When I teach about organic church, the most frequently asked question - how to deal with the threat of heresy? I understand this concern and will try to answer it with understanding and discernment, as the issue is very important. Movement of planting organic churches will not be lasting if it is simply to ignore the difficulties encountered on the road. But I also believe that the issues raised in response to our movement can not only be satisfactorily resolved, but also that these solutions are the best alternatives to the way the church to address these problems in the past. If the movement of organic church is not moving forward, for better health and wholeness, then it would not be worth talking about it at all.



General understanding of the problem sounds like this: If we put on the uneducated leaders and teachers, then we will not allow heresy thrive in our churches? Of course it is - a risk but I believe there are simple ways to reduce the risk of such infection. Healthy body with a strong immune system fight off infection better than sick. This is - a natural body function that is inherent in its very essence. I will assume in this article, there is a better immune system for the body of Christ than that with which we got along for so long.

What, indeed, a threat?

In fact, there is no way to get rid of heresy in the church at 100%. Jesus told us that there will always be false teachers (Matt. 24:4-5,11). Enemy - is a liar (John 8:44) and he tries to hide ways to penetrate our ranks (Jude 4,10-13). If the liar was able to invest in our minds that anything but the truth, then he could keep us from what would be all those than the resurrection of Christ for us to be. I fear that the irony is that, unfortunately, he was successful doing it just under the banner of struggle against false doctrines.

The best solution to heresy in the church was that in order to better educate the leaders of the "preaching of chairs, but it is better to teach people to" pew. " While many will say that the key to a better-trained people - the leaders who teach them, that is, unfortunately - more often than not the reality. It is true that we need better leaders who empower and equips ordinary Christians to know the truth, spread the word and make the ministry (Ephesians 4:11 and on), but it is very different from the kind of leaders that cover the whole faith and who are gatekeepers for the Word of God. As long as our leaders consider the gatekeepers of the truth, we leave most of the people of God in the darkness, and they thus become susceptible to the leaders who make thinking for them - because that's exactly what they were trained to do. The irony is that the same thing that we think will prevent the problem of heresy, actually feeds the problem.

There are no gatekeepers for the Word of God. While Paul was in prison, guarded the gates, he said these words: "For the Word of God is not bound" (2 Tim. 2:9). I do not have to defend God's word, this is it protects me! People are attacking the Word of God in every generation. Entire empires began full-scale war against the Word of God, and fell, but the truth of God's word is worth. The idea that the Word of God needed my help, really stupid. Men do not contain the word of God pure, it is - the Word of God contained men clean. We are lost if we ever lost sight of this fact. We need God's Word more than it needs us.

God's Word in the hands of His people is not a dangerous thing! The idea to present all the way around giving smell of Satan? Why are we afraid of such things? Keep the word away from human hands - a very dangerous practice in which we must repent immediately! Great men and women throughout history believed their lives for the right for others to have free access to God's Word. Let us not belittle their sacrifice.

Are people able to distort the Scriptures for their own purposes? Of course, there are such, and, of course, such would be. Satan did it from the very beginning (Gen. 3:3), and it will not stop until it turns into the lake of fire. However, I do not think my hope for the people, and I guess my hope in God and His Word. Do we really think that way to protect the church from the imperfections of human is to make sure that we rely on other imperfect men, that they thought of others? It's like trying to solve the problem by creating a large number of other problems? It's like trying to extinguish a fire bucket of kerosene.

Perhaps the Western church has lost its force, in which we needed so badly, just because we do not trust the strength and purity of the written revelation of God. Instead, we relied on the ability of certain people to interpret, teach and organize the Bible. There is no power inherent in the people or their systems. The Word of God is one, and we must again learn to trust it. We have sacrificed the power of God's Word for impotence of the human learning about God's Word, and then wondered why God's people are so ineffective in influencing society. The sad irony is that all this is made of curved respect for God's Word.

Many feel that when we have leaders who are not trained in the seminaries, we are open for all kinds of bad training. The reality is that many heresies were born precisely at the seminary. Someone even claimed that the whole fundamentalist movement was born out of reaction to the heresies and liberal teachings, which came out of the many workshops, particularly in Germany in the early 20th century. In our seminaries, we are taught to think that we are unable to protect themselves from heresy without their help. And yet, the seminary as an institute of higher education, a relatively new phenomenon in church history, and I would venture to suggest that we have not become less of heresy after the invention of the seminary.

When is it best to teach skills to interpret the Bible?

I teach the skills of interpretation of Scripture in our movement? Yes, I teach, but it's not the first thing I do. The first thing I do - it's sending the Holy Scripture is read without any intermediaries. As soon as the sheep hear the voice of the Good Shepherd, they begin to follow Him in life. There is a very significant mark, that should happen from the beginning of a new life. In the natural world is the bond that develops between the new-born creature, and his mother. All the memory is being born will always be stored and be under the influence with a creature that they see first in my life. This is sometimes called "fingerprint". As the ducklings, which will follow their mother, so new students have to connect to the voice of God very early in their new life. Instead, most people in the churches of America have a different impression - microphone voice of their pastor, a preacher of the Word of God, not God's Word itself. As they increase they are told to begin reading the Bible, but rarely have they developed an appetite for it. I hear the common "mantra" - "I try to read the Bible, but I can not understand what I read. Appears so much more sense when I hear my pastor explains." They - the sheep who know the voice of their pastor, but it's not the voice of Jesus.

People ask me: "Then what, how students can not make mistakes and misunderstand the Scriptures?" Yes, of course they can make mistakes. And I'm often wrong when I was a young student. Maybe we need to realize that we spend the rest of our lives, trying to understand an infinite book, which has no end the depth of her understanding. Perhaps we need to give people the freedom to make a few mistakes, leaving them with few questions, and learn as they grow. I remember my first teaching of the Bible, which I have ever done - and it was heresy! And I managed to utter the obscenity in it as well. I'm glad that someone gave me a chance to do better next time. I'm still ashamed of my first sermon. If you keep me out of every thing, which I believed during my first pastoral, I would be stagnant and stunted student who does not learn. I now understand things better than first realized, and I hope that in ten years I see more clearly.

I think if you were attentive student of church history, you would be simply amazed by some strange ideas, who believed in our historical heroes. But God, in spite of this, he blessed them, used them and use them still, even though they did not have a complete picture of all of God's Word. Perhaps we - well, a little blind to our own doctrinal error, and these errors will be more apparent through the coming decades and centuries.

So, why not let people who are new believers, to make mistakes early in their development, as we all have happened in our growth? If we have to be perfect in our understanding of words from the first day of our Christian life, then none of us are not worthy. It is not surprising that many are afraid to open their Bible, if it is assumed that they should all at once properly understood. And it turns out that just open the Bible and read - a risky undertaking.

The ratio at which the leader is humble and knows his own inconsistency - is a safer attitude to strengthen the one who tries to interpret the Scriptures than the ratio at which the leader is so confident that he knows everything that is true, and places each tenet in its proper mental "box". In this latter respect - more heresy than we think. This is contrary to Scripture and makes a dull church, which is unable to learn. Teacher, who still have many questions, far more desirable than one who has "all" answers.

Jehovah's Witness who comes home to me with a clear explanation of all that you need to know about their god does not make an impression on me. It just shows me that they have very little god, for whom I would not want to follow.

St. Jerome once said about the Scriptures, "They are sufficiently small for the baby to come and take without fear of drowning, and yet deep enough for theologians to plummet to its depths, never reaching the bottom."

I teach the basic skills in biblical interpretation, but I'm waiting until the students did not show up as leaders and be ready to teach others. When they are responsible for training others, then I teach them the basic skills of interpretation. But here is surprising: when I teach skills of interpretation for the first time the new leader, it is usually already happening as refresher courses for them. As they read a lot of Scripture from the beginning, and continue to read all the books of the Bible many times (this habit, we use as part of the transformation groups of Life), they have intuitively learned most of the rules of interpretation. I found that the Holy Spirit - an outstanding teacher, and that the best interpretation of a rule is really common sense. By that time, when I show these rules to new leaders, they have grasped most of them independently.



And yet that is the real heresy?

The church has also been taught to think that the biggest threat to which it is - it is heresy. That is why it is - one of the first and most frequent questions asked by the movement of organic churches. Speaking to a large audience about this, I often spend my direct questioning and consistently have the same results. I ask that in the audience raised their hands by those who know someone personally who "lost" and actually started a cult. Usually two or three people raise hands. Then I ask them to raise their hands who know the Christian leader who fell into sin, immorality, and everyone in the room raises his hand. My conclusion: "Then why are we so afraid of heresy?" It is evident that there are other, more significant problems in our body.

Another thing I question - this is what people label as heresy. Often what is a heresy for one part of the kingdom, the orthodox to the other. In this case, the majority said that their doctrinal beliefs, is the closest to the historic and orthodox doctrines.

One thing that always disturbs me is when one Christian leader, attacks on other Christian leaders, while publicly uses some extremes to justify their position, just because they do not agree on an insignificant number of theological questions. Good to have beliefs about the doctrines and even to have a lively discussion on these beliefs, but curses his brother - perhaps a greater sin than itself erroneous interpretation.

How we protect people doctrinally?

This raises the question of whether we really need to sort people by doctrine. In our movement is - what we see as the DNA of the body of Christ, which is a code that dictates the lives, health and abundance. DNA - it is Divine Truth, Nurturing Relationships and apostolic mission. We want to see DNA, evident in every cell of the body. This is - what binds our movement. In other words, the Divine Truth is the most important ingredient for health and unity in the church and in our own unique movement. Therefore, hold fast to the Word of God is essential. Currently, our movement is made up of church planting that are associated with more than 15 denominations (from the Reformed denominations to "Vineyard") and five parachurch ministries. Now the question is - what the doctrines are most important and which are not as critical. Is there a point when we stop communicating with certain people because of the doctrine?

One of the ways in which we maintain unity among our diverse movements, was to pass people through the test, which we call "a test slug." We ask: "If someone put a gun to you to the temple and said, 'Give up this doctrine, or I'll shoot', then if you say:" pull the trigger ', then it is - the doctrine of the bullet. We must agree on the doctrines bullet. We adhere to doctrines that are not doctrine, bullets, and even teach them with conviction, but we do not exclude or attack the brothers and sisters because of the doctrines are not Bullet. They - secondary doctrine. They enlighten, but they are not worth to die for them, and certainly not worth what would be for them to commit murder.

For us, the doctrines of the bullets are as follows:

We believe in ...
The one true God in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Inherent divinity and humanity of Jesus and his redemptive work, manifested in His death, burial, resurrection, ascension and imminent return.
Salvation - by grace through faith, not as a result of our own affairs.
The impact and power of the written Word of God in all his revelation, without error in its original manuscripts.
The Atonement of all believers to be significant in the kingdom of God and the provision of necessary for this office.

Of course, this is not meant to be fixed and static process protection. It is - only the beginning of relations, which will over time based on a much larger than the cognitive agreement on a number of established beliefs.

We understand that it is - also not a reliable method of protecting against heresy. It was more than nine hundred people in 1978 in Guyana, who have been through "a good test-help" against incorrect doctrines, and nevertheless, have given their lives in the power of false teaching. History inundated by people who laid down their lives for a lie, so this method can not be considered absolutely reliable. This is - just a starting point for those who have the Spirit of God and listen to his voice, and who united around the uncompromising truth.

So how do you let the heresy of the movement to use organic churches?

We have an excellent system of antibodies in the movement of organic churches. In fact, I believe it is better, much better than the solution, which is in the traditional church system.

Heresy usually occurs because of three things: 1. Strong, confident leader who wants to inspire the greatest possible number of followers, whom he can rally. 2. Biblically illiterate group of Christians who will follow him. 3. The scriptures are used out of context to build a false doctrine.

We focused on all these issues at the cellular level of church life - through a strategy of transformation groups of Life (GPZH) [You can learn more about GPZH here, on our website simple churches]. This is the place where the war against the infection won or lost in the body.

In GPZH men or women meet with one or at most two other people of their sex.

In conclusion.