A Biblical New Testament Church

NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH
I spent two years studying the New Testament to see what it had to say about the New Testament Church. A lot of my study was informed by the original Greek so as to avoid modern English impositions in the meaning of words. I wanted a complete picture so I looked at everything.

When I had completed my study which included reading over 40 books, I realised that we had strayed far from God's word, so this is what I started talking about, not from the perspective of this is what you have to do but more a case of this is what the word teaches.

Here are some of the subjects I covered and my conclusions. Space does not allow me to post everything.

FOUNDATIONS
The church was birthed on the day of Pentecost with three things. One, unity. They were together, together. Two, prayer. They stayed in the upper room to await the coming of the Holy Spirit and to pray. Three, the power of the Holy Spirit. They were all filled with the spirit and spoke in other tongues. I believe we need all three to be an effective church. In most churches prayer is the least supported activity and most of them are prayers for God to help us or bless us. In other words we are in it for what we can get out of it.

DAILY LIVING
The met daily in the temple (they were Jews) and from house to house for fellowship, apostles teaching, prayer and meals together. When you do this it is hard to not like someone and not to care for someone. And be aware of their needs. Generally Sunday morning meetings are a barrier to this happening.

Their learning was the dialogue method in home groups, not the monologue method as we have today. Every one could share what they wanted without fear of censure.

THEIR AUTHORITY
They had two. Jesus himself whom they preached and his word. They had no traditions to draw on and no denomination headquarters. Although the Jerusalem church were Jews and went the synagogue as well, it did not determine their way of life under the leadership of Christ. There was no New Testament so instruction was verbal or through the gifts of the Spirit. Learning was by example and the Holy Spirit’s proceeding word.

LEADERSHIP
The New Testament is conclusive that leadership was by a plurality of Elders who were selected from within the congregation they were part of. Not once do you read of “pastor” leading the church and certainly not one that is brought in from outside the assembly. The word “pastor’ in fact does not appear in the Greek, it is shepherd. The word “pastor” is Latin and was introduced later the same as the Greek for “bishop“ is ‘pappa’ and was later changed to pope.

There is no evidence that the Elders were paid and there is evidence that they were not.

MONEY
Tithing was an unknown concept for the New Testament Church. They gave as the Lord prospered them and they gave when there were needs. The three main ones were widows and orphans, those experiencing famine and the financing of apostles whilst they were travelling and could not work. Once they settled they supported themselves.

No one was paid a salary and no money was spent on putting up buildings.

EVANGELISM
Three methods were used. The Lord added daily so it was supernaturally in response to the way they lived and cared for each other. The second was by the leading of the Holy Spirit telling them where to go and to whom. So that was supernatural. The third was preaching with signs following so that was supernatural as well. Today evangelism is about 25 on the agenda, which is probably why the church is not growing.

MINISTRY
This was by anointing not appointing. Either Christ gave you a ministry or you didn’t have one. (Ephesians 4v11). Most ministry today is by appointing from head office and devoid of anointing.

These five ministries are ministries not positions. Your authority was in the context of your ministry. For example, Paul was an apostle which means “sent one”. When he was sent by the church to preach the gospel and form a new assembly, he had full authority and anointing to do so. When he wasn’t doing this he was just apart of the fellowship, as he said I come AMONG YOU, not over you.

The ministry group was specific to carry out their ministry and the Elders were a specific group to oversee the local assembly. The ministry group was not superior to the Elders as they had different roles. Not once in the whole of the New Testament does it mention “a pastor” as leader of the assembly and as I have talked to people about this they have always fallen back on denominational “tradition” to support such a concept and they usually twist scripture and circumstances to support their unbiblical concept.

THE PRIESTHOOD OF ALL BELIEVERS
Many churches talk about this and say they do it but in most cases it is minimal assent. In the New Testament Church, everyone was a capable minister of the new covenant, probably because they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. At the same time it says that we are ordained to bring forth fruit. The word “ordination” in scripture has nothing to do with ministry,. It is to do with character and humility. In the New Testament, there are no words used to describe clergy or the clergy/laity divide. It was an unknown concept.

In Corinthians Paul says that when you come together, everyone has, not just a select few. What they had was the gifts of the spirit, not man inspired lectures and programmes. I was in a church in England for 10 years that had no pastor, no platform, no pulpit, no preacher and no programme.

We all arrived and sat until the Holy Spirit began the meeting, using one and another to contribute in various ways. One meeting lasted six hours. Frank Viola says that the appointment of paid leaders sounded the death knell of the priesthood of all believers as in most cases the chosen few perform up front and the rest are the cheer squad. As a result, most of the congregation never grow because they are not giving according to their ministry.

CHURCH
In the New Testament there was only one church in each town. The church at Corinth; the church at Philippi; the church at Laodicea etc. Paul castigated the Corinthian church for their division (denominations). The times that I have heard that denominations are of God are totally incredulous. Jesus prayed that we would be one. Denominations divide, not unite.

Jesus said he would build his church. That being the case we need to know how. Most of the time church leadership is building their church and the gates of hell are prevailing against it as a result. Until we confess our sin of ignoring Jesus and the Holy Spirit and submit ourselves to his will and purpose, nothing will change.

I hasten to add that churches in third world countries are submitting and they are the churches that are making an impact with converts being added daily. It is only westernised, self sufficient, smug churches that are losing the plot.

COMMITMENT
The New Testament Church was totally committed to their cause. They gave freely without consideration for their own needs and they accepted that dying daily was the routine. For some that even meant martyrdom.

The New Testament talks about sacrifice and death, being shunned and even killed. It does not talk about prosperity of finances. It talks about prosperity of commitment and sacrifice. They consider themselves to be their brother’s keeper. We usually leave that to the government to take care of.

They were very happy to take up their cross daily if it meant that Jesus was exalted and the good news was passed on to others. Being a believer in Jesus meant that it was a full time ministry for everyone, not just a select few who had been to Bible College.

These are a few of my favourite themes (apologies to Mary Poppins). In all there are many, many more which will appear on my website once I have developed one.

Grat said:

Only one point I’d like to see modified, that was the bit about only one church in each city. As the normal “local” gathering of believers would have been under 30 (due to space limitations) and probably normally closer to 10-15, when Paul referred to the church or churches in a city, he would have simply be referring to the conglomerate formed by all of these little groups combining. I’m sure that’s what you meant, but with most people’s blinkers from “modern” Christianity, they may misinterpret what you say to indicate everyone has to be a "memeber" of one central church.

Grat

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Sorry it has taken some time to reply. i have been living it up in the big smoke in honour of my wife's &*%^* birthday. Yes, what you say is a correct understanding of my findings. I believe they met from house to house (not in the so and so pentecostal or baptist church). All the people meeting in the houses constituted the church in that town. We read that they met daily in houses but only occasionally as a whole church so that wipes out the weekly Sunday morning meeting in a public bulding if you claim scripture as your guide.

I don't believe you are a member of a church. You are the church and a member of the body of Christ, which makes us all one in Christ. Whatever you call yourself, being a member of his body means that you and I accept everyone on that basis. If people want to make an issue of doctrinal differences that is there problem. Jesus did not say "by your doctrine people will know that you are my disciple." He said "by your love people will know that you are my disciple."

Sad thing is that most of the time we judged by people's doctrine, not their love.

I am a great fan of Frank Viola. Have read and own all his books. He tells the truth that is why he is not popular unless of course you want to know the truth.

Paul said:

marksman

And humans being human how long do you think it took for one small group to say, "Our teacher/leader is better than yours," "We follow the ways George teaches it," You read thoughout the letters from Paul about little disputes like this.

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I am not quite sure what you are alluding to here. I was looking for what they did right in my study as opposed to what they did wrong. Until you know what they did right, you can't know what they did wrong as you have to have some yardstick to make your judgments by.

The fellowship I have started is based on what they did right. If we end up doing something wrong, I will deal with it at the time. I see no need to anticipate problems before they happen. As a minister friend of mine taught, God guides a moving vessel, not one that is anchored in the dock.

I have learnt that fear is the darkroom where we develop our negatives. When we leave God to build HIS church we have nothing to fear.

Whatever we do wrong and I am sure we will, I don't see it as a problem. I see it as a learning experience because we do not mature in our succeses. We mature in our failures and I have had plenty of those.

NEW TESTAMENT ELDERS
“According to the New Testament concept of eldership, elders lead the church, teach and preach the word, protect the church from false teachers, exhort and admonish the saints in sound doctrine, visit the sick and pray, and judge doctrinal issues. In biblical terminology, elders shepherd, oversee, lead, and care for the local church.” [1]

From the verses I have listed, which cover all references in the New Testament, it is obvious that the oversight of the New Testament church is the province of Elders (plural). The word “Elder” in Greek simple means “elderly, older, senior” chronologically or advanced in age. Therefore Elders are the older men of the fellowship. This means that younger men cannot be Elders. Despite the overwhelming evidence to this fact, one of the leaders of my denomination said during a lecture on Eldership that the word Elder means older but a young person can be an Elder because he was made an Elder when he was 30. Apparently what the word of God said didn’t carry too much weight.

This same leader said that the passage in Timothy about Eldership qualifications doesn’t say you have to be older. It does say that your children have to obey their parents with proper respect and that they have to manage their household well. I happen to know that more than one leader in the movement have children that are quite rebellious and disrespectful. That doesn’t seem to matter if you are committed to denominational tradition. Seems like a case of we will move the goalposts to suit us if you fit our perception of perfection and devotion.

As Elders have to be the “husband of one wife”, they cannot be women and they have to be married if it is a requirement that they are husbands. Apart from the fact that “episkopos” which is the Greek word for overseer is masculine. Some commentators say that if a man has been divorced, he cannot be an Elder. In some church history writings it suggests that as a man gets older and fulfils the criteria for Eldership, he automatically becomes an Elder in the church. There are those who insist that the word husband is translated incorrectly, so I will let the Greek speak for itself. The Greek word that has been translated husband is “Aner” which means man, male, as contrasted with the generic anthropose which may refer to either sex. A man as distinguished from a woman or a child. A man as related to a woman, a husband. [2]

Bearing in mind that there was only one church in each town in the New Testament, and its rapid growth precipitated the need for Elders continually, so such a statement is understandable. Our problem is we look at it from a cultural perspective which divides the church up into individual groups in each town who often never talk to each other, and are governed by their own leadership which is quite foreign to the New Testament and the New Testament church. This unscriptural practice I believe has resulted in making the conditions for Eldership a man made tradition that we can control to fit it into a narrow concept of Eldership rather than a practical need to facilitate a growing church and a means of recognizing and making use of the wisdom that an older man has. To some degree this has arisen because of the cult of youth that we have in society and sadly to say in the church as well. The fact that so many “young” pastors are appointed tells us that we don’t rate wisdom very highly in the leadership stakes. For most people wisdom comes with age not enthusiasm.

PASTOR, WHERE ARE YOU?
In all these verses there is not one mention of pastors. One has to ask why? I cannot imagine if pastors were in leadership of the New Testament church that the whole of scripture never mentions them once in this context. In fact the term ‘pastor’ is only mentioned once as a stand alone ministry (not position) in the New Testament in Ephesians 4 v 11 along with the other four ministries given by Christ to the church. If we are going to elevate the ministry of ‘pastor’ to leadership, then surely we should be doing the same with the other four ministries as there is no injunction that one ministry is more important than the other four and there is no evidence that only the pastoral gift included leadership qualifications. In fact, there is nothing to suggest that those with a pastoral ministry are leaders outside of an Eldership. Therefore if one is going to elevate a pastoral ministry to leadership, all five must receive the same treatment so a person with a teaching or evangelistic ministry should be in paid leadership the same as “the person with a pastoral ministry” bearing in mind that all five are needed to mature the church so a one man ministry is quite foreign in the context of the New Testament church. At the same time there is no indication that one man has all five ministries.

Just as an aside, I note from anecdotal evidence that the most common complaint I have hear about the “paid pastor” model bearing in mind that to pastor is to shepherd the flock, is that the last thing they seem to do is….shepherd the flock. It seems to be more of an administrative role with lots of organisation involved and lots of preaching. Getting down and dirty with the flock seems to be the last thing on their mind. I was told by one of these “paid pastors” that his denomination has an instruction that they were not to let members of the fellowship inside their houses for fear of their private lives being under scrutiny. The leadership of this denomination would not have lasted long in the New Testament church as they met in each others homes on a daily basis. Research in the USA by the George Barna Organisation showed that the one man paid pastor on average spends 5 minutes a day praying. That tells you a lot about their role in the church. I think CEO might be a better term. More important it tells us that the modern day western church doesn’t need God to run their affairs.

PASTORAL MINISTRY v PASTOR
From these verses, we are exposed to the pastoral ministry, as opposed to the position of ‘pastor’. The pastoral ministry is primarily referred to in the context of eldership, not as a separate stand alone position as we have in the church today. Not once was anyone called or addressed as ‘pastor’ in scripture or the New Testament church and no one referred to themselves as ‘Pastor Smith’. Any reference to anyone was in the context of their ministry i.e. Paul who is an Apostle, not Apostle Paul. Likewise today, we should be saying “let me introduce you to David. He has a pastoral ministry”. It is quite incorrect to say “let me introduce you to Pastor Dave”.

If fact in critical textual analysis, if there is no mention of something i.e. there are 770 verses in scripture that speak of marriage and not once does it mention homosexual relationships, therefore it is accepted and assumed that marriage is between a man and a woman and there is no place for Adam and Steve. As there is no mention of the position of pastor in the oversight of the church, then we have to assume that there was no such person.

[email protected] said:

re: The previous post by Marksman. Don't need to quote the post here, but I recommend its reading to everyone. I have gone over and over it and cannot find anything about it which is Biblically unsound. On the other hand, I cannot use the same principles to justify the 'traditional organization' of churches today.

If these things are true, then we as the body of Christ have strayed from the original design, from the original vision and from the original way of living. We have been caught in a trap of our own making.What can we do?

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Since I discovered these truths in scripture, I have been "church watching". It is noticable that we may be experiencing the next move of the Holy Spirit as there appears to be an abandoning of organised religion which is being replaced by organic religion where people meet in the home to experience God for themselves without the control of ördained" leadership. I read about one church in India that was meeting in homes that was 100,000 strong.

I believe God in his graciousness gives us time to embrace what he wants, but if we make it clear we are not interested he will move on and work with those who will.

Personally, with this understanding of the word of God, I have realised that I am not a member of the church, I am a member of the body of Christ and when ever two or three of us meet together Jesus is there. That means the church is active in the cafe, the park, the home, the office, the workplace, in other words where two or three meet together. In this setting, we don't have to sing songs, listen to sermons or take up offerings. We spend the time sharing and caring, praying for each other, edifying each other from the word and eating together. In other words, our focus is knowing each other and knowing God.

In most Sunday morning meetings this does not happen because the all important thing is the programme. Nothing must stand in the way of that.

Before separating myself from organised religion, I did share these matters with the church but they rejected it outright because it did not fit in with denominational tradition, which as we know all too well, is more important than what the bible says.

Since I have done this, I have discovered that there other home groups in the town who have the same vision so I have got a feeling that we are going to see a development of this concept by the Lord amongst us. What I want to do is teach everyone that whenever two or three (or more) meet, that is the church in action regardless of where it is. What that means is that we can bless and edify one another any time of the day or night and we don't need a programme or someone ordained present and we can experience the prescence of God. This does not need hymn singing or sermons. just a willingness to learn from each other to esteem each other better than ourselves.