Church Outside The Walls

Energy spent in the wrong direction?

nonreligiousvideo — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 16:40:00 +0000

Wayne Jacobsen made a comment on his last pod cast with Brad Cummings over on The God Journey (www.thegodjourney.com) that got me thinking. They were talking about how some people who step out of religious organizations still have that drive in them from the institution to build something for God. For example, some people run out and try to put together an organizational network of house churches or to plant several “relational” type home groups. Then in passing he said, “or they build a website.” Well, when he said that I felt a little tap in my spirit. It got me thinking and really checking my motives for having a website. Now David, Bob and I really feel that God wants us to have this website up to encourage those who are questioning religious organizations as well as to encourage those who already have stepped out. But Wayne’s comment had me doing a check before God. How many things do I do that are still motivated by the compulsion to build something for God?

Then what crossed my mind was kind of interesting. Most of the New Testament epistles and the book of Acts focus on Paul and the other Apostles who traveled all over the world preaching the gospel and instructing the early church how to live in Christ. But I started pondering, “What about the other folks?” See, I think Paul was more the exception than the rule. But we’ve made him the rule. So many people feel that if they are called to live for God then they must be like Paul. So we live with this compulsion to build and live an unusual lifestyle. But I wonder what was going on with the other believers? All those nameless (or briefly mentioned), faceless believers spread through out the Roman Empire, what were they doing? How were they living? They can’t all be Paul. I found myself wishing many of them had written letters that were included in the New Testament. We know that they weren’t just sitting in pews on Sunday mornings and listening to sermons. I found myself wanting to know about the “regular Joes.” I guess that’s because I believe Jesus came to bring His life into our daily lives, into our reality. I’d like to know how the Christian slaves continued to work for their masters as they lived in Christ. How did the business owners show Christ through all their conduct? How did the older women teach the younger? I don’t mean I want formulas, I just wish I could go back in time and see this in action.

Then I started thinking about leadership. We so often focus on Paul and the apostles as being leaders in the early church, and that they were. But we also talk about how NT leaders lead by example more than anything else. Well, I’m beginning to see that Jesus wants us entrenched in the real world. So wouldn’t true leadership simply be an example of a life lived by God in the real world? It would be more in action than words. In other words, a person would inspire others to live for Christ as an employee by being a good example of one himself. Or a woman would inspire others to pursue Christ as a wife by doing that herself. I mean, we so often point to the unusual life of Paul and the apostles as the example of leadership. But how does that unusual life really help me when the rubber meets the road to see how to walk this thing out in the real world? I personally would find it far more helpful to see a more mature brother in Christ engaging God in the daily grind. Or for myself involved in the video business, I’d love to see the example of Godly businessmen and women living this thing out. I’ve been finding Daniel and Joseph to be men that I can relate to more than Paul. These guys conducted business while they were entrenched in godless cultures. And they weren’t sitting on the fringes of society. They were smack in the middle of it all. And yet they showed God to the people around them. Just like Jesus went to the tax gatherers, prostitutes and drunks. But these guys did it through their careers.

So I’m pondering, is all that energy and compulsion to “build something for God” pointed in the wrong direction? What if we took that same energy and put it towards knowing Him and engaging Him in being the best employee at our companies we could be? Or put our energies towards being the parents that Father would have us be? Or having a relationship with Jesus as students? Or what if we engaged God in building and conducting our businesses so that we shine for Christ in the market place? What if we sought to immerse ourselves in our culture rather than be removed from it? What if we stripped away what ever it is that lays guilt on God’s people for desiring to “go for it” and keeps them feeling like they have to do “Christian stuff?” Anybody can draw attention to himself by doing stuff that is big or odd. But I think the real miracle is when God draws attention to Himself when we are doing stuff that is “normal.” That’s when this walk with God becomes real.

Loren

New Wine and Old Wineskins

nonreligiousvideo — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 02:23:54 +0000

Every so often lately I get in a conversation with someone who is convinced that God is going to move in a powerful way to transform what most people call church. Somehow, I just can’t wrap my brain around that idea. I don’t think religious organizations will ever be changed, because God changes people rather than man-made institutions. Why would he change something he never sanctioned?

Some may point out the way God has moved in this or that “church.” Did he move in the building or in the hearts of a people who were hungry for him? And in every occasion I know of where “new wine” has been poured out on people who continue to return over and over to the building in which they feel they encountered God, the newness dissipates while things gradually return to “normal.” Some wineskins just refuse to burst even though they are unable to contain the new wine.

I think he’s already transforming his church by delivering her from religious bondage and false concepts about himself. Many of those he is transforming have left man’s version of church and are learning how to be the church outside of the four walls. Some are remaining in the IC for the sake of maintaining genuine relationships, or because their spouse is not ready to leave. But whether in or out, they are responding to God’s call to come out of the Babylon of religion and into the freedom of his love and grace.

David

It’s a relationship!

nonreligiousvideo — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 02:34:59 +0000

I’ve heard it said that “Christianity is not a religion, it’s a relationship.” I’ve used that line several times myself. But for some reason unbelievers just don’t buy it. Why not?

Well, I think of what 1 John 4:20 says,

“If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.”

We say we have a relationship with a God that we can’t see, but what do people see us doing in the realm that they can see? They see us going to church, obeying leaders, holding onto traditions, following religious rules and guarding religious systems. They see that any relationships we have are built and maintained through our religious systems and activities. It is only as we are part of the same group and on the same task that we even relate to another believer. They don’t see the church loving one another as family and best friends. So when we tell unbelievers that we are having this amazing relationship with an invisible God in the Spiritual realm, how are they supposed to believe it?

If we aren’t relational with the people around us in the natural realm that people can see, how on Earth can we expect people to believe that we are in relationship with a God that we can’t see? If God is alive and we are having relationship with Him, doesn’t it only make sense that followers of Christ would be the most relational people on the planet? People would not doubt us when we say, “Christianity is a relationship, not a religion” because they would see us truly loving one another and building relationships. Our actions would be matching our words. In other words, what we say we have in the spiritual realm where these people can’t see would be seen in the natural realm that they can see. After all, if something is true in the spiritual then it will be reflected in the natural. If we are having a relationship with God, doesn’t it only make sense that we will become like Him and pursue relationships with others?

Just as I was reading this to my wife she said, “That’s what my brother needs to see.” Her brother lives down in the LA area and all he sees the Christians around him doing is being religious. So no matter how many times he hears, “It’s a relationship” he has seen no evidence of that. Well, the proof is in the putting! Perhaps one of the main reasons the early church grew so rapidly was because their actions of going from house to house and breaking bread together showed the world that this talk of God being our Father who wants a relationship with us was true! After all, look at what His followers do!

Loren

Ode to Lost Leaders

nonreligiousvideo — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 12:26:37 +0000

I have to disagree with the idea that many people have, that leaders aren’t important. After all, what would you do if an alien landed and demanded that you take him to your leader? And without the Big Cheese, who would you please? Or who would there be to affirm a worm? To herd the terds? To command Miss Muffet to eat her curds? Who would hard-wire me, acquire me, tire me? Who would be there to keep me in line, keep me from wine or tell me I’m fine? Besides, I’m too immature to want a release, I’m way more secure if I’m being policed. Or fleeced.

Still, there are those among us who prove an example, the weak, never trample, who know Father’s ample. They’re ready to feed us, but don’t try to lead us. They don’t seek for gain, their motives aren’t vain. They don’t search the church for disciples to train. With no image to build, no pews to be filled, the last of their old dreams have long since been killed. They no longer strive, their motive is love. They’ve laid down their lives, Their reward waits above.

Call them leaders if you like. They’ll call themselves unworthy servants.

David

Where’s the release?

nonreligiousvideo — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 02:49:20 +0000

What would you think of a parent who still felt the need to keep his 29 year old child under his roof and order him around? You’d think he’s got issues! What if another parent walked up to that 29 year old while he was living in his own apartment and said, “You need to be living with your parents! You need to have your parents telling you what to do!” We’d wonder what planet that person was from! Yet every day Christian “equippers” are walking up to the saints who live outside of religious hierarchies and asking, “Who is your pastor?” And then telling them they need to have a leader over them.

It took Jesus 3 years to equip the apostles to do the work of the ministry. Yet I sat under men who were called to be “equippers” for 29 years of my life and was never once released to do the work of the ministry. That’s longer than I lived with my own parents and far longer than Jesus spent equipping the 12 apostles. Sure, they gave me permission to work in their ministry and a “rank” to validate my work. But I was never released. And after 29 years of equipping, if I’m not ready to be released I must have developmental problems or the equipper is doing a horrible job. I wonder, did these “equippers” (-gulp-) ever have any intention of releasing me? Now there’s a scary thought. I heard one pastor say, “We release the saints! Every week after service we release them to go out and preach the gospel and then come back next week for more equipping.” If that’s what we think it means to release the saints to do the work of the ministry, is it any wonder 20 million Christians have permanently released themselves from coming back for “more equipping?”

You know, I’ve held quite a few jobs in which it was my duty to train new employees. It was my job to bring the new employee to the place where he or she could do what I did as well as I did it. (And maybe even better.) If after a given length of time had past and the employee still needed me to lean on while he was working my boss would know that one of us isn’t making the grade. Either I’m a lousy trainer or the new employee is just not cutting it. I’ve seen some pretty horrible trainers in my day. One was so bad that the new employee finally got up and walked into the boss’s office and demanded a new trainer.

It’s strange that we know what good equipping looks like in the work force but we seem to be clueless about it when it comes to the body of Christ. You know what? If I yielded the same results as these so called “equippers” do in the church I would have been fired from my job! Could you imagine me training an employee to do what I do for 29 years? And worse yet, could you imagine me never planning to stop training that employee?! I’d be the worst trainer in the world! Not to mention a control freak. Yet this approach to equipping in the church is perfectly acceptable…and even expected! Why else would an equipper say to Christians who have walked with Christ for years, “You need to have a pastor!”? If after being equipped by a pastor for decades a person still can’t pastor, something has really run amuck. Either that pastor wasn’t truly an equipper or the student was stupid. That’s just Looney Tunes! So when is the next employee evaluation?

Loren

A great resource

nonreligiousvideo — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 02:02:56 +0000

I can’t recommend enough Robert Lund’s book ‘The Way Church Ought To Be’ it is a like the encyclopedia on relational Christianity. It is available at our online store! (How’s that for a cheap commercial). No really, this guy has done all the heavy lifting regarding the Greek translations and the intended meanings of the original writers. He has it indexed by person, scripture, and general topics so you can quickly look up a verse that someone may toss your way and be able to wrap your brain around it without having to have a degree in Hebrew and Greek.

I have used it frequently when challenged with those bulwark texts that RI’s hang their hierarchy on.

bob humphrey

What Are We Waiting For?

nonreligiousvideo — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 17:09:04 +0000

In the previous blog, Bob referred to some wonderful brothers and sisters we were blessed to fellowship with in the Buffalo, New York area. During our visit, I was deeply impressed that Father was encouraging those who have left the “Egypt” of organized religion to embrace the favor and anointing he has already released to us. Isaiah 60 begins with, “Arise and shine for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.” (Italics, mine)

I believe that this scripture is prophetic to all who have left the security of the familiar to passionately pursue unhindered relationship with him. I find that it’s easy for some of us to sit just outside the ruins of what we left and passively enjoy our freedom. Or we sense that there’s something more to be had, and petition God to pour out his Spirit on us. Maybe we search within to find out what might be hindering a more dynamic expression of his life through us. But what if all the while, he’s waiting for us to simply receive and walk in the fullness that he’s already given? If we’re pursuing him, he’ll deal with the things in us that need to change.

Something significant took place as people from Toronto, Pennsylvania, Sacramento and New York gathered in homes for fellowship and no-agenda meetings. We could sense that Father was initiating relationships with people who would be working alongside one another beyond the few days that we shared together. I think we experienced a hint of how he is beginning to gather and prepare a free people through whom his love can flow with no strings attached. And the glory of his presence radiating from a people walking together in his love, grace and freedom will draw others, even nations, (Is. 60:3) to himself.

David F.

What you see is what you get

nonreligiousvideo — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 12:13:52 +0000

We just returned from a great weekend with some folks in Buffalo, NY. The fellowship and sharing was really stirring. It was so much like being with family I had to remind myself that this was the first time I had met these folks. That in itself was huge. I mean how often do you try to be on good behavior so as to make an impression upon your hosts? You come into this freedom in Christ, but you’re not sure how established it is until you’re around people you’ve never met before. Are you going to revert to your crafted persona or be real? Well as grandma said ‘What you see is what you get.’ There is so much more of Father you can receive from others when you’re able to freely be yourself.

I can’t put into words how refreshing it was to be around other believers who were themselves. This I believe, is what allowed the flow and exchange of the Spirit between ourselves to be so stirring. Romans 1:11-12 being fulfilled beyond our expectations. I miss these folks already, and I’ve only known them for three and a half days.

A hearty thank you again to Marty and Pam and the gang. To quote our Governator

‘We’ll be back.’

bob humphrey

Judgment

nonreligiousvideo — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 06:22:18 +0000

Today I was thinking about God’s judgment. You know, I was pretty much taught growing up that God’s pretty excited about wiping out all the bad people on earth. We’d say things like, “God is willing that none should perish.” But what that verse was really saying to us was, “Some of you losers are going to perish!” I had this view of God like He’s some kind of passive aggressive supreme being who is all sweet and nice outwardly, but oh boy! You better watch out! On the inside He is one ticked off boiling pot that’s going to blow any minute. And when He finally blows He’s just going to lose it and start wrecking stuff and flinging people all over the place. It reminds me of the old Godzilla movies. To be honest, I think we viewed God as being passive aggressive because all of us religious folks were passive aggressive.

But as I’ve been thinking about His judgments I’m beginning to realize that His judgments are nothing more than Father bringing His order into our lives and into the Earth. I like how Wayne Jacobsen describes God’s judgment on sin as God going after the very thing that is destroying the object of His affection. I was thinking about that verse that says, “Judgment begins with the house of God.” Talk about a scary verse! I remember hearing that verse on Sunday mornings and thinking, “Oh man! We better be doing everything right or God’s going to stomp on us!” So I always hoped I was in line with His will so that when His foot came down He would just squash the people around me but purposely miss me.

But now I’m beginning to see that God’s judgments are simply Father taking action to bring His good order into our lives and into the earth. When He says, “Judgment begins with the house of God” I think He’s simply saying that that’s where He’s going to bring His order first. And you know, as I look at the saints who are held captive to religious obligation and to the will of leaders who lord over them my heart cries out for God’s order. God’s judgment to me is no longer about squashing people or hurting people. It’s about circumstances and situations being rearranged so that the prisoners are set free and the things that keep us from seeing Jesus clearly are removed.

Loren

Day of the Unknowns

nonreligiousvideo — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 01:27:41 +0000

Recently I was talking to a friend who’s making a film and is in the process of negotiating distribution. He mentioned that there is now a market and means for distribution of independent films for the first time in the industry. We chatted about how this is also true for other impossible-to-break-into markets. Unknowns are breaking into the music world through shows like American Idol. Others are becoming famous overnight as a result of simply posting a video clip on YouTube. There are currently only 100 people who decide what the rest of the public read. Yet an increasing number of published authors are turning to self-publishing, and efforts are underway to create a major market for independent authors.

These are just a few examples of a major change taking place in markets that reach the masses. In short, the industry leaders who determine what comes before the eyes and ears of the public are gradually losing control.

It came to me that what we’re seeing in these worldly systems is a prophetic picture of how Father is moving in the church. Unscriptural “church” structure has placed the spotlight and “ministry” responsibility on leadership. The few who hold positions in religious institutions have become the voice and generally control the function of the body. They’ve become a bottleneck to the forward movement of God’s people.

But now God is either removing the “bottlenecks” or moving his people out! With all religious restraints gone, we’re free to walk in the anointing we have as royal priests. Father is opening doors that you may never have imagined would be available to you. I believe that opportunities to connect with like-minded people will increase, God planned appointments will increase, and mighty things will result. And God will get all the glory as his “unknowns” engage him in every area of their lives.

David F