Meet the Beyonds
—The Dones are people who have given up on church and dropped out.
–The Beyonds are people who realize that biblically church is supposed to be so much more than what we have made it. Beyonds want to move beyond traditional church and into biblical ekklesia — beyond passively hearing lectures and into participatory interaction with the living, resurrected Jesus Christ.
Nashville’s Don Finto confirms ekklesia in his new book, Prepare!
–Don says: “‘Church’ is an unfortunate mistranslation of the Greek word ekklesia — literally meaning called out. The Greek word carries no connotation of a building, but of people. William Tyndale understood this. In his 1525 completed text of the New Testament, there is no church. There is only community. Even under great pressure to translate ekklesia as church, Tyndale resisted.”
Beyonds go:
* Beyond form and into power (2 Timothy 3:5);
* Beyond pastor control and into Christ’s control (Colossians 1:18);
* Beyond just being led by man and into the leadership of the Spirit (Romans 8:14);
* Beyond sermons about the historic Jesus and into following and obeying the living Jesus; (Hebrews 13:8);
* Beyond passivity and into participation (1 Corinthians 14:26);
* Beyond pretense and into raw reality (1 John 1:7);
* Beyond religion and into relationship with Christ (Matthew 11:28);
* Beyond human programming and into the gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:7-11).
When church moves beyond passive learning & into shared yearning it releases supernatural power.
–When worship allows time for ordinary people to open up and tell what God is doing in their hearts and lives, their openly shared yearning for God has a much stronger impact than many years of passively learning about God.
Too many people want to sit passively and listen to preaching in church, but Jesus wants His followers to get up and go preach in the world!
–“Go you (y’all) into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” –Jesus (Mark 16:15)
If you live in Middle Tennessee, come and go beyond church at The Salvation Army Berry Street, 225 Berry Street, 37207 on Sunday mornings at 10:45 — where ordinary people show and tell what God has done.
Free Gas for Your Think Tank -- Fill Your Mind and Your Heart With Hope 
Pingback: Why is there no “Church” in Tyndale’s Bible? | Think Theology
This encouraged me to not be part of the “Dones” group or become part of the “Nones” group. There is so much more and sometimes we need to get on the same page as believers, even from different parts of the world and LIVE JESUS right where we are. We are trying to make our Sunday Night Salvation Meetings at The Salvation Army of St. Augustine Florida more like the Son-Runs. How beautiful it is not just in Florida but around the world when, “The Son begins to reign”! Thank you for your blogs Steve. Pray that all our meetings will be “Son-Run”
I’m a little confused… You spent the whole time talking about going “beyond”, and then ended with advertising a church service? What happened to going “beyond”?
Valid question. The meeting I’m inviting people to is beyond traditional church. It is unprogrammed and based on open sharing and testimonies as led by the Spirit.