In Denver for Evanglical Friends International

Spending five days working with EFI on a team of people thinking through how to share Jesus Christ more effectively to individuals.

Sharing Jesus... the good news!

Here are some thoughts on reaching out to others with the good news about Jesus Christ...

Fruit takes a season to harvest. I need to keep that in mind. The seed of the gospel needs time to grow.

So much of my thinking is from the "“old"” school of thought that says... Save them today, close the deal, make the sale.

Today is about planting , tomorrow is about watering, the next day may be about cultivating and watering again, and eventually there will be a Harvest. I need to be about praying for harvesters so that when the fruit begins to ripen, there will be enough workers to gather the fruit and guide it to a productive place.

Seeds take time to grow, new plants take time to get established, and mature plants need pruning to be fruitful.

Some Reminders

Another month is upon us. This journey of meeting house to house started last October 2004 at the Scheiderer’s home and the Lord has blessed our steadfastness to this expression of “the church”. Jenny and I are in agreement that these gatherings are a direct result of many prayers, perseverance in the face of many challenges, and following the voice of God. We are so grateful that God is working amongst all of us in mighty ways. Continue to pursue God with your heart, soul, mind, and strength and He will guide you in all truth and right living. He is so kind and gracious to all of us. He is a miraculous God. We have so much to be thankful for!

Here are a few reminders about our gatherings.

Personal time with Jesus away from the gatherings/meetings. Time by yourself, with your spouse, or with your family reading God’s word and praying is the backbone of what we are doing. You need to take time during the week to contemplate and meditate on the things of God. (His Word, His Creation, His Character) Jenny and I encourage you to do this not just by yourself but with your spouse and/or your family. If you have no family or spouse, grab a close friend. Our home calls this time “JAM Time”. (Jesus And Me Time) Our strength lies in our daily “personal relationship” with our Creator, Jesus Christ. He is the backbone of our gatherings. He is the grand architect for our meetings. He knows where to place each living stone. (First Peter Chapter 2) We must stay in constant fellowship with Jesus Christ in order for our gatherings to come to have life and meaning.

Bring something to share to each gathering/meeting. It could be as simple as a word of encouragement, a song, a verse from the Bible, or a testimony of how God is working in and through your life. Meetings are only awkward when we have not come prepared to build each other up and encourage one another. When we come prepared to share what God is teaching us, we come full of life, ready to give it away. There are times when we have nothing to share because we are just exhausted or have been distracted throughout our week. Come prepared to share just that... “I am exhausted and I have nothing to share, would you please pray for me to get through this time.” You see, there is always something to share!

During our times of open worship (Times that we sing, pray, read the word), quiet your heart before God and ask Him to speak to your heart. Listen for the “still small voice”(Ps. 46:10;83:10;95:6-11). He, the Holy Spirit, may remind you of God’s faithfulness to you during the week, and if so then share it. He may remind you of un-confessed sin, if so then share it with Him and if you feel led with the group. He may ask you to share something with the group from the Bible, make sure that you do so. Jesus is the head of the church and He will guide our meetings, if we come prepared to share and to listen.
Prayer...Prayer...and more Prayer! Pray without ceasing. We must learn to bring everything to God in prayer. He does hear us!

Gather outside the gatherings as “brothers and sisters” in the household of Jesus Christ. Get together to watch movies, have game nights, etc. The Body of Christ (those who are believers) need to learn the art of “fun” and “joy”. For some reason, it was lost over the last century.

Engage our community... Get involved in our communities and make a difference. Build bridges of relationship with those outside of the Christian community. Let the light of Jesus shine brightly in the world in which we live. Pray and ask the Lord to lead you into some sort of community involvement that puts you in touch with people who do not know Jesus Christ. This will give you an opportunity to “shine brightly” as a follower of Jesus Christ.

Lastly, remember that how we act throughout our day is worship. We are in the presence of God 24/7 whether we want to admit it or not. Being a Christian is something that you are... not something that you do once or twice a week.

Jenny and Bill at Dinner

Jenny and Bill at Dinner
Originally uploaded by yafflickr.

Thanks Jim and Mark for dinner!

Inward or Outward Focussed

This is a great discussion on being missional in our lives as we engage the world around us.

Click here.

The Battle Rages On!

Well, a friend asked me, how is the battle going? Well, I wrote this out of inspiration and decided to share it with others. A comical way of reminding ourselves that we must stay in the battle.

You ask, how is the battle? The battle is just that... A battle. Victory... Victory... Victory... Oops forgot the basics and back to the battle again. It seems to be a relentless series of mind numbing events. The first chance the enemy sees a chink in the armor... KAPOW! I get up off the ground, remember that I am a child of the King... Princes don't pout, they are royalty. My Father thinks the best of me! What was I thinking... Oh, yes, the battle rages on! I pick up the Shield of Faith that I set down a day before, retrieve my Sword of the Spirit that was a few feet behind the shield. I buckle my belt and cover my exposed heart with armor, reminded to accept the grace of God and praise him for keeping me from a fatal wound to my heart. I place my helmet back on my head, gird my loins and return to my battling posture... A firm stance of PRAYER! (Ephesians 6:10-18)

I hope you enjoyed it!

Is Jesus Active?

I think I came back from the conference pondering a couple of themes...

1. Is Jesus active in the affairs of my life? Am I willing to be emptied of my own agenda and pride?
2. Am I willing to be available to be used by Jesus in the lives of anyone?
3. Do I seek His peace and direction every moment of my day. When I work and when I play.
4. Are my kids getting this from me?

Well, I am tired of posting, I have still so much to process and things to catch up on since being gone for 5 days. Blessings to all who seek Jesus. He will meet you in the most personal way. Just call out to Him and seek Him with all your heart. He will be there!

Our Worst Enemy...

Good summary of our worst enemy...

"an older man Harold, with his 30-years of experience in simple/organic churches, did the best to answer the tough questions about leadership, heresy, doctrine, deliverance… He made a good point: “Your worst enemy is your experience as a leader in a conventional church. You have to learn to talk less, talk quieter and to listen more. You should help people to connect with Jesus.”. Click here for the rest of Freddy's Blog.

Off to Denver...

I will be blogging from Denver on a separate site for the next 5 days. Go to www.denverhouse.blogspot.com to get updates and notes from the Denver Conference.

The Girls...

Who Image
Originally uploaded by yafflickr.

Now you can understand why I say that I married up!

Across Generations

Check out this post... It talks about the need for generations to come together to honor God in unity not indvidualism.

Click Here.

Part of the Friday Fax...

Nipomo / Arroyo Grande House Church gets in the Newspaper

Check out the following link to see Roger and one of the simple churches being interviewed about what a house church is all about. Well done.

Click Here

Good Questions for Particpants/Individuals in House Church

I have modified some questions to fit a simple church/house church gathering.

These questions are designed primarily for groups of two or three who meet weekly for accountability, Bible study and prayer. Some were taken from questions used by Neil Cole who in turn adapted them from Charles Swindoll and Howard Hendricks. Others were adapted from "queries" used by Friends for many years. Please note that some emphasize what we should do, while others emphasize what we should not do

Have you verbally shared your faith in Christ this week?

Have you found joy in the Lord through prayer, Bible reading, gathering for worship, and a lifestyle of giving thanks in all circumstances?

Have you forgiven everyone who hurt you or disappointed you, seeking to resolve any conflict with love and understanding?

Have you damaged another person by your words, either behind their back or face to face? Have you kept away from racist jokes and comments?

Have you avoided emotional or sexual intimacy outside of marriage this week? Have you engaged in lustful attitudes, pornography or sexually explicit communication?

Have you actively nourished your marriage, family and friends in Christ, making your home a pleasant, peaceful place? Have you kept marriage and family in balance with work and career?

Have you given to Christ all you own and all you influence? Have you been completely above reproach in your financial dealings, prompt in paying your debts, careful to live within your income, honoring Christ with gifts and offerings?

Have you sought to be a good steward of the natural resources that God has surrounded you with, including but not limited to recycling materials and items for others to use. Have you choosen to live with less than more so that the gospel can be preached to all and that those with nothing may have their needs met?

Have you succumbed to a bad habit, personal addiction, substance abuse, or kept any kind of idol in your heart, such as greed for money or from the abuse of good things, such as food and medications?

Have you deceived anyone, told half-truths or outright lies this week?

Have you taken a day of rest and restoration this week?

Visit www.efcsw.org for more questions or querries.

Good Questions for Leadership

Have we prayerfully listened for the voice of the Good Shepherd, discerned what God was doing and guided our church body where its Head, our Lord Jesus Christ, led us?

Have we served others by doing good? Have we proclaimed the gospel, fulfilling the Great Commission in the spirit of the Great Commandment?

Have we obeyed the Scriptures, by giving correction to those who have gone astray?

Have we built unity for important steps of faith, asking for church-wide prayer and feedback?

Have we tried to squelch gossip, and instead encouraged the disgruntled to talk to the right person in the right spirit?

Have we dealt fairly with conflict and tried to bring about biblical reconciliation?

Have we stayed active—personally and as a body—in sharing our faith, making disciples and developing leaders? Have we encouraged all of our people to use their unique spiritual gifts?

Have we faithfully taught the word and truth of God, including those testimonies which we as believers have been called to share?

Visit www.efcsw.org for more questions or querries.

The "Ancient Church" was a Family... A Christian Mediterranean Family System

As I get deeper into the understanding of how the early church operated, I am beginning to understand that they operated as a family, not as a "modern day church". The deeper understanding of early Christian church must be put through the eyes of a Mediterranean Family System (MFS).

Sharing common meals and having all things in common was much more than just sitting around tables eating and sharing what happened during the week. It was a lifestyle or social struture that affected all other parts of their life. They became family. They became brothers and sisters.

Here are a couple of the values of the "ancient" church and how they operated as a family. First, they viewed each other as siblings... You did the following to each other much as a MFS would operate. MFS Siblings shared certain values that in today' western individualistic minutest would seem foreign and counter productive.

1. Refraining from avenging a wrong suffered at the hand of another community member
2. Equitable distribution of the communities resources to meet the pressing needs of fellow Christians
3. Honoring, rather than seeking honor from, one's siblings in the faith
4. Manumitting, or at least in other ways treating as a "beloved brother", a slave who had become a Christian brother.

in Paul's writings, family loyalty or "faith family" loyalty is one of his primary themes. He continually pulls his readers into an understanding that we are now a "family of believers". Not a group or gathering, but rather a MFS gathering of believers.

The value of being family was one of the most important themes carried through the New Testament writings. We must change our thinking in the West if we are going to understand why the church was so affective and effective in the first 3 centuries of it's history.

Below is a copy of how Christians had so rocked the pagan world. The MFS of Christianity was bugging the pagans so bad that they realized that they too had better change or loose control of their systems.

The religion of the Greeks does not yet prosper as I would wish, on account of those who profess it. But the gifts of the gods are great and splendid, better than any prayer or any hope . . . Indeed, a little while ago no one would have dared even to pray for a such change, and so complete a one in so short a space of time [i.e., the arrival of Julian himself, a reforming traditionalist, on the throne]. Why then do we think that this is sufficient and do not observe how the kindness of Christians to strangers, their care for the burial of their dead, and the sobriety of their lifestyle has done the most to advance their cause?

Each of these things, I think, ought really to be practiced by us. It is not sufficient for you alone to practice them, but so must all the priests in Galatia [in modern Turkey] without exception. Either make these men good by shaming them, persuade them to become so or fire them . . . Secondly, exhort the priests neither to approach a theater nor to drink in a tavern, nor to profess any base or infamous trade. Honor those who obey and expel those who disobey.

Julian the Apostate, Letter to Arsacius
The Emperor Julian, who reigned around the year 360, like all Emperors, was Pontifex Maximus, Chief Priest of the State Religion.

If you are interested in a good book to read about all of this stuff. I suggest the following.
The Ancient Church As Family
by Dr. Joseph H. Hellerman

He does a great job in helping us understand the MFS mindset and how it differs from Postmodern and Modern Western Individualism.

The Making of a Modern Dad, by PsychologyToday.com

Check out this recent article on Dads and Hormones...

It is more natural than we think for Dad's to nurture their kids.

Click Here.

Quote from Article.

"The research suggests that a man's hormones may play an important role in helping him experience this full range of emotions especially in becoming a loving and devoted dad. In fact, it offers the first evidence that to nurture is part of man's nature."

Revolution: Barna's New Book coming soon.

Here is a good review of Barna's new book coming out. Tall Skinny Kiwi does a great job of reviewing the resource. I will read this one. Seems to support what is going on in the House Church/Simple Church movement. According to Andrew Jones, it is a little short of seeing the bigger picture around the world.

Click Here.

Traditional Church thoughts on "Cycle of House Church".

I feel it is worth reading and also worth reminding us to live the life and not just talk about it.

Click Here.

"Out of Church" warning from Andrew Strom

Check out a warning against house church and simple church stuff...

"There are praying church people - totally in the "system" - who leave us for dead in the areas that truly matter - the areas of the "heart" - our relationship with God and our love for people. Go and meet these "praying grandmas" sometime. Many of them honestly leave us for dead."

Click Here!

Encouraging Testimony of a life changed!

Click here to here a testimony from Roger Thoman on reaching someone for Jesus Christ. It is all about being available and listening to the Holy Spirit.