In this though-provoking book, Andrew Montague challenges the customs and practices of the modern Church in the West, in light of the biblical pattern of the early Church.
The topics explored throughout Koinonia include:
-Why the Church never tithed for the first fifteen centuries
-How the clergy-laity distinction has crippled the modern Church
-Why the "First Lady" designation, and other invented positions, has caused classism in the Church
-Why the glamourous role of the modern-day pastor looks nothing like the early-Church pastor's
-Why the CEO-solo-pastor model is neither biblical nor practical
-How the Lord's Supper has been reduced from a meal to a sacrament
-How we've transitioned from a culture where every member served the Body with their gift to a culture of passive spectators
-Why the Church gathering is for the mutual edification of its members and not for evangelism
-Why preaching is a dialogue and not a monologue
-Why leadership today is selected based on charisma, status, and the ability to draw crowds, and not on the qualification specified in Scripture
-Why a lot of churches put an emphasis on getting converts, without a plan of action on how to disciple them
The foundation of the Church was laid by the apostles and prophets, but the traditions of men have blinded us from seeing what is in plain sight. God has been raising an army of men and women globally, who are tired of the programs, and the bells and whistles of Church, to revive the simplistic, organic expression of the early Church. We can no longer have church as usual. Not today, Satan.