I’m processing through so much.
My New Revelation… (I figure that I get about one great, new revelation every year. Maybe one; maybe none!) But 2007’s nugget revelation is this: Biblically, God gathers to send, and sends to gather. This is the pattern of the whole NT. Gathered to send; sent to gather.
And in this framework of gathering and sending, I keep thinking of the historical context of “orders” and “sodalities.” I remember reading sometime back How the Irish Saved Civilization and the role that monasteries and mendicant orders played in the preservation of culture and the message of Jesus. (This book got lost in a flood in Cyprus, so I can’t go back and reread it!) And I read Ralph Winter’s keystone piece on Two Structures of God’s Redemptive Mission and his references to the Roman military structure of the monastic orders.
And I keep reading, praying and meditating regarding the leap from apostolic Christianity and missional church-planting to bishop-rule and church-maintenance.
Apostles are the “sent ones.” Sent with the Gospel. Apostles sent to gather Believers into - not so much a structure for protection, control and restraint - a koinonia of empowerment, healing and release. Sent to gather; gathered to send.
But in my mind, I see this empowering apostolic missional model of empowerment evolving - for whatever reasons - into the Middle Ages Church that is basically a hierarchy of command and control. Maybe control comes out of fear. Probably does. When things begin to shift and we lose the balance, we move toward control as a counter-balance. I see it in my own life. In my own ministry.
When concern about image, perception, precedent, continuity and success set in, we set up standards that must be followed. We become concerned about who speaks for whom. And how we can keep things tidy and “decent and in order.” We decide what is right and what is wrong; good or bad; relevant or trivial; damaging or constructive. Or someone does. Isn’t that the role of leadership?
The biblical model of “church” is very relational.
Of course, there’s Jesus and His followers: the multitudes, the seventy (or seventy-two depending on the translation), the twelve, then the inner circle of Peter, James and John, then obviously a special relationship with John. Jesus spend time with every level of these concentric circles of relationships. Different amounts of time and different levels of connectedness and intimacy. And then, of course, He sends them out to do what they’d seen Him do. And to be what He was in their own unique way.
Then you see Paul and his spiritual sons (Timothy, Titus, etc.) begetting other spiritual sons and daughters who beget others. This is the first century Church. You see it. Relational. Unlike the opening chapters of Matthew and Luke, where you find a physical genealogy, these guys traced a spiritual genealogy of discipleship and relationship. (Hence, “apostolic succession,” but that’s another story altogether…)
But then the growth of the church and the great inclusions of Constantine - whatever his motive! - change everything. The enemies of relationship: success and status; position and power. And over a bunch of years, problems, indulgences, corruption and graft, you see the emergence of the monastic orders as preservers of Gospel and mission.
More later…
