COMMENTARY

Don Atkin

ANSWERING THE VENUE QUESTION

New venues and new wineskins are emerging as modern man tries to encapsulate the gospel in contemporary relevancy and present the church in ways that attract the 21^st century postmodern culture.

Advocates of 20^th century venues need to take responsibility for this phenomenon.  For, they set the pattern by adopting strategies and methods that led to mega-churches for some, and frustration for others.  Adapting the ways of Hollywood, Disneyland and Madison Avenue, they lived up to the prophetic analogy offered by Richard Halverson (former Chaplain of the Senate) many years ago:

"Christianity started out in Palestine as a fellowship.  Then it moved to Greece and became a philosophy, then it went to Rome and became an institution, and then it went to Europe and became a government. Finally it came to America where we made it an enterprise." 

So, the sons of yesterday’s church leaders continue to copy the competitive patterns established by their fathers in preceding generations.  They are doing it the same, only better, and are establishing their own traditional ruts.  Human nature hates change.  Adventurers take risks, but minimize the risks by appealing to human nature in bringing them along into new venues, new wineskins, that continue to restrict the new wine and eventually burst.

What is the answer?  We are seeing God restore the role of master builders to the church scene.  Some are calling it “the new apostolic reformation.”  However, many are simply positioning themselves over existing venues, and there really is no significant reformation of the church at all.

Others are advocating a replacement, not a repairing, of the church system.  This sounds attractive to some.  But, replacing a system with another system, or replacing the old wineskin with a brand new old wineskin, is not the answer.

The ecclesia, the called-out ones, has been and is the body and bride of Christ. 

Individuals can be found within a variety of 20^th and 21^st century venues, none of which facilitate the coming forth of the company of sons who will be the man of many members.  Christ in [all of] you [together] is the hope of glory.  How do we move toward a venue that facilitates the exponential expansion of the kingdom, and the covering of the earth with the glory of God?

The process is called metamorphosis; the need is for habitation.

God has chosen to bless a great variety of venues with His visitations.  But, His plan is not for merely visiting.  His intention is to inhabit His people.  He inhabited the praises of His people in Old Testament times, and many still believe that is His plan.  But, under the New Covenant, God inhabits His people, not merely their praises.

This is a critical issue.  People are still visiting here and there, this venue and that venue, in the hope that God will also visit.  (And, He still does show up from time to time.)  But God is building His house (of many dwelling places) out of living stones.

We together are God’s place of habitation.  We live in Him, and He lives in us.

Wise master builders are not laying a foundation for visitation; we are laying a foundation for habitation! 

My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you.

Here’s the punch line.  Ready?

We are the venue! 

Let me put it another way:

We are the wineskin!

Venues and wineskins that are the product of man’s thinking, scheming and planning ~ whether 20^th or 21^st century, modern or postmodern ~ are not the venues that God will fill with Himself.  He may visit, but He won’t abide.

History is filled with examples of humanly created institutions that eventually take on lives of their own.  People end up serving what was initiated to serve them.  Too often, such institutions have opened themselves to religious spirits and spirits of tradition which have separated us from one another.

We don’t begin the corporate journey with organizations.  We begin with people whom God joins together.  God’s legitimate leadership will emerge in the context of His legitimate followers.

Form follows function. 

Ministry flows out of life.

Habitation creates the venue!