LK10: Soul Words

Dear LK10 Family,

Picture a thousand people sitting in an auditorium listening to some great preaching and enjoying a great worship band.  While there are helpful things that can occur in that context, it is, in some ways, unfortunate that we call that picture "church".  Call it a "lecture".  Call it a "concert".  Just don't call it "church".  

I know this is a fairly radical statement but bear with me.

If Scripture is our "authoritative guide for faith and practice", we must conclude that the primary metaphor for church is "family".  Here's another quote along that line from the book I referenced last week, House Church and Mission (by Roger Gehring), "For the Pastorals (First and Second Timothy and Titus), the church really is the household or the family of God.  Viewed in this way, 'house or family of God' becomes the model for responsible behavior as well as for church order and leadership structures, and the central, all-guiding image for the self-understanding and organization of the church."  p. 261.

We see Paul not only writing about this idea of "church as family" but living it out.  When he describes the process of making disciples, he uses family language...

*For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chose you...   1 Thes. 1:4  (see also 2:1, 17; 3:2, 7; etc.)

*... we were gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little children.  1Thes 2:7

*... we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children...   1 Thes 2:11

This is also a core value in the LK10 Community...  restoring the New Testament concept of "church as family".  

And, in that auditorium with a thousand people, you really can't be family in any meaningful way.  One of the many family things you can't do in that context is sharing soul words.

1.  "We have to find words for what is inside us."   If church is a thousand (or a hundred) people in an auditorium, we need skills like public speaking and crowd control.  If church is a family, we need a whole different set of skills.  In fact, the same skill set that is necessary for a healthy marriage and a healthy family is also necessary for a healthy church (in the New Testament sense of the word "church").  Ideally, house church reinforces family and family reinforces house church.  

"We are not born knowing how to understand and express what is inside our souls... We have to learn to notice and be aware of our internal experiences, to search our hearts and find words for what is inside us.  Being fully known and understood requires that we say aloud to someone else what is going on within ours souls."  Milan and Kay Yerkovich, How We Love, p. 19.  (While this book is about marriage, it has huge implications for house church.  I am indebted to Brittani and Tim Morris (Ohio) for this resource.)

2.  Soul Words.  "If you trusted your parents and felt safe enough to share your inner self with them, you likely learned some soul words for expressing your feelings and became able to relate to people on a deep level.  Soul words allow you to express all that is going on in your heart and mind."  Yerkovich. p. 19  

That's it!  Soul words are key to relating "to people on a deep level".  Whether in a marriage, a family or a church.

Some further observations...

*Good spiritual moms and dads (like Paul in 1 Thes 2) do many of the same things that good physical moms and dads do for their children.

*The problem is that many of us did not grow up in homes (or churches) where we learned to use soul words.  House church can be a place of learning skills we didn't learn when we were children.

*The soul words described by the Yerkovichs are simply an expansion of SASHET.  For instance, here are words that expand HAPPY.

HAPPY, cheerful, delighted, elated, encouraged, glad, gratified, joyful, lighthearted, overjoyed, pleased, relieved, satisfied, thrilled, secure.

Go here for a full list of soul words:  http://www.howwelove.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/SoulWordList.pdf

Experiment:  Make copies of the list of soul words found in the link above for everyone in your house church.  When you meet, give everyone the list and have them take a couple of minutes to identify 2-3 soul words to use for their Check In this week.  (This list of soul words is great for your marriage and family also!)  Share your comments, observations and questions about soul words in the LK10 Forum here:  http://www.lk10.com/community/community-discussion/?cid=23&show=1330

3.  "I've never seen anything like it."   Tom Griesemer (Colorado) has been a church leader for close to 50 years and has "seen it all".  But at the LK10 Labor Day Conference, he experienced something for the first time in his Table Church.  With six people from varied backgrounds that he had never met before, he experienced a unity and bonding in literally minutes that he had never experienced before.  How is that "rapid bonding" explained?  Because the focus was on the family activities of sharing on a heart level (soul words or SASHET) and listening to Jesus, our older brother.  To hear Tom's story, click on the link not the photo.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfN6eMhMbi4

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Delighted to be on the journey with you!

John

John White
Team Leader
LK10:  A Community of Practice for House Church Leaders
LK10.com