Radical Church Restoration: A Review by David Flowers

You may have noticed my list of "Books Worth Reading" has been updated recently. You may also notice the majority of these books are books by Frank Viola. What you may not be aware of is that these books were written as a series on Radical Church Restoration. With the September release of "Finding Organic Church," the series is now complete.

I have wanted to say something about these books for a long time, but do not consider myself to be very adept in "book reviewing." But do not fear! There are those who possess this rare ability and have graciously shared their talent with the masses at various points in history. One such person is David D. Flowers. Mr. Flowers, who has his own blog, has recently posted a most beneficial review of the entire series on said blog. His review may also be found in the customer reviews for the book "Finding Organic Church."

I highly recommend the entire series as it has been the most impacting set of books in my life. To get a better understanding of what the series is about, read the review by David D. Flowers. To order the complete series at a deep discount (along with audio CDs from Frank Viola) visit the ReChurch Library on Frank Viola's website. I would also suggest following Frank Viola's very own blog, where he discusses organic church, the centrality & supremacy of Jesus, and various other topics relevant to the eternal purpose of God and the Church.

In Pursuit of God's Purpose and Passion.

Frank Viola Writes About "Postchurch" Thoughts

Recently Frank Viola wrote an article that was featured on Christianity Today's blog, Out of Ur, that deals with a "new" mentality (and vocabulary) being expressed by some who have left the institutional church system. I found this article to be very helpful for me and those I gather with.

One of the reasons I found it to be so helpful is because Frank addresses some of the very things we went through at one point in time. Some of the language being used as well as some of the thoughts or ideas that Frank argues against in his article were some of the very thoughts and language that we either were wrestling with or actually using in our conversations early on in our journey outside of the institutional church. As we have been processing through this journey we have prayed, read, gathered together, talked and examined so much. It is such a blessing to have others who have been on this journey longer, who have more experience in it, and who are willing to share what they've learned and are continuing to learn along the way.

So I figured, if we struggled with this there are probably others struggling with this as well and would benefit from hearing what Frank has brought to the table. You can find his published article in two parts. Part one is HERE and part two is HERE. You can find the entire article, prior to being edited for publishing HERE (this is a PDF file).

For those of you who are on this journey, I would encourage you to seek the Lord about what His purpose is and what His passion is for because in finding His purpose and passion we will find our purpose and what we should be passionate about as well.

Desiring to be a living stone, built together with other living stones for God's purpose and passion,
Tob

90 Days

If everything goes according to plan in 90 days there will be some big differences in my life, health wise. Have you ever heard of P90X? Today is day one. Today I start the transformation. Pictures will be taken (probably not posted) of what I look like before going through the P90X workout and pictures will be taken (possibly will be posted) of what I will look like after completing the P90X workout. 90 days.

My goal is to slim down, get in shape and tone up. In the last 2 months I've lost 20 lbs with the help of a metabolic enhancer and changing my eating habits, riding a bike and swimming with my kids. I could stand to lose about 25 or 30 lbs more. The thing I've never been motivated to do is get in shape or tone up. I've always had the desire, but have lacked the motivation. Being over weight doesn't make it easy to do things to get in shape, but that can't be an excuse any longer. My mind is made up and I'm going to see it through to day 90! I'm sure I'll post more about it as the days go by. Can't wait to see the difference!


Live the Revolution. Be the Church.

A New Way To Live

A while back I said I would hopefully give an update in regards to where we are (as a family) spiritually speaking and what we are up to these days. So at long last, here it is.

(For ease of communicating and for clarification purposes please note that the word Church with a capital "C" is speaking of the Church or Body of Christ as a whole meaning the people of God, the word church with a lower-case "c" is speaking of buildings, institutions, and/or organizations. There is no derogatory intention in making this distinction, just trying to communicate as clearly as possible. Thanks for understanding and sharing in grace.)

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Our Family's Journey
In March 2009, my family and I stepped away from the mentality and lifestyle of going to church to wholeheartedly pursue community life. Some people call it Simple Church/Organic Church/House Church. In fact we used those terms early on in this journey because it was the only terminology known to us at the time. Now we don't really call it anything, we just strive to live it out as a new way of life.

What does this new life look like?

Here are a few brief descriptions to get the wheels turning:

• We believe we are all called as ministers unto the Lord and each other, each of us has the opportunity to live that truth out when we are together, using the gifts God has given us through the Holy Spirit. As a result, there are no distinctions between ministers and non-ministers. There are no paid salaries, professional ministers, or staff.
  

• We are a community of Jesus followers, seeking to gather under the headship of Christ, and live shared lives together.

• We believe and seek to flesh out this truth, that we, the followers of Jesus, are the Church, the body of Christ, whenever and where ever we gather together. What we do/how we live is not run like a business, and there are no buildings to maintain. We gathering simply, in homes, at restaurants, coffee shops, parks, etc.
  

This is not all there is to it, but these statements are a few specific descriptions as to what this new way of life looks like.

So, you've started a new church in Altus, you're just calling it something different like house church or organic church right?

The answer to that question is a resounding, NO!

As I said before, in some of our earlier days we used terminology like house church or organic church because those were the only terms that were known to us at the time. We are seeking to live out this new life of being the Church. We don't believe we are starting anything new because the Church in Altus already exists. It has been around for a long time. The Church in Altus can be found in various places around town, as has been the case for decades. Some of the places you can find the Church in Altus would include places like the Protestant churches and Catholic churches around town. I would dare say you could probably find the Church in Altus in homes, on golf courses, in stores and at restaurants. My point is this, every true follower of Jesus here in Altus, regardless of how they do church life is part of the Church in Altus, and the Church in Altus was here long before we got here and will, no doubt, be here long after we are gone. We are seeking to live out this new life (new mentality and lifestyle) of being the Church in a shared community life.

What were some of your reasons for stepping away from what you were doing to pursue this?

My family and I started to experience the fulfillment of a longing that was deep within us when we started gathering with other followers of Jesus outside of church services and events (read the "Thoughts On Church" section HERE). The longing is to share community life centered around Jesus and his purpose in our lives with other followers of Jesus. When we started to experience this it was like finding a part of us that had been missing all along. The impact of living a shared community life was changing our lives in ways we had not experienced before.

One of the other things we started noticing is that we also started connecting with people who didn't attend any type of church for various reasons; Either their work schedules didn't allow them the time to attend, or they had a bad experience in a church they went to in the past, or they just had no interest in attending a church at all. Most of them still had a desire to connect with God and other followers of Jesus, but felt like they were out on their own with very few options available to them to help make those connections. There were also a few who were still attending church, but who were very discontent with the status quo and wanted something different, something more. As we began to share what was happening in our lives it made a connection with a longing in their hearts to be a part of something like what we were describing.

Through many conversations and prayers, we believe the Lord was and still is leading us to live out this new mentality and lifestyle of being the Church, living our lives in community with other followers of Jesus, helping those who can't or won't attend church to connect with God and with other followers of Jesus, and helping those who feel like they are out there on their own to realize they are not alone and they can experience God and community life with other followers of Jesus, even outside of the four walls of church.

There's more I can share and will hopefully make the time to do so here in the near future. In the meantime, if you'd like to read something related to this new way of living, you should check out "A Way To Do Life -- Not A Way To Do Church" by Roger Thoman at SimpleChurch Journal.

Live the Revolution. Be the Church.

New CD Available Online

Another Day (Now Available Online)
Got some cool news last night! My new CD, Another Day (released Feb. 2009), is now available online HERE or you can use the nifty link (yes I said nifty!) below to check it out!

Altus Area
For those of you who live in the Altus area, Hasting's (in Altus) is now carrying the CD as well. You can swing by and check it out there as well! If you haven't picked up a copy yet check out one of these two places and let me know what you think when you do pick it up! Thanks for the support!

Live the Revolution. Be the Church.