Episode 27
Church Leadership: Is It All About the Closed Door Decisions?
Confusion often reigns when we apply biblical passages meant for individual accountability to the workings of local church organizations. This episode dives deep into the nuances of how esteemed decision-makers within these organizations interpret scripture, frequently behind closed doors, leaving the broader membership with little choice but to accept the decisions made. We explore the difference between the early church's focus on individual responsibility and the tendency of contemporary churches to act as corporate entities, making decisions that may not reflect the collective voice of their congregations. The discussion sheds light on the implications of this disconnect, emphasizing that true accountability lies not in organizational rulings but in personal engagement with scripture and each other. So, whether you're a decision-maker or just trying to make sense of it all, grab your metaphorical magnifying glass, and let's unravel the complexities together!
Exploring the relationship between scriptural teachings and modern church practices, this episode offers a thought-provoking analysis of how New Testament principles of individual accountability can often clash with the structured decision-making processes of local church organizations. We take a closer look at familiar passages from the New Testament, unpacking their meanings and implications for today’s church members. The conversation centers around the concept of 'ecclesia'—a term that represents the collective body of believers rather than an institutional organization—highlighting the importance of viewing scripture through a lens that prioritizes personal responsibility over corporate governance.
It critiques the tendency of church leaders to make unilateral decisions in private settings, which leaves the rest of the congregation feeling like passive recipients of directives rather than active participants in the faith community. By drawing on examples from the early church, we discuss the foundational idea that spiritual leaders should guide by example and teaching, not by authoritarian decree, thus promoting a more inclusive approach to church governance.
Takeaways:
- The New Testament emphasizes individual accountability, often misapplied to local church organizations instead of individuals.
- Passages like Matthew 18 and 1 Timothy 5 are frequently misinterpreted as corporate church discipline rather than individual reconciliation.
- When leaders make decisions behind closed doors, it undermines the communal aspect of church governance intended in scripture.
- Every saint's responsibility to help others is highlighted, suggesting that the local church should not operate like a corporate entity with decision-making hierarchies.
Transcript
And good day to you.
Speaker A:Thank you for joining this study.
Speaker A:We are been emphasizing the emphasis of the New Testament on individual accountability and responsibility and that a common error occurs when we read a passage and inevitably we apply it to a local church somewhere.
Speaker A:And we do that with a lot of them thinking that, well, if it's written to the the ecclesia at Corinth or at Philippi, then he's talking about a local church organization rather than thinking in terms of the saints in that city.
Speaker A:It is believed to be a local church, organized and thus applied.
Speaker A:And all of the action is to be applied kind of corporately or as a church or as an organization.
Speaker A:However, the word, as we've been noting here for some time, ecclesia is a class of people known as the called out.
Speaker A:It represents a class of people that is redeemed, the saints.
Speaker A:All these term brethren.
Speaker A:These are terms that are associated with that relationship with God and one another.
Speaker A:We noted in Matthew 18 as well as in 1st Timothy 5 and other examples where the passages have been applied to local churches rather than to individuals.
Speaker A: Matthew: Speaker A:And again, most people would see that as representing church action.
Speaker A:Yet biblically, any matter that can impact the welfare of others is accomplished on the individual level.
Speaker A:This starts out as an individual basis because here were people who had a problem with another brother, one has sinned against them, it says, tell it to them and them alone, King James says, and then take two or three, that every word might be established.
Speaker A:And the idea, I think again is to seek reconciliation.
Speaker A:If that doesn't work, tell it to everybody.
Speaker A:All the saints are involved.
Speaker A:It's no longer private.
Speaker A:So it moves and progression from one person to two or three to then everyone.
Speaker A:All the saints in that region.
Speaker A:Again, this doesn't mean you take it to the organization where a group of decision makers in that organization make a decision about what to do and how to go about doing it, and then inform the rest of the members how it's going to be handled.
Speaker A:That's not at all what is involved in this.
Speaker A:And this is a passage that's most often used to talk about church discipline.
Speaker A:Well, it isn't.
Speaker A:Has nothing to do with church discipline as an organization.
Speaker A:Now, the passage in First Timothy 5, and we won't take the time to look at that.
Speaker A:We've already looked at these already.
Speaker A:In addition to that, though, I don't know if we spent a lot of time on this or not, but I'd like to Share it with you because it's used so very often.
Speaker A:From the Philippian letter, we prefaced all of these things by saying that in Galatians 5 we have a really good example of individual accountability and individual responsibility.
Speaker A:Each saint had a responsibility to communicate or have fellowship with those who teach them.
Speaker A:He says they're to bear one another's burdens, bear your own burdens.
Speaker A:This combination of bearing burdens, your burdens and bearing others burdens is what we're looking at here.
Speaker A:The church or the Ecclesia, the called out people in that city.
Speaker A:Every individual that had a responsibility was to carry that out.
Speaker A:In other words, don't wait till someone else picks up a the slack and doing things that you ought to be doing.
Speaker A:Why there's enough need out there that needs to be accomplished that you know again, it becomes a burdensome thing if you're not taking care of your load and others have to come along and pick it up too, along with theirs and perhaps others as well.
Speaker A:So in other words, do what you can do, and especially if it regards your own family and your own responsibility, provide for them.
Speaker A:The man that doesn't provide for his family is worse than an infidel and denied the faith.
Speaker A:Paul would tell Timothy, and so same thing in Galatians 6 says all focus, my friends on the individual and their responsibility.
Speaker A:Well, Philippians is one of those places that it is most often used to describe church activity.
Speaker A:Again, Whether it's Galatians 6:1 or whether it's Philippians 1, people are thinking in terms.
Speaker A:Well, it's written to the church at Philippi, and therefore it has to be applied to a local church organization.
Speaker A:I don't see that at all.
Speaker A:My friends, we're talking about the saints that live in that city and he's giving them all teaching about their accountability and their responsibility.
Speaker A:The Galatian Saints illustrates the identity of the called out Chapter six and verse one.
Speaker A:While he addresses them as brethren, Paul applies the instruction to the individual Christians who are accountable to one another.
Speaker A:Chapter 6 when he writes, ye that are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness.
Speaker A:No one would think that this describes the local church organization or some clergy of such an organization.
Speaker A:Ye, it's a plural.
Speaker A:It represents individuals who are in Christ Jesus, and those who are spiritual should restore such a one in a spirit of meekness.
Speaker A:Well, Philippians 4 is no different.
Speaker A:Then verses 15 through 16 provides another example of individuals.
Speaker A:These individuals sent once and again to Paul's necessities.
Speaker A:He uses the plural pronoun ye in other words, you all.
Speaker A:And it necessitates, just as Paul instructs the Christians of Galatia, it necessitates the importance of each one providing the the needs to those who have taught them.
Speaker A:Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teaches in all good things.
Speaker A:Galatians 6:6.
Speaker A:In Philippians 1, verse 7, here's the first example.
Speaker A:Ye that are partakers, he calls them ye, you people, we would say you guys are all of you individuals.
Speaker A:You're all partakers of my grace.
Speaker A:Philippians 2:12.
Speaker A:Wherefore, my brethren, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my absence only, but now much more.
Speaker A:Not in my presence only, but now much more in my absence.
Speaker A:Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
Speaker A:There's no doubt that he's talking to individuals there, right then in verse 15, just three verses later, that ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye There it is again, shine as lights in the world.
Speaker A:Well, who's shining as lights in the world?
Speaker A:Some local church organization or the individual saint?
Speaker A:Well, in Philippians 4:9, he says, those things which ye have both learned and received and heard and seen in me do, and the God of peace shall be with you.
Speaker A:He's talking to a plurality of individual Christians.
Speaker A:The you here is in the plural, and he's addressing these brethren that they fulfill or that they obey what they've been taught and how Paul has left for them an example to follow.
Speaker A:These, my friends, are all addressed to saints in the plural, and yet there are, applied individually, not as a local corporate church body.
Speaker A:The one body into which individuals at Ephesus were called was not a local church organization.
Speaker A:Friends, these individuals trusted.
Speaker A:They heard the word, they believed.
Speaker A:Ephesians 1:13, you see, and Colossians 2:6 explains, they'd received Christ.
Speaker A:They had a certain walk that they were to walk in light, not in darkness.
Speaker A:They were saved through faith.
Speaker A:Ephesians 2:8.
Speaker A:Buried and risen with him.
Speaker A:Colossians 2:12.
Speaker A:They were sealed.
Speaker A:Ephesians 1:13.
Speaker A:And again, chapter 4, verse 30.
Speaker A:They were made near by the blood of Christ.
Speaker A:Chapter 2:13.
Speaker A:Fellow citizens of the household of God.
Speaker A:Chapter 2, verse 19.
Speaker A:Called in one hope of their calling, rooted and grounded in love, followers of God, light in the Lord.
Speaker A:What we're describing here are individuals who were in such a relationship with God.
Speaker A:They could read chapter 3, verse 2.
Speaker A:They could understand chapter 3, verse 2.
Speaker A:They Could Walk worthily of their calling.
Speaker A:They could put off the old man and put on the new man.
Speaker A:Chapter 4 and verse 24 they could walk circumspectly as wise they could stand against the wiles of the devil, they could quench fiery darts of the wicked.
Speaker A:The same people were taught to be angry.
Speaker A:They were taught to be not to sin, not to let the sun go down on the wrath.
Speaker A:But be ye angry, he says.
Speaker A:Most time we look at that and we want to discourage and preach against the person who becomes bitter or he doesn't take care of the matter, lets his anger go through the evening and the night, and develop attitudes that are not walking worthy of the calling wherewith they were called.
Speaker A:And so but in this case, chapter 4 26, it doesn't it's not teaching that the imperative command in this statement is be angry, but that's applied to individuals, is it not?
Speaker A:Be kind, be tenderhearted, be forgiving.
Speaker A:Chapter 4 and verse 32, chapter 315 talks about being thankful.
Speaker A:Some of them were fathers, others of them were slave owners.
Speaker A:They lived to be sincere and without offense to the day of Christ.
Speaker A:Philippians 1, verse 10 Every living member of the called out in Philippi, not every living member of some local church organization, but every living member of the called out in Philippi, had men who watched over them, cared for them, and taught them the word.
Speaker A:These men were gifts given by the Lord for such a time before God's plan, his redemptive plan, had been fulfilled.
Speaker A:He gives the purpose for them and the duration of them in the same opening.
Speaker A:If you'll just read down through about verse 13, you'll see this Shepherds from the cities in which individual saints lived were so committed to their care that they reaped carnal things from the saints that they taught.
Speaker A:First Timothy, chapter 5, verse 17 and 18 they gave to the necessities of Paul, and they gave to the necessities of the saints, the poor saints.
Speaker A:And Paul writes about this in Ephesians 4:28 Again, friends, this is individually applied.
Speaker A:Let him that stole steal no more but rather let him labor working with his hands, the thing that is good that he may have to give to him that needs Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace to the hearer.
Speaker A:Only leaders of a corporate institution would make their rulings in private meetings apart from the rest of the saints.
Speaker A:Now that's not to say, friends, that there's never a time when fellow shepherds of the first century could not have maybe met in private.
Speaker A:I'm not suggesting that nor any other Christians meet somewhere in private.
Speaker A:It's not that they couldn't be together one or two or by three or whatever the case may be.
Speaker A:But we're only saying that they didn't meet behind closed doors and announce their decisions as a ruling body of men.
Speaker A:The leaders of Acts 15, even when they gathered for the we call the Jerusalem Conference in which they not it's not that they decided on whether they should be teaching the things that they've been teaching about the Gentiles and their responsibility or whether they should be circumcised.
Speaker A:Not that anyone has was teaching a different doctrine that were apostles of Christ and yet they were very consistent in their message.
Speaker A:That was the reason for their gathering.
Speaker A:And the reason for that conference, if you want to call it that in Acts 15, was to confirm that what God had been teaching all of the apostles and preachers of the Word and prophets was consistent and they made it.
Speaker A:And notice now all the people that were involved in that.
Speaker A:And so while the leaders of Acts 15:6 it says they discussed or they considered the matter.
Speaker A:But think about the statement.
Speaker A:When you think about the decision, it was one in which there was consensus.
Speaker A:That means that others were obviously involved and participated in giving their thoughts.
Speaker A:Otherwise there couldn't be such a thing as consensus.
Speaker A:In other words, all of them were involved in it.
Speaker A:Everyone who makes up this organic body will be involved in matters of that kind that involve judgments, even with spiritual implications.
Speaker A:It's not so much that they have membership rights from having joined the local church organization.
Speaker A:Oh my.
Speaker A:Such a concept was foreign to their thinking.
Speaker A:Rather, it's just the natural work of individual saints.
Speaker A:This pattern is altogether different from the workings of an institutional corporate body.
Speaker A:Their leaders seldom meet with their members to discuss anything.
Speaker A:And if they do, it's only to pacify a few of them who believe in greater communication.
Speaker A:And so they open the doors to hear what complaints and concerns and considerations and ideas that others have, but then make it quite clear that, well, we're going to do ultimately what we want to do with or with, without your consent.
Speaker A:And that's.
Speaker A:You don't find that example or that kind of situation in the New Testament.
Speaker A:Usually the leaders who agree to such a meeting to satisfy everybody, they make it quite clear, listen, this isn't to decide anything, just to hear the congregation's concerns.
Speaker A:Well, you don't get that in Acts 15, do you?
Speaker A:You see, what I've also often noticed, even in those Situations where they do have gatherings with the whole congregation.
Speaker A:I think it's interesting that in most cases that I've seen, the leaders kind of remain quiet.
Speaker A:They just listen and they're there just to listen.
Speaker A:They're not there to share anything.
Speaker A:The church over which they rule, they can speak, but you know, they, they, they don't hear any plans, any goals, any concerns, any hopes from that.
Speaker A:The elders of that corporate body, that local church.
Speaker A:And so it's a very one sided conversation, I think again, to clearly distinguish themselves from the members.
Speaker A:And at least some cases their silence is designed to clarify.
Speaker A:Elders have nothing to discuss because no one here has any say.
Speaker A:But they have the authority to make decisions and they do it for the church.
Speaker A:They're wiser heads and they can make decisions that would be best.
Speaker A:And that's the popular view.
Speaker A:Leaders should discuss the business of the church only in private settings with other leaders.
Speaker A:It's in these private meetings that they make the choices.
Speaker A:And when the decisions are made, they then inform the brethren who are duty bound to support that decision.
Speaker A:Now that's generally how it was applied when I was involved in the corporate, local church organizations.
Speaker A:Well, we compare this authority to the authority of an apostle who spoke the oracles of God.
Speaker A:It's interesting that he could obviously give orders, but the orders were from God.
Speaker A:First Corinthians 16, verses 1 through 3 makes it quite clear that as an apostle of Christ, Paul had that authority and he could give orders from God and does.
Speaker A:But in matters of judgment, Paul had no commandment of the Lord and it became a matter for the people to decide.
Speaker A:Here's a good example of this is in Corinth.
Speaker A:Corinth was to decide who was going to go with Paul to take this bounty, this probably grain or something of value that could be eaten.
Speaker A:That sounds like decisions that local church elders make today.
Speaker A:Yeah, in the first century, Paul wouldn't make this decision for them.
Speaker A:I mean you, that's your decision to do so would have, I think, been an abuse of authority.
Speaker A:That's not his position to try to delegate who's going to go.
Speaker A:But this abuse is descriptive of a busybody who concerns himself with matters that are not his business.
Speaker A:Leaders may lead, they lead by teaching, they lead by example.
Speaker A:They take the lead in any good work, that is to take the initiative, putting brethren in remembrance and clarifying options and prodding others to execute their plan.
Speaker A:But they have no jurisdiction to make decisions for them.
Speaker A:When today's uninspired men.
Speaker A:Let me make that distinction as well.
Speaker A:When Today's uninspired men meet secretly to make decisions for the whole church.
Speaker A:They take upon themselves more authority than did an inspired apostle of our Lord.
Speaker A:And if that's not being lords over God's heritage, please explain how it could be perceived any differently.
Speaker A:Now the result of that kind of thinking is a condition where both the leaders and the brethren perceive the people of leadership to be separate from the church.
Speaker A:In fact, when it comes to those decision making things, there's little contact tactics and discussion between the two in matters of judgment.
Speaker A:Of course, the reason for this perception is due to a misunderstanding of the nature of the called out in the body of Christ, whether measured locally or not.
Speaker A:By locally, I'm talking about saints in a city.
Speaker A:There have been no decisions are required to be made for a group.
Speaker A:No passing of judgment is to be passed on for all others to accept or carry out.
Speaker A:I think it's interesting to observe that the implications of a local church organization that making the transition from, you know, and I've seen this in my tradition where they had these monthly business meetings, this ruling leadership and both of these are decision making bodies in business.
Speaker A:If they didn't have a body of elders, some churches don't use that term and, and thus they'll maybe use the word deacon or something like that, but some ruling class, they make, you know, decision make making people in, in the like business, business meetings are usually necessary until they become scripturally organized.
Speaker A:I've noticed, I've heard this many, many years in my life.
Speaker A:I kind of think it's unusual and a bit confusing to admit that until there are qualified individuals who desire the office that the local church is scripturally unorganized.
Speaker A:I've always found that an interesting play on words there.
Speaker A:In such a case, it's allowable to accept the unorganized organization.
Speaker A:And when the congregation judges that certain men are to be appointed and acknowledged as their leaders, then the leaders immediately take charge and they call all the shots in running the business of the local church.
Speaker A:And you know, business meetings end.
Speaker A:These men begin to take the charge in leading that local church.
Speaker A:Is the judgment of the people now are inferior to his?
Speaker A:Now that there's a group of men that have been elected to that position, if they were, if they couldn't, if they could do it before, why isn't they can't now all of a sudden they're just not qualified, they're inferior to his, so that he must separate from the people who selected him?
Speaker A:Or can it be that together they have the good judgment to appoint him.
Speaker A:But beyond that they just don't have any good judgment.
Speaker A:So they can't have any say in the matter.
Speaker A:If the Lord thought enough of their judgment to appoint them, you think that they just lose it overnight.
Speaker A:And second, if these elected leaders rule in judgment as it's proposed, then fellow Christians have no say in many decision making matter.
Speaker A:Do they not become congregational lords in matters of judgment that their members are duty bound to obey?
Speaker A:Well, this is just one of a tradition that exists out there in the denominational world.
Speaker A:Of course, every denomination has some board to make decisions for the church, some leading ruling body.
Speaker A:And I'll not get into naming them.
Speaker A:You know them, especially if you're part of one of them.
Speaker A:And our questions are designed to show the problem of such a system.
Speaker A:I'm wanting us to think about this.
Speaker A:None of these problems exist if we don't assume the given view of the church as a corporate institution and the elders or the leading men as elected positions of authority to make decisions for that organization.
Speaker A:The only decision that is to be made is whether or not you choose to be a disciple of Christ.
Speaker A:The pattern is already left for us.
Speaker A:There isn't any other decision to be made.
Speaker A:Oh, there's instruction as to just exactly what the Lord is pleased with.
Speaker A:But the great decision, the ultimate decision is will I surrender my will to His.
Speaker A:And so Christians are to be in constant fellowship.
Speaker A:They're to be hospitable, diligent students of the Word, holding forth the word of life to this dark world.
Speaker A:What particular way an individual chooses to work is not for a corporate body to decide.
Speaker A:He makes that decision based on his qualifications, his opportunities and his abilities.
Speaker A:And nor are they incompetent to do God's will and to some ruling member of the Church gives their permission to do it.
Speaker A:On numerous occasions leadership has forbade the private meetings for Bible study.
Speaker A:I was involved in Bible studies, private situations where maybe two or three at a time were gathered.
Speaker A:And it was forbad that I do that.
Speaker A:Because if there were no leaders to oversee it, then they couldn't be assured that I was teaching, I wasn't being overseen.
Speaker A:Now listen, when any system produces that kind of control as to when they can study their Bibles with others and when they can't, it's reached the same lordship that existed in the days of the early church fathers, in the second and third, third centuries.
Speaker A:As we've shown the first century leaders were not needed to make business decisions.
Speaker A:They weren't decision makers in judgment or anything else for that matter.
Speaker A:They were needed to provide spiritual leadership, which essentially or was primarily in taking the initiative of doing the will of God and leading by example.
Speaker A:Even when search a person would sin, they would lead by example.
Speaker A:They didn't lose their authority, they didn't lose their position.
Speaker A:They weren't duly elected to begin with.
Speaker A:Christ chose them.
Speaker A:And you know, I see this all over the place.
Speaker A:A preacher or an elder commits sin, however grievous it might be, and all of a sudden he's got to step down or leave the town and start over somewhere because now he just can't be a good influence.
Speaker A:I beg to differ with you, my friends.
Speaker A:We're all subject to sin now.
Speaker A:If there's an ongoing issue that just seems to be ongoing, no repentance being done, that's another situation.
Speaker A:But when sin occurs, what better example to lead in dealing with sin than the man who sinned?
Speaker A:And he's leading by example as listen, brethren, and he just illustrates by his own personal example of how to handle it when it happens in his own life.
Speaker A:I tell you, that's a great example.
Speaker A:They were needed to provide that spiritual leadership.
Speaker A:They were a living demonstration of what God's word teaches, chosen by the Holy Spirit as gifts given to the early saints for their spiritual growth.
Speaker A:In the absence of those gifts, those gifted men that we read about In Ephesians chapter 4, verse 11, we individually are responsible for our own study and our own growth.
Speaker A:We have, according to Paul, when he writes to Timothy, the last book that Paul pens, he writes to young Timothy in which he says, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.
Speaker A:Listen to it now that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly furnished under every good work.
Speaker A:There isn't anything outside of the New Testament revelation of the Holy Spirit that is necessary.
Speaker A:And these individuals that claim some other prophecy or some prophet that came along years after the written New Testament letters and say that, well, we need his word or this prophet is necessary because we just don't have it all.
Speaker A:We couldn't be made perfect, we couldn't be thoroughly furnished unto every good work if we didn't have that.
Speaker A:Well, that's a straight violation of what the text says to us.
Speaker A:It's in violation of the passage that I just quoted you when Paul wrote to young Timothy about the value the written word.
Speaker A:So we're equally concerned about everyone in the body of Christ.
Speaker A:All of us are looking for our brother.
Speaker A:We are our brother's keeper and our Sister's keeper.
Speaker A:We are looking for one another, looking to come alongside and help and aid in any way we can.
Speaker A:All of us should be.
Speaker A:We have committed ourselves to serve.
Speaker A:And in that capacity, we are looking to come alongside and to strengthen and to build up and to encourage and to remind.
Speaker A:We're all subject to the same problems and same weaknesses.
Speaker A:Nobody should be any taller in their boots than the other.
Speaker A:And so, my friends, I trust that you will think seriously about the things that we've discussed.
Speaker A:And until we meet again, I trust you have a good day and a pleasant week.
