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Letter to my son, Tommy

June 2002 Dearest Tommy, I have been mulling over this letter of mine in response to one of your previous letters on your experience with Pastor W. Are you ready for it? Anyway, with prayer in my heart that you are, here goes. Remember, no matter how much you dislike Pastor W, you still owe him love. Yup, that's what Apostle Paul wrote in Romans. Owe no man anything except the debt of love. I know how you feel. That's how I felt too when I attended their services. There is no doubt that he is an excellent speaker. And he is a master of Christian doctrine. And he really pushes for holiness, repentance, and true conversion. Perhaps it's just the manner in which he delivers the message. It's without tenderness. Still, I would suggest that you focus on what he says rather than on how he says it. Also, you have to understand that he - like maybe 95% of all church leaders today - really don't understand a big part of what the ekklesia of Jesus Christ is all about. As I have come to believe after studying ecclesiology in the last 3 - 4 years: In the place and time where Jesus said, I will build my ekklesia (today translated as "church" with all its purely religious connotations) and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it ..." the common understanding of the word ekklesia was its political meaning. Any religious connotation it had was secondary to its political significance. Now, if you study the political aspects of Jesus' earthly career, you can better appreciate his use of the word ekklesia. First, he himself was proclaimed the Christ, which means, "the Anointed One". Anointed to be what? To be king of course, like David of old. It was a very political title and function. Then, Jesus himself was continuously proclaiming the kingdom of God as being at hand. And a "kingdom" is a very politcal entity. And will those who follow Jesus - the saints of God - be passive in that Kingdom? Perhaps not, as the Book of Revelation hints to us: Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth. By revelation, Jesus' own followers gradually recognized him as such, that is, as the Christ of God, God's anointed. Thus, Peter declared when Jesus asked him, Who do you say that I am? Peter replied, You are the Christ, the son of the living God. And where did Jesus ask his disciples that question? It was when they were in the coasts of Caesarea Philippi (Matthew 16:13), more than 20 miles north of the Sea of Galilee, the capital city of one of King Herod's sons. The name itself connotes the dual powers of Rome and Greece. Rome dominated the period politically while Greece dominated it culturally. With the spread of the Greek empire during the reign of Alexander the Great ~ son of Philip of Macedon ~ around the 4th - 3rd centuries B.C., Greek political ideas spread along with Greek ideas of art and religion. And one dominant Greek political idea was demokratia, the rule by the people, excercised institutionally by that especially Greek political institution, the ekklesia ~ the legislative assembly of all males 18 years old and above in the Greek city-state or polis. In the ekklesia, the people discussed and passed laws on anything and everything that concerned the welfare of the state. Wherever there was a Greek-influenced town or settlement, an ekklesia would be set up. That's why in Acts 19, in the account of the riot in Ephesus, the town clerk declared that anything the mob could not decided on would be "taken up in the ekklesia". Here, however, the word ekklesia in this verse is translated as the "legal assembly of citizens", instead of "church" as it is rendered elsewhere. Therefore, if that was the common understanding of the word ekklesia at the time, what do you think Jesus meant, and how was he understood by the disciples, when he said, "I will build my ekklesia and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it"? Was he understood the way we understand "church" today? I don't think so. If I may paraphrase him, this is what I believe he meant and how he was understood: "Yes, the powers and authorities of the world have their own ekklesiai that push their agenda. It will be the same with the kingdom of God. It too will have its ekklesia - My Ekklesia - pushing the agenda of the kingdom of God. Like the ekklesia of today, my Ekklesia will be a free discussion, decision, and action-taking institution, pushing and spreading the kingdom of God until it embraces every tongue and nation in the world. It will both practice and promote my kingdom values, as I have enunciated it in my "sermon in the mount". However, its leadership and authority style will be different from that of the world. You know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and their great ones exercise authority upon them. But so shall it not be among you: but whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister: And whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all." When you open your eyes to this key aspect of the church, or ekklesia, then you will begin to better appreciate some of the seemingly obscure passages in the New Testament. For instance, look at Paul's first letter to the Corinthians where he chides them about going to the Gentile courts in their disputes with one another. He tells them, "don't you know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Don't you know that we shall judge angels? Then how much more on things that pertain to this life?" (I Cor.6:2-3) If you study the ekklesia of the democratic Greek city-states (see attached), they were doing precisely that: discuss, decide on, and take action on all matters concerning the welfare of the city state. (See this excellent scholarly write-up by Christopher W. Blackwell on how ancient Athenian democracy functioned through the ekklesia.) Therefore, I propose that Jesus Christ meant a similar thing when he commanded the apostles regarding his Ekklesia. He wanted them to become working assemblies - involving as many mature and qualified members as possible - that discussed, decided and took action on matters regarding the expansion of the kingdom of God in the world. Paul understood this very well and that's just what he proceeded to do. Of course, the churches are to know, believe and obey the Spirit of Jesus and the gospel first and foremost. So our Lord Jesus commanded his apostles to "teach them to obey whatsoever I have commanded you" (Matt.28:20). But his method of work for them was to be "ekklesia style" with one big difference: they would be as "wise as serpents but gentle as doves". They were to be like "sheep among wolves" renouncing violence as a means of relating to others. Their sole weapon was the Truth proclaimed in the power of the Holy Spirit. Their constant and winning strategy was love and the works of love. Forgive me but I'm inclined to believe that manner in which we conduct our assemblies in our modern churches today is something hardly imagined by our Lord Jesus and the apostles. Today we meet in this building. At 8:45, worship singing begins. Then someone leads a prayer. Announcements of activities are then given, and then, the pastor preaches a sermon for 45 minutes. Next to last, the offering is collected. A closing hymn is sung and the benediction is given. Sometimes, an invitation is extended for anyone to come forward in case he or she desires counseling or, as a result of the message, came to a decision which he or she wanted someone to pray with. Finally, the whole assembly then is invited to have some snacks in the fellowship hall and socialize with one another although those who are pleased to leave, do so. A second service follows with more or less the same format. And that's how it goes Sunday after Sunday. And we believe the Ekklesia, being the body of Christ, will conquer the world for the kingdom of God that way. No, we don't even think of it that way. For us, the Ekklesia doesn't have that function at all, but mainly to conduct the worship service, almost totally ignoring what Paul said that our "reasonable service of worship" consists of "offering our bodies as living sacrifices". For us, the kingdom is something that God will usher in and reveal almost independently of what the Ekklesia is doing. We don't see at all that the Ekklesia is God's instrument for ushering in the kingdom of God! Sometimes, lip service is given to that function of the Ekklesia, or church, as when after the offering is collected, a prayer is said to the effect that may the funds be used "for the expansion of thy kingdom". So that's what I would call the blindness and tragedy of the modern church. What you have every Sunday are followers of Jesus Christ already assembled, possessing such potential! We even pray the Lord's prayer: "... may Your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven"! BUT WE DON'T MEET AS THE EKKLESIA MODEL DOES ~ TO DISCUSS, DECIDE AND TAKE ACTION on how that will is to be done, not realizing the fact that AS THE BODY OF CHRIST, WE - THE EKKLESIA - ARE TO BE THE MEANS OF FULFILLING THAT WILL! Remember the song: "For this purpose Christ was revealed, to destroy all the works of the evil one ..."  Who will do it, who will destroy all the works of the evil one? God of course! Through his angels? No! Through the Body of Christ ~ the Ekklesia ~ as it obeys Christ Jesus who is its Head, as Jesus himself sits at the right hand of God waiting for all his enemies to be put under his feet. By whom? By the Holy Spirit working through the Body of Christ on earth! "For ye are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to DO GOOD WORKS which God hath before ordained that ye SHOULD WALK in them"! What are the "works of the evil one"? We see it everywhere. It's ALL THE EVILS IN THE WORLD, THE COMPLEX STRUCTURE OF SIN THAT RESULT IN PAIN AND SUFFERING, PREVENT AND HINDER THE SHARING OF THE GOSPEL OF GOD'S KINGDOM, AND THE CAUSE LOSS OF COUNTLESS SOULS TO SATAN, THE ENEMY OF GOD! It's all the criminality - both organized and individual; pornography; terrorism and wars of aggression; prostitution, white slavery, child labor, wife burning, female circumcision, cannibalism, torture, mental illness, corruption in both government and business; the production and use of ever more powerful and destructive weapons; use of governmental resources for profligacy and the waste of precious resources; genocide; drug addiction; sickness; global warming, environmental degradation and pollution; the extinction of whole species of animals and plants due to the destruction of their habitat by human activity; atheism - both passive and militant; sickness and poverty; etc. etc. So, do you see it, Tommy? I imagine that the Greek ekklesiai also had their ritual (although they were pagans) in honor of their Olympian gods. That's how they started their assemblies, dedicating the formal proceedings of their ekklesia to their gods. So our worship service is vitally important too, there's should be no question or doubt about that. But our worship service should go hand-in-hand with the practical work of the Ekklesia, like two sides of one coin. Worship without service is hollow. Service without worship is human pride, and "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble". To give another analogy, it's like a man walking with two legs so he can MOVE FORWARD. The move of the first leg is the worship, the move of the second leg is the work of the love ministries of the Ekklesia ~ believers working together in various ministries according to their giftings, led and empowered by the Holy Spirit. But the way we are essentially doing it is like a man limping along with one leg, hardly putting the other leg on the ground. Will the world be conquered for Christ that way? Not in another thousand years! And of course God is not mocked. Do we think He is pleased with all our singing and fellowshipping, eating and drinking, if we are not also serving? I don't think so. I believe this is Rick Warren's key point in his books, The Purpose Driven Life and The Purpose Driven Church. Based on the foregoing, I would see one key function of the servant-leadership of the church to be "to equip the saints" for active participation in the business and proceedings of the Ekklesia. The aim is not to make the membership perpetual pupils being spoon-fed almost everything they need but to help them to become mature and encourage them to PARTICIPATE in the work of the Ekklesia. Also, as the book of Hebrews says (10:24): And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works ... Anyway, Tommy, this has taken long enough. But I brought it up for you to understand a little bit why, in my opinion, many Christian churches are making very, very slow progress today. And it gets worse when you have a situation as in Pastor W's church where the congregation is virtually intimidated by him. Instead of being empowered to function as the Ekklesia, instead of everyone being encouraged to seek the will of the Holy Spirit together for their church as a local expression of the body of Christ, it's the Pastor's agenda that's being pushed. And the poor congregation are none the wiser for it because they do not know their rights, their heritage, as God's holy nation, as a royal priesthood, as the Ekklesia of Jesus the Anointed One, the King of Kings who sits at the right hand of God ~ the Body of Christ to obey his will from heaven, corporately doing what Jesus himself would do if he were physically here on earth, "destroying all the works of the evil one". What can we do? To humbly pray and to share this truth. For all its failings and deficiencies, I firmly believe that the churches today are still the churches of Christ that he loves so much and he gave his life for, very Laodecian, yes, but the Spirit of Jesus continues to appeal to them, standing at the door and knocking (for to a large extent, he has been excluded in many of them), wishing to "sup with them". But that another (but still related) topic ... God bless you, Tommy. DAD

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