It's About Community
2019/11/28
November 28, 2019
My personal encounter with God about 40 years ago plunged me headfirst into a life constructed on my own understanding of God and Christianity. However, from discovering and getting to know Him, first through my personal experience and then through active participation in the Christian world, I found myself strangely out of the church institution, to just walking with Him once again.
I discovered I was not alone.
There were many others like me, still holding on to that spark for God, broken, baffled and somewhat bewildered maybe, who were delighted to discover once again, an exciting, a deliriously happy, spirit filled and empowered life with the Lord Jesus, outside of church, beyond church walls.
Through the last 10 years, God let us experience his church in a different way, and taught us what it truly is, since the beginning, from the temple, to the church in the early days. And remarkably, we discovered that we have come full circle, broken and bent by God, to what it was in the beginning – a mobile temple, where God visits, without pageantry or fluff, in our little community of broken spirits – just us and God.
Yes, it’s all about community.
Written By:
Sara
December 2015 to June 2019
WE ARE MADE FOR COMMUNITY
Ps BC, one of my mentors, once said to me, “The Christian is incomplete without a community. It is when we are in community that we see the greatest change in ourselves.”
"IT IS WHEN WE ARE IN COMMUNITY THAT WE SEE THE GREATEST CHANGE IN OURSELVES."
I found this so true.
Indeed, how else does one grow?
Truly, it is when we have to co-exist with others.
Anyone who has grown up with siblings can identify with that I am sure. I have 12! We shared one toilet and two bathrooms. We had to share many things. We agreed, we disagreed, we played together, we studied together and we got in each other’s way. We fought and we resolved our differences, we pushed and set boundaries, and eventually we grew up to love, to extend grace, to appreciate and to respect one another’s individuality.
Because we are family.
Loving Is Hard To Do
At the last supper with His disciples, just after Judas left to betray Jesus and right before Peter swore his willingness to die for the Lord, Jesus said this:
"A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." (John 13:34-35 NIV)
This command to love fellow Christian brothers and sisters – is often difficult, if not impossible, as we are all fraught with human frailty. Maybe that is why it has to be a command and not a request.
Judas thought he knew a better way to manage and run Jesus’ ministry, and Peter thought Jesus was going to do something spectacular in their nation and wanted to play a big part in it. Both failed miserably. The rest, handpicked and groomed by Jesus himself, did not fare any better. They simply did not listen to what Jesus is saying – that the only thing to qualify them as Jesus’ disciples was simply this - to love one another.
Only God Can
"THE ABILITY TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER CAN ONLY COME FROM GOD HIMSELF."
Some people I got to know in my business decided to meet with me regularly to learn more about God in my normal Christian life. We came from different churches, different backgrounds and from different countries. Without realising it, we became a community.
The Holy Spirit empowers us to love one another and leads us with His signs, visions, stories and truths. I am a blessing to them and they are a blessing to me. I learn from them as they learn from me. Before we know it, we are transformed. Bit by bit we break out of old mindsets and attitudes and find ourselves becoming more and more like Christ and more hungry for God.
Like A Family - Deep, Not Wide
The Bible says, “We are part of God’s family now.”
Because the community is like a family, it is naturally small and therefore more manageable. Relationships run deep and we are able to care for one another in greater depth and over a lifetime. Because that’s what families do. Well, at least I can speak for our Asian culture.
But like in any family, we COBS members have tasted our fair share of ups and downs.
Still, through it, we have grown to learn what it takes to truly love one another. We still get hurt and we hurt. At times, we have to challenge foolishness, expose lies, correct wrong attitudes or behavior, but it is never taken personally.
"IT IS MUCH HARDER TO CONFRONT ISSUES AND A LOT EASIER TO OVERLOOK AND GLOSS OVER WRONGDOING... ONLY THOSE WHO TRULY CARE ABOUT YOU WILL DO THAT."
Fundamentally, we know how much we truly care for one another and as I always explain to the members - it is much harder and a lot more unpleasant for anyone to confront issues and a lot easier to overlook and gloss over wrongdoing with Christian niceness.
Only those who truly care about you will do that, so appreciate and cherish that. Furthermore, they know that I do not waste precious time and energy on politics or games as I have better things to do.
Slowly but surely, we learn, grow and appreciate how wonderful it is to be in God’s household – our most important community outside of our biological family.
We also rejoice in those who have left our community – because they have experienced what it is like to be so loved and we earnestly hope they go out to find their destiny in Christ. Every time when we get together again, it is always a time of great rejoicing.
We keep COBS small and duplicable. So that when it gets too big to manage and when the Lord indicates it is time, some of us will go out to start a new community in another place.
We Choose To Be Happy
Joy, my mentor Ai Boon shared many years ago, is not the same as happiness.
Happiness is dependent on the circumstances one is in but joy is something we feel even if everything around us has nothing for us to be happy about.
Since then, it has been my motto and that of our COBS community:
“WE CHOOSE TO BE HAPPY!”
"GOD NEVER FAILS TO SHOW UP WHEN WE CHOOSE TO REJOICE IN HIM AND IN ONE ANOTHER."
But with this reminder from the Holy Spirit, we overcome all that the enemy throws at us without fail with singing and rejoicing. God never fails to show up when we choose to rejoice in Him and in one another. He does his magic and turns everything around, usually into something even more wonderful and we laugh and rejoice even more.
Because of the community, we find ourselves always joyful in the Lord who is with us and even more so when things get rough and challenges surmount.
Isolation, self-indulgence and the pursuit of knowledge may provide some respite from our troubles and a degree of happiness but it’s never that same fulfilling and lasting joy. I have tried that. It led to the abyss of spiritual boredom, numbness and death of the soul. The writings of King Solomon attest to it too. 😊
WHAT ABOUT CHURCH?
This is a segment I found very hard to write and I tried to sidestep much of it in what I thought was the completed manuscript last year. The Lord showed me that I have held back and made it rather murky by not going straight to the point about what He has let me experienced and learned about church though my almost 40 years as a Christian.
In His usual fashion, He did not let me off quite that easily. So much personal warfare and afflictions have happened in the process of getting it printed for community use.
Thank you Lord for your patience with me.
"HE TOLD ME TO REWRITE THIS SEGMENT AND FINISH IT, AS CANDIDLY AS HE LED ME TO..."
One of the COBS members YY sent me a word to rest for 15 days in April 2017. On one morning during that period of rest, He told me to re-write this segment and finish it, as candidly as He led me to. I realised that this was the source of all the warfare going on.
Starting from the late morning of May 2, 2017, I wrote into the night, completing my first draft at 2.30 am. The words flowed from my spirit to my keyboard easily after so many months of struggle. I was so relieved to be able to finally discard all the scraps of paper I had scribbled on regarding this entire section.
On May 5, it was finished - after working on it for three long nights in a row.
To me, it was nothing short of miraculous as I was suffering from severe neck problems. For weeks, I could not sit up or work on my computer for more than an hour without feeling stiff or extremely tired. Now, after three gruelling days, I was surprised to find myself completely free from pain or discomfort. It has been a long time since my neck and shoulders felt this good!
Our Quest For A Church
My husband and I have searched for a church to go to for some years now after the Lord led us out of our last Church. I would ask the Holy Spirit whenever we visited one, sometimes with high hopes, but simply could not get His approval to settle down in any. I was getting desperate.
A few times I lamented to the Lord.
He replies with this familiar verse: ‘Foxes have holes …” [1]
And I will smile in my heart and stop complaining J; comforted that Jesus understands exactly what I am going through… I know that I just have to trust Him in this extended period of aloneness and separation. This is perhaps another circle of brokenness for me; breaking off dependence or addiction to the cozy, comfortable world of church life.
I pray you will bear with me while I share what the Lord showed me about the Church through a journey starting from the origins of the Temple.
History Of The Temple
He took me back in time to when people tried to build God a house…
- The Tabernacle of Moses
- The Tabernacle was a mobile Temple/dwelling place for God as the Israelites wandered in the wilderness after their Exodus from Egypt and subsequently for about 40 years at Shiloh during the time of the Judges.
- God’s glory will fill the Tabernacle like a cloud and when it lifts and moves, the Israelites know it is time to pack and move with it. [2]
- The Ark of the Covenant was central to the Tabernacle as it was where God said He would meet and speak with Moses (Exodus 25:22). It was the symbol of God’s Presence with the people of Israel.
- The people donated all the materials and resources needed to build the Tabernacle. In fact, the amount given was in excess of what was needed and the excess was returned to them. So there was no debt when the Temple was completed and no surplus “building fund”.
- It was a place to worship God with burnt offerings. Levites were chosen by God to take care of the tabernacle on a full-time basis. They offered prayers on behalf of all the people of Israel there.
- The First Temple (957 BC)
- King David instituted round-the-clock worship with music and singing when he built God the magnificent Temple in Jerusalem (often referred to as the First Temple) in 957 BC. King David had prepared all the resources, including the temple design, for his son, King Solomon, to build the Temple (1 Kings 5-8), with no loans or debt.
- The Tabernacle of Moses was dismantled and the Ark of the Covenant was then brought into this Temple.
- Levites were full-time employees for the Temple. They did not engage in other vocations or businesses. It was when the nation of Israel fell into sin and the country went into economic hardship that the Levites had to abandon the Temple and find work outside.
Throughout the Bible, we find that the Temple was often the subject of much desecration and pillage as subsequent kings forgot God. The Bible repeats the same sad line throughout the books of Kings: “He did evil in the eyes of the Lord.”
- The Second Temple/ The Temple Mount[3] (516 BC)
- Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem and the First Temple in 586 BC. The Jews were then taken captive to Babylon and the city had no centre of worship until Zerubbabel and the returning exiles built the Second Temple, which was much more modest than the First Temple, completing it in 516 BC. Ezra, Nehemiah and Haggai played a part in the rebuilding of the Temple after the Babylonian captivity.
- The Second Temple was greatly enlarged by Herod the Great beginning in 20 BC in the 17th year of his reign but it was destroyed by the Roman general Titus in 70 AD.
- Jesus was dedicated in the Second Temple.
- Today what is left of the Temple is mere rubble, just as Jesus had told the Pharisees what would happen to it. The Temple Mount is a politically sensitive and tense area. Although Israel liberated it from Jordanian control in the Six-Day War of 1967, they allowed the Muslim Waqf (religious committee) in Jordan to have administrative control over it, as it holds a Muslim shrine, The Dome of the Rock, and the Al-Aqsa Mosque. They were built by a Muslim Caliphate from Syria in the 7th century. Both places are considered sacred to Muslims and Arabs. Non-Muslim prayer is prohibited at the Temple Mount.
- Jews still pray night and day at the Western Wall, which is below the Temple Mount, along a section of the great retaining wall of the Mount, in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City. The Western Wall is close as Jews can get these days to the site of their ancient temple.
- The Temple Mount area is also the location of the birth of the Christian church at the feast of Pentecost.
- Today’s Temple: The Church
Today, the Church also serves as a temple for Christians to worship God and to hear a message preached on the pulpit. It is usually housed in a building or venue where Christians gather every week, usually on weekends when they have their rest day from work. I have always attended church services regularly ever since I was a born-again Christian in 1983 and I believe it is important to worship God together with other Christians.
In the churches I used to go to, membership rules required that members tithe (i.e. give) 10% of their income to the church. Besides tithes, members were handed the offering bag at service every week to give more offerings and, at times, to other special purpose funds, e.g. a mission fund or an outreach fund. We also had to pledge to contribute to a building fund to pay for the lease or construction of the premises. They depended on a continuous flow of funds to repay building loans and to maintain the premises and services. I faithfully contributed to all of that.
Because of added financial pressure and high operating costs of maintaining a church building that remains highly under-utilised for the rest of the week, the church has to watch its costs carefully. It also has to rely heavily on volunteers from the congregation to man services and programs. In the more “successful” churches, the money coming in far exceeds their operating costs and that creates a different set of challenges altogether.
Churches today come in different sizes, denominations and affiliations. They may be run centrally, collectively or independently. Despite having been actively and enthusiastically involved with the church for the most part of my Christian life, I have felt strangely estranged from them in the past few years. While we have many good friends and mentors in several churches, my husband and I struggle to find one we can both feel at ease in and I sometimes worry that we might grow cold in our Christian faith if we do not settle down in one soon.
Predicament With Today’s Church
"RIGID, CONTROLLING, PROUD... LACKING IN JOY AND RELEVANCE, LIKE A COZY SOCIAL CLUB... FOR BORED, GRUMPY AND GOSSIPY SENIOR CITIZENS."
I have observed that the church of today, with the exception of a small few in some of the countries I have visited, has somehow become like an institution - rigid, controlling, proud and conceited, ceremonial and unreal, lacking in joy and relevance, looking more like a cozy social club or an activity centre for bored, grumpy and gossipy senior citizens.
"OR... BUSY AND FLOURISHING... FULL OF LIFE AND MARKET APPEAL... PUMPED UP TO ENTERTAIN, DAZZLE AND IMPRESS..."
On the other end, there are the busy and flourishing ones - full of life and market appeal, where the program is spectacular and the speakers are cool; everything and everyone pumped up to entertain, dazzle and impress, hoping to attract a huge fan base, promote book sales and boost membership numbers – not much different from a rock concert.
Maybe I have not tried hard enough, for I have yet to find a place of worship where the Holy Spirit in me and I can totally worship God and where God is the central and only focus.
It was in this desperation that when I found favour from the management at our place of business to let me start a weekly worship meeting, my team members and I jumped into it with great enthusiasm even though none of us are even close to being musically gifted!
But maybe this is precisely what God planned, to take a bunch of us to learn how to worship Him, not with musical talents but in spirit and in truth. Much to our delight, He showed up at every meeting and taught us what is worship that He delights in. This you can find in the segment on Worship in the Book of Sara.
The Lord started to speak to me about the Church, his body:
1. The Church Is Not In Buildings
In the New Testament, we see Jesus displaying one of His rare moments of rage when He cleared the Temple, overturning tables, driving out moneychangers and salesmen and oxen and sheep with a whip (!), pouring out the money of the moneychangers on the ground (John 2) – can you imagine that? Jesus in a fit? If someone does that in a house of worship today, he will probably be shot or arrested!
Why? What made Him so angry? I believe it is because the priests and the people made a mockery of the Temple, which we see earlier in its origin, is a holy sanctuary where God may come and speak to His people; a place of worship and prayer to the Almighty God.
"HE MADE A PROFOUND STATEMENT - THAT HIS CRUCIFIED BODY WOULD BECOME THE TEMPLE, NO LONGER A BUILDING MADE BY HUMAN HANDS."
When challenged on the authority to do all that - He made a profound statement - that His crucified body would become the temple, no longer a building made by human hands.
And the proof?
He would raise the temple in three days.
"But the Jewish leaders demanded, "What are you doing? If God gave you authority to do this, show us a miraculous sign to prove it." "All right," Jesus replied. "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." "What!" they exclaimed. "It has taken forty-six years to build this Temple, and you can rebuild it in three days?" But when Jesus said "this temple," He meant his own body. After He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered He had said this, and they believed both the Scriptures and what Jesus had said." John 2:18-22 (NLT)
2. The New Temple; Indestructible And Incorruptible
Take a moment to think about this.
The temple was originally a place where God communicated with His people, a place where His Presence was visible to all.
Then it became a magnificent physical building.
That was a sight to behold but it caused them to lose sight of God.
"EACH TIME IT WAS DAMAGED OR DESTROYED, THEY REBUILD IT AND IT WOULD BE DESTROYED OVER AND OVER AGAIN."
Each time it was damaged or destroyed, they would rebuild it and it would be destroyed over and over again. They are still planning to rebuild the Third Temple … even now!
They just don’t seem to get it.
Maybe this is why God did not allow me to visit Israel to see the Temple Mount for many years after I became a Christian, eager as I was. When I finally made that long-awaited trip only a few years ago, I realised why.
The Temple there is only a relic.
God is not there. In fact, I was rather disturbed by what I encountered there instead. But that would be in another story to be told.
I have found that when people try to put God into a grand building, it somehow becomes the beginning of the end of their church and the building eventually becomes a dead monument, good only for tourism.
"THE ONLY TEMPLE THAT GOD DESIRES TO DWELL IN, THROUGH HIS SPIRIT, IS IN OUR BODY!"
History has proven Jesus right. Buildings don’t last.
But the New Temple, which is His resurrected body, because it is not made by human hands, it is indestructible and incorruptible.
3. Jesus Is Not Impressed With Magnificent Buildings, Only People Are.
In Matthew 24:1-2, as Jesus departed from the temple, His disciples came up to Him to show Him the buildings of the temple. Jesus was hardly impressed.
I suspect it is the same with many of the churches today. Jesus is not impressed and He asked His disciples (and us) to see again – that everything that is built out of vanity will ultimately be destroyed.
"EVERYTHING BUILT OUT OF VANITY WILL ULTIMATELY BE DESTROYED."
Through the past decade, I have been led to many magnificent cathedrals throughout Europe, built by kings and queens, by famous architects, clad with jewels and beautiful art and sculptures... but alas, the Spirit of God is not there…
4. The Only Temple Where God Desires To Dwell In
Jesus went on to save Saul, later renamed Paul.
God loves irony I think.
Paul, who describes himself as the Pharisee of Pharisees, bent on getting rid of all Christians, was blinded so that he can be freed from the blinding pride of religiosity.
Jesus proved Himself to Paul and healed him so that he could see who God really is – that He is not something or someone you can reduce to a mere set of rules, ideology or tradition.
Through the Holy Spirit, Paul became Christianity’s most learned and insightful evangelist and teacher. He wrote extensively to the Gentile churches and through him, we understand a bit more about the temple and where the church of the Lord is.
“Don’t you realise that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself.” 1 Corinthians 6:19 (NLT)
The only temple that God desires to dwell in, through His Spirit, is our body!
Back To The Beginning: The Mobile Temple
I find this rather intriguing, what the Lord showed me.
God’s sanctuary was a mobile temple at the start.
Then they put Him in a grand building.
They forget Him and He moves out.
It repeats again and again.
Then Christ died and his body resurrects as the new temple.
Through Christ, the Holy Spirit moves into us.
And our body becomes the temple in which God dwells.
A mobile temple again!
Therefore we do not need to go to a physical building to worship God.
We are the temple! A mobile temple.
But wait; didn’t Christ say His body is the temple earlier?
Paul has the answer to that too:
"The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ. Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptised into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit." 1 Corinthians 12:12-13
"All of you together are Christ's body, and each of you is a part of it." 1 Corinthians 12:27
The Holy Spirit illustrated it to me.
"WE ARE LIKE MINI TEMPLES, WITH THIS ONE SPIRIT LIVING IN US, POURED TOGETHER INTO THE BODY OF JESUS, WHICH IS THE TEMPLE OF GOD."
We are like mini water vessels holding the Holy Spirit in us. Poured into a bigger water container, we become one big body of water that cannot be differentiated or separated. This big body of water is one Spirit; held in one big container, which is Jesus’ body. So we are like mini temples, with this one Spirit living in us, poured together into the body of Jesus, which is the Temple of God, where God speaks and communicates with us.
Oh … this gets fun – so, instead of us going to church to worship God or to meet with God (when actually He is not there in the building), it is us who bring the Temple of God to the church building instead. Or to any place!
The Community Is The Church!
It suddenly dawned upon me, that in my search for a Church to go to worship God, the Lord has already provided His church to me all these years – we, the broken little parts of His body, in whom the Holy Spirit dwells and leads, coming together in all our worship meetings at our workplace and in our homes – we together form
His body, His church.
The Lord’s church is in our little community!
The church can be at home, at work, at leisure, in any place.
"WHEN WE WORSHIP TOGETHER IN ONE SPIRIT... LIVE LIFE TOGETHER IN ONE SPIRIT - WE BECOME THE CHURCH, OF WHICH CHRIST IS HEAD."
When we worship together in one spirit, fellowship in one spirit, pray in one spirit, eat in one spirit, rejoice in the Lord in one spirit, rest in one spirit and live life together in one spirit - we become the church, of which Christ is head. [4]
After this revelation, I began to see it even more clearly.
Early Church Beginnings
I thought of the church in its infancy.
In those days, little communities of believers met at home or at their place of work or business. They shared testimonies, heard stories and teachings of Jesus and shared food and resources with one another. They had to meet in secret or discreetly as the religious leaders and the Roman authorities persecuted them, but they still went to the synagogue on Sabbath day or on festive or special occasions to fulfill their Jewish religious duties.
One very painful and intense movie I recommend watching is “Paul, Apostle of Christ”, a 2018 American biblical drama film written and directed by Andrew Hyatt. The early church, the real church, is certainly not cozy, cushy or grand.
"PERHAPS MANY WHO THOUGHT THEY COULD FIND GOD IN THE SECOND TEMPLE, FOUND HIM IN THEMSELVES INSTEAD..."
After the Holy Spirit came upon them on the Day of the Pentecost, signs and wonders would follow wherever they went. Perhaps many who thought they could find God in the Second Temple, found Him in themselves instead - because they are the church, the body of Christ and the only Temple where one can get a connection to God.
No wonder the church from the days of the saints could increase in faith and in numbers despite all the efforts to snub them out!
This church, which is the body of Christ, is not only indestructible, it is unstoppable!
Spirit Empowered Communities
Reading my Revival Study Bible on the day of my rest in May 2017, I was led to read about how a run-down, ram-shackled place in a black ghetto of Los Angeles, USA, was used for one of the greatest revivals in church history.
Page 1533:
“Azusa triggered the most powerful missionary impulse in human history. More people became Christians worldwide in the first fifty years of the 20th century than all of the first nineteen hundred years of revival and evangelism put together.”
This was another Rhema moment for me. This is one revival I happened to find out about when the Lord beckoned me to go to USA in Nov 2008, another one of God’s little mysteries that will be the subject of another book one day.
Who would have imagined that this little church community started by a poor, one-eyed, black, middle-aged pastor, Dr. William Seymour (1870-1922), who was rejected and discriminated by the Church institution during a time of America’s deepest racial prejudice, would be handpicked by God to pour out his Holy Spirit to all flesh, bringing them to their knees under His power, uniting believers from all over the world in One Spirit? It is said that over 80% of world missions today can trace their spiritual roots back to the 1906 Azusa Street Revival.[5]
Once again, just like in the days after the Pentecost, the gospel spread far and wide under the power of the Holy Spirit working in small and humble communities worshipping God and God alone.
Today, Christianity accounts for one third of the earth’s religion. [6]
The Holy Spirit often bubbles with excitement within us when we meet and He never fails to release His Rhema word or visions. Prayers get answered and miracles often accompany even when we least expect it.
"THE HOLY SPIRIT CONTINUES TO DRIVE THIS MESSAGE HOME TO ME - THE CHURCH IS WHERE THE COMMUNITY IS!"
The Holy Spirit continues to drive this message home to me - the church is where the community is!
Led to read another part in the Revival Study Bible, I chanced upon the story of a Count Zinzendorf (Page 1176) who formed “romantic little societies” while in school training to be a statesman.
He said, “We used to meet to encourage and to help one another to grow in grace and do our duty. We knew no other way than that laid down in scripture … by this rule we tested our actions and prostrated ourselves before that Invisible Majesty we called our Love, our Brother and our Head.”
Communities In Many Forms
Communities can therefore come in many forms – little societies, fellowships, gatherings or meet-ups to worship the Lord, to pray, to share, to chill, to read poetry, to listen to music, to read the Bible, to play sports etc.
Over the past decades, I had held several seasons of praying women meetings at home, in meeting rooms at our place of business and in our prayer vault – praying for our husbands, our children, ourselves and recently, praying for our adult children.
The Holy Spirit often bubbles with excitement within us when we meet and He never fails to release His Rhema word or visions. Prayers get answered and miracles often accompany even when we least expect it.
THE LORD’S HEART FOR THE “UNCHURCHED”
I realise now that the reason why I had trouble writing this in the past months was because I was afraid of sounding critical or judgmental of the Institutional Church of today (for differentiation, I will address it in capital letters: “The Church”).
I reckon that many may take offence or disagree completely with what I wrote earlier about my experience and observations about The Church and accuse me of stereotyping. For this I apologise. I do see good people, doing good and with great testimonies in The Church too. But unfortunately, I have to say it as I hear it and make my peace with God.
"CHURCH MEMBERSHIP IS ON THE DECLINE."
In a meeting in Bangkok I had with one of my closest friends, Kelly, and Mel (my ghostwriter for a book) to try to define what COBS is, we chanced upon an article in a Christian magazine, which reported that while the Church has seen many salvations, the trend is that more people are leaving Church than ever before, far exceeding the numbers who have joined. Church membership is on the decline.
The Lord had urged me to write and to put COBS online. He showed me his burden and love for the “Unchurched” - who, like me, no longer go to The Church, for whatever reasons, but have never given up hope, continuing to pursue God, seeking and finding greater intimacy and closeness with Him outside the walls of the institutionalized Church.
I struggled for years with this as I am not a digital geek, far more comfortable with books than computer screens. After years of investing time and resources into it and not without intense warfare and some resistance, I am gratified that this has finally come to fruition.
I understand why the Lord put me on this journey and grapple with this lonesomeness when I was actually very contented to remain in The Church. But it is without regret. It has been absolutely worth it. Out here, we have saved a lot more people from death, suicide, marital failures and hopelessness, many more times than in the many years serving The Church.
"WE SPENT YEARS JUST SIMPLY WORSHIPPING GOD AND FELLOWSHIPPING WITH ONE ANOTHER... GROWING IN LOVE AND INTIMACY WITH HIM AND WITH EACH OTHER'S FAMILY."
We spent years just simply worshipping God and fellowshipping with one another, helping each other, sharing what we learn from God, growing in love and intimacy with Him and with each other’s family. At the same time, we were formulating and testing the COBS model in baby steps, home by home, place by place, city by city.
I find this small community model very useful in China now, where the government watches and controls the state-sanctioned Church and has in recent years made a big show of raiding some non-sanctioned church buildings that have sprouted up after China opened its economy, tearing down some, replacing the cross on their roofs of some with the communist flag and arresting pastors for holding unauthorized meetings.
I think the Lord is brilliant to have kept our community small and inconspicuous, focused simply on worshipping God and letting His Spirit work in us and through us. We are so amazed by the power of the Holy Spirit coming upon their meetings, which they sometimes hold from morning till late in the night, reluctant to leave the Presence of God.
Not In Competition With The Church
Nevertheless, this is what I would like to reiterate:
- It has never been my intent to compete with The Church or seek to replace any Church. I have always believed each serves its own unique purpose; each has its own call and its own anointing. All of us are personally accountable to the Lord for what He has called us to do and I would take everything to the Lord in event of any opposition or disagreement.
- COBS does not belong to any denomination or affiliation.
- COBS members are free to visit or join any church or Christian organisation.
Followers Of Christ, Not Christianity
Our lives are centred on Jesus Christ and Christ alone.
We are not followers of Christianity. We are followers of Christ.
In conclusion, in my early days as a Christian, I learned a lot from The Church and I am grateful for that. I totally believed everything that was taught and earnestly tried to put everything into practice - I am quite sure my mentors would vouch for that.
I thank God for opening my eyes to see the ‘mixture’ that is in the church today – of good with bad, truth with lies – making me feel very conflicted about it, finding it a joy but also a pain, hard to leave and just as hard to stay with.
"... 'THE MIXTURE' THAT IS IN THE CHURCH TODAY - OF GOOD WITH BAD... HARD TO LEAVE AND JUST AS HARD TO STAY WITH."
I echo what one very baffled believer in China said as she turned to her pastor earnestly: “Christianity seems very good but yet it is also seems very bad for us. Sometimes what is preached seems so right and yet sometimes it seems so wrong.” The joke is that even her pastor agreed and expressed his own conundrum!
But not anymore, YP now hosts a Torch (the COBS meeting) in her city and more Torches have been lighted as they encounter the power and presence of the Holy Spirit who, true to his name, is a Wise Counsellor, teaching them and proving them the Word of God and the Truth in their meetings, not let by men or women, but entirely by His Spirit.
I pray that God will help each of us to overcome and return to one Spirit. Only Jesus knows the truth and I pray that we may all have it so that we can be set free. I still hang on to the hope that one day my husband and I can find a Church to go to but in the meantime, I will continue to live a life broken and bent by the Holy Spirit, together with my little community of broken spirits whom I grow to love more and more.
TORCHBEARERS
From 2008, I have been led to go on a journey (subject of a book in progress called “Story of V” for now) to many countries across the globe, through dreams, visions and signs that the Lord showed me.
From Europe to Africa, USA to many parts of Asia and Australia, I visited places of interest, churches, cathedrals, gravesites, prayer mountains, birthplace of the early church and historical places of the martyrs. He showed me the good and the bad, the asleep and the alive, and the really lost ones. I was also led to read about some communities that have come out of The Church.
"I AM ENCOURAGED TO SEE THAT I AM NOT ALONE. THE LORD CALLED US "TORCHBEARERS"."
I am encouraged to see that I am not alone. The Lord called us “Torchbearers”.
We are little pockets of fire scattered around doing what is seemingly insignificant - living a simple life led by the spirit of God, loving one another, helping each other, raising families and just worshipping the Lord our God.
One day, when I was watching I think was the final episode of “The Lord of the Rings”, a particular scene gripped me. From the sighting of the first torch lighted up on a mountain - the clarion call of the alliance was sent from hill to hill, mountain to mountain, town to town, country to country, to bear arms and gather to fight against the huge advancing evil forces.
Indeed, life as a Torchbearer may get lonesome at times as we are not caught up with the sense of belonging with the masses, the big events and movements but as it is the Lord who led us to start COBS, we simply wait upon him and faithfully carry on.
[1] And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” – Matthew 8:20, English Standard Version (ESV)
[2] Then the cloud covered the Tabernacle, and the glory of the LORD filled the Tabernacle. Moses could no longer enter the Tabernacle because the cloud had settled down over it, and the glory of the LORD filled the Tabernacle. Now whenever the cloud lifted from the Tabernacle, the people of Israel would set out on their journey, following it. But if the cloud did not rise, they remained where they were until it lifted. The cloud of the LORD hovered over the Tabernacle during the day, and at night fire glowed inside the cloud so the whole family of Israel could see it. This continued throughout all their journeys. - Exodus 40: 34-38 NLT
[3] Refer to http://www.templemount.org/TM34.html
[4] Christ is the head of the church, which is his body. – Colossians 1:18, New Living Translation (NLT)
[5] Parts extracted from the Revival Study Bible
[6] “A comprehensive demographic study of more than 200 countries finds that there are 2.18 billion Christians of all ages around the world, representing nearly a third of the estimated 2010 global population of 6.9 billion. Christians are also geographically widespread – so far-flung, in fact, that no single continent or region can indisputably claim to be the center of global Christianity.”
Pew Research Centre Dec 2011. http://www.pewforum.org/2011/12/19/global-christianity-exec/
