To fully describe the concept of family you need to look beyond obligation and blood relationships. True family is a matter of the heart. It can manifest itself even among people who aren’t physically related. Christinas are called to be part of God’s family and to demonstrate the supernatural power and love of Spirit-led family every time they meet together.
It’s October, the month when Christians celebrate the criticism of the church known as the Reformation. One of the main things that the Protestants criticized was the fact that the church exalted religious tradition and human hierarchy as equal to the Bible. Luther proclaimed, “sola scriptura” which means that the Bible is the only infallible authority for Christians.
Today, more than 500 years later much of the way churches meet and are governed is not based only on Scripture but to a large part on religious tradition, people’s comfort, and human hierarchy. It’s time to examine the way churches meet by the Bible and get rid of what isn’t supported by Scripture.
The word “church” doesn’t mean the same thing in the context of the Bible that it means to us. When the Bible refers to church it’s not talking about a weekly sermon-based meeting where the same man preaches to passive people every week and controls the proceedings. The earliest Christ-followers didn’t meet that way. They gathered to cultivate heart-to heart community and the unity of the Spirit, (Ephesians 4:3) to minister to one another, (Hebrews 10:24-25) to worship God from the heart, (Philippians 3:3) and to be led by the Holy Spirit. (Romans 8:14)
Pastors should actively and passionately demonstrate the love, humility, and service of Jesus to every person present in church and inspire them to get off their seats and do the same for others. The kingdom of God is Spirit-prompted interactive caring and community not religiously compelled silent and passive conformity. O that pastors would train and release Christians to encourage one another by empowering them to actively demonstrate the fruit of the Spirit in church instead of merely requiring them to sit through another religious lecture!
When people sit together lined up in rows to hear a sermon, it doesn’t assemble them together heart-to-heart or build community. Instead let’s not forsake truly assembling ourselves together. (Hebrews 10:25) If pastors would continually cultivate Spirit-prompted community communication instead of compelling silent conformity Christianity would come alive. (Ephesians 5:14)
If you will read the Bible with open eyes and heart God will show you some things that need to be changed about church. Look see! If all the time Christians spend passively sitting in church was spent humbly doing the Word of God it would change the world.
Jesus told His followers that He would build His assembly of His people (church) (Matthew 16) and commanded them to go and make disciples. (Matthew 28) Instead Christians have started hundreds of thousands of independent churches and denominations and left it to God to make disciples.
Christians need the spirituality of actually experiencing God’s presence together much more than they need the passivity of hearing a talk about Him together. True Christianity isn’t all about attending a Sunday morning talk week after week. It’s about listening to and obeying the living Jesus moment-by-moment.
Jesus said He wants His followers to be full of joy, yet joy is rarely seen when people are hearing a sermon. What’s up with that?
Jesus said to be doers of the word not hearers only, yet in a church service people are almost never allowed to do what the Bible says. What’s up with that?
Where did the idea come from that there is something spiritual about merely hearing a sermon. I don’t see that in the Bible. Jesus was crucified so that you can hear directly from God yourself and not need someone to continually lecture you about God.
Church can be a TRAP:
Tradition, (Mark 7:13)
Religious routine, (2 Timothy 3:5)
And an audience (James 1:22)
Programmed into passivity. (Matthew 7:26-27)
October 31st
Is Reformation Day,
Hey, hey, hey!
It’s not about
Celebrating demons.
It’s about casting
Them out of their perch
In the church
Like the Reformers
Tried to do.
(Matthew 10:8)
Often a deaf ear
Is simply an ear
That does not
Want to hear.
Jesus said:
“He that has
Ears to hear
Let him hear.”
Will you hear
What the Spirit
Is saying?
(Matthew 11:15
And Revelation 2:29)
Happy Reformation Month when we celebrate Martin Luther — the famous criticizer of the church!
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