The Ecclesia
The Ecclesia
Now speaking specifically of the ecclesia, we can make
these positive statements:
ü In
relation to its purpose, the Ecclesia
is the body of Christ sent into the world as believable humans with a charge to
carry on His mission with a view to achieving His purposes.
ü In
relation to its composition, the Ecclesia
is those who, under the direction of the Holy Spirit and as an expression of
true repentance and faith, are baptised and willingly and gladly co-operate
together, with God, to bring about His purposes through the life and power of
the Spirit who is given to them.
ü In
relation to its function, the Ecclesia
is the body of Christ being and making effective disciples and being salt and
light in the world by its worship, its fellowship, its witness and its nurture,
out of a reservoir of prayer and servant-heartedness.
Expressing the negative, this means that:
ü The
body of Christ is not now, never has been and never will be a human
organisation or structure.
ü ‘True
Israel Israel Kingdom of
God Israel Israel
ü The
body of Christ is not the sum of our Christian churches and agencies. As Jesus says: “because of the increase of
wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the
end will be saved” (Matt 24:12-13).
ü The
body of Christ is not the sum of all that passes for ‘Christian ministry’.
Listen again to Jesus:
“Not
everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only
he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, did
we not prophecy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform
many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly,
‘I never knew you. Away from me, you
evildoers.’” (Matt 7:21-23.)
The How of Ecclesia
Now shifting focus to the matter of how the Ecclesia
conducts its affairs, we note in the New Testament several things:
First, there was no hierarchical
or authoritarian structure proposed by Jesus — or by the apostles who were the
first leaders to apply Jesus’ teachings (under the direction of the Holy
Spirit). To suggest that levels of
authority have their roots in scripture is to apply twentieth century
definitions and interpretations to first century words such as bishop, elder,
overseer, deacon, etc.
Our modern commitment to such structures needs to be
replaced with a new devotion to the “one body, one Spirit, one hope, one
Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father” of Eph. 4:4-5.
‘Elder’ and ‘deacon’ do not indicate levels of
authority by type of ministry. Rather,
they indicate that as one is found faithful in the little things, greater
things are granted.
Second, all authority is spiritual
not carnal. If people were appointed to authority, it was by the express
guidance of the Head of the Ecclesia through the Spirit. Jesus had taught the apostles well that
leaders were specifically not permitted to “lord it” over the congregations of
God’s people (1 Peter 5:1-4); were not to demand allegiance and obedience. In fact, they were specifically to direct
allegiance and obedience away from themselves to Jesus the Head.
All carnal “lord it” type of authorities have to be
replaced with spiritual authority centred around ministry gifts and the express
approval of God. (Refer 1 Thessalonians
2:4.)
Apart from allegiance to God (Father, Son and Holy
Spirit) and the debt of love we perpetually owe each other, all other
allegiances are suspect — especially our allegiances to systems and positions
not ordained by the Lord Jesus Himself as Head of the Ecclesia.
Third, the apostle Paul’s
revelation truth on the matter was that Jesus’ intention was that there would
be one Ecclesia. Jesus also had made the
necessary provision for that in giving to the Ecclesia apostles, prophets, teachers,
evangelists and shepherds to prepare and equip the people of God for their
work.
All prior claims on who is ‘head honcho’ in a local ecclesia
have to be replaced with a humility which “esteems the other as better than
himself” (Philippians 2:3).
All claims to an independent existence for a select
group (say, Anglicans, Baptists or CLC for example) are ruled invalid by God
and are to be forsaken by the People of God and replaced with a correct vision
of “The Body of Christ”. Titles such as
“The Pastor”, “The Priest”, “The Reverend” have to be replaced with “humble
servant”.
Fourth, the ‘vision of the Ecclesia’
does not belong to men but is revealed to them as an act of God’s grace, That “vision” has a non-negotiable bottom
line: Christ-likeness — freedom, maturity and growth. It is expressed by Paul very clearly in
Ephesians 4:13-16:
“...until we all reach unity in the faith and in the
knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure
of the fulness of Christ.
“...no longer tossed back and forth by the waves, and
blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and
craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.
“...speaking the truth in love we will in all things
grow up into Him who is the Head, that is Christ. From Him the whole body, joined and held
together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love as
each part does its work.”
If this is not the starting point and the lowest
common denominator of our ecclesia’s vision, we need to go back and start all
over again the process of sitting at the feet of Jesus listening to Him.
This re-statement of what we mean by ‘the Church’ is, for me, the context into which 5-fold ministry
comes.
I
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