|
Well, that's a
good question. This is, pure and simple, just a place to speak
honest Truth and maybe start moving toward the way Jesus wanted
things to be. The people here recognize that they played a part
in making this mess that we've come to call "church" and
they want to try to make it right. At the heart of it, we are
like a co-op where a bunch of one-person or one-family ministries
have agreed to walk shoulder to shoulder so as to help get the word
out - whether that's a book, music, poetry, a testimony or whatever
God gives us.
Sometimes it's
easier to define yourself by what you're not. We're not a
"ministry" in any normal sense. We're not trying to
build any buildings. We're not a cult (click
here for testimony from a cult expert affirming that we're not!).
We're not trying to get your kids to go live on a commune.
We're just saying stuff that is as True as we can make it and
encouraging others to do the same. We have products that people
have entrusted to us to sell and the money is used to get the word
out about the need for change. (See store.)
We do take donations if the Lord puts it on your heart to help. We're
entirely dependent on the Lord and the Body to do what we are being
called to do.
You see, for so
long we've fed a system that seems specifically designed to
get people to pick sides and throw rocks at each other. We've
gotten distracted with so many side issues that we don't even know
what the real point was sometimes.
Arsenio Hall used
to talk about "Things that make you go, Hmmm." That's
sort of what we do. Just say stuff and maybe you'll go,
"Now you know, he might have a point there." If it
drives you to the Bible (or your knees) to go figure out whether
we're making it up or not, all the better. We've been
dumbed-down for so long, we all need some remedial education in how
to even tell the difference between Truth and not-quite-Truth (which
is still a lie). So we set up a discussion board where people
can practice.
The Fellowship of
the Martyrs is not a "movement" or a "church,"
per se. You see, those who commit themselves to Christ are to
pick up their cross daily and follow Him. They are to pour
themselves out so that Jesus can be poured in. They are to
endure faithfully any trial or persecution for the sake of His
name. They are to love as He loved, forgive as He forgived,
sacrifice as He sacrificed. We are to crucify OUR will and
plans and desires so that we can follow HIS. And if it comes
down to it (which we hope it doesn't), we're willing to lose our
heads rather than deny Christ.
So anyone that
understands that and lives it is already a part of the
Fellowship of the Martyrs. They are joined as part of God's
true invisible Church, whether or not they are members of a
particular earthly church building/body/denomination/etc.
We don't have some
membership application or clubhouse or anything like that. This
website and all of our efforts are just about pointing out that what
Christians are to be is Martyrs. There's no soft, comfy way to
follow Christ. What the church body is to be is a place for
Martyrs to fellowship and support and encourage each other.
We've built buildings so that we can reach out to the "lost"
in great numbers and involve them in our fellowship, but the result
has been that we've been unable to disciple and train them - or keep
ourselves fed. Over time we've watered everything down so far
that it's hard to find Jesus anywhere.
Something new is
coming. Christians all over will start taking responsibility
for their own relationship with God, instead of relying on a paid
staff member to do it on behalf of hundreds or thousands. That
doesn't mean we stop having "church" as we know it or
eliminate the staff. It means everyone that is serious needs to
buck up and start helping more.
I hate that
it's necessary for us even to say
this stuff,
but that's the way it is. This is a place to point out the
obvious and encourage Christians
to do three simple, but life-altering things (See Romans 12):
In
thankfulness for God's mercy, offer your bodies as a living sacrifice
as your spiritual act of worship.
You can do this by:
1. STOP
CONFORMING TO THE WORLD!
2. Be
transformed by the renewing of your mind - grow up into Him who is
the Head - be like Jesus.
3. THEN you
will know what is the perfect pleasing will of God - and YOU CAN GO
DO IT.
Is that what we're
preaching in the churches? It ought to be. Hmmmm.
On the local level, Doug Perry
travels as the Lord leads and observes, prays and consults with a
wide variety of congregations and ministry leaders. Right now, his
entire focus is getting the revival fires in Kansas City lit and
burning brightly.
If your congregation wants to
get radical for Jesus and is willing to do whatever it takes to bring
revival, contact Doug Perry at fotm@fellowshipofthemartyrs.com
for a free "Spiritual Tune-Up" consultation. We'll help you
find what's clogging up your personal or collective pipeline to God
and we'll help you get the Spirit flowing as it should.
We absolutely guarantee that
something is going to happen in your congregation as a result. But
you better be serious about this. Because Ananias and Saphira
weren't all the way serious (Acts 5). If you pray that the Lord would
ruthlessly and urgently remove any obstacle to revival, if you're not
careful you might just find that it's YOU!
|
