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After the death of their husbands, the wives forgave the Ecuadorian Waodani and brought them to Christ
Because organized religion is part of the world system, it is difficult for those of us who have left it to understand what is the Way of Jesus Christ. The organic church is not house church meetings, but the organic life of God Himself within the heart of every born again believer. Being led by the Spirit is the foundation of the Way of Jesus Christ.
But for the last few weeks, the Lord has impressed upon my heart the admonition of Paul to overcome evil by good (Rom 12:21). The way of the world is so infused into church thinking that we do not realize that we are trying to “fight” the world with the weapons of the world. Having our minds renewed means discerning the difference between the ways of the world and the way of Christ. Read the rest of this entry →
Rejecting Christ is the abomination that makes desolation
A dear friend of mine sent this to someone and asked to remain anonymous. I asked for permission to reprint this and was granted permission. I agree with most of what was said. I have edited what was said to address the main points of my interest. It was originally titled, “Flee Judea”.
Hello, T~
Some few weeks ago I had it in mind to answer your question about finding the church. …. First I will back up a bit to cover some ground we’ve been on. People talk a lot these days about what’s wrong with the church or about finding the church. That may be a stage we just have to go through, but that is not what we should actually seek. We should seek the Lord. [Emphasis added] We are told to seek the Lord, not the church, with all our heart. We are told that if we seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness (not the church), all else will be added to us.
There is an understandable desire to see the church or to see the real church because of the account of the church in Jerusalem in the book of Acts. It’s quite impressive with all the miracles, sharing, and hoopla. However, this is not the story of the New Testament church; it is the story of the church in one city and for only a short time. We know that there was much dissension in the NT church (witness “Corinthians”) and those who fell away from the faith (2 Tim. 4:10). We are also told about the wolves who would come in (Acts 20:29). This business of being ripped apart by gainsayers, gossips, and false prophets is part and parcel to the church at large and always has been. The history of the organized church is braided together with the history of the spiritual church in many places.
There is a lot of talk about “when the Lord puts His church in order” and things like that. Too many are looking over their shoulders after they’ve left the organized churches, still having a mental preoccupation with all the believers in those places — “If only they’d come out.” Somehow they still see these places as holding the real church in captivity. That, plus the picture in their minds of what the Early Church looked like (house churches) in unity and power, etc. They want to go back to something former, but is this good?
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 →
The world is top down management, the Kingdom of God is from the bottom up.
For those who don’t me, I am a gymnastics coach who had been involved with both theater and gymnastics training. Consequently I fell in love with acrobatic gymnastics which is a very theatrical sport. I now own my own business which is a school in acrobatics as a medium for developing Christian community. Every summer I run a special circus program which extends the class curricula to include unicycling, juggling and group acrobatics. While assembling the pyramid routine that I would teach the children, the Lord dropped into my heart a message to them on the subject.
Order of Construction
Pyramids have to be built in a logical order. The larger athletes comprise the bases, the medium athletes are the middles and the smaller athletes are the tops. The bases form first, the middles mount second then the tops climb up last. Pyramids have to be dismantled in the logical order as well. The tops come off first, the middles come down second, then finally the bases can get up.
The bases are the first in building the pyramids and the last to leave the pyramids, whereas the tops are the last to mount the pyramid and the first to dismount the pyramids. Consequently, the bases are doing all the work, and endure the weight the longest. Furthermore, they are the only ones who really control the balance of the pyramids because they feel how the pyramids might tip and are in the position of being able to move the whole pyramid back into balance. The tops have no control of the middle or bases, although they can cause the pyramid to fall if they lose their balances. Neither are the tops bearing the burden of holding up any weight. Consequently, the bases are in charge of the pyramid.
True Spiritual Authority
This is a clear illustration of spiritual authority in the Kingdom of God. We have a natural tendency to project the world system upon our understanding of the Bible. In the world the person on top of the pyramid is in charge. This may be the CEO of a corporation or the pastor of the church businesses. He directs the middle management, or elders of the congregation, in what he wants to have the workforce, or congregation, to do.
Not so, in the organic body of Christ. In the context of forsaking all for Christ, Jesus said, “But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first” (Matt 19:30 KJV). I asked the children, “Who is at the bottom of everything? Who takes care of everyone? Who keeps everything in Creation running?” They knew the answer. God.
God is not on top of Creation, He is beneath it holding it all up. To draw close to God is to go to the bottom rung where the work is really done. True spiritual authority lives in those who are serving the needs of all that God brings to them. Read the rest of this entry →
As a gymnastics coach a large part of my job is in encouraging children in their ability to overcome the difficulty of the stunt I happen to be training them. There are two incredible challenges that all of my children had overcome already that I frequently remind them about.
As babies they learned to walk on two feet without anyone teaching them, and they learned to talk. Their parents, of course, encouraged them in these endeavors, but the truth is, they learned on their own how to do those things. With walking they rolled off their backs, pushed themselves to their hands and knees and crawled. As their muscles became stronger through the effort of crawling, they climbed alongside couches and coffee tables to hold themselves up on two feet. Then they began their first tentative steps.
Talking is more incredible. Listen to anyone speak a foreign language that you don’t know and you will know what the babies were experiencing. Sure, Mom and Dad helped in saying the words associated with the objects, but those non-talking children had to figure it out for themselves, none-the-less. And they do so by paying attention and looking for the associations. Then they try to sound out what they heard to see if they get a response with the sounds. They learn to talk on their own. Amazing! So if those kids can do that as babies, then they can master the stunts that I am teaching them.
This is an example of organic growth. It does not happen because of programs or teachers, but naturally in a child’s development. Programs and teaching, are then added to a child’s education, of course, to expand their learning horizon. Ultimately, though, in all education, the bottom line is that we learn by self teaching. And I try to get my kids to do the same, even though I instruct them and guide them.
This is also true of the Organic Church. When I use this term, I am not referring to the house church gathering, or other venues of meeting. I am referring to all believers who are organically tied to Christ through the new birth. Read the rest of this entry →
Shane Hipps discusses his new book, “Flickering Pixels: How Technology Shapes Your Faith,” which in this video interview below, he claims that online “virtual communities” are not real communities of Christian faith.
He defines a real faith community as having these four characteristics:
1. A Shared History, that is, one where people have known each other over an extended period of time.
2. A Permanence, that is, still ongoing and will continue in future.
3. A Proximity, that is, one where you are physically close to each other.
4. A Future Hope Together, that is, a community that you are working together for a common future goal.
Watch and listen to the video to hear for your self what he has to say.
There have been a variety of voices who have commented on this opinion. In reading those comments, I have to question all of their ideas of what a community really is. The first disagreement I have is the idea of a single community. Read the rest of this entry →
I gave my life to Christ when I was 32. I did not grow up in the church, so the bewildering array of denominations was both overwhelming and confusing. The reality of Jesus Christ in my life motivated me to find out who and why there are so many denominations. So even though I first met the Lord in the Assemblies of God, I did not stay there and have attended many other denominations to see what they were like.
Likewise, I have become, in the last 23 years, an avid student of Church history. Electronic books can be much larger than you know. I obtained a copy of Philip Schaff’s, “History of the Christian Church” and began reading it daily as part of my daily devotions. I had no idea that it was eight volumes long and would take me 5 years to read! But it gave me the big picture of the entire history of the Church. Read the rest of this entry →
