Tigger & the Twins

My nephew Noah's favorite stuffed animal is Tigger. You will often see Noah talking to Tigger. Sorry none of these pics capture that. The minute a camera comes out, babies tend to have the uncanny ability to avoid recreating what they just did. Maybe Noah just loves Tigger's bright color or the way his slim body is easier to grasp and his nose prominent enough to eat--who knows. It is cute to watch him with Tigger. Matthew loves to maul Tigger to death as is evident from these pictures.

8th Anniversary Dinner

Dwight and I went to Dante's Down the Hatch for our 8th wedding anniversary. It was such a great experience. First of all, we love fondue. I also love ships, especially the idea of a ship inside a restaurant. We were privileged enough to receive our very own private booth with curtains for privacy. Apparently, it is really hard to get this booth called the pub. It is one of the few accessible seats so it worked out in our favor. The cheese and the atmosphere was wonderful. I probably wouldn't get the main course again. We had a wonderful time and can't wait to go back. Enjoy the slideshow below. You will need to click on the picture to go to the slideshow. Click on the arrows to go from picture to picture. You can go to http://www.dantesdownthehatch.com/ to view the restaurant website.

From Dante's Down the Hatch

Clarification on "Going to Church?"

I would like to clarify a few things after reading some feedback regarding my recent posts. It has been my intention to share what I have been learning about “church,” but it will take quite a few entries to fully explain the complex issue. As a result, there are things that I have yet to share that will help to clarify what I have already described. I want to skip ahead to clarify one thing, because I don’t want my readers to get the wrong idea.

While I stated that Dwight & I no longer attend church, that is true only in the sense that we do not attend a “traditional church.” This does not mean that we “forsake the assembling of ourselves together” (Heb. 10:25). In fact, I’d have to say that over the past 3 months we have been “assembling” more often than usual. We have been meeting with other believers who desire to meet in a fashion that more closely resembles the participatory meetings of the 1st century church. Some call this a “house church” or “organic church.” I don’t really like “house church” because it emphasizes place and we don’t have to meet in a home. In fact, at least twice, we have met in a park. I like the term “organic” because it suggests “living” and focuses on the idea that people are the church and meetings are flexible rather than program based. I will describe what these meetings are like in a future entry (although that will be difficult because the meetings are less about what we do during the meeting than they are about how our relationships with one another are helping us all grow in Christ).

We started out meeting with a group that meets about 35-40 minutes away. Because of the drive and the difficulty of getting together with them during the week, we have been trying 2 other groups that are a little closer. Now we are praying about where God would have us because although both are very different in the manner in which they meet, we like aspects of both. It is a matter of where God will lead us, but in the meantime we have been meeting with both for the past 2 weeks. Dwight loves this because he loves to meet new people and meeting with 2 groups is fine with him. I know that before long I will burn out and gas will make it impractical.

Organic churches are different than the typical church because we are not associated with any denomination (including churches that calls themselves “non-denominational”). We are not “institutionalized” or “organized.” There is no distinct clergy, building, or liturgy. These churches usually don’t have names and you don’t “join” it in the sense of becoming a formal “member” by way of letter from another church or baptism into it. All people who attend are allowed to participate in the meeting as equally functioning members of the body of Christ. This means that anyone can lead a song, bring a teaching, pray, share a word of encouragement or exhortation, read a scripture, etc. These functions are not limited to a few elite clergy members because we believe in the priesthood of all believers in practice (rather than just in theory). The Holy Spirit was sent to us by Jesus to be our teacher and if you are a Christian you have direct access to Him. You need not go through a “professional” or hear a teaching only from someone who is seminary trained.

So, we don’t “go” to a church building, but we do meet with fellow believers on a weekly basis for a time of fellowship, teaching, sharing, praying, etc. I know it sounds like I’m splitting hairs here, but these meetings are nothing like what we were used to so there is a big difference. These are also like no other Bible study that I’ve been in because most of them are teaching-centered and led or facilitated by one person. These meetings aren’t led by any one person and they combine various elements like communion, praying, singing, teaching, fellowship, etc.

Living Stones: The Real Dwelling Place of God

The early Christians met in each other’s homes. I had grown up thinking that the reason the early church met in homes rather than church buildings was because they were being persecuted so they had to meet in secret in much the same way that people in communist China meet today. Let me demonstrate why that makes no sense. I was recently reading through Acts (I found this, Pagan Christianity doesn’t mention it) when I came upon Acts 8:3. After the stoning of Stephen, the church in Jerusalem came under heavy persecution. The verses say: “But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off men and women and put them in prison.” You will note that the “church” here is not a building but rather people. You will also note that people were not safe in their homes. That is exactly where Paul was going to arrest them. If it were true that people didn’t meet in a certain place to avoid persecution then according to this verse their homes would be the last place they would meet because that was exactly the place where they were being arrested. And yet, we see that 1st century believers did not stop meeting in homes.

The truth is, the early believers had no intention of ever building a “sacred” place to meet. Jews had temples, sacrifices, and priests. When Jesus came it was to end the need for all three. He is the perfect Lamb who was sacrificed so that is why we no longer sacrifice animals. He is our High priest and only mediator between God and man. We no longer need a priest to pray on our behalf. He is the temple (John 2:19-21 says: “Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.’ The Jews replied, ‘It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?’ But the temple he had spoken of was his body.”) We do not need a temple, church, cathedral (whatever you want to call it). 2 Corinthians 6:16 says: “What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, ‘I will dwell in them and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.’”

Another great passage is Ephesians 2:19-22. Christ is described as the corner stone. His followers are described as a “whole building, being fitted together” and “growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.” It is obvious from this passage that God’s intention was for the church to be made of living stones (people) being built into a holy temple (in a spiritual rather than physical sense) where the Spirit dwells. The temple of the Jews was a physical model (a baby step) to symbolize the spiritual temple God planned all along to create out of people rather than stones. Would we purposely go back to the play dollhouse version when we now have the real thing? It is preposterous. It’s like we took a step forward (in the first century) only to take 2 steps back (with the advent of Constantine). We are in greater bondage to our church buildings now than the Jews ever were to their temple. Is our church any different than their temple? If you act or dress differently in church than you do every day, you are guilty of the same hypocrisy. Do you see the church as a sacred or holy place? Does not scripture say that your body is the temple of the Spirit? You are His holy place. He does not dwell in buildings made by men. When He died on the cross, the curtain of the Holy of holies was ripped by God Himself. He did this to make the point that He no longer dwells there. Would you make His death a joke by continuing to worship in a supposedly “sacred” place that exists only in your delusions? (Sorry, Frank Viola does not speak this way in his book—I’m just becoming exasperated at the pigheaded stubbornness of the imaginary audience in my head).

You are probably familiar with the story of Jesus talking with the Samaritan woman at the well. She baited him by trying to start an argument about where to worship. In that day, the Jews worshiped at the temple in Jerusalem while the Samaritans worshiped on the mountain near Jacob’s well. Jesus chose not to take a side. Instead he said, “an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. . . But an hour is coming and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:21, 23-24)

Don’t you see from this passage that it is God’s ideal that we worship Him in spirit and reality rather than in a place (which was symbolic rather than real)? We now have the freedom to worship Him anywhere at anytime because His Spirit dwells in us. Why do we shackle His Spirit to Sunday morning inside a building? No wonder we can’t see or hear Him. We have pinned Him to a time and place like a butterfly in a velvet case. Please let the Spirit out of the box so He can fly.

History of the Church Building

You might be surprised to learn that the first church building was not built until after Constantine made Christianity the national religion for the Greco-Roman world after AD 300.

How did the early church members still meet in homes when their numbers grew? They remodeled their homes. The house of Dura-Europos in Syria (AD 232) was the first identifiable Christian meeting place that shows evidence of such remodeling. It was a private home with a wall torn out between 2 bedrooms to create a large living room. But it still served as a private home when they weren’t meeting.

Here is how the church building evolved. Christians met together in homes and in cemeteries. The later started because of those Christians who had been martyred. Christians felt closer to their dead brethren when they met there. They began to share a meal while there in order to remember that dead person and worship God in that person’s company. Nothing wrong there. But wait. It was just a matter of time before these places began to be seen as “holy” and Christians built small monuments over the burial plot. These became larger and larger shrines. It was a common pagan practice to build such shrines and call it holy. Christians also began to collect relics (bones of martyrs) and regard them as sacred (this was also borrowed from the pagan Romans). The Lord’s Supper also devolved from a full meal to a ceremony which was renamed “Holy Communion.” The bread and cup were regarded as sacred. By the 3rd century, Christians had sacred places (shrines built for the dead) and sacred objects (bread, cup, martyr’s bones). I don’t know about you, but in my opinion and God’s book that is called idolatry. Satan wanted to get us to worship places and objects to get our eyes off Christ—the only one we should worship. Christ is holy and God calls His people holy. That’s it folks.

Because Christians had already begun regarding certain places as sacred, they fell hook, line, and sinker for Constantine’s initiation of church building. He began ordering the construction of church buildings by 324. He wanted Christians to have their own sacred buildings like the Jews and pagans did so that their faith would seem legitimate. What you need to know about Constantine is that despite his supposed conversion to Christianity, he continued to worship the Sun god and himself until he died. He is the one to name the day of our week “Sunday” after Mithras, the Unconquered Sun. Hmmm. Ironic isn’t it that we Christians set aside Sunday for worship. Surely Satan’s getting a real laugh out of that.

I digress here for a minute: why do we worship on Sunday? Some say we do because it is the day of Christ’s resurrection. But look in the New Testament to find any mention of a specified day of the week for worship and you will be hard put to find it. Why? We are to worship all day every day. You can’t “tithe” a day out of a week for worshiping Him and think that He will be satisfied with it. Also, you should be meeting with believers often and not just one day a week. It doesn’t have to be the same group of believers. But you do need to be in continual contact with other believers throughout the week who encourage you in the Way.

Back to church buildings: Constantine started his church building program throughout the empire and named each church after a saint just as Roman temples were named after their gods. Many were built over the tombs of the martyrs. They were built with fountains in front of them so that people could go through purifying rituals before entering the “sacred” place (reminds me of Judaism). The buildings were built on the model of the Greek pagan temples. The design encouraged crowds of people to sit passively while watching a performance. Wow! The interactive people-centered gatherings which resulted in mutual edification had now been relegated to a spectacle of mystery and magic (communion becoming something mystical and words being spoken in a language the people didn’t speak) that made God seem less accessible than ever. Hello! Christ came so that we might boldly approach His throne of mercy; He died so that we might believe and accept His salvation and become His brothers/sisters; He taught us to pray “Abba” (Daddy) so that we might know Father’s love; He rent the veil to the Holy of holies so that He could live in our hearts. He is moving toward us. Why are we putting such distance between ourselves and Him?

I think that as long as we continue to go to a place to worship Him and gather with other believers rather than letting it happen naturally every day within the real context of our lives, we are missing out on His presence and His people. It could be so much more. What are you waiting for?

PAGAN CHRISTIANITY?

In May, I bought a book called Pagan Christianity? by Frank Viola & George Barna. It is red (great marketing strategy). I picked it up because of the color and bought it because the summary on the back was intriguing. My life hasn’t been the same since. I would advise you not to read it unless you are willing to truly examine everything you believe with a magnifying glass and let God blow away all the chaff. I also advise you not to say one word of criticism against it until you have read it. To do so would be talking out of ignorance. He actually advertises with this slogan: “Pagan Christianity? is the most critiqued book by those who have never read it.” You are welcome to comment on my blog about what I say, but don’t bother to criticize the book until you have read it. Remember that I am human and may inadvertently misrepresent what he is saying. I can guarantee that I will get passionate and say extreme things he would never say. This book more closely examines the practices of the New Testament church and compares that with common traditions we practice in churches today. You would be surprised about how many traditions come from the Pagan practices of the Greeks & Romans rather than the early 1st century church.

Here is a list of the chapters of the book:
1-Have We Really Been Doing It By The Book?
2-The Church Building: Inheriting the Edifice Complex.
3-The Order of Worship: Sunday Mornings Set In Concrete
4-The Sermon: Protestantism's Most Sacred Cow
5-The Pastor: Obstacle To Every-Member Functioning
6-Sunday Morning Costumes: Covering Up The Problem
7-Ministers of Music: Second-String Clergy
8-Tithing and Clergy Salaries: Sore Spots On The Wallet
9-Baptism and the Lord's Supper: Diluting The Sacraments
10-Christian Education: Swelling The Cranium
11-Reapproaching the New Testament: The Bible Is Not A Jigsaw Puzzle
12-A Second Glance at the Savior: Jesus The Revolutionary
-The Next Step
-Final Thoughts: Q&A with Viola and Barna

Going to Church?

Many of you may have already heard that Dwight & I are no longer going to church. You may be wondering why. It is simple really. It is impossible. You read that correctly. I say it is impossible, because the church is a people not a place. It doesn’t make sense to say I am going to a people. You could say that you are going to meet with people. The Greek word that was translated as church in English is “ekklesia” and means “to call out.” Generically, this means people who are called together by the town crier to gather as an assembly or group. In its context in the New Testament, it referred specifically to any gathering of Christ followers whether that was in a house, on a hillside, in a cave, or anywhere. Place doesn’t matter, people do.

What so many people think of today as “church” is much different than the original meaning in the New Testament. Today the English word "church" has various meanings. Webster gives the following definitions for the word church:

“1. a building for public Christian worship. 2. a religious service in such a building. 3. (sometimes cap.) a. the world body of Christian believers; Christendom. b. any major division of his body; a Christian denomination. 4. a Christian congregation. 5. organized religion as distinguished from the state. 6. (cap) a. The Christian before the reformation. b. the Roman Catholic Church. 7. the profession of an ecclesiastic -V.C. 8. to perform a church service of thanksgiving for (a woman after child birth).”

The only meaning that remotely resembles the original intent for the word is #4 “a Christian congregation.” The emphasis has become on a building or denomination instead of people. I have determined that I will no longer make that mistake.

If you invite a believer over for dinner and you share that sweet fellowship that only Christians can, guess what? Church just happened. If you see a fellow believer in Walmart and offer a word of encouragement because she is discouraged, guess what? Church just happened. If you go over to the home of a fellow believer to serve him by fixing his porch, guess what? Church just happened. If a fellow believer is struggling and you pray with her, you know what I’m going to say. The 2 ingredients for church are: 2 or more believers, the expression of Christ in a tangible way. In the examples above you saw expressions of fellowship, encouragement, service, and prayer.

We have become so complacent with going to church on one day of the week, that we have forgotten that Christ expects us to BE the church every day of the week so that all of us on this journey together can be encouraged in the REAL everyday world that does not resemble the artificial world of polished praise bands, pews and pulpits, plastic smiles, and pretty dresses.