by Brett Jacobsen

This five part teaching series on reformed New Testament community is taken from Brett Jacobsen’s book Heaven's Underground Blueprint which is available here - http://www.christisall.org/hub-book.

 

The beginning of the fullness of Christ

Once the church’s leadership is restructured according to the New Testament heavenly blueprint, and Jesus has the reins again, we can begin our journey in the fullness of Christ; this journey is a progressive growth rather than an arrived destination.

I am not referring to a season where everyone is perfectly sinless, but one in which Christ reigns, causing consistent growth and maturation in the body, which will produce a “spotless bride”. This season will need a biblical structure to carry the bigness of the fullness of Christ.

The fullness of Christ is what the end-time church will walk in, as they take what Christ modeled in seed form, THE KINGDOM OF GOD/HEAVEN, extracting the same DNA and growing up “in Him” into a fuller, more complete measure of it. It was the incarnate living Christ that modeled the seed form but it is the celestial Christ that will lead the end-time church into the maturation of that seed.

We are to carry and continue in the underground principles and structure that we receive in the Jordan baptism, living in them during the end-time, Promised Land, fullness of Christ season. “He must increase, but [we] must decrease.” (John 3:30)

The kingdom of heaven on earth

In this current reformation season there is a paradigm shift from meeting-minded-mania to organic spiritual living. Rather than peddling church attendance and membership, for the sake of growing a church, as is the custom of the extended Dark-Age leaders, the biblically reformed leaders will promote a daily walk in New Testament spirituality. As was the case with the incarnate Christ, the end-time corporate Christ (His body) will live in daily Communion with Father, Community with the saints, and Commission to the world. Whereas pew-sitting has scored Christian brownie points in the past, the true spiritual body of Christ will have the discernment to recognize and pursue a real Christian-walk.

Our communion –with Father

Although there will be a place for prayer rooms and larger prayer meetings in the ‘fullness of Christ’ season, the main focus will surely be on individual and small group, everyday-life prayer. Rather than humanly impressive attendance and atmosphere, we will opt for deep, real, lasting communion with God, just like Jesus did. If Jesus produced such a high level of eternal-fruit from His prayer life, almost single handedly, imagine what could be done if the majority of Christians in this hour were to step into “the secret place” and abide there. (Ps 91:1)

Sadly, we have lacked faith as we have looked to past circumstances rather than His Word (covenant contract), not believing that the saints will rise to that necessary place in prayer. Instead we have entertained them, in the hope that they might just ‘stay in church’, so they aren’t lost to the world; but if they are practically prayer-less, have we not already lost them, though they may have “a form of godliness”? (2 Tim 3:5) We have also prostituted the place of prayer for a ‘Christmas-wish-list’ mentality, birthed from our yoking together with the hedonistic, consumer-society of the age? We must ‘repent’ and choose to “sup with [Him].” (Rev 3:20)

The fact is that Christianity, or rather the Kingdom of God, is all about being “reconciled to God” (2 Cor 5:20); it’s all about communion with Him. We need to get prayer out of the ‘temples of man’ and into the hearts and homes of mankind. Prayer should be everywhere, all the time, a daily communing with the awesome Father of all. If a believer is regularly alone with God in the place of prayer, as well as assembling with a handful of saints for prayer based activity, then there is no further need of ‘meeting attendance’: his or her prayer-life is scriptural and, more than likely, eternally fruitful.

Our community – with the saints

If prayer doesn’t need to happen in a holy-building or a formal meeting, then what is the need for having church? The bible says “not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together”; it does not say that this assembling is ‘to have church’. (Heb 10:25) There is obviously a need for every Christian to connect and participate with other believers, but to do what?

There have been a number of common elements in ‘church meetings’ over the past seasons that are biblically inspired, but usually somewhat out of place. These are: prayer and worship, teaching the Word, communion (breaking bread), financial giving, preaching the gospel, ministry to the saints, and fellowship. These all have a unique and vital place in the kingdom of God, but they have been squeezed together, usually into a couple of hours, in order to fulfill our weekly rituals, thus, getting God over and done with quick smart and … back to our normal lives we go.

We have already noted that prayer/worship can and should happen everywhere, both alone and with other saints. The thing is, too much meeting-minded prayer causes the most part of the body to become non-participatory and therefore retarded in everyday life. Although prayer/worship should be also enjoyed with others, it does not need to be crammed together with the other spiritual elements, forming a “church meeting.”

This rule applies to the Word of God as well. Because the saints have been happy to pew-sit while getting their bellies filled by the Pastor’s weekly word, they have significantly forfeited the true riches of a life in the Word. Teaching and dialogue in the Word should be happening every day… for every saint and through every saint. The Word is a spiritual element that is to be incorporated into the everyday lives of the everyday people.

Having communion, or the breaking of bread, doesn’t even make sense in a “church meeting”, nor does it do it any justice. The fact is, the practice of “breaking bread” actually happened “from house to house”, where most normal humans eat. (Acts 2:46) We will examine this more thoroughly soon.

Monetary gifts in the New Testament church, or honour/value (time) as it was known, was not placed into buckets or urns during a formal meeting, nor were credit card facilities available. The believers, who participated in the biblical honouring of leaders, would “[bring] the money, and [lay] it at the apostles’ feet.” (Acts 4:37) Paul revealed a beneficial principle of consistent giving when he told the Corinthians: “Upon the first day of the week [...] lay by him in store, as God [had] prospered [them], that there be no gatherings [logia – collection] when I come.” (1 Cor 16:2) If you wish to be biblically obedient, financially speaking, then lay aside your monetary gifts and take them to your team of leaders; don’t make them chase you with a bucket.

As, we will look at our commission shortly, we will only briefly comment on gospel preaching in ‘church meetings’ (altar calls, etc). How dare we throw out a five minute spiel of the eternal gospel at the tail end of a church service? No wonder many of these apparent ‘converts’ “[return] to [their] vomit.” (Prov 26:11)

The laying on of hands, anointing the sick with oil, imparting spiritual gifts, as well as the many other forms of ministry that can flow amongst the church, should actually be doing just that: flowing amongst the church. Not only should the leaders minister in this capacity, out amongst the believers, in their homes and neighborhoods, they should also be equipping them to do likewise. Many believers would not dare minister to another Christian, let alone another human being. ‘Meeting ministry’ is, for the most part, counter productive to the equipping of the saints for ministering to each other and the world.

I don’t think that any Christian, let alone Christian leader would really believe that having a cup of coffee and a ten minute chat after the ‘spiritual meeting’ constitutes biblical “fellowship.” (Acts 2:42) So then, is the men’s golf day, the women’s coffee club, the youth’s ice skating night etc, the answer? One of the more carnal, Greco-Roman based paradigms in the modern church is the separation of natural from spiritual (dualism). Truth is, hanging out together, whether eating a meal, playing sport or playing with the kids, we should practice perpetual biblical fellowship … which is spiritual, as it is centered on Christ.

So again I ask, what is the need for every Christian to connect and participate with other believers?

• Growth – We need to gather both semi-formally and informally with other believers, those who God has you living life with, so we can prompt spiritual growth in one another.

From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplies, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, makes increase of the body to the edifying of itself in love. (Eph 4:16)

It is when every Christian is involved in supplying their gifts and insights to the body that “the body … [edifies] … itself in love.” The more disenabled bodies in the church, the less people grow, and subsequently, the less the body grows.

• Accountability – Quite simply, every believer, including leaders, must be accountable to the other believers around their lives: those who see how they really live.

Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. (Eph 5:21)

We must be getting together with other believers on a regular basis, forming real relationships that produce loving accountability. Yes, we ought to submit to leaders, but they ought to also submit to us in like fashion.

• Unity – Although we will not, and need not, connect with every Christian in our city or region, we must be strongly connected to those God has called us to fellowship (koinonia) with. If we will all do this, there will be one accord, as the Lord will work out how to connect all the little clusters of fellowship together (see next chapter).

…that you be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. (Phil 2:2)

It is evident that the early church flourished, in part, due to their being of “one accord.” (Acts 1:14, Acts 2:1, Acts 2:46, Acts 4:24, Acts 5:12, Acts 15:25)

• Support – If you are a lone ranger you will not only miss out on the support that a loving spiritual community can provide, you will miss out on being a loving supporter of others. Remember that Jesus said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” (Acts 20:35)

And all that believed were together, and had all things common; And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. (Acts 2:44-45)

This type of biblical lifestyle goes far beyond the comfort zones of meeting attendance, and is not something for the select few that are gifted in hospitality; it’s for us all.

• Practice – True New Testament “assembling … together” was set up by the Lord, not only for the saints to enjoy Him, and each other, but also to practice loving those ones not yet in the body. Correct New Testament get-togethers are something that can be duplicated with your not-yet-saved next door neighbors, albeit at a different level, “[Walking] in wisdom toward them that are without.” (Col 4:5)

That you may be […] in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom you shine as lights in the world; Holding forth the word of life; (Phil 2:15-16)

True New Testament fellowship should be contagious, multiplying over the face of the earth, starting in your living room, progressing to your work mates’ back yard, perhaps.

If a believer is a zealous participant in a spiritual nucleus family, gathering with other saints regularly to share in spiritual activities, usually around a covenant meal; if they are accountable to a team of maturely-proven saints who are gifted in an overseeing capacity, they themselves being accountable to a team of foundation ministers, then there is no further need for meeting attendance. To overemphasize, or require further meeting attendance is not only unscriptural, but is also counter-productive to living a daily, eternally-fruitful, biblically-spiritual life.

Our commission – to the world

Our overemphasis on meetings has severely retarded much of the Christian population in their heavenly commission to “[reconcile] the world to [Jesus]. (2 Cor 5:19) In the words of William Booth:

“There have been more than enough conferences, and congresses, and committees and deliberations. It is time to act. There is not a moment to lose. There cannot be any question about what we have to do.  No more conferences! No more doubt! No more delay! Arise; ye children of light, and buckle on the armor bright, and now prepare yourselves to fight against the world and Satan.  We are called to be saints we are called to be brothers and sisters of Jesus, to fight with Him, for Him, with every particle of strength we have to the last gasp.  That is enough.  No more conferences!”             William Booth [1]

Many committed Christians know what to do; but they don’t have time to do it. Most don’t have the stage and accessories that they think they need, either. While there are plenty of lazy, selfish Christians who don’t even have the great commission in their heart, there are others who want to participate in the building of the body of Christ but they are spending most of their “God time” stashed away in a meeting with the rest of the frustrated, fruitless fraternal. Sure, the odd world-ling gets dragged into an alien like church meeting by a friend or relative. But the statistics remain the same: many more lost people are out there in the real world than the very few that would come to a church.

As there are many varying statistics on the retention rate of ‘converts’ from meeting and crusade evangelism, I will sum them up like so: we have close to a 100% success rate at non-retention of converts from meeting-centered Christianity.

Not only does ‘meeting focused evangelism’ produce scanty statistics, it also excludes the majority of the saints from the greatest occupation on the planet. Hands on participation in evangelism/discipleship is surely the most worthy cause on the planet, with deeply satisfying fruit. In the season ahead, we will see the Holy Spirit thrusting the saints out in the public eye to proclaim Christ, just like on the day of Pentecost, and just like in Acts 8. True Christian community is highly conducive to the spreading of the gospel and making disciples of all nations.

 

 

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 7th, 2006 at 12:28 pm and is filed under Biblical Leadership, Brett Jacobsen's teachings, Church Structure, House to house community, Living Christianity, Prayer / Worship, Reformation/ Revival. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.