SimpleChurch Journal

Children

I recently received an email asking one of the most commonly asked questions about simple/organic/house church: “What about children?”

This reminded me that the basics are the basics and it’s good to keep addressing them.

I wrote some good, older posts on this topic here and here.

Today, it is heartwarming to be able to reflect on several youth I know that began house church while quite young.  As they grew emotionally and spiritually it was great to see the way they took on more and more ownership of their church family and the gatherings themselves.  Today, as high-schoolers (and even junior-highers) they are very engaged in worship and discussions of the Word with the adults in their group with confidence and conviction.  It appears to me, from my very partial perspective, that many of them are uniquely articulate in their faith and are spiritual leaders among their peers. 

No setting is perfect and nothing can replace the centrality of the nuclear family in imparting spiritual life, but the organic church family does seem to provide a natural support for this process.

In fairness, I must also say that transitioning children who are already older (from late primary grades through high school) is often not easy since they are already accustomed to more traditional settings.  In these cases, we have no difficulty encouraging these young people to attend youth groups, if they want, while letting them engage in the house church setting at a pace they are comfortable with.

This is a great topic and I hope we will continue to explore together how to see our children loving and engaging with Jesus as maturing disciples—a trend that is taking place less and less in many of our cultures!

Share your experiences!

Appointed as Senior Pastor: the Best Thing that Ever Happened to Me

Yes, I wrote the title, in part, to get your attention.  But there is an aspect of truth to this statement that I want to draw out.

My contention is not that we need fewer leaders, rather it is that we need every member of the Body of Christ to step fully into his/her ‘priesthood’ of influence.  One of the benefits that occurred when I accepted the role of ‘senior pastor’ is that I was expected to fully engage in ministry.  The result was that I challenged myself to overcome my insecurities, doubts, and other lack of faith in order to step fully into my place as a functional minister.  I was forced to see myself, as God sees all of us, as one called to “show forth the goodness of God” by exercising spiritual gifts that are “given to all” in order to “do the work of ministry.”

Now, granted, I believe that assigning someone the role of ‘pastor’ within an institutional system creates many problems including demoting everyone else within that system to ‘lay person.’

But, that is an aside to the point I am making.

Because I was given this position, I pushed past my insecurities and doubts about who I was and whether or not I was capable and gifted and was forced to accept that I was called to step into ministry functions.  So, I just did it.

My concern is that too many times we do NOT push past our insecurities and doubts about who we are in order to step into our role as a minister, a shepherd, an apostle, a teacher, a helper, an evangelist, an encourager, or a prophet.  The result is that the world does not see Christ as He is meant to be seen—through every member of His Body fully functioning with confidence in all that we have been called to do.

Therefore… the body of Christ does not shine in a world that needs His life because too many of His ambassadors are simply too insecure.

It’s simply not enough to get rid of the priest/laity divide.  Rather, we must internalize, each of us, that we are ‘royal priests’ and expect to function in all that this implies.  He has gifted and called… you.  This is a key ingredient for unleashing the church out of the four walls and into its organic, viral nature that will ultimately transform every segment of our world.

Disciple Making is the Core

The simplest view of the living church life cycle is this:

1. Live in abiding Intimacy with Jesus
2. Reach out in love to others
3. Make disciples
4. Gather
5. Empower everyone to go and do the same

At the heart of this process is the imperative to make disciples.  Alan Hirsch does a great job of describing one aspect of why this is so important.

 

Alan Hirsch: Disciple-Making [VERGE video] from Verge Network on Vimeo.

Supernatural Engagement Webinar / Conversation

I am hosting a one-time webinar/conversation on Engaging More of the Supernatural in Life & Ministry.  Of course, all of life and ministry is supernatural as we partner with God, but our thinking and actions often keep us from experiencing the full weight of God's activity because of our innate reliance on ourselves.

Time: Thursday, April 18, 5:30 pm Pacific Daylight time.

Limited space available.

If you are interested follow these 2 steps in order:

1. Friend me on Facebook
2. Go to the Facebook event page and sign up

The video in the previous post (52 churches in 5 years) is part of the inspiration for this webinar.  In addition, we will look at some of the key principles of supernatural engagement and share stories with one another on these:

• Personal listening prayer
• Intercessory prayer
• Prophetic
• Obedient faith steps
• Spiritual warfare
• Signs and wonders

52 Churches in 5 Years: just God, prayer, walking, no money needed

Followers With Passion--Not Clones

I still see the tendency, in myself and others, to want to follow someone else’s model: the successful organic church guy’s strategy, or the hottest apostolic disciplemaking methodology, or the latest book on how to perfect the house church gathering, or someone else’s ministry whom we revere.

Yes, I think we must learn from each other.

But let’s not discount the unique persons that we are.  I believe we will go further investing in the lives of others if we honor the passions that are stirring within us rather than trying to clone ourselves after the likes of others.

Bob Pierce prayed “Lord, break my heart with the things that break your heart.”  He followed his deep compassion for neglected children, founded World Vision, and reached thousands of people for Christ through that ministry.

William Booth’s passion propelled him to care for the poor in London and work to right injustices out of which the Salvation Army was birthed.  Again, thousands upon thousands have been impacted for Christ over the decades.

My point is that these two men, as examples, had differing passions that moved them into different kinds of settings where they each made an impact for the Kingdom using very different methods.  And each of them differed from the passion that moved Billy Graham to gather tens of thousands into crusades.  These men did not model their ministries after one another, but they followed Jesus with the passion that gripped their own hearts by the Spirit of God.

It seems to me that we would do well to do the same.

Comment here!

We Must Dream Bigger

Big things happen, really big things, when there are enough small, collective things taking place.

We are not dreaming big enough.  No, I’m not talking about how big each one of us can become, or how important each one of us can be, or how big of an organization or ministry each one of us can grow.  That’s backwards.  That turns God’s thing around.  We always think God wants US to be BIG.  He’s not into that.  He’s into HIM being BIG.

God is the one doing something big, way bigger than any of us are yet seeing or dreaming. 

But when we see that dream of His and it stirs us and motivates us to do our part with all of our heart, then we become one of the many that He collectively uses to do something big with.  We become part of HIS BIG.

For sure, God is up to some BIG stuff: “My kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.”  That’s BIG. “The oppressed set free, the downtrodden lifted.”  That’s BIG.  “The Gospel of the Kingdom proclaimed to every nation (ethnic group).”  That’s BIG.  “The knowledge of the glory of the Lord will fill the earth.”  That’s really big.

Are we dreaming that big?

I believe we need to dream BIG with God in order to step with our whole hearts into the small, but divinely orchestrated, part that is ours to play with all of our gusto.  We are not small when we give our all to HIS BIG.  We are not unimportant when we do our part in HIS BIG.  We are needed more than ever to do all that He has called and gifted us to do with joy and passion so that His BIG collective purposes come to pass. 

And, frankly, there’s nothing better than that!

What Fields Are You Called to Sow In?

I believe this is one of the most important, least asked, question: “What field(s) am I called to sow into right at this time in my life?”

The question assumes, first of all, that the unleashed church is engaging the world rather than settling for the ‘holy huddle’ as the primary expression of the body of Christ.  The church thrives as a ‘going’ experience rather than a ‘hunker down’ way of life.

But, once we make that turn toward sowing the word and shining the light out into the world, we can find ourselves simply doing what we see others doing rather than letting Jesus give us clear, specific direction as to where we are to sow.

I have been guilty of this.  I look at other ‘master-sowers’ and at the fields they are called to and at the way that they sow and at the fruit that they are having, and I then assume that I am supposed to do what they are doing and in the types of settings they are doing it.  But this negates the beauty of the diversity of who God made each of us to be.

“What fields am I called to sow into?”

When I answer this question for myself, I first recognize that there are fields that are around me each day, that I do want to sow into regularly:

• Family
• Friends
• Co-workers or fellow students

Even so, I want to take Jesus’ lead in asking where the Father is working and learn to have a listening relationship with Him so that, even in my everyday sowing, I am working where He is.

But, honestly, it seems to me that the sky is the limit once we begin asking the Father where he wants us to sow beyond the most obvious.  Some of us are gifted/called to touch the lives of people who are severely handicapped, or who live in the farthest parts of the world, or who have extreme needs, or who are in extreme situations, or none of the above, or who live in a specific area across town, or right in my neighborhood, or neither.

Some of us are even called to sow into the fields of the ‘already-Christian’ who needs to be discipled (without sinking into the holy-huddle syndrome).

My point is not to try to describe the many possible variations but to affirm all of them if that is where Jesus is leading us to sow.  And, yes, not all will produce the kinds of ‘evident fruit’ that a book will be written about.  That often misses the point when the real issue is, are we faithfully, in love, following Jesus into that field where He is working and wants us to work alongside of Him?

For me, this is a key question to ask myself and then keep on asking…  Which can lead to two more questions, for a future post:

1.  Who are we to sow with as co-laborers?

And

2.  How… are we to sow?  The latter question suggests that not all ‘mission’ work looks like typical evangelism as we know it…

Thoughts?

Neil Cole: From Institution to Organic

Neil Cole’s most recent book (2012) is “Church Transfusion: Changing your Church Organically From the Inside Out.”

Let me first say that, as with all of Neil’s books, it is filled with many quotable insights (see below) that make the book worth reading.  Even as he looks at the prospect of changing traditional church systems into organic, missional forces, he maintains a sharp and clear focus on the themes he laid out in Organic Church and Organic Leadership.

That said, tackling the question of whether churches can shed their institutional frameworks in order to function organically is a bit (to me) like asking if water can be turned into wine.  We know it can happen, after all Jesus did it.  In the same way, we know churches can be ‘transfused’ with new life, but… oh how challenging.

To Neil’s credit, he does not water down this challenge as he states that churches wanting a truly organic transfusion will have to:

• See it
• Want it
• Pray for it
• Pay for it
• Do it

The last two will require (in this writer’s opinion) a commitment that probably few will make, but for those who do this book will be an invaluable guide.

Some Neil Cole-isms from Church Transfusion:

“It is time to abandon the domestic faith of suburban consumer Churchianity to live a life of risk for the love of a Savior who left heaven to live among the poor and marginalized people of a backward and oppressed nation.”

“He did not hang out in safe places. I imagine that today you would be more likely to find Jesus in a gay bar than at a church service.”

“Why would you want to give up the daily miracle of God’s actual presence and leading, a presence that parts oceans and causes water to flow from rocks or breaks the political oppression of Pharaoh? Why would we want to be like everyone else on the planet when we could live a supernatural life of love every day?”

“When a church starts to accumulate things and hold on to them as prizes worth defending or preserving, they will quickly find that their affection and provision is not found in Christ but in the maintenance and management of possessions and property.”

“Resurrection power is available only to the person or church that is willing to die.”

“Churches were never meant to become providers of spiritual goods and services to consumers, even if there are many who appear more than eager to buy.”

“Have the people of God been divided between those who provide services and those who pay to have them provided? Absolutely! May God have mercy on us all!”

Explain Simple/Organic Church in 2 MInutes on a Napkin