Vision Glorious

~ by Pastor Rob Krause

In part 3a, I discussed that it is imperative for men to hear the over-arching heartbeat of God throughout the Scriptures and put feet to the values and principles of what the Father wants. The heartbeat that I’m presenting here on Vision Glorious is that God wants to dwell with His people. He wants to be the exclusive God of His people and provide the acceptable Way to approach Him and to know Him. The Father wants to indwell His covenant people, to be God to them and write His laws on their re-founded hearts. God wants His people to live-out His promises and reveal His glory in and through all of the spheres of creation — bringing Him to have FIRST PLACE in everything. And, according to the Scriptures and the patterns presented therein — this is not possible apart from God’s people functioning in Holy Spirit-founded and led community.

The Biblical Promise

While reading through Abraham’s encounter with God, a powerful phrase stood out to me in the promises of God for His people through Abraham.¹ That phrase is when God declares to Abraham, "…and I will be God to you…"

The Lord proved that promise again and again. In Exodus 17 we find the people of Israel complaining and putting God to the test. In other words, they were trying His patience — greatly & dangerously. Their cry was basically, "You saved us from Egypt only to kill us in the desert." Our non-capricious Father not only resisted giving them what they really deserved, but He split-open the face of a rock-cliff and turned it into a water-park to bless them when they felt they were dying of thirst. As a community, God was God to them. And He continued to be God to them even when they were in rebellion to Him while walking through the desert for 40 years. Their shoes never wore out, they had shade by day, light by night, manna by morning, and tabernacle-access throughout.

This is just a start into the biblical material that reflects this heartbeat of God. Almost daily, I’m struck with a new verse where God is affirming this point. Tonight, I’m working on a message out of Revelation 3:18-22- the final part of the letter to the Church at Laodicea. Here in Christ’s exhortation to the people is the idea, "Repent & rid yourselves of this lukewarmness — because I love you² and I rebuke and discipline those whom I love. I will be God to you! I will come back for you and sup with you in perfect, unending, victorious shalom."

I hope to share more verses and thoughts with you in posts to come so that you’ll hear the heartbeat. When I closed our LifeTeam meeting the other night, I asked the members this question, "Where can you tangibly see God being (acting as) God to you in your life?"

A Western, Modern-Day Obstacle

What we’re up against is ourselves; literally, the addictions to self-gratification independent of others — including the way we consume our religion. Who needs ‘em? - when Christianity has been packaged so nicely as an individual journey. I, Alone, want to ‘experience God?’  This is impossible. God is a community-dwelling God and believers are automatically covenanted together and grafted into His family. To have a biblically patterned Church and Christian life, you will definitely become counter-cultural because the Church at its core is not a society of the individual but a unified whole. Author David Wells gives us an insight into the enormous barrier and counter-current to Bible-bred, Christ-centered community:

American culture has tended to resolve the tension (between individualism and conformity) by diverting the stream of individualism into private life and the stream of conformity into public life. Thus it is that in the public sphere Americans are uncomfortable with the unconventional and yearn for consensus, whereas in the private sphere they prize the personal vision, the strength and willingness to live by one’s own lights regardless of what others think and what the conventions dictate.

This combination of traits has created soil uncommonly fertile to worldliness and uncommonly inhospitable to the Church…the modern cultural context is like a pair of powerful pincers locked on the church, in some cases squeezing its identity as the people of God beyond recognition.³

This is one main reason why so many people can be "church-attenders" (public conformists) on the outside and live a "private, personal" life in total contradiction to everything taught on Sunday — and do it for years without anyone noticing. One common characteristic of so many of these people is that you’ll rarely ever see them discipling other people or reproducing themselves in the Kingdom. Where is God showing Himself to be God TO & THROUGH these professing Christians? How is God revealing Himself through the tapestry of His people in accountable relationships in your Church?

Wells continues:

"This adaptation to cultural norms and expectations is precisely the mechanism by which worldliness takes root. On the other side, the need to conform…makes it extremely difficult for the Church to preserve its distinctive identity, to be different… the Church has found it so hard to recognize worldliness and even harder to dislodge it. Indeed, without a powerful theological vision as its antithesis, these cultural currents are impossible to resist.⁴

I would call for the antithesis to be true Christian community that is recognizable as God’s own; where He presses down and through them. What cultural trend would come close to that? This is exactly where LifeTeams (small groups) become the inner-network to penetrate to this level of accountability AND build a bridge between the public and private walk — to the glory of God. It is right here where God shows Himself to be God to the Church — calling one-another into holiness⁵ and taking that power out to the fallen creation for His glory. 

1. I have honestly been meditating for months now on the principle that I’m about to write. It has captured hours of my private attention. I plead patience with readers and learners who are habituated to fast production of blog posts, but I’m not a machine — even though I’ve been called that on a number of occasions… although I do laugh at the Pastor Bauer nickname I’ve been given by friends here. [back]
2. by the way, this is phileos love here — affectionate, tender, and emotional. AND, it’s not me loving Him — but Him loving me. He has won my affection. [back]
3. Wells, David, God in the Wasteland, p. 56, 1994  [back]
4. ibid. p. 57, underline mine [back]
5. Author David Wells describes holiness as "vivid other-worldliness" which I find quite creative. [back]

~ by Pastor Rob Krause

As I type these different articles, I’d like to again repeat the emphasis on the why for small group ministry much more than the how. Many Churches large and small conduct various types of small group ministry but if you ask them why? the responses will generally sound like:

1. Other Churches are doing it — gotta’ keep up approach.
2. We want to grow our Church — magic beans approach.
3. The people wanted it — wind’s blowing that way approach.
4. We’re trying it out – test-driving a Ferrari but very disappointed it doesn’t come in four doors so we’re not sure we’re going to keep it approach.

But rarely will you be able to mine-out a biblical understanding or uncover a comprehensive¹ foundation for why this function of the Church is needed or practiced.

If you know why you’re conducting and facilitating small group ministry, you will have a great understanding of what is needed and what isn’t. The what always follows the why. Many guys don’t know what to do because they don’t know why they’re doing it already.

It is my firm belief that men need to capture the godly values that are fleshed-out through small group ministry before they ask for the tricks of the trade. What do small groups ultimately strive for? In other words, God has an over-arching heartbeat throughout the Scriptures that we need to tap into and listen to so that we might understand HIS VISION for community & utilize the tools of small group ministry TO KNOW AND TO REALIZE WHAT GOD WANTS. We’re not just throwing programs together here — we’re gaining the heartbeat of God for the Church and the Kingdom. We’re enabling people to come to the Tent of Meeting. It goes so much farther beyond holding a few meetings in homes.

Why does God want you to have small groups? Why does God want true community among His people so eagerly? Why do I need you and you me? Why did God create the family and the Church to function like one? Why will the world know that Jesus is sent from the Father by how we love one another?

1. when I use the word comprehensive, I mean it in a way that small group ministry is described as an intricate part of the biblical pattern for the whole Church. It’s usually a tack-on program; a surgically sewn-on third arm which is not only hideous and extremely uncomfortable, but also difficult to buy shirts for. [back]

~ by Pastor Rob Krause

When you begin to ask specific why? questions, there will be a thirst that will come over your life that drives you to desire, to know,  and to obtain all of the promises the Lord has for His Church. This is a journey (a deep yearning of quality men and women) for "Complete Church."

It is here that I need to introduce a tension-point, or more accurately, a philosophical divide. The Western Church¹ is affixiated with business models, marketing, forms, and programs. Reduced to its naked equation, the magical and hollow formula is hot programs + best location + big money = "successful" results. 

The tension begins when I say that God’s heartbeat isn’t to fill those program-boxes — it’s to fill people.² The Lord wants to save His people from their sin and pour true shalom into their lives (2 Cor. 5:21; Col. 1:20). God’s desire is for Jesus to have preeminence in His Church ( Col. 1:17-19). The Father wants His children to grow to maturity and bear much fruit that will abide in Him to multiply again and again ( John 15:8). All of this and more is available to the believer because God’s heartbeat is to build Himself a dwelling place among His people ~ Ephesians 2:21-22.

Small groups have to start here. They are the small congregations of God. Small groups are Church because the same Christ indwells both large and small gatherings of His people. Again, this is because God wants to fill people that He has made acceptable to Himself. Therefore, the small group can provide the best setting for the life of Jesus Christ to be revealed through His Christ-ones. A main reason for this is because small groups are not task-oriented, but rather, Bible-believer oriented. They can accomplish many tasks, but more importantly, the small groups can help contour disciples to the heartbeat of God = total relationship (da’at Elohim — to know God and be known by Him).

In the next part, we’ll explore more of the Father’s heartbeat through biblical examples and promises. Until then - shalom among His people. 

1. and this is now spreading to many nations beyond the West (Europe and North America) as they "import" western Churchianity. [back]
2. Many men will agree with me here — in theory – but rarely in practice – because they’re so involved in holy turf-wars, orthodoxy tractor-pulls, and who’s-who dress-up conferences contests. Yes, I’m being nice here because I’d never actually want to talk about pride on a cozy blog like this. [back]

~ by Pastor Rob Krause

Often, when a writer or speaker approaches the subject of small groups they generate a fair amount of interest. Some guys are interested in small groups as if they were a novelty; the "all-new" approach. Other guys are caught in the mythological search for the quick-fix, magic-bullet program that will bring-in lots of people and make their Church "the place" where people want to stay. And there are some who have a genuine interest in knowing what small groups are all about because they sense deep in their spirits that "there’s gotta’ be something more out here to this community thing."¹

First Ask "Why?"

However, it’s at this point that I think most guys start to ask the wrong questions. The questions regularly start with "What are you doing… ?"  or  "How do you do this… ?"  These aren’t bad questions, but their timing is off. Instead of asking what or how, we need to first ask why?  The why questions will keep you thirsty after the core principles that will later bring healthy forms to fruition.

If you don’t ask why? on a regular basis, here is what will happen. You will begin to treat many of the rich promises throughout Scripture of what the Church can really be as cheap, try-on and cast-off programs. Instead of being guided by the Vision, you will hunger for gimmicks and begin to see people as numbers — numbers that build bigger buildings and bigger programs.²

Another important reason for the why? questions is that when the going gets tough and impatient people begin to criticize your biblical community-building efforts as not being fast enough, you need to know "the why" to what you’re doing or you’ll walk away from the Vision.

I spoke with a pastor from Florida once who said, "Boy, I’m sure glad to see small groups are working for you, we tried them out and they didn’t go anywhere after the first eight months — so we don’t do them anymore."  I felt really sad for this guy. He had jettisoned countless opportunities to develop strong servants of the Lord because he had reduced everything to a set little formula.

My Goal in the coming posts is to share with you some of the strongest answers to the why? questions that I have found over the last fifteen years of this journey. I can truly say that these reasons have exhilarated my Christian life and ministry in one of the hardest fields on the planet (Italia).

1. I might mention that this first post of the series is directed more toward pastors and small group leaders, but the principles that will follow will be more for everybody. [back]
2. I hear a number of guys using the punchy little phrase "nickels & noses" to speak of spiritual success referring to attendance and finances in or around their ministries. This, in my opinion, is a hollowed-out approach to people. Most likely in these cases, it will be hard to find authentic, accountable community-life around these ministries. Again, in my opinion, this is equal to sour grapes; you get the skin and the flesh - but the sweetness and rich flavor of the grape just doesn’t taste right because something’s missing. [back]

It’s true. My Church is regularly emerging from the 4-walls of the Church building into each others’ lives and out into the communities around them with the Good News on their lips and the love of Christ in their hearts.¹ And I love it!

Before I post part 2 of True Christian Community is Patterned in the Sacrificial System, I wanted to share this write-up from my good buddy and dear brother, Carlos Rodriguez. Carlos is from east central Los Angeles (he’s picky about that). Carlos re-dedicated his life to the Lord Jesus in our Church and his wife Marife (from the Philippines) was wonderfully saved early last year and baptized. In the following paragraphs, Carlos writes about what he has learned and experienced in the last twenty-two months. We’re all very proud of Carlos & Fe, and we boast in the Lord of what He has done through their lives.

Here’s Carlos emerging with his Church:

One of the most precious things my family and I have is our lifeteam (small group). Our lifeteam meets every Thursday night for worship and fellowship among families. Each and every member from the youngest to the oldest is part of our immediate spiritual family. The men are truly my brothers and the women are truly my sisters. There is more than just a bond and a weekly meeting between us because Christ is in the center of our relationships. We met each other through Christ and we sustain each other through Christ in our everyday lives. The church has a number of lifeteams throughout the body, but the spirit of a lifeteam is always present when the whole body is together. We learn how to be a family with our small group and it carries over to our large group body. Team members continously take care of each families need without any obligatory feelings - it is a desire to please my brother in Christ. The children are the repsonsibility of all and are treated with the love that each parent gives their own child. Our sick are taken care of and no family has to worry about everyday tasks while they are incapacitated because the families are there for each other. The other day most of the families were able to eat lunch together at the Spaghetti House and it felt like each of them have always been part of my family; there are no formalities. We also serve each through accountability and challenge ourselves in lifeteam with difficult questions and discussions that must be dealt with. Our lifeteam has also gone door to door spreading the Good News together.  We have three months left in Italy and my family’s heart grows sad when just the thought of leaving our team is brought up. Not just the lifeteam, but the community of lifeteams that Christ has built for us. The communion, sharing, and enjoyment has truly been a small Christian community. Our fear is not having the same type of community when we move to Nebraska this fall and we pray that we will find a Christian community that will become our true everyday family and not just a Sunday club.

1. and you thought you had another "developing story" on your hands [back]

Studying the rich topic of worship, I came across an incredible picture from the first five chapters of Leviticus (Entrances to Worship). Now, these passages on the surface don’t inspire enthusiasm among most believers. However, these chapters are the basis of the sacrificial system of the Old Testament. And, when taken slowly and meticulously, treasures abound for life after 2000 AD. My purpose with this article is to show how Christian Community is a crowning highlight of worship if not the apex of God’s repeated longing to dwell among His people and be their God.

I’m building this article into three sections for easier reading. But, you should know that each of these sections build on each other to demonstrate the purpose I just mentioned. If you catch these principles, they will breathe life and joy into your small group meetings, discipleship meetings, and congregational meetings.

Let’s start with this Vision Value:

1. …and you thought it was your preaching bringing them in. [back]
2. The Burnt Offering was the sacrifice most frequently offered, the first offering on the altar making it the basis for all other offerings, and had to be totally consumed. [back]
3. Ross, Allen,  Holiness to the Lord, p. 95 [back]

~ by Pastor Rob Krause

Quality Community

Have you noticed this to be true?

No matter how hard technology tries to bring people together, inherently, technological devices tend to isolate us from healthy, human interaction.

Oh no. I’m not saying that email, cell phones, TV, News sites & channels, and this blog aren’t great ways to pass information around to each other. What I am saying is that true Christian community demands we go deeper than info sharing. There are bigger needs than email can touch. I can’t develop my spiritual gifts through the TV. Although very helpful with financial reports and worldwide searches, my computer screens (yes, I have screens now) can’t put their arms on my shoulder and pray with me.¹

One brother wrote that his Church was studying and trying to apply "quality community." This is good. I think one "quality factor" of community for our day will be the ability to turn it off. This is really hard because technology floods our world. These days, it’s becoming easier to fast from food than it is from the TV or computer.

The Damnable TV

Television is like novacaine to the Christian life. Early on in our ministry in Italy, we had a small group get into a warm debate. A warm debate means that it was just at the point of being "heated" but not quite there yet. Political correctness would refrain us from ever calling it heated. Their debate was about when to meet together as a LifeTeam. This isn’t a bad argument to have. The problem was the motive of this particular group. Their scheduling trouble was over what night to meet together based on what TV programs were airing. Back in that day, Thursday was must see TV. And apparently Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday were as well.

You might ask, "Why not TiVo the thing?" Horridly & Unimagineably, TiVo didn’t exist. "And the VCR?" you say… Old satellite receivers and VCRs didn’t work together at all out here. Multisystem issues.

Can you feel the pain? People, obligated to Church in the home are without a recording method for Survivor, the Bachelor, and Trump’s Apprentice (who I predict will one day converge and one person will win all three — keep filling out those applications Andrew Maxwell!) Can you hear the elephant in the room? "Other Christians get to see that show - but we have to be together." Here was my first, simple reaction — "What are we? 12?" I was pretty fresh to the ministry back then and maybe that wasn’t the better, kinder, more seasoned reaction that I have now, "What are we! 10?!!" Kidding aside for a brief moment. I want to say, "What are we - Saved?" 

I think we’re paying a bigger price than we realize through our TV-time. I remember listening to a message where Bruce Waltke² spoke about how we want to become like what we see. And, if we’re watching Hollywood’s Hell as it preaches its deficient values system to us and our kids, then we are basically sitting in the seat of scoffers and resting a while ( Psalm 1:1). That kind of life can’t be spiritually blessed. 

But I can also see that the flipside is true. If the Spirit of Jesus ( Acts 16:7; Philippians 1:19) is dwelling in my brother or sister and I’m sitting in their presence, then what I see of Jesus working in and through them makes me want to become like HIM. For example, there are a few people in my life that have taught me how to pray. They never taught me in front of the TV or through an email. Occasionally, I learned some pray-er things over the phone. No, we had to be together and we had to be spiritually focused. 

Simply People

This is not a cry for us to go Amish on technology. A number of these devices are our modern-day tools. Just remember that tools are made for the man and not man for the tools. However, I have noticed that true Christian community has a very distinct taste to it; a taste you can never experience around electronics. There’s a rest that comes in the fellowship of the resurrected.

Here’s how I want to end this article. Jesus was all about people; simply people. Today, all who are simple Jesus-followers have a battle on our hands — we crave things. Two major cravings are technology along with entertainment. Like it or not, these are two cravings pounding the Church on today’s battlefield. They compete for the hearts, minds, & wills of the people in our flocks. But, we have a weapon that still wins again and again — True Christian Community with Jesus inside.

1. And, if they did put their arms on my shoulder to pray with me I’d turn 3-CPO into my new satellite dish, if you know what I mean. [back]
2. one of my favorite OT commentators who did a magnificent job on Proverbs and Genesis. [back]

~ by Roberto Battistuzzi

Applications 

There is a wonderful Teaching Letter on Discipleship at Bridges for Peace. One thing it explains is the very difference between the Hellenistic and Jewish thought when it come to the Scriptures. The Hellenist (now Western) thought will dig into the Scriptures, say how wonderful they are, dissect them, but the Jew will say “great scripture, how can I APPLY it?” This is what we have to do. How do we apply our faith in practical ways that will show the World that we are “in this world but not of this world” (Jesus in John 17).

The community structure that the Lord desired for His people just struggled to get going. For example, the buildings became the “Church”. Hence all the churches and cathedrals built over the centuries. People were not taught the correct definition of “church”. Therefore, people thought that they were Christians if they went to a building once a week, but that their life during the week was their own to live. Like everyone else around them, there was no difference, except the weekly pilgrimage to the local “church”. Praise the Lord the Reformation came along and something began to move. But it has been very difficult to break away completely from the Roman leaven. We see today many Protestant denominations still shackled with the idea of Church as a building where people come once a week (if that). Ask anybody if they are a “Christian” and they will say “Yes”. But ask them to define the term and you will get a myriad answers. Most answers will be “Oh, I belong to such and such a denomination." Or “Yes I am a Christian, but not a good one.” Here in Italy you will hear, “Yes I am Catholic, but not a practicing one”. My reply is “ Are you Italian? If yes, are you a practicing Italian?”

This brings me to the phrase I coined some years ago : “A Jew is a Jew is a Jew, a Christian is a Christian is a Christian.” Early on in our walk with the Lord, we were taught that we had to live our lives 24/7. We had to live-out our faith in our homes, work, community, society. Pastor Rob Krause did an excellent series on “Centers of Gravity” and then began to put into practice these teachings. This is when I came up with this catch phrase.

I lived in South Africa for 26 years and worked for a large Jewish Retail Chain for 23 of those years. So, I was privileged to have mixed with Jews and get to see how they lived and worked. Up until then “Jews” were this mysterious group of people that one never mixed socially with, butt of many sick jokes, and often held in awe. South Africa has a large Jewish community. I was quite nervous the first time I was invited to meet a family. One of my school friends from Kenya married a Jewish girl with an orthodox background. The amazing thing was that the Lord saved her first in the revival in the early 70’s and then me. Now, I had a close born-again, Jewish friend and greater contact with the Jewish Community.

One of the great principles we have to understand, which should cause us to radically change our ways of thinking and living our Christian life is this: A Jew is a Jew in his faith, in his home, in his work. You cannot separate these. They have an incredible network worldwide. Wherever you go in business you are bound to find some Jewish person involved. They help each other all the time. I have known of business entrepreneurs that have gone to family and friends for financial support to start a business. Over the last few years, in my involvement in the export business, I was collaborating with some Jewish American businessmen. It was incredible to see how “this one knew that one" in some of the highest decision making positions for the largest USA retailers. One thing I have learned is this: it does not matter which nationality they are (American Jews, Italian Jews, Russian Jews, South African Jews, etc.), they are still a community.

So what does all this have to do with us Christians? I am firmly convinced in my heart that the Lord desires His Church to begin to understand what He had in mind regarding His people. The Jewish nation born out of the Patriarchs first and now His blood bought the Church and Bride. Looking at some of the definitions of the word, as defined in the Hebrew (part 1; above), we see that a community is a “witness”. We are to be witnesses in the world. First and foremost declaring Christ but also living our lives in such a way that is coherent with what we declare with our mouths.

Very recently, a doctor friend of mine was very impressed by the way a “community of believers” displayed love and support to a family who had a premature baby. In light of this article, one thing that struck her was that they had breaking of bread with the family. In our own “community” at Serenissima, an Italian family was struck by the family spirit and love displayed towards one of our members in celebrating her birthday. In their own way, relatively small incidents but powerful witnesses to unbelievers.

Two years ago, Serenissima cleaned up and repainted one of the main bridges of Sacile and a small park. The Mayor and members of her Council were impressed that a “religious “ organization had spent time and money to do this. My family and I have personally been blessed over the years with help in times of difficulty by the Community of Believers. As I said at the beginning, the topic is huge and we need to chew on small bits at a time. So in the next installments we will look at other aspects. For example, the Universal Church, Local Body, Family, Business and how we should conduct ourselves in it and many others.

Roberto Battistuzzi currently serves as Deacon to the Serenissima Bible Church of Northeast Italy where he specializes in ministry to the Italian people. Roberto & his wife Adele have two sons as well as providing full care for Roberto’s 92-year-old father, Pasqualle. Roberto works as a liason and translator for the US military at the regional hospital & Adele works in Church Administration.