Servant Leadership
The beauty of Church is that its relational, simple and yet as Paul declares a great mystery. The people of the first 1st Century had an idea of leadership that was very fixed in their thinking
Gathering Saints Blog – articles from various authors
Please take a look at new posts in our gathering-saints-blog
Simple Church Gatherings
God never designed church to be complex, in fact it was the simplicity of just loving that the early disciples who followed Jesus struggled with. Have you ever considered that the rich man that came to Jesus might have thought that his wealth would be attractive to the ministry of Jesus! but Jesus told him to give it all away and leave it all behind. Jesus came to establish a body, a family that would simply love Him, each other and all humanity.
Church is not about attracting an audience, its about gathering saints to participate in listening to Jesus and ministering His love to each other. Its about bringing everyone into their gifting and allowing His Spirit to be the Minister of Grace in each one of us.
Many churches already follow some of the traditions established by the apostles. Timeless traditions that guide and direct simple church practice. We are seeking to embrace all and not some.
We really like this media presentation from Karis Publishing – House2House Publications. The principles are timeless and reveal some authentic church practice.
Can you leave some of your idea’s of church behind. We are gathering saints
The principles we find in the New Testament account of church practice are a record of “Apostolic Traditons” and these include
The Lords Supper – We celebrate the Lord’s Supper as a full fellowship meal, celebrated weekly and as a central focus for our gathering.
Participatory church meetings – Each member being able to contribute, using the gifts of the Spirit to edify the church and love one another
Church Government by Consensus – Elder led, plurality of elders, non-hierarchical, servant leaders who seek to encourage consensus in decision making, decisions made by the whole church.
Home sized churches – A multiplicity of small congregations which encourage intimate fellowship with Jesus and one another.
Meeting regularly on the Lord’s Day – Gathering on Sunday, the first day of the week, to honour our risen King and His glorious resurrection. He is always the start of our week, we begin life with Him. Our present calendar encourages most churches to approach Sunday as the end of the week. This simple mistaken thought changes so much of what we do at our Sunday gatherings.
Children present in the gathering – Uniting families rather than separation and valuing the contribution of those to whom belongs the Kingdom
Community based church – Gathering in our local community and encouraging daily fellowship amongst those who will witness our love
Church reproduction of new House Churches – We will GO to the lost! rather than expect the lost to come. Remaining small and intimate in order to retain all these Apostolic traditions.
Regular ministry meetings for in depth teaching of the scriptures – Being lovers of the Word we will gather in devotion to our Father so that we can go deeper into His Word