Here are some more good posts about the old guys, I mean, elders
I’ve written several posts about elders (pastors, if you prefer) before, but I also like to link to other posts that people write on the subject.
In the last few days, a couple of people have written about the importance of church recognizing/appointing multiple elders/pastors. (By the way, if one person is the “head elder” or “senior pastor” such that all others “answer” to him, then I would not consider that “multiple elders/pastors.”)
Here are the two posts:
I think it is very important for churches to consider this. Often, too much focus is placed on leadership in the church, especially when that leadership has a single leader.
We do not need anyone to be “in charge” other than Jesus Christ. However, we do need several mature believers who can guide us by example and who can show us what it means to live in a manner worthy of Jesus Christ in both their words AND their actions. Of course, that also means that those people must share their lives with us, not just their lectures or sermons.
In the NT, there is no distinction between clergy and laity
The title of this post comes from an entry in Dave Black’s un-pseudo-blog-type-thing. (See entry #2 from Monday, April 4, 2011 at 11:54 a.m.)
Here’s the entire entry:
The New Testament gives no suggestion that there is any distinction between clergy and laypeople. All Christians are called upon (and expected) to minister. In the New Testament, moreover, leaders came from within the Body and their leadership was always corporate and shared. There are few aspects of Christianity that demand a more radical reappraisal than its ecclesiology, if we are to be obedient to the call of Christ. If we are prepared to take the Scriptures seriously as the foundational documents of our faith, this will mean a complete rethinking of the wineskins and a return to the guidelines for Christian ministry as set down in the New Testament.
I think the key to this entry (besides the lack of distinction between “clergy” and “laity”) is this: “All Christians are called upon (and expected) to minister.”
What would it take for churches and Christians today to move towards this way of life in Christ?
Are you interested in writing? Want help?
Jeremy at “Till He Comes” is starting a writer’s club for new and unpublished authors. He tells about this in a post called “Are you an Aspiring Author?”
He hopes this new club (using Google Groups) will help people promote their writing (both their blog writing and published writing).
Jeremy has set up some rules for joining and guidelines for those who are part of the writer’s club (but it’s free to join). If you are interested, read more about it in Jeremy’s post, which includes instructions for joining the group.
House of Worship
Yesterday, I received an email from someone (a company actually) encouraging me and other church leaders to think about starting church building programs. Apparently, according to this email, the middle of an economic downturn when so many people are hurting and in need, is the perfect time for churches and other ministries to spend tons of money to build bigger buildings.
Just as I was beginning to get discouraged that this type of stuff was being sent out in the name of Christ, I read something encouraging…
Jon at “Jon’s Journey” wrote a post called “New House of Worship.” He begins his post like this:
We have purchased a new house. Since I believe worship should be my life 24/7 (Romans 12:1-2), I plan to worship God in this new house. I want this to be a house of worship.
Yes! By the way, make sure the read the rest of the post. It’s a great tongue-in-cheek look at how Jon can let his neighbors know that the church is in the neighborhood.
What Scripture teaches about the church
Last week, I wrote a post called “Do you know what is written?” The purpose of that post was to encourage people to study Scripture concerning ecclesiology (or any other subject) before arguing for or against a particular position.
On Facebook, a friend of mine said that the post would have been better if I had included a list of Scripture passages that I could point people to. I agree. That would have made the post better.
Now, I don’t have to provide a list of passages, because Guy at “The M Blog” has done just that in his post “When do we start taking them to church?” In his post, Guy is dealing with this: “One of the most common questions asked is: at what point do we start taking the new believers to church?” However, in his response, he offers the following list of Scripture passages about the church:
The standard response we generally give is to try and briefly explain our understanding of what Scripture teaches about the church, the Bride of Christ.
1) Romans 16:5, 1 Corinthians 16:19, Colossians 4:15, Philemon 2 describe churches as meeting in homes. This was the standard. The norm. Small groups meeting in homes allows not only them, but us, to minister personally to one another. Special church buildings, programs, services, and crowds didn’t show up onthe scene until several hundred years later.
2) Ephesians 2:19 teaches we are “fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household…” We are truly family. Families take care of each other, watch out for each other, and some 50+ other “one anothers.”
3) Acts 2:42 teaches that continuosly the church engaged in at least four primary activities: 1) devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching, 2) to fellowship, 3) to the breaking of bread, and 4) to prayer.
4) I Corinthians 14:26 describes what they were instructed to do when they gathered: “When you assemble, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification.” Everyone is encouraged to participate and bring something of edification to the gathering. Church is not a spectator sport where only a few perform and the rest are spectators.
5) Hebrews 10:24-25 teaches us the reason for gathering, ” and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.” The main reasons we are admonished to gather is to, 1) stimulate one another to love and good deeds, 2) encourage one another. If our gatherings do not encourage and motivate us to truly love one another and perform good deeds, then something is out of line and needs to be corrected.
There are many other passages that relate to the who, what, when, where, and why of the church. A few that amplify and describe the above in greater detail are I Corinthians 11-12-13-14, I Peter 2, Acts 2:42-47, and I Timothy 3.
That is a great beginning! Obviously, that is not every important passage about the church, but it’s certainly a good place to start.
I would add passages like Matthew 16:15-21, Matthew 18:15-20, Colossians 1:18-23, Colossians 3:15-16, Ephesians 4:1-16, and Titus 2:1-15.
Are there any passages that you would add to Guy’s list?
Repeating it blindly
Henry at “Threads from Henry’s Web” has written a great article called “Christianity and Insanity.”
He begins his post discussing the tradition of holding revival meetings. But, this leads to a broader discussion of traditions and repetitive practices.
For example, consider this paragraph:
This is a pattern in the church. We take a moment of special blessing from God, and we build a building, create a schedule, appoint a committee, and make it into a series of traditional activities we can place on the church calendar. And then we keep doing the same thing irrespective of results.
Henry makes a good point here on several counts. First, most traditions begin because of something good. People have good intentions or good motives or even good outcomes. However, at some point, the intentions, motives, and outcomes are lost to the practices themselves.
Later, Henry says this: “It’s not that I’m opposed to organization, structure, or even tradition. But tradition is only of value when we learn from it, not when we repeat it blindly.”
Exactly. If a practice is no longer of value, then stop doing it. Unfortunately, many churches are built on these kinds of practices, and we prop them up by pretending that there are good results, or, if there are no good results, then it’s because of the people’s unfaithfulness, sin, lack of obedience, etc.
As the church, we should seek to build up one another toward maturity in Christ. If the things that we are doing are not helping us build one another up, then we need to change what we’re doing.
Community Checklist
My friend Eric at “A Pilgrim’s Progress” wrote a good article this week called “A Good Test of Community.”
In the post, Eric says that we cannot be living in community with people if we do not know their names. In other words, sitting in the same room weekly (or even more often) with strangers does not a community make.
So, a better title for Eric’s post might have been “A Good Test for Not Having Community.” Why do I say that? Well, because if you do not know each other’s name, then you are certainly not living in community with one another. But, knowing everyone’s name is not an indication of community either.
But, this got me thinking… again, I like posts that make me think. What else would we say should be present if we are living in community with one another? We can start with knowing one another’s names. But what else?
Hello, It’s God Calling
Wes at “a mission-driven life” has started what promises to be a very good series and conversation with his post “What is God’s ‘Calling?‘”
He is examining the popular use of the word “calling” to refer to a specialized vocation given to some by God. In Wes’s post, he’s primarily talking about “calling” for “missionaries,” but the subject affects many different types of “callings.”
Here is an excerpt from his post:
I’m wondering if we haven’t made our understanding of calling too specialized, technical, or spiritualized for our own good. Some think that only those who would do ministry, much less missions, are called to vocational ministry.  They may also believe that only those who become missionaries are called to a specific location or people group. Even within in a particular area or among a people group, missionaries only do certain types of tasks, evangelism, church planting, medical, educational, based on some sort of technical calling.
In the comments, Wes and I have also been discussing “missionaries” and how they relate to certain roles that we find in Scripture.
So, if you are interested in “calling” or “missionaries,” jump over to Wes’s post and join in the conversation.
When I can’t keep up
Good blogs (like good books, magazines, newspapers, etc.) have good content. But, good blogs do something else: they start conversations.
Recently, I read a post by Jeremy at “Till He Comes” called “My Blog Conversations with God.” I understand (and empathize) with Jeremy’s frustration when comparing himself to other bloggers.
For example, at one point he writes:
I get depressed at all the books other bloggers are writing, the conferences they are attending and speaking at, the interviews they are doing, and the opportunities they are getting. It’s most depressing when I read a blog by someone who is doing what I have always dreamt of doing, and they are ten years younger than me.
Jeremy then writes a “conversation” that he has with God in which God helps him move away from his frustrations and discouragement.
Now, like I said, I’ve had the same frustrations and discouragements concerning blogging, but that’s not what I want to write about. Instead, Jeremy’s post reminded me of another frustration that I’ve been dealing with lately.
As I related in a recent post called “Well, we did pray for that, didn’t we?” a few months ago I and some brothers began praying for opportunities to proclaim the good news and serve others. In that post, I recalled a few (and only a fraction) of the many opportunities that God has given us.
And, guess what? At times, it seems that God has given me more opportunities than I can handle. I don’t seem to have time to keep up. What to do?
When it seems that God has given me too many opportunities to handle, it’s time to think seriously about what I’m doing with my time. Am I wasting time? Am I doing things that others should be doing? Am I committing to things that I shouldn’t commit to? Am I including other people or connecting people?
You see, one of the things that I need to be doing is connecting people with needs to other people who can meet those needs. Then, I can’t make it my responsibility to do the work that someone else needs to be doing.
In other words, God never gives me too much. He never gives me more than I can handle when I’m empowered by him. Oh, I can’t serve him and serve others in my own strength, although I try to do this at times. But, when I’m strengthened by him, I can always do more than I think I can do.
When I can’t keep up, it means that something is wrong. More than likely, that something is me, my priorities, and my plans. I need to be willing to change all of those.
He’s found a senior pastor
My friend Eric at “A Pilgrim’s Progress” has gone off the deep end with his post “What Do I Think of the Senior Pastor.”
If you remember, Eric is the former vocational pastor (but continuing “pastor”) who voluntarily left his paid church position and is now working in manufacturing.
But, has Eric had a change of heart? I mean, over the last few months he has been writing about “house church.” But, now, he’s supporting and cheerleading for senior pastors?
This is the way his post starts:
I believe the senior pastor of the church is extremely important. He is the focus. He is in charge. He provides both key leadership and direction.
The senior pastor gives the vision for the church, provides all the important teachings for the church, and has the right to unquestioned following of his flock.
I almost stopped reading. But, I’m glad that I didn’t stop. Eric has now convinced me of the importance of the senior pastor. Read it and tell me what you think.