Recently Keith has felt the need to write about the times we are in and how Christians should think and prepare for these times.
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TOGETHER
A serious look at God’s will for the local church
Although statistics prove that, in general, the state of the church in America and Europe is dismal. There is a hope for the future. These depressing statistics are sure, right across Europe and America. However there are signs of hope, in the past year three books have been published which indicate where we should look.
Dr. Alan Jamieson’s book, “Out of Church Christians”, shows how the majority of those who have left the church, have not given up on God, but rather have left the church to protect their faith.
Jim Rutz in his ground breaking and controversial book, “Megashift”, gives real insight of what the future church may look like, and where the church is actually growing.
George Barna’s most recent book, “Revolution”, describes the revolutionaries that will build the renewed church of the third millennium, the result of the new reformation.
You might feel that you are not seeing a new reformation, but did those who lived through the first reformation understand what God was doing at that time. The real question is, are we prepared to allow God to change us, both personally and corporately, so that we will be ready for the next great move that God has for our world?
The vast majority of traditional churches are in decline, growth is not keeping up with deaths and others who are leaving. Some traditional churches are seeing some growth, but this is mainly transfer growth from other declining situations. As has so often been said in the past, rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic would not have stopped it sinking.
Then there are the “Mega Churches”, where people can loose themselves in vast
anonymous congregations, where even if they have groups within which folk can relate,
their main focus is the program of the juggernaut that is the church structure, staff
and programs that need to be fed vast amounts of resources. These Mega-
Alongside these we have an increasing number of new expressions of church which have grown up in the past few years. House Churches, although far from new, have experienced an explosive growth in the past few years. Other fellowships that meet in strange locations or meet the needs of defined focus groups are springing up all over. Biker Churches, Surfer Churches, Churches that meet in bars, or coffee shops, and many more. This has led to an increasing fragmentation in the Body of Christ.
There have been moves to bring churches together, but they have rarely worked, because each one will fight their own corner. Ministers Fraternals, are so often focused on “the numbers game”, as a way of assessing the relative success of different churches, then our worldly minds treat numerical success as spiritual success. I don’t think that the Lord would be impressed with our silly games.
"From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; prophets and priests alike,
all practice deceit. 14 They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious.
'Peace, peace,' they say, when there is no peace. 15 Are they ashamed of their loathsome
conduct? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they
will fall among the fallen; they will be brought down when I punish them," says the
LORD. 16 This is what the LORD says: "Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the
ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest
for your souls. But you said, 'We will not walk in it.' 17 I appointed watchmen over
you and said, 'Listen to the sound of the trumpet!' But you said, 'We will not listen.'Jeremiah
6:13-
This was first and foremost a condemnation of Jerusalem at that time, but how like it is to the situation in the church today. Whilst many pastors and leaders work sacrificially, others are greedy for gain. To be fair this is rarely for themselves, but rather to feed their ministries need of resources (Buildings, staff etc.) or to support traditions and structures that are unbiblical and even destructive to their real desires to see the church grow. In their eagerness to bring new people in, we have adopted “seeker friendly” approaches, that in many cases has weakened the gospel truth of nearly all it’s power. Many today are preaching, “Come to Jesus because he is nice, he will help you to be nice too, and we will all live in the land of fluffy bunnies………..oh and by the way send me $1,000 and you’ll feel all warm and fuzzy inside”.
The powerful gospel that the blood of Jesus cleanses from all sin is not so popular today. Sins are covered by platitudes, deep hurts, by God bless you's, or faithless prayers. Church leaders often face burnout, not realizing that they have bought their fate upon themselves. They complain that their sheep will not help them carry the load, even after they have been well fed on quality sermons, without realizing that the very structures in which they live and work militate against their participation.
We have become lost in our structure and traditions and wandered far from the simple gospel that the Lord gave us to share. We need to go back to when we were last on track and ask the Lord, about the ancient ways. I’m not talking about what we did last week or last year, or even when we started up 80 years ago, but His ways.
But will we walk in them??? The Lord has sent us untold numbers of “watchmen, and yet we haven’t listened, being too full of fear that they would steal our sheep, we would loose our tithes, or our programs might be disrupted. Don’t you know that the sheep belong to the Lord (as do the Tithes for that matter).
“I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.” Jo. 10:16
We must listen to the Lord’s voice, only He can truly lead His flock. So what are the ancient ways that we should walk in?
… I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2 Be completely
humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort
to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and
one Spirit-
The first thing that we need is a humility that will cause us to defer to one
another in love, leading to a true Spirit led unity, rather than the stiff negotiated
unity of the ecumenical movement. God will not bless a fragmented church. In the
New Testament we see a truth that is not properly understood today, which is that
God only sees one church in each city. It’s not that He sees one church and ignores
the rest, but rather that He chooses not to see the man-
We see this so clearly in how Paul addresses his letters. When he wrote to the church at Rome, he wrote to one church, yet in Chapter 16, we see him sending greetings to 16 or more individual fellowships meeting in homes. We can also see it in Revelation when John is instructed by the Lord to write to the 7 churches in 7 cities. Each city, however big, had one church, yet each of those churches had several congregations. What happened that this should change? The answer is that the flesh crept in.
“The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery;
idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition,
dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as
I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
Gal 5:19-
Yes, these things came right inside the church, thus raising walls of mistrust between us. We need to confess these things and ask God to give us that fruit of His Spirit that will lead us to experience His unity.
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness and self-
Here is part of the secret of a city-
For this unity to come about, not only do we need humility, but also a deep understanding that the church of tomorrow will look very different from the church of today. Lets go back to those ancient paths.
They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the
breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders
and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together
and had everything in common. 45 Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to
anyone as he had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple
courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts,
47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their
number daily those who were being saved. Act 2:42-
Many today are finding their fellowship, not in expensive, purpose built buildings, but rather in their own homes. Just as in the early church, they are meeting from house to house, (v46). Yes, it does say here that early believers also met in the temple, but that period did not last long, first they were banned from the temple and then subject to persecution and later the temple was destroyed.
We only read of one other larger meeting place in the New Testament, the school
of Tyrannus. We do not know how large that building was, yet archeological evidence
would seem to indicate that it was not that big, perhaps a little larger than an
average American family room, but certainly not a large meeting hall. Teachers in
those days rarely taught large classes, normally concentrating on 6-
The next ancient path we see is devotion. Daily they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. I am sure that like us they all had work to do, and family commitments, yet they all found time to gather and share every day. Perhaps it is because they didn’t have TV’s.
Another ancient path is that of deep sharing: “All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts.” This was not a Sunday and Wednesday night thing but a 60/60/24/7/365 type of Christianity, it affected every part of their lives. For this sort of Church life to blossom people need to relate at a base level, within small groups, albeit as part of larger assemblies. That folk followed these ancient paths can clearly be seen, because as others looked on they too believed.
“I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me
out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave
me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our
God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD.” Ps. 40:1-
The folk liked what they saw and looked up to them, enabling the Lord to add
to their number daily… Today Christians, in general, are treated as freaks by so
many parts of society, or we are seen as hypocrites and Pharisees who teach un-
So what does this mean for us in the church today? I believe that the Lord is calling us to a new understanding of the “church in the city”, an understanding that will encompass both more traditional expressions of church, and the less structured, more organic new church structures that we are seeing today.
George Barna has identified 5 reactions from the traditional churches, who are looking at those who have left the Church, yet are continuing in Christ. He calls them “revolutionaries”.
“The first – and at this moment, the largest of the groups – are those who are completely ignorant of the Revolution’s emergence. As word gets out and the revolution expands in numbers and influence, this segment will shrink considerably.
A second group is those who are antagonistic towards the Revolution. These individuals feel threatened by the extreme change represented by the seemingly unorthodox approach to spirituality. These individuals tend to believe (or to hide behind theological arguments contending) that the Bible disallows a believer to intentionally live at arm’s length from [Their understanding of (editors note)] the local church. The response of these folks ranges from outright hostility towards revolutionaries, to genuine prayer that these wayward sons with return to a church home, to pity for these “backsliders”.
A third group is the co-
A fourth category is the late adopters. As in any situation where significant innovation is introduced, these people are nervously waiting on the sidelines for the transition to become mainstream so it is safe to get on board. Because believers have a huge degree of confusion about life purpose and spiritual meaning, and a latent desire to clarify such matters, this group will become a major feeder for the Revolution as time progresses. This group disdains risk. They will cast their lot with the Revolution once it seems socially acceptable and culturally unremarkable to do so. Whether their timidity will effectively remove the cutting edge of the Revolution, or whether these pliable saints will be spiritually energized by the passion and focus of the Revolution remains to be seen.
The final category, of course, is the Revolutionaries. Millions of them attend [traditional]
church, and million of others do not. But they all love Jesus Christ and are devoted
to him as their Lord and Savior. Knowing that they can be more effective lovers of
God by recasting themselves as humble, single-
So how can we bring together both revolutionaries and those within more traditional expressions of church life, to form the Church in the city? This is vital; George Barna gives us the figures:
At the moment 30% of the church is simply not represented, at minister’s fraternal's. But we are accelerating towards a position when those fraternal's will only represent 30% of the true church. Unless we can address this now, the future will only be further schism and failure. We must humble ourselves, and prefer one another in love, and then perhaps we can see a way forward together.
My good friend Tom Snyder, of Communities of Care, describes how traditional
local churches and new expressions of church can work together. He says that the
traditional local churches with their buildings and programs present a visible “door”
to the church for non-
“Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain.” Psa 127:1
Too often we have sought to build the house of God without reference to the Master. We must allow the LORD to build the house, it’s the only way.
What will this Church in the city look like? Well, first of all I believe that the city wide church will be essentially “flat”, with an end of the Clergy / Laity divide, which has no basis in New Testament theology, being a later interpolation of Old Testament ideas, of priest and people, which had clearly been swept away by the New Covenants insistence on the priesthood of all believers. Some have said:
The first reformation gave the Word of God back to the people, and this new reformation will give the Church back to the people.
Does this mean that there will be anarchy? Not at all, Jesus spoke about what this would be like;
"I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me-
We need to encourage one another to hear the voice of the Good Shepherd who will lead us to the green pastures. This does not mean that everyone will immediately leave the traditional structures, nor that those in alternative structures will leave them to return to tradition. Rather, it means that we can work together in strategic alliance to see the up building of the whole church in the City. Empowering lay people to take a leading role in this new awakening. For this to happen we must recognize the gifts that the Lord has placed among us, to lead us to this place of unity.
It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists,
and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service,
so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith
and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole
measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back
and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by
the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking
the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is,
Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament,
grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. Eph 4:11-
These Ministries are not necessarily those professionals employed by the congregations
at present, although those local full-
As we have seen in the passage from Ephesians, the aim is that everyone does the work of service, that we all come to a place of unity and we all reach a full maturity in the faith. We have such hidden resources in our churches that we cannot imagine the potential for growth that we have if we utilize them to the full.
Whenever I talk to ministers I find a general frustration that although they have spent any amount of time in equipping their folk, it is still the same small group that do all of the work. Then when I tell them that it is their very structures that militate against full participations, and that in small groups we have close to 95% participation, they are incredulous. However these figures are true. Let me repeat, we have such hidden resources in our churches that we cannot imagine the potential for growth that we have if we utilize them to the full.
So how do we get from here to there?
1. We must stop trying to build our work (it’s only vanity that keeps us at it), and instead seek to build the kingdom, trusting that God will provide and care for both us and the other parts of the body here. (Ps 127:1)
2. We must liberate and empower laypeople to minister. The individual members of our churches and their homes are the biggest resources that we have.
3. We should reassess the use of our facilities in the light of Kingdom dynamics. (Building sharing could liberate both facilities and finances for the kingdom)
4. We should have joint equipping meetings. Rather than seeking to equip those in “our” church, we will equip the whole body, and thus strengthen our bonds of love.
5. We need to have united body meetings, at least once a month, where local leaders can envision the church, and visiting speakers can equip it.
6. As time goes on and our love and trust build we should seek to identify those leaders that God has given us as particular gifts to the church locally, recognizing that they will have a significant role within the city wide church, while al the time giving place to the individual expressions of that church.
7. We need to recognize that God has called some to particular, broader ministries
within the church, with a particular role to bless and equip us all. Some have identified
these with the ministries in Eph.4:11, whilst others would just speak of trans-
None of this can be done as an organization, rather the individual cells of the Body need to come into relationship with one another, finding their place in Him on the basis of those relationships. As this happens, increasingly we will act on the basis of those relationships, and our relationships with Him. This will produce a true expression of the Church in the City, to His Glory.
The author of this pack welcomes contact with all who genuinely are seeking to build up the city wide church. You can contact us at
Keith Smith
Healing Communities
Born Str. 29
45127 Essen Germanz
Email: theteam (at) healingcommunities.org
In U.K. you can contact us at:
Healing Communities
71 Clifton Road,
Shefford,
Beds. SG17 5AG. U.K.