SO, YOU WANT TO DO EKKLESIA?

With the decline of Christianity's impact in the West--yet with its proliferation elsewhere on the globe--there has been within the past several decades a growing number of Evangelical activists and ecclesiologists who have sought to discover a more vibrant, authentic, participatory, even "organic" expression of the ECCLESIA. The house church movement appears to have been introduced prior to the turn of the Twenty-First Century through proponents who attempted to replicate within the modern context a more primitive form of gathering believers in Jesus. Many of these same proponents now look askance at this movement which on many levels seems to have rehearsed the same propensity to divide over doctrines, methods, individuals as much, or more so, as their traditional denominational models. Consequently, the growing number of "nones" and "dones" within Western Christendom--at least in America--is now, according to Barna, approaching upwards of 40 million or more. These are now wholly unaffiliated believers in Jesus Christ who defer to identify with any label other than Christian and who make it their practice to gather, when they do, outside the "norms of Christianity's churches" (viz., buildings).Notwithstanding, these intractable setbacks--with some having crossed into liturgical professions of faith to secure, all the more, ancient traditions announced by Early Church Fathers--there persists this longing within the hearts of millions a more original "Upper Room" expression akin to both the gospel, and those found in the book of Acts, Romans and Corinthians. In other words, ancient traditions do not suffice these believers--they want the "real thing." The prayer of our Savior in John 17--submitted before the disciples in the Upper Room on Passover Preparation Day--the very night in which our Lord was betrayed--they they all may be perfected into one--is NOT a "spiritual exercise in futility" whereby today's ecumenical councils have attempted to organize such a polity. No, these New Covenant devotees are convinced that the "middle wall of separation between Jew and Gentile" was once and for all shattered by the "blood of the cross--so making peace" among God's people. It's outworking is based on this alone and infused by the Life, Truth and Glory given to His disciples by His high priestly prayer in John 17--it cannot be hijacked by ecumenism--His prayer demands an earthly expression not something committed to the sweet by-and-by. Thus, this text, after years of seeking to discover the early merits of meeting and greeting and of gathering with His people wherein "all the EKKLESIA of the Nations" can and should "greet the EKKLESIA that is their house" (viz., the house of Priscilla and Aquila--Rom. 16:3-5), attempts to enter that household with other brethren to enjoy the earlier joys of Body Life. This tome doesn't make any claim of having arrived at this household in fullness--but, at least, we have entered the door and have commenced to make ourselves at home at the invitation of more and more Priscillas and Acquils who have committed themselves to host such expressions of His One Body. Some believers in the Nazarene have been forced to gather in this manner through persecution--others have voluntarily determined that Scripture and the injunction of the Holy Spirit enjoins them to assemble in this manner where the hallmark of gathering demands diversity of gifts/talents wholly dependent upon the Spirit's guidance and not man's manipulation. A place where the riches of Christ are mutually shared. I only ask that you give this reading a fair hearing--it's unusual in that it is both theological in nature but determined to communicate through American humor--after all, and quite frankly, some of our discrepancies in "Church Life" are over the top. So, I hope you really want to do EKKLESIA. Let the discovery of "I will build My Ekklesia" begin in us all as members one of another! Lord--answer Jo. 17!