RESTORING THE LORD’S CHURCH IN EACH CITY
Pastor Eric J. Hanson
INTRODUCTION
God has been dealing with many people over the course of many years with the theme of New Testament Order for the Church. In the Bible we see clearly that the first century church was set up around the Lordship of Jesus Christ. It was not set up around personalities or organizations. Leadership in the early church flowed from giftings, which were anchored in proper relationships. It was grounded in the servanthood of local brothers in Christ, whose lives were well known to the Church family in their city.
How the First Century Church was set up in each city
Reading through the New Testament, it does not take long to notice that the apostles founded churches according to a certain pattern. In each city where they went, they preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They also healed the sick and cast out demons when they needed to. The combination of the word of God and the demonstration of God’s power and love always attracted many people. In each place, some of these folks became genuine believers in Jesus Christ.
The apostles would then begin to disciple these new believers. The I Corinthians 12:28 process would now take place. Known prophets would be brought in also, who would see certain things that God had in mind concerning the new baby Church. Proven teachers of God’s word would be brought in and teach in detail. The giftings and callings of God would begin to emerge and become known in these relatively new believers, as they became disciples. Soon the new church would have increasing ministry happening internally.
After two or three years of this intense process, apostles would return and would recognize those whom God was raising up to serve as the elders in the new Church. We get a really great glimpse into this final step in the setting up of new churches in Titus Chapter 1:5-9. Here, the imprisoned Paul gives instruction to Titus in written form concerning how to go about the process of setting in an eldership for each city’s Church. Timothy was doing something similar in Ephesus at about the same period of time. Paul, a wise master builder, also instructed Timothy in writing. Chapter 3:1-7 of I Timothy gives us the qualifications for any man if he is to qualify as an elder. Then chapter 5:17-18 shows us the elders’ primary work (ruling, preaching, and teaching) and how they are to be taken care of by the Church. (I Peter 5 speaks directly to the elders and commands them to shepherd the flock. (The people of the Church) Deacons (servants) would also be set in to deal with temporal matters in the church, so that the elders could be given over to the word of God and prayer.
Each city church would end up having an array of the Romans 12 motive gifts represented within its eldership. Teaching and preaching would come through several men who were submitted to each other. Together they would shepherd the flock. One might have an exhorter motive gift, another a prophetic motive gift, another a teacher motive gift, and still another, a mercy motive gift. (etc) The resulting flow of ministry would be very balanced, and would reflect the fullness of the Lord rather than the particular strengths, weaknesses, understandings, and blind spots of one man. Also, if one man began to get off base, or died, it would not throw the church into turmoil, because their security was in Jesus Christ himself, expressed through a plurality of elder/pastors. As pointed out in I Peter 5:4, Jesus is the senior pastor. (Chief shepherd) This title is His alone in the Bible. From 30 AD till about 125 AD, the whole Church knew and understood this.
But Then
As the decades went by, things started to get off track, a little at first, but then more and more, until by the mid 300s, the church set up resembled the Roman Empire’s government structure, with layers of authority at ever increasing distance from the local church, culminating in a Pope (the Caesar of the Church) in Rome. Rising through the ranks became a professional ambition, resulting in clashing of egos. The Bible was taken away from the people, and the priesthood of every believer was also denied. The curtain in the Temple that was torn in two by the very hand of God, at the moment Jesus died, was now figuratively sown back together by the new Roman Catholic Church. The people were told that they did not have direct access to God’s throne.
And Now
Fortunately, through God raising certain people up, especially around the year 1500, to stand against the false Roman system, there are today, many churches which have returned the Bible into the hands of the people. The priesthood of the believer is known and practiced in the true churches. Most such churches are free of prohibitions which have an appearance of godliness, but which have no real power to free from sin. (You can’t marry and still preach. Only eat certain foods. Men must have beards. Men must not grow beards. etc)
In the centuries since then, Church structure (and doctrine) has been through many twists and turns. Several different structures all exist at the same time here in the United States today with some churches emulating the Roman Catholic model. Some have turned to direct democracy. Others have a single local senior man with Pope like authority at the local level. There are several other systems in place too. These un-biblical, and mutually incompatible forms of church government, when taken in total, form a great big tangled and confusing mess.
The current state of the structure of the true Church in America, and much of the rest of the World, is a terribly fractured and splintered condition. This is directly contrary to the prayer of the Lord in John chapter 17, particularly verses 20-23. The Lord went so far as to pray this: I pray that all of them, who shall believe in me become perfected in unity. He gave a strong reason: that the World would believe that you (Father) have sent me (Jesus).
It is important for us to understand that the fracturing of the Church in every city, into many little groups who largely seek to be independent of each other, hinders the work of the Gospel. This situation holds back the work of God! True unity among genuine believers in Jesus Christ opens the doors to accelerated impact in the arena of more and more people becoming believers. The lack of such unity hinders the same.
The word of God knows nothing of denominations. In the Bible there is no mention of Methodism. There is never a Nazarene church, though Jesus was from Nazareth. Rather than the Vinyard, the only vinyards in the Bible are full of grapes. There are not 57 varieties of Baptists, there is only John the baptist. (baptizer) All who believe the Bible know it is true that justification comes by faith, but that doesn’t make us Lutherans. I could write similar little ditties about every denomination. The reality is, there is one Church. It is an invisible living organism made up of all the people on Earth who truly have believed on and confessed the Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 10:9-11)
The Church in the New Testament is indeed broken into units, but those units correspond to cities, not to many splinter groups within each city. The Bible speaks of Churches such as the Church in Rome, the Corinthian Church, the Philippian Church, and the Thessalonian Church. Indeed, the apostles founded a Church in each city, and that Church then met in both small group and large group form, but there was only the Church in that city, rather than many churches. In some places, such as Decapolis, there were groups of little villages, ten of them in this particular case, who together had one church. No doubt, given the cellular nature of the early church, there may well have been 100 different groups meeting in the homes of Decapolis during the week, but they came together as the Church on Sunday.
Let’s look now at the current church government and structure situation as it occurs commonly here in the United States today.
MODERN UNBIBLICAL FORMS OF CHURCH GOVERNMENT
1. Democratic or Vote driven model
There were no churches where the apostles set up a democratic system of voting by the congregation to govern the church or to elect (and un-elect) elders or pastors. This model of church government mimics the world, especially the western countries. It is idolatrous at its root and exalts man. Churches that have this model in place, tend to, over time, hire caretaker pastors who make people comfortable.
2. Pastor-centric, Senior Pastor model
There were also no cases where the apostles set one man up to be the pastor or the senior pastor. This form of government comes from the age-old desire to have a king and it is idolatrous. I Peter 5 is the only place the term senior pastor (Greek: archi-poimen) occurs in all the scripture, and it refers to the Lord Jesus Christ alone. No man should ever be called by this term. Commentators and preachers who refer to Timothy and Titus as local church pastors are wrong. These men were, by both training and experience, emerging apostles, doing the work of apostles in setting things in order and appointing elders in the local citywide Churches they were re-visiting when Paul wrote his letters to them from prison.
3. Non-local Hierarchy
Similarly, there were no churches where the apostles set up a hierarchy in which there were officials of some sort in an organizational headquarters far from the ongoing shared life of the local church. Such Bishops have authority over the Churches in several cities and can pull out or plug in local leaders. This is another system which mimics the world. Nations have layer upon layer of government at increasing distance from relationship with the common citizen. The Church is not to be that way. The term Bishop, in the King James Bible, is an unfortunate usage, which is based on a Latin word rather than simply translated from the Greek. Even at that, its use in that version of the Bible simply refers to one of a group of local overseers or elders. The only trans-local authorities in the Bible are apostles, prophets, and teachers. Their authority comes from the Lord empowering their words. It is not political authority. In the case of any established local church, each of these traveling men comes into said church submitted to the governing authority and watch care of the local elders.
HOSANNA CHURCH’S ATTEMPTS TO HAVE NEW TESTAMENT ORDER
At Hosanna New Testament Church we have tried to walk out what it means to be a genuine New Testament church. We have found this to be a rough and hard road and have become rather discouraged at times, wondering if we shall ever see the full fruition of even the basic level of New Testament Church structure here at Hosanna.
As the years have gone by, we have become quite careful about observing the biblical qualifications for elders and also for deacons. (Servants who make it possible for the elders to be devoted to the word of God and prayer by tending to temporal needs in the church family) These qualifications are found in I Timothy 3 and Titus 1. We have not ever been able to appoint enough men to biblically qualified eldership to have a well balanced servant leadership in place which reflects the awesome completeness of the full mix of motive (or life focus) gifts found in Romans 12.
We believe strongly in this fullness of gift mix and in a life of mutual submission among a servant/leadership of at least five or six elders who share the teaching, preaching, and nurture of the church. We believe that no church can fully enter into genuine balance and unshakable strength without this in place. We have observed that even huge churches which were built on a man’s gift, splinter to little pieces or decline slowly when that man dies, falls, or leaves.
On the other hand, an unshakably strong church is one in which the departure, death, or fall of any one man will not devastate that church or cripple it in any substantial way. This is because that church is, in fact and in truth, built upon the Lord’s strength, wisdom, and love, manifested through a rich and complete gift mix in the leaders, and becoming reproduced in the people. Such a church is not built on the personality, the style, or the persuasiveness of any man.
In recent years, in my discouragement over our inability to truly implement the fullness of New Testament order here at Hosanna New Testament Church, I have come to see that the Lord has designed only one way that this can work in normal sized towns. It never really can operate successfully at Hosanna New Testament Church operating alone. It has to work through the Biblical Church unit.
MY OWN JOURNEY IN UNDERSTANDING “THE BIBLICAL CHURCH UNIT”
In the Bible, the church unit is not one little fragment (such as Hosanna) of the Church in a given city. It is, rather, the whole Church in that city! Many years ago, in 1978, I wrote the song Come Together My People while on a weekend retreat, during which God was dealing with me regarding sectarian pride. I had been guilty of harboring an attitude that Hosanna church was the best because of our beliefs, and that God was going to use Hosanna as THE magnet for revival in our region. I repented and wrote that song, in which I envisioned that the Bible preaching churches of any region should be on friendly terms and do some things together in order to avoid the sins dealt with in
I Corinthians 1 and 3 and to activate the dynamic Jesus prayed for in John 17:20-23.
Later, layer by layer, God continued to deal with me about my continuing sin of putting my secondary doctrinal beliefs ahead of having truly close relationships with fellow pastors from other local churches in my local group of towns. I wrote Please Stop Fighting in 1988 following a church split here at Hosanna initiated by some folks who had split other churches before coming here. The 1988 split drove home the point of just how easy it is in modern America to run from one little splinter church to the next within most cities and have no accountability for one’s actions. This is terribly wrong. It glaringly shows how splintered and disconnected, with no functional citywide eldership, the Body of Christ is in most American cities.
As I got more and more deeply involved with other local pastors throughout the 1980s, I came to understand that Hosanna’s negative experience with this, was far from unique. Many churches throughout our region have suffered similar splits. There is no citywide authority in place, calling divisive people into accountability for their damaging actions, so these things just keep repeating.
In 1990, following a fine citywide Lowell Lundstrom crusade in the Lewiston-Auburn area of Maine, I wrote Coming Together In Jesus. This song is a little closer to the Lord’s perspective on the Church in each city. At that time, I could still only see each little piece of the church in the city, (First Baptist, Hosanna, First Assembly of God, Advent Christian, Church of the Nazarene, etc) being friendly toward each other and doing some things, especially big things, together. I thought that this was the ultimate in unity.
WHAT IS ACTUALLY NEEDED AND BIBLICALLY CORRECT
In recent years I have come to realize what needs to take place in order for us to ever achieve true New Testament order. How can the Church in our city be governed and equipped by a whole group of genuine elder/pastors from a broad range of motive giftings, who meet all the qualifications for elders found in God’s word? To achieve this, we must do something quite radical compared to what we modern day Christians have been accustomed to.
The Bible believing splinter churches must move beyond friendship, though friendship is a big improvement over the bitter rivalry and misinformation that used to be normal. The many little believing churches in each city or cluster of small towns, need to move toward an organic relationship with the goal of becoming, in practice and accountability, the Church in our city.
Please note that all of the epistles are addressed to the Church in this or that city; never to First Baptist Church or Trinity Assembly of God Church. The only church unit recognized in the New Testament is the citywide Church governed initially by founding apostles and prophets, and later by a group of local elders, set in by apostles. It is these elders who then pastor (shepherd) that church together under the Lord Jesus Christ.
There is no way that this radically biblical Church can be brought about in natural strength. We, who come to see this as Bible truth and as God’s clearly revealed will, must cry out to the Lord to do this in and through us. When the world sees this miracle change gradually taking place, the prayer of John 17:20-23 will indeed be activated in massive power and freedom. When we become the Church in Oxford Hills, the Church in the Twin Cities, etc, there will indeed be enough biblically qualified brothers to set into an eldership with no motive gift left out, and with known stability and godliness in those who serve.
Eventually, there will no longer be the little church on corner #1, weak in music but strong in small group discipleship, and the little church on corner #2, strong in music but weak in ministry to the poor, and the little church on corner #3, strong in exhortational sermons but weak in line upon line Bible teaching. Instead, there will be the“Church coming forth in all her equipping! There will begin to emerge in localities, the Bride of Christ without spot or wrinkle!
Fleshy believers who have jumped the fence from church to church, because they got upset with someone, and who never went through the Matthew 18 reconciliation process, but instead left and went to the next church up the road, will be much more accountable in this Biblically correct setting. They will not so easily be able to hide their sin but will have much more incentive to do the right thing and walk through the peacemaking process, even though this is hard on the flesh, and actually requires going to the cross and reckoning oneself dead to fleshy self-rule.
With six or eight or twelve biblically qualified, proven, mutually submitted elders sharing the preaching, teaching, and training, the Church will be equipped in a much more balanced and accurate way than could ever have been done in many little churches in the city. There is really a tremendous jump in quality to be had through this.
MANY SMALL GROUPS
It will be even more important than it already is, in such a radically biblical church for each believer to also be part of a small group of no more than about twelve people which meet at some point during the week between the great worship and preaching meetings on Sundays. All believers need to participate in both a small group with its close-up friendship, accountability, and gift sharing and development, and the large weekly or monthly gathering of the whole Church in the city, with its power dynamic. This fulfills the pattern found in Acts, starting in Jerusalem, of the first century believers meeting both from house to house and in the congregation.
HOW CAN THIS HAPPEN?
To get from where we are now to what I am describing and believe to be God’s clear will is not a simple little trip. It is a journey, with many stops and breathers along the way. There are many hurdles to jump over on the way from here to there, but we must recognize the need to make this journey, and we must purpose in our hearts to begin.
BARRIERS
Pride of position or denomination, devotion to specifics of secondary doctrine, seeing a certain building as the only fit place for the church to meet, and faulty local church polity all stand as barriers. This process won’t happen in a day, but I honestly believe that it will happen. It may well take twenty five to fifty years to complete, but don’t let that scare you.
I write this while feeling a little scared myself, because I am a teacher motive elder & pastor who believes that the Bible is to be used in a precise and exactingly accurate way in teaching. I recognize that at present, if several of us local pastors, who are of the teacher motive or the prophet motive, got together in a room to discuss doctrinal detail, we wouldn’t enjoy much unity at all! God, however, knows the exact truth about every detail of doctrine!
I believe that He can and will, over a period of years and perhaps decades, bring us to ultimate complete agreement if we will just be tender, teachable, humble, and gentle. No job is too big for God, and Ephesians 4: 1-16 stands true!
WHERE DO WE BEGIN?
Perhaps the easiest way to begin is to have joint Sunday meetings for special occasions such as Easter Sunday. Five churches in Mechanic Falls did this very thing in 1999! They met together at the Elm Street School auditorium. All the people wrote out their tithe checks to their regular church as on any other Sunday. None of the churches suffered any shortfall.
We could perhaps host nationally known speakers together. The elder-pastors would need to select such speakers together carefully, so as to avoid those who push divisive and controversial doctrines, carefully bringing in those who have important messages for the entire Church. Evening events, such as joint choir cantatas or the recent concert with the “Continentals” at the High School auditorium, are also baby steps toward the emergence of the Church in the Oxford Hills.
In the medium term future (2 to 5 years) we could perhaps come together on Sunday mornings on a quarterly basis and on Sunday evenings a little more often than that.
After that, things would get more advanced, perhaps with the great congregation of the city meeting each month together and the people gaining more of a clear sense of the combined eldership God has put together. There could also be ongoing citywide specialty groups, such as senior citizens or young adult singles). Details are well beyond the scope of this little paper.
SOME CONCERNS
I pray that it won’t be persecution of the Church by our nation’s media and government which brings this massive change about. I want this to come from people who start to see that this is a major step toward pure New Testament order. It is much more Biblical than what we have now, and is the Lord’s written will. I want this to come from pastors who desire for the Lord to be the senior pastor, and who desire to be one brother among a mix of several who equip together in servanthood and mutual submission. Such brothers take delight in seeing the balance and strength, which comes up in the Church as a result.
A COUNTERFEIT
The counterfeit of this is the Ecumenical movement, the National Council of Churches, and other groups who are drawing close together while also abandoning the authority of the Bible. We must never be a part of such a thing! At the same time, we must not let the existence of the counterfeit scare us away from the real!
A BARRIER
Secondary separation, separation from fellow true Christians, is a grievous sin disguised as piety! It operates against all the teachings in the New Testament regarding unity among believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, especially I Corinthians 12:12-26. It also stands in stark contradiction to the citywide Churches seen everywhere in the New Testament. The practice of secondary separation, with its man made walls standing between true brothers and sisters in Christ, must end. The Lord will see to it that it ends one way or another. If the church is in little splinters, as in the USA for many years, history shows us that every bizarre imbalance and false teaching eventually happens, along with the exaltation of persons and over dependence upon those certain people.
Jesus Christ is building His Church! Thank you Lord. I deeply desire to live to see this fully in place! I want to see the day that the Lord comes to receive His Bride, a glorious Bride without spot or wrinkle!
CHAPTER 2
HOW THINGS GOT TO BE THE WAY THEY ARE NOW
In the beginning of the Church age, there was indeed one church in each city. As each Church matured, there came to be a group of proven and known brothers in Christ, set in as elders by the founding apostles of that church. These elders oversaw shepherded each one of these churches, such as the church in Ephesus, the church in Rome, etc. Only men who were able to meet the requirements of I Timothy 3 and Titus 1 would be set in as elders or overseers. There also came to be deacons chosen by the people and appointed by the apostles and elders in each of those churches. These deacons took care of legitimate temporal needs of the widows and destitute within the church family so that the elders could be fully given over to spiritual matters of preaching and teaching the Word of God and prayer.
From the time that the Jerusalem Church set elders into office, until about the year 120 AD, this biblically sound system was followed faithfully. This covers the period of time through the death of the apostle John (96 AD?) and through to the end of the lives of the second generation of apostles such as Titus and Timothy. Many of the churches were now having a fourth generation of believers when the first departure from New Testament order in the set up and oversight of churches began to show up.
THE RISE OF THE BISHOPS
It was around this time that the first mention of individual star overseers in the church in this or that city began to show up in writings. Because of talent and personality, certain locally based men began to become preeminent in the second century churches.
The old problem Paul had dealt with in I Corinthians 1 and 3 began appearing again, only it was now a matter of people saying I am of Polycarp, or I am of Pliny, rather than I am of Paul or Apollos. With this emerging exaltation of persons, church records soon began referring to the overseer or the elder, rather than the overseers or the elders. As Latin became more and more universal, the word Bishop began to be the common term for the star elder in each church.
CHURCHES DOMINATING OTHER CHURCHES
With the age old sin of the desire to have a king, now starting to gain ascendancy within the churches, the next downward step was the emergence of rivalry from one city church to the next. As the second century gave way to the third, there began to be a real struggle among churches to become dominant over other churches. Four churches emerged as major players in this stage of things. They were Rome, Ephesus, Antioch, and Jerusalem. This emerging rivalry continued for quite some time, but eventually the Roman church did become the dominant player in this new and dangerous course for the churches. Of course the Bishop of Rome also now became the dominant personality in the Christian enterprise, thus the birth of the arch-bishop idea. Arch means over or ruling. Within another couple of generations, the Bishop of Rome was thought of as the Cardinal or major Bishop. The other large and powerful churches had Arch-Bishops, and the smaller city-churches had bishops.
THE MARRIAGE OF CHURCH AND STATE
As the third century gave way to the fourth, the Church now resembled the Worldly Roman government set up, with several layers of authority centered in various geographical locations. Like the empire, the ultimate authority resided in Rome.
After Constantine first outlawed all persecution of the Church in 313, and later the government elevated Christianity to the level of Official Religion of the Empire, the bishop of Rome became known as the Pope; that is the Father to the whole Christian enterprise. From this time forward, until well into the reformation centuries, Church and State were wed. For some 1300 years this terrible state of affairs persisted, even carrying over into the Protestant Churches, which became official state Churches in various nations. (Church of England, Lutheran Church in Germany, etc.)
Terrible things came out of these unholy marriages. The Roman Church actually began to persecute those who would question its dogma. The time came when the official inquisition of the Church, which looked for heresy or personal opposition to high church officials, would use severe physical punishments, tortures, imprisonment, and even execution as tools in whta it called its search for truth.
This type of horror is what develops from Church as an extension of and protectorate of the State. It continued to spread, as mentioned previously, when various Protestant movements became National Churches. There were actually Protestants who murdered other Protestants over mode of baptism! It seems that those who executed others in those days found especially degrading and painful ways to do so. Church leaders, to their everlasting shame, joined right in, using methods such as burning at the stake and drowning those whom they deemed worthy of death due to such things as opposing them over some point of doctrine. Eventually, in the 1700s, this horror began to go away in most countries.
Meanwhile in America
In the meantime, the colonies in North America developed as a real Christian hodge- podge. There was Puritan, Congregational Massachusetts. Then there was Baptist Rhode Island. There was Roman Catholic Maryland or Mary Land. There was Methodism spreading everywhere. In many places, there were Churches of England. Presbyterians made inroads here and there. Homegrown groups kept popping up too, as Americans gained more of a National identity.
Fortunately, the new American Government rejected the idea of National Churches. They even caused church groups, which had been established as State Churches in certain individual states, to be disestablished and compete against all other churches on an equal footing in the marketplace of ideas, rather than receiving tax money.
By the Mid 20th Century, the visible Church in each city was many different little churches. Some of them were true to the Word of God to the best of their level of revelation. Others, having rejected the authority of the Word, still called themselves churches. At the other end of the theology scale, certain groups had withdrawn from any cooperation with the other churches in their city, in an attempt to preserve what they considered to be purity. Meanwhile, on the liberal end of things, the newly united Universalist-Unitarian Church even began to question whether God exists. Add a generous helping of Cults of every type into this American Religious Stew, and the result is a totally confused situation!
Now you know how things ever got to be the way they are now! J
Chapter 3:
COMPENSATION FOR FULL TIME ELDER/PASTORS
Pastor Eric J. Hanson
As full blown New Testament Order comes to reality, in any given city, a major question arises which follows.
What is proper compensation for those who are in full time ministry within the biblically sound framework of New Testament order? Traditional formulas for clergy pay scales are of very little help in this regard. We need, instead, to look to principles found in God’s Word as a trustworthy guide in this matter.
THE PROBLEM IN EACH CITY
Because there are many splinter churches in each city, those which are in poor parts of town or which reach out primarily to the poor and nearly poor are not able to pay a pastor very well at all. The result of this, in most cases, is that such churches end up with pastors who have received little training and are not well equipped in the skills needed to help people break out of generational curses and cycles of dependency.
Many of these pastors end up having to work permanently outside of their genuine calling of being devoted to the word of God and prayer while shepherding the people. The result of this, usually, is that little genuine personal discipling and training of men takes place, and these churches are not effective in the basic Church mission of making well equipped disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. This predicament falls well short of the level of equipping the Lord designed for all believers to enjoy.
The apostle Paul, when just starting the Corinthian church, spent about six months working at his old trade of “prayer tent” making until the new baby church there got big enough to support him full time. Then the new Church did support him and he was able to do much training and teaching. Such bi-vocational work is not surprising in the stage of planting a new work; but it is not a permanent situation in the Bible, for those whose calling and work is the Word of God and prayer.
There are other churches, of the splinter churches in our towns and cities, which are well off financially. Most of these would not even consider calling a pastor who did not have an advanced degree. These churches often lure the men they want with good salaries, various benefits, and perks such as a new car every three years. This practice mimics the worlds of business and academia. It is not at all how local leadership is raised up, set in place, and taken care of in the New Testament.
In addition to this, there is a sad truth that the financially well off churches usually do not care about the poor church across town. They may say positive things about those churches, but there is no tangibly committed tie in with them, such as a financial one. Most such fellowships are not thinking in Pauline terms of giving generously to a financially pressed fellow church to the point that there is equality. (II Corinthians 8:13-15) Many financially strong churches are in danger of becoming like the church of Laodicea. (Revelation 3:17).
LOVE: THE BIBLICAL STANDARD
When New Testament order comes to any city, and the Church of that city starts emerging as the interdependent, relationally connected community God calls it to be, it is likely that the above inequalities will be felt in their full force due to an emerging relational closeness. The compensation of the true elder/pastors of the city should not continue to be according to worldly standards, such as education level, but according to the standard of love. There should not be some of the genuine elders of the city living like kings and others living like paupers. There should be compensation according to need, flowing out of love, based in relationship.
PRACTICAL APPLICATION
Ultimately this means that an elder/pastor serving a primarily poor fellowship should, as the whole church in the city pulls together, receive compensation similar to that received by another elder/pastor serving a more prosperous fellowship.
There are other implications as well, having to do with the needs of pastors’ families, and the stage of the pastor’s life. As an example; an elder/pastor who is 70 years of age and whose home is paid off does not need the same level of compensation as another elder/pastor who is 45 and has two kids in college and another in Christian School. A single man does not need the same level of compensation as his fellow elder of the same age, who has a wife and four children at home.
As individual elder/pastors go through the seasons of life, their compensation should change according to the level of need. This might mean that a 40-year old pastor who has children at home is receiving a 10% raise that same year that his fellows pastor who is 60 and whose children are grown and house paid off is not receiving any raise. Years later, this very same man might choose a pay decrease after his last child, in turn, is gone from the home and college.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Compensation should be that which supports an average lifestyle within that city as a whole. Neither the rich nor the poor should be the standard for compensation. Going to either extreme will make the task, of reaching the people of the city with the Gospel, much harder. Paying the elder/pastors poverty wages is abusing rather than loving, while paying them CEO salaries and perks is wasting the Lord’s money on luxuries, and is probably, at the root level, even if not at the conscious level, tainted with the exaltation of persons.
The church, by and large, has tended to emulate the world in this matter of compensation just as we have in the matter of church government. As we move toward a relationally based, love driven model in these matters, we will be modeling Agape love to a world which longs to see reality rather than phoniness in every aspect of our lives. We will also be pleasing the Lord who is the head of the church by walking in love in this business of compensation of those whose work is to teach, preach, pray, train, and oversee.
RETIREMENT
While this is not a Biblical concept, it is certainly a cultural reality here in the United States. Many pastors, rather than just totally retire, cut back somewhat and operate at a lower energy level, perhaps visiting in hospitals and people’s homes while doing a lighter load of preaching and teaching. This is good. It is important for the Church in each city to have these wise veterans around for however many years God gives them.
In Bible days there was no expectation that the secular government would take care of the needs of the elderly. Aged parents were always in the home of one of their adult children. Those who did not have children were taken care of locally, within the community.
Many older pastors are not part of the Social Security system. It used to be that many church authorities urged new pastors to take the legal option for those who were newly ordained clergy, to opt out of being a part of that system. There are many of these men who never did make enough money to put together a good 401k plan or other retirement income. It is very important that these servants of God not be cut adrift by the Church in their old age. The church has a very real community and family responsibility to take care of their financial needs.
Other elder/pastors, who are in the Social Security system, also should receive some loving compensation from the Church in their city as the time comes that they carry a lesser load, and perhaps resign from the full responsibilities of eldership. Even if they move to the sunny south, we who are left need to help care for their financial needs at some level. The love of the Lord requires this of us.
The time may come for some older pastors, when they do not engage in any formal ministry at all anymore. These who have become very aged or infirm, or who have chosen to retire totally, create a great opportunity for the Church to extend love. Some people, whom the Lord has blessed with a little extra room, may even welcome such people as these into their homes as their boarding guests. This is another practice with much Biblical precedent.
A BROADER APPLICATION REGARDING RETIREMENT NEEDS
These loving ways of caring for aging elder/pastors showcase a standard of love, which also needs to apply throughout the Church. Other people do have retirement income, at least Social Security, but we Christians need to be the first to open our homes to our aged parents and help them in daily life. We also need to be aware of and care for certain needs of the elderly within the church community. At a time in our nation’s history when the older people are being rapidly de-valued by society, we need to honor them and hold them in highest esteem.
CONCLUSION
As we Bible believing pastors who desire to see the Lord’s will done more accurately at the local level, enter more and more into citywide relational life as the Church in each city, we need to move toward these ideals of compensation for staff elder/pastors. The benefits of this will free many people from shackles of various types. The Lord will be pleased as the principle of II Corinthians 8 equality is practiced within a relational grid of dynamic love. God will bless and empower this.
