SimpleChurch Journal

Enjoying Being an Adventurer

"Between the traditional and the new, or between order and adventure, there is no real opposition; and what we call tradition today is a knit work of centuries of adventure." - Jorge Luis Borges quoted at ProdigalKiwi.

Interesting quote.  It helps put some things into perspective.  If you are reading this blog you are probably on a wonderful, current-day adventure in your spiritual and ministry life.  You are an adventurer.

It's an interesting perspective to consider that so many who have gone before us whom we describe as "traditional" were also adventurers in their day.  Not all, mind you.  The masses tend to follow the adventurers and, within time, that which was new becomes a routine, a liturgy, a program, or just something to do that was once exciting.  Taking an adventurous experience and reducing it to something repeatable for others turns it into a tradition.  The experience of adventure gets lost.

However, this quote reminds us to reflect on the many adventurers that are sprinkled throughout our traditional heritage.  Remembering that our "traditional" heritage is also made up of extreme-sports type rock climbers can remind us to honor them for the courage they had and encourage us to press on in the adventure we are having in our day.

Why waste time worrying about those who don't understand adventure and look for the safety by turning all-out-life-with-God into something routine, predictable, and un-relationship-like.  Instead, let's keep our eyes on the top of Everest-- where we are headed-- and enjoy the company of the Adventurers-- past and present.

I Don't Like Christians

From time to time I have been known to blurt out this statement: "I don't like Christians."

Don't get me wrong.  I am one.  There are, truthfully, many, many Christians that I really like.  I am willing to be patient with most.  I recognize that we are all in process, and I am totally excited about who we can be as we live in Christ, rest in His love, and share His compassion with others.  We, truly, can be awesome people.

But we can also be miserably religious, ridiculously petty, unbelievably shaming of others, and embarrassingly judgmental.  My passion for "counter-cultural" church is not just a desire to "do church different" nor even an attempt to "do it better."  It's really just a passion, in any way I can, to stand up as a contrary voice to the spirit of religion that destroys true spiritual life, leaves wounded people wherever it goes, and yet is so often tauted as Christianity despite the un-Christlike nature of it.  Religous Christians can be the absolute worst of the worst.

These rantings are inspired by a true story recounted by Brennan Manning in his book, "Abba's Child:"

A while back Roslyn and I took a day off and decided to play in the French Quarter here in New Orleans.  We roamed around Jackson Square sampling gumbo, inhaling jambalaya, and finally stopping at the Haagen-Dazs shrine for the piece de resistance-- a praline-pecan Creole hot-fudge sundae that induced a short-lived seizure of pleasure.

As we turned the corner on Bourbon Street, a girl with a radiant smile, about twenty-one years old, approached us, pinned a flower on our jackets, and asked if we would like to make a donation to support her mission.  When I inquired what her mission was, she replied, "The Unification Church."

"Your founder is Doctor Sun Myung Moon, so I guess that means you're a Moonie?"

"Yes," she answered.

Obviously she had two strikes against her.  First, she was a pagan who did not acknowledge Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior.  Second, she was a mindless, witless, naive, and vulnerable kid who had been brainwashed by a guru and mesmerized by a cult.

"You know something, Susan?" I said.  "I deeply admire your integrity and your fidelity to your conscience.  You're out here tramping the streets doing what you really believe in.  You are a challenge to anyone who claims the name 'Christian.'"

Roslyn reached out and embraced her, and I embraced the two of them.

"Are you Christians?" she asked.

Roslyn said, "Yes."

She lowered her head and we saw tears falling on the sidewalk.  A minute later she said, "I've been on my mission here in the Quarter for eight days now.  You're the first Christians who have ever been nice to me.  The others have either looked at me with contempt or screamed and told me that I was possessed by a demon.  One woman hit me with her Bible."

I hope, before God, that we don't take any issue, including the type of church we believe in or prefer, and make it a religious one.  Religion makes us ugly in the worst possible way.  There are NO issues, in the most primary sense, other than LOVE God and LOVE others.  Whatever it takes, can we Christians just get on with THAT!

Converting A Traditional Church to a House Church

I met Ken Eastburn a few months ago and was excited to hear his story: he was in the process of converting a traditional church into a house church network.

This is, in my estimation, braver and more daring than starting from scratch.  He has written his story up here which is worth the read-- and it's especially worth earmarking because, without a doubt, there will be more and more pioneers like Ken who are wondering if they are called to lead a church through this transition.

Using Blogs For a Devotional Community

"All the believers met together constantly."

We have been "beta-testing" a concept this week that has promise.  We have taken 7 people from our own churches who are "computer active" people.  We suggested that, together, we create our own private blog that would allow us to interact with each other on a daily basis.  Each day of the week a different person posts their own devotional thought or shares whatever God is doing in their life.

Because it's a blog, others in this 7-member community can read the post each day and then write comments.  In this way, we are developing a 7-person community that is interacting daily with each other.  In our world, this may be the closest thing we can come to "meeting together constantly."  In our case, we share some measure of relationship outside of this blog, but this is allowing us to deepen that through this daily interaction.

At this point, like any new community, we are a little formal and "stiff" in our writings.  But I know this will shift and I believe we have great potential for developing a reasonably safe and meaningful cyber-community.

I won't disclose the web address for this blog, because it is meant to be a private community.  But here's a little screenshot of what it looks like:

I was able to set up this blog through typepad in a way that allows 7 different authors to post.  I don't know how to do this with other blogsites, but if you want info on how to do it with typepad, you can email me.

Structure: Good, Bad, or ??

One more excellent article in Next-Wave, by Malcolm Hawker, deals with the topic of structure.  He writes:

I was reading this morning where once again someone was crying out NO STRUCTURE!

It is as if "structure" in church life is in some way restrictive and bad even to the point of being evil...all possibly true. Some say, "Because it is bad, let's just do away with it." But we can't. This world exists on structure and it is part of God's design. Everything has structure without it there is nothing. Animals, insects, buildings, bridges,planes, cars, mountains,the universe, in fact everything has some structure.

While I think I understand the heart from which these "NO STRUCTURE"words are spoken, the problem with structure in Church life comes when the people end up serving the structures rather than the structures serving the people.

Malcolm raises some excellent issues here:

1. You can't do away with structure.  Only random chaos remains without some form of structure.  I know Christians who run as soon as a second gathering time is decided on because it is starting to look like a traditionally structured church setting.  But some form of structure does support everything we do.
2. People end up serving structures... and this is always the problem.  The structures become more important than the people and take on requirements of their own.

My conclusion on this is that, first of all, simplicity is the key.  The simpler, the better... in most cases.  Simplicity means that structure remains flexible and disposable.  Simple structures are easy to change, mold, modify, or do away with when the time comes.

Secondly, structure must be re-shaped when it no longer serves its purpose.  This keeps people and relationships at the forefront and structure as a backfroungd tool that serves.  Schedule the next gathering time... or two or three...  Or plan a regular weekly time...  But be ready to change it when it no longer serves the community.

We need a new mentality to do this.  It's amazing how often simple structures form and, before long, people begin to mindlessly accept that "that's the way we do things."  That's where problems begin.  We must continually challenge everything we are doing... Is it serving the community and the Spirit or are we just doing what we've been doing without thinking about it?

What Does "Community" Mean?

Kevin Rains wrote an article on community that is near and dear to my heart.  At the forefront of our desire for a house church model is to build true community, what Eldredge calls "a band of intimate allies."  I quote his article in its entirety:

Community is almost a ruined word. I refuse to give up on it though. Just because its been misused, battered, and tattered does not mean it can't be useful. But it needs some definition.

Community means availability. It means time spent together. Real time. Time for conversation, interaction, and a deepening of communion, of intimacy between 2 or more people. Community is never general or generic. It is always specific and definable by people spending time together. Now, time spent together does not guarentee community. There has to be a certain quality to the time spent together. Time doesn't guarentee it but it is a pre-requisite.

Community means vulnerability. If we aren't willing to open up our lives to others we will never experience true community. This is why mutual confession builds community. We come to the table with our strengths and our weakenesses and we lay ourselves bare, exposed to the scrutiny and more importantly the love, acceptance and forgiveness of others. This doesn't happen overnight nor should it. It needs to be a progressive deepening. People who lay themselves bare at a first encounter scare me. There is something unhealthy in over-exposure especially as a first approach. These things take time and discernment to know how much to share and when. Mistakes will made. Over-hiding and over-exposure will happen. There can be no set rule for such things. But if we expect to gain community and constantly flee vulnerability we will never have it.

Community means a shared life. This ties back in to availibility but goes beyond it. Our life in one regard is made up of time. So if we want a shared life we must spend time together. Resources also need to be shared. Basically our checkbooks and our schedules can be a good guage of community.

Community means stability. Benedict was a genius to introduce a vow of stability into his Rule. If we want to experience community we need to be rooted somewhere among some people. If we constantly move on in search of greener pastures we will not be around long enough to grow the roots necessary for community. Community can not happen on the fly.

Barna On the Church

There are several good articles on the latest Next Wave E-zine.  The lead article digests some of Barna's latest research.  Here's a sampling:

In 2002 Barna wrote, “It is quite astounding that although Protestant and Catholic churches have raised - and spent – close to one trillion dollars on domestic ministry during the past two decades, there has been no measurable increase in one of the expressed purposes of the church: to lead people to Christ and have them commit their lives to Him.”

In 2005, the Chef [Barna] states, “Nothing is more numbing to the Church than the fact that it is mired in a rut of unfathomable depths. The various creative approaches attempted over the course of this decade have drawn much attention but produced little, if any, transformational impact.”

The bottom line is that the spirituality served up in the name of Christ in the U.S. is distinctly unproductive and unprofitable. Some churches have remained largely unchanged while others have changed the ambiance, the music, the lighting, added video screens, pastors, elders, and websites. Others have embraced bigger buildings with different architectural features. Some have turned to new delivery systems, serving up their products via seminars, books cd’s, dvd’s, live television and training by subscription satellite broadcasts. According to Barna, no matter what the Christian retail outlets have done to attract customers and change them by virtue of how or what they consume, there appears to be no measurable transformational effect on their behavior, after dining in these establishments over a period of time.

The whole article is worth the read and should be seen, not as a rebuke to others, but a challenge to every single one of us... to reach others.

More Kingdom Thoughts

The last post explored the key Kingdom paradigm: "The kingdom of God and all of its resources are within ME everyday, all day, all the time, in every place."

Some more key thoughts about the Kingdom that are foundational:

• Every spiritual gift can be expressed through me as God wills
• I have constant access to the Spiritual Leader of my life
• The kingdom of God within me is more real than anything in this world, including religious systems or institutions
• The kingdom of God is a life-force in me not a religious system, order, organization, or gathering
• God has designed me for mission and purpose-- to be lived out counter-culturally-- within community-- a kingdom purpose not a church-organization purpose-- a kingdom purpose not an institutional purpose
• Personal obedience to God is more important than serving the needs of an organization/institution.  The latter is an easier substitute that doesn't require engaging with God
• My purpose is to go (taking my gifts and kingdom life where God sends me) not to stay and build
• My "covering" is to hear and know the will of God-- my sheep hear my voice-- confirmed by those I live in community with
• Solitude, not going to church, will release the Kingdom life in me that I am meant to live in.  Community life will reinforce the life that God releases through solitude.  Community, of any kind, cannot release kingdom life in me; it can only nurture and support what is already in me through solitude and personal worship (vis a vis the life of Jesus).

The Kingdom Is Here Now

There are several key concepts that underlie what the house church movement is about.  Perhaps one of the most important is that God’s Kingdom is here, now, at work through every believer.  This Kingdom life-force is powerful and dynamic and is not restricted to a place, time, liturgy, or structure.  It is the life of God at work through each and every one of His people at all times and in every place.

To grasp the significance of this, we must start with what this Kingdom is.  It is the life-force that originates from the center of God.  It is God’s power, authority and energy that comes from His realm.  It is the life of heaven.  When humankind turned away from God, we were translated out of His realm into the realm of darkness (Satan’s realm) and into a world cut off from the fullness of His life and power.

However, Jesus declared that the Kingdom of heaven is now come.  The power of God’s realm is now fully available to us even while we live within the realm of this world.  Prior to Jesus’ coming, we were subject only to the realm of this world—the natural laws and forces—and the realm of Satan who is the prince of this world.  When Jesus came, He declared that a new force was present upon earth—the force of the Kingdom of heaven.  The power and the authority and the life that flows from the throne of God is now flowing into the lives of His people.  It is this life force that touches, heals, delivers, frees, imparts truth, cleanses, brings revelation, and causes the activity and guidance of heaven to take control of our lives on earth.

It is as though we are submerged underwater (in this world) but connected to an umbilical cord that reaches up into the oxygen above.  Everything that we need and more is available to us through that umbilical cord.  Our spirit is an open conduit for all of God’s life to flow into our life.

The point is this.  Jesus makes this connection to the heavenly realm available to each believer, every believer, every place that we go, every situation that we are in.  Jesus is now in us; His life is now in us; He works in us; He works through us; all the time; in every situation.  We do not go to a building or a gathering of any kind in order for this heavenly life to be at work in us.  It is available every day in every way.  In our homes, in our beds, in our offices, in our places of work.  Christ in us… the hope of glory… is the reality that we walk in every moment of our believing lives.

The kingdom is not more resident where there is a certain liturgy present.  It is not more present when a certain type of prayer is spoken.  It is not more present in certain people who have certain roles.  It is not more present when a gathering is officiated by someone who has a unique calling, anointing, or ministry.  The Kingdom of God has come.  Period.  Through the marvelous working of the sacrifice of Jesus’ life, we no longer belong to the realm of this world nor the realm of darkness because all of the power of heaven is at work in us.  We live in this world, but the power of the everlasting kingdom of God is constantly being poured into us like a lifeline that reaches up to the very throne.  This is the reality that God would have His people, every person, by faith, walk in!

We lose the magnificence of this truth when we declare that certain events, places, or people are “special.”  There was a “special” service in which God was present.  There was a “special” speaker who imparted something wonderful to those present.  There was a “special” crusade.  God does work wonderfully through many different ways… all of which, because they are of God, are more than special.  But we must not take away from the greatest miracle of all: that God is working in a high and special way at all times through each one of us when we simply take this truth by faith and walk it out.  It’s true. 

All of what makes God special is at work in each one of us always.  Always.  His kingdom, in all of its “specialness” and glory is in me and in you.  That’s the truth that we want to recover so that the earth is filled with His “special” followers doing “special” things frequently and regularly.  How else will the earth be filled with His glory than by millions of believers who grasp how wonderfully and powerfully they are filled with the life, the power, the beauty, the glory, and the fullness of God’s kingdom—the very life-force of heaven—all day, at all times, in every situation they are in.