I’ve read many articles and heard many audio messages on different issues within the churches. I am thankful for all the people and all the local churches that stand for the truth and do not compromise in their walk. But there is an issue this article will deal with that some people have spoken on but not nearly enough time has been given to it.

Have we ever stopped to really examine if the way we do church is in line with the Bible? Is the way that “church” is carried out something that is above scrutiny or is it also something that we must hold against the standard of the Bible?

Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good.
(1 Thessalonians 5:20-21 - ESV)

While testing everything is shown above in the context of prophecies, it is a good principle for us as professing Christians to test everything against what the word of God says. And that includes the very system of church that is so prevalent in our world today.  Not every church holds to it but many do and as we continue in this article, we will see why there is cause for concern.

We are called to measure everything against the word of God. That means even the traditions that many of us hold sacred and have been handed down from generation to generation. The way we do church is one of those sacred traditions. And unfortunately, the system that we see popularized in our society is a faulty system that has strayed from the Bible.

This topic is a big one personally for me and if you visited the older version of this website, I wrongfully allowed my emotions to get the better of me in this. For those of you who have followed the site since its inception, I apologize for how I was and my immaturity was a major reason why I closed the site for a time. By the same token, I am  very thankful for those churches who are Biblically sound.


CHRISTIANS ARE THE CHURCH

Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.
(Acts 20:28 - ESV)

Very simply, the church is a group of people who have been washed clean by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. These people have repented and believed in Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins and continue to have their faith in Him each day. The church a unit comprised of a multitude of believers. It is not a building, institution or an organization. It is an organism, aka  “the body of Christ” made up of many members.  It is compared to “a holy nation” made up of many citizens.  It is referenced as “Zion,” referring to God’s people. And it is  “a royal priesthood” which means that each person is a priest.  It is also referred to as “the bride of Christ.,” and just like the “body of Christ” we know a person’s body has many parts.

Acts 20:28 makes it very clear that those who have not been cleansed by the blood of Jesus (aka saved or converted) are not part of the church. It doesn’t matter if a person is  considered a member of a local church. If that person hasn’t been purchased by the blood of Jesus, that person is not part of the church. Remember, the church is about the people of God who follow Jesus Christ. The local churches are the assembling of people together in a particular geographic location.

Now if the church is about people, how did we reach the point where now “church” stands for buildings, institutions and organizations? We are brothers and sisters in Christ, aka the family of God with the same bloodline in Christ. Is your earthly family a building? Is it an institution? Is it an organization? Indeed it isn’t. So why do we do this with the church?

Forgetting what “church” is has caused us to allow anyone and everyone to become part of what we deem “church.” I agree that unbelievers should be able to attend a church service but nothing should be tailored to the unbeliever. They need to see the difference in Christians. Church is about the people of God and our greatest outreaches to unbelievers should be in the form of evangelism (going outside the church meeting). Church is about having family time with our brothers and sisters in Christ and just become we sometimes have invited guests doesn’t mean that we should lose our identity.

Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?  What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever?
(2 Corinthians 6:14-15 - ESV)

Our fascination with trying to attract the “unchurched” and reel in the unbeliever has led us to compromise the things we are supposed to hold dear. In order to accommodate the unbelievers, we’re compromising our own convictions so that they feel more comfortable. In essence, we’ve become more worldly in many churches. And as a result, we are becoming more like them than they like us. Surveys even show nowadays that it is hard to distinguish a professing Christian from an unbeliever.


TRUE CHURCH LEADERSHIP

Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil.
(1 Timothy 3:2-7 - ESV)

Let’s pay attention to the word “overseer.” A church leader does not rule the church like a king but is simply an overseer to the King, Jesus Christ. Remember, no church can ever belong to any one of us because it always belongs to Christ. A church leader is a steward and is responsible for looking out for fellow brothers and sisters in the faith. He is not to dominant his congregation and bring them in subjection to himself but is to help others follow his Biblical example of being subjected to Christ.

Look at how leadership is in many of the churches of today. Many local churches have just one main pastor instead of a plurality of unbiased elders that help to keep each other in check.

And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.
(Acts 14:23 - ESV)

Church leadership is biblical but as brothers and sisters in the faith, we are all accountable to each other no matter what our position is. Many times, we’re seeing one person or persons exerting their vision and their will over the local churches without any type of involvement of others. In Acts 15:22, we see that decision making was something that included the church as a whole so that they were on one accord, not just for leaders.

So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the suffering of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed: shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly;  not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock.
(1 Peter 5:1-3 - ESV)

One question we should be asking toward those who refer to themselves as “pastors” and “elders” is this: How can you be a Biblical elder when you don’t even know personally the people that you are shepherding? Pastors, do you know your whole congregation and are you aspiring to do so or are you too caught up in writing the next book, attending the next conference or doing a world tour?  A good shepherd knows all of his sheep and cares for them . This is why Peter stayed in Jerusalem and allowed Paul to go out among the Gentiles.

There is a lot of “shameful gain” going on in churches today. We see it in all the merchandising (books, CDs, DVDs, conferences) of these church leaders and also how they wrongfully burden people to “tithe” when it isn’t even a requirement under the New Covenant. Since when should it have ever become a burden for Christians to come together? Why are leaders being paid salaries up front to do ministry? And then, even the seminaries are a part of this by charging people to be trained to become church leaders. Where is any of this in the Bible? We can’t use the excuse that our society today dictates it because the Roman society was pretty sophisticated itself. Guys like Paul and Peter had ample opportunity to merchandise the people but they chose not to. Shameful gain is rampant within the churches so much that unbelievers use it as a reason to have nothing to do with Jesus. And rightfully so because would we merchandise our earthly brothers and sisters or would we freely share?

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