Some Thoughts On Hearing Brian McLaren Teach

I just yesterday, starting reading on the Emergent Church, and for the very first time, read and listened to Brian McLaren. I must say, I am impressed and praise God for men like him who are speaking out, in love and truth on a need to be less hardline when reaching out to other religions. I do disagree with the many within the movement, that want to put everyone and anyone, or any religion under the umbrella as having it right. The majority of the Christian Church still hasn't got it right, but thank God some are trying.
Brian McLaren is a leading voice of the Emerging or (Emergent) Church.
He makes a great statement (I am not quoting here but providing to you what I heard him say in a video, imperfectly I might add)
..... "Christianity is the message of reconciliation, Conservative Christians make the message about reconciliation to God, Liberal Christians make the message about reconciliation with others. For Christianity to be the message of reconciliation it must consist of both of these."

Absolutely true.
============================My comment
I love the concept of a Mission centric life in Christ in this age and this time.
We are in one of the great transitions of Society and the World.
The world is getting smaller, and to show a world Jesus Christ will take more than a few out of country missionaries, or church buildings, it will take the entire body of Christ to reach out and touch someone. I am not talking about the Social Gospel, by itself, and I am not talking about Fundalmentalism, but a Christ centered life, that is willing to die to self, even to go to the cross to love all men.
It will take the expressed life of Christ in each of us. Not doctrine, not the Four Spiritual Laws, but the living Christ in us, as us and living through us.
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Brian also provides an illustration for thought on a mission centric life.
Our personal Christian mission is like this, "think of it like a Bicycle, you have to get on the bike and start peddling, God will do the steering in the direction the Bicycle should go." (once again imperfect quoting, just how I heard it)
====Some Thoughts On Hearing Brian McLaren Teach ======================
This is not works based religion, if you know, that all you can do is peddle, it only becomes work based religion when we think we can do the steering as well.
Doesn’t this make sense, when we read, Proverbs, (paraphrased of course)
"Man makes plans, but it is God that gives direction."

We cannot be stagnant individualistic Christians any longer, we must think first of Christianity in reaching others in the terms of the world, then community.
Most of our focus has been on ourselves first and foremost, and that stems from us being raised in an individualistic society.

Yes, our relationship to God is important, but if it excludes others, where is the overall effect in salvation or obedience "to go ye into ALL THE WORLD."  However contrary to the idea of just coming along accepting any religion for that matter, we are to preach the Good News, and that Good News is Christ has restored us, and given us life, and we can now live in love, and in peace, joy and righteousness. Religion, all religion, even Christian religion, doesn't have that. Only a life centered in and fellowship with Christ alone has that.

Our Christian life becomes selfish, even narcissistic, and results in an imbalanced Christian, if we say we can only have community with those who “believe’ as we do.
It makes for a church, that is exclusive and judgmental, and powerless. We aren't to exclude the pagan, but we aren't to include them either. We must look at Paul, He first converted the Gentiles, before they could be considered part of the Ekklesia, but He didn't condemn them or win them with an exclusive attitude, He first found common ground with them, then he persuaded them through discussion to Christ as the Way, the Truth and Life. Our problem hasn't been the message and Christ alone, but our problem has been two things, one in it's presentation , and two the most important one, is the contrary lifestyles we live and love others, in direct contradiction to Jesus own teachings, and one of the most important, is non- violence. Conservative Christianity and it's love of Nationalism, Zionism, and it's Western Materialism, is as or even more become more violent then the Protestants can condemn the Catholics in being against, all that opposed them. We have bit off the most important teaching expressed in the life of Christ, and that is to take up your cross and follow me, and take no vengeance, but to love your enemy and do good to those who DESPITEFULLY use you.
I think that falls into the category of radical Muslims as well. Why it is we can love Zionist, who commit autrocities as well, against Palestinian Christians, but not all men, is simply a matter of false doctrines and teachings the traditional church has shoved down the throats of "LAZY" people in the church, mostly religious people, who have spread these like they were the Gospel. They are all lies. God is love. All encompassing love, that sent his Son to die for ALL MEN. Not just Jews, and the Christian Religion, but ALL MEN!

We must be open, to the Father at all times, to teach us, not only in our personal study, but in our encounter with others. Regardless of their present belief system.
We cannot win the world for Christ by saying "ha ha, I am better than you are."

So, I say yes, community is important, whether it be two or three, or more, there should be a reaching out, not in the sense to win someone over to my argument, my theology, my truths, but a living out the truth to others, that my life reflects the generosity, love, compassion, justice and mercy of who I am, Christ in me.... and in you, and in others. A revealing of the "Christ in you," which is " the hope of glory"

We cannot do this alone, we cannot hope to do it alone, thus Christ gave gifts unto all men, so community, the Ekklesia cannot be ignored, it is within the context of that, that true spiritual life can be reflected to the world about us, as each one, reaches out to another, and that one reaches out to another and we all reach out together but we don't lock it behind the closed doors of a building, we openly engage the world about us. This is how the early Christians turned the world upside down. They didn't have to invite someone to church, for they knew they were a candle, but then they could include others from the church, as candles as well to the outside world, knowing that they didn't have all the light to give. Paul and Timothy, are great examples. It wasn't that Paul had anything to teach Timothy, I think there was times, when surely Timothy taught Paul. Paul was always learning and engaging others who were outside of the realm of the church, He engaged the pagans but found common ground, through conversation then won them to truth, by example, a life lived out in the love of Christ within.
In reaching out, to others, we cannot think we hold the corner on truth, the truth be told, if we have Christ, we all have “The Truth.
So if we do not allow others, to speak, is to say we know more then them. This is pride, stubborn, and quite honestly evil in the final outcome.

It is in the context of shared community, that we find, the gifts of each of us, building the body into one, a wholesome union in Christ.
Let me illustrate....if you light one candle and put it in a dark room, only a portion of that room will be lit up, now add another candle, and another, and soon there is enough light to dispel the darkness.
This is why there must be a coming together in common unity under the banner of Christ, not to just sit or be bystanders or be entertained, coaxed, or be an audience, but to be actively engaged, in being one of the candles.

I believe, that we must be open, and forthright, and exercise the love of Christ to obtain that. We have to be open, to the reality, that Christ is in us, as well is he is anyone else in our Christian Community.

If we show any hint, of not listening, and only talking, we shut down, the gift another may have to give us. In the same aspect. We cannot be shut down, to do so, is the same as us, shutting someone else down, we allowed our candle to be snuffed out, and that one little area of the room remains dark and undiscovered to us and to others, either way we go.
The Father designed it that way.
This is why scripture tells us what our coming together is to be like,
“One to Another'”.

Modern church and Pre-Modern Church and going way back to Medieval Church, and back further than that, after the Apostles passed away, men, thought that they knew better and tossed Christ and the Apostolic tradition out the door, for their own traditions.
I blame Martin Luther for the fact that the one man leader idea didn’t get reformed in the Reformation, it just got modified, Pope/Priest to Pastor or Bishop.
I blame Martin Luther for the Sermon. Read up if you would like to know why.
Martin is the one, that said there must be a Sermon at every church meeting. Function is one thing, title and power is another.

Our discovery of walking and abiding in Christ, must be one in which all the candles are allowed to burn, it doesn’t matter the candles beauty, it’s shape, or even it ‘s color, what matters, is that without that one little candle, one area will always remain dark in the room. Thus there is great need, for the body of Christ, when coming together to always be, in Dialegomai-discussion, not argument, on who is right or who is wrong, for each candle has it’s worth, even if it isn’t the prettiest candle or the one we would have chosen to help light the room.

We must be constantly engaged in the "one to another.”

This is why I love the Quaker’s or the old "Orthopraxy" of the Ana Baptist, is the shared responsibility, and the shared importance of each member.

This is what Paul was saying all along, in the book of Corinthians.
How could we as the church so have missed it?
Why, because men, thought they could protect the sacred teachings, instead of the Holy Spirit doing the job, and they stepped in, and the Holy Spirit, was forced out the door. It never was about the written word, it's always been about the Living Word.
The Holy Spirit has been trying to step back in ever since, there as been over the centuries of church history (the main reason most churches don't teach it) one after another, who said, "Wait, I have something to say," and the hierarchy, said, "sit down, be quiet, and learn from me."
Those that refused, were always branded as "heretics," just like Jesus. "Where does this man, get His teaching, isn’t He the carpenter’s Son?"

This is what rattled the Pharisees, the most, is Jesus teaching attracted the crowds, out of love to hear more of what he had to say, and what they could learn, they hungered to learn more of the Father's love, they hungered to engage Jesus, but the Pharisees, had to use fear manipulation and religious power to keep the crowds attention.
They could excommunicate.. been there, I know that one from personal experience!

I think we missed it because of our carnality and being human and always either wanting someone to lead us, instead of being actively engaged, as it is easier, it is lazy, and more often or not it is out of fear. We often fear that others may discover "the real us."
Isn’t that what fellowship with one another is suppose to be all about, is that discovery, so that we can both encourage and rebuke, but in mercy, in compassion, in love. So that each one can grow up in the maturity and fullness of Christ.

It is in the mouth of TWO or more witnesses, that truth is to always be established, this is the lesson from our Father, that He expressed Himself through the Son, and now expresses Himself through each one of us by the Holy Spirit.
Yet there is that relationship with the two always.
Christ neither said or did anything without the Father, and neither should we without the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit is not limited to one man, or one woman.
He is working and speaking through all of us, that are His children now.
No one person has the corner on the Holy Spirit for it is impossible to put the Father in a single container, one man, one woman, and say, there He is.

Pastor worship is fatal to the body and fatal to the Pastor. I can promise you, more assemblies die because of this one thing, and more Pastors quit or are fired because of this one thing, then any other reason.

It all narrows down to who we worship, Christ the Head of the body, or just some foot or toe, of the body.. being a Pastor doesn't make you the head.
This is the grandest error of all. This is what destroys, Pastors, Evangelist, or anyone engaged in ministry, when we begin to think the adoration is deserved, and expected.

Church, as it is in most churches, is the opposite of community, except in the things that don’t matter, this is the grand error, of church hierarchy, and tradition. It's alright to share the babysitting, the Sunday School room, the meal, the cooking, the outward mission to get members, but don't you dare ask to share the teaching, preaching or the curriculum. This is why Sunday School lessons must be organized, or directed, or decided upon by "the leadership."
Any thing other is a threat to the Pastor and to the Hierarchy.

It is the antithesis of every thing, that is Christ like, or even Apostolic.
There will always be those that will want to lead, but what about the church giving this a try - "We have no leader but Jesus Christ," and we humble ourselves to admit, that we are but one candle, in a dark room, we don’t have all the answers and we sure don’t have all the light needed to light up the room. Bring on the candles! A single candle will burn out a lot quicker then several lit at intervals.

It is when as a Pastor, or leader, we step down, and humble ourselves, to accept not a role as leader, but as servant, and allow others to be the same, that the whole room will get light.
In other words the entire community of believers, and the world around them can be lit by the fire of God, and the Holy Spirit can do His grandest work.

So what am I saying here, I am saying what Paul, said. Who is Paul, Who is Apollos, - who is the Pastor?
We can say we depend on the Father to be what we must be to the congregation, but can we say, I will depend on the Father to be what the congregation is to be.

We don’t most often because we fear, we anguish and worst than that, sometimes we are too proud to relinquish our phylactery, or robes, and tassels, to step down, and say, "look, I don’t have anything more than you, I don’t have the corner on truth, we together are here in the presence of The Truth and as a whole, He is the truth, and we will rely on Him."

Let us no longer, shut the grand doors of the gate, of the communion of believers coming together in fellowship, and let us quit telling the Holy Spirit, He will have to wait outside, until the service is over, or He can come in, as long, as you follow my directions, my program, my doctrine, my creeds, my belief system, my, my, my.... the "my" is what is killing the body and the long run will kill you.

Can’t we see, how in doing this, we have now stood in the place of God, declaring ourselves to be God, when all along, He is sitting there in the congregation before you, and in you, waiting, waiting, for us as Pastors to sit down and shut up, and listen...
We might just light another candle in the darkroom and then a whole bunch of candles get lit on fire by a sharing of the flame of the work of the Holy Spirit in each persons life.
I say, yes there is a time for teaching, or preaching but it must be a group decision, once the candles know how to burn on their own, but this doesn’t mean all we do is talk , we teach in the same manner Jesus did.
Jesus gave a story, He then would ask questions, then he would engage in conversation, and seeds were planted. - Thanks Brian for that one.

How can a Pastor or anyone learn, if we don’t hear. If all we do, is listen to our own taped sermon, or our own voice, to see how grand we sound, or persuasive, we miss out, on what was received, from what we said.
We wonder, why when we have worked so hard to deliver a SERMON, that seems to us, should effect everyone and we believe that it expresses the heart of God, that the body, sits there half asleep, half engaged in what is said, and half listening.
Ask most people when they leave, what the sermon, was about, they will tell you, "I don't know, but it was good."

We would never sit still for a college class where question aren’t asked, and answers given, and there is an exchange between students in Professors, why do we think that the Father would design fellowship to be ‘sit there be quiet, don’t ask questions."

This is not the way Jesus engaged the world or His own disciples. He engaged them into conversation, thought, questions, and conversation.
Jesus would start with a story an illustration.
The best teachers are one’s that give an illustration- a story, then ask questions of the pupils, then allows for conversation, to allow the seeds of truth to sink in.

Revelational truth that only the Holy Spirit can provide each of us is what truly teaches us.
Authoritarian teaching, teaches nothing but authority, engaged conversation teaches love.

You would be amazed at how much, so many of the saints you thought less of, in the assembly, that perhaps had more insight, more spiritual awareness, more growth, even then yourself at times. I speak that from former house church and organic fellowship experience.

The call for the Post Modern church is this, for it’s leaders for once to be real servants, and learn to listen, to shut up when necessary, and open the doors to others to speak, to teach, to preach, to sing, whatever the Holy Spirit would desire to do, within the context of reason and order.
I don’t believe in a bunch of chaos, but when organic church is practiced, it rarely happens, this is where, anyone of a group of people, not just the Pastor, can put the brakes on if led by the Spirit of God to do so.

I think scripture makes it clear, that more than one can prophesy, I am not talking about what is defined as Charismatic prophesying, but what is defined by scripture, "The Spirit of Prophecy, IS THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS CHRIST"....that’s why I love God’s Word, is that you will find order in it, that is clearly spelled out, if we will only look for God’s definitions in it, and not our own.

Let each one speak, the other sit down, and let the others judge. This is not a verbal bout, over whether it was right or wrong. It is the asking what was said encouraging, correcting, or teaching on our testimony of Jesus Christ, then it should be judged quietly by each heart, and then if someone has something to say, let them speak, let them engage on what was said, how it effected them.
Did it harm, then say so, did it encourage, then say so, did it correct us, then say so, did it give us a teaching, then say it and share it.
Was it in line with the Father of all Love and Creation. If the body has the Holy Spirit, and they are truly the body, there will be no bickering, no condemning, no putting down of others, but all will be done in love.
This is where the Holy Spirit will use someone I promise to speak out and say so, and it will be in union with what the Holy Spirit is saying in the others hearts as well. Do we trust Him?
Oh, what if I have a song to sing? Can I sing it, from my heart?

This is the big question for the Pastor and the Body to ask themselves,
Do we trust the Holy Spirit to be what Jesus said He would be, that He would guide us into all truth. He would speak of Jesus. Isn't that what we come together for, is to see the reality of a Resurrected Jesus, in each of us?

I can promise you, I have more than once tolerated sermons, and speakers, who were both off Scripture by a mile, and harmed more than they won over anyone with love.
Why? No one dared challenge, them, they are the “PASTOR”.
The man of God, the man with the Oracle of God.
Thinking like this is purely pagan in origin and is what creates the Jim Jones, and other false prophets, and teachers we here of today.

I pray, that this one thing, will be what the Post Modern Church will get, that they will finally catch onto, is the elimination of leaders and instead the making of servants and disciples, who are filled with Spirit,and the Wisdom of Christ.
I pray that Jesus Christ must be the central truth and means to salvation, and no not all religion, matter of fact, no religion, leads to God the Father, and that it's not a matter of being an organization that is willing to except anyone for anything they believe, but about being a person, that Christ lives through us, as us and in us, then He can do the soul winning, the drawing all men unto Himself, and we won't have to alienate others, but fact be known, there is no "church" - no ekklesia, without Christ as the central truth, Buddha, Confucious, none of those religions will make the "called out one's of God. They can be drawn in, loved in, and even taught in, but without love, what good is winning someone to a doctrine, rather than a person, and this absolute has to stand, to be called "Christian", Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life.

When God works, we rest, when we work, He can't and won't rest until we learn to allow Him to take the reigns of all of our life, individually and in community.

Let us in the coming days, not experiment, not create cell churches, not start groups, or even new movements, let us come together as the Early body of Christ did, in harmony, in love and in equality, open to allow the candles to be lit. I believe in my heart, that we could once again, turn the world upside down for Jesus!
Let's quit experimentation, let's abandon dead works, elitist leaders, love of money and power, and let's make Christ and His people- all equal, and love the foundation of all we think and do, and there won't be any need for a new movement, or the emergent church or the old church, there will be Christ! Standing out as a light to the world, and the salt of this earth that every religion can see, and they will be drawn to that light, and desire it above all things, as well.

Doctor J.

The Number Two - For The Church

I have written somewhat on this subject before on my other blog Dialegomai .
The subject to which I allude to is the one of whether God intended to have His church carry the practice of the Catholic church- having one man over-rule or to have a multiplicity of elders under-sheparding the body of Christ when they come together in assembly.
As I thought more about this in relationship to scripture, many passages of scripture came to mind and the recalling how the Lord throughout both the Old and the New Testament always worked and spoke using men in two's not singularly.
I have noticed that within the Southern Baptist Convention that they are being finally challenged with this question and it is beginning to be debated on scriptural grounds somewhat as to whether Scripture outlines for "church government" a multiplicity of elders or congregational rule. The issue starting coming to the attention of The Baptist Convention sometime back in 1994- see: "Elders in Baptist churches? Conference examines the idea".

The whole problem with both of their arguments, it is an argument over rulership rather than sheparding by example. It disregards Holy Spirit selection of the elders within the community of believers. It is in debate because both sides fear losing power. In the truth of the true Ekklesia, there is no such debate because only Christ rules.
They have forgotten the admonishment by the Lord Jesus Christ himself when discussing this subject.
Let us look at this:
The answer is: Jesus purges Christian leadership of everything that makes it ugly and builds into Christian leadership what makes it beautiful. He purges it of self-exaltation; and he builds into it the reality of servanthood. He says, "Whoever exalts himself will be humbled" (Matthew 23:12). That's the end of arrogance and self-exaltation in Christian leadership. And he says, "Whoever would be great among you must be your servant" (Matthew 20:26). That's the key to beautiful leadership that builds up others.

This should humble those who are in positions of leadership. True leadership is not leadership at all but servitude that is gifted by the Spirit of Christ.

Leaders are not to be overlords but they are suppose to be under-shepards. God never intended for the elders to be subjagating themselves just to those that have the money, that prop up the system or those that pay their salary and the bills of the organization. If you eliminate money out of being one of the foundations of all of Christendom's organizational church, and advocate, not salaried pastors, buildings to meet in, or building big organizations, the churches of today and yesterday would collapse over night and then only would the true body of Christ be revealed.
The very first thing we need to look at in this ongoing treatise of mine, that I have referred to as the title of a book I plan to write and publish, "Why The Church Is Failing". Did God intend for more than one person to do the teaching and under-sheparding within the body of Christ?
We need to look at this along with the verses I have to quote the necessity by scripture to have a muliplicity of elders,who are gifted with teaching over one man pastoralship.
The main reason for this is required is because it is the means that God chose throughout scripture to insure truth was proclaimed among His people and to His people.

I want to borrow from a writing by Tony Warren on "The Numbers in Scripture".

"When we look through the scriptures we find that God often uses the number two as a signification for agreement, and by implication, truth. And because God has declared that the Church is the pillar and ground of the truth (1st Timothy 3:15), this number is also often used in association with it. It's the numerical symbolism of a faithful (truthful) witness or testimony. i.e., one being in agreement or a "confirming" witness of another. For example, the two witnesses spoken about in the book of Revelation chapter eleven. They are the Lord's faithful witnesses who bear testimony to the truth! Therefore are they spoken of as "two" witnesses, signifying that they come with the truth. In fact, we can readily see that the designation of two witnesses has always been the guide post that God has used for "establishing agreement of truth." From scripture we see that from the very beginning God instituted this number as the guide post for truth.

Numbers 35:30
"Whoso killeth any person, the murderer shall be put to death by the mouth of witnesses: but one witness shall not testify against any person to cause him to die."

Here God is using the minimum number of "two" witnesses to Illustrate the corroboration of what is the truth (Deu. 17:6).
One witness could not by God's law establish it as the truth. It took at least "two" witnesses to establish any accusation true, that a man could be put to death. This number two signified the agreement or corroboration that established truth. That is precisely why Revelation chapter eleven uses the phrase "two witnesses". It is to signify that these are the truthful or faithful witnesses of Christ who went forth declaring God's Word! The Lord does nothing by coincidence and that phrase establishes that their testimony is the true witness.

Again, we can see this same principle illustrated when Jesus reiterates this law of God in Matthew.
Matthew 18:16
"But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established."

A minimum of two witnesses would establish the truth. Note it says there "that every word may be established". In other words, a witness to verify the truth of what's been said. Two witnesses symbolize that what's being said is verified true by law. The concept that God ordained from the beginning.

John 8:17
"It is also written in your law, that the testimony of two men is true.."

God's law prescribed that the Testimony of "two" men is a truthful testimony. That number two illustrates God is using the number as the establishment that what is said is the truth. Likewise, when Jesus Christ sent the Seventy out to witness or testify to the truth, not coincidentally, he sent them out by two.

Luke 10:1
"After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them Two and Two before His face into every city and place, whither He Himself would come."

He sent them out by two and two (two witnesses) and told them that he who hears you, hears Me! In Other words, they went with the unadulterated truth which was God's Word! Indeed, they were the truthful witnesses to it! And he who heard them, heard God's Word of truth, at their mouth!
This is the Church sent out "the Two Witnesses." Jesus sending them out by two established in scripture the numerical symbology that they went with the power of the truth of God's Word. Likewise, Jesus did the exact same thing with the twelve disciples because God wants us to know assuredly that His Church declares His word in truth. Indeed, it is the pillar and ground of it! That is what is illustrated by this number two.
Mark 6:7
"And He called unto Him the twelve, and began to send them forth two and two; and gave them power over unclean spirits."
The truth of these things becomes self evident when we compare scripture with scripture. The testimony of the Old Testament is that God would often send two angels or messengers to His prophets in order to reveal some truth of His Word to them. Even as Jesus ascended to heaven there were two Messengers there to signify of a truth He would return in like manner. We read,
Acts 1:10
"And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel:
Or again, God illustrates truth with this number in Hebrews six.
Hebrews 6:17-18
"Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, Confirmed it by an oath:
That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to LIE, we might have a strong consolation..."
He confirmed it with an oath that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible to lie. That means the absolute truth! All through scripture we see the number two used to illustrate truthfulness or faithfulness. Whether it's the Spiritual signification of the two candlesticks, or the two fishes that feed thousands, or the two brothers (The sons of Thunder), or when the Disciples said, "Lord, Here are two swords" (Luke 22:38) and Jesus said, it is enough, etc., etc. The symbolism of the number two in scripture for the truth or the faithful witness is clear.
This being so, it's no wonder we see this number used many times in relationship to the body of believers, which is God's true church, and the Word of God which is the truth of scripture! Truth and God's church go hand in hand as they are the witnesses of it.
1st Timothy 3:15
"But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth".
The Church is identified with the number two because it is the Pillar and ground of the truth. The faithful servant and witness of God.
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There are many more examples of God always working his truth through two witnesses, all you have to do is look at Aaron and Moses in the beginning and Paul and Silas in the end.

Why would men, so disobey God's word in His clear admonishment to have more than a single witness within His body? The answer is men's traditions and man's ways. It is purely a carryover from the thoughts and theology of men, and not scripture.

God never intended to have a single voice speaking for the body of Christ. Thus he even sent out the disciples in two, Paul traveled in two's and on and on scripture verifies the necessity for a multiplicity of witnesses- no less than two. The single man Pastor is unscriptural and remains so. If we truly to desire to have the church of Jesus Christ to turn this world upside down for Him, then we must hear the Word of the Lord first - Scripture.

The truth of God's word must speak for the truth and not men's traditions, these traditions that are just a carry over from the rule of the Pope -even in Protestantism.
The Protestants have continued this gravest error since their birth by Martin Luther. Luther was not about to reliquish that position for anyone, he would have to give up self-power and rule over others. How else can the coffers kept full but one man to sit in the Temple of God and declare himself God. This is the meaning of this scripture in Revelation. It has nothing to do with some one person someday doing this, it is the very essence of the anti-christ spirit, to sit in the place of god and declare yourself god, this is the apostasy that Paul and others warned was coming. In less than 100 years, man did this. Ignatius and others lighting the fire for this vain philosphy with the idea that when the Bishop speaks it is the same as God speaking!

Doesn't it even make just commone sense that two men to agree takes much more than one man dictating.
There is a balance in this. It keeps error out and allows the Spirit to speak. It is the basis for the ideals of checks and balances within our own government. You take that away, truth and freedom are gone forever, just as freedom of the body of believers led by the Holy Spirit as been usurped by man's traditions now for over 1,907 years of church history.

The Baptist are on the right track but the wrong train. The matter is not an issue of who should rule, but how many should be examples, how many within a body should do the overall teaching, and guiding as an under-shepard by example of life" chosen by God " within the community of believers in assembly and not the organization, it's rules, it determinations, it wordly ways to decision making. Education, Importance, Resume and more being the criteria rather than God raising up among a body those He has chosen.

The issue for the Baptist or any organizational church is just that they want to have some sort of organization based on men's concepts of leadership rather than the clearly laid out plan as given by Christ for His Ekklesia. Even if they introduce eldership, they want to divide it again down to one man who teaches and the others who adminstrates- desperately trying to hold to the one man rule with a slight bend toward trying to be scriptural. They are wrong in all aspects.

The problem is they are an institution, that is an organization based on every opposite of what Christ and scripture teaches.

It slams the priesthood of believers in the face with hypocrisy, formulating a rulership, a high priest institution,- a return to Judaism, though in word they say they beleive in the "priesthood of all believers" and "Christ as their high priest" but in practice, it is everything but that.

The church has first displaced Christ as the head of the Ekklesia for the State, by forming a business rather than a body of believers . They do this by making it a business incorporation, rather than the mystical body of Christ. Pleasing the State must first be the primary consideration. Tax free status, and incorporation to determine who will be the power over.
The primary reason for this is the "love of money".

The second thing is they have defined a form of government for themselves that follows the plans of men and men always wanting power over others. Forgetting Christ's admonishment as to what real leadership is.
They need to re-read Matthew Chapter 23, verses 1-12 again, and commit them to memory, that they may not sin against Him who is the very Ekklesia - Jesus Christ our Lord.

My absolute belief is the organizational church will continue to fail, in ever being a representive of Christ and His Spirit because in truth it is not the body of Christ. The true Ekklesia and any local assembly is the body of those who come together in love and the only High Priest present is Jesus Christ- the only one deserving of honor above all men. There is none that sit in the center of attention other than Jesus Christ our Lord.

The change to eldership verses congregationalism for Southern Baptist or any "religious organization" will not change things for them, as long as this is viewed as "rulership and a form of government" rather than the gifts of the Holy Spirit to His believers and that it is He who chooses those that are gifted to teach by example and word. It is He that creates within us a spirit of servitude rather than lordship over others. It is He that they need. It is only He that can formulate and show what it means to be a member of the Kingdom of God and not the kingdoms of men.

Two - is the first answer for all bodies meeting. God designed truth to be only revealed in two's.
But the first thing that has to go is arrogance in the Pastors, the wealthy that pay the bills, and the congregation who too wants to have power over others. Ture Congregationalism can only exist where Christ is King, and each believer is exerising through the leadership of the Holy Spirit the gifts given unto them. This is far beyond the big mouth and the little ears concept that man has traditionally practiced in the physical church. The real Ekklesia is spiritual but for it to be extended into the reality of it being seen on this earth, we must return to He who is the Founder of our Faith, and He who said that "two " is His way. We have to return to humble yourselves before God. Don't think of yourself as more important than others. Keep company with those who are the lowly of this earth.
I love Pastors they hav just been seriously mislead by men. I invite eac of them to take heed to the words of Christ and the practices of the Early Church and the Apostles. Let us return, not in just a reformation of the church, but to a restoration of the church.

God humble us to know thy ways! Teach us your word, hide it in our hearts, that we might not sin against thee.

Dr. J.

The Organization of the Early Christian Churches

The Organization of the Early Christian Churches
by Edwin Hatch
(London, 1887, pp. 44-45, 72-77, 100-103, 105, 116-123, 125,127)

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There Was No 'Clergy/Laity' Distinction in the Early Church
It will be convenient to take in detail the several functions which in later times were regarded as the special and peculiar functions of Church officers, and to inquire how far they were regarded as special and peculiar functions in the first two centuries.

In regard to the function of teaching or preaching, it is clear from both the Acts of the Apostles and Paul's epistles that 'liberty of prophesying' prevailed in the Apostolic age. It is equally clear that liberty of prophesying existed after the Apostolic age ...

In regard to baptism there is no positive evidence, but there is the argument a fortiori which arises from the fact that even in later times, when the tendency had become strong to restrict the performance of ecclesiastical functions to Church officers, baptism by an ordinary member of the Church was held to be valid, although if an officer might have been found it was held to be contrary to Church order ...

In regard to the [Lord's Supper], the only explicit evidence is that of the Ignatian Epistles ...It is clear from them that the Christians of the cities to which they were addressed had held other meetings beside those at which the officers were present. In these meetings the bread had been broken and the Eucharist celebrated. The practice is reproved, but the reproof is a gentle one. ...It appears from this that the celebration of the Eucharist without the presence of a Church officer was not of itself invalid. It is inconceivable that anyone who held that the presence and action of a Church officer are essential to the valid celebration of the Eucharist, which has been ordinarily held in later times, would have used the language of mild remonstrance....

In regard to the exercise of discipline, the earliest evidence is that of First Corinthians. In it Paul addresses the whole community, and urges them to meet together and exercise the power of expulsion in the case of one who was guilty of open sin....

Whether therefore we look at preaching, at baptism, at the Eucharist or at discipline, it seems probable that the officers were not conceived as having, as such, exclusive powers. In other words, the existing evidence in regard to the functions of Church officers, so far from establishing, tends to disprove the existence of any conception of the nature of their office, than that which is gathered from the terms which were in use to designate such office....

Such a conclusion may appear strange when viewed by the light of later times, but it is not strange if it is viewed in relation to the circumstances of the first two centuries. In those early days the mere membership in a Christian Church was in itself a strong presumption of the possession of high spiritual qualifications - before the doors of admission were thrown wide open, before children were ordinarily baptized and men grew up from their earliest years as members of a Christian society, before Christianity had become a fashionable religion and gathered into its net 'of every kind' both good and bad.

Then the Christian was indeed a 'member of Christ', a 'king and priest unto God'. The whole body of Christians was upon a level: 'you are all brethren'. The distinctions Paul makes between Christians are based not upon office, but upon varieties of spiritual power... There was a vivid sense, which in later times was necessarily weakened, that every form of the manifestation of the religious life is a gift of God - a charisma, or direct operation of the Divine Spirit upon the soul...

Now, while this sense of the diffusion of spiritual gifts was so vivid, it was impossible that there should be the same sense of distinction between officers and non-officers which afterwards came to exist. Organization was a less important fact than it afterwards became... The officers who had the control of order and administration came inevitably to have a higher relative status than they had before. There were not only disputes, as we learn from Clement of Rome, about the appointment of officers, but also an exaggeration of the place of order in the Christian economy. The gift of ruling, like Aaron's rod, seemed to swallow up the other gifts.

Then came a profound reaction. Against the growing tendency towards that state of things which afterwards firmly established itself, and which ever since has been the normal state of almost all Christian Churches, some communities, first of Asia Minor, then of Africa, then of Italy, raised a vigorous and, for a time, a successful protest. They reasserted the place of spiritual gifts as contrasted with official rule. They maintained that the revelation of Christ through the Spirit was not a temporary phenomenon of Apostolic days, but a constant fact of Christian life. They combined with this the preaching of a higher morality than that which was tending to become current. They were supported in what they did by the greatest theologian of his time [Tertullian] ... In theological as in other wars the tendency is to cry, 'Vae victis!', and to assume that the defeated are always in the wrong. But a careful survey of the evidence leads to the conclusion that, in its view of the relation of ecclesiastical office to the Christian life, the Montanism, as it was called, which Tertullian defended, was theoretically in the right, though its theory had become in practice impossible. ...It was a beating of the wings of pietism against the iron bars of organization. It was the first, though not the last, rebellion of the religious sentiment against official religion...

But although the original conception of ecclesiastical office ultimately passed away, it passed away only by slow degrees. Little by little those members of the Christian Churches who did not hold office were excluded from the performance of almost all ecclesiastical functions. At first a layman might not preach if a bishop were present, then not if any Church officer was present, and finally not at all...


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Priesthood of Believers Replaced by Primacy of Bishop
[There}were the strangers who passed in constant stream through the cities of all the great routes of commerce in both East and West. Everyone of those strangers who bore the Christian name had therein a claim to hospitality. For Christianity was a great fraternity, and grew because it was a loving brotherhood. The name 'brother', by which a Jew addressed his fellow-Jew, came to be the ordinary designation by which a Christian addressed his fellow-Christian. It vividly expressed a real fact. For driven from city to city by persecution, or wandering from country to country an outcast or a refugee, a Christian found wherever he went a welcome and hospitality in the community of his fellow-Christians. The practice of hospitality was enjoined as the common virtue of all Christians, and in the New Testament stress is laid upon it by Paul, Peter and John.

But it was a special virtue of the episcopos [bishop]. It was for him not so much a merit as a duty. Traveling brethren, no less than the poor of his community, were entitled to a share in the distribution of the Church funds. It is natural to find that such a system was abused... Even in Apostolic days there were 'false brethren', and later on the Apostolical Canons say in reference to the practice that 'many things are done in a spirit of plunder'. But the abuses increased the responsibility and the importance of the bishop...

Hardly had the organization of the Christian communities begun before Paul looked upon it as an intolerable scandal that 'brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers'. He depreciates litigation of any kind. The Christian rule was a rule not of litigation, but of forgiveness. But if litigation became inevitable he asks indignantly, 'Dare any of you having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust and not before the saints?' In those early days it may have been the case that the assembly itself, or persons chosen by the assembly, acted as arbitrators, and to this Paul's words point: 'If then you have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the Church'. But when the organization of the churches was more complete it is clear that the jurisdiction belonged to the council of presbyters. 'Let not those who have disputes', say the Clementines, 'go to law before the civil powers, but let them by all means be reconciled by the elders of the Church, and let them readily yield to their decision'...

[The mutual care] which had been possible in a small community became impossible in the larger situation... The transition of any community from a state of repression [under cycles of persecution] to a state of supremacy [under Constantine] tends to change the character of the offenses of which it takes cognizance. It accentuates the organization. It elevates the by-laws to a new prominence. It makes offense against those by-laws important. And we have but to compare the early monument which is known as the Constitutions of Clement with the post-Constantinian code which is known as the Apostolical Canons to see how wide was the chasm which in the Christian Church severed the ethics of the age of struggle from the age of supremacy...


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Protection of the Church by the State Caused Great Confusion
The recognition of Christianity by the State tended to narrow the broad borderline between the Church and the world. The fact that the Christians were no longer a paroikia, a colony of strangers in a strange land, that the local judges were Christian, and that the emperors who were the ultimate court of appeal were also Christian, diminished the force of the reason for submitting disputes 'in things pertaining to this life' to the Church officers. The consensual jurisdiction of the Church courts came to be limited to disputes in which Church officers were themselves concerned. That jurisdiction was recognized by the State, but it was viewed with a jealous eye. Out of it grew that long line of contests between State and Church with which many of us are familiar - the Church constantly claiming and the State constantly endeavoring to limit this ecclesiastical and consensual jurisdiction.

Inside these contests was another struggle - the struggle on the part of the bishops to act as sole judges, without the consilium of presbyter, of which in early times they had been merely the presidents..... What powers, if any, were possessed by a single presbyter acting alone there is no evidence to show. But by one of those slow and silent revolutions which the lapse of many centuries brings about in political as well as in religious communities, the ancient conception of the office, as essentially disciplinary and collegiate, has been superseded by a conception of it in which not only is a single presbyter competent to discharge all a presbyter's functions, but in which also those functions are primarily not those of discipline but 'the ministration of the Word and Sacraments'...


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The Supremacy of the Bishop
The supremacy of a single officer which was thus forced upon the Churches by the necessity for unity of doctrine, was consolidated by the necessity for unity in discipline... Early in the third century rose the question of readmission to membership of those who had fallen into grievous sin, or who had shrunk from martyrdom. For many years there had been comparative peace. In those years the gates of the Church had been opened wider than before. The sterner discipline had been relaxed. Christianity was not illegal and was tending to become fashionable. The fashionable church-goers accepted the easy terms which the State offered to those who were willing to acknowledge the State religion. Suddenly the flames of persecution shot fiercely forth again. The teachers of Christianity defended those who 'lapsed' on the theological ground that Christ did not call on all men to be partakers of His sufferings in the flesh. When the persecution was over many of the 'lapsed' wished to come back again...

In the earlier days each separate case came for judgment before the whole Church. The certificate of a confessor was of the nature of an appeal which the Church might upon occasion reject. But persecution sometimes rendered it impossible for the Church to be gathered together. The Church officers took it upon themselves to act for the general body. They readmitted the lapsed without consulting the assembly. That which had begun in a time of emergency tended to become a rule in a time of peace... The pure spouse of Christ was in peril of her virginity. The Churches for which some of them had sacrificed all they had were beginning to be filled with weak brethren who had preferred dishonor to death... There was a long and determined controversy... It was agreed on all sides that readmissions just not be indiscriminate. If the earlier usage of submitting each case to the tribunal of the whole assembly were impossible, at any rate individual presbyters and deacons must not act without the knowledge and approval of the president. This rule was in many cases resisted... but it ultimately became so general that the bishops came to claim the right of readmitting penitents, not in their capacity as presidents of the community but as an inherent function of the episcopate...

It was a natural effect of the same causes, and it forms an additional proof of their existence, that a rule should grow up that there should be only one bishop in a community. This rule was not firmly established until the third century. Its general recognition was the outcome of the dispute between Cyprian and Novatian. That dispute was one of the collateral results of the controversy... in reference to readmission of the lapsed...

The controversy was keen, but in the end the views of Cyprian prevailed. The necessity for unity outweighed all other considerations. Henceforth, whoever in any city claimed to be a member of the Christian Church must belong to the established organization of that city. The seamless coat of Christ must not be rent. As there was one God, and on Christ, and on Holy Spirit, so there could be but one bishop. *


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* Editor's note - Cf. Elaine Pagels, The Gnostic Gospels (Vintage Books, 1981), 'One God, One Bishop': The Politics of Monotheism,' pp. 33-56. 'When the orthodox insisted upon 'one God', they simultaneously validated the system of governance in which the church is ruled by 'one bishop''.. [Clement's] letter marks a dramatic moment in the history of Christianity. For the first time, we find here an argument for dividing the Christian community between 'the clergy' and 'the laity'. The church is to be organized in terms of a strict order of superiors and subordinates... But Ignatius went further than Clement... [He] warns 'the laity' to revere, honor, and obey the bishop 'as if he were God'

Why the Church Is Failing - Chapter 1

Why the Church is Failing. There are two things for me to clarify here. One, is the definition of the church as I am using it here. Two, what do I mean by it's failing.
I will answer the first.
The church as I am defining here is that ecclesiastical institutional organization that contains some form of hierarchy, whether it be Priest, Bishops, Cardinals, Popes, or Pastors, Board Members, Elders, Deacons, or Church Central Organizations, such as the Southern Baptist Convention, or the Assemlies of God, or whatever central organization there is for any particular organized religious body.
All dictation of practice and belief and rules and regulations and ordinations that are drawn from these organizations removes any form of "real independence' of a local body of Christians who meet. This also includes those who claim to be independent but are in essence still ruled by either a Pastor, a Board, Elders or other.
The second definition involves what I mean by the word "failing". What does the organizational church fail at consistently. It is the failure to do what Christ called the body of Christ to do when he created the gifted functions, not titles, of the Ekklesia. I would define this in three goals or action that the Holy Spirit if the organizational church was what Christ had in mind.
First, the word "church" is not to be found in the original manuscripts. The word that has been so mistranslated is the Greek word Ekklesia. This word was best translated in the Tyndale version as "Congregation" or a better yet translation would be the entirety of all "those that have been called out". The Called Out One's.
It is a word universal in scope ( thus the original meaning of the word became to the original church fathers - those that the organizational church so relies upon over Christ, the Apostles and the Early Church as described by scripture it became to be known as the "Catholic" Church, the Universal church) and refers not to a place you attend or a building you go to, but to the whole entire body of Christ. All those who are redeemed by His blood and set apart to Him as "the Priesthood of Believers" with only Christ as High Priestand their Head, as clearly explained in the book of Hebrews.
There is no heirarchy in the Ekklesia except Christ as the Head. This is the beginning of the New Covenant which was the elimination of any mediator between the individual and God. Thus the renting in two of the veil in the Holy of Holies in the Temple. Jesus came to replace, the Temple, the Tithe, the Priest and the Sacrifice. Jesus came to replace all forms of works righteousness with that of Grace and Forgiveness offered in His death and life through His resurrected life and ministry and godliness through the giving of His Spirit to the individual and the whole of the Ekklesia.
The idea of the office of any of the above named heirarchy is foreign to and is in direct anti-thesis, to what Christ taught and the Apostles taught and what the church had pre -100 AD or before the death's of the last Apostles.
The concept of the word "church" has been so ingrained into our minds that we can't even think of the word "church" without picturing a building or special meeting house and place we go to.
Thus all words construe an image in our mind and the definition which is entirely contrary to Christ and scripture has been re-imaged for us in our minds as to something that never existed before the Paternalistic (Ecclesiastical Church Fathers) Age. The Catholic Church did well it's job and the Protestants haven't changed it. Catholic or Protestant you will find are of the same stick just on opposite ends. They still have their foundations in the "traditions of men".
Now, as to the organized churches major failures or inabilities as to the true work of the Holy Spirit being revealed in it and through it.
One, it has failed to do nothing more than either create a special class of offices whereby only those that feel called become or have the ability to learn more and express more of what the Spirit could do in all believers and would be doing if the organization and heirarchy didnt over rule it.
The word Pastor is mentioned once in the New Testament- for Protestants to have built everything around this one of the five fold ministries or working of the Holy Spirit they have managed to erase the other four. It has kept the Ekklesia in blindness and immaturity for over 1900 years. The original and only mention of these 5 ministries in scripture are found to have one goal and it is described in the very one and only verse the word "Pastor" can be found in.
The 5 ministries working in union together by the Holy Spirit is to produce the following - "for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, the building UP of the body of Christ; until we ALL attain to the UNITY of the FAITH, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man to the measure of the stature, which belongs to the fullness of Christ;.. Ephesians 4:11-13.
The first great calling of all those that are His is to "Go into all the world" ( not to the exclusiveness of your denomination or building) but into the real world where people work play and live and preach the Gospel to all creation. We, each Christiant, as Paul have been given the ministry of reconciliation, letting the world know that God has reconciled the world unto Himself through the death and life of Jesus our Lord. This is best revealed by our lifes and function within the body.
The great failure is that the organizational church keeps babies as babies who never grow into the fullness as they are never allowed the working of the Holy Spirit through them to minister and grow as God gifts them to. They must subject themselves to the hierarchy and be silent and inactive unless they have been entitled, ordained or called or permitted to do otherwise by the ruling hierarchy. Thus there is little or no known four other ministries activated by the Holy Spirit because the whole of the system locks them out. The organizational church without these heirarchies would fall apart, it would disband. There would be no one to tell the sheep what to do, how to do it, and when to do it. All except the Holy Spirit- who is our teacher, Christ our High Priest. This could never happen without the system, the money, the power, the prestige and all the real estate owned by the institutions would be gone in an instant and then 'pray God' who would want to be one of the five. There would be nothing in it that appeases men's flesh. No titles, just functions as the Holy Spirit chooses to appoint and preserve the faithful to be servants of the whole of the Ekklesia.
One, need only to begin to ask questions and seek the answers outside of pre-suppositional and preconceived and taught approaches to scripture to find the answers.
Here are some of the questions each Christian should ask, and scripturally show themselves accountable for finding the answer.
Why do we go to church rather than being the church?
Why do we have men above us or do we pay a singular man or many man to be the biblical scholars, the chief cooks, the bottle washers, the experts in spiritual things, the preachers, the teachers, the counselors, and on and on the list goes?
Where and how did these things come to be?
Why do you dress up for church?
Why do you tithe, is that New Testament Christianity?
Why do we pay for a building and electricity and all the upkeep when the Early Christians did neither until Constantine built the first "worship buildings in 300 AD?
Was there ever a point of time in history when the single Pastor didnt exist?
Was there ever a multiplicity of elders who were the Pastors, that were chosen not for their ability to sermonize but because of their humble, lowly, service they provided to others out of the work of Christ in them?
When did the church begin to pay for a professional clergy?
Where did liturgy come from?
How about titles, dress, forms and ritual where did they come into place.
Why is their a music group, praise group, music ministers, hymn books, choirs?
Where and when did the single Pastor become the only leader of the church?
We have made these things sacred as if they were dropped out of heaven by God, we have even tried to proof text them. In both attempts we have not served God with truth or the honor of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. We have accepted without questioning and if we did, we never sought the answers either out of fear or laziness.
The answers which we will explore together, will shock you, challenge you and free your heart to true worship, to the place that Christ told the Samaritan woman. Those that worship me, "must worship me in Spirit and in Truth".
You will be surprised that largely what you believe even as a Protestant and what you especially practice has it's origins in paganism, Judaism, Catholicism and the Roman emperor worship and Greek mythology. You will be surprised that what you hold so divine in your mind is actual in direct anti-thesis to what Christ and the Apostles taught.
I challenge my readers to begin to read the writings of the Paternalistic Fathers- those which wrote from about 100 AD and even beyond and the many so called Religious leaders of today. Begin to read Ignatius who brought the whole idea together of the Bishop which eventually became the ruling Pope, the Priest and yes, even the Pastor.

Ignatius is the first known of the Early Church Father writers to put great stress on loyalty to a "single" bishop in each city, who is assisted by both presbyters (elders/priests) and deacons. Earlier writings only mention either bishops or presbyters, and give the impression that there was usually more than one bishop per congregation. The early Christian knew of no such hierarchy or titles such as Pastor by deferrence in name or office. Matter of fact the word office can't even be found in the Greek original of scripture as it has been translated in
I Timothy Chapter 3 verse 1.
Thus we forget, let us quote Jesus in what he defined as the function for any and all that wish to lead.
They are not to Lord over others as the Gentiles do. ie;(unbelievers)(the world and it's system of belonging to the enemy). We are to be lowliest servant to one another. Jesus said he came not to be served but to serve. He the Son of God, laid it all down to become the Son of Man. It is God who has now lifted up his name above all names because of his humility to serve.
It is not my intention to attack any believer but to help each and every one of us to come to the full knowledge of Christ and to grow up for once. It is time to be a baby no more, it is time to mature. It is time to study and show yourself approved. It is time that you, be like the Bereans and search the scriptures. It is time you reach the fullness and maturity of Christ, that will bring you to a unity in the faith. I am not talking about ecumenism either. I am not talking about a single denomination over all others. I am talking about Christians united.
The scriptures must be understood in light of culture, teaching, history and belief's at the times in which the scriptures were written and in the light that the Holy Spirit provides as our only true teacher. All things should be tested and verified. We are to hold fast to that which is good and abstain from even the appearance of evil.
All babies at some point or another must grow up and we are called to do so. I am not a cultist, a heretic or any of that. I have been a Christian since age 6, in belief and God has taken me through much in this walk of faith in Christ. I have studied and read the New Testament completely through probably over a 100 times or more. I have read the Old Testament probably as much. We must remember the Old Testament does not define the New Testament. The New Testament can only be the jumping board to understand the Old.
The Old Testament is the shadow, Christ is the light and fullness of God revealed. The New Testament is our guide to understanding the Old.
I have been a church history and history fanatic since I was a young man in school.
George Santayana wrote: Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
I have read many great Christian scholars works, commentaries and more. In my writings here and online I could provide plenty of footnotes or at least mention of well recognized scholars and others that are even recognized by the institutional churches as leading experts in their field of study that will verify much that I will write about. I have chose more often to just put them in quotes with their names to save time and room on the page.
I will quote these men and woman from time to time.
I place scripture as interpreted by the Holy Spirit above all men, regardless of what they believe or teach. Facts are facts and history when witnessed and explained by more than just one eyewitness becomes true when it is in agreement. The things I will write about have a spiritual and a historical agreement that cannot be shunned as something I or others made up. It is recorded and accessible by those who are diligent enough to search the archives of history and the men that recorded it.
When one is confronted with more than one witness time after time to these things, it would be foolish to ignore them. God is a God of truth, not deception. For what purpose these writers of ancient and more recent history within the church would have when they seek no title, or money or other gratuity or power would be beyond me. There only desire is as of mine, for truth to be told and for His body to be graced by these truths to find true freedom in Christ.
I would ask you to begin to read three authors works that are well footnoted with references of well recognized authors and recognized sources, both ancient and new, that will help you begin your adventure to truth in Christ in doctrine and in practice.
The first book is "Ekklesia" by Steven Atkerson. The second book is entitled "Pagan Christianity, The Origins of Our Modern Church Practices" by Frank Viola.
I would also invite you to read Alfred Edershiem and his books on Judaism, he was a leading Jewish scholar, he was born a Hebrew and was converted to Christianity at an early age and an expert on the "Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah". He is a student of the Talmud, The Torah and all the ancient traditions of the Jews in Christ time, an expert at explaining "the Temple" and it's practices and more and he has written some very well recognized books on all the subjects.
All of these men are Spirit filled believers and love Jesus and His Ekklesia. Some like Alfred have gone on to be with the Lord. Each has a love for truth and the Ekklesia as I do.
I invite my readers to seek and find the foundation from which they stand, and if it is not Christ, then it is sand that your house is built on and not the Rock of Jesus Christ. There is no other foundation that can be laid than that of Christ and the Apostles. Paul exhorted us to hold fast to those traditions taught by him and the Apostles, as taught to them by Christ. Paul fought the Judaizers, and John the Pagans, and the Nicolatians ( the clergy-laity system seen today).

I would also invite you to go through each of these books prayerfully and scripturally. Checking verses - not for proof texting- we will talk about that habit another time but to verify the references and to read them for yourselves prayerfully.
It only took a very short time once the Apostles were gone for the teachings of Christ and the Apostles to be perverted by the self appointed leaders of the people.
There is a clear development that follows their deaths to the Catholic church, the Reformation and the Age of Enlightment, to what we beleive and practice today.
We Protestants claim Solo Scriptura but in truth, we do not practice it nor recognize it. We as the Jews in Jesus time have made null the commandments of God for the "traditions of men". We stand as guilty or worse as the Pharisees, the Saducces and Scribes of Jesus time, of trading off the Word of God for the word of men over 1900 years.
My prayer and hope for the Ekklesia is that there will be a Radical Reformation.
The beginnings are there already, there are many small but fruitful home churches and groups of Christians worldwide that are breaking out of the patterns and forms of the traditions of men. There are many today experiencing the Early Church in their lives. There worship is their life in Christ. Their practices have returned to that as led by the Holy Spirit and not according to the ancient paganistic traditions of men. They have found freedom in Christ. This was the promise of the Lord- you shall know the truth and it shall set you free. There is a liberty in Christ with responsibility that few in the "church" have known. There is a life in Christ, that brings a fresh breath of truth from the Holy Spirit that will break the bonds of the traditions of men. You will breathe and walk in Christ. You will know that "Christ in you, the hope in glory", is true. It will no longer be the search you have been on bouncing from organized church to organized denomination and never finding, community, relationship, love, care, compassion and a deep understanding of truly knowing what Christ has really done for you. It won't need to be expressed in a sermon so distant from yourself by a holy man or priest. Your life will become the sermon for all men. You will be the sermon to all men.
It is not a walk of ease, for you will be in direct contradiction to the accepted methods and practices of men. You will stand in contradiction to the pseudo religion of Christianity to really being a Christian. Christ will be alive for you and not just something you grasp at, always hopeful someday you will find the right "church" to go to to find it. I started my quest in 1977 and the Lord Jesus Christ has brought me a long distance since then, the freedom came in 2005, when I officially walked out of the institution into home churching and discipleship. Myself and one other couple, stuck home church out for over 2 years together. In that time we formed relationship, and learned a whole lot by the Holy Spirit teaching us about what it means to be a Christian. My hope for you is you will discover, "whereever two or more are gathered in my name, there I am in their midst". In our case it was three, sometimes there were more, but it was three of us that lasted until the Holy Spirit taught us what we needed to know and then we went on. We pray for each other, see each other, and try in our busy schedules to spend time now and then together, but most of all we grew up, and began the work of service God called us to do. I am doing what Christ called me to do, and that is to preach in season and out of season, the Good News of Jesus Christ. There is no bondage in Him. There is only Freedom.
You will be free to exercise the gifts of the Spirit, Christ gave to you. You will no longer feel shamed by the ecclesiastical organized bunch of hierarchy. You will find solace in Christ and Him alone.
What I write is not to exclude you from attending a service at any building if you so choose, or nor is it to slander Pastors, there are a good many, good men and women as far as that goes, who not knowing any better are doing their best to serve Christ in the best manner they know how, but not knowing better they have found themselves in a system which is self perpetuating in keeping babies, forever babies and carnal in most perspectives while they sit in their pews silently week after week being sermonized. forever hoping what they hear could some how be realized in their lives. I pray for Pastors, for I once was "in the traditions of men", a Pastor myself. I long to see many of them freed by truth and love. We must continue to love them only because they are brethern in Christ and in as much need for encouragement, and ministry as anyone. They are on a lonely road to frustration and in many cases live their lives out in hypocrisy, because the system requires it of them.
This is my prayer and hope for you in writing this is that you will come to the fullness of knowing Christ. This is to become the book I hope to publish soon entitled, "Why the Church is Failing".

Dr. J

Pastoring America

I recently ran across some news on the Zondervan website, I have to share, because this further confirms the problem I have with the institutional church. We have strayed far from what Christ had in mind. Origen started it with his lifting the Bishop to being equal with Christ, and Constantine building the temples. Catholicism to Protestantism, the game is the same, these two are on the same stick, just opposite ends. This has existed since the church no longer was the make up of all beleivers,(the EKKLESIA, called out ones) and the multiplicity of elders among each body and each operating in the gifts of the Spirit as given. It has become a place to go to and a man to hear. Sunday entertainment. Ask most folks within a day of Sunday service what the sermon was about and they can't tell you. We may have restored the Bible to the common people, but Luther never strayed from the concept of the one man show and the temple being a building. The church has remained in this darkness for over 1800 years. The article quoted below clearly shows how seriously we are off the track, and the purpose of Christ. To go into all the world and preach the Gospel. This was not a command for just those that are "called to preach" a misnomer from day one. All believers are called to the ministry of reconciliation and they are priest of the Almighty. We have left what Christ established to return to Judaism with the building of our temples and the creation of our high priest. Read these recent statistics.

Survey: Pastors Would Use Surprise Income to Build and Evangelize

(ER 5.11.06) - A new survey shows what pastors nationwide would do if their church received an unexpected financial windfall.

The research was conducted for Facts & Trends magazine and sought to clarify the overall budget and spending priorities of clergy and lay people. According to a survey conducted by Ellison Research, 31% of the more than 500 Protestant pastors surveyed said they'd build, expand, or update their church's buildings and facilities. That preference is even more pronounced among Southern Baptist pastors, 43% of whom say they'd spend the unexpected financial boon on facilities.

Sixteen percent of all pastors say they'd use the windfall to increase community evangelism activities. Paying off debt (12%) and adding staff (10%) are also among the priorities expressed. Only 1 percent indicate they'd use the windfall to increase the salaries or benefits for staff members.

In a companion survey of almost 1,200 Protestant lay people, the top 3 priorities for spending a windfall would be paying off debt (18%), increasing social programs (18%), and building, expanding, or updating church facilities (17%).

Dr. Thom Rainer, author of Breakout Churches and The Unchurched Next Door, says the surveys show the need for a balanced perspective on what it means to be a church.

"It seems as if the research confirms that we can lose our focus when we start focusing on that which matters but which should be more peripheral than the main things, such as evangelism," Rainer notes.

Ron Sellers, president of Ellison Research, says the findings may make it appear that evangelism, missions, and outreach are a higher priority for clergy than for their congregations. "[But] in reality, both put a fairly high priority on evangelism," he says. "They just have different priorities for where the evangelism should take place."

Rainer offers a different perspective. "More than half of all members of churches in America will meet their Savior face to face without ever having shared Christ with anyone," he says. "On the leadership issue, 53% of pastors have not shared Christ, by their own admission, in the last 6 months."
Rainer admits he may be oversimplifying things, but offers this observation: "It seems to me, when someone [asks]: 'What's wrong with the evangelistic health of our churches?' — I can give a simple response: We're not doing it." (Source: Ellison Research, www.ellisonresearch.com)

What this clearly shows, is a total error on the part of Pastors, and in my opinion much of the congregation as well. Being segregated into our own little shelters and thinking God dwells there, and that all there is to worship is going to the building.

Worship encompasses all that we are, if we are believers. Every part of our life, everyday. We have hidden ourselves in our selfish agendas to build bigger and better than the next guy- whatever denomination or other church there is in our community. Athens, Texas has over 47 (give or take a few) different churches, yet evangelism, feeding the poor, and missionary work is very low within this community. Not, that there aren't some programs out there to do these things, but the question must be asked, what impact has it had on this community of some of the highest known drug arrest for methamphetamines and more.
Very, very little. Lets look at some more facts.

91% of all Christian outreach/evangelism does not target non-Christians, but rather those who have already heard the gospel and have a number of churches in their area. while 67% of the people in the world still have not heard the name of Jesus and 200 million Christians live und some form of persecution for their faith.
Christianity in the West flourishes as a multi-billion dollar enterprise. Statistics like these confirm that the Body of Christ has, for the most part committed it's rich supply of resources to itself. Pickup any Christian magazine (you'll find a vast selection) and see for yourself. They are loaded with ads for all sorts of conferences and seminars, Christian entertainment, books of every kind, T-Shirts, CD's almost anything you could imagine. In addition to T-Shirts and music, you can find a deluge of Christianized pop-psychology and the latest Christian romance novels. Everything from Christian debt consolidation to Christian singles clubs are all prevalent particulary in America. Just consider all the ministries that pop-up in our Christian world. Have you ever wondered about all the new approaches and solutions. There all kinds of seminars available. Seminars on divorce, addiction, and demon deliverance. There is someone new everyay proclaiming a solution or enhancement for everthing you can think of.
The truth is we are loaded with dollars. Higher wages are paid for the best entertainers. Larger the congregation the bigger the salary is for the Pastor- the one man show- minus the musicians and singers- who in most cases are unpaid.
We may say we don't have money enough for evangelism but the truth is someone is paying for all this.
With our position of wealth in this country it surely can be concluded: Love requires us to take seriously the responsiblity of helping the poor of this world so they might have enough food to eat. Along with this comes the responsibility to share the Gospel.
Wasn't this the first of only two creeds added by the Elders and Apostles at Jerusalem- "Remember the poor".
Yet, we go on building bigger and better!
The next time your church wants to vote on a building fund, you might consider these statistics as well.

* 854 million people across the world are hungry, up from 852 million a year ago.

* Every day, almost 16,000 children die from hunger-related causes--one child every five seconds.

In essence, hunger is the most extreme form of poverty, where individuals or families cannot afford to meet their most basic need for food.
Hunger manifests itself in many ways other than starvation and famine. Most poor people who battle hunger deal with chronic undernourishment and vitamin or mineral deficiencies, which result in stunted growth, weakness and heightened susceptibility to illness.
Countries in which a large portion of the population battles hunger daily are usually poor and often lack the social safety nets we enjoy, such as soup kitchens, food stamps, and job training programs. When a family that lives in a poor country cannot grow enough food or earn enough money to buy food, there is nowhere to turn for help.

Facts and Figures on Population

* Today our world houses 6.55 billion people.


* The United States is a part of the developed or industrialized world, which consists of about 57 countries with a combined population of about 1 billion, less than one sixth of the world’s population.
In contrast, approximately 5.1 billion people live in the developing world. This world is made up of about 125 low and middle-income countries in which people generally have a lower standard of living with access to fewer goods and services than people in high-income countries.
The remaining 0.4 billion live in countries in transition, which include the Baltic states, eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Facts and Figures on Hunger and Poverty

* Worldwide, more than 1 billion people currently live below the international poverty line, earning less than $1 per day.
Among this group of poor people, many have problems obtaining adequate, nutritious food for themselves and their families. As a result, 820 million people in the developing world are undernourished. They consume less than the minimum amount of calories essential for sound health and growth.
Undernourishment negatively affects people’s health, productivity, sense of hope and overall well-being. A lack of food can stunt growth, slow thinking, sap energy, hinder fetal development and contribute to mental retardation.

Economically, the constant securing of food consumes valuable time and energy of poor people, allowing less time for work and earning income.

Socially, the lack of food erodes relationships and feeds shame so that those most in need of support are often least able to call on it.

Facts and Figures on Health

Poor nutrition and calorie deficiencies cause nearly one in three people to die prematurely or have disabilities.
Pregnant women, new mothers who breastfeed infants, and children are among the most at risk of undernourishment.
In 2005, about 10.1 million children died before they reached their fifth birthday. Almost all of these deaths occured in developing countries, 3/4 of them in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, the two regions that also suffer from the highest rates of hunger and malnutrition.
Most of these deaths are attributed, not to outright starvation, but to diseases that move in on vulnerable children whose bodies have been weakened by hunger.
Every year, more than 20 million low-birth weight babies are born in developing countries. These babies risk dying in infancy, while those who survive often suffer lifelong physical and cognitive disabilities.
The four most common childhood illnesses are diarrhea, acute respiratory illness, malaria and measles. Each of these illnesses is both preventable and treatable. Yet, again, poverty interferes in parents’ ability to access immunizations and medicines. Chronic undernourishment on top of insufficient treatment greatly increases a child’s risk of death.

In the developing world, 27 percent of children under 5 are moderately to severely underweight. 10 percent are severely underweight. 10 percent of children under 5 are moderately to severely wasted, or seriously below weight for one’s height, and an overwhelming 31 percent are moderately to severely stunted, or seriously below normal height for one’s age.

That is enough statistics for now. You should by now stand firmly convicted and if not let me add this:

Revelations 3:14-22
And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write:These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God: 15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot:I would thou wert cold or hot. 16 So because thou art lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spew thee out of my mouth. 17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and have gotten riches, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art the wretched one and miserable and poor and blind and naked: 18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold refined by fire, that thou mayest become rich; and white garments, that thou mayest clothe thyself, and that the shame of thy nakedness be not made manifest; and eyesalve to anoint thine eyes, that thou mayest see. 19 As many as I love, I reprove and chasten:be zealous therefore, and repent. 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock:if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. 21 He that overcometh, I will give to him to sit down with me in my throne, as I also overcame, and sat down with my Father in his throne. 22 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.

I end with this thought, truly if what we have is what Christ intended, then why is it so ineffective in turning the "world upside down" as it did in the days of early Christianity?

It's time Pastors and Congregations to see the harvest is plenty the laborers few.

Dr. J.