House Church House Keeping

I haven’t done one of these letters in a while - simply talking about miscellaneous items I have seen relating to house church (If you’re already bored, feel free to skip down to the "Just For Fun - My Favorite Recent Videos").

Books You Might Want To Consider

"Why I Left The Prophetic Movement". This booklet by Andrew Strom came to me via Nate Krupp at a recent house church leadership gathering in Bellevue, Washington. Thanks, Nate. Because Andrew was deeply involved at a leadership level in the prophetic movement, this book came as a "shot-across-the-bow" when he wrote it. In the book he basically documents and explains what many of us have felt for some time, namely, that the current "prophetic movement" has become a "movement-gone-to-seed" which exercises little or no discernment, which has become detached from it’s genuine 5-Fold role and calling, and which has become little more than an accumulation of prophetic tail-chasers who gather together for the purpose of simply hearing each other "prophesy". At its worst, it has become a movement that has fallen into "witchcraft" and "simony," seeking to use spiritual power/authority/gifts to direct, control and/or manipulate others in a manner contrary to God’s purposes, and charging people to deliver prophetic words. Like Andrew Strom, I believe in genuine prophetic ministry and have close ministry friends who have genuine, mature 5-Fold prophetic giftings. I try to seek their counsel on a regular basis and encourage them to speak into my life. But the false prophetic (along with the false apostolic) is becoming a genuine issue in the Church, including the house church movement. I recommend this book as a reminder of the importance of maintaining our balance and exercising discernment.

"Jim & Casper Go To Church". Imagine an atheist and an evangelical pastor visiting 15 of the "top" evangelical churches in America and "critiquing" them. I heard Matt Casper speak at the recent CMA Conference in Ontario and it was an eye-opening experience, along with the "What can we do to convert you?" questions from the audience. Christians can be so boringly predictable. Matt Casper’s question to Jim Henderson - the co-author of the book - sums it up best, "Am I your friend, or am I your evangelism project." Ouch! For most of us, non-Christians are simply an evangelism project . . . and they know it. The book contains many insights from an "outsider’s" perspective. Pastors treated like rock-stars; Church "sets" that look like a Steven Spielberg production and questions such as "Is this really what you think Jesus wants you to spend money on?" all contribute to an enlightening, even convicting, book. It is a worthwhile read for all of us who want a better understanding of how our Postmodern culture perceives the Christian world of "church". Pagan Christianity in all it’s splendor.

"The Starfish & The Spider". I discovered this book at last year’s CMA Conference where one of it’s authors, Ori Brafman, spoke. But I didn’t buy it then. This year I was a little more "flush" with book money, so I bought a copy and read it on the plane ride home. This really is an important book for the house church movement, even if written by an unbeliever for a secular audience. The root analogy is the difference between a starfish and a spider. Chop off the legs of a starfish and something interesting happens. Each leg becomes a new starfish. Multiplication instead of death. With a spider, however, if you chop off the legs it will die. A spider is a centrally organized creature. A starfish is a decentralized creature. What’s the message? Decentralize, push information to the margins and empower people at the margins to accomplish things without centralized control. This has numerous implications for church planting and the house church movement. Let me offer just one. There is a teaching afoot that house churches can only be planted/established by an "apostolic house church planter". While I find NO biblical support for this idea, it is being taught. The result will be two-fold. First, it will create a new clergy-laity distinction (i.e., the apostolic house church planter versus everyone else). Second, it will create a "spider" organization that is fatally vulnerable to having its legs cut off. Where this teaching is being promoted it is already generating people who are saying "I can’t start a house because I’m not an apostolic house church planter". In other words, we need the "pro" to come in and do this for us, because we can’t do this on our own. The spider is already sprouting legs.

House Church Conversations

I wanted to briefly share a couple of house church conversations I have had recently which were "eye opening" to me. The first was with my friend, Doug Spencer, a house church guy in Coeur ‘Alene, Idaho. Doug recently contacted me about a strong message which he felt the Holy Spirit had given him. We met over coffee and Doug shared how the Holy Spirit had been speaking to him and giving him both a message and a burden concerning people in church who think they are saved but are not. As we talked I felt this was a message that people needed to hear, so I suggested that we meet again and record our conversation. The result is our first "House Church Conversation" now posted on our website. You’ll find a link on the home page under "Godcast Central". Click on "House Church Conversations" and it’ll take you to a page with the link (or you can simply click here: http://www.parousianetwork.org/MiscAudioFiles/DougSpencerMixdown.wma). I have posted it as a Windows Media Audio (.wma) file. Your windows Media Player should fire up and play the file. I hope to have more "House Church Conversations" in the near future. Once we have a few of them posted I’ll make the effort to have them carried by itunes and other aggregators so you can automatically subscribe to them. All things in time.

The second conversation was with a staff member with Campus Crusade for Christ who is working in China among college students. He was home raising financial support and will be returning soon. We met over coffee at The Service Station. I actually recorded this conversation, but he asked that it not be broadcast. So here is my compromise. It is now available for you to listen to by clicking on the following link, but it will not be posted for public viewing (only through this link). I’ll leave the link active for a couple of weeks, after which both the link and the file will disappear. So if you want to listen in, do it soon by clicking here:

 http://www.parousianetwork.org/MiscAudioFiles/ChinaConversation.wma.

Several things popped out at me during this conversation. One had to do with how growing materialism and affluence in China is beginning to have an impact on the Chinese Church, the same type of impact such things have had on the American & Western Church - distraction and complacency. I believe that the two greatest threats facing the Chinese Church are: 1) Materialism/Affluence and the many distractions if offers, and 2) the adoption of failed western church practices brought in by westerners with checkbooks (If you don’t believe me, just read "The Heavenly Man"). Another thing which struck me was this person’s answer to my question regarding religious persecution. His response was enlightening. "The authorities don’t care what you believe. They only care what you practice," he said. Believers in China, he noted, have a constitutional right to freedom of religion ("belief"), but NOT to freedom of practice. Chinese believers, he noted, can openly profess Christianity and openly read their Bibles. What they CANNOT do is meet in unauthorized gatherings such as prayer groups, Bible studies or house churches. Belief is one thing; practice is something else. I am stunned by the reality that the Communist authorities in China understand a profound truth which seems to have escaped the attention of most Western Christians: "It makes no difference what you believe, if what you believe makes no difference." You might want to re-read that last statement and allow it’s full impact to settle in. Here in the Postmodern West, traditional Christianity (primarily in its institutional expression) has been mostly written off as irrelevant by our Postmodern Culture, in large part because we "believe" a lot, but we "do" very little. Twenty five years ago Dr. Francis Schaeffer taught us that "ideas have consequences," or as the writer of Proverbs says, "as he thinks within himself, so is he" (Proverbs 23:7). Unable to stop people from thinking or believing, the Chinese government has simply forbidden people from living and/or expressing what they believe. In the West, without coercion from anyone, we have simply taught people that abstract "belief" is sufficient - it gets you into heaven, and what more could you want. We express that abstract belief in abstract church services which leave you feeling good but which don’t go anywhere. It’s enough to simply meet. If you think I’m being overly analytical or critical on this point, then you really should read "Jim & Casper Go To Church". One of Matt Casper’s (the atheist) observations in nearly EVERY church they attended and analyzed was, "When do you get around to telling people to DO things?" Allow me to quote from the book: "Casper simply could not imagine Jesus telling his followers that the most important thing they should be doing is holding church services. And yet this was the only logical conclusion he was able to come to based upon what he’d observed. If people who had never heard of Jesus wanted to see what Christians were most interested in, they would probably start their search in some of the same churches we visited. ‘If that’s where they started, they would have to conclude that Jesus’ number one priority was that Christians invest the very best of their energy and their money into putting on a huge church service - a killer show, as it were,’ said Casper. ‘Jim, is this what Jess told you guys to do?’" Ideas without consequences and belief without practice are like salt that has become tasteless (Matthew 5:13). And our culture understands that it makes no difference what you believe, if what you believe makes no difference.

Fasting To End Hunger In Spokane

Our "Fasting To End Hunger" campaign is going well, and Feed Spokane is growing. I want to thank the many of you who have told me that you are praying for me during this time. I am on my 18^th day (Saturday) as I write this. Every prolonged fast affects me differently. In the past I have had a wide array of physical symptoms. I even lost the use of my left arm once. It cleared up within a week of ending the fast. This time it’s my back. It hurts. My muscles are adjusting and the spasms are painful. I would appreciate your prayers. But beyond me, pray that God will use this time as a "challenge" to the many Christians and Churches who are watching all of this at "arms length," wondering what to make of it all. I have received several phone calls from churches wanting to get involved in helping out, but compared to the number of Churches in our area (over 500) the response has been minuscule. My prayer continues to be that God will ignite a grassroots wildfire of concern for the hungry, homeless and otherwise marginalized people in our community. As I asked a recent gathering of ministry leaders in the city, do we really think Jesus would be upset if we chose to celebrate His Resurrection this Easter by simply obeying His commands to feed, clothe, house and otherwise serve the poor of our community (a la Matthew 25:31ff). It makes no difference what you believe (about the resurrection) if what you believe makes no difference in the lives of "the least of these".

To Conference or Not To Conference; That Is The Question!

While I was at the CMA Conference in Ontario a couple of weeks ago I had time to talk with Neil Cole, Wolfgang Simson and Neil Gamble about coming to Spokane in July (preferably late July, as I have a family obligation in North Carolina the first 2 weeks of July) to do a house church/organic church conference. All three men are graciously willing to put us on their schedule and come. However, upon reflection, I am conflicted. The haunting question is, "Why come?". Wolfgang Simson was here 3 years ago, and quite frankly, I don’t see that anything has changed since then. No reflection on Wolf. The problem seems to be here. We "believe" but we don’t "do". Apparently, it makes no difference what we here in Spokane believe about simple house church, because what we here in Spokane believe about simple house church doesn’t seem to be making any perceptible difference. Neil Cole put it this way: "Spokane is a very prophetic area where everyone wants to prophesy, but no one ever does anything." I was taken aback when Neil said this, not because he was wrong, but because he had absolutely NAILED a significant part of our problem. Allow me to state it differently, "It makes no difference what you prophesy, if what you prophesy makes no difference"!

So, I am publicly conflicted and want your input. Quite frankly, I am NOT inclined to invite them to come, UNLESS at least two things take place. First, I want a clear indication from everyone involved that the purpose of such a gathering would be 1) to train & equip house church planters for doing the work, 2) to actually plant new house churches, and 3) to encourage and challenge the growth and multiplication of existing house churches. Second, I want a clear indication by everyone who is genuinely interested in seeing this happen to financially underwrite the event. Arrangements need to be made, tickets would need to be purchased, traveling expenses covered, etc. We do not have the financial resources to do this alone, and without a strong up-front financial commitment by you, it simply isn’t going to happen. So, there you have it. I would like to hear from you (use the "REPLY" function in your e-mail to respond). What I hear will largely determine what we do.

Just For Fun - My Favorite Recent Videos

O.K., time to lighten up! If you missed this guy, you really missed a treat! Terry Fator is probably the most talented ventriloquist alive today, and the amazing thing is no one knew about him until he appeared on "America’s Got Talent". He absolutely stole the show and even impressed Piers Morgan. And yes, he won the competition. Try a sample, and you’ll be addicted! Here’s a couple:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTSFhIv9bYg&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvBbVFiFy5w&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyT_hfbyTHE&feature=related

You have to listen to this one! From the mouths of babes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCdZwitrNoY&feature=related

 

Next House Church Gathering  - Friday Evening February 29th