"Believing with liberty"

Imagine what it would be like to think for yourself. Imagine what would happen if you were given the opportunity to start fresh without any outside criticism. I believe that it's possible to change the way we believe but not necessarily what we believe.

And you may ask what the point of changing the way I believe is.

I feel that we as believers and lovers of God are trained and molded in the image of our mentors. Now that in itself in not a bad thing. But I believe that in time we begin to heretically stand upon theologies and dogmas that were handed down by our fathers in Christ and not necessarily Christ Himself. I have come to realize that the wars of religion are fought upon our fundamentalism. We have passed Christ in our pursuit to achieve greatness and we have laid aside all that was pure and honest. We have separated ourselves from one another for the sake of keeping our God in a tidy little box.

We are forced these days to agree with the mainstream beliefs of our fundamental brothers and sisters. And if we bite the hand that feeds us we might as well forget about the influence we could have made to the people listening.

I am here to say, screw that. There is a movement of believers today that are fed up with the status quo that our founders once taught us, just as they were with their fathers in the faith. The time has passed in which we are to stand upon the foundation of Christ alone, putting away all dogmas that once held us down. The time has come to say we will not follow any longer but now we will be leaders into new and fresh breaths of the Spirit of God.

My friends, may we lay aside all that once bound us down by the distinctives of our denominations. May we walk in a way that brings liberty to our thinking and believing. There is an awesome way of living fully for Christ and not for the institutions that surround us. Let us seek first the Spirit of Christ and there we will find true, lasting liberty to all the ways we think and believe.

"What is the point of church [part 2]"

Most people think that by going to church you are racking up points with God. It's as if God is in heaven waiting for you and when you get there He is going to give you all your rewards for sticking it out every dreadful Sunday morning. "At least if I go to church than God is pleased with my sacrifice," that's what some might say.

I believe that a lot of people in this generation have it all wrong for their reasons of going to church. They say, "Well, my parents go so I figure it's the right thing to do," or they say, "we can't forsake the assembling of the brethren." It's true also in today's church world that if you miss a week here or there people get a bit worried as if you might be backsliding.

While there are many shallow reasons for going to church, I do believe that there are many valid reasons for the body of Christ to gather on a regular basis. Last time, we talked about the desire to "belong" and that belonging to a body gives us comfort and joy knowing we are part of something and we are known and wanted. There is also other reasons why we as Christians love to be part of the body of Christ and one of those reasons is a sense of "Security". Not only do we desire to belong but we also love the feeling of being secure.


1st Security:
Now there are two types of security we feel when we are involved or taking part in a church service. First, the security we feel is a physical security. When we gather we experience a freedom from risk or danger giving us a sense of safety. It seems that when we engage in a worship service we do not sense any feeling of uncertain danger from anyone or anything, it's as if the Holy Spirit provides a surrounding atmosphere and a certainty in the minds of the gathered believers. We know that as lovers of God, while we are together, gathering in fellowship, we are sure He is protecting us. It's just as a father protects his children when they are in his presence.

Now, of course we do not need to meet together to feel security from Christ but the point of the article is concerning gathering as believers to be what we call the church. So please, don't misunderstand me. I feel secure much of the time when I am out of fellowship just because I know that God holds the world in His hands, it's just that I feel that when we gather, something supernatural happens. The only problem being is that our frailty gets in the way and we mess everything up. If we just let God be God and believers be believers, than we have an amazing church with much power.


2nd Security:
The second security we feel is much better than the first if you want my opinion. Not only do we feel a sense of physical safety when we gather but most importantly we feel a spiritual security. When we gather together we experience a freedom from doubt, anxiety, or fear, giving us a sense of confidence. Isn't it true, when you enter a church that you frequent, you feel the weight of the world lifted from your heart of hearts. Isn't it true, when you talk and pray with others within your church community that you forget of the realities in the real world. Now where does that come from, that sense of security? It seems that something supernatural happens when we come together as the body of Christ. Jesus says that where two or more are gathered in my name, there I am. Jesus surrounds us, Jesus comforts us, Jesus secures us. There are healing's(seen and unseen), there are miracles(seen and unseen), there are times of salvation(seen and unseen) during these gatherings and Christ is the maker of them all.

Seemingly, if these things don't happen when you meet together than I would suggest that there is something missing. Either, man has come in and made it a show, tradition has drowned out all that was real, or the Holy Spirit of God no longer resides in such a place. If that is the situation my prayers are with you and you can be confident and secure in Christ knowing that; this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him. (1 john 5:14-15)


You see, many days I have woke in the morning with a feeling of anxiety. I begin to pray and it subsides, but only a little. I then open the Scriptures, and a little more, the anxiety goes but there still remains a small amount. But it's when I find myself walking into that place, where we as a body have set apart to gather as the church, that I feel it subside entirely. It's where I go to find peace among the storm, it's the place I hide when the rains come, and it's under those wings of Christ's body that I find "security" like no other.

Security...
It's just another point to the point of Church.

Not "Emergent" but emerging...

I am not Emergent but I do believe that I am emerging. I am not a fundamentalist but I do believe that the Bible is without error. I feel uncomfortable at church but I can't stop going. I love Jesus but I can't stand most believers.

Now, my question is this, am I alone? I don't think so.

I accepted Christ during the new year of 1997. A chaplain was sharing about Jesus and about the "Last Days," towards the end he asked if anyone would like to say the sinners prayer. I was willing. I do not think it was the prayer that day that made me one with Christ but I believe it was a realization that Jesus was real and that I was in need of a savior. After that day my life would change forever and it has never been the same.

I began to attend a church called Calvary Church in Grants Pass, Or., it was a former Calvary Chapel disaffiliated because of a difference in dispensational thought. I was so new to the faith that I loved anything and everything that had to do with Jesus. I was a zealot without meekness and I believe that I pushed more people away from the gospel than I did bringing them near.

However, I also attended a church called Applegate Christian Fellowship in Ruch, Or.. There the head Pastor Jon Courson was in his 20th year of pasturing that church in the Applegate Valley. I began to grow as a believer and as a follower of Christ while under the teaching of Jon and I loved the atmosphere of that church and I still do to this day. It is a church that I believe almost any follower of Jesus could feel conformable in some fashion. That is absolutely not true with the majority of churches I have frequented in the past.

As the years went on I began to attend Calvary Chapel Grants Pass in 1998. The first service I attended had about 20 people in attendance. I loved the intimacy of the smaller church and the genuine relations that I had with many of the members at the time. Also the pastor was young and fiery which appealed to me. As most Calvary's do this church began to grow. That's when I received the call to attend Bible College and because I was a Calvary guy I applied to attend Calvary Chapel Bible College in Southern California.

In September of 1999 I began my first semester as a student at CCBC. It was at this time that I began to develop a foundation in fundamentalism. During the first 2 years of my walk with Jesus I studied deeply the gifts of the spirit, eschatology(end times), and fasting and prayer. Never was I concerned with "once saved always saved", "bible validity", "hermeneutics", or any other subjects that were non essential. I just figured that God was God and I was not. I was not worried at the time to win the lost world to Christ. Sure I shared my faith but only when it was necessary.

It wasn't until I was trained up in the way of a fundamentalist that I began to be dogmatic in all I thought and believed. After college I was given the opportunity to be a worship leader and then later an assistant pastor at Calvary of Grants Pass, Or. It was there that I toned my skills of being a right winged bible thumper that never gave anyone a chance to be real. Primarilly because I was a pastor and a dogmatic fundamental one at that.

Then that is when it started.

I began to see what the ministry life was all about. I began to see what really went on behind the scenes. I wish I would have never known but I am glad that now I see from a insiders perspective. I don't believe that Christ meant for His church to be the way it is today. Oh how corrupt the church of man has become; will we ever learn?

When I saw the church for what it was that's when I was introduced to the emerging church that we see and hear about today. Little by little I began to question what was not exposed to be questioned. Like, what it was to be a Christian, or what it really meant to be saved, or why we do church this way or that, or what is the point of a Seinor Pastor anyway. These questions will rarely come up within a fundamentalist ideology. They are never considered because Fundies have it all figured out.

However, although I am emerging I do not agree entirely with the "Emergent Church". That is why it has become a conversation with questions rising up without necessarily needing an answer. I would like to distinguish that I believe there is a difference between the "Emergent Church" and the "emerging church". The "Emergent" is headed by a select few chosen from within the confines of conversation, which is fine. They are becoming a church within themselves and a denomination if they like it or not. And I cannot entirely support their views on theology just like I can't with almost every movement within Chrsitianity. Thank God we are given a choice to believe what we believe.

On the other hand I see another church and another movement. I believe birthed from the early conversation of the "Emergent" but is now becoming a church and movement with no other leader than Jesus Christ himself. There is a global cry not for "Emergent" but for an emerging generational church that is beyond human control and thought.

Within the next few years we will see the "emerging church" birth new and refreshing bodies throughout the world, even as we already have. These people of the emerging generation are not about rethinking theology entirely but rather re-defining Christianity as it relates to our generation.

We believe church changes with each and every generation, we believe His word to be true, and we believe that Christ is the center of all that we are and we seek to know Him. We are an emerging generation...are you in?