Churchless Christian

by Inban A. Caldwell

‘It has been said that the current church culture is on life support. It is living off the work, money and energy of previous generations from a previous world order.’

Many of us have grown up from different backgrounds. Some are more dogmatic than others. All my life I have been brought up in a strong institutionalized setting myself. My father being a clergy of a mainline denomination, we literally had to live in a ‘institutionalized environment’ almost all my life. After studying in a theological institution for 5 years, followed by being a Senior Pastor of a Charismatic Institutionalized Church for 9 years and currently a missionary for 8 years in a 3rd world, I don’t particularly delight in questioning a world I once believed in and was very fond of. Ministry and church (as we have received from the west) have at one time been my world. Unfortunately, it is a world that I increasingly find difficult to feel at home in view of the Biblical mandate, spiritual purpose and mission focus.
We are talking about God's people who should be following God. The Body of Christ is a living organism that is connected by His Spirit and Love, not by a commitment to an institution.

Having said that, I also believe there are many people like me but find it hard to speak up, feeling afraid to say how desperately we need to make some changes. I constantly come across people who express fundamental doubts about the validity and viability of the church. These are not critical people with an axe to grind with the institution but these are serving, active members & leaders who don’t like what they are seeing, understanding and experiencing in the church. Perhaps these loved ones calling is to be a missionary to the church that has lost & need rediscovery of the Mission of the Church. Hopefully they are seen, understood and accepted as people with genuine concern rather than with fear, suspicion and worst still as being rebellious or traitors.

A growing number of people are leaving the institutionalized church to preserve their faith not because they have lost faith. Church does not contribute to their spiritual development. The number of ‘post-congregational’ Christians are growing: World Christian Encyclopedia, author David Barrett estimates about 112 million “churchless Christian” worldwide. This is about 5% of all adherents but the number will double in the next twenty years.

How do we do Church better? Is there a right answer to a wrong question?
There has been over kill of suggestions from Denominations, Consultants, Para church organizations thru seminars, conferences & meetings toward whatever ‘flavor of the month’ or current fad is with quick fix programs. The mailing list keeps coming for more programs/activities/books to emphasize on contemporized worship, small groups, spiritual experience, seeker-friendly, community services etc. I have become skeptical and ask myself, ‘whats next’? Perhaps this keeps us busy and preoccupied with methodological pursuits while not facing the hard truth. ‘Church activity is a poor substitute for genuine spiritual vitality.’

The Senior Pastor is the CEO of the church that has several hundred members & he manages the corporate culture, head-hunter, personnel manager, strategic planner, fundraiser, expert communicator, chief vision developer and caster, ministry entrepreneur, spiritual guru, consultant and the list goes on and on.

On the other hand, a good church member is one who utilize their gifts (according to how the church is structured & ordered), join small group, volunteer for church ministry, give their tithes & offerings (especially if there is a building project), clap & dance in worship, attend multiple classes, seminars, conferences (especially organized by the church) and that is suppose to bring them full & meaningful lives. These people have been led to believe that their Christian life is all about church. The trouble is that all the church activities does not produce more matured followers of Jesus Christ. In actuality it produces tired, burned-out members still struggling and seeking for answers for their life & ministry.

Two types of church today: Col 2:6-23
a) “Traditional cult” that focuses on rituals, forms & traditions of men from centuries ago. Holding on to the past sacredly, solemnly and mundanely. Creativity and thinking outside the box is alien and seen with suspicion and a times with irritation.
b) “Personality cult” that focuses on the: charismatic personality’ of the leader. The church has a high index of entertainment. Living inside the bubble in a Christian subculture completely with its own entertainment.
Both the above types have one thing in common in terms of their leadership method, which is hieratical, pyramid style, power control base. Both would collapse if the ‘tradition & personality’ are removed.
The Fivefold ministry based on the Apostolic Church is not fully discovered or practiced in both these instances which is the mandate for equipping the saints for the work of the ministry.

Jesus Christ established His Church upon a Living, vital relationship with Him, and the only thing we need to guard against is what threatens that relationship. Paul's greatest fear was that we would lose the simplicity and purity of our devotion to Christ, and the liberty that it brings us. Built upon this Rock, no power of hell can prevail against us. (II Corinthians 11:2, 3; Galatians 5:1; Matthew 16:18)
Looking around us, we rarely find the powerful Church that Jesus described, even though many claim to be His true Church. Jesus still has a true Church, and that He lives and walks the earth every day in those who know Him. If the institution does not serve the purpose of God for His people, let it fall. God's Church will stand.

Pharisee-ism & Sadducee-ism; Are they alive today? Matt 23
The Pharisees & the Sadducees were the religious leaders of Jesus days. They held high positions in the religious circles as they were considered the interpreters of the Law & The Prophets. They loved their offices because it held a high profile, status & power in the community.
The Pharisees were holding the religious agenda and controlling figures in the synagogues had produced a dead religious expression. The Sadducees in charge of the Jewish Temple activity sold out to materialism and rituals.
Both these sects had one thing in common, ‘Having a form without power’. That is why people flocked to John the Baptist and Jesus. They had much more powerful spiritual tool at their disposal than coercion or legalism.

Churchianity to Christianity?
A Church meeting has become to us a regularly scheduled gathering where a planned program is witnessed, but the Church is more than that. We are warned to not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, but what does that actually mean? Shouldn't the building of meaningful relationships with each member in the group be one our priorities? Couldn't this scripture be applied in the countless ways in which we relate to each other on a day to day basis? Jesus stated that wherever two or three are gathered together in His name and in His purpose, He would be in the midst. His Presence must always be the most important factor. Whether we gather with many or few, we must never, ever lose that central focus. He is the one, solitary purpose that unites us and fuses us together into the one glorious body that is His Church. Where we meet is not the real issue. The more important factor is how we see the Church. The Church of Jesus Christ assembles in homes, in coffee houses, in restaurants, or wherever they happen to be when the Christ that is in them is embraced. Their meetings might be planned or spontaneous, but they are characterized by love, friendship, prayer, and worshipping Him. They carry with them an environment of excitement and expectancy that is contagious. He is In their midst. Unbelievers are drawn to Him and the love of His Word, because they see evidence of His Life. They see no need to compete for numbers, for they are part of the largest and most ever-expanding fellowship on this earth.

The invitation to become a Christian is an invitation to come to church. Christians think in terms of institutional practices, expressions, church as opposed to thinking in terms of movement of disciples of Jesus Christ for the extension and establishment of the KOG.
The assumption is that in order to be a Christian, one must order their lives around the church, shift their life and work around the church programs & priorities, give thru the church, serve in some ministry and bring others into the church to do the same. Matt 23:15
Because church leaders cannot think of Christianity outside of institutional terms, they equate lack of church participation with a loss of spiritual interest. People may have left the church But they have not left Jesus. Jesus is still their God who is worshipped.
In the unbelievers mind, the church is a religious club for religious club members gather to honor their traditions, hang out with others with common lifestyle and thinking. To the believers, the church today is a clubhouse where religious people hang out with people who think, speak, behave & believe like them. The church is hardly seen as championing the cause of the poor, healing the sick, setting the captives free & serving people.

Return to our purpose:
We have forgotten why we exist. We need to recapture the mission of the church. Through out the OT & NT we encounter a God who is on a redemptive mission to mankind. The church was created to be the people of God to join Him in His redemptive mission in the world. It is a chosen instrument of God to expand His Kingdom. As the Bride of Christ in union with Him designed for reproduction, the growth of the KOG. God is inviting us to join us in this mission, an invitation to be part of a movement, not be part of a monument or religious club. His Church is a living organism, composed of regenerated people who love and know Him. It was never an organization or institution or building.

Jesus entered a world similar to our spiritual conditions, institutional form of religion has collapsed. Jesus tapped into this widespread disillusionment with religion but hunger for God. He taught about the KOG and how people could become part of it and actively participate in the life of The Kingdom. The movement Jesus spoke and demonstrated had power because it had at its core a personal life-transforming experience. This is the genuine Christianity that turned the world upside down and the time is now for recapturing the initial appeal of the Gospel.

That is the Church’s Mission: ‘to join God in His redemptive affords to save the world. The Church is not in need of a methodological fix but a missional fix’.

Hullo Blog

I have ignored you for a while. It's been a busy time but God is good. It is great to trust in a God that gives a stuff about how you do at work.

The promised land is going to be better than the land we have left, so don't grumble but see the best in everything.

I am often asked by people about the types (or categories) of people who are starting to explore a more organic faith outside the Institutional Church. In my personal (and limited) experience I have found two obvious age ranges that appear to be dominating in New Zealand. The most dominant group I have noticed so far is people aged 55 to 75, both males and Females and couples with youngish children mainly in there mid thirties.
A new book by A.J Kiesling shows a slightly different experience of who is beginning to move into the organic church.

BACKDOOR BELIEVERS
Keisling breaks down the generations into five sub groups which he labels
Seniors (1926 and before)
Builders (1927 – 1945)
Boomers (1946 – 1964)
Busters (1965 – 1984)
Mosaics (1985 – 2005)
He states that the older two groups are more likely to cling to the traditional church and the sacred hour on Sunday morning. Predictably, the farther you move down the age scale the less resistance you find to change, including the decision to leave the institutional church (IC) for other expressions of Christianity. Young boomers on the cusp of the buster group may straddle the fence for awhile if they reach a place of spiritual inertia. Busters and especially mosaics won’t stick with anything for long if it doesn’t ring true or relevant.
George Barna backs this premise up by stating “The great interest in spirituality among Baby Busters is assumed to have led them to embrace churches as their second home. Actually busters have the lowest level of church attendance, church giving, Sunday School involvement, small group participation, church volunteerism, Bible reading etc. Busters are the single most disengaged population group (in the U.S.A) in relation to organised religion.
Little wonder then that alternative forms of ‘churching’ appeal so much to the younger generation among us. This trend away from traditionalism towards creative expression expressions of faith will likely only gain momentum in the next few years.
Taken from Jaded by AJ Kiesling (Baker Books, U.S.A, 2004) pg 42

One of Church Growth's primary tools is to coax people into a special place once a week where God is the focus of the entire event (traditionally, a service on Sunday morning). The idea is that if people will think about God for a few hours on Sunday, maybe they'll also consider him the other 166 hours during the week. All manner of resources are expended to make those few precious hours as efficient and relevant as possible. Countless programs are concocted to try and connect people with God at other times. The amount of blood, sweat, prayer, and tears expended in this paradigm is extraordinary.

As a reward for all that effort, Church Growth has been extremely successful. The gospel has reached more corners of the world than ever thought possible in the last 100 years. But without going into the problems associated with Church Growth, let me propose another way to answer those fundamental questions. Let’s assume that you’ve tried Church Growth and found it wanting. Or, you’ve simply run out of silver bells and cockle shells and pretty maids all in a row. This next paradigm I would like to describe is much less popular and remains largely untried in North America. Again, for lack of a better name, I will call it the 'Subversive Community'.

'Subversive' is an odd word to associate with Christian ministry, but that is only because of its uses in recent world history. Webster's defines 'subvert', "to overturn or overthrow from the foundation." It's origin is Latin, "subvertere, literally, to turn from beneath." Eugene Peterson has a great description of this paradigm's assumptions:

"Three things are implicit in subversion. One, the status quo is wrong and must be overthrown if the world is going to be livable. It is so deeply wrong that repair work is futile. The world is, in the word insurance agents use to designate our wrecked cars, totaled.

Two, there is another world aborning that is livable. Its reality is no chimera (illusion). It is in existence, though not visible. Its character is known. The subversive does not operate out of a utopian dream but out of a conviction of the nature of the real world.

Three, the usual means by which one kingdom is thrown out and another put in its place - military force or democratic elections - are not available. If we have neither a preponderance of power nor a majority of votes, we begin searching for other ways to effect change. We discover the methods of subversion. We find and welcome allies."

(Mike Bishop) at http://www.whatischurch.com/vc/subversive_community.htm

In September my good friend Robin Corner who currently is instigating Micro Churches in Hong King (originally from Wellington N.Z) attended the U.S House Church Conference. Below are the notes from the debrief he sent me.

Have a great week

Philip and Kim

Impressions of the National House Church Conference, Denver, Sept 2005

– Robin Corner

I attended the US National House Church Conference in September, along with four other friends from Hong Kong, where I am helping to start a house church network, and Tony Collis, my friend from New Zealand, who God used to introduce me to this incredible roller-coaster ride that some call house churches! I’ve finally found some time to reflect on the conference – so here are some thoughts.

The most impacting speaker of the conference for me was Rolland Baker, who is obviously being used in a major way to impact a number of countries in Africa, most notably Mozambique, where he and his wife Heidi live. Six thousand churches have grown out of the Bakers’ ministry in the past five or so years, and Jesus has worked many notable miracles among the churches. According to Rolland, at least fifty three people have been raised from the dead so far. The churches in the movement would more accurately be described as mud hut churches than house churches! But in common with house churches in more developed nations, the people meet wherever it’s convenient and it’s people centred, not building centred.

Rolland had a resounding challenge for the house church movement in the developed world. He emphasized that God will not manifest himself just because we meet in houses. Do we really hunger for the presence of God in our meetings? He said his over-riding passion is to relate with Jesus in an intimate manner. He facilitated two sessions of “soaking in prayer” – where many who came forward experienced the presence of God in tangible ways.

Some of Roland’s memorable points:

C S Lewis, in his Christian allegorical writings, wrote “Aslan is not a tame lion”. We don’t know what is going to happen when God actually shows up – the result may not fit into the little boxes we have manufactured by our religious thinking.
Some people say we should experience God by “faith alone” without any emotional experience. Roland challenged us to apply this thinking to marriage – how would marriage “by faith alone” be? The Bakers exude passion for God.
The life of Rolland and Heidi exemplify ministry to the poor as a key to the move of God – read the Bakers’ book “There is Always Enough”, or get the DVD “Mama Heidi”.

This type of ministry, with its “Toronto” flavour, was difficult for many of the delegates, who may have come from an evangelical / fundamentalist background, to receive. I personally felt quite grieved in the spirit when I perceived many delegates’ rejection of Roland’s message. Though a died-in-the-wool, chandelier-swinging Pentecostal / charismatic, I myself was initially a bit wary. I have historically maintained some distance from the “Toronto blessing”, feeling some discomfort with some of the manifestations, and wanting to see an emphasis on repentance. However, it’s not really possible to argue with 53 people raised from the dead, undeniable phenomenal revival, and 6000 churches amongst the poorest and most disadvantaged people in the world. Carefully weighing up the ministry and the message, and admitting to myself that I have not yet seen even one person raised from the dead in anything that could be said to have grown from my own ministry, I resolved to absorb all I could from Rolland. After thaqt decision, I personally was deeply blessed and refreshed during his times of ministry, and they remain my most precious memory of the conference.

The difficulties over his ministry highlight what, in my opinion, is bound to be a major issue facing the house church movement as it gathers momentum (which it obviously is doing). In spite of all we say about “the Word and not particular people being in authority” (which I agree with), there are bound to be divisions over deeply held doctrines. There was a useful session on dealing with doctrinal divisions within a house church or network, where Tony Dale (charismatic background) discussed with Neil Cole (evangelical background) their reactions to Rolland’s ministry – Neil made the memorable (for me) statement that it would be a tragedy if next year there were two national house church conferences – a “charismatic” one and an “evangelical” one. What a tightrope we walk on! The only answer is prayer, prayer, prayer. Let’s pray that God will bring forth a movement unified by his demonstrable truth, that will mightily impact nations and the world.

Which brings me on to other memorable presentations of the conference. Particularly valuable for me was John White’s presentation of the “Luke 10:2b virus” – if you haven’t caught up with this one I suggest you go to http://www.house2house.net/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=116 – it’s a God given strategy we can all lock into and see great results. Tom Black from the Barna organization was also brilliant – there is now a massive trend of Americans dropping out of traditionally organized church and becoming involved in house churches and other “alternative faith communities” as Barna styles them. If you need to catch up with this visit www.barna.org and buy “Revolution” – a great read and very informative. Wolfgang Simson shared some further pithy insights and laid out some great goals. His emphasis was that we need to recognize that every Christian belongs lock, stock and barrel to God – we don’t own our lives any more – they belong to him – and we should all jolly well get our instructions and follow them. Also a mention of the role of deliverance from demons in Biblical ministry, along with some pointers. Hmmm…. I think we are going to hear more on this. Talk of finance – in Acts all the non-believers handed over everything to the church when they joined, and this was how the ministry was financed. Radical! Felicity Dale gave a great workshop session on how to run participatory Bible study.

To cap off my trip, at the end of the conference, I spent some days with members of a local Denver house church I met at the conference. In addition to fantastic fellowship, one particular lady lent me her car for four days, in which we visited the awesome Rocky Mountains. She also fed us and accommodated two of us at her house for a night, where we had a tremendous prayer meeting for America. I thought this was real house church living. Another brother took two days to guide us round nearby Colorado Springs and we were treated to a spiritual journey to the main offices of the Navigators, Focus on the Family, World Prayer Centre and other Christian landmarks in addition to some of the most spectacular natural scenery in the world.

It was a historic time to be in the US, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina (two days before the start of the conference), which also cast it’s shadow over the conference. A number of initiatives were started at the conference to minister to the people affected by the hurricane. God gave me a sobering prophetic word about the hurricane …. But that will have to wait for another blog.

I have been reminded and excited again this week about what a seismic change is taking place in Christianity in New Zealand. Where the organic church has been very much under the radar and under ground as it begins to build, over the last week I have begun to wonder if it is beginning to break the surface as it's flow continues to ripple out.

During the last seven days I have been struck by two pieces of news.

The first piece of news is that a contact I have who started and leads a New Zealand based Overseas Missions agency has decided to personally start a house church in New Zealand with the aim of seeing a network established. I was quite surprised by this as when I last met him he was very much operating with a institutional church / mission mind set. He says in his newsletter that he was challanged to change by observing the powerful surge of house churches in the third world where he was operating. He realised that people on average stayed in a pentecostal / charismatic church for less than 6 years. he knew this to be true in N.Z but was staggered to find it exactly the same in the nations where he was working in. When he moved back to N.Z he was struck that the Institutional church though speaking one thing basically works out of the old Testement in its practices, yet people are needing to live out and here the powerful New Testement gospel of GRACE. It is exciting to see key people who are have sacrificed every thing for the gospel of Christ to be changing there directions to head down more organic paths.

The second thing that excited me was the 3 page pull out in Saturdays NZ Herald (NZ's largest Newspaper). It was called 'Soul Searching'. The articles were mainly about how we have become more Spiritual as a society but are rapidly rejecting its institutionalisim. The paper quotes Dr Kevin Ward of Knox Collage in his comparisons of the Church with local rugby clubs around the country.
"People are becoming aware that the fact church attendence is declining does not mean people are not interested in faith... He has tagged the phenomenon Believing without Belonging, drawing a metaphor for the decline of structured belief from the dwindling membership of amateur rugby union competitions.
Players are withdrawing from the organised competitions, with their strict hierachies and complex grading systems, and flocking to the more casual, come-when-you-can atmosphere of touch football instead...
Previously everything in life was part of a structure or a club, like sport or volontary service, but now, increasingly, people do all kinds of things without belonging. Take tramping; in the 60's and 70's, most people who tramped belonged to tramping clubs, but now very few people do. The're still tramping, but they're making their own way.
Other quotes from article

Instead of rejecting God altogether, today many are finding spirituality in everyday life as well as in the church.

Spirituality is not about having a few nice experiances, it's about how you live in the world, how you can help to transform society