“Church” or Ekklesia? What we’ve all COMPLETELY missed about the community of God.
The word behind church points to people, not a building or a service.
By Tim Barber··Video·Updated
In today’s video, we delve deep into a fundamental question that has been on the minds of many believers: Have we misunderstood what the Bible means by “church”? The term “church” is derived from the Greek word “ekklesia”, but does our modern understanding align with the original intent of the Scriptures? Join us as we embark on a journey of discovery, exploring the historical, cultural, and theological nuances of the term and seeking clarity on its true meaning.
The word “ekklesia” was not exclusively religious in its origins. In ancient Greece, it referred to an assembly or gathering of citizens called out from their homes into a public place. So, when the New Testament authors adopted this term, what were they signifying? Was it merely a reference to a physical building, a Sunday service, or did it encapsulate something far more profound?
As we dive into the New Testament, we’ll see that Jesus Himself used the term “ekklesia” when He declared, “I will build My church” (Matthew 16:18). But a closer examination reveals that Christ was not referring to a brick-and-mortar structure, nor was He pointing to a mere gathering of believers on a Sabbath. Instead, He was alluding to a spiritual assembly, a called-out group of people united by faith in Him and dedicated to His mission.
The early apostles and disciples understood this. For them, the ekklesia was a living, breathing community of believers who shared their lives, resources, and faith. They met in homes, by riversides, and in public squares, always emphasizing the importance of relationships, discipleship, and communal worship. It was less about a location and more about a shared identity in Christ and a collective purpose.
Sadly, over the centuries, institutionalization, cultural shifts, and human traditions have, at times, overshadowed this foundational understanding. The term “church” began to be more associated with a place than with a people. Structures, denominations, and rituals took center stage, often sidelining the organic, relational aspect of the ekklesia.
But there’s a resurgence, a longing in many believers to return to the roots, to understand and live out the ekklesia as the early believers did. In this video, we’ll explore practical steps and insights to help us realign our perspective and practices with the Biblical vision of the ekklesia. We’ll discuss:
The significance of communal worship and why it’s more than just singing songs.
The role of discipleship and mentorship in building a robust ekklesia.
How modern believers can foster a sense of community and shared purpose, even in an increasingly individualistic world.
In conclusion, understanding the true essence of the ekklesia challenges us to look beyond buildings and rituals. It invites us into a deeper relationship with fellow believers, united by our faith in Christ and driven by a shared mission to spread His love to the world. Join us in this enlightening exploration and be inspired to experience and build the ekklesia of God in its truest sense.
Remember to like, share, and subscribe for more content that delves into the heart of Biblical truths and offers fresh perspectives on faith and life.
Transcript
[0:00] what goes unsaid in a culture is usually what best defines that culture the shared assumptions the biases the shared beliefs that everybody just seems to hold naturally inside of that culture are kind of like the water inside of a fishbowl with a goldfish swimming around the fish doesn't really understand the water in which it's swimming unless it stops to pause and reflect and something similar has happened in the 2000 years since the foundation of the church by Jesus and the apostles that I think we need to pause and reflect so we don't find ourselves swimming in water that we never were supposed to if you ask 100 Christians what is the church you'll probably get a 100 different answers if you press them hard enough but what you hope to hear is that people would say well the church is the people of God but is that really how we use the word after all words don't mean things people mean
[0:49] things by the words that they choose when they're explaining something so when we say I'm going to go to church we don't mean we're going to go to hang out with the people necessarily it means there's an event put on at a building that I'm going to attend or you'll drive by some you know old cathedral in the older part of town wherever you live and you'll say man look at the beautiful church I love those stained glass windows they look so beautiful and the only problem is the Bible never uses the word church that way ever so what might be some other ideas that we've picked up about what church is what the church is that didn't come from the Bible what are some other things that we've all just chosen to agree and we've all landed on the same biases and shared beliefs that we're blind to because it's just surrounding Us in the water we swim in in modern Christian culture that's what we're going to explore today I'm
[1:35] probably going to make a lot of you really really uncomfortable but I'm okay with that because the only thing that should matter to you as a Christian is being faithful to Jesus following after The God Who rescued and redeemed you and coming to know him better through his word and his way and that's what we should all Endeavor to so let's jump into what even does the word mean so the Greek word for church is eaia and what it means you can see I've got got the strong concordance pulled up here it literally means the called out ones but the the word is used in other places especially even in ancient Greek culture it was used for one thing an assembly a gathering a getting together of people who United around some common purpose but it referred to the people who made up that Gathering the the problem with the way that we typically use church we
[2:23] might say that it's the people the church is the people but that's not the way we use the word and the way that we use the word in both in influences our thinking and is influenced by our thinking so we say church we usually mean one of two things we usually mean the 501c3 nonprofit that employs our pastor and puts on programs for us every Sunday or we mean the building that we meet in to go and do those nonprofit things together already we are running into massive problems because those are very disjointed ideas and yet we're just sort of absorbing these without thinking now Jesus only uses this word a few times in the entire Bible and you can see the two references here on the sides Matthew 16:18 Matthew 18:17 the first one is when he's talking to Peter and he says on this rock I will build my church and the Gates of Hell or Hades will
[3:12] never Prevail against it he's not talking about building a building and he's not talking about establishing a nonprofit he's talking about the people that he's going to build on top of his himself and the teaching of the Apostles and their work as the foundation he's going to build up an assembly of people that he's called out and hell will have no victory over them later on in Matthew 18:17 he's talking about church discipline okay which again isn't this Authority structure in a 501c3 where like the CEO tells you you're fired he's saying in Matthew 18 look you person have a relationship with another person and that person's in sin go to him privately and try to win him over by getting him to repent and recognize his sinfulness if he doesn't do that go with two or three Witnesses and give it another shot and if he refuses you even
[4:02] then take it to the church again does it sound like he's talking about a 501c3 nonprofit hopefully you don't hear that hopefully you don't hear the building either he's saying go to the people the Gathering of Believers bring this issue to the light in front of all of the people and come to a resolution together that carries a very different Nuance of meaning and those are the only two times Jesus uses that word so we start to run into problems pretty much at the outset of this discussion because we're actually talking about something very different from what most of us think about when we think of what church is and I'm going to come right out with the incendiary stuff right now I'm not going to hide the ball the way that we do church is fundamentally opposed to the way that the church was designed to function from Jesus's very first instantiation of it what Jesus and the apostles had in mind
[4:51] was so different from what we have enshrined as our church practices I think that they would be appalled I don't think I could imagine Paul being in agreement with the idea of establishing a nonprofit where you don't you register as a related entity to the government and then as part of that agreement you don't have to pay them taxes there is no part of me that thinks that Paul would be okay with that if he had heard of people saying in his day and age you know what we should do is we should start a company that has a relationship with the Roman Caesars the Roman government and we'll have an agreement where we don't say anything that makes it sound like we're being insurrectionist against Rome and in exchange for that and an agreement to do some charitable Services they won't
[5:38] charge us taxes oh and by the way we're going to call that church even though Jesus made it clear that it is the group of people that forms his body which makes up the church I think Paul would be horrified beyond that you can read through the entire New Testament you can pick up your Bible and you can flip it upside down and shake it out and not one word of a building will come out of anywhere in the scriptures not once so whatever the New Testament vision for the church is it has nothing to do with creating a nonprofit and it has nothing to do with building a building so then what is it so instead let's take a look at a series of verses where the word Ecclesia is used and see if we can start to pick up the trail from there i' I've gone now to Romans 16 this is at the end of his letter to the Romans which was a letter written to churches in Rome a bunch of different Gatherings of people in Rome about how
[6:28] to help them integrate it's about all kinds of things and of course there's tons of deep theology here but his fundamental goal was to help the Greeks and the Jewish people that were making up the the the citizenship of the Roman city state area he wanted them to be able to unite as one people in Jesus and they were having problems with you know people who had Jewish mindsets being really unkind to the people who were from Greek descent and the Greeks being unwilling to accept the Jewish folks into their into their midst and there was all this animosity and there was all this tension in fact they were separated for a while because there was an edict from a Roman a Roman Governor to send all the Jewish people out of Rome for a few years and then that was reversed so they could all come back and they were having all this trouble reuniting but Paul writes this letter and he gets to
[7:15] the last chapter and we can just pick up some Clues on what he meant by the word church by how he uses it in this back half of his letter so he starts off with I recommend to you our sister Phoebe who is a servant the word is actually Deaconess of the church which is at canca that you receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the Saints and that you help her in whatever matter she may have need of you for she herself has also been a helper of many and of myself as well so she's a Deaconess in the church which is at kraa now you might be thinking oh yeah there you go pastors deacons uh all all these different people who are like in leadership and like hierarchy okay we'll get to that in a little bit whatever the case is she came from a place called KRA and then she was visiting Rome we'll see if we can pick up some more details from other things he says down verse three greet prisca and Aquilla my fellow workers in Christ Jesus who risked their own necks
[8:04] for my life to whom not only do I give thanks but also all the churches of the Gentiles also greet the church that is in their house so here's a couple more uses of it the churches of the Gentiles The Gatherings then if we're going to use the Biblical word the phrase you know the word elesia for what it means the Gathering of people who are Gentiles are so thankful for the teaching of Prisa and Aquilla because they're a major reason why the gospel went out to those groups of people but notice he also says to greet the church that is in their house greet the Gathering of Believers that meets regularly in the home of Prisa and Aquilla so whatever the church was in the first century it was a group of people that were called out for a purpose gathering together and what they did where they did that was
[8:52] usually in people's homes okay so already I feel pretty comfortable saying based on the biblical evidence the 501c3 nonprofit in the building don't have anything to do with the biblical vision of what constitutes a church so what does a church do well at this point you're probably thinking well there was definitely you know we we know there was a weekly Gathering there was teaching from a pastor who who led the whole congregation and you know maybe that happened in the house but we we're pretty sure about that right and maybe there was you know the Lord's supper or what they would have called you know if depending on your tradition it might be called the Eucharist right there was the there was the Lord's Supper where you'd get the little thimble of grape juice and the little cracker and you would sort of stop and think about your own sinfulness and then you would take them to remember what Jesus did for you right all all these different things that's church right well let's dig into that a
[9:40] little bit and see what we can find I'm going to take you over here to Ephesians 4 and I'm going to so if again I don't want to give you a recap of every biblical book every time I open one up just to give you some points but I do want to make sure that you have the context Ephesians was a circulatory letter written to a large group of churches and and small Jesus communities it wasn't just written to the Ephesians it was more General so the the letters of the New Testament are called occasional documents which means that there was an occasion a reason some sort of an inciting incident that made the author stop and say okay I need to write in order to address this Ephesians is actually one of the rare exceptions it wasn't an occasional document we know Paul wrote it from prison and he intended for it to be circulated around and spread around to everybody in the area in which he was ministering as something that was to be read aloud to
[10:28] everyone in the churches and the first three chapters are all about the the goodness and the beauty of God and his plan what he has put together the the unmeasurable Beauty And Glory of how wonderful his plan was to rescue the lost to unite Jew and Gentile into one new Humanity how everything was accomplished through Jesus how everything everything that has ever mattered in human history happened because of Jesus and that now we're invited to leave behind our allegiance to the kingdoms of darkness and follow Jesus as the king of the universe that's what Ephesians 1 through3 is all about now Ephesians 4-6 are about flushing out what that looks like in day-to-day practical stuff and there's plenty of theology happening there too but that's broadly if you were to put it it kind of
[11:15] splits down the middle Ephesians 1 through3 is about this Ephesians 4-6 is about practical outworkings so I'm going to start here in verse 11 and he and this is this is Jesus okay gave some as apostles some as prophets some as evangelists some as pastors and teachers pause for a minute this is a group of five gifts that God gives to the church and right here where it says pastors and teachers this is the only occurrence of the word Pastor as a noun anywhere in the New Testament referring to somebody other than Jesus the word Pastor just means Shepherd this is the only place it occurs notice also that it is plural it's not one Pastor to a church it's Pastors in a list of four other people
[12:05] pastors and teachers is actually connected explicitly in the Greek it basically just says Pastor teachers but there's also Apostles which are the sent out ones it's not necessarily people who've seen Jesus or who could work miracles the word just means one who was sent out and there are more than just the 12 we'll get to that in some other video some other day there are more Apostles on the pages of scripture than just the 12 apostles prophets which isn't necessarily predicting the future again the word ET means somebody who forth tells who speaks out a bold word from God so that's an interesting data point right we have pastors given to the church as well as these other people who all form this group of people that are referred to God's gifts to the church now what do they do why were they given for the equipping of the Saints for the work of Ministry for the building up of
[12:52] the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son of God to a mature man to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ okay so what does that mean most of us have this unspoken assumption that's just the water in the Fishbowl where we swim that the pastor is the one who who does the work of the ministry the pastor is the one who does the work of the ministry the scriptures say the pastors teachers evangelists Apostles and Prophets are the ones who equip the Saints to do the work of the ministry and what does the what does it say that the work of the ministry is the building up of the body of Christ attaining Unity of the faith and knowledge of the Son of God to maturity measuring up to the fullness of Christ most of you are acting like that
[13:40] is just your pastor's job like his job is to equip you to measure up no a pastor's job biblically speaking and it's not a pastor the way that we think of it where it's like one guy who's the CEO of the nonprofit okay that's what we think when we think of Pastor he's he he's the one respons responsible for everyone's spiritual growth as though he's the one in charge that's not what the scriptures say again this is the only place where the word Pastor appears as a noun anywhere in the scriptures in the New Testament when it's not referring to Jesus a group of people with special gifting are given to the B the group of people that form Christ's body to build up that body and make it stronger the church therefore is the body of Christ the hands and feet of Jesus acting on his behalf and according to his will in the world it is the
[14:30] continuation of what Jesus was doing when he was here it is not a program it is not a brand it is not a nonprofit it's not a building it is the hands and feet of Jesus walking out Jesus's will through the people that he saved and formed into their own family this is some radical stuff but we're going to keep going we know that would get together the whole point of the word is get together it's a reunion it's it's an assembly of these people but what would they do when they assembled would they sit through a service that was you know a passive audience to a pastor who was himself standing on a Podium or behind a Pulpit of some kind teaching for an hour and and everybody else was supposed to just sort of shut up and listen Paul makes this almost offhand statement as a matter of fact in 1 Corinthians chapter 14 when he gets to verse 26 where he he
[15:19] describes the gett togethers of the Christians in this church Community this way 1 Corinthians 14:26 what is the outcome then brothers and sisters when you assemble each one has a Psalm has a teaching has a revelation has a tongue has an interpretation all things are to be done for edification now some people who want to you know advocate for the 501c3 nonprofit building single Pastor CEO over the company model will try to say oh he's criticizing them here where it doesn't say that he simply States it as a matter of effect he says okay when you get together this is how you do it now to improve the way that it's done let me give you some pointer for how you can better handle a meeting where everybody's open and ready to and able to participate do you see that he's not saying you shouldn't be everyone
[16:07] participates he's saying everyone should participate everyone has the right to speak into this Gathering that's another interesting data point so already we're getting this in incredibly different picture we're we're rather than a bunch of people dressing up nice to go to a program on a day held at a building that's owned by a nonprofit where there's a pastor who's the CEO of the nonprofit who makes all these business decisions instead we have just a gathering of people who met in homes who tasked were tasked by God with being the hands and feet of Jesus in the world who when they gather together in homes are encouraging one another to share and to bring something from themsel to give to everyone else in terms of what God has done in their life spiritually that is a radically different picture again you can't find the nonprofit stuff anywhere
[16:55] else in the Bible this is what a New Testament Church looks like let's keep going at this point you'll probably have questions about things like the Lord's Supper okay well look we're already doing so much change here we we're we're uprooting so many things but surely there's got to be you know like the Lord's supper right where people stop and reflect on their sins and then they you know they do the body and the blood of Christ that's surely important for us to do right yes it is but it looks completely different from what you might have expected it to look like let's go and have a read he starts in verse 17 of 1 Corinthians 11 describing what they're doing when they're doing the Lord's supper and he has a criticism but it's probably not what you expect starting in verse 17 he says this now in giving this next instruction I do not praise you because you come together not for the better but for the worse for in the first place when you come together as a church I hear that divisions exist among you and in part I believe it for there
[17:42] also have to be factions among you so that those who are approved may become evident among you so he's he starts by saying like look guys you're messing this up because you're you're super divided my goal is that you're all United in Christ that the things that used to separate you in the world system that divided you should no longer divide you but you guys aren't getting that message you're not living that out in your lifestyle so I'm I'm going to try to correct you here you guys need some help here's what he says when you come together okay when you come together this is this is a data point that belongs in the what happens when the church folk get together okay when you come together it is not to eat the Lord's Supper for when you eat each one takes his own supper first and one goes hungry while another gets drunk there's
[18:31] a lot of stuff going on in this passage just in this one verse okay they're getting together to eat not a tiny cracker but a meal at that meal they're eating enough to you know they're eating enough to not be hungry some people are are going hungry and other people aren't so that it's more than just a couple of pieces of matzah cracker in view or Saltines and then he says that these people are some of them are getting drunk which means that what they're drinking is alcohol olic so when we do like the little cracker and grape juice thing that ain't it he goes on to say what do you not have houses in which to eat and drink or do you despise the Church of God and shame those who have nothing what am I to say shall I Praise You In This I do not praise you and then there's this helpful paropy up here that says the Lord's Supper where he goes on to explain what the Lord's Supper is now
[19:19] you might be expecting him to say the Lord's Supper is you know and and these verses are read aloud at Communion or during the you know taking of the Eucharist or whatever these are read aloud but let's read what he actually says and take it in okay for I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks he broke it and said this is my body which is for you do this in remembrance of me what was happening on the night Jesus was betrayed was he were they just sitting in in a super religious looking room with candles and breaking bread and passing it out in this solemn ritual or was it a meal if of course it was an actual meal this is the last supper in view here in fact it was a Passover meal which was a big and elaborate meal shared in a very communal way with
[20:07] everybody at the table okay and it had religious significance but he was redefining that significance around himself but it's a meal in the same way he also took the cup after supper saying this cup is the New Covenant in my blood do this as often as you drink it in rembrance of me for as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes I have whole other video ready for this on the Lord's Supper about the past the present and the future and the Lord's Supper I can't wait to get to that one but see that this is clearly a meal in view here he's saying when you get together some of you guys are getting hammered and some of you guys are going away hungry and almost certainly what was happening was there was an economic disparity the people who were Rich came and gorged themselves early because Sunday was a work day they they did gather on Sundays the first day of the
[20:55] week as it would be said in the Greek so they would Gather in on the first day of the week and the the it was a day of work for everyone else Saturday the Shabbat was a day of rest for the Jewish people Jewish people made up a huge percentage of the the church at this time but the rich people didn't have to worry about work engagements so they would just get together all day and eat all the food everybody would bring food but they would just sit there and Gorge themselves and then get hammered and then the the poorer class the the people who who did not have the opportunity to cook for themselves they were working all day they had to come home and and then make food and then go make the food and then bring it they'd get there and there was nothing left or maybe they were so poor they couldn't afford food much at all certainly not too much to share with others in like a gathering of people so he's saying look you guys are not uniting the the the rich and poor
[21:44] there are distinctions among you there shouldn't be the Jews and the Gentiles there are distinctions among you and there shouldn't be the thrust of Paul's criticism is that look you who are getting hammered you're not taking care of the others okay and he makes that very clear right now he says in verse 27 therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy way shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord but a person must examine himself and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup for the one who eats and drinks eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not properly recognize the body okay what this has been reinterpreted to mean is that if you don't Naval gaze and mour MN your own sin while you're taking the the bread and the cup the the the
[22:32] thimble of grape juice and the matzah cracker if you don't Naval gaze and hate yourself for your own sin you're not doing this thing properly that's what it's been taken to mean that's not what he's saying if he does not properly recognize the body what he's not saying is recognizing that this bread is the body of Jesus he's saying recognize the body of Christ in your midst and he makes that very clear in just a few verses let's let him finish the thought for this reason many among you are weak and sick and a number are asleep but if we judged ourselves rightly we would not be judged but when we are judged we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world and here's how he finishes this line of thinking so then my brothers and sisters when you come together to eat wait for one another if anyone is hungry have him eat at home so that you do not come
[23:20] together for judgment as to the remaining matters I'll give instructions when I come that is not what you would expect him to say if what he was expecting you to do when he was giving these instructions was to do a naval gazing you know feeling bad about my sin thing that's not what he means he's clearly saying you aren't considering each other the body of Christ is not functioning right it's like there's supposed to be blood of Christ circulating between all of you giving you all of the nourishment that you need the way that body the blood does in a human body that's functioning well and instead all the blood is just coag it's just it's just Gathering up in this one spot and it's getting engorged over here and then the rest of the body is atrophying and you're not recognizing the body you're not taking care of the rest of those that make up Christ's body with you and he's saying you're not you're not coming together in a unified
[24:09] way and that's taking communion that's taking Bread and Wine the body and blood of Jesus and it's not taking it seriously okay but notice there's it's it should be unimpeachable now it should be clear from the evidence just in the scripture passage alone that what Paul has in mind is a meal no matter what else is happening no matter what else you can you can clearly see he has in view a meal held in a family setting inside of a home with a gathered group of people where they're considering one another and loving one another in the context of shared life where they all have something to participate and all have something to contribute to the way that the Christian Life is lived out amongst those people who make up that group and that's very different from what most of us assume now do I mean that God is completely absent in the
[24:58] what I'll call the institutional Church no God has been working with all kinds of busted means through sinful humans who insist on doing things their own way dating back to Genesis the people didn't the people wanted a king they they God wanted to be their King okay way back in the Old Testament and they fought with him and and they rejected him and God said to the prophet Nathan he said look they're rejecting me not you they want a king let them have a King and of course that went horribly for them when the Israelites arrived at the foot of Mount Si God gave explicit instructions that they should all come up to speak with him because they were his people and he wanted to be with all of them but they elected one guy Moses and said no man you go up the mountain and talk to God because we're going to we're we're going
[25:45] to die even though God gave them very explicit instructions and I feel like it's the same thing today you go to most churches and most people are content to be checked out sitting in the pews staring at the back of another guy head for 2 hours and receiving you know some anointed message from the one guy in the whole building who ascended the mountain and talked to God and that's not what the Bible has in mind I'm sorry to use some inflammatory language there but this is something that actually makes me angry because it's like we all have the same Bible we should all be looking at the same data points and yet we've all just sort of erased what the passages actually say and we've imported our own understanding into the text and I think we're cheaper for it I think we're poorer for it what we've done is that there's this irreducible minimum for what makes a church in the scriptural witness and it's very very simple we're
[26:34] called to love God love others and make disciples and it's simple and it's profound and it's beautiful and it's truly all about living your regular life as though Jesus really is king of it and as though he really is who he says he is and living every area of your life transformed by the reality that Jesus is Lord now it should change what you do for work it should change how you VI view your rest time it should change your hope for the future it should change the way you understand your past and it should change every aspect of your present and it's simple it's radical it's profound and we've completely lost the script instead we've taken that irreducible minimum where we're all living together in light of that reality and helping one another as a family as a group of people who all gather together to agree to live by the
[27:22] new king and his new way of life rather than simply changing everything of our life what we've done is we've set up something other than that to manage all of our spiritual stuff for us and it's a box it's a big box in which we've put all of the Jesus stuff and that box has four corners to it it's professionals programs buildings and budgets and what we've done is we've taken the simple beautiful structure of church as the New Testament envisions it where human beings in every second of their lives are transformed by what the the the death burial and resurrection of Jesus and his enthronement as the king over the universe should mean for every aspect of life rather than spreading the message of the Kingdom to all corners of your calendar every motivation
[28:11] everything you do with all of your money rather than transforming all of that we've compartmentalized we've taken all of that and shoved it into a religion box and then we have our political beliefs elsewhere and we have all these other things that are outside of it and in that box in order to weaken the power of that of that the Christian message of the Gospel of the Kingdom to weaken that we've tacked on professionals who we pay to be spiritual for us who we pay to do the study and to relate to God and be the person who ascends the mountain and hears a message from the Lord to give back to the rest of us rather than accept the invitation to go up the mountain ourselves by the basis of Christ himself and come to know God intimately ourselves rather than that we trust and we even pay someone else to do that work for us and tell us what to
[28:58] think and what to believe which never really works those professionals come up with programs okay we think in the west we think that more information and more you know more facts and head knowledge invariably lead to a changed life that's not how this works discipleship to Jesus isn't as simple as okay you're going to go through our discipleship class where we'll fill your head with all the right facts that you need to know now that you're a follower of Jesus or this marriage class where we're going to talk about all the facts you need to know in order to be a good husband and wife or this this college and careers class and program where you just attend every Sunday for half an hour and we will give you the facts and head knowledge that you need to know in order to be successful in your career you have people who go and attend church programs for 30 40 years and do nothing more than warm a seat and take notes and their
[29:48] life goes on pretty much exactly the same as it always has no one is discipled in in the institutional church and I'm being pmic here okay it's not like this never happens but broadly people aren't discipled into a way of following Jesus you we become cons in the words of John orberg we become consumers of Jesus's Merit without becoming followers of Jesus's way and that's an indictment and it should be an indictment that's not something that I think we should tolerate programs are killing us they're making us busy they're wearing us down it's something we got to get up get dressed and drive to a building in order to attend it's not something where it's real life is happening we're lives it's inorganic it's inauthentic no matter how much you try to make it organic and authentic it can't be because it's fundamentally I'm
[30:35] going to get up and recontextualize myself into the place where the religious stuff happens and then I'm going to try to learn stuff there to take out into my life over here rather than having them integrated so the programs are killing us we have buildings that we go to that we spend hundreds of millions billions of dollars every year M buying and maintaining these buildings so that the barrier of entry for starting starting any kind of a Ministry initiative is this massive massive thing to overcome what if we started with 20 people meeting in our home what if we started with five people meeting in our home what if we this is kind of a radical idea what if we actually took seriously Jesus's call to sell your possessions and give to the poor and we started with the people who are in the family of God rather than spending thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars every single month keeping up a building which get used
[31:24] four times a month five times a month what if instead of that we gathered in each other's homes we broke bread we enjoyed each other as as friends and family and loved each other and lived our lives together as though Jesus was really King and we used that money to help anybody in that group of people who was in need or we gave that money to other places sent it to other places where people are hurting and explicitly stated this is a gift from us as a demonstration of the love of Jesus which of course leads to our final corner here which is the budget 90% of the money that is given to churches the 501c3 nonprofits 90% of what's given to these churches goes to pay the pastor whose job isn't biblical we just talked about okay and we'll have to talk about biblical leadership and all of these things in another day but his job isn't even biblical and then the rest goes to
[32:12] the building caring for the poor and the sick and the hungry in your cities is an afterthought you have to sustain the institution first and then all of it becomes around okay we need to get more people in the door so that we can get people giving more so that we can do Bigger Productions and the gospel of the Kingdom that changes every aspect of your life gets completely lost in the shuffle if it is ever mentioned at all so I'm sorry that I got so heated about this although I'm not really sorry about it I think we should all get more heated about this what do we do with this and what on Earth does this mean for eternity this is where I think it actually gets really beautiful Paul's language Jesus's language everyone's the way that everyone in the New Testament thinks about this is that we're supposed to live now in light of what God's plan is for all eternity and let's pause for minute to to consider what God's Eternal purpose is the thing that God has been
[33:01] working toward ever since Adam and Eve first brought sin and death into the world through their Disobedience what God has been working towards is reuniting Heaven and Earth again and having his people deeply integrated in life with himself so that they could complete what they were first created to do which was spread over the surface of the entire Earth and Rule alongside him and take the good world that he made and called good some place beautiful together that was the plan God had for all Humanity in the beginning that is not a highly religious message that's actually an incredibly uh human oriented message it obviously has to do with things that are spiritual and has to do with things that are moral but God's plan was to create a beautiful world and humans to help him rule over it he was going to delegate authority to them and then they were going to help him rule over that world for eternity we sort of
[33:49] broke that plan with the introduction of sin and then God has been in the process Through The Temper Temple and Tabernacle through Jesus primarily of reuniting Heaven and Earth again forever so that we could all get back on track for that story and get back to the place where we're ruling and reigning with him and taking his good World someplace beautiful and Eternity what we see in the pages of scripture from Romans 8 uh Revelation 21 and22 second Peter 3 all of these different passages what they're pointing us towards is that God fully and finally gets that project back on track again and you know what won't be there there won't be Church build there won't be passion pastors missionaries and evangelists anymore the work is completed so what are we supposed to do from there instead we work on creating order and beauty and
[34:38] making life flourish we spend our time resting in the completed work of Jesus having restored the entire universe we relate to one another and to God in a NeverEnding dance of love that was his ultimate purpose for creating everybody and that's what we are headed toward those of us who follow him that's what're we're looking forward to now which of these models of church better sets that up in the present okay what's a better way to live that out where we gather together if we were just imagine if we were to gather together as though Jesus really is Lord and Jesus really is King over this place and we gather together and relate and do life and we we challenge each other and we encourage each other to rethink every second of Our Lives as though Jesus really is the king and we share meals and we
[35:25] anticipate that future fut day when we'll have a meal with Jesus in the new creation living our lives there with the the job fully completed but in the meantime we're encouraging one another and what we do is we live out our lives together as a group where everyone is important everyone is valued and we go out into a world that's hurting and we act as the hands and feet of Jesus okay imagine if we we did that versus the experience of 99% of the people who make up what we call Church in in the west here is that we get up on a Sunday we wear fancy clothes we drive and argue with people in the car on the way to a building where there's a program and a performance that happens I sit in a seat for 2 hours staring at the back of some other guy's head I receive a message
[36:14] from one person nobody else has asked to participate except you know doing the lighting doing the singing handing out pamphlets and stacking chairs none of which are spiritual gifts that God wants you to exercise by the way and then what I do is this is all compartmentalized in this religious box over here where I give you know 10% of my income every month most of it goes to paying the pastor who I'm paying to do his spiritual work for me and the building where we all meet I'm but I don't own it the 501c3 owns it and I have nothing to do with it the money I'm spending to to rent this building doesn't matter at all to me it does I don't get any benefit from that and it doesn't go to helping the poor and all of my religious stuff is compartmentalized over here with this nonpr prophet and I'm ignoring 90% of the New Testament is irrelevant to me
[37:02] it's saying love your neighbor well that's that's outside of the church stuff okay that's outside of the building you know bear one another's burdens oh yeah you should be doing that but we're not going to be able to do that here that's really something you should do on your own time but what we're doing over here in the nonprofit is we've got this service that we all get together and we do right which of those two models better sets us up to live now as though we are anti ipating an eternity where we will be together with God in his world spreading his influence further and further over the surface of it and bringing more goodness and Beauty the way we were always intended to in the beginning the church should be an outpost of the kingdom of God here and now where we meet in one another's homes we do life together we're so deeply integrated into each other's lives in fact that we actually
[37:50] hurt each other sometimes we need to forgive each other for our sin and our sin comes out in the in the open and people actually see it and and we're so close to each other our lives are so deeply integrated together that I you actually need to forgive me and I actually need to forg forgive you I can't just uproot myself and go to a different church that's maybe a mile away to avoid you and it's messy and we go out and we serve people who need the love of Jesus and the money that we give generously doesn't go to pay for a building it goes to pay for these people are starving in our city or there are people on the other side of the world who need Jesus and there are people who are willing to go out and bring Jesus to them in their communities and help them why don't we pay them to go and do that rather than setting up a building and filling people's heads with ideas I anticipate a lot of negative comments
[38:36] I'm okay with that what we can't do is ignore the scriptures and the scriptures are very clear about this if you think I'm wrong please go ahead and find the the chapter and verse that you want to to utilize and I'll probably make a response video uh I'm totally open to all of this criticism is is not something I'm afraid of or I wouldn't have made this video but what's out to you is there anything here that maybe you haven't heard before any moments give me all of it in the comments I want to take all of it if You' got positive or negative things to say I love you anyway and I would love to hear what you have to say but the one thing that we cannot do is ignore the scriptures we cannot ignore the witness of the scriptures and we can't just ignore what they say in favor of what we want to do with our time and our energy we are not belonging to ourselves we were bought at a price and we're accountable to God for what we do with our time and our effort and our energy
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