Much like a three legged bar stool, Simple Church needs to have three things holding it in balance. Our motivation, our meetings, and our ministry need to be in balance with each other. Let me give you a short definition for each.
Our Motivation
Our motivation contains the idea that we are to be motivated by the love of God and the only way to understand the love of God is to live in a loving relationship with Him. Our motivation comes from living in a daily relationship with our Creator. We are motivated because of His love for us. We exist because of His love for us. We must make sure that this leg of the stool is strong and secure. We must spend, not daily, but minute by minute communion with God through the power of His Holy Spirit. We practice living in His presence by reading the Bible, praying, spending time in silence, fasting, and other disciplines that Jesus showed us as an example in His life. This becomes our motivation to live life to the fullest. This motivation affects our relationships, Family, Spiritual Family, our Friends, and those outside our circle of influence. Our motivation is about living in relationship with Jesus Christ, that relationship influences everything about us: our family, our friends, our jobs, everything.
Our Ministry
Our ministry may be personal or it may be something that God has laid on the heart of the Meeting. God calls us all to be light in a dark world. He calls us to be involved in the ministry of reconciliation. Reconciling others to their creator. We believe that as a result, God has called us all to get involved in our community is some way. That could be participating in a Homework Club helping kids learn how to read English, to sponsoring a website reaching a certain demographic of people (see www.hippiechristian.org), or teaching others how to paint. We must rub shoulders with those outside our Meetings and outside the body of Christ. We must pray for these people and look for the opportunity to share the motivation that we have in our lives. People will ask the questions, we need to be ready to give a response. Ministry is the intersection of our life with the lives of those who do not know Jesus Christ as Friend. Our ministry is about living in relationship with those who have not experienced the life changing love of God.
Our Meeting
Our meetings are for the purpose of giving testimony to what God has been doing in and through our lives. Our meetings exist as a time of mutual exchange of information and ideas. We share our lives during these times. Young and old participate in a mutual exchange of how God worked and led in each life during the week. During these exchanges we gather naturally around a meal. We spontaneously pray for items that arise. We share text from the Bible that has been meaningful to us that previous week. We participate in giving financially to what God may be asking the meeting to do. We handle any items of "Family Business" that may arise. We try to live out 1 Corinthians 14:26, 1 Thessalonians 2:8, and Acts 2:42-47. Our meetings are about living in relationship with each other and encouraging each other to live a life connected to God.
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