Continuing on from our last article, we will keep exploring key foundational issues around starting and running a New Testament style assembly.
Authenticity
Yeshua said “By their love shall you know them.” Living in community with other believers (not in a commune, but regularly going from house to house), will provide plenty of opportunity for spiritual growth. Proverbs 27:17 says “As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.”
Steel sharpens steel but it still hurts. It’s like we’re in a big rock tumbler where we rub the rough edges off each other. Triage and patching things up is what the elder/shepherds are for. However there will be times when we’ll need an outside perspective to help us get unstuck (this is what a lot of the epistles in the NT were written for). So outside input from apostles, prophets, evangelists and teachers is sometimes necessary to help straighten us out – but the final decision on what we do is still ours (the assembly’s to make). The end result is a temple of living stones in which the glory of God resides.
This level of relationship requires great authenticity – it’s hard to hide. Our flaws will be exposed by our brothers and sisters and just like in a family we will have to work things out and love each other anyway. A verse about seventy times seven comes to mind.
This way of living will make disciples of us. Humility and love are the currencies in play. There is no room for egos, “My ministry” or a Mr Bigshot. The assembly is Holy Spirit led and controlled and He desires a perfect bride for Yeshua.
What Yeshua is building is in effect His unseen underground bride, one that wins the nation one family at a time. Grand evangelistic or political campaigns to change the nation do not build disciples. Purified Holy Spirit empowered disciples are completely authentic, indigenous and contagious.
Elders/Deacons
The two main functional roles in the local assembly (home fellowship) are the elder and deacon. Elders are spiritual shepherds with a pastorally focussed role. Deacons are temporal stewards i.e. they do all the organising/heavy lifting as required to keep the assembly functioning (see Acts 6:1-7 where the apostles installed deacons). Note: with a home based fellowship of up to 20 adults, these roles are far less taxing than the current roles of pastor, elder etc. in a large “church”.
Elders are there for spiritual guidance and wisdom and whilst they don’t have the authority to direct you to do things, if you’ve sought their advice you’d be well advised to listen carefully and take it on board.
Elders are older men and women in the assembly who meet the criteria of 1 Tim 3:1-7 (note the term elder is synonymous with the biblical terms bishop, pastor, shepherd, overseer etc).
Deacons are men and women in the assembly who meet the criteria of 1 Tim 3:8-13.
5-Fold Ministry
The following is a beautiful picture of a functioning assembly and what its goal is:
Eph 4:15b-16 …that we may grow up in all things into Him who is the head – Christ – from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
How does this body achieve this? Primarily through its head, Christ, and then through the 5-fold ministries. Eph 4:11-13 says:
He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;
We’ve already discussed the assembly based ministry (pastor/shepherd) under Elders above, the remaining four ministries are itinerant. And whilst these people may be primarily based in their home assembly, they minister by circulating amongst the other assemblies. Their function being to equip the saints for the work of the ministry and to edify the saints so we all come to the measure of the fullness of Christ.
All five ministries work together in a virtuous cycle as follows:
Stage 1 (a) Assemblies are planted by Apostles and Prophets.
Stage 1 (b) In due course Elders are appointed by these planters.
Stage 2 Deacons are appointed by the assembly as needs be.
Stage 3 (a) The assembly grows and gives birth (multiplies) to other assemblies thereby maintaining the opportunity for full fellowship and participation by all members through limiting the size of each home assembly.
Stage 3 (b) As the assembly grows, under leading of Holy Spirit, they also appoint and send out apostles and prophets to plant more fellowships.
Stage 3 (c) As the assembly grows, other gifts become apparent and are released to minister across the body e.g. teachers, evangelists.
Being an organic body means things do not necessarily progress in an orderly fashion, at times they will get quite messy and sometimes hard lessons have to be learned several times over. However in a loving fellowship, there is a body of believers around supporting us along with elders, apostles, prophets and teachers helping keep us on track.
Decisionmaking
Decisionmaking is by Holy Ghost led unanimity. This is a huge leap of faith if you’re used to leaders making the decisions, but it puts the onus on the entire body to humble themselves, hear from God, lay down their agendas and together move forward as a body.
Acts 15:22 shows the “whole assembly” at Jerusalem came into agreement on a decision over a very controversial issue – so it can be done. And they didn’t proceed until they had all reached agreement.
Decisions which only affect a local assembly only need their members to be unanimous. For larger decisions the assemblies may need to come together. Getting input before a decision is made from elders, apostles, prophets, evangelists and/or teachers is wise, especially if people are struggling with the decision.
Final Encouragements
Unprogramed fellowship meetings are a huge leap of faith, especially if you’re not used to them. Take your time – moving from an institutional church program to an organic assembly can be a challenging ask. It needs to be surrendered to Yeshua’s leading and covered in much prayer.
In John 3:8 Yeshua said “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” So if we’re Holy Spirit led there is no program but His and the world won’t understand where we’ve come from or where we’re going. One thing is for sure though, we can’t be Spirit led and stick to a program.
There is no perfect model of church, we have tried to keep the above open so as to present concepts and principles rather than a definitive blueprint. Remember it’s Christ’s body so He’s in charge. It’s His agenda and it will probably clash with ours! Let’s lay down our plans, pause, listen and let God lead us forward. He is never late, and He’s rarely early. The walk is as much about building faith in Him and His leading and timing as it is about being an assembly.
Let’s learn to discern God’s voice together (as married couples, as families, as assemblies). It won’t be easy, but it will be worth it.
God is not interested in men building His kingdom their way. This has always been a disastrous approach (e.g. Abraham and Ishmael). Likewise He’s over churches which are more about man’s glory than God’s. Man craves an outward sign (if we have a big church God must be blessing us) but God looks on the heart. We’ve convinced ourselves that building large buildings “to the glory of God” is somehow building His kingdom, but He’s only interested in the heart of man. Like a still small voice, God’s works are often unseen. He does big impressive works in a person’s heart. From man’s perspective, the bride is out of the limelight, off the world stage, but in the spirit realm He is making a huge declaration as His bride readies herself. Remember by 300 CE nearly half the Roman empire was Christian and yet they are almost invisible in our history books. Don’t be fooled into looking for the next big thing, get on your knees and be it.
Further Reading:
| Author | Title |
| Tim Mather | Escaping Church |
| Selwyn Stevens | Help! The Sheep are Escaping: Understanding the Exodus From Church to God’s Ecclesia. |
| Frank Viola | Rethinking the Wineskin Who’s Your Covering? So you want to start a house church? |
| James Rutz | Megashift |
| Wolfgang Simson | Houses that change the world |
| Derek Prince | Rediscovering God’s church |