SimpleChurch Journal aka House Church Blog

Building Ministry on Jesus Rather than on Men’s Personalities

A quote from Oswald Chambers that speaks for itself:

When we say, "What a wonderful personality, what a fascinating person, and what wonderful insight!" then what opportunity does the gospel of God have through all of that? It cannot get through, because the attraction is to the messenger and not the message. If a person attracts through his personality, that becomes his appeal. If, however, he is identified with the Lord Himself, then the appeal becomes what Jesus Christ can do. The danger is to glory in men, yet Jesus says we are to lift up only Him (see John 12:32 ).  From His Utmost for His Highest.

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It's a Way of Life Not a Service to Attend

I often say that we need to get the focus off of the structure of our church gatherings or who our leaders are or what movement we are part of and onto the lifestyle that we, who are organically connected to the Vine-Jesus, are meant and empowered to live.

Our church-gatherings are meant to support believers who are fully released into the life of intimacy with Jesus, listening to Jesus, following the adventurous Jesus, and laying down their lives for His life and purposes.  When these types of believers gather, wherever and however, life will happen.  When these types of believers go, life will be imparted.

I love the way Tom Wymore speaks of this dynamic lifestyle and reminds us of Jesus’ tendency to be a “sinner magnet.”

I was headed to Luke 15, the story of the Lost Son, because Papa had been speaking to me about how to avoid becoming like the older brother. I was arrested by the Holy Spirit, however, as I read the first two verses of the chapter. I have always known that Jesus was called "the friend of sinners" and was truly a "sinner" magnet, but somehow the contrast between Him and how Christians are perceived by pre-Christians today became more real today than ever before.

Luke 15:1-2 says, "Now the tax collectors and “sinners” were all gathering around to hear him. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” (NIV) As I read these two lines this morning I was struck by how completely different Christians have generally become from Jesus! When was the last time we heard of "sinners" constantly gathering around a Christian to listen to him/her? I live in Colorado Springs, a city so badly divided between churched and unchurched people that it's best not to pray over a meal in a restaurant with your head bowed and where some of the more popular bumper sticker is "Focus on your own damn family!" or a fish symbol with "sushi" for the letters, etc. How ironic that the city with the highest percentage of churched people in Coloradois also the city known among unbelievers as a bad place to live!

So what happened? I find myself often asking Jesus, "How did those whom you love so much, over whom you and your angels rejoice when they return to you more than over us, become my enemy? The answer, of course, lies somewhere in the terrible definition that the "church" has given to what it means to be a Christ follower. If being a follower of Jesus means that we merely join a club and take sides, then of course there are those who are "in" and those who are "out."  But if to follow Jesus means that we are joined in intimacy with Him and His heart, then we will also become sinner magnets, exuding His love, presence and power so consistently and powerfully that people who don't know Him will want to hang around us.

You can read his entire post here.

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U.S. Conferences in 2008

Someone recently asked me if I knew of any U.S. house church conferences in 2008. I know of the following.  Please use the link below to add comments regarding other conferences that you are aware of anywhere.   

1. Southern California in February is the Organic Church Movements Conference (Neil Cole): http://www.cmaresources.org/conference/ 

2. Central California in the Spring is our own SimpleChurch Conference.  We have not set a date for it yet but you can see what we are doing here: http://www.simplechurchconference.com/      

3. Over Labor Day weekend (September), House2House always has the national house church conference. Stay in touch with them here: http://www.house2house.com/

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The Virus Can No Longer Be Contained

My wife, Brooks, wrote the following observations following our return from a ministry trip in Kenya:

The Revolution is happening – it’s happening all over the world.  We are in a Reformation.  Acknowledge it or not.  Be a part of it or not.  Jesus longs for his church to come alive, to become a living, breathing, organism.  He longs for us to be in a real, live, intimate relationship with Him, regardless of others – and then in real, live relationship with our families – earthly and spiritual.  And, He’s begging us to come alive, be who we are as individuals, alive and free in Him, telling the world who and what He has done for us.

While visiting Kenya recently, I saw a part of the world that is saturated with Christianity.  However, like many of us, the church there is dull to true life in Christ.  We are like dead men walking.  We depend on evangelists, teachers, preachers, and prophets to experience God, to hear from God, to learn from God, to have that deep relationship with God and then to tell us all about it.  We are lazy, apathetic, and very content to have second-hand relationship with Him.  We are insecure.  We are busy and exhausted from seeking relationship with other people and other things first.  Or, we believe our relationship with God is second-rate to someone else’s and so we put our relationship with Him aside and live out our lives through someone else’s relationship with Jesus.  Jesus is calling us out.  He is calling his disciples out.  As Felicity Dale refers to in her book, An Army of Ordinary People, He is forming an army and He is calling for soldiers to join the ranks! 

What I saw in Kenya, I see in America and I see in other parts of the Christianized world.  The enemy accepts that Christianity is in the world – real, strong, alive Believers in Christ.  But, if he can just contain us, keep us from contaminating others, there’s little to worry about.  If he can contain us in buildings, then the world will not know the truth and few will be set free.  But what I saw in Kenya, I also see in America and other parts of the world.  The virus is leaking.  The Reformation of the 21st Century, led by the Holy Spirit, is taking Christianity out of containers into the open spaces of the neighborhoods and nations of the world.  The virus of Jesus Christ’s love and resurrection power is leaking into the world.  Disciples of Christ are no longer content in the restraints made by man, they hunger to hear what their Master is saying.  The virus is gaining momentum and it is intensifying.  There is, indeed, a revolution happening and it’s happening all over the world!

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Without a Vision, People Perish

This statement, from Proverbs 29:18 (“Where there is no vision, the people perish”) is used over and over to put forth a corporate church vision by “church leadership” asking everyone to fall into line and support “what God is doing” in the church.  I have used this verse myself in just this way.

How freeing to the Body of Christ to discover that every believer can reach for the vision and calling that God has placed in his/her own heart and fulfill the destiny of a life shaped and sent by the Creator.

Yet, I am finding that the verse is still applicable.  If believers do not seek out and open themselves to God’s vision for their life, they often do become rudderless and begin to drift in their spiritual life.

Sometimes, as people transition out of more structured churches where the corporate vision is provided by leadership, they do not transition into a sense of personal vision and do, at times, become spiritual drifters.

This is a conversation we are introducing at some of our churches this year.  Having transitioned out of a corporately assigned vision, have we transitioned into a personal vision for our lives and spiritual family… or have we found ourselves adrift?  What, if anything, do we want to do about this?

Share some comments with us if you have had a similar experience or have had this type of conversation in your simple church.

Practical Tools: Questions for Participatory Bible Study

I love the following questions from Ray Kemp that can be used to involve every person in exploring a passage of Scripture together.  After reading the passage through, each person can share:

1. What did you hear?
2. What does it mean to you today (in your life)?
3. What does it cost you to live this message?

A.W. Tozer wrote: "Though God... has provided answers to our questions concerning Him, the answers by no means lie on the surface.  They must be sought by prayer, by long meditation on the written Word, and by earnest and well-disciplined labor.”  The power of participatory Scripture study is that every believer learns how to read and explore God’s word rather than rely on a few preachers to study and hand out truths to the many.

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Book on Leadership: "Authority, Accountability, and the Apostolic Movement"

That is a hefty title for a book that weighs in significantly on understanding New Testament leadership.  “Authority, Accountability, and the Apostolic Movement,” by Dr. Stephen Crosby, provides a thorough, Scriptural look at spiritual authority that is not about hierarchy, domination, and control.

Crosby is particularly concerned about the positional leadership that is being espoused through the new “apostolic movement,” but his teaching challenges every aspect of modern church leadership and is important if we are going to see a leadership emerge that truly comes under, serves, gives away, empowers, and releases the church to be fully surrendered to God without human intermediaries.

Here are some quotes to give you a taste:

The themes of honor and submission to authority are, of course, legitimate.  They are in God’s Word.  However, they are subordinate themes.  When presented in a priority and hierarchical way of obligation, rather than the mutuality found in the “one-anothers” of Scripture, and if void of a death and resurrection spirit, empty of love and service, they become hopelessly contaminated and betray the Spirit of Christ…
When these subthemes are emphasized, a church environment can become like a spiritual plantation where the apostle is the master and production overseer of the plantation and subordinates are the slaves, not sons.

Crosby is particularly concerned about using Old Covenant leadership as a model for the New Covenant church in which every believer is filled by the Spirit and called to the priesthood:

The Old Covenant leadership practices belong in the same category as Levitical practices: interesting insights, but in application, not appropriate for the present age.

Crosby does an in-depth study of terms, in the New Testament, that are often used to suggest that one believer is to exercise authority over another.  Interestingly, the one term that distinctly means to “exercise authority over another” (exousia) is never used in the context of human leadership as in one person exercising authority over another.  In fact, Jesus clearly taught that this type of hierarchical leadership, which is normally seen in the world, should not be emulated by the church.

So then, what are the roles of those leadership gifts that are in Scripture:

The role of the Ephesians 4 minister is as equipper and releaser of others into their visions, not getting his/her own vision and making others submit to it.

Crosby provides a scholarly discussion on the subject of the so-called “spiritual covering.”  He also offers an important chapter on the danger of taking the spiritual father-son metaphor farther than it is meant to be taken.

In short, this book is a huge step in the direction of elevating the church to be the church, under God’s leadership, served and supported by leaders without rank, position, or domination.  This is precisely what is needed to see God’s church, again, as a movement—multiplying, spreading, and empowering every believer.

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Being Church 24/7

From an article by Molong Nacua of the Philippines:

If you really want to check on Jesus life and ministry in the gospels you will find out Jesus never did the same thing twice in the same way. In other words, He wasn't into techniques but was unpredictable. In our human strength (or perhaps more accurately weaknesses), we try to systematize everything Jesus did. For example, Peter who, after seeing heavenly glory, wanted to build Tabernacles in the mountain where Jesus was transfigured. And not only one, but three!

There's also the time when Jesus spat on the ground and made clay and put it on a blind man's eyes and commanded him to wash it in the pool. May I ask those who have a Healing of the Blind Ministry, did Jesus use a clockwise or a counterclockwise motion? Or maybe I will specialize with a Spitting Ministry. Do you want me to spit on you?

Jesus' life was never structured; He simply obeyed His Father. Singing for 30 minutes may not be worship at all. Worship is obedience to what He called us to be. That is the highest form of worship. It is the expression of our redeemed lives, our way of life. We cannot just put our Lord or His ways into a system.

Churches today are like spiritual machines. Programs are their survival kits. People love to pour their money into the machine to keep it running. But in reality, church life is like a wind: you don't know where it goes. It is a journey, a daily journey. It cannot be sewn up in the intellect; it must be uncovered during the journey.

I so appreciate Molong’s focus here.  Everywhere I go I see people seeking to get the form of church right (even house church) rather than really seeking to re-capture the lifestyle of being the church.  I trust that the latter will be the movement we are ultimately part of:

• Daily adventure of listening to and following Jesus
• Becoming the expression of Christ everyday, everywhere
• Filling the earth with His glory

You can download Molong's entire article here: Download being_church_24_7_molong_nacua.doc

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Couple of Unbeatable Quotes

“We depend on plans, programs, vision statements—but somewhere along the way we have succumbed to the temptation to displace the foolishness of the cross with the wisdom of strategic planning.”  D.A. Carson

"Much Christian leadership is exercised by people who do not know how to develop healthy, intimate relationships and have opted for power and control instead. Many Christian empire builders have been people unable to give and receive love."  Henri Nouwen

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Listening Into the Lives of Others

Someone wisely said that real community, Jesus-brand community, is not an ideal that can be achieved but a gift that is to be received.

That being said, we can often facilitate the gift of authentic community by learning to listen to one another more and talk at one another a little less.

Here is a one page article, available as a download, called “Listening Into the Lives of Others": Download listening_into_the_lives_of_others.doc

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