To the Church in Ephesus

¹ “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:

These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands. ² I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. ³ You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.

⁴ Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. ⁵ Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. ⁶ But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

⁷ Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

Prologue

¹ The revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, ² who testifies to everything he saw—that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. ³ Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.

Greetings and Doxology

⁴ John,

To the seven churches in the province of Asia:

Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits^[a] before his throne, ⁵ and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.

To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, ⁶ and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.

⁷ “Look, he is coming with the clouds,”
and “every eye will see him,
even those who pierced him”;
and all peoples on earth “will mourn because of him.”
So shall it be! Amen.

⁸ “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”

John’s Vision of Christ

⁹ I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. ¹⁰ On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, ¹¹ which said: “Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.”

¹² I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, ¹³ and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man, dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. ¹⁴ The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire.¹⁵ His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. ¹⁶ In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.

¹⁷ When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. ¹⁸ I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.

¹⁹ “Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now and what will take place later. ²⁰The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

Our desire is to strip away all that is unnecessary.

Our desire is to throw off the things that hinder.

So for a moment I will ask you to dream with me of a gathering of people centered around the teachings of Jesus.  Good news that has not been overtaken by aspirational ideas, but aligned with serving our neighbours and the poor.

I ask that you dream of a spirituality which is not dependent upon one weekly meeting, but upon the people of the church meeting together in clusters throughout the city.  Where it’s okay to admit you’ve had a crappy day. Where we stop relying on a weekly meeting for top-me-up, but instead seek Christ to build and disciple us through each other- where the priesthood of all believers is practised and not just preached.

… Imagine a faith where we are able to call the homeless our friends.  Instead of soup we give them dignity and identity.  Instead of gold… hope.

So this is what we do:

We look at the Bible and we look at our lives, and we look at the way we ‘do church’ and we ask “does this add up?” Does my life relate to the teachings of Jesus.  A way of life that was so dangerous he had to be put to death?

We call ourselves ‘a community’ instead of ‘a church’, primarily because there is only one church.  In fact- if we’re feeling super-spiritual we might even get up early on a Sunday morning and visit another congregation.  Secondly, because not all who come to our gatherings are believers.

We ask questions when we do not understand/disagree, because we learn together.  Although there is often one main speaker/discussion leader we believe the Holy Spirit is in all believers, and to paraphrase C.S.Lewis we all have our own little piece of God that nobody else has.  When those who are not yet believers talk we are still able to listen in to the quiet voice of God, because we do not know it all.  Doesn’t it get tiresome when someone is trying to answer your question before you’ve even finished.

We don’t always sing songs, because singing isn’t the only way humans express themselves.  Our gatherings can contain poetry, art, spoken word, scripture reading.

We rarely take an offering, because we try and have minimal costs. We encourage all members to give to local charities or grab a tea with someone who is homeless.