Terry, I think you are correct about some
of the mega-churches, if they function as spectator church. However, some
of the large churches are actually finding a way to return to first century
style fellowship, as there is a large gathering together under the “church”
roof, but it becomes a place where you meet others and find your way into cell
home groups and into ministry. Our church (which is comparatively small
but growing at an alarming rate) had a volunteer celebration night this
week. It was shocking to see the percent of people who attend who also
minister in one way or another. My husband is the percussionist in the
band, which is mostly professional musicians who have only a couple of hours to
practice together before the Sat pm service, and then play again twice Sunday, and
yet make incredible music. I’m plugged into the ‘design team”,
which puts together the setting according to the teaching theme going on each
week—sometimes just long fabric drapes from the catwalks overhead, and
sometimes quite amazing designs that set the atmosphere for opening hearts and
minds to the message. The benevolence ministry, as I mentioned, does
things that change the direction of many lives. I cannot mention all of
the dozens of “ministries”, let alone the small group fellowships
that spring from all of this activity. And the souls that are brought to
the foot of the Cross in all of this are testimony to the fact that Jesus is
lifted up in the multitude of ministries functioning there—like an Holy
Ghost directed orchestra. It’s all very exciting, because everyone
watching realizes that it is totally a “God thing”. Izzy
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On
Behalf Of Terry Clifton
Sent: Tuesday, June 07, 2005 3:20
PM
To: TruthTalk@mail.innglory.org
Subject: Re: [TruthTalk]
WorldNetDaily: How and why we're going to win
I am not certain that I have a take, Judy.On one hand,
I believe that we are in the last days, and if so, things will get worse, not
better. On the other hand, if what I believe is incorrect, I believe that
God will bless the house church and it will multiply. More and more
people are studying the Bible, and as they do, they see that the institutional
church is so far from what the Lord has planned that it is a miracle that He
still is able to use it. Like any giant business, it has a million paid
employees and a few at the top are getting rich telling those at the bottom how
to do it. If God is there, it is only because God is everywhere, not
because He is thrilled to sit among the pew warmers and hear an expert speak.
I am convinced that the mega churches of today are a temporary thing. You
will either see a return to simple gatherings of small groups of Christians or
you will see a great falling away, or both. I guess that is my take.
Terry
Judy Taylor wrote:
FYI - I'd be interested in
David/Christine Miller & Terry's take on this article since they are
involved in
the home-church movement. jt
How and why we're going to win
Posted: June 7, 2005
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com
Far below the rusty radar of the portside press, the tide of history has turned
against tyranny and in favor of the common man. The whole world, in fact,
is changing hands for the first and last time. Tyrants and generals have
swept across the Earth for centuries, crushing and raising empires. Egypt, Assyria, Babylon,
Persia, Greece, Rome
and the dynasties of the East have all been driven by pharaohs, emperors and
kings.
For one brief blip of time, a nexus of freedom did blaze in the Near East, as early Christianity poured power into the
hearts and hands of ordinary believers. But this fledgling participatory
church, with plain folks meeting from house to house and urging each member to
freely teach or sing or pray in turn, was soon subverted by its own leaders.
Facing widespread heresy and persecution, the young church decided to copy the
enemy (Rome).
Reaching back into their past, they resurrected the Levitical priesthood and
regrouped as a top-down hierarchy, starting about A.D. 90. Then, under Constantine in the 320s,
Christianity totally collapsed into an institution, putting bishops over
bishops over bishops
and squashing the common man. The fire went out, and Western Civilization
collapsed into the Dark Ages in A.D. 476.
A millennium later, the reformers restored basic Christian doctrine, and the
Great Awakening stirred hope in individual hearts. But all the oppressive
structures remained intact. The West then floundered desperately through a
series of mindsets: Enlightenment philosophy, French-style revolution, Lockean
limited government, Fabian socialism, and now a market-managing political
bureaucracy from Roosevelt and Keynes (which has just suffered a whopping
setback). Last week's rejection of a United States of Europe by
independent-minded voters in Holland and France
dovetails with the Bush
effort to bring freedom and independence to the Middle
East. And both events are subsets of a wider phenomenon: the
transfer of power from the top of the pyramid to the bottom.
Democracy is not the Kingdom of God,
but in a free atmosphere, people more often choose to follow Him. This
change is broader than government. In industry, the guys on the shop floor now
just punch a computer to get the information that once had to be parsed out by
middle management (R.I.P.). In the media, 8 million bloggers – and
websites like WorldNetDaily – are starting to supplant the giant TV networks
and newspapers. In education, homeschools have broken
the National Education Association monopoly. In entertainment, G-rated films
have mushroomed.
But perhaps the most foundational changes are happening in the church, the
traditional guardian of society's key values. If you've always been a
Sunday-go-to-meetin' kind of Christian, you now have an exciting alternative.
Without changing one iota of your beliefs, you can upgrade yourself from a pew
potato to a world-changing pioneer. This has to be the biggest megashift in the
history of mankind. Not only has it transformed the lives of over 100 million
people worldwide during the past 50 years, it has also been attested by
millions of miracles. This is not a rumor, it's a spiritual tsunami.
In "Megashift," I've documented many such
miracles (including true resurrections in 52 countries recently) with names and
addresses. Joseph Farah, in his brilliant May 25 column and his book,
"Taking America Back," states that turn-back-the-clock conservatives
cannot win the battle for America
because their strategy is purely defensive. He says we need a radically
positive vision. Bingo. And here are the two main ways that vision is
going to win. One,
we're going to overwhelm the secular liberals by sheer numbers (see my first
column), thus enabling us to pass a sweeping series of truly progressive
reforms based on a radical vision like Mr. Farah's. And two, we're going to
cooperate with God in re-creating the church, turning the people from a
professionally led audience into proactive disciples who get their directions
straight from the Spirit. (We can't change diehard spectators,
but we can change many believers and bring in a billion more in the next 11 to
12 years.)
Most of that bottom-to-top change is going to come through what you call house churches
– informal, but life-changing open fellowships in homes, offices,
schools, Starbucks, wherever. They are free from programs, sermons, buildings
and the heretically deadly split between clergy and laity. Why are people
leaving their warm, comfortable pews for this new
adventure in faith? What do they gain? Could this be something you should be
involved with? See you next Tuesday.
James Rutz is chairman of Megashift Ministries and
founder-chairman of Open Church Ministries. His recent book, "MEGASHIFT:
Igniting Spiritual Power," announces major upgrades in human life and a
coming transformation of society.
