I just purchased Neil Cole's new book, titled "Organic Church: Growing Faith Where Life Happens". I haven't read it yet, but I like the title. It reminds me of why I am so persistent in doing house churches. It's not because "smaller is better" or because the "house church movement" is the only proper way to do church because it's getting back to the original roots of Christianity. Maybe that's the motivation for some hard-core house church movement pastors and leaders, but not me. I'm not a "house church" guy. But I am a "BE the Church" guy. I don't believe house churches are the answer. I believe Jesus is the answer. And I believe in being the church wherever life just happens to take place. That's why I love that title so much.
Now, having gotten all of that out of the way, I will tell you why I am so persistent in encouraging Oasis people to meet in homes and in simple places. Because it is so important that we grow our faith where life happens. Think about it, where does your life happen? For the average person, the majority of their time is split between home and work. I just read a statistic today from a study at Ball State University that said... "about 30 percent of the observed waking day for the average American was spent with media as the sole activity versus 20.8 percent for work activity, while an additional 39 percent of the day was spent with media while involved in some other activity." That is an extraordinary fact in of itself, which could certainly be fuel for another article altogether. But the point I am making in this article is this. Most of our lives happen at home. Some of it also happens at work. A portion of it happens in other social or community activities such as errands to the store, etc. Guess how much of life happens at places like church buildings or events such as church meetings? Compared to the other areas of our lives the percentage is miniscule. Only a couple of hours a week at the most.
What am I saying? Precisely this. That the place where most of our lives really matter are the places where faith needs to grow. If we are expecting our faith to grow while sitting and listening to a sermon, or while attending a once-a-week gathering, then we are sadly mistaken. And we will forever be weak and immature followers of Jesus.
Your faith is stretched when you take it to the places where LIFE happens. Why? Because faith in Jesus is about LIFE. It's about having life even more abundantly than we ever had it before. So we meet in our homes and talk about what Jesus is doing in our families, in our workplaces, and in our own personal lives. We share a meal to celebrate the joy of having a family of people with whom we can identify, a family we belong to, a family that we have been adopted into as sons and daughters of God.
When we grow our faith where the majority of our lives "happen" then we are training ourselves to be always sensitive and aware of how Jesus wants to use us to bring his love to others. We go to work with an "others-focused" mindset and not a selfish attitude of "I just want to get here, get my work done, get my paycheck, and get home." Instead, our work becomes a mission field where God moves in the hearts of people because he has YOU as His missionary there.
Growing your faith where life happens means that regardless of where you are, you see it as an opportunity to have a "worship service". A worship service is not a meeting at some building where we sing a few songs, shake a few hands, and say "nice sermon, pastor." A true worship service is where you take the opportunity, whenever and wherever life is happening, to BE Jesus for another person. It's as simple as that. When you do that one simple act of sharing LIFE with someone, it's worth a thousand songs on Sunday morning.
Let it be known. I would rather have fellowship with 30 people who never attend a Sunday gathering but are completely sold out to bringing the light of Jesus to the world every day of their lives, making a difference in their families, their neighborhoods, and their workplaces... than with 500 people who come to a gathering once or twice a week and sing very loudly and give lots of money.
The fact is, if you are doing the former you will be compelled to do the latter. But you will always know that the former is what matters most in God's kingdom. And the latter is just the icing on the cake.
Are you trying to grow your Christian faith with just the icing on the cake? Or do you grow your faith where life happens?
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