Joining Structure

Okay guys, I am about to put up a new post but I wanted to point you in the direction of some new stuff on this blog. First, I have some new/old friends on my list. I have been following these blogs for some time now, i think you might enjoy them. Also I have a poll up, it only has a couple more days before I put up a new one. Vote now or forever hold your peace. Finally, The posts I am about to begin uploading are a little more nuts and bolts, so no more broad stroke for us from here on out. That means new ideas and even some controversy. So let the fun begin.....go!

Joining Structure:

I began my ministry when I was about 16 years old. After I “surrendered to being a missionary,” the path presented itself in a pretty predictable manner. I started by giving little talks (they were not good enough to be called sermons), then I started preaching. I went to a Baptist University where I studied theology and was a supply preacher in small country churches for years.
After I finished at the University and went to the mission field as an ambitious little missionary, I began to see the foundations of many of my beliefs crumble. I learned about Chronological Bible Storying (CBS). I found the value in being the vessel of God’s word and not opining or endlessly sharing what I thought the scripture ‘meant.’ I found that many of the things I had taught or preached had been misguided and sometimes even wrong. I felt guilty for having led God’s people astray and betraying their trust. I realized how weak and limited vessel I was. It was through this process that I found solace in the CBS method. I was able to memorize and share larger portions of scripture with people. What I found was that the scripture is authority! My opinions were just a pitiful attempt to translate God’s words into something I thought people would understand. I found out quick that he did not need my help. His word is sufficient; it does not need my help or translation. What happens more often than not is that we water down God’s word and original meaning with our explanations. Therefore, my place as a ‘leader’ became less important. I was not the one who gave inspiring speeches but rather a vessel for His words. If I did it right I would be forgettable in the light of his word.

Then I began to see this dirty side of myself. I gloried to some degree in the attention I received. As you receive accolades and compliments and are treated like you are special something happens. You begin to believe your own hype. You begin to think more highly of yourself than you ought. And that even affects the way you speak. You begin to speak down to the people like you have some special authority and they need you to be enlightened to Gods word. There was a moment while I was in Peru when all of these dirty things in me began to rise to the top. And I realized that all that time I had been stealing His glory. All of those acolytes were his and I had accepted them as my own. The praises of men, belong to him alone. Those praises had puffed me up and caused me to take pride in my self, glory in my own abilities. It broke me to know I had stolen praises from Him. I vowed to do my best to never let that happen again. I would not raise myself above others. I would not let people believe I was better than I was.

As this affected me over the years I had an evolution in my beliefs regarding leadership. I had learned how destructive and even unbiblical the traditional churches leadership structure was. It became so clear that the churches leadership structure was based on a worldly system, a business system. I longed for something more than that. I did not want to be part of that heirchy. I learned how there was no distinction between clergy and laity; we were all one, brothers and sisters all on the same level. (Matthew 23) I learned that Jesus taught and modeled a different leadership structure. But in a reaction to the top-heavy structure that I had always known I rejected any form of leadership in the church. I ignored clear examples in scripture that demonstrated a different type of leadership. I recognized Christ as the head, but I denied any other style of earthly leadership. This is precisely because I did not want to return to this hierchichal style of leadership and quite frankly, I knew of no other way to do it. I could not imagine there being any other way.

But as we began to meet in an organic way in simple churches several things came to light. One is that man desires a leader to go to God for him and even to go before the church for him. We are spiritually lazy by nature, and we are afraid to be confronted with our own filth. We want someone else to represent us because it allows us to maintain spiritual respectability while still wallowing in our fear and sin. The Israelites told Moses to go before God on their behalf because they were afraid, but afraid of what. It says they were afraid they would die. Die?! Why? Because they were filthy idolaters in their hearts. They knew it, but thought no one else did. But if someone goes for us and “they” speak to God and then tell us what he said. Well, then we have an option to obey or ignore what he said. We take it to heart think it and even agree with it but we generally never obey it. You see the thing is, you take away our leaders and if we want to have a relationship with God we have to go before him ourselves. We generally do not want that. Why? Simply put. To be in the presence of God IS to change. If you are in His presence, you are exposed, every thought, sin, doubt, everything. Being in his presence experiencing his perfection, his love, his compassion, his holiness his being. And then we see ourselves for who we really are, down inside, not what we present to the world. This encounter in itself changes you. Deep down in your core you are changed. You are either humbled and ready to serve and obey him or you knowingly disobey him and deny him. There are no longer grey areas. We fear this because as long as it is vague we are safe.

So I believed that we all need to go before God and seek him. And I still believe this to be true. But as time went on and we grew in our understanding in Him we saw a new form of leadership rise up. It was so unlike what I had always seen in the traditional church or even the world that it was hard to recognize as leadership. See my definition of leadership was defined by the world, not Christ. As we saw this new leadership arise, many of Christ’s teachings on leadership began to make sense. Remember how he basically taught that it was the opposite from what we see in the world. Least shall be the greatest, first will be last, etc See I learned that leadership was based on living not leading. I was introduced to an organic/biblical form of elders. When I speak of elders, I am not talking about a position or office in the church. What I am speaking about is much more simple. They are the more mature brothers and sisters in Christ. This is not determined by age, by the job you have or how you are respected in the community. This is determinate on how you obey Christ. When we teach our missionaries about this concept I get them to think about that one person who has been the most influential person in their Christian walk. Their spiritual father or mother, someone who taught them how to live in Him, someone they really respect in Christ.

I have many but I want to share the example of Finis Christenberry. He was one of the elders in the church where I grew up. See Finis was a dairy farmer. He ran a dairy for many years. But beyond that he was a sweet man of God who worked tirelessly for the kingdom. He was forever an example to me of how I should live. He loved God with his whole life, he served others continuously, he was generous, he loved his wife, he took time out to love on children, and he just seemed to me to be like what Jesus would be like if he were an old dairy farmer instead of a carpenter. Finis’ sweet wife Vivian died, and it seemed as though he leaned on Christ even more after his loss. I knew he was in pain but you could see and feel the comforter, as he was always present with Finis. He would visit my great-grandmother almost everyday and spend some time talking and praying with her. He always brought her a piece of candy. Sometimes he would show up and she would be asleep in her chair, he would leave the candy on the arm of the chair. As Finis got older his health faded. He got a very painful cancer and was advised to go into the hospital so that they could help him with the pain. Finis refused because his ministry of visiting people, praying with the saints, encouraging and visiting the sick was too important to him. So he continued serving. In his final days he was placed in the hospital, and though I wasn’t there I know he served and ministered to people from that hospital bed till his dying breath. Finis to me is the perfect example of an elder. I never sat under his teaching or discussed theology. I admired his walk with Christ and tried to emulate it. I learned from the example of his life. He was no head honcho in any church. He held no real position. He was a normal member of the body, but he was an elder in his actions. THIS IS BIBLICAL CHURCH LEADERSHIP!

If you were to visit a simple church you often will not recognize the elders at first sight. They are not necessarily the ones speaking or making decisions. The do not dress differently nor do they pray with old English. They are just simple believer like you or me who have been walking with the Lord a little longer than the rest of us. God has blessed them with wisdom and grace. When there are decisions that need to be made they are expected to give wise counsel and the body simply weighs the decision in light of their wisdom. Then they decide as a body what to do.

Many use the 2 lists for Requirements for elders to say that they were meant to be offices or a lower form of clergy. Well I have two objections to that. First, we must remember that Paul was writing to/about a people who were worshiping in churches that were multicultural and most of these new gentile believers were coming from several various pagan cultures they did not have a judeo/Christian moral code. These were new concepts for them. They needed to be explained and named just so that they would know what was appropriate. And secondly, if it were to be naming special characteristics for a clergyman, wouldn’t we expect that their requirements would be higher than the normal/average believer. But if you look at them you see that these are the things we all desire to be and the standard is not extremely high. See this is an explanation of what a mature believer/elder looks like. Paul says, if you want to be a mature believer, that is great! This is what it looks like or rather, this is how you should live/what your life should look like.

2 Timothy 3:1-7
• Be above reproach
• Husband of one wife
• Temperate
• Self controlled
• Respectable
• Hospitable
• Able to teach
• Not a drunk
• Not violent but gentle
• Not quarrelsome
• Not money hungry
• Must manage his own family well (children obey him with respect)
• Not a recent convert
• Good reputation with outsiders

Titus 1:5-9
• Be blameless
• Husband of one wife
• His children believe and are not wild and disobedient
• Not overbearing
• Not quick tempered
• Not given to drunkenness
• Not violent
• Not pursuing dishonest gain
• Hospitable
• Loves what is good
• Self controlled
• Upright
• Holy
• Disciplined
• Holds firm to the word

See these are not extremely high goals. They are what we are all striving for as a minimum. When they speak of the work of the Lord do not misconstrue that to mean a vocation or position. That would be reading our experiences into the word. These were normal people with jobs who were serving in their local body and to the world outside. Just because you are doing God’s work does not mean you have to have a position; remember the least will be the greatest. See, I have learned more from men like Finis and others than any preacher or positioned person in the church. Because that is the way the church was created to function. Remember Jesus words “pagans lord over...not so with you…the least will be greatest” Consider: Matt 20:20-28; Matt 23:8-12; Luke 22:24-27

The job of elders is primarily living out there function/purpose in the church and discipling others. Especially discipling those who share his similar function.
So, if you are a Teacher and you are mature in the Lord, lead and serve in that capacity and disciple others in how to live, when you have the opportunity to disciple someone who seems to have the same function, teach them how to be a better teacher.
If you are an apostle, take a young apostle on a church planting trip with you. Teach him/her how to live out your purpose in that context. Now, this is not confined to just your function, often through discipleship you can introduce a brother to a new function that they adopt and grow in. (We will discuss these functions in more detail later)

Everyone is at a different level in their spiritual maturity. Do not look down on others.
I believe that if we began to follow this simple biblical example it would completely revolutionize the Christian world. If there were elders in each church leading by example and discipling then there would be a never-ending fountain of future elders. The body would be growing at an unprecedented rate and the training would be more obedience and life based than theory and theological debate. This would cause every church to be a “bible college” and every body to be a “seminary” tasked with training the new generations and sending His ambassadors into the world. The current Seminary system is flawed to its core. It is financially burdensome; it provides discipleship to those who can afford it. It only serves to sustain a system that is crumbling by simply trying to keep pastors in a church. This is like sending reinforcements into a sinking ship. We need to learn to train our folks to be relevant and live their faith out in a way that is organic and life changing. Think of the disciples, Jesus mentored 12 men who became the elders who were training elders to train elders. This is all discipleship. It is dirty gritty work but it is the biblical model we should follow if we know what is good for us.

All that being said, we have found a new type of leadership to fill that hole that existed for so long after doing away with the worldly, hiercical system that we were accustomed to. The new system is so different from anything we see in the world that it helps remind us that His ways are not ours. We know who the mature believers are among us and we respect the wisdom and direction the Lord has given them. We also recognize that the Lord continually provides more elders as we disciple, obey and be the church.