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 31, 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
Transformation, Baseball and an Evening With George Otis, Jr.
“The Church Without Walls” Radio Program
Wolfgang Simson House Church Conference Page On Website

Dear Friends,

I am sending this letter out early this week because I won’t have time later. Our son is getting married this weekend, family is arriving and time will be at a premium, so it’s now or never, and I felt that this letter needed to be sent. My thanks to those of you who have responded with input to last week’s “ House Church Manifesto: Toward A Strategy For Rapidly Multiplying House Churches In Spokane .” I want to continue soliciting your input and I plan to share some of that input with everyone soon, probably next week. If you missed last week’s letter you can still view the Manifesto on our website at www.parousianetwork.com/a_house_church_manifesto.htm. Again, I look forward to hearing your thoughts. I already have more I want to share, and will do so in time.

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.

Transformation, Baseball and an Evening With George Otis, Jr.

This past weekend George Otis, Jr. (“Transformations”) spoke at a local high school to a gathering sponsored by some 25 area churches. Some 300+ people showed up. As the evening began I couldn’t help but wonder “Can anything good come out of Nazareth ?” The pre-printed program (“Tri-County Transformation Rally Order of Service”) announced the box-plan for the evening. An impromptu “Pastors Choir” would perform the “Call to Worship,” followed by the required “Greeting and Opening Prayer” by one of the sponsoring Pastors. Eight songs later (4 “Songs of Worship” and 4 “Songs of Praise”) George Otis would speak briefly (to whet our appetite), an offering would be taken, and then George would return and talk some more.

As the program began I realized that I had been “out of the box” a loooooooooog time. I felt my heart sinking with the idea that another box-program was underway, the exit was too far away to reach without being conspicuous, and (as Dante warned about situations like this) I should simply abandon all hope.

And then it happened. George Otis began speaking. Soon he was telling a story about a transformation rally in Cape Town South Africa where he was to be the guest speaker. Everything was moving along religiously well according to the Rally’s program (complete with printed pray ers), and George was bored to the point of insensibility. Finally, one of the Cape Town Pastors approached the master of Ceremonies and said, “We need to take a risk.” As I listened, a light came on (yep, my lights aren’t always on, but fortunately they do still work . . . occasionally). “George Otis, you sly dog,” I heard myself thinking, “You aren’t talking about a transformation rally in South Africa ! You’re pulling a ‘Jesus maneuver’ on us, telling a story about someone else that’s really making a point about US!” I turned to my wife and said with a grin, “He’s talking about us; he’s describing this meeting!”

Suddenly, I was awake, no longer bored, and contrary to Dante, I even felt hope rising up. Suddenly it was a new ball game, and I had just heard the crack of the bat announcing that a real game was underway. “This could be good,” I thought. Soon I was even taking notes. More stories (no, I’m not going to finish the South Africa story, but it was good - all about risky prayers and incredible answers!). Next, George related his perceptions of transformation rallies in Colombia and Africa . The difference between the two rallies, he observed, was the difference between a rally in Colombia to celebrate the transformation which God had brought about and a rally in Africa (no, I can’t remember where) to plead with God for a coming transformation. Then, like a good marksman, He released the arrow at his unsuspecting targets: We in America want to sing about and celebrate spiritual victories and an intimate relationship with God which belong to someone else, but which are not our experience or our reality. We need to pay the price of pray er, fasting and repentance to achieve our own victories, rather than celebrating the victories of other people in other places (what I call “vicarious revival”). “Yes!” I cried in my spirit. Another crack of the bat and this game was now well underway. The meeting had now taken on a distinctively different tone, and I was fully engaged. “Way to go, George!” I thought to myself as he raised the bar, not of expectations but of divine demands. And he wasn’t done yet. Most of our talk about revival in the Western church, he observed, is based upon our imaginations, because we have no memories (of actual revival). “Exactly,” I thought to myself. When I have compared my own studies in the history of revival to the “revival chatter” I hear today, I sense a profound disconnect, like of group of single college students discussing what marriage will be like. Memories of a good marriage are better (and more real) than single-hood imaginations about it. We need to ask God to replace our imaginations with memories. “You’re turning this meeting into an interesting ball game, George, “ I mused.

But there was more. Another pitch, the crack of the bat and we were suddenly in Isaiah 62: 6-7, “On your walls, O Jerusalem , I have appointed watchmen; all day and all night they will never keep silent. You who remind the Lord, take no rest for yourselves; and give Him no rest until He establishes and makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.” George observed that we in the Western church are the caboose (i.e., last car) on this transformation/revival train. Why? Because we are unwilling to interrupt our comfortable schedule and lifestyle in order to pursue it (I’m skipping over great illustrations, like God as the butler who serves us up a revival on our comfortable terms). Where is the dedicated ceaseless outcry for God’s visitation? Why are we resting when we should be ceaselessly pray ing & fasting, giving God no rest until He answers?

Wow, another base hit into an unguarded centerfield. The game was now intense. Bases were loaded. The opposing team was getting trounced. The air in the room was hot and thick (literally), but the game wasn’t over yet. More stories about God’s Presence transforming various places in the world. Too many to relate here. Then came the wind-up and the “John Eldridge” question nobody expected . . . or wanted: “Why do you want God to come and visit you? Who are you summoning, a fix-it handyman, or a lover?” And there it was. A fast ball over the center of the plate and the crack of God’s bat as the ball found the sweet spot of the evening. A bottom of the 9^th bases loaded grand slam into the 3^rd tier. This game was over. He had drilled the heart of the issue and exposed the bankrupt core of most of our revival & transformation rhetoric. Our view of revival and community transformation is essentially a vision of God coming as a divine “fix-it guy” who will conveniently fix all of the problems which we have created by our disobedience, fix and bless our existing paradigms (“something should happen, but nothing should change”), fix, clean up and transform our community, require little or nothing of us (none of this “negative” personal repentance business), and even leave us a blessing and gifts behind Him when he leaves! Who wouldn’t want that?! But God wants to be our lover, not our repairman. Lovers want to be wooed, not proclaimed, ordered around or taken for granted. “Who is this that grows like the dawn, as beautiful as the full moon, as pure as the sun, as awesome as an army with banners?” (Song of Songs 6:10). It is the jealous bridegroom coming to woo his bride. What will he do if all he finds is a self-absorbed mistress who desires nothing more than a handyman who will repair the broken toilet seat?

I honestly don’t know if George said anything after that moment. By this time my hair was on fire and I wasn’t really aware of much else. He had been speaking for over an hour, and according to the program it was time for the long-delayed offering. Having just been confronted with a choice between Jesus as my handyman or as the lover of my soul, I was now confronted with the offering bucket. It was like taking a commercial break for spicy buffalo wings in the middle of watching “The Passion of The Christ.” You could tell that many others felt the same way as there was an uneasiness in the room. I turned to my wife and observed, “They need to cancel the offering or push it to the end and just move on quickly, but I’ll bet you they can’t bring themselves to do that.” Sure enough, a divine moment was interrupted (awkwardly and clumsily) with a commercial interlude. Following the interruption George Otis introduced a video promo for an upcoming video, “An Unconventional War,” about the civil war in Uganda . It was good and powerful, but the highlight of the evening had already been achieved and had moved on. The evening closed with the mandatory altar call for those wanting to profess Christ and a line of area pastors waiting to receive them. “They still aren’t getting it,” my wife opined (I’ve taught her all my bad habits . . . I’m so proud!).

As I reflected on the events of the evening I realized that God had spoken powerfully about what’s to come and what we should be doing to prepare. The pastors who sponsored this event are good, dedicated and hard working people, many of whom have a genuine heart to see God do a new thing and move in fresh power. But true to our nature, we all tend to interpret the next move of God through the lenses of our existing paradigm, which generally reflects values left over from some previous move of God. So, when we hear that God is going to do a “new thing” (i.e., transformation, revival, etc.) we tend to interpret that to mean “Oh, God’s going to give us an upgrade.” But in reality, it means that God is going to shake us to our core, re-dig and re-build our foundations, and probably demolish several floors of our existing paradigm, assuming that He allows us to keep it at all.

Perhaps the paradigm shaking nature of the coming revival is best foreshadowed by the last great worldwide transforming outpouring of God’s Spirit in the Western Church , the great Welsh Revival of 1904. London Journalist W. T. Stead visited Wales during the fever pitch of the revival in December of 1904. Afterwards he gave an interview to “The Methodist Times” describing what he had seen and experienced:

M.T.: “Well, Mr. Stead, you've been to the Revival. What do you think of it?”

STEAD: “Sir,” said Mr. Stead, “the question is not what I think of it, but what it thinks of me, of you, and all the rest of us. For it is a very real thing, this Revival: a live thing which seems to have a power and a grip which may get hold of a good many of us who at present are mere spectators.”

M.T.: “Do you think it is on the march, then?”

STEAD: “A Revival is something like a revolution. It is apt to be wonderfully catching. But you can never say. We may have become immune to Revivals, gospel-hardened or totally indifferent. I don't think so. But I would not like to prophesy.”

M.T.: “But in South Wales the Revival is moving?”

STEAD: “It reminded me,” said Mr. Stead, “of the effect which travelers say is produced on the desert by the winds which propel the sand storms, beneath which whole caravans have been engulfed. The wind springs up, no one knows from whence. Its eddying gusts lick up the sands, and soon the whole desert is filled with moving columns of sand, swaying and dancing and whirling as if they were instinct with life. Woe be to the unprotected traveler whose path the sand storm traverses.”

M.T.: “Then do you feel that we are in the track of the storm?”

STEAD: “Can our people sing? That is the question to be answered before you can decide that. Hitherto the Revival has not strayed beyond the track of the singing people. It has followed the line of song, not of preaching. It has sung its way from one end of South Wales to the other. But, then, the Welsh are a nation of singing.”

M.T.: “You speak as if you dreaded the Revival coming your way?”

STEAD: “No, that is not so. Dread is not the right word. Awe expresses my sentiment better. For you are in the presence of the unknown. I tell you it is a live thing this Revival, and if it gets held of the people in London , for instance, it will make a pretty considerable shaking up.”

M.T.: “But surely it will be all to the good?”

STEAD: “Yes, for the good or for those who are all good. But what about those who are not good, or who, like the most of us, are a pretty mixed lot? Henry Ward Beecher used to say that if God were to answer the Lord's Prayer and cause His will to be done in earth as it is in heaven, there were streets in New York which would be wrecked as if they had been struck by a tornado. Of course, it may be all to the good that we should be all shaken up; and tornadoes clear the air, and earthquakes are wholesome, but they are not particularly welcome to those who are at ease in Zion.”

Are you “at ease in Zion ”? Then take note. A shaking is on its way.

As my wife and I left the meeting, I heard the pastor/MC instructing the audience on how to respond to what they had heard this evening, admonishing them to stay under the authority of their pastors because “we don’t need any loose cannons running around out there.” Oh, really? Guess again. I believe the one thing God DOES want in this season is a generation of believers whose hair has been set on fire with holy flame and who are determined not to allow anyone, clergy or otherwise, to put it out. Do you know what we call a person whose hair is on fire? A “hothead”! Just another name for . . . a loose cannon.

“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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