Cool Resource

In the House2House email newsletter I received this morning, there was a link contained within for some downloadable resources that could really help anyone who wanted to start a simple church to understand more of the "structure" or elements of the gathering time. Check it out at:
EveryWhereChurch.

Great Video about House Church

The following link will lead you to a video that is a great video on house church and why so many are going to be leaving "traditional" styled churches back to house churches.

Interviews concerning House Church

When I think of being "emergent," I think this video hits the nail on the head on why there is a growing emerging movement out of the traditional church.

Time Off???

This morning an email came to me from a para-church organization that describes a situation a youth minister was facing. Here is a portion of it:

"...a youth minister drop by my office the other day just to talk. It was one of those times where you could read the frustration in his eyes. It was a point where, even as a man, you find yourself somewhere between anger and tears.

His students are already getting over the summer spiritual high.

Some of his volunteers seem to be more of a drain than a blessing.

A few of his key students are making bad choices.

The church leadership is talking about how the church had a nice summer off and now it’s time to get things back into gear. 'Get back in gear,' I thought, 'I think he used every possible gear he had this summer. Let's see, two weeks of camp, CIY Conference, a missions trip, and a couple of work projects. Now they want more? I don’t think he had the summer off.'"

This is all too typical of the traditional church. It almost seems to me that the church described here thinks of "church" as a job or a duty that you need "time off." I just don't get that. Have we come to the point where people don't understand what it means to BE the church? I, mean, does you arm just decide to take a few months off and come back all rested and ready to go? Does your body leave your head behind and go off for the summer to enjoy a break?

As I write this, I am thinking, do I really even need to say anything about this? A part of me says that I am just finding fault within the structure of the traditional church. But a bigger part of me says that I should write because Jesus bride is much too valuable to be seen as an entity that we can "take time off" from. We have to come to the point of recognizing that the Church is organic, it is a body, you don't just let go for three to four months out of the year. And now I hear the "yeah, buts" starting to roll...yeah, but we don't stop Sunday morning worship and Sunday school. So we take the 5-10% we may remember from the teaching from one hour and hope that is enough to nourish our souls for several months.

There is so much more from that quote above to deal with but perhaps another time.

Adding a Prayer

I having been praying the 10:2b prayer now consistently since the conference. After this past Sunday night's gathering, I am adding a prayer to that one. I am adding, "Give me Jesus." Of course you know I am not just adding those words, but that is the easiest way of putting it.

We had someone share at our gathering share with us some thoughts they had concerning a section of the Lord's Prayer as recorded by Luke. The part of the prayer mentioned was this:
"Give us each day our daily bread." (10:3, NIV)

Another passage that was read alongside of this one was John 6:32-34.

"Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world."

"Sir," they said, "from now on give us this bread."

Now, understanding from context, these people who asked Jesus to "give us this bread" were thinking in terms of physical bread (after all, He just fed a multitude miraculously). But the request is remarkably similar to the request that Jesus offered in the example prayer He taught. Follow the thread here and Jesus responds to their request by saying,
"I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty." (6:35, NIV)

Now, if we are to pray, Lord, give us this day our daily bread, are we asking for just physical food and our daily needs to be met? Looking at the above verses, it would be wiser to be asking for more of Jesus. He is the Bread of Life. He will satisfy the longings of our lives and our hearts.

"He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD." (Deut. 8:3, NIV)

If Jesus is the Word (John 1:1, 14), the Bread of Life (John 6:35), and the Truth (John 14:6), wouldn't it make more sense to pray, "Give us this day Jesus" rather than Wonder bread with peanut butter? If we were to pray this every day, what a difference it would make.

Let me share one last thought. The Lord's prayer in Luke 11 and Matt. 6 is in the plural. Community is all through the prayer as Jesus teaches, "Give us," "Forgive us," "Lead us," and "Deliver us." If the community of believers would together ask for more of Jesus in their midst, think of what Jesus could do in and through them.

Hopefully these thoughts will encourage you to ask for more of Jesus in your daily walk and in the gatherings you share in with other disciples of Jesus.

"Gridiron Gang" Review

I thought I would give my own movie review. My wife and I went to see the "Gridiron Gang" on opening night which wasn't crowded at all (not many BIG blockbuster hits out there). It is one of those based on a true story movies that has a heart. Overall I thought the movie was really good (I am not a trained critique so your opinion may be totally different than mine). This was one of those movies that makes you glad that people are doing something to help others find hope out of a life of despair.

I think we need to watch a movie like this and walk away saying, "now why can't we, the followers of Jesus, make an impact on people's lives like that?" I know that there are people making a difference out there but I am talking about people going out there to the hardcore cast outs of our society and reaching in to make a difference that will last. There needs to be more of us going and being like Jesus and hanging out with the "sinners." If we could walk away from seeing this movie and have that kind of motivation, the world would start to look a lot different.

Thumbs up on this one!

Controversy or Intriguing?

As I mentioned in the previous post, I am reading through some books by Frank Viola. The third book in the series is "Pagan Christianity: The Origins of Our Modern Church Practices." I have just started reading the first part of this and it looks like it will be an intriguing book. I know for some, this book would stir up a lot of controversy as we hold to some traditions more tightly than we should.

In reading the first chapter, Frank brings out some of the historical roots of our "liturgy" or order of worship. For the most part, a person could walk into any number of Protestant church gatherings and be familiar with the order of worship. But where does that order come from? Could it be that the origin of our order of worship started to form itself after the pattern of mass in the Catholic church under Gregory the Great (540-604 A.D.) which borrowed ideas from Judaism and the Greek paganistic rituals of his time? A look in history could reveal such roots of our worship order. What about the rise of the role of pastor within the church acting as CEO or MC? Where did that come from? How about the centrality of preaching in most orders of worship? These are just a few of the questions that I have encountered in the beginning of the first chapter.

Perhaps what I hope to gain out of this book more than anything is to learn what God desires the church to look like. God has and does redeem things out of pagan roots just as He redeems people from the same background. But perhaps God has given us a purer form of worship that He prefers.

I will write more on my thoughts when I read more of this book. My prayer as I read this book is to not find myself railing against the Bride of Jesus but to seek His desire for a pure and perfect bride. May love shine over all knowledge.

Time to Rethink

Recently, I bought a set of books by Frank Viola and have started to read through them. The first one in a series is called, "Rethinking the Wineskin." The premise of the book is to get the reader to look at the church as it began and extract from that picture, that model, the essence of what it means to be the "church."

What I find interesting in my reading so far is that everything I tried to do in the traditional church to become what I was reading in the New Testament can be done in the house church setting. What I tried to create in my past ministry experience comes naturally in the house church experience. When you boil down what it means to be the "church," it all comes down to relationships. First and foremost, our relationship with God through Jesus. Second, our relationship with each other. Programs might be able to facilitate some relationship building, but not to the extent of being in someone's house. And third, our relationship with those who don't have a relationship with God.

What would be really cool to see is a church decide to stop all of its programs, stop gathering everybody into one building each week, and send them out to share life and God in their homes. Send them out in groups of 5-8 adults with their children, and then let them gather for worship, study, and fellowship. Could you imagine the impact this would have on the people? You would be empowering them to use the gifts God has given to encourage and edify each other. Neighbors, friends, and co-workers who would not even think about going to a "church building" might actually show up at a house. The church could grow like never before.

Now obviously there would need to be a little training to help people understand what to do when they gather and some shepherding along the way. But can you imagine releasing people to be ministers, missionaries, servants what God can do? Isn't that the goal of God giving gifts as Paul writes in Ephesians 4?

A new day is dawning as the Jesus begins to stir His people to a greater understanding of what it means to be the church and to be a part of the body of Christ doing the work that we are to do.

A Prayer Request

There is one particular prayer request that Jesus gives to us that if we were to pray it consistently, it would change the face of our world. And guess what? It isn't the Jabez prayer! The prayer request can be found in Luke 10:2. It is being called the "10:2b prayer."

"...Ask the Lord of the harvest...to send out workers into the harvest field." (TNIV)

This is one of those texts that is not an obscure verse found in the midst of a genealogical listing but a request of Jesus as He prepares to send out in pairs a group of disciples to declare the Kingdom of God is near. Jesus specifically calls upon us to pray to God to SEND workers. He is even more specific than that as He requests the God send the workers OUT. The world is ready and ripe to hear the message of grace, the message of the Kingdom, the message of hope but there is a shortage of workers going OUT to share the message.

Here is my challenge to all who read this post: begin to pray the "10:2b prayer" everyday. Find someone with whom who can pray the prayer with everyday. It doesn't need to be lengthy prayers every time you contact each other but sincere, heart-felt prayers for God to send workers out. You may even pray specifically for the area that God has laid on your heart (your city, county, state, or country). But let's begin praying fervently that God would SEND OUT workers into the harvest field!