Together letʼs ask: How would Jesus like to conduct His Church? What practices does Jesus expect when His Church assembles? In what way must we bend and adjust in doing His will when we assemble in His name? Does the Bible voice those expectations clearly?
I attest that every local church should be constantly and intentionally discipling, training, developing and then sending its best men out into mission—to make disciples of all nations. We have to get out of the mindset of building up one single church and start developing a Kingdom mindset, a movement mindset.
The church meeting has a goal of that kind of maturity...yet it rarely starts that way. This is a skill that takes time. The sad fact is participatory meetings are hard work because the traditional church has left us untrained to obey the admonitions of 1 Corinthians 12-14.
We are called to this walk together to fulfill God’s purposes in history: The gospel going into all the earth.....nations discipled....the church growing to maturity before the coming of the Lord.
We rejoice in being able to fellowship with them in God’s plan and purpose for His church. So ultimately this manual comes out of many people, many churches, many lives, and many teams. We humbly acknowledge that it is Jesus who has brought us this far, and there are many who have had the courage to help us as well as let us try new things.
Here is map of District 2 of the Cleveland Police and you can pretend this is a quote.
If we are to assemble with the expectation that Jesus indeed is in our midst. If we embrace a covenant that insists that the Holy Spirit lives within His people, this forces us to look at ministry in a dramatically expanded way.
Eph 4:1-7 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
There are 54 "one anothers" in the New Testament that teach us how to treat each other, meaning those of us who belong to the body of Christ.