November 9, 2015 - Adam Collier

Community Organizers For Religion

Man-made religion structures have been built in place of Jesus Christ repeatedly and for centuries. The great thing is that he personally dismantles these structures in the hearts and minds and lives of his people. He does this as they misrepresent him.

An example of this work of dismantling, his work of cleansing is found in Luke 2

And he found in the temple those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers were seated at their table. And he made a scourge of cords (whip), and drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and he poured out the coins of the money changers, and overturned their tables.

He dismantles (he whips, he drives out, he pours out, he overturns) the man-made structures we erect in Gods temple.

At the same time he works to build his very own temples, his very own dwelling places on earth, his temples made with living stones in every town, his ecclesia, his church, his body which gathers around him, and nothing can stop this work of building.

We can cooperate with him in this work of building and/or in this work of dismantling. I watch many atheists and members from other religions who seem set on dismantling the hypocrisy they see among Christians, in doing this with such fervor (regardless of their motives), in a way they are working for Christ, joining his work of dismantling everything not of him, purifying his very own people.

We help him in his building work by making him Lord of everything that we do and everything that we are… in surrender of our everything to him.

Or we can resist him like the Pharisees did who at the time were no more than what I like to call community organizers for religion.

Community organizers for religion build what Jesus is tearing down, they must avoid Jesus’ Lordship while they do this, they sometimes attribute God’s dismantling work to satan; they make lousy Lords yet insist they have a their own mini-kingdom of people subject to their leadership.

Their ‘vision’ for God’s people becomes Lord of their group and Lord of their meetings. They love to be in charge, but only in charge of compliant, mostly silent and passive people. They don’t know or care about what Jesus is actually doing now and can’t seem to function… without your money.

Community organizers for religion can’t seem to function… without your money.

It says in Proverbs that the people “cast off restraint where there is no prophetic vision” Prv 29:18. I think congregations abuse their pastors with this idea, in immaturity we passively threaten rebellion then blame it on ‘lack of vision’. So the pastor, like a good earthly leader should do, during his tenure compiles a unique, custom-made, written vision to meet the demands of the congregation.

But… the truth is mature Christians do not need a vision from men to guide their gatherings, because we have a vision dwelling inside of us, the law of God written on our hearts, we are walking epistles of Jesus Christ.

What an advantage we have over earthly institutions and groups, led by good men, we have the power and life of God inside of us, we are literally the body of Christ on earth. This is sufficient, his indwelling presence is more than enough to guide our Christian lives, and our ministry and our gatherings. God with us is all that we need… is more than we need.

Jesus Christ himself is all the vision necessary for the mature Christian, for the Christian who is seeking him first, and making him Lord of everything. So we never have legitimate reason to ‘cast off restraint’, we will never perish, we have the ultimate vision of the universe written on our hearts and that is Jesus Christ himself.

Community organizers have their place, maybe even in the White House but not in God’s house.

November 8, 2015 - Adam Collier

Gathering in His Name – Part III

In part I of this post we shared the results of the survey about gathering in the name of Jesus Christ, in part II we shared some learning and research about what it means to gather in the name of Jesus means and does not mean. In this final Part III of this post series we share three sure indicators of a gathering in the name of Jesus Christ.

The three sure indicators that a gathering of Christians is in the name of Jesus Christ:

Christ speaks through everyone: Since Christ indwells Christians and since he is distributed among Christians (John 1:16) Christ can and desires to speak, through every one through his distributed gifts (see). We who have the spirit of God, and I believe this is every Christian, do not need to be taught by priest-like experts in our meetings like smart sheep teaching dumb sheep. (see ) Everyone is to teach or share or declare or reveal, everyone in an open face-to-face participatory meeting, everyone reveals Jesus Christ together one by one, in order. We seek him privately all week then come together to share and display and learn directly from him.
No one person has authority (see Mark 14), The only valid authority in a Jesus meeting is present as the indwelling spirit of God within everyone. The role of the gifted elders or pastor in these meetings is to keep the meeting running and focused and to train and ensure that everyone functions, everyone learns to live and to function by the Spirit within. His role in the meeting is to ensure that order is maintained, that the meeting focus remains on Jesus Christ, that no one or few people dominate and take over the meeting. This requires maturity and strength and sometimes courage and is best suited by those older in the faith. The role of the gifted teacher is for special meetings with anointed teachings on certain topics to teach the body. The idea of licensed clergy, of professional preachers and idle laity I can’t find in scripture, from what I can tell clergy/laity was a creation of the Roman church around the 2nd to 4th century and has been handed down as tradition through the centuries.
The ONLY purpose and the ONLY biblical justification for Christians gathering routinely is for gathering around Jesus Christ. For corporate seeking of him, for expressing, for displaying and for proclaiming Jesus Christ. Meeting in the name of Jesus Christ is not simply composed of people with a shared common affinity for Christ who gather to hang out, it is not about the members themselves or solving their problems. These types of meetings are not bad, they are not wrong, but they are special teaching meetings, not weekly gatherings in the name of Jesus Christ.

Examples:

a catholic mass led by one priest teaching on the topic of Mary as the blessed virgin, aside the fact that everyone believes in Jesus Christ, is not a gathering in the name of Jesus Christ.
a protestant meeting by hundreds of people who believe in Jesus Christ but the purpose of the meeting is a great teaching about making marriage work is not a gathering in the name of Jesus Christ.
a meeting talking about the topic of the growing kingdom of God through evangelism taught by one or two experienced men to an idle audience, is not a gathering in the name of Jesus Christ. I say this because of the topic is not being Jesus Christ and by the idleness of the people in whom God dwells.

My point for writing this is that we should no longer be confused into thinking that all of our meetings are Jesus Christ meetings just because we say so or want it to be so. What happens in the meetings and not our good intentions define what type of meeting it is. Some of us have been attending church for years, heard hundreds of sermons, taught hundreds of sermons anointed of God, yet have never really attended a gathering in the name of Jesus Christ.

I want meetings where every Christian functions, where every Christian brings their spiritual gifts and insights as the spirit has distributed, we break for the week, seek him in pairs then gather and display him and exalt him and teach about him and pray to him and praise him and display him to one another and anyone who visits.

I want meetings where the meeting flow is orchestrated by the presence of God himself, if he is present…can he not run things? Can he not decide when we dismiss? when we pray? when we make offerings? Yes he can, and I believe that he wants to.

I want Jesus meetings with pastors whose role is biblical not Greco-Roman… entertaining us with theological eloquence. I want Jesus meetings where introverts and extroverts share and contribute equally simply because Jesus indwells them both.

IS this too good to be true? Does anyone else crave this?

November 7, 2015 - Adam Collier

To Gather Together In The Name of Jesus – Part II

This is part II of the ‘to gather together in my name’ post from 10/31/15 and is the follow up of the Matthew 18:20 online poll. Because this is so long I will be doing a final Part III also, this post could be much longer. Take your time reading it and please reach out to me with comments, challenges or criticisms all are welcome.

These posts are not intended to be an indictment or correction to any one or to any church in particular. I am simply sharing what is on my heart and what I believe the Lord is teaching me.

To Gather Together Summary

I have been researching the topic of gathering in the name of Jesus Christ from scripture and books written about the topic. To quickly summarize with one sentence: To gather together in the name of Jesus Christ is to gather under the ruling presence of Jesus Christ.

No one person should orchestrate or run a gathering around Jesus Christ. Elders or pastors are there to can see to it that disturbances are kept in check and that Christ is kept central. Christ wants to speak, to reveal himself through his people, through all his people with their varied gifts. Jesus Christ is not simply the topic of discussion of a one man show. The early disciples, and Paul’s churches had meetings such as this, and this is how meetings are taught throughout the new testament.

Jesus Christ is present on earth through his people, he dwells within his people. When we meet we sense him, we express him, we give voice to him. As we seek him, teach about him, share him and reveal what we have of him, he speaks through all of us.

Lord Help Me to Relate

I asked the Lord to help me to understand this better because I can’t yet relate. I am accustomed to passive sermon meetings, and have not yet experienced meetings like this.

The Lord taught me recently that a gathering in his name is like a child’s birthday party. In a birthday party, we gather together to celebrate the child, for the benefit of the child. That child often sets the theme of the party, and sometimes the setting, that child receives gifts from everyone, ideally the people show up for that child and not for themselves. The birthday girl is ministered to in gifts and song and cake and blessings and kindness and she is the focus and center of the meeting. The child is also present at the party, partying with her not present would be silly.

Talk is Cheap, What Happens Determines

Meetings that do not have these characteristics aren’t necessarily bad but they are not meeting in the name of Christ. Just because we declare it, doesn’t make it so. A meeting where someone says ‘we gather here in the name of Jesus’ yet really gather around something else are nonsensical. Our meetings are not defined by what we declare or by what we think of our motives. Most Christians believe that they gather in the name of Jesus Christ but simply are not. They are ignorant of what it really mean or they are deceived.

The fruit of a Jesus-meeting can be seen and measured, and it not in good intentions alone. If I gather my family around me and I declare we are gathering in the name of Jesus tonight. But then as the meeting starts we then eat popcorn and watch a movie and play Yahtzee. Our actions override my talk about the meeting. Popcorn, movies and games are not bad but we ought not deceive ourselves in order to sound pious.

For those who love the Lord, it sounds proper to declare that all our meetings are in his name. We want to justify all that we do.

In The Name of Pastor

Most church gatherings I have experienced are gatherings in the name of the pastor. You can see this by how much control and influence pastors have on the culture of a church. To the point where one pastor is declared the ‘senior’ pastor above a line hierarchy. His leadership, which is the vision of the church is the real Lord of the meetings and compliant attendees.

Most pastors I have experienced are great men, honorable, gifted and talented men, men I admire and love. So sitting in their meetings and listening has not been difficult, it is comfortable, easy and theologically inspiring.

I think there are three sure indicators that will be present in any gathering in the name of Jesus Christ. If these are not present, be sure it is just a nice gathering, just friends gathering. Just a ministry of a talented man or woman teaching those who are like-minded.

Not necessarily wrong or a bad meeting but NOT a gathering in the name of Jesus Christ.

In Part III I will share the three sure indicators of what it means to gather together in the name of Jesus Christ.

Eternal Testimonies Ministries

For Those in Pursuit of Jesus Christ

Community Organizers For Religion