8 Reasons to be part of a Church 5) No Elders or Pastors (Heb 13:17 KJV) 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. One of the reasons God gave the local church was to allow a pecking order to exist for the purpose of keeping Christians in line. While Christians are redeemed people, they still exist in the flesh and can go awry in their walk. This is the reason that God gave Pastors and Elders to the local church so there would be a system of accountability. The primary function of these offices is found in the above verse. "They watch for your souls." Their principal duty is to watch over the flock in the area of spiritual growth. They are set there to be a guide to the sheep. counsellors they are established." Remember this verse in the area of guidance. The Bible tells us that in the church there should be a plurality of elders and not just one man. One man can be very subjective to personal ideas but if a teaching or situation is laid out before many elders, then an objective opinion could be more easily given because even the elders could check each other while they search. Without Godly oversight the same situation is going to happen to the church as it did to Israel during the time of the. (Judg 21:25 KJV) "In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes." Without accountability leadership, even Christians can go astray when left to the mercy of the world. The idea of "fellowshipping" around a radio or the internet as stay at home Christians do is foreign to the Scripture because God wants His church to interact plus we read in 1 Corinthians 16:1-2 that Paul was expecting the Corinthian church to take up a collection and have it waiting for him when he arrived. This was to be done in the context of the local church. There is not one shred of evidence in the Scriptures which teach the system of Pastors and Elders has come to the end. As a matter of fact, without any officia leadership sad situations could arise, such as a person may come into the assembly who is living in sin with another person and without leaders to deal with the situation, the person could tell the other Christians in the assembly to take a hike since they are not leaders. It is a fact of life that leadership is needed in the church to deal with problems that will arise in the spiritual realm. Can you imagine a corporation that dissolves its board of directors and management staff and places everyone on the same footing? Can you imagine the absentee rate? What about productivity? 4 hour lunches? How long would that company survive? It is the same with the local church. If the leadership offices are done away with and all you have is a Bible teacher, then what makes you think that your assembly will last? If accountability is done away with, do you honestly expect people to come every week? If there is no accountability, the sin nature will capitalize on it and will eventually dissolve that assembly and destroy the testimony of many. accountability is done away with, do you honestly expect people to come every week? If there is no accountability, the sin nature will capitalize on it and wil eventually dissolve that assembly and destroy the testimony of many.
Posted on: Tue, 25 Jun 2013 23:14:00 +0000
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