Church- A Priesthood of Believers

'Church' phoenetically arised from the old and middle english word 'cirice or circe' that meant (the) Lord's, and that is from the word meaning 'Lords' in Greek- κυριακον. ref. http://www.experiencefestival.com/a/Church_-_Etymology/id/1287683

It is written that the word 'church' in many or most translations into English from the Bible refer to the word in the Bible 'ecclesia'(in Greek -ἐκκλησία').

The concept of a church, or the church of Jesus Christ means simply that the believers have a true relationship to the absolute Truth in-itself, for-himself Jesus Christ. The faithful are the Lord's having been saved from the temporal conditions of original and subsequent sin.

Jesus Christ as Truth of an absolute sort is also being referred to with the word 'Truth' meaning an abbreviation of sorts, such that it simplifies saying that Jesus Christ is also God and Author of Everything including the Universe and so forth. If one does believe that then the relationship to Truth is far more important than the relationship to others who are not of faith and who are not saved. It is something comparable to it being more valuable to be on a lifeboat on a sinking ships than in the gambling lounge of the doomed vessel playing cards for penny points yet the stakes are ultimate. The church in the world is still basically a dysfunctional Temple Priesthood in little fiefdoms such as crucified our Lord. People cannot let go of the worldly power and security, and even want political power still.

A real church organization would train people for peer democracy under God instead of for rule by dictators and C.E.O.'s. A true Church structure would let the Truth of faith stand directly in relation to Jesus Christ without the vicarious upper class Christian careerism of the post-founders era.

The Church today could use a priesthood of believers organizational and design leader. You see Martin Luther believed that all Christians were to be priests in distinction the the hierarchical priesthood which continues an exclusive process.

A priesthood of believers would be something like groups of twelve with peer status sharing their weekly Sunday meeting roles in majority speaker, minority speaker, weekly reports and song leader. With this sort of fundamental organization with perhaps three ranks of novice, regular and elder status the Church would have just one high priest (Jesus Christ) and a priesthood of believers sharing in evangelical and missions work and so forth.

Many church needs should be supported by these dedicated groups, and perhaps Churches would be full with 144 members. I prefer they meet in monolithic domes sitting about round tables.

With such a squad structure churches should hopefully be able to be more supportive of medical and other group needs with contracts to Christian services to provide things the group cannot. The composition of each group should be as balanced as possible occupationally speaking.

This is a radical change to the way things are now done-Protestant Churches are set up like little franchise Catholic Churches supporting a hierarchical priesthood. Jesus ended the hierarchical temple priesthood form with his death and resurrection.

I thought a near retirement pastor might take the assignment with less risk to his career earnings potential

A 2nd reformation would be useful.

A priesthood of believers could be evolved from existing church structures to make a more egalitarian and Biblically correct for of Christian organization better able to evangelize and express the will of God so far as i understand the new testament.

The old testament has a temple worship form something similar to other priestly hierarchies of other faiths...paradoxically Muslims have an imam that isn't actually a priest but is instead just a group leader of merit.

A priesthood of believers is described somewhat in the book of Hebrews by the apostle Paul, and of course Jesus said that Christians would be as servants rather than as those placing themselves first.

Of course regular Christian priesthoods have served to bring the message of the gospel over the millenia, however in this populist era all should be more equal and serve equal roles as servants able to serve other Christians first and then others as is useful or consistent with Biblical doctrine.

Here is a brief organizational structure example...

Christians in a church would be organized in groups of 12. Maybe a useful Church would have 12 groups of 12. Each worship day one elder would have a 15 minute time to talk or sermonize, a few hymns could be sung, and everyone else in the group could have five minutes to talk or not. Alternate weeks would have a new elder selected to sermonize.

Perhaps it would be better to have half of the 11 non-sermonizers talk for 10 minutes each instead of for 5 minutes. Each would be expected to share some learning from the Bible and perhaps to discuss individual work assignments.

Tithing could continue yet no-one would be paid. The money would be invested in insurance for group associates and physical maint. Each member would have their own outside job, yet each group would so far as possible provide fairly free services to other members when and how useful.

In the priesthood of believers all would be trained to be front-line working Christians trained to speak in small groups, evangelize outside when possible, and be a Christian educator. The only position women would not take, in order to be consistent with the Bible, would be that of the 15 minute sermon leader, who would also lead the responsive group reading. Since he doesn't get paid, and the position changes no one should care, and the members should have plenty of other meaningful work to do.

New Christians could be brought int a new member group, or shifted into groups without 12 people and so forth. This is just an idea that I believe would help to establish more Christians in presently non-Christian areas, that would bring more Christians out of backseat roles and into the forefront of actual Biblically directed Christian living and so forth.