Third Day Churches
June 28th, 2005Website: http://www.thirddaychurches.com
(House Churches Multiple Locations)
Church Review
Scriptural View: 3/5
Missional View: 4/5
Community: 5/5
Website Review
Site Usabilility: 4/5
Site Design: 3/5
Site Content: 3/5
Summary: The Third Day Church movement is a Charismatic house church movement that began here in San Diego and is now in eight countries. Here is an excerpt from their website about this movement:
On several occasions, history has provided the needed critical mass and the synergistic inertia to thrust the church into breaking out of its’ box and becoming the force in culture and society that God intended it to be. Today, the church, at the dawning of the 21st Century, has once again reached this “critical mass.” It’s something so big and so obvious that the winds of change demand we look hard at our forms and face the reality that a different church must provide a different response to a postmodern age. This Third Millennium (“a day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as a day,” 2 Peter 3:8; Psalm 90:4), or this “Third Day” requires a “Third Way” of doing and being the church, even a third Reformation.
There are a lot of things that this church is doing that San Diego Church Reviews agrees with. They are highly missional, they desire to remove traditions that impede on the advance of the gospel and the active involvement of all people in the church to ‘be the church’ not just attend one. There are two primary areas of concern about Third Day Churches; staying within the bounds of Scripture and the belief of modern day prophecy. The home churches offer a place that is “free for people to do whatever they want” which can be liberating but also can lead to unbiblical practice. Second, the belief that a person can prophesy and ’speak for God’ is dangerous. Third Day offers Schools of Prophecy to help train people to use this gift which we believe is no longer necessary with the completion of the Apostolic period. Unfortunately, to truly know how Third Day conducts themself, someone would need to attend their church for a season to ‘test the spirits’ that are being used.
A facinating house church movement. This Church is not recommended for everyone and we offer a word of caution for people to investigate their practices before joining.
July 2nd, 2005 at 4:45 am
It seems to me that the only reason this movement is not recommended is that it’s TOO biblical for those whose theology explains away large portions of scripture because it doesn’t fit into their disponsational box.
This movement is not recommened because it is puting into practice 1 Corinthians 14:1 “Pursue love, and desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may PROPHESY.”
This movement is not recommended because it is puting into practice 1 Corinthians 14:26 “How is it then, brethren? Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. LET ALL THINGS BE DONE for edification.
This is a place … “where all the gathered believers can potentially participate in the gatherings” and “instead of a single-pastor system with program-driven worship, each person in the Body is supposed to bring something from the Lord that will cause another to mature in love and good deeds.” Quotes from http://www.thirddaychurches.com/articles/chapter4
This movement should be HIGHLY RECOMMENDED unless you still want to sit in a pew, keep your mouth shut, pay the professionals to do Church for you, and hope no new wine comes and bursts the old wineskin!
July 14th, 2005 at 4:21 pm
Here is a review that provides some insight for people who are considering on whether to attend a Third Day Church:
http://www.carm.org/list/third_day.htm
July 18th, 2005 at 11:31 am
In response to Mr. Buddle:
I think your review of the Third Day Churches seemed like one of judgment without really talking to someone from Third Day or attending one of the meetings. Or did you? Your comment did not state why you came to the conclusions of what Third Day believes.
Why does the ‘Church’ get all in a titer over form, or non form or better yet, why does someone else’s obedience to God cause others to freak out? Unless you are in relationship with someone from Third Day, what you are saying is opinion without heart. To say that Third Day believes that God is just there as a ‘Bless Me’ God and that is what we are hanging the Third Day sign on is just plain ridiculous. If you had been around any meeting at all and asked what it meant, you would hear this… Anything can happen on the Third Day… That sounds pretty New Testament Church to me. Walking around with Jesus seemed to be pretty random and new and the disciples were hanging out while Jesus looked for what the Father was up to so He could be smack dab in the middle of it. No one knew what they were hanging around waiting for in Acts. Anything could have happened and it did. No one in Third Day is stating that it is blessing or hardship or sorrow or joy… it is anything…God can do anything, anytime, anywhere and through anyone… if we will just look for Him in each other…
It is time for the ‘Church’ to start digging for Gold in one another and quit looking for all the bad stuff. We all have bad stuff. Mr. Buddle, I am sure you are not perfect… I am not perfect. Come to a meeting, talk to someone who has been around for awhile, find out for yourself what is really going on. Third Day is a movement of people who just want God… at any cost, at any time of the day or night, we want His presence, we want His ideas, we want to Know Him, we want to know what He wants. We want to know HIM… in each other and in ourselves. We want everyone to KNOW the God of our universe. The Holy Bible is our guideline, our menu for life, we eat of it and devour it on some occasions. Our house might not look like your house Mr. Buddle, but we will continue to honor your house and love that you are there, on the path with us, going the same direction. All houses of God are His. We honor that. God can use anyone and anything to advance His Kingdom. After all it is HIS Kingdom. My prayer is that as you attempt to represent God to others as you give opinions of HIS houses, that you keep in mind just that… They are all His houses and He loves all of us!!!!
Blessings, Tracey Barton
August 6th, 2005 at 12:04 am
ReBuddle
Dear Mr Buddle,
I have been pondering your comments regarding the Third Day Churches and I must say that I wonder if it has ever crossed your mind that “narrow is the road” and “narrow is the mind” may be two entirely different things.
I have been a christian for over 30 years and it is self-proclaimed “watchdogs” like you and your institute that have made want to weep in frustration and grief for most of those 30 years.
You, and those with similar agendas, make a mockery of Paul’s instruction to not judge our brothers on DISPUTABLE matters (Rom. 14 & 15) and instead, “rejoice with those who rejoice” (Rom. 12:15) and “make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification” (Rom. 14:19).
In my humble opinion, there are only a couple of “INDISPUTABLES” in the Bible. What makes them “indesputables” is that our salvation rests upon one and our “Christ-likeness” rests on the other. The first is that Jesus, God’s son, was sent to die on the cross for our sins and by believing in Him anyone can have a whole and lasting life and spend eternity with God. (John 3:16). The second is that we are commanded to love God with all our passion and prayer and intelligence and to love one another as we love ourselves. These two commandments were, in Jesus’ opinion, the only way of fulfilling the law (Matt. 22:37-40).
So, it would seem that those two scriptures sum up what Jesus was trying to say to the religious world around Him in a nutshell and they seem to be the ONLY two scriptures that denominations of every kind can agree upon. As well, the only thing I can think of that determines my salvation is whether or not I believe that Jesus died for my sins and accept His sacrifice for myself, adding nothing to that (like works), and as a result of believing that, humbly attempt to walk out, in grace, the love that He has given me in my actions towards others. I don’t believe anyone could argue with that. However, having said that, it appears that every other thing that could be argued from the Scriptures has been argued, for and against, for hundreds of years. That is why we have denominations in the first place, because those of us called to walk with Jesus could not agree on what the Word says about any given matter outside of John 3:16 and Matt 22:37-40 (as mentioned above).
Therefore, I have had to come to the simple conclusion that all other things that the “church” argues over are simply doctrines and traditions.
Mr. Buddle, everything you believe can be “proven” by YOUR interpretation of the Word, but in the same fashion, so can someone else do the same thing about the same subject. As an example, baptism, emersion or sprinkling? Disputable. Communion, grape juice or wine, wafers or bread? Disputable. And here’s a good one, spiritual gifts, dispensational or non-dispensational? Disputable. Or how about miracles or no miracles? Disputable (except to the south african who was raised from the dead yesterday). What about God heals today or God doesn’t heal today? Again, disputable (unless you are one of the thousands around the globe that happened to be healed after praying to JESUS). And here’s an odd one, soul sleep or instantly with Jesus when we take our last breath? Disputable. On the placement of a COMMA! WOW. “Verily, verily, I say unto you(,) today you will be with me in paradise” OR Verily, verily I say unto you today(,) you will be with me in paradise”. Seems kind of silly to me, but it is very important to my Seventh Day Adventist friends, whom, I might add, love Jesus like I do and believe those irrefutables like I do. Oh, and here’s another good one, post, pre or mid-trib? All disputable.
I can only hope you are getting my rather tongue in cheek point, though that is not likely, for you remind me of the men that Paul was speaking to regarding the matter of meat in Romans 14. But I can still hope that others might read this and get the point that you will likely miss. It’s the “narrow road, narrow mind” thing.
I have to confess that I find it incredibly presumptous of you and others like you to attempt to take on the role of the Holy Spirit in the lives of others without solicitation by those said others. Furthermore, your whole attempt to “warn” others who have the same Holy Spirit as you do, the Spirit of God who has been sent to, among other things “lead us into ALL Truth” (John 14), is an appaling attempt at playing Holy Spirit based, in my opinion, on nothing but fear and said presumption.
I don’t view my God from a punitive, legalistic lens and, as a consequence, I am not afraid of making a mistep, not afraid that I could be misled into misinterpreting scripture, because I am confident that, unless I suddenly stop believing that Jesus is the only atonement for my sin, then God and I will be fine. I choose not live my life in fear that I will “be deceived” by someone who may differ with me in a “desputable” and lead me down the merry path of certain eternal damnation. That kind of myopic paranoia will only lead me to fear my brother or sister in Christ and make my life one of certain misery, for one can never have real relationship with someone they fear. Again, at the risk of being redundant, I believe Scripture makes it evident that God desires us have relationships with one another that are based on our love for Christ and not because we both agree on the “disputables”! It is clear we are not to judge one another just because I may dip and you might sip. That’s called a “club”, not a church.
Just in case you are now in doubt of my salvation and think I am being irreverant, I do want to say that I do indeed have a holy fear and awe of the amazing and mysterious God that loves me, BUT I do not walk in fear of being rejected because I have not done it all right. If I could do it all perfectly then I guess I too, would be mysterious and amazing. I take God very seriously, myself not so much and everything else is taken with the proverbial grain of salt.
Lastly, if I may, I would like to address your concerns for Third Day Churches and pastors who are involved. If you were to sit down with Gary and Jane Goodell you would find two people who are evangelicals at their core (I am distraught by my need to even defend them to you with a label, but I believe you really understand labels, they probably make you feel safe). I would urge you to re-read their mission statement, if you haven’t done so (and I would find it unthinkable that anyone would “critique” them without doing so first!). They are simply trying to flesh out a CONCEPT (Third day) that they believe God gave them. Are you familiar with that word, Mr. Buddle?
Concept:
Pronunciation: ‘kän-”sept
Function: noun
Etymology: Latin conceptum, neuter of conceptus, past participle of concipere to conceive —more at CONCEIVE
Date: 1556
1 : something conceived in the mind : THOUGHT, NOTION
2 : an abstract or generic idea generalized from particular instances
synonym see IDEA
So you see, Mr. Buddle, nothing to be afraid of, no wolves in sheeps clothing here nor someone handing out coolaid. Just a concept, sir, that something new (and ancient) is on the horizon and they and those like them are simply not afraid to check it out.
You, sir, use scripture as a weapon, something which, I believe, makes God cringe. I was taught that scripture was never meant to be used as something to hurt the people God loves, nor was it meant to be a divisive tool. I believe it was meant to lead us to, and guide and teach us how to be more like Jesus. I also don’t believe scripture was meant to be worshiped by fearful men who fear “experience” with an unpredictable God (you might want to peruse the Old Testament again) and therefore are satisfied with a one demensional relationship with a very three demensional God. Only God is to be worshiped.
And I lied, that wasn’t the last thing.
This is. I am continually grieved by the everpresent spirit of religion (think pharisee) that is so pervasive in the church. That spirit causes you, sir, to believe that you and those who agree with you, alone, know how to interpret scripture, and to judge others who do not agree with you. Sadly, you can’t even be honest about the fact that you are indeed, judging, instead you call it “warning”, which is simply a euphamism for judgement. Perhaps fooling yourself into thinking you are making people safe makes you feel better and allows you to sleep at night. But the truth is that you are, sir, what makes non believers ridicule the church, at least the ones I know that have spoken of such things. For you bring nothing to the table but divisiveness over the “disputables”, and in doing so, you, sir, misrepresent the heart of my Father, and THAT is what a spirit of religion does. It causes those who have not yet come to know the loving heart of the Father to never want to. They have no desire to go from a world that accepts them into one which will judge them. They are just “unsaved,” not insane.
I could get into all the scripture that speaks of divisiveness, but I am just too tired at this point. And the truth is, you will receive none of this anyway. You will see me as just another poor, deceived “charismaniac”. But I sure feel better after getting all this off my chest and I can only hope that this might cause someone else reading this forum to ask some hard questions about your position as a self-appointed “watchdog” for the “can’t think for themselves” masses. May He continue to be merciful to you and to those with your sad, sad agenda.
Respectfully yours, for His sake,
Linda Wilson
September 15th, 2005 at 8:49 am
Linda,
I find it almost laughable that are blind to the fact that what you are chastising Mr. Biddles for is exaclty what you are doing. Doesn’t this strike you as odd. If you are to live consistently with your relativistic postmodern hermaneutic, then the best you can do is stay silent since any talk of good/bad, right/wrong, is nothing more than your opinion and should be dismissed without a second thought. I wonder if within your particualr slant on scripture if you think that it honors the Lord to simply assume whatever you want and call it “disputable.” Do you think we should simply consider what the JW’s think as nothing more than “disputable?” Or how about the Mormons? If not, why?