quote:I received an email today about a website that will be unveiled on October 2. It’s called House Church Resources. Reading about the new site, it is evident to me that the same marketing forces that helped destroy the integrity of the traditional churches with 40 Days of This and Purpose Driven that, are gearing up to make millions and millions of dollars on the house church movement. They’re already promoting conferences with big wig speakers who have just the right methods to have church at home. Companies are already selling books and manuals and three ring binders full of instructions on how these home churches should be run. An entire industry is emerging around the simple idea of worship away from all the hype, the fads, the church-of-what’s-happening-now stuff. I have to wonder if any of these people actually realize how silly this all is. If you’re a home church leader and you’re running to conferences to learn how to be at the top of your game, if you’re spending hundreds of dollars buying teaching DVD’s, manuals and the latest books by home church gurus, how does what your doing differ from what you supposedly left?! If your home church is hunkered down over the latest whiz-bang book by a Christian celebrity, why didn’t you just stay in a megachurch cell group and save yourself the trouble?
It’s all about money in the end. The same publishing companies that brought us the Purpose Driven Nightmare, Joel Osteen’s Best Lie Now, and a host of other revenue-generating fad books will now provide “resources” for the home church, at a price, of course. I have a proposal for anyone who is interested in worshiping humbly and with simplicity in a home setting. Stay out of Christian bookstores and online book sites. Think for yourself. Listen to the Lord’s guidance through His Word which is what gets grossly neglected when people run after the big publishers’ latest offerings. Ignore the conferences, and remember why you came home to worship in the first place. I guarantee you that it wasn’t to fill the pockets of publishing opportunists who couldn’t care less about the real call of Christ to His church.
There are a number of sites with free downloadable resources. People who really want to see the Kingdom Grow are doing so without cost. I do think we need to assist one another by sharing ideas, especially during the de-tox process. But if Lesson One, Page One isn't "Read the Word and Listen to the Spirit" everything else is "wood, hay and stubble."
Oh, God! Help! Save! Complete the work you have begun, and don't let Mammon wreck it again!
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Laurie Ann, you and Ingrid are obviously women of great passion. Good, but why so few of you? If there are tens of millions of 'us' why are there not tens of thousands of outspoken females?
Ingrid, btw, has just had her former website "removed" by her opponents. You may read about it at the above url, then to the "about me" link. All that work... deleted. That has to hurt.
Yes, there is a price for speaking out regardless of your gender. But, the price of silence is higher, in the end.
quote:Originally posted by D Anderson: Laurie Ann, you and Ingrid are obviously women of great passion. Good, but why so few of you? If there are tens of millions of 'us' why are there not tens of thousands of outspoken females?
That's a great question D, and the answer is all too simple. Women who are knock-down-drag-out-obey-whatever-the-cost types come crashing into the King James Version's "women be silent" scripture, and our culture's warped usage of it, and either are silent to avoid being called "Jezebels" or take their gifts elsewhere - becoming feminists in the process. If you are willing to literally obey, and if you are submissive to your leadership, it can be a real quandary. I have known several phenomenally gifted Bible teachers who refused to use their gifts fully. Such a loss! In two cases, their husbands wanted them to use their gifts, but their understanding of scripture prevented them.
Finding one's gifts and how to use them without the support of the fellowship is so difficult. I am very blessed to have a husband who respects my gifts, and is committed to the idea that since Paul had women apostles, surely whatever he meant by those woman scriptures, he surely didn't mean to silence half of the body of Christ! But my beloved is a rare jewel.
I would probably not have found the balance myself if I hadn't been in a "feminist church" at the tender age when my self-image was being formed. That church saw my abilities and pushed me to "become a minister", in the sense of being a feminist, anti-male clergy person. When I joined a more balanced church the Lord helped me to sort through the two extremes I had been presented (doormat or feminist), and gave me some wonderful people to counsel me on how to be a strong woman without being a rebellious wife. A daily challenge!
You have seen how I've been attacked here for having strong opinions. It won't be the first or last time, but I just hold fast to my biblical heritage of Sarah, Rebekah, Leah, Deborah, Elizabeth, Hannah and Mary Mother of Jesus.
I think the house church is in a unique position to help women discover the idea that being submissive to one's husband in one's role as a wife and being servants in the Kingdom of God are not mutually exclusive.
Felicity Dale has recently started a website on this issue. i'll send it privately to anyone interested.
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While Ingrid's remarks appear somewhat cynical it is good advice to eat of the Lord's table and not sample the delicacies of the merchants of the earth.
The merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies...The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, . . . and souls of men.
But we should never use price as an indicator of truth. Not everything free is good and not everything which costs is bad.
You know, there are many people who offer free resources who have hidden agendas. Maybe they are not motivated by money but many are motivated by power and influence. They will fund the whole thing just to reap disciples. Is the resource really free in that case? We are bargaining with our soul.
Prove all things. Test the spirit. Know them by their fruit. Trusting only the word of God as your sole authority.
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It does seem that commercializing is the begining of the downfall of just about every move of God. Azuza street, Brownsville, and I could go on and on and on, have been stopped by the hand of man. Let's face it America's God is money and man is motivated by the accumulation of money. Revivals-whatever that is suppose to be, CD's, DVD's all marketed under the pretense that the world needs to know about what is happening......is just a cover for the underlying motivation....MONEY....and that motivation cannot help but kill a true move of the Spirit of God. We must all guard ourselves because like it or not we have been brought up in America and with American philosophies.....the money motivation is in our upbring and will get us and everything that we are involved with if we do not guard our hearts....Jim
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