David Pawson : Biblical covenants (part 8)
This video is part of entire (15 parts) teaching of David Pawson on Biblical covenants
Showing posts with label House Church. Show all posts
Showing posts with label House Church. Show all posts
Vietnam's underground churches
In Vietnam freedom of religion is officially protected by the constitution.
But followers of faiths not sanctioned by the state could be subject to persecution.
One such faith is the protestant strand of Christianity.
Al Jazeera gained exclusive access to one underground church, where worshippers practice in secret.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwTscSJ8O1M
What is the Organic Church?
By Brian Tubbs
When it comes to structure and practice, most Christian churches have it all wrong. At least that's what Frank Viola and George Barna argue in Pagan Christianity?: Exploring the Roots of our Church Practices. According to Viola, Barna, and what's called the "organic church" movement, churches that follow scripted orders of worship in their services, pay clergy, and/or erect buildings with pulpits and chairs are more "pagan" than Christian.
Advocates for the "organic church" argue that the structure of the early church and modern church are very different. They say the early church was characterized by open participation and leadership by the Holy Spirit, whereas the modern church is too scripted, too hierarchical, and completely outside what Jesus intended.
What is the "Organic Church" Movement?
To read more, click HERE or go to http://biblestudies.suite101.com/article.cfm/what_is_the_organic_church
Frank Viola, one of the leading advocates for the organic church (or "house church") movement, describes the organic church as a "church that is born out of spiritual life instead of...human institutions" and which is characterized by "Spirit-led, open-participatory meetings and nonhierarchical leadership." (Viola, Frank and Barna, George. Pagan Christianity? Exploring the Roots of our Church Practices. Tyndale, 2008).
In Pagan Christianity?, Viola described an organic church meeting he recently attended as an example of what one might expect. He writes: "We met in a large living room. In the meeting, every member shared his or her experience with the Lord that week....The meeting was so full of life that there were no pauses and no silence. We heard from our Lord from every member of the body in that room." (Viola and Barna).
Those who have attended house church meetings describe experiences in which some people sing, others read poems, some offer a brief devotional or sermonette, and so forth. In many cases, chairs are set in a circle with everyone facing inward. There is no pulpit. And there is no organized agenda.
China’s Official “Protestant” Church Helps Persecute True Believers
Slice Of Laodecia (www.sliceoflaodicea.com ) Photo: Mrs. Cheng Fengying holds a banner "Innocent Citizen From HeilongJiang Province" standing in front of the house of former Communist Party chief, Zhao Ziyang, who was under house arrest after he showed sympathy to the students in the 1989 protest. Cheng Fengying sent the following letter on February 17, 2009: My name is Chang Fengying and I am 54 years old. My husband's name is Xie Tongxing and he was a native of Guangming Village, Fulu Township, Muling City, Heilongjiang province. Both my husband and I were disabled in our childhood years. I gave myself to the Lord and became a Christian in 1990. I went to the Three-Self Patriotic Movement church between 1990 and 2003, then I came to see the true nature of the TSPM. I left the TSPM and began to meet in house churches. In July 2006, the TSPM church of Muling City colluded with the government. They worked in cooperation with the State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA), the Public Security Bureau and the head of Guangming Village and came to put sealing tape on my house and to forbid us to meet at my house. The TSPM also sent groups of thugs to raid my house again and again in which they looted, beat up people and smashed our belongings. I called 110 (the equivalent to 911 in the U.S.) and the police wouldn't intervene. With no other alternatives, I went to Beijing and sued the authorities there. During the consecutive lawsuits, my husband was so scared that he died... Soon after my husband passed away, the TSPM colluded again with the government on July 3, 2007 and canceled my house ownership title through illegal means. During the 2008 Olympic Games, I was detained in a black prison (prison cells privately established by government officials) where I was injured in my arms. In January 2009, the TSPM took away my housing property by making use of the court. During this time, we could not have normal meetings. In the meantime, my family was so persecuted by the TSPM and the government that it is ruined with death and misery. My child has fled from the persecution and there is no way for him to come back home. I hereby implore my brothers and sisters around the world to pray for me and show concern for me. I also implore the Lord to protect my family so that we can still hold gatherings. I implore the Lord to enable the court to rule on a fair basis and hope that legal professionals can assist me in this case. Your humble fellow Christian, Phone number of Muling Municipal Court: 0453 – 3123723 ChinaAid asks the international community to petition the Chinese government to immediately return Chang Fengying's house to her rightful ownership, and to stop persecuting her family and their house church members. View Chang Fengying's Certificate of House Ownership. View the Decision Paper to Confiscate Chang Fengying's House. ChinaAid grants permission to reproduce photos and/or information for non-fundraising purposes, with the provision thatwww.ChinaAid.org is credited. Please contact:Katherine@ChinaAid.org with questions or requests for further information.
China’s official (communist sanctioned) Protestant Church, known as TSPM, is officially collaborating with the government to persecute house churches. Maybe Franklin Graham can explain his own widely hailed participation with the communist “church” when he preached at a communist “megachurch” back in May of 2008. Graham was warned repeatedly by China Aid and other human rights groups about TSPM, but he, along with Luis Palau, have ignored the warnings. The house church believers are paying the price for the Americans’ complicity and legitimizing of the communist front church. America’s pretty boy preachers are doing unbelievable harm to those believers who struggle to worship the Lord in freedom in China.
http://christiannewswire.com/news/464249518.htmlTSPM Working in Collusion with the Government to Persecute House Church ChristiansContact: Katherine Cason, 267-210-8278,Katherine@ChinaAid.org; Washington DC contact: Jenny McCloy, 202-213-0506, Jenny@ChinaAid.org;www.ChinaAid.org,www.MonitorChina.org HEILONGJIANG, Feb. 21 /Christian Newswire/ -- Mrs. Cheng Fengying's house was seized illegally in January 2009 by officials from the Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM), Religious Affairs Bureau (RAB) and Public Security Bureau (PSB) after years of continual persecution. Cheng Fenying, 54, is a preacher and evangelist. She, her husband Xie Tongxing and her 25-year-old son Xie Chengwei hosted a house church in their home with more than 200 members, but government officials threatened each believer to keep them away from the house church.
Chang Fengying
My phone number：15945472331
Home phone：0453—3039274
For more information please visit:
Christianity in China - Sons of heaven - Inside China’s fastest-growing non-governmental organisation
Oct 2nd 2008 | BEIJING AND SHANGHAI
From The Economist print edition ( www.economist.com )
ZHAO XIAO, a former Communist Party official and convert to Christianity, smiles over a cup of tea and says he thinks there are up to 130m Christians in China. This is far larger than previous estimates. The government says there are 21m (16m Protestants, 5m Catholics). Unofficial figures, such as one given by the Centre for the Study of Global Christianity in Massachusetts, put the number at about 70m. But Mr Zhao is not alone in his reckoning. A study of China by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, an American think-tank, says indirect survey evidence suggests many unaffiliated Christians are not in the official figures. And according to China Aid Association (CAA), a Texas-based lobby group, the director of the government body which supervises all religions in China said privately that the figure was indeed as much as 130m in early 2008.
If so, it would mean China contains more Christians than Communists (party membership is 74m) and there may be more active Christians in China than in any other country. In 1949, when the Communists took power, less than 1% of the population had been baptised, most of them Catholics. Now the largest, fastest-growing number of Christians belong to Protestant “house churches”.
In a suburb of Shanghai, off Haining Road, neighbours peer warily across the hallway as visitors file into a living room, bringing the number to 25, the maximum gathering allowed by law without official permission. Inside, young urban professionals sit on sofas and folding chairs. A young woman in a Che Guevara T-shirt blesses the group and a man projects material downloaded from the internet from his laptop onto the wall. Heads turn towards the display and sing along: “Glory, Glory Glory; Holy, Holy, Holy; God is near to each one of us.” It is Sunday morning, and worship is beginning in one of thousands of house churches across China.
House churches are small congregations who meet privately—usually in apartments—to worship away from the gaze of the Communist Party. In the 1950s, the Catholic and main Protestant churches were turned into branches of the religious-affairs administration. House churches have an unclear status, neither banned nor fully approved of. As long as they avoid neighbourly confrontation and keep their congregations below a certain size (usually about 25), the Protestant ones are mostly tolerated, grudgingly. Catholic ones are kept under closer scrutiny, reflecting China’s tense relationship with the Vatican.
Private meetings in the houses of the faithful were features of the early Christian church, then seeking to escape Roman imperial persecution. Paradoxically, the need to keep congregations small helped spread the faith. That happens in China now. The party, worried about the spread of a rival ideology, faces a difficult choice: by keeping house churches small, it ensures that no one church is large enough to threaten the local party chief. But the price is that the number of churches is increasing.
The church in Shanghai is barely two years old but already has two offspring, one for workers in a multinational company, the other for migrant labourers. As well as spreading the Word, the proliferation of churches provides a measure of defence against intimidation. One pastor told the Far Eastern Economic Review last year that if the head of one house church was arrested, “the congregation would just split up and might break into five, six or even ten new house churches.”
Abundant church-creation is a blessing and a curse for the house-church movement, too. The smiling Mr Zhao says finance is no problem. “We don’t have salaries to pay or churches to build.” But “management quality” is hard to maintain. Churches can get hold of Bibles or download hymn books from the internet. They cannot so easily find experienced pastors. “In China”, says one, “the two-year-old Christian teaches the one-year-old.”
Because most Protestant house churches are non-denominational (that is, not affiliated with Lutherans, Methodists and so on), they have no fixed liturgy or tradition. Their services are like Bible-study classes. This puts a heavy burden on the pastor. One of the Shanghai congregation who has visited a lot of house churches sighs with relief that “this pastor knows what he is talking about.”
Still, the teething troubles of the church are minor compared with the vast rise in the number of Christians. After the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989 many disenchanted democrats turned to Christianity: six of the 30 or so student leaders of the protests became Christians. China’s new house churches have the zeal of converts: many members bring their families and co-workers. One Confucian Chinese says with a rueful smile that most of the pretty girls at university were Christians–and would date only other Christians.
Holier and trendier than thou
Christianity also follows Chinese migration. Many Christians studied in America, converted there and brought their new faith home. Several of the congregation of the Shanghai house church studied abroad, as did Mr Zhao. In 2000, says one Beijing writer and convert, most believers were in the countryside. After 2000 they brought their faith into the cities, spreading Christianity among intellectuals.
All this amounts to something that Europeans, at least, may find surprising. In much of Christianity’s former heartland, religion is associated with tradition and ritual. In China, it is associated with modernity, business and science. “We are first-generation Christians and first-generation businessmen,” says one house-church pastor. In a widely debated article in 2006, Mr Zhao wrote that “the market economy discourages idleness. [But] it cannot discourage people from lying or causing harm. A strong faith discourages dishonesty and injury.” Christianity and the market economy, in his view, go hand in hand.
So far, Christianity’s spread has been largely a private matter for individual believers. The big question is whether it can remain private. The extent of its growth and the number of its adherents would suggest not. But at the moment, both Christians and Communists seem willing to let a certain ambiguity linger a while longer.
“Christians are willing to stay within the system,” says Mr Zhao. “Christianity is also the basis for good citizenship in China.” Most Christians say that theirs is not a political organisation and they are not seeking to challenge the party. But they also say clashes with public policy are inevitable: no Christian, one argues, should accept the one-child policy, for example.
Formally, the Communist Party forbids members to hold a religious belief, and the churches say they suffer official harassment. The president of the Beijing house-church alliance, Zhang Mingxuan, was thrown out of the capital before the Olympic games and told he was unwelcome when he returned. In early June, the state government of Henan arrested half a dozen house-church members on charges of illegally sending charitable donations to Sichuan earthquake victims. CAA claims harassment of house churches is rising.
In fact, the state’s attitude seems ambivalent. In December 2007, President Hu Jintao held a meeting with religious leaders and told them that “the knowledge of religious people must be harnessed to build a prosperous society.” The truth is that Christians and Communists are circling each other warily. But it is hard to avoid the conclusion that Christianity will have a political impact one day. “If you want to know what China will be like in the future,” concludes Mr Zhao, “you have to consider the future of Christianity in China.”
http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12342509
House Church Involvement Is Growing
The Barna Group (www.barna.org) reported in June 19, 2006
(Ventura, CA) - Americans are increasingly designing their lifestyles in ways that meet their needs more efficiently. This is true even in the spiritual realm, as evidenced by the rapid growth of participation in house churches across the nation. Whereas most people continue to think of "going to church" as attending a service at one of the many church buildings located throughout their community, a new study from The Barna Group shows that millions of adults are trying out new forms of spiritual community and worship, with many abandoning the traditional forms altogether.
Large Numbers Attend
The new study, based on interviews with more than five thousand randomly selected adults from across the nation, found that 9% of adults attend a house church during a typical week. That is remarkable growth in the past decade, shooting up from just 1% to near double-digit involvement. In total, one out of five adults attends a house church at least once a month.
Projecting these figures to the national population gives an estimate of more than 70 million adults who have at least experimented with house church participation. In a typical week roughly 20 million adults attend a house church gathering. Over the course of a typical month, that number doubles to about 43 million adults.
While many religious professionals say they are unaware of such activity, it might be because the house church is in its "ramp up" phase in the U.S. One consequence is that millions of Americans are intermittently engaged in a house church, alternating back and forth between house church and conventional church. (For clarity, the survey distinguished between involvement in a house church and participation in a small group that is associated with a conventional church.) The Barna survey revealed that of those who attend a house church, 27% attend on a weekly basis, 30% attend one to three times per month, and 43% attend less than once a month.
One Foot in Each Camp
The study also discovered that church attendance patterns are being reshaped. Among those who attend a church of some type, 74% attend only a conventional church while just 5% attend only a house church. Another one-fifth (19%) attend both a house church and a conventional church. (The other 2% attend a small group that was not considered to be a house church.)
The people most likely to attend only a conventional church were women, people 60 or older, residents of the Midwest, and evangelicals. In contrast, the people most likely to attend a house church but not a conventional church were men, home-school families, residents of the West, and non-whites.
The Impact of the House Church
The study was directed by George Barna, whose current best-selling book, entitled Revolution, estimates that this trend will continue over the next two decades, substantially reducing the share of adults who call a conventional church their primary spiritual community.
“The house church now appears to have reached ‘critical mass’ in the United States," commented Barna. "Analysts typically find that once a new tool or institution reaches 15% market penetration, and has evidenced a consistent or growing level of affirmation for at least six years, that entity shifts from fad to trend status. At that point, it becomes a permanent fixture in our society. Today, house churches are moving from the appraisal phase into the acceptance phase. We anticipate house church attendance during any given week to double in the coming decade, and a growing proportion of house church attenders to adopt the house church as their primary faith community. That continued growth and public awareness will firmly establish the house church as a significant means of faith experience and expression among Americans."
Barna noted that this change is already reorienting the nation’s faith dimension. "By necessity, the transition from a nation exclusively offering a conventional church experience to one that offers a choice between conventional church and other forms of spiritual experience is changing the rules and roles. New leaders are emerging to represent and guide house churches -people whose names are unfamiliar to the bulk of the country, but whose ministries will become more mainstream and well-known as time goes on. A new body of spiritual resources is being developed and utilized by the expanding house church community. House church adherents make greater use of Christian radio, Christian books and online faith experiences than do people engaged solely in a conventional church. In addition, new patterns of faith participation are being implemented. The traditional ways of thinking about and experiencing ‘church’ are rapidly being revolutionized by a form of ‘religious choice’ in which people are taking greater personal responsibility for their spiritual experience and development."
Research Details
The data in this report are based on interviews with 5013 adults from across the nation. The Barna Group conducted this study through the use of telephone surveys, implemented from January 2005 through May 2006, based upon a random sample of people 18 years of age and older living within the 48 continental states. The maximum margin of sampling error associated with the aggregate sample of adults is ±1.8 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. In the research, the distribution of survey respondents corresponded to the geographic dispersion of the U.S. population. Multiple callbacks were used to increase the probability of including a reliable distribution of qualified individuals. Statistical weighting was used to calibrate the aggregate sample to known population percentages. The number of adults in key subgroups, before statistical weighting, included 446 evangelicals, 2343 born again Christians, 663 blacks, 631 Hispanics, 1608 conservatives and 676 liberals.
“Born again Christians" are defined as people who said they have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in their life today and who also indicated they believe that when they die they will go to Heaven because they had confessed their sins and had accepted Jesus Christ as their savior. Respondents are not asked to describe themselves as "born again."
“Evangelicals" meet the born again criteria (described above) plus seven other conditions. Those include saying their faith is very important in their life today; believing they have a personal responsibility to share their religious beliefs about Christ with non-Christians; believing that Satan exists; believing that eternal salvation is possible only through grace, not works; believing that Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth; asserting that the Bible is accurate in all that it teaches; and describing God as the all-knowing, all-powerful, perfect deity who created the universe and still rules it today. Being classified as an evangelical is not dependent upon church attendance or the denominational affiliation of the church attended. Respondents were not asked to describe themselves as "evangelical."
The Barna Group, Ltd. (which includes its research division, The Barna Research Group) is a privately held, for-profit corporation that conducts primary research, produces media resources pertaining to spiritual development, and facilitates the healthy spiritual growth of leaders, children, families and Christian ministries. Located in Ventura, California, Barna has been conducting and analyzing primary research to understand cultural trends related to values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors since 1984. If you would like to receive free e-mail notification of the release of each new, bi-monthly update on the latest research findings from The Barna Group, you may subscribe to this free service at the Barna website www.barna.org © The Barna Group, Ltd, 2006.
http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=BarnaUpdateNarrow&BarnaUpdateID=241
House Church - testimonies
Part 1 - Returning to the Biblical Church life that Jesus gave to us through the Apostles. Eph2:20
Part 2 - Returning to the Biblical church with Christ as our Only Head!!
Part 3 - Returning to the Centrality of Christ over His people coming out of spiritual captivity
Part 4 - Returning to the headship of Christ over his people and coming out of captivity
Part 5 - Returning to the Headship of Jesus Christ over His people
Part 6 - Returning to Christ's headship over His people
More details at
http://www.house-church.org/
http://churchinthehouse.org/
http://www.ntrf.org/
http://www.searchingtogether.org/
Growth of the House Church in China (in Video)
A documentary on the growth of the Christian Church in China. The first of four parts. For the first time in history, Christianity in China, especially the House-Church, is given an honest, insightful, and comprehensive account. The film answers the question raised by many people outside China: how did the number of Chinese Christians increase from 700,000 in 1949 to approximate 110 million today despite communist control? This is a story of true Christian revival.
Jesus in China-Part 1. Seeds of Blood.
Jesus in China-Part 2. The Bitter Cup.
Jesus in China-Part 3. The Spring of Life.
Jesus in China-Part 4. The Canaan Hymns.
China’s House Churches Grow Despite Persecution
By Chris Mitchell
CBN News Middle East Correspondent
CWNews
CWNews.com – Two thousand years ago, Jesus Christ commanded His followers to take His Gospel to the ends of the earth. This command, known as the Great Commission has yet to be completed.
But a movement out of China believes an inspiring vision will help them and Christians worldwide to fulfill that command, possibly within this generation.
The history of the Chinese house church is a powerful chronicle. in 1949, Mao Tse Tsung expelled the Western missionaries and began a campaign to purge China of Christianity. During this long campaign of persecution, many in the West feared that the light of the church would be extinguished.
But like a stream in the desert, the church not only survived the harsh conditions, it thrived. Today, it is estimated that there are from 70-million to 100-million Christians in China. Brother Yun says it was like a modern-day book of Acts.
Brother Yun told us, "We just went everywhere. We found people who didn't know about Jesus. We healed the sick, we cast out demons and we led people into salvation of Jesus, and that is what we are doing today."
During this time, Brother Yun, like many other Christians, was imprisoned and tortured, but his faith remained strong.
Brother Yun said, "It's that God Himself or Jesus Himself in a special way helped me to overcome this thing. It was more like, in myself, in my spirit and in my heart, I have to focus my eyes on Jesus. Think about His suffering for me. And so I was receiving strength from His suffering and that made me strong enough to overcome the persecution."
Even in jail, he says, the Holy Spirit moved powerfully.
Brother Yun went on, "And I saw a revival to break through: many multitudes of heavy criminals and gangsters came to salvation. And the change in their lives was so dramatic, that even the Director of the Prison, he recognized it, and he said, ‘This Jesus is amazing! How He can change the people, who is He?"
Brother Yun left China in 1997. Along with Peter Xu, his pastor, they're proclaiming to the church in the West a vision that's captivated the church in China.
The vision is one of the most ambitious goals in church history. The idea is to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ back along the ancient trade routes known as the Silk Road. These routes would take the Gospel through some of the most inhospitable regions in the world.
This region, also known as ‘the 10/40 window,’ contains some of the people on earth most resistant to the Gospel - the Hindu world, the Buddhist world and the Islamic world. Despite the formidable challenge, many Chinese see an opportunity and as Jesus said, “fields white unto harvest.”
"Jesus has the keys to any locked doors. It may be a closed nation, where religion has jailed people and Jesus has the key to all these doors.
"And every day my faith grows, and I truly believe today and in the very soon future, Jesus is going to open the door for the Gospel in the Buddhist nations, in all of India and in the entire Muslim world."
Gordon Hickson is the UK coordinator for the Back to Jerusalem Movement. He believes the church in China is uniquely prepared for this task. It's expected as many as 100,000 missionaries will be needed. Many of these Christians have been forged in the furnace of persecution.
"This is a total life commitment. They are willing to die for this vision. And that's very humbling for people--when you are working with people who are willing to lay their lives down for a vision which is costing them their lives."
"Most of the people who are beginning to be trained in this, before they even come into the training schools, they have to be willing to say, "I'm ready to die outside of China. I'm willing to actually be buried outside of China. So that's heavy stuff."
The leaders of the Back to Jerusalem Movement believe the idea could help complete the great commission in our generation and help fulfill China's destiny.
Chapter 2 - Show The House To The House
Taken from Chapter 2 of the book "The Harlot Church System" by Charles Elliott Newbold, Jr.
With much fervor Brother Leonard, the visiting preacher, began his message by asking the congregation to turn to the gospel of John, chapter 15. He readily established that Jesus is the true vine and we were the branches. Then he made a startling point of saying that fruit-bearing was not the most important issue in this passage; abiding was. "Bearing fruit is mentioned four times," he pointed out, "while abiding is mentioned nine times." He hammered repeatedly the phrase, "We must abide." "We must abide." I waited for him to complete his sentence by saying, "We must abide in the vine who is Jesus." He never did. Then I saw it coming. He had to say it. It was the abundance of his heart. He was, after all, a church man. He stepped back from the podium, pointed an accusatory finger at his unsuspecting victims in the congregation, and said, "The problem we have in society today, and especially in the church, is people don't abide. They go from church to church and never make a commitment to the church or to the pastor."
Did he actually believe that abiding in that system we call church is what it means to abide in Jesus? Did he believe that committing to a church or the pastor is the same as committing to Jesus? His conclusion was an outrageous misrepresentation of scripture, spoken for the benefit of that local pastor whose church had a history of losing members. Rather than liberating the saints to have a deeper relationship with their Lord, he set a snare to enslave them even more to that Thing we call church.
He did not set out to deliberately deceive the people. In all truthfulness, he was deceived himself. We have all been deceived. Lied to. Beguiled. This deception has been passed through the generations of Christians since at least the third century A.D. Those who perpetuate this lie are equally victims of it. This deception is so deep and cruel that we have believed it as the truth. We minister death with this deception, thinking we are offering life.
Worse yet, people are unknowingly missing out on their glorious union with Christ because they have been given a false assurance of their salvation. This beguilement has puffed us up in self-importance. It has caused many believers to forsake their first love, Jesus. The devil has seduced us into dancing with him while making us think we were dancing with the Lord.
THE LIE
This is the lie: We have been made to believe that this Thing we call church is of God and that our membership and participation in it is essential to our Christian walk when in fact it is an idolatrous substitute for Jesus and quite often a hindrance to our walk with Him.
This Thing we call church, as we have come to experience it, is an idolatrous extension of our own Selves. Though it exists as an entity unto itself, we are in it and it is in us. It is an icon of self-worship that has grown out of the traditions of men and has no basis in scripture. We proclaim that this Thing we call church is the Kingdom of God when in fact it has nothing to do with the Kingdom of God. Rather, it is the modern-day Babylonian captivity of the elect of God.
We have confused our relationship with Christ by fusing it with this Thing we call church. We are led to believe that when we are in a proper relationship with it we are in a proper relationship with Christ; that we have to be a member of a church to be saved or to be a good Christian; that serving it is serving Christ; that loving it is loving Christ; that tithing to it is tithing to Christ.
In many instances this Thing we call church is like a tent we have made to spread over the moves and revelations of God in order to preserve them, touch them, contain them, maintain them, manipulate them, own and control other people in them, and use the people and the system for our sordid, fleshly gain. We find comfort in the restrictions these church walls set for us. We can hide in them and feel good in them. We widen these tent pegs just enough to let others in who want to walk, talk, and dress as we do.
We talk about this Thing we call church in strange ways. Where do you go to church? What is the name of your church? How was church today? Are you building an annex onto your church? Wow, did we ever have church at prayer meeting last night! The pastor or priest often greets the Sunday morning crowd, saying, "Good morning, Church." These statements make church out to be a building, an institution with a name, a service, a meeting, the kind of time we have together, and people.
The word "church" as it is used in English translations of the New Testament refers to the people of God, but we no longer limit its meaning to people. If we really meant that people are the "church" when we use that term, these same statements would have to be made this way: Where do you go to you? What is the name of you? How was you today? Are you building an annex onto you? Wow, did we ever have us at prayer meeting last night. We know better and insist in theory that we, the redeemed people of God, are the church. Yet, in practice, we make no distinction between the people and this Thing we call church. That the word church is used interchangeably this way is not the problem though. Much more is going on here than meets the eye.
The word church, as we use it, speaks of an illegal, unholy mystical union which embodies buildings, institutions, denominations, and people. These have been so fused and confused with each other that they perpetuate the dangerous lie that this Thing we call church (buildings, institutions, denominations, and the people associated with them) is Christ's assembly of called-out-ones. This Thing we call church looks good in its outward appearance, but is often inwardly controlled by men and women ambitiously, often unknowingly, seeking something for themselves.
SUBSTITUTE FOR JESUS
When we preach church, as we craftily do, we thereby preach another gospel, a false gospel. We perpetuate the lie. We are often zealous to evangelize people into our churches; yet, we are uncomfortable calling them to deny themselves and take up their crosses to follow Jesus. Such a command by Jesus is a foreign concept to most Christians today. If we happen to lead someone to Christ, we immediately impose church membership upon them, especially hoping that they will join "our" church.
I have personally longed to be in fellowship with other believers who were willing to be the body of Christ with me without having to sign on to the bondage and play the games that come with being a member of one of these institutions. I find no satisfaction in paying my dues to church just to "shake and howdy" with a few other believers while hiding behind our phony religious facades.
If it were true that going to church is synonymous with coming to Jesus, then we would have to ask: Which Jesus is it? Is it the Baptist Jesus? The Church of Christ Jesus? The Methodist Jesus? The Presbyterian Jesus? The Roman Catholic Jesus? The Orthodox Jesus? The Protestant Jesus? The Charismatic or Pentecostal Jesus? The Independent Jesus? There are so many to choose from. Unchurched people look at this mix of churches they are invited to join and wonder why anyone would want to be a part of that.
We give our hearts to these Things we call church rather than to the Lord Jesus Christ. They are enemies of God because they stand in place--in substitution--to what is holy, to what is His.
SHOW THE HOUSE TO THE HOUSE
This deception is not new. The children of Israel in Judah and Samaria were spiritually blinded by their own harlot hearts. They refused to hear the words of the prophets to return to the worship of their God. So, God scattered the people of Samaria to Assyria and later exiled Judah to Babylon.
The prophet Ezekiel had been carried away with the captives of Judah to Babylon. He had visions from God which he was told to tell the "stiff-faced" and "hard-hearted" elders of Judah whether they listened to him or not. God wanted them to know that a prophet had been in their midst. Ezek. 2-3.
Twenty-five years later, God took Ezekiel by way of a vision to the land of Israel and showed him a man whose appearance was like brass. This man had a line of flax and a measuring reed in his hand. He measured all around the Temple. He measured the width and the height of the wall, the gateways, chambers, and courts. Afterwards, he took Ezekiel to the gate that faced the east, and the glory of the God of Israel came from the east. "His voice was like the sound of many waters; and the earth shone with His glory." Ezek. 43:2. The Spirit lifted Ezekiel up and took him into the inner court as the glory of the Lord filled the Temple. Ezek. 43:5.
Then Ezekiel heard the Lord speaking to him from out of the house and told him that this house, the temple, was the place of His throne, the place of the soles of His feet, where He would dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever. It would be the place where His holy name would dwell. Ezek. 43:7. God told Ezekiel that the house of Israel would not defile His house any more by their whoredoms; neither they, nor their kings, nor by the carcasses of their kings in their high places. Ezek. 43:6-9.
Then the Lord charged Ezekiel to show the condition of the house of the Lord to the house of Israel saying, "You son of man, show the house to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities: and let them measure the pattern. And if they are ashamed of all that they have done, show them the form of the house, and the fashion thereof, and the going out thereof, and the coming in thereof, and all the forms...ordinances...and laws thereof...this is the law of the house: upon the top of the mountain the whole limit thereof round about shall be most holy." Ezek. 43:10-12.
Next, Ezekiel was shown a temple of stone. From the New Testament perspective we believe this temple of stone represents God's spiritual house of lively stones--the body of Christ which is the temple of the Holy Spirit of whom we are. The condition of their hearts reflected the condition of God's temple. Conversely, the condition of God's temple reflected the condition of their hearts.
It still works this way.
Centuries later, the aging apostle John was given the revelation of Jesus in which he was asked to measure the temple again. He wrote, "There was given me a reed like a rod: and the angel stood, saying, 'Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and those who worship therein.'" Rev. 11:1.
Today, the Spirit of the Lord calls out for us to show the house to the house that we might be ashamed of all that we have done; that is, show how we have given our hearts to our denominations, institutions, buildings, stained-glass windows, memorialized pews, patron saints, rituals, liturgies, doctrines, rules of order, programs, the Sunday morning service--so many, many things. The Spirit of the Lord wants to show us how we seek after our own agendas though they contradict the agenda of God. He calls us to keep His pattern, not ours; His laws, not ours. For this is the law of the house that we should be holy (separated) unto the Lord. Ezek. 43:12.
If we were asked to measure a physical house structure, we would pull out our measuring tape and calculate numbers. We would check the width, length, and height. Those who are in the institutional church typically measure themselves by how many members they have, how big their buildings are, how many buildings they have, how tall their steeple is, how many cars can be parked in their lot, what kind of cars are parked in their lot, how much money they take in. They measure these Things because they give the greater honor to those pastors and ministries who have the biggest and most. This is a false house.
The true house of God is measured by love, faith, mercy, grace, peace, life, light, rest, joy, hope, forgiveness, acceptance, righteousness, praise, worship, turning the other cheek, submitting to each other, receiving the prophet in the name of the prophet, employing the gifts of the Spirit for the building up of the body, having a passion for Jesus, and being excited about the things that excite God. These are expressions that define our relationship with Christ as His bride and with one another as the household of God. We measure the temple of the Holy Spirit of whom we are by these Biblical terms. If that which we are in that we call church is characterized by such terms as dissension, backbiting, dead works, unbelief, legalism, manipulation, and fear, then it is a harlot's house. We have a Thing--an idolatrous extension of Self that is not of God.
House Churches Are More Satisfying to Attenders Than Are Conventional Churches
www.barna.org
( a "January 8, 2007" report )
(Ventura, CA) - With the growth of house churches across the country, a new study by The Barna Group sheds light on how these independent, non-denominational churches operate.
Levels of Satisfaction
Perhaps the most compelling insight from the national study was an evaluation of the levels of satisfaction of those who attend a house church compared with the views of adults who attend a conventional local church. Four aspects of people's church experience were gauged. Overall, people attending a house church were significantly more likely to be "completely satisfied" with their experience in each of the four dimensions examined.
Two-thirds of house church attenders (68%) were "completely satisfied" with the leadership of their church, compared to only half of those attending a conventional church (49%).
Two-thirds of the house church adherents (66%) were "completely satisfied" with the faith commitment of the people involved in their gathering. In contrast, only four out of ten people attending a conventional church (40%) were similarly satisfied with the faith commitment of the people in their congregation.
Three out of five house church adults (61%) were "completely satisfied" with the level of community and personal connectedness they experience, compared to only two out of five adults who are involved in a conventional church (41%).
A majority of those in a house (59%) said they were "completely satisfied" with the spiritual depth they experience in their house church setting. In contrast, a minority of the adults involved in a conventional church were "completely satisfied" (46%).
For details, click HERE or go to http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=BarnaUpdate&BarnaUpdateID=255
The Nature of the Gatherings
The nationwide research also provided a unique profile of what takes place in the typical house church, and who is involved.
Most house churches (80%) meet every week, while 11% meet on a monthly basis. The most common meeting days are Wednesday (27%) and Sunday (25%), while one out of every five (20%) varies the days of the week on which they meet.
The typical house church gathering lasts for about two hours. Only 7% meet for less than an hour, on average, while only 9% usually stay together for more than three hours at a time.
While most conventional churches follow the same format week after week, four of every ten house churches (38%) say that the format they follow varies from meeting to meeting. The proportion of home gatherings that typically engage in spiritual practices include:
# 93% have spoken prayer during their meetings
# 90% read from the Bible
# 89% spend time serving people outside of their group
# 87% devote time to sharing personal needs or experiences
# 85% spend time eating and talking before or after the meeting
# 83% discuss the teaching provided
# 76% have a formal teaching time
# 70% incorporate music or singing
# 58% have a prophecy or special word delivered
# 52% take an offering from participants that is given to ministries
# 51% share communion
# 41% watch a video presentation as part of the learning experience
Most house churches are family-oriented. Two out of every three house churches (64%) have children involved. Those churches are divided evenly between those who have the adults and children together throughout the meeting (41%) and those who keep them separated (38%). The remaining churches divide their time between having everyone together and having time when the children and adults are separated.
The Participants
The average size of a house church is 20 people; in the home churches that include children, there is an average of about seven children under the age of 18 involved. The rapid growth in house church activity is evident in the fact that half of the people (54%) currently engaged in an independent home fellowship have been participating for less than three months. In total, three out of every four house church participants (75%) have been active in their current gathering for a year or less. One out of every five adults has been in their house church for three years or more.
The research found that there are two types of people being attracted to house churches. The older participants, largely drawn from the Boomer population, are devout Christians who are seeking a deeper and more intense experience with God and other believers. The other substantial segment is young adults who are interested in faith and spirituality but have little interest in the traditional forms of church. Their quest is largely one of escaping outdated structures and institutions.
Still in Process
The survey also indicated that there is likely to be more change in the house church environment in the years to come. The ideas of worshipping in homes rather than church buildings, and being led by group members rather than religious professionals, are new to most Americans. The survey suggested that many people are just beginning to think about, and get comfortable with, the idea of homes being the dominant place for shared faith experiences.
Currently, just four out of every ten regular house church attenders (42%) rely exclusively upon a house church as their primary "church" experience. Many of the others - including a large proportion that has been involved for just a few months - are checking out the approach before they shift their allegiance from a conventional to a house church - if they make the shift at all.
Another indication of the nascent state of the house church movement in the U.S. is people’s perception regarding the biblical grounds for meeting in homes. Among adults who consider themselves to be Christian and who do not attend a house church, six out of ten (57%) believe that attending a house church instead of a conventional church satisfies the biblical command to be part of a spiritual community that follows Jesus Christ. Overall, just one out of five conventionally-churched adults (19%) dismissed the house church approach as unbiblical.
Changing the Church
George Barna, who directed the study, said that the results indicate that the biggest obstacle to the growth of the house church movement is not theological but cultural.
"Americans are emotionally open to belonging to a house church, and surprisingly few have any real objections to others joining such a community of faith," explained the author of three-dozen books on faith in America. "But the main deterrent to house church growth is that most people are spiritually complacent; they are not looking to upgrade their spiritual experience. Compared to conventional church attenders, house church adherents are much more likely to say that they have experienced faith-driven transformation, to prioritize their relationship with God, and to desire a more fulfilling community of faith.
"Those who attend a conventional church are generally content to show up and accept whatever their church has on the agenda; they place the responsibility for their spiritual growth on the shoulders of the church," according to Barna. "We found that most conventional church goers have no desire to help improve their congregation’s ministry, nor do they feel a need to increase their personal spiritual responsibility.
"On the other hand," he continued, "the intimacy and shared responsibility found in most house churches requires each participant to be more serious about their faith development. Clearly, the house church experience is not for everyone."
Research Details
The data in this report are from a pair of national surveys conducted by The Barna Group with a random sample of adults, age 18 and older, conducted in August and October 2006. In total, 2008 adults were interviewed. The maximum margin of sampling error associated with the aggregate sample is ±2.2 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. Statistical weighting was used to calibrate the aggregate sample to known population percentages in relation to demographic variables.
In these surveys, a house church was described as "a group of believers that meets regularly in a home or place other than a church building. These groups are not part of a typical church; they meet independently, are self-governed and consider themselves to be a complete church on their own... (They are) sometimes known as a house church or simple church, (and are) not associated in any way with a local, congregational type of church."
The Barna Group, Ltd. (which includes its research division, The Barna Research Group) conducts primary research, produces media resources pertaining to spiritual development, and facilitates the healthy spiritual growth of leaders, children, families and Christian ministries. Located in Ventura, California, Barna has been conducting and analyzing primary research to understand cultural trends related to values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors since 1984. If you would like to receive free e-mail notification of the release of each new, bi-monthly update on the latest research findings from The Barna Group, you may subscribe to this free service at the Barna website www.barna.org
© The Barna Group, Ltd, 2007.
House Church Involvement Is Growing
www.barna.org
(a "June 19, 2006" report)
(Ventura, CA) - Americans are increasingly designing their lifestyles in ways that meet their needs more efficiently. This is true even in the spiritual realm, as evidenced by the rapid growth of participation in house churches across the nation. Whereas most people continue to think of "going to church" as attending a service at one of the many church buildings located throughout their community, a new study from The Barna Group shows that millions of adults are trying out new forms of spiritual community and worship, with many abandoning the traditional forms altogether.
Large Numbers Attend
The new study, based on interviews with more than five thousand randomly selected adults from across the nation, found that 9% of adults attend a house church during a typical week. That is remarkable growth in the past decade, shooting up from just 1% to near double-digit involvement. In total, one out of five adults attends a house church at least once a month.
Projecting these figures to the national population gives an estimate of more than 70 million adults who have at least experimented with house church participation. In a typical week roughly 20 million adults attend a house church gathering. Over the course of a typical month, that number doubles to about 43 million adults.
While many religious professionals say they are unaware of such activity, it might be because the house church is in its "ramp up" phase in the U.S. One consequence is that millions of Americans are intermittently engaged in a house church, alternating back and forth between house church and conventional church. (For clarity, the survey distinguished between involvement in a house church and participation in a small group that is associated with a conventional church.) The Barna survey revealed that of those who attend a house church, 27% attend on a weekly basis, 30% attend one to three times per month, and 43% attend less than once a month.
Click HERE or go to http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=BarnaUpdateNarrow&BarnaUpdateID=241
One Foot in Each Camp
The study also discovered that church attendance patterns are being reshaped. Among those who attend a church of some type, 74% attend only a conventional church while just 5% attend only a house church. Another one-fifth (19%) attend both a house church and a conventional church. (The other 2% attend a small group that was not considered to be a house church.)
The people most likely to attend only a conventional church were women, people 60 or older, residents of the Midwest, and evangelicals. In contrast, the people most likely to attend a house church but not a conventional church were men, home-school families, residents of the West, and non-whites.
The Impact of the House Church
The study was directed by George Barna, whose current best-selling book, entitled Revolution, estimates that this trend will continue over the next two decades, substantially reducing the share of adults who call a conventional church their primary spiritual community.
“The house church now appears to have reached ‘critical mass’ in the United States," commented Barna. "Analysts typically find that once a new tool or institution reaches 15% market penetration, and has evidenced a consistent or growing level of affirmation for at least six years, that entity shifts from fad to trend status. At that point, it becomes a permanent fixture in our society. Today, house churches are moving from the appraisal phase into the acceptance phase. We anticipate house church attendance during any given week to double in the coming decade, and a growing proportion of house church attenders to adopt the house church as their primary faith community. That continued growth and public awareness will firmly establish the house church as a significant means of faith experience and expression among Americans."
To read more about alternative forms of spiritual experience and expression, such as the house church, see George Barna’s book, Revolution.
For more information click here
Barna noted that this change is already reorienting the nation’s faith dimension. "By necessity, the transition from a nation exclusively offering a conventional church experience to one that offers a choice between conventional church and other forms of spiritual experience is changing the rules and roles. New leaders are emerging to represent and guide house churches -people whose names are unfamiliar to the bulk of the country, but whose ministries will become more mainstream and well-known as time goes on. A new body of spiritual resources is being developed and utilized by the expanding house church community. House church adherents make greater use of Christian radio, Christian books and online faith experiences than do people engaged solely in a conventional church. In addition, new patterns of faith participation are being implemented. The traditional ways of thinking about and experiencing ‘church’ are rapidly being revolutionized by a form of ‘religious choice’ in which people are taking greater personal responsibility for their spiritual experience and development."
Research Details
The data in this report are based on interviews with 5013 adults from across the nation. The Barna Group conducted this study through the use of telephone surveys, implemented from January 2005 through May 2006, based upon a random sample of people 18 years of age and older living within the 48 continental states. The maximum margin of sampling error associated with the aggregate sample of adults is ±1.8 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. In the research, the distribution of survey respondents corresponded to the geographic dispersion of the U.S. population. Multiple callbacks were used to increase the probability of including a reliable distribution of qualified individuals. Statistical weighting was used to calibrate the aggregate sample to known population percentages. The number of adults in key subgroups, before statistical weighting, included 446 evangelicals, 2343 born again Christians, 663 blacks, 631 Hispanics, 1608 conservatives and 676 liberals.
“Born again Christians" are defined as people who said they have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in their life today and who also indicated they believe that when they die they will go to Heaven because they had confessed their sins and had accepted Jesus Christ as their savior. Respondents are not asked to describe themselves as "born again."
“Evangelicals" meet the born again criteria (described above) plus seven other conditions. Those include saying their faith is very important in their life today; believing they have a personal responsibility to share their religious beliefs about Christ with non-Christians; believing that Satan exists; believing that eternal salvation is possible only through grace, not works; believing that Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth; asserting that the Bible is accurate in all that it teaches; and describing God as the all-knowing, all-powerful, perfect deity who created the universe and still rules it today. Being classified as an evangelical is not dependent upon church attendance or the denominational affiliation of the church attended. Respondents were not asked to describe themselves as "evangelical."
The Barna Group, Ltd. (which includes its research division, The Barna Research Group) is a privately held, for-profit corporation that conducts primary research, produces media resources pertaining to spiritual development, and facilitates the healthy spiritual growth of leaders, children, families and Christian ministries. Located in Ventura, California, Barna has been conducting and analyzing primary research to understand cultural trends related to values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors since 1984. If you would like to receive free e-mail notification of the release of each new, bi-monthly update on the latest research findings from The Barna Group, you may subscribe to this free service at the Barna website www.barna.org © The Barna Group, Ltd, 2006.
Mocking God and His Guidelines
"Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap." Galatians 6:7
"And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber." 1 Peter 2:2-3
"Fools mock at sin, but among the upright there is favor." Proverbs 14:9
"And he [the antichrist or lawless one] was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies.... Then he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, His tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven. It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation. All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." Revelation 13:5-8
"For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man." Mark 7:21-23
"...put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all. Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering...." Colossians 3:8-12
"I am in derision daily; everyone mocks me.
For when I spoke, I cried out; I shouted, 'Violence and plunder!'
Because the word of the Lord was made to me a reproach and a derision daily.
Then I said, 'I will not make mention of Him, nor speak anymore in His name.'
But His word was in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones;
I was weary of holding it back, and I could not." Jeremiah 20:7-9
"Now the men who held Jesus mocked Him and beat Him. And having blindfolded Him, they struck Him on the face and asked Him, saying, 'Prophesy! Who is the one who struck You?' And many other things they blasphemously spoke against Him." Luke 22:63-65
"And they bowed the knee before Him and mocked Him, saying, 'Hail, King of the Jews!' Then they spat on Him, and took the reed and struck Him on the head. And when they had mocked Him, they took the robe off Him, put His own clothes on Him, and led Him away to be crucified." Matthew 27:29-31
"Blessed is the man who
- Walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,
- Nor stands in the path of sinners,
- Nor sits in the seat of the scornful [mockers];
But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in His law he meditates day and night." Psalm 1:1-6
For details, please go to
http://www.crossroad.to/HisWord/verses/topics/mockery.htm
Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices
PAGAN CHRISTIANITY
by Frank Viola and George Barna
Have you ever wondered why we Christians do what we do for church every Sunday morning? Why do we "dress up" for church? Why does the pastor preach a sermon each week? Why do we have pews, steeples, choirs, and seminaries? This volume reveals the startling truth: most of what Christians do in present-day churches is not rooted in the New Testament, but in pagan culture and rituals developed long after the death of the apostles. Coauthors Frank Viola and George Barna support their thesis with compelling historical evidence in the first-ever book to document the full story of modern Christian church practices.
Sorting Out Truth From Tradition
Many Christians take for granted that their church’s practices are rooted in Scripture. Yet those practices look very different from those of the first-century church. The New Testament is not silent on how the early church freely expressed the reality of Christ’s indwelling in ways that rocked the first-century world.
Times have changed. Pagan Christianity leads us on a fascinating tour through church history, revealing this startling and unsettling truth: Many cherished church traditions embraced today originated not out of the New Testament, but out of pagan practices. One of the most troubling outcomes has been the effect on average believers: turning them from living expressions of Christ’s glory and power to passive observers. If you want to see that trend reversed, turn to Pagan Christianity . . . a book that examines and challenges every aspect of our contemporary church experience.
Are We Really Doing Church “By the Book?”
Why does the pastor preach a sermon at every service? Why do our church services seem so similar week after week? Why does the congregation sit passively in pews?
Not sure? Pagan Christianity makes an unsettling proposal: Most of what present-day Christians do in church each Sunday is rooted not in the New Testament, but in pagan culture and rituals developed long after the death of the apostles. Authors Frank Viola and George Barna support their thesis with compelling historical evidence and extensive footnotes that document the origins of our modern Christian church practices.
In the process, the authors uncover the problems that emerge when the church functions like a business organization rather than the living organism it was created to be. As you reconsider Christ’s revolutionary plan for His church—to be the head of a fully functioning body in which all believers play an active role—you’ll be challenged to decide whether you can ever do church the same way again.
Click HERE for details or go to http://www.ptmin.org/pagan.htm
Read a sample chapter of Pagan Christianity ( http://www.ptmin.org/books/pc.pdf )
For review of this book go to www.amazon.com
QUESTIONS WE NEVER THINK TO ASK
Socrates (470–399 BC)1 is considered by some historians to be the
father of philosophy. Born and raised in Athens, his custom was to
go about the town relentlessly raising questions and analyzing the
popular views of his day. Socrates believed that truth is found by
dialoguing extensively about an issue and relentlessly questioning
it. This method is known as dialectic or “the Socratic method.” He
thought freely on matters that his fellow Athenians felt were closed
for discussion.
Socrates’ habit of pelting people with searching questions and
roping them into critical dialogues about their accepted customs
eventually got him killed. His incessant questioning of tightly held
traditions provoked the leaders of Athens to charge him with “corrupting
the youth.” As a result, they put Socrates to death. A clear
message was sent to his fellow Athenians: All who question the established
customs will meet the same fate!2
Socrates was not the only provocateur to reap severe reprisal for his
nonconformity: Isaiah was sawn in half, John the Baptist was beheaded,
and Jesus was crucified. Not to mention the thousands of Christians
who have been tortured and martyred through the centuries by the
institutional church because they dared to challenge its teachings.3
As Christians, we are taught by our leaders to believe certain
ideas and behave in certain ways. We are also encouraged to read our
Bibles. But we are conditioned to read the Bible with the lens handed
to us by the Christian tradition to which we belong. We are taught to
obey our denomination (or movement) and never to challenge what
it teaches.
(At this moment, all the rebellious hearts are applauding and
are plotting to wield the above paragraphs to wreak havoc in their
churches. If that is you, dear rebellious heart, you have missed our
point by a considerable distance. We do not stand with you. Our
advice: Either leave your church quietly, refusing to cause division, or
be at peace with it. There is a vast gulf between rebellion and taking
a stand for what is true.)
If the truth be told, we Christians never seem to ask why we do
what we do. Instead, we blithely carry out our religious traditions
without asking where they came from. Most Christians who claim to
uphold the integrity of God’s Word have never sought to see if what
they do every Sunday has any scriptural backing. How do we know
this? Because if they did, it would lead them to some very disturbing
conclusions that would compel them by conscience to forever abandon
what they are doing.
Strikingly, contemporary church thought and practice have been
influenced far more by postbiblical historical events than by New
Testament imperatives and examples. Yet most Christians are not conscious
of this influence. Nor are they aware that it has created a slew
of cherished, calcified, humanly devised traditions4—all of which are
routinely passed off to us as “Christian.”
have never entered your conscious thoughts. Tough questions. Nagging
questions. Even frightening questions. And you will be faced
squarely with the disturbing answers. Yet those answers will lead you
face-to-face with some of the richest truths a Christian can discover.
As you read through the following pages, you may be surprised
to discover that a great deal of what we Christians do for Sunday
morning church did not come from Jesus Christ, the apostles, or
the Scriptures. Nor did it come from Judaism. After the Romans
destroyed Jerusa lem in AD 70, Judaic Christianity waned in numbers
and power. Gentile Christianity dominated, and the new faith began
to absorb Greco-Roman philosophy and ritual. Judaic Chris tianity
survived for five centuries in the little group of Syriac Christians
called Ebionim, but their influence was not very widespread. According
to Shirley J. Case, “Not only was the social environment of the
Christian movement largely Gentile well before the end of the first
century, but it had severed almost any earlier bonds of social contact
with the Jewish Christians of Palestine. . . . By the year 100, Christianity
is mainly a Gentile religious movement . . . living together in
a common Gentile social environment.”6
Strikingly, much of what we do for “church” was lifted directly
out of pagan culture in the postapostolic period. (Legend tells us the
last surviving apostle, John, died around AD 100.) According to Paul
F. Bradshaw, fourth-century Christianity “absorbed and Christianized
pagan religious ideas and practices, seeing itself as the fulfillment to
which earlier religions had dimly pointed.”7 While today we often use
the word pagan to describe those who claim no religion whatsoever, to
the early Christians, pagans were those polytheists who followed the
gods of the Roman Empire. Paganism dominated the Roman Empire
until the fourth century, and many of its elements were absorbed by
Christians in the first half of the first millennium, particularly during
the Constantinian and early post-Constantinian eras (324 to 600).8
Two other significant periods from which many of our current church
practices originate were the Reformation era (sixteenth century) and
the Revivalist era (eighteenth and nineteenth centuries).
Chapters 2 through 10 each trace an accepted traditional church
practice. Each chapter tells the story of where this practice came from.
But more importantly, it explains how this practice stifles the practical
headship of Jesus Christ and hampers the functioning of His body.
Warning: If you are unwilling to have your Christianity seriously
examined, do not read beyond this page. Give this book to Goodwill
immediately! Spare yourself the trouble of having your Christian life
turned upside down.
However, if you choose to “take the red pill” and be shown “how
deep the rabbit hole goes”9 . . . if you want to learn the true story of
where your Christian practices came from . . . if you are willing to
have the curtain pulled back on the contemporary church and its traditional
presuppositions fiercely challenged . . . then you will find this
work to be disturbing, enlightening, and possibly life changing.
Put another way, if you are a Christian in the institutional church
who takes the New Testament seriously, what you are about to read
may lead to a crisis of conscience. For you will be confronted by
unmovable historical fact.
On the other hand, if you happen to be one of those people who
gathers with other Christians outside the pale of institutional Christianity,
you will discover afresh that not only is Scripture on your
side—but history stands with you as well.
JESUS, THE REVOLUTIONARY
by Frank Viola www.ptmin.org
Christianity is to receive a rejuvenation it must be by other means than any now being used. If the church in the second half of this century is to recover from the injuries she suffered in the first half, there must appear a new type of preacher. The proper, ruler-of-the-synagogue type will never do. Neither will the priestly type of man who carries out his duties, takes his pay and asks no questions, nor the smooth-talking pastoral type who knows how to make the Christian religion acceptable to everyone. All these have been tried and found wanting. Another kind of religious leader must arise among us. He must be of the old prophet type, a man who has seen visions of God and has heard a voice from the Throne. When he comes (and I pray God there will not be one but many) he will stand in flat contradiction to everything our smirking, smooth civilization holds dear. He will contradict, denounce and protest in the name of God and will earn the hatred and opposition of a large segment of Christendom.
A.W. Tozer
Jesus Christ is not only the Savior, the Messiah, the Prophet, the Priest, and the King. He is also the Revolutionary. Yet, few Christians know Him as such; unfortunately, I know this from experience. For several years now I’ve been working with house churches, writing, and speaking about radical church deconstruction and renewal. In many places I go, people ask me: "Why do you have to be so negative about the modern church, Frank!? Jesus is not a critical person. It is so unlike our Lord to talk about what is wrong with the church. Let us focus on the positive and ignore the negative!".
To read the entire article, click HERE or go to http://www.theooze.com/articles/article.cfm?id=948
Such high volume sentiments express complete unfamiliarity with Christ as revolutionary teacher; radical prophet; provocative preacher; controversialist; iconoclast; and the implacable opponent of the religious establishment.
Granted, our Lord is not critical or harsh with His own. He is full of mercy and kindness, and He loves His people passionately. However, this is precisely why He is jealous over His Bride. And it is why He will not compromise with the unbreakable traditions to which His people have been held captive. Nor will He ignore our fanatical devotion to them.
Consider our Lord’s conduct while on earth.
Jesus was never a rabble-rouser nor a ranting rebel, yet He constantly defied the traditions of the scribes and Pharisees. He did not do so by accident, but with great deliberation. The Pharisees were those who, for the sake of the "truth" they saw, tried to extinguish the truth they could not see. This explains why there was always a blizzard of controversy between the "tradition of the elders" and the acts of Jesus.
Someone once said that "a rebel attempts to change the past; a revolutionary attempts to change the future." Jesus Christ brought drastic change to the world. Change to humanity’s view of God. Change to God’s view of humankind. Change to men’s view of women. Our Lord came to bring radical change to the old order of things, replacing it with a new order. He came to bring forth a new covenant—a new kingdom—a new birth—a new race—a new species—a new culture—and a new civilization.
As you read through the Gospels, behold your Lord, the Revolutionary. Watch Him throw the Pharisees into a panic by intentionally flaunting their conventions. Numerous times Jesus healed on the Sabbath day, flatly breaking their cherished tradition. If the Lord wanted to placate His enemies, He could have waited until Sunday or Monday to heal some of these people. Instead, He deliberately healed on the Sabbath, knowing full well it would make His opponents livid.
This pattern runs pretty deep. In one instance, Jesus healed a blind man by mixing clay with spittle and putting it in the man’s eyes. Such an act was in direct defiance to the Jewish ordinance that prohibited healing on the Sabbath by mixing mud with spittle! Yet your Lord intentionally shattered this tradition publicly and with absolute resolve. Watch Him eat food with unwashed hands under the judgmental gaze of the Pharisees, again intentionally defying their fossilized tradition.
In Jesus, we have a Man who refused to bow to the pressures of religious conformity. A Man who preached a revolution. A Man who would not tolerate hypocrisy. A Man who was not afraid to provoke those who suppressed the liberating gospel He brought to set men free. A Man who did not mind evoking anger in His enemies, causing them to gird their thighs for battle.
What is my point? It is this: Jesus Christ came not only as Messiah, the Anointed One of God to deliver His people from the bondage of the fall…
He came not only as Savior, paying a debt He did not owe to wash away humanity’s war, hatred, and ingrained sin…
He came not only as Prophet, comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable…
He came not only as Priest, representing man before God and representing God before man…
He came not only as King, triumphant over all authorities, principalities, and powers...
He also came as Revolutionary, tearing apart the old wineskin with a view to bringing in the new.
Behold your Lord, the Revolutionary!
For many Christians, this is a new look at Jesus Christ. Therefore, to reveal the weaknesses of the church in modernity so that Christ’s Body can fulfill God’s ultimate intention is simply an expression of our Lord’s revolutionary nature. The dominating aim of that nature is to put you and me at the center of the beating heart of God. To put you and me in the core of His eternal purpose—a purpose for which everything was created.
What is needed, then, is a revolution within the Christian faith. Renewal movements will not do it. Revivals will not cut it. Both have been plentiful for the past 50 years. (I might add that they are repackaged every five years.) Renewal movements and revivals have never been potent enough to break the immense inertia of religious tradition.
Renewing and inventing new forms for church is like changing clothes on a mannequin. Doing so will never give it life no matter how avant-garde the garb is. No, the axe must be laid to the root of the problem and a revolution ignited!
What is needed is a complete upheaval of our current Christian practices. All traditions that find no soil in Scripture must be forever abandoned. We must begin anew . . . from ground zero. Anything less will prove defective.
If you are a disciple of the Revolutionary from Nazareth . . .the Radical Messiah who lays His axe to the root . . .you will eventually evoke a specific question. It is the same question that was asked our Lord’s disciples while He walked this earth. That question is: "Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders?"
A true radical must be a man of roots. In words that I have used elsewhere, "The revolutionary can be an ‘outsider’ to the structure he would see collapse: indeed, he must set himself outside of it. But the radical goes to the roots of his own tradition. He must love it: he must weep over Jerusalem, even if he has to pronounce its doom."
John A.T. Robinson
Frank Viola [ http://ptmin.org ] is the author of a series of books on radical church renewal and reform. His passion is to see the centrality of Jesus Christ and the life of the early church restored. Frank is part of the house church movement, and he lives in Florida. Among his books are Rethinking the Wineskin, Who is Your Covering?, Pagan Christianity, So You Want to Start a House Church?, Knowing Christ Together, and The Untold Story of the New Testament Church. You can reach him online at http://ptmin.org or email him at ptmin@aol.com This article is based on his book Pagan Christianity: The Origins of Our Modern Church Practices [URL: www.ptmin.org/pagan.htm ]
Read More...
Granted, our Lord is not critical or harsh with His own. He is full of mercy and kindness, and He loves His people passionately. However, this is precisely why He is jealous over His Bride. And it is why He will not compromise with the unbreakable traditions to which His people have been held captive. Nor will He ignore our fanatical devotion to them.
Consider our Lord’s conduct while on earth.
Jesus was never a rabble-rouser nor a ranting rebel, yet He constantly defied the traditions of the scribes and Pharisees. He did not do so by accident, but with great deliberation. The Pharisees were those who, for the sake of the "truth" they saw, tried to extinguish the truth they could not see. This explains why there was always a blizzard of controversy between the "tradition of the elders" and the acts of Jesus.
Someone once said that "a rebel attempts to change the past; a revolutionary attempts to change the future." Jesus Christ brought drastic change to the world. Change to humanity’s view of God. Change to God’s view of humankind. Change to men’s view of women. Our Lord came to bring radical change to the old order of things, replacing it with a new order. He came to bring forth a new covenant—a new kingdom—a new birth—a new race—a new species—a new culture—and a new civilization.
As you read through the Gospels, behold your Lord, the Revolutionary. Watch Him throw the Pharisees into a panic by intentionally flaunting their conventions. Numerous times Jesus healed on the Sabbath day, flatly breaking their cherished tradition. If the Lord wanted to placate His enemies, He could have waited until Sunday or Monday to heal some of these people. Instead, He deliberately healed on the Sabbath, knowing full well it would make His opponents livid.
This pattern runs pretty deep. In one instance, Jesus healed a blind man by mixing clay with spittle and putting it in the man’s eyes. Such an act was in direct defiance to the Jewish ordinance that prohibited healing on the Sabbath by mixing mud with spittle! Yet your Lord intentionally shattered this tradition publicly and with absolute resolve. Watch Him eat food with unwashed hands under the judgmental gaze of the Pharisees, again intentionally defying their fossilized tradition.
In Jesus, we have a Man who refused to bow to the pressures of religious conformity. A Man who preached a revolution. A Man who would not tolerate hypocrisy. A Man who was not afraid to provoke those who suppressed the liberating gospel He brought to set men free. A Man who did not mind evoking anger in His enemies, causing them to gird their thighs for battle.
What is my point? It is this: Jesus Christ came not only as Messiah, the Anointed One of God to deliver His people from the bondage of the fall…
He came not only as Savior, paying a debt He did not owe to wash away humanity’s war, hatred, and ingrained sin…
He came not only as Prophet, comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable…
He came not only as Priest, representing man before God and representing God before man…
He came not only as King, triumphant over all authorities, principalities, and powers...
He also came as Revolutionary, tearing apart the old wineskin with a view to bringing in the new.
Behold your Lord, the Revolutionary!
For many Christians, this is a new look at Jesus Christ. Therefore, to reveal the weaknesses of the church in modernity so that Christ’s Body can fulfill God’s ultimate intention is simply an expression of our Lord’s revolutionary nature. The dominating aim of that nature is to put you and me at the center of the beating heart of God. To put you and me in the core of His eternal purpose—a purpose for which everything was created.
What is needed, then, is a revolution within the Christian faith. Renewal movements will not do it. Revivals will not cut it. Both have been plentiful for the past 50 years. (I might add that they are repackaged every five years.) Renewal movements and revivals have never been potent enough to break the immense inertia of religious tradition.
Renewing and inventing new forms for church is like changing clothes on a mannequin. Doing so will never give it life no matter how avant-garde the garb is. No, the axe must be laid to the root of the problem and a revolution ignited!
What is needed is a complete upheaval of our current Christian practices. All traditions that find no soil in Scripture must be forever abandoned. We must begin anew . . . from ground zero. Anything less will prove defective.
If you are a disciple of the Revolutionary from Nazareth . . .the Radical Messiah who lays His axe to the root . . .you will eventually evoke a specific question. It is the same question that was asked our Lord’s disciples while He walked this earth. That question is: "Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders?"
A true radical must be a man of roots. In words that I have used elsewhere, "The revolutionary can be an ‘outsider’ to the structure he would see collapse: indeed, he must set himself outside of it. But the radical goes to the roots of his own tradition. He must love it: he must weep over Jerusalem, even if he has to pronounce its doom."
John A.T. Robinson
Frank Viola [ http://ptmin.org ] is the author of a series of books on radical church renewal and reform. His passion is to see the centrality of Jesus Christ and the life of the early church restored. Frank is part of the house church movement, and he lives in Florida. Among his books are Rethinking the Wineskin, Who is Your Covering?, Pagan Christianity, So You Want to Start a House Church?, Knowing Christ Together, and The Untold Story of the New Testament Church. You can reach him online at http://ptmin.org or email him at ptmin@aol.com This article is based on his book Pagan Christianity: The Origins of Our Modern Church Practices [URL: www.ptmin.org/pagan.htm ]
Church Leadership: a contrast
by Dr. David Wong - www.batteredsheep.com This article appeared in the December, 1991 issue of Evangelical Now. Dr. David Wong summarizes the differences he has observed regarding how church leadership is viewed and practiced in China (read as House Church) and the West.
| In The West... | In China (House Church) ... |
| 1. Leadership is usually formal. | 1. Leadership is often more informal. |
| 2. Leadership endorsement comes from those who are "above." | 2. Leadership endorsement comes from those who are "below." |
| 3. Leadership is often based on "capability" in society, e.g., If a man is a bank manager or owns his own company, he is more likely to become an elder. | 3. Leadership is more often based on Christian character. |
| 4. Leadership is a matter of "charisma," i.e., dress, style and manner. | 4.Leadership is more a matter of a gift; it is spiritual --no superstars. |
| 5. Leadership is often a matter of thorough training, diplomas, certificates. | 5.Leadership is more a matter of testing than of formal training. |
| 6. Western churches have a great ability to organize; it is sometimes a case of planning versus prayer. In the West they "know much about God." | 6. Leadership and church life are more organism-oriented--prayer before planning. In China they "know God." |
| 7. Leadership is often rewarded, and this affects leader's motivation. | 7. In China it is the exact opposite: leaders face persecution and loss of children and family. Therefore, the motivation for leadership is different. |
| 8. Leadership is more like the stereotype of Martha--busy, always occupied. | 8. Leadership is more like the picture of Mary--quiet and listening. |
| 9. The church is "result oriented." | 9. We have a tendency to measure our congregation by their potential under God: "so-and-so could do such-and-such." |
| 10. Leadership is often viewed as climbing the ladder of influence to power and Christian prestige. | 10. Leadership may well bring persecution--no ladder, no climbers. |
| 11. Most leadership is male. | 11. Women are used in a greater way! |
| 12. Leadership generally carries an awareness of self-importance. | 12. Most leaders are completely unaware (unselfconscious) of what they have done and what they are. |
| 13. Leadership arises from a sense of calling. | 13. Leadership springs much more from a sense of commitment. |
| 14. Profile is important. High profile leads to being a "master," and to being in "charge." | 14. A high profile is detrimental, so they seek a low profile which gives the glory to God and leads to being a servant. |
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