Can A Church Meeting Be Full Of Awe?

Posted on February 1, 2014 by Steve Simms

In the Bible, early church meetings are described with these words: “everyone was filled with awe.” Awe is an overwhelming feeling of amazement, wonder, and respect. When was the last time you felt awe in a church service?  So how can we get back to awe?

1) Lay down human control and programming.

2) Let the Holy Spirit, Himself, direct the meeting.

3) Allow ordinary people to show and tell what God has done as led by the Spirit and flow with His love.

Church should be more of a flow than a show.  Wind and rivers are symbols of the Holy Spirit. The wind blows, a river flows; but the church tends to show what it knows through programs and presentations rather than through spiritual flows.

Remember:  Christ is not in the tomb.  He’s living in the room!

“For where two or three gather in My name, there am I with them.”  Perhaps we need to allow the living, resurrected Jesus to personally direct and control church meetings when we gather in His name.

There is a place in Nashville, Tennessee that sets aside sermons every Sunday morning and lets regular people show and tell what God has done.  They meet in His name on Sundays @ 10:45 am. & Tuesdays @ 6:00 pm. @ The Salvation Army Berry Street, 225 Berry St.,  37207

Posted in awe, awe inspiring, awesome, Christ's presence, flow, flow of the Spirit, flowing of the Holy Spirit, Matthew 18:20, Music City, Nashville, Nashville adventure, Nashville charity, Nashville church, Nashville tourist attractions, open church, open forum, open mic, open sharing, order of worship, Salvation Army, Salvation Army church, Salvation Army Corps, Tennessee, there am I in the midst of them, where two or three in My name | Tagged , , , , | 8 Comments

A Simple Syllogism About Sunday Church Services

Posted on January 31, 2014 by Steve Simms

A simple syllogism:

* Jesus is alive and present when believers meet together.
* Jesus is smarter than any man.
* Therefore, we should let Jesus lead Sunday morning church services instead of a man leading them.

When the Holy Spirit (Christ with us) is allowed to freely flow from person to person in church meetings, spiritual dryness disappears!

Perhaps church services should be more about releasing a vibrant inner flow than about rehearsing religious ideas that you know.

“We can change the way we do things in the church – the spread of the Gospel demands it. So be confident in God’s desire for the church to grow and change.” –Pope Francis

“(Jesus) works on us in all sorts of ways; but above all He works on us through each other.” –C.S. Lewis.  Every Sunday morning at The Salvation Army Berry Street (225 Berry St, Nashville, 37207 on Sundays at 10:45 am) Jesus works on us through each other as regular people show and tell what God has done.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer said: “The first service that one owes to others in the fellowship consists in listening to them. Just as love to God begins with listening to His Word, so the beginning of love for the brethern is learning to listen to them. It is God’s love for us that He not only gives us His Word but also lends us His ear. So it is His work that we do for our brother when we learn to listen to him.” –“Life Together.”

Are everyday people being listened to in your church service?

Posted in C.S. Lewis, church meetings, church services, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, fellowship, life together, listening, listening prayer, listening skills, listening to God, Pope, Pope Francis, quotation, quote, Quotes, real presence, syllogism | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

Has The Gospel Lost It’s Power In The 21st Century?

Posted on January 30, 2014 by Steve Simms

Has the Gospel lost its pull on people’s hearts? No, the church has lost the passion to powerfully present the Gospel. “Having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof, from such turn away.” 2 Timothy 3:5

When ordinary people are permitted to passionately present what God has done (and is doing) in their life, power permeates church meetings. Try it at your church and see (or come visit us at The Salvation Army Berry Street, 225 Berry St., Nashville, TN 37207, on Sunday mornings at 10:45 — where everyday people show and tell what God has done).

Another reason that people are not passionate about the Gospel is that they have been brainwashed to believe that the Gospels are not reliable.  Many Bible scholars date the book of Matthew around 100 AD when most if not all of the eye witnesses to Christ were already dead.

However, Matthew, itself shows that it was written before 70 AD. In 70 the Roman army burned and flattened the city of Jerusalem, killing about a million people in the process. However Matthew says: “So they decided to use the money to buy the potter’s field as a burial place for foreigners. That is why it has been called the Field of Blood to this day.” If Matthew had been written after 70 AD, no one would have been able to identify the Field of Blood in the all of the rubble around Jerusalem.

The Gospels are reliable!  And passionately sharing the Gospel is still powerful.  But how can people passionately share the Gospel if all they have seen are mental based sermons.  Perhaps it is time for the church to let regular people testify about the living God in church services.

Posted in 70 AD, Bible, Bible quotes, Biblical concept, church format, church meetings, church programs, church services, dating the Bible, denying the power thereof, destruction of Jerusalem, Gospel of Matthew, having a form of godliness, history, organic church, Roman history, Salvation Army, Salvation Army church, Salvation Army Corps, simple church | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

When church meetings are built on, focused on, and actively led by the invisible Presence of God, power is released and lives are visibly transformed and the invisible Presence of God is made visible through His people.

Posted on January 29, 2014 by Steve Simms
Posted in transformation | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

New Ideas, Worn Out Ideas, & Re-engineering Church

Posted on January 27, 2014 by Steve Simms

A live electric wire on the ground is not boring. It is attention grabbing, powerful, full of sparks, exciting, indescribable, and unpredictable.  A live church service of people flowing together in God’s current is the same.

About God? Or by God?  A church meeting can be about God or it can be by God. When we run the meeting with our agenda and program, it is about God. But when we set aside our agenda and program and let Him, personally, run the meeting, church is by God.

“If we want to finish well sometimes we have to lay aside the old to take up the new.” –my friend, Tom Griner. 

“New ideas scare a lot of people. Worn out ideas scare me.” –my friend, Joe Calloway.

You could call, implementing new ideas, re-engineering. Car designs are continually being re-engineered (otherwise we would have been stuck with the Model-T).  Perhaps church is stuck in a design that isn’t as effective at releasing the gifts and fruit of the Spirit as God wants it to be. At The Salvation Army Berry Street Worship Center in Nashville, TN, we long to see God re-engineer the way church services work. So each week we give up our agenda, programming, and control and ask the Holy Spirit to do whatever He wants through anybody present. The results of God’s re-engineering are truly amazing.

“It’s not easy to change a meeting that’s been done the same way for many years — much less a learning paradigm that’s been in place since the 13th century. That’s how long we’ve been putting learners in rooms, seated in rows and columns, with the expert up at the front, bestowing knowledge. We’re so conditioned to expect the traditional kind of learning environment that it’s hard to break the mold — even though research shows that we retain only 5 percent of information presented in that setting. In comparison, we retain approximately 85 percent of the information we encounter when we learn interactively.” –Lennie Scott-Webber

Take up a fresh, exciting way of doing church, where everybody present is allowed to show and tell what God has done! Visit us on Sun. mornings at 10:45, 225 Berry St., Nashville 37207.

Posted in change, change agent, change management, church meetings, church services, electric wire on the ground, finish well, interactive learning, Joe Calloway, learning environment, Lennie Scott-Webber, live church, live electric wire, Model-T, organic church, quotation, quote, Quotes, Salvation Army, Salvation Army church, Salvation Army Corps, simple church, Tom Griner, worn out ideas | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

America — is it working?

Posted on January 23, 2014 by Steve Simms

America, how’s it working?

Our American culture trains us to flow unrestrained with our feelings, our sensuality, and our desires. This training, however, releases hateful and evil behavior. For example, last night NBC News reported that 20% of American college students are sexually assaulted. Lord, have mercy on us!

Another problem is our tremendous dependence on recreational drugs.  However, If you need recreational drugs to make you feel good, then you must be feeling pretty bad. There is a much more effective way to feel good than that.

The best-selling book in world history describes a “joy unspeakable and full of glory.”  This joy is not found in feelings, sensuality, circumstances, desires or drugs.  It flows from within.  The same book describes it this way:  “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

The living, resurrected Jesus is the key to joy!  If you are in Nashville, experience Him with us at The Salvation Army Berry Street, 225 Berry St., 37207 on Sundays at 10:45 am. — where instead of a traditional sermon, normal people joyously show and tell what God has done.

Posted in American, American church, American values, Bible, Christ in you, Christ in you the hope of glory, culture, culture wars, joy, joy unspeakable, Music City, Nashville, Nashville adventure, Nashville church, recreational drugs, The Salvation Army | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

How (I Was Taught) To Act In Church

Posted on January 22, 2014 by Steve Simms

How I was taught to act in church:  Be quiet, sit still, behave, just listen, be passive, don’t talk, watch the preacher, be like everyone one else, don’t ask questions, only do what the program says, don’t laugh, don’t be spontaneous, don’t show emotion, act like you’re interested even when you’re not.

How the Bible says to act in church:  “When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Everything must be done so that the church may be built up.” –1 Corinthians 14:26 NIV

Community is not one person continually speaking to everybody else — it’s everybody speaking to everybody. Church is called to be community!

Biblically, church is not a religious ceremony conducted by one man.  It is a spiritual adventure actively involving numerous people.

how to act in church

Experience participatory, community church in Nashville, where ordinary people show and tell what God has done:  Sunday mornings at 10:45, 225 Berry Street, 37207 — The Salvation Army Berry Street Worship Center.

Posted in 1 Corinthians 14:26, Berry Street, Berry Street Worship Center, Bible, Bible quotes, biblical, church format, church meetings, church program, church programs, church services, community, Music City, open church, open forum, open mic, open mike, open sharing, participatory church, religious ceremonies, Salvation Army, Salvation Army church, Salvation Army Corps, simple church | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Martin Luther King, Jr. On Liberalism (& Other Forgotten MLK Quotes)

Posted on January 21, 2014 by Steve Simms

“I began to question the liberal doctrine of man. The more I observed the tragedies of history and man’s shameful inclination to choose the low road, the more I came to see the depths and strength of sin. . . I realized that liberalism had been all too sentimental concerning human nature and that it leaned toward a false idealism.” –Martin Luther King, Jr.

“I also came to see that the superficial optimism of liberalism concerning human nature overlooked the fact that reason is darkened by sin. The more I thought about human nature, the more I saw how our tragic inclination for sin encourages us to rationalize our actions. Liberalism failed to show that reason by itself is little more than an instrument to justify man’s defensive ways of thinking. Reason, devoid of the purifying power of faith, can never free itself from distortions and rationalizations.” –Martin Luther King, Jr.

“In the truest sense of the word, God is a living God. In Him there is feeling and will, responsive to the deepest yearnings of the human heart: This God both evokes and answers prayers.” –Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Our capacity to deal creatively with shattered dreams is ultimately determined by our faith in God. Genuine faith imbues us with the conviction that beyond time is a divine Spirit and beyond life is Life.” —Martin Luther King, Jr.

“God has been profoundly real to me in recent years. In the midst of outer dangers, I have felt an inner calm. In the midst of lonely days and dreary nights, I have heard an inner voice saying, ‘Lo, I will be with you.'” –Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Caesar occupied a palace and Christ a cross, but the same Christ so split history into A.D. and B.C. that even the reign of Caesar was subsequently dated by His name.” –Martin Luther King, Jr.

Check out my new book, Off the RACE Track available at Amazon.

Check out my new book, “Off the RACE Track–From Color-Blind to Color-Kind.
Posted in A.D., African American experience, African Americans, American history, B.C., black history, blacks, Caesar, faith, faith in God, faith-based, God, God's authority, God's presence, God's protection, God's voice, idealism, optimism, philosophical, philosophy, political views, politics, politics and religion, racism, reason, religion, religious beliefs, religious talks, sentimentalism, sin, thinking | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Bold Christian Quotes from Martin Luther King, Jr. (For MLK Day)

Posted on January 19, 2014 by Steve Simms

Off the RACE Track poster

Check out my new book, “Off the RACE Track–From Color-Blind to Color-Kind.

“We need to pledge ourselves anew to the cause of Christ. We must capture the spirit of the early church. Wherever the early Christians went, they made a triumphant witness for Christ. Whether on the village streets or in the city jails, they daringly proclaimed the good news of the gospel.” Martin Luther King, Jr.

“The God whom we worship is not a weak and incompetent God. He is able to beat back gigantic waves of opposition and to bring low prodigious mountains of evil. The ringing testimony of the Christian faith is that God is able.” —Martin Luther King, Jr.

“There is so much frustration in the world because we have relied on gods rather than God. We have worshiped the god of pleasure only to discover that thrills play out and sensations are short-lived.” –Martin Luther King, Jr.

“By opening our lives to God in Christ, we become new creatures. This experience, which Jesus spoke of as the new birth, is essential if we are to be transformed nonconformists . . . Only through an inner spiritual transformation do we gain the strength to fight vigorously the evils of the world in a humble and loving spirit.” –MLK

“In contrast to ethical relativism, Christianity sets forth a system of absolute moral values and affirms that God has placed within the very structure of this universe certain moral principles that are fixed and immutable.” –Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Like the early Christians, we must move into a sometime hostile world armed with the revolutionary gospel of Jesus Christ. With this powerful gospel we shall boldly challenge the status quo.” –Martin Luther King, Jr.

“If any earthly institution or custom conflicts with God’s will, it is your Christian duty to oppose it. You must never allow the transitory, evanescent demands of man-made institutions to take precedence over the eternal demands of the Almighty God.” –Martin Luther King, Jr.

“When we would yield to the temptation of a world rife with sexual promiscuity and gone wild with a philosophy of self-expression, Jesus tells us that ‘whosoever looks on a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart.'” —MLK

“The confidence that God is mindful of the individual is of tremendous value in dealing with the disease of fear, for it gives us a sense of worth, of belonging, and of at homeness in the universe.” –Martin Luther King, Jr

“In this world is a God whose matchless strength is a fit contrast to the sordid weakness of man.” –MLK, Jr.

“We need to recapture the gospel glow of the early Christians who were nonconformists in the truest sense of the word . . . Their powerful gospel put an end to such barbaric evils as infanticide and bloody gladiatorial contests. Finally, they captured the Roman Empire for Jesus Christ.” –MLK

“Christianity affirms that at the heart of reality is a Heart, a loving Father who works through history for the salvation of His children. Man cannot save himself, for man is not the measure of all things and humanity is not God. Bound by the chains of his own sin and finiteness, man needs a Savior.” –Martin Luther King, Jr

MLK wanted to get American off the race track and on to the love track. Check out my book Off the RACE Track (in Kindle or paperback) at this link.

Posted in Almighty God, Christ, disease of fear, early Christians, early church, evil, fear, God, God is able, gods, Gospel, holiday, holidays, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Jr., Martin Luther King Day, MLK Day, MLK quotes, moral foundations, moral laws, moral leaders, moral principles, moral reformer, moral restraints, morality, morals, Nashville, nonconformists, quotation, Quotations, quote, rare form of Christianity, relativism, Salvation Army, Salvation Army church, Savior, self-worth, sermon, servants, sin, spiritual, spiritual awakening, spiritual movement, spiritual transformation, The Movement | Tagged , , , , | 18 Comments

Grace ain’t “hyper” — it’s humbling.

Posted on January 18, 2014 by Steve Simms

Grace is not permission to do wrong. It’s the power to do right!  Grace is mercy, forgiveness, and freedom from sin; not feeling accepted and approved in our sin.  When we admit and turn away from our sin, God’s amazing grace kicks in.

Grace is mercy for people who sorrowfully admit their guilt; not reward for people who think they are deserving.  Grace does not ignore your wrongful thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors, or make you comfortable with them. It sets you free from them! 

Jesus said that following Him is a “narrow way.”  So why have we turned it into a lazy day?  Going in the wrong direction won’t get you to the right place.  Grace says that it’s not too late to make a U-turn.

“Grace is the power to overcome sin, not the power to overlook sin.”- Frank McCarley  “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me!”  “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

Grace is not about saving face. It’s about being in a broken, humble place.  So there is nothing hyper about grace.  Receiving God’s grace is exceedingly humble.

 

Posted in a wretch like me, extreme grace, forgiveness, gives grace to the humble, God allows U-turns, God resists the proud, God's grace, guilt, how sweet the sound, hypergrace, mercy, quotation, Quotations, quote, sin, U-turns, understanding grace | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments