What does Ecclesia look like? (1)

3 Modes of Ecclesia

In the New Testament, I find 3 modes of ecclesia.

On the largest scale, the ecclesia is God’s family; God’s sheep herd; His Body on earth; the Bride of His Son Jesus the Christ.  The Church is His plan to bring His domain (the Kingdom of God) to earth, among humankind, so that He can bring humanity into His eternal domain to inherit Him and His kingdom.  The big picture – the MACRO.
 

On the smallest scale - the smallest expression of that - we find “ecclesia that meets in the home of …”  The smallest mode – the MICRO.
 

In between, we find another expression of that: for example, “ecclesia in Ephesus” – ecclesia in a town or village.  The in-between mode – the MEZZO.
 

[These illustrations are from Scripture Union UK's "Question Mark" booklet The Church by Michael Eastman, Michael Shoesmith and L F Lupton; undated.]

While each mode has its peculiarities and its differences from the other modes, some things remain constant.  In one sense, whatever mode you look at, you should see the same thing.

Somewhere within the realms of mathematics, quantum physics and chaos theory, you will find Mandelbrot.  Mandelbrot discovered a small formula that, when numbers and colours are assigned, produces amazing fractals.  It’s called the Mandelbrot Set.  Whenever you see the Mandlebrot set presented visually, it will have this basic shape.  As Wikipedia as of this date says, "The Mandelbrot set is a mathematical set of points whose boundary is a distinctive and easily recognizable two-dimensional fractal shape."

There seems to be no limit to the number of different fractal ‘pictures’ we can create, but the uniqueness of the Mandelbrot Set is that no matter how far you ‘zoom’ in or out on the picture, the pattern is always the same – from infinity to infinity if there is such a thing.

When I learned about Mandelbrot, it reminded me of an eternal God who inhabits eternity; who is described as “The I AM”.  Jesus, His Son is referred to as “the Alpha and the Omega” – the beginning and the end.  Or better: the source and the destiny.  Whether you look at God or at Jesus, one thing is the same: they never change.  No matter how much you “zoom” in or out, they are the same.  They are both extremely simple and extremely complex at the same time.  If we can borrow another term from science, God’s DNA shows up wherever you see Him and however large or small is your view of Him.

Ecclesia is like that too.  God has made it both simple and complex at the same time.  One view of ecclesia might give you the macro picture, the next the micro.  But what you’re looking at is the same.  As few as 2 or 3 people, we are told, represent the ecclesia; at the same time, the billions of people throughout time and space who have God as their King also represent ecclesia.  At the heart of it, of course, is that it is people; God’s redeemed people; all those who are totally trusting in Jesus Christ for their right-standing before God (their ‘righteousness’).

Perhaps for us the most pertinent of all is the 'mezzo' picture - the ecclesia in the city.  When our focus is on building ecclesia (God's house) in our lives and in our neighbourhoods and suburbs instead of on building our own domains and kingdoms, God's face and His glory begin to be seen at the level of the city or town ecclesia.  This is the unity that God creates by His Spirit, not the 'unity' man creates by his own strength and will; and this is the unity we are all encouraged to reach and maintain by our participation with the Holy Spirit as he does his work as described in Ephesians 4 - every member functioning.

Jesus is the inaugurator of ecclesia and He alone is her head and her life is sustained by the will of the Father (for she is the bride for His Son) through the power of the Holy Spirit.  Whatever else people see when they look at ecclesia (if they have the spiritual eyesight to see 'the unseen' things of the spirit) they will see her life rooted in eternity, they will see Jesus Christ as her head and Lord and they will see the sustaining and empowering work of the Spirit in all those who are part of the body and in the body as a whole living organism.  They will be able to understand Apostle Paul's stress on 'discerning the body correctly', by the Spirit.

Unfortunately, our natural human, earthly, mortal eyes are 'adjusted' to see only the natural.  So we see earthly, man-made, man-run organisations and think we are looking at ecclesia.  I pray the Father gives us new eyes to see 'the unseen'.  I pray the Father gives us a heart to not just sing, "Turn your eyes upon Jesus" but to actually do it - as the dominant work of seeing in our lives.

One of the things I had to do in the early days of my prophetic commission was begin to learn to walk with my head in eternity, and discipline my hands and feet to respond, on earth, to what I was seeing.  I am still learning and still have much to learn.  Jesus, I think, mastered it.  His words were, "I do what I see the Father doing".  And this again, I believe, is one of the distinguishing marks of ecclesia: people see and live differently - they answer to a different drum beat.

Blessings,

Kevin.