The one assembly/congregation policy

[Michlow]

Originally Posted by Ferd

clearly. looks like the root of bitterness has found a home.

Bitter can't be all bad. Weren't bitter herbs part of the passover dinner?

[mizpeh]

Originally Posted by originalsecretplace

Just wanted to say thanks you guys for ALL your posts. I appreciate every one of them and am reading them all although I haven't posted responses to all of them.

I'm glad that not everyone agrees and there are repsonses from all sides of the matter.

Thanks for posting this question.

I've never had the luxury of having 5 apostolic churches to choose from in one area. I know I would seek God for his will.

But after thinking whether there is a clear answer to your question, I'm not so sure I know. So I started looking in the book of Acts at the church in Jerusalem. I'm going to study this out for Biblical precedent and not just what I think is right. Personally I feel a person should stay in one place, but is that scriptural?

There is one scripture that I've gotten to so far in Acts 4 when Peter and John were released from the council, the Bible says they went to their own company...... I'm not sure if this was a neighborhood assembly or the entire Jerusalem church.

Do you think the early churches were kind of organized like synagogues?

[Ferd]

LOL!

I said the following

Why? because that is how we are geared. somone with no roots will blow away.

It seems like this touched off a mini-firestorm. looks like folk see any mention of the word "root" gets touchy for some folk.

well, I hate to disappoint. I wasnt even talking about the church. I was talking about the nature of mankind. without some kind of roots we all blow away.

thus it does translate. a person unwilling to plant themselves in some church will follow suit. they will eventually dry up and blow away spiritually.

Originally Posted by ManOfWord

For the same reason that you don't continually uproot a flower in your garden and move it from place to place. It will not bloom as it should and will not get the nourishment it needs and will not be able to contribute to the overall welfare of the garden. I know this is overly simplistic, but it does serve as a small illustration. Notice I said nothing about someone's salvation.

Sort of like the old bumper sticker: bloom where you are planted?

[Michlow]

Originally Posted by Chan

Sort of like the old bumper sticker: bloom where you are planted?

But I am not a flower.

Besides, my therapist told me that trying out several different congregations would be helpful for me.

[Digging4Truth]

Originally Posted by Michlow

Bitter can't be all bad. Weren't bitter herbs part of the passover dinner?

The roots will eventually find a home when the seeds are so freely thrown.



I thought you might enjoy that...

[originalsecretplace]

Originally Posted by Ferd

LOL!

I said the following

Why? because that is how we are geared. somone with no roots will blow away.

It seems like this touched off a mini-firestorm. looks like folk see any mention of the word "root" gets touchy for some folk.

well, I hate to disappoint. I wasnt even talking about the church. I was talking about the nature of mankind. without some kind of roots we all blow away.

thus it does translate. a person unwilling to plant themselves in some church will follow suit. they will eventually dry up and blow away spiritually.

Well in nature a person is not rooted by their feet to the ground like a plant or flower but by emotional/blood ties to family and friends.

I agree that a person with no relationship ties will not be a very heathy individual.

Biblically we are members of Christ and of one another that is where our roots lay no question and they are spiritual roots. But the question is how does that play out in concrete terms? Part of that is fellowship with each other and fellowship with Christ. We don't seem to have a problem with knowing what fellowship with Christ and being connected to Christ means. But there seems to be a differing of opinion on what fellowship with other members of the body is and how we handle that aspect of our lives.

Really, it seems that scripture talks about people meeting daily and eating with each other in fellowship and worshipping together. We are given examples of the whens, wheres, and hows to some extent but there are areas that seem to be a little more vague.

Physically, I can only be in one place at one time. Spiritually I look at myself as being connected to many. Why can't I physically be connected to many as well and what physical boundaries are there to my connections to others in Christ -- distance, culture? Can I go and worship God with different saints at different times? Does that make me rootless?

Is it a "one size fits all" answer?

[originalsecretplace]

Originally Posted by mizpeh

Thanks for posting this question.

I've never had the luxury of having 5 apostolic churches to choose from in one area. I know I would seek God for his will.

But after thinking whether there is a clear answer to your question, I'm not so sure I know. So I started looking in the book of Acts at the church in Jerusalem. I'm going to study this out for Biblical precedent and not just what I think is right. Personally I feel a person should stay in one place, but is that scriptural?

There is one scripture that I've gotten to so far in Acts 4 when Peter and John were released from the council, the Bible says they went to their own company...... I'm not sure if this was a neighborhood assembly or the entire Jerusalem church.

Do you think the early churches were kind of organized like synagogues?

How were synagogues organized? I look forward to reading your thoughts about this.

[Sarah]

Originally Posted by originalsecretplace

Well in nature a person is not rooted by their feet to the ground like a plant or flower but by emotional/blood ties to family and friends.

I agree that a person with no relationship ties will not be a very heathy individual.

Biblically we are members of Christ and of one another that is where our roots lay no question and they are spiritual roots. But the question is how does that play out in concrete terms? Part of that is fellowship with each other and fellowship with Christ. We don't seem to have a problem with knowing what fellowship with Christ and being connected to Christ means. But there seems to be a differing of opinion on what fellowship with other members of the body is and how we handle that aspect of our lives.

Really, it seems that scripture talks about people meeting daily and eating with each other in fellowship and worshipping together. We are given examples of the whens, wheres, and hows to some extent but there are areas that seem to be a little more vague.

Physically, I can only be in one place at one time. Spiritually I look at myself as being connected to many. Why can't I physically be connected to many as well and what physical boundaries are there to my connections to others in Christ -- distance, culture? Can I go and worship God with different saints at different times? Does that make me rootless?

I don't mean to sound unkind, but yes, I think to weekly go from one church to another makes one rather rootless. I know a lot of people who visit other churches on their off nights, just because they do love to be with other saints from the surrounding area.....which is fine, if they have the time. But I think we owe one 'body' our complete support. The pastor has a right to expect our faithfulness.

[Felicity]

Paul made reference to the fact that it's hard to build on another man's foundation. I would think if someone drifts around from church to church - each one pastored by a man with different emphases and teachings - they're possibly going to have a rather weak foundation.

And/or the fact that they're moving around aimlessly could be indicative of a weak foundation.

There are situations where people move from one church to another for good reason.