"...so let's give thanks to the Lord above 'cause Santa Claus comes tonight."
Says it all. Says it all.
Thursday, December 25, 2014
My First Entirely Secular Holiday Celebration
For a ton of reasons, this year I determined not to try to keep Christ in Christmas.
Among the many reasons are the creeping high church-ism in my own tradition and the realization that, apart from high church circles, Christmas is nothing--that there is no New Testament evidence that early disciples celebrated the nativity.
So this year I just dove head first into the secular and to a lesser degree, the Madison Ave holiday.
And, I have to tell you, it was a blast. I've had more fun this year than ever.
I will celebrate the incarnation with every breath I breathe. But, I can't see me ever doing CHRIST-MASS ever again.
Among the many reasons are the creeping high church-ism in my own tradition and the realization that, apart from high church circles, Christmas is nothing--that there is no New Testament evidence that early disciples celebrated the nativity.
So this year I just dove head first into the secular and to a lesser degree, the Madison Ave holiday.
And, I have to tell you, it was a blast. I've had more fun this year than ever.
I will celebrate the incarnation with every breath I breathe. But, I can't see me ever doing CHRIST-MASS ever again.
Wednesday, December 17, 2014
Finish the Quote
Don't look it up. This should be fairly easy.
------------------
"Peace on earth will come to all if we just follow the light..."
Makes you think, eh?
;-\
------------------
"Peace on earth will come to all if we just follow the light..."
Makes you think, eh?
;-\
Sunday, December 7, 2014
An Insight from Today's Mediation Walk with the Dog
Biblically speaking, a worship service is neither.
Friday, December 5, 2014
What's Wrong with this Picture?
Below is a quotation of Titus 1:5 from the new version of the NIV. I have removed one word from that verse and substituted another word in its place.
Without looking it up, can you tell which is the word in question?
Do you know what word it has replaced?
(If you reply on the blog, please do so in a way that will not give the answer away to people who find this after you.)
The reason I left you in Crete was that you might put in order what was left unfinished and appoint elders in every church, as I directed you.
Without looking it up, can you tell which is the word in question?
Do you know what word it has replaced?
(If you reply on the blog, please do so in a way that will not give the answer away to people who find this after you.)
Friday, October 10, 2014
Francis Chan on the American Church
The--what many would call--house church with which I meet on Thursday evenings is devoting some of its time many of the times it gathers to the reading of Francis Chan's book, Crazy Love.
Yesterday I came across this comment on page 68 of the earlier edition:
Right on, Francis. Continue to live it and preach it, brother!
Yesterday I came across this comment on page 68 of the earlier edition:
...the American church is a difficult place to fit in if you want to live out New Testament Christianity...Taking the word of Christ seriously and literally is rarely considered. That's for the "radicals" who are "unbalanced" and who go "overboard." Most of us want a balanced life that we control, that is safe, and that does not involve suffering.
Right on, Francis. Continue to live it and preach it, brother!
Thursday, September 4, 2014
My Recent Sin of "Merciful-less-ness"
I blew it the other night. I sinned very seriously.
Core to my walk with Jesus is the conviction that His statements, "Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy," and His reference to Hosea's, "I desire mercy not sacrifice," mean that a life of mercy is required for anyone who would be His disciple. It is Jesus 101, intro level righteousness.
And, based on that conviction, I am ashamed of what I did/didn't do the other evening.
I had worked a long, tiring day. At the end of my shift, my wife picked me up at the store so we could drive and meet friends for dinner. We chatted longer than I would have liked.
After that, we drove back to the store to pick up the other car and, then, to head home. I was physically and emotion whipped when I started out on the last leg of the journey to go home.
As I was pulling out of the parking lot, I saw a guy sitting on the curb with his head down hold up a sign that said,
"I am a war veteran. Would like money for food."
And, I said, to myself, "Yeah right. I know exactly where that money will go!"
I pulled into traffic and headed home. And, as I drove, I couldn't find my wife's headlights in my rear view mirror.
You (especially those of you who know her) know what comes next.
I got home. Took my phone out and saw I had three text from her saying, "I'm getting food for the guy." "Do you want to come back?" And, "It's okay. Don't bother."
I have to admit that there are more times than I'd like to admit that I don't walk what I talk. And, I am ashamed.
I thank God that Jesus also said that we can pray, "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors."
Core to my walk with Jesus is the conviction that His statements, "Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy," and His reference to Hosea's, "I desire mercy not sacrifice," mean that a life of mercy is required for anyone who would be His disciple. It is Jesus 101, intro level righteousness.
And, based on that conviction, I am ashamed of what I did/didn't do the other evening.
I had worked a long, tiring day. At the end of my shift, my wife picked me up at the store so we could drive and meet friends for dinner. We chatted longer than I would have liked.
After that, we drove back to the store to pick up the other car and, then, to head home. I was physically and emotion whipped when I started out on the last leg of the journey to go home.
As I was pulling out of the parking lot, I saw a guy sitting on the curb with his head down hold up a sign that said,
"I am a war veteran. Would like money for food."
And, I said, to myself, "Yeah right. I know exactly where that money will go!"
I pulled into traffic and headed home. And, as I drove, I couldn't find my wife's headlights in my rear view mirror.
You (especially those of you who know her) know what comes next.
I got home. Took my phone out and saw I had three text from her saying, "I'm getting food for the guy." "Do you want to come back?" And, "It's okay. Don't bother."
I have to admit that there are more times than I'd like to admit that I don't walk what I talk. And, I am ashamed.
I thank God that Jesus also said that we can pray, "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors."
Monday, August 25, 2014
Sleeping in On Sundays--Can the Institutional American Church Compete?
During the past three or four months, Evelyn and I have decided to take off one Sunday during the month. There was never a moment that we said, "Hey, let's take one Sunday a month and skip the Sunday morning show," but that has become the case without a long-range plan.
And, it's a habit that will be hard to break.
One of those Sundays we drove about an hour to visit Ev's brother Dave's church so we could hear him, uh, preach. His is the only sermon we've heard in longer than you can imagine.
But, on the other Sundays, we did what most Americans these days do. We slept in and simply lazed a good part of the day.
Ironically, joining the people of the world, we Sabbathed. We rested.
And, I have to tell you that those lazy Sundays were the most healthful and enjoyable times I've spent doing anything in years.
Over the years, there were a handful of Sundays that I didn't "go to church." But not many.
Since I was a boy, going to church has been an important duty in my life. So, on those Sundays that I didn't take in a Sunday morning show, there was always at least a dull pang of guilt--and never the joy I've experience in recent months when I skedaddled from the Sunday morning show tradition.
It took a long spiritual journey for me to be able not to "go to church" and also feel no hint of guilt about it.
It took a ton of Bible study and meditation on the Word to realize that attending a Sunday morning show is, in no way, a form of righteousness that pleases the Lord. But, clearly, that realization has now taken hold in my life.
---------------------------------------
Now that I've gotten point that I can not take in a Sunday morning show and be guiltless, I realize what a formidable task faces institutionalized American churchianity.
Not going to church is a wonderful way to live! It can be one of the few positive addictions a person can fall prey to. It can be a profoundly positive spiritual lifestyle!
And, here's the point: Now that I've tried it, I can't see the church competing with not going to church.
And, I'm guessing that, in the era in which so-called millennials' values are becoming increasingly dominant, the Christian movement is going to have to adapt and define being a follower of Jesus in a more biblical way--than assuming that church attendance is central.
This Middle Ages notion of Christianity--rooted in attending the Mass/Worship Service/Show--no matter how attractional the event may be, is, very likely, a thing of the past.
It will not, in the future, be able to compete with simply sleeping in--even for a geezer like me!
And, it's a habit that will be hard to break.
One of those Sundays we drove about an hour to visit Ev's brother Dave's church so we could hear him, uh, preach. His is the only sermon we've heard in longer than you can imagine.
But, on the other Sundays, we did what most Americans these days do. We slept in and simply lazed a good part of the day.
Ironically, joining the people of the world, we Sabbathed. We rested.
And, I have to tell you that those lazy Sundays were the most healthful and enjoyable times I've spent doing anything in years.
Over the years, there were a handful of Sundays that I didn't "go to church." But not many.
Since I was a boy, going to church has been an important duty in my life. So, on those Sundays that I didn't take in a Sunday morning show, there was always at least a dull pang of guilt--and never the joy I've experience in recent months when I skedaddled from the Sunday morning show tradition.
It took a long spiritual journey for me to be able not to "go to church" and also feel no hint of guilt about it.
It took a ton of Bible study and meditation on the Word to realize that attending a Sunday morning show is, in no way, a form of righteousness that pleases the Lord. But, clearly, that realization has now taken hold in my life.
---------------------------------------
Now that I've gotten point that I can not take in a Sunday morning show and be guiltless, I realize what a formidable task faces institutionalized American churchianity.
Not going to church is a wonderful way to live! It can be one of the few positive addictions a person can fall prey to. It can be a profoundly positive spiritual lifestyle!
And, here's the point: Now that I've tried it, I can't see the church competing with not going to church.
And, I'm guessing that, in the era in which so-called millennials' values are becoming increasingly dominant, the Christian movement is going to have to adapt and define being a follower of Jesus in a more biblical way--than assuming that church attendance is central.
This Middle Ages notion of Christianity--rooted in attending the Mass/Worship Service/Show--no matter how attractional the event may be, is, very likely, a thing of the past.
It will not, in the future, be able to compete with simply sleeping in--even for a geezer like me!
Tuesday, August 5, 2014
APE Rape
I'm including on this blog a link to fellow prophet Dan Horwedel's blog post, APE Rape. Click and check it out if you have the spiritual courage.
This is powerful stuff and, I believe it is genuinely prophetic.
----------------------------
A few comments about Dan and this post:
1. These days Dan appears to be growing in his prophetic gift at an exponential rate. He is a genuine blessing to me.
2. Dan's image takes my own "Shepherd Mafia" image and makes it seem like Dick and Jane stuff.
3. I believe that Dan's rape image is from the Lord and that it is consistent with the powerful messages and the images that the Lord spoke through His prophets in the Word. If this vivid image itself offends you, you need to read the books of the prophets in the Word.
4. You should ask yourself: Who are the APE rapists among us?
5. You also need to ask: Am I an APE rapist?
6. While Dan doesn't claim to be a victim of APE rape, I think he is one and, further, that he is a victim of gang rape and, beyond that, that his rapists need to apologize and make restitution to him and to confess their sin to the Lord and to the church.
This is powerful stuff and, I believe it is genuinely prophetic.
----------------------------
A few comments about Dan and this post:
1. These days Dan appears to be growing in his prophetic gift at an exponential rate. He is a genuine blessing to me.
2. Dan's image takes my own "Shepherd Mafia" image and makes it seem like Dick and Jane stuff.
3. I believe that Dan's rape image is from the Lord and that it is consistent with the powerful messages and the images that the Lord spoke through His prophets in the Word. If this vivid image itself offends you, you need to read the books of the prophets in the Word.
4. You should ask yourself: Who are the APE rapists among us?
5. You also need to ask: Am I an APE rapist?
6. While Dan doesn't claim to be a victim of APE rape, I think he is one and, further, that he is a victim of gang rape and, beyond that, that his rapists need to apologize and make restitution to him and to confess their sin to the Lord and to the church.
Thursday, July 10, 2014
"You're a Christian, aren't you?"
I was stunned to hear those words the other day when I was conducting my new ministry as a Front End employee at Weaver Markets in Adamstown, PA.
I was running my cash register on the Ten Items or Less aisle early Saturday morning when, because the rush had not yet begun, I invited a woman with more than ten items to use my aisle.
I said, "Look, there's no one else around. It's not like you're going to be holding other people up."
And, of course, as soon as she started to unload her cart, another customer with three items came up behind her to await her turn.
I processed the violator of store rules and began processing the second customer's items. As I was scanning her items, she said it:
"You're a Christian, aren't you?" I was stunned and touched and confused.
"Yes. I am."
Then after saying, "Paper or plastic?" and "Your total is $4.73," I asked, "Why do you say that?"
[Her answer will throttle the many people who say, "I agree with what you say, bill, but I completely disagree with the way you say it.]
"Because you're so sweet."
I stammered, "I'm not really that sweet and if you see any of that in me at all, it's the Lord you're seeing. You are a Christian too, right?" I said that because this young lady oozes sweetness.
We then spent a brief moment discussing the difference loving and obeying Jesus makes in a person's life. The next customer approached. I said, "Well, have a blessed day," and smiled a smile I couldn't have suppressed if I'd tried.
Sweet? Me? She seemed sane. I promise you.
--------------------
I absolutely L-O-V-E my new ministry.
Even before I understood that being a pastor these days is nothing more than being a parish priest under a church's or a denomination's brand, I chafed at serving in the priestly role of a clergyman.
In Revelation 1, John says of all disciples that Jesus has made us to be "a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father."
Now that I've repented of the parish priest role, I absolutely love being a member of what the Protestants call the priesthood of all believers.
Two days after the "You're a Christian, aren't you?" comment, one of my managers, a youngish Christian guy, heard me mention the Greek thinker Hypocrites and something Hypocrites asserted that many evangelicals today believe. He pushed his way into the position that he was bagging at my cash register and said, "Bill's talking philosophy again. I want to hear this." And, so we discussed, between customers, the nature of sin and human personality.
I am convinced that I stand out more as a follower of the Way--and I accomplish more as a priest and as a subject of God's kingdom--standing behind a cash register than I ever did standing behind a pulpit.
And, I never had this sort of a sense of living in the Lord's will when I was being paid to be a parish priest as a member of the Christian clergy.
I think I know now why Paul continued to make tents. What a blessed way to live!
Soli Deo Gloria!
I was running my cash register on the Ten Items or Less aisle early Saturday morning when, because the rush had not yet begun, I invited a woman with more than ten items to use my aisle.
I said, "Look, there's no one else around. It's not like you're going to be holding other people up."
And, of course, as soon as she started to unload her cart, another customer with three items came up behind her to await her turn.
I processed the violator of store rules and began processing the second customer's items. As I was scanning her items, she said it:
"You're a Christian, aren't you?" I was stunned and touched and confused.
"Yes. I am."
Then after saying, "Paper or plastic?" and "Your total is $4.73," I asked, "Why do you say that?"
[Her answer will throttle the many people who say, "I agree with what you say, bill, but I completely disagree with the way you say it.]
"Because you're so sweet."
I stammered, "I'm not really that sweet and if you see any of that in me at all, it's the Lord you're seeing. You are a Christian too, right?" I said that because this young lady oozes sweetness.
We then spent a brief moment discussing the difference loving and obeying Jesus makes in a person's life. The next customer approached. I said, "Well, have a blessed day," and smiled a smile I couldn't have suppressed if I'd tried.
Sweet? Me? She seemed sane. I promise you.
--------------------
I absolutely L-O-V-E my new ministry.
Even before I understood that being a pastor these days is nothing more than being a parish priest under a church's or a denomination's brand, I chafed at serving in the priestly role of a clergyman.
In Revelation 1, John says of all disciples that Jesus has made us to be "a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father."
Now that I've repented of the parish priest role, I absolutely love being a member of what the Protestants call the priesthood of all believers.
Two days after the "You're a Christian, aren't you?" comment, one of my managers, a youngish Christian guy, heard me mention the Greek thinker Hypocrites and something Hypocrites asserted that many evangelicals today believe. He pushed his way into the position that he was bagging at my cash register and said, "Bill's talking philosophy again. I want to hear this." And, so we discussed, between customers, the nature of sin and human personality.
I am convinced that I stand out more as a follower of the Way--and I accomplish more as a priest and as a subject of God's kingdom--standing behind a cash register than I ever did standing behind a pulpit.
And, I never had this sort of a sense of living in the Lord's will when I was being paid to be a parish priest as a member of the Christian clergy.
I think I know now why Paul continued to make tents. What a blessed way to live!
Soli Deo Gloria!
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Tony and Felicity Dale and George Barna on What Church is and ISN'T--What Humans' Role is and ISN'T
From The Rabbit and the Elephant,
I am convinced that they are correct.
The New Testament writers used the word ekklesia to refer to God's people coming together in His presence in various ways. The first describes a church that meets in someone's house (Romans 16:5; Colossians 4:15). The second refers to a church in a specific city, like the church in Jerusalem (Acts 15:4) or the church in Corinth (1 Corinthians 1:2). Finally, the word is used to describe what has become known as the "church universal," all believers everywhere throughout the ages (Ephesians 1:22-23).
As we thought about how we use the word church today, we realized that the meaning has changed. Most commonly, the term is used to describe a building or a congregation, such as First Baptist Church or New Life Fellowship. But these are not biblical uses of the word. In fact, when the word is used to describe a denomination like the Methodist Church or the Catholic Church, one could argue that this is actually antibiblical, since it has the effect of dividing the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 1:12-13). (p. 9)------------------------------------
...we are learning that it is Jesus' job to build the church. Our call is to make disciples (Matthew 16:18; 28:19). (p. 139)If they are correct, the sins and errors of the Western Church are profound and basic.
I am convinced that they are correct.
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
How Often Should a Follower of Jesus "Go to Church?"
The short, technical answer is: Never--at least among people who claim, as Western Evangelical Christians do, to hold the Bible to be the inspired Word of God and to teach how a believer in Jesus should live.
In the New Testament, the church is an assembly of people and the Church of God is an assembly of the people of God (who are followers of Jesus Christ). In the New Testament, the church is not a destination. It is not a thing that can be gone to.
As Jesus says, the church is present when even two or three are gathered in his name. (Mt. 18:17-20)
-------------------------------
The New Testament Greek word is egkataleipo.
That word appears 10 times in the New Testament. Half of those appearances are New Testament quotations of the Old Testament: Mt. 27:46, Mk. 15:34, Acts 2:27, Rom. 9:29, Heb. 13:5.
Of the others, egkataleipo appears in Peter's address to the crowd on Pentecost, in Paul's accounting of hardships he had encountered in his ministry in 2 Corinthians 4, twice when Paul is relating ill treatment by coworkers during his imprisonment (see 2 Tim. 4) and it appears in Hebrews 10.
Egkataleipo is the Greek word used to translate Jesus' quotation of Psalm 22:1 from the cross when He cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" It's the word Peter uses on Pentecost to quote David saying, "...you will not abandon my soul..." It is Paul's word to the Corinthians when he said, "We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed."
Egkataleipo means to abandon, to leave, to desert, to forsake, to neglect.
And, it is the verb used, in the negative, (i.e., preceded by the word "not") to define the frequency with which disciples should be attending what we are now calling--without New Testament authority--a "worship service."
------------------------------
The fact is that Jesus never commanded His disciples anything that even remotely resembles, "go to church." He never spoke of such a phenomenon as a "worship service." These concepts are foreign to Him, and to the lives of early followers of the Way.
While there are some references in the Book of Acts to the gathering together of believers, there isn't much mention of that activity among early believers. Acts 2 says that that they met every day in the temple courts and broke bread in their homes. Acts 20 contains the Book of Acts' only description of a gathering of disciples when "on the first day of the week...we gathered together to break bread." (This is the story where Paul drones on and on and the kid falls asleep and tumbles out the window.) But, in Acts, that's just about it for disciples "going to church" in any way.
Apart from the Gospels and Acts: In most of Paul's letters there is no discussion at all of the gathering together of saints. There is that important lengthy passage from 1 Cor. 11-14, where Paul discusses it in detail and chapter 5 in which he gives direction about what the Corinthians should do when they would gather to deal with an issue of immorality of one member of their gathering, when they would meet to, “Expel the wicked person from among you.”
Occasionally, Paul also mentions a church that meets at someone's house. But other than that? Nothing.
The letters of Peter and John are not concerned with what goes on when people gather as followers of Jesus. James 2:2-4 makes a passing reference but just that.
Considering the example and the teaching of the New Testament, what we today call "going to church" or attending a "worship service" was barely a blip on the radar among the important components of the lifestyle of early disciples of Jesus. It certainly was not central to the lifestyle of those followers of the Way.
Tragically, today, the community of Jesus-followers--especially in the West--are all about going to church and attending the worship service in a way that has no authority or precedent in the Word of God.
This is one of many instances in which the twenty-first century Western church defines righteousness in a way that is false and entirely disconnected from the teaching of the Lord of the church and the example of Jesus and his first disciples.
In fact, comparing the twenty-first century Western Christian community with the one presented in the New Testament, it seems very fair to say that today's community is guilty of a dangerous form of unrighteousness: The sin of ecclesiolatry--the veneration of church in place of the worship of God.
Today's Western Christians are unrighteously consumed with the church.
They think of obedience to the command of Jesus to go into the world making disciples as, essentially, a simple injunction to start new churches. Many denominations have been defining, as a key indicator of success on mission, the increase in the number of churches under their authority. Therefore, they plant churches and they adopt churches and they renew churches.
None of those activities are contained in the record of the early Christians in the New Testament.
Early Christians used several words the describe the manner is which they proclaimed the gospel. Their goal was never to start a new church or to expand the church. The goal always was to bring people to repentance and to belief in the good news that Jesus Christ "died for our sins according to the Scripture, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures and that He was seen by Peter (and others)."
Early Christians were focused on making disciples. Today's ecclesiolaters--worshippers of church, not the Lord of the church--are content to create churches.
-------------------------------
So, how often should followers of Jesus go to church? Attend a worship service?
Even using a definition of the gathering together consistent with the New Testament example, the Word's answer to the question is that they shouldn't neglect meeting together; they shouldn't abandon that activity or forsake it. That is the New Testament's strongest endorsement.
There are, according to the Word, aspects of being a disciple far more important than attending a gathering. These are the components of discipleship will be considered when people's lives are judged for eternity. According to Jesus and the apostles, the going, or not going, to church will not even be considered at that moment.
According to Jesus, living lives of justice and mercy and faithfulness (Mt. 23) and the care of individuals among the least of His brothers and sisters (Mt. 25) will be considered.
According to Paul, doing the good works that are the product of faith in Jesus (Eph. 2:8-10) is essential.
In fact, according to Heb. 10, the purpose of gathering seems to be that disciples would stir each other up to the love and good works that Jesus and Paul preached were the essence of the life of those who love Him.
The truth is that the 'How often' question is a question that is out of sync with what Jesus and early Christians taught and did. Dangerously, it is a vital question among today's Western Christians.
Better questions, from a New Testament perspective, are:
Is this a true statement?
Because of that, attending church is, today, an end unto itself.
This is why, today, church leaders find it important to count "worship attendance" and why our New Testament brothers and sisters never once counted the number of people who gathered together.
Among early Christians, gathering together with other believers was a means to the end of possessing a genuine faith that produced acts of righteousness. These days, attending church is, itself, an act of righteousness.
It is, unbiblically, a measure of a church's success.
In the New Testament, the church is an assembly of people and the Church of God is an assembly of the people of God (who are followers of Jesus Christ). In the New Testament, the church is not a destination. It is not a thing that can be gone to.
As Jesus says, the church is present when even two or three are gathered in his name. (Mt. 18:17-20)
-------------------------------
The New Testament Greek word is egkataleipo.
That word appears 10 times in the New Testament. Half of those appearances are New Testament quotations of the Old Testament: Mt. 27:46, Mk. 15:34, Acts 2:27, Rom. 9:29, Heb. 13:5.
Of the others, egkataleipo appears in Peter's address to the crowd on Pentecost, in Paul's accounting of hardships he had encountered in his ministry in 2 Corinthians 4, twice when Paul is relating ill treatment by coworkers during his imprisonment (see 2 Tim. 4) and it appears in Hebrews 10.
Egkataleipo is the Greek word used to translate Jesus' quotation of Psalm 22:1 from the cross when He cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" It's the word Peter uses on Pentecost to quote David saying, "...you will not abandon my soul..." It is Paul's word to the Corinthians when he said, "We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed."
Egkataleipo means to abandon, to leave, to desert, to forsake, to neglect.
And, it is the verb used, in the negative, (i.e., preceded by the word "not") to define the frequency with which disciples should be attending what we are now calling--without New Testament authority--a "worship service."
And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another. . .. (Heb. 10:24-25, ESV)The "not neglecting" part is the part with egkataleipo in it.
------------------------------
The fact is that Jesus never commanded His disciples anything that even remotely resembles, "go to church." He never spoke of such a phenomenon as a "worship service." These concepts are foreign to Him, and to the lives of early followers of the Way.
While there are some references in the Book of Acts to the gathering together of believers, there isn't much mention of that activity among early believers. Acts 2 says that that they met every day in the temple courts and broke bread in their homes. Acts 20 contains the Book of Acts' only description of a gathering of disciples when "on the first day of the week...we gathered together to break bread." (This is the story where Paul drones on and on and the kid falls asleep and tumbles out the window.) But, in Acts, that's just about it for disciples "going to church" in any way.
Apart from the Gospels and Acts: In most of Paul's letters there is no discussion at all of the gathering together of saints. There is that important lengthy passage from 1 Cor. 11-14, where Paul discusses it in detail and chapter 5 in which he gives direction about what the Corinthians should do when they would gather to deal with an issue of immorality of one member of their gathering, when they would meet to, “Expel the wicked person from among you.”
Occasionally, Paul also mentions a church that meets at someone's house. But other than that? Nothing.
The letters of Peter and John are not concerned with what goes on when people gather as followers of Jesus. James 2:2-4 makes a passing reference but just that.
Considering the example and the teaching of the New Testament, what we today call "going to church" or attending a "worship service" was barely a blip on the radar among the important components of the lifestyle of early disciples of Jesus. It certainly was not central to the lifestyle of those followers of the Way.
Tragically, today, the community of Jesus-followers--especially in the West--are all about going to church and attending the worship service in a way that has no authority or precedent in the Word of God.
This is one of many instances in which the twenty-first century Western church defines righteousness in a way that is false and entirely disconnected from the teaching of the Lord of the church and the example of Jesus and his first disciples.
In fact, comparing the twenty-first century Western Christian community with the one presented in the New Testament, it seems very fair to say that today's community is guilty of a dangerous form of unrighteousness: The sin of ecclesiolatry--the veneration of church in place of the worship of God.
Today's Western Christians are unrighteously consumed with the church.
They think of obedience to the command of Jesus to go into the world making disciples as, essentially, a simple injunction to start new churches. Many denominations have been defining, as a key indicator of success on mission, the increase in the number of churches under their authority. Therefore, they plant churches and they adopt churches and they renew churches.
None of those activities are contained in the record of the early Christians in the New Testament.
Early Christians used several words the describe the manner is which they proclaimed the gospel. Their goal was never to start a new church or to expand the church. The goal always was to bring people to repentance and to belief in the good news that Jesus Christ "died for our sins according to the Scripture, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures and that He was seen by Peter (and others)."
Early Christians were focused on making disciples. Today's ecclesiolaters--worshippers of church, not the Lord of the church--are content to create churches.
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So, how often should followers of Jesus go to church? Attend a worship service?
Even using a definition of the gathering together consistent with the New Testament example, the Word's answer to the question is that they shouldn't neglect meeting together; they shouldn't abandon that activity or forsake it. That is the New Testament's strongest endorsement.
There are, according to the Word, aspects of being a disciple far more important than attending a gathering. These are the components of discipleship will be considered when people's lives are judged for eternity. According to Jesus and the apostles, the going, or not going, to church will not even be considered at that moment.
According to Jesus, living lives of justice and mercy and faithfulness (Mt. 23) and the care of individuals among the least of His brothers and sisters (Mt. 25) will be considered.
According to Paul, doing the good works that are the product of faith in Jesus (Eph. 2:8-10) is essential.
In fact, according to Heb. 10, the purpose of gathering seems to be that disciples would stir each other up to the love and good works that Jesus and Paul preached were the essence of the life of those who love Him.
The truth is that the 'How often' question is a question that is out of sync with what Jesus and early Christians taught and did. Dangerously, it is a vital question among today's Western Christians.
Better questions, from a New Testament perspective, are:
- Why gather together with other disciples at all, and,
- What is the goal of the gathering together of disciples?
Is this a true statement?
Today, attending church is the central act of righteousness for someone who has "accepted" Christ.In my opinion, it is true.
Because of that, attending church is, today, an end unto itself.
This is why, today, church leaders find it important to count "worship attendance" and why our New Testament brothers and sisters never once counted the number of people who gathered together.
Among early Christians, gathering together with other believers was a means to the end of possessing a genuine faith that produced acts of righteousness. These days, attending church is, itself, an act of righteousness.
It is, unbiblically, a measure of a church's success.
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