|
Chapter One: The Church as a Body
By Dr. Steve Davis
What you will get from this chapter:
1) An understanding of the confusion that frequently leads to church
splits and even
denominational splits as well as biblical methods for neutralizing these
controversies before
they take root.
2) The different levels that God deals with His people on, and how this
knowledge can give you
confidence when organizing or re structuring the local church.
3) How the metaphor of the church as a body clarifies the importance and
interdependence
of each and every member, and shows how the various functions of a
church are interrelated..
4) Why many churches can be accurately diagnosed as being "dis-eased,"
and how to remedy
the situation.
5) What to do with church members who refuse to live right especially
with ones who seem
absolutely necessary to the functioning of the church! And, WHY they
must be dealt with this
way!
The Church.
Using the Bible as the guide for belief and practice, how is a local
church body supposed to be operated? Is it to be run like a business,
with officers, directors, chairmen of the board? Can it be run without a
Statement of Purpose, Mission Statement, and Written Statement of
Vision? Is it administered like a club, with rules, membership
qualifications and officers? Or, is it patterned more like a democratic
republic, where the majority rules, through elections and popular vote?
How much authority and credibility is invested in the denominational
Discipline and the local church's Constitution and By-Laws?
Who calls the shots in the local church? The Official Board? The
Board of Elders? The
Deacons? Or, is it a group of regional Presbyters who decide the
administration of the local
church? Maybe it's the people getting together and writing on secret
ballots? What level of
authority does the Pastor have? Does the church have to do everything
the Pastor says? Or, does the pastor have to do everything that church
membership says?
How is leadership decided? What do we call our various leaders
and why? IS there a difference between "official board" members and the
rest of the congregation? What's a Deacon and why do some churches have
them? Where do Deacons come from? How about Elders? Should a church have
both Deacons and Elders? Whom does the Pastor work for? Is the Pastor
over the Official Board? Or, does he have to comply with their wishes?
What's the function of each of these positions? What is a Pastor
supposed to do, besides preach the sermon on Sunday and make sure the
Nursery is staffed during service times?
Issues like these are raised by both clergy and church members, and
rarely are satisfactory and workable answers provided. And yet, if a
church is going to operate on anything like a Biblical model, there
needs to be an adequate understanding of God's principles for spiritual
leadership, or church government. God has provided a pattern in both the
Old and New Testament. The principles of Biblical church government are
principles that work equally well in any group where the Word of God is
honored. To the degree that we operate in these principles, we'll be
experiencing order, growth, unity and freedom to be and do what God has
chosen for us to do.
I don't claim this work to be my original ideas or inspirations. It's
the result of spending several years reading, listening to messages on
the topic, making notes, praying for guidance, becoming frustrated as a
young pastor, frustrated as a not so young pastor, going to a couple of
excellent conferences by Starr Scott in Sterling, VA, searching the
Scriptures, interviewing Pastors, church board members, Deacons, Elders,
denominational officials and members of different congregations in order
to get a broad perspective on working with the people of God in a
Biblical way. The result is an outline of principles from both the Old
and the New Testaments, from Moses to Solomon to Jesus, the early
Apostles and the first century church.
The different individual and corporate dealings of God. It's
clear from the Bible and in experience that God deals with His people as
individuals first. On the individual level, He calls us to personal
repentance, a godly lifestyle, devotion, worship, commitment, service
and evangelism. His individual dealings lead us to become involved with
other Christians in a church or "body." God deals with the individuals
in the body and also deals with the body as a group. He deals with the
Church corporately, or as a body.
The Church as a group of Cells. In the late 1960's a movement
known as the "cell group" movement became popular. A basic idea of this
movement was that a local church was a local representation of the Body
of Christ, and that a body was made up of cells, or little parts. The
cell group movement emphasized the meetings throughout the week of small
groups or "cells" of believers for prayer, praise and Bible study. Then,
once or more a week, the cells would get together for "corporate"
worship, or worship as a body.
This idea has flourished even though it's
not "anatomically correct." It takes millions of cells just to make up
one small organ of the body, and then dozens of organs to make up the
complete body. This is what the Apostle Paul talked about in 1
Corinthians 12, where he was referring to individual Believers as
complete organs in the Body of Christ. Any metaphor of that which is
spiritual will have its limitations, and the idea of a local church body
having "cells" in the place of "organs" is one of them. The idea of
several believers in praise, worship and teaching being likened to a
single cell was more for functionality than for theological or
anatomical accuracy. And it is closer to the order that God has set up
than many other models. What has happened is that during the 1990's the
term "cell group" gave way to the current use of the terms "small group
ministry" and "home group."
The Church as a Body. In the corporate structure of God, there
are specific organs or parts of the body, each with different areas of
function and authority. These parts or organs refer to individuals, not
to groups of individuals, even though groups will always be linked for
functionality in a healthy church and just as they are in a healthy
body. These parts and their functions are also referred to as "offices"
and are established in both the Old and New Testaments. (Exodus
28:1;41;1; 1 Chronicles 6:32; 2 Chronicles 23:18; Nehemiah 13:13; Acts
1:20; Romans 11:13, 1 Timothy 3:1,10) In the New Testament, it is
clearly stated that these offices are gifts to the body and are placed
there by the Spirit of God (Ephesians 4:11 12, 1 Corinthians 12:4, 8,
9).
Officers: the Calling of Individuals by God. There's a common
element at the beginning of every move of God, every establishment of
individual groups of believers, every planting of a new church and at
the beginning of every home group or Bible study. It's the calling or
selecting of individuals by God. Every Old Testament leader and each New
Testament officer was initiated into the office by a personal encounter
with God, by revelation, audible voice, angelic decree, dream or vision.
In the New Testament, Jesus Christ personally and individually chose the
twelve disciples, who became apostles.
Israel as a nation of God's people began with the encounters that God
had with Abraham, then with Abraham's son Isaac, and Isaac's son Jacob.
Then, after the encounter with God where Jacob's name was changed to
Israel, there was the further choosing of Israel's twelve sons who
became the twelve patriarchs. In the New Testament, Jesus individually
encountered and chose the twelve disciples, who became the twelve
apostles. When the body of Apostles was established (Ephesians 2:20),
the outpouring of the Holy Spirit began (Acts 2) on the Day of
Pentecost. This was the beginning of the Church on earth as the body of
Christ.
Colossians 1:18 states that Jesus is the Head of the body, which
is the church. On the Day of
Pentecost, Jesus Christ the Head of the Church was seated at the right
hand of God in power and authority. The church was given the life of the
Holy Spirit, whose presence would cause the body to grow and mature into
"the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Ephesians
4:13).
Every Member is Necessary. For a body to function as it should,
each organ, or member, needs to operate in its full capacity, doing what
it was put in the body to do. Ephesians 4:16 speaks about
"...the whole body ... joined together ... ACCORDING TO THE WORKING OF
EVERY PART..." The organs, the limbs, the members of Christ's Body
are needed to function. The body of Christ has, contrary to the claims
of many who prefer to do whatever they feel like, been `organ-ized'. So,
contrary to some of the opinions of the hyper-spiritual individuals in
our midst, being organized is God's idea, not mans’! Only the lowest of
life forms, the one celled animals that have no organs. God never
designed for the Spirit to put together an amoeba or other lower life
form as a dwelling place for the body of His Son! The Body of Christ is
an organized body, with distinct and specific organs, functions and
capacities.
This principle is explored in 1 Corinthians 12:14-27. This
passage states that the Body of Christ is one, or single, but has many
parts. The Body NEEDS the parts and the parts need each other. Again and
again it is stated that each part has a specific and needed function.
Without certain members, the Body is not complete. A non-functioning
mass in a body is known as a cyst or tumor, and has no real business
being in or on the body. Of course, if we discover a cyst or tumor on
our bodies, it is cause for immediate concern, and we seek a doctor to
try to have them lanced, at best, or surgically removed if necessary!
How like the local church THIS image is!
If at any time a member no longer
functions, the work of the entire Body is hindered. Having the
understanding of the church as a body makes it easier to understand how
the church as a body needs to not only take care of each part but also
deal with individual parts that are either not functioning as they
should or that are functioning completely differently than they should.
This is the basis for what is called in some circles "church
discipline."
Dealing with non-functioning and malfunctioning members: Church
discipline. When a part of our body is not functioning as it should,
we become aware of it pretty quickly. We don't feel right; we lose
energy, we sometimes feel pain, and require more rest. Activity is cut
to a minimum. Then, we seek for a diagnosis. Either through personal
experience, the experience of those who are more mature or through the
trained understanding of a physician, we do all that we can to discover
what is causing the "dis-ease." Then we seek treatment. This treatment
is generally very specific and applies to the part of the body that is
not functioning as it should. The treatment is to remedy the condition.
This is the function of church discipline: to provide "remedial"
treatment to the part of the body that is not functioning as it should,
or to remove growths that are consuming life and energy from the body,
but not contributing to its health and strength.
If the "dis-ease" is not remedied, it will affect the entire system and
produce an invalid state or even death. How is the treatment or
discipline given? Much like in the medical profession, generally there
are several options. Change of diet, a round of medications, therapy or
depending on the type of the disease and the level of resistance to
other treatments, surgery or even amputation. Jesus said it like this in
Matthew 5:29-30: "And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it
out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of
thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast
into hell. {offend : or, do cause thee to offend} And if thy right hand
offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for
thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body
should be cast into hell." According to Jesus, then, it is better
for the congregation to remove the membership of an individual that
causes the church to miss the will or plan of God, than it is to keep
that person as a member, if that person will not comply with the word of
God!
An example of a first round of treatment.
After diagnosis, a sickness or disease is usually treated by a change of
diet and possibly a round of medications or shots to attempt to restore
the natural balance of the body. In the same way, in a church, a change
must be made to restore balance. This could be from removing certain
activities or emphases from the program of the church, adding corrective
ingredients to the teaching and preaching program, to even adding extra
Bible studies or groups all with the goal of bringing balance to the
life of the body. The same is true whether the disease is gossip and a
critical spirit among the members, to poor stewardship, to being unruly
and unmanageable. All these can be remedied through the above treatment.
Amputation, removal, quarantine. What if the problem is more
intense than can be dealt with by several weeks of teaching and
preaching? What if the problem persists after the teaching and
preaching? Sometimes there needs to be decisive and quick treatment. In
1 Corinthians 5:6, the Apostle Paul tells the Corinthian church
to take immediate and "surgical" action against one of its members who
was involved in an adulterous relationship with his stepmother. The
reason stated is that "a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump."
In other words, if a lax attitude towards immorality was exhibited in
the church, before long, there would be multiplied immorality as well as
other sins among the members. This principle is to be applied in any
situation where there are one or a few individuals who are bringing in
or fostering behaviors or thinking that is contrary to the Word of God.
The principle is, deal with it while it is just a problem in one
family. Remove the perpetrator, to protect the rest of the
congregation. The removal is a redemptive one, as opposed to punitive,
as is evidenced in 2 Corinthians 2:7 8, where Paul tells the
church how to respond if the man who was removed for immorality comes
back to them in a repentant state. Rather than rejecting such a person,
he says : “So that contrariwise ye ought rather to forgive him, and
comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with
overmuch sorrow. Wherefore I beseech you that ye would confirm your love
toward him.” When the person repents and comes back, the response
of the congregation is to a) forgive; b) comfort the individual, and c)
confirm or make plain the love that the people of God have for the
person who turns from his or her sins.
Leaders who sin. What if the person who is not functioning as he
or she should is a leader or primary functionary in the church, say, the
associate pastor, organist, song leader, youth minister or some other
person who seems totally necessary to the work of the church? That is
where Jesus' counsel stated earlier comes into force. It is better to
lose one of the visionaries of the church than for the church to have
great vision, but be corrupted. Better to lose one who helps the church
to move ahead than it is to move ahead rapidly, and end up under God's
reprimand. Better to remove the hand that does so much of the practical
work in the church than to have all the work done, but the church to be
in death. Jesus tells what to do when there is a part of the body that
is causing a problem and is apparently unwilling to function correctly.
Cut it off and do without. Sometimes these individuals THREATEN to quit
the church, if we don’t let them have their way! And, sadly, sometimes
the Pastor or other leadership would rather compromise the church than
to allow someone who is bringing division into the church to leave.
God was very precise in designing His Church to function, be fruitful
and multiply His cause in the earth. Since God formed the Body to do His
work, a well functioning body, whole and lacking nothing, is the
prerequisite for maximum effectiveness. He has given us the Word of God
as His "medical manual" for diagnosis and treatment. When the church
follows His directions, the body stays healthy, sicknesses are less
frequent and less severe.
Copyright Steven L. Davis
www.stevedavis.org
|
|
