Welcome!

Welcome! // Have you been on the HCSC (house/simple church) journey long?

Hey Bro, I just finished a couple of your books, Preisthood& Butterfly, and really loved the message. I have been wanting to write myself but always seem to find that some brother has already said what I was thinking of.

howdee! My names wes. I have one of your books on my readings list. Is it any good? I'm in a house church in AR. I wish we had an idea of what we were doing. O well, Jesus, boo-yah!

thnx for the link. I'll ask everybody about it. I'll let u know what I think H&R book. Any particular one I should check out.

Hey Milt,
Yes he did and I invited him to Simple church, he just joined a bit ago, we have been talking via email back and fourth. thanks for telling him

Milt,

This is a very nice site. Thanks for sending the invite. I forwarded it to Kent tonight. The move has been difficult. It's a lot of change, especially when we were so comfortable with where we were. I'm in MN trying to find the house we're to live in. It's been challenging, but I'm sure we get past it. Hope all is well with you--Nancy

Hi Milt,

Great to see you here brother. I feel like I know you having read "The Temple Within" as well as listening to most of your messages that I could download. I have shared your analogy about "learning to hunt" "the captive lions" and "the milk" with many I meet along the way, as well as our house church here in Crescent City, CA.

You know Milt, there is another group of Christians that have been practicing beholding their indwelling Lord for several hundred years, and also practicing His indwelling corporately, and that is the Quakers. I think they have much they can teach us. I have been packing around Thomas Kelly's book, "Testament of Devotion" now for some 30-plus years. The first time I picked that book up and read the first page, I was captivated.

It is really amazing to go back and read some of the Quaker writings on corporate meetings and allowing Christ to express Himself through the members of His body. Elton Trueblood has been one of my favorite authors as well for many years and he has been ahead of the curve in much of his thought regarding church reform, particularly "The Fellowship of the Committed" and "The Incendiary Fellowship." His book "The People Called Quakers" is also quite good, especially the aspects that go into their corporate meetings where vocal ministry issues out of His Headship.

Then there's Douglas Steere's little book "Prayer and Worship." Excellent! A recent Quaker book is "Holy Silence" by J. Brent Bill. Quite good. Another one I'm reading at present is "Apocalypse of the Word: The Life and Message of George Fox" by Douglas Gyn. That book has made my mouth drop open a few times as it describes George Fox's vision for the Headship of Jesus Christ in His church. He was the "Frank Viola" of his day and would even go into the "steeple houses" and challenge the preaching that he heard head-on. Fox's message was not only iconoclastic, but it was gloriously and utterly Christ centered. This is one of his quotes: "In the church of Christ where he is the head, there is his gospel and his order and his government, there is his power felt in everyone's heart, and there are his offices of admonishing, rebuking, exhorting, reproving, amonst them that are convinced, and converted, by them that are in the power."

He wasn't very fond of what he called "hirelings." These were those who were paid to "preach." He thought that was wrong and that there is only one, Jesus Christ, who could speak to our condition. It is Christ who is our preacher, and our prophet. He states:

"And now you have an everlasting preacher, whom God hath anointed to preach...and everlasting prophet that God hath raised up, who is to be heard; all the living hear him, but the dead but talk of his fame." Whoa! That's pretty amazing stuff, huh? Needless to say, some of this didn't go over very well with the Puritans, and they ended up pummeling him, stoning, him, jailing him, and even beating him with their bibles.

I've never been to a Quaker meeting, but from all that I have read it really does seem to me that there is this whole group of Christians that seem closely aligned in thought and practice with many of us in simple church gatherings and may have something to teach us. And I'm a little surprised that their contribution, as well as their rich history of beholding and attending to their indwelling Lord, hasn't been recognized among us.

Anyway Milt, I'ld be honored if you'ld become a friend here at SC.com. That was the real reason I wrote. Thanx for hearing me out. Clark












I have recently purchased several copies of "Experiencing the Depths of Jesus Christ" and passed them on.

Hey Milt,

I am doing great. How are you?

I have been wanting to talk to you, and thank you for eveyrthing you did for us when you came to Greenville.

Hope to talk to you soon.

Ryan

Hi brother Milt,

I just wanted to let you know that impact "The Temple Within" has had on my life and I'm letting others know as well. If you get a chance, check out "Celebration of His Indwelling" on my site here at SC. I began writing this 12 years ago but added ACT ONE as a result of reading and pondering what you wrote in "The Temple Within." Thanks brother for this book. I'm intending on picking up your other books as well.

Clark

Hi Brother,

Thanks so much for the comments on "Celebration of His Indwelling." That thrilled my heart. I would be happy to send that to you but wasn't sure how to do that. Do you have an email address I could send it to? I did download the rest of it on my page at SC, but the special treatment I gave the lettering doesn't show up.

In answer to your question about our fellowship here: We started "Little Portion Fellowship" in Crescent City a year ago in October. If everyone shows up, we are 20 or so.

This all started when I read "Meeting Under the Headship of Jesus Christ" by Gene Edwards as well as "MegaShift" and every "subversive" book brother Frank wrote, or spoke. I was "hooked." Prior to that I was also reading the books of Elton Trueblood, and he certainly sowed the seeds in my heart for a bigger picture of the church gathered unto Him.

I've had this gnawing in my heart that something just wasn't right. Thirty years ago or so I bought "The Apostolic Fathers" to try and get an idea of what the early church was really like and how they met together. I was desparate to see beyond what we were doing. I also read "Revolution" by Gene Edwards probably when it was first printed, and it thrilled me beyond belief. I remember laughing out loud at some of the comparisons between what happened then and the typical church meeting of today. It was an answer to my longings and "rang true and loud." Gene promised a sequel and while I looked for it with great anticipation, it never materialized.

After reading these book, I poured over and over the book of I Corinthians as well as other passages in Ephesians, Colossians, etc. I began to see the church materialize before my eyes of something of amazing genius and power that didn't look anything like what we were doing.

I made a hard break with the church I attended here for years. And by hard, I mean "painful." I love so many there, and deeply, but I felt there was some pioneering work to be done and felt tied down to some traditional ways.

Anyway, I put an ad in the paper and dear brother Doug emailed me. Doug had been "house-churching" for some twenty years and we began to get together. We shared many of the same passions and ideas regarding simpler church gatherings. And I then discovered that Doug also fellowshipped with John White's house-church ministry in Colorado.

Our little fellowship is growing into "family." It has had it's ups and downs, but that's just part of being family, huh brother? I am so proud of each and every member who is a part of this fellowship.

My passion Milt is to see each member, learn to speak the Lord Jesus Christ, into the meeting, the way Paul describes in I Corinthians 14. I know that I had this burdon, but didn't have a clue to how this was done, how to teach this kind of mutual edification to build up His body. I ordered "The Excelling Gift for the Building Up of the Church" by Witness Lee last week. This little book has pretty much thrilled me out of my socks, and I found myself "challenged" as to the costliness of following Him all the way. I hope we can spend some prayerful time going through it "line by line."

And there is a correction regarding my last post Milt. It was the first "two" acts of this poem that was influenced by "The Temple Within."

Thanks again brother,

In His Faithfulness,

Clark