Passionized or pacified?

Posted on August 23, 2018 by Steve Simms

Christianity should activate people with fire in their soul. Instead it too often seems to pacify them rather than passionizing them.

If Christ is dead, a church meeting following Him leads to anarchy. If Christ is alive, following Him leads to supernatural glory!

Without the risen Jesus, church needs a CEO type authority. With Jesus leading us, we can all function equal sisters and brothers in Christ.

The early Christians met like a group counseling session facilitated by the risen Jesus. (See 1 Corinthians 14:26.) Christians originally met to make supernatural contact with God, but gradually replaced that idea with talk and tradition about God.

Religious tradition was built on other people’s experiences with God. True faith is built on your own experiences with God! Tradition represents faint memories of God’s fire in the past, but we desperately need Him to blaze in the present!

For many people, church tradition is their sense of security, and their security keeps them from the living God. When tradition is the bedrock of religion it can easily become a roadblock to the reality of Christ.

The Pharisees in the Bible replaced love with programs and rules. However, Christ-followers are called to always be saturated with, guided by, and passionized by God’s supernatural love.

To hear about God without experiencing His reality is like listening to a talk about water when your mouth is dry. Substituting programs for direct contact with God leaves Christians dry and lethargic and living from religious program to religious program.

The 12 steps encourage “conscious contact with God,” but church seems to prefer information about God more than contact with Him. (Conscious contact with the living God is infinitely more powerful than a talk about God can ever be.)

Spiritualists meet in a séance to contact spirits. However, Christians seem content for church to be a mere talk about God. Seances try to connect living people with the dead, but true Christianity connects spiritually dead people with the living Jesus.

Christianity in the Bible is full of ongoing manifestations of God’s presence and supernatural works. Let’s get back to the Bible.

Although a church service seldom offers opportunities for ordinary people to do ministry, real life is full of those opportunities. Perhaps Christians could meet, not to just hear a talk about living water and it’s benefits, but to excitedly jump in and enjoy it together!

Taverns, and honky-tonks let people experience interactive community, not just sit and listen to the bartender. (Is that a good idea for church?)

 

Posted in authority, CEO, honky tonks, Jesus CEO, memory, nontraditional, passivity, security, spirit, spiritual authority, spiritual enemies, spiritual experiences, spiritual healing, spiritual hunger, spiritual listening, spiritual maturity, spiritual passion, spiritual presence, spiritual prompting, spiritual reading, spiritual reality, spiritual themes, spiritual voices, spiritualism, tradition, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Spiritual authority & the kingdom of God

Posted on August 23, 2018 by Steve Simms

Christ wants to exercise His authority and build God’s kingdom, but, too often, church gives men the authority to override Him. However, the kingdom of God begins to manifest when people faithfully make the risen Jesus their supreme authority. Any authority that tells people to violate God’s authority is making people choose between God or man. (See Acts 5:29.)

Spiritual authority comes from humility and faithfulness to the risen Jesus, not from an official church office. The living Jesus Christ is the Bridge to God! Don’t follow religious authorities off the Bridge! Follow Jesus and His Word! Pastors and priests have been trained to administer with institutional authority, rather than to serve with supernatural authority.

People who reject God’s authority in their life, don’t want God’s love. They want Him to leave them alone. Every Christ-follower is a priest and is called to be a loving light to the people around them.

Many people think that God’s love makes Him passive and wimpy, approving of things that are wrong. That’s apathy; not love!

Closed, hard hearts can’t be led by the Spirit. Surrendered, tender hearts can be. The use of profanity is a sign of a hard heart and of insecurity, not of confidence. Confident, open-hearted people feel no need to use it.

The Bible calls Christ-followers “the body of Christ,” not a religious body. They should be led by the living Christ, not by men.

Church focuses on informing people who are already filled with information but are famished for love. Meet to love!

Posted in 'Tis The Gift To Be Simple, authority, collaborative learning, community, community building, community organizer, concepts of God, if all prophesy, In His steps, in the Spirit, living out the Gospel, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Getting drunk with living water on your tongue

Posted on August 22, 2018 by Steve Simms

It’s easy to drink your way to inebriation but it’s more powerful to think your way to inspiration! God wants to renew your mind, not just inform you. You may firmly think you’ll not change but God want’s to change your thinking. God wants you to live a supernatural saga, not just to stick with a systematized, religious script.

At the first view of Christianity in Acts chapter 2, people in Jerusalem thought the Christ-followers were drunk. I wonder why that doesn’t happen today. Perhaps that’s because, it’s easier to be ego-driven, fear-driven, anger-driven, or tradition-bound, than Spirit-led.

What you allow to continually influence your life will determine your feelings, your behaviors and your destiny. Let the Holy Spirit be your main influence.

Tradition repeats the same path over and over, but the Holy Spirit is continually trying to lead us beyond where we have been. Mindless routine continually repeats the ordinary, but the Holy Spirit leads to the extraordinary! Follow the Spirit! When hearing a weekly sermon is a substitute for reading the Bible with your heart open to the Spirit, Christianity is in trouble.

When Spirit-led people meet to allow the Spirit to lead them as a group, miracles happen! The Bible says that the children of God are “led by the Spirit.” How is the Spirit leading you today? If the Holy Spirit isn’t actively leading you, then someone (or something) else is.

To be led by the Spirit, don’t act on impulse, habit, or tradition. Instead, search the Bible and your conscience for the will of God.

The Christian’s calling and fulfillment is to faithfully follow the Spirit, not to blindly swallow religious ideas. We can’t be led by the Spirit if we insist on doing things our way. We must lay down our will for God’s will. Christianity’s not about self-fulfillment or self-forgiveness. It’s about being empty of self and filled with the risen Jesus.

Christianity is about a shared life. Christ wants to fill you His presence (as the Holy Spirit) and daily live His supernatural life in and through you.

Don’t wait until you die to meet your maker. Take time to listen to God today. A bucket list that doesn’t include, “get to know Jesus in an intimate, personal way,” is too short!

Speaking in tongues is an inside joyride with the Holy Spirit that will lift you out of your self-focus. While praying in tongues I said the word “Misha” several times and asked God what it meant. It flashed in my mind that it referred to Jesus. I searched it and found out that it is of Hebrew origin and means “who is like God.”

Don’t get so focused on disagreeing with people that you miss the blessing of connecting with them heart-to-heart. Let’s meet in Jesus’ name, not to sit and be entertained, but to be trained in hands-on ministry to one another.

Posted in praying in tongues, spiritual, spiritual authority, spiritual discernment, spiritual disciplines, spiritual drunkenness, spiritual experience, spiritual fire, spiritual flow, spiritual formation, spiritual gifts, spiritual growth, spiritual innovation, spiritual intoxication, spiritual leadings, spiritual passion, spiritual promtings, spiritual worship, spirituality, tongues, Uncategorized, unknown tongues, what is the Holy Spirit | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Is there too much agreement in church?

Posted on August 22, 2018 by Steve Simms

Passive agreement is overrated and often bland. Connecting with people heart-to-heart is much more powerful and fulfilling.

Social media trains people to be interactive while church continues to insist on keeping people passive and silent. However, when most of the members are required to sit and listen, year after year, the body of Christ is paralyzed.

When Christianity was made to fit into an agreeable Sunday morning comfort zone, it lost much of its power. Padded pews (or seats), padded sermons, and padded hearts don’t make for vibrant Christianity.

Too many Christians are comfortably flat-lining on a spiritual plain, rather than soaring on the Holy Spirit’s plane. Church should be like an airport–lead people to the plane of the Holy Spirit and let them fly. If you don’t surrender to the Holy Spirit with a tender heart, you’ll hinder Him.

If you don’t force yourself to obey God speaking in your conscience, you’ll be in rebellion against the kingdom of God.

Church could free people up like a square dance–everybody listen to Jesus call the meeting and do-see-do! Programs are everywhere at everybody’s fingertips. Why should people attend church to watch one more program?

If Christians met, not to just to listen, but to freely express the unspeakable joy of the Lord, we could change the world. When happiness comes from Christ within there’s no need to “pursue” it. You just let it flow as a joyous fountain. Hearing a talk about God is okay. Experiencing the joy of the Lord is better. Contagiously spreading God’s joy is world-changing.

Posted in conscience, happiness, heart, heart care, heart religion, heart-felt love, hearts on fire, inner joy, joy, joy unspeakable, paralysis, paralyzed, Uncategorized, unhappiness | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Priests & other church leaders

Posted on August 22, 2018 by Steve Simms

Being hurt by religion is sometimes the first step toward learning to listen to and follow the risen Jesus. It helps us look beyond religious leaders to Christ.

The body of Christ should be an environment of radical humility, honesty, and healing–not of control and abuse! It should be so filled with love and light that abusers’ and users’ hearts are exposed and they either change or leave. Too often church services are conducted offline, disconnected from the risen Jesus.

Leaders with limited accountability will begin to abuse their power. Jesus calls all His followers to “walk in the light.”

If the priesthood and ministry produce abusive leaders, perhaps there’s a more biblical way to do church. See 1 Corinthians 14:26. If you falsely believe that you need someone to hear God for you, you won’t listen to God for yourself.

Without the innernet, a network of connected hearts, church is just a religious meeting. The first time I experienced a group of equals, hand-in-hand in heart-felt, Spirit-prompted prayer, it changed my life. True Christianity offers forgiveness for the past, power to live a pure, kind, and loving life in the present, and an amazing forever!

If religion doesn’t transport people into God’s presence, it’s like getting on a tour bus and hearing a talk without going anywhere. Sit still and listen church makes me feel like a natural spectator, not like a supernatural participant.

Posted in 1 Corinthians 14, biblical Christianity, Christianity, control, dishonesty, early Christianity, God's presence, healing, honesty, humility, sexual harassment, simple church, Uncategorized, walk in the light | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Priests behaving badly in Pensylvania

Posted on August 15, 2018 by Steve Simms

A grand jury report issued on August 14 revealed that Roman Catholic bishops in Pennsylvania covered up child sexual abuse by more than 300 priests that took place over a period of 70 years. (A week before that numerous allegations of sexual harassment against, Bill Hybels, a prominent, Protestant megachurch pastor, were revealed.) Those news reports inspired these thoughts:

Congregations give way too much power to one-man. Holding power over others in church is dangerous. Perhaps by trusting priests and pastors with too much power church has opened the door for predatory behavior.  Maybe we should try equality, honesty, humility and mutual accountability instead of religious hierarchy.

Assuming that priests and pastors won’t do wrong and need no accountability to church members, often fulfills Jesus’ words, “the blind leading the blind.” When a priest or preacher begins to think that he is the authority, he has taken the first step on the road to abuse.

Church member’s voices are as important as the priest’s or preacher’s voice. Their silence is complicit support of a minister’s words and actions. The Bible says, “Submit to one another.” The failure of priests and preachers to obey that command leads to much pain and abuse in church.

Church power corrupts. Jesus told His followers not to “lord it over” others. We need equality in Christ’s body, not hierarchy.

When preachers and priests think they aren’t accountable to church members, they crack open a door that can lead to terrible abuse. No one man in church should ever be exalted above practical, direct accountability and openness to the other members.

Priests and preachers can do evil things. Like any Christian they need real accountability to the body of Christ (not just to a religious hierarchy).

Sin is like gravity. If we don’t continually work against it, it will pull us down and hold us there. That even applies to priests and preachers!

So what can be done? Church needs to go back to the biblical concept of mutual submission and open ministry to one another, and quit relying an the idea of an exalted priesthood or ordained ministry. For a book about how to do that, check out:  BEYOND CHURCH: AN INVITATION TO EXPERIENCE THE LOST WORD OF THE BIBLE–EKKLESIA.

Posted in abuse, Bill Hybels, bishops, Catholic priest, child abuse, church, church leadership, hierarchy, Lord it over, preachers, priesthood, religion, sexual harassment, sin, sinner, sinners, sins, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A preacher’s tweak once a week isn’t enough

Posted on August 15, 2018 by Steve Simms

Christianity has to be more than a preacher’s little tweak once a week. All Christians (not just one per church) are called and ordained to preach the Gospel–to tell people the good news about Christ!

The traditional church  service typically doesn’t expect (or allow) God to do anything. He’s made a mere spectator. Church also makes people spectators watching a program. God wants us to be like living puppets animated from within by the risen Christ. Complacency, division, harassment, domination, lack of influence, show that church isn’t working the way it’s supposed to.

Church expects people to sit and look like they’re listening, but doesn’t expect them to remember or to do anything that was said. It trains people to ignore Spirit prompts and to listen to a preacher instead.

We can’t follow a script and follow the Holy Spirit at the same time. We have to choose. (When Jesus is present in a meeting there’s no need for a script). The Holy Spirit wants to give insight and revelation directly to every believer’s heart and not be confined to a sermon. When you keep the risen Jesus in sight, insight abounds!

Instead of a talk about the Lord, maybe church could prepare the way for the Lord to manifest His presence, like John the Baptist did. (Unfortunately religion seems to have little or no room for the living, resurrected Jesus Christ to demonstrate His presence and power.) The living Word of God is Christ’s presence. Church and the Bible shouldn’t be religion, but live-wire connections with Christ.

We need the living God to ignite and fan His fire in our hearts, not religious fanfare. The risen Jesus easily gets lost in church fanfare, but when people simply share what He’s doing in their lives, Jesus shows up.

Without a program, a preacher, and a sermon, church would have to listen to and follow the Spirit. Hey, that’s not a bad idea! To be a Christian we need to be Christ-accountable. It’s hard to be a Christ-follower if we ignore the risen Jesus.

Church seems to cultivate spiritual complacency. Christ creates spiritual contagion. Do you have a current Christ-connection? Christianity with complacency creates a contradiction! God is calling church to come out of its culture of complacency to continually & contagiously celebrate Christ.

Sermon-hearing without accountability or expectation to apply what is heard seems to have little impact on people or society. Sermons have limited results. Inspiring people to act on what they know is better. Facilitating Spirit-led action-taking is best!

If Christ is living in you, you don’t need to hear more talks about Him. You need to let Him overflow and carry you in His current.

The living Jesus is the best programmer. When He is allowed to run a worship meeting, it looks beautifully spontaneous. Joy and community break out when square dancers listen to and obey the caller (and when Christians meet to listen to and obey Jesus).

Church too often illustrates this principle: When the members don’t function, but are mere spectators, an organization is broken. Religious entertainment doesn’t heal church dysFUNction. Training, and empowering all members of the body to hear and obey the Spirit does!

When I read the Bible with an open heart, it always leads me into the presence of the Holy Spirit. God calls us to do the Word, not to sit and be bored. Go ahead, let God make your day! Experience the incredible, moment-by-moment movement of the Spirit in your heart!

All thoughts, words, attitudes, and actions are not created equal. Choose wise, uplifting, kind, encouraging, pure, and helpful ones.

Posted in fanfare, Holy Spirit, house church, hype, institutional church, non-traditional church, nontraditional church, organic church, organic church blogs, Uncategorized, unprogrammed church | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Bill Hybels & Willow Creek show flaws of “Big Man On Campus” church

Posted on August 11, 2018 by Steve Simms

Perhaps Bill Hybels shows that the “Big Man On Campus” way of doing church is flawed. Here’s are some insights inspired by Bill’s alleged backstage harassment incidents at Willow Creek.

  1. Religious leaders who have power over a congregation and little or no personal accountability to them can easily sexually harass people. They can also get exposed by courageous people with a “me too” hashtag by their name.
  2. Colorful, dancing stage lights and comfortable, “seeker-friendly” church are a poor substitute for Christ’s light. Too many Christian leaders, like a comet’s elliptical orbit, breeze by Christ on Sunday morning and then go far away from Him during the week.
  3. When the Spirit’s not freely flowing, there’s not much spiritual growing. Christian growth needs the irrigation of the Holy Spirit, not the ear oration of one man’s sermons.
  4. Christianity presented as theory is weak, but experienced as Christ’s living presence it’s revolutionary! Every transformative encounter with Christ is worth thousands of informative sermons about Him.
  5. When there’s no sensitivity to the spontaneity of the Spirit, church becomes structured and stifled (and often controlled by one man). Making one man the Christian expert shuts down a church’s sensitivity to the spontaneity and conviction of the Spirit. It also isolates that one man and makes him vulnerable to being manipulated by his own pride and power.
  6. To try to keep people entertained some churches have resorted to “haha moments” instead of “aha moments.” However, people need “Christ-ahas,” where His presence and reality transform their soul, not just religious entertainment or information about Him.
  7. Early Christianity wasn’t about robotics (repeating things by rote after a celebrity preacher). It wasn’t about an outward form of religion. It was about Christ’s fire, conviction, and accountability surging in human hearts!
  8. The Bible says, “Behold the Lamb of God,” not “Listen to sermons.” It’s time to “Look unto Jesus,” not to religious celebrities. Spiritual transformation happens when the risen Jesus is continually kept clearly in sight, not hidden behind a Big Man On Campus preacher.
  9. Sermon-hearing is like trying to see the beauty of Christ through another flawed person’s eyes. Perhaps it’s better to see for yourself. The spiritual unsighted are sometimes surrounded by the living God, yet completely unaware of His presence. People need spiritual vision, not religious talks. To see Jesus, step out of any darkness in your life, open your spiritual eyes, and look at His light shining in your conscience.
  10. Humans have the ability to resist and overcome compulsions, desires, and feelings. We don’t have to give in to them! To be unaware of your mental and emotional programming is to be a blind victim of it. Without sexual restraint and accountability, consensual easily becomes compelled.

When Jesus lights up your heart with His fireworks, releasing aha moments in your soul, you graduate from “seeker-friendly” Christianity lite. Christianity becomes an everlasting well of love, joy, power, and peace; not people saying “O well,” after hearing one more sermon. Sermons slide through the mind, seldom sticking within, but direct encounters with Christ are unforgettable.

When your relationship with Christ is an inner delight instead of a religious rite, it’s hard to be quiet about it! Hopelessness stands on a person’s unawareness of life’s myriad of possibilities. A strong inner awareness of Christ’s presence, forgiveness, transformation, healing, and love makes life amazing, regardless of the darkness around us.

In the New Testament the body of Christ met with surrender, openness, and accountability to God and one another, not as an audience to listen to a Big Man On Campus. For two thousand years, millions of people have had a Christ-realization moment when Jesus became real to them and obeying and being accountable to Him became the most important thing in their life. Have you?

Church has theorized, theologized, mythicized, and religionized Christ. It’s time to “realize” Christ by letting Him take absolute control. (That’s what “Lord” means.) Being continually in love with Jesus is a supernatural joyride through the trials and struggles of life.

For an alternative to Big Man On Campus church, check out this link: https://amzn.to/2KJ7OBN

Posted in big man on campus, casual church, celebrities, church, form of godliness, having a form of godliness, human sexuality, religion, religious celebrities, seeker model, seeker sensitive church, seeker-church, seeker-driven, seeker-oriented, sermon, sexual addiction, Uncategorized, user friendly | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Lookin’ like a Christian?

Posted on August 10, 2018 by Steve Simms

 

Posted in character, faithfulness, gentleness, godliness, goodness, inner peace, joy, kindness, love, patience, peace, self-control, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

If you haven’t heard, perhaps your being herded

Posted on August 9, 2018 by Steve Simms

If you haven’t heard Christ’s living words burning in your heart, it’s easy to follow the herd. Are you being herded?

When God blazes a new trail in your heart, it often creates a mismatch with religious tradition. Jesus’ way or the religious way? When the ways part as they sometimes do, which will you follow?

Christianity began as a movement of fiery trailblazers. It was never meant to be a calculated method of smoke and mirrors. Be a trailblazer. Follow Jesus (the new and living Way) beyond programs and traditions into direct interaction with Him. (Jesus is the GPS — the On-The-Go Driving Directions App.) A church that has trouble welcoming trailblazers easily gets stuck in form and tradition.

Christianity is about following Christ out of the wilderness of sin and experiencing a new, holy lifestyle from within. Unfortunately, church is often hostile to spiritual pioneers and inner engineers who seek to follow the risen Jesus beyond religious tradition. But how can the God of surprises fit into a church that allows no surprises?

When church lumps troublemakers and trailblazers into one group, it has lost its way. Those who sit as passive spectators on God’s highway easily become roadkill. Those who follow Jesus out of the ruts become strong.

Christians claim to see the light. Those who see the light ought to be bold spiritual trailblazers not passive church spectators. Christians are called to fight with the Light, not to light up the fright.

Since Christ healed the breach between people and God, His followers should be the most creative people on earth, not the most boring. If church is in decline in the Western world, perhaps it is time to pioneer a fresh way of Christian gathering.

Somehow church became a prisoner of tradition instead of a pioneer of transformation. Life is always changing and growing. Anything that doesn’t change is dead.

To grow, people need to try things out. When church offers the opportunity to experiment with its teachings, it will become exciting. Their experiments will then verify the teachings and make them even more real to people.

Posted in following Christ, heart, heart care, heart connection, heart strangely warmed, heart-felt, I am the way, Jesus is the way, sin, smoke, smoke and mirrors, spectators, spiritual warfare, tradition, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment