This is interesting stuff you wrote here. Thanks for sharing about your family's journey and what you are currently doing to find the place God would have you to be. I appreciate your insight and honesty.
Blessings!!
Brad,
Thank you for sharing your practices with us. The idea of meeting around a music practice session is a new one to me. Can you share more about the other meetings that you are a part of? Also, do each of the various nightly meetings consider themselves the church, or do you only consider what you do jointly (all the meetings together) to be the church?
I hope you don't mind the questions.
-Alan
This sounds A LOT lie the journey we are on. We also have come to the conclusion that we want to gather around a common spiritual practice and around questions rather than answers. For us it has taken the form of a weekly agape meal. We also see how this is really affecting our children. Our 4 year old recently decided she wants to be baptized. When I asked her why (baptism has not been a big issue) she told me the gospel from creation to new creation, and said that she would like to show everyone that she is Jesus friend. I was stunned. She had basically connected all the dots by herself (or with the help of her friend, I imagine).
Alan,
First, we consider the whole church one church so that all the churches meeting in our area are the church whether baptist or reformed or whatever. I wouldn't feel comfortable saying "Oh that's Joe Smith's church". But at the same time, the network of churches we are involved in has its seperate deacons to distribute money to the needs of the community. We don't have elders yet but I imagine that will come. We haven't had any issues requiring anything like elders yet.
BUT at the same time each nightly meeting is considered church. So we are doing church from 6:00 -7:30 most nights. Also, at the community center that a few of the house church members runs, they meet a few times a week too. We consider all that church.
As a fellow member of the organic church community that Brad writes about, I just want to give my input regarding the life in community that we are experiencing. I have been in the established church all my life and learned how to "play by the rules" very well. But in me, that produced a lot of hidden resentment and the habit of hiding my emotions. I found that I had created an ugly inner life while I had a very clean and "acceptable" exterior. I could always say the right thing and perform as expected, but in my heart I held so much anger. In our community now, we get together frequently and really live honestly in front of each other. If I have emotions that come up (and in human interactions, emotions ALWAYS come up) then I have the freedom to speak about it right then and there. And then the other people in the group have the right to give their opinion about it. We work it out together. Just last week, I was getting angry at my husband for the way I perceived him speaking to me during our group meeting. And instead of just being guiet and having a fight with him later about it, I spoke up and let the whole group know that I was upset. Then different people gave us input about what was happening, and we could deal with it as a group, as an opportunity for us all to learn about human interactions and how to be a Jesus-follower in your relationships. Such a change from the way I used to live. And I think that's what it's all about, not just learning the right thing to do or say, but practicing living it out.
Brad,
Thank you for your reply. When you said, "we are doing church from 6:00 -7:30 most nights", do you mean that there are meetings from 6:00-7:30 most nights? Do you consider those meetings the church, or does the church exist apart from those meetings? I'm not trying to be picky, just trying to understand.
Martha,
What a great testimony to the openness and acceptance in the church! We are also trying to learn to be ourselves among the church, not to hide our feelings and emotions in order to act a certain way. What we are learning is the people who love us will love us anyway. And we will all grow through accepting one another then teaching one another and watching one another grow in Christ.
-Alan
Alan,
There is a differnce of opening on this. Some think whenever we are together we are "having church" but I do not feel this way. My definition is that whenever we are intentionally doing kingdom work or spiritual disciplines then we are doing church. Everytime we are together we are building community but not specifically doing church. To balance this, I think going out and meeting people on the streets is doing church as this is direct and intentional and in community.
Some people do not like to but limits on the definition of doing church but without anything specific that is church then it is very hard to promote the disciplines that are necessary to make disciples. I hold a more narrow definition than some and obviously a more open definition than the institutional definitions.
Martha,
I think when we really accept the long term covenant commitment of growing together, then every meeting no matter what is a good thing and part of the process. I really appreciate that we are real with each other and work out conflicts in community. No "best foot forward" pretending. It is all good.
This all sounds a lot like Benedictine Spirituality. The Rule of Benedict was written for lay people in community seeking to follow Jesus. Wonderful wisdom in the Rule, which has been in continual practice for fifteen hundred years.
Brad,
I like your commitment to trully desire living rightly before God. We need more of that in the body of Christ. I think of Paul's statement in Romans 12:9 " Let love be without hypocrisy...," which has to be true in any close-knit community. Anybody who has been or is married knows that you can’t be hypocritical in your love. The hypocrisy will eventually show itself. You have to be real and honest. And it looks like you are fostering that brotherly love without hypocrisy in your various meetings.
I would disagree with you though, about Christianity ultimately not being a body of truths to be intellectually known but a body of practices to be learned because you could historically say that about Judaism. I think Christianity is a body of truths to be known and lived. Because ultimately its what you believe about Christ and what he has done for you and not what you’ve done that justifies you before God. I think you would agree with me.
I also think that once the ‘newness’ wears off, your Church meetings are going to have to deal with the same issues the institutional churches have been dealing with for eons, like the sacrements, corporate discipline, biblical interpretation, authority, etc. As Ecclesiastes states, “ there is nothing new under the sun.”
I do like the family prayer and worship you practice. I’ve alwayed struggled with family worship. And being divorced, makes it even harder because now my time is limited with my children. How do you incorporate God’s word into your family worship? I would be interested in knowing how does all that work itself out in your family worship.
Much love my brother in Christ,
Newton
This site has the best selection of dvds on topics ranging from Atlantis to Alchemy, to the Illuminati and Remote Viewing, I have ever found! Many of the videos are purely instructional. If you listen to Coast to Coast AM, study the paranormal or believe in UFOs, this site can serve as your "Holy Grail!"http://www.keyinsight.com/
Spiritual_Teachings.html
Commenting by HaloScan
