Professional Documents
Culture Documents
IMPORTANT ASPECTS
Marius Potgieter
Vol 2
THE RELATIONAL CHURCH: IMPORTANT ASPECTS
CHAPTER 1: TRANSFORMATION
For the continual coming of the Kingdom of God in our time, it is necessary for the church
to be freed from the bindings that result from the club-like character. The following
should be looked at:
COVENANT CHURCH
The ecclesia is a covenantal congregation. There is much misunderstanding and
confusion about the covenant, even among Reformed ranks. To some it is a way of
salvation which actually makes Christ's death and resurrection unnecessary. To others
it is something that is seldom mentioned in the New Testament and can, therefore,
conveniently be ignored as being Old Testament theology. In nearly all cases, the
covenant plays an insignificant role in people’s perception of the church.
Disregarding the problematic aspects, the following: covenant church means that God
bound the church to Himself with a bond of love and undeserved grace and that
He will never forsake us. This applies to each member of the communion of the
faithful. The reason for this does not come from man, but from God's love for His
perfect Son to whom He has united the faith community; this incorporation of the
believers in Christ is a deed of incomprehensible Grace. The covenant has the
character of an unbreakable contract which is started unilaterally but exists bilaterally.
It demands an answer in all cases.
The answer to God's covenant-love is firstly a love-bond of faith: people who love
God because He loved them first and who serve Him with all their heart. This answer
again does not come from the old nature, but is effected by the Spirit of Christ. This
naturally brings about a living relationship between God on the one hand and the
believer as part of the faith community on the other hand. It is in this relationship that
the ecclesia has its existence. Without this there could never be any mention of
church. People without a personal relationship with the Lord, should not be tolerated
indefinitely in the congregation of Jesus.
Secondly, the "church of the covenant" means that these people start to live more
obedient in this covenantal relationship with God. He binds them not only to Him as a
Person, but also to his plan with the world. As an answer of faith, they bind
themselves as a faith community to God's purpose: they put themselves at God's
disposal to be Christ’s representatives and to show his unconditional love in their daily
lives. This relationship is the reason for the existence of the ecclesia. A church that is
not busy with God's work, is not the ecclesia of Christ.
Thirdly, to reach his goal with the covenant congregation, God always binds the
believer to his new nation, to other believers, without whom the believer cannot grow
and function effectively in the Kingdom of God. The faith community and every
believer must accept those to whom the Lord has bound them as limbs of Jesus' body
and be willing to be shaped and supported together. The reason why the church is
often so ineffective to carry out its task to represent Christ, is the lack of commitment to
an intimate relationships with other believers. The superficial perception of “koinonia"
as people who attend a church service, weakens the instruction to loving involvement
so much that few believers even know of God's demands in the New Testament in this
regard. This relationship is the essence of the ecclesia’s existence. A congregation
can still go without services, but never without the mutual support and edification
through intimate relationships.
These three relationships mean that being church cannot take place occasionally, but
takes up the believers' total life. This makes the ecclesia a relational church built on
the covenant relationship between God and His people.
WORSHIP
The believer's life is characterised by worship. This is a natural outcome of a
relationship with the eternal God.
Worship is not, in the first place, something one does, but is a disposition of respect,
wonder and inner gratitude for the greatness and goodness of our Creator and Saviour
God. Worship is a way of life; it is to keep your eyes continuously on the Lord God
and to live in dependence on Him. It is to rest on the breast of the Shepherd who says:
"Come to Me all those who are tired and overburdened, and I will give you rest ..."
Worship is expressed in praise (personally and together) and obedience. Praise
should not be artificial but should be the spontaneous outflow of gratitude and wonder
for the unfathomable love of our Father: it is to tell God how we feel about Him and also
to tell that to others. It is to bear witness about what He has done in our lives so that
others may share in our excitement and thankfulness. Timidity to speak to others
about God's miracles, most likely stems from a lack of experience of His love, as well
as from cultural reservedness. This must be overcome through a purposeful attempt to
acknowledge the presence and working of the Lord under all circumstances. The more
this is done (initially by a few willing people) the easier it will become for the children of
God to speak about Him.
True worship does not come from yourself, but from the Spirit of the Son who lives in
you. The Spirit, however, lives in the whole body of Christ; therefore worship cannot be
brought before God individually – the spiritual family and the extended spiritual family
also bring it as an offer to the Holy God. The occasion when believers worship can not
be called a meeting with God (with the notion that He is absent otherwise). The so-
called "meeting" with God during the occasion of public worship, is Old Testament
reasoning and must be replaced with a "meeting with one-another in God’s
presence as people who have met God once and for all at Calvary and on the day
of pentecost".
Worship cannot be detached from obedience - a worshipper does what the Spirit tells
him/her to do. Disobedience is like prayerlessness and is a lack of respect for our King.
CHANGED PEOPLE
The ecclesia comprises of people who, through faith, are united with Jesus and are
therefore new creations through the Spirit of the Jesus, the New Man. The life of faith
is a process of growth: the seed of the Word keeps growing until the new and perfect
person will emerge on the return of the King. Through the work of the Spirit the
believer becomes what he/she already is. Even though the growth goes through
various seasons, it will really become visible.
The change that takes place in each believer is the change to the image of Jesus
Himself. Because Jesus is the revelation of the Father and because we must show the
image of Jesus on earth, it is divine love that must become more visible in the
individual believers as well as in the ecclesia, the body. This is a holy love; it is
unconditional and becomes visible through service and unselfish sacrifice towards
others. This love is the opposite of natural “love” which is mostly self-centered and
conditional.
The ecclesia as a community of love is the necessary environment in which every
believer is led through continuous change. Unconditional sacrificial love as a way of
life is learnt within the intimate circle of believers: there they are unconditionally
accepted and served; they are formed to servants of the Lord and of people, by the
Word which they hear and the modeling which they see.
CIRCLES OF COMMUNITY
To be a loving community, there must be direct and intense personal relationships.
Sociologists speak of a primary group. The household is the best example of such a
primary group. It is therefore important that the ecclesia should have a family character
- believers must live together like family in a household. It is physically impossible for
a large number of people to have intimate and significant relationships; therefore the
basic building blocks of the church must be small. Through the ages it was like that: in
Old Testament times the building block of Israel as a nation was the extended family.
There God was worshipped in their daily living. In the New Testament period we see
that small and intimate spiritual families gathered together in houses. Jesus sets the
example: He gathered 12 around Him in pursuit of this intimate contact. Besides the
spiritual household, it is also necessary for believers to become part of a greater unity
like a spiritual extended family in order to counteract isolation in a small group.
The small spiritual families do not exist for the sake of strengthening the big
congregation or to help it grow. On the contrary, the bigger community is there for the
sake of strengthening and encouraging the smaller communities. The only manner in
which falling back to the club-like character can be prevented is by accepting the reality
of different relational circles (or community circles) of believers who supplement
each other.
There is a danger: the spiritual family (cell) and extended spiritual family
(congregation), must not be handled as a club or as a denominational church. All
formalism must be resisted, otherwise the faults and weaknesses of the club-like
church will be transferred to the smaller circles. This is the reason why cells begin to
loose their effectiveness in time - they were in the service of the (club-like)
congregation and have taken over most of the institutional and formal attributes.
On the basis of Biblical principles and guidelines the will of God is being sought in
transforming the present church setup to an authentic ecclesia, or biblical church. No-one
knows precisely what is in the Lord’s heart for his church in the future, especially in the
modern Western world, but He has already given us guidance with regard to a number of
facets.
INTER-DENOMINATIONAL? NO
“Interdenominational” means that we have not yet escaped the grip of the club-like church.
Eventually interdenominationality tends to form new denominations: "come, let us unite
and work together - then we work half-way like our denomination does it and half-way like
you do it". The people who do not wish to work together, remain with the original two while
those who unite, work together to form another one; now there are three.
Interdenominational is not the same as non-denominational.
We must get rid of the club-like character. A paradigm shift must take place from church-
thought patterns to Kingdom-thought patterns. In God's Kingdom we have a nation, a
people that is made up of families and the families of spiritual households. A relational
church cannot live within the boundaries of a club - therefore the present system kills
relationships instead of helping them to grow.
In a certain way Kingdom-thought patterns are “non-church” or “super-church” (above
church as we know it). Kingdom-thought is relational-thought that starts from the premise
that only real relationships exist. There must be a personal and responsible relationship
with God in Christ (except where it is not yet possible - like with small children). If
someone had such a relationship which appears to have ceased, earnest prayers should
be offered for the relationship to be restored for the sake of that person's salvation.
Where this relationship is missing, such people are not believers and therefore not part of
the body. The church’s registers mean nothing.
In the relational church every believer lives in both intimate as well as a less intimate
relationship with fellow-believers depending on the relational circle. Formal membership
or a certificate, is no guarantee of these relationships and is therefore useless. People
who do not live in these relationships are not part of the Body of Christ. In the old
churches of the reformation there were no registers. Only believers who were actively
involved, were part of the congregation. An attestation was a declaration that this
particular person was a member of the congregation and it was not seen as a certificate of
membership of that church.
A DOUBLE-STREAM APPROACH
If a follower of Jesus should land on an island where none of the inhabitants have heard
the gospel, it would be possible to start an ecclesia, a relational church when people start
to come to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus. The typical Western culture could be
averted and the gospel could be imbedded in that particular culture.
Where the church, especially in western society, has a strong club-like character, it is not
possible to begin at ground level. It is not even possible to leave the church and to start
afresh as a relational church (except amongst unreached people groups and possibly
where secularisation has brought a churchless society like in regions of Europe). Society
is too strongly focused on the existence of the club-like church. The only option left is
radical reformation: that believers in Biblical principles begin to put these into practice
where they are.
The double-stream approach means that the present churchlike structure should be left to
continue in a normal way, but simultaneously a relational structure should be formed. This
alternative structure must have room for growth and affectivity of relationships. This is not
an anti-church action; the believers who are part of the relational structure can still remain
loyal to and committed to the specific church community, but with the conviction that the
Lord wants to give the community more than the formalistic structure which prevents them
from doing what the Lord expects of them. Of course this modus operandi is not problem-
free, but it is one of the only ways out of the present situation.
The way in which the relational church becomes the second stream is of the utmost
importance. Through quality life altering equipping by mentorship believers can
become equipped as leaders. This is a long term process and cannot be hurried because
of great numbers. To start a few cell groups and then leave them on their own, is not only
fruitless but also irresponsible and self-deceptive. As long as ministers and other church
members fail to realise that a relational church is the will of the Lord, they will neglect to
build it and only try to fulfil the expectations of church boards and complaining members.
PRAYER MOVEMENT
A prayer movement is an urgent necessity. Believers should earnestly pray to the Lord for
a true revival in people’s hearts and in the church as a whole. To reform is the duty and
task of believers: we must consciously return to the Biblical foundations for the church.
Without revival it will be difficult and slow. Whenever God, through His Spirit, speaks
directly to a person's heart, a flame ignites and burns which cannot easily be quenched.
Through prayer believers learn to live in daily prayer communication with the Lord. In so
doing, they become conscious of the Lord's will, for themselves as well as for the ecclesia.
The way in which the prayer movement develops will most probably be otherwise than
before. The time of the well known prayer meeting is long gone. A prayer covenant of one
family for another or a threesome that get together for prayer can be very effective: they
make an appointment to meet regularly for a short time during lunchtime or any other
favourable gap. Also effective are nights of prayer or a 24-hour prayer chain, etc.
SPIRITUAL HOUSEHOLDS
Prayerfully, and under the guidance of the Spirit spiritual families are formed. There are
effective ways of forming such spiritual families or households, but because of the club-like
background, an ineffective path is mostly followed. Often churches start the typical "cell"
or "small group” where individual people gather weekly as a church group to have a mini-
service or a Bible study session. One person is the “spiritual leader”. Normally no children
are involved because they can upset the meeting. Sometimes the novelty of the group
passes quickly and people lose interest, especially when they are not included and the
meetings become boring. This watered-down "cell" which is set up for people's needs is
not a spiritual household; at most it can be used as a support group for a specific need in
the congregation, but it is decidedly not “ecclesia”, the body of Christ.
How do spiritual households get formed? Believers should pray and ask for God's
guidance to lead them as to where they should join in. The Spirit leads them where He
wants. Existing groups ask the Lord to add those people whom He wants and who would
be best for them . The only way of association that is acceptable, is association by faith.
Enforced association and free association has no room in the ecclesia of Jesus - only Hé
lets His congregation grow. A spiritual family is normally composed of a few natural
families, single-parent families, married couples and/or single people, all who have been
bound together by the Lord and who become a new social entity that functions around
Jesus as the Centre of their lives.
The people of the Lord, during the Old and New Testament times, were never interested in
homogeneous groups, therefore these did not exist. This is also a culturally influenced
phenomenon and is not as effective for spiritual growth and mutual support as the more
heterogeneous family groups (composed of people who, in most cases, differ from one
another in many respects).
Together and as individuals a spiritual family lives in the three central relationships: the
relationship with God in Jesus Christ, the relationship with the world and the relationship
with each other. These are full-time relationships that include every aspect of their lives.
The mission or goal of the spiritual family is the change of every believer to a new person
through the work of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, the important facets of functioning are
mutual support, encouragement, discipline, intersession, etc. This is much more than a
church group busy with “spiritual” things.
There is no way in which the relational church can be an ecclesia, a biblical church,
without using the spiritual household or family as a vehicle. There is also no possible
manner in which the Kingdom can effectively come in our time, without the church
becoming a relational church. There is no way this can happen without believers
understanding church as a lifestyle of relationships instead of an organisation.
COMMITMENT
A high degree of commitment can be expected from these spiritual families. The Lord
Jesus expects it - He gave His life so that believers would serve Him in full. The
lukewarmness that is generally accepted is an abomination in the eyes of the Lord,
especially when those taking the lead in churches are themselves lukewarm.
Mutual responsibility for each other and accountability towards each other, should be
strongly stressed. Because the spiritual family focuses on growth and life-changes, they
should help one another with specific aspects of life. A chain is as strong as its weakest
link; so a spiritual family is as strong as its weakest member. Everyone must work and
pray for each other's growth in the Lord.
NON-CHURCH CHARACTER
The spiritual family must be consciously led away from the “church”-like character. It can
only be done if it really has a family character. The great change must take place in the
thought pattern of believers. The perception that faith has to do with the church
organisation must be changed. Believers must be helped to acquire a thought pattern that
is Kingdom centered: Jesus is worshipped as King of every aspect of life, and the
relationship with fellow-believers also covers all aspects of life. Thus the emphasis falls on
a way of life and relationships. Ecclesia is a way of life, a lifestyle of believers who
individually and together serve the Lord in fulltime capacity.
This also means that the meetings of the spiritual family usually take place on a
spontaneous and informal basis. Most of the time the meetings take place without an
agenda or order of service. This does not mean disorder - but order to accomplish its
purpose to facilitate relationships.
Because symbols and rituals are so powerful and are used to strengthen the believers'
vision and to support a changed lifestyle, much of these can be used. These must,
however, be life-symbols and life-rituals, not church-symbols or church-rituals. This
means that these symbols and rituals must be part of one’s usual lifestyle and not limited
to the church. The traditional church became crippled by this aspect as a result of the
influence of dualism (whereby church and life became separated). So, for instance, Holy
Communion must become a normal meal for the spiritual family. Other relationship-rituals
and life-rituals can be used, for example, prayer rituals at meal times.
FAMILY TIES
The spiritual family is expected to be involved with other spiritual families as an extended
family or a spiritual clan (so to speak). There is always a danger of independentism -
the inclination for the group to go its own way. The small group can be busy doing just
what appeals to them and stay within their comfort zone; thus the claims of the Lord can
be ignored. The large family, on the other hand, is necessary for the correct growth of the
intimate group because this prevents one-sidedness and imbalance. The dangerous
temptation for each spiritual household to isolate themselves and to busy themselves with
their own agenda, must be resisted with the authority of the Lord.
One of the important reasons why the club-like church cannot fulfil its calling, is that
members see themselves as joined to the large (formal or official) group instead of to a
smaller spiritual household. This is completely unacceptable. The broader family is not
the real church with the small group a less important part thereof. Being church does not
start at the synod and become less important until it reaches the congregation and the
small group in the congregation. Being church rather begins at the small relationship-
circle where believers are bound together and then extends to broader circles of
relationship, until the whole of Christendom is included. This approach results in seeing
church, or ecclesia, as a way of life and not just a Sunday activity that has little or nothing
to do with the rest of life.
Some believers might have ministries in the extended family, but they are not more
important than those who function in every spiritual household and who are equipped with
the gifts of the Spirit. The pastor can, for example, fulfil a function in the broader
community but he/she is not more important than any one of the believers in the spiritual
family who has the gift of prophesy. Because Christ is Head and rules over the ecclesia in
all its forms, the extended family has no more authority than the spiritual family. The
broader family, however, represent a larger perspective and can give input into the
functioning of the spiritual families in the name of King Jesus under the leadership of the
Holy Spirit. That is the reason why the spiritual family needs the broader family.
WORLD-WIDE MOVEMENT
Transformation must and will take place because the church no longer speaks the
“language” of the people – in many ways the church has fallen behind culturally. Part of
the problem is that the western church has become stuck in a western modernistic cultural
framework. Often the Biblical information is overshadowed by western cultural thought
patterns. The solution in our situation is to replace the grip of western culture with the best
practical application of Biblical principles in terms of the post-modern era.
Loren Mead also sees a change of paradigm that is beginning to take place: "The
dilemma of the church in this transitional time is that the shells of the old structures still
surround us even though many of them no longer work. Some of the structures are
institutions; some are roles, some are mindsets and expectations" (1991. The Once and
Future Church, p.43) The attempts to transform are not the isolated actions of certain
people, but is a world-wide movement. This points to a move of the Holy Spirit and must
not be undervalued.
According to Easum (article on Internet) the church of the next century will possibly look
something like this:
1. In worship there is a focus on personal experiences of God, instead of learning to
know about God; the heart and emotions must be touched instead of just the head;
2. The world is becoming more hostile towards the Gospel and the church is going to
become the safe haven of the believer and his whole life;
3. The Scripture is being rediscovered and ministry is being directed towards the
unreached peoples;
4. The focus is on discipleship instead of keeping church organizations afloat. Believers
are encouraged to use their gifts without necessarily holding an office.
5. Bureaucracy disappears; networks are formed. Accountability instead of control;
6. A high level of commitment will be a basic value;
7. Normal believers will be mobilised for service instead of paid officials. The few “gifted
leaders” will be equippers;
8. The church in America will be multi-cultural and dialogue with other beliefs will be
commonplace, considering that Christians will be a minority;
9. Many more “quasi-denominations” will originate - that is free alliances between
congregations with the same worship style and/or theological points of view;
10. The church is to become much more conservative but technologically much more
liberal;
11. The focus will be more on reaching areas for Jesus instead of building specific
churches; buildings will play a new róle.
Not to be one-sided or to overreact, contact must be maintained with every known effort
towards transformation that is taking place in all church denominations and outside. In this
way, we will hear and see how the Spirit leads the children of God and we can test
ourselves by the general tendencies in the world.
14 December 2002