Re: Institutional Church Membership
Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2009 6:05 pm
Greetings,
The Israel of God was instituted through the Covenants by God himself...a spiritual community....an organic living Body. Thus the Church is His Institutional Organization with a Commonwealth Charter (New Covenant), Community Rule (His Commandments and Commision), Community Organization (Apostles/Episcopate..Elders/Presbytery ... Ministers/Daiconate....Workers/Laity and Apprentices/Disciples) and Sacred Tradition (Scripture and unbroken chain of testimonies). Whether under Abrahamic, Mosaic or the Present Messianic Covenant...The Israel of God is an Institution, Community and Society.
So anti-establismentarianism is foreign to Holy Scripture....it is a Hippy Culture ideology introduced into American Churchianity by the late great "Jesus Movement"...as it was a born again form of the counter-culture movements beliefs. Don't trust anyone over 30, and fight the man! I was once in that mindset..what i call cowboy churchianity.
Now membership into any sheepfold, whether ancient, modern or otherwise is Biblical. Church Rule is for Corporate Discipline, Church Organization is for Corporate Order, Church Offices are for Corporate protection, oversight, education and outreach. Call it what you will....it is all explicitly or implicitly found in the Canon of Scripture and an unbroken chain of Church witness.
If yoy do not like one sheepfold, I guess find another that fits you better......but go it alone "Me n Jesus" cowboy churchianity fails the test. Christ's Body is not a single fold, but many folds which compromise the Great Sheepfold with Christ as it's Chief Shepherd...The Chief Bishop of our Souls. We cannot go around seeking Christ's perfection in imperfect sheepfolds. That is an excuse for Buffet Style churchianity...no discipleship, no authority, no discipline, no accountability. If you hate Organization then the Body of Christ is not for you, if you want to be your own authority....then the Church is not your place.
Wild Horses must be tamed in order to serve as War Horses for the King. They must be gathered into a coral (Organized form), broken (Submissive), retrained (Discipled), worked (Practice the Faith) and then used in the capacity seen fit by the King (Bishop/Pesbyter/Deacon/Layperson/Disciple) until it is time for the general call for Battle (The Great commission). Wild Horses do hang out in herds.....but not for any other purpose than self preservation and carnal necessity.......Coraled, Broken, Retrained, Worked and Stationed Horses keep their Herding, but is different and for a higher purpose. It seems to me those who banter about various "formal" or "institutional" sheepfolds reveal their Wild Horse, Lone Ranger spirituality....and not a Community oriented spirituality as demanded by the Covenant and the Covenant Maker.
I would like to see what the arguments for the superiority of the Post Modernist "Counter-Cultural and Anti-Establishmentarian christian" mindset and subsequent social networks and gatherings to the Anciently Held and Apostolically practiced form of Judeo-Christian Community. I have yet to see a Biblically exegited case for it....just accusations, rhetoric and a dismissal of all ancient evidences, witnesses and suspicion against "Institutional' Scriptural, Ecclesiological and Exegetical Higher Education and training. I was a Rebel without a Clue.......and then I studied Scripture on it's own terms, in it's historical settings and with it's linguistic rules and standards...as well and Church documents that are as old as Jude, james and the Apocolypse unit Nicaea. That's when I left my Wild horse Faith and Lone Ranger Practices.
From Whom did you receive your Counter Culteral/Antiestablishmentarian Mindset and Glasses? It wasn't From the Prophets, the Apostles or from God. It came from the 1960s AD.............................not 30s AD. Check it's historic roots and those who stem from that root and who has espoused it and spread it.
Rev. +Ken
The Israel of God was instituted through the Covenants by God himself...a spiritual community....an organic living Body. Thus the Church is His Institutional Organization with a Commonwealth Charter (New Covenant), Community Rule (His Commandments and Commision), Community Organization (Apostles/Episcopate..Elders/Presbytery ... Ministers/Daiconate....Workers/Laity and Apprentices/Disciples) and Sacred Tradition (Scripture and unbroken chain of testimonies). Whether under Abrahamic, Mosaic or the Present Messianic Covenant...The Israel of God is an Institution, Community and Society.
So anti-establismentarianism is foreign to Holy Scripture....it is a Hippy Culture ideology introduced into American Churchianity by the late great "Jesus Movement"...as it was a born again form of the counter-culture movements beliefs. Don't trust anyone over 30, and fight the man! I was once in that mindset..what i call cowboy churchianity.
Now membership into any sheepfold, whether ancient, modern or otherwise is Biblical. Church Rule is for Corporate Discipline, Church Organization is for Corporate Order, Church Offices are for Corporate protection, oversight, education and outreach. Call it what you will....it is all explicitly or implicitly found in the Canon of Scripture and an unbroken chain of Church witness.
If yoy do not like one sheepfold, I guess find another that fits you better......but go it alone "Me n Jesus" cowboy churchianity fails the test. Christ's Body is not a single fold, but many folds which compromise the Great Sheepfold with Christ as it's Chief Shepherd...The Chief Bishop of our Souls. We cannot go around seeking Christ's perfection in imperfect sheepfolds. That is an excuse for Buffet Style churchianity...no discipleship, no authority, no discipline, no accountability. If you hate Organization then the Body of Christ is not for you, if you want to be your own authority....then the Church is not your place.
Wild Horses must be tamed in order to serve as War Horses for the King. They must be gathered into a coral (Organized form), broken (Submissive), retrained (Discipled), worked (Practice the Faith) and then used in the capacity seen fit by the King (Bishop/Pesbyter/Deacon/Layperson/Disciple) until it is time for the general call for Battle (The Great commission). Wild Horses do hang out in herds.....but not for any other purpose than self preservation and carnal necessity.......Coraled, Broken, Retrained, Worked and Stationed Horses keep their Herding, but is different and for a higher purpose. It seems to me those who banter about various "formal" or "institutional" sheepfolds reveal their Wild Horse, Lone Ranger spirituality....and not a Community oriented spirituality as demanded by the Covenant and the Covenant Maker.
I would like to see what the arguments for the superiority of the Post Modernist "Counter-Cultural and Anti-Establishmentarian christian" mindset and subsequent social networks and gatherings to the Anciently Held and Apostolically practiced form of Judeo-Christian Community. I have yet to see a Biblically exegited case for it....just accusations, rhetoric and a dismissal of all ancient evidences, witnesses and suspicion against "Institutional' Scriptural, Ecclesiological and Exegetical Higher Education and training. I was a Rebel without a Clue.......and then I studied Scripture on it's own terms, in it's historical settings and with it's linguistic rules and standards...as well and Church documents that are as old as Jude, james and the Apocolypse unit Nicaea. That's when I left my Wild horse Faith and Lone Ranger Practices.
From Whom did you receive your Counter Culteral/Antiestablishmentarian Mindset and Glasses? It wasn't From the Prophets, the Apostles or from God. It came from the 1960s AD.............................not 30s AD. Check it's historic roots and those who stem from that root and who has espoused it and spread it.
Rev. +Ken