I just started reading What Is Neighbourhood-Based Christian Community? by David Emechete and found this in the preface. It reveals the heart of the author, and perhaps it will resonate with you as well.
The truth is difficult but necessary to face: the way we’ve been practising our Christian faith for centuries cannot continue. It brings shame to our King’s name. The world sees Christianity and mocks God. They mock our hypocrisy, our lack of unity, and our failure to be a positive force in the world. We are called to be an expression of God’s glory and wisdom, demonstrating His love, holiness, integrity, and higher civilization. Yet, here we are, there is little difference between us and the people of the world. In fact, in some instances the people of the world are better than us. Some of us may think we’re fine, the body of Christ is fine the way it is. But if see how things were originally meant to be, you will mourn because of the current state of the body of Christ.
Let me share a story from the Bible that perfectly captures what I’m trying to say:
“When the builders completed the foundation of the Lord’s Temple, the priests put on their robes and took their places to blow their trumpets. And the Levites, descendants of Asaph, clashed their cymbals to praise the Lord, just as King David had prescribed. With praise and thanks, they sang this song to the Lord: ‘He is so good! His faithful love for Israel endures forever!” Then all the people gave a great shout, praising the Lord because the foundation of the Lord’s Temple had been laid. But many of the older priests, Levites, and other leaders who had seen the first Temple wept aloud when they saw the new Temple’s foundation. The others, however, were shouting for joy.” (Ezra 3:10-12)
This passage moves me deeply because it mirrors our situation today. Those who had never seen Solomon’s temple were celebrating, thinking the new foundation was magnificent. But the elders who remembered the original temple’s glory wept. They knew what had been lost. Similarly, when you truly understand how Christian faith was meant to be lived, you can’t help but weep at what we see today. Many of us think that what we have today is fine, some of us even celebrate it, but if only you can see the glory that God originally intended for His people. I’ve found myself crying – yes, actually crying – when I see fellow Christians behaving just like people who don’t know God, when I visit churches and find how much it is dominated by the flesh, when I watch religious leaders more interested in building their own empires than nurturing God’s people and Kingdom. I weep because I have glimpsed the Father’s heart and seen how gloriously He originally intended things to be. What we have today is far from it.
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2 replies on “The Tears of Ezra”
It’s even worse than we think, I’ve been exercised lately by the name we give ourselves – ‘House Church’. If you give something a name you have created a denomination. But the fact of the matter is that there’s only one church with local gatherings all over the place. ‘Ekklesia’ as I think everyone here will already know is just the Greek word for an assembly, originally an assembly of the town council. These gatherings were identified as ‘the gathering at so-and-so’s house, or the gathering at Ephesis, or Corinth. The people meeting then would have been very puzzled by the idea of house gatherings (ekklesiai) being different from river-bank gatherings or town-square gatherings. Another way to understand ekklesia is the chosen or the called-out people and those people are not denominational whether they are in North Phoenix or Cirencester in the UK or anywhere else.
I know many will be critical of my point of view, but I cannot think of myself as a House Church person any more than I can think of myself as Anglican or Methodist or Baptist. There is only one denomination, and that’s the gathering (or ekklesia) of those who follow Jesus; they are scattered in hundreds of denominations, one of them being House Church. We need to rethink who we are and then name ourselves accordingly – Jesus’ people in North Phoenix, Jesus’ people gathered in Cirencester or whatever.
I’m not trying to stir up trouble or difficulty, I love you all whether you’re denominational in some way or not, and whatever you call your meetings. But I can’t go on thinking of myself as a House Church person. Please forgive me.
Excellent comment, thank you.