Doing Church not Business

I suppose that when we look at doing church business many understand this to be the norm. Regardless of denomination or shingle that hangs on a community of believers, the bills must be paid. Church properties are massive real estate investments that must be paid for, maintained and have utilities working. The purpose of this study is to question if this is God’s design or if this is a corporate business that is fleecing God’s people for the purpose of religious service. The monies that we give to God are often wasted on a corporation that is focused on keeping its doors open. This is one reason that to be recognized as a church by the government we must file a 501c with the IRS. All right, let the stones fly.

Several years ago, I was going through my seminary work and wrote a short paper on the idea of the Jewish synagogue from the first century. This “church” was a meeting place that was local to the community and focused on ten families (ten men). I believe that this is an ideal church. When we observe gathering in the New Testament, the specific location of the church is found in the home of believers. When the church grew to a huge church, such as the church of Jerusalem, God allowed conflict to come upon the church that busted it into pieces and sent the deacons off in many directions.

In the following studies, we will be looking at several things. First and foremost, what should our order of worship be like? Secondly, we will be debunking and casting off traditions. Third, we will be examining the scriptures to see what God intended for worship.

The essence of my thinking is simple. Question everything and take no prisoners. If a teaching or practice is not biblical, we need to kill it. If it is biblical and established in the scriptures, then we need to edify this teaching and build it up. Most Bible students will agree with me with the idea of question everything. They are often reluctant to apply the knowledge! Why? Because it often causes them to stand out in the crowd.

I want you to stand out. To refuse to comply with social or religious expectations. I want you to be a rebel and look for something different, something better, something which draws you closer to the Lord that we serve. If you join me in this dangerous trek, you will certainly change lives, attitudes and draw nearer to the Lord in a new way.

We will be citing and quoting many verses in the following discussions. I challenge you to look up the verses, read them in context of the entire chapter or logical section. Then consider heavily their meaning. Finally, test my words and see if they line up with the context of the scripture. Justification of many of our church practices is done by pulling scripture out of context to establish principles or practices. It’s time that we call this practice into question. It’s time that we return to the authority of the scriptures for our ideas.

We could start the study by describing all the flaws found in the corporate church structure. We could discuss our tithe being spent on air conditioning, coffee shops, legal fees, and many assorted costs of keeping the doors of a church building open. We could discuss the extravagant salaries of some pastors and the meager allotments of other pastors. The list is endless, just as the needs of a corporation are endless. The corporation produces religious entertainment designed to draw people in for the show. The hope is that the people will return and pay for their show by giving tithes and offerings. Therefore, the church must produce a product that will draw repeat customers. This means simply that the pastor or teacher must have the charisma to teach God’s word in such a way that people donate money.

Perhaps you may feel that I am being a little hard on churches. Think about this for a moment. Jesus said that we are to make disciples of all nations. He did not say that we are to make church members of all nations!!! Discipleship is costly both to the disciple and to the discipler. The one who disciples is faced with an enormous task of taking a few people and teaching them every truth that they base their lives upon. This is simply not possible from the pulpit. Why? Because discipleship means getting your hands dirty with the details of each person’s life that is in your care. It means being a pastor, minister, counselor, teacher and brother who is emotionally entangled with the ones that you are teaching. It is risky, threatening, rewarding emotional and physical work. Few are willing to do it.

Several years ago I was involved in a Messianic church. I wanted to move into the ministry in that church and felt that since the ideas were so radical that it would be good to become a disciple of the minister. When I approached him about this, I was put off. He simply did not have time to disciple me. He flat out refused to consider the idea. That stung pretty bad. Later, this minister took a child prodigy under his wing and focused upon him with fervor. That stung worse. Who am I?

One of the main purposes of the following discussions is to outline the order of worship on paper for a fellowship that I hope to soon establish. The idea is to identify how worship is to take place, when it is to take place and what circumstances will surround services.

This will not follow traditional church practices since almost every church practice and order of worship is founded in Paganism or humanism. Rather than re-invent the wheel, I encourage you to pick up the book “Pagan Christianity? Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices” by Frank Viola and George Barna.[1] This book is a marvel in the way that the authors discuss the history of the church and the origins of church practices. One word of caution on this book and on Frank’s other writings, the authors ignore the Old Testament and flirt with replacement theology. Use the shopping cart method, take what is good and leave the rest.

We have been involved in the Messianic movement for about ten years. The marvelous teachings that surround the feast and festivals that God established in Leviticus 23 take the understanding of the New Testament and our relationship with our Messiah Jesus to an entirely new level. However, this is often muddied by the liturgical practices that are borrowed from both Judaism and from Christianity. Christians who become involved in this movement radically throw off the trappings of pagan Christianity to take on the trappings of paganly influenced rabbinical Judaism. Quite comically, these trappings in both church structures include many which were borrowed from the pagan practices through the ages.

One of the biggest complaints that I have heard personally from many who became involved in the Messianic movement is this: “I hate the liturgy”. This is such an ugly sticking point that many Messianic believers will leave the movement and simply not return to Christian “Sunday” church. They become bitter individuals who wander off to lick their wounds in private.  Often, they lack the resources to find other Messianic believers and also lack the knowledge to do things differently. I hope that the following discussions will offer an alternative order of worship that will rectify this problem and bring the many wounded back to God’s flock.

There is a movement in place today that has been dubbed “the organic church”. It has been in place since the beginning of Christianity. Yet, since it kicks the goads of traditionalism, it is a heavily persecuted movement. I have just started studying this movement and like what I see. The order of worship is simple. God is the one who directs the ministry, not man. This is where we will be going. There will be one major difference though. The “organic” churches that I have been reading about are “New Testament” churches. My focus will be how to establish a “Bible” organic church which is based upon the comprehensive Bible from cover to cover.

In the following studies we will first discuss God’s order of worship. This will include a discussion of the Sabbath and a discussion of each of the festivals that are designated in the Bible. We will be looking at a study of each of these by discussing the biblical meaning and some of the implications that will affect our walk with Jesus.

I will not be endorsing liturgy or establishing the rabbinics that has surrounded these festivals. In my opinion, rabbinics are not holy. Rabbinics is Jewish tradition that is based upon a ancient Jewish mentality that rejected the Messiah Jesus and has found a work-a-round to bring on spiritualism. Buying into Rabbinics is simply throwing off the chains of Christianity to lock ourselves to the dead legalism of Judaism. I would consider this to be the greatest error of the Messianic movement today. We should not be replacing Christianity with Judaism or with a blend of Christianity and Judaism. We need to return to the original design that God put in place. It’s time to return to the basics.

I am looking forward to discussing the order of worship that is similar to the worship of the early church. This is a dynamic free-flowing order of worship that takes man from the controls and puts God back at the wheel. Jesus will become the head of every congregation and the body will function like a body again.

We are not looking for a sick body that is a spectator sport. The current body of the Christian church looks like an extremely obese person who has a few who take care of the needs while the majority sit pew-bound and show up for the entertainment.  Attenders are encouraged to put in their tithes to pay for the administrative costs and to pad the pockets of the church. While encouraged to become participants, the winnowing of believers leave very few who can actually serve. This is a big topic. I hope that as we look at it we will develop a better plan.  One that is dynamic and follows the scriptures.

Thanks, Joe.

[1] Frank Viola and George Barna, Pagan Christianity? Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale Momentum, 2010).