] as the rest [of the world does], but let us keep wide awake [alert and cautious] and let us be sober [self-controlled, calm, and wise].

This book will look at the patterns of thinking and behaving in the context of the church that hinder the spirit-filled believer from experiencing the fulfillment of God’s agenda of wholeness. Hindrances to experiencing wholeness often lie in our inability to heal from historical traumas, fractures of faith, or traumatic traditions. Through these negative experiences in our lives, the spirit-filled believer finds themselves creating defensive structures that prevent them from experiencing freedom. As we see above, sober living from a spiritual perspective is about soundness of mind and stability. To reach this place will require a challenge to old mindsets and fractured belief systems. I truly believe that many of the struggles of the spirit-filled believer rest on a failure to renew their mind daily, which leads to mental health struggles. Although we are in a time when mental health and wellness are trending and at the forefront of just about every social media handle, the scriptures have always been clear on God’s desire to see his people unified and whole—that is, sound in mind, body, and spirit. It’s the word, y’all!

For the spirit-filled believer, being sober is about being willing to address the emotional wounds and/or traumas of their past to enable freedom from false identities and strongholds that have perpetuated trauma. Sobriety is about God’s people aligning themselves with the pureness of the word of God instead of heresy born from traditions and false doctrine designed to isolate and divide God’s church and his creation. Members of the sober church also have a clear sense of their identity and are able to see themselves whole and complete in Christ, rather than defined by their past experiences.

One of the functions of God’s creation is to bring wholeness to the earth. The Bible says in Ephesians 4:16 (AMP), From Him the whole body [the church, in all its various parts], joined and knitted firmly together by what every joint supplies, when each part is working properly, causes the body to grow and mature, building itself up in [unselfish] love. God’s creation is all connected, and when one part of the body is broken, his church is broken. God designed the physical body to heal itself, and so it is that all of God’s creation is designed to heal itself. We are his body, and each member of this body is designed to bring healing and life into the others.

The AMP translation of this scripture highlights something that is crucially important about the concept of the sober church: when each part is working properly. God has a desire for his body to function properly as he has designed, for it is in this place that his people are able to experience his agenda of wholeness. As you journey through this book, you will notice two distinct but connected definitions of wholeness. Let’s look at them now. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, wholeness is defined as the quality of being or feeling complete and not divided or damaged.

The other definition comes from Dictionary.com, and it defines wholeness as soundness, health, or well-being in body, mind, soul, or spirit. As you ponder on these definitions, I want you to think about God and his word. The word of God is designed to help the spirit-filled believer get to this place of wholeness, where we are no longer living in a place of brokenness.

As a licensed clinician, social worker, and ministry leader for almost thirty years, I have found that the idea of wholeness and mental health is not always seen as being on the agenda of God, but I would like to show you just how God has always desired his people to experience soundness in body, mind and spirit. Oxford Languages defines mental health as a person’s condition with regard to their psychological, emotional well-being, and social functioning. It affects how a person thinks, feels, and acts and it helps to determine how they handle stress, relate to others, and make healthy choices. Looking at this definition, it startles me that this has been such a taboo subject within the institution of the church. We must make mental health and wholeness an essential component in our journey of spiritual growth and development. We must understand that the vehicles through which this is achieved can only be found in his creation. God has designed his creation to ensure that his agenda of wholeness is experienced on earth. When we grasp the importance of mental health and wholeness, in both secular and spiritual contexts, individuals and communities can work together to fulfill the biblical mandate to love and care for one another as children of God, to further our holistic well-being.

All through scripture, God addresses the importance of this for his people. Let’s look at what the Bible says in 1 Thessalonians 5:23 (AMP): Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you through and through [that is, separate you from profane and vulgar things, make you pure and whole and undamaged—consecrated to Him—set apart for His purpose]; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept complete and [be found] blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wholeness has always been the agenda of God.

The term mental health has been the buzzword over the last couple of years in our world and in the church. People are now becoming more aware of the impact of mental health on daily living. If you look throughout the word of God, you will see that mental health and wholeness have always been in the mind and heart of God. In John 10:10, Jesus said, "The thief comes only in order to steal and kill