God’s Order and Assignment for Pastors
(Part II)
Eric J. Hanson
In my previous message, I taught about the nature of the equipping gift of pastor.
• First of all we learned that the word pastor means shepherd.
• I brought out the important fact that in God’s plan, there will be many believers whom He has equipped with a genuine shepherd’s heart. It seems that about one in 15 believers is wired that way by God, to take genuine shepherding oversight within a small group, a church class, a youth ministry, etc. These people are indeed pastors; ground level pastors.
• There is another level of pastors, which level is the elders of the church. These men have pastoral responsibility over the whole local church. There seem to be about one of these for each 12 or so ground level pastors, or typically about one genuine New Testament elder/pastor to 150 church members.
• Ideally, each local church should have several such elder/pastor-teachers sharing the teaching and preaching load, while respecting each other and exalting the Lord Jesus Christ. In the last message I went into how such men should be discovered to start with, and then trained and placed into the office of elder. I also touched on the Bible’s requirements for anyone desiring this ministry.
Today, I wish to teach on a super important matter which I only touched on last message. This is the matter of the Biblical Church unit, which is the Citywide Church. New Testament order in church government and ministry can only work at full effectiveness, as we move toward this reality of the Church in Oxford Hills, or the Church in Lewiston, or the Church in ten little villages in far Northern Maine.
Jesus prayed passionately for all believers to be one as He and the Father are one. John 17: 20-23 tells us just what he prayed, and even why he prayed it. Let’s go there now.
The apostles always addressed the Church in each city; never First Baptist Church, or Trinity Assembly of God, or the Vinyard Church of West Overshoe. Jesus’ prayer and the apostles practice are always centered around a great church in each locality with hundreds of groups meeting in homes, and a great Congregation meeting as well, with at least several elder/pastors in place, with a variety of prophets and teachers speaking, and with connections to apostles. Furthermore, Jesus, and no man, is the Senior Pastor, or “arche-poimen” (Greek). There are not alternate church models in God’s word.
In order for the believers and the church family as a whole to benefit from fully realized New Testament order in both Government and Ministry, we need to move toward this Bible model of what the Church is. Let’s start with a look at the current problems, and then move ahead from there today.
I need to point something out about current structure of the Church in America and the Western World.
• One supposedly Bible Believing church claims that anyone who speaks in unknown tongues is “of the Devil”.
• Another one on the next corner teaches that you must speak in tongues or else you do not even have the Holy Spirit in you.
• One teaches extreme 5 point Calvinism,
• while another teaches extreme Arminianism, (but their pastors do not talk these things over with each other.)
• One is very involved politically, urging believers to participate in the public square in bringing light to dark areas.
• while the next teaches that believers should not even talk of such things, because these are tainted and of this World.
• One teaches that it is a sin to dress up in fine clothes for church meetings because our beauty in not to be of the outward man, and so as not to exclude the poor,
• while another teaches that it is a sin not to dress our best for church, because we are going to meet with someone of utmost importance and we show our respect in this way.
• Each teaches that the other church group is in sin!
• These are only a few of the many areas of conflict among the splinters of the Lord’s Church within each city.
The reality is that we are all warped!
• This is because of the root sin of prideful independence, and willful self government.
• This is because of failure to submit to the impassioned cries of the Lord that “we all be one, even as He and the Father are one, that the World may believe…”
• This is because of the exalting of persons (Calvin, Wimber, Luther, Copeland, Schofield, Whomever) as warned against clearly in I Corinthians 1 and 3.
• This is the fruit of sin.
• My heart cries out for this to change radically so that the Church in Oxford Hills may emerge in truth and in deed!
Now to that next point, about mutuality among true elder/pastors:
Consider this too. Ephesians 5:21 says to all believers, “Submitting yourselves to one another in the fear of God”. This scripture is for all believers. Any elder/pastor should be able to receive input from any believer. If any man is not approachable and genuinely able to receive adjustment and even correction when needed, He has no business being an elder. The more mature anyone becomes in Christ, the more approachable they should become, not brittle, not prickly, but gracious and genuine in their listening. By the way, this goes for every other believer too, not just elders.
I have included an excerpt from my book Restoring the Lord’s Church in Every Town and City.
Practical Benefits
Accountability is improved dramatically.
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.
Balanced Teaching which is more thorough and more accurate
With six or eight or twelve biblically qualified, proven, mutually submitted elder/pastors 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 “splinter” churches in the city. There is really a tremendous jump in quality to be had through this.
The World Sees Love and Unity among the Believers… Citywide!
When Jesus prayed for this in John 17, the strong reason he gave in His prayer was “So that the World may believe that you (Father) sent Me (Jesus).” Genuine love and unity among all the true believers is the key of all keys to unlocking the heart of the city to believe on Jesus. There is no apologetic as effective as supernatural love and unity in convincing people that Jesus is Lord and Savior. The result is many people coming to saving faith in Jesus Christ.
Strengths are shared and weaknesses eliminated
(as in the book excerpt above re: teaching, music, outreach to the poor, etc)
Elder/pastors are in a proper place
• Churches with CEO style “Senior Pastors” have often been beset with the exaltation of certain persons, (contrary to I Corinthians 1 and 3) and often financial sin, power abuse, and sexual misconduct by the “high pastor” has been the bitter end fruit of that initial sin. Also, if an open scandal with the Pastor breaks out in these churches, the people/sheep scatter, because they are more identified with one man than they are with Body Ministry. This is horribly warped. This cannot stand in true New Testament order.
• Churches with voting type (Congregational) government often dominate their pastors with the threat of dismissal unless he “tows the line”, conforming to that church’s (warped) doctrine, practices, attitudes, etc. Many genuinely “called of God” brothers have been crushed in this type of church set up, where sheep ultimately rule over shepherds. This cannot stand in genuine New Testament Order.
• Churches which are imbedded in systems where the big decisions are made somewhere out of town by denominational higher ups, go through the terrible situation of having “their pastor” sent in as a virtual stranger by virtual strangers, and then taken out again and sent somewhere else according to some timetable or other inscrutable factors far away. This hierarchal brand of abuse cannot stand in genuine New Testament Order.
• Churches in all of these traditional systems get most of their preaching/feeding from one man with one gift set, rather than a rich mix of elder/pastors with a rich mix of Romans 12 motive gifts and life experiences, personality types, etc. Over time, the church reflects the personal biases and blind spots of that one primary pastor/teacher. This is corrected in genuine New Testament order. There is much better pulpit balance and accuracy in New Testament Order.
This has been a different sort of message, but you need to know that these things are core convictions of your elder/pastors. Hosanna Church needs to have a deep understanding of these ultimate church life realities, because, for whatever reasons, God has placed us in sort of a lead position on this matter.
Many years ago we tried really hard, and for a long time, to have complete genuine New Testament order here at Hosanna Church. Through many painful trials and much searching, prayer, and consultation, we have learned that a single splinter church, such as Hosanna Church, within any city or region, cannot really have this beautiful and Biblically correct system working properly. There are too many missing parts! Also God’s supernatural blessing is released on the Church as a whole, not on any splinter group trying to be the whole Church by itself.
We need our brothers and sisters in Christ across the Oxford Hills, and they need us too, whether they know it or not, and whether they acknowledge it or not. We need each other at a deep reality level; not at a superficial level.
Please pray for these things to come to pass. It may take 50 years. It may take serious persecution to bring this about; but pray that instead, it will come more quickly from tender heartedness, humility of mind, laying aside of self rule, and simply the love of God and a revelation of New Testament Order overflowing in the elder/pastors and other church leaders of the Bible Believing Churches of the Oxford Hills.
Also, as we focused on two weeks ago, are you called into a ground level pastoral role with a small group, an outreach, or class of some kind here within Hosanna Church? Multiplication of ministry is much needed here. Is there a love of such things burning inside of you? Please see the elders, and let’s sit down and talk about it.
May God bless you richly today and in the days to come as you walk with the Lord.
