Those who habitually are unable to start, sustain or successfully be part of a simple, participatory church in their own lives, home towns or anywhere else …
Often promote the published “organic church” writings of Frank Viola, Milt Rodriquez, Jon Zens and their buddies.
This is hardly surprising, because those authors and seminar speakers habitually haven’t been able to either.
Be discerning, because without authenticity …
Simple church simply doesn’t work.
Let’s be honest:
Our prevailing concept of “the Pastor” who presides over a church …
Does not exist in the New Testament.
Yet it has become the lynchpin for “church” today.
How is that even Biblical?
Church traditions and cultural presumptions read back into Scripture …
Often become more sacred than Scripture itself.
The two biggest obstacles to simple, relational, participatory church like commanded in the New Testament:
1. Thinking it’s all up to you.
2. Thinking it’s all up to everyone else.
To guilt you into going to their “church,” sit in their pews and listen to their oratory each Sunday …
Preachers be like “don’t neglect to assemble together.”
But they distort Scripture by ignoring the whole passage …
Which is about gathering for ministry and encouragement by one another to each other – not by the one.
“Let us take thought of how to spur one another on to love and good works, not abandoning our own meetings, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and even more so because you see the day drawing near.” Heb. 10:25-26
Let’s find the courage to move on from such preachers and their “churches,” pulpits and pews.
Let’s instead gather together simply – face to face – to build up each other through ministry to one another.
Let’s be the church, as Scripture shows it, once again.
It’s nearly impossible for those feeding at the trough of “church” as they’ve come to know it …
To embrace church as Scripture actually shows it.
They just can’t get past all their conjectures and rationalizations …
And all the post-New Testament assumptions and traditions they keep reading back into original New Testament words and meanings.
Sometimes you just need to bless ’em, shake off the dust and move on.
My dad often said a prepared person is better than a prepared message.
People these days are sick of those who talk the talk but don’t walk the walk …
Often from raised podiums above us.
So make a difference – try getting down off your pedestal and being a prepared man or woman instead …
Because there is no better “sermon”.
I don’t plant churches so believers can come find Christ among me and my friends …
And I then can become the leader.
Rather, I go to the lost and plant Christ among them and their friends …
And then get out of the way.
That’s because relational participatory churches, like taught in the New Testament, happen simply but are never about us.
It’s not very complicated, nor does it cost anything …
Except obedience.
So how about it?
Why not start doing it the way Jesus taught it …
Once again?
The only hierarchy allowed in the church is Jesus as the head.
He, in turn, commands us to submit one to another and to prefer each other above ourselves – no exceptions!
Let’s be the church once again.
Within the New Testament church, authority emerged from relationships, plurality, example, persuasion and earned respect.
Today, it is imposed through appointment, position, hierarchy, titles, command and control.
Big difference.
New Testament unity is rooted in diversity …
As we honor God’s differing gifts, callings and motivations in each other above our own.
Insisting on “unity” through uniformity, conformity or hierarchy, however, is a lie.
What would disrupt your Sunday “service” the most:
The Holy Spirit doesn’t show up …
Or “the Pastor” and his “worship team” never show up?
Be honest …
Then tell me, whose “church” is it really???
New Testament:
Be the church with diverse ministry by one another while engaged with each other in face to face participatory gatherings.
Today:
Go to church for a monologue sermon by the one while staring at the back of someone’s head at a staged meeting with spectator seating.
Let’s be the church and change the world once again.
Spiritual frauds know how to fake charm and empathy to manipulate many.
Don’t be misled …
Value truth and candor instead.
Tired of the “institution” and looking instead for the simplicity of relational participatory church …
But your friends aren’t interested?
Consider opening your life, your home and your kitchen table to the lost, the unseen, the ignored, the marginalized, and the lonely.
After all, if your respectable friends aren’t interested in your hospitality, who does Jesus say to invite instead? The poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame …
Along with those living besides highways and hedges. Luke 14:12-24
If you know none, then get out of your comfort zones!
So go to the kinds of places Jesus went and reach out to the kinds of people with whom he hung …
Not through a “program” but with authentic friendship.
There is no true church, real faith, sacrificial love or advance of God’s Kingdom without hospitality – especially to those considered the least among us …
Not only by the world, but often by our own top-down, agenda-driven “churches.”
Rather than their impersonal “programs,” which try to help “outsiders” without truly embracing them but treating them as mere objects of “ministry” …
My wife and I have opened our home and table as places of hospitality over the years – offering respect, dignity, and genuine friendship to all who accepted our invitations to come.
As a result, fellowships emerged and lives transformed – including our own.
Hospitality: The missing ingredient.
Simple!
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
Don’t be insane.
Stop defending church as you’ve come to know it …
And start being the church as the New Testament actually shows it.
I love going to jail …
And being part of some of the best church in town.
Most “jail ministry” imports “church” or tries to “do church” for inmates.
It’s much more fun, instead, to let them be the church …
By allowing Christ to indigenously come alive in them, through among and among them as they learn to minister one to another and become His disciples where they live.
After all, isn’t that the heart of the Great Commission?
So you’re structuring and operating a “church” like a business to secure your own position and vocation as the pinnacle leader …
i.e., the “Senior” or “Lead Pastor.”
Where do you even find that in the New Testament?
You don’t.
It’s better to pay the price for truth, than to earn your pay from a lie …
Because in God’s economy, integrity matters.
So why the difference between the diverse, flat leadership found in relational participatory churches as taught in the New Testament …
And the monopolistic, pinnacle leadership often found in institutional churches that are rooted in post-New Testament presumptions and traditions?
There are many, but here’s an important one:
Church “leadership” and “ministry” are not about hierarchical organizational charts with titles and positions.
That has more to do with personal privilege, advantage and control …
Than humbly learning to dynamically function together as we prefer one another above ourselves in our different callings by using our diverse gifts to serve each other and submit one to another.
The former comes from the world of secular corporations.
The latter, from the heart of God.
Do God’s will and there’s very little we can’t accomplish together …
Once we give up the need to control it, own it or brand it.
“Worship” in the New Testament means living lives of sacrificial service and reverent obedience …
On God’s behalf.
Today it means a Sunday “service” performed by a hip band and some “Reverend” …
On our behalf.
Let’s return to the simple faith, simple virtue and simple church of Scripture.
Nothing in the original language or context of the New Testament even remotely matches our current, prevailing concepts of …
“Church,” “pastor,” “teach,” “preach,” “tithe,” “ministry,” “communion,” “worship,” and so much more.
Which begs the question:
What do people think they’re actually doing each Sunday morning?
Is it just an edifice built on post-Biblical human traditions and contradictions …
Continue readingNeeding to be called “Apostle,” “Prophet” or any other exalted title is a sure sign you ain’t one.
And please …
Don’t tell me how Paul called himself an “Apostle,” because – seriously – you’re no Paul.
Plus, in the language of his day that wasn’t a title but simply a function …
Describing anyone serving – while on mission – as another’s representative.
And it wasn’t an exalted role, but usually referred to the lowest slaves who were used as menial messengers …
Because they were the least essential and most expendable.
Perhaps that explains why we don’t see any so-called “Apostles” today who meet Paul’s job description:
“Instead, I sometimes think God has put us apostles on display, like prisoners of war at the end of a victor’s parade, condemned to die. We have become a spectacle to the entire world – to people and angels alike. Our dedication to Christ makes us look like fools, but you claim to be so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are so powerful! You are honored, but we are ridiculed. Even now we go hungry and thirsty, and we don’t have enough clothes to keep warm. We are often beaten and have no home. We work wearily with our own hands to earn our living. We bless those who curse us. We are patient with those who abuse us. We appeal gently when evil things are said about us. Yet we are treated like the world’s garbage, like everybody’s trash – right up to the present moment.” 1 Cor. 4:9-13
The church as commanded in the New Testament:
Simple relational gatherings of people who encourage and minister to one another in their different gifts and callings …
Not staged events by captivating “pastors” with their hip “worship” bands.
Let’s be the church …
And change the world once again.
Jesus never said to be a “servant leader.”
Instead, He said to be a servant …
Just a servant (period).
Anything else is more about you …
Than about Him or others.
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