There are some who disagree with my advice regarding how to conduct ourselves when the ekklesia gathers together. Even those who are avid house church participants still believe that arguing over different doctrines is essential for Christian assembly.
Part of that viewpoint is based on their philosophy of
ekklesia, I suppose. See, our fellowship is intentionally seeking to take hold
of Christ whenever we gather together. That means we don’t want to waste our
time talking about doctrines, or arguing over differences in opinion, or even
focusing too much on our own struggles and needs. Instead, we work together to
allow Jesus to speak to us and to lead us corporately. This isn’t easy. But, if
we are all focused on this one thing, and if we are all sincerely surrendered
to Christ, then we can experience the presence of Jesus in our midst. When that
happens, Jesus encourages us. He heals us. He speaks to us. He teaches us. He
rebukes us. He inspires us. He comforts us.
How exactly does Jesus do this? Often it is through one
of our own members. As we each are surrendered to Christ, one of us might sense
that the Lord is prompting us to share a specific verse of scripture. We might
not even understand why, but in obedience to Him we read that scripture. Then
another person might confess that they are struggling with something that exact
verse was speaking about. Then another person might feel the Lord prompting
them to lay hands on that person, or another person, and to pray something
specific over them; a blessing, an encouragement, or yet another verse of
scripture.
Sometimes a member in our group might sense the Lord
wants us to sing a particular song together. Another person might feel that the
Lord is asking us to sit in silence for a moment. Then another person might
realize that they need to ask forgiveness of someone else in the Body for
something that was said or done. And so on.
As wonderful as this experience might be, we don’t always
enjoy this kind of thing. At least, not as often as I would like, anyway.
Sometimes we start off in this direction and then someone might derail the
process, or we get distracted by something else and then we cease to wait on
the Lord and to respond to His voice. It happens. And when it does we all have
to have grace for one another and recognize our own weaknesses, and even
confess that we’ve done the same thing many times ourselves. These are
opportunities for more grace and another chance to love one another in spirit
and in truth.
But if our group spent most of our time debating points
of doctrine, or engaging in “sword fights” over what scripture teaches about
this or that, we would never – and I mean never – allow Jesus to lead us and to
speak to us in the way I just described.
In our individual walk with Jesus, we are commanded to
surrender ourselves to Christ and take up our cross daily. Jesus says that we
cannot be His disciples (followers) if we don’t do this. In the same way,
whenever those same cross-bearing disciples get together in the same room, the
need to remain surrendered and crucified doesn’t change. If anything, our need
to die to ourselves and to let go of our agendas is probably even more
necessary whenever we enter a room with other Christians.
Jesus must be our Head. He must be submitted to at all
times, and especially in the gathering of the ekklesia. Without this complete
and total surrender we cannot follow Jesus, and we cannot “be the Church” that
Jesus desires.
-kg
“He (Jesus) is
before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of
the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the
dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.” (Colossians 1:17-18)
