Ekklesia - Rethinking various topics regarding "the Church" (global and local)
One of the few things I am certain of is that *something* amazing happened in the first century. In that century it started in Jerusalem and Judea and quickly radiated outward to Samaria, Syria, the Anatolian peninsula, the Balkan peninsula, and the Italian peninsula. Truly amazing and wonderful things happened through a Hebrew prophet and rabbi known as Yeshua. He showed his glory through miracles that were signs that he was speaking for God. He fulfilled prophecies and types and symbols made by the earlier prophets. He demonstrated his authority over disease, over nature, over spirits, over the laws of physics. He offered Kingship to his own people while their land was occupied by the Romans. His offer of kingship was rejected for many reasons; the main reason perhaps being, humanly speaking, "that it is better for one man to die for Israel than for all Israel to die for the one man." He made audacious claims and, perhaps as if to validate them all, proceeded to conquer Death its self. He trained and appointed about a dozen or so unimpressive fellows and sent them out as ambassadors. These ambassadors trained apprentices all over the Roman Empire and formed them into small communities that were to be "in the world but not of it." They practiced a type of love which the Hebrews, the Greeks, and the Romans had never seen before.
Another thing I am also sure of is that I am so far very unimpressed with pretty much everything labeled "Christian" or "Church" between the 3rd and 21st centuries. There may be many exceptions which are worthy of mention but they are, in my current opinion, eclipsed by the general bloodiness and ugliness that have come to characterize the majority form of visible, historical Christianity.
When i look at the original version of "the way" under the leadership of the apostles i have to say I'm more than intrigued. Consider this teasing glimpse of the earliest Church from a letter written from a companion of the Apostles to a Roman named Theophilus:
They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. . . All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all. There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.
Rethinker.net/ekklesia is my attempt to explore what the church was back in the first century, explore what went wrong with it during and after the first century, explore some noble attempts to return to the original model, and to rethink ways of recreating the global-and-local Church into something more closely resembling the original apostolic models. While the Emergent Church movement seems to be leading the Evangelical Christian sheep back into the Christianity of the Patristic and Mystics dating from 100 AD to 600 AD, I here am staunch in the attempt to focus only on the Church that the Apostles--particularly Paul, Peter, and John--were trying to build.
Rethink links in this category are:
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The Lord's Table - exploring the centrality of the banquet table in the earliest churches
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The Identity and Mission of the Church - Rethinking who the church really is and what it should (and should not) be doing in this world (very incomplete)
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Waging Peace on Islam - A seminal prototype of The Identity and Mission of the Church
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The Formation, Deformation and Reformation of the Church (still in the works)
Stolen Goods:
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(Video) Glimpses of the "Last Supper" Seder and first Lord's Supper
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The Apostolic Office and Apostolic Sign Gifts (taken from Norm Geisler)
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Lessons to be learned about dialogue-based teaching (taken from William Barclay)
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Familial Love Among the Christians of the First Four Centuries (taken from James Russell)
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The Door Interview with William Campbell (taken from William Campbell)
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Re-consecration to a Wartime Lifestyle - (taken from Ralph Winter)