"The first response of a group in seeking to form
a community is most often to try to fake it. The members
attempt to be an instant community by being extremely
pleasant with one another and avoiding all disagreement.
This attempt - this pretense of community - is what I term
‘pseudo-community.’" -Peck
By the close of the first day we were fully
engaged in "pseudo-community." While great stuff was being
shared, we were missing the point of why we had come in the
first place, and an underlying frustration and tension was
building.
"The essential dynamic of pseudo community is
conflict avoidance. The absence of conflict in a group is
not by itself diagnostic. Genuine community may experience
lovely and sometimes lengthy periods free from conflict. But
that is because they have learned how to deal with conflict
rather than avoid it. Pseudo-community is conflict-avoiding;
true community is conflict-resolving." -
Peck
As I told my wife when I called home later that
evening, "It’s been great, but we haven’t spent any time
listening. We’ve spent the whole time talking." We had
"successfully" avoided conflict, but we had set ourselves up
for the chaos which would characterize our time together the
following day. I discovered later that several key leaders
had actually considered catching an early plane home after
the first day. This wasn’t what they had interrupted their
busy schedules to come for. I understood and shared their
sense of frustration. But even in the midst of this furtive
exercise in "pseudo-community" God had still spoken.
Wolfgang shared that he sensed God desiring to move us from
"independence" to "dependency". And Marilyn shared that she
saw a picture of a baby that was partially born from the
waist up (hinting that God wanted to complete that birth
during our time together. Hmmm.) God was in fact casting
pearls before us (nope, don’t go there) but it would take
another day of chaos before we would begin to string them
together.
A Journey Into Chaos
"Chaos is not just a state, it is an essential
part of the process of community development. Consequently,
unlike pseudo-community, it does not simply go away as soon
as the group becomes aware of it."
"In the stage of chaos individual differences are,
unlike those in pseudo-community, right out in the open.
Only now, instead of trying to hide or ignore them, the
group is attempting to obliterate them. Underlying [these]
attempts to heal and convert is not so much the motive of
love as the motive to make everyone normal - and the
motive to win as the members fight over whose norm might
prevail."
"Christian chaos" is an interesting phenomenon to
watch. What often sets us apart from the unbeliever when it
comes to resolving chaos is not our faith, but the seemingly
"spiritual" nature of our attempts to "heal, convert &
normalize". When in doubt, act spiritual. Our second day
(Thursday) began with frustration and "Christian chaos". The
effort to "heal, convert & normalize" came it several forms.
First, it was suggested that we all pray in the same way by
praying aloud ("in unison") while walking about. After this
exercise John White (house church coach from Denver) was
asked to share about what it means to pray Luke 10:2b, ".
. . therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out
laborers into His harvest." John and his team have had
an awesome response from praying this prayer daily for well
over a year. So, did either of these exercises "heal,
convert & normalize" the chaos. Not really, although both
were good spiritual exercises. There was more interaction.
Marilyn asked why there were not more wives present, and
what the role of women was in house church. This led to more
good discussion and an observation by Felicity Dale that the
body of Christ suffers from "hemiplegia" (paralysis on one
side of the body) because of its exclusion of women. Late in
the morning God gave a prophetic word to the group through a
friend of Wolfgang named Eric Reber, a prophet from
Switzerland. The word was two pronged. First, God asked
Eric, "Are you ready for me to begin writing church
history through you?" Second, God led Eric to Acts 17:6,
"These men who have turned the world upside down have
come here also . . ." Eric shared that when he entered
the house that morning the Lord directed his eyes to a
walking stick in the hallway which had the reference "Acts
17:6" carved into it. Eric took the stick and told the group
that God wanted to turn this gathering into a people who
would write church history and turn the world upside down.
The response of the group to this word was subdued at best.
God was speaking - more pearls - but we simply weren’t in a
place to hear. That’s what happens when you’re in chaos. So,
what do we do when chaos erupts? We try to organize!
"It is true that organization is a solution to
chaos. Indeed, that is the primary reason for organization:
to minimize chaos. The trouble is, however, that
organization and community are also incompatible . . . . But
an organization is able to nurture a measure of community
within itself only to the extent that it is willing to risk
or tolerate a certain lack of structure. As long as the goal
is community-building, organization as an attempted solution
to chaos is an unworkable solution."
It was announced that we would now break into
three small groups to discuss what we had "heard" so far. As
we broke up, Wolf, who was sitting beside Eric and behind
me, handed me the walking stick and said, "This is for
you. Meditate on this." I had already been struck by the
prophetic word and sensed that God was telling all of us
what He wanted to do and why we were really there. The
question was, would we listen?
Our small group was facilitated by John White
(along with Mike Steele) of DAWN ministries. Others in our
group included Mike & Marilyn Philips (marriage ministry),
Abraham & Mareke Meulenberg from Amsterdam (yep, flew in
just for this), and Pat Robertson of Cityteam. You’ll have a
hard time finding a more gifted facilitator and coach than
John White (thanks again, friend). As we began our time the
sense of frustration with what was taking place (or not
taking place) was evident. Was God speaking to us or not?
Was everyone being valued and heard from or not? The
discussion was wide-ranging and productive. At one point I
suggested that God was indeed speaking. I offered the
illustration of my daughter who, when she was young, used to
spend hours with a box of multi-colored beads, stringing
them together to form necklaces and bracelets. God was
speaking, offering a bead (or pearl) here, another there,
and was slowly stringing together something that we could
not yet see. I also suggested that the prophetic word
regarding Acts 17:3 should play a significant role in our
discussions, asking the question: "What does God want to
say and do to us that will change us and make us the kind of
people He can use to turn the world upside down?"
After a break for lunch we reassembled to hear
reports from the various groups. I was called out of the
room for a video-taping session (virtually everyone at the
gathering was subjected to this torture, part of a video
project that House2House is working on in conjunction with
George Barna). I missed most of the group reports, including
a "conference call" with Bob Jones (yep, the prophetic guy
from Kansas City). Later, Felicity Dale shared excellent
perspectives on the role and ministry of women, elaborating
on her observation that the body is hemiplegic as long as
the ministry of women is unappreciated and undeveloped. More
discussion. Much of Thursday afternoon, quite frankly, is a
blur to me now. But what stood out was an attempt by Neil
Cole to help resolve some of the chaos by sharing thoughts
and perspectives on leadership. The chaos in the meeting was
so great that Neil literally got shut down by the group! I
have never seen that happen before! And the look of surprise
on Neil’s face as he sat down told me that it was a
relatively new experience for him too!
The day ended with all of us going back to our
small groups in what I could only interpret as a hope that
the chaos would somehow be organized and resolved there.
When our group gathered under John’s (and Mike’s)
leadership, John guided the discussion toward answering a
question: "Who have we not heard from that we want to
hear from?" This question and the discussion which
followed led us to a new place. Mareke, from Holland, began
to share that there were many people in the large meeting
who were being left out. They were not sharing, nor were
they being sought out. The discussion was being dominated by
the strong personalities who had lots to share. As we
discussed this we came to an agreement that John and Mareke
would approach Tony Dale and the other leadership with the
suggestion that we spend some time hearing from people who
had not yet shared.
That evening, after dinner, I phoned my wife to
give her an update as to what was going on (our house church
intercessors back home were praying for our time). I told
Gale that this was the "most successful failure" I
had ever been a part of! Successful in that there was much
fruitful discussion by gifted people. But a failure because
we seemed to have missed the purpose for which we had come .
. . to listen and hear from God. But that was about to
change.
The Journey Into Emptiness . . . And Beyond
Scott Peck gives four steps on the journey to
genuine community: 1) Pseudo-community; 2) Chaos; 3)
Emptiness and 4) Genuine Community. We had experienced the
first two, and God in His faithfulness was about to lead us
through the third and into the fourth. But there was still
work to be done.
The next morning I was blessed to spend time over
breakfast with Wolfgang Simson, Neil Gamble, Eric Reber and
Hamilton Filmalter (an amazing blind healing evangelist from
South Africa who has an incredible signs & wonders ministry
among Muslims in Pakistan). Neil was frustrated and broken
because the conference had not achieved the purpose for
which God had called it - namely, to hear from Him regarding
an impartation that could only be experienced corporately.
We spent time seeking God in prayer led by Eric. Eric
prayed, Wolf wept as he found a place before the Throne of
Grace, and Neil "broke" as he heard from God what to do
next. Me? I sat there in amazement watching men I love &
respect open their hearts before God. I’ve mused that there
is a difference between a "listening post" and a "hitching
post." At one you talk to God. At the other you talk to
horses. These men were listening and talking with God. For
my part, I was having an in-depth discussion with "Mr. Ed".
Some days are just like that.
When the morning session began something happened
that I was not expecting (or at least "Mr. Ed" hadn’t
prepared me for it). Neil Gamble began to wash the feet of a
couple who had come to the conference at his invitation.
Now, mind you, I think Christians have several bad
"religious" habits. And when a meeting gets slow they
usually engage in one of these bad habits. One of those
habits is to break out a guitar and begin singing.
Fortunately, no one brought a guitar (or if they did, they
were wise enough to keep it out of sight). But another of
those religious bad habits is "foot washing". I usually
groan (sometimes audibly) and get nervous whenever the bowl
& towel come out. "Not again," I often mutter to myself. But
not this time. This was different. It was the real thing.
Neil was genuinely broken and obeying what God had told him
to do. As he washed this couple’s feet Neil repented and
asked forgiveness for having invited them to come to a
gathering which had not been what he had promised it to be.
This was a moment of "quiet thunder" when God
spoke into our gathering and changed the whole atmosphere of
the meeting. Through his broken obedience Neil brought the
entire group into a place of "emptiness," that place wherein
chaos is stilled as everyone abandons their own agendas and
expectations. In biblical terms, it is the obedience of the
broken heart that is willing to yield up its own desires and
plans in order to embrace whatever God would have them do.
The gathering now shifted gears dramatically. Tony
Dale invited John White to facilitate and coach us for the
remainder of our time together (great move!). John began
asking the question which our small group had pondered the
previous day: "Who have we not heard from that we want to
hear from?" That’s when we heard from Nina who shared
that she didn’t feel she had anything worth sharing that
anyone would want to hear. She said that she would have left
the conference feeling enriched by all she had heard and
experienced, but we pointed out to her that we as a body
would NOT have been enriched if she hadn’t shared. Next,
someone (John?) observed that all of the Type-A leaders
(people with lots to share and no hesitancy in doing so)
were sitting in the front rows, while others, particularly
the women, were sitting in the back rows. As we took a brief
break John suggested that when we re-convened we should
re-arrange our seating to reflect and accommodate those who
had not yet shared. When we re-convened after the break it
was clear that something had happened. Dominant individuals
had taken a back seat. The front seats were now occupied by
women (primarily) who had not felt free to share before. In
what followed God gave us a practical illustration of what
Francis Schaeffer meant 25 years ago when he wrote that in
the Kingdom of God there are "No Little People." Everyone
brings "value" to the house church community. Mutual
ministry includes everyone. As Scott Peck observed regarding
genuine community (yes, that would include house church),
"Community is and must be inclusive. The great enemy of
community is exclusivity. In relation to other groupings of
similar size or purpose, communities are relatively
inclusive." Inclusion, mutual ministry and honoring
those who had been "without honor" became the theme of the
day. Everyone who desired to do so was able to participate.
Karen, who had not shared previously, brought a word
regarding God’s desire for His people to become a "well
watered garden, like an ever-flowing stream" (Isaiah 58:11).
Others shared as well. David Watson (of Cityteam)
made a profound observation. He told us that he had seen
nothing in this conference so far that was not typical of
every other "church" meeting he had been a part of . . .
until now. But what we were doing now - honoring and
involving everyone equally, from the "least" to the
"greatest" - was something new and profound in the life of
the church (pretty significant coming from a world-class
leader who works with churches & ministries around the
world).
We ended our time by calling the women into the
center of the room. There was repentance for having excluded
them in the life and ministry of the church. The women
gathered around and clutched the walking stick inscribed
with Acts 17:6 (yep, it was back at the center of things!).
We as a body prayed and declared that the body of Christ
would no longer be hemiplegic (half a body), but would now
be a body with two legs that could function as God ordained.
As God had revealed to Neil Gamble in the original
vision for this gathering, He did indeed impart something
corporately, a fresh understanding of the nature of genuine
community, and a fresh appreciation of the importance of
honoring everyone in our house church community - from the
"least" to the "greatest" (if we can even use such
adjectives in this context). In the process we "heard" from
God that He was stringing together pearls of great value
into a necklace of surpassing worth in which Jesus takes the
prominent position and arranges His people in an order of
His unique design. I believe that if we as a house church
community fully "imbibe" this understanding and begin to
walk in it consistently, we will expose the lie of
pseudo-community that characterizes most "church" gatherings
(even Peck states that most churches represent
pseudo-community) and offer to believers and non-believers
alike a model of authentic community, a safe place where
everyone is equally valued because there are "No Little
People" and where they can begin to touch and taste the
powers of the Age to Come. Welcome to the Kingdom of God and
the small expression of it we call "authentic house church".
As I have written before, the River of God’s
Spirit is preparing to flow in power and blessing the likes
of which never before seen or experienced in our generation.
And He is looking for new wineskins which will receive what
He wants to do on His terms, not ours. And His terms are
that everyone participate equally in blessing, in value and
in honor as equal members of genuine house church
communities led by 5-fold individuals who understand that
their gifts are given not to rule over others, but to serve
and equip the body for the work that is to come. If we are
willing to come to that place of genuine biblical community,
we will indeed be a people whom God can anoint with power
and use to turn the world upside down. So, what about you &
your house church. Are you ready to turn the world upside
down and start writing some church history for this
generation?!