Category: Jesus is Lord


Professionalism Must Die

Filed Under: Christendom, Church Life, Jesus is Lord, Meeting Together, Organic Church by rossrohde — 10 Comments
January 3, 2012

Setting aside the clergy role is hard.

This morning one of my friends and I were talking on the phone about a project he is involved in. He and his friends are intentionally trying to develop a missional community. One of the participants is a part of the professional clergy. In discussing the vision of the community my friend and I ended up discussing the difficulty those in the “professional clergy” or those of us who are “ex-professionals” have in stepping out of the professional role.

Organic ministry is whole-life ministry. It is not something you do as much as someone you are. It is not a job you do, as much as a life you live. It is not a role we play as much an adventure we live. And, our relationship with those on the journey with us is not defined by positions and job responsibilities, they are just our friends in same community and on the same ministry adventure with us. For those who are steeped in professional ministry this can be a hard transition to make.

The Clergy Role

First, it is difficult to step out of the role of clergy. When you have been “the clergy” it becomes part of your identity. One just assumes that they will play a leadership role. Let’s be honest, we enjoy being the big shot. We like being the one with all the answers. Being quiet and allowing others to express what Jesus has put on their hearts is hard. We find ourselves filling in all silent spaces with our ideas. We find ourselves taking charge…even when we are diligently trying not to do so.

Worse yet, those who have not been professional clergy, but are accustomed to the system, have been trained to look to the professionals for the answers. They are used to some being leaders and some being followers. It becomes easy to allow others to take the lead and therefore the risk of being wrong or making mistakes. This leads to an unintentional passivity which must be overcome if someone is going to actually be part of an organic missional community.

Knowing but Not Really Knowing

I can only speak from the position of being ex-clergy. My own experience, and the information I’ve gained from other friends who are ex-clergy in an organic ministry setting tells me that we have a problem of knowing about the problem but not really knowing the problem. Let me explain. We know intellectually we need to be quiet so others can speak. We know in our heads that if we talk too much or dominate the conversation we will stifle the Spirit in others. We know that, but we do it anyway. We know with our heads but it really hasn’t filtered down into our hearts yet, so it isn’t part of our unconscious behavior. Therefore, the problem keeps coming up. Let me restate that differently; we keep becoming a problem. And, we end up beating ourselves up about it.

There is a flip side to this issue as well. Most people currently involved in organic ministry are ex-lay people. That is to say they have learned to let the clergy do the work. They too, if they come to understand organic ministry, realize that they should participate more, but they are so used to being passive that they struggle to not just be bumps on a log. They wait for someone else to “take over.” This doesn’t help the missional community, the ex-clergy or the Kingdom. We all need each other. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” (I Cor. 12:21). In fact, one of the great weaknesses I’ve seen in those new to organic ministry is that they look for some great leader who will produce spectacular results so they can join in and bask in the glow of successful ministry. In other words, they are waiting for a “great leader” to come along so they can be a part of a great ministry. Consequently, when things aren’t spectacular, or don’t produce exciting fruit soon enough, they are off looking for the next cool thing. This is just another expression of being a passive person waiting for a human leader to take over. It is a result of our clergy/laity system.

Suggestions

So, what do we do about this? I have three suggestions. First, everyone needs to participate. There is no room for big leaders and there is no room for the passive in organic ministry. We all play a part and we are all equally important. Second, give yourselves some space. Most of us have the “system” baked into our bones. It is going to take awhile to unlearn what we have learned. Gently and graciously help each other be less passive or less in charge, whichever the problem might be. And remember we can understand with our heads long before it filters down to our heart. Be patient and gentle with each other. Finally, remember in organic ministry there is only one leader; his name is Jesus (for more on this see: Authority: How Jesus Leads a Church).We are all part of the body but Jesus is the head. Learn to follow him and only him and a lot of these problems will slowly go away.

  • Have you noticed the problem of ex-clergy taking over and ex-lay people being passive? What are you doing about it?
  • Have you ever noticed that we can “know about the problem” but not really know about the problem? That is to say we can understand the problem intellectually but still struggle with it?
  • If Jesus is going to lead, what skills will we need to develop to learn to follow him?
  • Who do you think has the harder time learning to be part of the body, the ex-clergy or the ex-lay person?
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Deep Presence

Filed Under: Church Life, Discipleship, Jesus is Lord, Meeting Together, Simple Church, Spiritual Life, Viral Christianity by rossrohde — 10 Comments
October 28, 2011

We can meet him anywhere.

Every once in a while God encounters a group out of nowhere. It is like he was standing on the sideline and the next thing you know we are in His deep presence. I’ve experienced this many times, probably most of us have, if we are paying attention. My friends and I had that experience the other day and I’d like to make some observations about that experience.

My friends meet twice a month as a simple church. One week a month we meet in one of our homes and another time we meet in the same coffee shop, which is a central location for our far scattered group. We meet in a coffee shop just down the street from the San Jose Mission in Fremont, CA. The mission is one of the famous string of missions established in Early California by Spanish missionaries. It was one of those beautiful California October days; warm but not hot. It was sunny, so we sat outside on the patio in the shade. In other words, it was a beautiful, pleasant setting.

We were having our typical conversations, talking about God in our lives, what we were doing, what He was doing, chit chat, just a little of everything really, when my friend Babs asked a question, “Do you think spiritual growth only comes through suffering?” It was at that moment that God went from omnipresent to very present. Most of you know what I mean, He is always there, but suddenly His presence was palpable. Honestly, I was too into the moment to actually notice, but my wife, who has the gift of discernment, pointed it out to me later. Looking back, it was obvious.

What was that like? The conversation took on a higher level of focus. We were all involved, we were all engaged, although we probably came from different perspectives, we were safe and accepting of each other. This, in turn, allowed for transparency as we talked about deep issues like thoughts of suicide, long term depression and the need for medication. It was not the sort of conversation we would have with people who would have felt the need to put us back in the box. In a word, it was not the sort of conversation we would have had with people we didn’t trust. Our body language went from relaxed to attentive. We went from flowing between two or three conversations at once, to one clear focused conversation. And, we were ministering to each other; or better said, God was ministering to us through us. We were talking about real life, not mere doctrinal theory. We weren’t really looking for simple solutions as much as we were willing to be with each other and love one another. And it was very natural, real and genuine. It was safe.

We can’t make that happen. We could all go back to the same place, at the same time of day, in the same weather and discuss the same topic. But, lightning wouldn’t strike twice; or better said, God would choose to remain omnipresent by we wouldn’t notice him as very present. Sometimes this happens in the midst of singing/worship. Sometimes it happens in the midst of prayer. Sometimes it happens when we are in ministry together. Sometimes it happens with the folk talking in the kitchen but the people in the living room miss out. My point is that we can’t make this happen and we can’t reduplicate or plan it.

But we can create an environment where it might happen and often will happen. So what is that environment? First, it is safe. Our group has different political leanings from pretty far left to pretty far right and some points in between. But we love one another; and we won’t stop loving one another if we end up being on polar opposites of divisive issues. In other words, we treat each other like family. Second, we are willing to minister to each other because we love one another. But, that is different than wanting to “fix” each other. Third, we are disposed to God being in our midst. We want Him there. We long for him to be among us. But we know that He is Lord and we are not. He will come in deep presence when He chooses. We aren’t trying to manipulate God any more that we are trying to manipulate each other.

I’d like to make one last observation about that experience. Our conversation was our worship. We were in the presence of God. His Spirit was ministering to us through us. He was very much involved. And that was worship. Worship in the Bible isn’t just singing; it is living life in the presence and under God’s lordship, individually and corporately. This was just one lovely experience of corporate worship.

  • Have you ever noticed God moving from omnipresent to very present? Does that idea bother you?
  • What are common elements you would note in the experiences you’ve had with deep presence? Do you think the pleasant setting contributed to God’s presence or was superfluous?
  • Why do you think we don’t experience this more?
  • Why can’t we plan or manufacture God’s deep presence?
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I or i

Filed Under: Biblical Meditation, Jesus is Lord, Meeting Together, Spiritual Life by rossrohde — 2 Comments
October 18, 2011

Where the King is we should also bee.

This morning at 3 AM God woke Tony and Felicity Dale out of a sound sleep and spoke to them about the Church. What he spoke to them was important and confirmed even by the date mentioned in a specific passage in the book of Haggai, October 17th, the day of the communication. You can read about what God spoke to them here.

As I meditated on what God was speaking to Tony and Felicity I began to feel he was speaking to me about how we in the Western church are. I’m not pointing a finger at anyone without having three fingers pointed back at me. That is, this applies to me as well.

We have become a church which is focused on US, ME and MINE. That is, we want God to come where we are and bless what we are doing. We tend to be Christians for what is in it for US. We want God to show up in what WE are doing. If He doesn’t WE are disappointed and feel He has let US down.

But the Kingdom of God doesn’t work like that. It works exactly the opposite of that. Here’s how the Kingdom works:

Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. (Matt. 6:33).

This is just the New Testament version of what God was saying to Israel in Haggai. We seek HIM. We long for HIS righteousness. We want to live in HIS righteousness, not just know about it. And as a consequence of moving our life in alignment with HIM, HE takes care of us. We can trust HIM to do so, but it requires taking our focus and effort off of what we are doing.

We need to go where he is, not invite Him to what we are doing. His presence is found where He already is. That’s why even Jesus said: “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does.” (Jn. 5:19). We…I, need to quit inviting Jesus to my party. I need to quit seeking that Jesus bless what I would like to do, or even more carnal, just bless ME. If i focus on HIM, seek HIM, seek to live the righteous life that is found by living in the power of HIS Spirit and HIS control, then i will have everything i need.

I think this has a corporate expression as well. We gather in churches (simple or congregational) and don’t experience the power of God. Then we wonder where He went; why He didn’t show up. WE are inviting Him to OUR party. we need to seek HIM and find out what HE wants, not ask him to come among US so WE can have what WE want; even if what WE want is to experience His presence.

The analogy of the bees

Christian corporate life should be like living in a beehive. The bees seem to have a powerful corporate life. The “collective consciousness” is more important that what any one worker bee wants or thinks. In fact, the worker bee would willingly give his life for the good of the whole. In this analogy, Jesus is not only the queen bee, around which the colony’s life revolves, He is also the “collective consciousness” of the hive itself. HE runs the show. It revolves around HIM and what HE is doing, what HE wants, where HE is. And, if I, an individual worker bee, am willing to submit, even sacrifice my life for the good of the whole; live the life of the hive (righteousness) instead of do what I want and expect the hive to go along, then I will have everything I need. But to experience the powerful life of the presence of the King, I need to sacrifice all and live life on HIS terms.

  • Are you living life by what YOU want or what HE wants?
  • If you were in court, accused of being self centered, what testimony could you give, in your defense, which would give evidence that you were living on God’s terms? What would the prosecution bring up to give evidence of a self centered life? Keep in mind that in court only what was actually done counts. Good intentions mean nothing. Which set of evidence would be more convincing? Would you be guilty of the crime of self-centeredness or be acquitted because your behavior was clearly God focused and God directed?
  • Does the analogy of the bees, the idea of Christians having a “collective consciousness” make sense to you?
  • Have you ever experienced community life that had more to do with this “collective consciousness” controlled by God, rather than humans? What was that like?
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Biblioidolatry

Filed Under: Biblical Meditation, Jesus is Lord, New Covenant, Our Covenant With God, Spiritual Life, Viral Christianity by rossrohde — 10 Comments
October 7, 2011

See what I mean?

The other day a couple of friends and I were having lunch together in Oakland, CA. One of the many topics we touched on was biblioidolatry. What is biblioidolatry? It is when we make an idol of the Bible. Most of us in our minds would imagine this looking perhaps like someone placing a Bible on a pedestal and praying to it. But it almost never takes that form. It is much more dangerous and subtle than that. Most commonly it takes the form of thinking the power for living comes from following biblical principles. In doing so, we have replaced the role that only belongs to Jesus, the Word, with concepts from the written word. The power is not in the Bible, it is in Jesus. It is not in the written word, it is in the Living Word.

Why do we do this? I think there are a number of reasons. First, if we don’t actually have to follow Jesus but only “biblical principles” we are still in control. We chose which principles we are going to apply. We chose how we understand those principles. And, even more fun, if someone doesn’t apply a biblical principle the way we do, we get to judge them. But, if we understand how the new covenant works, it isn’t the written word that guides us. It is Jesus, the Lord, who is the Word who became flesh. He speaks his laws into our heart and mind, but not as some written code (Heb. 8:10). Living by a written code is living in the old covenant, not the new. We obey Him, not “it.”

A second reason we are so intent on actually living by the written word instead of obeying the Word is because our culture is obsessed with ideas. We’d rather talk about doctrine than actually put it in practice. We usually don’t do this intentionally; it is built into our cultural habits. Think about school from grade school to university. How were we taught? Wasn’t it usually by hearing someone talk about an idea, a fact, or a concept? We usually try to teach our faith this way, by preaching and giving classes instead of walking with each other along the way (Deut. 11:19) It isn’t very ineffective. That’s the difference between teaching our faith like it is a school subject and actual life on life discipleship. Discipleship has more in common with teaching someone how to change a spark plug than it does a seminary class. I say all of this to point out we have been trained by our culture to think in concepts instead of living life in the power of God. And the result is that we often put more confidence in doctrine (facts from the Bible) than in Jesus himself. That’s biblioidolatry.

Another reason we tend to be biblioidolaters is that it is easier to be judged by what we say, or believe to be true, than what we do. This, most likely, is subconscious. This is actually just an outgrowth of the other two reasons mentioned above. But Jesus isn’t going to judge us by how correct our doctrinal ideas were. When he separates the sheep from the goats he is going to judge us by our works (and no, that isn’t works salvation) Just read Matt 25:31-46. How can that be? It’s simple. If we are the real thing we will live like it. Talk is cheap. We can easily be judged by our works because if Jesus is truly living in us, His Spirit will flow out of us like rivers of living water (Jn. 7-38-39). All Jesus has to do is judge how we lived, to see if there was evidence of the Holy Spirit within.

What good then is the Bible? It is wonderful in every way. While in itself it has no power to change us, it can point to Someone who can. It can’t save us, but He can. It can be a beautiful mirror which shows us how we are living, but the power to live the Christian life still comes from Jesus himself. The Bible just helps us see if we are on track. We don’t need to worship the Bible. We shouldn’t expect it to give us principles to live by. Rather, it gives us access to the Person who wrote those principles. The Bible expresses those principles to help us make sure we are living in the Spirit and not in the power of the flesh. So let’s be filled with the Spirit of Jesus. Let’s walk in the power of Jesus. Let’s worship and honor Jesus, the Living Word, who became flesh and dwelt among us. Let’s be grateful for the written word and deeply appreciate it. We should read it until it saturates our soul. But the power for life still comes from Jesus. He himself said I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me (Jn. 14:6). That cannot be said of the Bible.

  • Do you agree with me that we American Christians have a tendency to be biblioidolaters?
  • Can you think of other reasons why we tend to do this?
  • The 1st Century Christians didn’t have the New Testament, yet they often lived powerful, spiritual lives. How did they do that without the New Testament? Do you think it could have anything to do with actually living according to the new covenant, in the power of Jesus?
  • Ever wonder why the 1st and 2nd Century Christians turned the world upside down and we are losing ground? Could it be that we are looking for our source of power coming from the Bible rather than Jesus?
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Testimony of a Religious Junky

Filed Under: Christendom, Jesus is Lord, Meeting Together, Spiritual Life, Viral Christianity by rossrohde — 4 Comments
October 3, 2011

This religious junk really pulls you down until you find yourself in really bad places.

My name is Ross. I am religious. I took my last shot of religion two weeks ago, but have been sober since. I want to tell you my story, and I’ll try to be as honest as possible. I took my first shot of religion when I was 16 years old. I got my first dose from my sister. Then for almost a year and a half afterwards I didn’t have much access to religion. My sister was away at college and had given me my first fix (along with a beautiful encounter with Jesus). I was on my own. I didn’t know where to get my next fix. So at that stage mostly I had Jesus and an old Bible, and that little bit of Evangelical religion my sister gave me.

All of that changed when I went to college. The first week I was there I was introduced to some people who had a serious religious habit. They introduced me to some heavy stuff. Within weeks I was seriously hooked. I learned that I had to have “quit times,” were I read the Bible every day out of religious duty or God would not be pleased with me.

I was trained to believe that my form of Evangelical religion was a better, purer brand of religion than the dangerous smack like Roman Catholic, Pentecostal and Main Line Protestant. These people were seriously addicted to religion, and their religion was bad. We, on the other hand, knew how to handle our religion. In fact, we were in denial, which is one of the first signs of addiction. We honestly didn’t think we were actually religious at all because we were using the pure stuff, with no dangerous additives.

These religious junkies introduced me to religious prayer. Prayer was a duty. There were only four types of prayer that were really acceptable. We could remember these acceptable religious prayer forms through the acronym ACTS: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication. Any other form of prayer was a dangerous adulteration to the pure stuff. There were dangerous religious additives I was told to avoid, when having a good snort of pure religious prayer; Pentecostal/Charismatic speaking in tongues, for example, was pure poison! Any other form of prayer was probably some Roman Catholic mystical gobbledygook that was not only dangerous but silly. It was always best to stick to the pure high grade stuff.

My fellow religious addicts told me I had to go to church every week because that was where I could score a better grade of religion. Since I was already hooked, I did as I was told, and frankly I wanted my next fix. These church meetings were where one could get some heavy stuff. The main dose there was the religious church service. This was a heady cocktail of religion that included pews, pulpits, powerful titled leaders called pastors, some elders, deacons, a set religious patterns called the order of service, some mindless singing and Sunday School. There were many other religious ingredients in this cocktail, but I think most of you are probably religious addicts too. Hopefully you are on the road to recovery. But recovering religious addict or not, you know exactly what a religious church service feels like.

My habit got so serious that the church service cocktail was no longer satisfying. I wanted to score some real heavy stuff. I was told that the really good stuff was reserved for the clergy and missionaries. And, in order to be clergy, I had to go to a Bible college and then seminary. These were places where I could indulge my religious habit without limits. I went to a Bible college and learned every religious form known to Evangelicalism. I was now not only scoring my religion, I was shooting it straight into my veins.  What a rush it gave me. When I was doing religion I thought I was really pleasing God. I was on a serious high that made me feel superior to all those foolish non-Christians and even the bad Christians who didn’t “do” the right brand of religion.

But soon the high wore thin. I needed an even heavier fix. Where could I get it? I was told the only way to really get a religious rush, at my level of addiction, was to become a pusher. I could sell my brand of religion as a missionary, I would be paid to indulge my habit and I could get some really high grade religion for free in the process.

I found a truly religious mission organization that was into some heavy smack. They did their Evangelical religion by using business methods. When a religious junky is on the business method high, he nearly goes crazy thinking that by using business methods the junky can actually control God’s agenda or at least do God a series of big favors. The stuff made our heads so muddled that we actually thought God liked us to do this junk. When you are doing it, it feels so good. It made us feel so superior. But for a serious junky like me, that high can only last for so long.

Then a strange thing happened. Even the best religion wasn’t satisfying me anymore. It all began to feel hollow. I’d do all the religious stuff, quite times, dutiful religious prayers, going to church services, selling my religion to others, even being up the religious distribution chain by being the boss of other religious missionaries; but I couldn’t get high any more.

One day I found myself talking to Jesus once again. It had been so long since I had actually connected with him and not just some religious form or duty. I just told Jesus I loved him. With all that heavy religion I was doing, it had actually been a long time since I had told Him that from the heart. Soon I found that I wanted to seek just Him without the religious trappings of Evangelical religion. The more I sought Him, and not religion, the more satisfying my encounters with Him became.

He opened my eyes and showed me that he never wanted all this religion in the first place. He took me back to the Bible. I read it, not out of duty, but with a passionate desire to find Him in the pages. I began to realize that as I read His Spirit was actually opening my eyes and speaking to me.

This is what he showed me. He never designed Christianity to be a religion. The more religion we humans add, the farther it actually drives us from God. Jesus just wants us and He wants us to have him. The religion gets in the way of the relationship.

That was sixteen years ago. My journey out of religion has been a long and hard one. Every time I think I’ve finally kicked the habit, the Holy Spirit shows me another claw religion has on my soul. But, the more I put aside my religious habits, the more I encounter Jesus. Now I have a new community of fellow recovering religionists. We are helping each other find and stay focused on Jesus. It is beautiful, simple and deeply spiritual.

That’s my story. If you are religious, I hope you can find a group of fellow religious junkies who are on the path to recovery. But, most importantly, recovery will never happen unless you seek Jesus, only Jesus, nothing more than Jesus. He is the only source of power that is capable of shaking the monkey off our backs. And the more you follow Him, the more your faith will become deep, intimate and personal. And, coincidently the more it will look like the early followers of Jesus we read about in the Bible. They were focused on Jesus, not religion.

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Ownership

Filed Under: Christendom, Church Life, Church Planting, Discipleship, Jesus is Lord, Organic Church, Spiritual Life by rossrohde — 8 Comments
September 30, 2011

If we follow men we end up being controlled by them. Follow Christ.

We can own a car, or a house or a piece of land. What we can’t own, outside of slavery, is people. Yet, if we look at the behavior of much of Christianity nowadays, one would think that owning people is part and parcel of how Christianity works.

Let me explain ownership. When we own something, it is under our control. No one else dare use it unless they have our permission. This applies to cars and houses as well as people. So when we treat other Christians as if they are under our control (usually we use the euphemism “leadership”) we are acting as if we own them. We even usually end up thoughtlessly using the vocabulary of slavery; he’s under our authority, she’s one of ours, they belong to X (usually a name of a church, ministry or leader).

This idea of ownership is actually quite common in the church today. I’ve noticed it in my own ministry when I, as an organic church practitioner, end up beginning to do ministry with someone who is already a part of a traditional church. Let me give you three examples.

1.) If I win someone to Christ, and they are introduced by their friends to a traditional church, it is almost inevitable that they will sooner or later be told that they now “belong” to this church and should therefore only attend their services and be “under the leadership” of their pastor. In my entire organic ministry, I’ve never once told someone that they shouldn’t attend a traditional church. Why, because I don’t own the person who has come to Christ. They belong to Jesus. I was just His instrument to introduce a person to Him. But, I’ve watched time after time as new disciples become church attendees instead of disciples of Christ. Inevitably they no longer do organic ministry or frankly much ministry at all.

2.) If I end up in contact with someone who is interested in organic ministry, who asks me to teach them how to plant organic churches[1], yet they are part of a traditional church, I pretty much know what is going to happen. I will begin to disciples them. I will tell them that I have no power over them but they are to only follow Christ. They will begin to grow. After that they will tell someone in their traditional church what they are doing. Next, they will be told something like “organic church is bad or questionable” and “you belong to this church.” And, as this logic continues, since they “belong” to the church, they should not do any work outside of ministry that is under the leadership (often expressed “authority”) of the leadership of the church. Further, any ministry they do should benefit the goals of “their church.” On average this takes about two weeks.

3.) I will begin to disciples someone whose spiritual life has been nurtured in traditional churches. They will view me as a leader instead of as merely a more experienced person. They will assume that I have power over them. They will be leery of this perceived power, or conversely they will expect to put themselves completely under my control. Either way they are not really fit to be discipled. On the one hand they struggle to get past the fear that I will dominate them. On the other hand they will become passive and fail to follow Christ; assuming that Christ’s directives somehow come through me. It rarely seems to matter how much I tell them I don’t have power over them or how much I keep trying to direct them to Christ. The fear will paralyze the relationship (or end it). The passivity is almost impossible to eradicate. Sadly both states, fear and passivity, keep people from actually following Christ himself.

So, what’s the solution? The long term solution, in my opinion, is to keep winning people to Christ and pray that they don’t have any Christian friends until they become followers of Christ himself. Should I completely avoid ministry with traditional Christians? No, hopefully I can say something that will move them closer to Christ. And, occasionally I find someone who is tired of the power game that is so predominant in the Church today. Such a person is ready to try to find out how to follow Jesus himself. These people are worth their weight in gold. In such a case, a more experienced organic disciple can train them in the skills of following Jesus himself. They can point them to others who have specific experience that might be of use to them. And the more experienced organic Christian can begin to watch as Jesus comes to life in their soul. This, in turn means that the relationship becomes mutual, each learning to follow Jesus from the other.

  • Do you think equating the traditional form of Church leadership to slavery is overstating the case? Why and how?
  • Can you see how traditional leadership tends to isolate people from Christ rather than direct them to Him?
  • What would you do in the three stated scenarios?
  • Have you ever struggled getting a traditional Christian to actually follow Jesus instead of other people? Have you found ways of effectively connecting them to Christ without controlling them?
[1] I never recruit anyone, precisely because they don’t belong to me, they belong to Christ. I only try to disciple people in organic church planting who ask me to do so.

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An Adventure with Jesus

Filed Under: Biblical Meditation, Discipleship, Jesus is Lord, Viral Christianity, Worldview by rossrohde — 4 Comments
August 28, 2011

Are you ready to go on an adventure with Jesus?

In my last post We Haven’t Arrived Yet I suggested that we in the Western organic house church movement have a lot yet to learn. I view this whole situation positively. In fact, I think of what has happen in the Western organic church movement as being on an adventure with Jesus. I’d like to point out one of the issues I think we need to grow in.

One of the areas where I think Western culture in general and the Western church in particular is broken is in the area of teaching and learning. Instead of following the clear examples of Jesus in the Scriptures, we actually follow the Western teaching methods; what I call the university model.

What do I mean by this? We treat teaching as if it were a classroom experience. We download a bunch of information. We hope that those who are being taught catch some of what we are teaching and then we hope that they will go out and put it into practice. This is in stark contrast to what Jesus actually did. When Jesus wanted to teach a skill he modeled it, then he discussed it with his disciples, and then he immediately allowed those he was discipling to put it into practice. He didn’t send them home and hope they would put it into practice. He sent them on an immediate learning adventure. Next, after the disciples had gone on adventure with Jesus, he gathered them again and debriefed them to make sure they had learned their lessons. For an example of this read Lk 10:1-24. Repeat cycle as often as needed.

This is incredibly effective teaching. It is teaching through doing, not teaching through talking. I believe we need to get out of our Western taking heads mode of teaching and start replicating what Jesus actually modeled to us in the New Testament. Which is more important and powerful, Jesus’ model or the Western university model? Which is more practical? Which is most likely to lead to changed lives? Are the foundations of our learning with Jesus based on Jesus or Greek philosophy (which is the wellspring of the university method)? Personally I want my ministry behavior to be modeled on Jesus not Plato and Aristotle.

Further, I believe, and have experienced, Jesus actually leading this type of learning adventure in real time. What does that look like? Here are some suggestions.

  1. Gather as a group of friends and ask Jesus to lead you into his harvest.
  2. As a group listen intently to what you believe he is saying to you. Be ready to obey immediately.
  3. Use discernment (see I Cor. 14:29-33).
  4. Go out in pairs (Lk 10:1).
  5. Do whatever Jesus tells you to do.
  6. Immediately gather again and allow Jesus to debrief you (see points 1-3). If you are stuck in how to get the debrief started, here are three questions (What happened? How did you feel? What did you learn?).
  7. Repeat the process as often as necessary.

This is intended to be a cyclical learning process. It is intended to be learning by making mistakes (see Making Mistakes with Jesus). And, it should be fun. I personally believe we learn best by doing instead of learning by talking about a bunch of good concepts. And I believe it will lead to fruit much earlier and the learning will be much deeper.

  • Have you ever gone on an adventure with Jesus and some friends?
  • Are you as frustrated as I am about talking but not doing?
  • Have you ever noticed that we always want a little more information before we feel we are ready to actually do something? Where do you think that comes from?
  • Why do you think we are so reticent to make mistakes? Why don’t we welcome them as a learning experience?
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Where’s Jesus?

Filed Under: Biblical Meditation, Christendom, Church History, House Church, Jesus is Lord by rossrohde — Leave a comment
July 14, 2011

Government appointed Bishop Guo

On July 14, 2011 the AP posted an article: China’s Catholic church ordains another bishop: China’s government-backed Catholic church on Thursday ordained a third bishop without the pope’s approval in eight months, despite a Vatican appeal to Chinese leaders….read the rest of the article here.

How can China appoint Catholic Bishops, you may be asking? Well, as far as the Chinese Government is concerned, they severed ties with the Catholic Church in 1951. From that point on, they formed the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association. This was a church, Catholic in practice, but which was actually a branch of the Chinese government. The government did exactly the same thing with the Chinese Protestants naming the government controlled Protestant church the Three Self Patriotic Movement. In both of these churches the Chinese government appoints all levels of leadership from Bishops to priests, from Three Self Denominational Leadership to pastors.

Of course from the Traditional Roman Catholic point of view this is absolute heresy; only the pope has the right to appoint bishops. This is no small matter to the Chinese government, either, which views the pope making such decisions as foreign interference in Chinese business. At stake is who controls the Church, who is its head?

Most of the readers of this blog come from a Protestant background (Greetings my followers from the Chinese Government: may Jesus bless you!). About now you are pretty incensed by both the Catholic Church and the Chinese government. How dare the pope, a mere man, think he is in charge of the Church? How dare some secular government try to control the Church? But, frankly, most of the Protestants need to get off their high horse. Who appoints the pastor in Protestant churches? In some denominations they are appointed by the denomination, in others by the elders of the local church, in others by the congregation…in other words by men (or men and women as the case may be). How is that much different than what the Catholics does? So, who is the Head of the Church? Note the change in capitalization.

Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work (Eph. 4:15-16)

For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior (Eph. 5:23).

What is it called when we say one thing and do another? What then, should it be called when we say that Jesus is the Head of the Church and we actually let men control it? What happens when we espouse Jesus as Lord, as a doctrine, but actually live under the control and rule of men or act as the ruler ourselves? The headship and lordship of Jesus should not be a mere doctrine, it should be a lifestyle. And we shouldn’t criticize the Chinese Communist Government or the Roman Catholic Church until we take a glaring beam out of our own eye. To see how Jesus can actually lead a church and be her Lord read Authority: How Jesus Leads a Church.

What then is my suggestion? Let’s get beam out of our own eye, not merely in what we say, but how we actually live our lives under Christ our Lord. Then we can honestly be concerned for the human abuse of the Church by the Chinese Government, the Catholic Church and the vast majority of Protestants.

  • Why do you think it is so easy to not realize how out of sync our practice is with our espoused doctrine?
  • Now that you know a little bit of the history can you see why the Chinese house church movement got stated?
  • Of the four branches of the Chinese church in 1951 (Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, The Three Self Patriotic Movement, The Roman Catholic Chinese Church and the Chinese House Church Movement [in order of size]) did you know the house church movement was by far he smallest ?
  • Did you know that the Chinese House Church Movement has grown from around 100,000 to probably over 100 million since that time; becoming by far the biggest branch of the Chinese Church?
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The Public Invisibility Motif

Filed Under: Biblical Meditation, Christendom, Evangelism, Jesus is Lord, Simple Church, Spiritual Life, Viral Christianity by rossrohde — 1 Comment
June 22, 2011

They need to see through us to see Jesus.

Dan Smith, in a comment sent to my post Setting Parameters, discussed the differences between simple church life and ministry in more traditional churches:

Another major difference is the embracing of invisibility in ministry. While Jesus emphasized secrecy in prayer, giving, good works, etc in the Sermon on the Mount, almost everything I did as a conventional church pastor (preaching, teaching, worship leading, outreach etc) was intended for public consumption.

Dan makes a good point; there really is something to Jesus’ invisibility motif. Jesus warned us away from focusing attention on ourselves. Jesus had a laser like focus on his Father. He wanted us to do the same thing. When we have a laser like focus on God, we tend to point others in the same direction. Humility isn’t thinking poorly of ourselves; it isn’t thinking of ourselves at all. It is focusing on God and others.

Further, there is a deep power in secrecy, in invisibility. I believe this power is both sociological and spiritual. Sociologically we build mistrust when we try to gain attention to ourselves through good works. When we hype them, those who the beneficiaries of the good works and those who are on the sidelines wonder what our hidden agenda is. What’s in it for us? Why are we doing this? The suspicion is that we are just trying to gain attention for ourselves. And that suspicion may very well be on point. Is our attention focused like a laser on Jesus, or are we focusing somewhere else.

But there is a deeper spiritual issue. It is one of trust. Can we trust a supernatural God to bring about in public what we pray about in secret? But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you (Matt. 6:6). Do you trust God to fulfill your prayers, or do you need to go make something happen? Jesus is telling us we can pray in secret and see real results in public.

When we fast it is not intended to impress those around us. “But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you” (Matt. 6:17-18). Can we trust God to fulfill what we are fasting for without us making an issue of it? The same could be said about giving. We don’t need to make an issue of how much we give, because that’s not the point.

On the other hand, there was also what seemed to be an opposite emphasis in Jesus’ teaching? “Now no one after lighting a lamp covers it over with a container, or puts it under a bed; but he puts it on a lampstand, so that those who come in may see the light.  For nothing is hidden that will not become evident, nor anything secret that will not be known and come to light” (Lk. 8:16-17). Is Jesus speaking out of both sides of his mouth? No, I don’t think so. I think there are a few lessons built into this public invisibility motif.

  1. Our focus is on God, not ourselves.
  2. We don’t do anything to impress others, particularly other Christians.
  3. We have a supreme confidence that God is the power behind our prayers, what we pray in a closed room will become reality in public.
  4. Since we want those who don’t know Christ to know him, we aren’t shy about proclaiming him with a beautiful life, which reflects his life and beautiful words, which reflects his words. Our life and words should make this a public issue…graciously.
  5. Since we aren’t doing anything duplicitous or evil, we shouldn’t be afraid of anyone knowing what we are up to and why. That we don’t need to hide. On the other hand, we don’t need to talk about it either. We don’t need to defend ourselves if we aren’t doing anything wrong.

So, we don’t need to hide anything because we aren’t doing anything shameful. In fact, we want the world to know what we do because we want them to know Who is behind it. But, we don’t do anything to bring glory to ourselves, only to God. And, we trust in him and his power to bring things about, not our cleverness and effort.

How are we doing nowadays in fitting within Jesus public invisibility motif?

  • In Dan’s statement “almost everything I did as a conventional church pastor … was intended for public consumption? What public do you think Dan was talking about, Christian or non-Christian? How does that fit with Jesus’ public invisibility motif?
  • Do our actions speak of supreme trust in a God who can hear our prayers and notice our secret fast and bring about the answer in public?
  • How much of typical Christian behavior is consciously or unconsciously intended on impressing other Christians?
  • Does our life speak of a laser like focus on glorifying God?
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Setting Parameters

Filed Under: Jesus is Lord, Organic Church, Simple Church, Spiritual Life, Supernaturalism, Viral Christianity by rossrohde — 7 Comments
June 15, 2011

Setting parameters is just part of good Western leadership practice.

A Personal Story

I was a typical missionary for 25 years. I live in three countries outside my native United States (Mexico, Guatemala and Spain). My experience was pretty normative for a missionary. I worked with a fine organization who took pride in taking care of their missionaries, and they did. They took the currently popular idea of servant leadership very seriously. While I had some bad experiences with leadership, usually on the local team level, I must admit that my interaction with the home office leadership was always filtered through this concept of them trying to do the best they could for “their missionaries.”

I mention this because the story I’m about to tell doesn’t come out of bitterness or anger. I’m going to be telling a story, without mentioning names, about really good people; people who sincerely love Jesus. Rather, I’m telling it because I believe it highlights a blind spot we Westerners have to the problems our own Western paradigm creates with our relationship with the Lord.

God began to call me to simple/organic church while I was a missionary in Spain. At first, for me, organic church was just a model, one which didn’t conflict with the emerging postmodern worldview of Europe and the rest of Western culture. After having studied, written and trained on postmodernism extensively, it just made sense to me. As opposed to every other church “model” out there, simple churches just didn’t have any significant barriers to postmodern culture. Still, in my mind it was just the most logical option among a host of models.

Then God actually gave me a supernatural call to “house church.” I won’t go into that experience but suffice it to say that it was powerful and began me on a journey away from thinking of simple church as a mere model to a new spirituality and way of life that was distinct from anything I had experienced before. As I began to filter my own life, experience, ministry and relationship with the Lord through this new paradigm, I began to become more and more uncomfortable with the way things had always been done.

I’ve always wanted to live what I actually believe. So, I began to live according to what I felt God was teaching me about simple, organic relationship with Him. Specifically, I began a simple practice of actually listening to him in real time and obeying what I thought he was telling me. This, as opposed to what my normal Western business based spiritual practice of setting goals and objectives to govern my ministry decisions. An interesting thing began to happen. I began to bear much more fruit; but that fruit came from new and strange situations. I began to have divine appointments. I would just happen to meet people “out of the blue” that I needed to meet. I found that if I just obeyed what I felt God was leading me towards, things just fell in place. My life took on a new supernatural edge. And my life began to be exciting and spiritual, rather than the dull grind of making things happen.

Still, for three years, out of obedience to my mission, I submitted one year, two year and five year objectives. None of these preplanned objectives were met; not one. Yet, I moved in to the most fruitful time of my missionary life. The fruit was coming from listening and obeying the inner voice of the Spirit, not “following the objective process.” I was also experiencing more and more inner turmoil which I was beginning to recognize as coming from God. I finally got to the point of asking God to release me from the pointless burden of the objective process. His answer: not yet.

After three years of this I felt that God was allowing me to talk to the leadership of the mission about my inner turmoil. I was allowed to ask for permission to live according to the principles I found in the Bible of simply listening and obeying. If I was allowed to live like this, in simple obedience to Jesus, I could stay in the mission. If not, I would be released from a context which was not allowing me to live what I was actually seeing modeled in Scripture.

I met with one of the Vice Presidents and another leader of our mission. I told them the story I’ve just told you. Actually it was expressed as a series of questions.

Me: Are you aware that in that last three years I have not fulfilled one single written goal I’ve submitted in the objective process?

VP: Yes.

Me: Are you aware that that same three years corresponds to the most productive time in my ministry life?

VP: Yes.

Me: Do you realize that this productivity comes from me learning to listen to the Lord and just obey what He is asking me to do; even on short notice.

VP: No, I wasn’t aware of that.

Me: Well, that’s what’s happening. And, I’d like to ask permission to just skip the objective process and just listen to the Lord and obey what he is telling me to do.

VP: (and this is a direct quote) I can’t imagine anyone being allowed to be in (name of mission) without following the objective process.

And I was free at last. Here’s my point. He who sets the parameters is the lord. If we tell Jesus he has to use the objective process, or any other set of parameters, we have, without thinking about it, made ourselves lord. Jesus has become the servant to our parameters. Without intending to, we have set ourselves over God.

It is not just the objective process that does this. Any time we tell God he has to do it our way, the denominational way, the simple church way…any specific way, we have set ourselves up as God and him as our servant. Do you think that’s wise?

  • Review your own way of doing things, have you set up parameters that you expect God to honor?
  • Have you learned to listen to God and obey in real time?
  • Are divine appointments and other supernatural events a normal part of your spiritual life?
  • If they are not, do you long for this type of life?
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