I’m not trying to shock or upset anyone.
Instead, I want to help you start considering church as the New Testament actually commands it, rather than church as you’ve come to presume it.
So here’s an interesting fact:
The New Testament has numerous imperatives about why, and how, we should gather as the church …
But never once does it say it’s to “worship” God or have a “service.”
In fact, our modern notion of going to church for a “worship service” is utterly absent from the New Testament.
Nope, not, nada …
Just ain’t there.
Why?
Because the New Testament – in multiple passages – explicitly commands us to gather together for a different reason …
Which is to mutually edify, build up, and encourage one another as we minister to each other so we can grow together in our faith and become mature, functional believers.
For example, the only reason the New Testament says we should sing God’s praises …
Is to encourage each other.
But instead of the New Testament’s horizontal imperatives about being the church, one for another …
We have substituted post-Biblical notions that “church” primarily has a vertical focus …
As though we should go to some building to find or invoke God’s presence rather than encourage one another with the Living God who now dwells in us.
So instead of simple, participatory gatherings with unpretentious ministry one to another …
We now have special buildings dedicated to “worship,” with special “worship services” performed by a special class of priestly intermediaries called “worship leaders” who usher us into God’s “presence” while insuring we give big weekly “collections” of “tithes,” immediately followed by another hired professional intermediary called a “senior pastor” who monopolizes our gatherings through monologue “sermons” from an elevated stage with an “altar” and spectator seating.
NONE of that exists in the church as commanded in the New Testament …
And, in fact, it prevents us from actually being the church like the New Testament says.
Instead, true “worship” under the New Covenant is each of us individually living lives of reverence and sacrificial obedience to God – holy and acceptable before Him …
24/7.
When we then gather together, we are commanded to mutually edify, build up, and encourage one another in that like, common faith.
Nothing more …
Nothing less.
If that rattles your presumptions, then do as the Bereans …
Who diligently searched Scripture to see what it really says.
When you finally confirm these truths in His Word for yourself …
I simply suggest that you ask God what He then wants you to do about it.
Because real faith is about trust and obedience …
Not our human traditions and comfort zones.
Author: Plumbline Faith
Simple Truths from a Lifetime of Service to the King of Kings
Here’s just some of the New Testament imperatives about our gatherings as the church being participatory, with ministry one to another out of the diverse gifts God distributes among us …
Rather than ministry by the “one.”
These are not merely descriptive, but Biblical mandates.
“What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up.” 1 Cor 14:26
“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” Heb 10:24-25
Leaders in the church do not have a monopoly on ministry, but instead are “to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ …” Eph 4:12
We are not to be the church based on “human cunning… Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” Eph 4:14-16
Twenty years ago I was leading many to the Lord, especially from the local jail and other places at the edges of polite society.
I would then try to get these new believers plugged into the church I was attending – which at the time was considered a solid, dynamic, Bible-believing church.
But try as I did, it never seemed to happen. New converts from the “street” are good at seeing through facades. They’d quickly sense all the hypocrisy and phony represented on the front stage each Sunday – and wanted no part of it.
It got to the point that I couldn’t, in good faith, bring them anymore to that church. But I couldn’t find another church that didn’t have the same issues, rooted in the very hierarchical, pastor-centric structure common in nearly all churches here in the U.S. over the last several decades.
Essentially, those churches are more about the power, position, and prestige of the “senior” leader than about true ministry to one another for the mutual edification of each other …
Even though the New Testament condemns the former but commands the latter.
So I quietly started opening my home on Friday nights for a meal and fellowship, where everyone could share, be real with each other, and encourage one another in the Lord.
That was the beginning of our journey over the last twenty years into relational participatory gatherings with flat, rather than hierarchical leadership, which focus on ministry one to another instead of ministry by the one.
It’s been challenging at times, but I’ll never go back to the old model.
Perhaps it’s time that you too take a chance, step out in faith, and trust that being the church as the New Testament actually shows it is indeed possible …
Despite all of your prior presumptions about church as you’d previously come to know it.
See what the New Testament actually says, seek the Lord about what He wants and let Him prepare you, then do wherever He says …
Even if it leads you outside your comfort zones.
Contemporary, traditional, spontaneous, liturgical, a cappella or instrumental …
The problem with the ongoing “worship” wars is that all sides miss some central truths.
Although the New Testament has a lot to say about Christians assembling together …
No where does it include “worship” as an element of our gatherings.
Nope, not, nada …
Just ain’t there.
Yes, we are told to sing praises to God …
But for the sole purpose of encouraging one another, rather than as an act of “worship.”
You might be further surprised to learn that the New Testament Greek words translated as “worship” don’t mean singing.
Instead, they specifically refer to the temple rituals of prostration and animal sacrifice …
But not New Testament gatherings of believers.
In fact, the current idea of Christians going to “God’s House” to “worship” at a “service” is utterly missing from the New Testament.
Rather, we are repeatedly commanded to simply gather for mutual edification and to build each other up …
Through horizontal ministry one to another as the multi-part, multi-gifted Body of Christ.
That’s a far cry from “church” as we’ve come to know it …
Regardless of how you otherwise might want to define “worship.”
Did you know that the King James Version (KJV) was a deliberate mis-translation written to undercut reform movements that might challenge established religious traditions?
King James actively used the official English church to advance his own power. To further that goal, he wanted a Bible translation that propped-up the existing church establishment that was under his control.
To do so, he ordered the translators to follow 15 rules. Rule #3 required that “The Old Ecclesiastical Words to be kept, viz. the Word Church not to be translated Congregation etc.”
This means the King James Version is purposely biased against the actual meaning of the original Greek text, especially where it might undercut prevailing, traditional notions of “church.”
Unfortunately, subsequent English translations often lacked the courage to remedy those biases, because doing so would upset people and hurt sales.
For example, the Revised Standard Version (RSV), the New American Standard Bible (NASB), the New King James Version (NKJV), and the English Standard Version (ESV) are all based on the King James Version …
A fact that they all explicitly acknowledge but is not widely known.
I’m not saying those translations should be avoided. I use some of them all the time. But I try to avoid taking them – and any other translation – at face value.
Fortunately, there are excellent resources – like comprehensive scholarly lexicons – which help free us from translation bias.
New Testament lexicons are much more than a concordance or dictionary. They provide an in depth analysis of a word’s context and meaning, in its original language, as commonly used in the vernacular of the day during the first century.
Good lexicons thus can help us understand the original intent of the New Testament, without translation bias, as actually written in the first century under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
Doing so, however, requires an unsettling willingness to step outside of prevailing comfort zones and surrender to Scripture …
Based on what it actually meant when written.
We’ve encountered, in our relational participatory churches over the years, a common problem that enslaves many Christians and hinders their ability to initiate or enter into healthy fellowship.
It occurs when longstanding hurts, disappointments and emotional wounds become so ingrained into someone’s sense of identity …
That it begins to define them.
When this happens, it’s hard for them to transparently expose and turn those core issues over to Jesus.
So rather than finding liberation and wholeness through new life in Christ, along with healthy fellowship …
They become stuck in their past and can’t move forward.
Here’s the thing:
The New Testament says that elders are supposed to function pastorally, but most church leaders these days have no idea how to help people find emotional wholeness and healing in Christ …
And don’t even try.
Yet if you want to help people find healing and healthy community, you need to be willing to start gently walking one-on-one with them to their internal places of hurt.
Once there, allow them to finally express – fully, openly and verbally – their past and their pain to Jesus …
And, if needed, guide them towards openly and verbally forgiving those who wronged them and then have them ask God to forgive them for how they let the offense – rather than Him – define them.
This is the nitty gritty of confession and forgiveness in action.
Next have them bundle up the hurt in their spirit, lift that bundle up and explicitly release it to Jesus.
This is the nitty gritty of repentance in action.
When they do, we’ve seen that Jesus always takes it, and in turn always gives them healing and wholeness in exchange.
No exceptions!
This is the nitty gritty of redemption in action …
Because where there was bondage before, now there is the beginning of new life and healthy community in Him.
Don’t assume that relational participatory churches don’t need leaders.
In fact, it takes strong, secure leadership to create and maintain a safe environment …
Where others feel secure enough to come forth and minister one to another for the mutual building up of each other like the New Testament commands.
To help achieve that, the New Testament provides for elders (plural) who, among other tasks, watch over and protect each local church.
We do that by helping to equip everyone else to do works of ministry according to their diverse gifts, rather than assuming the primary burden of ministry ourselves …
And by creating a safe, secure environment in our gatherings where everyone feels free to actually come forth in ministry, one to another.
As an elder in a relational participatory church that meets in my home, I can attest to the weighty responsibility this puts on us.
To do it well takes humility as we discern when intervention is actually needed to protect the church and its members …
And then firm action when it is.
For example:
In my experience, smaller relational participatory churches like we see in the New Testament …
Often attract people who tend to dominate the gatherings – either intentionally or unintentionally – with their own unresolved issues, pet doctrines and individual agendas.
They haven’t learned to properly prefer and minister to others, and participate out of their own issues instead.
A good elder sees what’s happening and privately tries to work with them to help them come into balance.
But if they refuse, and persist in trying to dominate the church and thwarting it’s ability to function as the multi-gifted, multi-part Body of Christ …
The elders must act.
Otherwise, without proper leadership …
Those churches will inevitably fail, no matter how good everyone else’s intentions may be.
Ultimately, the goal of Biblical leaders must be to help folks properly come forth, rather than elevating themselves over the church.
So the issue isn’t whether we need leaders, but how they lead …
And whether they truly function as servants to all.
Why do we persist in making our churches dependent upon, and primarily revolve around, a “Senior Pastor” …
When no such position or role exists in the New Testament?
Eph. 4:11 is the only verse where the Greek noun translated as “pastor” is used in the New Testament regarding the church.
That’s it. Just once and nowhere else.
Yet we’ve taken that one passage out of context and built our current, prevailing “pastor centric” model of church and church leadership around it.
Continue readingYears ago, I was twice elected to local political office.
I was happy to serve, but it reinforced a basic truth that we ignore at great peril.
Healthy civilizations and societies are a Christian virtue …
Promoted to preserve liberty by those who heed Christ’s Lordship in all spheres of life and human endeavor.
Trying to use civil government to compel personal faith and piety, however, is a “Christian” vice …
Promoted by those who ignore God’s specific jurisdictional limitations for different spheres of life and human endeavor.
For example, God in the New Testament empowers civil government to protect good people from bad people …
Rather than empowering it to naively try to convert bad people into good people.
Biblical Christians understand these limits, and work to insure that government faithfully does the former …
While “Christian” nationalists and so-called progressives want to tyrannically give God-like powers to government in an attempt to do the latter.
Understand this difference, and you’ll understand the origins behind the intense political conflicts currently gripping our nation.
Let’s rededicate ourselves to civic engagement and preserving liberty …
But on God’s terms, as He defines and limits government.
Many have been deeply wounded by churches and ministries that used them – often when they were young and naive – to advance a particular leader’s vision by trying to mold them to his own gifts and callings.
Eventually, their own unique gifts, callings and God-given identity became subsumed to another man’s grand agenda …
And began to atrophy.
It’s liberating, however, when we finally learn that God did not create us to be like anyone else …
But instead gives us different personalities and motivations to match the differing spiritual gifts, callings and abilities He distributes among us.
So let’s be willing to learn from one another, while also experiencing His pleasure as we uniquely use and enjoy His differing gifts as He intended …
In our lives, families, fellowships and communities.
Why are the twin sins of “Christian” Nationalism and Progressive “Christianity” so dangerous?
When we give civil government the rights and responsibilities that God has reserved for Himself, or separately delegated to individuals, families, and the church …
We become its supplicants, and it our idol.
And like with all idols, unrestrained government power will inevitably lead to tyranny and bondage.
In contrast, civil liberty exists when the different jurisdictions of the individual, the family, the church and civil government …
Each stay in their separate God-ordained lanes – rather than trying to usurp the rights and responsibilities of each other.
For example, in the New Testament, God gives civil magistrates the power to provide for our common good and protect us from evildoers.
But He never gives civil magistrates the right – or responsibility – to make us personally “good” by compelling us to adopt particular beliefs or ideologies (religious or otherwise).
Nope, not, nada …
Just ain’t there.
Instead, God gives us – as individuals, families, and communities of faith – different roles and responsibilities for how we live holy and righteous lives before Him.
This highlights the fundamental flaw of both “Christian” Nationalists and Progressives:
They want to seize expansive government authority to impose their own notions of being “good” individuals on everyone else, beyond simply protecting us from evil so we can work out our own salvation before God …
By usurping what God has ordained for Himself and delegated to other spheres of authority.
So the choice is not between tyranny on the Right by “Christian” Nationalists …
Or tyranny on the Left by “Christian” Progressives.
Rather, it is whether we will uphold the separate and distinctly different rights, responsibilities and limits assigned by God to individuals, families, churches and civil governments …
And thus preserve the blessings of Godly liberty FOR ALL.
Church as actually taught in the New Testament?
It may be simple …
But I never said it was easy.
No noble, Godly endeavor ever is.
Which is why it’s so rare.
In marriage …
In the church …
And in so many other circumstances …
Problems begin to clear up when we learn to prefer each other above ourselves.
And if you think you’re the leader and this is about others needing to prefer you over themselves …
It’s not.
Because with that attitude …
You’re the problem.
If it’s designed to press your “feel good” buttons …
It’s not worship.
Because true worship upends, undoes, and permanently marks you for life …
Before the wholly holiness of God.
Often, voting for Godly principles means voting for personally flawed candidates.
I’m not excusing their individual faults, but consider this:
In Scripture, God often chooses scoundrels to alter history and change the course of nations.
Maybe that’s because He understands a basic truth that makes many uncomfortable.
Like, perhaps, it takes unconventional, strong-willed people with the attitudinal disposition:
To flaunt social norms and expectations in their personal lives (for good or for bad);
Never care about going along to get along; and
Never play it safe …
To confront – and upend – the corrupt, entrenched power structures of their day.
That doesn’t mean God gives them a free pass on their associated personal flaws.
As Scripture also makes clear, He doesn’t.
But neither does He typically choose those who are reputable, conventional, or safe …
When He decides to shift history and reform nations.
And fortunately for us, God’s not yet done with history ..
Or with nations.
Many blame the problems of America on our pulpits.
I tend to agree …
But for entirely different reasons.
The problem is not that churches lack strong pulpits with strong preaching …
But lack strong disciples who can function together as the multi-gifted, multi-part Body of Christ.
Big difference!
Where’s the virtue in not voting for the lesser evil …
If it allows the greater evil to crush virtue?
“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil:
God will not hold us guiltless.
Not to speak is to speak.
Not to act is to act.”
~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
There is no neutrality.
Not choosing is, in fact, to choose the status quo …
And often that’s the greatest evil of all.
I’m less interested in whether your Biblical proof texts affirm your theological position …
Then whether your theological position equally affirms the Biblical proof texts of those with contrary views.
Those who refuse to exceed their comfort zones …
Often lack Godly joy.
Maybe that’s why Scripture says that “the joy of the Lord is your strength” —
Because lethargy brings despair …
But overcoming brings authentic joy.
Jesus says He will build His Church as we go to unreached communities and make disciples …
And His Kingdom then advances.
Instead, we build our churches and hope unreached people will come, form community, and possibly become disciples …
But His Kingdom seldom advances.
Maybe we should do what Jesus says once again …
Not just overseas, but in our hometowns too.
There are many problems with making a “church” primarily about “the Pastor.”
One is that if “the Pastor” goes off track, burns out, hits his own personal limits, or whatever …
So typically also goes ”his” church.
Perhaps that’s why the concept of “the Pastor” who primarily runs and leads a church – or is the lynchpin of a church – simply doesn’t exist in the New Testament.
When we instead adopt the New Testament’s approach to local church ministry and leadership, there is greater balance and stability with broader discipleship.
Church then becomes a gathering of believers with ministry by one another to one another through the many gifts and callings God bestows between us …
And “pastor” is simply one of the functions performed by elders who emerge among us to guide and minister beside us to help make that happen.
Maybe that’s why God designed US to be HIS church …
Rather than primarily being about one man with a platform.
God still raises up Deborahs.
If that offends you …
You might be part of the reason He chooses to do so.
When did the gifts of God …
Become the grifts of men?
When humble ministry by one another …
Became platforming and showcasing by the one.
God is not amused …
And judgement has begun.
The Progressive Existential Revised Version (PERV):
A new Bible translation, where the true Word of God is whatever you feel it should be.
Plumbline Faith 