22 March 2023
Here's a big issue that requires only a few words: Make the Covenant your identity.
The vast majority of you reading this have not moved far enough in that direction. Because of our western heritage, you are almost certainly thinking of yourself as an individual. That's not what God had in mind for us, and not what Christ died for.
Think for a moment: Why do mainstream churches have all these intricate rules about how to operate in a corporate environment? Does your church keep a copy of Robert's Rules of Order? Granted, there are variations between democracy, presbyter, and magisterial church government, but they all have one thing in common: They presume that you are strangers, not family. It's not that families have no rules for handling large formal gatherings, but the underlying purpose is wholly different.
A covenant family does not need the rules that reflect the wider cosmopolitan society. A genuine elder-led eastern feudal family organization is frankly under the rule of the elder. He sets the rules for his own household within the context. Some of it is prescribed in general terms in the Bible, but that's the bones on which the body builds. The assumption here is that an elder arose who would draw the family together as a shepherd does his sheep. They can see him or hear his voice and will move when he moves, and where he moves. It's organic. You could whine that it means everyone has to obey his arbitrary decisions, but that's the voice of moral rebellion. If you don't like the elder, move on to another body or wait until the Lord shows you some other answer.
I fully realize that in the first few years of that sort of orientation being implemented, things will be a little chaotic. It takes time for people to get used to something so radically different from their ingrained instincts for dealing with others.
Yeah, we need a cultural change. Until we can build a covenant awareness across many households, we'll just have to wing it. Our single greatest task is getting used to people who think like a family versus individuals competing for attention and resources. That's the whole point of my first paragraph above. Learn to identify with the Covenant and its agenda. It's a worthy task for a genuine church.
The last thing you want to see is a herd of people who are seldom even good acquaintances, all operating by some artificial rules of conduct more strict than Talmudic legalism. A genuine covenant elder doesn't think about his position; he thinks about the demands of Covenant covering and how he can maintain moral boundaries that invoke the shower of blessings from Heaven. Everyone should be thinking about that, because it's what our Father requires.
This document is public domain; spread the message.