As we are preparing for a sanctuary of our own, we have to remember that we are not the only ones doing the preparing. Not only are we preparing in all the ways we know about, so also God is preparing us—in many ways we don’t usually know about.
When denominations form, and when church buildings are built or occupied, what we are seeing is the institutionalization of the church. This is not a bad thing—it is necessary in the very nature of the case—but it can easily become a bad thing if we are not being prepared by the Spirit of God to take our place in wisdom.
There is nothing that can be done to keep new wineskins from becoming old wineskins. If you have a new wineskin in time and in history at all it will at some point be an old wineskin. That is the role of the much disparaged “institutional church.” The institutional church is the wineskin. There are temptations that come with this, sure enough, but you can’t opt out of that temptation by rejecting wineskins generally. Something must hold the wine, and so if you go the airy fairy route, pretending to have no wineskins at all, you are either kidding yourself or just hastening the time when you have wine all over the floor.
New wine is any work of the Spirit of God in the midst of His people at the beginning of the process of fermentation. Fermentation is the process of becoming potent, and it involves much change and activity. Such fermentation is what we would call reformation and revival. When God energizes His people, and does a great work in their midst, they can frequently find themselves in conflict with the “institutional church.” We need to remember that it was the leaders of God’s people who had Jesus crucified, and we also need to remember that Jesus spoke far more roughly to the rabbinical theologians than he did to demons or the devil himself.
So as we see our wineskin taking shape, we want it to be much more like Nicodemus—hungry for the approaching work of God—than like Caiaphas, who was entirely hostile to the approaching work of God. So as we are praying about the institution we are preparing for, we want to pray that we will have anticipated and prepared for the fermentation. We want to install vents.
So let the stones cry out.
Ye-ah. Because the 1st prophet is tempted to do all the talking–the institution is tempted to think it is It–he is Commanded to shut up when the 2nd prophet has something to say. As I told you near Raleigh awhile back, churches such as the “Plymouth Brethren” that put something like I Cor 14:24-31 into practice contain more men than women. As I recall, you acknowledged this. So let the living stones cry out.
Hi Andrew — So you’re saying that a multiplicity of go-to-meeting participation maketh good ventation?
Sounds right.
But where in this age can you find anything approaching that allowed & governed spontaneity?
That would be like seeing really talented & practiced improv.
Seems like a real obstacle = the money.
Most leaders have an interest to keep the money flowing into their pockets.
So to widen participation invites questions of what we’re paying for, no?
Better to keep the show run predictably by the house, and not let competitors’ names get on the marque.