Churchless Christian

I think the act of spiritually "breaking camp" is essential to the health, growth and depth of you and your church.

What do I mean by breaking camp?

In camping it's what you have to do to move on. Any real camper knows the objective is not to stay in one place. It's an adventure, and there is a lot to experience out there. When it's time to move on in the journey, you pack everything, throw out the waste, rearrange your load, and head out to the next destination.

It grieves me to see and hear about Christians who are fruitless or house churches that are struggling because they don't want to, or are afraid to, "break camp." Could it be that some of us don't yet realize that we HAVE TO break camp to follow a moving Jesus?

A couple of weeks ago, I introduced this concept to our church. The reactions ranged from excitement to fear. No matter how much you love the people in your church, someone eventually has to break camp.

Sometimes it's gradual; sometimes it's sudden. But without it, eventually you'll implode, dry up, get bored or just become a group of friends.

Let's not forget it should be in the DNA of every church to become a discipleship movement that by itself, given enough time, could reach the entire world.

My house church is amazing. Seasoned, mature and solid. They are really a group of elders. I look at our community and I see the potential of four churches. It's time to break camp. At least that's my opinion. It's up to the Holy Spirit to reveal to the others what that means for them.

I guess I raised a few eyebrows when I brought up the topic, but it was a very good thing. From my experience, if your group has been together for a significant period of time (6 months to a year) without any significant change, it may be time to ask God His plans for you and your church.

I'm convinced of one thing. The church is to be a force of discipleship - growing, reproducing, equipping and releasing...and doing so quickly! Our call is to GO. Apostles and Prophets be faithful in laying the foundation, moving out of the way of the Teachers, Shepherds, and Evangelists to then build His moving church.

Keep moving. Time is short. It's a whole lot more exciting when you're on the move!

Press On,

Mike Lyons
Organic Connection Moderator

On the left of me in the photo is a great friend of ours, Ted. He has a great wife also called Bobby. They have a large house close by to New Zealand's fastest growing university. Two years ago someone prophisied that young women would come through there home. Since then they have had many people come through there doors, some visiting and some staying. Many of these students are from overseas and have never heard about Jesus Christ. There is no planning in what ted and Bobbie do. They simply pray and God open's the doors. While the photo above was being taken, Ted was telling me that they had had 14 people for dinner the night before! This is using your home to extend the Kingdom of God. As well as this amazing ministry, Ted and Bobbie are part of a house church that also meets near the university. I am going on Sunday so keep an eye out for the story and pictures on Sunday night

There is still over a month of winter still to go but already the daffodils are springing up and two baby lambs were born a couple of hours ago (see pix below). It’s awesome to see new life springing up in the midst of the bare trees, the dead leaves and in the midst of the rain and cold wind.
It’s a real risk for a lamb to be born in late winter, but if they survive they have the whole of spring and summer to grow and are in a great position by the time the weather changes again.

I think when ever we embark on new ventures such as starting a new house church etc, we are always looking for the perfect time and the perfect environment, and the perfect people etc. But let’s be real, these perfect conditions really happen.

Like those lambs huddling against there Mother outside in 5 degrees, sometimes we just have to weigh the odds and take the risk. Perhaps our ventures will be like the daffodil, in that they won’t last more than a couple of weeks, but risk nothing gain nothing. Even though the daffodil does not last long it sure is noticed!
Bill Hybels said that in the end the best way of training is by being thrown in the deep end. No matter how we minimise and avoid it by our planning, goals, strategies, sometimes we just have to jump in the deep end.

Perhaps its time for you and I to acknowledge the winter and do it any way!

We had a Mid Winter Christmas last night. It was an open invitation for the group of house churches and organic believers we are connected with. About 50 people came and it was a great night with a lamb on the spit and some awesome food (see photo's below).
One thing I have noticed in this new (or old) expression of the Kingdom of God is the drop in focus on large get togethers.
In traditional church and Christian thinking, large gatherings are the be all and end all no matter what people say. Numbers are King. In this organic expression of church, people are less desiring or needing of large corporate get togethers. Originally when we started out on this path, we thought we would have a large corporate get together with all the house churches once a month, but we quickly realised that the interest was not there.
As the house churches grew and as we connected with more and more organic believers the smaller the larger corporate gatherings were

People who had become believers within the organic believers or Institutionalised Christians who had crossed over recently and were new the groups had little interest in attending the corporate gatherings so funnily enough the energy in putting on large corporate events may possibly impede the growth outwards as it is mainly enjoyed by those who have been around for a while who like catching up with old friends.

The great thing with last night was that it was so organic. One family organised and planned it all and put most of the effort in so we could have an awesome fun night without any of the groups or families involved having to pour out a lot of energy.

When we stand back and take our hands off, stuff happens!
Last nights food

Carcus of the lamb once we had stripped it clean

In the book The Heavenly Man brother Yun talks about how when the Christians in his village gathered together to worship no one ever gave routinely, or tithed money to the group. However when the group did gather and the Holy Spirit spoke telling them to send out a member to the next village or the next province to share the good news, THEN they gave. This group of poor Chinese farmers would instantly give all the little money they had and any food they had to the person going. Then these Chinese farmers would go home praising the lord, even as they faced hunger for the next couple of weeks.

This story is a powerful example of how generosity can operate in the Church. There are two major factors that were operating and which can happen in our lives too.

They were being guided by the Holy Spirit.

In the Institutional Church, members do not need to worry about this. They follow a law saying they need to give 10% of there money which they pop into the offering plate and trust that the finance committee is being led by the Holy Spirit. They don’t have to ask God how much to give usually, because they think they already know (10%) and they don’t have to think who or what to give it to (Church of course) and when (quickly!). This makes Institutional generosity robotic and unthinking.

I am reminded of myself when I was in that situation. I had an automatic payment going straight from my bank account into the church account. I never missed the money because I had just calculated it into my budget; I never worried about where it went (because I had done what was required of me). I don’t think I ever enquired of the Holy Spirit about what I did with my tithing. Even when believers gave to extra things on top of their tithe, it was most often in response to a request from the pulpit (I have made such requests myself many times!) So even in those situations they only have to ask Father about how much to give.

When we leave behind the systems and controls of organised Christianity one of the biggest changes that we need to make is breaking free from our mechanical giving and become inspirational givers. We need to stop letting others make all the decisions for our giving and start letting the Holy Spirit guide us in our giving.

As I have travelled around the country I have noticed that sometimes organic believers are not flowing regularly in generosity. My theory is that they may have broken free of mechanical giving (e.g. rejected the tithing lie) but have not yet walked into what it means to be an inspirational giver. I hate people quoting scripture to back up a point so I won’t. However I have found 2 Corinthians; chapters 8 and 9 are really excellent in instructing and guiding believers and churches in regards to giving. I encourage you to read these chapters and let the Holy Spirit speak to you.

They were in a position to give.

One of the biggest surprises that happened to the groups we were originally working with was the difficulty in gaining bank accounts for our groups. Looking back it was Holy Spirit led, but at the time we were in a crisis. How on earth could we give to our ‘church’ when it did not have a bank account? Talk about God having to give us a few paradigm shifts! Since then the majority of groups / gatherings / individuals do not have designated accounts to accumulate funds for giving to.

Funnily enough the churches in the New Testament did not have bank accounts either, yet they were able to give so inspirationally and compassionately that the world took notice of them.

So if we can’t give mechanically to a church bank account and we are beginning to listen to the Holy Spirit’s whisper, how do we make sure we are in a position to give when he speaks? For me there are two obvious steps.

In the New Testament, Paul speaks of putting the money aside each week until he came for the collection for Jerusalem. I am beginning to see this quite commonly now. People are led to put aside a certain amount on a regular basis, and then as the Holy Spirit guides them they release the money. Sometimes they are distributing it as quickly as it is put aside and sometimes it sits in their accounts until it builds up into a significant amount as they wait for the Holy Spirit’s leading. The key to this as above is personal responsibility. We can’t rely on the treasurer of the group to look after the money, we need to be good stewards of God’s money.

The 2nd thing is like Brother Yun; we need to have a heart and attitude that is ready to respond sacrificially in regards to giving. Those poor Chinese Christians had hearts that were instantly ready to respond to need, even if it meant self sacrifice on their part. As a family we have talked about not just giving of our plenty but about giving of our selves as the Holy Spirit leads. One example is giving the steak we were going to have for our dinner to a family that needs a meal and having vegetable soup instead. We would have often done it the other way around in the past!

The world happily gives some of its excess generously, but if we give sacrificially of our selves as lead by the Holy Spirit, then the world will really know that our love is real.

I have been challenged again lately with what defines a church at its most basic level. Many will know that my bottom line has always been that a church is a group of people who are committed to eating together, praying together, learning together, worshipping together, having communion together and doing the great commission together. In the last month I have begun to wonder if there is actually an even deeper level of simplicity within this form of church. I wonder if the most pared back form of church is the extended family.

The reason why I propose this; the history and culture of the Jewish people. Below I want to look at this in a bit more detail.

It would be hard to argue the fact that the Jewish people have been one of the most persecuted people’s in history. For thousands and thousands of years the world has conspired to destroy this small minority of people, physically, culturally, geographically and religiously. Somehow the Jewish faith and the Jewish people have survived, prospered and regained their land after two thousand years.

On one level we can state that it is because of God’s grace and favour on that people as to why they have prospered. God often does miraculous things through ordinary every day things, so I ask myself what ordinary things has god used to perform this amazing work of grace on the Jewish people and the Jewish faith. What things do the Jews do which makes them able to survive and flourish despite being placed in numerous kinds of difficulty as a people, over the centuries? Is it the temple? Well, that hasn’t existed for two thousand years, and even when it did it was being destroyed, or the Jewish people had been forced out of their homeland so they could not worship corporately for considerable amounts of time. Has the system of synagogues provided the unbreakable back bone of the Jews? Jewish synagogues can play an important part in Jewish life, but they are far more fragmented and in the background compared to what the church is to committed Christians. It also seems unlikely as most other cultures and faiths have similar systems (Church for Christians, Mosques for Moslems, temples for Hindus or Buddhists), yet I believe they would have found it extremely difficult to survive the trials that the Jewish faith endured.

For me, I believe that the ordinary thing that God used to perform his miracle of seeing Judaism survive and thrive is the Jewish family. You can often hear Jews crack jokes about the family and the family is often rather an ‘overpowering’ presence in their lives. One can watch sitcoms like ‘Seinfeld’ where jokes are made about the crazy relations, crazy Mothers, over the top emotion, and expectations to toe the family line and help support the family group. In many ways these jokes reflect the centrality of the family and the ‘home’ to Jews. A perfect example of the importance of the family and the home is the way Jews celebrate Shabbat (Sabbath), in comparison to the way most Christians think of celebrating the Sabbath. Christian families GO to church to celebrate the Sabbath, while Jewish families COME home to celebrate the Sabbath.

The centre of the Jewish Sabbath is the big family meal on Friday night. Part of the meal includes the bread to be blessed, and a goblet for blessing the wine. The family then enjoys a leisurely meal, talk and meditation and maybe some songs and the children are encouraged to ask questions. This is the central part of their upbringing in the faith. (Affairs of the world are avoided). The Sabbath scene in the film "Fiddler on the roof" gives the atmosphere of this celebration. All of the Jewish faith’s festivals can be enacted in the family home, and it is in the home that children are primarily instructed. The home is where individuals get emotional and physical support, and it is where they learn and are most intimate with their religious faith. Because the education, law and religious activity have been given to the ‘home’ to fulfil primarily, when the destruction of national or local structures have happened the faith could continue on by these strong and powerful family units. Because each individual in that family was permeated in living out their culture and faith even when the family unit was broken or fragmented (such as in the Holocaust), the individuals who survived could once again rebuild a strong powerful family unit with the DNA which had been placed in them.

Yes I know, I have been a bit slack with my blog for the last 10 days or so. I have had one of the worst tragedies that can hit a male happen to me in this time. My beloved vehicle died a over heated death and I have found it hard to think beyond this tragedy. Thankfully yesterday my local garage helped me snap out of this catatonic state by fixing it in exchange for extorting $2016.00 from my wallet. The most depresing thing was that my 7 year old son commented that the car looked exactly the same as before, I don't know what he was expecting, a new addition to the vehicle, tinted windows, rear spoilers?

So what have I been upto? Not a lot it feels. Caught up with a guy called Leo from Christchurch (pix below) visit, sharing about a group he is involved with that has seen several house churches planted in the Canturbury region in the last few months which is awesome.

We have had around 40 people through our home in the last week, eating, drinking, sharing God, arguing politics etc. Every person I know is basically a National party supporter and thinks our Prime Minister is the Anti Christ. I think this is because we live in a very affleunt area. I have to stay in the closet about my secret belief that she is the best Prime Minister we have had in my life time. The country is certainly going the best that I can ever remember. I remember when I left school in 1989 we had about 12% unemployment and about 17% interest rates. Now we have 4% unemployment (lower than Japan)etc etc.

Even though we are on the backside of the world, the organic church movement has been blesed with some awesome speakers coming through. The United States House Church conference in September has Wolfgang Simson, the Dales and Roland and Heidi Baker as the main speakers. Its been neat that we have already had the first two through NZ in the last year and now the Bakers will be coming to speak at a church conference in Auckland in the next week or so. I am interested in hearing them as they have such a powerful testimony to Gods grace but I am not so keen in wondering along to the church that is hosting it. It's a great church but it is very traditional pentecostal model and I just can't be bothered any more sitting in on Holy Spirit bless me times that you often get at these things. Its like someone running their finger nails down the black board to me.

In the end God is a good God and he is in control and I am waffling as it is now 2:30am in the morning so it might be good to head to bed check out the photos below

Kids enjoying the sun this morning (after they said it would rain all day!)

Leo

Lifestyle upgrade

Anyone who uses computer software knows what an upgrade is: a new and better version of a programme replaces the old version. Through an act of God, many millions of people have experienced an 'inner upgrade' leading to an entirely new quality of life. Rutz lists a number of chances and advantages offered by this upgrade, which were previously unthinkable for many people:

- People experience release from the limitations and burdens of a traditional, hierarchical (and unbiblical) religious system, being freed into an 'open

Christianity' with 100% participation.

- They are no longer a number in someone else's religious programme.

- They experience personal empowerment and are able to do things they previously could not even have dreamed of, including the supernatural

(healing, prophesying, performing miracles etc.)

- They learn to overcome their own problems, and help others to overcome theirs.

- They experience fellowship with a small group of close friends who give mutual support, so that each person and the whole group reaches God's aims, which are their calling.

- In doing so, they find that which they have sought for their whole life.

Away from spectator religion

The path away from spectator religion frees people from fixed church role-playing. Previously, many people were passive, conformist churchgoers, experiencing church as a television without a remote control. The personal involvement of every follower of Christ, though, rouses millions of talents and abilities to solve even the most difficult problems. The result is a 'Mega shift', a quantum leap in church history.

Post-Protestant revival

Protestantism was an important epoch in church history, but it is now time to stop protesting and start acting. The current post-Protestant awakening is larger than the great American revivals since 1727 under Wesley, Whitefield, the Herrnhuter or Jonathan Edwards. "This third Reformation," says Rutz, "has three characteristics:"

The church is transforming itself from an organisation to an organism after 1700 years of institutional structure; the Body of Christ is emerging in the form described in the New Testament. People are rediscovering the original forms and functions in an open, participatory system mostly consisting of house churches.

100% active

Moving away from the one-man church system, in which the pastor literally did everything, a growing number of Jesus' followers are becoming active participants, leaving their spectators' seats and taking their place on the playing field. It should be no surprise the number of goals scored increases. When 100 people pray for the sick, prophesy, and plant churches instead of just one, it is also reasonable to expect the number of miracles to increase.

Immense numbers of new believers

Church growth outside America is breathtaking. Tens of thousands of new believers (Rutz speaks of 175,000 per day) means that although all religions are growing naturally, only Christianity is experiencing significant growth through conversion. Where religions meet, Christianity almost always gains new believers, and new networks of house churches are formed.

How to be part of this Mega shift

1. Stop going with the flow, and decide to actively turn away from the outdated control structures (clerics & laypeople).

2. Take responsibility. That also means paying the price of being a pioneer, including Christian friends' suspicion and ostracism.

3. Learn to love others, overcoming selfishness and becoming a team player. That requires a lifestyle of repentance and obedience - out of healthy enthusiasm, not duty.

4. Help carry others' burdens, and not stagnate but take small steps forward every day.

Let me ask a simply question here: Doesn't the fact that we all meet at the same time every Sunday create COMPETITION and DIVISION in the church?

Before you answer that, let us analyze what actually happens all over the world on Sunday mornings.

In the West on Sunday, most Christians get up and drive perhaps five or ten miles (maybe more) to get to their favorite church. Some attend locally but many do not. And even the 'local' attendees have to chose between several different denominations in their area.

Now, all of these buildings that we attend have different "labels" on them, and we have to choose ONE of them because they all meet at the same time. So we become "labelled" by the group that we attend. We become a "Baptist" or 'Assembly of God' or "Vineyard" or "Pentecostal Holiness", etc, etc. Most of the time we never really get to know the local Christians on our street at all, because they are all going off to their own groups - and so we never really get to fellowship together. We meet with "OUR"
group - and we hardly even know the Christians in our own neighborhood.

Now, does any of this sound "right" to you? Does any of this sound like the Book of Acts?

The fact is, Sunday morning has turned into a time of DIVISION, where we all have to choose which 'sect' or denomination of the church we are going to attend. It is the time when we all separate ourselves into "catagories". Which church do you go to? - This
becomes an important question. ie. "Which DIVISION do you belong to?" 'Which hierarchy do you come under?' "Who is your covering?" 'What box can we put you in?'

The attempts at so-called "unity" in the church today are often very feeble. They usually amount to one-off 'events', where we all gather together for a day, but afterwards go straight back to our "divided" lifestyles again. Or there may be a regular meeting of
the local pastors - which is seen as a kind of "unity".

But when that meeting is over, the fact is that all of these groups are basically in COMPETITION with one another (especially the Charismatic and Pentecostal ones). They all meet at the same time each week - hoping for more members to join "THEIR" group. And they all have their own hierarchies, their own 'label', their own "stream" that they are a part of (-even the so-called "Non-denominational" churches - which are just as 'systemized' in reality).

Some have likened this situation to "fast-food" chains, because the set-up is quite similar. Let us suppose that Burger King sets up a restaurant just down the street from a McDonalds. Now, the two managers may be quite friendly on the surface. They may even attend local meetings of the "Fast-Food Togetherness" club. But the fact is, they are SELLING THE SAME PRODUCT just down the street from one another. They need more customers and they are in TOTAL COMPETITION with each other. Can anybody conceive of true "unity" between Burger King and McDonalds? Not in a million years! (-Not unless they buy each other out). There is NO UNITY to be had in that scenario. It is designed for COMPETITION. And the structure of the church today is virtually identical. We are all 'down the street' from our main competition EACH OTHER. The system itself does not allow for unity. It was built out of competing 'streams', denominations and divisions.
While we keep this system, there is about as much chance for TRUE unity as McDonalds becoming "one" with Burger King tomorrow.

Jesus prayed concerning His followers "that they all may be ONE... that the world may BELIEVE." This disunity and division that is so obvious to all, is one of the huge reasons why the world does not BELIEVE what we say today. They point to our divisions and
(quite rightly) disdain our words.

As we have discussed before, in the Book of Acts there was ONE church - united under the leadership of the apostles. They had huge citywide gatherings and smaller house fellowships, but they were all ONE BODY. When they met together "from house to house" it was basically ALL the local Christians from that neighborhood. They lived and fellowshipped with one another from street to street. THAT is what "local church" really
means!

But today we cannot just be part of the "whole Body", can we? We have to choose a 'division' to belong to - otherwise we are seen as 'heretics'. I believe the original apostles would be rolling in their graves if they could see the way the church is set up today. If only we could see ourselves through their eyes. Every Sunday we dress up and go to our Division's "cathedral", where we sit down, stand up, sing our "five fast songs and five slow songs", listen to the sermon, place our money in the offering bag, hear the
notices and go home. Week-in and week-out, it is almost always the same. And we think this is "church life"!

As the early Pentecostal pioneer Frank Bartleman wrote: "We drift back continually into the old, backslidden, ecclesiastical conceptions, forms and ceremonies. Thus history sadly ever repeats itself. Now we must work up an annual revival. We go to church on Sundays, etc, etc, just 'like the nations (churches) round about us.' But in the beginning it was not so."

So HOW do we find true UNITY?

The answer to this question is that we have GOT to get out from under all these "LABELS". We have to abandon a system that simply does not allow us to BE THE CHURCH as she is meant to be. I know this sounds 'drastic', but I have been pondering this subject for years and it is very clear to me that there is NO WAY BACK to the simple unity of the early church unless we abandon our current system. Today's structure CANNOT be reformed. It is a disaster area - and 'division' is at the very heart of it.

As the renowned Christian writer John Bunyan declared: "Since you desire to know by what name I wish to be called, I desire, if God should count me worthy, to be called a Christian, a believer, or any other name sanctioned by the Holy Ghost. But as for
those factious titles, such as Anabaptists, etc, I believe they came neither from Jerusalem nor Antioch, but rather from hell and Babylon, for they naturally tend to divisions, and ye may know them by their fruits."

But HOW do we get the whole church back to the type of unity they had in the Book of Acts? How on earth do we get people to abandon these DIVISIONS?

I am convinced that it will take a full-blown AWAKENING to dothis. And I am convinced that this Awakening must begin OUTDOORS - outside the "4 walls" - just like Acts. Why is it so important to get people out of their religious environments and walls? -Because of all the "learnt behaviour" and DIVISIONS that go with those surroundings. People have to leave it all behind to even see how sick it is. And also, it is only outside that we can
actually experience "one church" as a reality. When people truly experience the love and unity of gathering with fellow believers OUTSIDE THE WALLS - then they will realize what we have been missing all these years. -And how simple it is. God wants us to LIVE THIS WAY all the time - not just on special occasions.

Once people have experienced what true unity is like, I believe this will naturally lead to "house to house" fellowship in their own neighborhoods. -It is just a continuation of the same concept.

Now, just to be clear here: I do not believe in "dumbing down" our Christianity to achieve unity. I do not believe in uniting around the "lowest common denominator". Instead, I believe we need to RAISE our standards and unite around that. -So that
nothing less than a glorious, Spirit-imbued church will do - pure and holy, filled with the glory of God. It is not "unity at all costs" that I am preaching here. It is uniting around the TRUTH and the outpouring of the Spirit of God.

Written by Andrew Strom

Below I have noted some migrations I am observing first hand and have heard of second hand from around the country. Certain kinds of people appear to be moving into the organic Church.

1. Christians who have a strong focus on Israel.
2. Christians involved with interdenominational
intercessors groups.
3. Leaders and ex leaders in Para church ministries
such as YWAM, Campus Crusade etc.
4. People with a strong ascension gift of
Evangelist, and to a lesser extent Prophet.
5. Former Church Leaders (Pastors and Elders).
6. Maori including prison ministries and gang
members.
7. Older believers in there late 50’s and 60’s.
8. People home schooling their children.
9. Young Families with Children at crèche age.

There is a young couple who lived in the Northland region of New Zealand. This area is one of the poorest regions in New Zealand and has a high Maori population. This couple who were in their late 20’s, are called Ray and Stephanie. Ray worked in the bush and together with Stephanie had no understanding of God and lived pretty wild lives. One day Stephanie went out to the garden shed while Ray was at work. As she was in the shed a box fell off one of the shelves. Out of the box fell a Bible. For some reason Stephanie picked up the Bible and began to read it. As she sat in the shed reading, something happened, and without fully understanding what she was doing she committed herself to becoming a follower of Jesus. As she was wondering what to do next, she felt challenged to read the same passages of the Bible she had been reading to Ray when he arrived home from the bush. Stephanie felt scared as she was afraid of Ray, who would often come home drunk from work. Ray arrived home and instantly realised that something had happened. “What’s happened to you?” he asked. Stephanie, despite her fear, began to read the passages from the Bible to Ray. At first Ray got very angry but as she started to read, there was an immediate softening in Ray’s appearance. After some time Ray said,” I really feel like I should get baptised now like those guys in the Bible.” Stephanie agreed. Not knowing what else to do, they drove down to the closest beach and baptised each other. As they were baptised the Holy Spirit came upon them in power, and broke the addictions of Drugs, Alcoholism and Nicotine instantly from over their lives. Within a year of that power encounter with God they have seen their lives turned around and over ten friends and family become disciples of Jesus Christ.

Kim checking my terriable grammer

Hi Thanks for the time to read my blog and for your feed back. I often hear from people what you say about Religion causing all the trouble in the world and we would be better off with out it. When one watches TV or when one is dealing with visible conflict, it is easy to be convinced about the negativity of religion.
Having experienced in a limited way other cultures where religion appears to cause problems and having a degree in politics and history I do not think the statement holds true.

1) In a practical sense if there were no religions in the world the biggest blood baths of that century would still have occurred because they were mainly perpetuated by Governments / Systems / nations who were strongly opposed to religion and had rejected religious reasoning for science. I of course am referring to the Nazi's and Communism. Between them they killed more people and caused more pain then all the religions combined through history. So following this rule of thumb, non religious people are more guilty then religious people (I am being silly here).

2) Usually where there appears to be a war over religion it is a masquerade for deeper tensions over cultural issues / tribal and historical issues. I give an example of Northern Ireland. Everyone says it is between the Catholics and the Protestants. But if one delves deeper the problem is that hundreds of years ago a large migration of Scottish people moved into Northern Ireland forcibly moving off the original inhabitants. They kept there Scottish culture including their faith and the problems began. But really it is a clash of Cultures (Scottish vs. Irish) then religion which most of the combatants could not give a rip about.
Another classic example of cultural wars is Rwanda. Two tribes both tried to wipe each other killing millions of people. But it was not a clash of religion as both tribes (I think) were Christian! It was all about historical tribal hatred.
Even September 11 and Iraq are not about religion in reality but a mess of geographical / tribal and cultural issues which are to involved to talk about here.

For me as a believer in Christ, I believe all men including myself are sinners. All mankind has an inherently evil side which is why we compulsively do wrong even when we know what is right. I believe the Bible says that there will be no peace until Jesus Christ comes again. It is irrelevant whether one is religious or non religious, there will still be war. I can never hope in man's ways only God's.

"The 1700-year nightmare is over. A megashift of spiritual power into the hands of ordinary people is about to overwhelm the world and put it into vastly better shape. Prepare yourself to take part in a total makeover of Planet Earth!"
It went on to say: "You are about to discover a new world where...

* Over a billion non-Christians may become highly active Christians in the next dozen years.

* Millions of ordinary people are doing miracles.

There is a hidden world that already has 707 million evangelical/charismatic Christians who are growing by an incredible 8% a year. In the center of this shockwave are roughly 100 million in informal networks of committed circles who run their own show without buildings, paid pastors, or sermons. (Megashift)

The Church, as we have it set up now...is really not set up to handle it all so God is empowering people to work through small teams, house churches particularly, school churches, business churches and so forth...small teams where people are able to interact and work with each other...kind of like the early New Testament idea of going house to house... (Rutz)

I met with 30 people around a campfire a few weeks ago. We cooked steaks and chicken and sang with guitars. We prayed about revival, too. People, we were being the Church and no less than 5 denominations were represented there. Though it may appear that Satan has strategically managed to make workaholics out of us and has systematically drawn millions of mommies out of their homes in an effort to join the workforce, thereby creating legions of latch-key kids, the TRUTH is that our God WILL get His Church back (I'm not talking buildings, folks). God WILL have His way. Satan ALWAYS shoots himself in the foot. (T.E.A.M)

"Megashift" not only documents a wide range of miracles, but also spotlights hundreds of thousands of house-church teams around the globe that are producing a new culture of responsible freedom. In these teams, people are allowed to speak and interact. They often form deep friendships, dump their heaviest problems, turn into free and powerful spearheads of worldwide change, and get connected with God and man in ways that almost defy description. This is a "Megashift" away from spectator religion.

An organic Group at a NZ Music festival