Simple Church: Unity Within Diversity

Foreword

You hold in your hands a unique compilation of the insights of twenty-four different individuals chosen from across the world sharing what makes them passionate about the church of Jesus in the world. While each of these articles is unique and fascinating in its own way they harmonize in a glorious symphony of the ways Jesus wants to make His multifaceted-wisdom known in the world.

I love to read what makes someone’s heart beat faster when they contemplate the reality of the Father’s family taking shape in the world. By focusing on the positive side of church life, instead of where it’s broken, many common themes emerge such as the supremacy of Christ, laying down our lives for others, handling Truth lightly so others can access Him even in their brokenness, and each of us learning to follow Him as we support and encourage each other.

Each of these contributors was chosen because they practice something called simple church. While definitions of that term may vary as does the way each of them lives it out, at its core simple church refers to people who are no longer engaged in institutional congregations that gather weekly. Though many of them did so for multiple decades, each of them came to discover greater reality and freedom away from those structures and embrace the church as a family sharing His life together in homes, coffee shops, and anywhere else people naturally get together.

But even if you see the church differently than they do, you will find their heartbeat transcends simple church itself and strikes to the core of what it means to be God’s children in the earth.  You will find many people in more institutional settings that long for these same priorities and seek a church that reflects God as an endearing presence in the universe, inviting people everywhere into the reality of His life and truth.

I hope these themes become the fodder for conversations among His church, however they happen to gather. We need more conversation about these things, not less.  And we need it not just with those who are like-minded, but even those who see things differently than we do but have the same heart for God and His kingdom.

This book is like a very long and very full buffet table as the contributors wrestle with the implications of doctrine, holiness, unity, giving and sharing. You’ll want to devour it all, but you’ll soon realize that there isn’t enough time in the day or enough energy in the mind to live out all that’s here. Just keep in mind that they are not talking about the church as an institution having to do all these things, or even as one individual doing them all.

They consider the church as a communion of persons, each part responding joyfully to the Head. It is enough to embrace the part He’s given us as we encourage others around us to do the same. How He uniquely takes shape in each of us will make the glory of the whole far greater than the sum of its parts. We may not be able to do them all, but these don’t dwell in the world of obligation. This is not how we have to live for Him, but how we get to live in His unfolding glory.

So take care not to reduce the table of contents into a list of objectives we have to achieve by our own effort. We couldn’t even on our best day. What is described here is how Jesus takes shape in His church as each of us learns to live at His pleasure in this broken world. There will be strength enough, grace enough, courage enough, and wisdom enough for these priorities to shape the way we live. It is in learning to live in His love that we will be free enough to revel in His priorities and demonstrate His glory in the world.

This is His church to build and He does it well, often in mostly unseen ways.  But she is taking shape in the world as He draws people together that share many of the passions outlined in these pages. May this book encourage your own journey and stimulate your passion to experience His life and share it freely with others.

~Wayne Jacobsen, author of

Finding Church: What If There Really Is Something More?

Newbury Park, CA

Introduction

Why write another book about the church? Aren’t there enough already?

These are fair questions. Many, many books have indeed been penned that focus on church-related issues. Frankly, some of them appear to have been written just because the author wanted to write a book. Many books are written and published even though there’s no need for them.

We decided to write Simple Church: Unity Within Diversity because we don’t believe it has been written yet. We are a diverse group of twenty-four contributors who are, to varying degrees, engaged in simple church life. The purpose of this project is to write a book that is generally positive in tone and that tells what we believe. Instead of focusing on what’s wrong with institutional Christianity, we desire to explain what we think the church can be and why.

This project began in the fall of 2013 after I wrote a blog post entitled What I’m For. I had previously both read and written multiple blog posts blasting away at all sorts of easy targets within traditional Christian churches. This accomplished little. Therefore, I wanted to write something much more positive. Not long after I wrote that piece, fellow blogger Jeremy Myers from Redeeming Press suggested that we put a book together with that blog post as the foundation. This is what we did, with Redeeming Press as the publisher and me as editor.

The blog post contained twenty-five simple, positive statements such as, I’m for a church that cherishes Jesus Christ above all things, I’m for a church that is united in Christ, and I’m for a church that is composed of peacemakers. These statements formed the table of contents. With a little tweaking here and there we had the backbone for our book.

Jeremy and I then invited a variety of Christians who are involved in simple church life to participate. Most of the contributors are bloggers since, obviously, bloggers like to write. Our contributors are diverse. While most live in the United States, some reside overseas. Even within the USA we live all over the place. Some contributors are male; some are female. Some are working, while others are retired. Most are white, but not all. Although we are all proponents of simple church practices, the local bodies we are a part of vary widely in both what they look like and how they function.

What we do all have in common is our Lord and Savior: Jesus Christ. We are all members of Christ’s body. Because of this, we are united. In fact, we are all united with every other Christ-follower on earth, regardless of what we all believe about church life. This is because Christ’s unifying of us is greater than any smaller differences between us. Reader, if you are in Christ, then Jesus has bonded us together.

In the end, unity within the body of Christ is what we hope to bring about through this book. Much misunderstanding currently exists within the larger body of Christ about what simple church practices are. Although all our contributors don’t agree on everything, we do all hope that this book will generate positive discussion about church issues. We believe this text has the potential to be a starting point for positive dialogue among any groups of Christians. The more we understand each other, the more unity we can achieve, even if we disagree on significant topics.

As I said above, our intent was to compose a generally positive book. This does not mean that it is free of critique. Most of the contributors, myself included, see some very significant problems within institutional Christianity. If we didn’t we would probably still be a part of traditional churches. As a former salaried pastor, I’ve seen up close many of the church issues that cause great problems for believers within institutional settings. What we do want to avoid in this book is the name-calling that is all too frequent in some sectors of those who have left traditional churches. While name-calling is harmful, healthy analysis can be beneficial.

When you look at the table of contents you’ll see twenty-six chapters. Jeremy and I have each written two, while all the other contributors wrote one. This was not the original plan; it just worked out this way. As you read through this book, you will find that the various authors have written in different ways. Some focus more on in-depth Bible study, while others more on application. Regardless, all are grounded in Scripture, with at least some discussion of the daily outworking of the primary topic.

We segmented the book into five sections because that’s how the topics worked out. They fit nicely into Glorifying and Enjoying God, Living Radically, Building the Body, Impacting the World, and Proclaiming Salvation.

Please let me be clear on one more thing: simple church is not perfect. It’s not perfect because it’s made up of people. We all have our faults. All churches face their own struggles due to imperfect people trying to share life together. If we ever think we have this church thing figured out, then we’ve got a massive pride problem to deal with.

My hope and prayer is that God will use this little book to generate positive discussion about His church. If it helps even a few believers better understand simple church principles and practices, then I will be thrilled. We are not asking Christians to depart from institutional Christianity; rather, we just want to bring about increased understanding and unity.

Finally, I’d like to thank Jeremy Myers for both his idea of putting this book together and his willingness to publish it through Redeeming Press. I also want to thank all the contributors. Most have busy lives, yet nevertheless took time out to be a part of this project.

~Eric Carpenter, Editor

August 2014

Section 1

Glorifying and

Enjoying God

{1}

A Church That Honors the Triune God

By Bobby Auner

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture references are from the ESV.

He had prepared for you an abiding dwelling with Himself, where your whole life and

every moment of it might be spent, where the work of your daily life might be done, and where all the while you might be enjoying unbroken communion with Himself.

~Andrew Murray

Wisdom begins in wonder. ~Socrates

I’m a city guy. I like living in the city. I like the noise. I like being around lots of people. I like the opportunities. Those who aren’t big fans of city life can look at the very same things I appreciate about the city and consider those things to be demerits. The sights, sounds, and smells can sometimes be overwhelming. It all seems too busy, too distracting. Recently, I was reading about a man who had taken a trip to re-trace the steps of the first five books of the Bible. Along the way he spent quite a bit of time in empty desert locations. He noted that when most people think of the desert they usually assume it is quiet because there isn’t a lot going on around you. Yet, he found that once he stepped foot on the land, the opposite was true. The desert is one of the loudest places you can be. Not because of the winds, but because of the stillness. It’s loud because it’s so quiet; every sound is magnified. Every vibration, every movement can be heard like it is being broadcast over a speaker. The soil crunches beneath the feet. A lizard scratches its way toward his destination. Tumbleweed rolls by. The wilderness has a way of emphasizing activity that would otherwise be ignored.

Delighting in the Details

This same principle applies in many aspects of life. A few years ago I began to see the church differently. I would look at the description of the ekklesia (the Greek word often translated as church) in the New Testament and then look at the organization I was a member of and see a huge disconnect. What I saw exemplified in the historical record of the 1st century ekklesia and what I was experiencing as church were worlds apart. 

Just as a man traveled to the Middle East in order to re-trace the footsteps of the first five books of the Bible, I wanted to experience fellowship with God and with my church family the way I saw it expressed in the Biblical texts. I wanted to embark on a lifelong journey that would honor our Triune God in all that I do.

God convicted me of playing church on Sunday. He gave me a burden for deeper relationships. He gave me discernment to see how the programs that I was involved with did little toward conveying spiritual life. I had a holy dissatisfaction with the mostly passive way I warmed a pew for most of my time together with other saints. Somewhere deep down inside I felt like I was being called out of comfortable rituals into a world of unknown possibilities.

After asking many questions of the leadership and becoming convinced that things were not going to change, I acted on my new-found convictions, as well as the request of the church leaders, and left the institution. Since that time I have learned to see and hear where God is working outside the four walls. Just like the sound of tumbleweed in the desert, the wilderness has a way of emphasizing activity that would otherwise be ignored.

God Calls, You Go

Now the Lord said to Abram, Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you (Gen 12:1).

That’s all you get, Abram. Leave what’s well established and familiar and go. I’ll show you where to go once you leave. If you faithfully obey there will be great rewards. When I put myself in his shoes, I realize Abraham isn’t called the father of faith for nothing. It takes serious resolve to leave what’s comfortable and lead your family into the empty harshness of the desert without knowing your destination. This is especially true when your only explanation for your actions is that God told you to, even if no one else has ears to hear His instruction.

In some ways it has been like that for our family. Once we were outside of the familiar surroundings of traditional Christian gatherings we realized the need to be spiritually-led people. We no longer had the rituals that kept us comfortably satisfied. Now there was a sense of the Lord leading us to something bigger, better, more glorious, more mysterious than we had ever experienced before. We were free, but free from what, for what, and to what? Those were the questions we now faced. The answers, it turns out, were much simpler than we ever thought possible. However, finding those answers meant facing some of our preconceived notions about familiar texts and re-examining them in light of God’s leading. I’ll give you one example to help you get a sense of what we faced.

Conflicting Directions

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near (Heb 10:24-25).

If you’re like me you have likely heard this passage quoted numerous times as an instruction and even a warning to compel believers to regularly attend Sunday services. The author’s words to the Hebrews haunted me while God began leading me away from the Sunday meetings I had always known. I remember praying, God, I know you will not contradict your commands given in Scripture. So, what am I missing here? I was in a very uncomfortable place. I wanted to be obedient to God but it seemed like God was commanding me to do something that directly contradicted the special revelation of the sacred texts. I knew there were only four possible reasons this could be.

I was listening to a deceiving spirit that was drawing me away from the church in disobedience to God.

The epistle to the Hebrews isn’t inspired by God and therefore it does not carry His authority.

I misunderstood the promptings of God’s Spirit.

I misunderstood the intended purpose and instruction of the text.

I’m sure you can imagine the conflict I was going through. This was a crisis of faith of the first order. I mean, regular attendance of the worship service is something that all obedient Christians must do in order to mature ... right? I supposed it was possible that I was under a delusion, but in what way was I deluded? Something had to give. Either the spiritual promptings were wrong, I could no longer trust the Bible as authoritative for faith and practice, or I had to challenge some long held interpretations of the text that have been passed down through generations of faithful believers. If God was really calling me to do something different then somehow the instructions I was spiritually discerning and the instructions of the text had to be in harmony.

Have you ever had that feeling in the pit of your stomach that comes when you’ve discovered something and you instantly know that the moment will change you forever? Perhaps you can recall the moment you realized your first child was on its way. Or, imagine how a child might feel after growing up in a family and discovering in his teens that he was adopted. Although he had no idea before, now that he knows, life will never be the same. In much the same way, part of me wished I could go back to my comfort zone before this conflict began. No matter how much I might wish for the bliss of ignorance, there was no choice. I had to go on.

Cloud by Day, Fire by Night

The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance; it is the illusion of knowledge. ~Daniel J. Boorstin

I found myself regularly on my knees asking God to examine my heart and to lead me to the knowledge of His will. I had to find peace in this conflict because I knew that God is not the author of my confusion. I studied the Scriptures diligently and looked for clues as to what I was missing.

It turns out that what was missing was the form of the meetings I was accustomed to. Those forms were missing from the examples we have of the first century gatherings of believers. The Spirit of God brought me to passages of Scripture like Ephesians 4 and 1 Corinthians 14 and showed me what He desires an assembly to look like. Since none of the assemblies I had attended all my life resembled those exemplified in Scripture I realized God wasn’t calling me away from obeying the instructions written to the Hebrews. To the contrary, God convicted me of my complacency in those forms that He hadn’t ordained.

He led me out to learn to assemble with other believers in a way that allowed us to stir one another up and encourage each other as the command required. God was leading me toward obedience to the instructions and descriptions found in the post-ascension writings. There was no contradiction between the Spirit and the Scriptures. The confusion was because of the erroneous interpretation of the text that I inherited from other men. That meant I had to leave behind some well-established traditions and a lifestyle that was familiar and comfortable to me. I figured it was a small price to pay in order to follow God’s lead into territory that was unpopular but held great promises. It was reminiscent of Israel’s exodus from Egypt and subsequent wanderings in the wilderness.

As you Go, Make Disciples

With confidence