Order vs. Life: Directing Our
Attention Where it Really Matters
For we who live are always delivered to death
for Jesus’ sake, that the life of
Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh (II Corinthians 4:11).
The New Testament Church is not to be identified with a certain order,
program, liturgy, or structure. The Church of the New Testament is recognized by
the life
of Jesus Christ being expressed through its members. As Professor Burnett
Streeter, in his classic work, The
Primitive Church, wrote,
Whatever else is
disputable, there is, I submit, one result from which there is no escape. In
the Primitive Church there was no single system of church order laid down by
the Apostles. During the first hundred years of Christianity, the Church was an
organism alive and growing—changing its organization to meet changing needs.
Uniformity was a later development (Streeter, 267-68).
Streeter is
correct as is borne out by the fact that the New Testament itself bears witness
to a variety of church forms and order. The order of the church in Jerusalem is
different from the order of the church in Antioch. The order of the church in
Corinth is different from either Jerusalem or Antioch, and the order of the
churches of the Pastoral Epistles is different still. Commenting on the diverse
forms of order and ministry in the New Testament, Michael Harper says it only
makes sense, “If you view them as the ad
hoc promptings of the Holy Spirit amidst the most taxing circumstances.”
David Scholer, late professor of New Testament at Fuller Theological Seminary,
wrote,
The patterns of
authority in the early church are varied and fluid. There are no fixed
patterns, terms or offices. No single church structure and/or pattern of
authority or office is validated by the New Testament. The patterns of
authority in the early church are determined and described primarily by the
functions they served within the church (Scholer,
28).
Why does the New
Testament reflect such diversity in outward form and order? The answer seems
clear. The New Testament writers are obviously more concerned with the inward life
of the Church than with the outward form through which that life is expressed.
After all, Jesus came to bring us life, not a particular
ecclesiastical system (John 10:10).
We might also recall the words of the angel to the New Testament apostles when,
in Acts 5:20, he freed them from jail and instructed them to, Go, stand in the temple and speak to the
people all the words of this life.
If life
rather than order was the emphasis of the New Testament Church, should it not
be the emphasis of the Church today? Should not the churches today, therefore,
be seeking a revival of New Testament life rather than some elusive government
or order that cannot be found in Scripture? And if, in the first century, this life
of the Spirit was expressed through a variety of outward forms, should we not
expect it to be expressed through a variety of forms today?
The insistence by
some on a particular church order may, in fact, be the major hindrance to the life
of God being expressed through genuine revival in the Church today. Professor
James L. Ash, Jr. says that virtually all historians of early Christianity
agree that the institutionalization of early Christianity (the implementation
of a rigid church order) was accompanied by the loss of Spiritual gifts and
power.
In the 1970s a
number of Christian leaders, including well-known teacher Bob Mumford, talked
of reviving and restoring the New Testament Church, and were focused on
implementing a particular church order that they believed was revealed in
Scripture. One day Mumford heard the Holy Spirit say, “Bob, to have a New
Testament Church you must have New Testament people.” Mumford suddenly realized
that they were wrongly preoccupied with establishing an outward order and form,
when God would have them focused on helping His people to know and experience
the life
that Jesus came to give. He realized that “church” would not be realized by a
particular organizational structure, but in a living, functioning body of
Spirit-filled believers bringing glory to Jesus Christ.
Those who claim
to have discovered the divine or Biblical order, and want to impose that order
on everyone else, have been hoodwinked. The Church is not like a McDonalds
franchise where uniformity of food, surroundings, and service are the same
everywhere. Big Macs look and taste the same in Caribou, ME as they do in Paris,
TX. Not so the Church! At its very core, the Church is an organism--not an
organization--alive and growing, changing its form to meet changing needs.
The Church
exists to communicate Christ and His life to this world. If we are not
doing this, our church programs, titles, forms, and structures are absolutely
meaningless and have become a curse instead of a blessing--a hindrance instead
of a channel for the life of Christ to flow out to the world.
We must always remember
that the life of Christ flows through people, not a particular
organizational structure. So, as we create new forms and expressions of
“church” let us follow the words and pattern of Jesus who taught that leaders
in His kingdom are not rulers of God’s people but are diakonoi—servants—who will use their God-give gifts to help others
become (Mark 10:35-45).
This means that
we will not be seeking office, status, and importance, but we will use our leadership
gifts to serve others. We will create structures, not as a goal or an end, but
as a means to facilitate and nurture the gifts and callings of God’s people.
This will, in turn, facilitate the flow of the life of Christ and will
result in what has historically been called “Revival.” We will be “Releasers of
Life.”
WORKS CITED
Harper, Michael. Let
My People Grow: Ministry aNd Leadership in the Church. London: Hodder &
Stoughton, 1977.
Scholer, David. "Patterns of Authority in the Early
Church." Vol. 1 of Authority
and Governance in the Evangelical Covenant Church. n.p.: Covenant Publ.,
1993.
by
Eddie L. Hyatt
No comments:
Post a Comment