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The priesthood of believers is not for other believers
The Protestant Reformation partially restored the New Covenant realization that all believers were considered part of the new Royal Priesthood (1 Pet 2:9) in contrast to the Catholic dominated clergy system. But as Frank Viola pointed out, the Protestant Reformers only restored the theological understanding of the priesthood of all believers, but not the ecclesiastical practice. So all Protestant denominations make the theological declaration but continue the clergy-laity ecclessiology. It is the assumption that house church gatherings are exercising the priesthood of all believers in their open-participatory format. But as I have meditated on the idea, I think the house church advocates are missing it, too. Read the rest of this entry →
I read Neil Cole’s book, “Organic Church” when I first left the professional clergy system. It was and still is a great book. I like Neil’s writing style. He used many stories to illustrate the organic church experience. That was 5 years ago. I do not consider a gathering of believers as the organic church anymore. Neither in a house church setting nor at Starbucks. Organic church is not an activity. It is not a mission. It is simply all who are grafted into the life of Jesus Christ through the new birth regardless of what they do or where they are.
The organic church is not directed by people. It is the life of God Himself flowing through all His children. This understanding of the organic church is shared by Frank Viola, Neil Cole, Wayne Jacobsen and many others. Each of these authors have different priorities in understanding this concept. For Frank Viola it is to see Christ glorified as head of the church in gatherings. For Wayne Jacobsen, it is helping individuals live by the leading of the Spirit. For Neil Cole it is in organic church planting and mentoring. Read the rest of this entry →
Business by Kingdom rules is for the King, not our selves
The Lord’s Business
I own a Christian gymnastics school. The Lord moved me in this direction four years ago. In that time I have done much meditation on both how to run a business and keeping my priorities right according to the Kingdom of God. From the outset I understood that business is a worldly affair. That does not mean Christians do not own businesses, but it does mean our priorities will be different.
As a citizen of the Kingdom, my responsibility is to build His kingdom, not my own. The natural tendency in owning a business is to see it as your business and make every effort to build your business into your own kingdom. But that is not the way of the King. Everything belongs to Him. He gives us stewardship over some things, but those things still are His.
It is noteworthy that in the parable of the talents (Matt 25), the rich ruler gave his servants the talents. The servants did not take the talents from the rich ruler. If we are engaged in a business that the Lord is not directing us into, we are stealing from the Lord and those to whom He intended to give that business. Adam and Eve were guilty of the same crime. All the fruit belonged to God, yet they were given the right to eat freely from all the fruit except from one tree. When they ate that fruit, they stole it from God. So, as believers, we are not to engage in just any business activity. We are to pursue only that business that the Spirit has led us into. Read the rest of this entry →
I must say it is somewhat awkward to write this report. Awkward because I am writing about my own lecture. I have the challenge of summarizing what I said since I have all the details of what I said. Neither can I write objectively since I am not writing from the audience point of view. My notes in rehearsal lasted one hour, however with a live audience and interjections of questions I actually spoke for an hour and 45 minutes, according to David Bassett. It didn’t seem that long to me, and, judging by the number of people who stayed after wards to ask more questions or to share their testimonies, I hope it did not seem that long to them either. On the way home, David was very enthusiastic about the lecture and I most certainly had fun in sharing, so I am going assume so did everyone else.
As I explained to David when he first asked me to speak, and as the audience saw, I did not give the usual power point presentation. I am an avid reader of internet marketing guru, Seth Godin, who wrote an ebook on power point presentation. He stated that most presentations are boring and redundant. Presentations should use images to enhance what is said, not put up in bullets what is already being said. With this intention I provided images to complement my lecture. Larry Grimes indicated that it worked extremely well. Larry, I will give you the graphics as you requested shortly.
My Testimony
The first point that I made is that the expression, “Creation Science,” is a redundancy since modern science began in the Renaissance with the assumption that the world was created by a God of order who had orderly laws that could be known and understood by men. Science has been hijacked by the secular community who wish to remove God from the equation. However, the Creation Science Community needs to be encouraged by remembering that lies need Truth to exist, for no one will believe a lie unless it is attached to truth, but Truth does not need lies for its existence because Truth is reality. So, the Creation Science community will always win in the long run as lies become more obvious as lies. Read the rest of this entry →
The Lord speaks prophetically wherever we are: at work, school, etc - if we are willing to speak on His behalf.
I write this post from the point of view of being an organic prophet myself, or more precisely a prophetic teacher who functions organically. When I speak of organic church and organic ministries, I am not speaking about house churches. Instead I speak about the organic life of God Himself flowing through His body on Earth wherever His body may be. So that can be in house churches, or it can be in the professional clergy system, or it can be on the job, in school, in the family, or anywhere. In short, everywhere. Neither do I speak of an office. The organic life of God functions in the body according to need, not according to permanent office. Office is a term of the world system. The functions of God in His body is as needed therefore is seasonal and temporary. Read the rest of this entry →
Politics in the church is merely the flesh using the world system
Left Foot of Fellowship
A few months ago I was asked to leave a house church because I refused to qualify my statements with “I believe,” or, “I think,” or “In my opinion.” My response was that I already qualify those statements that I am unsure of, but I would not qualify those statements that I was certain of. I left the fellowship as they requested, because it seemed that the egos of the group and leadership were a fragile group. If my contributions were unwelcome, then I would rather go where I was wanted.
The experience prompted me to read a couple of books on spiritual abuse. First I read, “Twisted Scriptures” by Mary Chrnalogar and then “Healing Spiritual Abuse” by Ken Blue. The first book is difficult to read but has nuggets of truth. The latter is clear and concise and I recommend everyone read it. Before they gave me the left foot of fellowship I had listened to an incredible testimony on Tuesday Conversations by Kyle Knapp with David Clute who suffered spiritual abuse and founded Aquila House Ministries. The podcast has since been deleted to my regret, as well as their website. The salient point of the podcast that I remember was that David found recovery when he realized that the spiritual abuse he had experienced was the same as what was practiced in cults. In studying how people were delivered from cults he found the path for spiritual healing from church abuse.
What is this cultism that is found in churches, and to my surprise, house churches? Please do not misunderstand me, I am not talking about satanic cultism, although it can reach that extreme. I am talking about the gamut of “us four and no more” to the total “accountability” groups - a needless activity since we are already accountable to God Himself! One may also call it church politics. But spiritual abuse is specifically abuse by trusted leadership, although it can happen from anyone in any kind of authority.
Spiritual abuse reached its height in the “shepherding movement” of the 1970′s which took control of others in the tiniest details of their lives. It is also noteworthy to know that the modern “cell groups” used by many denominations came from a book by communist Douglas Hyde, “Dedication and Leadership: Learning from the Communists” in 1966 in which he urged Christians to adopt the cell group. This was picked up by the shepherding leaders and has remained to this day. The communists used cells as a way of brainwashing those who disagreed with them. Most cell groups that I have been in were merely appendages to the pastor’s agenda, increasing the control of the pastor over the congregation. Read the rest of this entry →
Danny DeVito defines character as actually caring about people, instead of selling Jesus to people.
I have posted this video of Danny DeVito in the “Big Kahuna” because he provides a rough illustration of organic pastoring. In a previous article I made the case that we all have only one Pastor, the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus referred to all His help as “hirelings“ who care not for the sheep, but will flee when wolves arrive (John 10:12-13). I stand by this still. Only Jesus knows everything about us and cares about all the details of our lives. It is impossible for another human being to do so.
Later on I wrote another article on the organic functions of the “5 fold ministries” in which I explained the temporary nature of ministry. God brings people into our lives from the body of Christ to meet needs temporarily in those seasons of our lives when we have such needs. Pastoring is one such ministry, even though we are all hirelings while we are in His service. Read the rest of this entry →
Despite the title of the blog, I am not against women teaching. I personally benefit and enjoy listening to Joyce Meyer, Nancy Lee DeMoss and other intelligent women who hear God and speak on behalf of God. And I believe that these women when broadcasting through the airwaves or any other public communications medium are fine, because they are not specifically teaching men. They are teaching whosoever will. There is a significant difference.
I had to rethink through my point of view on this topic since I was recently excommunicated from a house church headed by a woman pastor. In post expulsion communication with the brother that had brought me into the fellowship, I expressed regret to him that I had not heeded my conscience in continuing my attendance when I found out that the group was being led by a woman. I told him that we have a tendency to rationalize and to justify what we want at the expense of the plain teaching of Scriptures which says:
I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent. (1 Tim 2:12 NIV) Read the rest of this entry →
Recently I added some banner links to the blog. I created these links because I endorse their material. These are ministries that have greatly shaped my view of God and the Bible. I am grateful for these men and their contributions to the body of Christ. One is dead and the others still live. Read the rest of this entry →
Last night my wife and I went to the Canyon Creek Presbyterian Church again. Irish worship leader Robin Mark has come to the States for a 12 day tour visiting small congregations. Canyon Creek developed a tie with Robin so that he has come 4 years in a row. We went to see him there last year, and when he came again, we had to go again. We were not disappointed.
We love Robin Mark. He is a sincere, and godly man who is gifted as a musical poet of worship. His songs are always Christ centered which are painted with unique word pictures that evoke mental imagery that portrays the full scope of the human condition. Read the rest of this entry →
