3 THINGS HOLDING BACK THE FLOOD

I was sleeping soundly after our first Friday evening session at the Unconference in Nashville when I awakened from a dream.

In the dream I saw myself speaking at the conference - something I was scheduled to do first thing on Saturday morning - but instead of speaking about how we should untangle our faith from politics I heard myself speaking about another topic.

I laid there in the bed, located in the basement of Steve and Ernie Simms' house in Nashville and looked up at the sea of glow-in-the-dark stars which were glued to the ceiling above me.

A glance at my phone said it was 3:10 a.m.

There was no doubt in my mind that the Lord wanted me to speak about this new topic. I quickly rolled out of bed and got on my knees to pray about what I'd seen.

After a few moments I felt a very strong urge to write down the message so I wouldn't forget it.

What I had heard was simply this: There are 3 things holding back the flood.

I knew this was a specific message for the people who were with us for the Unconference. The night before had been filled with expectation and I had sensed a strong sense of hunger for experiencing the kind of ekklesia where Jesus is the Head and the people operate as fully-functional members of the Body of Christ.

But, now, the Lord was highlighting three specific barriers that were holding back this flood of the Lord's anointing and presence.

After writing it all down I was too wired to sleep so I picked up my iPod and checked my messages.

As I was responding to a post on Facebook my cell phone buzzed to let me know I was receiving a text. "Who was texting me at 3 a.m.?" I wondered.

It was Richard Jacobson. His text read: "What are you doing up at 3 a.m.?"

I texted back to let him know that the Lord had given me a new message for our morning session. He said that he had also received a new direction for the Lord for his sessions too.

By the time the morning session started I was anxious to share what the Lord had given me.

I started things off by inviting the young girl up who had the vision from the night before about the giant fire hose being lowered down to us and gushing spouts of living water over all of us.

After she finished, I let everyone know that my session was not going to be about faith and politics but about 3 things that were holding back the flood.

Here's what I shared:

Many of you here have been hurt by your brothers and sisters in the Church. The Lord sees your pain. He knows how much it hurts when they slander you, and when they shun you for seeking to experience the ekklesia and practice the Headship of Christ. He understands and validates your suffering.

But, you need to forgive them. You need to let it go. The Lord cannot put something new into your hands if you haven't let go of your pain. He can't move you forward until you allow Him to heal your wounds.

Give this hurt to Jesus. Let Him heal you. Let Him show you how to love your brothers and sisters.

Pray for them. Pray a blessing over them. Pray for their marriage. Pray a blessing over their ministry. Pray for their finances to increase. Pray for their children. Pray the Lord's favor over them. Not because you feel it, but because the Lord has commanded you to bless those who curse you and do good to those who mistreat you.

At first it will only be words, but as you continue to pray for them, the Lord will soften and change your heart and eventually you will mean every word of what you are asking, and that's when you'll know you have surrendered your pain to Him.

Some of you are waiting for permission. You're not sure you're qualified to start a church in your home. You're afraid you don't have the authority to do this.

But the Lord says, you are already licensed and ordained into the ministry of the Gospel of Christ by the Holy Spirit of the Living God.

If you are sensing His calling to go and do this - go and do this! He will be with you all the way.

You are called. You are chosen. You are qualified.

Do not wait to be equipped before you step out. As you step out, you will be equipped.

You've been waiting for the guru to arrive and show you what to do. But the Lord says, the expert you are waiting for is within you! You have the Lord Jesus Christ living inside of you.

Go. Just go, knowing that He will never leave you, nor forsake you.

Finally, there are some of you who are waiting for a road map. You're ready and willing to go, but you're waiting for someone to navigate every step that may come your way.

The Lord says that you are pioneers. Where you are going there is no map.

The map you are looking for will be drawn as you go and others who come behind you will follow the trail that you have cut for them along the way.

Cut the path. Blaze the trail.

Remember: The Lord loves to do extraordinary things through ordinary people. Every "hero" of the faith in the Bible was a weak, flawed, broken person. This is why the Lord touched them and did magnificent things through them; because He knew they could never take credit for the great things He would do in their weakness.

As Paul told us, "We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us." [2 Cor. 4:7]

Many of you came here today because you thought this was a conference. But this is not a conference, it's a launching pad. The Lord wants to fill you up and send you out.

The countdown has already started.

**

So, this is how we started things off on Saturday morning. It only got more awesome from there.

More testimonies to follow.

-kg

THE UNCONFERENCE: UPDATE

The Unconference event in Nashville was just awesome. 

Unfortunately, it's nearly impossible to explain exactly how awesome, because there are so many little stories that I can't just tell you one of them to explain it.

So, instead, over the next few days I will try to share a few of those stories here.

In general, there were about 80 people there from all over - Ohio, Missouri, Minnesota, Virginia, California - and of course from Tennessee. 

My co-hosts were Richard Jacobson and Steve Simms. Both are amazing guys. 

I knew Richard really well and he continued to bless me as I got to meet him in person after knowing him online for like 5 years. [But I feel like I've known him my whole life]. 

Steve was a practical stranger to me, but I stayed with him and his wife and they were both solid gold. Just amazing hearts and humble, kind, loving people.

Overall, I had a half dozen conversations with people who pulled me aside to thank me for my books, and who quoted specific blog articles I had written [some of them 9 years ago!] and thanked me for helping them to learn, or grow in their faith. That was really so encouraging to me.

Our goal with this event was to allow the Holy Spirit to lead and take us off the map if He wanted to - and He really did!

On Friday evening, Steve Simms shared an unbelievable story: A few years ago he had run across a book - quite by accident - of "Street Names in Nashville and Their Origins". Curious, he picked it up and searched for the origin of "Berry Street" [where his church meets, and also where our Unconference was being hosted].

To his surprise, he learned that the street had been named for Berry McFerrin, a Methodist minister from the 1800's. 

But that's not all. He then looked and found a biography of this man and there found this testimony about a time in his life when Mr. Berry McFerrin had attended youth meetings and was inspired by their similarities to those in Acts:

“The meetings were greatly blessed.  We read the Scriptures, we sang, we prayed, we spoke often one to another, and the Lord listened and heard.  Here I heard much of Christian experience, and learned to understand the wants of others.  Here I learned to give words of exhortation and comfort, and here I learned to appreciate the trials and temptations connected with the life of a Christian.  Fifty years have passed and the precious seasons that I enjoyed then are still fresh in my memory.  I regard class meetings as among the greatest providential means of grace ever instituted in the church.  They did much to keep me in the path, and gave me many encouragements through hearing the experience of older and wiser Christians than myself.  Class meeting is about the best theological school ever organized.  It was a sad day when it declined in the church; and I hope and pray the time may come when it will be revived in the church.”

But, the book reveals, Mr. McFerrin never lived to rediscover that experience again. However, his prayer was answered nearly 200 years later when the Berry Street Worship Center was built...across the street from where he once lived and prayed that prayer!

So, after hearing this story, Steve led us all outside and across the street to the park where his house had once stood. There, we all held hands and stood in a circle to thank the Lord for answering this prayer.

As we stood there praying, a young girl of about 16 saw a vision of a massive fire hose coming out of the sky and flooding the ground with water which gushed in all directions. She shared about how it was so strong it felt as if it would have knocked her down if she hadn't been holding hands with others in our prayer circle.

That next morning I was supposed to be sharing in the first session about my book "Jesus Untangled" and the need to untangle faith and politics. 

But the night before, around 3am, the Lord woke me up and told me there were 3 things holding back the flood for many people at the Unconference. [More on this later]

I had the whole thing laid out for me. So, I got out of bed, got on my knees and thanked the Lord for this new direction. Then I wrote it all down. After that, I couldn't sleep, so I checked my messages and posted a few things on Facebook.

Almost immediately, I received a text from Richard Jacobson asking me why I was awake at 3am. I told him what had happened with the dream and he said the Lord had awakened him and given him a new message to share in his session, too!

That next morning I took us off the map and shared what the Lord had given me to say. 

I spoke for about 20 minutes and then I invited people to come up and confirm if this was for them. 

Soon, many of the people started to come up and confess that at least one of those 3 things were holding them back and keeping them from experiencing more of the Lord in their personal life and in their church life. 

That's only what the Lord did before lunch on Saturday.

It was an amazing weekend. 

We're already planning to do it again next year.

More to come...

Peace,

kg

Join me at the Un:Conference in Nashville on June 23-25

EARLY BIRD TICKETS JUST $25 - OFFER EXPIRES ON MARCH 24

HURRY AND REGISTER TODAY>




Unconference Nashville - June 23-25, 2017

Are you a Christian who's done with organized church, but still wants Christian community? Are you a pastor or other church leader who's still called to the organized church, but wants to get out of the way and let God take control? Do you long to see a revival where Christians will once again be known for how they love their neighbor, rather than who they vote for?

If any of these questions stirs something in you, then come explore the answers with us! Let’s spend the weekend in Christian fellowship and conversation, as we seek the Lord about how to embrace Christianity without churchianity, to rediscover what it means to be his ekklesia on this earth, and how to untangle our faith from our politics, in order to become effective ambassadors of his kingdom once again.

However, please know: this isn't your typical Christian conference! In fact, that’s why we’re calling it an unconference. We’re not looking for passive audience members who want to sit quietly and listen to experts. Yes, there will be a few brief talks to spark some great conversation. But that’s the key. We want real conversation where we can learn from one another. We also want to carve out time to let God speak to us.

We can't wait to worship and fellowship and wait on the Lord together. We hope this will be a life-changing event for everyone. However, SEATS ARE LIMITED, so SIGN UP NOW!

#unconferencenashville

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Details

Unconference Nashville is being hosted by The Salvation Army Berry Street Worship Center in Nashville, TN. The conference will take place on Friday evening, all day Saturday, and the second half of the day Sunday, though participants will also have the option to attend the Sunday morning worship service at Berry Street.

Tickets are for conference admission only. Meals are not included, though light snacks and cofeee will be served. Out-of-town particpants will also need to make arrangements for hotels and travel. Depeding on the number of attendees, we may bring in food trucks for lunch. Otherwise, both lunches and dinners will happen offsite.

Either way, attendees will need transportaion to-and-from the conference venue. So, if you don't plan to drive your own car or rent one, you might need to carpool with other attendees or rent an Uber, as needed.

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Connecting Online

Attendees are encouraged to use the hashtag #unconferencenashville to connect prior, during, and after the event. Also, later in the year, we would love to host some group videochat "renuions" for attendees who wish to enage in discussions about how their lives have changed since Unconfernece Nashville.

REGISTER TODAY

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Organizers

Unconference Nashville is proud to have The Salvation Army Berry Street host this event. Our guest speakers / facilitators include:

• Steve Simms, author of Beyond Church: The Lost Word Of The Bible - Ekklesia. Steve and his wife, Ernie, co-lead an ekklesia (an interactive, participatory church) in Nashville, at The Salvation Army Berry Street. You can find Steve's blog here.

• Keith Giles, author of Jesus Untangled: Crucifying Our Politics to Pledge Allegiance to the Lamb. Keith is part of a house church in Orange, California where no one takes a salary and all offerings are given to help the poor in the community. You can find Keith's blog here.

• Richard Jacobson, author of Unchurching: Christianity Without Churchianity. Richard started as a hippie kid in the Jesus Movement, and eventually became an organized church pastor, then quit, in order to search for non-institutional Christian community again. You can find Richard's work here.
  
  
  DON'T MISS IT!!

Is It Really All About Jesus?

THE BLOGALOGUE SERIES: "Encountering Jesus: Inside and Outside the Meeting"

Is It Really All About Jesus?

For me, the essence of an Organic Church is centered around Jesus. Everything we do should be designed to help us hear Him, experience Him, worship Him, love Him, serve Him, and draw nearer to Him. Anything that prevents that from happening should be eliminated from our lives, and from our time together as a Body.

If I could re-name the movement, I’d call it “Jesus Ekklesia” because, for me, that’s closer to what it’s all about: It’s for Jesus, by Jesus and of Jesus. With Jesus at the Center, Jesus at the top, and Jesus surrounding us, the Ekklesia is a Jesus-centric organism that won’t operate properly apart from Jesus.

In fact, the Church itself is nothing apart from Christ. The Apostle Paul calls it a Profound Mystery. Christ and the Church are One – like a living person who has a head and a body and organs that all work together to sustain life. We are in Christ and He is in us, and we are the Temple of the Holy Spirit where Christ lives, and He is the One in whom we live and move and have our being. So, we are in Christ and He is in us, and we are in the Father.

Apart from Jesus we can do nothing. Yet, if we remain in Him and He remains in us then we will bear much fruit.

Is it possible to have a meeting without Jesus? Unfortunately, yes. It’s also possible to have a wonderful meeting “about Jesus” where people get together to sing about Him, talk about Him and study Him – much in the same way a group of people might study any other topic of discussion.

But rather than have a meeting “about Jesus”, or a meeting “without Jesus”, our aim and purpose should always be to have a meeting “WITH Jesus.” He is the One we want to hear from. He is the One we want to touch, and to see and to experience.

Keep in mind, it’s possible to know stuff about someone without actually knowing the person. For example, I could know all sorts of trivia about Kobe Bryant, but if he walked in the room he wouldn’t say, “Hello Keith!” because I don’t actually know Kobe Bryant. I only know stuff about him.

The same is true for Christianity. We can know lots of stuff about Jesus, but that does not mean that we actually know Jesus in an intimate, relational way.

But how do we do that? How do we take hold of Christ – or allow Him to take hold of us?

I mean, if I’m not connecting with the actual Jesus in my private life, then I’m certainly not going to be able to connect with Him in a room full of people.

And, of course, if I’m in a room full of people who are also not in connection with the actual person of Jesus, then even if I am connected to Him, their limited connection to Him will probably make it impossible for all of us to encounter Him together.

How do we connect with Jesus as individuals? How do individual Christians encounter Jesus when they come together as a Church?

Those are the big questions, aren’t they?

I’ll do my best to answer both of those questions.

INDIVIDUAL CONNECTIONS TO CHRIST.

One of the most important things Jesus ever said about the Christian life was this: “Abide in me and I will abide in you. Apart from me you can do nothing.”

So, our individual connection to Jesus begins with living in Him. Not just placing our faith in Him, or trusting in Him for salvation, but actually living and breathing in Christ daily.

Or, to put it another way, the Christian life is about allowing Jesus to come and live and breathe in you every moment of every day.

Does that sound like a paradox? Good.

Imagine an empty water bottle with the lid screwed on tight. It’s full of air. Now throw it into the ocean. It’s surrounded by water, but on the inside it’s still empty and dry. That’s sort of like what it can be like for Christians who find themselves surrounded by Christian “things” and ideas, or even in a gathering of other Christians, but on the inside they are still empty and dry.

Even if you were to submerge that bottle deep into the center of the ocean, it would be wet on the outside, but dry on the inside. What needs to happen is for the bottle to be opened up so that the ocean can come flooding inside.

Jesus is the Ocean. We are the bottle. We can get close to Him and still not let Him inside. Total surrender is required for transformation to begin.

And I say, “to begin” because this is a process not a onetime event.

We allow the process to begin when we surrender our lives to Jesus, die to everything that is our self, and open our hearts up to receive His life, and His heart, and His presence.

We do not ask Jesus into our life, which is empty and dry and weak, but instead we respond to Jesus as He invites us into His life which is pure and eternal and abundant.

The Christian life is cultivated and nurtured and celebrated daily. We spend time with Jesus. We talk to Him the way we talk to our closest friend. We ask Him daily for help as we put His words into practice. We lean on Him for wisdom. We turn to Him for comfort. We look to Him for everything.

Keep in mind that practicing the presence of God like this will likely impact your behavior. It will facilitate the transformational power of the Holy Spirit as you open yourself up more and more to His command and control.

Any Christian who is consumed by this sort of attitude and activity can’t help but experience more of Jesus in their daily life. Now just imagine what would happen if a dozen or so other Christians who were also practicing this sort of faith were to get together for a meeting with Jesus as their functional head?

That’s what Organic Church is all about.

CORPORATE CONNECTIONS TO CHRIST.

When followers of Jesus are accustomed to encountering Jesus like this seven days a week, it’s nothing out of the ordinary to put something very similar into practice when they gather with others who are familiar with the concept.

The New Testament describes for us in some detail what a gathering of the Body of Christ should look like. In 1 Corinthians 12 through 14, Paul talks about the Church using the metaphor of a body where the head (which is Christ) controls every member of his body (the members of the church) as they operate together in ways that are various but necessary to the overall health of the entire organism.

This means that a church is really only “the Body of Christ” if it is submitted fully to the Head. If any church is not operating so that Christ alone is the functional leader – and everyone in the church is operating in their gifting as directed by the Holy Spirit – then that church is not actually behaving like a Body. It might be acting like a corporate entity, a 501(c)3, a business, or a bible study, but it’s not a Body.

When a group of practicing Christian disciples gather together under Christ in order to see Him and hear Him and encounter Him, the chances of doing so increase exponentially.

Obviously, if Christians are not practicing a daily surrender to Christ in their personal lives, and if they are not gathering with other Christians who are encountering Jesus in this way, and if when they gather together they don’t all work together to experience Jesus in their midst as their functional head…then there’s a very, very good chance that they won’t.

Having said that, let me admit something here: It doesn’t always come together for us either.

Sometimes we realize that we’ve not been walking as close to Jesus as we should. Sometimes we get together and we discover that most of us have neglected to seek His face during the week – hey, it happens. We’re all human. We get distracted. We get busy. We fall back into old habits and formulas.

At other times we find that one person in the group isn’t as focused on seeking Him as the rest of us are. In those cases we have grace. We wait for them. We ask how they’re doing. We minister to them in love.

We don’t compare ourselves to them as if we are more holy than they are. Mostly because we remember that we ourselves are prone to the same failures and weaknesses.

Still at other times we can all be in the right place at the right time and with the same intention and yet we don’t experience the power and presence of Jesus the way we hoped we might.

Again, that’s ok. Our faith isn’t in an experience. Our faith and our hope is in a person. We trust Him and we wait for Him. If He decides to move among us, then we rejoice and we receive. If He decides to remain silent, then we continue to wait on Him.

I think sometimes Jesus changes things up simply to keep us from relying on formulas. People love formulas. But when we have a formula we don’t need God.

Church isn’t about a formula, it is (once again) about a person. Jesus is a person and so we learn to accommodate Him and to defer to Him and to relate to Him as a person, not as a formula.

A PRACTICAL EXAMPLE

A few weeks ago our little group experienced the Headship of Christ and it was really wonderful.

After our singing time, one of our sisters shared about a message she had seen on someone’s t-shirt at the grocery store the previous week. It said “Live what you love” and that little phrase stuck with her all week. She began to meditate on how we should live our lives for Jesus and follow Him because He is the One we love.

After that, another sister shared two verses from the New Testament about love and talked about how the Lord had revealed more of His love to her that week.

Then I jumped in because that morning I had been reading through 1 John which is all about love and I read a few specific verses from that book and shared my perspective on how important it is that we learn to love one another.

Then one of our brothers shared what God had been showing him last week as he read through the book of Hosea. After that another brother shared what God had been showing him as he was reading a book about the prophet Hosea, which dove-tailed beautifully into what everyone else was already sharing.

We ended by praying for one of our other sisters who shared a little from her heart about needing to be reminded of the love of God for her – which is what we had all been talking about all morning long anyway!

As we laid hands on her, and read scriptures over her, and even sang songs over her of God’s amazing and astounding love for her, everyone was edified and blessed and touched by the Lord’s tender presence with us.

That was an incredible morning with the saints! And I wish I could tell you that it happens like that every single week, but it doesn’t.

The good news is that it’s starting to happen more and more often as we all begin to catch a vision for what the Lord intends for us as individuals and as a corporate Body of believers.

-kg

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NOTE: This blog is part of a Blogalogue Series of posts from Neil Cole, Richard Jacobson, Dan Herford, Jon Zens and myself.

The Topic: Encountering Jesus: Inside and Outside the Church

The Schedule:

Richard Jacobson: Week of Feb. 9

Keith Giles: Week of Feb. 16

Dan Herford: Week of Feb 23

Neil Cole: Week of March 2

Jon Zens: Week of March 9

Video Skype Roundtable discussion: Saturday March 14 or Sunday March 15

Video Round Table: Who Decides in Organic Church?

Neil Cole, Jon Zens, Richard Jacobson, Dan Herford and Keith Giles share their thoughts about how decisions are made in Organic Church community.

This conversation rounds out the "blogalogue" series of posts on this same topic.

Enjoy!