Benjamin Franklin & Sermon Free Church

I think Benjamin Franklin would have loved sermon-free church because it gets people actively involved and transforms them from passive pew-sitters to spiritual go-getters!

Ben said: “I wish it (Christianity) were more productive of good works. I mean real good works; not holy-day keeping, sermon-hearing, or making long prayers, filled with flatteries and compliments”

Experience sermon-free church for yourself in Nashville, Tennessee at The Salvation Army Berry Street Worship Center, 225 Berry Street on Sunday mornings at 10:45.

Life Is Either . . . Or . . .

Life is a either a spiritual fight . . .
To walk in the light;
To overcome the night;
To avoid spite;
To think and do what’s right;
To remove evil’s blight;
To seek supernatural insight;
To find God’s delight.
– Or life is meaningless and trite . . .
An empty and futile plight.

Priesthood of the Believer Church (Church Meetings Without A Dominating Leader)

Can churches meet without one person dominating the meeting?  History says they can!

When the Protestant Reformation broke with the Roman Catholic Church, one of the doctrines they embraced become known as “the priesthood of the believer.”  The Reformers acknowledged the New Testament teaching that Christ-followers are a “holy priesthood” and a “kingdom of priests” (that believers can directly approach and relate to God without a human priest) and the New Testament “one anothers” (commands for believers to serve, love, confess to, pray for, help, and otherwise minister to one another and to the world.

Unfortunately, as Peter Wagner points out, although “the priesthood of the believer” was accepted as doctrine, it was rarely put into practice in Protestant churches:  “Martin Luther permanently changed Christendom when he rediscovered the priesthood of all believers. Still, Lutheranism retained much of the clericalism of the Roman Catholic Church.”  Protestants continued to divide Christians into two groups, using the nonbiblical words:  “clergy” and “laity.”  The idea of “the priesthood of the believer” remained primarily an idea on paper.

However, that has been changing.  Quaker Meeting, the early Methodist “class meetings,” and the Layman’s Prayer Revival of 1857 all demonstrated that Christians could successfully meet without one man dominating and controlling everything.

Since 1948 when the Chinese Communists imprisoned most of the pastors in China, the church there has learned to function by ministering to one another.  During the Jesus Movement of the 1960s and 70s in the USA, Ray Stedman began a Sunday night meeting where church members ministered to one another, and then wrote the book Body Life about it.   In the past few years, more and more believers in the USA and around the world are meeting in small groups that allow the members to minister to one another (this has been called the organic church movement).

One example of that is The Salvation Army Berry Street in Nashville, Tennessee.  Begun in March 2008, it has sermon-free Sunday morning meetings where everyday people, as led by the Spirit, show and tell what God has done.  Check it out on Sundays at 10:45, 225 Berry St., 37207.

“The priesthood of the believer” really works!  All we have to do is allow the people of God the freedom to function in church meetings.

The Pope & The General

Quotations from Pope Francis of the Catholic Church and General Linda Bond of The Salvation Army:

First General Bond:
“A Spirit-filled Army tells the gospel story faithfully and trustingly, believing that there is power in the name of Jesus, power in this life-giving message, the power that the Holy Spirit exerts to bring about transformation.” “The Army was raised up by God to connect people to Jesus . . . This world needs to see that the people of God make holiness believable. It needs to see authentic, deep Christians who live out the life of Jesus and do not just talk about it.”

Then Pope Francis:
“There are backseat Christians, right? Those who are well mannered and do everything well, but they don’t know how to bring others to the Church through proclamation and Apostolic zeal. Today we can ask the Holy Spirit to give us all this Apostolic fervor and to give us the grace to be annoying when things are too calm in the Church. The grace to go out to the outskirts of life. The Church needs this! Not only in distant lands, young parishes or among people who do not know Jesus, but here in the cities. Our cities need this proclamation of Jesus Christ. So let us ask the Holy Spirit for the grace of Apostolic zeal. Let’s be Christians with Apostolic zeal. And if we annoy people, Blessed be the Lord! Onwards, as the Lord says to St. Paul: show courage!”

The Human Heart & Michelle Obama’s Speech In Nashville (5/18/13)

I heard Michelle Obama speak today in Nashville at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Academic Magnet School graduation. She said:

“You can only find your passion by looking inside yourself and that’s hard work.” It’s the message of our society — follow your heart.

However, when I honestly look inside myself I see what the Bible calls a heart that is “desperately wicked.” When I sincerely look inside myself, I see a rebel driven by personal desire and pleasure, who given harmful life-shaping circumstances could do anything wrongful that any other human being has done; who will self-destruct and/or hurt others if not restrained by law, threat of punishment, conscience, fear of negative consequences, respect for others, and self-discipline; but most of all by intimate surrender of my will to our Creator.

Fact is, our passions and desires can be (and often are) morally wrong. Perhaps we would be better off looking to God and His Word and obeying Him rather than our own desires.

So, how wicked is the human heart? ABC News reported tonight that Americans steal $50,000,000,000.00 worth of office supplies from their employers every year.

Intel, also, uses the slogan “Look inside.”  So, what do you see when you honestly look inside your own heart?

Talk Church Is Better Than Talk Radio

Talk church is better than talk radio.  Its talking points are about the living, resurrected Jesus Christ.

Sit-back-and-listen-church makes people passive.  Open line, talk church makes people powerful in God as they show and tell what God has done on an open mike!

Talk church isn’t new. Here’s a quotation where John Miley described talk church in 1854 (as he wrote about Methodist class meetings):

“Should there not be regularly appointed times when those that fear God may meet together and speak to one another? Times when all may participate in the (church) meeting? The habit of speaking on the subject of religion, of giving expression to religious feelings and purposes, will increase people’s confidence in the cause of Christ. To speak of our faith is to secure its increase. To declare our decision for Christ and His cause is more fully to determine and settle that decision. To give expression to our love to God is to kindle its fires anew and to cause it to grow with fervor.

Open Line Talk Church — Sundays @ 10:45 am., 225 Berry St., Nashville, 37207 @ The Salvation Army Berry Street.

Judgement, Guilt, Sorrow, Mercy, Forgiveness

Where there is no judgment;
There is no mercy.
Where there is no guilt;
There is no grace.
If you haven’t been judged guilty,
There is no forgiveness.

Where there is no threat of punishment, there is no justice.

Where there is no sorrow, there is no repentance.

Where there has been no bondage, there is no being set free.

Where there has been no sin, there is no salvation from sin.

God is not a thought in a human mind.
He is an actual, living Being;
Present and active,
Yet frequently overlooked,
In human consciousness.
“Be still and know that I am God.”