Simple Church Journal

As per the previous post, we had a tele-conversation (7 of us altogether) on the future of house church.  I was very excited about the opportunity to share stories with people who are on the same journey in different parts of the world.

As is typical of “house church,” the conversation took on a life of its own.  We essentially, over the course of one hour, ended up forming a short-term, exploratory, participatory, peer-learning group.  We spent our time together getting to know one another, hearing about our house/simple church experiences, and then settling on some key issues that we wanted to explore together in future conversations (perhaps three more).

Through our time of sharing we identified the following issues as being most pertinent to us:

1. What are the discipleship/teaching pathways for people involved in the simple/organic/house church movement?
2. How can we facilitate people’s transition from institutional to organic mindset.
3. How do we develop communities that are truly missional.

We decided to “meet” together (by phone) every two weeks in order to explore each of these topics in order.  In between our phone conversations we agreed to send each other articles or resources that relate to the upcoming topic.

So, as mentioned, the phone conversation went in a slightly different direction than anticipated (a good thing).  Rather than force a specific agenda on everyone, we identified the issues that were truly important to those involved.  We are, hopefully, allowing God to lead us into future conversations that will enhance and encourage each one of us through each one of us.  It has become somewhat of a peer-learning, peer-coaching experience.

Some of you are going to ask if you can jump in on this and the answer is no and yes.  This particular group is large enough that it would not be helpful to add several new participants.  However, I am considering offering the same venue again for a second group within a few weeks, so feel free to send me an email if you are interested: rogerthoman@gmail.com.

I will also be sharing some of the resources that we share with each other and some of the content of our conversations.

“The conversation is the relationship.” Susan Scott

Interested in a tele-conference-conversation, with 6 to7 people, on the future of the house church movement?

Here is what I am proposing…

What: a tele-conference-conversation that will give us the opportunity to interact with others from various parts of the world with an engaging topic: the future of the house church movement.

Who: 6 or 7 people who are currently involved in simple/house/organic church.  I am looking for regular folk, like myself, who want to converse.  You do not have to have “the answers” to take part, just a desire to explore this issue with others.  First come, first served (email below).

How: We will use a Skype conference line (Vapps) which means you can call for free using Skype (no skype-out credits needed) or you can call in using a regular landline or cell phone though certain long-distance charges will apply.

When: Wednesday, April 18, 5:00 pm, United States Pacific Standard Time (one hour in length).
New York 8:00 pm, April 18
London 1:00 am, April 19
Singapore 8:00 am, April 19
Sydney 10:00 am, April 19

Why?  I believe that conversations are the most powerful tool we have for mutual learning, growth, and the development of greater insight.  God does work through his multi-faceted Body.  The benefit of a cyber-initiated tele-conversation is that we can cross-pollinate with people that we would not normally be hanging out with.

I see well-facilitated conversations among peers as a significant tool for developing vision, skills, and resources for people involved in next-generation simple churches.  This initial conversation is a learning opportunity to help me grasp some of the potential and possibilities.

Is anyone up for an experiment?  Shoot me an email at rogerthoman@gmail.com and I will provide you with more specifics.  Please reply only if you have a sincere interest and are available at the time specified.

I am chewing on some excellent food from Alan Hirsch’s book, Forgotten Ways.  He asserts that we have cultivated a consumerist approach to Christianity and that our typical church models feed this consumer mentality.

Sound harsh?  Didn’t church-growth proponents explicitly teach us to mimic the shopping mall and apply it to the church?  In this they were sincere, but they must have been unaware of the ramifications of this approach, because in the end the medium always becomes the message.  They were unaware of the latent virus in the model itself—that of consumerism and the sins of the middle class.  Much of what can be tagged “consumerist middle class” is built on the ideals of comfort and convenience (consumerism), and of safety and security (middle class).

Hirsch goes on to present three diagrams, displaying different church shapes, and the ramifications of these shapes.

The most traditional church looks like this:

Obviously, as Hirsch points out in the diagram, there is physical space for no more that 5% of the church to be active in the gathering.  He goes on to point out that "the vast majority of the church is passive in the equation.  They are in a receptive mode and basically receive the services offered.  That is, they are basically consumptive.  They come to ‘get fed.’”

As church-growth models encouraged a more contemporary approach with inspiring music and excellent preaching, churches were built looking like this:

Even so, 90% of the church is on the receiving end.  The church is still a “service provider, a vendor of religious goods and services.”

Hirsch, offering his own confession, did his best to move his church away from monological sermons to dialogical discussions.  They put couches in semicircles and pop art over the walls.  “But in the end all we had succeeded in doing was making 20 percent of the community active in ministry, while leaving about 80 percent passive and consumptive.  The result is this diagram:

Hirsch reflects on the need for the church to move out of its institutional forms in order to involve and engage every member.  But reader take note!  This book does far more than simply challenge that we simplify church or make church more organic and interactive.  Hirsch is convinced that we are missing the mark if we are not becoming truly missional people and truly missional communities:

The absolutely vital issue for newer emerging churches will be their capacity to become genuinely missional.  If they fail to make this shift, then they too will be another readjustment of Christendom.  A mere fad.

We have often asserted that house church / simple church is far more than simplifying structures, rather it is the re-awareness of what it means to be the church—dynamic followers of Jesus in every moment and situation of life.  In keeping with this, Hirsch offers a very rich description of what it means to live fully in God’s missional adventure.

More to come…

I recently read a statement by A.W. Tozer that clarified for me the limitation of pulpit-style teaching:

"Though God… has provided answers to our questions concering 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.  However brightly the light may shine, it can be seen only by those who are spiritually prepared to receive it." (The Knowledge of the Holy)

As with everything else in life, we want the quicker, easier way.  Stop at McDonalds.  Shop at a big box store.  Drive a mass-produced car and live in a mass-produced house.  We want everything efficient, pre-packaged, and ready-to-go. 

So… give me an outstanding talking-head spiritual message.  In fact, give it to me from someone who has delved deeply into the things of God.  Give me a message that has come from that person’s diligent meditation on the word of God and well-disciplined labor in the things of God.  Then take that powerful message and wrap it up in a 30-minute sermon and serve it to me on an easy-to-reach platter so that I can feed on it quickly and easily.

And there is the problem.

The message may, indeed, come from someone’s deep intimacy with God and loving labor in God’s word.  But I will not be able to digest that message, no matter how well prepared it is, unless I am, myself, putting forth my own effort to draw close to God and know him.  There are no shortcuts to actually grasping hold of the things of God.  We can hear the messages, and even be emotionally charged and thrilled by them, but transformation that leads to more deeply knowing God comes only by our own time spent in pursuit of him.

The problem with the talking-head preaching/teaching, even the really good stuff, is that we highlight it so much that we perpetuate the concept that hearing these messages are at the core of transformation.  This is simply not true.  Simply hearing others share their deep insights into God does not bring us to deeper places.

Is there, then, no place for talking-head teaching/preaching?

Obviously we do see "preaching" in Scripture used to motivate people to action, such as to accept the Good News.  But, in case you are not aware of this, one of the key words used in Scripture for "teach" is related to the word for "dialogue" referring to a back-and-forth discussion rather than a monologue.  Beresford has a good article on this here. The point is that talking-head preaching/teaching is not the norm for gathering in Scripture, and this is so for a very good reason.  It is simply not the key to real transformation and knowing God at a level deeper than that which lies on the surface.

In my mind, we are back at recognizing the value of simple gatherings in which 1 Cor 14:26 provides the framework.  Here is this verse from the Message:

“Here’s what I want you to do.  When you gather together, each one of you be prepared with something that will be useful for all:  Sing a hymn, teach a lesson, tell a story, lead a prayer, provide an insight.  All of these must be offered for the strengthening of the others.”

Why is this type of gathering so powerful?

• Every person learns to dig into the word, find insights, and hear from God
• Our dependency on others to provide pre-packaged spiritual food is reduced
• We develop our personal disciplines of meditating on the word and seeking God even while we are gathered together
• We benefit from the spiritual gifts of many and the stories of God-at-work in people’s lives from many
• We are around other people who are discovering the incomparable value of becoming God-pursuers rather than passive receivers of-other-people’s-messages.

Yet… the challenge remains!  How can we see our participatory gatherings even more powerful, more Spirit-directed, and more fully engaged with God?  I think this is a future post coming on.  Maybe y’all will be brainstorming this with me over the next few days?

I haven’t posted for a while because of a 3-week overseas trip to Southeast Asia.  I had the privilege of helping to facilitate a conference for missionary/church planters who are working mostly among unreached people groups.  I will not mention any details about this conference because many of the participants work in parts of the world where their work, if known, could cause them great danger.

I have much I could share… and would love to tell the stories of these missionaries who are giving and risking much to serve the kingdom.  They are awesome people!

However, in keeping with this blog’s theme, I want to, instead, talk about how exciting it is to see the relevance of the simple church / house church movement to cross-cultural settings.  During our conference we grouped the missionaries into temporary “simple churches” to give them the opportunity to experience gatherings that are fully participatory and that do not require “professional” leadership.  As they walked through these exercises, you could see the lights go on over and over as they realized the practicality of these types of churches multiplying on their respective mission fields.  We repeatedly heard comments like these:

“This can really work where we are…”

“I never saw this before…”

Imagine laboring on a mission field to reach a handful of believers from a group of people where there have previously been no Christians.  Then, having reached a group of people, the typical next step is, “Oh my gosh, it is time to get a church started.”  At this point one can only imagine the time and energy that gets poured into pulling together all of the trappings of a traditional church: highly-trained pastor, building, worship leader, etc, etc, etc.  With this in mind, it is easy to see why missionaries who are reaching unreached people groups are very excited about simple, reproducible churches.

It is, indeed, happening just this way in many parts of the world, not just China.

I received a note from Kevin Sutter, a YWAM church planting coach, who recently came back from an undisclosed country where there are very few Christians:

A major highlight that I am excited to tell you about was visiting a house church planted among an unreached Buddhist tribe, the [name of tribe deleted]. It was led by a woman who is only a year old in the Lord… It was a "text book example" of what we want to see reproduced [simple churches contextualized in indigenous cultures]–including a non-believing visitor who stayed on afterwards, asked good questions, received helpful answers and a… Bible.  He said he’d come back next week. Later, a couple, who still think of themselves as Buddhist, asked if they could start a simple church in their home too! They like learning about Jesus from the Bible and seeing Him answer prayers. God is up to something!!

God is up to something!

Another recent email is from Robert Fitts whose book, The Church in the House, has been translated into Urdu in order to help support the 800 house churches that have sprung up in Pakistan.

I believe we have only begun to see what God is up to in our world.

Worship within the context of the small, intimate, simple church gathering is one of my favorite subjects.  I love the type of worship I have come to experience within simple church.

Don’t get me wrong.  I love the awesome, live music that sometimes accompanies the more performance-oriented big worship events.  I still enjoy, on rare occasions, the excitement and, yes, even depth of corporate worship, that can accompany the large worship setting.  But my appetite for this type of worship experience has dwindled to almost nil compared to the fulfillment I experience when worshiping with a handful of close allies, friends, confidants.  When these folk open their hearts with an expression of worship, I am able to connect with their deepest cries and honest hearts.  It is as though I am worshiping soul to soul.  We touch God together and he becomes incarnate, in our midst, through the flesh and blood awe and longings of people I know well.

I believe the "art" of house church worship is still developing.  We have become music-dependent, overall, as worshipers.  I do not mean that music does not have its place.  As I have already indicated, I am a music lover.  But music itself is not worship nor does it automatically release music.   Most of us are familiar with Matt Redman’s story when he wrote these words to his now-familiar worship song:

I´ll bring You more than a song,
For a song in itself
Is not what You have required.
You search much deeper within
Through the way things appear;
You´re looking into my heart.

Matt’s church had discovered that they had become dependent on externals (particularly great music) and had lost some of the fire of worship–something that can only come from hearts that are simply and purely hungry for God.  Sometimes, maybe often, we need to strip away all externals and allow our hearts to re-engage with the process of raw, non-externally-supported worship.  Obviously, when combined with the intimacy of house church, this can be a powerful experience.

The churches I am involved in do, in fact, often make use of music: guitars, other instruments, and Cd’s.  But we soon realize that we are not seeking to bring the "big church" worship experience into our simple church gatherings.  Most of our churches usually begin to explore other forms of non-supported worship expressions that can be so personal, real, authentic, and meaningful.

Here is a short list of what I call "unsupported worship expressions."  This is not meant to be in any way complete nor definitive, rather just some ideas to work with that might lead a group to more personal, intimate worship times:

• Simple, spoken praise or worship.  Not horizontal prayers but vertical adoration, appreciation, thanksgiving, acknowledgment of who God is
• Read a psalm or passage of scripture slowly and meditatively.  Leave time for reflection and then, perhaps, more spoken worship
• Spontaneous song without music
• Read a psalm or passage of scripture and leave time for some journaling… then perhaps share the journaling or return to worship
• Suggest that each person declare one of God’s names and then speak worship to him based on that name
• Use a psalm as a guideline to speak your own worship to God
• Try more meditative music during times of reflection on a scripture or on the characteristics of God
• Silence and waiting on God’s presence and voice
• Put up a poster for people to draw on during worship or time of reflection

I would suggest that it takes some patience for a group that is used to more externally-expressed forms of worship to grasp the significance of what can take place within simpler, intimate settings.  But once people become accustomed to the personal-ness of this and can engage their hearts, they inevitably become hooked.  This style of worship has indeed become my staple diet and a powerful part of the sustenance for my spiritual life.

There is a good article written by ABC News.  Following is an excerpt.  The complete article is here.

Every Monday night, Meredith Scott and eight of her friends get together at one of their homes in St. Paul, Minn. They cook a meal, share what’s going on in their lives and pray together.

But Scott and her friends don’t call this a Bible study or a support group — they call it a church. They are part of the growing number of Americans who are shifting from traditional churches toward more informal, intimate settings, dubbed "house churches."

"How do you form a community in a church of 4,000 people?" asks Scott, who used to attend a megachurch in St. Paul. "Sometimes it’s hard to get really connected. What I’ve really been looking for is community."

And so are many others. The number of adults attending house churches in the United States has grown substantially over the last decade, according to George Barna of the Barna Group, a Christian ministries market research firm. Though official numbers are hard to pin down due to the nature of these churches, Barna said a conservative estimate is that 5 million adults attend a house church every week…

I have been looking for a book that provides some solid direction for those who are seeking to start a gathering that is particpatory and Spirit-led or who want to see their gathering supernaturally empowered in a greater way.  Joel Comiskey’s "The Spirit-Filled Small Group" fits this bill quite well.

I wrote the following as a review of this book, so it sounds like… well… a review.  But I trust that it will be helpful:

This is an excellent primer for learning how to facilitate Spirit-led, participatory church gatherings. It is also more than a primer. Comiskey provides solid biblical and historical background to the significance of small groups as the key to transformation. He also presents practical tools for facilitators of small groups (or house churches) who want to see their gatherings empowered by the Holy Spirit while releasing every person to express his or her spiritual gift.