Chapter 4

What Went Wrong?

Living Organism to Lifeless Institution

 

Christ imparted to His followers, by word and deed, that in His kingdom there will be no hierarchy, neither power-plays nor titles. Instead, we are among sisters and brothers where sacrificial love and mutual foot-washing prevails.

 

Jesus demonstrated that He is building His ekklesia on earth. Christ told the disciples that when His resurrected body went back to the Father, He would continue His body life all over the earth. His reign increases in His kingdom in which all are brothers and sisters, and no one is “over” others.

 

But the annals of history reveal that something went wrong, dreadfully wrong! Before we get into some of the details, here’s a snapshot of a few key moments that give us insight as to how and when the way of Jesus was flagrantly cast aside.

 

**Around AD 150 Clement made a distinction between “priest” and “laity.” This set in motion the unbiblical divide of “clergy” and “laity,” the “ordained” and the non-ordained parishioners. Those “ordained” are “officially” invested with the priestly functions by titled offices. This was a new, human-based type of church order and authority.

 

**Around AD 250 the practice of “one-bishop rule” took root, and each bishop’s rule was defined territorially (see Judy Schindler, Part 2, Chapter 2).

 

**Around AD 325 the emperor Constantine created a new religion mixed with paganism, called it “Christianity,” and made it the official religion of the Roman Empire. From this point on, the civil rulers would have a heavy presence in what occurred in the visible church.

 

Thus, what was birthed as Christ our life, the Spirit-led wind of the ekklesias, morphed into a power-based, hierarchy-fed institution.

 

The expression of Christ through the Spirit functioned in a beautiful way in the early church. There was no "institution" in the beginning. The "institution" started taking shape from AD 150 onwards. As this institutional system unfolded, the Spirit of Christ became unnecessary, for the "institution" saw itself as the dispenser of grace. This is not to say there was no Spirit life anywhere, but it is to say that as the "institution" became more and more powerful, the Holy Spirit became less and less a part of the mix.

 

The Striking Features of the First Century Ekklesia

 

First century pagan religions and Judaism all had these basic characteristics: (1) specific experts who led the religious practices; (2) specific places (temples) where the people came to practice the religion; and (3) specific religious rituals that were carried out in designated ways and times.

 

It is precisely these three marks that were absent from the early church. They functioned with no “clergy” (all of the saints were “clergy,” the Lord’s “inheritance”), no religious buildings (they met “home to home”), and no set rituals (“each one of you has a song, a teaching, etc.”).

 

However, as was mentioned above, this simplicity was compromised in the Second and Third Centuries with the introduction of the leader/common people distinction, and the increasing focus on the “bishop” as the one to whom submission must be given.....