When The Church Was Young

I'm adding some link categories for stuff I come across that seems to be on the path where God is taking me. I'm not 100% sure where it will end up, but I am 100% sure those comfortable in their weekly rituals of religion will be uncomfortable with where it appears God is taking me. Today I was reading a blog about myths of church as we seem to know it. A book by Ernest Loosley was referenced (which I've ordered to read... it was written in 1935! WOW!) . Here's a quote from the beginning of the book:

"When the church was very young, it had no buildings. Let us begin with that striking fact. That the church had no buildings is the most noticeable of the points of difference between the church of the early days and the church of today. In the minds of most people today, "church" means first a building, probably something else second; but seldom does "the church" stand for anything other than a building. Yet here is the fact with which we start: the early church possessed no buildings and carried on its work for a great many years without erecting any."

—Ernest Loosley, When The Church Was Young

It would be an interesting blog series to do a myths about "the church" we adhere to that just are not there! Hmm... I'll have to consider that one.

Being Church 24/7

One of the feeds I get weekly contained five articles. This was part of the first and wow!

Everywhere I go I see people seeking to get the form of church right (even house church) rather than really seeking to re-capture the lifestyle of being the church. I trust that the latter will be the movement we are ultimately part of:

• Daily adventure of listening to and following Jesus


• Becoming the expression of Christ everyday, everywhere


• Filling the earth with His glory

Here's a link to the whole article in PDF. Being Church 24/7

Today's Quote of the Day

So this was the quote of the day served up by my custom home page today:

Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.

Isa 53:4-5 NIV

What an amazing phrase I really never was struck by before. I guess I understood the concept and read what it said, not how it said it. Read it again. Wow!

Shades of truth in all things...

This morning I was watching Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and Yoda said:

Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose.
— Yoda, Starwars III: Revenge of the Sith

It's all about the ___________.

During his ministry, Jesus taught a great deal about the Kingdom of God.

From there he went all over Galilee. He used synagogues for meeting places and taught people the truth of God. God's kingdom was his theme — that beginning right now they were under God's government, a good government! — Matthew 4:23

He often told stories to help people understand what the Kingdom was like.

The disciples came up and asked, "Why do you tell stories?" He replied, "You've been given insight into God's kingdom. You know how it works. Not everybody has this gift, this insight; it hasn't been given to the. Whenever someone has a heart for this, the insights and understandings flow freely. But if there is no readiness, any trace of receptivity soon disappears. That's why I tell stories: to create rediness, to nudge the people toward receptive insight. In their present state they can stare till doomsday and not see it, listen till they're blue in the face and not get it." — Matthew 13:10-13

When Jesus sent out the twelve:

Jesus sent his twelve harvest hands out with this charge:

"Don't begin by traveling to some far-off place to convert unbelievers. And don't try to be dramatic by tackling some public enemy. Go to the lost, confused people right here in the neighborhood. Tell them that the kingdom is here. " — Matthew 10:5-7

If you read through the four gospel accounts of Jesus' ministry, it quickly becomes clear Jesus' teaching was centered in the Kingdom. He told stories about the Kingdom to spark interest in people's minds which would draw them into a readiness to live a Kingdom-focused life. Questions he was asked would focus on the kingdom(s) of this world. Jesus' answers would bring back into focus his Father's Kingdom.

I just finished reading the teaching plan for a Bible study. It was a typical teaching plan. But I was struck by it's focus. Where Jesus told the twelve to tell people the kingdom is here, I'm realizing so much of today's teaching is church-focused. As if the church has become the kingdom in the eyes of today's supposed believers.

Here's a list of questions the teaching plan suggests the leader ask:
1. What does this passage tell us about the needs and concerns of those who drift away from the church?
2. Why do Christians sometimes stop attending church?
3. What should other believers do in connection with those who drop out of church?

It is subtle but notice we don't ask about the needs of someone who has lost a focus on the Kingdom in their daily life. We don't ask why a person avoids hanging out with fellow Christ Followers. We don't ask what responsibility we have as Christ Followers to find out why our brother or sister is detaching him/her self from family.

Today, we ask people if they go to church anywhere rather than if they know about the Savior. We invite people to church instead of telling them the Kingdom has come. We give sacrificially to build the church. We serve to keep the church going. We have simply equated church=Kingdom. We are plagued with such tunnel vision about our mere piece of the body that we have lost touch with the sense of the Kingdom that Jesus taught. The success of our business enterprise demands that we gain more market share than the other God-business down the street so today's business leaders channel the focus of the people into brand awareness and loyalty.

Step outside your typical mindset for a week. Accept the challenge to be Kingdom-focused for a week. Scrutinize all the talk and teaching and boil it down to what it's all about. Don't merely equate church as Kingdom like we've come to do. At the end of the week reflect back on where it all aimed... Kingdom or just that little piece? Voice it out loud... say "It's all about the ____________" filling in the blank with whatever you discover.

TIME Magazine - Why Home Churches Are Filling Up

This article from Time magazine was published in Feb 2006.

Or so thinks Jeanine, who two years ago abandoned a large congregation for the burgeoning movement known in evangelical circles as "house churching," "home churching" or "simple church." The week she left, she says, "I cried every day." But the home service flourished, grew to 40 people and then divided into five smaller groups.

"Oops!" — Bill Hybels of Willow Creek

So in a recent blog post (Willow Creek Repents?) it seems some folks are waking up to the fact that their millions of dollars spent to develop Christ Followers is actually not working:

We made a mistake. What we should have done when people crossed the line of faith and become Christians, we should have started telling people and teaching people that they have to take responsibility to become ‘self feeders.’ We should have gotten people, taught people, how to read their bible between service, how to do the spiritual practices much more aggressively on their own.

Also Greg Hawkins, executive pastor at Willow Creek, in the same article expresses a fundamental change:

Our dream is that we fundamentally change the way we do church. That we take out a clean sheet of paper and we rethink all of our old assumptions. Replace it with new insights. Insights that are informed by research and rooted in Scripture. Our dream is really to discover what God is doing and how he’s asking us to transform this planet.

The multi-billion dollar question is can their "ministries" survive the probable hit when climbing the mountain means some of the lack-luster committed followers don't make the climb. When the kingdoms begin to crumble is there enough resolve to stay the course and continue to build on a new foundation. I'm watching intently!