NEIGHBOURGRAMS

Pictures of Spiritual Formation Weekend, Regeneration Church

2011-11-20T14:35:00.000-06:00

Dnepropretskov, Ukraine: wonderful community of cell groups!
Watch here

Paradigms: Our Prison Cells

2011-11-17T15:50:00.001-06:00

Imagine you are born in a huge room. There are lots of other people in the room. You grow up thinking that room is all the reality there is. All the other people feel the same way and teach you how to act in the room. As long as you "act right" you are accepted as "normal."

But you are curious. There is a skylight that sometimes lets a lot of light in and sometimes it does not. You are aware there is a light source "out there" that gets turned off in some magic way on a regular basis. You wonder about it but you are told, "That is just the way it works. Don't ask questions!"

Strangely, the people in the room seem afraid of the two windows and the door leading out of the room. No one ventures near the door: who knows what danger lurks outside? It's safer to stay in the middle area of the room.

But you have a deep curiosity and so you drift over to the windows. They are too high to look out of but occasionally you notice there are blue or white or gray colors on the other side and you wonder why? You ask about it but you are told, "That is just the way it is. Don't ask questions!"

You try to climb up on a table to look out the window, but several people rush over and quickly pull you down, saying, "You must not do that. In this room, we have agreed no one should try to look out the windows!

You saunter over to the door, thinking you might look out. A big heavy woman who looks like she could be a wrestler is standing there. "What do you think you are doing? Don't you know it is forbidden to look out of the door? Get back in the middle where you belong!"

You begin to question why everyone is so fearful of "what's outside" when no one has been there. You begin to think about "what's inside the room" and you get disillusioned with the system that seems to make the room a kind of prison cell. You decide you will take the risk and sneak out of the room when the light from above has gone dark and everyone is sleeping. You carefully make your plan. Finally the moment comes.

Your heart is beating big time! What if there are steep cliffs all around the room and going out the door would cause you to fall and fall and die? What if there are the dragons you have seen in your nightmares that have never existed in the room but might really exist "out there?"

Finally, with great courage you tiptoe to the door when the room is black. You gingerly step through the door and find there is a solid mass under your feet. In the dark it seems a bit spongy as you walk on it. You feel it and it seems to be about 4 inches deep and made of small, soft blades. It's nothing like the carpet in the room!

Then you look up and you see thousands of little lights glowing all over, but very far away. As you circle around looking at them, you see a very large dim light that seems closer than the rest! You are amazed. You think, "Wow! Why don't the people in the room want to see this?"

You are getting sleepy, so you lay down on these soft blades that have an interesting smell and soon you are fast asleep. When you awake, you see the blades are green and there are beautiful red and blue plants sticking up between them. Your eyes look to the horizon and you see many beautiful tall objects that stick way up and have green ovals hanging all over them. Amazed, you watch a little object with multicolored wings flitting by, going from plant to plant.

This is all too much! It is so beautiful! You must tell the people in the room what's "outside," that it is not only perfectly safe but amazingly beautiful here. Surely they will want to know what you have discovered . . .

You run back to the door. As you enter, the Lady Wrestler grabs you by the collar and throws you down on the floor: "You cannot enter here! You may have a disease that will kill us all!"

"No, no!" you cry; "I am perfectly healthy." To the watching crowd, he shouts, "There is a beautiful world out there. You are trapped in a dull room. Please come and see what I have seen!"

Sadly, the people shake their head in dismay. As they walk away they are saying, "He is no longer one of us. He does not belong here. We must ostracize him."

++++++++++++

Two years after I left the "room" of the Southern Baptist Convention to "see" the Kingdom of God in all its beauty as I discovered the Basic Christian Communities, I spoke to a very high official in a denominational meeting. I told him I had been "outside" and had seen the precious Body of Christ living in true community instead of meeting in packaged denominational "programs," that there was a prototype that could bring new life to the deadness of the room he/we were living in. His terse comment:
"Ralph, we didn't ask you to do that and we don't want what you offer!"

++++++++++++

If you are a "traditional" Christian, and if you have the courage to step out the door, please read the most important book I have ever written. It is called Christ's Basic Bodies (Available on Amazon). If you do read it, you may decide you do not ever again want to live in the room . . . be careful!

"Cell Groups" or "Small Groups" - Contrasts?

2011-09-08T21:42:00.002-05:00

Let me preface this by thanking all the hundreds of staffers in American churches retained to lead the "small groups" in local churches. You are devoted to the work of the Lord and I honor you! The other day I eavesdropped on a webinar for small group leaders and was shocked to discover that many of the pastors were asking the moderator, "What is the difference between a cell group and a small group?"

I am shocked! It revealed to me that the Cell Church movement is virtually unknown to pastors, even though it is the most mature of all contemporary church structures. One fellow said, "Do cell churches have Sunday services?" Another said, "Do they use buildings?" I was unaware that this modern small group movement leadership has been sheltered from experiencing the sacred "Basic Christian Community" theology.

You see, the radical distinction between a "Small Group" and a "Cell Group" is a contrast between traditional and biblical. Here's what I mean, illustrated by Jesus' discussion with Nicodemus:

Nicodemus was a traditionalist, a scholar, a man of the Temple. He was disturbed because Jesus had called that sacred building a "den of thieves." Dr. Nicodemus was a "hired holy man" who saw himself as superior to those who came to worship.

Jesus, on the other hand, was a man who gathered commoners and trained them to do the work of God. His radical ideas threatened the Pharisee's way of life. He taught that all believers were priests, even smelly fishermen.

So it was that a night visit, undetected, was made to the Galilean - not to get spiritual help, but rather to gather evidence to have him arrested!

Jesus was an "Upstairs" man. Nicodemus was a "Downstairs" man. The contrasts became evident as Jesus pointed out that with all his formal religion he could not "see" what was Upstairs without having new eyes, and to have those eyes he would have to have a spiritual birth. Further contrasts were made: "Downstairs" there is a wind in the trees; "Upstairs" there is a Spirit whose activity is observed; "Downstairs" there is the serpent on the pole; "Upstairs" there is a greater reality: Christ on the cross.

"Downstairs," there is a world of shadows. "Upstairs," there is the Shekinah glory.
"Downstairs," there are human activities performed in the flesh. "Upstairs," there is Power and Presence and supernatural lifestyles.

This will introduce us to the contrast between the Upstairs "Basic Christian Community" and the Downstairs "Small Group."

The great contrast is the work of the Holy Spirit who calls men to come Upstairs and baptizes them into intimate communities that exist as the literal Body of Christ in our era.

The Small Group is a program sponsored by a traditional church to create "holding tanks" for church members, never revealing to them that they should not just be a group for fellowship and prayer and Bible study.

The Cell is described in 1 Corinthians 14:24-25 as a community where all prophesy (see 14:3 for the definition) and where God is so powerfully revealed that unbelievers fall on their face!

I could go on and on. But let me just say there is an Upstairs and Downstairs difference between a Cell and a Small Group. I am wondering why we settle for what's Downstairs, when even a cursory reading of Paul's letters will reveal how important it is for us to know we are NOT a "small group." We are the literal Body of Christ! Every "small group" robs the members of their true positions in Christ: to be baptized into an intimate community and become the body Christ occupies to draw all men to the Cross.

If you really care about this, Small Groups pro, take the time to download my Christ's Basic Bodies from www.touchusa.org and educate yourself! Why settle for "Downstairs?"

Comments?

Permítanme prologar esto agradeciendo a todos los cientos de miembros de equipos pastorales de las iglesias estadounidenses contratados para liderar los «grupos pequeños» en las iglesias locales. ¡Ustedes están consagrados a la obra del Señor y los honro! El otro día yo estuve espiando un seminario por Internet para líderes de grupos pequeños y quedé conmocionado al descubrir que muchos de los pastores estaban preguntando al moderador: «¿Cuál es la diferencia entre un grupo celular y un grupo pequeño?»

¡Quedé sorprendido! Eso me reveló que el movimiento de iglesia celular es prácticamente desconocido para los pastores, aún cuando es la más madura de las estructuras eclesiásticas contemporáneas. Un participante dijo: «¿Tienen las iglesias celulares servicios dominicales?» Otro preguntó: «¿Usan edificios?» Yo no era consciente que este liderazgo del movimiento moderno de grupos pequeños había sido privado de experimentar la teología sagrada de la «comunidad cristiana básica».

Ya puede usted ver, la distinción radical entre un «grupo pequeño» y un «grupo celular» es un contraste entre lo tradicional y lo bíblico. Esto es lo que quiero decir, ilustrado por la discusión entre Jesús y Nicodemo:

Nicodemo era un tradicionalista, un erudito, un hombre del Templo. Estaba turbado porque Jesús había dicho de este edificio sagrado que era una «cueva de ladrones». El Dr. Nicodemo era un «hombre santo contratado» que se veía a sí mismo como alguien superior a aquellos que venían a adorar.

Jesús, por otro lado, era un hombre que reunía a gente común y los entrenaba para hacer le obra de Dios. Sus ideas radicales eran una amenaza para la manera de vivir fariseaica. Él enseñaba que todos los creyentes son sacerdotes, aún los malolientes pescadores.

Así que aquella era una visita nocturna, sin ser detectado, hecha al galileo, pero no para lograr ayuda espiritual, ¡sino que para obtener eviden-cia para arrestarlo!

Jesús era un hombre «del piso superior». Nicodemo era un hombre «del piso inferior». El contraste se hizo evidente cuando Jesús señaló que aún con toda su religión formal él no podía «ver» lo que sucedía «en el piso de arriba» sin tener nuevos ojos, y para tener esos ojos él tendría que tener un nacimiento espiritual. Se hicieron mayores contrastes: «en el piso inferior» hay un viento sobre los árboles; «en el piso superior» hay un Espíritu cuya actividad es observada; «en el piso inferior» hay una serpiente sobre un asta; «en el piso superior» hay un realidad mayor: Cristo sobre la cruz.

«En el piso inferior» un mundo de sombras. «En el piso superior» hay una gloria Shekiná. «En el piso inferior» hay actividades humanas llevadas a cabo en la carne. «En el piso superior» hay Poder, Presencia y estilos de vida sobrenaturales.

Esto nos introducirá al contraste entre las «comunidades cristianas básicas del piso superior» y los «pequeños grupos del piso inferior».

El contraste mayor es la obra del Espíritu Santo que llama a los hombres a venir al piso superior y ser bautizados dentro de comunidades de intimidad que existen en nuestra era como literales Cuerpos de Cristo.

El grupo pequeño es un programa patrocinado por la iglesia tradicio-nal para crear «tanques de almacenamiento» para los miembros de la iglesia, nunca revelándoles que podrían ser no solamente un grupo de compañeris-mo, oración y estudio bíblico.

La célula es descripta en 1 Corintios 14:24 – 25 como una comunidad donde todos profetizan (ver 14:3 para la definición) y donde Dios es tan poderosamente revelado ¡que los incrédulos caen de bruces!

Yo pudiera seguir y seguir. Pero sólo déjenme decir que hay una diferencia «piso superior» y «piso inferior» entre una célula y un grupo pequeño. Me pregunto por qué nos conformamos con lo que hay «en el piso de abajo», aún cuando una lectura superficial de las cartas paulinas nos reve-larán cuán importante es que nosotros sepamos que no somos «un grupo pequeño». ¡Somos literalmente el Cuerpo de Cristo! Cada «grupo pequeño» le roba a los miembros sus verdaderas posiciones en Cristo: ser bautizado dentro de una comunidad íntima y llegar a ser el cuerpo de Cristo incluye atraer a todos los hombres a la Cruz.

Si a usted realmente le interesa esto, le invito a conseguir mi libro «Los Cuerpos Básicos de Cristo», publicado por Touch-Oikoslatino. ¿Por qué conformarse con «el piso inferior»?

¿Comentarios?

Think Bigger

2011-07-14T13:31:00.000-05:00

The following article was published in Winter 2011 issue of Biola Magazine, written by Fred Sanders, theologian:

The Trinity is a biblical doctrine, but let’s admit it: There’s something annoying about how hard it is to put your finger on a verse that states the whole doctrine.

The Bible presents the elements of the doctrine in numerous passages, of course: that there is only one God; that the Father is God; that the Son is God; and that the Spirit is God. We can also tell easily enough that the Father, Son and Spirit are really distinct from one another, and are not just three names for one person. If you hold all those clear teachings of Scripture in your mind at one time and think through them together, the doctrine of the Trinity is inevitable. Trinitarianism is a biblical doctrine and all the ingredients are given to us there. Just add thought and you have the classic doctrine.

Like most evangelicals, though, I would prefer to have a doctrine be stated clearly and concisely in one place. I like my doctrines verse-sized. I sometimes wish there were one verse that said, “God is one being in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” The doctrine of the Trinity, though, is simply not verse-sized. Sometimes that feels like a disadvantage, but in fact it’s an advantage. The doctrine of the Trinity is a massive, comprehensive, full-Bible doctrine that serves to expand our minds as readers of Scripture. In Scripture, God is leading his people to understand who he is as Father, Son and Spirit.

For example, set aside for a moment the desire to fit the doctrine into one verse. Look instead at how it shows up in a slightly larger (three verses) passage, Galatians 4:4-6: “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son … to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’” Paul is describing God’s greatest acts in the history of salvation, and those acts are specifically Trinitarian: The Father sends the Son and the Spirit to save.

Or think even bigger: in a crucial passage of Romans, Paul summarizes his message in five verses, and there is a necessarily Trinitarian cadence to his summary: “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. … We rejoice … because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Rom. 5:1–5).

Or try to take in 12 verses at once: Ephesians 1:3-14 is one gigantic sentence (in Greek) that surveys all of God’s plans and intentions from eternity past, through our present salvation, and on to final redemption. Three times it points us to the kind intention of God’s will, and three times it points us to the praise of his glory. The fundamental movement of the passage, though, is from the Father’s choosing and predestining us in love, through the beloved Son’s death for our forgiveness, to the Holy Spirit’s work sealing us for redemption.

Once you learn to see the Trinity shaping these larger stretches of Scripture, you’re ready to notice how entire books of the Bible are structured by the same Trinitarian logic. In Galatians, for example, Paul proves his gospel of faith against salvation by works in a three-part argument: The Galatians received the Spirit by faith, God promised Abraham that he would justify the Gentiles by faith, and Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. The great arc of Romans runs from the Father’s judgment through the Son’s propitiation to the Spirit’s deliverance.

If you want to catch a glimpse of the Trinity as the big story behind the Bible, the best thing to do is to read the Gospel of John fast, in one sitting. Your dominant impression during the first half will be that the Father and the Son love each other, and in the second half the Holy Spirit will burst into your attention as the fulfillment of the revelation.

There are a handful of verses where the three persons are named in one place, such as Matthew 28:19 and 2 Corinthians 13:14. These classic passages have the advantage of being comfortably verse-sized. But when we move on from the partial glimpses of the Trinity we can get from single verses, we are led on to larger stretches of argument, wider vistas of insight, and a more inclusive expanse of God’s self-revelation through Scripture. And that prepares our minds for the biggest Christian thought of all: The whole Bible is one complete book that reveals the Trinity. That fact is what the ancient church fathers meant when they summarized the Christian faith in the Apostles’ Creed: “I believe in God the Father … and in his only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ … and in the Holy Spirit.”

The Trinity is a biblical doctrine, therefore, in a very special sense: not in any one verse, but as the key to the entire book.

The chief end of man is to enjoy God forever!

2011-06-17T22:34:00.001-05:00

It is natural that every aspect of you should hunger for God. This is really not a supernatural thing, but rather it is what you were created for. Your relationship with God is not some obscure issue relegated to the unseen realms of the spirit. Even for the uninitiated, it is not a spooky thing. Even your physical body was designed to be a host, a carrier of Him. He fits you like a glove. Your mind, your decision making processes, your emotional life and even your natural body yearn for the harmony that comes when the eternal God steps inside of you and wears you like a garment. In fact, Adam wore God like clothing! He didn't know he was naked in the Garden of Eden because he never was until sin entered. As we are clothed with His glory presence, we become lost in the divine. God rests inside of me, and I walk inside of Him-spirit, soul, and body.

Movements Change With Each Generation

2011-06-10T21:33:00.000-05:00

We may define "movement" as a "coordinated change to replace present conditions with a new lifestyle."
The wide chasm between "Clergy" and "Laity" had existed for centuries when Martin Luther broke with Rome, proclaiming "The just shall live by faith."
With these words, Luther unknowingly triggered a "Reformation Movement"--a rejection of the papal control of the church.
As we evaluate what happened, we can learn about what always happens when a movement is launched.
1. THE FIRST GENERATION IS LAUNCHED WHEN TOTAL DISSATISFACTION WITH PRESENT CONDITIONS BOILS TO THE SURFACE.
Some decide they will not tolerate the present condition and begin to ask, "How can this be changed? What can I do about it?" Instead of owning a vision, the first generation is owned BY the vision. No price is too great to pay to make the change take place.
So it was: Luther had a fire in his belly. He would not rest until he let the world know how he felt. The 95 Theses were posted on the wall of the church in Wittenburg. It is not extravagant to say "all hell broke loose." Even assassination was attempted to shut him up.
Early Adopters then follow, encouraged to join the movement. They also burn with a fire in their belly.
This is what can be said of the first generation: they have a fire burning within! The cause is more important than their own existence. It is important to repeat: they do not own the vision. The vision owns them.
2. THE SECOND GENERATION IS LAUNCHED WHEN FOLLOWERS DECIDE THERE MUST BE MORE STRUCTURE TO GUIDE THE MOVEMENT.

Luther hammered the rebellious document on June 15, 1520. Melancthon participated with him from the beginning, but his humanistic convictions quenched the fire. His attempts to synthesize the theological foundations of Luther occupied him. In 1560, his "Corpus Philippicum" paved the way for the next generation. He never threw an inkwell against the wall. For him, the Reformation was all about doctrinal issues. The fire was replaced with a focus on dogmatics.
3. THE THIRD GENERATION THEN LAUNCHES WHEN FORMS CONTROL THE LIFE OF THE MOVEMENT.

Lutheranism, narrow and harsh, appeared full blown in 1580 with the Formula of Concord. In only 60 short years, the fire had turned to structure and structure birthed a frozen state of formal religion.

THE CELL CHURCH MOVEMENT IS REFLECTING THESE CYCLES.

I remember back in the 1950's when I was told by Donald McGavran I should meet Yonngi Cho. We were just a few guys here in the States who had decided the church lacked New Testament community. Sitting dismembered body parts in pews and treating them like children to be taught instead of soldiers to be trained was untenable. We shared ideas, compared notes, sarcastically said "Copyright means the right to copy." We would find a better way! Cho's model became copied by many. But alas! The theology of community was totally missing and many pastors found themselves discharged for their passion. Only a handful of men in the USA moved into the cell church theology and practice. Overseas, where community and persecution drew the people of God together, the movement flourished. Not in the USA.

What did happen? Those who wanted to "modernize" their church structures began to add the "Small Group Pastor" to the staff. He had one job: create "holding tanks" so members would not become restless and cruise to the competing church across town. Give them "busy work" to keep their idle hands busy. But never, ever, tell them there is NO distinction between the hired holy men and the tithers in the pew. Just give them something to feel they are "serving God" in any sort of small group.
I truly believe we will run out of gas soon. I sense there is a generation of people leaving the organized church and sitting at home, forming little "house churches" that are in reality one more expression of dismembered body parts, "not discerning the body"--which always has two wings: the small Basic Community and the glorious gathered assembly that celebrates the glorious Body of Christ that is all over the earth.
If you want to ponder this even more, pick up a copy of my last book, Christ's Basic Bodies.

"JUST PEDAL!"

2011-05-30T19:17:00.002-05:00

At first, I saw God as my observer, my judge, keeping track of the things I did wrong, so as to know whether I merited heaven or hell when I die. He was out there sort of like a President. I recognized His picture when I saw it, but I really didn't know Him.

But later on when I met Christ, it seemed as though life was rather like a bike ride, but it was a tandem bike, and I noticed that Christ was in the back helping me pedal. I don't know when it was that He suggested we change places, but life has not been the same since.When I had control, I knew the way. It was rather boring, but predictable...It was the shortest distance between two points. But when He took the lead, He knew delightful long cuts, up mountains, and through rocky places at breakneck speeds, and it was all I could do to hang on! Even though it looked like madness, He said, "Pedal!"

I worried and was anxious and asked, "Where are you taking me?" He laughed and didn't answer, and I started to trust.

I forgot my boring life and entered into the adventure. And when I'd say, "I'm scared," He'd lean back and touch my hand.

He took me to people with gifts that I needed, gifts of healing, acceptance, and joy. They gave me gifts to take on my journey, my Lord's and mine. And we were off again. He said, "Give the gifts away; they're extra baggage, too much weight." So I did, to the people I met, and I found that in giving I received, and still our burden was light.

I did not trust Him, at first, in control of my life. I thought He'd wreck it; but He knows how to jump to clear high rocks, knows how to fly to shorten scary passages.

And I am learning to shut up and pedal in the strangest places, and I'm beginning to enjoy the view and the cool breeze on my face with my delightful constant companion, Jesus Christ.And when I'm sure I just can't do anymore, He just smiles and says..."Pedal.”

--Adell Keith

CELL CHURCH IN IVORY COAST IN GRAVE DANGER!

2011-05-03T11:28:00.000-05:00

The reporter is acting as witness and also as a contracted partner of this church on a huge social and community program in progress for the church.

The Eglise Protestante Oeuvres et Missions Internationales located in Yopougon Kouté was attacked from all sides yesterday [May 2] evening around 9PM [local] by the FRCI [troops officially and directly under the command of Ouattara]. The pastor officially appointed by the church to be in charge of the crisis testifies to the following facts at the scene at this time (we have created some 2500 dossiers of those who have taken refuge in the church):

Preamble:Several times I have reported the distressing situation (sanitary, medical, security…) of the Eglise Protestante Oeuvres et Missions Internationales [www. epbomi.org] located at Yopougon Koute between Nankoko pharmacy and Hotel Assonvon. Direct contact has been made with French Licorne military forces, the United Nations Mission to Cote d’Ivoire, the UN Refugee High Commission, UNICEF, by email and on a benevolent and mutual aid channel on Facebook. (Unfortunately I no longer have access to the recent Facebook files which disappeared today. I sent a request to this service to know who has done this and why it was done.)

Facts of May 2nd, 2011 around 8:30PM – 9:00PM reported around 9:10PM. 54 PEOPLE WERE TAKEN AWAY - YOUNG PEOPLE OF 19 to 30 YEARS TOWARDS the SHELL STATION NOT FAR FROM THE INSTITUTE FOR the BLIND IN YOPOUGON (reported by witnesses trying to determine the facts with the pastors and members of the church in charge of security) The list of these people is in the possession of the pastor in charge.

The Church has been attacked with heavy weapons (a report is being compiled on property damages)Offices were plundered with major damage and theft (cell phones, portable computers, cameras,…)The church health clinic center was ransacked. Emergency medications provided by the UN were stolen.

Two Nissan vehicles, green and gray, were taken as well as one small Peugeot bus.I contacted the UN Human Rights Commission [UNCI HRC] reps in Cote d’Ivoire in the neighborhood of 9:30PM. (I reported the exact hour on the [now lost] Facebook mutual aid channel). I also directly contacted the French Licorne military force. The agent on duty transferred me right back to the UNCI HRC agent on duty who said he had informed the UN Security Council. I gave him the phone number of the pastor in charge for more details. We have had NO return calls from them as yet.The church is being intimidated because the attackers promised to return. We think that this is a deliberate act. I posted this odious act on Facebook. However I do not know if officials have contacted the interested parties for information as the page disappeared this morning. I am trying to find out if it is government officials themselves who have removed this from Facebook or if it was Facebook who did so and for what reason.

Pasteur Dion, President and founder of this Church, has experienced attempted threats of kidnapping. However, he was put in a place protected by pastors and friends. We fear for his life.

We ask everything possible be done to safeguard the physical integrity of those “taken away” as well as present and future protection of displaced members of this church and also with all of the Churches affiliated with the activities of Pasteur Dion [www.epbomi.org]

---------------------------------------------------

[This is the message sent to unicef]

MEDICAL AND SOCIAL URGENCY

WE ARE ALERTING YOU TO THE EMERGENCY SITUATION AT YOPOUGON AT THE BAPTIST CHURCH IN YOPOUGON KOUTE IN THE “RED ZONE” [Red Zones are areas not yet secured by the government]:

WE HAVE RECORDS ON THE FOLLOWING PEOPLE

2500 REFUGEES --800 WOMEN OF WHOM 57 ARE PREGNANT WITH 7 IN LABOR INCLUDING 1 MISCARRIAGE THIS MORNING.- 1000 CHILDREN - 700 MEN

WE ARE IN A COMBAT ZONE WITH ROCKET FIRE WHICH HAS NOT YET REACHED THE MAIN SITE BUT IS HITTING ALL AROUND US WITH COMBAT TAKING PLACE ON THE GROUND NEARBY

WE NEED :1) FOOD AND DRINKING WATER2) BASIC DRUGS AND MEDICAL EVACUATIONS3) MEANS OF COMMUNICATION BECAUSE THE ZONE IS OUTSIDE OF WIRED NETWORKS WITH INTERNET EXCEPT FOR CELL COMPANIES GSM, MTN, AND KOZ.4) NIGHTIME SECURITY

AND WE HAVE NOT HAD A REPONSE FROM YOU TO EMAIL SENT AT THE BEGINNING OF WEEK TO UNCHR

Everyone An Equipper, Everyone Equipped

2011-02-24T12:56:00.002-06:00

There are a few principles that are crucial to discipleship. I have carefully crafted our TOUCH equipping track to apply them:

THERE ARE THREE LEVELS OF SPIRITUAL MATURITY

In 1 John 2:12-13 we are given the three stages of spiritual growth:
* The "Little Child" knows two things: "I have a Papa and my sins are forgiven."
* The "Young Person" knows one more thing: "I know the enemy and how to overcome his power."
* The "Father" knows two more things: "I have an intimate knowledge of God and how He works and I have sired a child."

This makes clear there is a path for each person to be equipped while equipping someone else. Who is better suited to mentor the "Little Child" than someone who knows how to "overcome the evil one?"
Who is better suited to care for the "Little Child" and the "Young Person" than the "Father" who led them to Christ? The discipling of all believers is the task of all believers! By forming "'Basic Communities" of these three persons, you have automatic discipling.

The most important issue in discipling is to help each Christian to become a discipler. I have just visited Santarem, Brazil where the PAZ cell church has over 53,000 people in cell groups. Every cell group is formed from disciplers discipling disciples.

Abe Huber calls these "MDA's." He writes,
"Model of Discipleship means 'Apostolic Microcell of Discipleship.' Thus, MDA, in terms of its appearance, is a "microcell" referring to the individual care that all members receive in the Body of Christ, the church. It is personalized, individual, where every Christian has someone who accompanies him as a mentor, helping him grow in Christian life and service to God. As a "model," the MDA includes the entire structure: pastoral, evangelistic, missionary, apostolic, prophetic and teaching of the church. It is how the church exists and operates." - O PURÊ DE BATATAS

I have pressed Abe to get his materials translated into English from Portuguese. The world needs the truths God has given him! I believe the MDA concept is anointed and must be expounded by him for use beyond the PAZ ministry.

Meanwhile, while we wait, I have taught this form of mentoring for 30 years! I have built this into all of my equipping track materials. www.touchusa.org
Leaders are developed at this grass roots level. When the "Young Person" mentors the "Little Child" a leader is being formed. As Abe said to me, "Who is better to supervise this than the "Father" who won the "Child" and mentored the "Young Person?"

Your thoughts?

My friend Dan Boone has moved upstairs...

2011-01-10T11:10:00.000-06:00

Most of the world knew Dan Boone as a car dealer and a sportsman. I knew, at least for a brief time, a man who was captured by a higher claim on his life.

Following the surrender of his family to the Lordship of Christ, Dan began to attend our worship services with them. Through this we began to develop a personal relationship. This led to transparent discussions about his lifestyle as we met at the country club for luncheons. He was willing to share his deep struggles and finally, over two spinach salads, he made a simple confession of faith in Christ.

There followed many weeks of our meeting daily at his home in the mornings. For 11 weeks, I prepared a daily devotional for an hour discussion with him about the core values of a Christ follower. These were moments when I could sense the deep struggles of a man torn between inner conflicts and a desire to break loose from a well entrenched pattern of activities.

Eventually I published the material I originally wrote to mentor him as A Survival Kit for New Christians. It became widely used with over two million copies now distributed in many languages, used around the world. As a result, Dan and I flew to Nashville where he was given a plaque by Broadman Press for inspiring the book to be written for him as a new Christian.

We drifted apart when my own journey took our family to serve as missionaries in Viet Nam and Singapore. The years went by.

Dan and Pat moved away; upon return to Houston, we found Pat was active in a fine church, growing in the Lord. But no one invested much in helping Dan continue his walk into Christ’s Lordship. As a result, the seed sown into the soil of his life was crowded out by the thorns of old lifestyles.

I was then contacted by Dan when Pat was found dead with an open Bible in her lap as she was called home by her King. At the funeral, several key men spoke to me about their concern for Dan. The lack of solid Christian community had left him drift.

My attempts to keep in touch after that were minimal because of my own travel and the schedules we both kept. I deeply regret I did not continue my friendship with him.

While his life was not a dramatic testimony of personal faith, my friend is in the care of the Christ who died to redeem him. He chose to be owned by the saviour of the world.

Did his life reveal a deep walk with Christ? It did not. Yet his and our salvation does not depend on our lifestyle but the integrity of a loving God who has made it very plain in this inspired verse:

“By grace are you saved through faith; not through your own works, lest any man should boast.”

Is Dan with the Lord he never fully yielded to? We can be sure he is.

Was Dan never fully drawn into a servant lifestyle? We know he was not.

But in eternity, he will find there is no other lifestyle available. With the destruction of the human flesh his spirit is finally released to be all it was meant to be.

C.S. Lewis wrote of a waiting room where recently deceased people were waiting to enter heaven. The complaints, the angry comments of those present, reflected all the personality traits of these unhappy earth people. The main character in the story is horrified and says to himself, “Shall I enter heaven to put up with these people for all eternity? How can there be anything but more hell in what is called 'heaven'?”

Then, one by one, the waiting room is emptied and people pass into heaven. To his astonishment, he sees amazing transformations in each of the people in the waiting room! They are all totally transformed when the weight of earthly transgressions are stripped away.

I am waiting to greet my friend Dan Boone when I join him in the next life. It will be amazing to see him divested of his humanity and to see him as God has always seen him: a blood-bought son of God, pure and unhindered by the habits of the flesh.

I often wonder what I will be like at that time? The weight of sin drags all of us down. It is so sad that in this life we fight so hard against what we could experience here and now: the eternal peace that comes into the dimension of time when we stop struggling and enter into His rest.

Seminary Commencement Address

2010-12-11T07:21:00.000-06:00

Delivered 12/11/10 at Houston Graduate School of Theology

Nicodemus was not seeking for truth when he sneaked over, unnoticed, to interrogate Jesus at night. He was looking for some religious heresy he could use to indict him.

Jesus had become not only a nuisance to the religious establishment but also a threat. His healings and miracles sidetracked those who attended temple services. That was offensive to the Pharisees, but he crossed over the limits when he overturned the moneychangers in the temple. Now He was interfering with their cash flow! This newcomer had to be stopped!

Jesus knew full well what the man’s motives were. He must have been amused by the false flattery in Nicodemus’ trick question: “Jesus, how do you do these miraculous signs?” One blasphemous comment was all he needed to have Jesus arrested.

Jesus’ answers competed with Nicodemus’ religious system. His mental prison cells limited what he could see. So, Jesus talked about his eyes: “Nicodemus, unless you are born again you cannot even see the Kingdom of Heaven.” By that comment, Jesus defined “upstairs” and “downstairs,” revealing his blindside.

Don’t you imagine Jesus was chuckling to himself as the Pharisee gave him a blank look? His first words were not blasphemous; they were ridiculous!

Nicodemus was a “downstairs” man. He was like many professionals in traditional religion today. He had been fully trained in a religious system but had no comprehension of how his own life should duplicate in the lives of others. Totally missing was any comprehension that he should serve God by equipping others in the “upstairs” supernatural Kingdom.

Missing was any awareness that as a religious leader he should equip all Temple worshippers to serve as Priests. He was a religious professional. He was a “downstairs” man. He saw the priesthood as the exclusive property of the Pharisees, not for the common people.

Jesus had just opened his awareness that he lived in a downstairs world and even as a worshipper of God he knew absolutely nothing about the upstairs world where God ruled over an invisible Kingdom.

To make the point about the invisibility of the Upstairs environment, Jesus adds another conundrum: “You see the trees bend and you know there is an unseen wind causing this. In the Upstairs Kingdom, there is also an observable Power, the activity of God’s Spirit. If you had upstairs eyes, you would see the results of the Spirit’s activity. It’s far more powerful than the invisible wind you observe.”

Still trying to gain evidence, Nicodemus says, “How can these things be?” In his mind, he is still thinking, “I have to trap him. Let’s see how he explains this rubbish.”

Jesus replies, “You are a learned scholar and you still do not understand these things? I tell you downstairs things and you do not understand them; how can you understand if I tell you heavenly things?”

One more time Jesus compares Upstairs with Downstairs. He now reminds the Pharisee of how Moses placed the serpent on the pole and people who looked on it lived. He likened it with His own Upstairs death on the cross.

Thus the story ends. Nicodemus retains nothing blasphemous to take away. What we know about him is his upstairs eyes began to see. Later, he became a follower of Jesus and shared in his burial rites.

One of the greatest dangers facing the work of the Eternal Christ in today’s world is that we have unwittingly created a downstairs religious system that seldom experiences the centrality of Christ and the purpose of His present ministry to proclaim the Kingdom of God. Ritual, tradition, and litanies have created Downstairs religious systems that blind both clergy and laity to the Upstairs world of the reign of Christ.

A part of our downstairs system is the danger that a seminary diploma can become a status symbol to decorate a wall in a pastor’s office. It is often a discipline completed with one’s personal career in mind, a stepping-stone to opportunities to pastor a larger congregation, where a doctor’s degree is a prerequisite to candidate for the office. Those that secure it for that purpose compose the career-minded clergy of our present age. The danger is mixing a love for God and a desire to attain significance and power among men. A pastor’s career focus can steer the ministry rather than the Upstairs calling to equip the priesthood for the Kingdom work.

This is the difference between an “Upstairs” pastor and a “Downstairs” pastor. One seeks an office, a career, status, possibly power. The other serves in the Kingdom of God and seeks to equip others. Scripture explains that Christ has given to the church the apostle, prophet, pastor, teacher and evangelist for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry. A seminary degree should be cherished not for a paper hanging on the wall, but for the skills that make us more valuable in equipping the saints.

Downstairs pastors create downstairs congregations who assemble to get their needs met. The sermons exhort the membership to develop their best talents to gain happiness and success. The promotion of consumerism in American church life has separated us from most of the rest of the people of God in other nations, but its deadly effect has leaked into every third world country where prosperity is taught by preachers with pointed-toe shoes exhorting the barefoot congregants. Downstairs religious systems are propagated by pastors who are building castles instead of the Kingdom.

I recently had a man serving in North Africa fly in to attend one of my seminars, required to earn his D.Min. degree. I asked him how he lives and works in one of the most restricted Islamic nations on earth. He said, “I have been there for 12 years. I have yet to see my first true convert.” I asked, “How does that make you feel?” He answered by referring to a scripture we often overlook in 2 Corinthians 10. Let me quote the passage:

“For we would not dare to classify ourselves or compare ourselves with some of those who recommend themselves. But when they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are without understanding. But we will not boast beyond certain limits, but we will confine our boasting according to the limits of the field to which God has appointed us, that reaches even as far as you. For we were not overextending ourselves, as though we did not reach as far as you, because we were the first to reach as far as you with the gospel about Christ. Nor do we boast beyond certain limits in the work done by others, but we hope that as your faith continues to grow, our work may be greatly expanded among you according to our limits…”

He said, “I never compare my ministry with those seeing great harvests in other fields of Africa. I went to the field my Lord assigned to me. I evaluate my ministry by how faithful I have been serving in my field. Sowing Christ’s seeds of redeeming love is crucial if there is ever to be a future harvest. God sent me to sow, not to reap. I am at peace with my Master. I do not have to be successful, but I must be faithful.”

Mother Theresa said, “Many people mistake our work for our vocation. Our vocation is the love of Jesus.”

The flaw in the Downstairs pastor’s value system is the same as the flaw in Nicodemus: not seeing the Kingdom as the focal point of all we do and not focusing on equipping the saints, not recognizing our priority is to equip all the priests of God and to treat no person as a church member to be used to keep an organization operating. God gives each of us “limits” for our Kingdom assignment and it has nothing to do with what others are doing. Looking over our shoulders to compare our success with that of others guarantees a sure burnout for a Christian worker.

In my book Christ’s Basic Bodies, I refer to the dropouts of American pastors being at an all-time high. Sunscape Re-Creation Ministries, serving ministers in crisis, reports that in all denominations, 1,600 ministers per month are terminated or forced to resign. That represents 19,200 clergymen a year! Comparing ourselves with ourselves produces this dropout.

The stairway to be an Upstairs servant must take us to the cross, to die daily. I still recall a pastor who boasted to me in 1977 that he had a two year strategy he had developed to grow a church. He unpacked it every time he went to a new pastorate. His career was very much programmed like a corporate executive, moving locations with each promotion. He said, “I do not really have a pastor’s heart like you do, Ralph, but I am an expert in churchianity.”

I did not connect Revelation 1 through 3 with Revelation 4 for many years. In the first segment the seven churches are being evaluated by Christ in their midst. Most are warned about how far they have strayed from the Upstairs objectives. The “white stone” refers to the Bema judgment where Christian workers face the shekinah of God in 1 Corinthians 3. The focus was not on the eyes, as with Nicodemus. Instead, it was on the ear: “Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what He is saying to the churches.”

Then we see the 24 elders before a throne in chapter 4. But this is not a throne of grace: it is a throne with flashes of lightning and the roll of thunder. It is the Bema. The elders will be separated into the downstairs group who produced wood, hay and stubble, to be consumed by the shekinah fire, and the upstairs ones who produced gold, silver and precious stones. I recall the motto that hung on my parent’s breakfast room as I grew up: “Only one life, t’will soon be past; only what’s done for Christ will last.”

I shall never forget sitting in the coffee shop during my seminary years with our New Testament professor and some fellow students. The white haired professor said, “Men, if your church turned into a locomotive, what part of it would you desire to be?” One of the men smiled and said, “I would want to be the whistle that blows loudly to let everyone know the train is coming.” Another mused and said, “I would like to be the throttle to make it move faster.” Finally, the professor was asked, “What about you?” Softly he said, “I would like to be the coal that must be consumed to make it operate.”

Before you frame your diploma, consider what it means to you. If it witnesses to your qualifications to be a more effective equipper, hang it in your office to remind viewers it made you a better servant. Otherwise, stick it in a file and make copies to send to pulpit committees as you seek larger churches.

Prayer: “Lord, make us saltier that others may become thirstier. Amen.”

Spirit, Soul, Body

2010-10-30T07:21:00.000-05:00

Seldom have I found such a clear word as what I am posting below. It is written by Mary Ellen Reber, a former student of mine when I taught at Columbia Seminary. She and Chris have spent their entire ministry in Bangladesh, slugging it out among the hardest to harvest:

Christ abides in your human spirit if you are His property. She understands this:

"People of Antioch, I call your spirit to attention. Listen to the Word of God for you - "Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord. His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and godliness. Through these He has given us His very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith, goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 1:2-8).

"People of Antioch, your Father God designed your spirit, your soul, and your body, and He ordains and oversees their alignment. I call your spirit to the highest position in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

"I speak to your slumbering spirit to wake up, and I say to you that it is safe, it is time, it is right for your spirit to look outward and upward into the face of your Father God. Holy Spirit, come and speak to Your child's spirit the truth that he is accepted, affirmed, capable, and beloved in You, that he has no lack that detracts from who he is in Your eyes. Nothing can separate him from Your love. Holy Spirit speak to his spirit in a language he can understand and receive. Your promise to him is that he has grace and peace in abundance in You, that as he pursues Jesus and knows Him more deeply, Your divine power gives him everything he needs for living a godly life and receiving his own glory and goodness.

"I call your soul to attention, People of Antioch, saying "Come under God's order. Soul, be healed, restored and whole, submitted to your spirit. Be free from the spirit of fear that would paralyze you - fear of the future, fear of failure, fear of meaninglessness, fear of man, etc." I speak to your soul that it will discern the voice of your Father and your Savior, who will never leave you, and receive His love that casts out fear. Father, cut through the assaults of lies, soulishness, performance, religious spirits, all contrary words spoken or contrary prayers prayed, and everything that keeps your child's soul from being joyful, at peace, effective, and productive.

"People of Antioch, I call your body to attention and command it to come into alignment with your spirit. Hormones, metabolic systems, immune system, brain chemistry and every physical system listen to your Creator God who said, "This is very good," and gave His blessing when He made you. In Jesus' name, come into divine order and alignment with the awesome and wonderful way that God intend you to function - whole, healthy, strong, resilient, and alert. Come into alignment with the ordained order where God has placed you, because He determined the appointed times set for you and the exact places where you should live. Come into alignment with your Father God, the Creator of all things. His covenant of life, peace, and joy precedes and stands above all devices and snares of the enemy. I bless you, people of Antioch, with full participation with the divine nature Father placed in you, His covenants and His blessings, by His great and precious promises that He ratified in Jesus' death on the cross and sealed with the Holy Spirit. I bless you in the name of Jesus of Nazareth."

5,000 Cell Groups Set Off Fireworks Simultaneously!

2010-10-21T05:45:00.001-05:00

Last night I stood with the TV camera crew and Pastor Abe Huber on the rooftop of a tall building in Santarem, Brazil. The PAZ congregation has just passed the 50,000 count of cell group members. The PAZ IGREJA owns a TV station, used to direct all 5,000 cells to set off fireworks at the same identical moment across the city.

Wow! All around us to the horizon there were fireworks set off by each cell group. It went on for a full five minutes: crackles and flashes of light everywhere we looked, 360 degrees from that rooftop's view.

Santarem's 250,000 population experiences this public proclamation via fireworks twice each year as the cells give notice of their presence in all of the city's neighborhoods.

In the distance, all lit up, was the huge soccer stadium we will fill Friday and Saturday nights for a gathering of the cells. The seating is a bit smaller than the 60,000 expected, so screens are being set up to project the events to the overflow crowd! I will be preaching on "Psychikos, Sarkikos, Pneumatikos" on Saturday night ("Rejecting God, Rejecting Christ's Lordship, Placing Christ on the Throne). Hundreds of Cell Leaders will be prepared to pray with those who come for salvation or with believers repenting of carnal lifestyles.

I always knew that before the Lord takes me home I would experience a city totally impacted by Christ's Sacred Bodies, the cell groups. I will be smiling in my coffin!

SANTAREM'S CELL CHURCH: AN AMAZING EXPERIENCE

2010-10-18T09:37:00.001-05:00

We are in Santarem, Brazil on the Amazon River. This community of 250,000 is about halfway between the mouth and end of the longest river in the world, surrounded by jungles. The cell church here has at present 50,000 in cell groups and conducts dozens of worship services back to back all day Sunday in several locations. We were invited to attend the 5 p.m. service. Arriving at 4:30, we slipped into a packed auditorium of 1,500 and watched with amazement as a total changeover took place at the end of the service, with another 1,500 packing in during a 14 minute break! At the end of the 5 p.m. service, about 350 members returned from their Encounter Retreat at their center a few miles out of town and packed into the area in front of the stage, singing and dancing as they shared reports of deliverances and spiritual victories experienced there. Upon leaving the auditorium we found the next worship service was so overpacked that projector screens and chairs seating hundreds were in the back field and the street in front of the building. They have over 100 pastors planting new cell churches in the villages up and down the Amazon, living on house boats with their families.

I was invited here to bless the church and delegates from all over South America for their annual conference, but will receive tenfold what I will give out! I will post pictures later for you to share in this awesome experience.

A Powerful Word from the Rebers

2010-09-29T06:45:00.002-05:00

Chris and Mary Ellen Reber were my students back in the '80's at Columbia Seminary. They have invested their lives in a Muslim nation they refer to as "Antioch" so they will not be discovered. They also use "People of Antioch" as a disguised term for "Christians." They see the problem of American Christians so clearly in these words I am quoting from their last Newsletter:

"People of Antioch, I call your spirit to attention in the name of Jesus of Nazareth. Listen with your spirit to the Word of God for you. "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trails of many kinds" (James 1:2). "His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to His eternal purposes which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Eph. 3:10-11).

"People of Antioch, your culture centers on avoiding problems and values happiness, which you define to mean having others take care of your problems. This is a delusion. God placed Adam & Eve in the Garden in a perfect environment and a perfect relationship with Himself. Yet, He created a problem for them - to take the resources of the Garden and of their relationship with Him to the rest of the world to subdue it.

"You were designed by God to face problems and solve them, not to escape them. The problems God designed for you to solve will bring the greatest treasures in your life. People are remembered for the problems that they solve or the problems they create. I bless you, people of Antioch, with wisdom and joy when you face different problems and I bless you with rejoicing in your situation, instead of complaining and turning back.

"People of Antioch, I bless you to know that God sometimes sends problems to help you realize that you need His help. I bless you to come to faith in Him, then His wisdom will be available to help you to solve problems. I bless you with the faith to look at problems through your Father's eyes and realize that every problem He brings you is an opportunity to experience His faithfulness. Eph. 3:10-11 shows that many kinds of problems make known the manifold wisdom of God to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms. God will position you so that He can bring new problems into your life so that you will reach toward your Father and find His multi-faceted wisdom to solve those problems.

"I bless you, people of Antioch, to not have an entitlement (welfare) spirit within you, so you do not look to others to solve your problems, but instead you seek God's answers to your problems and receive answers from Him. I bless you, people of Antioch, with rising to the challenge of finding wisdom through God's Word and I bless you with the endurance and perseverance to seek God's solutions. I bless you with refusing to develop a theology of failure, never settling for something that is a contradiction of Scripture. I bless you with not buying into the enemy's lies to settle for an armed truce rather than real victory.

"I bless you, people of Antioch, with having the mind of Christ, so that you can see from His perspective and see solutions that others cannot see. I bless you with the deep joy of fulfillment, which is not available to those who are merely trying to be happy. I bless you with the joy of discovering the wisdom of God and the mind of Christ to solve problems. I bless you, people of Antioch, with His joy in the name of Jesus of Nazareth."

Wow! They have given us the right term for Bucket Church values: "an entitlement (welfare) spirit."

Did you read this far? ASSIGNMENT: Read the above over again until the words stab at your spirit, the spirit owned by God and not you....

THE BODY AND THE HEAD ARE SACRED

2010-08-17T11:44:00.000-05:00

Powerful words of T. Austin Sparks:"The Church is not a theme, it is not a doctrine, a teaching, it is not a subject in the Bible. You can have all the teaching and all the doctrine and know all that the Bible says about it, be conversant with all the theories of the church, and there will be no glory or life about it. The church is not a subject to be studied, a doctrine to be taught. The church is a Person to be manifested; it is Christ. And no one really knows anything about the church until they have seen Christ by the revelation of The Holy Spirit. Do not ask to see the church and do not ask others if they have seen the church. There is a lot of that sort of language going on - have you seen the church, the truth of the Body? Oh, the Lord deliver us from that sort of thing! Have you seen Christ? If you have seen Christ, you have seen something more than just a Person. Great, vast and wonderful as the Person is, that Person signifies something more than Himself as an isolated unit. He represents and signifies a vast, elect company to come to His likeness, to be conformed to His Image. It is only as we really see Christ in a spiritual heavenly way that we know anything about the church in truth. So do not begin to study the doctrine of the church, and be very careful how you take hold of any teaching about the church. Always remember that you can never have that in a living way unless you are seeing Christ, and for the expression of the church we have to keep on seeing Christ. It has to be a manifestation of Christ. You may have none of the doctrine, teaching, theory, and yet be in the good of the reality of seeing The Lord. Far better to have it that way than to have all the technique and not to have seen the Lord. ..."

When does a Christ Body experience seeing Christ? The explanation is in 1 Cor. 14:24-25: "When all are prophesying"- then, it is obvious that Christ is being manifested. It is the empowerment of the Son within His present Body that reveals His presence not only to those who are edified but also to the observing unbelievers, who say, "God is among you!"

Is that too hard to grasp? Then why do we not focus on experiencing it?Comments?

THE BUCKET CHURCH

2010-08-01T09:27:00.001-05:00

Gentlemen and Ladies, I want to welcome you to your first day in the Bucket Theological Seminary. You will learn much about the Bible that you never knew before, like the multiple authorship of Isaiah and the unknown book we call “Quelle” that has never been uncovered that is a source for the four Gospels.

"Bucket": A self-contained religious container that becomes an end in itself and justifies its existence and goodness by maintaining its organized activities and tradition. The bucket becomes more important than the living water for which the bucket was originally designed to carry. The wineskin becomes more important than the wine. -Bill Beckham

But the main thing this institution offers you is how to manage Buckets. It is not possible to manage individuals who belong to your congregations by personally taking time to meet all their needs. Through the generations, we have learned that it is more efficient to work with those who are placed in different Buckets. We will show you how to "Love Buckets, Use People."

We always spell this word with a capital “B” because it is a special word for us: a special, almost sacred concept. In fact, most church members and denominational leaders in particular consider the Buckets as inspired by the Holy Spirit. We will teach you all about how to administer religious life through assorted Buckets.

The major Bucket is the Sanctuary you will occupy to present your sermons throughout your career. If you are successful, you will be able to raise millions during your administrations and build ever larger Bucket Rooms with comfortable pews, stained glass windows, and excellent air conditioning systems. This will make you feel significant, having accomplished the distinction of being among the greatest Bucket Building Pastors who leave property (and debt) behind as you move forward to bigger opportunities.

Because of the importance of this major Bucket, we will teach you how to study the theologians so you can quote erudite comments for Bucket audiences who will sit in rows each week while “Sir Oracle” speaks.

There are many other Buckets and as you will learn, you will be able to hire specialists to help you manage the people who are placed in them. You will need an aspiring young zealot who will work with the Youth Bucket, a lovely woman who will manage the Children’s Bucket, a musician to handle the Choir Bucket, an elderly semi-retired person to cater to the Senior’s Bucket, visit hospitals, and so forth. We will show you how to use the latest corporate techniques to manage efficiently. Thus, you will not have to become intimate with the people. Others will take care of them.

Of course, the people who are dumped into these Buckets must be made to feel significant. The Choir and Praise Team Bucket, the Deacon’s Bucket, the Sunday School Bucket, are among those areas where unpaid volunteers will gain personal importance by taking charge of these activities. Feeling significant is a major reason Bucket workers serve. Some will do so out of devotion to God, but beware of them. They often become renegades who sense the Buckets may be unbiblical. Stay distant from these people who often want to be intercessors. They can become “wolves within,” as Paul mentions.

Of course, we will provide you with a few classes in counseling. You need to know about these professional techniques but we recommend that you focus on the Buckets and make referrals to full-time counselors when Bucket people need guidance. Your main work is not with individuals, but with the operation of the Buckets.

Bill Beckham calls this “Program Bucket Design,” often referred to as “P.B.D.” It has been fully developed and much literature is available. Jesus saw the traditions of the Pharisees as religious "buckets." Jesus' "woes" against the Pharisees were "woes" about these "buckets."

Are you happy living in the Buckets?

WHAT IS A CELL CHURCH?

2010-06-24T12:28:00.004-05:00

(Note: transcript of presentation at EXPOLIT in Miami on behalf of Spanish cell pastors who sponsored an OIKOS conference.)

The Christ that dwells in me greets the Christ that dwells in you!

I am so blessed to be in your midst. When I was in college, I had to pass Spanish in order to get my degree. I had never met a spanish person in my life. I lived way up in Minnesota and I didn’t care about spanish, and I got a C- in the course, and now I am so sorry. I feel so cheated, and I watch on my television at home spanish tv, and I pick up “poco a poco a poco’, but when we get to heaven, we will all speak the heavenly language. It will not be spanish, it will be the language of the kingdom of God. And that kingdom language is one you do not know how to speak well, and that language is our problem. The language of the kingdom is the language of the invisible diety – God.

If you are only a spirit, others have no way of knowing you exist. Your body allows you to be known. God has no body. God is an invisible spirit and we must begin with knowing Him. We don’t normally do this. We begin with who we are and then we try to connect with Him.

Today I want us to begin with who He is and how He connects with us. I have chosen as the text for this presentation “What is a Cell Church?” It is a body that does not look like this building with a tall steeple. This is what most bodies that are called “churches” look like today. We sing about Christ our head, we preach about our head, but we do not experience the head. And so, we have to understand that if we are going to be the body, we have to experience the head. If we look at Galatians 2:20, there is a great secret, a secret that was hidden for centuries, Paul said, and then in God’s timing finally revealed. We have discovered the head is Christ, and notice that this connection is not Christ in me, although He certainly is, but the emphasis is plural. Christ in you – and the reason is very important: God’s spirit is not single; it is a community. I have watched those in the mosque as they bow to the ground, and when they raise up they hold up one finger in their praying, stating “God is One, God is One”… no, we know He is three. He is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and He cannot be communicated by one.

One of the things we have to do this morning is not to learn something, but to unlearn what we have wrongly learned. We need to understand that Christ always dwells in a community. That community is not comprised of people who sit in rows and look at the backs of people’s heads. That community is composed of those who know each other as intimately as they possibly can, because they must recognize that they are occupied by the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And so this is our journey. I have written a book that is in English, Portugese and Korean, not yet in Spanish. But everything that I want to say to you is embodied in the theme of my book, and I would like to ask you to read this aloud together:

“A community formed and baptized by the Holy Spirit. Each member is led by the embodied Christ, who edifies and reveals his presence, power, and purpose through them.”

What is a Cell church? You are looking at the definition. This is the body of Christ, and nothing less. And this is our journey. And so I want to take us back in time. In fact, I want to go back before there was time, when there was only the Father, the Son and the Spirit, invisible - no way of our knowing them. Think about that for a moment. Are you a spirit? Are you invisible? No. You are known because your spirit is embodied in a being that makes the spirit transmittable and transferable. Before there was time, the Father, Son and Spirit shared what C.S. Lewis called “a divine dance”, and they said “How shall we reveal ourselves? We will create, and what we will create will be an expression of our power. And so they created the universe.

For the first time, something existed that revealed their presence. And the writer of the Psalms says “When I look at the stars I say “how marvelous, how awesome you are!” Now all humanity would have a revelation of His presence. Nothing that was created after the creation would be devoid of knowing the presence and power of the triune God.

But there was more about the nature of God that could not be revealed by His awesome universe. And so the Father and the Son and the Spirit met and they said “we are going to reveal the nature of our intimate communion. The love that exists between us must be revealed. How shall we reveal it?’ And in that session, that conference between the Father, the Son and the Spirit, the Father spoke and said to His Son “You will be anointed to fulfill this mission. I will send you in the fullness of time. I will cause a virgin to become pregnant with your human body. You will go to live among men, and you will be the One who reveals our nature.

And so, the Son was given a special name – “The Anointed One”. What is the word for this? Christ. Christ is the anointed One. The virgin born child Jesus would contain the Anointed One. What many do not understand is this: the Son was anointed for more tasks than could be fulfilled in Jesus alone. In Jesus, the Son, the Christ, would reveal the kingdom - the reign of God superior to all the kingdoms of the world. He would also atone for the sins of all mankind. And He would say “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father. I and the Father are One.” And the shy member of the Triune God, the Holy Spirit, was present. In the form of a dove, the Spirit came upon the Son at the same moment the Father spoke, “This is my Son, I am so proud of Him.” And so Jesus became the revelation, the glorious knowledge of the love of the Triune God – “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.” How awesome, how majestic. And when He came, He said “I have a mission.” That mission was not only to declare the Kingdom and to become a sacrifice, but to personally reveal the presence of that Kingdom and sacrifice beyond the life of Jesus on the earth.

You see, the body of Jesus could only fulfill the first tasks of the Father; it was limited by time and space. The body of Jesus could only be in one place at one time, but the anointing of the Son went beyond the timeline of Jesus. It would be the Son Himself that was anointed to carry the message of the Godhead’s Presence to generations long after the body of Jesus existed on earth. This is where we must begin to understand how our thinking has led us astray.

We do not understand the next truth, and this is what we must go to now. God said, “We will form a community of humans that will live in community together, to experience life not in the kingdoms of this world, but in the kingdom reign of the Son, under the control of Christ, and we will embody our Son in a new body. In that new body, the Son will continue His mission on behalf of the Godhead.

Do you grasp this?

I don’t think you do. You are listening to the words, but when something is new, you filter the thought through everything you already know. So I do not know how much of your filter system is blocking what I am saying.

The Son, Christ, required another body to complete the mission of the Father. This new body would never replace the body of Jesus but it would become the new body inhabited by the Son.

My brothers and sisters, why have we missed that? Did Paul not say it pointedly? “Now you are the body of Christ.” Is that confusing? If that is true, then who should be directing His body? Every body must have a controlling head. That head is the Son, the Christ. And so, here is the great question – are you willing to live in a community under the control of a totally different life form? That life-community is a body supernaturally governed by Christ - not man, but Christ. He will occupy that body. He will not just “motivate” that body to do works in His name. He will not “inspire” that body to do works in His name. He will reveal His presence and fulfill His mission through that body. He will do HIS work through revealing His presence and power within that body. Are you understanding?

That is a cell church. A cell church is a community of believers who contain the presence of Christ, who yield themselves to His life, His presence and His power, and who reveal Him. They reveal HIM. What a glorious thought! There is no heavy labor, no burden, when we become a channel and He is the flowing presence. When we become a channel and He is the power, we don’t go to bed exhausted trying to do the work that will please Him. Are you ready to live in a new life form? Perhaps this time it will make a little more sense. Repeat it again, please.

“A community formed and baptized by the Holy Spirit. Each member is led by the embodied Christ, who edifies and reveals his presence, power, and purpose through them.”

I want you to think about “Upstairs ” and “Downstairs,” two different levels of spiritual lifestyles. On one level, “Downstairs.” we are going to find the power of man. On the other level. “Upstairs,” we’re going to find the power of God.

Consider a man at the Downstairs level in John 3, named Nicodemus. Nicodemus did not come to Jesus as a seeker. He was angry. This man had driven the money changers out of the Temple. He was a Pharisee. He got his salary from those money changers, and this man was doing miracles, and driving out the money changers. “I’ve got to get the dirt on him. I’ve got to find out what he’s up to. We’ve got to put him in prison. I don’t want anybody to see me around him. I’ll go at night when no one is looking.” Jesus knows he’s not coming as a seeker: “Um, Jesus, I am interested in you.”

Do you know what his name means? It means “the victory of the people” – Nicodemus = people’s victory. And he comes to Jesus by night.

He asks, “Tell me how you do all these things?” “Upstairs ” is the Son, the Son of God, and He says “I’m going to play with this man’s mind, I’m going to toy with him.” Because Nicodemus can’t understand Upstairs; he lives in a religious world. Just like we do – Downstairs, where people tithe, so you can get your salary, and consumer Christians have to be coddled. They expect you as their pastor to service them, because throughout the different generations past churches have developed Downstairs church members.

Traditional church members for the most part are not Upstairs . They go to church to get their needs met. There is a word for that: they are “consumers”. We are developing consumers every Sunday. If another church has a better youth program in a sister church they will say, “Bye Bye, I’ll go there.” (They live Downstairs.)

If you pastor a traditional church, the building is viewed as Community Property. Let me explain that expression. You have personal property - a bed to sleep in; is that bed important? At noon? No, only at night. You have a kitchen table: that’s part of your personal property at noon. You have a couch for television, and a bed to sleep in. Depending on what you need, you use certain furniture at specific times. Each item exists to meet your needs. It has no significance when it is not needed, but it had better be there when you want to have your needs met!

In your community, you also have furniture. You need a hospital, only if you’re sick, and a school, needed only if you need to be educated, and a church building, needed only when you want to attend it. That’s Downstairs living. So you pastor Downstairs . Just like Nicodemus. I don’t mean to insult you. But I think your heart tells you I’m telling you the truth.

So Nicodemus comes to Jesus and he says, “I don’t understand you.” I think that’s where many of us are. We really don’t understand the Upstairs Kingdom, and we probably don’t understand Paul’s great secret, either. And so, Downstairs, we operate with “church” as community furniture, missing Upstairs and that which is of the Spirit.

Jesus is going to play with Nicodemus. He asks Jesus,
“How do you do all these things you do?”
“Well, Nicodemus, unless you are born again you can’t understand the reign of God.” “Really?”
“Yes, Nicodemus, you know about the wind that blows Downstairs ? Well there is something that blows Upstairs that you don’t know anything about. And Nicodemus, you know at the seminary, you teach how Moses put a snake on a stick, and you teach on all of that, but you don’t know anything about Upstairs where there will be a man crucified.” Are you beginning to see the difference between Upstairs and Downstairs ?

This is very important. What we pastor is mainly Downstairs. A cell that is the body of Christ is Upstairs . It’s a totally different culture.

Many times through the years I have expanded this thought with a pastor and immediately he has said to me, “If I go Upstairs, where does my salary come from? I make my money doing the Downstairs things: preaching, marrying, burying, taking care of the people, running the budget, counseling, working my heart out. I go to bed exhausted every night. It’s tough serving God. I’m many times misunderstood. I struggle living Downstairs. Upstairs? I’m not sure. How would I survive? I teach my people – ‘God will provide all your needs.’ (Pass the offering plate, please.) But if I didn’t pass the offering plate, how would I live?”

I have a trilogy. It has worked for the old man for many, many years.
1. It is the task of the servant to obey his master.
2. It is the task of the master to provide the needs of that servant.
3. Therefore, the servant will never lack what he needs.
Upstairs , He supplies all your needs!

Living in an Upstairs body of Christ is very different than living Downstairs . This passage in Colossians describes what it’s like to live Downstairs:
Colossians 2:8 “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.”
But when you move Upstairs , Colossians 1:18 says, “And He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.”

If we are doing His work and we are the channels of His activity, He will supply everything that is needed. We become the channels for His presence. That is what a cell is: it is a channel of the grace of God.

In this Upstairs cell there is a radical difference between what we experience Downstairs that replaces a cell group. They are called “small groups.” Many churches are endorsing small groups. I have watched two one-hour long small group workshops on the internet. One was by the Assemblies of God and the other by Southern Baptists. They get 3 or 4 small group experts and have them talk about small groups, because they want to make money from selling their small groups materials. But the concept of Christ Bodies and equipping for ministry is lacking. They are “holding tanks” for members. It’s all Downstairs.

Small groups are Downstairs . I don’t like small groups because they rob the people of their true identity of God Upstairs. Downstairs, all we want is fellowship. Aah, that’s the goal - fellowship. “Six fellows in one ship.” How lovely.

But Upstairs there is followship – we follow Christ. He is the head of His body, and He directs the body. This is only not a small group: it is the body of Christ, to perform His presence and power by revealing Him. The revelation of Christ makes them channels, revealing Him when He is otherwise invisible.

We need to understand that Paul was speaking of downstairs people in the begiining chapters written to the Corinthians. “You say, ‘I am of Apollos.” He’s talking about Downstairs pastors and their ministries. He says, “Oh, you labor so hard, and when you finish your life, you will have built with wood and hay and stubble. You are proud of the buildings you build, of the programs you produce and the lovely edifices that are the memory of your hard work. Wood, hay, stubble. But Upstairs, there was gold, silver, precious stones - that which is eternal. One day there will be a Bima, a “little throne judgment” – not the White Throne for the unbeliever, but the throne of judgment for Christian workers. And all of that Downstairs activity will be burned and only what’s done for Christ will last.

Scary stuff! Only what’s done for Christ will last. I want to show you how it works in the Downstairs church. This is a Downstairs pyramid. It is filled with consumers, and so each person says “I make a choice about what’s best. I know what’s best. I know if I want somebody healed. I know if I want a job. I know if I want a good lottery ticket. I am over all these circumstances and I decide what’s best. That’s what I do. I’m in charge, but sometimes I don’t have the power I need, so that’s where God comes in. When I decide what’s best, I need to ask God to use His power to give me what I think is best. So I pray, ‘God, heal my mother. God, give me a good job. God, give me good luck.’”

And God doesn’t do what I tell Him to do. We think, “I’m not religious enough for God. What I need is a hired holy man, somebody who’s a pastor. “My momma is in the hospital; I can go and pray for her and she won’t be healed but pastor, you go. You go pray for my momma in the hospital and if you go, God will hear your prayer. I pay you money so go visit the hospital for me. Wear out your tires on your car, running around, praying for the people I’m not good enough to pray for. You’re the hired holy man. That’s how you make your money. Go pray for my momma.” But pastor’s prayers don’t work either . . .

Downstairs, we have undeveloped small group members where each person relates to the others without being accountable or responsible for ministry. Small groups believe in Jesus as Savior but do not acknowledge His total ownership of them. They are “dismembered body parts”. Sunday, the arm sits there, a leg sits there, a foot is there, a hand is there. They sit beside each other in pews, unconnected – or they have a small group. Maybe it’s a Bible study group. “I don’t have to minister to you. I study my Bible. You study your Bible. What do you think it says? Oh, that’s good. Let’s go home.” The Bible is insulation. We think it’s good. It’s Bible study. But it hides us from each other.

Let’s go Upstairs. This is how an Upstairs community looks. First of all, Christ is the one who decides “what’s best.” The cell is a servant, and will do what He directs. But it needs His resources. When He commissioned the 70, He told them not to take a cloak, not shoes, not to take a purse. What were they to take? They did not go to do good works. Instead, they were sent to demonstrate the presence and power of the Kingdom. They were to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the leper. Perhaps some said. “We can’t do that.” To which Christ might have responded, “That’s right… you can’t. But I can, if you will be a channel for me.”

The cell, the body of Christ, must recognize that the power of Christ requires the presence of Christ manifesting himself by providing supernatural activities that flow from the believer to meet each need. Spiritual gifts are not stored up like flashlight batteries. Spiritual gifts are like electrical energy flowing through a wire from the source to the need. Every cell member is connected at one end to Christ, and when connected to the condition where Christ’s power and presence is needed, He energizes the body. Afterward the cell members may say, “When did we do that? That wasn’t done with our shoes, or our cloaks or money. That was the result of His presence and His power.”

The cell must receive from Him what He desires to do and all the resources needed. That’s “Upstairs!” And so Christ is revealed. Each cell member, Upstairs, becomes a part of the body of Christ and individually, members one of another: “Don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?” In order to live Upstairs, we have to die to the Downstairs. That’s not easy.

We have all been baptized by the Holy Spirit to be members of Christ’s body. Notice – the work of the Holy Spirit and the work of the Son are codependent. The Son and the Spirit have responsibilities assigned by the Father. We often talk about the “gifts of the Holy Spirit.” True, they are provided through the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit is not the source of the gifts. Ephesians 4 makes that very clear. It says pointedly – Christ gives the gifts. The Holy Spirit brings those gifts with all of His presence and energy to empower the believer. They never work separately.

They always work together. Jesus said “When the Spirit comes, He will teach you all things I have commanded.” You see the connection? And when I go to pray, the Spirit is the One who takes my groanings that cannot be uttered to Christ. We cannot separate the Godhead. Jesus said, “In me dwells the fullness of the Godhead.” Yet, the Son is the center of the Father’s commission and the Spirit is “called alongside to help.” He is active in the operation of the cell, having drawn the unbeliever to Christ in the first place.

Let’s understand that we are to put on the full armor of God so we may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. We don’t need to carry any bags, shoes, or moneybags on the way. Christ wants to flow through us. If we understand this, the amazing thing is this – the eternal Christ who lived in the body of Jesus, who performed all of the things He did in that body, and then rose from the dead - we now have the Christ who did all those things in this new body. We have dwelling in us the resurrected Christ. How awesome! It’s not hard to reveal Him if we’re living Upstairs, but if we try to do that same thing while living Downstairs , we’re like poor Nicodemus.

Let’s repeat it together:
“A community formed and baptized by the Holy Spirit. Each member is led by the embodied Christ, who edifies and reveals his presence, power, and purpose through them.”

Now let’s take a look at life Upstairs . First of all, it will be lived in small communities. Those communities are not separated from one another. We have in the world today a “house church” movement, individual clusters who are not connected to the other clusters. But Jesus said in John 17 “I pray that they may all be one.” It’s important for us to understand why the cell church has two wings. In his book, Bill Beckham talks about a bird that tries to fly with one wing, and it just flaps around and around. But when he has two wings, he can soar high into the heavens. I thank the Lord for my house-church friends, but they don’t get far with one wing. You need the gathered church, the gathered body, and you also need the little community that we call the basic body of Christ, that will penetrate a piece of society.

Why do we insist that a cell not grow larger than 12? It doesn’t have to be exactly 12; some have tried to make that a sacred number. It’s not. But I do want you to understand this: community, intimacy, accountability, responsibility cannot exist in a large group. In my book I explain it’s a matter of communication lines. I talk to you, you talk to me – we have two communication lines. A third person joins us. How many communication lines? I’ll give you a mathematical formula: Number times Number minus Number = Communication Lines. How many with 3 in a group? 6. How many in 4? 5? 20? 90? Amazing, isn’t it, how many lines are found after 12 people? Do you know what happens when you get higher than that? The first break in the conversation, you’ve got a little group over here and a little group over there, automatically trying to share because you will not have intimacy otherwise.

If you’re going to have community with accountability and responsibility, you have to keep the size of the group to 12 or less. This is why, world-wide, cell groups are encouraged to remain small or or not remain larger than 12 persons for an extended period of time. That is a very important principle.

Every one of the body members represent an oikos, a group of people divided into three categories: (1) the “People people” I am intimate with; (2) the “Machine people” I don’t want to be intimate with (but I have to be nice to them because they fix my car or serve my food, but a little lower than my family) – who cares whether they go to hell or not? And then I have a third group in my oikos: the people that live four houses down from me that I’ve never met. They’re the “Landscape people”:, they’re part of my world, but I choose not to participate in their life and they choose not to participate in mine.

If every person in the cell has a total of 10 people in their oikos, 10 x 10, there are 100 people in the cell’s mission field. That’s where Christ wants to work. The reason God organizes people in the cell communities to go house to house is that every house draws influence. Place Christ in the middle of that group and release Him to manifest His power and His presence, and you will have a harvest. It’s awesome!

Think of the hundreds of cells that are penetrating different little localities. Many years ago, the predecesor to Pastor Mario Vega went to London, England and he talked to a pompous pastor. The pastor said, “Where are you from?” “From El Salvador.” “How large is your church?” “I have 118,000.” “I didn’t ask you how large your city was!” He couldn’t grasp what can happen when the cell becomes the body of Christ and it embraces about 100,000 souls.

Through the cell, the Christ who was limited in the body of Jesus is now able to manifest His presence and power in all of those cells, and the harvest is astonishing. But to do that things have to change. We have to live Upstairs. Upstairs, the very first thing that must happen, is we all confess our sins to one another.

Oh! We don’t do that Downstairs! 1 John 1:9 says that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us (note the plural!). The activity in a cell is the purification of the body members. I cannot be an instrument of God’s grace to build you up, to edify you, if you hide your spiritual issues. Of course, every cell has limits to the depth of confession that will take place. It’s a natural event. You have an onion. You don’t peel five or ten layers off an onion all at once. You peel one layer off and you deal with what’s on that layer. The trust level in a cell limits the depths of the confessions. But confession of sins has always been a principle part of cell life, as far back as John Wesley. When his groups, called “class meetings”, got together, there were usually eight persons. Do you know what the first thing they did was? They would answer the question, “What sins have you committed since we last met that we need to pray and talk about?” That was their ice-breaker.

In the kingdom we can trust each other, as Christ flows through me to edify you. If we don’t understand that, we’re always going to avoid intimacy. We’ll never get into edification with each other. Until that intimacy comes, unbelievers will not be impacted by us.

1 Corinthians 14:24 tells us when the cell gathers, “all should prophesy.” The Bible that makes no mistake, that is without error, says “ALL should prophesy.” A-L-L “All” means “all”, ALL of the time. What does this word mean in scripture? In the Old Testament, the hebrew word is n’abi – God comes on me and the prophesying comes out of my mouth. In the New Testament prophesying is totally different. It means the Christ who is within me reveals His presence and power by what He delivers through me. That’s what this word means. It means that Christ is flowing through you.

You are only the conduit. You are not a flashlight battery. Let me illustrate. I formed a cell group in Houston nine months ago in my living room. We had a precious young lady join us. I had baptized her when she was eight years old and then while in college became an atheist, got into drugs, then found her way back She called me: “Uncle Ralph, I want to follow Jesus again. I want to be cared for.” I said, “I’m just forming this group. Please come with your husband.” So here she came with her husband. We also had a person come to the group from Cambodia, 20 years old, on drugs – heavy duty. He works in a donut shop, steals money to buy drugs, and he’s also in the group. As he shared about his addiction, this girl, a repentant child of God, who hasn’t memorized all the Bible, doesn’t pray an hour a day, does have all the righteousness we all have, because Christ is our righteousness. She doesn’t have to get more spiritual to be used by Christ, since she already has His righteousness. And I watch. Her eyes begin to shine with something that I’ve learned is found Upstairs: an empowerment by Christ to prophesy, to edify.

“Upstairs eyes” are very special. Christ is seeing through Upstairs eyes!. She was not looking at this young addict. It was Christ looking. And suddenly, like a stream of living water welling up, she began to flow. She hadn’t planned on saying a word, but she would have exploded if she hadn’t spoken. Powerfully, she ministered into his life. The power of God was in that room! Afterwards I said to her, “Do you know how God used you?” And you know what she said? “He did?” “Lord, when were you naked and we clothed you? When were you hungry and we fed you?” She was not trying to counsel; she was prophesying without effort. That’s precious.

“What is a cell group?” Now you know. Now, what are you going to do about it?

Father, you are so good to us. You have trusted us with your presence, the fullness of the Godhead, the Father, the Son, the Spirit, all abiding within. Thank you for the Christ who dwells in us, that we might be transformed by His presence and transport Him into our oikos, that unbelievers might see who He is by touching us. Oh God, give us bodies of Christ that reveal you and we will praise you forever. Amen.

WHAT IS A CELL CHURCH?

2010-06-24T12:28:00.002-05:00

(Note: transcript of presentation at EXPOLIT in Miami on behalf of Spanish cell pastors who sponsored an OIKOS conference.

The Christ that dwells in me greets the Christ that dwells in you!

I am so blessed to be in your midst. When I was in college, I had to pass Spanish in order to get my degree. I had never met a spanish person in my life. I lived way up in Minnesota and I didn’t care about spanish, and I got a C- in the course, and now I am so sorry. I feel so cheated, and I watch on my television at home spanish tv, and I pick up “poco a poco a poco’, but when we get to heaven, we will all speak the heavenly language. It will not be spanish, it will be the language of the kingdom of God. And that kingdom language is one you do not know how to speak well, and that language is our problem. The language of the kingdom is the language of the invisible diety – God.

If you are only a spirit, others have no way of knowing you exist. Your body allows you to be known. God has no body. God is an invisible spirit and we must begin with knowing Him. We don’t normally do this. We begin with who we are and then we try to connect with Him.

Today I want us to begin with who He is and how He connects with us. I have chosen as the text for this presentation “What is a Cell Church?” It is a body that does not look like this building with a tall steeple. This is what most bodies that are called “churches” look like today. We sing about Christ our head, we preach about our head, but we do not experience the head. And so, we have to understand that if we are going to be the body, we have to experience the head. If we look at Galatians 2:20, there is a great secret, a secret that was hidden for centuries, Paul said, and then in God’s timing finally revealed. We have discovered the head is Christ, and notice that this connection is not Christ in me, although He certainly is, but the emphasis is plural. Christ in you – and the reason is very important: God’s spirit is not single; it is a community. I have watched those in the mosque as they bow to the ground, and when they raise up they hold up one finger in their praying, stating “God is One, God is One”… no, we know He is three. He is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and He cannot be communicated by one.

One of the things we have to do this morning is not to learn something, but to unlearn what we have wrongly learned. We need to understand that Christ always dwells in a community. That community is not comprised of people who sit in rows and look at the backs of people’s heads. That community is composed of those who know each other as intimately as they possibly can, because they must recognize that they are occupied by the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And so this is our journey. I have written a book that is in English, Portugese and Korean, not yet in Spanish. But everything that I want to say to you is embodied in the theme of my book, and I would like to ask you to read this aloud together:

“A community formed and baptized by the Holy Spirit. Each member is led by the embodied Christ, who edifies and reveals his presence, power, and purpose through them.”

What is a Cell church? You are looking at the definition. This is the body of Christ, and nothing less. And this is our journey. And so I want to take us back in time. In fact, I want to go back before there was time, when there was only the Father, the Son and the Spirit, invisible - no way of our knowing them. Think about that for a moment. Are you a spirit? Are you invisible? No. You are known because your spirit is embodied in a being that makes the spirit transmittable and transferable. Before there was time, the Father, Son and Spirit shared what C.S. Lewis called “a divine dance”, and they said “How shall we reveal ourselves? We will create, and what we will create will be an expression of our power. And so they created the universe.

For the first time, something existed that revealed their presence. And the writer of the Psalms says “When I look at the stars I say “how marvelous, how awesome you are!” Now all humanity would have a revelation of His presence. Nothing that was created after the creation would be devoid of knowing the presence and power of the triune God.

But there was more about the nature of God that could not be revealed by His awesome universe. And so the Father and the Son and the Spirit met and they said “we are going to reveal the nature of our intimate communion. The love that exists between us must be revealed. How shall we reveal it?’ And in that session, that conference between the Father, the Son and the Spirit, the Father spoke and said to His Son “You will be anointed to fulfill this mission. I will send you in the fullness of time. I will cause a virgin to become pregnant with your human body. You will go to live among men, and you will be the One who reveals our nature.

And so, the Son was given a special name – “The Anointed One”. What is the word for this? Christ. Christ is the anointed One. The virgin born child Jesus would contain the Anointed One. What many do not understand is this: the Son was anointed for more tasks than could be fulfilled in Jesus alone. In Jesus, the Son, the Christ, would reveal the kingdom - the reign of God superior to all the kingdoms of the world. He would also atone for the sins of all mankind. And He would say “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father. I and the Father are One.” And the shy member of the Triune God, the Holy Spirit, was present. In the form of a dove, the Spirit came upon the Son at the same moment the Father spoke, “This is my Son, I am so proud of Him.” And so Jesus became the revelation, the glorious knowledge of the love of the Triune God – “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.” How awesome, how majestic. And when He came, He said “I have a mission.” That mission was not only to declare the Kingdom and to become a sacrifice, but to personally reveal the presence of that Kingdom and sacrifice beyond the life of Jesus on the earth.

You see, the body of Jesus could only fulfill the first tasks of the Father; it was limited by time and space. The body of Jesus could only be in one place at one time, but the anointing of the Son went beyond the timeline of Jesus. It would be the Son Himself that was anointed to carry the message of the Godhead’s Presence to generations long after the body of Jesus existed on earth. This is where we must begin to understand how our thinking has led us astray.

We do not understand the next truth, and this is what we must go to now. God said, “We will form a community of humans that will live in community together, to experience life not in the kingdoms of this world, but in the kingdom reign of the Son, under the control of Christ, and we will embody our Son in a new body. In that new body, the Son will continue His mission on behalf of the Godhead.

Do you grasp this?

I don’t think you do. You are listening to the words, but when something is new, you filter the thought through everything you already know. So I do not know how much of your filter system is blocking what I am saying.

The Son, Christ, required another body to complete the mission of the Father. This new body would never replace the body of Jesus but it would become the new body inhabited by the Son.

My brothers and sisters, why have we missed that? Did Paul not say it pointedly? “Now you are the body of Christ.” Is that confusing? If that is true, then who should be directing His body? Every body must have a controlling head. That head is the Son, the Christ. And so, here is the great question – are you willing to live in a community under the control of a totally different life form? That life-community is a body supernaturally governed by Christ - not man, but Christ. He will occupy that body. He will not just “motivate” that body to do works in His name. He will not “inspire” that body to do works in His name. He will reveal His presence and fulfill His mission through that body. He will do HIS work through revealing His presence and power within that body. Are you understanding?

That is a cell church. A cell church is a community of believers who contain the presence of Christ, who yield themselves to His life, His presence and His power, and who reveal Him. They reveal HIM. What a glorious thought! There is no heavy labor, no burden, when we become a channel and He is the flowing presence. When we become a channel and He is the power, we don’t go to bed exhausted trying to do the work that will please Him. Are you ready to live in a new life form? Perhaps this time it will make a little more sense. Repeat it again, please.

“A community formed and baptized by the Holy Spirit. Each member is led by the embodied Christ, who edifies and reveals his presence, power, and purpose through them.”

I want you to think about “Upstairs ” and “Downstairs,” two different levels of spiritual lifestyles. On one level, “Downstairs.” we are going to find the power of man. On the other level. “Upstairs,” we’re going to find the power of God.

Consider a man at the Downstairs level in John 3, named Nicodemus. Nicodemus did not come to Jesus as a seeker. He was angry. This man had driven the money changers out of the Temple. He was a Pharisee. He got his salary from those money changers, and this man was doing miracles, and driving out the money changers. “I’ve got to get the dirt on him. I’ve got to find out what he’s up to. We’ve got to put him in prison. I don’t want anybody to see me around him. I’ll go at night when no one is looking.” Jesus knows he’s not coming as a seeker: “Um, Jesus, I am interested in you.”

Do you know what his name means? It means “the victory of the people” – Nicodemus = people’s victory. And he comes to Jesus by night.

He asks, “Tell me how you do all these things?” “Upstairs ” is the Son, the Son of God, and He says “I’m going to play with this man’s mind, I’m going to toy with him.” Because Nicodemus can’t understand Upstairs; he lives in a religious world. Just like we do – Downstairs, where people tithe, so you can get your salary, and consumer Christians have to be coddled. They expect you as their pastor to service them, because throughout the different generations past churches have developed Downstairs church members.

Traditional church members for the most part are not Upstairs . They go to church to get their needs met. There is a word for that: they are “consumers”. We are developing consumers every Sunday. If another church has a better youth program in a sister church they will say, “Bye Bye, I’ll go there.” (They live Downstairs.)

If you pastor a traditional church, the building is viewed as Community Property. Let me explain that expression. You have personal property - a bed to sleep in; is that bed important? At noon? No, only at night. You have a kitchen table: that’s part of your personal property at noon. You have a couch for television, and a bed to sleep in. Depending on what you need, you use certain furniture at specific times. Each item exists to meet your needs. It has no significance when it is not needed, but it had better be there when you want to have your needs met!

In your community, you also have furniture. You need a hospital, only if you’re sick, and a school, needed only if you need to be educated, and a church building, needed only when you want to attend it. That’s Downstairs living. So you pastor Downstairs . Just like Nicodemus. I don’t mean to insult you. But I think your heart tells you I’m telling you the truth.

So Nicodemus comes to Jesus and he says, “I don’t understand you.” I think that’s where many of us are. We really don’t understand the Upstairs Kingdom, and we probably don’t understand Paul’s great secret, either. And so, Downstairs, we operate with “church” as community furniture, missing Upstairs and that which is of the Spirit.

Jesus is going to play with Nicodemus. He asks Jesus,
“How do you do all these things you do?”
“Well, Nicodemus, unless you are born again you can’t understand the reign of God.” “Really?”
“Yes, Nicodemus, you know about the wind that blows Downstairs ? Well there is something that blows Upstairs that you don’t know anything about. And Nicodemus, you know at the seminary, you teach how Moses put a snake on a stick, and you teach on all of that, but you don’t know anything about Upstairs where there will be a man crucified.” Are you beginning to see the difference between Upstairs and Downstairs ?

This is very important. What we pastor is mainly Downstairs. A cell that is the body of Christ is Upstairs . It’s a totally different culture.

Many times through the years I have expanded this thought with a pastor and immediately he has said to me, “If I go Upstairs, where does my salary come from? I make my money doing the Downstairs things: preaching, marrying, burying, taking care of the people, running the budget, counseling, working my heart out. I go to bed exhausted every night. It’s tough serving God. I’m many times misunderstood. I struggle living Downstairs. Upstairs? I’m not sure. How would I survive? I teach my people – ‘God will provide all your needs.’ (Pass the offering plate, please.) But if I didn’t pass the offering plate, how would I live?”

I have a trilogy. It has worked for the old man for many, many years.
1. It is the task of the servant to obey his master.
2. It is the task of the master to provide the needs of that servant.
3. Therefore, the servant will never lack what he needs.
Upstairs , He supplies all your needs!

Living in an Upstairs body of Christ is very different than living Downstairs . This passage in Colossians describes what it’s like to live Downstairs:
Colossians 2:8 “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.”
But when you move Upstairs , Colossians 1:18 says, “And He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.”

If we are doing His work and we are the channels of His activity, He will supply everything that is needed. We become the channels for His presence. That is what a cell is: it is a channel of the grace of God.

In this Upstairs cell there is a radical difference between what we experience Downstairs that replaces a cell group. They are called “small groups.” Many churches are endorsing small groups. I have watched two one-hour long small group workshops on the internet. One was by the Assemblies of God and the other by Southern Baptists. They get 3 or 4 small group experts and have them talk about small groups, because they want to make money from selling their small groups materials. But the concept of Christ Bodies and equipping for ministry is lacking. They are “holding tanks” for members. It’s all Downstairs.

Small groups are Downstairs . I don’t like small groups because they rob the people of their true identity of God Upstairs. Downstairs, all we want is fellowship. Aah, that’s the goal - fellowship. “Six fellows in one ship.” How lovely.

But Upstairs there is followship – we follow Christ. He is the head of His body, and He directs the body. This is only not a small group: it is the body of Christ, to perform His presence and power by revealing Him. The revelation of Christ makes them channels, revealing Him when He is otherwise invisible.

We need to understand that Paul was speaking of downstairs people in the begiining chapters written to the Corinthians. “You say, ‘I am of Apollos.” He’s talking about Downstairs pastors and their ministries. He says, “Oh, you labor so hard, and when you finish your life, you will have built with wood and hay and stubble. You are proud of the buildings you build, of the programs you produce and the lovely edifices that are the memory of your hard work. Wood, hay, stubble. But Upstairs, there was gold, silver, precious stones - that which is eternal. One day there will be a Bima, a “little throne judgment” – not the White Throne for the unbeliever, but the throne of judgment for Christian workers. And all of that Downstairs activity will be burned and only what’s done for Christ will last.

Scary stuff! Only what’s done for Christ will last. I want to show you how it works in the Downstairs church. This is a Downstairs pyramid. It is filled with consumers, and so each person says “I make a choice about what’s best. I know what’s best. I know if I want somebody healed. I know if I want a job. I know if I want a good lottery ticket. I am over all these circumstances and I decide what’s best. That’s what I do. I’m in charge, but sometimes I don’t have the power I need, so that’s where God comes in. When I decide what’s best, I need to ask God to use His power to give me what I think is best. So I pray, ‘God, heal my mother. God, give me a good job. God, give me good luck.’”

And God doesn’t do what I tell Him to do. We think, “I’m not religious enough for God. What I need is a hired holy man, somebody who’s a pastor. “My momma is in the hospital; I can go and pray for her and she won’t be healed but pastor, you go. You go pray for my momma in the hospital and if you go, God will hear your prayer. I pay you money so go visit the hospital for me. Wear out your tires on your car, running around, praying for the people I’m not good enough to pray for. You’re the hired holy man. That’s how you make your money. Go pray for my momma.” But pastor’s prayers don’t work either . . .

Downstairs, we have undeveloped small group members where each person relates to the others without being accountable or responsible for ministry. Small groups believe in Jesus as Savior but do not acknowledge His total ownership of them. They are “dismembered body parts”. Sunday, the arm sits there, a leg sits there, a foot is there, a hand is there. They sit beside each other in pews, unconnected – or they have a small group. Maybe it’s a Bible study group. “I don’t have to minister to you. I study my Bible. You study your Bible. What do you think it says? Oh, that’s good. Let’s go home.” The Bible is insulation. We think it’s good. It’s Bible study. But it hides us from each other.

Let’s go Upstairs. This is how an Upstairs community looks. First of all, Christ is the one who decides “what’s best.” The cell is a servant, and will do what He directs. But it needs His resources. When He commissioned the 70, He told them not to take a cloak, not shoes, not to take a purse. What were they to take? They did not go to do good works. Instead, they were sent to demonstrate the presence and power of the Kingdom. They were to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the leper. Perhaps some said. “We can’t do that.” To which Christ might have responded, “That’s right… you can’t. But I can, if you will be a channel for me.”

The cell, the body of Christ, must recognize that the power of Christ requires the presence of Christ manifesting himself by providing supernatural activities that flow from the believer to meet each need. Spiritual gifts are not stored up like flashlight batteries. Spiritual gifts are like electrical energy flowing through a wire from the source to the need. Every cell member is connected at one end to Christ, and when connected to the condition where Christ’s power and presence is needed, He energizes the body. Afterward the cell members may say, “When did we do that? That wasn’t done with our shoes, or our cloaks or money. That was the result of His presence and His power.”

The cell must receive from Him what He desires to do and all the resources needed. That’s “Upstairs!” And so Christ is revealed. Each cell member, Upstairs, becomes a part of the body of Christ and individually, members one of another: “Don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?” In order to live Upstairs, we have to die to the Downstairs. That’s not easy.

We have all been baptized by the Holy Spirit to be members of Christ’s body. Notice – the work of the Holy Spirit and the work of the Son are codependent. The Son and the Spirit have responsibilities assigned by the Father. We often talk about the “gifts of the Holy Spirit.” True, they are provided through the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit is not the source of the gifts. Ephesians 4 makes that very clear. It says pointedly – Christ gives the gifts. The Holy Spirit brings those gifts with all of His presence and energy to empower the believer. They never work separately.

They always work together. Jesus said “When the Spirit comes, He will teach you all things I have commanded.” You see the connection? And when I go to pray, the Spirit is the One who takes my groanings that cannot be uttered to Christ. We cannot separate the Godhead. Jesus said, “In me dwells the fullness of the Godhead.” Yet, the Son is the center of the Father’s commission and the Spirit is “called alongside to help.” He is active in the operation of the cell, having drawn the unbeliever to Christ in the first place.

Let’s understand that we are to put on the full armor of God so we may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. We don’t need to carry any bags, shoes, or moneybags on the way. Christ wants to flow through us. If we understand this, the amazing thing is this – the eternal Christ who lived in the body of Jesus, who performed all of the things He did in that body, and then rose from the dead - we now have the Christ who did all those things in this new body. We have dwelling in us the resurrected Christ. How awesome! It’s not hard to reveal Him if we’re living Upstairs, but if we try to do that same thing while living Downstairs , we’re like poor Nicodemus.

Let’s repeat it together:
“A community formed and baptized by the Holy Spirit. Each member is led by the embodied Christ, who edifies and reveals his presence, power, and purpose through them.”

Now let’s take a look at life Upstairs . First of all, it will be lived in small communities. Those communities are not separated from one another. We have in the world today a “house church” movement, individual clusters who are not connected to the other clusters. But Jesus said in John 17 “I pray that they may all be one.” It’s important for us to understand why the cell church has two wings. In his book, Bill Beckham talks about a bird that tries to fly with one wing, and it just flaps around and around. But when he has two wings, he can soar high into the heavens. I thank the Lord for my house-church friends, but they don’t get far with one wing. You need the gathered church, the gathered body, and you also need the little community that we call the basic body of Christ, that will penetrate a piece of society.

Why do we insist that a cell not grow larger than 12? It doesn’t have to be exactly 12; some have tried to make that a sacred number. It’s not. But I do want you to understand this: community, intimacy, accountability, responsibility cannot exist in a large group. In my book I explain it’s a matter of communication lines. I talk to you, you talk to me – we have two communication lines. A third person joins us. How many communication lines? I’ll give you a mathematical formula: Number times Number minus Number = Communication Lines. How many with 3 in a group? 6. How many in 4? 5? 20? 90? Amazing, isn’t it, how many lines are found after 12 people? Do you know what happens when you get higher than that? The first break in the conversation, you’ve got a little group over here and a little group over there, automatically trying to share because you will not have intimacy otherwise.

If you’re going to have community with accountability and responsibility, you have to keep the size of the group to 12 or less. That is why, world-wide, cells never grow larger. That is a very important principle.

Every one of the body members represent an oikos, a group of people divided into three categories: (1) the “People people” I am intimate with; (2) the “Machine people” I don’t want to be intimate with (but I have to be nice to them because they fix my car or serve my food, but a little lower than my family) – who cares whether they go to hell or not? And then I have a third group in my oikos: the people that live four houses down from me that I’ve never met. They’re the “Landscape people”:, they’re part of my world, but I choose not to participate in their life and they choose not to participate in mine.

If every person in the cell has a total of 10 people in their oikos, 10 x 10, there are 100 people in the cell’s mission field. That’s where Christ wants to work. The reason God organizes people in the cell communities to go house to house is that every house draws influence. Place Christ in the middle of that group and release Him to manifest His power and His presence, and you will have a harvest. It’s awesome!

Think of the hundreds of cells that are penetrating different little localities. Many years ago, the predecesor to Pastor Mario Vega went to London, England and he talked to a pompous pastor. The pastor said, “Where are you from?” “From El Salvador.” “How large is your church?” “I have 118,000.” “I didn’t ask you how large your city was!” He couldn’t grasp what can happen when the cell becomes the body of Christ and it embraces about 100,000 souls.

Through the cell, the Christ who was limited in the body of Jesus is now able to manifest His presence and power in all of those cells, and the harvest is astonishing. But to do that things have to change. We have to live Upstairs. Upstairs, the very first thing that must happen, is we all confess our sins to one another.

Oh! We don’t do that Downstairs! 1 John 1:9 says that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us (note the plural!). The activity in a cell is the purification of the body members. I cannot be an instrument of God’s grace to build you up, to edify you, if you hide your spiritual issues. Of course, every cell has limits to the depth of confession that will take place. It’s a natural event. You have an onion. You don’t peel five or ten layers off an onion all at once. You peel one layer off and you deal with what’s on that layer. The trust level in a cell limits the depths of the confessions. But confession of sins has always been a principle part of cell life, as far back as John Wesley. When his groups, called “class meetings”, got together, there were usually eight persons. Do you know what the first thing they did was? They would answer the question, “What sins have you committed since we last met that we need to pray and talk about?” That was their ice-breaker.

In the kingdom we can trust each other, as Christ flows through me to edify you. If we don’t understand that, we’re always going to avoid intimacy. We’ll never get into edification with each other. Until that intimacy comes, unbelievers will not be impacted by us.

1 Corinthians 14:24 tells us when the cell gathers, “all should prophesy.” The Bible that makes no mistake, that is without error, says “ALL should prophesy.” A-L-L “All” means “all”, ALL of the time. What does this word mean in scripture? In the Old Testament, the hebrew word is n’abi – God comes on me and the prophesying comes out of my mouth. In the New Testament prophesying is totally different. It means the Christ who is within me reveals His presence and power by what He delivers through me. That’s what this word means. It means that Christ is flowing through you.

You are only the conduit. You are not a flashlight battery. Let me illustrate. I formed a cell group in Houston nine months ago in my living room. We had a precious young lady join us. I had baptized her when she was eight years old and then while in college became an atheist, got into drugs, then found her way back She called me: “Uncle Ralph, I want to follow Jesus again. I want to be cared for.” I said, “I’m just forming this group. Please come with your husband.” So here she came with her husband. We also had a person come to the group from Cambodia, 20 years old, on drugs – heavy duty. He works in a donut shop, steals money to buy drugs, and he’s also in the group. As he shared about his addiction, this girl, a repentant child of God, who hasn’t memorized all the Bible, doesn’t pray an hour a day, does have all the righteousness we all have, because Christ is our righteousness. She doesn’t have to get more spiritual to be used by Christ, since she already has His righteousness. And I watch. Her eyes begin to shine with something that I’ve learned is found Upstairs: an empowerment by Christ to prophesy, to edify.

“Upstairs eyes” are very special. Christ is seeing through Upstairs eyes!. She was not looking at this young addict. It was Christ looking. And suddenly, like a stream of living water welling up, she began to flow. She hadn’t planned on saying a word, but she would have exploded if she hadn’t spoken. Powerfully, she ministered into his life. The power of God was in that room! Afterwards I said to her, “Do you know how God used you?” And you know what she said? “He did?” “Lord, when were you naked and we clothed you? When were you hungry and we fed you?” She was not trying to counsel; she was prophesying without effort. That’s precious.

“What is a cell group?” Now you know. Now, what are you going to do about it?

Father, you are so good to us. You have trusted us with your presence, the fullness of the Godhead, the Father, the Son, the Spirit, all abiding within. Thank you for the Christ who dwells in us, that we might be transformed by His presence and transport Him into our oikos, that unbelievers might see who He is by touching us. Oh God, give us bodies of Christ that reveal you and we will praise you forever. Amen.

"Look not to your own interests . . ." (Phil. 2:4)

2010-06-08T16:55:00.004-05:00

Belonging to Christ is the work of the Holy Spirit, the third Member of the Trinity. He seeks and saves those who are lost. The formal name for His activity of drawing men to the cross is "Prevenient (before life) Grace." Those who are "called out" (ecclesia) are then sealed by Him and instantly baptized (immersed) into the body of Christ. There are no "lone ranger" Christians. God delivers us from an independent spirit of "I have no need of you!" We enter a new Kingdom at salvation's portal, where it is impossible to exist apart from a communal lifestyle. The church exists to be the corporate expression of Christ wherever He is represented. The church cannot be represented by less than two, because the ecclesia is a body. Or, to use the thought that it is like a building, one brick never makes a temple.

For this reason, we must understand life in Christ is life in community. That is what Paul writes in Philippians 2. Now, connect this thought to 1 Cor. 14:24-25 where ALL are to prophesy. Note in 14:3: "the one who prophesies builds up the ecclesia."

On the right side of this blog I have two teachings about oikodomeo and oikonomos. They explain in depth why in a Christ Basic Body it is mandatory that we focus on becoming agents of Christ, building up one another.

The pathetic "small group" movement in churches dances all around the true purpose of our meeting together. Edification takes place when Christ uses me to minister life to you. When it is authentic, the one who is used to convey the spiritual gift is humbled by the experience.

What say you?

LIFE BASIC TRAINING

2010-03-02T14:14:00.004-06:00

On the right column you will find a new link to LIFE BASIC TRAINING. Please follow it to a series of videos that are now available for small groups of five persons to view together. The INTRODUCTION explains the process, which includes one small group session for 11 weeks and five days of Daily Growth Guides.

This content is very powerful and many core values have been changed through its application. Built around the understanding that it "takes six to stick," there is a careful transition through the weeks, divided by Week 5. Up to that time the participant is being challenged to rethink core values. The challenge is then laid down: "do you want to change, or not?"

Some drop out at this point, often with anger that the content is too threatening. These are like the rich young ruler who found the price too great to pay. But those who remain for the balance of the course have made the choice to adopt new core values. Thus, the remaining weeks reinforce this choice.

Often those who complete the 11 weeks are ready to enter into the new lifestyle and become an authentic Christ Body, living in the spirit of 1 Cor. 14:24-25.

If you want to form a group of five or any sets of five and use the videos and the workbooks, I am prepared to send you the workbooks FOR THE PRICE OF THE POSTAGE AND HANDLING!

Contact me personally so I can coach you as you use the content. My email is ralph@touchusa.org.

Now, go to the set of videos by clicking on the right column: LIFE BASIC TRAINING.

Any comments? Post them here...

Great Bible Survey Course - FREE!

2009-11-26T20:17:00.007-06:00

Twelve years ago I began to be concerned about the demise of Sunday School. Shabby as most classes were in teaching the Bible, people were exposed to the inspired scripture. Particularly was I concerned about cell churches where the focus of the cells would be on equipping, edification, evangelism.

So I invested about $30,000 and hired eight different people to help me. I wrote a complete text in five minute segments that would cover the Bible from cover to cover. I then created a 488 page paperback book with all the pages that appear on the computer screen. The first presentation was made by creating four CD's, one CD for each quarter of the content.

In five minute segments, the entire Bible is surveyed with graphics and sound on video clips. I eventually exported the entire series so it can be viewed on line anywhere there is a computer in the whole world.

It is the equivalent of a Bible College Survey of the Bible.

I added to the studies a monthly "Ask Your Questions" meeting for all cell members attending the church I served in Singapore. These were stimulating nights where I would answer any and all questions about the Bible for those taking the course.

Please use it, and encourage all new believers and illiterate Christians to go to the site. When they register, the site keeps a record of how far they have progressed and lets them take as many 5 minute segments as desired in one sitting.

The textbook pages appear on the 488 panels of the online course and can be secured in paperback as well. (Click here)

To check out the site, click on the title of this blog. It will take you straight to the login site.

"Jine de chuch neah ya home!"

2009-11-03T06:46:00.004-06:00

Back in 1955, I heard a Panhandle Florida pastor preach the Annual Message at the Pensacola Baptist Association. With typical Southern Florida twang, he made an impassioned plea that everyone should join the church nearest to your home.

At that time I was in seminary, commuting weekly to pastor the now defunct Southside Baptist Church. Peter Lord pastored a few blocks away. In that low income area, we had two churches that were equidistant from the population. The membership in both churches was equal but attendance vacillated between them. When either church had something "special," the other would see attendance drain like water in a bathtub when you pulled the plug.

We solved the problem by merging the two congregations and becoming co-pastors. The first Sunday, Peter preached in the morning and that night I preached. At the close of the service, I resigned using the excuse that Peter was graduating from seminary and I was going to take my doctorate.

I then accepted the pulpit of the Hayne Boulevard Baptist Church in New Orleans. This 40 member church had been "pastored" by 13 seminary students in 12 years! I broke all records by staying 3 years and six months and building a new auditorium for them, growing to 250 members. I found the motto "Join the church near your home" suited me perfectly: we were the single church on Hayne Boulevard for miles. I used it on my calling card.

Next came several years in Pennsylvania, planting all the original churches in the Keystone Baptist Association and then planting more in the Delaware Valley Baptist Association. About 18 altogether. The motto served me well; building membership was the name of that game.

Moving to Texas with the Baptist Convention placed me in charge of personal evangelism. After five years, I finally began to realize the slogan "join the church near your home" was a slogan based on an unbiblical definition of ecclesia. At the age of 34, it finally dawned on me that all these "church plants" were based on a consumer view of church life. These years were profitable in bringing some to Christ but added to the Big Lie that a building was "church" and joining one of the building centered organizations was a man-made decision, based on getting personal needs met. My motto was reinforcing a heresy!

There the truth was, staring me in the face all those years; my filters blocked it as though someone had cut it out of my Bible with scissors:

WE DO NOT CHOOSE TO JOIN THE AUTHENTIC CHURCH;

WE ARE CHOSEN AND JOINED TO IT BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD.

The true "church" is not the building nearest to your residence. It is the body of Christ we are joined to by the choice of the Holy Spirit: 1 Corinthians 12:13. It is a supernatural invasion of the reign of God over a group of people formed as arms, legs and inward parts to be inhabited by the Son of God, the Christ. Through that body He will reveal His presence: 1 Corinthians 14:24-25. (See my latest book for more on this!)

Consumer Christianity is killing the authentic work of Christ. I planted wood, hay and stubble for most of my ministry. Most of those building centered churches have never grown larger than they were after 6 years of existence--now a half century later!

Post your thoughts below...

Visit a "Normal" Cell Church: Abidjan trip

2009-09-11T17:33:00.014-05:00

At the Cell Symposium, Jim Lassiter talked about the many years he has traveled as an interpreter for Dion Robert, pastor of the 185,000 member cell church in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. (View his presentation here).

He shared that when he first started to travel with Dion, the detective-turned-pastor would frequently comment when they visited an American church, "This is not normal!" Jim could not understand what he meant until he finally realized Dion was seeing what he could not see - the dismal "downstairs" lifestyle American Christians live, contrasted to the "upstairs" Kingdom of God lifestyle experienced by the members of the Abidjan congregation.

A Chinese proverb says, "Never ask a goldfish what water is like." We swim around in the consumerism goldfish bowl of American church life. For us it is "normal." On one occasion, Dion walked through the multimillion dollar sanctuary of a Megachurch in Texas and said, "Child of Satan!" Such opulence for use a couple of hours a week offended his spirit.

We have come to accept our lifestyles as "normal" when we are far from it. We are subnormal. (Watchman Nee focused on this in The Normal Christian Life.)

I am convinced from my own experiences in ministering around the world, that when American Christiana are lifted out of their fishbowl, they must make radical changes in how they will live.

I will never forget the time I was preparing to preach for Dion to 40,000 people in a soccer stadium. He leaned over and said, "Would you like to see the demon possessed who are here?" I said, "How can I do that?" He went to the microphone and asked all the cell members present to come down from the stands and "dance before the Lord." With a shout of joy, thousands poured onto the field and formed a serpentine line 50 people across. As they wound around the field, they would point a hand toward heaven and sing in French, "Jesus is Higher!", followed by pointing to the ground singing, "Satan is under!" The stands, nearly empty, contained scores of demon possessed people. In their culture, a virgin will go to a witch doctor to get a demon assigned to help her get pregnant and then that baby is taught to worship that demon.

To my amazement, people all over the stands began to fall writhing and screaming to the ground. The demons could not stand the power of Christ being exalted. From behind the stands, teams of 5-6 would come to pick up one person and make a human stretcher to carry them in their pain back to the tents prepared for deliverance.

Dion knows what pastors in America for the most part do not know: that the power of Satan is real and he has his captives imprisoned in every culture. In our culture we treat addiction by offering counseling instead of dealing with the demonic forces that inspire this habit. What is spiritual we treat as emotional.

I promise you that if you need spiritual surgery from consumer religion that must be extracted from your lifestyle, this trip is more valuable by twenty times the cost of the plane ticket.

I am not making a red cent on putting this trip together. I abhor having a second source of supply. I will pay my way like everyone else. When we get there, Dion's church will provide transportation, hotels, two meals a day-free. You see, consumerism is not in their or my vocabulary!

I would urge you to consider this once-in-a-lifetime venture into a slum of the world, the Ivory Coast of Africa. They don't have tourism there - no game parks, etc. Just poverty. And the power of Christ, manifested in profound ways that will transform you and make you want to be "normal," no matter what the cost!

Click on this link to sign up.

Cell Symposium Videos Are Now Available

2009-07-24T11:51:00.005-05:00

The Cell Symposium in June brought together seven key men who all are participants in global movements. Their panel discussions are historic! Here is one sample for you to view. If you want to browse the whole collection, click on the Title of this article and go to my video download page. In a few weeks we will transpose the site http://www.cellsymposium.com/ to a new version and all these video will stream there. They are not sorted out for the collection you will see: that must be done for their permanent Symposium home.

I spoke into the situation of the third generation of the cell movement with an impassioned plea for us to stop "throwing Christ under the bus" and allowing man-made cells to operate. You can get right to it by selecting "Ralph Neighbour." Another bombshell is to view "Jim Lassiter."

If you want ipod downloads, they are in a separate folder in my collection. Don't try to play the ipod files: they do not stream. Just download them to your iTunes. A trick Apple taught me: when you have them in iTunes and the image of your iPod or iPhone is showing to the left, click and drag the file into "Movies." I think it's the only way to get them into your handheld.

I really need to get feedback from you! Post it here.

How Cell Groups Mature

2009-06-09T09:22:00.003-05:00

If a cell grows rapidly, the question it has to answer is, “How long does it take for true intimacy to happen to allow the deeper issues in our lives to surface?”

Typically, if a group is starting from scratch, the pattern will be:

FORMING: (4-6 weeks) We have “impressions” about the others in the group because they “remind” us of similar people we have known before. E.G., “He reminds me of my angry old uncle Fred. I am not sure about him,” or, “He is just like my wonderful uncle Fred who was so kind and gentle! I like him!”

The ice breakers should be structured to reveal true identities. I have recently started in forming a new cell group in my home and for the fourth time we are devoting a whole evening to hearing in depth the life history of one person at a time. I am impressed with how much faster we bond by doing this. We let the structure of the cell meeting be welcome, worship, report of one person’s life, prayer, outreach planning….

STORMING: (4 weeks typically) After about 4-6 weeks in most cases, this FORMING image wears off. The “real” personalities surface and now, I as a cell member, have to decide if I want to be transparent around this person or whether I do not trust him. Conflict inevitably will take place and the cell leader must watch for verbal and nonverbal signals that this is taking place.

The ice breakers should be structured to bring up the way each person is wired and soldered to behave in a conflict situation. I have material to use:

Ask - Answer,
Suggest - Agree
Demand - Give in
Fight - Flight

During storming, there will not be much transparent confession going on. I have dozens of examples of how cells work through this bumpy air with seat belts fastened. It is absolutely necessary to go through it. If a cell leader is fearful of dealing with conflict and tries to pour oil over the growing tension, the cell often will disintegrate as people drop out. It is more painful in some groups than in others. I recently had a man come into my cell in my home and picked a FIGHT with one of the younger men, a son of India who was very unstable as he dealt drugs to others and did not have a lot of polish. Unfortunately, there was nothing I could do because it happened too fast and we lost both of them.

EDIFYING: (Several months) Once the cell has truly bonded, I see this really as the time when I think a cell moves from being mostly “man made” to “God Made.” There is a stickyness to the members, they are hanging out between the group meetings, praying together, sharing burdens for lost people in their oikoses—and most of all, totally confessional! Layer by layer, the secret sins and bitternesses, etc., are exposed for the body to deal with. Oikodomeo and Oikonomos empowerment flows within the group and healing takes place.

THIS IS THE TIME FOR THE GROUP TO ENTER . . .

EVANGELIZING: Over the months they have been relating to oikos unbelievers and searching “type A” friends. These can now be invited to attend the cell group (see 1 Cor. 14:24-25). The presence of these observers will temper a little of the intensity of the confessional nature of the cell, but not as much as you might think! The unspoken love and communion that will take place will cause the unbeliever to fall on his knees and cry out, “God is among you, and I want to be a part of this community!”

PREPARATION FOR MULTIPLICATION: It is these new converts who come who grow the size of the cell to the bursting point. It is time to multiply! But how should this be done? It is very natural: each one of these new converts came in through one of the cell members. They were/are bonded in a special way. So, the cell does not SPLIT or DIVIDE: it BIRTHS a Daughter Cell that is naturally made up of the original cell members and the “little children” attached to them, who have by this time been in the cell for several weeks.

One dear pastor nearby my home has a cell church with LIFE groups (cells). Nearly every Sunday now he is large enough that he has a special time in the Sunday service where the entire group comes to the front. He sets apart the Daughter Cell with prayer, they hug those in the “Mother” cell with tears and begin to meet on their own the next week.

When you get into the third and fourth generation of your cells, there is not much of the original FORMING STORMING taking place but it can usually have some modifications of it in every new cell.

COMMENTS?

Dr. Leslie Brickman On Cell Church Values

2009-05-12T20:44:00.005-05:00

NOTE: Les Brickman is a companion of mine going back 20 years. He has a Ph.D. in Cell Church from Regent University and currently lives in Kenya, training pastors using his version of my Boot Camp. His comments below state my own convictions, and I welcome a discussion about his presentation.

I do not believe either that the cell church movement is a blip on the screen of church history, or that it was meant only as a transitional structure. I believe it is the only structure that allows the church to fully function as the church.

I believe the early church met both in small groups and gathered together as a larger corporate group. As Bill most ably brought out years ago, theologically we need to experience the manifest Presence of Christ in three ways – personal Christ in you, wherever 2 or 3 have been gathered into His Name (small group), and Christ in the midst of the great congregation (large group). History attests to the fact that the small group aspect was, for the most part, abandoned in favor of the large group for most of the last 1700 years. The pendulum moved off center to the large group side. Today, I think the pendulum is moving off center toward the small group side, i.e. simple church movement. I think this is unbalanced for a number of reasons.

Paul employs the figure of the body of Christ throughout the scriptures. He also remarks that the natural comes first, and then the spiritual. God has given us many things in the natural to help us understand the spiritual. The image of the body is one of these. In the natural, there is a significant difference in God's creation between a simple cell and a body, between a simple organism and a complex organism. While all complex organisms are comprised of simple cells, the whole is greater than the mere sum of the parts. A simple cell can never achieve what a body is capable of achieving. So it is in the spiritual. While it may be argued that the complex organism we call the church may grossly misuse its resources, a simple cell simply does not possess the resources needed for the Great Commission. A simple cell cannot create a reproducible discipleship system to release each member into their God ordained gift based ministries. The corporate body of Christ, on the other hand, can. Whether it chooses to do so or not is another story, but it has the potential.

I believe that we are called to live out our Christian life as part of two communities: a small group community life and a corporate community life. Even most cell churches, in my humble opinion, while stressing the vital necessity of living in small group community, have ignored the vital necessity of living in corporate community. Yes, the cell is the church, and not just a part of it. But the cell is not a body. One of the things I came to greatly appreciate about Dion and EPBOM, is that each member is called to live in community at the cell level, but each member also came to discover their place in the corporate body based upon their spiritual giftedness. Demonologists live in cell community, but also live in community with the rest of the body and demonstrate that as they minister throughout the week in the areas of deliverance and soul therapy. Those with gifts of administration exercise their gifts in various venues throughout the week. Ditto for those with gifts of helps, service, leadership, intercession, teaching, evangelism, etc. His departments only look like departments. They are the incarnational manifestation of the Holy Spirit. EPBOM is an excellent illustration of a people living both in small group community and corporate community.

The cell church in America has at best opted for a cell lifestyle, and substituted a corporate meeting on Sunday for a corporate lifestyle lived throughout the week. The price necessary to live such a corporate lifestyle in time and effort seems a bit too much for most pastors to even ask. It is as unrealistic to assume that a meeting on Sunday can possibly take the place of a weekly corporate lifestyle, than that a small group meeting on Tuesday can take the place of living out a community lifestyle during the week. What we seem to lack in the American church is a desire to live a Christian lifestyle 24/7. Simple church just makes it more simple to relegate our commitment to Christ to one meeting a week. A simple church member does not have to worry about being asked to spend additional time flexing and exercising their spiritual gifts in body ministry, there is no larger body to whom or within which to minister.

The NT uses the body analogy. I believe God gave Bill the two-winged bird analogy. We have used it here in Africa and have seen how God has employed that simple analogy to open the eyes of pastors to the true nature of the church. They experience what we can only call an "Aha" moment.

Regarding the simple church movement, I believe that it can touch people the cell church movement will not touch. But I believe it is fraught with biblical difficulties. While the basic building block of life may be the cell, God's creation is a myriad of complex cellular organisms. While the basic building block of the church may be the cell, the church that will proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light is a complex organism – it is a two winged bird.

ABOUT THE CELL SYMPOSIUM

2009-04-01T14:19:00.002-05:00

“It is the depravity of institutions and movements that given in the beginning to express life they often end in throttling that very life. Therefore they need constant review, perpetual criticism, a continuous bringing back to original purposes and spirit. The Christian church is no exception. It is the chief illustration of the above.”
• E. Stanley Jones

Our D.Min. cadre has discussed the impact we desire to see from the Symposium. In order for this to be more than “just another meeting,” we are praying for an impartation through you to the community of 300 delegates who will be present. Participants have already registered from foreign countries including Nigeria, Switzerland, Korea, etc. but most will be from the USA or Canada.

We do not desire to “parade” the seven Presenters.

We are asking them to approach the Symposium as missionaries to us:
“Why is America and other parts of the world being left out of the significant harvests you are seeing in your areas of ministry?”

Jesus spoke of the soils and how it receives the seed. Would you help us by sharing their insights:

Is the dearth of cell group churches in parts of the world a condition of the soil, or are there other factors to be considered?

Each of the Presenters have been invited because they speak to us from different soils:

Eddie Leo: how the cells rooted in the soil of Islam.
Bill Smith: how the cells and “basic Christian communities” (sometimes called ‘house churches’) rooted in the soil of Restricted Access Nations.
Robert Lay: how the cells rooted in the soil of hundreds of traditional churches in Brazil.
Dion Robert: how the cells rooted in the soil of a demon-infested society.
Harold Weitz: how the cells rooted in the soil of South Africa and elsewhere through a powerful emphasis on equipping all believers for the work of ministry with a strong focus on prayer.
Mario Vega: how the cells rooted in the soil of a nation suffering from revolutions and poverty.
Jimmy Seibert: how the cells rooted in the soil of a college community with a passion to send church planters to the nations.

THE FIRST PRESENTATIONS:

Each will share the Principles, Values, and Theology that drives their communities that will speak into the USA, but also to the world. (We do not want you to slip into “How To’s”. The afternoon Breakouts with speakers are designed to focus in that area.)
The D. Min. cadre has suggested that we follow the pattern of TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design), an invitation-only event (with a fee of thousands of dollars), where the world's leading thinkers and doers gather to find inspiration. Each of the Presenters will be given 12 minutes to summarize the insights they bring to the Symposium.

On the first morning, the Presenters will summarize the passionate centers of what they bring to the Symposium, using no more than 12 minutes each.

THE STRUCTURE OF THE SYMPOSIUM

MORNING SESSIONS: The balance of the mornings will be spent by my chairing a discussion between the Presenters related to these specific topics: PRAYING, EQUIPPING, PLANNING, EDIFYING, PASTORING, EVANGELIZING. The 300 delegates will reflect on their insights to what the presenters bring to these areas.

EVENING SESSIONS: The evening sessions will be a “free-for-all” discussion with Eddie, Robert and Harold interacting with the delegates on Tuesday night; Dion and Mario on Wednesday night; and Bill and Jimmy on Thursday night.

Initial questions will be submitted in advance in writing but we will leave the evening open for discussion.

GO TO THE WEB SITE TO REGISTER

God and Satan Both Want To Kill You!

2009-02-25T13:11:00.003-06:00

God and Satan both want the same thing. They both want to kill you, only for different reasons.

Satan wants to kill your effectiveness for the Kingdom of God. He does this by enticing each new believer to remain aloof from body life. He really doesn't care about what happens after we die; he just doesn't want us, while alive, to disturb his kingdoms in this world by being part of a cell group that reveals Christ's Presence, Power and Purpose.

God wants to kill everything in you that He cannot use for His Kingdom purposes. One thing is certain, he must kill you to the idea that you can exist in the Kingdom apart from body life. Entering the kingdom requires us to die to self, for in this new realm we "look not to our own interests, but also to the interest of others."

The Kingdom of God is all about community. Believers who never find themselves bonded (“baptized”) by the Spirit to fellow body members are not living a normal spiritual life. Becoming a part of a community that exists as the body of Christ is the launching of His reign in you.

The folly of evangelistic appeals is the emphasis on the "ladder" that takes us from "downstairs" to "Upstairs," from the life of darkness to the life of the Kingdom. We talk about passing from death to life but never explain that this new life begins after we die to the old one.

We focus on the new birth without expanding what the new eyes must see: the Kingdom! Too many have been "born again" without any explanation about what the new life, joined to fellow body parts, involves. Thus we have thousands of pews every Sunday filled with disconnected body parts! It is ghastly!

I resent the parachurch teaching about every Christian having a “Quiet Time.” The idea that I have a “personal” time with God every day is a horrible obstruction to Kingdom body life. Instead, we need to approach the Throne as a body member, meaning that we bring our community of body parts into each communion with Christ. We are sensitive to His relationship not only with us but with us along with the other members of the body we are joined to by the Holy Spirit.

Any reflections on this? Add them to my blog.

An amazing man!

2009-02-15T13:36:00.004-06:00

Dr. Victor Chudhrie studied medicine at Christian Medical College in Vellore. He married Bindu Sukhnandan and went to England for higher studies in surgery. He returned to serve in Padhar Mission Hospital in a tribal village in District Betul in Madhya Pradesh, India.

In 1993 he committed himself to bringing about a Saturation Church Planting Movement throughout India, especially in north India. Since then God has blessed this ministry and thousands of house churches have been planted.

He has graciously permitted me to release three of his writings to those who are seeking to learn how to minister to this generation. I am not going to expose his precious materials at this time to "just anybody." If you would like to receive a treasure chest of spiritual materials free of charge, you must write me and request his first three documents: Teaching Cards, The Prayer Warrior, and Greet the Ekkleseyia.

He writes, "Whether we know it or not and whether we like it or not, a fierce battle is raging for the souls of men. This decisive battle will be won with wet eyes, bended knees and broken hearts. It also means using your God given gifts and taking authority to usher in the Government of God."

My email address to request them is: ralph (at) touchusa (dot)org.

Powerful Words!

2009-02-06T14:22:00.000-06:00

L.T. Jeyachandran is executive director of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Singapore. He writes:

In a society that is increasingly fragmented and individualized, it is easy to develop a theology of the Church as a collection of perfect individuals. But a right understanding of the relationships within the Trinity would militate against such an interpretation. We do well to remember the powerfully acted parable of Jesus as he washed the disciples' feet. The feet of all the disciples were dirty, but as they would submit themselves to cleansing by one another, they would emerge as a perfect community (John 13:14). We may fundamentally have no difficulty having ourselves cleansed by Christ, but to submit to ablutions by another is virtually unthinkable. The disciples (and we as well) would have been very happy to wash the feet of Jesus, but his injunction was that they should wash one another's feet. It was a strange but effective way of communicating the importance of relating to one another by forgiving, cleansing, and accepting one another in perfect mutuality. In other words, two imperfect individuals can synergistically portray a perfect relationship--the very antidote so desperately needed to correct our individualistic privatized spirituality!

It is an issue within Scripture that cannot be overemphasized. The hallmark of the Church of Jesus Christ is a relational testimony which serves as a pointer to the reality of the Eternal Triune God. May we, under God, consciously discern every trap that the devil sets for us to rupture relationships, and trust the Holy Spirit of love to breathe his healing and remake our fractured bonds.

BOOT CAMP EQUIPPING VIDEOS ARE ON LINE!

2008-12-27T14:48:00.002-06:00

Many years ago when we formed the TOUCH FAMILY in Houston I spent many months preparing equipping modules for those interested in joining the new church plant. Later these went from powerpoints to videos. Now I have taken the time to move the entire series into a format that can be viewed on the internet as streaming video.
Take a look at the listing in the right column. View some of the ones already downloaded. If you want to use them, they can be downloaded to your own computer.

Give me feedback about your use of them, would you?

"God is certainly among you!"

2008-12-12T13:04:00.002-06:00

In 1 Corinthians 14:24-25, we see a form of proclamation that is as scarce as hen's teeth in our generation. The passage describes a small group being attended by observing unbelievers and "ungifted ones." The group itself contains 100% "gifted ones" who are all prophesying("all" means "all," all of the time). "Prophesying" is precisely what Paul expects from all believers, for he specifically states "all should prophesy" in 1 Cor. 4:1.

Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives makes reference to cognitive, psychomotor, and affective domains but ignores another domain: revelation. The form of proclamation of the gospel mentioned here is in the revelation domain. It can only take place when the indwelling Christ manifests His presence by empowering the believers in the group to prophesy, to reveal His Presence and Power.

When and where does this take place in our generation? How do we prepare new believers to understand how Christ reveals His inner presence through them? Have you ever heard a sermon, listened to a teaching, or read a book that clearly shares how we enter this level of proclamation?

I am curious to know if anyone reads my blog. I get no responses. This time, if you have read what I wrote, please leave a comment. When and where have you personally experienced this?

The Importance of Mentoring

2008-12-02T14:24:00.001-06:00

I have just come back from a series of seminars and speaking engagements that took Ruth and me to Brazil (Belo Horizonte, Maceio), Singapore, Hong Kong (CCMN)and Switzerland (Bern, Frutigen, Zurich).

I was made aware that most cells do not prepare all cell members to both mentor another person and to be mentored by a person in the cell at the same time. My emphasis in each case was to point out that the "Basic Christian Communities" term used by Eddie Leo (Abbalove, Indonesia)solves this problem. Triads within the cells meet for 15-20 minutes following the worship time in the cell, with some attempt made to connect the three levels of maturity mentioned in 1 John 2: "Little Child" being cared for by the "Young Man" being cared for by the "Father."

Harold Weitz in South Africa introduced these "Basic Christian Communities" into his cell system after discussing it with Eddie, and in Brazil they have been incorporated into the Year of Equipping training provided by TOUCH Brazil (Robert Lay).

A serious error takes place when a cell group mimics a traditional "sit and soak" mentality by not activating ministry between all the cell members, leaving the "discipling" to the cell leader. In the community of believers, everyone is a "minister" and everyone should be receiving ministry from others. The "Priesthood of all believers" should be more than a theological teaching: it should literally exist within the body of Christ. After all, every single believer contains an equal amount of righteousness--the righteousness of Christ.

If you are interested in this, investigate the web site of Little Falls in South Africa: http://www.littlefallsnetwork.com/ffmi/.

Have you registered yet for the Cell Symposium (www.cellsymposium.com)? Don't linger! The 300 chairs seating delegates are fast being filled. If you delay you may find you waited too long...

Fifty Years!

2008-10-05T16:07:00.000-05:00

A half century ago, at age 29, Ruth and I were seminary students in New Orleans planning to serve in Africa. Our plans were stopped when she came down with a little tiny ulcer. That was enough to end our processing with the Foreign Mission Board! I was stunned. I had already entered the PhD track and now had to ask, "Lord, why is this happening?" He replied, "I want you to know that two thousand miles of bathwater doesn't make you a missionary!"

I applied to the Home Mission Board, explaining I was searching for God's direction for a US assignment. I was not prepared for the response: "We need you right now, if you are willing to drop out of the seminary. Harrisburg PA is desperate for a church planter."

Two days later I was on a plane to Harrisburg. The Lord said, "This is your mission field." So it was that in a matter of a few weeks we were situated in a tiny plant in Middletown, PA, started by Frank Brown, a displaced Southern who was stationed there to coordinate trucker's movements for a corporation. The dear guy saw a need and although not trained, he began to evangelize and formed the Valley Baptist Church in the basement of his home.

According to the church log, Frank was member #3 and I was member #93. We had far less than 92 others, but Frank's passion for the lost had reaped the first harvest, mainly from the military stationed at Olmstead Air Base (now closed). From 7/1960 to 2/1963, Ruth and I pastored Valley Baptist and I planted additional churches in the area, finally constituting 7 of them in 1963 as the Keystone Baptist Association. When I left, the next pastor's membership number was 309. So we saw a great revival break out during that brief period.

It was there I read Watchman Nee's The Normal Christian life. It totally transformed my life! And that truth was the theology that spawned the harvest.

Have you read the book? It's a classic.

What is the "Plan of Salvation?"

2008-08-27T14:45:00.000-05:00

I have long realized that a "downstairs church" offers a "what's in it for me?" salvation, focusing on what God will do for ME rather than my dying to self and living in obedience to His plan for my life, directed in all things by Christ. I recently ran across this comment by T. Austin Sparks and wanted to say "Amen!" to what he wrote:

What is the Gospel? The Gospel is Christ crucified, as revealed in the heart. The Gospel is not only attesting objective facts, even the fact of Christ crucified, but what constitutes the Gospel is that, that which was true in the Lord Jesus, has been revealed by God in the heart. We are not constituted Gospel preachers because we have read somewhere that Christ was crucified, raised fromthe dead and ascended, and all those historic facts, but because God has revealed in us, not facts but a Person in relation to the facts, and the facts in relation to the Person. There has come to our hearts by revelation of the Spirit of God Jesus Christ and Him crucified, and that has constituted us preachers; that has constituted the Gospel.

There is no Gospel apart from that.

Now you see how that brings us back to our initial position. It means this, that a struggling to reach, to attain, unto something conceived as Christianity, is a failure to see Christ. Christ has not been seen, He has not been revealed. Immediately the Holy Spirit reveals the Lord Jesus in us, we have come into the place where the work is done, and what we are doing now is to live out from a perfected position, instead of striving to reach a perfected position.

WHOSE CHURCH?

2008-08-10T14:08:00.000-05:00

I wish I had a dime for every time I have heard a preacher refer to "my church." This common remark is a dead giveaway about the value system of the man who says that. A man-made church will always be "my" church.

I recall a pastor many years ago who had switched pulpits about every 4 years as he climbed the Baptist ladder to greatness. During a lunch date, he explained he had a full file cabinet of materials he had developed and the first thing he did when going to a new pulpit was to unload his fail-safe "system" to make the church prosper. Of course, to do that his first act was to destroy all vestiges of what the previous pastor had left behind. From record keeping to program structures, he had what "his" church needed.

The systematic preparation of the structures as one pastor sees things causes a lot of shock when he moves on to the next highest position in his career. With few exceptions, little will be left when the next man moves into the Pastor's Office and sets up what will make the domain "my church."

Jesus made a powerful comment in Matthew 18: "Upon this rock I will build my church." This leaves little room for the Senior Pastor to brag about ownership. Which brings up the question, "What does the church built by Christ really look like?"

To honestly seek the answer requires us to set aside hundreds of years of churchianity's many aberrations and return to the simple church composed of hands, feet, and inward parts that are controlled not by the preacher but by Christ himself.

I shall never forget the Australian pastor who faced the reality of this truth. He stood behind the pulpit and said, "I used to come to this sacred desk as a place of exaltation. Since I have experienced my death and resurrection in Christ, I come to this pulpit as a place of crucifixion."

Wow!

Awesome Head, Tragic Body

2008-08-05T08:52:00.000-05:00

I have just returned from Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary, where I met the men who are taking their D.Min. majoring in Cell Church Leadership. One of these fine brothers is a Korean whose English name is "Daniel." I discovered he was one of the translators of my Equipping Track series a few years ago while living in Korea.

As we concluded a session studying Bill Beckham's presentation on God-Made Cells, Daniel referred to Steven Hawking, the author of the second-largest selling book after the Bible, A Brief History of Time.

Hawking's Motor Neuron Disease has caused his brilliant mind to be completely disconnected from controlling his body. In spite of that, he has blessed the world with a book.

What an illustration of Christ and his contemporary "body." Instead of the Holy Spirit calling in those who are to form His new body, converts are called into organized structures that dump dismembered arms and legs and inward parts into buckets called "programs." They never experience the awesome body Christ uses to reveal His Presence and Power.

Randall has now gone into the final stages of preparing my new book for release (advertised at Amazon and on www.touchusa.org).

I am anticipating a flurry of criticism over the term "Bodies" of Christ. That disturbing term is the whole point of the book. We must realize that the "Body" of Christ is the sum total of the Basic Christian Communities (bodies) who together compose that greater Body.

Instead of a top-down understanding of this great truth, I am starting at the base (basic) and proposing that until we understand the makeup of the authentic body, we have a brilliant head (Christ) who cannot function with all the legs and arms and inward parts stuffed into wicker baskets called "programs."

This is a time in the history of Christianity where we simply MUST withdraw from the lack of community we now experience in traditional church life.

There is a heaven and earth difference between a "small group" and a Christ Body! Only in the latter will Christ be the Head and in charge of how the body members function.

I am very interested in knowing what you think about all this. If you took the time to read my blog, please take another second to respond, either with a positive or negative thought. Let's begin to work through what it will take for Christ to have a functioning body!

WE MUST MAKE CHRIST CENTRAL!

2008-07-30T09:27:00.000-05:00

The most sacred Person in the world is the One sent from the Father. He is the Son, sent on a special mission. Thus the Son is called CHRIST, a word which means "Anointed." An anointing is always related to a task to be performed. Christ came to dwell in the human body of Jesus and did so for these tasks to be fulfilled:
1. He would bring the message of a Kingdom not of this world that He would establish for the Father.
2. He would reveal in human flesh the attributes of the Godhead for all to see.
3. He would atone for the sins of all mankind.

But He had a fourth task, one that could not be completed in the body of Jesus! The reason? For the fourth task He would indwell a human form that could be present in all cultures in all centuries. That task was to continually reveal His Presence and Power as the revelation of God's love for all the people of the world. He would not "empower" others to do this; rather, His Spirit would indwell the new body and He would personally be the Power manifested in and through them.

This new body is called the ecclesia, those men and women who are called out from the world to jointly become body members for Christ. Thus, Paul wrote in Galatians 4:19,
"My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you. . ." Paul writes in Colossians 1:29, "To this end I am toiling strenuously with all the energy and power of Christ at work in me."

We have lost our way. The true church is the sacred body of Christ. He is not yet honored as the Head of the Body. We are grieving the Godhead with the concept of "church" we now experience. Not until we recognize the body parts are formed by the Holy Spirit as the agent of Christ in the earth will this change.

If you are reading this, I would like to ask you a question: "Can you live in the status quo?" If so, please explain how you can do so. I cannot. Tell me how you do it.

2008-07-19T21:29:00.000-05:00

Many years ago, I entered the doctoral track at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. I had chosen Church History as my focus, which brought me into the life of Dr. Penrose St. Amant. This professor was a brilliant communicator who taught most of the time without notes, filling the blackboards with dates and places from any century in focus.

A fellow entrant into the program named Chuck sat beside me as he sat on the edge of his desk to welcome us to our journey. He held out his arm and cupped his fingers as though he were holding an imaginary baseball. He said, "You men have come to the highest level of academics this denomination offers. You have a moral obligation as historians to remain objective about the theology and structure of Southern Baptists. You must see the specific segments of church life that are out of touch with Biblical truth and with human society in this period of time. You must speak into it with clarity and courage. That is your greatest challenge: not only to study history, but also to create change in the history of your generation."

Those comments were used by the Holy Spirit to plant something in my spirit that would change the entire direction of my life. As the years passed, I saw at "arm's length" the dry rot of a structure that focused on programs rather than people. Indeed, in the 1970's, Dr. W.O. Howse coined a phrase to describe the structures: "Program Base Design." The biblical concept of community was forgotten, replaced by how to structure baskets to dump church members into: Sunday School baskets, Training Union baskets, Choir baskets, etc. It was a subtle depersonalization of the people of God. The seminaries focused on preparing young men to organize the baskets. Ecclesia as an organism was seldom considered.

The Chinese elderly have a saying when they want to "put down" a brash young person: "I have eaten more salt than you have eaten rice!" Now that I am 79, I could make such a remark--but instead, I would like to say to young pastors and seminary men, "I did what St. Amant said. I have lived on the edge for all these years. Out of my life, God has caused many men around the world to realize P.B.D. structures are human mistakes that smother the Kingdom Communities that contain the Indwelling Christ."

Now, it's your turn! Are you prepared to objectively view the disintegration of traditional churchianity and form true Christ-directed ecclesia? Either you get sucked into the present systems or you must hold what you see at the end of your arm in your hand and ask, "Lord, if the sacred Body of Christ is to become authentic during my lifetime, what would you have me do to bring change to it?"

MINISIZING; SMALL IS BETTER.

2008-06-30T20:21:00.000-05:00

Dion Robert is coming to be with the D. Min. cohort I lead for Golden Gate Seminary next year in June. He has created the Body of Christ to be deliberately limited to 12-15 persons, no more.

The fact that there are 14,583,333 of these BASIC bodies sounds impressive: the total number of the Church and Mission in the Ivory Coast numbers 175,000 believers. But he doesn't count that as significant. He understands that the ecclesia must never number more than a limited number of body parts. It all has to do with the eternal plan of God for authentic Kingdom communities.

Accountability and responsibility requires a limited size. There's a mathematical formula to realize how many communication lines exist in a group: N x N - N = CL: Number in group times number in group, minus same number, equals communication lines. Ten persons = 90 communication lines; 12 persons = 132! That is the absolute limit for an intimately shaped community.

Think of this: the most basic community is formed when a man and woman have a child: ". . . and baby makes three . . ." Families are formed with siblings and twelve seems to be about as large as most will become.

God formed Israel into groups of ten (Exodus 18:25). That was the limit for a group at the Passover Meal. Christ formed His disciples into a community of twelve. He actually was closest to three of the twelve: Peter, James, and John.

My friend Dan Ho has suggested an acronym for the cell, an assortment of hands, feet, inward parts, etc.:
B A S I C: "Brothers And Sisters In Christ. That is a wonderful term for a cell group, the basic Christ body. It captures the concept of minisizing.

GOD FORGIVES ALL SINS, BUT STUPID IS FOREVER!
(-Milton Womack)

In today's church life, we continually strive to see MAXISIZE as the signs of success. "How large is your congregation?" is the first question we ask a pastor about his church. Stupid! What is the significance of rows and rows of people who gather for one session a week, staring at the backs of heads and the smiling face of a man on the platform? There is ZIP community, no accountability, no authentic BASIC community. Only a man-made event.

Is it stupid to watch a celebrity on the platform "healing" people as spectators in the audience, mimicking a basketball stadium where all the non-athletes admire the players on the field? I think it is! This maxisized church service is a huge problem for the gospel. The "conversions" that take place require someone to "come forward" as an individual to "be saved," but there is not the slightest thought in the entire group that this person is to be attached as a B A S I C to the body of Christ.

I realize I am defying the core values of churchianity by suggesting we should abandon our typical church formats. I do know that Wesley did not grow his ministry from the "big church service": unless you received an admission ticket in the B A S I C class meeting, you were not allowed to attend the large gatherings. At the same time in history, Whitfield gathered masses for preaching services and nothing lasting resulted from it. Wesley left a powerful community in the world.

Seumean Kuon, pastor of the TOUCH Family Church, preached a sermon in June of 2008 about the way God reduced Gideon's army from 30,000 to 10,000 to 300. Scripture shows he minisized the number before the miracles related to victory over the enemy could take place. If we are going to defeat the enemy, we are going to have to decentralize these masses of sit-and-soak Christians who come to the large meetings and equip them to become body members in cell groups.

Any comments?

THE NEW TESTAMENT EQUIPPERS

2008-06-14T22:57:00.000-05:00

The New Testament church never experienced "Hired Holy Men" who called themselves "Senior Pastors." Nor did they celebrate distinguished celebrities who lorded over the people of God, taking titles.

In this illustration, we see the centrality of Christ as the source of a group of equipping servants. These terms are not titles (nouns). They are verbs. The five fold servants are not superiors, but rather servants who mentor Body Members.

Ephesians makes it very clear: these equippers are not given by the Holy Spirit: "...and CHRIST gave..." Their tasks all relate to mentoring believers in Christ's body who are latent with spiritual capacities that must be developed. Christ the Source--the Holy Spirit the "One called alongside to help"--to install the power of Christ's gifts in the body members who use them for edification.

One of the most amazing events in recent years was when we began to examine the members in our TOUCH FAMILY cell groups. We discerned latent tendencies related to these five areas of ministry. They were then connected to the proper Five Fold equippers to be coached.

If the ecclesia is alert to how spiritual gifts are evolving, the five fold servants can then begin to draw together these different groups and mentor them. This is a very important truth that has been hidden by our mistaken definitions of the five fold as "above" the Body members rather than "beneath" them to equip them for their future ministry areas.

It is wrong to think that every cell member can become a cell leader. That is not true. It would be like saying that every body member should be an arm or a leg. We see there are five distinct areas of ministry in the Kingdom. We find our servant activity as they are developed.

Leave a comment or a question...

THE CURSE OF SEVERED LIMBS

2008-06-14T22:21:00.000-05:00

Recently we had a lady visit us who shared her personal converson in great detail. She has a successful business and "supports" one of the TV preachers with her wealth.

It did not take long to learn she is a typical "cruisematic"--that is, cruising between churches but uncommitted to any of them. Her explanations of the various church groups she has attended revealed her total ignorance that she is a limb in the Body of Christ. She had no knowledge of the powerful experiences that occur living in a true ecclesia..

The Christian community suffers violence because of the heretical teaching that salvation is a "personal" experience that allows a new believer to remain endlessly detached from authentic community life. This precious woman loves her Lord! Her tramping around is because she is a victim. She has never been taught that there are no "lone rangers" in the Kingdom. She was, of couse, carefully taught she could experience the personal baptism of the Holy Spirit, but never exposed to the great truth that life in Christ is life attached to hands, feet, arms and inward parts that compose Christ's present body.

How do you feel about this? Post a response, please!