In the last post, we talked about the issue of the unchurched and the weights, burdens, and commandments of men that are hindering people from following Jesus. A weight may not be a sin, but it hinders us. What is a weight for one person is not always a weight for another. However, it is a sin to impose weights as burdens on others by teaching commandments of men as doctrines. Today we will expound on some of these weights and commandments of men related to how people define church, and I will answer the objections of those caught up in religiosity.

The Bible uses the term “religion” in a positive way in James 1:27, so I use the word “religiosity” to talk about these weights and commandments of men that people add to the gospel of Christ. For lack of a better word, I use “the religious” or “religious people” in the negative sense to describe people who are caught up in religiosity.

I remember all the applications for mission trips that I filled out as a teenager. The questions included:

“What church do you go to?”
“Who is your pastor?”
“Are you a regular tither?”

If you give the wrong answers to these questions, many people will assume that your walk with Christ isn’t strong. You are seen as uncommitted, unreliable, unaccountable, and maybe even dangerous! My answers to these questions, to the shock of many, are the following:

“I belong to the church in Goiânia, Brazil.”
“Jesus is my pastor.”
“No, I’m not a tither.”

People’s reactions to these questions reveal if they are caught in the deception of religiosity and teaching traditions of men as doctrine. I remember when I moved to Goiânia and told my wife, “Beth, they need so much help.” She replied, “Jonathan, they think you are the one who needs help!” A few years later, many of the people I was referring to have been in one mess and scandal after another. But I’m still following Jesus. Those who are shocked by my answers to the questions above think that I seriously need help. But I believe it is they who need help and have strayed so far from the truth!

Jesus’ name brings tears to my eyes every week. I read whole books of the Bible in one sitting. I weep often because I am so hungry to see a greater manifestation of God’s glory. I’ve seen hundreds of people in my current city healed or delivered from demons, most outside of any religious setting, but I’m hungry for so much more. I’m in fellowship at least three times most weeks, and I would be even more often if not for my work and the need to spend time with my wife and kids! Most of the people I am in fellowship with regularly attend traditional church services.

Yet even though I deeply love the people and see the Holy Spirit working among them, the burden of all their system entails and what it demands is way too much for me. I have no more energy for it. I feel exhausted even thinking about it. A few years ago, the Holy Spirit told me, “You can’t give your all for religion and give your all for Jesus.” I’ve stopped worrying about people’s religious expectations. If I were still trying to live up to those expectations, it would hinder me from doing what Jesus has called me to do. I don’t have the grace or energy to fulfill the expectations of religiosity and also to be faithful to Jesus’ call. So much work needs to be done that I don’t have time or energy for religious programs or spectator events.

I recently realized that some of the other people in my mission group are also considered “unchurched” but are on fire for the Lord and are in regular Christian fellowship. Yet those trapped in religiosity think we need so much more!

John 7:24 (NIV) Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly.

I certainly understand an organization wanting to screen applicants for a mission trip. Yet those three questions are misguided. They judge by mere appearances. Let’s examine those erroneous religious expectations.

“What church do you go to?”

“I belong to the church in Goiânia, Brazil.” This sounds scandalous to the religious, but I am using the same language as the authors of the New Testament. The New Testament refers to churches in a city. The churches in the New Testament met from house to house, in various places, but we have no reason to believe they referred to those groups as different “churches.” We have many reasons to believe there was an overlap between those groups. People who had gifts to edify the church would probably often go from one group to another in that city to teach and share God’s grace, just as the apostle Paul went from one city to another.

The Bible says there is one body, but I constantly hear people referring to different congregations as different bodies in their religious jargon. This is another case of annulling God’s word for the sake of our tradition. Paul wrote that saying, “I follow Paul,” or, “I follow Apollos” was carnal sectarianism. What is saying, “I’m Lutheran” or, “I’m Wesleyan” other than saying, “I follow Luther” or, “I follow Wesley?”

A common mark of many revivals is the churches coming together in unity regardless of denominational labels. My view of the church as one body, and the Biblical language I use which reflects that, is a mark of the Holy Spirit’s renewal in my life.

I’ve encountered many stereotypes about uncommitted and independent “church hoppers” who just go to another place any time they encounter a problem. I am not uncommitted and I don’t run from problems. I am committed to people who the Lord has connected me with. I’m very involved in the church in my city. I cannot call one congregation “my church,” not because I am uncommitted, but because the people I am committed to belong to various congregations.

I go where it is fruitful. Someone just added me to a fourth mission group, and I’m going on a mission with them on Friday. I see miracles, healing, and deliverance on missions, at home meetings, and almost anywhere else more than I could in most church services. I have to work on Sundays. The need for laborers in God’s harvest is immense, and no single church does enough missions for me to go on. The people I go with happen to be from at least four different congregations.

Many people from various congregations in my city had never laid their hands on someone and seen them healed. I gave them simple instructions, and they saw miracles. My role in the body of Christ has touched many congregations, and I can’t say one congregation is “my church” more than another. I’m doing work with recovery houses that nobody else is. Most congregations don’t have anybody teaching the people to minister healing and deliverance, and I am. I would never have such fruitfulness as I am now if I limited myself to one congregation.

The Holy Spirit’s work in my life and spiritual hunger got me involved regionally in the church when I lived in Pennsylvania. I often attended Christian events, prayer meetings, and get-togethers with spiritually hungry people from multiple congregations. I went regularly to three different congregations and visited two others frequently. One congregation had a service Saturday night, another Sunday morning, and another Sunday afternoon. After a while, service times changed and sometimes I had to choose between one place or another. I often wanted to be in more than one place at a time. I started going to different congregations on different Sundays, not because I was uncommitted, but because of the strong bond of love I had for people in each place and because I was committed to building up the people in each of these churches. I wanted to maintain that bond with all of them. The pastors of two of those churches were close friends, and I often encouraged them.

Three of the five churches would regularly have me stand up front and give testimonies and words of knowledge for healing, and many miracles happened. The fruit was much greater because of that widespread involvement, and it is also much greater now than it would be if I called only one congregation “my church.”

Besides local churches, I’ve been involved in various congregations in different countries. I love people dearly in all of them. I wish I could be here and there too. All are just as much “my church” as the people where I live now!

God’s River Brings Unity!

Those who’ve read my blogs know about all the church scandals and problems I’ve encountered, especially at the congregation that calls themselves “Casa church.” In spite of all that, I never took off and said, “I’m leaving this congregation to go to that congregation.” The relationships are intact. On Monday night, I was just at the men’s group BBQ of the church that had so many scandals. I prayed for multiple people who tangibly felt God’s glory, then instructed them on how to pray for others. Those they prayed for were all healed. One woman had a painful broken foot. I prayed for her two friends. They felt God’s glory tangibly on their hands, then prayed for her. She felt something moving in her foot and then it went numb as Jesus did surgery!

A man came to me weeping at the BBQ and asked “Pastor, can you pray for me?” He told me about his family situation. I’m not known as a pastor of any specific congregation! Sometimes people just call you that in Brazil when they see you caring for people. At the end, the men’s group leaders thanked me for coming because so many people there received from God as we prayed. The pastor at that church’s couple’s group also often asks me to pray for people, thanks me when I can come, and asks when he’ll see me next.

Despite my inability to spend as much time with the people from “Casa church” now, and the close ties I’ve developed with people from the “Emaus” congregation, “Casa” isn’t any more or less “my church” than it was before! How could I think like that if I believe there is one body of Christ? Many of the people I loved from Casa have scattered to other congregations, and some remain. Yet the Holy Spirit’s bond of love is unchanged. I’m still with most of those people in missions. This contrasts with some people who “leave” one church to go to another, and the relationships get broken off!

Because of the Open Heaven group we just started, I won’t be able to go to the men’s group. I felt such a yearning of love for them the last time I went. I wished I could keep going and do the Open Heaven group too. Then one of the guys just invited me to a Friday night mission and added me to a fourth missions group. The Couple’s group pastor is the administrator, and the group includes many people from both Casa and Emaus! The people from Emaus have also started participating in our Mova-se Missions group.

I heard the Lord say, “There’s a movement of revival that isn’t about the banner of one church or another. It is about the body of Christ!” I believe my involvement in many congregations is the Lord’s doing, even though it horrifies people stuck in religiosity and the doctrines and traditions of men.

Our Open Heavens Group

A fear years ago, Reinhard Hirtler held an event in my city. I told him about all the miracles and said something like, “I’m trying to teach other people.” Later, he said in his message, “Jesus didn’t say to try to make disciples. He said to make disciples.” I’ve often felt that making disciples was difficult because people are so caught up in religious activity that they miss actually doing what Jesus taught his disciples to do. But I felt that the Lord said, “Just do it.” I decided to act. I talked to friends and we organized a Monday night group. We need a time to ask questions, not just listen to a religious speech. We need the Biblical order for our gatherings, which facilitates each member of Christ’s body ministering with supernatural grace.

Jesus commanded his disciples to heal the sick, cast out demons, and teach other disciples to do the same. Healing and deliverance are part of discipleship 101: they are mandatory. Disciples of Jesus obey the commands to heal the sick and cast out demons. Yet most of the church is not making disciples. They are making converts.

I’ve had people contacting me from every continent in the world requesting prayer for healing or deliverance. They should be able to receive the help they need in the local church. The need is enormous, but there are very few disciples of Jesus in the churches who can do the work. Most pastors in my city are not doing what Jesus said to do, so how can they teach others? Because of the current pastor-centered spectator format of religious gatherings, I nearly always see more of the Holy Spirit’s supernatural move almost anywhere but sitting through a “church service.”

We were recently at McDonalds. I prayed for a girl to feel God’s glory on her hands, then asked what she felt. Nothing. We prayed again, and the second time she couldn’t answer me. Her eyelids were fluttering rapidly, her lips quivering, and soon she was consumed in God’s fire and speaking loudly in tongues. At McDonalds at almost 2 in the morning. Then a lady received healing. These things are happening everywhere, because we pray for people everywhere. However, people are not getting the foundational teaching and discipleship they need.

We had our first meeting with about 20 people. I shared my heart, and then we did a Bible study together with questions and answers. Our first topic was the commands of Jesus to heal the sick and cast out demons. We gave simple instructions and people ministered to each other. Most people present in need of healing received miracles, not when I prayed, but as the church ministered to each other. It was probably many people’s first experience of Jesus doing a miracle through their own hands. Many felt God’s glory touch them tangibly. People were impacted by prophecy. We had plenty of fellowship time and a snack, and people were praying for each other through it all. Weeping, laughter, cries of joy, tongues, until almost midnight.

Many say they want revival, but they disobey the Biblical commands to make disciples and to do everything decently in an order that facilitates the manifestation of God’s grace through each member of Christ’s body. They want to hold to their religious tradition that keeps people as spectators.

Now, imagine if I were trying to satisfy the religiosity of those who think, “You need to have a specific group that you call your church. You can’t just fellowship during the week with friends who happen to be from five congregations!” It seems that the group we started is likely to grow rapidly. I could easily just slap a name on it such as, “Heaven’s Glory Church,” and then say I’m the pastor. There you go! I have a church with a label. I’m not just a member of the “Church in Goiânia.” Now you guys can leave the other congregations you are fellowshipping with and come to “my church.”

Would such an attitude really be of God’s Spirit, or would it just be carnality? If we told people, “You are part of our ‘church,’ so you can’t be a part of that other ‘church’ anymore,” how would the people in our group influence and teach others so that the Spirit’s move spreads throughout this city? Why take them out of communion with people they are in fellowship with in order to satisfy the human tradition of thinking, “this is my church” as if people from other congregations were not?

We are providing something essential that most of the religious establishment has failed to provide. Still, we must honor the Holy Spirit’s work in the various congregations. We want to partner with whatever the Holy Spirit is doing in the congregations in this city. Religiosity defines “church” by labels and control, but God builds up his church by relationship and the bond of the Holy Spirit. We are neither for nor against one group or another. We are for everything the Holy Spirit is doing among his people. We are not solo flyers. We add what we have to offer the body of Christ, and we allow people to receive anything helpful from other groups and ministers. Your fellowship with us doesn’t have to be to the exclusion of others. I don’t need to be, “Your pastor,” and you don’t need to “join my church.” I just want to see the Holy Spirit’s purposes fulfilled in your life.