Category Archives: What is church?

My Top 12 Blogs For 2011

Posted on December 29, 2011 by Steve Simms

Here are links to my Top 12 Blogs For 2o11: #1) Did Oprah Read My Book #2) Who’s My #1 Greatest American? William Lloyd Garrison #3) Talk About Expensive Gas #4) Where Did Sojourner Truth Get Her Name? #5) Church … Continue reading →

Posted in American, Americans, Bible, black history, champions, Christ, Christianity, Christmas, church, church history, church structure, history, Holy Spirit, Jesus, Jesus Christ, kingdom of God, life, lifestyles, Lord, morality, motivation, movement, mystery, mysticism, Occupy Wall Street, Oh my God, Oprah, organic church, popular culture, praise and worship, prayer, race, racism, religion, repent, self-help, sex, sex in marriage, simple church, sin, spiritual, spiritual disciplines, spiritual formation, spiritual growth, thinking, thoughts, Uncategorized, values, What is church?, words, worship | Tagged 1, 3rd, 70 AD, academic, Antioch, book, Christmas, church, claims, did, epidemic, expensive gas, Free Gas, from, get, great missionary, greatest American, history's most important dates, how did, intellect votech, lab, launch, leader, lecture, name, New Testament, Occupy till I come, Occupy Wall Street, one of, Oprah, read, reading, revival, Scriptures, Sojourner Truth, talk about, tank, ten most disobeyed, thank you, the best kind of sex, think, Virgin Birth, what the church can learn, where did, Who's, William J. Seymour, William Lloyd Garrison, work, world-wide | Leave a comment

Bringing In The New Year — Party Or Pray?

Posted on December 28, 2011 by Steve Simms

The most popular way to bring in the New Year is to party — to celebrate the mere passing of time (a New Year is coming, the old one is passing away) yahoo! However, many people will admit that New … Continue reading →

Posted in Christianity, church, courage, East Nashville, God, house church, hung over, Music City, New Year, New Years' Eve, organic church, party, popular culture, praise and worship, prayer, prayer walking, religion, simple church, spiritual, spiritual formation, spiritual growth, support group, Tennessee, The Salvation Army, Uncategorized, values, What is church?, worship | Tagged 2013, a New Year's coming, bring in the New Year, celebrate, party, prayer | Leave a comment

The Christmas Gift Most Commonly Left Unopened

Posted on December 27, 2011 by Steve Simms

Every year some Christmas gifts remain unopened. They are lost and/or forgotten in the holiday hustle, buried under discarded wrapping paper, accidentally tossed with the trash. So what is the most commonly unopened Christmas gift? You would think it would … Continue reading →

Posted in alternative lifestyle, apologists, Berry Street, Berry Street Worship Center, Christianity, Christmas, Christmas carols, Christmas Eve, Christmas gifts, church, conversion, East Nashville, feelings, glory, God, guidance, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Jesus Movement, Jesus Take The Wheel, kingdom of God, lifestyles, meaning, miracles, movement, Music City, mystery, mysticism, non-material reality, organic church, proof of God, Reason For The Season, recovery, religion, repent, salvation, saved, Savior, simple church, spiritual, spiritual disciplines, spiritual formation, spiritual growth, spiritual skills, spiritual warfare, supernatural, support group, Tennessee, The Salvation Army, Uncategorized, values, What is church?, Why be a Christian?, worship | Tagged 225 Berry St., 37207, actual presence, amazing, and/or, Berry Street, birthday, bold moniker, burried, celebration, Christ in you, Christ's presence, Christmas, Christmas gifts, come, conscious awareness, discarded wrapping papper, doing, dubbed, easily misplaced, Every year, everyday people, experience, fades into memory, forgotten, God with us, God's gift, healing, holiday hustle, humans, ignored, Immanuel, ink pens, Jesus Christ one of His names, jewelery, keeps us alive, life-transforming, lost, mayhem, means, miss, misses, much hoopla, Nashville, need help, no matter how small, normal, one of the smaller, open, place, rubble, sessions, show and tell, so real, Sundays, survive the Christmas morning, the hope of glory, the invisible air, the most commonly unopened Christmas gift, The Salvation Army, TN, tossed with the trash, treasured, under tree, unopened, unwrapping, use, valuable, visit, what a shame, Worship Center, you can feel, you would think | 3 Comments

Which Church Organizational Structure Is From God?

Posted on December 23, 2011 by Steve Simms

As far as I know, all the thousands of denominations and independent churches around the world claim that their organizational structure is from God. (At least, I’ve never heard of a church saying: “Our church’s organizational chart is man-made.”) Here … Continue reading →

Posted in apostolic succession, Berry Street, Berry Street Worship Center, CEO pastor, church, church structure, congregational, Nashville, organic church, Presbyterian, simple church, Tennessee, The Salvation Army, What is church? | Tagged 100, a part of the same, action The Salvation Army, actively working, amazed, animates, apostolic succession, around the world, as far as I know, authority, Berry Street, bishop, body, by nerves, by the laying on of hands, causes, centers, CEO, Christian, church saying, churches, claim, come, congregational, congregations, continuous line, corporation, decisions, denominations, directly connected, disciples, each other, ecclesia, elected representatives, exercise, flowing through, for example, free, from God, from person to person, function, function together, functioning, give up on the idea, glory of God, going back to the first apostles, group, head of the church, hierarchy, Holy Spirit, human body, human direction, human organization, ignore, in the hands, independent churches, Jesus, Jesus Christ, keeps us together, life of God, made by vote, major decisions, majority rule, man-made, meaning, meeting, members, Nashville, never heard of, New Testament, of the body, one, one man, ordained, organization, organizational, organizational chart, organizational structure, organizational structures, passed down, pastor, Person in authority, positional authority, positions, Presbyterian, presbyters, presbytery, present, programming, rarity, reading, scattered here and there, Scriptures, see, seeks, Spirit-led church, spiritual, spiritual authority, spiritual descendants, style of church, Sunday, support, system, Tennessee, the Apostles, the Biblical, the Gentles lord it over, thousands of denominations, titles, told His, various members, voice of, voting, Worship Center | 6 Comments

Improv Works Well In Comedy — Could It Work In Church?

Posted on December 21, 2011 by Steve Simms

Improv is a shortened version of the word improvisation. It refers to acting or creating in the moment rather than planning one’s words and actions ahead of time. It can be thought of as “on the spur of the moment” … Continue reading →

Posted in Berry Street, Berry Street Worship Center, church, comedians, comedy, freedom, house church, humor, improv, improvisation, Jesus, Jesus Christ, joy, Nashville, organic church, Quotations, Quotes, religion, simple church, spiritual, spiritual growth, supernatural, The Salvation Army, thoughts, What is church?, words | Tagged 225 Berry St., 37207, a great concept, a woman, accumulated yearnings, acting, actions, activity, afterwards, ahead of time, all that was shared, amazed, Americans, another person's, at how, because, Berry Street, Bod becomes morre real, built up, can be, church building, come see, comedians, comedy, controlled, could improv work in church, create, creating in the moment, cure what ails you, cures what ails, dreams, each, encouraged, encouraging words, enjoy, exercise, fit together, for yourself, from, gather, gifts of the Spirit, group of people, grow in love, happening, heart, humor, improv, improv in comedy, improvisation, in and through, just a theory, Last Sunday, least likely, lives, Liz Allen, love for Jesus, love it, Mark Batterson, Nashville, off the cuff, on a Sunday morning, on the spur of the moment, one another, one of the places, picture this, planned, planning one's words, pray for one another, presented by one person, probablly, proclaim, put it all together, quotation, rather than, refers to, said, Scriptures, services, short teachings, shortened, showed them, someone says, something, Spirit led, spontaneously interacting, Tennessee, testify, the church, the expression, the most familiar use of, the person of the Holy Spirit, The Salvation Army, the whole group, thought of, to the smallest detail, today, took notes, triggers, version, What God is doing, who has something to share, Why, wisdom of the soul, with each other, word, working, Worship Center, Yehudi Menuhin | 5 Comments

Are Sermons Effective?

Posted on December 9, 2011 by Steve Simms

Have you ever tested the effectiveness of sermons? I did. I was a brand new pastor in my first church — Mayfield Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Mayfield, Kentucky. After finishing three years of seminary, I had been preaching for about … Continue reading →

Posted in Berry Street, Berry Street Worship Center, Christ, Christianity, church, Cumberland Presybterian Church, East Nashville, house church, I Corinthians 14:26, kingdom of God, lifestyles, movement, mystery, mysticism, Nashville, organic church, praise and worship, religion, sermons, simple church, spiritual formation, spiritual growth, spiritual skills, supernatural, The Salvation Army, Uncategorized, values, What is church?, worship | Tagged 225 Berry St., 37207, AA, afternoon, alcoholics, Alcoholics Anonymous, American, American Christianity, an oral test, Berry Street Worship Center, better caught than taught, brand new, called, captured by, Christianity, church meeting, church setting, congregation, considered, continued, creating, culture, Cumberland Presbyterian, decided, doctrines, effectiveness of sermons, evening, everyone has a, experience, exploded, facts, fads, first church, following, follows trends, functions, grow, help people change, hot to hold, house church, however, hymn, ineffective, influencing, interpretation, job description, Kentucky, lecture, less than, lifestyles, like, little happens, little power, Mayfield, meetings, membership, message, mind, much more, Nashville, noble, nobody, none, one simple and easy question, open participation, openly, organic church, overwhelming, passively, pastor, Paul of Tarsus, Paul's instructions, poems, preach, preaching, prepared in a, professional, questions, requires more than, response, revelation, right, shocked, simple church, simple questions, sit and listen, society, society's, something more than, sometimes, started, Sunday morning, test, the basic point, the main topic, The Salvation Army, three years of seminary, TN, to build, to reach people, tongue, treating, try, type, virtuous, visit, weekly, When you come together, word of instruction | 26 Comments

I Grew Up In Church Without God

Posted on November 16, 2011 by Steve Simms

My parents tell me that when I was a toddler, I used to talk to them about God. They didn’t go to church or have much interest in spiritual things, so they were quite surprised by my interest in God and … Continue reading →

Posted in Amazing Grace, awe, Berry Street, Berry Street Worship Center, Bible, Boy Scouts, change, Christianity, church, college, college students, East Nashville, feelings, fire, freedom, God, Hindu, Holy Holy Holy, I Corinthians 14:26, Jesus, Jesus freaks, Kumbaya, lifestyles, Nashville, non-material reality, organic church, Presbyterian, religion, revelation, self-image, simple church, spiritual, supernatural, The Salvation Army, Uncategorized, University of Tennessee Martin, What is church?, Why be a Christian?, worship | Tagged 10:45 am, 225 Berry St., 37207, 41 years ago, a Christian, a million miles away, a real believer in, about God, actual Presence of, agnostic, all-consuming, amazing, an official church member, another thought, Arkansas, attending church, Berry Street Worship Center, Boy Scout, burns in my heart, campfire, childhood years, Christ, Christianity, closer to God, come and see for yourself, Come by here, Communicant's Class, confusing doctrines, congregation, creatively. modeled, Cumberland Presbyterian Church, describes, do church, dynamic relationship, eerie, elementary school, entered, every few monts, experienced, experiencing God, faint sense, felt, focused on, freely, freshman, funny thing, given the freedom, go to church, God's absence, God's awesome presence, high schook, Hindu, Holy Holy Holy, how to connect, hymn, I Corinthians 14:26, If you were born, immeciately, interest in God, invited to start, Jackson, Jesus Freaks, Jonesboro, junior year, know God, knowing God, Kumbaya, listened, living, living God, make me happy, mind, modern, more present, more real, mother, my Lord, Nashville, non-traditional, odd thought, older, parents, participate, passively, people, physical surroundings, popped into my mind, preached, preacher, Presbyterian Church, realized, regularly attending, rejected, relating to God, remember, results, rituals, sensed, series of classes, shouldn't church, shows up, something stirring inside, spiritual condition, spiritual fire, spiritual things, spiritually empty, suddenly exposed, Sunday morning, Sunday sermon, Sundays, support group, surprised, sweet Presence, talk, Tennessee, the Bible, The Salvation Army, The University of Tennessee Martin, think back to, TN, toddler, usher in, verse, Why do you think you are, with Jesus, wonder, wondered, words, you will be blessed | 4 Comments

Down By The Spout Where God’s Glory Pours Out

Posted on November 1, 2011 by Steve Simms

I was in a church once and the pastor was trying to get some of the people sitting in the back rows to come and sit near the front. He told them: “Come down by the spout where the glory … Continue reading →

Posted in awe, Berry Street, Berry Street Worship Center, East Nashville, God, Holy Spirit, house church, life, lifestyles, Nashville, Oh my God, spiritual, The Salvation Army, What is church? | Tagged 225 Berry Street, 37207, allowed to work, awe, back, Berry Street Worship Center, Bible, carries, catch the current Holy Spirit's, church, church building, cultivate, degree, denominational affiliation, desires, discovers, eample, East Nashville, encounter, felt, flow, free, front, glory, glory of God, God's glory, God's presence, God's voice, heart, humbly, inner, inner rivers, Isaiah, Jesus said, learn, listen, manifest glory, meeting, meets, midst, most important thing, Nashville, non-traditional, obey, opinions, Out of your innermost being, overwhelmed, pastor, people, pours out, present, prophet, Quench not the Spirit, respond, responsive, rivers of living water, rows, sense, shall flow, spout, Sunday, Sundays, temple, The Salvation Army, thoughts, undone, work | 3 Comments

RAG — Religion, Atheism, Or God?

Posted on October 27, 2011 by Steve Simms

The idea of a Creator causes people to embrace one of three positions: RAG. That is, religion, atheism, or living God? Religion can be defined as acknowledging the existence of God and attempting to placate Him by formal human activity such … Continue reading →

Posted in Atheists, Berry Street, Berry Street Worship Center, Christianity, church, church history, Creator, East Nashville, freedom, God, history, Holy Spirit, house church, life, lifestyles, meaning, mysticism, organic church, popular culture, religion, simple church, spiritual, The Salvation Army, thinking, Uncategorized, values, What is church?, worship | Tagged 10:45, 225 Berry Street, 37207, a place, acknowledging, activity, actual Creator, amazing, and have your being, anyone, atheism, attempting to placate, Berry Street, but denying the power thereof, but hate your brother, can be found in libraries, check it out, close connection, come, couple, Creator, daily live, defined, denial of God, doing in their lives, East Nashville, formal, free, full of, Give, God, God's, good picture, hates his brother, having a form of godliness, he loves God, held, heretics, Him, human, human history, if a man says, if you have never, if you say you love God, In Him you live, kill, led by, liturgy, lived, lives as if, lives beyond, living God, lovers of the living God, met, millions of people, move, Nashville, near, New Testament, nowadays, of all that is, on the internet, one of three, openly, persecute, political power, positions RAG, power, practical atheism, proclaimed atheism, relationship stories, religion, rituals, sermon free church, share stories, show and tell, sincere, society, strongly influenced, Sundays, supernatural presence, the existence of God, the ground of all being, The Salvation Army, the truth is not in you, there is no God, through out, Twentieth Century, Twientieth Century, two kinds, until, used, verball, verses, weekly, what, what God has done, where, Worship Center, you're a hypocrite | 1 Comment

Finding Nashville’s Most Unique Church With Your GPS

Posted on October 21, 2011 by Steve Simms

–Get out your GPS (God’s Positioning System)– Enter that you are looking for a church where: * People are more important than programs; * Encouragement is more important than entertainment * Love is more important than liturgy: * Faith is … Continue reading →

Posted in alternative lifestyle, Berry Street, Berry Street Worship Center, church, God, house church, I Corinthians 14:26, Jesus, Jesus Christ, lifestyles, meaning, movement, Music City, mysticism, Nashville, organic church, popular culture, religion, simple church, support group, The Salvation Army, values, What is church? | Tagged 10:45, 225 Berry Street, 37207, about, always, amazing, Berry Street, called, church, come, concepts, contagion, creating, encouragement, enter, entertainment, excitement, experience, faith, for yourself, fund raising, get out your, God's Positioning System, GPS, house church, however, Jesus, Jesus Christ, lead, lecture series, liturgy, lives, looking for, love, meetings, meets, more important than, more like, mornings, most unique, names, Nashville, Nashville's, organic church, participation, passivity, people, programs, several, show and tell, simple church, Sunday, support group, The Salvation Army, theology, TN, type, very well, what God has done, words can't describe, Worship Center | 6 Comments

Category Archives: What is church?

My Top 12 Blogs For 2011

Bringing In The New Year — Party Or Pray?

The Christmas Gift Most Commonly Left Unopened

Are Sermons Effective?

I Grew Up In Church Without God

Down By The Spout Where God’s Glory Pours Out

Finding Nashville’s Most Unique Church With Your GPS

These elephants want to inspire you! Search Amazon for: Elephants INspiring The Room.

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Beyond Church: An Invitation To Experience The Lost Word Of The Bible

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