What if the 5-fold ministry were not just lived out by them the Christian professionals, but also lived out by us the normals?
What if church depended more on our own initiative and less on a pastors.
What could that even look like?
Probably allot like the thousands that are already doing it around the world…
Small indigenous house churches are popping up across the globe from East to West. There is a movement of Acts style churches, many never having the option of a trained pastor or building, just like New Testament days.
How do they start?
It's important to 1st remember that there is no 'one' way to create church. Church has little to do with appearance and a lot to do with what it produces.
Jesus never taught a model of church.
What he did show us though was what the product of church should be. All of Jesus' teachings could fit into 3 distinct categories: Love God, love each other, and love the lost.
That being said, it would be safe to say that the best form of church is any form that cultivates community that is committed to actively helping each other live out these 3 LOVES.
The goal therefore when looking to start a church is to bring all three of these loves Jesus taught into a community so that everyone is actively living them out.
What does that look like?
It looks like WHATEVER it takes for a community to have all three of these. In other words, it's possible for it to take on many different shapes and forms as long as the product is the same.
Lets look at one way though that many of these churches popping up around the world are doing it. It is a bear-bones model that is meant to be shaped by the culture and community using it. It thus can help any community begin to inject all three of these loves…
The only requirement this model requires is 2 or more people willing to commit to one another. Once you have this, you are all set. There are then a series of questions you can walk through together that really help cultivate these 3 loves into any community easily. They are as follows:
1st, Go around and have each person share something they are most grateful to God for that day?
2nd, Now go around and have each person share what their greatest need is that particular day?
4th, Discuss amongst yourselves if there are anyways any of you can help with these needs outside of prayer?
5th, Pray and ask God to help with these needs.
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5…Now, Have one person read a story or a small passage from the Bible
6…Put down your Bibles and everyone repeat in your own way what you just heard?
7…Now go around the circle and ask what this teaches us about who God is? What is he like?
8…Take time to quietly sit and think of one way you can obey or change your life in the next 48 hours from reading this? Commit to this with the group.
9…Last but not least, everyone go around and share one person you will talk to this week about God?
And there you have it. By the time you have done this together you have not only cultivated a safe environment for vulnerability and accountability, both key to true community, but you have also tasted all three loves. Whether this model or a different one, as long as it helps hold the 3 loves, you are creating church.