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With Him As Our Connection

If we can have fellowship around Jesus Christ together we really have something. With Him as our connection we have it all, we have the future. All our other beliefs and opinions and distinctions pale in comparison.

On the other hand, we can have a thousand other things in common, be blood relatives, think lock in step politically. Listen to the same sermons, love the same songs.

But if we are not on the same page about Jesus Christ and can’t discuss him freely. We don’t have a whole lot that is tangible or lasting together. If you are a Christian this is true about all your relationships.

Let Jesus freely have your relationships …all of them.

Make him top priority with your spouses and children, no need to get weird and overly spiritual, just soberly discuss him constantly.

Also, any group of people who cannot have face to face fellowship around Jesus Christ are not real ecclesia’s/ churches. If Jesus discussion makes things awkward, the group is something else religiously and something else that is not worth a lot of time.

I’d rather spend an hour fellowshipping over coffee with one or two brothers or sisters sharing Jesus back and forth (the real house of God). Than 3 hours in a crowd awkwardly and politely watching a great show about him.

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to gather together
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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.

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Gathering in My Name Part I, survey responses

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.

inhisname

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.

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