Hey guys... NOBODY has attempted to address the following post:
The Bible (I Corinthians 14:26-38) illustrates that our meetings should have the following elements and guiding principles:
- Everyone being able to bring a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation.
- Gift of tongues coupled with interpretation, two or at most three.
- Two or three anointed teachers speak and guide the meeting.
- If a saint attending has a revelation or something to share, whoever is speaking must stop and give them the floor so that all might be able to prophesy, learn, and be encouraged. Meetings are to be discussion based.
- Those who address the group must realize that their spirits are subject to the anointed teachers guiding the group.
- Women (or anyone for that matter) are not to use the time for socializing.
- Those who think they are spiritual Christians should acknowledge that this order of service is a command from the Lord.
If our "form of church" will not allow for these kinds of meetings... we are failing to meet as the Apostle Paul admonished us to meet. It doesn't matter if it's in a house, a park, a coffee shop, a library, a book store, a bus stop, a town square, church building or wherever. The point is that the above elements should be present. They are to be elder guided and interactive meetings where anyone present can address the group by sharing a song, a hymn, a poem, a passage, a testimony, or whatever the Lord leads. If a meeting is too big to facilitate this, it fails to allow for the "body ministry" Paul admonishes us to have because it is a "command from the Lord" (I Corinthians 14:37).
For example, on any given Sunday when a given pastor is speaking... could I ask to speak and share a word that the Lord has placed on my heart? Could you in turn share what passage has been ministering to you and what the Lord put on your heart? If I had a question could I interrupt the pastor's sermon to seek an answer? Could the entire congregation do any of this? Or would the pastor be upset because he was interrupted and he didn't get to "preach a sermon"? Would there by too many people to allow for such an open and interactive meeting? Would we be relegated to being relatively passive spectators who hopefully learn something? If so... your church is most likely too big to abide by I Corinthians 14:26-38. I believe that home fellowship groups (or house churches) fulfill this calling of Scripture.
It's the BIBLICAL way to do church.
We've had house church (simple church) gatherings at coffee shops (Tim Horton's, Higher Grounds, and Boston Stoker's) in the Dayton Ohio, Tipp City area. Place and building don't matter. The fuction of our gatherings is what matters. Do our gatherings fulfill the BIBLICAL mandate regarding what we are supposed to do when we come together??? If the congregation is too big to do the above... it's too large.
We are bantering about how to do church like it's optional. Most are IGNORING what Paul tells the Corinthians regarding how their meetings were to be conducted. And we fail to see that what Paul writes is a "commandment of the Lord".
Coming together for a larger gathering isn't forbidden... but it's clear that close intimate fellowship and mutual participation, so that all may prophesy, is a commandment issued through Paul by God Himself. This is facilitated in the house church.... not the Sunday Show.
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