Entries categorized as ‘Simple Church’
Yesterday I met with a few guys that I meet with regularly to stir up vision, maintain some accountability, and simply dream together. When we get together we usually talk about how we can serve our Lord faithfully and help the body of Christ here in our region of Hampton Roads Virginia become focused on the unreached, make disciples and be more missional in house/simple churches. Our conversation yesterday focused on the combination of three major aspects of what the Lord is speaking to his Church around the world.
They are:
- Having a simple, organic church life.
- Focusing on unreached people groups in mission – being pioneers in mission.
- The 24/7 prayer movement – becoming a people of prayer seeing the house churches equipped to become houses of prayer.
What we discovered as we talked about this these three aspects of the revolution within the church is that we need to be sure that we steer away from the institutional traps and hierarchal bondage, hype and turning the work of the Kingdom into a business plan, self-serving ambition and wanting to “plant our flag”. It seems that these three threads of the Lord’s leading could become a “three-stranded cord” that will facilitate the making of disciples as never before. What do you think?
Another observation from yesterday and our regular meeting every week is that we need to meet together with a few good brothers or sisters in Christ and allow the” iron to sharpen iron” in order to keep us in check. It is so easy to fall back into the patterns of the old carnal life as well as the religious life of Christendom. We need each other to be sure our steps are “ordered by the Lord and that he would delight in our ways.”(Psalm 37:23) So, here is another three stranded cord, a “band of brothers” or as Neil Cole calls them “Life Transformation Groups.” The Word says that a three stranded cord is not quickly broken! (Ecclesiastes 4:12)
If you do not have a few fellow servants of the Lord to hang out with and be honest with your struggles and your ambitions, your ability to walk in integrity will be hindered. As the Lord leads you to make disciples of all nations – be sure that you are being discipled as well. You are never so mature that you don’t need someone provoke you to do the will of the Lord.
Categories: 3.1 Making Disciples · Prayer · Servant Perperation · Simple Church
Tagged: 24-7 Prayer, accountability, making disciples, missions, Simple Church, Unreached People Groups, vision
One of the Strategic Church Network (our regional simple church network focused on missions in Hampton Roads Virginia) house churches has begun to make friends with several refugee families from Myanmar (Burma). These families just arrived in the USA a few months ago. This is such a strange country for them, and this house church is sharing the love of Jesus with these families. Teaching them English, helping them find jobs, assisting with the medical needs and showing them how to live here in the USA.
But more than that, these followers of Jesus have become best friends and even family to these Muslim refugees. (See there blog at Servinghrrefugees) Doing far more than could ever be done through an institution or program. They go and spend time in the homes of these refugees, eating, laughing, and just being friends with them.
The amazing thing about this is that there are thousands of refugees in cities and communities here in the USA, but they have very little contact with the Body of Christ. In fact, most churches only want to work with Christian refugees! Did you know that in 2008 that over 60,000 refugees came to our Nation for asylum. Most of these refugees come from areas of the world where it is very difficult to send followers of Jesus to love and serve them. The Lord is bringing these least reached peoples to our cities so that those who follow Christ and his teachings will reach out to them and show his love to the strangers in our land.
Do you have refugees in your community? If so, this is a great opportunity to reach the nations without ever leaving home! Now go and be a friend to those who are without a country! If you need some help, let me know!
Categories: 1.0 Mobilization · 3.1 Making Disciples · North America · Refugees · Simple Church
Tagged: Hampton Roads Simple Church Network, Jesus, missions, Refugees, Simple Church, Strategic Church Network
September 12, 2008 · 3 Comments
In my previous post I discussed a very involved process regarding doing missions, specifically when reaching into the least reached regions, among the unreached peoples that still need to know about Jesus. After posting it I realized that “man, that’s not very simple is it!” (Thanks to a few comments from some folks.) But really it is. Here are a few ways we can keep missions simple;
1. Only do what you see the Lord doing. The process takes time (the chart in my last post could take 5-20 years to accomplish reaching a people group). So go slow and listen to the Lord as you go doing what He is doing and not being driven by a program or plan.
2. Network with other simple churches. It’s not all your or your house church’s responsibility to know and do everything. This is why we need to network. It may be that your house church may take on just one element of long list of what would need to be done.
3. Take personal responsibility. Simple churches are fluid. They may meet together for a short period of time or for years. Take what the Lord has revealed to you to accomplish with you wherever you go. Be a champion for reaching that unreached, least reached people group.
4. It’s not our work; it’s the King’s work. Continually remind yourself that it is the Lord’s work. There is a delicate balance between being sensitive to the Lord’s leading, carefully following Him, and taking the “bull by the horns” and making it happen. It boils down to obedience, not ambition or strategies.
This may not be exhaustive – if I continue with the list, it starts to get too complicated.
We need to know what we are doing, and the scope of the “big picture”, but we also must keep it simple.
Categories: 1.0 Mobilization · 1.2 Planning · Simple Church
Tagged: missions, Simple Church, simple church networks, Unreached People Groups
One of the major concerns in missions is the historic tendency to influence cultures more towards who we are (Americans, Koreans, Westerners etc.) rather than the Kingdom of God. Jeff and Maria Gilbertson discuss this in an excellent post on this site under Training For Pioneer Missions. At Jeff’s suggestion, It would be good if we make this a topic of discussion rather than being buried in another thread. Let’s read it and then let’s talk about it!
Here is what Jeff wrote:
Dear All,
If we are to be fruitful sending house churches / apostolic teams from the western world into the last remaining unreached people groups, I believe that we must look at the “unknown/unseen” baggage that most westerners will carry with them. My wife and I call it: “the White Man’s Burden”. (WMB)
Simply put the WMB is: “the supposed or presumed responsibility of white people to govern and impart their culture to nonwhite people.”
In an excerpt from a speech by William Jennings Bryan, a gifted speaker, lawyer, and three-time US presidential candidate, basically sums up the position that there is such a thing as a the “white man’s burden”.
No one can travel among the dark-skinned races of the Orient without feeling that the white man occupies an especially favored position among the children of men, and the recognition of this fact is accompanied by the conviction that there is a duty inseparably connected with the advantages enjoyed. William Jennings Bryan — July 4, 1906
This speech, made on Independence Day 1906, was not that long ago. You see in his own words that he is not joking and that he really believes that the white man has an “especially favored position” vis-à-vis, the dark-skinned. YUCK!!
You can’t argue with success, Baby.
“Success is probably the highest value in American life. It relates to so many other characteristics of American life — individualism, freedom, goal-setting, progress, experimenting, social mobility, making money, pragmatism, and optimism.” Stan Nussbaum
We have seen the visible signs of this “burden” from Eastern Europe to Central Asia. As white missionaries enter poor nations they automatically, like “default mode” on your computer, enter in with ideas of how they can help, “What this country needs is . . .” etc. Most of the time they simply transpose what works in their country to the country they are in, with little thought to what is indigenous or reproducible at the local level.
One example from our experience is the effort made to bring into a poor nation in Central Asia “solar ovens” that would help poor villagers cook meals so that they would not further deplete their scarce wood supply. Well, as things actually worked out, the solar ovens – which can be produced with local materials although the concept is foreign – are not being used to cook meals at all but are used by some to boil water for tea.
I guess this is a “hybrid type” of success story but nevertheless the principle of “what worked for us is what will work for you”, carried on by the power of the WMB, still remains alive and well on planet earth!
I have read of poor African nations almost being forced by Western governments to purchase huge farm tractors to jump start their “deplorable” economy. Well, a few years later the tractors are converted into “city taxis” and farming goes on as it has for generations. But now the country suffers under more debt to rich nations for purchasing the tractors in the first place.
Your feedback would be much appreciated.
Jeff and Maria Gilbertson
Categories: 2008 H2H Preconference Discussion · Contextualization · Funding · Indigenious workers · Servant Perperation · Simple Church · Support
Tagged: colonialism, Contextualization, cross-cultural baggage, white man's burden
