“The Revolution is happening – it’s happening all over the world. We are in a Reformation. Acknowledge it or not. Be a part of it or not. Jesus longs for his church to come alive, to become a living, breathing, organism. He longs for us to be in a real, live, intimate relationship with Him, regardless of others – and then in real, live relationship with our families – earthly and spiritual. And, He’s begging us to come alive, be who we are as individuals, alive and free in Him, telling the world who and what He has done for us…

“What I saw in Kenya, I see in America and I see in other parts of the Christianized world. The enemy accepts that Christianity is in the world… but if he can just contain us, keep us from contaminating others, there’s little to worry about. If he can contain us in buildings, then the world will not know the truth and few will be set free. But what I saw in Kenya, I also see in America and other parts of the world. The virus is leaking. The Reformation of the 21st Century, led by the Holy Spirit, is taking Christianity out of containers into the open spaces of the neighborhoods and nations of the world.”

Printed in the Simple/House Church Revolution.

For those of us who have struggled with children going through difficulties and find it hard to release them to God’s care, I highlight these words from A.W. Tozer:

“We are often hindered from giving up our treasures to the Lord out of fear for their safety; this is especially true when those treasures are loved relatives and friends. But we need have no such fears. Our Lord came not to destroy but to save. Everything is safe which we commit to Him, and nothing is really safe which is not so committed.”

Some of the most difficult people to like are religious people with religious fronts.

“Hallelujah, brother. God is good and I am blessed. Are you walking in his blessing today and everyday?”

It’s not that I can’t love this guy or even appreciate his sincerity on some level, it’s just that I can’t touch him.  I can’t connect with the person who is behind those religious words and who is really like every other human.  Deep inside we are all conflicted: both needy and fulfilled, happy and sad, faith-filled and fearful, victorious and defeated… human.

Unfortunately religion creates barriers between people because it is posturing, it is a face to wear and it’s not real.

Jesus spoke of his followers as being poor of spirit and those who know they need a doctor.  Humans who are real can connect on a deep level with other human beings and that is the dynamic through which the Good News of the wonder of Jesus is can be deeply shared and communicated to others.

Amy Grant sings a song, Better than a Hallelujah, that expresses this well (excerpts here):

Beautiful the mess we are
The honest cries of breaking hearts
Are better than a Hallelujah…

God loves a drunkards cry,
The soldiers plea not to let him die
Better than a Hallelujah sometimes…

The woman holding on for life,
The dying man giving up the fight
Are better than a Hallelujah sometimes
The tears of shame for what’s been done,
The silence when the words won’t come
Are better than a Hallelujah sometimes.

Beautiful the mess we are
The honest cries of breaking hearts
Are better than a Hallelujah…

May our communities be filled with something better than a hollow “hallelujah!” so that the love of Jesus can flow from one honest heart to the next in a world that deeply needs Him!

We have now said, for years, that the church needs to get out of its walls and into the street. The problem is: this is not enough.

We have people leaving churches, changing church expressions, meeting in homes and workplaces, but the life of Jesus is still not seeping into the world.

We need more from “the church.” We need “the church” to begin living their unique destiny as followers of Jesus audaciously. We need people who are not sleep-walking in religion or incapacitated by the franticness of our Disneyland culture. We need people who know who they are, who love Jesus more than life, who are willing to bring fresh and new ideas and innovations that change society. We need people who influence, not toward religion or church-going, but toward Jesus, and life, and hope, and faith, and transformation, and the power of the Spirit. We need people who have passion and are not afraid to step out and speak up about those things (including Jesus) that are burning on their hearts.

We need Change Agents for Jesus. We don’t need evangelists, just Jesus-people who live and act in a way that brings about change, that lifts the hopeless, that cares for the tired, that releases the oppressed and that simply says—“this is Jesus at work.” “Follow Him!” Those that need to and want to, will follow Him.

We need a church that does not look like “church” in any way, shape, or form. We need an uprising of “heretics” who break all the rules but glorify Jesus’ love and presence in the process.

We need people who are authentic and real and without the need for pretense. We need people that others can relate to and see Jesus through—weaknesses and all.

We need to become the trend setters.

Religious people follow the traditions and rules. Our culture mesmerizes us with faulty ideas of success and security. We don’t need more of either of these. Instead, we need people who lift others through their love for Jesus, their willingness to step out and do risky, compassionate things, and because of their new ideas, fresh ventures, and radical investment in the needy and in the needs of our world.

We need trend-setters who know how to manage resources for the Kingdom: make more money (sometimes), spend less (always), and funnel funds in a way that glorifies Jesus.

We need a church that’s out of the walls, out of religion, out of our culture’s drivel, and sacrificing everything to become everything that Jesus is.