The focal of point house church, simple church, organic church, emerging church or any other way to describe church is simply four words: It’s all about Jesus.
Everything we have discussed in our “House Church Basics” is not an attempt to build a better church box. Rather, it is an attempt to make everything, absolutely everything, about Jesus.
We have discussed the definition of church: a Spirit-led people-movement, not an organization or a box. Why is this essential? Because Jesus leads His movement; men lead organizations. Church-as-a-movement allows Jesus to be central.
We have discussed the church as participatory. This is what allows Jesus to most fully express Himself through His Body and thus be present in the midst of His people.
We have seen that the church is missional. Jesus is missional. He was sent to bring Kingdom life. He is still sending. The church missional is a church with Jesus expressing His core purpose.
The church must be relational because God Himself exists in relationship and His people are designed to express Jesus fully by one-anothering. Love, one to another, expresses Jesus like nothing else.
All of these concepts of “church” are significant only because they place Jesus at the center of His people. No other reason.
Jesus is seen through servant-leaders not CEO-leaders. Thus the importance of how leadership is walked out.
Jesus is seen when the least, the helpless, and the children are honored and loved. Thus the significance of living daily, Kingdom lives: “being” Jesus’ church everywhere we go.
The church is the church when it’s all about the Initiator, the Originator, the Instigator, the Sacrificial Lamb of the Church. There is no other focal point, no other reason, no other point, no other motivation, no other structure… just the Person of Jesus living His life through His people… and His people inviting Him to do so.
I see no better way to sum this up then quoting, in full, from Jim May as posted at WaterCarriers:
Back To Jesus Alone
When you can’t figure out whether to sit at His feet, walk in a manner worthy of His call, stand in battle, or run the race with diligence, It is time to get back to Jesus alone . . .
When you can’t even remember: The twenty-two characteristics of a good wife or husband, the seven steps of appeal to authority, the eight things to do when you are worried, or the nine ways of love, It is time to get back to Jesus alone . . .
When the proof of authority is simply “they say: and, “they say” have faith, just trust, let go. And let God; and “they say” just love, have joy, receive peace, and pray, and you can’t figure out who “they” are, It is time to get back to Jesus alone . . .
When your pastor says: hear the word, read the word, memorize the word, study the word, and meditate on the word, and you are lost in the middle of Leviticus or Revelation, and Jeremiah is just too much, It is time to get back to Jesus alone . . .
When you hear: it is pre, mid, post, a, or pan, don’t take the “mark,” it is “time, time and half a time,” and you can’t get through the next hour, It is time to get back to Jesus alone . . .
When you hear testimonies of others: raising the dead, praying all night, fasting forty days, leading thousands to the Lord, and memorizing the entire Bible, and you hear it through someone who hasn’t done any of it, It is time to get back to Jesus alone . . .
When you hear: have faith, work hard, repent, conquer, give, suffer, sacrifice, evangelize, make disciples, wait on Him, walk in Him, pick up your cross, claim your possessions, and pray, and you feel pulled then different directions on a rack, It is time to get back to Jesus alone . . .
When it’s: home school, Christian school, public school, the school of hard knocks, or no school, and the discussion is heating up, It is time to get back to Jesus alone . . .
When you are getting a multitude of requests and letters to give to TBN, CBN, CMA, CCC, BOM, LCM, CFNI, CORE, YWAM, IVF, YFC, 700 Club, PTL Club, and the health club, CBS..ABC…XYZ… It is time to get back to Jesus alone . . .
When you can’t figure out whether to wash the dishes, do the laundry, have quiet time, change a diaper, mow the grass, or read, It is time to get back to Jesus alone . . .
When it is running the car to soccer, volleyball, softball, basketball, handball, football, or just plain ball, and you feel the rod is your home, It is time to get back to Jesus alone . . .
When your critics have watched religious TV all week and expect you to preach like Jimmy Swaggert, exercise faith like Kenneth Copeland, build glass monuments like Robert Schuller, heal like Oral Roberts, motivate like Norman Vincent Peale, and you can’t stand to watch any of them, It is time to get back to Jesus alone. . .
When you are asked, “How’s it going at you church?” and , to you it means, “Ask me how it’s going at mine,” and you know you are about to hear about: a huge explosion of numbers, miracles, tongues, radio broadcasts, and seminars, and you feel like a failure, It is time to get back to Jesus alone. . .
When you are overweight and feel like running by the mirror and people are suggesting: spas, running, jogging, cycling, swimming, weight watchers, triathalons, biathalons, and trampalons, and you are out of breath just thinking, It is time to get back to Jesus alone . . .
When you have gone to your fifth conference this year that claimed “this is it,” and you tried “it,” and “it” didn’t work, and the guy left town with your $200, and you can’t get a hold of him to ask why “it” didn’t work, It is time to get back to Jesus alone . . .
When opinions have become like belly buttons- everyone has one, and you are sick of “inners” and “outers,” square knots and granny knots, and you run into Proverbs 18:2: “A fool does not delight in understanding, but only in revealing his own opinion,” and you’ve been fooled, It is time to get back to Jesus alone . . .
When you just found out you were in the 51.4% majority and the society is insane, so you are agreeing with a crazy norm, It is time to get back to Jesus alone . . .
When you heard another” thus saith the Lord,” that contradicted the last “word from the Lord,” that was contrary to the previous “the Lord told me,” and you finally get the picture that the Lord is being dragged into things He never said, It is time to get back to Jesus alone . . .
It is time to separate His commands from Christian demands. It is time to hear Him speak the Word. It is time to simplify. It is time for one step at a time. It is time to consider some lilies and birds. It is time for the secret place with Him alone.
(House Church Blog is an interactive forum for house church, church planting, and related topics. Feel free to post comments!)
Comments
9 responses to “House Church Basics– Pt. 8: It’s All About Jesus”
Thank you for “Back to Jesus alone”….It answers some tearful prayers I’ve been praying…it is soooooo time to simpify for me, I can’t even stand it anymore…..I didn’t really have time to even read this blog today…but am very glad I did……I’m still asking God…but how????…it’s easier said then done …..I contemplated “Come to me all who are weary…” a long time this AM…….I rested for a couple hours with Him in his presence just crying out in weariness and discouragement and yes I am more peaceful but still so not sure how to do my life….today I wish I could trade lives with some nun in a far away convent so I could lay at His feet all day and night, all day and night, all day and night…..
Cindy-
I’ve been reading Thomas Merton’s “Contemplative Prayer.” He talks about how normal it is for the God-seeker to find “himself torn between the desire of his heart for solitary contemplation and his duty to devote his time and energy to active charity as ‘servant of the servants of God.’”
How true that is!
I’m about to start a new house church and I’m wondering, if God deserves our tithe, as the bible says, where do we give our tithes and offerings? Do we give them in support of the housechurch, charity, missions, etc? Just a thought.
Wow, those words are all too true. Lately I find the busyness of life has overwhelmed me, and it seems I have too much to do in too little time! Intimacy with Christ has all too often been left on the back-burner, though I still live out the reality of our relationship every day.
I am reminded of how Jesus almost completely disregarded people at times, in order to build intimacy in his key relationships. He would go off alone to pray. “Dismiss the crowds” he’d say.
Reluctantly I must admit at times I buy into the lies of my culture, that value equals performance. My value comes from what I do. It is apparrent that Jesus knew he was valuable before he did anything. Often I wish for more opportunities, to go on mission trips or plant churches, but sometimes that desire is stronger than my desire for intimacy with Papa God. I am reminded of Dawn Critchley’s words in a message on rest, “If you feel like if you don’t do something, its just going to fall through the cracks, maybe thats just where it should go.”
Cindy, I relate to you big time! ( and Probably every other weary sojourner)
I want simplicity, but still wander around all day trying to figure out what big project, what little project, what prayer, what contemplation, what reading, what writing, what house work, what relationship, what work, what leiusure I should be doing. Every weekend, I am more exhausted than a full working week, merely by thinking about it all. And I come home, more deflated than ever because I think Ive acomplished nothing.
Yes it is certainly time to get back to Jesus alone…
Cindy, I often wish that same wish about living a simpler, contemplative life. I thought I was in the minority..
I pulled back last fall from lots of ministry busy work to just get close to the Lord. Less ministry, more Master, was my motto. Best decision I ever made. Now I’m getting back into some things where I firmly believe I’ll see more fruit because it’s Master-focused, not ministry-focused.
If this doesn’t just put it all into proper perspective, I don’t know what will. Thank you for posting this post. I needed to read this!
How does one “get back to Jesus”? By taking what Christ Himself gave us. The waters of baptisim and His holy body and blood which are given to us at his table in Holy Communion.
I belive that I cannot by my own reason of strength believe in Jesus Christ, my lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gosple, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.
In the same way He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith.
In this Christian church He daily and richly forgives all my sins and the sins of all believer.
On the Last Day He will raise me and all the dead, and give eternal life to me and all believers in Christ.
This is most certainly true.
Luther’s small catechism
Gal 2:20
I would like to thank you for your website it has been very helpful to me. Many years ago I left the Church in my heart I knew something was seriously wrong with the Church.When I left the church I began to learn more about the Lord than I had ever before. I had purchased a book about house churches. This peeked my interest. I do have one question? In all the information that I have been reading. Eveyone says that the traditional church is not biblical. I do agree with this. But no one will say what it is then. Is it an organazation ran by men and not by God at all.This is the conclusion I have come to from the scriptures I have read. I don’t believe that the pastors in the Churches today are even saved. Thank You so much for your website