Steve Simms's Blog, page 277
January 22, 2018
Let’s run Christ’s plays as a team!
Christ’s body consists of all who have Jesus living within them, not just the members of the many organizations called church. Anybody can organize and run a church; but Jesus wants to build His body on the rock of supernatural revelation — His ekklesia. To institutionalize church puts it under human management. Can’t Jesus manage His own body better than we can?
A meeting of the body of Christ works better as a team than as a one man show. One person speaking can never demonstrate the presence of Christ like a group obeying the Spirit together can. When a group of Christ-followers meets, all in sync with the risen Jesus, miracles happen.
Ekklesia gets Christians off the bench and into spiritual action. Church wants people to listen to a lecture about the playbook. Prechurch church Christianity runs the plays.
Prechurch Christianity trained people to let the Holy Spirit flow from within them. Church showcases one man’s message. Prechurch ekklesia showcases Christ speaking through ordinary people.
Why should churches keep preaching if they don’t help people live out what they preach to them? Church can be like the huge rocket in Huntsville, AL, a form without power, going nowhere. Most Christians meet to hear a sermon; but we could meet to actually practice living out what the Bible says!
Prechurch preaching was to nonbelievers. Prechurch gatherings were a time for everybody to listen to and obey the risen Jesus. The Bible is God’s playbook. Prechurch Christians met as ekklesia, to run the plays.
Church fractured into 70,000+ denominations. Prechurch ekklesia always embraces the oneness of the body of Christ. The Bible says that to say “I am of Paul,” or “I am of Apollos,” is spiritually immature. A Christian doesn’t need a subset.
I’m crying out in the cyber wilderness: Prepare the way & make straight paths for Jesus’ ekklesia. The Bible says that Christians are to confess our faults to one another. Why doesn’t church allow time for that? Prechurch Christianity was informal and relational, not formal and organizational.
Since Jesus came to set us free, perhaps people in church services should be free to listen to Jesus and do what He says. To hear a sermon can be informative or inspirational, but to hear the Savior is life-transforming. Unfortunately, church spends much more time training people to listen to a pastor than training them to listen to Jesus. Jesus said, “Follow Me,” but church tends to train people to follow a pastor.
January 16, 2018
Can God speak through “Chicken Run”?
Can God speak through the animated movie, “Chicken Run?”
Today my wife said that she felt a nudging in the Spirit to watch the movie, “Chicken Run.” The idea sounded kind of weird to me, but I went along with her. In the movie the woman who owned the chickens wanted to stop selling eggs and to start making chicken pies. Afterwards, I opened my email and saw a message from Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen, entitled: “Warm Up With Chicken Pot Pie.” When I opened the message it read: “Homemade Chicken Pot Pie For the Soul.” We were amazed. What are the odds of that? And what was God’s message to us in “Chicken Run?” Were still asking but . . .
Like the chicken, Ginger, in the film, we’ve been relentlessly pursuing a vision of freedom (ekklesia) and no matter what happens or how many times doors are slammed in our faces, we can’t stop seeking the ekklesia vision that God has given us.
For weeks I’ve been praying for God to animate us from within. I don’t recall using the word animate like that before.
Here are three quotes from the movie that encouraged us.
* ” Keep pedaling! We’re not there yet! You can’t see paradise if you don’t pedal!”
* “You’re always talking about ‘back in your day’; well, ‘today’ is your day”
* “Heaven help us.”
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January 14, 2018
Some Greatest Showman Soundtrack Quotes & Ekklesia!
The Other Side from The Greatest Showman Soundtrack expresses how I feel about ekklesia:
“Trade that typical
For something colorful
And if it’s crazy live a little crazy
You can play it sensible
A king of conventional
Or you can risk it all and see.
Don’t you wanna get away
From the strainful part you gotta play,
‘Cause I got what you need to come with me and take the ride
It’ll take you to the other side
‘Cause you can do like you do
Or you can do like me
Stay in the cage or you finally take the key.
Never Enough from The Greatest Showman Soundtrack expresses my prayer to the Lord about ekklesia:
“You set off a dream with me
Getting louder now
Can you hear it echoing?
Take my hand
Will you share this with me?”
From Now On from The Greatest Showman Soundtrack expresses what the vision of ekklesia has done in my heart:
“Let the promise in me start
Like an anthem in my heart
From now on.”
A Million Dreams from The Greatest Showman Soundtrack explains why I’m always writing and talking about ekklesia:
“They can say, they can say it all sounds crazy
They can say, they can say I’ve lost my mind
I don’t care, I don’t care, so call me crazy . . .
‘Cause every night I lie in bed
The brightest colors fill my head
A million dreams are keeping me awake
I think of what the world could be
A vision of the one I see
A million dreams is all it’s gonna take.”
So what is ekklesia? Here are three quotes from Christopher W. Blackwell’s The Assembly that define ekklesia. It’s what Jesus said that He would build.
“Ekklesia is the term used for the assembly in Greek city-states…a meeting place where the citizens could speak their minds.”
“In the assembly (ekklesia) the herald repeats again and again the invitation, ‘Who wishes to address the assembly?’”
“The assembly (ekklesia)…required that each citizen have freedom to speak his mind. This freedom was vital to the proper functioning of the assembly.”
Learn more about ekklesia @ http://amzn.to/2FCgRDg
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January 13, 2018
The Great Facilitator . . .
Jesus is the great facilitator. Check Him out. Gather a group and let everybody listen to Jesus and then say and/or do whatever He tells them.
When Christians gather in the presence of the living Jesus, they realize that they are sincerely wanted and valued, and that sharing their individual insights is important for the best outcome of the meeting. When people meet to talk about their love for Jesus (as prompted by His Spirit), hearts overflow with His presence and power.
Since Bible teaching is now available 24/7/365, perhaps churches could shift Sunday mornings to open, Spirit-prompted sharing. When we gather in Jesus’ name, what right do we have to tell Him who He can speak through and who He can’t? If Jesus is our risen Lord (Absolute Master), why don’t we let Him take full control of church services?
Church sabotages its ministry by only letting one person minister and forcing the rest to quietly quench the Spirit’s quickening. The Bible never said: “When you come together have the same man preach and everybody else be silent.” It never said to make one person in a congregation be the only person who is allowed to speak for God.
Perchurch Christianity was like a choir. Everybody had a vocal part as directed by the Spirit. Prechurch Christianity moved the world. Postekklesia church is too often moved by the world. Prechurch Christianity met as a body of many participating members interacting with the living Jesus and with one another. Let’s get back to it and make church ekklesia again! God is looking for spiritual entrepreneurs who will embrace and implement ekklesia. Will you make church ekklesia again?
Church tries to lead people by organizing us from the outside. Jesus prefers to lead people by living and communicating inside us. Jesus lives inside of all genuine Christians. Right? So not letting them speak in church, silences both them and the risen Christ in them.
The living Jesus wants to override church programs and to personally rearrange and direct church services according to His plans. Let Him.
Jesus’ ekklesia embraces people from “every kindred and every tribe” as equal participants in the body of Christ. I know that from first hand experience because I am an immigrant from self-rule to the kingdom of God and I was received as a full citizen.
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I gave up my weigh-in and found the way in!
I gave up my weigh-in and found the way in!
One weigh
And I didn’t
Measure up.
Then Jesus came
To pay my debt,
And be the way
By living His life
Inside of me.
Don’t wait
To let Jesus
Take the weight
Off your heart
And shoulders
“All the beautiful sentiments in the world weigh less than less than a single lovely action.” –James Russell Lowell
January 11, 2018
Rediscovering Prechurch Christianity
Prechurch Christianity! There’s never been anything like it unleashed on earth! It came before organized Christianity and prechurch Christianity “turned the world upside down!” (See Acts 17:6) It can still “turn the world upside down.” Let’s re-experience it.
Prechurch Christianity met as Spirit-controlled assemblies, which over the first three centuries gradually turned into tightly organized performances called church. First century Christians didn’t “go to church.” They experienced prechurch ekklesia. For the most part, church has expunged the memory of prechurch ekklesia. We need to rediscover it in the New Testament.
Prechurch Christianity was designed to sail in the Spirit, but church eventually dry docked it. It was a Spirit-directed, grassroots movement, which was eventually institutionalized into what we now know as church.
The focus of prechurch Christianity wasn’t on organization and hierarchy; but on the direct leadership of the living Jesus. Prechurch Christianity was modeled on the participatory city council of ancient Greek city-states–ekklesia. See 1 Corinthians 14:26.
Before there was church, there was prechurch — what Jesus and the apostles called ekklesia. Let’s get back to it! Prechurch, ekklesia, can’t function without God’s power. First came ekklesia; then came church. It’s not too late to go back to the days of prechurch Christianity.
Prechurch ekklesia, was overflowing with the power of Pentecost; but gradually morphed into postekklesia church. Even in the New Testament you can see the beginnings of the process by which prechurch Christianity slowly drifted into postekklesia church.
Church wants organizational growth and member allegiance. Ekklesia wants individuals to grow closer to and to obey the risen Jesus. Prechurch ekklesia doesn’t need programs because Jesus is the way — the program! When men assumed power over postekklesia churches, much of the Spirit’s influence was removed and replaced with programs & policies.
An organization needs hierarchy because the head of it can’t be everywhere; but the body of Christ doesn’t because Jesus is everywhere! Because Jesus is omnipresent, there’s no need for religious hierarchy. In an organization there’s a chain of command; but in the body of Christ everyone is directly connected to Jesus, the Head.
Prechurch Christianity reveals the living God to human hearts. Without that inner vision, we’re left with outward religion.
Church enforces formal order. Prechurch ekklesia releases Spirit-led sharing.
Church tries to keep the Spirit out of the driver’s seat. Prechurch ekklesia lets the Spirit put the pedal to the metal. Prechurch ekklesia is a Spirit-animated organism, not an organization.
Most Christian denominations began as spontaneous, ekklesia-style revival movements, but soon morphed into postekklesia church. Prechurch ekklesia was built on experiencing Jesus. Postekklesia church is based on religious activities of remembering Jesus.
Postekklesia, church, depends on men’s programs, rituals, tradition. “Back to the Bible” means back to ekklesia and prechurch Christianity. In Matthew 16, Jesus said that He would build His “ekklesia” but Christians have tended to build our own churches. Now there are more than 70,000 Christian denominations in the world.
Church evolved into existence as ekklesia slowly faded in the first three centuries of Christianity. Then Roman Emperor Constantine solidified it as the “normal” way of doing Christianity.
Postekklesia Christianity settled into what Paul called; “having a form of godliness but denying its power.” (2 Timothy 3:5) The postekklesia enterprise of church changed Christianity from discipleship to spectatorship.
Megachurch turns church from a small-scale program into an extravaganza. Ekklesia returns church into a prechurch support group.
To gather with a group of Christians and wait to be directed by the Holy Spirit is prechurch Christianity. It means to let a meeting be directed by Jesus, rather than by a man, a program, an agenda, a liturgy, or a tradition. Everybody should try it! The Spirit’s a great conductor, organizer, choreographer, navigator, maestro, pilot, guide, arranger; if we will listen and obey.
The monastic movement began as an attempt to rediscover prechurch Christianity. Perhaps modern parachurch groups are part of God’s attempt to lead us beyond church and back to prechurch ekklesia. The past two millennia there have been pockets of prechurch Christianity, but church has usually resisted it. Jesus said to go and make disciples, but church has tended to stay and make permanent spectators.
When church dominates, God sometimes allows persecution to come and restore prechurch ekklesia (like in China during the 20th century). Rather than church reformation, Christianity needs a return to prechurch ekklesia. God wants to reverse the evolution from prechurch ekklesia to post ekklesia church.
God miraculously opened a door for a group to practice prechurch ekklesia in The Salvation Army Nashville for 9 1/2 years. Since church evolved from prechurch ekklesia it can return to ekklesia. (Those 9 1/2 years’ ekklesia in The Salvation Army proved that!) I’ve written a book, Beyond Church, about those years.
Attention: “Dones” (Christians who are done with church). Your dissatisfaction is God calling you back to prechurch ekklesia. The millennials are the generation who will go beyond church and rediscover prechurch ekklesia on a large scale! It’s time!
When I first read Acts as a new believer, it put a fire in my heart for prechurch Christianity. That fire is still burning in me! Is it burning in you?
January 7, 2018
What church can learn from card playing.
Church sometimes seems like staring an hour at one card, while leaving the rest of the deck in the box. However, when a preacher holds all the cards on Sunday morning, it tends to shut down the rest of the congregation. God deals many different hands, but church seems to play the same one every Sunday.
In church, the deck appears to be stacked, because ordinary people don’t get to play their hand. That’s because church plays with marked cards. One is marked “pastor” and all the rest are marked “layman.”
Perhaps pastors don’t need to be card sharks and control the deck. Maybe we could let the Holy Spirit be the dealer, instead.
Perhaps church puts too much emphasis on one card (“the pastor”) and leaves the rest of the cards on the table or even in the box. When a pastor does all the ministry, church isn’t playing with a full deck. Maybe it’s time to shuffle the cards. (In the pic with this post, the King of Clubs represents the pastor, the king of the club. You can also see a pair of hands shuffling a deck. I believe that is what God wants to do with the traditional way the body of Christ usually meets.)
Sometimes church feels like the deck is stacked to resist the Holy Spirit. Too often church is like a man playing solitaire, with many spectators. Perhaps, instead, church could lay all the cards on the table and let the Holy Spirit shuffle and deal them His way. (See 1 Corinthians 14:26.)
If Christians will meet and let the Holy Spirit shuffle the cards, we’ll see Him do
amazing things! However, if churches become clubs and no longer call a spade a spade, hearts become as hard as diamonds in the rough.
So what do all these card ideas mean? Before God, every person must play her/his own hand. A preacher can’t play yours for you!
Perhaps the body of Christ needs to meet as a team instead of as a one man show. When church is deprived of spontaneity, routine takes over and the hand is fixed. Then the risen Jesus tends be replaced by ritual. However, if church would meet to do Spirit-directed spiritual warfare as a team, we could change the world.
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January 6, 2018
A led life or a life of lead?
Live a led life! Jesus said, “Follow Me,” calling us to be directly led by Him. When Christ lives in us, we don’t need a script, a technique, or a church program because we have His presence directing us from within! (After all, if Jesus is the Head of His body, shouldn’t we all listen to and obey Him, instead of turning church into a program?)
Many Christians have been unintentionally trained to quench and disobey the Holy Spirit’s leading. Let’s retrain ourselves and one another. To give people info about Jesus but not train them to interact with Him, is to leave their hearts empty. Sermons require people to listen without verbally responding and that’s kind of like trying to eat without chewing (or like trying to swallow lead).
Led lives need new wineskins that overflow with the new wine of the Holy Spirit. Let Jesus be the only celebrity when we gather in His name! Follow Him. Christ’s calls us to passion and participation with Him; not to passive hearts that are frozen as hard as lead!
Jesus’ ekklesias are golden lampstands (Rev. 1) showcasing the light of Christ through ordinary people obeying the Holy Spirit. Greek city-states had heralds who called people to ekklesia (their city council meeting). God is raising up ekklesia heralds again!
Let’s not keep open, Spirit-led sharing (ekklesia) under a lid. Let the light of everyday Christ-followers speaking up in worship meetings, shine around the world according to 1 Corinthians 14:26!
Christians are called to be an army, a family, a city council, and the body of Christ, but not to be an audience. To put Christians on the bench while only one person speaks, makes it hard to be an effective team for Christ.
Perhaps church could use some common sense: More faucets running = more water flowing. More Christians speaking as the Spirit leads = more living water flowing. Jesus is speaking to all His people, not just to a few of them. He said, “My sheep (not My shepherds) hear My voice.”
A church meeting could be a mosaic made up of input from many members, but usually it’s a formulaic presentation by only one! If you only focused on one piece of a beautiful mosaic, you’d never know what it’s really like. Same with the body of Christ. To only let one person speak in the body of Christ is like only allowing one piece to be seen in a mosaic.
A chandelier needs to let all of its lights shine, not just one. Perhaps a church does, too. A one light chandelier is an oxymoron. Perhaps a one speaker worship meeting is too. Church sometimes seems like staring an hour at one card, while leaving the rest
of the deck in the box. Perhaps it’s time to be led by the living Jesus, Himself.
January 4, 2018
Christian revenge–using love to get even?
Did Jesus really mean for us to love our enemies? Will we?
Jay Tyler and I are two fools for Christ who talk about Crazy Bible Stuff once a week on our YouTube Channel. Check out the episode below:
Christian Revenge — Using Love To Get Even?
December 31, 2017
Celebrating reunited spiritual siblings!
I originally wrote this blog for the ONE Body Life website @ onebody.life and want to share it with you guys on my personal blog. ONE Body Life is dedicated to spreading unity in the body of Christ through their webpage and through the book: ONE: Unfolding God’s Eternal Purpose From House To House by Henry Hon. Give it a google.
I love to hear about siblings, separated from birth, being reunited. Although they may know nothing about each other, there is an instant connection. Family!
That also happens with spiritual siblings — brothers and sisters in Christ. Although we many know nothing about each other, when we discover that Jesus is living and working inside of both of us, we experience an instant connection. Spiritual family!
Jesus prayed that all of His followers be one. Since Jesus prayed that, I believe that all who carry Christ within them, are one — united heart-to-heart. The divisions that we see in the body of Christ are illegitimate — artificial barriers created by human beings.
If you have Jesus living in you, you have many undiscovered siblings, just waiting for you to find them and enjoy the spiritual connection that is waiting to be had. Our goal with the book ONE and the webpage onebody.life is not to try to get Christians to agree with us or with one another.
No. Our goal involves a simple, four-letter word — love. Love is that deep, family connection. Jesus put it this way: “Love one another.”
Connecting with unknown siblings will change your life. And it is easy to do. Try this. Invite a Christian you don’t know well to your home. Then spend time talking with one another about Jesus and how you came to know Him. Soon, you will feel love stirring in your heart — the family connection of spiritual siblings.
