In This Issue:

 

Money, Holiness, Power & Choices

"You Wanna Do What In Your House?!"

A Gathering Of House Church Planters

Next House Church Gathering Friday, April 18th

Money, Holiness,  Power & Choices

 

Not too long ago in this political season I watched conservative commentator Pat Buchanan on "Hardball" with Chris Matthews. Chris Matthews (who makes Hammy the Squirrel from "Over The Hedge" look & sound tame) put Buchanan on the spot, and it went something like this:  Matthews: "So, Pat, I'm Thomas Torquemada (the Grand Inquisitor of the Spanish Inquisition) and I've got you on the torture rack and I'm turning the screws. You have to make a choice. Hillary or Obama. Which will it be? What's your choice?!" Buchanan: "What's my choice? I say, 'Keep turning the screws'!". Now that's funny! O.K., what's all this got to do with house church, you ask? Good question, Grasshopper. Nothing, actually. But it does highlight how difficult some choices can be. And that's what I want to talk about: the difficult choice which is about to confront the house church movement. And as Ricky would say, "Lucy, you've got a lot of  'splainin to do!"

 

Those of you who are regular long-time victims, er, readers of this newsletter already know some of my thoughts on what I regard as the coming spiritual outpouring. My last letter on this topic was my letter for September 19 (I am in the process of combining all of my e-letters on this topic into a single paper which I will post on our website). Based upon recent events it is my personal conviction that we are now within weeks of seeing the beginning of an historic move of God. I do not base that on what I call "echo prophecies," echoing what other people may be saying. I attempt to block out that chorus of echoes, get alone with God and simply ask the question, "What are You doing, and what do You want us to do in response?" Based upon what I have heard and am now hearing, I believe we are on the eve of the greatest spiritual outpouring of the past 100 years. Could I be wrong? Of course. Only time will tell for certain. But this newsletter is my latest installment in a series of newsletters dating back to January of 2003 in which I have sought to articulate what I believe the Holy Spirit is saying about this coming move. Simply put, I believe the River of God's Spirit, the River of Ezekiel 47 is about to flow in unimaginable power and blessing, and I believe His chosen channel for this Season is the organic, simple house church movement.  Furthermore, I believe that it is in preparation for that Outpouring that He is laying before His people some profound choices which will radically alter and shape both the Outpouring and the vessels.

 

That's the background. Here's what I am sensing now. Over the past several weeks I've found myself fighting several spiritual battles. I won't bore you with most of them, save two. First, at the end of last month my wife and I were having coffee together in my "office" (The Service Station in north Spokane) on a Sunday morning (worshiping in the "First Church of The Holy Coffee Bean")  with a mature prophetic person in our house church. In the midst of our conversation Randy turned to me and said, "Hmmm, I'm sensing that this next month is going to be a tough month for you guys financially." My first response was to mutter "false prophet - that's the caffeine talking". But now that we are mid-way through that prophesied month (and, yes, things are brutally tight) I can honestly say that he was right on.  As my wife and I reflected on what God is doing through this, I noted to her, "This isn't about money. We've seen enough of God's miraculous provision over the past year that we know He can provide. So it isn't about the money. It's about something else. What is it about us that He's working to change?" As this coming move unfolds I am personally reminded that God is more concerned with our character than He is with our comfort; and it is more often the case that our character & faith are built through seasons of need than through seasons of prosperity (Sorry, Joel Osteen, but you really don't have a clue!).

 

The second spiritual battle relating to this approaching season of visitation also unfolded this month. For the past couple of weeks I have sensed and have wrestled with a powerful "spirit of uncleanness" (as Dr. Phil would say, "You either get it or you don't"). It has been both intense and, well, nasty. Finally, this week, after I returned home from an evening outreach, I collapsed into a chair with my Bible and began crying out to God for insight into what this is all about. He led me back to a familiar passage in Isaiah Chapter 6 (see my two newsletters for August 29 and September 19). As I re-read that familiar passage I noticed something new that I hadn't paid attention to before. Note verse 5: "Then I said, 'Woe is me for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.'"  Spiritual "uncleanness" is not new, but it does get powerfully revealed when God begins to move. I have written elsewhere (see my newsletter for August 22) that in this coming move I believe God wants to bring His church into an Isaiah 6 experience of His holiness. Why? Because, as I understood in a fresh way this week, God wants a "clean" church, a "clean" vessel through which to flow. But just as Isaiah saw 2,600 years ago, the people of God today are "unclean". We are "unclean" people, and we dwell among other "unclean" people. It took me two full weeks of wrestling and harassment with an "unclean spirit" to finally understand what is happening. The three DNA markers of this coming move are going to be 1) Holiness & the fear of God, 2) Repentance, and 3) Intimacy. The first two of these address the issue of becoming a "clean" vessel through which the River of God can flow. The third represents the result of the first two. Holiness & repentance lay the foundation for genuine intimacy with God. They always have, and today is no different.

 

Making Choices

 

O.K., by now you may be saying to yourself, "This newsletter has more loose threads than a cheap Mexican blanket". So let me see if I can now tie it all together. As this coming Spiritual Outpouring approaches, an Outpouring which I believe is going to transform the simple house church movement into a genuine vessel of God's Presence and Power, God is confronting us with some basic choices. The first basic choice is going to be a choice between money & holiness. Please hear me clearly: In the Kingdom of God, it's never about money. It's always about what God is seeking to accomplish in our lives - what godly Christ-like character quality He is working to build in us.  Why? Because He knows better than we do that we will destroy with our character what we build with our gifts. Allow me to give a recent, heart breaking example.

 

My friend Doug recently returned from a trip to Maui (where his family lives and does property development). While there he was invited to attend the "Maui School of Supernatural Ministry" at a local community center. It seems that the person leading the "school" had bought a complete set of DVDs which entitled him to show the DVDs and offer his own "School of Supernatural Ministry" at which you too could learn how to do "supernatural ministry." The DVDs were produced by a church in California which licenses the schools and the DVDs. And all for only $6,995.00! O.K. excuse me while I take my gloves off for a moment. First, if you genuinely think that you can receive divine anointing & power for supernatural ministry from a set of overpriced (and poorly produced DVDs) then I've got an old "Reverend Ike prayer cloth" I'd like to send you. You can have it for free, and I can assure you that it has at least as much "anointing" left in it as those DVDs you want to buy. Second, if you can fleece God's people for $6,995.00 in exchange for $100 worth of DVDs & packaging and then talk with a straight face about how God is "blessing" your ministry, then you have already made your choice between holiness and money . . . and I fear for you in this coming move. You are about to destroy with your character whatever you had hoped to build with your gift.

 

This example also serves to illustrate the next choice God is placing before His people in this coming move; the choice between power & holiness. There is a great deal of talk today about an outpouring of "spiritual power" in the last days. Most talk about any coming revival seems to quickly gravitate toward prophecies of "great spiritual power" manifesting in miracles, signs & wonders, etc, etc, etc. Allow me to offer a different scenario. God's desire in the coming Spiritual Outpouring is NOT for a powerful church, but for a holy & repentant one. Toward this end, God is offering His people a choice: Choose & seek "spiritual power" and the result will be "false fire" and "fire on ice" (like overpriced DVDs promising to turn your community center into a "school of supernatural ministry"). Choose holiness & fear, repentance & intimacy and you will, in fact, experience God's supernatural power in ways that will take your breath away. But it will be on His terms. Not yours.

 

Choices are not new to the organic house church movement. In a very real sense, involvement in the organic, simple house church movement has always been about choices. One of the first choices those of us in this movement have made is a choice regarding the structure of how we do church. We have chosen a different structure that is less institutional and more organic. Church isn't about buildings, programs or structure. Genuine church or "ekklesia" can happen anywhere and is not structure-dependent. But merely changing the structure (or location) of where and how we meet isn't enough. The second choice which normally faces organic church people involves "structure" versus "values". Structure is often the expression of a value, and your values will eventually shape your structure. To paraphrase Winston Churchill, we begin by shaping our buildings, but eventually our buildings shape us. Changing a structure without changing the underlying values which gave rise to that structure will create an inevitable tension that must eventually be resolved. Often that resolution is a "Honey, I shrunk the church" moment in which we realize that we are simply doing big institutional church in a smaller box. In our new house church equipping book, "You Wanna Do What In Your House?!" we list and compare 15 "Values" which distinguish simple house churches from traditional institutional churches (See "Question 8: Hey, What's So Special About Meeting In Houses, Anyway?"). But let's assume for now that you have successfully confronted these first two choices. You've changed your structure, and you have been able to articulate your new organic church values. You are meeting regularly. Things are going well. Prayer & worship are going well, spiritual gifts are beginning to come forward and you are ministering to one another. There's even some growth taking place. You're actually beginning to look and feel like a 1 Corinthians 14 house church gathering. The good news is that you've come a long way. But the challenge is that you still have two critical choices yet to make if you want to become that vessel, that channel, through which the River of God's Spirit can flow unimpeded in this coming move.

 

"You Wanna Do What In Your House?!"

Finally! Over a year ago I began collecting "frequently asked house church questions". Some of you even helped out by submitting questions of your own. I spent considerable time massaging and editing those questions into a book which is now finished and at the printer. The book is entitled "You Wanna Do What In Your House?!: Straight Answers To Your Most Frequently Asked Questions About House Church". As the title suggests, the book is set in a Q&A format and contains 47 questions and answers, and over 30 original illustrations (done by my brilliantly artistic better half!). The second half of the book is a REVISED evangelistic bible study in the 7 signs of John’s gospel, designed to help you plant a house church with a group of new people. In other words, this book is a bicycle that comes complete with a set of training wheels (use of training wheels optional based on experience)! The book is at the printer and we anticipate having copies ready for distribution within about 3 weeks. So, now is your opportunity to preview the book and pre-order your copy! On our website we have posted the cover, along with a PDF file of the Table of Contents & Introduction for you to see (and, YES, this link actually works, as opposed to the previous one which was defective - sorry!). Go to http://www.parousianetwork.org/Book_Order_Page.htm 

A Gathering For House Church Planters - Saturday, May 3, 2008

If you are serious about planting house churches in this coming move of God's Spirit, then I hope you can join us for a gathering on Saturday evening, May 3. The purpose of this gathering is to come together as house churches and house church leaders and to seek God for His strategy for planting multiplying house churches throughout our area. Our plan is to eat together, pray & worship together, to share what God is telling us about what He wants to do in our area and to find ways to cooperate and mutually encourage each other. The plan is to meet in the home of Al & Patty West (directions will again be posted on our website), to have a potluck dinner and to see where God leads us. And you are invited. So, we hope you will put this time on your schedule: 6:00PM, Saturday, May 3. Bring something to eat & share, and something from the Lord you believe He wants to share with us as a group. If you have any questions, feel free to call or e-mail me (509-928-3360).

Next House Church Gathering  - Friday Evening April 18th