Do you want to read over my shoulder again? I had this email exchange this week with a brother the other day in New Mexico. I never know how to respond to stuff like this. I am blessed that people are willing to look outside the box and see what God is asking of them, but always a bit concerned when it looks like they’re just going to grab another box. While Paul talked often about the church in various’s homes, he never used the term house church. I took a chance on this one and wrote back what was in my heart:

God told me to prepare 6 months ago to start a house church and has been teaching me through prayer and his word all he wants me to know. Then a couple of weeks ago a brother pointed me to house2house, which finally confirmed to me that God is planting the same seeds universally. Then I listened to your series on ‘the relational church” and “The power of the Cross” and received further confirmation. Anyway, I am starting to network in to greenhouse, house2house etc., and our house church starts Dec. 1. If you are ever passing through plan to visit and share some of his love.

If God has led you to ‘start a house church’, by all means do so. I think it is fabulous when people get together in homes to share his life together. But could I at least have a shot at stretching your thinking a bit? While I love the folks at greenhouse and house2house and appreciate their passion, I think it is also possible that they are just building another box in which people will try to contain God’s working. And like all boxes, they won’t work. Our God is too big and his ways too mysterious for us to contain in any specific methodology. These resources can serve a valuable function in letting folks know they are not alone in their passion to discover more relational and relevant expressions of church life and give them tools God might want to use to help us live in him. But if we let them sidetrack us by putting all our marbles into a new box called ‘house church’, we’ll end up back where we started.

I’m convinced that building the church is Jesus’ job. Ours is to proclaim the gospel and help others near us find a relationship with God that is real every day. I much prefer people to think in terms of learning how to live in God and share his life together rather than starting a house church. The latter is already laced with so many expectations that it might actually do more to thwart God’s working than it will release it. Jesus wants us to free people to be his. By learning to listen to God together he will build a life among you that will reflect his glory and you will experience whatever expression of church life Jesus wants for you.

That may look like a house church, it may also look like a hundred other things. I have seen too many expressions of Jesus’ church around the world to know that any one box is unworthy of him and copying other people’s models won’t produce it. It also puts our focus on the wrong thing. By trying to ‘start something’ we often miss what it means to let Jesus lead us into intentional community with others that is life-changing. Only by following him and sharing our common lot as failed human beings on the way to being transformed by Jesus, will we ever discover life in the body of Christ as Jesus designed it for us. I certainly don’t want to dampen your excitement about opening up your home, but if I can save you a few years of being side-tracked into a specific form that may not be what God wants for you, perhaps it was valuable.

Every group I’ve ever worked with confesses to struggle to find the right title or name for their group. Most just decide on something out of exasperation. That’s as true of names as it is of terms like ‘house church.‚ I was in a few of those myself.

Looking back, I wonder if the struggle itself shouldn’t tell us something. If God wanted us to make an it and name it, wouldn’t he give us clarity about what we should call it. I find great freedom now merely talking in terms of function, not names. Names are way we distinguish ourselves from others in the body and I‚m not sure it‚s a Godly thing we do. It‚s more utilitarian, which often leads us to convince ourselves that God is in it when he isn’t…. Just thoughts, at this point, Bro! I don’t have definitive answers myself.

So the people I’m with now are talking about learning how to live out intentional community together. It makes a lousy name, which is intentional on our part. We want to be focused on the relationship to God and our relationships to each other not on creating some kind of institution, even a household one. So instead of ‘starting a house church’, we’re ‘opening our home for people who want to share the journey of knowing Jesus together’. That keeps the focus in the right place and won’t separate you from others God might want you to touch who aren’t ready to join something else.

Fabulous… I think you’ve hit it on the head, Brother and pray all God’s best as you explore what it is to simply walk together with other believers as God calls you to!

Sometimes the most incredible letters in the world arrive in my email box. This is from a woman in New Zealand who has found her life in Christ despite incredibly desperate circumstances. I know of no greater miracle than when Jesus’ life holds someone close enough to himself in the worst of circumstances that they find songs of joy in the darkest night:

For the first time in my life I did not vote for a presidential candidate today. Oh, I voted. I voted for all other offices national, state, and local and I voted on all the propositions that overwhelmed the California ballot this year. But I didn’t vote for president. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever not done.

I am not undecided. I am appalled. I am appalled by the dishonest, angry rhetoric of this campaign that has further divided our nation at a time when we need to humble ourselves. I am appalled that both political parties have been corrupted by special interest money that rewards political cronies rather than to champion justice in our society. I am appalled that both campaigns preferred to spread lies about the other than to inspire the citizenry to a higher common good worthy of the place we hold in the world.

And while I have more in common with Bush’s agenda than I do Kerry’s, I found myself grieving President Bush’s arrogance in the face of truth. The fact that he doesn’t seem to learn from past mistakes left me less confident that he should be entrusted with the awesome might of our military and the lives of young people who serve in it. I kept waiting for him to demonstrate some humility and a desire to cooperate with others that speaks of the Father he claims to follow. I never saw it.

I know that risks the wrath of people like Chuck Colson who wrote in his Breakpoint commentary a few days ago: “Voting is not an option for Christians. It’s a biblical duty, because by voting we carry out God’s agency; we are His instruments for appointing leaders.” I’m not so naïve as to think that we are the instruments by which God carries out his purpose in these things, however important I deem voting to be. And I reject his assertion that voting is a biblical duty when it isn’t even mentioned in Scripture. It does say clearlyl that he is the one that raises up rulers and removes them from office. He has already chosen our next president, for whatever reasons best serve his purposes in the earth.

Could Jesus have said it any more clearly than he did to Pilate? “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then my servants would be fighting…” While I would say Jesus uses our participation as responsible citizens in whatever environment we find ourselves, I think it is a grave misunderstanding to think that we alone are his agency to appoint leaders. Nor should we assume that we can fight with the world’s weapons (including political campaigns) and not end up pressed into the world’s mold.

In the end I could not bring myself to vote for either candidate, or for any of those from the lesser parties. I wasn’t looking for a perfect person but a man worthy of the office to which he aspired. I did not want to merely vote for the one least flawed. So I guess I did vote today. I voted in protest against an election process I found repulsive and against two candidates who acted more like name-calling bullies on a kindergarten playground than statesmen who would put the common good above their own self-interest.

So instead of voting for a candidate I did not respect, I grieved for the state of our nation today and I prayed. I prayed for the eventual winner whomever that might be. (Since the campaigns have amassed $78 million for post-election litigation we may not know who that is for some time if the election stays close.) When our next president is finally elected, I pray God would visit him in the night and reveal himself to that man. I pray he would have the humility of heart to bind up the wounds of this election and not exploit them for political gain. I pray he would walk gracefully before the world and lead our country with wisdom in these difficult days. And I pray he would be a man of compassion and justice for the powerless in our world.

A new-found web contact sent me this today. I loved it and thought many of you would too!

Yesterday I shared a chorus that John Beaumont heard in a vision of God’s glory. Also in that sharing he tried to describe the glory of God as he saw it and came to understand it:

I don’t often publish the sensational on my site because it tends to encourage people to seek manifestations instead of seeking Jesus, but that doesn’t mean I don’t believe in genuine expressions of the supernatural becoming normal parts of our lives. A few years ago, one of my new-found friends from New Zealand, John Beaumont, was caught up in a vision of God’s throne. While there he heard a song being sung out of God’s glory. He felt like it was something God wanted to share specifically with Ireland, but I think its application goes far beyond that. One of my friends in Ireland sent me a CD of the song and John’s sharing about how it came to be.

I first heard this song in Ireland a couple of years ago and I am taken by its content and by the path of simple humility God outlines for us to live in him. It’s content reflects much of the content of Philippians 2:5-11. The song is from God’s heart to his people. It his he who wants to ‘settle down at home in you,’ which is as awesome a commentary of John 14:2 as I’ve ever heard. Can you imagine that the God of the universe has made a way so that he can settle down and be at home in you and you in him. What amazing grace!

The last two lines is our response to God’s incredible work of grace. In response to him being at home in us, we have the opportunity to choose to take our place and reign in him. The song goes like this:

I have attached a link so you can hear the chorus. It is sung by a group of believers Ireland who were just learning the song, so the quality isn’t great, but I think you will enjoy it just the same.

Whether you hear it or not, let the reality sink in. This Father wants to settle down at home in you, and for you to be at home in him. What could say it any better?

I got the following email today and it really blessed my heart. I don’t know how God does these things through stuff I’ve written, but I’m always blessed to see people find freedom in the way God thinks, rather than clinging to religious views that only lead to false security and actions:

I had no idea what you all are dealing with in this situation as a Mom, but I love what God has settled in your heart. It is my contention that religion cannot figure out how to love what it does not condone. In fact religion uses ‘love’ as a weapon so that we can manipulate people after our own desires. Jesus, on the other hand had the amazing freedom to love what he did not condone. His love for people and condoning their destructive choices never got confused. That’s why the world would come to him and discover the fountain of life. He could both love them where they were while he freed them from the bondages that tormented their souls.

May we be like he was in the world…

Kevin posed this question to my recent posting regarding Where Transformation Ensues:, Where Transformation Ensues:

I think we’re having a bit of a semantic problem here, Kevin. By institutional priorities I was referring to what an institution needs to survive: buildings, budgets, planning programs, security, making people confirm and leaders who must stay in control. It is always amazing to me how even the best of our so-called ‘church’ environments reward people who fit in the program unquestioningly and not those who are living closely to Jesus and seeking to follow him. Thus it champions those things it can measure: attendance, giving, and working on its programs. One can do well at all of those without cultivating a deep and personal relationship with God.

I would consider the example you give is a family priority. How do we each yield our own preferences to cooperate with others as we follow Jesus together? When believers do that together in freedom and joy, they are living relationally and reflect the life Jesus called us to share together. I don’t think of that as an institutional priority at all.

You have to keep in mind that I don’t consider something institutional because it has a name, or a building or a structure, and I don’t consider something a family just because it meets in a home. What we always have to look for is what priorities that guide they way they live together:

• Institutions demand commitment. Healthy families enjoy being together.

• Institutions compel people to conform even if they have to pretend. Healthy families prefer people be genuine, even in their struggles and doubts.

• Institutions push programs. Healthy families help people connect in safe and growing relationships.

• Institutions demand that people be accountable. Healthy families encourage each other to live more fully in God.

• Institutions guarantee their stability by making people dependent on them. Healthy families find their security in the Father and look to help people live free in him.

• Institutions create power-centers where leaders get to make decisions for others. Healthy families help equip each person to make healthy decisions.

• Institutions always end up putting their own survival above the individual. Healthy families will lay down their lives for the needs of one person.

As I’ve said many times before. I see lots of home meetings reflect more institutional priorities than family ones. And I know folks who meet in buildings who keep their life in God at the center and don’t give into the institutional demands that always seek to control them. That’s why I say in time institutional priorities always seem to win out. We have 2000 years of church history that show an alive group of people moving away from the status quo to live free, then in time creating their own institutions that the next generation has to move away from. It has been going on through the whole of church history.

I just got back from a weekend in the Quad Cities of Iowa as the fall foliage was just beginning to burst out. Since we don’t have fall here in southern California I especially enjoyed the show and the cool, crisp air. Even more amazing was what God allowed us to share in those few days together. A group of believers there have been sharing life together in their homes for a couple of years and invited me to spend the weekend with them. Though I’d never met any of them before I felt like family instantly.

Father had led us on similar paths and it was great to share the lessons of the journey together as we got to know each other. And then God sent some other folks to join us. It started out with a neighbor from a home nearby who came to check out what was going on. Though his family had been deeply involved in a local congregation, they had been having second thoughts about that. God had been opening their hearts with a greater hunger to find a more enduring life in him. He was full of questions. The next day he came back and brought eight other friends with him. They had all been struggling with the same issues. The next day they brought even more.

We got to talk in some depth about this amazing life in Christ and how our institutions can so easily distract our eyes from the simplicity and freedom of knowing him and burden us down with activities, obligations and guilt. In just a few days it was amazing to see how much freedom Jesus worked in them and how visible it was in the countenance, voices and the way they related to each other. I have no idea what they’ll end up doing, but I think they see the way a bit more clearly and will be freer to sense Jesus’ voice and follow him however he will lead them.

On the last night one of the brothers from the initial group who had invited me told me he had been focused on the wrong thing. “I have been trying to sell house church, but not any more.” Somehow the weekend had freshly ignited his heart for Jesus and the desire to help others follow him, not get caught up in another system to add to all the other systems people have created. When I got home, I found this note from another brother who is part of that community:

It’s easy for people on at times like this to get mixed up between what I am doing there and what Father is doing while I’m there, but what greater fruit could we ever expect from our life together as his children? If it draws our hearts to him, encourages us to walk in greater freedom and joy, and opens our lives to help others on this incredible journey, then it is body life indeed!

A theme seems to be developing in my life over the past few days. First Alex posed a question on one of my previous blogs, Meeting Together. It is a significant question for anyone struggling through how we live out the life of the church today.

Then I got an email from Australia this morning after reading my blog on That Lot in Fairlee:

Finally I spent some time on the phone today with a staff pastor at an outwardly successful congregation who is beginning to recognize a greater reality in Christ than he has experienced. Concerned about where his passion might take him, he wanted to ask me some questions about how this journey might affect his future and whether God can use the pastor/congregational model so prevalent today.

While I was talking to this brother we hit upon something that I think addresses the other two as well. First, let me say that nothing on this website refers to the abomination of denominations, or that those in pastoral roles are bad. That’s not language I use or encourage. We are caught in an interesting time. I’m convinced that the pastor/congregational/denominational structures we’ve inherited after 2000 years of Christian history are simply at odds with the priorities of the kingdom as Jesus lived it. Many people are starting to see that and hunger for a greater reality than these environments can offer no matter how hard they try.

Our structures seem to propagate religion more easily than the equip people for relationship and in time institutional priorities seem to trump relational ones. Does that mean they are valueless? Should we all leave them or close them all down? Is everyone in them working against the purpose of God in the earth? No! No! And no! It is one thing to recognize the weaknesses of a system and another to judge those involved in them as evil, or not recognize how God still works through our flawed attempts. He’s a pretty gracious God. I got much of my knowledge of Scripture and hunger to know God through those kinds of structures. They just couldn’t fill the hunger they gave me. We can be active in those structures and miss what true life in Christ and in his family is all about because maintaining the machinery exhausts our resources and distracts our passions.

What I hear in all of these contacts this week is an underlying concern: Do we have to figure out congregational life and do it the right way to live deeply in Jesus today? No! No! And no! In fact our preoccupation with the structures, whether we’re embracing them or reacting to them still keeps our eye on the wrong place. The transitions God wants to make in us are not primarily institutional. They are in the heart. As we embrace what he is doing in us how we need to respond on the outside will be clearer.

In the phone call earlier today I sensed that this staff pastor, like so many of us, was trying to sort out so many things that he couldn’t even see yet. Somehow he had become convinced that his life in Jesus would suffer until he got the structural issues figured out. It became obvious to us both how backwards that way of thinking is. Jesus is not waiting for us to get all the structures right.

Every bit of his life is available to you today in your relationship with him. Right now! Right where you are he wants you to know his reality and his work in you. If your mind is constantly trying to answer all the questions about your unknown future you will miss his work in you today. He does not live in your illusions, dreams or fears of the future. He lives in you. Embrace him today. Yield to him. Listen to him. Follow him without ‘taking any thought about tomorrow’ and he’ll be able to do some amazing things in you. Don’t think it awaits the perfect environment. Your submitted heart to him is all the environment he needs and whatever transition he wants to take you through in your activities or structures will rise out of the reality of that relationship. We get the cart before the horse when we’re more focused on our structures than we are on our King and Priest and Friend.