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Go Ahead You Have My Permission! |
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Written by Craig Wilson
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One of the many things that I find strange in church life is how the role of the pastor has been expanded. As far as I understand it according to the Bible my responsibilities are to pray, study the Scriptures, feed the flock that God has given to me and to watch over them and their spiritual development. Regardless of the size of the flock those are time consuming activities. The Pastors priorities are set by the Scriptures and he has no right to deviate from them.
Yet in many churches, especially smaller ones he is expected to have a hand in everything that goes on. Now I understand that there are those pastors who for any number of reasons want it to be that way, but remember pastor if that is your choice don't complain about being over worked and stressed out! I also realize that many church members look to the pastor for things that frankly he doesn't much care about.
That brings me to the title of this post, "Go ahead you have my permission". Frequently I'm asked if we can do this or we can do that. Honestly most of the time they are things that I don't have an opinion about one way or another. As an example, as a home church it's very easy for us to have lunch together whenever we want to. It's no big deal, we're all together, we just bring in our stuff put it in the kitchen and after the service we are good to go. Yet this doesn't happen unless I initiate it, or someone asks me if we can have lunch together after the service. In areas that aren't doctrinal like having a lunch or making up a songbook for us to use on Sunday "Go ahead you have my permission"! In fact in most of these things you don't need my permission, just do it!
God has given a spiritual gift to each member of the body, and it is partially my responsibility to see that each member has the opportunity use their gifts. But you don't need my permission to use it, God has already given you permission so just use your gift. If you have the gift of serving just use the gift, or whatever gift you have please use your gift and remember "You don't need my permission"!
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Where do we go from here? |
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Written by Craig Wilson
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Even though it is hard for me to believe, we are now into our eighth month of "house church". I realize that is not a whole lot of time in the overall scheme of things, but I do think that it is enough time for at least myself to begin formulating some definite opinions about house church or simple church as it is sometimes known as.
Todd and I have begun meeting together early on Monday mornings to discuss the church and where we may go from here. As for me I have to say that I have enjoyed the house church/simple church setting far more than I thought I would. After all I have been a part of a "traditional church" setting for the past forty-four years. Any way you cut it, that is a long time, a long time for personal preferences to be set in stone, a long time for habits to become firmly ingrained and a long time for a way of doing things to become very comfortable.
Changing to the house church requires an adjustment from anyone who has been in the traditional church setting for awhile, but perhaps the pastor has to undergo the most significant adjustment because of the change in the preaching/teaching style.
In the house church setting people and pastor are much closer physically which can create some tension for both teacher and hearer. In the house church setting the pastor doesn't have the "security" of the pulpit to lean on or hide behind. The preparation process is the same but the delivery is somewhat different. I find myself constantly fighting the urge to ask questions and wait for answers. But I know that makes people uncomfortable when they are put on the spot and if someone doesn't know the answer they may get embarrassed and then they probably won't be able to concentrate on what is being said for thinking about what others are thinking about them! Perhaps as we all grow more comfortable in this setting we will find the freedom both to ask and answer questions.
One of my favorite things I like about house church is the closeness that we experience each week. Certainly this is an area that we are still growing in and I believe it will only improve over time. The times that we have lunch together as a church family are a highlight of that week for me.
Is there anything that I miss from the traditional church? The thing that I miss the most is what is for now a lack of opportunity for others to use their talents. Specifically I thinking of the music. We had such good music, (we still do) but right now not everyone is able to be involved. I'm sure we can overcome this if we try hard enough.
Are there some more changes we need to make as we move forward? Yes, there are and I'll detail them later. But for now an easy and I believe necessary place to start is by encouraging more people to give involved using their gifts and talents.
Remember you don't need to ask permission to minister in the way that God has gifted you. Just let me know what you would like to do and we can go from there.
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Now that's what I'm talking about! |
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Written by Craig Wilson
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The more that I'm a part of the "simple church" or the "house church" there are more things that I appreciate about it.
For the past two months we have been engaged in a detailed study of the 119th Psalm. Each week we take it section by section and explore it in-depth. Last week we finished the eight section and I thought that would be a good point to take the time for a review. So after I finished teaching last week, I asked each person to come prepared to tell what they had learned from the study and how they were applying that knowledge. |
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Read more... [Now that's what I'm talking about!]
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The Christian Life is a Life of Doing |
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Written by Craig Wilson
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I believe that the Bible teaches that God is sovereign, totally absolutely sovereign in all things. Not some things but in all things. We must be very careful to not let the God's sovereign control lead us to make the mistake that our actions really don't matter. The thinking goes if God is sovereign then it is what it is and my actions really don't matter much at all.
In the Scriptures there are some things that create what I refer to as "tension". One of those tensions is if God is sovereign then why are there so many commands and exhortations in the Scriptures given to me to play an active role in my own spiritual development? For instance what did Paul say to the Philippians?
"Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure."(Philippians 2:12-13ESV)
Don't let Paul's words confuse you, there is no contradiction, but there is a tension. We do have some "doing" in spiritual growth, while at the same time we are confident that God is working as well.
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Read more... [The Christian Life is a Life of Doing]
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My visit to another "Simple Church" |
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Written by Craig Wilson
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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.
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