The Christian Life is a Life of Doing

My visit to another "Simple Church"

House churches are labeled in several ways. Organic church, house church, and simple church are labels that are many time use interchangeably to describe a church that doesn't meet in "traditional" setting.

I'm not a big fan of labels, I think they are too easily mis-applied and therefore easily misunderstood. For instance yesterday I had the opportunity to visit what I would call a simple church. It didn't meet in home or a coffee shop or some other non traditional setting. They meet in a very traditional white clapboard church situated fight in the middle of their neighborhood.

Why would I describe them as a simple church? Because that is exactly what they are, a simple church! They were simple in their setting, they were simple in their worship, they were simple in their preaching. Please don't misunderstand I'm not saying this is a bad thing, in fact I think it is great. I've had some prior contact with the Pastor of the church who is a wonderful man, and he and the entire church (there were 33 of us there) made me feel so welcome. I found my self admiring their ability to appreciate and enjoy who they were. They sang with gusto, they weren't afraid to say amen, they weren't afraid to be simple. To be honest it was a very refreshing experience. Maybe they and Lynyrd Skynyrd have some in common which would be shocking to them, they like the simple life, they way it used to be!

Maybe more churches instead of longing to be the next Purpose Driven Church, should go back to the way it used to be, just be a simple church.

Is Reading the Bible Enough?

"Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth."(2 Timothy 2:15ESV)

Our house church has been working verse by verse through Psalm 119. The subject of the Psalm is the Word of God. Almost every verse makes reference to God's word. A secondary theme of Psalm 119 is the attitude that the Psalmist himself has towards the Scriptures.

One thing has become very obvious to me through my study. What is obvious is that the author has more than just a passing interest in the Scriptures, he is made a commitment to make the Scriptures a priority in his life. Repeatedly in the Psalm he makes statements of personal commitment. In fact on thirteen separate occasions he makes "I will" commitments. For instance in verse 8 he says "I will keep your statutes"; in verse 15 he says "I will meditate on your precepts"; in verse 32 he says "I will run in the way of your commandments". It is clear that he has made a serious commitment to obey the ways of God. There is an underlying principle in this Psalm that for our own benefit we must be aware of. The principle is that he is committed to knowing the Word of God so that he can indeed obey the Word of God. In other words he has more than a surface level understanding of the Scriptures.

That brings me to my question.

Is simply reading the Bible alone, apart from study, memorization, meditation and application enough to "conform" us to the image of Christ?

Will simply reading the Scriptures adequately form Christian character in those who profess faith in Christ?

Will simply reading the Scriptures allow us to experience all of the blessings that God has promised to those who obey him?

My answer is no, simply reading the Bible apart from seeking to understand the Scriptures is simply not enough and I believe that is God's position as well.

For starters go back and read Paul's words to Timothy. The primary application may be for those who teach and preach God's Word but it applies to every believer as well. What about Peter's exhortation to

"but in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you;"(1 Peter 3:15ESV)

Study Psalm 119 carefully, it is clear that he not only reads the Scriptures, he studies them, he memorizes them and he meditates on them.

As I was mulling over the question "Is reading the Bible enough" I came across this by David Nienhuis a professor of New Testament studies at Seattle Pacific University. The entire article is worth taking the time to read but one of his statements really got my attention. He writes "Satan's use of Scripture in tempting Jesus is clear indication that a merely cognitive level of biblical literacy does not automatically result in the formation of a Christian character."

Take a moment to reflect on what he is saying. Satan had a "knowledge" of the Scriptures but the kind of knowledge he had certainly did not form a Christ like character in him!

There is powerful and necessary lesson to be learned. We as believers (and especially those who have the responsibility of caring for a flock) must not be guilty of thinking that if I can just get them to read the Bible everything will be okay. No, we must be encouraging others, showing others how to read, study, memorize and meditate on the Scriptures.

Many of the problems in our own lives and in our churches could be dealt with Biblicaly if we simply knew what the Scriptures teach.

Maybe the Insititutional Chuch isn't the problem after all!