Church Reformation
by George G Delo
One of the things God is doing in this hour is liberating
His
people from the bondages created by the traditions of men within the
structure of the church.
More and more people are beginning to see that too much of what we do
and call church is based on the traditions and pride of men and they
are ready for
change to bring the church back to its scriptural basis. Only when we
operate according to the word of God do we have true liberty. We must
examine the
life and practices of the church in light of scripture to see how it
measures up. Anything which is contrary to the word must be removed as
it will always
result in legalism and bondage.
Tradition tells us that Paul the Apostle was beheaded in Rome around 66
AD. This tells us that the Book of Acts covers approximately 34 years
of church
history from its inception on the Day of Pentecost. Together with the
letters of Paul, Acts lays out the established life and practices of
the church
giving us a picture of church leadership, the functioning of the body
of Christ, and the basic doctrines of salvation. Over the course of
thirty some
years, the life and practices of the church were well established. Much
like today, church size varied from place to place from small to mega
size. The
church in Jerusalem had at least 5,000 members at one time according to
Acts 4:4 and that number only included the men believers, not the women
and
children. So to say that today’s church cannot follow
scriptural
practice because of its size or any other reason is just not valid. If
anything, today’s
church (in America) has greater liberty to follow scripture as the New
Testament church spent most of its years under severe persecution.
Most of the problems with today’s church are rooted in our
wrong
concept of the church. We have made the church an organization run by
men rather than an
organism run by the Holy Spirit. We have turned the church into a
financial entity, a corporate institution, and a hierarchical
organization. When the
church is turned into an organization it requires positions, offices,
titles, and all kinds of overhead expenses. It is then corrupted by
power-mongering,
greed, envy and jealousy. Most of the corruption we see in
today’s church is due to a wrong structure of church.
God intended His church to be a community of believers living in divine
love and fellowship with God and with one another. It was supposed to
be a
priesthood of believers serving God out of divine oneness and equality
with each other, in a spirit of humility, mutual submission, and
selflessness. It
was to be modeled after Jesus Christ who was of no reputation, the bond
servant of the Lord, in humility, and in obedience unto death.
The early church exemplified an intimate family community living and
growing together in love into their head Jesus Christ. The scriptures
picture a loving
household, not a bureaucratic business; a living organism, not a
hierarchical organization. The church is to be a corporate expression
of Christ, not a
religious corporation. It is an interdependent body, not a mechanical
machine. The church is people, not buildings. We are the church and
wherever two or
three of us gather, we are in church with the Lord Jesus Christ. The
church begins with individual living stones, but ends up a spiritual
house and a holy
priesthood as we are knit together in love.
We need to be willing to look at the various facets of the church as we
know it today and measure it against scripture. You will discover that
much of what
men have built is patterned after the Old Covenant Judaic system rather
than the New Covenant Holy Spirit resulting in a system lacking the
presence and
power of the glory of God. The present church system is based on
separation of God’s people by priestly classes, performer
style
meetings with a passive
priesthood, programs, buildings, hierarchy government, and outward
form. This has produced a nominal Christianity with an immature body, a
money-driven
organization, an elitist leadership, a professional worship, and very
little true fruit.
God’s destiny for the church was to be the place of His
glory.
The church should be the place of the fullness of God’s
presence
and power. It should be
dripping with the oil of His anointing. Its atmosphere should be
flooded with the fragrance of His presence. It should be saturated with
His love and
compassion. It should be rich in His fellowship and communion. It
should be charged with His joy and eternal pleasures. It should be
exploding with His
worship and praise and adoration. It should be constrained with His
reverence and awe. It should be flowing in healing, deliverance,
salvation, miracles,
signs and wonders. It should be electrified with zeal, passion, and
devotion. It should be knit together with bonds of demonstrable love,
care, support,
and respect. It should be an irresistible magnet drawing the lost, the
poor, the destitute, the sick, the addict, the prostitute, and the
needy, from the
least to the greatest.
The only way the church can come into its God given destiny is to
return to its scriptural roots in life and practice. Everything that
has corrupted it
must be rooted out and destroyed. The concept of a community of
believers living in mutual love, unity, and fellowship must be
restored. As Paul said,
“From whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what
every
joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part
does its share,
causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love”
(Ephesians 4:16). Every member must become a supplying joint of
God’s grace and power so that
the body can be knit together in love. A pile of bricks does not make a
building. Only as each living stone is fitly joined to another can the
body of
Christ be “built together for a dwelling place of God in the
Spirit” (Ephesians 2:22).
The church must become relevant to the crucial times in which we live.
Reformation is a must.
George G Delo
ggdelo@gmail.com
http://powerfortodaypropheticministries.org