I love to express what I feel called to say. Writing helps me to open up my heart and do that. I hope that what I write helps you in some way. I hope it makes you think, encourages you, or inspires you. If it challenges you or if you disagree, I hope you know that I respect your right to have a different point of view.
March Madness boring? If basketball officials acted like pastors; personally planned and programmed each play, prompted those present when to stand and when to sit, and then presented a 30 minute talk; March Madness would be boring.
I’m glad that basketball officials do just the opposite. They stay out-of-the-way and keep the attention off of themselves. The officials let the players play and the coaches coach. They let the audience stand and sit whenever they want.
Basketball officials are overseers, not controllers or programmers. They watch the action and only interrupt if something gets off track. Then they quickly set things right and once again step to the side and let the game flow.
If pastors would act like basketball officials (and take the brackets off of God), the living, resurrected Jesus Christ would take over and begin to personally run the church service. And that would be more exciting than March Madness!
Check out The Salvation Army Berry Street Worship Center in Nashville, TN — where ordinary people show and tell what God has done, as led by the Spirit: Sunday mornings at 10:45, 225 Berry St. 37207.
A church service is like a Swiss Army Knife — full of spiritually gifted people. It can use the same person to speak, week after week, while the others are closed down (pic 1). Or it can allow everybody to participate and use their spiritual giftings as led by the Holy Spirit (pic 2).
–Which do you prefer?
You can’t build something by simply setting one stone on a platform in front of a group of other stones. To build anything the stones must be assembled interactively.
The same is true of living stones. “You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 2:5 in the New Testament.)
It is a beautiful thing when Christ-followers assemble together interactively as the priesthood of believers, sacrificing their need for a man-made program, and humbly ministering to one another as led by the living, resurrected Jesus Christ.
Every Sunday at The Salvation Army Berry Street in Nashville we gather to allow the living, resurrected Jesus Christ to build us together as stones as ordinary people open their hearts with one another and share what God is doing in their lives. 10:45 am., 225 Berry St., 37207.
* Clergy — Let one man do it all, like a unicycle? (Unicycle church.)
Or * Priesthood of the Believer — Let everybody participate and show & tell what God has done, like an 18-wheeler. (18 wheeler church.)
Experience 18 wheeler church in Nashville, Tennessee at The Salvation Army Berry Street, where ordinary people show & tell what God has done: Sundays @ 10:45, 225 Berry St. 37207.
1) To call someone a hater would have violated Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s determination for the Movement to follow the spirit of the Biblical principles of love and non-violence.
6) Leaders of the Movement knew that there was no way to intimidate those who held all the power, into giving up their power. They understood that name-calling would only backfire.
If you call someone who hates you a hater, he/she will spew out even more hatred against you. If you call someone who only disagrees with you a hater, you might intimidate him/her into silence.
“Was not Jesus an extremist for love? . . . the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be.” –Martin Luther King, Jr.
Church is when a group of believers gathers together around the living, resurrected Jesus Christ and focuses their attention on listening to His voice and doing whatever He tells them to do.
When we gather in His name, the living, resurrected Jesus is actually present with us.
Church is when the living Christ, in a gathered group of Christ-followers, speaks to the people through the people. (See 1 Corinthians 14:26.)
When 1 speaks to all, all but 1 have nothing to do but listen, creating passivity. When all speak to all as led by the living, resurrected Jesus Christ, all are actively engaged, creating community.
If church has the same speaker every week, it is like a TV that only gets one channel.
Maybe Christian ministry would be more effective at changing lives and transforming our culture if it flowed from one ordinary believer to another; instead of flowing from one professional believer to everybody else.
The Bible teaches that the living, resurrected Jesus Christ is in all believers. So why is it that we only permit “ordained” professional clergy people to preach about Him in church services?
A group of people watching one man make a weekly sermon in a religious building is called a church. But what if church is supposed to be a group of people coming together to watch and obey the Man? “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”
To stay consistently fired-up for Christ, you need to regularly be around a group of fired-up believers meeting in an environment where they are free to obey the New Testament “one anothers:” “encourage one another,” “pray for one another,” “carry each others’ burdens,” “confess your sins to one another,” submit to one another,” “admonish one another,” “provoke one another to love and good works,” “instruct one another,” “serve one another,” “speak to each other with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs,” “bear with each other.”
Our Sunday morning meeting at The Salvation Army Berry Street in Nashville, Tennessee is an opportunity for ordinary [non-clergy] Christ-followers to carry out these “one another” commands as they are prompted by the Holy Spirit: Every Sunday morning @ 10:45, 225 Berry St., 37207.
When I was hired as the counselor/chaplain of The Salvation Army Adult Rehabilitation Center (ARC) in Nashville in October of 2002, I had no idea that I would be working with about 1,400 men over the next 5 1/2 years or that my heart would be so deeply touched. I loved those men and they loved me.
Our program was free, so men who came into the center had “hit bottom.” They were broken, defeated, and humbled.
Part of my job was to interview every new man. They could tell I loved them and they trusted me, so they told me their life stories in vivid detail. Each of the about 1,400 stories was different, but amazingly similar.
My heart broke for them. These guys had done everything thing conceivable to destroy their lives. They told me how they had lied, cheated, been negative, been abusive, freely engaged in every conceivable sexual activity, partied hard, been violent, abandoned their children, used every drug imaginable, been cruel to their wives and/or baby’s mommas, stolen, and so much more.
They told me about the results of their “fun-seeking”behaviors. They had been overcome by anger, bitterness, and depression. They lost relationships with some (if not all) of the most important people in their lives. They lost job after job. They had lost any sense of self-worth. Many had been homeless. Many had been to jail and/or prison. Many had court orders against them. They were controlled by their cravings; their desires had defeated them.
Many wept. I cried with them. Most of them stayed in the program for a few days to a few months and then went back to their same self-destruction. Some came through several times. While I was there I knew 17 who died in their self-destruction. I spoke at a few of their funerals. However, some of them turned around and are clean and sober today.
It’s been several years since I worked at the ARC. I still see guys from there. They come up and hug me and thank me for working with them.
They remind me of my favorite grandpa who was extremely likeable and lovable, yet left wakes of pain in our family and in others who knew him. So why do human beings do that? Why do we hurt ourselves and others?
My comfort, my answer is: “If anyone be in Christ, he is a new creature, old things have passed away, behold all things have become new.” There is supernatural transformation in radical abandonment of self-seeking to the living, resurrected Jesus Christ!
To stay consistently fired-up for Christ, you need to regularly be around a group of fired-up believers meeting in an environment where they are free to obey the New Testament “one anothers:” “encourage one another,” “pray for one another,” “carry each others’ burdens,” “confess your sins to one another,” submit to one another,” “admonish one another,” “provoke one another to love and good works,” “instruct one another,” “serve one another,” “speak to each other with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs,” “bear with each other.”
Quotes from characters in the ABC hit TV series, Nashville, that illustrate the importance of participating in one another meetings.
“There’s thinking about doing something, and there’s just doing it.” (One another meetings give you the opportunity to quit thinking about it and to actually do or say something about it in a loving environment.)
“Something about you makes me want to grow up.” (One another meetings allow you to see other Christ-followers who are actively growing in their faith and that makes you also want to grow up in God.”
“Nothing calls on the muses like a broken heart.” (One another church can heal your broken heart.”
“I know if I fall flat on my face I have you to come home to.” (If you fall flat on your face in a church meeting based on following the one anothers, people there will still love you and embrace you.)
“I have never not loved you.” (In a one another meeting you can see God’s love for you displayed through other people as they share their heart with you.)
“Just because you close your eyes doesn’t mean you are invisible.” (In one another church meetings your eyes begin to open and you start to realize that you matter to others.
“Love is wanting to help somebody be the best version of themselves.” (One another meetings allow you [a non-clergy person] to help other people improve themselves.)
(At The Salvation Army Berry Street in Nashville, Tennessee, the Sunday morning meeting is an opportunity for ordinary [non-clergy] Christ-followers to carry out these commands as they are prompted by the Holy Spirit. 10:45 am on Sunday & 6:00 pm on Tuesday, 225 Berry St., 37207.)
Berry Street Talk Is Full Of The Spirit!
* Open participation / Not one-man sermons.
* Heart-felt words / Not theological jargon.
* Spontaneous sharing / Not scripted speeches.
* Loving concern / Not detached instructions.
* Spirit-prompted / Not preplanned.
That’s what happens at The Salvation Army Berry Street in Nashville! Sundays at 10:45 am. & Tuesdays at 6:00 pm. 225 Berry St., 37207.
I’m glad that basketball officials do just the opposite. They stay out-of-the-way and keep the attention off of themselves. The officials let the players play and the coaches coach. They let the audience stand and sit whenever they want.
