Talk:A Free Church and Free Congregation Report
Three-step plan forms a free Church. Form A6.6. But also, a three-step plan forms the 'daily routine' of an individual who aspires to be active in congregation with a free Church: 1) repent (over and over again, every time the spirit of God urges you to turn away from your old useless habits); 2) seek the kingdom (constantly learn more and more depth in the vivid picture of a kingdom of heaven functioning daily in your family and in the community around you); 3) seek His righteousness (be a pupil under the Comforter who teaches you ... line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little ... to obtain all that is needed for living your life to become well-pleasing to God).
The 'daily routine' (noted above) might be what we could call a "personal daily ministration". A self-controlled individual gladly walks the journey by which his own needy soul becomes healed through his own practices of diligence (in a walk of faith, by a practice of hope that is inspired by the Spirit of God, so that the grace of God empowers this healing). The 'orphan' in your needy soul is your ignorant mind (and resulting weak habit) which needs wisdom and understanding (manna from heaven). Love yourself by attending to your own ignorance (to get rid of it), and love by faithfully listening to a conscience that is attuned to the spirit of God, so that your 'orphan' in you may eat proper food and become fat (healthy). The poor little 'orphan' was a skinny runt (starving soul) when you first knocked at the Door (the Way of God). At the same time, be seeking ways to love your neighbor in the way you love yourself (and this is the daily ministration indicated in Acts 6). The free church is filled with such as these who love in both ways.
Questions
|- |* (these are directed to a listener) Ponder it; what do you think are three steps which form a free Church? |- | *What comes to your mind with the words, "first century Church"? How do you picture it? |- | * Why or why not consider "early Church"? Does modern church have any "Aces" which trump early Church patterns? |- | : |- | *Is "early Church" and "free Church" the same thing?
While presenting the course, we may be addressing people from various walks of life: Catholics, Baptists, Lutherans, pentecostals, Adventists, or non-denominationalists. Maybe even JWs, Mormons, Unitarians or Moonies.
The presentation can easily 'rub someone the wrong way'. Their upbringing (Sunday School, creed, extra-biblical sources, etc) leads each to their prejudiced view. Our object is to work from their perception, to show weak and even illogical aspects in the 'norm' they think is 'truth'.
A quick and simple way for us to work out responses for a prejudiced view might include the use of 'name tags'. For example, Bob the Baptist thinks the authority the established that Baptist church has something to do with a baptismal succession traced all the way back to John the Baptist. Bob thinks John was probably the first 'Baptist' ever. Luke the Lutheran just laughs at such nonsense, and he knows the Lutheran church got its good solid footing of authority when Martin Luther nailed his thesis to the door. But Nick the non-denominationalist simply claims church authority is established whenever a group of christians use the Bible as their central source of truth, and of course he is very flexible, claiming a huge variety of worship service formats qualify as valid church practices ... which is why (to him) a christian rock concert on stage in front of the pews is a very useful meeting that is authorized by the church. And Pete the pentecostal wonders if church authority is demonstrated by the 'sign' of speaking in tongues, but maybe those who do not speak the 'heavenly language' can get a few useful things done in the church.
In summary: Bob Baptist, Luke Lutheran, Nick non-denominationalist (independent christian church), Pete Pentecostal, and a few others, like Alex Adventist (SDA), Cal Catholic and Ernie from the unincorporated church trying so hard to get free from Uncle Sam (while still coveting his neighbor's goods).
The denomination headquarters is acknowledged to have some authority (so says Bob, Luke, Alex, and Pete). The Pope declares he has authority (says Cal).
Bible authority is said to be enough (says Nick and Ernie). What a vague statement, though.
The Free Church course presents that authority to establish the Church, which we know is linked to the Anointed prophet, Jesus (Yeshua/Joshua). It is useful to mention John the baptizer, also. Both men presented the Ways of God (rituals of the Church). Both men came preaching by the authority granted to them by the Father in heaven. Jesus' words "It is finished" may be indicating he finished what John the baptizer and Jesus (together) were seeking to accomplish. The prophet Zechariah indicated two were coming, and the Essenes taught about two anointed ones. See Zechariah 6:13 and Malachi 3:1-2; see also the Testament of Twelve Patriarchs (apocryphal book). One of the Dead Sea Scolls includes the Malachi text, which ends with "... but who can endure them when they come?". John baptized Jesus, since he was a leader. John was taken out of the way at a birthday party. Jesus was taken out right before a Passover feast. The men of the world were convinced these men were both dangerous threats to their 'game plan'. Both men helped establish a government: the kingdom of heaven, which is government based on truth, as opposed to government based on usurped authority (trickery).
Both John and Jesus said repentance was the first step. If the Essenes were teaching things like "seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness", then both men were actively implementing Essene ideas which were based upon what the prophets had said, and this was a means for establishing the Church which did not yet exist in the Essene community (although they desired it to come forth, in fulfillment of those prophecies of Isaiah 9:7; Micah 5:4; Amos 9:11 and Is. 11:6-9).