Category Archives: ecclesiology

Ecclesiology (church government) can’t heal your hurting heart.

Posted on March 18, 2023 by Steve Simms

The only cure for your hurting heart is the risen Jesus. If you’re looking anywhere else (even to church), you’re looking in the wrong places. Meetings in the body of Christ are supposed to be about empowering, releasing, and sending … Continue reading →

Posted in church committees, church elders, church government, ecclesiological, ecclesiologist, ecclesiology | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Baiting people with religious candy or net fishing for human hearts?

Posted on July 14, 2022 by Steve Simms

Net fishing for people? New Testament net fishing doesn’t work if you don’t have a network of people connected heat-to-heart with the living Jesus and with one another. As the inner spiritual knots that tied the earliest Christians together loosened … Continue reading →

Posted in church government, ecclesia, ecclesiology, ekklesia, house church, organic church | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Rick Warren diagnosis disunity in the body of Christ

Posted on March 8, 2018 by Steve Simms

Many walls have torn Christians into tens of thousands of groups and denominations — church walls, doctrinal walls, pride walls, racial walls, organizational walls. However, Jesus wants us to be one. Are we failing at unity? Recently, while speaking at … Continue reading →

Posted in biblical Christianity, Christ-centered community, Christian community, Christian Denominations, Christian leadership, Christians, church community, denominations, ecclesiological, ecclesiology, ecumenical, fellowship, Real Christianity, sectarianism, true Christianity, Uncategorized, unity | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Would Jesus say: “Religion forgot Me for monotony.”

Posted on February 3, 2018 by Steve Simms

Christians often meet like robots–tightly programmed and controlled. Christians need to be allowed to freely express Christ, not just to contain Him locked down in their hearts. After all, it’s hard to be a passive lump on a church pew when … Continue reading →

Posted in audience, audience of One, Bible, church programming, church programs, ecclesia, ecclesiastical, ecclesiological, ecclesiology, ekklesia, fire in church, fire in the heart, inner Light, let your light shine, light, light of Christ, ministry, ministry of the Spirit, spiritual fire, Uncategorized, work of the ministry | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Sports referees, overseers, elders & ekklesia

Posted on March 2, 2017 by Steve Simms

Ekklesia has overseerers (like sports referees); not an overlord. (“Guides by the side; not one sage on a big stage.”) Overseers are those who the body recognizes as mature Christ-followers. The Dones are beginning to clamor for a Jesus-led church. They … Continue reading →

Posted in 1 Corinthians 14:26, authority, Beyond Church, body of Christ, by the word of their testimony, church government, ecclesia, ecclesiology, glamour, how the body of Christ functions, Jesus untangled, New Testament, New Testament Christianity, New Testament church, platform, spiritual authority, testimonies, Uncategorized, unchurching | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Christ-led support groups, an inner prompting & the Anabaptists

Posted on September 5, 2016 by Steve Simms

Unfortunately, many Christ-followers have never experienced Christ-led support groups like the ones Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 14. These groups are so powerful that Paul says: “If everyone is prophesying, when an unbeliever or an uneducated person comes in … Continue reading →

Posted in 1 Corinthians 14, 1 Corinthians 14:26, church history, ecclesiology, home church, house church, if all prophesy, organic church, priesthood of all believers, prophecy, prophesying, simple church, Spirit-led, Spirit-led church, Swiss Anabaptists, Uncategorized, universal priesthood | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

How many fingers (members) should you (your church) use?

Posted on December 31, 2015 by Steve Simms

If a person only uses one finger and all the rest are kept frozen in place; the things that person can do will be very limited. That person will not live up to his/her possibilities. If a church service only uses … Continue reading →

Posted in 1 Corinthians 14:26, ecclesia, ecclesiologist, ecclesiology, ekklesia, here's the church here's the steeple, house church, more than church, paralysis, simple church, Uncategorized, When you come together | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

Body Building / Body Life / Body Ministry

Posted on October 21, 2015 by Steve Simms

When I was in college I read Body Life, by Ray Stedman, a book about how the Bible teaches that the church should function as a body, with each member having the freedom to listening to and obey the Head — … Continue reading →

Posted in 1 Peter, biblical pattern, body of Christ, Christian unity, ecclesiology, Ephesians, holy priesthood, Jesus is the Head, Koinonia, members of the body, New Testament church, pastor-teachers, priesthood of the believer, Romans 12, speaking the truth in love, spiritual gifts | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Christ-Controlled Church (How to move beyond human control of church meetings.)

Posted on October 19, 2015 by Steve Simms

A Sunday morning church service is a controlled environment. Often everything that happens there is planned out ahead of time and inked onto a handy program which is given to people as they enter.  People are expected to passively sit, … Continue reading →

Posted in Chris Turner, church government, confession, Conquering the Game of Control, Craig Green, ecclesiology, gifts of the Spirit, Head of the church, how to, playing church, Southern Baptists, Steven J. Cole, surrender, who runs the church, William Booth, wisdom | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

The Lost Word Of The Bible — “Ekklesia”

Posted on July 9, 2015 by Steve Simms

A foundational word of the Greek New Testament was lost when the Bible was translated into the English language. That word is ekklesia. How was it lost? And what does it mean? There are two ways to move a word from one language … Continue reading →

Posted in assembly of God, ecclesiastical, ecclesiology, Greek city-states, Greek words, I will build my church, King James Bible, Matthew 16:18, Middle English, mistranlations, New Testament, Old English, organic church, the Lord's house, William Tyndale | Tagged , , , , | 21 Comments