Other Ministries Like Ours

Introduction

Next week, we believe that the Lord will have us bring a message entitled, “That Angel Is Naked!” To help prepare you, to provide you food for thought to think upon until then, please allow us to present differently than we normally do.

Regarding next week, here is the outline, the three headings that next week’s message will consist of (provided that the Lord does not have it changed).

1. Jesus and the Early Church
2. Men and the Traditional Church
3. Judgment and the Underground Church

Today, however, we want to help open, for you, a work that the Holy Spirit of God is so obviously doing throughout the world today. Please,today, allow us to share with you a few excerpts from sources outside of our particular ministry. Yes, we have discovered that what God is doing among us, here at the S.A.L.T., the Savior’s Ambassadors Laboring Together, is being repeated elsewhere. We have found that, as this age very rapidly now begins to close, our Lord is preparing his people… for what comes next.

Listen now to just a few samples of what else is taking place. We only have time for three or four. After these examples are shared – after this message is over – we strongly encourage you to make use of the internet and other available mediums to search for yourself and see that the Lord is indeed alive, and active throughout the Earth: doing a marvelous work while aligning things among his people to be as he originally wanted them to be. As it is written, 

“For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:13)

I. “Shattering False Foundations” (based in Canada)

A brother from Canada had this to say, as a reply to one of over a hundred different comments and sub comments made to one of the many truths that he humbly shares on his popular YouTube channel.

“The problem is in the understanding of many people within denominational churches.  The building itself is not ‘the church.’  People who have obeyed the gospel [that] the apostles preached (Acts 2:38) are the church, the spiritual house – the temple of God.  

“A denominational title placed on the outside of physical buildings has placed a sign on God’s body which is a distraction and divisive, and is not necessary.  Lots of wolves in the churches today are dressed as sheep but aren’t actually doing the will of the Father by denying themselves and taking up their cross; going the way of the world.  

“Home church groups have always been of God and are the future, just like in the book of Acts.  God will give us wisdom and discernment as the body [of Christ] on how to move forward so that we can still assemble together through all the rules and regulations.  It is possible, but too many people don’t know what to do outside of a large church context with one man in the front doing everything and the congregants nodding their heads and then returning home.  [Bold print added to this vividly true statement.]

“Each member of the body needs to be working.  We need to focus less on huddling together in a building; and actually be the church, and go out, and make disciples of all nations; [while] taking authority over all the forces of darkness.  We are more than conquerors in Jesus Christ.  I pray this whole coronavirus crisis, that is using fear to control and manipulate people, will actually backfire, and actually wake people out of their slumber, and get people depending on God for their strength and security; having a reverent fear of God and turning to Him in prayer.  

We are not ignorant of the enemy’s devices.  The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the tearing down of strongholds.  God bless and keep you during this worldwide upheaval.” (source)

II. Sister Sharon” MotivatingU2Win (based in Ohio)

The following is taken directly from the “About” page of Sister Sharon’s website, MotivatingU2Win.com. This dear sister speaks out boldly and honestly from Scripture regarding issues that many have for too long feared to address. She makes good use of her culturally rich presentations, which are enhanced by appropriately used props to both startle and awaken modern traditional church goers.

Listen now, as she shares this brief testimony of how our Lord set her on her way to actively salting the city where she lives. (Go, Sharon!)

“Thanks for stopping by! I became a follower of Jesus Christ in 1992.   In 2001, God called me to begin full-time in ministry for Christ, during this time I was a professional hair stylist and salon owner. I sold my hair salon business and began to live by faith, trusting God to provide for my needs.  Soon after, God gave me an anointing to write. I began writing books for the edification of the Body of Christ that God then told me to offer freely here on my ministry website.

“After many years of sufferings, trials and trauma, on September 3, 2016, after much resistance of publicly speaking on any social media platform,  God placed me on YouTube, where I now upload and exhort Monday thru Friday by the grace of God and the supervision of the Holy Spirit.

 “I am passionate about doing Random Acts of Kindness for the Glory of God.  In 2014, inspired by God, I gave a woman at a public library a fresh flower.  When I returned to the library the following week, I saw the same woman and felt ‘moved’ to again give her a small random act of kindness. The woman would then reveal to me she was on her way home to commit suicide the previous week I gave her the fresh flower, but instead, she decided  not to take her life, but went home and told her husband she was planning to harm herself and that she believed God was trying to tell her something because no one had ever given her a random act of kindness.

 “Friend, join me in letting your light shine in doing ‘Random Acts of Kindness’ towards your fellowman.  We don’t know where a person is in their soul, but God does.” (source)

III. “We Are Church” (based in San Francisco)

According to an article entitled “I visited Francis Chan’s house church network. Here’s what I learned.”, written by Travis Nicholson, and posted on Medium.com,

“Francis Chan is a well-known Christian author and speaker. He previously pastored a megachurch in California but felt increasingly uneasy about how they were doing church. He struggled to reconcile the American way of doing church versus what he saw in the scriptures. After much prayer and thought, he left his church and began a journey of following Jesus into the unknown. During this time, he encountered Christians in Asia who were living out their faith in simple, yet powerful expressions that resembled the book of Acts. This gave him hope that it was possible to see New Testament Christianity happen in the 21st century.

“He and his family moved to San Francisco and have been experimenting [with] what it looks like to do church differently in the States. They currently have 17 house churches with a monthly gathering at a local park. There are no ministry expenses and no paid staff. It’s different… but it’s working.” (source)

That was a first hand look, at ‘We Are Church”, as given by brother Travis. And now, the following are the last words given on the “History” page of this ministry’s website, wearechurch.com: a thrilling summary of how this work of God began.

“Leaving Cornerstone was definitely not an easy decision. During the season when I was still wrestling with whether that would be the best thing to do, I went to preach at an event. Lisa came with me, and on the way there we had a conversation that shocked me. My debate about staying in Simi Valley up to this point had been completely internal. We had never talked about leaving before. Cornerstone was our baby, and Simi Valley our home. But when I finally decided to ask her what she saw us doing for the rest of our lives, she surprised me by saying she felt like we had done all we could do in Simi Valley, and that it was time to move on. She even brought up going to another country, which was exactly what I had been considering.

“Fifteen minutes later, I got a phone call from my friend Jeff, who was a member of Cornerstone. He told me that he felt like God wanted him to tell me something: “Just go. Don’t worry about the church. There are others here who will step up and take care of the church.” That was so crazy to me! There was no way he could have known the conversation Lisa and I just had. No one knew what was going on in my mind.

“After that, things kept falling into place, and I felt greater and greater peace about leaving. It got to the point where Lisa and I felt like we would be disobedient if we didn’t leave. We ended up selling our house in Simi Valley, and taking our family of 6 at the time overseas to India, Thailand, and China. It was an amazing adventure that knit our family so close together and helped us refocus on the mission. I saw such fearless dedication and boldness from the pastors in India, who had renounced everything for the Lord. We witnessed the simplicity of the lifestyles in rural Thailand, and the joy of the men and women who faithfully served widows and orphans day in and day out. In China I saw the gospel spreading like wildfire as people endured through and even rejoiced in the persecution.

“Throughout this whole time, Lisa and I were praying with the family about where God would have us live. We almost ended up staying in Hong Kong. We were looking at housing options as well as schools for the kids. Then one day, I really felt like the Lord was speaking to me. Please understand that I do not say that lightly. My background is one that is extremely conservative. I only trust what I see written in the Bible. While my theology left some room for hearing directly from God, I’m not sure I had ever heard it before that day. Again, I’m not sure I heard from the Lord, but I had more peace in obeying what I thought I heard than in ignoring it. I really believe He was telling me to go back to the States and plant churches. While overseas, I had gotten to see a glimpse of what the church could be and the power it could have, and I felt like God wanted me to bring that vision back. I was pretty scared of what I thought God was communicating to me. It felt like He was asking me to do something that I did not have the intelligence or leadership skills to accomplish. …

“It was a sad day when I told Lisa and the kids that I felt God wanted me back in the States. We were so happy overseas. We were closer as a family, more dependent on God, and more fixated on eternal matters. While there were feelings of fear when we left the US, now there was greater fear in returning. We didn’t want to lose our focus.

“I’ll spare you some details, but we eventually ended up in San Francisco mainly because my brother had a one bedroom apartment we could borrow. I didn’t have much of a plan. I just wanted to live as biblically as I knew how. In my prayers, I told the Lord that I wanted to live like Christ, and it seemed like Jesus knew exactly who to call as His disciples. I asked for that same grace, that I would be able to just walk around the city sharing the gospel, eventually meeting the people He would call me to disciple.

“I made some friends over the first year, and we started a ministry where we ministered to the poor in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco. We fed the homeless and went door to door to pray for people in low income housing. It was scary at times, but I loved the fact that I was living by faith in America. I was put in many uncomfortable situations, but it felt right. We saw God answer prayers in so many powerful ways, even though it didn’t result in many true conversions.

“I remember asking my kids what they felt after one of our first outreaches. Rachel, my oldest daughter, blurted out “it felt like we jumped out of the Bible.” I knew exactly what she meant. We were experiencing something in America that was congruent with what we read about in the New Testament! We felt alive, on an adventure that required faith, and it was right here in our backyard.

“While the daily outreaches were going well, and we enjoyed living by faith, we hadn’t yet planted a church. I saw weaknesses in our ministry because it wasn’t grounded in a strong, elder led church. Knowing this was my calling, we gathered some of our new friends into our home and started a church. Twenty years after launching Cornerstone out of a living room, here we were again. My wonderful wife and a group of friends, sitting in a living room, asking God to build His Church through us.

“It has been 5 years now since we started We Are Church, and things are so different this time around. Lisa and I have grown in our understanding of Scripture and God’s design for the Church. God has graciously shown me the good fruit from my Cornerstone days as well as some of the fundamental mistakes I made early on. Hopefully I can help others avoid some traps I fell into.” (source)

IV. The House Church Movement (based in Communist China)

As with Pilate, the established church so often gets what God is doing wrong, while the world watches and sees more clearly. Because of this we chose to share the following with you, regarding the powerful house church movement in China, as witnessed and recorded by the world in Wikipedia.com.

“After the Communist Party established the People’s Republic of China in 1949, there was a lot of uncertainty for all religions. During this period, the Three-Self Patriotic Movement would be established for Protestants to declare their patriotism and support of the new government. However, by the time of the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), all public religious practice came to an end. Due to the changes in religious policy after the end of the Cultural Revolution, in 1980, the Three-Self Patriotic Movement would be reinstated and the China Christian Council would be formed. Protestant congregations that wished to worship publicly registered with the TSPM, but those that did not would eventually be termed house churches.

“Since the 1990s, a number of developments have resulted from the rapid urbanization experienced in Chinese society. While house churches originated as being quite independent of one another, a number of house church networks have developed, with some headquartered in Henan and Zhejiang provinces. These networks have sent missionaries all over the country and have even started sending them abroad to neighboring states.

“The rapid urbanization has also resulted in migration to China’s urban centers and the rise of urban house churches. Some of these have developed through migrant worker communities and university students. Other new communities can be seen among urban intellectuals and entrepreneurs, the latter termed “boss Christians” (Chinese: 老板基督徒; pinyin: lǎobǎn jīdūtú).” (source)

Conclusion

“Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.” (Hebrews 13:8)

Next week: “That Angel Is Naked!”

OUTLINE:

Other Ministries Like Ours

“For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:13)

I. “Shattering False Foundations” (based in Canada)

II. Sister Sharon” MotivatingU2Win (based in Ohio)

III. “We Are Church” (based in San Francisco)

IV. The House Church Movement (based in Communist China)

“Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.” (Hebrews 13:8)

WORSHIP:

The Church’s One Foundation (316)

Opening:

Must Jesus Bear the Cross Alone? (486)

Message:

I’ll Go Where You Want Me to Go” (352)