​Most people think of "sound doctrine" as synonymous with "good theology." And we talk about orthodoxy, which means "right knowledge." And that is good. By all means. It's a bad thing to have wrong knowledge. But did you know that when the scriptures talk about sound doctrine, they are referring more to orthopraxy than orthodoxy? Sound doctrine is about right practice, right actions, right behavior, right doing, right living. This becomes so obvious in Paul's instruction to pastor Titus. If you're in a position to teach or pastor, make sure you don't miss this! 

00:00 Introduction to Sound Doctrine
00:35 Orthodoxy vs. Orthopraxy
00:44 Paul's Instructions to Titus
01:50 Behavioral Teachings for Different Groups
03:25 Emphasis on Right Living
04:20 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

In Shipshewana I was able to connect with a few more men. One works for a church network. Another had been developing a house church ministry, but now pastors a conventional church. And yet he continues to imagine a variety of radical,  unconventional ministry models. (I went home to Wendy, who lives with my constant imagineering about this and that, and I told her, "I just met my match!") The other meeting was with a new friend, a business man, who has a background in mission work.

The conversations were all warm and engaging. We all share the same concerns about the condition of the Western church. We're all intrigued by simpler church expressions. I'm reminded that one size does not fit all, and that our X242 way of being church is not the only way, but is one of the better ways.

We left Indiana toward Kansas We worked our way through Missouri over some of the worst roads we've ever encountered. It was exceptionally rough in general, with surprise bumps thrown in. (It's like your house suffering through an earthquake several times an hour.) One such bump exploded one of our trailer tires which also took out part of the trim and underbelly. It happened to be where there was no shoulder, so we limped a mile to the next exit where I changed it. The whole experience was a first for us. But we praise God that no one was hurt, and that we had everything we needed to get back on the road, losing just a couple hours over all.

We made it to the Kansas City area where we had reservations for a few nights. We were able to go into town and get the tire replaced, so we have a spare again. And we were able to meet with X242 friends who had a house church going in their home but through a series of events, have had to let it lie dormant for the time being. It's always good to see them. Please pray for encouragement in this season, and for clarity about what to do next.

They also introduced me to a KC area couple who lives on a farm out in the country. They have a vibrant faith and are trying to discern the specifics about using their property for ministry. They currently meet for church as just their little family of five. They also have had some other meetings with area friends for prayer and worship, tracking in the Encounter model of ministry which was formative for them not too long ago. They have recently poured a slab in preparation for a barndominium which they hope to fill with people regularly, not as a typical church, but more of an open-door type ministry place for people. A retreat of sorts. They are praying to be able to purchase the surrounding farm land to make it 100 acres. Please pray for God's leading and provision in this. 

We left Kansas and traveled to Woodland Park, Colorado for a couple nights. Yesterday we had an encouraging visit with friends just north of Denver, on our way to the Curt Gowdy State Park outside of Cheyenne, Wyoming where we're currently camped.

Thank you so much for your prayers.

• Pray specifically for travel safety. That's on my mind, and often in my stomach as I drive.
• Pray for the seed of encouragement to grow, in Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Kansas, and Colorado.
• Pray for our time next weekend with friends who pastor a little church in Idaho. 

Last week I made some open statements about liberal and conservative Christians. I said we divide the church around things that we shouldn't. That doesn't mean we should never disassociate with rebellious people. But where there's a common heart, we can and should engage with people of different minds. This week I tell a couple stories that illustrate that. As long as we practice kindness over assertiveness, and invite the scriptures to judge us, rather than us sitting in judgment on them. If we will stop protecting ourselves and others from the discomfort of reading the scriptures for what they say, we will experience mutual redemption and restoration in our microchurches.

00:00 Introduction: Continuing the Thought
00:13 Microchurch and LGBTQ+ Compassion
00:53 Journey to Dover, Ohio
01:11 Inclusivity in Microchurches
01:59 Scriptural Integrity and Compassionate Conversations
04:06 Engaging Liberal and Conservative Views
05:04 Kindness in Confrontation
07:24 Scriptural Authority and Truth
08:53 Conviction and Unity in Faith
10:22 Final Thoughts and Encouragement

I wrote last week about a conversation I had in Berlin, Ohio about one man's dream of a place where foster parents and single moms could live in community with others -- and how my recent experience with the Bruderhof might give some guidance to the implementation of such a thing. Please help us by praying for clear leading. And feel free to speak into it if you have a similar interest.

After my lunch conversation with that friend last Friday, I met another local pastor for coffee. He pastors a megachurch that started out of a house church. He brought a friend who was visiting from Davis County, Indiana, who has been leading a house church for the past 18 years! It was such an encouragement to meet him. And he told me about another house church he had recently been introduced to in Bryan, Texas, about an hour from where we plan to stop on our way back in October. God is good. When I say the conversations are incredible, I mean not just the conversations themselves, but the connections God has been orchestrating.

From that meeting I had dinner with an elder of another church who remains interested in our X242 way of being church. It was good to mutually encourage each other.

Sunday, I went to LifeBridge, a conventional church in Dover, Ohio pastored by another friend of mine. I'm not sure how to say this, but it was delightfully messy. I mean, even though there was a program that followed the basic line up (welcome, worship set, announcements, sermon, closing song), it felt like a house church in someone's living room. They had a 14 year old read the scripture. They took time for prayer requests. Some people told stories. Everything felt conversational. Kids walked around. God was honored. And then we all shared a meal afterward. It was such a wonderful example of how God is calling people to something more personable and restful than the church machine that continues to exhaust so many. Praise God.

We left Berlin Friday and drove to St Marys where we connected with people who moved from Sarasota several years ago. It was good to catch up and share inspirations from our travels. Again, there's a stirring around the stories from our time with the Bruderhof.

Then we came to Shipshewana, Indiana. Sunday, I drove 45 minutes to That Church Downtown in South Bend. I first met the pastor nine or ten years ago, and reconnected with him and his wife early last year. He told me "services starts at 11-ish." I got there a little early and the room was dotted with people silently praying. By 11-ish, there were twenty or thirty people there, talking and getting things ready. Not long after that we were praying, then singing, then sharing. A man asked if he could give a little witness at the end because he didn't want to take time from the service. The pastor had a child pray before the kids went to their classes, then he had me bring a greeting from X242, and then he preached. It was nice. And I kept thinking some of our house churches are this big, if not bigger. 

After church they had me over to their house across the street for lunch. I learned that several years ago the church was running 135 people. But then, about the same time I was being challenged in my own church setting, they were also being challenged. They realized that they were good at having worship services, but bad at discipling people. And that was confirmed when they made changes. People left. And yet they still believe that was the right decision. 

I hear there's pastors in the area talking about starting a house church network. I'm trying to connect with them. I have other meetings as well. Please pray, remembering the above, and asking God to keep opening doors for ministry.

I continue to pray for all in our X242 network of tiny churches.

I recently had a personal experience that exposed my own tension about how to relate to conservative and progressive believers within the Christian faith. How much do we need to agree about in order to relate to each other as being in the faith? If someone comes to faith, but they go to a church that's more liberal or conservative than ours, do we genuinely celebrate that they've come to faith, or do we hold back. It’s important to lean into this tension prayerfully, especially in microchurch gatherings where it’s hard to hide our differences. Is it possible for conservative and liberal Christians to be in fellowship with each other? How much difference can you tolerate? How much difference should we tolerate? ​

00:00 An Interesting Experience
00:13 Family Reunion Reflections
01:44 Conservative vs. Progressive Faith
04:59 Personal Struggles with Faith
09:01 Defining the Faith
11:16 Unity in Faith
12:52 Final Thoughts and Encouragement

As Wendy and I travel the country to encourage people in our X242 network, and to pique the interest of others about the same, I am overjoyed at the quality and breadth of experiences.

The Bruderhof
Last week we left the Spring Valley Bruderhof in Farmington, PA, and drove a few hours to Berlin, Ohio, where I've had a number of meetings. And ​I continue to mull over my Bruderhof experience such that it keeps coloring all my conversations with people. ("Have you heard of the Bruderhof?")

Bruderhof is German for Place of Brothers. They are an Anabaptist community, with roots in the Radical Reformation in 1525, which branched out of the Protestant Reformation. Anabaptism is marked by a lived out faith, adult baptism, and rejection of violence. If you think of Amish, Hutterite, or Mennonite, you're in the ballpark, but at the same time, Bruderhof isn't any of those.

They were started in 1920 in Germany, in response to all the things that were going on there at the time. They were persecuted, and they responded by living communally, meaning they have all things in common. No one has any personal possessions. There are 3000 people, with a couple dozen large communities around the world with 200-300 people in each. But then they also have a number of small house church type communities where ten or twelve people might share a house. (Interestingly, for those of us in Sarasota, there's one at the St Pete Pier!)

The larger communities farm to supply the community with vegetables, etc., and they have their own businesses (Rifton and Community Playthings), which have onsite factories that most people work in, and which provides for the financial needs of the community. People in house churches work regular jobs if necessary, but still share all things in common.

At the Spring Valley community, they have lunch together every weekday. But they also give each other plenty of personal space at night. They have an onsite school. They have a Sunday worship gathering that is kept simple for children. They sing hymns and folk songs that they all enjoy. They also sing before meals. They have adult bible studies a couple nights a week, but it can be interrupted for other things. For the most part, it's all very fluid and peaceful, even though they work a lot.

It was a fascinating experience. I asked questions the whole time. Nothing was off limits.

I discovered no "wizard of Oz" behind the curtain pulling the levers, and no bishop telling everyone what they're allowed to do or how to dress. They have cell phones and electricity and all the modern conveniences. I asked Mathais, our 28 year old host, if they're allowed to watch YouTube and stuff, and he said, Of course. I said, but can a person just sit and watch YouTube on their phone all evening? And he said, "I mean you could, but why would you want to?" That was a pretty good answer for me. They like to hang out and talk at night, sitting outside on swings and things.

One of my favorite take aways was the value of living out their faith in community. I'm not sure if someone said it or I read it: "If you're not close to God, you'll know it, and we'll know it. If you're close to God, you'll know it and we'll know it." And by extension, "If you're caught up in a sin, you'll know it and we'll know it." I was encouraged by that, because in it is a hope that through the community just paying attention to each other, and caring for each other, there will be redemption and restoration. The care and concern is more than just physical and relational; it's spiritual. 

I can't stop mulling over all that. And it keeps finding its way into all my conversations, and my imaginations.

Can It Be Applied In Other Ways?
Here in Berlin, a friend and I picked up a conversation from last year, about his desire to establish something where foster families and single moms can live in community, supporting each other. I've explored similar conversations with a lady in Florida who refers to "orphans and "widows" as people of any age and stage that have no other family. In both conversations, the desire is the same: to create community where there is mutuality of care and concern, centered around and inspired by our love for Jesus which proves itself in love for each other. 

We would all do well to memorize James 1:27, "Religion that God our father accepts as pure and faultless is this: To look after orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep ourselves from being polluted by the world." If we expand that to include anyone who is disadvantaged by a lack of family, I would include some divorcees in that, as well as foster kids. In our X242 network we definitely have "orphans and widows." 

A few days ago I was talking with a man here who is widowed. I described the things I was thinking about and he asked if such a community would be healthy for someone like him. He was asking it from a weak position, not a challenging position. He was wondering if there would be a place for an older single person like him. My answer is Yes, it would be healthy. Wonderful even. You might even say vital. And not just vital for people like him, but for others who get to care for and be cared for by people like him. We all need community. We all need to love others, just as much as we need to be loved by others.

Where I Differ
But as much as I'm intrigued by it, I need to say where I differ. Not really to correct them, but just to keep my words from saying something I don't intend.

The Bruderhof believe that the early church lived communally with a common purse, and so they do the same. They point to Acts 2:44 and 4:32 as their inspiration: "All the believers were together and had everything in common," and "All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had."  And so the Bruderhof has chosen to live without any personal possessions, but rather, to have a common purse where all income goes into the pot, and all needs are paid for from the same pot. They do it willingly, with a voluntary lifelong pledge.

I'm just as inspired by those passages. In fact, that's why I wanted to experience their radical application of that. But when I read those passages I also see in Acts 2:45 and 4:34-35 that the believers "sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need," and "there were no needy persons among them, for from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need." And so we still see ownership, but also a need-inspired generosity where those possessions are disposed of as necessary to meet the needs of the family.  The early church lived as family, giving very generously to meet people's needs, but retaining their personal property.

That said, I don't believe what the Bruderhof has chosen is bad. In fact, I think it's good. But it's not required. I don't personally feel called to it but I do respect it. And I am inspired by the radical nature of their commitment to each other.

What Might It Mean for X242?
In my conversations this week I've been listening to what God would say. Again, I am not feeling led to join the Bruderhof, but I do believe they have something to teach us. And so I can't help but imagine what God might call us to in our simpler way of being church. Is there an opportunity for some of us to live that out in more intentional community than just weekly meetings in people's homes? 

Is there such a place in our X242 way of thinking and living that would have room for such a community? Not Bruderhof, but Bruderhof-ish. And certainly not that it would be the only way to do X242, but just a way to do it.

​I'm curious if it inspires anyone else's imaginations like it does mine? Or perhaps it invokes fear or concern?

Anyone? 

Prayers
Thank you for your prayers. Tomorrow we leave Berlin, and go to St Marys, Ohio to connect with friends there for a few days. Then we spend a week in Shipshewana, Indiana, before making our way over to Easton, Kansas. Thank you everyone for you prayers! God is answering with inspired conversations every day, all along the way. Amen!