What Does It Mean To Be A Kingdom Outpost?

The church I call home for Sunday morning worship is a net.  The accepted means in Western culture to draw people to a relationship with God.  Good messages, good music, uplifting and encouraging.  Until you get to know people--- to become known and knowing others in a more intimate way- praying together, learning together and sharing our lives, giving of ourselves---it's just seems to be a free show you attend once a week.  For many who call themselves Christians this is the way they understand church.

In a conversation with another believer the term Kingdom Outpost came up.  Our tribe is a satellite location of a larger congregation.  We are a part but separate.  We have our own personality, we will never be a cookie cutter copy of the Big Church, nor would we want to.  Although they have many resources which we can utilize and they support us financially, we are different.  We aren't a microcosm, we are an appendage.

To be an outpost of the Kingdom is to accept the form of the gifts and graces that God has provided in your gathering of believers.  Not every "church" is the same.  Not every outpost has the same needs or the same flavor.  This group may have a heart for missions, this group might not have designs on bible study and growth for adults, this group may have everything that we define as a church except no children's ministry.  This one exists for prayer and worship.  In the Kingdom, we have no cookie cutter definition of "church".  We meet, we learn each other's gifts (no surveys needed- we do life together and the gifts become evident) and leaders rise to the top because the Holy Spirit makes it obvious.  There is fruit we bear, not titles we hold.  An outpost does not require a name, or a building to define it.

So it is with small groups of believers meeting in homes- you have an organic expression of the church of Acts without the persecution (so far) and it is not any more complete than it's members give what God has given them to the fellowship.

Our net has a few perceived holes in it- we don't have a youth ministry, we don't have a place to do a free-store yet.  Our Big Church has these things in spades.  I would say that when the opportunities line up with the gifts and desires, these things will come to be, until then we should follow the direction our present gifts lead us and leave the other things be.

I have a friend in a nearby city who has turned his home into a House of Prayer they have a wall on their front porch covered with prayer requests, people stop by and can get prayer 24/7 or just leave a note pinned to the wall.  There is a sign in the front lawn.  That is all he does.  Prayer.  Yet what a great thing to be this kind of Outpost.  Apparently, there is a great need and he is being obedient.

Other friends do free marriage counseling, host bible studies, house recovering drug and alcoholic abusers, teach financial management, provide child care to single moms.  These things are all Kingdom Outposts- ministries in homes- small groups of believers connecting in meaningful ways.  We are pioneers of a different sort.

The Way is a Small Group Movement

The movement began as persecuted believers gathered secretly in homes.  They were eyewitnesses of Jesus himself and as the word spread those added had at least met an apostle who had firsthand seen Jesus.  Practicing faith under persecution adds a whole new level of believability to a testimony.  To risk one's life to propagate a lie is preposterous.  It is just not believable that the disciples might have stolen the body of Jesus and then proceeded to concoct a story of his raising from the dead and appearing to so many.  Then to drag that lie out until they were killed for it?  No, they saw what they saw.

The Way was meant to be small bands of believers gathering in houses.  Avoiding the spotlight, radically committed to one another, seeking the Holy Spirit empowering them daily.  They threw in their lots together: that is truly seeking first the Kingdom of God.  They shared meals and fellowship in the Word -the Holy Spirit was their teacher- they "had everything in common".

There was no Big Church, no professional trained ministry, the priesthood of believers was established when Jesus died and the curtain in the temple was torn in two.  No more middle-man was needed to approach God.  As Paul wrote later, we have a great high priest in Jesus who mediated for us once and for all.

No, this community of underground believers existed in a hostile environment.  We are the spiritual offspring of Messianic Jews, who stood to be cast out of their temples, beaten, stoned, killed in public as heretics - all quite legally.  False testimony arose over their beliefs- communion became cannibalism, love feasts became orgies, speaking in tongues became drunkenness, resurrection talk was considered insurrection.  Surely if there had been a written new testament it would have been labeled hate speech and it's followers considered terrorists and an insurrection threat both in Israel and Rome.

We see Christians today in the middle east decapitated by enemies of The Way.  We feel the boot and the hand closing around our necks even in the Land of the Free telling us what we can believe and what we can say and think about moral issues.  I believe we will soon learn whether or not we would have had the courage to exist as an underground group of radically committed believers meeting in homes, persecuted and hated by society.

For this reason, small bands of believers gathering in homes needs to become The Way again, across every land, we must become a tribe able to scatter without being destroyed.

Longevity is the Key to Community

Two qualities any attempt to serve God and others requires: faithfulness and commitment.  Our ideas of success are not the same as God's, God's definition includes consistency and persistence.    God uses time to create, influence and mature us and ministry belongs to the Holy Spirit, not on a title or business card.  Leadership is not something we claim, it is bestowed by the fruitful use of spiritual gifts.  Real leaders rise to the top like cream separates from milk or silver from dross. The task given is just that, it is not a job, position, or man-given authority that makes a person a leader in God's economy.  We can't camp out and rest in an identity that comes from work but only that which is given us to do today.  We are more than the tasks we do, more than the means to make a living, even more than a title or identity based on our work.  We are defined by what God says about us and how we yield to him in the present moment.  The present moment being all we have to give God.  If God is Lord of our life at all he is Lord of Right Now.

As Eugene Peterson says, life is the "long journey in the same direction".  It is the narrow road and the cross we must bear.  Whether we carry that cross trekking across the country or in short daily walks to work, school, through home, the local gym, through traffic or our community - Our faithfulness and commitment to place one foot in front of another in a forward effort is what shows your love for God and people.  Not what you did yesterday or last year.  Don't let yourself get stuck or stagnant.  Don't be afraid or impatient.  God who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it.  He is working out all things for those who are called according to his purpose so that in him we might know the fullness of his riches.

Never give up, never quit.  Keep on working until the end.

First Connections

I have a passion for small communities of faith.  Connections that ground us.  Relationships that enrich us.  Kinships.  Families.  Cell groups.  Home churches.  More than a homegrown Sunday school class.  It is the body life that recalls the early church.  Church without the institutional trappings.  Outposts of faith in unsuspected places.  Shared life.

Community means "common unity".  That is, we know and are known by others and we have a thread which weaves us together.  Personally, I have been involved in dozens of small groups and have discovered rich experiences of grace, mercy, love and encouragement.  Vital in learning to serving others and full to the brim with opportunities for personal growth.  Belonging and interacting (even through difficult times) has been the touchstone where God has met and spoke to us through ordinary people and everyday circumstances.  As small groups grow, change and mature we experience bearing one another's burdens, grieving, people moving on and new people integrating into our family.

Making connections that last requires a level of surrender and commitment that is essential for discipleship.   Getting a society that values independence to embrace such an intimate personal tie is like herding cats.  I want as many other Christians to experience that as well, it is the point where we stop drinking milk and begin to eat meat, as Paul says.

I am developing this blog as a means to walk with others and encourage small group ministries everywhere.