When someone’s salary is primarily about preaching sermons …

Is it any wonder that they make church primarily about them preaching sermons?

Yet where do you even find that in the New Testament?

You don’t.

Nope, not, nada …

Just ain’t there.

Why?

Because when we gather together, we are commanded to actively build up each other through ministry one to another …

Rather than passively listen to the one.

So why do we keep following the post-Biblical traditions of men …

Rather than the actual commands of God in Scripture?

What about mono-church, where our gatherings primarily revolve around ministry by one man …

Such as a so-called “Senior Pastor?”

You can’t find that anywhere in the New Testament (unless you count the warnings against Diotrephes, who wanted to be “preeminent” in his church) …

In fact, it explicitly violates the New Testament’s many commands about how we are to actually gather together – one to another – as the multi-gifted, multi-functional and multi-part Body of Christ.

For simple, participatory church to thrive, we need each other …

And our different God-given gifts, motivations and perceptions.

That’s because Christ, in His wisdom, does not want any one person, ability or ministry to dominate His church …

But distributes His many gifts among us instead.

Sure, institutional churches have great programs, services and staff. But have they produced mature disciples and a mature Body of Christ?

Isn’t this the nub of the matter?

No doubt, they can point to other measures of “success” – numbers, inspirational sermons, “decisions” made for Christ, feel good “worship” with great “worship” bands, buildings, etc.

But despite it all, are they actually making mature disciples and functioning as the mature Body of Christ?

Worship is not a “church service.”

There’s not a single such reference in the entire New Testament.

Nope, not, nada …

Just ain’t there.

Instead, we are to gather together to minister one to another for the mutual building up of each other out of the diverse gifts God distributes among us …

Just as God commands in the New Testament.

But that’s never called either “worship” or a “service” there.

And yes, we also are to congregationally sing praises to God in those gatherings, but again for the express purpose of mutually encouraging one another …

Which is the only reason given for singing together in the New Testament.

But neither is that ever called or referenced as “worship” there.

I’d rather gather together with a few in my living room and be the church, one with another …

Then sit in rowed seats with a thousand in some building called the “church” to watch a staged event.

There are numerous New Testament mandates which require that our gatherings as the church be participatory, with ministry one to another out of the diverse gifts God distributes among us.

Unfortunately, however, what we tend to have these days are “mono-churches” that are centered around the monopolizing monologue preaching by the “one” …

Or centered around one particular gift, vision or ministry emphasis.

Instead of mono-churches, here are just some of the New Testament’s many commands about how we are to gather and function together as the multi-part, multi-functional, multi-gifted Body of Christ …

For the mutual edification and building up of each other by one another.

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.

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.

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.

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.