The Poll

Have you ever wondered what it means exactly to gather together in someone’s name? Jesus said in Matthew 18:20 that if “two or more gather together in my name, I am there in the midst of them.”

Last month I ran a poll asking respondents to share what they think about gathering in the name of Jesus. If you participated thank you. If you missed it and would like to add your thoughts please take the one question poll here.

As I expected responses to this survey are all over the map, even from pastors. I had 6 protestant pastors respond, most directly to me. Some told me their answers in message, only 2 of the 6 responded with the same answer. Other respondents had a similar distribution of answers.

My biggest take away from this poll was that we have a vague understanding about this. We do not agree as a whole body of Christians, at least in my circles. We simply do not agree on what it means exactly to gather in the name of Jesus Christ. I think we don’t care much to the point that we delegate our thoughts on this to our pastors. Our pastors also don’t seem to care about the specifics of gathering in his name. I felt like I was irritating most of them, unqualified to ask this question.

Responses

The most common response (44%) was: “there is a common belief in Jesus, and the topic of the meeting must be related to him.”

The second most common response (22%) was a write-in response similar to “they are gatherings to seek, to follow, to display, to reveal Jesus Christ.”

The next most common answer (17%) was “every time Christians gathering for any reason it is a gathering in his name.”

Then (both at 9%) only meetings for prayer, only meetings where topic is Jesus Christ. And one response (taking the verse in context) only meetings where the topic is Church discipline.

Questions From the Poll:

• Does gathering in someone’s name mean the person we gather for is just the topic of discussion?  Or that everyone shares a love for or a belief in the person but the topic of discussion can still be about anything?
• Does it mean one person runs the meeting as he sees fit referring to Christ as they decide?
• Could there be something we are missing in not making Jesus Christ Lord of our gatherings? Is he able and willing to run the meeting himself through the people he indwells? Perhaps we don’t trust him to or trust one another so we scratch that idea?

I think if we are to honestly answer these questions we’ll acknowledge the biggest reason we meet as we do.  And that is most of us, pastors included, do not know how to gather together in the name of Jesus!

Matthew 18 does not teach us how to gather together in his name directly. We can however extract what this means from how the disciples gathered around Jesus. And we have the direct teachings from Paul writing to his churches later. I will write on more of this in part 2.

The truth is, in many church services we don’t always sense his presence. We don’t know how to run a meeting and make him Lord other than turning him into the topic of sermon. We don’t know how to make him Lord of the meeting other than singing or declaring “it’s all about Jesus”. And ending our prayers with “in Jesus name, amen”.

What We Really Mean

From the protestant and catholic meetings I have attended it seems to me that we are really saying something else. We say “this is all about Jesus but… I’m in charge of this meeting. Or… that guy is in charge of this meeting… just sit back and enjoy.” In place of Jesus Christ we select ourselves a leader to run the meeting.

A great and gifted and eloquent man to lead us. When to show up, when to sit and to stand, when to sing, when to stop singing. Tell us when to make offerings, and the guidelines for how much. Give us our allotted time to greet one another, when to listen quietly, when and what to expect from God, when to bow our heads, when to close our eyes. Like school children “repeat after me” and finally when to dismiss the meeting, just in time for our lunch.  It is all very convenient really, a very pleasant experience.

In every Christian gathering that I have attended in the past 20+ years, during the meeting we delegate our spiritual lives to the ‘professional’. We intentionally sit idle as a student of a topic regarding spiritual things.

My ‘To Gather Together’ Dreams

I want this to change!  I want weekly Jesus Christ meetings where he is more than a topic to gather around. I am praying fervently for Jesus Christ meetings, as much as I love good sermons, as much as I love my pastors. I’ve had my fill of sermon meetings.

I am a child of Jesus Christ, he lives within me, he teaches and speaks with and through me. We need Jesus Christ meetings, where we who love him gather at his feet. Meetings where he speaks through all of us and where he is Lord of what happens in each meeting. Doesn’t anyone else crave this?

Please comment below, or private message me.

In part II of this series I’ll share what I believe the Lord is teaching me about gathering around himself.