The thrid anniversary of tevyebird.blogspot.com

I just realized that, on the tenth of this month, this blog touched the third anniversary of its beginning. I guess that it is time to retell the story of why I started this blog.

A long time ago, I remember not when, a person sent me a comment through some other source, as I as of yet haven't gotten the “comments” function of this site to work (according to the functions screen on my end, it is supposed to be operable), saying that I had a lot of time on my hands. That person was absolutely correct. In the time immediately previous to opening this blog, I had a job which was mainly sitting at a desk of a high-rise condo, and pressing a button to allow residents in when they came to the door. To a large extent, I was sitting at the desk doing nothing. A couple of years previous to that, I was running a small business which developed such that 90+% of my business was on Saturdays and Sundays, making getting to the church I was going to difficult. I knew that there was nothing special about Sunday as a day of worship, so I looked on the internet for a church that met sometime other than on the weekend. I couldn't find anything I was comfortable with.

A couple of weeks later, my Sunday business started late enough that I was able to get to the beginning of the early morning service at my church. That day, Larry Kreider was to speak, so out in the lobby, there was a selection of his books for sale. One of them was his book “Starting a House Church” (or something like that—I can't seem to find it on my bookshelf at the moment). I didn't find it particularly useful, except that, in the bibliography, it directed me to other works. That shows something of my personality, as so many persons in Jesus' people read only simple books, and definately don't read footnotes and bibliographies. That eventually directed me to the works of Frank Viola and Wolfgang Simson, and to a website that, in turn, directed me to the website of the housechurches in my metro area. From that, I called up and talked to a person who was connected to one of the housechurches, called and invited myself to another one that met at a time I was generally free, and started reading the works of the authors writing on this subject.

Over time, my business failed, and I started the sit at a desk and press a button job. I started picturing in my mind that the ideas in George Barna & Frank Viola's Pagan Christianity and Wolfgang Simson's Houses That Change the World might break down into a group of 2 minute segments that would be appropriate for radio, and wrote a number of scripts for the two minute programs. Later, I added a few more from Steve Lyzenga's doctoral thesis that can be read online, http://house2harvest.org/docs/Simple_Churches_Releasing_Resources_S_Lyzenga.pdf. Thanks to the wonders of the recording program Audacity, I recorded these. Eventually, I temporarily had enough extra money to actually get about six episodes broadcast on a local station. I started the blog to post the texts of those scripts, which goes back to December 2010 and January 2011.

Over the past year, I haven't felt well, specifically with regard to being able to think properly. Also, since last March, many days, I've been putting in some time working on a project fixing up my son's house. About two weeks ago, I got to the end of that part of the project that I could do by myself. Yesterday, fumbling around writing yesterday's post, the old computer I was working on somehow flashed off the screen I was typing on, and over to the page on Blogger which shows how many page views my posts have received, and I saw that there has been a significant increase in views on those posts of the last 15 months or so. As I believe that what I wrote the first two months are the most significant things I've written, I'm going to make a point of reprising some of those entries.

Just, as a matter of intrest, yes, that is my real phone number in them. No, to my total surprise, that hasn't been a problem.

The purpose of this blog

            The original purpose of this blog is more than just rambling about what is on my mind, although I occasionally do that.  I became a believer in Jesus in the summer of 1968, the week after the Democratic Party’s convention in Chicago, and concurrent protest over the Vietnam War and rioting.  During the summer of 2008, I had a business that eventually turned into using every free moment of my time on Saturdays and Sundays, which didn’t work well with being involved with a fellowship of other believers.  I tried to find a church that met on weekdays, and in the course of doing so, ran into books such as Barna & Viola’s Pagan Christianity and Simson’s Houses That Change the World.  While that scholarship changed the way I approached following Jesus, I was aware that many of my fellow believers don’t read such serious readings, and that this flavor of what God is doing gets nearly zero attention in the Christian media (for obvious reasons—there’s minimal money and human power in it).  To that effect, over time, I wrote a group of two minute commentaries, with the audience in mind as youth oriented Christian radio.  At the time, I didn’t have the money to put them on a local station, and, as of now, still do not.  In December, 2010, I posted the transcripts of these on this site, appearing with the title Simple Church Minute, numbered 1 through 100.  During May through December 2011, I have posted five and one minute versions of the same subjects, which appear with numbers in the 1000’s for one minute versions, and 2000’s for five minute versions at the beginning of the titles. 

      I have posted footnotes from where this information comes from. The research is important so one can see that the idea behind these statements isn’t just to be different, or controversial.  It is to show that what Jesus taught the disciples, who as apostles taught the early church is different than what centuries of traditions have morphed the meanings of the words of the Bible.  Over the Middle Ages and later, our previous brothers and sisters may not have been able to know better, but today there is no excuse to misunderstand the scriptures, just because it threatens what some persons (sometimes not necessarily believers) feel comfortable with.
        Lastly, one reason I do not have as many five minute transcripts posted is that, over time, I have run across various writings of others who, from their journey with Jesus, have been able to write about certain issues far better than I could, so, if or when I ever get the commentaries on radio, I will read these writings (sometimes edited for time) in certain time spots, with their permission.  The following writings fit the context of the five minute series:

Author              blog (or writing)                    date                                title

George Barna    georgebarna.com                  5/8/2011    Measuring the fruit of wholeness

Felicity Dale     simplychurch.com                7/1/2011      The financial transition from…

Felicity Dale                                                   7/5/2011      Stories of financial transition…

Keith Giles       subversive1.blogspot.com     6/7/2011      Sympathy for the Pharisee?

Keith Giles                                                      6/21/2011    Now Open: The New Temple ...

Keith Giles                                                     5/28/2011    Pitfalls of Organic Church 3

Keith Giles                                                     5/30/2011    Pitfalls of Organic Church 5

Keith Giles                                                     6/22/2011   Confessions of a Selfish Mind

Keith Giles                                                     7/19/2011    We ARE the Church

Keith Giles                                                     7/21/2011     Salvation is a Process, Not a …

Keith Giles                                                     7/29/2011    When Should We Meet Toget...

Keith Giles                                                     8/2/2011      Our Idea vs. God’s Idea

Keith Giles                                                     8/29/2011   The Gospel: For Here or To Go

Milt Rodriguez miltrodriguez.wordpress.com 5/13/2011  River Crossers

Ross Rohde      thejesusvirus.org                    5/30/2011    I Don’t Want to Die

Ross Rohde                                                      6/30/2011   Don’t Forsake Fellowship

Jon Zens          searching together.org                               The New Testament is Plural, Not Si...        

                         Prelude to Jon’s book, The Pastor Has No Clothes
                         This writing also appears on frankviola.com, 1/22/11, as a guest writing

Also, about eight of the five minute talks are based on Steven S. Lyzenga’s dissertation, “Assessing the State of Simple Churches in the USA Regarding Releasing Resources Toward Finishing the Great Commission”.  Go to any of the five minute commentaries numbered in the 2150’s, and in the footnotes is a link to that work.

             Lastly, the list above might make you think that I may be overly enamored with Keith Giles’ work.  The reason for so many is that his writings happen to fit the five minute format I was working with, and his experience brings life to the subjects touched in those writings.

2006--Simson's 15 Theses

       

Today, I have come to believe that my short term goal is to have 40 of these five minute commentaries.  If you go back through these blogs, I am not close to that, but, for a few, I will totally use a blog of another person who has said what I wished to, and far better than I, sometimes because their experience brings out a point better than I can.  I have a few of these mentioned, but it doesn’t read too well when I have an introduction, a link to another site, and an ending, so I will save the rest for the moment.  Also, even though I believe that such a short thing that is published freely falls within fair use, I won’t get further into that point for now.  I believe I am thinking about that as I ran into a blogger last evening who specifically states that permission is not granted for republishing his writings, which I perceive will be made into a book.  Of sorts, fortunately for me, nothing he wrote quite fits into the train of thought of these series.  I am also attempting to quote a variety of writers on the subject of organic church (unfortunately, there are not that many).  One person’s writing that I have been struggling with is the German writer Wolfgang Simson.  Do I make one, or fifteen, parts based on his Fifteen Theses toward a Re-Incarnation of Church.  For the moment, I have chosen one.

=====================================================================             2006—15 Theses

            My name is Tom; this is Simple Church Minute.  Something I have noticed over the years is how professors of biology consistently refer to Darwin’s Origin of Species, but never assign students to read it.  About a decade ago, I had to take a cross country bus trip, so I got it from the library, and it was obvious.  In my opinion, he wasn’t nearly as hard-nosed about the rightness of what he said as many professors are today.  I bring this up in that, within believers in Jesus, we oftentimes refer to Martin Luther’s 95 Theses as a historical watershed document, but it is rarely read, because if you look it up, it reads like a medieval Catholic theological argument, which it was.  Much of its detail is irrelevant to today.

            One person who is very influential in thought about organic church is the German writer Wolfgang Simson (no p in his last name, unlike OJ or Homer). In his book, Houses that Change the World, and on his website, he has posted a much smaller document than Luther’s, but definitely a parody of it, called 15 Theses towards a Re-Incarnation of Church.  Simson has theological training, and as such people, sometimes puts his statements in an intentionally provocative manner.  He isn’t trying to irritate you or I so much as he wishes us to think deeply about what he is saying.  To that effect, here are his 15 Theses, with a slight amount of explanation:

1.               Christianity is a way of life, not a series of religious meetings. 

2.               Time to change to cathegogue system.  He made up a word there, jamming cathedral and synagogue together, that, whether accidental or intentional, we have a series of rituals, disconnected from the real life of the society we are called to be salt and light into.

3.               The third reformation.  From this, he is saying Luther’s was the first, the pietistic renewal of the 1800’s was the second, and it is time for a third, a reformation of structure.

4.               From church houses to house churches.  Buildings are a financial and logistical burden God never directed us to bear.

5.               The church has to become small to grow large.  I know some megachurches use this phrase to stress the importance of cell groups, but Simson means something more radical. 

6.               No church is led by a pastor alone.  Almost all traditional churches I know of that have a pastor do not have anyone with the other four ministries of Ephesians 4, and the other four are the ones seen used in the New Testament, which, interestingly, pastor is not.

7.               The right pieces—fitted together the wrong way. Many of our practices are attached to words found in scripture, but not in the way the early church or the current underground church practices these directives.  

8.               Out of the hands of bureaucratic clergy and on towards the priesthood of all believers. 

9.               Return from organized to organic forms of Christianity.  The Bible shows that the apostle Paul generally went from coming into a city, preaching, seeing some come to faith in Jesus and helping a group of new believers into being church in 3 months, when he went to the next area.

10.            From worshipping our worship to worshipping God.  What’s more important —to be real before God or to have our music or talk look slick before each other?

11.            Stop bringing people to church, and start bringing church to the people.  If Jesus will be there when two or three are gathered, what’s the structures adding, besides weight?

12.            Rediscovering the Lord’s Supper as a real supper with real food.  Have you noticed that 1 Corinthians 11 is in the context of a meal?

13.            From denominations to city-wide celebrations.  See Acts chapter 5.

14.            Developing a persecution-proof spirit.  You can’t have buildings and organizations if the government won’t allow it, but no terrorist can stop the Holy Spirit from going where he wills.

15.            The church comes home.  By this he means that it is easy to live fake in a ceremony, but it is impossible in your family, which makes it the most meaningful.

Simson writes in the introduction that while writing notes for this book, he was in, and had discussions with everyday believers, in Columbia, the U.S., Germany, Switzerland, England, Sudan, Egypt, Cyprus, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, South Korea, China, and Mongolia.  You know the variety of cultures that represents—the West and what is and isn’t going on here, lands of overt persecution, and lands of great revival. Obviously, he writes from an extremely internationalist perspective.  Even if you he is dead wrong, or impossibly idealistic, this book is worth reading.  You probably won’t find it on the shelf of a local bookstore (Christian or secular) as it was originally copyrighted in 1998, but some online places will have it.

        You can read a transcript of what I said here at my blog, tevyebird.blogspot.com, in the posting of September 11, 2011.  I will also have a link to his website, which has a long, relatively unusual spelling.  You can contact me at simplechurchminute@yahoo.com  or 757-xxx-xxxx.  You can find out more about house churches in this area at www.hrscn.org.

Wolfgang Simson’s website is http://www.simsonwolfgang.de.  The book’s full title is Houses That Change the World (Waynesboro, GA: Authentic, 2001).  Most books on house church are not carried by local Christian bookstores or cbd.com, but so far I have not had any problem finding books from amazon.com, and, yes, I recognize that comment one can take two very different ways. 

  

2010--comparing apples to apples

            This is another five minute commentary for radio, as are most of my posts.  This one, at this time, I feel is kind of special.  I feel that I need an introduction commentary, as is #28 in the two minute commentaries I posted in December, 2010.  With this one, I began by thinking that, as I have examined the critique the ideas behind organic church, that most come down to the misunderstanding rampant in the western world as to what the words “church, pastor, preach, tithe, and communion” mean.  Below, I tie this to an experience I had as a teen, which years later, I realized spoke to a general principle going on in institutional churches today.

==============================================================

2010—comparing apples to apples

            My name is Tom; this is Simple Church Minute.  When we make a choice in the world, a reasonable person would like to make an apples to apples comparison.  When we go to a grocery store, there are a number of dish detergents on the shelf.  We might choose one by price, or color, or fragrance, or how the package looks on your shelf, or how it affects one’s hands or if they give a nickel to a favored charity, or you could have ordered some via Amway a couple of weeks ago, or bought a book on chemistry and made it yourself.  All these choices have pluses and minuses.  In making comparisons in the real world, as opposed to, say, politics, one needs to compare apples to apples.  Some of those companies wish to make the comparison as easy as possible, particularly with the strategy of offering the lowest price.  The company offering the product at the highest price is attempting to do something to differentiate themselves such that whatever that unique thing is will make you ignore the high price.  In autos, for instance, the companies wish to put so many optional features on a car that you can’t find two identical cars to compare to.

            The reason I bring this up is to present the following question.  Think of the following words:  church, pastor, preach, tithe, communion.  When you hear that word, or read that word or read about that concept in the Bible, are you thinking of the same thing that the writer of scripture was talking about when he was writing it?  Now some might say that that is an unfair question, in that we know that to some minor degree, according to our experiences, we all see the words we use everyday in a very slightly different nuance.  I’m not talking about that.  I’m asking, do we understand these words apples to apples similar or apples to pineapples different?  When Paul wrote the Koine Greek word ekklesia, how similar is that word in how the original receivers of his letters understand it in comparison to our modern English word church, which also includes aspects you have picked up from your experience that you’ve never heard said.

            Let me give you an example from my life.  My parents were honest, moral people, if you asked them, they would have said they believed in God, but I doubt ever really thought through what that meant.  When I was 8, they started having me go to Sunday School at a church a couple of miles away (I lived in a rural area).  When I was 15, I came to faith in Jesus, just a few weeks after the elderly pastor of that church passed away.  About a year later, the new pastor also came to teach the high school class I was in, and asked how many people believed doctrine X, which that church held one view of, and most churches held an opposite view of.  I’d never considered the idea one way or another, and wasn’t sure, although I knew the church’s stand, so, in a show of hands, I stuck my hand out sideways and waved by wrist to indicate that I wasn’t sure.  I was sitting in a front row, and later learned that no one else raised their hand, where raising their hand indicated agreement with the official position.  Given that, the pastor taught about this doctrine for four weeks, and then asked that question again.  This time, no one, including myself, raised their hand.  What was the pastor to do—now no one agrees with that denomination’s position?  You can’t toss everyone out—you need a salary.  The answer is:  don’t talk about it one way or another.

            The thing I am getting at is that what Paul and the other writers of the New Testament, and the apostles taught during the days of the early church, when faith in Jesus spread like wildfire, and also what we have seen in parts of the world where the government or a social group is overtly attempting to persecute faith in Jesus, but faith has been spreading like wildfire, was connected to what Jesus taught the disciples, who in turn taught the early church.  We, here in the West, with all of our money and marketing ideas and media teaching are not seeing people come to faith in Jesus in an exceptional way, and may even be seeing a harvest of criticism and mockery from unbelievers that aren’t always undeserved.  I am suggesting that some of these key words in the Bible have, sometimes unintentionally, sometimes intentionally by both well meaning persons and those who were not, have morphed in meaning so significantly that we are not reading our Bibles correctly, that is, we are reading the correct word, insofar as translating the word from Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic to English, but we are connecting an incorrect definition to it, as various people in history have leaned on society in ways that have changed how we understand a word, and we’ve added and deleted to the word by what we’ve seen but no one has ever overtly explained.  My time today is done, but this series is looking at a variety of specific instances.

          You can contact me at simplechurchminute@yahoo.com  or 757-735-xxxx.  Hearing a talk goes really quickly; if you would like to see a transcript of what I just said, I have it posted on my blog, tevyebird.blogspot.com, dated September 1, 2011.  For more information about organic worship in this area, visit www.hrscn.org.

            Almost nothing that I say in these commentaries are my original ideas, but I am putting out in the public because these are ideas spoken of in some evangelical seminaries, and among certain groups of believers in Jesus, but are quite invisible to many believers who are sincerely desiring to follow Jesus, and who are plugged into what is being said and sung in Christian pop culture.  Two books which are an excellent introduction to what will be said in these commentaries are:

George Barna & Frank Viola, Pagan Christianity.

Wolfgang Simson, Houses that Change the World

Many Christian bookstores will not have these in stock.  Many authors sell their works on their websites, and I have not had any problem finding anything I have been looking for on amazon.com.

It's Been a Little Over Six Months

            It’s been a little over six months since I started this blog.  A couple of days ago, I was thinking that it was odd that I had not received one comment positive or negative about what I have written, so, in poking around, think that I have figured out that comments were not operating on this site.  Hopefully, I have that corrected. Since it cannot be seen from the outside, the counter said that I had 186 hits over that period of time.

            When looking at any blog, you see what has been written last.  Therefore, I wish to point out that, over in the archives, I have 100 posts in December, 2010.  These are scripts for 100 two minute commentaries written for Christian radio, with the 15 to 29 demographic in mind.  Most cover the major ideas in George Barna and Frank Viola’s Pagan Christianity and Wolfgang Simson’s Houses That Change the World.  I have them recorded on MP3, but have yet to have them aired due to my not having the cash.  In the proceeding months, I have a few of the ideas of these commentaries either shortened to one minute, or expanded to five minutes, due to my research indicating, that for local stations, they need to go back to one or up to five.  The reason for doing this is that, as far as I can see, most believers in my geographical area are unaware that the that these ideas exist, and that many believers I know, unlike myself, are not persons who will wade through a book of serious theological writing, even if written in simple English, and, unfortunately, many believers who are collecting a paycheck in some way connected to their faith are extremely unlikely to promote a thought that threatens that paycheck, even if it makes more sense than whatever their explanation of the same point is. 

            Therefore, if you haven’t read the two books I mentioned above, I would encourage reading what I wrote in December, 2010.  They don’t need to be read in order; each is a stand alone thought, unless the title has Part 1 or Part 2 as part of it.

Simple Church Minute 87--Simson's Thesis #11

87—WS#13

My name is Tom; this is Simple Church Minute.

            We have been mentioning a writing by German writer Wolfgang Simson, 15 Theses towards a Re-Incarnation of Church.  Today, we bring up Thesis #13, From denominations to city-wide celebrations.  On this idea, Simson writes, “Jesus called a universal movement, and what came was a series of religious corporations with global chains marketing their special brands of Christianity and competing with each other.  Through this branding of Christianity most of Protestantism has lost its voice in the world and become politically insignificant, more concerned with traditional distinctives and religious infighting than with developing a collective testimony before the world.  Jesus simply never asked people to organize themselves into factions and denominations, and Paul spoke of it as worldly, a sign of baby Christians.

            In the early days of the church, Christians had a dual identity: they were truly his church and vertically converted to God, and they then organized themselves according to geography, that is, converting also horizontally to each other on earth.  This means not only Christian neighbours organizing themselves into neighbourhood or house churches, where they share their lives locally, but Christians coming together as a collective identity as much as they can for city-wide or regional celebrations expressing the corporateness of the city or region.  Authenticity  in the neighbourhoods connected with a regional of city-wide corporate identity will make the church not only politically significant and spiritually convincing, but will allow a return to the biblical model of the city church, the sum total of all born-again Christians of a city or an area. Unquote.

            There is a lot in that statement, and you can reread it at your pace, along with the rest of the 15 theses at www.simsonwolfgang.de. You can email me at simplechurchminute@gmail.com. You can find out more about simple forms of worship at http://www.simplechurch.com/ or for this area at (local website).

Simple Church Minute 85--Simson's Thesis #11

85—WS#11

My name is Tom; this is Simple Church Minute

            These last few days, we’ve been looking at German writer Wolfgang Simson’s 15 Theses towards a Re-Incarnation of Church.  Today is Thesis #11, Stop bringing people to church, and start bringing church to people.  On this idea, Simson writes, “The church is changing back from being a Come structure to being a Go structure.  As a result, the church needs to stop trying to bring people “to church”, and start bringing the church to people.  The mission of the church will never be accomplished by just adding to the existing structure.  It will take nothing less than a mushrooming of the church through spontaneous multiplication into areas of the world where Christ is not yet known.” Unquote.

            The idea of bringing people to church is based on the idea that, somehow, each of us believers isn’t competent to direct another to life in Jesus, and that the preacher is somehow more prepared, like people will be wowed by the brilliance of the sermon.  Nothing shows us that that is true.  It our current society, people are hardened to sales pitches and aren’t convinced that ministers are more intelligent than they are.  Many have been sold that secular ideas are more correct, even if that was taught them by smoke-and- mirrors logic.  In Luke chapter 10 verses 1 through 13, Jesus sends seventy people who have been responsive to his words to go to a variety of towns and find people who will receive them and they find peace.  This is the place where Jesus says that a laborer is worthy of his wages.  It wasn’t directed to religious professionals, but towards persons to take the message of Jesus to places that it had not gone before, which appears to align more with the New Covenant’s description of apostles and workers.  This was to be the founding pattern of the apostles, to found a church in the home of a person open to the message of Jesus.

            You can email me at simplechurchminute@gmail.com. For more information on simple forms of worship, visit on the web, www.simplechurchminute.com and locally at (local website).    

Simple Church Minute 84--Simson's Thesis #10

84—WS#10

My name is Tom; this is Simple Church Minute.

            Lately we have been examining writer Wolfgang Simson’s 15 Theses towards a Re-Incarnation of Church.  Today we come to Thesis #10, From worshipping our worship to worshipping God.  On this idea, Simson writes, The image of much contemporary Christianity could be summarized as holy people coming regularly to a holy place on a holy day at a holy hour to participate in a holy ritual led by a holy man dressed in holy clothes for a holy fee.  Since this regular performance-oriented enterprise called worship service requires a lot of organizational talent and administrative bureaucracy, formalized and institutionalized patterns developed quickly into rigid traditions.  Statistically, a traditional one- or two-hour worship service is very resource-hungry but produces very little fruit in terms of discipling people, i.e. in changing their lives.  Economically, it is a high input low output structure.  Traditionally, the desire to worship in the right way has led to much denominationalism, confessionalism and nominalism.  This not only ignores the fact that Christians are called to worship in spirit and in truth, rather than in cathedrals holding songbooks.  It also ignores the fact that most of life is informal, and so too is Christianity as the Way of Life.  Do we need to change from being powerful actors and start acting powerfully? Unquote.

            My experience has been that the times that I’ve seen the Holy Spirit actually do powerful acts has been in the informal aspects of everyday life—conversations, reading by myself, challenge situations, when myself or others have erred.  Even when things have happened in an institutional church situation, preparing moments happened previously elsewhere.  John chapters 3 and 4 are excellent opposing examples of how important moments happen.

             The 15 Theses can be found on the web at www.simsonwolfgang.de.  You can email me at simplechurchminute@gmail.com. For more info on simple worship, visit http://www.simplechurch.com/ or locally, (local website).

Simple Church Minute 83--Simson's Thesis #9

83—WS#9

My name is Tom; this is Simple Church Minute.

            We have been looking at German writer Wolfgang Simson’s 15 Theses towards a Re-Incarnation of Church.  Today, we look at Thesis #9, Return from organized to organic forms of Christianity.  On this idea, Simson writes, “The ‘Body of Christ’ is a vivid description of an organic being, not an organized mechanism.  Church consists, at the local level, of a multitude of extended spiritual families, which are organically related to each other as a network.  The way these communities function together is an integral part of the message of the whole.  What has become a maximum of organization with a minimum of organism has to be changed into a minimum of organization to allow a maximum of organism.  Too much organization has, like a straightjacket, often choked the organism for fear that something might go wrong.  Fear is the opposite of faith, and not exactly a Christian virtue.  Fear wants to control; faith can trust.  Control, therefore, may be good, but trust is better.  The body of Christ is entrusted by God into the hands of steward-minded people with a special charismatic gift to believe that God is still in control, even if they are not.  Today we need to develop regional and national networks based on trust, not a new arrangement of political ecumenism, for organic forms of Christianity to re-emerge. (Unquote)

            In another place, Simson wrote that if nothing can go wrong, nothing much can go right either.  Personally, I’ve seen that not only does it take letting go of the agenda for the Holy Spirit to work most powerfully, but when something does go wrong, that recognition, and how mature believers deal with it is used by the Spirit to bring everyone to greater maturity.

            You can examine these 15 ideas at your own pace, on the web, at www.simsonwolfgang.de. You can email me at simplechurchminute@gmail.com.  For more info on house churches, visit http://www.simplechurch.com/ or  with regards to the local area at (local website).

                                                                                            

Simple Church Minute 82--Simson's Thesis #8

82—WS#8

My name is Tom; this is Simple Church Minute.

            Recently we have been speaking about German writer Wolfgang Simson’s 15 Theses for Re-Incarnation of Church.  Today, we look at Thesis #8, Out of the hands of bureaucratic clergy and on towards the priesthood of believers.  On this idea, Simson has written, No expression of a New Testament church is ever led by just one professional holy man dong the business of communicating with God and then feeding some relatively passive, religious consumers, Moses-style.  Christianity has adopted this method from pagan religions, or at best from the Old Testament.

            The heavy professionalization of the church since Constantine has been a pervasive influence long enough, dividing the people of God artificially into an infantilized laity and a professional clergy, and developing power-based mentalities and pyramid structures.  According to the New Testament (1 Tim. 2:5), ‘there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus’.  God simply does not bless religious professionals to force themselves in between Himself and His people.  The veil is torn, and God is allowing people to access Himself directly through Jesus Christ, the only Way.

            To enable the priesthood of all believers, the present system will have to change completely.  Bureaucracy is the most dubious of all administrative systems, because it basically asks only two questions: yes or no.  There is no room for spontaneity and humanity, no room for real life.  This may be all right in politics and business, but not the church. God seems to be in the business of delivering His church from a Babylonian captivity of religious bureaucrats and controlling spirits into the public domain, putting it into the hands of ordinary people whom God has made extraordinary and who, as in the old days, may still smell of fish, perfume, or revolution.

            You can read back or ahead about Simson’s 15 Theses at www.simsonwolfgang.de. You can email me at simplechurchminute@gmail.com.  On the web, you can find out more about simple forms of worship at http://www.simplechurch.com/ or locally at (local website).

Simple Church Minute 80--Simson's Thesis #6

80—WS#6

My name is Tom; this is Simple Church Minute.

            Recently, these blips have been discussing Wolfgang Simson’s 15 Theses towards a Re-Incarnation of Church.  Thesis #6 is “No church is led by a pastor alone.”  On this idea, Simson says, The local church is not led by a pastor, but fathered by an elder, a man of wisdom and engaged with reality.  The local house churches are then networked into a movement by the combination of elders and members of the so-called fivefold ministries (apostles, prophets, pastors, evangelists, and teachers) circulating from ‘house to house’, like the circulation of blood.  Here there is a special foundational role to play for the apostolic and prophetic ministries (Eph. 2:20, 4:11,12).  A pastor (shepherd) is an important member of the whole team, but he cannot fulfill more than a part of the whole task of ‘equipping the saints for the ministry’, and he has to be complimented synergistically by the other four ministries in order to function properly.” (unquote)

            The whole idea that a healthy church has a balance of ministry from the five ministries mentioned in Ephesians 4:11 and 12 and with more than one person with each of these giftings is an idea that I, personally, have not heard of being examined, period, but there it is in scripture as a direction for the church.  Much of the church in the west is stuck on one person given the title pastor, without regard to his or her actual gifting, if any, as the end all in ministry and a title within a hierarchy which has words found in scripture as an excuse for the hierarchy’s existence.  Leadership in the church is not to be militaristic, but a structure for the purpose of helping everyone higher up and further into Jesus.

            You can read back and ahead about Simson’s 15 Theses at www.simsonwolfgang.de. You can make a comment or ask a question of me at simplechurchminute@gmail.com , and you can find out more about simple church at http://www.simplechurch.com/ and locally at (local website).

Simple Church Minute 79--Simson's Thesis #5

79—WS#5     

My name is Tom; this is Simple Church Minute.

            We have recently been visiting Wolfgang Simson’s 15 Theses towards a Re-Incarnation of Church.  Thesis #5 is “The church has to become small in order to grow large.”  About this Simson says, “Most churches of today are simply too big to provide real fellowship.  They have too often become fellowships without fellowship.  The New Testament church was made up of small groups, typically between 10 and 15 people.  It grew not by forming big congregations of 300 people to fill cathedrals and lose fellowship.  Instead, it multiplied sideways, dividing like organic cells, once these groups reached around 15 to 20 people.  This then made it possible for all the Christians to get together into city-wide celebrations, as in Solomon’s Temple court in Jerusalem. The traditional congregational church as we now know it is, by comparison, a sad compromise; neither big nor beautiful, an overgrown house church and an undergrown celebration, often missing the dynamics of both.” (Unquote)

            A couple of phrases in what Simson says above are easily misunderstood.  The phrase “become small to grow large” is used in megachurches to introduce a small group system.  Oftentimes, such groups are made to fulfill a need to be known by a few people while reinforcing the previous sermon.  No megachurch senior pastor, no matter how gifted, and all I know of are exceptionally gifted individuals, can replace the Holy Spirit. Also, with all our church divisions, a citywide celebration such as the one in Acts is rarely attempted, much less even achieved once.  Those two types of meetings are represented in scripture; the midway point, the congregation, somewhere between fellowship small and citywide big, is not in scripture.

            For more info on the 15 Theses, visit www.simsomwolfgang.de. If you have a question or comment for me, email simplechurchminute@gmail.com. For more info about simple church, visit http://www.simplechurch.com/ or locally at (local website).    

Simple Church Minute 78--Simson's Thesis #4

78—WS#4

My name is Tom; this is Simple Church Minute

            Last blip, I mentioned Wolfgang Simson’s 15 Theses Towards a Re-Incarnation of Church.  Today, we discuss Thesis #4, which is “From Church Houses to house churches.”  About this Simson says that (quote) “From the time of the New Testament there has been no such thing as ‘a house of God.’ At the cost of his life, Stephen reminded us: God does not live in temples made by human hands.  The church is the people of God. The church, therefore, was and is at home where people are at home: in ordinary houses.  There the people of God share their lives in the power of the Holy Spirit, have ‘meatings’, i.e. they eat when they meet; they often do not even hesitate to sell private property and share material and spiritual blessings; they teach each other in real-life situations how to obey God’s word-and not with professorial lectures but dynamically, with dialogue and questions and answers.  There they pray and prophesy with each other, and baptize one another.  There they can let their masks drop and confess their sins, regaining a new corporate identity through love, acceptance and forgiveness.”(Unquote)

            We are beginning to see some of the centuries old denominations begin to collapse from the weight of having accepted leaders who do not believe the historic faith in Jesus.  Believers have left to where they can receive life, and unbelievers who were there for societal reasons see there is no longer a social approbation holding them there, resulting in a lack of income in such organizations.  Further, as believers learn more of what is going on in the church in persecuted lands, one can notice that a church doesn’t have to have a name, building, and academically trained individuals to be real and a real force to stand against a sinful society.

            You can read back and ahead about Simson’s 15 Theses at www.simsonwolfgang.de .  You can email me at simplechurchminute@gmail.com.  For more info about simple forms of worship at http://www.simplechurch.com/ or locally at (local website) .

           

Simple Church Minute 77--Simson's Thesis #3

77—WS#3

My name is Tom; this is Simple Church Minute.

            Today, we will again visit Wolfgang Simson’s  Fifteen Theses towards a Re-Incarnation of Church.  His Thesis #3 is The third reformation.  About this idea, Simson writes, “In rediscovering the gospel of salvation by faith and grace alone, Luther started to reform the church through a reformation of theology.  In the eighteenth century, through movements of pietistic renewal (such as the revivial centering around the preaching of John Wesley, the holiness movement, and the pre-pentecostal movement, for three examples), there was a recovery of a new intimacy with God, which led to a reformation of spirituality, the Second Reformation.  Now God is touching the wineskins themselves, initiating a Third Reformation, a reformation of sctructure." Unquote.

            Personally, the Third Reformation of structure that Simson speaks of here is more obvious in parts of the world in which the church is under persecution either governmentally or socially, which prevent the church there to do anything other than follow the scriptural form.  Here in North America, it is more difficult to accept, given that we are used to forms of church structure we have inherited over the centuries.  Conversely, as our society becomes more multicultural, there are more persons from groups that for various reasons will not enter a church building, have had bad experiences with the old structures, or even are legally forbidden to be around the old structures.  The flexibility of simple church structures allow us, the church, to more easily share the life of Jesus with people who find the structures a spiritual hurdle that is unnecessary.

            You can read more about Simson’s 15 Theses at www.simsonwolfgang.de . You can email me at simplechurchminute@gmail.com.  You can find out more info about simple church at http://www.simplechurch.com/ or locally at (local website).

Simple Church Minute 76--Simson's Thesis #2

76—WS#2

My name is Tom; this is Simple Church Minute.

            Last blip, I mentioned Wolfgang Simson’s 15 Theses towards a Re-Incarnation of Church.  Today, we proceed to Thesis #2, which is, it is “Time to change the ‘cathegogue system.’

            The historic Orthodox and Catholic church after Constantine in the fourth century developed and adopted a religious system based on two elements: a christian version of the old testament temple—the cathedral—and a worship pattern styled after the Jewish synagogue.  They thus adopted, as the foundational pattern for the times to follow, a blueprint for Christian meetings and worship which was neither expressly revealed nor ever endorsed by God in New Testament times; the ‘cathegogue’, linking the house of God mentality with the synagogue.  Baptized with Greek pagan philosophy, separating the sacred from the secular, the cathegogue system developed into the Black Hole of Christianity, swallowing most of its society-transforming energies and inducing the church to become absorbed with itself for centuries to come. … Luther reformed the content of the gospel, but left the outer forms of ‘church’ remarkably untouched.  (Various moves of God made some corrections)…, but until today nobody has really changed the system.  The time to do that has now arrived.  Unquote.

            The Bible shows us two types of meetings of believers on earth:  the meeting of all the believers in a city in Acts, one time, and meetings of groups of believers in a home.  How did the early church come up with this?  The apostles were taught by Jesus. Where did Jesus come up with this?  The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit lived as a community before the founding of the earth.  We would be wise to learn from them.

            You can read back and ahead on Simson’s 15 Theses at www.simsonwolfgang.de.

You can email me at simplechurchminute@gmail.com.  For more info on simple church, visit http://www.simplechurch.com/ or locally at (local website) .

On the recording, at this time, it says, “house churches.”  While that phrasing is OK, to say “organic church” is better.  I comment on that in blip 94

Simple Church Minute 75--Simson's Thesis #1

75—WS #1

My name is Tom; this is Simple Church Minute.

            In a style that mimic’s Martin Luther’s 95 Theses, which he used to point the church back to orthodox belief, German writer Wolfgang Simson has written what he called “Fifteen Theses towards a Re-Incarnation of Church”.

            Simson’s Thesis #1 is “Christianity is a way of life, not a series of religious meetings.”  On this idea, Simson wrote in his book, “Houses That Change the World,”

"Before they were called Christians, followers of Christ were called ‘The Way’.  One of the reasons was that they had literally found the way to live.  The nature of church is not reflected in a constant series of religious meetings led by professional clergy in holy places specially reserved to experience Jesus.  Rather, it is the prophetic way followers of Christ live their everyday life in spiritual extended families, as a vivid answer to the questions that society asks, and in the place where it counts most—in their homes.

Unquote.

Even if you have never heard it said before, it is self explanatory to a believer in Jesus that the easiest place to fake being a believer and act like a religious fake is in a ceremony, and the place where one’s faith may be most difficult, but most real and powerful, is in totally informal situations, of which at home is the most common.  The meeting in a house, whether it is actually called a house church, or is called a Bible study, or just believers meeting together at a spot naturally without agenda, is potentially where the Holy Spirit can move most powerfully, without warning, and without our supposedly intentionally helping.

            You can read ahead on Simson’s 15 Theses at www.simsonwolfgang.de.  You can email me at simplechurchminute@gmail.com.  More info on simple worship is at http://www.simplechurch.com/ and locally at (local website).

On the recording, at this time, it says, “house churches.”  While that phrasing is OK, to say “organic church” is better.  I comment on that in blip 94.