Gateway

A gate in relation to the imagery of a walled city is the barrier or door of the gateway as a whole. Walled cities have gateways that can be imagined as passages like a tunnel through the thick walls that therefore had at least an outer gate and sometime an inner gate too on either side of the passage or gateway. Basileia incorporates the imagery of four gates into its logo. This is rooted in Scripture passages like Genesis 28:17, where Jacob says, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!” This place, Bethel (which means, “House of God), served as a gate between heaven and earth where Jacob saw that “a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it” (Gen. 28:12). This vertical movement between heaven and earth made Bethel a beachhead or colony outpost of heaven on earth from which Jacob’s descendants would expand outward. As the Lord said to Jacob, “Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 28:14). The Church, as the House of God in the form of a City, is the gate of heaven in both of these vertical and horizontal senses. The Church is the true gateway that Hades only parodies. It is therefore against the Church and the Church only that the gates of Hades will not prevail (Matt. 16:18). Just as the Church is symbolically portrayed as a City, the New Jerusalem, with gates, the great counterfeit is Babylon, whose tower named Babel in the Babylonian language means “gate of God.” The Fallen World System copies the Church by establishing temples (e.g., the Tower of Babel) in the midst of a city (e.g., Babylon). Such fallen cities become colonies of Hades on earth. Jesus declares that His kingdomcultural mission is not merely to destroy the gates of Hades, but also to build His Church. These two actions go hand in hand and result in the replacing of the Fallen World System with the Kingdom of God. The destruction of Hades as pictured in the Icon of the Resurrection, for example, is happening at the same time that Adam and all mankind are being raised from the dead to reenter Paradise through the very gate that was closed to Adam as a result of His sin (Gen. 3:24).

Also see Colony of Heaven on Earth, Ecclesial City, Gateway, Icon of the Resurrection, and Logo.

Genius

In Basileia, the concept of genius is used, not so much in the populist sense of speaking about someone as having a high IQ, but in the sense of the unique gifting or charism given by God to individuals and collectives. Each individual has a unique kind of genius destined to be cultivated and expressed. Our belonging in order to believe approach to community life aims at identifying and calling forth this unique genius in each person. Historically, “genius” comes from the ancient Roman idea that genius is the manifestation of a transcendent power (which comes from God above as believers acknowledge) that works in and through a person which in turn causes them to transcend their mortal human capabilities. The ancient Egyptians had a similar concept that they called the Ka and which was conceived of as a power that descended on a person from above and which the person acknowledged and responded to by raising ones hands to heaven with arms bent ninety degrees at the elbow. It is our Basileian practice in the Liturgy, during both the Epiclesis and at the commissioning, to assume the Ka posture in acknowledging and responding to the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. John D. Pilkey, in his book The Origin of the Nations (page 232) says, “The power to transcend human personality is as basic to human experience as the image of the rising sun. Our popular English use of the word ‘genius’ shows the result. A ‘genius’ is anyone who has the good fortune to get involved in a task which draws him beyond the limitations of private consciousness. We all experience such activity from time to time but reserve the term ‘genius’ for anyone who sustains such activity long enough to alter the course of history, usually in a beneficent way. The works of ‘genius’ or high spirit invariably result in ‘legend’ or mythology, memories of high achievement which stand out above the ordinary context of mechanical cause and effect.” Our Basileian charism is one that seeks nothing less than the cultivation of each person’s unique genius in the context of the Church as the community of Theosis.

Also see Belong in Order to Believe, Charism, Epic Story, Shine Like the Sun, Theosis.

Global Pilgrims

Basileians are Global Pilgrims who in the practice of the Daily Office pray the Scriptures for the life of the world in unity with the Church in heaven and earth. This prophetic lifestyle practice is related to our primary discipline of journeying to the Mountain with Christ.

Also see Contemplatives, Journey, and Worshippers.

Godly Play

As defined by the Godly Play foundation, “Godly Play is based upon the recognition that children have an innate sense of the presence of God. All they lack is the appropriate language to help them identify and express it so it can be explored and strengthened. The Godly Play approach teaches classical Christian language in a way that enhances the child’s authentic experience of God so it can contribute to the creative life of the child and the world.” Basileia’s Deacon Councils are charged with leading each Basileia jurisdiction to incorporate Godly Play holistically into our Basileian way of life.

Also see Catechism, Child Communicant Believer, Child Communicant Member, and Deacon Council.

Govern

Govern is an element of the fourth of the five primary disciplines of our Basileian way of life – journey, assemble, listen, govern and serve. Also, in parallel fashion, it is an element in the fourth movement of the Liturgy by which worshipers govern from the Table, applying binding and loosing authority in the covenantal way of transferring authority from covenant-breakers to covenant-keepers, especially on behalf of the fatherless, widowed, poor, oppressed, prisoners and sick.

Also see Primary Disciplines, and Transfer of Authority.

Governed

The repeating pattern of governance – i.e., in which any jurisdiction is described as having Councils who, when their numbers exceed 12, elect Executive Teams who in turn elect their own Presiding Member – is a pattern that anticipates growth, if and when it happens in a jurisdiction. It is understood that in the initial stages of founding a jurisdiction that a single Presbyter may be the first and only member. Thus by default this also makes him initially responsible for any of the functions that will later be handled by a fully developed Presbyter Council, Deacon Council and Missional Council.

Also see Deacon Councils, Missional Councils, and Presbyter Councils.

Governing Members

Governing Members are Adult Communicant Members who have completed the Novitiate and have been 1) commissioned as Commissioned Governing Members or 2) ordained as Presbyters and Deacons or 3) appointed or consecrated as Abbots.

Also see Governing Roles, and Novitiate.

Governing Roles

In Basileia, all members have governing roles that are equal in authority but different in function. Presbyters (and Presbyters who assume the additional role of Abbots) 1) guard a jurisdiction’s boundaries according to the Constitution of Basileia, particularly in relation to 2) admitting or removing members. Deacons and Commissioned Governing Members have complementary governing roles to those of Presbyters. Commissioned Governing Members and Deacons have a voice, but no canonical authority to directly or independently usurp the role of Presbyters in their exercise of their two distinct governing roles of guarding Constitution and Canonical boundaries and of admitting or removing members. Furthermore, all baptized members are able by Grace to grow in self-governance. Thus the limited governing role of Presbyters is not the total of all that is needed in Church governance, but neither is it to be usurped by other forms of Church governance, such as Basileia exercises in its Deacon Councils and Missional Councils.

Also see Deacon Councils, Government, Missional Councils, and Presbyter Councils.

Government

The covenantal nature of mankind gives rise to both individual and collective forms of governance, which are the two modes of governing, judicial, and teaching authority. The individual governmental authority is distinct from the collective governmental authority of elders in general and of Presbyters of the Church in particular. First, individual governing authority is to be exercised by individual members and the leaders of educational, vocational, and associational structures in accord with public Trinitarian oaths administered by elders of family, Church or state. Oaths taken during a Rite of Incorporation into Basileia, for example, establish a two-way relationship of accountability between individuals and the authority of the Church first and foremost in regards to formative discipleship, not just to corrective discipline (Rom. 13:1-7; Eph. 5:21-6:9; Titus 3:1-2; 1 Pet. 2:13 - 3:7). Second, collective authority is to be exercised by elders whose primary role is to define and defend a Christian society's covenantal boundaries in the government of family, Church, and state. Again, as with individuals in general, the authority of elders is bound by public Trinitarian oaths, which are ultimately backed by the authority of the Church (Matt. 16:16-19; Eph. 5:22-33).

Also see “Governing Roles of Men and Women in Basileia,” Head, and Kingly, Priestly, and Prophetic.