Where does this fit in your church?
In our traditional church model, can you tell me how your church applies this verse?
"When you meet together, one will sing, another will teach, another will tell some special revelation God has given, one will speak in tongues, and another will interpret what is said. But everything that is done must strengthen all of you."1Corinthians 14:26
"When you meet together, one will sing, another will teach, another will tell some special revelation God has given, one will speak in tongues, and another will interpret what is said. But everything that is done must strengthen all of you."1Corinthians 14:26
In your church service do you share how God has worked in your life this past week? Do others? Share with us how your church allows attenders to become participators in building up their brothers and sisters in Christ.
posted by Carl at 10:09 AM
10 Comments:
Carl,
You have asked a very good and important question. I'll be glad to tell you a little about what we do, but please don't take this as a model or pattern. I think each group of believers needs to allow the Spirit to show them how to allow many to participate so that all things are done for edification.
The following describes our main weekly meeting:
One thing that we do is we have different people lead the singing portion of our meeting. We also have different instrumentalists. Sometimes we have as many as six people playing instruments and singing, sometimes it is just one person with a guitar.
Another thing that we do is that we ask different people to bring the main teaching for the meeting. The main teaching is through a book of the Bible, but from week to week different people to teach. Sometimes one of the elders teach, sometimes other people teach.
We also ask different people to read Scripture during the meeting. This is usually at least a chapter, sometimes more. We have read entire books of the Bible during our meetings with as many as four people reading in turn.
Finally, after the main teaching, we have a time set aside to allow anyone present to bring a teaching or word of encouragement. Sometimes no one speaks. Sometimes three or four people speak.
We are still learning, and in many ways we are still traditional. If someone met with us one week, it would probably seem like a normal "church service", except for the extra Scripture reading and the time at the end of the meeting. However, if they met with us again the next week, they would see and hear from completely different people.
I think we still have room for improvement. It has been exciting to see God move us to where we are now. It will be interesting to see what He has in store for us next.
By the way, we also have a "Lord's Supper meeting", which follows our regular meeting usually once per month and includes a meal and much more open sharing and teaching and singing and praying. This time usually lasts four hours or more.
-Alan
Alan,
Thank you for this excellent comment.
I have many more questions, like: Does your church leadership decide, and/or prompt people to speak or read, or is it people are lead by God and share that with the leadership and then get to share? Are there qualifications placed on people which must be met in order to share/read? Is it scheduled, i.e. "it Bible reading time, now So and So will read such and such to us from God's word"?
All of these sort of questions are bouncing around in many church leaders heads, both from traditional churches and from those tring to break out of the mold.
thanks again Alan
Carl,
The answer would probably be both yes and no to all of your questions. We have times that are planned, and times that are not planned.
I think something like this can be seen in the verse that you mentioned (1 Cor. 14:26) and the verses following. According to 1 Cor 14:26, people were coming to the meeting of the church prepared with a prophecy, instruction, psalm, etc. Yet, at the same time, there was the possibility for something to be revealed during the meeting - unplanned.
We are probably more planned that I would like, but we are trying to strike a balance.
By the way, I discuss many of these issues on my blog.
-Alan
Carl,
Oh, I did miss one of your questions. No, we do not place qualifications on people before they speak. We believe the only qualifications should be that they are believers, that they are motivated by love, and that they desire to edify the church.
-Alan
ALL IN BLOGLAND:
In the Church in America we have no time for such things. We have our own agenda and once the bulletin is printed, we must not change anything.
Take away everything man does in your worship service and tell me what you have left.
You'll find the reality of this very convicting, sobering and saddddd!
Great post, very thought provoking!
Boberto always the challenger:)
Alan, tell me please, how does discipleship fit into the church that you describe? Is there an active form of discipleship, or is it passive (i.e. the get discipled by attending)
Thanks for your valuable comments!
Carl
Carl,
I personally would never equate attendance with discipleship. Actually, if I only spent time with someone during a weekly meeting, then I do not believe that I am discipling that person.
Discipleship for me is very active. Discipleship means teaching the way of Jesus, but it also means much, much more. Discipleship is living the way of Jesus with someone else, such that they see how you live and share your life with you. If you are interesting, I've written a four part series on discipleship that starts at a post called "Disciple making 1: The Command..."
-Alan
Alan,
I enjoyed your comments and your series...however you did not answer the question. how does discipleship fit into the church that you describe? Is there an active form of discipleship, or is it passive. Do you have people doing strategic one on one discipleship, while sharing their lives with eachother, does this flow out of relationship or is it "programmed" into one on one lesson times (for lack of a better way of describing programmed discipleship)
describe for us what your church, or you as a leader do.
Carl,
I'm sorry that I didn't answer your question before. The believers that are part of our church take discipleship very seriously. We have some planned Bible studies and times of fellowship as well as our weekly meeting. However, I think most of the discipleship happens one-on-one or in small family-type settings in people's homes or in restaurants or in parks or even at job sites. I do not think it is the church's responsibility (as an organization) to make disciples. Instead, I think it is each believer's responsibility to make disciples.
So, I see all of the activities that I listed above as opportunities for active discipleship. When someone tells me that they want to be discipled by me, we do not start a discipleship class, we each make time in our schedules to spend time with one another, and time for our families to spend time with one another.
I hope this answers your question. If not, please help me understand what you are asking, and I'll try to answer again.
-Alan
Alan, you answered fine. Our church is actually being built around one on one discipleship, well really one family(mine) to one family. we have no service to speak of yet, only discipleship. Many of the points and questions I ask are to answer in my mind how others are doing it without the traditional church model. Your were very helpful! Thanks, feel free to come back often, and I have added you to my feed list.
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