Today denominationalism and the existence of institutional churches (buildings) abound across the fruited plain. Did you ever wonder where it all came from? In the church that Christ founded, a singular, simple but profoundly dynamic group of people quickly spread across the map of the then known world. There was no such thing as Baptist, Lutheran, Anglican or Assembly of God, to name a few. Now people who come to Christ are faced with a jungle of religious traditions to choose from. How does one choose? Should one have to choose? Another reality today is the explosion of house fellowships, where fellowship is really fellowship, spiritual growth is personal and there is an openness between people. These have come out of various religious backgrounds to share in a rich organic reality that truly helps people to know for themselves what it is to follow Jesus Christ. Join author Jon Zens in this book that takes a part traditions that have divided the body of Christ into groups, built walls under various guises and separated people of faith by distinctives that Christ did not author. Zens is a 25-year veteran of simple church and is editor of Searching Together magazine, a quarterly publication rooted in setting people free of religious bondage in its various forms.

A Church Building Every 1/2 Mile: What Makes American Christianity Tick?

Zens, Jon

Religion & Spirituality

Quoir

A.M. Fairbairn noted concerning the early church that "regarded as to its internal relating, it was a family...in the apostles' day churches were so small that everyone knew every other and kept a watchful eye on one another." Most people would readily admit that now the majority of churches have lost a vital family atmosphere. In Jesus Is Family, the contours of life together in Christ are unfolded in hopes that the Lord will birth committed groups in which the joys of Spirit-led family will be recovered.

Jesus Is Family: His Life Together

Moving toward seeing "Jesus only"
In They Looked Up and Saw Jesus Only, Jon chronicles the contours of his personal journey, as reflected in his 40 years of editing BRR/ST from 1978-2018. Beginning with C.H. Dodd's 1946 lecture in England, The Gospel and the Law of Christ, which signaled a turning-point in New Testament studies, Jon then presents highlights from his early writings, which have never been published or have been long out-of-print.
Triggered by his 1972 reflections on "Of God's Covenant" in the 1742 Philadelphia Confession of Faith, Jon was brought to question the major systems of theology, and began to see that Jesus inaugurated a New Covenant with His blood. This led him to focus on the New imperative to "love one another" as He loved us on the Cross. The "one another" in this love-command led him to realize that there were 58 "one another's" running like a thread through the New Testament. This, in turn, caused him to ask, "How do the sisters fit in as these one-another's are worked out in the life of Christ's body, the ekklesia?" He became convinced that systems of theology generally had marginalized Christ, that most church structures were dominated by "the pastor," thus minimizing the 58 one-another's, and that Christ's work was seen in the New Testament as a "New Exodus," fulfilling the shadow of the mighty Red Sea exodus. As Augustine Stock put it: "The coming of Jesus is the new definitive Exodus--this is the burden of the Gospels' message...The Exodus tradition then seems to be one of the most fundamental in Scripture. All stages of redemptive history subsequent to the first event used the Exodus to explain its own meaning. If modern readers no longer feel completely at home with it, this is only because they have lost their Scriptural heritage to a large degree." (Cited in a very important book, Echoes of Exodus: Tracing a Biblical Motif, InterVarsity Press, 2018, p. 208; for further, deeper reflection see T. Desmond Alexander, Exodus: Apollos Old Testament Commentary, 2, InterVarsity Press, 2017, 764 pp.)

They Looked Up and Saw Jesus Only: Searching Together: Fall/Winter 2018

It is hoped that the various perspectives provided in Elusive Community will stir you up to seek Jesus about connecting His life in you with His life in others. Father, Son and Spirit have always been an ongoing community. They created human beings for community and belonging. Humans are relational at their core. But sin has come and wrecked relationships in untold ways. Many have come to view relationships like the thorns that came after Adam and Eve's errant behavior. But Jesus by His cross created a New Humanity, a New Species, a Third Race where loving, accepting and safe communities emerged everywhere the Gospel was preached. These communities were far from perfect, but they were also far from functioning like earthly organizations. Taking their cue from Jesus, they were lovingly counter-cultural. May you be encouraged to be in step with Jesus' heart for His people to be in community, to be a display of His Kingdom now to the principalities and powers

Elusive Community: Why Do We Avoid What We Were Created For?

Many think that the phrase "body of Christ" is just a picture or a metaphor, but in fact it is a reality. Believers are the body of Christ on earth. The ministry of Jesus has continued through His people since the Day of Pentecost in 30 A.D. Frank Viola pinpoints this truth that is revolutionary, but became buried underneath human traditions. 
What had taken place [on the Day of Pentecost]? The body of Christ was born on the earth. But what does that mean? It means this: The literal body of Jesus Christ had returned to earth. It expanded; God now had a family. 
Jesus Christ in heaven had dispensed Himself into His body on earth. He returned to earth in the form of His body, the church, and His species was reintroduced to the planet. 
In the eyes of God, the Church is nothing more and nothing less than Jesus Christ on earth. (From Eternity to Here) 
In We Are Christ On Earth, Jon opens up a number of crucial implications flowing out of "Christ in us, the hope of glory." He presents perspectives that liberate the people of God to express and serve Jesus in endless ways. Perhaps we will better understand why Jesus said to Saul, "Why do you persecute Me?" when he was arresting and hurting believers.

We Are Christ on Earth: The Visible Expression of Jesus in Space and Time

Don't Be Called Leaders

Christian Books & Bibles

Theology

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