“Jack Deere gives a great illustration that we can use to think about “church.” “If you were to lock a brand-new Christian in a room with a Bible and tell him to study what the Scripture has to say about healing and miracles, he would never come out of the room a cessationist” [a person who believes that certain Spirit-gifts ceased with the closing of the New Testament canon] (Surprised by the Power of the Spirit, Zondervan, 1993, p. 54).

I would reframe Jack’s illustration like this: if you were to lock a brand-new Christian in a room with a New Testament and tell him to study all it says about ekklesia, would he ever come out of the room with any revelation about one person being the key to church-life, and who would preach a sermon every Sunday morning? Yet we have constructed our key notions about church upon a foundation that is nowhere to be found in the New Testament.

Isn’t this cause for alarm and re-evaluation?”

— Don't Be Called Leaders by Jon Zens.