The Authority of the Church
of Christ.
The church of Jesus Christ (the body of Christ), being made up of imperfect people must have some sort of Leadership in order to prevent chaos. Of course if all of the people involved were perfect they would all hear God perfectly and there would be no need for leadership. But we all know that is expecting a little too much and so did God , so He gave us the blueprint for the leadership in His church when He gave us His word. We need to look to the Word of God for the pattern in this as with ALL other things pertaining to His church.
It
seems everyone has an opinion about how to run the church. The problem is most of these opinions are
those of men, not of God. We can find
an opinion that will match ours if we look long enough. Most of these opinions have taken some of
their ideas from the second century church and on, but we cannot do this we
must look at the church that Jesus established with His original apostles,
because as in all things, man had corrupted the structure of the church of
Jesus Christ by the second century. So, what does God have
to say about all these different ways of running His church. The following are the most common forms of
church leadership in use today. There
are many others not mentioned here but the following list comprises the vast
majority of “Christian” churches of today.
We
will not discuss the “Denominational” model.
That of a hierachy with
several
layers of authority and a headquarters
somewhere, because scripture is
perfectly
clear that the local church (only one to a city, no matter how many
meeting
places they have) is autonomous and is not to be ruled from afar, and that
“Denominations”
are not part of the true church of Jesus Christ.
ALL
denominations are founded on the unscriptural premise of division. If you
do
not believe this go to the local library, find a book on the “christian religions or
denominations”
and look at why and how they were founded.
Of course there are
some
groups that are not a part of a
denomination that were founded on division and they
are
equally abominable in God’s eyes.
True
Christians cannot separate (divide) because of disagreement over non essential
doctrines. Separation over essential
doctrine is not division, it is a requirement.
This is an area that the church must learn to handle scripturally. If we must by scriptural admonition,
separate from a person or group, then we cannot continue to recognize them as
Christian. Ie: the catholic church and
most denominations are NOT Christian, but most denominations recognize the
catholic church and most other denominations as Christian. If this were true then they cannot be
divided against each other as it violates scripture.
divisions
(NKJ)
Rom
16:17
17 Now I urge you, brethren, note those who
cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and
avoid them. (NKJ)
1
Cor 1:10
10 Now I plead with you, brethren, by the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that
there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in
the same mind and in the same judgment.
(NKJ)
1
Cor 3:3
3 for you are still carnal. For where
there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and
behaving like mere men? (NKJ)
1
Cor 11:18
18 For first of all, when you come together
as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you, and in part I believe
it. (NKJ)
Jude
1:19
19 These are sensual persons, who cause
divisions, not having the Spirit.
(NKJ)
The Board with a Pastor
Model
This
one is so far from the scriptural pattern that anyone who has ever read a bible
can see that it is totally a man made structure. Only those who are referred to in scripture in a most unfavorable
manner will get involved in this. It
is truly the situation where we always find those known as hirelings.
The
Senior Pastor Model
This seems to be currently the most popular among the churches professing Christianity. Most of the charismatic, reformation, “bible”, -----------churches use this pattern, because most of the groups of this nature that have “bible teaching schools” teach this as the pattern. In this structure, the assumption is that the church is to be led by pastors, with one of them being the “senior” or head man. In other words one MAN in charge with the others following his vision. This pattern is not found anywhere in scripture. The actual function of this pattern varies slightly from group to group, but the overall structure remains about the same. Though the name may make it appear that, it is not a one man show, just question anything that this man is doing or saying and you will quickly see the truth.
The Pastor with Elders Model
This is essentially the same structure as that previously discussed. The major difference is in the way it is presented, as the actual day to day operation of both are about the same. One MAN in charge with others following his vision.
The Pastor with Deacons
Model
Same structure different names. The only significant difference seem to be that the “pastor” in this case lets everyone know the full truth up front. HE is in charge and don’t forget it.
The Eldership with Senior
Elder (pastor) Model
The Newest Version, Apostle
with churches Under Him
The
God of the universe Who does everything
with such preciseness and infinite detail is not so lax or foolish as to give
us a pattern for His church (His Bride, His first love) that is in itself
incomplete and in need of us to assume something to understand it. He always gives complete details on
how to do things that are important to Him.
For example, the Ark of Noah, The Tabernacle in the wilderness, the Ark
of the Covenant, The Law of Moses, and there are hundreds of other examples in Scripture.
So,
let’s look at what Scripture has to say about this very important issue. How and by whom is the church of Jesus
Christ to be led.
By it’s very name, the church of Jesus
Christ tells us it is His church and that it must be led by Him. This means that there is a “senior”
leader, the one and only, Jesus Christ of
Nazareth, the Son of the Living God.
It is also called the body of Christ, and we all know that a normal body
can only have one head. No person with
more than one head has ever survived to reach adulthood (yes some have been
born but they did not live long.).
It is also called the bride of Christ and scripture allows only one
bridegroom for any bride.
. This position of Headship is not given to
ANY man, it belongs to and is filled by the one and only Jesus Christ of
Nazareth. No one MAN can be the head
of any part of the body of Christ, as this is appointed to elders (plural
)annointed and appointed by Him to serve His people as undershepherds to Him.
1
Cor 11:3
3 But I want you to know that the head
of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is
God. (NKJ)
Eph
1:22
22 And He put all things under His feet,
and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, (NKJ)
Eph
4:15
15 but, speaking the truth in love, may
grow up in all things into Him who is the head-- Christ-- (NKJ)
Col
1:18
18 And He is the head of the body, the
church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things
He may have the preeminence. (NKJ)
Col
2:10
10 and you are complete in Him, who is the
head of all principality and power. (NKJ)
These scriptures clearly rule out all of the above models with a SENIOR MAN.
The
true church leadership is in fact that of The Shepherd with His elders, but the
Shepherd is singular and is Christ alone, while the elders are plural and are
men annointed by and chosen by Him.to receive His instructions and then to use
them to lead His church where He desires it to go. Contrary to what is commonly taught, There is not one scripture
that shows a pastor leading the flock, the only church leadership that the
scriptures refer to is the elders. The
only other “position” in the church referred to in the scriptures is
deacon. The five (four) fold
ministry is not about leadership, it is about Servanthood ministry. See attached book on The Five Fold
Ministry.
Elders: Those who have authority in the Spiritual matters of the local church.
Titus
5 “for this reason I left you in Crete,that you should set in order the things
that are lacking, and appoint elders in every city, as I commanded you.
1 Tim
5:17
17 Let the elders who rule well be counted
worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and
doctrine. (NKJ)
James
5:14
14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call
for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with
oil in the name of the Lord. (NKJ)
There
are even elders in heaven, those who work directly under the Lord.
Rev
4:4
4 Around the throne were twenty-four
thrones, and on the thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white
robes; and they had crowns of gold on their heads. (NKJ)
Deacons: Those who serve the elders and thereby the church in the area
of the natural. They must be
spiritual men with the same qualifications as the elders, but with a different
annointing, that of deacon.
1
Tim 3:10
10 But let these also first be tested; then
let them serve as deacons, being found blameless. (NKJ)
Acts
6:2-6
2 Then the twelve summoned the multitude
of the disciples and said, "It is not desirable that we should leave the
word of God and serve tables.
3 "Therefore, brethren, seek out
from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and
wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business;
4 "but we will give ourselves continually
to prayer and to the ministry of the word."
5 And the saying pleased the whole
multitude. And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and
Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas, a proselyte from
Antioch,
6 whom they set before the apostles; and
when they had prayed, they laid hands on them.
(NKJ)
God is so smart. There is so much protection for the leaders
that God has called when they function according to the pattern that HE has
given. The above “senior man”
situations always evolve into a situation where the “senior man” becomes
unteachabl,e – unreachable, he cannot be corrected , after all He is God’s
appointed/annointed leader. That is
why we have seen so many of these men fall in sin, they have no protection from
their natural self man. God never
intended for them to be put in this situation.
By having the leadership pattern of
scripture in place, no one man is held accountable for the vision- leadership
of the local body. By having multiple
leaders, each subject to the Holy Spirit, each subject to the others, it is
possible to prepare the leaders for future events, assure proper timing for
every command and protect the men from their own carnal self if it should
attempt to rise up. I have many times
seen a situation where all but one of the elders felt the timing was right, but
could not go ahead because of one lone holdout who had not heard yet from God
on the issue. But every time when that
last man finally heard God we could see
the manifest wisdom of God because the timing was perfect. If one man has an agenda that is not of
God, then you can rest assured that it will never come to fruition, as there
will never be unanimous agreement among the elders if God is not speaking
it. This stucture is very difficult to
put in place, because the men must have absolute trust in God to be able to
speak to each of them. It appears that
we are to trust each other to hear God, but if you are dead to self and able to
understand the sovernty of God then it is simply a matter of trusting Him to
lead His church His way in His time.
This pattern WILL NOT work unless the men are all dead to self or at
least willing to die completely to their self life.
Oh if only the men called to leadership in
the church of Jesus Christ could understand the necessity of dying to their
self life and not caring for the titles, positions and other signs of
leadership and only concern themselves with hearing our one and only senior
man, Jesus the Christ, and following His directions for the local body to whom
He has given them for this purpose.
Servant leadership is what the pattern calls for, and this does not
provide the trappings of leadership that carnal men need. We must become spiritual men, who are dead
in Christ if we are going to effective leaders in the end time church of today.
As
you can see the above patterns according to man are all founded on the premise of assumption , something must be
assumed in order to believe them
If
you are or have been have been involved in leadership that does not fit the
scriptural pattern, it is not a big deal, if you will repent, change to the
scriptural pattern and go on.
After
all, one of the greatest characteristics of Godly leadership is the ability to
make right those things that are wrong, especially if we are responsible for
the problem.
May God
richly bless you as you follow Him.
Charles Lafoe