A Kingdom

A Kingdom, A People & A River
A New Paradigm For the Post Modern House Church Movement

Parousia Weekly Update Letter For The Week of February 1, 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:

House Church Notes
A Time To Dance – This Friday, February 3

Dear Friends,

What does intimacy with God and authenticity with one another look like in house church? And what is its relationship to spiritual power and the pray ers of John Knox. That’s this week’s questions.

Notice: We’re still waiting on our current web host to release codes and re-rout our DNS to our new web host. It should happen some time this week (long, frustrating story). When it does we will be down for several days as new DNS routing numbers circulate through the internet. That means you may get some returned e-mails if you try e-mailing us later this week. Don’t panic (or rejoice!?). We’re still here, just making some much needed changes. If you need to contact us in the interim, here is our Temporary Alternative Administrative E-Mail Address: parousianet@earthlink.net. I’ll be checking it regularly.

Blessings,
Maurice

House Church Reflections

“What we need very badly these days is a company of Christi ans who are prepared to trust God as completely now as they know they must do at the last day. For each of us the time is coming when we shall have nothing but God. Health and wealth and friends and hiding places will be swept away and we shall have only God. To the man of pseudo faith that is a terrifying thought, but to real faith it is one of the most comforting thoughts the heart can entertain.” A.W. Tozer

Intimacy & Authenticity . . .

“Annie’s a quiet girl, but she’s deep. At least I hope she’s deep. Otherwise, she’s wasting a lot of time being quiet.”

I grew up in a jewelry store. Well, almost. My father was a jeweler (and my mother a school teacher) all of my growing up life. I and my family spent many hours in dad’s jewelry store helping out during the holiday seasons. And so I learned something about jewelry gold. I learned that there is a difference between a piece of jewelry that is 18 or 24 karat gold, and one that is simply 10 karat gold plate. If you have ever purchased gold plated jewelry then you know the disappointment that inevitably comes when the abrasiveness of life scratches the plating off and reveals the truth of what lies beneath. But 24 karat gold, on the other hand, is different. Regardless of how deep you scratch, it remains the same. It is “authentic,” the same all the way through. Gold plated jewelry lacks authenticity, pretending to be something it really isn’t.

Welcome to house church, and the challenge of genuine ekklesia, where God calls us into genuine intimacy with Himself and genuine authenticity with one another. Unfortunately, much of the contemporary American church resembles “Annie” (O.K., it’s a great line from “Royal Wedding” with Fred Astaire) rather than Tozer. We gather together and hope that our silence (regarding the issue of our personal intimacy with God) will be mistaken for depth (the “cover up” being aided by generous amounts of what I call “bible babble”), while living in the constant fear that someone will accidentally scratch through our 10 karat gold plating and discover the base metal which lies just beneath the surface.

It’s my suspicion (which I can’t prove, but speculation is a time-honored theological tradition!) that one of the root problems among the house churches of Corinth was a lack of intimacy with God, which eventually resulted in a lack of authenticity with one another. Paul’s task his letters Corinth was to restore his apostolic authority which had been challenged, to rebuke false teachings and the teachers who brought it, to correct their spiritual abuses (power without intimacy or authenticity), deal with issues of sin (particularly immorality) and to encourage the Corinthians onward to a greater depth of intimacy with God and greater authenticity with one another.

The challenge of house church is really no different today than it was 2000 years ago. I have written previously that, in its essence, house church is the pursuit of God in the company of friends who are learning to dance with God and with one another. I would “parse” this a bit more (translating Greek with my daughter is having that effect on me - I “parse” everything) by adding this: house church is also both a personal and a corporate journey into greater intimacy with God, which He desires (over time) to result in greater authenticity with one another. If, in our personal and corporate house church life together, there is no growing intimacy or authenticity, we will slowly but eventually devolve into a gathering of superficial acquaintances who meet to offer silence in place of depth, and who live in fear that someone may accidentally scratch off our 10 karat gold plating and discover “the awful truth” of what lies beneath.

(P.S.- In our house church network I teach something called “Maurice’s Maxim # 1" which unequivocally states: “Life is messy”! Let’s face reality. Our lives are “authentic messes” which God is in the process of redeeming as we journey together, a company of friends pursuing intimacy with God and authenticity with one another. So, let’s drop the “religious act,” scrape off the 10 karat gold plating, admit the messiness of our lives, and move on together in our personal and corporate journey of redemption and learning to dance with God and with each other.)

Spiritual Power, and . . .

The stakes are surprisingly high in this struggle for intimacy and authenticity, especially when it comes to the relationship between intimacy, authenticity and spiritual power. There is much talk and chatter among Christi ans today about “spiritual power” and “anointing,” but much of the conversation is among people whose vocabulary has far out-run their actual experience level. For the most part, we are using the vocabulary of the last significant move of God in the misplaced hope that our words about power will somehow be mistaken for power itself, just as we hope others will mistake our silence for depth, and just as Moses hoped Israel would mistake the veil for the glory.

I believe there is an inescapable yet precarious relationship between intimacy, authenticity and power. Intimacy with God and authenticity with one another are indeed our common calling and goal. And so is walking in spiritual power, as Paul admonished those Corinthian believers, who had lost both intimacy and authenticity, and who (in my opinion) stood on the brink of losing their spiritual power: “But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I shall find out, not the words of those who are arrogant, but their power. For the kingdom of God does not consist in words, but in power.” (1 Corinthians 4:19-20)

Paul understood (do we?) that without intimacy with God, spiritual power will devolve into arrogance; and without authenticity with one another, spiritual power will expose and intensify the contradictions of our character, eventually resulting in self-destruction. As Graham Cooke so rightly observes, without such intimacy and authenticity, each of us will destroy with our character what we build with our gift. In God’s design, intimacy will yield to authenticity, authenticity will build character, and character will prevent spiritual power from destroying both the one who wields it and the church through which it flows. I believe that God wants an ekklesia which moves in His power, and which walks in intimacy with Himself and authenticity with one another. Such a Church, offering to others the opportunity to “touch and taste the powers of the Age to Come,” is a living, breathing model of the Kingdom of God that our Post Modern culture will be unable to refute . . . or resist. And that leads me to . . . .

The Prayers of John Knox

Bear with me as I relate the story we all know so well. . . .

While others slept, he rose to pray . It was not the first time he had risen in the early morning hours to pray , nor would it be his last. The birth of a Church and the future of a nation demanded nothing less. So with only the stars and the angels as his witnesses, he wrestled with God over the future of his beloved but troubled nation. One of the sources of his nation’s problems, Mary Queen of Scotland , had once remarked that she feared the pray ers of this man more than she feared all the armies of Europe . If she could have witnessed his intercessions this night, her worst fears would have been confirmed, for here, alone beneath the stars, was a man who knew how to wrestle with God . . . and prevail.

“Great God,” cried John Knox, “Give me Scotland , or I shall die.”

The mantle of intercession that rested upon John Knox would one day be picked up and carried by his associate and son-in-law, John Welch, who would marry Knox’s daughter, Elizabeth. Welch became widely known for his personal commitment to fasting and pray er, and for the significant amount of time he spent in personal pray er, often as much as eight hours a day. He also became known for tremendous spiritual power which seemed the outward result of his fervent intercessions. On more than one occasion his wife, Elizabeth, would awaken to an empty bed and find her husband pray ing alone in the cold night air of their garden, pray ing “with great force & fervency, mixed and accompanied with floods of tears,” crying out, “Lord, wilt Thou not grant me Scotland?” She would remember the times she had heard her father, John Knox, pray with a similar burden on his heart, “Great God, give me Scotland , or I shall die.” And how many times had she heard her husband wonder aloud how a Christi an could lie in bed all night never rising to watch and pray .

Such are the wrestlings and intercessions of those whom God has used over the centuries, and continues to use today, to bring revival and to change the course of nations and of history. Throughout the history of His people, whenever God has intended to move in great spiritual power, He has always raised up people to carry the burden of pray er, fasting and intercession for what He intended to do. Such intercessors have always been the secret heralds of a coming visitation.

But have you ever asked yourself how we came to know that John Knox ever pray ed such a pray er? We know about his pray er life . . . from his daughter, Elizabeth. Unlike so many people today, John Knox didn’t pray this pray er in public - you know, the opening pray er at the General Assembly meeting. We know he pray ed such a pray er in private early morning hours because that’s when his family (those closest to us, and the hardest to impress) found him weeping and pray ing alone in the cold morning air.

Along with prophesying a coming revival, pray ing a “John Knox pray er” has become somewhat of a cottage industry in certain quarters of the church today, sort of an ecclesiastical “right of passage” to prove one’s “bona fides,” if you will. I’ve done it too, so don’t get me wrong. But only recently have I been brutally confronted with the full import of John Knox’s pray er, what it truly meant to him, and what it truly means for those who would pray such a pray er today. It has changed the way I think, and the way I pray . I suspect that Knox’s pray er is most often understood and explained as the bold pray er of a man who sought to achieve great things for God (I’ve certainly heard it interpreted that way). I now believe that interpretation to be 180-degrees wrong. I now genuinely and fervently believe it to be the pray er of a broken man who had found intimacy with God, was walking in authenticity with others (beginning with his own family who gave us this account of his private pray er life) and who was so “fully invested” in his pray ers for the Kingdom of God that he would rather die than fail.

What do I mean by “fully invested”? Like Hernando Cortez, who burned his boats when arriving in the New World (thereby eliminating “failing and going home” as an option), John Knox staked everything (his ministry, his reputation, the future of the Church of Scotland, and the future of his nation) on whether or not the God whom he intimately knew and with whom he authentically walked would answer his pray ers, send revival and redeem his nation. John Knox wasn’t afraid to die; rather, he was afraid to fail. And fear of failure gives birth to pray ers of broken desperation which resonate through the hallways of heaven with cries of “God take my life, but do not fail me.”

May I ask you a question? What’s at risk in your pray ers for spiritual out-pouring, revival and house church? How fully invested are you in your pray ers for the Kingdom of God ? Should God choose not to answer your “John Knox pray er,” what do you stand to lose? Will life continue on more-or-less as normal? Will your “day job” continue on? Will your pension or 401(k) survive intact? Will the church or ministry continue on regardless, including booming internet sales of the wonderful message you preached on “God, give me Scotland , or I die”? If the answers to such questions are even a qualified “yes,” then I question whether we have truly pray ed the type of “fully invested” pray ers of a John Knox, who preferred death over failure.

If You Could Do Something Else . . .

I’m going to surprise and potentially irritate some of you (what can I say, it’s a gift!), so let me preface my comments with a story. In his book “Lectures To My Students,” 19^th Century English evangelist Charles Haddon Spurgeon used to tell his ministerial students in Spurgeon’s College, “If you can do anything else, other than be a pastor, do it! But if your spirit will not allow you to do anything else but be a pastor, then perhaps God is calling you to the ministry.” (Maurice’s paraphrase).

I want to offer a similar exhortation to those of us aspiring to leadership in the house church movement in this unfolding season. If you could be content somewhere else, then that is probably where you should be. God is preparing to pour out the River of Ezekiel 47 in power and blessing the likes of which our generation has never experienced, and yes, it will flow through house churches. It will take us to a level of intimacy in God’s Presence that few (if any) of us have ever known. Our experience may finally catch up with our vocabulary! It will also force us into an authentic koinonia with one another that will be deep, rewarding, painful and biblical. It will release unprecedented spiritual power that will push and test our character to the breaking point . . . and beyond. And for this season God is calling out and raising up a generation of leaders who, like Elisha called from behind the plow, are willing to risk EVERYTHING, and who are so fully invested in what God wants to do by way of spiritual outpouring, transformation and revival through house churches that they would rather face death than failure. In this coming move of God’s Spirit, many aspiring leaders will be touched by it, but few will be willing to take the risk and pay the price for truly entering in.

Are you one of them?

Maurice Smith
January 28, 2006
Fast Day 25 of this season during which I am truly learning what it means to pray , “Great God, grant me Spokane for house church and for the River of Ezekiel 47. Take my life, O God, but do not let me fail.”

A Time to Dance - Next Meeting – Friday, February 3

God’s Presence was strong, everyone participated and a lot of personal ministry took place, just as Paul said should occur in 1 Corinthians 14. 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. Please consider this your invitation to join us this Friday evening, February 3, 7:00PM at the home of the Shipley’s (Call if you need directions – 926-7743).