THE BIG PICTURE

This morning, I saw it more clearly than I ever have before. It’s like the puzzle started to come together for me. The big picture of church, you, me, ministry, God, purpose, end times, Jerusalem, Price Hill, it all began to come clear. Let me explain.

We are starting a new house church with the Wigles. So if you were starting a new church (or wanting to see God start a revival in an already-existing church), what would you do? For many years, I have thought the best thing would be to study the book of Acts. I love that book, because the history of the beginning church is so powerful and such an example. I long to teach that book. But that is not the place to start. If I build on that foundation, then I build a church based on polity and actions. There is a far better foundation.

Also, in starting a church, how should the group be structured? No leadership? Appoint a small group pastor from the beginning? Team ministry? Church planter? I have tried to use a team approach and yet be the facilitator, and that is healthy, but it is not the best way to plant a church. There is a far better way.

Here is what is clearer to me: a church planter (better yet, a team of two) come and determine to know nothing except Christ, and him crucified. Tell the story of Jesus. Tell of the life of Jesus. Focus on the death, and especially the resurrection of Jesus. Tell of what he is doing today, in my life and the lives of those around me. Let Jesus do miraculous things to confirm my words. Worship and glorify Jesus. It is all about the glory of Christ.

Why leader-centered ministry? Because that leader is the one who knows the story, who has the experience, and who models the life. A church planter must have these credentials: years of experience of life in a house church, a first-hand knowledge of The Story and of the workings of God, a maturity and unquestioned reputation with those who are outside of Christ and those in the church.

So a house church is planted by leader-centered work. He is there all the time, leading, teaching, guiding, training, praying, warning, and discipling. But then, catch this: He must leave. And when he leaves, he very likely does NOT put someone else “in charge,” as the house church pastor. No, he simply leaves and lets the church FUNCTION. When the church functions, some will come to more of a leadership position, but it is not for the church planter to set up a church with ANY structure of power and authority. No, ALL members have equal authority in the ecclesia.

And what is that all-important message that the church planter must tell? In brief, it begins before the beginning, and it is a Love Story. When there was just God, who had complete fellowship with himself. Yet he wanted, or at least chose, something more, something beautiful, something so precious that we cannot imagine its attraction to God. He wanted a bride. And so he created all there is, and put in the center a man, and took from the man a woman, and joined them together, so that they would fill the earth and be a picture of what he had in mind. Then he went through many steps along the way to show what kind of relationship he was looking for, ways to be in fellowship with one another and with God. At last, after speaking in various ways, God spoke through his own Self in the form of a human. And that Son, born as a baby, lived as one of us to show us his glory, to teach us his ways, and at last, to die in our place. He lost it all, with the hope of gaining the one thing he wanted most. And then he rose again, and completed the covenant. Now we can become a people who belong to God. And at the end of our lives, and at the end of time, the marriage feast will begin, and we will see the Big Picture like we were never able to see it in the midst of our earthly distractions.

That’s the story for the church planter to tell. And then, when persecution drives him away, or when the Lord calls him to the next project, he leaves. And the church, the earthly bride of Christ, begins to function and to become the heavenly bride of the Lamb.