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Hey everyone! My wife, Alyssa, and I live in beautiful Slave Lake, Alberta. We left the IC a few months ago, and we feel like we're in that in-between stage (wilderness) where we are making room for Christ and are maturing in Him. This is tough, of course. Gene Edwards points out that if one desires an authentic first-century church experience then he or she MUST move to a city, because it is very difficult to find like-minded folk in a city - therefore nearly impossible to find like-minded folk in a small town. However, we genuinely feel like we're supposed to remain here for a few years and allow the Lord to plant an ekklesia community here with us.
I could go on for hours about what we have been learning so far, and I would love to bless you with these experiences of ours. But for now, I would really like to hear from other small town people about their experiences. Any amount of sharing, wisdom, or encouragement would be super helpful. What did the Lord teach you in the wilderness? How did he provide for your family? Did you finally get out of the wilderness and into Cannan (a community of believers devoted to the Lord and one another in love)? If so, I would love to hear about this experience :) Bless you!
Josh
Tags: Church, Organic, Small, Town, Wilderness
Permalink Reply by Jamie Robertson on Hey Josh
Good to connect with you, I am from a small town as well although we are not far from Ottawa it still has that small town thinking.I have been teaching organic / house church for quite a while it is like hitting a brick wall. I have found Wolfgang Simsons book The House Church Book, helpful to spread the vision. I also think IC church is so ingrained in people it takes revelation of Holy Spirit to bring people to a more organic approach. One thing I know is that most unsaved and new christians are open to the idea and would want to do that kind church. Maybe just starting and keeping faithful to it you will see results
Blessings
Bro
Permalink Reply by Joshua Westcott on Right! And I'm realizing this the more I engage in conversation with my friends. As my brother's community down in Maryland says, "Either you get it, or you don't." And my wife and I were just saying how Paul decided early that he was wasting his time preaching to the Jews: it was easier to just go to Gentiles and give them the good news. I feel like I can agree with you that IC church is so ingrained into its adherants, and that most unsaved and new Christians are open to the idea. And yes, I think the time is approaching where my family is just going to have to set a couple days where we intentially meet to seek Christ and one another, and hope and pray that the Lord helps us cross paths with those who He'll call into this particular church-family. I have WS's book. I read an old edition of it years ago, but this was when I was first hearing about 'house church'.
Permalink Reply by John Tyler on Hi Josh
I live on a farm several miles from any village, let alone a town or city, and so I get your point!
My thinking on this is that we should not seek existing followers of Jesus in order to meet together. Our task is to seek the lost, show them Jesus and teach them to go out and do the same. I strongly recommend a book by Tony and Felicity Dale with George Barma, called The Rabbit and the Elephant. It's a good read and talks a lot of good sense.
Personally, I spent nearly 20 years out of any form of church setting. I guess that the Holy Spirit had a lot of work to do in ridding me of churchianity! At times I felt wholly alone, at other times immense joy. It was painful and passionate, but I learned a lot and finally came to accept what Yahweh wanted of me. As for my family, two children became atheists, two know Jesus, and my wife believes that 'God is there, but he doesn't interact with people'. Hmm, still work to be done!
Permalink Reply by Bekah Brown on Hello Joshua,
My Husband and I left the IC close to two years ago. We had no idea where it would take us but we were SURE that was were God was leading. At that time we were in the thick of applications to serve over seas with Wycliffe and very involved in our "church." My husband had a good job and we had a brand new baby (our 4th). We belonged to a rather large church with several services so I don't think that most of our friends even knew we left for moths. That was eye opening.
We spent some months in the wilderness. We gobbled up everything we could find from Frank Viola and sampled a couple other teachers and we struggled to find Jesus. We struggles with our traditions, our truth source, our parenting, our family, our friends, everything. we talked with everyone who was close to us and, praise God, my one sister and her husband began to meet with us regularly. It felt so good to have someone to connect with. We scoured the Web for others and stumbled upon a conference in Ohio. It wasn't anything big and wasn't necessarily close (a couple of states away) but we were excited to meet others with a heart for expressing the indwelling Christ and what that even looked like.
At the conference God used Milt Rodriguez to open our eyes to his word and each other. He showed us that we had freedom to enter into his presence confidently and most importantly helped us to begin the journey of understanding who Christ is and who we are in him. I was blown away. (If you haven't read "The Butterfly in You" by Milt Rodriguez I would highly recommend it) I was floored. But God wasn't done yet! At the conference we also met a couple who were learning the same things that we were and they live 10 minutes from us! God works in mysterious ways my friend! He brought us hundreds of miles to meet a brother and sister who live down the street!
But that's not all! Just days before we left for Ohio we got a call out of the blue from a stranger who had been called out of the IC years ago and had heard it through a friend of a friend that we had left our church and were seeking and Organic community. She spoke the way we spoke and was learning the things we were learning! I instantly loved her. It was something only God could have done!!
Praise God, since last summer we have been meeting with both of those couples as well as my sister and here husband and occasionally others. We are learning to be the body of Christ together. Jesus has ministered to us through them in so many ways. He put such a love in our hearts for them that we moved to within walking distance of two of the couples. Right after we moved my husband lost his job and Jesus supported us through them. The following spring our son broke his leg and we were without insurance and God provided for us again. It has no been easy but it has been more than I ever dreamed it could be.
So hang on in the wilderness and just seek Jesus. Like Noah and the animals He will bring others to you. He will make the connections. All you have to do is be faithful to take the steps that he lays in front of you! That may be moving and is may not. But I believe that he will make it very clear to you and make his desires your desires!
God bless you in your venture and know that we are praying that God lights your path as you trust in him!
Bekah
PS If you haven't read Frank Viola's books, I would highy recommend "Finding Organic church" but the first half is about church planters so you might want to start with the second half of the book also "From Eternity to Here" (the beginning was a little slow for me but it is very good) but if you don't read any others read "Jesus Manifesto" by Frank Viola and Lenard Sweet (you will be floored by our lord!)
Permalink Reply by Joshua Westcott on Super DUPER encouraged by this! Our son's name is Noah :)
Thank you for this wonderful story. We just have to trust our Lord to bring the right people our way and bring us to them also. I've been reading Viola and W. Simpson. Milt Rodriguez has a great blog I've been reading. As for the books I haven't read, I'll get to them eventually haha. (An accountant would cringe at the amount of money we spend on books) But I've heard from a few people about the Butterfly book... hmmm
My wife and I got a taste of organic church when we visited my brother's church family in MD. And that's what they were too, a church family, taking care of one another and exploring our Christ together. Three couples even moved into the same neighborhood! So it was cool to hear you had done the same!
Sooo funny! Most people at our old IC still think we go there... hoo boy... Bekah, the thing that makes me sad is that I doubt there will be a conference in Alberta anytime soon. Canada has like 30 million people and so it's easier to just do conferences in the US. lol. But maybe in a couple years we can save up enough money to rent a building and bring Milt or somebody up to share a week with our community.
Funny... I've never felt more... desperate for Christ and for the body than I do now. It's like eating sugar your whole life, then when you cut it off, you realize how malnurished you are!! Something like that, haha. Bless you and thank you again. :)
Permalink Reply by Bekah Brown on You made my day!
Permalink Reply by Jamie Robertson on I am hoping to do a conference in Ottawa area in the spring or early summer with John Fenn this is just in discussion stage yet but will keep you informed.
One thing he mentioned in the book of Acts from Pentecost to the persecution due to Saul and the Christians spreading it was 18 months. In that 18 months period they were meeting house to house and in the temple after that 18 months they no longer met in the temple, he mention it takes at least that to break out of the temple mentality, for me it was probably longer and God is still working.
Permalink Reply by Al San on In the wilderness i learned that it is my duty to teach my family. I also learned that the majority of what the IC teach are lies. But most importantly i learned that when Christ cried "it is finished" he meant it. I no longer have to do all these things to please God. Jesus pleased Him and i just learned to let God love me as i am. Just like when my kid was a baby, he would fall asleep in my arms knowing that daddy would not drop him or hurt him. I learned that God want me to rest in his love.
Permalink Reply by Mark Collings on Hi Josh. I'm just down the road in Red Deer. Alberta is a great place to live. We have found many people here that share our traditions and principles and we feel a freedom here that we did not have in Ontario. God ordained that His life be lived out in community. This is the thing we sought to establish when we came to Alberta. We now have a small family of believers in RD. Bless you on your journey into a new church life.
Permalink Reply by Joshua Westcott on Ah! We LOVE Red Deer :) You know, we were very close to moving to Blackfalds and joining our ywam community there, but we believe our Lord wants us to stick things out here in SL. Thank you for your encouragement!
Permalink Reply by Catherine Seebald on Hi Josh,
I'm in a rural/small town area of southwestern NY state and was at a complete loss of what to do when I left the institutional church (IC) I was attending about 1 1/2 yrs. ago. The IC in general troubled me for many reasons, but I kept visiting local churches hoping to find the "one," even though I could see they all had pretty much the same problems. Then a couple I had know years before heard I was looking for a church, and they invited me to meet with them. They had just read Frank Viola's books Pagan Christianity and Reimagining Church and had decided that they would meet as an organic church, even if it was just the two of them. I had never heard of organic church (OC) before but said I was willing to talk to them about it, as long as they understood I wasn't making any commitment to it. I met with them and began reading Reimagining Church, and I immediately knew it was the answer the Lord had for me!
I'm sorry to say that my husband is still in the IC I left, but he knew I couldn't stay in it another day, so I left it with his blessing, so to speak. I appreciate the fact that he has made an effort to understand why I am part of the OC and he is supportive of me, even to the point of joining in on our meals and fellowship times, but he also just doesn't "get it"...at least, yet. :-)
Anyway, our group has slowly grown a little and now consists of seven adults and one special needs teen. We find the friends who mostly stay in touch with us are also unhappy with the IC but either still don't "get it" or are afraid to step out into something that is so very different from what they think church should be. We just continue to pray that the Lord will increase His church as He wills. Early last fall we had Jon Zens come "tarry" with us. Even though we are so small, he was willing to work with us and help us with some problem areas. That time with Jon helped us realize we were actually doing better as an OC than we realized -- it was very encouraging and enlightening, and it helped us to not feel like we were traveling this path alone.
We do find that busy schedules and living in a rural area make it difficult to be as involved in each other's lives as we would like, so we make an effort to be in touch through the week by phone or email, and get together for coffee, etc. when we can. Another difficulty is fellowship with other like groups. The closest OC -- at least, that we're aware of -- is a 1 1/2 to 2 hr. drive from us. There are a couple of house churches that are closer, but they're just IC's in miniature.
We've had some bumps and bruises along the way, but we're committed to Him and to each other. We're learning that forgiving can sometimes be a daily requirement and that His love in our midst and expressed through corporate life as His body is the sweetest experience we've ever known as the church!
I trust the Lord is blessing you and your dear wife as you've trusted Him and stepped out into this new experience of being the church!
Catherine
Permalink Reply by John Tyler on Thanks for the inspiration, Catherine!
John
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