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 August 10, 2005

"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:
Post Cards From The Edge of a Post Christian Post Modern Culture
A Kingdom, A People and A River
“The Church Without Walls” Radio Program
Wolfgang Simson House Church Conference Page On Website

Dear Friends,

Again, sorry I haven’t been more consistent with these letters. This one should make up for a couple (at least in length). It has turned into a busy summer, and I think we have only touched a small part of what God is doing! Our daily radio program is again on the air and the audio files for the first two weeks should be posted on the website by this weekend.

Blessings,

Maurice

Post Cards From The Edge of a Post Christian Post Modern Culture

"I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it, I see everything else."-C.S. Lewis

Post Cards Next Issue!

A Kingdom, A People & A River

The God of all creation has always been about three things in this world. First, He has always been about establishing a Kingdom of righteousness and peace. Second, He has always been about calling out a people who would love, worship and obey Him. In return He would love, bless and rule over them as both Shepherd and King. Third, God has always been about empowering His called out people to serve Him by pouring out a spiritual River of His power, presence and blessing. These three great purposes of God have guided all He has done throughout all the ages of man. And in these “last days” these three great purposes are finding their culmination in a simple message: “The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe the good news.” And therein lies a story of a Kingdom, a people and a River.

Audacious Praying & Sacrificial Worship

“Thy Kingdom Come” & Audacious Praying

Do you know how to pray ? Jesus’ disciples didn’t, and there in lies a story. The phrase “Thy Kingdom Come” is part of perhaps the most famous pray er in all of history, known to us as “The Lord’s Prayer.” When terrorists bombed the London subway system in mid-2005, survivors told stories of hearing other survivors reciting The Lord’s Prayer in the midst of the horror. In perhaps the greatest crisis of their adult lives they remembered and recited a pray er which they probably learned in their childhood. What we refer to as The Lord’s Prayer was Jesus’ response to a simple request on the part of His disciples, “And it came about that while He was pray ing in a certain place, after He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray . . . .” (Luke 11:1) As good Jews, the disciples knew about pray er. They had grown up with pray er in their homes and in the synagogue all their lives. But when they saw and heard Jesus pray , they knew something was different. What Jesus modeled in pray er was very different from what they were accustomed to in their own experience, and so they asked Him to teach them how to pray .

There is much talk today about pray er. It is even “fashionable” to call oneself an “intercessor.” You can take video classes on pray er. You can subscribe to magazines dedicated to pray er. You can join internet-based pray er organizations, or attend workshops about turning your house into a “lighthouse of pray er.” But if we are to see heaven moved and our neighborhoods transformed, pray er must be more than a book, class, workshop, magazine, conference or program. Prayer (along with fasting) must become a personal priority, a discipline in our personal lives and the life breath of our house churches. Our house churches must become houses of pray er

I believe that the greatest work of the Church on earth is intercession. And the true measure of any church (house church or otherwise), like that of a man (or woman), is the measure of the time spent in pray er and intercession before the Throne of Grace. Intercessory pray er is the life-breath of the Church. It precedes evangelism, missions, works of kindness and all other worthwhile activities. It is the God-appointed means of calling down His power and His blessings upon the Church and the world, and has been the necessary forerunner of every great revival, renewal and awakening in the history of the Church. A Christian or a Church that does not pray and intercede is like a body that does not breathe. Sooner or later its life will be in doubt.

Every believer pray s, but not all believers persevere and prevail in pray er the way the disciples saw Jesus pray . So, when Jesus taught them to pray in Luke 11:1ff we shouldn’t be surprised that he taught them to pray “audaciously,” “I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs” (Luke 11:8). The Greek word translated “persistence” in this verse (anaideia) carries the sense of “recklessness” or “shamelessness”, hence, “audacity”. Then, in Luke 18:1 Jesus reminded them of the importance of persevering in pray er, “Now He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart.” As a result, the early church learned and applied that lesson. Meeting in the upper room in Acts 1:14 they “were continually devoting (i.e., persevering) themselves to pray er.”

All of this begs a question: What persistent, audacious pray ers are you pray ing for God’s moving in your house church network, in your neighborhood or in your city? Not the “platform pray ers” intended to impress those we pray with, but the closet pray ers of broken-hearted desperation. People who pray “God give me this city” in public aren’t usually pray ing such pray ers in private. How do I know this? Because those who have approached the Throne of Grace and touched the golden scepter with audacious, heaven-shattering pray ers in private know better than to make a public show. So, allow me to ask again. What audacious pray ers are you pray ing? If your house church network has ten fellowships in it are you asking God for 100? If it has 100 are you pray ing for 1,000? What irreconcilably broken marriages are you pray ing for God to redeem (my list is long and growing); what seemingly unbreakable drug addiction or other bondage are you asking God to shatter (if you don’t know of any, I’ll be glad to send you my list). What seemingly impossible and hopeless medical condition are you imploring Jehovah-ropha (the Lord our Healer) to touch and heal.

Reliable studies regarding the devotional habits of pastors indicate that the average traditional church pastor spends an average of 22 minutes per day in pray er. And I don’t think that 22 minutes a day really qualifies as either persistent or audacious. I went through four years of Seminary training, even serving on the adjunct faculty of the Seminary, without ever taking a single course, workshop or seminar on the importance of fasting and pray er for successful ministry. So, it should therefore come as no surprise that most contemporary church ministry looks and acts like little more than the sum total of its human parts (or as a visitor to an American church recently observed, “It’s amazing what you people can accomplish without the Holy Spirit!”). If our house church ministries are to prosper and to grow long-term, then they must represent more than the sum of men’s best efforts. We must learn to fast and to pray and to intercede, or we will fail.

In Chapter 2 (“The New Engines of Change”) of his book Mega Shift, Jim Rutz identifies several “engines of change” in the worldwide move of God through house churches. These “engines of change” which God is using around the world to build His Kingdom include Intercessory Prayer (#1), On-Site Prayer (#7) and Fasting (#8). But all of these expressions of pray er and intercession which he describes ( pray er journeys, pray er battles, covering- pray er stations, pray er walks), and which we need to practice in our house church ministries, have one thing in common. They all assume that individual Christians are spending significant time (more than 22 minutes per day!) alone in pray er, fasting and intercession with God. Do you really want to go into strategic level spiritual warfare and pray er battle for your neighborhood or community without already having spent significant time alone with God in pray er & fasting & personal repentance?

If we want our house churches to be vessels and channels for the River of God’s Spirit as it begins to flow in our day; if we want our house churches to be places where the Kingdom Presence and Power of God dwell, and where all of the gifts of His Spirit operate with the result that believers are built up in their faith, unbelievers are redeemed, and the Kingdom of God grows in peace, righteousness and miraculous power, then we must become a people who devote themselves to pray er, fasting and intercession.

So, let me ask once again. Do you know how to pray ? Better yet, are you pray ing audacious pray ers for the coming move of God’s Spirit in your city through house churches? Are you marking off the boundaries of your neighborhood with pray er & fasting? Do the late night or early morning hours find you alone with God in the pray erful pleading of audacious pray ers, imploring the God of heaven to send the River of His Spirit to flow in fresh power to redeem, renew and transform your house church, your neighborhood and your community?

Fasting & Sacrificial Worship

Those close to our ministry know my heart for fasting and pray er. It represents a calling given to me 10 years ago (this month), to fast and pray for the coming move of God’s Spirit in spiritual awakening and renewal. I have written and spoken on it frequently, yet after all this time the Holy Spirit still challenges me with new things which make me slap my forehead and say, “Of Course! Why didn’t I see that before?” During a recent fasting season I found myself asking God the perennial “Why” question, “Lord, why are you calling me to do this? What’s it all about?” The answer was swift in coming and powerful in its impact (at least, on me), “You are engaging in a sacrificial act of worship before me.” I could write the rest of this newsletter (plus a couple more) on the ripple effects of that one simple word from God. If your paradigm of fasting up til now has been one of “fasting-to-get-something-from-God” (i.e., answers to pray er for difficult situations, etc.) then this word could turn your fasting experience upside down. Think about it for a moment. At a surface level we fast because we want something. We want God to hear and answer our pray ers (FYI - that’s a legitimate purpose for fasting!). But at a more profound level, fasting means to offer up to God a sacrificial act of worship. And there in lies a lesson.

Most of us (notice, I said “us”) spend our Christian lives engaging in “cheap worship.” The worship band fires up and we sing our favorite hymns or contemporary worship songs (personally, I’ve been blessed recently by Michael W. Smith’s “Worship”) and we talk about “wonderful worship” and experiencing God’s Presence. But at the end of the day, it has been “cheap worship” because it hasn’t cost us anything, except our time and the cost of over-priced CDs. Now, does God love the “sacrifice of praise”? Of course He does. But do you know what He loves more? Sacrificial praise, and sacrificial worship. Worship that costs us something, like genuine fasting offered up as a sacrificial act of worship. Occasionally we need to ask ourselves what type of worship we are practicing and modeling, in our lives and in our house churches. Personally, I look forward with anticipation to the day when fasting and other forms of sacrificial worship are part of the pray er and worship DNA of our house churches.

When Something of God Touches Something of Man

I was recently challenged by a statement from Wolfgang Simson , that whenever something of God touches something of man (a man-made institution or structure) there is a conflict. I realize that this is probably “old stuff” for most of you, but it was an “aha!” moment for me. As I processed what I had heard and began to pray over it and apply it to revival and to house church it dawned on me that our day is not the first time that the new thing of God has touched the old thing of man, resulting in such conflict. In fact, the same thing happened in the ministry of Jesus. We can see this happening Matthew 21:14-15: “And the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple and He healed them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that He had done, and the children who were crying out in the temple and saying, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David,’ they became indignant.” Do you get indignant when God does a new & unexpected thing that challenges your old, accepted and comfortable thing? Well, you aren’t alone. It happened to the Jewish religious establishment of Jesus day. It was a new season of God’s gracious dealings in the lives of His chosen people. His eternal Son now lived among them and was doing “wonderful things” (the Greek word is thaumasios meaning “something marvelous to gaze at in wonder and amazement”) such as healing the sick, making the lame walk, the blind see and the dead rise. And the religious leadership saw the wonderful things that He had done, and yet their response wasn’t to rejoice that God was moving in their midst! Instead, they became indignant. Now our friend Mr. Webster defines “indignant” as “to consider something as unworthy or improper, to be displeased at, feeling or expressing anger or scorn.” In other words the religious leaders of Jesus day saw the wonderful, miraculous things Jesus was doing in their midst and their response was to regard it all as somehow “improper.” They were displeased with Jesus. They responded to Him with anger and scorn. You see the new thing of God had touched the old thing of man, and the old thing of man, the old religious system, was unable to accept it. God was moving in great power, but the old wineskin was unable to receive the new wine. Well, after seeing this lesson in Scripture you would think that Christians today would know better than to respond the way the Jewish religious leaders of Jesus’ day responded, with indignation and anger at the new thing God is doing in our midst, but some old responses die hard. When this coming new move of God unfolds in our midst we will see this conflict repeated as the new thing of God touches and challenges the old thing of man. We saw this happen during the Toronto Blessing season (not to mention during every great revival of the past 250 years) How are you responding to the new things God is doing through house churches and other new expressions of “ekklesia”? If you haven’t passed through the “indignant” stage yet, it probably just means that the new thing of God simply hasn’t yet touched one of your own “old things of man”. When that happens, how will you respond?

Update From The Off Broadway Family Outreach

Greetings from the Off Broadway Family Outreach, a house church outreach to the West Central neighborhood of Spokane associated with The Parousia Network! Here’s a “quick” update of what’s happening!

Monday Nights At Off Broadway

Due to the beautiful summer weather, and our on-going desire to connect with the neighborhood, we began holding our Monday night Off Broadway meetings in Cannon Park in the West Central Neighborhood. As a result, more neighborhood residents have joined us and we are growing! If you would like to come and join us, we’re meeting at the east end of the park near the swimming pool and parking lot (opposite end from the Community Center). We start around 6:30 PM every Monday and would love to have you or a friend join us for an evening of fellowship with the extended Off Broadway Family.

Vacation Bible School In West Central (Help!)

With some help from a local Christian businessman, the Off Broadway Family Outreach is sponsoring a Vacation Bible School for children ages 5-12 (Kindergarten through middle school). The dates for the VBS are Monday – Friday, August 15-19, from 10:00 AM till 12:30 . A free lunch will be provided all children. The location will be in the Newton Lounge in the West Central Community Center. For more information contact Jan Foland 998-2630. We are still looking for around 6 more adults who would like to help out (mainly with “crowd control” and supervision, as the program is already “planned and manned”). If you could help out a couple of days for 3 hours, please let us know by contacting Jan Foland at 998-2630. This is an excellent opportunity to connect with kids (and their parents) in the neighborhood!

Pray For Us!

Ministry in West Central is more extensive than we can describe in a quick update. We are working with numerous people stuck in the drug lifestyle who are asking for help out, women caught up in drugs and domestic abuse and children who are living in dysfunctional environments that would break your heart (as it does ours). But there is hope in Christ and in being part of a house church family that cares. Pray for us. We have needs for furniture for struggling families (coffee table, chairs, sofas, beds, etc.). We are pray ing for a ladies house for women coming out of drugs and abuse (and mature Christian women who want to mentor them). And yes, we have financial needs. We must pay for the same things you do, plus ministry expenses, so keep us and these needs in your pray ers.

If You Need To Contact Us!

If you need to contact the Off Broadway Leadership team, here are the numbers:

Larry Whiston – 998-4096

Jan Foland – 998-2630

Maurice Smith – 475-8797

“The Church Without Walls” Radio Program

Yes! We have re-started our daily radio program “The Church Without Walls”! The program airs daily at 9:00AM on station KTRW (AM970). I hope those of you in the local area will tune in & listen. We are also beginning to post the programs as MP3 files on our website so that everyone who wants to (regardless of where you live) can access them through our website. Much of this month’s programs consist of edited clips from our recent Wolfgang Simson conference here in Spokane ! Also, the Lord has indicated prophetically that the financial resources to fund the program will come “from inside.” I think this means He wants YOU to be involved in making this program an on-going reality. Would you please pray erfully consider what role God might have you play in financially supporting the program? Then send me an e-mail to radio@parousianetwork.com and let me know. Include your contact info and I will get in touch with you (or you can simply donate directly using the information on our website at the bottom of the site menu). PRAY FOR US IN THIS VENTURE!

Wolfgang Simson House Church Conference Page On Website

O.K. We now have the Wolfgang Simson Conference page up and available with photos from the weekend and downloadable audio files! Go to our website (www.parousianetwork.com) and follow the link on the Site Menu.

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