Churchless Christian

by Andrew Strom.

I am writing on a rather unusual topic today. On Monday night (31 March) I was invited onto a Christian Radio show in New Zealand to discuss the growing numbers of "Out-of- church" Christians in the West - people who have left the churches for various reasons but still claim a strong Christian faith. It was a very interesting night, and the phones ran hot.

This "Out-of-church" phenomenon has now grown so large that books are being written about it. In fact, several years ago I heard an estimate that there are TENS OF THOUSANDS of such Christians just in our largest city (-Auckland) alone. And I believe it is the same right across the Western nations. I have personally come into contact with literally hundreds of such people. The surprising thing is that they are often the most committed kind of Christians - praying, insightful, deep- thinking. Yet they have grown tired of "playing the game" inside our church system and have opted out. Often their involvement goes back many years. In fact, they had commonly been leaders of various kinds.

But now they have left. Why? The church obviously finds this a very difficult thing to explain or deal with. The usual accusations are often trotted out: "So-and-so has been hurt and has a root of bitterness". Or they are in "rebellion". Or they are "not a team player". Or they are "backsliding".

But if you talk to these people you will often find that they have been sitting in church for years and years, and they simply cannot stand to sit and watch the same old game being played any more. The LACK OF GOD is what gets to them - even in our most "Spirit-filled" churches. WHERE IS GOD IN ALL OF OUR ACTIVITY? Surely this is not the way it is supposed to be?

New fads and programs come and go, but the mediocrity and LACK OF GOD just seem to go on forever. And so quietly, sometimes without anyone even noticing, they slowly slip out the doors - never to return. Some have even told me that they felt God "calling them out". Others simply felt they couldn't stay there anymore. The state of the church weighed upon them more than words could say.

Very often they did the rounds of other churches, hoping against hope that they would find a place that felt "right" in any way. (-Though most of them are not "church-hoppers" by nature). But the places they visited never seemed any more "right" than the place they had left. And after a while it just seemed easier to stay at home with God.

As I said earlier, most of these people have not given up on Christianity at all. It is today's church system that they have given up on. And we are talking about large numbers here. Thousands are already opting out. And many feel like they are "waiting" for something.

Some of these people have started up home-fellowships. Or they meet with other couples on a casual basis. But many meet with nobody at all, and they consider themselves in a 'Wilderness' place - alone with God. (-Very common).

I was asked several weeks ago by a pastor whether I agreed that what is happening could be a 'move of God'. That is a pretty radical thought. Many leaders would think the opposite. Because anything that leads people out of "their church" can't be of God, can it?

Hmmmm. All I know is this: The concept of going through a 'Wilderness' just before entering the 'Promised Land' is totally Scriptural. In fact, it is right through the Bible. Even Jesus went through such a wilderness time.

But it is not possible to stay "alone" forever. Some day, if these people are going to be part of a new move of God's Spirit, they are going to have to come out of their wilderness and become part of the "BODY" that Jesus brings together - the 'new wineskin' that will come with this new move of God. Otherwise they could miss out. That is the great danger.

I'm sure there are many on this List with comments or testimonies relating to this topic. I would love to hear from you. It really is becoming a significant issue in the church.

God bless you, my friends.

Kindest regards in Christ,

Andrew Strom.
http://jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/12003.htm

Are Megachurches Birthing the House Church Movement?

In recent months the conversation on Out of Ur has explored why increasing numbers of Christians are opting to pursue Christ apart from a local church. The discussion began with Kevin Miller’s review Revolution. And, similar themes were addressed by Dave Terpstra in his post on why the spiritually mature leave the church. Church leaders; however, are no longer the only ones interested in this issue. Time Magazine ran a story on March 6 titled “There's No Pulpit Like Home” discussing the changes occurring in American Christianity and the rise of house churches.

In the end the significance of the Time article may not be found in its content, but in the existence of the article itself. The American evangelical church’s cultural and political influence can no longer be denied, and as a result the secular media is paying attention to church trends that once only intrigued pastors and denominational leaders. This much is certain, whatever direction the church takes in the years ahead (mega or mini) we’ll have plenty of secular scrutinizers documenting our journey.

http://blog.christianitytoday.com/outofur/archives/2006/03/cutting_the_cor.html#more

"Church buildings attest to five facts about the church today.

First, church buildings are a witness to our immobility. What is more immovable than a church building? And yet Christians are, supposedly, wayfaring pilgrims. Christians are to be a mobile people...

Second, church buildings are a witness to our inflexibility. As soon as we erect a church building, we cut down our options by at least seventy-five per cent...

Third, church buildings are a witness to our lack of fellowship. Church buildings may be worshipful places, but usually they are not friendly places. They are uncomfortable and impersonal...

Fourth, church buildings are a witness to our pride. We insist that our church structures must be beautiful and well-appointed--which usually means expensive--and justify this on the grounds that God deserves the best...

Finally, church buildings are a witness to our class divisions. The early church was composed of rich and poor, Jew and Greek, black and white, ignorant and educated. But our modern church buildings advertise to the world that this is not true today. A sociologist can take a casual look at ten church buildings and their denominational brand names and then predict with high accuracy the education, income, occupations and social position of the majority of their respective members"

(Howard Snyder, The Problem of Wineskins, IVP, 1975, pp. 69,70,71,72). Poached article from David www.edgenet.org.nz

Last Sunday a guy told our gathering that we are put on earth primarily to fulfill the great commission. That really bugged me, it does not say that in the Bible or even hint at that. I have been placed on the earth (in my view) to enjoy Gods creation, look after it, have a relationship with the Boss plus a few other bits and pieces. Life is not that simple.
Talking of enjoying Gods creation my wife as found a new obsession and it's called WINE! I am struggling financially to keep up with this hobby. She only likes the good stuff, and even I cant stand the bottom shelf anymore. I need to earn more money to keep enjoying this new part of God's creation that we have discovered.

Don't ask, I Don't know, I don't want to know!

.....one of the verses we have learnt with our kids is "all Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work"
 
What do you think?

This is a good scripture to bring up and if I remember correctly, the author of the article does refer to it.  For me this scripture still does not answer the questions I have about inerrency because of the things I am wondering about.

1.  I believe as the scripture says, that it is inspired by God and is great for all that it lists, amen to that!  I have found that for myself absulotely.  BUT I think myself that it is a massive jump to say 'it's inspired' means its inerrent.  I personally can't make that jump (well actually I did once but I have had to jump back!)

2.  When Jesus said these words, the New Testement did not exist so he was commenting to his audience about sacred writtings that were in existence then.  Most of those were found in the Old Testement though some are'nt.  Jesus refers to scripture which is not found in the Old testement.  Many people do not realise that the Jewish canon of Scripture (similar to the Old Testement) was not canonised and agreed upon untill after the Christians had done so with their Bible around three hundred years after Christ said those words.   So there was no agreed to scriptures at all when Jesus said this, the Saducees held just to the books of Moses, the Pharisees added some of the prophets etc.

3.  I have heard this scripture used over the years to squash any questioning (anti intellectualisim) of the Bible, but as the article says one of the things that makes an evangelical different from a fundamentalist is that an evangelical is supposed to be willing to wrestle with the evidence. One of the hallmark differences between a fundamentalist and an evangelical is willingness to dialog over the issues. A fundamentalist condemns; an evangelical thinks.   Because most of us in the churches I have been in have had this scripture drummed into us we have never bothered to engage our brains and come to our own convictions, to even wrestle with some of this guff.

4.  I can't deny, that I often wonder how Paul would  react if he turned up today and discovered that his letters had been raised to the same  level of the books of Moses.  I personally think he would be furious and accuse us of being blasphemous (just a thought).

5.  In the end the article lays it out far more clearly in a far more Orthodox Christian manor.  I will be the first to acknowledge that I do not have a set opinon on these matters, but have lots of questions.    Talking about the Bible like this threatens alot of sacred cows, which is why I appreciate forums such as this to be able to wrestle together.

I suppose it's time to cast me to the darkside so I shall say no more.

Karl Marx said that Religion is the opiate of the people.  Now it's sport.  Just think of all the time the average male stares at the box watching sport, paying for pay per view, sky etc.  Yet we can't even remember the so important score even a year later.  Really all sport does is keep us dumb and stupid talking and worrying about the unimportant, instead of enjoying something more fulfilling and rewarding and meaningful.  After I watch sport on the box I always walk away with a sense of emtyness and restlessness.  Interestingly I don't get that when I actually get off my bum and go to a live game.  Even at a gathering, we males mainly talk sport.

me getting my All Black narcotic fix on Saturday (All Blacks vs Wallabies) 

I do sweat with the area of the Bible and inerrency. As a pentecostal refugee I really struggle with the fact that I struggle with Biblical literalisim yet fear going over to the darkside (liberalisim). I found this great article which is worth reading here http://www.bible.org/page.asp?page_id=4200

I poached the article after reading www.tallskinnykiwi.com which I admit is the only blog I check everyday. He is the Granddaddy of blogging.

The reason I mention the Maori Queen's death this week on the blog, is how impacted I have been by seeing how her tangi (funeral) has so quickly and organically been organised. Consider this

1. She died suddenly so no planning was really in place.

2. The next day 4000 to 5000 people arrived at her home and were looked after and fed.

3. Yesterday 10000 people arrived and were all welcomed, honoured and fed.

4. This morning there were already 13 busloads waiting at the gates before 7am and more then 10 000 are expected again today.

5. By the time of the burial on Monday around 150 000 people will have come to pay there respects and be looked after.

6. Food and money is spontaniously being dropped off to help out including a 40ft long container arriving this morning from Maori in Australia filled with food, yet nothing has been asked for or mentioned.

7. They have already errected a dining room that is feeding 700 people at a time.

8. No person can go onto the Marae (meeting house) unless they have been properly welcomed on first. But if you a stranger arrive at the Marae at the same time as the Prime Minister of New Zealand you will come onto the Marae at the same time with the same respect and the same protocouls because they value you just as much.

9. There are no organised meetings or services and no rosters in the kitchen people are just giving of their best and loving others as they would love them selves. As people arrive they speak, they share, they weap, it just happens naturally.

For me this tells me that you can be organised with out organising but you must have an affinity for one another and good base values. These people felt real affinity for the Maori Queen, and they shared values of respect, commitment, generosity and automatically acted on them.

follow this link for better details
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10396861

Picking on little kids is lots of fun (show no mercy)

I read a book by Brian Mclaren at Christmas. He said that because many Christians believe in the rapture, they feel no ownership and responsibility to the care of the earth. Because we are leaving (and soon) we think that enviromentalisim is a distraction to getting on with the job with soul winning. I quote from him below

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.
On the radio news earlier this year, it said that one of the more evangelical church networks in the United States stated that it needed to become more proactive in regards to this area, only for James Dobson to turn around and attack them stating that enviromentalisim was a distraction from getting people saved and abortion! I think that is maddness.

My experiance tells me that Green is onto something when he points out that how we view the rapture (whether it's true or not) has had some real far reaching negative impact's on our behaviour's as Christ's ambassadors.

not good for the lambs today

The contemporary church continues to evolve. It looks to the public for relevance because it has come to believe that it is key to its survival. Unless the church is relevant, people will not attend. If people do not attend, it will cease to exist. So it continues to change and evolve in an effort to grow and exist.

The contemporary church has come to believe that people are looking for social fulfillment. Consequently, churches race to develop the best programs and facilities to create a social club environment. When they do this, they often see a brief increase in interest and attendance, but eventually flattens and contributions once again fall off as the public’s interest fades. Why?

People are looking for substance. They often attend new churches (or newly remodeled), attend special programs and other social events, looking for this. Church leaders see this as their answer to what people want. But this is NOT what people are seeking. They want God and the true Church that exists in His Spirit.

Each time a church promotes a new event, they are crying, “Wolf!” People get excited and hopeful, so they come to see if perhaps this church is for real. But, just as quickly, their hopes are shattered when they see that it is still the same old social club, just repackaged.

People are weary of churches crying wolf. Their marketing strategies and campaigns are nothing more then deceptive advertising. They promise substance but deliver structure, they advertise God but provide a social club, and in the end, they will fade into obscurity while the true Church, born of God’s Spirit, unseen and unimpeded by men, continues on.

In many ways, the contemporary church has become the cheap “generic” alternative. It’s a replacement for God. It continuously builds new buildings and improves the old ones. It gets new speakers, tries new programs, changes its music, and holds special classes. It claims to have what people want, but when the veil of form falls away and the counterfeit is exposed, it turns to other gimmicks. It is structure without substance. It’s the vanity of men instead of the reality of God’s Spirit.

People have an innate need for God. It eats away at their soul until they turn to Him. People want God. He is all that can fill their hearts, fill their need. They are tired of churches claiming to be something they are not. They are tired of going to church believing they will find substance just to find that they were scammed again. When will the contemporary church learn that there are only so many promises you can break before people just stop believing, stop coming, and stop trying? When will the church stop crying wolf?

http://members.triton.net/kmsrjs/thoughts.htm

Every Home A Church was recently donated a reasonable large quantity of beautiful Hand Made Cards. We are keeping some of the cards to use our selves and the rest we are using for fund raising. Currently on Trademe, we have two auctions for the cards if you are interested.

The first auction is for 200 Christian Hand made cards, the link is here http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=66127433

The 2nd auction is for 700 Generic Hand Made cards, the link is here http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=66129363

Sam took this photo, early yesterday morning. We have been kept awake at night with lambing going on. Quite a lot have died because of not only the cold and wet but because of the wind chill. I do love this later winter time though, with the lambing happening and the daffidols popping up on the lawn, bearing promise of better tomorrows.

One of the hardest habits (or addictions?) it seems for an organic believer is to break free of our liturgical behaviour when we gather together. As soon as we get together we automatically assume there must be some praise and worship songs sung. We often expect that we should open in prayer, have a time of prayer. The big part of our liturgy is that a ‘special’ person chosen for the day shares ‘the word of God’. We quickly compartmentalise everything and expect it to be over in less than two hours. When we are so used to doing ‘church’ we quickly behave and do what we did in our home group / cell group settings. The fact is many organic believers and churches once again slip into institutional church behaviour except now its being done on a smaller less effective scale!

Wolfgang Simson points out that the liturgy of the church service hardly differs between denominations, whether Pentecostal, Catholic, Orthodox, Evangelical etc. He also points out that it is not based remotely on the New Testament but on what they did in the Synagogue which was an invention of man not God (remember there is not one single prophecy or mention by God for the Jews to establish synagogues in the Old testament). And as Wolfgang who is Jewish points out if you go into a synagogue today you will see basically the same liturgy.

So what should you do when you gather together? Well you need to work that out for your selves. I suggest you read 1st Corinthians and see if the themes in that book are being reflected in your own groups. I ask this of myself as I write these words.

1. Are people coming ready to share a prophecy, a song, a testimony, a revelation from the word of God.

5. The great thing with attempting to model your gatherings on the New Testament is that you can use the NT as a manual in guiding what you do. The Bible with the hand of Jesus Christ is your final authority not men’s ideas.

In the last 12 months or so, I have begun to notice more prominant Christian leaders starting to talk and embrace the thought that the Church is beginning to experiance changes it has not seen before.

In the New Zealand Church, one of the most influential leaders who is beginning to write about this new change in the landscape is not actually a New Zealander but an American, Rick Warren. His books, teachings and programmes are widely read and used in traditional, evangelical and Pentecostal churches across the spectrum.

Now first of all, I want to honour Rick Warren. When I was involved with the Institutional Church, Warren was one of my greatest influences. Reading Rick Warren's book "The Purpose Driven Church" in the mid 1990's inspired me to try and copy him. Like him at the same age of 25, my wife and I left where we lived and moved to the fastest growing area of the country with the least amount of churches, to plant a church based on the five purposes his book covered. The only 'slight' difference is that you've most probably heard of his church, but are unlikely to have heard of mine! I want to acknowledge the massive impact his book "The Purpose Driven Life" (not that I have read it) has had on Christianity and the programmes that New Zealand Churches have run off the book in droves. As some of you know, this type of thing is no longer my cup of tea, but I cannot deny that Rick Warren is hearing and obeying the Holy Spirit and unsurprisingly the H/S is saying similar things to him as to others who earnestly seek him (I like to include myself in this bracket).

Several people have said to me, after going through one of his courses or hearing him speak, that our beliefs are very similar, and that Warren also believes a reformation is upon us, and it will be through small groups lead by ordinary disciples (not my words). This sounds great, so when I heard that Warren had started a blog recently www.rickwarren.com as an avid blogger myself I checked it out. This is what the introduction says.

I'm so glad you've decided to visit my blog. I hope you'll check it out on a regular basis. I want this blog to get you thinking – and praying – for the coming spiritual reformation in the world, a reformation not of how we believe but a reformation of what we, as the Church, do. The whole reformation starts with a new look at the worldwide Church, a global community of millions of local churches around the world. That means God is going to use ordinary people like us to change the world. I'm convinced of it, and I'm going to give the rest of my life to seeing it happen.

Amen, yes let it be that a reformation is at hand, and amen let it be through ordinary guys like you and I. Sounds good. Two years ago when I was just at the beginning of stepping out on these new paths, I basically said and wrote the same word's in earlier editions of this eletter (though to a lot smaller audience then Warren), but as we progress down this path I realise that I am (currently) in divergence with regards to two parts of what I said in the past, and what Warren declares at the introduction to his blog.

1. My personal journey now contradicts the statement that this reformation is only about what we do, not what we believe. I wish life was so simple that we could separate the two, but I don't believe this is possible. If we are going to be part of a true reformation, I believe we need to be ready and able to challenge what we believe right to the core, and be willing to change: eg. is the current titheing practice of the day really biblical or necessary in living a new testament faith?. If we are not willing to evaluate and change what we believe, it implies that we have a perfect grasp of how we believe and faith in Christ. In saying that we don't have to reform what we believe, Warren is saying that the basic evangelical faith system he holds to is all there is. I confess I am no longer so sure. As we all know, the Western Church is continuing to haemorrhage Christians out of the church. After two years of working with out of church christians full time, I realise that they have left the institution not only because of the system and the pointlessness of many of it's efforts but also because of struggles with their Christian World view. Sometimes they have too many unanswered questions that can not be answered with 'just have faith'. After 500 years of believing these things (since Luther) and doing what we are doing, why would we continue to believe what we believe and all of a sudden radically change what we are doing? I think that is just fanciful thinking. Surely our Christian faith is all about the inner man changing and then the outer man (and what he does). From our belief systems changing will come practical change otherwise it will be more of the same. This may be just my paranoia, but when Warren talks about the reformation in regards to output (what we do)it just seems that we as Christians are going to have to be twice as busy to get the job done. The difficulty is that one of the major reasons given for mature Christians leaving the church in droves is tiredness from the tyranny of busyness in Church life and involvement (doing not being). This reformation seems to offer more of the same plus more. My conviction is that without a reformation of what we believe (or at least daring to relook at it) there will be no change, just more of the same.

2. The other part of Warren's statement which I am in divergence with is his assumption that the World Wide Church is made up of local churches around the world. Of course as a Minister I also used to assume that. I no longer agree with that assumption, and struggle to see where it says that in the New Testament. I believe that the church universal (the body of Christ) is made up of all those who love and follow Christ, or have I got this wrong? This paradigm change is one of the reasons I began to question my theology and understanding of the local church. I remember when we had a young guy come and live with us about 4 years ago. One night (he wasn't a Christian at this time) he was on a country road with a whole bunch of youths. His younger brother was walking across the road with a beer in his hand, when a rival car purposely drove at his brother at full speed and hit him. He was thrown across the road and appeared dead. This young guy of ours ran across the road and with no church or Christian (or salvation) experience cried out to God to bring his brother back to life, and he did (without a scratch). When I heard this story I had to ask myself if I or my church had seen someone come back to life or for that matter any church in my suburb? The answer was no. I had to face the reality that local churches may be part of the universal church, but there is a whole lot more stuff we don't comprehend that is connected with this body, and from personal experience the power of God appears to be operating more outside the local church than in it at this time. I also believe that these local churches could possibly be the hindrance to what Rick Warren is planning to give the rest of his life to. The reality is that 'local church' as we know it, consumes the majority of it's member's time and money on maintaining it's existence, this works against mobilising Christians into getting out and changing the world. Local church in the end is in competition with other local churches for members which is why true unity will always be a pretence and a mirage. When we begin to de emphasise the obsession with the local church (whether its house church or congregational) and focus on the Kingdom of God, more progress will be made (in my humble opinion).

CONCLUSION
For reformation to take place, what we believe needs to change before actions follow. To see global change we need to take the emphasis off our thing, and focus on Gods thing. To say yes to something, we first have to say no to something. To say yes to reformation we need to say no to a lot of our Christian assumptions and habits.