Peter J Farmer

For a number of years now I’ve made it a regular practice to spend most Monday’s in study, meditation and fasting…

I set aside the day to day humdrum details of life and wait to be inspired by the Big Picture…opening up space to dream, to think outside the box…to create…to receive visions of things that are greater than myself and things to come in the future.

Some of this time is spent reading new books, some of the time in prayer, some of the time writing ideas that come to me down in my journals and all of the day fasting.

(Since marrying my wonderful wife and having 3 kids, my Monday mornings are now spent in Asda…however…because my wife prefers to do the shopping by herself and at her own pace, I still get to sit in the cafe and dream while she looks after the details!)

Over the years God has used this time to speak to me, or maybe a better way of putting it is, I have been able to hear God because I have slowed down and made the space to listen

Pascal says this: ‘I have discovered that all the unhappiness of men arises from one single fact, that they are unable to stay quietly in their own room’

I would add to this and say: ‘the unhappiness of men and women is down to a perceived loss of meaning….a lack of purpose…a feeling that life is passing us by, a general confusion or that the things we long to do we are too busy to do…’

We have forgotten how to be still, to hear, to receive spiritual direction, to listen to our own hearts and desires…

Fasting is another ancient practice…in a similar way to being still and meditating, fasting dials down the every day habits (of eating) and enables us to be more in tune with our spirit and the Spirit of God…it somehow gives us clarity

I began regular fasting around 2003 and have received new instructions, directions and what some might call ‘revelations’…insights that go beyond the kind of thoughts I get on a ‘normal’ day of eating. (I will write more about fasting in a future post)

When it comes to study, I never get tired of this…I devour books and new ideas! I am always eager to learn and so regularly sit in my local Waterstones bookstore browsing through the various departments searching for new sources of inspiration. King Solomon, one of the wisest men to ever walk the earth says ‘Intelligent people are always open to new ideas. In fact, they look for them.’ (Proverbs 18:15)

I also find inspiration and direction through one of the most ancient books in the world; the Bible. On days set aside for fasting and meditation, thoughts and new ideas almost seem to leap out of its pages. I find myself drawing new connections between different passages I read and sometimes the voice of God speaking to me is so clear I come away renewed with a new sense of what is possible!

Charles Johnson said this in his book about Martin Luther King Jr: ‘After his trip to India he’d vowed to set aside one day a week for fasting and meditation, and to spend more time in study – he was certain he needed these things to be a better leader.’

Throughout history, great leaders including Jesus, Gandhi and Martin Luther King have set aside regular times of fasting, meditation and study…

To turn the world upside down and change the course of history nothing less will do…

What will you set aside in order to change the world?

(If this article has inspired you or you have stories to share about your journeys into fasting, meditation and study please leave a comment, contact me or share this with others)

It hit me recently…it’s been over 10 years since I began my first journal…

9th May 2001 to be exact…that was my first entry into what I entitled at the time: ‘Quiet Time Journal 1′

A few months before this, God had been gently nudging me to begin waking up early (7 am was early for me then as a 21 year old young man! Before this I was probably getting up around 9am!) to spend time with him…when I finally got round to doing this (I think it took me about 8 months to obey) I started to hear Him speak to me. What I heard I wrote down in my first journal (and have been doing so ever since…)

Now, please understand…this was not just a slight improvement in my ability to hear God and spiritual things…it was like a tidal wave!

I would read the Bible and write down what I felt God was saying to me through it, amazingly it was like things were jumping out at me from the pages of the Bible. Suddenly I could hear God…I mean…really hear God for myself! (well mostly…I was still very new to this and some times heard things that were quite frankly not God at all, sometimes these were my own ideas or desires and occasionally, maybe even demonically inspired…but over time the voice of God became clearer through practice and by getting to know Him better!)

Another aspect of the journalling process was that I began to write down (very) personal things going on in my life...how I felt about circumstances at the time and people (particularly girls) and also what I felt God was teaching me through it all. My journals chronicle my relationships, my bouts of depression, the people who hated my guts, the people in my life that I spent most time with and the persecution I often got from the ‘religious establishment’ (and still do…although to a lesser extent). It’s amazing to see what God brings you through over the years, how He heals the emotions and strengthens character!

The journals are also littered with ideas; creative ideas for projects, artwork, performances, mission, church, youth work and so on. I began to write quotes from books I was reading at the time and have included Bibliographies at the back of each journal…

Many people have ideas and then forget all about them. The beauty of journalling is that your ideas stay with you! They also grow…it’s almost magical, looking back through journals and seeing how an idea came as a seed, maybe an acorn, and over the progression of time, how the idea took on wings and flew! Everything you read adds to this idea, the people you meet contribute in some way, the prayers you pray, and, the more you hear from God the more the idea just develops a life of it’s own. At the time you think everything is going so slowly, but looking back over journals over the years you can actually see the patterns so clearly emerging!

People ask me, ‘How comes you are so focused! How is it that you are so clear about what God has called you to do in life?’

I don’t know the answer fully, but what I do know is this…ever since I started spending the first part of every day listening and obeying God I have grown to know his voice.

Journalling has helped me to capture everything God has said to me, the things I have been inspired to read, the ideas I have had, the prophetic words and dreams others have given to me

Every year I read back through the years worth of journals (averaging between 7-10 books). I reflect on what has happened. And with God, I set goals for the New Year…all of this is recorded…

I can guarantee you this…if you do this yourself…you will also be focused and will have more of a clear idea of God’s purpose for your life! You will also be able to discern more clearly the journey you are on!

Since starting my first journal back in May 2001 I have written 82 journals covering the last 10 years….there’s now no going back!

Have you got any journal stories to share?

Has this inspired you?

Please let me know!

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‘There is nothing more difficult to execute, nor more dubious of success, nor more dangerous to administer than to introduce a new system of things, for he who introduces it has all those who profit from the old system as his enemies and he has only luke-warm allies in all those who profit from the new system’ – Machiavelli

It’s six o’clock. Work is done, but the day is not over yet. For within an hour you’ll be sitting at the kitchen table with some friends. That’s what you do every week. Sometimes at your house, sometimes at a friend’s. It is the best evening of the week. The meal is always simple but delicious. The best part of it is that you eat together with your friends. Fortunately it’s not always you who has to do the cooking. Most of the time they all bring something to put on the table. Or somebody comes to help with the cooking. Tonight it will be soup with fresh bread.

This meal is different from the other meals of the week. Not only because you are together with friends, but also because every week during the meal somebody breaks the bread and passes around the cup
with some wine in it. There is always somebody who wants to give thanks for that. Sometimes somebody has a word from the Scriptures to remind you all of what Jesus has done for you.

Then there is a lot of chatting and laughter. Meanwhile some helping hands clean the table and make coffee. When everybody is back at the table again you are always curious what will happen this time. There is no plan or a prepared program. And nobody who takes a lead. For every week when you come together like this, everybody has something to share. Maybe what they have read in the Scriptures or what someone has experienced with the Lord. An answer to prayer,
a blessing, a problem. And it’s always amazing how the others add something to what is shared, by reacting with a prayer, an encouraging text, a song or whatever. It’s never the same. And so God can lead your group in the direction that He finds important for you as a group.

When somebody shares a problem, the others immediately ask if there’s something they can do to solve that problem. Maybe somebody tells that he has a transportation problem that coming week and somebody can lend him his car for a while. Maybe another person is in need of some tools to do some practical repair work at home. And when somebody doesn’t have enough money to pay a bill, there is always the will to help out. For the good thing is that your little housechurch doesn’t have to spend any money on a building or on a salary for a
leader. So, there’s always money available that can be used for a sudden need. That way you have a lot of practical things to share.

After about an hour of listening together to what the Lord had to say to the church, most of you stay to share more from their lives in personal
conversations, to play a game or watch a movie together. In the kitchen two ladies are talking together. In the garden some men have a great time together talking about what is on their hearts. They have come up with a plan to go and give some practical help to somebody in the neighborhood.It could be someone from the group itself or even one of their neighbors. One of you owns a good trailer and two weeks ago two of you helped somebody to take a lot of old stuff to the recycling centre. That neighbor asked what kind of group you were!

Of course you didn’t let that opportunity go to tell him that you are a small and simple housechurch that gathers weekly out of love for God and that at the same time wants to be a blessing to the neighborhood as well.

A few miles from your home there is another housechurch like yours. Every sixth week your group always visits that other housechurch on a Saturday afternoon. Or they come to your place. It doesn’t matter where, as long as the house has space enough for about twenty people. These times are always big parties. You eat, talk, sing, share the Lord’s Supper, read from the Scriptures and often the children have prepared something special like a song or a little drama, showing the adults what they learned from Gods Word and from their lives with Him.
Last week you invited a brother who shared some great teachings from the Word. Everybody went home encouraged.

And next week you will watch a good movie together. And next month the whole church will be out on a trip to the zoo and have pancakes afterwards!

Every week you always pray for those who do not know Jesus yet. An answer to those prayers came two weeks ago from the other housechurch. Some of the teenagers there had brought a friend from
school to their meeting. In class he had told his friend about their simple
housechurch meetings and immediately his friend said he would love to come and see that. So, this week he indeed came along. You thanked the Lord together for that great opportunity to show this guy that God’s church can function in a very organic and simple way and that this young guy heard the Gospel for the first time in his life.

Somebody came with a spontaneous idea to give the few teenagers from your two groups a chance to meet in one of the rooms upstairs and have a similar simple meeting as the ones they have been part of for some many times now. They could experiment with all the creativity they have. And if they would need help, they could always ask for that. Everybody liked the idea, especially the teenagers themselves!

And how are the children doing? There are only three in your housechurch now. A baby of only a few months old and two kids of six and eight years old. They love the singing and have no fear praying out loud with the adults. And of course they love eating with so many people around the table. One of you really has a gift of teaching important spiritual truths to the children in many creative ways.

It is amazing to see how much those kids have learned already from the Bible in a few weeks. It might be an idea, that when you will again will be together with the other housechurch, to ask the kids to play a little drama about somebody from the Bible and tell the parents and the others what they have learned from that person’s life.

Often it is great to see how quickly some of your housechurch friends have grown in their faith. Simply by coming together once a week as a group and also meeting informally during the week with others. It is mainly through personal contact that the younger Christians have learned so much in a short time. It is clear that this is because they found all the freedom and trust to discuss their personal questions with somebody else from the group or with the whole church during a meal or a walk. It is easy for these people to then start helping others who have similar questions.

A great illustration of how things function in your group is the story of a younger sister who often has a hard time at work. She works as a nurse in a hospital and she has a real desire to learn how to witness to the other staff and to the patients. But it is not easy. How do you do it? When she shared her desire and frustration during a meal together, immediately the two other sisters from the housechurch agreed with her to come together with her once a week to pray together for wisdom, opportunities to share her faith and boldness.

These hours have meant a great deal to her. She feels that she is no longer alone, knowing that her friends are praying for her while she is doing her daily job in the hospital. An answer to those prayers came when she met another nurse during her lunchbreak who told her she was a Christian as well. You can imagine how excited she was about that! The church even wondered if God wanted to start another church meeting of Christians in that hospital on a regular basis. They are praying about that!

Another ten minutes to go before your friends will come in. The table is set and there is no doubt that everyone will be thinking about what they will find on the table this time. But the greatest joy is always to meet each other again. When you first started these meetings, things didn’t go so smoothly! But over time everybody has realized that coming together is not for being fed – but to feed others. So now there is always enough real food on the table and spiritual food shared around the table.

The greatest dream of your housechurch is that in your town at least ten of such housechurches might be born soon!

(Story by Alex Van Nes, working with simple churches in Belgium)

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This is an audio interview we made that introduces ‘Mission Britain’ and some of the Basics of Simple/Organic Church Life and Planting in the UK

LINK: http://traffic.libsyn.com/larneorganicgroup/Larne_Organic_Group_1.mp3

by VICTOR CHOUDHRIE

21 Steps to transit from being a barren church to a millionaire of souls.

1. Rewrite the job description of professional clergy from a pulpit orator, sacrament dispenser and tithe gatherer to a shepherd who feeds his flock to be healthy and reproducing by encouraging them to practice priesthood of all believers with authority to baptize, break bread and equip fishers of men. He must model a flat church structure where brothers and sisters submit to one another, pray one for another, serve one another, exhort, forgive and love each other. John 13:34, 35; Matt.18:21-22; Eph. 5:21

2. Move from meeting in temples to gathering in ‘houses of peace’.  ‘God does not dwell in temples made by human hands’; rather He dwells in human hearts. For we are the mobile walking and talking temples of the living God, with a maximum of organism and a minimum of organization.  Luke 10:5-9; Matt. 10:11-13; Acts 7:48-49; 2 Cor. 6:16

3. Phase out programmed Sunday ‘services’ while implementing informal, small gatherings. The Bride of Christ must have intimacy with her Lord every day, not only for a couple of hours a week, lest she become unfaithful. However, discourage cross-gender disciple-making, lest chemistry foul things up. Acts 2:46-47; Hebrew 3:13

4. Replace Mosaic tithing with Christian sharing, thereby harnessing the enormous, financial resources, hospitality and goodwill available in Christian homes. Believe that God is going to work a work among the nations through you which will leave you utterly amazed, and also provide resources for it. Deut. 8:17-18; Acts 5:32-34; Hab. 1:5

5. Dispense with wafer-and-sip Holy Communion services, and promote breaking of bread with simple Agape meals (love feasts) from house to house that believers take together with glad hearts, so the Lord can add to His numbers daily. Acts 2:46,47; 1 Cor.11:20-23

6. Replace professional music with believers speaking to each other in psalms and spiritual songs, making melody in their hearts to the Lord. OT worship required the sacrifice of four-footed beasts, the NT celebrates by offering two legged Gentiles as a living sacrifice. The meta church is a discipling hub and not a singing club. Eph 5:19; Col 3:16; Rom. 15:16

7.  Shift from spectator-oriented church to ‘metastasizing’ interactive, participatory, prophetic church. Empower men, women and youth, to get the dragon off the driver’s seat. We, the seed of Abraham are blessed, “with multiplying I will multiply you and your seed will possess the gates of the enemy”. 1 Cor.14:26-31; Acts 13:13;18:4; Gen. 22:17,18

8. For powerful synergy, metamorphose mega churches into city, regional and national, networks of ‘meta’ (beyond) churches. Instead of bringing everyone under one roof, have them gather under thousand roofs, just like the mega church at Jerusalem planted meta churches across Judea, Samaria, Antioch, Corinth, Rome and beyond (meta) that grew in faith and in numbers (both quality and quantity) daily. Romans 16:3-15; Acts 1:8; 16:5

9. Infect barren Bride with the multiplication virus. A healthy mature female (Bride) implies that she is ready to have babies. Rebecca the Bride of Isaac was blessed by her family to have millions of children. The time has come for the Bride of Christ to stretch her tent to the left and to the right and to the north and to the south and produce millions of meta churches and fill the earth. Gen. 24:60; Isa. 54:1-5; Acts 1: 8;

10. Know your identity in Christ: you are a royal-priest; made so by the blood of the Lamb. Dismantle ‘Reverend’ culture that divides clergy from layman. Like Melchizedek, the royal-priest of Salem (city of peace), who served bread and wine, took tithe and blessed Abraham, bring godly governance to your city. Catch the vision of cloning royal-priests for every city and run with it. 1Pet.2:9; Rev.5:10; Hab.2:1-3; Isa. 9:6-7; Gen. 14:18

11. Challenge purposeless churches to enunciate a clear vision and a road map to translate that vision into action plan to ‘do greater things than these’. Armed with maps, stats and the Great Commission, go two by two and teach divine arithmetic of planting just one multiplying church every month and in ten short months, even the least shall plant a thousand meta churches. John 14:12; Acts 16:5; Luke 10:1, 2; Isa 60:22

12. Unglue from the pews all those Christians who sit, soak and stagnate and send them to heal the sick, raise the dead, tread on snakes and scorpions (expel demons), bind the ‘strongman’, plunder his possessions and demolish the gates of Hell.  Matt 11:12; 12:29; 16:18,19; Mark 16:17-18; Luke 10:19

13. Resurrect from being a dead organization to a living organism. Eliminate all extra-biblical cosmetic titles like Director, Chairman, CEO, and Secretary, by appointing five-fold ministry-gifted Elders, like apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers, as equippers. By feeding, leading and keeping the flock healthy and reproductive, they must reach those who are outside the fold. Eph. 4:11; Tit.1:5-9; John 10:16

14. Empower every Sunday school, bible school, prayer cell, women’s fellowship, and cottage meeting, by calling them full-fledged, authentic churches. They must make disciples who baptize, break bread, equip laborers and send missionaries and like the school of Tyrannus, change spiritual demography. 1 Cor. 16:19; Col. 4:15; Acts 19:8-12

15. Filter out selfish-goat church members who come only for hatching (baby baptism), matching (wedding) and dispatching (funeral), and replace them with sheep who take care of the hungry, thirsty, naked, strangers, sick and prisoners. Culling the non-productive barren sheep is a very important principle of sheep rearing. God chose David to shepherd Israel because he took care of “ewes great with young”. Matt. 25:31-46; Psalm 78:70-72

16. Simplify disciple making. Get a Bible and invite a couple of truth-seekers for a meal where the main dish is – The Lamb. Redefine authentic church as wherever two or three friends meet to eat, gossip the gospel, and to multiply. Meta church is the most cost effective strategy for city penetration and reaching the ends of the earth. Acts 2:46-47

17. Substitute seminary training by sharing the whole wisdom of God from house to house. Sound doctrine is the ability to convince those who oppose. The lost of this world do not need scholars as much as they need spiritual fathers and mothers who bring many spiritual sons and daughters to glory.  Acts 20:20, 27; Tit. 1:9; 1Cor. 4:15; 2Tim. 2:2; Heb 2:10

18. Reorient your own personal paradigm. Your business, workplace or home, wherever you spend most of your time, is your ‘primary nuclear church’. It matters little whether you are the CEO, or the janitor or the kitchen queen, you are a full-time minister there and accountable. Adam and Eve were accountable for the Garden of Eden and failed.

19. Recognize ‘Hi, there,’ ‘Hello,’ handshaking, Sunday church as your ‘secondary optional church’. A church that does not send you out to ‘raise your holy hands to pray everywhere’ and equip you to make Christ ‘high and lifted up’ in your home, workplace and neighborhood is not worth going to. 1 Tim. 2:8; Isa. 6:1

20. Re-set your priorities to preach Christ where He has not been named. For this you do not have to go to church from Sunday to Sunday nor work from paycheck to paycheck. You are “ordained” to be fruitful, to multiply, and to fill your home/workplace/neighborhood and the city with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Matt. 6:33; Rom. 15:20; John 15:16; Gen. 1:28; Hab. 2:14

21. Adopt a ‘completion mindset’. Evaluate your ministry with the Great Commission as the mandate with the number of disciples made, baptized, equipped and sent out, as benchmarks. Aim to be a millionaire of souls. Why not?  After all, you claim to believe in a great and awesome God for whom nothing is impossible. At the very least, like Peter, shoot for 3000 baptisms by every Pentecost. Or like Paul, plant a multiplying church every day and claim that there are no more places left here for me to ‘fully preach the gospel’, not just with words, ‘but with signs and mighty deeds’. Acts 2:41; 16:5; Rom. 15:19, 23.

Shalom and Shalom again.

Email: greettheekklesia@gmail.com

Date: July 2010

*Victor Choudhrie is a cancer surgeon by profession. He is a Senior Fellow of the American and British Colleges of Surgeons. He left his position as Director and CEO of the Christian Medical college, Ludhiana, Punjab, India, in 1992, to take up a full-time Church planting ministry in central India. His wife, Bindu, is also in a full-time church planting ministry, equipping women to be house-church leaders and trainers. They now have disciples making disciples in some forty countries. Theirs is presently amongst the fastest growing movements deploying volunteers with no paid workers in the field. God has blessed this ministry abundantly. In the year from Pentecost 2009 to Pentecost 2010, over one million underwent a ‘holy dip’ through their ministry partners. Large numbers of grassroots level leaders have been trained, who, subsequently, have planted tens of thousands of house churches across India and abroad.

Books written by Victor Choudhrie include: The Ekklesia, the Church in your House; The Apostolic Gardens; The Prayer Warrior; Teaching Cards and From Mega Church to Meta (Beyond) Church soon to be published. Electronic copies are available on payment of US $10  via PayPal: vchoudhrie@gmail.com

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