In Western society it’s difficult to do life together, but it does happen, it can be sustained and it can be life-changing. I pray these stories encourage you to keep meeting, keep searching and start gathering. This story is told by Joel Davis.
Some 18 years ago, a friend and I who were both trained as ministers and on staff at the same church began sensing that there was “something more” that the Lord was calling us to. We just could not grasp in that season what it was, and truthfully, it would have destroyed us had He exposed us to the entirety of it that early on. We were determined to reject the notion that whatever was the next thing, we must NOT get credit for it, nor be seen as the “leaders” of it. We already knew the pitfalls of that approach. It’s why I’m extremely reluctant in one sense to be featured in this segment of “Unsung Heroes”. There is nothing heroic about embracing a moniker or even a sentiment that anything I have ever done for the Lord came from me. If it inspires people or orients people towards the glory of God, then He alone gets the glory, not me. Which leads to me to the crux of my story.
Not long after we stepped out of our traditional church setting, we came to embrace the idea that even though we were meeting in our homes, it was not “meeting in homes” that our Lord was passionate about. Jesus words to seek first his kingdom Mt.6:33 burn deeply in our hearts. Our pursuit is not a location, a program, paradigm or model. Neither is it a “pattern” of activities that we see in the NT as if we could simply “do what they did” and repeat their behaviors. The tribe we came from were famous for that, we had to do “everything by the book” or as we always said, “We speak where the Bible speaks, we are silent where it does not”. We certainly continue our deep conviction about the high value of Scripture, but the Lord has taught us that it is HIM and HIS KINGDOM that are the totality of what Scripture reveals. HE (not the book that reveals the HE) is the actual and final authority and His divine life (the indwelling Holy Spirit) is what makes it become the very thing He is dreaming it will become.
We have discovered that this pursuit of Christ is both the most difficult AND the most glorious thing we have ever determined to pursue. Some say its simple to “start” a house church, and we agree, anyone can do that. On the other hand, what Paul says about the “foundation” being laid (1 Cor.3:10) requires something outside of ourselves that none of us can replicate. It MUST come from the Lord, it cannot be manufactured by human effort. It is, as Paul says, only “given by grace”. It begins with an earth shattering, soul shocking revelation of the KINGDOM GOSPEL of Jesus Christ to a people. The people falling down in humility, picking up the mantle of suffering and death and joining Jesus on the altar….sounds like Jesus words in Mark 8:34. There is no other way to arrive at this beautiful “ekklesia” that Scripture says will become a a home, a temple, a bride, and a body for Him to express Himself on earth. So much to unpack in what I’m attempting to describe here. If you want to learn more about how God is establishing Kingdom community in our little neck of the woods, reach out to Joel Davis at:
941-224-3848
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