Yep,you could say my dander is up. I have known for sometime the shafting that the American worker was taking by the American elitist, New World Order bunch, and it just gets worst. If you missed Lou Dobbs on CNN back around May 25, you missed a great story. The facts broke out about a firm in Pittsburgh that has a lawyer on their team by the name of Lebowitz ( sounds Jewish to me) who did a seminar for American Corporations on how to disqualify Qualified American workers in order to be able to hire more illegal immigrants and obtain them an HB-1 status green card to work here.
Matter of fact you can view the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCbFEgFajGU
Most people in America live in smoke and mirrors that the elitist of this country create to brainwash us to believe that they really care about us as taxpaying Americans. That of course is a lie.
This small but effective video, captures what really is going on out there and how the lawyers are doing there best to destroy the middle class working American laborer, Mom and Dad.
This video alone should be a wake up call for Americans everywhere on the issues of illegal immigration. What we should do about it. I say what we should do about it, because this is what it comes down to. Don't sit there and expect the Washington hypocrites to do anything for you as an American. They are looking out for their elitist behinds, with the purpose of personal enrichment, and your survival or the survival of this country really means nothing to them.
Alan Keyes has an excellent article out right now most Americans should read entitled Sovereignty or Submission.
I suggest that you also visit the web site http://www.youtube.com/user/programmersguild
Watch Lou Dobbs report on the prementioned video captured.
Every American should write this lawyer along with writing the Secretary of Labor and your Congressman. What I see in this video is a clear violation of the Labor Law, where one cannot make their decision based upon race, creed or color.
It seems these liberal Jewish lawyers love to push communism and love to destroy American sovereignty.
You can write Lebowitz and the law firm he is at via sending email directly to him and the firm by going to the web site where all their email addresses are displayed.
http://www.cohenlaw.com/attorneys-81.html
It is no longer the time, to sit back on our thumbs and say what can we do. Just imagine for one minute, our forefathers doing that before America was ever formed. Sitting on our thumbs and not speaking out now, in my opinion is the same as being a traitor because our nation is at war, against stupidity in government, and the fast takeover of us as a sovereign nation, for the people and by the people.
The economy affects everything, that we will become, or will be. When it is completely destroyed by the corporations and their greed, the politicians and the influx of illegal immigrants it will be to late to say, I should have done something then. Write this lawyer, send a barrage of email to the firm and tell them what they are doing is pure un-American. Sometimes, it takes radical actions of peaceful solutions to get someone's attention. Ghandi did it for India, we can do it for America. I am not a Nationalist nor a love of the kingdoms of the world, but I am an American in that I live here, as a citizen who is subject to the Kings and their taxes, so one might ask, do I not have a right to speak out, when I find myself especially bothered by the abuse of my fellow American workers in this country.
I speak out for them, because I am one. I can tell you last year, I sent out over 100 resumes looking for good jobs that I am well educated and qualified for and to find out that these corporations are wasting my time and other Americans for the sake of an agenda that violates the laws of this land, we need to SHOUT!
So shout and make a noise about your continued abuse by the psychotic powers of this country and it's corporations and it's lawyers like Lebowitz.
Dr. J
Blog Visitor Tracker
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Thursday, June 21, 2007
China Aggression - They Are Killing Americans!
I have expressed my dissatisfaction with our Washington leaders in their approach to China once before, and I am glad to find that there are a few like me, that know and see as well, how subtle the Chinese communist government is. I have ranted about Walmart and other American Corporations and our governments buddy, buddy with these killers for sometime. I have yelled about how they persecute Christians and this of all things should have made the American Christian scream the loudest when brothers and sisters in Christ are imprisoned and tortured for their faith. That doesnt seem to get anyone's attention in the "churches" of America. I know one thing that will and that is when "our" way of living is threatened by any other nation and perhaps since we don't seem to take action and voice our opinions to Washington about their persecution of Christians we might stand up and speak out against present policy with China for sake of saving our materialistic selves over their threat to our country. Here is an article reprint of by Charles R. Smith, from NewsMax.com, that will perhaps awaken the sleeping giant of America. Wake up America- your friendly purchasing of goods from China is a threat to your life!
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China Killing Americans
Charles R. Smith
Monday, June 18, 2007
China is supplying the Taliban with advanced weapons. Chinese officials have stated that they are ignorant of such weapons sales, but U.S. officials are aware of the direct transfers. The Washington Times reported that Chinese made HN-5 surface-to-air missiles were being supplied to Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.
According to the Washington Times, U.S. defense officials are upset that Chinese weapons are being used to kill Americans.
"Americans are being killed by Chinese-supplied weapons, with the full knowledge and understanding of Beijing where these weapons are going," noted one official.
Iran has made purchases of Chinese weapons, asking Beijing to remove markings and serial numbers in order to avoid being traced back to their point of manufacture. China, in turn, has also supplied weapons directly to the Taliban.
The Bush administration has downplayed the arms sales by China while accusing Iran of passing weapons to the Taliban. The Bush administration is afraid that a backlash against Beijing would result if it were revealed that Beijing is participating in the killing of U.S. and allied soldiers.
China is also directly linked to the sale of advanced surface-to-air missiles to terrorists inside America. Two men were indicted in Los Angeles on charges of attempting to illegally import Chinese-made missiles into the United States. Chao Tung Wu, 51, of La Puente, Calif., and Yi Qing Chen, 41, of Rosemead, Calif., were charged with conspiracy to import Chinese-made surface-to-air missiles (SAMs).
Law enforcement officials said Wu and Chen were caught in a sting developed out of the large-scale federal investigation in Los Angeles known as Smoking Dragon. Wu and Chen charged with conspiracy to import Chinese-made "Qianwei-2" anti-aircraft missiles and launchers.
The conspiracy involved a deal between an undercover U.S. federal agent and Wu and Chen, along with officials at the Xinshidai Corporation, a Chinese state-owned weapons maker, and an un-named Chinese general. The U.S. undercover agent told his Chinese contacts that the missiles were intended to shoot down American airliners inside the United States.
The missile deal used a third country to mask the weapons delivery by Xinshidai. The missiles were then to be shipped to the United States in containers identified as civilian machine parts. One alleged payment was determined to be a $2 million bribe to a foreign official to allow his unidentified country to trans-ship the missiles.
The Chinese government has done nothing to prosecute anyone involved in the scheme to shoot down civilian airliners, despite the direct involvement of a Chinese General. Again, the communists have decided at the highest levels to approve the sale of advanced arms to terrorists inside America.
Why has the U.S. government not reacted to the terror threat from China? The current Bush policy toward China is called "engagement" and it has been in place for the past 20 years. It ignores the Chinese Army and communist rule. The idea behind engagement is that by promoting free trade and economic growth China will move by itself toward a democratic government, peaceful co-existence and social freedoms.
Many who oppose engagement call it appeasement. It has not made China any freer or any nicer. It has created a small middle class that is dedicated to the CCP line because freedom would mean all those poor people voting in representatives that may not spend on weapons, space or giant gala Olympic parties.
The sale of weapons to the Taliban by Beijing is an overt act of war and the decision to do so was made at the highest levels in the ruling communist party. Appeasement will not stop China from killing Americans.
The correct policy for China is "containment". Containment was a policy put in place around the USSR. It went up after WWII with the Truman administration. Restrictions were placed on trade, travel and information. Containment ended when the USSR was no more.
There is also an illogical approach to dealing with the rise of the PRC in military and economic terms. The current policy toward North Korea is a good example of how containment - the lack of trade - can weaken a military to the point of being useless.
Of course, this can lead to a radical government, which can be a loose cannon with cheaper nuclear warheads. The containment must also be balanced with humanitarian goals of seeing that people don't starve to death. The grip of a totalitarian regime will always sacrifice the masses for the good of the leadership. When the grip fails - the leadership dies or flees.
Engagement merely extends the life of a totalitarian state. It does not end the cruelty, make it any nicer in terms of nationalistic aggression or for the economic plight of the masses. This extension also lengthens the time under which the people must suffer, living in a chained society. China is a very good example where, despite the vast income, little if anything has flowed to the massive impoverished population.
It has created a very narrow middle class that would rather the masses not have freedoms. They are living off the blood, and sweat of slave labor to buy their SUVs, stereos and TVs. They certainly do not want that to change.
The illogic of engagement with China is an extreme case of stupid. For example, the World Bank still classifies China as a developing nation so it provides billions of dollars in low cost or free loans. Primarily the U.S finances these loans. This, of course, flies in the face of economic reality. China currently runs the largest export deficit in history mainly due to its predatory currency policy of maintaining a low priced Yuan. China also spends billions on advanced military hardware and is engaged in an expensive space program.
Until recently, Canada was providing billions in loans to the Chinese government based on the premise that it was still an underdeveloped nation. The Canadians changed that because of the obvious current economic power in Beijing.
This brings the question of why should we be financing Chinese economic development when they certainly can afford to do it themselves? The answer comes in the form of corporate interests who seek these U.S. government backed loans to provide financing of their business activities in China.
In reality - We are financing the growth of the Chinese military. The idea of funding nuclear tipped missiles pointed at America is not a pleasant notion. I would prefer to not do it at all.
In the end, engagement is appeasement. It costs money, lives, and freedom. It has not helped but instead - hurt development and in the long run - hurt the chances of peace.
The only sensible solution is to adopt a unified containment policy. This means that India, the US, Japan, Australia, Taiwan, Korea and the Philippines are going to have to band together and agree on joint policy, political - military - economic action toward Beijing.
It won't be an easy road because the PLA has many backers even here in the US. The US needs to dump the "engagement" policy that has failed over the past 20 years. Its time for the US to recognize that engagement does not lead to peace or freedom when you are dealing with a totalitarian state.
The greedy territory hungry PLA warlords will face a common front - whether it is the illegal occupation of the Indian territory Arunachal Pradesh, selling nuclear weapons to tin-pot dictators, selling weapons to terrorists or threats to invade Taiwan. They will have to face the lost income - forcing changes at both a social level and in a political military re-alignment of priorities. The pressure from all directions will force China to implode rather than explode.
We can make China change - but it has to be a "we" operation for it to succeed.
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Now maybe that will get a few Christian Nationalist excited enough to get up off their hineys and write their Congressman and the President and tell them- enough is enough. Stop Trade with China Today! We need a policy of containment and we ned to boycott all stores that buy their goods - now not later when it's too late.
Dr. J.
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China Killing Americans
Charles R. Smith
Monday, June 18, 2007
China is supplying the Taliban with advanced weapons. Chinese officials have stated that they are ignorant of such weapons sales, but U.S. officials are aware of the direct transfers. The Washington Times reported that Chinese made HN-5 surface-to-air missiles were being supplied to Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.
According to the Washington Times, U.S. defense officials are upset that Chinese weapons are being used to kill Americans.
"Americans are being killed by Chinese-supplied weapons, with the full knowledge and understanding of Beijing where these weapons are going," noted one official.
Iran has made purchases of Chinese weapons, asking Beijing to remove markings and serial numbers in order to avoid being traced back to their point of manufacture. China, in turn, has also supplied weapons directly to the Taliban.
The Bush administration has downplayed the arms sales by China while accusing Iran of passing weapons to the Taliban. The Bush administration is afraid that a backlash against Beijing would result if it were revealed that Beijing is participating in the killing of U.S. and allied soldiers.
China is also directly linked to the sale of advanced surface-to-air missiles to terrorists inside America. Two men were indicted in Los Angeles on charges of attempting to illegally import Chinese-made missiles into the United States. Chao Tung Wu, 51, of La Puente, Calif., and Yi Qing Chen, 41, of Rosemead, Calif., were charged with conspiracy to import Chinese-made surface-to-air missiles (SAMs).
Law enforcement officials said Wu and Chen were caught in a sting developed out of the large-scale federal investigation in Los Angeles known as Smoking Dragon. Wu and Chen charged with conspiracy to import Chinese-made "Qianwei-2" anti-aircraft missiles and launchers.
The conspiracy involved a deal between an undercover U.S. federal agent and Wu and Chen, along with officials at the Xinshidai Corporation, a Chinese state-owned weapons maker, and an un-named Chinese general. The U.S. undercover agent told his Chinese contacts that the missiles were intended to shoot down American airliners inside the United States.
The missile deal used a third country to mask the weapons delivery by Xinshidai. The missiles were then to be shipped to the United States in containers identified as civilian machine parts. One alleged payment was determined to be a $2 million bribe to a foreign official to allow his unidentified country to trans-ship the missiles.
The Chinese government has done nothing to prosecute anyone involved in the scheme to shoot down civilian airliners, despite the direct involvement of a Chinese General. Again, the communists have decided at the highest levels to approve the sale of advanced arms to terrorists inside America.
Why has the U.S. government not reacted to the terror threat from China? The current Bush policy toward China is called "engagement" and it has been in place for the past 20 years. It ignores the Chinese Army and communist rule. The idea behind engagement is that by promoting free trade and economic growth China will move by itself toward a democratic government, peaceful co-existence and social freedoms.
Many who oppose engagement call it appeasement. It has not made China any freer or any nicer. It has created a small middle class that is dedicated to the CCP line because freedom would mean all those poor people voting in representatives that may not spend on weapons, space or giant gala Olympic parties.
The sale of weapons to the Taliban by Beijing is an overt act of war and the decision to do so was made at the highest levels in the ruling communist party. Appeasement will not stop China from killing Americans.
The correct policy for China is "containment". Containment was a policy put in place around the USSR. It went up after WWII with the Truman administration. Restrictions were placed on trade, travel and information. Containment ended when the USSR was no more.
There is also an illogical approach to dealing with the rise of the PRC in military and economic terms. The current policy toward North Korea is a good example of how containment - the lack of trade - can weaken a military to the point of being useless.
Of course, this can lead to a radical government, which can be a loose cannon with cheaper nuclear warheads. The containment must also be balanced with humanitarian goals of seeing that people don't starve to death. The grip of a totalitarian regime will always sacrifice the masses for the good of the leadership. When the grip fails - the leadership dies or flees.
Engagement merely extends the life of a totalitarian state. It does not end the cruelty, make it any nicer in terms of nationalistic aggression or for the economic plight of the masses. This extension also lengthens the time under which the people must suffer, living in a chained society. China is a very good example where, despite the vast income, little if anything has flowed to the massive impoverished population.
It has created a very narrow middle class that would rather the masses not have freedoms. They are living off the blood, and sweat of slave labor to buy their SUVs, stereos and TVs. They certainly do not want that to change.
The illogic of engagement with China is an extreme case of stupid. For example, the World Bank still classifies China as a developing nation so it provides billions of dollars in low cost or free loans. Primarily the U.S finances these loans. This, of course, flies in the face of economic reality. China currently runs the largest export deficit in history mainly due to its predatory currency policy of maintaining a low priced Yuan. China also spends billions on advanced military hardware and is engaged in an expensive space program.
Until recently, Canada was providing billions in loans to the Chinese government based on the premise that it was still an underdeveloped nation. The Canadians changed that because of the obvious current economic power in Beijing.
This brings the question of why should we be financing Chinese economic development when they certainly can afford to do it themselves? The answer comes in the form of corporate interests who seek these U.S. government backed loans to provide financing of their business activities in China.
In reality - We are financing the growth of the Chinese military. The idea of funding nuclear tipped missiles pointed at America is not a pleasant notion. I would prefer to not do it at all.
In the end, engagement is appeasement. It costs money, lives, and freedom. It has not helped but instead - hurt development and in the long run - hurt the chances of peace.
The only sensible solution is to adopt a unified containment policy. This means that India, the US, Japan, Australia, Taiwan, Korea and the Philippines are going to have to band together and agree on joint policy, political - military - economic action toward Beijing.
It won't be an easy road because the PLA has many backers even here in the US. The US needs to dump the "engagement" policy that has failed over the past 20 years. Its time for the US to recognize that engagement does not lead to peace or freedom when you are dealing with a totalitarian state.
The greedy territory hungry PLA warlords will face a common front - whether it is the illegal occupation of the Indian territory Arunachal Pradesh, selling nuclear weapons to tin-pot dictators, selling weapons to terrorists or threats to invade Taiwan. They will have to face the lost income - forcing changes at both a social level and in a political military re-alignment of priorities. The pressure from all directions will force China to implode rather than explode.
We can make China change - but it has to be a "we" operation for it to succeed.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now maybe that will get a few Christian Nationalist excited enough to get up off their hineys and write their Congressman and the President and tell them- enough is enough. Stop Trade with China Today! We need a policy of containment and we ned to boycott all stores that buy their goods - now not later when it's too late.
Dr. J.
Monday, June 11, 2007
Jesus the Revolutionary
I recently completed a book, that I have known about sometime, and also I have known of the author because of my activity in house "church" for sometime. The book is entitled "Pagan Christianity" by Frank Viola. Frank is a fine Christian man who has an online and offline ministry called "Present Testimony Ministry". He is a high school Psychology teacher and Philosophy teacher part-time. He is known as a "church planter" or what may have been called in times past, an Apostle. Though he would never accept any title. He loves Jesus above all things. His books are very well written with a tremendous bibliography of his resources of material he quotes. In his above mentioned book he lays out the history of our modern church practices. Much of that which I have already become familiar with in my personal research and study as well. His book becomes the second witness testimony for many of us that have so been enlightened by the Lord to see and understand the "traditions of men" over God's commandments (his Word). His book is a refreshing reminder to us who see what man has done to the Ekklesia and what Jesus intended to rid us from so that man may have a relationship with God and others.
I would like to quote from a portion of his last chapter in the book. Then I will expound some on it.
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If Christianity is to receive a rejuvenation it must be by other means than any now being used. If the church in the second half of this century is to recover from the injuries she suffered in the first half, there must appear a new type of preacher. The proper, ruler-of-the-synagogue type will never do. Neither will the priestly type of man who carries out his duties, takes his pay and asks no questions, nor the smooth-talking pastoral type who knows how to make the Christian religion acceptable to everyone. All these have been tried and found wanting. Another kind of religious leader must arise among us. He must be of the old prophet type, a man who has seen visions of God and has heard a voice from the Throne. When he comes (and I pray God there will not be one but many) he will stand in flat contradiction to everything our smirking, smooth civilization holds dear. He will contradict, denounce and protest in the name of God and will earn the hatred and opposition of a large segment of Christendom.
A.W. Tozer
Frank writes:
"Jesus Christ is not only the Savior, the Messiah, the Prophet, the Priest, and the King. He is also the Revolutionary. Yet, few Christians know Him as such; unfortunately, I know this from experience. For several years now I’ve been working with house churches, writing, and speaking about radical church deconstruction and renewal. In many places I go, people ask me: "Why do you have to be so negative about the modern church, Frank!? Jesus is not a critical person. It is so unlike our Lord to talk about what is wrong with the church. Let us focus on the positive and ignore the negative!"
Such high volume sentiments express complete unfamiliarity with Christ as revolutionary teacher; radical prophet; provocative preacher; controversialist; iconoclast; and the implacable opponent of the religious establishment.
Granted, our Lord is not critical or harsh with His own. He is full of mercy and kindness, and He loves His people passionately. However, this is precisely why He is jealous over His Bride. And it is why He will not compromise with the unbreakable traditions to which His people have been held captive. Nor will He ignore our fanatical devotion to them.
Consider our Lord’s conduct while on earth.
Jesus was never a rabble-rouser nor a ranting rebel, yet He constantly defied the traditions of the scribes and Pharisees. He did not do so by accident, but with great deliberation. The Pharisees were those who, for the sake of the "truth" they saw, tried to extinguish the truth they could not see. This explains why there was always a blizzard of controversy between the "tradition of the elders" and the acts of Jesus.
Someone once said that "a rebel attempts to change the past; a revolutionary attempts to change the future." Jesus Christ brought drastic change to the world. Change to humanity’s view of God. Change to God’s view of humankind. Change to men’s view of women. Our Lord came to bring radical change to the old order of things, replacing it with a new order. He came to bring forth a new covenant—a new kingdom—a new birth—a new race—a new species—a new culture—and a new civilization.
As you read through the Gospels, behold your Lord, the Revolutionary. Watch Him throw the Pharisees into a panic by intentionally flaunting their conventions. Numerous times Jesus healed on the Sabbath day, flatly breaking their cherished tradition. If the Lord wanted to placate His enemies, He could have waited until Sunday or Monday to heal some of these people. Instead, He deliberately healed on the Sabbath, knowing full well it would make His opponents livid.
This pattern runs pretty deep. In one instance, Jesus healed a blind man by mixing clay with spittle and putting it in the man’s eyes. Such an act was in direct defiance to the Jewish ordinance that prohibited healing on the Sabbath by mixing mud with spittle! Yet your Lord intentionally shattered this tradition publicly and with absolute resolve. Watch Him eat food with unwashed hands under the judgmental gaze of the Pharisees, again intentionally defying their fossilized tradition.
In Jesus, we have a Man who refused to bow to the pressures of religious conformity. A Man who preached a revolution. A Man who would not tolerate hypocrisy. A Man who was not afraid to provoke those who suppressed the liberating gospel He brought to set men free. A Man who did not mind evoking anger in His enemies, causing them to gird their thighs for battle.
What is my point? It is this: Jesus Christ came not only as Messiah, the Anointed One of God to deliver His people from the bondage of the fall…
He came not only as Savior, paying a debt He did not owe to wash away humanity’s war, hatred, and ingrained sin…
He came not only as Prophet, comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable…
He came not only as Priest, representing man before God and representing God before man…
He came not only as King, triumphant over all authorities, principalities, and powers...
He also came as Revolutionary, tearing apart the old wineskin with a view to bringing in the new.
Behold your Lord, the Revolutionary!
For many Christians, this is a new look at Jesus Christ. Therefore, to reveal the weaknesses of the church in modernity so that Christ’s Body can fulfill God’s ultimate intention is simply an expression of our Lord’s revolutionary nature. The dominating aim of that nature is to put you and me at the center of the beating heart of God. To put you and me in the core of His eternal purpose—a purpose for which everything was created.
What is needed, then, is a revolution within the Christian faith. Renewal movements will not do it. Revivals will not cut it. Both have been plentiful for the past 50 years. (I might add that they are repackaged every five years.) Renewal movements and revivals have never been potent enough to break the immense inertia of religious tradition.
Renewing and inventing new forms for church is like changing clothes on a mannequin. Doing so will never give it life no matter how avant-garde the garb is. No, the axe must be laid to the root of the problem and a revolution ignited!
What is needed is a complete upheaval of our current Christian practices. All traditions that find no soil in Scripture must be forever abandoned. We must begin anew . . . from ground zero. Anything less will prove defective.
If you are a disciple of the Revolutionary from Nazareth . . .the Radical Messiah who lays His axe to the root . . .you will eventually evoke a specific question. It is the same question that was asked our Lord’s disciples while He walked this earth. That question is: "Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders?"
>>END<<
A true radical must be a man of roots. In words that I have used elsewhere, "The revolutionary can be an ‘outsider’ to the structure he would see collapse: indeed, he must set himself outside of it. But the radical goes to the roots of his own tradition. He must love it: he must weep over Jerusalem, even if he has to pronounce its doom."
John A.T. Robinson
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Frank Viola [ http://ptmin.org ] is the author of a series of books on radical church renewal and reform. His passion is to see the centrality of Jesus Christ and the life of the early church restored. Frank is part of the house church movement, and he lives in Florida. Among his books are Rethinking the Wineskin, Who is Your Covering?, Pagan Christianity, So You Want to Start a House Church?, Knowing Christ Together, and The Untold Story of the New Testament Church. You can reach him online at http://ptmin.org or email him at ptmin@aol.com This article is based on his book Pagan Christianity: The Origins of Our Modern Church Practices [URL: www.ptmin.org/pagan.htm ]
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My added comments.
Most Christians do not understand how far Jesus stuck truth right into the faces of the self righteous and the religious of his day. Most Christians do not understand that Jewish practices and belief of His day and even today, were not even close to the Torah, or the Old Testament, for the Jews in hundreds of years developed their traditions of men as opposed to scripture. These became known as the Talmud, a full transcription of the Mishna and the Gemara. These were simply men's attempt to redefine God's law, by creating fence laws around fence laws and then their own interpretation of these. For example in Jesus time, to understand why he would heal a man's blindness as He did, one must read what their law said. Shabbat 108:20 reads thus : "To heal a blind man on the Sabbath, it his prohibited to inject wine in his eyes. It is also prohibited to make mud with spittle and smear it on his eyes.
Jesus didnt just randomly do this miracle in the way that He did, he did it with purpose in mind, to not just break their laws of tradition, but to show that He is the lawgiver and the judge, the Savouir and the King of all things created. The Jews had no doubt of His Messiahship because of many other things they had written to recognize who the Messiah was when He would come, Jesus did these things as well that proved He alone was who He claimed to be. There is no doubt in my mind or the minds of those that understand Judaism of that time and today, that they (the religious leaders of that day)knew He was the Messiah and crucified Him anyway. Their traditions, their positions of power and recognition, their religion held far greater importance than man's relationship to God. I want to provide one more example of Jesus flaunting their religiousity in their faces, and it may have been one of the many laws He broke which sealed his fate with these law makers of traditions of men. It wasn't long before they conspired to kill Him. Yes, the Bible uses the word conspired. For those of you who don't believe men conspire to commit evil.
Read this, According to the Mishna, " One should be willing to walk four miles to water in order to wash your hands rather than eat with unwashed hands. (Sotah 4b).
When Jesus didn't wash his hands before eating, in the eyes of the Pharisees, this made Him and the disciples equal to being a murderer!
(Challah, J, 58:3) HE WHO NEGLECTS HAND WASHING IS AS HE WHO IS A MURDERER."!That's right Jesus was a lawbreaker, a revolutionary. The revolutionary of all times!
For our Lord, spit right smack into the face of the legalist, the religious and their followers constantly.
Jesus, the essence of the Creator, the living Word, spoke for men for all time. Relationship with God is more important then all the garbage men can devise and all the traditions he can create. For their is one Law Giver, One Lord, One Judge, and One SAVIOUR and KING. Meet Jesus Christ - the greatest revolutionary who ever lived and ever will -forever. For it is no surprise when men trapped in the bondages of religion get free, they proclaim loudly my Lord and my God!
For Jesus came to set us absolutely free from the bonds and ties of religion to have relationship once again with God our Father, and with men and women and children as our brothers, and sisters with Him.
If ever a movie should be made, about Jesus again, it should be entitled. FREEDOM!
For there is no other name, under heaven or earth to which men can find true freedom then that which is in Jesus Christ- Saviour of the World.
The Revolutionary Extradonaire!
Are you a part to His marching army of the redeemed. You can be! YOu can join the revolution. All people are welcomed from every area of life. There is none that he won't accept. Religion may not want you. Jesus does. If he can take a prostitute, a tax collector, fisherman and more and turn them into His own, He can take anyone of any circumstance in this life, and make you a child of the King! A revolutionary.
You can see Jesus for the first time in your life, not common church folk, but one who opposed religion all the way to the cross. He came to set us FREE! Will you join me and hundreds that have come to know Him as such. He is right at the door of your heart knocking, and offering to come inside to eat with you and you with Him. Don't worry about the house being clean, the dishes done, the hands washed. Jesus eats with those with unwashed hands, for His presence makes everything clean. Jesus the Revolutionary is here amongst us. He is alive. He is alive in the hearts of those that know him beyond all the religious trappings and trim. He is drafting knew individuals daily to join him in a meal, with unwashed hands. For his very presence makes anyone and everything clean that comes in contact with Him. Come join the Revolution and see what God can do, and man in all his contrivances od traditions and rudiments and laws could never do. That is to set you free to live a life with Him for eternity. Eternal life begins now, not after you die. Real life, real freedom from this world. You have to first join the "Revolution". I joined, and have never regretted it since. I can ask for no greater leader, no greater mentor, no greater love then Him.
Dr. J.
I would like to quote from a portion of his last chapter in the book. Then I will expound some on it.
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If Christianity is to receive a rejuvenation it must be by other means than any now being used. If the church in the second half of this century is to recover from the injuries she suffered in the first half, there must appear a new type of preacher. The proper, ruler-of-the-synagogue type will never do. Neither will the priestly type of man who carries out his duties, takes his pay and asks no questions, nor the smooth-talking pastoral type who knows how to make the Christian religion acceptable to everyone. All these have been tried and found wanting. Another kind of religious leader must arise among us. He must be of the old prophet type, a man who has seen visions of God and has heard a voice from the Throne. When he comes (and I pray God there will not be one but many) he will stand in flat contradiction to everything our smirking, smooth civilization holds dear. He will contradict, denounce and protest in the name of God and will earn the hatred and opposition of a large segment of Christendom.
A.W. Tozer
Frank writes:
"Jesus Christ is not only the Savior, the Messiah, the Prophet, the Priest, and the King. He is also the Revolutionary. Yet, few Christians know Him as such; unfortunately, I know this from experience. For several years now I’ve been working with house churches, writing, and speaking about radical church deconstruction and renewal. In many places I go, people ask me: "Why do you have to be so negative about the modern church, Frank!? Jesus is not a critical person. It is so unlike our Lord to talk about what is wrong with the church. Let us focus on the positive and ignore the negative!"
Such high volume sentiments express complete unfamiliarity with Christ as revolutionary teacher; radical prophet; provocative preacher; controversialist; iconoclast; and the implacable opponent of the religious establishment.
Granted, our Lord is not critical or harsh with His own. He is full of mercy and kindness, and He loves His people passionately. However, this is precisely why He is jealous over His Bride. And it is why He will not compromise with the unbreakable traditions to which His people have been held captive. Nor will He ignore our fanatical devotion to them.
Consider our Lord’s conduct while on earth.
Jesus was never a rabble-rouser nor a ranting rebel, yet He constantly defied the traditions of the scribes and Pharisees. He did not do so by accident, but with great deliberation. The Pharisees were those who, for the sake of the "truth" they saw, tried to extinguish the truth they could not see. This explains why there was always a blizzard of controversy between the "tradition of the elders" and the acts of Jesus.
Someone once said that "a rebel attempts to change the past; a revolutionary attempts to change the future." Jesus Christ brought drastic change to the world. Change to humanity’s view of God. Change to God’s view of humankind. Change to men’s view of women. Our Lord came to bring radical change to the old order of things, replacing it with a new order. He came to bring forth a new covenant—a new kingdom—a new birth—a new race—a new species—a new culture—and a new civilization.
As you read through the Gospels, behold your Lord, the Revolutionary. Watch Him throw the Pharisees into a panic by intentionally flaunting their conventions. Numerous times Jesus healed on the Sabbath day, flatly breaking their cherished tradition. If the Lord wanted to placate His enemies, He could have waited until Sunday or Monday to heal some of these people. Instead, He deliberately healed on the Sabbath, knowing full well it would make His opponents livid.
This pattern runs pretty deep. In one instance, Jesus healed a blind man by mixing clay with spittle and putting it in the man’s eyes. Such an act was in direct defiance to the Jewish ordinance that prohibited healing on the Sabbath by mixing mud with spittle! Yet your Lord intentionally shattered this tradition publicly and with absolute resolve. Watch Him eat food with unwashed hands under the judgmental gaze of the Pharisees, again intentionally defying their fossilized tradition.
In Jesus, we have a Man who refused to bow to the pressures of religious conformity. A Man who preached a revolution. A Man who would not tolerate hypocrisy. A Man who was not afraid to provoke those who suppressed the liberating gospel He brought to set men free. A Man who did not mind evoking anger in His enemies, causing them to gird their thighs for battle.
What is my point? It is this: Jesus Christ came not only as Messiah, the Anointed One of God to deliver His people from the bondage of the fall…
He came not only as Savior, paying a debt He did not owe to wash away humanity’s war, hatred, and ingrained sin…
He came not only as Prophet, comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable…
He came not only as Priest, representing man before God and representing God before man…
He came not only as King, triumphant over all authorities, principalities, and powers...
He also came as Revolutionary, tearing apart the old wineskin with a view to bringing in the new.
Behold your Lord, the Revolutionary!
For many Christians, this is a new look at Jesus Christ. Therefore, to reveal the weaknesses of the church in modernity so that Christ’s Body can fulfill God’s ultimate intention is simply an expression of our Lord’s revolutionary nature. The dominating aim of that nature is to put you and me at the center of the beating heart of God. To put you and me in the core of His eternal purpose—a purpose for which everything was created.
What is needed, then, is a revolution within the Christian faith. Renewal movements will not do it. Revivals will not cut it. Both have been plentiful for the past 50 years. (I might add that they are repackaged every five years.) Renewal movements and revivals have never been potent enough to break the immense inertia of religious tradition.
Renewing and inventing new forms for church is like changing clothes on a mannequin. Doing so will never give it life no matter how avant-garde the garb is. No, the axe must be laid to the root of the problem and a revolution ignited!
What is needed is a complete upheaval of our current Christian practices. All traditions that find no soil in Scripture must be forever abandoned. We must begin anew . . . from ground zero. Anything less will prove defective.
If you are a disciple of the Revolutionary from Nazareth . . .the Radical Messiah who lays His axe to the root . . .you will eventually evoke a specific question. It is the same question that was asked our Lord’s disciples while He walked this earth. That question is: "Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders?"
>>END<<
A true radical must be a man of roots. In words that I have used elsewhere, "The revolutionary can be an ‘outsider’ to the structure he would see collapse: indeed, he must set himself outside of it. But the radical goes to the roots of his own tradition. He must love it: he must weep over Jerusalem, even if he has to pronounce its doom."
John A.T. Robinson
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Frank Viola [ http://ptmin.org ] is the author of a series of books on radical church renewal and reform. His passion is to see the centrality of Jesus Christ and the life of the early church restored. Frank is part of the house church movement, and he lives in Florida. Among his books are Rethinking the Wineskin, Who is Your Covering?, Pagan Christianity, So You Want to Start a House Church?, Knowing Christ Together, and The Untold Story of the New Testament Church. You can reach him online at http://ptmin.org or email him at ptmin@aol.com This article is based on his book Pagan Christianity: The Origins of Our Modern Church Practices [URL: www.ptmin.org/pagan.htm ]
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My added comments.
Most Christians do not understand how far Jesus stuck truth right into the faces of the self righteous and the religious of his day. Most Christians do not understand that Jewish practices and belief of His day and even today, were not even close to the Torah, or the Old Testament, for the Jews in hundreds of years developed their traditions of men as opposed to scripture. These became known as the Talmud, a full transcription of the Mishna and the Gemara. These were simply men's attempt to redefine God's law, by creating fence laws around fence laws and then their own interpretation of these. For example in Jesus time, to understand why he would heal a man's blindness as He did, one must read what their law said. Shabbat 108:20 reads thus : "To heal a blind man on the Sabbath, it his prohibited to inject wine in his eyes. It is also prohibited to make mud with spittle and smear it on his eyes.
Jesus didnt just randomly do this miracle in the way that He did, he did it with purpose in mind, to not just break their laws of tradition, but to show that He is the lawgiver and the judge, the Savouir and the King of all things created. The Jews had no doubt of His Messiahship because of many other things they had written to recognize who the Messiah was when He would come, Jesus did these things as well that proved He alone was who He claimed to be. There is no doubt in my mind or the minds of those that understand Judaism of that time and today, that they (the religious leaders of that day)knew He was the Messiah and crucified Him anyway. Their traditions, their positions of power and recognition, their religion held far greater importance than man's relationship to God. I want to provide one more example of Jesus flaunting their religiousity in their faces, and it may have been one of the many laws He broke which sealed his fate with these law makers of traditions of men. It wasn't long before they conspired to kill Him. Yes, the Bible uses the word conspired. For those of you who don't believe men conspire to commit evil.
Read this, According to the Mishna, " One should be willing to walk four miles to water in order to wash your hands rather than eat with unwashed hands. (Sotah 4b).
When Jesus didn't wash his hands before eating, in the eyes of the Pharisees, this made Him and the disciples equal to being a murderer!
(Challah, J, 58:3) HE WHO NEGLECTS HAND WASHING IS AS HE WHO IS A MURDERER."!That's right Jesus was a lawbreaker, a revolutionary. The revolutionary of all times!
For our Lord, spit right smack into the face of the legalist, the religious and their followers constantly.
Jesus, the essence of the Creator, the living Word, spoke for men for all time. Relationship with God is more important then all the garbage men can devise and all the traditions he can create. For their is one Law Giver, One Lord, One Judge, and One SAVIOUR and KING. Meet Jesus Christ - the greatest revolutionary who ever lived and ever will -forever. For it is no surprise when men trapped in the bondages of religion get free, they proclaim loudly my Lord and my God!
For Jesus came to set us absolutely free from the bonds and ties of religion to have relationship once again with God our Father, and with men and women and children as our brothers, and sisters with Him.
If ever a movie should be made, about Jesus again, it should be entitled. FREEDOM!
For there is no other name, under heaven or earth to which men can find true freedom then that which is in Jesus Christ- Saviour of the World.
The Revolutionary Extradonaire!
Are you a part to His marching army of the redeemed. You can be! YOu can join the revolution. All people are welcomed from every area of life. There is none that he won't accept. Religion may not want you. Jesus does. If he can take a prostitute, a tax collector, fisherman and more and turn them into His own, He can take anyone of any circumstance in this life, and make you a child of the King! A revolutionary.
You can see Jesus for the first time in your life, not common church folk, but one who opposed religion all the way to the cross. He came to set us FREE! Will you join me and hundreds that have come to know Him as such. He is right at the door of your heart knocking, and offering to come inside to eat with you and you with Him. Don't worry about the house being clean, the dishes done, the hands washed. Jesus eats with those with unwashed hands, for His presence makes everything clean. Jesus the Revolutionary is here amongst us. He is alive. He is alive in the hearts of those that know him beyond all the religious trappings and trim. He is drafting knew individuals daily to join him in a meal, with unwashed hands. For his very presence makes anyone and everything clean that comes in contact with Him. Come join the Revolution and see what God can do, and man in all his contrivances od traditions and rudiments and laws could never do. That is to set you free to live a life with Him for eternity. Eternal life begins now, not after you die. Real life, real freedom from this world. You have to first join the "Revolution". I joined, and have never regretted it since. I can ask for no greater leader, no greater mentor, no greater love then Him.
Dr. J.
Sunday, June 3, 2007
Barna Speaks On the House Church
For my readers who aren't familiar with the Barna Group, this is a man that does marketing research and has turned his polls toward the Christian Church especially as it is in America. He has just recently written a new book called, "Revolution".
What Barna has stumbled on in his research, is what I believe God is doing. God is bringing His people out of conventional church that has largely not changed in 1900 years back to the root of Apostolic tradition and away from the traditions of men.
What Jesus established was rooted in the house church and did not change for almost 300 years. However, church history shows that as the Apostles passed away, the emerging institutions were beginning to form with writings for example by Origen and other self appointed people of importance with the movement of Christianity. The multiplicity of elders in the house church, and the priesthood of all believers, with Christ as the only true Shepard and Pastor of the "called out ones", soon developed into the aristocracy of the single Bishop rule. Origen being one of the leading fathers of the basis upon which all Catholicism put it's foundation in. The same roots that the Protestant church never let go of, accepting easily the traditions of men and teaching of men over that of Christ and the Apostles.
What is emerging is the "real move" of the Holy Spirit. God no longer wants babies, he wants us to grow up into the full maturity of our priesthood as believers and no longer be observers but participants. The House Church movement in America is a move of God to do just that. To return to what Jesus set forth rather than the aristocracy and hierarchy of men established institutions, disguising themselves as the church, when all this time the real Ekklesia has been in the process of slowly being taught by the Spirit the truth of worship, discipleship, relationship, testimony, daily life evangelism and Holy Spirit enacted gifts and administrations for the body to grow.
The House church will be the break through for a revivaland the last revival where beleivers will no be longer babies blown by every wind of doctrine, but will become the true church of Christ before He returns. In America it will be overseen by Christ and not the men with the most money or power.
It will be a revolution, the radical restoration I pray for everyday of all believers that love Jesus Christ, that they will for once in their lives discover the mystery hidden for all ages, Christ in you the hope of the glory.
I want to quote below directly from www.barna.org two articles I found there.
I would like to thank Brother Leon Wallace, the pastor of Faith Church of Athens, who though we may differ in our views, he is a friend and a brother in Christ. Brother Wallace is open to hearing me, though, he, I assurdely know, doesn't accept my viewpoints readily, as he is still locked into the institution it's practices and it's ways. He and I have found some common grounds in other viewpoints on varying things. He and his wife, Donna and their children are a lovely family and I pray for them daily, as I hope they do I.
I love them and I give him credit for his open mindness and heart to listen and to read my writings and "rantings" anyway on this blog.
Brother Wallace referred me to Barna in telephone conversation the other day. I went to Barna's web site and found two significant articles there, I wanted to reprint here for your reading.
So I quote the two articles he referred me to below.
House Church Involvement Is Growing
June 19, 2006
(Ventura, CA) - Americans are increasingly designing their lifestyles in ways that meet their needs more efficiently. This is true even in the spiritual realm, as evidenced by the rapid growth of participation in house churches across the nation. Whereas most people continue to think of "going to church" as attending a service at one of the many church buildings located throughout their community, a new study from The Barna Group shows that millions of adults are trying out new forms of spiritual community and worship, with many abandoning the traditional forms altogether.
Large Numbers Attend
The new study, based on interviews with more than five thousand randomly selected adults from across the nation, found that 9% of adults attend a house church during a typical week. That is remarkable growth in the past decade, shooting up from just 1% to near double-digit involvement. In total, one out of five adults attends a house church at least once a month.
Projecting these figures to the national population gives an estimate of more than 70 million adults who have at least experimented with house church participation. In a typical week roughly 20 million adults attend a house church gathering. Over the course of a typical month, that number doubles to about 43 million adults.
While many religious professionals say they are unaware of such activity, it might be because the house church is in its "ramp up" phase in the U.S. One consequence is that millions of Americans are intermittently engaged in a house church, alternating back and forth between house church and conventional church. (For clarity, the survey distinguished between involvement in a house church and participation in a small group that is associated with a conventional church.) The Barna survey revealed that of those who attend a house church, 27% attend on a weekly basis, 30% attend one to three times per month, and 43% attend less than once a month.
One Foot in Each Camp
The study also discovered that church attendance patterns are being reshaped. Among those who attend a church of some type, 74% attend only a conventional church while just 5% attend only a house church. Another one-fifth (19%) attend both a house church and a conventional church. (The other 2% attend a small group that was not considered to be a house church.)
The people most likely to attend only a conventional church were women, people 60 or older, residents of the Midwest, and evangelicals. In contrast, the people most likely to attend a house church but not a conventional church were men, home-school families, residents of the West, and non-whites.
The Impact of the House Church
The study was directed by George Barna, whose current best-selling book, entitled Revolution, estimates that this trend will continue over the next two decades, substantially reducing the share of adults who call a conventional church their primary spiritual community.
“The house church now appears to have reached ‘critical mass’ in the United States," commented Barna. "Analysts typically find that once a new tool or institution reaches 15% market penetration, and has evidenced a consistent or growing level of affirmation for at least six years, that entity shifts from fad to trend status. At that point, it becomes a permanent fixture in our society. Today, house churches are moving from the appraisal phase into the acceptance phase. We anticipate house church attendance during any given week to double in the coming decade, and a growing proportion of house church attenders to adopt the house church as their primary faith community. That continued growth and public awareness will firmly establish the house church as a significant means of faith experience and expression among Americans."
To read more about alternative forms of spiritual experience and expression, such as the house church, see George Barna’s book, Revolution.
For more information click here
Barna noted that this change is already reorienting the nation’s faith dimension. "By necessity, the transition from a nation exclusively offering a conventional church experience to one that offers a choice between conventional church and other forms of spiritual experience is changing the rules and roles. New leaders are emerging to represent and guide house churches -people whose names are unfamiliar to the bulk of the country, but whose ministries will become more mainstream and well-known as time goes on. A new body of spiritual resources is being developed and utilized by the expanding house church community. House church adherents make greater use of Christian radio, Christian books and online faith experiences than do people engaged solely in a conventional church. In addition, new patterns of faith participation are being implemented. The traditional ways of thinking about and experiencing ‘church’ are rapidly being revolutionized by a form of ‘religious choice’ in which people are taking greater personal responsibility for their spiritual experience and development."
Research Details
The data in this report are based on interviews with 5013 adults from across the nation. The Barna Group conducted this study through the use of telephone surveys, implemented from January 2005 through May 2006, based upon a random sample of people 18 years of age and older living within the 48 continental states. The maximum margin of sampling error associated with the aggregate sample of adults is ±1.8 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. In the research, the distribution of survey respondents corresponded to the geographic dispersion of the U.S. population. Multiple callbacks were used to increase the probability of including a reliable distribution of qualified individuals. Statistical weighting was used to calibrate the aggregate sample to known population percentages. The number of adults in key subgroups, before statistical weighting, included 446 evangelicals, 2343 born again Christians, 663 blacks, 631 Hispanics, 1608 conservatives and 676 liberals.
“Born again Christians" are defined as people who said they have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in their life today and who also indicated they believe that when they die they will go to Heaven because they had confessed their sins and had accepted Jesus Christ as their savior. Respondents are not asked to describe themselves as "born again."
“Evangelicals" meet the born again criteria (described above) plus seven other conditions. Those include saying their faith is very important in their life today; believing they have a personal responsibility to share their religious beliefs about Christ with non-Christians; believing that Satan exists; believing that eternal salvation is possible only through grace, not works; believing that Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth; asserting that the Bible is accurate in all that it teaches; and describing God as the all-knowing, all-powerful, perfect deity who created the universe and still rules it today. Being classified as an evangelical is not dependent upon church attendance or the denominational affiliation of the church attended. Respondents were not asked to describe themselves as "evangelical."
The Barna Group, Ltd. (which includes its research division, The Barna Research Group) is a privately held, for-profit corporation that conducts primary research, produces media resources pertaining to spiritual development, and facilitates the healthy spiritual growth of leaders, children, families and Christian ministries. Located in Ventura, California, Barna has been conducting and analyzing primary research to understand cultural trends related to values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors since 1984. If you would like to receive free e-mail notification of the release of each new, bi-monthly update on the latest research findings from The Barna Group, you may subscribe to this free service at the Barna website www.barna.org © The Barna Group, Ltd, 2006.
House Churches Are More Satisfying to Attenders Than Are Conventional Churches
January 8, 2007
(Ventura, CA) - With the growth of house churches across the country, a new study by The Barna Group sheds light on how these independent, non-denominational churches operate.
Levels of Satisfaction
Perhaps the most compelling insight from the national study was an evaluation of the levels of satisfaction of those who attend a house church compared with the views of adults who attend a conventional local church. Four aspects of people's church experience were gauged. Overall, people attending a house church were significantly more likely to be "completely satisfied" with their experience in each of the four dimensions examined.
Two-thirds of house church attenders (68%) were "completely satisfied" with the leadership of their church, compared to only half of those attending a conventional church (49%).
Two-thirds of the house church adherents (66%) were "completely satisfied" with the faith commitment of the people involved in their gathering. In contrast, only four out of ten people attending a conventional church (40%) were similarly satisfied with the faith commitment of the people in their congregation.
Three out of five house church adults (61%) were "completely satisfied" with the level of community and personal connectedness they experience, compared to only two out of five adults who are involved in a conventional church (41%).
A majority of those in a house (59%) said they were "completely satisfied" with the spiritual depth they experience in their house church setting. In contrast, a minority of the adults involved in a conventional church were "completely satisfied" (46%).
The Nature of the Gatherings
The nationwide research also provided a unique profile of what takes place in the typical house church, and who is involved.
Most house churches (80%) meet every week, while 11% meet on a monthly basis. The most common meeting days are Wednesday (27%) and Sunday (25%), while one out of every five (20%) varies the days of the week on which they meet.
The typical house church gathering lasts for about two hours. Only 7% meet for less than an hour, on average, while only 9% usually stay together for more than three hours at a time.
While most conventional churches follow the same format week after week, four of every ten house churches (38%) say that the format they follow varies from meeting to meeting. The proportion of home gatherings that typically engage in spiritual practices include:
93% have spoken prayer during their meetings
90% read from the Bible
89% spend time serving people outside of their group
87% devote time to sharing personal needs or experiences
85% spend time eating and talking before or after the meeting
83% discuss the teaching provided
76% have a formal teaching time
70% incorporate music or singing
58% have a prophecy or special word delivered
52% take an offering from participants that is given to ministries
51% share communion
41% watch a video presentation as part of the learning experience
Most house churches are family-oriented. Two out of every three house churches (64%) have children involved. Those churches are divided evenly between those who have the adults and children together throughout the meeting (41%) and those who keep them separated (38%). The remaining churches divide their time between having everyone together and having time when the children and adults are separated.
The Participants
The average size of a house church is 20 people; in the home churches that include children, there is an average of about seven children under the age of 18 involved. The rapid growth in house church activity is evident in the fact that half of the people (54%) currently engaged in an independent home fellowship have been participating for less than three months. In total, three out of every four house church participants (75%) have been active in their current gathering for a year or less. One out of every five adults has been in their house church for three years or more.
The research found that there are two types of people being attracted to house churches. The older participants, largely drawn from the Boomer population, are devout Christians who are seeking a deeper and more intense experience with God and other believers. The other substantial segment is young adults who are interested in faith and spirituality but have little interest in the traditional forms of church. Their quest is largely one of escaping outdated structures and institutions.
Still in Process
The survey also indicated that there is likely to be more change in the house church environment in the years to come. The ideas of worshipping in homes rather than church buildings, and being led by group members rather than religious professionals, are new to most Americans. The survey suggested that many people are just beginning to think about, and get comfortable with, the idea of homes being the dominant place for shared faith experiences.
Currently, just four out of every ten regular house church attenders (42%) rely exclusively upon a house church as their primary "church" experience. Many of the others - including a large proportion that has been involved for just a few months - are checking out the approach before they shift their allegiance from a conventional to a house church - if they make the shift at all.
Another indication of the nascent state of the house church movement in the U.S. is people’s perception regarding the biblical grounds for meeting in homes. Among adults who consider themselves to be Christian and who do not attend a house church, six out of ten (57%) believe that attending a house church instead of a conventional church satisfies the biblical command to be part of a spiritual community that follows Jesus Christ. Overall, just one out of five conventionally-churched adults (19%) dismissed the house church approach as unbiblical.
Changing the Church
George Barna, who directed the study, said that the results indicate that the biggest obstacle to the growth of the house church movement is not theological but cultural.
"Americans are emotionally open to belonging to a house church, and surprisingly few have any real objections to others joining such a community of faith," explained the author of three-dozen books on faith in America. "But the main deterrent to house church growth is that most people are spiritually complacent; they are not looking to upgrade their spiritual experience. Compared to conventional church attenders, house church adherents are much more likely to say that they have experienced faith-driven transformation, to prioritize their relationship with God, and to desire a more fulfilling community of faith.
"Those who attend a conventional church are generally content to show up and accept whatever their church has on the agenda; they place the responsibility for their spiritual growth on the shoulders of the church," according to Barna. "We found that most conventional church goers have no desire to help improve their congregation’s ministry, nor do they feel a need to increase their personal spiritual responsibility.
"On the other hand," he continued, "the intimacy and shared responsibility found in most house churches requires each participant to be more serious about their faith development. Clearly, the house church experience is not for everyone."
Research Details
The data in this report are from a pair of national surveys conducted by The Barna Group with a random sample of adults, age 18 and older, conducted in August and October 2006. In total, 2008 adults were interviewed. The maximum margin of sampling error associated with the aggregate sample is ±2.2 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. Statistical weighting was used to calibrate the aggregate sample to known population percentages in relation to demographic variables.
In these surveys, a house church was described as "a group of believers that meets regularly in a home or place other than a church building. These groups are not part of a typical church; they meet independently, are self-governed and consider themselves to be a complete church on their own... (They are) sometimes known as a house church or simple church, (and are) not associated in any way with a local, congregational type of church."
The Barna Group, Ltd. (which includes its research division, The Barna Research Group) conducts primary research, produces media resources pertaining to spiritual development, and facilitates the healthy spiritual growth of leaders, children, families and Christian ministries. Located in Ventura, California, Barna has been conducting and analyzing primary research to understand cultural trends related to values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors since 1984. If you would like to receive free e-mail notification of the release of each new, bi-monthly update on the latest research findings from The Barna Group, you may subscribe to this free service at the Barna website www.barna.org
© The Barna Group, Ltd, 2007.
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I pray for all those who daring enough to step out in faith and in the tradition as laid down by Christ and the Apostles, to the move they have made to house churches, and that they may grow into the fullness and maturity of Christ and we will see and explosion of Christian testimony, outside of Western ideals and Western materialism that will shake this world and turn it upside down for Jesus!
Dr. J.
What Barna has stumbled on in his research, is what I believe God is doing. God is bringing His people out of conventional church that has largely not changed in 1900 years back to the root of Apostolic tradition and away from the traditions of men.
What Jesus established was rooted in the house church and did not change for almost 300 years. However, church history shows that as the Apostles passed away, the emerging institutions were beginning to form with writings for example by Origen and other self appointed people of importance with the movement of Christianity. The multiplicity of elders in the house church, and the priesthood of all believers, with Christ as the only true Shepard and Pastor of the "called out ones", soon developed into the aristocracy of the single Bishop rule. Origen being one of the leading fathers of the basis upon which all Catholicism put it's foundation in. The same roots that the Protestant church never let go of, accepting easily the traditions of men and teaching of men over that of Christ and the Apostles.
What is emerging is the "real move" of the Holy Spirit. God no longer wants babies, he wants us to grow up into the full maturity of our priesthood as believers and no longer be observers but participants. The House Church movement in America is a move of God to do just that. To return to what Jesus set forth rather than the aristocracy and hierarchy of men established institutions, disguising themselves as the church, when all this time the real Ekklesia has been in the process of slowly being taught by the Spirit the truth of worship, discipleship, relationship, testimony, daily life evangelism and Holy Spirit enacted gifts and administrations for the body to grow.
The House church will be the break through for a revivaland the last revival where beleivers will no be longer babies blown by every wind of doctrine, but will become the true church of Christ before He returns. In America it will be overseen by Christ and not the men with the most money or power.
It will be a revolution, the radical restoration I pray for everyday of all believers that love Jesus Christ, that they will for once in their lives discover the mystery hidden for all ages, Christ in you the hope of the glory.
I want to quote below directly from www.barna.org two articles I found there.
I would like to thank Brother Leon Wallace, the pastor of Faith Church of Athens, who though we may differ in our views, he is a friend and a brother in Christ. Brother Wallace is open to hearing me, though, he, I assurdely know, doesn't accept my viewpoints readily, as he is still locked into the institution it's practices and it's ways. He and I have found some common grounds in other viewpoints on varying things. He and his wife, Donna and their children are a lovely family and I pray for them daily, as I hope they do I.
I love them and I give him credit for his open mindness and heart to listen and to read my writings and "rantings" anyway on this blog.
Brother Wallace referred me to Barna in telephone conversation the other day. I went to Barna's web site and found two significant articles there, I wanted to reprint here for your reading.
So I quote the two articles he referred me to below.
House Church Involvement Is Growing
June 19, 2006
(Ventura, CA) - Americans are increasingly designing their lifestyles in ways that meet their needs more efficiently. This is true even in the spiritual realm, as evidenced by the rapid growth of participation in house churches across the nation. Whereas most people continue to think of "going to church" as attending a service at one of the many church buildings located throughout their community, a new study from The Barna Group shows that millions of adults are trying out new forms of spiritual community and worship, with many abandoning the traditional forms altogether.
Large Numbers Attend
The new study, based on interviews with more than five thousand randomly selected adults from across the nation, found that 9% of adults attend a house church during a typical week. That is remarkable growth in the past decade, shooting up from just 1% to near double-digit involvement. In total, one out of five adults attends a house church at least once a month.
Projecting these figures to the national population gives an estimate of more than 70 million adults who have at least experimented with house church participation. In a typical week roughly 20 million adults attend a house church gathering. Over the course of a typical month, that number doubles to about 43 million adults.
While many religious professionals say they are unaware of such activity, it might be because the house church is in its "ramp up" phase in the U.S. One consequence is that millions of Americans are intermittently engaged in a house church, alternating back and forth between house church and conventional church. (For clarity, the survey distinguished between involvement in a house church and participation in a small group that is associated with a conventional church.) The Barna survey revealed that of those who attend a house church, 27% attend on a weekly basis, 30% attend one to three times per month, and 43% attend less than once a month.
One Foot in Each Camp
The study also discovered that church attendance patterns are being reshaped. Among those who attend a church of some type, 74% attend only a conventional church while just 5% attend only a house church. Another one-fifth (19%) attend both a house church and a conventional church. (The other 2% attend a small group that was not considered to be a house church.)
The people most likely to attend only a conventional church were women, people 60 or older, residents of the Midwest, and evangelicals. In contrast, the people most likely to attend a house church but not a conventional church were men, home-school families, residents of the West, and non-whites.
The Impact of the House Church
The study was directed by George Barna, whose current best-selling book, entitled Revolution, estimates that this trend will continue over the next two decades, substantially reducing the share of adults who call a conventional church their primary spiritual community.
“The house church now appears to have reached ‘critical mass’ in the United States," commented Barna. "Analysts typically find that once a new tool or institution reaches 15% market penetration, and has evidenced a consistent or growing level of affirmation for at least six years, that entity shifts from fad to trend status. At that point, it becomes a permanent fixture in our society. Today, house churches are moving from the appraisal phase into the acceptance phase. We anticipate house church attendance during any given week to double in the coming decade, and a growing proportion of house church attenders to adopt the house church as their primary faith community. That continued growth and public awareness will firmly establish the house church as a significant means of faith experience and expression among Americans."
To read more about alternative forms of spiritual experience and expression, such as the house church, see George Barna’s book, Revolution.
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Barna noted that this change is already reorienting the nation’s faith dimension. "By necessity, the transition from a nation exclusively offering a conventional church experience to one that offers a choice between conventional church and other forms of spiritual experience is changing the rules and roles. New leaders are emerging to represent and guide house churches -people whose names are unfamiliar to the bulk of the country, but whose ministries will become more mainstream and well-known as time goes on. A new body of spiritual resources is being developed and utilized by the expanding house church community. House church adherents make greater use of Christian radio, Christian books and online faith experiences than do people engaged solely in a conventional church. In addition, new patterns of faith participation are being implemented. The traditional ways of thinking about and experiencing ‘church’ are rapidly being revolutionized by a form of ‘religious choice’ in which people are taking greater personal responsibility for their spiritual experience and development."
Research Details
The data in this report are based on interviews with 5013 adults from across the nation. The Barna Group conducted this study through the use of telephone surveys, implemented from January 2005 through May 2006, based upon a random sample of people 18 years of age and older living within the 48 continental states. The maximum margin of sampling error associated with the aggregate sample of adults is ±1.8 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. In the research, the distribution of survey respondents corresponded to the geographic dispersion of the U.S. population. Multiple callbacks were used to increase the probability of including a reliable distribution of qualified individuals. Statistical weighting was used to calibrate the aggregate sample to known population percentages. The number of adults in key subgroups, before statistical weighting, included 446 evangelicals, 2343 born again Christians, 663 blacks, 631 Hispanics, 1608 conservatives and 676 liberals.
“Born again Christians" are defined as people who said they have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in their life today and who also indicated they believe that when they die they will go to Heaven because they had confessed their sins and had accepted Jesus Christ as their savior. Respondents are not asked to describe themselves as "born again."
“Evangelicals" meet the born again criteria (described above) plus seven other conditions. Those include saying their faith is very important in their life today; believing they have a personal responsibility to share their religious beliefs about Christ with non-Christians; believing that Satan exists; believing that eternal salvation is possible only through grace, not works; believing that Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth; asserting that the Bible is accurate in all that it teaches; and describing God as the all-knowing, all-powerful, perfect deity who created the universe and still rules it today. Being classified as an evangelical is not dependent upon church attendance or the denominational affiliation of the church attended. Respondents were not asked to describe themselves as "evangelical."
The Barna Group, Ltd. (which includes its research division, The Barna Research Group) is a privately held, for-profit corporation that conducts primary research, produces media resources pertaining to spiritual development, and facilitates the healthy spiritual growth of leaders, children, families and Christian ministries. Located in Ventura, California, Barna has been conducting and analyzing primary research to understand cultural trends related to values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors since 1984. If you would like to receive free e-mail notification of the release of each new, bi-monthly update on the latest research findings from The Barna Group, you may subscribe to this free service at the Barna website www.barna.org © The Barna Group, Ltd, 2006.
House Churches Are More Satisfying to Attenders Than Are Conventional Churches
January 8, 2007
(Ventura, CA) - With the growth of house churches across the country, a new study by The Barna Group sheds light on how these independent, non-denominational churches operate.
Levels of Satisfaction
Perhaps the most compelling insight from the national study was an evaluation of the levels of satisfaction of those who attend a house church compared with the views of adults who attend a conventional local church. Four aspects of people's church experience were gauged. Overall, people attending a house church were significantly more likely to be "completely satisfied" with their experience in each of the four dimensions examined.
Two-thirds of house church attenders (68%) were "completely satisfied" with the leadership of their church, compared to only half of those attending a conventional church (49%).
Two-thirds of the house church adherents (66%) were "completely satisfied" with the faith commitment of the people involved in their gathering. In contrast, only four out of ten people attending a conventional church (40%) were similarly satisfied with the faith commitment of the people in their congregation.
Three out of five house church adults (61%) were "completely satisfied" with the level of community and personal connectedness they experience, compared to only two out of five adults who are involved in a conventional church (41%).
A majority of those in a house (59%) said they were "completely satisfied" with the spiritual depth they experience in their house church setting. In contrast, a minority of the adults involved in a conventional church were "completely satisfied" (46%).
The Nature of the Gatherings
The nationwide research also provided a unique profile of what takes place in the typical house church, and who is involved.
Most house churches (80%) meet every week, while 11% meet on a monthly basis. The most common meeting days are Wednesday (27%) and Sunday (25%), while one out of every five (20%) varies the days of the week on which they meet.
The typical house church gathering lasts for about two hours. Only 7% meet for less than an hour, on average, while only 9% usually stay together for more than three hours at a time.
While most conventional churches follow the same format week after week, four of every ten house churches (38%) say that the format they follow varies from meeting to meeting. The proportion of home gatherings that typically engage in spiritual practices include:
93% have spoken prayer during their meetings
90% read from the Bible
89% spend time serving people outside of their group
87% devote time to sharing personal needs or experiences
85% spend time eating and talking before or after the meeting
83% discuss the teaching provided
76% have a formal teaching time
70% incorporate music or singing
58% have a prophecy or special word delivered
52% take an offering from participants that is given to ministries
51% share communion
41% watch a video presentation as part of the learning experience
Most house churches are family-oriented. Two out of every three house churches (64%) have children involved. Those churches are divided evenly between those who have the adults and children together throughout the meeting (41%) and those who keep them separated (38%). The remaining churches divide their time between having everyone together and having time when the children and adults are separated.
The Participants
The average size of a house church is 20 people; in the home churches that include children, there is an average of about seven children under the age of 18 involved. The rapid growth in house church activity is evident in the fact that half of the people (54%) currently engaged in an independent home fellowship have been participating for less than three months. In total, three out of every four house church participants (75%) have been active in their current gathering for a year or less. One out of every five adults has been in their house church for three years or more.
The research found that there are two types of people being attracted to house churches. The older participants, largely drawn from the Boomer population, are devout Christians who are seeking a deeper and more intense experience with God and other believers. The other substantial segment is young adults who are interested in faith and spirituality but have little interest in the traditional forms of church. Their quest is largely one of escaping outdated structures and institutions.
Still in Process
The survey also indicated that there is likely to be more change in the house church environment in the years to come. The ideas of worshipping in homes rather than church buildings, and being led by group members rather than religious professionals, are new to most Americans. The survey suggested that many people are just beginning to think about, and get comfortable with, the idea of homes being the dominant place for shared faith experiences.
Currently, just four out of every ten regular house church attenders (42%) rely exclusively upon a house church as their primary "church" experience. Many of the others - including a large proportion that has been involved for just a few months - are checking out the approach before they shift their allegiance from a conventional to a house church - if they make the shift at all.
Another indication of the nascent state of the house church movement in the U.S. is people’s perception regarding the biblical grounds for meeting in homes. Among adults who consider themselves to be Christian and who do not attend a house church, six out of ten (57%) believe that attending a house church instead of a conventional church satisfies the biblical command to be part of a spiritual community that follows Jesus Christ. Overall, just one out of five conventionally-churched adults (19%) dismissed the house church approach as unbiblical.
Changing the Church
George Barna, who directed the study, said that the results indicate that the biggest obstacle to the growth of the house church movement is not theological but cultural.
"Americans are emotionally open to belonging to a house church, and surprisingly few have any real objections to others joining such a community of faith," explained the author of three-dozen books on faith in America. "But the main deterrent to house church growth is that most people are spiritually complacent; they are not looking to upgrade their spiritual experience. Compared to conventional church attenders, house church adherents are much more likely to say that they have experienced faith-driven transformation, to prioritize their relationship with God, and to desire a more fulfilling community of faith.
"Those who attend a conventional church are generally content to show up and accept whatever their church has on the agenda; they place the responsibility for their spiritual growth on the shoulders of the church," according to Barna. "We found that most conventional church goers have no desire to help improve their congregation’s ministry, nor do they feel a need to increase their personal spiritual responsibility.
"On the other hand," he continued, "the intimacy and shared responsibility found in most house churches requires each participant to be more serious about their faith development. Clearly, the house church experience is not for everyone."
Research Details
The data in this report are from a pair of national surveys conducted by The Barna Group with a random sample of adults, age 18 and older, conducted in August and October 2006. In total, 2008 adults were interviewed. The maximum margin of sampling error associated with the aggregate sample is ±2.2 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. Statistical weighting was used to calibrate the aggregate sample to known population percentages in relation to demographic variables.
In these surveys, a house church was described as "a group of believers that meets regularly in a home or place other than a church building. These groups are not part of a typical church; they meet independently, are self-governed and consider themselves to be a complete church on their own... (They are) sometimes known as a house church or simple church, (and are) not associated in any way with a local, congregational type of church."
The Barna Group, Ltd. (which includes its research division, The Barna Research Group) conducts primary research, produces media resources pertaining to spiritual development, and facilitates the healthy spiritual growth of leaders, children, families and Christian ministries. Located in Ventura, California, Barna has been conducting and analyzing primary research to understand cultural trends related to values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors since 1984. If you would like to receive free e-mail notification of the release of each new, bi-monthly update on the latest research findings from The Barna Group, you may subscribe to this free service at the Barna website www.barna.org
© The Barna Group, Ltd, 2007.
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I pray for all those who daring enough to step out in faith and in the tradition as laid down by Christ and the Apostles, to the move they have made to house churches, and that they may grow into the fullness and maturity of Christ and we will see and explosion of Christian testimony, outside of Western ideals and Western materialism that will shake this world and turn it upside down for Jesus!
Dr. J.
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