Movement or Meeting?

Some time ago, I read Andy Stanley’s book, Deep and Wide. I love church history. I love thinking about the mission Jesus has handed down to us through generations. We have spent a lot of time thinking about the early church and our church today. We can learn a lot from those who preceded us on this mission. They have handed to us a legacy.  Words translated and now in our hands. Words are funny sometimes. Subtle differences bringing to mind decidedly different mental images. Words like the Greek ekklesia, German kirche, and English words like church, congregation, and building. They don’t seem that different at first. But these difference can get you killed.

As Greek and Hebrew Scriptures became more available for early Christians, it was decided that the Bible should be translated into a language more suitable for the common person. Thus in 1522 William Tyndale began working on an English translation. Threatened with his life, he was run out of England and thus settled in Germany where he completed his translation from the original Greek, rather than Latin, to English. In 1526 he began smuggling printed copies of the English bible into England.

He immediately became an outlaw in England. Government and church officials plotted to arrest him and try him for heresy. They hunted him for ten years. Then he was betrayed by an acquaintance to a band of soldiers hired by the church. He was tried by the Holy Roman Empire…is this starting to sound familiar? They condemned him as a heretic and turned him over to civil authorities. They bound him to a beam, strangled him with a rope, burned his body and then scattered his remains.
The “church” executed Tyndale for creating a Bible that people could understand. Why? Control. Church officials realized that once people could read Scriptures for themselves they would realize that the 16th Century church was nothing like the early church. Most shocking was the word Tyndale did not include in the English translation- “church.”

Tyndale actually translated the word ekklesia, meaning a powerful movement of people with a purpose, to the word “congregation” rather than “church”. He also made a few other changes- using the word “elder” rather than “priest” and “repent” instead of “do or pay repentance.” Throughout the New Testament, Tyndale corrected focused on the Bible’s original emphasis on the church as a movement rather than a location, on people rather than a building, and on the message of the gospel rather than traditions, liturgy, and control structures.

Thus with the Protestant Reformation, the church became a movement once again as people focused on being an ekklesia (movement) rather than the German kirche (church building). From the first century until today, there has always been a remnant, a group who refused to substitute a place for the movement of Jesus. There have been leaders who view the church as a divinely inspired mission to go to all nations.

As we launch the Remnant Ekklesia this weekend. We need to ask ourselves some penetrating questions:

• Are we moving or just meeting?
• Are we transforming lives with the Gospel or just having church services?
• Are we organized around a mission or a building?
• Are we allocating resources as if Jesus is the hope of the world?
• Are we reborn Spiritual beings having a human experience or human beings trying to manufacture a spiritual experience?
• Are we participating or just attending?
• Are we trying to control or rather release the Holy Spirit in our midst?
• Is the Word of God the most valuable thing in our lives?
• Are we making disciples or settling for converts?
• Are we about transformation or just information?
• Are we worshiping or just singing?
• Do our lives worship Jesus or us?

Get ready Remnant. We have been invited to participate in a divinely inspired powerful movement of God. His Ekklesia.  I believe it will be the greatest adventure of our lives.

T minus 5 days. See you Saturday!