Saturday, February 09, 2008

New Ideas?

Pioneering New Church Territory:

'We have intimated that behind this ministry, and largely as the occasion and venue of it, there is a company of the Lord's people who regularly meet at Honor Oak, London. We believe that "order" of gathering, procedure, and ministry are as near to what the Apostles sought to have as our present light permits. We do not claim to have "yet attained," neither do we account ourselves as "yet perfect," but being open to the Lord we are adjustable to any further leadings of the Holy Spirit.
We have never followed a pattern discovered on earth. Either we were in culpable blissful blindness, or providential innocence, but we knew not the same order obtaining already. So as we were concerned it seemed as though the Lord was beginning us at zero. Neither had we studied the New Testament with the object of trying to formulate a New Testament church or its order. We have since come to believe that the New Testament does not give a full and final patter for reproduction and imitation.
Thus, having set aside all the formal system of organized Christianity, we committed ourselves to the principle to the organic. No "order" was "set up," no officers or ministries were appointed. We left it with the Lord to make manifest by "gift" and anointing who were chosen of Him for oversight and ministry. The one-man ministry has never emerged. The "overseers" have never been chosen by vote or selection, and certainly not by the expressed desire of any leader. No committees or official bodies have ever existed in any part of the work. Things in the main have issued from prayer.'
Sparks, March 1956


This is sounding a little closer to "The Gate Seldom Found".... that I still yearn for. He will give us the desires of our hearts if they are the desires of His. Check the date of Sparks quote. Wonder if this was his "Gate"?

Doesn't it just sound right?

5 comments:

J. Guy Muse said...

Great quote. What is the source where you found this?

In Christ Alone said...

Hi Guy,
My main source is this "Sparks enthusiast" who loves God and lives from Him and continues to blow me away with these quotes. He tells me....

All my stuff lately has been coming from hardcopy - and there is no softcopy of it I have seen yet...but it is Sparks: 'Words of Wisdom and Revelation'...Sparks seems to have little snippets of Spiritual cluster bombs.
http://www.austin-sparks.net/ has a good representation on line of his works.

http://www.austin-sparks.net/bkcatalog.html if sent, tick them all, they will mail you 30 lbs of books...anywhere in the world free - it is their ministry and as I understand it...a wealthy backer is behind them.

http://www.austin-sparks.org/heavenly_church/index.html
you won't believe it but a portion of what I cited is also found at this amazing gem.

Hope this helps, Guy.

In Him,

J. Guy Muse said...

Thanks! I have this post flagged to be able to come back and check out the TAS links you provide.

Anonymous said...

One Word Answer to The Question At Hand: Yup!

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In Christ Alone said...

Hola Guy,
Check out this blog as well. This brother knows Sparks.
http://meetingofone.blogspot.com/

In Him,