Churchless Christian

A funny picture from www.tallskinnykiwi.com Read the bottom carefully for the twist.

I think there are a lot of untold stories out there, stories full of pain and gritty determination, stories more people need to hear. In fact I know that’s the case because I’ve heard a number of such stories from some of you.

It has tended to be in private though. I am very conscious that although much has been written on emerging churches, and a moderate amount has been written on churchless Christians who forsake community altogether, very little has been written about those of you who don’t fit conventional church but choose, for whatever reason, to stay within it. I think a significant reason for this is that the emerging church conversation is heavily weighed towards Missional ecclesiology. We mavericks simply don’t have as much to offer in that area do we? Other than an ecclesiology of endurance! But for what that’s worth that’s just what I am going to offer now. read the rest of the article here at www.mattstone.blogs.com

House church Simple church Emergent

Quite a few people have contacted myself wondering what has happened to the eletters, website, blog entries, and visits to gatherings. Well I am still here on planet Earth! Good stuff has been happening and doors opening!

1. I have currently picked up a contract with the Community Probation Service for three days a week over seeing Offenders doing community work. I have found it quite a learning curve and have put the trust a little on hold while I get into the swing of things. I am not sure if i will use this as a short term thing or let it be long term thing yet.

2. As some of you know, our home was robbed and trashed last week, and all the Electronics taken, so it has been hard to operate on the Internet untill all the gear has been replaced. Thanks so much for all the concern expressed.

3. The gathering we were mainly involved with came to a natural conclusion at the end of last year. We are currently being very organic (or haphazard!) in what we are doing in regards to gathering. There has been quite a bit of interest in starting a new gathering / simple church, but I guess we want some conviction before we kick off something new. We learned a lot of lessons from our first simple church and want to put those lessons to good use, in what ever we decide to do next.

4. I put out some feelers in regards to seeing if there was interest in trying a more co-op type of gathering. There was positive interest but a tad erratic and with not alot of momentum so we have put the idea on hold at the moment.

5. We have been incredibly blessed by a gift of $20000 to us. We are considering using this as an opportunity of using this as seed money to establish a business that we can use to create cash flow for the trust (something like a lawn mowing business). Please pray for guidance in this. We have been presented with a great opportunity as long as good decisions are made.

6. I have stopped the eletter as i don't have a lot else to say at the moment and have stopped the website as it just was not me. The blog has been going great including hitting number 1 on the blog.co.uk rankings a few times.

7. In regards to visiting gatherings, i have been doing this a bit less because of time constraints (I work quite a few weekends). How ever I (we) are more than happy to come along, especially in regards to prayer, prophetic and laying hands on the sick. I only ask for a good feed to maintain my weight!

8. I am still enormously passionate about Simple Church and living a Simple Church Lifestyle, and have heaps of expectation about the future in regards to this, and felt called to exercise the gifts I have in this sphere. the actual outworking of this seems to be just learning to take a step at a time.

One of my biggest regrets (and biggest discoveries) in this journey of faith we have embarked on, is the futility of arguing ones point from scripture.

One of the original reasons we headed out in the more Organic / Simple church path was that we felt it was more Biblical then the more traditional forms of church we had been practicing. Because of this belief I have wound up arguing my corner literally hundreds of times and also listening to and reading different views of what people believe about church and gathering from the Bible.

Now people who know me would agree that I am stubborn and argumentative when it comes to what I believe. But listening to others views I find truth in what they share and can see the rationale to some of the conclusions. I have come to believe that we cannot be black and white when it comes to stating and claiming what the Bible lays out in regards to Christians getting together, and when we push for just one interpretation and one assumption we are being very blinkered to other parts of scripture.

I think we can wind up using the Bible in the same way we use our car owners manual for our car, trying to come up with a list of 10 steps to true new testament church and avoid the reality that the new testament Books are history of early Christians making pragmatic decisions for the situations they were in, sometimes getting it right, sometimes getting it wrong, but trying to live for Christ.

We too need to have a significant dose of pragmatism in how we do Church and be the Church. What is the best way I and my family can Love God with all our heart and Love others as ourselves in the society and culture we live in? How can I best be mutually submitted to other believers? How best can I encourage and be encouraged.

If we do not have a healthy dose of pragmatism, we will waste our lives away arguing over what the Bible says we should do until Jesus comes and we discover that we never got around to doing anything at all.

House Church Simple Church Emergent

Just bought 2 mountain bikes on the cheap and have been heading out to Woodhill a couple of times a week. While we are in flux with gathering / House Church we have been heading up to the forest on Sunday and enjoying Gods Cathedral. Went up with Darrin last Sunday morning at the crack of dawn and got covered in mud.

House church Simple Church Emergent

Well we are beginning to move on from being robbed. It feels such an invasion of one's self. We live in such a rural quiet street, that it was quite shocking to come home to a completely trashed house etc, it has never happened to us before. Since then i have not been able to help myself compulsively start spring cleaning the house from top to bottom. I have heard that this is quite normal and seems a very primeval thing. I guess should now say praise the Lord but honestly i just want to thump who ever did it.
Any way time to resume transmission.
Photo below is of the mid night feast I had with the boys as we watched us get beaten by the traitors at Alingi (God Bless them)

House church Simple Church Emergent

Came to a home cleanned out of my beloved Electronics yesterday, so this blog is on pause while I pray that the great Insurance company comes through with something decent and soon

House church Simple Church Emergent

House Church Simple Church Emergent

I've been a bit of a slacker with the blog over the last week. To busy chasing mammon in my new contract and then staying up all night watching New Zealand getting beaten in the America's Cup by former Judas's New Zealanders

So my mind has been mush in regards to creative thinking in regards to Organic Church and keeping up to date on the old correspondence.
We had a neat gathering at Deans on Sunday, had about twenty people turn up and attempt to eat the Deans out of their home.

Really enjoying the new contract I've got, dealing with some of the toughest people in the city through the Community Probation Service. It has been a real eye opener dealing with and helping gang members, boy racers, fraudsters etc etc.

It has also been neat that I have been involved building a camp to help boys from low income homes learn to read better. It's vision comes from a group of Christians who came to the belief that the best way to help transform society is to get these guys when they are young and educate them instead of letting them slip through the cracks. I will post some great pics of this enterprise in the next couple of days.

House Church Simple Church Emergent