Important characteristics:
1. Decentralized-This one is huge for many reasons we will get into here. First of all what did the Lord say?
| But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves. |
That's called ^^ leading from the bottom up, NOT the top down. More to say on this in a moment.
What does the world look like? Everything, all of it is top down. Both fortune 500 companies and todays so called churches are all organized the same. All you have to do is cut the word "pastor" and paste the word "CEO" onto today's church 'leaders' and the transformation is complete.
Why is this world structured top down? Bottom line? Because its the only way, finite, limited intelligence, limited power beings can command and control organizations. But the Biblical church model does NOT look like this, which is why the house church or "cell" is ideal. Why? Think of a house church like one cell in a human body. On its own, that one cell is somewhat insignificant (which turns out to be a strength, not a weakness). All of the cells put together however equate to the body, and we know the Head is Jesus Christ.
Here we need to talk about military tactics 101. This is the weakness of worldly organizations and a church structured on this world and its systems. When we went to war in Iraq in 2003, what were the first targets? Command and control centers. Why? Decapitate the leadership then you can pick off the lower levels of the military organization piecemeal. Why does the enemy love the centralized worldly churches? Because the so called "leaders" are easy pickings for decapitation campaigns through sex, drugs, whatever. Then what happens to the rest of the organization once the leaders are toppled? The enemy can take his time dismantling it as only the Lord knows how many people leave in disgust each and every time another priest or pastor is found with child porn, gay lovers, etc. The damage is immeasurable.
This is where decentralization is key. What exactly do you gain if you 'decapitate' a single cell in an entire body? This is why intelligence agencies compartmentalize. If one cell is compromised the other cells live on uninterrupted.
The part of this that left me somewhat speechless was the Spirit of the Lord's expanded explanation of why decentralization works for the Body of Christ (a spiritual organization) but not for worldly organizations? In addition to everything above, get this..The Lord our God is the only Being in the universe that can be 100% present everywhere, with 100% of His power, 100% of the time. This capability is reserved for Almighty God alone. So, the Head of our Body is supremely capable of being 100% present with all of His power all the time in each and every "cell" or home Church in the body. Let that sink in. This is why bottom up works for the true Church but is catastrophic for the worldly church. Our command and control, the Head, The Lord Jesus Christ is capable of something finite limited beings (including our spiritual enemies) are not. The Head of our Church can and will be in every cell with all of His power intelligence, counsel, wisdom etc, all of the time. Simply put, awesome.
As a small aside along these same lines, mankind thinks it has really turned a corner with the discovery of quantum computing. They discovered that if they take an atom down to around absolute zero temperatures it can co-locate or occupy two places in space at the same time. Bravo! Mankind just advanced 1/8 of an inch on an infinitely long road toward being "gods." Think about that, a real 'revolution' to be able to get something to locate in two different places at the same time. What this really is, is the creation glorifying the Creator. Why? The mechanics behind quantum computing point directly toward our Creator. Mankind after thousands of years on earth just learned how to take one atom and cause it to locate two (and only two) places in space at the same time while our God infinitely co locates across the entirety of space and time with all His power, at all times.
Bottom Line?
Decentralized is a requirement and a mandate for the true Church. This eliminates the idolatry inherent in the pastoral/nicolaitan system:
| But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. |
Nico=conquer, laitan=laity. There are no "lay people" in the Body of Christ, period. It only exists in the world and the Babylonian styled church system setup all around us. It makes it much harder for the enemy to compromise the Body because he has to slog it out one single cell at a time. The more you think the more awe inspiring it is. This is just one more piece of evidence that we serve an awesome God.
The Head of the Body-our Lord Jesus Christ is perfectly capable of performing omniscient, all powerful, omnipresent command and control of each and every decentralized cell in the Body, 100% of the time. And with Jesus Christ Himself sitting as command and control of each cell, good luck trying to 'decapitate' the leadership.
Glory to God!
