We grew up going to church where ordained ministers would hold services on Sundays. Perhaps it was only me, but I saw this as holy men performing holy services on holy days in holy places.

As I’ve continued to study Scripture, I see that my understanding while I was growing up is much closer to the Old Testament than to the New Testament. But, what’s the problem with that? The Old Testament is Scripture too, right?

Yes, but when it comes to things like the temple, the priesthood, the sacrifices, the Sabbath, and other aspects of life as the people of God in the New Testament, the New Testament tells us that these things are shadows of reality, and not reality themselves.

Dear Friends,

In the last two years, I have had many discussions about simple organic churches. Very often it boils down to the question, “Does this work?” or a criticism that this is just another method.

I confess that, in the last twenty years, I have often been guilty of pushing spiritual results and methods to accomplish those results. I am a very pragmatic person, who longs for the results we experienced in 1990-1998 in Ukraine.

Dear Nicolay,

I was so glad to see you in April. Although it was such a short meeting, I am always delighted to see old friends. You seem to be keeping active serving our Lord. Let me tell you about several of the meetings I had on my travels throughout Ukraine.

In the South of Ukraine, I met another man named Nicolay who came to Christ in 1991. In twenty years, he has had many experiences as teacher, pastor and leader. I was encouraged because Nicolay understands that the churches growth has plateaued resulting in the need for change. He is exploring “Organic Churches” because it has spoken to his heart. We had a great time sharing experiences and hopes for a renewed church.

In Kiev, I met one of my first church planting students. He successfully planted a church in 1993, built a building, and received a theological education. He is now a leader in the Oblast. However, he sadly admitted that his church has plateaued and shows little life. He wondered “where did I go wrong?”

If you watched the famous children's film "Adventure of Electronics", it is probably easy to remember how hard the mafia tried to find the "button", which would help them gain control over the electronic boy. No sacrifice of money or effort was too great.. They blindly believed that it would open the door to new opportunities.

Traveling through the labyrinth of pastoral ministry, I also was similar to the one who was desperately trying to find the "button". Sometimes I thought it was very close. This occurred especially in moments of successful ministry, when everyone was marveling at our fruitfulness or after the regular sermon, the words were said, "It was a good sermon." All of this seems so wonderful and it gives an impetus to move forward, but things are not what they seem.

All attempts to find a methodology or the secret of success in building the church lead nowhere. Again and again I was desperately continuing the search for a new system. Now, looking back, I understand what I did not in the past. I was already too deep in the system. I was part of it. It was part of me. I could not escape the system, and the system was using me. My mind was full of models and standard approaches. Moreover, I was not thinking about whether these models and approaches of ministry meet the Biblical principles of the teachings of Christ. And only now I realize I was looking for "button" for ministry success , but the Holy Spirit in His loving hand guided me to find a way out of the system. I think if I had heard this ten years ago, I would have been very terrified and could not even imagine the possibility of pastoral ministry beyond the traditional church system.

*Victor Choudhrie's 15 essential steps for changing traditional churches into New Testament churches.

1. Replace professional clergy with Priesthood of all Believers with authority to baptize, break bread and equip fishers of men. (1 Peter 2:9)
2. Replace Church building with "House of Peace." (Luke 10:5-9; Matt. 10:11-13)
3. Replace programmed Sunday service with daily informal gatherings. The Bride of Christ must have intimacy with her Lord every day and not just for a couple of hours a week lest she become unfaithful. (Acts 2:46-47; Hebrew 3:13)

I have been meeting in homes pursuing Christ in an organic way for a few years now. In that time, we have had many people visit our gatherings. I have also visited other organic churches. I have discovered that visiting an organic church fellowship is likely to be disappointing to the visitor if they do not understand the nature of organic church life.

I am continually reminded that people will likely not see the power of Christ in a short visit for the following reasons:

1.) The visitor has not given up on their attempts to “do” church and be satisfied with “knowing” Christ in familial community.
It is often the case that a person comes into a gathering and they are looking for a church experience that is more “biblical” and fills an immediate void of some kind. Maybe they are fed up with organized religion and believe that a house church will make up for all their trouble in days past. My experience is that this is the most common reason for folks visiting an organic fellowship.

Scripture seems to paint two contradictory portraits of the Living God—a terrible judge and a loving Father. Which is it? Can he be both?

We read not only that God has prepared hell for the unbe¬lieving, but also that he commanded Joshua to practice ethnic cleansing in Canaan, poured out fire from heaven to consume Sodom and Gomorrah and opened the earth to swallow those who opposed Moses. Unapproachable in his purity, even the most righteous fell on their faces near his presence paralyzed by their unworthiness. He demanded unquestioning obedience and punished with unspeakable anguish those who did not comply.

No wonder we’re at least a little confused when he appears in the New Testament telling us how much he loves us and inviting us to be his children. We see Jesus healing the sick, forgiving prostitutes and murderers, going into the houses of sinners. He invited children in his lap and portrayed his Father as so tender that the most wayward sinner could run to his side in absolute safety.

One of the main paradigm shifts within this movement of simple churches is the belief that ordinary men and women hear God.  They can be entrusted with the affairs of the Kingdom.  It does not need specially trained people to manage the church.  The Holy Spirit is able to run the church by speaking directly to His people.   He will do a far better job of it than our organizations and denominations ever can.

1)       At 6:30 pm we began with 15-20 adults and several children, meeting in the home of the church planter, which also doubles as a beauty parlor during the week. All the hair dressing equipment had been moved to another room to make space for the plastic chairs that were set up in a circle. It was very hot and crowded, but nobody seemed to mind (except the visiting missionaries!)

Now to him who is able to establish you by my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ . . . (Romans 16:25, NIV)

Ever since I've been a Christian, I've observed that most believers can be divided up into two camps: the libertines and the legalists.

In my experience, libertines are those who go to church, own a Bible, and profess to believe in Jesus. However, they appear to have no vital relationship with the Lord. And they hold to the same values as do non-Christians.

If you were to examine their lifestyle, you would discover that libertines behave scantly different from non-Christians. Their attitude is that God only wants us to be nice to others and try our best to be good. Beyond that, the Almighty doesn't particularly care how we live. So long as a person mentally assents that God exists and Jesus is Savior, they are worthy to bear the name "Christian."

Dear Nicolay,

Greetings, Nicolay!  I am sorry that we did not see one another on this last visit to Ukraine.  I did see many of my old friends who we worked with in the early 1990’s.  They were great reunions as we met and talked about the “old days”.  I love remembering those days of revival in Ukraine, but we cannot nor should we live in the past.

Сегодня мы переживаем времена духовной неопределенности и религиозного кризиса. Романтика девяностых безвозвратно ушла, а на её смену пришли времена жесткого реализма. Многие церкви и даже целые союзы оказались в состоянии духовного регресса. Если раньше рост церкви необходимо было только регулировать, то сейчас об этом практически не говорит никто и даже те, которые им хвалились. Уже давно стало модным объяснение сегодняшнего упадка, как состояния очищения рядов, когда уходят те, кто в общем-то и не был возрожден, но попал в религиозное собрание случайно, под шумок, или из-за выгоды. Сейчас уже не модно вести статистику роста церкви или говорить о численном количестве собраний, это и понятно, потому что количество заметно уменьшилось даже у тех, которые раньше кичились феноменальным ростом своих «мегацерквей».

“For you can all prophesy in turn so that everyone may be instructed and encouraged.”
1 Corinthians 14:31

The Vocal Minority
Recently I attended some small group meetings where the same people prayed, taught and led week after week, often for a long time. By the way, what they said was usually encouraging. But, how did this affect the silent majority? For some, it was a good time for a nap. Others felt intimidated because they could never pray that long, so why try? They reasoned, “What will my little one sentence prayer sound like?”

“You want to know what I’ve learned this weekend?” the man said as he drove me to a Midwest airport early one morning. We’d just spent an incredible weekend together with a house church he’d helped foster and another group of believers who joined us when they heard I was in town. The latter were deeply conflicted about their current involvement with a congregation that sounded abusive. “I’ve been selling the wrong thing!” he continued.

“What’s that?” I asked oblivious to what we were talking about.

God is not mute: the Word spoke, not out of a whirlwind, but out of the human larynx of a Palestinian Jew.
Philip Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew

Can you imagine what it must have been like for Jesus the first moment he sat around with the circle of his disciples after they had finally become friends?
We all know what it is to get acquainted with new people, the awkward pauses and measured words as people get to know each other. Certainly the disciples went through that with Jesus. Just who was this Teacher and Miracle-worker and who were these other men who decided to follow him?