5 months ago our life group decided that we couldn’t take the lack of decernment, the bethel music during “worship” time and fact that we were just not getting anything from a Sunday church. We realized church was supposed to be for the believers to edify each other. So 5 months ago our life group now does home church on Sundays. We teach the kids first then the adults read scripture and discuss etc. We have learned so much over the last 5 months and it’s been great.
There are a lot of tick tock folks coming out and exposing Bethel and Jesus Culture practices that are not biblical or not even mentioned in scripture. It makes me wonder how they even got through to mainstream Christianity. Do pastors not teach the Word anymore on Sundays??? Or is it just a Calvinism vs charismatics bashing session?
Amazing work!!! Thank you thank you thank you. I feel so convicted listening to your study. I appreciate that you provide us with these profound information for free. Being a Christian and one of the ‘worship leaders’ for several years now, I have always felt this little void in my heart at each ‘service.’ I feel that our people are so disconnected from one another, me included.
Wow! I have been praying about this whole concept of modern "worship" and whether God is calling us in or out of the modern day "church". What a breath of fresh air this is! Makes me fall to my knees and ask God for direction and lead me to other like-minded individuals who are tired of "playing church". Thank you and blessings!
@@jefffoster3557 May God keep you my brother, and give you wisdom and knowledge and understanding to what he wants his sheep to do, in the name of JesusChrist, the God of the whole earth shall he be called. My brother, Hello, may God in JesusChrist be with us. First you have to open up your heart to the Spirit of God in JesusChrist, to understand if God is sending you a natural man, or a true man of God, who want the same things you want. To understand what's next, now that he is delivered from the false church building or Satan's prison for the creation of God, so they won't do what God wants them to. But the Spirit of God speaks clearly to me, Go out into all the world teach and preach the gospel to all God's creation; Baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost or Spirit, Matthew 28:18-20, Mark 16:16-18. Jude 1:21, Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our LordJesusChrist unto eternal life. 22, And of some have compassion, making a difference. 23, And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment hated by the flesh. 24, Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you (us) faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, 25, To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen. 2 John 7, For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that JesusChrist/God has come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. Amen. Only be you strong, and very courageous.
@@jefffoster3557 Yes, God has been calling us out of Satan's prison for years; and lm glad that people are being delivered by JesusChrist, and are closer to the truth, and see how important it is to read, and be doers also of Gods Word... Because God said sing unto the LORD a new song:(Psalm 96:1): 2, (this is how we sing unto the LORD a song): Bless his name; show forth his salvation from day to day. 3, Declare his glory among the heathen, his wonders among all people. 4, For the LORD is great, and greatly to be praised: he is to be feared among above all gods. 5, For all the gods of the nations or people are idols: but the LORDGOD made the heavens. 6, Honour and majesty are before him: strength and beautiful are in his sanctuary. 7, Give unto the LORD, Oye,you kindreds/families of the earth, give unto the LORD glory and strength. 8, Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name: being and offering and come into his courts. Sing unto the LORD, a song something like this, without piano, guitar, and people. Instead, (Psalm 96 :3, Declare his glory, (Psalm 96:2, bless his name, show forth his salvation: (Psalm 96:4, For the LORD is great, and greatly to be praised: Psalm 97:9, For though, you, LORD, art high above all the earth: though art exalted or lifted up, very high, far above all gods. Psalm 96:4, For the LORD is great, and greatly to be praised: he is to be feared above all gods. 5, For all the gods of the nations or people are idols: but the LORD made the heavens. Amen.
@@MJS2376 But JesusChrist nor his disciples never bought a building and called it a church; they were the churches of God, in flesh and blood; God told us in 1 Chronicles 17:5, I have not dwelt lived in a house temple or building or a building called a church since I brought up the children of Israel (out of the house of bondage, or slavery); But have lived from tent to tent. So why do you go to a building called a church? God hasn't dwelt lived in one for a very long time: Is it tradition, or man made religion?
@@annesmith6582 Because we're in spiritual warfare. God said the world don't know him, Isaiah 1:3, John 16:8-10. And calls us to, Come out of her so you won't be partaker in her sins, Revelation 18:4. Speaking of Satan's church, with brick and cement, because Almighty God in JesusChrist, took the body. 1 Corinthians 6:19, What? Know ye, you not that your body is the temple of God, which the Spirit of God dwelleth in, and you are not your own, (and that was a question)? Matthew 16:18, Though, you art Peter, meaning a stone or a rock, upon this rock (which is flesh and blood), I build my church.......... 1 Chronicles 17:5, (Almighty and Alpowerful God told us), I have not dwelt lived in a house temple or building since I brought up the children of Israel (out of the house of bondage or slavery. When the last time you read your Bible? I know some Catholic beliefs forbid that, that's why Catholics bow down, and kiss the Pope's ring, when Almighty and Alpowerful God said, bow down to know man, Exodus 20:5-6. God is telling us in our world what they are doing to us, got us bowing down to their god, which is man, a false god, and not our creator. For the Father seeketh such to worship the Father in Spirit and Truth, John 4:21-24.
LOVE this. Our 'worship' is how we live, day to day, how we walk with the Lord - how we treat others. I was a 'worship leader' in my congregation for several years, until the Lord showed me that my security was in church and not in Him. That started a process of dominoes falling, one by one; what IS church? Long story short - He took me out of the organised system, 18 years ago. Have been following Him ever since - out of religion, into the Life.
@@Innperlenburg SO TOTALLY understand your situation, I too have pretty much stopped organized church services. Do I lack for anything? Not really ,I spend more time in the word , have found some fantastic preacher/ teachers on TH-cam I do Bible Studies with . I found modern day church services so unfulfilling and devoid of TRUTH Teaching, just lots of loud music and repetitive lyrics to music. There is a reason that the “ church age “ will come to an end, and I am seeing that now…
I’m 63 years old, went to a Christian University with 12 units of Bible required, have attended services of many different denominations and about 10 years ago said enough of this commercialism. It has been my daily habit for about the same ten years to read a chapter or two of one of the Gospels followed by a couple chapters of Acts until I completed that Gospel and then proceed to the next, over and over again. I could no longer abide in congregations where the pastor was placed on a pedestal and seen as the ultimate authority, that’s far closer to idolatry than I’d care to be. People have been acculturated into a consumer religion and not a relationship with our Creator. Many of these “churches” are filled with people that have a “book” knowledge of Scripture but lack any of the practical love that is to be our utmost mark of our relationship with Him. Yahusha made us to be family not an institution. Thank you so much for defining many of the intricacies!
@@brokenarrow3808 Not going to get into a battle of words with someone that only looks through KJV glasses, it isn’t worth it. I’d tell you to look at John 13:34 “an new commandment I give to you: that you love one another -just as I have loved you, that you may also love one another.” That by definition is a relationship. Now if you’re going to get all wordy on me, dig out the Greek or Hebrew, leave the petty arguments of translation aside.
@@ricksteen935 John 13:34 is Jesus quoting an Old Testament verse ( so, I guess you are not a scholar after all ). Because that Greek word doesn't even mean new, just something the translators "sell" to people. Like it says in Luke, "Beware your translators," because they are all liars. Only God is true. Wow, you are off so much more than I thought.
@@ricksteen935 Brother, when God did a new thing, he made Hebrew to English, so all the world could understand Yeshua, or Yehoshua is JesusChrist. Telling us, If any man be in Christ, JesusChrist he is a new, creature or creation, old things have passed away, behold, listen, pay attention, all things are become new; 2 Corinthians 5:17.
Because Transubstantiation and Transfiguration are not easy things to explain literally. the Bishops decided the best way to explain them was to symbolize them in the Mass. The resonance from the symbolism is an explanation as a literal explanation is not possible.
@@gosolxsolar But that's why I don't like going into some building and praising God like he's a little God! God can't even fit in a building! The heaven of heavens cannot contain God, how to more this house you build me!? 1 Kings 8:27. This building Satan has built for a prison, a prison house. And many, many, many, many people it be that still go in.
@@Dayvid1234 According to 1 Corinthians 3:16, we are the temple of God. The issue is that the "church buildings" are not the church, but the congregation that gathers in them (at least, that's how it's supposed to be). Having a dedicated building to meet in isn't a problem, versus going to a person's house, but treating that building like it's the only place to meet, experience, worship, and praise God is completely wrong. And it is true that even the heaven of heavens can't contain God, but it is also true that He can abide in as large or as small a place as He pleases. How wonderful it is that the LORD chooses to dwell in us.
Thank you for this balanced video. I think much of the church today has come to worship their "worship music" rather than worshiping God. Many churches don't pray, they no longer actually worship and they do very little Bible Study. We MUST get back to the Biblical example of why Christians met together.
Very good points. Something I've seen for years, and you put it into clear words. I'm a home church host. We love it. We eat together, sing, read the Bible, pray, for each other, and in praise to God. Everyone participates. We don't have a name. We just call it getting together.
Haven't watched the video yet. Just read your comment. Love what you're doing and think all box churches should dissolve and move to what you're doing.
Just a suggestion to improve on what you are doing. Consider ways to network with other Home Churches. A network of churches can provide more resources and skilled solutions for things like counseling, ministries, and missions. This is a difficult thing to do but may be easier to incorporate internally. In the 80s, we would have called these Cell Groups. Much like a cell divides when it grows too big, small groups can subdivide and develop networks. It would be good to have one Elder at each Home Church and a Bishop or two as heads of the network. These are just some of my ideas. If growth goes well, a network may become too big. In that case, some of the outliers may like to break off and start new networks of their own. Also, and you may not like this, I would suggest to refrain from singing. Try to think of your "assembly" as a NORMAL gathering. So in a normal get-together, people don't just break out singing a song. And the host doesn't normally force their guests to sing songs prior to the BBQ. Try to incorporate some sort of normality to the meetings. Now, you and your friend may just love to sing and that is alright too. I am excited to see what Tom Wadsworth tells us. Did they just get together to talk? I imagine they didn't have much written literature. Eventually, they would have received letters from the apostles to read. It can be hard for a modern person to imagine what they did for their assemblies. Also, a word of caution. You will eventually want to set up some safeguards to prevent your group from going into some weird place. Small Groups and Home Churches really need to set a priority to two important practices - Seeking Truth and Seeking God. If these two are always your #1 priority, then your church remain on the right path. I have another priority that you may not yet agree with and that is to not let any sinners into your church. You may like to meditate on that to see if you agree.
@@kevinerose I see a danger in setting up a network of churches (if it is like a new denomination). The Jerusalem church is a good model. It consisted of many home-based assemblies that all thought of the church as 1 church in the city/town. All the churches in the NT follow the same pattern. There was always 1 church per city/town. Today, if we get impatient, we will set up a new network of home-churches (like a new denomination), ignoring the other church groups in town, instead of patiently presenting the biblical model to all the churches in town. I think we should hold back on the network (if it is like a denomination) and seek the willing participation of the existing groups to think of themselves as one church of the town. If you set up a network (like a denomination), it may be for uniformity/control. If you present the biblical ideas like Tom is doing, (and not prescribing modern solutions), then you are being more careful not to go beyond what is written, and you can look for more town-based unity (excluding the pretend Christian groups). My experience of a cell-group in the traditional church I attend is completely unlike an early home-based church... our cell group only likes adults to attend and only meets to pray. This is nothing like the 1 Cor 14 model of church. Even an elder per home assembly is going beyond scripture... It seems Titus 1:5 says Titus should appoint "elders" for the town (something we almost never do today). What do you think?
@@jbible Yes but towns are much larger today. Some towns are 3 million people. Just to put numbers to it, let's suppose a Home Church has 5-15 members with 1 primary leader. We can say a home leader doesn't have to be an Elder. But on the next level, we can have 5-10 Home Churches that meets together once a month. So that is 5-10 house leaders who are "in agreement" with scripture. Maybe we like to have half of those to be Elders. (I do prefer more Elders because the JW organization uses few numbers of Elders and I don't like how that is working for them.) This group would be a Level I network. Then you have Level II may be a "city level" where all the Level I's in a city will have their leaders meet once a quarter. And let's suppose you have 5 or more prominent leaders will be considered a Bishop for that city. My research on JW tells me their Elder system is not working out very well. Either too many or not enough and I am leaning on that there should be more. And your concerns about Denominations is correct. Denominations are a corruption. But you will always have this problem unless you do one thing. I find that there is only one thing that can prevent corruption in the Assemblies and that is 2-fold. All assemblies must strictly adhere to Seeking Truth and Seeking God always and in everything. So we have the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE. The commands of Christ is the way. The gospel is the truth. Our faith in Christ and through the grace of God is the Life. Scripture tells us if we seek we shall find. So seek truth and seek God will always point to salvation.
@@kevinerose I like what you are saying... especially at the end of your comment about following scripture... seeking Truth and God always in everything... focusing on the gospel... our faith in Christ. Sola Scriptura (the scripture can reform us... and guide us... and is sufficient). As far as the practical details of smaller towns and larger towns, the way I look at it is we must follow the main principle of seeking to respect the picture presented by the apostles in scripture which is most clear in 1 Cor 14. Everything that is said... must be for edifying... and it must be a few speakers (not one... not even two... unless the 3rd person is unwilling to speak, perhaps)... and everything said must be weighed (evaluated). Tom said it well. I think we are so unfamiliar with this model that we have so many ideas and we need time (some of us) to get used to this kind of church. I like to think of the Jerusalem church as a good example of a pretty large town/city. If the Jerusalem church could handle 3000 being added in 1 day, that is amazing. That shows there was no building program. The knew how to use ordinary homes. This allowed the participatory ekklesia meeting. This worked with the Lord's Supper full meal. But the church in Rome appears to be more disconnected (based on a discussion Robert Banks had with someone else). And I think the associating between meetings that are farther apart (Like one side of Sau Paulo with 20 million to the other side) when the city gets larger is ok, we don't have to have such rigid control, the main thing is to focus on the assembly at the local level... nearby assemblies should be more connected... farther apart assemblies would naturally see each other less. Some people have commented about thinking about the zip/postal level along with the city/town level, but that is mainly for elders to figure out. The Bible does not prescribe a lot of details at this point... But the worst thing when I look at all my local town churches is ... No one meets like 1 Cor 14... no churches associate or think of themselves at the city/town/zip level at all... it is only at the 501(c)(3) level. I think unbelievers can see our lack of unity very easily (John 17).
Church that I belonged to called me divisive and excommunicated me because I raised a concern about leader centric organisational model, control and hierarchy. I still love them and my children still “worship” there but I had to move on. My idea of church (kingdom) has radically changed over the years. Still learning! Praise God. God inspired me to start JesusDust that is planting house churches, equip believers and focus on independent multiplication ministries in Africa, India and elsewhere.
Wanna get kicked of most churches? Go to the planning and budgeting meetings, and after they’re done talking about their plans to spend, ask them what they’re doing for orphans and widows. That will get you well on the path to excommunication….
Warn a divisive person once, and then warn them a second time. After that, have nothing to do with them. You may be sure that such people are warped and sinful; they are self-condemned.
The modern day church and these LONG AND LOUD praise and worship services are just hideous! I met a young woman sitting outside of the auditorium and we started talking . I found out ,like me she was waiting for the excessively loud music to stop because she worked for a school for hearing impaired people and she had a sound meter and told me she had used in in the service and found the sound levels high enough to do damage. Church should NOT CAUSE HARM TO PEOPLE. I think of all the young children and the elderly literally having their hearing destroyed by CHURCH SERVICES! Appalling! The worst part is the leaders seem to feel the louder the music the deeper the worship, nothing could be further from reality..
Maybe try going to a church that has acapella singing. I go to a church of Christ and everyone sings acapella, no choir or speakers. Worship is supposed to be done in reverence to God, not like an entertainment-driven concert
I've only watched 10 minutes of this but you think exactly like I do. It's somewhat overwhelming when God shows you just how far professing Christians these days have actually departed from what God says are commands in the Bible. It really is true: the more you seek Him for wisdom and revelation the more one feels isolated from not just the world but from the majority of people who calls themselves believers. I've got a busy day but will definitely be back to watch the rest of this and your other videos. Thank you for sharing the many truths herein- it's amazing just how many people either can't see these things, refuse to, or just pretend like these issues don't really matter to God at all. God is shaking this world, and that includes everything man has invented in this place we call "church."
Well said. I feel more isolated as well for those same reasons, but have been unable to express or grasp clearly the "why." Thank you for taking the time to write this comment.
I was born again at 46 so I was miles behind. The first question I had (after a time) was if we are the "church) (people) how can we "go to church". When I questioned I received the "canned" answer: "Don't worry about it you will see as you grow." The great thing about this is I was "thrown" into reading and researching the Bible. I found MORE questions than answers. This was good. Now at 77 I am starting to scratch the surface. It's not that it is difficult to understand it is that there is SO MUCH. The subject presented here is but a small part of the things I've learned learned during my research that people tend to pooh pooh. The study also led me to the fact that I am saved by grace + nothing. Praise God.
Several people have mentioned a hesitancy to use the phrase "go to church." I understand what they're saying. However, the Greek word ἐκκλησίᾳ, which is often translated as "church," is often better translated as "assembly." Paul uses the phrase ἐν ἐκκλησίᾳ to describe being “in assembly” (see 1 Cor 11:18 and 14:19, 28, 35). So, if you understand that "church" (when found in the English Bible) means "assembly," it's not out of line to say that someone is "going to the assembly." Make sense?
@@tomwadsworth Absolutely. There is a lot about God's word that MOST (I dare say) Christians don't understand. It took me many moons to understand that M/M/L/J were an extension of the "OT". Matt 10 Jesus tells the 12 "Go NOT unto the gentiles..." For many years I fought the "contradictions" of the first 4 and Romans - Philemon. Thank you for your time and "daring" do.
@@itlupe That's a good question my brother or sister; we don't go to church, this was a lie from Satan, and he deceived the whole world, Revelation 12:9. God was telling us he did, and he didn't stop either. I know people that have came out of the false church building, but that don't mean that Satan is not using them no more. This one sister got out, and came on here straight wit her false church knowledge: JesusChrist gave me the Spirit of discernment, by the power of the Holy Spirit or Ghost, and I see right through her. Before JesusChrist delivered me from the false church building, it was a point I went everyday, and that's how bad it was where I come from, and Satan plays a huge part. I did Genesis 12:1, and I'm here. I see right through the sister, and that's from taking time out of all the world, and letting God talk to me through JesusChrist.
@@tomwadsworth My brother I don't understand you so, because you not speaking JesusChrist, you sound like a scientist, God in JesusChrist is not about science; But Almighty and Alpowerful God spoke through JesusChrist as he does in these last days, Hebrews 1:2, and told us, Know ye, you not that you are the temple, or house, or building (2 Corinthians 3:9), of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? And that was a question? 1 Corinthians 6:19, What? Know ye not that your body is the temple, house of the Holy Ghost, which ye, you have in you, and you are not your own? And that also was a question? Though, you art Peter, meaning a stone or a rock, upon this rock, (which is flesh and blood), I build my church, Matthew 16:18. We don't even have to be like the scribes and Pharisees, showing what we learned, and confusing people. God said it through JesusChrist clear and plain. So the outside building, made with cement and brick is Satan's, did you catch that? Do you go? Repent turn from it, in the name of JesusChrist, and come to the truth.
We have been church planting missionaries for over 40 years. We have always emphasized home gatherings, discipleship and growth through evangelism. It is the closest to NT practice as far as we can see. Thank you for your teaching.
@@claudiaa.3268 This is true my sister, that home gatherings is closet; but to whose teaching??? Where in the Bible did they do that??! But God said in Isaiah 43:18-19, Remember ye, you not the former things neither consider the things of old. 19, Behold, listen, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth or come to pass; shall ye, you not know it?? Isaiah 42:9, Behold, listen, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare: (and), before they spring forth or come to pass, I tell you of them. 2 Corinthians 5:17, Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, listen, all things are become new. 18, All things are of God, who reconciled us to himself, by JesusChrist, and have given to us the ministry of reconciliation. 19, To wit or know that God was in JesusChrist reconciling the world unto himself. God, Almighty and Alpowerful God was in JesusChrist: and still is, God is telling us what's before us now! right now.
@@claudiaa.3268 But we are not of them who draw back to perdition or destruction; but to them that believe in the saving of the soul, Hebrews 10:39! Believe this sister?
This is what we are supposed to do when an Assembly of Christians come together:- Ephesians 5:19-- speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, 20 giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 submitting to one another in the fear of [f]God.
Actually, it does not say in the context that this is about an assembly of believers. It is only speaking about our interactions with each other. Therefore this is not a verse about assemblies.
As in Acts 2:42 “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching [Bible] and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” Sounds like my little church. We also sing hymns like Jesus did with his disciples. (Mark 14:26) My pastor takes prayer requests and praise reports from the floor and prays right then for each one by name. We affirm our faith by creed together as well as “The Lord’s Prayer.” We have meals together for special occasions and communion monthly. Everyone has a voice in this congregational model. No women teaching men or pastoring. My former pastor mocked this type of Church gathering. I love it.
Thank you for breaching this subject. I realized this too when researching how the early Christians gathered, and also when reading the words of Stephen the martyr in Acts. It’s not an easy subject to discuss with fellow believers today, because modern day Christians love their churches…and rely on their churches…and often favor their pastors wisdom over doing their own Bible study. Today’s Christians are also woefully ignorant of history. My fear is that churches are being used to promote propaganda and false doctrine. It’s a real problem. Thanks again, and God bless you, sir. ❤
Worthy , Useful , and unique . Most of all the conclusion of gather together NOT to be phony , pretentious and entertained , but to Be There to Build each other up as we work together to appreciate The Lord's goodness and His desire to build each up by duplicating His Superior listening and loving capacities as we seek to truly know Him better.
Thank-you Tom. At last I have found I am not alone. I am not an advanced scholar by any definition but I have held these views for most of my 70 odd years of life. In my definition of the assembly I would add that it was not only for building up but also for communion or remembrance. My statement I like to use with people is "Worship is not an event it is a lifestyle" it is or should be everything we are and do and the assembly is to encourage this. Your thoughts.
Thanks for your encouragement! Yes, it's true that our "devotion to God" (notice that I didn't use the term 'worship') should be a lifestyle and not something performed one hour a week. My NT research indicates that the assembly should be an intensive "one-anothering" gathering that allows much interaction between the members. It's hard to do this in a large and formal ceremonial "service." In order for the individual members to grow and develop into mature Christians, they need abundant opportunities to speak to one another and learn from one another. I talk about this in some detail in Worship #4: Why They Didn't Preach Sermons in the Early Church th-cam.com/video/hV8H2fx2Y6U/w-d-xo.html. Thanks again for watching and commenting!
When I got saved many years ago, I started with the premise that God is not the author of confusion and therefore all of scripture must be simple enough for all to understand and also not confusing. The modern church has taken the gospel message and made it difficult and in my opinion the church is the biggest obstacle today of spreading the gospel. It sad to say but nearly everyone in my church (and most churches) are confused about the gospel. And this includes people in their 70s and 80s who still confused about Scripture. I try to tell them that scripture is simple and easy and that God is not the author of confusion but they have blinders on and won't listen to me. They will only listen to the pastor, to the church, or to their denomination. And each of these contradict each other. If you don't have a title or degree then people will not accept a word from you. Even to tell them God is not the author of confusion.
@kevinerose The Bible is simple and easy? Wow, you must have some other Bible than the dozens I have read. No, the Bible is not simple and easy - but someone may, for reasons of their own, convinced you that this is the case.
I realized I was a sinner so I asked for Gods forgiveness on 23/11/1988 at 23.45pm, and I was born again of the spirit of God, I' am now 68 years old. I started attending a AOG church in the UK, I was then indoctrinated and led to believe that I had to worship God, now over the last 3 years God has shown me I dont need to worship Him, I just need to be still and God will walk with me and talk to me just as in Genesis 3. Jesus died , the veil in the temple was torn in two from heaven to earth, the Jewish people continued to offer blood sacrifices in the temple,so, God destroyed the temple of stone built in Jerusalem, God destroyed religion and religious practices.
!! For me, that born-again moment was 4pm Oct 31, 1971! I agree with just about everything you said. My research has also concluded that, when God destroyed the temple, he essentially destroyed ceremonial religion (Jas 1:26-27) in favor of a "Way" that focuses on helping the helpless. I'm not sure exactly what you mean by "I don't need to worship him." It's true that the God who made the heaven and earth does not need anything (Acts 17:24-25). But our response to his great mercy should include offering our bodies as a living sacrifice (Rom 12:1) and "not neglecting to meet together" as we focus on "stirring up one another to love and good works (Heb 10:24-25). May God continue to enrich your walk with Him.
I have felt this way for awhile but had no biblical basis to justify my “feelings”…until now. For me, worship is waking up at 3am and listening to the thousands of cicadas singing outside my house. It’s during those times that I’m in awe of God. Thank you for sharing your research.
The algorithm brought this video to my feed today. Thank you for putting into words what I have been thinking about and trying to articulate for years. Really looking forward to the rest of the series!
Thank you! You can find all seven parts of the series at my TH-cam channel: www.youtube.com/@tomwadsworth The second episode is here: th-cam.com/video/BgDQ5hUSoE0/w-d-xo.html
So glad to see this - we need more of it. Never in the history of the Church era have we seen such a falling away. It's easy for people to fall away going to large 'worship' services where they are not active participants, and have no accountability or anyone involved in the details of their lives. We have a lot of emotionalism, but it is not true Christianity. The core heart of Christianity is relational intimacy - first with Christ and second with each other. It's simple. The church today is a business, and what a business it is. We need to get back to relational intimacy with Christ and each other.
Great comment! "It's easy for people to fall away going to large 'worship' services where they are not active participants, and have no accountability or anyone involved in the details of their lives. The core heart of Christianity is relational intimacy."
Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. Colossians 3:16
I have had my own personal feelings that we do a lot of non-biblical things in churches because of tradition. I have made the statement to others that they probably would not care to live for God the way the early church did. We are a pampered people that are used to being spoon fed and entertained. It is also why there is a lack of maturity and fruitfulness among modern christians.
@robivy9987 One reason is a lot of professing Christians don't have a real connection with Jesus Christ, they follow man instead. Remember church is easy following Jesus you have to become holy and you must die to self become a living Sacrifice, the road is narrow but well worth following Jesus. ❤🙏
My journey started when I began to study discipleship 2 years ago. I first realized that our ideas of baptism were not correct but I didn't go any further than that at the time. But my independent studies of discipleship soon led to another topic - Church Planting. I quickly noticed lots of errors with that and started to realize more and more that Man's Doctrines had somehow replaced God's doctrines from Scripture. I started to realize that Jesus' earthly mission also included teachings against religions and religious people. Then I understood that God is not Religion and Religion is not God. Above all things, we must follow the One True God which is the way that Jesus commands us.
I was wondering if it was only me noticing this issue in the past. But thank God, He(the Lord) lead me to you, brother Tom. Although English is not my first language, but I can understand it well. And I will learn from your hard work of decades and spread it to others , at least in other two languages I know. I will share this truth to many. Actually we in our church had began realizing these things already and we have been taking steps to correct it. Your lectures will help us biggely in our progress forward in the right direction. You have clearly articulated what the early church was doing in a scholarly manner. We will not take your toil and effort in researching this astonishing finding for granted. I thank God for you. Where ever we are, if we are in Christ, we are one body. And Thanks to the internet, if we realize who we are in Christ and focus only on what we ought to do, the church of Christ worldwide will explode like an atomic bomb to reach every single person in this planet with the good news of Salvation. Oh God! all of our energy had been eaten by a nonsense liturgies and humane rituals for hundreds of years, but now , No More. We are awakening from our slumber.
May I suggest another reason (actually two related reasons) why the “worship anomaly” doesn’t get any traction? When I came to evangelical protestantism from the Roman Catholic tradition, I noticed that the Evangelical origin myth goes something like this: “We are the true New Testament church. The Catholics added all of these medieval accretions to the faith, such as indulgences, Marian devotions, etc. The Protestant reformers stripped away all of those accretions and returned us to a pure New Testament faith.” If the worship anomaly is acknowledged, Evangelicals would have to admit that we just have a different set of latter day accretions, we have also added things to the pure first century faith, and so our cherished origin myth is false. Secondly, evangelical seminary training and the evangelical church service revolve around the sermon. The sermon is the centerpiece of our practice. If we were to acknowledge the worship anomaly, we would have to admit that the sermon, the core of our faith practice, is unbiblical. If both our origin story and the core of our practice (the sermon) are unbiblical, this would demolish our identity as the “bible-based” church, wouldn’t it?
I agree wholeheartedly with your first point, and I agree with the general idea of your second point. Concerning "the sermon," see the fourth episode in this video series, "Worship #4: Why They Didn't Preach Sermons in the Early Church" at th-cam.com/video/hV8H2fx2Y6U/w-d-xo.html.
The post-reformation church is largely a re-badged Roman Catholicism. Similar liturgical patterns (but not called liturgy), similar basic order of 'service'; similar concept of 'service'. Just different branding.
@dagwould Trying to get light on this "worship anomaly thread" I've stumbled upon perhaps by di V ine means, hello. Awake here due to being daily chastened for over 4 years backsliding. Pleading mercy at 73 yrs of age and done with church hunting for a home. Hutterarians would be my choice if only they were not legalist pushers of common sharing of goods. So many ways to be failing in doctrine. Have you heard of Amish family highway crashed van.. named Esh family? I was close to them and it was a huge news story.
I have been unaffiliated with church since 2018, after 48 years of church going, ordination and ministry, and surviving (barely) those “worship wars”…you might even run across some of my compositions for worship floating around out there. I finally realized with a game it all was and now, although some might say I walked away from Jesus, my personal relationship with God has become so much deeper and my ability to exhort and encourage and connect with my fellow human has followed suit. I left church but dove headlong into THE CHURCH. Beautiful treatment of the subject!
@@tomwadsworth I remember so clearly the day I heard God say, as I was wondering if leaving church was really what the next step was: “You have enough church for 500 people over 500 lifetimes…it’s time to leave and live it.” I have NEVER regretted that choice.
To get into the church, the body of Christ, you must first believe the gospel, then repent, confess Christ's deity with your mouth and finally be immersed in water for remission of sins..
@@hannahviolette4553 John 8 24I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins. One must first hear the gospel and belive it..
By golly, you’re right!!! I accepted Christ and was born again during the Jesus Movement Revival during the 1970s. Your accurate exegesis of the Scriptures is correct! Until viewing your video, these things had never dawned on me but there had always been an uneasiness inside me about the things you bring to light in your video. Thank you!
After 48 years of personal ministry, you are the first (besides myself) I have heard teach on 1 corinthians 14. It has been years to help folks do this, but what a difference it makes!
@@tomwadsworth I’m still curious as to your view? In a personal home church setting are women allowed to share and edify, encourage or just stay quiet?
@@kimberlyd7398 IF I had a Christian gathering in my home, I would strongly encourage females to speak and share. I'm fully aware of 1 Tim 2:11-12 and 1 Cor 14:34-35, but "in Christ there is neither male nor female" (Gal 3:29). If Paul was accustomed to prophetesses (Acts 21:9; 2:17-18), and if Paul expected women to be "praying or prophesying" (1 Cor 11:5), he must have had some locally cultural concerns that prompted his comments about the silence of women. We no longer have any local cultural concerns to silence women. To the contrary, it even seems unchristian and disreputable to silence women. I've been leading small group Bible studies for almost 50 years. Those discussions would have been sadly deficient if we had not enjoyed the benefit of women's input. The Holy Spirit flows through women as much as men. It would be a shame to "quench" or stifle the Spirit (1 Thess 5:19) in half of the attendees. Further, male input often lacks a sensitive and compassionate component that females typically bring to a discussion. Paul urged men to pray in meetings "without anger or quarreling" (1 Tim 2:8). Why does Paul mention men's "anger" and "quarreling"? I find that men are more inclined to introduce quarrels and to bring "a sick craving for controversial questions and disputes about words, from which come envy, strife, abusive language" (1 Tim 6:4). Men are desperately needed, but their testosterone often needs to be checked by a healthy dose of the Spirit's influence toward gentleness, kindness, and patience (Gal 5:22-23). In the end, men and women need each other, and they both have immense value. Jesus clearly knew that. Some will say, "It's okay for women to speak in a home gathering, but not in church." But in the New Testament, church meetings were in a home--not in some sacred building. NT Christianity, in fact, had no sacred buildings. None. We need to face the fact that our modern church (of ALL denominations) has inherited a building-based religion with a host of "institutional" rules and expectations that are not biblical. One of those rules is that women can speak in a "Sunday School class," but not "in church." To me, it makes no sense to allow women to speak in one room of a "church building," but then to silence them in another room of that building. God required no such thing as a "church building," and he certainly did not demand that one room become more of a "sanctuary" than any other room. The "church" is the "gathering." The "church" (in the NT) is not brick & mortar, it's not carpeting & drywall, and it's not pews & pulpits. We don't need to conclude that only house gatherings are biblical. House churches can be messed up, too. In the end, the building is meaningless, which is likely Jesus' point in John 4:20-24. What's most important in an assembly is (1) treating one another with love (1 Cor 13) and (2) "doing all things to build up one another" (1 Cor 14:26).
Oh my goodness. Thank you. The words and thoughts you speak are almost identical to mine in reference to ‘Gathering’ for the purpose of worshipping. I have been searching for a ‘CHURCH BUILDING’ to go to to worship for almost 12 years. I feel like I have been trying on a new pair of shoes each time but none ever fit quite comfortably. Now, I feel I am ok with myself and my thoughts and beliefs.
@@tomwadsworth I was born and raised in rural Pa. Attended a very small church in small village called Rana Villa. Name on outside of church read: Church of God. I would describe it as nondenominational or possibly Protestant. As a young child I was Accustomed to listening to a strong finger pointing fist pounding sermon from the pulpit taken directly from the Bible. I would take that sermon home and dwell on it until the next Sunday sermon. Years later upon moving I sometimes attended a Mennonite church as a visitor/guest and then a similar church to the first. During service in the army I attended several different denominations on base. Then while living in Ca for many years I joined the Mormon Church and was baptized. After attending for a few short years I became disillusioned and stated I was removing myself from the church. To this day they don’t seem to have gotten the message. After my husband passed I moved to a Conservative state in the far north west that I truly believe was at the guidance of God. I have attended several churches in the area but never joined or became a member. The doctrine I most identify with is the Baptist doctrine. Plain, simple and uncomplicated.
I have visited many churches and even though some are more a warmer reception than others they still have the auditorium dark and the loud music praise and worship and it’s like a American Idol concert and it’s all about them. The people stand there like zombies just staring. My spirit recognizes the darkness, the loudness, and emptiness every time I visit these self adoration and patting each other on the back for their own self satisfaction! 🤨 Thank you for your message, and I look forward to listening to the future ones.
Excellent presentation, very informative, and I totally agree. Also I believe God is leading many of us back to this genuine version of Christian fellowship and gatherings. By the way there are several Hebrew words for worship which also shed more light on this subject, such as “shamash” which means “to bow down”. This is the meaning behind Matthew 2:11 when the Magi bow down and worship Jesus - nothing to do with singing! It is about an attitude of bowing down to God in our heart.
Thank you so much Tom for sharing these amazing truths about what true worship means. I have personal left the church I attended.Because as you, I saw in aligning with scripture and the early church that the church was not the churh.I ascribe it as a club gathering praising eachother and not edifying eachother in the word,so we can grow in Holyness.
It's amazing how our paths have been linked. I also was a pulpit minister in the churches of Christ, and came across the exact same thoughts in 1 Corinthians 14 and came to the same exact conclusions as you. Still in love with the Lord, but no longer in the churches of Christ.
Wow! I'm not the only one! Hallelujah! I tried to work with a church recently in implementing multiple speakers, while hard fastened to tradition, it was extremely challenging and didn't end so well, but for more reasons then such. Am very glad to see this.
Just out of curiosity..are you affiliated with a different denomination? Born into the COC myself, I recently started studying the Restoration movement and that has left me with more questions than answers. It seems to me many of us have a since of pride claiming we ARE the one true church..which is largely based off our view of how we worship in the correct way.
I'm watching the lectures all over again; lecture #1(revised). I encourage everybody to get this great work rooted in your heart and mind. It feels like I'm set free from (excuse my language)... ignorance and stupidity.
When l first started attending church in an Evangelical church we had testimonies which l really enjoyed as it provided a 'connection' for identifying with brothers and sisters on a more human level.
I had the same experience. Since then the professional pastors have eliminated almost all testimonies and their corrollaries, such as special music (typically solos), and lay people teaching or leading discussions. Volunteer positions have radically shrunk as well. It is pretty obvious what is going on.
I appreciate your perspective and commentary on this topic. I was actually relieved to hear what you had to say. Going to church has never felt right to me and I always wondered what my problem was. What you are saying confirms to me that things are just not at they should be in our gatherings.
Excellent video! I came out of church in 2019 and haven’t looked back. My husband & I live at the Great Passion Play in Arkansas. We volunteer with a community of believers. I highly recommend getting involved in community life.
Oh my goodness thank you so much for taking on this! You have put into words what I’ve questioned and pondered for quite some time, years. When I would read the New Testament and how they did things, and see how they do church today, it didn’t add up. Didn’t seem to make sense. And I’ve been pondering in the part few years, what is the worship today really all about? And here this video pops up on my YT!! Thank you so much and I look forward to the rest of the episodes!!
I am a member of a Brethren church in Austria. We do not refer to the Sunday meeting as "worship", but all too often now as "Gottesdienst" ("service to God"). Our traditional term is "assembly". The building we don't consider holy, nor do we hold liturgy in regard. But I have to say that these things grow by themselves, and they make us weaker. A liturgy has developed in the last few decades, even though we wouldn't call it that. The first hour is always the "breaking of the bread" which is commanded by Jesus and mentioned by Luke in Acts, but the entire hour where we do this is now known as "worship hour". That means that we try and speak ONLY of God and Jesus in this hour and magnify him. Not a bad thing, bud I find that it restricts us too much. The second hour is reserved for teaching, i.e. a Sermon. But only every few weeks it is "open", i.e. everyone can preach. This is only a weak echo of 1 Cor 14 where "everybody has something". We try and live 1 Cor 14 in the first hour, the "worship hour", but then again this is reserved for only "worship thoughts". In summary, we are also guilty of a skewed practice of the assembly, and I am thankful for your reminder and explanations. I hope that we can find our way to more freedom in the spirit and more edification amongst ourselves, and can get rid of some liturgy.
@@Lauren-vd4qe We have musical instruments (piano, guitar, cello, violin, cajon). The women propose songs sometimes, otherwise they are quiet during the "worship hour". (They do give announcements and things like that, of course, and take active part in every aspect of church life).
Awesome, thanks. Saved since 1965, always working for the kingdom, evangelism, missionary, pastor, etc. I have always felt what you say. Our language doesn't meet the specs of the manual, nor does our practice.
Sorry, I just became aware of your response. I am in Southern NJ (very rural). Spent most of my childhood in an independent Baptist church (very early years in United Methodist), a short stint in charismatic churches, then back to Baptist for a number of years and the rest of the time in pca/OPC churches. I'm almost 60.😊
Fantastic!!! Subscribed. I asked the question, to the preacher who baptized me, why the Old Testament had exacting instructions for worship and the the New Testament has bread crumbs in contrast. He didn't have an answer. The reason I asked him was he was of the opinion that anyone who didn't follow what his church did was in the category of Nadab and Abhiu.I can't wait to watch all your videos.
I know, now let JesusChrist bring you out of building worships called church or something else, they all under Satans authority, God in JesusChrist took the persons, Matthew 16:18, Genesis 14:18, 1 Corinthians 3:16, 6:18.
Amen and Amen - thank you so much Tom. GOD has been challenging me about so many unbiblical rituals I have been following blindly in the evangelical church and so I am now following the biblical word of GOD instead. How one can be received into believing man made ideas! Rhank you JESUS for opening my eyes, heart, mind and spirit to the truth 😊
Today's Euphemisms; worship = rock and roll, fellowship = food. So, that church flyer that says "join us for worship and fellowship" - now you know what they mean.
and they continued in the apostles’ teaching, the breaking of bread, and prayer…this is the biblical template--sound doctrine, holy communion, prayer which can include singing, music, psalms set to music. Note that sound doctrine is first; it sets the precedent.
Thank you for this teaching. I believe this is very important for us to understand, believe and make the changes necessary to line up with Scripture to stay strengthened, focused and effective in these last days. Maranatha
We watched #1 today. My spirit leaps with joy for all your scholarship and all you've uncovered for the body of Christ; to become better informed and to focus more on why believers are to assembly together. We left institutional "worship" services about five years ago. We read a book by Frank Viola and George Brana called, Pagan Christianity? It was an eye opener and we began our journey in seeking for a more authentic first century assembly and to find other like-minded believers to meet with, in a real-life horizontal way. Its been challenging to see this come to fruition. God bless you! Thanks for all your work and bringing this important knowledge to the public. If only more Christians would watch this and desire to break free from man's traditions for church.
We read the same book 15 years ago! Check out John Fenn and his organization, Church Without Walls International. We know him personally. Excellent Bible teacher whom the Lord called out and gave an assignment to "be a resource for a time to come" regarding those who want to learn how to start and do house church in the Acts 2:42 model.
I, too, read Pagan Christianity and found it wonderful. It seems to me that the authors have failed to follow up on it. This teaching continues with the truth on what the NT really teaches. This should result in the greatest Reformation in 2000 years.
Speaking from experience, I have to admit that in the past, my outward appearance in a "worship" service, has been one of humble adoration whilst my mind was elsewhere. How many more times are we going sing, Jesus I love you with all of my heart? Oh, I don't like that song, it is theologically iffy! I wonder what I should cook for dinner tonight! I need the little room (or rest room in the USA). I found myself thinking, "Am I the only person in the room feeling this way?" I felt like it was a bit like going to the theatre or the cinema. The "audence|" were kind of participating but the focus was "the stage" - it seemed like a performance to me. I just meet with a small group in our homes. - I have seen too much of "churches" with properties run as businesses taking advantage of tax breaks etc. Jesus said, "My Kingdom is not of this world!" So why on earth would I want to do it the world's way?
I often feel the same way. People need to talk, to interact with others, and to discuss some serious content about Christian growth. But our modern church culture rarely offers the opportunity, church attendance has dropped 60% in the last 40 years, and it continues to tank. Pastors need to listen to real people like you!
@@tomwadsworth We do that in Bible study class' at church. The church I attend has many ongoing bible studies day and evenings. Not as many starting late spring through August, but there are always some. Year round bible studies before and after the church service .
I have no idea how I got here. I quit church in 1996. Varied reasons. But my thoughts about “worship” since then has been nothing but questions. Needless to say what a blessing to listen to your studies as it confirms many of my thoughts.😊
In the early 1970s, I was used of God to help spread the gospel in a mighty way, simply by just doing what HE commanded me to do : HE simply was telling me to go to this youth Christian Outreach of which I had just started going being a young Christian. He told in in a still quiet voice the night before to go there and turn on an old Black & White TV set in their TV room. The TV set only picked up three local channels. The rabbit ears antenna had tin foil on them to pick up the signals. I turned on the TV and just as I did a Billy Graham Crusade came on. It was at 5PM on a Saturday Afternoon and no one was in the room but me. By the time the crusade was over I was astonished to see a room full of people crying and weeping, convicted in their heart of their need for Jesus Christ. I did nothing but turn on a TV set - that day a new Christian fellowship was born. It happened because I did what God said and went there and turned on a TV.
@@nomadsolos And Almighty and Alpowerful God still wants you to do the same thing, God is with you even to your hoary head or gray head, Isaiah 46:4, and even to your old age, I am he; and even to hoar hairs or gray hairs, will I carry you: I have made and I will bear or carry; even I will carry, and deliver you. Hearken unto me, O house of Israel. (God is saying listen unto him, and not man, who learn the ways of Satan.
@@nomadsolos You know Almighty God spoke through JesusChrist as he do in these last days, and told us, If ye won't believe that I am he, ye shall die in your sins Telling you to repent, and also letting you know that he is Almighty and Alpowerful God in JesusChrist.
Enjoyed the video... We came from a Baptist background, but charismatic also... (What ever that means!) We help start a church in '86, that met mostly in homes, but also had Sunday gatherings... For most of that time, we were the, 'worship pastors'... We left in '06... I've said a few times, "I'm highly qualified to do a job, that I no longer believe in!" Having said that, I'm amazed and thankful that the Lord uses us, as flawed, and ignorant as we are, both as individuals, and corporately... I do believe that much of what we do is horizontal, and that said the unbeliever will see our love one for another, prostrate themselves before the Lord, and say that God is surely among us.... As for the vertical aspect, we experienced many times, the manifest presence of our Lord. Much like when the priest could not stand, because of the Glory, (weightiness), We are the 'temple' of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in us, individually, as well as when we are gathered... He is looking for those who will prostrate themselves in spirit and truth, (etymology from the negative of , 'to hide'.).. Without that component, we're just a social club... Blessings! Ron
Thanks for your comments. It's noteworthy that I've heard several other former 'worship pastors' say, "I'm highly qualified to do a job, that I no longer believe in."
This affirms something I have felt for decades...we need relationships with each other and the Sunday church service doesn't seem to facilitate it as we shuffle in and out so the small group setting actually always felt like "church" to me as thet is where we would pray for and encourage each other. Great message!
I've been trying to help people understand this in the communion of which I am a part for 4 years. I am 10 minutes in and nearly in tears due to the beauty of the message. The only person in 1 Corinthians 14 said to worship is the one occupying the place of the unbeliever once they can tell God is truly among his people
38:46 As I have been on this journey, this kind of sets the line of questions that I have asked of myself and others. 1 Cor 14 was the key for me as well. Doing contextual study of this passage led me to a different kind of thinking about our coming together and how it is we glorify God by doing so.
I am having an interesting time with my fellow facebookers. I reviewed my ... view of what the purpose of the church, as the body of Christ, not the building, should be. Here, in Romania, the rhetoric in evangelical churches (baptist and pentecostal) is that church attendance, participation in church programs and hearing the sermon, would lead to encouragement, sanctification, growing in holiness and wisdom and so on. However, church meetings look like this: you come to church, sit down, wait in silence, or chat with one or another, pray, sing, preach, pray sing, leave. There is not much edification happening, although the myth and the central message from the pulpit is that the only way these things might happen is through shear participation or church attendance. I would argue that there is a dire need to shift the way we define the purpose of the gatherings.
👍thank you for your labor into this. I knew going to church isn’t worship, but never knew how to explain it. I also referenced 1 Corinthians 14 and was told that it meant what NOT to do, which I never agreed with.
I think our church is a pretty normal church. Worship session(singing together), sermon(reading and preaching of the word), it will generally be on repentance, the grace of God and living a life that pleases God. And then offering song, announcement and then split in cell groups. In cell groups we discuss on the message spoken, share our week, eat together and during the week we send each other the passage we proclaimed as a Church and we reading the same books together every weekdays. I don't think many churches do this. And I am always saddened when I see on shory people "hurrying up" to leave church after service. When I was younger I would do the same, I was pretty introverted and the sermon was long. But now being in this church, and am adult, fellowship may actually be my favorite part of Sunday. Discussing with my fellow brothers and sisters, praying for one another and sharing meals together. It truly is amazing and it build up so much faith when you hear of how God has being working in each other life through our prayers. I hope we could do more of this
I liked: "Fellowship may actually be my favorite part of Sunday." When people become so attached to the ritual aspect of "church," they can easily dismiss the significance of fellowship. They can even run away from it. They go to church to "punch their religious time clock" to record that they were there, and then, having accomplished that, they leave.
It's always been interesting to me how many "Christians" do not observe the Sabbath, but insist if you don't go to church you will go to hell. Thank you for this teaching.
@@ReformedView717 I think you meant to say, 'we are living the sabbath rest in Jesus Christ'. For he is the Sabbath Rest for the people of God. You just put the 'the' in the wrong place, which could lead to a misunderstanding. Cheers
If we want to see how Christians in the First Century worshipped - the Didache gives us an answer that is completely contrary to Tom's video here. The Didache describes formal worship, fasting, ritual manuals of baptism and eucharistic prayers, a hierarchy of ministers, etc. They (first century Christians) didn't have complete collections of Paul's letters, but they did have the pastors appointed by the Apostles and what *they actually did* is recorded in the Didache. "But every Lord's day gather yourselves together, and break bread, and give thanksgiving after having confessed your transgressions, that your sacrifice may be pure." - Didache Ch. 14 (1st century AD)
If we want to see what Christian assemblies were like in the first century, I prefer to rely on the well-attested first century documents as we have in the New Testament. The Didache clearly reveals a later development. The Didache wasn't discovered until 1873 and that lone Bryennios copy itself dates to 1053. While the Didache has been thought to have originated ca. 100 CE, it is likely a composite document that developed over time, much like the Apostolic Tradition (commonly attributed to Hippolytus of Rome in the 3rd century) and the Apostolic Constitutions (commonly ascribed to the late 4th century). So, if we want to see what they actually did in the first century, we have an abundance of evidence in our New Testament. As I demonstrate in video #6, many substantial changes developed after the apostolic period.
Whenever there's an absence of a topic I search through the writings of the early church fathers. I do believe that the worship portion of our services have become more important than it should be however there were hyms sang. They bumped heads over instruments as well.. Worship does edify the body if The Holy Spirit leads it. Thank you brother.
5 years ago we walked out of a church and have not looked back. We worship at home and at prayer meetings. We also do bible study. I have had some pushback but the Lord has given me a peace.
Then your worship is probably un-Biblical. Poor Tom is an ignorant man, despite his PhD. In so called 'house Churches', the Church from the BEGINNING used a liturgy, incense, gold and silver chalices, gold and silver candlesticks, lamps were lit, the priests wore vestments, there was the beginnings of Icons. The Holy Eucharist was offered with dignity and solemn Liturgy, a Liturgy that had its genesis in the Temple. Don't be fooled by thinking a 'house Church' was an informal gathering in someone's living room - that is a childish, uneducated perspective. Investigate Holy Orthodoxy ☦☦☦
Probably watch all seven episodes so you don’t get a false perspective of what he’s getting at. Singing songs unto the Lord in general isn’t a bad thing in fact it’s scripturally encouraged. He’s got a deeper point he’s making here
@@andreaurelius45 haha he’s just confirming what I’ve thought for years now and what millions all over the world believe. Look up DMM in Iran. They naturally do this without even knowing what this guys saying. You cannot find this modern pop culture Christianity we have in the west in scripture. Wake up. Christ came to make you a “new human” reconciled back to Yahweh as His loyal imagers and to BE the temple not to join a county club that loves its 4 walls of whom most are self absorbed and love their moral therapeutic deism.
@@andreaurelius45 btw he hasn’t said all that we know about Christianity has been wrong. That’s a gross misrepresentation You’re the product of either the reformation (of Catholicism,not Christianity) or the Catholic Church. Either one doesn’t look much like the book of acts or any of the NT. Anyone who reads scripture honestly knows this. This is nothing new.
The Lord himself through His providence and of course agency of humans even though we’re deeply flawed . Don’t put to much emphasis or arrogance concerning the human part though lol bc we’ve done some goofy stuff with the scriptures, translation wise and how the modern bibles are arranged and what’s in and whats not. Praise the Lord that His truth still endures even through our frailty and error
@@andreaurelius45 you’re clueless if you think the Lord didn’t providentially preserve the scriptures. And who’s against church ? The question is what is the church?! Church=Ekklesia=‘those who are the called out ones’ Maybe your just to institutionalized to see that idk. I was my whole life. I’m 35, grew up in the church except for maybe roughly from age 12-18. Was apart of all of it . On the praise team, occasionally lead. Was the youth pastor, ordained with an exhorter license was even an elder on the “elder board”. 2020 hit and with the shutdowns and mask mandates and everything i made a decision to leave for many reasons but essentially without realizing it then I stepped out of the echo chamber and since have been having my eyes opened and have been on a journey since growing in my understanding of theology,church history and juts Christianity in general in its ancient roots. Many people are on the same journey in the western church right now and have been. Biblical illiteracy is rampant in the West and the church in general. Need to unite under Christ not our traditions.
New here & in my 60 years of life not given much thought to this but Tom u have opened my heart to consider worship differently. Esp the final recap. Perhaps reasons for some difficulties in our church as in many. And u teach it in an understandable way to the regular human. Thank u and will watch the rest of episodes. 🇨🇦 ❤
This is a subject that interests me greatly. I'm 55 and I am an itinerant preacher in Australia, and I run services in various denominations. My early background as a teenager involved being in a high church (Anglican) with lots of cassocks and surplices and liturgical colours and having the cross at the front of a procession, candles, kissing the Bible, following the Prayer Book and so on. That was in the 1980s. When I left that church I went to a low church (also Anglican). There was no prayer book used, the ministers dressed like ordinary people and we sang contemporary music (usually Scripture in Song) and used plays and skits. The low church service was also notable in that we had expository preaching. This was the 1990s. I moved cities in 2000 and attended a Presbyterian church. I subsequently became an elder and I now run church services according to the "Regulatory Principle of Worship" (RPW) which is something that Presbyterian and Reformed Churches focus on. So I'm hoping that some of your youtube videos will examine/critique the RPW. I find the RPW a very flexible and portable style of worship which can be equally run in large ornate church buildings as in a small room in a community centre. The essential features of an RPW service are: Prayer, the singing of Praise (which includes a Psalm), the reading of the Bible and preaching based upon the Bible reading. The Lord's Supper and Baptism can also be included in such servives. Here's an example of a service I run: 1. Welcome and Announcements 2. Call to Worship 3. Opening Prayer 4. Song 1 5. Confession 6. Bible Reading 1 7. Bible Reading 2 8. Collection 9. Song 2 10. Prayers of Thanksgiving and Request 11. Song 3 12. Sermon 13. Song 4 14. Benediction Another service I have run looks like this: 1. Welcome 2. Call to Worship 3. Song 1 4. Song 2 5. Song 3 6. Song 4 7. Collection 8. Prayers of Adoration 9. Prayers of Confession 10. Prayers of Thanksgiving 11. Prayers of Supplication 12. Bible Reading 13. Sermon 14. Closing Prayer So I've run services like this in a 150 year old church building with a congregation of 50 or more, as well as in a small room at a Nursing home with a congregation of 7. One of the ideas I've had recently is that the "church service" is similar to the Covenant Renewal Ceremonies seen in the Old Testament, but on a weekly basis, in which the basis of the new covenant is remembered and reinforced, showing what God has done for us, and what our response to this should be.
Here's something I often say at the beginning of a church service: We are God's people, and we gather together this day to worship him. In our meeting today, we will engage with God, and God will engage with us. We will engage with God with our prayers and with our songs of praise. And God will engage with us, through his Holy Spirit as we hear the Word of God read. as we hear the Bible explained and as we hear the Gospel of Christ proclaimed.
Interesting. Thanks for sharing all this. A key point I'm making is that the NT does not describe Christian assemblies as "worship." When we put our assemblies under the "worship umbrella," we assume that certain rules (like the Regulative Principle) must apply to our "acts of worship." But the Christians in the NT era did not view their assemblies as "worship," nor were they viewed as "services," nor were their assembly events viewed as "acts of worship." You might say that the NT-era assemblies were under the "edification umbrella," which leaves a good bit of freedom for the various activities in an assembly. After a close reading of Paul's directives in 1 Cor 14, I think Paul would say, "The exact elements of your assembly and the exact order of the elements is not that important. What's important is that everything is done to build up one another (v. 26)." Paul's input is remarkable in that it would work in any culture, in any language, in any time. I'd recommend that you watch, at least, videos #2 and #3 in this series. But if you want to skip watching all the videos, jump to Worship #7: What Do We Do Now?" th-cam.com/video/CGPSQVoZrMg/w-d-xo.html.
I would think that the Lords Supper should be done weekly when they gathered together as it seems that was a major part of the if not the main reason they gathered.
Great teaching! I played an instrument in a very well known western evangelical church. For some time, the pride and performance aspects just angered me. It’s all so much a rock concert! I wanted to suggest, “Hey! Why don’t we play behind a big curtain?” …. but I played nice in the sandbox 😁. I was encouraged when Stephanie G., (No need to mention names) came and spoke stating, “There was no ‘worship bands’ or ‘worship leaders’ in the early church! Now they even have degrees to become a worship leader. Thats just not biblical!” Oh boy….you could’ve heard a pin drop! However, I just about jumped out of my seat with joy!! I left that church within a month. Now, I’m in a home fellowship that meets once a month as a whole assembly with the other home fellowships. I’ve never experienced such freedom! Zero pressure! Zero messages with guilt and fear peppered in! After 30+ years things are sitting well. (Of course it takes time to detox). When man gets his hands in religion we certainly taint things, ie Constantine. Another great topic I’m sure you could research and teach well would be the antisemitism theme all throughout the New Testament. Understanding who the English translators were, where they were from and what denomination they were a part of tells a great story on why and how we in America have been mislead. Thank you again! This is a great teaching and as I continue to come across people that have that itch, meaning they just have the unction the church they’re in isn’t quite right, I will share this video. God is calling people out of religion- bottom line. Bill
Great comments. Little known secret: The problem of "the pride and performance aspects" also affects the preachers, too. And that problem includes the "pressure" you mentioned.
Thank you so much for producing this. I appreciate the thorough investigation you've made and presenting so many references from scholars and such. My husband and I were introduced to the house church/simple church model 15 years ago in 2009. Since then, we've been learning a lot about the differences in church (worship) as we've known it in evangelical circles versus what we find (and you are teaching about) regarding how the NT believers gathered. It took all this time for us to find a local assembly (house church) and began attending about 3 months ago. But sadly, most of what was being done in the gathering was not much different than "the worship hour" in the "big" church we left previously. Yes, we shared a meal together, and instead of someone preaching a sermon, we read and discussed the Bible together. But the influences of the auditorium church model was clearly seen and felt. We've now left (for other reasons). But we're convinced the Lord is preparing us to step more fully into this, mostly likely in starting our own assembling together of neighbors and friends in our home. I look forward to watching all of your videos in this series. Timely, indeed!
Thanks for your comments. It definitely needs to be emphasized that some house churches simply try to replicate traditional "church worship." When you discuss the Bible together, I think it's best to strive toward questions and discussions that target personal growth. I call them "heart issues" as opposed to "head issues" that focus on doctrine and "other people's problems." Paul: "When you get together, everything must be done to build up one another." (1 Cor 14:26)
@@tomwadsworth I'm wondering if there is a way to maybe bring like-minded people from various parts of the world together in some form via gathering names and locations in one spot?
I HAVE THOUGHT A LOT ALONG THESE LINES OVER THE YEARS EVEN GOING TO A CHURCH BUILDING I DONT GO TO ONE, BUT THERE IS NO BIBLE TEACHING THESE DAYS I HAVE MORE LEARNING AND UNDERSTANDING READING MY KJV AND HEARING GOOD BIBLE TEACHINGS ON THE INTERNET JUST AS I HAVE FOUND ANOTHER GOOD PROGRAM THANK YOU
Wow, now I'm going to be totally out of sync when I go to Church service, to top it off, I'm on the WORSHIP Team!! Great topic! it seems strange what we do at Church now, I've never read anything that resembles our type of service in the bible. What the heck happened??
You might find it interesting that I, as a Pentecostal believer, was not taught to refer to the church service as the worship service, but as the assembly, or gathering of believers. One of our main focuses was this passage of Scripture, and we set aside a "believer's meeting" for this purpose. We gathered together for other purposes as well, the gospel service for outreach, the prayer meeting, the Bible study (usually in a home), and others for designated purposes because they attracted different people. For instance, you might not reach a teenager through a traditional setting, but they would accept invitation to the more informal "youth meeting". Church was not about worship, but about Christian community and outreach. In my circle the worship service became designated during the charismatic revival and not before. The term "place of worship" was an evangelical term from the more liturgical churches.
I'm a little shocked it took you 50 yrs to understand churches got it wrong .. 30 yrs ago when I walked in one and saw the way people were jumping around to loud music and calling it "worshipping" I knew right away I was in the wrong place.. demonic possession at it finest! Church buildings should be used as community center to meet the congregation needs.. not the preachers! Everyone brings something to the meeting like, food, clothes cash or services like sewing, mechanic, handyman services and so on.. everyone had a talent to offer.. that someone else can use at different times ... Thats how we take care of each others through out the years! As we spread Yeshua love and good news❤ Anyways, you're videos are very interesting even though there's WAY to many ads! Be well✌️
I remember when my church got rid of their pews and went to plushy soft chairs. It was part of a remodeling project that included painting the previously blue and white sanctuary a flat battleship grey, installing spotlights, blackout curtains, and comfy chairs for the audience. The result was no color except for bright lights on the stage, music loud enough that it literally hurt your ears and kept you from hearing others sing, and utterly no contact with the outside world. The center of focus was, of course, the pastor and the music band--ahem--worship team. Can you tell where their priorities are? Nuf said.
The Bible is not the constitution of the church. Its books were written to address specific problems in the church. How Christians worshipped was, with the exception of 1 Corinthians, not a problem in the church. Accordingly, it was not written about.
Thank you for this message. Earlier this year the church I was attending revoke my membership because my wife and I don’t attend services regularly. she works as an emergency room nurse on the weekends and never attends services but we attended a home study group organized through that same church. I felt the homestead groups were closer to what Paul described, and I felt edified in that setting. It broke my heart when they removed me from the church role, but I’ve grown a lot in my relationship to Christ since and I’m now going to start my own home church.
1. I will not sign a covenant/letter to be a "member" if a church. The early people acted in faith, they did not need to sign a statement of faith. 2. These letters are always what we can do for a particular church and not what they can do for us. It is always one way. 3. I prefer smaller "assemblies" but not "Life groups". Too many are hardlined to where the whole church must go at the same pace. No one can "venture out" and teach on the fly. It must be guarded and followed step by step. 4. God calls His people to HIS CHURCH. I will not be limited to being used for His purpose to a group of people but ALL. Sadly, I am not attending a church. Finding a group of people with the same passion has proven so difficult, I haven't attended regularly in three years. Somehow, I believe modern churches have strayed so far away, it does not resemble the early church.
There is only ONE Church role and that is JESUS CHRIST HIS BODY (ephesians 1:23) As long as you are abiding in HIM you are on the True Church role.! PRAISE THE LORD!
@@n9wff I agree with your observations about church "membership" covenants. They are typically one way. I would add that they are "take it or leave it" as well. We are currently attending a church that we started to join until we read their "covenant" document. First of all, I didn't understand the language they used. It was some obscure Reformed terminology I think, but even though I have a consderable amount of theology under my belt and am well educated, I could not begin to understand it. So we couldn't assent to it. And second, it was deliberatly very narrow in several areas, with no attempt to use broader language that would have definitely sufficed. I didn't feel like arguing any of the language they were using so it was simpler to say -- "hey, we'll attend and participate, but don't expect us to vote at church meetings." Since then I have seen that same document force several newcomers from the church, at a time it is about to close its doors due to lack of attendees. It is a sad state of affairs when you have to sign a contract with a church to be considered part of it.
@@Disappointed739 The other part I have begun to abhor is one must be in full unity with the vision of the church. If you are not, don't bother speaking against the "word of the Lord". Basically, blindly following a leader. One church gave us their covenant and you must adhere to sixteen points for one year before considering to be a part of their ministry. Sorry, I'm getting old. If a leader doesn't care about my talents and gifts or place me outside to save, no thank you. I am not starting over after 25 years of following Christ. I will not babysit kids or serve lattes. Why bother? I get more theology with an open Bible, the Holy Ghost, and solitude than I do in services. Pulpits are more concerned about offending their congregation than digging in the Word for a good sermon.
Finally this is being spoken about. I was feeling so guilty because I was not in church. But I found when attending it was more robotic in a sense then edifying. Yes, the messages were good and spoke to my spirit but the rest seemed superficial. For myself worship to GOD is obedience, spending time in prayer, and singing from my heart and not necessarily a pre- written song. Unfortunately I am stuck because I want to assemble in my home but worried about who to let in and I am a babe in Christ, so I don’t want to be deceived either. Tired of that rabbit hole. Now I understand what famine means…
Given that the first generation of Christians were all Jews, I would expect reference here to the Jewish practice of daily times of prayer: morning prayer, midday prayer, evening prayer, night prayer, which they would have done together with their fellow Jews either in their homes or in the local synagogue, The first Christians then added an additional unique assembly on the first day of the week (i.e., Saturday evening after sunset when Sunday begins by Jewish reckoning) for the breaking of the bread in remembrance of the death and resurrection of Jesus. (Acts 20:7)
@@newbeginning3571 Biblical scholars seem to think it is not certain whether Luke was a Jew or a gentile. You are correct that gentiles were becoming Christians early on so that, by the year 48 or 49 CE (about 25 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus), Christians needed to decide whether gentile Christians should be required to observe the entire Jewish law. The decision was, as we know, that the gentiles did not have to observe the entire Jewish law. That said, the custom of hours of prayer seems to have continued among both Jewish and gentile Christians. Christian monks, e.g., who were almost all gentiles, have observed the daily hours of prayer since they first appear in history in the 3rd century CE, right up until today.
You my friend are a national treasure- or at least should be. Very, very few people have the courage to speak these things and stand against the status quo of today's modern church.
I got very saddened by what I have seen in the church and I ended up having home church with a couple of friends. We decided to go back to the beginning of God’s word and read it through to see what it really says. I personally started using the interlinear Bible and did study on Hebrew words and Hebrew idioms etc. it was through this that I came to an understanding of what worship actually is in Gods eyes. I have also been a long term advocate of Paul’s description of church along with acts. The priest craft that most denominations have been held hostage by is very similar to Babylon religion and completely denies the priest hood of all believers. I also have struggled for many years with liturgy and overly liturgical services as it reinforces the cult of priesthood in many ways
I commend your efforts to study your Bible on these matters. When I began my doctoral work on this topic, I had no intention of investigating liturgy. But I was surprised to find that the alleged biblical support for liturgy is standing on very thin ice. Having said that, Paul says, "Let all things be done for edification." (1 Cor 14:26) While I have very little affection for liturgy, I must acknowledge that some people find it edifying.
I haven't heard mention of Frank Viola and George Barna's 2002 firecracker of a book titled "Pagan Christianity". There's more than a misobligation to "Worship" going on since E.Constantine. ... but I'm only halfway through your video mate. I look forward to viewing the entire series. May Jesus Christ be praised in your life, and in mine.
My videos certainly have some similarities with Viola's book. But that book has some fundamental problems. I refer you to Ben Witherington, a qualified New Testament scholar, who has written three extensive negative reviews of the Pagan Christianity book. Part 1 is here: benwitherington.blogspot.com/2008/06/pagan-christianty-by-george-barna-and.html Part 2 is here: benwitherington.blogspot.com/2008/07/pagan-christianityreview-part-two.html Part 3 is here: benwitherington.blogspot.com/2008/07/pagan-christianityreview-part-three.html In my view, Witherington's criticisms are largely valid. Having said that ... even if only 40% of Viola's claims are true, the modern church needs to rethink the origins of its meeting practices--which my videos attempt to do.
From Indiana and we attend non-denomination mostly. But we don’t have a church “home”. Lately we have issues with the “worship” services being too loud and visually unappealing with the strobe lights and LED wall. We had to leave several services due to the lights cause a migraine for my wife and the loud music giving us a headache. It doesn’t need to be this way…but it is.
It's refreshing to see like-minded believers being digging deep rather than just going along with the narrative. I left organized religion long ago, and in doing that, I grew leaps and bounds in knowledge, wisdom, and understanding! I always thought that the original synagogues were where the scrolls (Torah) were kept and read. Not like today as people now have these books in their homes...
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5 months ago our life group decided that we couldn’t take the lack of decernment, the bethel music during “worship” time and fact that we were just not getting anything from a Sunday church. We realized church was supposed to be for the believers to edify each other. So 5 months ago our life group now does home church on Sundays. We teach the kids first then the adults read scripture and discuss etc. We have learned so much over the last 5 months and it’s been great.
Aw that’s great! I’m so glad you all listened to the Holy Spirit! God bless , and may the Church grow in Faith and Love! ❤
There are a lot of tick tock folks coming out and exposing Bethel and Jesus Culture practices that are not biblical or not even mentioned in scripture. It makes me wonder how they even got through to mainstream Christianity. Do pastors not teach the Word anymore on Sundays??? Or is it just a Calvinism vs charismatics bashing session?
Amazing work!!! Thank you thank you thank you. I feel so convicted listening to your study. I appreciate that you provide us with these profound information for free. Being a Christian and one of the ‘worship leaders’ for several years now, I have always felt this little void in my heart at each ‘service.’ I feel that our people are so disconnected from one another, me included.
Wow! I have been praying about this whole concept of modern "worship" and whether God is calling us in or out of the modern day "church". What a breath of fresh air this is! Makes me fall to my knees and ask God for direction and lead me to other like-minded individuals who are tired of "playing church". Thank you and blessings!
@@jefffoster3557 May God keep you my brother, and give you wisdom and knowledge and understanding to what he wants his sheep to do, in the name of JesusChrist, the God of the whole earth shall he be called.
My brother, Hello, may God in JesusChrist be with us. First you have to open up your heart to the Spirit of God in JesusChrist, to understand if God is sending you a natural man, or a true man of God, who want the same things you want.
To understand what's next, now that he is delivered from the false church building or Satan's prison for the creation of God, so they won't do what God wants them to.
But the Spirit of God speaks clearly to me, Go out into all the world teach and preach the gospel to all God's creation; Baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost or Spirit, Matthew 28:18-20, Mark 16:16-18.
Jude 1:21, Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our LordJesusChrist unto eternal life.
22, And of some have compassion, making a difference.
23, And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment hated by the flesh.
24, Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you (us) faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,
25, To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen.
2 John 7, For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that JesusChrist/God has come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.
Amen.
Only be you strong, and very courageous.
@@jefffoster3557 Yes, God has been calling us out of Satan's prison for years; and lm glad that people are being delivered by JesusChrist, and are closer to the truth, and see how important it is to read, and be doers also of Gods Word...
Because God said sing unto the LORD a new song:(Psalm 96:1):
2, (this is how we sing unto the LORD a song): Bless his name; show forth his salvation from day to day.
3, Declare his glory among the heathen, his wonders among all people.
4, For the LORD is great, and greatly to be praised: he is to be feared among above all gods.
5, For all the gods of the nations or people are idols: but the LORDGOD made the heavens.
6, Honour and majesty are before him: strength and beautiful are in his sanctuary.
7, Give unto the LORD, Oye,you kindreds/families of the earth, give unto the LORD glory and strength.
8, Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name: being and offering and come into his courts.
Sing unto the LORD, a song something like this, without piano, guitar, and people. Instead, (Psalm 96 :3, Declare his glory, (Psalm 96:2, bless his name, show forth his salvation: (Psalm 96:4, For the LORD is great, and greatly to be praised:
Psalm 97:9, For though, you, LORD, art high above all the earth: though art exalted or lifted up, very high, far above all gods.
Psalm 96:4, For the LORD is great, and greatly to be praised: he is to be feared above all gods.
5, For all the gods of the nations or people are idols: but the LORD made the heavens.
Amen.
Come and see the Eastern Orthodox Church!
@@MJS2376 But JesusChrist nor his disciples never bought a building and called it a church; they were the churches of God, in flesh and blood;
God told us in 1 Chronicles 17:5, I have not dwelt lived in a house temple or building or a building called a church since I brought up the children of Israel (out of the house of bondage, or slavery);
But have lived from tent to tent.
So why do you go to a building called a church? God hasn't dwelt lived in one for a very long time:
Is it tradition, or man made religion?
@@annesmith6582 Because we're in spiritual warfare. God said the world don't know him, Isaiah 1:3, John 16:8-10.
And calls us to, Come out of her so you won't be partaker in her sins, Revelation 18:4.
Speaking of Satan's church, with brick and cement, because Almighty God in JesusChrist, took the body.
1 Corinthians 6:19, What? Know ye, you not that your body is the temple of God, which the Spirit of God dwelleth in, and you are not your own, (and that was a question)?
Matthew 16:18, Though, you art Peter, meaning a stone or a rock, upon this rock (which is flesh and blood), I build my church..........
1 Chronicles 17:5, (Almighty and Alpowerful God told us), I have not dwelt lived in a house temple or building since I brought up the children of Israel (out of the house of bondage or slavery.
When the last time you read your Bible? I know some Catholic beliefs forbid that, that's why Catholics bow down, and kiss the Pope's ring, when Almighty and Alpowerful God said, bow down to know man, Exodus 20:5-6.
God is telling us in our world what they are doing to us, got us bowing down to their god, which is man, a false god, and not our creator.
For the Father seeketh such to worship the Father in Spirit and Truth, John 4:21-24.
LOVE this. Our 'worship' is how we live, day to day, how we walk with the Lord - how we treat others.
I was a 'worship leader' in my congregation for several years, until the Lord showed me that my security was in church and not in Him. That started a process of dominoes falling, one by one; what IS church? Long story short - He took me out of the organised system, 18 years ago. Have been following Him ever since - out of religion, into the Life.
I've been amazed by many similar responses from other "worship leaders" who have similar reactions.
@@Innperlenburg SO TOTALLY understand your situation, I too have pretty much stopped organized church services. Do I lack for anything? Not really ,I spend more time in the word , have found some fantastic preacher/ teachers on TH-cam I do Bible Studies with . I found modern day church services so unfulfilling and devoid of TRUTH Teaching, just lots of loud music and repetitive lyrics to music. There is a reason that the “ church age “ will come to an end, and I am seeing that now…
@@tamb7587 It's really only about following Jesus wherever He takes you, isn't it. Hearing His voice and obeying Him.
I’m 63 years old, went to a Christian University with 12 units of Bible required, have attended services of many different denominations and about 10 years ago said enough of this commercialism. It has been my daily habit for about the same ten years to read a chapter or two of one of the Gospels followed by a couple chapters of Acts until I completed that Gospel and then proceed to the next, over and over again. I could no longer abide in congregations where the pastor was placed on a pedestal and seen as the ultimate authority, that’s far closer to idolatry than I’d care to be. People have been acculturated into a consumer religion and not a relationship with our Creator. Many of these “churches” are filled with people that have a “book” knowledge of Scripture but lack any of the practical love that is to be our utmost mark of our relationship with Him. Yahusha made us to be family not an institution. Thank you so much for defining many of the intricacies!
You seem to be a scholar, well read. What verses specifically contain the word relationship?
@@brokenarrow3808 Not going to get into a battle of words with someone that only looks through KJV glasses, it isn’t worth it. I’d tell you to look at John 13:34 “an new commandment I give to you: that you love one another -just as I have loved you, that you may also love one another.” That by definition is a relationship. Now if you’re going to get all wordy on me, dig out the Greek or Hebrew, leave the petty arguments of translation aside.
@@ricksteen935 John 13:34 is Jesus quoting an Old Testament verse ( so, I guess you are not a scholar after all ). Because that Greek word doesn't even mean new, just something the translators "sell" to people. Like it says in Luke, "Beware your translators," because they are all liars. Only God is true. Wow, you are off so much more than I thought.
Yes at the end of the learnings and pleasant socialising, its waiting for him to clatter about inside the head by yourself.
@@ricksteen935 Brother, when God did a new thing, he made Hebrew to English, so all the world could understand Yeshua, or Yehoshua is JesusChrist.
Telling us, If any man be in Christ, JesusChrist he is a new, creature or creation, old things have passed away, behold, listen, pay attention, all things are become new; 2 Corinthians 5:17.
"When you meet together, one person has a song, another has a teaching, and another has a new truth from God."
Because Transubstantiation and Transfiguration are not easy things to explain literally. the Bishops decided the best way to explain them was to symbolize them in the Mass. The resonance from the symbolism is an explanation as a literal explanation is not possible.
@@gosolxsolar Amen. Praise God through JesusChrist all the earth; worthy is God's name.
@@gosolxsolar But that's why I don't like going into some building and praising God like he's a little God! God can't even fit in a building!
The heaven of heavens cannot contain God, how to more this house you build me!? 1 Kings 8:27.
This building Satan has built for a prison, a prison house. And many, many, many, many people it be that still go in.
@@ALavin-en1kr Catholics are not Christians.
@@Dayvid1234 According to 1 Corinthians 3:16, we are the temple of God. The issue is that the "church buildings" are not the church, but the congregation that gathers in them (at least, that's how it's supposed to be). Having a dedicated building to meet in isn't a problem, versus going to a person's house, but treating that building like it's the only place to meet, experience, worship, and praise God is completely wrong.
And it is true that even the heaven of heavens can't contain God, but it is also true that He can abide in as large or as small a place as He pleases. How wonderful it is that the LORD chooses to dwell in us.
Thank you for this balanced video. I think much of the church today has come to worship their "worship music" rather than worshiping God. Many churches don't pray, they no longer actually worship and they do very little Bible Study. We MUST get back to the Biblical example of why Christians met together.
Very good points. Something I've seen for years, and you put it into clear words. I'm a home church host. We love it. We eat together, sing, read the Bible, pray, for each other, and in praise to God. Everyone participates. We don't have a name. We just call it getting together.
Haven't watched the video yet. Just read your comment. Love what you're doing and think all box churches should dissolve and move to what you're doing.
Just a suggestion to improve on what you are doing. Consider ways to network with other Home Churches. A network of churches can provide more resources and skilled solutions for things like counseling, ministries, and missions. This is a difficult thing to do but may be easier to incorporate internally. In the 80s, we would have called these Cell Groups. Much like a cell divides when it grows too big, small groups can subdivide and develop networks. It would be good to have one Elder at each Home Church and a Bishop or two as heads of the network.
These are just some of my ideas. If growth goes well, a network may become too big. In that case, some of the outliers may like to break off and start new networks of their own.
Also, and you may not like this, I would suggest to refrain from singing. Try to think of your "assembly" as a NORMAL gathering. So in a normal get-together, people don't just break out singing a song. And the host doesn't normally force their guests to sing songs prior to the BBQ. Try to incorporate some sort of normality to the meetings. Now, you and your friend may just love to sing and that is alright too.
I am excited to see what Tom Wadsworth tells us. Did they just get together to talk? I imagine they didn't have much written literature. Eventually, they would have received letters from the apostles to read. It can be hard for a modern person to imagine what they did for their assemblies.
Also, a word of caution. You will eventually want to set up some safeguards to prevent your group from going into some weird place. Small Groups and Home Churches really need to set a priority to two important practices - Seeking Truth and Seeking God. If these two are always your #1 priority, then your church remain on the right path. I have another priority that you may not yet agree with and that is to not let any sinners into your church. You may like to meditate on that to see if you agree.
@@kevinerose I see a danger in setting up a network of churches (if it is like a new denomination). The Jerusalem church is a good model. It consisted of many home-based assemblies that all thought of the church as 1 church in the city/town. All the churches in the NT follow the same pattern. There was always 1 church per city/town. Today, if we get impatient, we will set up a new network of home-churches (like a new denomination), ignoring the other church groups in town, instead of patiently presenting the biblical model to all the churches in town. I think we should hold back on the network (if it is like a denomination) and seek the willing participation of the existing groups to think of themselves as one church of the town. If you set up a network (like a denomination), it may be for uniformity/control. If you present the biblical ideas like Tom is doing, (and not prescribing modern solutions), then you are being more careful not to go beyond what is written, and you can look for more town-based unity (excluding the pretend Christian groups). My experience of a cell-group in the traditional church I attend is completely unlike an early home-based church... our cell group only likes adults to attend and only meets to pray. This is nothing like the 1 Cor 14 model of church. Even an elder per home assembly is going beyond scripture... It seems Titus 1:5 says Titus should appoint "elders" for the town (something we almost never do today). What do you think?
@@jbible Yes but towns are much larger today. Some towns are 3 million people. Just to put numbers to it, let's suppose a Home Church has 5-15 members with 1 primary leader. We can say a home leader doesn't have to be an Elder. But on the next level, we can have 5-10 Home Churches that meets together once a month. So that is 5-10 house leaders who are "in agreement" with scripture. Maybe we like to have half of those to be Elders. (I do prefer more Elders because the JW organization uses few numbers of Elders and I don't like how that is working for them.) This group would be a Level I network. Then you have Level II may be a "city level" where all the Level I's in a city will have their leaders meet once a quarter. And let's suppose you have 5 or more prominent leaders will be considered a Bishop for that city.
My research on JW tells me their Elder system is not working out very well. Either too many or not enough and I am leaning on that there should be more.
And your concerns about Denominations is correct. Denominations are a corruption. But you will always have this problem unless you do one thing. I find that there is only one thing that can prevent corruption in the Assemblies and that is 2-fold. All assemblies must strictly adhere to Seeking Truth and Seeking God always and in everything. So we have the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE. The commands of Christ is the way. The gospel is the truth. Our faith in Christ and through the grace of God is the Life. Scripture tells us if we seek we shall find. So seek truth and seek God will always point to salvation.
@@kevinerose I like what you are saying... especially at the end of your comment about following scripture... seeking Truth and God always in everything... focusing on the gospel... our faith in Christ. Sola Scriptura (the scripture can reform us... and guide us... and is sufficient). As far as the practical details of smaller towns and larger towns, the way I look at it is we must follow the main principle of seeking to respect the picture presented by the apostles in scripture which is most clear in 1 Cor 14. Everything that is said... must be for edifying... and it must be a few speakers (not one... not even two... unless the 3rd person is unwilling to speak, perhaps)... and everything said must be weighed (evaluated). Tom said it well. I think we are so unfamiliar with this model that we have so many ideas and we need time (some of us) to get used to this kind of church. I like to think of the Jerusalem church as a good example of a pretty large town/city. If the Jerusalem church could handle 3000 being added in 1 day, that is amazing. That shows there was no building program. The knew how to use ordinary homes. This allowed the participatory ekklesia meeting. This worked with the Lord's Supper full meal. But the church in Rome appears to be more disconnected (based on a discussion Robert Banks had with someone else). And I think the associating between meetings that are farther apart (Like one side of Sau Paulo with 20 million to the other side) when the city gets larger is ok, we don't have to have such rigid control, the main thing is to focus on the assembly at the local level... nearby assemblies should be more connected... farther apart assemblies would naturally see each other less. Some people have commented about thinking about the zip/postal level along with the city/town level, but that is mainly for elders to figure out. The Bible does not prescribe a lot of details at this point... But the worst thing when I look at all my local town churches is ... No one meets like 1 Cor 14... no churches associate or think of themselves at the city/town/zip level at all... it is only at the 501(c)(3) level. I think unbelievers can see our lack of unity very easily (John 17).
Church that I belonged to called me divisive and excommunicated me because I raised a concern about leader centric organisational model, control and hierarchy. I still love them and my children still “worship” there but I had to move on. My idea of church (kingdom) has radically changed over the years. Still learning! Praise God.
God inspired me to start JesusDust that is planting house churches, equip believers and focus on independent multiplication ministries in Africa, India and elsewhere.
I love that name. Jesusdust
Wanna get kicked of most churches? Go to the planning and budgeting meetings, and after they’re done talking about their plans to spend, ask them what they’re doing for orphans and widows. That will get you well on the path to excommunication….
Warn a divisive person once, and then warn them a second time. After that, have nothing to do with them. You may be sure that such people are warped and sinful; they are self-condemned.
Finally! I've pondered this for years and years and have tried to teach others about God outside the church building. God bless this!
Women should not be teaching
The modern day church and these LONG AND LOUD praise and worship services are just hideous! I met a young woman sitting outside of the auditorium and we started talking . I found out ,like me she was waiting for the excessively loud music to stop because she worked for a school for hearing impaired people and she had a sound meter and told me she had used in in the service and found the sound levels high enough to do damage. Church should NOT CAUSE HARM TO PEOPLE. I think of all the young children and the elderly literally having their hearing destroyed by CHURCH SERVICES! Appalling! The worst part is the leaders seem to feel the louder the music the deeper the worship, nothing could be further from reality..
Maybe try going to a church that has acapella singing. I go to a church of Christ and everyone sings acapella, no choir or speakers.
Worship is supposed to be done in reverence to God, not like an entertainment-driven concert
@ good idea !
@ agree totally!
I've only watched 10 minutes of this but you think exactly like I do. It's somewhat overwhelming when God shows you just how far professing Christians these days have actually departed from what God says are commands in the Bible. It really is true: the more you seek Him for wisdom and revelation the more one feels isolated from not just the world but from the majority of people who calls themselves believers.
I've got a busy day but will definitely be back to watch the rest of this and your other videos. Thank you for sharing the many truths herein- it's amazing just how many people either can't see these things, refuse to, or just pretend like these issues don't really matter to God at all.
God is shaking this world, and that includes everything man has invented in this place we call "church."
Well said. I feel more isolated as well for those same reasons, but have been unable to express or grasp clearly the "why." Thank you for taking the time to write this comment.
I was born again at 46 so I was miles behind.
The first question I had (after a time) was if we are the "church) (people) how can we "go to church". When I questioned I received the "canned" answer: "Don't worry about it you will see as you grow."
The great thing about this is I was "thrown" into reading and researching the Bible.
I found MORE questions than answers. This was good. Now at 77 I am starting to scratch the surface. It's not that it is difficult to understand it is that there is SO MUCH.
The subject presented here is but a small part of the things I've learned learned during my research that people tend to pooh pooh.
The study also led me to the fact that I am saved by grace + nothing. Praise God.
Several people have mentioned a hesitancy to use the phrase "go to church." I understand what they're saying. However, the Greek word ἐκκλησίᾳ, which is often translated as "church," is often better translated as "assembly."
Paul uses the phrase ἐν ἐκκλησίᾳ to describe being “in assembly” (see 1 Cor 11:18 and 14:19, 28, 35). So, if you understand that "church" (when found in the English Bible) means "assembly," it's not out of line to say that someone is "going to the assembly." Make sense?
@@tomwadsworth Absolutely.
There is a lot about God's word that MOST (I dare say) Christians don't understand. It took me many moons to understand that M/M/L/J were an extension of the "OT". Matt 10 Jesus tells the 12 "Go NOT unto the gentiles..."
For many years I fought the "contradictions" of the first 4 and Romans - Philemon.
Thank you for your time and "daring" do.
@@itlupe That's a good question my brother or sister; we don't go to church, this was a lie from Satan, and he deceived the whole world, Revelation 12:9.
God was telling us he did, and he didn't stop either. I know people that have came out of the false church building, but that don't mean that Satan is not using them no more.
This one sister got out, and came on here straight wit her false church knowledge: JesusChrist gave me the Spirit of discernment, by the power of the Holy Spirit or Ghost, and I see right through her.
Before JesusChrist delivered me from the false church building, it was a point I went everyday, and that's how bad it was where I come from, and Satan plays a huge part.
I did Genesis 12:1, and I'm here.
I see right through the sister, and that's from taking time out of all the world, and letting God talk to me through JesusChrist.
@@tomwadsworth My brother I don't understand you so, because you not speaking JesusChrist, you sound like a scientist, God in JesusChrist is not about science;
But Almighty and Alpowerful God spoke through JesusChrist as he does in these last days, Hebrews 1:2, and told us, Know ye, you not that you are the temple, or house, or building (2 Corinthians 3:9), of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
And that was a question?
1 Corinthians 6:19, What? Know ye not that your body is the temple, house of the Holy Ghost, which ye, you have in you, and you are not your own?
And that also was a question?
Though, you art Peter, meaning a stone or a rock, upon this rock, (which is flesh and blood), I build my church, Matthew 16:18.
We don't even have to be like the scribes and Pharisees, showing what we learned, and confusing people.
God said it through JesusChrist clear and plain.
So the outside building, made with cement and brick is Satan's, did you catch that? Do you go?
Repent turn from it, in the name of JesusChrist, and come to the truth.
Hebrews 10 calls us to come together. Not a bunch of small groups. Most house churches fall victim to heresy in an echo chamber of agreement
Worship is not just singing songs to God, it’s how we live! Our whole life should be worship to God! How we act, what we say, how we spend our time!
We have been church planting missionaries for over 40 years. We have always emphasized home gatherings, discipleship and growth through evangelism. It is the closest to NT practice as far as we can see. Thank you for your teaching.
No cathedrals with gold plated statues?
@@claudiaa.3268 This is true my sister, that home gatherings is closet; but to whose teaching??? Where in the Bible did they do that??!
But God said in Isaiah 43:18-19, Remember ye, you not the former things neither consider the things of old.
19, Behold, listen, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth or come to pass; shall ye, you not know it??
Isaiah 42:9, Behold, listen, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare: (and), before they spring forth or come to pass, I tell you of them.
2 Corinthians 5:17, Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, listen, all things are become new.
18, All things are of God, who reconciled us to himself, by JesusChrist, and have given to us the ministry of reconciliation.
19, To wit or know that God was in JesusChrist reconciling the world unto himself.
God, Almighty and Alpowerful God was in JesusChrist: and still is, God is telling us what's before us now! right now.
@@claudiaa.3268 What happened, my sister, to not receiving the grace of God in vain?!?
@@claudiaa.3268 But we are not of them who draw back to perdition or destruction; but to them that believe in the saving of the soul, Hebrews 10:39! Believe this sister?
@@MichaelTheophilus906 Not at all my brother, but the saving some with fear, pulling them out of the fire, Jude 1;23.
This is what we are supposed to do when an Assembly of Christians come together:- Ephesians 5:19-- speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, 20 giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 submitting to one another in the fear of [f]God.
Actually, it does not say in the context that this is about an assembly of believers. It is only speaking about our interactions with each other. Therefore this is not a verse about assemblies.
@@pcsecurityinternational8434why not in church if not also along the road during our interaction?
Eucharist means "thank offering". So, as a Catholic, I agree that wr should offer thanks at our assemblies.
As in Acts 2:42 “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching [Bible] and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” Sounds like my little church. We also sing hymns like Jesus did with his disciples. (Mark 14:26) My pastor takes prayer requests and praise reports from the floor and prays right then for each one by name. We affirm our faith by creed together as well as “The Lord’s Prayer.” We have meals together for special occasions and communion monthly. Everyone has a voice in this congregational model. No women teaching men or pastoring. My former pastor mocked this type of Church gathering. I love it.
Thank you for breaching this subject. I realized this too when researching how the early Christians gathered, and also when reading the words of Stephen the martyr in Acts. It’s not an easy subject to discuss with fellow believers today, because modern day Christians love their churches…and rely on their churches…and often favor their pastors wisdom over doing their own Bible study. Today’s Christians are also woefully ignorant of history. My fear is that churches are being used to promote propaganda and false doctrine. It’s a real problem. Thanks again, and God bless you, sir. ❤
So true. Being used like society's social engineering. Being like the world. Young in faith here...
I like what you’re saying because it makes you think
Worthy , Useful , and unique . Most of all the conclusion of gather together NOT to be phony , pretentious and entertained , but to Be There to Build each other up as we work together to appreciate The Lord's goodness and His desire to build each up by duplicating His Superior listening and loving capacities as we seek to truly know Him better.
Thank-you Tom. At last I have found I am not alone. I am not an advanced scholar by any definition but I have held these views for most of my 70 odd years of life. In my definition of the assembly I would add that it was not only for building up but also for communion or remembrance. My statement I like to use with people is "Worship is not an event it is a lifestyle" it is or should be everything we are and do and the assembly is to encourage this. Your thoughts.
Thanks for your encouragement! Yes, it's true that our "devotion to God" (notice that I didn't use the term 'worship') should be a lifestyle and not something performed one hour a week. My NT research indicates that the assembly should be an intensive "one-anothering" gathering that allows much interaction between the members. It's hard to do this in a large and formal ceremonial "service." In order for the individual members to grow and develop into mature Christians, they need abundant opportunities to speak to one another and learn from one another. I talk about this in some detail in Worship #4: Why They Didn't Preach Sermons in the Early Church th-cam.com/video/hV8H2fx2Y6U/w-d-xo.html. Thanks again for watching and commenting!
When I got saved many years ago, I started with the premise that God is not the author of confusion and therefore all of scripture must be simple enough for all to understand and also not confusing. The modern church has taken the gospel message and made it difficult and in my opinion the church is the biggest obstacle today of spreading the gospel. It sad to say but nearly everyone in my church (and most churches) are confused about the gospel. And this includes people in their 70s and 80s who still confused about Scripture. I try to tell them that scripture is simple and easy and that God is not the author of confusion but they have blinders on and won't listen to me. They will only listen to the pastor, to the church, or to their denomination. And each of these contradict each other. If you don't have a title or degree then people will not accept a word from you. Even to tell them God is not the author of confusion.
It is to Shema. To hear His instructions and DO them.
@@kevinerose So true! If you haven’t got any sort of position in their denomination then they won’t even consider what you are saying👍🏾💯🇬🇧
@kevinerose The Bible is simple and easy? Wow, you must have some other Bible than the dozens I have read. No, the Bible is not simple and easy - but someone may, for reasons of their own, convinced you that this is the case.
I realized I was a sinner so I asked for Gods forgiveness on 23/11/1988 at 23.45pm, and I was born again of the spirit of God, I' am now 68 years old. I started attending a AOG church in the UK, I was then indoctrinated and led to believe that I had to worship God, now over the last 3 years God has shown me I dont need to worship Him, I just need to be still and God will walk with me and talk to me just as in Genesis 3. Jesus died , the veil in the temple was torn in two from heaven to earth, the Jewish people continued to offer blood sacrifices in the temple,so, God destroyed the temple of stone built in Jerusalem, God destroyed religion and religious practices.
!! For me, that born-again moment was 4pm Oct 31, 1971!
I agree with just about everything you said. My research has also concluded that, when God destroyed the temple, he essentially destroyed ceremonial religion (Jas 1:26-27) in favor of a "Way" that focuses on helping the helpless.
I'm not sure exactly what you mean by "I don't need to worship him." It's true that the God who made the heaven and earth does not need anything (Acts 17:24-25). But our response to his great mercy should include offering our bodies as a living sacrifice (Rom 12:1) and "not neglecting to meet together" as we focus on "stirring up one another to love and good works (Heb 10:24-25). May God continue to enrich your walk with Him.
I have felt this way for awhile but had no biblical basis to justify my “feelings”…until now. For me, worship is waking up at 3am and listening to the thousands of cicadas singing outside my house. It’s during those times that I’m in awe of God. Thank you for sharing your research.
You should try a Devine Lithurgy.
The algorithm brought this video to my feed today. Thank you for putting into words what I have been thinking about and trying to articulate for years. Really looking forward to the rest of the series!
Thank you! You can find all seven parts of the series at my TH-cam channel: www.youtube.com/@tomwadsworth The second episode is here: th-cam.com/video/BgDQ5hUSoE0/w-d-xo.html
@@tomwadsworth Thank you so much. Have now watched all seven episodes and I'm sharing with my husband and my friend.
@@mariemilycraig Do you mind telling me ...What state are you from, and To what denomination are you most accustomed?
So glad to see this - we need more of it. Never in the history of the Church era have we seen such a falling away. It's easy for people to fall away going to large 'worship' services where they are not active participants, and have no accountability or anyone involved in the details of their lives. We have a lot of emotionalism, but it is not true Christianity. The core heart of Christianity is relational intimacy - first with Christ and second with each other. It's simple. The church today is a business, and what a business it is. We need to get back to relational intimacy with Christ and each other.
Great comment! "It's easy for people to fall away going to large 'worship' services where they are not active participants, and have no accountability or anyone involved in the details of their lives. The core heart of Christianity is relational intimacy."
Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. Colossians 3:16
I have had my own personal feelings that we do a lot of non-biblical things in churches because of tradition. I have made the statement to others that they probably would not care to live for God the way the early church did. We are a pampered people that are used to being spoon fed and entertained. It is also why there is a lack of maturity and fruitfulness among modern christians.
@robivy9987 One reason is a lot of professing Christians don't have a real connection with Jesus Christ, they follow man instead. Remember church is easy following Jesus you have to become holy and you must die to self become a living Sacrifice, the road is narrow but well worth following Jesus. ❤🙏
I realized this 15 years ago and thank God for being liberated from religious system.
My journey started when I began to study discipleship 2 years ago. I first realized that our ideas of baptism were not correct but I didn't go any further than that at the time. But my independent studies of discipleship soon led to another topic - Church Planting. I quickly noticed lots of errors with that and started to realize more and more that Man's Doctrines had somehow replaced God's doctrines from Scripture. I started to realize that Jesus' earthly mission also included teachings against religions and religious people. Then I understood that God is not Religion and Religion is not God. Above all things, we must follow the One True God which is the way that Jesus commands us.
Me too… thank you, Lord…feel so liberated!!
That's a good and timely word. Answers for a sick and worldly church that desperately needs help. Thanks for sharing this
I was wondering if it was only me noticing this issue in the past. But thank God, He(the Lord) lead me to you, brother Tom. Although English is not my first language, but I can understand it well. And I will learn from your hard work of decades and spread it to others , at least in other two languages I know. I will share this truth to many. Actually we in our church had began realizing these things already and we have been taking steps to correct it. Your lectures will help us biggely in our progress forward in the right direction. You have clearly articulated what the early church was doing in a scholarly manner. We will not take your toil and effort in researching this astonishing finding for granted. I thank God for you. Where ever we are, if we are in Christ, we are one body. And Thanks to the internet, if we realize who we are in Christ and focus only on what we ought to do, the church of Christ worldwide will explode like an atomic bomb to reach every single person in this planet with the good news of Salvation.
Oh God! all of our energy had been eaten by a nonsense liturgies and humane rituals for hundreds of years, but now , No More. We are awakening from our slumber.
May I suggest another reason (actually two related reasons) why the “worship anomaly” doesn’t get any traction? When I came to evangelical protestantism from the Roman Catholic tradition, I noticed that the Evangelical origin myth goes something like this: “We are the true New Testament church. The Catholics added all of these medieval accretions to the faith, such as indulgences, Marian devotions, etc. The Protestant reformers stripped away all of those accretions and returned us to a pure New Testament faith.” If the worship anomaly is acknowledged, Evangelicals would have to admit that we just have a different set of latter day accretions, we have also added things to the pure first century faith, and so our cherished origin myth is false. Secondly, evangelical seminary training and the evangelical church service revolve around the sermon. The sermon is the centerpiece of our practice. If we were to acknowledge the worship anomaly, we would have to admit that the sermon, the core of our faith practice, is unbiblical. If both our origin story and the core of our practice (the sermon) are unbiblical, this would demolish our identity as the “bible-based” church, wouldn’t it?
I agree wholeheartedly with your first point, and I agree with the general idea of your second point. Concerning "the sermon," see the fourth episode in this video series, "Worship #4: Why They Didn't Preach Sermons in the Early Church" at th-cam.com/video/hV8H2fx2Y6U/w-d-xo.html.
The post-reformation church is largely a re-badged Roman Catholicism. Similar liturgical patterns (but not called liturgy), similar basic order of 'service'; similar concept of 'service'. Just different branding.
@dagwould
Trying to get light on this "worship anomaly thread" I've stumbled upon perhaps by di V ine means, hello. Awake here due to being daily chastened for over 4 years backsliding. Pleading mercy at 73 yrs of age and done with church hunting for a home. Hutterarians would be my choice if only they were not legalist pushers of common sharing of goods. So many ways to be failing in doctrine. Have you heard of Amish family highway crashed van.. named Esh family? I was close to them and it was a huge news story.
@@DouglasJWilkening
Hello; I'm interested as a searcher of true worship, just bumping into this online thread.
No, they did not go far enough. They are still catholic.
I have been unaffiliated with church since 2018, after 48 years of church going, ordination and ministry, and surviving (barely) those “worship wars”…you might even run across some of my compositions for worship floating around out there. I finally realized with a game it all was and now, although some might say I walked away from Jesus, my personal relationship with God has become so much deeper and my ability to exhort and encourage and connect with my fellow human has followed suit. I left church but dove headlong into THE CHURCH. Beautiful treatment of the subject!
Hi Hannah. I'm hearing from LOTS of people who have a similar background like yours.
@@tomwadsworth I remember so clearly the day I heard God say, as I was wondering if leaving church was really what the next step was: “You have enough church for 500 people over 500 lifetimes…it’s time to leave and live it.” I have NEVER regretted that choice.
To get into the church, the body of Christ, you must first believe the gospel, then repent, confess Christ's deity with your mouth and finally be immersed in water for remission of sins..
@@dsvet Manmade BS. But thank you for your opionion.
@@hannahviolette4553 John 8
24I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.
One must first hear the gospel and belive it..
By golly, you’re right!!! I accepted Christ and was born again during the Jesus Movement Revival during the 1970s. Your accurate exegesis of the Scriptures is correct! Until viewing your video, these things had never dawned on me but there had always been an uneasiness inside me about the things you bring to light in your video. Thank you!
After 48 years of personal ministry, you are the first (besides myself) I have heard teach on 1 corinthians 14. It has been years to help folks do this, but what a difference it makes!
Do you mind telling me ...What state are you from, and To what denomination are you most accustomed?
@@tomwadsworth I’m still curious as to your view? In a personal home church setting are women allowed to share and edify, encourage or just stay quiet?
@@kimberlyd7398 IF I had a Christian gathering in my home, I would strongly encourage females to speak and share.
I'm fully aware of 1 Tim 2:11-12 and 1 Cor 14:34-35, but "in Christ there is neither male nor female" (Gal 3:29). If Paul was accustomed to prophetesses (Acts 21:9; 2:17-18), and if Paul expected women to be "praying or prophesying" (1 Cor 11:5), he must have had some locally cultural concerns that prompted his comments about the silence of women. We no longer have any local cultural concerns to silence women. To the contrary, it even seems unchristian and disreputable to silence women.
I've been leading small group Bible studies for almost 50 years. Those discussions would have been sadly deficient if we had not enjoyed the benefit of women's input. The Holy Spirit flows through women as much as men. It would be a shame to "quench" or stifle the Spirit (1 Thess 5:19) in half of the attendees.
Further, male input often lacks a sensitive and compassionate component that females typically bring to a discussion. Paul urged men to pray in meetings "without anger or quarreling" (1 Tim 2:8). Why does Paul mention men's "anger" and "quarreling"? I find that men are more inclined to introduce quarrels and to bring "a sick craving for controversial questions and disputes about words, from which come envy, strife, abusive language" (1 Tim 6:4). Men are desperately needed, but their testosterone often needs to be checked by a healthy dose of the Spirit's influence toward gentleness, kindness, and patience (Gal 5:22-23).
In the end, men and women need each other, and they both have immense value. Jesus clearly knew that.
Some will say, "It's okay for women to speak in a home gathering, but not in church." But in the New Testament, church meetings were in a home--not in some sacred building. NT Christianity, in fact, had no sacred buildings. None. We need to face the fact that our modern church (of ALL denominations) has inherited a building-based religion with a host of "institutional" rules and expectations that are not biblical.
One of those rules is that women can speak in a "Sunday School class," but not "in church." To me, it makes no sense to allow women to speak in one room of a "church building," but then to silence them in another room of that building. God required no such thing as a "church building," and he certainly did not demand that one room become more of a "sanctuary" than any other room. The "church" is the "gathering." The "church" (in the NT) is not brick & mortar, it's not carpeting & drywall, and it's not pews & pulpits.
We don't need to conclude that only house gatherings are biblical. House churches can be messed up, too. In the end, the building is meaningless, which is likely Jesus' point in John 4:20-24. What's most important in an assembly is (1) treating one another with love (1 Cor 13) and (2) "doing all things to build up one another" (1 Cor 14:26).
@@tomwadsworth @heritage_press 's Women in Ministry
is more accurate in my opinion
Thank you so much for this. This has been something I have thought about for many years. I can’t wait to listen to all of your teachings.
Oh my goodness. Thank you. The words and thoughts you speak are almost identical to mine in reference to ‘Gathering’ for the purpose of worshipping. I have been searching for a ‘CHURCH BUILDING’ to go to to worship for almost 12 years. I feel like I have been trying on a new pair of shoes each time but none ever fit quite comfortably. Now, I feel I am ok with myself and my thoughts and beliefs.
What we need is a gathering place for the purpose of edifying one another (1 Cor 14:26).
Do you mind telling me ...What state are you from, and To what denomination are you most accustomed?
@@tomwadsworth I was born and raised in rural Pa. Attended a very small church in small village called Rana Villa. Name on outside of church read: Church of God.
I would describe it as nondenominational or possibly Protestant. As a young child I was Accustomed to listening to a strong finger pointing fist pounding sermon from the pulpit taken directly from the Bible. I would take that sermon home and dwell on it until the next Sunday sermon. Years later upon moving I sometimes attended a Mennonite church as a visitor/guest and then a similar church to the first. During service in the army I attended several different denominations on base. Then while living in Ca for many years I joined the Mormon Church and was baptized. After attending for a few short years I became disillusioned and stated I was removing myself from the church. To this day they don’t seem to have gotten the message. After my husband passed I moved to a Conservative state in the far north west that I truly believe was at the guidance of God. I have attended several churches in the area but never joined or became a member. The doctrine I most identify with is the Baptist doctrine. Plain, simple and uncomplicated.
I have visited many churches and even though some are more a warmer reception than others they still have the auditorium dark and the loud music praise and worship and it’s like a American Idol concert and it’s all about them. The people stand there like zombies just staring. My spirit recognizes the darkness, the loudness, and emptiness every time I visit these self adoration and patting each other on the back for their own self satisfaction! 🤨
Thank you for your message, and I look forward to listening to the future ones.
Excellent presentation, very informative, and I totally agree. Also I believe God is leading many of us back to this genuine version of Christian fellowship and gatherings. By the way there are several Hebrew words for worship which also shed more light on this subject, such as “shamash” which means “to bow down”. This is the meaning behind Matthew 2:11 when the Magi bow down and worship Jesus - nothing to do with singing! It is about an attitude of bowing down to God in our heart.
Yes! See episode #2: "Worship #2: The Real Meaning of "Worship" in the Bible" at th-cam.com/video/BgDQ5hUSoE0/w-d-xo.html.
Thank you so much Tom for sharing these amazing truths about what true worship means.
I have personal left the church I attended.Because as you, I saw in aligning with scripture and the early church that the church was not the churh.I ascribe it as a club gathering praising eachother and not edifying eachother in the word,so we can grow in Holyness.
It's amazing how our paths have been linked. I also was a pulpit minister in the churches of Christ, and came across the exact same thoughts in 1 Corinthians 14 and came to the same exact conclusions as you. Still in love with the Lord, but no longer in the churches of Christ.
Wow! I'm not the only one! Hallelujah! I tried to work with a church recently in implementing multiple speakers, while hard fastened to tradition, it was extremely challenging and didn't end so well, but for more reasons then such. Am very glad to see this.
Just out of curiosity..are you affiliated with a different denomination? Born into the COC myself, I recently started studying the Restoration movement and that has left me with more questions than answers. It seems to me many of us have a since of pride claiming we ARE the one true church..which is largely based off our view of how we worship in the correct way.
I'm watching the lectures all over again; lecture #1(revised). I encourage everybody to get this great work rooted in your heart and mind. It feels like I'm set free from (excuse my language)... ignorance and stupidity.
When l first started attending church in an Evangelical church we had testimonies which l really enjoyed as it provided a 'connection' for identifying with brothers and sisters on a more human level.
I had the same experience. Since then the professional pastors have eliminated almost all testimonies and their corrollaries, such as special music (typically solos), and lay people teaching or leading discussions. Volunteer positions have radically shrunk as well. It is pretty obvious what is going on.
I appreciate your perspective and commentary on this topic. I was actually relieved to hear what you had to say. Going to church has never felt right to me and I always wondered what my problem was. What you are saying confirms to me that things are just not at they should be in our gatherings.
Excellent video! I came out of church in 2019 and haven’t looked back. My husband & I live at the Great Passion Play in Arkansas. We volunteer with a community of believers. I highly recommend getting involved in community life.
I’m not far from you. I live in Bentonville!
Oh my goodness thank you so much for taking on this! You have put into words what I’ve questioned and pondered for quite some time, years. When I would read the New Testament and how they did things, and see how they do church today, it didn’t add up. Didn’t seem to make sense. And I’ve been pondering in the part few years, what is the worship today really all about? And here this video pops up on my YT!! Thank you so much and I look forward to the rest of the episodes!!
I am a member of a Brethren church in Austria. We do not refer to the Sunday meeting as "worship", but all too often now as "Gottesdienst" ("service to God"). Our traditional term is "assembly". The building we don't consider holy, nor do we hold liturgy in regard. But I have to say that these things grow by themselves, and they make us weaker. A liturgy has developed in the last few decades, even though we wouldn't call it that. The first hour is always the "breaking of the bread" which is commanded by Jesus and mentioned by Luke in Acts, but the entire hour where we do this is now known as "worship hour". That means that we try and speak ONLY of God and Jesus in this hour and magnify him. Not a bad thing, bud I find that it restricts us too much. The second hour is reserved for teaching, i.e. a Sermon. But only every few weeks it is "open", i.e. everyone can preach. This is only a weak echo of 1 Cor 14 where "everybody has something". We try and live 1 Cor 14 in the first hour, the "worship hour", but then again this is reserved for only "worship thoughts".
In summary, we are also guilty of a skewed practice of the assembly, and I am thankful for your reminder and explanations. I hope that we can find our way to more freedom in the spirit and more edification amongst ourselves, and can get rid of some liturgy.
do you have musical instruments in the brethren church yet? do the women speak?
@@Lauren-vd4qe We have musical instruments (piano, guitar, cello, violin, cajon). The women propose songs sometimes, otherwise they are quiet during the "worship hour". (They do give announcements and things like that, of course, and take active part in every aspect of church life).
Awesome, thanks. Saved since 1965, always working for the kingdom, evangelism, missionary, pastor, etc. I have always felt what you say. Our language doesn't meet the specs of the manual, nor does our practice.
Thank you! I have been questioning this for years.
Do you mind telling me ...What state are you from, and To what denomination are you most accustomed?
Sorry, I just became aware of your response. I am in Southern NJ (very rural). Spent most of my childhood in an independent Baptist church (very early years in United Methodist), a short stint in charismatic churches, then back to Baptist for a number of years and the rest of the time in pca/OPC churches. I'm almost 60.😊
Fantastic!!! Subscribed. I asked the question, to the preacher who baptized me, why the Old Testament had exacting instructions for worship and the the New Testament has bread crumbs in contrast. He didn't have an answer. The reason I asked him was he was of the opinion that anyone who didn't follow what his church did was in the category of Nadab and Abhiu.I can't wait to watch all your videos.
This was excellent. A discourse that outlines concerns I've been pondering for 20+ years.
I know, now let JesusChrist bring you out of building worships called church or something else, they all under Satans authority, God in JesusChrist took the persons, Matthew 16:18, Genesis 14:18, 1 Corinthians 3:16, 6:18.
Thanks Tom, it is great that I am honing in on discerning Christians who are leading the blind (people like me) toward the "Truth". Many thanks, AJ225
For we saw His star when it rose and have come to worship Him. Matt.2:2
Amen and Amen - thank you so much Tom. GOD has been challenging me about so many unbiblical rituals I have been following blindly in the evangelical church and so I am now following the biblical word of GOD instead. How one can be received into believing man made ideas! Rhank you JESUS for opening my eyes, heart, mind and spirit to the truth 😊
Today's Euphemisms; worship = rock and roll, fellowship = food. So, that church flyer that says "join us for worship and fellowship" - now you know what they mean.
Praise to our Father in heaven, he knows our hearts. You make a lot of sense.
and they continued in the apostles’ teaching, the breaking of bread, and prayer…this is the biblical template--sound doctrine, holy communion, prayer which can include singing, music, psalms set to music. Note that sound doctrine is first; it sets the precedent.
The Mass
Thank you for this teaching. I believe this is very important for us to understand, believe and make the changes necessary to line up with Scripture to stay strengthened, focused and effective in these last days. Maranatha
We watched #1 today. My spirit leaps with joy for all your scholarship and all you've uncovered for the body of Christ; to become better informed and to focus more on why believers are to assembly together. We left institutional "worship" services about five years ago. We read a book by Frank Viola and George Brana called, Pagan Christianity? It was an eye opener and we began our journey in seeking for a more authentic first century assembly and to find other like-minded believers to meet with, in a real-life horizontal way. Its been challenging to see this come to fruition.
God bless you!
Thanks for all your work and bringing this important knowledge to the public. If only more Christians would watch this and desire to break free from man's traditions for church.
We read the same book 15 years ago! Check out John Fenn and his organization, Church Without Walls International. We know him personally. Excellent Bible teacher whom the Lord called out and gave an assignment to "be a resource for a time to come" regarding those who want to learn how to start and do house church in the Acts 2:42 model.
I, too, read Pagan Christianity and found it wonderful. It seems to me that the authors have failed to follow up on it.
This teaching continues with the truth on what the NT really teaches. This should result in the greatest Reformation in 2000 years.
Thank you so much for sharing this knowledge. It's really helpful in trying to answer questions I've had for a long time.
Speaking from experience, I have to admit that in the past, my outward appearance in a "worship" service, has been one of humble adoration whilst my mind was elsewhere. How many more times are we going sing, Jesus I love you with all of my heart? Oh, I don't like that song, it is theologically iffy! I wonder what I should cook for dinner tonight! I need the little room (or rest room in the USA). I found myself thinking, "Am I the only person in the room feeling this way?" I felt like it was a bit like going to the theatre or the cinema. The "audence|" were kind of participating but the focus was "the stage" - it seemed like a performance to me. I just meet with a small group in our homes. - I have seen too much of "churches" with properties run as businesses taking advantage of tax breaks etc. Jesus said, "My Kingdom is not of this world!" So why on earth would I want to do it the world's way?
I often feel the same way. People need to talk, to interact with others, and to discuss some serious content about Christian growth. But our modern church culture rarely offers the opportunity, church attendance has dropped 60% in the last 40 years, and it continues to tank. Pastors need to listen to real people like you!
@@tomwadsworth We do that in Bible study class' at church. The church I attend has many ongoing bible studies day and evenings. Not as many starting late spring through August, but there are always some. Year round bible studies before and after the church service .
I would suggest that you focus on connecting to God during group worship, thinking about other things is something that is on you.
Die heutigen Worshipp Gottesdienste sind nicht mehr zu unterscheiden von weltlichen Pop Konzerten. Viel Show und Selbstdarstellung
I have no idea how I got here. I quit church in 1996. Varied reasons. But my thoughts about “worship” since then has been nothing but questions. Needless to say what a blessing to listen to your studies as it confirms many of my thoughts.😊
In the early 1970s, I was used of God to help spread the gospel in a mighty way, simply by just doing what HE commanded me to do :
HE simply was telling me to go to this youth Christian Outreach of which I had just started going being a young Christian. He told in in a still quiet voice the night before to go there and turn on an old Black & White TV set in their TV room.
The TV set only picked up three local channels. The rabbit ears antenna had tin foil on them to pick up the signals.
I turned on the TV and just as I did a Billy Graham Crusade came on. It was at 5PM on a Saturday Afternoon and no one was in the room but me.
By the time the crusade was over I was astonished to see a room full of people crying and weeping, convicted in their heart of their need for Jesus Christ. I did nothing but turn on a TV set - that day a new Christian fellowship was born. It happened because I did what God said and went there and turned on a TV.
@@nomadsolos And Almighty and Alpowerful God still wants you to do the same thing, God is with you even to your hoary head or gray head, Isaiah 46:4, and even to your old age, I am he; and even to hoar hairs or gray hairs, will I carry you: I have made and I will bear or carry; even I will carry, and deliver you.
Hearken unto me, O house of Israel.
(God is saying listen unto him, and not man, who learn the ways of Satan.
@@nomadsolos You know Almighty God spoke through JesusChrist as he do in these last days, and told us, If ye won't believe that I am he, ye shall die in your sins
Telling you to repent, and also letting you know that he is Almighty and Alpowerful God in JesusChrist.
Sad that Billy sold out to global ecumenism.
This is so great to hear. I’ve been grappling with the concept myself.
Wow this has me rethinking a LOT
Enjoyed the video... We came from a Baptist background, but charismatic also... (What ever that means!) We help start a church in '86, that met mostly in homes, but also had Sunday gatherings... For most of that time, we were the, 'worship pastors'... We left in '06... I've said a few times, "I'm highly qualified to do a job, that I no longer believe in!" Having said that, I'm amazed and thankful that the Lord uses us, as flawed, and ignorant as we are, both as individuals, and corporately... I do believe that much of what we do is horizontal, and that said the unbeliever will see our love one for another, prostrate themselves before the Lord, and say that God is surely among us.... As for the vertical aspect, we experienced many times, the manifest presence of our Lord. Much like when the priest could not stand, because of the Glory, (weightiness), We are the 'temple' of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in us, individually, as well as when we are gathered... He is looking for those who will prostrate themselves in spirit and truth, (etymology from the negative of , 'to hide'.).. Without that component, we're just a social club... Blessings! Ron
Thanks for your comments. It's noteworthy that I've heard several other former 'worship pastors' say, "I'm highly qualified to do a job, that I no longer believe in."
This affirms something I have felt for decades...we need relationships with each other and the Sunday church service doesn't seem to facilitate it as we shuffle in and out so the small group setting actually always felt like "church" to me as thet is where we would pray for and encourage each other. Great message!
Have a giftshop for almost 30yrs and there is true fellowship.
I've been trying to help people understand this in the communion of which I am a part for 4 years. I am 10 minutes in and nearly in tears due to the beauty of the message. The only person in 1 Corinthians 14 said to worship is the one occupying the place of the unbeliever once they can tell God is truly among his people
Thank you for your kind remarks. I'm so gratified when people finally "get it."
Brand new here. Thank you for this. God is Good!
38:46 As I have been on this journey, this kind of sets the line of questions that I have asked of myself and others. 1 Cor 14 was the key for me as well. Doing contextual study of this passage led me to a different kind of thinking about our coming together and how it is we glorify God by doing so.
I am having an interesting time with my fellow facebookers. I reviewed my ... view of what the purpose of the church, as the body of Christ, not the building, should be. Here, in Romania, the rhetoric in evangelical churches (baptist and pentecostal) is that church attendance, participation in church programs and hearing the sermon, would lead to encouragement, sanctification, growing in holiness and wisdom and so on. However, church meetings look like this: you come to church, sit down, wait in silence, or chat with one or another, pray, sing, preach, pray sing, leave. There is not much edification happening, although the myth and the central message from the pulpit is that the only way these things might happen is through shear participation or church attendance. I would argue that there is a dire need to shift the way we define the purpose of the gatherings.
Agreed. The key is to focus on the purpose.
👍thank you for your labor into this. I knew going to church isn’t worship, but never knew how to explain it. I also referenced 1 Corinthians 14 and was told that it meant what NOT to do, which I never agreed with.
I think our church is a pretty normal church. Worship session(singing together), sermon(reading and preaching of the word), it will generally be on repentance, the grace of God and living a life that pleases God. And then offering song, announcement and then split in cell groups.
In cell groups we discuss on the message spoken, share our week, eat together and during the week we send each other the passage we proclaimed as a Church and we reading the same books together every weekdays. I don't think many churches do this. And I am always saddened when I see on shory people "hurrying up" to leave church after service. When I was younger I would do the same, I was pretty introverted and the sermon was long. But now being in this church, and am adult, fellowship may actually be my favorite part of Sunday. Discussing with my fellow brothers and sisters, praying for one another and sharing meals together. It truly is amazing and it build up so much faith when you hear of how God has being working in each other life through our prayers. I hope we could do more of this
I liked: "Fellowship may actually be my favorite part of Sunday." When people become so attached to the ritual aspect of "church," they can easily dismiss the significance of fellowship. They can even run away from it. They go to church to "punch their religious time clock" to record that they were there, and then, having accomplished that, they leave.
Hello,may I know which church do you attend?
@@davzbalian295 I am currently living in South Korea...if you still want to know I can direct you to our youtube page!
@@davzbalian295 I'm presently attending a Methodist church, but I'm not Methodist.
OOH GLAD I FOUND YOU THIS IS SO REFRESHING THANK YOU AND BLESSINGS FROM THE UK
It's always been interesting to me how many "Christians" do not observe the Sabbath, but insist if you don't go to church you will go to hell. Thank you for this teaching.
what sabbath? Of the Law or Of Christ? You need to get with The New Covenant of Jesus Christ. We are the living Sabbath rest in Jesus Christ.
@@ReformedView717
I think you meant to say, 'we are living the sabbath rest in Jesus Christ'. For he is the Sabbath Rest for the people of God. You just put the 'the' in the wrong place, which could lead to a misunderstanding. Cheers
Yes, I've thought this for many years. I'm glad to hear someone else say it.
If we want to see how Christians in the First Century worshipped - the Didache gives us an answer that is completely contrary to Tom's video here. The Didache describes formal worship, fasting, ritual manuals of baptism and eucharistic prayers, a hierarchy of ministers, etc. They (first century Christians) didn't have complete collections of Paul's letters, but they did have the pastors appointed by the Apostles and what *they actually did* is recorded in the Didache.
"But every Lord's day gather yourselves together, and break bread, and give thanksgiving after having confessed your transgressions, that your sacrifice may be pure." - Didache Ch. 14 (1st century AD)
If we want to see what Christian assemblies were like in the first century, I prefer to rely on the well-attested first century documents as we have in the New Testament. The Didache clearly reveals a later development. The Didache wasn't discovered until 1873 and that lone Bryennios copy itself dates to 1053. While the Didache has been thought to have originated ca. 100 CE, it is likely a composite document that developed over time, much like the Apostolic Tradition (commonly attributed to Hippolytus of Rome in the 3rd century) and the Apostolic Constitutions (commonly ascribed to the late 4th century). So, if we want to see what they actually did in the first century, we have an abundance of evidence in our New Testament. As I demonstrate in video #6, many substantial changes developed after the apostolic period.
@@tomwadsworth And things went particularly bad after Constantine made the church an arm of the state.
Whenever there's an absence of a topic I search through the writings of the early church fathers. I do believe that the worship portion of our services have become more important than it should be however there were hyms sang. They bumped heads over instruments as well.. Worship does edify the body if The Holy Spirit leads it.
Thank you brother.
5 years ago we walked out of a church and have not looked back. We worship at home and at prayer meetings. We also do bible study. I have had some pushback but the Lord has given me a peace.
Then your worship is probably un-Biblical. Poor Tom is an ignorant man, despite his PhD. In so called 'house Churches', the Church from the BEGINNING used a liturgy, incense, gold and silver chalices, gold and silver candlesticks, lamps were lit, the priests wore vestments, there was the beginnings of Icons. The Holy Eucharist was offered with dignity and solemn Liturgy, a Liturgy that had its genesis in the Temple.
Don't be fooled by thinking a 'house Church' was an informal gathering in someone's living room - that is a childish, uneducated perspective.
Investigate Holy Orthodoxy
☦☦☦
Wow!!! Nice. Just completing my Master degree, I appreciate the research and preparation-Its like a dissertation😊.
Wow! Thank you for this. I have always been sceptical about this 'praise and worship' stuff...
Probably watch all seven episodes so you don’t get a false perspective of what he’s getting at. Singing songs unto the Lord in general isn’t a bad thing in fact it’s scripturally encouraged. He’s got a deeper point he’s making here
@@andreaurelius45 haha he’s just confirming what I’ve thought for years now and what millions all over the world believe. Look up DMM in Iran. They naturally do this without even knowing what this guys saying. You cannot find this modern pop culture Christianity we have in the west in scripture. Wake up. Christ came to make you a “new human” reconciled back to Yahweh as His loyal imagers and to BE the temple not to join a county club that loves its 4 walls of whom most are self absorbed and love their moral therapeutic deism.
@@andreaurelius45 btw he hasn’t said all that we know about Christianity has been wrong. That’s a gross misrepresentation
You’re the product of either the reformation (of Catholicism,not Christianity) or the Catholic Church. Either one doesn’t look much like the book of acts or any of the NT. Anyone who reads scripture honestly knows this. This is nothing new.
The Lord himself through His providence and of course agency of humans even though we’re deeply flawed . Don’t put to much emphasis or arrogance concerning the human part though lol bc we’ve done some goofy stuff with the scriptures, translation wise and how the modern bibles are arranged and what’s in and whats not. Praise the Lord that His truth still endures even through our frailty and error
@@andreaurelius45 you’re clueless if you think the Lord didn’t providentially preserve the scriptures. And who’s against church ? The question is what is the church?!
Church=Ekklesia=‘those who are the called out ones’
Maybe your just to institutionalized to see that idk. I was my whole life. I’m 35, grew up in the church except for maybe roughly from age 12-18. Was apart of all of it . On the praise team, occasionally lead. Was the youth pastor, ordained with an exhorter license was even an elder on the “elder board”. 2020 hit and with the shutdowns and mask mandates and everything i made a decision to leave for many reasons but essentially without realizing it then I stepped out of the echo chamber and since have been having my eyes opened and have been on a journey since growing in my understanding of theology,church history and juts Christianity in general in its ancient roots.
Many people are on the same journey in the western church right now and have been. Biblical illiteracy is rampant in the West and the church in general. Need to unite under Christ not our traditions.
New here & in my 60 years of life not given much thought to this but Tom u have opened my heart to consider worship differently. Esp the final recap. Perhaps reasons for some difficulties in our church as in many. And u teach it in an understandable way to the regular human. Thank u and will watch the rest of episodes. 🇨🇦 ❤
This is a subject that interests me greatly. I'm 55 and I am an itinerant preacher in Australia, and I run services in various denominations. My early background as a teenager involved being in a high church (Anglican) with lots of cassocks and surplices and liturgical colours and having the cross at the front of a procession, candles, kissing the Bible, following the Prayer Book and so on. That was in the 1980s. When I left that church I went to a low church (also Anglican). There was no prayer book used, the ministers dressed like ordinary people and we sang contemporary music (usually Scripture in Song) and used plays and skits. The low church service was also notable in that we had expository preaching. This was the 1990s. I moved cities in 2000 and attended a Presbyterian church. I subsequently became an elder and I now run church services according to the "Regulatory Principle of Worship" (RPW) which is something that Presbyterian and Reformed Churches focus on.
So I'm hoping that some of your youtube videos will examine/critique the RPW. I find the RPW a very flexible and portable style of worship which can be equally run in large ornate church buildings as in a small room in a community centre.
The essential features of an RPW service are: Prayer, the singing of Praise (which includes a Psalm), the reading of the Bible and preaching based upon the Bible reading. The Lord's Supper and Baptism can also be included in such servives.
Here's an example of a service I run:
1. Welcome and Announcements
2. Call to Worship
3. Opening Prayer
4. Song 1
5. Confession
6. Bible Reading 1
7. Bible Reading 2
8. Collection
9. Song 2
10. Prayers of Thanksgiving and Request
11. Song 3
12. Sermon
13. Song 4
14. Benediction
Another service I have run looks like this:
1. Welcome
2. Call to Worship
3. Song 1
4. Song 2
5. Song 3
6. Song 4
7. Collection
8. Prayers of Adoration
9. Prayers of Confession
10. Prayers of Thanksgiving
11. Prayers of Supplication
12. Bible Reading
13. Sermon
14. Closing Prayer
So I've run services like this in a 150 year old church building with a congregation of 50 or more, as well as in a small room at a Nursing home with a congregation of 7.
One of the ideas I've had recently is that the "church service" is similar to the Covenant Renewal Ceremonies seen in the Old Testament, but on a weekly basis, in which the basis of the new covenant is remembered and reinforced, showing what God has done for us, and what our response to this should be.
Here's something I often say at the beginning of a church service:
We are God's people, and we gather together this day to worship him.
In our meeting today, we will engage with God, and God will engage with us.
We will engage with God with our prayers and with our songs of praise.
And God will engage with us, through his Holy Spirit
as we hear the Word of God read.
as we hear the Bible explained
and as we hear the Gospel of Christ proclaimed.
Interesting. Thanks for sharing all this.
A key point I'm making is that the NT does not describe Christian assemblies as "worship." When we put our assemblies under the "worship umbrella," we assume that certain rules (like the Regulative Principle) must apply to our "acts of worship." But the Christians in the NT era did not view their assemblies as "worship," nor were they viewed as "services," nor were their assembly events viewed as "acts of worship." You might say that the NT-era assemblies were under the "edification umbrella," which leaves a good bit of freedom for the various activities in an assembly.
After a close reading of Paul's directives in 1 Cor 14, I think Paul would say, "The exact elements of your assembly and the exact order of the elements is not that important. What's important is that everything is done to build up one another (v. 26)." Paul's input is remarkable in that it would work in any culture, in any language, in any time.
I'd recommend that you watch, at least, videos #2 and #3 in this series. But if you want to skip watching all the videos, jump to Worship #7: What Do We Do Now?" th-cam.com/video/CGPSQVoZrMg/w-d-xo.html.
Strategist, but that's the American Church also. I only want to hear what GOD says.
@@tomwadsworth Indeed. It is worth linking this to Romans 12, 1 and 2 particularly, but following as well.
I would think that the Lords Supper should be done weekly when they gathered together as it seems that was a major part of the if not the main reason they gathered.
Great teaching!
I played an instrument in a very well known western evangelical church. For some time, the pride and performance aspects just angered me. It’s all so much a rock concert!
I wanted to suggest, “Hey! Why don’t we play behind a big curtain?” …. but I played nice in the sandbox 😁.
I was encouraged when Stephanie G., (No need to mention names) came and spoke stating, “There was no ‘worship bands’ or ‘worship leaders’ in the early church! Now they even have degrees to become a worship leader. Thats just not biblical!”
Oh boy….you could’ve heard a pin drop! However, I just about jumped out of my seat with joy!! I left that church within a month.
Now, I’m in a home fellowship that meets once a month as a whole assembly with the other home fellowships. I’ve never experienced such freedom! Zero pressure! Zero messages with guilt and fear peppered in! After 30+ years things are sitting well. (Of course it takes time to detox).
When man gets his hands in religion we certainly taint things, ie Constantine.
Another great topic I’m sure you could research and teach well would be the antisemitism theme all throughout the New Testament. Understanding who the English translators were, where they were from and what denomination they were a part of tells a great story on why and how we in America have been mislead.
Thank you again! This is a great teaching and as I continue to come across people that have that itch, meaning they just have the unction the church they’re in isn’t quite right, I will share this video.
God is calling people out of religion- bottom line.
Bill
Great comments. Little known secret: The problem of "the pride and performance aspects" also affects the preachers, too. And that problem includes the "pressure" you mentioned.
@@tomwadsworth Indeed!
Thank you so much for producing this. I appreciate the thorough investigation you've made and presenting so many references from scholars and such. My husband and I were introduced to the house church/simple church model 15 years ago in 2009. Since then, we've been learning a lot about the differences in church (worship) as we've known it in evangelical circles versus what we find (and you are teaching about) regarding how the NT believers gathered. It took all this time for us to find a local assembly (house church) and began attending about 3 months ago. But sadly, most of what was being done in the gathering was not much different than "the worship hour" in the "big" church we left previously. Yes, we shared a meal together, and instead of someone preaching a sermon, we read and discussed the Bible together. But the influences of the auditorium church model was clearly seen and felt. We've now left (for other reasons). But we're convinced the Lord is preparing us to step more fully into this, mostly likely in starting our own assembling together of neighbors and friends in our home. I look forward to watching all of your videos in this series. Timely, indeed!
Thanks for your comments. It definitely needs to be emphasized that some house churches simply try to replicate traditional "church worship."
When you discuss the Bible together, I think it's best to strive toward questions and discussions that target personal growth. I call them "heart issues" as opposed to "head issues" that focus on doctrine and "other people's problems." Paul: "When you get together, everything must be done to build up one another." (1 Cor 14:26)
@@tomwadsworth I'm wondering if there is a way to maybe bring like-minded people from various parts of the world together in some form via gathering names and locations in one spot?
@@jefffoster3557 Can you clarify what you mean? Do you mean an online gathering?
Our story is much like yours. I wish you lived nearby.
@@brendaspurgeon7207 Where are you? We're about 30 minutes northwest of Ft. Worth, TX.
I HAVE THOUGHT A LOT ALONG THESE LINES OVER THE YEARS EVEN GOING TO A CHURCH BUILDING I DONT GO TO ONE, BUT THERE IS NO BIBLE TEACHING THESE DAYS I HAVE MORE LEARNING AND UNDERSTANDING READING MY KJV AND HEARING GOOD BIBLE TEACHINGS ON THE INTERNET JUST AS I HAVE FOUND ANOTHER GOOD PROGRAM THANK YOU
Wow, now I'm going to be totally out of sync when I go to Church service, to top it off, I'm on the WORSHIP Team!! Great topic! it seems strange what we do at Church now, I've never read anything that resembles our type of service in the bible. What the heck happened??
To see how the heck it all happened, watch "Worship #6 How the Later Church Developed Worship Services" th-cam.com/video/4CfNZbjK6Sg/w-d-xo.html
You might find it interesting that I, as a Pentecostal believer, was not taught to refer to the church service as the worship service, but as the assembly, or gathering of believers. One of our main focuses was this passage of Scripture, and we set aside a "believer's meeting" for this purpose. We gathered together for other purposes as well, the gospel service for outreach, the prayer meeting, the Bible study (usually in a home), and others for designated purposes because they attracted different people. For instance, you might not reach a teenager through a traditional setting, but they would accept invitation to the more informal "youth meeting". Church was not about worship, but about Christian community and outreach. In my circle the worship service became designated during the charismatic revival and not before. The term "place of worship" was an evangelical term from the more liturgical churches.
I'm a little shocked it took you 50 yrs to understand churches got it wrong .. 30 yrs ago when I walked in one and saw the way people were jumping around to loud music and calling it "worshipping" I knew right away I was in the wrong place.. demonic possession at it finest!
Church buildings should be used as community center to meet the congregation needs.. not the preachers!
Everyone brings something to the meeting like,
food, clothes cash or services like sewing, mechanic, handyman services and so on.. everyone had a talent to offer.. that someone else can use at different times ...
Thats how we take care of each others through out the years! As we spread Yeshua love and good news❤
Anyways, you're videos are very interesting even though there's WAY to many ads!
Be well✌️
I love this comment! I will be sharing this thought with my group this coming Shabbat
I remember when my church got rid of their pews and went to plushy soft chairs. It was part of a remodeling project that included painting the previously blue and white sanctuary a flat battleship grey, installing spotlights, blackout curtains, and comfy chairs for the audience. The result was no color except for bright lights on the stage, music loud enough that it literally hurt your ears and kept you from hearing others sing, and utterly no contact with the outside world. The center of focus was, of course, the pastor and the music band--ahem--worship team. Can you tell where their priorities are? Nuf said.
Excellent shared! I knew this in my heart. Thank you sir!! I have shared this with many people. Blessings
Thanks for your comments. In the last 48 hours, this video is "blowing up." Let me know if you'd like to try an interview.
The Bible is not the constitution of the church. Its books were written to address specific problems in the church. How Christians worshipped was, with the exception of 1 Corinthians, not a problem in the church. Accordingly, it was not written about.
Thank you for this message. Earlier this year the church I was attending revoke my membership because my wife and I don’t attend services regularly. she works as an emergency room nurse on the weekends and never attends services but we attended a home study group organized through that same church. I felt the homestead groups were closer to what Paul described, and I felt edified in that setting. It broke my heart when they removed me from the church role, but I’ve grown a lot in my relationship to Christ since and I’m now going to start my own home church.
1. I will not sign a covenant/letter to be a "member" if a church. The early people acted in faith, they did not need to sign a statement of faith.
2. These letters are always what we can do for a particular church and not what they can do for us. It is always one way.
3. I prefer smaller "assemblies" but not "Life groups". Too many are hardlined to where the whole church must go at the same pace. No one can "venture out" and teach on the fly. It must be guarded and followed step by step.
4. God calls His people to HIS CHURCH. I will not be limited to being used for His purpose to a group of people but ALL.
Sadly, I am not attending a church. Finding a group of people with the same passion has proven so difficult, I haven't attended regularly in three years. Somehow, I believe modern churches have strayed so far away, it does not resemble the early church.
There is only ONE Church role and that is JESUS CHRIST HIS BODY (ephesians 1:23) As long as you are abiding in HIM you are on the True Church role.! PRAISE THE LORD!
@@n9wff I agree with your observations about church "membership" covenants. They are typically one way. I would add that they are "take it or leave it" as well. We are currently attending a church that we started to join until we read their "covenant" document. First of all, I didn't understand the language they used. It was some obscure Reformed terminology I think, but even though I have a consderable amount of theology under my belt and am well educated, I could not begin to understand it. So we couldn't assent to it. And second, it was deliberatly very narrow in several areas, with no attempt to use broader language that would have definitely sufficed. I didn't feel like arguing any of the language they were using so it was simpler to say -- "hey, we'll attend and participate, but don't expect us to vote at church meetings." Since then I have seen that same document force several newcomers from the church, at a time it is about to close its doors due to lack of attendees. It is a sad state of affairs when you have to sign a contract with a church to be considered part of it.
This is so sad. “You work weekends, so you don’t fit our model of what a member should be. “ Their loss.
@@Disappointed739
The other part I have begun to abhor is one must be in full unity with the vision of the church. If you are not, don't bother speaking against the "word of the Lord". Basically, blindly following a leader.
One church gave us their covenant and you must adhere to sixteen points for one year before considering to be a part of their ministry.
Sorry, I'm getting old. If a leader doesn't care about my talents and gifts or place me outside to save, no thank you. I am not starting over after 25 years of following Christ. I will not babysit kids or serve lattes.
Why bother? I get more theology with an open Bible, the Holy Ghost, and solitude than I do in services. Pulpits are more concerned about offending their congregation than digging in the Word for a good sermon.
This series has been super helpful thanks for putting these videos out there
Do you mind telling me ...What state are you from, and To what denomination are you most accustomed?
@@tomwadsworth Indiana and I’m kinda all over the place I’m kind of a theological mutt at the end of the day lol
Thank you, brother, Tom! God bless you! Knowledge will increase…
Finally this is being spoken about. I was feeling so guilty because I was not in church. But I found when attending it was more robotic in a sense then edifying. Yes, the messages were good and spoke to my spirit but the rest seemed superficial. For myself worship to GOD is obedience, spending time in prayer, and singing from my heart and not necessarily a pre- written song. Unfortunately I am stuck because I want to assemble in my home but worried about who to let in and I am a babe in Christ, so I don’t want to be deceived either. Tired of that rabbit hole. Now I understand what famine means…
Given that the first generation of Christians were all Jews, I would expect reference here to the Jewish practice of daily times of prayer: morning prayer, midday prayer, evening prayer, night prayer, which they would have done together with their fellow Jews either in their homes or in the local synagogue, The first Christians then added an additional unique assembly on the first day of the week (i.e., Saturday evening after sunset when Sunday begins by Jewish reckoning) for the breaking of the bread in remembrance of the death and resurrection of Jesus. (Acts 20:7)
Yes, definitely Saturday evening - the evening of the first day of the week, that is, the Jewish week.
How so when Luke wrote his GOSPEL and the book of Acts he was Greek and not a Jew. They weren't all Jews.
@@newbeginning3571 Biblical scholars seem to think it is not certain whether Luke was a Jew or a gentile. You are correct that gentiles were becoming Christians early on so that, by the year 48 or 49 CE (about 25 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus), Christians needed to decide whether gentile Christians should be required to observe the entire Jewish law. The decision was, as we know, that the gentiles did not have to observe the entire Jewish law.
That said, the custom of hours of prayer seems to have continued among both Jewish and gentile Christians. Christian monks, e.g., who were almost all gentiles, have observed the daily hours of prayer since they first appear in history in the 3rd century CE, right up until today.
Correction: ... about 15 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus....
You my friend are a national treasure- or at least should be. Very, very few people have the courage to speak these things and stand against the status quo of today's modern church.
I got very saddened by what I have seen in the church and I ended up having home church with a couple of friends. We decided to go back to the beginning of God’s word and read it through to see what it really says. I personally started using the interlinear Bible and did study on Hebrew words and Hebrew idioms etc. it was through this that I came to an understanding of what worship actually is in Gods eyes. I have also been a long term advocate of Paul’s description of church along with acts. The priest craft that most denominations have been held hostage by is very similar to Babylon religion and completely denies the priest hood of all believers. I also have struggled for many years with liturgy and overly liturgical services as it reinforces the cult of priesthood in many ways
I commend your efforts to study your Bible on these matters.
When I began my doctoral work on this topic, I had no intention of investigating liturgy. But I was surprised to find that the alleged biblical support for liturgy is standing on very thin ice.
Having said that, Paul says, "Let all things be done for edification." (1 Cor 14:26) While I have very little affection for liturgy, I must acknowledge that some people find it edifying.
I haven't heard mention of Frank Viola and George Barna's 2002 firecracker of a book titled "Pagan Christianity".
There's more than a misobligation to "Worship" going on since E.Constantine.
... but I'm only halfway through your video mate. I look forward to viewing the entire series.
May Jesus Christ be praised in your life, and in mine.
My videos certainly have some similarities with Viola's book. But that book has some fundamental problems. I refer you to Ben Witherington, a qualified New Testament scholar, who has written three extensive negative reviews of the Pagan Christianity book.
Part 1 is here: benwitherington.blogspot.com/2008/06/pagan-christianty-by-george-barna-and.html
Part 2 is here: benwitherington.blogspot.com/2008/07/pagan-christianityreview-part-two.html
Part 3 is here: benwitherington.blogspot.com/2008/07/pagan-christianityreview-part-three.html
In my view, Witherington's criticisms are largely valid. Having said that ... even if only 40% of Viola's claims are true, the modern church needs to rethink the origins of its meeting practices--which my videos attempt to do.
Thanks Tom!
Excellent work!
Do you mind telling me ...What state are you from, and To what denomination are you most accustomed?
From Indiana and we attend non-denomination mostly. But we don’t have a church “home”.
Lately we have issues with the “worship” services being too loud and visually unappealing with the strobe lights and LED wall.
We had to leave several services due to the lights cause a migraine for my wife and the loud music giving us a headache.
It doesn’t need to be this way…but it is.
It's refreshing to see like-minded believers being digging deep rather than just going along with the narrative. I left organized religion long ago, and in doing that, I grew leaps and bounds in knowledge, wisdom, and understanding!
I always thought that the original synagogues were where the scrolls (Torah) were kept and read. Not like today as people now have these books in their homes...