Frank Viola, Re-imagining church, Chapter 9, Reimaging oversight

There was some interesting observations in this chapter....

Elders whose function was overseeing and shepherding the members of the church.

Very interesting was the claim that

"...The Bible unshakably demonstrates that a plurality of elders oversaw the activity of the early church. No church in the first century had a single leader
Consequently, the common accepted notion of sola pastora (single pastor) is at odds with the New Testament. The bible knows nothing of a person who stands at the helm of a local church, directs it in the world, officiates its Communion (or Lord's Supper), blesses civic event, marries the living, and buries the dead. No such person exists in the entire New Testament."

This paragraph certainly rocks who is seen as traditional 'Church' in regards to structure. I cannot help but think though it is a natural tendency for people to look for an individual for leadership. But maybe as suggested by Viola it should be a plurality of 'Eldership'
Interestingly Ranges is currently working in the manner at the moment, and as far as I'm aware not really interested in changing.

Also of interest, Viola claimed the only time when there was a single leader as such, was when it was getting started, the 'apostolic worker' such as Paul.

Frank Viola, Re-imagining Church, Chapter 8, Leadership

I had a great affinity with this Chapter because I've seen a change of attitude and working at Church due to the change in this paradigm.
Viola's basic assumption is that leadership is effectively a function not an office. That most structures within the Church are hierarchical based. The results been, the Church community is overly reliant on one person to do most of the work.

Most of Viola's disagreement is how the Old Testament understanding of 'Priesthood' is carried into todays church. Where it was not seen in the New Testament. That the 'Preisthood of believers' should be the dominate force, in understanding leadership.

One area which I would disagree is his comparison of leadership in a 'Gentile' setting. I would argue especially if you read any modern day organizational leadership book. More than ever in history of leadership/management. There role more than ever is bringing together different skill sets in a facilitatory manner to reach certain objectives. Certainly this has been my experience in Nursing.

Frank Viola Re-Imagining Church, Chapter 7, Church practice and God's eternal purpose

Its been a while since I picked up this book so the summary continues.

There was quite a bit to chew on this chapter. The main idea that God's 'purpose' or 'mission', precedes the fall and can be identified in the first two chapters in Genesis and Revelation chapters 21 and 22. This been downplayed in the Christian Church. With the emphasis instead been::

Evangelical Christians have built their theology mostly on Romans and Galatians. And many nonevangelical Christians have built it on the Gospels (particularly the Synoptics- Mathew, Mark and Luke). And for both groups, Ephesians and Colossians have been but footnotes.

I think this is a pretty good observation. It is worthwhile pondering what God was up to. I'm not even sure 'purpose' or 'mission' are the best words to use. I'm probably happier with the words 'delighted'. MMmm worth a bit more thought.

Viola also adds a list of ten points which he has identified as part of the purpose. I'm would probably put more of an emphasis of God and his total creation, not just man.

Frank Viola Re-imagining Church chapter 2

Basically a chapter regarding how Violas understands how the Church meetings took place in the New Testament. These came in four types-

Apostolic Meetings

Evangelistic meetings

Decision-Makeing Meetings 

A point that is made a number of times is that Leadership is flattened

The regular meeting of the church envisioned in scripture allowed for every member to participate in the building up of the body of Christ (Eph. E:16. There was no “up-front” Leadership. No one took center stage.

An interesting aspect was on worship. 

…early Christians worshipped God through song, they didn’t confine their singing to the leadership of a group of professional musicians. Instead, the meeting allowed for “each one” to lead a song. Or in the words of Paul, ‘each of you has a psalm’ in the gathering (1 Cor. 14:26 NKJV). Even the song themselves were marked element of mutuality…

This worship scenario has been something that in some ways we have been forced into at Ranges. There just aren’t that many musicians at Ranges, it has made us to look at what worship is and then encourage people to explore and share what it means. In the process I would say worshiping.

I think that Violoa is heading in the right direction. I can only really image what he describes in a home, small group context. The question arises does this totally exclude medium to mega size churches? I don’t think you can do that. 

So onward to the next chapter….