1) The Kingdom of God is not a democracy. (I told you I was going to start strong...)
It is almost inconceivable in our Western American mindset that the Church could be run by anything other than a congregational vote. We have councils and committees that go through extended discussions and processes to come up with a couple good options for the congregation to vote upon. This is how the vast majority of churches are governed. It is a very good business model, it is a very poor understanding of the Kingdom of God.
The point of being a Kingdom is that we have a King. And not a figure head/bobble head like many monarchs are now in countries where royalty still exists, but an actual, legitimate, sovereign and powerful King. Jesus is King of kings and Lord of lords. He is the One who is entrusted with all authority, power and wisdom to rule justly and righteously and to govern as God's Anointed One. He has a plan and a purpose for His people that we can either align ourselves with, or not. But we don't get to vote on wether or not He should do plan A or plan B.
Similarly, God has established a form of government in His Church that models that of heaven. In the Book of Acts we see this in action in a number of ways.
In Acts 6 we see that when the needs of the greater church community expanded, certain men were commissioned by the apostles to attend to their needs. In Acts 15 we see that there was a council made up of apostles and elders that was the final governing authority over all of Christianity. Additionally, many of Paul's letters talk about "bishops" or "overseers" (See 1 Tim. 3) who were the governing authorities in the churches that Paul established. I wish to make two points about this.
One, God has instituted apostles to be the spiritual leaders over various places or groups of people. I believe that this gifting is still in effect today and that the hallmarks of an apostle are the same as they were in the bible, namely that they are called by God (Romans 1) to be with Jesus in the place of prayer (Mark 3 and Acts 6) and to preach the Kingdom of God (Matt. 10, Mark 6, Luke 9, Acts 2) accompanied by signs, wonders and miracles done with great perseverance (same chapters as previous and also Acts 3, 4, 5 and 14 and 2 Cor. 12). In essence, what I am saying is that God has specifically chosen certain individuals to be before Him in the place of prayer and to stand in His council (Jer. 23) and from that place to deliver God's words and direction to a group of people and that God will confirm those words through signs and wonders (Acts 14).
Two, wise counsel is a necessity and Jesus always sent His disciples out two by two (Mrk 6, Luke 10). So, even though God has established apostles to be the primary vision casters and carriers, there is room for group discernment and judgment. This either happens amongst a group of apostles where mutual submission occurs or in an environment where the apostle and various elders meet as equals in order to determine God's will in difficult circumstances. In either case, this group of leaders is responsible for discerning God's will and relaying that to the people, not offering it up for debate (Acts 15).
I realize that this understanding of church leadership is runs counter to everything we have been taught and raised to believe. There are also some significant objections to the above statements, namely the disagreement as to wether or not apostles still exist. I hope to address this in another post either later today or tomorrow. Thank you for reading.
No comments:
Post a Comment