Scripture… As We Live It #85
This is the 85th installment in “Scripture… As We Live It“:
This installment is dedicated to my readers involved in “simple church,” “organic church,” “house church,” etc. Turn about is fair play, right? 🙂
And when they had appointed elders for them decided there was no need to appoint elders in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed. (Acts 14:23 re-mix)
(Please read the first post for an explanation of this series.)
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- The Assembling of the Church | Recent Converts as Elders? - [...] previous installment of “Scripture… As We Live It” was based on Acts 14:23: And when they had appointed elders…
depends on what is meant by “appoint” 😉
Hehe…well I don’t know if it is any less applicable to conventional churches either. I haven’t seen too many apostolic workers going from church to church appointing elders anywhere else. 🙂
That begs the question Alan. How long before? It seems that these men were appointed within a few months of being believers but then Paul turns and says “not a new covert, lest he becomes conceited”. How do we reconcile that and to the first question how long do you think? I know this is only an “as we live it” but I wrestle with this and you are always a balanced voice
Alan,
In relation to Lionel’s question, how would a “new convert” be defined according to Paul in terms of length of service?
Alan, I don’t think your “notify me of follow-up comments via e-mail” plugin is working. I never get emails after I comment. 🙁
Ha…love it!
Steve,
I’ve changed to a new comment notifier plugin. Please let me know if it works.
-Alan
testing new comment notifier
Steve,
Did it work?
-Alan
Alan I can’t wait until I get to see that happen. I in my experience thus far with the people the Lord has given us the privilege of making disciples of the amount of time to get them to the point where they qualify to be an elder is a long time.
I have not ever heard or read anyone in the simple church world say that there was no need to appoint elders. Rather it is an issue of emphasis. The focus is on doing the work of an elder. Being a spiritual father or mother. When that job is done well the church does have elders whether or not they are appointed. I think the desire is to avoid the pitfalls of the institutional church which so often gets giving a person a title ahead of their function. In my 40 years of experience in institutional church the elders functioned more as board members appointed by the CEO. Their function was one of budgets and planning future building projects. Never did I experience one of them investing in my life to help me follow Jesus better. They may have had the title of elder, but they had no influence in my life and in most of the lives in the church.
If I were to err on this one I would rather be slow to appoint but work hard at raising up disciples focused on being and doing what the Bible says leaders are to do and be in the Kingdom. I want leaders who aren’t that concerned on having a title.
Alan, yes it did work. Thanks! Which one did you switch to? I’ve considered adding one to my blogs, but wanted one that worked well. The only drawback with the one you’re using is that it doesn’t include the text of the comment itself. Only the fact that someone commented.
With regard to the topic of the post now…is there any merit to the statement I’ve heard by some that “appoint” could simply be referring to “recognize”? In other words, they simply recognized those who were already functioning as elders and pointed them out to the church, so to speak. Is that even possible with the Greek word used there?
Steve,
I’m using the “Comment Notifier” plugin. I’ve added the comment content to the email. I like the plugin so far. The only thing that I dislike is that the plugin does not come with default notifications, so everything has be entered after the plugin in installed.
As to your questions, I would tend to agree with you.
-Alan