A new movement of God is afoot in the church. There is a growing desire in Christianity to turn God's  Assembly from a higharchial institution into an organic community  with a model of biblical church leadership. I have been discovering more and more people around the world pursuing this model and the next chapter in church growth. But for some reason in the last couple of months, I've come across a lot of disagreement about this new movement, even from inside of it. There seems to be a growing concern about a perceived lack of leadership in this model. I've written previously both about how  how important leadership is  within the Assembly, as well as how misguided traditional church leadership is. Let's drill down on what the Bible has to say about the specific leadership roles and structure within the Assembly . Apostle It all began with the apostles. Jesus had around 120 disciples (Acts 1:15), which is quite a lot of students for one guy to manage. So

Jesus’ relationship to the church is a godly romance that brings a restored relationship between men and women. Our ideals of romance today are directly inspired by Jesus' demonstration of a new way of thinking about love and submission . As Paul, Matthew, John, and the other early Christian authors we’ve explored in previous posts were writing about these principles, Christianity began to spread around the whole world, and with it, grew the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus’ prayer that the Kingdom would come along with the Father’s will being done on earth as it is in heaven began to come into fruition. With God’s will came an end to the curse between men and women. Let's explore how Jesus brought about our ideas of romance today. Courtly Romance The spread of the Kingdom of Heaven caused men’s attitudes towards women to began to change. By the middle ages, women were no longer seen as a lower form of humanity, fit to own, abuse, dominate, and rule over. Instead, men started

Since the first man and woman walked on earth, humanity has been plagued with a curse of men and women fighting for control over each other. This curse is the reason men have dominated women and women have been fighting for equality throughout history. But Jesus destroyed the curse  and restores the relationship between God and his people through his marriage! We look to Jesus for an example of the keys to a godly relationship. When we bring these keys into our lives through Jesus, we destroy the curse and restore the relationship between man and woman. Taking a Step Toward Reconciliation Paul wrote to the Roman church, “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Even though God’s people were the first to rebel against him, Jesus didn’t wait for his bride to come back to him. Rather, he sacrificially took the first step toward reconciliation through his death and won her over. Similarly, even though Eve was the first to rebe

When I read about the beginning of the world in Genesis, I’ve always found it interesting how Eve got her name. The woman gave into temptation and sinned. The man chose the woman over God and sinned too. As a result, God cursed them with death and inequality . And as soon as God mentions death, Adam gives his wife a name. You’d think that name would be something related to death -- but it’s not. The name Adam gave his wife was Eve, which means “life”. You see, even within that curse of death and inequality between man and woman, there is a promise of God's restoration of men and women. Even though Eve brought death upon the world, God promised she would one day bring life too. Adam took a hold of that promise and made it part of his wife’s very identity. And every woman since carries with her that beautiful promise in who she is. Bearing children is part of that identity, but that’s just a temporary solution, because even children will grow up and die. Eve's ability to