Dale Partridge - Real Christianity #54： The Four Criteria For Creating Biblical Community

00:00:00.040 Welcome to Real Christianity. Today we are talking about the four criteria for creating biblical community.

00:00:08.560 This is going to be a good conversation. We're going to really kind of show you our process of how we walk people into community here in Central Oregon in our house church community.

00:00:22.520 The questions that we ask, the process that we take, and how that could apply to your life.

00:00:28.260 but before we get started a couple things um one this is a video if you don't know that you can

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00:01:17.140 read it um a couple other things before we dive into the top the topic conversation i don't know

00:01:23.220 I guess it's both, um, is we are relaunching the ultimate marriage, marriage mentor program.

00:01:31.340 Uh, we've turned it from a one year program to a six week program and we're just finishing

00:01:37.780 the final filming of it and the new website and it's looking really great.

00:01:42.140 If you want to be notified when enrollment opens, just go to ultimate marriage.com forward

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00:01:48.940 We'll just send you an email or a text and let you know.

00:01:51.700 um the last thing i got lots of announcements before last thing is uh my new book real

00:02:01.140 christianity i just finished the final manuscript like it's done and done and done and it comes out

00:02:09.640 um early september if you guys want to be a part of the launch team or if you want to interview me

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00:02:19.860 please go to relearnchurch.org forward slash launch.

00:02:24.440 Okay, I'll open this up 1.00

00:02:27.300 and then Veronica will dive in here in a second. 1.00

00:02:30.680 So we plant house churches. 0.99

00:02:32.400 That's what we do.

00:02:34.280 And these are kind of small communities

00:02:36.260 about 10 to 15 Christian families

00:02:38.940 who gather each Sunday to do church

00:02:40.460 according to the scriptures.

00:02:41.480 That's just in a short nutshell, that's what we do.

00:02:43.660 We do nothing less and nothing more

00:02:45.080 than what the scriptures teach.

00:02:46.000 That's our goal.

00:02:46.540 It's kind of just do biblical church. 0.94

00:02:49.500 Our central mission is to really establish a culture of Christians who are walking out, growing into and conforming with the teachings of the Bible. 0.77

00:03:00.740 That's what we do. 0.70

00:03:02.820 Now, to say this another way, if people ask us, what do you really do?

00:03:09.560 We wouldn't just say, oh, we plant house churches or, oh, I'm a pastor.

00:03:16.540 You know, what we really do is build biblical culture.

00:03:19.920 That's at the core what we do is we build biblical culture.

00:03:22.940 We shepherd followers of Jesus to and through the teachings of Jesus.

00:03:30.060 That's what we do.

00:03:32.620 We help kind of men and women understand and abide in God's expectation for his children in his community.

00:03:41.620 um this is probably close to like a really practical description of what the apostle

00:03:46.520 paul did it's just shepherding people to biblical culture it's multifaceted multidimensional

00:03:53.820 um and deeply relational um so i'll let veronica dive in yeah just hearing you mention that over

00:04:02.500 the years i think um dale and i have probably seen i don't know over 100 families come and go

00:04:08.640 um you know some come some go from our biblical communities here in central

00:04:13.180 Oregon um but in addition to that we get so

00:04:17.520 many messages just about every day I know you

00:04:20.120 definitely do um from people who are just curious

00:04:24.020 about biblical house church or um I should just say just biblical

00:04:28.020 church doesn't have to be house church um biblical church or are looking for

00:04:31.660 biblical communities in their area and we totally get it we've been there

00:04:36.000 before um and we've mentioned it before kind of walk through a desert not really going anywhere

00:04:42.160 we don't recommend that um but we totally hear you on that um and from the outside looking in

00:04:49.920 biblical community can seem like a spiritual oasis um where the fruit is just overflowing

00:04:57.860 and it is um but the reality is from the outside people don't see what is required

00:05:04.940 to yield that type of fruit yeah um go ahead yeah they do i mean it's just there's so much

00:05:11.200 internal work oh yeah everyone wants the results um but few are willing to adhere

00:05:17.280 to the doctrines required to achieve them yeah and i mean when we talk about communities we have

00:05:23.780 three gatherings here in central oregon as of now um and uh probably another one soon and maybe

00:05:32.020 another one shortly after that and you know we when a church gets too big um to fit a new home

00:05:37.500 we we don't go get a building we multiply into another house and uh just so if that question

00:05:43.860 comes up in your mind uh but as veronica said since we started doing this in 2014 uh and we

00:05:50.240 were really learning just kind of from the very beginning at that point and so it's not like wow

00:05:55.980 you only have three communities after 2014 well there was several years of just learning what to

00:06:01.100 do yeah before we're still new to us in 2014 so um we had to learn and figure it out we've probably

00:06:07.500 seen 30 to 40 families leave the community over the years um just like okay like that didn't work

00:06:14.280 for them and um or moving or whatever it is yeah and some of them had clear callings from god

00:06:19.680 to move away to move to a different church uh some move because of a career change

00:06:24.620 some missions some doing missions but i'd say that um maybe a majority uh definitely at least half

00:06:33.340 um have left because they weren't actually interested in conforming to what the bible

00:06:40.580 calls Christians to do as the church. Now, we're not perfect, you know, in our churches. And I'm

00:06:48.840 not saying that like, man, we have it right. And if you don't get it right, you know, if you don't

00:06:51.860 conform to what we're doing over here, then, you know, you're definitely wrong. That's not what

00:06:54.840 I'm saying. I've eaten a lot of humble pie over the years and understand what it means to be

00:07:00.560 humble. But I think you'll understand what I'm saying as we get through this episode. But my

00:07:05.020 experience has shown me that people really struggle to embrace the bible's instructions

00:07:11.000 for real christian community they they really do it's it's hard on the flesh it's a struggle

00:07:17.040 especially if you haven't grown up in that it is most people haven't yeah and so this show is

00:07:22.960 almost like an evaluation like a personal evaluation uh tool to see if you really do

00:07:30.140 want biblical community a lot of people say they oh i would love that um but do you really want it

00:07:35.480 um you know uh is this something you're really looking for um and at the end of the episode if

00:07:43.080 it is something you're really looking for we'll give you a few uh tips to kind of further that

00:07:47.740 journey that you might be able to establish a biblical culture or biblical community uh in

00:07:52.500 your own hometown because that's a question we get a lot um so let's talk about biblical culture

00:07:57.240 building. And when someone leaves your church, the natural inclination of the flesh is to determine

00:08:07.140 what we did wrong or what we need to change to prevent people from leaving in the future.

00:08:17.520 Sadly, many churches begin to focus on how they can better accommodate people's preferences,

00:08:25.860 even if they're not biblical and you know god forbid uh the bible's way of doing something

00:08:31.180 offends them right um this is bad thinking to kind of accommodate uh and kind of

00:08:40.240 cater to cater to some of these desires the reasons that people leave it and you'll

00:08:45.240 we'll find out why veronica's gonna explain just a few days ago just since you're talking about

00:08:50.520 You actually posted a quote on your Instagram that I wanted to share since we're kind of on that topic.

00:08:57.860 And it said, when a church changes their values to match the current culture, they're no longer following the Bible.

00:09:04.820 They're following the lost.

00:09:06.400 Can you elaborate?

00:09:08.440 Yeah.

00:09:08.580 Yeah, I mean, so I think about this is that, you know, the only reason that a church should change based on someone leaving is if the party who left did so because the church was doing something unbiblical.

00:09:25.280 And so if someone leaves our community, it's, you know, we're so close and like, oh, why did they leave?

00:09:30.140 Like, you want to introspection and go like, what did we do wrong?

00:09:33.500 and if it's not anything unbiblical then you know it's not us needing to change

00:09:39.900 you know however you know we do not need to change our values or theology in order to make

00:09:48.740 people more comfortable like that's that's not what we're here to do as the church if we started

00:09:53.660 changing our values in our theology to make people comfortable that's what you get when you have

00:09:59.020 of these churches that are doing big, giant concerts

00:10:01.880 and aren't really talking about Scripture

00:10:03.560 and are talking about prosperity

00:10:05.700 or just focusing on things that really have nothing to do with the Bible.

00:10:09.380 Instead, we really need to focus on creating a culture

00:10:12.580 around the Scriptures, around the biblical doctrine.

00:10:15.820 And we offer grace and patience and compassion,

00:10:18.600 but we do not compromise in order to accommodate to ungodly ideas

00:10:24.760 or just because someone doesn't want to conform to a biblical idea.

00:10:29.020 um and again this is deep stuff if you haven't heard this before yeah and and the truth is at

00:10:35.420 least in in our experience um if you have a strong biblical culture within your community it's going

00:10:41.440 to naturally push people away who are not willing to harmonize yeah um meaning when people leave

00:10:47.860 they're not leaving because of you yeah they're leaving because of the bible um and they probably

00:10:52.520 won't admit that but no they usually come up with another reason um uh and and you know what

00:10:59.760 i'm not one to say that that's invalid or valid um but in my experience that they come up with

00:11:05.880 we get we're escape artists from accountability and so we come up with these really creative ways

00:11:11.440 to kind of um avert our the attention to something else i should say divert the attention to something

00:11:19.160 else yeah um and now for us i think the best way uh to limit the coming and going uh the coming and

00:11:27.600 leaving experience is to be ultra clear and up front with the families who are interested in

00:11:33.100 being part of the communities um in the first place yeah so um to be clear we don't layer on

00:11:39.600 any more expectations than what the bible calls for but we also do not accept anything less than

00:11:45.140 what the bible calls for either yeah and and so again this is we're gonna talk about um there's

00:11:53.280 also grace for people who you you're they're they're eager to grow they're wanting to learn

00:11:58.180 they're wanting to grow and they're they're not there yet yeah and so we have grace for those

00:12:02.300 people who are on the journey it's not a black and white process right um but we're gonna try

00:12:06.860 to give you a somewhat of a format that i think is just helpful for you to guys to go oh wow that

00:12:12.600 that's what biblical culture is. And, um, and if you are interested in at some point creating a

00:12:18.160 biblical community where you're at, uh, from the five years in which we've been doing this

00:12:24.560 every single week, these are some things that we've learned. Um, but when a family is interested

00:12:30.020 in joining our community, um, we do what a house church, you know, a house church from China or

00:12:35.700 house church from Bulgaria, house church from Iran, house churches all around the world do.

00:12:39.560 and we go to dinner or coffee with these people first, okay?

00:12:44.700 And, you know, we want to get to know these people.

00:12:49.200 Like, that's what we want to do.

00:12:51.080 It's really a safety precaution as well.

00:12:54.920 In China or any other persecuted church region in the world,

00:13:00.040 you don't just let someone come to your house church

00:13:02.640 because they're interested in wanting to come to your house church.

00:13:06.420 This is how people have been put in jail.

00:13:08.180 Our entire churches have been killed or martyred because of that.

00:13:11.420 I mean, it's not a wise thing to do.

00:13:14.180 No, you go and you attempt to build authentic relationship with these folks.

00:13:19.280 You answer their questions.

00:13:20.900 You ask questions.

00:13:24.060 Again, these people will be in your home.

00:13:26.560 They're going to be around your children.

00:13:28.420 They're going to be around your friends' children.

00:13:30.440 They're going to have authority to speak and teach in the church gathering,

00:13:34.740 um uh according to scriptures uh the scriptures um you know there's a bit of a protective shepherd

00:13:41.900 role to play when you invite people into a biblical community um now i know some of you

00:13:48.820 guys are thinking but what about like the lost like people that don't know jesus like what if

00:13:52.660 they want to come well in in a in a house church experience that's usually not the case because

00:13:59.160 we don't have a building we don't have a website we're not it's usually uh not something we're

00:14:03.380 dealing with um my my my just quick we're not spending time on this today touch on it touch on

00:14:10.980 it quickly yeah just kind of ecclesiology on evangelism in the church is that this this isn't

00:14:17.060 a time um the church isn't a time to do evangelism evangelism is an outward work go therefore and make

00:14:26.220 disciples of all nations it's an outward work you never see in the scriptures this being an activity

00:14:32.040 that happens in the church, it's always an activity that happens outward. Individuals are called to go

00:14:38.700 and preach the gospel, baptize people, disciple them, and then bring them to the church. We're

00:14:44.200 not supposed to just bring them to the church and outsource our role of evangelism to the paid

00:14:48.340 pastor so that he can do the evangelism for us. The idea of church being an evangelism hub isn't

00:14:54.260 something you see in the scriptures. Evangelism and the church meeting are separate endeavors,

00:14:58.100 and the church itself really is for the meeting of the saints it's the edification of the body

00:15:04.960 to do the work of the ministry this is what the gathering is for um if you look uh first

00:15:10.500 corinthians chapter 14 ephesians 4 kind of explains this idea uh that it's for the edification

00:15:16.140 but side note i digress um and so i'm moving back now to the conversation of the process that we

00:15:24.300 have and the heart of the reason to get to know these people through these dinners and through

00:15:28.260 these coffees is to understand what biblical community really is and i'll tell you we've done

00:15:34.060 it how many i mean we've had hundreds of dinners with families right like that are curious and we

00:15:41.020 we you know yeah some have decided to not come actually after those dinners and some have decided

00:15:47.380 to come and check it out stay or leave yeah and this you know because the institutional church

00:15:55.220 has trained christians to view and understand church in a way that has very little to do with

00:16:01.120 the bible um this means there's a lot of unlearning and relearning to do in terms of when it comes to

00:16:07.680 church we just met with a couple today who comes from a um baptist orthodox um russian church and

00:16:16.660 was asking us all these questions and like i was like well there's there's really nothing in the

00:16:22.380 bible that says to do it like that and it was just a lot of unlearning and relearning to do

00:16:28.000 and so we all kind of walk in with some of that stuff and so over a handful of dinners we usually

00:16:34.100 do two to four dinners uh with families uh here's what i would say the four scriptural requirements

00:16:41.980 for christians who want to do church according to the bible and um and they're they're pretty

00:16:47.200 heavy and i'm excited to share them with you guys yeah so as we um go through these it might be a

00:16:52.140 now would be like a good time it might be a good exercise for you to examine if you would thrive

00:16:56.820 or end up leaving a biblical community um so let's dive in the first thing that is central to being

00:17:02.680 part of a biblical community is first thing number one do you allow scripture to be authoritative

00:17:08.820 yeah authoritative in your life the first thing uh that people generally ask is does the bible

00:17:16.640 have authority in your life um i'm sorry the first thing that we usually ask is yeah does

00:17:21.720 the bible have authority in your life um do you submit to scripture even if it's unpopular or

00:17:25.980 uncomfortable um or do they have a pick and choose relationship with scripture yeah are they pulling

00:17:32.980 a theology that's just kind of cherry picking like i like this verse i like that verse i like

00:17:37.200 this idea i like that idea i don't like that idea i don't want to talk about that over there though

00:17:40.300 that's written in scripture yeah that's that's not my thing uh we have to remember that we received

00:17:46.220 the gospel because it was written down in the bible so if you're not going to believe the rest

00:17:51.640 of the bible is true then why should the gospel be true it's so interesting to me how people do

00:17:57.520 that they go oh i don't want to listen to that verse right there or that verse over there or

00:18:03.040 that verse over there but hey i love the gospel it's very illogical it's a very contradictive

00:18:07.740 idea um second timothy uh 3 16 through 17 says all scripture is given by inspiration of god and

00:18:14.260 is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction and righteousness

00:18:17.600 that the man of god man mean man and woman man of god may be complete thoroughly equipped for

00:18:22.940 every good work you combine that with the promise of scripture that god cannot lie

00:18:28.100 And you have a dilemma that the Bible is true or it's not.

00:18:32.520 And when it says that all scripture is given by inspiration of God,

00:18:35.320 and we've done episodes on this idea before,

00:18:38.020 but this is really important.

00:18:39.660 You don't try to go do biblical community with families who are not interested

00:18:44.420 in having the scriptures be authoritative in how they live.

00:18:48.220 And because you're always going to be playing by different rules.

00:18:52.720 Yeah.

00:18:53.160 If you are in a community with people that do adhere to the Bible, is authoritative, 0.61

00:19:01.060 then you always have something to go back to. 0.98

00:19:03.320 Yes.

00:19:03.740 And you don't need to worry about the emotions that get involved and engaged.

00:19:07.800 We need to care for the emotions.

00:19:09.400 We need to be gentle with each other.

00:19:11.140 But at the end of the day, I don't want your emotions to be the arbiter of what we're doing.

00:19:15.840 We're going to just do what the scriptures teach.

00:19:18.080 And if we're all unified on that, man, you can do community

00:19:22.280 because there's guidelines and there's rules.

00:19:23.980 And again, what are the purpose of rules in a game?

00:19:27.440 To give you a clear path to win.

00:19:30.240 They're not bad.

00:19:31.120 They're not here to oppress you.

00:19:32.220 They're here to give you a clear path to win.

00:19:34.720 Every Christian doctrine,

00:19:37.000 whether it's the doctrine of God, sin, salvation,

00:19:39.700 is drawn from the Bible.

00:19:41.600 If we can't trust the Bible,

00:19:42.980 then we've lost the very foundation of our faith.

00:19:46.420 To put it in the terms of Psalm 11, 3,

00:19:49.280 it says, if the foundations be destroyed,

00:19:51.280 what shall the righteous do and so yeah the the first thing that's so critical if you're going to

00:19:58.680 do church with other people is that everybody believes that the scriptures are inerrant and

00:20:04.720 true and authoritative in the way they live yeah and this conversation about scripture generally

00:20:09.800 leads to a flurry of questions um about interpretation and then people these are like

00:20:15.680 the first questions people usually ask us um well how do you view women in the church or what about

00:20:22.360 head coverings which we've done podcasts on these before um what do you do with the children or um

00:20:28.200 do you guys do church discipline uh yeah and giving how does that work and and which we just

00:20:33.780 did a podcast on that and so these are common questions actually like 10 of them i i have

00:20:38.280 written down because i just i i train church planters and i go man these 10 questions you're

00:20:42.480 to get the first questions that people always ask always ask and you got to have the answers for

00:20:46.380 them um but then we walk these families through their questions we take them through scripture

00:20:52.340 over these dinners and we walk them through and we let them make their own decision we're not

00:20:56.500 trying to convince anyone to come and be a part of what we're doing no very i mean almost every

00:21:01.580 time we're gathering with people who say you know if this is where the lord's leading you we'd love

00:21:05.300 to have you but if this isn't where he's leading you then don't come like that's fine we're not

00:21:10.480 going to be offended. If you choose to go to another church, that's totally fine. I'll even

00:21:14.700 say we don't want you here if the Lord doesn't want you here. Like don't come for us. Come for

00:21:20.460 God's leading you to this place to be with his people. You know, God is building his church.

00:21:26.040 Jesus says on this rock, I will build my church. He is building the church. I don't need to worry

00:21:30.800 about it. I need to sell the church idea. The Lord is building the church. And we're simply

00:21:36.640 called just to be faithful to his word but when people learn how serious we are about the scriptures

00:21:41.420 and how much we hold those in in such high honor um they either love it or they pull back

00:21:50.340 and so that's why it's it's like the first thing you got to deal with um in in a conversation with

00:21:56.140 folks if you're trying to start a biblical community is is the scripture is true and

00:22:01.380 interestingly, the people that pull back are sometimes the people who say, man, I want to do

00:22:07.500 church like the book of Acts. I want to do the Acts church, man. That's like what everybody says.

00:22:11.560 I want to do like that. Yeah, I read that and I want to do that. And man, I'm just here to tell

00:22:16.720 you the Acts church, the first century Christians, man, they believed in scripture. It says that they

00:22:22.120 labored in the apostles doctrine in Acts chapter two. And so what about you? Is the Bible authoritative

00:22:28.760 in your life and how you live um are you excited and hungry for being in a community that loves

00:22:37.360 the bible that's the first criteria all right second thing we're going to discuss which will

00:22:42.500 be number two are you hungry for god yeah that's it that's the second point first one is do you

00:22:49.080 want more yeah do you want more yeah um aw tozer once said uh to have found god and still pursue

00:22:55.800 him is the true evidence of love so are you looking uh for a church solution because it's

00:23:01.800 something that you know is good for your life or are you looking for a church because you're so in

00:23:06.880 love with god that you want to pursue him with his people yeah yeah and this is this is a a great

00:23:14.040 discussion that'll kind of naturally reveal um if a person is a christian by philosophy or even by

00:23:22.640 what I call bibliology, meaning that they really enjoy the moralism of the Bible, but they don't

00:23:29.260 actually have a relationship with Christ. And I think there's a lot of people out there that have

00:23:33.040 that. They really love the conservative politics and they really love Jesus, the idea. They really

00:23:38.540 love, you know, just the, yeah, you know, hey, no swearing and live clean and don't have sex

00:23:45.680 before you're married. They love those boundaries, but they're not actually in a deep saving

00:23:52.620 faith relationship with christ and um and so we're looking for people if they're hungry for god you

00:24:01.080 could even say man scripture's authoritative it's it's it's there and still not have a hunger for

00:24:05.960 god like you kind of go like hey i found him like i'm here like that's all you know um and usually

00:24:13.560 what that is in my experience is it's someone who lacks the vision of the kingdom um the bible says

00:24:22.120 where there is no vision, the people perish.

00:24:24.480 And man, if you don't see God and his work in the world

00:24:28.080 and your ministry that he's given you,

00:24:30.140 it's easy to not be hungry for God.

00:24:31.800 But over the years, we've met many of these people,

00:24:34.780 these people that are in this philosophy, Christianity.

00:24:37.840 I call it churchianity.

00:24:40.260 They love the values of the Christian life,

00:24:42.660 but it's not a daily heart-driven relationship with God.

00:24:47.540 And again, if you don't love God deeply,

00:24:50.020 you'll actually be confused by those who do.

00:24:52.120 and eventually feel out of place in a biblical community and you'll eventually leave or or like

00:25:01.480 have a moment with God like where you come closer and I've seen families that do that just like a

00:25:06.420 breakthrough and you go oh or they just go I don't get it guys and then they they walk away

00:25:12.740 yeah uh Jesus said in Matthew chapter 22 verses 37 through 38 you shall love the Lord your God

00:25:20.440 with all your heart with all your soul with all your mind this is the first and great commandment

00:25:25.080 it usually takes time for this to become evident um if they're hungry or not yes um but the

00:25:32.960 discussion up front usually starts the personal evaluation if it's needed um and so the third

00:25:40.920 thing we're going to try to determine when meeting new folks is number three are you eager to grow

00:25:48.880 and bear fruit yeah so again i want to just kind of review these real quick um we have number one

00:25:55.480 is do you allow scripture to be authoritative number two is are you hungry for god um and the

00:26:02.720 third one is are you eager to grow and bear fruit um i'm gonna read a passage in hebrews um actually

00:26:12.480 babe why don't you read it hebrews 5 12 through 14 yeah let's start there for though by this time

00:26:19.360 you ought to be teachers you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of

00:26:24.040 god and you have come to need milk and not solid food for everyone who partakes only of milk is 0.97

00:26:29.560 unskilled in the word of righteousness for he is a babe but solid food belongs to those who are of

00:26:34.780 full age that is those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and

00:26:41.160 evil. Yeah. So pretty heady passage of scripture. And what I want to talk about here is the apostle

00:26:48.620 is saying when you're a baby, you can't digest anything but milk. And that's fine. If you're

00:26:54.540 new to the gospel, you need the gospel. You have to start somewhere. Yeah. You need the milk parts

00:27:01.100 of the doctrines of God.

00:27:04.260 But as an adult, you cannot grow on milk alone, right?

00:27:10.200 You need something else to provide the sustenance for growth.

00:27:15.740 And sadly, the vast majority of the Western church

00:27:19.340 is trying to survive on rations of milk.

00:27:24.020 That's really what we are.

00:27:25.440 We're on starvation rations of milk.

00:27:27.580 We never get to the deep end of the pool.

00:27:30.620 And so, again, this topic that we're talking about is, are you eager to grow and bear fruit?

00:27:37.680 And, you know, you need meat to digest to produce growth and maturity.

00:27:45.700 And with growth and maturity comes fruitfulness.

00:27:49.920 You don't have a lot of fruit that comes from the growth from milk.

00:27:54.520 Because milk's really just to get you started.

00:27:55.980 but you need to eventually start eating meat

00:27:57.460 just like a child does

00:27:58.320 so they can start to continue to really grow.

00:28:02.360 Yeah, but I think what you're saying

00:28:05.380 is that there should be a desire to grow,

00:28:07.680 a desire for content that is nourishing

00:28:11.060 to make you more mature.

00:28:13.940 In my experience,

00:28:15.640 I grow through the consumption

00:28:17.980 of meaty elements of God's doctrine.

00:28:21.700 And then through obedience to those things

00:28:25.160 is when the fruit appears yeah i mean think about some of the things that you're reading romans

00:28:31.700 right now right and it's hard because romans is hard for me to read sometimes i'm like dang this

00:28:36.380 is heavy stuff i have to go back and read it a few times back and read a few times but

00:28:39.660 you know we were talking uh when we were a night away and you were mentioning just some

00:28:44.040 like wow this is some some heavier deeper thinking content and it's moments like that

00:28:49.940 that you go you're expanding your understanding of who god is you know your your faith and just

00:28:56.240 this desire to even go and look at romans and to even go sit and reread a section because you want

00:29:03.340 to know god more i mean is that something that you're just kind of enjoying that expansion

00:29:08.180 experience when you go through the bible yeah definitely i think at first um naturally in my

00:29:14.300 flesh it's intimidating um but i i love the lord and i want to grow and i want to understand his

00:29:20.220 word and so yeah it is enjoyable and i'm grateful that you're my husband because you have to explain

00:29:26.240 it to me well and i i think you know the cult of the cultivation of growth does not occur alone

00:29:34.060 just as veronica said right there like i'm involved as her husband um there might be other

00:29:39.780 women involved in her life in that journey of growth as well. It doesn't occur alone, and this 0.52

00:29:45.820 is an important element of this kind of section. Are you eager to grow and bear fruit? Because

00:29:51.820 cultivation of maturity, of Christian maturity, does not occur alone. And we're part of a body,

00:29:57.700 as what the scriptures tell us, that is called to relational accountability, and I would say

00:30:02.820 purification. And I'll explain what purification means. Galatians 6.1, brethren, if any man is

00:30:09.340 overtaken in any trespass. You who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness. We

00:30:15.140 have a responsibility to restore, to correct, right? 2 Timothy 4.2, preach the word, be ready

00:30:20.980 in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and teaching. There's

00:30:24.460 a purification, a growing element, a kind of nurturing element that goes on in the body of

00:30:31.000 Christ. James 5.19-20, brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone turns him

00:30:37.320 back. Someone takes initiative to turn

00:30:39.400 him back. Let him know that he who turns a sinner 1.00

00:30:41.320 from error of his way

00:30:43.060 will save a soul from death

00:30:45.320 and cover a multitude of sins.

00:30:47.320 Matthew 18 talks about how to deal

00:30:49.520 with a brother or sister who's

00:30:51.220 sinned against you and how to restore

00:30:53.580 such a person. 1 Corinthians chapter

00:30:55.280 5 talks about church discipline and how

00:30:57.300 that's to be walked out.

00:30:59.960 So again, it's a purification 0.73

00:31:01.040 system. We are a body.

00:31:03.320 We're not independent entities. We're a body

00:31:05.280 together and we grow together and we

00:31:06.880 we nurture and bear fruit with one another and it's a not an independent isolated my relationship

00:31:13.360 with jesus over here in the corner type thing yeah and so what this means is that the health

00:31:19.400 of your marriage is my concern yeah like the health of that those people's marriage over there

00:31:24.120 in our community uh it's our concern yeah and the health of our parenting is your concern yeah like

00:31:31.660 if you see something off have a conversation about it and we're willing to hear it right

00:31:37.320 totally and yeah and so it also means that overlooking sin which is injuring to your soul

00:31:42.380 is not loving um so this this is biblical community um so that leads us to our fourth

00:31:49.440 and final criteria which is are you willing to participate if you don't have this last piece

00:31:58.540 it just doesn't work it just doesn't work we've had many people over the years like leave just

00:32:06.280 because there's just not willing to participate and not even maybe because they don't want to

00:32:14.260 or they're just there's just you know sometimes it's an introvert thing sometimes it's like a

00:32:18.000 it takes a lot of growth to kind of participate um so let me i'll walk you guys through this one

00:32:24.680 too um but again number one is do you allow scripture to be authoritative in your life

00:32:29.840 are you hungry for god even though you've already found him do you still pursue him

00:32:33.660 are you eager to grow and bear fruit um and then the last one are you willing to participate

00:32:41.120 because we talked about before in the previous point it's together that we grow um sure the

00:32:49.480 lord's teaching you one-on-one but together there's a lot of growth to be done community

00:32:54.280 we this word community man this generation loves the word community it takes a village yeah they

00:32:59.300 have no idea what the word community really means in the biblical sense but but community does not

00:33:04.700 mean i'll engage with you as long as i don't have anything better to do um and so that's how like

00:33:12.400 most people view church it's like i'll be there if i have nothing better to do but if my family's in

00:33:17.200 town, then I won't be there. If, you know, we have, uh, an opportunity to go do something fun for the

00:33:24.340 day, then we won't be there. And I'm not saying that we need to have this, like, cutthroat

00:33:29.760 legalistic, you gotta be at church every Sunday. But again, our heart should be, man, we want to be

00:33:36.380 there because it's the people of God. We want to be there with them. Um, biblical community is built

00:33:42.020 on commitment and obligation to one another uh hebrews chapter 10 is it 10 or 13 oh geez

00:33:49.740 um i think it's 10 no it's maybe it's 13 anyways you have to look it up guys not forsaking the

00:33:55.380 gathering of yourselves together as is the manner of some um but instead we're to be exhorting one

00:34:02.040 another um until the day of the lord appears i'm paraphrasing slightly um but you cannot read the

00:34:10.780 New Testament. See the nearly 100 one another's of scripture and start to view those as optional

00:34:19.440 behaviors and moments of convenience. That is impossible to do if you read the Bible. Love one

00:34:24.940 another. Have peace with one another. Pray for one another. Forgive one another. Bear one another's

00:34:29.520 burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another

00:34:34.880 that you may be healed. I mean, this is a call to deeply engaged relationship. When you start

00:34:40.700 looking at these, Paul writes 60% of the one another's in the New Testament, but there's lots

00:34:44.680 from Jesus, there's some from Peter and James, and you get through there and you go, wow, you cannot

00:34:49.240 do Christian life alone. It is a participatory activity of one anothering in scripture to carry

00:34:58.540 out those doctrines in real life. Yeah, we've been trained to view church as a place to go and to

00:35:05.340 consume when in reality it's a people to join and contribute yes um so and we also have to realize

00:35:13.260 that friendship is not fellowship we confuse those things a lot um yeah it's it's not fellowship um

00:35:22.760 we have lots of we we want to kind of take the experience of the world my friends and apply it

00:35:29.940 to church my friends there's a the bible calls for a different sure there is friendship within

00:35:36.280 fellowship but fellowship is different fellowship the word of the greek means koinonia and that's

00:35:43.900 the new testament greek word for fellowship is koinonia and it means to participate with those

00:35:50.560 in which you have something in common and that thing in common is christ

00:35:55.000 um are are you willing to participate are you willing to enter into relationship on somebody

00:36:03.000 else's terms when it's inconvenient for you um i'll tell you what pastoring is all about that

00:36:10.280 you get to enter into a situation a relationship you don't have a natural affinity maybe

00:36:15.820 they have a problem that you have to deal with that is not convenient it's all about entering

00:36:21.340 in on relation on relationship on someone else's terms because you love them because you want to

00:36:26.460 shepherd them or seek the best for them um are you willing to be known this is another thing

00:36:32.800 people if you want to be in biblical community you're not willing to be known

00:36:37.340 it's never going to work you got to be willing now it could take time it's okay if it takes a

00:36:43.620 little bit of time to get there right but you got to eventually be known and are you willing to be

00:36:49.240 exhorted and corrected are you willing to give exhortations and corrections um it's awesome

00:36:56.140 we've been corrected so many times over the years and we've corrected others what a what a loving

00:37:02.060 thing to do if someone saw something in our marriage or our parenting and didn't bring it

00:37:07.420 up to us what a that is not loving so we love when someone comes to us in a with the truth

00:37:14.760 in love and presents us a correction. Are you willing to care for others? Are you willing to

00:37:21.340 leave margin in your schedule to have time for other people? Are you willing to serve and labor

00:37:29.060 in people's lives? If you are, it's because you love people. That's why. Because it's not easy

00:37:38.320 on the flesh to do that. It's because you love people. And if you love people, you're going to

00:37:42.320 do great in biblical community and what the church is really about and but if you're concerned about

00:37:51.320 your needs um only if you're focused on what you get and what you want out of the church experience

00:38:00.760 um or you're too busy to engage with others because you're not prioritizing uh the family

00:38:08.660 you have no margin you can't serve anybody um you leave no space for anything else

00:38:15.220 um you're you're never going to experience the beauty of biblical community um and

00:38:23.540 i i'd say this is why it takes so much to be a church planter of one of these types of

00:38:30.440 gatherings. I really do think that you need to be trained for an extensive period of time before

00:38:39.200 you want to go out and plant a church community doing this. And it's something that our ministry

00:38:45.860 really hopes to do. Next year, 2020, we're going to try to build a curriculum on church planting

00:38:50.860 training. What I would say is a seminary grade curriculum. You're going to have to fly out to

00:38:55.960 central oregon and spend some time in our communities here and really get a chance to

00:39:00.500 experience it go to dinners with people feel it online books to read to read papers to write

00:39:07.080 videos lectures interviews whole thing that's something that we've been praying about and lord

00:39:12.580 willing it comes next year but ultimately when people behave like jesus and think like jesus

00:39:21.740 the natural result is biblical community and so when you come into a community like this

00:39:29.400 small gathering just like jesus is gathering which is you know his 12 guys maybe a couple

00:39:34.660 more people here and there and you start just walking and living that way it's amazing it's

00:39:40.340 like wow this is like the environment for the christian this is like where i need to be

00:39:43.820 um but it's hard it's difficult um it's not a culture that's friendly to the flesh

00:39:50.140 uh it's a spiritual culture it's it's ran upon the economics of god's kingdom

00:39:57.140 and not the world system and so this idea of like it's spiritual and it feels good in the spirit

00:40:04.200 it's it's not going to feel good in the flesh let me tell you why galatians 5 17 says for the flesh

00:40:08.760 wars against the spirit and the spirit wars against the flesh and these are contrary to 0.79

00:40:13.920 one another so that you do not do the things that you wish and so man these cultures you walk in

00:40:20.020 you go, wait, you're going to correct me. Oh, I have to conform. Oh, I have to mature. Oh, I have 0.94

00:40:23.960 to grow. Oh, I have to pray. Oh, I have to sacrifice. Oh, I have to serve. That stuff's

00:40:28.500 hard in your flesh. But if you have a kingdom perspective, you go, oh, I'm so excited to serve.

00:40:32.700 I'm so excited to give. I'm so excited to pray. I'm so excited to worship. I'm so excited to

00:40:36.460 be a part of that person's. I'm so excited to help. You shift everything into spiritual

00:40:40.720 perspective because you have a view of God's kingdom. And again, this is what shepherds are

00:40:46.640 called to do. This is what we do as a couple. This is what I do as a shepherd is, is we build

00:40:52.720 biblical culture by the grace of God and the patience of God, uh, and the humility of God.

00:40:57.980 I aim to help establish biblical culture in these community kingdom cultures, I guess a good way to

00:41:03.500 put it. Um, I said at the beginning, if you're interested in doing something like this,

00:41:08.620 it's so big you know like there's so much um i do offer uh calls like i do weekly calls with

00:41:19.320 a handful of guys all around the world who are trying to establish a biblical community in their

00:41:24.160 area um that's something that i do i only have limited time we do it in trade for donations to

00:41:30.800 our ministry um if you're a pastor and you have like some theological training maybe already

00:41:37.500 if you don't that's fine but I really lends itself to a faster experience if you have the theology

00:41:45.180 kind of established already you can email my assistant christy at relearnchurch.org and she

00:41:54.860 will facilitate that conversation if that's something you're interested in the other thing

00:42:01.180 is you can go to relearnchurch.org and we got lots of articles and things like that podcast videos

00:42:07.180 that might help you on that journey you can also start by going to relearnchurch.org forward slash

00:42:12.420 biblical dash church and i wrote kind of like a white paper on what is biblical church we have a

00:42:18.880 little bug zapper in our studio and it doesn't freak me out at all but veronica flinches every

00:42:23.740 time and uh it's summertime guys so it's starting to get some three times during this

00:42:28.560 we're starting to get some more bugs um we should probably turn that off during our

00:42:33.400 are filming um anyways guys hopefully this is helpful and quick review biblical culture is

00:42:42.800 are you going to allow the scriptures to be authoritative are you hungry for god are you

00:42:48.680 eager to grow and bear fruit and are you willing to participate if you are man biblical culture

00:42:54.960 is going to be great for you you would love that so anything else to add no it's nine something

00:43:03.360 o'clock over here it's 10 o'clock here guys we are recording at night so we're gonna check out

00:43:09.380 for the night anyways thanks guys for listening to this episode um if you guys have any questions

00:43:14.820 you can always get the uh podcast notes and the scriptures that we reference at realearnchurch.org

00:43:19.900 forward slash listen and we will see you guys next week on the real christianity podcast take care

00:43:33.360 Thank you.

00:44:03.360 Thank you.

00:44:33.360 Thank you.

00:45:03.360 Thank you.

00:45:33.360 Thank you.

00:46:03.360 You

Dale Partridge - July 17, 2019

Real Christianity #54： The Four Criteria For Creating Biblical Community

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