My wife and I had the pleasure of meeting Jon and Dotty Zens a couple of weeks ago. It was an honor spending time with them and hearing stories of their travels around the world. They have been encouraging relational fellowships since 1977 so their knowledge is not only based on the Word but founded on real life experiences. 58to 0, How Christ Leads Through The One Anothers is a fabulous book. It’s meatier than some of his other books, so be prepared. I have included an excerpt below. You can check out his website here.
Years ago, Vernon Grounds wrote an article about “the fellowship of porcupines.” He noted that all of us are capable of poking one another in hurtful ways. The DNA of Christ in us longs for a community of shared life in Christ. But, as Henri Nouwen observed, the path to vibrant community “is hard and full of difficulties,” (H. Nouwen, Reaching Out, p. 46).
From the Lord’s perspective and purpose, He birthed the ekklesia on earth to express and display His Son. And through the ekklesia, He makes His wisdom known to the principalities and powers that rule in the heavenlies, thereby, His reign and love in the ekklesia will be seen by the watching world, (Ephesians 3:10; John 13:35).
Thus, despite the numerous obstacles and challenges to a believing community, fully functioning ekklesia is not optional, but the vitality and the heart of God’s eternal purpose in Christ. Followers of Christ on earth are faced with living in a serious tension within the messiness of His family, yet nevertheless, continuing to pursue Him together as those captured by His eternal purpose for His Son to have a Bride.
Nouwen crisply captured the essence of community when he called it “a joyful togetherness of spontaneous people,” (H. Nouwen, Reaching Out, p. 15).
So why do we find it so difficult to live the shared life of Christ with others? Why does a believing community seem to blossom so infrequently? I think it would be beneficial to touch upon some of the formidable challenges that we must wrestle with in the context of community.
Every culture has its peculiar characteristics that give believers a sure test of faith as they follow Jesus. Here are four to reflect upon.
1. Mobility: In our era, mobility is an issue in most places in the world. But in America it seems that many people are too mobile! Folks do not remain in the same place long enough to establish community with other believers. They are always moving for a variety of reasons. This makes it not only difficult, but near impossible to develop community together. Usually the parting takes place before the bond of Christ takes root through knowing Him in and through one another.
2. Distance: Many Americans drive long distances one-way from home to the church building of their choice. The fact remains that deepening relationships cannot be built from a distance. Living within reasonable proximity to one another facilitates community Life. Authentic community is the everyday things and everyday life that we share together.
3. Individualism: We live in a culture where, for the most part, people have built walls around themselves, and they don’t want to let any body in. People live in subdivisions and have never met their neighbors. “Jeremy Seabrook refers to the ‘strangers who live where neighborhoods once were’…. It may be stated strongly that we have witnessed a striking increase in the sense of separate, differentiated identity and a corresponding sharp decline in the sense of community and belonging,” (Paul L. Wachtel, “America, Land of Lost Community,” Searching Together, 38:3-4, 2012, p. 29).
Given that believers have usually been infected with forms of individualism, it takes a fresh revelation from Christ in order for them to see that in the Spirit they are part of a Body in which they receive from and give to the other parts, (1 Cor. 12:13).
4. Materialism and Consumerism: Most Americans feel pressured to devote a lot of time to obtaining and maintaining their things and their career. Building Christ-centered communities will involve each follower re-visiting how they use their time, money and resources. Community flows out of believers giving priority to Christ in others, not to pouring time and resources into things that will perish. Bruce Springsteen captured the spirit of this in “Blood Brothers”:
We played king of the mountain out on the end away The world come chargin’ up the hill, and we were women and men Now there’s so much that time, time and memory fade away We got our own roads to ride and chances we gotta take We stood side by side, each one fightin’ for the other We said until we died, we’d always be blood brothers
Now the hardness of this world slowly grinds your dreams away Makin’ a fool’s joke out of the promises we make And what once seemed black and white turns to so many shades of gray We lose ourselves in work to do and bills to pay And it’s a ride, ride, ride, and there ain’t much cover With no one runnin’ by your side my blood brother
It is with great sadness that we must observe that the churches people see on the street corners are not counter-cultural, but for the most part they acquiesce to American cultural norms. Is it any wonder that we do not see the Life of Christ in believers coming to expression in vital community? The very church structures themselves-both the buildings and the hierarchy-tend to foster mobility (people hopping from one church to the next), distance (relationships are not developed), individualism (no cultivation of body-life), and materialism/consumerism (church budgets need so much to pay for the buildings, the upkeep, their image, and the salaries).
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 Geoff Willmott.
My name is Geoff Willmott, I’m married to Carrie (Caroline). We have three adult children and six grandchildren. I grew up in Hamilton, New Zealand then at age twenty one travelled to London where I lived and worked for two and a half years. While in London I met Carrie, we married and returned to New Zealand.
I grew up in a Christian household and asked Jesus into my life when I was eight years old. During my teenage years I rebelled and lived life in the world thinking it would provide me with the satisfaction I was looking for. How wrong I was! When in London, the New Living Translation was on sale at the St Paul’s Cathedral bookshop around the corner from my workplace. When I read it, compared to the KJV, the Bible came alive. I recommitted my life to Jesus and eventually trained through Baptist Theological College in Auckland alongside Anglican, Methodist, Catholic and Church of Christ students. I worked on mainframe computers for eighteen years, trained and pastored for fifteen years and had several small businesses. In my latter years I drove a school bus.
A couple of reasons why I was a rebellious teenager was I saw the institutional church looked nothing like the book of Acts and the demarcation lines of denominationalism were set in concrete. (Interestingly, the Chinese underground church has a manifesto based on the book of Acts: PRINCIPLES For the Gathering of believers under the Headship of Jesus Christ rather than the Gospels.) These realizations started a journey of looking for authentic church. Reading books helped, like James Rutz’s book ‘Open Church’. This book explained the history of how the church went off track.
Over the last forty years there were small group gurus who came to NZ that influenced me. Ralph Neighbour and Larry Kreider (Cell churches), Wolfgang Simson, Tony and Felicity Dale (House churches), Steve Addison (No Place Left discipleship and church planting).
We had some good small groups over the years and our church in Auckland saw fifty people come to the Lord over a two-year period using the cell group model. There was a transition from just a small group to a small group which desired to see people saved and groups multiplied. A friend introduced me to Paul Watson (son of David Watson) and a few of us did some Skype meetings introducing us to Discovery Bible Studies. We have since been involved in No Place Left by Steve Addison and others. T4T: A Discipleship Re-Revolution by Ying and Grace Kai was a great resource and it worked well in Auckland. Over one weekend, with minimal visitation, we found 82 houses of peace out of 450 visits open up for a DBS. I learned that we need teams raiding our communities to find houses of peace and then begin the discipleship process.
Currently, I’ve been involved in small groups of several kinds. Destiny Church meets Sundays and Wednesdays at a cafe, Wednesday night we feed the hungry in the city square and Friday night we have a group Bible study on Revelation. We are involved in We Are One Prayer Network – New Zealand and Beyond on Facebook which is growing rapidly as we pray for our towns and cities. Saturday mornings there are Indian house church fellowships with evangelizing afterwards at a river market. I believe God is sending Indian believers to NZ to wake us up! Sunday morning, I support my wife at her church (Indian pastors). Sunday night, I am part of a new church planted as a result of people excluded from places of worship during Covid. We are also involved politically, interviewing people like the mayor and other politicians and we see people being saved.
Children are involved in Destiny Church and children participate in the general part of the meeting at the Indian house church before going off to do something by themselves. My friend, a few hours north whom I network with, facilitates several house churches and trains people in disciple making. His three boys, eight to twelve, run their own house churches and evangelise their schoolmates and their parents.
I don’t hold things in permanence because things could suddenly change in this world. One thing we learned from Covid was that we were never going back to the ‘old normal’, God is preparing us for what is to come. So hang on for the ride and enjoy it. Hold to what the Holy Spirit is telling you and trust that Jesus is your covering. Stick with like-minded people for encouragement because at times it gets lonely and you’ll find you won’t fit into the ‘old’. We are a new creation destined for great exploits with our God. HALLELUJAH!!!
Geoff Willmott can be contacted at geoffrey.willmott@gmail.com or 027-775-4131 or +6427-775-4131.
I would love to hear from those who have been doing organic church for an extended time. Contact me (Jonathan Rovetto) at 414.217.2189 or at jirovetto@yahoo.com. Don’t miss the next Unsung Heroes, subscribe below.
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 Eman Abrea.
My name is Eman Abrea. I am married with three children. I encountered Christ while attending church services near our home. I don’t remember the exact date when I gave my life to Him during my teenage years.
My life as a believer had its challenges. But a turning point came when I moved in with my older brother. He and his wife regularly attended a local church near their home. Since then, I gradually began to learn about Christ and His teachings personally. I started to grow in my faith and decided to study at a Bible School. I completed my Bachelor’s degree in Theology.
Q–How did you go from your initial faith to a realization that organic church/fellowship with believers was significant enough to change your pattern of worship? What was your journey?
At the age of 21, I became the pastor of a struggling church, older than myself. During those years, I began comparing the church’s practices to the teachings of Jesus and the early church. While studying the New Testament, I noticed many practices of the modern church that are not explicitly taught by Christ. For instance, conducting worship services every Sunday. Worship in the New Testament is a lifestyle, not a program-based activity confined to a particular day or days. The New Testament describes gatherings in small groups or house churches. All believers contribute to one another what they have learned from the Word and the Holy Spirit during their gatherings. There are no passive observers; everyone participates.
Q–How long have you been doing organic fellowship and are you still doing it? Have you seen other groups start from your initial group? What are the challenges you’ve seen? How do you/did you overcome challenges?
In the year 2000, my family and I embarked on a journey of organic church ministry after resigning from the church we had planted. We firmly believed that God was the one who encouraged us to start this path, with no support from any individual or group. By faith, we obeyed Him, even though we weren’t sure what to do. We felt alone in this endeavor. Some pastors we knew accused us of being backsliders because we stopped attending a local church. To make matters worse, they labeled us a cult group. We ignored their accusations and continued doing what we felt God was calling us to do. During those years, we established several house churches in different locations. However, we encountered challenges that led to setbacks:
Lack of effective discipleship
Absence of training for new leaders
Insufficient prayer
Insufficient reliance on God
Failure to focus on God’s Kingdom
Lack of character development
Lack of genuine relationships
Q–Have you had children grow up in organic church? Have you seen the benefits of this?
I’m grateful to say that our children grew up in a nurturing house church environment. We thank God for the fruits we’ve seen in their lives, they are all God-fearing, loving, and obedient to us and the Lord.
Q–How would you encourage a struggling group? How would you encourage someone to start a group? What’s the secret of a group that lasts more than 5 years?
My answer is simple, yet essential: Build an intimate relationship with God, especially with the Holy Spirit. This is His time, and He is actively working in our lives as the Teacher, Counselor, Coach, and Discipler-always available. He will teach us everything we need for this life. We must ask Him, talk to Him constantly, and listen to His guidance for every question we have. I assure you, He will not fail us. This is what’s happening in my life, my wife’s, my children’s, and in the lives of other believers. And this is what I teach to others: daily Bible reading, meditation, studying, journaling, and obedience are essential for building an intimate relationship with God.
This is not a system, method, program, materials, etc., but rather a growing and fruitful relationship with the King.
You can contact Eman Abrea by email at emanelvie@gmail.com.
I would love to hear from those who have been doing organic church for an extended time. Contact me (Jonathan Rovetto) at 414.217.2189 or at jirovetto@yahoo.com. Don’t miss the next Unsung Heroes, subscribe below.
It’s the beginning of October 2024, only 33 days until the “big” election. At 65 years old, I’ve been through many election cycles but I’ve never seen this much angst within the Christian community.
The majority of my friends are conservative and will vote Republican but they seem to have adopted a do-or-die attitude. They think if the Democrats win all hell will break loose, Christians will be persecuted, religious freedom will be a thing of the past, our country will crumble and civil war will break out. I guess only time will tell.
I’ve heard Christians distort scripture (Romans 13) saying that we don’t have to obey authority if we deem that our leaders are “evil”. I’m hearing comparisons to Hitler and Nazi Germany. They say Hitler would never have stayed in power if the “church” took action, implying that the church should take up arms. There is even a movie coming out in November about Dietrich Bonhoeffer called “Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin.” Last time I checked Jesus was not a ninja.
My wife and I enjoyed the beauty of Kauai last week; it was awesome. Beautiful scenery, refreshing oceans, great food. We didn’t want to come back to Phoenix especially with the record breaking heat, but we did.
The picture above was taken at the beach where my wife lost her earring. Yes, she was upset but she knew the general area where it had fallen. When she searched for it the sand had already swallowed it up.
A short time later, out of nowhere, comes an angel named Daniel with a metal detector. We asked if he could search for the earring and he agreed to look for it. In a short time his detector started pinging and he recovered the earring.
Daniel then said to my wife, “Do you know the greatest thing that I’ve ever found?” After a short dramatic pause his response was “Jesus”. We all let out a hallelujah and had a great conversation about the Lord.
Maybe you think this was luck or a happy coincidence but could He have orchestrated such an event? Was this a reminder of His many promises in scripture? He knows our name, He knows how many hairs we have on our head, He’s gone to prepare a place for us. He cares about us and He loves us. Do we have faith in His promises? Can we trust Him?
If times get dark, which we know will happen, what will we decide to do? Should we take up arms and start shooting our enemies? Should we fight and rely on our own strength or rest on His many promises and expect Him to take care of us in life and even in death? We need to seriously work through these issues before things start getting darker.
On my way to a fellowship meeting last Sunday I did what I usually do, stop and grab a coffee at the McDonald’s Drive Thru. I enjoy a good cup of coffee and you can’t beat the price, especially if you have the app.
When the young man handed me the coffee, I didn’t notice that the lid was not on tight. I grabbed the cup, naturally squeezed it, and hot coffee poured all over my hand. It was painful but I kept calm. The young man looked like he was in shock, I had to instruct him to grab the cup from my hand. I could tell he was new and this was probably the first and hopefully the last time this would happen.
In a couple of minutes I arrived at my friend Victor’s home and he grabbed an ice pack. For those concerned about my health, I appreciate you. The next couple of hours I was intermittently applying ice to my hand. The pain subsided and the next day the only reminder was slight redness in the area where I got burned.
Looking back, I’m kind of proud of how I reacted. I didn’t drop the “F” bomb, I didn’t yell at the young man or demand he be fired, I didn’t request my $1.07 to be refunded and I didn’t think about opening a court case. I did think about getting $10 in McDonalds coupons, but didn’t go through with calling customer support. I didn’t want to get the young man in trouble.
My thinking was this, perhaps this happened to me so the young man would learn the importance of checking the lid. Perhaps if I didn’t get burned, some younger, more delicate skinned person would get burned worse. Whatever my thinking, I do feel like I passed a test.
Lady Galadriel, joint ruler of Lothlórien
Like Lady Galadriel, I had passed the test and now “I will diminish”. Over time and through testing, we hopefully find our sinful nature “diminishing” and His nature increasing in us.
Life will continue to slap us around; how do we choose to react? Do we turn the other cheek or do we fight back in our own power? I know this was just a small slap. Many of us have had crushing slaps, made worse because they came from people who were suppose to love and protect us. We must trust Christ to get us through. He left instructions on how to handle all sorts of difficulties.
Lady Galadriel passed the test and achieved her hope of “going into the West”, leaving Middle Earth and going to an eternal beautiful realm. This imagery by Tolkien is a reflection of heaven where Christ promised to go and prepare a place for us! It is a reminder that this place is only our temporary home and what awaits us is too glorious to comprehend. Let this future hope sustain us and cause us, while here, to strive to be conformed to His image.
We don’t know what evil awaits us in the future. Let’s pass the tests that come our way now, so we have a hope that we will reflect Christ then.
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Here is the second-half of Unsung Heroes–Houston. 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 continues the story told by Terry Stanley. You can check out Part 1 here.
As things began to deteriorate in the Bryan/College station group (I’ll explain why both groups fell apart later), I sold my house and moved my family to Houston in 2008. My wife and I began to open our home for hospitality, meetings and fellowship. We only knew a couple of families in the Houston area who were interested in meeting outside the traditional churches. We met, we ate together, worshipped, prayed for one another and read the Bible together. About this time, a couple of popular books were published regarding house church. This caused a large influx of people wanting to meet in homes. The group in Houston grew quickly. Within a couple of years, the living rooms were full again. We were sharing life with 12-14 families.
Church life in Houston was much different than it was in the previous two groups. Houston is obviously a big city. We were more spread out. We were certainly involved in each other’s lives and were together a lot. But geography also affected the ability to be spontaneous to some degree. However, the major difference in the Houston group from 2008-2022 were the people who came.
Apparently, the books that came out about house church in the late 2000’s had a lot of information about what was wrong with traditional church meetings. As a result, I would say almost every family that was meeting in homes with us in Houston was attending out of a reaction to what was wrong. Not because of a revelation of what the church truly is or a revelation of Christ, but because of what it was not.
These were hurt people, rejects, debaters, rebels and spiritual babes in Christ. That was Ok with me and my wife. We loved them and taught and modeled church life. We received from them too. But the Houston group became a revolving door.
People usually attended because they were reacting to something or didn’t like something. That only goes so far. When the water got hot and relationships “got real”, as they do in real church life people would leave. Of course they would find some reason as to why the house church was wrong too, because that was their foundation. Some would come for a couple of months, some for a few years, but inevitably every family that we met with in Houston from 2008-2022 lacked the conviction and revelation of what church really is. Most of them left and joined common traditional church groups (what I call “cults” or church franchises). They traded the freedom of true body life and the ability to function in their gifts for following a man, sitting silent on a pew, and having to pay money for it.
It’s been tough for me and my wife. It’s been tough because we have never had the same experience of body life that we had from 1989-2008. Our early experiences of church life had many similarities to the book of Acts. The people we met with from 1989-2008 had their foundation in the “Jesus movement” of the 1970’s. Coffee shop church and the charismatic Jesus hippie movement (See the movie “Jesus Revolution”). It has never been the same since. Only recently in the last couple of years, the group in Houston has started to change in a more positive direction. We seem to be with more people now who have a true revelation of the church and are not meeting out of a reaction.
Having met in homes for so long has exposed us to a lot of things. I would say the most important thing for the longevity of a group is what I call “the seed of Christ”. Jesus has to be the center. If the group is not focused on the person of Jesus first and foremost, there will be no life and it will not last. You can only meet so long because of what is wrong with this or that, or any other of the thousands of reasons people want to meet. Although I see this as the primary reason for the failure of groups, there are multiple roads that will get you there.
The Church is a living organism, and living organisms are delicate. Any focus other than Jesus Himself will begin the demise of a group. Common distractions may be healing and deliverance, a man, a doctrine, relationships, various teachers, evangelism. These things can be great and Biblical, but they can’t be the main focus or it will die.
A love for the Bible is not the same as a love for Jesus. The Bible points us to Jesus and Jesus certainly points us to the Bible. But people who place the Bible above Jesus Himself, wind up being more about their own doctrines, what and who is wrong, and they would rather debate than love each other and worship Christ. People who elevate the Bible above Christ become toxic in the church. Worship (Jesus focused, not music focused), prayer that is focused on Christ, love for one another, and being totally in love with and captivated by Jesus are the only things that will sustain a group.
Secondly, the stability, longevity, and health of a group has a whole lot to do with how well you can coexist with one another while opposing and variations in doctrine exist. Brother A believes in “once saved always saved” and brother B does not. Pick your doctrine – it doesn’t matter. Calvinism, dominion theologies, KJV only, predestination, flat earth, you name it. I’ve met with them all. And you know what? What someone else believes is not hugely important to me. I just care about who you know (Jesus). I don’t even care that much about what I believe. My doctrines and beliefs are always a work in progress. I could be wrong about my current beliefs and I probably am. Romans 14 teaches us to “let each man be fully convinced in his own mind”. You must not feel threatened by others beliefs. And you can’t really take your own too seriously. And equally as important, you can’t try to change others to believe what you do. Otherwise, seeds of discord and strife will take over the relationships and ultimately the entire group.
Usually a person’s pet doctrines are not part of “the gospel”. Jesus Christ must be first and really the only thing that matters. Paul said that he “purposed to know nothing among you, except Christ and Him crucified”. Christianity is not a belief system. It is Christ in you. This is rarely understood, which is why it is rare for groups to last very long – unless they are propped up by strong personalities, programs, events, and money.
Why did the two groups eventually collapse? The first group I was a part of in Waco, TX near Baylor University from 1989-1993 (no affiliation with David Koresh and the Branch Davidians) collapsed (in my opinion, I was not there when it fell apart because I had moved to Bryan/College Station with the 5 families) because they began to take their eyes off of Jesus as I’ve mentioned above. Certain doctrines brought by a particular elder had become the focus (I will not mention the doctrines because they are not important), but the doctrines caused the group to seek the things of earth and things in this earthly life. Eventually, the seed of Christ was lost and Jesus was no longer the only focus. The group slowly disbanded, people moved away, and people joined the local franchised churches.
The group in Bryan/College Station disintegrated because, again, an elder had introduced error. I confess that I was a part of that error. I had this elder on a pedestal and whatever he said, I thought was true. I followed him right into a ditch. I was considered a key brother in the Bryan/College station group and my joining myself to the elder in error made matters worse because I supported him and propagated his messages of error. I am sorry. I continue to feel very broken about it to this day.
Although plural leadership was present in both groups, both groups made the mistake of thinking too highly of a certain man. When a “leading brother” introduces a heresy (which takes your eyes of Jesus as the main focus), even seasoned brothers can take the bait and begin to adopt the false teaching – thus spreading it to the whole group. All men are prone to error (that includes me). I have learned there must be an equal playing field in the hearts of the people in the group. We must check one another. Scripture is the final authority, not a man. No matter how experienced or how impressive a man is, he is just a fallible brother. Not if, but when, he teaches an error, it must be checked by others. This is not only a service to the brother, but also a safeguard for the group.
If any man is on a pedestal, the group will eventually fail. Because every brother will fail at some point in time either as a perceived failing or a true failing. Even if a man doesn’t fail, he will fail in the eyes of others at times. In other words, none of us can live up to each other’s expectations, even if we are wrong or right. This is a major reason groups take their eyes off of Christ and lose the seed of Christ being the center – because a man becomes too big and too important.
There are multiple subjects to talk about when it comes to church life and church dynamics: Leadership, men’s and women’s roles, childcare, money, how to start a group, how to share life together, etc. I’ve taken all of my experiences in body life and put it all into a book called “The Way Church Was Meant to Be”. Not that I am trying to get anyone to read the book, it’s just that there is no point in repeating it all here because there is a lot to say and my thoughts have already been recorded if you are interested in reading more. The chapters are freely posted on the website, see link below.
Although church life and church dynamics are very important, to me the more important subject is “what happened to me at the school playground and how can we all live there”. That experience sent me on a very deep and lifelong journey to understand all of that. I also put all of that into 2 books, “Mysteries of the Kingdom” and “From the Head to the Heart”. Again, much to say about the what, the how, and the why, of walking in a deep and real experiential relationship with Jesus Christ.
My life long quest to fully understand and live in constant communion with Jesus has led me into some amazing and uncommon insights. I have felt compelled to help others break free from their captivity and live the life God intended for them to live. I see people suffering in captivity everywhere. This desire to help is what led me to obtain the credentials necessary to become a Christian therapist. My doctorate and state licensure are only credentials to me. The credentials are for people to feel more comfortable with me and to seek help. I rarely use anything I learned in school during “therapy”. I am only listening to the Holy Spirit for insight and wisdom for each person. The main thing I learned from my doctorate in clinical psychology is that psychology doesn’t work! Secular psychology omits the spirit. It is only the study of the mind, will and emotions – the psyche or “the soul” as Watchman Nee would put it.
Thank you for reading. And thank you Jesus for this wonderful and most difficult journey of my life to this point!
Also click these links to read excerpts from his book The Way Church Was Meant to Be.First excerpt, second excerpt.
I would love to hear from those who have been doing organic church for an extended time. Contact me (Jonathan Rovetto) at 414.217.2189 or at jirovetto@yahoo.com. Don’t miss the next Unsung Heroes, subscribe below.
Here is another exciting story in the Unsung Heroes series. 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 Terry Stanley. You can check out Part 2 here.
My name is Terry Stanley (George is my middle name). I grew up in Houston. I received my undergrad degree at Baylor University, I am a tennis coach and a doctor of clinical psychology with a private practice in Christian therapy. I help Christians in their marriages and with a variety of individual and personal issues – all from a Biblical worldview. I have been happily married to Nanci for 35 years with four kids who are all grown.
I encountered the truth of God for the first time while at a party in high school in 1987. A friend of mine told me, “Terry, if you keep living how you are living, you are going to burn in eternal fire for all eternity”. Although I had zero interest in the things of God at the time, this statement got my attention. I thought to myself, “If this is true, I would be a fool to ignore it.” So, I began a quest to see if God was real or not. I attended a few church meetings. In those meetings, I felt the Spirit of Jesus drawing me and calling me to believe and to surrender to Him. I believed on the Lord Jesus in December of 1987.
I had no mentoring or discipleship at the time. I understood that I was not going to be thrown into the fires of hell now, but my heart was empty and I was miserable now that I was a Christian. I was miserable because I really did surrender to Jesus, but “what now?” At the time, I was in a hard rock band, I drank very heavily, I did drugs, I slept around, I was very much a wild man. I had a big heart with deep needs that I was trying to fill with the world. But now I was trying to be a Jesus man. But Jesus people were nerds. They had ZERO fun. Christians were geeks and they went bowling for fun and they played volleyball. I used to torture Christians because they were so dull and nerdy. They were the direct opposite of me.
I was crazy and wild and fun and Christians were all like scared little sheep. Christians really made me sick. But now, I was one of them. I just signed up for the Christian life of boring misery. And I did this, just so I wouldn’t burn in eternal fire. At 17 years old, I tried to endure this monotony, although I was empty and bored out of my mind. I would sit at home with my parents on Friday and Saturday nights and watch old cowboy movies with my dad while some of the greatest house parties with all my friends and the hottest chicks were just right down the street. UGGHHH, this is torture! This Christian thing is killing me! My friends were ringing my parents phone off the hook. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING MAN! HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND? GET YOUR ASS DOWN HERE RIGHT NOW! EVERYONE WANTS TO KNOW WHERE YOU ARE!”, my friends would say while the slow and boring cowboy movie was playing in the background on the TV. I guess my friends were right. Maybe I had lost my mind.
On one particular night while a great rock and roll party of debauchery and drinking was raging just a few miles away, I told my friends (yet again) that I wasn’t going to the party. Instead, I drove to a school playground nearby. All by myself in the dark at the playground I sat. I looked at the moon. I would watch the clouds slowly pass across the moon in the dark. I decided I needed to have a talk with Almighty God. With as much sincerity as I could possibly muster, I looked God straight in the eyes and with all of my heart, I told Him: “I want to be your man. But I can’t do this. I am MISERABLE. I am craving all of the things I used to do. If you want me to live for you, you are going to have to take care of this problem. I just kept sitting there on the monkey bars in the park. I sat and I waited. I was resolved. I was absolutely not going to the party. God had to fix this. I was not going to get drunk anymore. I was going to follow Jesus now. But how? After I prayed in the dark at the park. I sat and I just kept looking around and then I sat there some more. It was a stalemate. “I am not going to the party God. But here I am trying to be your man, so now what?
After a while of sitting lonely in the dark, something absolutely amazing happened. Now keep in mind, I was not raised in the church. I had no idea of what or who “the Spirit” was. I had no charismatic background. I had absolutely no understanding of scripture or theology at this time in my life. At the school park in the dark all alone, the Lord Jesus Christ fell on me. He fell on me with power, with love, and with the most amazing experience of joy that I didn’t even know was possible. This was not my emotions. I did not initiate this. I did not work something up. I did not fabricate this. I was being visited by someone. It was another person, but He was invisible. It was a Spirit. It was an experience of INTENSE, INTENSE, INTENSE, peace and spiritual elation. I began to cry, to shout, to dance and sing! It was wonderful! The best part about it was that I now knew that the Christian life was possible. Having God Himself touch me in this way was the most deeply satisfying thing that had ever happened to me at this point in my life. A smile was plastered on my face. I drove home so deeply at rest. It was the beginning of a new life, truly I had just set sail on a brand new journey into the depths of the spiritual.
My experience with Jesus was very real that night in the park. It was raw and deeply authentic. After that happened to me, I would attend church meetings and the atmosphere at the church meetings was very different from what had happened to me in the park. Things at the church meetings seemed “canned”. Kinda shallow. Kinda fake in a way. The preachers almost seemed like used car salesmen, trying to sell us something. Then, they always wanted money.
I had SO MANY QUESTIONS? Hundreds of questions. I had just completely given my life over to something and I had a very deep need to understand everything about it. I would ask all of my questions to other Christians and especially to pastors: What happened to me in the park? What does the word “saved” mean”? How does the blood from a man 2000 years ago help me now? Why do we do all the things we do in the church service? And on and on and on. People couldn’t answer my questions in a way that I understood or that satisfied me. Every answer the pastor would give me, would create 5 more questions from me. People were really annoyed by me. My hunger and excitement to learn was deeper than their current understanding or experience of Christ.
About 9 months after my conversion and my experience in the park, I went to Baylor University as a freshman in college. I met a guy in the dormitory who had Jesus posters everywhere in his room! I thought to myself, “Surely this guy can answer my questions!” And he did. Doug Howey spent hours and hours with me answering my questions. He didn’t know all the answers, but we would find them together! We stayed up all hours of the night reading the Bible, praying, and answering my hundreds of questions. I thank Jesus for Doug Howey. One night Doug took us to a “Bible study” which was held off campus in somebody’s house. I had never seen anything like this Bible study before. People were praying with their eyes open. People were singing with their eyes closed. People were crying and praying for one another. People were confessing sins out loud to the whole group. It was intense. It was honest. It was real and it was authentic. They all really cared for one another and loved one another. I was particularly impressed with the fact that their lives were about Jesus. Not just at the Bible study, but all of the time. They weren’t attending the Bible study because they had to come out of some duty. But they wanted to be there to love each other and to get help from one another in order to learn how to grow deeper in Jesus in during the rest of their week. Come to find out, this wasn’t just a Bible study. This was a house church.
I was there every week and for every meeting. And I got to ask more of my questions! The main guy of the house church was named Frank. Frank took an interest in me. He would invite me to lunch. He would invite me to pray. He would teach me, encourage me, confront me and rebuke me. Frank and I developed a mentoring relationship. He poured into me for about 4 years. But as equally important as Frank’s mentoring of me – I got to live church life!
The group that met at Frank’s house was actually a part of a larger network of organic church people – about 25 families is my guess. We would meet in parks. We would meet at the lake. We would meet from house to house. We would rent halls. There were brothers’ meetings, sisters’ meetings. Bon-fire meetings in the country. These people were 100% serious about Jesus all of the time! I got invited to some meetings where only the older brothers were allowed to attend and they would talk about oversight things in the group and pray ( I didn’t dare say a word in those meetings). Brothers would call a special meeting for all 25 families to attend just to deliver a message that would take all day on a Saturday (we would take breaks after 2 hours, then he would go again). We would worship outside in the park on Thursday nights with a piano, guitars, a violin player, a flute, and girls dancing to the worship music barefoot with their hands lifted high to Jesus. The group would intentionally buy up houses in the same neighborhood so they could live next to each other. A brother and sister would walk the neighborhood during the week in the evening carrying a bottle of wine and a loaf of bread. They would see others in the group outside and from the street they would say, “would you like to have communion together?” We would work at each other’s houses on the weekends. There was someone having dinner at someone else’s house every single night of the week, every week. We would travel to other cities together to visit other groups. We would all go camping together. We would prophesy, teach, worship, lay hands on the sick, preach the good news throughout the city and break bread together.
I lived in this group of people from 1989 to1993. In 1993, five families from the group, including mine, moved to a nearby town to “do a work” and start another group. That group also grew to become a large network of families sharing life together. I lived in Bryan / College Station from 1993-2008. After many years and because of a series of negative events with some of the key personalities, both groups slowly disintegrated and are no longer in existence. (End of Part 1)
Also click these links to read excerpts from his book The Way Church Was Meant to Be.First excerpt, second excerpt.
I would love to hear from those who have been doing organic church for an extended time. Contact me (Jonathan Rovetto) at 414.217.2189 or at jirovetto@yahoo.com. Don’t miss the next Unsung Heroes, subscribe below.
Del Birkey’s well researched treatise on House Church was originally published in 1988 and re-released in 2019. It reads like a text book so if you’re into scholarly works, this book is for you. I hope you read the following excerpt carefully, it’s essential to model when doing life together.
The original Christian small group had gathered together with their Master-Teacher. The end was pressing upon him. His society had sought him for signs. He refused to give the kind they wanted, but he did signal his most significant clue for all who would follow him. He conquered with the sign of a towel. With the washing of their feet he established the symbol for servant work. He declared, “I have given you an example” (John 13:15). This lesson was forthrightly simple. Jesus wears the towel-apron of a servant, and we must wear it, too. After all, he said, “No servant is greater than his master” (v. 16).
In this manner, Jesus contradicted all other models of influence and self-importance. The one who makes the towel his or her badge is not the one who maneuvers for a place in the power structures of life. “The sign of the towel was not a put-on. Servanthood was not a role Jesus played on earth’s stage, but his real character.”
Jesus gave servanthood to his body, the church. Jesus conquered with the sign of a towel, and he gave that quality of attitude to his disciples. Leadership in his body is not the real issue-servanthood is. Life in his church is not the same as life in secular society. On the contrary, kingdom life calls for an entirely new model, not merely a new definition.
Jesus clashed head on, therefore, against centuries-old authority structures. He turned the whole issue of authority on its head and recast it into an issue of servanthood. Jesus acknowledged that the Gentile model of leading was rigidly hierarchical. After a minor scuffle over who was to get the seats near the king (Matt. 20:25-28), Jesus unveiled the kingdom model. The Lord went to the core of the problem. He said, “Their great men exercise authority over them” in such a way as to achieve outward behavioral conformity to their ways.
Jesus had a better idea, however. His leadership ethic in kingdom work would achieve inner heart commitment to God’s ways. The way of authoritarian leading, he said, “shall not be so among you!” Instead, if you want to get ahead, you will have to succeed at serving. If you want to be first, you must be the very last, the servant of all (Mark 9:35). Greatness among his followers, he declared, will be measured not in quantities of personal rank and acumen, but in qualities of personal humility in servanthood.
A little later, after a bout with the religious elite leaders, Jesus further contrasted the two models of leadership (Matt. 23:1-12). Faulting and chiding them, he made the distinctions stark. They created a faulty dichotomy between word and deed, but his teaching made them synonymous. They laid heavy burdens on others, but in the kingdom all are brothers and sisters and share. They maintain high visibility for personal praise, but Jesus said that whoever acts proudly will surely be brought down. They gave preeminence to those with titles, rank, and power, but Jesus said the preeminent will be the last in the kingdom. He said they should stop calling their leaders with pompous titles. The Gentile model worked from the top down, the kingdom model from the bottom up.
Jesus Washing the Disciples’ Feet by Albert Robida
The church confirmed its servanthood in its ministry. The reason is simple and Jesus’ conclusion could not be clearer. “One is your Master, and all you are brethren” (Matt. 23:8). Evidence gathered from the occasional letters to the New Testament house churches and the other epistles provide ample principles and insights for the practicing of servant leadership in Christ’s church. It is not a question of whether or not we will have leadership, but rather a question of how it will be put into effect.
It may be, suggests Marlin Miller,
that the equivalents for our word “leader” in the first century culture were not used for the Christian church because of the shifts in understanding that took seriously Jesus’ teaching that “among you there shall be servants and not rulers.” The old language for leadership was linked with the language for ruling and domination.
The language of New Testament leadership is one of horizontal relationships, of leading and following, of voluntary submission and service toward one another. The only final authority believers acknowledge is the absolute authority of Jesus as Lord (Phil.2:10-11). He has no other intermediaries.
This servant leadership in the house church takes initiative in helping the group form a consensus rooted in the Jesus tradition and moving in the direction of fullness in Christ. If we see that kind of servant leadership in the sociological context of the house church, it makes much sense. It can manifest itself more wholly in the context of small size and direct interrelationships.
Furthermore, the kind of persons equipped to be elders in the New Testament house church are the kind of persons who demonstrate the qualities which encourage and build family solidarity. In this way, the house church context provides a congruity between such characteristics of leaders and the biblical style of leading.
Miller concludes:
We have discovered a pattern of leadership in the New Testament house churches which provides both the model and the characteristics of what leadership should and can be in the house churches of our time. The recasting of authority, from the right to rule to the freedom to serve in a community of mutual subordination, is a biblical model which goes beyond both the restoration of hierarchical structures, on the one hand, and egalitarian individualism on the other.
Jesus Unveiled is a relatively new book (2019) by Keith Giles. Filled with down to earth advice and practical guidelines for doing organic church together, it’s a book I would highly recommend. Below is an excerpt from the book about “What The Church Isn’t”.
As we’ve seen, the New Testament uses several words and metaphors to express the character, function, and personality of the Church. Namely, the Church is a Body, a Bride, a Temple, and a Family.
Now that we’ve spent time exploring what the Church is, let’s take a hard look at what the Church isn’t. The New Testament doesn’t ever refer to the Church as an organization, as if it were a corporation or an industry. Instead, the Church is referred to as an organism. Therefore, according to the Apostles, and to Jesus, the Church that God designed is not intended to be thought of, or to be treated, like a business.
The Church that God always wanted is a family. This means that pastors are not synonymous with CEOs. It also means that the people in the Church are not to be thought of, or treated, as employees, commodities, tithing units, or assets. Instead, they are our brothers and sisters in Christ and should be treated as such-with love and respect.
This is about more than mere semantics. What you believe about something, how you talk about it, how you think of it, actually affects your behavior towards it or concerning it. So, I have found that, if you think of the Church as a business you will begin to expect certain things from it that you wouldn’t expect from a family, and vice versa.
For example, no one expects the family to grow in size each quarter or post an annual profit. Families don’t work that way, but corporations do. A father would not treat his daughter like an employee. Nor would he base his relationship on how much revenue she contributed to the family. Corporations may act that way, but families do not.
For a long time now, especially in the West, the Church has turned her gaze to the world of big business. She has based Her identity on a corporation rather than the organic, family-based, relational design laid out for us in Scripture.
Scripture makes it clear to us that the Church is an organism; a living Body made up of living parts which function best when they are interconnected. God’s design for His Church is relational.
“The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ.” (1 Corinthians 12:12)
A family is a social unit made up of people who share a common ancestor and engage in shared activities and beliefs. The family is grounded in love and it takes strength from the quality of the relationships developed over time.
Healthy families love each other in spite of difficulty, or hurt feelings. Families forgive and share.
Families pull together in a conflict. Families support one another and encourage one another. But when a family is run like a business it is impossible to maintain any of these foundational values of love, loyalty, sharing, forgiveness and protection.
A business is grounded in a completely different set of values. A business is a collection of talented people recruited to advance the interests of the company, build recurring revenue streams and add value to the business.
Whenever an employee becomes unproductive he is eliminated. Whenever a more talented employee is recruited, others are down-sized or let go. A business is ultimately about making money and growing larger. A business is mostly concerned with gaining market share and outperforming the competition.
So, if we treat the House of God like a business we will suddenly find ourselves engaging in activities that serve to grow the business and eliminate the competition.
Ideas such as love and family and service and community may become phrases used as metaphors to describe the activities of our business. They will not be expressed or embodied, in any real way, by those within our organization.
A business is concerned with growth, not with how happy, or healthy the employees may be. A business is concerned with numbers, finances and outward signs of success, it is not concerned with forgiveness, community or love.
The people who make up a family are called brothers and sisters. They are treated with love and respect. They are all valued for who they are as people, not for what they can do to improve the bottom line.
The people who make up a business are called employees. They are treated as assets which the company may exploit for financial gain. Employees are regarded as individual components which contribute to the overall success of the business. They are valued for what they can add to the company, not for who they are as people.
The Church, as Jesus designed it, is relational and organic. According to the New Testament, God’s plan was for His people to operate like a family, where He is our Father. He created a church that operates like an organism where He is our head, not like a business where we set up certain people as CEO’s and treat people as employees.
Clearly, the New Testament reveals that the Church is a family, an organism and a Bride. It is never referred to as a business venture.
As we’ve seen over and over again, the mission of the Messiah was to build a suitable temple for God to dwell in. Jesus alone is the one who is qualified to build the temple of God, and we are that temple. We are a spiritual house of living stones “not made with human hands” but by the nail-scarred hands of God’s only son.
Put another way, the only true temple of God is the one that is being built by Jesus, not one built by any man, pastor, teacher or leader.
Recently, a friend invited me to a House Church meeting. I love connecting with other small groups so I was excited to visit. After a nice meal, one of the attendees began to talk about Germany during the Second World War. He asked a question about how the German church could have done things differently to suppress the rise of the Nazi regime.
He began to read Romans 13 and after a long “revelation” concluded that we are only to obey “Godly” authority. So if we (or whoever) determines that authority isn’t “Godly” we have justification to rebel and fight back. I sensed this argument was meant to enlighten the saints in case the “wrong” politician got elected this November. Although difficult to fully comprehend, Romans 13 seems pretty straightforward. Should we take the slap and turn our cheek or do we slap back? Are we to be pacifists or should we rebel?
Romans13:1-7 Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience’ sake. For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God’s ministers attending continually to this very thing. Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.
So when did pacifism die in Christian theology? Perhaps it could be attributed to Saint Augustine (354-430) and his introduction of Just War theory. I have included it below.
“Jus ad bellum
1. Wars must be fought only on legitimate authority. This criterion aimed to limit conflicts by small-scale barons, captains and princelings, and is often treated as the sine qua non of Just War Theory.
2. The cause must be just. The war must be fought, for example, in order to resist aggression, protect the innocent, or to support the rights of some oppressed group. There must be significant reasons which are weighty enough to overthrow the prima facie duty that we should not kill or injure others.
3. The war must have right intention. It must advance the good and avoid evil, have clear aims and be open to negotiation; it must not be for revenge or for the sake of killing and there should be no ulterior motive. It must be waged without love of violence, or cruelty; and regret or remorse should be the proper attitude. This is shaped by the pursuit of a just cause. Since peace should be the object of war, killing is a means to that end. This condition also holds for jus in bello.
4. It must be a last resort, all other attempts having failed or being unavailable.
5. There must be a reasonable hope of justice, or a reasonable chance of success, in order to prevent pointless wars. If there is no such hope, then it would not just be imprudent, but there would be no good grounds to override the prima facie obligation to not harm others if none of the just ends can be realised, and thus going to war would be immoral.
Jus in bello
6. There must be discrimination. Non-combatants should not be directly or intentionally attacked, although it is recognised that there may be accidental casualties.
7. There must be proportion; that is, there must be a balance between the good achieved versus the harm done. This condition takes into account the effects on all human beings, not just those on one side, and it is the effects on humans rather than other physical damage which have priority. This condition also applies to jus ad bellum, in order to prevent going to war over minor disputes.”
Can war ever be just for Christ followers? Saint Augustine’s theory gave rise and justification to a militant church. I wonder what Jesus thought about all that killing in His name. Unfortunately, eventually it also gave justification for the church to kill true Christ followers who the church deemed heretics. I guess it’s fair to say be careful what you wish for.
Can Christians survive political turmoil? Should we be stocking up on ammunition? Will our call for rebellion against authority cause a greater persecution of true Christ followers? A great man once said, “Those who live by the sword die by the sword”. It’s important to examine our hearts to see if violence too easily reveals itself. It’s also important to read what Jesus said about violence and what He said about our enemies. We should also examine how the true church conducted itself before Constantine, Saint Augustine and others twisted scripture. Lots to ponder and lots to pray about.
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