Renovating Church

In 2017 Wellspring had its first official gathering. I received the vision and calling for Wellspring in the fall of 2016 and that was confirmed by the church leadership that we served under as they blessed us and sent us out in January 2017. Since then I (and the fellow leaders that God has brought alongside us) have continually prayed for Holy Spirit guidance in this ekklesia called Wellspring. From the beginning and throughout the past eight years, I’ve sought the Lord on whether I should receive my provision through Wellspring or find other employment and just serve as a facilitator. And the Spirit continually confirms in agreement with the leaders that my focus is prayer and scripture, and that my provision will come from God through the ekklesia. For me and my family, this has been a constant walk of faith as we’ve seen giving vacillate, yet our story (just like all my brothers and sisters in Christ) has been one of continual divine provision.

Over the past years, God has brought shaking and awakening to the ekklesia around the world. Throughout history, He has brought incremental reformation to the ekklesia, but right now we are in a full on renovation. Many followers of Jesus are wrestling with what this governing body of Christ is truly suppose to look and operate like. I’ve even written a book titled “Becoming Ekklesia: Defining the Church“. But every day since I published this book I’ve had personal revelation and conviction. Though the book has been published, it feels unfinished because the renovation is still being revealed.

Some believers are so frustrated by the current condition of “church” that they’ve checked out and thrown the baby out with the bath water. But I believe that’s a massive error based in offense. God isn’t throwing out “church” but He is tearing it down to its foundation in order to restore the “ekklesia”. In this process, He’s taking us back to the beginning:

a body birthed in faith in Jesus Christ and operating in His divine love
led and empowered by Holy Spirit
with diverse but necessary functions among the parts.

“But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”
— Acts 6:4 ESV

Before Jesus’ crucifixion and ascension, the Hebrew people were given a model of how to live as a people of God. This included a long list of rules to teach them how to love God and each other, and this included structures of leadership and processes of operation. What we call “The Law” is an entire social engineering blueprint for a community of people based on the Old Covenant. Jesus instituted a better covenant with ONE better rule. The New Covenant is based on faith in Jesus Christ and has one commandment: love your fellow believers like Jesus does. With this new foundation and new commandment, we also see the formation of a new kind of community with a new blueprint. We move from the hierarchies of religion and legalism to the family of faith and love.

When Jesus establishes what we call the “church” (in Greek the ekklesia), He alone is the King and the High Priest and all who have faith in Him become a kingdom of priests under His one headship. Yet we aren’t just under Him but become co-heirs with Him. Jesus brought a new paradigm for community and its structure and mode of operation. Interestingly, humans have wrestled with actually living out this paradigm for the past two-thousand years. To this day, we’re still trying to put the proverbial “new wine in the old wineskin”. We keep falling back into human led versus Spirit led.

Jesus took twelve non-priests out of the crowds that followed Him, drew them into increased intimacy with Himself, and then left them to figure out how to be the new community. We know one of them (Judas) turned on Jesus and was replaced by another close follower, but the twelve disciples would institute God’s new people just like the twelve tribes of Israel instituted God’s old people. Father God didn’t leave the disciples to figure it all out on their own. He gave them the gift of His Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, to lead them in this radical, new construction project.

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
— Ephesians 2:19-22 ESV

The first and most important stone in the foundation is Jesus Christ, and then forming the foundation alongside the Cornerstone are the apostles and prophets. That foundation was established two-thousand years ago; and from the beginning until now, the saints have been tasked with becoming the household of God. But over and over we’ve forgotten Ephesians 2:22 ESV: “In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God BY THE SPIRIT.” The same Spirit that Father sent to birth the ekklesia (this household of God) is also the only One who builds the ekklesia. Humans can’t build without editing and adjusting the blueprints. We just can’t do it if we’re not being guided by the Spirit. This is the purpose and motive and function of human leadership in the ekklesia —to first and foremost be Spirit-led.

In Acts 6, the leaders are pressing into the Spirit by dedicating their time to Scripture and prayer. This was their priority, and this was and continues to be the necessary priority of leaders in Kingdom communities. They said, “We will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” This is not because they’re better or because they are elevated over the rest of the community. This is for the benefit of the community. Jesus’ model of leadership is always servant leadership. Leadership is service. In fact, when the first leaders made their declaration in Acts 6, they also instructed the rest of the community to establish deacons. The origin of the word deacon is diako, meaning “to run on errands”. There is no hierarchy but there are necessary roles of service. Jesus is the first and the last, the cornerstone and the topstone, and we are the living stones being positioned and built up by the Spirit. And we honor, pray, and provide for people who have been called to the sole focus of seeking His Spirit’s direction in building the ekklesia. They are construction managers under the main Project Manger (Holy Spirit).

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
— Ephesians 4:11-16 ESV

A direct translation of Ephesians 4:11 from the Greek would say, “And He gave some indeed to be apostles, some now prophets, some now evangelists, some now shepherds and teachers.” Jesus provides some sent ones, some hearing ones, some messengers, and some shepherd-teachers (what we refer to as pastors) for the benefit of the body, to equip the saints to operate as Kingdom agents and to assist the Spirit of Christ in building the body of Christ. Notice verse 16. As each member is operating properly, Jesus MAKES His body GROW so that IT BUILDS ITSELF up in love. An essential part of right operation is the culture of divine love. In that Spirit-led, love-based, right operation, the ekklesia builds itself. It’s designed to happen as the product of each part functioning correctly by the Spirit.

I was sent out by other Spirit-led leaders to obediently initiate Wellspring. And my continuing role is to seek and hear as His messenger so that I can teach and shepherd this local ekklesia. This is not a one man responsibility, so I’ve always attempted to surround myself with other praying leaders. We’re still a fairly small gathering, but my prayerful intention is to grow that base of leadership so that it is a group of singular focused leaders who can commit to fully and totally seeking Holy Spirit guidance through continual prayer and the Word. For us to move in this direction, the Lord will need to increase our financial resources.

I know not everybody agrees with this. I have many friends who are bi-vocational, meaning they’re “pastoring” a church but have a full-time job elsewhere. This seems like a great idea because it opens up church finances for other endeavors and allows those leaders to operate in a different way. The early church leaders were not bi-vocational. In fact, the only time they went back to their previous jobs was when they were discouraged. But Paul was occasionally bi-vocational as a missionary to new territories. I am fully behind doing exactly what Holy Spirit tells us to do. I would happily take this direction if Holy Spirit says it and it is confirmed through those around me. He hasn’t and they haven’t.

At this point I’m asking you to pray for me and my family. Your prayers mean so much to us. And pray for the continued renovation of “church” and for believers to faithfully and humbly participate. And pray for increased provision so that we can invest in many Kingdom initiatives, but specifically provision for the growing team of those sent to lead through lives devoted to prayer and to the ministry of the word. We need more construction managers to serve under the Project Manager that is Holy Spirit.

Seeking His face!
Matt