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The Three Types of Christian Fellowship

Below are three Categories of Christian fellowship. We absolutely need all three: but mostly #3 because it causes spiritual maturity and includes the other two. Most Christians I know only experience #2 and stay there their entire life. As it requires minimal effort and is strongly rooted in tradition.

1) General social friendship based on common beliefs, interests, goals, age or among those in same church, family, job. Having friends, Christians or non Christians, it’s important and useful and we should maintain friendships, if possible.

2) One Way ➡️ theological sharing, religious teaching or various forms of religious entertainment. (most modern church services) could be useful as a short term preparation for #3 👇🏽 !!! If it doesn’t lead to that it will revert to a religious social club, still has value but little compared to #3.

3) Two Way 🔄 spiritual sharing, unsupervised and free of human controls. The type of fellowship that God himself can lead through trained members via the Holy Spirit. Hymns, revelations, prophecies, teachings, sharing of money, interpretations, burden bearing, friendship, training, and prayers given by all, and is centered on Jesus Christ and his kingdom.

#3 should be the goal of every Christian as it pleases the Lord most and establishes his direct rule over a body of Christians, it makes him Lord over a people. This type of fellowship can be difficult to establish and maintain. As it goes against our flesh and requires the extrovert to keep silent and submit and the introverts to speak up and share. Requires training and often needs outside help and guidance but with spiritual leadership and spiritual discipleship it is not beyond what the Lord can establish in the earth. “With God all things are possible.”

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What Covid19 Can Teach Us About Christian Gatherings

It is late-April 2020 and the Covid19 pandemic is in full swing. The numbers seem to be decreasing but our governments reactions to it are ramping up. I recently noticed a local county leader publish a guide for local church’s about how to conduct church meetings during this time of virus fear. I suspect he received his guidelines from Albany NY.

In the article the executive tells church members how to sit, (in their parked vehicles, windows up), he tells the pastors how to deliver the “sermon”, he tells all how to give “tithes” and when and how to dismiss.

I’m not knocking this guy I’m sure he’s obeying orders coming down from on-high (ie…from whomever is controlling Albany these days).

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While reading this article it occurred to me that who is in charge of a Christian meeting is as important as meeting at all. I’m not suggesting we should ignore these guidelines I’m setting out to make a broader point.

Jesus Christ, the ACTUAL Lord of the church, displayed how to conduct Christian meetings for years. And in all those no gatherings no real estate was purchased or constructed, no buildings were remodeled, no corporations were formed, and no tithes were collected for salaries and property upkeep. And especially no Roman officials or soldiers were consulted regarding how to gather. Back then all that the authorities could muster was orders to stop gathering and to stop speaking of this Jesus.

The Apostle Paul also openly taught his people how to meet, gatherings are written about with considerable detail in some of his letters.

How Christians gather together is a display on earth of Jesus’ Lordship and kingship. This is a critical aspect of the gospel of The kingdom of God that most Christians I know seem to not understand or ignore.

Running Christian meetings will be either Jesus Christ himself through the spirit, working through each member yielded one to another from the foundation of love …. or it will be some ambitious brother or sister who feels the need to dominate meetings to feel fulfilled, or it may be some great elder/ pastor who simply knows (or will accept) no other way.

…or now, here in NY in 2020 it’s atheist politicians with their thumb on the congregations using a waning virus as a pretense to direct Christian meetings.

But most importantly if it is not Jesus Christ running a meeting through the Holy Spirit I suspect it doesn’t really matter much who it is. It can be atheist Albany, or the Vatican, or some talented and domineering Protestant Christian, or some slick clergyman sheister insistent on extracting a salary from our “tithes”.

If it is not Jesus Christ running the meetings it’s just not a big deal, it’s all the same spiritually … and the measure to which it is not Christ is the measure that it will be a spiritually irrelevant meeting.

Evil powers in high places DO care IF and HOW Christians gather, (I think it terrifies them more than anything else, I think they will kill before they allow his dominance over the church again.)

To maintain their grip on earth they must have a say in the money, and in the message, and ESPECIALLY in the face to face interactions among Gods people. (“Quiet everybody, look up here all of you, listen now, you can greet and interact briefly, …out there, …when I am done, and please make sure you keep the conversation about my sermon.”

They must impose dominance, they must displace the dominance of the spirit of Christ or there will be trouble.

Jesus-followers however meet in such a way that is almost invisible financially to the wicked powers over us. Money given to the poor among us. No buildings, no hierarchy, no corporations, no tax exemption is necessary.

Had Jesus met like most US Christians do today, the Pharisees would not have needed to bribe Judas (with their tithe money) to find him. He’d have his place in his designated building with his approved license and highest of titles.

But Jesus was not hiding from them, he was being led of the spirit… the devils in power don’t easily know where that is, they need a single leader (a neck to grab) in a single building (that they’ve told us how to build), to try to control Jesus on earth.

The ultimate aim is control and hindrance of Jesus Christ in the earth. Kingship and Lordship over the earth is at stake and this has always resulted in great violence.

Always remember that Jesus prayed “on earth as it is in heaven.” This prayer has brought great conflict that still rages within and around his follower.

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How We Meet

I’ve been attending church since I was about 19, or about 26 years now, over this time different pastors have had hugely positive impacts on me.

BUT as I grow older I am noticing a huge discrepancy. A discrepancy in how Christians met and acted in Acts, Paul’s letters, and gosples and in how we meet and act today.

Maybe there is a link…maybe there is a cause and effect!

I also have been reading books from people like Frank Viola, George Barna, Leonard Sweet, Neil Cole about the source of the traditions we practice in our church meetings.

I wont list all of the descrepencies between our traditions or where they came from here, if you are curious for more information about this start with the book Pagan Christianity? and Reimagining Church books, I will make the following statement and no more:

I believe that the weekly sermon, one “senior” pastor (our form of a local Christian king), idle pew-sitting audience-style weekly church service has crippled for generations, and is currently crippling the body of Jesus Christ in the earth. I call this the King-Sheep model, the pastor is the local king (like David) and the people behave like dumb passive sheep refusing to spiritually listen and think for themselves. Loyalty to the king is their currency and means of promotion.

The church (better translated the ecclesia) is the body of Jesus Christ.

Where we gather in his name, meaning we gather for him and him alone, he dwells within us. We are not to gather for self-help sermons, nor gather to get “fed”, nor gather at the church that best “meets our needs”. We gather for him, in our town, we gather to share him with one another, we gather to learn Jesus Christ. We gather to share Jesus Christ and his infinite unsearchable riches with one another, this is something we will do for all of eternity. Churches should be led by a team of elders, with pastors, evangelist, teachers, apostles, and prophets being on equal terms with all, the 5-fold ministry is a list of ministry gifts not authority titles.

Listen to this episode from the Insugence podcast.

I want to meet with other members of Christ’s body in this way. If you also want to meet in this way and you live in the upstate NY area comment below or email me at collierak@me.com.

1 Corinthians 14:24 But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or an ungifted man enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all; 25 the secrets of his heart are disclosed; and so he will fall on his face and worship God, declaring that God is certainly among you.

Meeting locations can be members homes, coffee houses, rented spaces, public places if available, libraries, parks, anywhere that works.

The closeness, love, pursuit of Christ and even friction that develops between people can satisfy better than a lifetime of sermons could dream to.

As the number of people in this meetings grows a few things can happen:

  • Elders (including pastors, evangelists, teachers) can be recognized and assigned based on obvious giftings, elders have authority only in issues of discipline, they are known for their maturity and are not to be looked upon as the leaders of the church, but as gifts to help the church.
  • Men and women can break up and meet separately at times but at other times we all meet together.
  • Visitors to these meetings saved and unsaved will be able to see God among us in action see 1 Cor 14:24-25 above, unlike with pew sitting.

The role of the pastor is first to train young believers to function within this type of meeting. To function within the body of Christ and to develop their gifts. This includes keeping order and peace in the meetings if necessary, making sure no one dominates or sits idle. There is no pressure of weekly sermons, of setting the vision for hundreds of people. There is no financial pressure of owning and building huge buildings.

The best thing about this way of meeting is that the Spirit is free to guide the meetings Himself rather than expecting that of a pastor. There is no “serve me” mentality in the people and no need for pastors to reward personal loyalty or big givers.

There can also be seasons of special prayer, seasons of intentional evangelism, seasons of special teachings and sermons, money can be pooled and distributed and used to bless ministries or families or whatever is agreed upon. Just like we see in scripture.

There is much more to say about this.

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