House Church Talk - Re: Vol 3, Issue 119: Good Report on Jonathan Lindvall!

[Thomas Shou]

Message: 2
> Date: Sat, 24 Apr 2004 16:57:10 -0500
> From: "Janet Murphy" <dreamgirl at indy.rr.com>
> Subject: Re: House Church Talk -  Look who Jesus Chose
> To: "House Church Talk" <House Church Talk  at housechurch.org>
> Message-ID: <001901c42a47$197725e0$6501a8c0 at indy.rr.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> Claire ~
> I have really been enjoying your posts.  Well thought out, and I 
don't
find
> you faulty of having an axe to grind.
>
> It kinda sounds like though if you actually meet Jonathan Lindvall, 
et al,
> people have a different take on things.  David Anderson seems to 
think
> things are cool, as well as Dan Beaty.  I highly esteem both of these
dudes.
>
> So, I'm wondering......do we all look different on paper, as opposed 
to an
> actual encounter in the flesh???  Does that tell us anything?  
Inquring
> minds want to know :-)
>
> Also, for David....you mentioned something about changing your 
opinions on
> women being silent?  Does that mean they should or shouldn't remain
silent?
>
> Have a good weekend!  I've enjoyed reading all the posts on this 
thread!
>
> janet
> www.janetmurphy.net

Hi Claire & Janet,
 
This is bro Thomas Shou from Palo Alto, CA -- been meeting in homes for over 2 years now and personally met David, Dan and now....Jonathan L! (more later...)
 
Dear Clair, 
Been wanting to put in my very positive 2 cents about our dear bro Jonathan Lindvall for while now along with the good reports of my dear bro David, Dan, Cliff...since I heard your concerns about some of this teaching on woman, etc. This teaching is no doubt a hot potatoe in HC circles, esp since there are some who really practice it I heard....incl Jon's gathering. When I heard about his teaching on this issue, it also was a concern of mine...since in general, I tried to avoid any "issue"-centered HCs vs. those who were simply content to gather unto the wonderful sufficiency of the Lord Jesus Himself! But my first correspondence with him over a year ago was wonderful where he warmly invited me to come visit his group in Springville and he also confirmed the importance of seeing each of our "HC gatherings" as simply part of the Lord's heart for the entire city-wide/local church in our city/community to be one church with one administration, as evidenced by "elders in every city"
 (Titus 1:5), which means all the elders in the church gatherings in that city were talking with each other! Thru this insight, I knew that our bro had a very open and generous spirit towards the whole Body and knew the Scriptures well! Unfortunately, since he lived hours away from us, we never made the trip down.
 
BUT, the Lord had his own wonderful timing as I finally met him face2face at his last HC Seminar up here recently.Claire I urge you go check out one of his seminars and meet him in person with your issues or email or call him up at 559-539-0500. He is a wonderfully kind, open-hearted, well-versed bro who just loves His Shepherd with all his heart and wants to obey His word-- no other agenda I felt. Here's a few stories:
 
At the 1-day HC Seminar, I was immediately refreshed by seeing him and another HC bro simply sitting on chairs with their open bibles and conversing with the rest of us in folding chairs in a very friendly, conversational, family style, like a kind elder speaking to younger ones...the whole time they sat at our level and fellowshipped with us....he's extremely down-to-earth approachable, no "I'm the preacher and got the truth and gonna tell you how God wants you to do HC" tone....at all! Just sweet reasonability and revelation from Scripture mixed with lotsa real life experience and examples! There was 2-way interaction too, just by the way he was fellowshipping with us, as well as time for Q & A at the end.....
 
Our brief time of fellowship led to our mutual desire to see each other again at our home gathering on Sun morn!  He brought his wife and two oldest boys and we had a sweet time of Sp-led fellowship and singing and meating! I believe he is one of those rare elders and workers (he is a full-time homeschool/hc speaker) who truly has learned how to be just a simple brother among brothers vs. a " one of those Capital B Brothers"...He had no special "women" or "homeschool" agenda of any kind, just a simple elder brother  who loves the Lord and His Word. He even lightly rebuked me for asking him to share more in our gathering that day, cuz he absolutely did not want to be "the speaker" in our midst, since he doesn't believe that's what the meeting of the church should be about, as seen in I Cor 14 where "each one has!". He had no desire to be special or different, just be there with us and contrib like anyone else! He even told me that in his gatherings, he rarely speaks over 5 minutes!
 (so not to set a bad example for the other brothers) He shared with us about the importance of "active" waiting on the Lord to hear His voice and the need to be a balanced believer who both loves God's voice and His written Word! Our brother is such a living example of that balance in my eyes. Also...he absolutely did not impose any hc agenda (woman/homeschool issues) on our gathering. The sisters in our gathering shared freely, as they composed half of the saints that morning.
 
My policy is NEVER judge a person by what they say or don't say, but WHO they are in person. THAT is the problem with writing/email/websites, etc....the thing with text is that it tends to get written in stone, BUT fortunately or (unfortunately at times), people change and learn new things from the Lord over time.
 
Let us measure others as Jesus did: "Therefore by their fruits, you shall know them."
(Mt 8:20). I hope to visit the church in Springville soon!
 
Claire and anyone else here, I hope you can take the time to contact or meet my brother in person. And I hope to be able to meet you in person sometime too. where do you hail from and what is your "hc" story?
 
love,
Thomas in hot Palo Alto, CA




		
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