"The Way Church Was Meant To Be"
Good Morning!
We are hungry for Jesus. As Christians, we want truth and reality. We read the New Testament, and we see the way the early church lived. We see what the early believers had. And if we dare to be honest, we see that our experiences and practices don’t quite line up with the New Testament example.
Sadly, the majority of Christians don’t really see a problem with our current practice of “church” and Christianity as a whole. This is probably true for a few reasons. One reason is that most people are not aware of anything different than what they are already practicing. People tend to accept what they are used to. People tend to think that what has always been practiced in their lifetime is right, correct, and normal.
Jesus aggressively spoke against the traditions of men. Yet today, Christians are “going to church” the same way their parents did, and the way their parents did before them, without taking an honest look at the Bible and what it says about the way we should be meeting.
It takes courage to be honest.
Jesus spent a lot of time rebuking the religious leaders of the day and their teachings. Still today, most people at large are doing just what the religious leaders of the day say we should do. Because a person goes to seminary and is now considered a “trained and credentialed professional”, it does not mean their methods or ways are right. In fact, the role of the modern day church leader is found nowhere in scripture.
We place more value on an intellectual mind than we do a broken heart. We respect education more than power. “The things that are highly esteemed among men are the things that God detests,” (Lk 16:15). If a man today does not have a degree from a Bible college or seminary, he is considered not qualified to lead, yet Jesus used un-schooled fisherman to raise the dead and to establish the foundation of the church.
Our ways are backwards.
We assume that what is common, what is accepted, and what is widely practiced is officially correct.
Not so. There have been many times throughout history and in many cultures, when what was common place and widely practiced was absolutely horrible, yet everyone thought it was OK because it was what they were used to. This is true in our day and age in the church.
During this present day, there is very little being practiced in our church meetings that can be found in scripture, and we are suffering for it. We are currently in a “modern dark ages.” We are in a time in which Christians everywhere have accepted unbiblical practices to be the norm. When the true Biblical concepts are read, concerning what should be our practice, everyone nods and agrees – in concept. But our destructive ways continue.
Christians are starving spiritually. Committed to “being fed” Sunday after Sunday, many Christians are spiritually impoverished and they don’t even know it. We are used to eating crumbs. The modern day malnourished believer contributes to the making up of an entire church that is mostly powerless.
The church of the West has largely become a hybrid. The church has mixed with the world and the culture of the day. In many ways, we have accepted the ways of the world and have left the scriptural example. Because of the money and means we have here in America, we then propagate our hybrid ways to the rest of the planet and call it “mission work.” We now have new believers in many parts of the world trying to mimic a church pattern of error we follow in America.
God will always love and bless His people. He is so kind and compassionate that he will give to us and even bless us in the midst of our ways. But there is a better way than our current practice – a Biblical way. A way that God intended. A way which quickly grows and strengthens the disciple. A way that keeps families strong. A way that brings honor to our King. A way in which would cause the world to marvel in awe at the church, as it once did – and be drawn to it, rather than make fun of it.
The power and Spirit of the living God is within us. We have a clear example in the Bible of what to do and how to conduct ourselves. So what’s the problem? Why are we not seeing the Biblical example being lived out in our day?
There are a lot of ideas out there. Since 1987, I have come across a variety of ways that people believe we are to “have church”. But when we look at the plain and simple direction of the New Testament, many of the ideas that are out and that are being practiced in traditional church settings and in many home gatherings simply don’t match the examples of the scripture!
We as the church, are a colony from heaven. We are to fervently love one another, from the heart, and on a daily basis. We are to live and share life together. We are to be devoted to prayer and devoted to one another. We are to be filled with the Holy Spirit within ourselves individually and He is to fill our meeting rooms. We are to speak the truth to one another in love. We are to continually participate in our various functions and gifts, and not just in church meetings. We are to be truly “knitted together” in heart. Vulnerable and transparent, in the Holy Spirit, we are to bear our souls to one another. We are to live a life of confessing our sins and weaknesses, bearing one another’s burdens. Walking in the light and with intense accountability, we are all to be built up from the entire body.
We cannot be adequately fed from only one man, for only one hour, on only one day of the week. No matter how good of a man he may be.
The church of Jesus does not need money to run. Nor does it need a denomination (division) to be affiliated with. We do not need a building, a board of directors, an agenda, or a marketing plan in order to survive. But rather the Spirit of God, the power of the gospel, the love of the brethren and the authority of the scriptures are to drive our very existence.
We are to call no man leader, teacher or father (Matthew 23:8). For there is only One who is our Father and we are all brethren before our God. There is equality at the foot of the cross. From the crack house to the White House– all will stand before Jesus and bend the knee. Arrogant men, ambition, the need to have position, the need to have a title, and the need to be recognized as a “minister” or clergy has no place in the church of the living God.
We in the modern day church have sold out for what is flashy, for what is big, and for what makes a good show. The louder the music, the catchier the tune, the more people who attend now days makes for a “better worship experience”.
We are sending unseasoned people (mostly teenagers) out of the country on “mission trips” who are not living the life of Christ and won’t share their faith with their next door neighbor. The thrill of going to another country to do missions seems to be more exciting than sharing our faith in the checkout line at the grocery store. We have resigned ourselves to shallow relationships, sitting on pews with people we don’t really know, listening to an intellectual stimulating speech once a week, and farming our children out for somebody else to teach them the ways of God and of life. Godly sorrow, humility, and corporate prayer are all becoming rare commodities.
We should not be able to wait until the next time we can get together with our brothers and sisters. And when we do come together, we are to encounter the Spirit of the Living God. With Jesus in our midst, satisfying us, feeding us, speaking to us, filling us, encouraging us, and leading us, we are HIS BODY. Infused with His life, we are to be in sync with the head. “Membered” and planted with one another, we are to build each other up. We are to be a continual love feast in the Spirit of God, a safe place of growth, a home of strength and of security.
You have only one life to live. You’ve got one shot at this. And the time is short. It’s not too late. But it will take courage.
The job we have before us is a job of undoing. Hopefully, this website will be a source of direction – a guide for those of you who want something more.
If you find yourself defending your own experience while reading this, this website may not be for you. If you are satisfied with your current experience of church life and don’t see what the big deal is, then my prayer is that these writings will arouse you from your sleep. Jesus and the church are not to be just a part of our lives but, the only life we’ve got.
Sadly, the majority of Christians don’t really see a problem with our current practice of “church” and Christianity as a whole. This is probably true for a few reasons. One reason is that most people are not aware of anything different than what they are already practicing. People tend to accept what they are used to. People tend to think that what has always been practiced in their lifetime is right, correct, and normal.
Jesus aggressively spoke against the traditions of men. Yet today, Christians are “going to church” the same way their parents did, and the way their parents did before them, without taking an honest look at the Bible and what it says about the way we should be meeting.
It takes courage to be honest.
Jesus spent a lot of time rebuking the religious leaders of the day and their teachings. Still today, most people at large are doing just what the religious leaders of the day say we should do. Because a person goes to seminary and is now considered a “trained and credentialed professional”, it does not mean their methods or ways are right. In fact, the role of the modern day church leader is found nowhere in scripture.
We place more value on an intellectual mind than we do a broken heart. We respect education more than power. “The things that are highly esteemed among men are the things that God detests,” (Lk 16:15). If a man today does not have a degree from a Bible college or seminary, he is considered not qualified to lead, yet Jesus used un-schooled fisherman to raise the dead and to establish the foundation of the church.
Our ways are backwards.
We assume that what is common, what is accepted, and what is widely practiced is officially correct.
Not so. There have been many times throughout history and in many cultures, when what was common place and widely practiced was absolutely horrible, yet everyone thought it was OK because it was what they were used to. This is true in our day and age in the church.
During this present day, there is very little being practiced in our church meetings that can be found in scripture, and we are suffering for it. We are currently in a “modern dark ages.” We are in a time in which Christians everywhere have accepted unbiblical practices to be the norm. When the true Biblical concepts are read, concerning what should be our practice, everyone nods and agrees – in concept. But our destructive ways continue.
Christians are starving spiritually. Committed to “being fed” Sunday after Sunday, many Christians are spiritually impoverished and they don’t even know it. We are used to eating crumbs. The modern day malnourished believer contributes to the making up of an entire church that is mostly powerless.
The church of the West has largely become a hybrid. The church has mixed with the world and the culture of the day. In many ways, we have accepted the ways of the world and have left the scriptural example. Because of the money and means we have here in America, we then propagate our hybrid ways to the rest of the planet and call it “mission work.” We now have new believers in many parts of the world trying to mimic a church pattern of error we follow in America.
God will always love and bless His people. He is so kind and compassionate that he will give to us and even bless us in the midst of our ways. But there is a better way than our current practice – a Biblical way. A way that God intended. A way which quickly grows and strengthens the disciple. A way that keeps families strong. A way that brings honor to our King. A way in which would cause the world to marvel in awe at the church, as it once did – and be drawn to it, rather than make fun of it.
The power and Spirit of the living God is within us. We have a clear example in the Bible of what to do and how to conduct ourselves. So what’s the problem? Why are we not seeing the Biblical example being lived out in our day?
There are a lot of ideas out there. Since 1987, I have come across a variety of ways that people believe we are to “have church”. But when we look at the plain and simple direction of the New Testament, many of the ideas that are out and that are being practiced in traditional church settings and in many home gatherings simply don’t match the examples of the scripture!
We as the church, are a colony from heaven. We are to fervently love one another, from the heart, and on a daily basis. We are to live and share life together. We are to be devoted to prayer and devoted to one another. We are to be filled with the Holy Spirit within ourselves individually and He is to fill our meeting rooms. We are to speak the truth to one another in love. We are to continually participate in our various functions and gifts, and not just in church meetings. We are to be truly “knitted together” in heart. Vulnerable and transparent, in the Holy Spirit, we are to bear our souls to one another. We are to live a life of confessing our sins and weaknesses, bearing one another’s burdens. Walking in the light and with intense accountability, we are all to be built up from the entire body.
We cannot be adequately fed from only one man, for only one hour, on only one day of the week. No matter how good of a man he may be.
The church of Jesus does not need money to run. Nor does it need a denomination (division) to be affiliated with. We do not need a building, a board of directors, an agenda, or a marketing plan in order to survive. But rather the Spirit of God, the power of the gospel, the love of the brethren and the authority of the scriptures are to drive our very existence.
We are to call no man leader, teacher or father (Matthew 23:8). For there is only One who is our Father and we are all brethren before our God. There is equality at the foot of the cross. From the crack house to the White House– all will stand before Jesus and bend the knee. Arrogant men, ambition, the need to have position, the need to have a title, and the need to be recognized as a “minister” or clergy has no place in the church of the living God.
We in the modern day church have sold out for what is flashy, for what is big, and for what makes a good show. The louder the music, the catchier the tune, the more people who attend now days makes for a “better worship experience”.
We are sending unseasoned people (mostly teenagers) out of the country on “mission trips” who are not living the life of Christ and won’t share their faith with their next door neighbor. The thrill of going to another country to do missions seems to be more exciting than sharing our faith in the checkout line at the grocery store. We have resigned ourselves to shallow relationships, sitting on pews with people we don’t really know, listening to an intellectual stimulating speech once a week, and farming our children out for somebody else to teach them the ways of God and of life. Godly sorrow, humility, and corporate prayer are all becoming rare commodities.
We should not be able to wait until the next time we can get together with our brothers and sisters. And when we do come together, we are to encounter the Spirit of the Living God. With Jesus in our midst, satisfying us, feeding us, speaking to us, filling us, encouraging us, and leading us, we are HIS BODY. Infused with His life, we are to be in sync with the head. “Membered” and planted with one another, we are to build each other up. We are to be a continual love feast in the Spirit of God, a safe place of growth, a home of strength and of security.
You have only one life to live. You’ve got one shot at this. And the time is short. It’s not too late. But it will take courage.
The job we have before us is a job of undoing. Hopefully, this website will be a source of direction – a guide for those of you who want something more.
If you find yourself defending your own experience while reading this, this website may not be for you. If you are satisfied with your current experience of church life and don’t see what the big deal is, then my prayer is that these writings will arouse you from your sleep. Jesus and the church are not to be just a part of our lives but, the only life we’ve got.
The Purpose
There are vast numbers of Christians who are leaving the traditional church and seeking fresh ways to gather around Christ. For the most part this is a silent trend, but it is a strong one.
A recent Gallup poll concluded that each year 4,000 new churches start and 7,000 close. USA Today recently ran a story that said 1 in 4 young people (ages 18 – 30) have left the traditional church. In addition, 1 million people leave the traditional church each year, most of them young people.
The World Christian Encyclopedia recently estimated that there are already 112 million “out-of-church Christians” around the world. The study also noted that more than 20 million adults attend services in home churches each week. Recently, that number rose to 43 million woldwide.
In a report from the Barna Group, evangelical researcher George Barna said 70 million Americans regularly attend or have experimented with a house church at some point- that’s an increase of 8 percent since 1996. “The movement is taking on evidence of permanence,” he said.
Especially with the younger generation, we are now questioning what is really genuine. We are asking the question, “Why do we do what we do in Christianity?” People are tired of lies. People are tired of hype. People are craving what is real.
An attempt to meet in simpler, more genuine ways is becoming the new thing. But the survival and the ability of these simple gatherings to thrive is yet another issue. Without a consistant encounter with Jesus in our gatherings, we will be trading one dead form for another. We need to know what to do, how to do it, and how to undo what is not Biblical. There is a real shortage of experience available in this area. We don’t need more concepts. We need practical truth, which is what this website is designed to provide.
Today, it is very clear that we would rather copy and rely on the traditions of men than the New Testament as a blue print. Unbiblical ways are ingrained in our thinking and in our culture.
Personally, I’ve had somewhat of an advantage. I wasn’t raised in church. I had very few pre-conceived ideas of how the Christian life was supposed to be lived or what church should be like. When I read the New Testament for the first time in 1987, it was very different from the church meetings I was currently attending. It became clear to me very early on that we were really practicing traditions and habits, more than we were actually practicing what God’s Word said. When I would ask pastors about simple things in the Bible in which we were actually doing the opposite, they would answer me with contrived and complicated answers. Something didn’t seem right.
When I went to college in the late 1980’s, the town I was in had somewhere around 30 to 40 families meeting in different ways than the traditional setting. They were getting together in various houses, meeting in parks, meeting in rented community centers, and in many other ways. There was no one on staff, no designated official leaders, and no one was getting paid for anything. Leadership was organic and natural. Those who had gifts of leadership naturally lead. There weren’t any schedules or bulletins. And it purposely didn’t have a name – in order to cooperate with the New Testament example of there being only one church in any given city. However, we all met many times a week for meals, prayer, Bible study, worship, and fellowship. I’d never been exposed to such sincerity before. I was accidentally swallowed up into New Testament body life very soon after my conversion in 1987. I didn’t read a book about it. But I began to live it and experience it. I learned about life in God at an extremely rapid pace. I was only 19 years old when I began.
Without an artificial religious system in place which gives an appearance of keeping things going, what we have in non- traditional gatherings can be very volatile. There is no sign out front to attract new members. There is no advertisement in the yellow pages to make us look established. We don’t have big sound systems with entertaining rock and roll worship to make us look big and cool. All we have is the Spirit of God, a Bible, and each other. If in our meeting efforts we try to mix traditional systems and agendas with the Spirit of Jesus, it will quench Him and we will wither and die, or we will prop-up something that is dead and with no life.
As we attempt to get back to the basics of Christianity, it can be a challenging task due to years of traditional meetings ingrained in our thinking. Even in these new and simple gatherings, we will be tempted to rely on non Biblical methods to “keep the show going.” We don’t have to do this if we do what we ought to be doing in Biblical, New Testament body life.
It must also be said upfront that some of the major points of this website include not only establishing how traditional meetings have actually hindered Christianity, but also how to move on and be successful in meeting and sharing life together in more Biblical ways. It will just so happen that as we attempt to do this, we will often find ourselves meeting in homes for the evening. As I often refer to “meetings in homes” on this site, I am not promoting a home church denomination. Any simple gathering, whether it be in a living room, outside in a park, or in any structure with four walls and a roof, is all the same thing. In other words, this site is not a push for home church only, although as we meet in New Testament ways, we will often find ourselves winding up in the living room.
The views expressed on this website are all subject to scripture. What I’ve written is based on the current light that I have and my current experience at this point in my journey. If anyone has a scriptural basis to challenge any idea written here, I would deeply appreciate it if you would send me an email so that I may revise my thinking. At least, we could begin a dialogue together so that we could seek the truth together.
The website, has been revised and changed many times based on input and new light I’ve received from the church all over the world. Those who know me and walk with me are well aware that my views are always a work in progress and that the goal of my heart is to seek the truth. It is never my goal to be right and it is never to be critical.
What I offer to you is actually a collective experience of what works in New Testament church life. It’s a culmination of my experience, the experience of my peers, and the older brothers who mentored me as a young man. I am inviting you the reader to join us in the on-going conversation of learning and seeking truth together.
I also really hope you hear my heart in these last few qualifying sentences. As you read through the articles, it will be evident that at times I am pretty tough on the roles of pastors and leadership, and on the traditional church. I will be the first to say that a critical spirit is never good, and I hope I do not come across that way. So while you are reading, please be aware that it is the methods and traditions that are the problems, and not usually the people. Most of the time, from my experience, pastors are quality men. Most pastors I’ve met are also very sincere. I’ve discovered that most people are really trying to do the best they can, and walk according to the light they have. However, it is our assumptions, our traditions, and the misunderstanding of roles that have caused so much destruction in the church today. It is not usually the people.
A recent Gallup poll concluded that each year 4,000 new churches start and 7,000 close. USA Today recently ran a story that said 1 in 4 young people (ages 18 – 30) have left the traditional church. In addition, 1 million people leave the traditional church each year, most of them young people.
The World Christian Encyclopedia recently estimated that there are already 112 million “out-of-church Christians” around the world. The study also noted that more than 20 million adults attend services in home churches each week. Recently, that number rose to 43 million woldwide.
In a report from the Barna Group, evangelical researcher George Barna said 70 million Americans regularly attend or have experimented with a house church at some point- that’s an increase of 8 percent since 1996. “The movement is taking on evidence of permanence,” he said.
Especially with the younger generation, we are now questioning what is really genuine. We are asking the question, “Why do we do what we do in Christianity?” People are tired of lies. People are tired of hype. People are craving what is real.
An attempt to meet in simpler, more genuine ways is becoming the new thing. But the survival and the ability of these simple gatherings to thrive is yet another issue. Without a consistant encounter with Jesus in our gatherings, we will be trading one dead form for another. We need to know what to do, how to do it, and how to undo what is not Biblical. There is a real shortage of experience available in this area. We don’t need more concepts. We need practical truth, which is what this website is designed to provide.
Today, it is very clear that we would rather copy and rely on the traditions of men than the New Testament as a blue print. Unbiblical ways are ingrained in our thinking and in our culture.
Personally, I’ve had somewhat of an advantage. I wasn’t raised in church. I had very few pre-conceived ideas of how the Christian life was supposed to be lived or what church should be like. When I read the New Testament for the first time in 1987, it was very different from the church meetings I was currently attending. It became clear to me very early on that we were really practicing traditions and habits, more than we were actually practicing what God’s Word said. When I would ask pastors about simple things in the Bible in which we were actually doing the opposite, they would answer me with contrived and complicated answers. Something didn’t seem right.
When I went to college in the late 1980’s, the town I was in had somewhere around 30 to 40 families meeting in different ways than the traditional setting. They were getting together in various houses, meeting in parks, meeting in rented community centers, and in many other ways. There was no one on staff, no designated official leaders, and no one was getting paid for anything. Leadership was organic and natural. Those who had gifts of leadership naturally lead. There weren’t any schedules or bulletins. And it purposely didn’t have a name – in order to cooperate with the New Testament example of there being only one church in any given city. However, we all met many times a week for meals, prayer, Bible study, worship, and fellowship. I’d never been exposed to such sincerity before. I was accidentally swallowed up into New Testament body life very soon after my conversion in 1987. I didn’t read a book about it. But I began to live it and experience it. I learned about life in God at an extremely rapid pace. I was only 19 years old when I began.
Without an artificial religious system in place which gives an appearance of keeping things going, what we have in non- traditional gatherings can be very volatile. There is no sign out front to attract new members. There is no advertisement in the yellow pages to make us look established. We don’t have big sound systems with entertaining rock and roll worship to make us look big and cool. All we have is the Spirit of God, a Bible, and each other. If in our meeting efforts we try to mix traditional systems and agendas with the Spirit of Jesus, it will quench Him and we will wither and die, or we will prop-up something that is dead and with no life.
As we attempt to get back to the basics of Christianity, it can be a challenging task due to years of traditional meetings ingrained in our thinking. Even in these new and simple gatherings, we will be tempted to rely on non Biblical methods to “keep the show going.” We don’t have to do this if we do what we ought to be doing in Biblical, New Testament body life.
It must also be said upfront that some of the major points of this website include not only establishing how traditional meetings have actually hindered Christianity, but also how to move on and be successful in meeting and sharing life together in more Biblical ways. It will just so happen that as we attempt to do this, we will often find ourselves meeting in homes for the evening. As I often refer to “meetings in homes” on this site, I am not promoting a home church denomination. Any simple gathering, whether it be in a living room, outside in a park, or in any structure with four walls and a roof, is all the same thing. In other words, this site is not a push for home church only, although as we meet in New Testament ways, we will often find ourselves winding up in the living room.
The views expressed on this website are all subject to scripture. What I’ve written is based on the current light that I have and my current experience at this point in my journey. If anyone has a scriptural basis to challenge any idea written here, I would deeply appreciate it if you would send me an email so that I may revise my thinking. At least, we could begin a dialogue together so that we could seek the truth together.
The website, has been revised and changed many times based on input and new light I’ve received from the church all over the world. Those who know me and walk with me are well aware that my views are always a work in progress and that the goal of my heart is to seek the truth. It is never my goal to be right and it is never to be critical.
What I offer to you is actually a collective experience of what works in New Testament church life. It’s a culmination of my experience, the experience of my peers, and the older brothers who mentored me as a young man. I am inviting you the reader to join us in the on-going conversation of learning and seeking truth together.
I also really hope you hear my heart in these last few qualifying sentences. As you read through the articles, it will be evident that at times I am pretty tough on the roles of pastors and leadership, and on the traditional church. I will be the first to say that a critical spirit is never good, and I hope I do not come across that way. So while you are reading, please be aware that it is the methods and traditions that are the problems, and not usually the people. Most of the time, from my experience, pastors are quality men. Most pastors I’ve met are also very sincere. I’ve discovered that most people are really trying to do the best they can, and walk according to the light they have. However, it is our assumptions, our traditions, and the misunderstanding of roles that have caused so much destruction in the church today. It is not usually the people.
“Going To Church” is Not in the Bible
There is nothing righteous about a building. There is also nothing righteous about a home or a living room. Most people agree that the building where people meet is not the church.
It’s funny though how 99 out of 100 individuals will emphatically nod their head and say “Right, the building is not the church.” But, then ten minutes later if you point to a religious building with a steeple on top and say, “What is that?” They’ll say, “It’s a church.”
Jesus said, “But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart….,” (Matt 15:18). Out of their mouths, all of the time people say, “We are going to CHURCH”, or “Meet me at THE CHURCH,” or “That’s a CHURCH,” – because THEY BELIEVE in their heart that it’s A CHURCH. You might say, “C’mon, Terry, what’s the big deal, it’s just what we call it, we really know that the church is the people and not the building.” I’m not so sure about that and I’ll tell you why.
Our Words Represent Our Actions
Let’s take a look at your average group of people who meet in a traditional church setting. They have services twice a week, Sundays and Wednesdays. They have a nice building they meet in. The building is outfitted with all the traditional markings. It has a sign out front with the name of the church. The sign contains a weekly, catchy, thought provoking phrase. The building has a steeple on the top. If not a steeple, then some other traditional looking top to make it look like a church. Inside, the building has long benches for the audience to sit on. It has a raised platform or stage at the front. It has a nice wooden box for an orator to give speeches from. Behind the speech making box and stage, there is a big bathtub which is raised higher than the stage.
While in this building, we are to conduct ourselves in a certain manner. There is special, extra reverent conduct expected from you as you are in this large meeting room. It is frowned upon anyone to eat or drink a beverage in this meeting room. This room is considered sanctified, which is why it is called the sanctuary – which means that this room is set apart or holy. This meeting room is viewed as though God Himself were living in it.
Let’s do some experiments. Let’s remove all the pews. Let’s also remove the speech making box called the pulpit. All it is now is an empty room. How would this affect our meeting? Would it still seem like a church? Let’s say we sat on lawn chairs and the preacher stood on top of a milk crate. Would it now still be a real church?
Let’s say we took away the entire building. Let’s say a tornado picked it up and moved it to Kansas. Now remember, we all agree that this building is not the church. But what if this building were obliterated? What would be the response of the people who met inside it? More importantly, what would be the emotional response of these people? Would they say, “Our church has been destroyed?” And if this building were gone, how would it affect their fellowship and their practice of meeting together? Do we really believe that the church is really just the people?
We all agree with the concept that the church is the people and not the building – but only in concept. If you were to take away, change, mess up, or alter people’s sacred building, they won’t really feel comfortable.
People associate the building, the pews, the pulpit, the steeple, the baptistery, a pastor – all those things are necessary with “having a real church.” If you meet outside in a park, at 3:00 pm on Thursday instead of 10:45 am on Sunday, then you wouldn’t have a “real church.” If you baptized people in a lake or a river, instead of the bath tub behind the speech making stage, it would seem like the baptism was not quite as official or holy. In 1993, I baptized a man in a bird bath because it was all that was available. Was that baptism somehow less official than being baptized in a bathtub behind a pulpit on a Sunday morning at 10:45? In Acts Chapter 8, the Ethiopian Eunuch jumped out of his chariot and was baptized in some water right along side the road. The thief on the cross next to Jesus was never baptized at all, yet he entered into paradise. Perhaps we should consider if possibly God does not care about the things we care so deeply about.
“Well, Acts chapter 8 and the thief on the cross were during Bible times. Times have changed now”, some might say. Sure, things have changed. But they have not changed for the better. Why do we think that doing things differently from scripture is all of a sudden now more correct?
When Jesus walked the earth, He met outside and taught people in the middle of tremendous disarray. There were people sitting down in the grass. There were people sitting in trees. Some people were probably on their way to the market with their livestock and saw the crowd listening to Jesus preach. They would stop to hear what Jesus was saying and had their cow or chicken there with them as they listened to the message. No one was dressed up in a formal way. When Jesus spoke, there were babies crying, people in filthy clothes, and people walking around toward the back of the crowd.
Was it considered a church meeting when Jesus would preach to the crowds? Of course it was! The church meetings throughout the New Testament include meetings outside, meetings around a fire, meetings in homes, and meetings in buildings. Paul was in a church meeting one time, and while he was teaching, a young man was sitting in a window sill. Imagine if during the next Sunday morning service somebody decided they couldn’t hear as well from the back so they climbed up and sat in the nearest window sill? Someone would probably call security.
Here’s the point. The building is not holy. But we believe it is. If you meet in a park, meet in a home, meet in a fancy Catholic building in Rome, meet in a tree house, it’s all the same. Jesus said that “Where two or more are gathered together, there I am in the midst.” Do we really believe that? C’mon, do we REALLY believe that?
Let’s test it out. Could you meet with one other person, just one, on a Tuesday night in a park? You would read the Bible together, pray together, share hearts, worship God, and touch the Lord together. Would you consider that church? Be honest now… would you still feel like you have to cover your God base by going to the official church meeting on Sunday morning? Would you still feel like you have to dress up, sit on a pew, and listen to a sermon in order to feel like you’ve been in church?
Our actions sometime betray our right Biblical concepts.
Our religiousity runs deep. It’s all we’ve known, it’s all we’ve seen, it’s all we’ve been taught. It’s what we’ve believed for a long time now…even though it is unbiblical. What about all the other things you maybe unaware of that you believe and practice…. that may be unbiblical? The Holy Spirit will help you. But it sometimes takes tremendous honesty and courage to grow.
Why did the New Testament Christians meet in homes? It is certainly not that a house is more righteous than a building. Once you see and understand the essence of body life and what church really is, you will see that THERE IS NO NEED FOR A BUILDING. In fact, it can hinder and get in the way. Also, once your eyes are opened, you will stop associating “being fed” with that of listing to a message once a week. The New Testament Christians were not “fed” by a three point sermon once a week by a paid professional.
What is the point of meeting together anyway? What is the essence of the church meeting? The purpose is to touch the Lord, to encounter Jesus, to be built up in faith, and to edify one another. When this happens, He feeds us. He edifies the church. We are built up and encouraged and He is blessed. The essence and point of the church meeting is more easily accomplished as we keep it simple and don’t include all the extras and unnecessary practices.
It’s Time to “Go To Family”
Many times in Christianity we use words or phrases which are not found in scripture. Phrases like “give your heart to Jesus, make a commitment to Christ, once saved always saved, lose your salvation, our church body, or the body of Christ here” – none of these phrases are found in the Bible.
Many times the idea behind such phrases was originally founded in scripture. But over time, we add to their meaning. Over long periods of time we create man made doctrines, and then we assume they are Biblical. Assuming that certain things are true without questioning them gets us into a lot of trouble in the church. Over time our words and phrases get packaged, re-packaged, and then packaged again. Many times the arguments and discussions we are having are not Biblical themselves. In other words, we are often asking the wrong questions. Or, the dilemmas we are trying to solve are based on assumptions that are in error themselves. Almost always, words and phrases we use that are not found in scripture are not scriptural ideas.
Huge ships are turned by very small rudders. Sometimes even the smallest error in our language (which reflects our thinking and our heart) can manifest itself with huge and consistent patterns of unbiblical practices in our lives. If you will learn to seek the Lord and examine the scriptures with no biases or assumptions, it will open a whole new world to you.
I would like to introduce to you another phrase not found in the Bible. Scripture never uses the words “go to church.” And it doesn’t use that phrase for a good reason. You cannot go to something you are. The early Christians understood this. But we don’t. Our lack of understanding in this area has caused severe and widespread damage. “But it’s just words,” you might say. If I said that God was a female, would you have a problem with those words? I would too. The words we use express what we really believe, and we live according to how we believe. Let’s look at the absurdity of our practice of “going to church” and how it negatively affects our lives.
The word church in the Bible is the Greek word ekklesia. Ekklesia means “the called out ones.” If you further study the word, you will observe some interesting meanings. The word also has with it the meanings of a family, a people, an assembly, or a council. It even has the idea of a modern town hall meeting for deliberation.
We could substitute the word “family” for the word “church”. The church is a people. A family is a people.
Let’s say that after a long day at work, you were heading home to eat supper and then retire for the evening. And, you were going to do this inside your house with your spouse and children. Would you say, “I’m going to family?” No you would not. You would say, “I’m going to be with my family.”
Erroneously, church has become a function that we do on Sunday morning. Church has become an event instead of it being who we are. The word church has lost its meaning of family; the word has lost the meaning of us being a people. Going to church has become a weekly activity that we do. We’ve taken a word that defines who we are, a word that identifies us, and we’ve lessened it to an hour and a half episode that we do once a week. After the weekly church event, we then we all go home to our individual lives. It’s like going to the theatre, or going to school, going to work, or going to the grocery store. “We’re going to church!”
Look at it this way. If you are something, you are that thing everyday and you do what you are everyday. Are you a man? Then you never stop being one. Are you a woman? Then you never stop being a woman.
If you have kids then you are a parent. Do you ever stop being a parent? No. If you go to school, go to work, or you are at home, you are always a parent. You don’t stop being a parent because of where you are or what activity you are doing.
And here’s the point: As a parent you should always be actively parenting. You should be praying for your kids while at work. You should be planning things for them, thinking about their needs even when you are not with them. When you are at work, you are working to provide for their needs, when you are home with them, you are actively engaged with them and interacting with them. If you are a parent, you are always a parent and you do at least some sort of parenting activity daily!
Same with the church! If we are the church, you never stop being the church. You cannot be the church on Sunday at 10:45 a.m. and then not be the church Tuesday at 10:45 a.m.
When we call the building a church or say that “we are going to church” we are taking away from the fact that “church” is our identity, not something we “go to”. When something is our identity, we are that thing all of the time. When we “go to something”, we are only participating in that activity while we are there.
When we say “we are going to church”, we are practicing the exact error that is really in our hearts.
We have made something we are, into a weekly event. We’ve made the word “church” into an impersonal, shallow, intellectual, 2 hour a week activity.
Erroneously, we have our life at work. We have our life at home. We have our life of activities. We have our life with our church. We have our life with our friends. It is all become separate and compartmentalized.
If God has saved you and you belong to Jesus Christ, then your new identity as a person is now with the church.
The church, corporately, is now who you are.
And you are to live the reality that you are the church 24 hours a day / 7 days a week.
We think growth as a Christian is learning more about the Lord, instead of knowing Him as a person. I can read a book all day long aboutwho my wife is, but until I share her heart, and until I spend plenty of relationship time with her, I will not know her. Learning more information only teaches you about something. Experience is where true growth occurs.
In our day and time we know very little of intimacy. We know very little of how to be joined in heart and be truly knit together as a people of God, yet deep down, we all long for it. We have traded the intimacy of true church life for the falseness of an institution.
We are a living and breathing temple of living stones who encompass the true and living God. We are alive! Corporately, we are the very Bride of Christ. We are filled with the Holy Spirit, within and without. How offensive it is to call us a dead pile of brick and mortar. How it tells and exposes our lack of revelation of who we are, to say things like, “time to go to church.” If we are not using New Testament language, it is because we lack revelation to some degree. If our beliefs are in error, our practice and what we live are in error as well.
It’s funny though how 99 out of 100 individuals will emphatically nod their head and say “Right, the building is not the church.” But, then ten minutes later if you point to a religious building with a steeple on top and say, “What is that?” They’ll say, “It’s a church.”
Jesus said, “But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart….,” (Matt 15:18). Out of their mouths, all of the time people say, “We are going to CHURCH”, or “Meet me at THE CHURCH,” or “That’s a CHURCH,” – because THEY BELIEVE in their heart that it’s A CHURCH. You might say, “C’mon, Terry, what’s the big deal, it’s just what we call it, we really know that the church is the people and not the building.” I’m not so sure about that and I’ll tell you why.
Our Words Represent Our Actions
Let’s take a look at your average group of people who meet in a traditional church setting. They have services twice a week, Sundays and Wednesdays. They have a nice building they meet in. The building is outfitted with all the traditional markings. It has a sign out front with the name of the church. The sign contains a weekly, catchy, thought provoking phrase. The building has a steeple on the top. If not a steeple, then some other traditional looking top to make it look like a church. Inside, the building has long benches for the audience to sit on. It has a raised platform or stage at the front. It has a nice wooden box for an orator to give speeches from. Behind the speech making box and stage, there is a big bathtub which is raised higher than the stage.
While in this building, we are to conduct ourselves in a certain manner. There is special, extra reverent conduct expected from you as you are in this large meeting room. It is frowned upon anyone to eat or drink a beverage in this meeting room. This room is considered sanctified, which is why it is called the sanctuary – which means that this room is set apart or holy. This meeting room is viewed as though God Himself were living in it.
Let’s do some experiments. Let’s remove all the pews. Let’s also remove the speech making box called the pulpit. All it is now is an empty room. How would this affect our meeting? Would it still seem like a church? Let’s say we sat on lawn chairs and the preacher stood on top of a milk crate. Would it now still be a real church?
Let’s say we took away the entire building. Let’s say a tornado picked it up and moved it to Kansas. Now remember, we all agree that this building is not the church. But what if this building were obliterated? What would be the response of the people who met inside it? More importantly, what would be the emotional response of these people? Would they say, “Our church has been destroyed?” And if this building were gone, how would it affect their fellowship and their practice of meeting together? Do we really believe that the church is really just the people?
We all agree with the concept that the church is the people and not the building – but only in concept. If you were to take away, change, mess up, or alter people’s sacred building, they won’t really feel comfortable.
People associate the building, the pews, the pulpit, the steeple, the baptistery, a pastor – all those things are necessary with “having a real church.” If you meet outside in a park, at 3:00 pm on Thursday instead of 10:45 am on Sunday, then you wouldn’t have a “real church.” If you baptized people in a lake or a river, instead of the bath tub behind the speech making stage, it would seem like the baptism was not quite as official or holy. In 1993, I baptized a man in a bird bath because it was all that was available. Was that baptism somehow less official than being baptized in a bathtub behind a pulpit on a Sunday morning at 10:45? In Acts Chapter 8, the Ethiopian Eunuch jumped out of his chariot and was baptized in some water right along side the road. The thief on the cross next to Jesus was never baptized at all, yet he entered into paradise. Perhaps we should consider if possibly God does not care about the things we care so deeply about.
“Well, Acts chapter 8 and the thief on the cross were during Bible times. Times have changed now”, some might say. Sure, things have changed. But they have not changed for the better. Why do we think that doing things differently from scripture is all of a sudden now more correct?
When Jesus walked the earth, He met outside and taught people in the middle of tremendous disarray. There were people sitting down in the grass. There were people sitting in trees. Some people were probably on their way to the market with their livestock and saw the crowd listening to Jesus preach. They would stop to hear what Jesus was saying and had their cow or chicken there with them as they listened to the message. No one was dressed up in a formal way. When Jesus spoke, there were babies crying, people in filthy clothes, and people walking around toward the back of the crowd.
Was it considered a church meeting when Jesus would preach to the crowds? Of course it was! The church meetings throughout the New Testament include meetings outside, meetings around a fire, meetings in homes, and meetings in buildings. Paul was in a church meeting one time, and while he was teaching, a young man was sitting in a window sill. Imagine if during the next Sunday morning service somebody decided they couldn’t hear as well from the back so they climbed up and sat in the nearest window sill? Someone would probably call security.
Here’s the point. The building is not holy. But we believe it is. If you meet in a park, meet in a home, meet in a fancy Catholic building in Rome, meet in a tree house, it’s all the same. Jesus said that “Where two or more are gathered together, there I am in the midst.” Do we really believe that? C’mon, do we REALLY believe that?
Let’s test it out. Could you meet with one other person, just one, on a Tuesday night in a park? You would read the Bible together, pray together, share hearts, worship God, and touch the Lord together. Would you consider that church? Be honest now… would you still feel like you have to cover your God base by going to the official church meeting on Sunday morning? Would you still feel like you have to dress up, sit on a pew, and listen to a sermon in order to feel like you’ve been in church?
Our actions sometime betray our right Biblical concepts.
Our religiousity runs deep. It’s all we’ve known, it’s all we’ve seen, it’s all we’ve been taught. It’s what we’ve believed for a long time now…even though it is unbiblical. What about all the other things you maybe unaware of that you believe and practice…. that may be unbiblical? The Holy Spirit will help you. But it sometimes takes tremendous honesty and courage to grow.
Why did the New Testament Christians meet in homes? It is certainly not that a house is more righteous than a building. Once you see and understand the essence of body life and what church really is, you will see that THERE IS NO NEED FOR A BUILDING. In fact, it can hinder and get in the way. Also, once your eyes are opened, you will stop associating “being fed” with that of listing to a message once a week. The New Testament Christians were not “fed” by a three point sermon once a week by a paid professional.
What is the point of meeting together anyway? What is the essence of the church meeting? The purpose is to touch the Lord, to encounter Jesus, to be built up in faith, and to edify one another. When this happens, He feeds us. He edifies the church. We are built up and encouraged and He is blessed. The essence and point of the church meeting is more easily accomplished as we keep it simple and don’t include all the extras and unnecessary practices.
It’s Time to “Go To Family”
Many times in Christianity we use words or phrases which are not found in scripture. Phrases like “give your heart to Jesus, make a commitment to Christ, once saved always saved, lose your salvation, our church body, or the body of Christ here” – none of these phrases are found in the Bible.
Many times the idea behind such phrases was originally founded in scripture. But over time, we add to their meaning. Over long periods of time we create man made doctrines, and then we assume they are Biblical. Assuming that certain things are true without questioning them gets us into a lot of trouble in the church. Over time our words and phrases get packaged, re-packaged, and then packaged again. Many times the arguments and discussions we are having are not Biblical themselves. In other words, we are often asking the wrong questions. Or, the dilemmas we are trying to solve are based on assumptions that are in error themselves. Almost always, words and phrases we use that are not found in scripture are not scriptural ideas.
Huge ships are turned by very small rudders. Sometimes even the smallest error in our language (which reflects our thinking and our heart) can manifest itself with huge and consistent patterns of unbiblical practices in our lives. If you will learn to seek the Lord and examine the scriptures with no biases or assumptions, it will open a whole new world to you.
I would like to introduce to you another phrase not found in the Bible. Scripture never uses the words “go to church.” And it doesn’t use that phrase for a good reason. You cannot go to something you are. The early Christians understood this. But we don’t. Our lack of understanding in this area has caused severe and widespread damage. “But it’s just words,” you might say. If I said that God was a female, would you have a problem with those words? I would too. The words we use express what we really believe, and we live according to how we believe. Let’s look at the absurdity of our practice of “going to church” and how it negatively affects our lives.
The word church in the Bible is the Greek word ekklesia. Ekklesia means “the called out ones.” If you further study the word, you will observe some interesting meanings. The word also has with it the meanings of a family, a people, an assembly, or a council. It even has the idea of a modern town hall meeting for deliberation.
We could substitute the word “family” for the word “church”. The church is a people. A family is a people.
Let’s say that after a long day at work, you were heading home to eat supper and then retire for the evening. And, you were going to do this inside your house with your spouse and children. Would you say, “I’m going to family?” No you would not. You would say, “I’m going to be with my family.”
Erroneously, church has become a function that we do on Sunday morning. Church has become an event instead of it being who we are. The word church has lost its meaning of family; the word has lost the meaning of us being a people. Going to church has become a weekly activity that we do. We’ve taken a word that defines who we are, a word that identifies us, and we’ve lessened it to an hour and a half episode that we do once a week. After the weekly church event, we then we all go home to our individual lives. It’s like going to the theatre, or going to school, going to work, or going to the grocery store. “We’re going to church!”
Look at it this way. If you are something, you are that thing everyday and you do what you are everyday. Are you a man? Then you never stop being one. Are you a woman? Then you never stop being a woman.
If you have kids then you are a parent. Do you ever stop being a parent? No. If you go to school, go to work, or you are at home, you are always a parent. You don’t stop being a parent because of where you are or what activity you are doing.
And here’s the point: As a parent you should always be actively parenting. You should be praying for your kids while at work. You should be planning things for them, thinking about their needs even when you are not with them. When you are at work, you are working to provide for their needs, when you are home with them, you are actively engaged with them and interacting with them. If you are a parent, you are always a parent and you do at least some sort of parenting activity daily!
Same with the church! If we are the church, you never stop being the church. You cannot be the church on Sunday at 10:45 a.m. and then not be the church Tuesday at 10:45 a.m.
When we call the building a church or say that “we are going to church” we are taking away from the fact that “church” is our identity, not something we “go to”. When something is our identity, we are that thing all of the time. When we “go to something”, we are only participating in that activity while we are there.
When we say “we are going to church”, we are practicing the exact error that is really in our hearts.
We have made something we are, into a weekly event. We’ve made the word “church” into an impersonal, shallow, intellectual, 2 hour a week activity.
Erroneously, we have our life at work. We have our life at home. We have our life of activities. We have our life with our church. We have our life with our friends. It is all become separate and compartmentalized.
If God has saved you and you belong to Jesus Christ, then your new identity as a person is now with the church.
The church, corporately, is now who you are.
And you are to live the reality that you are the church 24 hours a day / 7 days a week.
We think growth as a Christian is learning more about the Lord, instead of knowing Him as a person. I can read a book all day long aboutwho my wife is, but until I share her heart, and until I spend plenty of relationship time with her, I will not know her. Learning more information only teaches you about something. Experience is where true growth occurs.
In our day and time we know very little of intimacy. We know very little of how to be joined in heart and be truly knit together as a people of God, yet deep down, we all long for it. We have traded the intimacy of true church life for the falseness of an institution.
We are a living and breathing temple of living stones who encompass the true and living God. We are alive! Corporately, we are the very Bride of Christ. We are filled with the Holy Spirit, within and without. How offensive it is to call us a dead pile of brick and mortar. How it tells and exposes our lack of revelation of who we are, to say things like, “time to go to church.” If we are not using New Testament language, it is because we lack revelation to some degree. If our beliefs are in error, our practice and what we live are in error as well.
You Can’t Legislate Intimacy
The best times are intimate times. We desire intimacy with the Lord. We desire to connect. We desire to share. We desire to be one with others. We also desire to share the Lord with one another in a close way.
When we structure it, it kills it. The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. The letter is the law. Structure, rules, agendas, bulletins, time schedules are all law oriented. These things kill intimacy through legislation.
Things of the heart are spontaneous. Things that are real and from the heart cannot be scheduled. “Ok, at exactly 2 pm, pour your heart out to Jesus, then stop it and shut it off when time is up”. It doesn’t work that way. When was the last time you organized and scheduled an inspiration? Or, when was the last time you planned when your next revelation would arrive? The heart is organic and made to flow.
When we get together as the church, the point is to have a very intimate time with the living God. We are to enjoy Him together. We are to love Him together. We are to love one another, pray for one another, and operate in our gifts as the Lord inspires us. As we are intimate with the Lord, it must flow and it must not be controlled – otherwise we will offend the Lord and quench the Spirit, which happens way too often.
Man has continually tried to legislate intimacy over the years. Communism for example, doesn’t work. You can’t force people to hold all things in common and work for the greater good. I’ve heard of married couples pre-determining on which nights of the week they will come together. The vast majority of worship times are too scheduled, too structured, and too pre-determined in order to foster a natural and spontaneous flow. The way of life is spontaneity. Yesterday’s manna is old stuff. Even if it was good yesterday, it’s rotten today.
The best times I’ve had in any relationships have not been planned. We in the church are a long way from it, but I believe that if we were in love with Jesus all of the time, (and therefore loving one another often) we would be thrown into many daily church life situations in which we found ourselves preaching one another a sermon for instance, while working on the car together; we would find ourselves singing praise songs on the way to the grocery store together; we would show up for a surprise visit at a family’s house and wind up spending the evening in prayer and encouraging one another; we would find ourselves confessing sins to one another while in the driveway before we go in for the night.
Most things unplanned, we would be fed by Jesus all during the week by spontaneous meetings of body life. God should not be limited to a Sunday morning time, one hour a week to teach us, to use us, and to build us up. True church life in God is not to be meeting-centered but Christ centered, a spontaneous flow of love and unexpected blessings at unexpected times.
Life in Jesus and in the church is to be lived, not planned. Our hearts are not a water faucet to be turned on and off, but the very river of God flows through us, when and how He wishes.
When we structure it, it kills it. The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. The letter is the law. Structure, rules, agendas, bulletins, time schedules are all law oriented. These things kill intimacy through legislation.
Things of the heart are spontaneous. Things that are real and from the heart cannot be scheduled. “Ok, at exactly 2 pm, pour your heart out to Jesus, then stop it and shut it off when time is up”. It doesn’t work that way. When was the last time you organized and scheduled an inspiration? Or, when was the last time you planned when your next revelation would arrive? The heart is organic and made to flow.
When we get together as the church, the point is to have a very intimate time with the living God. We are to enjoy Him together. We are to love Him together. We are to love one another, pray for one another, and operate in our gifts as the Lord inspires us. As we are intimate with the Lord, it must flow and it must not be controlled – otherwise we will offend the Lord and quench the Spirit, which happens way too often.
Man has continually tried to legislate intimacy over the years. Communism for example, doesn’t work. You can’t force people to hold all things in common and work for the greater good. I’ve heard of married couples pre-determining on which nights of the week they will come together. The vast majority of worship times are too scheduled, too structured, and too pre-determined in order to foster a natural and spontaneous flow. The way of life is spontaneity. Yesterday’s manna is old stuff. Even if it was good yesterday, it’s rotten today.
The best times I’ve had in any relationships have not been planned. We in the church are a long way from it, but I believe that if we were in love with Jesus all of the time, (and therefore loving one another often) we would be thrown into many daily church life situations in which we found ourselves preaching one another a sermon for instance, while working on the car together; we would find ourselves singing praise songs on the way to the grocery store together; we would show up for a surprise visit at a family’s house and wind up spending the evening in prayer and encouraging one another; we would find ourselves confessing sins to one another while in the driveway before we go in for the night.
Most things unplanned, we would be fed by Jesus all during the week by spontaneous meetings of body life. God should not be limited to a Sunday morning time, one hour a week to teach us, to use us, and to build us up. True church life in God is not to be meeting-centered but Christ centered, a spontaneous flow of love and unexpected blessings at unexpected times.
Life in Jesus and in the church is to be lived, not planned. Our hearts are not a water faucet to be turned on and off, but the very river of God flows through us, when and how He wishes.
Organization or Organism?
The church is alive. We are the Bride of Christ. We are Christ’s Body. We are living stones. We are a living organism. The church must be left alone to be the organism it is and not made into an organization.
An organization is dead. An organization is like a business. An organization is legislated. An organization can be mapped out, written out, and planned out. It is something to be observed on a chalk board or in a text book. An organism on the other hand, is alive, evolving, unpredictable, ever changing, and constantly growing. An organism such as the church is not to be measured, contrived, pre-determined, calculated or controlled, but rather it is to be lived andexperienced.
Let’s look at a wild animal for example. Let’s take an eagle.
An eagle can spread its wings and fly. It can fly wherever it wants to, it can fly how fast it wants to, and it can fly as high as it wants to fly. It can hunt whatever it wants to hunt. It can hunt when it wants to hunt and where it wants to hunt. This beautiful and organic creature can soar to the highest mountain tops. From the high mountain peaks, it can spot its prey hundreds of feet below and then dive with extreme accuracy to snatch its food from the tiny stream at the bottom.
What if we took this glorious and organic creature and put it in a cage? What if we provided its food for it so it wouldn’t have to hunt anymore? That would be nice and helpful for the animal wouldn’t it? And then, what if we scheduled when it was to eat? What if we also limited where it could go? Yes, in fact we shall build for it a big beautiful building to live in. It will be large, magnificent, and expensive. It will be such a beautiful sanctuary!
Perhaps organic things should not be allowed to roam so free and wild. We should contain them so they will have a proper diet, exercise, and environment to thrive in. We should even hire trained professionals to feed and care for the bird. Because of our modern wisdom and education, we’ve learned what is best for the eagle. We have become experts. The eagle will be much better off in our institutional care than in the care of its natural habitat.
In the above situation, would our eagle still be an eagle? Of course, technically it would still be an eagle. But it would not thrive. It would not live and be how it was intended to live and be. Soon, our magnificent eagle with wither, deteriorate and lose heart. It will not function properly as it should. And by our trying to help it, and enjoy it for ourselves, all we have done is helped it to weaken. Structuring and organizing a living organic thing will stifle it and it could even kill it.
The church is just like an eagle. We try to help it by containing it, packaging it, and over structuring it. We stifle its growth and cause people to lose heart.
Most people have never seen a wild eagle doing what it does in its natural habitat. We only read about wild eagles. The same is true for the church. Very few have ever seen the church functioning in its natural state and at its full potential. We only read about it in the New Testament.
It’s because we’ve put the church in a cage.
What are some things that structure the living church organism and cause it to be an organization? And how does this man made structuring hinder and stifle us?
The churches in the New Testament did not have names. They were only referred to according to the city they were in. Giving a name to a group is probably the biggest thing that changes the church into an organization (refer to “ One Church in a City”). With a name, we create an identity that is separate from others, thus we change the organism into an organization. A checking account, a church bulletin, a board of directors, by-laws, and documented membership lists are all things that create an organization. There are many more things that can do this as well.
Erroneously, there is a very strong need in men to legislate the church. Men want to identify it, categorize it, and organize it using modern Western ways. Instead of just allowing the living church organism to just be whatever it is, men want to be able to get their hands on it so it can be manipulated, easily identified, and managed.
Why can’t we just be people who love Jesus and who are spending time together?
Our Need for an Organization
The answer is found in the words security, having, and being able tocount onsomething. There is not much security in a lose network of Christians who are just spending lots of time together, without a name, without a building, without a regular meeting time, and without a membership list. Who would we be in such a case? What would our identity be? The answer is, we would simply be the people of God. Our name would be “the church of whatever city we happen to be in” (the church in Sacramento, the church in Pasadena, the church in Boston, etc.). Others would know who we are by our intense love for one another, our practice of close community living, and our constant good works. However, we have resorted to other, more modern ways to allow ourselves to know who we are, to let other people know who we are, and to be able to survive and increase our membership.
If you belong to a lose network of Christians who have no legislation, no identifiable name, and who are not an organization, you have nothing that your flesh can count on. With a loose network of relationships that is not packaged, branded, and boxed, there is not much of a feeling of having something you can control or belong to.
First of all, we must begin to understand that the church does not belong to us. Nor does it exist for us. It does not belong to a leader or to any men. The church belongs to Jesus. We exist for Him.
Men want to have something. Men want to build something. Many times, your pastor type people want to build their own kingdoms and say they are building God’s Kingdom. If it were truly God’s Kingdom they were building, they would do it His way and restrict themselves to only New Testament practices, and leave the building up to Jesus. Instead of being so concerned with growing it, building it, and managing it, men should get their hands off the church. If there is no membership list, no clearly identifiable line of those who belong to “us” and those who don’t, then the people in leadership don’t get to experience the feeling of having something to possess and build that is their own.
When we take the organic, living, spontaneous, relationship driven church and formally organize it, thus making it an organization, we kill much of the life and potential for growth. Groups ponder and question all the time how they can grow closer to one another, have more intimacy with one another, and have more spontaneity, yet they continue to depend on a modern system of organization to keep them together. Let me explain how this works and why it is so detrimental:
Cathy has a need. She needs someone in the church to help her do some yard work. In an organization, all she has to do is tell the pastor. He will then approve the need to go into the church bulletin. Anyone who wants to help can then be notified. On the surface, this would seem like a very efficient and effective method of communication. It maybe an efficient system of communication; however it will kill multiple opportunities for spontaneity, for relationships, and for intimacy.
Let’s look how this particular need would be communicated and met with only a living organism of relationships, instead of an organization:
When Cathy feels the need for some help in doing the yard work, she picks up the phone and calls someone. Or, she can make a couple of visits in person to some people who are closest to her in her life. Cathy says to a family while standing in their kitchen, “Hey, I could really use some help with my yard. Could you all maybe find the time to help out sometime?”
What just happened in Cathy’s situation? What does this personal, one-on-one asking accomplish when done in person? What does it accomplish, that a posting in a bulletin on Sunday, would not accomplish? It accomplishes plenty of things. If she communicates her need in person and through relationships only, Cathy gets to have conversations with people. She gets to ask with a vulnerable heart. She gets to stay over for 30 minutes and have a glass of tea. She gets prayed for. She gets to experience someone’s heart on the other end of the conversation. The family that she asks gets to see her and hear her heart. They get to experience her real need as she communicates it as a real person. The people she asks gets to let Cathy know of some needs that they’ve been experiencing as well. The family she is asking also gets prayed for by Cathy. The family she is asking, in turn gets to ask Cathy if she will watch their kids while they go on a date for the evening.
ALL SORTS OF GREAT THINGS HAPPEN WHEN WE DEAL WITH ONE ANOTHER PERSON TO PERSON, FACE TO FACE, AND OFTEN.
Efficient systems and organization tend to separate us from one another. The church will have order, but it will evolve naturally from within.
Let’s look at another example. It is Tuesday afternoon. John and Sharon are hungry for some fellowship. They would both really love to have people over to their house tonight. However, there is a scheduled meeting on the following night, which will be on Wednesday. They decide to go ahead and wait until Wednesday to get with people because in the church organization they belong to, they would have to notify the leadership and then announce the gathering at their house on the church website. Also, typically the way things work in their group, people like to plan things a week or so in advance.
Let’s look at the same situation, but let’s see how it might occur in only an organism or relationships, instead of an organization:
John and Sharon are feeling a need for some fellowship. John and Sharon would then pick up the phone and start making calls that very afternoon. The people they fellowship with are used to spontaneous invitations all of the time. Usually about half of the people they call will probably show up. Many will change their current plans or modify their plans, in order to be with the saints tonight. It doesn’t matter to anyone that there is a regularly scheduled meeting the following night. Many acknowledge the Lord in the invitation.
Apparently, the Lord was really moving in John and Sharon when they felt the need to get the saints together on this particular Tuesday night. Sharon had a really big cry in her that she was unaware of because of some recent difficulties she was having at work. She really needed some counsel and some prayer. A new sister that no one had ever met before also showed up to John and Sharon’s house that night. Several people ministered to the new sister with prayer and by talking through some things. The new sister would not have been able to make the Wednesday meeting on the following night. There was tremendous joy at John and Sharon’s house that night because the people who came, came because they wanted to, not because they had to. Many were so blessed that John and Sharon would personally call them and invite them to their home.
Just think what it would be like if there were no formal man made organization, no system in place to take care of us, no fabricated structure for people to look to and depend on, nothing at all artificial to gather us together, to communicate needs, to make announcements, to tell us where to be, no organization to tell us who we are, when to pray, or when we could meet – but all that we had were relationships to accomplish all of these things. How closely knit and intimate we would become! Just think how many more spontaneous and intimate opportunities we would have to be joined together.
With only relationships to bring us together, what you wind up with is – relationships. With no organization to run the show and to automatically keep things going, you get prayed for and loved on much more often. There are also more real opportunities to serve and bless others. Intimacy, vulnerability and closeness come through much time and much person to person interaction. If we are relating to an organization instead of one another, it will contribute to keeping us apart.
An organization is an artificial method to keep us together and maintain continuity that ends up killing the life within.
Let’s take another example.
Mark Griner is not in leadership in his church. However, Mark Griner loves to study the scriptures and he really has a heart for the growth of the other people in his fellowship. He is feeling stirred to share a teaching with the other members in his congregation. The Lord gave him this message only two days ago. He really senses that the other people he is with need to hear this message. He tells the leadership that he wants to share a message to the group. Since he is not a designated leader, the leadership wants to talk to him first in order to see if the message “fits with what the Lord is doing in the church”. Really they want to screen the message (but they would never use the word “screen”).
Because of scheduling conflicts, it takes about a week for the leader(s) to set up the meeting with Mr. Griner. About a week later they do get together and have a chat. The designated leader(s) feel like the message will be OK to share. (And, they don’t want to say “no,” because they don’t want to be accused of being controlling.) Currently, because the leadership is in the middle of a teaching series, Mr. Griner needs to wait to share his message. Mr. Griner actually shares the message three weeks later. When it comes time for Mr. Griner to actually speak, the message is not quite as fresh in his heart as it used to be. He speaks mostly from memory of what the Lord was showing him almost a month ago, as opposed to what the Lord is showing him now. At the very moment he finished the message, the leadership stood up and took back control of the meeting. There were also a couple of subtle comments made by the leadership to the audience of how they disagreed on a minor point.
It was pretty clear to Mr. Griner that the leadership in the church was more or less “permitting” him to share the message, instead of really wanting and desiring him to share it. The way the whole thing came down and the vibe he got from the leadership was not extremely encouraging. In the future, Mr. Griner will not be quite as eager to dig in the scriptures in order to share teachings with the group.
Let’s look at the same scenario, but within a New Testament environment. What if there were only a living organism of relationships to govern it and not an organization?
Mr. Mark Griner would feel stirred to preach a message to the saints. Immediately, he would bounce it off a few available brothers – any available brothers. He would then call the saints on the phone, or he would go visit each family to tell them about the teaching time and when it was. He would then share the message in a matter of days, full of the Spirit, with plenty of unction, in God’s timing, and in total freedom.
Toward the end of the message, Mr. Griner felt impressed to pray for different people regarding the message he spoke. The message also inspired others to stand up and share testimonies. One young man stood up and confessed a sin. There was tremendous freedom and an atmosphere of healing in the group. Many were blessed and there were multiple breakthroughs that occurred.
Man’s systems of organization dictate to us who is speaking, when they are speaking, and if they get to speak at all. The example of leadership we see in religious organizations is leadership by control, not facilitation. The gifts among us are often stifled and discouraged. In religious organizations, we are often given teachings on how we should be an active and functioning member. We are taught and encouraged to operate and function in our gifts, but then when we do, it is discouraged, frowned upon, or stifled.
Here’s another example.
Frank Parker has a cousin coming to visit him from out of town. It’s his younger cousin, Mark Parker. Mark just received his degree from Bible college. Mark is very excited to share his new knowledge he has learned in Bible college to a group of believers somewhere. Mark Parker asks his cousin Frank if he could share at the men’s group meeting that Frank is regularly a part of. Frank asks his pastor if it is OK for Mark to speak at the men’s meeting. Frank’s pastor tells him “No, it probably wouldn’t be best for Mark to speak at this time.” Frank’s pastor is personally aware that the Bible college cousin Mark graduated from is not really sound in doctrine. Conveniently, there are other things planned for the evening men’s meeting anyway.
Let’s look at this situation and how it would have came down within an organism of New Testament relationships only:
Cousin Mark shows up from out of town. He wants to share at the men’s meeting Frank is a part of. He did not have to get permission. It is an open meeting. There was not even a designated person to get permission from. He begins to share at the meeting. He begins to share unsound doctrine. After he speaks for a while, an older brother in the meeting politely interrupts him. “Excuse me Mark. We sure do appreciate your willingness to share with us. But some of the points and topics you are covering are not exactly how the Lord has shown us to view and relate to those particular scriptures. In other words brother, your faith is not the same as ours concerning those issues. Would it be OK with you, if you and I talked about some of the topics you are bringing after the meeting time?” Cousin Mark replies, “Sir, what scriptures are you referring to specifically?” The older brother explains, “Well brother, again, would it be OK with you if we discussed it at a separate time?”
Cousin Mark finally gets the point. He humbles himself, agrees, and enjoys the rest of the meeting. Or, Cousin Mark may get offended, get real quite for a while, and then walk out of the meeting. The point is that everyone gets an opportunity to observe something, and to learn. The younger brothers felt protected by the older men. They don’t need a system or a hierarchy to protect them, but proper relating and functioning protects the church. Cousin Mark gets a choice to be a humble man, to learn and to grow – or he can be offended – and everyone will get to learn by his bad example. Frank, Mark’s older cousin, gets to humble himself as well. He gets to appreciate and respect the older brother who did such a good job of checking Mark. They grow closer in their relationship because of it.
In the above example, the identity of the group is strengthened. What they believe and the direction the Lord is taking them in is more affirmed, but not by an artificial system. In New Testament body life, there is no comparison as to the intimacy and closeness of relationships that you have, and the growth that occurs as opposed to when an organization is present. As I go and visit religious organizations, the people tend to be distant and separate from one another. They’ve been trained to be that way. There is a system in place that keeps them apart. A system or an organization is pure legislation. Legislation kills most spontaneity. Legislation stifles deep relationships. Legislation hinders many opportunities for growth.
“Yea, But…”
Some may say, “It is actually organization and legislation that brings us together and keeps us together. Without any organization, we would not ever meet or get together.” This is probably true for many groups. If you drop your methods and systems of organization however, you will get to see what you really have. Without methods of organization in place, if no one gets together or pursues one another, you really didn’t have much in the first place. People were probably coming out of obligation or religious reasons. The problem is that people depend and fall back on the system of organization to gather them together, provide teaching, provide music, provide activities and programs, and to keep out false teaching. This promotes passivity in the people. With no system in place to run things, it is up to each member to function and be active in heart – which brings more life, more growth, more learning, and much more quality. You have to risk the very thing you are afraid of.
Traditional churches are full of religious people who just want God’s approval by belonging to the club and attending the club’s meetings and functions. They don’t really want true, meaningful, deep relationships with others, or with God. They just want to do the minimum requirements necessary to cover their base. If you remove the organization that enables them in this behavior, you will see what you really have. Jesus did things to expose the game players all of the time.
An organization tends to replace relationships. People relate to the organization rather than each other. People belong to the organization, instead of each other. People depend on the organization instead of only depending on each other. People give their money to the organization, instead of giving to each other. People invite others to be a part of their organization, instead of inviting others into their lives. People invest in and build up the organization, instead of investing in and building up one another.
The organization is often an idol, a “golden calf” in the hearts of its members. If you currently belong to a religious organization, it would be extremely rare to not hold at least some degree of affinity or allegiance in your heart towards your organization. If you threaten people’s organization, or talk bad about it, the person who belongs to it feels threatened themselves. People have invested their time, their money, their hearts and their lives into building the organization. They do not know how to be, how to belong, or how to function with one another, apart from the organization.
Within an organization, members wonder and ponder how to have more intimacy with the Lord and with one another. So erroneously, they organize a meeting to be held in three weeks and post it in the church bulletin in order to discuss how to have more intimacy. We are addicted to systems. Systems that continually pull the rug right out from under us with what we are trying to accomplish in the first place.
While many are trying to pursue closer and deeper relationships with the Lord and with each other, because they belong to and are relating to an organization, it keeps them from being thrown together in spontaneous ways throughout the week.
Think about it like this. Imagine if you lived in a neighborhood of people with no cars, no phones, and no televisions. You would be forced to naturally relate to, talk to, and communicate with the people in your neighborhood. You would be dependant on one another in many ways for survival. This is currently a true situation for most villages on the planet. Just think how close you would become to the others who lived around you. You would have to get off your couch and go visit someone to borrow a cup of milk, instead of using the car. You would have to round up people and ask for help with various tasks and projects. In the evenings, you would tend to be together with your neighbors, sitting around visiting while watching the kids play, instead of watching TV by yourself in the evening. A few ladies might work together during the day to create meals for their families.
What do we currently have in our modern day and age? Instead of deep relationships with our neighbors, we don’t really need anyone. We have cars, phones and televisions. Because of our lust for convenience and entertainment, these things have largely replaced the need for one another. Some may say that cars and phones have brought us closer together. But, cars and phones have only made us busier and more spread out. We probably know more people and have more relationships, because of the modern conveniences, but our many relationships are now much shallower and we spend less quality time with individuals. Without cars and phones, we would be stuck with just a few, but the quality and depth would be greater.
I am not against technology or modern conveniences. But, just like cars, phones, and televisions are conveniences that actually contribute to more shallow relationships and busier lives; we’ve done the same with the church. We believe that it is much more convenient and efficient to have systems of committees, schedules, bulletins, agendas, boards of directors, treasurers, CEO/ pastor, etc. We are convinced that these things help us, but they do not. We run the church like it was a business. This costs us the very thing we are trying to accomplish. Life together in Jesus! The typical church structure is not much different from a typical business structure you’ll find in corporate America. If you compared say, Exxon’s corporate structure with your average church organization, you would see some amazing similarities.
Again, in a New Testament, body life church, there will be organization. But it will happen naturally an organically. In a living organism of relationships, o rganizing can be done, but it will be accomplished through relationships and through personal interaction.
Forms Should Be Created From the Inside Out
I’m going to get a little theoretical here, but hang with me. It’s important for our understanding.
We must always let the form of something take its shape from the life within itself. The form is never to be created first or sought after first. For example, an apple does not have the same form as an orange. An apple takes the form that it has because of the life within itself. It is in the DNA, if you will, of the apple that causes it to look like and take the outward form of an apple. The DNA of a banana causes it to take the outward form of a banana. Some bananas are a little bigger, some a little shorter, and some a little wider than others. The life that is within each banana causes it to take the shape that it does. The amount of nutrients it gets from the soil, the health of the banana tree it came from, and the amount of rainfall and sunshine all dictate the form the banana will take. The life within, causes the form to take the shape that it does.
The same is true of any living thing. Some dogs are bigger than others because some dogs receive a better diet, some get more exercise, and some have a different heredity. The life within causes the outward form to be whatever it is. The outward container becomes what it is, because that particular container happens to be what is needed to support the life within.
The same should be true for the church. The church is a living organism. The life within it should cause its outward form to take shape. We should never predetermine the outward form ahead of time. It will kill and squelch what it would have turned out to be naturally. To assume upfront what something will look like will hinder it. To establish the form ahead of time will deny it of the natural form it would have taken otherwise.
For example, you may have ten families who are sharing life together in the Lord. Four families out of the ten, may need plenty of time getting to know other people because they are new and don’t know anyone. Because of this, these four families will naturally and organically have it in their hearts to spend plenty of time visiting, talking and sharing with others. They may need many hours together telling stories from the past, asking questions of one another, and comparing notes on different subjects with one another. Three families out of the ten may already know each other well, but the Lord is leading them into a season of praying for personal needs for one another. They will want to get together to pray. They will not be talking together quite as much as the first four families are. Still, there may be a couple of families out of the ten who are really focusing outwardly with ministry and who want to spend a lot of their time together in order to help needy people in the community who need extra clothing and shoes.
Within these ten different families, the varying activities will look a certain way, if it is allowed to be what it is and not controlled. It will take a certain form naturally. There will be different nights of the week when various gatherings take place. Some will be for talking. Some will be for prayer. Some will be for sorting through clothing. There will be various get-togethers with a variety of emphasis. If you were to look at these ten families from the outside, the form and the way it looks will take its shape out of the various Spirit led activities that are happening. The form will not be a cookie cutter form that is patterned after every traditional church organization on every corner in every city. That would be forcing something that is not natural or organically grown.
An organic form allows the life within it to express itself in the most effective way it can.The form takes the shape that it does in order to allow the life within to express itself adequately. If we were to pre-determine what nights of the week these ten families were to get together on and what they were to do when they got together, it would squelch the life and very little of what God would want to accomplish would ever be accomplished. In fact, as the Spirit brought up various things in the hearts of the families, they would tend to discount them because they would get used to not expressing the gifts they have.
An organic, natural flowing form takes it shape because of the needs of the people and because of the desires God puts in their hearts. Every group is different. Every season is different. There are different people in every group with different gifts, different needs, and who are all in different seasons. These things may change every few months. The needs and desires “from the inside out” should dictate the form and what it looks like.
An organic New Testament church lives from the inside out, not the outside in. If you dictate and legislate who gets together, when they get together and what they do when they get together, you will kill most of what could happen that would be so wonderful. Most Christians have never had the privilege of experiencing church life in a free flowing, uncontrolled setting.
Remember, even an extremely lose and well structured man made organization is still an organization. Men must get their hands completely offthe church. Let her be. Let her thrive and do what she does best. Let the Spirit of God dictate what the church looks like, in every city, in every gathering. The church belongs to Jesus. Let it take whatever form it needs to take. Let the needs of the members, the life within, and the passions within the hearts of the people form the structure. A healthy organism will grow and change. The structure must be allowed to grow, change and evolve with the organism. It will look different all of the time. Only a structure that is formed organically, will adequately support, carry and deliver the needs and direction the organism wants to go in.
Over the years, the people I’ve walked with have expressed themselves in various forms. It always looks different from season to season.
It is kind of hard to describe this. But for example, some months we have had a regular meeting time on Saturday night and a regular prayer time on Tuesdays. Everything else during the week was spontaneous. Then a few months later, we will shut down the Saturday meeting and have a Friday night meeting with an emphasis on worship and singing. Then after a while, when it seemed as though the Lord was finished with that, we would have no regular meetings at all for a few months. People will just gather together spontaneously. A brother might call a spontaneous one time teaching for a certain night of the week, a family may open their home for prayer on a particular night. We may all have a cookout with only a two days advance notice. There may be a ski trip planned with a four months notice. There may be a season where there are pockets of people gathering for different reasons. A few sisters may gather regularly to talk and pray together to learn how to love their kids better. A few men may gather together regularly to learn about finances. A couple of families may meet together to read and study a book together. All of this is sprinkled heavily with plenty of evening suppers together, lunches, and spontaneous prayer times.
There are a myriad of different forms that may take place if you allow the life within to dictate the form. Nothing is dead. No one comes because they have to. Nothing is religious. And no meeting is ever exactly the same.
Jesus said that He would build His church. Let’s trust Him to do it the way He wants to.
An organization is dead. An organization is like a business. An organization is legislated. An organization can be mapped out, written out, and planned out. It is something to be observed on a chalk board or in a text book. An organism on the other hand, is alive, evolving, unpredictable, ever changing, and constantly growing. An organism such as the church is not to be measured, contrived, pre-determined, calculated or controlled, but rather it is to be lived andexperienced.
Let’s look at a wild animal for example. Let’s take an eagle.
An eagle can spread its wings and fly. It can fly wherever it wants to, it can fly how fast it wants to, and it can fly as high as it wants to fly. It can hunt whatever it wants to hunt. It can hunt when it wants to hunt and where it wants to hunt. This beautiful and organic creature can soar to the highest mountain tops. From the high mountain peaks, it can spot its prey hundreds of feet below and then dive with extreme accuracy to snatch its food from the tiny stream at the bottom.
What if we took this glorious and organic creature and put it in a cage? What if we provided its food for it so it wouldn’t have to hunt anymore? That would be nice and helpful for the animal wouldn’t it? And then, what if we scheduled when it was to eat? What if we also limited where it could go? Yes, in fact we shall build for it a big beautiful building to live in. It will be large, magnificent, and expensive. It will be such a beautiful sanctuary!
Perhaps organic things should not be allowed to roam so free and wild. We should contain them so they will have a proper diet, exercise, and environment to thrive in. We should even hire trained professionals to feed and care for the bird. Because of our modern wisdom and education, we’ve learned what is best for the eagle. We have become experts. The eagle will be much better off in our institutional care than in the care of its natural habitat.
In the above situation, would our eagle still be an eagle? Of course, technically it would still be an eagle. But it would not thrive. It would not live and be how it was intended to live and be. Soon, our magnificent eagle with wither, deteriorate and lose heart. It will not function properly as it should. And by our trying to help it, and enjoy it for ourselves, all we have done is helped it to weaken. Structuring and organizing a living organic thing will stifle it and it could even kill it.
The church is just like an eagle. We try to help it by containing it, packaging it, and over structuring it. We stifle its growth and cause people to lose heart.
Most people have never seen a wild eagle doing what it does in its natural habitat. We only read about wild eagles. The same is true for the church. Very few have ever seen the church functioning in its natural state and at its full potential. We only read about it in the New Testament.
It’s because we’ve put the church in a cage.
What are some things that structure the living church organism and cause it to be an organization? And how does this man made structuring hinder and stifle us?
The churches in the New Testament did not have names. They were only referred to according to the city they were in. Giving a name to a group is probably the biggest thing that changes the church into an organization (refer to “ One Church in a City”). With a name, we create an identity that is separate from others, thus we change the organism into an organization. A checking account, a church bulletin, a board of directors, by-laws, and documented membership lists are all things that create an organization. There are many more things that can do this as well.
Erroneously, there is a very strong need in men to legislate the church. Men want to identify it, categorize it, and organize it using modern Western ways. Instead of just allowing the living church organism to just be whatever it is, men want to be able to get their hands on it so it can be manipulated, easily identified, and managed.
Why can’t we just be people who love Jesus and who are spending time together?
Our Need for an Organization
The answer is found in the words security, having, and being able tocount onsomething. There is not much security in a lose network of Christians who are just spending lots of time together, without a name, without a building, without a regular meeting time, and without a membership list. Who would we be in such a case? What would our identity be? The answer is, we would simply be the people of God. Our name would be “the church of whatever city we happen to be in” (the church in Sacramento, the church in Pasadena, the church in Boston, etc.). Others would know who we are by our intense love for one another, our practice of close community living, and our constant good works. However, we have resorted to other, more modern ways to allow ourselves to know who we are, to let other people know who we are, and to be able to survive and increase our membership.
If you belong to a lose network of Christians who have no legislation, no identifiable name, and who are not an organization, you have nothing that your flesh can count on. With a loose network of relationships that is not packaged, branded, and boxed, there is not much of a feeling of having something you can control or belong to.
First of all, we must begin to understand that the church does not belong to us. Nor does it exist for us. It does not belong to a leader or to any men. The church belongs to Jesus. We exist for Him.
Men want to have something. Men want to build something. Many times, your pastor type people want to build their own kingdoms and say they are building God’s Kingdom. If it were truly God’s Kingdom they were building, they would do it His way and restrict themselves to only New Testament practices, and leave the building up to Jesus. Instead of being so concerned with growing it, building it, and managing it, men should get their hands off the church. If there is no membership list, no clearly identifiable line of those who belong to “us” and those who don’t, then the people in leadership don’t get to experience the feeling of having something to possess and build that is their own.
When we take the organic, living, spontaneous, relationship driven church and formally organize it, thus making it an organization, we kill much of the life and potential for growth. Groups ponder and question all the time how they can grow closer to one another, have more intimacy with one another, and have more spontaneity, yet they continue to depend on a modern system of organization to keep them together. Let me explain how this works and why it is so detrimental:
Cathy has a need. She needs someone in the church to help her do some yard work. In an organization, all she has to do is tell the pastor. He will then approve the need to go into the church bulletin. Anyone who wants to help can then be notified. On the surface, this would seem like a very efficient and effective method of communication. It maybe an efficient system of communication; however it will kill multiple opportunities for spontaneity, for relationships, and for intimacy.
Let’s look how this particular need would be communicated and met with only a living organism of relationships, instead of an organization:
When Cathy feels the need for some help in doing the yard work, she picks up the phone and calls someone. Or, she can make a couple of visits in person to some people who are closest to her in her life. Cathy says to a family while standing in their kitchen, “Hey, I could really use some help with my yard. Could you all maybe find the time to help out sometime?”
What just happened in Cathy’s situation? What does this personal, one-on-one asking accomplish when done in person? What does it accomplish, that a posting in a bulletin on Sunday, would not accomplish? It accomplishes plenty of things. If she communicates her need in person and through relationships only, Cathy gets to have conversations with people. She gets to ask with a vulnerable heart. She gets to stay over for 30 minutes and have a glass of tea. She gets prayed for. She gets to experience someone’s heart on the other end of the conversation. The family that she asks gets to see her and hear her heart. They get to experience her real need as she communicates it as a real person. The people she asks gets to let Cathy know of some needs that they’ve been experiencing as well. The family she is asking also gets prayed for by Cathy. The family she is asking, in turn gets to ask Cathy if she will watch their kids while they go on a date for the evening.
ALL SORTS OF GREAT THINGS HAPPEN WHEN WE DEAL WITH ONE ANOTHER PERSON TO PERSON, FACE TO FACE, AND OFTEN.
Efficient systems and organization tend to separate us from one another. The church will have order, but it will evolve naturally from within.
Let’s look at another example. It is Tuesday afternoon. John and Sharon are hungry for some fellowship. They would both really love to have people over to their house tonight. However, there is a scheduled meeting on the following night, which will be on Wednesday. They decide to go ahead and wait until Wednesday to get with people because in the church organization they belong to, they would have to notify the leadership and then announce the gathering at their house on the church website. Also, typically the way things work in their group, people like to plan things a week or so in advance.
Let’s look at the same situation, but let’s see how it might occur in only an organism or relationships, instead of an organization:
John and Sharon are feeling a need for some fellowship. John and Sharon would then pick up the phone and start making calls that very afternoon. The people they fellowship with are used to spontaneous invitations all of the time. Usually about half of the people they call will probably show up. Many will change their current plans or modify their plans, in order to be with the saints tonight. It doesn’t matter to anyone that there is a regularly scheduled meeting the following night. Many acknowledge the Lord in the invitation.
Apparently, the Lord was really moving in John and Sharon when they felt the need to get the saints together on this particular Tuesday night. Sharon had a really big cry in her that she was unaware of because of some recent difficulties she was having at work. She really needed some counsel and some prayer. A new sister that no one had ever met before also showed up to John and Sharon’s house that night. Several people ministered to the new sister with prayer and by talking through some things. The new sister would not have been able to make the Wednesday meeting on the following night. There was tremendous joy at John and Sharon’s house that night because the people who came, came because they wanted to, not because they had to. Many were so blessed that John and Sharon would personally call them and invite them to their home.
Just think what it would be like if there were no formal man made organization, no system in place to take care of us, no fabricated structure for people to look to and depend on, nothing at all artificial to gather us together, to communicate needs, to make announcements, to tell us where to be, no organization to tell us who we are, when to pray, or when we could meet – but all that we had were relationships to accomplish all of these things. How closely knit and intimate we would become! Just think how many more spontaneous and intimate opportunities we would have to be joined together.
With only relationships to bring us together, what you wind up with is – relationships. With no organization to run the show and to automatically keep things going, you get prayed for and loved on much more often. There are also more real opportunities to serve and bless others. Intimacy, vulnerability and closeness come through much time and much person to person interaction. If we are relating to an organization instead of one another, it will contribute to keeping us apart.
An organization is an artificial method to keep us together and maintain continuity that ends up killing the life within.
Let’s take another example.
Mark Griner is not in leadership in his church. However, Mark Griner loves to study the scriptures and he really has a heart for the growth of the other people in his fellowship. He is feeling stirred to share a teaching with the other members in his congregation. The Lord gave him this message only two days ago. He really senses that the other people he is with need to hear this message. He tells the leadership that he wants to share a message to the group. Since he is not a designated leader, the leadership wants to talk to him first in order to see if the message “fits with what the Lord is doing in the church”. Really they want to screen the message (but they would never use the word “screen”).
Because of scheduling conflicts, it takes about a week for the leader(s) to set up the meeting with Mr. Griner. About a week later they do get together and have a chat. The designated leader(s) feel like the message will be OK to share. (And, they don’t want to say “no,” because they don’t want to be accused of being controlling.) Currently, because the leadership is in the middle of a teaching series, Mr. Griner needs to wait to share his message. Mr. Griner actually shares the message three weeks later. When it comes time for Mr. Griner to actually speak, the message is not quite as fresh in his heart as it used to be. He speaks mostly from memory of what the Lord was showing him almost a month ago, as opposed to what the Lord is showing him now. At the very moment he finished the message, the leadership stood up and took back control of the meeting. There were also a couple of subtle comments made by the leadership to the audience of how they disagreed on a minor point.
It was pretty clear to Mr. Griner that the leadership in the church was more or less “permitting” him to share the message, instead of really wanting and desiring him to share it. The way the whole thing came down and the vibe he got from the leadership was not extremely encouraging. In the future, Mr. Griner will not be quite as eager to dig in the scriptures in order to share teachings with the group.
Let’s look at the same scenario, but within a New Testament environment. What if there were only a living organism of relationships to govern it and not an organization?
Mr. Mark Griner would feel stirred to preach a message to the saints. Immediately, he would bounce it off a few available brothers – any available brothers. He would then call the saints on the phone, or he would go visit each family to tell them about the teaching time and when it was. He would then share the message in a matter of days, full of the Spirit, with plenty of unction, in God’s timing, and in total freedom.
Toward the end of the message, Mr. Griner felt impressed to pray for different people regarding the message he spoke. The message also inspired others to stand up and share testimonies. One young man stood up and confessed a sin. There was tremendous freedom and an atmosphere of healing in the group. Many were blessed and there were multiple breakthroughs that occurred.
Man’s systems of organization dictate to us who is speaking, when they are speaking, and if they get to speak at all. The example of leadership we see in religious organizations is leadership by control, not facilitation. The gifts among us are often stifled and discouraged. In religious organizations, we are often given teachings on how we should be an active and functioning member. We are taught and encouraged to operate and function in our gifts, but then when we do, it is discouraged, frowned upon, or stifled.
Here’s another example.
Frank Parker has a cousin coming to visit him from out of town. It’s his younger cousin, Mark Parker. Mark just received his degree from Bible college. Mark is very excited to share his new knowledge he has learned in Bible college to a group of believers somewhere. Mark Parker asks his cousin Frank if he could share at the men’s group meeting that Frank is regularly a part of. Frank asks his pastor if it is OK for Mark to speak at the men’s meeting. Frank’s pastor tells him “No, it probably wouldn’t be best for Mark to speak at this time.” Frank’s pastor is personally aware that the Bible college cousin Mark graduated from is not really sound in doctrine. Conveniently, there are other things planned for the evening men’s meeting anyway.
Let’s look at this situation and how it would have came down within an organism of New Testament relationships only:
Cousin Mark shows up from out of town. He wants to share at the men’s meeting Frank is a part of. He did not have to get permission. It is an open meeting. There was not even a designated person to get permission from. He begins to share at the meeting. He begins to share unsound doctrine. After he speaks for a while, an older brother in the meeting politely interrupts him. “Excuse me Mark. We sure do appreciate your willingness to share with us. But some of the points and topics you are covering are not exactly how the Lord has shown us to view and relate to those particular scriptures. In other words brother, your faith is not the same as ours concerning those issues. Would it be OK with you, if you and I talked about some of the topics you are bringing after the meeting time?” Cousin Mark replies, “Sir, what scriptures are you referring to specifically?” The older brother explains, “Well brother, again, would it be OK with you if we discussed it at a separate time?”
Cousin Mark finally gets the point. He humbles himself, agrees, and enjoys the rest of the meeting. Or, Cousin Mark may get offended, get real quite for a while, and then walk out of the meeting. The point is that everyone gets an opportunity to observe something, and to learn. The younger brothers felt protected by the older men. They don’t need a system or a hierarchy to protect them, but proper relating and functioning protects the church. Cousin Mark gets a choice to be a humble man, to learn and to grow – or he can be offended – and everyone will get to learn by his bad example. Frank, Mark’s older cousin, gets to humble himself as well. He gets to appreciate and respect the older brother who did such a good job of checking Mark. They grow closer in their relationship because of it.
In the above example, the identity of the group is strengthened. What they believe and the direction the Lord is taking them in is more affirmed, but not by an artificial system. In New Testament body life, there is no comparison as to the intimacy and closeness of relationships that you have, and the growth that occurs as opposed to when an organization is present. As I go and visit religious organizations, the people tend to be distant and separate from one another. They’ve been trained to be that way. There is a system in place that keeps them apart. A system or an organization is pure legislation. Legislation kills most spontaneity. Legislation stifles deep relationships. Legislation hinders many opportunities for growth.
“Yea, But…”
Some may say, “It is actually organization and legislation that brings us together and keeps us together. Without any organization, we would not ever meet or get together.” This is probably true for many groups. If you drop your methods and systems of organization however, you will get to see what you really have. Without methods of organization in place, if no one gets together or pursues one another, you really didn’t have much in the first place. People were probably coming out of obligation or religious reasons. The problem is that people depend and fall back on the system of organization to gather them together, provide teaching, provide music, provide activities and programs, and to keep out false teaching. This promotes passivity in the people. With no system in place to run things, it is up to each member to function and be active in heart – which brings more life, more growth, more learning, and much more quality. You have to risk the very thing you are afraid of.
Traditional churches are full of religious people who just want God’s approval by belonging to the club and attending the club’s meetings and functions. They don’t really want true, meaningful, deep relationships with others, or with God. They just want to do the minimum requirements necessary to cover their base. If you remove the organization that enables them in this behavior, you will see what you really have. Jesus did things to expose the game players all of the time.
An organization tends to replace relationships. People relate to the organization rather than each other. People belong to the organization, instead of each other. People depend on the organization instead of only depending on each other. People give their money to the organization, instead of giving to each other. People invite others to be a part of their organization, instead of inviting others into their lives. People invest in and build up the organization, instead of investing in and building up one another.
The organization is often an idol, a “golden calf” in the hearts of its members. If you currently belong to a religious organization, it would be extremely rare to not hold at least some degree of affinity or allegiance in your heart towards your organization. If you threaten people’s organization, or talk bad about it, the person who belongs to it feels threatened themselves. People have invested their time, their money, their hearts and their lives into building the organization. They do not know how to be, how to belong, or how to function with one another, apart from the organization.
Within an organization, members wonder and ponder how to have more intimacy with the Lord and with one another. So erroneously, they organize a meeting to be held in three weeks and post it in the church bulletin in order to discuss how to have more intimacy. We are addicted to systems. Systems that continually pull the rug right out from under us with what we are trying to accomplish in the first place.
While many are trying to pursue closer and deeper relationships with the Lord and with each other, because they belong to and are relating to an organization, it keeps them from being thrown together in spontaneous ways throughout the week.
Think about it like this. Imagine if you lived in a neighborhood of people with no cars, no phones, and no televisions. You would be forced to naturally relate to, talk to, and communicate with the people in your neighborhood. You would be dependant on one another in many ways for survival. This is currently a true situation for most villages on the planet. Just think how close you would become to the others who lived around you. You would have to get off your couch and go visit someone to borrow a cup of milk, instead of using the car. You would have to round up people and ask for help with various tasks and projects. In the evenings, you would tend to be together with your neighbors, sitting around visiting while watching the kids play, instead of watching TV by yourself in the evening. A few ladies might work together during the day to create meals for their families.
What do we currently have in our modern day and age? Instead of deep relationships with our neighbors, we don’t really need anyone. We have cars, phones and televisions. Because of our lust for convenience and entertainment, these things have largely replaced the need for one another. Some may say that cars and phones have brought us closer together. But, cars and phones have only made us busier and more spread out. We probably know more people and have more relationships, because of the modern conveniences, but our many relationships are now much shallower and we spend less quality time with individuals. Without cars and phones, we would be stuck with just a few, but the quality and depth would be greater.
I am not against technology or modern conveniences. But, just like cars, phones, and televisions are conveniences that actually contribute to more shallow relationships and busier lives; we’ve done the same with the church. We believe that it is much more convenient and efficient to have systems of committees, schedules, bulletins, agendas, boards of directors, treasurers, CEO/ pastor, etc. We are convinced that these things help us, but they do not. We run the church like it was a business. This costs us the very thing we are trying to accomplish. Life together in Jesus! The typical church structure is not much different from a typical business structure you’ll find in corporate America. If you compared say, Exxon’s corporate structure with your average church organization, you would see some amazing similarities.
Again, in a New Testament, body life church, there will be organization. But it will happen naturally an organically. In a living organism of relationships, o rganizing can be done, but it will be accomplished through relationships and through personal interaction.
Forms Should Be Created From the Inside Out
I’m going to get a little theoretical here, but hang with me. It’s important for our understanding.
We must always let the form of something take its shape from the life within itself. The form is never to be created first or sought after first. For example, an apple does not have the same form as an orange. An apple takes the form that it has because of the life within itself. It is in the DNA, if you will, of the apple that causes it to look like and take the outward form of an apple. The DNA of a banana causes it to take the outward form of a banana. Some bananas are a little bigger, some a little shorter, and some a little wider than others. The life that is within each banana causes it to take the shape that it does. The amount of nutrients it gets from the soil, the health of the banana tree it came from, and the amount of rainfall and sunshine all dictate the form the banana will take. The life within, causes the form to take the shape that it does.
The same is true of any living thing. Some dogs are bigger than others because some dogs receive a better diet, some get more exercise, and some have a different heredity. The life within causes the outward form to be whatever it is. The outward container becomes what it is, because that particular container happens to be what is needed to support the life within.
The same should be true for the church. The church is a living organism. The life within it should cause its outward form to take shape. We should never predetermine the outward form ahead of time. It will kill and squelch what it would have turned out to be naturally. To assume upfront what something will look like will hinder it. To establish the form ahead of time will deny it of the natural form it would have taken otherwise.
For example, you may have ten families who are sharing life together in the Lord. Four families out of the ten, may need plenty of time getting to know other people because they are new and don’t know anyone. Because of this, these four families will naturally and organically have it in their hearts to spend plenty of time visiting, talking and sharing with others. They may need many hours together telling stories from the past, asking questions of one another, and comparing notes on different subjects with one another. Three families out of the ten may already know each other well, but the Lord is leading them into a season of praying for personal needs for one another. They will want to get together to pray. They will not be talking together quite as much as the first four families are. Still, there may be a couple of families out of the ten who are really focusing outwardly with ministry and who want to spend a lot of their time together in order to help needy people in the community who need extra clothing and shoes.
Within these ten different families, the varying activities will look a certain way, if it is allowed to be what it is and not controlled. It will take a certain form naturally. There will be different nights of the week when various gatherings take place. Some will be for talking. Some will be for prayer. Some will be for sorting through clothing. There will be various get-togethers with a variety of emphasis. If you were to look at these ten families from the outside, the form and the way it looks will take its shape out of the various Spirit led activities that are happening. The form will not be a cookie cutter form that is patterned after every traditional church organization on every corner in every city. That would be forcing something that is not natural or organically grown.
An organic form allows the life within it to express itself in the most effective way it can.The form takes the shape that it does in order to allow the life within to express itself adequately. If we were to pre-determine what nights of the week these ten families were to get together on and what they were to do when they got together, it would squelch the life and very little of what God would want to accomplish would ever be accomplished. In fact, as the Spirit brought up various things in the hearts of the families, they would tend to discount them because they would get used to not expressing the gifts they have.
An organic, natural flowing form takes it shape because of the needs of the people and because of the desires God puts in their hearts. Every group is different. Every season is different. There are different people in every group with different gifts, different needs, and who are all in different seasons. These things may change every few months. The needs and desires “from the inside out” should dictate the form and what it looks like.
An organic New Testament church lives from the inside out, not the outside in. If you dictate and legislate who gets together, when they get together and what they do when they get together, you will kill most of what could happen that would be so wonderful. Most Christians have never had the privilege of experiencing church life in a free flowing, uncontrolled setting.
Remember, even an extremely lose and well structured man made organization is still an organization. Men must get their hands completely offthe church. Let her be. Let her thrive and do what she does best. Let the Spirit of God dictate what the church looks like, in every city, in every gathering. The church belongs to Jesus. Let it take whatever form it needs to take. Let the needs of the members, the life within, and the passions within the hearts of the people form the structure. A healthy organism will grow and change. The structure must be allowed to grow, change and evolve with the organism. It will look different all of the time. Only a structure that is formed organically, will adequately support, carry and deliver the needs and direction the organism wants to go in.
Over the years, the people I’ve walked with have expressed themselves in various forms. It always looks different from season to season.
It is kind of hard to describe this. But for example, some months we have had a regular meeting time on Saturday night and a regular prayer time on Tuesdays. Everything else during the week was spontaneous. Then a few months later, we will shut down the Saturday meeting and have a Friday night meeting with an emphasis on worship and singing. Then after a while, when it seemed as though the Lord was finished with that, we would have no regular meetings at all for a few months. People will just gather together spontaneously. A brother might call a spontaneous one time teaching for a certain night of the week, a family may open their home for prayer on a particular night. We may all have a cookout with only a two days advance notice. There may be a ski trip planned with a four months notice. There may be a season where there are pockets of people gathering for different reasons. A few sisters may gather regularly to talk and pray together to learn how to love their kids better. A few men may gather together regularly to learn about finances. A couple of families may meet together to read and study a book together. All of this is sprinkled heavily with plenty of evening suppers together, lunches, and spontaneous prayer times.
There are a myriad of different forms that may take place if you allow the life within to dictate the form. Nothing is dead. No one comes because they have to. Nothing is religious. And no meeting is ever exactly the same.
Jesus said that He would build His church. Let’s trust Him to do it the way He wants to.
Biblical Pastors
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something if his livelihood depends upon his not understanding it.”
– Upton Sinclair
The word “pastor” is not in the New Testament very often. The word pastor simply means “shepherd”. What does the Bible mean when it uses the word pastor? Although the word pastor is in the Bible a few times…
The modern role and function of a pastor is found nowhere in scripture.
Our plague is that when we read a passage or see something in the Bible, we so often interpret it based on our prior experience or based on what we’ve already been taught. Based on prior experience, when we see the word pastor in the Bible, it floods our mind with our idea of what a pastor is – which is based on what we’ve seen, what we’ve heard, and what we’ve been taught a pastor already is.
If you had lived during the first century and then read the word “pastor” in a letter written to the church, you would have a much different idea come to mind.
What’s the big deal and why is this an issue?
Our entire Christian culture has largely fit around this erroneous idea of this one man and his unscriptural role. Entire groups and churches are built around the pastor. People join churches based on who the pastor is. The entire direction, vision, and focus of a group is often based on the pastor. While the whole time, his role, function, and very existence are not even Biblical.
We’ve been taught:
“If you don’t have a pastor you are not under authority”.
“If you don’t have a pastor you don’t have spiritual covering”.
“If you don’t have a pastor, you aren’t being fed”.
These are very common beliefs that stem from a basic error.
1 Samuel 10:19 “But you have today rejected your God, who delivers you from all your calamities and your distresses; yet you have said, ‘No, but set a king over us’.”
Just like the children of Israel cried out for a king, It is within the base, carnal nature of people to want a physical king. What does a king provide? A king provides security. A king provides a feeling that someone is taking care of things and that someone is making decisions that need to be made.
The Catholics have their “fathers,” the Protestants have their “pastors.” People will always want someone else to take the responsibility off their shoulders. And we will even pay someone to do it. We want a specialist to take care of the role of leadership.
Men are responsible for leading the church. Not a man.
Our western culture has forced the church into that of a typical American, corporate structure. The modern day pastor has become the CEO of an organization, with the deacons acting as the board of directors. We have reduced true shepherding to that of hiring a paid professional to stand up and make a speech once a week.
Biblically, what is the role and function of a real pastor?
Remember, the word pastor literally means “shepherd”. So, what should true shepherding be? What should true shepherding look like?
A shepherd feeds sheep. A shepherd cares for sheep. A shepherd watches sheep. To be a pastor is to be a shepherd. To do the work of shepherding is to love others up close. To do the work of a shepherd is to speak into the lives of others. To shepherd is to watch over the lives of others. To shepherd is to care for the well being of others, (Lk.2:8, Heb. 13:17).
The Greek word for shepherd is poimaino {poy-mah’-ee-no} which means to feed, to keep, to tend, to care for, or to shepherd.
It does not mean that a shepherd is the final authority for a group of people. Or even the final authority for one person. Only scripture has the final authority. In fact, the bible says that “the head of every man is Christ”. It does not say that the “head of every man is his pastor”.
Shepherding is to be Plural
1Peter 5:1-4 “Therefore, I exhort the elders (plural)among you, as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed, shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of God; and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness; nor yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples to the flock. And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.Notice that in the passage Peter writes it to elders (plural) that are among you. Peter told the older brothers to do the shepherding. From Peter’s perspective, there are many among us who will be doing the work or feeding the flock! Peter is simply telling the elders to care for the younger members.
In a healthy group of Christians, we should see many people doing shepherding.
Jesus was a shepherd. He is the chief shepherd. Couldn’t we look at His example and see how to properly pastor others? While on the earth, and as a man, Jesus Himself actively shepherded twelve men. He spoke into their lives. As a man, He lived close enough with them to see their lives and address them. If Jesus shepherded twelve, why do we think that one man among us can adequately shepherd five hundred people?
Maybe a man among us can shepherd one hundred people?
No.
Well then maybe fifty?
Nope. Impossible.
If Jesus had twelve, we would be doing very well to adequately shepherd just a few. Sure, a man can stand up and give a teaching week after week to 500 or 1000 people. But he can not adequately shepherd them. How should shepherding really occur?
Like this:
As you are meeting with the Church, living life together, and loving the Lord together, you may find the desire to:
- To be interested in the well being of another saint or even a few.
- To become genuinely interested and concerned for a few people’s growth and life in God.
- To regularly pray for them, look at their lives, and consider areas of growth that may be needed.
- You will probably pull these few people aside that God has put on your heart to spend quality time with them, provide instruction, encouragement, and love them by speaking into their lives on a regular basis.
Someone who is doing shepherding does not necessarily have the gift of teaching, although he should be able to teach (1 Tim. 3:2). You can carry someone in prayer, speak into their life, and care for their growth in an active participatory manner, without having the gift of teaching.
The church has often called “pastors”, those who only have a gift for teaching. Yet often these men have little concern or time for others on a one on one basis.
A shepherd can often care for and be concerned with the growth of a larger group. He may even stand up and teach on occasion to the group as to what the Lord may be saying for growth or issues of correction or vision, but this is in no way a weekly thing that you would be paid for. It may be for three nights in a row. It may be once every month or two. It may be a one time thing. But to stand up and deliver a teaching or a message to a group would be on an “as needed basis”. To be paid for doing a weekly teaching is ridiculous.
Keep in mind that in the body, someone doing shepherding is a sheep themselves. They are not to be considered in a different class or “above” anyone else. It is just a function they are performing, like teaching or prophesying.
Someone that is doing the work of a shepherd will probably be older, but not necessarily. Notice that Peter seems to make synonymous the function of shepherding with exercising oversight and being an elder in 1 Pet. 5:1-4.
We Have Severly Perverted the Gift and Role of a Pastor
In the church today, we have severely changed the role of a pastor and what shepherding is all about. We’ve made men hirelings. When you pay a man a salary for giving a speech once or twice a week, and call it shepherding, it does all sorts of terrible things.
First of all when you pay a man a salary, it tempts him. What if he doesn’t perform? What if he is not inspired one week? What if he is dry in his heart and life and needs prayer and for someone else to take the ball? What if he needs to stay home Sunday morning because he hasn’t had much family time? He can’t. His livelihood is on the line. He’s getting paid for it! It becomes a job. He must perform.
The modern day pastor has become the planner of events, one who delegates, a counselor, a troubleshooter, and an organizer of committees. He is like the president of a business. He becomes spread so thin with his time and emotional energy that he gets burned out and often loses his inspiration. This man is obligated to fill his role or he will be fired and will lose his pay. Lord, forgive us.
He also has to maintain somewhat of an illusion of not having problems. He can confess some things to a certain level, and probably does to maintain some perception of humility, but if he were ever to be really gut-level honest with anyone, it would scare the congregation and cause mass panic. Therefore, he becomes cheated of true body life.
Usually, “the pastor” is the loneliest man in the fellowship.
The modern day pastor’s family also suffers. His children are often rebellious, because they are the product of a failed system. The family is sacrificed because the pastor often doesn’t have time for them. But even worse is the hypocrisy. Again, because he’s “the pastor,” he and his family have to maintain an illusion, a veneer of righteousness, when they really are not. At home, all sorts of stuff goes on, just like in any family. But around the church members the act is turned on. This puts emotional pressure on the family and a feeling of being false. This is very damaging and often fosters rebellion in the children. Or, it produces a “celebrity complex” in the entire family. Basically, everyone feels pressure to be something they are not.
Pastors Hinder Our Growth
In 1 Cor. 14:26 we read, “What is the outcome then, brethren? When you assemble, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification.”
The modern day pastor contributes to stunting the growth of the church. His role on Sunday morning doesn’t allow us to hear from the rest of the body in the general assembly. This limits our experience of what the Lord would want to say through the other members.
But worse than that, the pastor’s role on Sunday causes others to sit passively in the pew as observers and not as participants. When we are participants, we grow. We study, we learn, we prepare. There is no need for this if you have a pastor running the show.
As a member of the modern day church, you are allowed to show up and hide if you want to. You can be needy and desperate in your heart on Sunday morning and nobody would even know it. You go to the church meeting, listen to the sermon, stand up, sit down, stand up, sit down, toss money in the plate, go home, and nobody really knows anybody.
Nor does the pastor really know anybody! How can the pastor really bring an effective message to address the needs of the people, when he is not actively involved with the daily lives of most people in the group?
Many people Sunday after Sunday are dying inside, hurting and alone, just sitting on the pew. They come with hope in their hearts that someone will notice and again they leave disappointed. This will happen this coming Sunday in countless gatherings all across the country. But, we all sure like “going to church”. Or do we really?
On Sunday morning, you can be in a bad place in your heart and know one will know it. You can be full of the Spirit and no one will know it. Sometimes, the best time on Sunday is usually the 10 minutes before and after the sermon, when you get to visit and connect with others.
We should never go to a church meeting and leave unchanged. Every time we get together we should leave filled, listened to, prayed for, and even more connected with Jesus and others!
Since I’ve become a Christian, I’ve known about 4 real pastors.
Sure, I’ve known many men who have the title of “pastor”. They give weekly teachings – but they don’t do true shepherding whatsoever. Often these are quality men, but their real gifting is more in things like administration, teaching, or music. Some of them have a strong gift of “helps”, but they have been misidentified as being “pastors”.
Just because a man has started a fellowship or was an original founder, doesn’t make him a pastor either. Just because a man is eager, knows the word of God, can teach, attends seminary, or has leadership abilities – none of these things cause him to have the biblical gift of a true pastor. Please don’t miss my heart. I do not intend to speak down to or degrade these men at all, but in most cases shepherding is just not their gift.
Most of the so called pastors I’ve known, know nothing of hospitality, which disqualifies them from being in leadership (refer to chapter on hospitality). In addition, most of the so-called pastors I’ve known will never ask anyone about the condition of their heart or how they are doing in their faith. A lot of these men are pretty self-focused (but they would never think they are). And most of them have no idea of what the scripture means when it says that “Jesus, seeing the multitudes felt compassion.” It takes a pastoral gift from God to regularly and in daily life see others with compassion, and then seek them out to spend time with them.
Again, most so called “pastors” are usually good men, but most of the time, they are not pastors – at all. Usually, if they do spend time with you, it is either to protect the organization they’ve built or grow it in order to add to its numbers.
Only the true gift of a shepherd will be genuinely interested in you and who you are, and on a continual basis.
Spiritual Authority
There is a tremendous difference in spiritual authority and authority that is given a man because everyone agrees on his authority. Spiritual authority comes from the Spirit and from the Word of God. You “just are a pastor”, because of your heart and the gift of God in you. It cannot be learned from seminary, and you don’t receive it automatically because you started a church.
We have an extremely damaging system of authority in the church today. It hinders people who have gifts from God and true authority from the Spirit. The only gifts of leadership that are recognized are those “on staff”. In other words, if you are not on staff, then you don’t have as much authority, if any, as the ones who are on staff. We should be able to publicly recognize spiritual gifted people among us, without it being a paid staff position.
The problem is that there are many people in traditional groups who are gifted, who have tremendous weight, spiritual authority, and leadership authority who go unrecognized and unnoticed because they are not “staff members”. This hinders the growth of the church, promotes frustration, and ultimately passivity in the group. Many times, the only outlet for these gifted people to express the gifts that are in them is to go start another church, therefore establishing themselves in a leadership position. If we would publicly recognize those with leadership gifts and authority among us, it would vastly cut down on the number of divisions in each city.
Pastors Can Have Severe Identity Problems
There is usually a consistent identity problem in most pastors or men in leadership. An identity problem affects how you view yourself. Usually from the ones who attend seminary, they think of themselves… “as pastors”. This is a problem. They don’t see themselves as just another brother, but inside of themselves, they are in a different class than the rest of the sheep. It’s part of the clergy/laity separation which is false. It’s how they’ve been trained to think of themselves.
Part of this identity problem is that the church is “their baby”. Subtly, they forget that the church belongs to Jesus, not to men and that He is the one who is building it. Anything that threatens the organization they have built will usually solicit extreme emotional reactions in these brothers. This identity problem is very hard to shake and they are usually very reluctant to become just brothers, yet still function in their gifts. All they’ve believed, all they were trained for, all they’ve built, their credentials, their place in society, their entire identity would come crashing down. Not to mention, their income.
Actually, the men I have seen let go of their pastor identity are very relieved once they do so, and they begin to thrive more than ever in body life. They also begin to function much more effectively in their gifts and functions.
So, What Should A Pastor Do?
Simple answer: Quit.
In their hearts before the Lord and with the group they are with, the “pastors” need to resign. They need to find work, and they need to become just brothers in the church. They should not break fellowship or stop meeting with the group they are with. But if they truly have a gift of shepherding they can do still do it – but from freedom, without money being involved, without expectations, without all the trappings; and therefore do a much better job. Pastors need to let go of the reigns and truly encourage other brothers to start bringing weekly messages and teachings.
A “pastor” needs to spend more time with his family and “decrease” in the fellowship he is in. He needs to become more like a quiet observer for a very long period of time in the meetings. He should still continue to love people, but spend more one on one time with others and show more hospitality to individuals and to families.
– Upton Sinclair
The word “pastor” is not in the New Testament very often. The word pastor simply means “shepherd”. What does the Bible mean when it uses the word pastor? Although the word pastor is in the Bible a few times…
The modern role and function of a pastor is found nowhere in scripture.
Our plague is that when we read a passage or see something in the Bible, we so often interpret it based on our prior experience or based on what we’ve already been taught. Based on prior experience, when we see the word pastor in the Bible, it floods our mind with our idea of what a pastor is – which is based on what we’ve seen, what we’ve heard, and what we’ve been taught a pastor already is.
If you had lived during the first century and then read the word “pastor” in a letter written to the church, you would have a much different idea come to mind.
What’s the big deal and why is this an issue?
Our entire Christian culture has largely fit around this erroneous idea of this one man and his unscriptural role. Entire groups and churches are built around the pastor. People join churches based on who the pastor is. The entire direction, vision, and focus of a group is often based on the pastor. While the whole time, his role, function, and very existence are not even Biblical.
We’ve been taught:
“If you don’t have a pastor you are not under authority”.
“If you don’t have a pastor you don’t have spiritual covering”.
“If you don’t have a pastor, you aren’t being fed”.
These are very common beliefs that stem from a basic error.
1 Samuel 10:19 “But you have today rejected your God, who delivers you from all your calamities and your distresses; yet you have said, ‘No, but set a king over us’.”
Just like the children of Israel cried out for a king, It is within the base, carnal nature of people to want a physical king. What does a king provide? A king provides security. A king provides a feeling that someone is taking care of things and that someone is making decisions that need to be made.
The Catholics have their “fathers,” the Protestants have their “pastors.” People will always want someone else to take the responsibility off their shoulders. And we will even pay someone to do it. We want a specialist to take care of the role of leadership.
Men are responsible for leading the church. Not a man.
Our western culture has forced the church into that of a typical American, corporate structure. The modern day pastor has become the CEO of an organization, with the deacons acting as the board of directors. We have reduced true shepherding to that of hiring a paid professional to stand up and make a speech once a week.
Biblically, what is the role and function of a real pastor?
Remember, the word pastor literally means “shepherd”. So, what should true shepherding be? What should true shepherding look like?
A shepherd feeds sheep. A shepherd cares for sheep. A shepherd watches sheep. To be a pastor is to be a shepherd. To do the work of shepherding is to love others up close. To do the work of a shepherd is to speak into the lives of others. To shepherd is to watch over the lives of others. To shepherd is to care for the well being of others, (Lk.2:8, Heb. 13:17).
The Greek word for shepherd is poimaino {poy-mah’-ee-no} which means to feed, to keep, to tend, to care for, or to shepherd.
It does not mean that a shepherd is the final authority for a group of people. Or even the final authority for one person. Only scripture has the final authority. In fact, the bible says that “the head of every man is Christ”. It does not say that the “head of every man is his pastor”.
Shepherding is to be Plural
1Peter 5:1-4 “Therefore, I exhort the elders (plural)among you, as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed, shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of God; and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness; nor yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples to the flock. And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.Notice that in the passage Peter writes it to elders (plural) that are among you. Peter told the older brothers to do the shepherding. From Peter’s perspective, there are many among us who will be doing the work or feeding the flock! Peter is simply telling the elders to care for the younger members.
In a healthy group of Christians, we should see many people doing shepherding.
Jesus was a shepherd. He is the chief shepherd. Couldn’t we look at His example and see how to properly pastor others? While on the earth, and as a man, Jesus Himself actively shepherded twelve men. He spoke into their lives. As a man, He lived close enough with them to see their lives and address them. If Jesus shepherded twelve, why do we think that one man among us can adequately shepherd five hundred people?
Maybe a man among us can shepherd one hundred people?
No.
Well then maybe fifty?
Nope. Impossible.
If Jesus had twelve, we would be doing very well to adequately shepherd just a few. Sure, a man can stand up and give a teaching week after week to 500 or 1000 people. But he can not adequately shepherd them. How should shepherding really occur?
Like this:
As you are meeting with the Church, living life together, and loving the Lord together, you may find the desire to:
- To be interested in the well being of another saint or even a few.
- To become genuinely interested and concerned for a few people’s growth and life in God.
- To regularly pray for them, look at their lives, and consider areas of growth that may be needed.
- You will probably pull these few people aside that God has put on your heart to spend quality time with them, provide instruction, encouragement, and love them by speaking into their lives on a regular basis.
Someone who is doing shepherding does not necessarily have the gift of teaching, although he should be able to teach (1 Tim. 3:2). You can carry someone in prayer, speak into their life, and care for their growth in an active participatory manner, without having the gift of teaching.
The church has often called “pastors”, those who only have a gift for teaching. Yet often these men have little concern or time for others on a one on one basis.
A shepherd can often care for and be concerned with the growth of a larger group. He may even stand up and teach on occasion to the group as to what the Lord may be saying for growth or issues of correction or vision, but this is in no way a weekly thing that you would be paid for. It may be for three nights in a row. It may be once every month or two. It may be a one time thing. But to stand up and deliver a teaching or a message to a group would be on an “as needed basis”. To be paid for doing a weekly teaching is ridiculous.
Keep in mind that in the body, someone doing shepherding is a sheep themselves. They are not to be considered in a different class or “above” anyone else. It is just a function they are performing, like teaching or prophesying.
Someone that is doing the work of a shepherd will probably be older, but not necessarily. Notice that Peter seems to make synonymous the function of shepherding with exercising oversight and being an elder in 1 Pet. 5:1-4.
We Have Severly Perverted the Gift and Role of a Pastor
In the church today, we have severely changed the role of a pastor and what shepherding is all about. We’ve made men hirelings. When you pay a man a salary for giving a speech once or twice a week, and call it shepherding, it does all sorts of terrible things.
First of all when you pay a man a salary, it tempts him. What if he doesn’t perform? What if he is not inspired one week? What if he is dry in his heart and life and needs prayer and for someone else to take the ball? What if he needs to stay home Sunday morning because he hasn’t had much family time? He can’t. His livelihood is on the line. He’s getting paid for it! It becomes a job. He must perform.
The modern day pastor has become the planner of events, one who delegates, a counselor, a troubleshooter, and an organizer of committees. He is like the president of a business. He becomes spread so thin with his time and emotional energy that he gets burned out and often loses his inspiration. This man is obligated to fill his role or he will be fired and will lose his pay. Lord, forgive us.
He also has to maintain somewhat of an illusion of not having problems. He can confess some things to a certain level, and probably does to maintain some perception of humility, but if he were ever to be really gut-level honest with anyone, it would scare the congregation and cause mass panic. Therefore, he becomes cheated of true body life.
Usually, “the pastor” is the loneliest man in the fellowship.
The modern day pastor’s family also suffers. His children are often rebellious, because they are the product of a failed system. The family is sacrificed because the pastor often doesn’t have time for them. But even worse is the hypocrisy. Again, because he’s “the pastor,” he and his family have to maintain an illusion, a veneer of righteousness, when they really are not. At home, all sorts of stuff goes on, just like in any family. But around the church members the act is turned on. This puts emotional pressure on the family and a feeling of being false. This is very damaging and often fosters rebellion in the children. Or, it produces a “celebrity complex” in the entire family. Basically, everyone feels pressure to be something they are not.
Pastors Hinder Our Growth
In 1 Cor. 14:26 we read, “What is the outcome then, brethren? When you assemble, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification.”
The modern day pastor contributes to stunting the growth of the church. His role on Sunday morning doesn’t allow us to hear from the rest of the body in the general assembly. This limits our experience of what the Lord would want to say through the other members.
But worse than that, the pastor’s role on Sunday causes others to sit passively in the pew as observers and not as participants. When we are participants, we grow. We study, we learn, we prepare. There is no need for this if you have a pastor running the show.
As a member of the modern day church, you are allowed to show up and hide if you want to. You can be needy and desperate in your heart on Sunday morning and nobody would even know it. You go to the church meeting, listen to the sermon, stand up, sit down, stand up, sit down, toss money in the plate, go home, and nobody really knows anybody.
Nor does the pastor really know anybody! How can the pastor really bring an effective message to address the needs of the people, when he is not actively involved with the daily lives of most people in the group?
Many people Sunday after Sunday are dying inside, hurting and alone, just sitting on the pew. They come with hope in their hearts that someone will notice and again they leave disappointed. This will happen this coming Sunday in countless gatherings all across the country. But, we all sure like “going to church”. Or do we really?
On Sunday morning, you can be in a bad place in your heart and know one will know it. You can be full of the Spirit and no one will know it. Sometimes, the best time on Sunday is usually the 10 minutes before and after the sermon, when you get to visit and connect with others.
We should never go to a church meeting and leave unchanged. Every time we get together we should leave filled, listened to, prayed for, and even more connected with Jesus and others!
Since I’ve become a Christian, I’ve known about 4 real pastors.
Sure, I’ve known many men who have the title of “pastor”. They give weekly teachings – but they don’t do true shepherding whatsoever. Often these are quality men, but their real gifting is more in things like administration, teaching, or music. Some of them have a strong gift of “helps”, but they have been misidentified as being “pastors”.
Just because a man has started a fellowship or was an original founder, doesn’t make him a pastor either. Just because a man is eager, knows the word of God, can teach, attends seminary, or has leadership abilities – none of these things cause him to have the biblical gift of a true pastor. Please don’t miss my heart. I do not intend to speak down to or degrade these men at all, but in most cases shepherding is just not their gift.
Most of the so called pastors I’ve known, know nothing of hospitality, which disqualifies them from being in leadership (refer to chapter on hospitality). In addition, most of the so-called pastors I’ve known will never ask anyone about the condition of their heart or how they are doing in their faith. A lot of these men are pretty self-focused (but they would never think they are). And most of them have no idea of what the scripture means when it says that “Jesus, seeing the multitudes felt compassion.” It takes a pastoral gift from God to regularly and in daily life see others with compassion, and then seek them out to spend time with them.
Again, most so called “pastors” are usually good men, but most of the time, they are not pastors – at all. Usually, if they do spend time with you, it is either to protect the organization they’ve built or grow it in order to add to its numbers.
Only the true gift of a shepherd will be genuinely interested in you and who you are, and on a continual basis.
Spiritual Authority
There is a tremendous difference in spiritual authority and authority that is given a man because everyone agrees on his authority. Spiritual authority comes from the Spirit and from the Word of God. You “just are a pastor”, because of your heart and the gift of God in you. It cannot be learned from seminary, and you don’t receive it automatically because you started a church.
We have an extremely damaging system of authority in the church today. It hinders people who have gifts from God and true authority from the Spirit. The only gifts of leadership that are recognized are those “on staff”. In other words, if you are not on staff, then you don’t have as much authority, if any, as the ones who are on staff. We should be able to publicly recognize spiritual gifted people among us, without it being a paid staff position.
The problem is that there are many people in traditional groups who are gifted, who have tremendous weight, spiritual authority, and leadership authority who go unrecognized and unnoticed because they are not “staff members”. This hinders the growth of the church, promotes frustration, and ultimately passivity in the group. Many times, the only outlet for these gifted people to express the gifts that are in them is to go start another church, therefore establishing themselves in a leadership position. If we would publicly recognize those with leadership gifts and authority among us, it would vastly cut down on the number of divisions in each city.
Pastors Can Have Severe Identity Problems
There is usually a consistent identity problem in most pastors or men in leadership. An identity problem affects how you view yourself. Usually from the ones who attend seminary, they think of themselves… “as pastors”. This is a problem. They don’t see themselves as just another brother, but inside of themselves, they are in a different class than the rest of the sheep. It’s part of the clergy/laity separation which is false. It’s how they’ve been trained to think of themselves.
Part of this identity problem is that the church is “their baby”. Subtly, they forget that the church belongs to Jesus, not to men and that He is the one who is building it. Anything that threatens the organization they have built will usually solicit extreme emotional reactions in these brothers. This identity problem is very hard to shake and they are usually very reluctant to become just brothers, yet still function in their gifts. All they’ve believed, all they were trained for, all they’ve built, their credentials, their place in society, their entire identity would come crashing down. Not to mention, their income.
Actually, the men I have seen let go of their pastor identity are very relieved once they do so, and they begin to thrive more than ever in body life. They also begin to function much more effectively in their gifts and functions.
So, What Should A Pastor Do?
Simple answer: Quit.
In their hearts before the Lord and with the group they are with, the “pastors” need to resign. They need to find work, and they need to become just brothers in the church. They should not break fellowship or stop meeting with the group they are with. But if they truly have a gift of shepherding they can do still do it – but from freedom, without money being involved, without expectations, without all the trappings; and therefore do a much better job. Pastors need to let go of the reigns and truly encourage other brothers to start bringing weekly messages and teachings.
A “pastor” needs to spend more time with his family and “decrease” in the fellowship he is in. He needs to become more like a quiet observer for a very long period of time in the meetings. He should still continue to love people, but spend more one on one time with others and show more hospitality to individuals and to families.
Offices and Titles
Men love titles. Men love position. Men love status. People love men of status. People love the illusion of security that comes with men having titles among them. These things have been abused in the church. This is obvious to most people. But why? And more importantly, what can we do to correct it and how can we relate to these truths in a healthy way?
Offices
First of all, our modern idea of an “office” is not a Biblical one. The Bible was not written in Dallas, TX. We’ve tried to interpret and apply Eastern ideas in a Western culture. When we read about offices, we interpret it as being the same as someone who has a management position in corporate America.
A Biblical office is not the same as having a title, a business card, a sign on your desk, and a salary with benefits. We cannot forget that the church is alive. She is a living organism and the church is relational. Hopefully in this chapter, we will see gifts, titles, and offices the Bible speaks of, are much different than what we’ve made them to be.
The word office simply means the “function of” or the “work of.” In 1 Timothy 3:1 the phrase “office of a bishop” comes from one Greek word. The one Greek word is episcope. It simply means to do overseeing or to do the work of an overseer. …“If a man desires the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.” All this is saying is that if you want to help others in their lives by watching out for them and helping them in their growth, then that’s a good thing to do. But when we typically read that verse, it runs through our filter of our Western culture. Read the verse again. When you read the word “office” this time, think of the word as “doing a work,” because that’s what the word means. A Biblical office is more of a description of activity, as opposed to a title.
Next, we see the word “office” again in 1 Tim. 3:10, 13. Here it is used in conjunction with the work of a servant or “deacon.” The phrase “office of a deacon” is the one Greek word, diakoneo. To be a deacon is to be a servant or to do the work of a servant, or “to wait upon.” If you serve someone in the church then you have just entered into the office of a deacon. Remember, the word office is a description of activity. To be a deacon is not to have a position; it just means that you are doing the work of serving others on a consistent basis.
In Acts Ch 6, the church was brand new in Jerusalem. Thousands of new believers were hanging out together, listening to teachings, and eating together. In chapter 6, verse 1 of Acts, we see that there were some widows who were not getting served food at the daily gatherings. They were being looked over. Now that could cause some real hurt feelings! What did the church do about it? The whole congregation chose 7 guys who were filled with the Holy Spirit, of good reputation, and who had wisdom to remedy this situation. Note that the same word for deacon, “diakoneo”, in 1 Tim. 3 is used here in Acts 6 as well. These 7 men entered into the office of a deacon. Or, to not be religious about it, we could just say that they were doing some serving. But why the big deal about who did the serving? Why did they have to be filled with the Spirit? Why did they need wisdom and have a good reputation just to hand out food? Why did the apostles lay their hands on them just to serve some tables?
In our day and age, we would probably choose any brother just to serve a few tables. “Hey Joe, grab a few of those teenagers over there and pass out that food would ya? The widows are getting a little upset ‘cause they didn’t get their ham sandwiches.”
Be aware that the same qualifications for doing serving found in 1 Tim 3 (office of a deacon), are the same qualifications that the 7 men had in Acts Ch 6. Same function – serving. Why the qualifications for serving? Well, look at the results.
Immediately after the passage about waiting on tables it says in verse 7 that “the Word of God kept spreading and the number of disciples continued to increase…”
Wow! Then in verse 8 it tells us more about Stephen. In verse 8, “Stephen full of grace and power was performing great wonders and signs among the people.” Remember? He was one of the guys that was waiting on tables!
The point is that the men who were serving tables were among the people. They were with the people, mixing up with them, speaking to them, and loving them. Passing out the food was a great opportunity to speak, love, pray with people, and to serve. That’s why anyone wanting to serve (do deacon work) should have a strong relationship with God. Because when we serve, it is an opportunity to increase the Kingdom. Someone who is serving half-heartedly not filled with the Spirit will eventually complain about it. Sooner or later they’ll have a bad attitude and not represent Christ at all.
I Timothy Chapter three provides us a list of character qualities for people who are wanting to watch others lives or who is wanting to do serving.
In this passage, Paul tells Timothy that they need to be living right, not addicted to wine, managing their own household well, etc. This is important because anyone who is serving or leading has a tremendous opportunity o advance the Kingdom, just like the brothers in Acts who were waiting tables. Their character should be of good quality. Let’s look at a common error however, that is made concerning those character qualities.
“Blameless .” This is the Greek word anepileptos. It simply means there is nothing in your life that needs a rebuke. It doesn’t mean that this man has never committed sin. That would disqualify everyone. It simply means that you are living a right and clean life with God. To be above reproach or blameless simply means that you are not walking in sin. Past sins can not disqualify anyone from leading out, serving, or helping others because then no one could ever be qualified to do it. If it is in your heart to help others in the church in such a way that you are watching their lives and helping in their growth, then you must have your own life working well and not be walking in sin.
Gifts Are to be Observed, Not Filled.
Again, the church is organic and alive. We should never force anything. We are not to try to find people to fill positions. We are not to see the lists in scripture of the various gifts and functions, and then try to fill those job positions. We see in scripture that there are teachers, prophets, shepherds, evangelists, apostles, deacons, administrations, helps, etc. We should not shop the list by saying, “Ok, we need a prophet. Who is going to be our prophet? Now, we need an evangelist. Who is going to be our evangelist? We need a shepherd. Who is going to fill the role of shepherd among us?”
These gifts and various functions are to naturally evolve and just organically operate among us. A person’s gift is, whatever it is. If a person naturally functions in the gift of evangelism, then we might say that he is an evangelist. If a person operates in the gift of the prophetic, then over time, we might say it looks like he or she may be a prophet. If a person naturally functions in shepherding, then we might say that they are a shepherd. We don’t go out and try to find a shepherd. And we certainly are not to conduct job interviews and hire a shepherd.
Let’s briefly look at Titus Chapter 1. In verse 5, “For this reason I left you in Crete, that you might set in order what remains, and appoint elders in every city as I directed you, namely if any man be above reproach, the husband of one wife, having children who believe, not accused of dissipation or rebellion. For the overseer must be above approach as God’s steward, not self-willed not quick tempered, not addicted to wine, not pugnacious, not fond of sordid gain, but hospitable, loving what is good, sensible, just, devout, self – controlled, holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, that he may be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict.”
This is a great passage. Paul told Titus, who was in Crete, to appoint elders in every city. Who should Titus appoint as elders? Those who were already elders! He didn’t make them elders. He just recognized them publicly. They already had the qualifications within themselves.
Look at the word “namely” that Paul uses in the first sentence. If you will read that word with understanding, you will see that Titus was to just publicly recognize what already was. Those who already were elders, the seasoned brothers who could do overseeing effectively were to be pointed out. He was not to groom men for a position. They were not to take a six week training course. He was not to run an ad in the paper. He was not to conduct interviews. He was not to form an elder search committee. The elders were already there in the midst of the people. They already had the qualifications evident in their lives, they just needed to be pointed out. The list of qualifications Paul gave was just to help Titus recognize them and find them from among the people. Notice also that the qualifications for overseeing or eldership have nothing to do with having education. It’s all character.
Whatever gifts happen to be among us, simply happen to be among us. One particular group may not have anyone who functions as an evangelist much. You may not have any apostles among you. You may not have someone who functions primarily as a prophet. That’s OK. Don’t try to create one. If your numbers are small, you will not have all the gifts and functions among you. But you will have some. As more people begin to come around, you will observe more gifts and functions operating in different members.
You cannot learn how to be an evangelist. You either are one or you are not one. You can’t go to school to become a pastor. You either have that kind of heart or you don’t. These gifts are from God, they are not skills to be learned. You cannot study and then become a prophet. You either have a gift from God or you don’t. These are supernatural, spiritual gifts. As you mature in Christ, your gifts will become more potent or fine tuned, but you can’t take a course and become a gift to the church.
You the reader, have gifts, right now from God that He gave you to edify the church. Today, there is a real over emphasis in the church to “know what your gifts are.” There is no need to take a personality profile test to discover your gifts. As you are abiding in Jesus and filled with the Spirit of God, your gifts will come to the surface and you will naturally function in them. You will know what your gifts are as you and others observe how the Lord is using you and has used you in the past. Don’t sit in a living room together and say, “you’re a this and you’re a that.” Christians are often labeling themselves according to personality types, and there is no profit in it. The overemphasis in the church today to know what different people’s gifts are largely stems from self focused, humanistic, feel good psychology.
Having a focus on labeling ourselves with gifts does not help us be more of what we already are. It only trips us up in trying to fulfill something that we think we should be fulfilling. We need to keep our eyes on Jesus. And we need to keep our eyes on the cross.
We don’t even fully know the full definition of the various gifts. Over the centuries, we’ve modified them, interpreted them, categorized them and canned them. Just look at what we’ve done with the gift of shepherding.
Looking at another example, an evangelist is listed as a gift to the church. Our modern day definition of an evangelist is someone who converts lost people to the faith. The word means “bringer of good news.” What if an evangelist really is a gift to the church, as it is stated in the New Testament? A true evangelist may be someone in the church who is always sharing good news with not only unbelievers, but with Christians as well. There is a tremendous benefit from encouraging other Christians with various messages of the good news of God, even if they are already saved. We as Christians really need good news all the time. Could we be limiting or even missing the true gift of an evangelist by defining him and categorizing him as we tend to do?
We have so many assumptions, that we would do better to not focus on what our gifts are so much and then try to fulfill them, when we may be working from an erroneous model in the first place. We are whatever we are. Let’s let the gifts that we have, organically define themselves . Our identity is in Christ, not the labels or gifts we are to the church.
An apple tree makes apples because it is an apple tree. Apple trees don’t learn that they are apple trees, and then start producing apples.
The School of Life
As individual Christians, how do we grow? How do people in general grow? How does a plant or a tree grow? How do children learn? How did you learn to swim? How do you learn to have a good marriage? How do we learn to raise kids?
I’m not talking about gaining head knowledge. I’m not talking about the ability to regurgitate information. I’m talking about true growth. How do we get those things in us that no one can take away? How do we truly learn the lessons in life that are now rock solid in us? How do we arrive at things that are unshakeable? How do we gain those precious gems in our character that remain forever? One word:
Struggle.
The way of true growth is through struggle. The way of true growth is by pain. Sorry, but there is no way around it. You can hear teachings all day long about how you need to cry out to God – but unless you feel the pain, you will not really be crying out. You can hear a teaching or read a book about how you need to be broken, but unless God breaks you, you will still have some form of ambition and self reliance.
Brother Prem Pradhan, an apostle to Nepal, told me in 1992 that growth comes only through suffering. I didn’t believe him. I thought I could grow by learning. I thought I would grow if I got all my questions answered. Not true. There is no formula for growth. There is no formula for the growth of the church either. We grow when we are brought down to nothing. If we are not experiencing Christ in a certain area of our life, God will allow us to be laid waste in that area until we learn to cry out to Him. Only in the person of Jesus Christ will we find the secret to the Christian life. How is this related to our chapter title of gifts, offices and titles? Keep reading.
The Absence of Dominant Men Builds a Strong Church
During Paul’s missionary journeys, he entered a town, preached the gospel, stayed a while, and then he left. After the early churches were planted, the apostles left them shortly afterwards. They did not recognize elders in those cities until much later. Sometimes it was months, sometimes it was years later until elders were even recognized. It was Paul’s habit to appoint elders during his second time through a town. We even see in Titus 1:5-9 Paul instructing Titus to recognize elders in Crete. This is after the Jews accepted Christ in Crete from the preaching of Peter years before.
After the apostles preached the word and left town, the new believers in that city only had the Lord Jesus and each other. They didn’t even have a New Testament. It had not been written yet. Paul’s letters came much later. How did the early churches survive without Paul staying with them? How did they survive with no leadership in place? How did they survive without a local strong leader present? Very well. They changed the course of history.
When Paul, Barnabas, and Silas preached the gospel to a town, they left it with no leadership in place because it was necessary for the church to not depend on anyone. That was the best way for them to grow and to learn how to function. You cannot learn to stand on your own two feet, unless you are required to do so. This is true both individually and corporately. If Paul would have planted the church in a city and then stayed there, they would have become dependant on Paul. They would not have become strong. They would not have thrived the way they did if Paul would have stayed for years and taught them many messages a week. Teachings and messages don’t grow us. They can only point us in the right direction.
The absence of dominant men builds a strong church. Once the foundations are established of a functioning and active church, then the church can properly relate to and continue to function with strong brothers present. This is why those who lead should slowly and naturally evolve from among the group itself. This is why Paul recognized those who were elders only after the church had time to become rooted. If strong leaders are established right away, then everyone shuts down and defers – which is what we have in the church today.
The best thing for a new group of believers is to be told the truth, pointed to Jesus and then be left to themselves to learn how to need Christ, learn how to do their share, learn how to pull their own weight in the church, and learn how to need one another. This is a crucial time when essential foundations are laid. From among this assembly of strong fellowship and intense love for one another, then and only then should organic, naturally occurring plural leadership arise and over time be recognized.
Because of our misapplication of leaders among us, we have become addicted to men leading us, instead of being addicted to Christ. We have become addicted to only certain people functioning, instead of everyone learning to function for the very survival of the group. We have become completely accustomed to a certain few taking the responsibility for the church, when we should all have equal responsibility. We will only learn to rise to the occasion, hold fast to one another, and become a strong church if we have no one else to do it for us.
Offices
First of all, our modern idea of an “office” is not a Biblical one. The Bible was not written in Dallas, TX. We’ve tried to interpret and apply Eastern ideas in a Western culture. When we read about offices, we interpret it as being the same as someone who has a management position in corporate America.
A Biblical office is not the same as having a title, a business card, a sign on your desk, and a salary with benefits. We cannot forget that the church is alive. She is a living organism and the church is relational. Hopefully in this chapter, we will see gifts, titles, and offices the Bible speaks of, are much different than what we’ve made them to be.
The word office simply means the “function of” or the “work of.” In 1 Timothy 3:1 the phrase “office of a bishop” comes from one Greek word. The one Greek word is episcope. It simply means to do overseeing or to do the work of an overseer. …“If a man desires the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.” All this is saying is that if you want to help others in their lives by watching out for them and helping them in their growth, then that’s a good thing to do. But when we typically read that verse, it runs through our filter of our Western culture. Read the verse again. When you read the word “office” this time, think of the word as “doing a work,” because that’s what the word means. A Biblical office is more of a description of activity, as opposed to a title.
Next, we see the word “office” again in 1 Tim. 3:10, 13. Here it is used in conjunction with the work of a servant or “deacon.” The phrase “office of a deacon” is the one Greek word, diakoneo. To be a deacon is to be a servant or to do the work of a servant, or “to wait upon.” If you serve someone in the church then you have just entered into the office of a deacon. Remember, the word office is a description of activity. To be a deacon is not to have a position; it just means that you are doing the work of serving others on a consistent basis.
In Acts Ch 6, the church was brand new in Jerusalem. Thousands of new believers were hanging out together, listening to teachings, and eating together. In chapter 6, verse 1 of Acts, we see that there were some widows who were not getting served food at the daily gatherings. They were being looked over. Now that could cause some real hurt feelings! What did the church do about it? The whole congregation chose 7 guys who were filled with the Holy Spirit, of good reputation, and who had wisdom to remedy this situation. Note that the same word for deacon, “diakoneo”, in 1 Tim. 3 is used here in Acts 6 as well. These 7 men entered into the office of a deacon. Or, to not be religious about it, we could just say that they were doing some serving. But why the big deal about who did the serving? Why did they have to be filled with the Spirit? Why did they need wisdom and have a good reputation just to hand out food? Why did the apostles lay their hands on them just to serve some tables?
In our day and age, we would probably choose any brother just to serve a few tables. “Hey Joe, grab a few of those teenagers over there and pass out that food would ya? The widows are getting a little upset ‘cause they didn’t get their ham sandwiches.”
Be aware that the same qualifications for doing serving found in 1 Tim 3 (office of a deacon), are the same qualifications that the 7 men had in Acts Ch 6. Same function – serving. Why the qualifications for serving? Well, look at the results.
Immediately after the passage about waiting on tables it says in verse 7 that “the Word of God kept spreading and the number of disciples continued to increase…”
Wow! Then in verse 8 it tells us more about Stephen. In verse 8, “Stephen full of grace and power was performing great wonders and signs among the people.” Remember? He was one of the guys that was waiting on tables!
The point is that the men who were serving tables were among the people. They were with the people, mixing up with them, speaking to them, and loving them. Passing out the food was a great opportunity to speak, love, pray with people, and to serve. That’s why anyone wanting to serve (do deacon work) should have a strong relationship with God. Because when we serve, it is an opportunity to increase the Kingdom. Someone who is serving half-heartedly not filled with the Spirit will eventually complain about it. Sooner or later they’ll have a bad attitude and not represent Christ at all.
I Timothy Chapter three provides us a list of character qualities for people who are wanting to watch others lives or who is wanting to do serving.
In this passage, Paul tells Timothy that they need to be living right, not addicted to wine, managing their own household well, etc. This is important because anyone who is serving or leading has a tremendous opportunity o advance the Kingdom, just like the brothers in Acts who were waiting tables. Their character should be of good quality. Let’s look at a common error however, that is made concerning those character qualities.
“Blameless .” This is the Greek word anepileptos. It simply means there is nothing in your life that needs a rebuke. It doesn’t mean that this man has never committed sin. That would disqualify everyone. It simply means that you are living a right and clean life with God. To be above reproach or blameless simply means that you are not walking in sin. Past sins can not disqualify anyone from leading out, serving, or helping others because then no one could ever be qualified to do it. If it is in your heart to help others in the church in such a way that you are watching their lives and helping in their growth, then you must have your own life working well and not be walking in sin.
Gifts Are to be Observed, Not Filled.
Again, the church is organic and alive. We should never force anything. We are not to try to find people to fill positions. We are not to see the lists in scripture of the various gifts and functions, and then try to fill those job positions. We see in scripture that there are teachers, prophets, shepherds, evangelists, apostles, deacons, administrations, helps, etc. We should not shop the list by saying, “Ok, we need a prophet. Who is going to be our prophet? Now, we need an evangelist. Who is going to be our evangelist? We need a shepherd. Who is going to fill the role of shepherd among us?”
These gifts and various functions are to naturally evolve and just organically operate among us. A person’s gift is, whatever it is. If a person naturally functions in the gift of evangelism, then we might say that he is an evangelist. If a person operates in the gift of the prophetic, then over time, we might say it looks like he or she may be a prophet. If a person naturally functions in shepherding, then we might say that they are a shepherd. We don’t go out and try to find a shepherd. And we certainly are not to conduct job interviews and hire a shepherd.
Let’s briefly look at Titus Chapter 1. In verse 5, “For this reason I left you in Crete, that you might set in order what remains, and appoint elders in every city as I directed you, namely if any man be above reproach, the husband of one wife, having children who believe, not accused of dissipation or rebellion. For the overseer must be above approach as God’s steward, not self-willed not quick tempered, not addicted to wine, not pugnacious, not fond of sordid gain, but hospitable, loving what is good, sensible, just, devout, self – controlled, holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, that he may be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict.”
This is a great passage. Paul told Titus, who was in Crete, to appoint elders in every city. Who should Titus appoint as elders? Those who were already elders! He didn’t make them elders. He just recognized them publicly. They already had the qualifications within themselves.
Look at the word “namely” that Paul uses in the first sentence. If you will read that word with understanding, you will see that Titus was to just publicly recognize what already was. Those who already were elders, the seasoned brothers who could do overseeing effectively were to be pointed out. He was not to groom men for a position. They were not to take a six week training course. He was not to run an ad in the paper. He was not to conduct interviews. He was not to form an elder search committee. The elders were already there in the midst of the people. They already had the qualifications evident in their lives, they just needed to be pointed out. The list of qualifications Paul gave was just to help Titus recognize them and find them from among the people. Notice also that the qualifications for overseeing or eldership have nothing to do with having education. It’s all character.
Whatever gifts happen to be among us, simply happen to be among us. One particular group may not have anyone who functions as an evangelist much. You may not have any apostles among you. You may not have someone who functions primarily as a prophet. That’s OK. Don’t try to create one. If your numbers are small, you will not have all the gifts and functions among you. But you will have some. As more people begin to come around, you will observe more gifts and functions operating in different members.
You cannot learn how to be an evangelist. You either are one or you are not one. You can’t go to school to become a pastor. You either have that kind of heart or you don’t. These gifts are from God, they are not skills to be learned. You cannot study and then become a prophet. You either have a gift from God or you don’t. These are supernatural, spiritual gifts. As you mature in Christ, your gifts will become more potent or fine tuned, but you can’t take a course and become a gift to the church.
You the reader, have gifts, right now from God that He gave you to edify the church. Today, there is a real over emphasis in the church to “know what your gifts are.” There is no need to take a personality profile test to discover your gifts. As you are abiding in Jesus and filled with the Spirit of God, your gifts will come to the surface and you will naturally function in them. You will know what your gifts are as you and others observe how the Lord is using you and has used you in the past. Don’t sit in a living room together and say, “you’re a this and you’re a that.” Christians are often labeling themselves according to personality types, and there is no profit in it. The overemphasis in the church today to know what different people’s gifts are largely stems from self focused, humanistic, feel good psychology.
Having a focus on labeling ourselves with gifts does not help us be more of what we already are. It only trips us up in trying to fulfill something that we think we should be fulfilling. We need to keep our eyes on Jesus. And we need to keep our eyes on the cross.
We don’t even fully know the full definition of the various gifts. Over the centuries, we’ve modified them, interpreted them, categorized them and canned them. Just look at what we’ve done with the gift of shepherding.
Looking at another example, an evangelist is listed as a gift to the church. Our modern day definition of an evangelist is someone who converts lost people to the faith. The word means “bringer of good news.” What if an evangelist really is a gift to the church, as it is stated in the New Testament? A true evangelist may be someone in the church who is always sharing good news with not only unbelievers, but with Christians as well. There is a tremendous benefit from encouraging other Christians with various messages of the good news of God, even if they are already saved. We as Christians really need good news all the time. Could we be limiting or even missing the true gift of an evangelist by defining him and categorizing him as we tend to do?
We have so many assumptions, that we would do better to not focus on what our gifts are so much and then try to fulfill them, when we may be working from an erroneous model in the first place. We are whatever we are. Let’s let the gifts that we have, organically define themselves . Our identity is in Christ, not the labels or gifts we are to the church.
An apple tree makes apples because it is an apple tree. Apple trees don’t learn that they are apple trees, and then start producing apples.
The School of Life
As individual Christians, how do we grow? How do people in general grow? How does a plant or a tree grow? How do children learn? How did you learn to swim? How do you learn to have a good marriage? How do we learn to raise kids?
I’m not talking about gaining head knowledge. I’m not talking about the ability to regurgitate information. I’m talking about true growth. How do we get those things in us that no one can take away? How do we truly learn the lessons in life that are now rock solid in us? How do we arrive at things that are unshakeable? How do we gain those precious gems in our character that remain forever? One word:
Struggle.
The way of true growth is through struggle. The way of true growth is by pain. Sorry, but there is no way around it. You can hear teachings all day long about how you need to cry out to God – but unless you feel the pain, you will not really be crying out. You can hear a teaching or read a book about how you need to be broken, but unless God breaks you, you will still have some form of ambition and self reliance.
Brother Prem Pradhan, an apostle to Nepal, told me in 1992 that growth comes only through suffering. I didn’t believe him. I thought I could grow by learning. I thought I would grow if I got all my questions answered. Not true. There is no formula for growth. There is no formula for the growth of the church either. We grow when we are brought down to nothing. If we are not experiencing Christ in a certain area of our life, God will allow us to be laid waste in that area until we learn to cry out to Him. Only in the person of Jesus Christ will we find the secret to the Christian life. How is this related to our chapter title of gifts, offices and titles? Keep reading.
The Absence of Dominant Men Builds a Strong Church
During Paul’s missionary journeys, he entered a town, preached the gospel, stayed a while, and then he left. After the early churches were planted, the apostles left them shortly afterwards. They did not recognize elders in those cities until much later. Sometimes it was months, sometimes it was years later until elders were even recognized. It was Paul’s habit to appoint elders during his second time through a town. We even see in Titus 1:5-9 Paul instructing Titus to recognize elders in Crete. This is after the Jews accepted Christ in Crete from the preaching of Peter years before.
After the apostles preached the word and left town, the new believers in that city only had the Lord Jesus and each other. They didn’t even have a New Testament. It had not been written yet. Paul’s letters came much later. How did the early churches survive without Paul staying with them? How did they survive with no leadership in place? How did they survive without a local strong leader present? Very well. They changed the course of history.
When Paul, Barnabas, and Silas preached the gospel to a town, they left it with no leadership in place because it was necessary for the church to not depend on anyone. That was the best way for them to grow and to learn how to function. You cannot learn to stand on your own two feet, unless you are required to do so. This is true both individually and corporately. If Paul would have planted the church in a city and then stayed there, they would have become dependant on Paul. They would not have become strong. They would not have thrived the way they did if Paul would have stayed for years and taught them many messages a week. Teachings and messages don’t grow us. They can only point us in the right direction.
The absence of dominant men builds a strong church. Once the foundations are established of a functioning and active church, then the church can properly relate to and continue to function with strong brothers present. This is why those who lead should slowly and naturally evolve from among the group itself. This is why Paul recognized those who were elders only after the church had time to become rooted. If strong leaders are established right away, then everyone shuts down and defers – which is what we have in the church today.
The best thing for a new group of believers is to be told the truth, pointed to Jesus and then be left to themselves to learn how to need Christ, learn how to do their share, learn how to pull their own weight in the church, and learn how to need one another. This is a crucial time when essential foundations are laid. From among this assembly of strong fellowship and intense love for one another, then and only then should organic, naturally occurring plural leadership arise and over time be recognized.
Because of our misapplication of leaders among us, we have become addicted to men leading us, instead of being addicted to Christ. We have become addicted to only certain people functioning, instead of everyone learning to function for the very survival of the group. We have become completely accustomed to a certain few taking the responsibility for the church, when we should all have equal responsibility. We will only learn to rise to the occasion, hold fast to one another, and become a strong church if we have no one else to do it for us.
The Essence of Church Life
Years of living life in this fallen world have taught us that life on this planet is not a real safe place. As we are vulnerable with fallible and mistaken parents and siblings, we learn very early we will be hurt. We will be hated. We will be ridiculed. We w ill be left alone and abandoned. It’s inevitable. As children, very early on, we learn to self-protect by putting up walls around our hearts. We’ve all done this to some degree. We learn to cope, to live through it, and to get by in life so it doesn’t hurt quite so much anymore. In short, we learn to live self protected and self guarded.
Self-protection and self-preservation are very natural responses to a world full of trouble. With our walls of self protection, we are able to function, to have jobs, to raise kids, to pay the bills, to relate to people. But our walls of self preservation have a cost as well. We don’t really get to live in true freedom – freedom from the heart. Sure, we can get along with others and be functioning human beings in society, but haven’t you noticed? Many people, I’d say most people, have become as though they are walking dead people.
Many are just getting by. Many are just surviving. Merely going to work everyday and going through the motions of life. Almost robotic, instead of feeling the pain of rejection, feeling the pain of being hated, feeling the deep loneliness, we choose to mostly feelnothing at all.
There are a myriad of reasons why people are the way they are: tendencies that stem from heredity, various flesh patterns that we’ve developed to cope with life and to self-protect. But the bottom line is all the same…
Jesus wants to heal us.
He wants to restore to us the lost years. He wants to make you healthy inside and out. He wants you to be alive from within. He wants you full of passion, full of love and full of purpose. Jesus wants you to be free in your heart and in all of life. He wants you filled with His power and bearing fruit 100 fold for the Kingdom. He wants to use you to give to others as well. What is His plan and design to heal and restore all of us messed up human beings?
When you were born-again, you were healed. But we don’t always experience the healing we have. There is a process of renewing our minds and a process of sanctification that allows the Christian to experience more and more healing and restoration. God wants to restore us from two directions. Not only is He going to heal you and renew your mind as you continue to relate to Him directly as an individual, but He wants to also use a functioning and active church to restore you and build you up as well. Both are important.
Knowing “About” versus Knowing
As we truly know the Lord as a person, we are changed. As opposed to just knowing and learning things about Him, as we are truly knowing Him, real change in the heart occurs.
It’s like the difference between reading a book about skydiving and actually skydiving. Reading a book only fills your head with concepts about skydiving. When you actually skydive, you know what skydiving is really like. Concepts can be dangerous. If we don’t put concepts into practice, they can fool us into thinking that we have the reality of the matter, when we really only know things about it.
Concepts about the Lord do little to change our lives. Knowing the Lord is what changes us. We must never be fooled between the difference of knowing things about the Lord and actually knowing Him. Learning about, is obtaining more information. Knowing Him however, is actually tasting and experiencing who He is.
As we go deeper in really knowing the Lord, the walls in our hearts begin to come down. We discover that the Lord Himself really is a safe place to let our guard down, and that we will not be hurt by God or destroyed. We experience the relief that comes from finally being loved by someone who loves us no matter what. And, as our relationships with others are truly in the light and in the Spirit of God, we learn to have this wonderful vulnerability with one another – loving one another fervently from the heart.
You must understand that you are like a plant. You are a plant that the Lord has grown and is continuing to grow. He put His seed in the soil of your heart. And, so far as you’ve been cooperative, you’ve proven to be pretty good soil.
The Lord can and will grow plants on an individual basis. If one seed, only one, falls on some good soil and a plant springs up by itself, that’s fine. But this is not God’s best. For only one plant to grow alone and by itself is not really God’s plan. He wants a garden.
Plants do much better when they grow together. They are much healthier. They grow faster together. And it simply looks better to the world to see a hundred beautiful flowers all clumped together than to see just one by itself growing alone in a field, as wonderful as the one plant may be. No, you see, when plants grow together, they become a fertile,hot bed for growth.
You will grow extremely fast and become very hardy if you grow with other plants. You will become stronger, more beautiful, and more enduring than you ever thought possible. For one reason, your roots all get tangled up below with other plant’s roots. In other words, your inner life (the unseen life below the soil) becomes “knit” and entwined with the other plants. This is a wonderful experience.
The soil also stays in better condition when plants grow together. The plants all growing together can really withstand a lot of wind and heavy rains because they are so entwined and rooted together.
But what does it take for our roots to become entwined with others and for us to be knit with one another as the apostle Paul talked about in Col 2:2?
This is the essence of life in the church.
God’s design for growth is within the context of the church. God’s design for healing and restoration is in the context of the church. A lot of us know this concept but don’t seem to cooperate with it very well.
One reason for our non-cooperation is that most Christians have no real example of how to live it out properly. There is also not much opportunity for true body life within the American culture. It takes tremendous courage to truly live vulnerably and transparent with others and to do it on a consistent, on-going basis.
To truly live in the light with others in deep honesty, is tremendously wonderful and sometimes tremendously painful. This is the difference between being religious and being real. We all need to learn to let down and fall apart with other brothers and sisters. Honesty with ourselves, with God, and with others on a consistent basis is what we don’t want to do, but it is what we all need so desperately.
Many of us do live vulnerable with others to some degree. But even any lack of vulnerability, is not true vulnerability. To live as consistently honest and real with others, as I’m describing, to most would be unthinkable.
Resistance to Being Real
Again, the traditional religious setting fights against this. The traditional religious system does not promote this. In fact, it promotes the opposite. It promotes falseness in the disciple. The example to everyone of how to live and be in the church is lived out by the leadership in the church. The leadership provides the example of how you are to be.
How are we trained to be in traditional church? You are to be shallow and false. You are to keep your own individual space. You should only let others in to a certain degree. You must maintain at least some amount of distance. In a certain, sort of false humility way, you are to pretend that you have it together.
Again, our example of how to be and how to conduct ourselves is found in the leadership. Do you think, if the leadership in the traditional church setting were to really be gut-level honest with everyone about what they are REALLY like, they would be able to maintain their position as leaders? Nope. Because people’s idea of what it takes to be in leadership is that you must arrive at a certain level of spirituality. People in leadership are to have a certain level of maturity. Our idea of maturity is a lie. There is no one that is mature (in our sense of the word). Do you want to know what a mature Christian looks like? It’s someone who is a mess and knows they’re a mess. It’s someone who confesses their sin regularly. It’s someone who comes to the light. It’s someone who is so full of fault, most places would shun them, avoid them and have nothing to do with them – much less allow them to be in leadership.
In the typical church fellowship today, if you are really honest with other people about what you are really like, they will judge you, avoid you, then talk about you to others. All the while, every single person equally deals with the same weak human issues everyone else is dealing with – some form of fear, pride, lust or selfishness. Yet, if you confess these things, or others become aware of them in you, you will probably be talked about and be subtly distanced.
That’s the whole problem. In most church settings there is a false role of leadership filled by men that are not completely in the light themselves. This role of leadership is then upheld and supported by people who are, for the most part, not completely in the light with one another either. If everyone would begin to be really honest, the whole thing would come crumbling down because the foundation in most fellowships is based on shallow, half hearted Christianity.
Jesus said that if you look at a woman with lust in your heart, you’ve committed adultery. Ok. Then let’s try this:
The pastor walks up to the podium on Sunday morning. He opens his Bible, looks at the congregations and says, “Before I preach the message today, I want to confess something to everyone. I’ve committed adultery about 6 times this last week. (the pastor then looks at his wife on the second pew and says, ‘Sorry sweetie.’) Now, for today’s sermon, if everyone has their Bibles, please turn to the book of ……”
Have you ever read the book of Psalms? Do you believe that the Psalms are the written word of God? I do. Do you study the Psalms? Do you believe that we are to submit to the Psalms as the written word of God for our lives? Yet, the Psalms were written by a man who had sex with a woman who was not his wife, and then he murdered her husband. He was even deceitful in the way he had him murdered. We are all studying and setting our lives under a book written by a murdering, adulterous, liar. By most people’s standards, David is certainly not qualified to be a leader – this man after God’s own heart.
Paul said he was chief of all sinners. Yet we believe he really was in a different league than the rest of us, just being falsely humble or poetic, perhaps trying to make a point, when he made such a statement.
Paul believed that statement when he said it. The man who was the chief of all sinners, wrote most of the New Testament, and we study it as God’s written word.
What about Peter? He flat out denied that he knew Christ. And he did it 3 times. If there were a man among us in leadership who denied that he even knew who Christ was, and did it 3 times, we would have him removed from the pulpit. “No, sorry Peter, you cannot be a leader among us because you did this horrible thing.” Yet he was an apostle and wrote 2 books of the New Testament.
The point is that the idea we have of leadership is a false rank. Because of our misinterpretation of I Tim., and what “an office” actually is, we’ve created, allowed, and supported a false rank to exist in the church (refer to chapter on Offices, Titles, and Gifts). It makes it extremely difficult for a totally honest man to live up to this false rank. Therefore, it causes men to have to be false with themselves and with others to live up to the expectations of what it means to be a leader. (The qualifications of doing overseeing work or serving in 1 Tim. do not contradict this.)
Today, to be qualified as a leader, you can have sins, but not “these certain sins.” This is all falseness. The whole thing is a farce. It is all set up to cause failure. And the failure that is occurring all the time is pretended to not be failure. It is hidden and all pretended away.
Sin is more common with people then you might think. I am not saying that we have to sin. I am not saying that all people walk in sin. I am not saying that if a man is walking in sin, that he should be permitted to lead. Because of the power of the Spirit of God in us, we’ve been given the power over sin. The only way to win over sin in our lives is to live humbly and dependant on Jesus. When we are in a situation where we have to pretend that we have it together or if we are in a position that doesn’t allow us to be truly just a man, it’s going to promote strongholds in our lives. We are not really in the light. It is only through living humbly, broken, and in the light, that we can be victorious over sin.
Walking truly in honesty with one another in the Spirit of God, and being loved and restored from doing so, is the essence of church life.
If all you are doing is showing up to meetings (going to a meeting is only about 10% of true body life), you are not really living church life. Meetings tend to have too many people and are too infrequent to accomplish real walking in the light with one another.
We must have at least a couple of other people we are extremely current with and close with on a heart level. These are the few others that that carry us in prayer, that provide emotional support, who counsel with us, who know us deeply, and because of the blood of Jesus, love and accept us no matter what. These are the ones we are knit with very closely. These people will be the same gender as you are.
This very small core group you are with is not a click. Hopefully, you all are part of a larger network of believers. Some of those whom you are very closely knit with, may also be tightly knit with others as well. Overlap is essential. The group you are closely knit with is never to be closed off to others coming around and joining in at some level.
Church life is a result of multiple people who are humbly, wholeheartedly, and unreservedly loving Jesus and holding to the scriptures in their individual lives. Church life is sharing with others in vulnerability, transparency, and spontaneity. With intense accountability and prayer, church life is filled with truth and forgiveness for one another.
As you are seeking Jesus, and He is first in your life, He will lead you to be with others. Then, you get to choose.
You get to choose how deep you will go by being honest and in the light with others.
Will you receive reproof? Will you reprove others?
We must have dependence on the Lord as individuals. We must also learn to have a dependence on the Lord in one another. Therefore, we must have interdependence on one another in the Body. Will you allow yourself to need others? We need the Lord in the Body, (I Cor. 12:20-25). Although no person is to ever become our source.
When I began living New Testament body life, I was 19 years old. The older brothers mentored me, loved me, reproved me, confronted me, and encouraged me. This is how it should be for a young man in the church. I got to attend the brothers’ meetings and listen to the older ones ponder and pray through multitudes of church problems. I learned quite a lot as a young man. There were many late nights with brothers confessing sins, weaknesses, and praying for one another.
In New Testament body life, there are spontaneous visits from families dropping in our home unannounced (not on a meeting night), sometimes carrying a loaf of bread with them and a bottle of wine for the Lord’s supper; we often share communion together with a couple of families and end up praying the evening together. A sister might stop by our home and tell my wife that she needs to talk and pray. There are breakfasts together, weekend retreats, working together while singing praises, and looking out your window at night and seeing a fire built with saints spontaneously gathering to worship. Several of us may take a long trip together for a vacation, to visit other fellowships, or to a prison to preach the gospel, while reading and discussing scripture in the car there and back.
There are seasons when one brother might do some shepherding in my life in a particular area, and then the season comes to an end. The Lord may bring in another brother later to love me and speak into my life for a totally different area, all the while the Lord may be using me to shepherd, teach, and speak into the lives of others.
There may be frequent calls at any time of the day or in the middle of the night to pray for various needs.
There are no requirements. There is no law. The only rule is to love one another and be in the truth. Some families participate a lot. Some only participate a little. There’s no possible way someone can attend every get together and every meeting. If someone did, I might question if they are meeting the needs of their natural family. There may be seasons where an individual family needs plenty of time with just themselves. Everyone supports that.
The main thing that happens to you in church life is that you are restored. You learn to trust. Not trust in people – you will really get to see plenty of weakness and mistakes in individuals. But you do learn to trust Jesus. You begin to see His hand in the church. You hear Him speak through, not only the respected ones, but through the lowly people as well. You get to know what it’s really like to be loved, no matter what. You will get to humble yourself on the same issue so many times, that there’s nothing else left to say or do, but only to receive a hug.
The church is the Lord’s hands and feet. We are His body, and He will use His body to correct and love you. He will love your heart back to life. In the church, He will love you so closely and so in your face that you will learn to trust Him. You will grow. You will not be shaken. You will learn to weather tremendous storms.
But you will have to risk.
You will have to step out in vulnerability with your brothers and sisters. You will have to confess your apathy. And you will often bear your soul, exposing yourself to the gentle, loving, light of correction.
You will tell another person that they hurt you. Someone will inform you that you have been being selfish. You will learn to forgive at all times. And you will learn to receive forgiveness for yourself.
As you grow secure in the church’s love for you, you will be able to let down more, and let down more, and more.
You will learn to love and truly honor your spouse. You will learn to raise your kids. You will become honest – because you will be required to be honest in all things.
You will live in freedom. Your prayers will change. Your life will be deepened. You will find that you have more room, more capacity, in your heart towards God. The stillness will come and you will find rest. You will journey on with your brothers and sisters, fighting the good fight of faith, and doing what you were created to do – living full throttle, and with all of your heart.
Please don’t just attend meetings; Christ died for more than that. Don’t use a church meeting to get your God stamp for the week, then go home, and hide in your house.
“I Don’t Have Any More Time Available.”
If your job or work causes you to be too busy for body life, then change jobs. What is your life about anyway – work? I highly recommend that you live off the least amount of money as possible. You should cut your spending and your monthly needs, so that you don’t have to have high pressure, 60 hour a week jobs. High stress jobs steal our time and our emotional strength. A job is just a means to put food on the table and keep the lights on. Sell your house and live in a cheaper one.
If you really want the life God intended for you to live, in the context of the church, it’s going to cost you. You’re going to have to have some time and some heart available.
It is extremely difficult to live New Testament church life in America, and maintain the American economic standards.
If you’re serious about your life in God, you’re going to have to start making some different choices. It will be hard.
Your kids may not like it at first. Your spouse may have to get passed some things. But, if you want to love those around you, you must learn to give them what they need, and not necessarily what they want. Loving your family has nothing to do with giving them what they want. They need to be plugged in with healthy, growing, fervent Christians. Your family’s spiritual well being and growth is far more important than getting to go to Disney World, getting to drive new cars, wearing $100 pairs of sneakers, or even living in a nice house.
You should be able to work a simple 40 hour a week job, pay your bills, and have plenty of family time available during the week, all while maintaining very close relationships within the church.
If you are trapped and caught in what seems like a hopeless situation of no time and no energy, you need to begin with prayer. God will always make a way of escape if you truly cry out to Him. When the way of escape comes, take it. However, you must be willing to sacrifice.
You should also be willing to re-locatewhere you live in order to have church life. Life is too short, and God is too good to waste your life struggling to meet the economic standards of the American lifestyle while being separated from true, New Testament, body life. You must be open to re-locating, and hooking up with some folks who are already living body life.
Self-protection and self-preservation are very natural responses to a world full of trouble. With our walls of self protection, we are able to function, to have jobs, to raise kids, to pay the bills, to relate to people. But our walls of self preservation have a cost as well. We don’t really get to live in true freedom – freedom from the heart. Sure, we can get along with others and be functioning human beings in society, but haven’t you noticed? Many people, I’d say most people, have become as though they are walking dead people.
Many are just getting by. Many are just surviving. Merely going to work everyday and going through the motions of life. Almost robotic, instead of feeling the pain of rejection, feeling the pain of being hated, feeling the deep loneliness, we choose to mostly feelnothing at all.
There are a myriad of reasons why people are the way they are: tendencies that stem from heredity, various flesh patterns that we’ve developed to cope with life and to self-protect. But the bottom line is all the same…
Jesus wants to heal us.
He wants to restore to us the lost years. He wants to make you healthy inside and out. He wants you to be alive from within. He wants you full of passion, full of love and full of purpose. Jesus wants you to be free in your heart and in all of life. He wants you filled with His power and bearing fruit 100 fold for the Kingdom. He wants to use you to give to others as well. What is His plan and design to heal and restore all of us messed up human beings?
When you were born-again, you were healed. But we don’t always experience the healing we have. There is a process of renewing our minds and a process of sanctification that allows the Christian to experience more and more healing and restoration. God wants to restore us from two directions. Not only is He going to heal you and renew your mind as you continue to relate to Him directly as an individual, but He wants to also use a functioning and active church to restore you and build you up as well. Both are important.
Knowing “About” versus Knowing
As we truly know the Lord as a person, we are changed. As opposed to just knowing and learning things about Him, as we are truly knowing Him, real change in the heart occurs.
It’s like the difference between reading a book about skydiving and actually skydiving. Reading a book only fills your head with concepts about skydiving. When you actually skydive, you know what skydiving is really like. Concepts can be dangerous. If we don’t put concepts into practice, they can fool us into thinking that we have the reality of the matter, when we really only know things about it.
Concepts about the Lord do little to change our lives. Knowing the Lord is what changes us. We must never be fooled between the difference of knowing things about the Lord and actually knowing Him. Learning about, is obtaining more information. Knowing Him however, is actually tasting and experiencing who He is.
As we go deeper in really knowing the Lord, the walls in our hearts begin to come down. We discover that the Lord Himself really is a safe place to let our guard down, and that we will not be hurt by God or destroyed. We experience the relief that comes from finally being loved by someone who loves us no matter what. And, as our relationships with others are truly in the light and in the Spirit of God, we learn to have this wonderful vulnerability with one another – loving one another fervently from the heart.
You must understand that you are like a plant. You are a plant that the Lord has grown and is continuing to grow. He put His seed in the soil of your heart. And, so far as you’ve been cooperative, you’ve proven to be pretty good soil.
The Lord can and will grow plants on an individual basis. If one seed, only one, falls on some good soil and a plant springs up by itself, that’s fine. But this is not God’s best. For only one plant to grow alone and by itself is not really God’s plan. He wants a garden.
Plants do much better when they grow together. They are much healthier. They grow faster together. And it simply looks better to the world to see a hundred beautiful flowers all clumped together than to see just one by itself growing alone in a field, as wonderful as the one plant may be. No, you see, when plants grow together, they become a fertile,hot bed for growth.
You will grow extremely fast and become very hardy if you grow with other plants. You will become stronger, more beautiful, and more enduring than you ever thought possible. For one reason, your roots all get tangled up below with other plant’s roots. In other words, your inner life (the unseen life below the soil) becomes “knit” and entwined with the other plants. This is a wonderful experience.
The soil also stays in better condition when plants grow together. The plants all growing together can really withstand a lot of wind and heavy rains because they are so entwined and rooted together.
But what does it take for our roots to become entwined with others and for us to be knit with one another as the apostle Paul talked about in Col 2:2?
This is the essence of life in the church.
God’s design for growth is within the context of the church. God’s design for healing and restoration is in the context of the church. A lot of us know this concept but don’t seem to cooperate with it very well.
One reason for our non-cooperation is that most Christians have no real example of how to live it out properly. There is also not much opportunity for true body life within the American culture. It takes tremendous courage to truly live vulnerably and transparent with others and to do it on a consistent, on-going basis.
To truly live in the light with others in deep honesty, is tremendously wonderful and sometimes tremendously painful. This is the difference between being religious and being real. We all need to learn to let down and fall apart with other brothers and sisters. Honesty with ourselves, with God, and with others on a consistent basis is what we don’t want to do, but it is what we all need so desperately.
Many of us do live vulnerable with others to some degree. But even any lack of vulnerability, is not true vulnerability. To live as consistently honest and real with others, as I’m describing, to most would be unthinkable.
Resistance to Being Real
Again, the traditional religious setting fights against this. The traditional religious system does not promote this. In fact, it promotes the opposite. It promotes falseness in the disciple. The example to everyone of how to live and be in the church is lived out by the leadership in the church. The leadership provides the example of how you are to be.
How are we trained to be in traditional church? You are to be shallow and false. You are to keep your own individual space. You should only let others in to a certain degree. You must maintain at least some amount of distance. In a certain, sort of false humility way, you are to pretend that you have it together.
Again, our example of how to be and how to conduct ourselves is found in the leadership. Do you think, if the leadership in the traditional church setting were to really be gut-level honest with everyone about what they are REALLY like, they would be able to maintain their position as leaders? Nope. Because people’s idea of what it takes to be in leadership is that you must arrive at a certain level of spirituality. People in leadership are to have a certain level of maturity. Our idea of maturity is a lie. There is no one that is mature (in our sense of the word). Do you want to know what a mature Christian looks like? It’s someone who is a mess and knows they’re a mess. It’s someone who confesses their sin regularly. It’s someone who comes to the light. It’s someone who is so full of fault, most places would shun them, avoid them and have nothing to do with them – much less allow them to be in leadership.
In the typical church fellowship today, if you are really honest with other people about what you are really like, they will judge you, avoid you, then talk about you to others. All the while, every single person equally deals with the same weak human issues everyone else is dealing with – some form of fear, pride, lust or selfishness. Yet, if you confess these things, or others become aware of them in you, you will probably be talked about and be subtly distanced.
That’s the whole problem. In most church settings there is a false role of leadership filled by men that are not completely in the light themselves. This role of leadership is then upheld and supported by people who are, for the most part, not completely in the light with one another either. If everyone would begin to be really honest, the whole thing would come crumbling down because the foundation in most fellowships is based on shallow, half hearted Christianity.
Jesus said that if you look at a woman with lust in your heart, you’ve committed adultery. Ok. Then let’s try this:
The pastor walks up to the podium on Sunday morning. He opens his Bible, looks at the congregations and says, “Before I preach the message today, I want to confess something to everyone. I’ve committed adultery about 6 times this last week. (the pastor then looks at his wife on the second pew and says, ‘Sorry sweetie.’) Now, for today’s sermon, if everyone has their Bibles, please turn to the book of ……”
Have you ever read the book of Psalms? Do you believe that the Psalms are the written word of God? I do. Do you study the Psalms? Do you believe that we are to submit to the Psalms as the written word of God for our lives? Yet, the Psalms were written by a man who had sex with a woman who was not his wife, and then he murdered her husband. He was even deceitful in the way he had him murdered. We are all studying and setting our lives under a book written by a murdering, adulterous, liar. By most people’s standards, David is certainly not qualified to be a leader – this man after God’s own heart.
Paul said he was chief of all sinners. Yet we believe he really was in a different league than the rest of us, just being falsely humble or poetic, perhaps trying to make a point, when he made such a statement.
Paul believed that statement when he said it. The man who was the chief of all sinners, wrote most of the New Testament, and we study it as God’s written word.
What about Peter? He flat out denied that he knew Christ. And he did it 3 times. If there were a man among us in leadership who denied that he even knew who Christ was, and did it 3 times, we would have him removed from the pulpit. “No, sorry Peter, you cannot be a leader among us because you did this horrible thing.” Yet he was an apostle and wrote 2 books of the New Testament.
The point is that the idea we have of leadership is a false rank. Because of our misinterpretation of I Tim., and what “an office” actually is, we’ve created, allowed, and supported a false rank to exist in the church (refer to chapter on Offices, Titles, and Gifts). It makes it extremely difficult for a totally honest man to live up to this false rank. Therefore, it causes men to have to be false with themselves and with others to live up to the expectations of what it means to be a leader. (The qualifications of doing overseeing work or serving in 1 Tim. do not contradict this.)
Today, to be qualified as a leader, you can have sins, but not “these certain sins.” This is all falseness. The whole thing is a farce. It is all set up to cause failure. And the failure that is occurring all the time is pretended to not be failure. It is hidden and all pretended away.
Sin is more common with people then you might think. I am not saying that we have to sin. I am not saying that all people walk in sin. I am not saying that if a man is walking in sin, that he should be permitted to lead. Because of the power of the Spirit of God in us, we’ve been given the power over sin. The only way to win over sin in our lives is to live humbly and dependant on Jesus. When we are in a situation where we have to pretend that we have it together or if we are in a position that doesn’t allow us to be truly just a man, it’s going to promote strongholds in our lives. We are not really in the light. It is only through living humbly, broken, and in the light, that we can be victorious over sin.
Walking truly in honesty with one another in the Spirit of God, and being loved and restored from doing so, is the essence of church life.
If all you are doing is showing up to meetings (going to a meeting is only about 10% of true body life), you are not really living church life. Meetings tend to have too many people and are too infrequent to accomplish real walking in the light with one another.
We must have at least a couple of other people we are extremely current with and close with on a heart level. These are the few others that that carry us in prayer, that provide emotional support, who counsel with us, who know us deeply, and because of the blood of Jesus, love and accept us no matter what. These are the ones we are knit with very closely. These people will be the same gender as you are.
This very small core group you are with is not a click. Hopefully, you all are part of a larger network of believers. Some of those whom you are very closely knit with, may also be tightly knit with others as well. Overlap is essential. The group you are closely knit with is never to be closed off to others coming around and joining in at some level.
Church life is a result of multiple people who are humbly, wholeheartedly, and unreservedly loving Jesus and holding to the scriptures in their individual lives. Church life is sharing with others in vulnerability, transparency, and spontaneity. With intense accountability and prayer, church life is filled with truth and forgiveness for one another.
As you are seeking Jesus, and He is first in your life, He will lead you to be with others. Then, you get to choose.
You get to choose how deep you will go by being honest and in the light with others.
Will you receive reproof? Will you reprove others?
We must have dependence on the Lord as individuals. We must also learn to have a dependence on the Lord in one another. Therefore, we must have interdependence on one another in the Body. Will you allow yourself to need others? We need the Lord in the Body, (I Cor. 12:20-25). Although no person is to ever become our source.
When I began living New Testament body life, I was 19 years old. The older brothers mentored me, loved me, reproved me, confronted me, and encouraged me. This is how it should be for a young man in the church. I got to attend the brothers’ meetings and listen to the older ones ponder and pray through multitudes of church problems. I learned quite a lot as a young man. There were many late nights with brothers confessing sins, weaknesses, and praying for one another.
In New Testament body life, there are spontaneous visits from families dropping in our home unannounced (not on a meeting night), sometimes carrying a loaf of bread with them and a bottle of wine for the Lord’s supper; we often share communion together with a couple of families and end up praying the evening together. A sister might stop by our home and tell my wife that she needs to talk and pray. There are breakfasts together, weekend retreats, working together while singing praises, and looking out your window at night and seeing a fire built with saints spontaneously gathering to worship. Several of us may take a long trip together for a vacation, to visit other fellowships, or to a prison to preach the gospel, while reading and discussing scripture in the car there and back.
There are seasons when one brother might do some shepherding in my life in a particular area, and then the season comes to an end. The Lord may bring in another brother later to love me and speak into my life for a totally different area, all the while the Lord may be using me to shepherd, teach, and speak into the lives of others.
There may be frequent calls at any time of the day or in the middle of the night to pray for various needs.
There are no requirements. There is no law. The only rule is to love one another and be in the truth. Some families participate a lot. Some only participate a little. There’s no possible way someone can attend every get together and every meeting. If someone did, I might question if they are meeting the needs of their natural family. There may be seasons where an individual family needs plenty of time with just themselves. Everyone supports that.
The main thing that happens to you in church life is that you are restored. You learn to trust. Not trust in people – you will really get to see plenty of weakness and mistakes in individuals. But you do learn to trust Jesus. You begin to see His hand in the church. You hear Him speak through, not only the respected ones, but through the lowly people as well. You get to know what it’s really like to be loved, no matter what. You will get to humble yourself on the same issue so many times, that there’s nothing else left to say or do, but only to receive a hug.
The church is the Lord’s hands and feet. We are His body, and He will use His body to correct and love you. He will love your heart back to life. In the church, He will love you so closely and so in your face that you will learn to trust Him. You will grow. You will not be shaken. You will learn to weather tremendous storms.
But you will have to risk.
You will have to step out in vulnerability with your brothers and sisters. You will have to confess your apathy. And you will often bear your soul, exposing yourself to the gentle, loving, light of correction.
You will tell another person that they hurt you. Someone will inform you that you have been being selfish. You will learn to forgive at all times. And you will learn to receive forgiveness for yourself.
As you grow secure in the church’s love for you, you will be able to let down more, and let down more, and more.
You will learn to love and truly honor your spouse. You will learn to raise your kids. You will become honest – because you will be required to be honest in all things.
You will live in freedom. Your prayers will change. Your life will be deepened. You will find that you have more room, more capacity, in your heart towards God. The stillness will come and you will find rest. You will journey on with your brothers and sisters, fighting the good fight of faith, and doing what you were created to do – living full throttle, and with all of your heart.
Please don’t just attend meetings; Christ died for more than that. Don’t use a church meeting to get your God stamp for the week, then go home, and hide in your house.
“I Don’t Have Any More Time Available.”
If your job or work causes you to be too busy for body life, then change jobs. What is your life about anyway – work? I highly recommend that you live off the least amount of money as possible. You should cut your spending and your monthly needs, so that you don’t have to have high pressure, 60 hour a week jobs. High stress jobs steal our time and our emotional strength. A job is just a means to put food on the table and keep the lights on. Sell your house and live in a cheaper one.
If you really want the life God intended for you to live, in the context of the church, it’s going to cost you. You’re going to have to have some time and some heart available.
It is extremely difficult to live New Testament church life in America, and maintain the American economic standards.
If you’re serious about your life in God, you’re going to have to start making some different choices. It will be hard.
Your kids may not like it at first. Your spouse may have to get passed some things. But, if you want to love those around you, you must learn to give them what they need, and not necessarily what they want. Loving your family has nothing to do with giving them what they want. They need to be plugged in with healthy, growing, fervent Christians. Your family’s spiritual well being and growth is far more important than getting to go to Disney World, getting to drive new cars, wearing $100 pairs of sneakers, or even living in a nice house.
You should be able to work a simple 40 hour a week job, pay your bills, and have plenty of family time available during the week, all while maintaining very close relationships within the church.
If you are trapped and caught in what seems like a hopeless situation of no time and no energy, you need to begin with prayer. God will always make a way of escape if you truly cry out to Him. When the way of escape comes, take it. However, you must be willing to sacrifice.
You should also be willing to re-locatewhere you live in order to have church life. Life is too short, and God is too good to waste your life struggling to meet the economic standards of the American lifestyle while being separated from true, New Testament, body life. You must be open to re-locating, and hooking up with some folks who are already living body life.
How to Meet
What does the church meeting look like?
It depends.
It depends on the people. It depends on the season they are in. It will depend on the culture.
In your attempts to meet together, if you predetermine how it will look, you will kill it. If you decide before hand what you are going to do, you will create two hours of dreaded torture.
The life of the Lord will dictate what the meeting looks like. To only focus on the outward of the New Testament church and try to replicate it, would spell disaster.
If your meetings are alive, then they will always change. The church meeting this year will not look like it did last year. The meeting in the Fall will probably be different than what it was in the Spring.
The church meeting in Australia will not look like the meetings in Africa. The church meetings in South Florida will not look like the meetings in India. The meetings should “fit” the people. There is no magic format.
However, there are some given foundational activities that allow us to accomplish the goals of the church meeting. The purpose of this chapter is to describe the activities that lend themselves to encountering the Lord and edifying one another.
First, let’s look at what a church meeting is.
Jesus said, “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there I am in their midst.” A church meeting is anytime at least two Christians are gathered together in His name. If a brother stops by your house and invites you to run an errand with him, the ride in the car with two Christian brothers is a church meeting.
Paul tells us in a couple of different places the kinds of things we are to do when we are with others. Ephesians 5:19 tells us to “speak to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God.”
Colossians 3:16, “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one anther with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”
Anytime we are with other Christians, these types of activities are wonderful to do. But there is also a different type of church meeting that Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 14.
The “1st Corinthians 14″ Meeting
Paul tells us in verse 26 of chapter 14, “What is the outcome then brethren? When you assemble…” This is not a ride in the car to the grocery store. This is when there are many gathered together to focus on the Lord. The purpose of this chapter is to give some practical examples of the kinds of things that are to go on in a general assembly meeting. This is a big subject, but tremendously simple.
Again, I hate to give any specifics here because of what the flesh will tend to do with it. The church is to be organic and spontaneous, not mechanical. It is not to be methodical. Methodology and law quench the Spirit among us. Everything we do should be from the heart and from conviction, not from habit and not from an instruction manual. However I will provide some, hopefully general, guidelines that we do see in scripture. My encouragement is to use the specific guidelines in this chapter very loosely.
We must first understand the point of coming together, then it will be easy to understand why and what we are to do. Paul tells us in I Corinthians to “let all things be done for edification.” When we come together it is to love God, to worship Him, and to allow the Holy Spirit through the body to edify the body.
1 Corinthians 14:26 “What is the outcome then, brethren? When you assemble, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification.”
This passage will be foundational for the Christian meeting, or when we all gather together.
Another very important foundation: If you look at the New Testament, prayer was a big deal. The early Christians prayed together, a lot. Paul tells us that we are to be devoted to prayer. The early Christians were all praying together when the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost. In Acts we read that the disciples were meeting house to house many times a week, breaking bread together and devoting themselves to prayer and to the apostles’ teaching.
Prayer is a staple for the church meeting. When we gather together, we are to pray together. In fact, the attitude and posture of prayer is to permeate the entire time. Remember, we are coming together to commune with the Lord, to experience the Lord, and to edify one another.
The book of Acts tells us that the first Christians were “taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart.” Breaking bread together means eating together, but not just any old eating. The Christian fellowship meal is to be a time of joy, talking, and eating with thankfulness. You should not come to the fellowship meal extremely hungry. Eating and getting full is not really the point. Paul reproved the Corinthians for participating in the fellowship meal in a selfish way.
Also, there is available a cup with wine and a loaf of bread to represent the blood and body of our Lord. At some point during the meal, each believer has available to them an opportunity to sincerely partake of the cup and eat of the bread to remember what the Lord has done. One thing we are to do at the Christian meeting is to eat together and partake of the wine and bread.
Generally speaking, we can see three things we are to do when we come together.
1. We eat together with the Lord’s table as the center piece.
2. We pray together.
3. We edify one another in various ways.
Let’s look at what a typical church meeting might look like:
We’ve eaten our meal and we’ve had an enjoyable time of talking and visiting. We’ve also each sincerely taken the Lord’s supper. Let’s move over to the living room.
Someone may start us off with a song or two as we all begin to focus solely on the Lord. We begin by giving thanks. From our hearts, we genuinely thank Jesus for who He is and what He has done. We spend plenty of time here. No hurry. We could thank and praise Him all night for who He is and what He has done and what He is going to do! This is critical. We must be “caught up” with who Jesus is, less we risk being only earthly during our time. We give thanks for His promises. We give thanks for what He did on the cross. We give thanks for the forgiveness of sins. We give thanks for the everlasting covenant. Soon the water will become wine*** (refer to notes at end of chapter).
As we are completely focused on the goodness of God, and in love with Jesus, someone may lead out in another song. We may sing five or six songs in a row. There are more prayers of praise and more songs. As the Lord leads and as the Spirit inspires, we may pray for different needs. The Holy Spirit may put an encouraging word on someone’s heart. A prophecy may come forth (prophecies may not look like a typical charismatic prophecy, they may be delivered conversationally), a scripture may be read, a teaching may be given. All of these activities are done prayerfully; in other words, if a teaching is given, we respond with prayer. Perhaps a prayer of repentance or a prayer of thankfulness for what the Lord has just reminded us of. Perhaps there may be a good long time of silence to allow the Holy Spirit time to deal with us on an individual basis.
Let all things be done for edification. Come with your heart prepared. Come ready to participate. In order to participate, you don’t necessarily have to be vocal. As long as you are of faith in your heart, you can participate. In other words, participate by “amening” and agreeing with what others say. If you are quietly praying, do so with all your heart. Be listening intently for what the Lord might want to show you. Be listening to what the Lord might want to say through you to the others present. You should strongly desire to prophecy. Strongly loving those whom are in the room with you makes you a much better candidate for prophecy to come forth through you.
An important note needs to be inserted here. In whatever setting you meet in, whether it is a home, a park, a backyard, or a building – remember that it is important how you set up the chairs and the seating arrangements. This would not have to be mentioned if our perverted practices weren’t so common. It is absolutely ingrained in our thinking that a church meeting must have an audience, and that the audience must be focused and facing those who are leading. In a New Testament meeting, everyone is encouraged to lead out. Therefore it is critical that we face each other. You should try to arrange the chairs in a circle or something similar. If you have a larger meeting, double stack the circle. Remember, we are family. There is no more clergy in New Testament church life. We are looking for Jesus to lead the meeting by using many people, not a man and not a small designated group of people.
The next time you and your immediate family get together for a visit in the living room, would you set the furniture up in rows and all face one family member? Of course not. So, don’t do it for a church meeting either. Having all the chairs in rows, still facing a few leaders and passing a microphone around the crowd is not good enough either. First of all, try to avoid things like microphones and speaker systems. They throw us into “going to church” mode. But secondly, if you are all facing one direction, whether you pass a microphone around or not, you are saying that the people we are facing are really in charge and these are the people whom we are focused on and looking to lead the time.
When we come together outside of the traditional church, we are saying that we are taking the responsibility to be a functioning and active member, as opposed to being checked out and letting a staff member be active in heart or in demonstration.
It’s easier to learn by doing than to read about it. Whatever you do, don’t plan too much or have an agenda. Do the folks I gather with eat a meal every time we get together? No. This chapter is just here to provide some basic guidelines. God is in you. Trust Him. Let God be in charge of the meeting and trust Him to lead it. He is an orchestra conductor. He may point to the trumpets or point to the clarinet section or any member of the church to speak, to lead out, to sing, to prophecy, to encourage, to pray for someone, to ask a question to the group for all to answer, or publicly read scripture. Come to the meeting time filled with the Lord or come asking for help and prayer, but always come participating and always come expecting God to do great things in your midst.
In the heart of the New Testament instructions, we must provide an atmosphere of corporate participation in the meeting of the general assembly. This is much more than a man standing up and giving a message, then opening it up for comments from the crowd at the end. And it is much more than the preacher asking if “every heart and mind is clear before we dismiss.”
I want to re-emphasis a point made earlier. The primary goal of the church meeting is for mutual edification. In order to do that, you must corporately “encounter” the Lord and allow Jesus Christ to fill your hearts. Only Jesus Christ can edify us. Only the Spirit gives life and imparts wisdom among us. If the group is not “caught up” with the person of Jesus Christ, then the meeting will be less than ideal. Sure, you can come together and it be encouraging in some regard to just be together – no matter what goes on. But to really be encouraged in the Spirit, built up, fed, and edified – the Lord Jesus Himself must be moving powerfully in your midst.
“The Lord being powerfully in your midst” is going to be the case much more often when you begin the time worshiping Him. Worship Him in song, by reading psalms about Him, vocalizing prayers describing His greatness, etc. Basically, doing activities that gets your eyes on Jesus and off of yourselves cooperates with the Lord manifesting Himself among you and edifying the body.
Be careful of starting out your time together with discussions and talks. Even prayers that are to meet personal needs should be kept more for the latter part of the time. Especially in the beginning of the meeting, let your prayers be worshipful prayers. Worshipful prayers are describing who the Lord is to you, what He has done, His holy attributes, etc. This worshipful type of activity, “purifies” the time so to speak, and invites the Lord to be among you in a more powerful way.
You May All Prophecy One By One
Paul uses very specific language in 1 Cor. 14: 29-32 saying:
“And let two or three prophets speak, and let the others pass judgment. But if a revelation is made to another who is seated, let the first keep silent. For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all may be exhorted; and the spirit of prophets are subject to prophets”
This is rarely if ever practiced in the church today. And we are suffering for it. I’ve never seen anything close to this being practiced in traditional meetings. And in house churches it is rarely done well, if any attempt is made at all. If we can get the heart of this, it will encourage a beautiful expression of body life. Let me try to put this in very practical terms as far as the way this has been practiced with myself and those I’ve walked with.
Before we jump into it, keep in mind that prophetic utterances do not have to be delivered in your typical Pentecostal, charismatic flavor. You don’t have to say, “thus saith the Lord” before you deliver it. A prophecy, although weighty, does not have to be religiously worded. It can simply be something like, “I feel impressed to encourage us in something…” Even that may seem religious to you. So you can say something like “I wanted to remind us of something.” You don’t have to say that it is from the Lord because the expectation is that everything we do and say in a meeting is from the Lord.
Ok, so we are in a meeting. A person begins to share a prophecy or an encouragement that they feel is from God. As the prophecy is being shared, someone may respectfully interrupt. How do they go about interrupting? Quietly slip your hand up and down. Hold up a finger. If it is in a larger gathering, they should stand up. The one who is speaking should be watching for and encouraging others to do that. He or she would love to be interrupted. It’s part of the culture of the group. We, together as a group, are trying to find what the Lord is saying to us. The purpose of the time is not for me to get to say what I want to say.
It’s not impolite to gently interrupt, it’s not disrespectful, nor does it have anything to do with someone not getting to share what they had. That’s not the point of any of this. As the person gently interrupts, the speaker eagerly says, “Yes, brother – do you have more on this or something to add?” The interrupter might say, “Yes, I think we need to go back to the point you were making at first. I’m getting something on that I’d like to add.”
We are looking for the Spirit in all we do. As someone shares a prophecy or a word with us, we are listening for God in it. As someone is sharing, often times they will add to the pure Word they received from God their own interpretations, insights and opinions. Some of these are helpful, some are not. Sometimes as people share and they go on and on, it takes away from what they really received from God. It is important that we help one another in this. “Brother, I think what the Lord is saying through you is this….” We should always love and want our words to be checked, interrupted, and altered by one another. It’s the Lord’s way in the body. Get used to it. You should want to be interrupted.
We can all prophecy one at a time. It may need to be interrupted or slightly altered. One point someone is sharing may to be stressed because it really happens to be speaking to a lot of people in the group. This is done and accomplished corporately by more than just one person participating.
However, although it is possible for all to prophecy, only two or three prophecies should be brought forth in a meeting time. If more than that is spoken, we tend to lose and forget the earlier ones. Our capacity to retain and spiritually process a theme or a word and effectively apply it to our lives is limited by two or three per meeting. If you felt like you had something to share with the group, but three different messages have already come forth, it would be Biblical and obedient for you to let it go. If it is the Lord, He will bring it back around at a later time. This is not about us getting to share or speak. It’s about us hearing what the Lord is saying to us. If someone interrupts you before you get to your point, let it go. If what you had was the Lord, He will bring it back around or bring it up in you at a later time. We must learn to trust the Lord in the Body.
Let’s look at the “let the others pass judgment” part of the text. After a prophecy, message, or encouragement is shared, we should tend to be silent. We need to take it in. We need to think about it. We need to pray. It’s weighty when someone shares something in the church meeting. No matter who it is that shared it. Is God speaking to us? If He is, we’d better humble ourselves, shut up, and do what He says. If there is not a witness in the Spirit or if what has been shared is not Biblical, it needs to be checked. The older brothers need to say something. It doesn’t need to be rejected in a cutting way. It doesn’t need to be rejected at all up front, unless it is clearly unscriptural. If what was shared seems good to the group, then one of two responses would be good: either nothing can be said, or a hearty “Amen” can be given. If it is perceived as not being good, from God, Biblical, or edifying, an older brother needs to say something like, “this last message or prophecy needs some more prayer and consideration. We as a group need to wait on the Lord concerning this issue.” Or something like that. Then, it would be good for the brother who shared it to have some time with others to talk about and pray together. The person who delivered the word may come to the conclusion that it was not the Lord at all. It would be good for them to simply tell everyone else at the next get together, that “I think I missed it.”
I have been in meetings when a brother has shared something, and an older brother (elder) just flat out said, “I’m sorry brother, that’s not the Lord.” There was an atmosphere at that time in our group for that kind of thing. The older brother who said that to the one who brought the prophecy also had a relationship with him that could support that type of thing. They both had a tremendous amount of love and respect for one another and it was delivered in kindness. The brother whose prophecy was rejected, didn’t skip a beat. He responded thankfully and was not hurt at all. He continued to participate in the meeting. I’ve also been checked like this myself on a few different occasions. It really doesn’t bother me, I like it.
We really are not very far along, if as a group, we can’t have this type of dynamic among us. The Christian life is a high calling. We must die to everything of ourselves. Real New Testament church life will provide tremendous opportunities for growth.
The heart of this whole 1 Cor. 14 passage should permeate our meeting times. If in a meeting, a brother stands up and delivers a lengthy teaching, he should welcome others to interrupt and add to the message. He might get to only share a portion of what he wanted to share. He should let it go. If he wants to teach and not be interrupted, which is very appropriate at times, then he should call for a special meeting of the church. This is a special meeting to hear a message or a teaching only. This is good and should be done often. However it is not to be confused with the regular meeting of the church, the general assembly or the default meeting we are to be having described in 1 Corinthians 14.
Fear is what drives many of those in leadership to not have open, 1 Cor. 14 meetings. They are afraid of giving too much liberty to the people in the meeting. They do not trust the Lord in the body. They do not trust the New Testament pattern and examples. They feel as though people are not spiritually mature enough to handle such a meeting. They are actually the ones who are not being spiritually mature.
Control and legislation are never the answers for fear. We must learn to trust, let go, and follow the Lord and the scriptures. There will be problems! It will be messy at times. People will mess up the meeting. People will speak out of turn. People will share things that are not good, are bad, and things that are not scriptural. This will all happen especially at first when people are learning. These things must be addressed and people must be talked to. You must provide training and teaching (refer to Beach Head and Well Digging chapter).
People need to learn by doing. Provide an atmosphere of safety for people to function, make mistakes, and for it to be OK. This is how we will learn to be a functioning, powerful, active, and participating church. If we are really interested in people growing and learning, then set them free to function and make mistakes. Some of the best and most valuable character building issues of growth come from us relating to one another in our mistakes and in our gifts. Learn how to do it together. Growth does not come by us lecturing people and giving them teachings and seminars year after year after year! We’ve tried that and look where it has gotten us. People learn and grow by having an atmosphere that not only sincerely welcomes and encourages them to participate in their gifts, but an atmosphere and a setting that actually needs and depends on all members to bring what they have and deliver it during every meeting.
It must be understood that the descriptions and explanations that Paul gives in 1 Corinthians 14 is for a typical church meeting and a general assembly. There may be other meetings for different purposes and we see evidence of these in the New Testament. There may be a meeting in which the sole purpose is to hear someone give a teaching. There may be a meeting in which the sole purpose is to only pray together. There may be a meeting in which the only purpose is to discuss some particular issue. These special meetings are not what Paul is describing in I Cor. 14.
***[In the Christian experience, there seems to be a breaking through that can occur. I don’t fully understand it. It is not only true for a group meeting, but also for our personal lives as well. As individuals or corporately, we can pray, talk to the Lord, think about Him, sing, whatever, and all of that is necessary….but if we stay in that place long enough, if we focus on Jesus long enough, if we finally let go in our hearts to real trust, if we still ourselves in our soul and become completely caught up with Him, something happens. I call it breaking through or the “water becoming wine.” I’m not very sure on the theology of this, but I am sure of the experience – both individually and corporately. It is always wonderful to break through corporately. When this happens, the Spirit of the Living God seemingly physically fills the room. Many call it experiencing God’s presence. Sometimes it is more pronounced than other times. It usually occurs after there has been much worship and singing and complete focus on the Lord and Him alone. This is usually when the Lord is very powerfully manifested among us (He inhabits the praises of His people). I believe that worship and prayer are two of the most pure activities we can do, that doesn’t tend to quench the Spirit as often as some form of talking can. It must be noted that our goal is never to have an experience. Although having an experience is wonderful if that is what happens. Our goal is to love Jesus, to know Him, and to love and edify one another. We are not to manipulate, try to reproduce, or create an effect.]
It depends.
It depends on the people. It depends on the season they are in. It will depend on the culture.
In your attempts to meet together, if you predetermine how it will look, you will kill it. If you decide before hand what you are going to do, you will create two hours of dreaded torture.
The life of the Lord will dictate what the meeting looks like. To only focus on the outward of the New Testament church and try to replicate it, would spell disaster.
If your meetings are alive, then they will always change. The church meeting this year will not look like it did last year. The meeting in the Fall will probably be different than what it was in the Spring.
The church meeting in Australia will not look like the meetings in Africa. The church meetings in South Florida will not look like the meetings in India. The meetings should “fit” the people. There is no magic format.
However, there are some given foundational activities that allow us to accomplish the goals of the church meeting. The purpose of this chapter is to describe the activities that lend themselves to encountering the Lord and edifying one another.
First, let’s look at what a church meeting is.
Jesus said, “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there I am in their midst.” A church meeting is anytime at least two Christians are gathered together in His name. If a brother stops by your house and invites you to run an errand with him, the ride in the car with two Christian brothers is a church meeting.
Paul tells us in a couple of different places the kinds of things we are to do when we are with others. Ephesians 5:19 tells us to “speak to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God.”
Colossians 3:16, “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one anther with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”
Anytime we are with other Christians, these types of activities are wonderful to do. But there is also a different type of church meeting that Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 14.
The “1st Corinthians 14″ Meeting
Paul tells us in verse 26 of chapter 14, “What is the outcome then brethren? When you assemble…” This is not a ride in the car to the grocery store. This is when there are many gathered together to focus on the Lord. The purpose of this chapter is to give some practical examples of the kinds of things that are to go on in a general assembly meeting. This is a big subject, but tremendously simple.
Again, I hate to give any specifics here because of what the flesh will tend to do with it. The church is to be organic and spontaneous, not mechanical. It is not to be methodical. Methodology and law quench the Spirit among us. Everything we do should be from the heart and from conviction, not from habit and not from an instruction manual. However I will provide some, hopefully general, guidelines that we do see in scripture. My encouragement is to use the specific guidelines in this chapter very loosely.
We must first understand the point of coming together, then it will be easy to understand why and what we are to do. Paul tells us in I Corinthians to “let all things be done for edification.” When we come together it is to love God, to worship Him, and to allow the Holy Spirit through the body to edify the body.
1 Corinthians 14:26 “What is the outcome then, brethren? When you assemble, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification.”
This passage will be foundational for the Christian meeting, or when we all gather together.
Another very important foundation: If you look at the New Testament, prayer was a big deal. The early Christians prayed together, a lot. Paul tells us that we are to be devoted to prayer. The early Christians were all praying together when the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost. In Acts we read that the disciples were meeting house to house many times a week, breaking bread together and devoting themselves to prayer and to the apostles’ teaching.
Prayer is a staple for the church meeting. When we gather together, we are to pray together. In fact, the attitude and posture of prayer is to permeate the entire time. Remember, we are coming together to commune with the Lord, to experience the Lord, and to edify one another.
The book of Acts tells us that the first Christians were “taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart.” Breaking bread together means eating together, but not just any old eating. The Christian fellowship meal is to be a time of joy, talking, and eating with thankfulness. You should not come to the fellowship meal extremely hungry. Eating and getting full is not really the point. Paul reproved the Corinthians for participating in the fellowship meal in a selfish way.
Also, there is available a cup with wine and a loaf of bread to represent the blood and body of our Lord. At some point during the meal, each believer has available to them an opportunity to sincerely partake of the cup and eat of the bread to remember what the Lord has done. One thing we are to do at the Christian meeting is to eat together and partake of the wine and bread.
Generally speaking, we can see three things we are to do when we come together.
1. We eat together with the Lord’s table as the center piece.
2. We pray together.
3. We edify one another in various ways.
Let’s look at what a typical church meeting might look like:
We’ve eaten our meal and we’ve had an enjoyable time of talking and visiting. We’ve also each sincerely taken the Lord’s supper. Let’s move over to the living room.
Someone may start us off with a song or two as we all begin to focus solely on the Lord. We begin by giving thanks. From our hearts, we genuinely thank Jesus for who He is and what He has done. We spend plenty of time here. No hurry. We could thank and praise Him all night for who He is and what He has done and what He is going to do! This is critical. We must be “caught up” with who Jesus is, less we risk being only earthly during our time. We give thanks for His promises. We give thanks for what He did on the cross. We give thanks for the forgiveness of sins. We give thanks for the everlasting covenant. Soon the water will become wine*** (refer to notes at end of chapter).
As we are completely focused on the goodness of God, and in love with Jesus, someone may lead out in another song. We may sing five or six songs in a row. There are more prayers of praise and more songs. As the Lord leads and as the Spirit inspires, we may pray for different needs. The Holy Spirit may put an encouraging word on someone’s heart. A prophecy may come forth (prophecies may not look like a typical charismatic prophecy, they may be delivered conversationally), a scripture may be read, a teaching may be given. All of these activities are done prayerfully; in other words, if a teaching is given, we respond with prayer. Perhaps a prayer of repentance or a prayer of thankfulness for what the Lord has just reminded us of. Perhaps there may be a good long time of silence to allow the Holy Spirit time to deal with us on an individual basis.
Let all things be done for edification. Come with your heart prepared. Come ready to participate. In order to participate, you don’t necessarily have to be vocal. As long as you are of faith in your heart, you can participate. In other words, participate by “amening” and agreeing with what others say. If you are quietly praying, do so with all your heart. Be listening intently for what the Lord might want to show you. Be listening to what the Lord might want to say through you to the others present. You should strongly desire to prophecy. Strongly loving those whom are in the room with you makes you a much better candidate for prophecy to come forth through you.
An important note needs to be inserted here. In whatever setting you meet in, whether it is a home, a park, a backyard, or a building – remember that it is important how you set up the chairs and the seating arrangements. This would not have to be mentioned if our perverted practices weren’t so common. It is absolutely ingrained in our thinking that a church meeting must have an audience, and that the audience must be focused and facing those who are leading. In a New Testament meeting, everyone is encouraged to lead out. Therefore it is critical that we face each other. You should try to arrange the chairs in a circle or something similar. If you have a larger meeting, double stack the circle. Remember, we are family. There is no more clergy in New Testament church life. We are looking for Jesus to lead the meeting by using many people, not a man and not a small designated group of people.
The next time you and your immediate family get together for a visit in the living room, would you set the furniture up in rows and all face one family member? Of course not. So, don’t do it for a church meeting either. Having all the chairs in rows, still facing a few leaders and passing a microphone around the crowd is not good enough either. First of all, try to avoid things like microphones and speaker systems. They throw us into “going to church” mode. But secondly, if you are all facing one direction, whether you pass a microphone around or not, you are saying that the people we are facing are really in charge and these are the people whom we are focused on and looking to lead the time.
When we come together outside of the traditional church, we are saying that we are taking the responsibility to be a functioning and active member, as opposed to being checked out and letting a staff member be active in heart or in demonstration.
It’s easier to learn by doing than to read about it. Whatever you do, don’t plan too much or have an agenda. Do the folks I gather with eat a meal every time we get together? No. This chapter is just here to provide some basic guidelines. God is in you. Trust Him. Let God be in charge of the meeting and trust Him to lead it. He is an orchestra conductor. He may point to the trumpets or point to the clarinet section or any member of the church to speak, to lead out, to sing, to prophecy, to encourage, to pray for someone, to ask a question to the group for all to answer, or publicly read scripture. Come to the meeting time filled with the Lord or come asking for help and prayer, but always come participating and always come expecting God to do great things in your midst.
In the heart of the New Testament instructions, we must provide an atmosphere of corporate participation in the meeting of the general assembly. This is much more than a man standing up and giving a message, then opening it up for comments from the crowd at the end. And it is much more than the preacher asking if “every heart and mind is clear before we dismiss.”
I want to re-emphasis a point made earlier. The primary goal of the church meeting is for mutual edification. In order to do that, you must corporately “encounter” the Lord and allow Jesus Christ to fill your hearts. Only Jesus Christ can edify us. Only the Spirit gives life and imparts wisdom among us. If the group is not “caught up” with the person of Jesus Christ, then the meeting will be less than ideal. Sure, you can come together and it be encouraging in some regard to just be together – no matter what goes on. But to really be encouraged in the Spirit, built up, fed, and edified – the Lord Jesus Himself must be moving powerfully in your midst.
“The Lord being powerfully in your midst” is going to be the case much more often when you begin the time worshiping Him. Worship Him in song, by reading psalms about Him, vocalizing prayers describing His greatness, etc. Basically, doing activities that gets your eyes on Jesus and off of yourselves cooperates with the Lord manifesting Himself among you and edifying the body.
Be careful of starting out your time together with discussions and talks. Even prayers that are to meet personal needs should be kept more for the latter part of the time. Especially in the beginning of the meeting, let your prayers be worshipful prayers. Worshipful prayers are describing who the Lord is to you, what He has done, His holy attributes, etc. This worshipful type of activity, “purifies” the time so to speak, and invites the Lord to be among you in a more powerful way.
You May All Prophecy One By One
Paul uses very specific language in 1 Cor. 14: 29-32 saying:
“And let two or three prophets speak, and let the others pass judgment. But if a revelation is made to another who is seated, let the first keep silent. For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all may be exhorted; and the spirit of prophets are subject to prophets”
This is rarely if ever practiced in the church today. And we are suffering for it. I’ve never seen anything close to this being practiced in traditional meetings. And in house churches it is rarely done well, if any attempt is made at all. If we can get the heart of this, it will encourage a beautiful expression of body life. Let me try to put this in very practical terms as far as the way this has been practiced with myself and those I’ve walked with.
Before we jump into it, keep in mind that prophetic utterances do not have to be delivered in your typical Pentecostal, charismatic flavor. You don’t have to say, “thus saith the Lord” before you deliver it. A prophecy, although weighty, does not have to be religiously worded. It can simply be something like, “I feel impressed to encourage us in something…” Even that may seem religious to you. So you can say something like “I wanted to remind us of something.” You don’t have to say that it is from the Lord because the expectation is that everything we do and say in a meeting is from the Lord.
Ok, so we are in a meeting. A person begins to share a prophecy or an encouragement that they feel is from God. As the prophecy is being shared, someone may respectfully interrupt. How do they go about interrupting? Quietly slip your hand up and down. Hold up a finger. If it is in a larger gathering, they should stand up. The one who is speaking should be watching for and encouraging others to do that. He or she would love to be interrupted. It’s part of the culture of the group. We, together as a group, are trying to find what the Lord is saying to us. The purpose of the time is not for me to get to say what I want to say.
It’s not impolite to gently interrupt, it’s not disrespectful, nor does it have anything to do with someone not getting to share what they had. That’s not the point of any of this. As the person gently interrupts, the speaker eagerly says, “Yes, brother – do you have more on this or something to add?” The interrupter might say, “Yes, I think we need to go back to the point you were making at first. I’m getting something on that I’d like to add.”
We are looking for the Spirit in all we do. As someone shares a prophecy or a word with us, we are listening for God in it. As someone is sharing, often times they will add to the pure Word they received from God their own interpretations, insights and opinions. Some of these are helpful, some are not. Sometimes as people share and they go on and on, it takes away from what they really received from God. It is important that we help one another in this. “Brother, I think what the Lord is saying through you is this….” We should always love and want our words to be checked, interrupted, and altered by one another. It’s the Lord’s way in the body. Get used to it. You should want to be interrupted.
We can all prophecy one at a time. It may need to be interrupted or slightly altered. One point someone is sharing may to be stressed because it really happens to be speaking to a lot of people in the group. This is done and accomplished corporately by more than just one person participating.
However, although it is possible for all to prophecy, only two or three prophecies should be brought forth in a meeting time. If more than that is spoken, we tend to lose and forget the earlier ones. Our capacity to retain and spiritually process a theme or a word and effectively apply it to our lives is limited by two or three per meeting. If you felt like you had something to share with the group, but three different messages have already come forth, it would be Biblical and obedient for you to let it go. If it is the Lord, He will bring it back around at a later time. This is not about us getting to share or speak. It’s about us hearing what the Lord is saying to us. If someone interrupts you before you get to your point, let it go. If what you had was the Lord, He will bring it back around or bring it up in you at a later time. We must learn to trust the Lord in the Body.
Let’s look at the “let the others pass judgment” part of the text. After a prophecy, message, or encouragement is shared, we should tend to be silent. We need to take it in. We need to think about it. We need to pray. It’s weighty when someone shares something in the church meeting. No matter who it is that shared it. Is God speaking to us? If He is, we’d better humble ourselves, shut up, and do what He says. If there is not a witness in the Spirit or if what has been shared is not Biblical, it needs to be checked. The older brothers need to say something. It doesn’t need to be rejected in a cutting way. It doesn’t need to be rejected at all up front, unless it is clearly unscriptural. If what was shared seems good to the group, then one of two responses would be good: either nothing can be said, or a hearty “Amen” can be given. If it is perceived as not being good, from God, Biblical, or edifying, an older brother needs to say something like, “this last message or prophecy needs some more prayer and consideration. We as a group need to wait on the Lord concerning this issue.” Or something like that. Then, it would be good for the brother who shared it to have some time with others to talk about and pray together. The person who delivered the word may come to the conclusion that it was not the Lord at all. It would be good for them to simply tell everyone else at the next get together, that “I think I missed it.”
I have been in meetings when a brother has shared something, and an older brother (elder) just flat out said, “I’m sorry brother, that’s not the Lord.” There was an atmosphere at that time in our group for that kind of thing. The older brother who said that to the one who brought the prophecy also had a relationship with him that could support that type of thing. They both had a tremendous amount of love and respect for one another and it was delivered in kindness. The brother whose prophecy was rejected, didn’t skip a beat. He responded thankfully and was not hurt at all. He continued to participate in the meeting. I’ve also been checked like this myself on a few different occasions. It really doesn’t bother me, I like it.
We really are not very far along, if as a group, we can’t have this type of dynamic among us. The Christian life is a high calling. We must die to everything of ourselves. Real New Testament church life will provide tremendous opportunities for growth.
The heart of this whole 1 Cor. 14 passage should permeate our meeting times. If in a meeting, a brother stands up and delivers a lengthy teaching, he should welcome others to interrupt and add to the message. He might get to only share a portion of what he wanted to share. He should let it go. If he wants to teach and not be interrupted, which is very appropriate at times, then he should call for a special meeting of the church. This is a special meeting to hear a message or a teaching only. This is good and should be done often. However it is not to be confused with the regular meeting of the church, the general assembly or the default meeting we are to be having described in 1 Corinthians 14.
Fear is what drives many of those in leadership to not have open, 1 Cor. 14 meetings. They are afraid of giving too much liberty to the people in the meeting. They do not trust the Lord in the body. They do not trust the New Testament pattern and examples. They feel as though people are not spiritually mature enough to handle such a meeting. They are actually the ones who are not being spiritually mature.
Control and legislation are never the answers for fear. We must learn to trust, let go, and follow the Lord and the scriptures. There will be problems! It will be messy at times. People will mess up the meeting. People will speak out of turn. People will share things that are not good, are bad, and things that are not scriptural. This will all happen especially at first when people are learning. These things must be addressed and people must be talked to. You must provide training and teaching (refer to Beach Head and Well Digging chapter).
People need to learn by doing. Provide an atmosphere of safety for people to function, make mistakes, and for it to be OK. This is how we will learn to be a functioning, powerful, active, and participating church. If we are really interested in people growing and learning, then set them free to function and make mistakes. Some of the best and most valuable character building issues of growth come from us relating to one another in our mistakes and in our gifts. Learn how to do it together. Growth does not come by us lecturing people and giving them teachings and seminars year after year after year! We’ve tried that and look where it has gotten us. People learn and grow by having an atmosphere that not only sincerely welcomes and encourages them to participate in their gifts, but an atmosphere and a setting that actually needs and depends on all members to bring what they have and deliver it during every meeting.
It must be understood that the descriptions and explanations that Paul gives in 1 Corinthians 14 is for a typical church meeting and a general assembly. There may be other meetings for different purposes and we see evidence of these in the New Testament. There may be a meeting in which the sole purpose is to hear someone give a teaching. There may be a meeting in which the sole purpose is to only pray together. There may be a meeting in which the only purpose is to discuss some particular issue. These special meetings are not what Paul is describing in I Cor. 14.
***[In the Christian experience, there seems to be a breaking through that can occur. I don’t fully understand it. It is not only true for a group meeting, but also for our personal lives as well. As individuals or corporately, we can pray, talk to the Lord, think about Him, sing, whatever, and all of that is necessary….but if we stay in that place long enough, if we focus on Jesus long enough, if we finally let go in our hearts to real trust, if we still ourselves in our soul and become completely caught up with Him, something happens. I call it breaking through or the “water becoming wine.” I’m not very sure on the theology of this, but I am sure of the experience – both individually and corporately. It is always wonderful to break through corporately. When this happens, the Spirit of the Living God seemingly physically fills the room. Many call it experiencing God’s presence. Sometimes it is more pronounced than other times. It usually occurs after there has been much worship and singing and complete focus on the Lord and Him alone. This is usually when the Lord is very powerfully manifested among us (He inhabits the praises of His people). I believe that worship and prayer are two of the most pure activities we can do, that doesn’t tend to quench the Spirit as often as some form of talking can. It must be noted that our goal is never to have an experience. Although having an experience is wonderful if that is what happens. Our goal is to love Jesus, to know Him, and to love and edify one another. We are not to manipulate, try to reproduce, or create an effect.]
How NOT to Meet
Plenty of house churches and nontraditional gatherings just fizzle out. Why? I think primarily because of the information in this chapter.
We want freedom and liberty in our meeting times, but there are some terrible mistakes we can make when coming together that bring death. We want life among us. We want to bless the Lord and encounter Him.
Again, you can’t take any of the below suggestions as “laws” or rules. The leading of the Lord is first and foremost. But certain activities tend to lend themselves to death.
Here is what NOT to do during a meeting time:
Don’t be afraid of silence.
It’s a wonderful thing to sit in silence together and pray, listen to God, and just be still before Him. It is better to be silent and be “of faith,” than to rattle off a song or a scripture because the silence was awkward to your flesh. Get over it. There may be very long periods of silence in the meeting of the church. That’s a good thing. It’s been frowned upon in the traditional services because of the show and production mentality. This leads to shallowness. Good long periods of silence can be refreshing and a good time of personal and corporate faith and prayer.
Don’t sit around and just visit.
Visiting and chewing the fat is great to do during a meal time. But when it’s time to sit together and focus on the Lord, do just that. The church meeting is not to be spent visiting and chatting about the repairs you made on your car or the latest sale at the shopping mall. Do what it takes to change the atmosphere in the room. Don’t wait for someone else to do it. Just say the words, “I have a song I would like for us to sing”, then sing it together. Say, “I have a scripture I’d like to read to us.” Those types of activities will change the focus in the room towards the Lord.
Don’t expect or just rely on others to bring something.
If you are wanting to leave the traditional church setting and begin to meet in New Testament ways, what you are really saying is something like this:
“I don’t need a paid staff member to be the only one that participates and functions in the meetings. We don’t want a man to lead the meetings, but we want the Holy Spirit to lead the meetings. The Spirit of God might call on me to share something. I am ready to begin to take more responsibility in my life with God. I don’t want to just soak up and be fed, I want to participate, contribute, and I am willing to give to others what I have from my own relationship with God.”
It’s time to stop looking to others to take initiative. Lead out with what you have. YOU DO HAVE SOMETHING. It doesn’t matter where you are spiritually. It may be that all you have on a particular night is a need. You can always ask for prayer. If you have no need, then you just discovered your first need! Be a participator. Bring whatever you have. You can always read a psalm, share what the Lord has been teaching you, ask for a particular song to be sung, pray a prayer, ask for others to pray for you, or bring a teaching. Don’t depend on and look to others to carry the meeting. Amen? OK.
Don’t try to imitate a traditional, Sunday morning, 10:45 a.m. meeting in a home.
Some are looking to start or participate in a home church in order to replace their former traditional church setting. To just hold “services” in your home instead of sitting on the pew is really missing the heart of the Lord and the entire purpose of our gathering together. You might as well go to a traditional service where they do a better job holding that kind of meeting than anything you could reproduce in a home. If you haven’t had the revelation of not having to have pews, a pulpit, dress up for meetings, meet at 10:45 a.m., pass a plate to tithe in, etc. then you need to re-read the New Testament – you’ll find none of that in the scripture. You’ll only find it in the heart of those who believe all that is holy and “officially God.” A good litmus test is to see if you feel guilty for not meeting on Sunday mornings.
The word “service” is never used in the New Testament as reference to a meeting of the church. The word is a tradition of men that has a particular religious package associated with it. A “real service,” in most people’s opinion, has certain things along with it – none of which are Biblical and all of which are detrimental to body life. What would happen in the middle of the next church service on Sunday morning during the preacher’s sermon if someone stood up and said, “The anointing has passed to me, I feel I have a prophecy to share, please be seated” (I Cor. 14)? Would the pastor humbly say, “Amen, you go ahead and share brother.” No he wouldn’t. This is because the pastor is the designated teacher on Sunday morning. The Biblical role of a shepherd looks nothing like the modern day pastor, and the Sunday morning meeting time looks nothing like I Cor. 14.
Don’t have a bulletin, much of a plan or any certain agenda.
Let the Lord Jesus be the head of the body, not your meeting agenda. The time should flow and be spontaneous. Enjoy the Lord. Don’t try to accomplish certain things on a list. Be very careful of being formal, and be very careful of not being prayerful.
When having a group conversation, don’t simply add things to the conversation because you can.
If you all as a group are teaching and encouraging one another, listen to God for what you should add. Listen and be prayerful as to what and when you should add something. Remember; let all things be done for edification. It is the Spirit that edifies and gives life, not your brain power. JUST BECAUSE YOU HAVE AN INSIGHT DOESN’T MEAN IT’S GOD. Neat little comments you can share or add that seem to fit right in with what’s being shared are not necessarily the Lord. DON’T TALK TOO LONG and TAKE OVER THE MEETING! If you have a very long teaching that you know ahead of time will be extensive, call for a separate meeting over at your own house to do a teaching for everyone. The general meeting of the church is – for the church to all participate.
Be careful of publicly praying too long as an individual. The scripture warns us of that. Beware of long stories and comments that are really just edifying your own self. House church can be a platform for people who love to hear themselves talk. These men need to be corrected very gently (the first time) in private. It is sometimes difficult to tell what is not good and edifying and what is good to share. Two Christians can share just as long (time wise) and one is being selfish and the other is truly giving. This really gets into subtle dynamics, and you’ll definitely have to trust the Lord for all this kind of discernment, but generally speaking, you can usually tell if you are being built up and fed by the message or if you’re being used and held captive so someone can speak.
Don’t become meeting centered.
This is critical, and really a major point. If all you are doing is having meetings, you are really missing it all. Meetings, although very important, are a small part of church life. Life is to be lived together. You should be getting together with other saints throughout the week. You can participate together with activities such as barbeques, cookouts, trips to the park, working together on each others houses, camping, vacations with other families, evangelism events, and eating supper together often during the week. If all you want is to attend a meeting once a week in a home, you are not living church life at all. The meeting time should be an expression of your week together. Your week together should be an expression of the meeting time as well. The New Testament church met many times a week from house to house, and not because they had to, but because they wanted to. When Christ becomes your whole life and your whole world, instead of part of your life, you’ll want to have church life 24/7.
Don’t become naval gazers.
As the church, we should have an outward focus outward, not an inward focus. Sure, we MUST keep our home base healthy. We must deal with situations in the group, we must love one another and speak the truth in love to one another, but a sure way to kill a group is to focus only on yourselves.
Evangelistic events, giving in various ways to your neighborhood, reaching out to the lost in some capacity, feeding the poor, visiting nursing homes and orphans, helping the widows – all of these should have a real primary focus. We should not be extremely focused on our group, although there may be seasons of this to get “out of the red ink.” You’ll find that as you get more outwardly focused, the inner problems will become lessoned. Sometimes, the best way to find healing for yourself is to go love someone else.
Don’t debate scripture and theology.
There are two types of flesh. There is truth-oriented flesh and experience-oriented flesh. I call it flesh because Jesus said we must worship in Spirit and in truth. If you have one without the other, you are fleshly. Some people don’t like the activities of singing, worship, and prayer very much. They judge it as trying to have an experience or trying to have some sort of a feeling. They would prefer to hear teaching or discuss doctrine. These people are usually not opposed to singing a few songs, but if you spend too much time worshiping in song or too much time in prayer, they get very fidgety.
The capacity of a group or an individual to worship and pray is a strong indicator of the real depth you have with Christ. Discussing doctrine can have tremendous life in it, as long as it’s not done in an argumentative way. Also, having sound doctrine, teaching, and the ability to discuss these in a proper manner and at the proper time are also strong indicators of the real depth you have with Christ. We must have plenty of worship and prayer, but also plenty of discussion and teaching of truth.
Again, the flesh tends to prefer one or the other. We tend to prefer either the experience of the Spirit, or learning about or talking about the truth. We must beware of discussing the truth only. Usually, this activity doesn’t require much vulnerability of heart. If someone can’t really worship the Lord for any length of time and they get restless during this type of activity, they more than likely tend to be cranial and on the conceptual side of things only. These brothers and sisters need to learn to enjoy the Lord more in stillness and quietness. They must learn to be caught up with the Lord in experience. Experiencing the Spirit of Jesus is both vital and biblical. On the other hand, those who prefer to experience only and avoid doctrine, working things out, and dealing with truth are in error as well. These must learn to deal with discrepancies and be willing to hash out things with others. Lord, help us all!
Concerning debating scripture, doctrine, and theology: I am not saying there is not a time and a place for this. During the general meeting of the church is not the time for debate. Why? It’s not a time for debate because 1st Corinthians Chapter 14 never comes close to anything like this. It seems so many people love to do it and consider it an essential part of the church meeting. I would say that a large majority of Christians think this activity is what fellowship is all about. These people would probably enjoy discussing politics as well. It’s as though some aren’t sure what else to do when they come together. Paul warns us of “having a morbid interest in controversy,” (I Tim.6:3). Debate, apologetics, and intellectual jousting typically have no life in them, although some form of this may need to be done at certain times.
[A large aside concerning women and children and this issue: the ladies and the children should not have to listen to men correcting one another and entering into strong debate. The ladies can be easily tempted with fear, be shaken, or allow their emotions to dictate their perceptions of reality (certainly men are capable of this too!). When a couple of guys “go at it” in private or with only men present, if it becomes fleshly – it is more often easily repaired and the brothers are able to just continue on (most of the time). However, if the ladies witness a couple of guys sharply disagreeing, or a whole group of men debating, it can really tend to have far reaching effects that ripple throughout the group. I do not at all intend to speak against the women here. But the scripture does say that they are a “weaker vessel”, and that they are more apt to deception (1 Pet. 3:7, 1 Tim 2:14). In short, women and kids should be protected from emotionally charged situations, if at all possible. Women have tremendous giftings that are vital to the function of the church, but they don’t tend to have the same capacity as the brothers in the area of “overview” or “oversight”. Men tend to have the ability to survey a situation and see it for what it is and understand the effects on a larger scale. They are not quite as tempted to assign meaning to things that don’t mean anything. In short, the ladies (if in their flesh) seem to be more tempted to get “bent out of shape” and are affected for the long term when tensions arise. Of course, certain brothers can do this too. But, there are many damaging and far reaching effects of men and women debating with one another. Here is just one example: If a debate arises with women and men present and a particular lady gets involved in that debate, a certain brother might have to sharply “crush” a particular lady’s opinion or viewpoint. This is not proper. A man should not have to do this to another man’s wife. It is uncomfortable for the brother doing it, uncomfortable for the husband of the lady who got crushed or sharply disagreed with, and often devastating for the lady herself. Likewise, a woman should not be put in a position to have to exercise authority over a man. If a lady disagrees with a brother’s viewpoint, although it is fine for her to disagree, it is unbecoming for her to “put him in his place”. It is difficult enough to stay “after the Spirit” while debating with one another when just men are present, let alone in mixed company. For the whole church to enter into debates with women and children present, often causes more damage than edification. -end of aside]
It is critical that we keep short accounts with one another. If there is a difference in doctrine with someone else, watch your heart very carefully because differences can cause a subtle division in the heart. If not dealt with, over time it will manifest itself and cause damage. It needs to be dealt with if there are any feelings of separation.
If in a meeting a brother shares a doctrine or teaching and someone disagrees, let the disagreeing man pull aside the brother with the doctrine in question and talk through it. If in the meeting with everyone present, someone wants to add to what someone said that’s fine. Providing a gentle flip side to the coin can be helpful. But, don’t start going “back and forth” and arguing with one another in the general church meeting! If you can tell that you will need to really hash it out, do it in private and possibly with a couple of additional brothers for help and support.
If some of the men are taking issue with one another (disagreeing), it is best that they set up a separate time with just men present, and work things out. The men may have to go at it intensely, and that’s just fine – as long as it’s done in love, with patience, and the brothers are genuinely listening for God and wanting to truly hear and learn from one another (refer to the chapter “Church Government”). In the past, I’ve personally set days at a time aside to do this sort of thing with the brothers. There should be no mistake made however that this activity of working out differences, debating theology or beliefs is sometimes a necessary WORK, but it is not typically extremely enjoyable. If this activity is your primary idea of what body life is all about, then your repentance is due.
The scripture of “as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another,” has been overused and also wrongly used. Sometimes, in order to provide justification to men for not being worshipful and prayerful, as they are around each other. The “iron” in that scripture does not allow us to be rough, hard hearted, or challenging (as in fighting).
Although it is excellent in our meeting times to read scripture, give in depth teachings, share beliefs and convictions, and talk about what the Lord has been doing in our lives, if you are spending the majority of your time in your meetings debating theology or controversial issues, it’s going to get old quickly. The number of people attending will drop off, and eventually you will fizzle out, or you will attract a church of fighters and debaters. Debate and intellectual only conversation is easy to do. It requires no discipline, no heart, no humility, and no selflessness. In a gathering, be slow to speak. You shouldn’t say everything that pops into your head. Wait on God in the church meetings. It is only with humility that we can encounter the living God and not offend or quench Him.
Don’t gather around things other than the Lord Himself
It is easy to “meet around” various issues, focuses, or things that are close to the Lord or “about” the Lord – but not the Lord Himself. It is crucial that when you gather, that the group go to Jesus first. Pray to Him, see Him, behold Him, describe Him, exalt Him, worship Him. From that place, allow Him to lead your time. It is fine to discuss things “about the Lord”, after you have encountered Him, Jesus is filling the time, and He takes you there – but it is way too easy to gather around and enjoy topics and issues that are seemingly spiritual in nature, but are not the Lord.
Don’t speak out of frustration or irritation
One of the best things you’ll learn in a house church setting is how to die to your flesh (if you are choosing well. Those who don’t choose well in a home church setting will usually make a mess of things and then leave.)
You will have plenty of opportunity to die to your flesh in home church. On the flip side, the flesh will have plenty of opportunity to express itself in home church if you let it.
For example, many things that people will do or say in a home church setting will irritate you (to put it mildly!). Guess what you get to do when this happens? You get to die. Let it go. Defer. Be quiet. Rest in the Lord. Wait. Love them. Forgive. I can hear you now, “But why should I let it go when what they are doing is wrong?” Oh, believe me. The Lord is plenty big enough to take care of the “wrong” that just happened without Him needing to use your flesh.
Most of the time when you respond out of irritation, or you respond “not from a place of total peace and love” in order to bring correction or set the record straight – you are responding out of your flesh. I can promise you that you will usually make a bigger mess and cause more damage than the problem that you are addressing has caused. In other words, if you say something because “what they said or did was wrong” then you are going to make it worse!
Learn to wait – a long time. Let that fire in your belly die out. Let that arrow in your heart heal first. Then you can be used of God to help correct error or remedy a situation. I’ve seen way too many meetings and relationships suffer extreme damage because brothers and sisters allowed themselves to react in the flesh, all in the name of “correcting error”.
God’s church is not going to be detroyed by a few incorrect comments. People are not going to be led astray as quick as you might think. Pray and wait. Make sure it’s the Lords timing for you to address it – if at all.
You’ll find that if you let a lot of things go and just pray and wait, that most atomic bombs just fizzle out and become nothing. Of course if you constantly correct everything (in your flesh), then you only feed the fire and stir it all up, when it would have just died in the first place.
Learn to defer to others. Second guess yourself. And always humble yourself and let things go as much as possible. You are running a marathon with the people you are with, not a sprint.
We want freedom and liberty in our meeting times, but there are some terrible mistakes we can make when coming together that bring death. We want life among us. We want to bless the Lord and encounter Him.
Again, you can’t take any of the below suggestions as “laws” or rules. The leading of the Lord is first and foremost. But certain activities tend to lend themselves to death.
Here is what NOT to do during a meeting time:
Don’t be afraid of silence.
It’s a wonderful thing to sit in silence together and pray, listen to God, and just be still before Him. It is better to be silent and be “of faith,” than to rattle off a song or a scripture because the silence was awkward to your flesh. Get over it. There may be very long periods of silence in the meeting of the church. That’s a good thing. It’s been frowned upon in the traditional services because of the show and production mentality. This leads to shallowness. Good long periods of silence can be refreshing and a good time of personal and corporate faith and prayer.
Don’t sit around and just visit.
Visiting and chewing the fat is great to do during a meal time. But when it’s time to sit together and focus on the Lord, do just that. The church meeting is not to be spent visiting and chatting about the repairs you made on your car or the latest sale at the shopping mall. Do what it takes to change the atmosphere in the room. Don’t wait for someone else to do it. Just say the words, “I have a song I would like for us to sing”, then sing it together. Say, “I have a scripture I’d like to read to us.” Those types of activities will change the focus in the room towards the Lord.
Don’t expect or just rely on others to bring something.
If you are wanting to leave the traditional church setting and begin to meet in New Testament ways, what you are really saying is something like this:
“I don’t need a paid staff member to be the only one that participates and functions in the meetings. We don’t want a man to lead the meetings, but we want the Holy Spirit to lead the meetings. The Spirit of God might call on me to share something. I am ready to begin to take more responsibility in my life with God. I don’t want to just soak up and be fed, I want to participate, contribute, and I am willing to give to others what I have from my own relationship with God.”
It’s time to stop looking to others to take initiative. Lead out with what you have. YOU DO HAVE SOMETHING. It doesn’t matter where you are spiritually. It may be that all you have on a particular night is a need. You can always ask for prayer. If you have no need, then you just discovered your first need! Be a participator. Bring whatever you have. You can always read a psalm, share what the Lord has been teaching you, ask for a particular song to be sung, pray a prayer, ask for others to pray for you, or bring a teaching. Don’t depend on and look to others to carry the meeting. Amen? OK.
Don’t try to imitate a traditional, Sunday morning, 10:45 a.m. meeting in a home.
Some are looking to start or participate in a home church in order to replace their former traditional church setting. To just hold “services” in your home instead of sitting on the pew is really missing the heart of the Lord and the entire purpose of our gathering together. You might as well go to a traditional service where they do a better job holding that kind of meeting than anything you could reproduce in a home. If you haven’t had the revelation of not having to have pews, a pulpit, dress up for meetings, meet at 10:45 a.m., pass a plate to tithe in, etc. then you need to re-read the New Testament – you’ll find none of that in the scripture. You’ll only find it in the heart of those who believe all that is holy and “officially God.” A good litmus test is to see if you feel guilty for not meeting on Sunday mornings.
The word “service” is never used in the New Testament as reference to a meeting of the church. The word is a tradition of men that has a particular religious package associated with it. A “real service,” in most people’s opinion, has certain things along with it – none of which are Biblical and all of which are detrimental to body life. What would happen in the middle of the next church service on Sunday morning during the preacher’s sermon if someone stood up and said, “The anointing has passed to me, I feel I have a prophecy to share, please be seated” (I Cor. 14)? Would the pastor humbly say, “Amen, you go ahead and share brother.” No he wouldn’t. This is because the pastor is the designated teacher on Sunday morning. The Biblical role of a shepherd looks nothing like the modern day pastor, and the Sunday morning meeting time looks nothing like I Cor. 14.
Don’t have a bulletin, much of a plan or any certain agenda.
Let the Lord Jesus be the head of the body, not your meeting agenda. The time should flow and be spontaneous. Enjoy the Lord. Don’t try to accomplish certain things on a list. Be very careful of being formal, and be very careful of not being prayerful.
When having a group conversation, don’t simply add things to the conversation because you can.
If you all as a group are teaching and encouraging one another, listen to God for what you should add. Listen and be prayerful as to what and when you should add something. Remember; let all things be done for edification. It is the Spirit that edifies and gives life, not your brain power. JUST BECAUSE YOU HAVE AN INSIGHT DOESN’T MEAN IT’S GOD. Neat little comments you can share or add that seem to fit right in with what’s being shared are not necessarily the Lord. DON’T TALK TOO LONG and TAKE OVER THE MEETING! If you have a very long teaching that you know ahead of time will be extensive, call for a separate meeting over at your own house to do a teaching for everyone. The general meeting of the church is – for the church to all participate.
Be careful of publicly praying too long as an individual. The scripture warns us of that. Beware of long stories and comments that are really just edifying your own self. House church can be a platform for people who love to hear themselves talk. These men need to be corrected very gently (the first time) in private. It is sometimes difficult to tell what is not good and edifying and what is good to share. Two Christians can share just as long (time wise) and one is being selfish and the other is truly giving. This really gets into subtle dynamics, and you’ll definitely have to trust the Lord for all this kind of discernment, but generally speaking, you can usually tell if you are being built up and fed by the message or if you’re being used and held captive so someone can speak.
Don’t become meeting centered.
This is critical, and really a major point. If all you are doing is having meetings, you are really missing it all. Meetings, although very important, are a small part of church life. Life is to be lived together. You should be getting together with other saints throughout the week. You can participate together with activities such as barbeques, cookouts, trips to the park, working together on each others houses, camping, vacations with other families, evangelism events, and eating supper together often during the week. If all you want is to attend a meeting once a week in a home, you are not living church life at all. The meeting time should be an expression of your week together. Your week together should be an expression of the meeting time as well. The New Testament church met many times a week from house to house, and not because they had to, but because they wanted to. When Christ becomes your whole life and your whole world, instead of part of your life, you’ll want to have church life 24/7.
Don’t become naval gazers.
As the church, we should have an outward focus outward, not an inward focus. Sure, we MUST keep our home base healthy. We must deal with situations in the group, we must love one another and speak the truth in love to one another, but a sure way to kill a group is to focus only on yourselves.
Evangelistic events, giving in various ways to your neighborhood, reaching out to the lost in some capacity, feeding the poor, visiting nursing homes and orphans, helping the widows – all of these should have a real primary focus. We should not be extremely focused on our group, although there may be seasons of this to get “out of the red ink.” You’ll find that as you get more outwardly focused, the inner problems will become lessoned. Sometimes, the best way to find healing for yourself is to go love someone else.
Don’t debate scripture and theology.
There are two types of flesh. There is truth-oriented flesh and experience-oriented flesh. I call it flesh because Jesus said we must worship in Spirit and in truth. If you have one without the other, you are fleshly. Some people don’t like the activities of singing, worship, and prayer very much. They judge it as trying to have an experience or trying to have some sort of a feeling. They would prefer to hear teaching or discuss doctrine. These people are usually not opposed to singing a few songs, but if you spend too much time worshiping in song or too much time in prayer, they get very fidgety.
The capacity of a group or an individual to worship and pray is a strong indicator of the real depth you have with Christ. Discussing doctrine can have tremendous life in it, as long as it’s not done in an argumentative way. Also, having sound doctrine, teaching, and the ability to discuss these in a proper manner and at the proper time are also strong indicators of the real depth you have with Christ. We must have plenty of worship and prayer, but also plenty of discussion and teaching of truth.
Again, the flesh tends to prefer one or the other. We tend to prefer either the experience of the Spirit, or learning about or talking about the truth. We must beware of discussing the truth only. Usually, this activity doesn’t require much vulnerability of heart. If someone can’t really worship the Lord for any length of time and they get restless during this type of activity, they more than likely tend to be cranial and on the conceptual side of things only. These brothers and sisters need to learn to enjoy the Lord more in stillness and quietness. They must learn to be caught up with the Lord in experience. Experiencing the Spirit of Jesus is both vital and biblical. On the other hand, those who prefer to experience only and avoid doctrine, working things out, and dealing with truth are in error as well. These must learn to deal with discrepancies and be willing to hash out things with others. Lord, help us all!
Concerning debating scripture, doctrine, and theology: I am not saying there is not a time and a place for this. During the general meeting of the church is not the time for debate. Why? It’s not a time for debate because 1st Corinthians Chapter 14 never comes close to anything like this. It seems so many people love to do it and consider it an essential part of the church meeting. I would say that a large majority of Christians think this activity is what fellowship is all about. These people would probably enjoy discussing politics as well. It’s as though some aren’t sure what else to do when they come together. Paul warns us of “having a morbid interest in controversy,” (I Tim.6:3). Debate, apologetics, and intellectual jousting typically have no life in them, although some form of this may need to be done at certain times.
[A large aside concerning women and children and this issue: the ladies and the children should not have to listen to men correcting one another and entering into strong debate. The ladies can be easily tempted with fear, be shaken, or allow their emotions to dictate their perceptions of reality (certainly men are capable of this too!). When a couple of guys “go at it” in private or with only men present, if it becomes fleshly – it is more often easily repaired and the brothers are able to just continue on (most of the time). However, if the ladies witness a couple of guys sharply disagreeing, or a whole group of men debating, it can really tend to have far reaching effects that ripple throughout the group. I do not at all intend to speak against the women here. But the scripture does say that they are a “weaker vessel”, and that they are more apt to deception (1 Pet. 3:7, 1 Tim 2:14). In short, women and kids should be protected from emotionally charged situations, if at all possible. Women have tremendous giftings that are vital to the function of the church, but they don’t tend to have the same capacity as the brothers in the area of “overview” or “oversight”. Men tend to have the ability to survey a situation and see it for what it is and understand the effects on a larger scale. They are not quite as tempted to assign meaning to things that don’t mean anything. In short, the ladies (if in their flesh) seem to be more tempted to get “bent out of shape” and are affected for the long term when tensions arise. Of course, certain brothers can do this too. But, there are many damaging and far reaching effects of men and women debating with one another. Here is just one example: If a debate arises with women and men present and a particular lady gets involved in that debate, a certain brother might have to sharply “crush” a particular lady’s opinion or viewpoint. This is not proper. A man should not have to do this to another man’s wife. It is uncomfortable for the brother doing it, uncomfortable for the husband of the lady who got crushed or sharply disagreed with, and often devastating for the lady herself. Likewise, a woman should not be put in a position to have to exercise authority over a man. If a lady disagrees with a brother’s viewpoint, although it is fine for her to disagree, it is unbecoming for her to “put him in his place”. It is difficult enough to stay “after the Spirit” while debating with one another when just men are present, let alone in mixed company. For the whole church to enter into debates with women and children present, often causes more damage than edification. -end of aside]
It is critical that we keep short accounts with one another. If there is a difference in doctrine with someone else, watch your heart very carefully because differences can cause a subtle division in the heart. If not dealt with, over time it will manifest itself and cause damage. It needs to be dealt with if there are any feelings of separation.
If in a meeting a brother shares a doctrine or teaching and someone disagrees, let the disagreeing man pull aside the brother with the doctrine in question and talk through it. If in the meeting with everyone present, someone wants to add to what someone said that’s fine. Providing a gentle flip side to the coin can be helpful. But, don’t start going “back and forth” and arguing with one another in the general church meeting! If you can tell that you will need to really hash it out, do it in private and possibly with a couple of additional brothers for help and support.
If some of the men are taking issue with one another (disagreeing), it is best that they set up a separate time with just men present, and work things out. The men may have to go at it intensely, and that’s just fine – as long as it’s done in love, with patience, and the brothers are genuinely listening for God and wanting to truly hear and learn from one another (refer to the chapter “Church Government”). In the past, I’ve personally set days at a time aside to do this sort of thing with the brothers. There should be no mistake made however that this activity of working out differences, debating theology or beliefs is sometimes a necessary WORK, but it is not typically extremely enjoyable. If this activity is your primary idea of what body life is all about, then your repentance is due.
The scripture of “as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another,” has been overused and also wrongly used. Sometimes, in order to provide justification to men for not being worshipful and prayerful, as they are around each other. The “iron” in that scripture does not allow us to be rough, hard hearted, or challenging (as in fighting).
Although it is excellent in our meeting times to read scripture, give in depth teachings, share beliefs and convictions, and talk about what the Lord has been doing in our lives, if you are spending the majority of your time in your meetings debating theology or controversial issues, it’s going to get old quickly. The number of people attending will drop off, and eventually you will fizzle out, or you will attract a church of fighters and debaters. Debate and intellectual only conversation is easy to do. It requires no discipline, no heart, no humility, and no selflessness. In a gathering, be slow to speak. You shouldn’t say everything that pops into your head. Wait on God in the church meetings. It is only with humility that we can encounter the living God and not offend or quench Him.
Don’t gather around things other than the Lord Himself
It is easy to “meet around” various issues, focuses, or things that are close to the Lord or “about” the Lord – but not the Lord Himself. It is crucial that when you gather, that the group go to Jesus first. Pray to Him, see Him, behold Him, describe Him, exalt Him, worship Him. From that place, allow Him to lead your time. It is fine to discuss things “about the Lord”, after you have encountered Him, Jesus is filling the time, and He takes you there – but it is way too easy to gather around and enjoy topics and issues that are seemingly spiritual in nature, but are not the Lord.
Don’t speak out of frustration or irritation
One of the best things you’ll learn in a house church setting is how to die to your flesh (if you are choosing well. Those who don’t choose well in a home church setting will usually make a mess of things and then leave.)
You will have plenty of opportunity to die to your flesh in home church. On the flip side, the flesh will have plenty of opportunity to express itself in home church if you let it.
For example, many things that people will do or say in a home church setting will irritate you (to put it mildly!). Guess what you get to do when this happens? You get to die. Let it go. Defer. Be quiet. Rest in the Lord. Wait. Love them. Forgive. I can hear you now, “But why should I let it go when what they are doing is wrong?” Oh, believe me. The Lord is plenty big enough to take care of the “wrong” that just happened without Him needing to use your flesh.
Most of the time when you respond out of irritation, or you respond “not from a place of total peace and love” in order to bring correction or set the record straight – you are responding out of your flesh. I can promise you that you will usually make a bigger mess and cause more damage than the problem that you are addressing has caused. In other words, if you say something because “what they said or did was wrong” then you are going to make it worse!
Learn to wait – a long time. Let that fire in your belly die out. Let that arrow in your heart heal first. Then you can be used of God to help correct error or remedy a situation. I’ve seen way too many meetings and relationships suffer extreme damage because brothers and sisters allowed themselves to react in the flesh, all in the name of “correcting error”.
God’s church is not going to be detroyed by a few incorrect comments. People are not going to be led astray as quick as you might think. Pray and wait. Make sure it’s the Lords timing for you to address it – if at all.
You’ll find that if you let a lot of things go and just pray and wait, that most atomic bombs just fizzle out and become nothing. Of course if you constantly correct everything (in your flesh), then you only feed the fire and stir it all up, when it would have just died in the first place.
Learn to defer to others. Second guess yourself. And always humble yourself and let things go as much as possible. You are running a marathon with the people you are with, not a sprint.
Church Government
When we talk about church government, we are speaking of church leadership. Who is calling the shots? Who is qualified? Why are they qualified? What kinds of decisions need to be made?
The New Testament speaks of the leadership in the church by using the words elders or overseers. Keep in mind that the body of elders were given to a church in a city, not a small group within the city. This is huge and must be understood. Refer to the chapter “One church in a city.” We will cover the difficulties this has caused later during this chapter.
The word presbytery comes from the Greek word presbuteros, which means elder. L eadership by elders, plural, is found throughout the scripture.
When God sent Moses to deliver the Israelites from the Egyptians, Moses was told to “gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, ‘The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared unto me ….” (Exodus 3:16)
In the Old Testament, elders provided leadership and were the representatives of the people, (Deut. 21:19; Exodus 24:1; Num. 11:16; Lev. 4:15).
Elders were present in the time of the judges (1 Sam. 16:4), the period of the kings (1 Sam. 16:4; 2 Kings 19:2), and the time of captivity (Ezek. 8:1; 14:1; 20:12). Elders provided leadership in the rebuilding of the temple after the return from captivity (Ezra 5:5, 9; 6:78, 14). Information on Jewish history during the intertestamental period also bears witness to the leadership of elders in the synagogues.
When Jesus came in the New Testament, we also see references to the elders, rulers, and rulers of the synagogue(Matt. 15:2; Mark 7:3; John 3:1; 7:26, 48; Mark 5:22; Luke 8:41; cf. Acts 18:8,17).
It is important to realize that there was a continuity of government within the church in both the Old and New Testaments. The apostles did not create something radically new; they built upon what was already established in the Old Testament. When the apostles talked about church offices, the hearers recognized much of the governmental framework which was already in place. Therefore, leadership by elders is not only a New Testament church government; it is B iblical church government.
The modern day idea of one man calling the shots for a group is not Biblical, nor does it work. Having a pastor with a board of deacons really telling him what to do behind the scenes is also another sick tradition of men.
In the New Testament church, there was only one church in a city and the elders were recognized publicly by a true apostle. The elders operated and functioned for the church in one locality or city. We do not have that basic framework to build from today. I can literally count on one hand the people I’ve met, who I believe, understand and have a true depth of revelation that on a practical level that only geography should divide the church. As a result of our current practice, we have multiple pockets of believers meeting in separate groups within the same locality. It’s not a problem that there are many meetings and gatherings in a city. The early church had the same practice. But all the gatherings had their identity in the one group that they all belonged to, the church in the whole city. The fact remains that without the proper understanding that there is only one church in a city, we are only left with multiple “churches” each having their own autonomous authority. The elders or leadership in one assembly do not have any authority in a different assembly, even if they are located within blocks of one another.
Because we continue to practice division in the church and do not adhere to one church in any given locale, the basic New Testament way of a group of elders being given to a city or locality of believers is not available – unless the whole town takes down their signs, abandons the names of their “churches” and all come together under one name (such as the church at Corinth, the church at Philippi, the church in Denver, the church in Franklin).
Although we have quite a mess today, the very heart of the leadership pattern does not have to be lost. As we all meet together in whatever form of fellowship we are in, the heart of the New Testament example is that it only makes sense that the older guys who have been around for awhile would be heavily involved in decisions. These days, in a typical fellowship, the elders would not be appointed by an apostle (a sent out one), but the older men who are in the Lord and have the overseeing qualifications and abilities should function as such.
Does the fact of plural eldership mean that any older man should be in on making decisions for the church? What about the rest of us who are not older? We will answer these questions as the chapter unfolds.
An extremely important observation should be noticed at this point. Although in the New Testament we do see a group of elders being very involved in decision making, we also see plenty of examples of the whole assembly making decisions together and bringing closure on issues.
Basically, the idea is that decision making or change in direction for a group should be done in a plural setting. I see a consistent thread in scripture that would look something like the following in a modern setting:
Brothers meeting, Saturday morning 9:00 AM
Who is there?
The older men who have been around a while are there. We may call them the brothers who tend to lead out a lot. If there are brothers in our midst who are very involved or who care deeply about church matters, then they should be there.
Does that include every brother? No. Some of the guys that we are meeting with may not be as involved. That is not a bad thing at all. I would say that in a larger size group, that many brothers would be of the mindset to simply work at their job, love their family, love the brethren, have a family over for a meal during the week, attend the meetings of the church and that’s about it. For many brothers, they will be able to adequately function in their gifts of serving and loving others and not ever feel the need to be in on decision making meetings for the church. If everyone decided that we needed to meet on Tuesdays instead of Mondays or that we should be doing more evangelism on Saturday mornings is not really a big concern of theirs. They are happy and quite content to trustingly go with the flow.
Back to the Saturday morning meeting: Is anyone excluded from this meeting? No. It is not a closed meeting. If anyone wants to come, let them come. One brother may want his fourteen year old son present to sit in and listen for training purposes. That’s fine.
What about ladies? Anyone who has read the New Testament is aware of 1 Cor.11 that describes the authority structure in that that the husband is the head of the wife and that Christ is the head of the man. If a lady has valuable input or concerns, it would be proper for her to discuss it with her husband. If he felt it was the Lord speaking, he could make it his own and then bring it up to the brothers. I do not think it is profitable for ladies to be put in a position to have to discuss heavy issues, or have a “back and forth” discussion with other men. Also, if another man shares an erroneous idea concerning direction for the church, another man way want to lovingly “crush” his idea. Sometimes it may be sharp. A man should not have to do this with a woman. It is not proper for a man to enter into debate with a lady.
What goes on during this meeting?
Prayer takes place. There is plenty of worship. There are discussions of church matters. There is more prayer. There are discussions of overview, the big picture, the direction the group is going, and issues of vision. Then, there is more prayer. How are the meetings going? What should be changed? What is good? What should we keep? What should we stop doing and why? Various needs in the body are presented and discussed. Brothers or sisters who may need to be pursued are mentioned. More prayer takes place. Current difficulties or anything that needs to be worked out may also be addressed. If at all possible, none of this should be done in an argumentative way. The time should be saturated with prayer. If a man has a problem with another brother, he should go to him in private if at all possible. Then, there should be some more prayer.
I guess you get where I’m at on corporate prayer. Talking in a group tempts people. Not that it doesn’t need to be done, but talking about issues or difficulties can be a temptation to pick up an offense, to feel like someone has corrected you, or that someone spoke “down to you.” Then, you are tempted to retaliate and correct the brother who corrected you because you were hurt or offended.
I’ve been in countless meetings discussing issues and working through things in the church. These meetings are a real test to see what you’re made of. Staying humble and truly listening to one another can be a real trial. To feel accused or attacked by an individual or even a whole group and to just sit there and take it or to truly respond in peace and not out of a reaction will really test your bottom line. Sometimes we will work through some real heavy and sensitive issues and stay totally at peace as a group. Many times we truly find the Lord’s heart on the issue, and it turns out extremely well. Sometimes we will start out fleshly and irritated and end that way as well.
The point is that you will do much better as a group as these times are interrupted often with prayer. Be slow to speak, prepare your heart and stay committed and devoted to one another – no matter what.
As issues are discussed, there is to be a humble and natural tendency to defer to the older men, to the ones with spiritual authority, and to the group as a whole. There should be a strong climate in the room of wanting to really hear one another. We should regard each input as very important. And more than anything, we should want to defer and “go with” the other brother’s opinion if we can. We should consider each opinion heavily, because it could actually be God speaking to us.
Then What?
As the brothers come to some closure on issues or topics, it would be Biblical to throw it out to the rest of the church in the next meeting time.
Let’s look at a few examples of when and how decisions were made plural in the early church.
Acts 6:5 – “But the statement found approval with the whole congregation.”
This is referring to the incident when the apostles did not want to take time to serve tables but wanted to fully spend their time speaking and preaching. They summoned the congregation and told them what they wanted to do which was for some of the other disciples to serve the tables. Why does it say that the statement found approval with the whole congregation? Because it’s important that it did find approval. If the church had a problem with it, there would be disharmony and dissention. It was good that the apostles communicated because it gave opportunity for everyone to join in with the new idea and go with the flow. There was no place for disjointedness or men doing their own thing without communicating. Even the apostles saw fit to communicate with the others what they were thinking. This communication was not with the purpose of having a vote. Throwing it open to everyone is not for the sole purpose to see if someone disapproves, but only because it’s common sense. How strange it would be for a man to lead out with something that involved and affected everyone without saying something first to everyone. The apostles with great honesty and frankness even told them the purpose and reason for their plan. They didn’t want to spend time serving tables. They said it and didn’t protect anyone from the truth. Everyone joined in and they were all in it together. The apostles did not avoid communicating as to head off a possible confrontation or discrepancy. They just said what they were planning and was as simple as that.
More Examples of the Group Being Involved
Acts 1:15-26 .
This is when Peter “stood up in the midst of the brethren (a gathering of about 120 persons were there together) and said…..” Basically, we need to choose someone to fill the place of Judas. The point is that he said what he thought to a whole lot of people. There is safety and freedom in the body. Someone would have checked him if he was off.
Often in the book of Acts, they were ALL TOGETHER in one place, then a man stood up and said what he thought should happen, then they ALL DID IT TOGETHER. Everyone had the opportunity to be a part of the plan, the purpose, and the heart behind it, and the execution of it. I’m sure there were many there among the 120 who had no opinion of the matter. That is fine and to be expected. They did not all vote. But they all did it together.
I hope you read Acts chapter 15 for yourself. You’ll see that they were not afraid to talk, speak and work things out together. Men stood up and said things. They great and the small heard it all. It is pretty clear that not everyone was part of the decision making process. That’s not the point. The point is that everyone was included to hear, support, and have opportunity to join in. The early church did not avoid messes.
Ch 15 V 34 “But it seemed good to Silas to remain there”. Does this contradict? No way. A man can always do what he wants independently of everyone else and it is not necessarily sin. And ultimately we know that the head of every man is Christ. But when the body is present and available, why would we want to do things independently? When we avoid, protect, and do not want to throw things out to the body, something is off. There is no need for decision making to rest with an individual or even a group of limited individuals when true body life is present.
I see an ongoing, open men’s meeting as being vital to healthy church government. The brothers should move together, giving preference to the older ones as much as possible.
Those who have the “rule” over you?
These couple of verses, which often have been misinterpreted concerning church government, have giving place to men controlling others.
1 Tim. 5:17 “Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in the word and doctrine.
In Hebrews 13:17 “Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.
The word “rule” here is the Greek word proistemi, which means “to set or place before, to set over, to be over, to superintend, preside over to be a protector or guardian, to give aid, to care for, give attention.”
To be subject to an older brother is to realize that he has some years on you in the Lord. It simply means that it would be very beneficial to listen to the older guys and to those with more experience. Why? Because they probably know more than you do. The whole idea we have created of leaders making sure the non-leaders submit is not God’s way. No one is to make anyone submit. Nowhere does it say for husbands to require the wives to submit. They should do it on their own because it is fitting. Even unbelievers know that those who have gone before them and are older, typically know more, have wisdom, and should be listened to. This is not an authority structure Peter is setting up here. Peter is just saying it would be unprofitable for the younger guys to not listen to the older wiser brothers. “Who have the rule over you,” – those who are teaching you, have gone before you, are protecting or guarding over your life in God. This is not a legal binding authority structure. There may be an older brother who is not spiritually mature who God has not used to teach you anything. Those who are more mature than you and actually make it a practice to help you in your life – don’t resist them.
The person “who has the rule over you” can change. Remember, the only true authority is the Word of God. As different people in the Body have the Word of God for your life or your particular situation, then they have the rule over you. But, it is really the Word of God that has the rule over you. God can use someone in your life for a while, then they could go off the deep end, this doesn’t mean you should submit to their ideas if they go off in error. The Lord may use a particular person to speak His Word to you for a season, then He may use someone else. We should listen to those who are having the rule over us.
Those who have the rule over us, is a spiritual dynamic. It can change for different seasons, for different areas, and for different needs. One brother may have the rule over you in the area of finances. A different brother may have the rule over you in the area of eating right. It is more that you recognize their wisdom or authority in these areas and you actually give them the rule over you voluntarily, as the Lord leads you to do so.
It can also happen that someone who is not older than you can have the rule over you. Many times, your peers and those who are younger in the Lord than you will have the word of the Lord for your life. If you are listening for God in one another, you will hear others speak into your life, no matter their age or status. Remember that God uses the foolish things to shame the wise. He often reveals His wisdom to babes and not the wise and intelligent. Jesus came into Jerusalem riding on a donkey. That’s His style. He doesn’t usually come to you in the ways you may typically expect, because He is speaking to the humble and to those who are truly seeking. Don’t miss Him because of the package the message is in.
How beautiful it is when an older brother receives instruction from a younger one. It is the Word of God that has the authority, not men or the vessel. It is very possible for a younger man to have the rule over you because God has given him wisdom into your particular situation or weakness.
Now, keep in mind that the King James translates 1 Peter 5:5 in saying You younger men, likewise, be subject to your elders; and all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
In the above passage we see that we are to all to have humility toward one to another. Peter is saying that the younger folks should listen to the older folks that have been teaching them and speaking into their lives. But also that everyone should have humility and be subject to one another. We should all listen to God in one another!
Ephesians 5:19-21 says, “…speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father; and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.”
This is a beautiful verse, and one of my favorites in the New Testament. As Paul is telling us the kinds of things we should be doing in everyday body life, he also tells us that we should be mutually subject (submitted) to one another.
Since Paul was on the subject of submission, in the very next verse in Ephesians 5:22, Paul gives us a very different directive concerning submission. Paul tells us, “ Wives, be subject to your own husbands,as to the Lord.” This “as to the Lord” part is a real big deal. It does not mean “because the Lord said to.” It means that the wives are to receive instruction and leading from their husband as if it was the Lord Himself leading. I will not get into the topic of husbands and wives here, it is not my point. There is a clear explanation of this in a number of passages. The point is that Paul makes a distinction between the type of submission wives have with husbands, as opposed to the mutual submission that we are all to have with one another. Paul makes an extreme point when he describes a wife submitting to her husband as “unto the Lord.” He does not use this type of language anywhere else in relating to each other. Mutual submission concerning brothers is not the same submission as wives relating to husbands.
As a side note, I must insert that there is a verse in the Old Testament (Isaiah 9:6) that speaks of the Messiah saying “the government will be on His shoulders.” I’ve personally observed saints use this verse to say that we should not have to be concerned with church government because the Lord is in charge of things like that. The word government in this verse simply means “dominion” or “rule.” The purpose of the verse is to describe and testify of who Christ is in His power and sovereignty. It is stating that He will have dominion. It is in no way excusing us from having to deal with government among us. This verse is not to be used to justify the practice of ignoring situations and to not deal with anything openly and honestly.
The New Testament speaks of the leadership in the church by using the words elders or overseers. Keep in mind that the body of elders were given to a church in a city, not a small group within the city. This is huge and must be understood. Refer to the chapter “One church in a city.” We will cover the difficulties this has caused later during this chapter.
The word presbytery comes from the Greek word presbuteros, which means elder. L eadership by elders, plural, is found throughout the scripture.
When God sent Moses to deliver the Israelites from the Egyptians, Moses was told to “gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, ‘The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared unto me ….” (Exodus 3:16)
In the Old Testament, elders provided leadership and were the representatives of the people, (Deut. 21:19; Exodus 24:1; Num. 11:16; Lev. 4:15).
Elders were present in the time of the judges (1 Sam. 16:4), the period of the kings (1 Sam. 16:4; 2 Kings 19:2), and the time of captivity (Ezek. 8:1; 14:1; 20:12). Elders provided leadership in the rebuilding of the temple after the return from captivity (Ezra 5:5, 9; 6:78, 14). Information on Jewish history during the intertestamental period also bears witness to the leadership of elders in the synagogues.
When Jesus came in the New Testament, we also see references to the elders, rulers, and rulers of the synagogue(Matt. 15:2; Mark 7:3; John 3:1; 7:26, 48; Mark 5:22; Luke 8:41; cf. Acts 18:8,17).
It is important to realize that there was a continuity of government within the church in both the Old and New Testaments. The apostles did not create something radically new; they built upon what was already established in the Old Testament. When the apostles talked about church offices, the hearers recognized much of the governmental framework which was already in place. Therefore, leadership by elders is not only a New Testament church government; it is B iblical church government.
The modern day idea of one man calling the shots for a group is not Biblical, nor does it work. Having a pastor with a board of deacons really telling him what to do behind the scenes is also another sick tradition of men.
In the New Testament church, there was only one church in a city and the elders were recognized publicly by a true apostle. The elders operated and functioned for the church in one locality or city. We do not have that basic framework to build from today. I can literally count on one hand the people I’ve met, who I believe, understand and have a true depth of revelation that on a practical level that only geography should divide the church. As a result of our current practice, we have multiple pockets of believers meeting in separate groups within the same locality. It’s not a problem that there are many meetings and gatherings in a city. The early church had the same practice. But all the gatherings had their identity in the one group that they all belonged to, the church in the whole city. The fact remains that without the proper understanding that there is only one church in a city, we are only left with multiple “churches” each having their own autonomous authority. The elders or leadership in one assembly do not have any authority in a different assembly, even if they are located within blocks of one another.
Because we continue to practice division in the church and do not adhere to one church in any given locale, the basic New Testament way of a group of elders being given to a city or locality of believers is not available – unless the whole town takes down their signs, abandons the names of their “churches” and all come together under one name (such as the church at Corinth, the church at Philippi, the church in Denver, the church in Franklin).
Although we have quite a mess today, the very heart of the leadership pattern does not have to be lost. As we all meet together in whatever form of fellowship we are in, the heart of the New Testament example is that it only makes sense that the older guys who have been around for awhile would be heavily involved in decisions. These days, in a typical fellowship, the elders would not be appointed by an apostle (a sent out one), but the older men who are in the Lord and have the overseeing qualifications and abilities should function as such.
Does the fact of plural eldership mean that any older man should be in on making decisions for the church? What about the rest of us who are not older? We will answer these questions as the chapter unfolds.
An extremely important observation should be noticed at this point. Although in the New Testament we do see a group of elders being very involved in decision making, we also see plenty of examples of the whole assembly making decisions together and bringing closure on issues.
Basically, the idea is that decision making or change in direction for a group should be done in a plural setting. I see a consistent thread in scripture that would look something like the following in a modern setting:
Brothers meeting, Saturday morning 9:00 AM
Who is there?
The older men who have been around a while are there. We may call them the brothers who tend to lead out a lot. If there are brothers in our midst who are very involved or who care deeply about church matters, then they should be there.
Does that include every brother? No. Some of the guys that we are meeting with may not be as involved. That is not a bad thing at all. I would say that in a larger size group, that many brothers would be of the mindset to simply work at their job, love their family, love the brethren, have a family over for a meal during the week, attend the meetings of the church and that’s about it. For many brothers, they will be able to adequately function in their gifts of serving and loving others and not ever feel the need to be in on decision making meetings for the church. If everyone decided that we needed to meet on Tuesdays instead of Mondays or that we should be doing more evangelism on Saturday mornings is not really a big concern of theirs. They are happy and quite content to trustingly go with the flow.
Back to the Saturday morning meeting: Is anyone excluded from this meeting? No. It is not a closed meeting. If anyone wants to come, let them come. One brother may want his fourteen year old son present to sit in and listen for training purposes. That’s fine.
What about ladies? Anyone who has read the New Testament is aware of 1 Cor.11 that describes the authority structure in that that the husband is the head of the wife and that Christ is the head of the man. If a lady has valuable input or concerns, it would be proper for her to discuss it with her husband. If he felt it was the Lord speaking, he could make it his own and then bring it up to the brothers. I do not think it is profitable for ladies to be put in a position to have to discuss heavy issues, or have a “back and forth” discussion with other men. Also, if another man shares an erroneous idea concerning direction for the church, another man way want to lovingly “crush” his idea. Sometimes it may be sharp. A man should not have to do this with a woman. It is not proper for a man to enter into debate with a lady.
What goes on during this meeting?
Prayer takes place. There is plenty of worship. There are discussions of church matters. There is more prayer. There are discussions of overview, the big picture, the direction the group is going, and issues of vision. Then, there is more prayer. How are the meetings going? What should be changed? What is good? What should we keep? What should we stop doing and why? Various needs in the body are presented and discussed. Brothers or sisters who may need to be pursued are mentioned. More prayer takes place. Current difficulties or anything that needs to be worked out may also be addressed. If at all possible, none of this should be done in an argumentative way. The time should be saturated with prayer. If a man has a problem with another brother, he should go to him in private if at all possible. Then, there should be some more prayer.
I guess you get where I’m at on corporate prayer. Talking in a group tempts people. Not that it doesn’t need to be done, but talking about issues or difficulties can be a temptation to pick up an offense, to feel like someone has corrected you, or that someone spoke “down to you.” Then, you are tempted to retaliate and correct the brother who corrected you because you were hurt or offended.
I’ve been in countless meetings discussing issues and working through things in the church. These meetings are a real test to see what you’re made of. Staying humble and truly listening to one another can be a real trial. To feel accused or attacked by an individual or even a whole group and to just sit there and take it or to truly respond in peace and not out of a reaction will really test your bottom line. Sometimes we will work through some real heavy and sensitive issues and stay totally at peace as a group. Many times we truly find the Lord’s heart on the issue, and it turns out extremely well. Sometimes we will start out fleshly and irritated and end that way as well.
The point is that you will do much better as a group as these times are interrupted often with prayer. Be slow to speak, prepare your heart and stay committed and devoted to one another – no matter what.
As issues are discussed, there is to be a humble and natural tendency to defer to the older men, to the ones with spiritual authority, and to the group as a whole. There should be a strong climate in the room of wanting to really hear one another. We should regard each input as very important. And more than anything, we should want to defer and “go with” the other brother’s opinion if we can. We should consider each opinion heavily, because it could actually be God speaking to us.
Then What?
As the brothers come to some closure on issues or topics, it would be Biblical to throw it out to the rest of the church in the next meeting time.
Let’s look at a few examples of when and how decisions were made plural in the early church.
Acts 6:5 – “But the statement found approval with the whole congregation.”
This is referring to the incident when the apostles did not want to take time to serve tables but wanted to fully spend their time speaking and preaching. They summoned the congregation and told them what they wanted to do which was for some of the other disciples to serve the tables. Why does it say that the statement found approval with the whole congregation? Because it’s important that it did find approval. If the church had a problem with it, there would be disharmony and dissention. It was good that the apostles communicated because it gave opportunity for everyone to join in with the new idea and go with the flow. There was no place for disjointedness or men doing their own thing without communicating. Even the apostles saw fit to communicate with the others what they were thinking. This communication was not with the purpose of having a vote. Throwing it open to everyone is not for the sole purpose to see if someone disapproves, but only because it’s common sense. How strange it would be for a man to lead out with something that involved and affected everyone without saying something first to everyone. The apostles with great honesty and frankness even told them the purpose and reason for their plan. They didn’t want to spend time serving tables. They said it and didn’t protect anyone from the truth. Everyone joined in and they were all in it together. The apostles did not avoid communicating as to head off a possible confrontation or discrepancy. They just said what they were planning and was as simple as that.
More Examples of the Group Being Involved
Acts 1:15-26 .
This is when Peter “stood up in the midst of the brethren (a gathering of about 120 persons were there together) and said…..” Basically, we need to choose someone to fill the place of Judas. The point is that he said what he thought to a whole lot of people. There is safety and freedom in the body. Someone would have checked him if he was off.
Often in the book of Acts, they were ALL TOGETHER in one place, then a man stood up and said what he thought should happen, then they ALL DID IT TOGETHER. Everyone had the opportunity to be a part of the plan, the purpose, and the heart behind it, and the execution of it. I’m sure there were many there among the 120 who had no opinion of the matter. That is fine and to be expected. They did not all vote. But they all did it together.
I hope you read Acts chapter 15 for yourself. You’ll see that they were not afraid to talk, speak and work things out together. Men stood up and said things. They great and the small heard it all. It is pretty clear that not everyone was part of the decision making process. That’s not the point. The point is that everyone was included to hear, support, and have opportunity to join in. The early church did not avoid messes.
Ch 15 V 34 “But it seemed good to Silas to remain there”. Does this contradict? No way. A man can always do what he wants independently of everyone else and it is not necessarily sin. And ultimately we know that the head of every man is Christ. But when the body is present and available, why would we want to do things independently? When we avoid, protect, and do not want to throw things out to the body, something is off. There is no need for decision making to rest with an individual or even a group of limited individuals when true body life is present.
I see an ongoing, open men’s meeting as being vital to healthy church government. The brothers should move together, giving preference to the older ones as much as possible.
Those who have the “rule” over you?
These couple of verses, which often have been misinterpreted concerning church government, have giving place to men controlling others.
1 Tim. 5:17 “Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in the word and doctrine.
In Hebrews 13:17 “Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.
The word “rule” here is the Greek word proistemi, which means “to set or place before, to set over, to be over, to superintend, preside over to be a protector or guardian, to give aid, to care for, give attention.”
To be subject to an older brother is to realize that he has some years on you in the Lord. It simply means that it would be very beneficial to listen to the older guys and to those with more experience. Why? Because they probably know more than you do. The whole idea we have created of leaders making sure the non-leaders submit is not God’s way. No one is to make anyone submit. Nowhere does it say for husbands to require the wives to submit. They should do it on their own because it is fitting. Even unbelievers know that those who have gone before them and are older, typically know more, have wisdom, and should be listened to. This is not an authority structure Peter is setting up here. Peter is just saying it would be unprofitable for the younger guys to not listen to the older wiser brothers. “Who have the rule over you,” – those who are teaching you, have gone before you, are protecting or guarding over your life in God. This is not a legal binding authority structure. There may be an older brother who is not spiritually mature who God has not used to teach you anything. Those who are more mature than you and actually make it a practice to help you in your life – don’t resist them.
The person “who has the rule over you” can change. Remember, the only true authority is the Word of God. As different people in the Body have the Word of God for your life or your particular situation, then they have the rule over you. But, it is really the Word of God that has the rule over you. God can use someone in your life for a while, then they could go off the deep end, this doesn’t mean you should submit to their ideas if they go off in error. The Lord may use a particular person to speak His Word to you for a season, then He may use someone else. We should listen to those who are having the rule over us.
Those who have the rule over us, is a spiritual dynamic. It can change for different seasons, for different areas, and for different needs. One brother may have the rule over you in the area of finances. A different brother may have the rule over you in the area of eating right. It is more that you recognize their wisdom or authority in these areas and you actually give them the rule over you voluntarily, as the Lord leads you to do so.
It can also happen that someone who is not older than you can have the rule over you. Many times, your peers and those who are younger in the Lord than you will have the word of the Lord for your life. If you are listening for God in one another, you will hear others speak into your life, no matter their age or status. Remember that God uses the foolish things to shame the wise. He often reveals His wisdom to babes and not the wise and intelligent. Jesus came into Jerusalem riding on a donkey. That’s His style. He doesn’t usually come to you in the ways you may typically expect, because He is speaking to the humble and to those who are truly seeking. Don’t miss Him because of the package the message is in.
How beautiful it is when an older brother receives instruction from a younger one. It is the Word of God that has the authority, not men or the vessel. It is very possible for a younger man to have the rule over you because God has given him wisdom into your particular situation or weakness.
Now, keep in mind that the King James translates 1 Peter 5:5 in saying You younger men, likewise, be subject to your elders; and all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
In the above passage we see that we are to all to have humility toward one to another. Peter is saying that the younger folks should listen to the older folks that have been teaching them and speaking into their lives. But also that everyone should have humility and be subject to one another. We should all listen to God in one another!
Ephesians 5:19-21 says, “…speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father; and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.”
This is a beautiful verse, and one of my favorites in the New Testament. As Paul is telling us the kinds of things we should be doing in everyday body life, he also tells us that we should be mutually subject (submitted) to one another.
Since Paul was on the subject of submission, in the very next verse in Ephesians 5:22, Paul gives us a very different directive concerning submission. Paul tells us, “ Wives, be subject to your own husbands,as to the Lord.” This “as to the Lord” part is a real big deal. It does not mean “because the Lord said to.” It means that the wives are to receive instruction and leading from their husband as if it was the Lord Himself leading. I will not get into the topic of husbands and wives here, it is not my point. There is a clear explanation of this in a number of passages. The point is that Paul makes a distinction between the type of submission wives have with husbands, as opposed to the mutual submission that we are all to have with one another. Paul makes an extreme point when he describes a wife submitting to her husband as “unto the Lord.” He does not use this type of language anywhere else in relating to each other. Mutual submission concerning brothers is not the same submission as wives relating to husbands.
As a side note, I must insert that there is a verse in the Old Testament (Isaiah 9:6) that speaks of the Messiah saying “the government will be on His shoulders.” I’ve personally observed saints use this verse to say that we should not have to be concerned with church government because the Lord is in charge of things like that. The word government in this verse simply means “dominion” or “rule.” The purpose of the verse is to describe and testify of who Christ is in His power and sovereignty. It is stating that He will have dominion. It is in no way excusing us from having to deal with government among us. This verse is not to be used to justify the practice of ignoring situations and to not deal with anything openly and honestly.
Preserving Unity
The church of Jesus Christ is to be organic. It is not a rigid machine with an agenda, but a living breathing organism. We are the Body, building itself up in love and edifying one another.
Unity is so strong in God, but yet it is so delicate if not nurtured.
Division is rampant in the church today. Brothers are not speaking to one another. There are offenses, hurt feelings, and distrust. How can this be? More importantly, how does it start and how can we prevent it?
Division starts so very subtly among us. It starts as a minute and tiny morsel in the heart. It starts as a slight disagreement or a seemingly insignificant offense. It is then that the foundation for a judgment begins to take its shape. The subtle attitude that is the beginnings of division says, “That brother or sister is like that, or they are like this. They treat me like this or always say those kinds of things.” Pretty soon, your behavior towards them is a little distant. Instead of dealing with it in your own heart and going to them, you talk about them to someone else – a poor decision, so it spreads.
Soon there is division in the body. Don’t be unaware. If God has delivered you from the traditional way of meeting, Satan will surely want to bring an assault. This is our very enemy. How do we combat such a slippery and common enemy as division?
Paul encouraged us to be diligent to preserve the unity. How? Unity is preserved by each individual member (that’s you) being strong in the very basics of the Christian faith – forgiveness, speaking the truth in love, bearing with one another, patience, and suffering with one another.
It is critical that we recognize the fact that our brothers and sisters around us are weak. You are weak, I am weak, we are all full of weaknesses and error. We cannot be offended by weaknesses. Perhaps the brother didn’t know any better. Perhaps God hasn’t revealed this or that to them yet. Maybe they had a revelation at one time in their lives of how to conduct themselves in a certain situation, but they forgot. The thing you are offended by in your brother; is something you also do – or have done at one time or another. Can’t we forgive? Can’t we always hold that brother or sister as being dear in our heart, even if they made a mistake? Aren’t they worth going and talking to them about it? We must learn to give each other plenty of room.
The very subtle hurts we receive from one another – which happen constantly – are the very building blocks for self protection and judgments among us, all leading to division in the church. It is imperative that we are extremely diligent to deal with hurts quickly, forgive, hold that brother close, and not self-protect or distance ourselves. If we are ever offended and avoiding someone because of it, we are obligated by the Lord’s command to first deal with our own heart by forgiving them, then embrace them in our hearts, and if necessary, go work things out. This should be done much more often then we might think.
If your hand got an infection, would you cut it off as quickly as you could? If your child offended you, would you disown them? We must come to a place of knowing of the treasure that is in one another. Yes, your brother is a treasure! You are to treasure him as much as you do your very hand. He is Christ’s hand. He is your hand. “We are members of one another.” Your brother or sister is as close to you as a child or blood family member – even closer. How is it that we tend to discount one another so quickly? We can’t. We must gain and understand our true identity. We are all one thing. We are one entity, one temple, one organism. It is not optional to walk away. Unity MUST be preserved because if you reject your brother, you are doing it to yourself and to Christ.
The Lord’s command in 1 Corinthians 1:10 is that we all agree and speak the same thing. This is to be pursued. However, it is also true that unity is something of the Spirit that has already been accomplished. From Ephesians 4, we see that it is something to be preserved. There are many things that are already true and that are already accomplished in the spirit, in the heavenly places, and from the finished work of Christ. Yet at the same time, we do not fully see these things manifest on earth in all situations.
For example, the scripture teaches that we have all of the righteousness of God in Christ, yet on earth and in these bodies we still sin. The scripture tells us that we have the mind of Christ. This is true. However, all of our thoughts are not God’s thoughts. We see from scripture that we are in Christ and seated at the right hand of the Father, yet you are reading this book and your feet are still on the earth. The same is true for our unity. We can see from Ephesians 4 and all throughout the New Testament scriptures that there is one body and we are one in the Spirit. This is already done and accomplished in the heavenly places. However, we are commanded to preserve this unity. We are to all speak the same thing, we are to be in agreement, and there should be no divisions among us.
I can disagree with my brother on a doctrinal issue and still experience being one with him in the Spirit. There can be tremendous love, respect, and unity, even if we disagree. Don’t get me wrong, we are never to “agree to disagree.” We are commanded from scripture to talk through and work out our differences. Some conversations may last for five years! We will have on-going issues that we disagree on in which we are trying to find the truth together. However, we are never to separate because of doctrinal differences. Only sin or geography should separate the church.
We should never try to achieve unity by agreeing on doctrine alone. We should always begin with the truth that is in the heavenly places. We should begin by believing the truth that we already are one in the Spirit. If we believed this, it would take care of so many other problems. If we truly see and believe that we are one – that we are family, then arguments and disagreements could never separate us. Our family may hurt us. We may get knocked around. But we will always come back to the dinner table because we are family and we see ourselves that way.
If you have a natural family and they believe they are a family, they may have sharp disagreements, but they still are family. They will still live in the same house.
Suppose you had a very sharp disagreement with someone and you could not get along. And suppose that you were not family and that you were not one with them in any way. Then you would more than likely just go on your way and probably separate. It wouldn’t be worth the trouble.
This is what we see in the church today. We are not worth the trouble for one another. If we don’t get along with someone or some group, we just go to the next one. This is an abomination. This promotes division in the church. We tend to only want relationships that are convenient, easy, and relationships that make us feel good about ourselves. We really don’t want to do much work when it comes to relationships.
The reason why we separate so often from each other is because we have an identity problem. We do not believe that we are one in the Spirit with one another. We do not believe that we are really one body. If we truly believed that we are one family with those in the church, we would never let any disagreements or hard feelings separate us. But, as hard as it may be, we would do whatever it takes to work through it.
Unity is so strong in God, but yet it is so delicate if not nurtured.
Division is rampant in the church today. Brothers are not speaking to one another. There are offenses, hurt feelings, and distrust. How can this be? More importantly, how does it start and how can we prevent it?
Division starts so very subtly among us. It starts as a minute and tiny morsel in the heart. It starts as a slight disagreement or a seemingly insignificant offense. It is then that the foundation for a judgment begins to take its shape. The subtle attitude that is the beginnings of division says, “That brother or sister is like that, or they are like this. They treat me like this or always say those kinds of things.” Pretty soon, your behavior towards them is a little distant. Instead of dealing with it in your own heart and going to them, you talk about them to someone else – a poor decision, so it spreads.
Soon there is division in the body. Don’t be unaware. If God has delivered you from the traditional way of meeting, Satan will surely want to bring an assault. This is our very enemy. How do we combat such a slippery and common enemy as division?
Paul encouraged us to be diligent to preserve the unity. How? Unity is preserved by each individual member (that’s you) being strong in the very basics of the Christian faith – forgiveness, speaking the truth in love, bearing with one another, patience, and suffering with one another.
It is critical that we recognize the fact that our brothers and sisters around us are weak. You are weak, I am weak, we are all full of weaknesses and error. We cannot be offended by weaknesses. Perhaps the brother didn’t know any better. Perhaps God hasn’t revealed this or that to them yet. Maybe they had a revelation at one time in their lives of how to conduct themselves in a certain situation, but they forgot. The thing you are offended by in your brother; is something you also do – or have done at one time or another. Can’t we forgive? Can’t we always hold that brother or sister as being dear in our heart, even if they made a mistake? Aren’t they worth going and talking to them about it? We must learn to give each other plenty of room.
The very subtle hurts we receive from one another – which happen constantly – are the very building blocks for self protection and judgments among us, all leading to division in the church. It is imperative that we are extremely diligent to deal with hurts quickly, forgive, hold that brother close, and not self-protect or distance ourselves. If we are ever offended and avoiding someone because of it, we are obligated by the Lord’s command to first deal with our own heart by forgiving them, then embrace them in our hearts, and if necessary, go work things out. This should be done much more often then we might think.
If your hand got an infection, would you cut it off as quickly as you could? If your child offended you, would you disown them? We must come to a place of knowing of the treasure that is in one another. Yes, your brother is a treasure! You are to treasure him as much as you do your very hand. He is Christ’s hand. He is your hand. “We are members of one another.” Your brother or sister is as close to you as a child or blood family member – even closer. How is it that we tend to discount one another so quickly? We can’t. We must gain and understand our true identity. We are all one thing. We are one entity, one temple, one organism. It is not optional to walk away. Unity MUST be preserved because if you reject your brother, you are doing it to yourself and to Christ.
The Lord’s command in 1 Corinthians 1:10 is that we all agree and speak the same thing. This is to be pursued. However, it is also true that unity is something of the Spirit that has already been accomplished. From Ephesians 4, we see that it is something to be preserved. There are many things that are already true and that are already accomplished in the spirit, in the heavenly places, and from the finished work of Christ. Yet at the same time, we do not fully see these things manifest on earth in all situations.
For example, the scripture teaches that we have all of the righteousness of God in Christ, yet on earth and in these bodies we still sin. The scripture tells us that we have the mind of Christ. This is true. However, all of our thoughts are not God’s thoughts. We see from scripture that we are in Christ and seated at the right hand of the Father, yet you are reading this book and your feet are still on the earth. The same is true for our unity. We can see from Ephesians 4 and all throughout the New Testament scriptures that there is one body and we are one in the Spirit. This is already done and accomplished in the heavenly places. However, we are commanded to preserve this unity. We are to all speak the same thing, we are to be in agreement, and there should be no divisions among us.
I can disagree with my brother on a doctrinal issue and still experience being one with him in the Spirit. There can be tremendous love, respect, and unity, even if we disagree. Don’t get me wrong, we are never to “agree to disagree.” We are commanded from scripture to talk through and work out our differences. Some conversations may last for five years! We will have on-going issues that we disagree on in which we are trying to find the truth together. However, we are never to separate because of doctrinal differences. Only sin or geography should separate the church.
We should never try to achieve unity by agreeing on doctrine alone. We should always begin with the truth that is in the heavenly places. We should begin by believing the truth that we already are one in the Spirit. If we believed this, it would take care of so many other problems. If we truly see and believe that we are one – that we are family, then arguments and disagreements could never separate us. Our family may hurt us. We may get knocked around. But we will always come back to the dinner table because we are family and we see ourselves that way.
If you have a natural family and they believe they are a family, they may have sharp disagreements, but they still are family. They will still live in the same house.
Suppose you had a very sharp disagreement with someone and you could not get along. And suppose that you were not family and that you were not one with them in any way. Then you would more than likely just go on your way and probably separate. It wouldn’t be worth the trouble.
This is what we see in the church today. We are not worth the trouble for one another. If we don’t get along with someone or some group, we just go to the next one. This is an abomination. This promotes division in the church. We tend to only want relationships that are convenient, easy, and relationships that make us feel good about ourselves. We really don’t want to do much work when it comes to relationships.
The reason why we separate so often from each other is because we have an identity problem. We do not believe that we are one in the Spirit with one another. We do not believe that we are really one body. If we truly believed that we are one family with those in the church, we would never let any disagreements or hard feelings separate us. But, as hard as it may be, we would do whatever it takes to work through it.
Why NOT to Meet in Homes
You should not meet in homes out of a reaction. I would say this is a huge reason, if not the biggest, for the failure of house churches.
You should never meet in homes because you are upset, hurt, mad at, or disgruntled with the people in the traditional organized church setting. But you should meet in homes because you want more than the traditional church system has to offer. You should meet in homes because you have grown in your life with God and now you are ready for true body life.
I believe that if you continue to grow, you will eventually grow out of the traditional setting. You will realize that the Lord intended more and you will want to meet in a way that is more conducive to growth and corporate body life.
As far as the Christians in the traditional church settings, they are precious and loved by God. You are to love them too. If they hurt you, you must forgive. If they burned you, you must let it go. You must be diligent to forgive, truly love from the heart, and embrace them.
You are never to have an elite attitude toward someone in a traditional meeting. Just because you may see some things they do not, does not mean that you are better than them or more spiritual. God will grant revelation and light as He sees fit. They are the servants of God. They belong to God. He is quite able to make them stand. They are your brothers. Accept them.
As I visit traditional meetings in the town I live in, I get to know the people as best I can and invite them over. I will go with them as far and as deep as they are willing to go in the Lord with me.
I don’t like the traditional meetings though. They are usually pretty bad. The meetings are usually full of error and weakness. But, so are many of the house church meetings. There are distractions, error, fleshly agendas, people quenching the Spirit (including myself) anywhere and everywhere you go. We are all incredibly weak, and God puts up with us.
We cannot choke our fellow servant who owes a little money, when we ourselves have been forgiven so much.
Does that mean that we should throw our hands up and give up? No. Does that mean that we should not attempt to walk out what God has shown us as a more Biblical way to meet and live life together? No. We must walk out what God has shown us. We must be diligent to walk in the light that we have. If we mess up along the way, we must correct it.
The people in traditional meetings are God’s children (as far as we can know in any situation who really is a true child of God).
We must visit with them. Those traditional meetings in your town are meetings of the church in your city in which you belong. Even though the meetings themselves are very poor, we must continue with one another as best we can.
We must forgive one another, as this is the very heart of Christianity and of the good news. “But Jesus was saying, ‘Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing”, (Luke 23:34). And in Luke 6:35, “…for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men.”
The worst thing you could possibly do is to, out of a reaction to traditional church, meet outside the traditional church exclusively and have a “better than attitude.” This is horrible. If this is the case with you, please stop reading this, and repent now.
After and only after you are very clear and free from traditional church meetings, I recommend that you occasionally go to those meetings. We must always embrace our brothers and sisters who attend traditional church meetings. Don’t use this as an excuse for not leaving the traditional church system in the first place because of fear of what it will cost you. You should be able to worship God with your brothers and sisters and invite them over for supper and various gatherings. Understanding that many won’t come because you are not a member of their church, some will come and you can love them, and perhaps some of them will become leavened from being around you with the leaven of the Kingdom. (I understand and you should understand too, that you will need plenty of time away from the religious system to get free and to get your head and heart straight; Understand that it may take years of being away from traditional meetings to really get clear).
As you do visit the saints in the traditional setting, be sure to always maintain what you are doing with your core group of gathering together without a name, an incorporation, or a 501c3 tax exempt status. This would be you doing your part to be an expression on the earth and in your town of what God intends for His church. In the same way, you must discern the Body properly, and don’t be divisive from your other brothers and sisters in your town who name the name of Jesus. You cannot separate from and not embrace people just because you disagree with their doctrine or meeting style. That would be more of the same of what the denominations and traditional church promotes.
We are not wanting to form a home church denomination, and we are definitely not wanting a group of rebels who hate traditional church people and sit around and gripe about them. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely hate the traditional church system. It’s offensive and horribly against scripture. But I must love the people who are in the system, or else I am a hypocrite and helping no one.
I have definitely seen a lot of Christians who never really have it in their heart to meet in homes and live true body life, but they meet in homes for many different reasons. Many just get upset at organized traditional church, join with a few other upset people, and call it a home church. Really, all they’ve formed is an anti-traditional church. This will go nowhere. If the only bond you have with one another is a common enemy, God will not let it go very far. Usually after these types of people devour the traditional church people, they turn on each other and soon bite and devour one another.
Remember, if people ask you why you are meeting in homes, or why you left the traditional church, don’t say, “Because we had a problem with a lot of things going on there.” Make sure your heart is right and be able to tell people that you are meeting in homes first because it is Biblical, but also because you want more of Jesus in your life.
You should never meet in homes because you are upset, hurt, mad at, or disgruntled with the people in the traditional organized church setting. But you should meet in homes because you want more than the traditional church system has to offer. You should meet in homes because you have grown in your life with God and now you are ready for true body life.
I believe that if you continue to grow, you will eventually grow out of the traditional setting. You will realize that the Lord intended more and you will want to meet in a way that is more conducive to growth and corporate body life.
As far as the Christians in the traditional church settings, they are precious and loved by God. You are to love them too. If they hurt you, you must forgive. If they burned you, you must let it go. You must be diligent to forgive, truly love from the heart, and embrace them.
You are never to have an elite attitude toward someone in a traditional meeting. Just because you may see some things they do not, does not mean that you are better than them or more spiritual. God will grant revelation and light as He sees fit. They are the servants of God. They belong to God. He is quite able to make them stand. They are your brothers. Accept them.
As I visit traditional meetings in the town I live in, I get to know the people as best I can and invite them over. I will go with them as far and as deep as they are willing to go in the Lord with me.
I don’t like the traditional meetings though. They are usually pretty bad. The meetings are usually full of error and weakness. But, so are many of the house church meetings. There are distractions, error, fleshly agendas, people quenching the Spirit (including myself) anywhere and everywhere you go. We are all incredibly weak, and God puts up with us.
We cannot choke our fellow servant who owes a little money, when we ourselves have been forgiven so much.
Does that mean that we should throw our hands up and give up? No. Does that mean that we should not attempt to walk out what God has shown us as a more Biblical way to meet and live life together? No. We must walk out what God has shown us. We must be diligent to walk in the light that we have. If we mess up along the way, we must correct it.
The people in traditional meetings are God’s children (as far as we can know in any situation who really is a true child of God).
We must visit with them. Those traditional meetings in your town are meetings of the church in your city in which you belong. Even though the meetings themselves are very poor, we must continue with one another as best we can.
We must forgive one another, as this is the very heart of Christianity and of the good news. “But Jesus was saying, ‘Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing”, (Luke 23:34). And in Luke 6:35, “…for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men.”
The worst thing you could possibly do is to, out of a reaction to traditional church, meet outside the traditional church exclusively and have a “better than attitude.” This is horrible. If this is the case with you, please stop reading this, and repent now.
After and only after you are very clear and free from traditional church meetings, I recommend that you occasionally go to those meetings. We must always embrace our brothers and sisters who attend traditional church meetings. Don’t use this as an excuse for not leaving the traditional church system in the first place because of fear of what it will cost you. You should be able to worship God with your brothers and sisters and invite them over for supper and various gatherings. Understanding that many won’t come because you are not a member of their church, some will come and you can love them, and perhaps some of them will become leavened from being around you with the leaven of the Kingdom. (I understand and you should understand too, that you will need plenty of time away from the religious system to get free and to get your head and heart straight; Understand that it may take years of being away from traditional meetings to really get clear).
As you do visit the saints in the traditional setting, be sure to always maintain what you are doing with your core group of gathering together without a name, an incorporation, or a 501c3 tax exempt status. This would be you doing your part to be an expression on the earth and in your town of what God intends for His church. In the same way, you must discern the Body properly, and don’t be divisive from your other brothers and sisters in your town who name the name of Jesus. You cannot separate from and not embrace people just because you disagree with their doctrine or meeting style. That would be more of the same of what the denominations and traditional church promotes.
We are not wanting to form a home church denomination, and we are definitely not wanting a group of rebels who hate traditional church people and sit around and gripe about them. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely hate the traditional church system. It’s offensive and horribly against scripture. But I must love the people who are in the system, or else I am a hypocrite and helping no one.
I have definitely seen a lot of Christians who never really have it in their heart to meet in homes and live true body life, but they meet in homes for many different reasons. Many just get upset at organized traditional church, join with a few other upset people, and call it a home church. Really, all they’ve formed is an anti-traditional church. This will go nowhere. If the only bond you have with one another is a common enemy, God will not let it go very far. Usually after these types of people devour the traditional church people, they turn on each other and soon bite and devour one another.
Remember, if people ask you why you are meeting in homes, or why you left the traditional church, don’t say, “Because we had a problem with a lot of things going on there.” Make sure your heart is right and be able to tell people that you are meeting in homes first because it is Biblical, but also because you want more of Jesus in your life.
Tithing and Money
The modern day organized church is kept in motion and built largely by money. Today in the church we have impressive buildings, big fancy signs, strategic locations, television ads, yellow page ads, radio spots, programs for every possible need, nurseries, salaried professionals, date night, pizza parties, youth group activities, ski trips to keep the kids happy, fancy suits, expensive audio systems, automatic retractable video screens, and million dollar family recreation centers. All of this takes massive amounts of cash. Yet without these things, the church membership would be drastically cut.
The tithe is an Old Testament requirement. But modern church teaching has twisted the scriptures and kept the tithe requirement alive in order to fund itself. The New Testament church did not need money. It ran on power. It ran on passion. It was kept alive and it continued to grow because of the life that it had. The modern day traditional church is mostly void of life, therefore, it has to prop itself up with hype and show in order to replace the life, in order to attract members, in order to exist. Under the New Covenant that we are in, Jesus does not require a tenth of our incomes, He requires ALL of it.
Let me explain. The large impressive buildings attract people. The buildings give the illusion and promise that there is something there, that there is something established. Think of a bank building for example. They are fancy on purpose. They have polished granite countertops, expensive lobbies, and marble floors. Why? They do this to provide the atmosphere of wealth so that there is the “feeling” of security. You wouldn’t want to put your money in a place that was built like a shack would you?
In your average traditional church today, how many people would still come if you threw away all of the extras and began meeting in simple, humble ways? What if we met in a park under a pavilion? What if we met in a living room?
What if there were no nursery or children’s church? Fathers would be responsible for teaching their kids the Bible at home. Fathers would require children to sit still during a church meeting. No paid professional to bring the music, but each member would come with their hearts filled and with songs to bring. Who would still come if all the church had was what the New Testament Christians had? Without all the trappings, without the pomp and show – who would have ever attended a traditional meeting in the first place?
Shouldn’t this bother us? What if a large portion of the people were only coming for all the extras? What if they were only coming for the programs? Would we really still want them to come if they weren’t coming for the right reasons? Jesus knew that the majority people followed Him for the food and miracles. He turned to them and said, “Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no part with me.” Then they left. He knew they would leave. Would we ever say something that we knew would make people leave? Quite the opposite.
What should we do?
We all know about the tithe. The tithe was a tenth portion given by Israel to the Levitical priests. What about tithing in the New Testament?
There is not a direct commandment in the New Testament to pay tithes. But we do have some examples of how to relate to money and giving. Jesus said that unless you give up all your possessions you cannot be my disciple. In Luke 18:12 Jesus tells us of the man who fasted twice a week and paid tithes of all he had, but the tax gatherer who said, “I’m a sinner,” was justified instead. Then there is the widow who gave very little compared to the Pharisees, but she gave all that she had. Jesus said that because she gave all that she had, she had given more than anyone else. The New Testament economy is the economy of the Kingdom of God. It’s the opposite of the kingdom of man. The more you give away, the richer you are in the Kingdom. The first is last, the last first. The humble brother of low circumstances ought to glory in his high position. We don’t get it though. We think that if we pay our 10% that we’ve covered the base and did what God expects. We are completely missing the point.
It should also be noted that a big reason for paying tithes these days is in order to fund the salaries of the leadership. If we come to a Biblical understanding of offices and gifts, we will see that this practice doesn’t really make any sense. Someone who has a gift of shepherding (a pastor) is no different than someone who has a gift of prophecy, teaching, or evangelism.
Local Brothers Should Not Be Paid a Salary
Let’s take a situation where we have a local brother who lives among us and shares life with us. This local brother happens to function in the gift of prophecy. Because he functions as a prophet, would we ever pool our money together and pay him a salary? What about a brother who teaches among us? Should we pay his living for him while he lives locally among us and shares life among us, just because he teaches?
Let’s look at a totally different situation. If there were a brother or family among us who was going out and traveling to different cities to preach the gospel or function in their gifts – they are going to need money for traveling expenses. They are going to need support to cover their financial base while they are gone. These situations ought to be supported financially by the local church. This was the apostles case in the new testament when they were “preaching the gospel”. The traveling brothers should be supported financially.
Just like the apostle Paul (apostle means “one who is sent out”) who traveled from region to region and city to city – one who is sent out, someone who is traveling, someone who is on a journey in which the sole purpose of the journey is to do the work of the Lord, these people ought to be supported in their journey by the local assembly who is sending them. But to pay for the livelihood of a brother who lives among us, just because he has a particular gift or because he teaches a lot is simply the results of a confused and contrived tradition of men.
In the new testament letters, you can see very practical examples of how the early church lived. Paul writes at the end of Philippians that they gave him a gift to meet his needs. It seems clear that it is a financial gift. Paul also tells the Corinthians in I Cor.16 to set aside money at the first of the week so that no collections are to be made when he comes. But he goes on to explain that this money is to be sent on to Jerusalem with someone other than himself.
Paul says that “those who preach the gospel have the right to get their living from the gospel”…but everyone always leaves out the second part. He did not take advantage of this but chose to “work day and night” so as to not be a burden to any. This is a good heart.
In looking closer at Paul’s quote of “those who preach the gospel ought to get their living from the gospel,” I think that there is strong evidence that supports the fact that Paul was speaking of people like himself who are extra-local and who are actually traveling and preaching the good news. “One who preaches the gospel” is traveling from town to town.
Local leaders and pastors are not usually traveling and “preaching the gospel.” They are typically doing a lot of teaching, which is good and necessary, but the gospel is a very specific thing. After someone or some city has heard the gospel, they’ve heard it. It’s time to go on to the next town or region – which is why those who solely “preach the gospel” should be offered financial support. To preach the gospel, as Paul was speaking of, has in it’s meaning the traveling “bringer of good news”, who would be hindered if he were to have to deal with paying for his own expenses while doing such a work.
Local brothers on the other hand, may easily operate in their gifts while working a job as well. Some may think that it would be impossible for their local pastor or leader to work a regular job while performing his duties. That’s because most of the duties a pastor does are the duties of a typical business executive – which is what we’ve made the church to be - a business. Marketing campaigns, committees, budget analysis, secretaries, buildings, administrative duties, etc., all are the results of us modernizing, westernizing, and adding to the church things which do not need to be.
Since we’ve done all of this with the church, we now have to pay someone to oversee all of this, which has little or nothing to do with overseeing the lives of the people.
The Old Testament tithe was for the priest and for the temple. Now, under the New Covenant that we are in, we are all priests. Secondly, the church has now become the temple. He inhabits us, not a building or a tabernacle. The Old Testament was a picture of the real thing that now is and is still to come. We don’t need to pay any Levites. There are no more priests to hear God for us. We can all go to God directly. The modern day separation of clergy and laymen is a tradition of men based on the Old Testament Levitical priesthood. We are all to be just brothers with no separation of clergy. We are all clergy now. Or, you could say we are all laymen now. In fact, based on the example of the apostle Paul, the so called “ministers” we know, ought to go get themselves a job.
“What am I supposed to do with my tithe then?” people ask me. First of all you need to remove the word from your vocabulary. It is not New Testament. That’s like asking, “Where are we going to sacrifice the animals now?” You are now free. Use your money to serve the Lord with however He leads you, with as much or little as you are led of God. Give money to people who need it. Buy some tracks and hand them out on the street corner. Have a big BBQ for the neighborhood. Use it for evangelism and for giving to the needs of the saints. It all belongs to the Lord now. He gave it all to you anyway. Do with the money in your charge as the Lord puts in on your heart.
Our tendency is to assume that the principles and methods that are true in the earthly and natural economy are also true in the heavenly economy as well. However, the economy of the Kingdom of God is usually opposite that of man’s economy. “The things that are highly esteemed by men are detestable in the eyes of God” (Luke 16:15).
We think that because it’s wise to save and stockpile money in the earthly economy that those same principles should transfer into God’s kingdom as well. Jesus gave us a different example. Good stewardship in the economy of God’s kingdom is to actually give your money away. Jesus did a lot of things in relation to money that speaks against the common teachings that exist today in the church. Jesus actually put a thief in charge of the money box, which would totally go against man’s conventional wisdom (John 13:29). If a money plate is passed in a Christian meeting, we ought to encourage those who have need to take money out of the plate.
The covenant that we are in only has one rule. It’s the rule of love. There is only one law now in the New Covenant. It’s the law of the Spirit. There is no list of rules that you have to go by anymore. God has set us free in order to serve Him in a new and living way.
The tithe is an Old Testament requirement. But modern church teaching has twisted the scriptures and kept the tithe requirement alive in order to fund itself. The New Testament church did not need money. It ran on power. It ran on passion. It was kept alive and it continued to grow because of the life that it had. The modern day traditional church is mostly void of life, therefore, it has to prop itself up with hype and show in order to replace the life, in order to attract members, in order to exist. Under the New Covenant that we are in, Jesus does not require a tenth of our incomes, He requires ALL of it.
Let me explain. The large impressive buildings attract people. The buildings give the illusion and promise that there is something there, that there is something established. Think of a bank building for example. They are fancy on purpose. They have polished granite countertops, expensive lobbies, and marble floors. Why? They do this to provide the atmosphere of wealth so that there is the “feeling” of security. You wouldn’t want to put your money in a place that was built like a shack would you?
In your average traditional church today, how many people would still come if you threw away all of the extras and began meeting in simple, humble ways? What if we met in a park under a pavilion? What if we met in a living room?
What if there were no nursery or children’s church? Fathers would be responsible for teaching their kids the Bible at home. Fathers would require children to sit still during a church meeting. No paid professional to bring the music, but each member would come with their hearts filled and with songs to bring. Who would still come if all the church had was what the New Testament Christians had? Without all the trappings, without the pomp and show – who would have ever attended a traditional meeting in the first place?
Shouldn’t this bother us? What if a large portion of the people were only coming for all the extras? What if they were only coming for the programs? Would we really still want them to come if they weren’t coming for the right reasons? Jesus knew that the majority people followed Him for the food and miracles. He turned to them and said, “Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no part with me.” Then they left. He knew they would leave. Would we ever say something that we knew would make people leave? Quite the opposite.
What should we do?
We all know about the tithe. The tithe was a tenth portion given by Israel to the Levitical priests. What about tithing in the New Testament?
There is not a direct commandment in the New Testament to pay tithes. But we do have some examples of how to relate to money and giving. Jesus said that unless you give up all your possessions you cannot be my disciple. In Luke 18:12 Jesus tells us of the man who fasted twice a week and paid tithes of all he had, but the tax gatherer who said, “I’m a sinner,” was justified instead. Then there is the widow who gave very little compared to the Pharisees, but she gave all that she had. Jesus said that because she gave all that she had, she had given more than anyone else. The New Testament economy is the economy of the Kingdom of God. It’s the opposite of the kingdom of man. The more you give away, the richer you are in the Kingdom. The first is last, the last first. The humble brother of low circumstances ought to glory in his high position. We don’t get it though. We think that if we pay our 10% that we’ve covered the base and did what God expects. We are completely missing the point.
It should also be noted that a big reason for paying tithes these days is in order to fund the salaries of the leadership. If we come to a Biblical understanding of offices and gifts, we will see that this practice doesn’t really make any sense. Someone who has a gift of shepherding (a pastor) is no different than someone who has a gift of prophecy, teaching, or evangelism.
Local Brothers Should Not Be Paid a Salary
Let’s take a situation where we have a local brother who lives among us and shares life with us. This local brother happens to function in the gift of prophecy. Because he functions as a prophet, would we ever pool our money together and pay him a salary? What about a brother who teaches among us? Should we pay his living for him while he lives locally among us and shares life among us, just because he teaches?
Let’s look at a totally different situation. If there were a brother or family among us who was going out and traveling to different cities to preach the gospel or function in their gifts – they are going to need money for traveling expenses. They are going to need support to cover their financial base while they are gone. These situations ought to be supported financially by the local church. This was the apostles case in the new testament when they were “preaching the gospel”. The traveling brothers should be supported financially.
Just like the apostle Paul (apostle means “one who is sent out”) who traveled from region to region and city to city – one who is sent out, someone who is traveling, someone who is on a journey in which the sole purpose of the journey is to do the work of the Lord, these people ought to be supported in their journey by the local assembly who is sending them. But to pay for the livelihood of a brother who lives among us, just because he has a particular gift or because he teaches a lot is simply the results of a confused and contrived tradition of men.
In the new testament letters, you can see very practical examples of how the early church lived. Paul writes at the end of Philippians that they gave him a gift to meet his needs. It seems clear that it is a financial gift. Paul also tells the Corinthians in I Cor.16 to set aside money at the first of the week so that no collections are to be made when he comes. But he goes on to explain that this money is to be sent on to Jerusalem with someone other than himself.
Paul says that “those who preach the gospel have the right to get their living from the gospel”…but everyone always leaves out the second part. He did not take advantage of this but chose to “work day and night” so as to not be a burden to any. This is a good heart.
In looking closer at Paul’s quote of “those who preach the gospel ought to get their living from the gospel,” I think that there is strong evidence that supports the fact that Paul was speaking of people like himself who are extra-local and who are actually traveling and preaching the good news. “One who preaches the gospel” is traveling from town to town.
Local leaders and pastors are not usually traveling and “preaching the gospel.” They are typically doing a lot of teaching, which is good and necessary, but the gospel is a very specific thing. After someone or some city has heard the gospel, they’ve heard it. It’s time to go on to the next town or region – which is why those who solely “preach the gospel” should be offered financial support. To preach the gospel, as Paul was speaking of, has in it’s meaning the traveling “bringer of good news”, who would be hindered if he were to have to deal with paying for his own expenses while doing such a work.
Local brothers on the other hand, may easily operate in their gifts while working a job as well. Some may think that it would be impossible for their local pastor or leader to work a regular job while performing his duties. That’s because most of the duties a pastor does are the duties of a typical business executive – which is what we’ve made the church to be - a business. Marketing campaigns, committees, budget analysis, secretaries, buildings, administrative duties, etc., all are the results of us modernizing, westernizing, and adding to the church things which do not need to be.
Since we’ve done all of this with the church, we now have to pay someone to oversee all of this, which has little or nothing to do with overseeing the lives of the people.
The Old Testament tithe was for the priest and for the temple. Now, under the New Covenant that we are in, we are all priests. Secondly, the church has now become the temple. He inhabits us, not a building or a tabernacle. The Old Testament was a picture of the real thing that now is and is still to come. We don’t need to pay any Levites. There are no more priests to hear God for us. We can all go to God directly. The modern day separation of clergy and laymen is a tradition of men based on the Old Testament Levitical priesthood. We are all to be just brothers with no separation of clergy. We are all clergy now. Or, you could say we are all laymen now. In fact, based on the example of the apostle Paul, the so called “ministers” we know, ought to go get themselves a job.
“What am I supposed to do with my tithe then?” people ask me. First of all you need to remove the word from your vocabulary. It is not New Testament. That’s like asking, “Where are we going to sacrifice the animals now?” You are now free. Use your money to serve the Lord with however He leads you, with as much or little as you are led of God. Give money to people who need it. Buy some tracks and hand them out on the street corner. Have a big BBQ for the neighborhood. Use it for evangelism and for giving to the needs of the saints. It all belongs to the Lord now. He gave it all to you anyway. Do with the money in your charge as the Lord puts in on your heart.
Our tendency is to assume that the principles and methods that are true in the earthly and natural economy are also true in the heavenly economy as well. However, the economy of the Kingdom of God is usually opposite that of man’s economy. “The things that are highly esteemed by men are detestable in the eyes of God” (Luke 16:15).
We think that because it’s wise to save and stockpile money in the earthly economy that those same principles should transfer into God’s kingdom as well. Jesus gave us a different example. Good stewardship in the economy of God’s kingdom is to actually give your money away. Jesus did a lot of things in relation to money that speaks against the common teachings that exist today in the church. Jesus actually put a thief in charge of the money box, which would totally go against man’s conventional wisdom (John 13:29). If a money plate is passed in a Christian meeting, we ought to encourage those who have need to take money out of the plate.
The covenant that we are in only has one rule. It’s the rule of love. There is only one law now in the New Covenant. It’s the law of the Spirit. There is no list of rules that you have to go by anymore. God has set us free in order to serve Him in a new and living way.
The Most Important Thing
The point is Jesus. The point is not home church. The point is not how everything or everyone else is wrong. The purpose of this page is to shed light on some things that have been lost in the church that are hindering us. Use them and make corrections. But don’t let it become your primary focus. If your focus becomes what is wrong with the church, you will ultimately wind up a dry and miserable soul.
Body life is only as good as your individual life with Christ. Don’t make the mistake of substituting relationships with people for a relationship with Christ.
The folks who are really good at the basics of Christianity are those who live filled with the Spirit, who live full of faith, and who run their race well. Jesus is our life. Jesus is our focus. The person of Jesus is our joy and our strength. There is only hope in Jesus Christ. He has life within himself. We do not. He is not a concept or a methodology. A focus on methods and systems brings death. Concepts alone are empty and lifeless.
True growth in God comes through suffering, through pain, and by staying broken at the feet of Jesus. Head knowledge is not true growth, and usually gets in the way. There is no mathematical formula for the abundant life. You can pray and read your Bible all day and still be religious, dry and empty. Jesus is the abundant life. Open to Him. Be filled with Him.
Stay at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. Never put your hope in men and never put your hope in the church alone. People will almost always disappoint you.We are all terribly weak. Don’t expect too much from people or you’ll live a life full of disappointment. Love people, serve them, and earn the right to speak into their lives by investing in them. Christ is all you’ve got. He is your source. And although He has called us to be in community with others, Christ is all you need. As you live humbly, needy, dependant, and in regular communion with the Lord Jesus, you will be strengthened in the inner man. You will consistently have hope and encouragement for each day. As you are abiding in the vine, not only will you always be content and satisfied with Christ in you, but you will be well suited for body life, and have something to contribute to those around you.
Body life is only as good as your individual life with Christ. Don’t make the mistake of substituting relationships with people for a relationship with Christ.
The folks who are really good at the basics of Christianity are those who live filled with the Spirit, who live full of faith, and who run their race well. Jesus is our life. Jesus is our focus. The person of Jesus is our joy and our strength. There is only hope in Jesus Christ. He has life within himself. We do not. He is not a concept or a methodology. A focus on methods and systems brings death. Concepts alone are empty and lifeless.
True growth in God comes through suffering, through pain, and by staying broken at the feet of Jesus. Head knowledge is not true growth, and usually gets in the way. There is no mathematical formula for the abundant life. You can pray and read your Bible all day and still be religious, dry and empty. Jesus is the abundant life. Open to Him. Be filled with Him.
Stay at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. Never put your hope in men and never put your hope in the church alone. People will almost always disappoint you.We are all terribly weak. Don’t expect too much from people or you’ll live a life full of disappointment. Love people, serve them, and earn the right to speak into their lives by investing in them. Christ is all you’ve got. He is your source. And although He has called us to be in community with others, Christ is all you need. As you live humbly, needy, dependant, and in regular communion with the Lord Jesus, you will be strengthened in the inner man. You will consistently have hope and encouragement for each day. As you are abiding in the vine, not only will you always be content and satisfied with Christ in you, but you will be well suited for body life, and have something to contribute to those around you.
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