Honey, I Shrunk the Church

We have left the Institutionalized church.

Now what?

We can honestly say that we are in a discovery mode. Discovering what, you might ask? Discovering what the life of the New Testament church consisted of. How did she operate? How were her meetings conducted? In fact, were the meetings even a central part of the life of the church? How did she spread the gospel to “every creature”?

Admittedly, we have so much to learn. Yet, with God’s help and guidance, we are beginning to put the pieces together and it is making sense! The picture is unfolding, even before our eyes.

Rather than a “give me” church, we’re finding that the New Testament church was a giving church. For instance, in the past, with regard to meeting together in a local assembly, we often heard expressions like "I came to church to get my soul fed" or  “I’m not being fed here.” Is that right? Well, why not simply pick up the spoon and eat? There's plenty of food to eat for those who are really hungry. "O taste and see that the LORD is good." Without trying to sound harsh and insensitive, but as mama used to say "Your a big boy now, do it yourself."

It is one thing for a new convert to rely heavily on others for instruction and direction, however, it is quite another thing for a seasoned Christian who has been "in the way" for years to yet desire to be spoon fed by a preacher. Something is clearly wrong with this picture. If we were to see a group of grown adults sitting around the dining room table waiting for someone else to come along and spoon fed them all, we would clearly know that there was a serious problem on our hands! Yet, many institutionalized church members, rather than getting in the Book for themselves, digging around for those golden nuggets and finding that daily fresh manna, and then taking the word of God out to feed others, they are sitting at the table week after week (weak after weak) with mouths wide open like baby birds cooped up in a nest crying “feed me, feed me!”. What a pitiful picture of a church described in the scriptures as being a mighty victorious army, triumphant, overcoming, militant, prevailing against the gates of hell, etc…

Like a mighty army moves the Church of God; Brothers, we are treading where the saints have trod…… NOT!  We're not acting like an army and we're not treading where the former saints have trod either. Let's either stop singing this song or start living it out! If we have been "in the way", it's time to get "out of the way." We can’t be fighting a war while collectively feasting at a table. In some cases, we haven’t even learned how to crawl, let alone fight a war!

Come-outers we are. This we do not deny.

While we are searching for the answers, let us guard against getting caught up in some of the old "stuff": consumerism, what's-in-it-for-me, "this isn't meeting my needs so who can I blame,"  me, me, me, me…etc, ... Me, Myself & I.

“Honey, I shrunk the church.”

No, we’re not looking for a shrunk-down version of what we came away from. We are desiring to be an expansion of that conquering church that we read about in the New Testament.

And...we're are not going to settle for anything less!