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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Real disciples follow Christ by submitting to the unadorned authority of Scripture as His written word …
While mutually building up each other through ministry one to another rooted in humble, Christ-centered fellowship with Jesus and each other, along side elders who emerge and serve among them.
Misdirected “disciples” instead follow some pinnacle “leader” by submitting to the self-serving authority of his own agendas and ambitions read back into Scripture …
While building up the reach and success of his “ministry” over others.
Big difference!
“Red letter” Christians only follow selective, out-of-context quotes by Jesus which conform to their own sensibilities …
While discounting the rest of Scripture.
Theirs is a pick-and-choose Jesus, supported by a fractured logos as they seek to divide the Living Word from His authority of Scripture as His written Word.
As a result, they know not Christ …
Which may explain their habitual existential angst and inability to create either viable disciples or functional churches.
It’s no accident that the four Gospels …
Are immediately followed by “Acts”.
Who deceived you into believing “church” is where you go to encounter God’s presence?
The New Testament says that if you belong to Christ, YOU are God’s temple and His presence now dwells in YOU …
And that we should gather to mutually build up each other by expressing His presence already in us and thus among us through ministry one to another as the multi-gifted, multi-functional, multi-part Body of Christ.
The idea of instead going to staged “services” so religious professionals can usher us into His presence is NOT found in the New Testament.
Nope, not, nada …
Just ain’t there.
So let’s shift our understandings and start being the church …
Once again.
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.
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