How Shall We Then Meet?

When we look closely at the different aspects and effects of certain numbers in group life, the question gets raised as to whether or not these understandings of numerical dynamics can actually help us gather more intentionally.

So rather than being frustrated with different sized groups, when we get to know the dynamics of numbers, it is possible we can really begin meeting more strategically. If permission has been given to do church differently, why would we insist on meeting the same way, with the same format, even the chairs set the same way, in the same room, basically doing the same thing week after week?

Many are feeling significant disinterest with our basic larger weekend gatherings called "church." Some of that sense of disconnect is not at all about the need to gather as the church but the sheer boredom with too many meaningless meetings built around the same old predictable formats of the "song, sit, sermon syndrome," weekend after weekend.

Meetings or Gatherings?

No matter what we do with changing the meeting format, time, place, style, we are still called to get together. The Hebrews 10:25 mandate is interesting in that most translations use the term "assembling ourselves together." For me personally that was always been a put off. The first thing that comes to mind is my old High School assemblies, large meetings where all the students filled the bleachers and the gymnasium floor for some special, usually boring, presentation.

The word is actually best translated "to gather together" (epi-sun-ag-ein). It could mean any number of people, even smaller numbers of people. No set quota of what constitutes a gathering, simply a gathering together.

Jesus uses the same word in talking about eagles (or vultures as some translate) gathering around a body (Luke 17:37), and/or a mother hen gathering her chickens under her wings (Matthew 23:37). It is hard to see large crowds in all of these pictures, with rows of chairs and platforms and programs. It seems more about a gathering around something. Maybe even something more like an intimate circle.

So, yes, we do need to gather or flock together as God's people, and our verse in Hebrews 10 might even point us towards "more often" as we see that Day approaching. We do need to be near each other, in relationship with each other, and in communication with each other in order to do and be the "one another's" so explicitly laid out throughout the New Testament.

Sometimes in our exotic attempts to create new kinds of meetings or new forms or new structures that will bring about that greater new place with each other, we forget some basic principles.

Life in God, in His family, is not about meetings as much as it is about His purposes in a meeting. It is what we are gathered around. It is what He does when we get together, or what He wants to do in the center of each gathering. It is about a connection not just a crowd, it is about affection, about fidelity, a feeling of being gathered around Him as we are gathered with each other.

No new structure will guarantee that, but it is about whatever He has called us to gather around.

Too often doing the same things again and again, giving into the habitual forms of Christian conformity can become a great enemy to true community. If we just go to the same pace and do the same things we assume we will experience community. Not so. It could even be that these kinds of early gatherings at the end of Acts 2 were not even planned meetings but really people caught in the act of being unable to stay away from each other. They just had to keep gathering around their new found life in Christ, and all that that meant.

We know they had a strict cultural Temple model, it shows up in the very next chapter (Chapter 3), as the miracle happens on the way to a certain hour of prayer at the Temple. So I am not so sure that what we see happening in the end of Acts 2 is because of necessarily a newly discovered agenda, a new plan, a new liturgy, a new curriculum, or a new manual, as much as their lives were so radically changed by Jesus, with many unable or unwilling to leave Jerusalem so they simply had to drop in on each other as often as possible to share that wonderful new radical life in God.

They weren't going to house church because of somenewly designed revelation, they weren't going anywhere, they just couldn't stay away from each other's homes, and getting daily involved in each other's lives. Sure, they continued to go to Synagogue or Temple for a while, but Christianity was well on its way to becoming an unstructured lifestyle and growing relationships together rather than some new address to meet at.

We need to pray for one another during these days of transition. Many seem to echo this idea that they feel they are in what might be coming out of a "deconstructionist zone" or even coming through a season of "detox," concerning their prior habits of meeting or gathering with other believers.

In this season the Jeremiah (1:10) wrecking crew is busy "rooting out," "pulling down," "destroying," "throwing down," what seems old, or antiquated, or non effective in the many ways we have gathered and seems to bestirring up a great hunger for the for His Manifest Presence, and a deeper, more authentic community.

I think it feels a whole lot like the first part of the Sunday Night TV Series "Extreme Home Makeover." You know, the part when the existing house or structure gets demolished. The needy family is whisked off to some exotic vacation site as they watch their old house get razed to the ground via computer from a distant site. And then with full speed cooperation, the hyper-construction crews begin the remodel, the rebuild, accomplishing their task in record-breaking time.

Transition seems to always take us to extremes. Either old house or new house, but with so much work in the middle. Kind of like church, either fewer meetings or maybe even too many meetings.

We seem to polarize between extremes of passive isolation, try to survive outside the body in the "just Jesus and me phase," or in the opposite of the frantic addiction to activities as we jet about looking for the next watering hole, the next glory fest, the next angel filled conference, the newest church in town, ad nausea.

We must not become discouraged; this transition of learning to gather differently will take some time. We are carrying a lot of institutional baggage as we have done meetings so many certain ways for so many years. And we don't have to just throw everything out and wing it either. Instead we get to become even more intentional as we hear God's voice together on how we are to now gather.

Predictableness or Planning?

If we understand that we have the freedom to gather differently in this "permissional time," it means we can experiment with more intentionality and more direction, not less. And that we can actually use what we have learned about different-sized, different-focused gatherings to our advantage as well as God's advancement of His work in us.

We of course could choose by default to let all of our gatherings remain stuck in the "sit, soak and sour," mode of days past, or actually and delightfully and intentionally get God's mind and plan for the different kinds of gatherings He wants to lead us into. He is very willingly to work with us if we will work with Him.

When preparing to gather, go ahead and ask some leading questions. Where are you in your walk with God? Where are you in your relationships with others? So, why are you going to gather with this certain group? Where do you want God to take you, where do you want the night to go? What are you willing to do to get there?

Answers to these kinds of questions may help when you know what it is you are wanting or looking for in a gathering with others.

When Looking For Intimacy and Friendship

Try gathering in a smaller group. Maybe even a very small group. Maybe 3 or 4. Gender specific. With the purpose of learning to walk together as deeply committed, trustworthy and authentic covenant friends (Amos 3:3).

Hang out with these friends in such a way that as Neil Cole (Church Multiplication Resources) says in his simple outline, you create a place where sin is confessed in mutual accountability, God's Word is read repetitively in context and community, and souls are prayed for strategically, specifically and continuously.

This kind of intimacy and friendship takes time, and will not be the only meeting you participate in. But it can be a very meaningful part of your growth together with a few others. Start with an hour or each week. over coffee, and watch it grow into spending significant quality time together. In these smaller groups no leader is necessary, no curriculum is necessary, no is workbook necessary and no training is necessary. Just a willingness to grow together and to grow up!

Neil Cole's little pamphlet about these small but powerful Life Transformation Groups on his website.

When Looking For Family and Faith

Try simple church with 5 to 15 people gathered around a full meal enjoying the ebbs and flows of life as a family. These cross-generational meals can include everyone, kids and all. We all have to eat; we all enjoy each other's presence. And there during the buzz of the family-like meal we can hear, chat, interrupt, laugh, cry and pray together as an extended family.

When the meeting gets too large and the family-like dynamic changes, make necessary adjustments, and start new groups.

Do projects together, have outings together, go camping and bowling together. Involves the kids in different ways, as you basically enjoy an evening meal together with friends. And all of this can be highly attractive and contagious to your pre-Christian friends and neighbors, so keep some places at the table open for others. You just start by scheduling a meal, inviting others to come, and watch God do the rest.

When Looking For Prophetic Strategy and Spiritual Warfare

Find those spiritual warriors in your community who are fighting and winning spiritual battles. The ones who know how to pray, how to see in the Spirit, how to heal the sick and how to operate consistently in the authority of the believer. Basically, if you want to have a prayer gathering, find people who know how to pray.

This army is growing everywhere; start asking where they meet, what they do, and how you can share your specific and strategic needs with them.

These people are involved in intercessory groups; they are technicians with the Healing Rooms. Many are covert, and by no means drawing attention to themselves, and yet their reputations are known by the Spirit.

When you get together with these kinds of strategic people, the strategies will come in the meeting. The prayer direction, the national or international focus points. I heard of one group that watches the news channel and then pauses it when it calls for a strategic kinds of international praying.

Looking For Radical Worship and Celebration

Just listen for the sounds; you hear them everywhere these days. From boom boxes to huge sound systems. From iPods to finely-tuned stereos. Sounds of war, sounds of intimacy, sounds of celebration. Thunderous stomps over injustice, sweet, angelic melodious sounds for soaking and contemplation. Wild and crazy sounds that send you leaping and jumping. Romantic, and wooing sounds that have you in tears and silence.

Gather the musicians and singers and dancers around these sounds. Remember when David set aside the 4,000 musicians and the 288 singers to sing before the Lord 24/7. Then take these sounds to the streets, to the city parks, to the apartments courtyards, to the office complexes, to the coffee houses, to the beaches and of course to the cathedrals and chapels. Make room for the spontaneous sounds, not just the pre-learned songs of the day.

Find your own sound that builds with the others. And then give yourself to the full release of your sound, the participation of the instrument that you are. It is more about the sound you carry than your instrumental or musical talent.

Looking For Empowering and Equipping

What about walking through the Scriptures with some friends, asking freely and openly for insight, revelation and application. Gather a reading group around a certain agreed upon book, or listen to a CD/DVD series and discuss it openly. Even discuss it in public places, like a local coffee shop or a park, or the clubhouse at your apartment complex. Watch the curious interaction with others that God can cause in these open settings.

Gather some of your friends around someone's specific life message. A local teacher or pastor in your community, one of the fathers and mothers in the faith that you all know can be brought into your group for great times of teaching and feedback and interaction.

Have several of these spontaneous gatherings to empower and equip each other. Keep asking God what He wants to say to you, and keep listening, as He will direct you to invite others who carry a certain timely message for your group.

Whatever You Do - Do it With Friends

Doing the Kingdom with friends is what Christ modeled for us. Life in God is not meeting-focused, but is relationally lived. The signal most pivotal verse in this season of my life about relationship and connection comes from Mark 3:13,14 as Jesus called the twelve to first be "with" Him, and then second, to "send " them. Whatever you are called to do these days, do it with Jesus and with others.

This is no time to be stingy with creativity; this is no time to be boring or predictable. Do these gatherings with freedom and delight. Do them with new meaning, with bold intention, and radical passion. And don't wait for all of these gatherings to be planned and scheduled by someone else, don't wait for the special announcement to make the Sunday bulletin. Like Nike said, "Just do it."

This is a new day of getting together. It is time to gather and pursue deep authentic faith communities all over our region as we celebrate our Creative Creator.

Missional House Churches, Part Two

A standing concern for us over the recent years of emphasis on housechurching and community, is that if we are not discerning and careful, we can get so ingrown, so addicted to loving our intimate fellowship, that we might forget to be missional, to go beyond us, and possibly even deftly ignore the enormity and the timeliness of the God’s Great Commission and today’s ripe harvest.

But, I also have the greatest of hope, that in moving towards the more authentic living of our faith in our homes, in our neighborhoods, and in our daily lives, we might be able to steer more effectively towards the lost and steer away from some of the great mistakes that have been made by believers in the past in trying to reach those who do not yet believe.

Here’s Life America!

When my family and I arrived in the Bay Area of Northern California over thirty years ago, we came into the city God had called us to at a time when the entire nation was in the throws of one of the most extensive campaigns it had seen to date. “Here’s Life America,” was a multi-million dollar evangelistic effort sponsored by Campus Crusade for Christ, originally founded by Bill Bright.

It was localized in 253 major metropolitan regions of the United Sates, involving no less than 14,500 local congregations across the country.

It was claimed that during that crusade three-fourths of all Americans were exposed to the campaign’s catchy slogan, “I Found It.” You could see it on bumper stickers, billboards, and massive television commercials everywhere.

Without question, North American churches had joined together into what was perceived as a quantum leap forward in the attempted evangelism of this nation.

At the end of the day though, when it was over, all indications were, that whereas “Here’s Life America,” was a streaming media success, it had proved to be a drastic evangelistic failure. As the facts of all the empirical studies came in, it saw merely a trickle of new members actually added to the body of Christ, with some experts concluding that this massive effort had virtually no measurable impact on church membership in the United States.

Motives Matter

Somehow, something deep, something core, something essential had been forgotten. It was the simplest reality that when a person comes to faith, or commits his or her life to Christ, ultimately they do so for reasons that are important to that individual person.

The reasons may not seem vital to that one’s family, to that one’s friends, even to that loving friend who is endeavoring to lead that person to faith. But the final reasons are deeply essential and critical to that individual who decides to commit their life to becoming a follower of Jesus.

Experts call the reasons people do things, “motives.” And because it is generally premature to ask someone to do something unless you first understand how he or she feels and thinks, it seems clear that we may have to be willing to put aside our reasons why our friend should become a Christian and try to see into their world, and try to understand their needs, before we offer the greatest of solutions to all of life’s problems.

Seeing Or Hearing

One of the saddest parts of today’s church is that for the most part it has become hidden from life, locked weekly into the four walls of our “stained-glass” wombs, and not available to be seen, witnessed and experienced in the everyday, and interacted with in the normal context of a person’s life.

Like some kind of weird “witness protection” system, we have hidden the most powerful witness of the Good News of Jesus Christ, the very people that Christ has changed, filled and empowered to live His life in the world.

People simply do not hear our answers to questions that they have not yet asked for themselves. Any canned presentation, even by the most well meaning Christian towards some hypothetical, average person is like trying to selling tickets on the Ark to someone who has been praying for rain for two years.

The church is to be the visible expression of Christ in this world. It is to be in view of the others. So that by watching or viewing the church, people absorbed as a body of believers, other people can sense, can feel, and can even ask questions. The world must experience the living fullness of Christ.

That is why living church 24/7 in a real world, out in front, for all to examine and to see is so critical. The church is an eternal presence in a fallen, temporal world, but we must have influence. And if all we do is go to meetings, whether in a building or a home, and never interact in the context of others, we have very little influence.

Listening Or Lectures

As Dena Brehm once stated, “Just by way of observation preaching was done to those who didn’t yet believe, dialogue was done with those who did already believe.” When we preach down to others, rather than live in front of them, we keep them at the distance of their unbelief. When we eat with them, laugh with them, cry with them, and most of all listen to them, we become a bridge into their world rather than a disjointed, disconnected religious wedge of condemnation.

When we listen to others we find out what is really going on in that person’s life. Then, and only then, we might be able to offer some help to where they are. Even better, we might even be specifically asked to help, at which point the Gospel the Good news of Jesus alive in me has become attractive.

Evangelism is not a course, not a subject, and not a goal. Loving people is. Loving people until they ask “why.” Our primary relationship to those outside the faith is not to try to get them to come to a meeting, endure a lengthy sermon and walk the aisle to an altar call. It is to do good works, helping them with any needs that they may have. Whether that be babysitting for them, helping them find a job, or simply having them over for coffee and listening as a friend.

So, how can we do that when we are constantly running off to meetings, even meetings to better learn how to share our faith? How can we do that as we continue to hide behind the excess of our religious activities? As it has been well said, “Preach the good news to everyone, everywhere you go, and when necessary, use words.”

“We have too many high sounding words, and too few actions that correspond to them.” - Abigail Adams (1744 - 1818)

A Virtual Visual Living Witness

That is why I so love doing church in a natural way, in a natural setting like a home, an apartment, a yard, a park, an office, in the marketplace of life. And with real people in real-life situations. By observation our neighbors see what goes on, even hear what is going on, long before we try to pounce on them with the “sinner’s prayer.” The fact that we have time to spend with them, the fact they are not made to feel like the objects of our evangelistic zeal, but rather friends, friends we like being with, and friends we actually care about goes much further than our quick wit with the Four Spiritual Laws or the Roman Road.

What is missing for many people, who might normally be curious about the Christian life, is they don’t get to see the Christian “life.” They only get to see us going off to another Christian “meeting.” They need to be exposed to how we live, how we struggle, and how God continues to transform in the midst of the same difficult circumstances that the whole world lives in.

When we live out this 24/7/365 Christian life, and live it next door, and even invite those neighbors in to participate, we have created a context that makes what we have to offer real. At the end of the day, we only have one thing. We don’t need to compete with the world’s intellect, music, style, wealth or lack thereof.

We have a unique commodity. The living, breathing example of changed, transformed lives. And seeing them, live, care, cry, struggle, share, hurt, heal, all is part of the picture.

So, lets get about the business of “being the good news,” before we attempt to present or proclaim “the good news.” Evangelism is a conversation, not a sermon. It is a proactive interaction not a pedantic put-down. It is a series of inclusive acts, not a pattern of rejection or manipulation to adhere to a list of rules.

Jesus was a “friend of sinners.” Now does that describe today’s kind of Christianity that is only known for its objections and political judgment?

Let’s keep the conversation going, keep the neighbors coming, and let’s include them now, even before they “pray the prayer,” so that we understand they will very likely “belong before they believe.”

Finally, let’s be reminded that part of God’s corporate mission for us is that we would live in transforming communities. Communities that not only feel like family, but act like family when the going gets tough, especially when it is time to confront a brother or sister, and walk them through the “hard times.”

Andy Christopher on community recently wrote, “Though community is to be sought after, it should not take the place of a real reverence for the Lord and a respect for His prerogative to reach down and blow up whatever plans we cook up together outside of His specific command.”

Changed lives, intertwined with other changed lives, living for the world to see. What a concept of a missional community!

Missional House Churches, Part One

"The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few." (Matthew 9:37)

A standing concern over the recent emphasis on housechurching, especially with its strong emphasis on the need for deeper fellowship and more authentic community, is that we might be once again concentrating too much on those already saved, fixated on catering to their emotional, social and edification needs, getting too ingrown, becoming less missional, and ignoring the enormity of the Great Commission and today's harvest.

Some might even warn us, that the Scripture says to, "Pray to the Lord of the Harvest," (Matthew 9:38) not, "Pray to the Lord of the Fellowship." So, is there a sense of caution here about too much fellowship, too much navel gazing, too much community?

Rethinking Fellowship

I don't think that the emphasis on housechurching is a Great Commission problem if we constantly rethink the goal of fellowship, the goal of community. When we remind ourselves that purpose of gathering as believers is mutual edification (Hebrews 10:24, 25), and the exposure to the multi-faceted giftings of a local body then the exposure to true and authentic community actually can help produce happier and healthier saints. Who in turn are naturally more effective as living witnesses to their world.

I have wondered for a long time whether our classic emphasis on Matthew 28; Mark 16, Luke 24; John 20; Acts 1 and the Great Commission has been all that effective in motivating people to evangelize effectively. I do believe in a Great Commission, in The Great Commission, and I desire deeply an empowered, living community of faith that embodies and incarnates that message of Jesus to the world.

I just wonder how much of the power of that message comes through the latest evangelism trend, over-zealous evangelists or by being rightly related to our Heavenly Father and to His people; the body of Christ?

For years as a city pastor I attempted to do everything in my power to help create the kind of unity that would emulate Psalm 133 and fulfill Christ's High-priestly prayer in John 17. Wondering all along if we would actually have a greater impact on our culture if we got caught truly in love with God and with each other?

Father And Me Then You And Me

A reread of Jesus' prayer might reveal a different focal point, "that they all may be one, as You Father are in me," (John 17:21). Is it possibly putting a greater emphasis on the relationship of intimacy and oneness between Jesus and His Father first, rather than the exclusive inference to the horizontal one of fellowship unity between you and I. First of all, with worldwide Christianity now boasting 37,000 denominations, what a daunting task this horizontal unity presents. I am simply thinking out loud as to whether we may have overstated the horizontal part of this unity and may have missed the greater vertical intimacy that will be followed by the fruit of the horizontal oneness. I do know this, that when the vertical relationship between my Father and I is intact, that automatically sheds light and dynamic on my horizontal relationship with others.

I also know that when my relationship of intimacy is broken with the Father it creates a very difficult environment for any true or meaningful fellowship with one another. I have come to call this the "sucking sound of fellowship."

Get some Christians together who do not have a working personal history with God, and their need for community is out of proportion, out of balance, and it screams "community" when the actual need is for intimacy with their personal God to be restored. The migration Christians from fellowship to fellowship is more likely a pilgrimage or search for Him rather than for each other. As we pursue Him, our love, our patience, and our way of being with each other radically changes.

The Cadence of Christ

I guess what I am saying goes back to my past reference on the classic sequence of Jesus in His own personal ministry in Luke 6:12 - 19. It seems there was a very distinct purpose to the sequential priorities in the life of Christ. (1) He spent the night in solitude (intimacy) with the Father, (2) the morning in fellowship (community) with His friends, and then (3) the afternoon in healing and deliverance (evangelism) with the harvest.

I have experienced much inward turmoil over these priorities in my life. So much of my ministry life in the early days was spent in neglect of that Secret Place/Sacred Space with Poppa. Even my fellowship with others that was spotty at best. Much of that seasons was consumed with serving God by serving others, all under the guise of serving the needs of the institutional church.

In the end, I outwardly may have achieved the success of numerical growth, but inwardly I lacked a deep fellowship with God, and a deep friendship with others. I always seemed to muster adequate vision beyond me, giving myself to missions, and to outreach in it many forms, only finding the emptiness in doing without knowing the Father or being really known by my brothers and sisters.

Back to the sequence of Luke 6, or what I call the Cadence of Christ. When these priorities are in order, things seem to be different. So let me go even further than the just the concern for too much fellowship. I think the priorities are even different than that. First, we spend time, much time with the Father, then time, deep time, with our friends, not just doing church business, but living in healthy community. And the results of this living in God and with each other will make a far more effective influence on the Harvest field around us.

I do want to work harder at being more intentional in my inclusion of the lost in my daily life, but when the mission overrides my relationships with God and my brothers and sisters, I am destined for burnout or bitterness.

I am more and more convinced that the best outreach comes through a life that is fulfilled up in upreach (To God) satisfied in inreach (To the saints) and then released in outreach (To the lost).

Given that scenario, I want to jump into this new year, and this new season committed to pursuing a new generation of healthy sons and daughters and healthy brothers and sisters who can better reach a lost and drifting society.

Our need is not slicker, more media-savvy approaches to evangelism. The message of Jesus' redemption is clear; the gospel is and always will be the Good News. The message will not change but it can be seen clearer and better and more distinct when we live it out with God and each other.

We are still "in this world," we are still exhibit A, to make the message more believable by how we live.

Or as Daniel Oudshoorn writes,

"Therefore, if the western Church hopes to be missional, it must learn to speak Christianly in the midst of Babel. Instead of changing the gospel message the Church must proclaim the gospel in its original form and allow the way it lives to interpret that message. The Christian message cannot simply be employed to provide Christian living with cultural approval. Instead Christian living, coupled with faith in the Holy Spirit, ought to provide the content and meaning of the Christian message. When Christianity is proclaimed in this way then the Church will be equipped to reveal a radical new way of being human in the midst of a western culture.

It is the indwelling and embodiment of the Christian story that makes it comprehensible (and perhaps even appealing) to society. It is the actions of the Christian community that exegete the Christian message."

A Prophetic Wanna-Be

I have always wanted to be more prophetic than I am, often desiring those laser-beam, precision, end-times words that everyone seems to be seeking. Especially today with the whole world in turmoil. So I am sorry, this is such a simple word.

Our finest hour is in front of us, and we will be up for it as we learn to take "baby steps," in living out our faith. A simple return to the main and the plain of loving God and serving one another by meeting the most of basic of needs in front of us, will return us to the potency and power of our message.

Begin by returning to the Father, carving out huge chunks of time, just learning to sit and rest in His presence. Secondly, keep living a life that moves towards authentic community, spending good amounts of time in deeper fellowship with one another, enjoying life as family, as we learn to gather, to eat, to share, to laugh, to pray together, and to genuinely care for each other.

Guaranteed, when we do this, our souls will be filled, our lives will be enriched, and the message of Jesus Christ will gain a great credibility in the eyes and ears of our skeptical culture.