once established in a non-persecuted country, the church is composed of multiple units with secular analogues: a concert and public speaking venue IT for audio amplification a community center a daycare at least once a week IT for connected internet basic building maintenance custodial plumbing/elec maintenance security system, including a security team standard NPO components accounting fundraising people (often pastors) as it grows, it gets bigger: an education system a multi-mode media broadcast system a marketing team ## homily humor is very hard in thenpulpit because humor requires pain, and you're trying to deliver a message of hope and redemption with some very heavy consequences self-humor isbthe easy target avoid easy markd that can discriminate (eg leftist jokes) since you don't know how easily offended some congregants can be # articles ## 2024-05 conversation with Austin Stucky ### Austin Hey Dave. It seems like I've ran into a wall. The Christian culture at large seems to reject the idea of intentional living. There were cults in the Jesus Movement, circa 1970's, but there were also healthy intentional communities (Shiloh Youth Revival Centers being an example) It's as if we've been so inculcated into this American Dream idea that people are genuinely afraid to entertain a different form of community. Which I would argue depending on the degree is more true to "church" as portrayed in the Bible than the current form of western churchianity today But it feels like the matrix movie anytime I bring it up. It's as if people are comfortable with their Christianity as an accessory to their American lifestyle, but as soon as you begin suggesting it as a lifestyle or state of being that transcends it, and start advocating for obedience to Christ in a way that challenges cultural expectations, the group rewards that train of thinking by ignoring you, shaming you, or rejecting you, almost like a sort of defense mechanism or something. Either I have an understanding of the scripture and church history that compels me towards a particular expression of church that most people find quirky or weird, or the American culture has been part of some kind of cultural psy-op that the powers that be have placed us under in order to discourage and prevent organic biblical fellowships to develop and flourish in this country. Or both.. ### Me Well, to start with, you're in good company: I relate entirely to that surreal experience of facing opposition in asserting Christianity-as-a-mindset over Christianity-as-a-culture, though my particular stories will obviously be different. If you want to hear my entire view on that, I'll give full disclaimer: it's rather long. To start with, I'll just lay out a key theological view: we're all destined to fail, often including sin. The Bible makes it abundantly clear, and it saves us a bunch of misery if we can self-identify the particular flavor of sin that we tend to gravitate toward. Now, to the subject of American culture, I'd like to emphasize some "given" aspects of culture in general. A culture is made of people who decide to follow someone else, meaning that the decision-making disposition of the leaders (and, by association, their personality) has a dramatic effect on how that culture frames itself. Now, as far as American culture, it's essentially a bunch of antagonistic Protestants who essentially couldn't find a way to live peaceably with the then-omnipresent Catholic Church. They traveled to the New World to get away from their problems, started their own cockamamie ideas (e.g., Pennsylvania, Quakers, et al.), and it took about 2.5 centuries for their rebellious attitude to feed into a coalition with other secular-minded colonies (e.g., Virginia) to politically divide from their nation of origin. They successfully won that battle, meaning they got a chance to self-define. Their political system was inspired by Christian ideals, mixed with plenty of others (e.g., ancient Roman rule), and that made a society that has to this day endorsed a level of freedom unprecedented in human history. This freedom, though, has been a type of political "wealth" of its own, and it has corrupted plenty of people in their belief that they have moral license to be jerks. It's worth noting, though, that they were ALWAYS cantankerous: the colonies were darn unwieldy for Britain to maintain, and governors were officially-not-officially appointed by the colonists just about as much as the Crown. there was some very legitimate Christian movement in the first few Evangelical Movements, but it became a post-modern signs-and-wonders spectacle somewhere around the end of the 19th century. Not ALL that way, but that's the beginning of the holy roller type of church. As political creatures, we are always bound up in both the principles and consequences, and Christian leaders have the job of "shepherding". This means they have to adhere to both the dictates of Way while also considering the motivational aspects of the People. This creates a conflict of interest, naturally, and STRICT adherence is rare. I'd say that there has been a growing trend, especially starting in post-WWII political America, to create portions of an "ends justify the means" approach to leadership, with a "good enough" solution winning out over what is purely true. That, also, is an American trait. We are a society of pragmatists, who will throw a quick-and-dirty solution that works today at a problem instead of waiting for the right one tomorrow. Our ambition is our greatest sin. So, this persists even to today: gotta build a church culture that wins over the most people (and theoretically more believers) over an ideal one. The thing that sells me on how it doesn't work is that the Body generally sets the goalpost wrong about salvation. We'd have an entirely different attitude to being Christian if we were paying more attention to what our moral state will look like when we expire than what our original conversion experience was. But, that would require more integration of the shadow (a Jungian psychology term that holds merit here) than most Americans are comfortable with. However, one piece of wisdom I read from CS Lewis' Screwtape Letters: the experience of war wakes up something moral in people, and the devil therefore must be careful how he uses it. There is an effort to keep Americans asleep and comfortable. It's the reason I've grown to resent the cultural fixings of the American middle class. The underclass is simply trying to survive, but the middle class is trying to sacrifice all to mammon to attain that lofty goal of becoming part of the upper class. This isn't to vilify the upper class, either. God allots us the portion we get, and we should be satisfied with it. He gives, and He takes away. But, that idea isn't exactly acceptable to a rebellious society that found a way to conform to principles of freedom and liberty within that rebellion. To live in Christ is to become a permanent servant, similar to Deuteronomy 15:16-17. That ideology is foreign to our antagonistic, fiery culture. I guess what I'm saying, in a nutshell, is that our society isn't ready for the information you're trying to deliver. Individually, they may be, but it'll be lots of "preaching to the choir". Honestly, most normal average people don't care much about spiritual matters: they're too preoccupied with their own affairs. Most church leadership don't care because they've been indoctrinated into the denominational flavor they were raised to believe. The only people who care about a lifestyle of living in Christlike community are, effectively, a minority of people who follow Jesus as a self-determined aspect, not because others share in that sentiment. I have a friend of mine named Marcin who is moving back into the US soon, I think in Missouri. He's a relatively new believer (software dev at https://github.com/mrcnski). He sees the same crap we both see between culture and identity, and it's been an observation I've seen other new believers note. mrcnski - Overview God, however, is bigger than this, and He has His ways of making divine coincidences happen. That's why I'm not that worried. If it takes 2 decades, it's His timing and it'll take 2 decades. May 10 at 3:47 PM ### Austin Very well stated I've been looking into the cultural conditions that made the Jesus Movement of the late 70's possible. I find that I draw much inspiration from the Shiloh Youth Revival Centers format of fellowship. Needless to say there were many communal groups that deteriorated into cults. But that one (by the looks of it) was one of the healthier movements, before it eventually dissolved in the 80's The movement was made up of converted hippies, and my theory is such a lifestyle was possible because of the orientation that they had towards the world prior to their conversion that they retained even after submitting to more conservative ideas Their "live and let live" attitude, paired with a strong evangelistic approach and a fundamentalist approach to scripture I think was a formidable combo. The problem is that conservatives that hold to similar ideologies today tend to dismiss the more liberal orientation towards society, while the modern descendants of the hippies, have a more biblical orientation but dismiss traditional biblical values I sorta picture the merger of the two temperaments, hippy love rooted in strong convictions that are biblically informed as similar to what we would find in the early church. That same hippie temperament fuels the desire to live communally in some form, which I think is also biblical, and something that modern conservatives and society at large also shuns I figure the negative publicity of the cults over the years and things like the red scare have programmed people to look at communal arrangements skeptically in general And I'm saying this as someone who generally sympathetic to the capitalist model on the macro scale. I'm just seeing how certain forms of communalism can be beneficial for a lot of people in this current climate, but I'm uncertain if a movement like that would really take off today in this country like it did then ### Me I'm resonating much with what you're saying. My millennial kingdom essay was essentially articulating that idea: the reign of Jesus on earth will include a self-drive that looks a lot like capitalism, but toward motivations that are selfless in nature (like communism claims to advance). I think your uncertainty is largely true. The American spirit is centered heavily in individualism, and the current pressure of the fashions is antagonistic to that sort of thinking. If you think about it, the Christlike way to submit to Caesar may well mean that you give up your guns and right to free speech if the authorities ask for it. However, the "right" thing to do in this country is to sue the crap out of everyone. Passive resistance in Christ is a fine line, which boils down to "I do not like what you're doing, but respect that God gave you that authority, so please be careful with your power." So, that fine line veers into 2 political extremes when you get the Unwashed involved: 1. Pure, rebellious resistance: fight The Man. 2. Pure, mindless submission: line up and take it. The irony is that #2 there has led to Nazi Germany, and #1 has led to COVID-19, so people more remember that one, and would more quickly oppose everyone. In other words, if we hadn't had a worldwide shutdown by the powers-that-be, people would be more willing to trust their institutions. Though, this trend has been degrading for a while. Gallup indicated in 2016 that institutional trust was at 37%, and it's something like 17% right now. The problem is that communal living requires a certain amount of "institutional" trust, since it requires someone to manage various things (like insurance contracts or bookkeeping or logistics), and that makes a 1-person institution of that specialization, even if it's as decentralized as possible. Now, I'm not saying it's a lost cause, but to affirm that the ideas you're proposing are antithetical to mainline thinking. However, if you have a legitimate vision, working toward that idea is not a bad thing. I have a personal theory that there's a cloak that hides the complete consequences of our actions from our perception, meaning we have to act in faith. I know for a fact that Alexander Hamilton, George Washington, and John Adams would be mortified at the political issues of today. I'm also convinced Christian leaders like John Calvin and Charles Spurgeon would be amazed at the scope of their influence. This is all to say that we simply must do what we must do, then watch God create the consequences. If people think it's a cult, that's none of their business. Actually, that's a standard practice for Christians: being misunderstood. The early Christians had a 3-stage church experience on Sunday: 1. a public assembly 2. The Peace, which was an unstructured time for about an hour and a half to reconcile your sins with others 3. a closer gathering, which involved commucharist as well. The "Love Feast" was very private. They also happened to celebrate at the tomb of Christians who died, since it was a victorious celebration of moving on in life. Those things together meant that some Romans thought they were cannibals. I wrote an essay on cults (https://gainedin.site/cults). We're currently so independently-minded (especially political conservatives) that it's likely they'll call you a pinko commie simply for believing in hippie ideals. I'd say that it's not a cult if you make sure it a proper system. Make a nod to the rest of the "institutions", like Bruderhoff, and it'll simply make people uncomfortable enough to ask questions. ## 1 Statement of Faith ### apostolic succession [Do Protestants claim Apostolic Succession? If so, how? : AskAChristian](https://old.reddit.com/r/AskAChristian/comments/us13gy/do_protestants_claim_apostolic_succession_if_so) ### catechism [Catechism of the Catholic Church | USCCB](https://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/what-we-believe/catechism/catechism-of-the-catholic-church) ### doctrinal conflicts [Doctrinal Misalignment: A Relational Approach](https://renew.org/doctrinal-misalignment/) ### gospel basics [The Gospel According to Jesus](https://kingdomdriven.org/the-gospel-according-to-jesus) [If Jesus wanted it, why didn't he tell us?](https://old.reddit.com/r/TrueChristian/comments/16f5923/if_jesus_wanted_it_why_didnt_he_tell_us/) ### hermeneutics [Hermeneutics - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermeneutics) ### justification [Decree Concerning Justification & Decree Concerning Reform | EWTN](https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/decree-concerning-justification--decree-concerning-reform-1496) ### primitivism [The Danger of Christian Primitivism - Conciliar Post](https://conciliarpost.com/theology-spirituality/danger-christian-primitivism) [The Beauty of House Church: Primitivism - Conciliar Post](https://conciliarpost.com/christian-traditions/non-denominational-christian-traditions/beauty-house-church-primitivism) [Christian primitivism - definition of Christian primitivism by The Free Dictionary](https://www.thefreedictionary.com/Christian+primitivism) ### restorationism [Restorationism - Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restorationism) ## 2 Sacraments ### book of discipline and resolutions [Book Of Discipline & Book Of Resolutions Free Versions | UMC Books | Cokesbury](https://www.cokesbury.com/book-of-discipline-book-of-resolutions-free-versions) ### holy mysteries [Holy Mysteries - OrthodoxWiki](https://orthodoxwiki.org/Holy_Mysteries) ### prayers [Prayers - Orthodox Church in America](https://www.oca.org/orthodoxy/prayers) ### seven sacraments [The Seven Sacraments of the Roman Catholic Church | Britannica](https://www.britannica.com/list/the-seven-sacraments-of-the-roman-catholic-church) ## 3 Rituals ### 0 traditions [Constantine and Helena - Judea Under Christian Rule](https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/constantine-and-helena-judea-under-christian-rule) - this may lend itself to many things that got piled into Catholic tradition [How important are Christian traditions? : AskAChristian](https://old.reddit.com/r/AskAChristian/comments/us0xhn/how_important_are_christian_traditions) ### rituals - Stephen Lintner In 1st Corinthians 11 Paul the super scribe who had been killing people PAUL THE MOST HUMBLE APOSTLE WHO CALLS HIMSELF LIKE A BLOODY ABORTED APOSTLE… In 1 Corinthians 11 he says you hold to the traditions of Christ… The two pieces of literature MOST RESPECTED In the entire world.. among all historians.. The most important literature outside of the canonized koine Greek New Testament? The teaching of The twelve Apostles to the gentiles.. the Didache. And Justin martyr's first apology. There is one " tradition" That clearly appears in BOTH of those writings.. "Confess your sins when you gather and do not begin praying if you have a troubled conscience" " Admit your faults before communion so that your sacrifice is pure" "We hold an open banquet agape feast for the community… After everyone is filled.. WE DISMISS ALL VISITORS AND ANYONE WHO HAS NOT BEEN BAPTIZED… (This is actually where you get the term "Mass" from it's part of the word dismissal.. it's so weird that the term Mass is describing the moment when the visitors go away!) After all visitors are dismissed the doors are locked and then the time of conscience cleansing revelation of the Holy Spirit and the communion is held.. "Do not allow an unbeliever to even SEE your communion meal" Okay back to the topic THE PASTOR… Is the person in our neighborhood who has been revealed by the Holy Spirit.. TO HEAR OUR AFFLICTIONS WEAKNESSES TROUBLES AND STORIES OF OUR BAD SPIRITS… That person is applying themselves to the care of our souls! THIS IS NOT A CONGREGATIONAL LEADER OR AN ORGANIZATIONAL BUSINESS PERSON WHO IS RUNNING A TEACHING SCHEDULE… That stuff is the work of a deacon, a business person. The local Shepherd is a neighborhood person who might not even be a Bible scholar but has the guts to operate in the spirit of Truth. IF WE HAVE A CONFLICT We can ask the shepherd of our communion group to take a walk and get some answers from God for us.. SINCE WE HAVE AGREED THAT THE HOLY SPIRIT HAS SELECTED THAT PERSON WE TRUST THEM TO BE A VOICE OF HEAVEN IN CERTAIN SITUATIONS AND SKETCHY MATTERS…! ### small groups [Make Your Small Groups Like A.A. - Discipleship.org](https://discipleship.org/blog/make-your-small-groups-like-a-a/) ### Sunday worship - Austin Stucky from Austin Stucky: A loose definition of Church is merely the assembly of the saints. A more particular definition of Church is Christian Intentional Community. The Sunday morning gathering was merely intended as the public expression of said community. An outreach program, a time where the Intentional Community of Believers is put on display. An opportunity to intersect with the local community. An opportunity for the general public to get a taste of what happens within the private communal group that does life together. The epistles of Paul were written to Intentional Communal Groups that were patterned after this model. The Sunday model for church that we've adopted in the west, minus the intentionally of shared community throughout the week is a limited church of no lasting substance. Private, regular, cloistered communion times where the presence of God is tangibly experienced and the Lord's Supper is administered via the loose oversight and direction of a body of elders becomes the focal point of the week. In weekly honesty times where sins are confessed, problems are addressed and directed to the Holy Spirit, He answers corporately, not just individually. A private space where unclean spirits operating in the atmospheres of other believers are discerned and addressed via the laying on of hands. Yokes are broken. The power of God will meet the church in America when she begins to cooperate with God in detaching herself from institutionalized western models of church that present barriers to true fellowship. ### Sunday worship [Why the lack of alternatives to Sunday services? : TrueChristian](https://old.reddit.com/r/TrueChristian/comments/u31jjy/why_the_lack_of_alternatives_to_sunday_services) ## 4 Meaning ### church models [How to Create a Rule of Life Based on the Six Streams - Chris Webb - Renovare](https://renovare.org/articles/rule-of-life-six-streams) [10 Church Networking Models-Part 1 - outreachmagazine.com](https://outreachmagazine.com/features/church-planting/51456-10-church-networking-models-part-1.html) [10 Church Networking Models-Part 2 - outreachmagazine.com](https://outreachmagazine.com/features/church-planting/51512-10-church-networking-models-part-2.html) [Ten church models for a new generation | The Christian Century](https://www.christiancentury.org/blogs/archive/2011-11/ten-church-models-new-generation) [The six models of Cardinal Avery Dulles | America Magazine](https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2018/11/02/six-models-cardinal-avery-dulles) [Church Planting Models - LCMC](https://www.lcmc.net/planting-models/565) ### Jesus must be involved If Jesus launched His ministry today, most of us wouldn’t follow Him. Let me prove it: 🟡 He had no title — He wasn’t a pastor, bishop, or apostle. We’d question His legitimacy and authority because He didn’t come through the ranks or wear the titles we respect. 🟡 He was only 3 years in ministry — We'd say He wasn't seasoned enough to lead or “cover” anyone. 🟡 He was unmarried and childless — So we’d say He lacked the understanding or experience to speak on marriage, parenting, or family matters. 🟡 He only had 12 followers — And one of them betrayed Him. We'd call that poor leadership and say He lacked discernment. 🟡 He didn’t launch a church — He taught in borrowed spaces—homes, synagogues, hillsides. We'd call Him unstable, unestablished, and illegitimate. 🟡 He had no ordination — No license. No certificate. No spiritual father to co-sign His calling. We’d call Him rebellious or rogue for operating without formal covering or denominational approval. 🟡 He flipped tables and challenged religious systems — We’d label Him bitter, divisive, and disrespectful. We’d likely even say He had a spirit of offense and needed deliverance. 🟡 He healed on the Sabbath — He didn’t follow protocol. He didn’t ask for permission. He didn’t wait for the right setting. We’d accuse Him of being out of order and dishonoring spiritual authority. 🟡 He said He heard directly from God — We’d call Him unsubmitted, spooky, or dangerous. We might even say things like "he's hearing from a spirit but not the holy spirit" Truth is… Our traditions would’ve told Jesus to sit down. Religion would’ve told Him to go submit under a seasoned leader. And much of the Church would’ve disqualified Him before He ever preached the Kingdom. The same Jesus we'll be preaching and crying about the next few weeks wouldn’t be welcomed if He walked in today. (And before anyone flips the narrative—this isn’t bashing the Church. I am, however, questioning some of our norms.) I do want us to be reminded: Jesus came to establish a Kingdom—not validate a system. And the Kingdom was disruptive in every way to the systems of His time. Sometimes, disruption is the doorway to revival and realignment. We don’t need more polish. We don’t need more titles. And we don’t need more platforms. We do need more power, more truth, and more presence. May we have eyes to see Him—even when He shows up in ways we don’t expect. The courage to follow—even when it breaks our traditions to do it. And an ear to hear—even when His voice confronts what we’ve built in His name. God is kind. ### keeping it small - Austin Stucky The spark notes version is.. the communion groups are centered around the belief that there is tangible power in the communion table as one of the primary means that God uses to form Christ in us individually and corporately and that fellowship gatherings should be done around that meal as the focal point within closed private gatherings. Following a time of personal confession (just as the OT priest would read off the sin list of the people before the slaying of the lamb at the Passover Seder) and the discerning of individual demons that are afflicting group members around the table. That's affectionally known as "conscious cleansing time" or the "discerning of the body" before the meal per 1 Cor 11. The substance of what defines the "church" is in the home gatherings of the handful of families who regularly meet as well as the singles who join themselves to the families. Each individual home group then selects a family man who has a proclivity towards the watching over of men's souls who is nominated as an over shepherd. Then these regular home groups collectively come together once a week on Sunday morning for an act of public worship where curious people can get a taste of what the community is all about and be immersed into the different home groups all of which have their own distinct flavor. The idea being that this is the original structure that God instituted for men to appropriate the cleansing and atonement for sin, and keep one's soul undefiled and protected against afflicting unclean spirits. And then he's got a bunch of fun ideas on the side that he thought up that helps encourage honest conversations within community that aren't necessarily biblical per se, but can be useful pointers in pursuit of fulfilling Christian relationships within the brotherhood/sisterhood The idea is that each home group cluster would have one or two Christian businesses birthed out of them that would allow for the men to work together and their wife's to gather together regularly and assist in childcare, homeschooling etc etc MY REPLY that's…surprisingly similar to what I've been discovering again, semantic differences, but the concept is that the core functionality of the Church would be in a small environment, centered on a scant few traditions mine seems to be more organization-focused, with the idea being that each group (i.e., housechurch) has its own freedom to individuate their style on MANY things, and scaling means breaking off new housechurches more than getting any larger building HIS REPLY The public gathering would be the coming together of the individual groups where visitors could get a "taste" of the corporate fellowship and subsequently could be invited to any of the individual home gatherings afterwards to experience a taste of communal life. Being politely excused before the communion table And the visitors would have their choice in whatever home group environment setting that they felt most comfortable settling into which would help facilitate regular confession. Each group with their own niche like you stated And a loose doctrinal structure that ties them all together ### maintaining meaning - the spiritual man Upon receiving the enablement of the Holy Spirit a believer grows very sensitive to his spirit's senses. He should keep his inner man continually free, allowing the Holy Spirit to flow out His life in and through his being. To keep the inner man free is to maintain it in an operative condition for the Holy Spirit. Suppose God, for instance, sends a believer to lead a meeting. This one's spirit must be open. He should not come to the meeting with a spirit loaded down with many cares or weights, else this shall afflict the whole meeting with heaviness, creating a difficult and unbearable situation. The one who leads should not carry his burden to the meeting and expect the congregation to set him free. Anyone who relies on the response of the congregation to relieve him of his burden is doomed to failure. When he enters the meeting place the leader's spirit must be light and unbound. Many who attend are teeming with burdens. Hence the leader first must release them through prayer, hymn, or truth before he can deliver God's message. He cannot expect to unshackle others while he is himself bound with unbroken fetters. A spiritual Christian can no longer enjoy the anointing of the Spirit in a work that has become mechanical. When a task is already given up by God as unnecessary and yet is maintained by the Christian because of the outside organization (with or without form) which surrounds it, then it must be carried on by drawing upon his own resources rather than upon the power of God. Should a saint persist in laboring after the spiritual work is terminated, he must employ his soul power as well as physical power to continue on with it. In true spiritual service one must completely deny his natural talent and gift; only in this way can he produce fruit for God. If not, each effort not led by the Holy Spirit does collapse if not supported by one's brain, talent, or gift. A worker must observe carefully which part of his labor the Holy Spirit anoints. Then he will be able to cooperate with Him and operate within the current of His power. The worker's duty is to discern the current of the Spirit and to follow it. A task should be discontinued if it no longer enjoys God's anointing, is out of His current, and creates a sluggish, languid feeling. Another undertaking should be found which flows with the current. The spiritual man discerns more quickly than others. The matter for him to determine is, where is the Holy Spirit's current? Where is it flowing? Any labor that oppresses spiritual life, that fails to express the life of the spirit, or that hinders God's Spirit from overflowing has become a definite obstacle, however well it began. That work should be either cancelled or corrected so that the believer can obey life in the spirit. The worker may have to alter his relationship to the work. ## 5 Failures ### heresy [If a pastor says you won't be blessed if you don't tithe, is he just wanting your money? : AskAChristian](https://old.reddit.com/r/AskAChristian/comments/13ra4qd/if_a_pastor_says_you_wont_be_blessed_if_you_dont) ### leaven_heresy - Al Mohler In a Fallen World, There Will Be Rats on Your Ship: Espionage and the Christian Worldview And so you have all these levels of protection, but at the end of the day, regardless of the assignment in our federal government, you're dealing with human beings and some of those human beings are going to turn out to be rats. Now, something goes behind this is the fact that the United States government would not be filing these public charges unless the Department of Justice is going for the win here. They're going for the conviction. And furthermore, if you read the documents on the Department of Justice, there's something else like a ticking time bomb in this, and that is that the department is expecting to file further charges. Now, as you're looking at that, you look at the pattern of previous kinds of indictments charges handed down related to this, it becomes noticeable that the word espionage is not used in at least the publicly released information from this indictment. But the activities that were described are the activities of espionage and spycraft. At this point, the very serious charges that were filed against Victor Manuel Rocha, former United States Ambassador, they are charges of being an illegitimate agent of a foreign government. Now, that's not an insignificant charge, but one of the things to understand is that that is a step-up in the legal world in order to get to a far larger and more significant charge. And by the way, this might be a charge that is more easily proved in court more immediately, and that gets to another tangled question and a fallen world. And that is to what extent does the United States government want to expose its own information gathering, including how it gathered the information against Victor Manuel Rocha. And so in the calculation of all of this, the State Department, the White House, the Department of Justice, they may all decide that it is in the nation's interest to go for one set of charges rather than another set of charges because not so much their concern is the exposure of this defendant, but rather the exposure of the intelligence gathering operation of the United States of America. These are hardly insignificant issues for the government to weigh. There are some tantalizing bits of information in the documentation available through the website of the Department of Justice in this case, and also in terms of the coverage and the national conversation over the past, say, 48 hours. One of the issues that has come up has to do with this man who was of course for decades deeply embedded in the American security state. One of the big issues comes down to the fact that as he was talking to a man, he thought to be an agent of Cuba who turned out to be an American intelligence agent or an FBI agent, he was pointing and bragging that one particular operation was, in his words, "more than a grand glam." According to at least some American officials, it is still unknown exactly what that grand slam was. But, boy, is that a tantalizing phrase all of a sudden to emerge in this kind of recording. The deception that is alleged that was undertaken by Mr. Rocha includes the fact that he was someone who was sympathetic communism, but he presented himself to the American government as an avowed enemy of communism. Here's where you also just come in the Christian understanding to further confirmation that we can't read the human heart. So let's just put this in a Christian frame for a moment. Let's understand what this tells us about life in a sinful, fallen world. For one thing where you have power, where you have interests, you have incredible opportunity for corruption. And in a fallen world in which there are many who want to hide the truth and present a lie, and there are others trying to find out the truth under the cover of a lie, things get very convoluted, which is why espionage novels turn out to be so interesting. And of course, one of the biggest realizations that came at the end of the Cold War is that those novelists, number one actually often came with a great deal of espionage background. So in one sense, they knew what they were talking about, but number two, they were not exaggerating. The truth turned out to be indeed stranger and more dangerous than fiction. But the Christian worldview also reminds us that there are people who will sell their souls for some interest. And here you have the interest being perhaps ideological. The man was talking to the person he thought was a Cuban agent, turned out to be an American agent. He was talking of his own government. The government he had served as the United States Ambassador, he was speaking of the American government as the enemy. In a fallen world, there will be robbers, there will be thieves, there will be murderers, and yes, there will be traitors. And that's exactly what this man appears to be. But I'm using that term in the moral context. Is it true in the legal context? Well, I think that's another part of what is likely to be unfolding in future action by the Department of Justice. I'm not speaking here in legal terms, I'm speaking in moral terms. What is alleged here is treason, acting against the interest of your own country. But I return to the fact that the Christian worldview also reminds us that we cannot read the human heart. We can't read someone's mind. And so in this very high stakes business of national security statecraft, you're looking at military plans, the most precious information held by a government. The fact is there are going to be rats on the ship. And that also means that in a fallen world, you have to have rat traps on your own ship. And it also means you have to do a certain level of espionage against your own people. This may be packaged of security and background checks, but it is also true that some of the greatest failures in Spycraft throughout the history of the 20th century came with spy agencies failing to recognize double agents in their own midst. Finally, on this issue in a fallen world, it also turns out that the closer you get to power, the more tempting becomes the betrayal. I underline again the fact this man was a United States ambassador appointed by a President of the United States and confirmed by the United States Senate. This was someone with senior diplomatic rank. This was someone in charge of the American representation in Cuba. Not coincidentally. This is someone who sat on the National Security Council of the United States at one time. So as you're talking about treason and betrayal, here you're talking about it on an epic scale. And that brings us to final words on this issue. And as you're looking at the need for continual vigilance, that's certainly been underlined here. We're going to know more, but the fact that this is shocking is something that should just remind us of the fact that we don't really have a right to be shocked about a lot of things. We may be shocked about the scale and the audacity of certain crimes, and that applies here, but the fact is we shouldn't be surprised that there are people trying to undertake these crimes. One final issue from the Christian worldview, just think of this, in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve sinned against God by eating from the one tree that was restricted from them, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. It is not wrong. When even going back to the medieval period, Christian theologians described what took place in the garden in the fall, in the sin of Adam and Eve, not just as disobedience, but as treason. There is, of course, more to the story of Genesis 3 than treason, but understood in this light, there certainly is not less there than treason in all of its sinfulness. ### members leaving [Youth Leaving Christanity? Learn how CrossExamined.org is helping.](https://crossexamined.org/youth-exodus-problem/) [The Misunderstood Reason Millions of Americans Stopped Going to Church](https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/07/christian-church-communitiy-participation-drop/674843/?paymeter=hard-gate-email-test-1) [Havent been to church in over 10 years, what should I expect?](https://old.reddit.com/r/TrueChristian/comments/15vg1pa/havent_been_to_church_in_over_10_years_what/) [Gallup Poll shows notable decrease in church attendance | WORLD](https://wng.org/sift/gallup-poll-shows-notable-decrease-in-church-attendance-1711474837) ### members leaving - online connection - Austin Stucky AUSTIN STUCKY STATEMENT Hey everyone, and Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there. I don't know if the timing of this post is right, but the fullness of what I've been meaning to share came to me this morning. My hope is that you are taking full advantage of the opportunity to be off of social media, to celebrate and honor Fatherhood to the extent that your are capable. You see, God made us for human community and connection, and I've always felt that social media is a cheap substitute for community. Just as p*rn is a cheap substitute for intimacy, processed foods are a cheap substitute for food, and entertainment is a cheap substitute for joy and purpose. The purpose of THIS page was originally designed as an extension of my now defunct ministry platform on Instagram, which it has now outgrown. The idea was to use this platform to share highlights of my personal life, but I don't know how much of it I care to share. It, like my personal Instagram, quickly turned into a Christian Truther & Ministry page. I feel that both pages are now oversaturated with content, and I've grown tired of chain posting here. I also suspect that my motivations for staying active on either platform have been less than genuine. Either to receive words of validation from others, or to connect with a potential spouse. To the extent that my connections online have failed to lead to face to face encounters towards the formation of authentic Christian community, this platform has failed it's intended purpose. To the extent that it has helped facilitate real life encounters and human connection towards that end, it has been successful. I hope that it will continue to do so. My intention is for the views on this page to be life altering, and spiritually transforming, to such an extent that like minded individuals would be compelled to radically change the way that they look at church, and begin to partner with the work of God to restore the fullness of an authentic Christian community and worldview. That is still my intention, and I feel that I am the closest to that that I have ever been. And yet, I've also grown weary of retreating to the virtual false realities portrayed on these platforms, in hopes that they will give me a feeling of comfort while I wait for said community to fully manifest. I fundamentally object to the notion of false realities, virtual worlds, and artificial intelligence. My heart is for authentic, lived experience connected to people that I love that are right in front of me. Because of the severe fragmentation and ultimate failure of Western Churchianity to preserve and pass down community in the way that it was experienced in the Ancient Church, paired with my own internal struggles with the ability to form deep human connections due to indulgence in false forms of intimacy and deep trauma, I continually find myself an unfulfilled scroller on Facebook, either discouraged by the state of the country, burdened by the prevalence of false teaching, frustrated by the dating pool, and otherwise continually shocked by the human condition. There was a time for me when exposure to Christian truth was novel, but now much of my feed is saturated with advertisements and Christian clichés that lack substance. Although I often agree, I find it hard to connect with the Christian truths that I have heard so often repeated without any real depth, substance, or commitment to change. This has contributed to feelings of cynicism in recent years, but it says nothing of those same people that God has called me to love and encourage. Without a vision the people perish, and the Christian community on here is largely a people with no vision. Others are working with an incomplete vision, while most are content to remain aloof to those with true vision, instead being content to follow after Christian leaders who emphasize signs and wonders, and recite Christian cliches, while otherwise failing to establish lasting fellowships centered on Apostolic Teaching complete with the necessary communal safeguards needed to protect the flock. I believe that the solution exists by putting into practice the specific tenants and principles that I and others have discovered through our years of studying early Christianity. But it takes a community of believers motivated by that common vision in order to provide real solutions, not just one or two men. Yet, I am a man with very limited resources, which I've discovered disqualifies you in many areas of life. Being a fan of my work is one thing, but fundamentally altering your life and routine in order to come into agreement with the solution is quite another entirely, and it's those kind of people that I need to surround myself with in order for this to become something more than words on a screen. At the same time, I refuse to force doors open that are not open for me. It is the Spirit of God that will ultimately have to breathe life into this vision for it to come to pass. It is the Spirit of God that will put His people into motion, not my own efforts. His burden is light, and His yoke easy. Regardless, the blueprint is here for those who care to see it. I've shared what I've cared to share, and I will continue to be available on messenger. I would rather endure the discomfort of facing my own personal demons in isolation, and periodically alongside the people that God has placed in my life, then to continue to retreat into artificial forms of community and pleasure. "For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known." 1 Corinthians 13:12 MY MESSAGE RESPONSE So I wanted to share something, but not sure if it's worth the public attention, regarding your long post 2 days ago. I share the sentiment entirely. Around 2014, I had a far less adjusted view of life, was working in organic farming trying to find my way, and not much going on along the lines of a mate or potential social prospects. You're absolutely right: social media is a cheap knockoff, like hot dogs compared to steak or a crayon drawing compared to fine art. Social media's interests are for their own, so they have no reason to NOT use dark patterns to keep people addicted (my deeper essays on dark patterns at [NAG DESIGN](https://notageni.us/design) and [TS UX/UI](https://techsplained.xyz/ux-ui)). We're in a sea of people, but utterly alone. The solution is to break out of the mold. I wrote some ideas near the back end of [AL PEOPLE 4](https://adequate.life/people-4). Most adults have the problem of not having friends. Our culture doesn't maintain in adulthood the demographic variety that happens when a kid is simply playing or with other schoolchildren. Most of our adult encounters are in the workplace, which can sometimes be VERY non-social (e.g., truck drivers, factory workers). I'm not saying I have it figured out: I'm struggling with that "community" thing myself, but I believe it has a lot to do with our over-emphasis on ordered systems in this country. I work in insurance all day. Irrespective of who a person appears to be or is, their legal fiction tells a different story (that AUSTIN STUCKY parallel legal entity the SS administration gave you) To this world, we are database entries, and that's it. A product to be harvested in happiness through consumerism, in grief through medication and therapy, and the worse we get the more they can profit (e.g., being trans). The Christian world is weak because they trust this legal fiction. That's most of my rant there. The legal fiction creates an oversimplified story of what we DID, but never what we WILL DO or ARE, but love is the domain of ARE and hope/faith are the domain of WILL DO Sorry if I'm not speaking in a straight line, the tinfoil hat is shorting out my brain these days. Your feelings of solitude and isolation are American-standard living: it's a product of the mass-scale individualism we're all raised in. Being a Christian is conformity to a philosophical value system that directly defies American individualism, and the rebellion shows itself most prevalently in 4th Wave Evangelicalism (e.g., vote Republican because it's God's will). In short, your assertion that you're waiting for things to change is a correct observation (things haven't changed) but I believe it's a wrong action item (wait for it to change). There's waiting like Moses (doing basically nothing) and waiting like Nehemiah (researching and yak shaving the crap out of what you want to create). My own endeavors are ALL obsessive building for the future I want to see. Every time I get discouraged, I have converted it into anger that propels me forward. I'm now a convicted felon because I didn't observe the time and place for NOT doing that, but it really does create the results you need and helps you attack the dragon enough that it starts to bleed. Once you know you can make a dent, it's not so scary, but that first movement is psychologically the hardest. ### religiousness [Why do modern Christians seem to be completely oblivious to the fact that the state of the modern religion almost perfectly mirrors the dogmatic nature of the Sanhedrin and Pharisees who vehemently opposed Christ? : Christians](https://old.reddit.com/r/Christians/comments/12z1qyt/why_do_modern_christians_seem_to_be_completely/) ### responding to modern culture [The debate over Christian nationalism | WORLD](https://wng.org/articles/the-battle-for-americas-identity-1712027029) ### scandals [Restoring Trust in the Church Requires the Whole ... | Christianity Today](https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2023/january-web-only/russell-moore-ct-church-abuse-scandals-trust-requires-truth.html) ### sins in the church [David and Bathsheba and Affairs in Your Church](https://renew.org/david-and-bathsheba/) ## 6 Denominational Distinctions ### differences in denominations [Why are you a part of your denomination? : TrueChristian](https://old.reddit.com/r/TrueChristian/comments/17ejfis/why_are_you_a_part_of_your_denomination/) [Guest Column: The Evangelical Identity Crisis - Barna Group](https://www.barna.com/guest-column-the-evangelical-identity-crisis/) ### hutterite-likes [Messianic Koinonia - Foundation for Intentional Community](https://www.ic.org/directory/messianic-koinonia) [Intentional Communities - Find, Join, & Learn about Intentional Community](https://www.ic.org) ### inter-denominational conflicts [Vanguard Church Dares SBC to Disfellowship](https://evangelicaldarkweb.org/2023/06/24/vanguard-church-dares-sbc-to-disfellowship/) - the battles within denominations are 2 possible things: 1. sincerely important and on an ethical matter 2. dumb distractions from what's good - it's critical to discern which one is which ### online-only [Killing Community | Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36296882) [Killing Community @ marginalia.nu](https://www.marginalia.nu/log/82_killing_community/) - this is true for ALL social networks, including churches - maybe revisit "social network design" in TT as well? # guides ## 0 general church guides [Courses - New Churches](https://www.newchurches.com/courses) ## 1 Running ### 1 Statement of Faith #### beliefs [Kingdom Expansion Essentials](https://kingdomdriven.org/kingdom-expansion-essentials) NOTE: NEED TO REVISIT WHAT EO DOES ON ALL THIS AND UPDATE REFS [The Thirteen Principles of Jewish Faith](https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/332555/jewish/Maimonides-13-Principles-of-Faith.htm) [Catechism of the Catholic Church](https://www.usccb.org/sites/default/files/flipbooks/catechism/) [Home - Bible Odyssey](https://bibleodyssey.org/) [Messianic Jewish Ministry Bible Teachings](https://www.ariel.org/) [Home | Largest Library of Courses in Jewish Studies for Christians](https://israelbiblecenter.com/) [Statements of faith | WORLD](https://wng.org/articles/statements-of-faith-1715657886) #### beliefs - soteriology [Five questions for Orthodox, Catholic, and Anglican Christians about salvation. : AskAChristian](https://old.reddit.com/r/AskAChristian/comments/12gf1aq/five_questions_for_orthodox_catholic_and_anglican) ### 2 Sacraments #### baptism [A History of Anti-pedobaptism - Google Books](https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/DuVJAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0) [credobaptist_resources - Reformed](https://old.reddit.com/r/Reformed/wiki/credobaptist_resources) [List of early church primary sources on baptism for research - A Poor Wretch](https://apoorwretch.com/2022/06/list-of-early-church-primary-sources-on-baptism-for-research/) ### 3 Rituals #### early church activities [Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series I - Wikisource, the free online library](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Nicene_and_Post-Nicene_Fathers:_Series_I) [Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II - Wikisource, the free online library](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Nicene_and_Post-Nicene_Fathers:_Series_II) #### hymns and singing [Hymnology Archive - The Hymn Society](https://thehymnsociety.org/resources/hymnology-archive/) [Hymnary.org: a comprehensive index of hymns and hymnals | Hymnary.org](https://hymnary.org/) [Hymnology - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hymnology) #### offering [Offering (Christianity) - Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Offering_(Christianity)) #### preaching [For the Church | 50 Thoughts on Preaching](https://ftc.co/resource-library/blog-entries/50-thoughts-on-preaching) [Preparing Sermons for Takeoff and Landing - New Churches](https://www.newchurches.com/resource/preparing-sermons-for-takeoff-and-landing) [Preaching Masterclass - New Churches](https://www.newchurches.com/course/preaching/) [Teaching the Bible Faithfully in Small and Large Settings - New Churches](https://www.newchurches.com/resource/teaching-the-bible-faithfully-in-small-and-large-settings/) ### 4 Meaning #### church models [Free Online Bible Study Courses | BibleProject™](https://bibleproject.com/classroom) [Home - Harvestime](https://harvestime.org) [Christian Leaders Courses - Christian Leaders](https://www.christianleadersinstitute.org) [Renovaré: Christian Spiritual Formation Resources, Retreats and Education - Renovare](https://renovare.org) #### re-examining your purposes [Kingdom Character: Suffering, Service, and Sacrifice - New Churches](https://www.newchurches.com/resource/kingdom-character-suffering-service-and-sacrifice/) [Death: The Beginning of Spiritual Formation - New Churches](https://www.newchurches.com/resource/death-the-beginning-of-spiritual-formation/) #### taking time off [Best Practices for a Pastor's Day Off - New Churches](https://www.newchurches.com/resource/best-practices-for-a-pastors-day-off/) NOTE: it's a good idea to regularly cycle pastors for homilies (i.e., never more than 3x in a row), gives them time to regroup their thoughts and allows for other teachers to gain experience in the event of that pastor becoming unable to perform their duties ### 5 Failures #### resolving conflicts [Qualities of Peacemakers - New Churches](https://www.newchurches.com/resource/qualities-of-peacemakers/) #### responding to modern culture [Embracing The Boniface Option: Charting a Course for Christian Counteroffensive](https://news.gab.com/2023/08/embracing-the-boniface-option-charting-a-course-for-christian-counteroffensive/) [Restoring the Soul of American Christianity](https://news.gab.com/2023/07/restoring-the-soul-of-american-christianity/) [Fight By Flight](https://news.gab.com/2023/07/fight-by-flight/) - this seems extreme: may need much more consideration about how much "loving is leaving" is true [Building a Parallel Economy and Nurturing a New Christendom](https://news.gab.com/2023/07/building-a-parallel-economy-and-nurturing-a-new-christendom/) [Facing sexuality issues with Biblical truth | WORLD](https://wng.org/podcasts/facing-sexuality-issues-with-biblical-truth-1707859652) [How the Johnson Amendment Threatens Churches' Freedoms | American Center for Law and Justice](https://aclj.org/free-speech/how-the-johnson-amendment-threatens-churches-freedoms) ### 7 Growth #### discipleship [Preaching and Disciple-Making - Discipleship.org](https://discipleship.org/blog/preaching-and-disciple-making/?mc_cid=0718b60c09) [The 4 Failures that Undermine Deep Discipleship - Discipleship.org](https://discipleship.org/blog/the-4-failures-that-undermine-deep-discipleship/?mc_cid=0718b60c09) DISCIPLESHIP: overtones of spiritual gift and personality tests #### inspiring a culture [5 Ways to Pastor Your Family Flock - New Churches](https://www.newchurches.com/resource/5-ways-to-pastor-your-family-flock/) [4 Ways to Equip Your Church in Biblical Hospitality - New Churches](https://www.newchurches.com/resource/4-ways-to-equip-your-church-in-biblical-hospitality/) [5 Steps to Cultivate Your Church's Multiethnic Kingdom Culture - New Churches](https://www.newchurches.com/resource/5-steps-to-cultivate-your-churchs-multiethnic-kingdom-culture/?_hsmi=300880448) [Six Practices of Proactive Member Care - New Churches](https://www.newchurches.com/resource/six-practices-of-proactive-member-care/) [Cultivating Rich Community in the Church - New Churches](https://www.newchurches.com/resource/cultivating-rich-community-in-the-church/) [From Guest to Invested: 7 Tips for Engaging Prospective Church Members - New Churches](https://www.newchurches.com/resource/from-guest-to-invested-7-tips-for-engaging-prospective-church-members/?_hsmi=302929351) #### leading by example [TALENT: CHARACTER OVER COMPARISON - Discipleship.org](https://discipleship.org/blog/talent-character-over-comparison/?mc_cid=0718b60c09) [Billy Graham rule - Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Graham_rule) [Kingdom Character: Proximity Before Power - New Churches](https://www.newchurches.com/resource/kingdom-character-proximity-before-power/?_hsmi=305988394) #### megachurch culture [Why do megachurches all sound like Radio Disney? : AskAChristian](https://old.reddit.com/r/AskAChristian/comments/12glpak/why_do_megachurches_all_sound_like_radio_disney) [A Church Software Roll-Up - BIG by Matt Stoller](https://mattstoller.substack.com/p/a-church-software-roll-up) #### non-spiritual positions [Daniel Suhr: The third way for evangelicals in 2024 | WORLD](https://wng.org/podcasts/daniel-suhr-the-third-way-for-evangelicals-in-2024-1703956646) [The Renovationist "Orthodox" - Gab News](https://news.gab.com/2022/12/the-renovationist-orthodox) #### scaling [Why (and When) Your Church Needs a Student Ministry - New Churches](https://www.newchurches.com/resource/why-and-when-your-church-needs-a-student-ministry/) [Discovering Future Leaders - New Churches](https://www.newchurches.com/resource/discovering-future-leaders/) - ARE WE REALLY RESPONSIBLE TO "CALL" FOR LEADERS, OR IS IT GOD'S DOMAIN? [Becoming a Church that Multiplies - New Churches](https://www.newchurches.com/podcasts/new-churches-podcast/becoming-a-church-that-multiplies/) #### tracking success [The Nine Marks : 9Marks](https://www.9marks.org/about/the-nine-marks/) [12 Traits of a Healthy Church - New Churches](https://www.newchurches.com/resource/12-traits-of-a-healthy-church/) ## 3 Missionaries ### maintaining family [Loving Your Family While Living on Mission - New Churches](https://www.newchurches.com/resource/loving-your-family-while-living-on-mission/) ### scoping projects [Pastor, Go Overseas - New Churches](https://www.newchurches.com/resource/pastor-go-overseas/) # text ## leadership Ezekiel 33 applies to pastors when starting, every church has 3 possible pathways they must take: - renewal - revive what was known-good - reform - rebuild into a [new trend] - restitution - bring back things that were lost the Church falls into the same problem as A/B testing in [marketing] represented in Goodhart's Law - the actual finish line should be people entering eternity - however, we can't really KNOW this - instead, we can measure the conversions, or donations, or number of actively involved members to explore ecclesiology is to self-reflect on a group's [identity] it's important to be VERY obsessive about language - without specificity, people can fall away and the devil can deceive them - the product of low-language Christianity is to generate moralistic therapeutic deism It is not appropriate for believers to seek a legacy - it is conceit, veiled as meaningful It takes ~2 yrs to replace a pastor ## mission mission is the basis for EVERYTHING in Christianity - the "missionary" idea is a bit misleading, since it implies ONLY evangelism - mission incorporates [discipleship], [worship], and [community], since it centralizes on [God's purposes] - being "missional" can be misunderstood as "evangelistic", which can degenerate into constant [sales] about Jesus - being "missional" can be misunderstood as "social works", which can often get so engaged in doing things that it misses the gospel of Jesus Christ - being "missional" can become "macro-missional" or "micro-missional" ## outsiders FROM AUSTIN: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mbd4P30VjrI I can relate, have been called backslidden, heretic, etc to be clear on scope, NONE of this is salvific he defines church differently: Church - ecclesia the people in the Body church - institution the structured organization to quote someone saying the church institution has suppressed God's people is ironic, since his presence 1 there are no boxes, there is only a Body he says they create pride and divisions religion defined by performance, control, and fear (aka "you must") it's really about God's perfect performance, and then we freely receive we are entering into His rest john 6:28-29 - Then they inquired, “What must we do to perform the works of God?” Jesus replied, “The work of God is this: to believe in the One He has sent.” the religious mindset is about constant work, but the Kingdom mindset is about letting God have control and Him being the author and finisher of our faith 2 you discern and hear His voice more than you give credit for he says it's boxes and fear that makes us doubt and question it my sheep hear my voice (John 10:27-28) this has generated tons of fear and hesitation too many Christians have more faith in the devil deceiving us than in God telling us truths MY TAKE: it's not about fear over trusting, #### the birds are intuitively doing what they're wired to do, they don't need instruction, and that's how we should be he says that religion has perverted it and made us afraid of it 3 he says that "mess" is a product of growing and that religion is intentionally ordered, which obstructs the ability for someone to grow, and we must be okay with the mess --- --- MY RESPONSE This is a good start for discussion, though I feel he could do well to make another video that cleans up the ideas a bit. I'll risk writing a mini-dissertation here, so apologies in advance. To start with, I can entirely relate to the mechanism of being cast out. I've been branded a heretic, and have had a few times the church has outright rejected me. To build a steel man, he basically asserts the three following ideas: 1. there are no boxes (which is the church), there is only a Body (which is the Church) 2. believers discern and hear His voice more than they give God credit for 3. creating a mess is a natural part of spiritual growth, and the church can suppress that There's a certain irony he makes in quoting someone: the message of the church suppressing people only came through the institutional mechanism that allowed that individual to say that. --- I'm convinced his "box" thinking about how the church works is a bit misguided: 1. If Scripture is any indication, we were originally designed to be directly guided by a literal "benevolent dictator". 2. God is clearly not physically present, so we create order in that absence. 3. It's only a natural product of order-making that we can divide things that ought not be divided. 4. Individual church members will often make idols over those divisions, which can obstruct the simple truths the entire system was originally designed to support. Recently, I got into a weird argument with someone over their belief that Catholics who don't believe "sole fide" are somehow not going to heaven, which is silly because saying "Christ's sacrifice is sufficient for salvation to those who believe" automatically means "one who believes in Christ's sacrifice as sufficient, along with other stuff they do, receives salvation". The entire thing was splitting hairs. To reframe it to be more clear, these "boxes" he addresses are simply manifestations of organizational design in the absence of God's presence. It's more a baseline quality of organized people than anything particularly malicious or unusual. The fact that conscientiousness is a higher representation of personality within church leadership simply magnifies this reality. Some people, believe it or not, ACTUALLY ENJOY working very hard. I can personally relate: God has forced me to do absolutely nothing for this current season, and I'm losing my mind. If the hard-working people like working hard, then that's great, and we only get into a Mary/Martha situation when they start pressuring everyone else. --- The second, regarding God's voice, is true, but I think he misplaces the basis. He presumes we're fearful, but I can testify from personal experience that that is *not* the motivating factor. Sometimes, it's a matter of convention. Up until my recent divorce from Stoic thinking, I had a philosophical stance that the "logos" of the universe existed, then God was a conduit through that logos. This means that God's word wouldn't be that active. My new perspective is that the very metaphysical design of the universe has always been strictly for the relationship between God and mankind, which means the universe itself is BRIMMING with God's messages and meaning. It wasn't a cessation of fear, but a philosophical shift that broke my old value system. Now, granted, a church institution can magnify fears over this sort of thing, but I think he's missing the basis: it's an inward philosophical problem far more than any organizational pedagogy. --- As far as the mess, he's correct that it's a product of growing, but he misses that it all should come through what I broadly call "risk tolerance". Unlike children with toys, making moral missteps can have *very* dangerous consequences. God is faithful to protect us from the worst, but that doesn't mean we ourselves are always comfortable to make risks. To that end, each believer must work out their own salvation with fear and trembling. This means that some people will be happy to publicly speak tongues according to a spirit (at the risk of it being an unclean spirit), and others may not want to speak at all (to avoid the risk of spreading false doctrine). If that person is faithful to God in that decision, He will guide them and bless their actions. ## 1 Running a Worship-Based Church ### fundraising the best way to talk about general fundraising is to bring up what you were able to do with the prior money you've had - this will jointly demonstrate competence while also showing that the money will be used wisely, as well as giving people the chance to share in the experience going forward ### the pastor's role eph 4:11-12 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up the role of a pastor is to equip, and not necessarily anymore to be a "minister" as much as the actual Body ### 1 Statement of Faith #### hermeneutics whatever the philosophical framework entails, that determines the basis of the thoughts, which drives how the church runs - even 1 misstated or understated specificity is enough to bring out the weirdness of strange doctrines - this is all presuming that everyone is being honest and up-front, and some people are simply NOT intelligent enough to philosophically parse a well-drafted statement of faith #### soteriology Episcopal Church: "I was saved 2,000 years ago when Jesus was on the cross, I am being saved, and I hope to be saved." - Salvation is simultaneously something that has already happened and is currently happening for them. - It's probably the best way to look at it: - Caths focus on "will be" - Prots focus on "are" (with Calvinists on "was") #### standard of practice - reddit comment From my own [essay-writing](https://gainedin.site/groups-large) and research, I've realized that human interaction has a hard limit of generating meaning for the individuals in it of up to ~150 people. By that point, the only way it really scales is through the emergent order of subdivisions within that larger entity. This applies to all domains: management, distribution of services, city planning, etc. In Christ, my expectation is that the growth should develop with a _hyper_-obsession with ensuring meaning is maintained with the members. This can be difficult (what with the [range of personalities](https://gainedin.site/personality/) we all possess), but is absolutely critical for the preservation of all souls involved. I'm still writing it out and a few months out from getting to it, but my own informal abstractive mechanism involves the following solution: 1. Grow without provocation toward numbers, focusing on quality > quantity. 2. At approximately 50-70 people but never more than 100, force a divide (e.g., break a chunk of people off into a new church plant in the area, send off some people to another region, etc.). 3. As the other one grows, nurture it to a point, but leave it _very_ hands-off, including but not limited to permitting an entire denominational shift with that new church's culture. The only interaction should be on the basis of need or for collaborative actions (i.e., avoid centralized management). 4. With the exception of heresy, let whatever happens happen! This is a complete abdication of power, and most pastors are inherently territorial, so I doubt it'll ever happen. But, that's the rough draft of what I'll be essaying on once I get a few other prerequisite essays finished in a few other domains. #### statement of faith - things not believed Statement of Things I Do Not Believe Steve Blackwell (abridged & modified by Austin Stucky) I am afraid that I am not convinced of the value of an "official" Statement of Faith, which can leave out as much as it puts in. While many ministries have carefully crafted statements of faith that comply with Biblical doctrine, in practice, many of them do NOT preach a sound gospel message of salvation. I have read more than one such statement, which sounded like it could have been penned by the archangel Michael himself. However, a closer inspection or listening of their words and life revealed much malarkey, none of which definitively contradicted their declaration, (Which should have ended with the words... "and then some"). Bearing this in mind I prefer to list what I DO NOT believe. Ignoring the finer points of English grammar, the words "I DO NOT BELIEVE" can be substituted with "THE BIBLE DOES NOT TEACH." Please Note: That I, as a Christian, cannot belong to any man-made denomination, regularly attend any 21st Century Church, or subscribe to any man-made creed. (What is a Reformed Evangelical Anyway?). If you wish to hang a label on me, the word "Christian" will do very well. I owe everything I have and everything I am to Christ Jesus alone. I DO NOT believe that all religions are valid paths to the same destination, or that Jesus was just a good man and a wise teacher. He was, and is, God Almighty whose return isn't far away. I DO NOT believe that any man can adequately explain God's nature and being. Our understanding of God has been elevated to the place of untouchable orthodoxy. Scripture is content to make it clear that God (Yahweh) is God, Jesus is God, and The Holy Spirit is also God, without explaining how this is so, or what the exact relationship is between the Three. I DO NOT believe that there is any logical or Biblical reason why a sovereign God, by His sovereign design, could not allow creatures made in His image the freedom of genuine moral choice, or that He is unable to keep that which He desires. I DO NOT believe that Christianity is simply a matter of reciting the sinner's prayer or that anyone who has once believed is saved regardless of what they do afterward. Salvation came to us at a great price and without holiness, no one will see heaven. Subordinating all worldly and personal ambitions to Him is the very essence of the Christian faith. I DO NOT believe that baptism is necessary for salvation. However, all believers must be baptized, it is an integral part of the Gospel and a command of Christ, yet some were not baptized. I DO NOT believe that speaking in tongues is (necessarily) the initial evidence of the infilling of the Holy Spirit or that everyone should speak in tongues. I DO NOT believe in Inclusivism, Universalism, Ecumenism, or Interfaith-ism. I DO NOT believe that someone who does not persevere in the faith and does not continue to be obedient to the will of God will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Much as some would like to believe otherwise... if you fall away and live in sin... you will NOT be saved. However, it is not necessarily true that every believer who commits any sin will lose salvation every time he sins. I (am not convinced) that today's popular feel-good revivals are genuine. The test of true revival is that it changes the moral climate of a person or community. I DO NOT believe that children's Scriptural knowledge should be left up to Sunday School and Youth Groups, too many of whom are dedicated to having fun. "They are too young to understand such things" is the devil's argument to deter parents from discharging their duty. I DO NOT believe that women should not teach.* (However, women should not be pastors). I DO NOT believe in The Contemporary/Commercial Church which is light on doctrine and heavy on music and drama.* I DO NOT believe in the Emerging Church, Seeker Sensitive Church, or the New Age Church which is, in many cases, doing little but re-merging with Catholicism and adopting practices learned from Buddhism and Hinduism. I DO NOT believe that Christians should be playing footsie with New Age beliefs (depending on how that term is defined), Yoga, walking Labyrinths, or indulging in mystical practices.* I DO NOT believe that a Christian should have anything to do with Halloween, astrology, dowsing, Ouija boards, Reiki, Shamanism, people who claim to communicate with the dead, the likes of Harry Potter, or any other kind of psychic phenomena. I DO NOT believe in the New Ecumenism, nor should a Christian be a member of the Masonic Lodge. I DO NOT believe that the sign gifts have been done away with, nor do I believe that every third person is a prophet. Furthermore, I do not believe in New Revelation* (technically), but that God has and does sometimes give special revelation/understanding to accomplish His purposes. I DO NOT believe that the Prayer of Jabez is a magic formula or that the so-called Bible codes are anything but random chance. I DO NOT believe that Homosexuality is just an alternative lifestyle and that Abortion and Divorce are simply matters of choice. (God abhors all three). I DO NOT believe that people should be playing God. Euthanasia, Cloning, and Stem cell research, among other things, should be strongly opposed by all Christians. I DO NOT believe that anyone knows every single detail of end times events and certainly not the exact chronological order, we all know the outcome but for the present, there are plenty of life and death issues at hand. However, I do believe that the church had better prepare itself to go through the tribulation. I DO NOT believe that Christians should be involved in government or any of its processes* (in general) i.e., war, jury duty, judging and condemning, voting, pledging allegiance to a flag, etc., but should live peacefully within the bounds of the existing government God has set-up and submit to any of it wishes that do not oppose the wishes of their own King and Governor. I reserve the right to add to or take from the list above as I am led by the Holy Spirit and given more understanding. I am quite sure that many more things could be added, but this is a good start. NOTE: THIS MAY BE GOOD FOR ME TO REPRODUCE FOR MYSELF AS A SEPARATE PAGE #### theological discussion the statements your church makes (theological, worship music) are VERY philosophical ideals - any misstatement of any of them will almost certainly lead to [heresies] among the congregation #### Creeds and Confessions make a list of all the confessions and creeds - compare/contrast ##### FROM NO AGENDA Social Hey Adam, I've just listening to the latest podcast and I wanted to give insight about evangelical Christianity. Lol first of all John was way off base. Evangelical Christianity is not connected to a denomination essentially any Christianity of any denomination can be an evangelical. Most churches even have a mix of evangelical and non evangelical Christians. However some denominations and some churches have a higher percentage of evangelicals. To determine if someone is an evangelical they need to ascribe to 4 principals. First is that they had a conversion experience, which means they can point towards a specific time where they decided to die to the world and start living for Christ. Second, they must believe in sola scriptura, which means that they believe that the Bible is the divinely inspired word of God, and the Bible is the sole authority not church leaders. Third they must live with a Biblical world view in their daily life and evangelize to non-Christians. Lastly, they must believe, that humans are inherently sinful, that Jesus' death on the cross was an atoning sacrifice that cleanses us from sin, and that his sacrifice is the only thing that can save us, not good works. Thanks for all that you do, Luke --- creeds were originally designed as memorizable mnemonics that non-literate Christians could pass information onward with Polycarp - taught by Paul Ignatius - taught by John? Clement of Rome - 4th bishop of Rome bishops were appointed by apostles - apostolic succession - the bishops were a traditionally established maintainer of the faith, through the laying on of hands - bishop means "overseer", and they were responsible to [manage] and curate the Church on doctrinal matters - episcopas in Greek is not in Christian doctrine, and it was part of the administration of the Christian church ### 2 Sacraments #### Sabbath A Christian who goes to church and reads their Bible against their desires is NOT taking the Sabbath correctly. - going to church if you're an introvert may actually be defying the Sabbath - reading your Bible when you're not a "reading books" type may be defying the Sabbath ### 3 Rituals #### 0 traditions - reddit comment Hi! I'm not sure exactly what you mean by "traditions". As a BAPTIST, from EASTERN CANADA, who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s, in mostly English language urban life - I have church traditions that reflect those things. These range from architecture, arrangement of the sanctuary, language used in the pulpit, musical styles, professional expectations, church management, church government, theological perspectives and so much more. To me, traditions are the habits we get into by accident and by planning, and we stay with them because they give easy answers to practical needs. To use a "non church example", Alcoholics Anonymous has "12 steps and [12 traditions](https://www.aa.org/the-twelve-traditions). > The > Twelve Traditions provide guidelines for relationships between the > groups, members, the global Fellowship and society at large. Questions > of finance, public relations, donations and purpose are addressed in the > Traditions. With that understanding of traditions and their purpose, lets look at a few. - Architecture - most Baptists understand their "church building" as a more of a "meeting house" than as a cathedral or temple. The people who follow Jesus are the Church (literally, the Bible translates ἐκκλησίαν which means congregation or assembly as church see [Matthew 16](https://biblehub.com/interlinear/matthew/16.htm):18) - Catholics have the Mass as the central part of their worship, so the table (altar) is at the centre. Baptists have the pulpit and the Bible at the centre stage because their focus is the Bible teaching and the preaching. In an Orthodox church the artwork displays God's glory. - Local church government is a big deal for us. I grew up in youth groups where we learned to make decisions together and choose where to spend our time, effort and resources. This is the same for each congregation. As a pastor I get one vote, just like every other member of our congregation. People with a history of wisdom and good character have influence, but only one vote. This makes it easier for younger people to change the direction of the church if they care to be involved. - Worship styles are mostly set by the people who volunteer to lead. It is easy for one volunteer to have a huge influence on the style of worship in our form of church. - There is not much organizational hierarchy in a Baptist church. One church I am pastor of has a "leadership team of 7 people, who meet monthly to plan directions and events and finances, and look after everything. Today a part of my job is to start the process of hiring 3 summer students who will basically work with the rest of our volunteers for summer ministry. We have no outside "boss or bishop" to help or interfere. The other church I serve as pastor has 2 deacons, and a number of volunteers to lead all the ministries. - Working together with other churches (association principle) is another big deal. We work on projects with other churches so we can be more effective in ministries. I am in a declining rural community where the other churches have basically shut down over the last 50 years. We used to have Catholic, Anglican, United, Pentecostal, 7th Day Adventist, and Presbyterian in our area. We are the last church in this community, and the nearest churches in any direction are also a small, rural struggling Baptist congregation. Last Friday (Good Friday) we had 7 different churches meet together for a big celebration. - Pulpit ministry - One goal of Baptists is to make the Bible teaching clear and accurate. I tend to use two different versions of the Bible in the pulpit. [NASB](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+3&version=NASB) for accuracy, and the [International Children's Bible](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+3&version=ICB) for keeping it simple and clear. Baptist churches also tend to do teaching ministries like Sunday School and youth groups. - Helping ministries - Baptists tend to think helping the poor is a big deal. We do a food pantry with free food to anyone who needs it any time, no matter what their circumstance. We also support the local food bank which does great work, but might not be as free to help in some bad or emergency situations. I'm sure there are lots more traditions, but time marches on. #### communion_eucharist Communion/Eucharist - can be interpreted as "the" blood and human flesh, or symbolizing it - like in the Gospel accounts, can be taken in either order - some people conflate John 6 with the event itself, but it's a ritual to HONOR salvation, not a prerequisite - the first Church had an actual _meal_ with ritual bread and then-normative-and-diluted wine - Thus, Paul's Corinthians letter referred to people being forbidden to eat with the rest of the people - Paul admonishes them to eat their nice meal beforehand to not create inequality with the poorer believers - IDEA: as long as it's sanctified, can be cookies/sweetbread and grape soda/koolaid - However, to be purist, you do want bread without yeast (i.e., saltines) - IDEA: the Eucharist is an addition to the Passover seder, but Jesus could have chosen anything - He chose the wine as a symbolic representation of what people used it for: functional, practical, adult enjoyment - This means that the solemnity of the Eucharist is probably overblown - The Protestant view is to repent unconfessed sin before taking it, but that's a Catholic tradition crossover, and Paul NEVER talked about it - It's simply the Passover meal with an additional ritual - The worser sin in the Corinthian church was to get drunk or forbid people to eat with them (i.e., unloving/divisive) - There's nothing really "mystical" about the Eucharist/Lord's Supper! #### conflicts Religious rituals get battled over: emphasized as either the importance of tradition or insisting they'll alienate new members. #### Design Seating - option: Forward like a lecture Documentation - option: Communication cards - Alt: lots of dialogue w/ open ppl as leaders ## Weekly Rituals Worship service - MUST: - some form of group community focus toward God - ritualized verbal expression - CAN: - in-person - music - can be ANY form of music or rhyme - 5-1000 minutes - mix in unfamiliar elements that retain the same spirit - CAN'T: - focus off-topic from God's presence - constantly new things ## Yearly Rituals MUST: - address conventional Christian holidays somehow (e.g., Christmas, Easter) - address culturally relevant holidays somehow (e.g., Memorial Day, Independence Day) CAN: - Lent - MUST: - focus on the suffering of Christ - 40 days of traditional abstinence - CAN: - have a public Lent service - abstinence range: token item all the way to complete ascetic fasting - MUST: accommodate the people who can't or won't abstain CAN'T: - use shame or guilt to provoke fasting - imply spiritual "betterness" from it Tend to the church members' needs MORE than merely evangelism/outreach - In any large group of individuals, people need certain things (money mgmt, divorce recovery, addiction recovery, parenting problems, marital problems, loss of family/grief recovery, loneliness) - Attend to these needs first and foremost as a priority - Make a system for each, if wanted - Make sure someone who is intimately familiar with the problem is running it One simple idea: offering plate is for needs - Have the congregants TAKE from the offering plate as well as GIVE - It puts the faith VERY squarely in God's hands, because it trusts that He will deal with thieves #### mgmt-church---.png This is a product of what happens when a culture is [crowdsourced], but there's a poor selection process to weed out people - the crowd is superior, ONLY IF the manager is choosy #### early church - Leon Bahrman What is missed in modern Christianity is the organic nature of the early Church. What we're used to in our day is the institutional and denominational aspects of Christian expression. And while early traditions have been encapsulized in her sacraments (such as baptism and the eucharist), many things have been lost. Some organic aspects that some recapture today, but the Church as a whole could do well to relearn are: 1. The close fellowship of home gatherings; 2. The 'love-feast' of sharing meals together; 3. An intimate experience of the divine expressed in ways that are only shared between you and God; 4. The physical contact of laying on of hands, as in healing services; 5. A timelessness in worship, sharing with eternity an abandonment of heart and soul, where no one is looking at their watches; 6. A humility of leadership where the 'greatest among you' is servant of all; And.. 7. A sense of family where we can open up to each other, support each other, and pray one for another. That's just a few things that come readily to my mind. What do you think the early Church had that we could use or incorporate in our church-experience? #### early church Over the next few hundred years, they then created their own rituals, bereft of tradition and filled with more accessibility and "relevance": 1. Casual greeters at the narthex before entering. 2. 1-2 modern-ish worship songs being performed. 3. Often, announcements listed off, which often include births/deaths, and often including baptism rituals. 4. 2-4 more modern-ish worship songs performed in the interlude. 5. 15-90 minutes of an expositional or topical homily. 6. Often an evangelistic "altar call" near the end of the service (aka a "Come to Jesus" message), often merged with the ending song's performance. 7. One benediction-style ending song, but often emphasizing solemnity, often including the Lord's Supper/Eucharist, and a formal dismissal. #### giving consider the opportunity cost of loving difficult people in an organization spending $5,000 on a person who MIGHT be manipulative and sacrificing $500 for 10 people who legitimately need it in the process should ONLY be from the Holy Spirit's prompting Church giving is down when there's a disaster, since everyone gives instead to humanitarian aide #### homily Public speaking rules apply even w/ homily - no opening anecdotes unless they apply directly - shorter is better, esp. w/ [info] culture w/ internet there's really no good requirement for a homily - sometimes it can go for hours - other times it can be about 5-10 minutes - there's no real requirement for it to be the same amount every time - people may only need to hear 1 thing, and brevity may matter to drive that idea home - don't speak more than you need: if you have 15 minutes of things to say, take 15 minutes and wrap up early all the aspects of good [pedagogy] apply to good preaching and teaching #### Lent Beyond holy week: - Saint Patrick's and Mardi Gras were "reprieve" days about Lent #### Sunday worship The tradition of living well as a Christian requires more attention to how we're serving - [The Ministry of the Pew: Sunday Morning for Normal Christians | Desiring God](https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/the-ministry-of-the-pew) - the mainline churches do NOT afford this luxury - (OPEN CHURCH MODEL: MEANING COMES FROM RESPONSIBILITY, WHICH IMPLIES CONSTRAINT, WHICH MEANS A GOOD CHURCH STAY SMALL-MODE WITHOUT PERSONALITIES INVOLVED ON A MEGA SCALE) ### 4 Meaning #### balancing the motivations There are 3 generally irreconcilable priorities that every individual (and, as a result, every church) must resolve in some prioritization: - Intuition (i.e., trusting the Holy Spirit and/or your soul's unspoken sensations) - Theology (i.e., philosophical beliefs pertaining to God and how to live) - Tradition (i.e., habits bestowed by the culture of the people around you) These are all good in their time and place, but they all present risks: - Too much intuition creates a wishy-washy experience that's barely Christianity - Too little intuition stifles any chance for the Holy Spirit to work - Too much theology alienates the "least of these" (i.e., the lower-intelligence members of the Body) - Too little theology means no clear guidance on things that God was explicitly clear on - Too much tradition means no chance for social change, even when it's literally the most ethical thing to do - Too little tradition means no cultural solidarity from familiar shared activities every church Bible study ends up having the following interchangeable elements: 1. corporate prayer - this can also serve as news updates for everyone 2. Bible reading and interpretation - it may be through a book instead 3. worship songs together these all together are effectively a "mini church", even if it's not by the official name #### Church Models "John MacArthur, noted author and pastor of Grace Community Church in Los Angeles, California, has remarked, 'I can tell the depth of any church spiritually after being in their worship service for only five minutes.' When asked to explain, he replied, 'If the words of the music are unusually experience-oriented, man-centered, me-focused, and so fast-paced that the service more resembles a pep rally than a worship service, that church is, more than likely, shallow and superficial.' Then MacArthur expounded, 'You must first take a church down deep in the Word if you would lead them up high in worship. The depth determines the height. The depth in the Word determines the height in worship. Shallowness in the Word leads to shallowness in worship. Too many churches try to fake it simply by turning up the volume.' This is a correct analysis, an accurate diagnosis that the contemporary church needs to hear and heed today." - Steve Lawson There's a certain type of "model" that arises - it's based on the [purpose] implicit in a church's politic, and represents itself in how it balances its activities FROM AUSTIN STUCKY With the prophesy of Daniel being fulfilled before us, especially in light of the internet age, many running to and fro, and knowledge increasing on the earth. Will the diligent researchers and teachers among us be able to come to a solid understanding and universal agreement concerning Apostolic Teaching & Church Polity? That will not only continue to expose the errors within the institutional frameworks handed down to us through past ages.. But compel those adventurous souls who share a common love of the truth, to detach themselves from the comfortable and familiar networks that they were raised in, to venture out into the unknown to be part of the restoration of the original ekklesia that God intended to grace the earth? #### culture - christ vs culture note: indicate how the guy who made the christ vs culture analysis is NOT a spiritual thinker Jesus [confronts](https://adequate.life/conflicts/) every believer to change, which creates an [inherent conflict](https://icould.fail/devotion-chaos/) with the world's [culture](https://gainedin.site/culture/). Christians frequently disagree on _how_ to integrate their existing [culture](https://gainedin.site/culture/) with His requirements. Christ Against Culture - At the farthest extreme, some believers claim that Jesus is directly against all culture and rejects any cultural associations. - The idea proposes doing away with _all_ old cultural elements. - Famous examples include Mennonites and some Pentecostal groups. - This stance is purist, but [irrational](https://gainedin.site/logic/) in this age since people can't _entirely_ remove their old way of life without something [new to replace it](https://icould.fail/millennium/), and the Bible's standards are broad enough to permit most Christians to keep their culture while conforming to God's standard. Christ of Culture - At the other extreme, other believers claim that there is _no_ conflict because the Gospel brings people more into their natural culture. - The idea proposes seeking a respectable reputation and a good life are ideal. - Famous examples include the Gnostics and liberal Christianity (which is arguably not Christian). - Since [persecution](https://icould.fail/persecution/) is the culture rejecting believers, and the entire New Testament is _filled_ with persecution, this view is unbiblical ([1 Peter 4](https://www.bible.com/bible/206/1pe.4)). Christ Above Culture - Some believers merge both views and say that Jesus is working through both the Church and culture. - This idea states that God is operating through everything, even secular or evil things. - Popular examples include the Roman Catholics and Orthodox churches. - Irrespective of how far it goes, God _can_ and often _does_ use anything for His [purposes](https://gainedin.site/purpose/) ([Romans 8:28](https://www.bible.com/bible/206/rom.8.28)). Christ and Culture in Paradox - Some believers believe God created the world's culture before it was tainted. - One popular example is the early American Puritans. - Since all good things come from God, Christians in this view accept some elements of mainstream culture and reject others by whether they're deemed good. - Taken broadly, this would mean God is restoring society [back to His original plan](https://theologos.site/millennium/). Christ the Culture Transformer - Some believers conclude that since Jesus is redeeming all humanity, Christians should rehabilitate all cultures to God's perfect plan. - Most Reformed groups in the Protestant Reformation have believed it. - This belief guides Christians to convert their culture toward a perfect end. - Taken far enough, this would then become advancing for [social justice](https://gainedin.site/leftism/), which _is_ unbiblical. Christ the Culture Alternative - Some believers contend that they're building a brand-new culture altogether that the world will [adopt](https://gainedin.site/trends/). - Most modern churches adhere to this idea. - Their reasoning is that a Christian should show the perfect culture the world can either adopt or reject. - However, this implies that there is a "[new](https://gainedin.site/image/)" culture that isn't merely a [remix](https://gainedin.site/creations/) of previous cultures. NOTE: THIS ENTIRE IDEA WAS POSITED AS AN ANTHROPOLOGY-LEANING SECULAR THOUGHT EXPERIMENT - IN REALITY, IT'S KINDA ALL OF THEM, WITH THE GROUPS BEING PLANS OF PRIORITIZATION MORE THAN DEMARCATED GROUPS #### mysticism vs tradition One of the problems is that mysticism (which is HIGHLY relative) very rapidly becomes tradition as other people imitate it. However, to be Christian, you do NOT need to have anything mystical within the experience. It's a matter of knowing a rudimentary fact, and then acting in light of that rudimentary fact. Any mysticism is personality imposed into the experience, but it's the basis for every single Christian sect, since the Bible is a bit sparse on traditions, and nature (even human nature) abhors a vacuum. #### the least of these there is a class of person who is highly needy - that person has needs that, if unmet, would mean severe [hardship] for them - the exact needs they have, to the degree that they are legitimately needs, must be taken care of - it is literally the most un-Christ-like behavior to deny them those basic needs however, in that class of person, there is a significant subset of people who don't solve problems on their own - that person has been trained to rely solely on everyone else, even when they have the means to fix a problem themselves evidence that this may be happening: - repeated requests for the exact same thing - increased requests on top of existing requests for a routine thing - no indication of a routine need being self-met when you help a person who is perfectly capable of helping themselves, you rob them of [meaning] - your sacrifice may be intentionally selfless, but it's not free and they're treating it like it is - the [contractual](boundaries) nature of how human interaction works means their dependence on you incurs a form of [debt] or [slavery] on your behalf, even if it's not explicit - you can continually forgive that "debt", and that is gracious, but your sacrifice towards them also comes with the opportunity cost of no means to sacrifice to others - we are called to love others AS ourselves, meaning we are responsible to let people experience at least a portion of the logical consequences of their decisions therefore, if a person tries to rely on you too much: 1. give them specifically what they need, but do not give them enough that it moves into the domain of wants 2. place healthy boundaries about how you believe they are capable individuals who can solve the problem themselves 3. communicate to everyone who may be in contact with them all of the above - without this, loving communities will become embittered over giving, then eventually stingy if this person utilizes shame in any way, any of the following lines will break the cycle: - "I've noticed, as well as many others here (if applicable) that you keep needing the same things. Is there any way you can resolve these issues yourself?" - "I know that (problem) is very significant, but I also believe you are capable to handle it. What parts of it do you want to assist with?" - "We really want to help you, but it takes effort out of our lives to do it. How can you help us back?" - "I really don't want to rob you of your meaning or interfere with your journey in Christ. How can we help you in a way that allows you to reap the consequences of your decisions?" evidence that this may be happening: - repeated requests for the exact same thing - increased requests on top of existing requests for a routine thing - no indication of a routine need being self-met ironically, when church leadership steps in to communicate these things, they behave as paternalistically as the members who asked for their help on that matter - if Person A is being overly needy on Person B, Person C is being unwise to tangle with the issue (PRoverbs 26:17) ### 5 Failures #### church information requesting contact information right away is a bit of an invasion of privacy - they have no idea if they want to be there, or if they have any commitment, so you should ASK them first #### heresy heresy isn't mentioned much, if at all, in the Bible - there are things that should cast people out, sure - there's plenty in the Bible about false prophets as well - however, nothing in the Bible indicates heresy overtly heresy is referring to practices and behavior against established ecumenical standards/protocol - however, to be loving in Christ, it may actually be the BEST thing to be a heretic sometimes - in effect, following Jesus means devotion to Him, and that may mean rejection by everyone around you in some instances heresy, as a practice, is a political bludgeoning device - by enforcing the mindset of some things and people being utterly [taboo] at all times, there's room for everyone to rally together against the scapegoat for the purpose of "strengthening the Body" - in practice, this is a highly unloving behavior to the person receiving it, and should only be performed in response to false doctrine and in the hopes that they repent from their false beliefs technically, Jesus was a Jewish heretic, and that's how Christianity came into existence #### leadership idolatry Personality-driven churches are from too much central mgmt - The product of this is that pastors are required to do what the rest of the world does with [large groups]: be boring and non-dynamic to appeal to the wide range of [personalities] present in the Body - The [fashions] shift, though, so the latest trend is to [appear] dynamic even when God made you with the dynamism of an [accountant] Give away responsibilities whenever possible - have ppl read Scripture - give q&a session after the lecture/homily - have open forums for discussion as part of a church svc social media influencers and pastors have the same problem: their livelihood is determined by their popularity you will ALWAYS have this in the back of your mind unless your personality isn't high-agreeableness, which makes you an unlikely candidate for an institutionalized church Christian leaders have a bad habit of making their writing their "tentmaking". - However, this is a very bad idea because of the nature of writing. Either the ideas are valuable, and they're putting a paywall against the poorest people who would most likely need that information, or they're saying things that have little spiritual value and they'd probably do better for their reputation getting paid in a marketable trade. #### members leaving - long-term effects Some Christians in free societies have rejected the labels for believers (e.g., not using the word "Christian"), but the culture is corrupt, _not_ the name. - don't run from it: embrace the [sincere spirituality] and show the world that the liars are awful. #### members leaving There's one question that most Christians would hate to ask the people who stopped going to church, but if they ask they'd be very uncomfortable: - If church culture something more legitimately like the ACTUAL way the Bible seems to imply people should live, would your religious paths be different? - A lot of Christian culture exonerates themselves from responsibility for being Christ-like when a group mandates that people attend things or they're not "real members", they're performing cult-like activities In non-persecuted Churches, Christianity creates a few lame stereotypes: - Music, especially the contemporary genre, vaguely referring to either romantic partners or Jesus and surrounded by consumerism. - Lame, preachy, poorly shot movies that give sermon illustrations more than stories. - Clothing [brands](https://gainedin.site/symbols/) that identify a Christian long before they can prove it. - Church [figures of speech](https://gainedin.site/language/) and sayings that are either unbiblical or theologically confusing to non-believers. - Using "Christian" to [market](https://gainedin.site/marketing/) a product. - Weekly observance of a church ritual that doesn't translate to daily life. - cliche jargon[quotes] that doesn't add any meaning There are 2 mistakenly applied verses in the Bible: - do not forsake the fellowship of the siblings - spur one another to good works - basically, they assume that promoting the HECK out of their events is doing that - but, that's more accurately "good events" than "good works" - and, because of the nature of [social groups](https://icould.fail/groups-small), you never see corporate "fellowship" beyond the size of ~15-20 (though you DO see little one-off aside "fellowship" all over) (for myself) The simple version, to allay concern, is that on the Big 5 I'm not high-enough Agreeableness to get along with others, too high Openness to Experience to enjoy ritual, and too low Extraversion to enjoy the public assembly #### modern culture - old TLS essay We have had near-unlimited freedoms as Christians for a few hundred years now in the West. It hasn't gotten us as far into our exploration of a Christian society as some of the USA's Founders would have hoped for if they weren't discovering life after this one firsthand. To date, the Protestants have replaced the formal political power structure with a pastor/shepherd role and kept the relatively rigid hierarchy inspired from Judaism. This doesn't represent the relative egalitarianism that defined the early Christian Church. They also never acknowledged that all believers are technically priests of the Lord, probably because of their [PTSD](https://gainedin.site/ptsd/) of what the Catholics did with the concept. This idea has never been amended. I'm convinced Protestants haven't gone far enough. The system is still far more bloated than the pure simplicity of Christ-centered leadership. We are called to love one another, irrespective of social status, and reputational status inside the Church has turned it into a game of politics. While the Reformation stripped much of the power from the fully-central authority (i.e., Vatican City), they never decentralized the authority inside each church. Ironically, this isn't _entirely_ a bankrupt system. Even in a church with very few traditions, the public Assembly service is often renamed the "church service", while the Thanksgiving service is an informal fellowship of Christians following that service at a local lunch place or coffee shop. It's missing the Eucharist, but is still loving believers spending spiritually-minded time together, and it's hard to imagine that [God wouldn't be okay with it](https://icould.fail/trend/). The knee-jerk reaction I've heard countless times, though, is "Well, that's not _my_ church. Ours is… - Spirit-filled - Doing good works in the community - Has the right theology - Is practicing social justice It may, and I'm not saying that it's not, though I expect [in-group bias](https://gainedin.site/groups-member/) over it. I'd be more inclined to believe it if you spoke well of _other_ churches outside your denomination: - While I find Third-Wave Pentecostalism theologically shallow, they're often capturing the sentiment of Christian love and [narrativizing](https://gainedin.site/stories/) the power of God very well. - Southern Baptists have very accurate theological foundations, often with very little works to show for it. - Calvary Chapel has some of the best [evangelism](https://icould.fail/evangelism/) I've ever seen, even if their discipleship is weak. - Roman Catholics often understand the importance of spiritual [disciplines](https://gainedin.site/habits/) more than many Protestants, even if they're bogged down by unnecessary tradition. - Eastern Orthodox are more apt than most denominations to understand the interconnectedness of the universe and God, even while many elements of their value systems are bound without [understanding](https://gainedin.site/understanding/) and solely through [tradition](https://gainedin.site/culture/). I'm simply saying there's something wrong with the organizational structure, which bleeds down into the rest of the Church's culture. When the business world's management hierarchy is becoming more horizontal than the Church's, or the homosexual community has more solidarity than the Church, this is a sign of horrific sickness, since Christians are supposed to lead the way on [how to run society correctly](https://icould.fail/millennium/). The Catholic church Latinized the Bible, then made the mistake of not translating it as the language changed, meaning that an accessibility-improving measure became a constraint centuries later. Isn't this the same issue with the culture of Protestantism five centuries later? I'm not saying to abolish all traditions. I've been around churches that completely abolish _all_ ritual or precept after seeing issues in the Church. While they often capture the intimacy and closeness of being part of the family of God, they easily and quickly devolve into more emotionalist and romanticized elements that veer into heresy, such as accepting prophetic visions or other historical documents on the level of Scripture. I'm simply making an appeal to taking the long-standing traditions more seriously, and adapt them or remove them. In that sense, the Catholics have been doing remarkable work changing, even if I don't agree with _where_ they're going with their ways. Like any other [creation](https://gainedin.site/creations/) or [habit](https://gainedin.site/habits/), every Protestant tradition is a commentary on Catholicism, which is a commentary on either early Christianity or post-exile Judaism, and both are commentaries on pre-exile Judaism. In this story of the past, we must find where the thread started unraveling. My personal belief is that we've entered a Dark Age of Christianity that started 1700 years ago when Christians gained political power. The most evident portion of this, in my opinion, is that the beauty and variety that comes through the wide spectrum of every nation, tribe, people, and language is funneled into a rigid set of dull, dead social mores, destined to reproduce through a leadership that fears minor unapproved changes. All I want to see is that variety make its way into the Church, since those are the building blocks that the Holy Spirit will productively build Christianity. Thus, I propose the following precepts that the Church should probably do to be less wrong, since churches won't get it right until [Jesus comes back](https://icould.fail/jesus-returns/): 1. Get rid of the clergy/laity dichotomy. All Christians are the New Priesthood of Christ, with Him being High Priest of everyone. All you have are different levels of experience/wisdom, which eventually go away as new believers grow. 2. Lower the requirements for laity to serve. If they can do the job, and are morally upright, you don't have to like them. We're called to love the unlovable for _our_ spiritual benefit, and not simply for their emotional/physical advantage. 3. Don't let arguments among believers persist. This is the number one cause for denominations, which is _literally_ anti-Christ in motivation, since [the Lord hates rebellion as much as witchcraft](https://www.bible.com/bible/206/1sa.15.23). 4. Bring back a demarcation between "believer" and "outsider" service, based strictly on baptism. You don't need to be formalized about it or keep records, since a "Christian" who lies about whether they were baptized will show their fruits later. 5. Get rid of "membership", which is a bureaucratic system that echoes of Catholicism. Just have that new attender give their testimony that day, have everyone vote on whether they're legit, and be done with it. 6. Have a proper ejection process for heretics and [conflicts](https://adequate.life/conflicts/). [Matthew 18](https://www.bible.com/bible/206/mat.18) has a good one: confront them privately, then drag a few mutual friends along, then bring it in front of a spiritual leader, then treat them as an outsider. 7. Get rid of the architectural associations to the clergy/laity. Jewish synagogues didn't have anything so heavily defined or lavishly decorated. 8. Get off the political bandwagon. If you live in a republic/democratic State, you get one stupid vote unless you administrate something. Go vote, tell people what you voted for or what they should vote for, and shut up about anything that divides the Body on that matter. A society in Christ is motivated with [the zeal of capitalism mixed with the intentions of communism](https://icould.fail/millennium/), so we worship a God with an unprecedented, absolutely alien polity that won't emerge until [He does](https://icould.fail/jesus-returns/). ## The Pre-Internet Relic [Technology](https://gainedin.site/technology/) always changes society, often in profound ways. It brings us closer together, helps us move more stuff faster, makes us more [productive](https://adequate.life/success-4/), and makes life overall easier and more [fun](https://adequate.life/fun/). But, we often can see the downsides of technology as we get older. Every parent can see what mobile devices do to their children, and our parents saw what television did, and radio the generation before that, and cheap books before _that_. Going all the way back, some of the ancient Greek philosophers of yore bemoaned literacy because it stifled our ability to [remember](https://adequate.life/memory/). However, the younger people aren't so disposed to that resistance. They _always_ get involved in the new [fashions of the day](https://gainedin.site/trends/). Because of this, you have two major classes of society that has always played out: 1. An aging population who is resisting all the changes going on. 2. A young population who is advancing the trends as fast as they can. Naturally, teenagers don't have much power. But, in a decade they're old enough and have built enough [social capital](https://gainedin.site/influence/) to propose [new ways of doing things](https://gainedin.site/creativity/). In two decades they start becoming the new [leadership](https://gainedin.site/groups-small/). Within 3-4 decades _they're_ the "old people", and the formerly old people have found certainty about the afterlife, with their wealth of experience and wisdom either getting transferred as tribal knowledge, encoded in language, or being lost to time. Social changes happen at the speed of information. We're in the [Over-Information Age](https://stucky.tech/purpose/) now, so information travels at the speed of electricity and radio waves, with the only slowdown to rapid information transfer coming strictly from human perceptual capacity. But, all this information is still largely void of the [meaning](https://gainedin.site/meaning/) that comes from our spirits not having a direct connection with the [One True God](https://icould.fail/god/) or with [others who share that connection](https://icould.fail/church/). I'm convinced that most of this "empty information" comes from the Church not stepping into this generation's technology. There are several rational reasons why the culture hasn't jived: 1. Church leadership in [the West](https://icould.fail/the-west/) often maintains a far more rigid hierarchical social structure than many other Western cultures. While most companies' "managers" are simply checking in on their charges, many [discipleship-based](https://icould.fail/discipleship/) Bible studies can become extremely involved and, thus, stay relatively inaccessible. 2. There are many heresies, with many silly remixes to the [simple Gospel message](https://icould.fail/gospel/). [The devil](https://icould.fail/demon-tricks/) plays with our fight against wrong thought, and we often veer too far in the opposite direction. 3. It's completely legal to be a Christian (even if its [political stance](https://icould.fail/wokism/) is up for debate), so there's no outside pressure borne of necessity to [change](https://gainedin.site/changes/). 4. [Intellectual properties](https://notageni.us/ip/) are often hyper-managed under archaic and borderline oppressive copyright law, even though there are many worlds of possibility under Creative Commons (and that's not even addressing the worlds of possibility [specific to _computer software_](https://techsplained.xyz/floss/)) 5. Given all this, the social system propagates itself with much of the same. While the Body is _absurdly_ diverse (pulling from every tribe, nation, people, and tongue, if we believe [Revelation 7:9-10](https://www.bible.com/bible/206/rev.7)), most of the ideas that could radically allow Christians to love one another by using technology are generally met with unease. This isn't a bashing of Christian churches, but more a blunt observation of a broad problem, and I mean it to highlight an issue I've devoted my ministry toward. ## The Issue We need to provoke Christians to adopt today's technology. For thousands of years, information transfer (and society in general) moved at a leisurely pace of 1-2 events/day. This is no longer true. Now, if something happens in the MidEast on Monday, everyone's heard about it by Tuesday, and it becomes old news by Thursday, with a new event happening Friday. It means that the weekly Sunday church service is woefully outdated if it was targeting what happened at the beginning of the week, and making a twice-a-week service is barely keeping up. If you go to any church website, they have the exact same framework: - Information about where the church is located. - Doctrinal statement about stuff that church believes. - Local events happening at the church or, sometimes, in the community that the church is involved in. - Archives of past sermons. The [marketing](https://gainedin.site/marketing/) "call to action" is _always_ "go to our church", "go to our church event", or "privately contact a minister". This constrains that church to strictly geographical limits and invalidates the thousands of people who _could_ be positively influenced by the laity. So, how do we fix this reality? I've been to "organic churches" that meet and mingle in places like bars and coffee shops, but with a central website and seasonal large-scale meeting together. While this isn't bad, it's a heavy cultural shift, and I don't believe we need to reinvent the wheel. ## The Solution I propose a synthesis of old and new, in the same way that great architecture combines natural and synthetic, or how the arts draw together the past and imaginations of the future. The entire purpose of the Church, according to the Bible, is God pulling together a network of believers, worshiping together. But, as long as we make the entire experience require being in-person, the Body is geographically constrained. Information travels faster than we can physically go and, as a formerly suicidal ASD, that information can literally save and transform lives by itself. If you look at the conventional weekly-go-here-and-attend church setup, it's a combination of about the same elements: 1. Networking during the pre-church mingling and afterward: catching up on the week, making plans, praying for each other, even some discipleship and encouragement. 2. Publicly shared singing worship music to the Lord together, often made as a "sandwich" between the rest of the experiences. 3. (optional) Announcements of the other events going on throughout the week. 4. (optional) Honoring of at least _some_ of the sacraments, though mileage varies by denomination. 5. A reading of the Bible and/or [public speech](https://adequate.life/speaking/) from the pastor. 6. (optional) An altar call or "come to Jesus" moment with [the Gospel message](https://icould.fail/gospel/). Now, let's parse the above and see how we can adapt technology to it: 1. Why does networking _have_ to be in-person? We can make a social media for people to create classified ads, dialogues on web forums, and video chats. Why do people have to go to TikTok or Reddit to find that? 2. Sharing in worship music with the Lord _can_ be powerful, so why not let the shut-ins and geographically distant to share with it in real-time? 3. Everything they're announcing can go online. Why does anyone have to show up at the church to get something that can be online? 4. We certainly don't want to dismiss the importance of breaking bread together. However, it doesn't have to necessarily be done strictly inside the church building as opposed to inside homes. 5. To put bluntly, not all pastors are equally inspired by God for every one of their sermons, and with the _vast_ array of well-read believers in nearly _every_ denomination (along with a vast variety of _highly_ capable laity), there's really no reason for a pastor to get near-burnout providing a weekly message, and the internet makes the pool of potential teachers for a good lesson near-endless. 6. Why are we limiting the Gospel message to simply the end of an emotionally charged message? Why can't it be online? So, I propose a more online-enabled experience, and believe it must be built soon: 1. Have a church social network of their own, free from [outside influences](https://icould.fail/wokism/). Host it themselves (or with Christians they trust), and network it with other trustworthy churches that exist elsewhere on the planet. 2. Add interaction to online worship, through that social network. This may mean the chat-while-video-playing style you see on YouTube. But, again, to keep it safe from [persecution](https://icould.fail/persecution/), give exclusive technological control to the church leadership. 3. Make announcements public. If the leadership is concerned about who can see it, require that people must be logged in with an approved account to view/comment/whatever. 4. Use that social network to advertise sacraments. Why not have an asynchronous Eucharist, for those who work at that time, or a baptism that's on _very_ public record, or remove the distance factor for those who can't make it to mass? 5. Accumulate and share leaders that legitimately teach the Word, according to what the leadership believe to be right. Put them on social media, or make hyperlinks to them, whatever is correct for the situation. 6. Deliver the Gospel message _everywhere_ through our public online demonstration of our love for each other. We need a decentralized social Church network to adapt with the times. Instead of redesigning a whole new way of doing church, I propose that we simply meet people where they're at. Let's simply add a technological element to the Church's existing experience that's interactive, safe, reliable, and easy to manage. #### religiousness the product of a fakeness of religious practices is an individual phoniness, but has a more sinister problem: - a culture that maintains it ends up setting an informal false standard of true Christian piety - in all reality, a Christian who prays once a month, but does it straight from the heart, is doing more with their relationship with God than someone who is doing the same and LYING about how much they do it - but, the liar will receive the praise, and the culture will become more phony - instead, the weakest should be praised the most for their weak efforts, since they're the ones who have the hardest challenge regarding changing their [habits] When Christian leadership advocates for people to be more devoted to particular moral crusades (e.g., maritally faithful, politically involved, missionary-investing) and not centrally focusing on imcreasing love for one another, they invariably MUST lead to propagandizing to get that message across (e.g., awful Christian movies, religious jargon), and the central message of the entire church becomes a hollow shell. Christian leadership who ramble incessantly about spiritualish-sounding things are weakening the Body. Unless a Christian is feeling provoked to better action when they leave their congregation, the Body suffers. #### responding to modern culture Congregational churches - [Congregationalism - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congregationalism) - it was a movement - we need a new DE-congregationalism that reflects the new technologies available The good ways a Church can be progressive: Incorporate (some) Masses with contemporary music Create ministries that will engage with young people Evolve the youth groups into a place more kids might want to go Create ministries for families to better [Roundguard on Steam](https://store.steampowered.com/app/848030/Roundguard/) educate their children in the Church in more captivating ways ​The bad ways a Church can be progressive: Anything that is against established Church dogma and doctrines One simple solution to the world's evils (e.g., Pride month) is to make your own holiday. - It's how Christmas began: celebrating an alternative to the secular world's evils. The open-source and creative commons licenses show the hypocrisy of the Church at large - Sending out information that legitimately changes lives should be free - By holding it hostage behind a paywall, it impedes the poor from getting it (least of these verse) - In fact, many of the books are quickly released ON PURPOSE, since them sticking around for a few years means they'll get easily distributed [The Open Buddhist University | Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36036997) [The Open Buddhist University @ A website dedicated to providing free, online courses and bibliographies in Buddhist Studies.](https://buddhistuniversity.net/) - this group is being MORE selfless than many sects of Christianity the layperson is FAR more qualified now with the internet than ever before - An entire seminary's worth of information, and thousands of years of history, accessible within SECONDS - the need for research to find answers on key information goes from hours to MINUTES - this can only be magnified with [AI] assistance - to that end, the ordained clergy is a bit like [college professors]: a relic of a past era before the [over-information age] - plus, people in the trades have 1 unique advantage: their [specialization] that bleeds into their ministry (and [influences] the Body at large in the process) - this means moving away from personality-driven churches into models (i.e., frameworks, not libraries) Technology has its place - https://news.gab.com/2023/05/the-roundtable-amish-insights-on-technology-pt-1/ - the misunderstanding is that tech is somehow bad, but it's nothing more or less than raw [power] #### weak culture Most Christian culture REALLY doesn't like to [integrate their shadow]. - It's easier to repress than work with it. - God designed our personalities AS THEY ARE, and we must know the time and place for them. - However, most Christian leadership becomes its own [cultural group], with its rules and standards being over-ordered from the intentionally vague components God placed down for EVERYONE to follow - It can't be fixed completely, since any long-term efforts to do it "right" will be faced by [power games] and corruption, and any [legacy] will be shot down by the spongy-headed babies who eventually grow up to replace them In societies without [persecution](https://theologos.site/persecution/), the [leadership](https://theologos.site/leadership/) will often become complacent, and persecution has a tendency to rapidly cycle leadership as they're incarcerated or killed. - For that reason, persecuted churches don't risk the leaders' personality interfering with God's work as much. - Spiritually young Christians who worship their pastor take away from the worship experience. ### 6 Denominational Distinctions #### authority One huge component of this domain is the aspect of WHERE authority comes from: - We all agree it comes from God, but how it travels means everything. - A.it could come from our compliance - B. it could come from our granted position. - it's ABSOLUTELY critical in the 10% event that the person is NOT behaving according to their position (e.g., the ignoble king, the unrighteous pope). - Protestants and Americans lean into compliance, Catholics and Europeans lean into position Even outside Christianity this holds weight. The sciences, for example, have many specializations, and each one has their own pedantic view about things that is technically correct, but only in their domain. Their specialization blinds them. I'm convinced most denominations come from various niches we naturally form ourselves into. What he's saying is very true. In these times, most people who discover this have 3 choices: - 1. Make a new denomination, and "do it right" this time, adding 1 more of them to the pile. - 2. Start a parachurch organization where they can do the most good. - 3. Quietly work inside a denomination still because that's where they can best serve. There's very little consensus on what makes the "right" culture, for several reasons: 1. That culture will honor things that may not be what the other people in that culture like. The other people will disagree over that minor thing as if it were a major thing (e.g., choice of music) and miss the unifying point entirely. 2. We only find meaning if we determine the qualifications of an ideal culture ourselves, and bestowing that specific meaning to others that we've found will make others question it at best and reject it at worst. 3. Even if we could convince everyone of conforming to a culture, we veer into the risk of creating a cult if there's no new information to continue churning around in the group that fosters change. #### church versions Church Versions/Denominations 0.1 Adam 0.2 Noah 1.0 Abraham 1.1 Moses 1.2 Solomon 1.5 Post-Temple 2.0 Jesus 2.1 200AD 2.2 Constantine 3.0 Islam (BAD VERSION) 2.5 1500AD 4.0 Luther (1517) 4.1 Calvin 4.2 Wesley (2nd revival) 4.3 Azusa Street Revival 4.4 Jesus Movement 4.5 Contemporvant 5.0 ??? #### differentiation between denominations Things Catholics hold and differentiate Catholics & Protestants: - Papal infallibility - Purgatory - Petrine primacy - Petrine universal jurisdictions - FILIOQUE The fact is that the precepts that guide the Church within Scripture are VERY culture-agnostic. - this allows a LOT of interpretation about pretty much everything. The cultural value of Protestants to insist on the surrounding culture to adopt their ways (e.g., "we live in a Christian nation") is a relic of the Catholic church's imposition from their political control of everything - I'm no so sure about this now... Break apart the components by denomination - Soteriology - Eschatology - Homiletics - Orthodoxy - Heterodoxy - Maybe call it a "religious jargon dictionary" #### social hierarchy The cultural power dynamics of a church group create a normative model that represents itself universally across almost any major church that respects a clergy/laity dichotomy: - Level 0 - non-believers who may attend regularly - Level 1 - claimed believers who don't identify with the church or only show up sporadically - Level 2 - claimed believers who attend service regularly (i.e., 1+ meeting/week) - Level 3 - claimed believers who have made a public declaration of their faith (i.e., membership or baptism) - Some churches (e.g., Calvary Chapel) don't use Level 3 - Level 4 - actively involved in publicly established lay-ministry semi-regularly (i.e., at least once every 1-3 months) - Level 5 - actively involved in established lay-ministry very regularly or formally confirmed as a lay-minister (i.e., at least monthly) - Level 6 - formally declared a mid-level or higher-order lay-minister or appointed as leader of a ministry - Most church leadership is Level 6 and higher - Level 7 - formally declared an elder/church board member - Level 8 - ordained as a pastor Most evangelical churches lean heavy into Level 0 becoming Level 1 and Level 1 becoming Level 5. Catholics tend to lean into making Level 2 into Level 5. Nobody ever seems to work well with highly qualified outsiders (e.g., have the authority to become Level 6 from overseas missionary work in a different denomination). #### spiritual gifts Assuming they're still present, tongues and prophecy should be managed correctly: - God made tongues for unbelievers and prophecy for believers ([1 Corinthians 14:22](https://www.bible.com/bible/206/1co.14.22)). - Tongues always had a recipient who understood it when they heard it ([Acts 2](https://www.bible.com/bible/206/act.2)). - An entire church that speaks in tongues together instead of one by one is running a church incorrectly ([1 Corinthians 14:40](https://www.bible.com/bible/206/1co.14.40)). [Spiritual Gifts Assessment Tool: Discover Your God-Given Spiritual Gifts | Lifeway](https://www.lifeway.com/en/articles/women-leadership-spiritual-gifts-growth-service) ### 7 Growth #### delegation Don't promote high-agreeableness ppl to positions of leadership - 80% of CEOs are psychopaths, What % are pastors? - This was true in the Catholic priesthood - it's a power vacuum because of Jesus' physical absence Christians have no faith in the Law of Large Numbers, though the Holy Spirit is most certainly capable to work - answers are there, often in the Least of These #### discipleship ADD LEADERSHIP PAGE TO THEOLOGOS SITE "CHURCH" UNDER "ALL CHURCHES ARE FLAWED" WHEN DONE ADD LEADERSHIP PAGE TO THEOLOGOS SITE "DISCIPLESHIP" AT THE TOP WHEN DONE - Spiritual mentors are leaders, even by secular standards. Legitimate Christians show specific characteristics, and THEY should be the ones running the Church: 1. They confess Jesus is God's Son ([Romans 10:9](https://www.bible.com/bible/206/rom.10.9), [1 Corinthians 12:3](https://www.bible.com/bible/206/1co.12.3)). 2. Their lifestyle consistently [changes](https://gainedin.site/changes/) as they discover new truths. 3. They [love others](https://gainedin.site/love/) through the Holy Spirit working on them. - While love isn't always intimacy, it's an authentic concern for others' well-being. 4. They're developing a solid spiritual [doctrine](https://gainedin.site/philosophy/), even when they believe some false teachings. The "leadership" of the Church is the people: the unwashed new believers and inexperienced members - the ministers are supposed to serve them, which requires a certain selflessness that can't be reproduced otherwise - to falsely reproduce it is to have a silly, self-flagellating humble-down: "I am the worst", "No, IIII am the greatest of all sinners" #### evangelism Church [leaders](https://theologos.site/leadership/) can often fail when they mandate an evangelism system. - It's good to have a system for the people who don't know how to do something, but making it MANDATORY will suppress what the Holy Spirit can do with an individual person's unique experiences. #### funding From a financial standpoint, running a church should NOT be hard: - At 10% of everyone's income, a fulltime pastor would only need donations from 10 people who gave 10% of THEIR income (15 people if we're talking post-tax donations) - administrative overhead is another requirement, but it's generally proportional to the relative size needs of the congregation - if they're not giving enough, provide more transparency about the where the money goes, _especially_ to the fringe non-core Body #### growth through hardship Besides in-fighting, the Church is also fighting [a](https://theologos.site/spiritual-warfare/) _[constant](https://theologos.site/demon-tricks/)_ [struggle with Satan](https://theologos.site/spiritual-warfare/). - Many Christians obsess with unifying the churches, but unity only matters [in Christ](https://theologos.site/identity/) and doesn't correspond to [our wide range of personalities](https://gainedin.site/personality/). ALL Christianity is anti-fragile - persecution and hardship create positive feedback loops for Christians - this means that the simpler you make the message and leadership structure, the more durable the organization #### maintaining simple messaging The Christian message SHOULD be simple: - Live with eternity and "now" in mind - Devote your effort fully to His cause, then dovetail all things into it - Hand off responsibility as much as others wish to shoulder the burden and have the spiritual authority to do so - (however, this isn't practiced because most Christian leadership aren't entirely aware of what they're leading or how) When you hold events, make sure to NOT constantly advertise other events - modern [American Christianity] is built around [constantly getting people to the venue](https://icould.fail/marketing) - however, it doesn't respect that each person's life is a dynamic and involved experience - if you want to run a church correctly, consistently cross-promote things that are NOT in your influence (e.g., community center events from other nonprofits, other churches' activities from other denominations) - and, to go further, get involved and work alongside OTHER groups that started certain things (e.g., don't start a homeless clothing drive if another church 2 miles away already has been doing one) #### scaling THEOLOGOS CHURCH ADMIN - Churches scale like any other organization, with a once-a-month two-minute task for a pastor slowly adapting to a full-time job for one person. - The Launch Big model is a high-cost growth strategy that reflects secular non-profit organizations. One of the reasons the Christian Church suffers is that it uses all the tactics from NPOs (check GIS Influence under "Abuse" regarding giving resources, and paraphrase) Large-scale laws were designed for large-scale society - the Bible is absolutely silent on how to run large-scale society, likely because [His kingdom] hasn't come yet #### support network In an underground Church, a [spiritual leader's](https://icould.fail/leadership/) wife, not _just_ the leader, must devote herself wholly to the cause of Christ as well. - She _must_ push him to the ministry he's called to, and if she loves the world too much (e.g., wants creature comforts, nice food, hobbies) she _will_ discourage him. #### venues Conventionally, venues can be volunteered by Christians or acquired much more affordably. Campuses like churches, colleges, movie theaters, parks, and clubs are all acceptable. Further, the internet's ubiquity can magnify remote centers. Get hosts to volunteer their home and connect via conference call, telecast from a larger venue onto satellite venues, have group meetings where each location shares one screen for dialogue and feedback. There are many other options nobody has thought of or, at least, talked about. The collective creativity is all in the brains of the people who run things, but they have to see a motivation to consider doing it over the conventional way.