Healthy aggression

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Present day - Will you dance

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Mission accepted?

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Unknown Foe Approaching

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Neil Cole's vision of an organic, primal church

What does a church look like when Jesus is truly in charge?

Does the church teach true and insightful doctrine about God?  

Does the church show us how to love one another without masks?

Does the church reach out to those who do not know Jesus with the good news about his victory?

Does the church listen to the voice of God as keepers of the new covenant?

Does the church send people out to start new churches?

I recently finished Neil Cole's Primal Fire, which offers a fresh perspective on Biblical church.  Cole argues we've lost a proper balance of all the roles the church should play -- that Western church is most concerned about good teaching, as if heresy is the only problem Christians face.

As the first steps on the way back to balance, Neil Cole argues strongly against hierarchical church structure.  In seeking a strong leader/pastor/teacher to lead the church, aren't we actually rejecting Jesus' rightful kingship?  (Consider 1 Samuel 8, where the Israelites asked Samuel to give them a king, but they were actually rejecting God.)  Since all Christians have direct access to God, Cole argues that church should be about empowering and unleashing all Christians to do the work of ministry (i.e., service).  For example, instead of clergy just telling laymen how to live before God, church should be a community that helps each other listen to and obey God's voice. 

Neil Cole makes a compelling case that the 5 gifts that Jesus gives to the church (as discussed in Ephesians 4) are all very much necessary to a proper functioning body of Christ:  as much today as they were when Paul was writing.  This list exhaustively includes apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers.  (Try to guess what questions at the start of this post might be the primary concern of which role.)  Each role has its strengths and weaknesses (as well as an evil counterfeit counterpart or two), which means they all need to work together to build up the church -- instead of focusing on their own reputation or success.  

Again, for Cole, the purpose of each gift is not to enforce some clergy/laymen distinction, or to prove that God has gifted them especially -- we certainly don't deserve any gifts, and our gifts won't get us into heaven (Matthew 7:21-23) -- but rather these gifts are meant to empower the people of the church to live their life before Christ and teach/show others how to do so as well.  For Cole, the questions shouldn't be just "Does the church teach true and insightful doctrine about God?", but also "Does the church teach its members how to teach true and insightful doctrine about God?"  And even worse, "Does the church teach its members how to teach others how to teach...?"  The idea is to let go of our desire to be in charge and control things, and instead encourage others to make mistakes, learn, and grow.  I suppose that is somewhere between the parenting styles of "helicopter parenting" and "laissez-faire".

Neil Cole argues that we should set the bar for church lower, and set the bar for discipleship higher.  What would that look like in your life and church?

Gliding into the truth

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Light and Dark

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