A Sketch of the Preeminence Issue

Any endeavor, large or small, needs the guidance of Almighty God.
Our comprehension of church rarely takes our thoughts to people. Instead, we are acculturated into envisioning a physical structure like the one above.

Is this really a picture of Biblical fellowship, looking at the backs of people’s heads? Believers are supposed to gather together as family. Is this what our family gatherings look like? If not Jesus’ design, who came up with this scenario? 

Fellowships are supposed to be participatory, where everyone has a voice.

Why do we surrender to being muzzled? Is it because we’ve been acculturated into believing a happy enchanted sheep is a muzzled sheep? 

Welcome to Christ’s sheepfold. Oops! I, meant the sheepfold of preeminent usurpers. Did God design the church to be monopolized by the few?
Is something wrong with the pictures we've been viewing?
Did God design his church to be shepherded by preeminent people? Or is that instituted by men?
The Bible says there is only one shepherd-Jesus Christ. So how did human preeminence become universally established?
What happens if we challenge the establishment, will we face a receptive crowd?

Here is a graph of 100 Christians to help get a statistical perspective on the dynamics of preeminence. A pastor or priest is on stage week after week becoming more polished, professional, and comfortable. After 10 years, you can see his power ranking rise from 1 to 17. The 99, making up the rest of the church, goes from 100 to 135. Individually, their ascent can be determined by dividing by 99. So, the individual rise is 1 to 1.4. This shows how each spectator has little impact over 10 years compared to the preeminent one.

This graph shows the absence of a preeminent actor. Instead, every Christian is an equal participant according to the leading of the true shepherd – Jesus Christ. Now everyone grows and on average an individual goes from 1 to 10. Not quite as high as the preeminent one above who monopolized and had control of everything. But, overall, the impact of the fellowship rises to 1,000 compared to the preeminent church that only rose to 152. This should not be surprising when we consider the difference between Jesus in control and a preeminent usurper in control.

This graph is quite exciting, because with Jesus in full control the effect is not just linear, but exponential. With the body of believers, coordinated beautifully by Jesus, the individual impact rises from 1 to 750. What insanity led us to become acculturated into letting preeminent people run our churches instead of Jesus?

Christ’s body is made up of many parts; all equal and directed to be actors & not spectators. The usurpers steal Christ’s sheep and force them into mere obedient spectators.
God-ordained equality awaits the mighty power and direction of the one and only Shepherd.
Only Jesus can bring his body together into a mighty force and according to his purpose.

Then the powerful Lion from the tribe of Judah is ready to tackle all the world’s problems. Working together, with the Holy Spirit, there is no mountain that cannot be moved.

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Do we really have the faith to rest in Jesus?

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You cannot serve two masters. If you think you can, you will never be the person God intended. Notice in the 1st picture the preeminent usurpers in the background. They are never happy when the sheep only follow Jesus.

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Preeminent usurpers require your apathy to cast Jesus outside. When he knocks, will you let him in?
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Jesus will guide every sheep that hears his voice and not the voice of a usurper. If you are truly a part of his sheepfold, every sheep’s voice will ring forth, all grounded in God’s word. Are you ready to be a part of a reformation to transform the church to be fully Christ’s?

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Jesus awaits your part in this mighty end-time endeavor. Jesus will guide you if you truly listen to his voice, which is found especially in his Holy Word.

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All these works and more will be perfectly guided by Jesus if we let him.
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None of his work requires a preeminent person. They can only diminish Christ’s work.
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You can be a leader in bringing about true and equal fellowships where only Jesus is preeminent.
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If this reformation takes hold, believers will soon become a part of a family closer than kin.
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Our fellowships will become so amazing that often we will never want them to end.
The Apostle John made it clear: preeminence is an abomination and should not be tolerated.
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Only Jesus is the head. Only Jesus is preeminent. To follow usurpers is not to follow Jesus.
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Jesus’ sheep hear his voice. Whose voice will you listen to?
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Following is a brief narrative to provide a fuller feel for this website’s content.

It is important to set the stage for the dynamics required for a Christian to move toward liberation from Preeminent Suppression.

The Christian is not bound to the Suppressor in the physical sense. Often, there is an unpleasantness that cannot be fully described, but may be enough for them to go to another church or leave the church entirely. Of course, at another church, they will once again come across another Preeminent Suppressor. This Suppressor might make them feel more comfortable. If not, the cycle continues.

Due to this mobility (to leave or move from church to church), the question arises as to how to enlighten your fellow believers concerning the need for a reformation from Preeminent Suppression. And even more so, how to enlighten them as to what the mass liberation of Christians should look like. The purpose for this website is to help provide enlightenment and guidance for a desperately needed reformation within the churches that are constricted by ecclesiastical preeminence.

Unfortunately, I have never seen or heard of any fellowship that completely follows the Biblical template for the church. 1,600 years of Preeminent Suppression has so enculturated the mass of Christians, that it seems impossible to break through this cultural barrier. Hopefully, the future will provide these experiential reference points. For now, we must rely entirely upon God’s guidance through his word – the Bible.

If just a handful of Christians embrace the Biblical template and gather as a church, then what is lost can be restored. This tiny spark can explosively transform the church and become a spreading flame to reach the entire world in this and every future generation.

God has made his template for reformation so simple, yet so powerful. Merely reject Preeminent Suppression and let the Head of the church, the only one who is preeminent, guide you with the power of the Holy Spirit. There is no formulaic structure to this like we see put together by Preeminent Suppressors. You need no certificate or degree for this to happen. You just need to get together, like we see with the Corinthian believers. Every gathering came with great anticipation as to what God had in store as everyone, I repeat everyone, had something to present to one another from God. Everyone was on an equal footing. Everyone was participating and ready to share with one another. And they were so excited that they all wanted to present what God had given to them, all at the same time. It was a cacophony of activity that bordered on chaos.

So, what did Paul advise for them to do? To sit in neat rows and just listen to him? Of course not. Paul would never have usurped the preeminent position of Jesus within the church or anywhere else for that matter. No, he affirmed the equality of all believers and encouraged them to present what God had for them to share. The only suggestion was for them to share things in an orderly fashion, so all could benefit from God’s work, which was through every single believer.

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He basically suggested they do a Christian church roundabout, which only allowed one person in the roundabout at a time. Everyone had to take their turn, yielding to the one who was in the roundabout and sharing what God had given for them for that gathering. It meant the gathering probably went on for quite a few hours; but wow, to hear and be a part of what God was sharing through a fellow brother or sister in Christ was a timeless blessing.

To bring us back to the praxis of fitting into most of Freire’s reasoning that I Christianized in the adaptation Pedagogy of the Suppressed (POTS), brings us to God’s guidance in your life for being a Christian reformer. You may find an opportunity to share the need for a reformation with one, two, or perhaps a much larger group. The larger the group and the more Christians you work with on this reformation endeavor, the more Freire’s methodology can be of assistance. It probably would be rare to have a Preeminent Suppressor in your church allow you to present these reformation ideas to “his” or “her” flock. But, if that does happen, see it as a wonderful door the Lord has opened.

Several areas of this website, including the blog postings, will go into some detail as to what are the dynamics, and how a reformation can potentially blaze like a roaring fire throughout the world in response to the Great Commission: a blaze unlike anything since the early and Roman persecuted church period.