A dispute also arose among them, as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest. And he said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those in authority over them are called benefactors. But not so with you. Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves. For who is the greater, one who reclines at table or one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table? But I am among you as the one who serves.
“You are those who have stayed with me in my trials, and I assign to you, as my Father assigned to me, a kingdom, that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. (Luke 22:24-30)
There is a great opportunity presented by members who function together ministerially
Introduction
In addition to the false dichotomy between “local church” and “mission church” we also face a great challenge in the false dichotomy between individual freedom and collective order in membership.
Presbyters doing two things in the Church make membership possible: 1) guarding Constitutional boundaries and 2) administrating the movement of people back and forth across those boundaries into or out of membership. So-called “membership” is regarded by those seeking to exercise authority over others from the “top down” as a condition that requires the loss of freedom for individuals. Likewise, “membership” is regarded by those seeking to exercise authority over others from the “bottom up” as a condition that requires the absence of order, especially the multi-jurisdictional order of collectives that comprise the Ecclesial City of God. For the latter, all forms of Church government are inherently a threat to individual freedom. For the former, all forms of individual freedom are inherently a threat to collective Church government. This false dichotomy between these two alternatives is based on a “feel” for the world as mediatorial in nature rather than ministerial and which has a defective view of the nature of mankind as created in God’s image with both an individual and a collective nature. It is both to this feel for the world and this defective view of human nature that we must speak.
A Right Feel for the World
No member of Basileia, whether an individual or a collective jurisdiction, reports to a “headquarters” or to any individual who has “authority over” them. This worldly concept of authority and governance is utterly rejected by Jesus as illustrated in Luke 22:24-26 in which Jesus rebukes His disciples for arguing among themselves about “which of them was to be regarded as the greatest” (v. 24). Jesus forbids them to “exercise lordship over” (v. 25) each other as the kings of the Gentiles do. He commands them, “But not so with you” (v. 26).
We therefore must also utterly reject mediatorial ways of relating to each other beginning in our Baptism and then by renewing this rejection in every celebration of the Eucharist. Such a rejection is not merely a decision to look theoretically at the world differently. Baptism and the Eucharist are sacramental rites that actually change our feel for the world as now naturally ministerial, not mediatorial.
The ministerial alternative to the worldly concept of mediatorial authority is pictured by Jesus this way: “I assign to you, as my Father assigned to me, a kingdom, that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Lk. 22:29-30). This kind of judging is done in the safety of the counsel of many, in the mystery of the Council of the Lord around the Eucharistic Table to which we are admitted through Baptism, where mankind and God discuss and pound out the application of the pattern of His Word to cultural quandaries and situations, many of which have never before occurred in the history of the world.
Every member of the Church inevitably faces situations, circumstances, matters and decisions in which no direct appeal to chapter and verse or previous decisions by the Church is possible. There are only two ways of operating when this happens: ministerially or mediatorially. Adam chose to act mediatorially. Christ chose to act ministerially. Christ trumps Adam. Thus within ourselves individually and within our community life collectively there is constantly a necessary conflict in which our fallen tendency to act mediatorially must be exhausted. It is necessary that we exhaust our fallen habit of acting mediatorially by developing new habits of acting ministerially. Since we can’t beat something with nothing, we beat being mediatorial by being ministerial. We do not sit around in the fear of man, afraid of what others might abusively do to us or afraid of what we might abusively do to them, reacting to the past mediatorial abuses that we have perpetrated on others or that have been perpetrated on us by others. Reactions to mediatorial autocratic forms of abuse only lead to democratic forms of lording it over others. Likewise, nothing gives faster rise to the autocratic abuse of power than democracy. Autocracy and democracy are just two variations of Adam seeking to be like God on His own terms. They both lead to death.
Therefore, in Basileia, being fruitful and multiplying is approached from two directions at the same time: from the inside out and from the outside in.
Doing the Kingdom From the Inside Out
First, regarding approaching things from the inside out, Jesus says, “The Kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the Kingdom of God is within you” (Lk. 17:20-21). Similarly, Jesus says, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. 4:17). The reality of the Kingdom is that it is present and within us. We do not repent (literally, “change our mind”) so that the Kingdom will be present and within us. We repent because the Kingdom already is present. God has already made the first move in the Incarnation and replaced Adam’s propensity to exercise mediatorial authority with Jesus’ obedience to the Father’s will in the exercise of ministerial authority. It is finished! God doesn’t need our permission to transform human nature from a fallen state in Adam to a risen state in Christ. He’s already done it. Now, secondly, after that fact, the Father calls us to agree with what He is doing in us and in the Church and, if we think differently than Him, to repent. The seed our new humanity in Christ is already planted. The only question is whether or not we shall respond today in the power of the Holy Spirit to water and cultivate it.
The Church is by nature ministerial because the Church is by nature the Body of Christ, the new humanity in Christ, restored and released from the old, fallen humanity of Adam. Our identity in Christ is our starting point, not our identity in Adam. This is the case for all who have undergone Baptism and feast on Christ in the Eucharist. We are not a community that by nature dominates each other. That is contrary to our nature in Christ. The domination of some over others may be normal outside of the Kingdom of God, but we are no longer outside of the Kingdom of God. We are insiders by grace. Therefore, we seek to work from the inside out what is given to us by grace.
Doing the Kingdom From the Outside In
Second, we also approach things from the outside in by affirming that members are subject to and accountable to the ministerial authority exercised by the jurisdictions to which they are membered. To be “subject to” and “accountable to” jurisdictions of the Church only has a mediatorial feel to those not in the Kingdom of God or to those who, while they are in the Kingdom, need to wake up from the dead and start embracing the reality of what they were introduced to in Baptism and are offered in every celebration of the Eucharist. Not only do members have a calling to require and empower (from the inside out) both others and the jurisdictions to which they are membered to operate ministerially, but others and these same jurisdictions to which they are membered are called to require and empower members to operate ministerially. This “outside in” approach takes on two primary expressions: collective forms of corrective discipline and formative discipleship, both of which are ultimately restorative and never only punitive.
Just as individuals can initiate corrective discipline and formative discipleship from the inside out, so collectives can do the same from the outside in.
Consensus Decision-Making from the Inside Out and the Outside In
These bi-directional inside out and outside in approaches to exercising ministerial authority in community between members is never done by people who have arrived, but by those who are arriving. Therefore, it can be done perfectly, but not automatically. Perfection in the Kingdom of God is a process of working out our salvation from the inside out and of conforming to what is ours by grace through discipline that operates on us from the outside in. This process, as it manifests in matters of structure and governance, takes on the form of consensus decision-making which sometimes addresses matters of corrective discipline and at other times matters of formative discipleship.
Consensus decision-making is a process of discussion, dialogue and debate by fallible, finite people around the Lord’s Table. Being fallible and finite is human nature while being infallible and infinite is God’s nature. Adam sinned by wanting to be by nature “like God.” In Christ we are called to be “like God” by grace, which means living with and accepting the fact that we are fallible and finite in our nature and that this does not in itself prevent us from acting ministerially and perfectly in line with God’s will. It just means that the exercise of ministerial authority doesn’t happen automatically, but only relationally as we exercise humility and ultimate dependence on God as the source of our life.
Thus when a jurisdiction of the Church to which a member belongs takes the initiative to bring about corrective discipline or formative discipleship in that member’s life, this is consistent with the other side of the process that individual members initiate from the inside out. Ministerial authority is not limited to members exercising their God-given authority from the inside out, but also includes collective jurisdictions doing the same from the outside in. To just assume that jurisdictions of the Church engaged in corrective discipline and formative discipleship are acting mediatorially or that it is just a matter of time before they start acting that way is conformity to the pattern of this world. To this Jesus says, “Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment” (Jn. 7:24). Right judgment begins with being true to what actually happens in our initiation into the new humanity of Christ in Baptism and in our constant Eucharistic renewal in Christ. This applies not only to the Baptism of individuals, but also of collectives, the latter being an inherent aspect of the Great Commission (Matt. 28:18-20).
Baptizing Mankind Individually and Collectively
The Constitutional formation of a jurisdiction of the Church is the Baptism of a collective dimension of mankind, which is no less real or transformative as the Baptism of an individual person. To think that God only initiates the transformation of individuals through Baptism and not also of collectives is an example of the kind of thinking that we need to repent of. The Kingdom of God being at hand, among other things, means the restoration of mankind as created in God’s image, both in mankind’s individual nature as “them” composed of “male and female” as well as in mankind’s collective nature as “him.” (Gen. 1:27). Baptism is for mankind both as “them” and as “him.” Genesis 1:27 is sandwiched right in the middle of the immediate context of Genesis 1:26-28 where verses 26 and 28 speak directly to the issue of rule and governance. We will not be able to embrace a kingdomcultural view of ministerial governance as normal for mankind if we don’t pay attention to the jot and tittle of Genesis 1:26-28 as the presupposition of what it means for humanity to be “renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator” (Col. 3:10).
If we are prone to be democrats reacting in fear to mediatorial collective order, then let us repent for Christ renews humanity, not just individually, but also collectively. If we are prone to be autocrats reacting in fear to mediatorial individuals, then let us repent for Christ renews humanity, not just collectively, but also individually.
People prone to hide behind democracy may affirm that God is restoring humanity in the sense of restoring only individuals, but this is simply not the whole picture. Likewise, to think that the central control of autocrats is justified, even required, because Christ defeats principalities and powers in someway that is supposedly superior to defeating evil in individuals just as equally misses the whole picture. The key to putting the ax to the root of the false dichotomy created by fallen thinking in regards to individual freedom and collective order is to stop thinking like pagans about the nature of man and revisit Colossians 3:10 in light of Genesis 1:27.
Conclusion
Therefore, the right interpretation of our Constitution is based on the fact that the covenantal rites of initiation and renewal, which are Baptism and the Eucharist respectively, are not merely cultic events that have no relation to the cultural process of community life, whether that life is thought of in relation to individuals or collectives. The very process of consensus decision-making is an expression of the Eucharistic lifestyle of both individuals and collectives who affirm that the Kingdom of God is at hand now, not that it will be in some theoretical, distant future in some age after we die. Sure, there are dimensions of the Kingdom that will be more fully expressed in the future than in the present, just like we expect a mustard tree over time to come to maturity from its humble beginnings as a mustard seed. But to say that a mustard seed conspiracy is not adequate for Christ to trump Adam misses the mark. It is mortals in Adam, not immortals in Christ, who still “feel” like they live in a world dominated by mediatorial authority operating both from the inside out and the outside in. Jesus says, “But not so among you.” A field seeded with good seed has the feel of a good field because it is a good field. The Fallen World System is not our world any longer. Christ as the Holy Seed promised in Genesis 3:15 has died and now produces many seeds. We are of the Kingdom of God, and not just in some intellectual, external, legal or future way. In Baptism and the Eucharist our “feel” for the nature of things is fundamentally changed now because by these sacramental rights we are made one with the Seed of the Woman. We now live in a new world dominated by ministerial authority exercised by both individuals and collectives in Christ. We maintain this new state of consciousness by a constant attitude of repentance. If our heads have not yet caught up with our hearts, then fine. That is normal in the process of transformation, whether from the inside out or the outside in. When has loving God and our neighbor ever been a thing of the head before the heart?
Ministerially functioning together in community is a calling, a process in which we journey, not an automatic, static state of existence. We enter into this calling by responding to the initiative of God.
