Churchless Christian

In the middle of last year I decided to write a book. Being typical of alot of what I do, after writting 4 or 5 thousand words I ran out of steam and never got around to finishing it or tidying it up.
When I first started this blog I basically over the days just pasted my unfinished book up onto my blog.
So if you are interested in exploring becoming the church instead of just going to church you may be interested in reading the articles at the beginning ofthe blog. You can access the articles at the right side of this page or try this link
www.blog.co.uk/main/index.php/everyhomeachurch/2005/05/ you will have to scroll to the bottom of the page and read up!

The Photo below is me winning the annual waterslide Sunday for the 4th year in a row. This is the day I appreciate my Burger King Visits

It has been now a year and a half since we as a family changed from attending Institutional Church to attempting to live our lives as the Church. Reflecting back on the last 18 months I have written down the 13 things I have loved most from becoming the Church and going House to House.

1. Sunday has become a day of rest instead of a day of busyness. This was perhaps accentuated for me, being a minister in my former life. Being able to sleep in on a Sunday morning, read the paper and have a leisurely breakfast is pure bliss. It has become a day of resting, eating and spending quality time with other believers.

2. Having the time and flexibility to make a difference in my community and build real relationships with those who are not yet believers. I have so much more time now that I am not involved with church programming.

3. Being freed from the costliness of running Institutionalised Church. It has been awesome to see others (and experience ourselves) the power of being able to pour our giving into things such as the poor amongst us, our community and missions instead of structures and salaries. To realise that being the church costs nothing.

4. Being able to lose the separation of the sacred (church world) and the secular (work and school world) that I once had. My religious behaviours are no longer such a big a block to being a testimony to Christ as it once was.

5. Being able to meet more people both believers and non believers from diverse backgrounds as I now belong to a church without walls instead of before where I was surrounded by walls of my own making that defined who belonged and who did not.

6. Seeing the Priesthood of Believers in action for the first time in my Christian walk. No one being paid to lead but every member sharing, ministering and making decisions.

7. Learning to rest and trust in God like Mary. Starting to learn to do nothing and wait. Letting go and letting God. It’s made me realise that to function in Institutional church I was a real Martha (and you needed to be to make it work). No striving just thriving.

8. The New testament becoming more relevant (especially the Epistles) as a guide to life and church practice. As someone said to me once, the Epistles are written with the assumption that you were meeting as a small intimate number so it is far more relevant and un-needing of interpretation if you are gathering as a small group.

9. Spending more time with my wife and children instead of always being out at meetings, music practices and cell groups. Learning to go on a spiritual journey together in God as a family.

10. Seeing how different those who have become believers are in this way of being the church compared to those we saw come to Christ in the Institutionalised way. It’s hard to explain but they are different. They have grown faster and more confidently. They know the Bible, they are not reliant on others or programs to flourish. It is common for them to quickly start contributing to the life of the group, to be taking the good news out into there relationship connections. In a sentence they go to God when in need instead of a person.

11. Being able to see how the five fold ministry can and does work in this organic setting, when it never could or would in the institutionalised settings of the traditional paradigm. This has been incredibly liberating for me who always felt that I was a square peg in a round hole in the old days.

12. Being able to enter different homes and experience the ups and downs of others lives as we have gone house to house. Getting beyond the masks which people wear.

13. Seeing the birthing of a ministry of food. Constantly having people gather around our table (my wife is a wonderful cook). Constantly gathering to eat in other peoples homes. Eating, partying, and drinking all different kinds of wine from around New Zealand and the world. Seeing more and more people installing spa pools for me to relax in, Praise the lord!

LET GO AND LET GOD

1. The church portrayed in the New Testament was a dynamic organism, a living body with many parts. The church from around 180 A.D. onwards became an increasingly hardened institution with a fixed and complex hierarchy.

2. The early church was marked by; the manifestation of a polyform ministry by which edification and the meeting of needs were accomplished through the gifts of all the brethren. The post-apostolic church moved more and more toward a uniform conception of church offices which separated ministry from the 'laity' and limited significant ministry to the 'clergy'.

3. The church of the first and most of the second centuries was characterized by cycles of intense difficulty and persecution - it was a suffering body. With the advent of Constantine the church became protected, favored and ultimately sanctioned as the state religion by the Roman state, and thus became an institution at ease.

4. In the New Testament the church, with no small measure of vulnerability, depended on the Holy Spirit to hold the brethren together and to lead them in ministry. Later, the church trusted in itself as a very powerful institution, along with its many rules, rites and offices to secure visible unity among its adherents.

Isaac (my littlest boy)doing the haka at rugby church

We decided to have our gathering just before the All Blacks vs British Lions Test (Rugby) last night. This was a big deal for us as the two teams had not played against each other for 10 years. Our House Church got into the swing as we have Kiwis and English in our group. We shared and prayed before we ate and cheered on the teams. See Below (I love Church!)

Below is some pix of a weekly ritual that we have been doing for nearly three years now. On Friday night we set the table with our best, we light candles and sit down to eat a fabulous meal (the best of the week) with a couple of wines. As we eat this meal we share the about spiritual things. At the moment we are talking about spiritual experiences. I shared about spiritual things I have experienced in my life and each week one of us including our three boys will share about spiritual things that have happened in their life. We don’t do this as a set devotional but as we actually eat and drink, and with plenty of dialogue between us. After our meal we often do a family activity together. Tonight we travelled down to Devonport and caught the ferry to the city and had a Danish ice-cream before catching the ferry back. The whole family loves this gathering and it is the centre of our family life. All our boys kick up a fuss if we don’t do it and are the first to ask about spiritual matters. Strong families make strong churches. If we can’t gather together as a family and be the church together, what is the point going along to a church service or even a house church expecting for it to raise our kids and make us a better family. That’s nuts!
* Church begins with family (what ever your family make up is)
Strong Families make strong churches (not the other way around)
* The Parent is primarily responsible to raise there child in God not the gathering (service).
(excuse the red eye!)

My Father once told me that when he was a new Christian in the early 1960’s the only Bible around was the Authorized Version. Many of the Bibles had comments in the side margins which Christians used to understand what they were reading. One of the comments that my Father clearly remembers was alongside one of the chapters in Acts where it was talking about the Disciples performing miracles. The comment alongside this chapter said something like “obviously miracles ceased at the end of the Apostolic age” Hardly any Christians questioned this statement because it was in their Bible and it seemed that everyone had always believed that.
It was not until the mid 70’s when the charismatic renewal hit that people began to realise that this statement may not be true and that the Holy Spirit does operate in miracles today. I think that a large number of believers today (if not the majority) would except that the comment in that Bible was incorrect and based on a not so obvious Bible basis.
I use this story to highlight how much of what we do and believe as ‘Christians’ is questionable and a lot of it is down right opposite to what Jesus Christ himself said. Yet we are blinkered to our contradictions because we have always done things in a certain way, and we then interpret (including the experts we read and listen to) the scriptures to explain what we do in our Christian Culture.
A brilliant example of what I am rabbiting on about is the cultural habit of giving Christian leaders titles such as Father or Pastor or Reverend etc. Yet Jesus Christ himself (not one of his disciples or Paul) stated very clearly
“But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi’ for you only have one Master and you are all brothers… Do not call anyone on earth Father… Do not call anyone on earth teacher… “(Paraphrased) Mathew 23: 8 – 12
Now Jesus obviously considered this very important as he states this point three times in a row. What he says is not ambiguous or unclear, Jesus is our leader and those with gifts identified with leadership are at the bottom of the ladder. We shall not exalt our selves with titles.
The fact is that we do the opposite and ignore Jesus words by explaining away why we have titles. But the reality is that people with titles in church are exalted and looked to which is why so many church goers have some where along the line had a fantasy of being given a title (it’s not for the money!)
A classic example of our Christian culture explaining away the bits of the Bible that don’t fit are when you read the New International Version Study Bible (which I lived my Christian walk on for my first ten years as a Christian and as a ‘Pastor’). In the notes for the scripture I just quoted it says “Obviously we should avoid unreasonable literalism in applying such commands ". Does this sound familiar to the story I told at the beginning? Why is it so obvious? If we don’t take this clearly stated command literally what else should we not take literally?
Brother Yun in his recent best selling book The Heavenly Man states that the Chinese House Church Movement was of one accord when only Bibles were being smuggled into China from the West. After a while however well meaning Western Christians started popping commentaries on the top of the shipments of Bibles. Brother Yun said that it was then the spirit of denominationalism entered the House Church Movement in China and nearly destroyed it.
To be mature believers we need to read the word of God for ourselves, find truth in it and apply it to our lives. Yes let us share our truths with one another (to maintain balance and safety). Remember never assume anything but weigh it by the word of God, by the whisper of the Holy Spirit and by the counsel of others.

We gathered together as the church at our home today. We started at 11am based around a shared lunch. Wow what a lunch! We had Butter Chicken, Chilli Con Carne, Vegetable soup, 2 beautiful cakes, chocolate brownie, Shepherds Pie, bread, fantastic.
It was a lovely sunny day and it was a squeese fitting everyone in. It was great to hear people share of God's goodness, to see people worshiping God from there heart. For prayers of supplication and prophecy. It was the living church to share a meal and discuss steps forward with one of the guys and pray with him in regards to business decisions. It was great to oipen our home for eight hours and see people come and go, ministering to one another, eating, laughing, crying, shareing, exchanging life.
This is about connecting the disconnected.

The photo below is a photo of Wilton and Janelle who are overseers of a church that goes house 2 house in Marlborough New Zealand. Marlborough is the sunniest part of NZ and Renwick where they are based is the centre of the winerys. There are three or four churches that go house to house in the region full of some great people. Wilton and Janelle have been great supporters and encouragers of us and are committed to a vision to see NZ reached through many homes birthing churches in them and playing there part to see this happen. Shalom Wilton and Janelle.

What is a self feeding Christian?

It is a follower of Christ who is self motivated to seek a strong reliant relationship with Jesus Christ through
1. Committment to reading the Bible applying it's truth to your situation.
2. Commitment to hearing God's voice for your self and being obediant to it.
3. Commitment to seeking out and building relationships with other followers of Christ.

A follower of Christ who is self motivated to chase after him will flourish whether they are in church, house church, prison, the only Christian in School etc. Are you self feeding or are you relying on others to feed you still. Are you still on milk or are you chewing on the steak set before you? Are you reading books written by others or are you reading the Bible for your self and gaining insight? Are you stareing at Christian TV programmes and being influenced by them or are you having a conversation with our Father in heaven?
We desperatly need to grow up and be self feeding.

Below is a pix of the kids after they climbed a massive sand dune at the beach during the organic camp. They are watching in amazement as I race down the dune like greased lightning

Below is a photo of Tony Collis. Tony hosted the conference in Wellington. Tony oversees the Followers network which is a group of Micro churches around the lower North Island of New Zealand. He has around a dozen churches and growing. Tony was the first person I met who was into planting House Churches when I was starting to think about making my escape from institutionalised church into impacting homes for Christ.

Communion before the Mac, did I say the clan Mcleod house church was a Mac Church!

On Auckland’s North Shore in the ethnic melting pot of Glenfield, there is a typical family in a typical house doing what should be typical for followers of Jesus Christ. This family is seeing the Kingdom of God grow, and disciples being made through their home. In February 2004 Darrin and Dianne and their three children (soon to become four) took a risk and decided to birth a church in there suburb in their house.

They started with a list of Christians that they could invite along to their meeting. For various reasons the people they invited didn’t come or didn’t stay and it was time to quit, or rethink what they were doing. Darrin and Dianne rethought what they were doing, and decided to focus on a weekly meal and on being a witness to their personal friends and family.

It may seem a very invisible and insignificant thing to the outside world, as this small group gathers and commits to following Jesus, but in a year this church has seen two sisters commit to being followers, a friend of one of the sisters and three nieces and nephews come into the kingdom of God. They are gathering regularly over a meal, and being a light on the hill. This is the New Testament story of Aquila and Priscilla starting to come to pass, in Glenfield Auckland.

We are currently organising a churchlesschristian website and you will soon be able to listen or download an interview with Darrin and Dianne about the positives and pitfalls of starting a church in a New Zealand home.

See Darrin and Diannes House Church pix below

Below is some photos taken today of the Clan McLeod House Church in Glenfield Auckland. Today was a special dedication and birthday for Benjamin the youngest member of the clan.
Tomorrow I will tell the awesome story of what God has done through this family / church and show more photo's

Darren and Dianne McLeod, who stepped out a year ago to start a Church in their home

(It's 5am and I can't sleep. I have written a prophetic word below which I shared last night at the guys gathering. Weigh the word, if it is found wanting throw it away, if good act upon it.)

For I tell you today
You are walking into a season, a season of opportunity and opportunities. Opportunities in both the sacred and the secular.
For I tell you today
That you are walking into opportunities that require risk, therfore faith is required. You are no longer in a season of 'safety first' and 'maintenance mode'.
You are no longer in a season of 'battening down the hatches' but instead God is calling you to climb the rigging and look out over the water and see where the slight breeze of his spirit is leading.
Opportunity requiring risk which needs faith and confidance in God.

For the last three weeks or so the group of disciples we meet with have been meeting seperatly as Males and Females. Kim (my wife) has remarked that it has seemed quite difficult and rather flat when the women meet. We have not worked out why, but Kim has remarked she finds it disatisfying so far.
On the other hand when the guys have met we have had a real intense, awesome time.
Tonight we gathered together again. There was eight of us ranging from 54yrs to 7yrs. We all shared and participated. There was no leader but it hummed in the Holy Spirit. Two psalms were sung, people prayed we shared Gods truth organically over Fish and Chips, the boys participated, Prophecy was declared, communion was shared, beer was drunk and Rugby was watched. It was a perfect blend of the New Testement and Kiwi culture in action. Its living out 1st Corinthians in a New Zealand setting. It's easy, it's fun, it's real, it's not false.
Next week we are all getting back together.
Keep an eye out for tomorrows blog. We are going to the Mcleod Clan house church tomorrow. They are having a dedication with lot's of food I will take photos and tell the awesome story of the impact they have had on there extended family since going organic.

Last year at the Micro Confrence, the prophetic word that came out most clearly, was that to walk into the new we had to die to the old. The most specific words that I remember was that there would be blood on the floor before we could walk into the new wine.

Not being a pleasent happy 'bless me' word I quickly tried to forget that prophetic word! However the last 12 months sure has seen plenty of blood on the floor in regards to every area of our life. It's been a tough year for myself in sense of God's calling, for our family, for our finances, for our housing, everything! At the end of this 12 month period all I felt was winded!

But during all these turmoils I really did sense that we were in the middle of Gods will. I remember when we went and met at a hotel at Rangariri to hand in our credentials as Ministers. At the end of a awkward and difficult meeting, the person who met us anounced out of the blue that Rangariri meant that THE BLOOD FLOWED after a battle between local Maori and the British in that area. You could have knocked me down with a feather as I instantly remembred the prophetic word again.

Funnily enough we stopped at Rangariri again as we traveled to this years confrence. We were looking around the battle site because the Kids were studying New Zealand history. As we wondered around the grave yard I once again remembered the prophecy and realised that it was now a year since we had walked into the time of blood shed. I felt the Holy Spirit was quickening to me that we were walking into a new season, a season of expectation.

It was amazing to hear Wolfgangs prophetic word (see a few days ago for it) as he described our upheavel, and even the Maori imagry of course connected with where we were at with Rangariri. Within 24 hours we had been supernaturally and miraculously released from a debt that we had gained from when we closed our former church down. We were separately offered significant financial backing in any Kingdom or business initiative we were considering (which is an answer to prayer). We were also invited to several places around the country to talk about our journey. People also asked to come on board as intercessors for our ministry. Most of all we connected for the first or second time with people who I think we are going to get to know a whole lot more in the years ahead as we leave the old restraining, constraining wine skins of the past and step uncertainly into going where the whisper of the Holy Spirit leads us.

Friends I am pregnant with expectation

Two birthdays on the way to confrence is a killer for Dad's wallet!

1. PRAYER VIRUS Luke 10:2b Prayer. Two leaders in USA seeking God re reaching lost people. A dramatic answer when Lu.10:2b brought to their attention. Prayed this prayer daily – like the importunate widow (Lu.19) and person repeatedly asking his neighbour for bread (Lu.11). Remarkable results following – new churches planted in miraculous ways etc. Began encouraging others to pray this prayer. Now spreading like a virus. We were instructed how to pray this prayer, and encouraged to ‘spread the virus’.

2. Simple Bible Study. Not more than three or four people with no experts with the answers. Three symbols: 1) A question mark; 2)
a candle, 3) an arrow. Question mark, “What does this verse mean?” The candle, “Light or understanding,” the arrow, “What is this saying to me – how is it affecting my heart?” Mature members to ask others what they think rather than provide answers. Even unbelievers can lead a Bible study like this!

GEOFF OUR TREASURER DESTROYING ALL BEFORE HIM IN THE SHAPE SORTER CHALLANGE

Stat. 300 million Christians (neo-apostolics, so-called) who are thinking and acting against hierarchical controlled churches and who want simple church.

“Some people want Christ ‘cheap’, but the price will never come down.

“Easy to have the form without the substance.”

“Churches can become the victims of their own success.”

“Church as we know it is over.”

“We have asked for wealth – he wanted to give us the nations!”

“People are leaving the church in order to preserve their faith.”

“Everything except mission gets better in heaven.”

“95% of the church is targeting only 15% of the population. What about the other 85%?”

“Starbucks was intentionally created as a ‘meeting place’.”

“Mentoring – use the MAWL system: Model. Assist. Watch. Leave.

“I didn’t sign up for this!” (Some church leavers).

“Some stuff we must intentionally wrestle with.”

“Different ways (we do things now) are not even on the radar.”

“Sheep in the outback of Australia don’t need fences or boundaries because they naturally stay close to the well.”

“Gt. Commission is to “obey” whatever Jesus teaches us.” Tony Dale.

“I pray, I hear, I obey.”

“No empire building. Build the Kingdom of God!
No control. Give all control to the Holy Spirit.
No glory.” No super - stars. We walk with a limp from fighting with God and losing.” Felicity Dale.

PASSING THROUGH THE DESERT ROAD ON THE WAY HOME

Below is what I would call an abbreviated prophetic greeting that Wolfgang Simson sent last Friday. It encouraged and challanged our family. I hope it will stir you also.

Dear Friends

Since we met last year I have to admit that New Zealand has captured a special place in my heart. It's not really your landscape, not even the food (although I have to admit that I recently stumbled across some Green New Zealand mussles - and bought it!), but something much deeper than that. It has to do with a strong feeling of your country entering into one of it's God ordained phases of being a unique blessing to the nations, something of a Kiwi version of Genesis 12:: I will bless you (Abram), and you will be a blessing to all nations. It has to do with a destiny that you are about to enter in, and therefore you have to strive to sing that unsong song burried within you, read out that forgotten poem in you, and become again that prophetic people of God freed from the nonprophetic shackels of the Babylonian system of life, molded by money, work, fear and greed - and a church able to do a lot without being powered by the Holy Spirit.

I hope that this last year you have been more upset, insecure and vulnerable than ever before, slept worse, felt tossed about like a leaf, and wondering which rock to cling to. This has to do with a birthing of the new thing that God has been prophecying all along, and to your surprise it will not just happen unto you, like the utopian dream of some charismatics, it will have to break forth from within you, through pain, suffering and radical obediance to Gods, his ordinances, and you throwing yourself in reckless abandon into Gods hands: you live or drown... This is the day to enter into a new phase of being set apart for the purposes of God, for which God might have to remove you from purposes molded by tradition, fear of existence, or simply selfish purposes chosen for self promotion...

(Wolfgang talks about the power of the Maori Haka (Wardance)) If I would be there I would probably make a fool out of myself in playing that part for you right now, make you close your eyes and hear with your inner ears a rallying cry to a war for the souls of your land, and of many nations that you are destined to touch.

Therefore arise shine, wake up, get out, move out, shake up, and after you leave go do something you have never done before in your land. ANd tell your kids stop being harmless and do something crazy for God. They have it in them, and they will need to hear it from you.

Blessings to you, one of your many friends in Germany, Wolf

The Kids in the snow as we travelled up through the volcanos in the middle of the North island

Hi Again

We are back from the conference at last so am back to blogging! It has taken 11 hours crawling up the country to get home so I am going to bed after this brief blog. Over the next week or so I will put down chronologically what the highlights of the camp were, and some good nuggets of Tony and Felicity Dale who spoke. Tomorrow on my blog I will post a prophetic exhortation that Wolfgang Simson sent along to the camp which Kim and I found very impacting. The photos of camp turned out awful, this was a combination of me buying the cheapest digital camera and being naturally terrible at taking photos Keep an eye on the blog as there will be good stuff for the next week or so. Night Night for now

Photo of Tony Dale