Posts tagged ‘House Church’

I cannot recall any text in the New Testament that indicates that every “local church” is to have its own vision. The idea that every church should have a vision statement came from the business world, as every business needs to know what it is about. The church is not a business, at least God never intended for it to be a business. So, why do churches have visions statements?

“Where there is no vision, the people perish.” (Proverbs 29.18a KJV)

This half of a verse of Scripture taken out of its context is pretty much the source of the idea that every church should have a vision statement. After all, we don’t want our churches to perish. Let’s look at this verse so we can understand why using it as a proof-text for having church vision statements is completely wrong.

Here is the verse, in its entirety, in three other translations. Seeing the different ways this verse has been translated will help us ask the questions necessary to understand the verse.

Proverbs 29.18

“Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained, but happy is he who keeps the law.”(NASB)

“Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; but happy is he who keeps the law.” (NKJV)

“Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; but blessed is he who keeps the law.” (NIV)

The first phrase of this verse is translated “Where there is no vision” and also “Where there is no revelation”. Why is this so? Duane Garrett, in his commentary on Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs, explains, “The word of “revelation” is commonly associated with the visions of the prophets and stands for the importance of prophetic exhortation to the community here.” The word means “vision”, but refers to prophetic visions that are revelations from God. This is why some translations use the word “vision” while others use the word “revelation”.

We see this type of vision in the New Testament when Peter was on the roof top of Simon the Tanner in Joppa (Acts 10.9-23). This vision was God’s revelation to Peter which came to him in a state of ecstasy. In Peter’s case, the revelation from God was that the idea that a non-Jew was “unclean” was no more, but that all men could have communion together in Christ.

Where Old Testament prophets are concerned, the visions they received from God were often revelations from God to call His people to repentance. We see time and again in the Old Testament that God’s people would go astray. The prophets called the people back when they had wandered away from God and His plan. The ministry of the prophets was largely to call the wayward people of God back to faithfulness.

Revelation or prophetic vision is placed alongside the Law of God in Proverbs 28.18. To more easily understand the whole verse in English we need to switch the order of the two halves. The one who abides by God’s Law will be happy or blessed. When one goes astray it is the vision, God’s revelation to the prophet, which God uses to call the wayward back. So, where there is no vision, no prophetic utterance, the wayward one lives a life of unrestraint, he perishes. Duane Garrett summarizes the idea in this way, “Social harmony and restraint cannot be achieved without the exhortations of the prophets and the teaching of the law.”

The word “vision” in this text has nothing to do with visionary leadership or vision statements in “local churches.” Rather, it has everything to do with the ministries of the teachers and the prophets. We have already read in Ephesians 4.11 that God gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists and some pastors and teachers to the church in order to have a complete and healthy church. So, when understood correctly, Proverbs 29.18 can very well apply to the ministries of the prophets and teachers in the church today.

Let me restate that Proverbs 29.18 has nothing to do with “visionary leadership” in the church. It has everything to do with the combined ministries of the prophets and teachers – two of the five gifts of God to the church.

I cannot recall any text in the New Testament that indicates that every “local church” is to have its own vision. This idea, to me, is akin to “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death (Proverbs 14.12 NIV). When each local church has its own vision the result is what we see in many places today – “churches” looking inwardly rather than outwardly; churches that are more like social clubs than rescue centers. What is the result? Little to no harvest of lost souls. Where is the grain of wheat that falls to the ground, dies and then results in an increase of 30, 60 or 100? Where is the Christian who reproduces himself 30 times in his lifetime? He should be the least productive person in the church!

To the contrary, we have buildings that we erroneously call churches where people can come and sit on comfortable benches or in comfortable chairs and listen and then do nothing. Sinfully, the “church” finds this to be acceptable behavior for “little Christs”. The vision statement of your church may permit such taking of the Lord’s name in vain, however, the God-given vision of the apostle permits no such thing. The vision of the apostle is a vision to reach a people or a place and his function, along with the other four, is to equip the saints to do the reaching.

Robert Banks, in his book, Paul’s Idea of Community, described the church in this way:

The community at Corinth is not said to be part of a wider body of Christ or to be a ‘body of Christ’ alongside numerous others. It is ‘the body of Christ’ in that place. This suggests that wherever Christians are in relationship there is the body of Christ in its entirety, for Christ is truly and wholly present there through his Spirit (12.13). This is a momentous truth.

God’s design for the church in a place is not to have factions, or denominations, but to have unity. In the same way, God’s design is not for each “church” to have a vision which seems right in its own eyes, but to have an interdependent relationship with the apostle God has called to that place and to whom God has given a vision, burden, strategy and stewardship of the gospel for that place or people.

There has been much emphasis on “vision”, “vision statements” and “visionary leadership” in the past several decades. Numerous authors wrote books about these subjects as they relate to the church (well, the institutional church anyway). Today, many churches, if not most churches, have a vision statement (though this does not necessarily mean that they have a vision).

When I was in seminary I had a class or two that placed an extreme amount of emphasis on having a vision and being a visionary leader. After all, “Where there is no vision, the people perish (Proverbs 29.18)”. So, I set about developing a vision for the work God had set before me. My first ministry position was as a Minister of Education and Administration. I taught the Sunday School teachers my vision for the Sunday School ministry. They understood it, but they didn’t really buy into it. I didn’t know what else to do. Today, I understand much better what the problem was. I could develop a vision and I could teach a vision, but I could not cast the vision in such a way that the teachers would buy into it.

The pastor of that same church was anything but a visionary leader. He would be the first to tell you that. Sadly, because of what I had been taught about the importance of vision and the necessity of the church having a visionary leader I thought he was not a very good pastor. Now that I understand what the Bible teaches rather than what seminary taught me, I realize this man of God is one of the few true pastors I have ever known. He is a pastor in the Ephesians 4.11-13 sense of the word. And, the truth of that matter is that “vision” is not the realm of the true pastor.

There are some “pastors” within the structures of the institutional church who are very good orators and who can cast a vision. How this vision is developed and the scope of the vision have a great deal to do with determining whether or not it is an apostolic vision. Most churches have a vision of how their church should be growing, of the ministries (often programs) that it should be developing and sometimes how the church should be involved in missions endeavors. This type of vision is most often about the church. This type of vision often will not view the church in relationship to other churches in the same city or among the same people. This type of vision may be expressed as an outward-looking approach to ministry, but will most often be applied as an inward-looking ministry.

Admittedly I am writing in very general terms. Nonetheless, if your church has a vision or a vision statement it probably does not fall far from this description.

So, what’s the difference between the vision of a church and the vision of an apostle?

Not all visionary leaders are apostles, but every apostle is a visionary leader. I have met visionary leaders who are great orators, but who lack passion for the work; who lack a burden for the people or place about which they greatly proclaim a vision. Many such visionary leaders move on to the next best offer.

The apostle is not simply a good orator who can sell people on a vision for the church he pastors. The apostle’s calling will be to a people or place. The apostle’s vision will relate to that place or people. The apostle’s vision will be larger than any one “church”. Denominationalism does a great deal to complicate the work of the true apostle today. Many churches follow party lines, denominational leadership, and have no ears to hear the voice and vision of the true apostle. Centuries ago we lost the truth of the interdependence that exists between apostles and local churches.

The apostle’s vision will be a living vision. He will see how the gospel will spread through the people or the place. God will give him the ability to see what will be required for Jesus Christ to be lifted up to draw all men to Himself. The vision of the apostle will carry with it the anointing of God to reach the people or the place.

The institutional church in North and South America and Europe generally does not have a place for the Ephesians 4 apostle. Cities may have numerous “local” churches, but only in very rare instances does one find the concept of the church of the city or the church of the region as it existed in the New Testament (I expand this idea in my article The New Testament Concepts of the Church). Within the individual churches there is usually an internal focus rather than an outward focus. The pastor, or pastors, of the church are expected to minister to the members of the church and maybe grow the church in the process. It is extremely rare to find a local church that considers itself to be the church of the city and truly pursues reaching all of the lost in the city (or region).

Imagine that the apostle to the city, the man that God has hard-wired to reach all the lost in that city, is hired by an institutional church in that city. He has a God-given burden for the whole city to be discipled. But, the institutional church that has called him as “pastor” has long since turned its focus inward. This church puts 90% of its time, money and focus into ministry to the members of the church and maybe 10% to outreach (and that only half-heartedly). And their “pastor” who has an apostolic call and burden is in anguish over the lost souls of the city, but is relegated to putting spiritual bandages on self-inflicted conflicts within the church membership and spoon-feeding spiritual babes who should already be feasting on the Word of God. Do you think he might be frustrated?

If this man of God does not actually know that he’s an apostle (and not all apostles know they are apostles) he probably doesn’t know what else to do or even why the situation seems so wrong. The fact is that the apostle is not a “pastor” and institutional churches which look beyond themselves to an entire city or region are few and far between. Actually, I’m not sure I know of any. So, many apostles in North and South America and Europe just don’t have a place in the structure of the institutional church.

In some of these areas there are denominations that have missionary sending agencies and parachurch organizations which have ministries that do not quite fit within the organizational structure of the local churches. These denominations, organizations and agencies have hierarchical leadership structures and there are times that apostles can enter into these and actually serve as God has designed them to serve.

One apostle that I know works within one such mission sending agency. God has hard-wired him to reach a specific people group. I can remember talking with him about the future. What if, upon reaching enough of this people, the agency asked him to take on a different role overseeing the work among several people groups in the part of the world where he worked? I remember the difficulty this question posed, even when asked hypothetically. Would he be able to continue to be effective in discipling the people God hard-wired him to reach if he took on responsibilities that divided his attention and focus? While the thought of being able to direct the work among several peoples sounded like a good use of his God-given abilities, he concluded that he would probably not be able to continue reaching the people God had called him to reach if his attention was divided and his focus applied to several peoples. I found great wisdom in this conclusion. A true apostle should always stay within the scope of his call, whether it is to a people or a place, for this is the ministry that God has given him an unction/power/authority to fulfill. From the point of view of hierarchical structures, it is wise to find workers who have proven themselves effective and promote them to positions of greater responsibility. If offered such a position of “greater responsibility” the apostle should not take on such a role without a clear word from God that it is God expanding the responsibility and not man. Such a word from God might come through a prophet, or from someone with the spiritual gift of a word of knowledge or word of wisdom.

What if…?

Imagine with me if you will, that an apostle to a specific region was placed in leadership of an agency with a global scope for making disciples. This man of God was quite effective in directing the work to reach the people of said region. For this, he was asked to take leadership of the work on a global level. If this man were as John Wesley, with a call from God which gave him a clear understanding that “the world is my parish” then all would be good. If this man were as John Knox, with a call from God which gave him a clear understanding that “give me Scotland or I die” then all would not be good. Knox was God-wired to reach Scotland and he pretty much focused himself to reach Scotland. Wesley was God-wired to reach more than a region or a people and his work spread across the globe. This is generally speaking, of course, but I think it helps to understand my hypothetical example. If an apostle to a region of the world took on the leadership of an agency with global scope, would he be as effective in reaching the world as he was reaching in reaching the region that he was God-wired to reach? Would he be able to divorce himself from the vision, the burden, and the strategies that God had given him to reach the region in order to lead others who had been God-wired with a burden and a vision to develop effective strategies to reach the people and places to which they had been called? Or, would he focus the efforts of the agency on the region God had wired him to reach? Would he apply the strategies God gave him for reaching his region to the entire world? If Knox had taken what worked in Scotland and applied it to China, would he have reached China? If Wesley had stayed in England, would he have been effective to reach the global parish God wired him to reach?

The apostle today must understand how God has wired him and work accordingly. We live in a day and age where promotion is the reward of success. That is not how God measures success for the apostle. God may open more responsibility for the apostle in the region God has placed him, or among the people to which God has called him to make disciples. However, the apostle must pray long and hard before taking on responsibilities that will divert his focus away from the place or people to which God has sent him.

I have just added an article entitled “Our Mission” to the articles page.

This is an article that I wrote as part of the study on Acts that I use for discipleship, leadership training and training church planters. I find it important for the people around me to understand what is going on in my head when I talk about “our mission” and the work here. It was originally written in Portuguese and I translated it into English to post here.

Since I watched the Verge2010 Conference on the Live Stream, I realize that there are churches and leaders in the US who share many of the same ideas I’ve expressed in this article. However, this is my own explanation of what I believe the Great Commission really means.

You can read the article by clicking this link “Our Mission“. Or, you can read it from the articles page and see what other articles are there too.

Also, I’d like to say thanks to the folks at Verge2010 for making the Live Stream available, and for free at that, to those who could not be there live! That was extremely cool of them!

Later this week we’ll be launching a new aspect of our ministry here in Joinville. We’ll be asking people to open their homes for teams to come and pray with them. In many places in the world, houses of prayer play a very important role in house church networks. I have not done any research to learn what exactly those houses of prayer entail. In fact, I had heard about two different places using houses of prayer. I thought, “That’s there. That isn’t here.” And, I did not pursue the idea.

After I had let the idea slip into the back of my mind (actually, I had completely forgotten about it), God brought the idea back to my mind. That’s when I knew it was God’s time for houses of prayer here. I didn’t know when, where or how we would start houses of prayer. That’s where it is good to have team members. God was giving those answers to members of our team.

A few years ago, when I was on staff at a church in the US I had a small group that met for prayer. Our prayer time there was developed from a prayer group in which I participated in Bulgaria. The houses of prayer that we begin here will be based on both of those prayer ministries, though it will not be a copy of either. “Prayer is learned by praying.” I do not recall who wrote that sentence, but it is true. So, we want to teach people to pray through houses of prayer.

I’m adding an article to the “Articles” page here on the blog. I wrote it in 2002 and never put it online. However, I’m making it available now so you can understand a little better what I hope God does through houses of prayer. Please read “How Our Small Group Prays” on the articles page or by clicking this link How Our Small Group Prays.

Blessings – Stan

Since our move to Joinville 3 months ago, we have been doing more observing than anything. Why, because we can’t assume that what we know about planting simple churches where we were will work in the cultural context we find ourselves in now. What we are finding is that even though Joinville was founded by Germans, the city itself is very Brazilian with an international feel to it. Some of the cities surrounding Joinville also have distinct cultural identities.

For the past 5 weeks or so, we’ve been getting to know a house church in a city about an hour from Joinville. In the past, we said that we have experiences from which they can learn and that they have things to teach us as well. This past Sunday they invited us to share the Lord’s Supper with them. It was a great day – we shared a meal together, praised the Lord together, and continued to get to know each other. It has been very good seeing the way they share life together. The leader of that house church was talking with another guest they had invited that day – we were sitting around while the food was cooking. He said something along these lines, “I don’t know Stan yet. All I see is the perfect Stan who comes to visit. The others in house church I know because I am with them all the time.” He was not slighting me in any way, but rather stating the reality of our relationship. Only when we spend a lot of time together, hours a day, week in and week out, do we get to know the real person. This is life together. This is what house church is all about. In fact, it is Christianity as Jesus intended it to be.

In our three visits with this house church, maybe 15 hours together, God has been showing us how He wants us to go about planting simple churches in Northern Santa Catarina. We want to plant organic (Brazilian), reproducing, simple churches through the making of disciples. Do we have it all worked out? No, but we are getting there. God still has a lot more to teach us, but He is answering your prayers already.

We asked you to pray that God would bring us a man of peace in Joinville. We believe that God has brought him into our lives.

About two weeks ago I received an email from a colleague. He had been at a meeting of Baptist pastors. On Friday, September 18^th, he sent me contact information for three pastors in this region who were interested in meeting with me to see if we might be able to work together. To my surprise, the following day one of those pastors (who lives in Joinville) was knocking on my door. I met with him yesterday (Wednesday, September 23).

Normally when I explain house church to members or pastors of institutional churches here in Brazil they look at me with blank stares, as if I were speaking another language. But, I really am speaking Portuguese with them. The blank stares almost always turn into rejection of house church as a valid form of church. Very few Brazilian pastors, in my limited experience, accept that house church is truly church. And, of the few who accept it as legitimate church, none that I know have embraced it as the path they want to follow for church planting. So, I was not overly encouraged going to meet with yet another pastor to talk about reaching Joinville through house churches.

I was well received by this pastor. He truly has a desire to see Joinville reached. He’s been reading a lot about how to go about that task. He already understood that the usual approach of institutional churches in Brazil isn’t going to reach the city – the birth rate minus the death rate is still greater than the growth rate of the institutional churches. So, he had been trying to figure out if the answer would be found in small groups, a cell church model, or even in house churches.

I laid all the cards on the table. I walked him through house church in the New Testament. I explained what I see as God’s purpose for the church and how that is fulfilled in house church. I explained how leadership functions in house churches and house church networks as I am learning it from the Scriptures. There are still a few places that I’m sorting through things, but much of it is coming together. Usually when I lay this all out people just don’t get it. This truly is a different language than the language of the institutional church. Each step of the way he either had already seen what I was explaining in Scripture, or understood it as I was explaining it – the pieces were fitting together, the light bulbs were coming on.

When I finished explaining these things to him, he simply asked how we get from where he is – institutional church – to what we see in the New Testament – house churches networking together to make disciples in cities and regions and among all the peoples on earth. That’s the part I didn’t have an answer for yet. Nonetheless, he wants to walk this path together. He wants to reach Joinville with the gospel of Jesus Christ and he is willing to lay down his traditional ways of doing things in order to accomplish this task. He asked if we could start next week.

I believe God has given us this man of peace in Joinville. But, God did not give us this man of peace until He taught us some very valuable lessons. God’s timing is perfect in every way. This pastor is new in town. God brought him here about two months ago, just about the same time He brought us here. The road ahead will not be wide and smooth, but narrow and rough. But, the burden of my Savior is light and He does not leave me to walk it alone.

Thank you for your faithfulness in praying for us. We will keep you updated as we walk this road.

Blessings – Stan, Wendy and Ariana

Hello everyone! I hope your week has been a good one.

Last Monday we went to visit with some house church leaders in a city about an hour from Joinville. They had contacted us about 2 weeks ago, the day after I put contact information on the Portuguese language blog. However, we were all sick then. After getting well, we called them and set up a time for the visit.

We spent about 6 hours with them, including a tasty lunch that they served us. It was so very good to talk with folks who understand house church and the struggles that come in Brazil from pursuing that return to the New Testament church. It was a great time of mutual encouragement. They were able to confirm some aspects of the culture in Santa Catarina that I thought might have been different from the culture in Rio Grande do Sul, where we had been working to make disciples and plant house churches. Even though they have been meeting as a house church for a couple of years, they don’t have much experience outside their own house church. Since I have been through thick and thin with several house churches, I was able to share insights into questions they have been struggling through. It was a great time.

In the past, we’ve noticed that a sticking point in developing a house church network was the lack of biblically qualified leadership in the house churches. The Brazilian culture does not lend itself to nurturing the kind of men Paul described to Timothy and Titus. From all appearances and throughout our time last Monday, it is apparent that God has raised up several families in that town who want to be more like Jesus every day, and not just in word, but in deed. This is an incredible answer to prayer. In our meetings last month with our colleagues, this was my prayer request – that God would give us biblically qualified men to lead the house churches.

When we scheduled our visit for Monday, we did not realize that their house church meets on Monday night. That night, the leaders shared with the house church many of the things we had talked about during the day. The information was well received by all.

This small group of believers has a vision that goes well beyond their own group, beyond their own city, beyond their own state, and beyond their own country. They have some ideas about how to develop house church networks that I had not yet considered. And, I have some ideas about training house church leaders that they had not yet considered. So, there are a lot of ways that we could work together in making disciples and planting house churches. I’m not sure exactly when we will visit this house church again. And, I’m not sure what God will do through this connection. But, we are in contact on the phone and by e-mail.

Please praise the Lord with us for His making this connection. Please pray that all involved will be able to discern what God wants to do through us.