Churchless Christian

I have been helping Ledra move from their farm yesterday. We do organic church with these awesome people. They have been on this farm for 126 years which is massive in New Zealand terms, considering the country was only discovered 250 years ago.
Ledra showed me how Kiwi Farmers care for the environment by having a plastics fire finishing with throwing a Wind Surfer on the top of it

Leadership: Who are the leaders and what is the leadership structure? Is the simple church understanding of leadership biblical? Is there enough control to prevent abuse, cultism, and heresy? Are the lay leaders in simple churches qualified for the care of others?

Longevity: According to sources within the movement, the average lifespan of a simple church is only 6 month to two years[23]. This leaves critics to wonder how Christianity can survive in such a transient movement. What will be the long-term impact of simple church when it lacks the sticking power of more traditional forms of church?

Teaching: It is rare for simple churches to have sermons or bible classes in the formal sense. Critics wonder when teaching occurs and how people are formed educationally and doctrinally in simple churches. Without concentrated teaching, sermons, and bible classes, how will believers be educated?

Orthodoxy: Without denominational control or pastoral oversight, who will maintain orthodoxy among simple churches and its participants. Isn't it a breading ground for people with wild theologies who would get drummed out of more traditional and more orthodoxy churches?

Cultural Accommodation/Syncretism: Has simple church sold out to a culture that sinfully refuses to go to church? Is simple church just caving in to postmodernism? Does simple church promote the West's tendency to worship the individual and individualism?

Outreach Potential: When the unchurched want to go to church, how will they when there is no location and no phone book listing? What about visiting Christians in the area?

Relationship with Established Churches: Is simple church another movement pulling people away from congregational churches? Is simple church a threat to more traditional models? Do simple church practitioners condemn or criticize other forms of church? Can simple churches and traditional forms of church work together?

Taken from Wikipedia

Here's a question. What does Jesus have to do with church?

Where as a lot of Xns (myself included) might concern ourselves with how we can do church right or better I don't think Jesus could care less. Having recently read through Mark, listened through Mark and read The Existential Jesus, it has struck me that Jesus was pretty much not at all interested in church or temple life. read the rest

poached from http://achurchlessfaith.blogspot.com/

I remember reading that famous book called "What would Jesus Do" several years ago. It was a real gripping and challenging book. Today as I was babysitting Isaac, I started thinking about applying that same question in a random way to my past and present Christian behavior.

What Would Jesus Do.

1. If Jesus was walking the earth today would he be a signed up member of a local church?

2. If Jesus was walking the earth today would he work out to the last cent his 10% tithe that he owed his church?

3. If Jesus was walking the earth today would he be getting ready to join the other Christians marching on Parliament to oppose the Anti Smacking Law about to be passed?

4. If Jesus was on Earth would he vote for the National Party (similar to the Republican Party)and would he consider like many Christians that Prime Minister Helen Clark was the incarnate of evil?

5. If Jesus was on Earth would he give to build the new Church Sanctuary?

6. If Jesus was on Earth would he feel fulfilled by being the parking attendant at Church on Sunday?

7. If Jesus was on Earth would he be a non-drinker?

8. If Jesus was on Earth would he go to the Christian book shop and buy up large on all the trinkets and Christian self help books?

9. If Jesus was on Earth would he have Christian Cable television?

10. If Jesus was on Earth today what would he say about me?

>A couple of months ago I mentioned here about Sean who is 6 yrs old and fighting the good fight against cancer. Currently Sean is going into round two of this battle and would love you to visit his blog and to pray for him and his family.

Considered by many as the smartest human on the planet, Stephen Hawking today said

Of all the universe's mysteries, Hawking said he would most like to know how it is that humans have come into existence.

"The universe is so big, so smooth and yet just right enough for us to exist," Hawking said in the interview. read the rest

poached this from an awesome blog called www.livewithdesire.typepad.com

You may know me as a violinist, as a teacher, as a sister, daughter, wife, and friend. You may have noticed that I don't attend a church building anymore and worried about me, maybe thinking that I have really fallen off the deep end theologically. Maybe you haven't talked to me in a long time because you are convinced of this. Maybe you've thought I'm turning away from God, or away from the Bible, or at least away from the Body of Christ. The truth is...

I'm a girl who deeply desires God. I believe I'm his image-bearer, though I'm still learning what that means. There are many like me, many who for years fit inside status quo Christianity. Many who, like me, find that the old boxes no longer contain the expansive life that Christ has filled us with. Many who have quietly and sometimes not-so-quietly found new ways to live out our lives as Christ followers. read the rest here

Some showers and rain have happened after the Prime Minister called Australia to pray for rain urgently after the 7 year drought which is now beginning to damage the Australian economy but no where near enough.

Our friends Phil and Marcia have just moved to Albany in the last few weeks. We used to know them at varsity in Hamilton. We got together this morning for communion and Phil smoked some fish he caught yesterday. Fabulous!

Kim is away this weekend so it is the Lad's surviving on their own.
I am trying to do the trusts end of year accounts and vowing to be more organised with the paper work from this day on.
Boys picked up a PS2 for a $130 NZ this morning, incrediable how cheap they are now PS3 is out.
I have started transfering some of my house church photos over to flickr. I have only started but you can check them here

For millions the water will stop midyear!

JOHN HOWARD has urged everyone to pray for rain after warning that the millions of people along the Murray-Darling Basin will have only enough water for basic domestic use from the middle of the year.

The Murray-Darling Basin is the country's food bowl, and irrigators and winemakers warn that food and wine prices will soar, while economists fear heavy local job losses.

The Prime Minister said yesterday that unless there is substantial rain within a month, there would be no water allocations for irrigation or environmental flows from July 1. "We should all pray for rain," he said.

The looming catastrophe will directly affect the 50,000 farmers who depend on the river system for their livelihoods as well as the millions in Adelaide and the numerous towns along the basin, which stretches from southern Queensland to South Australia. read the rest

During the 1998 Commonwealth games held in Malaysia an incident happaned which I will never forget. It happaned during the Men's walk. An unfancied New Zealand walker shot to the front of the race and left the rest of the field in his dust, including I think the current world champion. He ignored the incrediable, heat, humidity and pollution and walked at a speed he had never walked before. For over an hour all the TV cameras were fixed on this dynamic walk and with a few Km's to the finish it looked like he had the gold medal in his pocket. All of a sudden this Kiwi walker started to wobble and lurch as he walked. It got worse and worse he looked like he was totally drunk. The punishing pace was simply to much for his body. For a little while he tried to continue including crawling on his hands and knees but it was to much. Eventually he was bundled off the course and rushed to hospital in a critical state of dehydration. The brutal fact was that the last finisher in that race beat him because he did not complete it.

The reason I share this story is that it reminds me of my self. I sieze on a new ideas and plans and charge away with huge enthusiasim and motivation. People must watch and say wow look at that guy go. But a little way down the track I start looking like the Kiwi walker (usually I don't even get that far!). After a while I start off on a new project without finishing the project I was on. Being honest my completion rate can be very low. But you know what? Our God is a God of completion!

"Now Finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it" (2 Corinthians 8:11)

1. Before God opens new doors of opportunity we need to complete and shut the doors he has already given us.

2. In periods of transition we need to close the doors of the past (note, I said close not ignore!) before we open new doors otherwise it seems like we are sitting on a barbed wire fence, being torn no matter which way we go.

3. Our lives are like a book. We need to finish the chapter we are on before we move on to the next chapter.

4. Our lives are like a race but within that race are many laps. You need to finish each lap you are on.

5. Our legacy will be what we finished, not what we started.

6. In the end doors are there to be shut (as I always tell my kids!)

7. My main involvments in 2006 will be to complete what I did'nt bother to do in 2005!

8. I believe that to see some of these words that have been spoken of a new dawn, and new beginnings come to pass, we need to begin to complete.

9. I believe as we focus on completing and closeing doors, so then will those new doors flow open.

10. If this speaks to you, I encourage you to get up and go and find a door in your house that is open. Shut the door and as you do ask God to help you be a completer. If you can think of something specifically say it as you shut that door. Our whole family did this on Friday night, including our 4 year old, it was fantastic (except when they tried to lock each other in the toilet).

(I originally wrote this reflection 2 years ago, but have been rechallanged to do what it says! The original is here.)

Pakeha (European's) quit traditional churches 'in big numbers'

Christianity in New Zealand has continued its historic decline in the latest Census figures, reflecting what one academic calls the "huge defection" of white people from the main denominations. read the rest

1. Preach a series of sermons assuring listeners that "this horse is not dead!"

2. Keep reminding people of how strong the horse looked when it was alive and hope that they won't notice that it has died.

3. Pray that the dead horse will be resurrected.

4. Move the dead horse to a new location.

5. Label anyone who points out that the horse is dead a "heretic" (or a person of "no faith").

Originally poached from parousianetwork

from the parousianetwork

So let me ask you: Are you trying to ride a dead horse? In recent years many committed Christians have become tired, frustrated and disillusioned with the institutional, organizational and denominational structure of the Church as they have traditionally known it. As one ministry friend of mine declared with a note of frustration, "If Moses had relied on a committee he’d still be wandering around in the wilderness!" Many of those Christians who are disillusioned with the Church as it exists today are among the 20% who have been doing 80% of the work of the ministry. They are tired of trying to ride a dead horse!

The traditional institutional church seems to have lost its Kingdom vision and has replaced it with a committee or a program. The church has lost its power. This powerlessness in the face of a wave of cultural collapse has taken its toll. According to Christian Sociologist and trend-watcher Dr. George Barna, his research has revealed that:

Our evangelism is ineffective. A majority of the people who made a "decision" for Christ in one of our evangelical churches "were no longer to be found in a church context within eight weeks of having made such a decision." We have evangelized for decisions rather than conversions. But conviction is not conversion and a decision does not produce a disciple. Our evangelism has degenerated to little more than a slick ad-marketing campaign, so we shouldn’t be surprised that the commitment of the average "convert" is about as deep and authentic as a celebrity commercial endorsement.
We close more churches each year in America than we open. I was recently stunned to hear that the evangelical denomination from whose seminary I graduated recently declared that it was closing some 50 churches in the Northwestern United States. Across America we are closing down more churches each year than we are starting. In Scotland, the Church of Scotland recently announced that it will close 600 of its 1,400 fellowships. Dead horses litter the landscape.
A minority of born again adults (only 44%) are certain of the existence of absolute moral truth!
In a typical week, 41% of the adults attending Christian churches are not born again!
Four out of ten born again Christians do not attend Church, and there are more than 10 million born again Christians who are not attending Church.
As a result of this collapse of our culture and its impact upon the church, many institutional churches are looking (and praying) for revival in the hope that God will somehow revive and breathe new life into their dying institutions and programs; in other words, they are asking God to resurrect their dead horses. But the history of revival demonstrates that God revives and breathes new life into people, not buildings, institutions or programs.

With precious few exceptions the institutional church structure is inefficient and inflexible for the times in which we live, and for the difficult times that may soon be coming. The Church seems equally unprepared for either revival or for difficult times.
read the rest here http://www.parousianetwork.org:80/a_tale_of_dead_horses.htm

Slain by a ravenous House Church

Interesting to read that abstinence -only education programs meant to teach children to avoid sex until marriage fail to control their sexual behavior, a US Government report says.

I have mentioned before that I fear that as Christians we are always telling people what not to do and reacting to society instead of coming up with positive solutions about how to overcome these issues.

What practical ways can teenagers deal with their sexuality? How do people who are now marrying into their 30's be sexually innocent through nearly 20 years of their sexual peak? I don't have the answers to this. On the one hand I believe that sex outside a permanent commitment is destructive. On the other hand remembering that I became sexually aware from about 11, and that it would be 20 years of suppressing these desires if say I married at 31. That is also unrealistic (as Christian Youth Stats back up).

We kid ourselves if we just tell people to say no. One of my solutions is to marry Children off at the age of 13 like the good old Bible days, what do you think? (I'm joking here!)

Many of you will have seen the pictures of Mark Inglis and his frost bitten fingers after he climbed Mt Everest last year. It was a shock to see his hands looking fine but the tops of his fingers being completely black (and needing to be amputated).

As followers of Christ meeting in more organic ways we need to guard against winding up like those black finger tips cut off from the blood flow that course through the body of Christ and indeed through the whole Kingdom of God. I was reminded of this a while ago, when I met with a group of people I did not usually gather with. I was blessed to be prayed for and had prophetic and encouraging words spoken over me. I realized that it had been a couple of years since 'outsiders' had spoken into my life. Until they prayed I never realized how dry I had become and how limited my thinking had became.

As organic believers we often react from the excesses of normal church where we can go up for an alter call and hear a different speaker every Sunday plus a conference every week turning one into a bit of a fat cat. But at the same time to cut one self off from outside input turns the fat cat into a skeleton which is not great either. The key is balance.

In the world wide study of churches for Natural Church development. Schultz found that the two key factors to keeping believers and churches healthy was small groups (surprise surprise!) and lots of external input from those outside the local gathering. The brutal fact is that if we are not welcoming or even pursuing outside input it is likely what we are doing is going to get sick and possibly die or even worse become dangerous. Remember cults avoid outside input.

The neat thing is that as many of you are experiencing, the Holy Spirit is miraculously connecting people and gatherings together in his way and his time. If this is happening, fantastic. At the same time if it's not I personally believe (and am doing) that we should purposely seek out interconnection if it is not happening naturally.
The last two years have not been easy for the gatherings I have been connected with in regards to getting outside input.

Now that we are outside the mainstream so to speak, its important that connection happens with gifts that are like minded and are basically on the same page, which limits the connection one can find. At the same time because I have put the effort in to reach out and find out who else is around, I can confidently say that within my area there is people outside my gathering who are basically on the same page and have the gifts mentioned in the New testament.

croc victom gets arm back
Okay so this has got nothing to to do with the focus of this blog but I could'nt resist. Have a great weekend and go the Kiwis in the Cricket World Cup

Great little reflection from www.dyingchurch.com

We are people - flesh and blood - image bearers of the Creator - eikons, if you will. We are not numbers.
We are the eikons who once sat in the uncomfortable pews or plush theatre seating of your preaching venues. We sat passively while you proof-texted your way through 3, 4, 5 or no point sermons - attempting to tell us how you and your reading of The Bible had a plan for our lives. Perhaps God does have a plan for us - it just doesn't seem to jive with yours.

Money was a great concern. And, for a moment, we believed you when you told us God would reward us for our tithes - or curse us if we didn't... read the rest here

Below is todays main picture on Wikipedia . You can see the top of the South Island and the bottom of the North Island of New Zealand in the picture. I worked out I know of 20 House Church's / Simple Church's in the area showing in the picture. Hi guys! God is watching (as well as big brother at the International Space Station). Download the picture in higher resolutions here.

1. In the 1971 census the New Zealand Church became very feminised (far more Females than Males). This statistic has become worse with each preceding Census.

2. The large majority of New Zealand Christians do not want to be members of a denomination.

3. there are currently 88 congregations with over 500 in membership in New Zealand meaning at least 50 000 N.Zers go to big churches. This seems neat and amazing but when questioned further Lineham said of these 88 churches, 22 were ethnic / cultural churches. A further 31 of them were Catholic Churches who because of the lack of Priests have consolidated there parishes. Also because the Mormon Church was being included, my guess it's that another 3 or so would be Mormon Churches. So from 88 congregations there are actually only 32 Protestant Churches with membership over 500 (not attendance remember) in the whole of New Zealand who are reaching mainstream (not ethnic minorities) New Zealand. So on average you have one of these churches of 500 for every 125 000 N.Zers.

4. There have been far larger changes in N.Z worship patterns over the last 50 years than in Australia. In 2001, 46% of N.Zers did not acknowledge a religious connection compared to Australia where only 27% did not.

5. 29.7% of N.Zers acknowledge that they used to belong to a religious group. There has been no proper academic study or analysis about what has happened and is happening with this sizeable group!

6. The only sizeable denomination growing in N.Z is the Catholic Church but compared to 50 years ago when half attended mass every week only 20% do so now.

7. In the statistics for the Pentecostal stream of churches growth appears to be static neither going up or down (I think, I found it hard to follow that graph!)

8. Statistically speaking the Pentecostal church is phenomenally successful in reaching 14 to 25 year olds. The rates of attendance are far higher then the national geographical age spread. Basically the Pentecostal church is seeing incredible harvest with youth.

9. BUT from the age of 30 the statistics for the Pentecostal church basically collapse and mainline along the bottom of the graph. It is the worst stream for the retention of members and attendees in every age group over 30. This has been shown over the last 20 years. So basically between 25 and 30 something happens to this harvest of youth either moving to non Pentecostal churches or leaving the church all together are the likely two options (my guess here).

taken from Dr Peter Linehams lecture in December 06 at Massey University Albany. Read the original notes here

By Wayne Jacobson . Wayne has been a Pastor for over 30 years and is a contributing Editor for Christianity Today.

I know the way I relate to the church is a bit unconventional, and some even call it dangerous. Believe me, I understand that concern because I used to think that way myself, and I even taught others to think that way as well. If you are happy with the status quo of organized religion today, you may not like what you read here. My purpose is not to convince you to see this incredible church the same way I do, but to answer your questions as openly and honestly as I can. Even if we don’t end up agreeing, hopefully you will understand that our differences need not estrange us as fellow members of Christ’s body.

Where do you go to church? I have never liked this question, even when I was able to answer it with a specific organization. I know what it means culturally, but it is based on a false premise – that church is something you can go to as in a specific event, location or organized group. I think Jesus looks at the church quite differently. He didn’t talk about it as a place to go to, but as a way of living in relationship to Him and to others in His family. Asking me where I go to church is like asking me where I go to Jacobsen. How do I answer that? I am a Jacobsen, and where I go a Jacobsen is. “Church” is that kind of word. It describes a people and how they relate to each other. If we lose sight of that, our understanding of the church will be distorted, and we’ll miss out on much of its joy. read the rest

We went to Rawene Centre this afternoon and looked at the Easter Artwork and finished with communion. I love being able to worship in a tactile way.

This evening we had a family get together. Kim cooked a fabulous roast lamb with all the trimmings and to finish off fake banana easter eggs, perfect!

Went down to to Cityside Baptist to their annual Easter art exhibition. Really awesome. I loved the sand (so did the kids) and writing a prayer to slip in between the rocks. Alex wrote four. I forgot the memory card for the camera, so have no pictures, the dead bunny was not one of them!

We had a House Church gathering for Easter friday today with about 20 people. Storied Mark 15

We home school, so the cartoon below made me laugh. It would be fair to see that one can bump into a lot of Homeschooling parents who go on about how amazing and gifted their child is which can be quite intimidating