A different way to view education in the church

I wrote this in my initial paper on house church concerning education:

As John stated in 1 John 4, we must be equipped as Christians to test the spirits if we want to be a spirit-filled community. If we don’t, then we become susceptible to all sorts of evil and ill guidance. The old, yet true cliche is that the most effective way to tell any counterfeit is to know the original. We believe that God will not contradict what he has told us in Scripture; therefore, it is a churches responsibility to insure that all believers are growing in the knowledge of God’s written word. His word is a guide to understanding what is going on around us today. It helps us to pick out what God is doing in the present. Without knowing the Scriptures we are opening ourselves up to many kinds of teaching that are not in agreement with what God has already taught the generations before us.

In a house church we can study the word together and glean insights from one another. However we have to be careful to not read only through our emotions and subjective experiences but look for the meaning the original author wanted to get across and apply those meanings to our lives.

One thing I always desired yet never experienced was to be a group learning together rather than being a group taught by one person.

Here's what I mean. In a group taught by one person there is a teacher. The teacher prepares a lesson. He studies. He prays. He searches out the Scriptures and seeks God's will for what he is supposed to teach. Then after struggling with it all week, he presents his findings in a discussion or lecture format to the class.

My dream was to have a group of people where everyone studied, prayed, searched out the Scriptures, and sought God's will for what they were to share the next week at church. Then when the church gathered together, everyone would just share from the heart rather than be presented a planned lesson. That never happened.

Now that I'm writing it, my new thought on this subject doesn't sound as good as my ideal. But here is what I thought. The lesson would be prepared specifically by one person in the way that we typically experience lessons in Sunday School. However, he would prepare the lesson knowing that others are also preparing lessons and will politely interrupt him throughout his planned lesson. He might not even finish his lesson. The whole group would know what the subject for the next week will be. They could even discuss this and come up with what they want to study together as a group. Then whoever wants to study the subject and join in as co-presenters of the lesson would do so.

I know that I learn so much more when I teach a lesson than when I am just a student. I know my dad is the same way. This would allow the church to get a lot more out of lesson than just having one person teach it. At least that is what my initial thoughts say.

Watch out for the potholes.

My convictions are not God's commandments (except maybe they are to me)

I am mainly quiet at my church about things I often write about on this blog. If you think I am divisive, please keep that in mine. I don't know anyone from my church, except for the new pastor, that has been to my blog in the last three months. So what you hear are the thoughts that are coming together about the church I will probably plant in the future, not my current church experience. I am grateful for my current church experience because it has taught me much more about the structure of church, many things that I don't want to copy and some things that I would love to bring along.

I presume that when I plant a church in the future it will be a different type of church than what we normally think of church because I feel God has called me to do church to reach different people than the typical church can reach. It will be similar to the church planted in Lansing, but I have learned a lot from the mistakes and not so deliberate great things that happened in that church.

I've definitely been convicted lately that God calls people on many different paths. Some are called to the traditional church, some are called to be missionaries, others are called to do church differently, and others are called to a multitude of different callings. No calling is better than another. Being faithful to one's calling is all that matters.

Some times I get confused with my calling and God's commandments. A lot of what God is tugging on me I get confused with commandments and expect every church to do things that way. When in actuality, God just wants me to plant churches that are that way. I will cross the line many times in the future and confuse my calling for God's commandments, but I sure hope I do it less and less each day. Thanks for being on this journey with me.

Watch out for the potholes.

Understanding Culture - Understanding Ourselves

There is a story about a little fish which was born not so long ago in the ocean. Like any young child, the little fish has a strong sense of curiosity and likes asking questions. It only takes a while for it to learn about the sun, the sky, the ships and the other sea creatures. But one thing is troubling it. It doesn’t know what water is. It goes around visiting the older and wiser fish. But no one can tell the little fish what water is.

***

I was reading a great assasin/spy book by Barry Eisler called Rain Fall. The main character is a man who is half Japanese/American (caucasian). He was in a conversation with a Jazz musician who studied in America.

"So, four years in New York," I said. "That's a long time. You must have had a very different perspective when you returned."

"I did. The person who returns from living abroad isn't the same person who left originally."

"How do you mean?"

Your outlook changes. You don't take things for granted that you used to. For instancce, I noticed in New York that when one cab cut off another, the drive who got cut off would always yell at the other driver and do this'--she did a perfect imitation of a New York cabbie filipping someone the bird--"and I realized this was because Americans assume that the other person intended to do what he did, so they want to teach the the person a lesson. But you know, in Japan, people almost never get upset in those situations. Japanese look at other people's mistakes more as something arbirtrary like the weather, I think, not so much as something to get angry about. I hadn't thought about that before I lived in New York."

"I've noticed that difference, too. I like the Jpanese way better. It's something to aspire to."

***

A few pages later, the main character is in a conversation with another Japanese.

He smiled. "You are Japanese, but American also, yes?"

My expression was carefully neutral.

"Regardless, I think you can understand me. I know Americans admire frankness. It's one of thier disagreeable characteristics, made doubly so because they congratulate themselves for it ceaselessly. And this disagreeable trait is now infecting even me! Do you see the threat America poses to Nippon?"

I regarded him, wondering if he was a crackpot rightist. You run into them from time to time--they profess to abhor America but they can't help being fascinated with it. "Americans are...causing too many frank conversations?" I asked.

"I know you are being facetious, but in a sense, yes. Americans are missionaries, like the Christians who came to Kyushu to convert us five hundred years ago. Only now, they proselytize not Christianity, but the American Way, which is America's official secular religion. Frankness is only one, relatively trivial, aspect."

Why not have some fun. "You feel that you're being converted?"

"Of course. Americans believe in two things: first, despit everyday experience and common sense, that "all men are created equal"; and second, that complete trust in the market is the best way for a society to order its affairs. America has always needed such transcendental notions to bind together its citizens, who have come from different cultures all over the world. And Americans are then driven to prove the universality of these ideas, and so their validity, by aggressively converting other cultures to them. In a religious context, this behavior would be recognized as missionary in its origins and effect."

***

I am baffled at how hard it is to understand ourselves. We usually aren't able to leave our culture, whether it is church or American, to give us a better look at it. But we need to discover a way to distance ourselves from our culture in order to truly understand it.

Watch out for the potholes.

The Purpose of the Assembly

We've been reading a book at our Friday morning men's book study. It is really great. I am so glad that it was shown to me.

Anyway, here is a quote from Spilt Grape Juice by Mike Root.

"Encouragement is not icing on the cake; it is the cake. Somehow we have seen the assembly as a requirement to be fulfilled, a duty to perform, and a command to be obeyed. If you happen to be encouraged by the assembly, your experience is just a serendipity. That idea is not the way the Bible describes the assembly. We assemble for the purpose of encouraging one another. If we miss the assembly, we miss the opportunity to give and receive encouragement."

Watch our for potholes.

Little Shop of Horrors - Hicksville, Ohio

On Friday (8:00 p.m), Saturday (8:00 p.m.), and Sunday (2:30 p.m.), Lindsay will be starring as Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors. Tickets are $10 at the door.

Isaac and I went and watched it last night. Apparently, to a three year old the plant was extremely convincing. When Audrey 2, the plant, started talking, Isaac screamed and declared, "I want to go home." I ran him to the door where he calmed down. Then I carried Isaac over to the guy who was the voice of Audrey 2 and showed him that the voice was fake. Later, we showed him the guy who was playing the plant.

Two nights ago we tried to show him the plant. He was scared of it.

Watching the play last night, I was struck with the moral of the story. When we want to achieve something, we will be able to. However, sometimes we have to compromise key principles, like Seymour did, in order to. One of the key songs is "The Meek Shall Inherit." It is funny that everyone sees Seymour as meek when he is running around feeding people to his plant in order to succeed.

Watch out for potholes and come and watch Little Shop of Horrors this weekend.

How To Do House Church or The History Of My Call

I was asked at the GLCC alumni forum about why I felt I was called to plant a different type of church in Lansing rather than just join a preexisting church.

Here was the initial question:

Can you give a little more detail than "God called you too." I'm honestly not trying to "trick" you or anything.
Do you think there was something missing God wanted, that He felt there was a need being met that couldn't be done in the existing congregations, etc?
I guess it's not that God may call some, but why?

Here was my reply:

I do believe that there was something missing. As I've stated in all my posts on the subjects. I felt God wanted a church for those who don't like traditional church. I know you find that hard to understand because you like traditional church. But for those of us who don't, it is easy to understand.

I moved back to Lansing from Ft. Wayne with no job and a pregnant wife, so I'm pretty sure we felt called there because if we weren't, that was just plain idiocy.

Why did he call us?

Hmm.

I'll give a shot at answering that, but I do believe the only one that truly knows the answer to that is God.

Here are the things that I felt convicted on. This is thinking back a ways, so I might be fuzzy. Also, other people can share what I told them I felt called to. The past is always blurry. I do believe this convictions came from God, but I could be wrong.

We were not to spend any money on a building or ministers. I compromised the latter early on which led to some problems. But I believe the fruit of this stance was exhibited when I was there and is shown today. This is something that definitely couldn't be done in an established church. This stance allowed us to focus on tangible loving actions. The attitude in people who are all empowered to financially meet the needs of the people they encounter is incredible. One thing that I wanted to do that I never got to was to give everyone $100 in petty cash to carry with them to meet the needs of people rather than have them bring the needs to the group.

We were to focus on being a loving community - to both new and old Christians and to the lost. I know that other churches do this. In our efforts to intentionally be loving people we hoped to become the people that God planned for us to be.

I felt called to bring back the priesthood of believers. We were to be a group of people all involved in making the decisions of the church rather than having decisions made followed or precluded by sermons and lessons where we were convinced about a decision. I believe the Spirit inhabits all of us and anyone in the church can be prompted what direction the church should head in. Then they will share that prompting with the rest of the church. After prayer and fasting, the thought will either become the church's vision or it will be discarded.

I felt the time we spend together as a church should actually be time spent together rather than time spent alone beside one another. Too often the gathering of believers is structured in such a way that fellowship incidentally to the reasons the believer's gathered. I believe the main reason for gathering is fellowship. The other stuff can all be done while alone; however, we need one another for fellowship.

I wanted church to be small so that the financial decisions and other decision making would always able to be done by the whole church.

When we grew we were supposed to plant rapidly in order remain small.

I wanted to design a church where there could be no perpetual fringe. I wanted a Christianity that wasn't comfortable for someone who was just going through the motions. They would encounter us and our gathering and have to decide if they wanted to be part of us. If not, they wouldn't want to stay long.

One thing that I wanted to achieve but didn't was to become a group learning together rather than being a group taught. It would make the gathering more lesson oriented rather than sermon oriented. I don't know why it never worked. I would love to experience a group that did that, but it isn't too much of a heartbreaker.

Later on the concept of the kingdom of God was brought to our church. It made concrete in Scripture the beliefs that I had concerning community. To me, I can just substitute kingdom with community to make it more understandable to modern listeners. However, community doesn't carry with it the idea of a king being over us. So when talking about the community of God I have to be careful to always emphasize that it isn't a democratic community but a community in which God rules in the people's hearts and in their midst.

I also posted on my blog my original writings on house church that I shared in the beginning. You can go there and view it if you want to read more. I did take the liberty to edit one section out that was more influenced by another individual. It was a section that I disagreed with and led to the early split. That could be a whole conversation in itself, but I don't think a public forum is the place. Maybe nowhere is the place. Forgive. Forget. And don't repeat is how I deal with it.

Here is the Original article, which I need to completely rewrite someday:

Introduction

When I was asked to consider planting a church in Lansing that would reach out to those who are not currently being reached by any other church, I was at first struck with a wave of excitement. Ideas went through my head about what we could do in the Sunday morning service that would be fun and exciting. Over time, that initial wave of excitement wore off. I knew in my heart that something had been missing in my experience with churches in the past, and that dressing up the Sunday worship service and all the other institutions of the church in modern garb was not the solution. The result would be a fun and dynamic service – something that I and other people my age would enjoy going to, but it would not meet our deeper needs. At that point I was discouraged and decided in my head that I would not plant the church.
Then I went to a conference on church planting. At one of the workshops this issue was addressed. The speaker had arrived at the same mental roadblock that I had arrived at, only years earlier. He woke my sleeping soul up in the session that day:

“The problem with church is not in the worship services or any of the other programs we so often see; the problem with church is that we have become confused with what it by nature should be. It’s time for us to rediscover church.”

During that session, God tugged my heart back into the direction of Lansing and being involved there in planting a new church. I was left with the consuming conviction that house churches could help meet the needs that all of us have but are not currently being met. Following are the reasons why and what the concept has become through study and prayer. If you feel an excitement and joy deep inside you screaming out during this journey through the idea of house churches, don’t think that you are feeling it alone. Most of us have had that feeling. Embrace it and take another step into a life that God has intended for us to live.

I must write a disclaimer at this point. I don’t want people to think that I’m anti-church. I am thankful for the church and all it has done in my life and the lives of millions of others. All I am doing is pointing out some problems that the church in America is presently facing. I truly believe that house churches are an effective way to answer these problems. However, I do believe churches can and have answered these problems in other ways. House churches are not the only solution. They are the solution that has been laid upon my heart and others involved in this body of believers.

The Need For A Change

• Failure in really knowing one another
• Failure to meet each other’s real needs
• Failure at plugging people into the church
• Failure of showing the significance of being in the church

In pointing out the faults of the church, I am not so presumptuous to assume that we will not have faults of our own. I am just examining what is going on in the hopes of somehow being shown a better way. I read somewhere that the unexamined life is not worth living. I think this applies even to the church. The unexamined church is not worth being. God wants us to strive for perfection and the only way to do that is to be honest about the situation we are in.
Somewhere along the road to being the Church God intended us to be, most people in the Church seem to have stopped trying to really know one another. We became content at saying “Hi” on Sunday mornings at the designated time and placed our spiritual lives a safe distance from everyone else. We have created an environment of individualism that ignores and, at times, condemns close community. This is an area where the values of American culture have infiltrated the church and almost wounded it fatally. The Bible does not address this issue directly because it would seem totally absurd to the early church to have a community of believers who did not know each other.

Another problem that the church faces today is that it has almost completely stopped meeting each other’s needs. James wrote, “If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,’ and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?” Imagine if the church was a place where people had their needs met and what the world’s impression of us would be as a result of that. However, they see us acting just as they do. Meeting their own needs and trying to avoid making eye contact with those in need.

Those in the world who make their way into a church find themselves not being given the opportunity to use their gifts, both spiritual and natural, for the glory of God. Those of us already in the church need to utilize the gifts of those who are new to our group. We are failing both God and them if we do not allow them to use their gifts to glorify him. Peter wrote, “Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received.” No one’s talents should go undiscovered and underutilized in the church.

We feel that house churches are a solution to these problems. It is impossible for people to hide in a house church. Individuals cannot just go to a house church and feel like they have done their weekly duty to God. All members of a house church will get to know each other in a deep and meaningful way, and members gifts are needed. Through house church people will join together and become the family of God, a fully functional family in contrast to the dysfunctional ones that surround us.

What Is Different

• Community
• Relationships
• Effective Ministry
• Spiritual Growth
• Bible study
• Gift Utilization
• Easier To Let The Spirit Lead

The great thing about house churches is that in them we can strive to be the close knit community God designed us for in which we realize we are all in this life together. We are all in a journey and that journey leads to the foot of the throne of God. We need to help everyone get there. When someone is down, we can be there to help them get back up. When someone needs something, we can provide them with it if we have the resources. We can be a family focused on God and living out his will here on earth.

But it is only through relationships that this genuine community can spring forth. I do not hold the opinion that everyone in a house church is going to be best friends. Maybe our best friends will not even be in our house church. But there is a bond that is different from anything we’ve ever experienced that will develop through a house church.

It is through this community of sacrificial followers of Christ that true ministry will happen. Not only will people in the group meet each other’s needs, but they will begin to meet the needs of those around them in their communities. God does not intend for our faith to be an inward experience only. He does not bless us so that we can be filled with joy and sit around. He blesses us so that we will become what he originally intended the nation of Israel to be. This is seen through his promise to Abraham: “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” God blesses people because he wants people to be a blessing to others. Through house churches, God’s blessings can be shown in a way I long to see.

And the ministries of a house church will be so much more effective if we use everyone’s gifts. We all have something we excel at and there is no better place to use our gifts than in a house church. If we aren’t using our God given gifts to glorify God through helping others, then we are missing out on an opportunity to be a vessel for the enactment of his will. God has given us our gifts for a reason and that is to glorify him through helping one another grow closer. “Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.” (I John 3:18)

Teaching will also take on a new dynamic in the house church. Interaction is one of the most helpful tools in learning and comes much more naturally among a small group that is growing closer to God together. If we have a question about what is being taught, we are free to ask. If we have a situation that needs to be addressed that wasn’t on the agenda for the night, then the others will gladly address it and set aside the prepared lesson for another night. The key to effective teaching is letting God lead rather than humans. We do this through his word and through his Spirit. “Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God. And we speak of these things in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual things to those who are spiritual.” (I Cor 2:12-13) “All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.” (2 Tim 3:16-17)

What Does A House Church Do

• Songs of Worship
• Lord’s Supper
• Fellowship meal
• Prayer
• Bible study/discussion
• Service

In doing house church we have to be careful not to reduce it to a formula. We need to allow God to move within the group to do what he wills, but at the same time we need to be prepared to do what God has already laid out for us. The following paragraphs contain the things we believe God has designed for the church to do. We will strive to do them and whatever else God lays upon our hearts as long as it is not contrary to his written Word.

The house church is really the church. It isn’t an imitation; it is the real thing. It is where our membership is. We decided to go this route because we wanted church to be a place where people’s needs are met, a place where God is always glorified, and a place where we receive strength to go out into the world and do the Lord’s work.

A house church is in a way autonomous. Solomon’s Porch will not dictate to a house church what to do or how to do it. Those issues are decided by each house church. As a starting point we hope that they will participate in these basic elements of communal worship. We want to follow the examples of the first followers of Christ and “devote ourselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” (Acts 2:42)

In the house church all the elements of a traditional Sunday Morning service will be done in an authentic way. Some house churches might not have the gifting to do each element as well as others, but that is not the point. For instance, in singing songs to glorify God a church might not have talented musicians. They might even be so unmusical that they need to worship to cds rather than live instruments or to not use music at all. God is glorified just the same. “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.” (Mark 12:43-44) The underlying principle here is giving your all. It applies to all aspects of our life, even to our singing songs in worship God is not impressed by how much talent we have when we worship; he’s the one who gave it to us. He just wants us to give our whole being in whatever we do.

Much debate has centered around the way the Lord’s Supper should be done. The great thing about a house church is that it can be done in whatever way people feel is appropriate. There is no set pattern we have to do week in and week out unless we want it. We do see a value in doing the Lord’s Supper in the house church whenever they meet. This principle comes from the example set by the early church in Acts. “Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people.” (Acts 2:46-47)

Even if you don’t include the Lord’s Supper as part of your meal, there is nothing like eating a meal with fellow believers. One of the key elements of a house church is the time spent sharing the meal together. We view the time a house church meets together should not be rushed and should last around 3 to 4 hours. This gives plenty of time for a meal. The meal can be arranged however the group wants. The hosting house can provide the whole thing or people from the group can get together to make the meal.

One of the most important elements in a Christian’s spiritual life is prayer. It’s through prayer that we have a link to God. When our concerns become one and we lift them up to God as a unified body more power seems to be manifested. We see this displayed throughout Acts, especially in Acts 12 with Peter’s release from prison, and Jesus spoke on it: “Again truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” (Matthew 18:19-20)

As John stated in 1 John 4, we must be equipped as Christians to test the spirits if we want to be a spirit-filled community. If we don’t, then we become susceptible to all sorts of evil and ill guidance. And the most effective way to tell any counterfeit is to know the original. We believe that God will not contradict what he has told us in Scripture; therefore, it is a churches responsibility to insure that all believers are growing in the knowledge of God’s written word. His word is a guide to understanding what is going on around us today. It helps us to pick out what God is doing in the present. Without knowing the Scriptures we are opening ourselves up to many kinds of teaching that are not in agreement with what God has already taught the generations before us.

In a house church we can study the word together and glean insights from one another. However we have to be careful to not read only through our emotions and subjective experiences but look for the meaning the author wants to get across and apply those meanings to our lives.

And in applying the Bible to our lives we will begin to live our lives for others. This is where serving together becomes important. We don’t want house churches to become self-centered, and we feel the best way to avoid this is to be involved in service projects. We want each house church to be involved in a ministry or create its own and participate with all the members involved at least once a month. It is through this time of service that we live out what we have learned as a group. So often churches just teach people how to live but never do it together. We want what we learn as a group to not only be applied in our personal life but to be applied in our church as well.

If house churches do these things and develop their own communal touches on their gathering, they will begin to form into a real community. And on our way there we will find ourselves beginning to love one another followed by a desire to help each other out. We will become the family of God that we were intended to be.

What Happens When They Grow

• Sources Of Growth
• Optimal Size
• Church Planting

We are convinced that house churches are the answer to many of the problems that face all people who want to grow closer to God. Because of this, they will grow. House church growth will come mainly as a result of our larger gathering funneling people into them and house church members bringing others. This is a blessing and a problem at the same time. We are happy to see communities focused on growing closer to God flourish, but at the same time we are sad to lose the close fellowship that exists. The natural size of a house church seems to be around twenty. This number is not engraved in stone. Some house churches might be too large at twelve because of their meeting place. Others might be able to continue having intimate fellowship at thirty. There is no set rule.

A point will come in a healthy house church where they will realize that it would be more beneficial to downsize and plant another house church. This would best be done by sending out three or four people, one designated the pastor, to start their own house church. The house church sending them would have a final church service all together and lay hands on the people they are sending out.

Church planting will become a natural offshoot of house churches. I foresee a day where we send house churches across the state, nation, and seas. When people feel called to go somewhere and start a church, we should open up the opportunity for involvement to the whole congregation to see if they are being called in that direction. For instance, if an individual feels called to move to Chicago and start up a house church community, we will let the larger community know about the idea to see if anyone else is being called to join them. The group heading to Chicago will have a few months to become a family before being sent off. The church planting opportunities are endless as our house churches grow.

What Makes House Churches Unique

(The following section is influenced by Robert & Julia Banks’ The Church Comes Home.)
If you’re wondering after all of this what is the difference between house churches and other forms of small groups that dominate the church landscape, then I hope this section shows the difference that exists. First we’ll start with the surface differences and move on to the deeper differences. House churches will meet for three to four hours rather than an hour or an hour and a half. They not only take on the name church but act as a church. They worship God through songs, teaching, action, a meal, and more. People become members of the house church rather than the larger gathering.

“The primary goal of a home church is to develop a quality of common life under God, one in which the attitudes, values, priorities, and commitments of the kingdom of God become comunally visible.” (108)

Intimate relationships focused on God is the goal of a house church, not numerical expansion. We will never force anyone to leave their house church if they want to stay. They are a sort of amalgam that exhibits all aspects of the different small groups that currently exist in churches. Like members of interest groups, actions groups, and support groups, “members of a home church come together to pursue interests, tasks, and needs. Like the accountability groups and cell churches, home churches meet to encourage accountability and outreach.” (107)

Our Calling

I want to leave us with two passages of Scriptures because we are young people setting out this task God has called us to and because I am in awe of the early Christians whose hard work and sensitivity to the Spirit have led through a long chain of people to each one of us coming to the Lord.

“These are the things you must insist on and teach. Let no one despise your youth, but set the believers an example in speech and conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. Until I arrive give attention to the public reading of scripture, to exhorting, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you through prophecy with the laying on of hands by the council of elders. Put these things into practice, devote yourself to them, so that all may see your progress. Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; continue in these things, for in doing this you will save both yourself and your hearers.” (I Timothy 4:11-16)

“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:42-47)

The early church impacted the world because they were an active community, not just individuals. My hope is that through house churches we will be able to do the same. May God’s grace be with us and guide us through this endeavor.

Watch out for potholes

Patient as a Child - Do I care about God's Blessings

Eli has a fun new game. In all honesty, it is probably only fun for him. He goes over to the bookshelf and picks out a book. This is one of the times that he doesn't decide to pull all of the books off of the shelf. He will then toddle over to me and give me the book. He wants me to read it to him, so I oblige. Around five to ten words in he waddles away to get another book. He brings the book to me and we do the dance again.

I was struck tonight that I am like that with God. I ask for his blessing and when he starts to give it to me I move on to the next blessing rather than sit there in my Father's arms and enjoy the blessing.

Watch out for potholes.

Forcing Our Calling On Everyone Else - A Spiritual Independence Day

I'm guilty. If I were to be honset with myself, many of my posts in the last year turned more into trying to convince people to live out their spiritual life in the same way that I live out mine.

Some time in the last month, I have realized something that has brought me spiritual independence. My calling might not be your calling. Our call, the general call, to be faithful - to live that faithfulness out by loving God with all our heart, all our soul, all our strength, and all our minds and loving our neighbor as ourself - doesn't vary. How that calling will look relevant to the culture we live in will change; that is our specific calling.

It brings to mind one of the old, less popular, and almost forgotten Restoration movement slogans: "In essentials, unity. In opinions, liberty. In all things, love." Or one could change it to read: "In our general calling, unity. In our specific calling, liberty. In all things, love."

This Independence Day marks a culmination of sorts for my spiritual life. I've been struggling with this thought for about a month now. Writing it down forces me to iron out my thoughts.

I will no longer be critical of the methods people use to live out their faith. I will admit that what I view as more effective ways to live out our faith and reach the lost may just be my specific calling or personal preference. People being completely faithful to God is what matters. Faithful people can live out their live in two completely different ways. Whether someone is faithful in their general calling cannot be measured without peering into their hearts and thoughts, so I will stop measuring other people's faith. In order to not oversimplify things and to make things more complicated (something I'm good at), I will give the warning that our general calling should be evident through us living a loving life. A loving life should be visible. The area that would change is what that loving life would look like.

There are some major issues that I still need to figure out. What are the essentials (I wrote a post that caused a little conversation struggling with this issue and the above church of Christ slogan last year)? When does accepting one another's different methods of loving God and loving our neighbor become tolerance of sinfulness? Can a wrong method be sinful? How do we hold one another accountable if we understand that our lives are lived differently due to different callings? I guess sin is sin no matter what one's specific calling. Teaching a method of living out one's calling isn't always wrong because it might be God's calling on your life to teach that method. It is when we confuse that method with being the only way to live out our general calling that we run into trouble.

Faithfulness, not methods, are what matter. Let us never confuse the two.

Watch out for potholes.