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| Rising Trend – Home Church: Skip the sermon, worship at home |
Rating: 0.00 (0 votes) 
AP Writer, Linda Stewart Ball recently reported on a rising phenomena – leaderless unstructured, do as you please home churches. The NCFIC has consistently spoken against these kinds of churches – click here to listen to this audio message, “What about Home Churching.” While scripture makes it clear that the location of the meeting may be in a home, it is the structure and practice that defines a true church.
She writes of this increasingly common situation,
“To get to church on a recent Sunday morning, the Yeldell family walked no farther than their own living room to greet fellow worshipers.
“The members of this "house church" are part of what experts say is a fundamental shift in the way U.S. Christians think about church. Skip the sermons, costly church buildings and large, faceless crowds, they say. House church is about relationships forged in small faith communities.
In general, house churches consist of 12 to 15 people who share what's going on in their lives, often turning to Scriptures for guidance. They rely on the Holy Spirit or spontaneity to lead the direction of their weekly gatherings.”
The author quotes church leader Ed Stetzer who speaks of why this might be happening. He says, "I think part of the appeal for some in the house church movement is the desire to return to a simpler expression of church," said Ed Stetzer, a seminary professor and president of Lifeway Research, which is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. "For many, church has become too much (like a) business while they just want to live like the Bible."
Perhaps this is true for some, but my view is that in many cases, the real reason is that they have one - or more - of several critical problems. First, it may be that they possess a very unbiblical understanding of the local church as Scripture defines it. In this case their real problem is ignorance. The biblical ignorance in the American church is legendary. It is filled with people who have never sought out important matters that are explicitly described in Scripture. Second, it may simply be rebellion - a rejection of the jurisdiction and authority of the local church which God has established. Or, perhaps they are really unbelievers who really care nothing for the pattern God has instituted in the Bible because they ultimately care nothing of God Himself, but instead seek what makes them feel? happy and at ease.
Whether it is ignorance or rebellion, our counsel is that people involved in these kinds of gatherings should flee to the institutional churches which maintain biblical practices, appoint biblically qualified leaders and who practice biblical discipline. |
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| Safety throughout 36,000 miles of travel |
Rating: 0.00 (0 votes)
The Road Trip for Reforming Church and Family took us over 12,000 miles – half the distance of the circumference of the earth. My uncle who has always owned motorhomes says that they break down every 300 miles… We had 3 motorhomes. Do the math. Even though we had no “major” problems, we replaced lots of parts at almost every stop to keep us running down the road. But, we were grateful that the Lord always had a mechanic nearby or a church or an individual who fixed them for us. In this sense, the Road Trip was the NCFIC’s stimulus package for the small mechanics of America. We had something to fix at every stop along the way.
We were astonished to look back and see that we had no accidents, no dents, no flat tires, no major repairs (like blown motors and transmissions), and were never stuck in a bad place on the road. We made it to all of our appointments.
I marvel at the safety God has afforded us. These lumbering, swaying old motorhomes are much safer than the Mayflower and the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. But, they still scared me when we were passed by eighteen wheelers with what seemed to be only inches of margin. We have traveled all these miles without any mishaps and I am praising God for this.? Safety was my only real concern about?the trip.?
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| Review: Get Low |
Rating: 0.00 (0 votes)
Robert Duvall is terrific in this Flannery O'Connor-esque Southern folk tale, playing an eccentric hermit who wants to hold his own funeral—'before' he dies.
      
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| Yes Comrade Commander |
Rating: 0.00 (0 votes)
 We weren't sure we could get our bikes through the gates. But the man in the uniform was certain we could. He apologised for not speaking perfect English and then spoke perfect English, standing upright in his army outfit and cap. He wasn't impressed with the boys' postures. "Hands out of pockets, stand up straight. And you address me as Comrade Commander. You want to see a beautiful place? Come, I will show you a beautiful place."? He marched around a large red bricked building into a courtyard, where he pointed at map of Latvia before it gained its independence from the Soviet Union. ?The whole area of Karosta, a few kilometres outside of Leipaja, had once been a naval base for the Soviet army, and we were standing outside the military prison; or as our comrade commander put it, 'an education and punishment centre for bad soldiers.' He led us into the dark building. Karosta 'prison' was used by Latvian, German and Russian military at different times, depending on who was occupying Latvia . But the punishment regime was pretty similar. While it wasn't a picnic, I'd seen worse cells in TV documentaries. ?Some of the small rooms even had a window, they weren't damp or rat infested, and only ever held four or five people at a time. But the regime did sound brutal . The prison was for deserters or those who needed punishing within the army; they stayed only a maximum of five days at the centre, before they were sent back to their troop in the front line or shot dead in the woods. And their stay there involved 17 hours a day work, training and re-education, with only six hours sleep on hard wooden slats. Training involved running for hours at a time in a gas mask and the work was hard labour. Matthew didn't think he'd like it. He put on a gas mask for 30 seconds and Comrade Commander removed it so roughly his ears smarted. "Stand up straight. Hands out of pockets. Now I show you another beautiful place. You must run, not walk here, always run. Here each day has 25 hours because you are flying. Do you know what I mean?" The boys looked confused. "You will move so fast. NOW MOVE." shouted the Comrade Commander, striding off down the corridor towards a pitch black punishment cell, to show the boys the implications of slouching. Karosta prison is an unlikely tourist attraction but it is apparently very popular amongst Latvians. Our Comrade Commander put on a gentle show for the children, but the special 'reality shows' sounded far more hellish; treating those who sign up like prisoners. You can even pay to stay overnight which involves being stripped and hosed down, having a medical and being locked in a cell with regular checks from officers in uniform like the Colonel Commander. There is also a two hour version for the less hardy. We were shown a new 'beautiful place' -the solitary confinement cells for naughty soliders and I shuddered at the thought of being locked in for a single minute, let alone an hour. The stag party waiting in the courtyard for their reality show weren't quite as fearful; they had even brought their own beer. "This is the dream room" said the commander, opening a solid wooden door. "Why dream room? Because you spend all day or night dreaming of it. If you were soldier you would have half an hour here." He showed us into a cramped room, with sink and primitive latrine. Matthew shrugged. Even at the age of ten, whiling away half an hour in the bathroom is no problem. ?"Two hours for the WHOLE PRISON", the Comrade Commander shouted. "Which means two minutes for every eight people. And you are only allowed to visit the toilet twice in twenty four hours. Stand up straight. Take your hands out of your pockets or you will get extra two days in punishment cell." The prison was starting to lose its glamour for our boys. As we left, via a courtyard bound with barbed wire, the stag party was being rounded up and taken into a military looking tent. Rather them than me. The offer of accommodation was less enticing than a night spent in the scrub. The former hospital turned prison was a detention centre up until 1997. While it is now preserved as a museum and example of Latvian heritage, the surrounding area, filled with abandoned concrete apartment blocks and unkempt grasslands is a grim and ever present reminder of the Soviet occupation of Latvia. It seems independence and EU funding couldn't stretch to a makeover of this sprawling former army base. As kids kicked about the cracked pavements on bikes, we turned the corner from the prison, resolving to get out of there and find a coffee somewhere. And then our breath was taken away by the bulbous golden spires of a cathedral. ?Astonishing, and completely unexpected; the four ornate guilded domes provided a stark contrast to the concrete greyness of life around it.? But even from the doorway we could see the regime at St Nicholas Maritime Cathedral was as strict as the prison. Built by the army in the architectural style of a Russian Orthodox Church, this building was only restored to its former glory in the 90's, after being stripped of its interior in WW1 and spending years decaying as a cinema and social club. But it was decaying no more. Everyone was polishing or tidying something, and a hoover was roaring in the background. We read the rules, which were endless. No shorts, no cameras, no phones. Heads must be covered. It didn't say anything about slouching or hands in pockets. A round faced but stern grey haired woman in a headscarf came to meet us and swiftly dressed me in a skirt and put Stuart into some interesting pantaloons. She then gave me and Hannah a headscarf and pushed us in. Inside, someone turned off the hoover and the candelit space seemed to grow before our eyes. Religious paintings covered every available space on every available wall. A man in a long beard tended to the altar. Long tapered candles filled the air with muted light and scent. The woman with the headscarf followed us around. It appeared she was our self appointed Russian Orthodox Comrade Commander. Hannah fidgeted and the Comrade Commander glared. Hannah and Matthew gently teased each other and she came to remonstrate. ?Eventually she chased us out of the church, into a rain storm that made Karosta look even gloomier than before, but even the rain couldn't dim the magnificence of those golden cupulas. Karosta had delivered. We had seen two 'beautiful places,' and were now ready for our lunch. ?No reality shows needed.?????  Complete article |
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| Remarkable Forces Operating in Church and Family Life |
Rating: 0.00 (0 votes)
We have been asked many times to sum up what we saw and learned on the NCFIC Road Trip. Here are twelve unusual realities we faced that reflect some of the forces at work around the nation.
I. Massive changes are taking place in many lives
There are seismic lifestyle shifts that are taking place in people’s lives all around the nation. They are megashift level transformations. People are changing the most significant areas of their lives – education, family life and church life. When you change the way you educate the younger generation, rejecting the government school method, everything about your life changes. If a father begins to conduct family worship, his whole schedule and value system for time allocation changes. When a family begins to be part of a church more than just on Sunday, but begins to show hospitality and mercy in the community, the whole priority system of the family schedule changes. We saw these massive lifestyle changes everywhere we went.
These changes are so profoundly transforming that those who are experiencing them are living lifestyles totally unrecognizable in the mainstream population.
These changes are so jarring, and so socially unusual to those who exhibit them, that they are almost always met with disdain and slander, even though they are explicitly Christian patterns.
One clear sign of a revival is that people’s lives change. A mark of true conversion is that people repent of pagan ways and turn to the living God by changing the way they live.?
II.? “Power families”
 Everywhere we went we saw a particular kind of family in action. I am calling them “power families.” These families dedicated significant resources to serving the church in their communities. They cared about their communities, friends, pastors, and former pastors. They invited their whole community to come and then worked like beavers to make it a pleasant experience.
They advertised, organized, set up, and cleaned up. They fed hordes of people delicious food. We saw whole families working together to furnish these meetings. Instead of outsourcing these things to catering companies and other professionals, they did it themselves with every family member shouldering responsibility.
When we arrived we saw these hospitality machines cranking up. It was inspiring to see what an influence a family can have on a whole community. They organized events where people drove as far as eight hours to participate.
It was faithful, diligent families in local churches that made our regional meetings work.
These families are like beacons of light in their regions. They worked hard. They had a vision for reaching the people in their communities.
III.? Progressive sanctification
It became clear to us that many of the churches that affiliate with us are getting stronger. This was one of the great joys of the trip. We saw that churches are adopting the principle of the sufficiency of Scripture and applying it to their church and family lives.? As a result, they are working to progressively establish churches on the Word of God alone. They are adopting historic confessions of faith, engaging in expository preaching, implementing biblical church discipline and are growing in their understanding of how to apply the regulative principle of worship in their churches.
Some churches in these regions used to be what we have called “unbiblical, leaderless house churches.” Others were practicing what some call, “home churching” where a family or a loose collection of people meet yet without the marks of a biblical church. For many years, we have attempted to speak to these unbiblical expressions in Christian culture.
What encouraged us was that some of the churches we were at were in this condition even three years ago. But since they have adopted the principle of the sufficiency of Scripture, they have become biblical churches by patterning themselves to biblical practices.
IV. Leaders Heeding Biblical instruction regarding ecclesiology
We met many men along the way who are involved in our online webinar elder discipleship program. It was a joy to meet these men face to face. But our joy was supercharged by the fact that these men are attempting to put the things we are teaching into practice.
Our elder discipleship program attempts to cast a vision for biblical church life by reading books and discussing critical issues of church and family life.
V.? Relationships bound together across America
We saw how God has knit a people together across the whole nation around biblical principles of church and family life. We saw how people were being connected via our web site and yearly conferences. While one of the motorhomes had to stay behind for repairs, our young men were able to stay with two families listed on the NCFIC web site – one in Wyoming and the other in Arkansas. One of those young men, Ryan Glick says, “one of the best parts of the Road trip was getting left behind… there was always a family within fifteen minutes or less. Most of them had never been to an NCFIC conference and had only seen our info online.” They ministered to Ryan by showing him hospitality giving him a place to stay, and feeding him until the vehicle was repaired. These families, though they had never met any of us personally, were kind enough to shower us with blessings.
VI. Hunger for answers
Extended times of personal interaction were the norm. We had many hours of Q&A time that revealed the longings, trials, and challenges that people are facing in matters of church and family life. Unfortunately, we never had enough time as the nights did not contain enough minutes for all of the questions people had.
Everywhere we went, the people were extremely attentive and interested in the message. I was surprised over and over again at the passion which was expressed.
There was significant diversity among the attendees. Some were thoroughly familiar with our message. Others were just realizing these things. Some had concerns and others were upset by the message and were not afraid to say so.
My prayer for these times was that Proverbs 15:28 would be fulfilled, “The heart of the righteous studies how to answer,” and that the experience would reflect Proverbs 15:23, “A man has joy by the answer of his mouth, and a word spoken in due season, how good it is.”
VII. ?Bonds of love with young men across America
We were privileged with wonderful reunions with our former NCFIC interns from around the nation. This was such a happiness for us. We saw all except one of our former interns on the Road Trip. Our hearts burned within us that we could be together again. Our love for these young men was born out of service together in Wake Forest and at Hope Baptist Church. The memories flooded our minds and we were so thankful to be with these faithful and dear young men.
VIII.? Eye opening personal testimonies with a common thread
We conducted many interviews with people in the cities we visited. These were stories of individual, family and church reformation. We interviewed pastors, youth pastors and individuals. The most consistent story we heard in the interviews went like this. A father is saying, “5 years ago we started reading the Word of God to my family and now our family is completely changed.” The testimonies bore witness to the power of the Word of God to change lives.
IX. The exegetical arguments against age segregation are gaining traction nationally
We spoke to many pastors and youth pastors who have come to the conclusion that age segregated youth ministry is unbiblical and should be abandoned. The discussion on this issue has been broadened significantly in the past three years. Two things have happened. There has been broad recognition that youth ministry is severely broken. Nearly everyone agrees with this proposition. This was not the case several years ago. Second, the exegetical arguments against age-segregation are being recognized. Now, for the first time in my lifetime, there are many within mainstream evangelicalism who are recognizing the difficulty of skirting the exegetical argument.? The argument is this: there is not a shred of evidence for age-segregated ministry anywhere in the Bible. We were thankful to announce and show the trailer of our upcoming youth ministry film – Segregation! – A Critical Analysis of the Modern Youth Ministry Movement during the road trip. We hope to release the film this fall.
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| Review: Get Low |
Rating: 0.00 (0 votes)
Robert Duvall is terrific in this Flannery O'Connor-esque Southern folk tale, playing an eccentric hermit who wants to hold his own funeral—'before' he dies.
      
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| The Seven Signs of True Revival |
Rating: 0.00 (0 votes)
Iain Murray in his very helpful book, "Revival and Revivalism" shows what genuine awakenings look like. We read this book for our "elder discipleship" webinar program during the month of July.? He offers these seven signs.
1. The revival has made its appearance in various places, without any extraordinary means to produce it.
2. As far as I can see, there appears to be in the subjects of this work a deep, heart humbling sense of the great unreasonableness, abominable nature, pernicious effects and deadly consequences of sin…
3. They appear to have a lively and very affecting view of the infinite condescension and love of God the father…
4. They seem to me to have a very deep and affecting sense of the worth of immortal souls, ardent love for them, and an agonizing concern for their conviction, conversion, and complete salvation….This love, this compassion, this ardent desire for the salvation of sinful men and for Zion’s prosperity, far exceed any thing I have ever seen.
5. A considerable number of individuals appear to me to be greatly reformed in their morals.
6. A number of families, who lived apparently without the fear of God, in folly and in vice, without any religious instruction or any proper government, are now reduced to order, and are daily joining in worship of God, reading his word, singing his praises, and offering up supplications to a throne of grace…
7. The subjects of this work appear to be very sensible of the necessity of Sanctification as well as Justification, and that ‘without holiness no man can see the Lord.’
Iain Murray, Revival and Revivalism: The making and Marring of American Evangelicalism 1750-1858, (Banner of Truth Trust, reprinted 2004), p. 157-158 |
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| Building the Erie Canal |
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Even before the Revolution, people in New York had thought of creating a canal that would reach the Great Lakes. The project became a colossal undertaking a century ahead of its time. |
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Snapshots the Cartoon BookMore Humor from Jason Love
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