Where God’s Original Blueprint for His Church Came From — Part One

People sometimes ask me where the idea for God’s Original Blueprint for His Church came from. The truth is, it didn’t begin with me sitting down one day and deciding I wanted to write a book about the Church. The message started years before the book was ever written.

In 2018, during a time of worship and prayer, God began stirring something deeply in me about His Church returning to His original blueprint. Those words stayed with me. I didn’t understand everything they would eventually mean, but I knew God was awakening something in me, and Eagles’ Awakening was birthed during that season.

As time went on, I began realizing this wasn’t about starting another ministry just so there could be another name, organization, or gathering. It was about awakening the Church to become who Jesus designed us to be, both individually and as His Body as a whole.

The more I studied Scripture, the more I found myself comparing the Church in the New Testament with the way we often function today. I began asking questions. When did Christianity become so much about attending instead of becoming? When did discipleship become optional? When did ministry become something primarily done by the people standing behind the pulpit while everyone else watched?

Jesus didn’t tell us to go into all the world and collect church attenders. In Matthew 28:19, He told us to make disciples. Ephesians 4:11–12 tells us that Christ gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers “for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.”

That means leadership was never supposed to replace the ministry of the Body. Leadership is supposed to equip the Body to minister.

It is also important to understand that not every believer is called to one of those five-fold offices. That does not mean they are less important or that they have no ministry. First Corinthians 12 tells us there are different gifts but the same Spirit, while Romans 12 speaks about gifts such as serving, teaching, encouraging, giving, leading, and showing mercy. God has placed gifts throughout His Body.

First Corinthians 12:18 says that God has placed the members in the Body just as He pleased. Some people may be called into five-fold ministry, while others may never carry one of those offices, but they still carry gifts, abilities, compassion, wisdom, creativity, service, and purpose that the Body needs.

I think of it like a puzzle. Every puzzle piece is individual. It has its own shape, colors, and place. One piece cannot simply replace another and produce the exact same picture. Yet that individual piece reveals its fullest purpose when it is placed where it belongs in the larger picture.

That is how I see the Body of Christ.

God calls us individually. He gifts us individually. He gives each of us something personal to steward. First Peter 4:10 says, “As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another.” Our calling is personal, but it was never meant to be private.

We each have to say yes to God for ourselves, develop what He has placed inside us, and faithfully walk it out. But our individual calling was designed to fit into something larger. We fulfill our individual calling by bringing our piece into the Body. If one piece is missing, much of the picture may still be visible, but something God intended to be there is absent.

I love revival. I love worship, prayer, salvation, healing, deliverance, and watching people encounter God. But over the years I began realizing that awakening without discipleship cannot sustain what awakening begins. Someone can have a powerful encounter with God on Friday night, but what happens Monday morning? Who walks beside them? Who teaches them how to pray, study Scripture, understand their identity in Christ, recognize their gifts, walk in freedom, and grow into maturity?

And I don’t say that only because I have watched other people need someone to walk with them. I have needed people to walk with me too.

There have been seasons in my own life when I needed people to encourage me, teach me, challenge me, pray with me, correct me when necessary, recognize what God was doing in me, and help me keep moving forward. Proverbs 27:17 tells us that iron sharpens iron, and Ecclesiastes 4 reminds us that two are better than one because when one falls, the other can help lift them back up.

None of us was designed to become everything God created us to be completely by ourselves. We need people who have walked ahead of us in some areas, people who will walk beside us, and eventually people we can turn around and help ourselves.

That is discipleship.

Looking back, I can see that God had been writing this message in my life long before I ever typed the first chapter. Through worship ministry, deliverance ministry, discipleship, prayer, teaching, and simply walking alongside people, I kept seeing the same need. I met people who genuinely loved Jesus but had no idea who they were or where they fit. Some felt forgotten. Some felt unqualified. Some had been wounded. Others were carrying beautiful gifts, ideas, burdens, and callings that had never been recognized or given room to grow.

At the same time, I could look at my own journey and recognize how much I had benefited from people who saw something in me, trained me, encouraged me, corrected me, and helped me grow. We may have a personal relationship with Jesus, but we were never intended to live out our faith disconnected from His Body.

That is why I believe people need more than another service to attend. They need to be discipled, equipped, loved, challenged, encouraged, developed, and released. They need to know that the Church isn’t simply somewhere they go. They are part of the Church.

This is also where part of my calling has sometimes been misunderstood. I have been accused of wanting to take over, control leadership, or somehow diminish the role of the pastor. But that is actually the complete opposite of what is in my heart.

I don’t want to do everything.

I want more people doing what God created them to do.

My desire is not to walk into a church or ministry and collect positions for myself. I want to help people discover theirs.

There is something else I want to be clear about because I know this has sometimes been misunderstood too. When I talk about Eagles’ Awakening, I am not trying to build Cynthia Prather and “her brand.” I am not trying to make my name bigger, create a platform around myself, or gather people around me.

Eagles’ Awakening is about awakening, discipling, equipping, and helping the Body of Christ become who Jesus created us to be as a whole. Yes, that includes helping individuals discover their identity, gifts, and calling because the whole Body can only function properly when the individual parts actually take their places.

If what I am building causes everybody to become dependent on me, then I have missed the point. But if people grow closer to Jesus, discover what He has placed inside them, learn how their part connects with someone else’s part, become equipped to minister, and then begin helping others do the same, we are moving toward what I believe God intended.

John 3:30 says, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” I don’t want people walking away saying, “Look at Cynthia Prather and what she built.” I want people looking at the Body of Christ and saying, “Look what God is doing through all of us together.”

Jesus gets the glory.

John 10:10 tells us that the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. I believe one of the ways the enemy tries to hinder what God is building is through misunderstanding, suspicion, competition, and division. That doesn’t mean everyone who misunderstands someone has bad intentions. Some people have been hurt by controlling leaders. Some have seen titles abused. Some have watched ministries become centered around personalities instead of Jesus. I understand the caution.

That is why the fruit matters.

If Eagles’ Awakening produces people who are dependent upon Cynthia, something is wrong. If it produces disciples who know Jesus, understand their identity, recognize their gifts, take their place in the Body, and then help someone else do the same, that is the fruit I want to see.

The Church belongs to Jesus. Colossians 1:18 says that He is the Head of the Body, the Church. Pastors have an incredibly important responsibility to shepherd, care for, protect, and oversee the people God has entrusted to them, but the Church was never designed to be pastor-centered.

The pastor is not the Head.

Jesus is.

God has not placed every gift, every idea, every burden, every piece of wisdom, or every glimpse of His plan inside one person. First Corinthians 13:9 tells us that we know in part. I have a part. The pastor has a part. The teacher has a part. The evangelist has a part. The intercessor has a part. Someone sitting quietly in the congregation may be carrying an idea from God that could one day bless an entire community.

Those things shouldn’t automatically be treated as competition with leadership. They should be heard, prayed over, tested according to Scripture, celebrated, developed, and, when they line up with what God is doing, built upon.

One thing I have recognized in the way God has developed me apostolically is that sometimes I can see where something could go before all the pieces are visible. It can feel almost like seeing the finished building while everyone else is still looking at the lumber. I may see connections between people, ministries, gifts, or opportunities before the structure exists for them.

But seeing the bigger picture does not mean I possess every piece of it. Someone else may see a detail I completely missed. Another person may carry the gift needed to accomplish something I can envision but could never do myself. Someone else may have the relationships, practical skills, compassion, organization, teaching gift, prophetic insight, evangelistic passion, or pastoral heart that is needed to make it happen.

We need one another.

First Corinthians 12 makes that clear when Paul compares the Church to a human body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you.” Ephesians 4:16 says the whole Body grows and builds itself up as every part does its share.

That is what apostolic building means to me. It isn’t walking into a church and saying, “Here is my vision, and everybody needs to get behind it.” It is coming alongside the Body and asking, “What is Jesus saying among us? What has He placed inside His people? What pieces has He given each of us, and how can we bring those pieces together to build what He wants here?”

That means actually getting to know people. What are they passionate about? What burden keeps coming back to them? Where are they naturally gifted? What have they always wanted to do for God but never believed there was a place for them to do it?

Maybe someone has a burden for the homeless while someone else loves discipling new believers. Someone may have a heart for elderly people, single mothers, children, worship, prayer, practical service, or outreach. Someone may know how to teach while another person is gifted at organizing. Someone may be able to build or repair things. Someone else may carry such compassion that they notice the hurting person everyone else walked past.

None of those people has to carry the title of apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, or teacher for what God has placed inside them to matter.

Instead of always asking, “Where can this person fit into what we already have?” maybe sometimes we need to ask, “Could God be showing us something new through them?”

This is also why I do not believe church was ever supposed to consist mainly of people sitting in pews every Sunday while one pastor preaches a message, goes home, prepares another sermon, and repeats the process the following week.

There is nothing wrong with Sunday morning. We need fellowship, worship, teaching, and gathering together. Hebrews 10:25 tells us not to forsake assembling together.

But what about Monday through Saturday?

Who is discipling people then? Who is reaching the lost? Who is visiting the hospital? Who is teaching the new believer how to pray? Who is caring for the hurting? Who is helping someone discover what God put inside them?

That is where the Body comes in.

There may be pastors sitting in the pews who have never been given the opportunity to shepherd. There may be apostles who have never been given room to build. There may be prophets who have never been given a safe place to learn, test, mature, and develop what they are hearing from God. There may be evangelists who have never been released to lead outreach. There may be teachers who have never had an opportunity to teach, worshipers who have never been given the chance to lead, and leaders who have never been allowed to lead.

How will people ever grow if they are never given room to practice?

First Corinthians 14:29 tells us to let prophets speak and let others weigh what is said. Prophetic ministry was meant to develop in community, with Scripture, wisdom, accountability, and discernment. Apostles need opportunities to build. Prophets need room to mature. Evangelists need opportunities to evangelize. Pastors need people to shepherd. Teachers need opportunities to teach. And people carrying every other kind of gift need room to develop too.

Healthy leadership develops people.

Second Timothy 2:2 says that what has been learned should be entrusted to faithful people who will then be able to teach others also. That is multiplication. Even Moses had to learn this principle in Exodus 18 when Jethro told him the work was too heavy for him to carry alone.

The goal is not for one leader to become indispensable.

The goal is to equip more people.

First Corinthians 14:26 gives us another picture when Paul describes believers coming together and says one may have a psalm, another a teaching, another a revelation. The gathered Church should be a place where people are equipped, developed, and released, not permanently parked in a pew.

That doesn’t mean chaos. Healthy leadership provides order, accountability, training, correction, and appropriate opportunities for people to grow. A healthy pastor should not feel threatened when someone else can preach, teach, sing, lead, counsel, evangelize, prophesy, or build.

That should be exciting.

The success of a leader should not only be seen in how well that leader ministers. It should also be seen in how many other people they have helped become ministers.

Sunday morning should not be the finish line. It should be part of the training ground for what the Body carries Monday through Saturday.

That is where God’s Original Blueprint for His Church came from. It came from years of watching people encounter God and realizing they needed someone to walk with them afterward. It came from knowing personally what it feels like to need people to walk beside me. It came from seeing gifted people sitting on the sidelines because nobody helped them discover where they belonged.

Most importantly, it came from the conviction that Jesus already gave us the blueprint. We don’t need to reinvent His Church. We need to return to Him and allow Him to show us how to become it.

That is still the heartbeat of Eagles’ Awakening today. My prayer isn’t simply that people will read a book called God’s Original Blueprint for His Church. My prayer is that we will live it.

And then something happened today that made me look at this picture of the Body even more closely.

I was teaching a friend how to play the piano. As I showed her which fingers to use for different notes, I didn’t think much about it at the time. Later that night, though, I found myself thinking back on that lesson and suddenly saw another picture of the Body of Christ.

Every finger on my hand is still a finger. They are the same kind of body part, but they don’t all play the same note. My thumb has one position. My index finger has another. Another finger reaches another note. They are all fingers on the same hand, playing the same instrument, but they have different positions and functions within the song.

We often talk about First Corinthians 12 by comparing the hand to the foot or the eye to the ear. But what happens when there is more than one of the same kind of part?

What if there is more than one apostle in the house? More than one prophet? More than one evangelist, pastor, or teacher?

Do we compete to determine who is the most anointed, the most spiritual, the most qualified, or the “real” one?

Or could we simply be different fingers on the same hand?

That is where I want to pick up in Part Two: Same Hand, Different Notes — Why We Don’t Have to Compete in the Body of Christ.

Because maybe the problem isn’t that God has placed too many gifted people in the same room.

Maybe we just haven’t learned how to play together yet.

The blueprint was His all along. Maybe it’s time we took another look at it.

Cynthia Prather
Eagles’ Awakening