Simple Church Minute 55--preaching from Old Testament to New Testament

55-preaching from OT to NT

My name is Tom; this is Simple Church Minute

            What was preaching like in the Old Testament?  One might wonder why I am bringing up this question, given that these talks are about what scripture indicates as being correct practice for the New Covenant chosen people.  The reason:  What were people familiar with when Jesus was on earth?

            Through history, prophets spoke at intermittent times.  False prophets also spoke.  The people were involved, and were able to interrupt and ask questions.  In many cases, the people of Israel was an ethnicity, there was a degree to which the king was a spiritual leader, in addition to priests and prophets, sometimes for good, more often for ill.  Prophets and priests did not speak from a script, but spoke from the burden of their heart.  Rarely, the prophet acted out his message. There was no regular preaching in the synagogue.  None of it was like a modern sermon.

            When Jesus began his ministry, he also did not speak regularly to the same audience, although he taught in various ways the disciples that were with him those three years, and probably taught, to a lesser degree, the 70.  His teaching took many forms, but what we have recorded is sporadic, spontaneous, and informal. When one looks at the book of Acts, we see teaching that was sporadic, a dialogue, allowing for interruption and feedback, unplanned, without rhetorical structure, and delivered on special occasions and to deal with special problems. Romans 12 and 15, Colossians 3, and First Corinthians 12 and 14 indicate that ministry was by all the church for all the church.  The way it is done in most places now has no biblical precedent.

            You can email me at simplechurchminute@gmail.com.  For more info on organic church*, visit http://www.simplechurch.com/ or locally at (local website).

On the recording, at this time, it says, “house churches.”  While that phrasing is OK, to say “organic church” is better.  I comment on that in blip 94.

Simple Church Minute 29--leaders and shepherds

29—leaders and shepherds

NOTE:  I originally wrote a segment for each of the 61 points Frank Viola and George Barna make in their book, Pagan Christianity, about traditions in the institutional church not based on scripture.  After writing it, I chose to not include this segment merely as I felt that in wouldn’t be an interesting radio commentary.

My name is Tom; this is Simple Church Minute

            Why are there so many analogies between leaders and shepherds in the Bible?

We humans cannot read the mind of God to say why he chose to use that idea so often, but it is clear that He did.  Moses, the adopted son of Pharaoh, after the murder of the field manager, hid for 40 years as a shepherd.  There is clearly the contrast of his being born low status, raised to high status, only to flee and hide in a job of low status, to have the humility to be placed by God in the position of the leader of God’s people at a time they would need direction and protection.  David, in Psalm 23, shows how God is the ultimate shepherd to his people.  In John chapter 10, Jesus told us that he is the Good Shepherd, the shepherd knows his sheep by name and defends them.  In the New Covenant, a type of ministry is called pastor, a synonym for shepherd.

            I’ve heard some traditional church pastors say, in sermons on Psalm 23, that sheep are dumb.  We humans are dumb in comparison to an all-knowing God.  If you want a sheep to do a human’s job, they are dumb, and no good at public speaking, either. Sheep are appropriately intelligent for what they are to do—eat, sleep, reproduce, get sheared and butchered, and put up with being around humans.  Wild sheep can hide in steep mountainous areas people and most of their predetors cannot get around well in.  Modern shepherds, like other farmers, differentiate large numbers with ear tags.

            How can spiritual shepherds know a large amount of people?  Farther, Son, and Holy Spirit have no problem.  Humans gifted for a leadership position are a different story.  Ear tags? No. A church phone list?  That’s not what I mean, either.  You, nor I, can lead another much further in faith than where we have already walked, and we can do so better when we know each other.  One person can only know so many people, and it isn’t measured in hundreds.  Jesus intensely mentored 12, and Luke 10 seems to indicate, at a less intense level, another 58 or 70. And that was Jesus!

            You…

Simple Church Minute 19--what "pagan" means

19—what pagan means

My name is Tom; this is Simple Church Minute.

            In other blips, I have mentioned things in the church that have pagan origins.  I wish to clarify that the word “pagan” doesn’t mean bad or evil; it refers to an ancient religion that was the state religion during the days of the early church.  Greek mythology is connected to it.  It isn’t true, no significant amount of people believe it anymore, but that’s not the point.  Having a connection to it isn’t in and of itself bad—the names of the seven days of the week come from it, we can’t do anything about it, any seven words would do.  Roman paganism used chairs and carpets in their temples before the church did.  That doesn’t make chairs and carpets bad.  If you have a picture of the Roman sun god on your carpet, that’s another story.  Colossians chapter 1 verse 18 tells us Jesus is the head of the church.

            A Sunday or whatever day worship meeting is different.  An order of worship comes from paganism.  The Bible tells us about the Holy Spirit, not any person, determining order.  First Corinthians chapter 14 verse 26 tells us about mutual participation and edifying each other in worship.  That is impossible when one person does all the talking and believes its his job to set the agenda.  Preaching, as we see it today in most churches, isn’t what the Bible means by the word, and suppresses mutual edification.  Many services, when God isn’t allowed to be spontaneous, are boring.  Large numbers of people make mutual participation impossible.  How many people did Jesus mentor?  12, the disciples, and possibly at a lesser level, 70.  Personally, I’d advise against trying to do more than Jesus without specific guidance by the Holy Spirit.

            You can email me at simplechurchminute@gmail.com.  For more info on organic church*, see http://www.simplechurch.com/ or locally at (local website).

On the recording, at this time, it says, “house churches.”  While that phrasing is OK, to say “organic church” is better.  I comment on that in blip 94.