Churchless Christian

Morning walk down the road, at peace with God and fighting the fat.
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A great quirky article on Christians compulsion to spend up big on buildings
by Kerry M. Denten. http://forums.jesusradicals.com/viewtopic.php?t=2111

Another great article on the decline of the American church can be found at http://outreachmagazine.com/library/features/06mayjuneftramericanchurchincrisis.asp

Monday has not started well. My son woke me up feeling afraid at 4am, then we had a power cut at 5am, then at 5:30am I went to work and got stuck in the ditch by the house. Then i ring roadside rescue to be told they don't cover being stuck in ditches. I am now going down to buy a tow rope. I love Mondays

p.s now i have spent $80.00 getting the tow truck to tow me out!

Had a really awesome day to day.  I took David and Wayne around to 3 gatherings on the North Shore to pray for people and inpart something prophetically.  It wasd amazing the hunger and responce.  We prayed for new Christians, Children, people with cancer, people seeking new diredtions etc etc.   It's awesome when the body of Christ flows together.

This is an article from todays NZ Herald www.nzherald.co.nz about a guy who is ministering outside the institutionalised church framework.

He was "sergeant at arms" for the Mongrel Mob, was "really into cocaine" and spent 10 years in jail for attempted murder. Today he's a pastor to the gangs. Francis Apanui, 58, still rides a Harley-Davidson and calls himself "a motorcycle minister". His "church" is on the streets. For him and for "heaps" of other former gangsters, Christianity has become a way out of the gang culture of drinking and violence that was dramatised in the 1994 movie Once Were Warriors. Mr Apanui was born into that culture in an Opotiki family where the children were abused. He was jailed for shooting two of his uncles after the rape of his sister. He joined the Mob in Turangi when he came out of prison. "The gang was a protection to me. I'm their whanau. That was my home, that was my roots and that was my passion," he said. As sergeant-at-arms he was responsible for the gang's rules and discipline. "It was hard-out drugs. I was really into cocaine and all that." But he began to have doubts after seven or eight years when he nearly shot his nephew, who was in the rival Black Power gang. "I was always wearing helmets so he didn't recognise me," he said. But he was shaken. Shortly afterwards, a pastor who was "like whanau" to him invited him to a church to hear a performance by some black American musicians. A little girl aged 6 or 7 went up to him at the service and said, "Jesus loves you". On the way home to Taneatua, he saw a vision of Jesus in front of him. He asked his niece to take him to church and he became a Christian. It wasn't easy to get out of the Mob. "You have to have a good reason to get out of it. The hard part is giving back the colours. You have to talk with the president and the vice-president. "You say, 'I come here to give this kaupapa [cause] back. I'm becoming a minister.' "They say, 'Okay, fair enough.' If you have a good reason, they say, 'Okay, we'll let you go'. But they watch you 24/7 and then leave you alone when they know you are clear [of rival gangs]." Mr Apanui formed "Gangs for Jesus" in 1985 and went with other "Christian Riders" to a gang event at Ngaruawahia's Turangawaewae Marae. He joined a church, but later left it "to go back to my Maori people". "The only way you can do that is to get back on to the marae where the people are," he said. "I was a big fella, nearly 18 stone. I used to do a lot of music. I'd play Eric Clapton and rock'n'roll stuff, and when I had them sitting down I'd say, 'How about a Christian song?"' With other Christian Riders, he has formed an "Outcast Ministry" which motorcycles around the country visiting gangs. "I want to save my brothers. Our first job is going out there and being beside them," he said. "That's how I can go to have a cup of tea with the bros at the pad. They know where I'm coming from. "The door is always open because it's all my whanau. We'll listen to them, but it's got to be another way. It takes time. It takes patience."

We are going down to the snow for a couple of days tomorrow. It will take about 4 hours to drive down. We are planning to stay at Tokanau because its thermal which means we can warm up in the hot pools after being on the mountain.
Isaac (youngest)is autistic and has a fixation with snow, so it is always cool to see the absolute pleasure he gets when he sees the snow for the first time. The neat thing with having Kids I think is that it gives you the joy of seeing the world again through there eyes instead of your own jaded ones.
Any way I will post pics when we get back.

More Pictures I took from visiting the McDonalds Gathering yesterday. We went through 1 Thesolonians Chapter 3. Really good stuff. This book is the first one written in the New testement, I never knew that!

popped along to the gathering at McDonald's today. It was held at ted and Bobbies. It was a great day and some great fellowship.

Has anyone else been mucked around by www.blog.co.uk ? 

I have been using this blog for a year and it has been steadily growing.  I decided to buy a pro account for a month to test it out and see if it was worth it and try and get rid of the adverts. I think its about 3 euros which converts to about $10.00 New Zealand So no problems I went through the purchase and used my Visa.  No problems at all.

But three or four days later I looked at my credit card statement and I found that I had been charged around $85.00!!!!!!!!!!!! Not the $10.00 I was expecting.  I emailed them to point out that it appeared that I had been charged for a year not a month option which I was positive I had clicked (I have been buying stuff on the internet for 10 years with no problems before this) and asking them to fix it.

They emailed back saying that I must have mucked up and clicked the buttern.  They said they were happy to reverse the money back to me but it would cost me a $20.00 (NZ) reverse fee to do it.

Then they cheerily said that I may want to stick with the year  because off the fee I would incur.

So here I am with a years pro account when I only wanted a months worth, and feeling a tad ripped off.  Has anyone else had any problems like this?

This is the crappy cake I made for Kim, the design is sadly mine also

DEPRESSION IS RAGE TURNED IN ON YOURSELF  (National Radio)

I think house church needs time to emerge in NZ – there is still too much negative about it from ministers/leaders in the ic – so it doesn’t have a level playing field.

Also – actually – I’m much more interested in the values than the structure of hc – ie I’m committed to a bunch of values & hc happens to be a good model to outwork them in at the moment. One of these is currently being low cost (time & $) – because hc is cheap (we don’t have to pay expensive people like yourself, or for expensive buildings), more $ are released for the poor & mission. Hence, even if hc doesn’t ‘work’ (just as ic arguably doesn’t ‘work’ – ie evangelism growth), then to quote ________ “you can either have the cheap version that doesn’t work, or the expensive version that doesn’t work” – I prefer the cheap version (so we can give more $ to the poor)
Written by a friend who will remain anonymous

Thanks David for sending through that open letter by Jordon Cooper. The snippet below , I thought said alot.

"While we still love the church, we see the church having failed it's own basic mission. I wish I could hear a big Amen at this point but the reality is that not everyone sees it that way. I have colleagues in ministry that point to the Sunday attendance of their churches and their building programs and tell me that everything is going great and they criticize those of us that go in a different direction. All denominations deny this but the sweet allure of success is just too powerful, successful and big churches drive the agenda's of many denominations, either formally or informally. Success is largest impediment of change, which is why most downtown cores of cities across the United States and Canada are full of massive church buildings that were the megachurches of their day. What made them successful made it very hard to change from that. Change and new initiatives don't traditionally thrive in most institutions and need to be nurtured and protected at times."

This has been my experiance also. Many Christians are disatisfied with the status quo and want to make radical changes to their lives. I also think this is true for a fair number of clergy. The problem as Cooper says is that those leading denominations are usually from big booming churches. They have been picked because they are 'succesful' and appear to have the answers. Their answers are 2 do what they are doing which perpetuates the cycle of more of the same. These leaders dont reflect where the people are actually at, they actually reflect the assumption of where the denomination should be going (which is mega churches). I believe this assumption is very flawed.

Just practically in the denomination that I was involved with, this assumption has been with us since the mid 1980's. After 20 years and the denomination becoming smaller, you would think that these assumptions would be challanged but they are not because even if 90% of churches are grappling with reality and seeking to make change, you will always going to have 10% whos church is (at that momment) appearing to be great. And of cause its those 10% of churches that are providing the denominational leadership.

Well that sounds very garbled!

“The heart of the matter is the scandalous failure to live what we preach. The tragedy is that poll after poll by Gallup and Barna show that evangelicals live just like the world. Contrast that with what the New Testament says about what happens when people come to living faith in Christ. There's supposed to be radical transformation in the power of the Holy Spirit. The disconnect between our biblical beliefs and our practice is just, I think, heart-rending.  I'm a deeply committed evangelical. I've been committed to evangelical beliefs and to renewing the evangelical church all of my life. And the stats just break my heart. They make me weep. And somehow we must face that reality and change it.”

Gathered in the winter sun at Campbells and broke the back of a gateau (I'm committed)

Currently our family does not belong to what I would call a formalised house church. At the same time we do gather together twice a week to celebrate the body of Christ. Usually on a Sunday we have a meal with other believers at different houses, and pray, sing, break bread, eat and share together.
But actually our most significant gathering is on friday nights. This is when our family sits down to the nicest meal of the week. We have a nice wine, candles, and we share God together in a informalised way, finishing with a prayer, and topped off with watching a DVD with a very sinful dessert. We have been doing this for three years with our three sons. Once or twice we have missed doing this only to be threatned with death if we missed it again as our kids who range from a special needs 5 yr old to a 2 intelligent and smart 11 yr old just love doing it. Its great to take time out and enjoy God, Family and the good things of life.

The Local highly trained House Church Parking Attendents showing their expertise at the local gathering.

Had a visit from Penny B today.  She brought a visitor, Peter from Great Barrier Island.  Peter has been
 living there for 13 years in a very simple way.  Great Barrier is about 40 minutes flight from Auckland out in the gulf.  Peter shared about the neat things God is doing amongst the permanent population of around 600 or so people.    People living out there faith in Christ, sharing with one another, praying and believing for more of him, and they are.  I am looking forward to getting across and checking out the vibe myself soon.  Peter was 2 shy for a pix so I have popped one of the poutakawa flowers on Great Barrier.

THE 5 STEPS OF APOSTOLIC MIGRATION (by Wolfgang Simson)

MORE ON CHURCHANITY
by Neal Griffin

Aaron's golden calf was not the last idol to rear its ugly head. Men have continued to construct visible idols of worship and the reason is the same one that prompted the children to demand that Aaron build a visible image for them to worship. That reason is a dreadful lack of faith. Many of today's would-be worshipers display the same lack of faith. They also require visible images. God must be brought down to the carnal realm for them to grasp the concept of His being. Now, as in Aaron's time, it is Satan who provides the visible images which all fall under the umbrella of "Churchanity".

Churchanity is probably the cleverest and most deceptive of Satan's schemes. Doing church deceives most into feeling that they have served God in the performance of certain church rituals. The massive cathedral, the dandily attired altar attendant (paid pulpit minister), the money (tithe) collection, and the ritualistic observance of the supper of our Lord along with other rituals provides the spectator with a sensational aura of religiosity and lures him into thinking that he has practiced true religion.
The sad fact of the matter is that none of these things has anything to do with true religion. See James 1:27. Churchanity and New Covenant religion have very little in common. Rituals performed in the public assembly have very little to do with the worship of the New Covenant. See Romans 12:1 and John 4:21-24. The heretical idea that worship in spirit and in truth is something that is done in the Sunday assembly is primarily the result of a misconception of the meaning of the word, "church".

The word "church" was coined centuries after the New Testament letters were written. There is no koine (common) Greek word that translates "church". It is a derivative of the old English word "kirk". It does not translate "ecclesia" and there is a very good reason why the King James translators chose the word "church" instead of "assembly". "Assembly" had no religious meaning but the word "church" very definitely had a religious connotation. The word "church" is a perversion of the Greek word "ecclesia" and here is why it was so perverted in the K.J. version: The Church of England was entrenched at the time of the King James translation and King James, the titular head of that man-man, denominated, religious organization, demanded that the translators retain the religiously oriented wording because an accurate translation would have jeopardized his control over his church. The Greek word "ecclesia", from which they translated "church", simply meant an assembly or gathering. The incident recorded in Acts 19 proves that it had no religious connotation. In that passage the word "ecclesia" is used to identify an angry mob of unbelievers.
See verse 41. It is the same word "ecclesia", rendered "assembly", that the translators rendered "church" in other places. Why the inconsistency? The answer is obvious. Satan had already planted the word "church" with its religious connotation in their minds and King James insisted on preserving that concept. It is also interesting to note that the same word "ecclesia" in the Old Testament was never translated "church". One does not need a degree in Theology to see this inconsistency. The Greek word "ecclesia" was a people word. It was never used to depict a religious organization. In our day "church" very definitely implies organizational entity. In Paul's day "ecclesia" had no such implication. Today a few use the word "church" to refer to the called out people of God but most use it to denote a religious organization but that is not the Bible usage of the word.

Satan must surely be dancing in glee as he observes the millions who are caught up in "churchanity" and the billions upon billions that are spent in the name of religion. "Churchanity" primarily promotes the church instead of the Christ of the church. Its focus is on being a member of the church instead of being a member of Christ. Instead of focusing on Christ and Him crucified it focuses on being a member of the right denominated religious organization. It takes the eye of the would-be worshiper away from the true goal and puts it on a denominated religious organization.

God is not served through a man-made organization the "church", and neither does He dwell in temples made by the hands of men. He does not need the numbers of which denominated religious organizations boast. Too financially strapped from supporting "churchanity" and too busy practicing it church members are not able to practice the true religion of which James writes. Yes, the prevailing concept of "church" is an erroneous concept and "churchanity" is truly the golden calf of our age. Truly it is the opiate for the masses.

We met at the Dean's new house today. Really good time, flowed, people shared, we sang, we prayed we ate, we looked forward senseing that times are a changing.

Time to clean out my in tray I know, the scary thing is that I have another in tray thats worse in my office.