~ by Pastor Rob Krause

Recently, I was doing a study on the Old Testament Priest in relation to the New Testament Believer-Priest. The study was thoroughly fascinating. One of my regular conclusions was that the ancient Tabernacle designs have so much to teach us about a pleasing walk before God! You might ask, “So what does this have to do with True Christian Community?” What a brilliant question and let me compliment you for thinking of it.

Setting the Scene

Each Levite priest was born and raised to serve God in that capacity. It took them thirty years to be developed and that included five years of formal training from a retired priest. Every Levite male was required to go through this training. However, not every man was selected for the priesthood. Some were rejected from service. Each candidate was given an arduous physical inspection by the chief priest and had to meet twelve qualifications for service. In [1] Leviticus 21:18-23 you can read the qualifications.

More Specifically

My focus for this article is the 8^th qualification. A man was to be set-aside from service if he was a dwarf ([2] Lev. 21:20). The priesthood couldn’t be accomplished by children or by men of unfulfilled stature. A dwarfed person had a fully capable & reasoning mind, but they could not stand tall enough to balance the work with the other priests. They didn’t have the height to serve in a pleasing or non-distracting manner before the Lord. Instead of fulfilling service to God, they would always be a person who needed to receive ministry. Now how many of today’s pews hold intellectually religious people who are service-less wonders and whose feet never touch the ground?

Who’s Carrying Who?

The OT priest had a very important role to fulfill. When the shekinah glory of God would move, groups of priests would pack up the instruments of worship and carry them along on poles resting on their shoulders. Each group shouldered the elements of Presence. There was never a one-man show in the worship journey. One reason for this would be that a single priest could drop, break, or defile the instrument he was bound to protect. Another reason would be that too much attention might go to one priest instead of the attention on the Glorious journey. So, God ordained that the priests work together with balance, mutual accountability, direction, strength, order, inspiration, and full stature.

But the dwarfed priest? He would be hopping up & down just trying to touch the pole. He’d have to get out of the way — or get a ride. He would be set-aside for service.

The Community of Believer-Priests

Paul writes vividly to the Ephesian Church to raise the bar of their common walk. Look closely at the language he uses in [3] Ephesians 4:11-16.

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

True Christian Community causes me to live in an effective, powerful, and beautiful group of similarly saved saints. This type of community is what we all are called to. And also, this type of community has dynamic demands.

1. God will not settle for service-less & immature character. see [4] James 1:4-5
2. You have to grow up — in every way.
3. You can’t grow up by yourself — it must be done in community. You need others and they need you.
4. Christ in everything and Christ for everything is the goal. You weren’t placed in the Body for fun friendships. Fun, human happiness is not our barometer nor our prize. True Christian Community will make you stretch.
5. True, Christ-centered Community does work. It is real. It is attainable. It’s worth striving for!

An Example in Closing

I had a friend once who had all kinds of Bible knowledge (who doesn’t, right?). This friend, who I’ll call Tony, had so much Bible knowledge that he intimidated me with it. However, Knowledgeable-Tony couldn’t serve the Body. Tony didn’t want to serve. Tony complained about it. Tony had another agenda; another route to take from everybody else. Tony would criticize others who were bearing the load. They didn’t have as much Bible knowledge, but they had good hearts. Honestly, they were more mature than Tony was — AND — they reflected the image of Jesus better too. Tony disliked Christian community, became unteachable, and eventually moved on to remain a dwarf.

I have another friend who I’ll call Tim because that’s his real name. Tim caught the Vision. Tim paid the price and sacrificed for the Christian community. Tim grew up into Christ and is still growing to this day. The other day, Tim saw another man from his small group turn to Jesus Christ and be saved. What Tim might not know is that he is directly and indirectly responsible for the launch of 11 small groups over the past 3.5 years.

True Christian Community is for every believer. Tim will continue to experience that greatness because Jesus has first place in and around his life; Tony will not, unless he grows up.

author ~ Pastor Rob Krause - Rob is the Pastor of the Serenissima Bible Church in northeast Italy. He and his wife Sandy have two children and have been serving in ministry for 10 years.