Editor's Note: God is now doing wonderful things in His church around the world. He says many people in a similar manner. But because of the different talents, different levels of maturity, and even different characters, not all of us see and understand these things the same way. Even people from the small group who are preparing this site, see the article presented here is not always the same. Our desire - just encourage those to whom God says about simple church. We want to show you how God speaks to other people around the world. This article - an example of such things against the church, about which believers think and discuss. We found that the allegations of our brothers from Germany, parallel to some of the things that God speaks to us. These statements sometimes sound defiant, and so perhaps you will meet here so, with what can not agree. However, we believe that it would be useful to prayerfully reflect on the above statements and let God speak to us as He sees fit.

Suppose that our goal is - to completely dominate himself God's purpose - to see Christ lifted up, and all the people attracted to him.

1. Church - this way, rather than a series of religious meetings.

Before we called Christians, followers of Christ were called "way". One reason for this was that they actually found a "way of life." Nature of the Church is not reflected in the ongoing series of religious meetings, which take place under control of a professional priesthood in the holy places specially designated for that to have experience with Jesus. But the nature of the church in a prophetic way followers of Christ, living their everyday life in spiritually extended families - as a living response to the issues facing society in the places where they (issues) has the most - in their homes.

2. Time to change the system.

In adapting itself to the religious model of those days, the historic Orthodox Church after Constantine in the 4 th century AD, had a religious system that was essentially the Old Testament, filled with priests, altar, a Christian temple (cathedral), frankincense and pattern of worship in the style of Jewish synagogues. The Roman Catholic Church canonized this system. Luther reformed the content of the gospel, but left the outer forms of "church" in the highest degree of immunity; Free Church freed the church from the state. The Baptists then baptized it. Quakers exposed her dry cleaning. The Salvation Army has dressed her in uniform. Pentecostals anointed it and the Charismatics renewed it, but so far no one really has not changed its superstructure. To do so - a matter of time.

3. The Third Reformation.

Luther started to reform the Church through the theology of the Reformation, pereotkryvaya anew the gospel of salvation by faith and only by grace. In the 18 century through such movements as the Moravians there was a return to new, close relationship with God, which led to the reformation of spirituality - the Second Reformation. Now God is touching themselves wine furs, initiating the Third Reformation, a reformation of the structure.

4. From Churches House to house churches.

From New Testament times there is no such thing as a "house of God." At the cost of his life Stephen reminded unequivocally: God does not live in temples made with hands. Church - a people of God. The Church, therefore, was and is in a house there, where people at home: in ordinary houses. There, the people of God:
share their lives in the power of the Holy Spirit;
share bread in their homes - they eat together when we meet;
they often do not even hesitate to sell private property and share material and spiritual blessings;
teach each other in real life situations - how to obey God's Word. This occurs in the form of a dialogue, not in the form of education professor with the department;
pray and prophesy with each other;
Cross;
"Lose face" and his ego when confess their sins;
Restore a new, common identity, experiencing love, acceptance and forgiveness.

5. The church must be small, that have grown large.

Most churches today are simply too big for that would ensure that the present communication. They are very often the church fellowship without communication. New Testament church was a large number of small groups of usually from 10 to 15 people. She grew up not to a large congregation with many people from 20 to 300, which would have filled the cathedral, and would make a real, mutual communication impossible. Instead, it multiplied "in hand" - multiply like normal cells - as soon as they reach the group of 15-20 people. Then, if possible, all Christians come together in common worship of the city, as was the temple of Solomon in Jerusalem. Traditional kongregatsionalnaya church - in the form as we know, statistically speaking is not great and beautiful, but is rather a sad compromise, on the one hand - as developed into a domestic church and the other - it does not dorosshee general (eg urban) worship, often losing momentum and both.

6. There were no churches, which would be led by only one pastor.

The local church is not controlled by the pastor, but is guarded by Elder, a local man who possesses wisdom and common sense. Local house churches linked to the movement through the junction of the elders and members of the so-called five-constituent ministries (apostles, prophets, pastors, evangelists and teachers) that are circulating "from house to house." In accordance with this structure, there is a special fundamental role for what would fulfill the apostolic and prophetic ministry (Ephesians 2:20 and 4:11,12). Pastor (shepherd) - a very necessary part of the whole team, but he can not do more than just part of a general assignment for "the saints for the work of the ministry, and must be complemented synergistically (Synergetics - the science of joint, coordinated behavior of many elements as a whole as part of a complex system, the science of evolution and self-organization - approx. per.) other four ministries in order that would function properly.

7. Right side, collected incorrectly.

When we collect the puzzle, we have established an initial part, on the other hand, the final result, the whole picture may be wrong, and then all the individual pieces do not have much washed away. This happens with most of the Christian world: we have all the right pieces, but put together they are wrong because of fear, tradition, religious jealousy and the mentality of power and control. As water exists in three forms - ice, water and steam, the five ministries mentioned in Ephesians 4:11-12, the Apostles, Prophets, Pastors, Teachers and Evangelists are also there today, but not always in the right forms and in the right places: they are often frozen to ice in the rigid systems of institutional Christianity, and sometimes they exist as pure water, or they disappear like a pair of thin air to freely floating ministry "independent" churches, which are not accountable to anyone. Just as water is the best way to flow when it is in a liquid state, these five equips ministries should be transformed back to the new - and at the same time, the old forms, so that would be the whole spiritual organism could flourish, and these individual ministries could to find each its special role and place in the whole body. This is another reason why we should go back to the original, conceived the creator and copy the blueprint for the Church.

8. God will not leave the church in the hands of a bureaucratic priesthood.

No Church of the New Testament never driven one professional "holy" Moses, the type that would have solved all the issues through dialogue with God and then okarmlival some relatively passive religious consumers.

Christianity inherited this method from pagan religions, or, at best, from the Old Testament. The heavy professionalisation of the church since Constantine has a pervasive influence long enough, artificially dividing God's people for the parishioners and clergy. According to the New Testament (1 Tim.2: 5) "there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." God simply does not bless religious professionals to squeeze ever between people and God. Bedspread frustrated, and God allowed people to have access directly to Him through Jesus Christ as the only way through. In order to make possible the priesthood of all believers, this system should be completely changed. Bureaucracy - is the most dubious of all administrative systems, because it basically has only two answers: yes and no. There is no room for spontaneity and humanity, there is no room for real life. Perhaps this is appropriate for policy or companies, but not for the Church. Apparently, God is in the process of delivering His Church from the Babylonian captivity of religious bureaucrats and controlling spirits into the public domain, where the hands of ordinary people doing extraordinary God, who, as in days of old, can still smell the fish, perfume and revolution.

9. Return from organized to organic forms of Christianity.

"Body of Christ" is a vivid description of an organic, not organized life. The church is at its local level of many spiritual families, which are organically related to each other as a network, where the way of functioning together - an integral part to the whole body. What was the maximum with the minimum of the organization of the organism, must be changed at least the organization to allow the body to realize its maximum. Having too big zaorganizovannosti often, like a straitjacket, stifling the body of the fear that something could go wrong. Fear - is the opposite of faith, and it is not necessarily a Christian virtue. Fear wants to control, faith can be trusted. Control, therefore, may be good, but trust is better. Christ's body entrusted by God to people with hearts of ministers who have supernatural charismatic gift - to trust God that He still controls everything, even if they do not control it. Development of trusting relations at regional and national networks, it is not a new arrangement of political ecumenism, but a vital necessity for the organic forms of Christianity, which should again appear.

10. The worship of our worship to the worship of God.

The image of much of modern Christianity a bit euphemistically be summarized and described as follows: holy people meet regularly in SACRED SITES IN THE HOLY DAY AND IN THE HOLY HOUR FOR PARTICIPATION IN THE HOLY rituals that govern the holy man, dressed in a HOLY clothes, but who are against the "Saints" FEES. Since this is a regular, focused on enterprise performance is called "worship service" requires a lot of organizational talent and administrative bureaucracy, for what would have to continue this formal and institutional design, which quickly evolved into a rigid tradition. Statistically, the traditional 1-2 hours of "worship service" is a very resource-intensive, but actually brings very little fruit, with regard to apprenticeship, ie change lives. If the economic terms, it is a structure that requires "a lot of input and gives a little out." Traditionally, the desire to "correct praise" leads to more denominatsionalizmu, denominationalism and nominalism. This not only ignores the fact that Christians are called to "worship in spirit and in truth, not in cathedrals holding collections of hymns, but also ignores the fact that much of life is informal, and that Christianity is the" Way of Life . Not whether we should change - to cease to be strong actors and instead to start "acting powerfully?"

11. Cease to bring people into the church and begin to lead the church to people.

The church changes back from the structure - Come to the structure - Go. As a result, the church must stop trying to bring people "into the church, and begin to lead the church to people. The mission of the Church would never be completed simply by adding to the already existing structure, it requires at least as a "flattening" of the church through spontaneous multiplication of it in places where the population of the world where Jesus was not yet known.

12. Opening of the new "Lord's Supper" as a real supper with real food.

Church tradition clothed "celebration of the Lord's Supper" in a homeopathic and deeply religious form, which is characterized by a few drops of wine, tasteless biscuits and lean individuals. However, "the Lord's Supper" was actually the earliest practicable Dinner with symbolic meaning, than a symbolic DINNER WITH REAL TRANSFORMATION. God restores the use of food again in our meetings.

13. Of denominations to worship citywide.

Jesus called a universal movement, and what happened, so this is a series of religious companies engaged in global network marketing, which are promoting their special brand of Christianity and competing with each other. Through such promotion of brands of Christianity most of Protestantism has become politically insignificant and often more concerned about the peculiarities of traditions and religious strife, than the development of common witness before the world. Jesus simply never asked people to organize themselves into denominations. In the early Church, Christians had a dual identity: they were truly His church and vertically are addressed to God, and then they were organized on a geographical basis, that is, treated as horizontally to each other on the ground. This means that not only Christians - neighbors, organized itself into the neighborhood - or home churches, where they shared their lives together, but Christians also gathered together as a collective identity in such numbers as they could for the city or regional worship, expressing the unity of church of the city or region. Authenticity in the neighborhood related to regional or city corporate identity will make the Church not only politically significant and spiritually convincing, but will return to the biblical model of the Church in the city.

14. Building on proven-in-testing spirit.

They crucified Jesus, the Head of all Christians. Today, his followers are often more in the titles, medals and social esteem, or, worst of all, they remain silent and not worthy of mention at all. "Blessed are you when you will be persecuted," said Jesus. Biblical Christianity is a healthy threat to pagan godlessness and sinfulness, a world that is defeated by greed, materialism, envy and a lot of demonic standards of ethics, sex, money and power. Contemporary Christianity in many countries is just too safe and friendly for what would be persecuted. But, once again Christians will live in accordance with the standards of the New Testament, for example, calling sin sin, conversion and persecution immediately start as a natural reaction of the world. Instead, that would be comfortable nest in temporary zones of religious freedom, Christians should prepare to be again as the main accused against global humanism, which is the modern form of slavery, namely, that would always have fun and completely adore her I am a false center of the universe . That is why Christians will need to feel "repressive tolerance" of the world, which has lost any absolutes and therefore refuses to accept and obey the Creator God and His absolute standards. Faced with increasing indoctrination privatization and spiritualization politics and economics, Christians will get (faster than most of us can imagine) a chance to have the good fortune of being accused, together with Jesus. They should prepare for the future, developing a proven-in-test the spirit and even more - proven-in-testing system.

15. The church back home.

Where is the place where, say, a man most easily be spiritual? Perhaps again it is hidden somewhere behind the big chair, for the holy garments for preaching holy words faceless crowd and then disappeared somewhere in the office? And what is the most difficult - and thus the most important - if not a place for man to be spiritual? Home - this is the right place in the presence of his wife and children, where everything he does and says is automatically passed through a spiritual litmus test for authenticity, where hypocrisy can be effectively rooted out and authenticity can grow. Much of Christianity has escaped from the family, both from the place of its own spiritual defeat, and then organized the artificial steps in the sacred buildings, which are far from an atmosphere of authenticity. Because God is again at work to achieve the houses, the church turns to its roots - back to where it came from.