Unbiblical Church of God Traditions that Hinder Church Growth
1. The Sunday sermon.
The Bible doesn’t teach us to go to church on Sunday and listen to one man preach a sermon. On one occasion, Paul taught (or dialogued) with the people all night in Troas. Was that a church? His ministry group? THe word there can apply to interactive discussion. He was an apostle teaching his knowledge of the Gospel. He didn’t teach that local churches were to assign one man to preach a sermon.
We have one lengthy chapter on what to do in church meetings as far as the ministry of the word is concerned. It is I Corinthians 14. Verse 26 shows us the assumed type of church meeting Paul was giving instructions about. A meeting where ‘every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation.’
Did Paul say ‘sit down and shut up and let the anointed preacher speak.’ No. He said, “Let all things be done unto edifying.” So the speakers here are members of the body, and they are to edify one another in church meetings using their gifts.
Paul goes on to give specific instructions for speaking in tongues, that tongues spoken in church are to be interpreted or let the speaker keep silent in the church. He gives instructions for prophets to prophesy, including an instruction that one is to hold his peace if another receive a revelation. Paul also teaches that ye may all prophesy one by one. Earlier in the chapter, he presented a positive example of all prophesying and an uninstructed person or unbeliever coming in, hearing the secrets of his heart, and saying God is truly among you. This passage encourages prophesying in church. It is a lot more ‘charismatic’ or ‘Pentecostal’ than most Pentecostal denominations are with their meetings.
Paul also called his instructions in the passage ‘commandments of the Lord’ and implied that they applied universally to churches. The word hadn’t originated with Corinth or only come to them. They weren’t allowed to change the rules for church meetings.
Hebrews 10:24-25, the prooftext used to tell people to go to church tells them what to do in the assembly, ‘Exhort one another.’
God has chosen the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. That refers to unbelievers hearing preaching (evangelistic proclomation), believing, and getting saved through it. It doesn’t mean the already saved get saved through hearing a certain kind of oratry every week.
2. The Modern Pastor Role.
The modern pastor role and duties doesn’t exactly correspond with anything in the New Testament. The Bible never says the apostles appointed ‘the pastor’ over the local church. In the 1800’s, letters to Timothy and Titus came to be called ‘the pastorals.’ There is a Roman Catholic tradition that Timothy later became a ‘bishop’. But Paul refers to him and Silas and himself as ‘apostles of Christ’ in I Thessalonians 2. He tells him to do the work of an evangelist and doesn’t call him ‘the pastor.’
Traditionally, clergymen were called ‘priests.’ ‘Priest’ comes from the Greek word for elder, ‘presbuteros.’ The apostles appointed elders in every church, we read in Acts 15. That tells us that churchs can exist without elders. It also tells us that they appointed local men from within the very congregations they planted. The appointed more than one of them. Acts 20:28 shows us that Paul told elders of the church in Ephesus to pastor the church of God. He also called them bishops. I Peter 5 tells elders to pastor the flock of God.
So we see a difference, with the local pastor being brought in and hired as opposed to being raised up locally (which may happen rarely under the current system.) The current system makes the pastor the sermon-preacher every week, a tradition not taught in scripture. The Bible leads us to believe there were many teachers in a given church, or should be as a church matured (see the end of Hebrews 5). The elder/bishop was requried to be apt to teach. That doesn’t mean only elders could do so.
Elders of the church are to be examples to the flock. As the Lord’s undershepherds, they should encourage obedience to the word of God. I Peter 4 shows us that using spiritual gifts to minister to one another is a stewardship issue, including gifts that include speaking to others. That means believers are required to use their gifts. As pastors, the elders of the church should encourage believers to be obedient and use their gifts, including using their gifts in church in accordance with the teaching of scripture. Elders should use their own gifts as examples to the flock, modeling good stewardship so that others can follow the example.
3. Obession with church buildings.
The Jerusalem church met in the temple and from house to house. Churches among the Gentiles, in scripture, met primarily in homes: the church in the house of Aquilla and Pricilla, the church in the house of Nympha, the church in Philemon’s house.
When church planters and churches are freed from the traditional, unscriptural ideas about church meetings, the roles of clergy, and obsession with church buildings, then this can go a long way in helping churches grow and reproduce.
Amen
Lol
Amen
Link Hudson, what book did you get all that stuff from?
God has an order to everything he made. He said to not forsake assembling together. The pastor is set as head of the church. The five fold ministry comes next. There’s perfect order to God’s people. Harmony….
There you go reading the Bible and church history again and messing with my man made traditions. Next you’ll be wanting to see true biblical Christianity and worldwide revival!
Seriously? Hum…
The New Testament account indicates that a plurality of elders were appointed bishops to oversee and pastor as stewards of the house of God. The present one-pastor-per-church scenario is not a New Testsment model. And “bishop” as a level of ministry in hierarchical church structure is certainly outside the scope of New Testament teaching. Futhermore, the New Testament church had a plurality in general oversight. There was not one senior Apostle and eleven associate/assistant Apostles.
Consider…Divine order demands a line of authority. Historically (and scripturally) prior to Nicene council, churches/congregations had one Bishop (overseer) elders presbyturon, and servers/deacons. Following the Jewish tradition for congregation/synagogue, the Bishop was the leader or chief among peers/equals. In that position he was required to have a servants heart while maintaining veto authority, if a situation required it. Just saying.
The New Testament divine line of authority in the local church is Christ as the head (the Chief Shepherd, the Bishop, the Apostle), then bishops (who are also referred to as elders, pastors/teachers, under shepherds, stewards) followed by deacons. The church at Phillipi had “bishops and deacons” (Ph 1:1), not “bishop, elders, and deacons.” The idea that a leader among equals has veto power makes the Catholic papal the ideal New Testament order, which Protestants reject, except when it comes to one bishop rule in the local church.
Ever noticed that most churches have one pastor with a board of deacons. How many churches have one deacon? Why do we practice the New Testament plurality of deacons, but not the plurality of pastors?
This is all nice in theory, gentlemen, but I have been in the ministry for over 33 years, and in all that time I would have loved to have found a group of men to serve as elders as you describe here. I looked for them, and I couldn’t find them. They simply weren’t there. I was not willing to use worldly standards for selecting leaders, only biblical ones, and I could not find a sufficient number of men spiritually mature and knowledgeable enough to serve as elders.
One of the biggest problems I found with “church boards” (as I had in the Assemblies of God) were that most men were more concerned with making sure the money people weren’t upset with the way the church was being run. They did not have the backbone to stand up to the carnality of some church member and administer discipline where needed and where necessary. And too many judged by the standards of this world (physical appearance, secular education and occupation, economic class) instead of the guidelines of Scripture.
I have known Link Hudson online since the mid 1990s, and he has been beating this same drum since then. The one thing he has never been able to answer for me satisfactorily is where to find these people he is talking about. Because I have looked, numerous times, and I have not yet found them.
One of the things Link proposes, and I agree with him in theory, is that all may prophesy. I agree that one speaker should not necessarily monopolize the meeting and be the only one who speaks. I believe and desire with Moses that “all God’s people were prophets, and that God would put His Spirit upon all of them.” The problem is that not all the people in our congregations are baptized in the Holy Spirit. It takes the baptism in the Holy Spirit to prophesy because prophecy is a manifestation of the Holy Spirit, not a manifestation of the believer. The New Birth is NOT the baptism in the Holy Spirit. The baptism in the Holy Spirit is separate from and subsequent to the New Birth, and just because you are born again DOES NOT MEAN you are able to prophesy. This is where I believe the biblically accurate model presented in the book, “Open Church”, breaks down. It breaks down by assuming that every born again believer can prophesy without the baptism in the Holy Spirit.
Dollas Messer asks, “Why do we not practice plurality of pastors?” Simple, really. Pastors expect to be supported financially, and most churches spend the majority of their income on supporting one (1) pastor, let alone a “plurality of pastors”. In my first four pastorates in the Assemblies of God, I was a “full-time pastor”. I made less than the average man working in my congregation but I had housing provided for me. I wasn’t rich by any stretch of imagination, but my family’s survival needs were taken care of. However, even with a church of 130 in the mid-1980s, there was no way we could afford a worship pastor or a youth pastor, or even to expand our facilities without going in to debt (and we didn’t). Since I joined the Church of God in 2008 as an ordained bishop I have pastored two churches – one in Indiana with an attendance of 4 adults besides my family and the former pastor’s family, and one in Pennsylvania with 7 adults besides my family. I am no longer “full-time”, I work 40 hours a week at a college loan servicing company an hour from my house, but I still have a parsonage and utilities provided for. The church does pay me $150 per week which my wife uses to buy groceries and housekeeping supplies.
Thank you Randy H Johnson. I can certainly understand your posts.
I would like to read some comments to Dollas comments
I sympathize with you, Brother Randy, in your search for men to serve as elders. I have been in ministry for 54 years, first 29 years in a one pastor/bishop per church denomination and now 25 years in a fellowhip that practices plurality of pastors. It is possible to have a church pastored by men who are gifted and qualified and who mostly support themselves while they oversee God’s people. Difficult to have such a church within a denomination whose leadership and laity have a mentality of only one pastor per church.
I agree with Randy H. Johnson’s take on prophesying: All may prophesy if all are Spirit-filled. Such prophesying regulated by Paul’s guidelines in 1 Corinthians 14 is a given.
Dollas Messer, I appreciate your willingness to study the Bible and embrace what it has to say on these matter. It is good to see someone else studying out these issues. Many people do not bother to and see things through the rubric of church tradition and their own church experience.
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 16:2, ” Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come.” Notice two things listed: 1. Paul mentions “the first day of the week,” which is Sunday. 2. And he mentions “that there be no gathering (offerings) when I come.” So does this mean we should not receive offerings and tithes during our Sunday worship service?
Melvin, I think it is important to point out that Paul was collecting an offering for the poor saints in Judea, a missionary offering, he isn’t speaking of their local funds.
Some churches simply put a box at the back and people are taught to put their offerings in the box. That is how they did it in the church my son attends in Culpeper, VA. And they are an elder led church, but they are cessationist.