To start off, let me say that this blog has been created to document and talk about the coming shift in how we "do" church, or better yet, how we are the Body of Christ. Some friends and I have more and more felt like the top-down model of church is set up too much like the world system of today - one person in charge of many. We are tired of sitting in a church on Sunday morning and hearing someone in authority tell us what to think and believe, while we sit as spectators of his knowledge of God.
The name of this blog is based on the word that is translated as "church" in the New Testament, Ekklesia, which means "called out assembly". No where in this term is the idea that we meet in a specific place or on a specific day. Oddly enough, the Greek word that our word church comes from, kuriakon, specifically referred to a building used for worship, usually a pagan temple. It's often heard in christian circles that "we don't go to church, we ARE the church", and yet, for most of us, it makes sense that we think of church as a building, because that's what the origin of the word actually meant. Whereas ekklesia always referred to a group of people, rather than the location at which they gathered.
(If you would like more information about this word swap and why it happened, a good book on this subject is "Was Church God's Idea?" by Marc Winter.)
So, my goal in this blog is to talk about what we are experiencing in being the "ekklesia", the called out assembly, in a new way. Specifically, much like many others currently, we are looking at how to be in community with each other, without having a "leader" other than Jesus Christ Himself, through the Holy Spirit who lives in each of us. We started meeting a couple weeks ago, and are meeting together once a week. Right now, because of who we know is interested in meeting, and who's home is currently open to meet in, we have limited our group to women only, but I believe that will have to change eventually - not because we need a male "head" of our group, but because we will be missing out on half the body of Christ in our meetings together. But, for now, we are a group of 3 women who desperately want more of God, and are willing to get together once a week.
Our main focus, as a group during our first two "assemblies" we mostly spoke about how the traditional, top-down model of the church has failed to teach people how to have a personal relationship with God. How those of us who were hungry for more, closer relationship with Him generally had to pursue it outside of the walls of the church, because there just wasn't a lot there for us. Church has become a place where we go to feel like we did the right thing so that we can be ok with God, rather than a place where we go to be in intimate relationship with God through Christ and with other people. Most church services I've been in are not interactive. The Pastor/Minister/Leader gives a sermon, which is essentially a lecture. You are supposed to learn what is the right way to think and act from it, and implement it into your life. It is rare in that structure that thinking for yourself is accepted, or even encouraged. The idea is that this person, usually a man, (only 8% of churches have a woman as a head pastor) has been educated and knows what is right and wrong, so we need to listen to him. Rarely in our American churches are congregations encouraged to allow the Holy Spirit to teach them, and yet it is clearly one of the reasons the Holy Spirit is so important in our lives, as seeing in John 14: 26:
"But when the Father sense the Advocate as my representative - that is, the Holy Spirit - he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you."
We also see emphasis on relying of God's leadership rather than that of man in Matthew 23:8-10, which states:
"Don't let anyone call you 'Rabbi', for you have only one teacher, and all of you are equal as brothers and sisters. And don't address anyone here on earth as 'Father', for only God in heaven is your spiritual Father. And don't let anyone call you 'Teacher', for you have only one teacher, the Messiah." (emphasis mine)
I believe the reason we've focused on this is because we want to be sure we're all coming into this with the same understanding, that we are trying to allow ourselves to see each other as equals in Christ, rather than falling into the worldly system of leader and followers. We want to be able to learn from each other, grow together, and truly show the world that the ability to be in relationship with God and others is the most important thing Jesus gave us in His sacrifice.
I am so excited to see how this all develops and grows as we allow Jesus to be our head, our teacher, our leader, and our guide, and I look forward to sharing my perspective here. Join me in my pursuit of Christ!
