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The Church That Jesus Builds: Living in the Relational Church – Part 10

The Church That Jesus Builds: Living in the Relational Churh – Part 10

By Wayne Jacobsen

BodyLife • December 2004

wedding_0 “You want to know what I’ve learned this weekend?” the man said as he drove me to a Midwest airport early one morning. We’d just spent an incredible weekend together with a house church he’d helped foster and another group of believers who joined us when they heard I was in town. The latter were deeply conflicted about their current involvement with a congregation that sounded abusive. “I’ve been selling the wrong thing!” he continued.

“What’s that?” I asked oblivious to what we were talking about.

“I’ve been selling house church,” he said shaking his head with a sigh, “instead of Jesus.” Obviously he wasn’t talking about ‘selling’ anything, but I love his discovery. Almost everywhere I go people are preoccupied with finding the right way to do church. It seems our hunger for church outstrips our hunger for Jesus.

In one house church meeting a few years ago I heard a woman share a dream she had the night before about a bride endlessly primping in the mirror and admiring her own beauty. She fussed with her hair, make-up and dress making sure everything was perfect. Meanwhile she saw the groom standing at the altar checking his watch and wondering why his bride had not come. What a sad and lonely picture of too many believers in our day. We are so focused on ourselves and what the church should look like that we’ve forgotten our joy is in the bridegroom – Jesus himself!

If there’s anything I’ve learned over the last decade visiting expressions of the body of Christ all over the world, it is that those preoccupied with doing church rarely get to experience body life to its full, while those who are preoccupied with Jesus find church life that is vibrant and awesome.

Search for the Church

In the last 40 years hundreds of books have been written about church renewal. I have watched countless people move from mainline to charismatic to mega-church to prayer-based to power-centered to cell church to seeker-sensitive to renewal to purpose-driven to house church to emerging church and the list just keeps getting longer. Some have even gone back to liturgical services, finding solace in its aesthetic beauty and safety. As one man confessed, “I just wanted to meet with Christians where I didn’t have to worry about someone flopping on the floor like a beached fish.”

These movements last only briefly spearheaded by a gifted speaker who draws a large following and then claims he has at last found the Biblical way to do church. After the euphoria of the alleged ‘new wineskin’ wears off in 3 to 5 years, people find themselves frustrated with the results and have to look again for another expression of church that fulfills the cry of their heart.

I understand the hunger. The Scriptures paint a compelling picture of God’s church – brothers and sisters growing in their relationship with Jesus and each other in a way that transformed them. They loved each other, grew together in God’s wisdom, shared their possessions together freely, and saw him reveal himself in extraordinary ways to them and their culture.

Was it perfect? Of course not and Scripture graciously made that clear as well. They struggled through failures and sin. They had to deal with those who tried to exercise control over others and brothers and sisters who preferred the comfort of false teaching to the challenge of the true. But throughout God kept making his way and truth known. They were filled with awe and God’s grace multiplied among them in demonstrable ways.

Who wouldn’t want that? But those expressions of church life have been rare and brief in our day. What passes for church today makes us spectators rather than participants, manipulates people’s shame rather than setting them free from it, prefers the rigidity of obligation to the power of love, is more contemptuous of the world than more relevant in it, and rewards cooperative pawns in someone else’s program rather than growing disciples of Jesus himself. No wonder so many people are disillusioned with it. Yet the search goes on, like birds drawn on an inexplicable migration, to a land they’ve never seen.

Beyond House Church

What compounds this search is that all that calls itself the church is not really the church. After 2000 years of Christian history, the term is used for institutions that provide a Christian experience through rituals, clergy and tradition. Some of the best of these actually provide an environment where people can come to know Jesus, grow in Biblical truths and connect in real fellowship so that in and around these institutions some people find expressions of church life.

However, there are increasing numbers of people who find that expression incredibly limited. Some have spilled out of abusive systems where the control of insecure leaders and the priorities of the institution overran any legitimate spiritual life. Still others grew unsettled with the time and money invested in building and institutional politics and found that those who get to the top of such groups often have little of Father’s character and even less of his passion.

I am continually amazed by the number of people I run into who have left those institutions who were once respected leaders in it – pastors, elders, teachers, deacons and board members. Some left rather than submit to ungodly demands made of them, but others did so because they grew convinced that the institution didn’t fulfill their hunger to live as the church. Loyalty was valued over honesty, arrogance over tenderness, entertainment over spiritual growth and the survival of the institution over loving people.

One denominational official confronted his own organization, “A growing number of people are leaving the institutional church for a new reason. They are not leaving because they have lost their faith. They are leaving the church to preserve their faith.” People are waking up to a new reality, and finding the way they have learned to “do church” in the past doesn’t serve their hunger to know Jesus more intimately and to share that life with others more effectively.

Many of these initially turned to house church, hoping its more Biblical dynamics would provide the Promised Land they hungered for. But they soon find it a mixed bag as well. Their excitement at the relational dynamics of a smaller group fades when they discover there are still people who wanted to control it from within or mold it into new networks from without. They find relationships awkward as people are more focused on a method than on following Jesus. They often face the same religious demands for conformity and commitment and they find the same our-group-is-better superiority that separates them from other Christians and from the world by breeding contempt for unbelievers, rather than compassion.

Now increasing numbers find themselves beyond house church still wondering where they can find authentic church life, or even if it exists at all.

An Undeniable Hunger

A sad reality is that many who break free of systems of religious obligation sometimes find themselves using freedom as an excuse to fulfill long-restrained appetites in the things of the world. They don’t always fall into great sin, but their spiritual hunger is swallowed up by their search for pleasure. I cringe when it happens, but I know for many it will only be a phase. Having worked so long and so hard for God with so little enduring fruit in relationship with him or with others, their frustration often spills out in careless personal indulgence.

For those who have been touched by Jesus, this season won’t satisfy and out of it a new passion for a real connection with Jesus emerges. Beyond their disappointments, beyond the failure of others, their hunger to find real life among God’s people surfaces again and again. I am amazed at the resiliency of this hunger to find life in Father’s family. Even those who have been abused or frustrated in their attempts to find it in the past, still find that undeniable hunger rising even beyond their resolve to go it alone. Once you’ve tasted genuine fellowship where dear friendships inspired your journey and opened up new vistas into God’s nature, you won’t be satisfied by anything less. Most have experienced some taste of that in the early days of a new fellowship, in an informal Bible study or with a close friend.

Certain there must be a consistent way for believers to share this incredible journey they read voraciously anything they can find on the church, search the Internet to see if anyone else has found it and keep going to any group in their area that sounds promising. While some find answers and connections others find themselves with passions ignited that leave them feeling increasingly isolated when they can find no one locally to share it with.

Perhaps we’re finally waking up to the fact that Jesus didn’t tell us to build his church. He said he would do that. He told us to abide in him, love others as he loves us, proclaim the gospel and help others learn to follow him. If we are focused on those things instead of trying to do his work, I’ve no doubt we’ll see the church springing up all around us.

The church that Jesus is building continues to grow the world over and you are no small part of that. Even if you feel alone in your journey, he is creating a passion in your heart for a purpose you may not yet see. I suspect in the next few years we will see Jesus bring his body together in ways we cannot even fathom now. I see two trends in our culture that excite me. First, an increasing number of believers are growing disillusioned with the rituals of organized religion. Second, an increasing number of nonbelievers are contemplating spiritual issues and hungering for authentic relationships. It will be interesting to see how these realities converge in the days ahead.

Recognizing His Church

Though I don’t expect to see a perfect expression of the body of Christ on the planet before Jesus returns, that doesn’t keep me from beholding her glory nonetheless. I have witnessed again and again all over the world the miracle of people sharing the life of Jesus together in growing compassion, wisdom, care and freedom. I’ve watched God connect people who had a profound impact on each other’s lives and had great joy in doing so.

I am reticent to define what Jesus’ church looks like, because I am convinced people know it when they touch it. Church is not a place to go or an organization of any kind. It is the network of relationships we share with other believers where Jesus is the only focus (Colossians 1:18) and we are free to grow in him (Ephesians 1:21; 4:18-20). You’ll recognize the life of Jesus’ church where people have the freedom to be honest without being attacked (John 4:24 – See sidebar Being Real), where they can disagree without being less loved (Romans 13), where they can be encouraged to their best without being manipulated by someone else’s agenda (I Corinthians 14), where guilt is lifted off each other instead of heaped on (Romans 8:1-4), where they lovingly care for each other’s practical and spiritual needs (Philippians 2:4), where they are set free from obligation to live in love (Galatians 5) and where God’s purpose in us comes into sharper focus (John 17, Ephesians 1). In short it is a family in the best sense of the word, brothers and sisters growing together under Father. People like this will find ways to gather regularly in various arrangements as God leads, but their relationships are the focus, not their meetings. Where you find people like that you’ve found the body of Christ. Of course these may happen around existing institutions, though no institution can ultimately contain it. They also happen outside institutions in the normal course of our lives as Jesus sets us in his body just as he desires (I Corinthians 1:18).

Where Can I Find That?

Relational community is not rocket science. The more we try to organize it the more we will siphon the life right out of it. When I was in junior high school I watched my parents move from being nominal church attendees to passionate believers. Caught up in the early days of the Charismatic renewal of the mid-1960s they began to discover just how real Jesus wanted to be in their lives and found many of their friends shared that hunger. Without any of the hassles of an institution they met house-to-house, shared meals and resources, and even invited in more mature believers to help them make sense of what God was doing in them.

The congregation they all attended on Sunday mornings soon grew threatened by their newfound fervor and soon forced them out. Excited, they moved their Friday night ‘prayer meetings’ to Sunday mornings to ‘start their own church.’ I remember even as a young man being amazed at how quickly their joy, enthusiasm and spontaneity faded away in the demands of getting organized, planning Sunday services, and staffing children’s ministries. Soon they were bickering over how things should be done and how money should be spent, rather than growing in Jesus.

I’ve seen that happen so many times since. Thinking we can make church life better by organizing it, we almost always unwittingly sacrifice it to the institutional needs that bear so little fruit. Church life is the natural fruit of people growing in Jesus and in friendships with people near them. It isn’t always easy to find people with that kind of passion, but Father has some interesting ways to connect them.

What You Can Do

You certainly cannot make church happen by your own effort but neither will it come banging on your door while you watch TV. There are some things you can think through that will help you see how God might be connecting you to other believers:

First, live the journey. You don’t find life in Jesus by finding the right group; you are connected with the family out of your relationship to the Head, Jesus. Isn’t it sad that people who have ‘attended church’ for 20, 30 or 40 years, have no idea how to listen to Jesus and do what he wants. We have so equipped them to live by principles that they have never learned to follow his voice. Learn to live in him. Discover how secure you are in his love and how much you can trust his work in you. Read the Scriptures so you will learn to think like he thinks and recognize his voice. If you know a few others who want to grow in this too, share that journey together.

Second, cultivate relationships. As you grow secure in Father’s love you will find yourself loving others in the same way, and not just Christians but people in the world, too. You’ll come to recognize that God works primarily through relationships. So join him in building relationships however God gives them to you. He might lead you to a group of folks already gathering or to some individual relationships among your neighbors or co-workers. He might call you to get involved with others in what are commonly called ‘parachurch’ ministries, such as a rescue mission, prison or youth outreach, or prayer gathering, or he might lead you to open your home for a Bible study or fellowship group. God knows how to connect you with folks he wants you to know. Be prepared to give some time to those relationships by doing things together – sharing a meal, helping on a household project, or going out together. Too few people actually initiate these kinds of encounters and yet they are critical to growing friendships.

Third, share the journey. Who has God put around you that you can open up your life to? It may be one person or a handful. They may live across town or work across the hall. Find a way to share God’s life together. Admittedly this will be awkward at first because we’re not used to these kinds of conversations, but this is a joy worth learning. Share insights from Scripture or things you’re learning, pray together about situations you’re encountering and what God is doing in you and learn to listen to him together as you encourage his work in others. As your friendships grow you’ll find yourself increasingly free to be more open, honest and confessional about your struggles and be able to garner the wisdom and strength God has given to others.

Fourth, learn to lay down your life. Community doesn’t happen where everyone grabs for what they want, but where they follow Jesus’ example of laying down their lives for others. As long as we only look out for ourselves we will pass like ships in the night, and even if we meet every week we’ll end up feeling alone. Laying down your life for others will open the doors to real community.

Fifth, explore relational community. As your relationships grow you might find some people or families who feel called to walk together for a season. There is no better expression of body life than brothers and sisters who want to share God’s life with some regularity and intentionality. Don’t try to ‘start a church’, just grow in what it means to care for each other through the real circumstances of life. Include entire families. Get together regularly, but also cultivate those relationships beyond the meetings. Share your resources, gifts and time as Jesus leads you. Look for ways God might give you away to others in the community, individually or collectively to reveal him in our world or bless other believers with help in growing spiritually and support each other in that process. Be careful not to limit your relationships just to those in the group and don’t try to make your community permanent. Enjoy what God gives you in each season and be open to moving on to other relationships when Jesus so leads.

And If You Want Help…

Learning to live as the church Jesus is building will challenge long-held paradigms. Most of us have been taught to be passive learners. If we need something, someone else will tell us what it is. Growth in this kingdom doesn’t happen that way. Those who find life are not afraid to knock, to ask, or to seek.

If you’re struggling to know how to live deeply in Christ, connect with other Christians, or have a group that can’t sort out how to share this journey together, it is often helpful to sort things out with a brother or sister that might be a bit further down the road in some areas. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. At every stage of my journey, God has always put someone nearby to help confirm things I’m seeing and to help me think outside the limitations of my own previous experience. But I sought out those relationships. They didn’t come to me.

There are also gifts God has distributed through the body (Ephesians 4:11-13) to help equip people to live this journey. You won’t recognize them by their titles since the real ones won’t use them, or by their popularity since most fly under the radar, or even by their writings since most don’t write. God will link you to those he desires through relationship. You’ll recognize in their demeanor Father’s nature. You’ll hear in their words his voice. And time with them will draw you to Father and free you to trust him more. They will leave you focused on him not on trying to implement some method or set of principles. They help people unload their guilt and shame and never exploit it even in an attempt to get them to do the right thing. They have patience with those who struggle and are not defensive when people challenge them with honest questions. They don’t see themselves as experts above you, but as brothers or sisters alongside and will never pressure you or try to make you dependent on them. Their joy comes in your greater reliance on Father’s work in you.

It may require you to think outside the box, but learning to live in the church Jesus is building is worth every moment of the journey. He does want you to know the joy of walking alongside other brothers and sisters and finding them a powerful addition to the life you’re finding in him. Try not to lose your heart for that, even if it only looks like a distant mirage. I assure it is real enough and part of God’s plan to bring all things together under one head!

SIDEBAR:

Being Real

The following paragraph was adapted from “Will the Real You Please Stand Up!” a Lifestream Audio Collection, by a sister from Texas:

It’s OK to question what I need to question, ask what I need to ask and struggle where I struggle. I’ve learned that I am not rewarded for pretending to be better than I am, but that experiencing the life of God means that I am loved through the ups and downs, hurts and joys, and doubts as well as triumphs. Instead of exploiting people’s shame or need for approval to try and make them better Christians, I encourage people to go to God for healing and restoration from shame so they can experience for themselves the love of God.

Instead of loading others up with a list of `shoulds’, I tell people that God is working by “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” and his greatest desire is to communicate with them. I talk about learning “how to” listen to God and follow what he puts on their heart even if that means they make a mistake doing so. Instead of trying to change people I urge them to get to know Christ as life because it’s so much fun (and far more effective) watching him change them. Instead of manipulating others to do what I think would benefit me and my definition of God’s will for them.

I’ll share as much of your journey as I can to help lighten your load. If you’re in pain or in despair, I’ll be there for you as Father sorts things out. I don’t know that I’ll always have what you need, but I will at least be there with you so you won’t have to go it alone.

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The Lord’s Supper At Your Table

12 Comments / Uncategorized / December 14, 2004

I got this question from someone recently regarding communion in the relational church and thought others might appreciate a bit of focus on this as well…

I wanted to ask you if you had any thoughts on communion that you could share. I notice that Jesus first shared it on Passover with a small group of close friends. Do you have any thoughts on how one could share communion with others relationally? I’ve never had communion other than it being served to me in a service…but I would like to discover that:) Thanks for any time and consideration you may have available.

I’m working with a friend on a book about communion. His opening line in that book is, “For the first 300 years in the history of the life of the church no one ever conceived of sharing the Lord’s Table at any place other than the household dinning room table.” And he is a Methodist Pastor that believes in all that high church stuff!

Amazing, isn’t it? We can’t conceive of being served anywhere but in a ‘service,’ the early believers couldn’t imagine serving it anywhere but in a home around a table. Some think a shared meal with other believers is the Lord’s Table, not a cup of juice or bread. Some incorporate the cup and bread into the regular meal. That’s what Sara and I enjoy doing. Sometimes our home group will share it together and some time we just do it when believers have joined us for a meal and evening of fellowship.I’ve even had it at an Outback Restaurant once. I had stopped at the restaurant to meet some folks who wanted to talk with me about their own journey. As the ten of us got situated around the table our host asked the waitress to bring us a glass of red wine and a dinner roll, and we broke the bread and shared the cup before we ordered from the menu. It was so simple and helped us fix Jesus as the center of our evening and the conversation.

And when we celebrate his presence as his people, I enjoy seeing it a bit like a toast. We don’t need formal prayers or a specific liturgy. A brief prayer sanctifying our hearts to him and focusing on the meaning he invested in those elements in the first serving with his disciples is more than enough. Then I like it when someone lifts the cup, and says something that honors the one whom our souls love. Such as, “To the King of the Ages, in gratefulness for his work in us…”

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The Church That Jesus Builds

4 Comments / Uncategorized / December 10, 2004

For those who don’t know yet, a new issue of BodyLife, has just been posted at Lifestream.org. I like to bookmark a place on the blog so that others can interact on it as well. I don’t claim to have the definitive answers on any of these things, but I hope by writing about them it stimulates thought and conversation that draws us closer to Jesus and his work in the world. So feel free to struggle with its content if you like and let’s see what we all can learn.

The lead article in this issue is entitled The Church That Jesus Builds and is designed to help people on the search to discover the value of New Testament body life and encourage that undeniable hunger to find real relationships with others on the journey of being transformed into his likeness. Here’ is an excerpt:

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From Bewleys to Martyrdom

4 Comments / Uncategorized / December 7, 2004

A good friend from near Dublin sent me some reflections on the closing of Dublin’s most famous coffee house, Bewleys. Among the recollections of special times there with his Dad and even with an older brother in Christ who helped disciple him, was this paragraph:

Then there was the unforgettable Wendy, a girl with striking blue eyes, a radiant smile and a face without a hint of makeup that exuded peace and purity. Wendy was the sort of girl whom you would take to Bewleys and no further! Her faith in Jesus was unshakeable. Years later, in the midst of personal turmoil, I was to meet her aboard a plane flying to London. A few nights later she brought me to a prayer meeting where I was introduced to the Holy Spirit. I have much to thank Wendy for. It will have to wait. In the mid-seventies, at a mission station in Zimbabwe, Wendy and five or six other missionary friends were massacred. From Bewleys to martyrdom!

I loved the line “from Bewleys to martyrdom, not for the tragedy it evokes but how the simplest expressions of fellowship can lead us to the greatest depths of his life. Simple fellowship borne of hearts on a common journey can have the most profound impacts on our journey.

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How Great A Lord He Must Be!

6 Comments / Uncategorized / December 1, 2004

Some days it comes together very nicely. I began a fresh read through Philippians today, again in The Message, and came across an interesting point in chapter one. “There’s far more to this life than trusting in Christ. There’s also suffering for him. And the suffering is as much a gift as the trusting.” Is this not an amazing view of suffering? How can it be as much a gift as those moments when he wins our trust?

To live that way one has to have his or her eye set far beyond our temporal comfort or convenience. It has to be set so deeply in God, that we recognize in those moments of extremity that God is all we have, and having him we have far more than enough. Paul just didn’t talk that way he lived it.

A few moments later I was reading in That They May All Be One, Even as We Are One, an outstanding transcript of some talks T. Austin-Sparks gave at the end of his journey to some believers in the Philippines. Here’s what I read this morning:

When Paul wrote this letter to the Philippians, he wrote it from prison. As we have said, he was waiting for the sentence of death. He was no longer able to travel about the world preaching. He was no longer able to visit his beloved people in all parts of the world. A lot of his friends had left him. There was not much that he could do in a public way now. All that is at an end. So that it was not the churches and it was not the works; it was the Lord Jesus. Paul’s life was not just his work. It was not just his traveling about all over the world preaching. When all those things were taken away, he says, ‘I am still going on.’

‘This one thing I do, I press on. Take away my work, I am going on with the Lord. Take away my friends, I am going on with the Lord. Take away my liberty, I am still going on with the Lord.’

How great a Lord he must be!

So what else is there? In overwhelming joy and debilitating pain, let us go on with the Lord. When God provides tons of incredible fellowship, or none, let us go on with the Lord. Whether we are in times of refreshing or times of intense struggle, let us go on with the Lord. When we have lots of opportunity to share his life or none at all, let us go on with the Lord.

Even in the face of certain death, Paul found no greater joy than his longing to know the Lord and even admitted that it was far better for him to finally see him face-to-face than to continue to live on in this age. When the Lord Jesus becomes our sole reason for being, there is only life in him today, and greater life in him to come.

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Why I Don’t Go to Church Anymore Revisited

14 Comments / Uncategorized / November 27, 2004

I got this desperate plea to a recent blog about a conversation with someone on my article Why I Don’t Go to Church Anymore.

Why is it when I consider really speaking to my current pastor about this whole idea that is totally in my heart…I cant??? He will NOT understand it. There are so many things that are just WRONG with the old way and so many possibilities of really LIVING for Christ are limitless. I am excited to begin to BREATHE and LIVE the life. I was just called into the pastor’s office because he was concerned with my “absences” from attending in the last few weeks. I just cant bring myself to sit and listen to the elementary oatmeal. Hubby is not sure if we really should LEAVE. If I stay there I will “die”. If he decides that I “leave” and he “stays” then I will not have time or energy to do both. I just don’t know how to tell the pastor that I am seeing God moving in a direction OTHER than the institutional church and there are places in my heart that are screaming YES! THIS IS WHAT IS SIGNED UP FOR when I knelt at the cross and became a Christian—not pew sitting and routine! Any advice?

MaryAnn, my heart goes out to you. I know you’re in a tough spot and I don’t have near the details or firsthand knowledge to know how to advise you specifically, but I can give you some things to think through:

God wouldn’t put this passion on your heart and let you see what you see if he did not have a way to lead you through this to greater freedom. Get alone somewhere and lay it all at his feet. Ask him to show you what to do and when to do it and watch him make it clear to you as situations unfold. Don’t look for others to tell you what to do, but for him to lead you step by step.

The reason we often aren’t honest with people is because we’re afraid—of their reaction, of the consequences, or the position they hold in our lives. This isn’t easy, but Paul said the only way we will grow up as the body is to speak the truth lovingly to each other. The reason people keep doing the stupid things they do in God’s name is because people are afraid to speak out and usually only do so when the anger builds up enough that they have no choice. This rarely yields the fruit of the kingdom. Better to do it when love for the person overcomes our fear, rather than our anger at feeling trapped. It’s amazing what being honest with our hearts will do to put us on paths we never considered before and even limit our options so we can more clearly follow Jesus. The path to follow him is often painful. He warned us it would be and that some of our closest friends wouldn’t understand. But the freedom to be true to ourselves and what he is doing in us is one of the greatest freedoms he offers.

I applaud your desire to walk with your husband through this. Keep talking and praying and see what God does to make your hearts one. Don’t push him, but also let him know that this is a critical issue going on in your life and you’re hopeful that you will be able to find a way through this together. Too many spouses end up on different journeys here because they don’t know how to invite the other along without manipulating them. You do want to go together as much as you both are able through these things and even stay where he is a bit longer until God makes it clear as well. There is grace for these things.

I know you see these issues of church life as black and white. I do too! But when I talk about them with others who don’t see what I see, that kind of language puts them on the defensive and closes the door to effective communication. Even about things I’m most certain about I’ll say something like, “I know I could be nuts here, but this is what I think Jesus is asking me to do;” or “I’m feeling called to something a bit different here.” That way they get to listen to what I’m saying and consider it without feeling that I’ve taken a superior position and judging them. Only in very rare instances of God’s direct leading, will I make a definitive statement of right and wrong because in the end I know that hardens more hearts than it softens. I don’t want to harden any hearts God isn’t hardening. I know people can’t see the incredible freedom that Christ has made available to us until they see it. I can live it, without making them do so as well, or feeling judged by my actions.

I don’t know if that helps, Mary Ann, but I know God is big enough to sort these things out in you and lead you in his path. And to that end you have my prayers.

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How is Your House Church Going?

Uncategorized / November 18, 2004

I visited a house church in Fullerton, CA over the weekend who has been on an interesting journey outside the walls of what most people call church. Recently the guy who is the ‘pastor’ of the church organization he left nine months back wrote to ask how “house church” was going. This is how he replied:

I wrote back to him to explain how I thought that even the term “house church” sounded funny to me now… I have come to think less about “how to DO church” and more about how to “BE the church”. Which makes even the label “house church” sound funny to me now. So, I am not sure how to answer how the house church is going, but here is part of the journey I have been on…. On a personal level, we are getting together with and meeting more people now — getting to know more people than we ever have before — going outside of our familiar acquaintances and circle of friends to meet new people (as well as staying in touch with old friends) and that has been good…

I think many of you will enjoy his full response. You can read it all on his blog. I like his view of it and how he is free to live in the relationships God’ provides each day. Of course this is only a part of the journey. I’m sure Glenn like many of you look foward to the day when you can link up with believers near you who really want to explore the wonders of intentional community together. I do think that’s the best expression of it, but people who are willing to share God’s life together without a lot of religious overlay are not always easy to find. But even when we do find them, I do think God wants us to not be so focused on them that we don’t find the relationships like Glenn describes that he wants to drop in our path each day.

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I Love Watching God Change People

2 Comments / Uncategorized / November 12, 2004

Still no baby yet! My daughter is beginning to feel some contractions this afternoon, however, so it might not be long. Until then, I thought I’d share with you the transformtion going on in a life. Last week I got this email from a brother I met this fall and whose group I got to hang out with for a weekend. Here’s how he summed up what God is doing in his life and then my response follows:

My wife and I just listened to a bit of disc 2 in The Security of Father’s Love. Man did that speak to me. I find myself constantly trying harder, only to find myself falling short time and time again. I also tend to question the sincerity of my heart. I know I just need to accept the fact that God loves me and there is nothing that I have ever done, or could do that would diminish that one bit. Why does that seem easier said than done? What have I done to myself to get me to think this way? Perhaps I have not been truly trusting God to be God. Maybe I have been more focused on changing God under the premise of changing myself. He is what he is and there is nothing I can do to change him. I just need to pray to him that I accept who he is and not what I have tried to create him to be.

On the home front I am very excited about what has been happening in my home. Ami and I have been inviting over lots of people to our house. Almost all of them are nonbelievers. I believe that God has put them in our path for a reason. As a matter of fact, God is really expanding my horizons because a few of them are gay. Don’t get me wrong, I am not a gay basher but I never would have thought to invite them into my home under the guise of keeping my children free from impurities. What a Pharisee! I now see that if my children do realize that they are gay, I have a wonderful opportunity to show them that we can love the person unconditionally and yet not approve of their choices.

Looking back, I was trying to find other Christians to invite over, but now I feel that I had it all wrong. While I was focusing on other Christians to fellowship with and to make friendships with, I was completely missing the people standing right in front of me. I have found a lot of people that really do appreciate both friendship and an invitation to our house. Even though they are nonbelievers, there is a certain fellowship there. I am not going to look for the first opportunity to pounce on them with some nifty Bible verses, but rather I am just going to be there friend. If God presents an opportunity to share the Truth, then that will be obvious and I will be willing to do so. The last thing I want to do is get in God’s way.

Love your journey, love your heart and love what God is showing you. When you get over that hump of somehow having to earn Father’s affection, you won’t believe the freedom or transformation on the other side. I wish I could just throw you over it, but this is something Father reserves for himself. It happens just like it is happening in you… You see some things, wonder about some other things, keep drawing near, learn to ignore the guilt, follow him, follow him, follow him. And then one day it is different. The old nagging thoughts are gone and a new freedom blossoms. You won’t be able to take credit for it, but simply sit in awe at Father’s working….

If I knew of a way of hurrying that I would give it to you. I guess you can’t rush freedom. He is working at the deepest core of your being to set his life freely there and let it flow out of you. And I love how God is giving you a heart for folks around you! Even unbelievers. Great stuff!

But I do hope you’re enjoying the ride, because it’s going to be tough to get off the coater at this point…

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I Settle Down at Home In You

8 Comments / Uncategorized / October 28, 2004

I don’t often publish the sensational on my site because it tends to encourage people to seek manifestations instead of seeking Jesus, but that doesn’t mean I don’t believe in genuine expressions of the supernatural becoming normal parts of our lives. A few years ago, one of my new-found friends from New Zealand, John Beaumont, was caught up in a vision of God’s throne. While there he heard a song being sung out of God’s glory. He felt like it was something God wanted to share specifically with Ireland, but I think its application goes far beyond that. One of my friends in Ireland sent me a CD of the song and John’s sharing about how it came to be.

I first heard this song in Ireland a couple of years ago and I am taken by its content and by the path of simple humility God outlines for us to live in him. It’s content reflects much of the content of Philippians 2:5-11. The song is from God’s heart to his people. It his he who wants to ‘settle down at home in you,’ which is as awesome a commentary of John 14:2 as I’ve ever heard. Can you imagine that the God of the universe has made a way so that he can settle down and be at home in you and you in him. What amazing grace!

The last two lines is our response to God’s incredible work of grace. In response to him being at home in us, we have the opportunity to choose to take our place and reign in him. The song goes like this:

The Call

There is a path. There is a way;
An upward path, a narrow way to walk with me.
It’s simply named humility.

A humble heart, an open heart.
A trusting heart, a yielding heart
A loving heart, an eager heart.
A sweet and pure and gentle heart.

A heart like that here’s what I do.
I settle down at home in you.
A God of grace and glory too.
“I take my place and reign and in you.”
“I take my place and reign and in you.”

I have attached a link so you can hear the chorus. It is sung by a group of believers Ireland who were just learning the song, so the quality isn’t great, but I think you will enjoy it just the same.

Whether you hear it or not, let the reality sink in. This Father wants to settle down at home in you, and for you to be at home in him. What could say it any better?

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The Fruitfulness of Body Life

2 Comments / Uncategorized / October 20, 2004

I just got back from a weekend in the Quad Cities of Iowa as the fall foliage was just beginning to burst out. Since we don’t have fall here in southern California I especially enjoyed the show and the cool, crisp air. Even more amazing was what God allowed us to share in those few days together. A group of believers there have been sharing life together in their homes for a couple of years and invited me to spend the weekend with them. Though I’d never met any of them before I felt like family instantly.

Father had led us on similar paths and it was great to share the lessons of the journey together as we got to know each other. And then God sent some other folks to join us. It started out with a neighbor from a home nearby who came to check out what was going on. Though his family had been deeply involved in a local congregation, they had been having second thoughts about that. God had been opening their hearts with a greater hunger to find a more enduring life in him. He was full of questions. The next day he came back and brought eight other friends with him. They had all been struggling with the same issues. The next day they brought even more.

We got to talk in some depth about this amazing life in Christ and how our institutions can so easily distract our eyes from the simplicity and freedom of knowing him and burden us down with activities, obligations and guilt. In just a few days it was amazing to see how much freedom Jesus worked in them and how visible it was in the countenance, voices and the way they related to each other. I have no idea what they’ll end up doing, but I think they see the way a bit more clearly and will be freer to sense Jesus’ voice and follow him however he will lead them.

On the last night one of the brothers from the initial group who had invited me told me he had been focused on the wrong thing. “I have been trying to sell house church, but not any more.” Somehow the weekend had freshly ignited his heart for Jesus and the desire to help others follow him, not get caught up in another system to add to all the other systems people have created. When I got home, I found this note from another brother who is part of that community:

Wow, Wayne! God has really blown me away over the last few days. I feel like I am in the hands of a loving Father who has bigger and better ideas for me than I ever even dreamed for myself. I am standing in awe of how he worked this weekend. Thanks you for helping me see that no matter the situation, I can crawl up into Daddy’s lap and that it is the safest place in the world to be.

I was really taken by what was said in the fellowship about what Jesus is. Jesus does not just have mercy for me, but he is mercy. He does not just have love for me, but he is love. He does not just give me righteousness, but instead is righteousness. He does not just give me life, but instead he is life. I no longer need to ask for these gifts, because he is the gift. All I need to do is turn to and accept him as my all in all. What an incredible concept! This is a huge shift in my paradigm.

I know that you feel that the main reason you were here in the Quad Cities was because of the group that are getting ready to break free from institutionalism. I would not disagree with that, but I know how much the Father has blessed the rest of us through you. I am so grateful that you felt the leading from Father to come and share what I believe to be on his heart for us. Wayne, this fruit will last. This fruit will multiply. You did not just bring us gifts from the Father. Instead, you were the gift.

It’s easy for people on at times like this to get mixed up between what I am doing there and what Father is doing while I’m there, but what greater fruit could we ever expect from our life together as his children? If it draws our hearts to him, encourages us to walk in greater freedom and joy, and opens our lives to help others on this incredible journey, then it is body life indeed!

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