The Great Debate!

Please do me a favor, if you choose to read this blog, please read it in its entirety.  I promise to keep it as short as possible.

Thanks.... Larry

OK, the great benefit of owning a blog site is that I can write whatever I want to, when every I want to.  Why?  Because I'm paying for it, so I get the right to express my opinions no matter how right or wrong they may seem to others. 

Getting that off my mind, I wish to address some of the great debating going on within the Church today.  I became a Christan in 1973, and to be honest, I can never recall a time when there has not been great debates coming forth within the Body of Christ.  If you recall, some of the past debates were even brutal in nature.  However, it seems that there is an abundance of debating going on these days, and so much of it is based upon opinions.  A good example was the other day, an evangelist friend was talking to me about a pastor that was not interested in having Corinne and I in his church for meetings.  The reason was that we were "too spiritual," or something like that. I was somewhat astonished by this, as I thought that we were all to be, "too spiritual."   And to think that this came from a pastor who had never been in any of our meetings!  And here I thought that everyone loved me!  Ha!  Wow, we are so quick to jump to conclusions today, then debate them with others!

Much of today's debate revolves around the way that we "do church," with some saying, meet in buildings, some say homes.   

OK, we're church planters.  When we plant we do plant churches that meet in homes.  Here's why:  I feel that they are the most Scriptural model of church planting.  I base much of my thinking on I Corinthians 14:26-33, "When you meet together, one will sing, another will teach, another will tell some special revelation God has given, one will speak in tongues, and another will interpret what is said.  But everything that is done must strengthen all of you."  I feel that it is pretty hard to fulfill this in a traditional church setting.   I also see that the "Early Church" met in homes.  Yes there were larger public meeting venues, but if you really study the context of the verses mentioned, these were more open evangelistic meetings, than "church" meetings.    We plant churches, oversee them, and encourage them to plant others themselves, with the bottom line being, they taking their cities for Jesus Christ.

We are also itinerant ministers, we like to call ourselves, "Revivalists."  We minister in all types of churches, from denominations to independents.  Actually we spend most of our ministry time in churches/groups like this.  Sometimes we are asked, "Don't you find it a conflict of interest to minister in more traditional churches when you plant churches that meet in homes?'  And our answer is, "Not at all!"  When we minister in an established church, we consider ourselves part of the staff of that church.  We work hard for that church, we give that church 100% plus of any ministry that we have within us.  We attend the church's prayer/intercession meetings, we go to the streets with their evangelism teams, we even will counsel the people, of course with the pastor's permission.  When we are in a church for meetings we consider ourselves members of that church.  We don't try to change the way they "do church."  No not at all!  Why?  Because we love the Church... we love God's people!  We only focus on one thing... More of God!  When He shows up, it just doesn't make a difference where we meet. 

The Great Debate will most likely rage for a long time, and I most likely will get in my share of personal opinion venting, after all, some of you already know how quick I am to debate these subjects!  The debating  in itself is not bad, actually I feel that it's rather healthy, if for no other reason, than to solidify our own thinking on these matters.  But the real bottom line is our attitudes in all of this, can we still love the others?  If so, then we are right with God.  All we really need is true revival to be manifested within us, then our churches, and everything will be just fine!

OK, I promised to keep this blog as short as possible.  I'm actually going to end here.  I really would love to hear from you about this.  All you have to do is hit the little "comment" button below this article and post away.

Thanks and be blessed this week!

Larry

Our webpage: www.larrysilverman.com