The Church Intensive is a ministry of Francis Chan's Crazy Love Ministry, which serves to catalyze Biblical churches. Our hope is to put content on here centered around this question: what does God desire of His church?
"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” Gal 2:20 KJB Only We are a small group of disciples who are crucified with our Lord Jesus Christ. We love our Lord and seek to obey His commands. On Sunday mornings, we meet to worship in open spaces far and wide. We don’t have a church building or a paid pastor, and money is never asked for or accepted. We are not a 501c3 corporation. We live simply and sacrifice, to individually give to those hurting in desperate poverty, and we share our faith with those dead in sin, teaching repentance and a new birth to righteousness and true holiness.
Sean, Rob…thank you so much for this sober conversation about communion (no pun intended). I love the approach you guys are taking. Maybe the way it’s been done is completely wrong but we should still have a reverence towards communion. For our church network, we have mostly settled on taking communion in the context of a meal but it doesn’t always work out that way. Like you guys said, it’s all about the heart. Thanks again.
I think Cor.3:13 is something we should ponder. It seems a lot different than when we gather today. House churches with special speakers once in a while.
Random question...I am working my way through all of these videos, so forgive me if you address this topic in a later video, but I am wondering about children. Specifically, do you have any “programs” for children such as “Sunday school” or youth group? I am just curious. I have been wondering for a long time whether these programs are truly helpful for our youth or whether there are different ways of discipling our youth in the Church setting. Thanks!
These are good things to think through. Good questions to ask. I do believe pastors/elders should be cared for in some way according to the Bible, whether that’s a salary, periodical stipends, gifts, etc. Especially when our gifts can be a instrument to give them more time to shepherd the flock. One of the biggest reasons churches have huge budgets is not namely salary, but the buildings, projects, and special events. What if the church grew and we rented instead of owning? There are pros and cons. I know in America that it’s almost like a “right” or urgent need to own a building, which is not always true. Some of that stuff is not necessary. What Chan said about making decisions or showing favoritism because of money, is a wise insight. We should not make decisions solely on money, neither show favoritism to people because they have a lot of it. That’s greedy, deceitful, and not trusting God.
Chan, I can understand what you mean I think, like maybe there are seasons, even though we can still be reaching out to people, maybe you needed a bit of time to reset, there's a lot on your shoulders- I can't imagine.
Thank you for the video. I've got a couple thoughts I'd like to hear your thoughts on. One is that we don't meet on Sundays. When we first started in my home we did meet on Sunday evening, but I realized we were all bound by time, since most people have kids as do we and we all had to get them ready for bed at a certain time. We meet in the afternoon into the evening. We switched to Saturday for freedom from time. It was met with backlash and a biblical argument about the Lord's day. Referencing 1 cor 16. I read over the verse and only found that that day was set aside to collect an offering. I see another reference in rev 1:10 but still no command to gather on that day, the first day of the week. So we did what seemed best to allow for free time with each other and God. Second, as far as communion, we did often set aside a time for a more "official " communion, which we also took very seriously, but when I look at the Lord's supper and Corinthians admonishment to wait for the poor, it seems to me that the Lord's supper is much more simple. It seems to me that the meal with share is the Lord's supper. It's so simple and always done while including remembrance of what Jesus did. The hangup would be unbelievers who gather together and participation. I would love to hear your thoughts.
“We WILL be confessing sin to one another.” I really appreciated this comment. Practical questions: Do the elders and pastors confess their own sins to those under their care during, for example, their discipleship huddles? Or do they confess to other pastors and elders? Or do they seek that level of accountability outside of We Are Church?
My opinion instead of focusing all the attention on Pastors and leaders, would be focusing time and effort on the ones that are actually sold out for Jesus. Not just focusing on the ones getting paid by Jesus. But my opinion with a dollar and you can buy yourself a cheap cup of coffee. But sold out is really not wanting to do something and doing it anyway. Doing it out of wanting to instead of obligated to. Changing the got to to get to amen.
To care for others spiritual walk but not to be confused with a babysitter. Amen my opinion is political and selfish members is the problem with church today. “Poly means many Tick is a blood sucking creature Amen.”
I’ve got a checkered past, I’m covered in tattoos. I’m also a sold out son for the high King, our King Jesus Christ Amen. I don’t have a PHD. But I have been thru Spiritual Boot Camp.
In the last video I saw Francis asked what if he hit a diamond with a hammer..... my Memaw Karnes used to always say to me, that I was so rough on things that I could tear up a steely ball with a rubber hammer. And Jesus gave me a great analogy with a steely ball the size of a jawbreaker and a rubber hammer to illustrate how long eternity would be. Get it? All the glory goes to God, feel free to use his analogy to further His Kingdom Amen.
I know that I am not included in the original uploads with Francis and the rest of of y’all. Nevertheless it makes me fired up and I am willing to follow Jesus any where that He calls amen. I would love the privilege of buying lunch and listening to Francis’s take on how we messed it all up. I’m just a follower not a fan, considered least. Amen
After 20 years of doing this we are burned out, but we want to learn to do it again in healthy ways with proper boundaries. We've worked a lot with folks that are struggling in many ways. Maybe we need to look for folks that are more ready for leadership with this?
Thank you so much for this. My husband and I have felt led in this direction and we are so excited to find these videos and see how we can move forward. All for His glory! 🙌
Hey guys, what are you expectations for time commitment as folks are developing leaders? For guys that work full time it can be tough. Is it like a couple hours a week in person with someone, or doing life together a little more than that or what? Shalom and thank you!
Mat 28:19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the NAME of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: It does not say baptize in the titles, it says name. And as we see in acts that name is Jesus. the only name by which man can be saved.....
So is baptism a salvation issue, because that wasn’t really talked about? What I mean is, if someone repents and trusts in Jesus and it’s a true conversion, then that person dies before they were able to get baptized, would they go to Heaven? Curious on your thoughts?
Our thoughts? yes God sees those before we think them out loud. God sees the heart. Is our mind/conscience; our heart obedient? The thief was occupied with a full course Roman execution, no one ever survived. What is your handicap? Acts 2:38 is only part of the transformation of sanctification, that begins with hearing the Gospel as the Holy Spirit was poured out on the waiting Apostles and disciples, Acts 1:3-5, Poured out the Promise of the father on all nations, sons and daughters, Acts 2, Delivered and received, the action is taken Acts 2:36-42. Acts 5:32, Why not be like those former pagans in Corinth? Acts 18:8. Down in the river to pray, wash all your sins away, Acts 22:16, Have a clear conscience before God and man bury the old man of flesh to rise in the new life, death will have no more dominion to those in King Jesus! Romans 6, 1 Peter 3:20-21, Titus 3, Col 2. John 17 Abide! Come to the Table Break Bread of life, drink the new wine of forgiveness! www.churchintensive.com/church-intensive-online
Hello brothers, Thank you for your videos. I long for a non-traditional/institutional local church family. I'm in the Cleveland Ohio area. Do you all network with house churches throughout the states? Please pray for me.
Thank you for asking us to wrestle with tough, loving questions here ( and in your previous videos as well). Also, thank you for saying a little bit about the different intentions and expectations for different meetings - evangelistic "social" events vs the gathering the body of Christ.
It sounds nice in theory, but the challenge to long term sustainability will always be theological training. The places in the world where he wants to emulate home churches have serious theological problems.
@@ambcfoxe4171 , what you said demonstrates exactly why we need formal theological training. I mean that as respectfully as possible, but if churches expect to evangelize and minister accurate training is necessary.
@@ambcfoxe4171 Any time you draw a conclusion from God’s word you are being theological. If you say, “God hates sin”, that’s theology. The question is not whether you need theology; it’s whether you have good or bad theology. 🙂
It would be so awesome if y’all had some advice to give. We have been led to start our home church. It’s been 3 months and the Holy Spirit forgotten God book has been our wake up anthem. We would love to just talk and get advice if that’s ever something y’all are able to do.
Brothers and sisters i am a carpenter for my day job my life has been radically transforms by Christ yet I still need to come into greater submission to the commands of Jesus in my daily life.
You might address this more in another video, but you spoke about discipleship, investing in a few. What does this look like, practically speaking? Meeting one on one? Digging into the Word together?
I love you guys and want to join you. I think God is putting it on my heart to start this where I live. Do you have any connections in Newport RI or Mayport FL?
