Simple Church Journal

As I am currently traveling in Africa, I am relying on other bloggers and writers to share their insights with you.

My friend at Life Beyond the Walls has written an excellent post that suggests legacy churches (institutional churches) are like a life-support machine: they are sometimes helpful but not if you stay plugged in too long.

A couple of quotes:

IC is like a life support system and those that have difficulties breathing probably need it. It’d be foolish to say that you do not need a life support machine when you are not able to breath without it. On the other hand, overstaying ones need for the life support system would be detrimental to anyone’s ability to function independently.

Without bashing any form of church, Patrick goes on to describe how our institutionalized way of viewing church often limits the fullness that we are meant to walk in.  For example:

The concept of covering as taught in most institutional Christianity has largely contributed to the believers’ limitation in walking in their true standing as sons of God. We have boldness by Christ Jesus to call God, our Father:

Galatians 4:6
And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.

Read Patrick's entire post here.

Several years ago, at a Verge conference, Alan Hirsch said: "Every believer is a church planter; and every church is a church planting church."

Now, let me say, that this makes absolutely no sense whatsoever… unless you have a Biblical understanding of the organic nature of church.

As long as we think of church as a meeting, a place, or an organized something, we will continually discount ourselves and others from being ‘church planters.’  But when we see that the church is a natural, organic expression of believers, who are connected to Jesus, expressing Him with others in a wide variety of ways, then we can begin to understand that Alan does speak the truth.

The church (we) initiates new sprouts (planting) every time we initiate anything spiritual among any group of people, friends, or colleagues whether reached or lost or anything in between.  In fact, isn’t this what the church does?  We plant seeds of life into the lives of others.  This may be informal or formal.  It may start informal and become more formal.  It may start formal and become informal.  Whatever it looks like, the church (God’s people) continually plants seeds of Kingdom word and actions into the lives of others.  That is, simply, who we are.

I believe, to see this in our lives more clearly, we can do five things:

1.  Keep Jesus as our Source and Guide.  Sure, we can learn from others and need to, but organic life, by definition, flows out of our organic connection with Jesus Himself.

2.  Recognize that each of us plants seeds differently.  We need to honor who we are and the spiritual gifts God has given to each of us.  Some evangelize with their words, others show much compassion with their actions and by their love.  Some initiate things among larger groups of people, others with just one other individual.  Some of us are comfortable among youth, others among immigrants, etc.  Some of us are passionate about sowing among the least reached, others feel drawn to heal and mature existing believers.  I could go on and on.  The point is that the organic expression of ‘church’ is meant to take many different forms and have many different looks as each believer and group of believers takes the initiative to be seed planters in his/her own way.

3.  Get better at it.  Whichever way God uses us to plant seeds into the lives of others, we can grow into better farmers.  Learn from others, hone your skills and tools, and improve your work.  This does not mean that the goal is, necessarily, bigger and more impressive.  It may be just the one that we are called to at this time.  Great!  Plant well and seek fruitfulness!

4.  Build relationships around living out a divine connection with Jesus.  It’s not a formula, it’s a lifestyle you have developed that keeps you connected to Him, to His voice, and to His power.  You share this with others and help them experience this same connection.  This is called discipleship.  And when you gather together, in whatever setting, to experience God, this is called a church gathering.

5.  Finally, organic life reproduces itself.  However it is we are called to plant into the lives of friends, family, neighbors, other groups in other places—whatever it is we are doing—always invite those we touch to do the same.  In other words, whatever you do, reproduce yourself.  Thus ‘organic’ remains ‘alive.’

In short, plant Jesus your way, and help those you plant seeds in to do the same.

Although most of us understand that we, as God’s people, are the church, we consistently misuse that term and many others.  I remain guilty of this myself.  But, the result is that we use language that continuously waters down the true wonder of who we are in Christ and our purpose in Him.

When we say, “I’m going to church,” we are not affirming that we, His people, are His church, His spiritual temple, filled by the Spirit of God in order to take His fragrance everywhere we go.  We must regularly declare the truth of who we are in order to fully walk in it!

When we say, “I’m a member of so-and-so church,” we fail to affirm that each of us is a member of the Body of Christ, not a local organization, connected organically to Jesus as the Head from Whom flows all manner of life, power, and privileges.

When we say, “There is a church over there,” we are reducing the beauty of being a called out people who have been adopted into God’s family to a mere building where believers gather to worship.

When we say, “He is a pastor of that church,” we are splitting the church, God’s people, into a million artificial units in our mind which detracts from the amazing work that Jesus did in which He joined us together into ‘one Body and one Spirit.’  In fact, it this unity with one another and the Father that is meant to demonstrate God’s reality to the world.

When we talk about “the church service” we tend to think that the spiritual gifts and power given to God’s people are meant to operate primarily within a building at a specific time.  How limiting this is to a broken world that desperately needs to hear, see, feel, and touch the living Jesus through each one of us every day and everywhere.

I’m sure you could come up with dozens of more examples.  Feel free to share them here.

But, no, I am not trying to split hairs.  Our language, when used consistently, does matter and, in this case, often robs us of the power and beauty of who we are and the work that Jesus Christ did to make us His people, friends, family, bridegroom, and ambassadors 24/7 in every place we walk.

Steve Smith has written an excellent article in Frontier Missions that sketches out a the path to a church planting movement using a diagram that can fit on a napkin.

Steve's challenge is to set our sails, by surrendering to God's ways, so that we are able to catch whatever movement God is initiating.  This continues to reflect my own heart to position myself, in cooperation with the Spirit's ways, with the expectation that God is on the move to transform our generation in every part of the world.

Steve's diagram for positioning ourself for church planting movements begins with our own abiding, praying life in God.  I love his reminder that "God uses men, not just methods; people, not just principles."

From there, Steve outlines four key principles for cooperating with God's movement:

1. Find God-Prepared People.  This includes both saved people who will work alongside you as well as lost persons of peace who will draw and influence others.

2. Evangelize in a Reproducing Manner.  "Lost people must hear the gospel in a way that is complete enough that they can fully follow Jesus alone as Lord and Savior and can then use the same method to evangelize others."

3. Bring People Immediately into Reprdoucing Discipleship.  "They begin a well-defined process of simple short term discipleship sessions that they immediately pass on to those to whom they are witnessing through a very reproducible process."

4. Form Believers into Small Groups or Reproducing Churches. (My note: usually simple/house type church gatherings).  Notice that church gatherings arise out of the reaching-discipling process and then support the ongoing work of reaching and discipling still others.

As this takes place, capable reproducing leaders will emerge who can be mentored and trained to support the ongoing movement.

Read the entire article here!

My friends at GreenChurch have put together a site called EverywhereChurch that is worth a look.  I like their outline of "How to Begin:"

Micro-clusters of friends (and their network of relationships) can become a life changing “where-they-live” Body-of-Christ!

1. Ask God to arrange encounters between you and the friends/acquaintances/strangers in whom He has been stirring up a deep spiritual yearning. Keep praying and sharing with whomever He brings your way until some are ready to journey with you in this church…it only takes a few. Trust His Spirit to connect you to the right ones, and to have their hearts open. Many will not yet be Christians. Don’t begin until HE guides you to the person or group HE has been preparing.
2. Gather at a home, apartment, park, café, etc., wherever the group will participate.
3. Seek to be a fully functioning Body of Christ (a church) at the very first gathering. Without using “churchy terms” you can guide the group to experience the 5 basics of church life (see the practical suggestions below).
4. At every gathering ask God to continue arranging encounters between current participants and others in whom He has created a heart hunger for the person of Christ. Always be authentic, never false, in caring for another person. Be sensitive to their needs. Never manipulate. Include and value each one.
5. Personally pray for God to raise up an “intern” who will work with you and reproduce the church in another group.
6. Gather for 12 weeks, then seek God’s next step together…sharpen what you doing and be the Body-of-Christ another 12 weeks. Repeat.

Practical ideas for the basic functions of the Body-of-Christ

1. Supportive Friendships. Share life concerns and pray for each other (perhaps silently if some prefer). Take turns telling (a) what the world has been dumping on you this week, and (b) what God has been doing in your life. “Be there” for one another in the ups and downs of everyday living. Try this over a simple meal each week.
2. Authentic Worship. Focus on God’s greatness using any combination of music (guitar, CD, video), art, silence/awe, nature, testimony, scripture promises, etc.
3. Obedience-based Discipleship. Apply a Bible passage to how you live. As a group, dialogue over what it says about (a) God, (b) self, (c) others, (d) life. Pick practical scriptures like: Psalms, Matt. 5-7, John 8, Gal. 6, Philippians, or James. Encourage persons to partner in “Authenticity” pairs during the week.
4. Life-involvement Evangelism. Include not-yet-Christians fully and naturally, and allow them to hear/see how Christ is working in the lives of those present. Nurture everyone toward expressing their own “journey-with-God” in genuine relationships. Let people be drawn to God by all they experience in the group.
5. Servanthood Caring. Seek opportunities to help others like Christ would (Matt. 25:35-36). Do a mission project. Help someone in a life crisis. Take a weekly offering (always let “giving” be an act of worship) and have the group decide on how to use it in meeting someone’s need.
6. Baptize anyone who puts their faith in Christ as Savior and Lord. Anyone okayed by the church can baptize as part of gathered worship. Any place is okay.

Peter Wagner has had a large influence on the church over the past several decades from his focus on church growth to prayer movements.  While we might argue the merits of how some of his thoughts have shaped the contemporary church, he is, nevertheless, a senior voice at 82 years of age.

I would like to quote part of a recent article in which he looks at “The America of Tomorrow” and the future of the church.

“We are now experiencing the most radical change in the way of doing church since the Protestant Reformation. Notice the words, “doing church.” We are not talking about a change in the theology of the Reformation. We believe in the authority of Scripture, justification by faith, and the priesthood of all believers as strongly as did Luther or Calvin. However we are talking about the ways in which the church is beginning to live out these theological convictions day after day…

“In fact, of all the radical changes characteristic of the New Apostolic Reformation, I consider this the most radical of all: The amount of spiritual authority delegated by the Holy Spirit to individuals. Notice that the operative words in this statement are “authority” and “individuals.” We Protestants are not accustomed to individuals having much spiritual authority.  Traditionally, the final authority in our church bodies has resided in groups, not individuals. That is where we get such ecclesiastical terminology as “deacon boards” or “synods” or “sessions” or “congregations” or “general councils” or “presbyteries” or “vestries” or “state conventions” or “monthly meetings” or any number of similar terms-all referring to groups as over against individuals. The inevitable implication? Individuals cannot be trusted with final authority in the churches.

While I do not envision this “New Apostolic Reformation” the same way that Wagner does, I certainly agree with him on two fronts:

1. The church is re-defining Biblically what it means to be the church and, thus, what it means to ‘do church.’  There is no going back.  The implications of this are far reaching as more and more people truly understand that we are the church… period.

2. Spiritual authority is becoming highly decentralized (not non-existent) and we will have to step into the new wineskins in order to see how God will orchestrate His leadership throughout the whole body. 

Interesting times!

At the heart of spiritual community lie true friendships.  Jesus said “I have called you friends.”

My observation is that, whether in traditional church settings or more organic ones, this dynamic is often sorely missing.  We do activities together: meetings, services, bible studies, house church gatherings.  But too often we are not developing the kind of rich community of friends described by John Eldredge:

We hear each other's stories. We discover each other's glories. We learn to walk with God together. We pray for each other's healing. We cover each other's back. This small core fellowship is the essential ingredient for the Christian life.

Like healthy marriages and families, this type of community life requires commitment, perseverance, a deep willingness to be vulnerable with each other, and the fortitude to deal honestly with conflicts and messiness that are the inevitable part of deeper relationships. 

The truth is, we often opt for the easier route of more superficial connections.  Or we simply move from one fellowship sphere to the next particularly if we experience anything uncomfortable.  The result is the ekklesia-church then lacks the deep one-another bonds that root us in Jesus and provide a solid foundation for spiritual life, strength, and fruitfulness.

One of my joys, over the past ten years, has been to work at investing in spiritual friends that have nothing to do with external ‘church associations.’  These are simply and purely spiritual friends—undoubtedly life-time friends.

The result of this investment was never more clear than when our adult-son passed away two years ago—obviously one of the most painful times of my life.

I want to repeat what I wrote two years ago in the midst of this tragedy:

I do want to say… that our life during this difficult season has been richly supported by the kind of authentic, caring, compassionate friends (both local, cyber, and around the world) that one hopes to see in all of our Christian communities.  It certainly speaks loudly to me of the significance of building our spiritual families with the intentional, relational building blocks of true love and care for one another.  I have deep gratitude toward all of you: my family of brothers and sisters.

Two years later, I cannot express how profoundly strengthened and supported my wife and I continue to be by such spiritual family/friends.

I am simply reminding myself today that, first of all, I am most grateful for the spiritual friends I do have and, secondly, I hope to press into developing such friendships in greater measure, depth and commitment.  May God grant us grace for this!

Comment here.

Accountability, when it’s external, can lead to religiosity
rather than life.

Most of us have been there:

• Adhering to the rules of our church community in order to be
  accepted or acceptable.
• Being diligent to do our part (and making sure others
  notice) as we work at the plan that the pastor/leaders are implementing for
  growth or outreach or discipleship.
• Holding our self accountable to a religious, Christian
  lifestyle (doing the right things) but missing the passionate, inner
  relationship with the living God.

These externals have a clear measurement system along with
an accountability structure to let us (and others) know how we are doing.  And we normally end up feeling oppressed by
the whole thing by the time all is said and done.

But have we thrown out the baby with the bathwater by
ignoring the power of relational accountability that seems to be at the heart of
the New Testament follower’s life?  (As
one example note the father son spiritual relationships in 1 Cor. 4:14-16).

We want to be passionate followers of Jesus, hearing and
following his voice and living joyfully with him every day.  Do we have a spiritual-director-type in our
life who comes alongside us to keep us pointed that way?

We want to live an organic, 24/7 lifestyle, that brings the
Kingdom to earth through us and results in people’s lives transformed.  Do we have a coach-type in our life who keeps
us focused on God’s daily purposes through us?

We want to learn more about specific types of ministry or spiritual
gifts that we feel drawn to.  Are we
simply reading books, or are we connecting personally with others who are
headed the way we want to head so that we can learn how to walk in their steps?

In today’s world where information and knowledge is so
freely available, are we missing out on the relational components designed by
the Spirit to help us walk faithfully with Jesus while we also help others do
the same?

Organic, relational accountability.  A needed, positive component in our lives?

Simple/organic church folk might be key to the army God is
preparing for needed global impact.

Though progress is being made, some estimate there are still
over 6,000 unreached people groups (out of 11,700 total people groups) in which
less than 2% are believers.  To live
within such an unreached group means that it is highly likely you will live and
die never hearing the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Here is a simple overview of people groups worldwide along
with the reminder that Jesus clearly said his
target is ‘all nations’ meaning all people groups (‘ta ethne’).

So, why might simple/organic church folk be the very army
that God is preparing for global impact?

1. Training is needed throughout the world in disciplemaking
movements that lead to church planting movements so that these large groups of
unreached people can be reached with the Gospel.  While business/institutional models of church
hinder these movements, simple/organic church folk understand the type of
church gatherings that can help facilitate and release such movements.  This understanding is needed throughout the
world.

2. Simple/organic church folk understand that money is not
needed for the church to grow and reproduce making it much easier for the
Gospel to go forward.  Furthermore, much
money can be freed up from the west, through simple/organic church expressions
to flow into unreached parts of the world. 

3. Simple/organic church folk understand that the life of a
Jesus follower is a 24/7 lifestyle rather than the passive attendance of church
services.  This means more vibrant,
impactful disciples are made.

4. Simple/organic church folk are committed to hearing and
following the voice of Jesus and none other. 
As we continue to tune our ears more and more to him, it is likely that his
heart for ‘all peoples’ will motivate more and more people to reach beyond the
comfort of their own people group and extend themselves to reach others.

5. Simple/organic church folk understand that the church is
a going organism, not a come-and-sit event. 
Our mentality is to be involved with Jesus in his mission throughout the
world.  We live with a readiness to go
where he sends!

Has your heart been stirring for the unreached people groups of the world?

Church, by definition is not a building, not a place of
worship, not an organization.

As
Neil Cole likes to say: “We are the church. 
Where we go the church goes.”

“God
does not dwell in temples made by human hands.” 
Stephen, before being martyred.

Church is not a come-and-sit service to attend.

“The church’s
true nature is best seen by the life that Jesus modeled: he took the life of
the kingdom everywhere that he went—out into the world that he was ministering
to.”  Roger Thoman

Church is not a passive gathering where some participate and
others just listen.

“The
bleachers are beginning to empty as 707 million action-oriented Christians
start to pour out onto the playing field and discover the joy and challenge of
every-member ministry.”  Jim Rutz

Church is not a professionally-led entitity.

“In
the New Covenant we do not need a human priest (pastor) to mediate or pray for
us as we now have a High Priest as our mediator…  Having a pastor as our priest violates our
own priesthood as it leads to hierachization, compartmentalization and
fragmentation and makes us lazy laity… Priests do not lead worship but the Body
of Brethren (Body of men, women and even youth) minister to each other.”  Victor Choudhrie

Church is not a business.

“In
the first century in Palestine Christianity was a community of believers. Then
Christianity moved to Greece and became a philosophy. Then it moved to Rome and
became an institution. Then it moved to Europe and became a culture. And then
it moved to America and became a business. We need to get back to being a
healthy, vibrant community of true followers of Jesus.”  Priscilla Shirer

Church is not a club that isolates from the rest of the
world.

“One
of the greatest forms of love, as exemplified by Jesus, is to fully join with
people and live among them.”  Roger
Thoman

“We
have to learn to live in the smoking sections of life.”  Neil Cole

Church is not separate from ‘everyday’ life.

Reorient
your own personal paradigm. Your business, workplace or home, wherever you
spend most of your time, is your ‘primary nuclear church’.  Victor Choudhrie

Church is not something that can be contained by walls or
controlled by man.

“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.” 
Brooks Thoman

Sometimes it is in the process of unlearning what church is
not that we can make room for becoming more of what God made us to be.

Your additions?