Editor’s Note: When approaching the concept of simple/organic church, many people ask, “What do your meetings look like?”  If you look outside, you’ll notice that not every plant responds to wind the same way.  Not all flowers look alike.  Similarly, when you approach something that is organic, the expression will not always look the same.

The following article is written by a blogging friend of mine, David D. Flowers.  It is a description of one way that a simple/organic gathering can look like.

Source: The Centrality and Supremacy of Christ by David D. Flowers

This morning we met in our home to worship Christ and fellowship with the saints.

Just so that you have an idea of all that is going on with us through the week, it is good to tell you that we stay connected between our meetings by phone and e-mail. So, its not as if each is removed from our hearts and minds until we see each other face-to-face. Lately, we have been planning the upcoming conference at a nearby college. We are very excited to see how the Lord is bringing this event together. It will help folks in our area learn to know Christ in spirit and experience his life in the church in an organic New Testament fashion.

THE FOOD: Before everyone arrived, my wife prepared Taco salad for lunch after our time of worship. (We have eaten before the meeting, but we get tired.) I e-mailed the saints yesterday to let them know what we were having. Everyone knows that the host home will take care of the main course while others are “free” to bring whatever they would like with it. This works for now. In time, as numbers grow, we may move to everyone bringing a dish. This removes the burden from one person… unless that person enjoys it. Whatever works. We have seen it done other ways.

I say don’t think about it too hard… it’s food… we are going to eat. The main thing is that we share it together and not place a burden on anyone. The meal is very important in the gathering. It is a fundamental element of intimacy and it adds to the natural community we’ve been called to share in Jesus. Without going into a theological treatise on the meal itself… I’ll just leave it at that. It’s what families do!

ARRIVING: The first to arrive were our visitors, James and Linda. I connected with James here at Facebook earlier in the week. They have been on quite a journey themselves. They live right here in our city. As visitors, I told them they didn’t need to bring anything. Nevertheless, Linda brought some delicious beans and jalapeno cornbread! We spoke for about 5 minutes and then the others began arriving.

We all greeted each other with a kiss. Just kidding! (Not that there is anything wrong with it.) We naturally began catching up from the week and swapping stories with James and Linda. I was floored when I noticed that Joel and family knew James and Linda from an early chapter in their journey with the Lord. I’m sure this helped James and Linda to feel a bit more comfortable… even if they were acquainted with meeting an entire group of people for the first time.

THE WORSHIP: We all eventually made our way into the living room (adults and children) and continued our conversations. I passed out our song books (which are a work in progress) while everyone continued talking. What is interesting about organic church life… there is not really a clear time of beginning an end with all that we are doing. What I mean is… nobody says, “OK, sit down, stand up, great your neighbor, OK… let’s sing.” This is foreign to us. That would be unnatural. It’s not what families do.

I will tell you that there is a unified sense that it is time to shift our focus. And everyone goes with it and doesn’t think about the “doing,” just about coming into the presence of Christ with all the saints. The Lord will determine the order and lay on our hearts what he wants to speak to us. The best thing a person can do is to reject the unnatural thought “What now?” and “What should I say?” or “Ooh… awkward silence.” This is concerning yourself with the “doing” and the flow of the meeting. It is not looking to Jesus and allowing him to stand in the middle of your gathering.

This picture has helped me to do away with those old thoughts of organized religion. Jesus is there with you… standing there in the center or reclining on the couch. I don’t care if folks call this “mystical,” it is reality. The more you come to truly know this… the faster you will lose that unnatural nature of religion that hinders the Body from functioning freely and responding to Christ in the meeting.

So we began singing. A person (anyone) will either call out a song and begin singing a few seconds afterward or wait for others to begin together. We are real careful not to rely upon the guitar or any instrument. I am especially sensitive to this because I led worship for many years. When I begin songs now… I don’t see myself any different than anyone else who calls out a song. I am learning to follow their singing instead of them following the guitar. This way a brother or sister can begin singing and I come on in with my instrument.

This morning we sang our last song with just our voices. It is very moving to hear the voices around you. These are people you love, you know, and are sharing Jesus with. It doesn’t get any better than that!

In between the singing, Grant read Scripture that communicated the truth of the song we just sang together. The cool thing was… I know I had that same thing on my heart… others may have as well. The reading of Scripture was of course not planned. It came naturally. We continued singing and there was also prayer. Michael arrived late in the middle of a song. No worries… still in a spirit of worship we welcomed him and he shared a few words. He immediately went to grab some coffee and praised the Lord for it.

At some point the singing began to let up and everyone then shared what was on their heart. One shared something from their week… another a lesson Christ is teaching them. There always seems to be a theme. As a young group, we are still getting to know one another and apprehending Jesus in new ways. This morning, we revisited this truth that Christ is experienced and known through relationships. When doctrine and “being right” is at the center of your faith… you have little to no room for loving folks to Christ. We tend to think that loving folks is slapping them upside the head with doctrine. We seldom trust the Teacher to conform others to himself.

We are still learning that Christ’s love is no strategy to defeat evil and reveal the truth… it is an overflow of his Person. And that love ought to be the overflow of our lives as well. Michael shared, “this is how the world will know we are his disciples” (Jn. 13:35).

Around this time, I shared an excerpt from the first-second century Roman politician and historian, Pliny. He was given the assignment to hunt down Christians and investigate the superstitions that surrounded them. The rumor was that believers had a “love feast” and ate flesh and drank blood (Lord’s Supper). Here is what he had to say about them:

“they met regularly before dawn on a fixed day to chant verses alternately among themselves in honor of Christ as if to a god, and also to bind themselves by oath, not for any criminal purpose, but to abstain from theft, robbery, and adultery… after this it had been their custom to disperse and reassemble later to take food of an ordinary harmless kind.”

James spoke of the tension that ought to exist in a person’s life. The tension that says we are free in Christ, but we have also been given instructions. Too often folks live in one ditch or the other… not finding the balance that is IN CHRIST… the only one who can keep our feet to the road. It is no wonder the Lord has given us these dialectical pairs and this tension in the journey… it continues bringing us back to Christ. Remain in him and he will remain in you. Apart from Christ… we can do nothing. At best, we follow the extreme of cultural crusader or that of the “carnal” and undisciplined child.

We sensed the meeting coming to a close when several of the saints voiced intimate prayers of protection, wisdom, and blessing on the work that Christ is doing among us and in our city. Shortly after, we made our way into the kitchen to eat a very satisfying meal. We enjoyed fellowship with one another, laughed, and cherished our time together.

We will be meeting at Joel’s house on Wednesday night.

Your Brother,
David D. Flowers
http://ddflowers.wordpress.com

Source: LK10.com, article by John White

Years of sitting in traditional church has not prepared us to do church in the manner described in the New Testament.

We have been taught to come. To sit. To watch and listen to what others have prepared. Someone described it as “sit, soak and sour.”

This is Spectator Church. And it is no way to train believers to be priests!

By contrast, the churches described in the Bible engaged in Participatory Church. This kind of church requires preparation on the part of all of it’s members. This is new. We haven’t been taught how to do this.

Therefore, some retraining is in order. One of the best passages to help us do this is Heb. 10:24-25. As you consider the instruction in v. 24, note that it is given in the context of the church “meeting together” in v. 25.

“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another– and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”(NIV)

Here are a few notes to help understand the passage:

1. “Let us…” Note what this doesn’t say. It doesn’t say “Let the pastor consider…” or “Let the house church leader consider…” The key word is “us.” Every member of the church. The priesthood of all believers. The mark of a mature church is that every member understands and fulfills their role in “preparing for church”. No spectators in New Testament church!
2. “Let us consider…”: from katanoeo. noeo = to think + kata = an intensifier. To think deeply about, consider, contemplate, observe. Jesus uses the same word when he says, “Consider the ravens…consider the lilies.” (Lk. 12:24-27) This is work that we must do ahead of time. This is where listening prayer comes in. We consider God’s prevenience. What is He initiating in the lives of the other people in my spiritual family?
3. NIV says “Let us consider how …”. The Greek really says “Let us consider one another…” We are to be observing and thinking deeply about the others in our simple church in order to be able to effectively “stir them up to love and good works”. (Hard to do this if we only see them once a week.) Each one is unique. What works for one may not work for another. I must “think deeply” about each one. (Difficult to do this in a church of 100 or 1000.) How is God already at work in their lives? How am I to join Him in what He is doing?
4. “Let us consider one another to spur (them) on.” “Spur on” comes from a root word that means “to make sharp” as with a sword. (Prov. 27:17 “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.”) It means “to stir up, incite, provoke, motivate”. (Note: What motivates one will not motivate another. Every parent and every coach know this.) This is the focus and goal of the New Testament church meeting – every member involved in lovingly and effectively motivating the others. Teaching the Word, singing, prophesying, etc. are not the goal of our meeting together, they are the means to the goal. (This helps us understand 1 Cor. 14:26 – “Let everything be done for the strengthening (edification) of the church.”)
5. “Let us consider one another to spur (them) on to love and good deeds.” How do we know if our meeting has accomplished what God wanted? We know if people leave being motivated and spurred on to love (God and others) and to express that love in good works throughout the week. (Note: This is not a guilt motivation resulting from “should’s and ought’s”. Rather, it is a heart motivation that comes from a genuine desire that God stirs up on the inside. We can’t make this happen. We can only see what God is doing and join Him in that.)

Church prepares us for the rest of the week (24/7). And the rest of the week (24/7) is where we (all of us!) prepare for church.