Frank Viola asked many of his readers to do a "blog circuit," where either we would post a review of his latest book, or we could do our own Q and A with him. Since I already posted my review, here are the questions I asked him:

1) If Eternity is the first book of yours that someone has read, which of your other three books (Untold Story, Pagan Christianity, Reimagining Church) would you recommend they read second?

It all depends. If they were someone who was open to the idea that church as we know isn’t "it," and they felt that there must be more, I would give them "Reimagining Church" probably. If they didn’t feel that way, I’d give them "The Untold Story of the New Testament Church."

Untold Story is a book I'm in the middle of now - I'll review it when I'm finished with it, but it is a retelling of the book of Acts, weaving in details from the other letters in the New Testament along with other historical information. It paints a very clear picture of the founding of the New Testament church, and particularly of Paul's ministry.

2) How long have the central ideas expressed in Eternity been a clear focus for you? Was it revealed to you through a process of searching, or as a simple moment of discovery?

Both. There was an initial crisis in April of 1992. I had the "general outline" in my mind and heart, you might say. But since then, it’s been an ever-expanding revelation within me, and many details of that outline have been filled in. That still goes on today. The Eternal Purpose cannot be exhausted.

I'm also going to highly recommend listening to Viola's talk at George Fox Seminary that he gave earlier this year. It's also available as a podcast on iTunes. I can't stress enough how much you should listen to this - if you're not really a book reader, listen to this talk. It does a better job of explaining all of this than I can summarize here.

OTHER BLOGS PARTICIPATING IN THE “FROM ETERNITY TO HERE” BLOG CIRCUIT

Today (June 9th), the following blogs are discussing Frank Viola’s new bestselling book “From Eternity to Here” (David C. Cook, 2009). The book just hit the May CBA Bestseller List. Some are posting Q & A with Frank; others are posting full reviews of the book. To read more reviews and order a copy at a 33% discount, go to Amazon.com:



For more resources, such as downloadable audios, the free Discussion Guide, the Facebook Group page, etc. go to the official website: http://www.FromEternitytoHere.org/

Enjoy the reviews and the Q and A:
-----
Out of Ur - http://blog.christianitytoday.com/outofur/archives/2009/05/viola.html
Shapevine - http://www.Shapevine.com/ (June newsletter)
Brian Eberly - http://www.brianeberly.com/
DashHouse.com - http://www.DashHouse.com/
Greg Boyd - http://www.gregboyd.org/blog/
Vision Advance - http://vision2advance.blogspot.com/
David Flowers - http://ddflowers.wordpress.com
Kingdom Grace - http://kingdomgrace.wordpress.com
Captain's Blog - http://www.captainestes.blogspot.com/
Christine Sine - http://godspace.wordpress.com
Darin Hufford - The Free Believers Network - http://www.freebelievers.com/
Zoecarnate - http://zoecarnate.wordpress.com/
Church Planting Novice - http://www.churchplantingnovice.wordpress.com/
Staying Focused - http://kimmartinezstayingfocused.wordpress.com/
Take Your Vitamin Z - http://www.takeyourvitaminz.blogspot.com/
Jeff Goins - http://jeffgoins.myadventures.org/
Bunny Trails - http://bunny-trails.blogspot.com/
Matt Cleaver - http://mattcleaver.com/
Jason T. Berggren - http://blog.jasonberggren.com/
Simple Church - http://www.simplechurchjournal.com/
Emerging from Montana - http://wordofmouthministries.blogspot.com/
Parable Life - http://www.theparablelife.blogspot.com/
Oikos Australia - http://www.oikos.org.au/blog/
West Coast Witness - http://www.WestCoastWitness.com/
Keith Giles - http://www.Keith.Giles.com/
Consuming Worship - http://www.consumingworship.org/
Tasha Via - http://www.tashavia.blogspot.com/
Andrew Courtright - http://www.andrewcourtright.blogspot.com/
ShowMeTheMooneys! - http://www.showmethemooneys.com/
Leaving Salem, Blog of Ronnie McBrayer - http://leavingsalem.wordpress.com/
Jason Coker - http://pastoralia.missionaltribe.org/
From Knowledge to Wisdom - http://isthistheway.typepad.com/
Home Brewed Christianity - http://www.homebrewedchristianity.com/
Dispossessed - http://kblog.kevinjbowman.com/
Dandelion Seeds - http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Dandelionseeds
David Brodsky's Blog- "Flip the tape Deck" - http://flipthetapedeck.blogspot.com/
Chaordic Journey - http://jeffrhodes.wordpress.com/
Renee Martin - http://www.reneemartinmusic.com/profiles/blog/list
Bob Kuhn - http://organicchurchnola.wordpress.com/
Living with Freaks: http://www.livingwithfreaks.com/
Real Worship - http://therealworshipleader.com/
Fervent Worship - http://ferventworship.blogspot.com/
Julie Ferwerda Blog - http://www.JulieFerwerda.com/ / http://www.OneMillionArrows.com/
What's With Christina?! - http://w2christina.blogspot.com/
Irreligious Canuck - http://www.irreligiouscanuck.com/
This day on the journey - http://guychmieleski.blogspot.com/
Live and Move: Thoughts on Authentic Christianity - http://liveandmove.blogspot.com/
Spiritual Journey With God - http://www.elvineve.blogspot.com/
Dries Conje - http://www.echurch.co.za/ / http://www.thejesusfeed.com/ / http://www.bookdisciple.com/
Journey with Others - http://journeywithothers.blogspot.com/
On Now to the Third Level - http://www.080808onnowto.blogspot.com/
Christine Moers - http://www.welcometomybrain.net/
Breaking Point - http://marybethstockdale.wordpress.com/
Hand to the Plough - http://www.handtotheplough.com.au/
Jon Reid - http://jonreid.blogs.com/oneanother/welcome-pilgrim.html
Weblight - http://www.blog.worldwidewebservices.se/
D. L. Webster - http://gzmproductions.com/dlwebster
Searching for the Whole-Hearted Life - http://wholeheartedlife.blogspot.com/

Labels: books, church

Any of you who have been following my blog for awhile know that I'm a big fan of Frank Viola's books. It started with Rethinking the Wineskin, and continued with Pagan Christianity and the update to Wineskin, Reimagining Church. This certainly continues with his new book, From Eternity to Here: Rediscovering the Ageless Purpose of God.

(Note: While the links are to Amazon, Viola really wants everyone to order from Parable.com or purchase the book at Lifeway as the book is getting started. He explained why he's requesting that on his blog. Basically, Parable/Lifeway is promoting the book and selling it at a really good price, and the more they sell the more attention they'll give the books, and the more people will hear this message. You can buy the book from Parable right now for less than $10.)

While Viola's other books that I've read focus on church practice and tradition, this book is different because it focuses on purpose - God's purpose in all of creation, humanity, and the church. The book is split into three parts, focusing on three "stories" that are interwoven throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament.

The first story is that of God seeking a bride for his Son.

The second story is that of God seeking a dwelling place.

The third story is that of God creating a new species to fully reveal Christ.

While these aspects of scripture aren't generally new to many Christians, the depth and intensity of them as God's central purpose is largely lost in modern Christianity. Churches focus primarily on other "things." These things include evangelism, charismatic gifts, theology, eschatology, etc. These things are not necessarily bad in and of themselves, but the pursuit of them as central obscures from us the reasons why God embarked on this whole creation thing to begin with, as well as why he chose to send his Son and establish the ekklesia on earth.

What Viola's book does is help us realign our perspectives back onto God's central purposes. And by doing so, helps us to regain a new focus on Christ as not just the center, but as the fullness.

One of the best chapters of the book is the afterword, "One Man's Journey Into Deep Ecclesiology." In it, Viola shares his personal history of going through spiritual "things," and finding that they do not satisfy. To Viola, "Deep Ecclesiology" leads ultimately to Christ, and to a revelation of Him that changes the entire way we view the ekklesia. The afterword wraps up the information of the book and presents it as a heartfelt pleading to discover Christ in a new way.

In some ways, this book would be the best book to read first of any of Viola's books, as it shares his heart and lays a foundation for why we should question historical church practices, and why we should restore New Testament practices - because of how they either interfere with or focus on God's eternal purposes for the ekklesia. I believe that those who read this book first would feel less threatened by Viola's other books as they would better understand the heart behind them.

Labels: books, church, reviews

If you've been following my blog for any time at all, you already know that I've become a fan of Frank Viola's books. Not that I've read that many of them, actually - the first one I read was Rethinking the Wineskin, a book that really shakes you down to your foundation in terms of the way you approach the New Testament. Earlier this year, Viola released Pagan Christianity with George Barna, his first in a series of re-releasing some of his older books, updated a little bit and with more serious publisher backing. Before Pagan, Frank Viola's books were a little more obscure.

Pagan Christianity garnered a lot of attention, partially because it came on the heels of Barna's Revolution. But the response was more intense, because it revealed the aspects of the modern institutional church that have no Biblical basis, and went further to discuss how they undermine Biblical principles. You can't publicly criticize nearly all aspects of the modern institutional church - church buildings, order of worship, sermons, the clergy system, dressing up for church, music ministers, tithing and salaries, modern baptism and communion practices, and modern Christian education - without getting a lot of backlash. I participated in many a blog discussion about that book, responding to a lot of criticisms from people who had actually never read the book.

In any case, the Christian community's reaction to Pagan (as well as to Revolution) all kind of missed the point. I think it's important to scrutinize all of the things we find in the institutional church, and to step outside of it - but if it just stops there, you're left with nothing. Or in some cases, just a smaller copy of the institutional church that happens to meet in a house. The question really is, if we shake off all of the institutional baggage, what do we do instead? The answer to that, thankfully, is found in the New Testament. And dealing with that is what Reimagining Church is all about. It's not about creating some new church, really - it's about reimagining in light of a true apostolic tradition - the apostolic tradition that has been passed down to us as scripture.

If Pagan shed light on all of the aspects of the modern institutional church that are not Biblical, Reimagining is about shedding light on Biblical practices that the modern institutional church chooses to ignore.

While Pagan Christianity was an update of a previous Viola book with the same title, Reimagining Church is actually an update of Rethinking the Wineskin. So I don't really have to go into too much detail about it - if you really want to know more about Reimagining, read my comments about Wineskin, which were very detailed and broken down essentially by chapter. (My comments on that one were possibly too detailed - I always fear that authors will get offended if I quote and summarize so much!)

I covered the following areas of the original book:

• Gatherings
  
• Common Meal
  
• The House
  
• Family/Community
  
• Leadership - Oversight
  
• Leadership - Visionary
  
• Purpose
  
• Membership
  
• Boundary
  
• Tradition

All of these elements are in the updated book, though organized a little differently, and expanded in some cases. So I'll just give you my impression of the difference.

Overall, I'd say that this book is quite a bit better. While every bit as challenging and disturbing (in the appropriate sense), I think some of the reorganization helped the book to come across a little more clearly. Early on in the book, Viola included some specific testimonies of people who have been exposed to organic church - this was a great idea, and helped to bring the book down to a relational level early on.

One of the aspects that people struggle with the most when discussing issues of organic Christianity is the lack of official leadership. Viola includes an entirely new chapter to address specific questions people have, based on specific scriptures, as well as dealing in a general sense with the word choices used in the original Greek compared to how we translate and use those words today to justify hierarchical, authoritative church structures (any church with a "pastor"). This chapter alone is worth the new version of the book, and I'd encourage someone (perhaps even Viola) to go further and deal with this type of topic in a book all its own.

I did find it interesting that the metaphor of the "wineskin" was almost totally absent from this book. It is described once or twice, and alluded to a couple of times, but this is far different from how prominently the metaphor was featured in the original. What was really good, though, and totally new to this book, was the emphasis of the trinity as the organizing metaphor. Specifically, that the church is really supposed to reflect the image of the trinity - no hierarchical structure, mutual submission, unity, etc. This was a fundamental shift that I think had a great impact on the book. The metaphor of the trinity better reflects the nature of the church, and is a better returning point than the wineskin was.

There is one quote I wanted to share from this book. I shared a similar quote from the original, but it is important enough that it bears repeating.

Seeking to repair a house that has cracks in its foundation will never prove productive. I believe it's time that we honestly examined the structural integrity of the modern church system. I strongly believe that the clergy system, which includes the modern pastoral office, is what needs to be abandoned. It's the system that's one of the main culprits, not the people, the motives, or the intentions. Experience has taught me that an institutional church will never fully embody the dream of God until it recognizes that the framework within which it operates is inadequate and self-defeating. Despite the good intentions of the persons who populate it, the interior design of the organized church sets us up for defeat.

True renewal, therefore, must be radical. That means it must go to the root.

The concept of clergy, and more important, the idea of a "pastor," is central to the experience of Christians who have been raised up in a modern institutional church. And to those of us who have had this experience, it is the idea of stripping this away the "pastor" that is the most disturbing aspect. The pastor represents some sense of safety, in that even if I don't know what to believe or what to do, at least the "pastor," who is "ordained," and is professionally committed to the church, will provide me with good leadership. Yet an honest examination of the New Testament reveals that there is nothing there that justifies the modern concept of "pastor." And it is this single concept that most plagues the church and keeps her members silent and passive in the Christian life. The pastor stands, almost literally, between us and Christ - as long as we look to that official leadership we will never fully understand the functional headship of Christ and the mutual edification between members of Christ's body.

In some ways, I think that Revolution, Pagan Christianity, and Reimagining Church are like a trilogy. Like any great trilogy, the first part, Revolution, introduces the players, the problems, and the concepts. While it can stand alone, it alone it does not tell the whole story. Pagan Christianity plays the role of the middle part of a trilogy - things turn dark, problems continue to rise, until you're not sure how things can possibly get better. Then finally, like in the last part of the great trilogies, Reimagining Church reveals the way out, the way back to how things were better back back in the beginning, and redefines the way you see the entire story.

It takes radical thought to challenge the existing institutional church tradition. But it is exactly this tradition that must be scrutinized. If you've ever asked the question why - as in why in the world do churches do things the way they do - you owe it to yourself to read this great trilogy - but if you only read one of them, read Reimagining Church. But be warned: it just might make you question everything about the modern institutional church.

Labels: books, church, house church, reviews

Now that I'm done doing a thorough review of one of Viola's books, it's time to do a more concise review of his latest book: Pagan Christianity?: Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices.

This is actually a revision of Pagan Christianity, which was first released by Viola several years ago, and has apparently been out of print. With this revision, he's partnered with George Barna. I've not read the original version of Pagan Christianity, but I've heard that this revision is much better on several levels.

While Rethinking the Wineskin actually focuses on church practices and principles described in the New Testament, Pagan Christianity focuses much more on the church practices (and their underlying principles) that have been added to the church since the New Testament era. It is really an impressive history book, detailing how certain practices were first introduced in the church. But it is also a criticism, for the practices Viola mentions have had detrimental effects on the functioning of the church:

• Church buildings: this idea is simply not found in Scripture, and Viola explains how the church building as a sacred space was connected to the use of relics (usually bones of dead saints) to create sacred, holy spaces as the only "appropriate" place to worship. Early Christianity intentionally stayed away from the "holy space" concept prevalent in every other religion. The financial overhead of a building is only one of the problems it creates. (As opposed the house.)


• Order of worship: the order of worship has remained essentially unchanged for hundreds of years. The problem with a set, unalterable liturgy (whether spoken or set to song) is that it prevents the practical functioning of the body of Christ within church gatherings. Not only is it not found in scripture, it is directly at odds with descriptions found in scripture of early church gatherings as well as inconsistent with the theology of the body of Christ.


• Sermon: like the order of worship, the sermon takes control away from the body and places it in the hands of the individual. But sermons also were borrowed directly from pagan philosophy styles of the Greek sophists (the inventors of rhetoric) who were more interested in oratorical skill than in any kind of accuracy. The idea of a "trained speaker," turned into "religious specialist" was taken from this tradition. This does not call teaching or preaching into question, but it certainly calls into question the regularly styled oratory and professional approach to preaching. Preaching as found in the New Testament was sporadic, spontaneous, dealt with an immediate situation, and lacked rhetorical structure. It also usually took on some form of dialogue rather than simply being an oratory.


• Pastor: The pastor is at the heart of preventing the body of Christ from functioning in the way demanded by New Testament theology. Pastoring is a spiritual gift, but the idea of the modern "pastor" is completely unbiblical. Its introduction to the church first began with Ignatius, who believed that "a bishop stood in the place of God while the presbyters, or elders, stood in the place of the twelve apostles." Eventually these ideas morphed into the priest system. But it was always about separating God from man, establishing man-made structures and hierarchies to take the place of the organic leadership that Christ worked through in the early church.


• Sunday morning dress: "Dressing up for church" is a more recent issue, brought on about 150 years ago with the introduction of a middle class who could afford some nice clothes, and wanted to identify themselves with their more wealthy neighbors. But the idea of special clergy robes was integrated from the Roman court systems, and over time became yet another symbol of the separation of the clergy from the laity.


• Music ministers: the choir was borrowed from Roman imperial procedures for processional music, eventually leading to a specialization of singing by the choir alone. Similar to how preaching was viewed as requiring training in the methods and practices of oratory and was reserved for only professionals, the singing was reserved for the trained, professional members of the choir, creating a spirit of spectatorship that survives to this day.


• Tithing and salaries: the modern idea of a tithe has no basis in the New Testament, which calls believers to give according to their ability, and to give as they feel led to give, out of joy. The modern idea of the tithe exists as a result of the combination of the church with secular authority, which used the "tithe" as a way to forcibly fund church operations. Viola explains how tithing in the Old Testament was designed to help the poor, but in the modern understanding of a tithe, the church expects even the poor to give 10%, and makes them feel guilty if they are unable to do so. The tithe becomes a cop-out for those with a lot of money (because they can easily give the "required" 10% and ease their conscience), while becoming a burden of guilt on the poor. All to fund further religious specialization of the clergy, separating these same poor people from God and preventing the full functioning o the body of Christ.


• Baptism and communion: Baptism became a part of a larger religious ritual rather than the simple practical expression of faith as described in the New Testament. Many began to view the act of baptism as providing the forgiveness of sins - Constantine himself waited until his deathbed to be baptized for this reason. Communion in the New Testament was a full meal, with remembrance, celebration, and discipleship, as a center of the gathering community. It later became infused with ritualistic undertones, taking on elements of pagan mysticism to eventually become the Eucharist in the Catholic mass. The reformation changed the theology behind communion but it did little to change the practice itself, which still commonly has heavy ritualistic undertones.


• Christian education: After the institutionalization of Christianity, Christian education always followed the prevailing education methods of the day. With a focus on knowledge, Christian education has little in common with the methods Christ employed in discipleship. Christian education is at the heart of the "specialization" of Christian ministry to the select few, being a basis upon which a person is "called" to professional ministry. This concept has nothing in common with New Testament Christianity and is based completely in secular systems of training and credentials.

The reality is that all of these elements were absent from the early church. All of them were borrowed and adopted from pagan and religious systems. Few people will disagree with that. What people will disagree with is whether or not they hinder the proper functioning of the body of Christ.

Wineskin talked a lot about these issues as well, but didn't go into nearly the same level of detail about them. Likewise, Pagan Christianity deals somewhat with the New Testament church practices and principles, but doesn't go into nearly the same detail as Wineskin. But I think to truly understand how these issues hinder the proper functioning of the body of Christ, you have to look very closely at how God instructs the Church to be. And since today's institutional church doesn't take scripture very seriously in this regard, of course they will disagree with Viola's style, tone, and conclusions.

Even still, those who agree with Viola are sometimes at a loss to put it all together. Viola also puts a lot of plugs in for a book coming out this summer, called Reimagining Church: Pursuing the Dream of Organic Christianity (to be released in August 2008). I'm pretty sure that this book will actually be a combination of a couple of Viola's previous books, including Wineskin. I know that a lot of people had wished that Pagan Chrstianity had contained more practical descriptions of how to implement organic church principles - Viola has been pushing this upcoming book as the "response" to Pagan Christianity.

But I'm not sure that we should get too caught up looking for "practical" tips to implementing an organic church. Part of the point in things being organic is that they don't look exactly the same everywhere. But every practical thing we try to do should be examined against the principles of the church, as described in the New Testament, and those following the path of organic church welcome others who can help guide them along the way.

I also don't think it's wrong to adopt styles and practices from surrounding culture, as long as they don't redefine what it means to be the church, and as long as we don't form some kind of new tradition around them. For instance, I don't think there's anything wrong with hosting a concert-style worship event or a seminar-style teaching series, but I don't think that these should become the defining characteristics of our church gatherings -- which are more appropriately modeled after the relational form of discipleship that Christ employed. Keeping things organic helps to ensure that my "great idea" doesn't obstruct how the church is supposed to function, and also helps to ensure that my idea doesn't outlive its usefulness.

I think that the story of the church over the past 1700 years, most of all, has been one of religious leaders redefining church to be less and less organic and more and more institutional. We are beginning to see a paradigm shift back to an organic view of church. It started decades ago and is still growing. It might not really explode for decades more, but those of us whom God has called out of the institutional church to follow His call to a return to organic communities are glad to see authors like Viola and Barna put a voice to what God has been laying on our hearts. Some in the institutional church will respond as God puts in on their hearts as well, and others will lash out because it is too much of a challenge to their institutional worldview. If they had the power to silence it, many of them would try. This has always been the case when God speaks through His prophets, and we should expect no different today.

If you've not read this book, and issues of this nature are at all an interest to you, I highly recommend reading it. It will give you a very different perspective on the Sunday morning experience, and at a minimum, will help you to understand the perspective of your "organic church" contemporaries.

Labels: books, church, house church, open formats, reviews

Boortz and Linder recently came out with another FairTax book, called FairTax: The Truth: Answering the Critics.

It's been billed as their effort to "answer the outspoken and misinformed critics" of the FairTax. The main disappointment I have with the book is that it really only does that for about two chapters.

The book is still good, though, including more history about how the FairTax developed. The book does a good job of dealing with criticisms, even if it's a little short on explanations here and there. It does not assume that you've read their first FairTax book, nor does it assume you're familiar with all of the aspects of the FairTax. Between giving some history on the FairTax, and explaining most of its basic concepts, it's not until about halfway through the book before they really take on the critics.

Perhaps the best stuff in the book is towards the end, though. There's a great section where they describe what it would be like to have lived under the FairTax all of your life - receiving your entire paycheck. No payroll taxes. Knowing exactly what government is costing. Not having to base business or investment decisions on their tax consequences. And then they describe a politician trying to come and sell the current system as an improvement. Taxing your income. Taxing business profits, so there's a hidden tax cost in everything you buy. Taxing investments. Even taxing death.

It's a very interesting way to look at it, and it really helps to make it clear how much simpler the FairTax is, and how it removes government from more day-to-day business and personal decisions.

If you've been suspicious of the FairTax, I highly encourage you to pick this book up. It's less technical than the first one, in some ways, and more visionary in tone. And many of your questions and concerns about the FairTax are probably dealt with in this book.

One criticism I felt like they should have dealt with better is the progressive nature of the FairTax. They explain the prebate well, and how that prevents anyone from paying taxes on the basic necessities of life (defined by the poverty level), and they explained how this makes the FairTax progressive. They also talked a good bit about net effective tax rates under the current tax system. But I think they could have talked more about net effective tax rates under the FairTax. I've left comments about this over at FairTaxBlog.Com, and I'll probably work on a post about this particular issue in the future. It's really important to consider net effective rates when people initially react to the idea of a 23% inclusive consumption tax.

(Actually, if you have serious questions or concerns about the FairTax, check out FairTaxBlog.Com. There are a lot of supporters and critics that can support their points very well there.)

I think this quote does a good job of describing the overall goals of tax reform, and what the FairTax will enable.

Under the FairTax Vision for Tomorrow, every time an American buys a loaf of bread or a new car, he'll know, to the penny, how much of that money is going to the federal government.

Our vision for tomorrow sees a government that's a partner with the business community and the people, not an adversary; a government with a tax system that encourages economic development and the creation of the new business, rather than a government and a tax system that chases valued businesses to foreign shores.

Our vision for tomorrow is one where governance returns to the local level; were communities are allowed to make the important decisions regarding their government and their schools. No longer will politicians be able to hide regulations and programs that control every aspect of our lives in 9 million words of confusing and draconian codes and regulation. The FairTax will demand political honesty...

Our vision for tomorrow sees an America where jobs are insourced, not outsourced... sees America becoming the safest and most secure tax haven for trillions of dollars currently languishing offshore... sees an America that will enjoy a virtual $400-billion-per-year tax cut... an exporting powerhouse, selling goods and services into a global economy unburdened by the 22 percent tax component now burdening our price system...

People see all of this and say, "how can a different tax system do that?" One point that I haven't seen made clearly enough, is that the FairTax wouldn't be responsible for any of this. The truth is that these "benefits" would not be due to enacting the FairTax, they would be due to completely getting rid of all of the oppression of the current tax structure on our economic decisions, while still funding our government. It is not the FairTax that would produce such wonderful results - it would be the American people, unencumbered by an oppressive tax system. How can you disagree with that?

Labels: books, politics, reviews

This is the conclusion to the series reviewing Rethinking The Wineskin by Frank Viola. See my introduction to the series, if you haven't already, for the background discussion about the book.

By the way: I know that Amazon lists a really high price for this book. It's actually kind of hard to get, but ChristianBook.Com (where I bought it from) still lists Rethinking the Wineskin for only $11.99. It currently shows it shipping in a couple of weeks.

It's taken me some time to wrap this series up. I don't usually go into as much detail with a "review." But this book has really pushed me, as well as really voicing a lot of the things God has been pushing me (as well as my siblings) towards. This kind of detailed review is as much for me as it is for anyone who reads my blog. When something this important comes along, it helps me a lot to be able to capture a lot of quotes and my thoughts about them.

But I hope this has been challenging for you as well. And if you're intrigued by my summaries, I highly recommend trying to pick up a copy. Viola is actually in the process of repackaging several of his books, and I suspect that this one will end up being repackaged as well. Hopefully even better.

There are so many things that we've touched on while examining what the "new wineskin" really is:

• Gatherings
  
• Common Meal
  
• The House
  
• Family/Community
  
• Leadership - Oversight
  
• Leadership - Visionary
  
• Purpose
  
• Membership
  
• Boundary
  
• Tradition

Viola finishes up the book dealing with a couple of topics, including looking at what other reform movements have done in the past couple of decades. Viola spends some time in the final chapter analyzing the shortcomings of several modern church movements, including the megachurch, the third wave and restoration movements, and cell churches, and has some things to say about how they really haven't reformed very much. Viola is also highly critical of "house churches" that haven't really adopted organic principles and practices.

That's not to say that Viola feels that institutional churches can't be used by God.

It is a fact that God has used and is using the institutional church. Because of His mercy, the Lord will work through any structure as long as He can find hearts that are truly open to Him.

But Viola is clear that the institutions themselves are more of a hindrance than people realize.

He spends most of his last chapter on what to do next. His assumption is that many people who read this book, currently in the institutional church, will wonder where to go from here and how to implement the principles he's laid out in their current church.

Some have championed the idea of renewing the institutional church from the inside out. But those who have sought to revamp the established church have met serious resistance and frustration.

I've read similar quotes from other authors. I would say that most people who have gone down this path have entertained similar ideas, and I've personally put a lot of thought into what an existing institutional church could do to move toward the original wineskin described in the New Testament. As I've told some friends of mine who are pastors, I've love to see someone really try it. But I've become more and more skeptical about the possibilities. The most likely thing that would happen to an existing church, given that kind of pressure, is that it would be torn apart. You'll never get dozens, hundreds, and especially thousands of people to have that kind of paradigm shift together. The early Christians did not "reform" Judaism by improving the institutional system, but instead created a completely new, organic church that defied all logic of worldly leadership and religion. We are faced with a similar task today in trying to rediscover the new wineskin.

It is the clergy/sectarian system that inhibits the rediscovery of face-to-face community, supplants the functional Headship of Christ, and stifles the full ministry of every believer. Consequently, all attempts at renewal will be short-sighted until the clergy structure and denominational system are dismantled in a local fellowship...

In sum, the modern church will never be renewed until it recognizes that the framework with which it operates is inadequate and self-defeating. Despite the good intentions of the persons that populate it, the interior design of the institutional church sets us up for defeat.

True renewal, therefore, must be radical. That means it must go to the root! Recovering the Lord's testimony necessitates that we forsake our ecclesiastical patches and band-aids!

Again, this comes down to a paradigm shift. Those can happen radically within a generation, but it is usually a new generation that embraces such a shift. I believe this is one of the reasons why the average age of clergy is climbing rapidly. As described in Barna's Revolution, this paradigm shift is beginning.

But people who have not made this shift cannot understand why those of us who have are so restless.

Those who have not had a paradigm shift regarding the church will either ignore or oppose those churches that have.

In the eyes of those who see the world through institutional glasses, unless a church meets in the "right" place (a building), has the "proper" leadership (an ordained pastor or priest), and bears the "correct" name (one that indicates a "covering"), it is not an authentic church! Instead, it is dubbed with innovative terms like "para-church."

For those who have not yet grown weary of running on the program-driven treadmill of institutional "churchianity," that which is abnormal is considered normal. And that which is normal is regarded as abnormal. This is the unhappy result of not basing our faith and practice upon Scripture.

Viola quotes Jon Zens to further emphasize how we have twisted scripture to support the existing institutional system:

It seems to me that we have made normative that for which there is no Scriptural warrant (emphasis on one man's ministry), and we have omitted that for which there is ample Scriptural support (emphasis on one another).

On a final note, look again at Christ's parable of the wineskins:

No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth over a hole in an old coat. Otherwise, the patch will shrink and pull away -- the new patch will pull away from the old coat. Then the hole will be worse. Also, no one ever pours new wine into old leather bags. Otherwise, the new wine will break the bags, and the wine will be ruined along with the bags. But new wine should be put into new leather bags.(Mark 2:21-22, NCV)

The context of this statement is clearly comparing Christ's ministry with the traditional Jewish system. He's saying something very clear here - don't mix what I'm doing with something that is not compatible! He's still telling us that today. Christ modeled for His followers, on a daily basis, what it meant to follow Him, and what it meant to be the church. What it looked like to be the new wineskin. But we keep trying to put the new wine (Christ) into an old wineskin (religious institutions). God is challenging us to rediscover the wineskin Christ began, with the joy, peace, and fullness that comes along with it. May we be faithful to the task he left us:

Jesus, undeterred, went right ahead and gave his charge: "God authorized and commanded me to commission you: Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I'll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age." (Matthew 28:18-20, The Message)

May we be always reminded what the context of Christ's command really is. They didn't view this command as some kind of directive to do something completely different from the kind of leadership Christ modeled for them. They viewed this as a command to continue on in the practices and principles that Christ trained them in.

Labels: books, church, house church, reviews

This series is reviewing Rethinking The Wineskin by Frank Viola. See my introduction to the series, if you haven't already, for the background discussion about the book.

In Christianity, we have nearly 2,000 years of tradition behind us. How much of this helps us? How much of this hinders us?

I'm actually not going to focus much, right now, on the traditions of the last 1,900 years. Primarily because that's a different book (one that I'll do a short review of soon), but also because over the past couple of years I've made it my goal to tease out the tradition of men from my thinking. It's an ongoing struggle, and will likely always be a struggle.

But the NT does talk about tradition - specifically, about apostolic tradition. The apostolic tradition is not a set liturgy or detailed description of worship gatherings. It is not a detailed description of how to organize churches geographically. It is not about obedience to some kind of new law of church practice. If it was, we would not need the guidance of the Spirit in our churches.

The apostolic tradition is all about the principles of following Christ in an organic way.

The apostolic tradition is the embodiment of those spiritual principles and organic practices that the apostles modeled in every church during the first century. It is the principles, methods, and lines of working that constitute the wineskin that God has formed to preserve His new wine.

In other words, Christ brought the new wine of the new covenant, and the apostles created the new wineskin of the church to contain the new covenant. Christ specifically said that the new wine could not be contained in the old wineskin. Therefore the apostolic tradition is essential if we with to truly reflect Christ in the church.

The NT presents the church in its purest form. It shows us what the church was like before it was tainted by the defiling hand of man... if we ignore Scripture on these points, we will make the perilous mistake of creating a church after our image.

I've been saying for awhile that I'm starting to take the NT more seriously. It is exactly because of this that the apostolic tradition becomes more important. For as much as the NT has to say about individual salvation and personal holiness, it has more to say about corporate holiness, our responsibilities to each other, and how we corporately interact with God. Viola quotes Stephen Kaung:

People believe that the Word of God shows them how to live individually before God, but they think that insofar as their corporate life is concerned, God says, 'It's up to you; do whatever you like.' And that's what we find today in Christianity; there is no guiding principle as to our corporate life - everyone does what is right in his own eyes. But dear brothers and sisters, we are saved individually, but we are called corporately... there is as much teaching and example in the Word of God that governs our corporate life as there is our personal life.

The apostolic tradition is the new wineskin. But we have held on to so much more that is either glaringly absent from the apostolic tradition, or even specifically forbidden. Professional clergy are never mentioned in the tradition. (Helping traveling ministers is mentioned, but Paul dislikes taking payment for ministry!) Single-leader and presentational systems are not mentioned, instead each member ministers to the entire body. In a time when religion was always combined with a "holy space," Christians specifically refrained from building temples are basilicas for worship, instead intentionally choosing the simple relational format of the home. Denominations and church splits are specifically warned against. Unity was of the utmost importance.

Observing apostolic traditions means following what was theologically and spiritually significant in the experience of the early church. The apostolic tradition represents the balance between reenacting the specific actions of the first-century church and ignoring them... Multitudes of church leaders today have opted to regard their own ideas of "doing church" as wiser, more expedient, and more successful than what is found in the NT. The tragedy of this mistaken conclusion is manifold. When Divine tendencies are replaced with man-officiated programs and schemes, God's ordained purpose for the ekklesia is crippled at best. It is crushed at worst.

I believe that the heart of the modern church's problem in this area is pragmatism. The idea is that we are after tangible results. God will not be pleased unless we reach as many people as we can. A church building is necessary to reach the unsaved in suburban cultures. That paid pastoral staff serve a need in the church community. Et cetera.

But I believe that the Bible shows, time and time again, that it is not results from pragmatic approaches that God desires from us. God's desire of us is simply to be obedient.

The tragic story of King David's presumptuous act of placing the ark of the Lord upon a wooden cart is the summary witness that God's work must be done His way (2 Sam. 6:1-7). The humanly-devised scheme of placing the holy ark upon a cart appeals to modern pragmatic ears. Yet the idea was borrowed from the heathen Philistines. And it violated the plain instruction of Jehovah.

There is simply nothing we can add to church practice that can be of any lasting value if we are not first and foremost obedient to the direct and obvious descriptions of church life, principle, and practice as described in the NT. This is the apostolic tradition. We would be very wise to compare our modern churches to it, and make any and all adjustments that we need to make in order to follow what has been handed down to us. Not what has been handed down to us through 1,900 years of human improvements. But what has been handed down to us directly from the apostles themselves, in the form of NT scripture. It is this, and only this measurement, with the guidance of the Spirit, that we have been given to adhere to. Pragmatism should be viewed as our enemy if it distracts us from obedience.

I'll finish with a quote from A. W. Tozer about pragmatism:

What shall we do to break its power over us? The answer is simple. Acknowledge the right of Jesus Christ to control the activities of His church. The NT contains full instructions, not only about what we are to believe but what we are to do and how we are to go about doing it. Any deviation from those instructions is a denial of the Lordship of Christ. I say the answer is simple, but it is not easy for it requires that we obey God rather than man, and that brings down the wrath of the religious majority. It is not a question of knowing what to do; we can easily learn that from the Scriptures. It is a question of whether or not we have the courage to do it.

Labels: books, church, house church, reviews

This series is reviewing Rethinking The Wineskin by Frank Viola. See my introduction to the series, if you haven't already, for the background discussion about the book.

Who is in your church?

Last time, we talked about Membership, and how it is clearly not acceptable to separate ourselves out due to any kind of division. We are all a part of Christ, and all members of His body.

But what about the local church? What does the New Testament have to say about the nature of local fellowships?

The New Testament clearly defines local churches in terms of geography. Distance is the only thing that separated one church from another.

Strikingly, everywhere the word "church" is used throughout the NT (excepting the passages which refer to the universal, heavenly church or a church in someone's house) it is identified by the city. By contrast, everywhere the word "churches" is used in the NT, it refers to the various churches that exist in a given province or region... according to the Bible, the boundary of the church is the city.

But this is not how it is today. You can drive down any local highway and easily pass by five churches within a mile of each other, that have no connections between them. Christ is not unified.

Given the size of our cities today, though, the "city" might not be the best analogy to use today. We could more appropriately talk about communities. In metropolitan areas, though, there is little differentiation between communities other than arbitrary political boundaries. Nevertheless, it is the spirit behind this issue that is important. Even if my house church meets just a few miles from my brother's house church, I don't think the issue with geography is that we have to combine our fellowships. But I do think that it is crucial that we view ourselves as part of Christ's church, and more importantly, that we intentionally meet together to express that in a practical way. I have recently realized what a gift this is from God, and how easy it is for us to personally model this, because we have three different house churches in the area, all connected through sibling relationships. I think this is truly opening my eyes, anyway, to how connected our churches should be in Christ.

With the five churches within a mile of each other on a local highway, though, how much inter-relation do these churches have? In nearly all cases, very, very little. A friend of mine who is a pastor in just that situation has lamented to me about how difficult it is to create any kind of fellowship among the pastors. If you ask me, we are divided because of the clergy class, because of the preferential treatment they receive from their followers.

The notable feature of these sects is that the people within the gather around their favorite leader (or doctrine) instead of around Christ.

You could just as easily add stylistic issues to that today. But it began with clergy.

One of the pitfalls of house churches is that we can consider ourselves too much as a single unit. We need connections with others, in other house churches and even, hopefully, those still in a modern church, so that we understand that our group is not singularly the body of Christ.

While the house is the Scriptural setting for the church meeting, the boundary of the church is never the house. It is always the locale. An ongoing challenge for modern house churches is the danger or raising up several independent and separate house churches in the same community.

How does this position house churches relative to the modern church? The problem is that the modern church is heavily based on its division.

What is the remedy for the endless divisions in the Body? It is certainly not found in the formation of an association of sects or ministers who hold hands over the fence... the Lord's reaction to the present disorder is to raise up a representative company of believers who will respond to the Spirit's cry for genuine unity. His is a charge to leave the manmade sects and to meet freshly upon the first-century basis of the church... They receive all whom God has received, whether they meet in sects or not. They include all believers living in their locales. They welcome unreserved fellowship with any and all who wish to gather with them. At the same time, they cannot endorse a system that smacks square in the face of NT revelation... they cannot support the denominational system. Nor can they join the sects.

This sums up so well what I have been feeling. Denominations are simply not approved by God. That is not to say that the people involved aren't of Christ, but their organization is a hindrance to fully knowing and belonging to Christ. But we do not seek to simply start a new sect. We seek to express fully the unity of Christ, apart of sectarianism, and the only way to do that in a lasting way is to avoid manmade structure and organization and remain a truly organic church. I came out of a denomination that originally started with such an ideal - yet within decades the structure and organization had turned the Church of God (Anderson, IN) into just another denomination.

Divisions of the church in any locale is due to sectarianism. We must reverse this trend. Viola quotes Stephen Kaung:

We come out of divisions to return to unity. That's what we are doing. Therefore, on the one hand, we hold fast the Head; on the other hand, we open our heart and arms to all our brothers and sisters all over the world... You may reject us, but we cannot reject you because we believe in the oneness of the Body of Christ... We come out of sects not to be sectarian, but to be delivered from the spirit of sectarianism.

Labels: books, church, house church, reviews

This series is reviewing Rethinking The Wineskin by Frank Viola. See my introduction to the series, if you haven't already, for the background discussion about the book.

I fully believe that God hates denominations. They represent the fallacy of man's desire to be right, to be heard, and to be prominent. Much more so than even the local church pastor who commands the pulpit for a half-hour every week. As soon as we move beyond the basic theology of Christ's salvation and forgiveness of sins, and separate ourselves from each other based on these kinds of disagreements, we are no longer a church. We're an arbitrary man-made division of Christ's body.

If a person belongs to the Lord, then he is part of the church. And we must receive him into fellowship. If we demand anything beyond his acceptance of Christ before admitting him into fellowship, we are not a church. We are a sect.

Paul is very clear about this being a major problem. If we become so convinced that we're right that we're willing to end our fellowship with another person that God has received, we're rejecting Christ.

There is an equally dangerous problem of expanding the Biblical view of the body of Christ, and accepting those who do not claim Christ as part of the church. We are not to be all-inclusive.

To receive unbelievers as family members is to turn the church into something earthly and to corrupt the true people of God. This of course does not mean that we should forbid unbelievers from attending the gatherings of the church. But it does mean that we are not to receive them as our brethren.

The New Testament places a huge emphasis on unity within the body of Christ. But it is simply not enough to claim unity when we are horribly divided by organization, doctrine, or practice. Unity within division is simply not unity. It is a lie of the enemy to believe otherwise.

Fellowships that either undercut or exceed the scope of the Body are not Biblical churches. In God's thought, the church is one unified Body of His Son with local expressions throughout the world. Let us, therefore, cease from using the word "church" in a tribal sense where we equate it with Christian denominations, hierarchical structures of descending authority, program-driven institutions, and clergy-led enterprises.

The more our churches act and assemble organically, the closer we will be to how God views the church. And the closer we'll be to fulfilling what God calls the church to be. Manmade divisions of the body, through membership in earthly institutions, only act as an obstacle.

Labels: books, church, house church, reviews

This series is reviewing Rethinking The Wineskin by Frank Viola. See my introduction to the series, if you haven't already, for the background discussion about the book.

One of the biggest struggles I've had in the past couple of years is this - what is the purpose of the church? Trying to answer this question while ignoring the effects of your background is nearly impossible. Having grown up in a traditional church, with an emphasis on both evangelism and holiness, it's hard to think of anything other than "reaching the lost."

Properly conceived, the church exists to make the fullness of Christ known on the earth. It stands here to register Christ's final victory over Satan in every place (Eph. 3:9-10). As His Body, the church is here to express Jesus in all of His glory.

Notice that there's nothing in there about saving individual people. We are called to "build the church," but the pressing question is simply what is the purpose of what is being built?

Our American/evangelical variant of Christianity has turned this around. We are taught that the purpose of the church is to add people to the church. That doesn't really make any sense - by having kids, I create a family. But what is the purpose of my family? Is the purpose of my family to have kids? The logic becomes circular, and can easily become a justification for having lots of kids without being at all concerned with who those kids grow up to be. This is what has happened to the church - we've become so focused on adding people to the church that we lose sight of what the church is supposed to become and what it is supposed to represent.

So to make this perfectly clear, adding people to the church is not the purpose of the church.

I'm also not really going to address the "change the world" ideal that many view as the purpose of the church, because in reality you just can't find that in the Bible.

There are three primary metaphors for understanding the purpose of the church, and centered on the idea of a singular, connected, unified church body:

The Temple
Under the old covenant, the temple was the physical place where God would dwell on earth. It contained His presence, and as such, strict instructions were given as to how it would be created, assembled, and maintained. Each aspect of temple life was governed by law.

Under the new covenant, God dwells within His people, the church. We contain God's presence. And we have rather specific instructions as to how we are created (through salvation), how we are assembled (through love and mutual edification), and how we are to be maintained (through holiness).

One brick never made a temple yet, nor has a heap of bricks piled on top of the other. The church is a people built together into one new man. And it exists to be the corporate expression of Christ.

The Bride
Paul describes as a mystery newly revealed that God has been preparing a bride for Christ. Revelation gives a glorious picture of the beauty of Christ's bride (described as a shining city). As is the purpose of any bride, the purpose of the church is to prepare ourselves for Christ.

The two central themes of the church as the bride are purity and love. These are not individualistic, though, they are collective - it is not or individual purity that really matters in this regard, it is our collective purity as a church. Purity in holiness and obedience. But our purity must be motivated out of our love for Christ.

The Lampstand
In an often overlooked part of Revelation, the church is described as a lampstand of pure gold. (Revelation 1:20) The purpose of this lampstand is to shine out Christ, to "bear the testimony of Jesus." The only way this can be done is for the lampstand to be made into the image of Christ through discipleship.

There is also much to be said of the church as the kingdom of God - in essence, the church is the visible agent of the kingdom on earth, similar to the metaphor of the lampstand. But as the kingdom of God, we are also called to be the hands of Christ in the world - preaching the good news, bringing healing, deliverance, and freedom.

When we talk about the purpose of the church being to bring salvation to the lost, or to be an agent of change in the world, though, we are missing the critical, higher purpose. When the church is properly being the church, it will bring salvation to the lost, it will call out evil in the world and serve as a counter-example of love and purity. But these are not the church's purpose.

The church is the very fiancé of Jesus Christ. It is the new humanity. It is the lifestyle of the coming kingdom. It is the Christian's natural habitat. It is the spiritual environment where face-to-face encounters between the Bridegroom and His Bride take place. It is the living witness to the fullness of God's Son.

In short, whenever the church gathers together, its guiding and functioning principle is simply - to be Christ (1 Cor. 12:12).

Labels: books, church, house church, reviews

This series is reviewing Rethinking The Wineskin by Frank Viola. See my introduction to the series, if you haven't already, for the background discussion about the book.

In my last post, I discussed elders. Specifically, that in the New Testament elders are referred to as having a position of oversight over the church.

But what about visionary leadership? What about the direction of the church?

To truly understand the function of elders, we have to discuss a little bit what they are not. They are not the visionary leaders of the church. They are not really even the "leaders" of the church.

The Bible puts great stress on the fact that leadership in the kingdom of God is drastically different from leadership in both the Gentile and Jewish worlds. Unlike the Gentile notion of authority, the Christian approach to leadership does not link authority with rank-and-file power and hierarchical structures... Unlike the Jewish notion of authority, the Christian approach to leadership does not link authority with outward ordination, office, position, title, or protocol... The Christian orientation links spiritual authority with spiritual function and maturity. It is based on the servant-leadership model that was a common them in our Savior's teaching... In this context, the Christian model of leadership served as a safeguard to the real and living Headship of Christ. It was also a check against authoritarianism, formalism, and clericalism.

Today's dominant church leadership design looks more like a combination of the Jewish and Gentile systems than the Christian system described in the New Testament that is supposed to reflect the Kingdom of God. Today's model is that of a modern corporation with a CEO. Managers handle resources. We have growth strategies, statistics, and charts. We count the number of cars in the parking lot. We consider church organization as appropriate, yet the New Testament relies on the principle of a church organism.

Our primary relationship to each other is that of brothers and sisters. The modern corporation model ruins that.

Plainly stated, leadership in the early church was non-hierarchical, non-aristocratic, non-authoritarian, non-institutional, and non-clerical. More importantly, God's idea of leadership is functional, relational, and collective.

To have the leadership of the church function according to the same principles as that of a corporate executive in a business or an aristocrat in an imperial caste-system was never our Lord's thought. It is for this reason that the NT authors never chose to use hierarchical and imperial metaphors to describe church leadership.

Images of slaves and children depict leadership rather than lords and masters (Luke 22:25-26).

So the elders did not lead the church like a CEO. Who, then, led the church? Who provided visionary direction?

The answer is more simple than you might think. It was Christ who led the church, through the Holy Spirit.

Consider what Christ said to Peter:

On this rock I will build my church, and the power of death will not be able to defeat it. (Matthew 16:18 NCV)

He did not say that "on this rock you will build my church." Christ said that on this rock Christ would build His church.

Paul frequently refers to the church as the body of Christ, with Him as the head. This is why it is so important to follow the New Testament model of leadership - if we put ourselves in too prominent a place of leadership, we stand in the way of Christ's leadership as the head.

But what about practical implementation? How do we see the mind of Christ and the direction of Christ in the life of the church? It is easy enough for a leader to get up in front of the church and say that He feels Christ wants the church to do x, y, and z. But how is the church to know if this is truly the will of Christ?

The New Testament has only one answer - consensus.

The apostles, the elders, and the whole church decided to send some of their men with Paul and Barnabas to Antioch. They chose Judas Barsabbas and Silas, who were respected by the believers. (Acts 15:22 NCV)

The apostles didn't just choose who to send. They didn't pray with the elders and then decide who they felt "led" to send. They decided along with "the whole church."

Numerous times in his letters, Paul begs the believers to have one mind:

I beg you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that all of you agree with each other and not be split into groups. I beg that you be completely joined together by having the same kind of thinking and the same purpose. (1 Corinthians 1:10 NCV)

Why is this important? If consensus is desired, the decision making process has to model the same process discussed about gatherings - that of the Spirit being in control, moving through each believer, where each believer has the opportunity to share what God has laid on their heart.

In another example of a bad translation, someone would probably point to Hebrews 13:17 and say that leadership in the church is more authoritative:

Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you. (Hebrews 13:17 NIV)

Viola describes what the word used for obey means:

The Greek word for obey in this passage is no hupakuo, the garden-variety word for obedience used elsewhere. It is peitho [middle-passive form] which means to yield to persuasion. The author of Hebrews is simply saying "allow yourselves to be persuaded by those who are more mature in Christ than you are."

A better translation for Hebrews 13:17 actually supports the practice of consensus, not undermine it.

Consensus is not easy. Most of the time it will be a struggle, but it is exactly this kind of struggle that builds community. A charismatic leader pushing forward his own agenda requires others to submit to his will. A body of believers working towards consensus requires all to submit to each other. It requires love and respect for each other. Viola quotes Christian Smith:

Consensus is not strong on efficiency, if by that we mean ease and speed. It can take a long time to work through issues, which can become quite frustrating... consensus is strong on unity, communication, openness to the Spirit's leading, and responsible participation in the Body. In achieving those values, consensus is efficient. Deciding by consensus, then, simply requires belief that unity, love, communication, and participation are more important in the Christian scheme than quick, easy decisions. It requires the understanding that, ultimately, the process is as important as the outcome.

We are not supposed to be simply pragmatic. We are supposed to be obedient. The New Testament places a great deal of emphasis on unity, and the church being of one body, under the leadership of head, which is Christ.

In summary:

The NT knows nothing of an authoritative mode of leadership. Nor does it know a "leaderless" egalitarianism. It rejects both hierarchical structures as well as rugged individualism. Instead, the NT envisions leadership as coming from the entire church! Direction and decision-making are supplied by the brothers and sisters by consensus. Oversight is supplied by the seasoned brothers.

It should be obvious why modern church leaders stand so strongly against authors like Viola and others who are calling the church back to New Testament methods and practices. They have the most to lose. Their entire career is based on a leadership model not found in scripture. If the church were to truly move back towards New Testament methods and practices, which requires a return to the New Testament model of leadership, not only would these leaders lose their position, office, and authority, they would lose their career. In a way, I feel sorry for them, because it is difficult for them to objectively evaluate these issues.

But these very leaders' talents and gifting are actually better suited to New Testament methods and practices. Because in a more intimate, open, participatory format, leaders not only teach but they train. They not only impart their wisdom through teaching, but have a closer relationship with younger Christians through oversight.

But let's not take the task of building and providing direction for the church away from Christ. Those who seek to further utilize the organizational structure of the modern church miss out on one of the things that made the early church so unique at that time of history - that this was the time when God finally ruled His people directly, as He had always wished to do with Israel before they sought out a king. We should seek to restore that distinctive character of the early church.

Labels: books, church, house church, reviews

This series is reviewing Rethinking The Wineskin by Frank Viola. See my introduction to the series, if you haven't already, for the background discussion about the book.

Even more than the location of the church, the leadership of the church is the biggest and most important aspect of the early church that looks completely different today. And it is this topic, more than any other, that causes modern Christians to shun the house church movement. And I also believe that this is one of the reasons that house churches continue to struggle - we have to re-learn leadership in light of Scripture.

It all comes down to clergy.

Because the NT knows nothing of "clergy," the fact that a separate caste of the "ordained" permeates our vocabulary and practice illustrates rather forcefully that we do not yet take the NT very seriously. (Jon Zens)

And now, a word to you who are elders in the churches. I, too, am an elder and a witness to the sufferings of Christ. And I, too, will share his glory and his honor when he returns. As a fellow elder, this is my appeal to you: Care for the flock of God entrusted to you. Watch over it willingly, not grudgingly – not for what you will get out of it, but because you are eager to serve God. Don't lord it over the people assigned to your care, but lead them by your good example. And when the head Shepherd comes, your reward will be a never-ending share in his glory and honor. (1 Peter 5:1-4, NLT)

The New Testament refers to a type of person in the early church, referred to by several words, including "elder" (which means "mature man"), "overseer" (bishop), and "shepherd" (pastor).

In today's church culture, we have a difficult time seeing these words as simple descriptions. We give these words weight based on recent church tradition more than based on the descriptions of these titles in scripture. But I'm convinced that the words themselves are more descriptive than we give them credit for.

The term "elder" refers to their character. The term "overseer" refers to their function. And the term "shepherd" refers to their gifting. Their chief responsibility was to supervise the believing community in times of crisis.

In terms of character - "elders" are simply mature men of God. Those who have been through good and hard times in the faith. Those who can help younger, more immature Christians to persevere during times of trouble.

In terms of function - the role is not that of visionary leadership. Every description of leadership of elders in the New Testament is that of oversight ("watch over").

In terms of gifting - there is no doubt that elders had the gifting of care, love, and selflessness. Their calling was one of service to the church.

Elders were not church planters. Note how Paul and Barnabas only appointed elders in Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch when they returned to those churches (Acts 14). There are other examples where elders are only mentioned years after a church had been planted. A new church will not grow elders for years, because it is a recognition of maturity. Before elders were recognized, the oversight of a church was handled by the apostle(s) who planted it - who would return from time to time.

The Greek words translated "ordain" in Acts 14:23 and Titus 1:5 simply mean to "acknowledge" someone that others have already endorsed. This means that the church trusted the elders.

Unfortunately, the American penchant for "offices" and "positions" has caused many believers to bring these ideas to the Biblical text and view the elders as official. Such thinking confuses the oversight of the early church with modern social conventions. It also strips the leadership terminology found in Scripture of its native meaning.

Another principle about this oversight leadership that is missing in today's church is that of plural oversight. Just about everywhere you see the term "elder" in the New Testament, it is in the plural, even among a particular church. You will not find the concept of "lead elder" like you have in today's "head pastor."

Plural oversight in the church protected the sole Headship of Christ. It also served as a check against despotism and corruption among the overseers.

Should these elders be paid? Many people point to 1 Timothy 5:17 to say that they should be paid a salary:

Elders who do their work well should be paid well, especially those who work hard at both preaching and teaching. (1 Timothy 5:17, NLT)

This is one of the greatest examples of a translation using a modern interpretation of a function and simply rendering it incorrectly. Look at the footnote for the New Living Translation for this verse, attached to "paid well:"

Greek - should be worthy of double honor.

The New Century Version is much clearer:

The elders who lead the church well should receive double honor, especially those who work hard by speaking and teaching. (1 Timothy 5:17, NCV)

Viola explains this very well:

Some have tried to argue for a professional clergy from this one isolated text. But the context of the passage reveals otherwise. First, the specific Greek words that the NT uses for "pay" or "wages" (misthos and opsonion) are not used here. The Greek word for "honor" in this passage is time, and it means to "respect" or "value" someone or something.

The same word is used four times in 1 Timothy. In every case, it means respect. God is to receive honor from man (1:17; 6:16), elders are to receive honor from the church (5:17), and masters are to receive honor from slaves (6:1). Another form of the word is used when Paul says that widows are to be honored by the church (1 Tim. 5:3). (Incidentally, time is never used in first-century literature to refer to "honorarium.")

Second, all believers are called to honor (time) one another (Rom. 12:10). It would be absurd to take this to mean that all believers are to receive payment from each other. Those elders who serve well are to receive more honor - or greater respect.

Third, the fact that respect is what Paul had in mind is born out by verse 19. Paul goes on to say that the elders are not to be accused (dishonored) unless there are two or three witnesses to confirm the accusation.

Finally, elders were leaders in the church, but they did not lead the gatherings. They did not take a visionary role or make executive decisions. They were not clerics or priests. Their ministry did not interfere with the ministry of others in the church. You will not find a justification for these roles of an "elder" in the New Testament. They simply aren't there.

The clergy profession is a mammoth institution that is far removed from the NT concept of leadership. And its mere presence hinders the cultivation of mature, relational, functioning churches that deeply express the Headship of Jesus Christ...

The modern day pastor system of Protestantism is a religious artifact that has allowed the Body of Christ to lapse into an audience due to its heavy reliance on a single leader. This unscriptural, clergy-dominated structure has done untold damage to God's people. It has turned church into the place where Christians watch professionals perform. It has transformed the holy assembly into a center for professional pulpiteerism supported by "lay-spectators."

The pastoral system has turned ministry into an elitist right. It has stolen your right to function as a member of the ekklesia! And it has lamed the believing priesthood! In short, the clergy concept of church leadership invariably crushes Body life.

All of this begs the question: what about visionary leadership? Next, we'll look at how the New Testament describes that. But if we intend to take the New Testament seriously, our thoughts about local church leadership must shift radically.

Labels: books, church, house church, reviews

This series is reviewing Rethinking The Wineskin by Frank Viola. See my introduction to the series, if you haven't already, for the background discussion about the book.

One of the primary characterizations of Christ's ministry was that of relationship. So much so, that He singled out twelve of his followers and treated them like brothers. Friends. Family.

We don't usually equate this topic with the Great Commission, but look at what Jesus said:

Jesus, undeterred, went right ahead and gave his charge: "God authorized and commanded me to commission you: Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I'll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age." (Matthew 28:18-20, The Message)

What I love about this paraphrase in The Message is that it makes something exceedingly clear - Jesus was commanding them to continue what He had been doing with them, and to take it out into the world. And a key, central aspect to that was with the way He created a family atmosphere among them.

Families typically eat together. They greet one another with affection. They squabble. They reconcile. They protect one another. And they help each other in a pinch. The early church embodied all of these family norms.

We are supposed to resemble a family, not a corporation. We are supposed to be sharing "Christ-like care and compassion," not approving budgets, hiring CEO's, and watching growth projections. Some churches even count cars in the parking lot to measure their success. There is little resemblance of this kind of thing to the church that is described in the NT.

Significantly, the NT writers never use the imagery of a business corporation to depict the church. Unlike the institutional church, the early Christians knew nothing of spending colossal figures on building programs and projects at the expense of bearing the burdens of their fellow brethren.

Many contemporary churches have essentially become nothing more than high-powered enterprises that bear more resemblance to General Motors than to the apostolic community!

Viola eloquently points out that part of this problem is that it takes away from the simple, honest implementation of following Christ and replaces it with something much more complex. Viola quotes A.W. Tozer on this point:

Churches run toward complexity as ducks take to water. What is back of this? First, I think it arises from a natural but carnal desire on the part of a gifted minority to bring the less gifted majority to heel and get them where they will not stand in the way of their soaring ambitions... the itch to have the preeminence is one disease for which no natural cure has ever been found...

In all our fallen life there is a strong gravitational pull toward the complexity and away from things simple and real. There seems to be a kind of sad inevitability back of our morbid urge toward spiritual suicide. Only by prophetic insight, watchful prayer and hard work can we reverse the trend and recover the departed glory.

While the "one another" commands are best suited for use in a house setting, they actually require a family atmosphere in order to work at all. If our churches do not truly resemble a family, then they do not resemble the body of Christ.

Labels: books, church, house church, reviews

This series is reviewing Rethinking The Wineskin by Frank Viola. See my introduction to the series, if you haven't already, for the background discussion about the book.

A good friend (who builds churches for a living) asked me recently what I would do if someone gave me a church building. I told him I'd sell it, or give it to a group to start a school. Even though he knows me pretty well, he was surprised by my response.

Most people who have grown up in traditional churches treat the idea of having a church without a building like it's unfathomable. How will people find your church? How will you hold big events to attract people?

Yet the New Testament church didn't have a building. They had their homes. When they met in larger groups, they used common, public, open spaces. If anything, a building would have limited the growth of the church described in Acts.

I've written plenty about house church, though, and I'll continue to do so. So for the rest of this post, I'll concentrate on sharing the five central points that Viola made about having church gatherings in a home:

By meeting in a home, we testify that "the people comprise God's house."

Both Judaism and paganism teach that there must be a sanctified place for Divine worship. Consequently, the Jews erected special buildings for their corporate worship (synagogues). So did the pagans (shrines). No so with Christianity...

The early church was the only religious group in the first century that met exclusively in homes. It would have been quite natural for them to pursue their Jewish heritage and erect buildings to suit their needs. But they intentionally kept from doing so.

Perhaps the early believers knew the confusion that sanctified buildings would produce. Hence, they kept from erecting them to preserve the testimony that the people comprised the living stones of God's habitation.

The home is where the purposes and functions of the church can best be carried out.

The apostolic instructions concerning the church meeting are best suited for a small group setting like the home. Christian principles like mutual participation; the exercise of spiritual gifts; the building together of the brethren into an intentional, face-to-face community; the communal meal; the open transparency and mutual submission of members one toward another; the freedom for interactive dialogue; and the liberty-oriented koinonia (shared life) of the Holy Spirit all operate best in a small group setting like the home.

The home reflects the simple nature of Christ's ministry.

The house is a far more humble place than the stately religious edifices of our day with their lofty steeples and elegant decor. In this way, most modern "church" buildings reflect the boastings of this world rather than the meek and lowly Savior whose name we bear.

It also better reflects Christ's heart to use our resources to help those in need rather than bearing the heavy burden of building construction and maintenance.

The home reveals the church as a family.

The formal manner in which things are done in the basilica church tends to discourage the mutual intercourse and spontaneity that characterized the early Christian gatherings. Exegete the architecture of a typical church building and you will discover that it effectively teaches the church to be passive.

The church building is constructed like a lecture hall or cinema. It is arranged so that those in attendance focus on a particular point - the leader. This style of building "promotes a clergy centrality" and "feeds the spectator-mentality that afflicts most of the Body of Christ today."

The home represents spiritual authenticity.

We live in a day where many, especially youth, are searching for spiritual authenticity. To these seekers, churches that meet in amphitheaters, crystal cathedrals, and ivory-towered domes appear superficial and shallow... the house church is a refreshing witness against those religious institutions that equate glamorous buildings and multimillion dollar budgets with success.

The final point Viola makes is that while the NT does describe some large-style meetings, these were evangelistic in nature and not a normal part of the church gathering. There is a function for large (and small) evangelistic events and efforts. But the purpose of the church gathering is not evangelism, it is mutual edification, and the location of the gathering can either aid or hinder the fulfillment of that purpose.

Labels: books, church, house church, open formats, reviews

This series is reviewing Rethinking The Wineskin by Frank Viola. See my introduction to the series, if you haven't already, for the background discussion about the book.

I clearly remember my early experiences with communion as a child. One of my very first times taking communion, I somehow managed to spill the grape juice all over my light yellow pants. My mother was not pleased!

Modern communion is a formal event. Whether Catholic or Protestant, there really isn't much difference. It is a quiet, somber occasion. We pick up (or are given) a piece of a cracker or bread. We follow that with a small amount of juice, or even possibly actual wine.

Yet the Lord's Supper was a meal. They were celebrating the passover feast. It was in this context that Christ first shared with them the breaking of bread and the drinking of wine as an occasion to remember him.

Somehow, modern church has reduced communion from a meal to a simple religious ritual. In the early church, communion was clearly a full meal. Viola says it this way:

The whole of 1 Corinthians 11 makes clear that the believers gathered to eat the Supper as a meal. One would find himself hard-pressed to get drunk on a thimble of grape juice or satisfy his hunger with a bite-sized cracker!

Of course, the history behind this is rooted in the Catholic church. But as I'm learning more and more, Protestantism was primarily concerned about reforming the theology of the church, and largely left the structure and the practices of the church untouched.

The Lord's Supper also witnesses to the three chief virtues: faith, hope, and love. Through the Supper, we re-ground ourselves in that glorious salvation that is our by faith. We re-express our love for the brethren as we reflect on the one Body. And we rejoice in the hope of our Lord's soon return. By observing the Supper correctly, we "proclaim (present) the Lord's death (past) till He comes (future)."

Catholics have made the Lord's Supper literal and sacrificial. Every time they take the Eucharist, they believe that Christ is being re-sacrificed for our sins. Protestants have made the Supper merely symbolic and commemorative. They believe it is merely a reminder of the cross.

But the Lord's Supper is neither a perpetual sacrifice (the Catholic view) nor an empty ritual (the Protestant practice). It carries no sacramental overtones. Nor can it be properly conceived as simply a memorial.

The Lord's Supper is a spiritual reality. The Holy Spirit is present in it. Through the Supper, the Spirit reveals the living Christ to the hearts of His beloved saints. In the Supper, we sup with Him through the one loaf and the one cup.

The NT clearly reveals communion as a meal shared in the context of the church gathering together.

When Christ introduced communion, they were eating bread and wine. This was something they did regularly, including after Christ rose from the grave. He was turning a regular, daily, mundane task - eating food - into an occasion of remembrance, reflection, and celebration. Which do you think held more power in the apostles mind - when they broke bread with Christ before He died on the cross, or when they broke bread with Christ after He rose from the grave?

By introducing communion in the context of a meal, was Christ creating a new ritual, or injecting new meaning into a daily task? I believe it was more of the latter than the former.

We have lost much of what the original church believed and practiced in the communal meal. We have turned church gatherings into a presentation around a pulpit, whereas in scripture they look more like relationships around a table with food. If we were to regain the concept of church around a table instead of church around a pulpit, we'd be on the right track towards making our church gatherings relational and renewing the church back to God's original design.

Labels: books, church, house church, reviews

This series is reviewing Rethinking The Wineskin by Frank Viola. See my introduction to the series, if you haven't already, for the background discussion about the book.

The very first thing Viola tackles is the church gathering. This is appropriate, since this is the very first thing most people think of when talking about church practice (though arguably it is not the most important thing). This is one of the longest chapters in the book. The only topic Viola spends more time discussing is leadership, which is actually covered over two chapters. (We'll get there later.)

Modern church basically has four reasons for church gatherings. Corporate worship, evangelism, sermons, and fellowship.

Viola points out that none of these reasons are described in the NT as a purpose of gathering together. There is only one purpose described in the NT - mutual edification (1 Corinthians 14:26, Hebrews 10:24-25).

As Paul pulls back the curtain of the first-century gathering in 1 Corinthians 11-14, we see a meeting where every member is actively involved. Freshness, openness, and spontaneity are the chief marks of this meeting. Mutual edification is its primary goal...

The Lord Jesus was free to speak through whomever He chose. And in whatever capacity He saw fit. Consequently, the common practice of a few professional ministers assuming all the important activities of the church, while the rest of the saints remain passive, was utterly foreign to the early church.

For some reason, we think that tradition has more to say on this topic than scripture. We act as though the hundreds of years of presentationally styled meetings carries more weight than what the apostles started. These are the guys that Christ chose to build His church. I think we should pay attention to what they said and did!

The end result of this mistake is what we see today - churches full of Christians who look very similar to the rest of the world.

The institutional church is essentially a nursery for overgrown spiritual babes. It habituates God's people into being passive receivers. It stunts their spiritual development and keeps them in spiritual infancy...

The Reformation recovered the truth of the priesthood of all believers. But it failed to restore the necessary practices that embody this teaching.

The early Christians knew nothing of liturgy. They knew nothing of programs (or bulletins). They knew nothing of rituals. They knew nothing equivalent to the modern-day "pastor." They knew that their purpose of gathering together was simply mutual edification. They each came to the gathering knowing that the Spirit may very well move them to edify the body.

The format of our gatherings either supports or erodes the principle of the priesthood of all believers. While modern church might claim to support this idea, in practice, we elevate the position of the clergy to that of priest, and suppress contributions from those who are under them.

The open format gathering is the heart of the practical expression of the priesthood of all believers. It cuts through the system of a clergy/laity division. It cuts through denominationalism. It cuts through human control and gives control of the gathering to the Holy Spirit. It is essential to the renewal of the church to more closely resemble the descriptions contained in the NT. As big and as important as this is, we would be fooling ourselves to believe that this alone is enough. There is much, much more to be addressed.

Labels: books, church, house church, open formats, reviews

I picked up a phenomenal book a couple of weeks ago, and it is taking a while for me to digest and work through. It's called Rethinking The Wineskin by Frank Viola, and it is doing an incredible job bringing together a lot of what I've been working through over the last couple of years.

I'll start this series out with a quote from the book. It's a long one from the introduction, but it is a good summary of what the book is about.

Church history is rife with examples demonstrating that every past renewal has repackaged the new wine into old wineskins. By the old wineskin, I mean those traditional structures that are patterned after the old Judaic religious system. A system that separated God's people into two separate classes; required the presence of human mediators; erected sacred buildings; and laid stress on outward forms.

The facets of the old wineskin are many. The clergy/laity distinction. The spectator-performer styled church meeting. The single pastor system. The program-driven worship service. The passive priesthood. The edifice complex. All of these features represent Old Covenant forms in NT garb!

Accordingly, the present cry of the Spirit for genuine renewal will never become a reality for those who ignore His concurrent voice regarding the new wineskin. God himself fashioned this fresh wineskin. He made it to perfectly hold the wine of His life. In this way, the wine always precedes the wineskin.

Sadly, not a few have presumed that God has left the wineskin of church practice to the pragmatic whims of well-intentioned men. But the Lord has not left us to ourselves regarding the practice of His church.

We so often forget that the church belongs to Christ and not to us! As in the Old Testament type, no peg of the tabernacle was left to the imagination of man. Rather, the house was to be built "according to the pattern" given from above.

This does not mean that the NT supplies us with an ironclad, meticulous blueprint for church practice. It does not. Therefore, it is a gross mistake to tease out of the apostolic letters an inflexible code of church order that is as unalterable as the law of the Medes and Persians! Such a written code belongs to the other side of the cross.

On the other hand, the NT introduces us to a number of clearly defined practices that characterize God's spiritual house. And it is these practices that make up the "Divine pattern" for the ekklesia (church).

Going through the description of the church in the NT is what the book continues to do. It talks about the following aspects:

• Gatherings
  
• Common Meal
  
• The House
  
• Family/Community
  
• Leadership - Oversight
  
• Leadership - Visionary
  
• Purpose
  
• Membership
  
• Boundary
  
• Tradition
  
• Conclusion

I plan on sharing in more detail about each of these. More of my study has been focused on the description of the church in the NT, apart from the trappings of the modern church. I've been reading bits and pieces here and there, but it's awesome to see how so many people have been struggling with this, for so many years. Viola doesn't pretend to be alone in this - his book is full of quotes from other authors. But Viola's style and approach are needed today. He's clear, conversational, and confrontational. Had I read this book four years ago I would have been deeply disturbed by it. Which would have been a good thing!

I can see why Barna is partnering with Viola for his next book - Revolution was simply an introduction to renewing the church. It's not just about the house. Or open meetings. Though those are certainly good places to start. The NT is full of descriptions of the church that we should be paying attention to. Rethinking The Wineskin does a very good job of sifting through, organizing, and presenting these descriptions.

Final note, and this is important. I fully realize that the things I regularly talk about may seem impractical. Too far removed from where church currently is. And too far removed from what many people will realistically understand, because their view of church is rooted primarily in tradition - the way they grew up understanding church. There is a benefit to continuing to have churches that do things the "modern" way.

Yet it is also critical for us to evaluate what the "modern" way is in light of scripture. And it is critical for us to seek out what God desires for the church. Any criticism you might see in what I've written is as much a criticism of myself as it might be of anyone else. The only possible difference is that I'm determined to push forward in church renewal - not renewal to more modern music styles, more relevant evangelism methods, or more appropriate post-modern theology. But renewal back towards what is described in scripture.

Labels: books, church, house church, reviews

From Rowling Pulls It Off:

It has been widely observed that J.K. Rowling owes a creative debt to Christian fantasists J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis (apart from their fondness for initials). It's odd now to remember that, at the same time, some parents have objected to the magic depicted in the Harry Potter books as a glorification of satanic practices. For "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" confirms something else apart from the well-thought-out-ness of Ms. Rowling's moral universe: It is subtly but unmistakably Christian.

The principal Hogwarts holidays have always been Christmas and Easter, but it took five books before Ms. Rowling really began tipping her hand. In Book Six, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," she addressed concepts of free will, the power of love, and the sanctity of the soul. But in the final volume she gently lays it all out. The preciousness of each human life; bodily resurrection after death; mercy, forgiveness and redemption; sacrificial love overcoming the powers of evil--strip away the elves, goblins, broomsticks and magic wands and these are the concepts that underpin the marvelously intricate world of Harry Potter.

Actually the series has always addressed the concepts of love and free will in a way consistent with Christianity. But the Christian imagery was definitely strongest in the seventh book, and quite unmistakable - including imagery of the cross, quotation of scripture, and a Christ-like death and resurrection. Neville Longbottom also reminded me of David in some ways - the gentle boy who was willing to face the greatest evil. Other characters show true regret and remorse for their previous actions, and others reveal a capacity for total forgiveness.

While it would be hard to beat the level of Christian imagery in the Chronicles of Narnia, I do think the Christian imagery is probably as strong (or stronger) in Harry Potter than it is in Lord of the Rings. Christians should re-think their stance on Harry Potter.

Labels: books, movies

I just finished the seventh and last Harry Potter book this morning. It was very, very good.

I read the first Harry Potter book back in March, and read through each one after that, and finished the sixth book over a month ago. I decided that I wanted to read the fifth book before the movie came out, and to have finished all six before the seventh book came out. I was the same way about the Lord of the Rings series - when I found out the movie series was coming, I read through all of the books (including The Hobbit) before the first movie came out.

The Harry Potter series was a very rewarding series to read. Rewarding in the sense that each successive book reveals more of the story, intertwines more of the characters, and creates a progression to the end of the last book. I'm seriously thinking about re-reading the series again - because of the way things (and characters) that you didn't think were important early on become very important in the end.

We also saw the fifth movie last week, and they did a great job adapting it from the fifth book.

I think one of the things I liked most about the Harry Potter series is that he's not an infallible hero. He's a hero, but he makes mistakes. He gets things wrong sometimes. But unlike the villain in the series, it's Harry's friends and his relationships with others that helps him to make the right decisions, and figure out what it is that he needs to do, and helps him get it done. He keeps trying to do things on his own in order to protect them, but then he realizes that he has to trust and rely on others. It's a constant theme throughout the series, that love is the best weapon that Harry has, and the only weapon that his enemy cannot understand.

I understand why some Christians have a problem with this series, but it's no different from Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Mary Poppins, or any number of other magical-oriented stories oriented towards children. The primary difference is that they call them "witches" and "wizards." I fully believe that if Rowling had used a different term for a female magician (or had only applied it to the villains), Christians would not have reacted as they have. In any case, the values and themes portrayed by the books are very positive.

It's a fascinating series, I highly recommend it. And if you enjoy movies, and haven't started watching the Harry Potter movies yet (I know a few of you haven't), do so. They're quite good, and getting better. Trust me, you'll want to see the sixth and seventh movies when they come out. Or better yet, just read all seven books.

Labels: books, movies

I thought it might be helpful to quote, in full, a section from a book I recently read that led directly to the thoughts I shared in my previous post about men and open formats. The book was Megashift by David Rutz. Awesome book, I highly recommend it. Take a moment to read my brother's review of the book and see if it interests you. I picked it up based on his recommendation, and I didn't regret it.

In chapter 4 of Megashift, "The New Church," Rutz shares "thirty hallmarks of emerging, scripture-based fellowships." This includes house churches, but Rutz is more focused on open fellowships than he is on size or structure. Anyway, enjoy.

In open fellowships, men are a slight majority.

Men go to open meetings:

to get their marching orders from the Commander of the Hosts of Heaven.

to model true discipleship by telling how the Lord strengthened them that week.

to stand up and proclaim the awesome wisdom and love of the Creator who has spoken to them in Scripture.

to take their rightful place as men learning to be leaders in the household of God.

In open churches around the world, men have a role to play, a man's role.

Men feed on challenges. Can't live without them. We grew up and thrived in a boy culture where I double-dare ya'! was only slighly less impelling than cries of Chicken!

Someone recently wrote an update on Karl Barth's aphorism that "The Word became flesh - and then, through theologians, became words again." The new, improved version reads: "Jesus Christ turns wimps into men. And then the church turns them back into wimps again."

You don't grow strong men by making them sit in rows. You grow strong men by whacking them on the shoulder and saying, "On your feet, Pete! What has God been showing you this week?"

Strong males who are forced to be pew warmers are like the bench warmers in football: They're aching to grab the coach by the lapels, get in his face and yell, "Jus put me in the game! Just gimme the ball!"

In team Christianity, as in war, everybody is in the game, and everybody gets his hands on the ball. Typically, men will do roughly 60% of the talking and women 40%. That's not something we aim for, it's just what happens - and everyone seems to like it that way.

SIDE NOTE ON BOYS: Step one in God's plan for re-establishing fathers and fatherhood is to have a boy sitting in church next to his parents when his dad stands up, and every eye in the place is on Dad as he opens his Bible and says, "The Lord showed me something in Galatians yesterday, and I think we need to hear it..."

As I said before, lions don't grow in small cages. And after a lifetime in a cage, it does no good to set them free, either. Zoo-born animals fed by keepers never learn to survive in the wild.

Rousseau observed that men are born free, yet are everywhere in chains. I would add that men are born wild at heart, yet our churches are filled with captured lions, tamed pew-sitters who no longer know - if they ever knew - how to feed themselves spiritually, how to defend their families from evil, and how to attack their true prey, the devil.

Labels: books, church, house church, open formats

I've been reading Mark Batterson's blog for awhile now (I've linked to several of his posts in the past), and following his progress as he was writing and preparing In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day. Mark is the lead pastor at National Community Church in DC, which meets for worship in movie theaters around the DC area.

I was already planning on buying a copy, but he mentioned several weeks ago that his publisher, Multinomah, would be giving some copies away at Catalyst. I managed to score a free copy early the first day of Catalyst.

The title of the book, and much of the contents, are centered around a relatively obscure character in the Bible. While not quite as obscure as Jabez, Benaiah doesn't get much "screen time" in the Bible. But the mentions he does get are pretty impressive:

There was also Benaiah son of Jehoiada, a valiant warrior from Kabzeel. He did many heroic deeds, which included killing two of Moab's mightiest warriors. Another time he chased a lion down into a pit. Then, despite the snow and slippery ground, he caught the lion and killed it. Another time, armed only with a club, he killed a great Egyptian warrior who was armed with a spear. Benaiah wrenched the spear from the Egyptian's hand and killed him with it. (2 Samuel 23:20-21)

Benaiah was eventually in charge of David's bodyguards, then a commander in the army, then eventually the command in chief of the army of Israel. But his success began when he chased a lion into a pit.

Mark argues that we miss too many of God's opportunities for us, according to what we focus on:

I think the church has fixated on sins of commission for far too long. We have long list of don'ts. Think of it as holiness by subtraction. We think holiness is the byproduct of subtracting something from our lives that shouldn't be there. And holiness certainly involves subtraction. But I think God is more concerned about sins of omission - those things we could have and should have done. It's holiness by multiplication. Goodness is not the absence of badness. You can do nothing wrong and still do nothing right. Those who simply run away from sin are half-Christians. Our calling is much higher than simply running away from what's wrong. We're called to chase lions.

What I love about this book is that it captures what I've loved about Mark's blog so well. It's full of challenges to the church at large to think very differently.

There are basically two approaches to life: playing to win and playing not to lose. Can you guess which camp lion chasers fall into? Too many of us are tentatively playing the game of life as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death. We need to take our cues from the early believers who competed for the Kingdom.

"From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it."

There is nothing remotely passive about following Christ. Some of us approach our relationship with Christ like we're called to play a "prevent defense" when we ought to be in a "two-minute offense." Some of us act like faithfulness is making no turnovers when faithfulness is scoring touchdowns. Faithfulness has nothing to do with maintaining the status quo or holding the fort. It has everything to do with competing for the Kingdom and storming the gates of Hell...

Jesus commissioned the church in Matthew 16:18: "I will build my church and the gates of hell will not overcome it."

Gates are defenseive devices. Storming those gates requires offensive measures. Think of the church as a battering ram.

This book is a great challenge to move forward, and pursue the opportunities that God places before us.

Labels: books, church

As a part of my interest in house church, a book was recommended to me: Houses That Change the World, written by Wolfgang Simson. There was a lot of stuff in this book that really resonated with me. It's not really a "how-to" book, though. It doesn't seem to flow very well from chapter to chapter. But it definitely lays out the values and principles of house church, and how it has the capacity to reach entire nations, whereas a traditional church structure does not.

One of the greatest chapters in the book deals with history of house church since New Testament times.

The New Testament makes it clear that in the early church, churches primarily met in people's homes. Nothing is said about owning or building anything. Nothing is said about evangelism, missions, worship "services," or trying to influence mainstream culture.

Much is said, however, about the the ministries of the apostles - a ministry which, along with prophets, is completely dismissed by traditional churches - and the way in which the apostles led the churches through planting churches and discipling believers. As Simson says, "the New Testament church has mostly been an organic, relational, spiritual family, multiplying itself."

Over time, there were serious confrontations to the truth of the gospel and the function of the church. One of the first was mentioned by Christ in Revelation 2:6 - "But there is something you do that is right: You hate what the Nicolaitans do, as much as I." This is referring to the group that "emphasized the difference between the 'listening lay people and the ministering brothers.'" The term Nicolaitan literally means "to conquer the common people." It was the first attempt to create clergy at the top, with lay people underneath.

It wasn't long, however, until the concept of clergy won out.

Simson says that:

Early on, the church started to give in to the pressure for security. Around AD 150, for example, 'scholastic theology' was introduced as a system to interpret Scripture and defend it against heresies such as Gnosticism... in order to defend the truth and the church against this, the church strongly focused on dogma and creed, and tightly observed who was able and allowed to do ministry, and who not... control is the natural development of a lack of trust; it comes from fear, the opposite of faith, and leads people to build a system in order to make sure that nothing can go wrong... as a result, the church focuses more on 'safe' rituals, 'right' formulae and 'approved' liturgies, and tries to become watertight as well as foolproof.

As a byproduct of this, the church quickly fell into the hands of enthusiastic theological watchdogs, policemen of the faith and a new version of 'bishops', king-like figures who were no longer the most humble servants and plain down-to-earth elders... again, a human Saul replaced God as the real king of the people of God.

Ironically, it was this development that led the church further into apostasy.

Emperor Constantine became a Christian in 312 AD, and made Christianity the state religion.

In the years after 312 the church became heavily professionalized... the church needed to be 'fit for the king' and his company, and that meant cathedrals, not shabby houses. Thus, the great divide between clergy and laity not only emerged, but was sanctioned, institutionalized, sealed and protected by the state... the church lost its identity as a prophetic counter-culture, supernaturally different from the patterns of this world, and became a celebrated insider.

Then the bomb dropped. In 380 AD, bishops Theodosius and Gratian, operating with the full authority of the Roman government, required all Roman citizens to be members of the single, state-recognized, orthodox church, and banned all other churches, including those meeting in homes. Less than 350 years after Christ's death, the exact form that Christ himself used to disciple the twelve was banned from the church.

Things just got worse from there.

416 - Infant baptism was first introduced in 220 AD, but became mandatory in 416.

431 - The Council of Ephesus proclaimed the worship of Mary.

440 - Leo the Great pronounced himself Bishop of Rome.

445 - Cesar Valentian declared himself the spiritual leader of the Western Empire.

607 - Boniface III adopted the title "Pope," which comes from the title pontifex maximus, meaning "big bridgebuilder," a term used by Roman emperors to declare themselves high priests and gods.

709 - Kissing the Pope's foot introduced.

786 - Worship of images and relics developed.

850 - First use of holy water.

995 - Canonizations of dead saints.

1079 - Celibacy of the priesthood instituted.

1090 - Prayer beads adopted from several pagan religious systems.

1184 - The Inquisition begins, and made official by Pope Innocent IV (the irony) in 1252. Millions are killed.

1190 - The sale of indulgences - relief from punishment of sins in exchange for the payment of money - instituted.

1215 - Transubstantiation of the water and wine declared: these elements supernaturally change into the body and blood of Jesus at the incantation of the priest.

1229 - Bible declared to be too holy for ordinary people to read, and was forbidden to laymen.

1414 - Communion cup was forbidden to lay people.

1439 - Doctrine of Purgatory decreed.

1439 - Dogma of the sacraments affirmed.

1545 - The traditional teachings of the Roman Catholic Church granted equal authority with the Bible at the Council of Trent.

And so things turned full circle. What began with the separation of clergy and laity, partly to protect Christianity from heresy, ended up with a heretical church declaring that its unbiblical teachings were of equal authority with the Bible.

Two things were required for this to happen - first, the church had to wield immense political power. Second, the state-sponsored church had to use that power to shut down groups of Christians meeting in their own homes for discipleship.

Luther started to reverse the trend when he discovered the "heartbeat of the gospel, salvation by faith and grace, and the centrality of Scripture." Luther, and others like him, "reformed the content but not the form of Christianity." Since Luther, more reforms have brought us closer to what Christ himself taught. Yet the predominant structure of church has remained largely unchanged since house churches were banned by the Roman government.

If it was possible for the very essence of the gospel - salvation by faith, justification by grace - to be buried under the sand of history, what about the rest? If we can gravely err in the very key and core issues, could we also have erred in other, lesser issues? The fact that the Bible was again given into the hands of common people started what I call the history of rediscovery: it was the turning point where the church started to climb again out of darkness, escape its own structural prison and rediscover, step by step, long-forgotten truth and long-forgotten practices, including the house church as an organic form of church.

Labels: books, church, house church

The first chapter of Coulter's latest book, Godless, is available online for free at Townhall.com. Here are some highlights:

If a Martian landed in America and set out to determine the nation's official state religion, he would have to conclude it is liberalism, while Christianity and Judaism are prohibited by law. And not just in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where it's actually on the books, but throughout the land. This is a country in which taxpayers are forced to subsidize "artistic" exhibits of aborted fetuses, crucifixes in urine, and gay pornography. Meanwhile, it's unconstitutional to display a Nativity scene at Christmas or the Ten Commandments on government property if the purpose is to promote monotheistic religion.

The whole panoply of nutty things liberals believe flows from their belief that man is just another animal. (And not just Kanye West—they're talking about all men.) Only their core rejection of God can explain the bewildering array of liberal positions: We must save Tookie Williams, while slaughtering the unborn. We must eat natural foods, but the right to acquire disease in casual hookups is a holy ritual. We must halt human development so that the Furbish lousewort can be fruitful and multiply, but humans are multiplying too much and threatening the biosphere of the Furbish lousewort. Women are no different from men, but we need a library of laws and codes to protect women from sexual harassment.

In 2003, reporters hounded British prime minister Tony Blair about whether he had prayed with George Bush—as if they were asking whether the world leaders had shot heroin together or shared a hooker. There was so much negative publicity over Blair praying with Bush that Blair's handlers forbade him to attend church with Bush later that year. It's hard to imagine an activity Bush and Blair could have shared that would have been more scandalous, short of taking an SUV to an all-men's club that allowed cigar smoking.

The moment self-righteousness takes over, you are dealing with dangerous psychopaths. Liberals are constantly accusing Christians of monumental self-righteousness for daring to engage in free speech or for voting in accordance with their religious beliefs. Compare that with the behavior of practitioners of the liberal religion. Liberals felt entitled to excuse Stalin's murderous regime on the grounds that he was simply trying to build a Communist paradise. Because they passionately believed in Marxism, liberals thought they had a right to lie about being Soviet spies. Yeah, well, some people passionately believe in white supremacy. How about George Clooney making a sympathetic movie about true-believing white supremacists and the evil prosecutors who forced them to name names?

If liberals could cut Stalin slack, there is no behavior they cannot excuse as justified by their passion. A president who was credibly accused of rape and displayed a pervasive pattern of what used to be known as "sexual harassment" was above reproach in liberal eyes. He had saved partial birth abortion! (Thus the charming tributes.)

Labels: books, politics

There's a good article at worshipleader.com by Robb Redman, that is a review of and response to George Barna's Revolution. The article is called Revolution or Renewal? and it brings up some good points about the book.

"Revolution" means a clean break with the past and the introduction of something completely new... Historically, Christians have been more comfortable with renewal and revival to describe "radical and pervasive change," rather than revolution, because they point to the providential hand of God, rather than impersonal forces of history. Those of us who have been around long enough know that the Church in every generation has its "Revolutionaries" who are disillusioned with the local church and yearn for something more... [It's] not a revolution, but a rhythm of renewal and revival in response to the movement of the Holy Spirit among and within ordinary communities of faith.

So what happens to "revolutionaries" who separate from local churches to pursue ministry? They end up starting new ministries. In a sense, Redman is right, that this isn't about revolution as much as it is renewal. But I think it's a game of semantics, and I don't think that Barna would disagree with the heart of what Redman is saying.

Labels: books, church

I've had a pretty long pause on my review of George Barna's book, Revolution. See The Revolution Begins and Values of the Revolution for my thoughts about the first four chapters.

In the fifth chapter, Barna takes a look at the transitions that are leading the revolution. These transitions reflect massive changes in our culture.

The Changing of the Guard: In our society, power is shifting from the baby boomers (those born before the mid-60's) to the busters ('65 through '83) and the mosaics ('84 through 2002). The new generations are "altering the ways in which people relate to each other, the types of outcomes deemed desirable, the procedures used to achieve meaningful results, the values and beliefs that underlie critical decisions, and the role of technology in our lives."

The Rise of a New View of Life: Like it or not, postmodernism is changing everything. "The threat to the Church lies in the fact that surprisingly few Americans are sufficiently reflective about the implications of this shift to critically assess its pros and cons."

Dismissing the Irrelevant: "Excellence is less meaningful to [the post-Boomer generation] because it sometimes reflects the slickness of exploitation and manipulation... they [also] have little patience for anything based on tradition, customs, ease, or social acceptability."

The Impact of Technology: Pretty self-explanatory, but should not go without saying: new technology opens new possibilities for churches.

Genuine Relationships: Personal authenticity. "In ministry and other areas, we will emphasize personal stories and experience instead of principles and commands."

Participation in Reality: "People expect to be active and creative participants in developing the reality of their experience. Fewer and fewer people are willing to sit back and endure what the world throws at them; rather, they are seeking the means to exert greater control over their lives."

Finding True Meaning: Struggling to discover meaning is nothing new, but Barna notes that "society's complexity and fragmentation have only served to heighten the struggle to make sense of our place in the world. One of the most startling signs of growth, though, is Americans' accelerated openness to understanding themselves through two components that have been largely ignored for many decades: sacrifice and surrender."

Barna then analyzes how these trends will affect what elements of society will have influence on spiritual growth. Currently, about 70% of the country express and experience their faith primarily through the local church. About 5% through some type of alternative faith-based community (such as a house church), another 5% primarily through family, and another 20% through the general media, arts, or culture.

Barna predicts, based on his research, that these numbers will look vastly different in 20 years: the local church will be at about 30-35%. Alternative communities will be at about 30-35%. Family will be about the same at 5%, and media, arts, and culture will grow to about 30-35%.

In other words, Barna is seeing the decline of the influence of the local church.

We have to ask the question: what is it about alternative faith-based communities that will draw so many believers out of local church organizations? The answers to this question are at the heart of what Barna calls the Revolution, and the answers lie in the previous chapters I've already covered. But keep in mind this quote from chapter 2:

[Revolutionaries] are seeking a faith experience that is more robust and awe inspiring, a spiritual journey that prioritizes transformation at every turn, something worthy of the Creator whom their faith reflects. They are seeking the spark provided by a commitment to a true revolution in thinking, behavior, and experience, where settling for what is merely good and above average is defeat.

Labels: books, church, emerging

Chapter three of George Barna's Revolution discusses the "seven passions of revolutionaries." In Barna's discussion, these are related to the passions of the early Church. He finds the following values characterized in the New Testament:

Intimate Worship - "every believer was expected to worship God every day."

Faith-Based Conversations - "nothing should excite us more than the realization that God Himself loves us, wants and intimate relationship with us, and allows us to invite others into that sacred and priceless relationship with Him."

Intentional Spiritual Growth - "they placed their faith at the center of their lives and derived their sense of meaning, purpose, and direction from their connection to God and His commands."

Servanthood - "the early Church fostered the notion that serving other people was the best means of demonstrating the example that Jesus had set for them."

Resource Investment - "they used the variety of resources at their disposal - money, food, clothing, housing, relationships, influence, skills, time - for the benefit of all believers."

Spiritual Friendships - "the friendships they formed provided not only encouragement but also loving accountability for spiritual integrity."

Family Faith - "parents were expected to model a Spirit-led lifestyle for their children... in a very real sense, the home was the early Church - supplemented by larger gatherings in the Temple and elsewhere, but never replaced by what took place in the homes of believers."

There is an organization that evaluates local churches using a process called "Natural Church Development," and using data compiled over decades, they have identified certain factors of churches that are thriving and having an impact, which they use to assess and help churches improve. Those factors are:

Empowering Leadership
Gift-Oriented Ministry
Passionate Spirituality
Functional Structures
Inspiring Worship
Holistic Small Groups
Need-Oriented Evangelism
Loving Relationships

It was interesting to me to see Barna's list being quite similar. Of course, Barna took his list out of examples in Acts, whereas the NCD process was "discovered" empirically. Truth is truth, though, no matter what process you use to arrive at it.

In chapter 4, however, Barna analyzes the current state of local churches using his seven principles. This is the depressing part. He had a lot of statistics, and I won't repeat all of them (I'd be copying too much of the book).

An example or two from each section, however, will suffice. First, know that he defines "believers" as "people who have confessed their sins, asked God for forgiveness, accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior, are confident of their salvation solely because of the grace extended to them by God, and regularly participate in the life of a Christian congregation." This definition makes the following statistics even more depressing.

Intimate Worship - "eight out of every ten believers do not feel they have entered into the presence of God, or experienced a connection with Him, during the worship service." "Only one out of every four churched believers says that when they worship God, they expect Him to be the primary beneficiary of their worship. (Most people say they expect to get the most from the experience.)"

Faith-Based Conversations - "the typical churched believer will die without leading a single person to a lifesaving knowledge of and relationship with Jesus Christ."

Intentional Spiritual Growth - "when asked what constitutes success in life, few believers define success in spiritual terms. Most describe outcomes related to professional achievement, family solidarity, physical accomplishments, or resource acquisition."

Servanthood - "the typical believer would rather give money to an organization to allow it to do good deeds in society than personally assist in alleviating the needs of disadvantaged people."

Resource Investment - "when asked to explain their understanding of biblical stewardship, less than one out of every twenty includes resources such as time, relationships, ideas, or skills in their assessment." "Most believers are unable to identify anything specific they have ever donated money to that they would describe as producing life-changing outcomes."

Spiritual Friendships - "the most significant influence on the choices of churched believers is neither from the pulpit nor advice gleaned from fellow congregants; it is messages absorbed from the media, the law, and family members."

Family Faith - "the likelihood of a married couple who are born-again churchgoers getting divorced is the same as couples who are not disciples of Jesus." "Apart from church-based programs, the typical Christian family spends less than three hours per month in endeavors designed to jointly develop or apply their faith."

Some additional quotes from his conclusion:

There is nothing inherently wrong with being involved in a local church. But realize that being part of a group that calls itself a "church" does not make you saved, holy, righteous or godly any more than being in Yankee Stadium makes you a professional baseball player...

The local church many have come to cherish - the services, offices, programs, buildings, ceremonies - is neither biblical or unbiblical. It is abiblical - that is, such an organization is not addressed in the Bible...

Revolutionaries realize - sometimes very reluctantly - that the core issue isn't whether or not one is involved in a local church, but whether or not one is connected to the body of believers in the pursuit of godliness and worship...

Or, to put it more succinctly, the Revolution is about recognizing that we are not called to go to church. We are called to be the Church.

To be continued...

Labels: books, emerging

I finally procured my own copy of George Barna's Revolution yesterday. I got turned on to this book by my brother in law, Ben, during our family trip to West Virginia last weekend. (You can see his review of the book.)

So far, I've pretty much only re-read the two chapters that I read last weekend. But I think this book is going to have so much in it that I'm going to want to talk about, that I'm going to review it "as I go."

To lay the groundwork, Barna relies on the "revolution" terminology very heavily. Those who are participating in this "Revolution" are called, quite simply, "Revolutionaries." The first definition he gives of a Revolutionary is that they "have chosen to live in concert with core biblical principles... returning to a first-century lifestyle based on faith, goodness, love, generosity, kindness, simplicity, and other values deemed 'quaint' by today's frenetic and morally untethered standards."

But perhaps the best definition is this one (emphases mine):

They have no use for churches that play religious games, whether those games are worship services that drone on without the presence of God or ministry programs that bear no spiritual fruit. Revolutionaries eschew ministries that compromise or soft sell our sinful nature to expand organizational turf. They refuse to follow people in ministry leadership positions who cast a personal vision rather than God's, who seek popularity rather than the proclamation of truth in their public statements, or who are more concerned about their own legacy than that of Jesus Christ. They refuse to donate one more dollar to man-made monuments that mark their own achievements and guarantee their place in history. They are unimpressed by accredited degrees and endowed chairs in Christian colleges and seminaries that produce young people incapable of defending the Bible or unwilling to devote their lives to serving others. And Revolutionaries are embarrassed by language that promises Christian love and holiness but turns out to be all sizzle and no substance.

In fact, many Revolutionaries have been active in good churches that have biblical preaching, people coming ot Christ and being baptized, a full roster of interesting classes and programs, and a congregation packed with nice people. There is nothing overtly wrong with anything taking place at such churches. But Revolutionaries innately realize that it is not just enough to go with the flow. The experience provded through their church, although better than average, still seems flat. They are seeking a faith experience that is more robust and awe inspiring, a spiritual journey that prioritizes transformation at every turn, something worthy of the Creator whom their faith reflects. They are seeking the spark provided by a commitment to a true revolution in thinking, behavior, and experience, where settling for what is merely good and above average is defeat.

When I read this today, it just stunned me, because it is the best description I've seen yet of how I've been feeling over the past couple of years.

To connect this with something that Pastor Pat shared on Sunday:

The church should be a symbol of risk, of creativity, or cultural engagement, of the willingness to change, and do whatever it takes to connect to the world around us with the power of the gospel. But somewhere along the way, instead the church has become a symbol of stability. Of changelessness. A symbol of holding on to the traditions of the past. And the world around us is changing. The church has become the wrong symbol. Jesus Christ constantly challenged the status quo, so that people would be willing to risk, to reach disconnected people with the power of the gospel. And we're in a changing culture today, where we need to learn to risk again, that we might reach disconnected people.

I would definitely sum this up by saying that Revolutionaries would be the ones willing to take the risks.

More to come as I go through the book. Stay tuned.

Labels: books, emerging

The third book I'm reviewing is Emerging Worship: Creating Worship Gatherings for New Generations, by Dan Kimball. This book is a sequel of sorts to the previous book I reviewed, Kimball's Emerging Church. As I mentioned in that review, his previous book wasn't "too heavy on practicality."

This second book, while not recommending any specific approach, is much more practical. The first half of Emerging Worship is about laying the foundation -- asking why changes are necessary, and thinking through critical issues before making any changes. To me, this is where the best stuff in the book is. The second half of the book takes a look at several churches (including two groups of house churches) that have implemented "alternative" worship gatherings.

Kimball lays out a very convincing narrative in the introduction:

I've had numerous conversations with younger people who told me they left their church to be a disciple of Jesus in a way that makes sense to them. They aren't abandoning their faith. Many choose to form small faith communities and meet in homes among friends. They are waiting for the larger, more organized church to change. This is no cop-out, either.

Virutally every young adult I have talked to sincerely tried to change their church and brought suggestions to the church leadership before leaving their church. Most volunteered to start something new. But the suggestions fell on deaf ears with a predetermined view of what emerging generations should be like in relation to "church."

The closed minds in their church leadership eventually made them choose to leave.

The story told in this narrative is something I'm seeing more and more in my peers. Some have turned to house churches, but I do believe that long-term, the house church trend will grow into something larger and more organized. Why can't existing organized churches start doing something now? Do we have to start from scratch? This is a question I'm struggling with right now.

Church leadership must recognize that there are distinct types of people that we are hoping to connect with. Kimball describes them in this way:

Pre-Christian: Someone who was raised with a basic understanding of "God" and a Judeo-Christian worldview. They may have had some church experience growing up that was primarily boring or dead ritual. So when a church provides a contemporary and relevant church worship service, they return to the church and trust Jesus Christ (or recommit to him). Most megachurches and growing churches today are reaching this group of people.

Post-Christian: Someone who was born and raised outside of any church influence and is now heavily influenced by our pluralistic culture and values. Generally few of their values, morals, or convictions are based on a Judeo-Christian worldview. "Church" either means nothing to them or they dislike it. Spirituality is subjective and individualistic, often an eclectic potporrui of the world's religious beliefs. They usually oppose the idea of joining any organized established religion. They often have strong anti-evangelical sentiments and a lot of stereotypes against Christians in general. Yet they are usually very spiritually-minded people.

Disillusioned Christian: Someone who grew up in a modern evangelical church, who left the church dissatisfied with the current way most churches function (with their emphasis on the big weekend worship service being the "church"). A rising percentage of younger people are not drawn to the megachuch philosophy or to the church structures and values that they grew up in (even in smaller churches). They desire to experience a different kind of church and different kind of Christianity than they grew up with.

I agree with Dan's analysis that most churches are reaching "pre-christians". In terminology consistent with the modern/post-modern discussion, these would be the people who would be classified as "modern." I also think that we will encounter more and more people who would be classified as "post-christian", or "post-modern."

But I am more and more convinced that the next generation of church leaders are primarily in the "disillusioned" category. They are not disillusioned with Christianity -- they are disillusioned with traditional church methodology. They do not believe that all it takes is a good kids' program to grow the church. They do not even believe that "growing the church" is a priority. They see that what we are lacking is growing disciples of Christ. We are lacking the growth of community among believers.

If any specific church does not attract a new generation of leaders, within the next generation that church will die.

We tend to ask the wrong questions when analyzing our worship services and programs. We tend to ask about how well an event was attended. Whether the transitions were smooth. Whether people sang loudly and clapped. Whether people responded to the sermon. Kimball explains that in the emerging church, we need to ask the following questions:

1. Did we lift up the name of Jesus as the centerpiece of why we gathered?

2. Did we have a time in the Scriptures learning the story of God and man? Did we invite everyone to be part of his story today through kingdom living?

3. Did we pray together and have enough time to slow down and quiet our hearts to hear God's voice and yield to his Spirit?

4. Did we experience the love, joy, and encouragement of being together as a church?

5. Did we take the Lord's supper together as a church regularly?

6. Did we somehow remind everyone of the mission of the church and why we exist?

7. Did we enable people to individually contribute something as part of the body of Christ?

Overall, the highlights of what existing churches are doing was interesting. But the one scenario that I would be interested in wasn't convered. In all of the existing churches that were highlighted, they added a new "alternative" gathering in addition to the one(s) they already had. I see two big problems with this:

1) Most small churches do not have the resources to start a new "alternative" gathering and keep the existing gatherings going, while doing both at high quality. Personally, I simply could not do both a morning "modern" gathering and an evening "emerging" gathering. If I was a paid worship pastor, it'd be doable. But as a volunteer worship leader, I'm simply not going to split my available time up that way. Small churches are working with a handful of leaders, and similarly need to focus their time and energy.

2) I feel that the changes that need to be made to connect with the post-modern culture need to be made to save the church from extinction. We've spent too long ignoring missions. Too long accepting passive participation as legitimate worship. Too long not challenging people into deeper intimacy with God. By starting an alternative worship gathering where you focus and what we're supposed to focus on, and leaving the existing gatherings unaffected, you leave the people who wouldn't attend an alternative gathering in relative mediocrity. Is this what the church is supposed to be about?

So in my particular situation -- how do you transition an entire church into a completely different model of ministry? More importantly, can it be accomplished? Has anyone tried it and had any success?

I'm also a little confused by the degree to which the "alternative" worship gatherings that are described are full of what, to me, appear to be "trendy" elements. I agree with the theory behind "multisensory" worship. But a lot of the descriptions I read about it sound awfully trendy, and when talking about alternative worship gatherings, I think people are distracted by discussions of prayer tents, art stations, journal stations, etc., and end up missing some of the critical points.

To Dan Kimball's credit, he ends the book with a chapter that questions whether we're just going to create a new brand of consumer Christians, ones who are as devoted to "multisensory" worship as some people are dedicated to the popular hymns of the 1950's. I know people are hungry for new things, and the multisensory stuff will feel fresh and engaging for a while. But we need to be focusing on who the church is, and what we do in a missional context, not the trendy things we incorporate into the gatherings.

I'll end this post with a table from Kimball's book, one that I think does a good job of talking about how we should view the church. But even as I review this now, I feel a sense that this isn't just for reaching post-modern generations -- it is for reaching all generations.

What the church isn't	What the church is
A "place" or building you go to	Disciples of Jesus wherever they go
The weekend meeting where the sermon is delivered and songs are sung	Groups of disciples meeting in homes and other smaller settings throughout the week who may also gather in a larger meeting to worship together on Sunday
Christians who go to a weekend meeting to get their religious goods and services	The worshipers of a local body on a mission together
Christians who go to "church" on weekends to get their inspiration and feeding for the week	The people of God who are passionately dependent upon God in worship and prayer all week long
Christians who ask, "What does this church have to offer me?"	Disciples of Jesus who ask, "How can I contribute and serve this local body on a mission?"
A place where Christins go to have the pastors do "spiritual" things for them	A community where the pastors and leaders equip the people for the mission and to serve one another
A place to bring your Children and teenagers for their spiritual lessons while you receive your sermon and sing a few songs	A community where leaders help train you to teach your children the ways of God and incorporate children and youth into the community so they aren't isolated

Labels: books, church, emerging

Last week I talked about Post-Modern Pilgrims by Leonard Sweet. This week I will continue the discussion, and talk about the next book I read: The Emerging Church: Vintage Christianity for New Generations by Dan Kimball.

While the two books both cover a discussion of the postmodern culture, they are quite different in how they approach it. As I mentioned last week, Sweet's book was written early in the discussion of how postmodernism affects the church. As such, it's written more to explain the feelings behind postmodernism, giving examples of how we can see postmodernism affecting culture, and it asks a lot of great questions about how the church needs to change its thinking.

Dan Kimball's book, on the other hand, was written in 2003. While only separated by three years, Dan's book is written more as a reflection of his and others' experience with attempting to engage the postmodern mindset. But the book isn't too heavy on practicality. He purposely stops short of making strong suggestions on how to conduct worship gatherings, because each group needs to determine their own specific direction.

The first half of the book is "deconstruction." It explains postmodernism rather well -- in fact, a lot of the summary I gave of postmodernism in my last post came out of this book, not Leonard Sweet's book. But more than that, he analyzes problems the postmodern mindset has with the modern church. The second half of the book is "reconstruction," trying to get a glimpse of what the emerging church will look like -- where it is that we're going.

Another term I feel that I need to discuss is this "emerging" thing. Like "postmodern," a lot of people aren't really comfortable with it, and I'm not sure I like the term, either. But it represents the transitional point at which we are at -- we are not fully out of modernism, and we are not fully into whatever "postmodernism" represents. We're somewhere between the two. Likewise, we don't really know where the church will end up in all of this: it is all a work in progress.

So "emerging" refers to the idea that we don't know exactly what the church will look like once it's "emerged" into postmodernism. "Emerging" doesn't specifically refer to any style of worship, in terms of music, or liturgy, or schedule. It refers primarily to changing our church culture to move away from the "seeker-sensitive" model of gatherings into a more "vintage" model of gatherings -- one that represents our rich heritage, and incorporates deep spirituality and building strong community as focal points of our gatherings.

But as Kimball explains, "rethinking the emerging church involves rethinking almost everything we do. The worship service is but one part of it."

"Postmodernity and the spiritual relativism it brings completely pulls the rug out from under most of our current, modern ministry strategy and methodology." What does this mean? It means that we can take nothing for granted. (Sound familiar?) It means that we can't assume any of the programs or approaches that we used to use will still work.

Most who read that sentence will know that I'm thinking about how that applies to things like how we schedule our gathering time, what styles we use, etc. But we also have to be willing to think about that in terms of the approach we're used to taking. Do we need flashy high-production-value presentations in the postmodern culture? Kimball would say no. I'm starting to agree. They might not hurt so much, but they might not help so much, either. If we have it, no big deal, but in terms of what we pursue, it has to be something different entirely.

Our pursuit has to be discipleship -- being an apprentice of Christ. Our pursuit has to be worship -- being obedient and submissive to God. Our pursuit has to be community -- serving each other in love.

For too long we've been heading down the road of the church being a vendor of religious goods and services. We must shift that mentality to that of the church being a group of people who are sent on a mission.

Kimball had the following table, about how the values of the church need to shift, that I think is important enough to include in its entirety.

MODERN CHURCH (Seeker-Sensitive)	EMERGING CHURCH (Post-Seeker-Sensitive)
Worship "services" in which preaching, music, programs, etc. are served to the attender	Worship "gatherings," which include preaching, music, etc.
Services designed to reach those who have had bad or boring experiences in a church	Gatherings designed to include and translate to those who have no previous church experience
Services designed to be user-friendly and contemporary	Gatherings designed to be experiential and spiritual-mystical
A need to break the stereotype of what church is	A need to break the stereotype of who Christians are
Stained glass taken out and replaced with video screens	Stained glass brought back in on video screens
Crosses and other symbols removed from meeting place to avoid looking too "religious"	Crosses and other symbols brought back into meeting place to promote a sense of spiritual reverence
Room arranged so individuals are able to see the stage from comfortable theater seating while worshiping	Room arranged to focus on community, striving to feel more like a living room or coffeehouse while worshiping
Lit up and cheery sanctuary valued	Darkness valued as it displays a sense of spirituality
Focal point of service is the sermon	Focal point of the gathering is the holistic experience
Preacher and worship leader lead the service	Preacher and worship leader by participating in the gathering
Uses modern technology to communicate with contemporary flare	Gathering seen as a place to experience the ancient, even mystical (and uses technology to do so)
Services designed to grow to accommodate the many people of the church	Gatherings designed to grow to accommodate many people but seen as a time when the church which meets in smaller groups gathers together

Some of the shifting values in this table really resonated with me. I really connect with the shift from the "need to break the stereotype of what church is" to "need to break the stereotype of who Christians are." To me that speaks volumes. It would also make a great slogan -- not breaking the stereotype of church, but breaking the stereotype of Christians.

There were more tables in the book that were also excellent, but the following is a combination of what I think is the best parts of them. These were more values that we need to shift, but there were separate chapters (and tables) on preaching, evangelism, discipleship, and leadership. Below are some of the best elements from the chapters on evangelism and discipleship.

MODERN CHURCH (Seeker-Sensitive)	EMERGING CHURCH (Post-Seeker-Sensitive)
Evangelism is an event that you invite people to.	Evangelism is a process that occurs through relationship, trust, and example.
Evangelism is primarily concerned with getting people into heaven.	Evangelism is concerned with people's experiencing the reality of living under the reign of his kingdom now.
Evangelism is something you do in addition to discipleship.	Evangelism is part of being a disciple.
Evangelism is a message.	Evangelism is a conversation.
Evangelism uses reason and proofs for apologetics.	Evangelism uses the church being the church as the primary apologetic.
Missions is a department of the church.	The church is a mission.
The Bible is a book to help solve problems and a means to know God.	The Bible is a compass for direction and a means to experience God.
Discipleship is an individual experience.	Discipleship is a communal experience.
Discipleship is based on modern methodology and helps.	Discipleship is based on ancient disciplines.
Discipleship is knowledge and belief.	Discipleship is holistic faith and action.
Discipleship is education.	Discipleship is spiritual formation.
Being a disciple and evangelism are two distinct things we do.	Being a disciple is being on an evangelistic mission.
Spiritual formation primarily occurs through presentation and teaching.	Spiritual formation primarily occurs through experience and participation.
Discipleship is something that happens after people attend the worship service.	Discipleship is the center of the mission of the church.

The irony is that the changes we need to make, as individuals and as churches, have little to do with being culturally relevant, and everything to do with reconnecting with our original mission and calling. For example, while postmodernism will demand that we shift evangelism away from an "event" to a process that occurs through relationship, the reality is that this is how it is supposed to be anyway. The very things we need to do to connect with postmodern culture are the same things that would have worked better in the modern culture. The postmodern culture will force the church to be the church. This, I think, is a good thing. But the question is how do we get there, and what will it look like?

We must begin by no longer measuring our success with the three B's - buildings, budgets, and bodies. Kimball writes:

Success is more than having an alternative worship gathering that has become the hottest thing in town, attracting hundreds of younger people. The emerging church must redefine how we measure success: by the characteristics of a kingdom-minded disciple of Jesus produced by the Spirit, rather than by our methodologies, numbers, strategies, or the cool and innovative things we are doing.

It's clear to me that if we hold onto our current programs for the sake of the programs, and we hinge our idea of success onto the success of the programs we've generated, we won't get where we need to go. Instead, let's make room for God to work. Let's encourage each other on our journey as we seek God deeper. Let's be the community we're called to be, so that even outsiders will "bow down before God and worship him, declaring, 'God is really among you.'"

Dan Kimball has a blog where he shares a lot of great stuff, if you're interested in this stuff (you must be if you've read this far!) check it out at www.dankimball.com.

Labels: books, church, emerging

After revealing my thoughts over the past month, Pat brought a few books over for me to read. I've finished the first two, and it's just swirling more stuff around in my head. Consider this a book report of sorts.

The first book I read was Post-Modern Pilgrims: First Century Passion for the 21st Century World by Leonard Sweet. This book was published in 2000, and as such was relatively early in the post-modern discussion.

OK, so now I've introduced a new term that some of you might not know -- so here's my summary of "Post-Modern." In the 20th century, we looked at history and, for Western thought, saw three categories, each defined primarily by their worldview. Ancient history (up to around 500 A.D.) is characterized by the dawn of civilization, authority placed in kings, prophets, and oracles, and limited historical records. Medieval history (about 500 A.D. through about 1500 A.D.) is characterized by the authority being placed in the church, and the growth of the Judeo-Christian worldview, and the explosive growth of written manuscript. Modern history (about 1500 A.D. through the present) is characterized by the pursuit of and authority in knowledge and understanding (basically, the Enlightenment), and the explosive growth of the printing press.

For most of the 20th-centurty, it was taken for granted that we had "arrived." The "modern" worldview was as far as we were going to get. The term itself sort of insinuates this. But as early as the 1940's, and especially during the 1970's, people started noticing a shift in culture. In was a shift to personal experience, suspicion of authority, and a willingness to accept conflicting ideas. In each case of the worldview changing significantly, it was aided by a significant technological change. In the 20th-century, with the explosive growth of radio, television, and especially the internet -- a huge shift in communication by any standard of measurement -- the change is happening much more rapidly.

We are moving into what is best called, at this time, "post-modernism." I don't know anyone who "likes" the term, but we're kind of stuck with it for now. "Post-modernism" reflects an experience-based worldview. Spirituality is not real unless it is experienced. Large organizations are not to be trusted, as they have hidden agendas.

Most importantly, the post-modern mindset has a high distrust of Christians. They are mostly aware of Christians based on their experience of boring church experiences -- perhaps good music or great preaching, but nothing really spiritual about it -- or worse, through negative church experiences. The media, and perhaps rightly so, portrays Christians as hating gays, getting upset about the ten commandments, yelling at people walking into abortion clinics. We're dogmatic, closed-minded, and unloving. They like Jesus, they just don't like Christians. As Mahatma Ghandi said, "I like your Christ, but I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ." This is how most of the post-modern world views the church.

What does this mean for the church? How are we going to survive?

Back to Leonard Sweet. In his book, he uses the word EPIC to convey the shifts we need to make.

First, we need to move from a rational approach to an experiential approach. In the shift to a post-modern world, we are seeing the growth of "experience" industry -- tourism is perhaps the ultimate experience industry. Sweet says that "in postmodern culture, there is no interest in a "second-hand God, a God that someone else (church tradition, church professionals, church bureaucracies) defines for us. Each one of us is a Jacob become Israel: a wrestler with God. The encounter, the experience is the message."

Descartes' famous quote "I think, therefore I am" -- what is considered by some to signal the start of the Enlightenment and the modern worldview -- was simply the beginning. He was attempting to prove God exists by reason (and did a pretty good job, I might add). But the post-modern mindset doesn't care. You can "prove" that God exists, but until they experience God, the post-modern mindset won't believe it.

Second, we need to move from a representative approach to a participatory approach. This kind of flows with experiential, because you can only experience something when you really participate in it. But more directly, we no longer want guidance, we want choices. We no longer want to belong to an organization, we want to participate in a community.

This is why democracy will thrive in the post-modern world -- we want to participate in government, not just be ruled by it. The same could be said for how the post-modern mindset approaches religion.

Third, we need to move from a word-based approach to an image-driven approach. In the modern world, the focus was on knowledge and understanding -- so naturally our words (what we said) had to convince and explain.

Image-driven is partially literal -- using images to convey meaning -- but it also involves making use of metaphor, of story, to connect with the post-modern mindset. "One Coca-Cola executive is said to have declared that the company could survive the loss of all of its assets... providing it kept posession of the Coca-Cola logo... If... the greatest resources anyone can 'own' are images and stories, Christianity ought to be the biggest brand around."

Finally, we need to move from an individual approach to a connected approach. This may seem at odds with the post-modern mindset -- but in reality, the post-modern mindset is not that truth doesn't exist, it's just that it is difficult to find it. And we don't trust organizations to tell us truth, but we will trust our friends, and form a community, to journey there together.

But we also want to be respected as individuals -- so it's not just about communal, it's about individual-communal.

Overall, Sweet's book asks a lot of questions, without providing the answers. This is important, because we still don't know exactly where post-modernism will end up (which is also why we don't have a better name for it yet). We also don't know exactly where the church will end up, either. But the reality is, that for churches to thrive in a post-modern world, huge things need to change. But the biggest changes will need to be within us.

More on this in Part 2, where I will discuss the next book, and get a little more into how we need to change, both as individuals and as churches.

Labels: books, church, emerging