If we can assist you along this journey or you have suggestions about resources you would like to see developed, please contact us.  If you are interested in seeing if what John does would fit an event or gathering you have in mind, then go to www.transforminglife.org  and send us an email.

NEW LOCATION: www.transforminglife.org

The followers of Islam have made it clear that the U.S. is the infidel to them, that we are worshippers of our wealth and arrogant.  Islam is clear in both its teaching and history as a religion of violence and domination whose goal is to eliminate the infidel.  Islam is not a religion of peace.  As seen in the video below, true believers of Islam cannot be friends with non believers and it teaches them to outwardly befriend but inwardly curse them.  If this is true, how can Muslims claim to want to build the symbol of their beliefs as an honor to those that Muslims killed and to what Muslims believe was the symbol of our worship as infidels, the World Trade Center?  And again why would our President get involved, other than knowing what the Quran teaches in this regard? 

My opinion is obvious.  But I am interested in what all of you think?  The can’s open, comment away.

Please take a moment before you comment to watch this short video?

I have had a number of instances over the last year and especially recently where I was deeply struggling to feel and be loving toward people.  I have felt like the Apostle Paul in Romans where he said:

“For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.”  Romans 7:18

Paul endured all kinds of things at the hands of other people and he struggled with doing the right thing, the loving thing.  He reveals our inner conflict between the spirit and the flesh in us.  I have a desire to do the loving thing but sometimes my mind is saying stick it to them.  We have a tendency to justify our feelings or subsequent actions, because after all we were done wrong, they are being unreasonable or we are the victim.  That all may be true but the conflict remains and reveals our true problem.  To be true to the Spirit in us, we must love and be loving. 

As I read Romans 5 I find the problem with and answer to my dilemma:

“and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the holy Spirit who was given to us.”  Romans 5:5

The demands of life and the demands of God are so great that I don’t have a chance to do right without Him.  God knows the selfish and self-preserving nature of our flesh.  We are without the hope of consistent love without the presence of the Holy Spirit in us.  Without Jesus and the gift of His Spirit we do not have the capacity to love the unloveable.  We will revert to our flesh and flesh will always protect flesh.  It defaults to self-preservation. 

However, even as a believer we will have to believe the promise of God’s love.  Through His Spirit He has poured out His love in our hearts giving us His capacity to love even in the harshest of conditions.  Love is tough, but its impossible without God’s love.  So before we begin to excuse our unloving behavior by what others have done to us, we need to draw deep from the well of God’s love and remember that even in moments of injustice and persecution God gives us the capacity to manifest the love of Jesus through our mortal flesh.

Love may be tough, but not impossible.

Who do you need to forgive today?

I hope you will read and comment on the following article.

November 23, 2009

Stages in the Journey of Simple/House Church I have been reflecting, for some time, on the stages that I have seen and experienced in the simple/house church journey.

I would love to have your feedback on this to help clarify and further illuminate this subject.

When I speak of “stages” I do NOT speak of progressive steps.  I am not suggesting that one stage is better than the previous nor that this is about a plan to follow.  I am simply seeking to describe some aspects of the journey itself.  However, since the journey is one of change and transformation, I thought it might be helpful to try to describe some of the experiences in that journey that may be common to most.

Also, these “stages” typically refer to those who are transitioning from traditional church to simple/house church NOT to people who are discovering church-life for the first time in their life.

1. Letting go of old paradigms of church life.  This stage is described in a variety of ways from “taking the red pill,” to frustration with old wineskins to discovering what the Bible teaches about church life to…  It is sometimes accompanied with periods of disorientation, wandering through valleys of confusion, or (alternatively) great relief and a new sense of freedom.  People discover that they no longer want to “go” to church, rather they want to learn what it really means to “be” the church.

2. Exploring New Testament gatherings.  Since our old paradigm of church life has often revolved around the Sunday morning gathering, we often find ourselves on a quest to discover what “New Testament” simple/house church gatherings might look like and feel like.  In this stage, “the gathering” often remains the focus of our church-life as we seek to explore and experience small, Spirit-led, participatory, Christ-filled gatherings.  Our freedom continues to grow and we become more and more enamored with the reality that we really are 24/7, kingdom-living, Spirit-directed believers.  The dividing walls between secular and sacred continue to come down and we become excited about integrating our spiritual life with our “everyday” life.

3. Re-boot to Jesus.  Using Frost & Hirsch’s term (from ReJesus), part of the overall transformation we walk through is the re-centering of Jesus in our life.  This takes place as we find ourselves removing pieces of our religious life that have sometimes taken center stage alongside of Jesus or as mediators between us and Jesus: our church, our pastor, certain leaders, certain teachers, doctrine, our church’s culture (fitting in to the culture), religious rules for church life or behavior, etc, etc.  The result is often a personal renewal of our own relationship with Jesus, a greater longing to understand what it is to be an uncompromising follower, to hear his voice, to respond to him, and to live out of a deep intimacy and love relationship with him that is truly center stage in our life.

4. A new missional heart and longing.  It is inevitable that the process of re-booting to Jesus stirs in us a fresh desire to see his kingdom, his love, his power known and experienced by others.  However, this stage is sometimes fraught with severe challenges because our background around “missional” has sometimes been so pre-packaged and programmed that we are challenged to grasp the unique and fresh ways that Jesus wants to make himself known through us.  This is especially true for those whose spiritual gifts do not seem to fit into the “missional” spectrum.  However, for those who are more apostolic and evangelistic in gifting, this stage often leads to an entirely new excitement and fervor for taking the “real Jesus” into the streets, neighborhoods, and unreached segments of the world.  For those who have NOT seen themselves as “missional,” (in our previous church experiences) this stage can lead to some exciting discoveries of how God wants to embody himself uniquely through each of us (see stage #5).

(Side-note: It has been my experience that each of these stages may lead to changes in one’s own worship community and gathering.  For example, stage 4 may literally lead to someone moving geographically in order to better fulfill his/her calling.  Or, we may find that our own transformation draws us to connect with different people than when we started—or even NO people for a season as we become re-oriented.)

5. Fresh discovery of our own passions, spiritual gifts, and calling.  As we are freed up from church/religious boxes, we are able to more thoroughly discover our uniqueness in the way that God shaped us (passions, gifts, and calling) leading to a new understanding of how he wants to work in and through our lives.  I believe that, in some ways, this stage may lead to the most significant impact on the world as Christ’s church is renewed to walk in all of her splendor according to the unique way that each person is shaped.  This may be considered a “convergent stage,” a coming together of several stages at once: our experience of re-booting to Jesus, our missional excitement about seeing the “real Jesus” shared among our neighbors, friends, and world, and our discovery of how we are uniquely created and gifted to serve and embody Jesus.

(A second side-note: transformational journeys are perilous in that they may lead to new directions in our life that we never imagined.  My wife and I are spending much of our time traveling to developing countries which has come directly out of these converging stages.  Of course, this process will lead in different directions for different people, but it should be noted that transformation always asks us to let go of our own life and allow Jesus to re-shape it.)

6. Integration of an organic, fruitful lifestyle with organic gatherings that support it.  This is simply to re-iterate that gatherings may change as our life and lifestyle shift and that they ultimately support, synergistically, what God is doing through us as we experience stage #7

7. Our kingdom influence spreads and even becomes reproductive in its impact.  Since organic life grows and reproduces, we will discover the life that God has shaped in us not only influences others but becomes a living, reproducing influence.  For apostolic workers in unreached segments, this can lead to church planting movements.  Although our callings and influence may differ from this (and from one another) I do believe that similar types of reproductive fruitfulness can and will occur as we walk out this process of re-discovery of life in Jesus.  Ultimately, it is a transformational process that we are on.  As we are fully renewed in Jesus and he draws out of us who we really are, the Spirit’s influence through us becomes more and more dynamic, natural, compelling, and living (i.e. reproductive in influence).

Please let me know how you relate (or don’t relate) to these stages!

“Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit.  And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord.  There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons.   But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.”  1 Corinthians 12:4-7

I was sharing about this verse just this morning with our “yes” simple / organic church.  Why is it that many in the body are not able to accept that there are more ways than their way or the way they have always done it.  Here Paul says there are variety of gifts, variety of ministries and variety of effects; but one and the same Spirit that works all these things for our common good.  So why be critical about what God is doing with others that is different from what He is doing with us.  Why not rejoice that Christ is exalted and the gospel is preached?

Here is a thought or encouragement.  In my experience having been a part of both the traditional and organic church movement:

1. those who are leaders normally go through a period of insecurity.  When God shows you a new thing, a fresh vision or new way, you will have to work through the fear of the unknown and how secure you are in your relationship with God who is leading you in this new way.  The key to this is security in God not security in the new way.  A subject for another time; this is an issue of security in sonship.  However, if you do not come to a secure place you can end up having to judge and criticize or rather delegitimize what others are doing differently in order to feel legitimate about what God want you to do.

2. those who do not consider themselves leaders but many times have grown up in one type of church experience are sadly susceptible to a narrow sense of what God is doing and how He is doing it in other places.  They can become dogmatic and entrenched in religious ruts.  Then anything that is different from their experience threatens their security.  If you are comfortable with where you are at, be prepared to have your security challenged.  There is more to God than we all know and have experienced.  Growth in Him demands that we constantly lay down our insecurities about how to find our security in Who (Jesus).  But, like the unassuming dog that suddenly gets backed into a corner, many people will come out barking and biting when they sense their security threatened.  Again, the key is sonship.  When we are secure in who and whose we are, we will not fear the things around us.  We need to be secure in Him and what He has revealed to us and rejoice in what He is doing in others for His sake.  We need to realize the importance of diversity in the body of Christ.

“For the body is not one member, but many.  If the foot says, “Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body.  And if the ear says, “Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body.  If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be?  But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired.  If they were all one member, where would the body be?  But now there are many members, but one body.  And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; or again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.””    1 Corinthians 12:14-21

Here’s a great post by Neil Cole, “The Real Dirt on Organic Church.”

So from those great theologians from the ’80′s, Bill & Ted:  Be excellent to each other!

As I walked around her house I noticed as I always have, the beautiful flowers and plants.  I told my wife “Everything she touches grows.”  Granny Hobbs has always given all she could to those around her.  She holds on to nothing too tightly, that if she saw a need that she couldn’t let it go.  She takes in animal, takes dead looking plants and is thoughtful of  those around her.  And everything she touches grows.  It is hard to quantify her sacrifice because her love, nurture and giving is so unassuming, selfless and seemingly effortless.  The people around her are transformed without even being aware that their lives have blossomed by her touch.

“And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”  John 1:14

Margeret Feinberg in her book “The Organic God” asks this question, “What does it look like to enter into someone’s life?  To embrace without hesitance?  To be fully human?  It looks like the person of Jesus.”

When love comes in the form of total identification the result is transformation.  Identification has to include personal touch.  When the barriers of self are put aside to embrace someone where they are, thats incarnation.  The neat thing about God’s love is how it embraces you where you are and its power to transform you into what you were created to be.  It causes the seed of God to grow and blossom.

“But God demonstrates HIs own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”  Romans 5:8

When we embrace people where they are, not to change them, but to love them and to know them as friends, the power of God is released to transform them into His image by His Holy Spirit.  It’s hard work to change people.  But it’s effortless to truly love when there is no other agenda but to love.  Love is always difficult when it is mixed with another agenda.  Love comes from God. Love is the only debt we owe.  Love transforms.

“Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another…”  Romans 13:8

Are you loving incarnationally?

Francis Chan: “Grace, Grace, Grace”  (This and other massages at www.cornerstonesimi.com)

• Building a website for my Dad’s ministry. www.mmu.org
• Posting at www.mmu.org
• Negotiating on the purchase of a Camp and Retreat Center in Black Mountain, NC. www.cbu.org  www.go2theridge.com
• Making plans to run 2 weeks of youth camp in Black Mountain, NC. www.go2theridge.com
• Church: www.becomingthedwellingplace.com
• Trying to sell our church property. Interested – call – please!!!!! or email to: info@thedwellingplacecc.com
• Family!!!! I have 3 kids…Nuff said!
• Lots more, but that’s a good list.

Love you guys! I’ll be back soon.

So, what are you doing with what God has given you?  What do you dream about?

Creativity… an amazing gift from the Creator….ENJOY!

Without this revelation you will not live in freedom.   You will do the things of God retaining a right to yourself and operating with yourself as the reference point of God’s work.  This in time makes His work burdensome because it is works.  It is not your life working for Him.  It is to be His life working through you. 

 ”Not you producing His life, but you expressing His life, as you by faith trust Him to live through you, as you.”   The Rest of the Gospel by Dan Stone & David Gregory

Oswald Chambers in “My Utmost for His Highest” (March 4th) shares the effects of this revelation on our service to God.

Is This True Of Me?

“None of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself…   Acts 20:24

It is easier to serve or work for God without a vision and without a call, because then you are not bothered by what He requires. Common sense, covered with a layer of Christian emotion, becomes your guide. You may be more prosperous and successful from the world’s perspective, and will have more leisure time, if you never acknowledge the call of God. But once you receive a commission from Jesus Christ, the memory of what God asks of you will always be there to prod you on to do His will. You will no longer be able to work for Him on the basis of common sense.

What do I count in my life as “dear to myself”? If I have not been seized by Jesus Christ and have not surrendered myself to Him, I will consider the time I decide to give God and my own ideas of service as dear. I will also consider my own life as “dear to myself.” But Paul said he considered his life dear so that he might fulfill the ministry he had received, and he refused to use his energy on anything else. This verse shows an almost noble annoyance by Paul at being asked to consider himself. He was absolutely indifferent to any consideration other than that of fulfilling the ministry he had received. Our ordinary and reasonable service to God may actually compete against our total surrender to Him. Our reasonable work is based on the following argument which we say to ourselves, “Remember how useful you are here, and think how much value you would be in that particular type of work.” That attitude chooses our own judgment, instead of Jesus Christ, to be our guide as to where we should go and where we could be used the most. Never consider whether or not you are of use— but always consider that “you are not your own” ( 1 Corinthians 6:19  ). You are His.

Once you have had a revelation of Christ, there is no turning back.  You couldn’t even if you wanted to.