The White Whole Theory

When Christians think of their local church and the Kingdom of God they probably see little differences between them after all isn’t your local church part of the Kingdom of God.  As you can probably gather from the title of this blog post it is my contention that your local church is not part of the Kingdom of God but you and the followers of Jesus in your Church are.  You may think that this distinction is not important but as we examine the authority and identity of Christians in the Kingdom of God versus the same authority of Christians in your local church you will see that they are not the same thing and once we understand this difference it will irrevocably change our local churches.

Our local churches today largely have a hierarchical structure, the more traditional the church the more hierarchical the structure.  This starts at the local church where the senior pastor sets the direction and vision for the church, with all pastors at the church serving under him and lay leaders serving under the pastors.  Even in more modern churches who would think themselves far from the model of the catholic church the leadership structure is largely hierarchical and if you disagree with something at your local church then there is very little that you can do about it except leave or cause division.  Of course you can talk to your pastor and tell them you believe what they are doing is wrong but by the time that you get to speak to the pastor they have decided that this is the will of God and it is unlikely that anything you say will cause them to change their mind.  

If we contrast the structure of our churches with the Kingdom of God by looking at scripture we can see that the contrast is stark. 

Ephesians 2:6 For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus.

As Christians we are all seated with Jesus in heaven there is no one between us and God because Jesus died on the cross and destroyed the veil that barred us from his presence.  We are all sons and daughters of the King of the Universe, adopted into his family by Jesus’s death on the cross.  All we have to do is follow Jesus and walk in faith.

Ephesians 4:11-16 Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers.  Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ.  This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.

Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.

While there are gifts and leaders in the church there responsibility is not to rule over us but to ensure that we no longer need leaders.  It is their responsibility to ensure that without any new christians at some point they will no longer have a Job as all Christians will be mature. 

Hebrews 8:10-11

But this is the new covenant I will make

    with the people of Israel on that day, says the Lord:

I will put my laws in their minds,

    and I will write them on their hearts.

I will be their God,

    and they will be my people.

And they will not need to teach their neighbors,

    nor will they need to teach their relatives,

    saying, ‘You should know the Lord.’

For everyone, from the least to the greatest,

    will know me already.

A major part of the new covenant is that we no longer need priests to mediate between us and God but that we are all taught by God.

As you can see the contrast between the structure of our local churches and the Kingdom of God is stark and this contrast should concern us all.  But what do we do about this contrast, how can we move towards a more biblical structure for the Church. 

I think we need to do three things.  One is move away from a hierarchical structure where one man is in charge and towards a more biblical structure where elders shepherd the flock with decision making being more communal and less authoritarian.  Two is that those with ministry gifts need to be recognised and honoured because of the gift of Jesus on their lives but they should not have automatic authority over the elders or the church.  No one person should be in charge of any congregation.  Third we need to look beyond the walls of our local church and minister to our town and cities together.  Ideally the elders of the church should be for a town or city and not just a local congregation.  We are all Princes and Princesses of the same Kingdom and all serve the same King. 

*All Scripture is Copyright New Living Translation (NLT).

The scripture in Acts 15 is used by both catholics and protestants (which includes Pentecostals) to argue for a hierarchical structure for church government.  Catholics use this scripture to make Peter the first Pope and protestants use this scripture to make James the leader of the early church, but neither position is supported by reading the scripture.  If we examine the context surrounding the council in Jerusalem in Acts 15 and the response of the Apostles and Elders in the council there are some profound ramifications for our current church governmental structure.

The reason for the council was that some men came to antioch teaching that the believers needed to be circumcised as required by the law of Moses to be saved (Acts 15:1).  In reading this scripture there are a couple of things that we need to note:

1. Paul and Barnabus argued with them vehemently about this as they knew this was false teaching.  Some scholars believe that the letter to Galatians was written before Paul went to Jerusalem for the Council and in Galatians Paul was brutal in his dismissal of this teaching.
2. It was the church in Antioch that asked the church in Jerusalem for help with this issue.  An important consideration in why the church in Antioch doing this is that they did not have the New Testament and only Galatians and James where written before the Council.  This means that if the Antioch church was unsure of which was the correct teaching, the Jerusalem Church would have been the logical place to appeal to for help.
3. In Gal 2:11 we find out the Paul confronted Peter because he was not opposing these men who where proclaiming this teaching and started avoiding gentile Christians because of peer pressure.  It is possible and probably likely that this happened while Paul and Barnabus where in Antioch and would understandably have confused the Christians in Antioch if Peter seemed to support them by association even if he didn't actively support their teaching.

When the Council in Jerusalem is held it starts with a lot of discussion then Peter addresses the council reminding them that both Jews and Gentiles are saved by Grace.  This allows Paul and Barnabus to tell the council about there missionary Journey and all the wonderful things that God has done among the Gentiles.  After this James speaks to the council giving them his opinion, which the apostles and elders agree with in their letter.   

In examining the response of the apostles and elders we need to note the following:

1. The authority in the letter rests on the apostles and elders in Jerusalem, not the authority of either Peter or James.
2. Neither Peter or James are given any special position in this council other than that they had oppinions that where worthy of noting in scripture.  Any special positon to either of these men is given by us in our interpretation of scripture, based on our experience that church has a hierarchical structure.
3. The question the church in Antioch asked was do we need to be circumcised, yet the response from the Jerusalem Council and ultimately the Holy Spirit is a general one about the Jewish law mentioning only 4 things from the whole of the old testament law.  An important note here is that they didn't mention tithing even though this is in the law and it would have fit with the response that the council gave.
4. So as you can see this passage of scripture gives no support to our current hierarchical church structure where a Senior Pastor rules his little kingdom as he sees fit.  In fact it actively opposes it as the ruling was given by a council of apostles and elders with no mention of any single leader.  

Over the past few years I have become increasingly disatisfied with the traditional Pentecostal church lifestyle.  When I first got saved was in the Mid 1990's around the time of the Toronto blessing and the Pensacola Revival and I miss the relative freedom of the services that we used to have during that period. 

But it is also more than that, being a very analytical person who values truth and honesty highly I have been unable to ignore the difference between the way we where following Christ and the way that the bible seemed to say that we should be following Jesus.

The bible tells me that Jesus has given me a gift to help me serve the Church and show his love to a dying world, yet I get very little chance to exercise this gift within the traditional church structure.  I'm mostly relegated to roles that are more concerned with natural gifts and have nothing to do with my spiritual role in the Body of Christ.  

As a consequence of this dissonance between the bible and the traditional church and the inability to use the gift that God has given me I had become increasingly depressed and considered either changing churches or withdrawing from fellowship.  It would have been easier than continuing the way I swas going.

But God came through just in time and I read Pagan Christianity?: Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices by Frank Viola and George Barna and I'm free.  That's the only way that I can describe it.  It's like I've been living in Jail for the last ten years but considered it just normal.

In the book they explore some of the traditions of the traditional church and where they actually come from and how the church today bears little resemblance to what it was in the first century.  Never before have I been able to see a vision of the Church as it was designed to be but after reading the book I can see it and I haven't even read the book that comes after where Frank Viola explains his vision for an organic living church.

So the book is highly recommended and I can't wait to read the next book Reimagining Church: Pursuing the Dream of Organic Christianity.
   
And no I don't know what comes next but I know that God has lead me down this path and he will reveal the next stage at the right time. But I truly wish that my current church could see the church as I now see it, it's nothing short of gloriously beautiful. 

When Christians get involved in politics or think about voting in an election the thing that seems to be the highest priority is the moral standards of the politicians and political parties.  Yet this is at odds with the message of the Gospel.  The message of the gospel is that Jesus had to die on the cross because we were unable to meet the standard that the law required to know God and be like him.  Jesus’ message was one of grace and love for the sinner and open opposition to the Legalistic teachings of the religious leaders.  So if we were to create a political movement based on love what would it look like?

¹If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ²If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

⁴Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

1 Corinthians 13: 1-7

¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

1 Corinthians 13:13

 So what does this well-known scripture tell us about how we should be involved in politics?

1. If we don’t do it in love then it is meaningless and has no eternal value.  All we do is make a loud noise but have no lasting effect.
2. Our involvement must be done with patience and an understanding that not everyone will listen.  We must wait for the opportunities that allow us to get our message across to the public.
3. Our policies need to be kind, we should not support policies that treat people harshly like the current border protection policies of both major parties.  Compassion needs to be a major component of any policies we support.
4. We should not boast about our achievements but let our actions and the results speak for themselves.  The media will want to know about our policies and platform and will provide ample opportunity for us to put forward our position and critique the policies of the other parties.
5. We should not be proud of what we achieve but recognise that anything we do achieve is through God’s grace.
6. We should not be part of the standard political manipulation that tries to shade the truth to match our political goals and thus bring dishonour to us and our opponents.
7. We are not there for our own needs, but to represent the needs of the constituent that elected us.
8. We should be calm and measured in our responses and avoid political grandstanding, i.e. Question Time in the Australian Federal Parliament and the great American filibuster are examples of the kind of behaviour to avoid.  
9. We should not seek revenge when opposing parties manipulate the truth and lie about what we say but depend on God to bring the truth about their behaviour into the light.
10. We need to uphold sound moral standards but we also need to remember that Jesus only gave us two laws under the New Covenant, love God and love your Neighbour.
11. We should support policies that protect and support the disadvantaged in our society and provide them with the opportunities to overcome their circumstances.
12. We need to trust the advice of professionals and academics where it does not disagree with our faith.  This means that we need to have a very good reason to support policies that are against mainstream academic and professional opinion.
13. Our policies need to provide hope and avoid personal attacks.
14. We need to persevere and not react to every wind that blows in the news cycle.

And remember our purpose in being involved in politics is not to achieve power and become the government but to show through our words and actions that Jesus is alive.

When I was reading the story of Jacob and Esau recently I found it very interesting that God gave them to Isaac and Rebekah when Isaac prayed for his wife as she was unable to have children.  God's answer to Isaacs's prayer was twin sons who would continually be in conflict with one another.  And not only that when Rebekah wondered what was going on when they were struggling in her womb and asked God about it, he told her that it was Jacob that would inherit the promise from Isaac and not the firstborn Esau.  As far as we know from scripture God never tells Isaac that it will be Jacob that is going to inherit the promise, only Rebekah.  And when on his death bed Isaac calls for Esau to give him the blessing, it is Rebekah that ensures that it is Jacob that receives the blessing fulfilling what God told her when she was pregnant.  Throughout Jacobs's life we continually see that he has to fight for everything that he receives.  He has to fight for the blessing from his father that God told his mother he would have, he has to fight to get the wife he wanted after his father in law deceives him when he is getting married.  Then when he has worked for free for decades and decides to leave, his father in-law tries to leave him a pauper and he has to fight for the wealth that he receives.

And the most amazing thing about this was that this was the blessing of God on his life.  It was because of this continual struggle that in Genesis 32:28 when God comes to him he can struggle with God and prevail becoming no longer Jacob but Israel, the one who fought with God and man and won, the father of the nation of Israel.

We could probably look at David's life and see a similar story.  A shepherd boy who was anointed king well before he had any chance of being crowned king, but who became a man after God's own heart and whose son Solomon was the wisest man to have ever lived and who built the first temple of God in Jerusalem.

Accepting the truth that these scriptures reveal to us is not easy.  We equate blessing with Joy and happiness and all things nice, not conflict and struggle, not with David fleeing from Saul.  But these are part of the blessing of God because of who we will become if we allow God to lead us through them.  The blessing is who we will become and it is this goal that God sees.