Interesting Day

I have spent the majority of my day studying scripture. Most of my ponderings have centered around the difference between laity and the church leaders in the modern church. Is this a Biblical standard or one that has been created by man?

I purge my own thoughts and again ask God to infuse me with His thoughts as I read His Word. Today I have read the first ten chapters of Acts and the book of James. I notice first that there is a clear dichotomy between the apostles and the believers in the first chapter of Acts. The Word tells us that Peter states that one of the people who have been a witness to Christ must also join the eleven remaining apostles as prophesied in Psalm 69 and 109.

The dichotomy is made even more clear when there is an issue with fair treatment of the Hellenistic Jewish widows and orphans. Peter basically says that the twelve should not be distracted from their ministry of the Word of God in order to wait on tables. Is this a gifting issue or should there be a clear distinction between the different parts of the body of Christ? I don't have answers for this today. What I feel i must do now is understand why Christ called the twelve to be his apostles in the first place, this may give me some understanding of distinctions between believers.

However, I find it interesting that I received a text from my wife today (she is on a plane on the way back from a Kay Arthur/Beth Moore conference in Orlando) that said, "If you have time today check out Dallas Theological Seminary." I have considered seminary before in the past and this one has always been at the top of my list. However, my overall concern with church structure and dissatisfaction with the church experience as a whole has left me questioning where God is leading us. A system that costs $50K to receive a four year degree seems to burden those wishing to serve God with a high cost and likely debt in order to do so.

I am still questioning and waiting for God to provide answers in His time.

Pandora's Box

Imagine living your entire life on a desert island with only food and a Bible. Then one day you are rescued and brought back to civilization. Would you recognize the church as described in the Bible as the same church that most of us attend? My wife and I have recently been trying to read the Bible as though we had never been to Sunday school, heard a sermon, or received teaching of any kind as it relates to God's Word. The problem is, we no longer recognize the church.

As we have come to this realization we also recognize that this is not a new feeling for us. There has always been a feeling that there is something that is not quite right. For the longest time it was the lack of authentic community experienced by so many within the church. How is it that people attend church and yet feel so very alone. We felt so alone at one church that we decided that we had to find somewhere else. When we called to tell the church that we would no longer be serving in the ministries of the church, they sent one of the elders over to see us. When he arrived at the door he told us that he had seen us working around the church for quite some time but never connected our name to who we were.

There were issues of doctrinal purity at another church. When people within leadership at the church are holding conferences at a local university telling the world that Jesus is not the only way to God, that holds some real trouble for the Christian church. However we keep trying because we have to go to church, right? Then we start reading the Bible as though we had not been taught what it said. We attempted to discard the traditions with which we had been raised and asked Jesus to impart wisdom upon us.

The first thing he told us is that you cannot go to something that you are. You see, the word church in Greek is the word ekklesia which means simply body of Christ. How can you go to the body of Christ. If you have accepted Jesus as your savior, you are part of the ekklesia. The ekklesia would gather together. The church would gather together and at points the church would experience fear. The one thing that never seemed to happen in the entire Bible was the church being built so that we could assemble there.

To me this feels much like Pandora's box has been opened. My eyes have been opened ever so slightly and I am not sure that I can go back. My whole life I have felt that church is somewhere you go not something to which you are a part of from the moment you accept Christ.