Matthew Currier
Adullam The Homechurch Manifesto
Excepting my desert period I have always been in a leadership position in institutions of the Church: late in high school and early college I was the assistant youth pastor, later in college I helped to plant a church and became a licensed gospel minister and part of an itinerant worship band, after the desert I was again a worship leader and deacon candidate. I hope that that is a fair and succinct backgrounding for the reader of this document; because, as with Scripture, getting into the author’s head is supremely important. That is, in fact, the truest meaning of context in literature.
In penultimate fairness: I was kicked out of the first position and quit the other two. At the time(s) I could expound on the reasons why these fissures manifested. But it was only after the latest one that I deliberately dug for the roots. I have come to discover that the institutionalized Church is hopelessly broken and inept.
This is not a discussion about denominations or worship styles. The fact is that any incorporated congregation lands in a circular rut where clergy serve laity who (being human) have no pressure or will to exercise their aptitude. Many have found themselves at best numb to, at worst disgusted by, this process. Those people are leaving the institutions and, to their shame, the institutionalized are saying good riddance.
The purpose of this document is to explore what the Church is, how the Church acts, and how the Church looks. It is important to define terms (as I have had to retrain myself to speak rightly about these matters). The Church is all who are ransomed by the blood of Jesus Christ…now and ever. A congregation is any gathering of Church members larger than one nuclear family. It is Biblically incorrect to say, “I goto Church at …”. We do not goto Church, we are the Church. The Church is the sacred space where Yehovah deals with men. God is one being far beyond our imagining who has chosen to reveal Himself to us as the Trinity: A holy Father who is unapproachable by any sinful being. The Word that became human to die in our place to pay our sins’ ransom and rule over all. Spirit that holds all things together and works through His believers via indwelt power.
This document is not being written to confound the Church or challenge denominationalism. There is no new information herein, just a synthesis that i couldn’t find elsewhere. I believe that the gifts of the Spirit are not fully expressible in the institutionalized Church. I believe the blood of Christ is inaccessible in the institutionalized Church. I believe that the Father is unsearchable in the institutionalized Church. To me this is plain as daylight: born-again believers (truest Church members) are sitting idle in institutions - which was never the plan for us. Non-believers thrive in the institutions. People cling to their human institutions like prisoners with Stockholm syndrome. The most natural setting for Church-work is in the home.
Faith Hope Love [1Cor 13]
[Acts 2:42] - each piece has a purpose for the giver and two types of recipients, saved and unsaved.
Teaching Fellowship Commensality Prayer
“What the cross is to Jesus, the meal is to the Church.”
Commensality = eating together ~ Very important!
The Good Parts [Acts 2:46] [Acts 20:20]
The Scary Parts = untrained or unaccountable leaders [Jam 3:1] [2Tim 2:15] [2Tim 3:14-16]
The Benefits of Large Meetings ~ elders [Tts 1:5-9] [Tts 2:3-5]
The gifts make so much more sense in the context of home/family type meetings.
We often see gifts not being employed in the instiutionalized Church because it is designed for the Church to spectate the clergy. e.g. where are the Titus 2 women? We have older women in our congregation who are not discipling the younger women ~ it is no that don’t want to but that the institution prevents it (because they feel beholden to it, i.e. if it does not move them they do not move).
Yehovah grows His Church much like the congregation at the cave of Adullam [1Chr 11] [1Sam 22] [1Sam 23] ? [Mic 1:15] ? [Neh 11:30] ?? [Gen 38] ?? [Josh 12:35]
Recruitment is {entirely} unnecessary.
The Church is like a number of sheep folds within a great pasture.
NTRF
Miqlat