Godgrown

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  Mark 8:44 am on September 15, 2011 Permalink | Reply  

  Where You Meet Matters 

  Sometimes it is the obvious thing that remains so hard to see.

  Lately I’ve been struck by the context in which the Christians in the First Century gathered to experience the Life and Community of Christ.  I’ve also been struck by the truth that the context of the New Testament is miles apart from the context we Twenty-First Century Westerners experience the Christian life.  

  For example:

  • Early Christians were persecuted and killed by the government, we are privileged by government.
  • Early Christians met huddled in homes, around a table; we meet in buildings that rival huge coliseums and event centers.
  • Early Christians made the “one-anothers” a central element to their faith, their gatherings and their relationships; we struggle to adapt the 54 “one-anothers” into a typical Sunday worship gathering.

  If we want the New Testament to be most applicable to our lives, we should assume the context of the New Testament!Over the past 6 years, as my wife and I have experienced the Christian life through the “house church” context – we’ve seen passages of scripture come to life that we never quite understood before.  Let me give you a quick example.  Read 1 Cor 11:7ff – Paul is talking about the Lord’s Supper, chastising the Corinthian Christians for causing division in the house church gatherings between the rich and poor members – the rich came early and brought all the nicest foods and wines – getting drunk, sick… while the poor showed up with nothing to eat, coming in after a long day’s work.  If this isn’t a problematic potluck, I don’t know what is!  

  There is just so much more sense that is made in this passage when the church meets in the home.  In fact, most English translations get the last phrase wrong – and it has troubled many Christians’ interpretation of the Lord’s Supper for years.  Paul warns (in the English translations anyway) that some people who incorrectly take the Lord’s Supper will get drunk, sick…and some have even… “died”– that word died has caused the fear of many that if we don’t have the right mind when we take the wafer and grape juice shot glass, that we’ll be struck dead.   Looking at the Greek however, the word is “fall asleep” not “die” – and while that can be a euphemism, think about it logically – when you eat and drink too much, you get sick and you fall asleep.  It just makes sense.  And it makes the most sense in a household context.  

  Think about the teachings of Jesus on reconciliation with a brother in Christ, Mt. 6 and Mt. 18.  Think about each time that Paul communicates to the elders and deacons in the Pastoral Epistles.  In every case they are meeting in a network of house churches!  

  I’m no patternist, I don’t believe in legalistically recreating First Century culture.  But if we want to live out the kind of life that Jesus invites us to – we can’t just pick and choose what that life is!  It is a matter of becoming family, living like family, acting like family – God’s Family.  Jesus invited his disciples to a Table.  The early Christians invited their seeking friends to their Table.

  In the End, we will all gather in the New Jerusalem around the banquet Table of God.

  Table Fellowship is Christian Fellowship.

  

  Website Hosting, Mark W, and Rusty Wimberly are discussing. Toggle Comments

   
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    Rusty Wimberly 2:43 pm on September 15, 2011 Permalink

    I’ve wrestled with this subject over the past 3 years now and most people still don’t get it. I fully agree, the form follows function. The place we gather will most often determine what happens when we gather. With house church being a great forum for “one anothers” it seems to be challenging for other things such as preaching, teaching, outreach and extended times of gifted ministry. The building setting could be more conducive for teaching, evangelism and community outreach…maybe? The bottom line in our culture is some people are not going to feel comfortable coming to a strangers house. All in all, we all need to be reminded that church is not defined by the building but in order to actually follow the Lord in discipleship we need to do it in community. 

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    Mark W 11:57 am on September 17, 2011 Permalink

    Rusty — good thoughts! We are finding that having a mix of “regularly scheduled events” both in and out of homes helps new guests feel welcome, AND it keeps the focus off “event” but places faith back into “all of life” where it should be. The book AND by Halter/Smay has been very helpful. Have you read it?

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    Mark W 11:57 am on September 17, 2011 Permalink

    Rusty — good thoughts! We are finding that having a mix of “regularly scheduled events” both in and out of homes helps new guests feel welcome, AND it keeps the focus off “event” but places faith back into “all of life” where it should be. The book AND by Halter/Smay has been very helpful. Have you read it?

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    Website Hosting 6:57 am on January 19, 2012 Permalink

    Really interesting thought and interesting post..

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  Mark 11:30 am on September 4, 2011 Permalink | Reply  

  If You Want Spiritual Maturity, then Start a Spiritual Community! 

  Take a look through the Christianity section of any bookstore, look at conferences and organizations like Renovare and Promise Keepers; books, Bibles, podcasts,  and so much more – it seems that in the last decade the shift in the Christian West has moved unarguably toward “maturity in Christ.” Col 1:28 Following Jesus is no longer (truly, was it ever?) just about “fire insurance” – playing nice enough in the “sandbox of life” that you are given the green light to enter heaven when you die.  No, discipleship was never that transactional in Jesus’ eyes.

  The pathway to maturity is a “Way” that ends in intimacy and identifying with God – to become “little Christs” as Martin Luther put it.  But if this is true, then why do so many Christians seem to be slogging through the same demons of immaturity that they were struggling with a decade ago?  In my opinion, its because we’ve forgotten the context and mission in which Jesus calls his disciples: community development.

  Yes, I know “community development” has its own connotations in our culture today – but think about it for a minute:

  What was Jesus Christ’s only investment here on earth? 

  He had no assets, no heirs or lineage to pass on, he had no books (his only written words were in SAND!) (John 8:6), founded no new political party…

  Jesus’ only investment on earth was community…

  Investing-in-community-development is the “Way” Jesus calls us to…

  …Which brings us to maturity.

  Much like parenting that can act as a “turb0-charge” for an individual’s maturity — (no longer does your money go to yourself alone, but now you are primarily focused on the thriving of a young child and the whole family!) — Similarly, when you begin to plant little faith communities, organic churches…even little MICROs, you will find much of the New Testament making more practical sense.  All of a sudden, you’ll find yourself depending on the words of Jesus in listening prayer, (not just coming to him with a list of self-centered requests), and you’ll see the basic mission Jesus commissioned us to begin to orient every part of your life.  ”Go into all the world and make disciples…”

  Yes – if you want maturity, then start a community.  

  Nothing should be more basic to Christian discipleship than this — so why does some leaders in the American Church resist their members from branching out and starting something new?

  

  Mark W, Jesse, and traviskolder are discussing. Toggle Comments

   
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    traviskolder 3:37 am on September 5, 2011 Permalink

    Absolutely.  You will grow in ways you never thought possible.  I have a book on my Amazon.com wishlist called “Spiritual Formation As If The Church Mattered.” Unfortunately I’ve been to busy with my church to actually have time to read it!  But community does call us away from even “the spiritual self,” and that is incredibly healthy for us.  Isn’t it amazing that we have a whole list of spiritual disciplines designed for individuals but almost no corporate spiritual disciplines?  I think you hit the nail on the head Mark.  Great to see a new post. Keep it up.

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    Mark W 3:29 pm on September 5, 2011 Permalink

    Travis — Great point! it is almost astounding to me that today’s Church has such a lack of awareness on Jesus’ strategy of discipleship. It is as if we believe that Jesus left us alone to write the manual on discipleship ourselves! But truly, when he said, “Go and make disciples” he immediately reminded us that “he would be with us always” — like a mentor in the process of disciple-making. So in terms of disciple-making, we can pray the perennial question, “What would Jesus do?” and then look at scriptures like Luke 10, Matthew 9, and so many more to see “What Jesus Actually DID!” But what would you suppose are some of the “corporate disciplines” you mentioned in your comment?

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    Jesse 4:28 pm on February 22, 2012 Permalink

    Ah, I just realized that this was an old post, but since you tweeted it . . .

    I disagree with you a little here, at least in the details. Christ did not start a spiritual community so that HE could become spiritually mature, and we shouldn’t think that we can do the same. Perhaps joining one should be a first step. I do agree that we cannot become spiritually mature without being a part of one, though.

    As for the spiritual disciplines, how about fasting, praying, reading of scripture, doing good works? After all, those were never meant to be solitary disciplines, but communal ones.

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    Mark W 4:49 pm on February 22, 2012 Permalink

    Thanks Jesse. Good point – I believe that after a follower of Christ can grow in maturity when they join a faith community. No doubt. I believe there is another kind of maturity that happens when they help form one with the help of the Spirit. Thoughts? How does each action form a person specifically? Food for thought.

    So good to hear from you. How are you? Feel free to email me — I’d love to catch up!

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  Mark 9:26 am on May 5, 2011 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Exponential Conference ( 2 )   

  #Exponential // Handy churches 

  What could you learn from an illiterate Indian woman half a world away?

  At the recent Exponential Conference, (the world’s America’s largest gathering of church planters) we heard David Garrison author of Church Planting Movements and global research maven talk about something he picked up from Indian church planters.  He did by simply showing us his hand, and I don’t mean deck of cards.

  Holding up his hand, he gave us a simple acronym used to help Indian leaders reproduce leaders among the hundreds of thousands of churches being planted right now across that nation.  He learned it from others, and now I’ll pass it along to you.  (Who will you pass this on to?)

  Hold up your hand, and starting with your thumb, spell out the word P-O-U-C-H.  Imagine a little pouch in the palm of your hand.  This is the descriptive (not necessarily prescriptive) list of elements seen in viral house churches spreading like wildfire among the persecuted peoples of India:

  P- Participative Gatherings.

  We let the Holy Spirit lead, and we all contribute.  No one person sucks up all the oxygen when we gather.  Everyone has a moment to offer what they’re learning from God.  1 Cor 14:26 says, “Well, my brothers and sisters, let’s summarize. When you meet together, one will sing, another will teach, another will tell some special revelation God has given, one will speak in tongues, and another will interpret what is said. But everything that is done must strengthen all of you.”

  O - Obedience to Christ, radically

  There must be a serious, all-in commitment from each person in the group to commit their full lives to Jesus, and to each other.  Nothing short of that will be sustainable, or reproducible for long.  Francis Chan told a story of how he went to China, and spoke with some of the persecuted church there, and when he described what we call church in America (1 hour a week event, many creature comforts, apathy, etc) at first they LAUGHED OUT LOUD – then they asked, “How did you get that picture of church, from this?” (as they held up their Bible) For them, it would be impossible to conceive of apathy in the Chinese church – why give up everything including your safety for nominal beliefs?

  U – Unpaid Multiple Leaders

  Tithes do go to pay for one leader (1 Cor 9:11), or maybe two, but the goal is to ask the leader not to feel responsible for all the teaching, all the evangelism, all the leadership of the larger church.  This leads to burnout.  Instead, segment the tasks and pass them out to multiple, unpaid leaders – this also gives more people a chance a leadership development.  These are not a bunch of volunteers passing out bulletins, these are tomorrow’s church leaders, today!

  C – Cells of 20 Members or less

  Groups made up of 20 adults or less allow the group size to live in that space where everyone knows they’re a part of something bigger, but that it is small enough to ask each person to contribute, thus developing an active, rather than passive church.  This is not your typical “small group” (read Neil Cole’s recent post for more on this).  This is a place where growing disciples come to celebrate and encourage, not to be transformed by a flashy worship service.

  H – Home-centered

  This is more than just a strategy to save your church money on rent.  It drives your church to be the family it already is!  When you meet in homes, it will ruin the segmentation you have created between your church life and your family life – and transformation will happen!  Another way to say this is that the home is the family.  These Cells (MESOs as we call them) can meet anywhere – but its never about the event; its about the family.  There is the hospitality of the home wherever they go.  It is the family metaphors that the Biblical writers used throughout Scripture that make the most sense – a King and a Kingdom, a Father and his children… this is what God is giving birth to here on earth!

  Watching churches in India multiply like rabbits is a joy and it leads me to worship God, who is declaring his glory through these simple and ephemeral families of faith.