Watching the church change from barren to fruitful
Roger at “SimpleChurch Journey” has shared a very interesting list in his post “Choudhrie’s Challenges Re-Visited.” The post is a summary of an essay written by Victor Choudhrie titled “Mega Church to Meta (Beyond) Church” and subtitled “21 Steps to transit from being a barren church to a millionaire of souls.”
Here are some of the interesting “steps” (interesting to me):
3. Phase out programmed Sunday ‘services’ while implementing informal, small
gatherings. The Bride of Christ must have intimacy with her Lord every day, not only for a
couple of hours a week, lest she become unfaithful.4. Replace Mosaic tithing with Christian sharing, thereby harnessing the enormous,
financial resources, hospitality and goodwill available in Christian homes.5. Dispense with wafer-and-sip Holy Communion and promote breaking of bread with
simple Agape meals (love feasts) from house to house, that believers take with glad
hearts, ‘and the Lord added to His numbers daily’.7. Shift from being a spectator-oriented church to a ‘metastasizing’, interactive,
participatory, prophetic church. Empower men, women and youth, to get the dragon off the driver’s seat.10. Know your identity in Christ: You are a royal-priest, made so by the blood of the Lamb.
Dismantle the ‘Reverend’ culture that divides clergy from layman.14. Empower every Sunday school, bible school, prayer cell, women’s fellowship, and
cottage meeting, by calling them full-fledged, authentic churches.18. Reorient your personal paradigm. Your business, workplace or home, wherever you
spend most of your time, is your ‘primary nuclear church’. It matters little whether you
are the CEO, or the janitor or the kitchen queen; you are a full-time minister there and
accountable.
Obviously, there are other “steps” in Choudhrie’s essay besides the ones listed above (14 other steps, to be exact).
I love that the focus of these “steps” is to empower, equip, and send all believers as priests in God’s kingdom, wherever they live, work, etc. These steps recognize that the Spirit indwells all of God’s children, and, therefore, he can and does work through all of them. He does not only work through a few of them.
Given the many exhortations in Scripture toward mutual service, mutual discipleship, mutual edification, mutual teaching, etc., I agree with Choudhrie that taking these steps would help the church grow toward maturity and fruitfulness.
What do you think?
Another example: Mutual edification through serving together
In yesterday’s post, “Examples of Mutual Edification When the Church Gathers,” I offered several examples of how we work together to build up on another when we get together. I included examples of studying Scripture together, singing together, praying together, and eating together. (As I said in that post, a Facebook friend suggested that I write about those examples.)
At the end of that post, I also said that there was an absolutely necessary element that leads to mutual edification. What element is that? It’s sharing our lives with one another throughout the week in many different way and at many different times.
There’s something else that we do that always results in us building each other up, and this activity has additional benefits as well. I’m talking about serving others together. Don’t misunderstand me. It can be very beneficial to serve others individual, and we often do this as well. But, when we serve others together, we get the added benefit of having many opportunities to edify one another as we serve.
While the specific types of service can be “big” things, even small acts of serving together can be a catalyst for mutual edification. We’ve done simple things like rake leaves, cut grass, work at a food pantry, make food, etc. We’ve also done bigger things together like traveling across the state, to other states, and even around the world together in order to serve others. However, like I said, even simple tasks of service allow us to not only love others, but also to build up one another while we serve.
How do we build up one another while we serve others? Well, certainly, there are usually opportunities to talk and encourage and teach one another as we serve side by side. Similarly, as we find out what different people are going through, we’re able to pray together as we serve. But, even the encouragement to serve is a method of edifying each other.
You see, when we do some kind of service like this, it’s usually initiated by one of our brothers or sisters who knows the person being served and the need for service. This brother or sister tells others about the opportunity/need, we pray about it, and then decide as a group how to serve the person.
There have a been a few times when I did not want to serve someone… oh, I knew that I should want to, and it showed me that my heart was not in the right place. Because of the example and encouragement of my brothers and sisters and the opportunities that they brought to our attention, my heart / love issue was brought to the surface (and of course, I wasn’t the only one). Thus, together, we are encouraged to grow in love and concern for others.
Interestingly, I’ve found recently that the teenagers among us often take the lead in these opportunities to serve together. They seem to love to gather together for the purpose of caring for someone else. What an encouragement this has been to the rest of us!
How about you? Have you ever served other people together with brothers and sisters in Christ? Have you found this to also be an opportunity to edify one another?
Examples of Mutual Edification when the Church Gathers
Last week, I wrote several posts on the topic of “mutual edification.” The series (which wasn’t really planned as a series) began with a post called “A structure that emerges naturally based on the people involved” in which I commented on a passage from one of my favorite books. Then, I wrote “About edification, mutual edification, self- or solo-edification,” defining the various types of edification and examining why type Paul says should take place when we gather with other believers. In the next post, I discussed “The role of leaders and mutual edification.” Finally, I asked (and answered) the question, “What if mutual edification is not allowed?”
A Facebook friend (GeorgiaAna) shared my post on leaders and mutual edification with her Facebook friends (see the share and comments here.) In the comments that followed, GeorgiaAna made a great observation and a request:
I was also hoping you’d be inspired to give some examples. I know that examples can be turned into patterns to cut and measure by — but they’re helpful to some learners in getting the ideas cemented into a usable form. It’s all a struggle to maintain that balance that is authentic edification without manipulation, and too few speak about it.
Over the last few days, I’ve been thinking about her request and the benefits and dangers of examples. I’ve decided to share some examples, but I want to start with a couple of caveats.
1) I can only share examples that I have taken part in, and I can only share them in a general way. Whenever we get together, different things happen, different things are said, different people speak, etc. I cannot tell you what will happen next Sunday when we gather together (or anytime this week we get together with brothers and sisters in Christ). So, remember, these are general examples.
2) Like GeorgiaAna stated, I am not sharing these examples to be turned into forms or methods for others to emulate step by step. Instead, I’m sharing these examples as ways that God has worked (and continues to work) through a group of believers in order for us to serve one another to build each other up and to mature as a group. God will probably work through other groups of believers in different ways because the believers are different.
So, with that stated, I’ll share a few ways that we mutually edify one another.
As a group, we have decided to study through a book of the Bible together. (However, between books we often do topical studies.) For example, we’re currently studying through Ephesians. We’ve also decided as a group that it works best for us for someone to facilitate each week’s study. That person changes from week to week, and that person is not responsible for doing all of the teaching. In fact, we know that we are all responsible for studying the passage and for teaching one another. During this time of teaching/discussion, many people will take part as we work through the passage. The “facilitator” helps us stay on track, but does not attempt to control the meetings. For example, last Sunday we had planned to work through 16 verses, but we spent half of our time on the first verse. And, we stayed there because so many people were being encouraged and challenged by what was being shared.
We also attempt to mutually edify one another in the way that we sing. Whenever we sing together, different people can request songs. Often, the person who requests that we sing a song together will explain why they want to sing that song. Also, often, after we sing, someone (or more than one person) will comment on the lyrics. In this way, singing becomes less about the music and entertainment, and much more about considering the lyrics and how they reflect our lives with Christ.
In praying, we also seek to build up each other. It’s hard to say exactly when we pray when we gather together. Sometimes we have an extended prayer time at the beginning of our gathering, sometimes at the end, and sometimes scattered through our time of being together. We always have an open time of sharing requests, praises, thanksgivings, etc., and open times of prayer, where many people can take part. I’ve noticed that people often minister to one another as a result of this prayer time after we have stopped praying.
One of the most important aspects of gathering together is eating together. We’ve decided to eat together at the end of our gathering. We don’t have a formal meal. Instead, each family brings food for their family. Others, who don’t bring food, run out to fast food restaurants to pick up some food. Then, others, share food that other families bring. Everyone who wants to stay is always welcomed (and invited) to stay and eat, even if they didn’t bring food. This time around the table is important in continuing conversations from the prayer, Bible study, etc. as well as further discussing and sharing what’s going on in each other’s lives.
Then, finally, there is so much time of just hanging out together. We’re not a stickler for starting or stopping at a certain time. And, as we start gathering together, we’ll often spend extended amounts of time just talking with one another. The same thing happens after we eat together. We’ll often continue talking with one another hours after we’ve finished eating.
These are a few of the examples of how we mutually edify one another when we gather together. (I’ve mostly described our scheduled weekly gatherings.) However, there’s another absolutely necessary element that I’ve talked about yet. What’s that? This Sunday gathering is not the only time that we see one another during the week. For most of us, we spend time together several other times during the week, and these times of gathering together are just as important in mutual edification as our Sunday gathering.
I’d love to hear other examples of how you seek to mutually edify one another when you gather with the church.
What if mutual edification is not allowed?
For the last few days, I’ve published several posts about the important of mutual edification when the church gathers together. I think this (i.e., mutual edification) had in mind when Paul wrote, “When you come together… let all things be done for edification.” (1 Corinthians 14:26 ESV)
This type of edification is not the work of one person or even a small group of people among the church. Instead, mutually edification is a work of the whole church helping one another grow in maturity in Jesus Christ. Neither solo-edification (one person building up others) nor self-edification (one person building up him or herself) is the same as mutual edification.
However – and let’s be honest – usually when believers gather together, they are not allowed to take part in the work of building up one another. Instead, a person (or group of people) in an official capacity decide who can or who cannot take part in the gathering of the church. In other words, in many (perhaps most) cases, most followers of Jesus Christ are not allowed to take part in mutual edification in most church gatherings, even if they wanted to.
So, what should these people do, assuming that they want to take part in mutual edification? Is it best to ignore the leaders’ plans and interrupt the service in order to take part? No, probably not. Is it best to remain passive and not work to build up the church? No, that’s not best either.
My suggestion is to begin with prayer, study, and examination of your own motives. Then, speak carefully and humbly with the positional officials, explaining your concerns.
But, remember this: mutual edification can and should take place any time we gather with other believers. If it cannot take place in one gather, then gather in another location or on another occasion. What do I mean? I mean invite a few close friends to your house or to a restaurant or to a coffee shop or to a park. Explain that you need to hear from them – you want to know what God is doing in their lives – you want to learn from what they’re going through. And, of course, you should seek to help them grow as well.
It is not your responsibility to convince everyone that you are correct. So, explain your position / concerns, but then live in the way that God is calling you to live. Begin to both teach and learn from your brothers and sisters in Christ whenever you are with them. Speak to them and listen to them. Sacrifice your own plans in order to join others in their life.
Are you getting together with one other brother or sister in Christ? Then build each other up. Are you gathering with just a few? Then edify one another. Are you having lunch with some other believers? Encourage each other.
Like Paul said, “Whenever you come together… let everything be done for edification.” If you can’t build up each other in one meeting, then get together at other times.
The role of leaders and mutual edification
When the church gathers together, Paul says that everything should be done for edification. And, previously, I’ve argued that the kind of edification that he’s talking about is “mutual edification.” I defined mutual edification as all (or many) working together to help all grow together in maturity in Jesus Christ.
Now, when we study most church gatherings today, we find something different. Instead of all (or many) working together to edify everyone, we typically find one, two, or at most a few leaders working to edify everyone. As I’ve mentioned before, this is a form of “solo-edification,” not mutual edification.
But, we know from Scripture that there were leaders among the earliest churches. So, what would be the role of these leaders when the church gathers if it was not to do the edifying?
In the New Testament, leaders were not chosen based on their spiritual gifts, and they were not place in positions of authority. Instead, leaders were recognized because they were exercising whatever gift God had given them, and because they were more mature (while still maturing) followers of Jesus Christ, and because they were good (living) examples for others to observe and imitated in life, faith, service, etc.
Thus, these leaders would certainly be edifying others when the church gathers together, using whatever gifts that God gives them as well as working through other opportunities that God provides (i.e., gifted teachers are not the only Christians responsible for teaching). However, this is not the extent of their leading. Why? Because while it is important for leaders to edify others, if all they do is edify other then they are several things missing from their role as leaders during the gathering of the church: 1) they are not allowing others to edify them (part of the “mutual” aspect of mutual edification), 2) they are only teaching others to be edified and not teaching them to edify, and 3) they are not providing examples of what it means to be edified by others.
So, while leaders should certain edify others, they should also allow themselves to be edified by others. This is important both for the continued growth and maturity of the leader(s) as children of God and followers of Jesus Christ. But, it’s also important for the continued growth and maturity of the whole church. Unidirectional edification (i.e., edification that is only done BY the leaders) is not as healthy for the church as mutual edification (i.e., edification that is done by the whole church).
There’s another way to think about this. Someone who feels he/she must be in control of a church gathering or who must be the one speaking, teaching, preaching, whatever, then that person is not actually leading in the way that leading in described in Scripture. This is true even if that person has be placed in some type of leadership position.
A leader among the church will both edify the church and will give plenty of opportunities for others to edify the church as well.
About edification, mutual edification, and self- or solo-edification
“Edification” (or “building up”) is an English gloss of the Greek term οἰκοδομή (oikodome). This term can refer literally to the act of building or construction, but it can also be used in a figurative sense. Figuratively, “edification” refers to a process of growth from a less mature state to a more mature state. For the person who is “in Christ,” this figurative edification refers to spiritual growth, with the ultimate goal being a likeness to Jesus Christ. Other terms such as the παρακαλέω (parakaleo – “encourage”) word group can also be used to indicate this same type of growth toward maturity.
“Mutual edification” indicates that the work of building up is a mutual or corporate responsibility. This is the type of upbuilding that Paul refers to when he says (concerning gathering with other believers), “Let all things be done for edification.” (1 Corinthians 14:26 ESV) Solo edification (that is, edifying oneself or one person edifying others) is not the purpose of the church assembling. Instead, the purpose of the assembled church is that the entire congregation (or at least multiple people within the congregation) be involved in helping one another mature. The mutuality of this kind of edification is as important in the New Testament texts as the process of edification itself.
This conclusion does not negate the fact that self-edification or solo-edification is possible and even beneficial to the individual. Self-edification refers to the person building up him/herself. There are many activities that God uses to build up an individual, sometimes even working through the actions of that individual. For example, Paul says that speaking in tongues can be edifying to the one speaking in tongues, even if that person does not understand what she/he is saying. (1 Corinthians 14:4; 1 Corinthians 14:28)
Solo-edification refers to one person building up many others. This unidirectional type of service may seem like a form of mutual edification, but it is not. Mutual edification is multidirectional, recognizing that God communicates through all of his children, not just one or a few.
The authors of Scripture conclude that neither self-edification nor solo-edification is the purpose of the church gathering together. Thus, a distinction should be made between some act performed by one person that edifies himself or herself or others, and acts performed by many people that edify many people. Only acts performed by many people that edify many people are considered mutually edifying. And, these are the only acts that should be performed when gathered with other believers.
Thus, the “one another” aspect of edification should be considered carefully when the church gathers together. While we often consider the truthfulness of what is said, or the love with which something is done, we often do not consider the mutuality aspect of our gathering together. But, for the church – and especially for our growth and maturity – mutuality is an extremely important part of edification.
What does it mean to admonish?
In yesterday’s post, “The Unmentionable One Anothers,” I listed several “one another” instructions that we prefer not to think about, that we prefer to shift off to others, that we would rather not have as our own responsibilities toward one another.
In this post, I’d like for think about the instruction “admonish one another.” According to the dictionary, “admonish” means “1) Warn or reprimand someone firmly or 2) Advise or urge (someone) earnestly.”
We find this instruction in a couple passages of Scripture. In Colossians, Paul says that “admonishing” is one of the things that he does to help the church, and he says that it’s one of the ways all believers should respond when “the word of Christ dwells in [them]”:
Him we proclaim, warning [admonishing] everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. (Colossians 1:28 ESV)
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. (Colossians 3:16 ESV)
The two verbs highlighted above (one translated “warning” and the other translated “admonishing”) are actually the same verb – the one that is often translated “admonish.”
Similarly, when Paul wrote to the believers in Rome, he said that he knew that they had all they needed to admonish one another:
I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct [admonish] one another. (Romans 15:14 ESV)
Again, the highlighted verb above is the one normally translated “admonish,” and is a different verb from the one normally translated “teach” or “instruct.”
Finally, we see that Paul includes “admonishing” in the work of leaders among the church and in the work of all “brothers and sisters”:
We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over [lead] you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. And we urge you, brothers [and sisters], admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. (1 Thessalonians 5:12-14 ESV)
There are a few others passages in which one or more people are said to admonish others.
But, what does it mean to admonish? How do we admonish someone while still loving them? How do we admonish someone without “lording it over them”? How do we admonish someone without taking the place of Jesus Christ in their life?
Replay: Dialog during the meeting of the church
About five years ago, I wrote a post called “Dialog during the meeting of the church.” At that time, I was just beginning to study and explore what the New Testament authors wrote about the church as the believers gathered together. The more I studied, the more I recognized that what they described looks completely different than the way believers typically gather together today. For example, even their methods of teaching were different, relying primarily on dialog instead of monologue. This post begins to explore some of these descriptions and the questions raised by those passages.
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Dialog during the meeting of the church
Many times, when considering the concept of speaking or teaching within the context of the meeting of the church, believers focus on the exhortation of Paul to Timothy: “Preach the word!” We have our modern definitions of preaching – too many to mention here – and our modern methods of preaching – again, too many to mention. But, I’ve read very few studies from a scriptural perspective into how believers actually spoke to one another or taught one another when the church gathered together.
There are two Greek verbs that are usually translated “preach” in English translations of the New Testament: κηρύσσω (kerusso) which means “to announce or proclaim aloud” and εὐαγγελίζομαι (euangelizomai) which means “to bring or announce good news”. Interestingly, in spite of the fact that these verbs and the nouns associated with them are used many times in the New Testament, there are very few occurrences (if any) where the specified audience consists of believers.
So, what verbs are used in Scripture to indicate the type of speech that occurs when believers meet together? Well, primarily, the biblical authors simply use the verbs that mean “to speak” or “to say”: λέγω (lego), λαλέω (laleo), etc. These verbs indicate that verbal communication was happening, but they do not reveal much about the method of communication.
However, there is another very interesting verb that is also used often in the context of believers speaking to one another when the church meets, and that is the verb διαλέγομαι (dialegomai). This verb means something like “to converse, discuss, argue, esp. of instructional discourse that frequently includes exchange of opinions”.
In Acts 19:8, Paul “reasoned” (ESV) (διαλέγομαι – dialegomai) with the Jews in the synagogues, but in Acts 19:9, after he left the synagogue, he continued “reasoning” (ESV) (διαλέγομαι – dialegomai) with the disciples who followed him to the hall of Tyrannus.
In Acts 20:7-10, Paul “talked” (ESV) (διαλέγομαι – dialegomai) with the believers in Troas on the first day of the week. This is the time when Paul continued speaking until midnight and the young man fell out of the window. But, what we don’t generally see from our English translation is that Paul’s “speech” could also be called a “discussion”.
There are other instances in the NT where the verb διαλέγομαι (dialegomai) is used to describe Paul or another believer “discussing” or “arguing” with nonbelievers. In these instances, the verb is almost always translated “reason”, “argue”, or “discuss”.
I wonder what would happen today if those who teach and speak to believers when the church meets used methods of discussion and dialog instead of the normal monologue method…
Edification requires Consideration
Eric at “A Pilgrim’s Progress” asks a very important question in his post “Are Different Things Edifying for Different People?” He answers his own question with, “Yes!”
In his post, Eric focuses on the differences between people. And, people are different, both in their backgrounds and understandings and maturity, but they are also different in what they are currently going through in their life.
Because of these differences, Eric makes the following statements:
Since we are different people, we Christians likely are edified by different activities in different amounts, different ways, and in differing occasions. This can even vary from time to time for the individual. It certainly varies between people.
In light of these differences, church gatherings should have a great deal of variety to them. In the busyness of life it is easy to fall into the trap of the routine. Regardless of how churches tend to gather, they can end up doing the same things gathering after gathering. This may be edifying for some, but others may feel starved.
I agree. In fact, not only do I agree that different things are edifying to different people and that these different ways to edify are best brought out through different people serving and speaking when we gather together, I also think that different things are edifying to different people at different times. In other words, as people change, that which builds up (edifies) changes as well.
Now, don’t misunderstand me. Only those things which point back to Jesus Christ and encourage others to follow and trust him are edifying. However, there are many, many ways to point people to Jesus and to help them follow and trust him. And, for different people at different times, some things are more or less edifying.
One of my favorite passages related to gathering with other believers points to this:
And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. (Hebrews 10:24-25 ESV)
If you read these verses in context (Hebrews 10:19-25), you’ll see that “considering one another” is one of the responses to the fact that we now have direct access to God through Jesus Christ. But, also notice that “considering one another” is the prerequisite (if you will) for gathering to encourage one another. Why must we “consider one another”? Because we are all different and because that which encourages/edifies may be different as well.
Are you considering one another and ready to encourage one another in whatever one another needs when you gather together?
Each one has a hymn: Blessed be your name
In two previous posts, I asked how singing can be edifying to the church and offered one example of how we have attempted to make singing more edifying by attaching the lyrics of the songs to our lives. (See my posts “Each one has a hymn” and “Each one has a hymn: Singing for edification.”) In two other posts, I explained how a brother shared how the song “Jesus draw me ever nearer” in his own life and in doing so edified the whole church and how a sister who had just been diagnosed with cancer (again) edified the church by sharing the hymn “Joy to the World.” In this post, I’m going to share another example of a song that was shared in our gatherings over the last few weeks. This time, it’s a song that I shared with the church… one two different occasions.
Last week, I was with a group of adults and teenagers serving people in Norfolk, VA area in Jesus’ name by working on their homes. Our crew chief, who had more experience with construction than the rest of us, was a great encouragement and help to all of us. Toward the end of one day of work, he got a phone call from his wife. She told him that she received the lab results of some tests that she had taken earlier. It turns out that she was being diagnosed with stage one breast cancer.
After we cleaned up our work site that day, we circled around our crew chief to encourage and prayer for him as he and his wife were getting ready to face this battle with cancer. As we were encouraging him, he encouraged us as well with his trust in God in spite of these circumstances.
I recommended that we sing “Blessed be your name” (by Matt Redman) together. So this is what we sang:
Blessed Be Your Name
In the land that is plentiful
Where Your streams of abundance flow
Blessed be Your nameBlessed Be Your name
When I’m found in the desert place
Though I walk through the wilderness
Blessed Be Your name[prechorus]
Every blessing You pour out
I’ll turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say[chorus]
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious nameBlessed be Your name
When the sun’s shining down on me
When the world’s ‘all as it should be’
Blessed be Your nameBlessed be Your name
On the road marked with suffering
Though there’s pain in the offering
Blessed be Your name
Our crew chief wrote about this time together. This is what he wrote to encourage others:
“Today as I was hanging a storm door, I got a call from my wife confirming stage one breast cancer. My crew driver overheard the conversation and asked if he could share with our crew. I said yes, so he called the crew together and shared our story. Our crew closed circle, held hands, and offered up prayers; we then sang ‘Blessed Be Your Name’. We serve an awesome God who placed this crew in my path when I needed to be lifted up.”
After we returned home from our trip to Norfolk, I shared this story with the church here, and again we sang this song together. Once again, people shared how God had proved himself strong and faithful even in “the desert place.”
We’ve found that sharing songs like this in the midst of life as part of our circumstances and situations helps our singing to be more edifying than if we simply sang the songs without discussing the significance to our lives.