Let there be no divisions in the church. Rather, be of one mind, united in thought and purpose. For some members of Chloe’s household have told me about your quarrels, my dear brothers and sisters. Some of you are saying, “I am a follower of Paul.” Others are saying, “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Peter,” or “I follow only Christ.” (1 Corinthians 1:10-12)Who do you follow? Who are you "of?"
When you are asked about your faith or your church life, how do you answer? Do you answer with the name of your church, the name of your senior Pastor, or the name of your denomination? That is what most people want to know, usually. What denomination are you with? What church do you go to? Who's your pastor?
In other words, who are you "of"? Inquiring minds want to know!
We really do want to know. People really like, even need, to have clean categories by which to associate or disassociate with one another. Oh, you're Catholic; you're Southern Baptist; you're Assembly of God--now I know how to relate to you. Oh, you're part of Bethel, St. Mark's, Calvary, House of Praise, Community Church, etc--I know about them. Oh, you're at Pastor Johnson's church, Pastor Bill's, Father Tom's, or whatever--I've heard about them.
And once we can name who we are, then we can also know who we are not. We are NOT traditional, contemporary, pentecostal, liturgical, reformed, Calvinist, pre-millenial, emergent, denominational, etc. That's wrong; we're right. This gives us our identity, our tradition, our sense of security.
There's just one rather large problem with all this, however: The Church described in the New Testament is not like this; in fact, it directly opposes this way of "doing church."
In The Church, the Body of Christ, all members are members of one another--every other believer, both locally and universally (Ephesians 4:25). It is an invisible community made up of relationships that are equal, loving, considerate, forgiving, and encouraging.
Jesus very clearly said that we should not identify ourselves under particular teachers.
“Don’t let anyone call you ‘Rabbi,’ for you have only one teacher, and all of you are equal as brothers and sisters. And don’t address anyone here on earth as ‘Father,’ for only God in heaven is your spiritual Father. And don’t let anyone call you ‘Teacher,’ for you have only one teacher, the Messiah." (Matthew 23:8-12)The Apostle Paul also made it clear that dividing ourselves up according to church leaders is divisive and wrong.
Let there be no divisions in the church. Rather, be of one mind, united in thought and purpose. For some members of Chloe’s household have told me about your quarrels, my dear brothers and sisters. Some of you are saying, “I am a follower of Paul.” Others are saying, “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Peter,” or “I follow only Christ.” (1 Corinthians 1:10-12)Let me ask this question a different way to pastors: If you are a church leader, who follows you?
Yes, there are such things as pastors, elders, teachers, and other kinds of leaders in the church. But they are only there for one purpose--to encourage the Body to grow up under Jesus Christ, the true leader, teacher, priest, and authority:
He is the one who gave these gifts to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God's people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ, until we come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God's Son that we will be mature and full grown in the Lord, measuring up to the full stature of Christ. Then we will no longer be like children, forever changing our minds about what we believe because someone has told us something different or because someone has cleverly lied to us and made the lie sound like the truth. Instead, we will hold to the truth in love, becoming more and more in every way like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. (Ephesians 4:11-15)Here's another reason why churches suck:
When people divide up into camps, they suck loyalty away from Jesus Christ, suck the growth potential out of their members, and suck the life out of those human leaders by placing superhuman expectations on them (see Church Hierarchy, part 1).
In "churches" of the top-down hierarchical variety, members are members ally themselves under one particular Senior Pastor, who is usually under one particular governing body, who is usually under one particular denomination, who in turn find their identity in how they are distinct from, and in some way superior to, the other denominations, governing bodies, and local pastors and members.
The Church that is really alive in Jesus Christ and functioning as His Body has one head--Jesus himself. Churches that rely on a top-down chain of command find their "life" and identity under a human organization or a human leader, which sets them apart from all the other human organizations and leaders out there. When you become a member of a hierarchical church, you commit yourself to operate under that particular "head", who is not Jesus Christ, but a human leader or organization.
So who are you "of"? And if you're a pastor or other appointed church leader, who is "of" you? How much identity do you find in who you are "under" or "over"?
I'm not suggesting that you quit your church, if you are part of one. I'm not suggesting that you stage a rebellion against your pastor, priest, or denomination. I'm not suggesting that you go "house church". I'm just asking. Who are you "of"? When you need to understand something about God, who do you go to? When you are looking for authority in your spiritual life, who do you look to? When you are looking for a sense of security, leadership, vision, direction, or assurance, where do you turn? To Jesus or your pastor?
If you are a pastor or other church leader, where do you want people to turn for these things? Do you really want them to turn to Jesus Christ and the presence of the Holy Spirit that's found in the open fellowship of all believers? Or does that concern you that they will get "off track"? Do you feel a need to be the guide, the leader, the teacher, over the body of Christ? How much security do you find in your position?
People who have not found security in Jesus Christ need a human leader to give them step-by-step directions. And pastors who have not found their true confidence in Jesus Christ need followers to depend on them and give them a sense of purpose.
Church hierarchy sucks, because it is essentially co-dependent. It is also very, very hard to escape and discover true freedom and security in Christ.
But that's where faith really lives. Your identity is in Jesus Christ and your membership in his one body.
Who do you follow?
Top-down hierarchy should only apply to certain church roles. It should never encompass what people believe (ie not lording it over peoples faith/separation of church and state). I agree, Pastors should teach people to grow up and become adults. In my previous church, we were treated like 10 year olds. That was, and is the church culture. We were told by many, perhaps most of our pastors to "become as little children" - literally. Members were robbed of their adulthood. A scandalous disgrace.
ReplyDeleteHi Mike,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this two part series and it pretty much jibes with my point of view, which is that elders were never a titled position in the early church, but a level of maturity, like calling a person an adult Christian as opposed to a baby Christian. I believe that the elders in the early church took the babies in hand and helped them mature into, what else? Elders.
The traditions that so many of the "church" leaders depend on as their foundation come from the writings of the later churchmen shortly before and after the time of Constantine (like Eusebius) and in some case a long time after (like Augustine). So the hierarchy was already twisted into the image of the Roman government by the time the "authoritative" historical material was written. Therefore most people read the Scriptures pertaining to the early groups of believers through the distorted lenses of Tradition.