Wine and Wineskins

What should church look like?
How should it be structured?
In what ways and to what extent should it be organized?
Of course, those are questions that Christians and Christian institutions have been wrestling with for centuries. But what are the answers, and where can they be found?
I dare say that Scripture is the first place we should look. But as someone who has searched Scripture on this topic, I've found the New Testament curiously lacking when it comes to an exact, detailed blueprint on how church should be structured.
Now, I know that last comment would raise some furor among those who believe their particular way of doing church comes straight out of God's Word. Nevertheless, I challenge anyone to show me where this clear blueprint is found.
Admittedly, the New Testament does contain some structural tidbits here and there - the appointment of deacons in Acts to deal with a food distribution problem, Paul's mention of various offices or functions in his letters - but if you're wanting a clear-cut, complete, and fully functional set of instructions on how to set up, run, and maintenance a church institution or organization, the New Testament leaves more blank spaces than answered questions.
And if there is a precise, God-appointed way of doing and structuring church, then I have to say that the New Testament writers failed miserably in passing that information along. Jesus Himself, the head and founding father of the church, was practically silent regarding matters of form and structure, at least as far as the Gospel writers recorded.
So, what is the reason for this obvious lack of Scriptural information on how to order church?
Could it be that the New Testament writers didn't regard this issue of organization as all that important? If that's the case, then how can modern institutional church justify its obsession with matters of organization and proper order?
Could it be that the early church founders were pretty much playing it by ear, organizing and structuring as stuctural needs arose? There seems to be some evidence for that in Scripture, particularly in the book of Acts. And if that's the case, should the structural solutions they came up with be regarded as sacred law 2,000 years later? Should organizational and institutional constructs established in the centuries since the time of the early church be viewed as sacred? Or to state it another way, does the fact that people do something in a certain way for a long period of time make that practice or organizational structure sacred?
For me, the question boils down to whether or not God regards our sacred cows as sacred? If so, then fine - but, out of the thousands of different governmental structures and liturgies out there in the Christian world, whose particular arrangement of cows is in line with God's will and how can we know that way of doing things is right? But if our sacred cows are just ordinary cows to God, then a whole lot of people have been tortured, burned at the stake, excommunicated, ostricized, or given the left foot of fellowship for no good reason.
While I believe there is no single Scripturally-ordained way of structuring the church, Scripture is abundant and very detailed when it comes to how we are to relate to each other and to God. The vast majority of Christ's teachings center on those two kinds of relationship. And, maybe, Jesus didn't give a detailed, structural blueprint for church because these ties of relationship between man and man and man and God are the sum total of what His church is - whether it's happening in a cathedral, a living room, or up on a hillside.
I think Jesus gave a big clue to this structural question in His parable of the wineskins. I believe the wine represents our relationships with each other and Him, and the wineskins represent the structural forms within which these relationships exist. The problem throughout history has been that when wineskins have been in place too long, they become unable to take on new wine without bursting. And Christian history has demonstrated this problem a thousand times over. New revelation and fresh spiritual infusion almost always meet with resistance from the old forms and institutions, and, inevitably, new forms and institutions have to be established in order to hold the new wine.
But wineskins always get old eventually, and the wine of relationships they contain begin to stagnate or go sour. In such cases the wineskins themselves often become the central focus, and the matter of relationship is downplayed as a mere component of the bigger institutional machine.
With all that said, I think that one of the challenges that Christ has set before His bride is to learn how to have structure and form without turning those forms into idols of worship. Our Bridegroom wants us to learn to love Him and each other more than whatever house we happen to be living in. And if we can learn to employ organizations and institutions without becoming slaves to our own creations, we might be able to break this centuries old cycle and move forward with advancing Christ's kingdom on this planet.

Free speech in Christ

The Constitutional freedom of speech remains one of the major perks of living here in the fair US of A, and, apart from occasional attempts to curb that freedom by extreme right or leftwing political elements, people in this country are still pretty much at liberty to say anything they please – at least more so than any other part of the planet.
And I would dare say that the freedom of speech and almost all our other Constitutionally-guaranteed freedoms are owed in large part (though not entirely) to our nation’s Christian foundations and freedom-spawning Biblical precepts that have been passed down through the centuries by both Christian and Jewish cultures.
With that said, however, I find it both ironic and sad that one of the areas of American culture in which freedom of speech is most stringently muzzled happens to be within the confines of institutional Christianity. You may disagree with me, but I challenge you to give this point some serious scrutiny. How much freedom does the typical, tithing pew-warmer really have when it comes to matters of established church doctrine, theology, liturgy, and practice? To what degree do church institutions and leaders tolerate the open questioning of these things by the lowly laity?
From my own experience in church culture, I’d have to give the answer “very little” to both questions.
Admittedly, average American church members do enjoy some freedoms. They’re free to sing hymns or worship songs, so long as they do it on cue from the choir director or worship leader. They’re free to sit still and listen (or, at least, pretend to listen) to numerous sermons and public prayers. They’re free to participate in church programs and activities. They’re free to volunteer for various duties and responsibilities regarding the church facility. In a more open church environment, they might even be free to give a public testimony now and again. And, of course, they’re always free to put their money in the offering plate.
But, by and large in today’s church culture, the scriptural promise of freedom in Christ has been thrown out the window by know-it-all control freaks in clerical vestments, whose idea of a good Christian is someone who does what they’re told to do and believes what they’re told to believe without clogging up the fine-tuned religious machine with any bothersome questions.
As far as Paul’s promotion of a church environment in which everyone is invited (and even expected) to bring their individual gifts to the communal table (just check I Corinthians 14:26), that has been replaced with a weekly spectacle in which the chosen and talented few perform on an exalted stage while the second-class citizens of Christ’s kingdom observe and listen in quiet conformity (or even loud conformity, as is the case in some church settings).
It is my belief that a wind of change from the Holy Spirit is presently blowing over Western Christianity. I believe that God is seeking to restore Christ’s position as head over His church – and not as a mere historical figurehead from whom religious institutions derive their legitimacy, but as a living and active commander who literally speaks to and directs His people in the present tense. And once Christ has ousted institutions, man-made traditions, vain theologies, and religious superstars with bloated egos from His rightful seat, He can once again resume the work of creating close-knit spiritual families, both centered around Him and free in Him.
And it’s in the hope that real freedom in Christ will begin to blossom (in spite of current Western church culture) that I have set up this blog site. Apart from just spouting off my own thoroughly fallible views and opinions, I would like to invite anyone who wants to freely express their own feelings and opinions regarding spiritual matters and church-related issues. You can feel free to disagree with me or with anyone else who contributes to this blog site. All I ask is that you try to keep it Christ-centered and try to keep it civil.