Many of our local church leaders and their structures today are antiquated and irrelevant. When God called Israel out of Egypt to meet with Him at Mt. Sinai he told them they were to be a kingdom of priests. In Exodus 20:18-21 the Israelites rejected their personal priesthood and said to Moses: “You speak with us, and we will listen, but don’t let God speak with us …”  This is how the priests of Levi came into being. It was after Israel rejected God’s original plan to become a kingdom of priests. The temple mentality of Israel remains in many Christian minds today especially in the traditionally structured Sunday morning service where many substitute going to hear one person communicate God’s Word once a week for being personally involved on a daily basis in hearing God for themselves.

The Sunday morning service has never been the main foundation of my life in knowing God personally. I got saved and discipled by another brother. I learned about God and daily living through him and other people that God brought into my life. Although I’ve been taught great truths by many ministers including pastors, I can’t say that I remember too many actual sermons. What I learned came through relationships I had outside of the Sunday morning church service. My own personal empowerment to seek and learn about the Lord was the single greatest factor that enabled me to be a true disciple of Jesus.

The emphasis again needs to be accountability through close knit relationships in addition to the Sunday morning traditionally structured service. Over the years my definition of church has changed. I no longer define the essence of church as the gathering of true disciples of Jesus in a church building on Sunday morning, but any purposeful meeting where disciples are conducting the business of the kingdom is church for where two or three are gathered together in the name of Jesus, he is there.