From Knowledge to Wisdom

RMC House Church Conference 2009-11-07

It seems obvious really, the mission of the church is to bring the Kingdom of God to people just as Jesus did. Invite them into discipleship as followers of Jesus. This mission is the reason for the existence of the church. If the church is not carrying out its mission it does not really exist as church.

This the challenging message I got from the one day conference on House Church organised by the Rhein Maas Church network of house churches on 7 November. The speakers were:

    * Marc van der Woude of Joel News
    * Jonathan Fokker, Church Planter
    * Steve Hill of Harvest -Now

We were challenged to envisage church as Jesus formed it with his disciples in Luke 10. He sent them out in twos without a bag, a spare coat, money or sandals, to go as people of peace. This is a lot different from the way many have experience the traditional ways of being church. We expect organization. We want to know who is in charge, what's the line of authority. But Jesus works with a completely flat organization. He who has all authority in heaven and earth, called his disciples friends. (John 15:13-16 NIV) So the reality is that we are all priests, Jesus is our Lord, we are all friends.

So the church is built by going out to the people, to the houses of peace where hospitality is offered, respecting the authority of the head of the household, laying a foundation of Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Then leaving for the Holy Spirit to build the church. This is the opposite approach to many traditional churches where new believers are drawn into the church organization and subculture under the authority and under the control of the hierarchy.

But Jesus did not say, 'tell them to come'. He said, 'go'

We did not talk much about how to "do or be house church". Rather we were considering the nature of the church through its mission. New believers should be out on mission immediately. Jesus did not spend years with his disciples sitting on school benches making sure they had their theology all straightened out. He went on the road with them as a bunch of friends. Doing and learning together. The training and dealing with character issues took place as Jesus discipled them on the road between villages. How this works out in detail in practice varies from culture to culture.

So we need to get out of our comfort zones and shed our religious subcultures. And make a fresh start with Jesus in the lead and see how he wants to build us into church.

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My rough notes of the day are here.

Guest interview with Frank Viola

This post is one of a series in a 'Blog Circuit' involving more than 50 other blogs (see the list below). These are my questions to Frank Viola about his book "From Eternity to Here: Rediscovering the Ageless Purpose of God" and Frank's personal answers.

Re Chapter 5 ekklesia the bride of Christ

AB: I appreciate the vivid parallels between Adam and Eve and Christ, and Christ and his bride and the vision of the beautiful, beloved Bride.

The church was born at the resurrection. the Bride of Christ existed as a spiritual body from that moment. We are part of her.

But how does this fit with the image of the Body of Christ with Him at the head? I try to live by this model in my relationships with fellow believers and in my understanding of how we are church together under the headship of Jesus.

I begin to feel schizophrenic if I also try to position myself as part of the already existing Bride of Christ who has a different relationship with Jesus than the Body of Christ.

So my question is, how do these two things hang together? If they were just metaphors, or models, that give us some insight on reality from a certain perspective, then it could work for me. But if we are saying these are two existing spiritual realities - the Body of Christ exists and we are part of him, and the Bride of Christ exists and we are part of her. Then I have quite some difficulty understanding where I am in the here and now and which way is up.

FV: I’m not sure it’s prudent for us to try to comprehend something as great as the ekklesia of God by the employment of the frontal lobe. Such spiritual realities refuse to fit neatly into Aristotelian categories. We know that the ekklesia is a multisplended organism, just as the Lord Himself is a multisplended Person. He is Lion and Lamb; King and Priest; God and Man; Alpha and Omega all at the same moment. He is a mystery and a paradox. In the same way, the church, which is His corporate expression, is His Body, His Bride, His House and His Family all at the same time. What the mind can’t bring us toward our spirits take hold of and soar beyond.