Ever since reading Roland Allen’s Spontaneous Growth of the Early Church and rediscovering (perhaps discovering for the first time) the growth of the church in Acts, I knew that most of the small groups I participated in came no where close to the cellular nature of what the first century church experienced. Reading the accounts of the underground Chinese church, the church behind the iron curtain and the church in Latin America, I remember thinking how sweet it would be if that were the norm for the church in the U.S.

I simply assumed that since I couldn’t find it, didn’t experience it, nor knew anyone who had, that “those times” had simply passed.

Recently reading Neil Cole’s Organic Church for a third time, I had one of those singular epiphanies that teleport your perception of everything into the future, instantly. In what might have taken years to arrive at, I saw it as clear as day. It was “cellular,” not “small.” Everything takes place at the cellular level and it is about cellular multiplication. That is where life is experienced; that is what grows a body.

Last night I remembered reading Allen’s book for the first time in 1976. I remembered the longing to experience what he was narrating. I remembered it because I was experiencing it. Nine people gathered around one who had been diagnosed with a recurrence of cancer. Nothing else mattered. He was the object of our focus and attention. In a matter of minutes we were no longer gathered around a man on a couch, we literally entered a different dimension. Seventeen to seventy-seven, sixty years difference between the oldest and the youngest, but looking at each of them as they prayed, they all looked the same – enraptured.

Over the last two weeks I’ve had three of the weekly participants tell me that what we do each week is “real church.” I’ve watched real change occur in the life of several of them – honest, profound, life-changing metamorphoses. They come to the group even when they don’t feel like it, they look forward to it, they tell others about it. Their spiritual antenna are up and twitching.

They actually want more.

Amazing.

We did church normally yesterday, only it wasn’t normal at all. A sword used in a symbolic manner, changed the perspectives of almost everyone present. Perhaps things aren’t as we think. Perhaps we are more than we believe. Perhaps this sterile “love” we reference coming from Abba isn’t so mundane after all.

It might be real…

I’ve just spent an incredible two weeks doing the impossible in northeastern Brazil. The flame that has been lit is attempting to consume me. The possibilities that are bubbling up have me pacing the floor with anticipation.

And, to add further fuel to this fire, Nathanael de Poix will be speaking at The Message this Sunday! How can you not want to be there to hear someone with such an exotic name?! But it goes much deeper than just a name; Nathanael is on a fast track to the mysteries of the heavenly realms. Anointed, gifted and does he ever have a story to tell!

I am so impressed with this fellow – he truly has something that will impact you in a way that you cannot contrive nor conceive. You will not want to miss this.

This is the email and photo I get after one last night:

I was out of town this week.

Really…

www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnrJVTSYLr8

Everyone began to get really excited.

We were chewing on the concept of what an encounter with this Being we call God might look like. It started innocently enough but quickly escalated to dangerous levels. Suddenly, we found ourselves on the slippery edge of a razor blade of thought that, if we pursued it, would slingshot us into the unknown and even the “heretical.” Being crazy enough to always want “more,” I jumped, only to discover nine others following me in free fall, exhilarated at the prospect that the free fall might just turn into flight.

Yeah, I know that sounds a bit theatrical and perhaps not a little intriguing. But it was very real… and exciting.

You see, we got into painting what church might look like if we literally took the presentation of both Jesus and the book of Acts as reality. Thought the first response was that nobody does that and nobody would do that, we had let the cat out of the bag, or better, invited Holy Spirit into the discussion. In the blink of an eye, we were plotting the overthrow, ruminating on what it would look like and how it might be achieved.

That’s when I said we needed to hunt God, just like you’d hunt a grizzly bear. We needed to set a trap, on the paths He always followed, and pounce when He passed. He’d never see it coming; He’d be caught completely by surprise; then we’d have Him and our rebellion could begin.

Just like a dad, being chased by his six year old, is so easily caught, because he wants to hug him, tussle him and smother him with love.

People who are not the least bit keen on church suddenly had a sparkle in their eye…

Could this really be done?

I’m not sure why those who are not Christian would really have any inclination to become one. The feeding frenzy that occurs when someone says anything that is not “correct” in terms of the status quo, Christianly speaking, is horrifying. We are quick to condemn the Islamic response that is so brutal when someone is perceived to go contrary to a particular facet of a particular branch of a very diversified politico-religious system. We use words like “intolerant,” “unjust,” and “uncaring;” we explicitly and implicitly castigate them for such “unbelievable” points of view and belief.

Yet, THAT is exactly who we have become.

We so easily write off that part of the world who doesn’t believe that particular facet of a particular branch of a very diversified politico-religious system to which we adhere. That is at least understandable. What is disturbing is the way we consume our own.

Years ago as a pre-teen, I visited a friend of mine on a farm. She was showing me some newborn piglets. They were lying in thick, stinky mud. Mama sow came over and began nudging them with her snout. Six of the eight got up, moved over and stood expectantly; two seemed to have difficulty getting up. Mama began stomping them, killed them and then began eating them! I was horrified! My little friend simply said, “That happens all the time.”

That repugnance all those years ago is the same that I’m dealing with now. As my friend ruminated, it happens all the time.

The most recent manifestation is the Rob Bell phenomenon that is occurring. If you don’t know who Rob Bell is, you probably want to simply stop reading and just say, “There goes Joe, again.” If you know who he is, you know what I am referencing.

In our flavor of Christianity as marketed in the West, theology trumps love, “correctness” trumps Jesus, every time. It has nothing to do with right or wrong, though we loudly proclaim it does. Tell the person who hasn’t “made a decision” to “accept Jesus in his heart” that we do it because of love. Tell the person who has run from “church” because of the hypocrisy and hate that it our obligation to present truth. They’ll willingly embrace it.

Not.

I’m afraid we’ve ripped the “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest” right out of the Word. In our fervor to present Jesus, we do everything to protect him; in our desire to find truth, we become keepers of the law; in trying to find salvation, we run the lost away.

Really. I’m disturbed…

Mammoth Cave is the world’s longest known cave, with more than 392 miles of interconnected passages—so long that if the second and third longest caves in the world were joined together, Mammoth Cave would still be the planet’s longest cave and have more than 100 miles left over!

Not to overuse the word, but that’s big!

I’m discovering that Galatians falls into the same category, on both accounts (big and stories under every verse).

The issue Paul addresses in the book is big, just like Mammoth Cave. Brazilian author Alcione Emerich calls it Contaminação Epiritual (Spiritual Contamination). He recounts a story of a church that purchased a notoriously infamous night club and turned it into a church. Another church in the same town began to slander the church and its efforts, even bringing lawsuits against them. Several leaders of the ‘nightclub church’ managed to get an audience with the pastor. They explained that they were saving the lost, restoring families, feeding the poor and helping the community; the pastor of the attacking church responded that he preferred that the notorious nightclub were still in the facility and that the church had never existed.

That, in the proverbial nutshell, describes what Paul is addressing in Galatians. I love his take on the whole thing:

Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you.

Commentary over…

My primary Bible, note taking app, sermon notes and preaching source is Olive Tree Bible Reader. It is a free app and is available on a wide number of smartphone platforms and the iPad. It comes with a few free Bibles on it and you can purchase any version you want. You can additionally purchase books, study tools, reference works and participate in forums, if you so desire.

You Version is another popular app and is also free. You can download multiple versions of the Bible for free, unlike Olive Tree. I do use it and it has some amazing features, especially if you want to involve the church on a corporate level during sermons or for ongoing Bible reading.

However, Olive Tree’s note taking capability, joined with it’s seamless integration with reference works and it’s broad highlighting function puts it in a league of it’s own. I’ve always wanted to own the Logos software platform; but, the cost is prohibitive. In the past, my nerdiness would have driven me there because of it’s scholarly richness. These days I really don’t care to camp out there (nor do I want to spend thousands of dollars). Olive Tree enables me to do much of what I would love to do with Logos at practically no cost.

For me, the highlighting/note taking capability is the game killer. My Bible looks like a child got hold of it with marking pens. I’m a marker. I’ll mark things in different colors, circle, underline, draw arrows, make little notes in the side columns; I haven’t found anything electronically that allows me to do that, yet. Olive Tree comes very close. That seals the deal for me!

I love the NET Bible translation and use it online. I have an app for it on my iPad/iPhone but have found that I don’t like the mobile interface. It is really good on your computer but not so good on an iPad. Recently Olive Tree brought it into their stable of available translations and I can access it instantly within their environment. That really makes me happy!

If you are into Portuguese (or other foreign language), you can purchase practically anything that is available in that language for use with Olive Tree. Not so with You Version. For me, I’m able to use my preferred Portuguese version in a side by side, parallel display with the version that most churches in Brazil use or with English, Greek or Hebrew. And I can take notes in Portuguese instantly with just the touch of a key.

Got questions on it? Feel free to toss ‘em my way… I’m happy to share my two-cents worth.

I mentioned how I was using Air Display from the stage during my sermons to control our presentation software, Propresenter, with my iPad and how I was enthralled. It is beyond cool, it gives you a sense of better controlling your visual material that you want to use to make your points in a stronger manner.

However, it is fraught with the potential for mishaps. When it goes bad, it goes bad completely. It is much like jumping out of an airplane with a parachute while the sun is shining, only to have it go pitch black before you’ve pulled the ripcord or checked your altimeter.

Yep. That was my experience this past Sunday.

That sent me scurrying for options. Two possibilities are Jump and Ignition. Both work well in allowing you to control your computer from your iPad and both are very stable. Jump is just a bit more sluggish than I like. It worked fine while I was in Brazil, controlling my office computer through my iPad via the internet. Ignition seems to be more responsive. It is very similar to Go to My PC (which does have an iPad app but has a subscription service attached to it and you must have a subscription for every computer you are using; it additionally hasn’t worked as well on the Mac as it does on the PC, in my experience. But I will be doing some more experience with it). The downside with both of them , just like Air Display, want to be the active app on the iPad. If you multitask, sending them to the background to use an app like Olive Bible Reader (which I strongly recommend), within minutes they are clamoring for your attention or even closing themselves and dropping your wi-fi connection. Once they close, if you are live and in real time, you can forget restarting them and regaining control of the remote computer. At least, you can forget it unless you are capable of being fully present in what you are saying publicly while allowing your brain to be fully engaged with the whole reboot process.

I can’t.

Propresenter has an app for the iPad/iPhone that is a remote control. It seems to be a possibility, especially since it is designed to do one thing only and to do it with the actual software. I don’t know yet if it has the same issue with multitasking that the others do. I will be discovering the answer soon!

I would love to hear from any of you that may have some tech/experience savvy in this. What have been your experiences? What do you use? I know I’m not the only preaching pastor out there who doesn’t have a full tech crew who can do all this for you and let you concentrate only on your speaking.