The Community of the King

Back when we lived in Germany, I took a three-day resident course on tentmaking ministry. If you’re unfamiliar with the term, tentmaking is where a person takes a job overseas to support themselves while performing missions work. One advantage over the traditional missions model is that the demand for your skill often provides you access to countries that the career missionaries are forbidden to enter–countries where Christianity cannot be openly practiced. Needless to say, in those situations the methods by which the gospel is shared and worship is conducted are significantly different than in normal missions work.

While taking the class, I observed that in unwelcoming countries, Christian gatherings are very simple in their form. This was because they had to be. In many places they had to be secretive–subtle enough as to not stir undue suspicion. Believers gather in one another’s houses. There are no instruments. What little singing there might be is quiet and subdued. There is no “pastor”, no leadership board, no programs, no budget, and no special decorations. Amid meager surroundings, there was only the gathering of believers, a fellowship meal, and the presence of Jesus Christ.

For me this was a visceral and heartwarming visual of how believers in the early church gathered amid social misunderstanding and threat of religious persecution. They were humble gatherings where believers would recognize their utter dependence on Christ. With nothing else around to distract them, their focus remained fixed on the King of Glory.

In the last post we explored the ways even something like scripture can become so venerated and central that it marginalizes Christ Himself. This happens when we make the Bible, not Christ, the center of our lives. We learned that the difference between them appears nuanced only because we’ve come to accept the two as the same thing. But they’re not. The Bible is a book that the Lord can speak through. Jesus Christ is a person, a life-giving spirit that indwells us and with whom we can engage in dynamic relationship.

Continuing the theme of trojan horse distractions found inside the church, in this post I want to speak to how many of the practices that have been instituted into the church over the past several hundred years have become a distraction to the pursuit of Jesus Christ and His Kingdom. I also want to highlight the broader patterns that the apostles advocated and where the earliest churches focused.

Forgetting Who We Are

Church is one of those words that can mean a lot of different things. For some, the church is the physical structure where we meet on Sunday morning. For others, it’s the liturgy or order of worship associated with a service. Some think of the church as the people or property under which a church leader or ministry is responsible. Others think of it as a safe place with friendly people where we pick up a good moral lesson each week. You might see it as a set of traditions that occur during a gathering of Christians. I may see it as the worldwide body of those who follow Jesus Christ. It may be a combination of these things or something else entirely.

When we read the word “church” in the New Testament, the Greek word that was used is ekklesia. Ekklesia is best translated as a “gathering” or “assembly” of people. Prior to Christianity, it was a common word in Greek that had no spiritual significance. But we know from our study of first things that this assembly would bear incredible significance in the eternal purpose of God.

We know that before creation, the Trinity conceived a plan to expand its fellowship to mankind with the express mission of ruling and reigning creation. This would be accomplished by the church through the indwelling divine life of Jesus Christ. Since Christ has been inaugurated King by His resurrection, our job is to follow His leading in the expansion of His Kingdom on earth. The church accomplishes this by embodying, demonstrating, and proclaiming that Kingdom.

Given this truth, the most accurate definition of the church is:

The people of God

who are indwelt by Divine Life

for the expansion of God’s Kingdom.

The true purpose of the church is clear, straightforward, and unifying. But over the centuries, the church has accumulated a lot of baggage. The simplicity of following Christ has been replaced with complex theology. We’ve created hierarchies and intermediaries. The ministry of the Lord has been relegated to professionals. Forms and worship patterns have become artificial and rigid. Despite our freedom in Christ, religious laws of moral conduct have been drafted and codified. Our focus has shifted from Christian unity and support to theological hair-splitting.

All this has become a tremendous distraction to the church’s vital task of pursuing Christ and the things of His Kingdom. It’s also kept the world from seeing the manifold beauty of His Bride. It’s as though we’ve been in a pitch black cave for so long that we’ve lost our ability to see. Without the light of Christ, we’ve become a weak and anemic church. Many of us have been in the cave so long we’ve even forgotten who we are.

Distractions to Divine Life

What I’m calling “baggage” includes several practices and patterns that were incorporated by recognized church authorities starting around the mid-third century. They’re things that didn’t exist at the time of the first century church. Specific examples include the liturgical order of worship, professional leadership, clergy-laity separation, hierarchical church leadership structures, academic focus on pastoral training, and the presumed goal of private facility ownership.

Whether each of these things were directed by God’s hand, evolved out of necessity, or are purely products of the “good idea fairy” is subject to debate. (But I have my suspicions.)

These patterns and practices are so ubiquitous that we can’t imagine the church without them. In fact, many see the beauty of the Lord reflected in them. I have to admit the reverence I feel for the Lord in the liturgy and practices of the post-Nicene church–especially in Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions. Having lived in Europe, I’ve also sensed the splendor and greatness of God amid the architecture of a 10th century cathedral.

But it’s not a question of whether a certain practice or pattern provides any benefit to the believer. Rather, it’s a question of whether they’ve become a distraction to the organic pursuit of Christ by reducing our bandwidth, re-directing our energies, diminishing our effectiveness toward our true purpose and mission. Are they an impediment to the authentic expression of divine life?

I personally think much of it has become a distraction. In some ways they’ve become a substitute for the patterns of authentic divine life prescribed by Christ, the apostles, and the early church fathers who began the church. Here are some examples of what I’m talking about…

While beautiful to our spirits and ancient in tradition, liturgy can become a rigid and stagnant form which constricts a fuller, more organic expression of divine life. It also denies the majority of the church from taking an active role in the ministry of Christ. In meetings, members are limited to singing, listening, and the occasional responsive reading.

While convenient and familiar, the clergy-laity distinction has burned out leaders while ensuring the masses remain spiritual infants for lack of involvement. The church is never built up because spiritual giftings are rarely exercised. The deeper things of Christ are never ministered since the church is in a perpetual do-loop of an overworked leader teaching low-involvement spectators. This system is not based on the scripture or the patterns of the earliest churches, but on an 1,800 year-old social expectation.

Despite using familiar methods, religious education programs fill the mind with the things about Christ and the Bible, but fail to foster an intimate relationship with Christ. Book knowledge has replaced spiritual engagement with the Lord.

The financing and upkeep of worship facilities have become a tremendous source of mental and financial distraction. They re-direct member resources that could have been used to provide aid, healing, and restoration both inside and outside the church. Once constructed, members have to be counted on to continue the flow of money to pay off debt. No one checks the root motivation behind (or even the need for) private facility ownership.

Are these things solely responsible for the ineffectiveness of the church? Not by a long-shot. But the purpose of these is series of posts is to identify and pull the weeds in our own garden before we start treating others.

But Mike, I’m a member of a megachurch with a massive staff and huge budget. We’re doing perfectly fine with all of your so-called ‘distractions’ fully in place. My church is a well-oiled machine. No need to change a thing. People are getting saved, the Lord is being praised, and we’re doing great things for the community. You can take your anti-church b’niss elsewhere…

First, please understand I’m not against the church. I’m not even against successful megachurches. Any expression that is filled with the authentic life of Jesus Christ is a great thing in my book.

Second, I’m not saying church can’t be done with these things. What I am saying is that these practices and several others have taken their toll on the effectiveness of the church. The value they add is often minuscule compared to the burden they exact. They draw more life than they offer. More often than not, they tend to obscure the King rather than reveal Him.

Also, while I’m not accusing any particular church of this, please don’t underestimate the incredible things that can be accomplished without Jesus’s leading. The momentum of human drive is powerful. But as we’ve discussed before, where the Church is not abiding in Christ and drawing from His divine life, those things will be of no eternal significance to the Kingdom (John 15:5–Jesus’s words, not mine). At some point, things will come crashing down for a church built on sand and not the Rock. History is littered with the rubble of churches where man, not Christ, was at the helm.

For many churches operating today, things appear to be happening, but very little of it is driven by divine life. It’s like when God’s presence left the temple. The priests still carried on their duties, sacrifices were still made, but the life of God had long departed.

The Exchange of Divine Life

So what are the core activities of a church that is fixated on Christ and His Kingdom?

Two thousand years ago, Jesus began to re-constitute His Church after the failure of Israel to be a light to the nations. His model for “church life” was not to improve upon Israel’s patterns. Rather, for His Bride to model and participate in the relationship of the Trinity through the intentional exchange of divine life.

Howard Snyder in his book, The Community of the King, does a great job distilling and identifying the core dynamics of the church in light of the bigger picture of the Kingdom. While he shows the activities of his model as continuous and cyclical, I’ve broken it down and adapted his terminology a bit. What’s interesting is that these activities are the very same activities that Jesus Christ exhibited during His earthly ministry (and still wants to exhibit through us today).

The first and most critical function of the church is to receive divine life from the Lord. It’s a critical function because the other three functions simply can’t be performed without it. Divine life contains the DNA of God consisting of two things: God’s absolute truth and His unconditional love. All divine life originates from the life of God Himself. We receive it from him not just once, but continuously from His limitless supply. Divine life is the “currency” of the Kingdom of God. It’s contained in and transferred to others by way of the Holy Spirit. Those who have it can exchange it, give it, share it, and return it. Those who don’t have it can receive it from others who do.

So how do we receive divine life? Rarely is it through expository teaching or church education programs. Since it’s so critical we’ll go into a lot of practical detail about it in future posts. But for now, I’ll tell you that in the broadest sense, we receive divine life from the Lord by abiding in Christ and beholding His glory.

The second function of the church is to love and glorify (worship) the Lord. Here, the Body of Christ takes the divine life that the Lord provides us and returns it back to Him. Like all other authentic church functions, it can’t be self-generated. In worship, we consciously ascribe glory to the Lord by the Spirit. Despite being done in a group, adoration is a very intimate thing.

Worshiping the Lord is more than mere singing and music. It doesn’t start when the music starts and stop when the music stops. While the presence of music might make us feel good, it doesn’t generate authentic divine life. It can only resonate with the divine life that’s already inside us. In fact, I’d say most worship is done without any music at all. Divine life flows back to the Lord when Christ is revealed anew and looms greater in our eyes than he did before. Because there’s nothing greater, there’s always something new to discover about Him.

The third function of the church is to build up the Body (fellowship). Here, the divine life of the church is directed inward as it is exchanged among its members to mutually edify and encourage them in the Lord. Divine life also enables us to equip others, by the gifting of the Spirit, for the building of the Kingdom. The defining expression of Christian community is the exchange of divine life. When this happens, the church embodies the Kingdom as a communal colony.

Building up the Body is not the exclusive work of discipleship programs, new member classes, bible studies, or equipping ministries. It’s not the exclusive work of a teaching minister. There is a fluidity to it. Just as Trinity in eternity past exchanged divine life fluidly among its members, each member of the Body exchanges the divine life it has with one another.

But how does this happen? What does it look like?

1 Corinthians 14:26 gives us a very short but rare glimpse into what Paul advocated in a typical church fellowship meeting. I love this verse because it’s not only fascinating, but incredibly practical.

When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up.
1 Corinthians 14:26 (ESV)

Note the ways that divine life is offered and exchanged among those meeting together. It’s offered by one person by way of a hymn. It’s offered by another person by way of a lesson. Another offers divine life by way of a revelation that the Spirit revealed to them over the previous week, and so on.

Remember, these were very small groups of people back then. Outside of Jerusalem (and possibly Antioch), a “megachurch” in Paul’s day would have been around 50 people. They wouldn’t have been ushered to different classrooms and sanctuaries to see this kind of functioning. It would have all been happening with the same group in someone’s living room. Also note also what’s missing–no human appears to be directing or leading this activity. There was no resident pastor in the church at Corinth. The exchange of divine life was led directly by the Spirit of Christ.

The fourth function of the church is to expand the Kingdom of God. Here, the divine life of the Body of Christ is expressed outward, beyond the gates of the colony and deep into the world. This necessarily involves engaging culture by proclaiming and demonstrating the Kingdom which has come.

Proclaiming the Kingdom has both an evangelistic side (welcome) and a prophetic side (warning). The evangelistic side speaks of the glory of the present and approaching Kingdom. The prophetic side speaks toward the coming judgement of the systems opposed to Christ. It speaks to the need to abandon those systems while we still can.

To demonstrate the Kingdom is to continue the work that Christ was doing while He walked the earth. This is not to be confused with doing the things that we think Jesus would do (i.e. WWJD), but rather to follow Him, by way of the Spirit, into the things that He is already doing.

Christ can’t be separated from His Kingdom. They are one in the same. So, to proclaim and demonstrate the Kingdom is to proclaim and demonstrate Jesus Christ. There is nothing more sublime, beautiful, engaging, relevant, and breathtaking than an authentic demonstration of Jesus Christ. When the early church expanded the Kingdom, they didn’t do it by membership drives, revivals, hip and relatable sermons, “bring a friend to church” days, asking where people thought they would go if they died that evening, or secretly leaving tracts on public bathroom counters. The Kingdom expanded simply because the beauty of the divine life of Jesus Christ was demonstrated in their midst. It was beautiful in their eyes. They wanted to be a part of that so badly that they gave up everything to be a part.

Aside from core activities, the church relies on support structures that allow the exchange of divine life. The church isn’t an organization, it’s an organism. It’s a life form. Every life form requires structures to support it and give it form. Without support, life cannot survive. The same is true of divine life. A biblical example of this was when seven servants were chosen to help distribute food to the Hellenist widows who were being ignored (Acts 6:1-7). The precedent here is that support structures should only be added when they efficiently facilitate the exchange of divine life or become necessary to allow it. Support structures should never compete with core functions. Examples of structures in a church gathering might include things like an agreed-upon time and place to meet, a pre-arrangement of who is taking care of the kids, and a fellowship meal shared among a group.

The Simplicity of the Body

So the core practices of any church are to:

Receive divine life from the Lord,
Love and glorify Him,
Build up His Body, and
Expand His Kingdom.
Around those core practices should be the support structures that efficiently facilitate this exchange of divine life.

So what does a church need to engage in these practices? A theologically trained discipling minister? A challenging sermon series? A leadership committee? Discipleship classes? A dynamic youth pastor? Outreach programs? A choir and organ? Multi-campus meeting facilities? Endorsement from a theological governing body?

Nope.

You really only need three things:

Two or more believers who have made pursuing the Lord their first priority
The Spirit of Christ
(At least temporarily) at least one mature believer who has experience living by divine life and is gifted in leading others into it⁽¹⁾

If I were to start over, I would jettison unnecessary and artificial and make pursuing Christ and His Kingdom my focus. Life is complicated enough. Adding anything beyond this (before you actually need it) can rob you of time and resources and distract us from the deeper and far more satisfying work of simply abiding in the Lord and following His lead. This is all that Jesus ever wanted anyway.

There is infinite variety as to what the flow of divine life might look like in practice. Also, it’s important to understand that if the Lord is directing your church, His emphasis will change over the life of the church. Tradition is static, scripture is static, but Jesus Christ is not. The Spirit will go where He wants to go and focus for a time on what He wants to focus on (John 3:8). While being attentive to His leading, we may find that some approaches or structures may no longer fit the season of the church. When they do, they’re better sunsetted than continued.

All this will require practice and maybe even a little experimentation under the Lord’s leadership. As we’ve said before, church people don’t like to use the word ‘experiment’ because it sounds like we really don’t know what we’re doing. (Even if we really don’t). But as we break out of calcified, artificial paradigms, it will become necessary to “feel around the edges” of what the Lord is leading you into.

And when you do, Jesus will be there ready to show us.

If you’re interested in reading more about the true origins of the church and its practices, I’d recommend the following:

The Community of the King by Howard Snyder

The Community Life of God by Milt Rodriguez

Pagan Christianity by George Barna and Frank Viola

(1) Be careful not to read “pastor” or “minister” into this sentence. These terms have their own social perceptions. What I described is not necessarily the same thing.

First Things