Rethinking the Wineskin - The Practice of the New Testament Church

Rethinking the Wineskin: The Practice of the New Testament Church
By Frank A. Viola
Present Testimony Ministry
(1405 Valley Place, Brandon, FL 33510, USA)

Asking a working pastor to review this book is like asking the proverbial turkey for a dispassionate comment on Christmas. You have been warned!
The author's premise is that the New Testament church is relational, not institutional; a family rather than an organisation. The title arises from his conviction that: 'Virtually every past renewal has been hampered because the new wine has been routinely repackaged into old wineskins.' Viola's views follow those of T. Austin Sparks and Watchman Nee, and his book contains numerous quotations from their writings.
He presents a serious, carefully documented (though at times tedious and repetitious) challenge to many of the practices of the traditional church. His critique contains a very great deal of truth. Yet what troubled me was his assumption that the New Testament gives a definitive model for the life and practice of the local church. While the New Testament is quite specific on the content of the Christian faith, it gives only very general guidelines for the structure of the local church. Therefore, where the New Testament is silent, there must be freedom to develop in different directions. Consider some of Viola's examples.
First, church meetings. He points out, correctly in my opinion, that the purpose of the church meeting is the mutual edification of the believers. But then he appeals to 1 Corinthians 14 as the description of what went on in the meetings of the early church, concluding that all meetings today must be open, spontaneous and participatory, and that meetings which feature a lengthy exposition from the pulpit are contrary to the New Testament pattern. Certainly the building up of one another is one of the key guidelines for what we do on a Sunday morning, and this should employ the gifts of many people, not just one. Yet do we really know what went on in the meetings of the early church? Is 1 Corinthians 14 the last word on church services? The pastoral epistles with their strong emphasis on the teaching responsibilities of the elders give a different part of the picture.
A second example is church buildings. Viola points out that the early church met in homes, and that this was a setting in which relationships could be real rather than formal, and where the various 'one-another' commands of the Scripture could be practised. Very true. A large congregation can be terribly impersonal and a church building can push us in directions that are institutional rather than relational. But can we go the next step with Viola and maintain as a New Testament principle that churches must always meet in homes, that larger congregations and special church buildings are always wrong?
A third example is church leadership. Viola points out, again correctly, that the New Testament congregations were led by a plurality of elders, never a solo pastor, that leadership was raised up from within the congregation, not hired from outside, and that the elders led by example, not by being the managing directors of a religious corporation. But he goes on to conclude that the entire clergy system is simply wrong.
So, should your humble reviewer go out and get a proper job forthwith?! No. Viola is again making absolutes where the New Testament leaves freedom. His warnings are well taken, but is it always wrong for one (or more) man to be freed financially from the necessity of secular work so that he can give his time and energy to the work of the church? Is it wrong for that man to be as well trained as possible?
Viola's ultimate solution is stunning in its naivete and frightening in its consequences: 'The Lord's reaction to the present disorder is to raise up a representative company of believers who will respond to the Spirit's cry for genuine unity . . . the Lord is issuing a charge to all who have ears to hear. It is a charge to leave the manmade sects and to meet freshly upon the New Testament basis of a local assembly.' His effort to get away from 'sects' will result in something that is even more sectarian.
My review copy of Re-thinking the Wineskin was printed from a computer file. The foreword states that by avoiding conventional publishing mechanisms, Viola is able to make it available free of charge. He invites e-mail correspondence on Fviola3891@aol.com so it may be possible to download the book from the Internet.

Rethinking the Wineskin - The Practice of the New Testament Church

(Available free - email Fviola3891@aol.com)

Barry Seagren

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