SimpleChurch Journal aka House Church Blog

We Don't Know How To Fix the Church

Leighton Tebay keeps us humble with this post:

Let us be honest, we don't know how to fix the church

All over western society we see the church in decline in numbers and in influence. There are a lot of answers but not a lot of progress. The Willow/Back churches can point to numbers, buildings and dollars as a sign of their success. Even though Warren and Hybels have had a tremendous influence on the church George Barna tell us that the church is losing its influence on society year after year. The "Emerging Churches" I've experienced have detoxed church but the reconstruction hasn't resulted in much change. A cursory glance at the discussion will reveal that so many of us want church without the stuff we don't like. What seems to matter is what we want out of church, not what Jesus wants out of His church.

Maybe it will take another 10 or 20 years of decline before we become humble enough to actually admit we don't know. Many of us have reached the point where we admit things aren't as they should be. When we begin to think of why we only dig down a level or two and we never get to questioning our foundational assumptions. I think we have to be brave enough to do that.

Weeping For Outsiders

Our churches have been talking about being more intentional about reaching out to those that are "outside."

I sent out the following email to encourage us in this:

Jim Petersen lists three obstacles that we all face when we consider reaching out to others:

1. Fear: “What will people think?”
2. Time: “There is no time in my life to do even one more thing.”
3. Personal inadequacy: “I’m just not ready for this.”

I happened to read these words of Jesus, yesterday, written in The Message translation: “I’m here to invite outsiders, not coddle insiders.” (Matthew 9:13)… hmm… I’m the insider that He’s not here to coddle… those out there that don’t know him are the outsiders… That shows where His focus is…

But, I'm sharing this with you because I really enjoyed this email response from one of my friends-in-community:

Interesting, Roger, I have also been thinking alot about reaching out to the "outsiders"; frankly, they are more "real" than many believers I know, and they are searching, actually they are wanting to be listened to and made to know that they are loved "unconditionally." This has been my biggest challenge, but I know that the sign of spiritual maturity (for me) is when I weep for the lost like Jesus did--it spurns me on to get out of my way (egoway) and just go for it...thanks for the reminder. YO

John Arnott (Toronto Revival) Speaks Out

Robert Fitts passed this along to me... a recent quote from John Arnott:

More and more we hear the term, “church without walls” but what does this mean? While it can mean sending teams from a local church outside the church’s walls to minister in homes and in the marketplace, I believe it is much more than that. If we are going to reach this world for Jesus, we need a completely new model of “doing church.” I don’t know why we can’t have “church” in homes, offices, schools, coffee shops, or even outside for that matter. Why can’t we have church meetings that are facilitated by an army of non-professional yet anointed Christians and have them meet whenever and wherever it works for them? Maybe we need to take a hard look at what has happened to the Church in the last 2,000 years and see how we can return to Jesus’ model of “doing church”? Jesus said, “Where two or three meet together, there am I in the midst.” The word “church” in Greek is the word “ecclesia” meaning “called out ones.”...

...Things are changing. I believe that God is decentralizing the Church...

...Seemingly, the Holy Spirit has no problem coordinating hundreds and thousands of different individuals and congregations for His eternal purposes. Things really do work much better when Jesus Himself is the head...

...This is not to say that there are not offices in the local churches of apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher. However, these are not titles, but functions. These are servant leaders who equip others to also become anointed ones. How often we have interpreted these ministries to be hierarchical positions...

... It is time for those of us who live in the West to take a reality check. Church as we know it is not really working here. Many of the so-called “success stories” of church growth are merely transfer growth, people who are already Christians moving to a new church. We need some new models for having church which allow ordinary “lay people” to easily and quickly get involved in ministry.

Friend of Sinners

I like this post from thedeepend:

A survey has been conducted in Newcastle, UK, about how practising Christians are viewed by their work colleagues. They were fairly much liked, actually, but their top three perceived characteristics were as follows:

1. They go to church

2. They don't have much time to socialise with work colleagues

3. They don't like drinking alcohol

When you consider that Jesus was known as a Sabbath-breaker, friend of sinners and drunkard, you have to conclude that something's gone badly wrong...

Solitude Precedes Community

A brief comment that was made at the H2H Conference has stuck in my mind and become a full-blown profound thought. The comment was: "Solitude precedes community."

In other words, our individual inner lives must be filled and refreshed so that when we gather as community some of us are bringing something into that community.

Community itself does not produce life. It's a place to gather the life, build on the life, release more life... but life has to ultimately come from within each believer. If we are not retreating into personal solitude (whatever that looks like for us) in a way that is allowing God to fill and re-create us, then we will be bringing empty shells into community hoping that someone else will bring something to fill us. If everyone comes to community in that fashion, the feast will be an impoverished one.

One of my joys with house church, having come from a traditional ministry background, is the joy of not feeling responsible for "how the gathering goes." I am responsible for myself, what I bring to a gathering... but sometimes a gathering just has very little going on spiritually. I find great joy in letting that be okay. It is okay. That is how we each learn that if we want to see more going on we may need to bring a little more depth ourselves.

Now, let me say, that it is also okay to sometimes come to community empty. That is how we minister to one another. This week I'm on empty and you minister to me. Hopefully, next week it's the other way around. I don't want to make it sound like we each must always be "filled to the brim" to come to community.

But the point still stands. Solitude precedes community. Community will ultimately be the sum total of that which each person brings (spiritually) which God then takes and multiplies through His Holy Spirit at work.

We Need Each Other

We are made for relationship... with God... and with others. The reality is... we need each other.

As Christians, I'm not sure we know what this means.

Alcoholics, on the other hand, know exactly what this means. Their literature states: ". . . no society of men and women ever had a more urgent need for continuous effectiveness and permanent unity. We alcoholics see that we must work together and hang together, else most of us will finally die alone.

Since we are dealing with the deadly stuff of addictive sin, I believe we need to really think through how much we do need to work together and hang together, as Christians, in a true and effective way.

Certainly attending a large gathering of people who watch a spiritual service together cannot be considered working together and hanging together. It may have other value, but it does not qualify for the kind of relating, one to another, that we need.

On the other hand, attending a small group, or a house church, may not qualify either if the kind of relationships are not built that support real life in one another. It's possible to attend a small group and be religious rather than real, aloof rather than intimate, and false rather than honest about one's personal needs and failings.

Perhaps the greatest need, among Christians, is simply a safe place where we can fully and honestly "confess our sins to one another." I know there is more to it than that: we need to love each other, support each other, encourage each other, heal each other. But I'm not sure any community of people will truly help each other, in Christ, without this fundamental principle... "confess your sins to one another."

One of our churches, last Sunday, that I was not attending felt challenged by the Holy Spirit to take confession to heart and to actually pair up, one with another, to acknowledge and let go of the burdens of guilt and shame. I wish I had been there because this is the fruit of having spent time hanging out together and building trust with one another. This is the kind of community that will work together, know each other, and thus truly free each other to live God's life together.

Without this... and I say this as strongly as I can... because I believe it with all my heart... without this we, as Christians will die spiritually... alone.

House2House Conference--Neil Cole

Neil Cole has a passion for reproducing disciples, leaders, and churches that is contagious.

He spoke at the House2House conference in Denver and offers Greenhouse Seminars around the country.

His basic thesis is this:
1. Lower the bar of what it means to do church.
2. Raise the bar of what a disciple is.
3. The result will be a raising of the bar of what the church is.

Therefore, he loves to develop simple tools that produce disciples and that are easily reproduced amongst other disciples so that new Christians can quickly become disciple-makers and church planters.

"If the harvest is great," Neil likes to ask, "then where are we going to find all of the leaders needed to work in the harvest?" The answer is, "From the harvest." "We need the mechanism such that those harvested can become the workers of the harvest."

If you are new to Neil and what God is doing through him in Southern California and around the world, his story and resources are worth getting to know.

Generous Giving

There is a very exciting website called GenerousGiving.org-- encouraging believers in the joy and excitement of being, yes, generous givers.

Take a look at it!

Why should we give? We might ask instead, “Why should we not give?” We often assume that money exists for our own benefit, rather than for God or others.

Generous Giving is a nonprofit educational ministry that seeks to encourage givers of all income levels... to experience the joy of giving and embrace a lifestyle of generosity, according to God’s word and Christ’s example. It was launched in 2000 by the Maclellan Foundation, a 50-year leader in Christian grant-making, to stir a renewed, Spirit-led commitment to generosity among Christians—reminding rich and poor alike that “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35b).

The site provides opportunity for Christians to look at the many different opportunities for giving that are available around the world.

Eldredge

"You cannot live the Christian life without a small group of intimate allies surrounding you... who know you... and who will stand with you and fight for your heart."

This is not an exact quote... but I believe it is close enough to the most direct statement that John Eldredge made at the House2House Conference.

I will do my best to summarize his key points although I could never do justice to John's poignant style of sharing which he peppers with movie clips designed to awaken our heart to "the story" that we live in and stir us to enter into our life with God whole-heartedly--heroically. In fact, as I think about it, most of the content shared came right out of his last two books, Waking the Dead and Epic. At best, I am offering a very, very meager summary.

1. We are in a battle. Life will never make sense if we do not recognize where we are in the story. Our ultimate rescue is assured, but we continue to live in a war-torn, battle-weary land. Why is the Christian life so hard? We have an enemy.

2. The battle is for the heart. Once the enemy accepts that we have found eternal life in Christ, he turns his attention to rendering us impotent by robbing the life out of our heart. Jesus came to bring us life... real life... full life... life that frees the heart to live out our calling passionately. He openly declared that He has come to "heal the brokenhearted" so that we can love God with our "whole heart." If the enemy can take out our heart, then he has effectively taken out who we are meant to be in Christ.

3. Jesus' plan to restore the heart comes together in what John calls the four "streams": intimate counsel as we listen to each other's stories, deep healing of the heart, freedom from spiritual attacks and bondage, and discipleship. John gives a detailed description of these four streams in Waking the Dead.

4. We cannot battle for our hearts and take hold of our place in our story alone. We need others. We need a small fellowship. We need little fellowships of the heart. We need a band of intimate allies who will fight for each other. We need a platoon to be devoted to that will call us to acts of heroism and sacrifice for each other. This type of devotion takes place in small units, just as in a family. This is essential. This size community must come before any other church expression.

John clearly did not say that there was something wrong with large church expressions. He simply stated his conviction that the small group, whether house church or whatever, is primary. It is the one essential expression of community for the Christian life. Once that is in place do whatever else, church-wise, that you have time or desire to do. Just don't neglect the necessary small fellowship. Our hearts, and therefore our lives, depend upon it.

Much To Catch Up On

Sorry about being silent for so long. Besides my personal "stuff" I've been dealing with, I was gone this past week to the House Church Conference in Denver. Obviously I have much to share: new friends, old friends, excellent teaching (John Eldredge, Neil Cole), wonderful opportunities to network with and encourage each other, and most of all... just celebrate the simple wonder of God.

It will take me some time to "unpack" this... and I won't try to do it just yet. But I will share this:

We were joined by some friends who are considering the "leap" to non-institutional church planting. They came to the conference expecting to get "nuts and bolts" which they did not get. Not that there are "nuts and bolts" to this whole thing, but last year's conference did lay a foundation that helped people to see some of the "hows" to this non-traditional stuff. This year, that foundation was not really covered... though other good things were.

In any case, my friends came home and said that they did not know any more about how to "do" house church from being at the conference. However, and this is the significant part, they said that they felt confident that they could do it, nonetheless.

I guess this is the most significant part. It's not what we do, how we do it, or even what happens. It's that we are willing to launch out, let go of the known, and let God use us in the adventure of exploring what it means to simply "be" the church-- unfettered, unrestricted, unleashed, going for it-- just "be" the church.

I think, perhaps, what this conference did for them is expose them to an entire group of "adventurers" who were just going for it. Sometimes this is helpful. We see others get out of the boat and we begin to say maybe, just maybe, I can walk on that water also. Amen and yes! You can! I'm proud of this couple and excited to see God continue to draw others out of the boat into this faith-life adventure.

Upcoming thoughts from the conference... remind me if I don't get to them:
Eldredge on becoming a band of intimate allies-- and the absolute necessity of this.
Cole on reproduce, reproduce, reproduce.
And Dale on the importance of the activity and gifts of the Holy Spirit.