THE EKKLESIA IS A HOUSEHOLD OF GOD
EKKLESIA IS 24 HOURS X 7 DAYS “ONE-ANOTHER” RELATIONSHIPS
We are the Body of Messiah, joined to each other by sinews and ligaments to grow and multiply (Col. 2:19). We do not go to Ekklesia, as we are the Ekklesia, the temple of the living God, wherever we happen to be. The house Ekklesia is not a series of meetings on a particular day, at a certain time, led by a special leader. It is a Household of God, consisting of twenty-four-hours-a-day, seven days-a-week relationships.
Praying, searching the scriptures, eating, encouraging, admonishing, exhorting, prophesying, speaking to each other in spiritual songs, and comforting one another, all lovingly carried out. Here we share our life and material blessings with each other. There are no sermons or systematic theology, nor celebrity preachers. This is a place where we can practice the “One Another” commands of Scripture (references given below), building each other up.
This is where the rubber meets the road. The bedrock of this Ekklesia is love as our Lord taught and practiced it. Since we are very much in the world but not of the world, the world sees us and knows that we are different. We are here to change the world, starting with ourselves and our neighborhood (Acts 2:42-47, 4:3235; 1 Cor. 14:26-32; John 13:34-35, 17:15-16; 1 Thess. 3:12, 4:18, 5:11, 13, 15; Rom. 12:10; 14:13, 19, 15:7, 14; Gal. 5:13, 6:2; Eph. 4:32; 5:21; Phil 4:2; Col. 3:13, 16; James 5:16, Heb. 3:13, 10:24; 1 Pet. 4:9, 5:5, 1 John 1:7, 3:15, 23, 4:20, 21).
THE EKKLESIA IS A FISHY BUSINESS
Take off its icing and you will find that the modern church is a commercial, retail outlet, where dream merchants openly attract customers by offering freebies, organizing weekly bazaars and inviting chartbusters to rock and roll. Whereas the highly fruitful NT Ekklesia met secretly in small groups. They used the secret sign ΙΧΘΥΣ (IXTHUS), which in Greek means “fish.” This Greek acronym summarized the basics of their faith: I = ΙΗΣΟΥΣ (IESOUS) or Yeshuakh, Hebrew for “the Lord saves” (Matt. 1:20-21); X = ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ (CHRISTOS) or Mashiakh, Hebrew for “Anointed One” (Matt. 16:13-20); Θ = ΘΕΟΣ (THEOS) or Elohîm, Hebrew for “God” (John 1:1-4); Υ = ΥΙΟΣ (HUIOS) or Ben, Hebrew for Son (John 1:32-34); Σ = ΣΩΤΗΡ (SOTER) or Môshîakh, Hebrew for “Savior” (Rom. 10:9-10).
HOUSE EKKLESIAS ARE BAD NEWS RELIGIOUS BUSINESS
House Ekklesias are bad news for nations because they operate by laws of a higher kingdom. There was dynamic growth in the NT times, leading to great opposition from both Jews and Gentiles. The religions were rightly worried that their power would vanish, causing financial loss to their clerics (Acts 19:23-32). So, naturally, they persecuted Christians who spent much time crying out to the Lord. When modern churches hear about the mushrooming house Ekklesia movement in distant China, they rejoice; but when it sprouts in their own backyard, it is threatening, hence the opposition.
CHINA OPTS FOR THE NT MODEL
In the year 1900, bare-chested fanatics calling themselves Boxers slaughtered 188 foreign missionaries and 32,000 local Christians in Shanxi and other northern provinces of China. In 1947, the Communists expelled foreign missionaries, making religion a crime. Church buildings were confiscated, and pastors were put into prisons. By 1958, Mao’s wife, Jiang Qing, told foreign visitors, “Christianity in China has been confined to the history section of the museum. It is dead and buried.” By 1970, visitors could find no Christians in China, for the church had gone underground and was praying.
After 70 years, the Ekklesia is not only surviving but thriving. The seed blood of the martyrs had blossomed into thousands of secret house Ekklesias, whilst the number of believers shot up from 1 million in 1947 to a staggering 70/100 million believers. Christians now outnumber Communist party members. Despite persecution, about 20,000 new believers are coming to Messiah every day. They are planning to send out 100,000 missionaries along the ancient Silk Road, all the way to Jerusalem. In 2020, the Chinese Communist Party is again shuttering house Ekklesias and arresting all religious practitioners, bringing the wrath of God upon itself. Stay tuned.
The runaway success of the Chinese Ekklesia, now the largest Ekklesia in the world, is due to its structureless model without buildings, traditions, or professional clergy, thus allowing the Holy Spirit to function without obstacles. It may be safely said that in God’s economy, if the traditional church in China had not been destroyed, the church itself would have killed the house Ekklesia movement. A diminishing role of the institutional church is a requisite for rapid Kingdom expansion.
DYSFUNCTIONAL STRUCTURES
Once the church had lost its mandate to disciple the nations, it lost its bearings, went into a tailspin, and crash-landed on showbiz and gimmickry. It designed obscenely ornate buildings to attract customers, adopting showmanship from the imperial Roman courts, and rituals from Greek heathen temples. It parked spectators in pews, and plopped performers on stage. It erected lofty steeples to reach up to God when God had already made believers His tabernacle.
It destroyed the daily walk with God and fellowship with the saints, offering weekly Hollywood-type entertainment, calling it worship.
This destroyed caring, sharing, organic body life, organized as a registered, corporate business. She may still holler, “Hallelujah!” and “Praise the Lord!” during the show time but refuses to play the game during weekdays. The church does not need steeples to reach out to God; it needs only to transform itself into lightning conductors to bring down the Holy Spirit into peoples’ homes and hearts.
SMALL, SECRET EKKLESIAS ARE THE ONLY OPTION
For obvious reasons, believers in many Muslim countries prefer to remain invisible. This not only averts danger but helps them quietly to make disciples of others. There are thousands of Filipina Christian girls who go abroad and work as housemaids. Many are being trained to be like the Israelite girl who advised Naaman, a commander of Syrian army, to go get healed of leprosy in Israel (2 Kings 5). Thus, disciples are being made and secret Jamaats (gatherings) are being established where the Good News cannot be preached openly (Rom. 15:19-21).
GEMS:
- In multi-religious India, while the “soft” churches are loudly singing melodious songs and listening to weekly pep talks, it is the first-generation believers who are quietly changing the spiritual profile of the nation by being His witnesses in tens of thousands of villages and shanty towns of the cities. Soon, if not already, India will be the largest Christian nation in the world. Previous national Census show only 25 million Christians – mostly urban. It is well known that the government census figures are not reliable. The figure shows only a fraction of the real number as the number of believers in the rural areas and the city slums has grown exponentially in the last couple of decades. Spiking serious persecutions in the villages, almost daily, is the most reliable indicator.
- It is not just changing rhetoric but changing practices that change things.
- It is not enough to change horses midstream but changing destination that is important.
- It is shifting focus from the saved to the unsaved that accomplishes God’s agenda. (Luke 5:31,32)
- Movement takes place when you keep shifting to the next level, from static to addition to multiplication to movement.
- Salvation is progressive. It must shift focus from salvation of the self to that of oikos (extended family) to that of the community (Acts 2:37-39), to that of the city (Jer. 29:7), and finally the nations (Ps. 2:8).
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