The Ekklesia

      The Greek word for church is ekklesia, and it literally means ‘assembly’. This meshes with the dominant thought in Paul’s letters that the church is Christ in corporate expression (I Cor. 12:1-27; Eph. 1:22-23; 4:1-16). Surprisingly the Bible never defines the church. Instead it presents it through a number of different metaphors.

     One of the reasons why the New Testament gives us numerous metaphors to depict the church is because the church is too comprehensive and rich to be captured by a single definition or metaphor. Unfortunately, our tendency is to latch on to one particular metaphor and understand the ekklesia through it alone.

     By latching on to just one metaphor—whether it be the body, the army, the temple, the bride, the vineyard or the city—we lose the message that other metaphors convey. The result is that our view of the church will become limited at best or lopsided at worst. Although the New Testament writers depict the church with a variety of different images, their favorite image is that of the family. Familiar terms like ‘new birth,’ ‘children of God,’ ‘sons of God,’ ‘brethren,’ ‘fathers,’ ‘brothers,’ ’sisters,’ and ’household’ saturate the New Testament writing.

     For this reason Paul would say: ‘Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers’ ( Gal. 6:10; Rom. 8:29; Eph. 2:19; I Tim. 5:12; 3:15). To this Peter urged: ‘Like newborn babies crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation’ (I Pet. 2:2). John added to this by saying: ‘I write to you dear children because your sins have been forgiven on account of His name. I write to you fathers, because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I write to you young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you dear children, because you have known the Father’ (I John 2:12-13). These writings of Paul, Peter, and John in particular are punctuated with the language and imagery of family.

     These images simply teach us that the church is a living organism rather that an institution. The church we read about in the New Testament was ‘organic’. By that it means it was born from and sustained by spiritual life instead of constructed by human institutions, controlled by human hierarchy, shaped by lifeless rituals and held together by religious programs. An organic church is one that is naturally produced when a group of people have encountered Jesus Christ in reality (external ecclesiastical programs being unnecessary). It is not a theater with scripts; it is a gathered community that lives by divine life. It does not operate on the same organizational principles that run the business corporate world.

     Besides, in all of Paul’s letters to the churches he speaks to the ‘brethren’—a term that includes both brothers and sisters in Christ. He uses this familial term more than 130 times in his epistles; so without question the New Testament is filled with the language and images of family. When we stop giving glib assent to the idea that the church is a family and start fleshing out its sober implications, the following characteristics would emerge.

     The church as family would take care of their own. Its members would take care of one another, as a true family takes care of its own. A dysfunctional family does not. Members of a dysfunctional family are selfish, individualistic, and profoundly independent. This family is characterized by detachment, and non-connectedness. Nor do they seem to care much for each other (James 2:14-17. Real faith expresses itself in acts of love toward our brothers and sisters in Christ (Eph. 4:28; Rom. 12:5, 13; 2 Cor. 8:12-15; Gal: 6:2; John 15:12-13).

     The church, as family, takes time to know one another outside of scheduled meetings. Hence, the Scripture says: ‘They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread in their homes and all together with glad and sincere hearts (Acts 2: 42, 46). This is a functioning family model.

      On the other hand when the church family is in a dysfunctional state, members barely know each other and; consequently, are unable to show affection to each other. In a functioning church, members show sincere affection one to another. It is in such atmosphere that growth in the membership is experienced. As a family it will grow. Biologically, growth is natural happening in the family.

      A church grows in two ways. One way is through hiving (division) and multiplication. That is, if a church grows too large, it may divide and multiply into two fellowships. Our bodies grow the same way: cells divide and then multiply. Another way is by addition. That is by giving birth to spiritual children. This is the principle of reproduction. If the Lord is at work in a church, it will grow. God gives the increase. It may not be immediate; it may take time, but if the church is alive and healthy, it will grow—both internally (spiritually) and externally (numerically). Churches that live as families grow indeed. Some call this body life.

      As a collective and corporate expression, the members share responsibility. In the household of God there are spiritual fathers and mothers. These are the older men and women in the faith with maturity and experience. Their role and responsibility before God is to give guidance and provide mentoring to the younger brothers and sisters in the faith.

      This does not mean holding an office or title in the church such as elder, or pastor. These mature ones are aware of their spiritual gifts and are exercising them as believer/priests in the church. In a functioning church family they also contribute their wisdom to the church. They are not obstructed by those who consider themselves as oversight, leaders who are therefore, threatened by it. These ministry activities are organic, and they operate by spiritual life (I John 2:13-14). Every member functions in the church meetings.

     Members also function outside in the community life. The spiritual fathers and mothers are very active in mentoring the young and provide wisdom during crises. The mothers teach the young women how to be wise and how to function as wives and mothers (Titus 2:3-4).

      The men bring excitement and strength to the church, but they need the stability of the older ones to temper them. The spiritual children inject newfound zeal into the believing community, but they need maturing. They need the older ones to feed them, check up on them, change their diapers, and teach them how to walk with the Lord. This is what it takes to mentor others. It is not about setting up a formal classroom instruction format. Neither is it about playing pastorship in the name of eldership or commended workers.

     The Godhead lives in everlasting reciprocity with its members. For this reason, the church is called to be a reciprocal community above everything else, or in other words, a family. It is functioning as a family that the church reflects the triune God in their relationship. Within the triune God one discovers mutual love, mutual fellowship, mutual dependence, mutual honor, mutual submission and mutual dwellings

      In the Godhead there exists, therefore, an eternal complimentary, and reciprocal interchange of divine love, and divine fellowship. When the church reflects the personhood of the Godhead, we experience interdependence, wholeness instead of fragmentation, participation, connectedness, solidarity instead of individualism, spontaneity, relationship instead of program, servitude instead of dominance, enrichment, and freedom instead of bondage, community and bonding instead of detachment.

      This church is true to the nature of God and functions fully to the intent of the New Testament, a living ekklesia. Here titles such as elders, deacons, officers are not about power and dominance but servitude under the people with the sole intent to lift them up and build them to their full potential. This gathering of believers has one pursuit, one obsession, one goal and one grand purpose: to know and love the Lord Jesus Christ. The healthy church is nonsectarian, nonelitist and nonexclusive. It meets on the ground of Christ. It is a church in living color-ekklesia.

     In the words of Stanley Grenz: ‘Only in our spirit-produced corporatness do we truly reflect to all creation the grand dynamic that lies at the heart of the triune God. Our fellowship is nothing more than our communion between the Father and the Son mediated by the Holy Spirit.’ The ekklesia is the family of God.
T. Cyprian Kia

Spiritual Gifts are Divine Investments in You: Be Accountable

     There are many things wrong with the church today just as there have been many things wrong with it throughout the centuries since Jesus came to establish it.  In some places the churches are not true to the teaching of the Scriptures. They have imposed their own views of God’s program, will, and nature on the Bible. They pick and choose the part they want to believe and cast aside the others.

In other places, the churches have lost their vision for mission and evangelism.  All their energies are expended in caring for their own members.  Their horizon reaches only to the back pews of their own buildings. They behave as though Jesus had died only for them, or as though men and women are going to heaven regard less of what they believe.

The others things visibly hurting the church are divisions that stem from racial bigotry, heresies that grow out of Biblical ignorance, personality cults that celebrate human achievement, compromise with pagan valves in sexual and marital matters. All these give the church a clinical rating that ranks with some of the sickest persons in an intensive care ward.  These problems weaken the church’s mission, but what debilitates the church more is the neglect of spiritual gifts in the body of Christ. The situation in thousands of assemblies and gatherings is literally tragic. It is sad, despite Christ’s strong warning.  Matthew 25:14-30 speak specifically to the tragedy that God’s people suffer when they do not make the most of the gifts that God has given them. The story is in the parable of the talents whose familiar theme is found in the text;

1)      the tragedy of abused accountability;

2)      the tragedy of missed opportunity;  and

3)      the tragedy of lost joy.

No account of the discovery and cultivation of our spiritual gifts can be complete if we fail to note the damage done when those gifts are neglected.  The people in the parable are one key to its message: a master and three servants. That relationship speaks of accountability. Servants must answer to their master in all details of their life and work. We make a great mistake when we mix our role with God’s; He sets the term of our work. He is in all things the Master, our task is not to make the rules, but to obey by saying “yes” to the rules He has already made.

Jesus began His parable thus: “For it will be as when a man going on a journey called his servants and entrusted to them his property to one he gave five talents, to another two to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. “(Matt. 25:14-15).  Who decides who would get the five, the two and the one? The master, of course, only he knew that servants well enough to determine how much property each of them had ability to handle. There was no squabble among them, no elbowing each other for the largest share, no badgering the master for an extra talent. They recognized his right to decide. They had no property of their own, nor any power to acquire it. Their share was determined by His grace and by that grace alone. We are accountable to the Master’s grace.

The master’s grace placed them under obligation to make the best possible response. What they had not earned or deserved had been put in their trust, their only acceptable answer was to use it well. The Master of the Church gives these gifts of the Spirit to the Body as expressions of His grace. We do not chose which gifts we receive or how many. These matters are up to Him. Most importantly, we cannot chose not to use what He has given us.

There is a purpose why He lavished His grace upon us. This fact is made clear in the master’s rebuke of the servants who had hid his own talent (matt 25:276-27). It tells us that God’s grace in our lives is counted as an investment. It is not just to be conserved. That was the wretched servant’s mistake. He did not realize that grace is a seed to be planted for further growth. He did not understand that God’s blessings are not for hoarding, but for multiplying as we put them to work in the lives of others.

That servant could not plead ignorance. He knew precisely how demanding the master was. But he misapplied the knowledge that he had. He was defensive, not aggressive. He took no risks in using the master’s grace and, in so doing, took the greatest risk of all; he neglected his accountability to the master’s purpose.

The gifts of God’s, Holy Spirit are precious and true. And the Lord of the Church demandingly wants them treated as such. They are not like gold to be stored in Fort Knox, nor like Rembrandts’ paintings to be hung in a well-guarded museum. They are fuel to be converted into spiritual power, they are ore to be refined into useful tools, and they are seedlings which will grow into fruitful trees.

The grace of God granted this servant was an opportunity to expand and grow as a person; he missed all that because he was fearful and unduly cautious. God gives more, when we use well what we have.  Part of the servant’s tragedy was that he missed his opportunity for greater blessings. The Master’s command was harsh; “Take the talent” he said “from him, and give it him who has will more be given, and he will have abundance, but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away” (Matt 25:28-29).

The greatest responsibilities, the larger privilege, the expanded service, the enhanced growth, all of these chances were missed because the servant misread his master’s instructions. Sadly he lost the chance he had; so his single talent had to be forfeited.  Unused gifts may lead to disqualification from God’s service. Who dare take lightly any spiritual gift bestowed upon us by the risen Lord Jesus.  He is Lord of all. Wisdom demands that we discover what gifts God has given us and to diligently use them in full submission to Him. It is not about doing things for God or being active, busy and involved.  Rather it is about letting God do things through us. Let us not cripple the Church and turn the body of Christ into losers because the Holy Spirit gifts have not been put to work for God’s purpose. Joy follows when we purposefully use our spiritual gifts in service for Him. Let us therefore, walk humbly before our God and be accountable to Him for the spiritual gifts we have received so far.