The Little-Known Story Of Nashville’s Original Grand Ole Opry House . . .

Posted on March 5, 2012 by Steve Simms

The building that helped Nashville become known as Music City was originally built in 1892 as a place for spiritual awakening — an interdenominational revival house.  The auditorium that spread Country Music around the world, was originally intended to spread the Good News that Jesus Christ is alive, present, and active in our world.  Here’s the little-known history of the Ryman Auditorium.

Thomas Ryman was a Nashville businessman who in 1885 owned a fleet of 35 riverboats and numerous saloons. That year, revivalist Sam Jones, a former alcoholic, was holding tent meetings in Nashville.  Because of Jones’ preaching  people were encountering Jesus Christ and turning away from alcohol and gambling, two things that Ryman had built his business on.

On May 10, 1885, Ryman went to one of Sam Jones’ tent revivals and found Jesus Christ that night.  His life was changed forever.  It is said that Ryman immediately ended his gambling business and threw all the alcohol off of his riverboats.

Ryman was so grateful that he decided to build a building big enough to seat everyone who wanted to hear Sam Jones and others share the Gospel so that they wouldn’t have to meet in tents.  Ryman’s desire was to help others to “turn away from their wicked ways and save their souls from damnation.”  He wanted to see spiritual awakening spread in Nashville.

The building took seven years and about $100,000 to build.  It was finished in 1892 and named the Union Gospel Tabernacle.  After Thomas Ryman’s death, it was renamed in his honor.

Sometimes I walk around the Ryman and pray that God will fulfill the original purpose of the building by releasing a mighty move of the Spirit in Nashville.  I pray that as Country Music spread around the world by taking over the Union Gospel Tabernacle building, so God will release His power and Presence in Nashville and spread it around the world!

If this is also your vision, come seek God with us at The Salvation Army Berry Street Worship Center, 225 Berry St., Nashville, 37207; Sunday mornings @ 10:45 & Thursday nights @ 6:30.

Read more in my book: Beyond Church — An Invitation To Experience The Lost Word Of The Bible,  available at Amazon.

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Posted in Berry Street, Berry Street Worship Center, church, country music, Grand Ole Opry House, history, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Music City, Nashville, non-traditional church, organic church, outreach ministry, participatory church, presence of Christ, religion, Ryman Auditorium, Sam Jones, testimonies, The Salvation Army, Thomas Ryman, Uncategorized, Union Gospel Tabernacle | Tagged , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Happy Birthday, Berry Street!

Posted on March 4, 2012 by Steve Simms

We are celebrating our 4th birthday today at The Salvation Army Berry Street Worship Center in Nashville, Tennessee.

Thank You, Lord, for 4 years of seeing You transform, disciple, and work through a diverse group of amazing people and for all the miracles You have done!

Thank you, Berry Street people, for all the love, ministry, & incredible testimonies you have shared with one another.

Thank you to The Salvation Army for supporting a non-traditional church.

And thank you everyone who has prayed for, given to, and helped Berry Street in any way.

Being a part of Berry Street has changed my life and brought me closer to God.  It has been such a joy to see God working in and through so many different people the past 4 years.  (I’ve never seen so much spiritual growth in a group of people.)

May Berry Street have many more years of experiencing God’s Presence and power and sharing compassion and ministry with one another!

We meet on Sunday mornings @ 10:45 & Thursday nights @ 6:30 — 225 Berry St., Nashville, 37207.

 

Posted in awe, Berry Street, Berry Street Worship Center, birthday, birthday present, blessings, Christianity, church, church history, church structure, compassion, disciples, discipling, East Nashville, gift of God, grace, gratitude, history, house church, I Corinthians 14:26, joy, kingdom of God, Music City, Nashville, non-traditional church, normal Christianity, organic church, participatory church, religion, simple church, Spirit-led, spiritual, spiritual formation, spiritual growth, testimonies, The Salvation Army, Uncategorized, What is church? | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

3 Questions For The American Church

Posted on March 3, 2012 by Steve Simms

1:  Which set of words bests describes a typical American church service:

A) Lesson, lecture, liturgy, program, study about God, sermon, ritual, religion, boring, dull, routine, passive, solemn, humanly controlled;

or

B) Experience, encounter, presence of God, demonstration, manifestation, awe, exciting, alive, spontaneous, participatory, joyful, Spirit-led?

2:  Which set of those words bests describes the church written about in the New Testament Book of Acts?

3:  Which set of descriptive words could transform human lives, set people free from their sins, and give people the power to live a holy lifestyle?

Experience B-word church for yourself:  The Salvation Army Berry Street Worship Center — 225 Berry St., Nashville, 37207 — Sunday mornings @ 10:45 & Thursday nights @ 6:30.

Posted in alternative lifestyle, American church, change, Christianity, church, church structure, early church, East Nashville, freedom, hearing God, house church, joy, mystery, mysticism, non-traditional church, organic church, presence of God, religion, sermon, simple church, sin, Spirit-led, spiritual, tradition, Uncategorized, words | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Who Is That? The Inner Voice (It’s Really 3 Voices)

Posted on March 2, 2012 by Steve Simms

Who dat talkin’ in my head?  It is important to understand that the voice that speaks in every human mind has three sources.  (It’s really 3 voices.)

If we miss this point we falsely think that our own thinking is all that there is to our mind.  However, the human mind is much more than self-produced thoughts.  It is also a receiver tuned in to thoughts from other sources.

Of course, we all know that our minds continually receive thoughts and suggestions from external sources — conversation with others, reading, media, music, and advertising all plant thoughts in our brain.

Most people, however, have no idea that internally (that is within themselves) there are three voices that have access to their brain.

First inner voice) The most obvious internal voice we hear is of course, our own thinking — the voice of self.   We can choose to think whatever we want.  However our free will has to compete in a mental tug-a-war with two other sources of our internal thoughts.

Second inner voice) A force of evil and self-destruction also speaks in our mind.  This voice seduces us with enticing temptations.  It presents its destructive suggestions as pleasurable and tries to make us believe that its thoughts are our own thoughts.  Most cultures in human history have identified this internal source of thought as coming from evil spirits (demons).  Demons disguise themselves and infiltrate our thinking with tempting and/or tormenting thoughts that masquerade as our own thoughts.  If we can’t identify the masqueraders, we are at their mercy.

Third inner voice) Finally, the voice of good speaks in our mind.  It is often called conscience.  It is the voice of God.  Almost everybody hears this voice, yet most of us have learned to resist it.  The voice of conscience (God) seeks to guide us to good thoughts and behaviors.  When you have a thought that tells you to do what is good and/or warns you against doing or thinking what is wrong — you have just been spoken to by the living God.

Choose your voices wisely.  If you follow voice number one, you will be continually confused.  If you follow voice number two, you will be enslaved in desires, addictions, obsessions, cravings, and compulsions.  If you follow voice three, you will day by day, get closer to joy, peace, love, freedom, and victory.

 

Posted in addiction, alternative lifestyle, brain chemistry, brain research, conscience, demons, ethics, evil, free will, God, harmful habit, hearing God, hearing Jesus, joy, moral principles, morality, morals, mystery, mysticism, positive thinking, spiritual, spiritual disciplines, spiritual formation, spiritual warfare, The Voice, thinking, thoughts, voice of God, Who dat talkin?, Who dat?, words | Tagged , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

When A Participatory Church Has A Birthday

Posted on March 1, 2012 by Steve Simms

When a participatory church has a birthday, everybody gets to participate in the celebration.  Nashville’s The Salvation Army Berry Street Worship Center will be 4 years old on the 4th of March and is celebrating this Sunday, March 4th.

Those present will be invited to share how they have been touched and changed by what God is doing at Berry Street.  Then after the 10:45 am. participatory worship gathering, to share in a pot luck and a birthday cake.

This is a great time to give Berry Street a birthday present.  Since we work in a needy neighborhood in East Nashville, we need outside financial help to keep this outreach ministry going.

If you would like to make a birthday donation to Berry Street, send a check made to The Salvation Army to:  The Salvation Army Berry Street, 225 Berry St., Nashville, TN, 37207.  Thank you so much!

Also, come and celebrate with us this Sunday at 10:45 am.  Mapquest can locate us for you.

Posted in Berry Street, Berry Street Worship Center, birthday, birthday present, Christian history, Christianity, East Nashville, Music City, Nashville, needy neighborhood, organic church, outreach ministry, participatory church, religion, simple church, The Salvation Army | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Dancing With God (The Holy Spirit 3-Step)

Posted on February 29, 2012 by Steve Simms

Dancing With God (The Holy Spirit Three-Step)

I am reading through the Book of Acts for the fifth time in two months and asking God to show me why the early church had so much more passion and power than the 21st Century church.  A few days ago, as I reread the words of Jesus in chapter 1, I noticed something I hadn’t seen before — the Holy Spirit 3-step.

As Jesus is about to leave His disciples, He presents a pattern that is repeated often in the Book of Acts:  Rest, Receive, Respond.  Perhaps, if we would like to experience the acts of the Holy Spirit in out time and in our life, we should follow Jesus’ pattern.

* Rest)  Jesus tells them:  “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift . . .”  Before we jump up and start doing whatever we want, using our own power and strength, we need to wait for the Spirit to touch us, to comfort us, to empower us, and to give us specific instructions.

* Receive)  Next Jesus says:  “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you . . .”  As we “wait for the gift” we are waiting for the Holy Spirit (and what the New Testament calls “the gifts of the Spirit”).   We are waiting for the Spirit to prompt us with insight and guidance.  A phrase used in the Book of Acts is:  “The Spirit said to . . .”  In the Book of Revelation Jesus repeats this commandment several times:  “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”  Perhaps one reason the contemporary church lacks power is our failure to hear the Spirit’s direct promptings in our heart.

* Respond)  Finally Jesus says:  “. . . and you will be My witnesses.”  In other words, you will show and tell what you have seen and heard — you will do what the Spirit says — then as you follow and obey His specific instructions to you, you will become a demonstration of God’s power and life flowing through you.

Luke, the author of Acts, then adds:  “After He said this, He was taken up  before their very eyes, and a cloud hid Him from their sight.”  Then two angels asked the disciples what would seem to be a rather obvious thing:  “Why do you stand here looking into the sky?”

The disciples had just seen something that no one had every seen — Jesus vanishing behind a cloud.  They were in shock — astonished.  However, they needed to stop looking for Jesus in the sky and start waiting and listening for the Spirit in their heart.  There needed to be a shift from following the physical, external Jesus to following and obeying the internal Spirit of Christ — the Holy Spirit.

So 120 disciples (including Jesus’ mother Mary) waited in Jerusalem without an agenda or a program or liturgy or a bulletin.  They had no idea what was coming or how long the gift would take to arrive.  Then suddenly after 40 days of waiting all Heaven breaks loose (see the second chapter of Acts).

How we need a earthly breakout of Heaven in the 21st Century!  Not a another program or a new technique or a special class or a great teaching or a refreshed ritual or a Christian conference . . .  In this post-Christian world, we desperately need all Heaven to break loose.  “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven.” If not now, when?  If not you, who?

It is time to rest, receive, & respond.  Need help?  Four years ago a group began to meet in Nashville based on the 3 R’s of Jesus.  After praise and worship, we rest, then receive, and then respond — we individually listen, we hear, and then we each do whatever God tells us to.  The results are amazing.  The Presence of God is showing up every week in amazing ways.

Come see for yourself:  Sundays @ 10:45 & Thursdays @ 6:30; 225 Berry Street, Nashville, 37207 — The Salvation Army Berry Street Worship Center.

Posted in Acts, acts of God, angels, awe, Berry Street, Berry Street Worship Center, Bible, Book of Revelation, Christ, Christian history, Christianity, church, church history, dancing, dancing with God, disciple making, disciples, discipling, early church, East Nashville, evidence for God, gift of God, gifts of the Spirit, God, guidance, hearing God, hearing Jesus, Heaven, history, Holy Spirit, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Jesus Movement, lifestyles, movement, Music City, mysticism, Nashville, New Testament, non-traditional church, normal Christianity, organic church, praise and worship, prayer, quench the Spirit, recovery, religion, repent, revelation, Scriptures, simple church, spiritual, spiritual formation, The Salvation Army, voice of God | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Christ in you is . . . (not the hope to cope; or the hope to just get by; or the hope to get blessed with some money; no, no). We need to realize that “Christ in you is the hope of glory!” God longs to visibly demonstrate His holy Presence and His glory in and through believers . . . if we will genuinely surrender to His will and allow ourselves to become undone before Him; if we will truly give up our plans, our programs, & our control.

Posted on February 28, 2012 by Steve Simms
Posted in acts of God, Christ, glory, holy, hope, values, worship | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Conscience, Moral Principals, Judgments, Right Conduct, & Shame

Posted on February 28, 2012 by Steve Simms

Quotations from the book, “Knowing Right From Wrong,” by Thomas D. Williams:

“In the depths of our consciences we recognize the existence of a law we did not write, but which we feel we must obey.  We have the power to choose right or wrong — but we do not have the power to declare what is right and wrong and have it be so.”

“Since human are moral beings everyone experiences the ‘prick’ or ‘prod’ of conscience.  This can be uncomfortable, and many have striven to explain — or explain away — conscience.”

“Shame is a proper response to what is shameful.”

“In our eagerness to be nonjudgmental, we sometimes jettison the entire moral law as well.”

“If conscience is meant to guide us to right conduct, it must offer more than opinion.  It must offer moral truth.  Otherwise ‘right’ conduct wouldn’t be ‘right’ at all.  It would simply be a question of perspective, preference, or social convention.”

“Those who say, ‘No one should impose a universal moral principle on others,’ are already contradicting themselves.  After all, what is, ‘Thou shalt not impose one’s moral principles,’ if not a moral principle itself?”

“Conscience doesn’t serve our urges and pleasures; it serves the truth.”

“When the dictates of conscience reign over the impulses of the flesh, we are truly free.”

“When the conscience speaks it does not offer suggestions; it passes judgments and issues commands.  It is the witness of God, Himself, who knows our inmost being, our deepest thoughts, motivations, and intentions.”

“Conscience has been rightly called an inner ‘sanctuary’ where God speaks to man in the depths of his heart.”

Posted in alternative lifestyle, books, conscience, God, judgments, Knowing Right From Wrong, moral principles, morality, morals, Quotations, quote, Quotes, right and wrong, right conduct, shame, Thomas D. Williams, thoughts, values | Tagged , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

News On The Street — (Sun., Feb. 26 @ Nashville’s Berry Street)

Posted on February 27, 2012 by Steve Simms

News On The Street from Sun., Feb. 26 @ B.S.

Yesterday at Nashville’s Berry Street several people shared stories about how God has asked them to surrender various parts of their life to Him.  Near the end of the meeting I asked:  “Does anybody want to surrender to God this morning?  A man jumped up and rushed forward.  He began to share how much people’s testimonies had touched him as tears rolled down his cheeks.

“I really want to surrender to God,” he said.  He knelt down and the group gathered around him.  People began to pray for him.  It was a moving and visible manifestation of the power and presence of Christ.

This story was also shared on Sunday:  “A Nashville Dream Fulfilled After 121 Years.”  Next Sunday we will celebrate the fourth birthday (anniversary) of The Salvation Army Berry Street and our non-traditional, participatory worship meetings.

Come & experience B.S. for yourself:  Sundays @ 10:45 am. & Thursdays @ 6:30 pm. — 225 Berry St., Nashville, 37207.

Posted in Berry Street, Berry Street Worship Center, Christ, Christianity, church, Jesus Christ, Jesus Movement, Music City, Nashville, organic church, presence of Christ, religion, simple church, spiritual formation, surrender to God, testimonies, The Salvation Army, the way we do church, What is church? | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Christ is visibly manifested in the church not when we merely hold meetings about Him; but when we actually encounter His Presence in our midst, individually listen to Him, and then obediently do whatever He prompts us to do in the meeting.

Posted on February 27, 2012 by Steve Simms
Posted in Christ, Christianity, church, house church, Jesus, Jesus Christ, organic church, simple church, spiritual formation, worship | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment