The Disastrous Success of A.D. 313: How the Church managed to hog-tie Itself. A terrible thing happened on the way to the Millennum: in the 4th Century, the churchs wheels fell off. Until then, it had looked like the Gospel would reach the Uttermost parts at chariot race speed. No such luck. Just after A.D,300, the church made the biggest blunder in its history and crashed. Hardly anyone knows about this blunder today except Scholars. And yet the effects were disastrous: *Laymen lost the three key freedoms that had fueled the rapid growth: open worship, open sharing, and open ministry. *The church degenerated from an army or family into and audience-overnight in some places! *Evangelism slowed to a crawl. Or an ooze. *Church leaders got the bright idea of diversifying into politics, and took over whole governments. we now remember this period as the, uh, Dark Ages. Where did we go wrong? Within thirty years of Christs ascension, the gospel was being preached in every outpost of the Roman Empire. Unencumbered by mortgages, committees, staff salaries, and conflicts between choir rehearsal and church softball team practice, the followers of the Way blazed a trail of stunning successes! Thn as the church grew in the first 3 centuries, it thrived on hard times and persecution! *In hard times the churchs strong grass-roots mutual-assistance charities held everyone together. *In persecution, the government sharply defined the church by pushing everyone together, figuratively. And the act of taking a stand for Christ strengthed each man, woman and child. What was their secret? First, *The Presence of The Living God was in them and with them! Second, *the weekly gathering of the church, an informal and often-boisterous affair with a full-on meal, not just a polite ceremony with an itty bitty breadcrumb and a thimbleful of Welchs. Church life was a Floating gathering, with everyone eating dinner at each others houses and participating 100% in the festivities. At the weekly get-together, everyone was the attention of the Gathering, Everyone was necessary with each of their giftings. Spirits were lifted, problems solved, hurts healed, hearts fed, and the Lord of lords Spoke to every soul, and moved through every soul who was there. But the Best Part of the Gathering, THE LOVE-FEAST [JUDE 12]. It was Electrafying in Nature....and The Lords Presence was ever there, each time they met....The people also experience The Presence of the Lord daily as they Walked in the Spirit and was Led by The Spirit in everything they were doing....This was their Way of Life! Day in Day out...it was All about HIM! And in so doing they were filled with the Spirit over and over again.....Sharing and Caring, and Living for Him, with Him, and for Each other...Daily! From our vantage point today, it looks as if they had an unbeatable thing going. A sure-fire, runaway, free-wheeling style of church that was gobbling up Satan;ss territory like a giant pac-man! Light...Bright Lights Of God shinning brightly everywhere they went, and in everything they attempted to do it was blessed with His Presence and an awesome outcome of sometimes hundreds being added to the church daily! And those looking from the outside....fear and trembling came upon them and they were in Awe at what their eyes were seeing! Why, then, did the roaring success of the early days fade? When did we cool off and settle for so much less that what God planned for us to experience? Well, as we grew larger and more popular, our feeling of being a Distinct family waned. In a well-churched city, its hard to think of everybody as a brother or sister in the Lord. us vs. them psychology doesnt work when almost everyone is Us. The church became less of a Revolutionary band and more of a static establishment. Eloquent preachers began to attract large followings. The final strw came in 313, when Emperor Constantine I issued the Edict of Milan, officially tolerating the church and ending the persecutions. Church leaders from popes to local bishops got involved with the government. Many even became officials. at that time it looked like a good idea. As it turned out, though, it was a lousy idea. Our top leaders drifted astray on a long long power trip and let their flocks wander. After this first flurry of church buildings in 327, we ceased being AN INTERACTIVE FAMILY AND TURNED INTO AN AUDIENCE OF SPECTATORS. In the biggest blunder in her history, the church began constructing lots of buildings, displacing the catacombs and forest glens-and ending forever the warm, precious, meetings in someones living room, or by the side of a river, or under someones tent! When they switched from living room settings to church buildings and professionally staffed the local church, we lost all momentum, and the local church lost its intimacy with God and with each other and became weak and cold and lethargic. [Excerpt from James H. Rutz in The Rebirth of the Church]
Posted on: Sun, 02 Feb 2014 20:08:02 +0000
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