Christians Anonymous

The following was recently written by my good friend Buff Scott, Jr. To find out more about Buff click here.

A reader inquired to what extent his allegiance is owed to the church group he attends. Good question, and it gives me a favorable time to address it. At the outset, let me say I’m inclined to believe one’s allegiance is not the exclusive property of any group of saints.

However, if we have found a Christian assemblage, regardless of where they meet – whether under the shade of an old apple tree, in the living-room, in a rented structure, or in a church building, and we find them to be more in line with our thinking and commitment, and we decide to meet with them and participate in their activities, we then owe them a certain level of responsibility, such as deferring to their leadership, monetarily contributing to those ministries of which we agree, and otherwise trying to build up this local group in a diversity of ways.

As for me, my preference are house meetings or home assemblies, for there is no fancy edifice to maintain and make payments on, no hired hand (pulpit sermonizer) to support, and no questionable projects to financially bolster. In a setting such as this, the basic financial needs are the destitute and supporting the man whose ministry is full-time evangelism. Jesus is the good Shepherd, not the hired hand. It is heartwarming what Jesus says about the hired hand in John 10:11-13. I encourage you to go there and spiritually digest what He says. You might be a little surprised – and delighted.   

If all saints deserted the church edifice and began to meet in private homes or similar places, as the early believers did, all pulpit sermonizers and “Reverends” would be forced to either find a job or go into full-time evangelism, which would surely be a blessing. For as long as our ecclesiastical orators are tied down to a pulpit, barricaded from us “peasants,” and financially kept afloat, he will never find a job and go to work or get himself involved in full-time evangelism – that is, taking the message of salvation to the unregenerate.     

We have come a long ways since A. D. 33, but mainly in the wrong direction, for we have divided and subdivided. We are spiritually sick with the party spirit (Gal 5:19). If for the first 200 years the early saints could win over a big part of the world without the assistance of church edifices and pulpit ecclesiastics, and they did, why is it so strange to think we cannot do the same? Look at AA and how far they have come with their substance abuse programs. They own no edifices” or structures and have no budget to underpin. They meet in a communal setting, just anywhere they decide to meet – schools, libraries, homes, fire stations, and other places.     

We no more need church structures than AA needs to construct a fancy, expensive building to meet in. And in AA meetings, there are no paid speakers or professional orators. They mutually share, exchange ideas, encourage each other, and either cry or laugh on each other’s shoulder – the very things we should be doing. But no! We pay big bucks to import a professional to do our ministries by proxy. “It ain’t right!” It’s as wrong as wrong can be. Heaven does not condone, nor ever has condoned, this digressive, apostate practice. I beg all of my fellow believers to allow reformation to ring and reign over the hills and the valleys of sectarianism!

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