Business meeting - Having grown up in church I've attended countless business meetings. I would have a hard time recalling any issue discussed at most of them. Most are forgotten moments in time. The one I have the most vivid memory of happened about 25 years ago. There was a debate between the pastor and some of the deacons about whether the church could afford to buy new carpet and pews with cushions. The deacons insisted that upgrades were not budgeted and the money needed was not available. As the debate intensified, and the pastor continued to make the point that the state of the pews and carpet just wouldn't do I raised my hand to ask how this carpet and these pews impeded the preaching of the gospel. My 7 or 8 year old hand was never acknowledged. Looking back, it was when I learned that "church business" may not always be God's business.
Excommunication - No single event shaped my spiritual life more than being told my family and I were no longer welcomed at the only church I had ever considered home. After the pastor from the business meeting retired, the church hired a new pastor; an underling of a very famous and influential pastor who had roots in my hometown. Being that I was only about 10 years old, I can't speak to the due diligence the church did or did not do. I can't honestly speak to the issues that led to our dismissal, as well as the dismissal of several other families. I have vague recollections of my last times in the church, but again nothing I could speak to with any certainty. What I remember most was the fallout. I remember church folks that my dad had shuttled to and fro in an act of service now seeing him on the street and ignoring him completely. I remember my mother pleading with her old Sunday School teacher, "Show me from the scriptures where we are wrong". I remember most of all the hangdog look on his face as he had no answer for her. Eventually, the older pastor came out of retirement and started a new church. Once that happened, many of the individuals that had stayed at the church left and joined his new church. Oddly enough, that new church eventually merged with the church the excommunicated families settled in and I subsequently learned lessons on bitterness and forgiveness. Through excommunication I learned that sometimes people are more devoted to their church building, church customs and church leaders than they are to God.
Plurality of Elders - Most of the excommunicated families ended up as members of the same church. One of the main differences between my new church and my old church was that there was no pastor. Instead there was a plurality of elders. For the first time I was seeing a church run by a committee of volunteers. I say volunteers because each elder either worked a full time job or had retired from a full time job. The church paid the elders stipends for their service, but the church had no employees. With the influx of new people, and the "odd" church structure one of the elders began to preach a series on elders. In his series I learned the qualifications of an elder, the expectations and duty of elders and the functionality of a plurality of elders. The one thing that hit me the hardest was when he preached from Matthew 23:8-12. None of the elders at our new church were addressed as Elder or Pastor or any other title that would imply their authority. All of them were simply called Brother; the same as any other man in the congregation. I had never known these scriptures were in the bible. Till this point in life my bible study had consisted of Sunday School stories, Wednesday night topics and Sunday morning sermons. This was the first of many times that God showed me the value of studying His word; in this case it was simply because His word is more expansive than the excerpts preached from the pulpit.
College - When I left home for college I didn't really have a plan for my spiritual walk. Everyone talked about finding and joining a church. The implied message is that by walking into a church every Sunday, your Christian walk will be what it needs to be. I spent a few college Sundays in church, but I was not getting the substance I had become accustomed to. I never felt led to join a church, but I did not want to leave home and become prodigal. I decided that I would start each day with time in God's word and trust Him to direct my steps. In four years there were about 5 days where I did not spend time in God's word. I grew in the scriptures, and talked with him daily. The days I did not spend in his word pained me. I knew on those days that something was missing. I am ashamed that since college I have not consistently made the same efforts. In those four years however I learned the value of a personal relationship with God juxtaposed to relating to God through church.
My attempt to find what was missing began with me attempting to strip away all the layers of church. In my walk I wanted to remove the pastors, the pulpits, the sermons, the music, the offerings, the customs and everything else related to church. I wanted to go through the exercise of stripping away all that church has in order to see what it was missing; or at least what I perceived it to be missing in my life. For a while I thought it was study, maybe fellowship, maybe guidance, or maybe it was all in my head. Eventually, I got to Acts chapter 2.
Acts chapter 2 is the beginning of what we would consider Christianity. The Messiah had come, he had died, he had conquered death, rose again, and he was back in heaven. He left behind a group of dedicated followers who heard his message of repentance and forgiveness; a group of followers who were not led by the law, the prophesies of Jesus' first coming or the flesh and blood Jesus himself. These followers would be led by the Holy Spirit and driven by the promise of Jesus' return.
Acts 2 begins with the day of Pentecost; a show of God's power and his desire for us all to know the truth. God's display on the day of Pentecost was so magnificent that many of Christians and certain denominations have tried tirelessly to duplicate it since. There was speaking in tongues, tongues of fire, the truth spoken in every language, and countless souls saved. But before the Holy Spirit cam upon them there were a group of people described in the NIV version of Acts 2:1 as together in one place.
Seems a little redundant; together in one place. When you go to the KJV though you see that these men were not simply gathered in the same room, but they were described as being of one accord in one place. Simply put, these men were not just meeting in one location. There was a unity that existed BEFORE the Holy Spirit was poured out on them. For emphasis I will repeat that statement. THERE WAS A UNITY THAT EXISTED BEFORE THE HOLY SPIRIT WAS POURED OUT ON THEM.
The part of church that was weighing heavily on me; the part that was missing was this Greek compound word homothumadon or the state of being of one accord. What was weighing heavy on me was dissention in God's body. What bothered me more was the fact that I often felt like others did not realize the lack of an ability to be on one accord. We as Christians have learned to be content with simply being in the same place. We will disagree, as people always do, but I believe we have grown far too comfortable with dissention; dissention between members, dissention between denominations, dissention drawn on political affiliations. When we miss church, it's not the accord we miss, but the location, or the customs, or any other facet associated with the place we gather. I don't even think we look for homothumadon any longer, and we suffer because of it.
People often quote misquote Jesus saying, "Where two or three are gathered there I am in the midst." Jesus never said that. What Jesus said in Matthew 18:20 is that "Where two or three are gathered IN MY NAME there I am also". There is the source of our unity, there is our one accord, there is our homothumadon. It's more than gathering around in the same place and hearing the same words and singing the same songs and leaving at the same time.
Missing church doesn't make me better than anyone. I haven't found homothumadon outside of church. I'm not writing a blog on something I've found I'm writing a blog on something I desire. My hope is that if you read this blog you will desire the same thing and we will find our accord; we will mend our relationships and be able to further Jesus' message of repentance and forgiveness as we were called to do. Not simply by being in the same place at the same time, but by being of one accord. The last time the Greek word homothumadon appears in the bible is Romans 15 in a message fashioned in what we as a church should be all about.
Romans 15: 1-13
We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. 2 Each of us should please our neighbors for their good, to build them up. 3 For even Christ did not please himself but, as it is written: “The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.”[a] 4 For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.
5 May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, 6 so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
7 Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. 8 For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the Jews[b] on behalf of God’s truth, so that the promises made to the patriarchs might be confirmed 9 and, moreover, that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written:
10 Again, it says,
“Rejoice, you Gentiles, with his people.”[d]
11 And again,
12 And again, Isaiah says,
“The Root of Jesse will spring up,
one who will arise to rule over the nations;
in him the Gentiles will hope.”[f]
one who will arise to rule over the nations;
in him the Gentiles will hope.”[f]
13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
