The building is in need of repair. The original architecture has been covered by layers of tin, sheetrock, and wood veneer. It has been weakened by the gaudy, the glitzy, by gilded guises and facades. It's simple form has been hidden by men's doctrines. The architect is in the process of instructing his workforce to tear out and break through these many layers of incoherent, disjointed components, in order to reveal the new and living way...

I have pursued this work with much hesitation and ambivalence, simply for the fact that it's content will undoubtedly stir up much emotion. I have let these notes sit in my files, and allowed these thoughts to pass through time, as the dominating ministry of the pastor-primate temporarily drove them from my awareness. As I have grown in the Church and in my ministry, I have become disconcertingly aware of how few had an interest in the actual concept of the multi-faceted ministry aspect of the Body. My routine became merely a quotidian practice of making attendance at an edifice inhabited with other individuals, seemingly as unfulfilled as I, as regarding the true purpose of our involvement. On Sundays, one would hear the choir, or a special singer, for a given period of time. Then would come the interval where one was put upon to place a certain amount of needed funding into the offering plate, followed by the uninterrupted hearing of a long sermon. Was my ministry only the process of supporting another ministry? Do they even know what to do with the convert once they are saved? Just as the disciples became the Apostles, is there not a time when the student becomes the teacher?

I felt that God had a calling on my life, but was it to go out and evangelize, then, after a few years, settle down and pastor a church? Or was it to be funneled back into a Sunday school classroom, to drill grade school kids on Bible heroes and church doctrine? Or was it and still is, to be a - witness - in the true sense of the word, according to the translation (Strong's Concordance) of the Greek word -martyreo- which means; to be a witness, to bear witness, i.e. to affirm that one has seen or heard or experienced something, or that he knows it because taught by divine revelation or inspiration a) to give (not to keep back) testimony b) to utter honourable testimony, give a good report c) conjure, implore

The Sunday school concept itself is only a recent development in Church history developed only back in the 1800’s. Before that it was based on mentoring relationships, which most of society seems to have lost touch of as we institutionalize the ones we love. Many people say organized church is the downfall of Christianity. But good organization is good, it is necessary in all aspects of life. It is the bad organization that we have to deal with. What we have now is institutionalized church. Not only have we lost touch with one another. We treat Church like the Socialist government and the preacher like the lord of the manor, as disconnected entities from our own lives, a place to go to.

The whole sad irony is when you ask the average person on the street what the first thing that comes to mind when they hear the word "Church" they say "a building". I wonder if the redeemed of the Lord will ever awaken and realize that they do not need to -GO- to the church, as much as they need to- BE-the Church-. The church is flesh and blood and not wood and bricks.

This burden has moved me to find a viable alternative concerning the entire question of what actually constitutes the New Testament mission of the saint.

Even though I have attended several churches as either member or visitor, I have been nagged by the question of what we, as a congregation, are doing regarding the fulfillment of our individual ministries. Once we have passed through the door of salvation, how do we search out our calling and vocation?

The Church has been referred to as a corporate body, but even a corporation has a multitude of coordinating links within itself.