House Church House Keeping

I haven’t done one of these letters in a while - simply talking about miscellaneous items I have seen relating to house church (If you’re already bored, feel free to skip down to the "Just For Fun - My Favorite Recent Videos").

Books You Might Want To Consider

"Why I Left The Prophetic Movement". This booklet by Andrew Strom came to me via Nate Krupp at a recent house church leadership gathering in Bellevue, Washington. Thanks, Nate. Because Andrew was deeply involved at a leadership level in the prophetic movement, this book came as a "shot-across-the-bow" when he wrote it. In the book he basically documents and explains what many of us have felt for some time, namely, that the current "prophetic movement" has become a "movement-gone-to-seed" which exercises little or no discernment, which has become detached from it’s genuine 5-Fold role and calling, and which has become little more than an accumulation of prophetic tail-chasers who gather together for the purpose of simply hearing each other "prophesy". At its worst, it has become a movement that has fallen into "witchcraft" and "simony," seeking to use spiritual power/authority/gifts to direct, control and/or manipulate others in a manner contrary to God’s purposes, and charging people to deliver prophetic words. Like Andrew Strom, I believe in genuine prophetic ministry and have close ministry friends who have genuine, mature 5-Fold prophetic giftings. I try to seek their counsel on a regular basis and encourage them to speak into my life. But the false prophetic (along with the false apostolic) is becoming a genuine issue in the Church, including the house church movement. I recommend this book as a reminder of the importance of maintaining our balance and exercising discernment.

"Jim & Casper Go To Church". Imagine an atheist and an evangelical pastor visiting 15 of the "top" evangelical churches in America and "critiquing" them. I heard Matt Casper speak at the recent CMA Conference in Ontario and it was an eye-opening experience, along with the "What can we do to convert you?" questions from the audience. Christians can be so boringly predictable. Matt Casper’s question to Jim Henderson - the co-author of the book - sums it up best, "Am I your friend, or am I your evangelism project." Ouch! For most of us, non-Christians are simply an evangelism project . . . and they know it. The book contains many insights from an "outsider’s" perspective. Pastors treated like rock-stars; Church "sets" that look like a Steven Spielberg production and questions such as "Is this really what you think Jesus wants you to spend money on?" all contribute to an enlightening, even convicting, book. It is a worthwhile read for all of us who want a better understanding of how our Postmodern culture perceives the Christian world of "church". Pagan Christianity in all it’s splendor.

"The Starfish & The Spider". I discovered this book at last year’s CMA Conference where one of it’s authors, Ori Brafman, spoke. But I didn’t buy it then. This year I was a little more "flush" with book money, so I bought a copy and read it on the plane ride home. This really is an important book for the house church movement, even if written by an unbeliever for a secular audience. The root analogy is the difference between a starfish and a spider. Chop off the legs of a starfish and something interesting happens. Each leg becomes a new starfish. Multiplication instead of death. With a spider, however, if you chop off the legs it will die. A spider is a centrally organized creature. A starfish is a decentralized creature. What’s the message? Decentralize, push information to the margins and empower people at the margins to accomplish things without centralized control. This has numerous implications for church planting and the house church movement. Let me offer just one. There is a teaching afoot that house churches can only be planted/established by an "apostolic house church planter". While I find NO biblical support for this idea, it is being taught. The result will be two-fold. First, it will create a new clergy-laity distinction (i.e., the apostolic house church planter versus everyone else). Second, it will create a "spider" organization that is fatally vulnerable to having its legs cut off. Where this teaching is being promoted it is already generating people who are saying "I can’t start a house because I’m not an apostolic house church planter". In other words, we need the "pro" to come in and do this for us, because we can’t do this on our own. The spider is already sprouting legs.

House Church Conversations

I wanted to briefly share a couple of house church conversations I have had recently which were "eye opening" to me. The first was with my friend, Doug Spencer, a house church guy in Coeur ‘Alene, Idaho. Doug recently contacted me about a strong message which he felt the Holy Spirit had given him. We met over coffee and Doug shared how the Holy Spirit had been speaking to him and giving him both a message and a burden concerning people in church who think they are saved but are not. As we talked I felt this was a message that people needed to hear, so I suggested that we meet again and record our conversation. The result is our first "House Church Conversation" now posted on our website. You’ll find a link on the home page under "Godcast Central". Click on "House Church Conversations" and it’ll take you to a page with the link (or you can simply click here:

http://www.parousianetwork.org/MiscAudioFiles/DougSpencerMixdown.wma).

I have posted it as a Windows Media Audio (.wma) file. Your windows Media Player should fire up and play the file. I hope to have more "House Church Conversations" in the near future. Once we have a few of them posted I’ll make the effort to have them carried by itunes and other aggregators so you can automatically subscribe to them. All things in time.

The second conversation was with a staff member with Campus Crusade for Christ who is working in China among college students. He was home raising financial support and will be returning soon. We met over coffee at The Service Station. I actually recorded this conversation, but he asked that it not be broadcast. So here is my compromise. It is now available for you to listen to by clicking on the following link, but it will not be posted for public viewing (only through this link). I’ll leave the link active for a couple of weeks, after which both the link and the file will disappear. So if you want to listen in, do it soon by clicking here:

http://www.parousianetwork.org/MiscAudioFiles/ChinaConversation.wma.

Several things popped out at me during this conversation. One had to do with how growing materialism and affluence in China is beginning to have an impact on the Chinese Church, the same type of impact such things have had on the American & Western Church - distraction and complacency. I believe that the two greatest threats facing the Chinese Church are: 1) Materialism/Affluence and the many distractions if offers, and 2) the adoption of failed western church practices brought in by westerners with checkbooks (If you don’t believe me, just read "The Heavenly Man"). Another thing which struck me was this person’s answer to my question regarding religious persecution. His response was enlightening. "The authorities don’t care what you believe. They only care what you practice," he said. Believers in China, he noted, have a constitutional right to freedom of religion ("belief"), but NOT to freedom of practice. Chinese believers, he noted, can openly profess Christianity and openly read their Bibles. What they CANNOT do is meet in unauthorized gatherings such as prayer groups, Bible studies or house churches. Belief is one thing; practice is something else. I am stunned by the reality that the Communist authorities in China understand a profound truth which seems to have escaped the attention of most Western Christians: "It makes no difference what you believe, if what you believe makes no difference." You might want to re-read that last statement and allow it’s full impact to settle in. Here in the Postmodern West, traditional Christianity (primarily in its institutional expression) has been mostly written off as irrelevant by our Postmodern Culture, in large part because we "believe" a lot, but we "do" very little. Twenty five years ago Dr. Francis Schaeffer taught us that "ideas have consequences," or as the writer of Proverbs says, "as he thinks within himself, so is he" (Proverbs 23:7). Unable to stop people from thinking or believing, the Chinese government has simply forbidden people from living and/or expressing what they believe. In the West, without coercion from anyone, we have simply taught people that abstract "belief" is sufficient - it gets you into heaven, and what more could you want. We express that abstract belief in abstract church services which leave you feeling good but which don’t go anywhere. It’s enough to simply meet. If you think I’m being overly analytical or critical on this point, then you really should read "Jim & Casper Go To Church". One of Matt Casper’s (the atheist) observations in nearly EVERY church they attended and analyzed was, "When do you get around to telling people to DO things?" Allow me to quote from the book: "Casper simply could not imagine Jesus telling his followers that the most important thing they should be doing is holding church services. And yet this was the only logical conclusion he was able to come to based upon what he’d observed. If people who had never heard of Jesus wanted to see what Christians were most interested in, they would probably start their search in some of the same churches we visited. ‘If that’s where they started, they would have to conclude that Jesus’ number one priority was that Christians invest the very best of their energy and their money into putting on a huge church service - a killer show, as it were,’ said Casper. ‘Jim, is this what Jess told you guys to do?’" Ideas without consequences and belief without practice are like salt that has become tasteless (Matthew 5:13). And our culture understands that it makes no difference what you believe, if what you believe makes no difference.

Fasting To End Hunger In Spokane

Our "Fasting To End Hunger" campaign is going well, and Feed Spokane is growing. I want to thank the many of you who have told me that you are praying for me during this time. I am on my 18^th day (Saturday) as I write this. Every prolonged fast affects me differently. In the past I have had a wide array of physical symptoms. I even lost the use of my left arm once. It cleared up within a week of ending the fast. This time it’s my back. It hurts. My muscles are adjusting and the spasms are painful. I would appreciate your prayers. But beyond me, pray that God will use this time as a "challenge" to the many Christians and Churches who are watching all of this at "arms length," wondering what to make of it all. I have received several phone calls from churches wanting to get involved in helping out, but compared to the number of Churches in our area (over 500) the response has been minuscule. My prayer continues to be that God will ignite a grassroots wildfire of concern for the hungry, homeless and otherwise marginalized people in our community. As I asked a recent gathering of ministry leaders in the city, do we really think Jesus would be upset if we chose to celebrate His Resurrection this Easter by simply obeying His commands to feed, clothe, house and otherwise serve the poor of our community (a la Matthew 25:31ff). It makes no difference what you believe (about the resurrection) if what you believe makes no difference in the lives of "the least of these".

To Conference or Not To Conference; That Is The Question!

While I was at the CMA Conference in Ontario a couple of weeks ago I had time to talk with Neil Cole, Wolfgang Simson and Neil Gamble about coming to Spokane in July (preferably late July, as I have a family obligation in North Carolina the first 2 weeks of July) to do a house church/organic church conference. All three men are graciously willing to put us on their schedule and come. However, upon reflection, I am conflicted. The haunting question is, "Why come?". Wolfgang Simson was here 3 years ago, and quite frankly, I don’t see that anything has changed since then. No reflection on Wolf. The problem seems to be here. We "believe" but we don’t "do". Apparently, it makes no difference what we here in Spokane believe about simple house church, because what we here in Spokane believe about simple house church doesn’t seem to be making any perceptible difference. Neil Cole put it this way: "Spokane is a very prophetic area where everyone wants to prophesy, but no one ever does anything." I was taken aback when Neil said this, not because he was wrong, but because he had absolutely NAILED a significant part of our problem. Allow me to state it differently, "It makes no difference what you prophesy, if what you prophesy makes no difference"!

So, I am publicly conflicted and want your input. Quite frankly, I am NOT inclined to invite them to come, UNLESS at least two things take place. First, I want a clear indication from everyone involved that the purpose of such a gathering would be 1) to train & equip house church planters for doing the work, 2) to actually plant new house churches, and 3) to encourage and challenge the growth and multiplication of existing house churches. Second, I want a clear indication by everyone who is genuinely interested in seeing this happen to financially underwrite the event. Arrangements need to be made, tickets would need to be purchased, traveling expenses covered, etc. We do not have the financial resources to do this alone, and without a strong up-front financial commitment by you, it simply isn’t going to happen. So, there you have it. I would like to hear from you (use the "REPLY" function in your e-mail to respond). What I hear will largely determine what we do.

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The CMA Conference

Yep, I just got back late Sunday night from the CMA (Church Multiplication Associates) Organic Church Conference in Ontario, California. It was a good conference (as always, Neil Cole & his team always do top-drawer stuff. No surprise there!). It was good to see old house church friends, get caught up and get challenged. My fasting time made it somewhat awkward around meal times, but after 12 years of this I've come to accept it as one of the prices for obedience. If you have opportunity to get some of the session or workshop CDs I would encourage you to do so.

But my biggest experience took place on the airplane on my way to the conference. Yep, if you read my newsletters you already know that these things tend to happen to me on the way to conferences. Don't volunteer to travel with me unless you want God to teach you a lesson along the way! Hmmm. Something going on there. As I flew out of Spokane I decided to spend the one hour trip to Portland by having devotions. I chose to read a familiar passage that God has impressed on me over the past year (Matthew 25:31-46), but this time I decided to spot-translate it out of the Greek. So I pulled my Reader's Greek New Testament out of my backpack and began to read. And that's when it happened. Before I finished the passage I found myself weeping. And, I suppose, that needs an explanation.

Now, mind you, Greek can bring a person to tears for several reasons. It tends to happen frequently among first year Greek students, especially when confronted by a Greek teacher who calls them to the front of the class, hands them a quarter and says, "Call home and tell your parents you'll never be a Greek scholar." Yep, that'll do it. But this was different. As I read the Greek text and began to appreciate the nuances of what I found there, I began to sense the Holy Spirit convicting me of how poorly I had understood this passage before now. Left to our own devices we all tend to interpret Scripture in that way which best suits or agrees with our preconceived understanding of the world. Yes, sometimes we only see what we want to see. It takes a fresh illumination by the Holy Spirit, giving us new perspective and allowing us to see what was always there. I don't want to belabor this point, or bore you with a Bible study which is only meaningful to me, but I want to briefly share just a few of these "new" (new-to-me) insights:

Insight # 1: This passage isn't a "parable" but a description. Parables were illustrated stories drawn from everyday life, which both revealed and concealed spiritual truth. Some of them were downright hard to understand without explanation. Just ask the Disciples who were constantly asking Jesus, "What did you mean?" That isn't the case here. This passage a description of what is going to happen to us on the Day of Judgment as Jesus ("the Son of Man") comes in glory and sits "on His glorious throne". To spend endless word studies on the significance of a "throne" and what it means is to miss the point. It's judgment day and Jesus is on His throne. Simple & straightforward . . . even in the Greek. We're about to be judged, and the question we should be asking is, "Judged for what?"

Insight # 2: We are trapped by our "religious vocabulary". I saw this in Verse 34 in the phrase "blessed of My Father". The word "blessed" conjures up "religious" feelings and notions among professing believers. As Christians we then tend to throw around the word "blessing" without ever thinking about it beyond how religious and spiritual it makes us feel. The Greek word (eulogeo) simply means "to speak well of" someone or something. Really want to "bless" me? Stop talking about me behind my back and begin to "speak well" of me instead. So, let me ask you a question: Do you want to be 'spoken well of' by God on judgment day? If you do, then you might want to pay attention to the rest of this passage, because it sets forth the terms and conditions for that to happen. O.K., at this point you might be asking yourself, "What's the alternative to being spoken well of by God". We find that in verse 41: "Then He will also say to those on His left, 'Depart from me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire . . .". There it is. The alternative to being spoken well of by God is to be told to "go away" and to be called "accursed" by that same God. Now, if you can find a positive way to "spin" being told by God to "go away from Me" and being called "accursed" (not to mention the whole "eternal fire" part) knock yourself out. I can't.

Insight # 3: God's concern is our concern. In verse 36 I was struck by the phrase "you visited me". The Greek word episkeptomai - from the root skeptomai referring to a watch, a sentry - is where we get our word "skeptic". The prefix epi serves to intensify the meaning of the root. It means to examine something very closely. When applied to relationships it carries the force of "to show such concern for someone's welfare that you go looking for them and check on their condition". When was the last time you were so concerned for someone who was hungry, naked (poorly clothed), a stranger (lonely), sick, imprisoned or otherwise marginalized that you went out of your way to seek them out, find them and check on their welfare.

Insight # 4: Fattening people up is a good thing. Over my years of reading Greek (started in college) I've come to appreciate some of the nuances of the language. For example, in verse 37 we read "Lord, when did we see you hungry (i.e., in a continual state of being hungry) and feed you." The Greek word "feed" (trepho) means "to fatten, to pamper, to rear, to bring up, to nourish". This isn't simply feeding hungry people. This is pampering them with food to the point of fattening them up! Want an illustration of what's going on here? Think of the sitcom "Everybody Loves Raymond" where Ray's Italian mother (Marie) is constantly forcing food on him, "You're looking pale, son. Let me fix you something to eat." For Marie, food wasn't simply food. It was a way of expressing genuine love and concern. Because I feed 30-40 men at a local homeless men's shelter every Thursday night, one of my first tasks when I arrived home from the CMA Conference was to go on my weekly "food hunt". I called one of my local food sources. When she informed me that she had a dozen beef roasts I nearly dropped the phone. "I'll meet you in 20 minutes and pick them up," I blurted out. Cooked for about 36 hours in BBQ sauce these roasts will fall apart into pulled beef BBQ sandwiches. Add a couple pans of small red potatoes and mixed vegetables and the guys will be eating well Thursday night. When I cook, I want them to eat as well at the shelter as I do at home . . . sometimes even better. Why? Because I think that's what Jesus meant when he said "When I was hungry you fed me."

Insight # 5: When did that become my ministry? The insights I've shared so far were powerful and I was deeply struck by them. But they really didn't prepare me for what came next. I found it at the end of verse 44. In the English it reads, "When did we see you . . . . and not take care of you". In the Greek, the phrase "take care of you" is the word diakoneo (yes, we get our word "deacon" from this one). This word means "to wait on or serve someone, to act as a deacon, to minister". Again, because we often get trapped in our religious vocabulary, words like "deacon" or "serve," we miss the force of what is really being said. What these people (i.e., the goats) were asking Jesus was simply this, "When did feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the prisoner, seeing to the sick; when did these things become my ministry, Lord?" Haven't you ever asked that same question? Of course you have. And here is the answer: These things became your ministry the day you decided that you wanted to be well spoken of by God on the Day of Judgment. (Ouch! That one's going to leave a mark!).

Insight # 6: This stuff is important enough to have eternal consequences. For a growing number of professing Christians today, Christianity is increasingly becoming a spiritual form of no-fault car insurance; no one gets blamed for anything and it all gets fixed in the end. Just pay your premium (tithing?) and life will be good. Historically speaking, whenever the Church has lost it's sense of the eternal consequences of it's actions or non-actions, missions has died (i.e., don't worry about the lost cause they'll all get saved eventually by a loving God) and eventually the Church has died. Missions and the Christian life are inextricably tied to consequences. Get over it. When we read this passage (Matthew 25:31-46) we are (at least I was) confronted with a stark reality. Our actions or in-actions have eternal consequences. I see this particularly in verses 41-46. The word "eternal" (Greek: aionios) occurs three times in this passage. The word can mean "eternal" or simply "a long-but-limited period of time". But it can't mean both things in the same sentence (I'll talk about that in a moment). The first occurrence (verse 41) refers to "the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels." Whatever this "eternal fire" is, it was originally prepared by God for Satan and that portion of the angelic host which rebelled against God before the creation of the world and were booted out of heaven. God determined and prepared their punishment (i.e., the lake of fire, see Revelation 20:11-15) before man ever came on the scene. But when mankind rebelled in Adam & Eve in the Garden, mankind became subject to the same punishment for its rebellion as Lucifer & his followers were subjected to for theirs - the eternal fire. The question inevitably arises whether this punishment is eternal or temporary. That issue is resolved in verse 46, "And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." As I said before, the word aionios cannot mean two different things in the same sentence, especially when used as a comparative value. To put this in simple terms: the punishment (whatever it may be; fire, separation, etc.) is as eternal as the life; or the life must be as temporary as the punishment. You can't have it both ways. Consistency is a basic principle of hermeneutics (the art of biblical interpretation). Once we grasp the reality of eternity, we must next grasp the reality that this stuff (feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, welcoming the stranger, visiting the prisoner, attending the sick, reaching out to the marginalize) and how we respond to it has eternal consequences. Personally, I want to be spoken well of by God on the Day of Judgment, and if it requires the fear (or attraction) of eternal consequences to make that happen and to jolt me out of my sense of "no-fault-insurance-Christianity", well, so be it.

House Church Reflections From A Beach On Maui Yep. We’re back. For those of you who have been “out of the loop”, my wife & I spent just over a week in Maui. The trip was the gift of a house church friend whose family lives there and does property development on the island. For a week we had a lovely condo in Kihei to ourselves along with a car (a Mustang convertible, if you must know). It took us three days just to “unwind” and realize we were really there and had nothing we “need to do”. We found a nice stretch of beach to sit on, attended a luau (I was disappointed that there was no “boar’s tooth ceremony” like in South Pacific, but hey, it was good), ate too much and did nothing for 7 whole days! Yep, its been a while and we were in serious need of this. Mahalo, Doug.

One should always be careful what one takes to read while on vacation. My wife took a copy of “The Heavenly Man,” the story of Brother Yun of the Chinese house church movement. I took my copy of “The Shaping of Things To Come” by Frost and Hirsch. It can be a dangerous combination, two convicting books and too much time on your hands to read and think about them. And that’s where I found myself. Somewhere between a Mai Tai and a Piña Colada (O.K., no cheap shot jokes. I’m confessing here, so cut me some slack), I had a realization which cut me to the quick. “The Heavenly Man” is an inside account of the Chinese house church movement as seen through the life experience of one man who was (is) one of its distinctive leaders. From this book I came away with the deep realization that the Chinese house church movement is essentially a missionary movement made up of martyrs who have counted the cost and chosen to pay it. Frost and Hirsch make the point that the western church is an institution that needs to become a missionary movement. And there’s the contrast between west and east. It is the contrast between a missionary movement of martyrs and an institution of consumers in search of a mission. Just to add guilt to our sense of conviction, the Chinese house church movement has made a commitment to take the gospel “Back to Jerusalem”. And what lies between China and Jerusalem? Ninety percent (90%) of the Muslim world. That’s right. The Chinese church has chosen the path of missions and martyrdom, and they know it. The western church, on the other hand, has chosen to take the gospel “Back to Starbucks”. What lies between us and Starbucks? Every WalMart in town. The “good news” is that if our Starbucks strategy fails, we can always open a Café in the Church lobby and declare “mission accomplished” (O.K., in the interest of honesty and “full disclosure,” I am writing this while sitting at a Christian Café sipping my overpriced "caffè e latte"). Brother Yun’s observations regarding the western Church are poignant and heart breaking (he and his family are now German citizens - a long story you’ll read iin the book). One of his first experiences in the western church was to be attacked by “bible teachers from California” who attacked him and called him a fraud, a hoax and a stool pigeon for the Chinese government. I suppose that’s what the church of Laodicea does when rudely and unceremoniously aroused from its slumber. We’re a surly bunch when our comfort levels are challenged by authentic believers who have lived lives of little or no comfort. As you can probably discern, the combination of Brother Yun’s story and Frost & Hirsch’s observations regarding the “post-Christendom” church (read the book) touched me very deeply. They forced me to ask questions about myself and about the House Church movement of which I am a part. Questions like, “What are we doing? Why are we meeting? What’s our mission? Where are we going?” Because you and I are a house church or a simple church doesn’t mean we have avoided the pitfall of being “an institution in search of a mission.” The deadly spiritual calcification of institutionalism can occur among 12 people meeting in a living room just as easily as among 1,200 people meeting in an auditorium. Is it occurring among you?

While we were in Maui a couple of other things happened of note. First, one morning the Holy Spirit woke me up at around 4:45 in the morning to pray. As I sat in the early morning quiet of the condo, praying and watching the sunrise, the Lord spoke very clearly: “I am going to give My Church an Isaiah 6 experience of my holiness.” The word was as clear as any I have ever received. The reference, of course, is to the prophet Isaiah’s vision of God in the temple found in Isaiah 6:1-6. I’ll have more to say on this passage in an up-coming e-letter, but for now, let me make this observation. Isaiah 6:1-6 tells us four critical things which each of us needs to know: 1) It tells us who God is, 2) it tells us who we are in relation to Him; 3) it tells us what He has done for us; 4) it tells us what we are to do in response. To summarize, it was Isaiah’s dramatic encounter with the holiness/fear of God which led to his obedience.

The other item of note while we were in the islands was a personal visit to the Arizona Memorial on Oahu outside of Pearl Harbor. As an amateur history buff who has read Gordon Prange’s definitive history of the events leading up to Pearl Harbor (“At Dawn We Slept”) several times, this was a “personal pilgrimage” for me. It felt like the closure of a chapter. There are actually three memorials there. The first is the Arizona. The second is the battleship Missouri, on whose decks the Instruments of Surrender were signed in Tokyo bay, ending the war in the Pacific. The third is the U.S.S. Bowfin, a submarine which saw action in the Pacific. Walking through the “garden” of memorial markers to submarine crews which were lost in action (often with no trace) with the inscription “Eternally On Patrol” was a thought provoking and somber experience that cannot help but cause one to reflect.

Memorials are markers created by one generation in the hope of reminding future generations of what happened and why. Like stones placed and left in the river Jordan by the Israelites, they are intended to cause future generations to ask: “What mean these stones?” Civilizations and people are known by their “memorial stones.” But memorials are just that - memorials. The Arizona was once a battleship. But no longer. The Missouri was once a battleship. But no longer. If war should break out, neither would be of any use. There is a lesson here that dawned on me as I spent a long morning reflecting on all that I saw. Physical warfare mirrors spiritual warfare in many ways. Physical memorials mirror a spiritual reality in many ways too. The best I can do is to sum it up like this: Our history is our heritage, but it is not our destiny. The warfare of our generation, spiritually speaking, is quite different from the warfare of our fathers and grandfathers. Let me explain what I mean. For a time after I wrote my book on the Welsh revival of 1904, I would receive e-mails periodically from people proclaiming how they were going to return to Evan Roberts’ home church (the Moriah Calvinistic Methodist Church in Loghour) and “re-dig the wells of revival.” Simply put, this is spiritual nonsense. In the present day spiritual contest for revival and spiritual awakening, one can no more “re-dig the wells of revival” to achieve spiritual victory than one could raise the Arizona and send it into battle today to win the war against terrorism. The Arizona, along with the Missouri and the Bowfin, represent our history and our heritage, but neither represent nor can make a meaningful contribution to our destiny, except for the lessons which they embody. And that is the purpose of a memorial - to remind and to teach.

O.K., time to wrap this up. Like generals accused of building present plans around the last war, much of the church is looking to past awakenings and past structures for the future, as if history and heritage are our destiny. But just as the era of the battleship is over, Frost and Hirsch argue that the day of institutional Christendom is also over. It represents our history and our heritage, but not our destiny. In the spiritual battle of our age, and the spiritual awakening which is unfolding, the River of God’s Spirit is going to flow, not from old wells which have been re-dug, but through new channels like simple house churches which He is sovereignly raising up. New vessels to reach a new generation. God’s will along with our spiritual destiny is always ahead of us, never behind us. It is time to leave the old wells behind, to move beyond the memorial stones of past battles, and to cross over into the new thing God has for us. The River of God is looking for new vessels to fill. Are you and the simple church in your house a vessel He can use?