Do you live by faith?

It says in more than one place in the New Testament that 'the righteous will live by faith.' Faith is relying on the unseen. The biggest example is how we as Christians believe in God who is not seen. It's unreasonable yet we choose to believe in Him... that is faith. When I teach that the church should be small groups meeting in homes around a meal with everyone contributing... and that will cause revolution... people think I am out of my mind. The reason is that methods for success in organisations are tried and tested and the church utilises these methods to outwork the purpose of 'church.' Doing the done thing is not living by faith! Its living by methodology and human planning.

The church that has no resemblance to what 'works' seems foolish and powerless. However this is exactly what God wants! We need faith to be part of something just because he says so, not because we think it has the right components or the elements of something that has worked before. It takes no faith to attend a church whose visions and plans are straight from modern day business techniques. Still my Bible tells me 'the righteous shall live by faith.'

Paul the Apostle told the Corinthians that they should meet around a full meal with bread and wine as a part. He also told that faltering church that their heirarchical divisions were not good. He also told them that when they meet together each should have a contribution. In churches we find the meal reduced to a token gesture, heirarchies in abundance and a small group of 'experts' speaking to the crowd.

I communicate to many ministers who feel that the existance of the church to this point in history is validation for their practice. If validation is gained by existance then the Roman Catholics are also doing the right thing! Validation by existence is a weak argument and underlines that we need to see the church in scripture.

I want to see people become Christians but I believe it would be a revolution if people simply returned to New Testament church practice. Why? because God says so. How? I dont know..... but thats faith for ya!