Fellowship – Ecclesial Schools
Lesson 17: Ecclesial Schools
Introduction
The primary reason that an Ecclesial hall exists is so that we have a place to gather for our Bible studies, in particular the Breaking of Bread service. But, this need not, in fact should not be the only purpose for the hall. The Ecclesial hall is a place for fellowship. It is a place that should become known in the community as a place of activity. A place where people can go to learn about God, but also a place of learning for all aspects of life.
Keeping the doors open
Many times throughout this series we have reiterated the point that a hall should always have its doors open, not just for the Ecclesial members, but also for the general public. A hall with a padlock on the door is a wasted asset and is a thing of very great sadness and shame. We should be embarrassed if our Ecclesial hall doors are ever shut – day or night.
The work of the Synagogue
The work of the Synagogue was always as a place of learning and education, particularly for the young; it was their school. If you pass by a synagogue in Israel (even today) you will see Rabbi (teachers) teaching children how to read the Torah (the Bible). What better textbook could you have from which to learn to read other than the Bible. This is how Jewish children have learnt to read and to write over millennia.
Schools in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia did not start out as state run. They were always Church run institutions. Even today approximately one million children in the United Kingdom attend Church schools. Much has been lost with the state taking on schooling. This is why the Christadelphians run schools. For example Heritage College in Adelaide Australia http://heritage.sa.edu.au/ that I was honored in attending whilst the land was being purchased. Or Heritage College in Perth Australia https://www.hcp.wa.edu.au/ where my wife and father-in-law have both taught. See also http://www.christadelphianschooling.co.uk/.
The work of the synagogue school does not end with learning to read and to write, and consequently the Jews have always been a very educated people. The result is that the Jewish people are known to be some of the best business men and women in the world. They have become particularly renowned for their business with silver and precious stones such as diamonds.
Traditional Sunday Schools
Traditional teaching of the Bible to children has taken place on Sunday – hence the name “Sunday School”. This has become synonymous with children learning the Bible stories. This type of schooling is incredibly important. Much material is now available to help you in this respect (see https://www.christadelphian.or.tz/materials/literature/school). Of course a “Sunday School” does not necessarily have to be run on a Sunday; any day of the week can be used. The only reason a Sunday has been commonly used is because Brothers and Sisters meet together at the hall on a Sunday morning already. It has therefore become common to run these schools before or after the Breaking of Bread service. In this way the door of the hall remains open for a longer period on the Sunday. This has proven to be a very convenient way of running a Sunday School.
Learning at the Synagogue
We have already spoken about learning to read and to write at the Christadelphian hall, and what a wonderful way to learn that is, but what other things might we learn whilst there? The following is a short list.
Mathematics
It has never been easy to live in this world without mathematics. We are not talking about the complex mathematics that is taught in the Universities, we are talking about useful everyday mathematics. Like learning how much change that we will get from a 5,000/- note if we purchase tomato’s in the market. There is always a clever market seller ready to spot that we cannot handle money. So why not go along to the local Christadelphian Meeting Place and learn how to keep the woman at the market honest.
Whilst learning how to handle money why not learn how to budget. Keeping a family of nine on an irregular income is not easy. Especially when we see the cost of a bag of charcoal going up in price on a daily basis.
Why not learn how interest works. If I go to the lender and he says that I will pay a daily interest rate of 20%, and I borrow 10,000/- from him for a week, then how much will I have to pay back? The answer … an incredible 35,800/- … I would not take that loan Brother. How did you work that out?
There is always someone in the Ecclesia that is good with these things. Quite often it is one of our sisters. They do not need to be a qualified teacher to teach these things. And whilst we are teaching, well let’s tell our neighbour about the Word of God. And, oh yes, you can charge for the lessons too.
What a good use for an Ecclesial hall.
Housekeeping
You know the Bible tells us a great deal about house-keeping. It teaches many things about cooking, cleanliness, and parenting. What better instruction manual could we have than the Word of God to direct us, and those around us in house-keeping.
Whilst we run classes in house-keeping those around us are in our hall. They are reading with us the Word of God. What an opportunity for them to see that the Bible is able to make a person wise. We know of course that it is “able to make us wise unto salvation” (2 Timothy 3:15).
And whilst we are teaching, well let’s tell our neighbour about the Word of God. And, oh yes, you can charge for the lessons too.
What a good use for an Ecclesial hall.
Kindergarten
How often do you see very young children roaming the streets. Sometimes they will be cared for by an older brother or sister, but so very often they are left to themselves. The sad result can often be fatal.
Caring for the children whilst parents are at work is a very useful community service. Something that the Ecclesial hall can be used for. There are lots of activities that can be done even with the very young. All Bible based of course.
Whilst a lot of the time your activities might involve changing and cleaning out nappies, the work of the kindergarten will educate young minds in the Word of God. It is incredible how that will stick with the children. Ephesians teaches “bring up (children) in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4). For says the Psalms “Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD” (Psalm 127:3).
There is always someone in the Ecclesia that is good with taking care of the very young.
And whilst we are teaching, well let’s tell our neighbour about the Word of God. And, oh yes, you can charge for the lessons too.
What a good use for an Ecclesial hall.
Courthouse
Where-ever there are people, there are disputes. The Bible of course teaches us how to handle disputes, think of passages such as those found in Matthew 18.
The Ecclesial hall is where we can make some very good use of our Bible based knowledge in this respect. 1 Corinthians 6:6 teaches that Brethren should not take their Brethren to law: “But brother goeth to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers.” How much better (and cheaper) it can be to go to the Ecclesia with our disputes than going to law. Again, 1 Corinthians 6:2-3 “Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?”
And whilst we are judging, well let’s tell our neighbour about the Word of God. And, oh yes, you can charge for the court too.
What a good use for an Ecclesial hall.
Hospital
I am not saying that we should all study for many years and become doctors, and set up hospitals in our Ecclesial halls. That would be a little beyond the expectation. But as we all know, everyone needs to see a doctor at some point in their life, we all need to know about hygiene and we need medicines. Only problem with all that is … money. And, how much money we have tends to dictate how much access we have to such things.
Have you ever paused to consider how much there is in the Bible about hygiene, health and medicine? There is so much that S. I. McMillen M.D. wrote a book on the topic - None of These Diseases: The Bible's Health Secrets for the 21st Century. It speaks about the extraordinary medical benefits that are available to those who follow the Bible's teachings. The authors deal with stress, sex, anger, circumcision, tobacco, and more. https://www.amazon.co.uk/None-These-Diseases-Secrets-Century/dp/080075719X
God gave us the herbs for for the “service of man” (Psalms 104:14). Many of the herbs have great healing properties. In fact the majority of our modern medicines are based upon the herbs of the field. Why not learn a little about herbs https://www.christadelphian.or.tz/herbs, and put that knowledge to good use.
If you are really dedicated to this idea then you might like to check out the medicial section of our website https://www.christadelphian.or.tz/medical. There is no reason why you could not develop your Ecclesial Hall as a full hospital. At the time of writer there are around 18,000 clinics, 16,000 homes for the elderly and those with special needs, and 5,500 hospitals, with 65 percent of them located in developing countries all run by Churches.
And whilst we are healing others, well let’s tell our neighbour about the Word of God. And, oh yes, you can charge for the hospital and the medicines too.
What a good use for an Ecclesial hall.
Building and Project management
If you have built a hall for your Ecclesia, then there is no doubt at all that you have learnt a great number of skills both in building, probably an element of carpentry, certainly making bricks, maybe plumbing, and / or electricity and internet.
There are here a number of what are commonly called “transferable skills”. You have done this once, why not teach others these skills.
Remember our Lord Jesus Christ was “a carpenter” (probably better translated as a stonemason); he learnt the Bible from his father whilst working for him.
And whilst we are teaching, well let’s tell our neighbour about the Word of God. And, oh yes, you can charge for the lessons too.
What a good use for an Ecclesial hall.
Translation
Many of you are good translators. Look at all the wonderful literature that we now have in Swahili. Even these articles may eventually become translated into Swahili.
You know translation into foreign languages is a much sort after talent. You know I get a lot of my translation work done via an online facility found at https://www.upwork.com/
Foreign languages can be learnt; see https://www.christadelphian.or.tz/hebrew where we have lessons in Hebrew. You can teach foreign languages at our hall.
And whilst we are teaching, well let’s tell our neighbour about the Word of God. And, oh yes, you can charge for the lessons too.
What a good use for an Ecclesial hall.
The primary purpose of the hall
With all this teaching going on; will our Hall doors ever be closed? I sincerely hope not. The Ecclesial Hall is a place of learning.
There is one small caveat to all this though: we must not lose sight of the primary purpose for our hall. As we said at the beginning the hall is there for us to worship our Heavenly Father in and a place for us to learn about God’s Word in.
Remember how that the Jews made the temple a “den of thieves” (Matthew 21:13; Mark 11:17; Luke 19:46) and how that the Lord Jesus Christ had to over turn the tables of the money changers. Our Hall is primarily Yahweh’s [HWHY] house of prayer. Let us never forget that.
The lawyer speaks to Jesus
One day when the Lord Jesus was teaching the people, a man stood up to ask a question. This man was a lawyer, one who had studied the Law of Moses very carefully and knew very well what it taught concerning the way people should live to please God.
Believing he could embarrass Jesus before all the people, the lawyer asked the question to test him. He was not looking for an answer, because he was sure he already knew the answer. "Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" he asked, and Jesus answered, "What is written in the Law? How readest thou?" This was no problem to the lawyer, who instantly replied, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. His answer was an excellent one, for he had correctly put together two very important verses from the books of the Law - Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18. (On a later occasion, Jesus also joined these two scriptures together, and said, "On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets" (Matt. 22:40).
So Jesus replied, "Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live - (v28). The lawyer had known the right answer; he could quote the Law off by heart, but Jesus' words showed him that there was something he must do if he wanted eternal life. The Lawyer could see that he had not embarrassed Jesus at all. Quite the opposite, for he himself now felt uncomfortable. Hoping to save face in front of the people he asked Jesus, "and who is my neighbour?" (v29).
Jesus realised that here was something the lawyer really did not know. So that no-one would make any mistake about his answer, Jesus told a parable.
Jesus answers the lawyer with a parable
"A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves," Jesus began. The road to Jericho was steep and rocky. It passed through mountainous country, full of caves, just the sort of place for robbers to hide in. People used to travel the thirty kilometres to Jericho in small groups so that they could protect themselves from trouble on the way. This man in the parable travelled alone and on the way was attacked by thieves, who "stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead" (v30) by the side of the road.
Before long another traveller came along the same road. It was a priest. When he saw the poor man lying there in need of help, he chose to mind his own business and continue on his way.
Later a Levite came by. When he saw the unconscious traveller lying on the road, he also passed by.
Both these men, the Priest and the Levite, were well aware that the Law said, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. They considered, however, that the traveller lying battered on the side of the road had nothing to do with them. Perhaps, since he was "half dead", he was past help anyway. So they chose to ignore him and go their way.
A little later, a Samaritan came along the same lonely road. When he saw the unfortunate traveller, his heart immediately went out to him. His first thought was to offer help. He went over and examined his wounds. Then he carefully bound them up, "pouring in oil and wine", as they used to do in those days, to soothe and to heal. Having done his best, he lifted him on to his own beast and continued slowly on the way till they came to an inn. There he made him as comfortable as he could. On the next day he gave the inn-keeper two pence (equal to half a shekel in Jewish money), and said, "Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee" (v35).
Jesus asks the lawyer a question
Having finished the story, Jesus asked the lawyer, "Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves?" (v36).
There was only one answer. Reluctantly the lawyer answered, "He that showed mercy on him" (v37). It was a Samaritan who had shown "mercy" to the traveller. Now the Jews had despised the Samaritans for centuries and would never imagine them to be worthy of praise in any way. How pointed Jesus' story was! A Priest and a Levite had failed to do what God required, but a Samaritan had shown "mercy".
"Go, and do thou likewise", Jesus told that proud lawyer (v37).
Now let us ask the question. Which of our Halls shows us to be neighbours; the hall with the padlock on the door, or the hall that always has it’s door open?