Simple Church Journal

An excerpt from the Simple/House Church Revolution book:

Many people, today, are catching the vision of what the church is meant to be as she throws off the hindrances and becomes the Spirit-filled movement of Believers she is destined for.

We are catching the vision for living life, 24/7, with and for God without one moment or place being more holy than another. It is a vision of every believer contributing to one another through the spiritual gifts that reside in each one. It is a vision of every believer, using his/her gifts, to take God’s love and power into the world we live in. It is a vision of no longer thinking of the church as an event or place to go, but realizing that we, his people, really are the church everywhere and every place that we go.

Wolfgang Simson describes his vision of what the church, unhindered, is becoming:

[I dream of a] church, which does not need huge amounts of money, or rhetoric, control and manipulation, which can do without powerful and charismatic heroes, which is non-religious at heart, which can thrill people to the core, make them lose their tongues out of sheer joy and astonishment, and simply teach us The Way to live. A church which not only has a message, but is the message. Something which spreads like an unstoppable virus, infects whatever it touches, and ultimately covers the earth with the glory and knowledge of God.

It is always good to review the basics of church which is, by nature, organic and living. Church is the people of God organically connected to God. At Pentecost, when the Spirit breathed upon God’s people, this organic connection came to life. Thus we see terms for the church like: ‘living church,’ ‘body of Christ,’ ‘seed planted that produces fruit 30, 60, 100 fold.’

When church is understood this way, its development becomes less about planning ‘how to build’ and much more about learning to facilitate the life cycle that is already inherent within it.

The simple DNA of the living church is evident:

1.  Intimacy with Christ. The abiding living relationship with God is at the core of our life with God and the life that grows out of the church (God’s people).

Jesus did not invite us to follow a religion of rules, nor did he mandate an order of service or church structure to follow. He did ask us to follow him. Out of that flows all of the life, joy, and power that we need to live fully in him and for him.

2.  Reaching out with love.  The experience of being loved by the God of the universe produces an outward desire to love and reach others with the same Gospel love.

This is not a project nor a program, but a way of life that involves an outbreak of Jesus’ love toward others.

3.  Disciplemaking as a lifestyle. This is not about what we have to give to others, but it is about relationships in which we come alongside people while they discover that God speaks directly to them. We walk with them but the word and the Spirit of God become the teachers.

The Bible, indeed, is far more powerful than we realize. It has the power to transform hearts and lives, all by itself, through the energizing of God’s Spirit.

4.  Gathering simply and in a participatory manner. Gatherings are family-based and allow every person to grow spiritually, care for one another, and exercise spiritual gifts. Healthy missional-family gatherings continue to encourage the upward, inward, outward processes of loving God, blessing one another, and reaching out to others.

What we do see in Scripture are many different types of gatherings which took place frequently, naturally, and often spontaneously… They took place in normal, everyday settings and they fit into the rhythm of everyday life.

5.  Empower others to go, reach, disciple, and gather. This is the function of ‘leadership’ as it seeks to serve others who are becoming fruitful, vibrant, and reproductive.

Everything is given away: spiritual authority, recognition, encouragement, opportunities to minister and serve. This leader empowers others so well that his or her own ministry goes virtually unrecognized.

Where does one begin?

It is difficult to get away from the idea that there must be a one-two-three blueprint to follow that will allow me to facilitate the growth of ‘a church.’ But it is more about lifestyle than planning and more about listening to God than following someone else’s map.

Still, there is an intentionality that can move us forward. These five rhythms become essential to discovering how God would have us walk with him in the growth of his church. There are many tools and methods for walking out each of these rhythms (perhaps a subject for another post), but through prayer and listening, God is able to lead us to those tools and methods that will be best for our context. When we are diligent about walking out these rhythms, God will lead:

1. Godward Rhythm: How can I root myself more deeply in His love?
2. Missional Rhythm: What field(s) am I assigned to sow in? Where is my Calcutta? Who is my next 'person of peace?'
3. Discipleship Rhythm: Who has God provided to mentor/disciple me? Who can I invite into a discovery, encounter with God through His word to walk alongside as he/she learns to follow God for himself/herself?
4. Community Rhythm: Who am I called to build one-another community with?
5. Reproductive Rhythm: How am I empowering my disciples & community to do the same (#1 – #4)?

Five basic DNA elements of the living church and five rhythms to help guide us. Thoughts?

(All quotes are from the Simple/House Church Revolution book.)

I learn so much more from those who take ‘the course.’

One of the participants asked a question referring to this quote from the Simple/House Church Revolution book: "The church is becoming unleashed as Christians are re-discovering the daring adventure of 'going' and taking the presence (love, life, and power) of God everywhere that they are going."

He then asked the question: What does that look like? Can you or anyone here give concrete examples, please?"

Some great comments ensued:

For years, the dominating church growth models have been centered around activity driving attendance to a meeting (inviting) with the hope that as people enter the building and experience God through the church service (having a rightly planned order of service) the invited will come away having been impacted and return inviting their friends and family. Jesus was less concerned about inviting people to experience God through a meeting and more concerned about meeting them where they were as he and the disciples went along the way.

When our neighbor calls me and asks if we can pick up her daughter from day care because she will be late from work. When another neighbor calls at 12 midnight and asks if we can drive them to the hospital because their daughter has an allergy attack. When a neighbor asks if we can accompany them to the grocery because they have a lot to buy. is that "going"?

A group of us go out onto the streets and offer to pray for people, we pray for healing, personal circumstances, ask God for words of knowledge and prophecy, we sometimes lead people in a prayer of salvation if and when we discern they are ready, we have just started meeting in McDonald's every other week so we can invite people for a free cuppa and connect them up, we're trying to be intentional and build community where they are.

80% of Canadians today will never enter a church. So how can we reach these 80% if we use the strategy of inviting them to come? The only way is to invite them to our homes where they do not feel threatened and do not think they will be bombarded by church stuff. It still starts with our going to where they are, start a relationship so that we come to a point where we can ask them to come to our home for a meal.

…a phrase we have been using in our house church is 'making disciples who make disciples', it's not a hanging on to people to build up an ever growing pyramid system of structure and leadership but an equipping and releasing mind-set.

Add your own thoughts and experiences with the ‘going church.’

As we head into the new year, I have a simple thought based on a quote from Oswald Chambers. This quote is the basis for the title of His resilient book “My Utmost for His Highest.”

Not often, but every once in a while, God brings us to a major turning point–a great crossroads in our life. From that point we either go toward a more and more slow, lazy, and useless Christian life, or we become more and more on fire, giving our utmost for His highest–our best for His glory.

I cannot determine what the church at large will do as it continually comes to these turning points. I cannot decide for others how they will face life when such crossroads present themselves. But I can ask myself, as I head into 2017, am I at or near such a place of choice. And do I want to settle into the predictable and comfortable Christian life that I inevitably slosh into over time, or am I willing to face forward into whatever adventure God is calling me to in order to give myself fully to it?

For me, the paradigm of simple/house/organic church is not about a way to do church but a calling to continue to find Jesus in the stuff of life, follow Him, and pursue His adventurous calling while refusing to get boxed in by anything that wants to pull me back into the lazy boxes of yesteryear.

I invite you to face forward with me toward His highest and best.

 

Comments?

You may remember the 2006 movie where Matthew McConaughey played the thirty-something who was not ready to leave home and launch out into the responsibilities of adulthood. This is a great picture of the church in the west. We are just not ready, in many ways, to grow up and take responsibility for our own spiritual lives and the mission/purpose of being ‘church.’

It may be that our backs are not up against the wall yet.

It may be that we have lived too long on comfort foods and easy spiritual programs.

It may be that we just don’t want to grow up and take on that responsibility for our spiritual lives.

Whatever the reason, the church in the west resists walking in its true nature of every-member-a-world-changer. Apparently the alternative– easy participation in an institutional church program (whether regularly or from time to time)—is too readily available and too easily relied upon.

In the arena of our spiritual life, we have developed a dependency mindset. Easy to do. Offerings abound of amazing teachers, inspiring conferences, and events that spark—at least temporarily—our spiritual fire. Or, there are the comfortable gatherings, of people we are familiar with, that we can stop into, enjoy, and feel assured that we have done something significant even though others have prepared the food, set up the venue, and provided the welcoming atmosphere.

It is so much easier to look to others to feed us, prop us up, care for us when we are needy, and provide a spiritual program for us to consume. But have we done ourselves a disservice by not recognizing that our comfortable reliance on provided programs and institutions are keeping us from growing into the place of living dynamically with God in such a way that our gifts are overflowing to others? If so, we are perhaps missing the greatest joy in life.

Does that mean that change will finally come when our back is up against the wall? Neil Cole posits that forms of persecution are coming sooner than we think which will, inevitably, move us in that direction:

I do not think persecution is so far off. What would it take? Not much. I believe the pieces are already on the board and being pushed into play…

Like the Russian church prior to communism, our churches are dependent upon holy buildings (remove property tax exemption) and holy men (remove parsonage allowance) that perform holy practices in those buildings (remove tax deductible donations). Our vulnerability is quite obvious. These three areas of dependence will kill us.

I firmly believe that the more we move toward an incarnational, missional and movemental expression of ecclesia the better prepared we will be. We must be aware of our vulnerabilities and shift toward a form of church that is less easily destroyed.

Maybe this is, ultimately, how God will work. I can’t say for certain. But I do know that God’s plan is for a church that is fully mature. Therefore, in His way and timing, He will get what He is aiming for.

The full launch cometh eventually, ready or not! And with it, perhaps, the church’s most powerful and joyful time.

Thoughts?

If we step out of the boat when God has not called us, we will wind up only wet.

On the other hand…

If God is, in fact, calling to us and we have become too entrenched in our comfort zones to hear and respond, what miracles and adventures might we be missing?

Comfort zones often compel us into the routines that we call life. Often, we cling to our religious cultures and familiar ways of doing life as a way to remain comfortable. This is fine, unless in fact, his voice is calling!

The Jesus-life is a faith-life is a step-out-of-the-boat life.

Is he calling? Are we making room to listen? If he is calling and we do listen and respond, the most amazing, miraculous things can happen just because… we step out of the boat.

Where are you at and what are your thoughts?

As I currently journey through different cultures in various Africa countries, it makes me fully aware of how much we over-think things in our western world.

It is always good to be reminded that the Gospel, and its spread to others, must be just as clear and relevant to an illiterate, rural village person as it is to an educated urbanite. Therefore, its power is not solely accessible to those who are able to study and come up with complicated theological theses. Rather it’s power is accessible, in its utter simplicity, to the least educated as well as the most.

I remember, years ago, someone saying to me that the most powerful theological statement ever is just the song: “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”

Indeed, the Gospel can be primarily summed up with Jesus’ commandments and commission:

1. Love God with heart, soul, and mind—as He has loved us
2. Love others—as we love ourselves
3. Go and invite others into a personal, discipleship/followership relationship with Jesus

It is interesting to note that simple is reproducible. Simple, is able to be passed along. Simple can become viral. Keeping things simple can reduce the temptation toward creating religious structures and church institutions by encouraging a simple, basic listening/surrendering relationship to Jesus whom we love and follow.

Richard Feynman, Nobel Prize winner for his work on quantum electrodynamics, said, “you can recognize truth by its beauty and simplicity.”

I would add to this… that God’s truth is recognizable by beauty, simplicity, as well as power—the kind of power that transforms people’s lives from the inside out.

Perhaps, today, we can re-root our lives in the simplicity of God’s love and in His leading to share His simple, magnificent beauty to the world around us. Perhaps, our own culture is looking for some simple, powerful answers to the confusion that is so prevalent. Perhaps life with God is simpler and more powerfully amazing then we have made it to be.

Thoughts on this?

We love the stories of God speaking in dramatic ways leading to amazing things. I think of Loren Cunningham, years ago, seeing a vision of a map of the world with waves breaking over it. He sensed that the waves were young people covering the earth with the Gospel. This vision inspired him to launch out in what would become the worldwide Youth With a Mission (YWAM) movement.

BUT, is this the normal or usual way that God speaks to his people?

Dallas Willard, in Hearing God, argues that it is not. Further, if we think of God as primarily speaking in such dramatic ways, we may end up missing much or most of what He is saying to us.

Unfortunately, this gentle low-key word may easily be overlooked or disregarded, and it has even been discounted or despised by some who think that only the more explosive communications can be authentic. For those who follow this view, a life of hearing God must become a life filled with constant fireworks from heaven…

God usually addresses individually those who walk with him in a mature, personal relationship using this inner voice, showing forth the reality of the kingdom of God as they go…

But a major point of this book is that the still, small voice—or the interior or inner voice, as it is also called—is the preferred and most valuable form of individual communication for God’s purposes.

No doubt, those who know Loren Cunningham would say that his ability to walk out God’s plan for him and YWAM has been primarily a result of his dependency on daily hearing and following the voice of God. He cultivated a daily, hearing ear. I can assume this because it is a core teaching in all YWAM schools today.

Similarly, for the church to be an organic movement of life, it requires the participation of all followers in the amazing journey of hearing and responding to God in quiet yet powerful ways. This is not dependent on having a dramatic vision or encounter, but it does involve learning to attune ourselves to the daily voice of God.

A core principle of organic life and movements: Every follower becomes attuned to the voice of God—especially His still, small voice.

Today there is a desperate need for large numbers of people throughout various arenas of life to be competent and confident in their practice of life in Christ and in hearing his voice. Such people would have the effect of concretely redefining Christian spirituality for our times. They would show us an individual and corporate human existence lived freely and intelligently from a hand-in-hand, conversational walk with God. That is the biblical ideal for human life.

The church can re-discover its natural power as a movement when every follower becomes accustomed to encounters with God’s word and voice. We are, after all, making disciples of Jesus (sheep who know His voice) not disciples of ourselves or a church leader.

Now, don’t get me wrong. May God give dramatic visions. But, even more important, may many, many more of God’s people simply walk out in intimacy the daily directives of God that will lead to fruitful, organic, Kingdom lifestyles in a world needing His life and light.

Church expressions must change to reflect God and his kingdom well both in the west and around the world. Indeed, we are seeing innovations but change is still slow and not, necessarily, keeping pace with where they could be.

Every day I see new formulas for how to live as missional communities, or missional families, or organic followers, or disciplemaking communities. This is all GOOD. It means we are finding relevant ways to walk the lifestyle of following Jesus and then developing new structures (church expressions) to support those lifestyles.

In the world of cross-cultural missions, there is much talk of disciplemaking movements and church planting movements. In my experience, some of this is more talk than reality, but it is still GOOD in that the dynamic nature of the church is giving new impetus toward fresh expressions.

But… surely we have only just begun. Let’s not be too quick to brand our current formula as the ‘one-size-fits-all.’ Let’s continue to innovate what it means to live as salt and light in our world and context, and then develop the structure/expressions that best support that lifestyle and give it the impetus to reproduce.

Allow me to break this down a bit in order to encourage even more innovation of church expressions.

Lifestyle Rhythms of Church

Church is first and foremost God’s people living a lifestyle with and for him. It is his people following him and doing life in ways that glorify him and display his kingdom. It is not a series of programs, events, or services.

The structure of ‘church’ (whatever that looks like) is always meant to support the lifestyle of those who are bringing Kingdom life to earth through an intimate walk with God and a missional lifestyle (broadly termed) alongside of others (spiritual community). But we have a tendency to rely on structures of church to define our lifestyle rather than the other way around. We easily become structure-dependent.

We must continue working at divesting ourselves of our reliance on structures, re-discover the rhythms of impactful Kingdom lifestyle in our context, and then develop the structures/expressions that fully support the impactful lifestyle allowing it to then reproduce in others. This is where innovations are coming from and this is where they must continue to come from.

We are called to follow Jesus. This is the natural God-ward rhythm. We need others to support us in this. This is the community rhythm (team, family, group, spiritual friends). We are also designed to be world changers by being involved as disciples who call others into followership (in many, many different ways). This is the missional, reproductive rhythm. With this as our starting point, we WILL continue to discover innovative structures (wineskins/expressions) that support the fresh and living wine of today.

Let us continue to look forward in this dynamic, transformative time!

Your thoughts?

Are we first and foremost called to mission or, rather, to create community out of which mission comes? Most would agree that it is not either/or. But I have seen (and written) much about the primacy of one verses the other.

For example, I have written about the nature of the church as ‘going.’ And many agree that the church is missional by nature just as God Himself is missional to the core.

On the other hand, church is always a community of believers and relationship is at the core of God’s dynamic personality.

Recently I was struck by this quote from JR Woodward: “When we live authentic and vulnerable lives, we cultivate communities that have a good theology of failure, people willing to take risks.”

This helped me to tie mission and community together in a fresh way. Mission and ‘going’ always involves the element of risk-taking as we step out of comfort zones and into the world, culture, and lives of others. So where do we develop the faith and find the support for doing this? Woodward argues that authentic community is part of this provision!

So, we see mission and community married together—communities on mission—with the reminder that we need each other in order to live the kind of adventurous, faith-exhibiting life of a mission-centered Jesus follower!

On a personal note, I do want to acknowledge so many of you who are part of my personal and virtual community. You do give me strength to take FAR more risks in mission and life than I would without you! Thank you!

Thoughts?