After going without a church website for nine months or more I’ve given up on it and decided to meld it all into a new combined blogsite/website. I’ve moved my blog to a new supplier, WordPress, which allows me to add pages. My blog is still the ‘home’ page and the rest is church stuff. For convenience sake I’ve linked it to our old address, ‘BACKYARDBELIEVERS.COM’. I’ve started to rewrite a lot of the stuff in the pages so take a browse. Hope you enjoy the new look.
Oh and ... Goodbye Blogger. Thanks for getting me blogging.
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Breaking Bread with Not-Yet-Believers
I was thinking, after breaking bread last Sunday, that I should share my thoughts about inviting not-yet-believers to participate in communion, especially in the light of Paul’s teachings in Corinthians regarding believers sharing at the table in a wrong way. My thinking goes like this:
1. The breaking of bread in the NT was always part of a meal, probably an extension of the common blessing at the start of the evening meal. It certainly was a part of most house to house gatherings and probably even every Christian family’s evening meal – since, after all, the family was ‘two or three gathered in my name’.
1. The breaking of bread in the NT was always part of a meal, probably an extension of the common blessing at the start of the evening meal. It certainly was a part of most house to house gatherings and probably even every Christian family’s evening meal – since, after all, the family was ‘two or three gathered in my name’.
2. For the believer this was no longer, however, simply ‘saying grace’, but a recognition that the risen Christ was among them. The common cup now spoke of their redemption and the common loaf now spoke of their unity. Now, every time that they ate or drank together, they were to remind themselves of what Christ’s death had done for them and check that they were living that out in their relationships.
3. Failure to do this was a trampling and belittling of what Christ had done, a violation of the revelation they had received, and could result in sickness or even death.
4. For the non-believer at the table, however, there was no such revelation. For them it was just their hosts ‘saying grace’ and the wine was wine and the bread was bread – nothing more. And, since the bread and wine do not undergo some mystical change, that is all it was. Without revelation they would be simply enjoying a meal with some Christian friends, with no violation of their conscience.
5. The idea that they would be asked to not participate in the meal would have been unthinkable to Jesus and the hope would have been that as they did participate they would come into a revelation of the Christ who was there in the feast. Should that happen they would then come under the need to ‘examine themselves’ to make sure they were living according to their new revelation.
6. In any case Paul (and the Holy Spirit) is far more concerned with the way Christians break bread than non-Christians. We have no excuse. We have revelation and will be judged accordingly.
This is open for discussion and I would love some feed back on it, either for or against. I'll look for ‘comments’.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Does homechurch have a future? You bet!
Isn't this a great photo? It's all the boys at last weeks Sunday Gathering - plus Grace. Plus there's another four youngsters of the same age missing from the shot.
Monday, February 05, 2007
a gift from the father
The following is from a blog entry by 'alexander' on the simplechurch.co.uk blogsite. And it is so simple really. If we could grasp it it would save us from getting bogged down in needless effort and heart ache. Lord, teach me to just keep my focus and my passion centred on YOU!
More from "So you don't want to go to church anymore?"
...“What I’m trying to get you to consider is that body life is not something you can create. It is a gift that Father gives as people grow in his life. Body life isn’t rocket science. It is the easiest thing in the world when people are walking with him. You get within twenty feet of someone else on that journey and you’ll find fellowship easy and fruitful.”
“That’s what we’re looking for. We thought that when we got church right we’d all have the relationship with God we’re looking for,” Marvin broke in.
John continued, “Just consider that you’ve gotten it backwards. No church model will produce God’s life in you. It works the other way around. Our life in God, shared together, expresses itself as the church. It is the overflow of his life in us. You can tinker with church principles forever and still miss out on what it means to live deeply in Father’s love and know how to share it with others.”
...“That’s where religion has done the most damage. By making people dependent on itsleaders, it has made God’s people passive in their own spiritual growth. We wait for others to show us how, or even just follow them in hopes that they’re getting it right. Jesus wants this relationship with you and he wants you to be an active part in that process.”
More from "So you don't want to go to church anymore?"
...“What I’m trying to get you to consider is that body life is not something you can create. It is a gift that Father gives as people grow in his life. Body life isn’t rocket science. It is the easiest thing in the world when people are walking with him. You get within twenty feet of someone else on that journey and you’ll find fellowship easy and fruitful.”
“That’s what we’re looking for. We thought that when we got church right we’d all have the relationship with God we’re looking for,” Marvin broke in.
John continued, “Just consider that you’ve gotten it backwards. No church model will produce God’s life in you. It works the other way around. Our life in God, shared together, expresses itself as the church. It is the overflow of his life in us. You can tinker with church principles forever and still miss out on what it means to live deeply in Father’s love and know how to share it with others.”
...“That’s where religion has done the most damage. By making people dependent on itsleaders, it has made God’s people passive in their own spiritual growth. We wait for others to show us how, or even just follow them in hopes that they’re getting it right. Jesus wants this relationship with you and he wants you to be an active part in that process.”
Friday, January 12, 2007
passage from india - why mince words?
Hi everyone. Hope you had a blessed Christmas / New Year celebration season. Sorry I haven't blogged for a while. I've been too busy reading other people's blogs and catching up with some of my favourite home church/simple church sites. In the process I've come across simplechurch.co.uk from which I've lifted the following great article by Dr Victor Choudrie (see his bio at the end). Hope it's helpful to someone else. Not sure that we've followed all the steps but they sound familiar.
CHANGING FROM TRADITIONAL CHURCH TO NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH FIFTEEN ESSENTIAL STEPS
1. Replace professional clergy with Priesthood of all Believers with authority to baptize, break bread and equip fishers of men. (1 Peter 2:9)
2. Replace Church building with "House of Peace." (Luke 10:5-9; Matt. 10:11-13)
3. Replace programmed Sunday service with daily informal gatherings. The Bride of Christ must have intimacy with her Lord every day and not just for a couple of hours a week lest she become unfaithful. (Acts 2:46-47; Hebrew 3:13)
4. Replace tithing with sharing the enormous financial resources and goodwill available in Christian homes. (Deut. 8:17-18; Acts 5:32-34)
5. Replace the "Crumb and Sip" Holy Communion with simple "Community meals" eaten together with gladness from house to house. (Acts 2:46; 1 Cor 11:20-23)
6. Replace loud music with speaking to each other in psalms and spiritual songs making melody in your heart. (Eph 5:19; Col 3:16)
7. Replace the spectator church to participatory, interactive, prophetic and Missionary sending church. (1 Cor 14:26-31; Acts 13:13)
8. Replace organizational and denominational churches with citywide network of house churches. (Romans 16:3-15)
9. Replace barren church with multiplication. The Bride must not remain barren, but reproduce and fill the earth. (Acts 1: 8; 1 Cor 9: 19-30)
10. Replace submitting to one man - by submitting to each other. We must encourage, comfort, exhort, edify and serve one another. (Galatians 5: 13; Eph. 4: 2, 15)
11. Replace purposeless church with a goal oriented mandate to disciple nations. (Romans 15: 20; Matt. 28: 19)
12. Replace powerless and fruitless church with militants who heal the sick, raise the dead, expel the demons, bind the ‘strongman’ and plunder his possessions. (Matt 11:12, 12:29)
13. Replace all presidents, directors, chairman, secretaries and all the other non-biblical titles with apostles, prophets, and the fivefold ministry gifted elders. Change from a dead organization to living organism. (Eph 4:11; Titus 1:5-9)
14. Replace all Sunday schools, Bible schools, and prayer cells and cottage meetings and call them full-fledged churches. So that they can disciple, baptize, break bread, equip and send missionaries. (1 Cor 16:19; Col 4:15)
15. Replace all selfish goats who are members for hatching, matching and dispatching with sheep who take care of the hungry, thirsty, naked, strangers, sick and the prisoners. (Matt. 25:31-46)
Victor Choudhrie is a cancer surgeon by profession. He is a senior Fellow of the American and British colleges of surgeons. He quit his job as the Director (CEO) of the Christian Medical college, Ludhiana in Punjab, India in 1992 to take up full time Church planting ministry in central India. His wife Bindu is also in full time church planting ministry, equipping women to be house church leaders and trainers. God has blessed this ministry abundantly. Large numbers of grassroots level leaders have been trained who have planted thousands of house churches all over India as a result.
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