A few of you have asked for sources about my take on ecclesia. It’s simple.

I go to my shelf and look up ecclesia in the standard-setting Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian literature, Walter Bauer, translated by Arndt & Gingrich. (See pic.)

The primary definition is not Christian, but political. In fact it’s not until the fourth definition that you get a sense of a particularly Christian implication, and this developed because of the context anyway.

See how Paul opens his letters by specifying that he’s writing to the ecclesia “of God“ in that town, not the primary meaning of ecclesia.

See how Acts 19:32-40 uses the very same word ecclesia, but without a specifier it means “town meeting,” the primary meaning of ecclesia. (Mark D Roberts concurs.)

When Jesus first used the word in Mat 16:18, it had no Christian connotation. Everyone would have understood Jesus meant ecclesia in the primary sense of the word. “I will build my ecclesia” = “I will build my town meeting.”

In the hearers’ ears, this could mean either:
1) his meeting would be like a town meeting, concerned with the affairs of the town, but done in his Way;
2) his meeting would be concerned with his “town.”

In either case, it did not mean “church” in the English dictionary sense of the term.

If Jesus meant “a gathering of his faithful, to encourage one another and to study the scriptures,” it would seem much more natural for him to use the word synagogue, in the Jewish tradition, which he was extending. But he chose ecclesia, a concept primarily dripping with the concerns of the polis.

Even when the Septuagint uses ecclesia to describe Israel, it still has this political nuance. After all, Israel was the chosen nation of God.

Jesus wants us to regularly gather, concerned with the town around us, and to develop that community in his Way. That’s got to be a large part (not the only part) of what the meeting is about!

Meeting without that primary concern for the town, is meeting in a way that is fundamentally less than Jesus intended. 

I can’t believe it has been a year since I gave you an update on Cheers. Not only are we still here, we have been going well. Even though there have been serious hardships in the neighborhood, our anchor-points have been strong: family, work, and Cheers. This has helped support us in the struggle to assist in the neighborhood.

Last report, I mentioned our ache and prayer for Communitas. IT HAPPENED! Around November, the Elliots visited. Pippa (our daughter) took the initiative to meet Lachlan (their son of the same age). The Elliots then spent their summer in Colorado, then returned to Banksia Grove in Feb, and Lachlan was looking forward to school because of the contact Pippa made. Since then a really strong friendship has formed between us and them, but also with others in the neighborhood. Belinda has a natural pastoral way (a gift we needed), and Nigel has been very keen to understand what he has been observing and participating in here.Both of them have been a great encouragement to Sal and I, even though they may only be here for a year, as they are working their way around Australia from Cairns. Please pray God shows them where to settle for the short term and longer term.

Family Camp was very good this April. the topic was Joining the Dots of community development. 8 families came, and made strong commitments to follow through with standing together back at home. And they have. There’s now a strong core of women who meet on Tuesdays, and they have been working through the E100 Bible verses from Scripture Union, but it’s the honesty in their discussions that provides great learning as well as mutual support. God often comes to them through each other. They also do an exercise-book similar to Cheers 13, and have seen many answers to their prayers.

Cheers 13 answers have included:

• Healings (including my heart surgery & electrical problems)
• Emergency Acomodation for battlers
• Blossoming of teens we’ve been hosting for years, into fine young adults already
• Movie nights on the lawn
• my book (Treading On God’s Heels) has been written, and proved very timely & useful for people here
• difficult meetings and confrontations going better than expected
• reducing street violence in the neighborhood (especially three specific situations)
• positive reinforcement at the primary school (where parents were just leaving before)
• personal changes in a few men, as well as the women mentioned before,
• and better development of individuals growth and participation

We continue to be involved in running The Round Table of stakeholders in the suburb, to collaborate in solving problems including street violence and saving the water aquifer from industrial zoning. I also introduced them to the primary local aboriginal elder. We have local Sports on the Courts each third Sunday. And we kept the Residents Association alive – that’s an interesting one: the Residents Association started and auspiced two new groups: The Pod community garden) and Spring in the Grove (local community event), which now want to incorporate and stand alone, and took volunteers with them, which has reduced the Residents Association volunteer energy below critical mass. All we can do is keep it in a holding pattern until more interested people arrive.

Cheers 24 has persevered with the “Show And Tell” approach using the bookmark (right), and it is paying most dividends for those who bring something, but also by adding more insights to the topics than one person’s preparation alone.

One big highlight was after some street violence that directly traumatized one of our families. We decided that everyone had to bring something from the Bible about suffering and trauma. And this family did – it was by far the best contribution, simply involving some Bible verses, and pictures they drew about: what they experienced on the night; what they felt like doing; and what God wants them to do.

We’ve been working our way through different ways to approach God, and have been using chapters from Treading on God’s Heels. There are always fresh insights for us all.

We have been using Dropbox online, so that changes to the program can be seen by everyone. People can change the document themselves if they need to also. We are literally on the same page.

The Hard Stuff

The local school has taken by far the lion’s share of our time and efforts, not in a good way. We have had to lobby, and argue, and contact the Ed Dept only to be let down by them. Over 40 families are concerned about the many escalating behavior management offenses at the school, but the principal won’t look at those parents’ testimonies. He has a different philosophy from the staff and parents – it’s very difficult.

The point is, Sally and I are at the forefront of this conflict. We don’t like it, it’s stressful and energy-sapping, and means we don’t have time for other more positive initiatives with Cheers. But we can’t not do it, because so many families (100′s) are affected by what is going on there. We have not seen our prayers answered yet. So we struggle to see how this is the best use of our time.

We pray, we tune in to God and try to discern His will for us. And sometimes we simply do what we can. Sometimes we are uncertain, but all we can do is our best. Hard as it is, family, work, and Cheers have being doing well. A great support. Thank God.

If you’ve heard my summary description of Cheers, you may know that we use Acts 2:42-47 as a kind of summary description of what a church is supposed to DO.

But don’t make the mistake of thinking we therefore have a shallow theology of the church.

1) We use Acts 2:42-47 to describe what the church DOES, not the totality of what church IS.

So for example, in John, church is the Branches of the divine Vine. In Paul, we’re the Body of Christ, an Army in a spiritual battle, in Luke a Flock who know the Shepherd’s voice. Luke also tells us about the places where churches start – homes that functioned as larger meeting places where people shared life. In Mark we’re a political force, and in Matthew we’re a community development movement. Indeed in the Old Covenant ecclesia is a gathering of the the people of God, spiritual and political. In fact across the whole Bible we get details and nuances about who and what we are – that’s what the Bible is for!

So of course we know that Acts 2 can’t give us the whole picture. But, with a bit of defining, Acts 2 happens to summarise what the church DOES - its Core Practices.

This passage, then, is not about Core beliefs, not about who we are, nor our state of being (eg Branches in the Vine, Flock, Family, etc.) It’s about our core tasks, practices, what we’re meant to actually DO. And other passages about our tasks can be summarised under the headings of the practices mentioned here. Which brings us to…

2) Acts 2:42-47 as a summary passage to encapsulate the practices mentioned elsewhere.

For example, Acts 2 says we “pray,” so this can encompass songs, contemplation, psalms, lament, celebration, symbols, and so on. Likewise with all the headings I derive from Acts 2.

As we read across the whole Bible, certain themes are repeated. Read it enough times and a pattern begins to emerge – all the different images tie in with these same few practices. For example, we’re meant to be God-centered noticing and participating with God’s action in the world. These practices can be clumped into a few general categories.

And Acts 2:42-47 neatly refers to each of these categories. So if you want to see what a church DOES in general categories, Acts 2 serves as a good summary. Then each category of practices can be unpacked at length, using other passages across the Scriptures.

Plus you can use Church tradition and local Culture to flesh out each practice in ways that have depth and make sense to us.

3) Deconstruct to Reconstruct locally.

Missionaries do this boiling down, this deconstructing into basic categories. Only then, once they’ve done it, can they begin to ask, “so what might this Core Practice look like in this cultural setting.”

For example, one category is that we “pray.” So that could involve singing, symbols, feasting, fasting, contemplating, circling, silence, verbalising, etc. So which ways of praying fit with this culture? And which will perhaps be valuable extensions later?

All kinds of missionaries and churches have done this basic deconstruction and come up with the same three general categories: Worship, Discipleship, Mission. Or, worded differently, God-ward, Inward, Outward. Or Loving God, loving each other, and loving the world. The words may differ, but the three general directions are the same.

Here’s our deconstructed categories of Core Practices, lifted from Acts 2:42-47 (you can see the same three general categories):

1. Seeing – noticing God’s action in the world, “signs and wonders.”
2. Praying – our response to God’s action, “praise prayer, breaking bread,” baptism included here.
3. Learning – from Scripture, “devoted themselves to the Apostles’ teaching.”
4. Friendship – modern way of saying “fellowship,” incorporates the spiritual unity of the Spirit resonating among us, AND also the movement of love outside the gathering. Likewise, “breaking bread in each others homes,” reminds us of Luke 10 practices.
5. Serving – give your gift. This is about not only the “common purse” but “sharing as each had need,” including outwards to orphans and widows. We incude here passages about our leavening effect in the world, our saltiness, and the community-development orientation of ecclesia.
6. Explaining – verbal explanation must have been a part, because “the Lord added to their number daily.” And going and explaining is what Acts is all about, indeed we see this same sentness across Scripture.

In this way, we use Acts 2:42-47 to summarize the Core Practices of Cheers. But it’s by no means the only passage we have. It’s a summary of all.