Category: Books / Videos

This is the second excerpt from Let My People Go! by David W. Dyer. This book has become one of my all time favorites and I highly recommend you check it out. You can download the PDF for free (below) and you can find his other books and videos by going to agrainofwheat.com.

There is an interesting verse in Proverbs which speaks to this subject. We read: “The locusts have no king, yet they all advance in ranks” (Pr 30:27). These swarms of insects have no visible leader, but they move together in harmony as if they did. There is some invisible impulse which is guiding them. In the same way, the Leader of the body of Christ is not seen by human eyes today. But, if and when the members of His body move and minister following the leading of His Spirit and they are “tuned in” to His authority, then there is a wonderful harmony seen. There is nothing contradictory or discordant. There is no need for believers to be competing to be seen or heard.

We are taught that each one can “prophesy” or contribute their portion. “But if anything is revealed to another who sits by, let the first keep silent” (I Cor 14:30). You see, when the Spirit of God is leading a meeting, then everyone must be sensitive to His every direction. No one can dominate the others, using the time for only their revelation and ministry, but always must be ready to yield to someone else who takes up the thread of the revelation which God is giving and contributes his portion also.

There is no need for human organization. There is no requirement to plan and program everything in advance. There is no necessity for someone or some group of men to try to control the rest. In fact, such efforts will be shown on judgment day to have been a great hindrance to God’s work. Jesus is infinitely capable of leading His church in her meetings. It is only essential for every member to learn to enter into and be led by the Holy Spirit. It is necessary for each one to be moved by God’s eternal Life. When the members are directed by the one Head, then all their movements and ministries are in harmony with each other.

A person who is moved by the Spirit in a gathering of believers should minister or speak “as the oracles of God” (I Pet 4:11). They should be careful, according to their spiritual maturity, not to include any fleshly opinions, ideas, or directions. They should only minister according to the proportion of their faith (Rm 12:6). Further, they should be vigilant not to continue on talking or singing when the Holy Spirit has already moved on.

It is very common for someone, when they feel the attention of the group upon them, to become enamored with a feeling of importance. It is easy for the flesh to be stimulated when we are used by God. Consequently, it is not infrequent for different members of the body to go beyond what God wishes to say and continue rambling on, enjoying the limelight. This is detrimental to all.

On the other hand, sometimes it is hard for a more timid member to say anything. Perhaps he or she is naturally disposed to be reticent or shy. Such members need to be encouraged to contribute what they feel the Lord is giving them. They need to be taught that their part, be it ever so small, is something of value to all.

If and when the stronger members of the body dominate any and all gatherings with their gifts and ministries, it is almost impossible for the weaker ones to grow in sharing their portions. Therefore, the stronger ones should be very sensitive to give the weaker members an opportunity to function in the meetings.

Building Strong Bonds

When we have seen the truth about others and still love them, when the devil has shared with us all his insights about their sins and failures, when we have overcome our own reactions and feelings, then what remains is something which will endure forever.

When we cooperate with Jesus and allow Him to build us together in this way, then the church becomes much less vulnerable and eventually, invincible to the attacks of the enemy. In the Old Testament, the stones for the temple were carefully crafted. They were cut, sawn, and possibly even sanded until they fit perfectly together. When they were put into place in the temple, it has been said that they fit so well that not even the blade of a knife could be inserted between them.

You see, the devil’s attacks are like the blade of a knife. He loves to insert his accusations about another brother in the middle of our relationship. When his words find a little space in our hearts and minds, then he begins to twist this knife to pry us further apart. This is his main technique to destroy the work of God. It is to “reveal” to us the faults and sins of others. Then he uses this information to destroy the love which should hold us together.

But when we succeed in living in love, when the devil’s accusations no longer find a place in our hearts, when he has expended all his efforts but has failed to separate us, then the gates of hell begin to tremble. When we overcome his words which he uses to accuse others, then he has very little power left. It is then that he has exhausted all his ammunition and failed.

When we no longer agree with the thoughts which he puts in our minds, when we stop reacting in natural, human ways to his assaults, when we continue to love our brothers and sisters in the middle of his attacks on their character, then the devil’s kingdom is in trouble. It is then that Christian men and women are winning the victory. They are overcoming God’s enemy. God’s house is being built up.

As we have seen, love is the only glue that holds the true body of Christ together. Without some artificial doctrine, leader, practice, method, etc. to keep believers together, only God’s love will work. So the devil does his best to attack this unique, precious connection.

When we, acting in our flesh, cooperate with him and criticize, defame, gossip, and speak ill of our brothers and sisters, we tear apart the only thing which joins us together. This kind of speaking is sin and must be avoided at all costs. If and when we find ourselves involved in it, a deep and thorough repentance is the only solution. It is only when we overcome in this sphere that we will see the house of God being built up in love.

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One word to describe Let My People Go! by David W. Dyer is complete. This book has become one of my all time favorites and I highly recommend you check it out. You can download the PDF for free (below) and you can find his other books and videos by going to agrainofwheat.com. I decided to post two excerpts from his book, this being the first one, under the title Jesus Can Lead Our Meetings.

One important key to enjoying spiritual meetings when we gather with a group of Christians is that Jesus can lead our meetings. He can actually conduct our corporate activities just as a conductor might direct a symphony orchestra. This experience is not meant to be something which happens once in a while, but something which should be a normal and constant part of our church experience.

When we and others with whom we are meeting are in the presence of God, we can sense His directions. In the Spirit, we discern when He wishes us to speak, sing, pray, or even to be quiet. In our spirit we realize what it is that Jesus is doing and saying at any particular time. In this way, we can flow along with what He is wanting, harmonizing with the will of God moment by moment.

Such direction by Jesus in our Christian gatherings is essential. Without it, we are only left with human guidance. When we fail to enter into the spiritual dimension and discern the authority and leadership of the Holy Spirit, we can only employ natural techniques to conduct our meetings. Although we might seem to approximate the spiritual reality, such church experiences are ultimately unsatisfying and useless. Truly, “the flesh profits nothing” (Jn 6:63).

Today, Jesus is invisible yet He is very real. Although He is intangible in the natural, physical realm, He is abundantly perceptible when we enter into the Spirit. When He does come to our Christian gatherings, He does not come to watch or to be entertained. Neither is He intending to sit in the “back pew” to make sure we are doing things correctly. Instead, He comes into our midst as our Leader and King. He comes not to watch but to lead. His role is not to observe, but to guide and direct everything.

When we succeed in entering into His presence and thus allow Him to fulfill His role in our midst, these meetings will be extremely satisfying. He knows the need of every member. He understands how to minister to every heart. So, when He is the leader, He can inspire someone or other to speak, pray, prophecy, or even sing to minister to these needs. Probably He has prepared these people beforehand to fulfill this very task

Only God knows what is in every soul. Only He understands the aches, the needs, or even the joys which are there. Therefore, when He is orchestrating all that is said and done, true spiritual ministry is effected. Human needs of every variety are truly being met. This truth applies to our worshipping and/or singing as well as to any preaching, teaching, or other ministry which occurs. For example, each one can have a psalm, hymn, or song. When a person is inspired by the Spirit to suggest a song or to begin singing, then singing it will be an anointed, spiritual experience. It will be a blessing to all. It will be something which Jesus has chosen, with words which will meet some needs and an anointing which will uplift every spirit.

We read: “How is it then, brethren? Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification” (I Cor 14:26).

If, on the other hand, people merely call out their favorite tune or someone selects everything in advance, the opportunity for Jesus to lead is diminished. Consequently, the blessing also becomes less or even nonexistent. The more we can succeed in allowing Jesus to lead us when we meet, the more blessed and uplifted our experience will be.

The same thing is true concerning any preaching or teaching. No one should be dominating every meeting with their eloquence and gift. There must be room for all to have a chance to contribute. We read: “For you can all prophesy one by one, that all may learn and all may be encouraged” (I Cor 14:31). The word “prophesy” here means “to speak for God,” which can include preaching and teaching as well as ministering “prophetically.”

No one man has all revelation. No one besides Jesus Christ has all the gifts and ministries. God has designed the body so that members are dependent upon each other. The portion of every member is required so that the whole can be edified. Therefore, when two or three or even more are together in the presence of the Lord, there should be opportunity for each one, guided by the Holy Spirit, to minister their portion of Jesus to the rest.

As the Spirit of Jesus moves among the members of His body, He will lead one or the other to minister according to his or her gift, ministry, or revelation. Following the direction of the Holy Spirit, each “joint” of supply (Eph 4:16) can be used to edify the others.

Here there should be no confusion. Everything should occur “decently and in order” (I Cor 14:40). Since there is one Head which is directing the activities of the various members, a divine harmony is seen. When Jesus is the author, then there is a supernatural synchronization of everything which occurs. Although the Director is invisible, when all the members enter into the spiritual realm where He is, then everything is done in an orderly manner.

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I love Acts 2:42. Most of the relational fellowships I visit go heavy on the “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching” and not so much on the “breaking of bread”. When brothers and sisters sit at the same table, eat and fellowship, something supernatural happens. Relational fellowships work best when all four elements are well balanced. A recent (2022) book, simpler church by Roger Shenk, explores the four devotions found in Acts 2:42 and the two loves. An excerpt from his book, discussing the importance of breaking bread, is below. I have also linked four videos where Roger discusses the four devotions.

Two of my favorite words are “Let’s eat!” Eating together is one of the most meaningful human activities. It’s physical, but it’s also relational and spiritual. It’s fuel, but it’s also fellowship and fun. It conveys acceptance, commonality, and interdependence.

We feast together to celebrate. We share a meal together to connect. We sometimes even withhold a meal, as an act of self-discipline or sometimes to discipline others. Eating together is one of the most significant things we can do.

And especially for those of us who are following Jesus as Lord, and devoting ourselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, it just makes sense that we would also devote ourselves to breaking bread together.

It’s where faith and fellowship feast.

It’s good for eating to be part of meeting.

As we read the gospels, we see Jesus eating with his disciples in various situations, sometimes around a fire, or at someone’s house, or at feasts and banquets, and even a couple times having a picnic on a hillside with thousands-each time fueling his body to keep it alive, but also enjoying fellowship with others doing the same thing.

When Jesus taught about the Kingdom of God, he told parables about banquets and wedding feasts and guests, and described redemption as having the right to eat and drink at his table. The Pharisees complained that Jesus was eating and drinking with sinners, as if that was a bad thing, and Jesus said it was a good thing.

At the end of his life Jesus ate Passover again with his disciples and told them to keep doing it as a remembrance of him after his death.

Then, after he was resurrected, he ate a piece of fish in front of his disciples to prove he wasn’t a ghost.

Another time they didn’t recognize him until he broke bread, and then their eyes were opened.

And yet another time he made breakfast for them and spent time eating with them, and then went for an after-breakfast walk with Peter.

In fact, Luke started out his book of Acts with the resurrected Jesus eating with the disciples and telling them about the coming Holy Spirit.

And later, when giving testimony about his resurrection, the disciples don’t just say they saw him, they said specifically that they ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.

Eating together was a significant part of the disciples’ relationship with Jesus, and then, after he returned to heaven they kept on meeting to eat together as a part of their own fellowship.

We already read Acts 2:42 that “they devoted themselves to…the breaking of bread” and then, in verse 46, “They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts.”

We should renew our devotion to that. We should practice that as part of our faith expression. We should eat together in each other’s homes more often, and do so with glad and sincere hearts as an expression of our faith and acceptance.

When we eat together we commend each other as worthy of fellowship. To eat with someone is to accept them, to approve of them.

I mean that socially to an extent, but I also mean it with regard to faith. In fact, it’s so significant that when Paul wrote about not tolerating wickedness in the church, he said we shouldn’t even eat with people who claim to be in the faith but live in wickedness. You can read it for yourself in 1 Corinthians 5. We won’t take time to study it here. I just mention it to note that refusing to eat with someone is such a powerful demonstration of disapproval because choosing to eat with someone is such a powerful demonstration of approval!

I believe we need to restore the practice of eating together as a devotion of our faith. When we meet, let’s take time to eat.

How to House Church Part 1 – Apostles’ Teaching

How to House Church Part 2 – Fellowship

How to House Church Part 3 – Breaking of Bread

How to House Church Part 4 – Prayer

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The majority of books on House Church were published 25-35 years ago so it’s delightful to find a recently published book. It’s even more delightful when the book is worth reading and full of wisdom. Rex Whitman’s book House Church Now was published in 2023 and I highly recommend it. The excerpt below is about the importance of communication.

For genuine community to exist, communication is also necessary, and in fact, a community without communication is a contradiction in terms. Communication, by its very nature, is the clear exchange of information that serves to deepen and enrich the experience of community. In the basic process of communication theory an idea formed in the mind is transmitted through words and received by another person who then offers a response to the original idea. This process is repeated over and over until both parties reach a state of clarity, but whenever the process is short-circuited, communication dies and community decays. As I have stated elsewhere, this process of communication occurred naturally in the informal setting of an early house church where believers could comfortably discuss and interact over the scriptures to seek clarity on the will of God for their community.

But communication is more than simply a symbolic exchange of information or ideas; it also serves a vital social function. As proof of this fact, we are all fully aware that a meal without conversation can actually feel cold and uncomfortable. In addition, we also instinctively know that there are times when far more may be communicated by a hug or a simple act of caring than could ever be communicated in words. Communication may sometimes even seem confusing, but whether by means of symbolic communication with words or the social communication of actions, both of these aspects are necessary for healthy, genuine community to occur.

In addition to this, good communication is necessary for the healing of relationships within a community, and serves to prevent potential misunderstandings or divisions that might arise. This communication must be open, honest, and tempered by grace for genuine community to exist. Disingenuous surface communication is powerless to create actual community, and over time, the pretense becomes burdensome and even exhausting as it becomes more difficult to maintain the façade.

In genuine community, however, real people wrestle with real life and real truth to find real answers to real problems, and if you have anything other than these four elements, you probably don’t have community. Salt may look very similar to sugar, but you should never mistake one for the other, or your final product will be disappointing, at best. A few years ago, rushing to make a pitcher of Kool-Aid for a group of children in my backyard, I added salt rather than sugar to the mixture. Bad mistake! It tasted horrible and no one was impressed with my new recipe. So, if you think you can create genuine community without the right ingredients, know this, you can’t! And whatever your best intentions, you will impress no one, and as a result, be left with a very bad taste in your mouth. But as we consider the elements of genuine community, it is also important we examine the process.

Community is built upon relationships, and churches that desire a healthy, genuine, and relational community need to consider the process leading toward this goal. This process usually begins with casual contact, a friendly hello, an exchange of niceties, and some basic information on your job, your children, and where you live. But these are only the seeds of genuine community, and sadly, many churches fail to water these seeds to grow relationships beyond the level of casual contact. In many cases, people do not possess even this basic information about the people sitting right next to them on a Sunday morning. In a house church, however, the very size, structure, and informality of this small body of believers invites a deeper understanding of the people who gather there. This deeper understanding phase of community collects further information about hobbies, interests, life experiences, and a host of other details not covered in the casual contact phase of relational community. After a period, this additional information serves to strengthen relational connections as individuals discover that there are other people with whom they have much in common. As this growing identification with other individuals becomes evident, invitations are given for further discussion over a cup of coffee or a shared meal. This people-to-people phase begins to move a house church in the direction of a genuine community. As trust builds in these relationships, members expand their understanding of community, accepting other members into their circle of trust until, somewhere along the way, they begin to perceive themselves as a gathering of fellow travelers walking together on the same journey to the same destination. At this phase, group identity and group loyalty become more evident, and members begin to rejoice in the experience of their common journey, perceiving that they are far more than a conglomeration of individual travelers. Discovering that they have now become a unified body, they begin to experience the reality of genuine community, realizing that they possess a common nature in Christ, a common truth in his word, and a common mission entrusted to each of them. To briefly review, here are the five phases leading toward a genuine community:

Phase #1 – The Casual Contact Phase

Phase #2 – The Deeper Understanding Phase

Phase #3 – The People-to-People Connection Phase

Phase #4 – The Fellow Traveler Phase

Phase #5 – The Unified Body Phase

In all of this, we recognize the need to be intentional about creating a genuine community. And while knowing the limitations of artificial community, we are also fully aware of the essence, the elements, and the process leading to genuine community. The modern church has often failed to understand the importance of a healthy community that glorifies the God who dwells in our midst. May God renew our desire for community. May He remind us again of its importance; and may we rediscover its joys.

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Have you ever taken a bite of a piece of cake or brownie and it was so rich you couldn’t eat the whole thing at one sitting? Victor Choudhrie’s book Greet The Ekklesia In Your House was like that for me. I read the PDF version of the book which was 206 pages. The book was originally published in 1999. The current version was expanded and updated to 368 pages in 2012. You’ll get a sense of the density of this work by reading the excerpt below entitled Persons of Peace.

IDENTIFYING THE “SON OF PEACE” IS KEY TO EKKLESIA PLANTING: The Lord taught His disciples, when you go to preach, look for “a person of peace.” Stay there and eat with them, heal the sick and cast out demons and preach the kingdom of God. (Luke 9:1,2; 10:5-9). The Greek words “huios eirenes” mean “son of peace.” The word “son” also means “descendent” and can be used for male or female. In the New Testament there are many examples of persons of peace, such as Cornelius (Acts 10:24), Lydia (Acts 16:14), Mary, the mother of Mark (Acts 12:12), Dorcas (Acts 9:36), Priscilla (1Cor. 16:19), Tyrannus (Acts 19:9,10), Jason (Acts 17:5-9), Justus, Crispus (Acts 18:7,8) and many others, whose names are mentioned in the 16th chapter of Romans. Many of them are women.

EAT WITH THE PERSON OF PEACE: Persons of peace are facilitators who facilitate Ekklesia planting. All the people mentioned above were persons of peace who had Ekklesias established in their homes. Christianity spread throughout the world through the efforts of persons of peace, not just through the work of the apostles or the institutional church. Generally, persons of peace are influential, like Cornelius and Lydia. The Lord has blessed them so that when the time comes, they can take care of the boarding and lodging and security needs of the saints and the new converts. This is why the Lord gave instructions to go and stay with them and “eat whatever is laid before you. A laborer is worthy of his wages. Do not go from house to house.” (Luke 10:5-8). The influence of such a person helps in gathering his own household as well as his neighbors to hear the word of God (Acts 10:24). In virulent disregard to these clear instructions, the modern evangelistic teams go to a village, set up their loud speaker system, sing and preach. They do not mentor a local leader and leave without planting a church. This unscriptural method can cause many problems, both for the preacher and the preached. Persons of peace are the latter day saints who plant Ekklesias in their homes.

BREAK THIS RULE AND PAY FOR BOARD AND LODGING: The failure by missionaries in finding persons of peace and dealing directly with the poor, resulted in having to open “mission compounds” for those who were thrown out from their communities. Even today, this mistake is being repeated, and new believers have to suffer persecution and ostracism. It also sends wrong signals to the educated and the influential that Christianity is meant only for the poor and low caste people.

THE GENTILES ARE GROANING FOR THE MANIFESTATION OF THE SONS OF GOD: In His economy, God has already planted persons of peace in every human habitation, be it a city, a village or a neighborhood (Acts 15:14; 17:26,27; Rom. 11:5). The Bible says that, “the whole of creation is in travail for the manifestation of the sons of God” (Rom. 8:19). Finding the person of peace is the key to starting a house Ekklesia in any locality. He is easily identifiable because he is generally a person of good reputation and hospitable. He will invite you into his house and take care of your food, accommodation and other needs (Luke 10:5-9). These should not be refused, because they are arranged by the Lord Himself in order for His Ekklesia to be established (Mark 16:20). Even though at this stage he belongs to another faith and may be even hostile to Christianity, by constantly praying for him, breaking his bondages and blessing him, you will release him for God’s intended purpose.

FINDING THE SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF PEACE IS THE TOP PRIORITY OF THE EKKLESIA: God has already visited all the lost people on the face of the earth and their locations (Acts 15:14; 17:26). Jesus came to rebuild the fallen tent of David. Now it is for us, the children of “shalom” to go and find the Gentile children of “peace.” It is our responsibility to prayer walk the area and bless all the families living there. We need to bind the strongman, identify and release the children of God (the persons of peace), and plant multiplying Assemblies in their homes. Jesus says, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.” (Matt. 5:9). The only diploma we need is B.A.B. (Be A Blessing). (Gen. 12:3)

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The excerpt below is from a book entitled Starting A House Church by Larry Kreider & Floyd McClung. Published in 2007 it has elements that are a bit outdated but most of the content is solid. I especially enjoyed the comments about pitfalls when gathering. Some of those comments are excerpted below.

If we seek community with other followers of Jesus without an orientation to a new definition of church-a definition that is about genuine community and radical commission-people will revert to expectations based on older models. We must orient people to a community based on genuine relationships that require honesty, forgiveness and mercy. If we do not, churches will experience conflict and division among people, and conflicting expectations within people.

House church must be about authentic community in order to be relevant to our culture. Biblical house church is about family- something we all desperately want but aren’t generally good at doing. Unless we address this issue up front with answers from the Bible, many house churches will struggle with problems of disunity and unfulfilled expectations.

In order to experience genuine community in a house church, we have to trust other people…but there is this little problem called sin! We don’t, however, believe that sin is the greatest barrier to community, but lack of forgiveness. People in our nation are broken, and trust doesn’t come easy these days. When people consider whether or not to trust, many seem to think that the other person’s sinfulness is the problem. They are idealistic about their own lack of sin. Idealists don’t do well in community-not because they are imperfect, but because they don’t acknowledge their imperfections and received the forgiveness of God. If idealists have not received forgiveness, they will struggle with giving it to others.

It’s important to get this right. If you are part of a small community, sooner or later someone will do something to hurt or disappoint you, and you may once again have good reason to avoid “the Church.” But Dietrich Bonhoeffer points out in his book Life Together that the Church is not a place for idealists and humanists. Rather, Church is a community of forgiven sinners, a family of people who need mercy from those who have learned to forgive like Jesus.

Another trap to avoid is fear, particularly fear of what people think. House churches are largely unproven entities in today’s church world. They are new to many people and depend upon sometimes-inexperienced people to provide leadership. Despite these challenges, house-church leaders must act in faith, not in fear. They must build what God has called them to build and gain the courage to press on even when they encounter people who question their nontraditional approach to church. Even though house churches may lack credibility, what they lack in status can be made up for by courage and vision.

Fear of our own mistakes is another thing that can hinder us. Bible teacher Bob Mumford once said, “I do not trust anyone unless he walks with a limp.” He was referring to Genesis 32, when Jacob, after wrestling with the Lord and demanding His blessing, was touched in his thigh and from that day forward, walked with a limp. When God lovingly deals with us through difficult times, we walk with a spiritual limp the rest of our lives. This is the stuff of which true spiritual fathers and mothers are made.

Peter, the disciple who became an apostle of the New Testament church is another example of a spiritual father with a spiritual limp. After denying Jesus and then experiencing His complete acceptance and forgiveness, Peter lost his abrasiveness and became a true father in the faith. From that time on he “walked with a limp.”

Both Jacob’s and Peter’s examples testify to the fact that we all make mistakes. They also teach us that we must not give up. We may be doing all the right things, but problems will still arise. Or we may be tempted to go back to something easier than dealing with the shortcomings of humanity. Being a spiritual parent to believers in a house church is not easy. But it is rewarding.

The Bible says that all things are possible, not that all things are easy! Even Jesus dealt with problems while investing His life in the 12 disciples. They all left Him in the Garden of Gethsemane. He felt alone and forsaken. But He knew that the last chapter was not yet written! Fifty days later, Peter stood with the 11 and preached at Pentecost, where 3,000 people came to faith in Christ. No doubt, Jesus was just as proud of fearful Peter preaching to a multitude as He was to see thousands believe in Him.

Getting involved in a house church can be discouraging. Why? Because it’s not like going to a mega-church where everything is done for you. You are not a spectator, but an active participant. It is a community to belong to, not a set of doctrines to believe about Church. In the early stages, it is new and fun. Then comes a stage of involvement, which is about going deeper in relationships, working through personality differences and learning to open up your life honestly in ways that may be difficult for you, even threatening.

Then comes the stage that is the biggest challenge: realizing that you are responsible. Everyone has to accept responsibility for what happens-otherwise, things don’t happen. Things won’t get fixed unless everyone shoulders the load.

At this stage, many battle the temptation to quit. The enemy may try to use discouragement to take you out of the game. In a sense, you are a pioneer, and pioneers pay a price while others receive the benefits. Someone built the highway in your city, but now you drive down it without even thinking about the massive sacrifice someone made to build it.

If you believe that the Lord may be calling you to labor with Him to build His Church according to the principles that are outlined in this book, you will probably have to cross your own river. After you cross, there is no turning back. But then, who wants to go back to the wilderness? Let’s march like Joshua, through the river, with a confidence that the Lord is saving the best wine for last. He is waiting for you and me to prepare the wineskins so that He can pour out His Spirit, from house to house, city to city and nation to nation.

For more information on Larry Kreider you can check out his website here. You can check out Dove International here.

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Written in 1952 by Emil Brunner, The Misunderstanding of the Church is a deep read. You can get a flavor of the book by reading the excerpt below. If you’re like me, you might have to read it a couple of times, intentionally. Blessings.

The Word of God is truly and effectively in the Church as the word of the Holy Ghost, implying therefore a unity of “logos” and dynamic energy which lies beyond all comprehension. From this unity, which later ceased to exist or to be understood, flows the hidden life of the primitive community. It forms the secret both of the fellowship and of its moral power; for upon the inspiration of the Holy Ghost rests the Koinonia, the communion of men with each other, the fact that they are knit together in an organism which includes both equality and difference, the fundamental equality of all and their mutual subordination each to other. The significant mark and the essential being of this communion consists in the quality of agape-the new ethos of the fellowship and its members. It is understandable that a later time, when this original power and unity no longer existed in the same abundance, should seek to find a substitute for what was lacking and to secure the presence of what was fast disappearing. This attempt at security and replacement assumes three different forms: the living Word of God is secured-and at the same time replaced-by theology and dogma; the fellowship is secured and replaced-by the institution; faith, which proves its reality by love, is secured-and replaced-by a creed and a moral code.

It is so much easier to discuss from an intellectual and theological standpoint the ideas implied in the revealed Word of God and to analyse them conceptually than it is to allow oneself to be transformed at the centre of one’s life by the action of the Holy Ghost: and further, theological ideas can be handled and arranged as one desires at any time-not so the Word of God.

It is so much easier to secure the life of the fellowship, its coherence and its indispensable hierarchy by means of solid legal forms, by organization and offices, than it is to allow the life of communion to be continually poured out upon one, to allow oneself to be rooted in it by the action of the Holy Ghost. You can handle and shape as you please such things as law and organization, but you cannot act thus towards the Holy Ghost.

And finally: it is so much easier to assent to a creed, a dogma, a firm body of teaching than it is to believe in such a way that belief is inseparable from love. Above all: one can mould as one will creeds and moral codes, handle them, teach them, learn them, but one cannot thus control that faith which is active in love.

The order intrinsic to the fellowship springing from the Holy Spirit was diakonia-service-the same therefore as flowed from true faith and revealed itself in a new relationship to one’s brother. But the organized hierarchy presupposing the office had neither the character of brotherly communion nor had it a unity wherein equality was consistent with differentiation-a unity characterized by reciprocal subordination. The delicate structure of the fellowship founded by Jesus, and anchored in the Holy Spirit, could not be replaced by an institutional organization without the whole character of the Ecclesia being fundamentally changed: the fellowship of Jesus Christ became the church. The apparent similarity between the official organization and the New Testament order of the Spirit shows upon closer inspection that at every point there has taken place a change in essential character. The paradoxical unity of things which everywhere else exist in disparity was no longer present as the decisive factor. Now there was dogma- without the dynamism of the Spirit-filled Word of God. Now there was faith, in the sense of correct, orthodox belief, but separated from love. Now there was a community in the sense of a Church with offices, but no longer the solidarity of reciprocal service.

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The best book I’ve read so far on church history is a book by Dr. Kim Tan entitled Lost Heritage. Over and over again our brothers and sisters, who just wanted to follow Christ, were martyred and exterminated because they did not tow the Church/State line. It’s a heartbreaking read but we need to understand our heritage. The excerpt below is the final chapter in the book.

Church history is the story of how the Church lived out its faith in the world. Some retreated into their monasteries to live out “church”, while others became more and more integrated until they were part of the establishment. Still others fought bravely to be in the world but not of it. The “City of God” must coexist with the “Earthly City”. Where one is emphasised to the exclusion of the other, it has proved harmful to both. These two kingdoms, while in conflict, have to continue existing in an uneasy equilibrium. Sadly, the lesson from church history is that the world has often proved stronger than the Church, and for much of the time, the Church has not been distinctly different from the world. It seems the world has usually found a way of infiltrating the Church. It is no different today. The world’s materialism, injustice, indiscipline and lack of respect can be seen in the Church today.

There is much obviously that we can learn from the past. The issues and battles faced by the Church are not that different from ones we encounter today-more subtle perhaps, but essentially the same.

History is a process; it is dynamic and not static. Nothing stays the same. In the midst of enormous social and political upheavals, God’s people have been able to find a Rock in their Lord and Saviour who does not change. In times of trouble, he has been their refuge and his Word has been a source of inspiration and instruction. Amid the uncertainties of our world today, the Church needs to find its way back to God and return to his Word with a fresh hunger. There will be new challenges and we can only face them when we have a sure knowledge of God and his Word.

We learn also from history that it is dangerous to presume on God’s blessings. He has shown that He will move on when the Church deviates from his original intention. No segment of the Church has a monopoly on God at any time. We have also seen that God’s blessings can in the end lead on to complacency and become a hindrance. His past blessings are no guarantee of his continuing presence. Every generation needs to know his presence for itself. We cannot live on the spiritual capital of the past.

Complacency is a great danger within the Church. At the peak of Israel’s power during the reign of King Solomon, the nation enjoyed the bountiful blessings of God. But within a generation of his death, King Shishak from Egypt had invaded Israel and taken away all the treasures from the Temple (2 Chron. 12:9). These were the sacred things of God, made at great cost (Ex. 35-38), and part of the treasures of Israel. King Rehoboam then substituted the golden shields taken by King Shishak with some bronze replicas. We have here a lesson confirmed by Church history. When the early Church became complacent and thought that it had arrived, the enemy entered and took away its treasures-as we have seen, the Church was robbed of many truths for a very long time. Instead of recovering the “golden” truths however, it often settled for poor quality “bronze” replicas of the real thing. In our day, complacency is still a major threat and unless we are watchful and seek to walk humbly with our God, we too face the same danger.

We also need to look to God to restore other truths to the Church. The issue of radical discipleship and lifestyle has been mentioned. From the Catholic tradition, there is the challenge of the monastic movements. Furthermore, I believe that in our day, we need to recover a love for the mystics. These were Christians who touched depths of devotion to God and whose experience of the Holy One is foreign to the modern Church. We need them to lead us into a much deeper devotion of our God that will enrich our individual and corporate worship. It is indeed sad that the modern Christian knows little of the writings and hymns of mystics, both ancient, such as Bernard of Clairvaux, Tauler and Fenelon, as well “recent”, such as Faber, Watts and Tozer. This is our loss and the Church is the poorer without their contribution.

This brief survey should make us grow in our appreciation of the richness of God’s work across history. We will be less inclined in the future to imagine that everything exciting began with us! We should see now that we have many spiritual ancestors. This should both humble and excite us. We are the product of many streams, and more and more we are seeing these converging. Catholicism today acknowledges the necessity of faith and honours preaching, but the centre of its religious life is in the sacraments rather than the sermon. Classical Protestantism, especially in its Lutheran form, ascribes value to the sacraments, but its emphasis is on an evangelical faith through the preaching. Pentecostalism values both the sacraments and the sermon but sees the work of the Holy Spirit as of paramount importance in every aspect of Church life. We are inheritors of these truths. To that we need the merging of the Radicals’ stream with their emphasis on discipleship, community and non-institutional forms of church government. As we have seen, distortions have resulted from taking any one of these emphases alone as characteristic of the nature of the Church. It is only when all these features are present, that we will see the kind of Church which Jesus intended.

How do we keep movements fresh, alive and on the rails? How do we prevent dynamic groups from settling down and becoming independent of God? Perhaps it is impossible; it is human nature to settle down and enjoy what has been gained. Looking at Church history, I am pessimistic as to whether any movement can stay fresh and dynamic over several generations. Perhaps it is God’s intention that in every generation, there should be a fresh movement of the Spirit.

It is difficult to summarise such a wide sweep of history, but if there is one overriding lesson we need to learn, it is this: we are a pilgrim church called to a walk of faith. While on this journey, we should learn to be less dogmatic, more loving; less bigoted, more humble. Above all, we should have a real hunger for the Lord Jesus; seek to love Him with all our hearts and minds and to love our neighbour as ourselves. We should get on with the task of mission and get the Bride ready. He is coming back. Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus, come!

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Another great book by Jon Zens entitled We Are Christ on Earth. Jon’s books are easy to read and understand and are great gifts for friends and family who might be interested in relational gatherings. The excerpt below talks about the forgotten horizontal dimension of the cross. To check out Jon’s books go to jonzens.com.

Traditional systematic theologies have dealt with Christ’s cross-work primarily in terms of its vertical dimension-that He died to heal the alienation between the Creator and humanity. This aspect of Golgotha is indeed vital and foundational. But the New Testament goes further to reveal the multidimensional realities of the Cross. The cosmic dimension is found in Col. 2, the charismatic dimension is found in Eph. 4, and the communal (horizontal) dimension is revealed in places like Eph. 2 and 1 Cor. 12:13.

Francis Schaeffer called this horizontal dimension the “sociological healing” that flows out of Gospel salvation. In other words, as each individual is baptized by the Spirit into Christ, they also come into His body, where there is no Jew or Greek, bond or free, or male and female (1 Cor. 12:13).

This ekklesia setting, then, becomes the “display case” of God’s multi-faceted grace and wisdom (Eph. 3:10). Thus, in the New Testament, salvation is not individualistic (people saved alone), but rather corporate (people in relationship with others). In Ephesians 2, Paul pointed out that the Law required that Jew and Gentile be kept apart. Jesus came, honored and fulfilled the Law, then took away the barrier of the Law so that the two would be one in a “new humanity.”

For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the hostility, which is the Law composed of commandments expressed in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two one new person, in this way establishing peace; and that He might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the hostility. And He came and preached peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near; for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father (NASB).

From this context, we can see that it is crucial to affirm both that Jesus died to atone for our sins (vertically, toward God), and that He died to create a “new person” (horizontally in relationships), which was the culmination of His eternal purpose in Christ.

Tragically, and for a number of reasons, the centrality of this horizontal fabric of the believer’s life has been virtually forgotten. Consider, for example, the content of most gospel tracts. The focus is on “getting saved,” but nothing is said about the fact that in this new life they are to function in His body by the Spirit.

A book that years ago opened up my awareness of the horizontal dimension of the cross was John Driver’s Understanding the Atonement for the Mission of the Church (Herald Press, 1986). This work deserves your attention if you wish to explore further this dimension of Jesus’ work.

What are some implications of the horizontal/communal dimension of the Cross for our practice of ekklesia? It seems to me that one of the key implications would be that in our living and in our presentation of the Gospel we consciously connect new life in Christ with life in His ekklesia.

In other words, we are not just asking people to say a prayer and invite Jesus into their heart. Instead, we are inviting them to a full-orbed life of following Christ-a life of knowing Christ and functioning with the brothers and sisters in His body. This organic reality entails a whole lot more than just “going to church.”

Another implication would be that Jesus-communities should be displaying the Lord’s goal of “the two being made one” fellowships where Jew and Gentile, male and female, slave and free, rich and poor, educated and uneducated can all follow Jesus together in fervent love.

That is why Paul had to correct Peter publicly: his removing of himself from table fellowship with believing Gentiles when certain friends of James came, contradicted the “sociological healing” that a watching world should see in the New Humanity.

Realizing that horizontal realities are embedded in Christ’s cross opens up new vistas for understanding issues the early church faced. For example, in post-apostolic times the Lord’s supper became an individualistic ritual where believers examined themselves regarding sin in their life. But when Paul told each of the Corinthians to “examine themselves,” the context indicates that he had in view one’s relationship to others in the body. The way they were coming together reflected schism, not bondedness. They were not eating together as a unit. The poor were thereby being humiliated. The giving nature of Christ was not reflected in the way they shared food with one another. In such circumstances, the Supper could only be done “unworthily” because the way they were acting was a denial of all that it signified. If we miss the social dimensions of the cross–the New Humanity—the New Testament will always be a veiled book to us in crucial ways.

The movement in post-apostolic times from vibrant body-life to dependence on leaders, from Spirit-led ministry to institutionalized forms, and from free-flowing relationships to political backing and intrigue all combined to eliminate any consciousness of the horizontal/relational purposes the Lord had in Jesus’ cross-work. The horizontal healing accomplished by Jesus’ cross was largely buried and forgotten.

We should, therefore, be encouraged by the emergence of sensitivity to, and concern for, the body dimension of the believer’s life in Christ, as evidenced by the books, talks and articles on the subject. May the Lord give us grace to make intentional efforts to see this vital aspect of Christ’s work become rooted in the life of His ekklesias.

Check out Jon Zens website at searchingtogether.org.

I found this PDF online, anonymously written called Church Life As Taught In Scripture. The first edition was published in 2008 and then revised in 2024. It’s 118 pages, has lots of scripture, is interesting but hard to get through. You can get a taste of what I mean from this one paragraph excerpt. I also included access to the PDF file below. The only identifier I found was “simple by Design“.

This practice of meeting in homes was continued long after the Apostles had passed away. This was not because of persecution (nor because of a lack of other informal social venues such as coffee shops) but simply because it was the way believers functioned properly as churches. We see for instance in Acts 2:46-47 that while they were meeting in houses, they were also “having favour with all the people.” In fact, there was no empire-wide persecution of the church until the Roman emperor Decius in 250 AD (followed by Gallus, 251-253 AD, then Valentine, 257-259 AD, and finally Diocletian, 303-311 AD). The Roman officials themselves often intervened to protect Christians from persecution, even by unbelieving Jews (Acts 16:35; 17:6-9; 18:12-16; 19:37-38; 23:29; 25:18-20, 24-27; 26:31-32). So persecution wasn’t always an issue, and even when it did break out, meeting in houses did not keep Saul from knowing where to go to arrest believers (Acts 8:3). Where Christians did at times in history have to respond to persecution by literally meeting underground, this, too, happened in smaller, home-sized congregations. So where the Jews had synagogues and the Gentiles had their temples, Christianity did not need any special building for the church to meet in. But when the Roman emperor Constantine became a ‘Christian’ and made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire, he ordered the construction of 19 Christian buildings in 327 AD, known as basilicas, which were the most popular style of the time (basilica literally means ‘royal hall’). Until then religious buildings were seen as shrines. These were constructed in three places, namely one in Bethlehem and two in Jerusalem (for Christ’s birth, crucifixion and resurrection), nine in the city of Constantinople, and seven in the city of Rome, and initially had no pews. In Constantinople, the new capital built on the site of the old Byzantium, these buildings were primarily built for this brand new city in the east. This city also had many pagan temples, each named after a god or a goddess. Constantine similarly ordered that each one of these nine Christian buildings be named after first century saints. (He also gave Greek pagan names such as Eirene, meaning ‘Peace,’ and Sophia, meaning ‘Wisdom,’ to some of the other ‘church buildings’ there, although pagan worship was not recorded in the new city of Constantinople.). One of the seven Christian buildings constructed in Rome that year was a shrine placed on the side of a hill just outside the city walls of which the slope of the hill was called Vaticanus…(Saint Peter’s basilica in Rome was established as the seat of the ‘bishop’ of Rome, who later became the ‘pope’ of what is today known as the Roman Catholic Church, or Western Church. The structure’s basilican form, rebuilt in the sixteenth century, became important as a model for later ‘church buildings.’ Many of the features in Constantine’s ‘Christian basilicas’ were copied from pagan basilicas.) These buildings later came to be known as ‘churches,’ and were constructed throughout the empire, with no new pagan temples being built or repaired. Existing pagan temples were also later transformed into cathedrals, and in addition to those built, were handed over to the ‘bishops’ who by now had developed into powerful church leaders. This happened by government decree, and believers were driven out of their house meetings into these large basilicas. Even then many still
met in homes, especially since that was what they knew church to be. Then, just over half a century later, in 380 AD, ‘bishops’ Theodosius and Gratian ordered that there should be only one state-recognised orthodox church, and one set of faith the orthodox dogma. Each Roman citizen was, to put it lightly, forced to be a member and was made to believe in the ‘lex fidei,’ the law of faith. Other groups and movements-including those meeting in homes were forbidden. This led to many Christians over time wrongly believing that God dwells in a special way in ‘church buildings’ (similar to the Jews who considered God to physically dwell in the temple before it was destroyed in 70 AD). This later even led to the church proudly establishing graveyards close by the ‘holy church buildings,’ where people felt their mortal remains would be safe from the monsters and dragons of the deep. So historically we see that there is no evidence of meeting places larger than homes before Constantine, nor is there any literary or archaeological indication that any such homes were converted into church buildings. The reality is that everything in the New Testament was written for a home-sized church, where ideal church life and church meetings take place in a smaller, family-like setting in the homes of church members conducive to the kind of intimate table fellowship demanded by the Lord’s Supper.