The Ekklesia of Christ is Like…

No two families are exactly alike. The cultural, economic, educational and geographical influences change things drastically from one to another, and many other dynamics have positive or negative impacts. The leadership style is based on the leader’s (or leaders’) strengths and weaknesses. The tribe’s history makes its mark, too.

Congregations of the ekklesia are different in the same way. The leadership’s spiritual gifts, their process of preparation, the level of mutual trust among members, the economic and cultural dynamics and missions assigned by the Spirit of Jesus are all just part of what creates the identity and nature and ministry style of a congregation.

Every Christian bookstore has a book available containing a generic set of rules on being a deacon or usher. Denominational bookstores have the official versions available. The instructions provided by the Head of the Ekklesia to His Body are vague if you look for a manual, though. It is a loose list of instructions that mostly end in the phrase “one another.”

The best offering in the “how to be ekklesia” category is usually misused as preaching material for how to get married and ignored for empowerment toward being a congregation that best displays the official way to gather and to relate: 1 Corinthians 13.

How to be ekklesia looks like that.