Oikos intro talk 10th Nov 2013

10.11.13 Oikos series – (Edited version) It’s a Greek word and it’s all about the culture that we want to be at the heart of our missional communities. So important.

Communities without oikos would be like a body without a beating heart 4 week series spread over 5 weeks 1. Intro 2. The gathering 3. The community of the kingdom of heaven 4. What makes community work 5. The prize and the price of community Oikos intro talk ‘It’s how life was meant to be’ New wall displays of MCs – growing, giving, going Mock up of a newspaper headlines – Would we survive?

But it’s not just a question of survival, but our society may have abandoned the very culture that is most needed The problem: Extract from Mike’s blog ‘Living as oikos has been the norm for almost every culture for most of human history. It’s just how family was—not 2.4 children in a single-family home but a wider community sharing life, and work, and celebration, and commerce together.

Only in the last hundred years or so in the West have we lost this sense of being extended families on mission. For a whole host of reasons, we have unwittingly embraced the fragmentation of the extended family and tried to live primarily as individuals and nuclear families. The results of this experiment have been utterly disastrous, and you probably see the aftermath all around you. Loneliness and depression are rampant, we are more stressed and busier than ever, and many people feel they are barely keeping their heads above water as they try to advance in their careers, raise their children, and seek some semblance of meaning in life.’

So what is oikos?

Oikos: ‘the Greek word for home, house or household. It was the primary social unit in NT times. It generally included immediate family, extended family, servants, work colleagues, neighbours, and friends. It could number from 10-50 (or even 70).

The house would be the centre of accommodation, community and commerce, even if not all lived there.

As the good news penetrated the oikos, it became the natural vehicle for the gospel to become embedded in the culture and spread through all the connections of that oikos. It was the natural place for mission, nurture and discipleship.

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In NT terms, Oikos is ‘extended family on mission’ - Wall display Oikos is the culture we need and want at the heart of our missional communities The question: What did Oikos look like originally?

God has left his fingerprints in both the scriptural record of the early church and in two millennia of church history, as to what he has favoured and put his mark on.

He has given us a blueprint for personal, family, spiritual, social, church and societal life. We ignore it to our peril But are we too far gone, or could we be on the cusp of the most radical cultureshaping re-ordering and prophetic remodeling of the way life is done in our nation and western society.

Are we up for it? Are we prepared to experiment to discover what works and what brings life and health? Are we willing to extend the borders of our family to live as the early church did?

Are we able to rediscover the NT model of Oikos that served the early church so well, multiplying them from 120 in the upper room to 18 million Christian family members 300 years later.

Are we courageous enough to join the golden thread of church radicals through the ages who have taken the reality of the gospel and incarnated it in the ordinary everyday lives of extended families on mission together? This is our challenge.

Let’s look at:  Early church – Acts 2 through to the epistles  Records of early church history  Some observations on the house church movement The real revolutionaries - The early church – Public buildings were not allowed till 222AD. They used whatever they could – Temple (Acts 4), open air by the river in Philippi (Acts 16), Tyrannus’ lecture hall in Ephasus (Acts 19) So they met in homes. Homes were the primary vehicle for the advance of the gospel, the discipleship of new believers, and the building of authentic community.

Acts 2:42 They enjoyed the life together and the common meal, with prayers V44 ..holding everything in common. v46-47 They followed a daily discipline of worship in the Temple followed by meals at home (oikos),.

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Acts 4:32 They shared everything.

Acts 8:3-4 And Saul just went wild, devastating the church, entering house after house after house (oikos), Acts 10:24 A day later Peter entered Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had his relatives and close friends waiting with him.

10:27 While talking with him, Peter went inside and found a large gathering of people. – Cornelius’ Oikos Acts 12:5 in Jerusalem, Peter in prison is relased by an angel… v 12 Still shaking his head, amazed, Peter went to Mary’s house (oikos), the Mary who was John Mark’s mother. The house was packed with praying friends Acts 16:15 Lydia was baptized, along with her household (oikos), Acts 16:29-34 29-31 Paul said to the Philippian jailor, “Put your entire trust in the Master Jesus.

Then you’ll live as you were meant to live—and everyone in your house included! (oikos)” 32-34 the entire family (oikos) got in on this part. They never did get to bed that night. The jailer was baptized, he and everyone in his family. There in his home (oikos), he had food set out for a festive meal. It was a night to remember: He and his entire family had put their trust in God; everyone in the house (pan-oikos) was in on the celebration.

Acts 20:20 to the Ephesian elders I taught you out in public and from house to house (oikos) Rom 16:3-5 3-5 Say hello to Priscilla and Aquila, and the church that meets in their house (oikos).

Col 4:5 Greet Nympha and the church that is in her house (oikos) Philemon v1-2 I write this letter to you, Philemon, -also to our sister Apphia, to Archippus, a real trooper, and to the church that meets in your house (oikos) The church continued to grow rapidly though house church multiplication in the first 3C. Origen in the 3rd C said ‘multitudes of people are coming to faith’ Christians were called ‘followers of the way’. I suggest not only of Jesus as the way, but also the way he showed them to live.

Wolfgang Simpson writes in ‘Houses that changed the world’ -

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‌Christians had a communal lifestyle, socially inclusive like no other group in ancient history. They shared material blessings with everyone in need out of a common fund. They even used to pick up discarded babies left to die on the local garbage dumps, and raised them as their own, or volunteer to nurse victims of the plague, endangering their own lives, much to the dumbfounding of their contemporaries. .. they were approachable and trusted friends and counselors for anyone.

The radical remnant – 4th to 15thC The professionalizing of the church, the establishing of the clergy-laity divide, the separation of communion from eating together, the adoption of holy buildings, holy vestments, the control that came from the intertwining of the church and secular authorities led to the decline of these spontaneous and organically multiplying communities based in homes. Eventually the home meetings were actually banned in 380 Celtic movement in the UK in the 4th to 9thC The Celtic monasteries were built very much on shared community life with eating, working and learning together, shared rhythms of spirituality and shared mission. Often a band of missionary Celtic Christians would travel together to evangelize new areas like a sort of mobile oikos.

Children and students were allowed to be part of these communities and some would come and go, others would be permanent. This kind of permeable community meant that the monasteries were able to interact closely with their local geographical community, this was a major cause of the Christianizing of local areas and the monks were deeply involved with the local people, serving them in different ways During this time across Europe many small groups kept the true faith alive, they were usually persecuted and banned.

Priscillian was a Spanish nobleman in the 4thC who immediately revolted against the state-ordered and controlled religion. On fire for God, he began a lay movement in Spain and France. Many bishops and priests followed him. They met in small fellowships called brotherhoods, in ordinary houses. The establishment turned against him and had Priscillian and 6 of his friends put to death at Trier in Germany Many similar radical reforming groups sprang up in these spiritually dark ages over these 1000 years such as the Bogomillians (10th C in Bulgaria and the Balkans), the Petrobusians , the Patarenians, Waldensians (in France and Itally) (12th C), Lollards (followers of John Wycliffe in 14thC UK) and others (some went into error like the Grindeltonians and Muggletonians!)

Over those centuries (6th-16thC) the mainstream church descended into spiritual darkness and more dead religious practices took over the life of the church –

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worship of Mary, images and relics, Celibacy of the priesthood, the inquisition, purgatory and the sale of indulgences, the bible kept in a language that only the priests understood etc The reformation rebels (14th to 19thC) Finally the reformation movement broke in Europe with full power. Luther in 1521 rediscovered the power and message of the gospel – salvation by faith and the centrality of the scriptures.

He advocated a 3rd type of service (1st was a latin mass, 2nd was a German mass) – he said is should be - ‘truly evangelical… for those who want to be Christians in earnest…they should meet alone in a house somewhere to pray, read, baptize, receive the sacrament and do other Christian work Sadly because of political pressure and his own fears, he never put it into practice 1640 Jean de Labadie (France), a former Jesuit, he had one goal ‘the fellowship of true believers in small brotherhoods’ He gave practical advice on what to do in house meetings: Word of introduction Prayer, singing or bible reading / Discussing a biblical text Free prophesy according to 1 Cor 14 1705 Philip Jakob Spener, the father of pietism in Germany - organised small groups for encouragement and discipline where necessary. Pious gatherings X2 weekly. Discussed the previous Sundays sermon 1700s The French Huguenots in England called ‘dissenters’, a protestant movement forced underground by the Anglican church Organised themselves in to house churches and also met in large forest gatherings Daniel Defoe was a dissenter and wrote Robinson Crusoe.

Later in 1700’s John Wesley Converts gathered in small groups (classes) for accountability ..each person reported on their spiritual progress, shared particular needs and problems. Most conversions occurred here The recent restoration 20thC In the last C, in the 1970’s the house church movement sought to recover some of these great practices and truths but never reached its full potential because it generally failed to embrace the missional dimension.

Jenny and I in 1973 joined the house church movement believing that we were recovering something of vital importance to the church, something closer than ever

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before to the NT experience, something capable of reforming the established church.

The irony was that it did reform the established church, as it gradually took on the house church practices of free and creative worship, spiritual gifts, the 5 fold ministry, the place of hospitality and small group meetings.

But the movement itself faltered in the 80’s as it failed to embrace the missional dimension and challenge, preferring the comfort of its carpet slippers and the false belief that if we just loved one another well enough that the world would come flocking in. The great commission was considered more of a great suggestion.

40 years ago we joined a movement that began in Acts 2, was carried in radical reforming remnant groups through 2,000 years of church history and today we have another opportunity to connect with the energy and emphasis of that movement As we rediscover the church as extended family on mission.

Jenny and I moved to Liverpool in the hope that we could rediscover that movement. We’ve got stuck a couple of times, first with cell groups, and then with G12. But Abraham, it’s recorded in Heb 11, lived like a ‘temporary resident’, as he was looking for a city whose architect and builder is God. And like the psalmist in Ps 84 whose heart was set on pilgrimage - We press on too to rediscover the church that Jesus died for and is coming back for So our challenge will we reject the cynicism and disappointment of the past and say ‘count me in’, ‘whatever it takes’, ‘where else would we go?’

Or – will we say ‘oh that’s nice, but it disturbs my comfortable life, my 2 + 2.4 nuclear family idyll, the security of my 9-5 job, and the safety of my home being my castle.

- will we decide we don’t want the inconvenience, the unknown, the uncertainty, the messiness of new people coming to Christ, the hard work of making new relationships, the humility of saying sorry, the anxiety of making faith-based decisions, the embarrassment of being known as Christ-followers Today We stand at the threshold – will we step inside the beauty of Oikos?

We stand at the crossroads – which way will we turn?

We stand at a significant / kairos moment in time – how will we use it?

Today we are rediscovering the Oikos principle ‘extended families on mission’.

The joy of the natural rhythms of life that make this an integrated part of our normal lives instead of a set of meetings we attend.

The simplicity of finding those people of peace who God has already brought into our lives and who want to find God among us.

The delight of becoming spiritual parents to another generation of men, women and young people who will go on to change their world The supernatural breaking in naturally to our shared lives

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But more of this is over the next few weeks So what are we do to?

Repent – 10 ways to change the way you think To do so we must move: 1. From consumer to contributor mindset, 2. From private to public spirituality, 3. From individual believers to family members 4. From putting ourselves first, to seeking first the kingdom of God 5. From protective (and rusting – Matt 6) to proactive and trusting with our resources 6. From keeping it small, safe, and secure, to being willing for everything to grow and change 7. From being an expert to being a learner 8. From being fearful about taking initiative and responsibility to being full of faith for helping others to grow as disciples 9. From being satisfied to make disciples to being committed to make disciplemakers 10. From addition to multiplication Are we ready for a movement of God Spirit that will prepare the bride for Jesus return If we want a movement, we must be ready to move with God’s spirit A movement is something that is no longer capable of being controlled centrally, it is ‘out of control’ in the best sense of the world.

It expands across city, nation and globe.

A movement that creates new expressions of church from Congleton to Congo, North Liverpool to North Africa, from Netherly to the Netherlands, expressions we didn’t even know we were responsible for A movement is like an unstoppable tidal wave, In a true movement the vision and mission of the church will have passed into the hands of the people of the church It will be public property.

Oikos – it’s how life was meant to be - extended family on mission Discuss – what has spoken you today, what has challenged you, what questions is it causing you to ask?

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