Most American Christians have learned to read their NTs through the modern lens of 20th-century institutionalism. Hence, there is an urgent need for us to rethink our entire concept of church and learn to see it afresh through the lens of the NT authors.

Because of common misteaching, we have many deeply buried assumptions that are in need of excavation and examination. We have been mistaught that "church" means a building, a denomination, or an organizational structure. And that a "minister" is a special class of Christian.

Since our contemporary notion of the church has been so entrenched in man's thinking, it requires a conscious effort to view it in the way that all first-century Christians did. It demands that we rigorously plough through the thick and tangled weeds of human tradition until we unearth the virgin soil of spiritual reality.

Only the necessary task of rethinking the church in its Scriptural context will enable us to distinguish between the Biblical notion of church and those institutions that pose as churches. Let us briefly isolate some of those differences:

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The Institutional Paradigm

is sustained by a clergy system

seeks to energize the laity

renders the bulk of its congregants passive-in-their-pews

associates church with a building or a denomination that one "joins"

is rooted in unifying those who share a special set of customs or doctrines

thrusts "ordinary" Christians out of the holy of holies and chains them to a pew

places its priority on religious programs and keeps its congregants at arms-length, insulating them from one another

spends most of its resources on building expenditures and pastor-staff salaries

operates on the basis that the pastor/priest is the functional head (while Christ is the nominal head)

enshrines and protects the clergy-dominated, program-centered system that serves as the driving machine of the organized church

builds programs to fuel the church; views people as cogs in the machine

encourages believers to participate institutionally and hierarchically

separates church(ecclesiology) from personal salvation (soteriology); views the former as a mere appendage to the latter

The Biblical Paradigm

knows nothing of a clergy system

doesn't recognize a separate class called laity

makes all members functioning priests

affirms that people do not go to church nor join the church . . . affirms that they are the church

is rooted in unreserved fellowship with all Christians based on Christ alone

liberates all believers to serve as ministers in the context of a non-clerical, decentralized form of church leadership

places its priority on face-to-face, shared-life relationships, mutual submission, openness, freedom, mutual service, and spiritual reality-the very elements that were built into the fabric of the NT church

spends most of its resources on "the poor among you" and apostolic workers

operates on the basis that Christ is the functional Head through the invisible guidance of the Holy Spirit through the believing community

shows a revulsion for the clergy system because it quenches the sovereign exercise of the Holy Spirit (yet lovingly embraces every Christian within that system)

builds people together with Christ to provide the momentum for the church

invites believers to participate relationally and spiritually

forges no link between personal salvation and the church; sees the two as inextricably intertwined. (Scripture has it that when people were saved, they simultaneously became part of the church and immediately met together.)

He summarizes with:

"We live in an hour when the Spirit of God is beckoning His people to embrace His ultimate intention regarding His beloved church. This intention rests upon forming a people who are filled with the new wine of God's Spirit for the single purpose of preparing them to be a glorious Bride for His Son. Within this context, He is summoning His people to re-examine the old wineskin of church practice."

George Moreshead explains,

In these times when doing (even if doing 'for God' and 'for His glory') has so largely eclipsed the Biblical emphasis on, and the priority of, being and becoming, it would seem to be equally necessary and important to have those with the spiritual understanding and discernment to know what the NT 'Israel' ought both to do and not to do! How then can there be anything to rival, as the primary need of the present time, the raising up of those who see from heaven-believers of exceptional spiritual stature and a Spirit-taught understanding of this time, for the building up of the Body of Christ to the measure of Christ's fullness? How else can the 'old men' of the new 'Israel' join in with their younger brethren in the song of victory and the shout of success over God's completed house? ("Understanding the Times," unpublished article-slightly paraphrased)

This has been hard for many of us to learn and un-learn what God's church really is. A pardigm shift though can only be revealed by God to a believer's heart that has been opened to full reliance on God. No agenda's, no programs, only the full assurrance that God alone is building His church, just as He said He would and still is today!