A Community of Brokenness

Posted on July 29, 2026 by Steve Simms

Stepping Into a Community of Brokenness (Part 8 — The Misunderstanding of Christianity)

Like a whirlwind, I found myself in The Salvation Army Adult Rehabilitation Center (ARC) in Nashville as the only counselor on staff. The only experience I had working with alcoholics and drug users was the small group of addicted men I had become friends with on Natchez Street in Franklin.

My job description was very short. Interview the men when they arrive using a questionnaire I was provided. Write down their answers and my thoughts. Put it in their file. Then try to encourage them to finish the 6-month program.

The Nashville ARC was a free 86-bed residential recovery center, so it mainly attracted homeless men and other guys who had no insurance and nowhere else to go. It was mainly supported financially by the local Salvation Army Thrift Stores.

Men would come and go. Some would stay a few days. Some a few weeks. Some a few months. A few would finish and graduate from the 6-month program. Because of so much turnover, I estimate that I worked with more than 1,400 men during my 5 1/2 years there.

The men were required to engage in work therapy. They were assigned to a job when they arrived. Some were cooks and kitchen workers. Some were assigned to housekeeping and maintenance. Some were truck drivers and donation pickup helpers. Some were store workers. And some were warehouse workers. All were broken men at the end of their rope and desperately needing miracles.

I was overwhelmed by this new ministry opportunity and felt totally inadequate for it. I don’t know if I would have been able to stay if it hadn’t been for one guy. He had graduated from the program several years before. While in the ARC program, he had encountered Jesus and joined a Salvation Army corps (church). He had stayed sober ever since.

He would come to the ARC every Friday night and spend a few hours encouraging and praying with the men. He also started spending time with, encouraging, and praying with me. I would tell him that I didn’t know what to do to help the men. He would tell me that Jesus had prepared me and brought me there and that He would show me what to do and give me the power to do it. I’ll be forever grateful to God for sending him my way.

There was also a chaplain on staff who preached on Wednesday nights and prayed with the men. He was a really nice guy and had been working there for years. He was weary of the heartbreak that working with addicts brings. After a year or two, he retired, and I was made both the counselor and the chaplain.

Hearing the men individually share their stories with me as I interviewed them, broke my heart. For some reason they trusted me and opened up to me. I was shocked at how many of them had been sexually abused as little boys. Most of them had been through various degrees of emotional, physical, mental, and spiritual torment as children. Frequently they would cry as they told me their stories. I would often cry with them.

Major Paul White, who was the administrator gave me permission to minister to the men however I felt led. On Sunday mornings all of the men were required to attend a chapel service and once I became the chaplain, I was too. It was a very structured service and Major White would preach. However, even with my voice problems, he would ask me to preach now and then on Sunday mornings. I was also responsible to preach in the chapel every Wednesday night.

Whenever I would stand up to preach or teach, because of a vocal cord disorder I had, I could barely speak. However, after doing my best to force a sentence or two, my voice would clear up, and I would preach and teach with a clear voice and a heart full of passion.

I was also asked to teach the new men who had been in the program for 16 weeks or less but not told what to teach them. I felt prompted to teach my motivational material. I set up 4 half-hour sessions per week. I started each session with an illusion (magic trick) and then used it to illustrate a personal and spiritual growth principle. Then with all my heart I would declare how using that principle in their day-to-day life can help them get free from their addiction. The new men would be shocked at my boldness (and I would be too).

One of the lessons I taught was on the supernatural power in the Bible. I told them that God would do something amazing inside of them if they would read the Bible every day with a humble, open, and obedient heart for at least 5 minutes for 21 days without missing a day. Then I would ask them to shake my hand and make a serious commitment to do it.

Many would start the challenge. Few would finish it. However, everyone who stayed with it would have some kind of encounter with God. By the end of 21 days the Bible would become alive for them, and they would no longer be reading it from commitment but from an inner desire to know more about Jesus.

One man came to me after I taught about the Bible. He told me that he was an atheist and that he accepted my challenge for one reason — to prove me wrong. He said he was going to read for exactly 5 minutes for the 21 days and that nothing would change in him. I had him shake my hand again to seal his commitment.

Every few days he would come by my office and tell me that he was reading and nothing was happening. Meanwhile I was praying that God would deeply touch his heart.

On the 21st day he came by to tell me that he had read 20 days without missing one and that he hadn’t experienced anything by reading it. I reminded him that he had one more time to read it.

When I arrived the next afternoon, the man met me at the door visibly excited. He said that when he read the Bible the night before he felt like he should do what he read and when he did, he felt something change inside of him.

I asked him what he read and what he did. He said he read, “consider others better than yourself” and then for “some reason” he felt like he should use his day off to clean the restroom in the warehouse. As he was doing it, he began to feel a joy and peace that he had never felt before.

Over the next months I was amazed at the radical change in his attitude and behaviors. He got excited about Jesus. I would often see him reading the Bible and he actually finished and graduated from the 6-month program. God is faithful. Are you?

I also hung out with the men. I would chat with them in different places around the center. Often someone would come by my office to talk. I would sometimes lay my hands on them and pray with and for them. They became my friends. I sometimes would even shoot pool with the guys (and got pretty good at it).

I started two voluntary meetings. One was a Bible study group. We would read a chapter in the Bible a few verses at a time. Then we would share what insights we got from what we read. God would give the men revelation and wisdom to share with the group. We would experience heart-to-heart, Spirit-led community.

The other was a participatory prayer meeting. We would sit in a circle, and guys were free to pray spontaneous prayers as they felt led. However, no one was required to pray. Numerous men would pray. Most of their prayers were deep, powerful, and heart-touching because they were praying from a place of humility and brokenness. One of my favorite things was when a man who had never prayed outloud in front of other people would pray. Those were special prayers that touched everyone in the group and greatly strengthened and gave confidence to the first-time prayer.

I could write for chapters about my time at the ARC. But there are only a few more things that I am going to share.

Ernie and our young daughter would often come to the Sunday morning chapel service and occasionally at night. Their hearts were also touched and inspired by the men and their interaction with them.

One day the man who oversaw all the chaplains for the ARCs in the Southern Territory of The Salvation Army contacted me. He said that there was a closed Salvation Army corps (church) in an inner-city neighborhood near the Nashville ARC. He asked if Ernie and I might be interested in opening it up and using it to reach out to the men in the ARC, the graduates of the ARC, and their families.

He talked with us about it a few times. We prayed and told him that we would love to do it. Months went by and nothing happened. Then one day the Lt. Colonel who was over the Southern USA ARCs was visiting our ARC. I went up to him, introduced myself, and asked him about the possibility of my wife and I opening up the closed corps to minister to people in recovery and their families.

He glared at me and said, “That’ll never happen!” Then he walked away. But it did!

On a sad note, I knew of 17 of the men that I had worked with died dying of tragic causes. (I am sure there were more.) I was asked to preach the funeral for a few of them. God’s given me a tender heart, so that was hard!

It was also a sacrifice for Ernie and our daughter for me to work at night. For 5 1/2 years during her preteen and teenage years, I wasn’t able to be with my daughter on weeknights. I missed that time with her so much. I feel like my absence impacted her in negative ways.

My 5 1/2 years in the Nashville ARC community of brokenness was a divinely orchestrated season of ongoing demonstrations of God’s presence, power, and love. It greatly blessed my and Ernie’s life. I am crying as I write about it.

For years after we started a non-traditional Salvation Army corps (church) when we would see a man we knew from the ARC, he would hug us and thank us. Once about 12 years after leaving the ARC I was in downtown Nashville. A homeless looking man walked past me. Then he turned around, rushed back, and hugged me. He said something like: “I was in the ARC and still remember the things you taught me. I am still struggling with addiction but thank you for caring about me.” I didn’t even remember him being one of the 1,400 or so men in that were in our community of brokenness.

Stay with me for Part 9 of “The Misunderstanding of Christianity” — Prayer Walking With The Salvation Army Flag.

#christiancommunity #TheSalvationArmy

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If You Look Closer, It’s Easy to Trace the Tracks of My Tears

Posted on July 28, 2026 by Steve Simms

Growing in Brokenness (Part 7: The Misunderstanding of Christianity)

Our volunteer ministry and start up church in the poorest area of Franklin (that we had given so much time and effort to) was being forced to close due to lack of funds and no place to meet. It was heart-breaking to see it fall apart. It felt like a failure, but most of all it saddened us that we were going to miss the people we had come to love.

A few years earlier Ernie whose income as an accomplished and busy corporate trainer had been our main source of support had given up some clients as my speaking business had slowly grown. She wanted to spend more time with our young daughter. Then my voice problems began to cause my speaking opportunities to decline.

Gradually our financial situation had grown desperate to the point that some of our friends were giving us money. It was humbling to learn to receive. One group of friends even brought us a van load of nonperishable groceries. We ate on them for months. And God was doing financial miracles in the midst of our brokenness.

Once when we were in need of two thousand dollars, there was a knock on our door. A man was with the water department. They wanted to put a new pipe across our front yard and offered to pay us $600. I told him we’d take it without consulting with Ernie.

When he left, she told me we were supposed to hold out for $2000. About a week later there was a knock on our door. The man said that our neighbors on both sides of us insisted on $2000 and he handed us a check for $2000. Another time we got a check in the mail for about $1000 from the phone company saying they had overcharged us for a period of time in the past.

One family member gave us $4000. Another forgave a debt I owed. It was a very humbling yet very much a blessing to see that God and people loved us so much.

Despite all of that we urgently needed to sell our house. It had been on the market for almost two years. Once we got a contract on it and put a contract on another house. The night before closing the person buying our house backed out. We were devastated.

My voice problems had gotten so bad I could hardly speak. I was still getting an occasional speaking opportunity, but now they were very humbling and embarrassing. A doctor at Vanderbilt Voice Clinic told me that my voice would never get any better and that as a motivational speaker I should apply for disability. He even wrote me a letter to give to the Social Security Administration.

Ernie and I prayed about it and felt like that was a trap. We were humbled and broken but our dependence was on what God can do. I tore up the letter.

Meanwhile I continued to try to sell (and find a publisher) for the two motivational books I had written and self-published. When I made speeches they sold well, but without audiences to sell them to, they were bringing in no income. As you can see, I love to write. It was very disappointing that my books were not moving out of our garage.

We were both looking for work. One day Ernie saw a want ad for a part-time counselor and sent in her resume. A few days later she received a call from a woman with The Salvation Army. She said that they need to hire a counselor to work with 86 men who were struggling with alcohol and drug addiction.

The woman was shocked to discover that Ernie is a woman and that made the call awkward for both of them. The lady explained that it was a 30-hour parttime job working from 3:00 pm to 9:00 pm 5 days per week.

Then she told Ernie that it was in a dangerous part of downtown Nashville near a truck stop. She said that the counselor is the only staff person in the building after 5:00 pm. Without the woman saying it, Ernie got the idea that they wanted a man for the job and asked her to wait for a moment.

Ernie located me in another room and said something like, “I think I’ve found you a job.” She led me to the phone (a landline) and handed it to me.

Then the situation became even more awkward. The lady and I were both confused. She finally asked, “Do you have counseling experience?” As a pastor I could say yes. Then she asked me to bring my resume and come in for an interview.

My interview was with Major Paul White. He explained the job to me. I would be the counselor in an 86-bed Adult Rehabilitation Center (ARC) for men in addiction recovery. He said that The Salvation Army had an ARC in most of the larger cities in the USA and asked if I was interested in the job.

I said yes. However, I had no idea what I was getting into. I have never been drunk in my life. How was I going to counsel addicts? Ernie and I thought The Salvation Army was a military-style charity. We didn’t know that it was a Christian denomination that had churches.

A couple of days later Major White called and offered me the job. I accepted. Ernie’s answering a want ad was about to make many powerful changes in our lives during a 15-year season of wonderful ministry and spiritual growth in communities of brokenness.

Several months after I got the new job our house finally sold. It took more than two years. Ernie loved that house and it broke her heart for us to sell it. We downsized and had enough money to pay off our ever-increasing debt and still have enough left over for a downpayment on our next home. God is so good!

Next up — Part 8 of The Misunderstanding of Christianity — Stepping into a Community of Brokenness.

Photo by Ketut Subiyanto on Pexels.com
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God’s Book Never Ends — Finding True Unity

Posted on July 27, 2026 by Steve Simms

The Misunderstanding of Christianity (Part 6: Finding Unity Across Denominational and Racial Lines)

Ernie, our early elementary-school-aged daughter, and I were sitting in a guest room, alone in an African American Pentecostal Church in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on a Saturday night. How did we get there?

Jesus prayed that His disciples all be one, as He and the Father are one. Christians have ignored Jesus and divided themselves into multitudes of denominations and religious organizations, but God had different plans for us.

I had been invited to preach a trial sermon in a Church of God in Christ (COGIC), a Black Pentecostal church in Chattanooga pastored by Bishop Scott. We had driven to Chattanooga that morning and spent the day doing tourist things. Early that evening, we went to the church and met someone we didn’t know who let us into the church, kindly showed us to a guest bedroom, and left us alone there for the night. It was the result of an inner prompting that came to me about 20 years earlier and a series of recent phone calls.

While at Memphis Theological Seminary, I felt prompted to approach the Church of God in Christ (COGIC) and see if I could become a pastor in their denomination. However, I had neglected to act on that inner leading. About twenty years later, while Ernie and I were ministering in Natchez, the historic Black neighborhood in Franklin, Tennessee, that prompting came back to me.

I decided to obey it this time and began to call the few COGIC churches in Nashville. I got an answering machine on every call and left a message something like this: “Hello, I am a white minister, and I feel like God wants me to become a pastor in COGIC. Can you help me?” For a while, there was no response.

Eventually, Pastor Larry Britton called me. He was very friendly and likeable, and I could tell that he really loved Jesus. We talked a few times on the phone and then met in person. Larry told Bishop Scott about me and suggested that I call him. When I talked with Bishop Scott on the phone, he invited me to come to Chattanooga to preach at his church. He said I could bring my family, and we could enjoy Chattanooga and then spend Saturday night in a guest room at his church.

So here we were, way out of our comfort zone, spending the night alone in a black church. What to do? We went into the sanctuary and began to sing praise songs, dance, and do Jesus cheers. (After all, it was a Pentecostal church.)

COGIC traces its origin back to the Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles at the beginning of the 20th century that lasted several years. It was led by William Seymour, a one-eyed Black man whose small church had experienced speaking in tongues. For a few years multitudes of people of all races and various ethnicities and nationalities came from all over the world to Azusa Street to experience God’s gift of speaking in tongues.

During the age of intense, cruel, and forced segregation in the USA, at Azusa Street (for a few years) God the Father answered Jesus’ prayer that His followers all be one. Bishop Charles Mason had started a few churches in the Memphis, Tennessee area. When he heard about Azusa Street, he rode a train to Los Angeles and received the Holy Spirit’s fire and the incredible gift of tongues. When he returned home, he told his churches about his experience and soon most everybody was praising God in tongues and celebrating Jesus like Pentecostals.

Mason’s small group of churches (COGIC) began to grow and eventually became the second largest African American denomination in the USA. However, in the beginning many white pastors were affiliated with COGIC, so I wasn’t going to be the first one.

Because of the extreme and often violent racism in the South, almost all of the white pastors and members eventually left to form the Assemblies of God denomination and further the disunity of Christianity. (It’s estimated that today Christians have shattered themselves into more than 40,000 denominations.)

The next morning at Bishop Scott’s church we were warmly and enthusiastically welcomed. I preached with spontaneous fire and passion. To my surprise Bishop Scott invited me to come back to Chattanooga to meet with him and some of the pastors he supervised. When I met with them, I shared some of my story and told them that I felt that God was telling me to be a COGIC pastor.

One of them spoke up and said something like, “If God wants him, we do too. I move that we receive him as an elder (a fully ordained minister). Bishop Scott said, “All in favor,” and everyone raised their hand. Then they all jumped up and began to hug me. When we set back down, another one of them said, “You do believe our doctrine, don’t you?” And to their relief, I answered yes.

All of a sudden my wife and I had spiritual and emotional support for the church we had started in the Black neighborhood of Franklin, TN. I was almost immediately invited to teach an ongoing church history course during the monthly jurisdictional meetings for pastors in Chattanooga (a jurisdiction in COGIC is a group of churches overseen by a bishop). Pastor Larry Britton, Will Pride another amazing man of God, and I would drive to Chattanooga together each month. Spending time with those two men was an incredible blessing. (Will died a few years later and I still miss talking with him on the phone.)

Once a quarter Ernie, our daughter, and I would attend divisional meetings led by our Divisional Superintendent, Pastor Larry Crisman in Shelbyville, TN. People from around Middle Tennessee would be there and even though we were almost always the only white folks, we were made so welcome that we forgot about color.

Once Ernie and I went to Memphis Tennessee, the denominational headquarters, for their annual Convocation where tens of thousands of COGIC folks gather for several days of praise and worship, teaching, and fellowship. It was incredibly powerful. We loved our time in the Church of God in Christ. It was a wonderful experience with a group of incredible men and women of God.

One day I received a call from Pastor Britton, who was the editor of the denominational magazine called, “The Whole Truth.” He asked if I would begin to write articles for it and he published several of them.

We were connected with COGIC for about three years. Once we were given a contribution to help fund the church in Franklin, but as I mentioned our local funding dried up and we couldn’t afford to keep it going. I looked into pastoring an established COGIC church but there were no openings. Ernie and I were in deep financial trouble, but God was about to rescue us and send us into more new wineskins.

If you want to know more about Ernie and my Spirit-led interracial experiences, google: Off the RACE Track–From Color-Blind to Color-Kind. (Pastor Larry Britton wrote a beautiful endorsement for it.)

Stay tuned for Part 7: New Wineskins in The Salvation Army

#ChurchOfGodInChrist #COGIC

Black baseball cap with 'Christianity is misunderstood' embroidered in white, placed on a wooden church pew with stained glass light reflections.
A black cap embroidered with ‘Christianity is misunderstood’ rests on a church pew.
Posted in Christian spirituality, Christian unity, Church of God in Christ, COGIC, racial reconciliation | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Oh That People Would Understand Heart-to-Heart Christianity

Posted on July 26, 2026 by Steve Simms

Finding New Wineskins Beyond a Sermon-Centered Church (Part 5 — The Misunderstanding of Christianity)

Abounding Grace was a growing new church with an open mic where anyone could share as they felt prompted by God’s Spirit. It was a new wineskin that was attracting people who were passionately in love with Jesus. However, after Ernie and I had been there about a year, they shut down the mic. The worship was still powerful, but the congregation wasn’t allowed to speak up anymore.

Ernie and I missed the open sharing. We were at Abounding Grace for about 3 years. I continued to be a full-time motivational speaker, trying to focus on my business called Attitude-Lifter Enterprises. I had written a book about positive thinking (from a Christian perspective). It was strongly endorsed on the front cover by Zig Ziglar. I had a sign in our front yard to tell people about it. It said, “Mindrobics–How to Be Happy for the Rest of Your Life.”

Our house was on a busy road that led to the school where Abounding Grace was meeting. When people at church asked where we lived, I would tell them about the sign. It was amazing how many said something like, “Oh, we have been praying for the people in that house. We thought you were New Age.”

Ernie and I were still searching for a gathering where people had the freedom to share. We missed the altar times we had experienced at the Nashville Vineyard. Then somehow, we met Adam Swanson, the pastor of a small church about 40 minutes away in Murfreesboro. Adam was also looking for new wineskins.

Together, we started a Tuesday night meeting at his church where people could testify, share, and receive personal prayer with the gifts of the Spirit freely flowing. Those meetings were full of spiritual power and healing as we ministered to one another as led by the Spirit.

We continued to be part of Abounding Grace. They eventually started a home group in Murfreesboro. The leaders of that group were very open to mutual ministry, so Ernie and I began to attend it. We had a toddler daughter and growing careers that made driving to Murfreesboro twice a week very difficult, so we shifted away from Adam’s church to the new wineskin home group.

The pastor at Abounding Grace shared the pulpit with the church elders and with other people so that sermons weren’t confined to one person. I had wanted to preach there, but I felt like God told me not to ask. But then, one day it came to me to ask, so I did. I was told that the elders thought that I had read too many books about revival and that once I had said that I would do whatever the Holy Spirit told me to. And because of that I could never speak there. So, I gave up the idea.

About a week later one of the elders came to me and said: “Steve, it’s not a full sermon, but I’m supposed to share for about 15 minutes before we serve communion next Sunday. Would you like to take my place?” I said yes and thanked him for his humble lovingkindness toward me. I was able to preach a short sermon the next Sunday, although the church leadership wasn’t happy about it.

About that time, God began to put it on my heart to start walking the streets of the small black neighborhood called Natchez in nearby Franklin. It consisted of a housing project and small homes. I began to spend a day or two a week knocking on doors and spending time getting to know a group of men who hung out on the streets. They were mostly addicts and alcoholics. At first, they we skeptical of me, but eventually we became friends. We talked about Jesus a lot and I would frequently pray with them. They had amazing nicknames like Chicken Dinner, Peanut Butter, Big Bear, Buster, and many others.

Ernie even started going with me some. We were tired of being church spectators and felt like God was telling us to open a church in the Natchez area. We told the elders at Abounding Grace what we were feeling led to do and they even privately laid hands on us and prayed to send us out.

We prayed for a place to meet, and God opened up room in a small Senior Citizens’ center, but it was outside of the Natchez neighborhood. We started “God’s Glory and Grace” there. It was actually named by our daughter. Eventually we found a run-down building on Natchez Street that had been a wild night club called the Big Wheel. We were doing all of this with no church salary.

We started meeting at the Big Wheel building on Sunday mornings in a new wineskin way. Instead of a sermon, we let anyone present share and testify as they felt led by Jesus. It was intimate, caring, and compassionate like a loving support group. We learned a lot hearing each other’s stories.

Elvira who became a regular testified: “I used to party with the devil here at the Big Wheel, now I’m going to party here for Jesus. Her son and daughter-in-law, Charles and Vanessa, started coming and got excited about Jesus. It was an honor to baptize them in a tank. Vanessa used to spontaneously start singing an old Black Gospel song during the meeting with such power that it would give me goosebumps. Her favorite was, “I’m Coming Up the Rough Side of the Mountain.

Also, about that time I began to have voice problems that made me sound raspy and made it very difficult and humbling to speak. This caused my speaking career to quickly decline. Ernie had stepped away from several of her clients to spend more time with our daughter. It wasn’t surprising that we began to have growing financial struggles, basically living off credit cards and borrowed money.

Fortunately, a couple friend felt led to begin to give a week a month of their “tithe” (10 percent of their income) to God’s Glory and Grace). This gave us enough money to pay rent on the building. and to eventually start a free clothes and food pantry for people in the neighborhood.

Spending so much time in Natchez reminded me that while in seminary in Memphis I had felt nudged to see if I could become a pastor in The Church of God in Christ (COGIC)” the second largest African American denomination in the USA. I realized that I had never acted on that prompting, so I contacted a COGIC pastor, and they eventually accepted me as a fully ordained pastor in their denomination. Ernie and I were so blessed being a part of COGIC and learned a lot from them. (More in another episode — or Google Off the RACE Track — From Color-Blind to Color-Kind.)

My mother felt led to begin cooking a meal once a week and serving a free lunch in the building. The guys I had been hanging out with began to come and a few families from the neighborhood. My parents were very outgoing people, and they loved on and entertained all who came for lunch.

A few of Ernie’s friends wanted to help us minister in Natchez and they helped us start outreaches in the small park nearby. They would bring food, gifts, toys, music, games and other activities. You could feel the love that was overcoming a history of long-term divisiveness. It was wonderful.

Spending so much time in Natchez reminded me that while in seminary in Memphis I had felt nudged to see if I could become a pastor in The Church of God in Christ (COGIC)” the second largest African American denomination in the USA. I realized that I had never acted on that prompting, so I contacted a COGIC pastor, and they eventually accepted me as a fully ordained pastor in their denomination. Ernie and I were so blessed being a part of COGIC. (More on that in another episode.)

Then one day our friends who were giving part of their tithe to God’s Glory and Grace called us. They were members of a famous megachurch in Nashville. They said that one of their pastors had preached a sermon and said that all of their tithe belongs to that church and if they were giving any of it anywhere else, they need to stop. They apologized but said they felt obligated to shift their giving back to their church. That big rich church effectively ended the ministry of God’s Glory and Grace” in Natchez.

Ernie and I were struggling more and more with financial problems. We had cut back expenses, put our house on the market, and prayed more and more. My voice problems had all but ended my motivational speaking career. We were in trouble, but God wasn’t going to let us down. Stay tuned for the next episode:

If you live in the Nashville, Tennessee area come and experience the current episode with us. Every Saturday morning at 8;30 we host a Christian support group at Chile Burrito, 330 Franklin Road, Brentwood, TN 37307.

#testimony #TestimonyOfFaith

Traditional leather bota bags hanging on wooden hooks against a stone wall
Rows of old and new leather bota wine bags hanging on hooks outdoors

Posted in heart care, heart connection, new wineskins, simple church, Spirit-led church | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Pursuing the Promise of Experiencing God

Posted on July 25, 2026 by Steve Simms

Looking For New Wineskins (The Misunderstanding of Christianity Part 4)

God’s fire that I encountered in the Jesus Revolution and by spending time with radically committed Indian Christians is always burning in my heart. However, I was growing weary of trying to fit it into organized religion. Old religious wineskins rarely appreciate God’s new wine.

I eventually decided to become a motivational speaker and moved to Nashville, Tennessee. That way, I could let God’s fire burn in front of non-religious people. I did that full-time for the next 12 years while still searching for the new wine of God’s Spirit.

I needed help getting started as a speaker, and I kept seeing an ad in the Nashville Business Journal for C & T Seminars run by a woman named Ernie. One day I called her and told her I was a new motivational speaker. I asked if I could buy her lunch and if she would tell me how she got started. She agreed and was a great help.

I didn’t intend for anything romantic to happen, but it did. Although she had grown up as a Baptist, it didn’t bother her that I was a Jesus Freak, so Ernie became my wife. Over the course of a year, she became as excited about Jesus as I am.

We were regularly attending Christ Church, a charismatic megachurch. Once they asked me to preach in their small Wednesday night service. Ernie’s best friend and former roommate, Helen from Scotland, who wasn’t a Christian, was visiting us. She and Ernie attended the service. During my sermon, Helen whispered to Ernie, “That’s what he’s supposed to be doing.” Later, Helen surrendered her life to Jesus in our living room.

Ernie began to nudge me to get back into the ministry. I wasn’t eager to do so, but I finally contacted a pastor in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church to let them know that I was available. To my great surprise, I was quickly hired to be the part-time pastor of Franklin Cumberland Presbyterian Church near Nashville.

It was an old historic church with fewer than 20 people, mostly elderly, in attendance on Sunday mornings. Things went well for a while. I preached on Sunday. Ernie started working with the women. Together we started an interactive Bible study on Wednesday nights. The church grew to about 60 people on Sunday morning. Most of the new people were young and were excited about Jesus. God was on the move in an old wineskin.

However, the original members were becoming more and more unhappy with the growth and with all the new people in the building. Someone reported us to the Presbytery, the pastor and a representative from each of the regional churches. They listened to the people’s complaints, and they listened to us testify about how wonderfully God was moving.

By a close vote they said that I could stay as pastor if I would let them record my sermon every Sunday. I knew they wouldn’t like my passionate preaching style, so I resigned.

A few of the original members and some of the new people decided to leave and start a new church. They asked if Ernie and I would lead them. We agreed but even in a new situation there was still resistance to my preaching style. We eventually left, but the church continued and even built a building. It’s known as Christ Church Franklin.

Our best friends began to attend the Nashville Vinyard church and thought we would like it. We did! The worship was amazing. The sermon was okay. But the best thing was the open altar every Sunday morning. Several spiritually hungry people came forward each week to be prayed over. The congregation was free to leave, but those who did missed the best part of the meeting.

Prayer teams would pray over each person frequently giving them supernatural prophetic words, words of knowledge, and words of wisdom. Each week people were deeply moved and often in tears. They were being physically healed and set free from inner torment. It was truly amazing.

The Nashville Vineyard church started several small groups. Our friends were asked to lead one of them. They encouraged everyone in the group to listen to Jesus and share what he put on their heart. Their group was thriving with the presence of Christ.

However, eventually the church leadership began to require the group leaders to have their group discuss the Sunday sermon in a more tightly controlled format. That caused conflict with our friends and their group. They eventually left having been greatly hurt both emotionally and in their spiritual life. We stayed awhile longer, but the fire in that church was rapidly cooling off.

Two more couples in the church who also left talked to us about having our own small group. So, the six of us began to meet on Sunday nights in our living room for about a year. We called it “a hath a” meeting based on 1 Corinthians 14:26 in the King James Version. “When ye come together every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation.”

Those “hath a” meetings with the 6 of us were wonderful. Yet we battled with feeling guilty that we weren’t in a traditional church. Those old wineskins were calling us back. Some friends told us about a new church, Abounding Grace, meeting in a school near us that had an open mic during worship.

We checked it out and loved it. The first meeting we couldn’t figure out who the pastor was. The worship was spiritually thrilling. People were enthusiastically praising God and even dancing before the Lord. From time to time someone would come to the mic and share a powerful insight, a Scripture, or a testimony. After about an hour, they would switch gears, send the children out, and have everybody sit and listen to a sermon by a different person each week. The new wine of God’s Spirit was flowing and I was hooked.

The pastor who so gracefully shared the pulpit (or podium in his case) was handing out copies of his book “Issues of the Heart — Let My People Go.” There was a small slip of paper inside the book that said something like: “Much of what I have written in this book is extreme, but I have been corrected by leadership and brought into a more accurate point of view.” That note made me really want to read it.

His book is all about Christians coming together to all listen to and obey the leading of God’s Spirit. I’ve read it several times and still have the copy the pastor gave me. I just opened it and saw these words: “The one-man system violates the people. One man becomes the eye, the ear, the nose, the foot, the hand.” He also wrote: “It is time to be up and doing. Their (spiritual) food will not continue to come from attending and listening; their food will be to do the will of the Father. So many need to realize that to move on in God is not rebellion. It is not a wrong sort of independence. Rather it is a natural healthy part of maturing.”

Wow! I was excited to find a pastor who articulated what I had experienced and learned from The Jesus Revolution and from being around on fire Indian Christians! Yet I was about to learn that even in that amazing church the new wine was in decline.

Stay tuned for Part 5: Finding New Wineskins Beyond a Sermon Centered Church

Looking For New Wineskins (The Misunderstanding of Christianity Part 4)

God’s fire that I encountered in the Jesus Revolution and by spending time with radically committed Indian Christians is always burning in my heart. However, I was growing weary of trying to fit it into organized religion. Old religious wineskins rarely appreciate God’s new wine.

I eventually decided to become a motivational speaker and moved to Nashville, Tennessee. That way, I could let God’s fire burn in front of non-religious people. I did that full-time for the next 12 years while still searching for the new wine of God’s Spirit.

I needed help getting started as a speaker, and I kept seeing an ad in the Nashville Business Journal for C & T Seminars run by a woman named Ernie. One day I called her and told her I was a new motivational speaker. I asked if I could buy her lunch and if she would tell me how she got started. She agreed and was a great help.

I didn’t intend for anything romantic to happen, but it did. Although she had grown up as a Baptist, it didn’t bother her that I was a Jesus Freak, so Ernie became my wife. Over the course of a year, she became as excited about Jesus as I am.

We were regularly attending Christ Church, a charismatic megachurch. Once they asked me to preach in their small Wednesday night service. Ernie’s best friend and former roommate, Helen from Scotland, who wasn’t a Christian, was visiting us. She and Ernie attended the service. During my sermon, Helen whispered to Ernie, “That’s what he’s supposed to be doing.” Later, Helen surrendered her life to Jesus in our living room.

Ernie began to nudge me to get back into the ministry. I wasn’t eager to do so, but I finally contacted a pastor in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church to let them know that I was available. To my great surprise, I was quickly hired to be the part-time pastor of Franklin Cumberland Presbyterian Church near Nashville.

It was an old historic church with fewer than 20 people, mostly elderly, in attendance on Sunday mornings. Things went well for a while. I preached on Sunday. Ernie started working with the women. Together we started an interactive Bible study on Wednesday nights. The church grew to about 60 people on Sunday morning. Most of the new people were young and were excited about Jesus. God was on the move in an old wineskin.

However, the original members were becoming more and more unhappy with the growth and with all the new people in the building. Someone reported us to the Presbytery, the pastor and a representative from each of the regional churches. They listened to the people’s complaints, and they listened to us testify about how wonderfully God was moving.

By a close vote they said that I could stay as pastor if I would let them record my sermon every Sunday. I knew they wouldn’t like my passionate preaching style, so I resigned.

A few of the original members and some of the new people decided to leave and start a new church. They asked if Ernie and I would lead them. We agreed but even in a new situation there was still resistance to my preaching style. We eventually left, but the church continued and even built a building. It’s known as Christ Church Franklin.

Our best friends began to attend the Nashville Vinyard church and thought we would like it. We did! The worship was amazing. The sermon was okay. But the best thing was the open altar every Sunday morning. Several spiritually hungry people came forward each week to be prayed over. The congregation was free to leave, but those who did missed the best part of the meeting.

Prayer teams would pray over each person frequently giving them supernatural prophetic words, words of knowledge, and words of wisdom. Each week people were deeply moved and often in tears. They were being physically healed and set free from inner torment. It was truly amazing.

The Nashville Vineyard church started several small groups. Our friends were asked to lead one of them. They encouraged everyone in the group to listen to Jesus and share what he put on their heart. Their group was thriving with the presence of Christ.

However, eventually the church leadership began to require the group leaders to have their group discuss the Sunday sermon in a more tightly controlled format. That caused conflict with our friends and their group. They eventually left having been greatly hurt both emotionally and in their spiritual life. We stayed awhile longer, but the fire in that church was rapidly cooling off.

Two more couples in the church who also left talked to us about having our own small group. So, the six of us began to meet on Sunday nights in our living room for about a year. We called it “a hath a” meeting based on 1 Corinthians 14:26 in the King James Version. “When ye come together every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation.”

Those “hath a” meetings with the 6 of us were wonderful. Yet we battled with feeling guilty that we weren’t in a traditional church. Those old wineskins were calling us back. Some friends told us about a new church, Abounding Grace, meeting in a school near us that had an open mic during worship.

We checked it out and loved it. The first meeting we couldn’t figure out who the pastor was. The worship was spiritually thrilling. People were enthusiastically praising God and even dancing before the Lord. From time to time someone would come to the mic and share a powerful insight, a Scripture, or a testimony. After about an hour, they would switch gears, send the children out, and have everybody sit and listen to a sermon by a different person each week. The new wine of God’s Spirit was flowing and I was hooked.

The pastor who so gracefully shared the pulpit (or podium in his case) was handing out copies of his book “Issues of the Heart — Let My People Go.” There was a small slip of paper inside the book that said something like: “Much of what I have written in this book is extreme, but I have been corrected by leadership and brought into a more accurate point of view.” That note made me really want to read it.

His book is all about Christians coming together to all listen to and obey the leading of God’s Spirit. I’ve read it several times and still have the copy the pastor gave me. I just opened it and saw these words: “The one-man system violates the people. One man becomes the eye, the ear, the nose, the foot, the hand.” He also wrote: “It is time to be up and doing. Their (spiritual) food will not continue to come from attending and listening; their food will be to do the will of the Father. So many need to realize that to move on in God is not rebellion. It is not a wrong sort of independence. Rather it is a natural healthy part of maturing.”

Wow! I was excited to find a pastor who articulated what I had experienced and learned from The Jesus Revolution and from being around on fire Indian Christians! Yet I was about to learn that even in that amazing church the new wine was in decline.

Stay tuned for Part 5: Finding New Wineskins Beyond a Sermon Centered Church

Photo by Luna Joie on Pexels.com

Posted in Christian spirituality, church burn out, church hurt, church leadership, new wine | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A Real Experience That Reads Like Fiction (The Misunderstanding of Christianity — Part 3: Inspired by Indian Christians)

Posted on July 24, 2026 by Steve Simms

The Misunderstanding of Christianity (Part 3: Inspired by Indian Christians)

In 1984, I was a burned-out pastor on fire for Jesus, managing a small retail lumber yard in Murfreesboro, TN. Religious obligation had me faithfully attending a nondenominational, non-charismatic church.

One Sunday, a man from India preached there. His name was MA Thomas. He was full of passion and love for Jesus. He had started hundreds of churches, 5 or 6 Bible schools, 70 or so Christian schools, several orphanages, and a few leper colonies throughout India. As he spoke, I felt an inner prompting to ask him if he could use a volunteer teacher at one of the Bible schools.

As we talked, there was an instant heart-to-heart connection. He eagerly welcomed me and invited me to come to India for three months to teach in the Bible school where he taught.

After I had made plans to go in the Fall, the pastor of the church tried to get Brother Thomas to uninvite me because I speak in tongues. Brother Thomas told the pastor something like: “My wife was raised in the Indian Pentecostal Church, and she speaks in tongues, so I have no problem with that.”

A few months later, Brother Thomas made another trip to the USA. When he returned home, I went back to India with him. We had to spend the night together in New York, and to save money, we stayed with Indian friends of his in a rundown, high-rise apartment building in the Bronx.

They served us a meal of Indian street food that one of them had just brought back from India. That food started me on more than a year-long battle with stomach problems. The next morning, I woke up with cockroaches crawling all over me. I’ve never seen that many cockroaches again. I began to wonder if I had made the right decision to go to India.

When we got on the plane to head toward India, Brother Thomas was talking to everyone. He asked one man to sit by him until the seat holder came. He quickly and joyfully began to talk to the man about Jesus. Then he asked him if the plane crashed, where would he go for eternity? The man said he didn’t know. Then he went on down the aisle to his seat.

Halfway over the Atlantic, the pilot announced that we had lost one of our two engines and would be making an emergency landing in London instead of landing in Frankfurt. The seat by Brother Thomas was still empty. Suddenly the man showed up and asked if he could sit with us. He wanted to know how he could go to Heaven.

Brother Thomas told the man about Jesus dying to save us from our sins and how Jesus is now alive and wants us to let Him live inside of us and be our inner ruler. The man prayed and surrendered his life to Jesus. Brother Thomas talked to him about how wonderful Jesus is until we landed safely (Thank God!) in London.

After much flight rescheduling, we finally arrived in New Delhi. We picked up out luggage and headed toward the train station. Then we found our second-class seats and spent more hours headed toward Kota, Rajasthan (in between New Delhi and Mumbai) where Brother Thomas lived and the Bible school is located.

We finally arrived at Brother Thomas’ tiny house beside the church. There I met his wife, his teenage son Samuel, and his daughter Elizabeth and her husband. Finally, they showed me to my small room upstairs above the church. Exhausted with stomach problems and culture shocked, I quickly fell asleep.

I was awakened the next morning for breakfast. The family had their meals together at a table in the church kitchen. There was no silverware. They just used their fingers both to serve and to eat the food. I am a germaphobe and had to depend on God the next three months to help me be polite and eat.

The first day they acclimated me to their lifestyle and routine. About 30 students lived at the Kota Bible Institute about a block away. After introducing me to the students they showed me the classroom where I would teach the Bible (in English) three hours every weekday morning. (The student’s had been taught English in school, but I had to use simple vocabulary and speak slowly for them to understand me). I also had brought a 6-booklet Navigator, fill-in-the-blanks Bible study that I taught from. Someone in the Murfreesboro church had bought enough for each student to have a set. Several of the church members had also contributed to help fund my trip.

Brother Thomas shared their daily schedule with me. He, his family, and the students gathered in the church to spontaneously and fervently pray together three times every day: from 5:30 to 6:30 AM, 2:00 to 2:30 PM, and 9:30 to 10:30 PM. Of course, I was expected to be a part of those prayer meetings. The students also spent the afternoons from 4:00 to 7:00 on the streets and door-to-do talking to people about Jesus and I often went with some of them. I had my meals with the family at the church. The students had theirs at the school.

They had powerful, passionate, and Spirit-anointed church services on Sunday morning and also on a weeknight. I was frequently asked me to preach at them. It was challenging. I was interpreted into two different Indian languages. My preaching and my Bible teaching were better received in India than anywhere I’ve ever preached or taught. They also had me preach a three-day outdoor crusade in a slum in Mumbai (formerly Bombay). I even preached at two or three Indian weddings. What a blessing it was to have my unconventional preaching style so well received!

Seeing God do amazing things through sold-out Christ followers in a passionate Spirit-led environment for three months was incredible! Indian Christians changed my life! I’m crying as I write about it.

When I was leaving to go to the train station to begin my return home, everyone crowed around me, hugged me, and powerfully sang together the song in English, “God Be With You Till We Meet Again.” What a trip!

Yet, God had more in store for me. An English man who had spoken at the church in Murfreesboro made arrangements for me to spend two weeks in England on my way home. One week I was a tourist. The other week was another powerful spiritual adventure.

I spent Christmas week in a castle owned by Torchbearers, a ministry founded by Major W. Ian Thomas. Every Christmas for many years a fairly small group of Christ-followers had gather there for an intimate, informal time of seeking the Lord together. There was some teaching and a lot of Spirit-prompted sharing, praying, and testimonies. It was 1 Corinthians 14:26 in action — what I had been searching for since the Jesus Movement.

When I returned to Middle Tennessee, I had the desire to try to get back into full-time ministry again and face more disappointment as a pastor.

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The Misunderstanding of Christianity (Part 2: The Struggles of a Misfit Pastor)

Posted on July 23, 2026 by Steve Simms

“How hard it is to enter the kingdom of God.” How hard it is to do things the way God wants to lead you instead of the way that makes you look good and feel comfortable.

The Misunderstanding of Christianity (Part 2: The Struggles of a Misfit Pastor)

While in seminary in Memphis, I preached on Sunday mornings at a tiny Presbyterian church in Truman, Arkansas. Ablaze with love for Jesus, I enthusiastically talked about Him. They politely and passively listened. Not much else happened.

Once I earned a 3-year MDiv. degree from seminary and was going through the process of being ordained a Cumberland Presbyterian minister, I was eager to go and make disciples. I was ready to take the Jesus Movement to a church as a full-time minister.

First up was the Clarksville First Cumberland Presbyterian Church in the city of Clarksville, TN. They hired me to be their assistant pastor. It was very dry and formal and had two pulpits. The head pastor preached out of one. I made announcements, read a Bible passage, and led a responsive reading out of the other. During the week, the pastor spent most of his time in his office. I visited people in the hospital and in their homes. Sometimes they would let me pray with them.

After nine months, I was thrilled to be hired by the small Mayfield Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Mayfield, KY, at the time a town of about 14,000 people. The church had an attendance of about 20 people. They were very friendly to me and liked to compliment my preaching. But I wanted more than compliments. I wanted them to get excited about Jesus.

I began to attend the Full Gospel Businessmen’s meeting in town and met the owner of the local radio station. He was as excited about Jesus as I was and began to attend the church. He asked me to visit his son who he thought was doing drugs. I did, and eventually his son and two of his son’s friends met Jesus and got on fire for Christ. They became Jesus Freaks in the town high school and began to attend the church,

The church started growing both spiritually and in numbers. Things were off to a good start. I even started taking the three high school students to Maranatha, a charismatic group of fired-up young adults that met in Paducah. Those three guys were growing stronger and stronger in the Lord.

The first year was great. The second year things began to slow down. The college guys got more interested in Maranatha than in the church.

The church had grown to about 60 on Sunday mornings. The original 20 weren’t fully comfortable with the growth. I was trying hard to get the people to testify and share during the Sunday service. The denomination didn’t like what was happening and was putting pressure on me to tone things down. I could tell that I was going to have to settle into routine religion or face a lot of conflict.

Two of my roommates from Melodyland School of Theology were pastoring small, charismatic churches, one in Carson City, NV and the other at Lake Tahoe, NV. They had a friend who was pastoring in Reno, NV. I was invited to be the volunteer assistant pastor in Reno, so off I went.

I loved the Spirit-filled praise and worship time in Reno. However, I wasn’t too fond of the way things shifted at sermon time. The people went from enthusiastic participants to mere spectators. I tried to encourage more interaction during my two years in Reno, but my suggestions were mostly ignored.

I finally took the strange job of managing a small retail lumber yard with two part-time employees and moved to Murfreesboro, TN. I started attending a mid-size nondenominational, noncharismatic church. I settled into the passive Sunday morning routine until M.A. Thomas, a visiting pastor from India who had started several thousand churches there, invited me to come and teach in one of his Bible schools for three months. (More on that in Part 3.)

My spiritual fire was recharged! When I got back to Tennessee, I decided to look for a way to get back into full-time ministry. I found a position as assistant pastor of a nondenominational church of about 200 people in Paducah, KY, called Gospel Mission Church. It was non-charismatic; I think my Holy Spirit fire was too much for them. I lasted about 3 years and was basically forced out.

Some former members of Gospel Mission Church had started their own church and asked me to be their pastor. I accepted, but for some reason they asked me to leave after a few months. I never really understood why.

Then a Pentecostal friend of mine and I started a church called “Christian Challenge Outreach.” I wrote a weekly column called “Christian Challenge” in a local newspaper. We thought the name might draw people to the new church. We decided to be co-pastors and to alternate preaching on Sunday mornings. We also tried to get people to testify and share during the service. We never grew to more than 15 or so people and had trouble paying the rent on the building, so after about six months we stopped.

I decided to give up on being a pastor and to become a motivational speaker instead. I thought that I could sneak Jesus into my speeches. So, I moved to Nashville and began to speak to professional associations and civic clubs. I started attending a charismatic church start-up and thought I would focus on a speaking career. But God had other plans. (More on that in Part 4)

five small historical churches and one large Gothic cathedral in a rural village surrounded by green fields and trees
A collection of five small historical churches with a large Gothic cathedral in a peaceful countryside setting
Posted in church hurt, church leadership, contemporary church, Cumberland Presbyterian Church, pastoring | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Misunderstanding of Christianity (Part 1: The Jesus Revolution From Southern Style to Southern Cal Style)

Posted on July 22, 2026 by Steve Simms

My roommate, Jimmy Hoppers, and I showed up at a small Southern college in the fall of 1969 — the University of Tennessee Martin (UTM) in rural West Tennessee. Little did we know that it would drastically change our lives in unexpected ways. Jimmy has written about our experiences in a book called “The Jesus Revolution Southern Style.”

It was there at UTM that, for the first time in my life, I encountered Jesus as a living reality rather than as a religious story. I was swept into a movement of God that was unorganized, mostly unchurched, Spirit-led, supernatural, and the most exciting time of my life.

Multitudes of students were getting caught up in Jesus. We would spontaneously gather all across campus to talk about Jesus and to Him. We were part of a spiritual movement that was producing Southern Jesus Freaks.

After graduating, I wanted to continue my Jesus Revolution experiences, so I moved to Southern California to attend Melodyland School of Theology—a charismatic seminary in Anaheim not too far from Calvary Chapel.

My first day there, I was waiting in line to register. When my name was called, a guy behind me said, “Frank Beard said to tell you hello.” Frank Beard was a fellow UTM Jesus lover. The guy behind me, Marlon Rains, had met Frank in Atlanta. I told him the motel where I was staying. Then I went on to register.

My father and brother had driven to Anaheim with me and were planning to fly back after a week. I was searching for an apartment but having no success. The day before my family was going to leave, there was a knock on our door. When I opened it, I saw Marlon Raines with two other guys, Tom Griner and Eric Stovesand. He said, “We’ve rented an apartment and need another roommate. Would you like to join us?”

With great relief, I jumped at the chance. Those three guys became lifelong friends. They loved Jesus so much! Marlon and Eric were from St. Louis; Tom grew up in the South. Together in our friendship, we continued to experience the Spirit-led spontaneity of the Southern-style Jesus Revolution.

However, things were different in Southern Cal. The School of Theology was on the same property as Melodyland Christian Center, one of the first megachurches in the USA. The classes began in an amazing way. They would start with about five minutes of spontaneous prayer and praise (even sometimes including singing in tongues). Then they would shift into classroom style lectures.

I loved the beginnings of the classes, and I learned a lot from the lectures, but the Southern style Spirit-led interaction was hard to find in the California Jesus Revolution. My three roommates and our friends frequently experienced it among ourselves however other than that it seemed rare.

I searched for it at Melodyland Christian Center. The church services there were anointed with great teaching, but the people in the huge congregation were basically kept as spectators. On Saturday nights I would sometimes go to a Jesus Music concert (before it was called Contemporary Christian Music) at Calvary Chapel (the church featured in the movie and book “The Jesus Revolution”).

In spite of the spiritually, the school and the churches around us were training us to conform to and to be leaders in the passive audience model of church. In its early days, the school was teaching us that if we had a grown up in a denominational church we should go back into that denomination and become a pastor so we could change it from within.

They convinced me. I had been an active member of a Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and they had a very small seminary in Memphis, Tennessee.

So, after three semesters at Melodyland, I transferred to Memphis Theological Seminary. It was religion Southern style — very structured, analytical, formal, controlled, and dry. Several of the professors didn’t even believe what the Bible clearly taught. I endured and was able to keep God’s fire burning in my heart by boldly speaking up about the living Jesus, finding and reading deeply spiritual books from the school library, daily devouring the Bible, and frequently praying in tongues.

I graduated and was eventually ordained as a Cumberland Presbyterian pastor. What a misfit I was. They were not accustomed to a Jesus Freak pastor. I’ll talk about my pastoring experiences in another post.

I believe that spectator-style church is a misunderstanding of Christianity. Learn how to experience Christ beyond traditional church. Google: Beyond Church Ekklesia.

Posted in Jesus calling, Jesus freaks, Jesus Movement, Jesus prayer, Jesus revolution | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Let Living Faith Be Your Go-To App

Posted on July 21, 2026 by Steve Simms

Faith? Faith is faithfully relying on and depending on God with or without a sign!

God doesn’t want people to be stuck in an outward form of godliness. (2 Timothy 3:5) He wants us to be inwardly empowered by faith. (Galatians 3:11) Faith unapplied is God denied.

God doesn’t want us to settle for sermons. He wants us to be directly led by the promptings of His Spirit. (Romans 8:14) He doesn’t want us to simply listen to lectures about the written word. God wants us to be faithful doers of it. (James 1:22-25) He wants us to listen to and obey Jesus, the living Word. (Hebrews 4:12, John 1:1-14)

Faith isn’t about just following the rules. (Titus 3:5) It’s about living by God’s righteousness, peace, and joy. (Romans 14:17) It’s not only about church attendance. It’s about the ongoing experience of the powerful presence of “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:27)

It’s not about pride. It’s about humbly letting God Himself be your guide. (James 4:6) It’s not merely about Bible information. It’s about holy transformation. (2 Corinthians 5:17) It’s about letting the words of the Bible burn in your heart. (Luke 24:32)

True Christianity’s not about your political views or what’s in the news. It’s about letting the risen Jesus be your King and continually govern you from within. (Matthew 6:33) It’s about radical loyalty and obedience to the inner kingdom of God. (Luke 17:20-21)

Have you learned to walk in the Spirit? (Galatians 5:16) Are you willing to continually notice Christ’s voice and to hear it and obey it? (John 10:27) That’s what God wants for you. (2 Peter 3:9) Refuse to settle for less. Google: Beyond Church Ekklesia.

(The picture is AI-generated. The writing was all generated within me as I listened to the Holy Spirit and let Him transpose the words in my heart.)

Hand holding smartphone displaying The Faith App with devotional and Bible study options
A person is using The Faith App to follow a daily devotional in a cozy living room.
Posted in faith, faith and politics, faith in action, faith in God, justification by faith | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Be Inspired!

Posted on July 20, 2026 by Steve Simms

Religious traditions or heart-to-heart togetherness? Which truly inspires?

Many Christians throughout history have set aside God’s 50+ New Testament “one another” commandments in order to observe their own Sunday morning traditions. (Mark 7:9) Instead of assembling together to “spur one another on to love and good works” and to “encourage one another,” (Hebrews 10:24-25) they have gathered to passively sit through religious program after program.

If you’re satisfied with superficial Christianity that merely teaches human rules, (Mark 7:6-7) you’re lukewarm and you need to be heated up. (Revelation 3:16) If your faith isn’t a roaring fire within you, fan it into flame before it’s too late. (2 Timothy 1:6)

Lectures can lay out the letter of the law, but they can’t empower people to live daily in the spirit of the law. (2 Corinthians 3:6) Only God the Holy Spirit can do that. (Acts 1:8)

Humble, repentant, open-hearted prayer leads to direct connection with God the Spirit. (James 4:6) A church service that doesn’t enable and empower people to connect directly and heart-to-heart with “Christ in you, the hope of glory,” (Colossians 1:27) and with other Christ-followers may be what the Bible calls a powerless form of godliness. (2 Timothy 3:5)

Photo by Diva Plavalaguna on Pexels.com
Posted in Christian spirituality, inspiration, inspirational, religious tradition, spiritual awakening | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment