Our core investment is a way of describing what you are committing your time, resource, finance etc to. Obviously you wouldn't be doing this if you were not somehow utterly convinced (to the core) that it is a valid pursuit. For many Christians their core investment comes from a clear leading from the Lord and most are happy to say it is their 'calling.'
Lets park the core investment of the individual for a moment. Most Christians believe that the meet in a prepared hall, have leaders to preside over the meeting and preach the word of God after singing songs, taking an offering and sharing bread and wine, is generally church. (give or take a few testimonies, drama, psalm reading etc etc). However contemporary or not defines how progressive you are but essentially the same basic elements. The form of church then, seems a constant. We must also include the Roman Catholics here because however skewed their Theology, add the smells, bells and extra sacrament around 'church pie,' it's still the same elements of practice. We are going to see why this matters shortly.
In the Old Testament God wanted people to core invested into the practice of meeting together to symbolically because all that was tangible about God was symbolic. That means while people could experience their Lord, the mechanism where he would really save them and really live within to outwork his purposes was impossible until Jesus completed his work at Calvary. So faith and practice was being core invested in meeting in special places, observing the priesthood, singing, listening to the leaders, carrying out prescribed acts etc. This would have created a shared sense of community, a shared sense of purpose, a oneness like much of the church experiences(and in doing so feels blessed). However, this is not God's purpose for the church age.
Jesus' death, resurrection and ascension meant the Holy Spirit could come and live in us. Previously there was no way of having our sin-state dealt with. Now we can live a life of repentance and God really lives in us. With this in view, there is no need to symbolise or ritualise God in any way. Paul the Apostle warns the Galatians about doing the 'old thing' and 1 Corinthians warns about doing 'the done thing' and it is just common sense that you cant just do anything. But in some ways, we can't blame the first Christians for defaulting to what they knew, or doing the thing they saw around them. The Jews were in error for thinking they needed to distinctify their origins but mostly the first Christians looked around them and did what they had learned from an early age. Their culture was full of Greek wisdom in practice. This was man's reasoning and conclusions from the thoughts of men. It led to a logic in leadership and practices that honoured the celebrity of the age - the orator, philosopher, the sage. So they defaulted to that and Paul corrected them, clearly pointing out in the first 4 chapters why they do this.
So what do you do when your entire background and upbringing is based on the plan of man's reasoning and wisdom? Perhaps it would be good to find what God's plan is? In order to both avoid the old thing, the done thing and just plain anything (Old/Done/Any), the Apostles all taught to meet as described in 1 Corinthians. The net result of this is meeting in a non-O/D/A environment with the basics of what would foster 'family.' So the bare bones of the New Testament church practice of meeting in homes with a meal, leaders but not hierarchy and open and equal sharing was taught by all the Apostles. But when all said and done, the point of this more what would come of interacting as brothers and sisters rather than the form in which the meet. Because of the completed work of Christ, it was more about not doing the O/D/A and facilitating our spirit filled life. A cursory view of the scriptures will show that our purpose of being saved is to do with the Spirit's work and leading within us as we interact with our brothers and sisters. if you like, the only contract we have as Christians is to outwork our common 'inchristness' as brothers and sisters.
It is matter of fact that whichever way up this lands, Jesus did tell his disciples at the Last Supper that whenever you meet together , THIS DO in remembrance of me. So no surprise that Jesus puts forward the idea to the Apostles that meeting as discussed is the way church should be done.
In terms of 'core investment' I wanted to outline my reasoning for part 2, which is the next post on this blog.
Lets park the core investment of the individual for a moment. Most Christians believe that the meet in a prepared hall, have leaders to preside over the meeting and preach the word of God after singing songs, taking an offering and sharing bread and wine, is generally church. (give or take a few testimonies, drama, psalm reading etc etc). However contemporary or not defines how progressive you are but essentially the same basic elements. The form of church then, seems a constant. We must also include the Roman Catholics here because however skewed their Theology, add the smells, bells and extra sacrament around 'church pie,' it's still the same elements of practice. We are going to see why this matters shortly.
In the Old Testament God wanted people to core invested into the practice of meeting together to symbolically because all that was tangible about God was symbolic. That means while people could experience their Lord, the mechanism where he would really save them and really live within to outwork his purposes was impossible until Jesus completed his work at Calvary. So faith and practice was being core invested in meeting in special places, observing the priesthood, singing, listening to the leaders, carrying out prescribed acts etc. This would have created a shared sense of community, a shared sense of purpose, a oneness like much of the church experiences(and in doing so feels blessed). However, this is not God's purpose for the church age.
Jesus' death, resurrection and ascension meant the Holy Spirit could come and live in us. Previously there was no way of having our sin-state dealt with. Now we can live a life of repentance and God really lives in us. With this in view, there is no need to symbolise or ritualise God in any way. Paul the Apostle warns the Galatians about doing the 'old thing' and 1 Corinthians warns about doing 'the done thing' and it is just common sense that you cant just do anything. But in some ways, we can't blame the first Christians for defaulting to what they knew, or doing the thing they saw around them. The Jews were in error for thinking they needed to distinctify their origins but mostly the first Christians looked around them and did what they had learned from an early age. Their culture was full of Greek wisdom in practice. This was man's reasoning and conclusions from the thoughts of men. It led to a logic in leadership and practices that honoured the celebrity of the age - the orator, philosopher, the sage. So they defaulted to that and Paul corrected them, clearly pointing out in the first 4 chapters why they do this.
So what do you do when your entire background and upbringing is based on the plan of man's reasoning and wisdom? Perhaps it would be good to find what God's plan is? In order to both avoid the old thing, the done thing and just plain anything (Old/Done/Any), the Apostles all taught to meet as described in 1 Corinthians. The net result of this is meeting in a non-O/D/A environment with the basics of what would foster 'family.' So the bare bones of the New Testament church practice of meeting in homes with a meal, leaders but not hierarchy and open and equal sharing was taught by all the Apostles. But when all said and done, the point of this more what would come of interacting as brothers and sisters rather than the form in which the meet. Because of the completed work of Christ, it was more about not doing the O/D/A and facilitating our spirit filled life. A cursory view of the scriptures will show that our purpose of being saved is to do with the Spirit's work and leading within us as we interact with our brothers and sisters. if you like, the only contract we have as Christians is to outwork our common 'inchristness' as brothers and sisters.
It is matter of fact that whichever way up this lands, Jesus did tell his disciples at the Last Supper that whenever you meet together , THIS DO in remembrance of me. So no surprise that Jesus puts forward the idea to the Apostles that meeting as discussed is the way church should be done.
In terms of 'core investment' I wanted to outline my reasoning for part 2, which is the next post on this blog.
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