Category: Books / Videos

The first half of You Are The Church by Steve Lorch covers the fundamentals of how to study the Bible. The second half explores fellowship, communion, prayer, evangelism, baptism and church leadership. The excerpt below focuses on fellowship. This book is an easy read and highly recommended.

There is perhaps no greater statement regarding Christian fellowship than that which was made by Christ Himself: “For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.” (Matthew 18:20) We are instructed not to “forsake our own assembling together” (Hebrews 10:25) for in some profound, divinely inexplicable way, as we come into the presence of our brethren, we come into the presence of God. However, true Christian fellowship differs greatly from mere social interaction. It is more intentional, genuine, and purposeful. Biblical fellowship is practiced through authentic relationships and service. It is something that must be experienced rather than explained.

Let us be perfectly clear that “going to church on Sunday” is not the Biblical requirement or definition of fellowship. The truth is, fellowship occurs whenever and wherever “two or three have gathered in (His) name.” Size and/or formality have nothing to do with it. When referring to fellowship, the Bible uses the Greek word “koinonia,” meaning “mutual participation, community, and intimacy.” In short, it means sharing life together through mutual encouragement, support, accountability, and service. Consistent fellowship with other believers is a vital and necessary part of our own personal spiritual growth. Fellowship is essential for the building up of the body of Christ and none of us can (nor should) go it alone.

All Christian fellowship should exhibit certain fundamental characteristics if it is to be effective. First, we must be committed to sharing life together in a very real and tangible way. The early Church “who had believed were together and had all things in common; and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need. Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart.” (Acts 2:44-46) We need to ask ourselves the question, “Are these people truly our friends and family?” Do we get together and share meals with each other on a regular basis? Do we share good times, bad times, family moments, or holidays with each other? Would we let each other borrow our money or our most prized possessions? Could we spend a month in each other’s homes if we have to? If any of these questions make us uncomfortable, then we still have some room to grow in our concept of fellowship.

Second, we need to be completely honest with God, with ourselves, and with each other, especially when it comes to our transparent confession of sin. “What we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. These things we write, so that our joy may be made complete. This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:3-9) “Therefore, confess your sins to one another…” (James 5:16) Being open enough to confess our sin to each other requires a great deal of trust. To break that trust is to violate the very body of Christ. There is absolutely no room for gossip of any kind. What is said within the fellowship stays within the fellowship.

Third, Christian fellowship involves sacrificial service to one another. “As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Whoever speaks, is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God; whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.” (1 Peter 4:10-11) “So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.” (Galatians 6:10)

On a final note, there is an appropriate time for us to discontinue fellowship with another believer in the exercise of Church discipline. This is a necessary function within the body of Christ and we cannot afford to be neutral or complacent about it. Church discipline must be conducted Biblically and with a great deal of prayer. Our motivation should always be out of love, and our goal should always be for the reconciliation of the backslider. The Bible lays down very clear guidelines for the exercise of Church discipline. Jesus said, “If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.” (Matthew 18:15-17) Paul reinforced this teaching by instructing us “not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a swindler – not even to eat with such a one…Do you not judge those who are within the church?…Remove the wicked man from among yourselves.” (1 Corinthians 5:11- 13) Church discipline is never comfortable, but it does have positive results. When the backslidden brother or sister shows genuine repentance, then we must show them genuine forgiveness and welcome them back into fellowship. “My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.” (James 5:19-20)

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I recently spent some time with David Dyer, author of a book I really enjoyed entitled Let My People Go! You can read an excerpt here. David also completed The Father’s Life, a translation of the New Testament. You can obtain a copy at no cost by requesting it at www.agrainofwheat.com.

(From David Dyer) This version of the New Testament was written to clarify an essential truth of the gospel message. This is the concept of eternal life. Many, if not most believers, think that receiving eternal life means that their human life has now been extended forever. This, however, is not true.

Much misunderstanding about this important truth comes from the inadequate translation of the word “life” in the New Testament. While in English we have one word “life” which encompasses a vast spectrum of meaning, the ancient Greek is much more specific. They used at least three words.

One of their words “BIOS” essentially means biological/physical life. The second word “PSUCHÊ” refers to our soul life or psychological life. The third word “ZOE” was chosen by the writers of the New Testament to refer to the uncreated life of God.

When we believe into Jesus, it is this ever-existing life which is born into us. We are actually “born of God” (John 1:12) and become his sons and daughters. What the new birth is not is our old soul-life receiving permission to live forever. Instead, it is the life of a Divine being (God
himself) being implanted within our human spirit (John 3:6). So we see that gaining “eternal life” is actually getting the life of an eternal being which comes to live within us. It is not our own life living forever.

So this translation of the New Testament was undertaken to try to clarify this truth for the benefit of all believers in Jesus Christ. As you might imagine, this truth has many ramifications and benefits which this translation also attempts to convey in a clear way.

(From John 5) “Furthermore, the Father doesn’t judge anyone, but he has committed all judgment to the Son so that everyone will honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who doesn’t revere the Son doesn’t honor the Father who sent him.

“Truly, truly I say to you, he who hears my word and is believing the One who sent me has the Father’s eternal life and will not receive the sentence of condemnation, but has crossed over from death into the Father’s immortal life.

“Truly, truly I say to you, the hour is coming and, in fact, has now come, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who understand it will receive God’s life. For as the Father has his life in himself, even so also he granted to the Son to have this same life in himself.

“Furthermore, he gave him authority to execute judgment because he is a son of man. Don’t be astonished at this because the time is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and will come out: those who have done good to the resurrection of the Father’s life, and those who lived a careless life to the resurrection of judgment. “I am able to do nothing which originates with myself. As I hear from the Father, I judge, and my judgment is righteous because I don’t seek my own will but the will of him who sent me.

(From 1 Corinthians 14) If then the whole group of called-out ones is assembled together and everyone speaks with an unknown language and some people who are uneducated or unbelieving come in, won’t they say that you are crazy? But if everyone prophesies and someone unbelieving or uneducated enters, he is reproved by all and he is judged by all since the secrets of his heart are being revealed. And so he will fall down on his face and worship God, declaring that God is certainly among you.

What is the proper way to conduct your meetings then, brethren? When you come together, each one has a psalm; has a teaching; has a revelation; has a message in an unknown language; has an interpretation. Let everything be done for building up the others.

If anyone speaks in an unknown language, it should be done by two, or at the most three people, with each taking their turn. And someone should interpret. But if there is no interpreter, let him keep quiet in the gathering of the called-out ones. Let him speak to himself and to God.

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This is the second excerpt from the manuscript of Leland Yialesis.

For more than 1500 years Christians have been taught that the purpose of gathering together as Christians was for the experience of worship, specifically to worship as a group congregational worship. But after 1500 years of a congregational worship-based Christianity we find a Christianity that is listless and dying. It has no dynamic with which to challenge the pervasive secularism of the Western industrialized societies and no strength to challenge and change the non-western world. If Christianity is ever to recapture the dynamism that it had during its early years as recorded in the New Testament, the first thing that must be abandoned is the pursuit of worship as the primary purpose of Christian gatherings. Worship is, and must always remain, a byproduct of the encounter between a person and the Divine. It may be that a person will experience that encounter with the Divine and worship while in the assembly of Christians (note I Cor. 14:23-25), but that is an experience that is incidental to the gathering. As the family gathering at the supper table is not primarily to be a tour de force of haute cuisine, but is there primarily for the purpose of providing necessary nourishment to each of the members that has gathered around the family table. So, the gathering of Christians is for the purpose of providing spiritual nourishment for each of the members that has gathered.

It is exactly this confusion of primary and secondary purposes that has resulted in the insipid Christianity present in the world today. Christians in the New Testament gathered for the express purpose of building one another up in the faith and in the experience of becoming the body of Christ. They saw one another as members of that common body and each of them needed to give and receive to be built up “in the unity of the common faith and common knowledge of the Son of God,” (Eph. 4:13 Phillips) until they arrived at real Christian maturity. They gathered as the community of faith and to be the community of the faithful. Worship is no more the goal of Christian community than patriotism is the goal of a school board meeting, or a townhall meeting. At the end of the school board or townhall meeting one may have a strengthened sense of patriotism because of the experience of the shared responsibility of governance, but the problem of the leaking school roof had better have been solved, or a solution found to the problem of collecting the garbage, or fixing the roads. Otherwise, no matter how strong the patriotic feelings were, the school and the town are in trouble. So, it is with the Christian gathering. Strong spiritual feelings, even the experience of worship, may have been experienced during the gathering, but if each of the members of the body of Christ has not been built up, has not experienced growth in the faith and in the knowledge of Christ, has not had the experience of sharing and of receiving, if there has been no experience of genuine community and the fellowship that community brings, and most importantly of loving and being loved during the process of building one another up in the faith, then Christ has not been honored and the meeting has failed.

Much, if not all, that has gone wrong with Christianity during the last 1500 years can be attributed to the primary emphasis that has been placed on worship as a necessary, ritualized experience for the Christian community. This emphasis on worship, which is primarily an emotional reaction of the individual spiritual experience, has fed and continues to feed the failure of the church to be that dynamic source of Christian strength in the world. The entire emphasis on congregational worship that lies at the very center of the weekly life of the church is built its foundations on the sands of tradition and not on the sound bedrock of New Testament teachings. Nowhere in the New Testament is there even one reference to Christians assembling for the purpose of worshipping, either individually or as a group. Nowhere does Jesus enjoin the experience of worship as a goal of Christian fellowship. Nowhere in Acts or in any of the Epistles, do the Apostles call Christians to gather for the express purpose of worshipping. Congregational worship, as the express purpose for gathering, was not a part of the life of the Christian church in the New Testament. Tradition has overthrown the primary purpose of the Christian community, which is to build up one another and reach out to others through God’s ‘agape’ love. As D. Bonhoeffer says in ‘ The cost of discipleship’, “The real trouble is that the pure word of Jesus has been overlaid with so much human ballast – burdensome rules and regulations, false hopes and consolations – that it has become extremely difficult to make a genuine decision for Christ.” Christianity is profoundly simple yet we have made it abjectly complicated.

You can find our more about Leland here.https://substack.com/home/post/p-161586461

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The excerpt below is from a manuscript by Leland Yialelsis. It is one of the best works on relational gatherings I have read and it is highly recommended. If you are interested in understanding the heart of why gatherings are so important, you should put this one on the top of your list. This hasn’t been published and Leland is offering his manuscript free. The link is at the bottom.

The local ekleesia, as the community of Christ, becomes the place where each member finds the friendship and fellowship each human so longs for. In this community there are no lonely people. In this community there are no empty hearts. In this community there are none longing for the human touch. In this community the fellowship creates the friendship. The community is strong enough to recognize that there will be struggles and there will be times when conflicts arise. But in this community the commitment of the members is first rooted in their commitment to their Lord Jesus and then to one another. So, when a conflict arises it is worked through and becomes a building block of that genuine fellowship rather than an element that divides and destroys. This is a true community because fellowship exists because each individual is uniquely important and is considered so by the others. The fellowship is strong because each is an equal with the others. Real fellowship exists because none feels superior and none feels inferior. Real fellowship exists because each has had the opportunity to give something to the community, to the others, and each has received something. The fellowship exists because the fellowship itself is understood to be central to the very life of the community. There is nothing that takes precedence over the creation of true and genuine fellowship. There are no rituals that are more important than the interaction of the members. There is no physical thing, whether it is a building, the furnishings, the land, or the architecture that is more important than the fellowship itself. The fellowship experienced within, and because of, the wider context of the community exists as a center of hope. There is the shared belief that not only has the good news of Christ’s redeeming grace touched each of their lives but that He will take the next grand step in the great plan of God and bring the Kingdom of God into living reality on this earth. The fellowship celebrates their faith in the Power that has restored them as individuals and has made them members of the Kingdom of Heaven. They celebrate their faith that Christ will one day vanquish the present Prince of Darkness now bringing suffering to this world and the Kingdom of Heaven will exist in reality and not only as the “blessed hope”. But the fellowship exists, the community exists, because here in this circle each finds an experience that exists nowhere else on earth. Here each member gives and receives love like it is given and experienced nowhere else. Here, because this is the community of grace, it is the community of Love! Love is the ultimate expression of the experience of community. It is the power that makes this community unique. It is the reality that makes this community radical. Love is the force that makes this community a threat to the world about it. It is the love that makes this community totally and truly Christian.

The local ekleesia can function as a community, as the very body of Christ because it has accepted and follows His same material values. It, like Him, has no place to lay its head. It is focussed on the Kingdom to come and not on the pursuit of earthly riches. Because it is a truly spiritual community it expends no energy on things. All of its energy is expended on its members and on others within its circle of influence who have real need. It is a community that does not “talk” love. It is a community that lives love and puts its “money” where its mouth is. The resources of the community are used for people, for service, to build the fellowship. This community understands the words of Jesus to Pilate that His kingdom was not (and still is not) of this world. The local ekleesia is the community of Christ because it loves as He loved. The local ekleesia gathers for the primary purpose of giving each member an opportunity to share with the other members and to receive from the other members.

One very significant difference between the church and the ekleesia is, when, and, for what purpose, the members are expected to use the gifts of the Spirit. In the church the members are expected to use their spiritual gifts during the times when the members are scattered in their homes and away from the church. They are expected to use their spiritual gifts for the purpose of evangelization, “soul winning”. It is amazing that such a strange idea would persist for so long. Why would anyone think that the members of the body would function best when the members are all scattered and then function least when they are all gathered in the church? Yet this is the odd teaching that exists within the theology of the church today. In the ekleesia it is exactly the reverse. Each member of the community of the ekleesia understands that the gifts given to each by the Spirit are most helpful to the “body of Christ” when that “body” is gathered together. It is when all the “members”, each with their special gift, come together that the exercise of the gifts becomes most important. The gifts are there to help the community be the body of Christ and are intended for the building up of the body. Notice Paul’s advice to the Corinthians, “When you assemble, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification.” 14:26 and “For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all may be exhorted;” V. 31. In the ekleesia it is understood that the exercise of the gifts given by the Spirit when the members of the community gather is what makes them all a “body”. “Each of you” (the literal translation of the Greek) has something to share, be it a song, a story, an experience, a lesson drawn from life, with the others that are there. There are no silent, inactive, passive, observers in the community of the ekleesia. It is the unique blending of each of the gifts at the time of the gathering of the members that contributes to the “edification” of all. Note again Paul’s advice to the Ephesians, “… Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.” Ephesians 4:15,16. The essence and the purpose of the gatherings of the community is the opportunity for “Every joint” and “the proper working of each individual part” to function so that the “body” can “build” itself in love.

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If you attended church you most likely never had the opportunity to administer communion. So what happens when you’re part of a relational gathering and the topic of taking communion arises. Robert Schmidt’s short book (70 pages) The Bridal Banquet – Holy Communion for House Churches and Small Groups has a chapter devoted on how to administer communion. The first excerpt below is from a chapter about Banquet Gifts, where each gift is compared to a precious gem. The second excerpt is a section from his Conclusion. If you struggle with how, why or if it’s even necessary to have communion you should grab this book.

The Opal – The Gift of Community

Opals are unique. They are not all of one color; some are predominantly white, others black, but all contain a variety of hues. Yet, they are all within one jewel. As the stone is turned the different colors come through creating an enchanting whole. That is how a group of communicants must look like to God. Ginger, the new mother, carries her babe. Oscar, the judge, kneels next to her. There is Yung from China next to Devon, the punk rock fan. In this community there are farmers, shopkeepers, a physician, and three eighth graders. Just think to what sins they confessed; imagine what life will hold for them this next week. Yet, here they are together, one body of Christ.

If this is a wonder in a local gathering, think what it is like in the YMCA hostel in Hong Kong where some Christians from around the world have come as tourists, businessmen, designers, and government officials. Prayer was announced for eight in the morning, and communion was offered for those who were interested. Before they began they were to introduce themselves. A Ghanian, two from Shanghai, a British diplomat, a German engineer on his way inland, and a variety of soccer players greeted each other. From the ends of the earth God’s children came together as a single community in the Lord’s Supper. Nationalities are submerged for a time as God makes them a single people, unified for a moment, and with a memory of a time when all are one in Christ.

A CHANGE IN COMMUNION practices toward a more biblical model can have profound consequences to the church and in the world. By blessing lay people without a professional theological education to administer Holy Communion, churches are free from the necessity to raise money to support the church. Any group of Christians can be the church without funds for the support of clergy at that place. The church is also free from the necessity of paying for the construction and upkeep of a building in a missionary setting. Furthermore, when gathered as a small group with locally administered communion, more contributions can be used for helping the vulnerable.

With approximately 45,000 Christian denominations in the world, moves toward greater Christian unity are very important. In the past some new denominations were formed to bring about this unity. International organizations like the World Council of Churches and the World Evangelical Alliance have sought to be umbrella organizations fostering greater cooperation. At the local level Bible study fellowships have often brought together people from different traditions. However, without communion uniting these people into one church, they usually identify themselves with the church from which they came. Now, however, in a house church, with both the teaching and sharing of the word of God and the celebration of communion, the movement toward greater Christian unity takes gigantic leap forward. Since that local community is already made up of people from different denominations, hopefully they will be the first to recognize the totality of the Christian church on earth.

With Holy Communion at the very center of their efforts, some groups can devote themselves to specific prophetic works of radically addressing some social problems as did the Hebrew prophets or Christ himself. Without depending upon financial contributions to support their ministry, such groups are free to address the inequality of wealth, the sins of nationalism, and specifics of environmental destruction. Other small, sometimes ad hoc communities can devote their efforts to special needs in healthcare, education, refugee relief, housing, and other struggles. In the past, centered in the Eucharist, Roman Catholic monasteries and nunneries were able carry out some of these ministries. Now with Holy Communion again as the inspiring and equipping center of their activities, groups made up of lay people from a variety of backgrounds can join to accomplish some significant ministries.

The Lord’s Supper was instituted by Christ to create a new covenant with sinners, redeemed and forgiven by Christ. Joined together both by their sin and their salvation, Holy Communion was designed to bring people together to carry out their ministries as part of the very body of Christ. In the past, communion has divided God’s people across the centuries. Now, can it be celebrated to unite us?

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The excerpt below is from Beyond Church by Steve Simms. It’s an easy read, highlighting the meaning and purpose of ekklesia, with emphasis on practical guidelines on how to do life together.

“He (Jesus Christ) is the head of the body, the ekklesia; He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything He might have the supremacy.” Colossians 1:18

As we have seen, the key to ekklesia is supernatural revelation from God – this is the rock that Jesus refers to in Matthew 16. To move beyond church and into the experience of ekklesia, we need to continually cultivate and create an environment where people can experience God’s revelation and then freely share what God has shown them.

The transformation from church into God’s glorious ekklesia is gradual – “from glory to glory” – step by step. It is a process of coming out of our comfort zones and out of our worldly methods of human organization and control. It is also the ever increasing movement into and submission to God’s light – His supernatural revelation.

However, too often we have settled into familiarity and tradition and have camped out there, not wanting to grow forward with the living God. We have acted like the rebellious Israelites in the desert who didn’t want to move forward when God wanted them to follow His cloud by day and fire by night. Together these two quotes help to make that point:

“Ekklesia is a compound Greek term. The prepositional prefix ek means out and kales means to call, thus the compound word means called out or a called-out group or an assembly.” – Sujit Mani

“There is no such thing as a call from God that is not a call out of the world. The church is ekklesia. In the divine intention there is no klesia which lacks the ek.” – Watchman Nee

So how can we answer God’s call out of our comfort zones? It is not easy. Jesus put it this way: “Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Me.'” – Matthew 16:24

To experience ekklesia, we have to deny ourselves. To deny self doesn’t mean to defeat yourself. Many people deny God, but they don’t defeat Him. No. To deny yourself means to ignore yourself – to set aside your own feelings and desires and to flow with God instead, whether to or not.

To take up your cross means to freely embrace your own execution your own death. It moves beyond ignoring your emotions and desires for a little while and into freely accepting the death of your feelings and desires.

Follow Me means much more than making a mental ascent to the doctrinal truths about Christ. It means to literally follow and obey His present day promptings, leadings, and/or nudgings in your heart, whether you want to or not. It also means to obey and be faithful to the commands in the Bible and not to your own will.

Ekklesia requires us to follow Jesus not just with our verbal allegiance, but also in the way that we live our day to day lives. Jesus said: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; He can do only what He sees His Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.” – John 5:19

In order to experience ekklesia, we need to follow Jesus in the same way that He followed the Father being continually aware of His will and obeying His will instead of our own. That’s why ekklesia requires revelation. It is easy to follow our own agendas and programs. We need the Holy Spirit to show us where we are stuck on our own way.

John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus, told us how to “prepare the way of the Lord.” John the Baptist said: “He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30) That’s why James, the half-brother of Jesus said: “God opposes the proud, but shows favor to the humble.” (James 4:6)

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This is the second excerpt from Bob Emery’s encouraging book Called to Rebuild. You can read a description and check out the first excerpt here. Want more information about Bob, click here. The excerpt below has been edited.

The question that many people wrestle with is, if it’s God’s eternal purpose and his intense desire to see the church shining like a bright lampstand, lifting up Jesus for the world to see, then why can it be such an arduous, grueling challenge to find and be a part of such a church? After all, if we’re clear on what God is after, and if we’ve committed our hearts to him, then getting there from where we are, with his help, should be a simple, straight shot, right? Maybe a few bends and turns in the road, but since we have the roadmap, possibly in a few weeks, or months, or even a year, we should be having the kind of church experience that God has always wanted for us to have, right?

Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work out that way.

Praise God, however, for the current move of his Spirit we are beginning to see in this country. Praise God that he continues to touch people’s lives. Praise God for the revolutionaries Barna has identified who are not satisfied with the status quo and are doing something about it. Praise God for those who are seeking, questioning, and leaving the captivity of dead institutions in search of something more.

But the question needs to be raised: where is this search for something more leading people? As I pointed out at the beginning of this book, Barna’s findings indicate that if you love the Lord and are searching for something more, and you do take that step to leave the institutional church, you’ll probably find yourself in one of several situations. If you are fortunate, you’ll find some other like-minded souls who are also interested in trying to figure out what this thing called “church” is really supposed to be that you can fellowship with. Maybe you’ll find a house church or home group fellowship. Or, maybe you’ll get involved, as many do, in some virtual, online church, or a family unit fellowship in order to find more fulfillment in the Christian experience.

All of these things can play a part in the recovery of what God wants to bring about among his people, but do any of them, by themselves, fully restore the church to its original intention? We’ve looked at what God wanted to do in restoring his people from their captivity in the Old Testament. All of this was a picture for us, a roadmap as it were, for how we might look to the Lord and the Scriptures for guidance out of the current fallen situation of Christianity today and reunite with the heart and eternal of God to restore the church to what he has always intended for purpose it to be.

Though there is the aspect of the church that is universal-comprising all the members of the body of Christ-we see clearly throughout the New Testament writings, and especially from the first chapter of Revelation, that the church is also local. God saw a lampstand in each of the seven cities of Asia to whom this letter containing the Revelation was sent. He saw a lampstand in Ephesus, in Smyrna, in Pergamum, in Thyatira, in Sardis, in Philadelphia, and in Laodicea.

So, the restoration of the church has a very practical and local application. God wants to have a bright, shining lampstand where Christ is exalted in every place. In order to have that, we need to seek God and make ourselves available to him to use us to help restore local expressions of the church.

It’s seeing God restore the church to what it ought to be, in your location; in the place in which you live! This is a challenge! This is a high calling. It may even seem like an impossible calling, but should that be surprising? If you’ll remember, that’s the same way the remnant felt when they were faced with rebuilding the temple in their day. To go this route, it will take a commitment by a group of people to Christ and to others with a common vision. And it will take time. But who ever said it was going to be easy?

There are no pat and easy answers for those desiring to see and be a part of the restoration of God’s house and want to know: How do we start? Where do we go? What do we do? Who can help us? How can we find others in our location with the same heart?

The most solid recommendation I can give you would be that if anything in this book has touched or challenged you, begin by bringing those things to the Lord yourself and asking him to make them real in your life. Then seek out others to fellowship with, with whom you can share and discuss what God is showing you. Ask him to lead you to others with whom you can pray and seek the Lord together about these things.

Beyond that, be assured that there are many others out there who are asking the same questions. There are even websites out there dedicated to networking and linking like-minded Christians together who have a heart for the house of God and the things discussed in this book. Some even have directories where you can find other believers with similar interests in your area.

God is sovereign. He has always been the initiator. He is the one who will prepare and raise up the Zerubbabels of today who he will use to guide and lead others in the way of restoration. He is also the one who will gather the people and form the new wineskins that will contain the new wine he wants to pour out when old structures become too rigid and hardened (Mark 2: 21,22).

From beginning to end, the work of restoration is God’s work. But as we have seen, it is also a work that not all of God’s people will choose to be part of. Throughout the generations, he has had his remnant. In the end. he will get all the glory. God’s work begins, continues, and will find its completion as Jesus is exalted, revealed, and made manifest. He is the head of his church, which is his body.

The challenge, therefore, remains for the remnant of this generation. Are you one of those who see the condition of the church today in much the same way as the people of God in the Babylonian captivity saw the house of God in Jerusalem lying in waste more than 2,500 years ago? Are you one of those willing to do something about it?

God has given us the story of Ezra and the other books of the Bible concerning the returning remnant to encourage us and to show us the way back. May those of you who have read this book not only hear the call to rebuild as loudly and as clearly as they did in the days when Cyrus issued his proclamation and invitation, but may you be like those whose spirits were stirred up and join with others to act in response to that call.

“Whoever there is among you of all His people, may his God be with him! Let him go up to Jerusalem which is in Judah and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel.”
EZRA 1:3

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Called to Rebuild is another great book from Bob Emery. Bob compares the remnant, that returned to Jerusalem after 70 years in captivity, to today’s remnant who have a heart to rebuild and see the true church restored. This is the first of two excerpts. Want more information about Bob, click here. You can read the second excerpt here.

Another reason the building stopped was that the people had come to the conclusion that the task God had called them to was utterly impossible. Haggai 1:7, 8 reads, “Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘Consider your ways!’ ‘Go up to the mountains, bring wood and rebuild the temple, that I may be pleased with it and be glorified.’ says the Lord.”

As we step back and try to put the rebuilding of the temple in perspective by looking at it from the point of view of those who returned, we can easily see that the remnant could have had the overwhelming sense that what God had called them to do was just beyond their capacity to perform. God had not just called them to return to Jerusalem to build a temple, but they were called to rebuild Solomon’s temple. We read in 1 Kings chapter five that when Solomon built his temple, it took almost 185,000 laborers seven years to complete it and another 13 years to finish the royal palace and surrounding buildings. That doesn’t even take into account all the effort and expense David put into gathering all the materials, drawing up the plans, and getting everything ready before Solomon began.

By contrast, look at the remnant. They were only about 50,000 in number. They had been in captivity. They didn’t have the special tools, skills, or experience to do such a work. There were significantly less people involved in the work, fewer resources, and enemies all around harassing them and trying to get them to stop. And when they compared what they were doing with the former glory of Solomon’s temple and were told “to go up to the mountains and bring wood and build the temple,” their reaction was probably, “Yea, right!”

But is it any different today? Doesn’t living the Christian life or trying to recover a first-century type church experience sometimes seem just as impossible as the task of rebuilding Solomon’s temple must have seemed to the remnant?

The fact is that the Christian life is a life that is impossible to live. There is only one person in the universe capable of living it, and that is Jesus Christ himself. Consider these standards of Christian living:

-When your enemy strikes you turn the other cheek.
-Give thanks in all things.
-Be perfect as your father in heaven is perfect.
-Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church.
-Wives submit to your husbands.
-Be angry, but don’t sin.

When people reach the point that they really see that what God is calling them to do is something that is impossible and unattainable, they usually respond in one of two ways. First, they might try harder. Those are the ones who think that if they resolve to pray more, fast more, give more, study more, go to more meetings, or join more committees that they might just be able to do all that God is asking of them. The second choice is to conclude that since what is being required is impossible, why not just stand back and let God do it all? Just quit, give up, withdraw from any Christian activity and just wait for God to supernaturally show up. Many people come to this point and conclude that the Christian life just doesn’t work. In the case of the remnant, some may have concluded that the same God who said, “Let there be light,” and there was light, could also say, “Let there be a temple,” and there would be a temple! In principle, the second response for what to do in the face of an impossible task is probably closer to the answer than the first, but it can also lead to stagnation or doing nothing, which it did in their case. It took the prophet Zechariah to reveal the principle by which God works in relation to his people and put things in the proper perspective:

This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel saying, ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts. “What are you great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become a plain; and he will bring forth the top stone with shouts of ‘Grace, grace to it!’ Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying: “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this temple; his hands shall also finish it.”
ZECHARIAH 4:6-9

If we read this carefully, we will see that the problem of removing the mountain (the seemingly impossible task of completing and rebuilding the temple) would be accomplished by the Spirit. But immediately after reading that, we see that it would also be accomplished through the hand of Zerubbabel. God doesn’t expect us to overcome any impossible problem by ourselves. But neither is he going to do it all by himself without our participation. God will work, but he also wants to work with us. God’s work is a work by the Spirit, using our hands.

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This is a bit different for me. I just finished The Book of Acts by Dr. Russell Welch. Dr. Welch argues that Acts is a blueprint for what the church should look like, not just a history book. However, if you are looking for how these truths get integrated into relational gatherings in practical ways, it falls a bit short. I decided not to post an excerpt from his book but I am posting this awesome article I found about children being participants in relational gatherings.

The house church is a womb for generational blessing, where spiritual inheritance is passed not through programs, but through presence. Keeping children with their parents under the same Word is a divine safeguard. Proverbs 22:6 commands us to “train up a child in the way he should go,” not outsource that training to systems that may not carry the heart of the Father.

In the house church, children are not exposed to worldly corruption or spiritual abuse – they are covered. Psalm 91:4 declares, “His truth shall be your shield and buckler.” The Word becomes a fortress around the family, guarding hearts and minds from the schemes of the enemy.

The enemy has long targeted children – through Pharaoh, through Herod, and now through modern culture. But God is raising up homes like Goshen, places of protection and glory. In Exodus 12, the blood was applied to the doorposts of homes – not temples – and the angel of death passed over.

Today, the house church is a place where the blood of Jesus is honored, and the enemy cannot trespass. It is a place where healing flows, identity is restored, and trauma is broken off by the power of the Cross.

Sexual abuse and manipulation often thrive in environments where children are isolated, silenced, or treated as second-class. But in the house church, they are seen, heard, and valued. Jesus placed a child in the midst of His disciples and said, “Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me” (Matthew 18:5).

This is not sentiment – it’s strategy. When children are honored in the Spirit, the enemy loses his grip. The house church becomes a place of safety, not secrecy.

Fellowship as a family is not just beautiful – it’s powerful. Psalm 133 says, “Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brethren dwell together in unity… for there the Lord commands the blessing.”

That blessing flows through generations when families are knit together in Christ. The house church is not a downgrade – it’s an upgrade. It is where the oil of intimacy flows, where sons and daughters prophesy, and where the Spirit of Elijah prepares the way for the Lord.

Let us reject the spirit of religion and embrace the Spirit of adoption (Romans 8:15). Let us build homes that host His glory, raise up warriors from the womb, and disciple not just individuals – but entire households.

As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord (Joshua 24:15). The house church is not just a model – it’s a movement. And it’s time to gather the family, apply the Word, and watch heaven invade our homes.

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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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