Some things the Bible never said:

Posted on December 22, 2015 by Steve Simms
The Bible never said: “When you come together, everyone sits quietly and listens to the same man speak, week after week.” However, the Bible did say: “When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation.” –1 Corinthians 14:26
–Perhaps we should ask ourselves a question. Why are most worship meetings set up the way the Bible didn’t say, instead of the way the Bible did say?
–Is it because of effectiveness? Jeff Hurt in a recent issue of Meeting magazine wrote: “Lecture formats dominate traditional conference programming (and traditional church services). Unfortunately, brain-based research suggests that lectures are the worst way to deliver information and educate people. We need to find a better way.”
–Jeff also said: “We assume that scheduling a speaker, putting him or her on a stage and having them talk captures the audience’s attention. In doing so, we confuse passive listening with engagement and focus. Look closer at those audience members. They’re just sleeping with their eyes open.” That doesn’t sound very effective!
–Maybe the reason that we set church services up in the “lecture format” and limit people to “passive listening” is tradition. “That’s just the way it’s done!” But is there a better way?
–The Bible never said that there are two classes of Christ-followers: the professional class called clergy that lectures, and the amateur class called laity that passively listens. However, the Bible does say that all Christ-followers are priests. 1 Peter 2:5 says that “you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” That passage goes on to say, “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession that you (plural, as in yall) may proclaim the excellences of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”
–The Bible never said to sit and listen. It said: “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.”
–The Bible never quotes Jesus as saying “I will build My church.” It quotes Him as saying, “I will build My ekklesia.” However, most English language Bible translations have switched-out the New Testament word, ekklesia, for the English word, church, and thus altered the meaning. Church is a building or organization that holds religious meetings. Ekklesia was the city council of ancient Greek city-states. To read more about this important difference, go to this link.
— The Bible never said that a man can be the head of a church. It said that Jesus is the “head of the body, the ekklesia.” (Colossians 1:18.)
–Perhaps it is time we get back to the ekklesia — back to the Bible.
–Emmanuel wants to take us beyond church to ekklesia! Check out the new book, Beyond Church: An Invitation To Experience The Lost Word Of The Bible, available in paperback and kindle on Amazon.
steve & the Bible
Posted in 1 Corinthians 14:26, church, church format, church meetings, church program, church programming, church roles, clergy, clergy laity, Jeff Hurt, let the redeemed of the Lord say so, Meetings magazine, plan your meetings, priesthood of the believer, royal priesthood, Uncategorized, worship | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

An experience while in ekklesia

Posted on December 21, 2015 by Steve Simms

Yesterday while meeting in ekklesia at The Salvation Army Berry Street, I kept feeling my phone vibrating in my pocket. I would then put my hand on the phone, but it wasn’t vibrating. This happened over and over. Finally words (something like these) came to me: “I’m calling you, but you’re dropping many of My calls. I’m calling many people, but they are also dropping My calls. Be still and listen to Me, in the day and in the night, and you will clearly hear.” I shared those words with the brothers and sisters who were gathered for worship.

–It’s a wonderful experience when the Spirit speaks through you. You feel the words flowing effortlessly from deep within, spontaneously rolling over your tongue and out of your mouth. I believe God wants all Christ-followers to regularly have the experience of the Spirit speaking through them. And it doesn’t have to be just in a religious meeting. Jesus said: “But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.” (Matthew 10:19-20)
–At Berry Street we want to be a platform where the Holy Spirit can speak through anybody present in the meeting, whenever He wants to. To do this we have to set aside our agenda so that we don’t quench or stop the Spirit when He wants to speak through someone who isn’t on a program.
–That’s why the Bible clearly teaches something that churches (who say they believe the Bible) usually ignore: “If a revelation comes to someone who is sitting down, the first speaker should stop.” Sometimes our program or our featured speaker can get in the way of God speaking through someone else, perhaps someone completely unexpected.
–I believe that we miss out on so much in church, because we plan and control everything that happens in a worship meeting, not allowing the Spirit to speak through any person He wants to. Perhaps this is the time, this is the generation, to go beyond church to ekklesia and allow the least to the greatest, the commonest to the most clergified, to freely speak out as they are prompted by the Spirit.

Ekklesia at Berry Street yesterday morning was beautiful! It was like Christmas (the birth of Christ), full of oxymorons. It was:
1) Simple — nothing complicated, no special human arrangements; yet incarnationally profund and complex.
2) Common — ordinary, looking like nothing special; yet glorious.
3) Unplanned — spontaneous; yet directed by the living God.
4) Full of heavenly rejoicing — celebrating with God’s angels!

Learn more about ekklesia in my book, Beyond Church: An Invitation To Experience The Lost Word Of The Bible, Ekklesia.” It’s available in paperback and Kindle at Amazon! Please get it and if you like it write an Amazon review for me! Thanks so much!

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Posted in 1 Corinthians 14, birth of Christ, birth of Jesus, Christmas, dropped calls, gifts of the Spirit, house church, Matthew 10:19, open church, organic church, organic church in institutional church, oxymorons, prophetic, prophetic insight, simple church, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

The Ekklesia awakens (inspired by the new #StarWars)

Posted on December 19, 2015 by Steve Simms

Is the force in Star Wars a type of the lost word of the Bible–the ekklesia? (The church/ekklesia is called to star wars — to fight “against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” –Ephesians 6:12. Perhaps these Star Wars: The Force Awakens quotes can give us some insight . . .

“The force awakens.” (God’s ekklesia is awakening around the world. I’ve written a book about it, Beyond Church: An Invitation To Experience The Lost Word Of The Bible, available in paperback and Kindle at Amazon.)

“May the force be with you.” (We need to go beyond church and allow the ekklesia to be with us when Christ-followers gather to worship.)

“I thought he was a myth.” Luke Skywalker (Many people think that the living, resurrected Jesus Christ is a myth, but he shows up in ekklesia.)

“Nothing will stand in our way.” “I will fulfill our destiny.” –Kylo Ren (“I will build My ekklesia (church) and the dark side shall not prevail against it.” –Jesus Christ .)

“It’s true. All of it. The Dark Side, the Jedi. They’re real.” –Han Solo (It’s true. All of what the New Testament teaches about Jesus and His ekklesia/church is real.)

“There’s been an awakening. Have you felt it?” –Snoke (God’s ekklesia is waking up and getting back to allowing Christ-followers to listen to and obey the promptings of the Holy Spirit according to 1 Corinthians 14:26.)

“The force, it’s calling to you. Just let it in.” –Maz Kanata (We are called to ekklesia. It will happen if we allow it to by not quenching the Spirit.)

“I could show you the ways of the force.” (If we listen and obey, the Holy Spirit will show us the ways of the ekklesia. He will personally speak to our heart and He will speak to us through the Bible.)

the force awakens

 

Posted in ekklesia, Han Solo, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, Kyo Ren, Luke Skywalker, organic church, Quotations, simple church, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Poem–The Lost Word Of The Bible

Posted on December 15, 2015 by Steve Simms
. . . Searching For A Lost Word . . .
When the Bible
Came into English
A word was left behind,
Lost and forgotten,
Replaced by a weaker word.
Perhaps we need
The lost word of the Bible
To show us the way
To go beyond church
And make Jesus real
To people alive today.
What’s in a word?
Power or passivity.
The passive word, “church,”
Replaced God’s power word,
“Ekklesia.”
“‘The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightening and a lightening bug.’ –Mark Twain  Lightening or lightening bug? Ekklesia or church? When the Bible was translated into English the lightening bug word church was used to replace God’s lightening word ekklesia. Jesus said ‘I will build My ekklesia.’ (Ekklesia was the city council of ancient Greek city-states.)” –Quote from the book, Beyond Church–An Invitation To Experience The Lost Word Of The Bible; Ekklesia. (Every “Done”–people who are burned out on church– needs to read it.)
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Posted in a near-hit bolt of lightening, book review, Christian books, done with church, Dones, ekklesia, Greek city-states, Greek language, Greek word, I will build my church, lightening bug, Mark Twain, organic church, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Loving Voice In Your Heart

Posted on December 13, 2015 by Steve Simms

–These words came into my mind during the night:
“Every time you hear My voice you get a new perspective. That’s why people don’t want to listen to Me.”
–We can’t hear God’s living word ringing in our heart and remain the same. His voice changes us and transforms the way we see everyone and everything. Transformational change is tremendously uncomfortable and thoroughly troubling, so we tend to tune out the tender tone that comes directly from the living God and settle for tradition and theology instead of His “still, small voice.”
–However, we are all here to hear–living on earth to daily encounter, experience, and obey the living, resurrected Jesus Christ. Anything short of that denies our destiny as “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.” (1 Peter 2:9)

still small voice

A gathering of Christ-followers being directly led by the voice of the Spirit instead of by a man or by human programming (ekklesia) is like the birth of Christ. It’s “incarnational.” Ekklesia releases “the word became flesh,” the power and presence of the living, resurrected Jesus Christ in and through a group of ordinary people “so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.” (1 Corinthians 2:5)

“Christ’s voice sounds now for each of us in loving invitation; and dead in sin and hardness of heart though we be, we can listen and live. Christ Himself, my brother, sows the seed now. Do you take care that it falls not on, but in, your souls?” –Alexander Maclaren

“We must have the glory sink into us before it can be reflected from us. In deep inward beholding we must have Christ in our hearts, that He may shine forth from our lives.” –Alexnder Maclaren

 

Posted in 1 Corinthians 2, 1 Peter, Alexander Maclaren, He speaks and the sound of His voice is so sweet, hearing God's voice, hearing voices, how to hear God's voice, inner voice, My sheep hear My voice, sound of His voice, spiritual formation, spiritual voices, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Beyond Church — My New Book On Amazon

Posted on December 8, 2015 by Steve Simms

beyond church book

I have a new book that is now available on Amazon. It’s called Beyond Church — An Invitation To Experience The Lost Word Of The Bible.

Please get it for yourself and for your friends at this link. Also please write a positive review on Amazon and/or on your blog or Facebook page. Thank you so much! Here’s the book description:

Have you ever wanted something more from your faith? More than religion? More than church? One lost and forgotten biblical word, “ekklesia,” holds the key to a more vibrant and life-changing Christianity.

Modern English language Bibles quote Jesus as saying, “I will build My church.” However, the earliest Bibles have Jesus saying, “I will build my ekklesia.” For hundreds of years, this Bible word-switch has misdirected the way the body of Christ meets for worship.

So what does ekklesia mean? Ekklesia was the name of the city council in ancient Greek city-states. It was a democratic, interactive, participatory body of equal citizens sharing their concerns and needs with one another.

In the Western world, traditional church is in decline. Religious categories now include millions who are “Dones” (done with church) and “Nones” (have no church affiliation).

Perhaps it is time for more than church. Steve Simms invites you to go “beyond church” and experience ekklesia, Heaven’s City Council, not as a theological concept, but as a practical and living reality.

Here’s what people are saying about it:

“Compared to the preaching-industrial complex of modern western Christianity typified by 90 minutes of announcements / worship / Scripture / preaching on a Sunday morning, we’re talking about revolution. We’re exhorting you to leave the conventional paradigm for the revolutionary paradigm. We’re inviting you to trade the incremental for the monumental. We’re introducing you to ekklesia.”  –from the Foreword by Stephen Court, author of Armybarmy Blog and publisher of Journal of Aggressive Christianity

“I love Steve Simms’ writing style and the way he has framed this important and foundational message. One word, ekklesia, opens the door to our identity and function as God originally intended. The recovery of this idea opens the way for the people of God to take their rightful place and pull more of heaven to earth. Love it!” –Tom Griner, international evangelist and founder of Father’s Heart International

I’ve had the privilege of seeing and experiencing ekklesia in action because Steve Simms was willing to trust the Holy Spirit in each and every person in our gatherings. I’m so glad that Steve has written about this crucial subject in a way that appeals both to the logic and the heart. I know that the Holy Spirit wants so much more for His followers than ‘church as usual’ and I hope this book can be a road map to what’s possible! I hope thousands and thousands of people read this and get set free from the religious box! God knew what He was doing when He led me to Berry Street.” –Lara Landon, singer/songwriter/worship leader

“Not only is Steve Simms a master communicator and motivator, he is a man who passionately loves Jesus and His church. In Beyond Church, Steve calls all believers into a deeper understanding of church-life, while also educating, challenging, and encouraging us. I have watched this man at work. He invests his life in people. He exhibits grace and compassion, without ever apologizing for speaking the truth. His latest book is not only timely but crucial. It brims with wisdom, couched in real-life experience. Beyond Church moves past politics and hot-button issues, and awakens us to the vibrant life and possibilities of godly community.” –Eric Wilson, New York Times best selling author of Fireproof 

Beyond Church is a call to every true believer to return to the roots of what church or ekklesia really means. I urge you to dive into this masterful work with an open heart and mind and to prepare yourself to fully embrace what the Holy Ghost speaks to your heart.”  –David Harper, recording artist/songwriter/musicfromthecloset

Here’s the book’s Facebook page:

Here’s the Amazon link:

 

 

Posted in Armybarmy Blog, best seller, church, David Harper, Eric Wilson Courageous, Lara Landon, lost word of the Bible, New York Times, Stephen Court, Tom Griner, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 9 Comments

The 21st Century’s Contemporary Christ

Posted on December 8, 2015 by Steve Simms
The contemporary Christ
Living and speaking
In human hearts,
Personally directing and
Prompting His people,
Daily displays His wonders
As we hear and obey Him.
And when we gather,
In His name and presence,
And let Him lead us,
The contemporary Jesus
Shines through simple people,
Meeting as His ekklesia,
As they show and tell
What God has done!
contemporary Christ
Posted in 21st Century Christ, as many as are led by the Spirit, Christ, Christ in you, Christ in you the hope of glory, Christ the Head of the church, Christ with us, contemporary Christ, ekklesia, God with us, Immanuel, Matthew 18:20, two or three in My name, Uncategorized, when two or more gather in my name | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

In ekklesia, Christ’s love flows like dominoes toppling

Posted on December 7, 2015 by Steve Simms

dominoes heart

When a group of Christ-followers allows the Spirit to speak through them, prompting them one after another like dominoes toppling (according to 1 Corinthians 14:26), the love of the living, resurrected Jesus Christ is revealed in their meeting. His presence is felt by everyone present!

 

Jesus is a Presence, not a presentation!
He’s a Person, not a program!
He’s in the present, not just in the past.
Jesus is the living, inner pathway
Parading through His people,
Prompting them one after another,
To present parables, prayers,
Psalms, or Bible passages,
That come together in a perfect pattern,
Revealing His purposes and
Proving His presence and power
In and through His ekklesia —
His people gathered in His presence!
Posted in 1 Corinthians 14:26, contemporary worship, domino game, domino patterns, experiential worship, heart-felt worship, making church more organic, new ways to worship, order of worship, organic chruch, planning a worship service, public worship, Rube Goldberg, simple church, spiritual worship, types of worship, Uncategorized, unconventional worship, worship innovation, worship styles | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

What do they do @ The Salvation Army Berry Street?

Posted on December 6, 2015 by Steve Simms

What We Do At The Salvation Army Berry Street

We gather together
To let the Spirit inspire
And set our hearts on fire
With love for God
And one another
As we listen to
The living Jesus speak within us,
And let regular people do
What He tells them to.
Then all can clearly see
And experience God’s victory
Not just as ancient history,
But as the resurrected Jesus
Working today through you and me!
(Every Sunday morning @ 10:45
@ 225 Berry St., Nashville 37207.)

Berry street chares from side

Posted in Berry Street, church poems, hearing God, hearing God's voice, Jesus calling, poem, Salvation Army Berry Street, simple church, Spirit-led church, still small voice, The Voice, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

“Thou shall not kill?”

Posted on December 3, 2015 by Steve Simms
thou shall not kill
How many massacres
Are too many?
We took the words
“Thou shall not kill,”
Out of our schools.
Now we are terrorized
By home grown trauma;
Random mass killings,
Frequent and common.
Lord, help us!
The value of 1 human life exceeds the GDP of all the nations in the world! Why?
–Every human life is made in the image of the living God. Even when we distort His image by embracing evil thoughts and behaviors, something designed and made to be like God still resides in our soul. Every human, no matter how twisted and marred God’s image may be in his/her soul, has the potential to be transformed into a radiant person full of holiness and light! (Saul of Tarsus is was a great example of this:https://stevesimms.wordpress.com/…/a-terrorist-who-was-tra…/)
Posted in 10 commandments, home grown, mass murders, mass shootings, massacres, random mass killings, stop the violence, Ten commandments in schools, Uncategorized, why mass shootings | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment