Needed, A New Way to Meet #5 – Beyond Traditional Church: Experiencing Christ as Head

We’re going to do every kind of innovative new thing that you and I can think of. I may even send you letters and ask for suggestions for things we can do here. We have not yet begun. For instance, we could take a cursive reading of 1 Corinthians…why not have a whole meeting in which the only thing that can be done is that each of us brings a song? That’s in the New Testament. Why not have another meeting…that’s what we’ll do that weekend, but why not have a meeting where nothing is brought except a melody and a song you wrote, making melody in our hearts? How about setting aside a meeting for one sole purpose: encouragement. One meeting where you can do nothing but come and bring encouragement. Why not? That’s also the New Testament. In fact, everything I’ve said to you comes from the New Testament.

Why not have a meeting where, wow, what a meeting this would be, it could be nothing but exhortation? Now, not everybody can exhort; almost all of us can encourage, but we’d have to have a meeting where only the exhorters would speak. I would love it; I have been in those kinds of meetings. They are a gully washer when the entire meeting was given over to exhortation.

Let me tell you some other things I have seen on occasion; we can learn from the past. The Moravians had meetings this way. One person would come to the front and say, “Here is my testimony in song.” And he would announce a series of songs. He would not tell you one thing about his life. They had so many songs; he would tell the whole story of his Christian life, announcing songs, and people would sing them with him.

And that comes back to this business of birthdays. We will have meetings around birthday parties; we could have birthday party meetings. We could have baby shower meetings. We could have anniversary meetings. And of course, the best of all meetings, non-meeting meetings. We’ve got oceans to sail that haven’t been sailed.