There is an amazing anointing on an agendaless assembly.  It’s the very presence of the living, resurrected Jesus Christ, Himself.  The First Century Church knew this, not as a doctrine, but as a powerful reality every time they met together in Jesus’ name.

After all, Jesus had promised them this:  “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” (Matthew 18:20)  So what does it mean to be gathered together in Jesus’ name?  It means that we meet together with no agenda of our own — no prearranged plan, no program — trusting Jesus, Himself, to direct the meeting with His own agenda (in His name).

This is how the early church met.  (See 1 Corinthians 14:26)  And they experienced the amazing anointing of Jesus’ real presence in their midst.  The Holy Spirit moved powerfully among them transforming lives, giving people power over sin, making people bold witnesses, doing miracles, and bringing multitudes into obedience to Jesus.

However, as centuries went own, the church slowly began to organize, structure, and control its Sunday meetings gradually developing programmed meetings.  They shifted from meeting in Jesus’ name to meeting in the name of their own agenda and traditions; taking the leadership of church meetings away from the Holy Spirit and giving it to a man.  The Protestant Reformation didn’t change this.

We in the Western world have inherited the church tradition of the one-man control of church meetings.  Almost every church service in our culture is planned and then led from a platform by one man (or one woman).  Could this be why we don’t experience the same life-transforming power in our churches as they did in the Book of Acts?

There is an amazing anointing in an agendaless assembly.  Don’t just take my word for it.  Come and experience it for yourself at The Salvation Army Berry Street where everyday people, as led by the Spirit, show and tell what God has done — 225 Berry St., Nashville, Tennessee, 37207 on Sunday mornings at 10:45.