My heart has been aching for decades, and the ache has recently been increasing in this last year or so. Back in the late '70s and through the '80s I was involved with a church that followed the ministry of Watchman Nee. I learned a great deal in those years, but ultimately came to understand that that group did not actually follow (very well) what I was learning from them. I gained a lot of respect for Watchman Nee and his writings, especially about how the church should be. Toward the end of my time there, I learned of others who had experienced church life that more closely matched what I had learned, but most of them were no longer there; they were history now.
Through all this time, and even back into the early '70s, I have been interested in meeting in homes, and have been involved with quite a variety of them. About a year or so ago, God opened my mind to something that I believe is a major key to what is needed.
Before I describe what I believe God gave me a new understanding of, I need to set the stage. Without describing the background and putting in place a number of biblical patters, it would be hard to see what I wish to describe.
Paul speaks of "the body of Christ" in many places, and has quite a lot to say about it. The first point he makes in many places is, there is "one body." Today I have heard preachers speak about "their local body" within the confines of "their church." This is completely contrary to what Paul says.
I want you to see what Paul actually says. Here are some of the verses where Paul describes the "body":
Ephesians 1:22-23
22 And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
Ephesians 2:16
and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.
Ephesians 3:6
that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel,
Ephesians 4:4
There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling;
Ephesians 4:11-13
11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;
Ephesians 4:16
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 5:23
For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body.
Ephesians 5:30
For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones.
To the Corinthians he writes:
1 Corinthians 10:16-17
16 The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? 17 For we, though many, are one bread and one body; for we all partake of that one bread.
1 Corinthians 12:12-26
12 For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. 14 For in fact the body is not one member but many. 15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? 18 But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. 19 And if they were all one member, where would the body be? 20 But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. 21 And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary. 23 And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor; and our unpresentable parts have greater modesty, 24 but our presentable parts have no need. But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it, 25 that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. 26 And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.
And to the Romans he says:
Romans 12:4-5
4 For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, 5 so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.
Paul describes more about the characteristics of this one body:
1 Corinthians 1:10
Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.
Paul wrote this in the same letter, to the Corinthians, where he wrote at length about the "one body."
In chapter 1 he is addressing the first problem in the church in Corinth, which was division.
It started out within the local gathering of the church in Corinth; they were divided saying things like,
"I am of Paul,"
"I am of Apollos,"
"I am of Cephus [that is Peter]" and
"I am of Christ."
It started there within a local meeting, but today we have carried that division to cover the entire earth
with some 40 thousand denominations named as
"I am of Luther" (Lutheran churches),
"I am of Meno Simons" (Menonite, where I was as a child),
"I am of Christ" (The Church of Christ).
And the names proliferate into
"I am of baptism" (the Baptist churches.)
and thousands more!
Divisions everywhere. And what about "all speaking the same thing"? Completely unheard of with how many conflicting "Systematic Theologies."
While there certainly have been many who have desired to return to something more pure, with the non-denominational churches and the house church movements in recent decades, there is one major factor that as far as I can tell has been completely missed.
As I said, I have been a part of many home meetings over the decades and have heard about many more, but I have never heard of anyone even aware of this missing factor.
I am talking about the body of Christ being all connected together. Let me repeat that; "All connected together!"
Imagine what it might be like if there were five or twenty, or even a hundred home meetings in your city that were all connected together, networked with each other across all background denomination boundaries! Think about that. dozens or even thousands of people meeting in multiple houses, all interconnected, by most (if not all) of the people involved in several home meetings each week.
What would that do?
Well before I try to describe what I believe God showed me a year or two ago, I want you to see the interconnectedness that Paul describes:
Ephesians 4:11-16
11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 16 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.
Remember that Paul repeats over and over that there is only one body. So in this portion Paul is talking about that "one body" on planet earth. "Till we all come to the unity of the faith," and "the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies."
It is not "by what every pastor supplies." No, it is "according to the effective working by which every part does its share." It is when every "member" of the body "does its share." Each of us is a member of the same body. If we go back to verse 11 where Paul starts this section, where Paul speaks of those Christ "gave," that is the "apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors (better "shepherds") and teachers, note that it says their job is "12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying (building-up) of the body of Christ," This "building-up" of the body is done my "the saints"—that is, the rest of us! It is only when "every part" (every member) "does its share."
This never happens in big meetings. It can only happen in small meetings where it is possible for everyone present to actually have opportunity to share something! I have recently been in a few small meetings where during a single meeting, every person has spoken and contributed to the discussion. This is absolutely key in order for "the whole body" to be "joined and knit together by what every joint supplies."
But the networking of all the small meetings with each other is the other key that is absolutely necessary.
The Church needs to be a "net." "Networking" means being connected like a net. Consider the first two brothers that Jesus called to be His disciples, Peter and Andrew. They were fishing with a net, and Jesus said "I will make you fishers of men." Then the next pair of brothers He called as His disciples, James and John, were in the boat with their father mending the net.
Today the net has been torn into thousands of shreds. It is absolutely necessary for the net to be mended!
So this "networking" of the home meetings with each other is absolutely vital. Without it all we have is the present divisions.
Consider again Paul's letters. We have very clear evidence that the churches at his time were still networked with each other. We can see this in his letters to the various churches:
First let's look at the end of his letter to the Romans:
Romans 16:3-23
3 Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus,
4 who risked their own necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles.
5 Likewise greet the church that is in their house.
Greet my beloved Epaenetus, who is the firstfruits of Achaia to Christ.
6 Greet Mary, who labored much for us.
7 Greet Andronicus and Junia, my countrymen and my fellow prisoners, who are of note among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me.
8 Greet Amplias, my beloved in the Lord.
9 Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ,
and Stachys, my beloved.
10 Greet Apelles, approved in Christ.
Greet those who are of the household of Aristobulus.
11 Greet Herodion, my countryman.
Greet those who are of the household of Narcissus who are in the Lord.
12 Greet Tryphena and Tryphosa, who have labored in the Lord.
Greet the beloved Persis, who labored much in the Lord.
13 Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine.
14 Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermas, Patrobas, Hermes, and the brethren who are with them.
15 Greet Philologus and Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints who are with them.
16 Greet one another with a holy kiss. The churches of Christ greet you.
...
21 Timothy, my fellow worker, and Lucius, Jason, and Sosipater, my countrymen, greet you.
22 I, Tertius, who wrote this epistle, greet you in the Lord.
23 Gaius, my host and the host of the whole church, greets you. Erastus, the treasurer of the city, greets you, and Quartus, a brother.
24 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.
There are all these greetings because these people from different cities and even different countries knew each other. That is because they were networked together!
No one sends "greetings" from or to people they have never heard of.
We need to repair the net today!
One last thing I learned just today (November 18, 2024). I was reading in "Organic Church Planting" by Frank Viola (2009), and I came across a quote by R. Paul Stevens:
"The Greek word for equipping, “katartismos,” is used as a noun only once—in Ephesians 4:12. But the word has an interesting medical history in classical Greek. To equip is to put a bone or a part of the human body into right relationship with the other parts of the body so that every part fits thoroughly.... A Greek doctor would “equip” a body by putting a bone back into its correct relationship with the other members of the body."
This is the Greek word here in this verse:
Ephesians 4:11-13
11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;
So it is the job of those men Jesus "gave" to the church to "put the members (saints)" into proper relationship with the other members. Thus resulting in one body all connected together!
I had a hard time imagining how the body could ever start "speaking the same thing" when we each come from different denominational backgrounds with their systematic theologies "cast in concrete" as they are.
As long as the house churches are only "sub-parts" of the bigger churches,
and not networked, Baptists will only ever meet with baptists, and Presbyterians with Presbyterians, etc., etc.
But when the small meetings are networked across all boundaries,
then what is shared in one meeting will be heard by people with different backgrounds
and will be discussed from different viewpoints which will cause the members to study things
that they would never hear about in their denominational background.
This would allow the Holy Spirit to bring unity of understanding through