- Parousia
Weekly Update Letter For The Week of
January 12,
2006
-
- "When
a prophet is accepted and deified, his message is lost. The prophet is
only useful so long as he is stoned as a public nuisance calling us to
repentance, disturbing our comfortable routines, breaking our respectable
idols, shattering our sacred conventions" (A. G. Gardiner as quoted
by Arthur Wallis, "In The Day of Thy Power").
-
- In
This Issue:
-
- Fred
Astair,
House
Church
& Dancing In The Dark
- A
Time To Dance – This Friday, January 14
-
- Dear
Friends,
-
- Short
letter this week (“and
the peasants rejoiced”). Ready to be
stretched? Then it’s time to dance. Come join us on Friday
evening if you can! More next week.
-
- Blessings,
- Maurice
-
- Fred
Astair,
House
Church
& Dancing In The Dark
-
- O.K.
I confess. I love old movies. I’m one of those afficionados
who genuinely believes that the best overall movie ever made was (and
still is) “
Casablanca
”
(Yep, I have the 50th Year Anniversary Edition, just in case
you were wondering - which you probably weren’t). When my wife and I are
in the mood for a movie, we often turn to an old classic. And nothing is
more classic than watching an old song &
dance musical. Even as I write this I’m watching an old Fred Astaire
movie (The Band Wagon) in which he dances with Cyd
Charisse to the music of “Dancing In
The Dark.” Talk about beautiful music combined with incredible
gracefulness. It’s the story of two very different dancers who must
learn to dance together, despite their differences. O.K., if you think
that’s tough, in “Royal Wedding” Fred Astaire
dances with . . . a hat rack, and he makes the hat rack look good and the
whole thing look easy!
-
- So,
what’s all this got to do with house church you ask.
(As my daughter says when we’re translating Greek together, “Wait for
it, dad, wait for it!”) If you ask the question “What is house
church?” among house church participants you’ll get a wide variety of
answers, which reflect the varying interests and emphasis of the different
house churches. If you were to visit on one particular evening
devoted to
pray
er
and worship, you might conclude (both rightly and wrongly) that house
church was a
pray
er
meeting. If you were to visit on a different night when teaching was being
emphasized you might conclude (again, rightly and wrongly) that house
church is all about teaching. On yet another night when a mature 5-fold
prophetic individual is ministering, you might conclude that house church
is all about a ministry of giving and receiving prophetic words. And on
still another night when God is moving and all the gifts are functioning
thru many people you might conclude that house church in borderline
pandemonium (and you would be right . . . and wrong . . . again). By now
you should be getting the point, namely, that house church is about all of
these things, and yet, it is about NONE of these things. So, allow me to
return now to my dancing metaphor. House church, like our individual
relationships with God, is about learning to dance with God . . . and then
with each other. Dancing represents a very intimate relationship between
two people. It requires communication, practice, allowing someone else to
lead (control!) while you and I follow, and becoming so intimately
acquainted with another person that you can sense (and eventually
anticipate) their every move by looking in their eye or watching the
inflection of their body. And it requires a deep level of trust. If you
have ever watched ice dancers in the Olympic games,
then you have seen the intricate moves which require each partner to trust
one another, often at substantial personal risk. But when it comes
together it is beautiful to watch. I still vividly remember Jayne Torvill
and Christopher Dean performing their intricate and intimate dance to Ravel’s
“Bolero” at the 1984 Winter Olympics in
Sarajevo
(earning them 12 perfect 6.0s and a gold medal). Wow.
-
- O.K.,
let’s go back to the question. What is house church? At its most basic
and intimate level, house church is the pursuit of God in the company of
friends who are learning to dance . . . with God and with one another. Is
house church about more than that. Yes, of
course it is. Revival, church planting, city-reaching,
neighborhood and community transformation, and much more. But
ultimately, all of those “other things” are dependent for their
success upon people and house churches who have discovered, practiced and
are learning the intricate and intimate art of dancing with God and with
one another.
-
- Several
years ago blind
Christi
an
recording artist Ken Medema did a song that
I’ll never forget. I don’t recall the title and have since lost the
album (bigger than a CD and played on something called a “record
player” - just in case you were wondering). But the words went like
this:
-
- He
asked me to dance though I’d never tried dancing before,
- I
had visions of saints & angels laughing us right off the floor,
- Although
I protested it just wouldn’t be any good,
- He
gently insisted and finally I told him I would.
- Unforgettable,
he was the coming of Spring on a cold
winter’s day;
- Unforgettable,
he taught this singer to sing in a whole new way.
-
- So,
tell me. How are your dancing skills, both with God and with other
believers in your house church? This is a challenge for those of us who
have grown up and spent most of our
Christi
an
lives in what I call the “rationalistic wing” of the church, where
what little dancing that occurs is very carefully scripted and
choreographed to make everyone look good. Unfortunately we want to bring
this carefully rehearsed script into house church, and the results thus
far have been , , , disappointing. As the
coming season of spiritual awakening and outpouring begins, I believe God
is once again going to teach His people the intimate and intricate art of
dancing with Him and with each other. There is a certain degree of risk
here, the risk of “saints & angels laughing us right off the
floor”. But trust me (and I’m still learning this). If Fred Astaire
can dance with a hat rack and make it look good and easy, chances are that
Jesus can dance with you and make it . . . unforgettable.
-
- A
Time to Dance - Next Meeting – Friday, January 6
-
- God’s
Presence was very strong at last Friday’s meeting, and our goal is to
worship,
pray
and press in. This is the pursuit of God in the company of friends who are
learning to dance with God and with each other. I believe it is important
that we “press in” to this unfolding season, and so that is our
“agenda” this Friday evening, January 14, 7:00PM at the home of the
Shipley’s (Call if you need directions – 926-7743).