Today we saw President Obama meeting with President-elect Trump, preparing for a transition of power. Perhaps this should remind us that those of us who call ourselves Christians are called to a similar transition of power. We are called to lay down our trust in self and in human governments and to replace it with trust in the Kingdom of God — obedience and submission to the government and rule of the living, resurrected Jesus within our heart.
Beyond red states and blue states is the state of our hearts. There will be trouble in our nation, until we let love transform us from within. How is it with your soul?
If we Americans were as concerned about making the risen Jesus the ruler of our life as we are about politics, then we would transform our nation into the most loving, humble, compassionate, and honest place on earth.
Vote Jesus as Lord (absolute Master) of your life! That’s the only vote that counts forever!
Vote Jesus as Lord (absolute Master) of your life! That’s the only vote that counts forever!
For the past few decades, there has been a whole lot of Chexit going on in America and in other Western countries. Chexit is a word that I coined that was inspired by another coined word: Brexit. Brexit refers to the British exit from the European Union. Thus Chexit is the exit of church from society demonstrated by a decline of the institutional church’s influence and numbers.
Chexit has inspired another coined word: Dones. Dones are people who have given up on church as usual and no longer attend it or associate themselves with it. Research shows that there are millions of Dones in America.
Church in Western countries used to have a strong influence on society and culture. Nowadays that influence has waned to almost nothing.
So what has caused Chexit and what can Christ-followers do about it? As society has changed over the past decades, church has continued to use the same method that was developed during the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century. That method is based on a highly structured and controlled program that tries to make people feel guilty if they don’t passively sit and listen to an exalted leader give a talk every week.
When there wasn’t much to do in society, and little competition to Sunday morning church, this method was fairly effective at bringing people out. However, as society has developed more and more activities and technologies, people now have so many more alternatives for interaction and entertainment in their lives. Unfortunately, the traditional method of doing church just doesn’t compete well with all the alternatives that are now available.
Also, highly programmed and organized religion doesn’t allow people much freedom to think on their own. Instead it tends to authoritatively tell them what to think. It also doesn’t allow for open and honest interaction during services.
Nowadays people want to share their ideas. They are looking for venues that allow them to participate in the meeting and to interact with one another, however, the 16th century way of doing church doesn’t allow that.
So what can Christ-followers do to reach the Millennials and others who embrace Chexit? Perhaps we can shift our meetings away from the programmed and organized religion model to the unprogrammed and unorganized relationship model — like an open forum. Few people want to program and organize every word and detail in their relationships with their family and/or friends. They prefer relationships to be unprogrammed and spontaneous.
Couldn’t Christ-followers do the same in our relationship with the risen Jesus and our relationships with one another? Can’t we set aside the programming and control and just love on Jesus and on one another? Of course we can.
The Bible shows us how in 1 Corinthians 14:26 where it talks about meeting based on everyone having something to share. That biblical concept of meeting is much like an open forum — a forum for Him. It is really quite simple. As we gather we allow people to listen to Jesus and then to say and do what He tells them to. The results are amazing. Ordinary people share powerfully from their heart as they are led by the Spirit. People’s lives are transformed.
The Bible puts it this way: “If everyone is prophesying, when an unbeliever or an uneducated person comes in he will be convicted and examined by everything that’s happening. His secret, inner heart will become known, and so he will bow down to the ground and worship God, declaring, “God is truly among you!” –1 Corinthians 14:24-25 ISV. Perhaps Chexit is showing us that it is time to go beyond church as usual and to begin to meet this biblical way.
Come see this in action at The Salvation Army Berry Street every Sunday morning at 10:45 at 225 Berry St., Nashville 37207. Learn more in the book about how we meet at Berry Street: Beyond Church: An Invitation To Experience The Lost Word Of The Bible–Ekklesia.
Answers:
If you are willing to go beyond these 17 road blocks, come and experience participatory, interactive worship at The Salvation Army Berry Street, 225 Berry St. 37207, where everyday people take turns showing and telling what God has done. We meet at 10:45 am.
–Wanted: “True Worshipers”–
God is looking for open hearts and radical honesty. Now is the time to go beyond outward form and religious pretense — no pretending, no hiding! It’s time for heart-felt reality.
“The hour comes, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeks such to worship Him.” –Jesus in John 4:23.
Ministry should never stand between a person and God. It should always cause people to look toward and depend on the presence of the living Jesus. If ministry causes people to look to and glorify a mere human, it has done something wrong. John the Baptist put it this way: “I must decrease and He must increase.”
The gate of a sheep pen (a part of the body of Christ) is Jesus — not a minister, a training, a certificate, a ceremony, a program, a denomination, or a creed! It is the living, resurrected Jesus, Himself.
“Anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber.” Jesus in John 10:1. “I am the gate; whoever enters through Me will be saved.” Jesus in John 10:9.
A Poem To Know Him & Tolstoy Quote
People try to avoid
Their inner void.
But distraction and denial
Only help for awhile.
The hollow echos
Of interior emptiness
Can’t be dismissed so easily.
Who or what can satisfy
The deep, distressing cry?
Leo Tolstoy wrote:
“I came to believe in Christ’s teachings,
And my life suddenly changed.
I ceased to desire what
I had previously desired
And began to desire what
I formerly did not want . . .
And instead of despair,
I experienced happiness
And the joy of life
Undisturbed by death.”
Experience sincere, heart-felt worship where everyday people show and tell what God has done at The Salvation Army Berry Street. We meet on Sunday’s @ 10:45 am., at 225 Berry St., Nashville, 37207. Read about how we meet at this link.
Calling all saints, we’ve got a mission! It’s All Saint’s Eve today–the day before All Saints Day. So who’s a saint? The Catholic and Orthodox churches call people who lived extraordinarily holy and Christ-like lives “saints.” However, the Bible definition of “saint” is much more inclusive than that. A saint is every genuine Christ-follower who has ever lived. If you are a true disciple of Christ and have been actually washed in the blood of Jesus, then you have been transformed into a saint and called by God to proclaim and show His love, and to demonstrate His power and presence to others.
Calling all saints! Let’s celebrate Reformation Day! 499 years ago today, October 31, 1517, a monk named Martin Luther courageously nailed his “95 Theses” (95 bold ideas about improving the church) to the door of Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, and set off a spiritual movement that changed the way of doing church and helped spread Christianity all over the world. Yet, there is still so much darkness in the world. We need to spark another reformation.
So how is it that so many church goers get distracted and fail to acknowledge the two great Christian celebrations of October 31 — All Saint’s Eve and Reformation Day? Why do so many people celebrate darkness on such a day of light?
Calling all saints! Celebrate God’s light today! “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2 Corinthians 4:6) Is God’s light shinning in and through your heart so that others can see His brightness? It’s time to point people to the living, resurrected Jesus who still turns sinners into saints!
Meet real saints (disguised as everyday people) as they show and tell what God has done every Sunday morning @ 10:45 at The Salvation Army Berry Street, 225 Berry St., Nashville 37207.
Read more about how we can have a new reformation in the 21st century @ this link.
Must a gathering of Christ-followers choose between being a hierarchy (a body of believers governed by an organizational chart) or anarchy (a body of believers with no government or order at all)? Historically church has chosen to be a hierarchy. However there is a third option: We can meet as a Christarchy / a Christocracy (a body of believers governed directly by the living, resurrected Jesus)! In the Greek New Testament Jesus said: “I will build My ekklesia” — those called out of the world’s systems to follow and obey a new sovereign, the risen Jesus.
A gathering of Christ-followers isn’t called to be a dictatorship under the control of a one man pastor or a democracy where majority rules. It’s called to be a Christocracy, directly guided, led, and controlled by the living, resurrected Jesus Christ.
“The government of Christ is radically different from all the governments on earth, forming, of itself, a divine Christocracy. By Christocracy I mean nothing more than a government of which Christ is law-giver, king, and judge, and yet so arranged . . . not to be controlled by civil government or hierarchy. Let this government be called by what name soever, it is not of this world, and therefore the rulers of this world have nothing to do with it in their official capacity. It is distinct from the government of state, and consequently should never be mixed with it. It is complete of itself and dismisses the assistance of human laws . . . The exercises of Christ’s government are moral excellencies which force can never effect.” –John Lealand (1754-1841)
“I’ve been alternately called an aristocrat and a democrat, I am neither. I am a Christocrat, I believe all power will fail of producing order and happiness in the hands of man. He alone who created and redeemed man, is qualified to govern him.” –Benjamin Rush (1746 -1813)
“I am a Christocrat, because I consistently advocate the principles of God’s Word and God’s Government. I am a Christocrat, because my obedience to God is more important than my loyalty to any political party’s ideology. I am a Christocrat, because I have surrendered to the Lordship of Jesus the Christ. Lastly, I am a Christocrat, because only Jesus Christ could save me, so only Jesus Christ should govern me.” –Nadine Drayion-Keen
“Democracy; Everyone’s opinion is required! Autocracy; Someone’s opinion is the best! Christocracy; What Christ said is final!” –Israelmore Ayivor
Free Gas for Your Think Tank -- Short Reflections, Lasting Encouragement 