The Jesus House

I was on my way to minister after being picked up by the head of a local ministry. About halfway into the trip back to the hotel, the leader turned to me, smiled and asked, “What’s your program?”

I assumed he meant for the service the next day, and I grinned back. “Whatever God has for me to do.”

That wasn’t the answer he was looking for.

Just as there is an assumption that someone in a ministry must prepare a sermon, there is a general idea that a service must be planned or structured to some degree. Basically, this can mean anything from a loose schedule with specific songs worked out and a message to a highly structured timeframe where the whole ministry team pays close attention to the clock and every detail.

The thing is, I can’t find it in the Bible.

In fact, I find the exact opposit to be the case. In the New Testament, there is a very real sense that the lack of structure and planning within a service is key. From Galatians to Ephesians and especially 1 Corinthians, the rules of order are based not on a specific plan to make sure things get moving but on the lack of one to assure God gets to do what He wants.

If we want to argue anything out of scripture in support of an order of worship, we have to go back to the old Law. This was a system of sacrifices and legalism where many times detail was important. But even during the time of the Law, when God moved it was always spontaneous to the Israelites and interrupted their lives.

Under the New Covenant, however, the old traditions were only shadows of the substance, Christ, and now we have Him within us, which invalidates all the old traditions. While these old traditions may reveal Christ to us, the true revelation is in us.

The idea of 1 Corinthians 14 and the New Testament as a whole is that our coming together for worship should be an expression of the Body whose Head is Christ. There are some compelling implications here.

First, there is no discernible human leader. In other words, things are happening, but no single person has planned it, ordered it, structeured it or ordained it. No committee is responsible foor the flow.

Second, things happen fairly spontaneously, but there is an order and a message or even a theme. Everyone is engaged, but no one is following a program.

Third, and most importantly, it is obvious that God Himself is directly involved and leading the group. There is a sense, even to unbelievers, that something supernatural is at work, that the group HAS a leader, and that Person is the invisible God.

This is a physical witness of the spiritual reality.

We are the Body; He is the Head.

I understand the thought process behind it, and I don’t really think most people desire to usurp the leadership of the Holy Spirit in a meeting. But it is a bondage when you can’t see a different way. What I suggest (actually, what the Bible ordains) is so outside worldly thinking that people in the Western Church today have a difficult time accepting it. Even my more “spirit-filled” friends plan specific songs or teachings for their meeting. I’m even familiar with one ministry that intercedes for revival in a very structured way.

One of the most amusing phrases I’ve heard several times at all types of meetings is, “Lord, have your way today,” or tonight or whatever. Many times it is at the beginning of the metting. Then you look down and God’s “way” is all planned out for Him in the bulletin. Or they might say it before the “altar call” as if we’ve done our thing, now God can move and do His part.

Let me be clear. It is always time to do God’s thing and put our agendas aside. From personal experience, God’s agenda is much more rewarding.

Some people like to quote the verse, “God is not a God of disorder,” as if spontenaity will always breen chaos and disorder. The rest of the verse claims that He is a God of peace. Did you notice that? The opposite of disorder in the Kingdom is not order but peace. Most ministry teams on Sunday morning (or even other times) feel anything but peace while they have to stick to a time schedule prepared for them. If God actually did interrupt their service, they would feel anything but actual peace. I know. I’ve seen it when it happens.

Of course there is a balance of discipline as well. We should show up at certain times in order to assure we can be together for fellowship and worship. Our lives in the world are naturally scheduled, so some basic administration is necessary and is therefore a spiritual gift.

Spontaneity in following the Spirit in our daily lives is an important principle, on the other hand. If I were in line at Burger King and the Spirit told me to go to a specific person and speak to them about Jesus, shouldn’t I obey? Sure, I might lose my place in line or not even get to eat, but isn’t obedience more important?

Where do we learn how to follow God in the moment? As we worship together, following the Head, we become a beautiful witness of Him instead of our ability to organize, tantalize or emotionalize the mood. In most services I’ve ever attended outside of a handful of places, the Body is told by a human being when to stand and sit and sing and listen then shoved back out the door and encouraged to follow God.

Most don’t have a clue what that means from our services.

Ultimately, it comes to what the Bible says. There is no biblical direction to structure services, but there is a biblical mandate to have open, spontaneous meetings. If we hold on to the former and shun the latter, can we blame God for not really moving among us?

Peace.

Some comments and responses have come to me recently in regards to my writing in the TICFITB series.

First of all, people who know me and have relationship with me have been overwhelmingly supportive. I’m surprised people read them at all, considering how long-winded I can be and the challenging nature of them. Those responses truly encourage me as someone who often feels “outside the camp.”

On the other hand, some have come across my blog and been either concerned or offended. That has not been my goal. I have endeavored to tackle specific issues and principles without naming names or groups. Sometimes examples are appropriate, but I try to keep things as anonymous as possible.

So, based on those concerned responses, let me explain my purpose and agenda here and respond in kind.

As I’ve grown in the Lord, I begin to see things in the scripture I have not seen before. This is fairly common. The revelation of God is progressive in the sense that He never changes, but our perspective of Him does as our eyes are continually opened.

What may be more unique is that I also see what is NOT there. The absence of a teaching can be just as telling as what is being taught.

Therefore, I see many things in the modern Western Church that are held up as central to who we are, and yet I find a different standard in the scripture. And while these differing standards may not necessarily conflict, many times they do, especially when we choose a tradition of man that retards a spiritual need instead of a different tradition or standard that would strengthen it, something we can actually find in the Bible.

This is where many are challenged and even feel offended. To be honest, I expected more than what has come, for it is natural when certain things so ingrained in our religious conscious are questioned.

Of course, I have yet to hear an overwhelming biblical response to anything I have pointed out. I would welcome the discussion, but people mostly point to worldly values or give shrugging excuses or question my spirituality instead of allowing some things to be questioned.

I believe the Bible and the leading of the Holy Spirit are the standards by which everything is to be measured. It is actually one complete standard since the Holy Spirit is the standard and He inspired every word written in the Book. For us to hold so many things so high, I believe there should be biblical support for them. Where there is none, little, or a conflicting standard, I believe questioning is more than appropriate. In dealing with eternal issues, it is necessary.

Jesus pointed out error to those educated in the religious system of His day, Judaism and the old Law, by claiming they did not know “the scriptures or the power of God.” This would be like a “common” or “lay” Christian saying the same to a modern seminary graduate. Jesus continually used scripture to challenge the status quo and support the true Kingdom.
That is my purpose and agenda.

The fact that some encourage and support what is said here is an example of God’s mercy and love to one crying in the wilderness and that God is calling others to do the same.

God is, and always has been, wooing His Bride to the wilderness where she only has Him to rely on, as Hosea so beautifully expressed. Let’s meet Him there, as Hebrews encourages, where we wait for an eternal city with our Husband.

There are a few more TICFITB waiting in the wings, and a couple might challenge even the most free among you. I know they challenge me. I hope we will all be open to Truth and His revelation.

Peace.

So you’re the “pastor” of a fellowship, and you are traditionally responsible for bringing a message every so often, generally every week or so. The general rule is that you should spend some time seeking God’s guidance as to what to say a few days from now, studying so you can pick the correct scriptures and look up some handy quotes or even prepare a joke or two to set it all off with the right mood. And if you’re really contemporary, then you need to have it prepared in time to make your own basic powerpoint presentation or have some Christian geek (like Eric) do it for you.

It all sounds well and good, only …

I can’t seem to find it in the Bible.

Now, I would like to point out quickly here that I have heard some incredible sermons in my time, and many of them were prepared, I’m sure. Some of them might even have been a little recycled. Many of those sermons and things said within them have stayed with me for years. I still quote many things I’ve heard from teachers or pastors who have prepared sermons.

But as I read the Bible, I don’t find that the standard that we hold so high anywhere among people who are about to give a message, that they prepared it before hand. They repeated what God said to them, to be sure, but not what they, through their own reason and efforts, have attained to say.

Let me use a couple examples from scripture, especially the New Testament, to help me make this clear.

Let’s take the Day of Pentecost. We all know the story, and I will spare you the lack of verbal direction given by Christ (except to pray and wait) compared to several people speaking the wonderful works of God in different laguages and the lessons we can learn there. I will instead skip ahead to Peter’s sermon. When did he prepare for that sermon? What was the result?

The answer, of course, is that he had no clue what was about to happen (different languages, people’s confusion about what was going on), or that he would be called upon to give a central message of the gospel to his fellow Jews on this day of celebration. So he did not prepare one word of what was said on the Day of Pentecost.

And the result? Three thousand came to Christ in one day, repenting and believing.

Let’s move forward into the ministry of Paul. He comes into a certain city and has to leave the next morning (on Monday). He proceeds to speak for more than twelve hours. Can you imagine a teaching that lasted all night long? In what practical way could he have prepared for that message? Did he have a big list on a scroll, like an outline, where he just had to get through these things before he left? The scripture doesn’t give us any indication that is true. This, of course, doesn’t even begin to mention how he didn’t prepare before hand to raise a young man from the dead to keep preaching to him.

Let’s skip even further into 1 Corinthians 14, one of the few places where the New Testament addresses how we should conduct ourselves in a public meeting. We are told that two or three prophets at the most should speak. What that means, to be clear, is that those with the office and role of a Prophet within their meeting, based on a common and tested use of that gift, were to stand and give messages, or what we would commonly call sermons.

But the fact that he calls them prophets implies something much more than just mere sermons. They are repeating what God is telling them to say. And Paul never tells the prophets to make sure that they have prepared what to say before hand. In fact, he says that if a second prophet is told what to say, then the first should sit down and let the second continue, as if the message does not come from a man but from the Spirit Himself. He also makes it clear that they can all prophesy, one by one. In other words, they can all hear from God and repeat what He wants to have said.

Most people are wary of this idea, but the scripture holds it as a standard. The message in a meeting comes from God and Him alone. And since we each have the Spirit within us, we are all capable of contributing in that manner on some level.

My mentor, Larry Trammell, was going to minister at a certain place at a certain time. He was asked a couple days before by someone in that fellowship, “brother Larry, are you prepared to minister?” on whatever day it was.

Larry’s answer? “If I have to get prepared, what am I now?”

Why didn’t Peter prepare for his sermon at Pentecost? Why didn’t Paul prepare for his twelve hour message or ever instruct anyone in the New Testament to prepare for their meetings of fellowship and worship?

Because Peter was already prepared, not for that specific sermon, but to say or do anything, but especially for SOMETHING, because SOMETHING was going to happen when the annointing of the Holy Spirit was on him. Paul was always prepared to speak of Christ whenever there might be an opportunity, and he expected the same standard of everyone.

I believe that the idea that this guy up on a stage has the “word of God” because he has prepared all week to say it (and because we pay him, don’t forget that) is completely debilitating to the true Church. If you have repented and believed, then you have recieved the Holy Spirit, who Jesus said would lead you into all truth. John tells us that we don’t need a teacher, because the Teacher lives in us. Even Christ said (in Matthew) not to lord yourself as a teacher because there is one Teacher, the Christ. You have the “word of God” in you just as much as any believer, from Peter to Paul to a four year old Christian. There is no baby Holy Spirit. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Then He ascended after resurrection and the Word became Spirit to dwell in us.

The structure of believing that the “word of God” comes from one and not all is very problematic. I’ll give a real world example. Let’s say I never teach my son how to go to the bathroom on his own. I keep him in diapers, I don’t let him feed himself. In fact, I rarely give him solid food, only milk or keep him breast feeding even into adulthood. And any attempt at his own independence is rebuked as I defend my position in his life to wipe his rear. And then I tell him to get a job and pay me money to support this position I have. What type of son would I raise?

For a quick funny, click here to see.

It perpetuates immaturity within the body out of a fear of losing our own position or identity. Most teachers become only echoes because they can only repeat what they’ve heard others say instead of being taught how to hear God through His Spirit.

Does that mean that God doesn’t use some more than other? Of course He does, but His desire is to use us all, for all of us to BE the message and therefore always be prepared. We are to live prepared because we know every moment of our lives is important on the eternal level. God can speak to us anytime, anywhere.

As someone who has been in the position where I have been looked to as a “leader” and “teacher” in the kingdom, it would always interest me how people would assume that I had been to seminary or had prepared for hours for the “sermon” I gave. They were surprised, when I told them (which was rare), that I spoke only what God placed on my heart that night and had only taught what I was led by the Spirit to teach and nothing more.

This is not boasting in me. This is boasting in Him. Did I get better at hearing and relating what God wanted me to say? Absolutely. The gift grew as my ability to hear Him did and I became more disciplined about letting go of my agenda to see what His might be. And believe me, His is always better than mine.

There is nothing inherently wrong with having a teaching prepared before hand, if that is how God gives it to you in that particular instance. But there is something inherently wrong with thinking that I HAVE to prepare something to teach, for two reasons. One, I am subverting the standard of the scripture and religiously following the traditions of men, and two, I am placing my trust in myself and not in the awesome gift of the Holy Spirit.

I expect that God teaches me always, every day, if I would but listen and obey, take the time to be still and know. I expect that God can use me to say what He will at any time. At Waffle House late at night or at a lunch date or sitting with dudes around a campfire, before a hundred pastors in India or at dinner with my wife. He is always with me, and I should always be ready to say whatever He would have me say in any situation (or NOT to say, for that matter).

This is called the simplicity of Christ and freedom in Him. He is the head and the voice, but we are the mouthpiece. That is not contingent upon your talents or education or attire or any worldly thing. It is dependent only on your obedience and willingness as a vessel.

Be free.

Peace.