Gospel Family Theology

"What is desperately needed, and seldom found in the Church, is an adequate theology of the family of faith.  Paul believes that being brothers and sisters in Christ and sons and daughters of God transcends all other loyalties and should transform all other social relationships.  Blood should not be thicker than the baptismal waters in the Church. Rather Paul calls for a "relativized" view of all this-worldly institutions, including marriage. His idea of a family "church" is actualized where God's people treat each other as their primary family, not just as some secondary social gathering that happens once a week and that promotes the agenda of the nuclear family.  This is not to say that Paul is against the physical family.  He does, however, believe that in the eternal scheme of things one's loyalty to Christ comes above and before one's loyalty to any other group or entity and that therefore one's loyalty to the body of Christ should likewise be at the top of one's priorities."

-- Ben Witherington -- excerpt from his Bible commentary entitled Conflict & Community in Corinth: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary on 1 and 2 Corinthians (page 180)

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Friends, family (both blood and water!) and visitors,
For further understanding of this idea I commend to you two books, and then one Scripture passage to meditate on.
- Paul’s Idea of Community by Robert Banks
- When the Church was a Family by Joseph Hellerman
- "While Jesus was still talking to the multitudes, behold, His mother and brothers stood outside, seeking to speak with Him. Then one said to Him, “Look, your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, seeking to speak with You.” But He answered and said to the one who told Him, “Who is My mother and who are My brothers?” And He stretched out His hand toward His disciples and said, “Here are My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.”  (Matthew 12.46-50)

The Agape Feast and Life Together

Go to James Jordan's website Biblical Horizons.  When in need, go to James Jordan.  If it's worth writing about Jordan -- or one of his newsletter contributors -- has done it!  And sure enough, he has.  He wrote a great little article, I heartily endorse, on the historicity of the agape feast, and a few  suggestions on how to implement it into one's congregation.  Find it at his website Biblical Horizons.

      Our congregations need this type of feasting devotion more and more.  Our churches are fragmented, impersonal and disconnected which essentially is a thriving, robust model of isolation.  Geographically we're all spread out only coming together every seven days to worship, staring at the backs of heads, waiting for The Sermon (the only reason we go...right?) and hoping we agree with whatever monologue The Guy upfront delivers (because we don't really know him, do we?).  I think many Chrisitans sense something is obviously wrong but we continue to endorse the structures in place which prop-up and cater to personal peace, autonomy and affluence.  This is nothing more than the Family of God embracing the slow, cold grip of death wrapping itself around us.   

      We are in dire need of smaller congregations that are living out candid, interwoven lives and families, filled with close, dependent, one-anothering for God's glory and the love of our unbelieving neighbors.  This starts at the top though.  We need shepherding, hospitable servant-elders in our churches who  aren't just orthodox, but are "doers of the word" (James 1:22) as well.  It must ooze out of them, showing us the way to live because -- as much as we Americans hate to admit it -- our churches really do eventually come to look like those leaders over us. 

       The changes do start at the top though, and if our pastors and elders don't begin forsaking the lust for notoriety, laughably big congregations and buildings, salaries draining the budget, and capital letters after their names, ain't nuttin' changing here in the U.S., we'll just continue down the business-as-usual road with our squeaky bike wheels perpetually stuck in the seven-day death march.

Why We Gather on the Beginning of the Lordsday (Saturday Evening)

 I wrote this up several years ago for our house fellowship congregation.

First, Saturday's setting sun marks the beginning of the Lord's Day -- or Lordsday as I like to spell it -- according to YHWH's creation ("So the evening and the morning were the first day.").  It's not according to modernity's reckoning, but according to Scripture it is.  For me personally I think this point is quite important.  One of the places this is modeled for us specifically is in Acts 20.7-12. 

        Second, we gather to "break bread" together.  To gather around an agape meal together is the main focus.  This means we have a real, full meal with the celebration of Communion within it, and this is real fellowship and it is fellowship of the deepest kind.  It really is not a time geared to focus on "getting to know one-another", or to seek and expect warm fuzzies and good "feelings", nor is it even to study God's Scriptures.
      Now, while an agape meal is modeled and taught throughout the New Covenant Scriptures as the primary reason we gather together as believers (1 Corinthians 11:18-33), it is -- at the same time -- not the only reason.  Others are integral to the congregating time as well: studying the Scriptures, encouraging one-another, singing and praying together (1 Corinthians 14.26; Acts 2.42); but the coordinating of gathering around a meal is what might be called the "congregating factor". 
        That being the case, then an evening meal at the end of our work day allows us to begin to savor the feel and aroma of leisure that our time together should be marked-out by due to what we confess: That we have assembled together to celebrate and rest in our King's life, death, and resurrection.  An evening meal accentuates and stamps that truth on our hearts more than any other meal because it is at the end of the day when we typically have no other plans to preoccupy or distract us as they normally would if we met in the morning or lunch time (and I've done both, and they do).  And an added bonus is that since the next day is the full Lordsday, which most Christians have off from work responsibilities, it allows us to stay longer and not have our time cut short but rather be peacefully maximized and redeemed.  

         Now, as a counter-example, we could gather for a lunch meal in the middle of the Lordsday and then proceed as we normally do, but often folks have daytime commitments, even on the Lordsday, and they're distracted and time-constrained; or perhaps some folks have a sense that day-light is being "wasted" and they will then endeavor to leave as soon as possible so they can "get some work done".  I've encountered both types.  This though is just another reason why an evening meal works so well because not only is it theologically sound, but it is eminently practical as well.

        To gather in the middle of the Lordsday (i.e. noonish on Sunday) not only makes real body and mind rest nearly impossible, but ultimately whomever is hosting the gathering will not likely receive any rest whatsoever!  In all our pasts, when we all went to McBox Church Inc. we never felt that weight, but gathering as a house congregation is an added weight and responsibility to all of us, host home or not.  At McBox Church Inc. we could just show up (after stressing-out to get there on time!), sit and go home; there were always a few "someones" who bore all the work.  Not in a house fellowship.  

         So, let's say for arguments sake, that we did gather in the middle of the Lordsday and that we'd alternate the host home every time we gathered so that we could spread out the responsibility and work....  well, that still leaves one home/family exhausted at the end of their one Day of REST for the week, and over time this collectively takes its toll on the whole congregation.  Little by little families aren't having a needed rest (even if it's one Lordsday out of four or perhaps six) and it slowly builds and soon the work and exhaustion manifests itself in our lives through a myriad of ways.  And the Lordsday evening (Sunday evening) isn't any better because almost everyone has Monday responsibilities that demand that you cut your time short and head home early to get a full nights sleep; this just has everyone watching the clock which then stifles discussion and the free-flow of koinonia.

         Third, and finally, the Lordsday needs to be a day of sabbath, a rich and true heart and body REST.  Six days we labor and then we rest.  We rest on the first day of the week because it is modeled for us by Yeshua's apostles and disciples (John 20.19, 26; Acts 20.7), but most importantly it is the day He completed all the work that was to be done on our behalf by rising from the dead as the King of the New Covenant, the second Adam of the New Creation by breaking the cords of death and the dominion of Satan.  As I tell my family:  "The Lordsday is for us, to turn away from us."
                 To sum up:  We gather at the beginning of the Lordsday (sun down on Saturday) NOT due to any slavish legalism to Old Covenant Law, but rather to celebrate the reality of Messiah's work on our behalf and the rest He has given.  We do that during an evening agape meal of leisure that impresses that grace upon all of us.  It is an evening of no distractions nor commitments which promotes peaceful fellowship and worship, and then this leads naturally into opening for us -- on the next morning -- the blessing of a FULL Lordsday for rich, deep mind and body rest.

Imitate, Imitate, Imitate

 "Hospitality will lead to "collateral damage".  Food will be spilled on your carpet.  You'll be left with cleaning up.  Your pantry may be decimated.  But remember that God is welcoming you into His home through the blood of His own Son.  The hospitality of God embodied in the table fellowship of Jesus is a celebration and sign of His grace and generosity.  And we're to imitate that generosity."

         - Tim Chester, from his book A Meal with Jesus

Wanted: Disciples for Agape Meals

 As many of you know that have read my blog and/or heard my thoughts over the years, I believe and live-out strongly, that groups that walk in The Way serving King Jesus should be practicing "full" Communion meals, and should not (yep, I wrote should not, I really did) play "communion" with bits of unleavened crackers and purple juice (i.e. symbols of a symbol of a Symbol).

By "full"  Communion I mean a REAL meal of dining together at tables, talking, laughing and facing one-another over actual bonafide food which the Scripture calls an Agape Meal.  This practice is crucial and central to true-blue, nitty-gritty, speaking the truth in love fellowship between followers of Jesus.  In other words, it is essential, and it isn't to be relegated to the "well, it's-not-about-the-act-of-being-saved-so-it's-unimportant" category. 

It is the most authentic way of “proclaiming the Lord’s death until He comes” to one-another, to the unbelieving world around us, and ultimately to God Himself as we await the final, grand feast in the marriage Supper of the Lamb. 

I always like to find others who are (or were, in this case) teaching and encouraging believers to return to this Biblical practice, and when I do I like to pass it on.  I found this excellent summary of the Lord's Supper below in a book on economics by David Chilton who was a teaching-elder in the Reformed tradition who was also a committed Theonomist and Postmil preterist. (He was just missing the house church ecclesiology and he would have been "complete"!...  hee, hee).

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"In Paul's description of the "body life" of the Christian assembly in Romans 12, he tells us that we should be "contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality" (v. 13). The word contributing there is the verb form of koinonia; in other words, if we are to have genuine fellowship in the body of believers, we must not be content with coffee and donuts on Sunday morning. We must be "fellowshipping to the needs of the saints," truly seeking to help them in their difficulties.  

The primary symbol of this sharing ministry among believers is the communion service, which in modern churches has been almost entirely stripped of its meaning. Far from being the "pretend" meal of congregations today, the communion service of the New Testament was the continuation and fulfillment of the Old Testament festivals (see Matthew 26:19-30; I Corinthians 5:6-8). It was a "love feast," a common meal in which the Christians shared their food with one another. The participants did not get a little piece of cracker and a thimbleful of grape juice. They sat down and ate a meal. 

The danger Paul rebuked at Corinth was that the believers there were failing to discern the Lord's body (I Corinthians 11:29). This doesn't mean they failed to comprehend some mystical dogma regarding the precise relationship of Christ's physical body to the bread and wine. Paul was not rebuking a lack of intellectual understanding, but rather a lack of moral discernment. The Corinthians had been behaving sinfully, indulging themselves in gluttony and drunkenness, refusing to share food with one another (v. 21). The "body" they failed to discern was Christ's congregational body, their fellow believers. They came to have communion, and did not commune together; they did not share, yet they called it a "sharing service." Paul accused them of not eating "the Lord's supper," that each one ate "his own supper" (v. 20-21), with the result that "one is hungry and another drunk." And this is a problem with churches today, even though we've gotten rid of the alcohol, in most cases (incidentally, we're supposed to share the wine, not abolish it). 

In many modern "communion" services, the participants receive a token meal, close their eyes and chew away, thinking spiritual, inward-type thoughts in total isolation from their neighbors. That's what the good ones are doing, anyway. Others of us are contemplating other sublime mysteries: What to do about the piece of wafer stuck in our throats and how sour the grape juice is. But is the service contributing to our mutual appreciation and loving relationship with each other as a body? Not usually, and not at all in the biblical sense of having the regular opportunity of sharing food with one another. And even the full communion service -- which should be restored -- is itself merely an emblem of what we are at all times: "We who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one bread" (I Corinthians 10:17). We should always be available to fellow believers, as members of one family in Christ."

      -- David Chilton (1951-1997) Christian elder-teacher and writer. This is an excerpt

                from his book Productive Christians In An Age Of Guilt Manipulators (pg 166)

Concerning the "Leaving" of a Church

Dear friends,

The widely used term "leaving a church" by Christian people is a very unfortunate one indeed.  It conjures up images of committing adultery and forsaking promises that break up families.  Sadly, this term is often pulled out and used by leaders in churches when a person talks of disassociating with a certain congregation and perhaps being devoted to another fellowship of Christians. Please, don't let yourself be shamed by such language.  I say this because it is merely framed terminology that is nothing more than a ploy by the church establishment to induce guilt and protect the status quo (i.e. pay for property and salaries).  It is complete and utter nonsense!  If you've been adopted into the Church through faith than you're not "going" anywhere.

     Rather, what you are doing is merely deciding to commit yourself to another fellowship within the Family of Christ that you think is more appropriate.  (Now, hopefully such a thing is being done for godly reasons, and you've bathed the decision in prayer, dialogue, and Bible meditation.)  I believe this more accurately describes the life and maturation of Christian disciples, and it doesn't have the pejorative undertones attached to it that leaving, or forsaking, do.

Grace & peace,
Uncle Corey

Dr Lloyd-Jones: Are All Disciples Ministering?

 "Are our churches corresponding to the life of the New Testament church or is there too much concentration in the hands of minister and clergy?  Someone may say, "We provide opportunity for the gifts of others in week-night activities."  But I still ask, "Do we manifest the freedom of the New Testament church?"

      In other words, this is another reason why we must come back and consider the whole doctrine of the nature of the Church, and the marks of the Church.  By doing so we shall be solving, in detail, many of these particular points and problems which need to be reconsidered among us.

     When one looks at the New Testament church and contrasts the church today, one is appalled at the difference.  In the New Testament church one sees life and vigor and activity; one sees a living community, conscious of its glory and of its responsibility, with the whole church, as it were, an evangelistic force.  The notion of the people belonging to the Church in order to come to sit down and fold their arms and listen, with just two or three doing everything is quite foreign to the New Testament, and it seems to me it is foreign to what has always been the characteristic of the Church in times of revival and reawakening.

    We cannot just go on in the position we have inherited, which we inherited from mid and post-Victorianism and Edwardianism.  This machine is still running so many of these things, but is it running to any good purpose?  It is for us to call a halt and to stop."

- Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, was the primary teaching-elder at Westminster Chapel in London, England for 30 years.  This is an excerpt from Knowing the Times: Addresses Delivered on Various Occasions
(Banner of Truth Trust, 1989, pages 195-96)

God's New Society

 "For too long the world has looked upon the Church as buildings or as professional clergy.  It is time that, as in the New Testament days, all Christians are seen as the people of God -- God's new society."

    - David Watson -  This is an excerpt from his book I Believe in the Church published in 1978 by Eerdmans, and he wasn't just some house church "kook" either.  He actually was the professional pastor for many years of St. Michael-le-Belfrey, an established congregation in York, England.

There is Thin Fellowship and there is Thick

 "Many congregations are promoting "community" among their members, which usually means small sharing groups or mission teams -- both good things.  But there is an existential difference between thin and thick community.  

     Thin community is when you go to church rather than be the Church concretely in your own neighborhood.  It is when you go somewhere else to do mission work.  If community is a place you have to get into a car and drive to, then you might be giving the world of individualism, hypermobility, and consumer-based choices more power in your life than the Church.  

       Thick community is living within easy walking distance of other members, which is essential to sustaining a daily shared life.  If we are not willing to put where we live on the altar, this thin "sense of community" will have little power to transform our lives or our world.  Like logs stacked together for a campfire, intentional community brings us together so that spontaneous things can happen, so the Holy Spirit can light a sustaining flame."

- excerpt from The Intentional Christian Community Handbook: For Idealists, Hypocrites and Wannabe Disciples of Jesus by David Janzen