- Parousia
Weekly Update Letter For The Week of
August 24, 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
- A
House
Church
Manifesto
- “The
Church Without Walls” Radio Program
-
Wolfgang
Simson
House
Church
Conference Page On Website
-
- Dear
Friends,
-
- In
this week’s newsletter I am introducing you to something I believe God
is giving birth to, at least in me. I am calling it
“A
House
Church
Manifesto: Toward A Strategy For Rapidly
Multiplying House Churches In
Spokane
.”
It was birthed out of
Wolfgang
Simson
’s
recent (April) visit to
Spokane
.
He challenged us with a vision of seeing 10,000 house churches planted in
our area, and then went on to outline his strategy for accomplishing this
(Wolf did this in the Saturday afternoon session and the MP3 files of the
afternoon sessions are posted on our website on the Wolfgang Conference
Page). Editing these sessions for my radio program caused me to think and
pray
seriously over this material and the result is this “Manifesto”. I am
giving you the introduction in this letter with the remainder posted on
our website (see the link below). I
am soliciting your response. Please take the time to read
the entire document (which will mean following the link to our website). I
would like to hear from you (particularly those of you in the local area)
as to whether or not this rings true to you. Let’s consider this a work
in progress and
pray
together over what God might be saying to us.
-
- 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.
-
- A
House
Church
Manifesto
- “Toward
An Apostolic Strategy For Rapidly Multiplying
House Churches In
Spokane
”
-
- “Now
Elijah said to Ahab, ‘Go up, eat and drink; for there is the sound of
the roar of a heavy shower.’ So Ahab went up to eat and drink. But
Elijah went up to the top of
Carmel
;
and he crouched down on the earth, and put his face between his knees. And
he said to his servant, ‘Go up now, look
toward the sea.’ So he went up and looked and said, ‘There is nothing.
And he said, ‘Go back’ seven times. And it came about at the seventh
time, that he said, ‘Behold, a cloud as small as a
sman
hand is coming up from the sea.’ And he said, ‘Go up, say to Ahab, ‘Prepare
your chariot and go down, so that the heavy shower does not stop
you.’‘ So it came about in a little while, that the sky grew black
with clouds and wind, and there was a heavy shower. And Ahab rode and went
to Jezreel. Then the hand of the Lord was on
Elijah, and he girded up his loins and outran Ahab to Jezreel.”
(1 Kings
18:41
-46)
-
- “The
Sound Of The Roar of A Heavy Shower”
-
- In
the Spring of this year (2005) the house church
community in
Spokane
was blessed to have a weekend conference with
Wolfgang
Simson
.
I have spent considerable time since Wolfgang’s visit mulling and
pray
ing
over the things he shared, but particularly the need for a regional
strategy for how we are going to see the planting and rapid multiplication
of 10,000 new house churches in the greater
Spokane
(
Eastern
Washington
-
Northern
Idaho
)
area. To assist those interested in the house church movement to better
understand what God is doing both locally and around the world, we have
posted all of the Wolfgang Conference sessions on our website at
parousianetwork.com. I hope that you will avail yourself of that resource.
As I have listened and reflected on Wolf’s comments, I have been
particularly struck by two things. First, I was struck by a question, “How
do we prepare for a spiritual wildfire?” (i.e.,
a genuine outpouring of God’s Spirit in revival). Second, I was
struck by Wolf’s discussion of the need for a “locally birthed”
apostolic strategy (what he referred to as a “Domino Strategy”) for
seeing a local movement of rapidly multiplying house churches which, over
time, would result in the planting of upwards of 10,000 new house churches
in our area. I was also encouraged by an e-mail I received (just as I was
beginning to pen the following thoughts) from fellow house church planter
John
White
in
Denver
regarding a regional house church strategy for the
Denver
area. It suggests to me that God is moving many people in the same
direction, which is usually what happens when God is opening a new season
for His church.
-
- Most
of us are overly familiar with the story of Elijah on
Mt.
Carmel
,
but I will try to make this interesting. Starting in verse 41 of Chapter
18 (after the whole “prophets of Baal” and “fire from heaven”
incident) Elijah received and gave a prophetic word regarding a coming
rain storm, which would end the 3-year drought which Elijah had prophesied
some 3 years earlier. Elijah “knew-that-he-knew” that this drought
breaking storm was coming. His problem was a complete lack of any tangible
confirmation. So, being the prophet and ministry leader that he was,
Elijah sent his poor long-suffering servant on a climb up
Mt.
Carmel
in search of the promised but elusive rain storm. But
alas, no clouds, no storm and no confirmation. But Elijah was
persistent. “Go back,”
he instructed. But six hot, dusty & tiring trips up
Mt.
Carmel
later, still no sign of the coming storm. By the end of trip #6 up the
mountain the servant was probably thinking, “This
guy is nuts, I’m exhausted and if He tells me to do this one more time I
may just have to bury his body up here and tell everybody it was an
unfortunate climbing accident!” (Trust me,
it’s all in the nuance of the Hebrew footnotes!).But then, on trip
number seven, he saw it. “Behold,
a cloud as small as a man’s hand is coming up from the sea.”
Finally, tangible confirmation of a prophetic
promise.
-
- Do
you see it? Can you see the cloud yet?
-
- Prophesying
revival has become a cottage industry in our day, much of which needs to
be held lightly. But that caveat not withstanding, the
Pacific
Northwest
lives beneath a blanket of reliable prophetic promises that a genuine move
of God’s Spirit is coming. Many people, myself included, have in recent
months heard in our spirits what Elijah heard in his, “the
sound of the roar of a heavy shower.”
But it has been a long journey, a tough climb, and many of us are
feeling somewhat like Elijah’s poor long-suffering servant must have
felt around trip #6 up the mountain.
-
- We
have been holding a house church
pray
er
and worship gathering every Wednesday evening since last December. Our
purpose has simply been to gather, to worship and to
pray
,
and to invite & welcome God’s Presence. One of the prophetic
people in our meeting recently had a conversation with a
couple (who are not involved in house church, but are gifted prophetic
intercessors). “What are these
‘river houses’ I keep hearing from the Holy Spirit?” she
asked my prophetic friend. When he shared this with me I couldn’t help
but laugh. The Lord had told me months ago that the coming move of His
Spirit would be an outpouring of the River of Ezekiel 47 in great power
which would flow through house churches: “river
houses” if you will. What
she was hearing was confirmation of what I had been hearing and teaching.
The
River
of
God
’s
Spirit is about to flow, and house churches are the channel He plans to
flow through. As an interesting “side note,” this woman and her
husband are part of the personal intercessory
pray
er
team for the senior pastor of a megachurch in
our area. Recently, the Lord gave the husband a prophetic word for this
Pastor: “A move of the Spirit is
coming.”
-
- Do
you see it? Can you see the cloud yet?
-
- So,
where is all of this going, you ask? When Wolf challenged us with the
vision of 10,000 house churches in our area I was skeptical, treating it
lightly like a certain degree of “house church hype.” But since then I
have sensed the Holy Spirit giving birth to something much bigger than me
(or Wolf). I see it. I can see the cloud. It is a cloud no bigger than a
man’s hand rising up out of God’s great prophetic sea. It is a promise
of thousands of house churches through which the
River
of
God
’s
Spirit will flow in great power in the coming season.
-
- I
see it. Do you? I can see the cloud. Can you?
- I
hear “the sound of the roar of a
heavy shower.” Do
you?
- Are
you ready for what’s coming? “Then
the hand of the Lord was on Elijah, and he girded up his loins . . .”
- Gird
yourself up and get ready to run!
-
- 14
Propositions (And 1 Caveat) Toward An Apostolic
Strategy for Rapidly Mulitplying House
Churches
-
- Let
me begin with the caveat (that’s Latin for “warning”). When it comes
to strategies and methodologies beware of what I call “the Finney
fallacy.” Charles Grandison Finney, the
great 19th Century Presbyterian evangelist declared that
revival is simply the result of the right use of the right means. Finney
implemented, in a systematic way, new methods of presenting the gospel
which were blessed with impressive results. But he fell into the logical
fallacy of “post hoc, procter
hoc” (roughly, “after the event, because of the
event”). Here’s how it works: 1) We create and implement a strategy,
2) God blesses and a revival breaks out, 3) THEREFORE, we conclude that
the revival broke out as a result of our brilliant strategy. This explains
our all-too-human tendency to assign causality to our brilliant methods
& strategies. In Finney’s case, he assumed that the revivals which
broke out under his ministry were the result of his methodology (thereby
assigning causality to his great method which, of course, anyone could
then reproduce and create their own revival). In reality Finney was the
beneficiary of a season when the
River
of
God
’s
Spirit was flowing in great power. Finney could have preached from the
New
England
phone directory and gotten the same results (sic) - because the revival
wasn’t about the method, or even the messenger, it was about the River.
-
- Does
God give us strategies which He then blesses with great fruitfulness? Of
course he does. Is a brilliant strategy a pre-requisite to God’s
blessing? No. Just ask John Wesley. Following his Aldersgate
experience and the birth of an evangelical message, Anglican churches
throughout
England
began closing their doors and pulpits to Wesley (an ordained Anglican
priest). Finally, at the urging of his friend, George Whitefield (who had
gotten the same reception), and out of a certain degree of desperation
born of no alternative, Wesley began preaching in the fields, streets and
squares of
England
.
When he preached his first open air message to the miners of Kingswood
Colliery in, it was not the result of strategic research on the spiritual
strongholds of the coal mining industry or on the social and economic
bondages of the miners. No. It was the passionate and desperate act of a
man whose heart had been set ablaze with heavenly fire that no strategy
could contain or explain. In the words of his brother Charles Wesley:
-
- THOU
who camest from above
- The
pure celestial fire to impart,
- Kindle
a flame of sacred love
- On
the mean altar of my heart!
- There
let it for thy glory burn
- With
inextinguishable blaze;
- And
trembling to its source return,
- In
humble
pray
er
and fervent praise.
- Jesus,
confirm my heart's desire
- To
work, and speak, and think for thee;
- Still
let me guard the holy fire,
- And
still stir up thy gift in me;
- Ready
for all thy perfect will,
- My
acts of faith and love repeat,
- Till
death thy endless mercies seal,
- And
make the sacrifice complete.
-
- Let’s
agree now that we will be willing to trade all the strategies and plans of
men for one burning coal, one divine spark from God’s altar that would
kindle such an inextinguishable blaze in the hearts of our generation.
-
- O.
K., with that caveat firmly lodged in our thinking, let’s talk
strategies. During his time with us in Spokane
Wolfgang
Simson
shared something he called a Nine Step Domino Strategy which represented
the core of a regional strategy for planting rapidly multiplying house
churches (You can hear Wolf’s presentation of these nine steps in
greater detail in the Saturday session from the Conference). These nine
steps have sparked some serious thought and reflection on my part. This
“Manifesto” represents my thoughts on a regional house church planting
strategy that embodies Wolf’s nine steps, but also modifies and expands
them into 14 “Propositions” (the first nine are Wolf’s with my
modifications, while the rest are my contribution). I offer these, not as
a “finished product” but as propositions for further discussion and
action. I look forward to seeing what additional ideas these may spark in
your mind. To
view the complete Manifesto Click Here: www.parousianetwork.com/a_house_church_manifesto.htm
-
- “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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-