Michael Frost

A year ago during a Veritas House Church we were watching a video by an author named Michael Frost and he was talking about where our word “church” came from. He said back in biblical times older men (40 and older) would retire from their work, give their business to their sons, and then go and spend their days at the city gate talking, discussing, and having people from the city come and ask them questions about life and other important issues. Michael went on to say that if you were to somehow magically go back to that time, and remove the elders from the city gate, the city would go into a profound sense of mourning and loss. The elders gathered at the city gate brought value to their community. That gathering of elders at the city gate was called ecclesia, which is where we derive our word church from.

So that got me thinking. If our ecclesia was somehow removed from our community, would anyone grieve the loss? Would anyone who is not connected to our church miss the ecclesia? What kind of value has this ecclesia brought to our community and if we disappeared from this place would people mourn the loss for themselves and the community? What can we do as an ecclesia to bring value to our community?

I know realized just how much this idea of Ecclesia and bringing value to the community has driven what Veritas is to be about. When I talk with people regarding Veritas I talk about this idea. I've attached a link to the video on YouTube that we were watching on that night. It's an awesome video and one that has pushed us as Veritas on to plant a church that will seek to bring value to the community that we will plant ourselves in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77ndCFSv47g