SimpleChurch Journal

Wanted: Writers & Bloggers on World Missions

A couple of us have been developing a new blog on World Missions and Simple Church.  The purpose?  To increase the awareness and understanding of world missions among simple/house church folk.

The need?  More contributors.

First, let me explain why I think this type of resource is valuable.

Consider what God might be doing through the simple/house/organic church movement!

• He might be providing a way for many, many leaders and missionaries to be raised up.  The core value of simple church—everyone participates—provides a platform in which everyone gets involved, everyone grows spiritually, everyone discovers his/her spiritual gifts and calling, and everyone lives a 24/7 lifestyle of following Jesus.  That sounds like a platform for developing fruitful influencers and missionaries to me!
• He might be getting ready to create a whole new thrust that could impact our entire planet through a small group of “revolutionaries” who believe that we are the church, everywhere that we go, and that every unreached people in the world is part of that thrust.

So, the potential is huge!

At the same time, many people—even wonderful, on-fire, radical, Jesus-followers—can benefit from a deeper understanding of God’s purposes around the world, how he has been at work historically through world missions, what are the key thrusts taking place today, and how to become fruitfully involved with harvesting the many, remaining unreached people of the world.

We want to provide this type of information in a quality, educational, and inspirational format.  Thus… the World Mission Impact Blog.

Now, before you evaluate it, please understand that is in the first stages of development.  The artwork is basic and the content is only a start.

To move forward, we could use a handful of contributors who are involved in simple/house/organic church and who have a heart (and hopefully some background or solid awareness) of world missions.  Obviously we are looking for people who love to write and who are able to communicate concisely.

If you would like to know more, shoot me a note here and I will send you more information.

Re-Booting to Jesus (Stage 3)

In my series on the stages of the Simple Church Journey, it’s time to mention stage 3: renewing our life in Jesus or, as I have entitled this post, “re-booting to Jesus.”

Somewhere in the process of moving from one church paradigm to another, we find ourselves aware that this is not at all about church models, structures, or meeting in living rooms.  Rather, it’s about Jesus wooing us to himself more deeply, more intimately, more authentically, and more permanently.

After all, isn’t that what he is always about?  Continually drawing us to himself and stirring our hearts with a greater love for him?

I have an early blog post on this here.

It is impossible to do this topic justice in a single blog post because everyone will experience this renewal-of-life-in-Jesus differently depending on our background and how God is working in our own hearts.

For some, this will involve breaking down years of religious, legalistic baggage and discovering the Jesus that loves us radically and passionately for who we are and not for how well we serve him or how perfectly we keep the rules.  Sometimes we didn’t realize how much baggage we were carrying around until we stepped away from the containers and structures that helped hold the baggage together.  We often didn’t realize how much freedom we were missing!  By the way, for those who are finding that grace and freedom are at the heart of this season of renewal, you may want to take a look at the Naked Gospel by Andrew Farley.

For others, renewal involves moving out of our churchy comfort zones, re-discovering the awesome person of Jesus and the adventure of knowing and following him radically.  Being a disciple (follower) becomes much more personal, exciting, relevant, and Spirit-led than ever before.  We become more aware of Jesus as an undomesticated God and more ready to follow however he leads.  As we step into new arenas of faith with him, we encounter him more fully.  This is some of what Frost and Hirsch write about in their book that this post's title comes from: ReJesus: A Wild Messiah for a Missional Church.

Many discover renewal as they realize that the very heart of being a Jesus-follower is that we can personally learn to hear his voice, converse with him, and be led of him in very personal and real ways.  Sometimes it takes removing the crutches that we have relied on to hear from God (our church, our pastor, the teachers we look to, etc) in order to discover that God wants to speak personally and regularly to us.  As we do this, we discover a greater reality of 24/7 interacting with God and being led by him.  Many people who have found this to be a key renewal-point have enjoyed Mark Virkler’s materials.

Still others have found that Jesus has become more alive and intimate to them through contemplative disciplines and are finding renewal through more monastic forms of spirituality.  Andrew Jones brings a lot to this conversation which you can get a taste of here.

However it happens, at the heart and soul of ANY spiritual transformational process is that Jesus becomes nearer and dearer to us which awakens in us a greater longing to love him, give ourselves to him, and reflect the glory/beauty of who he is to the world.  Our heart becomes empowered to love him more fully and our values and priorities shift as a result.

Obviously, renewing ourselves in Jesus is more than just a “stage” in the process.  It is the central theme for those who follow a God who is radically and passionately in love with his people.

The freedom to know God, unhindered as much as possible from religious or human discoloration, is the central joy and purpose of life.  All of the rest of our journey in church-life (life with and for Jesus) is informed by our deepening friendship with God that is allowing him to be more intimately involved in our lives than ever before.