Imagine with me for a moment what our life would be like if we truly abandoned all the traditional trappings of our faith and reverted to only what we read about in the New Testament. If we didn’t see it modeled or explicitly taught in the New Testament, we just wouldn’t bother doing it. I’m not suggesting that we copy cultural issues from that time and place. We don’t need to don togas and throw away our cell phones. I’m suggesting that in our spiritual and corporate practices, we adopt the logic and ways of the early church without stepping out of the 21st Century. Frankly, this requires quite a bit of imagination on our parts.
What would that be like? What do we get rid of and what do we keep? I doubt we could all agree on the little details of this. Nor am I sure that it is essential that we do. But we do know some broad brush stoke issues that are clearly later additions to our way of expressing our faith. They are not required, modeled or even suggested by the New Testament but they have become unquestioned fixtures of the way we express our faith. Let me suggest some of the most clear and obvious.
Buildings
A special building designed and set aside for Christian worship and ministry is something completely foreign to the New Testament. That didn’t even begin to show up on the radar of history for about 200 years after Christ (an adapted house) and wasn’t really common until Constantine got his hands on the Church. You can read about this briefly in Thank You Chairman Mao. Is a building really necessary to express our faith well? Obviously, the early Christians didn’t seem to think so and many of them were pretty effective Christians.
Order of Worship
Having an order of worship is another idea many of us can’t imagine practicing our faith without. Many of us wouldn’t have any idea what to do if it wasn’t planned, written in
a bulletin and lead by worship leaders and clergy. Yet the early Church thrived without any of this traditional routine. The only biblical passage that describes what they did is found in I Cor. 14: 26-32. You can read a bit more about this in: Authority: How Jesus Leads a Church, Redwood Churches and Jesus as Our Capstone. But suffice it to say that it was pretty spontaneous and everyone participated equally.
Clergy and Laity
The idea of having a special class of people who are set aside to do ministry and another class of people who are ministered to is another foreign concept to the New Testament. We can find this concept (priests) in the Old Testament. We can find this in most other religions. But we don’t find this in the New Testament. There is a reason for this. We are all supposed to be ministered to and we are all supposed to minister one to another. We all have the Holy Spirit and we all are gifted by him to do kingdom work.
Was there leadership in the early Church? Yes. Each person was supposed to lead in specific given situations under the leadership of Christ. This was based on maturity level and often giftedness. Those who were particularly noted for their spiritual maturity were called elders. They had no official power or position, it was just a recognition of who they were and with that recognition came authority (but not power, position or control). You can read more about this in: Authority: How Jesus Leads a Church,
I could go on with other issues that don’t reflect what we actually read in the New Testament. I could mention sermons, pastors, tithing and salaries, Sunday school, and ritualized Lord’s supper and baptism, just to name a few. It isn’t necessary to go into detail. My point is this. The early Church not only got by without these, they thrived and were usually more effective than we are without these. Why? Could it be that these things aren’t as helpful and advantageous as we tend to think? Is it possible that these are some of the very things that are keeping our faith from becoming viral? I believe this is true. I explore this in detail in my soon to be published book The Jesus Virus.
- If these practices aren’t necessary, why do we do them?
- Why is it so hard to imagine what church could be like without these traditions?
- Jesus only mentioned two impediments to supernatural power; unbelief and the traditions of men. Why do you think Jesus was so hard on the traditions of men?
- Is it possible to add new traditions to our way of expressing our faith without having unexpected and negative consequences?
Order Today!
I really like the heart of what you are saying and we at the Pillar are seeking the most biblical path in our gathering. We don’t have paid staff, no offering is taken people can give as they feel lead into a box on a table. We do not talk about the money or tithing; just encourage people to give what God lays on their hearts to give. All funds go to missions, the needs of those in our community, outreach and rent on the space we use for our cooperate meeting. We meet in homes at different times of the week some scheduled, some spontaneously but very regular. We have the table of the lord laid out every week as those that would like to participate not lead by a pastor. As a family in homes we have communion as a meal with the whole gathering. But my question is this, in your study of the first century church have your compared how things were done in the church prior to the judgment on Jerusalem in 70 A.D. ending much of the persecution that was coming against the church with the way things were done after that time?
Hello Ross, it’s been a little while thought it was time for me to chime in again. Hope you are doing well. If they started changing things in the church from the NT model they must have done so rather quickly, notice this description of an early church service by Justin the Martyr a church father who was born less than one generation after the age of the Apostles ” On the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or the country gather together to one place and the memoirs of the Apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the President verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things.” Doesn’t sound all that much different then most “conventional” or “traditional” church services I have been to.
My comment is on the life of Shane comment. Excellent description of a great church service. We do almost exactly the same thing in our church on Sunday mornings. We have fellowship, we worship together and we study the word together. All of those things are covered. But we also have sound doctrinal teaching from a minister and we meet in a building, not one with a steeple but not a house either. Our church is growing and people really seem to get alott out of it. I also agree with the sentiment that the church is not just a place but a lifestyle, that being the church is all week long and who you are. That is why i don’t see that having structure and some defined leadership and teaching for two hours a week hinders that but actually in my experience enhances Christians being the church throughout the rest of the week which is the vast majority of their Christian experience. If those two hours really are only just a small part of the Christian experience then maybe we should not try so hard to redefine what those two hours look like and work much harder trying to redefine what the rest of the week where real outreach ministry takes place looks like. Not saying you are doing that by the way.
Hi Todd,
Justin Martyr was born in 106 and was martyred in Rome in 165. He was heavily influenced by Greek Philosophy because, before his conversion, he was a philosophy student. He was a sincere Christian, but no knowledgeable person he would consider him a poster child for biblical correctness. In fact, he brought a lot of error into the church. Nevertheless, he was a good man and obviously he was willing to die for his faith. Further, I wouldn’t take his quote as a description of what we know today as a church service. First, there is no dedicated building mentioned. Second, a President (one who presides) instructs and exhorts. What we are probably seeing here is an elder, one who is respected and mature, not a pastor as we know it today. That didn’t come until later. In fact it took quite some time to develop and was resisted vigorously early on. What we have here is a point in time and place. It marks a point in the devolution from what church practice was designed to be in the Bible, to what it had become in the time of Justin Martyr. This was about 130 after the death and resurrection of Christ. It should also be noted that this comes from an apology written to Pagans. He is trying to make Christianity seem normal and acceptable to them. All in all this actually makes my point. The church went through a slow devolution from what it was designed to be to what it has become today. These traditions of men are making us less effective and stopping our faith from becoming viral.
Hello Ross, good to talk to you again. I will agree with you on one thing, It does seem that there are plenty of things that are keeping our faith from being propagated. I Just think that it is less these traditions that you are speaking of and more the fact that most Christians aren’t like the Bareans holding their Pastors accountable on what they are preaching and likewise they are not sharing their faith the other 6 days a week as they should be. I am curious to know what your response is as to how things changed for the church at least in Jerusalem after the fall of A.D 70 and the persecution (which was certainly the real cause for meeting in homes) had started to abate.
Hi Todd,
I’m not sure what you point is about 70 AD. Persecution continued on and off at various intensities until Constantine (with one minor one after during the reign of Justinian the Apostate). In fact, the most severe persecution was the Diocletian persecution in 302-303 just before Constantine. I don’t agree that the real cause for meeting in homes was persecution. I doubt it had anything to do with that. A home is a natural place for an oikos to meet. Oikos=house, home, household, family, extended family, sphere of influence. This is the word translated “house” in the NIV in Lk. 10:5. A better rendering would be household referring to the people not the building. Dedicated buildings just didn’t come into the picture, in any significant way, until after Constantine. Even then, it was much more common, for a time, to just borrow the basilica from the government for a gathering.
Thank you!
I am a Christian and I am on the Autistic Spectrum. I have found organised religion very hurtful in my life and not at all loving and how Jesus or the early Christians are described in the new testament.
I found this post while searching on Google for images of Church buildings.
I like to collect things, it helps me to process the many unfiltered thoughts and experiences I have in a day. Having Aspergers Syndrome can be very isolating, especially within religion.
I have found much love and acceptance through deep, open, honest friendship online.
Viral Jesus…you have given me someting to ponder on.
Thanks again, love and hugs friend.
Lisa. xx