EPISODE 3: Dan Notti and Keith Giles Podcast: Doctrine and Ekklesia: Where Do They Fit?

In our third Skype Podcast, Dan and Keith discuss what place Doctrine and Teaching hold in the Ekklesia. 

We also touch on issues like homosexuality, fornication, and church discipline, as well as personal struggles with finding balance in our own christian fellowship with regard to teaching, doctrine, disagreements and how to love one another as Jesus taught us.

NOTE: This is an audio-only recording.

ANATOMY OF AN OPEN MEETING: What Leaders Do?

Part 5: OTHER FUNCTIONS OF A LEADER IN AN ORGANIC CHURCH

In this, our final installment, we'll talk about a variety of things that leaders (or "elders") in the open meeting or new testament church should be prepared to do, as-needed.

Making Disciples
The purpose of the Church is to disciple others to follow Christ and to obey everything that He commands. Obedience to Christ, then, is critical to the life of the Body, and our gatherings together should be one of the primary places we learn how to follow Christ together on a daily basis.

Discipleship, I believe, is not always a leader/student arrangement where the mature Christian is teaching the baby Christian how to follow Christ. Not that it can’t be that way, of course, but I don’t believe it’s the only way we make disciples.

In our house church family I’ve found that a by-product of our fellowship together is a sort of constant discipleship where the Body works together to help everyone else follow Christ daily. It’s an ongoing reality where we are learning together how to follow Christ personally.

Dealing with Conflict

As an elder in the Body of Christ, one of our roles is to deal with conflict when it arises. It might be an argument between individuals in the group, or it might a divisive person who stirs things up, or it might be a disagreement over an issue of doctrine or a point of contention over a practice in the Body.

Our group has had a variety of these issues over the last six years. Sometimes the issues are trivial, and other times they are challenging. As always, spend time on your knees asking the Lord how to proceed. Remember, Jesus is the one who is building His church, not you or I. Always, continually, submit everything to Jesus and allow Him to move and to lead your church family through this process of healing and reconciliation.

Discipline

Sometimes, a leader might have to confront a member who needs to be disciplined, and for that I recommend a group of elders within the Body who are motivated by love and full of wisdom and Godly insight. The goal is always reconciliation and restoration. Be as discreet and private as possible as long as the person is cooperative and repentant. Only take things to the entire church body as a very last resort, and then again, only with the desire to bring repentance, reconciliation and restoration.

Guarding your Family
Sometimes there are predators who come into your church family and you need to have discernment to recognize them and move quickly to remove them. This might involve meeeting with them in person to let them know why you're asking them to leave, or you might need to pull them aside and give them a warning if you think they just need a friendly reminder to change their behaviors.

The kinds of behaviors we need to be wary of are those who cause division or strife in the Body:

“I urge you, brothers and sisters, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them.” (Romans 16:17)

Also look out for those who seek to have their way or to run the show. If this is something that you're not called to do, then it's certainly not something that anyone else has the right to do:

“I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will not welcome us. So when I come, I will call attention to what he is doing, spreading malicious nonsense about us. Not satisfied with that, he even refuses to welcome other believers. He also stops those who want to do so and puts them out of the church.” (3 John 1:8-10)

Rather than allow one person to have their way and drive others out of the church, you should step in with other elders and ask this person to leave if they cannot fellowship without throwing their weight around.

You, of course, need to watch out for people who claim to be Christians but who are actually not following Jesus at all. As Paul explains:

“But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people.” (1 Cor. 5:11)

What Paul means, literally, is that we should not allow these people to gather with us when we eat and fellowship as a Church.

As always, the goal is reconciliation and restoration in the Body, not to damage people or to condemn people. So, if you're doing this right, no one else in the Body will ever know that you've met with anyone to discuss anything because you're honoring the people you love, not engaging in gossip or slander.

Again, this is not about control. We don't want our church fellowships to be about making people act like us or think like us. Please don't use this as a license to police the behaviors of your church family.

 Defend the Liberty of Everyone

This one, to me, is the most difficult but one of the most important things to remember in an open meeting. In our church family we like to say that "everyone is in process" and this means that we're all coming from different denominational backgrounds and we're all at different levels of maturity in various areas of our walk with Christ.

This means that we do not ever attempt to get everyone else in the Body to agree with us on every point of doctrine. Our group does not have any Statement of Faith for this very reason. Our only criteria for gathering together, and for accepting people into this Body is simply this: "Do you love Jesus? Are you actually seeking to follow Him in your daily life?" And if your answer is "Yes" then you are welcome to be a member of this Body.

All we ask is that you don't attempt to change us to believe what you believe and we promise not to try to change you to believe what we believe.

This simple attitude of liberty has allowed our group of former Baptists, Pentecostals, Charismatics, Methodists, Presbyterians, etc. to fellowship together for over six years without heated arguments over doctrine. We gather only to seek Jesus together and to help everyone else in the group to follow Him in their daily lives.

Unless you want to create a church that is full of people who act and think and believe just exactly the way you do (and to me that's a nightmare), I encourage you to learn how to disagree agreeably and to major on Christ when you come together, not on this or that little pet doctrine or theory.

You'll not only learn things from people who think different from you, you'll also fulfill Christ's desire that everyone in His Body be one, even as He and the Father are one. Our unity isn't based on agreement on doctrines, but on our sincere love for Christ alone.

Did I miss anything? If you've got any further questions about anything I've talked about in this series, please leave a comment below. I'm open!

-kg

[END OF SERIES]

WHY ARE (SOME) CHRISTIANS SO MEAN? – PART 1

It happens far too often. We hear stories like the one my non-Christian friend shared with me last week where someone she knows was turned away from a local church and asked to leave the property because it "looked bad" that she was crying in front of their building.

Of course, the woman’s daughter was missing, she was close to losing her apartment due to HUD restrictions limiting her ability to care for her grand daughter, and she needed help with food and clothes for this little one. Luckily, this elderly woman, with her grandchild in tow, ended up down the street at a secular organization which fed her grand child, referred her to a food bank, and even put some cash in her hand while the volunteers behind the counter scrambled to find clothing for the little girl and a dedicated social worker to help her with housing needs.

What’s wrong with this picture? How could the woman with the hungry grandchild be turned away by the people who profess to follow someone who said “Whatever you’ve done for the least of these you’ve done it to me”, and receive help from those who do not?

It’s almost a modern day Good Samaritan story, isn’t it? Except that it’s not a story. It’s real.

So, how is it that Christians can be so insensitive and mean? What’s going on here?

In this short series of articles to follow, I hope to shed some light on this troubling phenomenon.

Honestly, I believe there are a variety of reasons for this aberrant behavior, the first one being that Christians in America define themselves by the things they believe, not by their attitudes or behaviors.

Reason #1 – Christians in America are defined by doctrines.

This idea goes all the way back to the third century when Emperor Constantine was allowed to define what it meant to be a Christian. Before this, the Christian church (as evidenced by the New Testament writings and early church practice) defined Christianity as a way of living that mirrored the life of Jesus. This is why Paul the Apostle was so adamant that the early Christians not associate with those who called themselves Christians but refused to actually obey His teachings.

“But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people.” (1 Cor. 5:11)

Ironically, in this same passage, Paul makes a point that he’s not talking about non-believers who behave this way. Not at all:

“…not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world.” (1 Cor. 5:10)

Somehow Christians in America have gotten this backwards. They refuse to associate with “worldly” people who don’t act Christian, but have a very high tolerance for people within the Church who don’t act like Jesus.

But it’s not our tolerance for this behavior that has led us to this unsettling situation. It’s our definition of who a Christian really is.

When Constantine showed up and helped to end the persecution of Christians with the edict of Milan in 313, many (but not all) Christians hailed him as a hero, and even welcomed his influence in the affairs of the church. Possibly this was because Constantine granted their leaders tax exemptions and put many of them on the Roman payroll, perhaps?

At any rate, Constantine did what no Emperor had ever done before – he influenced the church to codify a statement of orthodoxy – a set of core beliefs – that defined what “true” Christianity was all about.

 

Before this the early church disagreed on a number of doctrinal points, and even freely dis-fellowshipped themselves from those who taught heresy (as they defined it). But, until Constantine officially declared what made Christians “Christian” the only criteria was a simple faith in Christ and a sincere desire to put His teachings into practice. Granted, some might disagree with you on a few points of doctrine, but they wouldn’t have killed you for it. We have Constantine to thank for that eventual practice.

Fast forward a few hundred years and nothing much has changed. Pastors and churches are still exempt from taxes, they are still useful to propagate the policies of the Empire, and Christianity is still defined as an agreement with a set of core doctrines.

This is why you can now call yourself a Christian and disobey Christ’s command to care for the orphan and the widow. Because if you have agreed with the Statement of Faith (the virgin birth, the deity of Christ, the Trinity, the Resurrection, etc.) then you are absolutely a Christian, and your actions are not taken into account.

Of course, this is in direct contradiction to Jesus’ words that:

 

“they will know that you are my disciples (followers) if you love one another” (John 13:35)

 

and

 

“Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me.” (John 14:21)

 

and

 

“Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching.” (John 14:23-24).

So, basically, as long as you take a new believer’s class or agree with a detailed “Statement of Faith” you’ll be considered a Christian by almost every Church in America today. In spite of the fact that you may not follow Jesus, obey Jesus, or have any intention of learning what Jesus commanded His followers to do.

For the record, if you can turn away someone in need who comes to you begging for help, you might not be a Christian. Or, as the Apostle John asks,

 

“If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?” (1 John 3:17)

Christians in America desperately need to redefine themselves as people who are doing their best to put the words of Jesus into action. Otherwise, we’ll be left with a Church that looks and acts nothing like Jesus.

-kg

[END PART ONE]