A Panic Attack Leads to Sharing the Gospel… by the one having the panic attack
A friend of ours had to to go to the dentist. While in the chair, she started having a panic attack. One of the things that she did in response was to send a text to her husband.
Her husband sent a text to several people telling them what was going on.
One of the woman’s friends got the text and went to the dentist’s office. She told the receptionist what happened, and eventually was led into the room with the woman had been having a panic attack.
By the time the friend arrive, God had calmed the woman down, and she was no longer having a panic attack. However, the friend stayed with her a few minutes to comfort her and encourage her.
When the friend left, the dental hygienist asked about the visit. This gave the woman an opportunity to explain about her relationship with her friend which led to a proclamation of the good news of Jesus Christ.
Because of a panic attack… It’s so awesome to see God work through (and in spite of) the brokenness in our lives when we submit it to him.
Why is it so difficult to find organic church life?
In my post “People want real examples of organic church life,” I linked to a post by Dan at “Cerulean Sanctum” called “Is organic house church a myth?” In that post, Dan expressed his frustration at not being able to find “organic house church” in his city like he sees described in Frank Viola’s books.
In this post, I’m going to try to answer the question, “Why is it so difficult to find organic church life?” I need to point out a few things before I start. First, this post is not directly related to Dan’s post. That is, I am not responding to Dan’s search for organic house church. I do not know how he looked or who he talked with. So, this post will not be specifically about his search.
Second, I’m using the phrase “organic church life” instead of the phrases “organic church,” “house church,” or “simple church” or any combination. And, I’m using the phrase “organic church life” for a very specific reason. When I write about “organic church life,” I’m not talking about a certain church gathering, or a certain type of meeting, or a certain group of believers, or a certain method of organizing (or not organizing). Instead, I’m talking about believers sharing their lives with one another as they also share life in Jesus Christ.
As we think about my second point, we can also begin to understand why this “organic church life” may be difficult to find. It is not a place, or an event, or even a group that we can point to. It is a way of life. There are people who meet together only in homes who share organic church life in Jesus Christ. There are also people who meet together only in homes who do not share organic church life. In the same way, people can meet in church buildings and share organic church life (or not).
A group may have a specific weekly meeting (or more than one) and share this kind of life in Christ. Or, they may not have a regular weekly meeting. Then again, a group may have a weekly meeting (or even meet together more often) and yet not share their lives with one another in Jesus Christ.
When these groups do get together, it is relational not structural. Thus, as the relationships change or the people involved change, then the group will change as well. It is fluid and dynamic.
The group that meets together today may be completely different than the group that met together last year (or month) and may be completely different than the group that will meet together next year (or month). This does not mean that the group collapsed or fizzled out or ended or anything else that we might use to describe the end of a more organized or structured group.
Also, even when a group such as this is sharing life together in our own neighborhood, we may never notice it. It can be hard to point to and even to distinguish from overlapping or tangential groups. There may not be a sign, a website, a corporation, a yellow pages entry, or any other traditional identifying marker.
These groups (if they are sharing life in Christ) will also be serving others, but that service may not be directed toward the person looking for a group such as this. So, while we can often recognize organic church life because the people are serving others together, their service may not always be readily apparent.
So, what do we do? We want to find organic church life, but it’s difficult to find (for the reasons listed above as well as many other reasons). Do we just give up? No.
We begin sharing our own lives (in Christ) with the people that God has already brought into our life. Some will push us away. Fine. We cannot control how other people respond to us. Others, however, will also be longing for this kind of fellowship in the Spirit. And, as we find these people, we begin to grow and serve and disciple and encourage and share and give and teach and eat and learn and admonish and pray and hope together.
This is organic church life. It is within us. And, we can share it with others.
People want real examples of organic church life
A few months ago, I was reading a blog post from someone on the “cutting edge” of the organic church movement – if it’s a movement. The person asked what his readers would like him to write about, and I said, “Right about real life example of what it means to be part of an ‘organic church’ and how it affects things like gathering together, discipleship, giving, evangelism, teaching, etc.” (paraphrase)
Earlier this week, Dan at “Cerulean Sanctum” asked “Is Organic House Church a Myth?” Why would Dan ask that question? Because he sees so few real life examples in his city. He has been reading through some of Frank Viola’s book, and he loves the descriptions that he finds there. But, why can’t he find them in real life?
Dan writes:
I say this because the more I attempt to locate the type of organic/house church that Viola says has been blessing his life for the last few decades, the more it seems like the fabled destination of another famous musical, Brigadoon…
I live just outside a metropolitan area of 2.2 million people that is heavily churched. When Christian pollsters and church resource magazines publish info about influential institutional churches, this area contains a disproportionately large number of them. Which is why I continue to scratch my head at the utter lack in such an area of anything resembling Viola’s ethereal organic church. Hasn’t anyone burned out of those institutional megachurches and fled to the supposed refuge of an organic church?
Reading the testimonials of organic church members included in Viola’s books makes my heart ache. But like so many tales one hears in the American Church today, it seems like those beautiful stories are happening in some hazy, distant place, almost like Narnia, except even harder to find.
I understand much of Dan’s frustration, and many of my readers have shared the same frustrations and difficulties in finding the kind of shared life in Christ that “organic church” books describe.
Now, I know that the type of shared life that Viola (and others) describe exist, because I experience it every day. I also know that this kind of church life can be found among the members of more traditional or institutional churches. However, that doesn’t help others who are seeking fellowship with others in this way. It still seems elusive.
As you can probably tell from my previous paragraph, I’m not interested in some new model of church that is labeled “organic church” as opposed to some other brand or model of church. Instead, I’m interested in brothers and sisters in Christ sharing their lives together in Jesus Christ in such a way that he is able to work through them as he desires – often unorchestrated, unplanned, unrehearsed, and unscripted.
Unfortunately, this kind of life cannot happen (only) in a church gathering… even an “organic church” gathering with open participation. This kind of life happens day in and day out when people spend time together, care about one another, give and help one another, and serve others together.
To be honest, I’ve found this kind of “church” more difficult to locate than “organic church.” There are several websites that list local “organic churches” or “house churches” in your area. However, tacking the label “organic church” or “house church” onto a group – or even meeting in a house or having an open participatory meeting – does not indicate that the people involved actually share their lives with one another.
However, these groups do exist. I’ve communicated with many people who live like this day in and day out with other Christians. I’ve even had a few opportunities to get together with representatives of different groups who gather around our area.
But… I still agree with Dan. This type of church life is difficult to find, and extremely elusive – even where it does exist.
Why do you think it is so difficult to find “organic church life”?
(By the way, I will offer some of my own answers to that question in tomorrow morning’s blog post.)
New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day with the Church
Have you ever heard of a “Watchnight Service” where people read through the entire Bible on New Year’s Eve / New Year’s Day? Yeah? Well, we didn’t do that. (Now, I know there are other kinds of “Watchnight” services. But, that’s the kind I always heard about growing up.)
But, we did get together with the church on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day to read and discuss Scripture, among other things. (Actually, over the weekend we gathered together with the church several times besides the two instances that I described here. But, in this post, I’m going to focus on these two times of gathering.)
As I mentioned in my post “Reading Scripture Together with the Church on New Year’s Eve,” we gathered together on Saturday, New Year’s Eve, with some brothers and sisters to read through the books of Jonah and Mark.
We began gathering together just before 7:00 (7-ish) at the home of some of our friends, and, of course, we immediately began grazing on ham and cheese rolls, meatballs, raw vegetables, several flavors of popcorn, different cheeses, cookies, and other assorted “finger foods.” About half of the people present were brothers and sisters that we gather with weekly. However, there were a few friends and friends of friends who joined us well. A couple that we had never met even drove in from the Outer Banks (NC) to spend the weekend with us (you know who you are!), and we had a great time getting to know them!
Eventually, we started reading together. We read through the book of Jonah (4 chapters) and the first 4 chapters of Mark. Then we took a short 10-15 minutes break for food, stretching, etc. After the first break, we read Mark 5 through Mark 10 and took another short break. Finally, we read Mark 11 through Mark 16. Twenty-one different people read (two people split a chapter), including several children. We also read from different English translations.
We tried to refrain from discussing the Scriptures as we read them, but we found it terribly difficult! We ended up talking a little… but not much.
Then, on Sunday, New Year’s Day, we gathered for our normal weekly meeting. Of course, many of the people who gathered with us Sunday had been present when we read Jonah and Mark together. Others had not been with us when we read together New Year’s Eve.
But, we had decided to discuss the two books on Sunday. So, after singing a few songs – accompanied on guitar by a friend who spend the day with us before returning home to Virginia – we began talking about Jonah followed by a discussion of Mark.
I won’t go into what we discussed. It was extremely encouraging and challenging. I may write something about this later.
As a new friend said to me in an email:
Was Jesus there? Obviously! How do we know? Because the truth was there being spoken, taught, and discussed; because family was there sharing struggles and thanksgivings, and sorrow, bearng one anothers burdens; because the body was there speaking truth in love to build one another up.
This was a great way to spend New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.
Guest Blogger: Why bother with the church?
I’ve invited several 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 John. You can connect with John on Facebook or email him at jnotestein [at] aol [dot] com.
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Why bother with the church?
If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard that, I could gladly report that I am writing this from my beach house in the Bahamas. I hear it from non believers (which I expect), people who have dropped out of church, and even those I worship with on Sunday mornings. The reasons are many, such as the music’s too loud, the music’s too soft, it’s boring, the people are out of touch with life today, all I see are hypocrites there, I need my sleep, I want to catch the pre game show, etc. I’ve even used a few of these excuses and others in my day. But then I asked myself why do we even gather together in the first place?
I grew up eons ago, when families ate dinner together. I didn’t always want to do that either, but I never had a choice. But I can tell you, it helped shape what I think about my family now. My father has been gone for 16 years now, but I can still see him sitting at the head of the table, telling stories or asking us what we were up to (like I was really going to tell him). The point is this: I was a part of something bigger than myself, whether I felt like it or not. The same was true of church. The younger folks may not believe this, but we didn’t always have Children’s Church. Instead, we had to sit in the worship service and be bored to tears. I was busy filling in every ‘O’ and ‘0’ I could find in the bulletin. I learned that if I held my Bible open and rested my head on my Mother’s shoulder, I could sometimes catch a quick nap. When Einstein said the time was relative, I feel he was talking about how a one hour church service could feel like days. But today, I can still recall being there, with lots of old people (probably in the 20’s and higher), from different walks of life and economic backgrounds, all singing ‘old school’ hymns from the Broadman Baptist Hymnal. It wasn’t necessarily what we were doing, but who we were doing it with and who we were doing it for: God.
As I go to worship now, those same thoughts go through my head. If we did everything I wanted to do in church, it would probably be a church of one. But it’s not about me. I know that’s hard to believe for some. We all have needs and we want the church, God, the pastor, or someone to recognize that and take care of them. But at the same time, we don’t want to get to close to anyone (they might want me to actually perform some act of service or something). So how can I get to know other people without spending time with them? The answer is that you can’t.
And you can’t share your life with someone if you not willing to spend time with them. Whether it’s your family, your friends, or fellow believers, it’s all the same. You have to invest yourself into their lives, and that means spending time and energy. Many in our culture today worship the individual, treasure time with themselves, and are busy grabbing all they can from life before someone else gets it. From my experience, Christians are not a lot different sometimes. We are to live in the world but not be a part of the world, but that’s hard to do sometimes. The only way I know of to live that way is to spend time in the Word, time listening and talking to God through prayer, and being around fellow believers. And you can’t do that in one or two hours on a Sunday morning. We need to share our lives with each other. In the coffee shop, on the golf course, in our backyards, and in our homes. As Paul says in Romans:
We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.” For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 15:1-6 ESV)
We worship God in our homes, with our friends, alone on the back porch, and yes, even in church. As much as our sinful selves tries to convince us, it’s not all about us. It’s about Him. And He told us to go make disciples, and we can even do that in church. After all, it is the Bride of Jesus.
Church at the Lake and Spontaneously Meeting with Another Church
A few weeks ago, one of the families we meet with each Sunday as the church asked if we could all meet together at the lake. It sounded like a great idea to everyone, so we planned to get together yesterday morning and afternoon at a nearby park on the lake.
As people started arriving, we noticed a large group of people gathered at one corner of the beach area while the rest of the beach was completely empty. We wandered closer and realized that another church was meeting at the lake and were baptizing that morning.
More of our church continued to arrive, and we all gathered around the other church and witnessed their baptism. It was an exciting time.
We were two very different groups of people. 1) They were from Durham; we were from the Wake Forest / Youngsville area. 2) They were primarily Hispanic; we were primarily Caucasian. 3) They were from a Pentecostal background; we were from a Baptist background.
But, we had so much in common. While most of us do not understand much Spanish, we could definitely understand what was being said as each person was being baptized: “En el nombre del Padre y del Hijo y del Espíritu Santo.”
During the baptism, at one point, a brother walked up and introduced himself to us. He told us the story of one of the ladies who was being baptized. It was a beautiful story of healing and grace.
After the baptism, as we were gathering around the different picnic tables, playing in the water, and such, we invited them to play volleyball with us, and they invited us to play soccer with them.
While we were expecting to have a great time fellowshiping with the church at the lake Sunday morning and afternoon, we did not expect the additional fellowship with these other brothers and sisters.
What a terrible day at the beach with the church?
So, yesterday (Sunday) morning, we drove southeast for about 3 hours to Wrightsville Beach, NC. I have to admit, it was awful! Terrible! Worst thing we’ve ever done!
Why did I have a terrible time?
Well, it didn’t have anything to do with the people! We were able to spend time with some of the best people in the world. We talked about all kinds of things. I was particularly encouraged talking with a couple who has been helping another family start a simpler type of church in a bad neighborhood.
And, it wasn’t the weather that made it a bad day. Sure, it rained a little. But, for most of the day the weather was perfect! It was hot, but not too hot. Plus, hanging out under the pier gave us just the right amount of shade. With the wind blowing in off the ocean, it couldn’t have been any better.
The sand and surf didn’t make us have an awful time. The kids and adults alike enjoyed playing in the sand and the ocean. Yes, the waves got a little rough at time, but nothing more than we could handle. The beach and ocean were wonderful!
So, what made it a terrible day? Why did I have such an awful time?
Well, when we left the beach yesterday afternoon, most of us drove to one of my favorite restaurants. It’s a rib joint. There’s not one in the Raleigh area, so we always try to stop by on the way home from the beach.
But, guess what?!?!? The rib place was shut down! No more ribs.
What a terrible day. (Ok, so maybe I’m being a little sarcastic. The wing place we went to instead was pretty good.)
(If you’re interested in seeing pictures from our really great day at the beach, I’ve posted some on facebook here.)
Guest Blogger: A simple post about simple church
I’ve invited several 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 Bobby from “Deconstructing Neverland.” You can also follow Bobby on Twitter (@reformedlostboy) and Facebook.
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I was honored, humbled and frankly a little intimidated when Alan asked me if I would write a guest post for his blog. I love Alan’s blog because he has the ability and desire to make biblically educated and articulate arguments for many of the things I am beginning to learn about assembling with the church. Me? I usually blog on my phone on my lunchbreak and fly by the seat of my pants sharing the things that are on my heart at that particular time. I guess that’s what Alan wants since he asked for this post. Ask and you shall receive, my man.
I feel like the kid who was just handed the microphone on stage for the first time. I’m imagining you all in your underwear now…someone told me that would help. Guess you didn’t need to know that. Anyways…okay, deep breath, spill it.
I decided to share with you all some of the lessons I’ve learned so far in our journey into simple church life. It’s been quite a ride so far, kinda like being on an ancient roller coaster where the joy of the ride is coupled with the fear of your car flying off the tracks. It’s exhilarating and frightening. I’ve been warned of the ruts of even simple church becoming a religious exercise but thankfully it hasn’t become that for us. We are slowly and steadily growing together as a family.
When we gather together it’s pretty obvious that we have absolutely no idea what we’re doing. We’re depending on an invisible leader to make Himself visible through us. (before I felt like the visible leader made the rest of us invisible) It is quite remarkable! There have been times when a ten year old boy spoke words that the Holy Spirit used to change my heart in a very profound way. With no scripted order or designated speakers, God has a way of making the foolish and base things have extraordinary power.
My mind is reeling now with all the things I’d love to share: the intimacy between brethren that is steadily growing, the equipping of the younger members by the entire body, the food (THE FOOD!!!), sharing a meal together every week, knowing how to pray for one another and being able to pray right then and there for those requests, the various and sometimes disagreeable interpretations of scripture that provide variety without division, the nature to share and help one another as often as any has need, the ability to have questions asked and answered at any given time of the gathering, and so much more. I really could go on and on and write a post on each of these 🙂
What I’ve been learning lately is to be patient while Christ builds His church. Relationships take time to form. Our part is just to trust in Him, take off our masks with one another and be real. That’s how maturity comes to the body. Letting the ugly and sickly parts of the body be tended to and cared for by the rest. It’s a mutual thing to keep one another on the straight and narrow. We just focus our hearts on Christ and help one another do the same. When we are all about Christ together, we are the best church a church can be, no matter our size.
The beauty about Christ is you can point others in His direction no matter where you are. Institutional or simple doesn’t matter if He is the focus. We are all called to be that kind of minister. The abundant one anothers of scripture all lead us to one place: filled with the fullness of Him who fills all, in all. That is true for each and every believer. The fullness of God was pleased to dwell in Him and now He dwells in us. Let’s be his body and walk in faith together. What do ya say?
Going to the Beach! One of our church traditions that I hope we keep.
For the past four or five or six (my, the years keep speeding by) years, our church has gone to the beach together one Sunday during the Summer.
Guess what? We’re doing it again this coming Sunday! We’ll leave here early Sunday morning and spend most of the day at Wrightsville Beach.
We’ll hang out under pier, play in the sand and surf, eat together, and, hopefully, talk with and encourage one another while we’re getting to know each other better.
I’m excited that some friends who are part of other churches in the area are joining us this year! We’ve all be working together doing various things the past few months. And, they’ve decided to join us at the beach!
If you’re in the area of Wrightsville Beach, NC and want to hang out with us, we plan to be there around 11:00 a.m. and stay through the late afternoon. Some of us may even stop by a favorite rib joint on the way home.
This is definitely one church tradition that I hope we keep!
Without church programs, we can still serve together
In two of my previous posts, I talked about the danger of being busy with church programs and activities, and the difficulty that we often face when moving away from these types of programs. (See my posts “Numbing our souls with church activities” and “Growing past church programs and activities is not easy.”)
In church programs and activities, the program or activity is the unifying force. Without the particular class or project, the people involved would probably not work together. And, when the class or project is complete, the people who were involved often don’t interact with each other much anymore. (Granted, people who have relationships with one another can be involved in programs and activities together. But, these relationships are generally not built through the classes or projects.)
However, this does not mean that we should not serve, teach, disciple, and evangelize together. In fact, I believe this is a very important part of our life together as the church. As we share life together (fellowship) in Christ, the Spirit will (super)naturally lead us to people who need help. These people may be strangers, but they will often be acquaintances or friends of people who are part of our group. Thus, we serve through our relationships with Christ and one another toward ourselves (in teaching, discipling, serving, etc.) and others (in evangelizing, serving, etc.).
The difference between serving through church programs and serving through relationships may be undetectable to those outside the groups. In either case, the person being served only knows that a group of people seeks to help and love them, hopefully in the name of Jesus Christ. (Of course, the difference would be obvious to someone who is part of the group.)
However, the difference is very important to the people who are actually working together to serve, teach, evangelize, etc. Why? Because maturity in Christ comes through our mutual fellowship with one another – that is our relationships with Jesus Christ and with one another. We do not grow in maturity simply because we do certain activities together or at the same time.
And, even more, maturity is to be a continuing and consistent process. Groups of Christians that serve through their relationships will continue to relate to one another after that particular act of service is complete. In this way, we get to know one another – our strengths and weaknesses – and are able to continually help one another through various opportunities to serve together.
This ongoing aspect of these relational groups (relating to Christ and to one another) is extremely important. We grow in maturity in Jesus Christ as we are interconnected with one another, not merely when we do thing together. It takes time and consistency for this type of interconnection and interrelation.
In relational service, the particular act of service is not as important as the people involved – either the people serving or the people being served. The group will gladly add to, modify, or stop certain acts of service for the benefit of the people. Again, this is different than most church programs or activities, which are usually continued even if they are no longer effective.
So, while most of us may be more familiar and more comfortable serving, teaching, evangelizing, discipling, etc. through certain church programs and activities, it is not only possible but preferably to serve together through relationships.