Copyright
© 2007 Ron Schwartz
All rights reserved.
What
Is
A New Testament Church?
Part
3. Contextual Ministry
September
4, 2007
Ron
and Karen Schwartz
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The
New Testament Church recognized both the appointment of church offices and the
endowment of gifts. Men
appoint men to an office. A
gift however, is the manifestation of the Holy Spirit in a person.
It is the Holy Spirit’s use of a believer for a divine purpose.
“Gift” Versus
“Office”
Consider
the two following scriptures:
1
Timothy 3:1 KJV
This
is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a
good work.
The
Greek word for “office” is episkope
(ep-is-kop-ay'). It means
“inspection and therefore (by implication), superintendence or overseer.”
We find in the epistles of both Timothy and Titus that the church office
was an appointment to a position of oversight that was given by men.
We also find that the First Century Christians recognized the endowment
of gifts as described in the following scripture:
Ephesians
4:7-11 KJV
7
But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift
of Christ.
8
Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and
gave gifts unto men.
9(Now
that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower
parts of the earth?
10
He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that
he might fill all things.)
11
And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some,
pastors and teachers;
The
gifting of ministry is a sovereign act of the Holy Spirit, and since it is the
endowment of the Holy Spirit, it must have precedence over any office(s) that
men create. The First Century
Christians gave respect to those appointed to church offices, but they gave
precedence and deference to those who were spiritually gifted.
The New Testament church did not tolerate a church “officer” taking
authority over the spiritually gifted. Consider
the following passage from John’s letter:
3
John 9-10 KJV
9
I wrote unto the church: but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence
among them, receiveth us not.
10
Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, prating (i.e., gossiping)
against us with malicious words: and not content therewith, neither doth he
himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them
out of the church.
Here
we find an example of a church leader appointed to an office taking control and
dominance over those who were spiritually endowed.
Unlike contemporary Christianity, the New Testament Church placed a great
deal of emphasis on the sovereignty of the Holy Spirit.
Christians were taught that the Holy Spirit is the enabler and leader of
each believer, and by extension, the congregation.
Believers respected the principle nature of the Holy Spirit in one
another. They were taught to yield
to the manifestation of a spiritual gift and thereby concede to the leadership
of the Holy Spirit as when Paul wrote of the prophets: “Let
the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge.
If any thing be revealed to another that sitteth by, let the first hold
his peace (1 Corinthians 14:29-30).”
The
practice of the New Testament church was vastly different from its contemporary
counterpart. “Appointed” church
offices took a back seat to the manifestation of the Spirit, while those who
were spiritually gifted were both encouraged and allowed to express their
spiritual gifts. Today, however, the
reverse is true. In our contemporary
church model, “appointed” church offices (i.e., men who are appointed to a
position of authority) are often expected to be plenipotentiary leaders who take
precedence over the spiritually gifted. The
spiritually gifted are often viewed and treated as troublemakers and renegades.
Derailing The Spiritually Gifted
When
men are “appointed” to positions of authority, then authority becomes (at
least one of) their objective(s). Artificial
authority (i.e. authority appointed by men) becomes another ingredient added to
a recipe. It changes the flavor.
By
nature, people given authority by other people will gravitate toward
plenipotentiary leadership. Therefore
any other form of authority becomes problematic.
Even the manifestation of Holy Spirit functioning in a demonstrative
manner (which is a form of leadership) presents a threat.
In
contrast, people who are truly endowed with spiritual gifts do not pursue
authority. The goal of the
spiritually gifted is to merely relieve their spirit of the burden that the
spiritual gift imposes as it endeavors to be manifested.
Usually,
those who are appointed to positions of authority come from the ranks of the
spiritually gifted. This is because
quite often the spiritually gifted are expected to take positions of authority.
It is clever trick invented by Satan to derail the spiritually gifted.
It derails the spiritually gifted by changing their objective from
“operating in the gift” to “operating in the authority,” from “being a
servant” to” being in control,” and from “waiting on the spirit” to
“having a program.”
In
contemporary Christianity, spiritually gifted individuals are encouraged to
attend Bible College and then find a church to pastor.
This is a derailing of the spiritual objective for their lives.
The goal of the Holy Spirit is not to send the spiritually gifted
away from the body of Christians of which they are a part but to manifest
Himself through each person. Instead,
institutional churches are barren of the spiritually gifted because the gifted
are either encouraged to leave to find a church of their own to pastor or asked
to leave when they become problematic.
The
contemporary church is derailed, primarily because its leaders are.
They have allowed their appointed positions to give them a place in the
church that God never intended. Appointed
church leaders were to have authority over that which belongs to men, not that
which belongs to God.
An
example of the appointment of men to church offices and the purpose for doing so
is found in the Book of Acts:
Acts
6:1-5 KJV
1
And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose
a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were
neglected in the daily ministration.
2
Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It is
not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables.
3
Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of
the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.
4
But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the
word.
5
And the saying pleased the whole multitude: and they chose Stephen, a man full
of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and
Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas a proselyte of Antioch.
It
was the responsibility of the church (not God) to see that the “daily
ministration” of goods such as food and money was distributed
equitably. They needed men to be
“appointed” to positions to “oversee” this facet of ministry.
Whenever a material or physical need was identified, men would be
“appointed” to address it. But
this did not give them credentials to exert authority over the spiritual affairs
of the church. In the New Testament
church, it is God’s responsibility to see that the spiritual needs of His
people are met.
Derailing
occurs because appointed church leaders believe that their appointed ministries
supercede the gifts of God.
Derailing
also occurs because people tend to gravitate toward a dependency on the flesh.
People tend toward “self”-righteousness, “self”-intellect,
“self”-sufficiency and “self”-control.
The more fleshly people are, the more flesh they want.
The more spiritual they are, the more Spirit they want.
Therefore, institutional Christians tend to gravitate toward
institutional-style ministries and churches.
Leaving things to the invisible and spontaneous Holy Spirit goes against
the grain. That is why the pull of
Old Testament structure is so strong. The
Old Testament was dependent on the intellect, strength, and (self) righteousness
of men.
The
draw of the Old Testament can become self-perpetuating.
As a church begins to grow cold, it becomes more and more institutional.
The more institutional it becomes, the colder it grows.
It becomes a vicious circle drawing a church further and further into the
institutional replacement of the Holy Spirit.
New Testament Ministry
The
ministry of the Old Testament was static, or predictable.
All male Levites were priests. Those
born of Aaron’s lineage were temple priests, and out of them, one was chosen
to be the High Priest. Who they were
and what they did was both predictable and scheduled.
In contrast, the ministry of the New Testament is dynamic.
It is designed to be contextual. That
is to say, the Holy Spirit working through an individual adapts to the context
of a particular situation. Paul
describes the adaptability of the Spirit when he writes:
1
Corinthians 9:19-22 KJV
19
For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that
I might gain the more.
20
And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that
are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the
law;
21
To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but
under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law.
22
To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things
to all men, that I might by all means save some.
Here
Paul describes how the nature of New Testament ministry changes to adapt to the
context of both his environment and audience.
Intuitively,
all Christians know this. All
Christian mothers and fathers realize that they are both pastors and teachers to
their families. All Christians
understand that they are evangelists to their lost friends.
Jesus confirmed this by the great commission when He charged all
believers to, “Go ye into all the world, and preach
the gospel to every creature (Mark 16:15).”
Christians routinely act as teachers to each other.
Every New Testament believer has acted in the capacity of one or more of
the listed five-fold ministries of Ephesians 4.
This
is because, in the New Testament, every believer is a temple, having the Spirit
of God, and is therefore capable of providing ministry to people.
Each believer is meant to adapt to the context of their environment and
audiences, drawing from the spiritual gifts that are made available to them by
the Holy Spirit and ministering to those who are in need.
Jesus
modeled this for us. To the woman at
the well, Jesus acted in the capacity of an evangelist: “Jesus
answered [her], "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but
whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give
him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life (John 4:13).”
To the Pharisees, He spoke with the rebuke of a prophet: “Woe
unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited
sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead
men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous
unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of
hell (Matt 23:27-33)?”
To His disciples, He was an apostle establishing the church: “And
I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my
church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it (Matt 16:18).”
To the inquisitive soul, He was a teacher: “The
same [Nicodemus] came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that
thou art a teacher come from God (John 3:2).”
And to children of God, He was/is a pastor: “O
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are
sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a
hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not (Matt 23:37)!”
The
problem with institutional churches is that they have reverted back to an Old
Testament style of ministry where ministry was static (unchanging) and exercised
by only a small portion of God’s people (Levites).
The spontaneity and adaptability of the Spirit is lost in most churches.
However, once out of the church setting (away from the Old
Testament-style ministers), many Christians revert back to New Testament
ministry and once again become the adaptable, spontaneous, and contextual
ministers in whom the Spirit can operate. Once
again, they take advantage of the spiritual gifts and evangelize their friends,
they pastor and teach their children, and, as an apostle, they establish the
church of their own family.
Many
people point to scriptures like James 3:1 (“My
brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater
condemnation” - the word “master”
being the same Greek word translated “teacher”
in the description of the five-fold ministry found in Ephesians 4) to suggest
that there is, in fact, a small cadre of men who are chosen for ministry just as
in the Old Testament. But they are
incorrect.
This
scripture alludes to a Jewish custom of discipling.
A Jewish rabbi (i.e., master or teacher) would gather to himself a group
of disciples whom he would teach. Jesus
did this and was often referred to as “rabbi,” “teacher,” and
“master.” Disciples would
essentially live with and serve their “master (or teacher).”
Many rabbis who became saved would keep their Jewish customs and become
rabbis of the New Testament. Even
many Gentiles adopted this custom of discipling for New Testament
believers. But adopting a custom
does not make something a New Testament institution.
It is merely a custom.
Even
today, many Christians are mentored by others.
This is a form of the rabbi/disciple custom of Judaism.
But this does NOT mean that the disciples are not ministers as well.
It only means that they have chosen to be mentored by a modern day
equivalent of a rabbi. In the
context of a church, there are many people who mentor others.
The mentoring relationship does not make one a minister while the other
is not, but rather the mentor is a minister to ministers.
However, institutional Christianity has taken the custom of the
mentor/disciple and turned it into an institution - known as a pastor and his
congregation. And like the Levitical
priesthood, today’s pastors have a static (unchanging) job over their
congregations.
The
New Testament ministry is meant to be dynamic and contextual.
Like salt sprinkled on food, God has His people everywhere [i.e.,
“Ye are the salt of the earth (Matt 5:13)”],
in every social setting, and in every environment.
They are fully endorsed as His ambassadors to represent Him [i.e., “Now
then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us:
we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God (2 Cor 5:20)”].
They are to be “springs of living” and
temples full of God’s power. Does
this describe the institutional style of Christianity we see today?
No.
We
don’t see this style of Christianity because churches have institutionalized the
ministry. It no longer is the
dynamic and spontaneous empowerment of the Holy Spirit, but an appointed office.
It is academia, a degree in “Divinity,” or some other certification
of men. For Christianity to
become what it once was, Christians must come to understand that they are to
function in ministry according to the context of their environment and to once
again believe that they are fully endued with the power of God to do so.
God has called no one to sit in a church pew: all His people are called
to act on His behalf. When
Jesus said, “Go ye therefore, and teach all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Ghost (Matt 28:19),” as part of the Great Commission, He was
not just commissioning the eleven disciples but all who would follow Him.
Preaching, teaching, and even baptism is not a right reserved exclusively
to those in appointed offices (i.e. institutionalized pastors) but to every
believer.
In
a New Testament church, there will be leaders.
This does not mean, as is the case today, that once the church assembles
everyone who is not a “recognized” leader must put his ministry away.
In a New Testament church, it is the gift that is recognized and heeded,
not the person. Scriptures like
James 3:1 (“My brethren, be not many masters,
knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation”),
or Hebrews 13:17 (“Obey them that have the
rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they
that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for
that is unprofitable for you”) is not
describing or endorsing an institutional minister who is over everyone in a
church but those who disciple and mentor others.
Anyone discipling another should consider everything they do with the
utmost gravity. And this especially
applies to parents.
We
must be careful NOT to institutionalize these scriptures to mean that all
Christians, even those who are spiritually mature, are to lay down their gifts
and ministries when in the presence of an institutional minister.
Such behavior quenches the Spirit and is the reason we do not see more of
the manifest presence of God today.
Conclusion
In
a New Testament church, a believer does not need to be appointed to a church
office in order to minister. ALL
MATURE CHRISTIANS are to be regarded as elders and speak with the SAME authority
as those appointed to church offices. Why,
then, have church offices at all? The
practice in the New Testament church was to appoint spiritually mature
individuals to handle the business and physical affairs of the church.
That is why all the qualifications for a church office in Titus and
Timothy deal with the honesty and integrity of a man, NOT his spiritual
endowment.
In
the New Testament, ALL Christians are, literally, ministers.
They aren’t just called ministers (as is popularly done in most
institutional churches): they truly are. If
a believer does not minister to others, it is because they have reverted back to
the Old Testament in the service of God where only an elite few were actual
ministers. A mother may not express
herself much in a meeting where other “leaders” tend to be more visible, but
it does not take away from her ministry to her family.
Her ministry in the “context” of her family is no different than that
of the leaders of a church. They are
both pastors. The people at her
assembly who are acting in the capacity of pastor by mentoring and discipling
the spiritually young do not take precedence over her ministry to her family.
Therefore, in any assembly, there are multiple and overlapping
“contexts” of ministry.
A
person speaking prophetically may minister to the whole group, while a mature
Christian may be discipling only one or more believers.
Unless the group is comprised of only new believers (as were some
churches in the New Testament), there should not be a case of a single person
mentoring everyone. In an assembly,
there should be husbands and wives who minister (at least) in the context of
their own homes. Care must be
taken that no one exerts the context of his own ministry to usurp the ministry
context of others. The context
of every believer’s ministry must be respected, and in addition, true New
Testament ministry will never strip another believer of his ministry.
That is the action of men, not the Holy Spirit.
In
the New Testament, every believer should feel the confidence to act on behalf of
God. It is not God who wants you to
set your ministry aside but men who struggle for power and control.
You are the temple of the living God and a well of life-giving water.
Just remember the words of Jesus:
Matthew
5:14-16 KJV
14
Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.
15
Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick;
and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.
16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
Amen.
kmsrjs@triton.net (use the same address for MSN Messenger)
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