What Is The Ekklesia (church)? (pt 2)

What is the DNA of the Ekklessia?

“… authentic community, familial love and devotion of its members to one another, the centrality of Jesus Christ, the native instinct to gather together without static ritual, DNA desire to form deep-seated relationships that are centered on Christ, the eternal drive for open participatory gatherings and the loving impulse to display Jesus to a fallen world.” (Reimagining Church, by Frank Viola. p45)

Meetings were for true followers of Jesus; ie: 1 Cor.11-14. They were gatherings of DISCIPLES. Disciple means “disciplined learner”/whole hearted follower. 

From time to time, unbelievers may have been present, but they were not the focus.

“We have to see that the House of God [referring to the ekklesia] is not some inanimate lifeless thing. It is living, and the very marks of its life are that it is active, energetic, in a spiritual way; and it is characterized by the spirit of intercession…Life is spontaneous, and so intercession is a part of life, which is spontaneous. If the sprit of the Lord really has His way in us, we will be people of intercession.” (God’s Spiritual House, by T. Austin Sparks, p.34)

“HE GAVE GIFTS” OR MINISTRIES TO THE BODY – Eph 4:7-13

NOTE: 

• The “gift” to the body of Christ IS the person! God puts each part or member of His body to edify it. Therefore, if you are in Christ; a true follower of Jesus then YOU are a gift to His body!!! This is why it is vitally important to discover what is your function!!!
• There is no delineation of status! This is to each member and for each member of His body!!!
• THESE ARE NOT POSITIONS (or jobs) but rather merely functions (ministries) of every body member of a healthy body… Jesus’ body!!

“For just as we have many parts in one body and all the body’s parts do not have the same function,” (Rom 12:4)

• 1 Cor 12:14-30 explains the significance & the importance of each and every “member”. It illustrates how, although we are many, we form one body… Jesus!
• So, this literally means we are all ministers “(or leaders“)!!!
• So, if YOU are a gift to the body, what is YOUR way of serving the body? Is it:

Apostles – “sent ones”; big picture people; go ahead starting “new work”; laying the groundwork for the ekklesia

Prophets – guardians of the truth; forth tellers; sees everything in black/white; feels responsible to make sure the ekklesia walking in the truth.

Evangelists – a herald of the gospel (ie: newsboy of the 1920’s); burden for the blind & lost to see &/or find their way; goes about casting the seed of the gospel

Shepherds – caregivers of the ekklesia; nurturing & sensitive to the needs of the flock; willing to use both staff & rod; loves 1×1 or small group

Teachers – feeder of the truth; love outlines, books, studying; their passion is to make sure the ekklesia simply knows the truth.

GRACE GIFTS – Rom. 12:3-13; 1 Cor. 12:1-18

• prophesying…serving…teaching… exhorting…giving…leading…mercy
• These are different than the above functions in the body: A.P.E.S.T.

We can call these “expressions of grace”…In other words, manifesting Jesus to those in the body and not-yet-believers. Again, these are not positions or roles. These are gifts to others for the purpose of experiencing Jesus now!!! If He was here now, he would heal, serve, show mercy, give, etc., etc., etc.!!!!

PLEASE UNDERSTAND THIS: It is important to know that these have nothing to do with what we call “personality traits” (birth order, etc). These are gifts to a person for the purpose of expressing HIM supernaturally!!! Everything else we learned/received from Adam! This is supernaturally natural for every believer. As a Christian walks in humble submission to & dependent upon Jesus they will naturally express HIM in one of these 7 ways!

THAT THEY MIGHT BE ONE 

“I am not praying only on their behalf, but also on behalf of those who believe in me through their testimony, that they will all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. I pray that they will be in us, so that the world will believe that you sent me. The glory you gave to me I have given to them, that they may be one just as we are one – I in them and you in me – that they may be completely one, so that the world will know that you sent me, and you have loved them just as you have loved me.” (John 17:20-23 NET)

• Unity/be one! To be one body, one bride, one family, one temple!!!! (Like a good rabbi, he repeats something important three times!)

“…in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.” (Ephesians 2:19-22)

• WHY? So that the world might believe!!!
• HOW? Mutual Edification!!! It’s NOT a “1 man show”.

Mutual Edification

“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.” (1 Cor 14:26)

1 Cor 12:7-20 

vs 7 – “There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons. But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” (vv 8-10 explains examples of manifestations of the Spirit)

vs 11 – “But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills.”

vs 13 – “…and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.” (vv14-30 explains the significance & the importance of each and every “member”. It illustrates how, although we are many, we form one body… Jesus!)

It is often referred to as “one anothering” Each member had a vital and significant part in expressing Jesus in order to edify one another. (some examples)

• Rom 12:10 “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor;”
• Rom 12:16 “Be of the same mind toward one another…”
• Rom 13:8 “Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.”
• Rom 14:13 “Therefore let us not judge one another …”
• Rom 14:19 “So then we pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another.”
• Rom 15:5 “Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus,”
• Rom 15:7 “Therefore, accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God.”
• Rom 15:14 “And concerning you, my brethren, I myself also am convinced that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able also to admonish one another.”

• In the 1st century, the chief marks for a gathering of an ekklesia were: freedom, openness and spontaneity; “one anothering” was a dominant feature & mutual edification was it’s goal.
• There are no such thing as “big shot Christians” who have special positions and or power, etc. we are ALL equal “members” of HIS body. The ekklesia is a participatory experience for all “members”.
• In an ekklesia there’s no such thing as a spectator (please me) and/or consumer (feed me; satisfy me)

GOD’S ULTIMATE DESIRE FOR US: That Christ be formed in us.

“until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:13)

An Ekklessia is organically “on mission”

From the book, The spontaneous Expansion of the Church, 1997:

The Church was first established and organized with a worldwide mission for a world-wide work. It was a living organism composed of living souls deriving their life from Christ, who was its Head. It was an organism which grew by its own spontaneous activity, the expression of that life which it had in union with Christ, the Savior. Its organization was the organization fitted for such an organism; it was the organization of a missionary body. Consequently there was no special organization for missions in the Early Church; the church organization sufficed. It was simple and complete. There was abundant room in it for the expression of the spontaneous individual activity of its members; for every member was potentially a missionary; and the Church, as an organized body, expected that activity and knew how to act when its members did their duty. 

Discipline in an ekklesia?

Because all of the above IS true, 1 Corinthians chapter 5 just makes sense. The implication is that it is done in love for the good of the body, the family, the temple, the bride, etc!!!

What Is The Ekklesia (Church)? (Pt 1)

“From the beginning, God wanted a bride to marry, a house to dwell in, a family to enjoy, and a visible body through which to express Himself. All of these images the bride, the house, the family, and the body-point to the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is from Him, through Him, and, ultimately, to Him (Rom. 11:36).” (From the book Reimagining Church by Frank Viola, p147)

6 METAPHORS TO DESCRIBE THE GATHERING OF CHRISTIANS

A NEW RACE a creature that bore God’s image & life!!!! (Angels marveled at this)

In this following verse Paul says there is a new race of being on earth & he called this being “Ekklessia”:  “Give no offense either to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God;” (1 Cor 10:32)

Eph. 2:15 – “…so that in Himself He might make the two [Jew & Gentile] into one new man, thus establishing peace,”

Paul calls us a total new species/creation: 

“Therefore if any person is [ingrafted] in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come!” (2 Cor 5:17)

HIS HOUSE– He is the head or Lord over His house/family

Since the garden, God always desired a home/dwelling where His image would be multiplied. He found that in the believer & ekklesia:

“So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom    you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 2:5)

“For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.” (1 Cor 3:9) [vv 10-15 speaks further about this]

“…but Christ was faithful as a Son over His house—whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end.” (Hebrews 3:6)

HIS BRIDE – covenant relationship; intimacy

– Hosea 2:16-20: He prophesied about the ekklesia; those betrothed to Him

– The bride of Christ, who is invited to the marriage supper of “the Lamb,” is mentioned specifically only two times in the Bible. (Revelation 19:6 – 9, 22:17).

“Let us rejoice and exult and give him glory, because the wedding celebration of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. She was permitted to be dressed in bright, clean, fine linen” (for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints).” (Rev 19:7-8 NET)

– The Apostle Paul, in Ephesians, alludes to the mystery of this relationship by making an analogy between a human-based marriage and this future relationship. –  Eph 5:25-27; Rev 19:6-8; 21:2,9; 22:7

HIS BODY – His image expressed & multiplied

“Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it.” (1 Cor 12:27)

“so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.” (Romans 12:5)

“HE is also head of the body, the church…on behalf of HIS BODY, which is the church…” (Col.1:18,24)

HIS TEMPLE– The manifest presence of God!

Writing to the church in Corinth Paul states: “Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?…for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are.” (1 Cor 3:16-17)

“Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, “I will dwell in them and walk among them; And I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” (2 Cor 6:16)

“…which is Christ IN YOU, the hope of glory [God’s presence manifested]” (Col 1:27)

HIS FAMILY– a sense of belonging/identification; a shared life

=> Like family members we carry the DNA of our lineage…which is Jesus!

1 Peter 4:7 refers to believers as, “…the household of God…”

Heb 12:7-11 illustrates the Father/son relationship re: discipline

“For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God…but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ…” (Romans 8:14-17)

Matt. 12:50 – Jesus explains who are His Father, mother and brothers.

Application

Each one of these metaphors give a clear picture of WHO we are which then results into WHAT we do & HOW we are together!!! Each metaphor illustrates the forming of Jesus as the ekklesia gathers. Every member/part of each metaphor individually lives a life of “growing in the grace and in the knowledge of Him.” As each member lives individual lives of restful surrender to the Lordship of Jesus, we will corporately grow into the image of Jesus!!!

• There are NO bigger or better parts, members, stones, etc. Each person is a vital, needed part of the ekklesia!
• We are interdependent. When one part suffers we all suffer. When one member falls to and/or walks in the flesh it effects the other other parts & the ultimate “forming of Christ”.
• Because of our identification with each metaphor in forming Jesus, this is not a casual decision, but rather it is WHO we are! This is the life of a disciple!!! 
• So, our gatherings are the meeting of disciples who are learning to deny themselves, taking up their cross and following Jesus!!! There is mutual intention/desire to meet.
• It is implied that the purpose of the gathering of the ekklesia is to learn to depend corporately on the head, the cornerstone, the Father, the groom, His presence (temple), the Creator (new race)! It is NOT about the individual! It is about the Lordship of Jesus! 

Summary

To the 1st century believer, they were uniquely identified with each other as this new race & had an sense of a belonging with each other. They individually pursued Jesus’ Lordship in their lives. Then, they eagerly gathered together to experience Jesus Lordship corporately as His body, family, house, temple, bride. So, for them to say, “We’re going to church” or “church service”or “How was church?” would NOT have made sense to them at all. WE ARE:

KINGDOM CITIZENS ON MISSION TOGETHER; WHO ARE IDENTIFIED WITH EACH OTHER; SHARING LIFE TOGETHER; GATHERING TO FORM JESUS!

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You might want to check out these two related posts: It’s Not an Enterprise and It’s Not an Enterprise (Pt 2)

It’s not an enterprise (pt2)

This blog post is a follow-up to my last post entitled It’s NOT an enterprise. I was inspired to write a follow-up article because of my wonderful little ekklesia of which I am a part. This last Sunday, we had an amazing time discussing our “part” in the body and how EVERYONE has a significant function! We then weaved our way into interactions regarding how we make things in this world SOOOO important when they do not matter MOST!!! As usual, Holy Spirit had a way of tying it all together.

What IS a gathering of “normal” Christians who are truly following Jesus?

As I discussed last week, WE as followers of Jesus are a fulfillment of God’s eternal purpose of having a home for Himself. We don’t go to “His house”! WE are living stones put together to form His “spiritual house”. But what does that really look like. I challenge you to prayerfully read through the New Testament with innocent eyes and not interpreting it through your 21st century experience and I believe you will be surprised by what you discover. Please read 1 Peter 2:4-5!

Sooo…I want to share an answer to my question above and do it by quoting T. Austin Sparks from his book entitled, “A Spiritual House”. He was an amazing brother in Christ and he disciples Watchman Nee. According to Sparks, a true gathering of believers of Jesus (Normal Christians) has the following 4 features:

1. “It exists for the purpose of setting fourth, proclaiming, manifesting the exultation of the Lord Jesus as God’s son.”
   • “The house of God is a spiritual house for that spiritual purpose, namely, to bring home Christ’s ascendancy in a spiritual way against spiritual forces.” Supremacy of Christ!
2. “It exists to minister to the pleasure & glory of God.”
   • ” wherever you have a real ministration [working out; expression] of life, you always have the glory of God, God glorified.“
3. “It stands for the deliverance and life of others, the others being of course, God’s elect, those who are bound up with God‘s eternal purpose.”
   • “You and I exist for the life of others and if others are not receiving life through us then there is something inconsistent in our very existence.”
4. “The church in its corporate life exist to be a present expression of Lord Jesus himself wherever two or three are gathered together.”
   • The church is spiritual, that is, the church has subjected itself to the Holy Spirit and has taken the Holy Spirit for its governance, for its direction… It living live functions in a spiritual way.”

Is this your experience each week? Be honest with yourself! Or are you just a mere spectator and consumer???

THE NORMAL CHRISTIANS GATHER AS GOD’S “SPIRITUAL HOUSE” & FUNCTIONS FOR GOD’S GLORY & THE GOOD OF FELLOW MEMBERS OF JESUS’ BODY!!!

It’s NOT an enterprise!!!

This post was inspired by a stream of texts to some dear Jesus followers in my life!!! As I was going to sit down to type, I remembered I had the following quote laying around….

“Christianity began in Palestine as a relationship; moved to Greece and became an idea; went to Rome and became an institution; then came to America and became an enterprise.” – Richard Halverson, former Chaplain of the US Senate

These texts first inspired me to create this image my dear sister in Christ shared with us. This in turn is what motivated me to share this post.

This verse in 1 Corinthians 12:27 is actually a description of ”the church”. Paul gives us a clear picture that we who are followers of Jesus, are all a unique part/member of Jesus body. Therefore, it is only when we are gathering together and each one is expressing Jesus uniquely are we then being ”the church.”

It is WHO we are NOT where we are going!!!

The word ”church” has NOTHING to do with a building or activities or doctrine, etc. The Greek word is ’ekklesia’ and it appears 118 times and all of these are referring to people who are following Jesus. The literal translation is ”the gathering of the called out ones”. The Blue Letter Bible (online) says, “It was used among the Greeks of a body of citizens ‘gathered’ to discuss the affairs of State.”

Paul said, “Above all, you must live as citizens of heaven…” (Phil 1:27) and ”But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives.” (Phil 3:20)

As citizens of Jesus’ Kingdom, each ”body part” is locally gathered now in order to form HIM! 1 Peter 2:4-5 says, “So as you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but chosen and priceless in God’s sight, you yourselves, as living stones, are built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood and to offer spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

YOU my dear brother or sister in Jesus, ARE a living stone, and when you are put together with a few other living stones you all form A HOUSE FOR GOD!!! THIS my dear ones IS God’s eternal purpose from the beginning of time. That He might have a house again that bears HIS image!

Unlike the Adam & Eve, Abraham, Moses, Israel, etc., etc. who all failed, Jesus made a way to put God back into the man that HIS image may be multiplied. Jesus came FOR us to give His life TO us in order to live His life THROUGH us!!!

But what have we done? We created a business model where a few people get paid to exercise THEIR gifting while the rest of us sit as consumers (“give ME”) and spectators (“please/satisfy me”). Later in 1 Peter 2:9 he goes on to say, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may proclaim the virtues of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

My longing is to see HIS body begin to gather (we call it fellowship) AS the church to simply BE the church ”for the edification of the saints” and to welcome Jesus in our midst that HE be honored and glorified.

This by no means is a comprehensive teaching, but merely an expression of God’s heart for His people!

The Normal Christian is a member of Jesus’ body & expresses HIM with others!

The Early Church and Small Groups

This article was originally found at the ChurchLeaders.com website.

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How could the 120 disciples in the upper room possibly have taken care of 3,000 new converts? (See Acts, chapter 2.) These disciples were trained by their Master to take responsibility to disciple these new believers. Part of their secret is found in Acts 2:46-47: “So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.”

The House to House Principle

God’s people gathered at the temple and met in small groups in homes, “and they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers” (Acts 2:42). They began to minister to one another and to the unsaved on an individual basis, and the Lord kept adding to the church daily! In Acts 20:20, the Apostle Paul declares to members of the church at Ephesus, “I kept back nothing that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you, and taught you publicly and from house to house.”

The letter that Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome was written to believers in Jesus Christ who met in peoples’ homes. In his letter to the Romans, Paul indicates that one of these groups met in the home of Priscilla and Aquila: “Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who risked their own necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles. Likewise greet the church that is in their house” (Romans 16:3-5).

Paul also sent his greetings to the household of Aristobulus and the household of Narcissus (Romans 16:10-11). When Paul wrote to his friend Philemon, he expressed his greetings to the church in his house, ”…to the beloved Apphia, Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church in your house” (Philemon 1:2).

What Was the Early Church Really Like?

Imagine living in the days of the first century church. T.L. Osborne once told the story of a possible conversation with Aquila in Ephesus, from the book of Acts:

“Good evening, Aquila. We understand you’re a member of the church here. Could we come in and visit for a while?”

“Certainly. Come in.”

“If you don’t mind, we would like for you to tell us about the way the churches here in Asia Minor carry on their soul-winning program. We read that you have been a member of a church in Corinth and Rome, as well as this one here in Ephesus. You should be very qualified to tell us about evangelism in the New Testament Church. If you don’t mind, we’d like to visit your church while we’re here.”

“Sit down, you’re already in the church. It meets in my home.”

“You don’t have a church building?”

“What’s a church building? No, I guess we don’t.”

“Tell me Aquila, what is your church doing to evangelize Ephesus? What are you doing to reach the city with the gospel?”

“Oh, we already evangelized Ephesus. Every person in the city clearly understands the Gospel… We just visited every home in the city. That’s the way the church in Jerusalem first evangelized that city (Acts 5:42). The disciples there evangelized the entire city of Jerusalem in a very short time. All the other churches in Asia Minor have followed that example.”

Periodically, down through the ages, the church has lost the New Testament component of meeting in small groups in the homes of individual believers and has placed an emphasis on the church as it meets in large buildings. In fact, according to church history, it was in 323 AD, almost three hundred years after the birth of the church, that Christians first met in a “church building.” For all three hundred years before that, the church met in homes.

“Temple ministry” is beneficial for corporate worship, teaching and celebration, but the Lord wants us to get back to seeing the church as people, not as a place where believers meet. Our homes, places of business schools, and other circles of contact provide excellent places for the church to meet as we infiltrate our spheres of influence with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

This post on house to house churches was adapted from an original article by Larry Kreider titled “The Underground Church,” found on Dove International’s website. This article is comprehensive & is fantastic!

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

I love this quote because of its pure truth! For years the Bible became an academic pursuit for me as it is for so many people in churches. As believers, while sharing life together, is the world seeing the Jesus of the Bible that they say they are reading & believing?

Latter Rain Or Latter REIGN?

I just had (4/22/22) an interaction with a very dear sister in Christ on iMessenger. What you’re about to read is our brief dialogue.

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HER ORIGINAL POST: This is the word of God let it rain 🌧let it rain 🌧 Joel 2:23 (NKJV) ”Be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God; for He has given you the former rain faithfully, and He will cause the rain to come down for you—the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month.”

MY ORIGINAL RESPONSE: “____, can you help me understand what you mean exactly?

HER: Joel 2:23 (NKJV) ”Be glad then, you children of Zion, And rejoice in the Lord your God; for He has given you the former rain faithfully, and He will cause the rain to come down for you—the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month. I really believe that we are experiencing a new season where the spirit of God is moving some have experienced dry season but like Elijah prayed and believed for the rain and God send the rain.

ME: I so love your heart for Jesus ____! You and I are both the same in terms of having passion for the Lord!!!😘

ME: What if the “latter rain” IS Jesus & His Kingdom that is here now in you & me!! If you read in Acts 2 Peter referenced Joel 2 & he pointed it to Jesus! We all as believers simply start believing what Jesus and his disciples taught and then walk in truth! In other words, become love! The world would take notice & I believe that the nature of his ekklesia would radically change! I love & appreciate your heart ____. My passion from now on is Jesus & the “gospel of the Kingdom.” I have a provocative blog post that is scheduled to be published on Sunday morning. I do hope you read it. I believe it will bless your heart ____.😘

HER: Wow I love that

ME: I’m very concerned about His body, because sometimes I believe that we’re always chasing after something more; something new; a Christian “celebrity”. When in reality, we have it all! His name is Jesus! The resurrection power lives in you and me! I think it’s time his body takes Jesus words seriously and deny ourselves, take up your cross and simply FOLLOW HIM!

HER: Amen

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I agree with my dear sister that His Spirit is moving amongst His body, His Bride & that many have become ”dry”. What I’m sensing & seeing is more & more believers are ”leaving the church” (institution) to SAVE their faith not leave their faith. Their spiritual DNA of Jesus is longing to share life & live as the ekklesia!

I believe there is a breaking & revival of Jesus Bride that is on the horizon. His body is returning to REIGN Jesus as King in His Kingdom which IS on earth in you and me!!! “For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet.”‭‭ (1 Corinthians‬ ‭15:25‬ ‭NASB) It is a calling back unto the Bridegroom His pure Bride who has eyes & hearts ONLY for HIM.

This is the life of a Normal Christian!!!!

The Early Church: A Compassionate Community

[This is a repost by Jason Whitehurst here: http://jasonwhitehurst.org/2013/11/12/early-church-compassionate-community/%5D

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The early church got it right.

Sociologists marvel at how a despised movement that started in a corner of Palestine, could become the dominant faith of the mighty Roman Empire.

The Apology of Tertullian in 197 AD sums it up.  The most amazing pagan observation of the early church was, “See how they love one another.”

This wasn’t a coincidence.  Jesus gave His followers a new command in John 13:34.

The early church did not set out to build great buildings or “mega-churches”.  They just set out to do what Jesus taught them to do.

They kept things simple.  They did four main things, according to Acts 2:42-47.

1.  They taught what Jesus taught.  
2.  They fellowshipped.  
3.  They ate.  
4.  They prayed.

Through these four things, they were led to sell what they had and give to each other as each one had a need.

They gained favor with the people in an urban part of the Roman Empire, known as being a harsh and brutal society.

Through this love they had for another based on the command that Jesus gave them, they lived together in community, gained favor with people, and the Lord added daily to their number those who were being saved.

To those who were homeless and impoverished, the early church offered food and shelter.

To the widows and orphans, the early church offered a family.

To the outcasts of society, they offered a place of acceptance.

To those who were sick, the early Christians offered nursing and medical services.

Through their radical acts of love and kindness, the early church gained a foothold in a brutal and barbaric culture.

Rodney Stark, a modern sociologist who wrote “The Rise of Christianity”, said about the early church,

“For what they brought was not simply an urban movement, but a new culture capable of making life in Greco-Roman cities more tolerable.” 

They did not just start a movement, which they did do, but more than that they changed the culture.

Justin Martyr wrote that it was the consistency of their lives that caused non-Christians, to become Christians.

Over the course of history, once Christianity moved from being a movement to the dominant faith of the Roman Empire, it began to become a “baptized-form” of Judaism.

Buildings started being built.  Rules and regulations started being added.  Structure was put into place.

None of these things in and of themselves are bad.  But these things began to change what had given Christianity a foothold and traction in society.

Fast-forward 2,000 years and look at the churches in our culture today.  They do not enjoy the same leverage and favor that the early church did.

Which begs the question, where did the church go wrong?

At what point did the church move from being a compassionate community to becoming what it is today?

The church has lost it’s voice.  The church has lost it’s authority in society.

The church, at some point, took for granted the God-given favor it enjoyed with culture and society.

The church for a long time was able to speak from a place of majority and authority.

Today, the church has lost the majority and cannot speak from a position of authority.

The early church got it right.

GOD IS CHANGING THE CHURCH

The following article can be found at the following website: http://www.housechurch.org/basics/simson_15.html.  This is one of the most concise and accurate expressions of my hearts longing for Father’s ekklesia.  This is definitely worth a read.

15 Theses. Wolfgang Simson

God is changing the Church, and that, in turn, will change the world. Millions of Christians around the world are aware of an imminent reformation of global proportions. They say, in effect: “Church as we know it is preventing Church as God wants it.” A growing number of them are surprisingly hearing God say the very same things. There is a collective new awareness of age-old revelations, a corporate spiritual echo. In the following “15 Theses” I will summarize a part of this, and I am convinced that it reflects a part of what the Spirit of God is saying to the Church today. For some, it might be the proverbial fist-sized cloud on Elijah’s sky. Others already feel the pouring rain.

1. Church is a Way of Life, not a series of religious meetings

Before they where called Christians, followers of Christ have been called “The Way”. One of the reasons was, that they have literally found “the way to live.” The nature of Church is not reflected in a constant series of religious meetings lead by professional clergy in holy rooms specially reserved to experience Jesus, but in the prophetic way followers of Christ live their everyday life in spiritually extended families as a vivid answer to the questions society faces, at the place where it counts most: in their homes.

2. Time to change the system

In aligning itself to the religious patterns of the day, the historic Orthodox Church after Constantine in the 4^th century AD adopted a religious system which was in essence Old Testament, complete with priests, altar, a Christian temple (cathedral), frankincense and a Jewish, synagogue-style worship pattern. The Roman Catholic Church went on to canonize the system. Luther did reform the content of the gospel, but left the outer forms of “church” remarkably untouched; the Free-Churches freed the system from the State, the Baptists then baptized it, the Quakers dry-cleaned it, the Salvation Army put it into a uniform, the Pentecostals anointed it and the Charismatics renewed it, but until today nobody has really changed the superstructure. It is about time to do just that.

3. The Third Reformation.

In rediscovering the gospel of salvation by faith and grace alone, Luther started to reform the Church through a reformation of theology. In the 18^th century through movements like the Moravians there was a recovery of a new intimacy with God, which led to a reformation of spirituality, the Second Reformation. Now God is touching the wineskins themselves, initiating a Third Reformation, a reformation of structure.

4. From Church-Houses to house-churches

Since New Testament times, there is no such thing as “a house of God”. At the cost of his life, Stephen reminded unequivocally: God does not live in temples made by human hands. The Church is the people of God. The Church, therefore, was and is at home where people are at home: in ordinary houses. There, the people of God: -Share their lives in the power of the Holy Spirit, -Have “meatings,” that is, they eat when they meet, -They often do not even hesitate to sell private property and share material and spiritual blessings, -Teach each other in real-life situations how to obey God’s word, dialogue – and not professor-style, -Pray and prophesy with each other, baptize, `lose their face’ and their ego by confessing their sins, -Regaining a new corporate identity by experiencing love, acceptance and forgiveness.

5. The church has to become small in order to grow big

Most churches of today are simply too big to provide real fellowship. They have too often become “fellowships without fellowship.” The New Testament Church was a mass of small groups, typically between 10 and 15 people. It grew not upward into big congregations between 20 and 300 people filling a cathedral and making real, mutual communication improbable. Instead, it multiplied “sidewards”, like organic cells, once these groups reached around 15-20 people. Then, if possible, it drew all the Christians together into citywide celebrations, as with Solomon’s Temple court in Jerusalem. The traditional congregational church as we know it is, statistically speaking, neither big nor beautiful, but rather a sad compromise, an overgrown house-church and an under-grown celebration, often missing the dynamics of both.

6. No church is led by a Pastor alone

The local church is not led by a Pastor, but fathered by an Elder, a local person of wisdom and reality. The local house-churches are then networked into a movement by the combination of elders and members of the so-called five-fold ministries (Apostles, Prophets, Pastors, Evangelists and Teachers) circulating “from house to house,” whereby there is a special foundational role to play for the apostolic and prophetic ministries (Eph. 2:20, and 4:11.12). A Pastor (shepherd) is a very necessary part of the whole team, but he cannot fulfill more than a part of the whole task of “equipping the saints for the ministry,” and has to be complemented synergistically by the other four ministries in order to function properly.

7. The right pieces – fitted together in the wrong way

In doing a puzzle, we need to have the right original for the pieces, otherwise the final product, the whole picture, turns out wrong, and the individual pieces do not make much sense. This has happened to large parts of the Christian world: we have all the right pieces, but have fitted them together wrong, because of fear, tradition, religious jealousy and a power-and-control mentality. As water is found in three forms, ice, water and steam, the five ministries mentioned in Eph. 4:11-12, the Apostles, Prophets, Pastors, Teachers and Evangelists are also found today, but not always in the right forms and in the right places: they are often frozen to ice in the rigid system of institutionalized Christianity; they sometimes exist as clear water; or they have vanished like steam into the thin air of free-flying ministries and “independent” churches, accountable to no-one. As it is best to water flowers with the fluid version of water, these five equipping ministries will have to be transformed back into new, and at the same time age-old, forms, so that the whole spiritual organism can flourish and the individual “ministers” can find their proper role and place in the whole. That is one more reason why we need to return back to the Maker’s original and blueprint for the Church.

8. God does not leave the Church in the hands of bureaucratic clergy

No expression of a New Testament church is ever led by just one professional “holy man” doing the business of communicating with God and then feeding some relatively passive religious consumers Moses-style. Christianity has adopted this method from pagan religions, or at best from the Old Testament. The heavy piritualizationon of the church since Constantine has now been a pervasive influence long enough, dividing the people of God artificially into laity and clergy. According to the New Testament (1 Tim. 2:5), “there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” God simply does not bless religious professionals to force themselves in-between people and God forever. The veil is torn, and God is allowing people to access Himself directly through Jesus Christ, the only Way. To enable the priesthood of all believers, the present system will have to change completely. Bureaucracy is the most dubious of all administrative systems, because it basically asks only two questions: yes or no. There is no room for spontaneity and humanity, no room for real life. This may be OK for politics and companies, but not the Church. God seems to be in the business of delivering His Church from a Babylonian captivity of religious bureaucrats and controlling spirits into the public domain, the hands of ordinary people made extraordinary by God, who, like in the old days, may still smell of fish, perfume and revolution.

9. Return from organized to organic forms of Christianity

The “Body of Christ” is a vivid description of an organic, not an organized, being. Church consists on its local level of a multitude of spiritual families, which are organically related to each other as a network, where the way the pieces are functioning together is an integral part of the message of the whole. What has become a maximum of organization with a minimum of organism, has to be changed into a minimum of organization to allow a maximum of organism. Too much organization has, like a straightjacket, often choked the organism for fear that something might go wrong. Fear is the opposite of faith, and not exactly a Christian virtue. Fear wants to control, faith can trust. Control, therefore, may be good, but trust is better. The Body of Christ is entrusted by God into the hands of steward-minded people with a supernatural charismatic gift to believe God that He is still in control, even if they are not. A development of trust-related regional and national networks, not a new arrangement of political ecumenism is necessary for organic forms of Christianity to reemerge.

10. From worshipping our worship to worshipping God

The image of much of contemporary Christianity can be summarized, a bit euphemistically, as holy people coming regularly to a holy place at a holy day at a holy hour to participate in a holy ritual lead by a holy man dressed in holy clothes against a holy fee. Since this regular performance-oriented enterprise called “worship service” requires a lot of organizational talent and administrative bureaucracy to keep going, formalized and institutionalized patterns developed quickly into rigid traditions. Statistically, a traditional 1-2 hour “worship service” is very resource-hungry but actually produces very little fruit in terms of discipling people, that is, in changed lives. Economically speaking, it might be a “high input and low output” structure. Traditionally, the desire to “worship in the right way” has led to much denominationalism, confessionalism and nominalism. This not only ignores that Christians are called to “worship in truth and in spirit,” not in cathedrals holding songbooks, but also ignores that most of life is informal, and so is Christianity as “the Way of Life.” Do we need to change from being powerful actors to start “acting powerfully?”

11. Stop bringing people to church, and start bringing the church to the people

The church is changing back from being a Come-structure to being again a Go-structure. As one result, the Church needs to stop trying to bring people “into the church,” and start bringing the Church to the people. The mission of the Church will never be accomplished just by adding to the existing structure; it will take nothing less than a mushrooming of the church through spontaneous multiplication of itself into areas of the population of the world, where Christ is not yet known.

12. Rediscovering the “Lord’s Supper” to be a real supper with real food

Church tradition has managed to “celebrate the Lord’s Supper” in a homeopathic and deeply religious form, characteristically with a few drops of wine, a tasteless cookie and a sad face. However, the “Lord’s Supper” was actually more a substantial supper with a symbolic meaning, than a symbolic supper with a substantial meaning. God is restoring eating back into our meeting.

13. From Denominations to city-wide celebrations

Jesus called a universal movement, and what came was a series of religious companies with global chains marketing their special brands of Christianity and competing with each other. Through this branding of Christianity most of Protestantism has, therefore, become politically insignificant and often more concerned with traditional specialties and religious infighting than with developing a collective testimony before the world. Jesus simply never asked people to organize themselves into denominations. In the early days of the Church, Christians had a dual identity: they were truly His church and vertically converted to God, and then organized themselves according to geography, that is, converting also horizontally to each other on earth. This means not only Christian neighbors organizing themselves into neighborhood- or house-churches, where they share their lives locally, but Christians coming together as a collective identity as much as they can for citywide or regional celebrations expressing the corporateness of the Church of the city or region. Authenticity in the neighborhoods connected with a regional or citywide corporate identity will make the Church not only politically significant and spiritually convincing, but will allow a return to the biblical model of the City-Church.

14. Developing a persecution-proof spirit

They crucified Jesus, the Boss of all the Christians. Today, his followers are often more into titles, medals and social respectability, or, worst of all, they remain silent and are not worth being noticed at all. “Blessed are you when you are persecuted”, says Jesus. Biblical Christianity is a healthy threat to pagan godlessness and sinfulness, a world overcome by greed, materialism, jealousy and any amount of demonic standards of ethics, sex, money and power. Contemporary Christianity in many countries is simply too harmless and polite to be worth persecuting. But as Christians again live out New Testament standards of life and, for example, call sin as sin, conversion or persecution has been, is and will be the natural reaction of the world. Instead of nesting comfortably in temporary zones of religious liberty, Christians will have to prepare to be again discovered as the main culprits against global humanism, the modern slavery of having to have fun and the outright worship of Self, the wrong centre of the universe. That is why Christians will and must feel the “repressive tolerance” of a world which has lost any absolutes and therefore refuses to recognize and obey its creator God with his absolute standards. Coupled with the growing ideologisation, privatization and piritualization of politics and economics, Christians will, sooner than most think, have their chance to stand happily accused in the company of Jesus. They need to prepare now for the future by developing a persecution-proof spirit and an even more persecution-proof structure.

15. The Church comes home

Where is the easiest place, say, for a man to be spiritual? Maybe again, is it hiding behind a big pulpit, dressed up in holy robes, preaching holy words to a faceless crowd and then disappearing into an office? And what is the most difficult, and therefore most meaningful, place for a man to be spiritual? At home, in the presence of his wife and children, where everything he does and says is automatically put through a spiritual litmus test against reality, where hypocrisy can be effectively weeded out and authenticity can grow. Much of Christianity has fled the family, often as a place of its own spiritual defeat, and then has organized artificial performances in sacred buildings far from the atmosphere of real life. As God is in the business of recapturing the homes, the church turns back to its roots, back to where it came from. It literally comes home, completing the circle of Church history at the end of world history.

As Christians of all walks of life, from all denominations and backgrounds, feel a clear echo in their spirit to what God’s Spirit is saying to the Church, and start to hear globally in order to act locally, they begin to function again as one body. They organize themselves into neighborhood house-churches and meet in regional or city-celebrations. You are invited to become part of this movement and make your own contribution. Maybe your home, too, will become a house that changes the world.

You are welcome and encouraged to redistribute this article.

By Wolfgang Simson

http://www.housechurch.org/basics/simson_15.html

For further reading regarding the revolution of the church, please read the following: PAGAN CHRISTIANITY & then REIMAGINING THE CHURCH.  Also, check out Wolfgang’s book entitled Houses That Change The World

The Church of Tomorrow

I found the following entry on a blog entitled “The Way Journal” by our brother Andrew Strom.  I encourage you to check it out.  He and I are definitely on the same page.  So, read his latest blog entry below and of course may the Lord Jesus bless you richly!

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THE CHURCH OF TOMORROW

For awhile now I’ve been sensing in my spirit that there is something shaking.  Hebrews tells us that there would come a time when everything would be shaken and only that which remained would last.  In recent years I’ve witnessed a great migration taking place.  An exodus out of the organizations we call “church” to gatherings in homes and online.  There are several reasons for this exodus.  Most are waking up, looking around and saying “where am I? how did I get here? what do I do now?”  There’s a disorientation that often accompanies a long deep slumber.  Some, when fully awake, realize that they were so horribly deceived that they determine to bring the system down.  Hundreds of books and websites, blogs and Facebook and other social networking pages have been created and published for this very purpose.  Some of them are really beneficial and water the soul.  Others are filled with rebellion, animosity and false teachings leading many astray.  Currently, it seems to me that the latter is gaining the most ground.  People are exchanging the truth for a lie and inventing a Jesus, God and gospel they can live with, rather than submit to the One and only True One.  We have never been called to bring God to our way of thinking – we have always been called to Him.  He is unchanging, unwavering, immovable.  One never brings a river to themselves – one must always journey to the river.

God is shaking.  He is shaking the church and sifting it.  Those who are pure of heart will easily pass through the sieve.  Those who are not will not pass through those small openings.  Everything that can be shaken is being shaken.  Why? Because it’s a preparation – a last push and call for the Kingdom that’s coming in physical form.  Only a pure spotless Bride will be counted worthy to participate in the first resurrection, which is the marriage of the Lamb.  God is restoring the body of Christ to it’s origins and purposes, accompanied by all the power of the Holy Spirit operating and confirming with REAL signs, wonders and miracles, in order to reach a lost and dying world and to hopefully snatch some from the fire that are caught up in the false doctrines and teachings.  I urge anyone reading this today to heed the call.  Purify your hearts and minds.  Reject all that is unholy and untrue.  Return to the real Jesus and the real God.  Repent.  Call on the Lord while He may be found.  The result?  A restored New Testament Church in full operation to usher in the return of the King.  What does that look like?  Well, I think Andrew Strom says it far better than me.  I want this.  I want this so bad I can taste it.