If you’re content, happy and blessed in an organized church, I encourage you to remain there and serve Christ and your brothers and sisters there as He leads you. Be warned…the enemy will launch an attack sooner or later that destroys your contentment.
If you’ve been walking out at noon on Sunday feeling there’s something more or asking yourself, Is this all there is?—I want you to know you are not alone and there is something more. Be warned…the enemy will do everything in his power to keep you from finding out what it is.
If you’ve been through an agonizing time of strife in which church members absolutely fail to come together over petty things and you know it’s not supposed to be this way, you’re right. Unhealthy organized churches are a product of an underlying fault in “how church is done”, and what you’ve experienced is symptomatic of a genetic defect that exposes the church to enemy attack.
If you’ve left the institutional church, but not your faith, and find yourself relying on a television preacher, a walk in the woods or your own resources, you really need to be admonished that you are not experiencing “church” at any level. It’s impossible to experience church without “one another“. I challenge you to start working your way through these resources and not to ignore whatever the Holy Spirit speaks to you. There are many people out there with whom you can share “body life” in Christ. You’ll eventually find them by exploring these resources and—more importanlty—praying for Him to put those people in your path. Don’t keep trying to go it alone. You’d probably be better off going back to the church you left. Be warned…the enemy would like nothing better than to keep you right there where you are–where you aren’t getting anything of Christ from fellow-believers and they can’t partake of Christ through you!
P.S. You won’t go to hell if you put your trust in Christ and strike out on a journey to find out what “something more” is.
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THIS LIST IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION–SEE THE “VIDEOS’ TAB FOR ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Links
Many of the writers linked to the blogroll on “My Other ‘Other Blog'” are on the same journey as our family. Please feel free to explore the links in the righthand sidebar of Journal from Zarephath.
Are you ready for the transition “from the flawed pattern of the past to the full revelation of the Kingdom of God” that is coming? Visit Greg Austin’s site: Genesis 2K
Books
- Pagan Christianity? (Frank Viola and George Barna)
- Reimagining Church (Frank Viola)–please note, Pagan Christianity? and Reimagining Church are two halves of one conversation—read them both before you make any decisions.
- Revise us Again (Frank Viola)
- The Untold Story of the New Testament Church (Frank Viola)
- From Eternity to Here (Frank Viola)
- Organic Church (Neil Cole)
- The House Church Book (Wolfgang Simson)
- Small is Big! (Tony & Felicity Dale with George Barna)
- Paul’s Idea of Community, (Robert J. Banks
- The Pastor Has No Clothes, (Jon Zens)
- Definition of Church (Blog post by Alan Knox. Alan is a PhD candidate in Theology with a specialization in Ecclesiology (the study of the church).
- Jamal Jivanjee share’s on inspiration from Francis Chan and asks “The $64 Million” Question about the church! This is a MUST READ FOR HERETICS from the Illuminate Blog!
- Ross Rohde has served in an apostolic function in planting simple, organic church communities following the Luke 10 model. Ross’s blog (http://thejesusvirus.org/2012/05/08/what-happened-to-jesus/) and his book Viral Jesus offer sound scriptural insight into what the ekklesia looks like when Jesus is in control.
Great words of wisdom here sister. Many blessings to you as you embark on this journey. You are right, there is so much more!
Jamal, the Lord showed me part of what “so much more is like” FORTY YEARS AGO as He led a group of teens who met in homes in an experience none of us will forget. It was a spontaneous, small-scale manifestation of true ekklesia, but neither we nor the adults who opened their homes for us without taking over the Lord’s Headship could see it then as THE alternative to what we called “church”. I’ve come full-circle—but not completely, for the circle spirals inward toward Him and outward toward “one another” at the same time. I’ll be “ranting” about it all for a long time, I’m sure. It heartens me to see Him calling many young people around Him today! God bless you, Jamal. You are one of his “sent ones”.