I wanted to share this beautiful message written by my good friend Fernando Souza. You can find out more about Fernando by clicking here.
The wall is filled with colorful little hands, with people who have giant heads on stick-figure bodies, with the sun that always lives in the upper corner of the page. This is what the wall in my mother-in-law’s house is like. It’s an art gallery that time has assembled, a museum of affection. Hanging there are drawings that my daughters have made since they were very little.
Another day, after a coffee, I stood there, looking at that mural. I saw the first scribbles, the attempts to draw the family – always with a smile that went from ear to ear. I saw the phases, the evolution of the lines, the signature that was taking shape. Each drawing, a time capsule of a childhood that flew by.
From an adult’s technical point of view, the works are full of “mistakes.” But, obviously, that’s not why they are there, framed with so much care. My mother-in-law didn’t keep them because they were masterpieces. She kept them because she saw in each one the heart and the little hands of her granddaughters. She wasn’t evaluating the art; she was celebrating the artist.
And in that moment, “I Saw.” I saw with a clarity that moved me. This is exactly how God, the Father, looks at the wall of our lives.
He sees our scribbles. Our clumsy attempts to love, our prayers with “stick-figure bodies.” A critic would look and point out the flaws. But the Father, no. He looks at each of our days, at each of our attempts to get it right, and it’s as if He says with a smile: “How precious to me are your thoughts!,” a truth that the psalmist recorded. His thoughts about us are not of criticism, like those of an art judge; they are thoughts of affection, like those of a grandfather looking proudly at the drawings on the wall.
We worry so much about delivering a perfect work of art to God, and He is just waiting to receive a sincere drawing, made with the colored pencil we have in hand. That wall, full of color and a love that ignores perfection, was one of the most beautiful sermons I have ever received about grace.
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I really enjoyed Bob Emery’s newest book, House Church and would recommend it. I have included a short excerpt below, addressing an issue that is one of the hardest to overcome when doing life together. Bob also includes a short but brilliant chapter addressing Paul’s writing concerning women in 1 Corinthians 14. If you’re interested in knowing what is happening in Iran and other Muslim countries, Bob has included some encouraging case studies. Want more information about Bob, click here.
Imagine that you were a member of the tribe of Judah. You lived a short distance away from Jerusalem. During the months leading up to one of the feasts, you and your family had been busy working hard to produce olive oil. You had labored diligently watering, fertilizing, and pruning your olive trees. Finally, when the olives had ripened, you shook the trees or beat the branches with a stick to cause the berries to fall to the ground. Then you collected the ripe olives. Some were eaten with meals and enjoyed fresh; others were pressed into oil to use for cooking, fueling lamps, providing anointing oil, or dressing wounds. At feast time you would collect the choicest of the berries and the best of the oil, to bring to Jerusalem to offer to the Lord, and to bless the Lord for all that he had given you from the land of your inheritance.
As you saw other pilgrims enter the city, each carried with them the work of their hands as well. You spot some old friends from the tribes that lived on the coast. After embracing and exchanging greetings, your friends reached in their sacks and pulled from them the biggest, finest pomegranates you had ever seen. You rejoiced together at what a wonderful harvest the Lord your God had given in the land. Then you pulled from your own sack a handful of the largest, blackest olive berries they had ever seen. You gave a handful to your friends to eat, and once again, you all praised God for the bountiful harvest he had given you.
One by one, pilgrims entered the city. Pairs of men with poles running from one’s shoulder to the other carried large, beautiful clusters of grapes; others had carts with huge sheaves of golden wheat; others brought jars of the finest honey; still others came with metal instruments forged from the minerals that had been mined from the mountains.
As everyone came together and witnessed the bountiful provision that God had given to each one, they blessed God, offered to him the finest of the fruits, and rejoiced with one another for the wonderful land that God had given them.
Now, how does this apply to us today? In the Old Testament, God gave the Jews a physical land for their inheritance. But this was just a picture for us. The good land, flowing with milk and honey, was only a picture of the abundance of our spiritual inheritance in Christ. He wants to be our everything to enjoy. He also gave the Israelites a physical temple. Their physical temple made of stone, where the glory of God dwelt, was also a picture for how we, believers in Christ, are now the real temple with the Spirit of God dwelling in us. Those festivals were also a picture. This joyous, festive scene where people all came together to display the abundance of the good land they had been given is also a picture of what a church meeting should look like!
Back to 1 Corinthians 14:26: “What is the outcome then, brothers and sisters? When you assemble, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. All things are to be done for edification.”
As Christians, Christ is our good land. Every day we need to work the land, spend time with Christ, and enjoy Him. Then, select from our finest experiences with him and bring those to the meetings of the church to share with our brothers and sisters. That could be a testimony, a song, a passage of Scripture, some revelation of Christ that you have received. God wants us to bring the riches that we have found in Christ to the meetings and celebrate, as it were, a great feast with our brothers and sisters-feeding together on the riches of Christ and what he has done in each of our lives. As each one shares what God has given to them, the whole body is edified and will rejoice, Christ will be lifted up, and we will all praise God for such a rich Christ that we have!
In the Old Testament, each family in each tribe was given a portion of the land to enjoy. But if they didn’t work the land, they’d have nothing to show for it, and they would have to come to the feasts empty-handed. If you want to have good house-church meetings, you’ll need to work the land too, so that you will have something of Christ to bring to the meetings to encourage the others. It could be very simple-it doesn’t need to be a long message. Something as simple as, “This morning the Lord touched my heart with the words of a song, and I’d like to share it with you (or have the group sing it together).” Or “I lost my keys today and couldn’t find them. Finally, I prayed and immediately the Lord showed me where they were.” Any experience or revelation of Christ you have, that’s meeting material, so you won’t show up empty-handed.
As glorious as this might sound, it’s still much harder to meet this way than to go to a traditional church meeting on Sunday morning, where the pastor preaches, and the program is set. It’s much easier to watch a performance and let a strong personality take charge. Going to those kinds of meetings, all you must do is show up. There’s no need for you to “work the land” or spend any time with the Lord preparing for what He might have you bring to encourage your brothers and sisters. In the kinds of meetings that took place in the first century, however, everyone was responsible for bringing something of Christ to make the meetings rich.
From my own experience as a Christian, I have learned that one can only grow so much (spiritually) by sitting week after week, month after month, year after year listening to others. The next stage of growth takes place when you are given some responsibility. Say that you were among a group of Christians and asked by someone to lead a Bible study the next week. What might your first reaction be? Panic! “What am I going to say? What am I going to teach?” But your next reaction would be, “I need to pray; I need to spend time with the Lord, so I will have something meaningful to give.” You don’t want to come empty-handed. Responsibility drives you to the Lord, which causes you to spend time with him, receive from him, and have something to share with others. Out of these kinds of experiences, deeper spiritual growth and stronger spiritual disciplines will manifest themselves in your life.
Here is a good test by which to gauge whether you are attending a first-century style church meetings or not: Next time you “go to church,” ask yourself this: Am I going to a meeting to be a passive spectator at a performance? Or am I going to be a participant?
Using soccer as an analogy, are you going to sit in the stands with 50,000 other spectators to cheer the performance of 22 players on the field? Or are you going to play in the game? First-century style meetings were filled with players, not spectators. Each one had an opportunity to participate and contribute. In this way, Jesus Christ, the Head of the Church, would be glorified through the proper working of each member of his body, and his multi-faceted riches would be revealed.
Moving church meetings back into the homes, where they belong, is the only way Christians of the 21st century can possibly experience what the early Christians understood as “church.”
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This is another excerpt from The Other Half of Church by Jim Wilder & Michel Hendricks. This book is not your typical house church book but it is highly recommended. You can get a taste by reading the excerpt below. You can read the first excerpt on Joy here.
Whole-brained Christianity makes full use of truth and relationship. Half-brained Christianity parks on the truth and leaves the relational soil untended.
Jesus wants a church with healthy soil that keeps relationships in the center. Each of the four ingredients of healthy soil is relational. Joy is what I feel when my brain senses that you are happy to be with me. Hesed is our family attachment of joyful love. Group identity is our corporate map of who we are and how we act as children of the living God. Our culture of correction leaves no man or woman behind. When someone forgets who they are, we bring them back gently to their true self. Healthy soil is relational through and through.
By building a foundation of relational joy, love, and identity, we create an environment where we naturally and regularly witness transformation. We expect radical change when people join our community. As we reintroduce right-brain practices into our discipleship-along with the traditional left-brain spiritual disciplines we are using the full-brain power that God gave us to form our character. The Great Commission displaces the great omission as our people learn to obey Jesus with heart and mind. All of us eagerly accept correction when we stop acting like ourselves.
People choose to be involved in a particular Christian community for many reasons. The primary attraction of a full-brained community is our joy and love. People might not remark, “Their teaching is so good.” “I love the music there.” “That pastor is such a good teacher.” Instead, they might say, “These people love each other so much.” “This room is filled with joy.” “I want to be like them.” Love is the centerpiece of everything a full-brained church does. A church planted in rich relational soil may be less visually stimulating than other churches, but it is relationally stimulating. Being stimulated by love and joy is more important than being stimulated by other factors.
Unlike most Christian leaders, the relational pastor intentionally stays small. People are not impressed by this pastor, except by his humility and maturity. A full-brained community is impressed by Jesus alone and sees any attempt to magnify another person as an opportunity to offer a gentle rebuke. In a healthy church, people talk about Jesus all the time. They seldom talk about the pastor, and this is as it should be. Jesus is large and in charge. The pastor is but one of many people in a community where all faithfully complete the assignments Jesus gave them.
Pastors and other leaders stay small and act like trainers-laser focused on creating a relational environment that fosters transformation. Instead of looking only at attendance, giving, or other numbers, they also focus intently on bringing their people to maturity.
Much has been written of the exploits of the heroes of World War II, but what do you know about the drill sergeants who trained them in boot camp? Who was Beethoven’s childhood piano teacher? Who first instructed Serena Williams how to hit a tennis ball? Who taught Lionel Messi to dribble a soccer ball? Trainers are seldom famous. A relational pastor remains largely unknown outside the church. His flock is thankful for the maturity they are developing. Pastors who refuse to be magnified know that their example will encourage the next generation of pastors to stay small-just like Jesus taught.
We can mistake the inflated pastor for a great leader if we believe the world’s definition of greatness. Jesus operates under a different rubric. We find Him adjusting the disciples’ definition when He catches them arguing about who is the greatest. The disciples are debating about which of them would be the biggest winner in the kingdom of heaven. They no doubt have images in their minds of what that looked like, but Jesus flips their picture upside down.
Jesus corrects the disciples by saying, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all” (Mark 9:35 ESV). Apparently, the disciples cannot accept this adjustment. It was too big of a stretch. Jesus must repeat His upside-down definition several times.
On another occasion Jesus calls a little child, placing the child in the middle of the disciples. The men probably looked at each other and wondered what Jesus was doing. With the child standing in the middle He explains, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 18:3-4). Jesus gives them a visual picture of a small child and basically says, “This is what greatness looks like.” He also brings group identity into the picture. We stop acting like members of God’s kingdom when we inflate ourselves and seek to be great.
Unfortunately, we often build and arrange our churches in ways that can magnify the leader. During many services, the church leader is elevated, standing above the crowd. Do families act like this? We hang large screens above the stage to magnify their face as the Teacher. Their enormous image looms above us as we listen to them disperse wisdom. Do families act like this? The use of video magnification in a church may be necessary, but pastors should simultaneously be modeling “image shrinkification” more often. Leaders are not exempt from Jesus’ upside-down definition of greatness. We, pastors, should be willing to rethink what we do and why we do it.
Emotionally mature leaders always keep relationships more important than ministry. They never sacrifice their congregation’s hesed attachments in order to “do great things.” The horse remains firmly in front of the cart, and every task or ministry they perform from abundant hesed.
A whole-brained church releases transformed disciples into the world like cottonwood seeds in the Colorado wind. Invigorated disciples plant new life in the culture wherever they land. Jesus dispersed His disciples around the world after training them for three years. These disciples and their spiritual descendants changed the fabric of the world. Likewise, we pastors do not focus on changing the world ourselves. Instead, we are trainers who focus on building Christlike character into our people. If we do our job well, our people will change the world.
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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 Leo Castillo in Silang, Philippines.
I am Leo Castillo, married to my wife Nina. I grew up in a Roman Catholic family, studied in a Catholic school and ended up taking a civil engineering degree in a state university here in the Philippines. It was in that school where I got to know Jesus personally and where I was involved in a Campus Crusade for Christ (CCC, now Cru) movement.
It was also at CCC where I was introduced to small groups and where I learned how to disciple others. My spiritual growth during that time was influenced to a large degree by my relationships with fellow believing students. We became involved in each other’s lives and many of them became my lifelong friends.
At the same time, we were encouraged to become part of a “local church” besides our involvement with the campus movement. Being a submissive young Christian I complied, choosing to join friends from CCC who went to a small church near our campus. Church life for me, however, was something I found strangely wanting. Sitting passively during worship services was something I had to endure more than relish. There has got to be something more to church and the Christian life than worship services, I thought.
When I entered the corporate world after graduation, I also became involved with a CCC ministry among working adults in the workplace. And like the ministry at campus, the CCC professional ministry had at its core the same small discipleship groups. At the same time, I had been hopping from church to church, still searching but never settling down in one.
But even before I started working, I had begun a house fellowship at a depressed area near my hometown. (This was back in the early 1980s.) I was sent to this place by my former church even though I was no longer part of the said church. This house fellowship involved two families and would constitute what people today would call a house church. After two years, this same group began to reach out to their relatives in a remote town in the province of Cavite. I had equipped them in sharing the gospel and discipling others – something we were trained to do in CCC – and they were able to subsequently start 5 house groups in that town.
Back then, I did not know any better and wrote the Assemblies of God, asking them to take over these house groups. They were somewhat taken aback by this, remarking that it was the first time they had been offered a church that others had started. One of the guys I was discipling subsequently became a pastor of the traditional church that was formed in that town composed of believers from the house groups.
After working for about 6 years, I quit my job to join Campus Crusade as a staff member. I was initially assigned to the professional ministry in Metro Manila. It was here that I met Nina and we got married in 1995. We eventually got involved in helping CCC ministries in other countries start ministries among working adults in their cities. Afterwards we got assigned to CCC’s Southeast Asia Area of Affairs. Our involvement in these ministries exposed us to various expressions of Christianity – in communist countries and countries with predominantly Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist populations. More than anything else, this exposure helped us to become more principle-centered in our approach to Christian life and ministry.
During our last 5 years with CCC our teams began talking about house churches. Christianity in many of the countries we were helping had taken an underground approach and believers there were meeting in small groups and often in houses. This would have a profound impact on us. But we had also began to look beyond the forms organic/simple/house churches have taken to realize that in effect we had been doing “church” all these years when we disciple people and meet them in small groups. Even if these groups were all outside the institutional church.
We eventually left CCC 18 years ago. We felt the Lord was calling us to focus on simple, organic churches and working with the poor in our country. One of the first house groups we started was composed of people who have been believers for several years and have been disillusioned with the institutional church. Inevitably, our meetings at home always turned into discussions on what was wrong with the traditional church. We would sometimes talk about our struggles but, somehow, we never related to each other in a deeper way. Inevitably we went our separate ways.
At the same time, Nina and I reached out to poor communities in my hometown. We started by offering scholarships to young people who wanted to go to college but were unable to afford it. We later expanded this to helping people start small businesses but this did not work out well. We concentrated on education for young people in these communities, expanding our help to providing school supplies for elementary and high school students as well as extra-curricular help for them through educational workshops and visits to museums in the city.
From these outreaches we were able to form several house churches in my hometown and in another town north of Metro Manila. Most of these were organically formed. We never required the families whose children we were helping to join these gatherings. Even though we were still following the format of our discipleship groups in CCC – such as using bible study materials and training them in evangelism – we began to see that we needed to focus more on how believers in these house gatherings related to each other.
It wasn’t always easy especially when conflict arose between some of the people in these small groups. But these believers were already a community even before we met them and the only change needed was in their hearts as they learned to trust God and to love one another. Conflict was an inevitable part of community life and were glad when we saw them handle such conflicts in a Spirit-filled way over time. We also noticed that poor people tend to relate to each other more authentically than those in the corporate world and this had a profound impact on us.
The longest time we stayed in any one group was probably 5-6 years. We would move on to another community whenever we felt we had done enough. At one point we were meeting as many as 3 small groups in the course of the week. Our biggest problem was getting them to meet on their own. There were some groups that have stopped meeting once we left, even though we tried to prepare them to meet on their own. Meetings are important as Hebrews 10:25 says but we also feel that organic church or ekklesia goes beyond meetings to the kind of relationships within the ekklesia and how they relate to people around them.
The Covid pandemic and my near-death experience due to Covid have scaled back our efforts in reaching more communities for Christ. (It was the Lord’s miracle that I survived after nearly 4 months in the hospital.) We also moved outside the city 2 years ago and had to start from scratch in our ministry. Nina is also dealing with what many people would consider a life-threatening health issue. But we continue to reach out to people in our subdivision and have started a small group here. We are learning to be much more interactive in our gatherings, how to listen to God together and to be more deeply involved in each other’s lives – the same way we have done discipleship in campus and in the workplace decades ago. Most of all we are learning how to center our community life on Jesus and faith in Him over and above all else.
Perhaps our biggest takeaway from years of “doing church” is to start with non-believers as much as we can. Believers who have grown disillusioned with the institutional church and who want to form small groups, simple, organic or house churches, still unconsciously take the institutional church culture with them. We have struggled in the past trying to wean them off from this orientation. We might meet them from time to time – which is what we’re doing more often these days with friends who have been involved in the same ministries in the past. These are times for reflection and mutual encouragement which at this point in our lives become fulfilling and fruitful times. But our focus is on reaching non-believers and forming small communities of God’s Kingdom with them. Our approach is to go to them, to enter their existing communities and create Kingdom communities from within rather than asking them to come to us.
Bursting Wineskins is a short (75 page) book by Mack Cunningham describing his search for a more Biblical Church life. The excerpt below reflects on the question of whether you are needed or not.
There is a final important passage of Scripture that has much to say about how God wants Christ’s church to function on this earth. It is found in 1 Corinthians 12:12-26. Here is the text.
“For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body-Jews or Greeks, slaves or free-and all were made to drink of one Spirit.
For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.
The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.”
Verses 12 and 13 emphasize that there is only one body because we have all been baptized into Christ by the same Holy Spirit. It has already been noted how far we have strayed from this heavenly reality.
But in spite of this oneness, there are different parts to this body. Verses 14 to 19 declare this important truth. This diversity was intended by God to create an important aspect of interdependence on each other in the body of Christ because the body of Christ needs different parts in order to effectively carry out multiple tasks. As vs. 17 states, ‘If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of smelling?’ Thus vs. 19 concludes, ‘If all were a single member, where would the body be?’ Obviously, it would not be able to function as it should. Vs. 22 goes even further when it states that ‘the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are necessary’.
But let us be frank about modern church life. Do we feel indispensable to what goes on in our local assembly, or could the whole organization get along fine without us? Who would run the sound system and coordinate the overheads? Who would staff the Sunday school classes? Who would organize and show up for a church building workday? Do these activities seem indispensable to you? There is only one very important contribution that each believer makes in most local churches and that is their tithe. Without regular tithing, a full-time staff and maintenance of a building could not be supported. This would put an end to that local church’s existence.
Congregations are becoming increasingly unstable as families choose where to attend depending on personal need fulfillment. This transience is partly due to the modern church’s structure that communicates they want you to keep showing up but really don’t have any dire need of you, just your tithe. Any need for each other is usually generated by friendships that are formed and social life that is shared among members. To actually value and rely on another believer’s spiritual qualities and gifts is rare. Unity in the body of Christ has been seriously undermined by one part of the body communicating to another part, in effect, ‘I have no need of you’ (vs. 21).
There must be something more that each believer is to contribute to the body that makes each one very necessary. Verses 21 through 26 point out that there is a problem with human perception when it comes to how important each part of the body is. Those we see as ‘weaker’ are indispensable. They are more important than we naturally think. Therefore, those we deem less honorable are to be honored more than those we would naturally give more honor to. This is not a psychological ploy to make everybody feel better about themselves. Nor is it sociological manipulation to maintain equanimity. It is wise counsel given to congregations to combat our natural ways of evaluating people and tune into the spiritual value that each believer possesses. Unfortunately, modern church life has ignored this counsel and heaps praise on those who already are ‘more honored’-typically these are pastors and worship leaders. I suppose one could try to give more honor to the ‘laity, but it would seem trite to heap praise on someone for their faithfulness in passing out bulletins.
The last two verses (25 & 26) emphasize how connected each part of the body of Christ is to all the other parts. We are to show the same care for one another. When one suffers, we all suffer. When one is honored, we all rejoice together. Frankly, my own sense of connection to other believers varies, depending on how involved I am with them. It could be that this is another time when the phrase ‘on earth as it is in heaven’ applies. There is a spiritual connectivity that exists in Christ’s universal church that we are dimly aware of in our earthly church life.
Our natural tendencies as to how we evaluate people and engage with them are to be changed in light of who we now are in Christ. It is very challenging to see our local fellowship as actual members of the body of Christ and not just a social gathering. We gravitate to, and spend time with, those we like or admire with little thought of others. And we don’t see the hidden giftedness in most of our fellow believers because we are functioning in a church structure that inhibits our spiritual growth and expression.
Our appreciation of, and how we value, other believers would certainly increase as we saw their spiritual giftedness in action. We would look afresh at others if we saw the Holy Spirit impact the church through them. Up to this point I have focused on how we meet together. One can hopefully see how important a ‘testimony time’ is when we gather. We can share how the Holy Spirit has been working through us and impacting us personally during the week. This kind of sharing certainly is important in gaining insight into other believers and increasing our appreciation of them. But this kind of sharing rarely takes place in mid-week meetings, let alone any Sunday service.
But some giftedness is manifest outside the local gatherings in the communal activities we have and the secular activities we are involved in. It is there that the Holy Spirit does most of His work through us. But if we don’t get involved with other believers outside our gathering together, we will never see their spiritual side in action. That is why our Kingdom life together has to be more than a series of meetings. Time must be invested in order to foster intimate relationships. But the individualistic and self-centered lifestyles of the modern church do not foster development of intimate relationships.
Let me sum up the line of reasoning I have put forth in this chapter. Each believer in Christ has value and has an indispensable function in the church. But most believers don’t recognize this value in themselves, let alone others. There are three main reasons this is the case. First, there is very little opportunity for giftedness to be demonstrated in the modern church system. Second, no time is allowed for saints to give testimonies of what the Holy Spirit has been doing in their lives or share any edifying verses from scripture. And third, our individual lifestyles minimize the time we need to get together outside the normal meetings in order to get to know one another. Hopefully, it is becoming clearer to my reader that this is not something that can be corrected by trying harder or being more aware. There needs to be a structural change in how we fundamentally ‘do church’ and prioritize our personal lives in order to address these kinds of problems.
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I took a chance when I purchased The Other Half of Church by Jim Wilder & Michel Hendricks, but how often can you get advice from a Neurotheologian? This book is terrific and I would recommend it to everyone. Below is an excerpt about the benefits of joy. I posted a second excerpt that you can read here.
As I studied more about the role of joy in spiritual formation, I saw the benefits piling up. When Jim told me that he discovered the importance of joy and brought it to his counseling practice, he saw drastic changes in the lives of his patients. His clinic treated difficult cases that other clinics and churches had given up on, and most patients arrived to their first session in a state of severely low joy. Previously, the clinic would need to hospitalize a large percentage of these patients during their treatment. Their counseling sessions would send them into such deep trauma that they could no longer function. Jim and the other therapists had come to accept that hospitalization was a normal part of recovery.
Once the clinic started focusing on building patients’ joy before treating their trauma, hospitalization rates plummeted to almost zero. They were filling up their clients’ gas tanks with joy fuel before beginning the heavy work of trauma recovery. Trying to do emotionally taxing work with an empty tank is like running a marathon without having eaten food for a month. Eventually your body will shut down for lack of energy. Jim’s patients would emotionally collapse. We run the same danger in our churches and families when we do not build our joy together as a part of ministry. We eventually drain our tanks and run on empty.
Joy helps us regulate our emotions and endure suffering. Jesus refused to relinquish joy in the midst of His suffering on the cross. When we are able to stay relationally connected to others and God, we experience joy while we suffer. Joy does not remove our pain, but it gives us the strength to endure. Remember that joy is relational, so “joy in suffering” means that God and our community are glad to be with us in our distress. They do not allow us to suffer alone. We are able to bear our suffering like Jesus, “who for the joy set before Him endured the cross” (Heb. 12:2 NASB).
Contrary to what some preachers say in their sermons on Jesus’ “seven last words,” He never lost touch of His Father’s face shining on Him as He was tortured and humiliated. “For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb. 12:2). He could see through the angry faces in the crowd to the kind and steady gaze of His Father. His joy sustained Him. The author of Hebrews exhorts us to handle our suffering the same way, “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith” (12:2 NASB). Jesus’ face helps us persevere through the pain of life.
It is important to remember that joy is not strictly an emotion. We might refer to it as a supra-emotion because it can go on top of and connect with other emotions. For example, if I lose my job, this is usually not considered a joyful occasion. Instead, I am probably feeling some combination of sadness, fear, and anger. However, when I experience these unpleasant emotions and can simultaneously feel that God is with me, I have added joy into the mix. If I have close friends who are also happy to be with me in my loss, my joy magnifies even more. Now I’m feeling sad and joyful. Fearful and joyful. Angry and joyful. Joy does not replace the unpleasant emotions; instead it combines with my emotions to keep me relationally connected in distress.
The importance of joy to our brain highlights the fact that we must suffer in community. We were not meant to suffer alone. We need to lean on God and on our people in times of distress. We naturally do this when a family member dies. Everyone comes together in order to share the sadness. We tell stories about the deceased. We eat together. We sit in silence. We are joyful (not happy) because we want to suffer together. This is the definition of joy: I want to be with you. Joy is relational in its essence.
Joy is the foundation for a secure bond with God. When I trust that God is happy to be with me’ and is smiling at me, this joy naturally removes fear from the relationship. A goal we have in our bond with God is to nurture a loving relationship until it has no fear. One of Jesus’ disciples explains it well: “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love” (1 John 4:18). Joy is the path to a fearless love for God.
Our identity is built and formed by joy-bonded relationships. The identity center in our brain grows in response to joy, which helps us act like ourselves in all situations. In a performance-based relationship or community, our identity becomes distorted because we feel the need to perform. When we put on a pretend self, our joy starts decreasing. We can build joy only with our true self. When churches foster a performance-based environment that encourages us to simply put on a happy face when we are suffering, it will quickly run out of joy.
I have already mentioned that joy helps us experience God’s presence in our bodies. I could keep listing more benefits, but let me quote a book Jim coauthored:
“When we are the sparkle in someone’s eyes, their face lights up with a smile when they see us. We feel joy. From the moment we are born, joy shapes the chemistry, structure and growth of our brain. Joy lays the foundation for how well we will handle relationships, emotions, pain and pleasure throughout our lifetime. Joy creates an identity that is stable and consistent over time. Joy gives us the freedom to share our hearts with God and others. Expressing our joyful identity creates space for others to belong. Joy gives us the freedom to live without masks because, in spite of our weaknesses, we know we are loved. We are not afraid of our vulnerabilities or exposure. Joy gives us the freedom from fear to live from the heart Jesus gave us. We discover increasing delight in becoming the people God knew we could be.”
God designed us to live on a rich diet of joy-filled relationships. Communities that take joy building seriously will experience all of the benefits listed above and more. Since joy happens when people are glad to be together, take a moment to remember your own experience in joyful groups. Have you seen any of these benefits of joy?
I feel like I belong I feel more stable when things go wrong It is easier to be myself I feel free to share my heart with God and others
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What does biblical church leadership look like and how does it function? This is probably the number one question I get asked. Biblical Church Leadership by Beresford Job is one of the best books I can recommend concerning this topic. Below is a short excerpt concerning eldership.
We must make an extremely important point now by way of a vital qualification. Although we are seeing that permanent, local church leadership (eldership, as scripture terms it) carries no executive or positional authority, we are not saying that it is therefore merely “a token affair.” As already established, the major default of biblical church leadership, in contrast with leadership as found in most unbiblical churches, is that of invisibility, as opposed to being high profile, and visitors to such a church would not, under normal circumstances, know if there were any elders or not, let alone who they might be. Remember, there are no services led from the front in a biblical church because, as we have seen, all present are free to take part as the Spirit leads them. Indeed, being also home-based, there isn’t even a front for anyone to be upat anyhow, and people are just sitting around in a circle in someone’s sitting room. Furthermore, any elders present just think of themselves as being “one of the lads” and would not for one moment be sitting there thinking in terms of them being a leader. However, this is not to say than any elder present would shrink from taking a lead if any developing situation required it, and as publicly as necessary too.
The fact that church government is consensual does not in the slightest mean that elders do not know when to step forward, or when they must be somewhat more definitive than usual about something, or when it is appropriate for them to give a strong lead concerning anything that is pressing. They would also, in any such circumstances, expect the church to give serious consideration indeed to anything they were saying as a result. As I have already noted, there may be times when there is no consensus over an issue that just cannot be shelved and, in such cases, if the eldership has a clear idea of the necessary way forward, then the church would be strongly advised to go that way. Being also guardians of the church, as we have also already clearly seen, elders have the serious duty of protecting it from attack, from both outside and from within, however the attack might manifest itself. We earlier saw what Paul wrote to Titus concerning elders, that an elder “…must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine, and refute those who oppose it.” (Titus 1:9) The Greek word Paul uses means “to refute in such a way as to put the person to shame.” Indeed, it is appropriate to think of elders, and church leaders more widely, by making a parallel comparison with Jesus being designated both as the Lamb of God and as the Lion of Judah. Wise and godly church leaders fully realise that there is a time to roar, just as there is a time for gentleness. This is the type of wisdom and discretion that (even more-so than the other leadership qualifications) primarily defines them, and stems from exceptional character and sound, godly living.
It is not, therefore, the case that biblical church leadership, such as I am advocating for, is in any way token, or merely some kind of toothless rubber stamp. Elders may not have executive or positional authority, but they have still been recognised by their church as having been fitted by God for the task because of their exemplary Christian walk. They have therefore been recognised precisely because they have proved themselves over the years, by personal example, to those they lead, and that, as I have already stated, gives them something arguably even more powerful than executive authority; and that is moral authority. It is the moral authority of being able to freely and effectively carry people along with them because of the profound trust engendered between all those concerned over the many months and years of close, personal fellowship.
If you’re a good swimmer you might want to take a deep dive into The Pastor Does He Exist? by David H.J. Gay. This book, at about 350 pages is not for everyone. However, if you like church history, this book contains details of how the church fathers introduced error and how future generations exacerbated this error.
The great causality in the corruption of the New Testament system, about which I have been writing, is not church life, or men. Far from it. Most damage has been done to nothing less than the glory of the person of the Lord Christ himself. Really? Yes, indeed!
The grievous consequence of this pastor business, the grievous error in it, is not some technical point of church order and structure. Certainly not. No! Rather it is this: When men invent a third order of minister, when they invent the notion of the pastor, they are in fact – albeit unwittingly – fulfilling a basic instinct ingrained in fallen man; namely, the need of every sinner to find a priest to represent him before God, and a visible priest at that. The widespread existence of a priesthood is no accident. Men and women all over the world, in all sorts of cultures, in every culture, crave a priest. It takes various forms, but the craving is there.
Let me stick with Christendom. How rife is the need for a priest in Christendom! I say ‘need’, but throughout Christendom, men demand, crave, hanker after such an individual. Many think they need a priest for their babies as they enter the world, so that he, with his ministrations, can get these babies right with God, will give them their so-called Christian name by sprinkling drops of water on them, and muttering some hocus-pocus over them. Some of these babies as they grow up, take it further. They need a priest – or even a bishop – to confirm their spiritual status in some way or another, and bestow the Holy Spirit upon them through the laying on of his hands. They need a priest to administer the communion to them. They need a priest to make their marriage ‘proper’. They need a priest to offer them words of comfort when they pass through affliction. They need a priest to absolve them from their sins. They need a priest to tell them the words of God. Above all. they need a priest who will make sure that all is well at their death, and will ensure their safe and certain passage to the realms of bliss. Men hanker after a priest, I say; they crave the comforts of a professional minister and his religious ministrations. At all stages of life, they want a priest to perform the rites of passage for them.
Reader, do not make the mistake of thinking the above paragraph applies only to those churches which openly speak about having a priest. Far, far from it! Many believers and churches are guilty of it in some form or another – not excluding those who are most vehement in their dislike of the word ‘priest’. Of course, most dramatically is it seen in the Roman abomination, with its so-called Vicar of Christ, and his priestly legions. But, distressing to report, the principle is not only a feature of Popery. It is alive and kicking in the evangelical world. Oh, we may have jettisoned the gaudy trappings of medievalism, yes, but we have replaced them with our own Reformed and evangelical trappings and props, right enough!
My point is, by breaking Christ’s ordinances on this subject, evangelicals (including the Reformed) pander to this craving. Ordinary – what a dreadful word – ordinary believers, so they are told, are lay people; they really do need a member of the special class – one of the clerics – to lead and preside over their worship, to minister holy things to and for them.
And it is but a short step from this for the ordinary people to let their clerics ‘do’ their worship on their behalf. Ordinary Christians cannot be expected to learn directly from God’s word, can they? They need the professional expert, the man of God, the Lord’s servant, the Lord’s sent-servant, the Lord’s anointed to teach them, don’t they? They need a professional minister to pray for them, not infrequently to pronounce (if not to bestow – but not, as it should be, to ask) God’s blessing on them as they leave the meeting house. It is not unknown for Reformed or evangelical men to pronounce the aaronic benediction (Num. 6:24-26) upon a congregation at the close of a service, even with uplifted hands, palms facing the congregation – copying Aaron who addressed the people, not God, with this benediction (Num. 6:23). Do such men not fear they might be trespassing on Christ’s prerogative (Luke 24:50)? Or, worse, are they aping him? No man today has this right or power. If 2 Corinthians 13:14 is thought to justify it though it needs proof that Paul was not simply praying there – it was an apostolic blessing. Compare Romans 1:7; 15:13; 16:20,25-27; 1 Corinthians 1:3; 16:23; Galatians 1:3-5; 6:18, for example.
For many ‘ordinary’ believers, in their need, their professional pastor counsels them. In their ignorance, he guides them. In their sin, he intercedes for them. Nothing wrong with this, of course. Except… when the pastor takes the place of Christ. And, not infrequently, he does. Hackles will rise at this, but I say it again. For the ‘ordinary’ believer, too often the visible pastor is more real than the invisible Christ. Yet all these vital ministries belong to Christ. They are properly his, and only his. He is the Pastor of his people. But, once the human priest has got his feet under the table, he will eventually replace the Son of God.
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Thoughts from my good friend Fernando Krusher Souza. Fernando can be contacted through email: aigrejaembauru@gmail.com.
Sunday afternoon. The house is quiet now, filled with that nice silence that comes after a good party. I still have a smile on my face and a warm heart from what happened last night.
I got home, tired from the day, and when I turned on the living room light, there they were. My wife, with that knowing look I know so well, my daughters, my son-in-law, and a handful of those friends who are closer than brothers. A “Happy Birthday” sung in chorus that took me by surprise and, I confess, brought tears to my eyes.
Today, thinking about it calmly, what really hits me is this good feeling of being loved.
We spend so much of our lives trying to prove our worth. We chase after success, recognition, a pat on the back for a job well done. And all of that is fine, but it’s a kind of affection that is conditioned on our performance.
What I felt yesterday was different. No one there was celebrating my achievements. They were celebrating my existence. Simple as that. The love that filled that room wasn’t a prize for good behavior. It was a gift. It was free.
And in my walk with Jesus, I’ve understood that this is the best picture of God’s love we can have in a practical sense. We often think of God’s love as something abstract, a nice theory. But yesterday, I saw that love with skin on. I saw it in my wife’s eyes, in my daughters’ hugs, in my friends’ laughter. God shows Himself through the people He places around us.
My “church” was all there, in my living room. It didn’t need a temple, loud music, or a sermon. The worship service was the preparing of food in the kitchen, the casual conversations, the sincerity of the affection. That right there was the church in its purest form: a community of people who love each other and take care of one another.
And today, with my heart still warm, a sentence from the apostle John makes more sense than ever: “No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.” (1 John 4:12).
What a profound truth. We don’t see God, but we can see Him acting, dwelling, and revealing Himself in the love we show for one another. That love in my living room wasn’t just a human feeling; it was God Himself making Himself present, becoming visible through my people. His love is made complete, not in me alone as an isolated individual, but in the community we form—in our mutual care and unconditional affection.
What a birthday present. And what an extraordinary truth to live by every day.
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Congratulations to Massachusetts bodybuilder Moustafa Ismail. Guinness World Records is still trying to determine if these guns are real, but if they are, they would be a record at 31 inches around. Moustafa insists his arms are all natural and points to his eating and workout routines as proof. He consumes seven pounds of protein, nine pounds of carbohydrates and three gallons of water each day. He works out two hours every day where he lifts up to 600 pounds. “They call me Popeye, the Egyptian Popeye,” Ismail, 24, said while working out in the Boston suburb of Milford. But unlike the cartoon character, “I like chicken, beef, anything but spinach.”
Where does he buy his shirts from?
You may love or hate these out-of-proportion arms, but sometimes it seems relational gatherings can be similarly out of proportion. If we take Acts 2:42 as a template for doing life together, there is one aspect that seems to be exercised more than the others.
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Acts 2:42 NIV
Yes it’s the apostles’ teaching. Let me say, that in the past, I was triggered when people would call our gathering a “Bible Study” because it was something much deeper. I have since learned how to deal with my emotional issues. I can also hear people beginning to pick up rocks wanting to defend the importance of studying scripture. I get it, but please hear me out.
You are responsible for engaging with Christ during the week. During your time in His presence you will receive something that needs to be shared.
What then shall we say, brothers and sisters? When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Everything must be done so that the church may be built up. 1 Corinthians 14:26 NIV
You may say the above scripture would reflect something that happens improptu, and yes maybe occasionally, but I would suggest the majority of this should be gathered in your spirits before you ever get to the meeting. Just as a meal is planned beforehand so should the spiritual food be prepared beforehand.
If you want to study scripture, have a Bible study or go through a book when you are gathering, that’s great, but please check your motivation. Why are you doing it? Is it because you can’t get to 1 Corinthians 14:26? Is it because nobody brings anything and you are fearful of the silence?
The hardest part of my journey has been trying to get the saints to engage with our Lord during the week. This is a holdover from people going to the IC where nothing is ever expected of them. We must help people experience Christ for themselves, hear Him speak and allow them to share what He has given them. This is how we grow and this is how we encourage each other. Don’t give up on people, it takes time but it’s worth it. There’s so much beauty and wisdom contained in others, especially the quiet ones.
If people don’t engage with our Lord during the week, we must address this issue. To justify filling empty space with Bible teaching will just make us unbalanced like the Egyptian Popeye.
postnote: After posting this on Facebook I received a comment that I really liked and have included it below. This is from Willie Joubert.
To be honest, many times even the home gatherings and organic expressions that I attended (and at times had at our house) were not balanced. Looking back I can see how I gradually moved and became more balanced. It was and is a process. The reality is that many of us left the institutional church as we recognized that the Biblical record in the New Testament presented a very different way of gathering and that the very structure of the Institutional Church makes it impossible to express the fullness and unity of the body of the Lord.
However, we have been and often remain so tied to the ingrained concept of a “Christian Meeting,” that we continue to structure it around ‘studies and discussions,’ with some form of ‘worship,’ understood as singing with or without accompaniment. It took me years to really get it that the first century believers met mostly without Scripture as most were illiterate and scrolls were not widely available even if some could read. They did not have a copy of what we call the New Testament. They were filled with the Spirit and led by the Spirit, having accepted the basic truth of the life and ministry of Jesus as shared by the apostles and others.
They gathered to support one another and learn from the experience of the others. They shared life! In this sharing of life they stood out in the pagan society and their very way of life touched and transformed others and society itself. They did not meet to discuss theoretical concepts and theology! They met to encourage and support one another. Each one brought what they could sharing how the Spirit led them and how the Lord met their needs.
It saddens me that I keep reading how some seek to find a home gathering and many do not feel they can start one themselves, for they are conditioned to think that it means to lead a group Bible Study or discussion. We fail to realize that simply inviting some one for a meal and trusting God to lead the discussion around a table can be where two or three are gathered in his name. The opportunities are endless, if we move beyond the obsession of studies and head knowledge.
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