02.28.07 thequest UPdate

thequest family,

Connecting with Jesus also means going with Jesus. That's part of the staying connected to the Vine and "branching out." In fact, His call is for people to follow Him. An active journey (or quest...if you please).

Often, I sense that connecting deeply to the Vine means sitting still. I'm all for solitude and quiet time with Him. Honestly, I probably need to make more time for those sweet moments. Yet we also must realize that connecting to Jesus means we aren't only going to sit still. We are following Him. As we follow Him, we have to be on the move! He is sending us into our world...and staying connected to us!

How long has this sending been at the heart of God? My eyes were opened to an old, old Scripture that points to this very early in history.

Then the LORD told Abram, "Leave your country, your relatives, and your father's house, and go to the land that I will show you. I will cause you to become the father of a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and I will make you a blessing to others. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you." Genesis 12:1-3 NLT

Abraham was the earliest of fathers of our faith. God asked Abraham to go. Yet, God was part of the journey. Remember He said, "I will show you." Connecting with God happened in the going for Abraham. God was sending Abraham on a mission and going with Him.

The perplexing thing is that Abraham didn't know the final destination...it was to be somewhere new. And he was sent from home--all the security and stability he knew.

God was with Abraham because He had an overarching goal--BLESSING. In the mission or the sending there is a purpose...the blessing of people. That's why we are branching out. Missions are not for the travel stories...they are to bring blessing to people.*

Will you be willing to branch out with Jesus even if you don't know where you are going? Will you leave the comfort of home to go on the quest? Will you stay connected to the Vine...and follow Him at the same time?

I hope you'll walk with me...I can't wait to see where He takes us...


Press on,
Mike

*Thanks to Hugh Halter for being someone God used to open my eyes to this.

Read the rest of the weekly email UPdate HERE

02.21.07 thequest UPdate

thequest family,

One of the things I've been talking about a lot recently is that the church is to be on offense. So often we as Jesus' followers talk about defending our faith and how awful the world is and it's impact on us. We must recover that the church--in following our Lord Jesus--is on offense. Not that we are to be "offensive" because many "supposed" Christians have done that in the past.

Where do I get that the church is on offense? Well it's embedded in the very first presentation that Jesus does about the church. He says this:

I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.
Matthew 16:18 NLT

The word translated "powers" in this translation is really "gates." Most other translations have that in the the text. So as you think about the massive powers at work in this verse...look at it again.

The Gates of Hell will not conquer the church. That's Jesus' promise. Not only should we gain confidence because of Jesus' promise, but we also notice who is leading the attack. Jesus (and His Church) is leading the way in rescuing people from darkness.

We know that because gates are not aggressive and offensive weapons. They are defensive and protective items in warfare. The picture Jesus paints of the church is as an aggressor and on OFFENSE.

We have been deceived by the great deceiver into thinking we are on retreat. Jesus didn't set things in motion that way! The Church ought to be so dangerous that the evil one is fleeing behind gates. In fact, the only way he can hold them in is to have gates. Jesus and His followers have the keys and are kicking them back to get to the people He loves!

I don't know how that hits you today, but I felt compelled to revisit this vital perspective change for us as followers of Jesus. The One who has all power and authority in heaven and on earth.

Let's follow Him into the battle as the aggressors--on offense!

Press on,
Mike


The rest of thequest weekly UPdate is posted HERE

House Church 101 by Keith Giles

I was crusising around and found this article... just thought it was worth posting here for consideration...

House Church 101 by Keith Giles

What is House Church?
Most people who have never attended a House Church make certain assumptions about what it's all about, and many of them are incorrect. Until I started a House Church I wasn't exactly sure what it expect, but now that I've had about a year of experience under my belt I thought I'd take some time to spell out a few specifics of what makes the House Church distinctive.

To begin, let's talk about what a House Church is NOT. ...read the rest HERE

02.14.07 thequest UPdate

thequest family,

In my studies last week, I came across a relatively short and extremely helpful explanation around our theme this year--Branching Out from John 15. One of the perplexing questions for me in the whole metaphor of the Father being a Gardener, Jesus the Vine and the followers of Jesus as the branches is this one--"what is the fruit?"

John Piper preached the following excerpt at an ordination service that speaks precisely and articulately to this question. So, I'll let him take it from here :

"First, what is fruit-bearing? What is the fruit you are called to bear -- indeed must bear? I think fruit in this chapter is a broad term and embraces two things: love for people and the conversion of sinners. If you bear fruit you love people and win people to Christ.

Let's take love first. The picture in verses 1 and 2 is that Christ is like a vine and you, his minister, are like a branch shooting off this vine. And God the Father is like the vinedresser who prunes back the branches so they bear the most fruit.

Since the fruit is simply the out-forming of what has passed through the branch from the vine, we should ask, What is it that we receive from the vine? Jesus' answer is love. Abiding in Jesus means abiding in his love according to verse 9 -- "As the Father has loved me so have I loved you. Abide in my love." "Abide in me" is replaced by "Abide in my love," and this shows more specifically what we receive when we are united to the vine, namely the sap of divine love. And it stands to reason then that what we receive from the vine flows through the branch and crops out in the fruit of love, for the nourishment and refreshment of other people.

There is another way to see the same thing. Verse 2 says that if you don't bear fruit you don't abide in the vine; you get snapped off and thrown in the fire (v. 6). So in order to abide in the vine or to abide in Christ's love, we must bear fruit.

There is an exact parallel to that thought in verse 10: "If you keep my commandments you will abide in my love." So "If you keep my commandments" and "if you bear fruit" mean the same thing. Or at least we can say that fruit-bearing includes keeping the commandments of Jesus.

And if we ask, what is it in this context that Jesus means by "commandments" the answer again is love. Verse 12: "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you." And verse 17: "these things I command you, that you love one another." Therefore, love is fulfilling the commands of Jesus. And fulfilling the commands of Jesus is at least part of what it means to bear fruit. Therefore, bearing fruit means loving other people. It means letting the love which we constantly receive from Christ as we abide in him flow through us and out to others for their benefit.

But I think the term "fruit" in this gospel is very broad and also includes the making of new disciples. In John 4:35,36 Jesus says, "Do not say, 'There are yet four months and then comes the harvest. I tell you lift up your eyes and see how the fields are already white for harvest. He who reaps receives wages and gathers fruit for eternal life so that sower and reaper may rejoice together." "Fruit for eternal life" in John 4:36 probably corresponds to fruit that abides in John 15:16 which says, "I appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide. This would refer then to the fruitfulness of winning others to Christ who are then guarded by God's power for salvation.

But probably in the mind of Christ these two meanings of the fruit-bearing merged into one. If the fruit is the out-cropping of the love of Christ in our lives for the nourishment and refreshment of others, then surely among the benefits received from that fruit would be conversion. John 13:34,35 gives one example of how this happens: "A new commandment I give you that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." The most winning and powerful witness we can give is the reality of love. So the fruitfulness of obedient love and the fruitfulness of winning people to Christ are really not two different things. They are one. And that is the aim of all your ministry.

The second question that Jesus answers here about fruit-bearing is how it can be accomplished. The answer he gives (and the word is repeated 10 times) is: "Abide in me and I in you" (v. 4). Keep yourself attached, closely attached to the vine. "I am the vine, you are the branches. He abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing" (v. 5). Everything that you try to do will come to nothing unless you do it through a conscious, abiding dependence on the enablement of Christ. Make it your aim for the rest of your life to discover in ever deeper experience what it means to abide in Christ. It is the secret of all fruitfulness.

There are several pointers in the text that help us discover what this means in practice. One is in verse 7: "If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will and it shall be done for you." Abiding in Christ involves letting his words abide in us. Notice how these two things come together: the word abiding in you and effectual prayer. Here is the first and decisive line of battle in your ministry. You must, you must resist everything that would pull you away from rigorous study of God's Word and daily hours of prayerful meditation to let that word sink in and abide. The inwardly abiding word is a truth of Scripture believed, cherished, and rolled back and forth in the imagination until its implications spill over into daily life as love and joy and peace and righteousness.

The word will not abide within us if we are in a hurry. We pastors deceive ourselves when we are so busy doing good things that we snatch a text and a prayer on the run and think that we will be mighty men of God and bear spiritual fruit. Holy, powerful, life-changing spiritual men of God are not made on the run. There are so few people who believe that the expectations laid on you in the service will probably be a constant threat to your spiritual power and fruitfulness. But Christ has appointed you to go and bear fruit. So resist those expectations with boldness.

One other pointer toward the practical meaning of abiding in Christ is the parallel phrase in verse 9: "As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Abide in my love." Christ's present love for me is his commitment to give me, right now and forever, everything that is good for me. Therefore, abiding in his love means constantly receiving as from his loving hand all things as good for me. It means never doubting that he is doing me good, but always resting in his kindness. Believing that and acting on it is what it means to abide in the love of Christ. And if you do these things, you will bear much fruit.

Finally and briefly, the end for which you seek to bear fruit is not just your own joy (v. 11) or the benefit of your people: it is that God the Father might be glorified. Verse 8: "In this is my Father glorified: that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples." The chief end of man and the chief end of ministry is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. God is committed by the very nature of his divine righteousness to always act on behalf of his glory. He wills to display it and magnify it. And that brings us back to where we began. "You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you." The honor of Christ is at stake in whether you, whom he chose, bear fruit. But not only that, his father is glorified when you bear much fruit. And therefore his glory is at stake in the fruitfulness of your ministry.

I Chose You To Bear Fruit- John Piper from the following site:
http://www.soundofgrace.com/piper81/101181e.htm
(bold added for emphasis and minor editing by Mike Jentes)


Press on,
Mike

to read the rest of thequest weekly UPdate click HERE

ABC News reporing about House Churches--Living Room Liturgy

LIVING ROOM LITURGY
Many American Believers Meet in House Churches
by Steve Grove

Jan. 9, 2007 — Every Monday night, Meredith Scott and eight of her friends get together at one of their homes in St. Paul, Minn. They cook a meal, share what's going on in their lives and pray together.
But Scott and her friends don't call this a Bible study or a support group — they call it a church. They are part of the growing number of Americans who are shifting from traditional churches toward more informal, intimate settings, dubbed house churches...

Rest of the article HERE

House Churches Are More Satisfying to Attenders Than Are Conventional Churches

House Churches Are More Satisfying to Attenders Than Are Conventional Churches
Click here for the entire article

January 8, 2007
(Ventura, CA)

With the growth of house churches across the country, a new study by The Barna Group sheds light on how these independent, non-denominational churches operate.

Levels of Satisfaction
Perhaps the most compelling insight from the national study was an evaluation of the levels of satisfaction of those who attend a house church compared with the views of adults who attend a conventional local church. Four aspects of people's church experience were gauged. Overall, people attending a house church were significantly more likely to be "completely satisfied" with their experience in each of the four dimensions examined.

Two-thirds of house church attenders (68%) were "completely satisfied" with the leadership of their church, compared to only half of those attending a conventional church (49%).

Two-thirds of the house church adherents (66%) were "completely satisfied" with the faith commitment of the people involved in their gathering. In contrast, only four out of ten people attending a conventional church (40%) were similarly satisfied with the faith commitment of the
people in their congregation.

Three out of five house church adults (61%) were "completely satisfied" with the level of community and personal connectedness they experience, compared to only two out of five adults who are involved in a conventional church (41%).

A majority of those in a house (59%) said they were "completely satisfied" with the spiritual depth they experience in their house church setting. In contrast, a minority of the adults involved in a conventional church were "completely satisfied" (46%).

The Nature of the Gatherings
The nationwide research also provided a unique profile of what takes place in the typical house church, and who is involved.

Most house churches (80%) meet every week, while 11% meet on a monthly basis. The most common meeting days are Wednesday (27%) and Sunday (25%), while one out of every five (20%) varies the days of the week on which they meet.

The typical house church gathering lasts for about two hours. Only 7% meet for less than an hour, on average, while only 9% usually stay together for more than three hours at a time.

While most conventional churches follow the same format week after week, four of every ten house churches (38%) say that the format they follow varies from meeting to meeting. The proportion of home gatherings that typically engage in spiritual practices include:

· 93% have spoken prayer during their meetings
· 90% read from the Bible
· 89% spend time serving people outside of their group
· 87% devote time to sharing personal needs or experiences
· 85% spend time eating and talking before or after the meeting
· 83% discuss the teaching provided
· 76% have a formal teaching time
· 70% incorporate music or singing
· 58% have a prophecy or special word delivered
· 52% take an offering from participants that is given to ministries
· 51% share communion
· 41% watch a video presentation as part of the learning experience

Most house churches are family-oriented. Two out of every three house churches (64%) have children involved. Those churches are divided evenly between those who have the adults and children together throughout the meeting (41%) and those who keep them separated (38%). The remaining churches divide their time between having everyone together and having time when the children and adults are separated.

The Participants
The average size of a house church is 20 people; in the home churches that include children, there is an average of about seven children under the age of 18 involved. The rapid growth in house church activity is evident in the fact that half of the people (54%) currently engaged in an independent home fellowship have been participating for less than three months. In total, three out of every four house church participants (75%) have been active in their current gathering for a year or less. One out of every five adults has been in their house church for three years or more.

The research found that there are two types of people being attracted to house churches. The older participants, largely drawn from the Boomer population, are devout Christians who are seeking a deeper and more intense experience with God and other believers. The other substantial segment is young adults who are interested in faith and spirituality but have little interest in the traditional forms of church. Their quest is largely one of escaping outdated structures and institutions.

Still in Process
The survey also indicated that there is likely to be more change in the house church environment in the years to come. The ideas of worshipping in homes rather than church buildings, and being led by group members rather than religious professionals, are new to most Americans. The survey suggested that many people are just beginning to think about, and get comfortable with, the idea of homes being the dominant place for shared faith experiences.

Currently, just four out of every ten regular house church attenders (42%) rely exclusively upon a house church as their primary "church" experience. Many of the others - including a large proportion that has been involved for just a few months - are checking out the approach before they shift their allegiance from a conventional to a house church - if they make the shift at all.

Another indication of the nascent state of the house church movement in the U.S. is people’s perception regarding the biblical grounds for meeting in homes. Among adults who consider themselves to be Christian and who do not attend a house church, six out of ten (57%) believe that attending a house church instead of a conventional church satisfies the biblical command to be part of a spiritual community that follows Jesus Christ. Overall, just one out of five conventionally-churched adults (19%) dismissed the house church approach as unbiblical.

Changing the Church
George Barna, who directed the study, said that the results indicate that the biggest obstacle to the growth of the house church movement is not theological but cultural.

"Americans are emotionally open to belonging to a house church, and surprisingly few have any real objections to others joining such a community of faith," explained the author of three-dozen books on faith in America. "But the main deterrent to house church growth is that most people are spiritually complacent; they are not looking to upgrade their spiritual experience. Compared to conventional church attenders, house church adherents are much more likely to say that they have experienced faith-driven transformation, to prioritize their relationship with God, and to desire a more fulfilling community of faith.

"Those who attend a conventional church are generally content to show up and accept whatever their church has on the agenda; they place the responsibility for their spiritual growth on the shoulders of the church," according to Barna. "We found that most conventional church goers have no desire to help improve their congregation’s ministry, nor do they feel a need to increase their personal spiritual responsibility.

"On the other hand," he continued, "the intimacy and shared responsibility found in most house churches requires each participant to be more serious about their faith development. Clearly, the house church experience is not for everyone."

Research Details
The data in this report are from a pair of national surveys conducted by The Barna Group with a random sample of adults, age 18 and older, conducted in August and October 2006. In total, 2008 adults were interviewed. The maximum margin of sampling error associated with the aggregate sample is ±2.2 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. Statistical weighting was used to calibrate the aggregate sample to known population percentages in relation to demographic variables.

In these surveys, a house church was described as "a group of believers that meets regularly in a home or place other than a church building. These groups are not part of a typical church; they meet independently, are self-governed and consider themselves to be a complete church on their own... (They are) sometimes known as a house church or simple church, (and are) not associated in any way with a local, congregational type of church."

The Barna Group, Ltd. (which includes its research division, The Barna Research Group) conducts primary research, produces media resources pertaining to spiritual development, and facilitates the healthy spiritual growth of leaders, children, families and Christian ministries. Located in Ventura, California, Barna has been conducting and analyzing primary research to understand cultural trends related to values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors since 1984. If you would like to receive free e-mail notification of the release of each new, bi-monthly update on the latest research findings from The Barna Group, you may subscribe to this free service at the Barna website www.barna.org

© The Barna Group, Ltd, 2007.
Posted Here: http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=BarnaUpdate&BarnaUpdateID=255

02.07.07 thequest UPdate

thequest family,

I had the opportunity to talk about the story of God today with someone who hasn't yet given his whole life to Jesus yet. I was amazed again at Jesus' love for people.

Part of my amazement came because I was remembering what we talked about in the INSTITUTE this weekend from Genesis 2. Not only does the Scripture point to God being our Creator, but His intimate involvement in making humans. Listen to this again:
"the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man's nostrils, and the man became a living person..."
God handcrafted Adam. None of the rest of God's beautiful and excellent creation received that sort of attention. He spoke and it was light, but He stooped down and got His hands dirty to make us. Then He blew His very life into us.

Watch the intimacy with which he crafts the woman:
"the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. While the man slept, the LORD God took out one of the man's ribs and closed up the opening. Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib, and he brought her to the man." Genesis 2:7, 21-22 NLT
God made us together...with His very hands. Adam & Eve were the crowning part of the entire creation.

These adored and special people soon disobey God's only request of them. And the mess of our world was begun. That was part of the story I was trying to tell my friend. God created us for a relationship with Him, but we are separated from Him by sin.

Over time, God then breaks into the mess in a variety of ways to show His superiority and His desire to deliver His people. Finally He breaks in Himself...as a baby. He loves us so much that He then took on the very skin He made millennia prior. He then was killed by people He made. Why would God do this???? Because He made us and He loves us!

As we see the hearts, chocolates, and "I Love You"s during this Valentine's season, never forget God's Love for us as the pinnacle of His creation. And His love for YOU! Jesus' love for us is something to never get over.

Press on,
Mike


The rest of thequest weekly UPdate HERE

Success...recalibrating our definition....

I just jotted this down in an email to our leadership team...so I thought I would post it here:

In a talk at the Organic Church Movements Conference Neil Cole spoke about the Dark Side of Organic Church. It was a helpful talk about some of the realities we face walking this journey. One of his points was about our own personal drive for success. We are challenged around this all the time. Part of Neil's challenge was to recalibrating ourselves regarding success.

Success...(a definition I picked up along the way that I've really tried to adopt)...is: Knowing what God wants you to do and doing it.

Then yesterday I was reading along in my Bible and that defintion seemed to be authenticated by a verse or two. Here are those verses:

Oh, the joys of those ...[who] delight in doing everything the LORD wants; day and night they think about his law. They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season without fail. Their leaves never wither, and in all they do, they prosper.
Psalm 1:1-4 (NLT)

Let's be a people who delight in doing everything the Lord wants!

Mailman, artist, proclaimer of Jesus

At our first Stations of the Cross event a few years ago, I was so excited that our mailman came. I knew he was a believer, and I had hoped that we had encouraged him.

In our move to our new house, he no longer delivered to our house. This weekend's Short North Gazette has a Cover Story on him...and about him proclaiming Jesus in art and life! It's something we've been praying for over our 6+years here. And his art will be in Waldo's soon.

You'll have to check out the article here: http://shortnorth.com/RickBlackburn.html I also posted a pic of Rick and some artwork above.

Jesus is building His Church!