I really feel you Rhoni. I’ve seen the awesome amount of neglect within the churches also. We live in an entirely different church culture today than they lived in decades ago. Today it seems most churches are trying to “grow” into mega-churches or “Worship Centers”. They provide “programs” but no real discipleship. The church has adopted a “business model” instead of holding fast to the model of the church found in Scripture.
Things are no longer personal. Everything is program driven. Used to people had a personal ministry to the lost and to the body. But today the church drafts and facilitates programs. Fewer people feel a personal call to serving or evangelizing….they leave these things to those involved with the outreach or ministry programs. And if the programs don’t run well or if they don’t exist….nobody steps up to the plate. And pastors pray that God will put a “burden” on someone to work in a field of ministry.
Sadly, all of this is unbiblical.
The original local church was a smaller and more organic body. They met in homes instead of sanctuaries and served one another. Here’s a list of the “one another” s found in Scripture:
• Be at peace with each other.
Mark 9:50
• Love one another.
John 13:34
• Be devoted to one another.
Romans 12:10
• Honor one another above yourselves.
Romans 12:10
• Stop passing judgment on one another.
Romans 14:13
• Accept one another.
Romans 15:7
• Instruct one another.
Romans 15:14
• Greet one another.
Romans 16:16
• Serve one another in love.
Galatians 5:13
• Carry each other’s burdens.
Galatians 6:2
• Be patient, bearing with one another in love.
Ephesians 4:2
• Be kind and compassionate to one another.
Ephesians 4:32
• Forgive each other.
Ephesians 4:32
• Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.
Ephesians 5:19
• Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Ephesians 5:21
• In humility consider others better than yourselves.
Philippians 2:3
• Teach and admonish one another with all wisdom.
Colossians 3:16
• Encourage each other.
1 Thessalonians 5:11
• Spur one another on toward love and good deeds.
Hebrews 10:24
• Do not slander one another.
James 4:11
• Don’t grumble against each other.
James 5:9
• Confess your sins to one another.
James 5:16
• Pray for each other.
James 5:16
• Clothe yourselves with humility toward one another.
1 Peter 5:5
Our churches get too big and lumbering to do this. It’s not uncommon for people to not even know the folks sitting across the aisle from them.
Spiritual discipleship takes time and fellowship. It’s like Christian mentoring; mentoring a person into fullness in Christ. This cannot be achieved in programs, classes, spiritual development courses, etc. It is something that is developed in the midst of daily or semi-daily one on one interaction and communication. Openness must exist without judgmentalism, fear, or condemnation. A person must feel free to be human and open up so that they can be instructed in the ways of Jesus.
Sadly we’ve lost the “family” in the “family of God” and we have embraced the business model of this world’s corporate task masters. Tomorrow will bring another program, another class, another seminar, another development course. But more and more people will feel more and more hollow and alone, un-mentored, un-discipled, un-used, and un-fulfilled. They will just attend their church in a “spiritual drift” thinking that this is as good as it can get and must be better than the world. Some will leave the church and return to the friends and closeness they shared with those in the world. Some will attend church but come out to these forums to open up and share their pain, thoughts, feelings, and opinions. Why? Well, because the local really church doesn’t care for them as individuals. This is the only place their feelings and thoughts are heard. They have a ministry or a message in their souls and want to be heard but there’s no room for their ministry in the local church where there is only one pulpit and primarily one preacher. They live in a spiritual vacuum starving for the close and open Christian fellowship they find here.
The remedy is the house church. Many institutional churches are realizing this and forming cell groups and home fellowship groups. Praise the Lord for these. However, most of the institutional churches are trying to find more programs, gimmicks, etc.
In a way the internet is an online house church. We come here in the comfort of our own homes. The anonymity allows us the openness that should prevail in the church at large but doesn’t. We study Scripture, share thoughts and experiences, reflect on what the Scriptures mean to us, we have elders, teachers, preachers, brothers, and sisters who help us understand or to simply expose us to another viewpoint or possibility (sometimes the right one). And though many don’t accept the teaching immediately…we are all shaped by what we read here. Though I may not embrace another’s viewpoint entirely, their viewpoint shapes my viewpoint and makes it more developed and mature. Sometimes my viewpoint is revealed as being faulty or flawed and I must embrace what another has revealed.
It’s sad, but in spite of our differences (which are many) we tolerate each other here far more than we would in the modern church setting. In a sense our “internet fellowship” is more Christian than our “pretending” and “Amening” in our churches.
We need to grow closer in our local churches. We need to spiritually mentor and disciple one another. We need to provide more opportunities for ministry, preaching, and teaching among the men of the body. I believe this is best done in the house church format.
If you pastor a local church and wonder how to achieve this without entirely embracing the house church model…investigate forming cell groups or home fellowship groups. It will be in these regular smaller meetings that true discipleship and relationship building can take place. I’m convinced your church will grow closer as a result of growing…smaller.
Linear Mode
