Spiritual Authority

I am taking a short break from spending my time in writing my book to post the following message.

There is a false teaching and attitude that has been circulating around the Christian community that fosters sin and rebellion.  It is an evil taint and twisting of scripture.

It is one that I have encountered this week while studying Galatians.  It is one that has been tugging on me since February when I first encountered it when reading about the beliefs of a ministry on the internet.  It is very close to home right now, and I am grieved over it.  Many churches and ministries fondle this passage to promote the human notion of equality within community and even within governance.

The passage:

” For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” — Galatians 3:26-29

Many have wrongly taken this passage to mean that everyone is equal as Christians.  It does not matter if you are male or female, young or old, we are all equal.  There are no barriers between us any more.  What a man can do or want to do, A woman can also do.  The authority of a bishop or pastor is no greater than the member.  We are all equals in authority.  This is a heresy and goes against the context of this passage and against the rest of scripture.  It is true that all who come to Christ are equally redeemed from their sins and enjoy the abundant new life God gives, but it does not mean that all are equal.

This passage needs to be coupled with the following particularly as it relates to roles within the church.

” For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.” — Romans 12:3-8

When both scriptures are rightly applied, the Holy Spirit is instructing Christians that not all members have the same function.  This particularly applies to other passages of scripture that forbid women being pastors, overseers, bishops, or elders. see 1 timothy 3:1; Titus 1:6.  This is a hard saying for some, but one I must say.  The church is not a community of equals.  God appoints Pastors to watch over them and Deacons to care for them.  As spiritual authorities and leaders they have been delegated authority by God and been given gifts to watch over the members, members need so show them obedience and submission, just as Jesus showed us in the garden before he went to the cross to bear our sins.  He submitted and was obedient.

Members need to submit and be obedient to our God appointed spiritual leaders.

Repent Christian of your rebellious heart;

Seek Forgiveness from your Spiritual Leader now–Do not wait, Again I say NOW!.

Humble yourself before God and His appointed and delegated authority.

Your Brother in Christ.

Making cheese in church

…Those joining from other web logs…my comments about women as deacons begin in the 3rd and 4th paragraph…and continue in two lengthy related comments…

My home church is still going through the process of seeking out our senior pastor/elder. A few years back I worked in a cheese factory, and the process of seeking a new senior pastor is much like working in a cheese factory. There are a lot of dirty, smelly parts that need to be cleaned out before any cheese can actually be made. Our congregation is in the process of identifying those spots.

Sometimes in the process of cleaning the factory to make cheese a little dirt and grim gets splattered on some of the workers, and those workers need to remember that the process can be dirty and that they have a responsibility to just wipe the dirt off and reminded their coworkers to be careful about cleaning and that some of the dirt you wiped of fell and landed on me.

Deacons? and Women as Deacons?
Another one of them is considering whether or not our church will have deacons. In the past the church has had them. Currently our church has an elder board and the elders serve a dual role of elder/deacon. Additionally, there are members in the congregation that all ready ’serve’ as deacons they are just not formerly called. The question came up and will likely be explored, What about letting women serve as Deaconesses?

This is my response to having women serving as Deacons. I will share it when the time is right with our church body, but I am sure other church bodies and individuals may be struggling with the same issue so I wanted to post it to my web log, for my five readers.

I am not opposed to having women deacons in a church, but when starting something that has not been practiced for awhile, I do not want to just throw the men of the church away and tell them, yes, you are part of this church, but we all ready know you are not going to be able to handle being deacons, so we are just going to have women step in and start right from the beginning. Do I want to send that message to the men of a church. The message you can’t do it so don’t even try–or do I want to send the message you can, but you need the LORD to help you…and also don’t forget that women can help and they have a lot of talent and they want to gladly serve in the church.

The bible teaches that the office of deacon is for men (1 Timothy 3:8-13). It does not remove women from their responsibility of using their gifts (talents) in serving in the church, but only as being formally called. (Greek word for deacon and servant are the same for you Roman 16:1 people) It is more about the nature of men and women. Generally, men need to be called and given purpose and a task to serve. Generally, women will see something that needs to be done and in the absence of no one else doing it will likely step in and do it or to help.

This formal office restriction is not to hold women back from serving in the church. Is that even possible? For example, they serve in even little things like helping set up the food for the potluck after worship service when they see a sister trying to do it all by herself. A woman would just step in and start helping. Or if walking by the nursery and seeing three crying babies and a frazzled nursery worker, a woman would just step in to help out…Men would just walk by and think that is not my job, maybe we need more nursery workers and more people on the church banquet committee to help.

How many more women’s bible studies are out there compared to the number of men’s bible studies?

This formal office restriction is to offer a challenge to the men of the church. Men like challenges. Generally, men are not just going to spontaneously want to meet with other men. Particularly for a “church” activity or for “church” service. There is the perception of male bonding in the world being only for homosexual men, real men would not want to bond with each other. But given a task to achieve, they will form cooperatives and work together. ie, professional sport teams. Men will work together in their task to win. It is a focused task and involves challenge.

In that vacuum of having no assigned tasks, men will just hang around and wait, women will want to act. The passivity of men always leads to trouble. Think about the poor leadership that Adam displayed in the garden. Do you think that Eve was really that far away from Adam when she was tempted by the serpent, that he did not know what was going on? Yet he did not act…Passivity not a good thing in men, when action is needed.

There is no doubt that the men will stumble and fall, but that is why we are making them deacons and not elders. The elders can act as a supervising board to keep the deacons focused on their service tasks. In the end, the men of the deacon board will see the value of asking the women of the church to help out and serve in the church. On the other hand having the women serve as deaconess in the church may lead to “nagging” the men to do something to help out. The men of the church all ready have mothers and wives that lovingly remind them of their duties. Do they really need another group of women telling them they have more duties they need to be doing?

The men will just use the excuse you are the deaconess. Some of them may even think to themselves you wanted the responsibility, go and do it yourself. Some may even just become a sponge for two hours on Sunday then go home. Silently wondering now that church is over I can get back to the real world. Making church even less relevant for men. Current statistics for church attendance is 60% women and 40% men.

Deacons are to look out for the physical needs of the church–ie, make sure that the communion is set up on Sunday morning, that the baptistery is filled and ready to go when there is a baptism, that the microphones, amps and other musical equipment are set up and ready to go for praise and worship time, that the sanctuary is clean and ready for worship, that the bulletins are printed and passed out to those in attendance, that people are greeted at the door and escorted into the sanctuary and seated comfortably, that the classrooms for Sunday school are set up and ready to roll, that the materials for Sunday school are in place, teaching guides, etc (these guides and teaching aids all being approved by the elders, but distributed by the deacons), that the plaster on the wall is repaired and is not in danger of falling off, that the weekly cell groups are equipped with the supplies they need, etc.

To use the analogy of city government. The deacons are not to be the police, the town council, or planning commission of the church that is the job of the elders and in some cases the entire congregation. The deacons are the laborers in the city: the fireman, the city utility workers, the street sweepers, the garbage men, and even the postmen of the town. The deacon in charge of setting up the chairs for Sunday school is not to tell the deacon in charge of cleaning the sanctuary how to do his job (even if the deacon is doing a poor job). It is the duty and responsibility of the elders to tell each deacon the scope of their jobs and make sure they do not overstep their position nor understep it either.

I think of it in the context of the parable of the talents told by Jesus (Matthew 25:14-29, see below). Deacons are the two talent men of the church. They are not gifted with five talents (the elders of the church are the five talent men), nor are they only one talent men that bury their talents. They do need to be reminded from time to time that they are only two talent men, and not five (guard against pride), but that they have TWO TALENTS and they need to use them in Kingdom building.

Church service by Women
I do not want to give the impression that women in the church do not have “talents”. All women in the church have been given either five, two, or one talent. The challenge for women in the church is serve in the church behind the scenes and look to laying their treasures in heaven. For where your treasure is, there is where your heart is..and not follow the lazy servant and bury their talent.

Besides given church statistics of almost 2/3 of all church attendees as being either other women and children, the women of the church have plenty of opportunity in teaching and leading the other women and children of the church. Even I admit that is not very glamorous. I well understand this having quietly taught in a Sunday School class for several years with an average attendance for this year of eight people. You often wonder if you are making any real contribution and want to do more. Know that every person in the Kingdom is valuable and teaching even one is an honor and will not go unrewarded by the King.

Does anyone really doubt the gifting of Beth Moore or Ann Graham to teach? I occasionally listen to Beth Moore teach on-line to help me in teaching my adult Sunday school class, given that most weeks the majority of my class is women. There is also great need for women to be evangelists and reach out to the lost. Who else could be better to witness to a single mother about the Salvation of Jesus? The battered and abused wife and children? Do you think either of them would trust a man, given the pain the men in their lives have caused?

Matthew 25:14-29 (NKJV, 1982, Nelson)

14 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. 15 And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey. 16 Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents. 17 And likewise he who had received two gained two more also. 18 But he who had received one went and dug in the ground, and hid his lord’s money. 19 After a long time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them.

20 “So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, ‘Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them.’ 21 His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’ 22 He also who had received two talents came and said, ‘Lord, you delivered to me two talents; look, I have gained two more talents besides them.’ 23 His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’

24 “Then he who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25 And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.’

26 “But his lord answered and said to him, ‘You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. 27 So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest. 28 So take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents.

29 ‘For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. 30 And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’