The Theo-Mathematics of New Testament Plan Gatherings

Dan Horwedel has raised a profound point. Based on the direction our conversation has gone lately, it is one that needs to be addressed in our blog community, in the CGGC and in all of Christendom-dominated Christianity.

Dan said,

“I've always been somewhat confused as to why some think the denomination at large needs to embrace many of the things talked about on this blog.”

Doug has given his answer. I need to give mine. My answer is rooted in New Testament truth. It is theological. It is connected to the Mission Statement which holds us accountable to be building churches on the “New Testament plan.”

I believe, our Mission Statement notwithstanding, that the denomination continues to embrace very serious error in its teachings and practices regarding the Holy Spirit and the Church.

For the past few years, I have been studying the gathering of Christians in the New Testament with great care. That study has transformed my understanding of what it means to function in the Body of Christ. Most, but not all of my study has focused on 1 Corinthians 11-14.

I’ve reached two conclusions.

1. The way we worship is very different from the way early believers worshiped. And,

2. The root of those differences is theological not cultural. The reason we worship differently than the first Christians did is that we believe different things about the Holy Spirit and the Church. We believe things that are, at the very least, theologically corrupt. At worst, they are outright heresy.

In 1 Corinthians 14:26 Paul asks a question and describes the situation that exists in Corinth that stirred the question. This is what he asks and what he describes:

“What then shall we say, brothers? When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation.”

The difference between the “the denomination at large’s” answer to the question and Paul’s answer disturbs me.

This is what I think the denomination at large’s answer is:

“You want to come to worship services with a hymn or a teaching, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation? Well, get over it!
We are people of faith. We expect God to grow this church. We believe that this church soon will have hundreds, perhaps someday thousands sitting in its seats/pews, attending worship services every Sunday morning. And, you want to contribute to our music ministry? Fine.
If you’re interested in music, audition for the worship team and if you’re really good they’ll take you—if they have room. If you just have a suggestion about a song you want to sing, talk to the Worship Pastor. S/He might be able to work your song in to a worship service.
You have a word of instruction? Well, we have preaching, not teaching, in our worship services. If you want to become a pastor, we’ll take you to the Conference and help you get credentials. If you’d like to teach a Sunday School class you can talk to the Christian Ed pastor. If you want to lead a small group, we can direct you to the Director of Small Group ministries.
Did you say you have a word of revelation? Sorry, we think revelation ended with the writing of the New Testament.
You have a word in tongues? You believe you have the gift of interpretation of tongues? We’ll just pretend you didn’t say that. But, here, read our Doctrinal Statement. It’s called We Believe.”

That, from my experience, is the denomination at large’s response to the first part of 1 Corinthians 14:26. Here’s Paul’s answer:

“All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church.”

To Paul, it was normal and appropriate and right that everyone would participate in a gathering of believers.

The one guideline he placed on participation did not limit participation. He didn’t require formal academic training and credentials. He did not assume professionalism in the leading of gatherings. Rather, his theology of the Spirit and of the Church led Paul to the conviction that the Spirit would be leading, to use his word, “everyone” to participate.

Later on, in verses 29-31, the mathematics of gathering gets problematic according to the way the denomination at large thinks. (I’ll highlight to make the point clear.)

Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said. And if a revelation comes to someone who is sitting down, the first speaker should stop. For you can all prophesy in turn so that everyone may be instructed and encouraged.

Paul didn’t limit the number of people who would prophecy. For him, that two or three would prophesy and that all who were called to prophesy are the same number. Obviously, if everyone comes to a gathering led by the Spirit to participate in that gathering and if two or three prophesying is everyone led to prophecy, do the algebra. “X,” the total number of people in the gathering, has to be a small number.

It is one of our longest running current fads to talk about growing “healthy” churches. The “healthy church” paradigm is not biblical. However, a paradigm that is biblical is the one found in 1 Corinthians 14:26. Paul never talks about growing healthy churches but he does employ the strong/weak way of thinking about a church. Paul says that participation in Christian gathering should make the church strong.

Friends, we don’t have unhealthy churches. We have weak churches. Based on my contact with the churches in the ERC in my eight years on the Renewal Commission, many more than half of our churches are weak. Many of them are absolutely feeble!

Why? The body parts have atrophied.

We believe that the church is the Body of Christ. We believe that every follower of Jesus possesses the Holy Spirit. We believe that the Spirit gives spiritual gifts to all Jesus followers.

Yet, when we gather, we make Jesus followers who possess the Holy Spirit stifle His gifts. We say to people to whom the Spirit gives a hymn that the worship team will decide what hymns they will sing, no matter what the Spirit says. We tell Spirit-empowered believers that the pastor will preach no matter what teaching the Spirit sanctions. We cringe at the very notion that one of us might receive a word of revelation. We treat prophesies with contempt. (1 Thess. 5:20). We suppress tongues and its interpretation.

We tell the Spirit that we know better.

We tell people empowered by the Spirit, “We don’t believe in those things.” We turn God’s people whom the Lord intends to participate in worship into audience members who are given narrow windows to participate in worship services in very limited ways, as singers of songs the professionals choose and, perhaps, we permit them to be requesters of prayer. But, we diminish their participation in prayer by demanding that listen while a priestly mediator—a pastor—prays on their behalf.

We defy important biblical truth. We create a clergy class. We quench the Spirit. We elevate a few in worship. And, then we wring our hands because we have unhealthy churches where people merely come on a Sunday morning to sit in the seats/pews.

All these are practices we inherited from the Christendom myth. There is no authority for them in the Word, in fact, much of what the Word teaches we reject and find offensive. We have turned people filled with the Holy Spirit into consumers of professionally directed worship services. We demand that they be passively listen to sermons when the Word creates the expectation that everyone who gathers will be leaders of hymns and speakers of instruction, revelation, tongues and their interpretation.

Why do I think the denomination at large needs to embrace many of the things talked about on this blog?

For me, it’s a truth thing. I believe we are disobeying the Word. I believe we are quenching the spirit. I believe our theology of the Spirit and the Church is, at the very least, flawed.

I believe that the pathetic level of discipleship among our people is, in part, a result of the fact that we teach people in our churches to resist the leading of the Spirit when they gather with other believers and that we force them to consume the ministry of the professionals on Sunday morning. It stands to reason that they will do that all through the week.

Do I think simple/organic is the only answer? No.

Do I think that we have faulty beliefs regarding the Holy Spirit and the Body of Christ? Yes!

That’s why I think the denomination at large needs to embrace what we talk about on this blog.