Lord's Supper, baptizing, funerals, weddings in house churches

If simple churches are usually led by non-professional "lay" leaders, who performs all of the ceremonies traditionally officiated by professional clergy? Who does the baptizing, serving of the Lord's Supper, funerals, weddings, and all the other duties traditionally done by ordained ministers? Who do you call when there is a death in the family? Can anyone baptize (women?) Who presides over the Lord's Supper? Can any believer marry a couple?

I have no problem answering these questions, but as part of my answer, I like to inquire of the person asking, where in the NT do we get the idea that only a certain class carry out these functions? Can any of us point to a single instance in the NT where any of these functions is designated as exclusive terrain of a chosen few? Is it a commandment or an ordinance that only trained, seminary educated, ordained ministers be the ones to baptize, serve the Lord's Supper, wed, or bury? There is nothing wrong with them doing so, but are we not ALL Royal Priesthood, a Holy Nation, a Chosen Race?

So, to the practical outworking of how these things are carried out in simple house church settings...

The short version is that we deal with each situation as it comes up. In other words we don't worry about these things until in the natural flow of things they need to be dealt with. When the need arises, those in the house church leadership will call on us to help them. This usually entails sitting down and helping them understand what God wants them to do in this situation. Sometimes they come right out and ask us to lead the ceremony. Often I will agree to do so this first occasion, but next time it is their responsibility. I view these opportunities to further train and orient the servant leaders by their watching me do it.

Baptism. We don't make a big deal over who does the baptizing. Any disciple can baptize. In fact disciples are commanded to do so in Matthew 28:18-20. Usually the way this works is that the house church leader will do so themselves with one or two assistants from the church. If for whatever reason they are not able, or do not wish to do so, they find somebody else to do the baptizing. It's not so much WHO does the baptizing, as in WHOSE NAME they are baptized.

The Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper is a meal and regularly observed by the house churches. It is carried out in any number of different ways. One way is, again, to model how it is done. Many times when a group of new believers is ready for their first Lord's Supper, they will invite one of their mentors to preside. We gladly do so as a means of modeling a way of how it can be done. What is scary is that however we choose to lead during this time is often copied from there on out as "the way" to do the Lord's Supper! Over the years, though, I have seen a lot of creative and meaningful ways to celebrate this memorial.

Weddings. We have had many house church weddings over the past few years. Each has been special and meaningful to not only those getting married, but a blessing to the church as a whole. Sometimes I have been asked to perform the wedding, and have done so gladly. Usually though I will only perform the first wedding in a house church, but expect them to do any subsequent weddings. Sometimes the couple getting married will specifically ask their house church leader to do the ceremony. In these cases--and there have been several--the leader will come asking for help. We will sit down and step by step go over what needs to be done. We practice until they are fairly confident. It is important that the servant leaders be seen as empowered to carry out ALL the necessary tasks involved in church life. If we somehow leave the impression that only ordained pastors and missionaries can fill certain roles, we will harm the church's natural development. The last thing we want to do is create dependency upon the missionary.

Funerals. Again, we will go over with the house church leaders a basic outline of the kinds of things to say and do at a funeral. I just returned from one of these funerals not 30-minutes ago. The house church leader did a wonderful job. He asked me to say a few words, but the bulk of the time was led by him. I remember one house church leader being asked to preside over a wake. She had absolutely no experience or background to do so. In a panic she called several people to come to the rescue. None were available so she prayed to the Lord for guidance and went on to the wake. There, she was able to minister in the power of the Holy Spirit, and was a great blessing to the family. She related that it wasn't that hard. It was just a matter of allowing the Spirit of God freedom to minister through her. She related they sang a few songs, she shared a passage of Scripture and a few words of comfort, the family shared their memories of the loved one, prays were said, and then she visited with the family.

The list really extends to many other natural church life functions as well. Praying for the sick, dealing with demons, counseling, baby dedications, home visits, anniversaries, birthday parties, etc. NONE of these are the exclusive domain of professional clergy. ALL are matters which normally should be carried out by Spirit-filled disciples. It is not about us and how highly trained we are, but about HIM and what He wants to do in and through us.

So you want to be a pastor

Paul writes to Timothy, "It is a trustworthy statement: if any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do."

Overseer is the word used in the NASB, HCSV, and NIV. Other English translations interchange overseer for:

• church official (CEV)
• leader (NEB)
• bishop (KJV,RSV)
• pastor (LB)
• church leader (GNB)

Paul instructs Titus to "appoint elders in every town..." Whether elders, overseers, church officials, leaders, bishops, pastors, or church leaders, all seem to refer to what we know today as pastors, ministers, or church workers.

A desire to serve is clearly a good thing. Today we sometimes call this desire the "call of God." Whether this is something we want to do, or feel called of God to do, Paul lists qualifications that need to be evident in the lives of those aspiring to serve.

Here is Paul's "job description" list of things in someone wanting to be an elder/pastor/overseer/leader/bishop:

• must be above reproach
• the husband of one wife
• temperate
• prudent
• respectable
• hospitable
• able to teach
• not addicted to wine
• not pugnacious
• gentle
• peaceable
• free from the love of money
• manages his own household well
• keep[s] his children under control with all dignity
• not a new convert
• ha[s] a good reputation with those outside the church
• ha[s] children who believe
• not accused of dissipation or rebellion
• not self-willed
• not quick-tempered
• not fond of sordid gain
• loving what is good
• sensible
• just
• devout
• self-controlled
• holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching

Out of the combined list, 26 of the 27 qualifications have to do with the CHARACTER of the individual. Only one of the above requisites has to do with ministerial ability (teaching.)

A 27:1 ratio of character over job skills. Who we are is far more important than what we can do.

What a contrast to what is emphasized today. While character is indeed considered, the ratio often seems reversed and weighted towards job skills. Churches looking for ministers start with academic degrees, and post-graduate ministerial studies from accredited seminaries. We want to see high levels of communication skills, people skills, administrative skills, books published, experienced track record of successful ministry, etc.

What implications does this 27:1 ratio have for those of us who find ourselves serving as leaders, bishops, pastors, elders, or overseers? Why is character and the way we live our lives at home so important?

Paul seems to clearly think we have to be something before we can do something.

Recently we began a new approach to our ministry of church planting training. Instead of starting out with methods, materials, and models, we are first focusing on the individuals themselves who desire to serve. Character is really important. More important than job skills. One can get by on skill only for so long. After a while character always catches up.

After more than ten years of almost continuous work with so-called "lay leaders," I can say unequivocally that character matters. In our haste to see laborers sent out into the harvest fields, churches planted, baptisms reported, we too often turn a blind eye to known character flaws, or family/marriage situations. We assume these things are "none of our business" and that God is already dealing with them about these areas of concern. After all, "the work" is supreme. The end justifies the means. The Kingdom is first. We are all flawed--some more than others--but God somehow works around our faults to accomplish His purposes. Right?

Wrong.

I am a firm believer in that we are all ministers. All of us are "called" to the task of making disciples of the nations. We are indeed a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light... Yet to ignore or turn a blind eye to weak character traits in those desiring to serve always has its day of reckoning.

Sometimes wisdom dictates putting people on hold till they work through known personal issues. Sometimes it might mean NOT sending them until they give clear evidence of being able to control their temper, respect their husbands/wives, deal honestly with money issues, or be known for their hospitality, etc.

I write the above out of years of trying to work with individuals who come into the ministry with unresolved character flaws, and personal issues. Many have a keen desire to be used by God. They are gifted. Their energy levels far surpass my own. Yet over and over their down fall and failed ministry is tied directly to their own character deficiencies.

So, you think you might want to be a pastor? Missionary? Church planter? Christian worker? Youth minister? Evangelist? Great! Start by going down Paul's list and evaluate yourself carefully. Get others to do the same from their own perspective. Get help with those areas you might be weak in. It is in those weak areas that Satan will hit hardest. None of us is perfect, but scoring above average on the above list will make a huge difference in the impact your life will make as you serve the King of Kings.

Scenes from Ecuador

Are you a Jesus follower?

Under Religious Views on my Facebook profile, I state "Jesus follower." But, what is a Jesus follower? What all does that entail? In reading the Gospels one finds a lot more detail than just going to church on Sunday, reading the Bible, praying, not cussing, smoking, drinking, or gambling.

One can land in just about any chapter of the Gospels and discover first hand what the twelve experienced with Jesus as they followed Him on a daily basis. It entails quite a different set of activities from what most of us modern disciples routinely experience.

Take a look at some of the things the disciples experience with Jesus in just a couple of pages (chapters 8 and 9 of Matthew) ...

• going through a storm and nearly losing their lives
• watching Jesus perform a miracle of calming the winds and sea
• coming out of the storm only to face demon-possessed men (fringe/marginal people)
• pigs running off a cliff and the locals traumatized
• people begging you to leave their region (being unwelcome)
• forgiving sins in Jesus Name (are we supposed to do this kind of thing?)
• healing paralytics (those unable to walk on their own)
• confronting religious opposition for doing what is good and right
• identifying with sinners and outcasts of society (the non-church folks)
• calling on sinners to leave what they are doing and follow Christ
• going to a party, eating/drinking with non-followers of Christ
• being given a lesson on mercy and what that means by seeing it first hand
• being questioned about religious practices and traditions and answering
• healing a sick woman
• raising a dead child
• healing the blind
• driving out more demons
• going from town to town teaching in synagogues
• preaching Good News of the Kingdom
• healing every disease and sickness
• having compassion for the crowds
• instructing disciples to pray for laborers
• pointing out the abundant harvest to disciples

Does this sound like a typical follower of Christ today? Do we really relate with the way Jesus lived and taught his disciples and the kinds of things He exposed them to?

From these verses, I am struck how much time these first followers of Christ spent healing the sick and demon possessed. Yes, there is also the preaching/teaching element of discipleship, but a lot of time was spent healing and ministering to the sick and oppressed.

How much of my time mirrors these kinds of activities? How much of the above list characterizes my own walk as a follower of Jesus?

How about your own?

Keeping the main things simple

We believe disciples are followers of Jesus who obey the commands of Christ. The core of "teaching them to obey all that I commanded you" is the keeping of the "Ten Commandments of Jesus Christ." We believe this is where we must start in making disciples. Teach them to observe (obey) those things Jesus thought were most important.

What often gets taught first is a lot of secondary stuff. How Christians should act, where they should go on Sundays, and a long list of do's and don'ts. Many of these things are important, but they aren't more important that what Jesus himself commanded. Living out daily what Christ taught defines those who claim to be his followers.

It is only when we obey God's laws that we can be quite sure that we really know Him. The man who claims to know God but does not obey His laws is not only a liar, he lives in self-delusion. In practice, the more a man learns to obey God's laws,the more truly and fully does he express his love for Him. Obedience is the test of whether we really live "in God" or not. The life of a man who professes to be living in God must bear the stamp of Christ.  (I John 2:3-6 JBP)

Jesus himself stated that the greatest commandment was to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind. The second is similar to the first: to love our neighbor as ourselves. If we add the commands in the Great Commission to those in the Great Commandment we get:

Love God
Love others
Make disciples

Pretty simple. I can think of no better starting place to work with new believers than with these three commandments. If you get these right, everything else falls into place. There is enough in these six words to keep us busy with a lifetime of learning and ministry.

But why don't we focus on these essentials? What distracts us from living out these three? Why do we so easily lose our focus and get off on so many other secondary matters?

I believe for all our talk about simplicity, we continue to live as if "more is more" rather than "less is more." If what we do is too simple, we will look dumb. So we complicate the simple and hope everyone will see how smart we are by adding on all kinds of extras and non-essentials. Does this remind anyone of the Pharisees?

Simple in no way means "easy to accomplish," but it does mean uncomplicated. We have complicated that which was meant to be simple to the point that few truly practice in their daily lives those things Jesus commanded.

I recently posted Roy McClung's How to explain simple/organic church in 2-minutes on a napkin. In this short video Roy does a great job illustrating how we have taken something quite simple and morphed it into something quite different than originally intended.

Neil Cole expresses it this way,

"Simple is transferable; complex breaks down...Simplicity is the key to the fulfillment of the Great Commission in this generation. If the process is complex, it will break down early in the trasference to the next generation of disciples. The more complex the process, the greater the giftedness needed to keep it going. The simpler the process, the more available it is to the broader Christian populace."

I vote for getting back to basics. Simplify the process. Teach the Great Commandment and the Great Commission until our disciples are obeying these commands. If we aren't even keeping the basic ABC's of the Christian faith, how dare we attempt to pontificate on the QRS's?

What role do you want to play?

Bob Roberts, Jr. writes in "The Multiplying Church"...

You can be Mark Driscoll, Rob Bell, Rick Warren, Bill Hybels, or Neil Cole, or you can be the person who raises them up. What role do you most want to play? I used to want to be them--to get to see all this stuff happening up close--but that's because all I saw was what I could do.

As I grew older and began to help planters start their churches, I realized I could have greater impact raising up multiple leaders who would plant more churches than I could ever do alone. Not all of us are gifted or called to be Driscolls, Warrens, or Coles, but every single pastor can raise up other young men and women. As a matter of fact, one of the chief roles and responsibilites of every pastor is that of raising up leaders--not just for their church but for the broader church as well.

Which is greater, to plant a single church or to plant multiple churches out of your church?

I once heard that our Chinese brothers express it this way...

It is good for a Christian to lead someone to Christ,
It is better to plant a church,
It is best to lead others to plant churches.

If we are ever going to see genuine church planting movements, we have to get away from wanting to be center stage. Instead of ministry being about us, or what we do; how do we encourage that vast army of ordinary believers to step out in faith into the ripe and ready fields of harvest?

Question: how long does it take to get from 0-1000 member church? Unless extraordinarily gifted like those mentioned above, most of us would dedicate a lifetime to reaching that goal. The largest Baptist Church in Ecuador Iglesia Cristiana Evangélica Bautista Israel took 30 years to reach a thousand members. But in only the past five years has more than doubled in size. How? Not by fancier facilities, slicker services, or better sermons...but by empowering, equipping and encouraging ordinary "lay leaders" to go out and plant more than a dozen community churches. These "daughter churches" each average close to 100 people. I love their motto: "one church; many communities."

A couple of months ago, a dozen men and women signed up for church planting training here in Guayaquil. After Eight weeks, more than 100 new believers (and soon-to-be-believers) meet together weekly in at least seven newly planted house churches.

I wonder, how long would it have taken me to plant a church of 100? Working full time, with several others helping, and access to money and outside resources, probably a couple of years. Yet, by investing a few hours over the past eight weeks with a dozen people, we already see greater results.

I totally agree with Bob Roberts statements above. Most would rather be one of those household names known for having a successful ministry. But how differently things might be in the Kingdom if Ephesians 4 APEPT were about perfecting/equipping the saints for the work, instead of being the primary ones doing the work?

What do you think? Your thoughts and comments are welcomed!

La iglesia simple/organica/misional

¿Qué es la diferencia entre una iglesia en casa/simple/misional/orgánica y la ya conocida iglesia tradicional?

A.P.E.P.T. like their “P’s”

And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ...Eph. 4:11-12

Favorite words of the above mentioned A.P.E.P.T.

Apostles: plant, plant, plant
Prophets: prophesy, prophesy, prophesy
Evangelists: preach, preach, preach
Pastors: protect, protect, protect
Teachers: prepare, prepare, prepare

Each favorite word by itself is at best, a partial picture of all that is needed. Together the five form a powerful force for carrying out Christ’s purposes for his church.

Sadly, instead of working together as a team, and allowing the various tensions to coexist, the A/P’s are often seen as the “black sheep” of the APEPT family. A/P’s seem to always be stirring up trouble and questioning the status quo. If the P/T’s are doing their best to fill their church pews, A/P’s are trying to empty them. If A/P’s are harping on making disciples of the nations, P/T’s are worried about all the bad doctrine bound to arise from sending “spiritual babes” into battle without adequate preparation. E’s are happy to just be out there preaching the Good News and not all tied up in the complexities going on with the A/P brothers on their left, or the P/T brothers on their right.

While A/P’s are out there pressing the accelerator pedal to the floor, S/T’s have their foot on the brakes! E’s are oblivious to what is going on in the drivers seat, and are only interested in getting the windows down so they can sing, “Jesus saves, Jesus saves...” as they rush past folks standing by the side of the road.

The problem of all five is that we have a hard time accepting anyone who is not one of our own kind. A/P’s, in particular, have been marginalized to almost be considered an “endangered species.” Legitimate A/P’s are the hardest to find or identify within the Body of Christ. A/P’s by nature do not often carry the proper credentials and dislike titles like Pastor, Rev., or Dr. They aren’t usually known for their slick blogs or prolific Tweeting. When they do speak, their voices and actions make us uncomfortable. A lot of their ministry sounds like it is coming out of “left field.” Seldom do A/P’s coincide with the standard “right-wing” S/T church views. In a church not meant to have factions, A/P’s would be considered the left-wing “liberals” of the church–loved and tolerated, yes–but kind of weird, disruptive, and even dangerous for our youth! Of course, E’s in the center can go either way, depending on which side has invited them to preach!

But what is needed? What is missing from this picture? Obviously all five are important or Christ would not have given such a diverse bunch as a “gift” to His church.

I would be the first to confess all who are gifted with one of the APEPT functions/roles need to learn to listen, trust, respect, honor, and work alongside one another. We need to sit down with one another. Talk to one another. Learn from one another. Value our differences. Read books from one another’s different “camps.”

We must be clear that the “he” in verse eleven above refers to Christ, the Supreme Commander in Chief of the Church. It is not just pastors and their staffs who are charged with the responsibilities of caring for, perfecting and training the saints for the work of service. There are supposed to be FIVE cooperating service departments entrusted with duties of perfecting the saints.

Paul further clarifies the aforementioned APEPT chronology in I Corinthians 12:28-29,

And God has appointed in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers...All are not apostles, are they? All are not prophets, are they? All are not teachers, are they?

It is God himself who appoints in his church his own priority order, 1) apostles, 2) prophets, 3) teachers. Obviously missing from the Corinthian list are evangelists and pastors. My own theory is that there is a lot of overlap between apostles and evangelists and Paul joins the two into the apostolic function. Same thing goes for pastors in that their roles often coincide with those of prophesying and teaching.

I personally understand both the Ephesian 5-fold APEPT list and the order found in I Cor.12:28-29 as chronological. It is not that apostles are more important or higher in rank than prophets, but that the order in which each appear is divinely appointed by the Lord himself.

First, apostolic workers are needed to cast vision, plow ground, mobilize, plant seed, preach, water, and be present at the birth of new churches. Prophets accompany apostles every step of the way, speaking to men “for edification and exhortation and consolation.” (I Cor. 14:3)

Prophets confirm and establish that which has been laid down by apostles and “see things” from a spiritual perspective to keep us all in tune with the Spirit’s leading.

Evangelists are also part of this process and often the terms and roles are one and the same with apostles and prophets. Evangelists are especially helpful in making known the message of salvation to those who are have been engaged by the initial work of apostles and prophets.

Once there is a new group of disciples; elders, pastors, shepherds, teachers, and the rest of the I Cor. 12:28-29 list emerge. It is almost like APE's start the ball game, and PT come in and finish up, freeing the APE's to start again elsewhere. But APEPT's are always on the move. About the only static ones would be elders, but that is a subject for another post.

In conclusion, all five roles are important. All five verbs are essential. All five functions co-exist to perfect the saints for the work we have all been called to fulfill in Christ Jesus.

What are some of your thoughts on the above?