Guest Blogger: What God is doing among the body in our area
I’ve invited people to write “guest blog posts” for this blog. There are several reasons for this: 1) To offer different perspectives. 2) To generate even more discussion and conversation between blogs. 3) To introduce other bloggers to my readers.
(If you are interested in writing a guest blog post, please contact me at aknox[at]sebts[dot]com.)
Today’s post was written by Dan House. You can connect with Dan via his blog or Twitter (@dan_house73).
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What God is doing among the body in our area
I desire to continually stay open to finding and meeting brothers in Christ as the Spirit leads. I feel directed to tell you about what Christ has been doing here in Concord NC. There are 3 loosely associated gatherings here in Concord. One meets in the home my family and I live in and another meets about 2 miles away and another about 10 miles away. They all are gatherings that take place in homes.
I can only give you a snap shot of what I have been told and experienced along this path that Christ has us on. I will go back to 13 years ago when a couple of brothers from a large church in the area began asking questions about what they saw in the New Testament about Church. They eventually were asked to stop asking questions and to fall in line and get with the program or leave. Division was not the heart of these brothers so they changed there behavior and tried to bring unity. They quit asking questions and simply fell in line, but it seemed that was not good enough and they were eventually asked to leave.
They began meeting together asking questions and digging for truth. People were added and the group that was assembling faced many issues. The Holy Spirit did much. As you must already know body life is messy, but rewarding. I came in contact with a brother from this body’s assembly at a homeschool soccer game. The church that my family and I attended was ending. When the church added a permanent pastor it made a turn toward the end. I stayed till the church shut down.
This church’s planting and ending, caused me to have many questions. I began reading and digging for truth for the first time in my life. I began reading the bible, books by Watchman Nee, Frank Viola, and T. Austin Sparks. I began reading many blogs as well. I also began meeting with my new found friend and his friends for breakfast. When it became apparent that God was establishing another gathering we began meeting together. My new found brothers began to encourage us to keep pursuing.
The body here in Concord is not without a head pastor; our Head is Christ! We are not Fatherless, we have God as our father, but we have not seen fathers among us. We are looking for fathers in the faith. I am not saying that there are not fathers in the faith here in the area; there may be but, we have not made contact yet.
Well, I guess this is all I am able to write right now! I pray that you see my heart and not my inability to express my heart with words on page.
Thank you Alan for sharing the e-mail I sent to you. I look fwd to hearing other peoples experiences and feedback. I also look fwd to connecting with new people as the Spirit leads.
Dan
@Dan,
Nicely said, sir. It is refreshing to hear of what our Father is doing elsewhere, and provides a burst of inspiration!
You said something that specifically caught my attention:
“The body here in Concord is not without a head pastor; our Head is Christ! We are not Fatherless, we have God as our father, but we have not seen fathers among us. We are looking for fathers in the faith. I am not saying that there are not fathers in the faith here in the area; there may be but, we have not made contact yet.”
Amen.
As Paul says:
“For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel.” 1 Corinthians 4:15 NAS
Ours is a generational faith and has ever been about the relationship between a father and a son, going all the way back to Abraham and Isaac. There is a sore lack, even today, of men who would become as spiritual fathers, as Paul was to Timothy. It goes beyond discipleship. It goes beyond mentoring. It is walking as Paul did with Timothy, and all that this entailed.
The Fatherhood of God and sonship trough The New Covenant of Adoption are at the core of my heart. My spiritual father, Jim McNally, even wrote about it, as it is the message He gave to Jim years ago, of which I am the fruit thereof. See link below.
http://www.amazon.com/Sonship-The-Word-Made-Flesh/dp/0615497144/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1344865053&sr=8-1&keywords=sonship+the+word+made+flesh
I say all that to simply say that I was so glad to see you seeking out spiritual fathers, as apparently The Spirit has opened your eyes to the need of such men. Bravo!
Thanks Donald! I am picking up a copy of the book you suggested through Amazon! 🙂
@Daniel,
I’ll let Jim know. When you do read it, let me know, and I’ll give you Jim’s email so you can write him to either thank him, or tell him he’s off-base. 🙂 Not only am I walking this out with Jim right now, and have been for years!, but I have also read his book several times. It is solid, Dan. Jim is deep theologically, but he is so approachable and genuine in his relationship with Christ. He makes it look easy! 🙂
I look fwd to reading the book and I will let you know as soon as I start reading!
Dan,
Thanks for sharing part of your story with us. I’m sorry that I haven’t been available to interact with the comments. I’m glad to see that others took up my slack. 🙂
-Alan
I tried to comment once.. I don’t think it went through, will try again.
Thank you for sharing. We are experiencing the same thing here in leland, NC!! 🙂 Many “loose” gatherings and we keep in contact with each other…. but I do see a lack / void of faith fathers, mentors, elders – whatever you wanna call it. My hubby & I were just talking about. Interesting!! What is God gonna do about that? or what is He asking us to do about it?
🙂
Randi,
I don’t know what happened to your first comment. But, thank you for commenting again!
Perhaps God is raising you and your hubby up to be “fathers” in the faith.
-Alan
Thanks. Perhaps!
parenting these 3 kiddos certainly seems like a great training ground for that.
we’ll see what He has planned! 🙂