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Last week I finished up a series of shows that focused on some practical tips and pointer for living an intentional life. We covered our purpose, roadblocks and resources as well as some final thoughts on making clear goals to strive for in our spiritual life. In and through all of that we kept coming back to the big idea of God’s purpose for you. Today I want to begin to look at God’s purpose for you as it relates to the church.
We are going to begin our journey by wrestling with the question, What is the church? Specifically I want to look at the idea of Minimal or Essential Ecclesiology.
Minimal: relating to or being a minimum: such as
a: the least possible
a victory won with minimal loss of life
b: barely adequate
a minimal standard of living
c: very small or slight
a minimal interest in art
The least viable form or the least possible to call something a church. What can you remove from your existing church and it still be a church?
Essential: 1: something basic
2: something necessary, indispensable, or unavoidable
If you have nothing else you must at least have this to call it a church.
Ecclesiology: theological doctrine relating to the church
The goal is to consider the smallest, most adaptable, most flexible church. Why? Because the church at it’s most basic is in the best form to be multiplied rapidly in any environment. If church planting is really important, and we are going to do it, we need to identify the seed.
You don’t start with the finished product in gardening or in church planting or in disciple making!
What do you start with? A seed that contains the DNA of the future life at maturity.
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Resource; https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevin-deyoung/chuch-of-shrinking-definition/
The Church, it is assumed, is simply plural for Christian. So wherever two or more Christians are gathered to discuss about and live in the way of Jesus, that’s church.
The problem with this minimalist ecclesiology is that it confuses definition and function. I have no problem with defining the church as elect people of God, or as the gathered Christian community, or as all those who have put their faith in Jesus. These are pretty standard definitions. But to say the church is the people of God is not the same as saying that wherever the people of God are there you have a church.So as a definition the church may be the people of God, but for God’s people gathered to be a church they must function in certain way.
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Microchurch – Worship, Mission and Community
Our “definition of church” (ecclesiology) is simple: When a group of likeminded people band together in sincere worship and genuine community to accomplish a part of the mission of Jesus, they are the church.
We believe that small, missional groups are the Most Essential Unit of the Church; and that church organizations exist to serve the smaller, micro-expression…and not the other way around. The Early Church embodied 3 essential, irreducible functions of WORSHIP, COMMUNITY, and MISSION; giving great freedom for people & groups to express them in their own contexts.
Resource: https://www.tampaunderground.com/microchurches
We affirm microchurch as the most basic expression of the church. Our ecclesiology is simple. When believers work together in sincere worship and genuine community to accomplish part of the mission of God, they are the church.
Worship, community, and mission are our ecclesial minimum.
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Resource: https://saturatetheworld.com/2021/01/26/7-marks-of-essential-ecclesiology/
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A church is comprised of believers who gather regularly for discipleship. A church’s goal must be discipleship: seeing people come to know Jesus and be increasingly formed into His likeness and love together.
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A church declares the gospel and is shaped by the Spirit and the Scriptures. The good news (Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, kingdom, and return) is the church’s central message, and must be proclaimed both in gatherings and in everyday life.
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A church worships God in various ways. A church helps people understand and participate in worship. The Bible describes song and prayer as worship, as well as using our spiritual gifts, serving others, sharing the gospel, giving, celebrating, working hard, resting, and obeying God. Almost everything in life can be worship, if in spirit and truth.
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A church serves each other and its mission field(s). Each Christian has gifts, stations in life, and resources which God uses to bless Christians and non-Christians.
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A church carries out baptism and communion. Whether defined as “ordinances” or “sacraments” (and while different churches add other acts to these), a church follows Jesus’ example and carries out baptism and communion regularly.
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A church defines and trains God-given human leaders. Jesus is the head of His Church. And the New Testament shows us churches led by teams of Biblically-qualified servants, who humbly equip the saints for the work of ministry.
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Resource: https://www.ruralministry.net/post/ecclesiology-and-the-rural-church
In the broader context, there is universal agreement that theologically, the church “is the community of all true believers for all time.”[2] However, there is far less agreement regarding the practical view and definition of the church (i.e., how we perceive and understand the word “Church” when it is mentioned). For some, the term church becomes synonymous with the local organization. The church is a building we attend at a specific location. As a physical building and organization, the church becomes defined by its organizational structure, programs, and a shared vision that moves the church organizationally.