On the back cover of this book by Ross Rhode, it reads “By returning to what we once had…we can recover what we once enjoyed.” Ross builds a case that we must return to the principles of our forefathers. Included are examples of viral church movements in history, most recently the underground church in China. Published in 2012 and around 225 pages, this is a serious study. Below is an excerpt.
As society changed around the church, the church adapted to society. This is not entirely bad. We do need to communicate to the society around us in ways that are understandable. But when we adopt the elementary principles of the age in which we live, we become enslaved by them (Col. 2:8). It is one thing to adopt customs such as dress, music, or figures of speech. (Obviously moral discretion needs to be observed in these issues as well.) It is entirely another to accommodate ourselves to values and principles. We have noted in some detail how the early church succumbed to the foundational principles of the Roman Empire. This was not the last time we became enslaved to deceptive philosophy and human tradition.
These changes through the ages have slowly but surely disconnected us from our biblical roots. They have also disconnected us from God Himself. The behavior of the early church was far simpler and yet much more profound. It was based on the new covenant. The Spirit of Christ lived in every believer in an abiding relationship. He spoke to them and they obeyed Him because He was their Lord. This loving obedience was lived out in every aspect of life both individually and in loving community.
Clergy creates a barrier to this new covenant behavior because now “laymen” need leadership or perhaps even permission from clergy to function within the church system. Some even feel they need the clergy to access God.
The special buildings and services keep us from abiding and obeying all day long. We tend to feel we need to go to a special service at a special time in a special place. We’ve come to rely on the special program, event, or project as the best way to minister to our non-Christian friends. Furthermore the service is not based on listening individually and in community to God. It is based on a scheduled, planned, programmed, and timed agenda. Where is there room for the Holy Spirit to do something different? What happens when He wants to do something not
previously programmed?Christianity has become knowledge and ritual/event/project/program based. It is no longer new covenant/abide/listen/hear/obey based. Or, more succinctly, it is knowledge based not obedience based, human based not Jesus based. We have been disconnected from the God of the new covenant by the system. At the very best, we can know and abide in Christ in spite of the system.
The most dangerous disconnection of all that the Christendom system perpetrates on Christians is our disconnection from Christ Himself. In Christendom, Christ can no longer easily function as the Head of the church who is intimately connected to all parts of the body, which in turn are connected to each other. The system itself distances us from our Lord.
Paul’s extended metaphor in 1 Corinthians 12 is an organic metaphor based on God’s design of His creation. And in this structure, He is Head and absolute Lord. He controls everything. There are no human lords and no mediators between God and man. That is Christ’s function (1 Tim. 2:5). The whole new covenant structure is based on the Spirit of Jesus in us and working through us. He does this individually and corporately.
What then does new covenant life look like? For individuals it looks like the abiding relationship in John 15:1-17. We are so closely connected with Jesus that we are like the vine (Jesus) and the branches (us). As individuals, we are so deeply connected with Jesus that it is impossible to tell where the vine ends and the branch begins. The abiding relationship is marked by deep intimacy.
First Corinthians 14:26-32 is shared new-covenant lifestyle in action. We don’t need to copy this as though it were an order of service. Paul is merely mentioning what kinds of things happen when Christians get together and the Spirit of Jesus leads them corporately. Each and every Christian plays spontaneous roles based on his giftedness, maturity, experience, and most of all the leading of the Holy Spirit.
This is new-covenant Christianity expressed in new-covenant wineskins. It has no clergy. This Christianity has no order of service, because it doesn’t have services. There are no special buildings; it can be done anywhere that seems fit. There are no special hours or days, no sacred time. It can meet weekly if that seems to be what the Spirit wants, but it will probably also just be a group that hangs out together and meets spontaneously all together or in smaller subgroups, all through the week.
This type of Christianity was not expressed only in the first few centuries of the church; new communities like this are springing up all over the world, including the West. The wineskin of Christendom cannot contain Christianity of this kind. There are too many historical incrustations that block immediate abiding access, listening, hearing, and obeying. These believers realize that the wineskin of Christendom actually distances them from God. It keeps them from fully encountering and obeying Christ. The negative consequences of Christendom are certainly not intentional on anyone’s part, but we must be honest with ourselves. Ignoring these ramifications will not help anyone connect with God on the deepest level.
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