Churchless Christian

As a recovering fundamentalist myself, heres what I have found. You can’t leave a sinking ship until you begin to construct a seaworthy one. Hell is one of the leaks in your sinking ship.

Reading through the christmas story in the book of Luke while studying this verse jumped out at me.

Luke:2:13-14

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying ,

“ Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favour rests.”

In the secular christmas this seems to have perpetuated the lets all be really nice to each other at ;least once a year tradition. you see it in christmas advertising and lots of christmas movies and programs worded “peace on earth and goodwill to all men” making people assume that it means for all people to nice to each other at least during this time of year and for there to be “Peace” i.e.. no fighting the end of hostility between men. We have even seen this in the middle of major world wars. e.g. The events on Christmas at the front line trenches when enemy troops met together in no mans land and shook hands and shared cigarettes and the next day went back to trying to blow each others heads off (with great success I might add).

We even see articles on the news about how this season shows how me all (of different faiths) can get along and that the festival is really just about giving and receiving.

I hate to burst their bubble but...

The passage in question is not just some glib remark made by a apparition it is a message from God. and when the Almighty goes through all the trouble to send a message it must be important you would think.

“and on earth peace to men on whom his favour rests” is a strange thing to say when announcing the birth of a child.

The truth is the reason Jesus was sent was to end the hostility between Man and God, and ultimately his death would do just this as we can through faith in Christ now be called adopted sons and daughters and co-heirs of God’s promises, rather than enemies of God.

It is interesting that Paul encouraged us to have our “feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace” Ephesians 6:15,

Jesus said “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God.” Mt 5:9 (who is he speaking too? the United Nations , I don’t think so.)

Jesus also said he did “not come to bring peace but the Sword.” Mt 10:43 but in fact he would cause division.

The birth of Jesus is a worthy event to remember and to celebrate, but let us also remember that from the moment he was born he was heading to the cross,

“It’s not a bad thing to take a break from Sunday Morning meetings. It’s important that people feel wide-open spaces, room for their faith to breathe. And there’s no deadline for going back to anything (i.e.; the organised church).”

“Realize that not everything about the organised church is wrong, but appreciate that everything is back on the table for discussion.”

“Organised religion is putting these definitions on what church is, but the Bible never said, ‘You have to go somewhere every Sunday.’ Instead, church was meant to be a fluid, interactive, ongoing lifestyle.”

“Find a spiritually mature person (of the same sex) and let them pastor you. The corporate and men’s group sub cultures already model this mentoring paradigm. Why can’t the body of Christ? (Jesus did!)”

Jaded believers have been boxed in, and they’re searching for the freedom God intended all along. The institution has squelched a lot of great things God has built into his people.”

“It’s okay to ask risky questions; it’s okay to disagree with a pastor sometimes. We have to give people the ability to think, ‘maybe what I think is right for a change, and he pastor is wrong.’”

“The institution makes people afraid of possibly stepping into heresy, without the covering of a church or a pastor, but being in an institutional church can actually make you more susceptible to heresy because your taking what other people - or one man / women – says is the truth, hook, line, and sinker.”

“Parents, instead of abdicating the spiritual teaching of their children to Sunday school, may find themselves stepping up to the plate.”

Taken from Jaded by AJ Kiesling (Baker Books, U.S.A, 2004) pg 100

For years I’ve tried to put my finger on it – the reasons why I left the professional pastorate. And you know, more than anything, I think it’s this: I left my first love.
The reality is that much of what we call ministry today is really administration. It’s about adding things – programmes, strategies, and rules. In my 22 years as a pastor, I often administered more than I ministered, if that makes sense. I’ve come to see that I was an add-minister more than a minister…
Nevertheless, it seems I’m a pastor again. My friend mat and his wife, Krista, are pastors as well. And so are my wife and my five year old son, Alden. Yup, we’re all pastors at church.
No really. That’s what it’s called: Church. Not first Presbyterian. Not Solomon’s porch or Scum of the earth or some other cool post-modern name. It’s just called church – and it meets, well, when eve we want it to meet…
We’re breaking pretty much every conventional church planting rule, I know. Why? Because we want to be of service, not just a service… But I would be lying if I said it was easy to let go of the programme: it’s not…
I’ve worried about my children. What will happen to them without the safety of an administered Sunday school programme? And yet, time and time again, they’re wowing me with their grasp of the gospel and their ability to understand the heart and soul of Jesus. Will they miss flannel graphs? Maybe. Only time will tell. I guess.” (Spencer Burke, founder of www.theooze.com

Modern western Christian thinking questions
1. If you were to die to night, do you know for certain that you’d go to be with God in heaven?
2. If Jesus returned today, would you be ready to meet God?
Questions asked in reading the gospels differently
1. If you were to live for another fifty years, what kind of person would you like to become – and how will you become that person?
2. If Jesus doesn’t return for ten thousand or ten million years, what kind of world do we want to create?

To believe in God is to believe in the salvation of the world. The paradox of our time is that those who believe in God do not believe in the salvation of the world, and those who believe in the future of the world do not believe in God. Christians believe in the end of the world, they expect the final catastrophe the punishment of others

I am writing this email from my cabin as our ship sails from Vanuatu to New Caledonia as we ready our selves to do some snorkelling on the reefs tomorrow (I thought I would rub it in a bit!) Thank you for those of you who have contacted me to see what had happened to the regular e-letters, it is nice to be missed. I have not been able to get one away lately as I have been very busy making the most of Gods abundance!

This evening we were invited by some dinner companions (all unchurched) to have pre dinner drinks in their 1st class suite and watch the sunset from their private deck. As is very common, the group naturally enquired about my job. And when I gave a bit of an explanation, they all wanted to know how I supported myself in what I do. To be honest this is the question I am most asked by Organic believers, unbelievers and institutionalised believers.

So in this blog entry I thought it would be good to look at where things stand with supporting labourers in the Harvest. This is a touchy question but needs to be dealt with honestly and realistically. I do not say Biblically, because I am tired of Christians on both sides of the fence trying to claim the last word by yanking scriptures out of the Bible and does not do anyone much use. Let me say up front that I personally do not believe that there is a last word in this matter, but dialogue and discussion will help us move on.

From my observation Organic believers fall into 3 positions when it comes to financially supporting what I will simply call fellow labourers (you know what I mean!)

Traditional Position
This is the system most of us are used to and many of us have rejected. Its basic point is that people give or tithe to the church. Out of that money the church pays people to give their time to working for ‘God and the Church’. This is the basis of the clergy becoming professionalised and creating the Clergy – laity split. One of the major points of focus in the organic church is to destroy that separation so many have moved away from this traditional position. At the same time there are a fair number of people who are living in a more organic way who are happy with this position and act it out through tithing to there house church or by giving it to a ministry that they support etc.

Reactionary Position
Is the opposite of the traditional position. Support should not be asked or given to ‘workers’. The reactionary position emphasises the Priesthood of believers and the equality of work, and reacts against Priests being created by the payment to certain ‘workers’. The standard belief by those holding the reactionary position is that if people feel called to undertake a certain task or call that will require more resources than they currently have, they do not need to ask, as the Holy Spirit will provide if this is from him.

Confused Position
Is where many of us are at in this new wine skin. Many have rejected tithing as nonsense and yet are not convinced with the starkness of the reactionary position either from the New Testament or in practical experience. At the same time most in the Confused Position acknowledge the danger of recreating the clergy – laity split if they do not follow the Reactionary Position to the letter.

Personal thoughts from the Confused position (I realise we will all differ in these things)

· I personally hold to the belief that no financial support is needed for anybody fulfilling a pastoral call especially in regards to a house church or gathering otherwise one is just perpetuating a professional priesthood.

· Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, give a man a fishing rod and he will feed himself (or something like that). In church we are so used to doleing out a bit of cash each week, but this may not be the best way to help release workers.

· The Brethren church (in the early days) is an example that is well worth looking at with this new move. They did not believe in professional leaders. At the same time they became very involved in establishing businesses that could release them to put large quantities of time into God’s work. Also the Brethren church became the largest supporter (and may still be) of releasing people and finance into Global Harvest from New Zealand even though comparatively it was a small group of people.

· Those of us who feel led to help in the bigger picture must avoid becoming ‘professional’ in what we do, and avoid trying to build ministries that just mirror the Institutional Church and its Para church organisations. We need to use more of God's creativity in regards to resources. We need to avoid winding up doing ‘God’ 100% of the time. Using myself as an example, I receive some support from people who believe in what I’m doing and for the rest I pick up short term contracts (currently with Statistics N.Z). This is a healthy balance I believe (mind you I would say that!)

· Becoming a band or team of people that pools its resources towards a certain focus, aim, calling or ministry. Jesus of course modelled this in that he was supported by his disciples and by the women in the larger group (who also provided support for his disciples at times most probably). Even Paul shows this support of a small group of people. When he was in Corinth (Acts 18) he originally worked full time in his job but when Titus and his other men arrived in the same city he was freed to not work and give himself fully to ‘Gods work’ Why was he freed up? Well his back up team must have run his business for him or pooled their resources and supported Paul for that time or something similar.

STORY

Two years ago, I had the privilege to meet a guy who had been a catalyst in seeing a House Church Movement birthed in one of the poorest Islamic countries in the world. At that time independent researchers had just finished doing an evaluation of the Movement and stated that 200 000 people were going to House Churches connected with that movement. Do you think that this guy who started it was full time running the show? No he was not. In fact he had been helped to use his skill and talents to start two fish farms which he had got to the place where he was only needed half time. He also employed about 30 evangelists on his farms halftime. The evangelists would work for one month on the farm and then head off into the interior for the other month evangelising.

This same movement would help provide seed money for its church planters to start a business to support themselves. What they would do is let the Bank give the planter a small loan and be the guarantee on the loan so it could be given. At the same time because it was the bank that had given the loan, the planter made sure he payed it back (these banks would break your legs if you did not pay it back!) which often does not happen when organisations (like churches) provide seed money.

As you can see, these people were realistic in that support was needed, but no money was just handed over, it was released in a way to create on going resources for these workers. This is a real paradigm changing story that we can learn from.

For me when I shut my eyes, I believe the story I just told is a glimmer of where God is leading us in this new (old) way of living and is a great way to finish in discussing the support of labourers in this new move.

Apologies

I have been away but am back now with lots of thoughts and guff about organic church, so watch this space!

This is a cartoon my Father drew for the coming festive season. Its a reminder to keep Christ at the centre of the season.