How to Change Traditional Churches into New Testament Churches
- Posted by: Todd
- Posted on: Tue, June 02, 2009
- Viewed 146
- (27) comments so far
Here are a few more of the 15…
4. Replace tithing with sharing the enormous financial resources and goodwill available in Christian homes. (Deut. 8:17-18; Acts 5:32-34)
5. Replace the “Crumb and Sip” Holy Communion with simple “Community meals” eaten together with gladness from house to house. (Acts 2:46; 1 Cor 11:20-23)
6. Replace loud music with speaking to each other in psalms and spiritual songs making melody in your heart. (Eph 5:19; Col 3:16)
7. Replace the spectator church to participatory, interactive, prophetic and Missionary sending church. (1 Cor 14:26-31; Acts 13:13)
8. Replace organizational and denominational churches with citywide network of house churches. (Romans 16:3-15)
9. Replace barren church with multiplication. The Bride must not remain barren, but reproduce and fill the earth. (Acts 1: 8; 1 Cor 9: 19-30)
10. Replace submitting to one man - by submitting to each other. We must encourage, comfort, exhort, edify and serve one another. (Galatians 5: 13; Eph. 4: 2, 15)
You can read the other five here.
Hmmm.... what do YOU think?
OK... I'll admit, when I saw the title of this article published elsewhere, I thought... wow, there's a lot of hidden meaning in that. Aren't traditional churches 'New Testament' churches? Is it possible that this is an article that chides all 'traditional' churches? Well, it actually is a writing about 'traditional' churches in the sense that all modern-day churches are traditional. This article lists 15 things that churches need to do to be more like the church in the new testament. Take a look and let me know your thoughts...
1. Replace professional clergy with Priesthood of all Believers with authority to baptize, break bread and equip fishers of men. (1 Peter 2:9)
2. Replace Church building with "House of Peace." (Luke 10:5-9; Matt. 10:11-13)
3. Replace programmed Sunday service with daily informal gatherings. The Bride of Christ must have intimacy with her Lord every day and not just for a couple of hours a week lest she become unfaithful. (Acts 2:46-47; Hebrew 3:13)
Comments
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Rev. K on Fri, June 05, 2009
Billy,
Are we all to be accountable to one another or just our local congregations? There is only one Church universal… “There is one body… though we are many members… still one body” What we do in our local congregations affects the church universally…
Paul’s letters wasn’t to a particular church but to us as well… During those times the letters flowed from one congregation to another…God’s Word is for all us who are saved by Grace…
Are you suggesting that Peter had no authority to bring to light issues that happened in Paul’s pastoral? I do recall Paul correcting Peter on matters… Peter didn’t get mad, he took correction. Solomon said it best; “Fools despise correction…“It’s hard to the emergent/post modern church to accept correction…
Guy Muse on Fri, June 05, 2009
Russell McKinney and others,
I understand the doubts and fears about what may or may not happen when believers gather in Jesus Name without the presence of a pastor. But after nine years of living amongst brothers and sisters in house/simple churches similar to many of the charactieristics described in the above article, there I am quite confident that the Head of the Church, Jesus Christ, is quite capable of leading, teaching, instructing, His people through mutual ministry.
If still in doubt, I would invite you to take a moment to read my blog post, Those questionable churches being planted overseas and see if you don’t agree that these are as close to a NT church as anything you will find.
Blessings!
David on Fri, June 05, 2009
Description verses prescription is indeed important.
It is a good thing to have structure and trained leadership.
After reading some of the comments here, let me just say this: let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater.
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fake rolex on Sun, June 07, 2009
This is what many of congregations are doing… trying to make God’s house more relevant and palatable for the unconverted… God’s House is to be a house of where we the converted come and worship Him… This is the descriptive or prescriptive encouragement from the NT Church…
Billy Cox on Mon, June 08, 2009
Rev K. said:
“Are we all to be accountable to one another or just our local congregations? There is only one Church universal… “There is one body… though we are many members… still one body” What we do in our local congregations affects the church universally…”
I agree with you here, I just don’t see how publicly ‘correcting’ other preachers from the pulpit squares with the method of correction described in Matthew 18:15-17.
When I think of
Ron Keener on Mon, June 08, 2009
Much of what you suggest here has been the practice of the Church of the Brethren (HQ in Elgin, IL) for 301 years, since its founding in 1708 as a :New Testament church.” Today they have 125,000 members in 1,000 congregations.
J.D. King on Mon, June 08, 2009
I know discussions about the home/simple church movement are raging throughout Christendom. I understand some of the criticism about “traditional” churches. There is a lot of practice that is established more on culture and humanistic pursuits than the Bible.
Yet with that said, it is quite misguided to believe that the answer to our problem is abandoning leadership, organization and buildings. Are those three things really the source of our problems?
While there was certainly a natural, “organic” reality to the early church’s expansion, it was still built on the organizational precepts of the Jewish synagogue with elders, order and accepted practice. The more organic aspects of church life had a lot more to with the necessity of accomodating the growth and dynamics of the Holy Spirit, than being an “ideal one-size fis all model.” It seems to me that the issue may be more about “power” than “process.” A dead service in a living room is just as bad as a dead service in massive auditorium.
Billy Cox on Wed, June 10, 2009
“Yet with that said, it is quite misguided to believe that the answer to our problem is abandoning leadership, organization and buildings. Are those three things really the source of our problems?”
To characterize house/simple churches as abandoning leadership, organization, and buildings is missing the mark and borders on making a strawman argument.
Mortgages and payrolls may theoretically facilitate the mission, but there is the constant danger that maintaining cash flow will *become* the mission. If that happens, who has the objectivity required to do a ‘reset’?
Financial overhead seems to lead churches to adopt bottom-line priorities instead of Kingdom priorities.
J.D. King on Wed, June 10, 2009
Reflecting on my earlier post, Billy Cox wrote:
“To characterize house/simple churches as abandoning leadership, organization, and buildings is missing the mark and borders on making a straw man argument.”
As one who is genuinely concerned with the Biblical notions of eldership, order and effective discipleship, I don’t understand how my statement is “missing the mark.”
While the House/Simple church Movement is correctly pointing out some of the problems and abuses in “traditional” churches, it is not always offering a viable alternative - at least from what I have have seen and read.
Leadership, order and a decent context for ongoing ministry and discipleship are important issues that simply cannot be overlooked. While not all in the House/Simple church movement are rejecting these dynamics, many are certainly marginalizing them.
I understand the problem with mortgages and understand the vast burden of propping up these artificial religious systems that we have created. I also agree with you, Billy, that many have overextended themselves and created unhealthy systems. This is not only tragic, it is unscriptural.
Nevertheless, the core of the problem is not leaders, organization and buildings. The problem among “traditional” churches is the blatant misapplication of leaders, organization and buildings.
Understand, if we decentralize and become more “organic,” things simply will not become better - at least not in the long run. Leaderless systems become a vacuum - and sooner or later somebody is going to step up and fill it.
Things that are not organized or led have a tendency to disintegrate. Western ministries without buildings and infrastructure tend to “tread water” and have little ability to mobilize.
Yes, people from Eastern, non-industrialized (and the original biblical contexts) do a better job of building community and working together but they are clearly not as individualistic as we are. They are not threatened with someone else being the leader.
Billy, I understand that we probably disagree on many of these issues and likely will never see eye-to-eye. However, I think we both can agree that the broader Western Church desperately needs to change and become re-centered on Jesus.
A. Gulizia on Sun, August 02, 2009
As a member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quaker), I feel led to point out that not all modern day churches are “traditional” in the sense of the article. The Society was formed in the 17th century to reclaim primitive Christianity and strip it of the creedalism and superstition of much so-called Christian practice. To that end, Friends took several revolutionary and, according to some, heretical steps. They got rid of paid priests, pointing out that a course of biblical study doesn’t equate to a call to ministry. Instead, we minister to one another, with many communities having official or unofficial Elders, respected for the wisdom and righteousness, whose opinions and guidance are especially important. They got rid of the Last Supper and water baptism. Instead, they had shared fellowship over meals and cited John 1:33 where John the Baptist said Jesus would “baptize with the Holy Spirit.” We don’t call our meeting houses or our meetings for worship “church,” because the Church is the Body of Christ. Many meetings (congregations) supplement a weekly meeting for worship with a mid-weekly one, and my meeting also has regular reading groups and Friendly Dozens meetings (where Friends have a potluck meal followed by a directed worship), as well as Spiritual Directions meetings, where we listen in groups of 5-8 regular members and minister to each other out of the movements of the Spirit. Instead of sermons, we sit in silence waiting for the Spirit that Christ sent to His believers to lead us to give vocal ministry. When a member feels called to Gospel Ministry, a clearness committee, waiting on the guidance of the Spirit, discerns whether the member (male or female) has a true Concern; if so, they recommend a course of action to the meeting as a whole and we act on it, not by voting, but by waiting patiently on the movement of the Holy Spirit to lead us.
We don’t have instrumental music as part of our worship, though many meetings have separate hymn singing before or after it. Instead, if someone feels led to sing during worship, he or she sings, with others joining as they feel led. We don’t tithe, citing Matthew 10:8 “Freely have you received, freely give.” Of course, this can go both ways http://www.mondaymorninginsight.com/images/smileys/wink.gif We have work to do of course, and our meetings vary widely because we have a decentralized power structure (ultimate decision making tends to be at the monthly meeting (individual congregation)) level. As a result, some meeting communities are very light on scriptural knowledge, some are poor at outreach, and some even have paid ministers. However, the notion of a “New Testament Church” is not in any way a new one. Friends have been trying to live that ideal for the past 350 years. Interested in finding out more? One good place to look is QuakerQuaker.org. Wikipedia also has a good article.
Yours in Christ,
Adria
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