{"id":1064,"date":"2020-05-11T10:56:04","date_gmt":"2020-05-11T15:56:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/betweentwokingdoms\/?p=1064"},"modified":"2020-05-11T10:56:04","modified_gmt":"2020-05-11T15:56:04","slug":"one-assembly-one-worship-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/betweentwokingdoms\/2020\/05\/one-assembly-one-worship-service\/","title":{"rendered":"One Assembly, One Worship Service?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"One of my criteria for discerning a truly good book is whether it forces me to think deeply about a topic I\u2019ve long taken for granted\u2014and in particular, whether it outlines a challenging argument that forces me to revise some of my unquestioned assumptions. Jonathan Leeman\u2019s new book One Assembly: Rethinking the Multisite ad Multiservice Church Models<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>is such a book.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the sort of volume that\u2019d usually show up on my radar\u2014perhaps to my detriment, I don\u2019t really keep abreast of ecclesiology books emerging from the broadly Reformed Baptist tradition\u2014but thanks to a friend who works at Capitol Hill Baptist Church, I was lucky enough to land an invite to the livestreamed 2020 \u201cTogether for the Gospel\u201d (T4G) conference, where Leeman\u2019s book was compellingly blurbed. I couldn\u2019t resist buying a copy\u2014and I\u2019m glad I did, because I must admit that Leeman successfully changed my views.<\/p>\n

Leeman\u2019s central argument, undoubtedly, will land in American Christianity with all the force of a hand grenade: churches offering multiple service times, or conducting services across multiple physical campuses, are substantially deviating from the Church\u2019s proper model.\u00a0<\/em>The supporting premise is as elegantly simple as it is provocative: the Greek word ekklesia<\/em>, or assembly, consistently refers to a unitary physical gathering within which communion, discipleship, and discipline must necessarily occur. Splitting a single church into multiple separate services\u2014or, more egregiously, multiple physical sites\u2014prevents that kind of community from developing. Simply put, on a multisite\/multiservice model, the members of Christ\u2019s Body no longer know\u00a0<\/em>the members of the instance of the Body to which they are supposedly united, and that situation will be unlikely to change for the foreseeable future. And so accordingly, when questions of pastoral practice emerge that require the action of the whole ekklesia<\/em>, a large percentage of the church will simply have no frame of reference.<\/p>\n

The heart of One Assembly<\/em>, naturally, is a word study of the New Testament\u2019s use of ekklesia<\/em>. Having little expertise in Greek, I am largely unqualified to critique the details of Leeman\u2019s reasoning\u2014though, speaking as a layperson, his case seems to me convincing. Most of the rest of the book traces out the implications of a revised concept of ekklesia<\/em>, in particular the insight that overflowing churches, on Leeman\u2019s account, have a responsibility to either (1) promptly plant new churches, or (2) send out contingents of members to revitalize dwindling congregations.<\/p>\n

All of this strikes me as essentially sound, both exegetically and pragmatically. Indeed, I couldn\u2019t help thinking that Leeman might\u2019ve pressed his case even more aggressively. With all due respect to my friends who think differently<\/a>, the multisite model in particular strikes me as almost unavoidably bound up with a tendency towards a \u201ccelebrity pastor\u201d mentality. I find it difficult to imagine that the leaders of such churches can truly avoid a sort of imperial sensibility, a persistent temptation toward cultivating a micro-denomination rather than a unified community capable of worshiping as one. And that, of course, is not really consonant with the New Testament\u2019s vision of ekklesia.<\/em><\/p>\n

Leeman is well aware that his proposals, if taken seriously, will require dramatic changes in countless congregations across the nation. And to his credit, he never shies away from the consequences of his vision: otherwise-comfortable congregations will have to formulate plans for orderly reconstitution, church planting, or something else entirely. As a non-pastor, I assuredly have the luxury of not having to face these hard choices\u2014but that\u2019s not to say that they\u2019re not worth making., especially given the importance of building a genuinely cohesive church community\u2014that is, an ekklesia <\/em>in the fullest sense.<\/p>\n

When all\u2019s said and done, this is a book that all Christians\u2014whether Catholic, Orthodox, or Protestant\u2014should read and seriously contemplate. Those not persuaded by Leeman\u2019s exegesis have, at the very least, an obligation to rebut his case. For my part, I can\u2019t help thinking his book has the ring of truth to it, and that is something that should leave all of us\u2014those Americans who\u2019ve enjoyed church services scheduled according to our personal convenience\u2014suitably chastened.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of my criteria for discerning a truly good book is whether it forces me to think deeply about a topic I\u2019ve long taken for granted\u2014and in particular, whether it outlines a challenging argument that forces me to revise some of my unquestioned assumptions. Jonathan Leeman\u2019s new book One Assembly: Rethinking the Multisite ad Multiservice […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3470,"featured_media":1070,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ecclesiology"],"yoast_head":"\nOne Assembly, One Worship Service?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"One of my criteria for discerning a truly good book is whether it forces me to think deeply about a topic I\u2019ve long taken for granted\u2014and in particular,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/betweentwokingdoms\/2020\/05\/one-assembly-one-worship-service\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" 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