I read this a while ago in my 365 devotional: “Welcome Holy Spirit”
“The Roman emperor Constantine modified the religion of Christianity from a ministry movement involving every member to a spectator sport.
Where the church consists of an audience watching a few talented and often burned out up-front performers, there is much evidence of a lack of spiritual fitness. God’s will is that every Christian reveal the Spirit’s power through spiritual gifts so that the whole church be blessed. When this does not happen, because of Constantine’s model of the church, then it fails to fulfil it’s ministry in nurture, outreach and corporate worship.
For most of the first 300 years of its existence, Christianity was a small group house-church movement. As circumstances permitted the small groups would come together for a combined festival of prayer and praise, but it was only in the small group setting that every member of the body was able to use his or her spiritual gifts for the common good of the church. If the church consisted of ten members in a house, then at each meeting every member had an opportunity to minister with a song, message, special revelation, prophecy or tongue and interpretation. There were no spectators. All were participants.
The true gospel ministry in the Spirit’s power involves people caring for people rather than the impersonal, formal gatherings that have come to characterise much of cultural Christianity. Spiritual gifts, whether they involve supernatural powers, practical Christian service, outreach, nurture or leadership are all part of a team ministry. They centre in small groups, and extend into individual, midsize and large group activities. If you want to see spiritual gifts flourish as they did in Bible times, now is the time to become involved in this part of real Christianity.
I think the future of the church has to be to place more importance on small groups where people are in an informal and relaxed setting and can discover and use the gifts of the Holy Spirit to bless each other and the wider church. In these groups there is more scope for individual ministry, both to new believers as well as those in the church going through troubled times. They would be a much better place to learn and grow than in a large formal church meeting.”
“The Roman emperor Constantine modified the religion of Christianity from a ministry movement involving every member to a spectator sport.
Where the church consists of an audience watching a few talented and often burned out up-front performers, there is much evidence of a lack of spiritual fitness. God’s will is that every Christian reveal the Spirit’s power through spiritual gifts so that the whole church be blessed. When this does not happen, because of Constantine’s model of the church, then it fails to fulfil it’s ministry in nurture, outreach and corporate worship.
For most of the first 300 years of its existence, Christianity was a small group house-church movement. As circumstances permitted the small groups would come together for a combined festival of prayer and praise, but it was only in the small group setting that every member of the body was able to use his or her spiritual gifts for the common good of the church. If the church consisted of ten members in a house, then at each meeting every member had an opportunity to minister with a song, message, special revelation, prophecy or tongue and interpretation. There were no spectators. All were participants.
The true gospel ministry in the Spirit’s power involves people caring for people rather than the impersonal, formal gatherings that have come to characterise much of cultural Christianity. Spiritual gifts, whether they involve supernatural powers, practical Christian service, outreach, nurture or leadership are all part of a team ministry. They centre in small groups, and extend into individual, midsize and large group activities. If you want to see spiritual gifts flourish as they did in Bible times, now is the time to become involved in this part of real Christianity.
I think the future of the church has to be to place more importance on small groups where people are in an informal and relaxed setting and can discover and use the gifts of the Holy Spirit to bless each other and the wider church. In these groups there is more scope for individual ministry, both to new believers as well as those in the church going through troubled times. They would be a much better place to learn and grow than in a large formal church meeting.”
