Have you ever thought about how the Church today compares to the Church in the Bible? This might surprise you, but much of what we see in today’s Church is not found in the New Testament. Actually the modern day church resembles more of an Old Testament model than it does the First Century Church. Let me share some examples of what I’m talking about.

Under the New Covenant, every Christian is called to be part of a royal priesthood of believers, but instead that role has been replaced with paid clergy…while the rest of the Church assumes the role of a spectator. Buildings have become a necessary part of the modern Church. The bigger the better! Yet for the first three-hundred years, the Church never owned a building nor did they consider them as necessary or important. They met in homes, in cemeteries, and any other place that would accommodate their meetings. What was deemed important was their “life together.”

The Church today has become an institution. It is often run by a hierarchy that makes all the decisions for the other members. Now compare that to the First Century Church that was an organic entity…a living organism that expressed itself through the life of every believer. Apostles, prophets, teachers, pastors and evangelist were called to serve the body of Christ, not hold an elevated position in an institutional organization. And the work and ministry of the church was supported by the free-will offering of the members, not by an Old Testament model of tithing.

These are but a few of the ways the Church has departed from a Biblical blueprint found in the Bible. If you want to learn more about a Scriptural model of the Church of Jesus Church, come and join us as we venture down the road of rediscovering the Ekklesia of God, “the called out and called together.”