Vespers - Brad

Morning Vespers – Brad
House Church Experience
Simple Churches or Organic Churches
Very fertile soil for disgruntled Christians who are soured on traditional
Most churches start in unbeliever’s homes or bars. The goal is to get off of Christians turf and into the unbelievers world.

Life Transformation Group: 30 Chapters of Scripture a week; Confession and Prayer.

Definition of Church: Starts with the presence of Jesus. Presence of Jesus among his people called out as a spiritual family to pursue his kingdom mission on this planet.

Intimate involvement by elders in gatherings

The DNA of the Church
Divine Truth
Nurturing Relationships
Apostolic Mission

1. Flexible and Fluid – not about the gatherings, but about life together.
A woman who leads an organic church feeds 600 people weekly out of her garage.
2. Jesus is the guest of honor.

Church planting Strategy: Preach peace in Dark place. All people are either moths or cockroaches. Draw moths, don’t chase cockroaches. When you find a moth, stay and plant a organic church.

Bad people make great soil for the Gospel. Good people make bad soil for the Gospel.

Mark 4 the Parable of the soils. They expect conversions. Where the King goes people bow. They expect that many will receive and follow. They invest in good soil: people who are in desperation and transformed by the Gospel. They don’t chase those of poor soil.

Brad and his wife spend 75% of his time with unbelievers. They look for bad people who are desparate for the Gospel.

Building leaders: a disciple-making movement. They ask leaders to find unbelievers and make disciples before they can start a house church.

Reproducible Tools:
Lectio Divina, praying through the Scriptures. Divine teaching, the spirit leads the room. They start with this and the miracle stories of John. They love the first miracle of water into wine. It explodes their understanding of Christ.

Pray

Take one minute of Silence

Read the Passage.
Mark 4:26-29 26 And He was saying, "The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil; 27 and goes to bed at night and gets up by day, and the seed sprouts up and grows-- how, he himself does not know. 28 "The soil produces crops by itself; first the blade, then the head, then the mature grain in the head. 29 "But when the crop permits, he immediately puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come."

Reflect on the passage

Someone else read the passage.

A word or phrase reflecting the passage to invite us in: I will use you to plant, power of the word; he doesn’t know how; he don’t need to watch it just let it roll; don’t worry or fret; all by itself; I expect the harvest, sensitivity to the Spirit, a watchful eye, partnership, our job is to sow, faithfulness to sow, out of nothing, plant where I send you, everything that’s growing is just a miracle, rest, his word will not return void, anticipation, confidence, kingdom growth not church growth, the harvest will come, not by might or power but by thy spirit, what happens is so simple and natural, in the kingdom of God, the Spirit, relaxed vigilance, seasonal, rhythm, it is not for you to know the time or the season, mystery; silent, nothing noisy; just because you don’t see it, doesn’t mean it’s not happening; look for the harvest of soft hearts; contrast between slow growth and immediate sickle; time of the harvest now or not yet; everything produces after this kind.

Someone else read the passage again.

Is there a word from the Lord or from your heart?

Ellis: I’m an old farm boy from Valdosta, GA. When you plant tobacco, you start with a bed that sprouts and then is moved to another field when it sprouts. Tobacco is a vulnerable plant: weeds, suckers. Suckers grow themselves between the leaf and the stalk. Suckers try to drain the nutrients. Suckers must be removed. Only then can you harvest. You must start with the bottom 3 leaves that grow in the mud. With the Gospel much must be done between planting and harvesting. Harvesting is a process and can’t be done until it’s time. When it’s ready we must recognize it and harvest.

Brad: Resting. The farmer is busy but he must sleep.

Daniel: We are so success driven we create preemies by asking for decisions for people who are not ready. We inoculate them by telling them they are saved before they are truly ready to harvest.

Dan: We know so much more today about the why and how. And yet there is a part of it that we can’t know. We don’t need to know everything because it doesn’t add to the effectiveness.

Ellis: You do other things while waiting for the crop to grow.

Eric: Our rest shows that we trust the sovereignty of God. We can’t work harder and speed up the process. We are all one day away from quitting. But we all need us to not quit. We need more rest because it’s more trust.

Ellis: If you don’t take tobacco leaves at the proper time, the sun will burn them. The farmer doesn’t know how it’s growing but he does know when it’s ready. The green tobacco leaves are not ready, the ones that have the yellow tint are ready. The bottom leaves look the worst when they are ripe, but they must be taken first for the rest of the stalk to ripen.

Eric: Sometimes others reap what others have planted. As Ellis said we must recognize what God has done and recognize the harvest.

Ellis: When I started pastoring I wanted control to help everyone. When I read 1 Corinthians 3 I learned that all the Church is the Lord’s. You just plant what you can and don’t own what is not yours.

Dan: We often interpret passages as individuals. If we are talking about a city, we need discernment about our city. Is our city ripe for harvest, or is it a sowing time.

Ellis: If we don’t’ recognize what people are looking for then we can’t plant the right seeds.

Eric: I don’t need to always prepare for leading everything. If I am in the word and walking with God, God can reap from me what he has sown into me in the word.

Chip: Timing is important

Shawn: In China a farmer thought he could help his crop grow by pulling on the stalk. We can’t make things grow beyond what God allows. God has his own timing.

Jan: This is a wonderful learning community. God wants us to join the team and be aligned with him when he is working. The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but you do know where it comes from or where it is going. So is everyone who is born by the Spirit. For me this Lectio Divina, is a so strong way to be together.

Mark 4:33-34 33 And with many such parables He was speaking the word to them as they were able to hear it; 34 and He did not speak to them without a parable; but He was explaining everything privately to His own disciples.

This is what I experience now. Jesus is present and he explaining to us the meaning of his parable.

Augustin: I am so accustomed to activism. I see that to discern God’s timing is part of our job. To learn his timing.

Daniel: We are the sickle in his hand.

Bryan: I am at a point of repentance. I have to repent.

B ryan: If there is anyone hear who needs a special touch from Jesus, please identify yourself. Let’s pray the truth of God’s word for these brothers.


Prayer or Praise as appropriate.

We then watched a Frog and Toad Video about how silly it is to try to cause growth ourselves.

Christian romper room.