The Vision

In 1991 God gave us a vision which was quite awesome and humbling. Along with it came a burden for His Church, and the need to prepare for what lay ahead in the days, months and years to follow as we moved closer to the return in triumph of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

During the years that have followed, the Lord has been teaching and preparing us for the work He had planned for us, and confirming His Word with additional revelation on the Scripture, and further vision of His plans. It has been a time of tremendous joy, as well as some painful experiences, as the Lord, as Master Potter, worked to form this all to stubborn lump of clay into a vessel fit for His work.

We continually thank Him for His faithfulness, patience, forgiveness, and mercy that we have through the finished work of Jesus Christ, crucified, risen and living Lord! Without this gift of grace, we would never have reached the point that we have – and would be paying the penalty that our many mistakes, sins and rebelliousness deserve!

William Metzger

The Call

When the Lord first called us with a vision for Mainstream Ministries, He gave us this Scripture from ISAIAH 43: 18 -21:

Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland. The wild animals honour me, the jackals and the owls, because I provide water in the desert and streams in the wasteland, to give drink to my people, my chosen, the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise.

The Lord spoke clearly and said;

I am creating the means for all this to become possible. I am doing a new thing, and will provide the way forward for My people. My people, those who accept my Son as Lord and Saviour, who follow my Word, who move by My Spirit are the Mainstream of this world, and its society. It is they whom I have empowered to bring the Life of My Son to this world – not those who have put tradition or man’s structures before My Word.

You are to be a part of this, an encouragement and resource to My People, the water in the desert and stream in the wasteland, so that they may drink freely of My Spirit and grow to sound My Praise in a way the world cannot ignore – called to bring a message of a return to our “First Love” and Unity in Christ, as the Son prayed to the Father. (Christ’s prayer in John 17).

To explain this further, the Lord then gave me a vision.

God’s Mainstream – One Body in Christ

The Lord showed me a picture that represented the Church, from Christ’s Resurrection to His Victorious Return.

In the vision, I first saw a small green hill rise up in the middle of a vast desert, surrounded on all sides by sand. As I watched, a spring of fresh water sprung up from the top of the hill. It began to cascade down the hill over rocks, picking up speed and creating a channel as it went.

As the stream hit the desert below, with all the rocks, trees debris it picked up, it was met by a sudden and heavy rainstorm. Swollen by the rain, the stream, cutting a new channel into the desert, changed into a mighty river, thundering through the desert. Periodically, burst of rain would fall, the river would swell again, beginning to branch out into different streams, becoming a network of riverlets, all following the path of the Mainstream flow. Along the banks of the river, and each of the streams and riverlets, the desert would burst forth with life – the only life in the desert.

Soon I began to notice the mainstream river began to slow and diminish as much of its waters began to divert off into different channels. Some of these quickly disappeared into the desert, looking more like the sand than water and the life around them died. Some of the channels continued on, and the mainstream river itself, seemed to shrink more and more, although life was still along its banks, and the current remained strong.

Then, once again the rains came. Many of the streams that had diverted off from the mainstream began to fill again with water, as did the mainstream river itself. Life sprung up all around the streams and rivers, and as I watched, some of the riverlets that seemed dead, sprung again into life, once again separating themselves from the desert. Again and again this cycle repeated itself, but as it did the mainstream grew and became stronger.

I noticed too that each time the rain fell, it quickly disappeared into the desert, only the river gaining benefit from the rain, and causing life to burst forth on its banks.

Finally, as I watched, many of the rivers and streams that had been swollen by the rains began to rejoin the mainstream which now became a mighty flood, carrying everything before it and spreading life throughout all the areas of the desert that touched. As I looked forward, the mainstream rushed to the sea, joining it, and becoming part of it. The rivers and streams that had not rejoined the mainstream river, came to an end at the shore, disappearing into the desert before reaching the sea.

As I looked back to original green hill that had given birth to the mainstream river, and thought about the pictures I had been shown, I saw that a string of clouds, created by water from the sea had been carrying the rain that had first caused the spring to gush forth from the hill, and had provided the life-giving rain that had from time to time swollen the river and caused life to burst forth from its banks. It was the same water, from the sea that filled the river and gave life when it was needed most.

The Lord explained to me what the vision meant.

The green hill that rose up in the desert was Christ Himself. The water that sprung forth from was the Water of Life that Christ gives to all that believe. As the river ran down the hill, picking up trees and rocks on the way, was the early days of Christ’s ministry with the disciples. The moment the water hit the desert was His death and resurrection, and the rain that fell at that time, and throughout the vision was the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

The mainstream river, while unbroken from hill to the sea, were those whom God had called and who accepted Christ as their personal Lord and Saviour. From time to time parts of the river branched off – as those did within the life of the Church, becoming so filled with their own good ideas and traditions that they no longer carried the Life of Christ, but became indistinguishable from the sand and desert (the world) around them, that they died as a life-giving river.

The Sea represented God Himself and eternal life with Him. As the river neared the sea, representing Christ’s return, many of the streams that had gone astray, once again joined the Mainstream River, just as they were in the beginning. No longer their own, but part of the river. This the Lord showed me is the time we are now entering, where many are returning to the “Mainstream” which is Christ and a United Body of Christ, setting aside the things that divide, and surrendering totally to Him.

Those that do not return, end at the shore, never reaching the sea, just as those who have departed from Christ, will never enjoy eternal life with the Lord.

This was an awesome and somewhat daunting vision – one that could only be done in the power of God, not by man’s efforts. With it, and depending on Christ alone, Mainstream Christian Ministries was born.