It’s easy to have simple church, community, mission and discipleship all figured out …
And tell others “how to” through books, blogs, seminars and online posts …
For those not distracted by actually doing it.
We need more people humbly living it and making it work in their own lives and home towns …
And fewer peddling it everywhere else instead.
Thinking the Great Commission says start a new church and invite everyone to come find Christ as part of your own community where you live and relate …
Seldom produces real disciples or real church.
Go and present Christ, however, where others live and relate in their own unique communities …
And real disciples and real church often happen.
In authentic church, there’s no single ministry or leader around whom everything is organized.
Instead, Scripture says that God bestows diverse gifts and callings among His people …
And that we are to use them to build up each other through ministry one to another – especially when we gather.
That’s why His mission for me should look very different than His mission for you …
And why there’s no mono-church in the New Testament.
Until we understand:
That the Gospel preached by Jesus is the good news of His Kingdom;
That “Christ” isn’t His last name but means “the anointed King“;
That “church” in the New Testament means the local representative assembly of His Kingdom in each community; and
That He never surrendered His authority in any sphere of life or culture …
Then we will not understand His command to make disciples of all who choose the blessings of His rule – including not just individuals, but also nations.
Some cast the nets, some build the boats.
In God’s Kingdom, no one person or calling is more essential than another.
MAKING DISCIPLES
The Great Commission is less about folks “coming” to find Christ at a meeting with me and my friends …
And more about “going” to dynamically establish Christ among others and their friends.
Christ in me, if authentic, should look different than Christ in you.
After all, there are no cookie-cutter disciples in the New Testament.
That’s why mono-churches, which revolve around one gifted man and his own calling …
Are an abomination to church as the New Testament actually commands it.
So stop trying to subjugate yourself to someone else’s measure of Christ, which is rooted in God’s unique gifts, callings and motivations for them …
Rather than His different gifts, callings and motivations for you.
Instead, let’s learn to once again be the multi-part, multi-gifted and multi-functional Body of Christ.
Only there, as we learn to minister to one another can we mutually build up each other as commanded in the New Testament …
Through vibrant diversity in Christ rather than stifling dependency under some particular “leader’s” own abilities, vision and ministry.
WISE COUNSEL OR FRAUD?
It seems the only people claiming these days to have “church,” “mission” and “discipleship” all figured out …
Are those selling it but not doing it.
Be discerning, ask and verify.
Are their books, blogs and seminars actually working in their own lives and home towns …
Or are they peddling spiritual fraud at your expense?
Those promoting a so-called “Christocentric” hermeneutic have too low a view of Christ …
And too high a view of themselves.
They presume to create a pick and choose Jesus through a pick and choose view of Scripture to suit their own sensibilities …
Rather than submit to all of Christ as He authentically reveals Himself in all of Scripture, both Old and New Testament.
Which, by the way, is why they never seem able to make viable disciples or form functional churches.
Don’t be so easily misled by their “new” faith …
Which is no faith at all, except in themselves.
Only by perverting “church” as taught in the New Testament …
Can someone lord over others by claiming to be a “servant.”
In Hebrews 13:17, most translations tell us to “obey” those who are leaders in the church.
In the Greek, that verb is in the middle voice and actually means to “be persuaded.”
Yet it is often mistranslated “obey” in the active voice.
Properly translated, we are to be persuaded by those who lead. Otherwise, they have no authority.
There is NO command in the New Testament to blindly follow any leader …
And no mandate for authoritarianism over God’s people.
Let’s learn to be the church as Scripture actually shows it, rather than only doing “church” as we’ve come to know it.
Modern concepts of “worship” combined with weekly “sermons” by a “senior pastor” at scripted “services” – along with mortgages, buildings called “sanctuaries” with spectator seating, and Old Testament tithing – were not part of the church in the New Testament.
Surprised? Search Scripture for yourself.
But they do seem to go hand-in-hand these days …
Because, after all, professionally produced staged shows that dependably attract weekly paying audiences don’t come cheap or easy.
What if your church gave up the show for Lent?
As Christians, if God’s presence is now in us …
Why do we go to “church” to enter His presence?
In fact, where do you even find that concept of church in the New Testament?
You don’t.
So let’s start gathering once again to be the church, by expressing – one to another – the many gifts and graces of His presence already in us …
Just like the New Testament says.
The Body of Christ …
Ain’t some Sunday God show.
Pastor this, pastor that,
Pastor here, pastor there,
Pastor, pastor everywhere …
Except in the New Testament.
Why is that??
I’d rather go plant Christ and let Him uniquely emerge among you and your friends as He builds His church …
Than “plant” some cookie cutter “church” and hope you find Him by coming to fit in with me and my friends.
Such is the heart of the Great Commission.
I’m done with the nones:
The authors, bloggers and pundits who legitimately tell everyone how they stopped going to “church” as they’ve known it …
But then can’t seem to ever get around to being the church as Scripture actually shows it.
Be discerning!
Do you have questions about simple, relational participatory church and discipleship …
As the New Testament actually shows it?
Be discerning:
Don’t be misled by self appointed “itinerants” with their self appointed titles, who don’t live it yet promote it …
To sell their books, agendas and “ministries.”
Learn instead from unassuming folk who are sacrificially making it work, along with others, in their own lives, households and home towns …
With no other personal agendas.
I’m confused.
The New Testament says we must submit to one another.
So who, exactly, is this Pastor“One Another” and where do I find him?
😉
Seeking God’s presence in a sacred space as we face a stage and an altar for ministry by the one …
Is so Old Testament.
Why not try the New Testament instead?
Gather as believers in homes and other places where life and community naturally happen …
To express together – each and everyone – the wonderful diversity of Christ’s presence already in you.
Then, by simply letting His life shine through you as we learn to minister to one another out of the many gifts He distributes among us for the mutual building up of each other …
All that other stuff becomes just a distraction.
———————-
“Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.” 1 Th. 5:11
“As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace.” 1 Pet. 4:10
“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
If all you’ve experienced is “church” as you’ve come known it …
Then church as Scripture actually shows it will seem odd and challenging.
Press on regardless …
Because the Kingdom of God is not for the faint of heart.
When “unity” is about everyone conforming to one person’s own calling, ministry, motivation or perspective …
Then “church” becomes a battleground over competing agendas and resources.
When unity, however, is about preferring one another over ourselves in our diverse callings, ministries, motivations and perspectives …
Then church becomes a springboard for God’s multifaceted Kingdom.
When “church” becomes a scripted show by the “anointed” few on an elevated stage before row upon row of spectator “attendees” …
There is no effective discipleship.
Seriously, where do you even find that in the New Testament???
Let’s be the church once again.
The many years of repeated failures by the existential fringe of the simple, “organic” church movement – with authors like Felicity Dale, Frank Viola, Milt Rodriguez, Jon Zens, Keith Giles and their buddies – stand as an object lesson moving forward:
Without the plenary authority of Scripture, simple participatory churches don’t succeed.
Although they are now fading away, in their day these fringe authors dismissed the plenary authority and discipline of Scripture – and in some cases even denied that the Bible is God’s written word – to peddle a Jesus of their own perception.
They then used the legitimate yearnings of others for simple, participatory house churches to promote their disastrous, extraneous agendas …
Eventually derailing the hopes and aspirations of many.
Their false Christ – who was little more than a projection of their own “deeper life” angst, post-modern sensibilities and trans-Biblical ideologies – inevitably led to dysfunctional, insular and anemic “communities.”
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