18. The Flow through Rooms
Walking with God inside of life together is all about movement. This flow of movement, with God, with one another, and just the natural coming and going of the day, are all part of a community of wholeness.This flow of movement, however, must be considered and provided for. Movement just happens, but it can be directed and provided for.
It is this flow of movement, then, from the experience of one piece of furniture in the tabernacle to the next, or from one classroom to the next, that gives us a wonderful illustration for understanding minsitry in the church and what its purpose is.
Lesson 18.1 Our Way Through compares the pattern of home called "the flow through rooms" with Hebrews 10:19-22, the verse of journeying to know the Lord. There is far more in this one sentence than we have ever seen.
Lesson 18.2 The Tabernacle as the Church combines the metaphor of the tabernacle with the metaphor of schooling to show how we as believers in Jesus move from one glory to the next and how ministry serves only to assist, but never control, that movement.
Lesson 18.3 A Gift not an Office, then, defines ministry as a function of life, not as a specific ownership of rule. Ministry as an office is one of the great curses inside of Christianity in this world; God's ministry serves from beneath and does not consider itself to be anything.