Simple Church Minute #5--baptism (revised)

This is another update of the transcript of one of the two-minute versions of Simple Church Minute.  In this case, the only correction is the addition of a footnote at the bottom, and that it has a unique posting date.  When I originally posted these, I posted a number of them on the same date, which isn't a good thing when referencing these.
5—baptism

My name is Tom; this is Simple Church Minute.

In the early church, baptism was a sign of initial confession of faith in Jesus. One can find in the New Testament that baptism and faith are used like synonyms. Somewhere in the 2^nd century, the two started getting divided, with most baptisms taking place on Easter. By the 4^th century, official church leadership had taken over instruction and direction of new believers to the degree that a person had to wait 3 years to be baptized. The baptism ceremony became a rigid ritual that borrowed from Jewish and Greek culture. Somewhere along this path, a teaching got started that only baptism forgave sins, and if one committed a sin after baptism, it was unforgivable. Some, like Emperor Constantine, waited until just before dying to be baptized. With such a weakened physical state among those wishing to be baptized, the idea came about that, since baptism was a sign of belief, as opposed to actually washing something away, if a person was so ill that they would not be able to withstand immersion, a sample amount of water—sprinkling on the forehead—was a sufficient sign.

With the disconnection between faith and baptism, infant baptism came along, being taught as the New Covenant equivalent to Old Covenant circumcision, with reference to a case in the New Testament where someone was baptized (quote) and their entire household. (unquote)

Another interesting connected ritual that has come along this past century has been the insistence of those in some flavors of the church that hold to the literal adult believer’s baptism to call it “water baptism,” as if those who do not follow that direction are somehow not using water. In biblical days, the Greek word “baptidzo” was also used for the process of pickling pickles and dying cloth, but there isn’t any confusion about that anymore—at least, I don’t think so.

You can email me at simplechurchminute@gmail.com. For more info on organic simple church*, go to http://www.simplechurch.com/ or locally, (local website). A transcript of what I have just said is on my blog, tevyebird.blogspot.com, posted May 11, 2012.

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.
Information used in this commentary comes from George Barna and Frank Viola's book, Pagan Christianity, (Tyndale/Barna)  in Chapter 9.  There one can find copious footnotes to back up these statements.

Simple Church Minute 3--origin of the sermon (revised)

Today is a revision (mainly adding footnotes) of one of the two minute commentaries (when read aloud) that I originally posted in December, 2010.

3—origin of the sermon

My name is Tom; this is Simple Church Minute.

            On another day, I mentioned that sermons, as we now know them in traditional churches, did not happen either among the Jewish people in the Old Covenant, or in the early church.  There is indication that if someone like Paul or Apollos visited a church, the visitor might speak, as Acts chapter 20 verse 7 shows Paul in Troas spoke a long time.  Still, the Bible calls in speaking, not preaching.  There is no indication that Paul’s speaking had the fine touches that a modern sermon, or even the rhetoric of his day, had.

            Where did the sermon come from?  Roman/Greek culture.  In about the fifth century b.c., history credits a group of teachers called sophists for inventing rhetoric—the art of persuasive speaking.  They taught others this skill, and delivered speeches for money.  They made a good living, as it became an entertainment form.  They were experts at debate, at using emotional appeals, and added to it by physical appearance—they came to wear special clothes to indicate their position—and by the use of cleaver language.  Over time, style, form, and skill were prized over factual accuracy.  They did not necessarily live by the ideas they spoke of.  In these ways, this sounds like some of today’s entertainers, minus music or cameras.  Some traveled and appeared from place to place, others appeared same time, same place.  Some would walk in wearing a robe called a pulpit-gown.  Some would quote the writings of Homer, and knew passages by heart.  Some would encourage the audience to clap.  Some lived at public expense, were celebrities, the stars of their day.  There were Greeks and Romans who were addicted to this type of entertainment.  After the legalization of Christianity, many orators “converted” and got a regular speaking engagement.

            You can email me at simplechurchminute@gmail.com or phone me at 757-735-3639. For a transcript of what I just said, I have it on my blog, tevyebird.blogspot.com , posted on March 16, 2012.  For more info on organic church*, see http://www.simplechurch.com/ or locally at www.hrscn.org .

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.
Footnotes:  Frank Viola and George Barna, Pagan Christianity, Present Testimony Ministry, and later, Barna/Tyndale, chapters 4 and 6.  There are further and many further footnotes there.

Some thoughts on communicating the truths of simple, organic church

            How do we lovingly challenge, or at least inform, our brothers and sisters in Christ, with regard to the group of truths upon which this development (I am avoiding the word “movement” in that there, as I see it, some problems with the term) of faith called “simple/organic church” is based?

            I say this in that while there are a couple of persons who, in my opinion, have communicated at a forefront level who live in my area, I still perceive that most believers in Jesus that I know have not dealt with this group of teachings (a. church as people, not organization, b. generosity, not tithe, c. Jesus as actual Head of the Church, not ritual or professional human leadership, d. giving to help the poor and pioneer missionary activity as primary beneficiaries of the generosity, e. leadership by gifting, not training or accreditation, etc.) because of their being unaware of the teachings’ existence.

            The blunt truth is that, if they were aware, which they may not be, there is a problem with the fact that these teachings are counter to the financial interest of a large number of persons—not just those on the staffs of traditional, corporation-based churches, but also Christian bookstores and Christian radio and TV.  These teachings are not being overtly suppressed by these groups, but some less assured of their incomes might wish such if they were aware of the teachings’ existence.  Among non-professionals, because of being unaware, many have yet to either accept or reject these teachings, although if past history foretells future trends, some will reject because they are not, in the early awareness, status quo, or that they threaten persons who are their hearts are genuinely knit to.   Also, when more persons become aware of these teachings, these groups could not suppress them if they tried, similar to what we saw in the previous century on the subject of spiritual gifts.  To clarify, if a greater amount of believers give first to helping the poor and pioneer missionary activity, as opposed to traditional corporate church budgets, it would be of detrimental effect to Christian bookstores, which I perceive are more and more dependent on sales of light reading Christian books (as opposed to books that examine theology or thoughtful topics) and the various pop culture trappings sometimes derisively referred to as “Jesus Junk.”  As for radio and TV, they almost all depend either on playing music, which is given them by record companies in that the music is an implicit commercial for record sales, or programs, which are paid for from the budgets of traditional church organizations, which pay for themselves either by attracting new persons to the church, or at least giving pastors a greater awareness of their work among fellow ministers.  None of the above fits into the simple church paradigm for the same reason it didn’t fit into Jesus’ plan, which then became the apostles’ plan for guiding others in faith. 

            A few months ago, I thought that I needed to move to another city on the opposite side of the country.  Thanks to the internet, I could see that, if I had moved there, I could not find anyone involved in simple church for a two hour drive (this is somewhat stretched due to the city I was looking at being in the desert).  I also recognize that that does not mean that there is not, just that no one had joined www.simplechurch.com which, as far as I can find, is the best location for finding others in other areas at this time, I think. 

            One of the difficulties in communicating any message in U.S. culture is, because we have a freedom of speech with relatively minor limitations, we are overrun with messages.  I can look back on my life and see that I came fairly close to contacting the issue of simple church about ten years before I did.  I took a correspondence course from a Christian grad school that had a Chinese studies program.  Now, at that time, I got that the church had grown greatly in China during the Mao years in spite of governmental opposition, and that would be a reason worth studying what happened, but, as I only took a couple of basic courses on a correspondence basis, I missed out on the informal interaction that happens on a campus that would have informed be that part of the importance in the phenomenon was how governmental opposition forced the church to follow the early church’s structure, at least until a slight amount of easing allowed Western organizations to rush in and “help.”

            About two weeks ago, I was involved in a group discussion with a number of persons involved in simple church in my metro area.  One of them was an institutional pastor, has been involved in pioneer missionary work, specializing in working in Muslim cultures.  At this time, he can only be involved part time due to fund raising issues.  I respect him as a leader.  One thing he pointed out was that, in his position of desiring to align finances so that his family can work in full time missionary endeavors, he is not in the best position in our culture to speak about finances among certain groups.  To hold the position of the New Testament that only apostles/pioneer missionaries are to be supported in a culture where most believers consider it unthinkingly normal for local leaders to be paid is to say, implicitly, from his point of speaking, “I should be paid, most of the people you know who are paid shouldn’t” (my made up quotation, not a sentence he actually said).  Therefore, for myself, as a person who probably wouldn’t be allowed into many countries if I tried due to health issues, it is more than my role to emphasize that those of our mature brothers and sisters in Jesus who have it on their hearts to go to the 28% of the world’s population that doesn’t get to hear the message of Jesus should be supported to do that, and are, according to scripture, a higher priority for our generosity than any other project except helping the poor, and many of the areas they wish to go to can also fall into that other priority also. 

2155--Housechurch in the USA

2155—Housechurch in the USA

            My name is Tom; this is Simple Church Minute.  Today, I quote from the writings of Steven S. Lyzenga: George Barna has been described as the most widely quoted Christian leader in America because of the credibility and sound methodology behind his polling. In his book Revolution, he outlined survey results showing that the number of American Christians who see a traditionally structured church as the primary means for expressing their faith is declining rapidly. There is a corresponding large increase in the number of people who see their faith as being primarily expressed through, what Barna described as, “alternative forms of faith-based community,” in which he includes simple/house churches, home schooling associations, marketplace ministries.

With this trend so compelling, Barna estimated that by 2025 participation in

traditional local churches, alternative faith-based communities, and media/arts/culture

based ministries will be about equal.

            Reggie McNeal, Ph.D. from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, alleged:

A growing number of people are leaving the institutional church for a new reason.

They are not leaving because they have lost faith. They are leaving the church to

preserve their faith. They contend that the church no longer contributes to their

spiritual development.

Another Barna study found that 9% of American adults, approximately 20

million, attend a house church in any given week, which has grown from 1% in the last

decade. The study estimates that more than 70 million adults have at least experimented

with house church, and 20% attend at least once per month. Among those who attend

church of some type, 5% attend a house church only, and 19% attend both a traditional

church and a house church.

Simple church is emerging in the USA to such an extent that Barna has claimed it has now reached “critical mass.” He defined critical mass as when an institution reaches 15%

market penetration, and has evidenced a consistent or growing level of affirmation for at

least six years, that entity shifts from fad to trend status; and at that point, it becomes a

permanent fixture in our society. Along these lines, Barna projected:

We anticipate house church attendance during any given week to double in the

coming decade, and a growing proportion of house church attenders to adopt the

house church as their primary faith community. That continued growth and public

awareness will firmly establish the house church as a significant means of faith

experience and expression among Americans.180

 …(T)he (simple church) paradigm has existed throughout all Church history, from Jesus’ day to our day. In fact, it is still the prevailing wineskin in many areas of the world. In the USA however, the (simple church) concept is still in its infancy, even though as Barna statistics demonstrate and the other authors substantiate, simple churches are steadily emerging.

Roger Thoman, on his blog SimpleChurch Journal, stressed the importance of

moving past the traditional (institutional church) lens in defining the church, “Our first challenge in grasping what God intends church to be, is to stop looking at it through the lens of our background and through the lens of 2,000 years of ‘church’ as a formal institution.”

He described characteristics of those who participate in simple church as those who:

1. Are loose-knit: not informal membership, just a love-commitment to God

and each other,

2. Are Jesus followers: the basic requirement for membership in the church,

3. Gather together: to build one another up and to worship,

4. Go out: the purpose of believers… to GO with the message,

5. Are moved by the Holy Spirit: the one and only LEADER of the church,

6. Share and demonstrate the gospel: The reason that the church GOES.

DAWN, a worldwide “saturation” church-planting ministry also included the term “organic” in their definition of simple church:

The house church is a structure that reflects the core nature of the church… It is a

spiritual, enlarged, organic family… It is inherently participatory and not

consumer-provider driven. Its responsibility structure is also very simple and

effective: individual house churches are fathered by elders, who in turn are

equipped by itinerant servants like those in the fivefold ministry (see Eph. 4:11-

13)… The church is the people of God. The church, therefore, was and is at home

where people are at home: in ordinary houses. 

Wolfgang Simson summarized it distinctly, “I believe that God has blessed the world through the existing church structures, and is still doing countless miracles of transforming people’s lives, and doing good in ways too numerous to mention. But the church should never settle for less than it has been made for.” 

                    You can contact me at simplechurchminute@yahoo.com or at 757-735-xxxx.

A transcript of what I said today is on my blog, tevyebird.blogspot.com, as the entry of October 13, 2011.  For more information on simple, organic church in this area, visit www.hrscn.org.

     Except for the introduction and last paragraph, the text is composed of quotations appearing in Steven S. Lyzenga, ASSESSING THE STATE OF SIMPLE CHURCHES IN THE USA  REGARDING RELEASING RESOURCES TOWARD FINISHING THE GREAT COMMISSION, p. 79, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 92 where original quotations are footnoted.  That writing can be accessed at http://house2harvest.org/docs/Simple_Churches_Releasing_Resources_S_Lyzenga.pdf .

Another strategic idea

Over the past two plus years, since I begun to be introduced to the idea of simple church, my views on various things have changed according to my seeing how I was holding to an idea based on scripture plus a cultural tradition.  For instance, at the beginning of my reading, I found that there was one home church in my metro area that met on a weekday, but it was over 50 miles away, on the opposite side of my metro area.  At the time, I rejected the idea of going to that one on the idea that the house church would be made up of persons who physically lived close together.  Now, I will say that, while physical proximity is reasonable at most places in most cultures over most of history, in suburban western culture, who our neighbors are are influenced more by where we work, and who we have gotten to know over physical location. 
Be that as it may, I have had the time to consider how to make contact with my geographic neighbors, given that in a middle class neighborhood such as I live in, persons two doors away are strangers.  Everyone tends to have their places of work, and hide in their "palaces" upon return home.  The one social condition that breaks this situation is children of similar age who get to know each other through school, or other youth activities (sports, lessons, scouts, etc.)  My thinking was if I could produce a flyer that would introduce myself, and say something that could be thought provoking so as to produce response from either the open-minded not-yet-believer and the believer that may be struggling with how they fit into the organization.  As of yet, I haven't passed this out to anyone, and so I haven't a clue as to how well or poorly it will work in generating conversation, but I put it out here as a strategic idea.  Some of this is my personal story, so it would demand some change for anyone else to use it, but here it is, if it helps someone.
This just nicely fills one 8 1/2 x 11 page in 11 point type.
-----------

My name is (my name).  I live at (my address).  My phone number is (my phone number).

I am not selling anything.

I became a believer in the message of Jesus in 1968, when I was 15.  About three and a half years ago, I found myself owning a business in which over 90% of the sales, and the connected work, happened on Saturday and Sunday.  I experientially discovered something obvious, which was the institutional, traditional church I was going to, along with most similar organizations were quite inflexible with regard to the life I lived.  I agree with evangelical Christian theology and, in turn, morality, but my job didn’t let me fit into the structure.  I was aware that the structure wasn’t something commanded by God, so I looked for a church that met some other time.  I actually found one on the far other end of the metro area, but didn’t feel comfortable driving that far (I probably would have today).

I have come to realize that, to early Christians, who were an underground group in their society, church was roughly synonymous with “group”.  The Bible teaches that it is a group of people who meet together to worship Jesus (Ac. 2:41-47) and build up each other (1 Thessalonians 5:11).  Buildings, regular collection of money, people paid to lead a group, and rituals were not part of church, a gathering of believers.  A part of “build up each other” is that the group is small enough that everyone knows each other.

If you are a believer in Jesus that hasn’t been involved in an organization this society calls a church because you don’t fit in somehow (and there’s myriad ways to not fit in), give me a call.  If you aren’t a believer in Jesus, but find Him interesting, but the organizations purporting to represent Him to be not so interesting, give me a call also.

If you want to learn more about worshipping Jesus without culturally imposed structure and ritual, but don’t want to talk to me or some other person, here are some places on the web I’d recommend to get information:

www.site.house2house.com

http://www.simplechurch.com/

http://www.simplechurchjournal.com/ –a European point of view

www.ptmin.org

www.therebuilders.org

thegodjourney.com –a podcast (no www.)

http://www.simsonwolfgang.de/

shapevine.com (no www.)

http://www.searchingtogether.org/ –deals with theological details

thejesusvirus.org (no www.)

http://www.race4theprize.org/

www.housechurchresource.org

www.hrscn.org –connected to believers involved in simple worship in the Hampton Roads area

tevyebird.blogspot.com (no www.) –my blog—in the December 2010 archieves are the scripts to 100 two minute commentaries (written for radio) that cover various subjects on right practice in true gatherings of believers

Note:  I am in no way saying that many good hearted believers in traditional churches are wrong, but that there is an organizational structure that is devoid of scriptural merit.

Church as group

            In Acts 19, we are told the story of the riot of the idol makers guild.  The idol makers were in Ephasus, and the town religion was worship of the goddess Artemis/Diana, a fertility cult.  The temple was very much a financial success by its offering cult prostitution, with the temple being built very close to the portage area.  The sailors left a significant amount of their earnings with the temple, such that the temple opened the town bank, and had opened branch temples around the Mediterranean.

            I had a question, which turned out to be more difficult to find the answer to than I would have first thought, and I wish to thank Don Davis for helping me on this.  The question is:  Would the idols that the idol makers were making be a thing that, in our culture, be considered pornographic?  In many cultures, the formal or informal deification of sexuality has connected to it cartoonish images with oversized sexual parts.  Given the attitude in Ephesus, it would be reasonable that we would find this in this culture.  Archeology, at this time, has not found any examples of these idols. An interesting side note is that a word in Hebrew that sounded similar to a word connected to Artemis worship, and that Hebrew word meant a young, female deer.  A statue of Artemis that has survived and is currently in the Louve in Paris shows a woman standing beside a young deer.  This definitely shows an effect of the Diaspora on Ephesian culture. Therefore, the answer, surprisingly, is that we do not conclusively know one way or the other.

            Now, the normal point the believing church makes from this story concerns the word translated “proconsuls,” which tells us that we can date this incident within an 18 month period of time, from which we can relatively date the timing of much of the New Testament. Many other persons have told that story.  The one I wish to point out is based on the word “assembly” in Acts 19, verses 32, 39, and 41.  The word in Greek is ekklesia, which in other parts of the New Testament is translated, “church.”  Things that need to be pointed out are:

1.  The word means assembly, gathering, or in our common usage, close to our word group.  It had no religious connotation—in Acts 19, it is a mob formed for a thinly veiled protest due to the preaching of the Word hurting some unbelievers economically.  People coming to faith in Jesus no longer purchased nick-nacks benefitting those connected with the fertility cult.

2.  If the word ekklesia meant something as common as assembly, gathering, or group, how did we get the idea of all the things we associate with our modern word “church”?  The early translators of the Bible into English knew it, but they were getting paid and had their positions due to connections with the institutional religious organization of their day, and the word “church” was not necessarily incorrect, but sufficiently vague that those who did not know and did not have access to check these guys’ work could reasonably infer meanings that weren’t there.  As all believers know, sins of omission are easier to miss or self-justify than sins we commit.

3.  Therefore, what we have in the Bible is that church is a group of believers that interact with each other to worship Jesus (Acts 2:41-47) and to build up each other (1 Thessalonians 5:11).  The problem with this otherwise innocuous statement is that most institutional organizations we in western culture call churches don’t allow the second of these, being replaced by one or a very few attempting to do all or most of the building up.   

Some references works for statements, above:

www.vision.org/visionmedia/article.aspx?id=2268

www.formerthings.com/dianaephesians.htm

www.biblebb.com/files/mac/sg1928.htm

About Simple Church Minute

About a year ago plus, I wrote the scripts for some 2 minute commentaries on the subject of simple church.  Most of the commentaries are based on ideas from Barna & Viola's Pagan Christianity and Simson's Houses That Change the World.  They were made for radio, but at the time of this writing, the audio version has not actually been used.  Part of the idea is that I know that many persons just aren't going to sit down and read non-fiction books unless forced.  The first 100 scripts appear in the December 2010 archieve.

on music

I think the reason people like music is to suppress thought—the wrong kinds of thought—not to produce it.

            --Marvin Minsky, mathematician/philosopher/scientist

            A couple of days ago, I took my folder of quotations that I had copied down over the past few years, and compiled them into the entry, “Quotations.”  During that process, I wound up going over the one above, and it got me thinking about music.  As I have indicated in previous writings, I moved from a traditional, institutional church to a house church about two years ago.  Between growing up with television and radio, I was quite exposed to music, and then exposed more being sent to church.  Since coming to faith in Jesus in high school, I was, first, exposed to music in church more, and saw music outside the church in a more questioning light.  I can specifically point to the why of that.

            It actually goes back to when I was in junior high school.  My room was on the second floor of my parents’ house, and the heating system used wood and coal.  The first floor was extremely warm, and my parents had tv on in the evening, so I went upstairs in my room to study.  Given how the heating system worked, my room was about 50 degrees fareinheit.  I just always wore a sweater while studying.  Somewhere along the line I found an old radio.  The first time I plugged it in, the first station I ran into was WGN-AM in Chicago, which was a news talk station, although, at that time, all news talk stations had moderators which took strictly neutral positions on the stories of the time.  I remember thinking that it would be interesting if the moderator would take a position on one side or another.  Given that is what we have now, I am glad my wish didn’t come true any sooner than it did.  After nearly a year, I decided one day to turn the dial and see what other stations there were.  I fairly quickly ran into Top 40 rock stations.  When I was in 8^th grade, I developed the idea of catching as many different Top 10 to Top 77 (that was from 770 in Milwaukee) countdown shows and tracking how songs went up and down.  Living in the Midwest with this old time am radio, in the evening I could find over 20 stations from around various parts of the east coast to Midwest which had such programs.  I can remember one evening having on WWWE in Cleveland, which had a 7 to 11 pm dj whose gimmick was to over feature the music of the Doors.  Be that as it may, one evening, he introduced for the first time Jimi Hendrix’s song “Foxy Lady.”  Given that this was about 1966, roughly half of the first sixty seconds was bleeped out.  It popped in my head that I didn’t use that kind of language, my friends didn’t, those that did weren’t my friends, and this was just wrong.  I wasn’t a believer, yet.  I just picked that up from however I grew up.  I turned the station off and stopped listening to rock stations, and junked my Top 10 tracking.  I don’t remember what I switched to, if anything.

            About a year later, I came to faith in Jesus.  Over time, I came to hear the idea, which I believe Calvin proposed that music was created for man to worship with.  From that, one can infer that all other use of music is a perversion of God’s creation, although no more than sinful man’s misuse of anything else.  I think I heard it, but may have felt that such a statement was an overstating a case to make an idea fit a theological system.

Still, I just have never cared much for secular music except for instrumentals.

            Maybe, I have thought of this because the heat went out in my house a couple of days ago, so I’ve worn sweaters more this week than I have since I was in that wood heated house.  Maybe, I have thought about it due to being a sports fan, and Wednesday being the day sports and music are inseperably connected by Howard Cosell, on Monday Night Football, 30 years ago that night, announcing the assassination of John Lennon.  Of course, Lennon’s song “Imagine” is about as close to stating the polar opposite of Christian ethics as one can write, and also one of the few songs that comes close to making an intellectual, albeit anti-logical, case for a point of view.  Then, I ran across the Minsky quote, above. 

            The last one year plus, I have been at a house church in which, shall we say, music has not been a featured item.  Most weeks we use some to begin worship, but those who play guitar haven’t really had time to practice, so it doesn’t come off anywhere close to as polished as the music I have experienced in church over the years.  I’ll argue that that isn’t a bad thing.  While we can use music to worship God, it, and all other music, can be used to get oneself into a mood.  That’s the same as what Minsky calls suppressing thought.  While I certainly thought when I was a teenager that I could study better with music on, and it may have been a positive versus battling the sounds coming from the tv on the first floor, I cannot work well with music with singing in the background.  More and more, I prefer silence to even instrumental music.  Still, music is helpful in eliminating logical speech in the background, whether it be the words of a gripping drama or the pre-school level communication of Nick Jr.  As my 4 year old grandson is in the next room, its usually Wow Wow Wubbzy that’s the distraction of the moment.

            That said, my question is, is even our worship music a means of suppressing thought?  The more I am thinking about it, I am feeling the answer is yes.  The radio going on in the car isn’t all that bad—one should be concentrating on driving safely first.  For the musician, I know there is all this research that musical training assists in non-musical intellectual study.  But just having music cranking, not performing it, but just having it in the background, can give one the feeling of being a part of something while not actually being a part of something, or even associating with others, although the dj is, in a one-way manner, associating with you and all kinds of other people, and everyone else cannot usually associate back.

            As I write this, I’m not saying, at this time, that I’ve gotten a mental grip on this idea yet.  What do you think?  

Simple Church Minute 91--Servant leadership

91—Servant Leadership

THIS IS NOT ON FIRST RECORDING

My name is Tom; this is Simple Church Minute.

            Jesus said, “Whoever would be great in God’s kingdom must be the servant of all.”  The concept of true servant leadership is something that is unique to the church.  Yes, our government workers and politicians are called public servants, but often act like they don’t take that seriously.  From Catholicism, we know “pope” originally meant servant.  It is easy to intellectually understand the concept, harder to actually make it function, especially if one is in a leadership position.

            If I have a business, I can hire employees, and they will follow my direction, without regard to my leadership ability, to collect a paycheck.  Conversely, even among us believers, no one can pay you enough to go to a country which has a law to kill you on sight until the Holy Spirit refuses to give you peace until you go.  Somewhere in the middle are many believers to desire to serve God, and are paid to do so, and ultimately find their service to Jesus compromised by the battle between social expectations, the need for a paycheck, and a lack of any other skill needed by the society around them. 

            The Bible teaches that apostles, believers gifted in establishing new churches, are worthy of being paid, as they must go from place to place.  God gave as the main example of this type of ministry Paul, who had a transportable skill such that he didn’t have to depend on others for his livelihood.  What God did through his obedience is more remarkable when we realize he was working part-time.  Many modern ministries have little fruit with highly intellectually trained leaders, tax-favored status, significant budgets, and marketing plans adapted to target a certain population’s demographics.

            You can email me at simplechurchminute@gmail.com.  You can find out more about organic church at http://www.simplechurch.com/ or (local website).

Simple Church Minute 100--worship

100—worship

THIS IS NOT ON FIRST RECORDING

My name is Tom; this is Simple Church Minute

            Today, we look at the word “worship.”  To the early church, worship was how one lived one’s life moment by moment.  First Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 17 directs us to “pray without ceasing”.  This indicates that worship and prayer were more a continuous attitude than something that only happened at a special time.  Part of the way the believers stood out from society was that faith in Jesus was a quite irreligious religion.  They had no temple, holy men, ritual, no special times, they weren’t just Jews anymore. They were not united in occupation, in an era of occupational cults.  The church met together informally and regularly.  They gathered to praise God, spoke to each other what the Holy Spirit put upon their spirits, they prayed, encouraged each other.  Fellowship was worship, but all of this was no more so than any other time lived to honor Jesus.

            After the legalization of Christianity, formality and, ultimately, ritualized meetings became known as worship.  Over time, various styles of music have been associated with worship.  So, too, did ethnicity, association to political leaders. Worship became associated, sometimes by force of secular law, with direction by specially accredited individuals, chosen for training in ritual or intellect or music, at various times and places.

            The direction of the Holy Spirit throughout history has not been subject to human dictates and formalities.   The Spirit blows where he wills.  I believe this is why he oftentimes moves powerfully specifically when the situation is worship that is informal or is in a manner than is contrary to whatever human rules are in vogue at a time, and believers allow the direction of worship to move outside human control.

            You can email me at simplechurchminute@gmail.com.  You can find out more about organic church at http://www.simplechurch.com/ or locally at (local website).

Simple Church Minute 99--Karl Marx

99-Karl Marx

My name is Tom; this is Simple Church Minute.

            History tells us that the parents of Karl Marx were Jewish and converted to Christianity at a time when many German Jews did the same.  Whether it was real or something merely socio-political is God’s business.  Be that as it may, Karl himself rejected faith in Jesus, but was still highly influenced by it, as his utopian ideal society was built on the Christian idea of heaven, with the difference being that he was imagining a way of creating such a society as heaven will be on earth.  Incorrectly, he didn’t have a grasp of the reality of sin, much less how imbedded that aspect of the fall of man is in our souls.  Therefore, he came up with the idea that, when his principles were installed in a society, that government would fade away.

            We, having 20/20 hindsight, can see that the opposite of his dream occurred.  His social idea was not attractive to union workers, but instead took hold where backward nations with weak rulers could be overthrown, and the dictatorship that followed grew in power over time, and instead of all people having equality, there was a small leadership class and a large amount of people who had no hope of getting ahead, removing incentive to doing better for themselves.

            Albeit accidentally, Marx got one aspect of Christian life correct that much of the true church is missing.  The head of the church is Jesus, the Holy Spirit speaks into each believer who desires to serve Jesus.  God is a sufficient leader of his people, that, within the church, when properly operating, the idea of the human leader could naturally fade away, in favor of what would appear to a sociologist to be a headless community.  This is an ideal that takes an exceptional amount of commitment from those with gifting for leadership.  Personally, I haven’t seen it, but, then, I live in a land of freedom, for now.

            If you have a comment, and I know this blip should stir up some brothers and sisters, you can email me at simplechurchminute@gmail.com.  For more info on organic church*, visit http://www.simplechurch.com/ or locally, (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 98--true and false faith

98—true and false faith

My name is Tom; this is Simple Church Minute

            Recently I was watching some programs on military history of the Middle Ages in Europe.  During that period of time, numerous times one warlord defeated another and forced the people to quote unquote convert from paganism to Christianity, or even Islam, back and forth.  Many of these warlords were looking for a miracle, and considered victory a sufficient miracle.  Many had heard a communication of Christianity which emphasized spirituality in warlike terms, coordinated with alliances between the Roman Empire and its official organizational church.  I can’t read the Holy Spirit’s mind, but will assume minimal true faith was going on there.  Outside the castles, there had been persons who understood faith correctly, and generations forwardly would have persons who would come to true faith.  One cannot totally say one way or another that Martin Luther’s work would have been anything, except for just the right time and place with regard to the politics swirling around him.   The miraculous can be just that; while it isn’t in the words of scripture, Nehemiah chapter 1 happened just at a time when Darius, king of Persia saw a personal political need for rebuilding Jerusalem, which led to his granting Nehemiah’s request. 

            If I mention the phrase, “Remember the Maine” most will recognize the phrase as being part of American history.  I had to look up that it only goes back to 1898, and its aftermath was the Spanish-American War, a battle Spain didn’t want and the U.S. was totally unprepared for, a consequence of outrageous stories in New York newspapers for the purpose of boosting sales. 

             The greater the degree of isolation between ourselves and our leaders, the less we can know whether they are telling us the truth or just being tempted to say something for their benefit, maybe even subconsciously.  In the political realm, that cannot be helped; within the church, it is helped by each of us knowing personally our leaders and their heart, and that can only be done within a small amount of people.  As I’ve said before, Jesus chose to train only twelve.

            You can email me at simplechurchminute@gmail.com.  You can find out more about simple forms of worship at http://www.simplechurch.com/ or (local website).

Simple Church Minute 97--God's Eternal Purpose

97--God’s Eternal Purpose

THIS BLIP IS NOT ON FIRST RECORDING

My name is Tom; this is Simple Church Minute.

            What is God’s eternal purpose?  It isn’t the Great Commission. It didn’t exist before history, in the Old Covenant, and Jesus didn’t deliver it to us until just before he went back to heaven.  At his return and the final judgment, it will again cease to be relevant.  It isn’t doing good, although, again, we should.  That doesn’t make sense as a purpose before creation, and we cannot grasp what that is after God defeats sin finally at the end.  So what is God’s eternal purpose?

            Four things, in no particular order.  Ephesians 2 verse 13 tells us Jesus made peace and broke down the division between Jew and Gentile  so both can be one humanity, one body—the Body of Christ, the church.

            Ephesians chapter 5 verses 25 to 31 tell us that, as a man is joined to a woman in marriage, so Jesus is to be joined to his Bride, the church.

            First Corintians 6 verse 19 tells us God wanted a place to dwell that was greater, more extreme than the Old Covenant tabernacle and temple. We, the Body and Bride of Christ, are that temple of the Holy Spirit.  We believers, as a group, are the dwelling place of God.

Ephesians 3 verse 15 and First Peter 4 verse 17 tell us God wanted a family.  Once again, that is those adopted by faith into the New Covenant family of God, the church.

            In the Old Testament, God directed the building of the tabernacle and the temple. When Israel was in exile, they made the synagogue, but God did not direct its building.  In the Gospels, we find that Jesus taught the disciples, who, after Jesus left and sent the Holy Spirit, taught the New Covenant believers to be the church, the Body of Christ, the Bride of Christ, the temple of the Holy Spirit, the family of God.  Church buildings and not for profit corporations, like the Old Covenant synagogue, are well meaning but once again man-made.

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

Simple Church Minute 96--When is a group a church?

96—When is a group a church?

THIS IS NOT ON FIRST RECORDING

My name is Tom; this is Simple Church Minute

            On these blips, I have discussed a number of practices in which the ways of the early church in the Bible differ from the ways of our traditional churches that are not a function of living in different times and cultures.  This brings up a question:  What about meetings of groups that do not consider themselves to be a church, but function more closely to the ways of the early church than traditional churches themselves.  This includes the pattern of producing, both persons coming to initial faith in Jesus, and believers growing in faith.  Are such groups actually churches?

            In one sense, this is a difficult question.  Can a chapter of a school parachurch organization that overtly states that they are not a church, actually be a church?  Can a small group/cell group/care group that is affiliated with a traditional church actually be a church, and the traditional church not?  Can such a group, if the believers in the group meet to worship Jesus, live their lives as worship, and meet to build up each other in faith, be the church even if they have been told by someone, and they being respectful to their leaders agree, that they are not?  Conversely, can a traditional, institutional church which claims to be the church, even if they have believers as leaders, and even if believers meet to worship Jesus, BUT do not allow any significant amount of the believers building up each other due to their having more persons than can truly know each other, or having substituted one or a few persons attempting to build up everyone for every member ministry—is that actually a church? 

            Many traditional churches have rules on how much academic training one must have to be a church leader.  A little notation is that many of these institutions have a lower standard for groups they support that are either outside of North America, or in the North America inner cities.  Gee, I believe God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and cares for all people the same, without regard to geographic location or economic status.

            You can email me at simplechurchminute@gmail.com.  You can learn more about organic worship at http://www.simplechurch.com/ or (local website).

Simple Church Minute 95--"pastor" word study

95—“pastor” word study

THIS IS NOT ON FIRST RECORDING

My name is Tom; this is Simple Church Minute.

            The modern job, position, and title of the word “pastor” is far different from what Paul meant in Ephesians chapter 4 verse 11.  The Greek word “poimen” appears 18 times in the New Testament.  The other 17 times it is translated “shepherd” meaning either a) a sheepherder, or b) a reference to Jesus, that what He does for his people is like what a shepherd does for the sheep.  Neither of those meanings fit Ephesians 4:11.  Paul is speaking about gifts of ministry.  Pastor is the Latin word for shepherd; its use is a distinction in context, but not in the word itself.  The way the sentence is constructed, Paul was putting shepherd or pastor together with teacher, such as we, in English, would write shepherd hyphen teacher.  This was an experienced, faithful, obedient believer who has accepted a gift to care for and teach others in Christian love as a matter of their growing in spiritual maturity.  Such maturity is a criterion on the shepherd’s part.  Intellectual achievement was not.  Certainly no man or organization was or is today capable of giving God’s gifts.  It was not an honorific title.  It had nothing to do with getting paid. 

            Another thing that shows that pastor or shepherd does not stand alone from teacher is that, in the New Covenant days scriptures, one can find persons indicated to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, and teachers, but no person is designated to be a pastor.  How did we wind up using the term to designate the leader of a group of believers? Before the Reformation, the word “priest” was used, but the Old Testament shows that a priest is a mediator between man and God.  Jesus’ death destroyed that need.  After the Reformation, over time, the word “pastor” worked itself out over time.

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

Simple Church Minute 94--organic church

94—organic church

THIS BLIP IS NOT ON FIRST RECORDING

My name is Tom; this is Simple Church Minute

            What is meant by “organic church”?  When we speak of organic gardening, we mean growing food without man-made chemicals or genetic tampering.  Natural healing deals with the use of natural products, as opposed to man-made substances.  Organic church speaks of being church as shown in scripture, as opposed to adding man-made methods, organizations, and programs.  We see in Acts that some came to believe on Jesus while He walked the earth, and when the Holy Spirit came upon them, many others came to faith in Him.  They became groups of people small enough to know each other, and they met regularly to worship Him and build up each other.  By the way they lived their lives to honor Jesus and care for those around them, others came to faith in Jesus. The churches grew and reproduced into more churches.  Miracles naturally happened. Some believers felt compelled to take the message to other cultures.  Status quo organizations such as the government and Judaism opposed the church, but the church grew in spite of it.  Due to the opposition, even though the surrounding people respected the believers, only those who came to believe on Jesus joined the church.  Jesus, not any human, was necessary to lead the church in worship.  Worship was spontaneous.  With no organization, there was no need to collect money except when there was an evident need.  The church grew naturally.  There also was no need for professionals, unlike anything the world had seen.  When the opposition to the church drove the believers out of cities, they wound up scattering and spreading the belief in Jesus in all directions, like seeds in the wind.  The church being transient was not a problem, but an opportunity. 

            If some of this description sounds like how high school or collage age groups operate, that’s only a problem to those of us believers who are older and may be wishing to justify security or position.

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

Simple Church Minute 93--requirements for leadership

93—Requirements for leadership

THIS BLIP IS NOT ON FIRST RECORDING

My name is Tom; this is Simple Church Minute.

            I have mentioned in other blips that for a pastor/shepherd/teacher or any other ministry truly appointed by God, as opposed to any man or organization, that it is a function of gifting—both spiritual and natural, experience, maturity, faithfulness and obedience to the Holy Spirit, according to scripture.  Scripture says nothing about academic achievement or accreditation by any man or human organization.

            Natural gifting is our natural abilities—we believers have no more or less ability to use these as the unbeliever, with the note that occasionally the Holy Spirit will guide a person to specifically not use a natural gift for a reason.  Spiritual gifts are listed in Romans, Ephesians, and First Corinthians without a comment of whether this is a total list, and with the case of a number of gifts, little or no explanation of exactly what it is.  There is no explanation on any of the gifts as to why, other than no one has all of them.  One person I’ve heard has suggested that one of these gifts that seems worthless to the human mind is useful for exactly that reason—if the Creator of the universe wishes to give you something that you don’t see a use for, who are you or I to question his choice to give such a thing to you.  Experience and maturity makes all God’s gifts more powerful, as those are two aspects of wisdom.  Faithfulness is a quality that results in one receiving greater amounts of experience based on doing the right thing.  While God can use even our rebellious acts to His glory, it is a thing far better to be minimized.  Obedience to the Holy Spirit is putting that faithfulness into action.  Given the things we have seen of gifted persons publicly embarrassing themselves and, in turn, dishonoring Jesus and embarrassing fellow believers by their actions, it must be pointed out that obedience trumps gifting.  The Holy Spirit has given gifts of leadership to a sufficient amount of people that there is no need for any one believer to believe that he or she needs to be the mentor to more persons than he or she can physically and psychologically handle.  Jesus poured his life into 12, and possibly to a lesser degree, 70. 

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

Simple Church Minute 92--public wrongdoing

92—public wrongdoing

THIS IS NOT ON FIRST RECORDING

My name is Tom; this is Simple Church Minute.

            I’m not telling you what I am about to say is correct, although I certainly believe that it is.   I am asking you to listen to what I am about to say, and search the scriptures for yourself for whether what I say is more in alignment with the Word than the practice of the vast majority of traditional Bible-believing churches today.

            If David was a singer today, at a certain point in his life, most of it actually, his personal life would have gotten him dropped from the artist roster of any Christian label and some secular ones, and I wouldn’t argue for a moment that those companies would be in the wrong.  If one sins, God is willing to forgive.  Over time, a person who has done even a great wrong can reestablish a good character among a small group of people who truly know him or her.    In our instant reporting 24-7 news cycle culture, a public wrong probably can never be overcome among those who only know one as a media silhouette, except via something miraculous.  When I say a small group of people, I don’t mean 2000 or even 200.  Neither you nor anyone else has the time to really know a great amount of people really well. 

            A huge amount of the power of the witness of the early church was among the people nearby a person.  Those people saw the change for the better in a person who went from being just one more neighbor to a believer in Jesus who desired to care for others as Jesus did.  The word Christian originally meant “little Christs”.  While each believer knows that term is a far greater honor than any of us deserve and can live up to, by the Holy Spirit, we can fill those shoes, sometimes unknowingly, never outwardly intentionally, for a few people as we walk through life.  The thing we struggle to grasp is that, that’s what laying up treasure in heaven is.  Almost all of us will never have enough stuff that CNBC cares who you are, but that’s not what is important to Jesus.

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

Simple Church Minute 90--gnosticism

90—gnosticism

 My name is Tom; this is Simple Church Minute.

            In First Corinthians chapter 2, as Paul was writing to the church in that city, we was warning about people who were wandering away from true faith in Jesus and toward what would come to be known as Gnosticism. The leaders of the believing church over the centuries have long spoken as if Paul, by the direction of the Holy Spirit, wrote this chapter in such a way that he was unknowingly speaking of many other groups that would claim to be Christian, but were nowhere close to genuine.  Within the past century, Nazism and the KuKluxKlan are most pronounced. 

            There are also groups which, while correct in their teaching 90 plus percent of the time, hold a certain one or few positions which do not align with the historic faith.  Of some, there is general agreement between true believers in Jesus that such groups are cults.  On some other groups, there is honest disagreement, which is fortunately covered by our knowing that God knows men’s hearts. 

            There is one disturbing piece of our fallen human nature that most believers do not struggle with because most are unaware of its existence.  That is the private ethical struggles of institutional church leaders when a leader finds that there is a gap between what he or she has come to see is the teaching of the Bible and what is socially expected of him or her, particularly if the socially expected thing is tied to the person’s paycheck and that person has no other marketable skills.  This doesn’t just affect church leaders who truly believe;  in the traditional churches in which the training institutes have been taken over by unbelievers, that unbelieving leader knows that if the person listening to him or her knew their unbelief, enough would leave as to leave him or her without a job.  Recently, a writer for a major national newspaper predicted that some of those churches will close due to the weight of their payroll and real estate maintenance, and we have begun to see that.

            I appreciate knowledge of the Bible and all the fields that help us understand it and communicate it to a watching world.  We must note that, in the Word, leadership emphasizes practical knowledge in relating to those around us, not cut and dried degrees and titles.

            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 89--Simson's Thesis #15

89—WS#15   

My name is Tom; this is Simple Church Minute

            We have been looking at a writing by German writer Wolfgang Simson titled, 15 Theses towards a Re-Incarnation of Church.  Today is Thesis #15, The Church comes home.  On this idea, Simson writes, “Where is the easiest place for a person to be spiritual?  Is it, perhaps, hiding behind a big pulpit, dressed up in holy robes, preaching holy words to a faceless crowd, and then disappearing into an office?  And what is the most difficult—and therefore most meaningful—place to be spiritual?  At home, in the presence of their spouse and children, where everything they do and say is automatically put through the spiritual litmus test against reality, where hypocrisy can be effectively weeded out and authenticity can grow.  Much of Christianity has fled the family, often as a place of its own spiritual defeat, and then has organized artificial performances in sacred buildings for from the atmosphere of real life.  As God is in the business of recapturing the homes, the church turns back to its roots—back to where it came from.  It literally comes home, completing the circle of church history at the end of world history.” Unquote

            This is such an obvious thing—that the Holy Spirit works powerfully in everyday situations, and tends to check out when we attempt to cram man made ritual down his throat, to paraphrase an accusation of unbelievers towards the institutional church.  Jesus’ life was a counterpoint to the dead formality and ritual that the religious leaders of the Old Covenant defended.  We must stop asking God to bless what we are doing, and start blessing what God is doing.

            You can find out more of Simson’s writing at www.simsonwolfgang.de. You can email me at simplechurchminute@gmail.com. You can find out more about simple worship at http://www.simplechurch.com/ or locally at (local website).