DISAPPOINTMENT WITH ORGANIZED RELIGION AND THE CHURCH

I too have become disappointed with church. Let me try to explain. The greatest commandment is to love our Lord with all of our being (Matthew 22:37), and this requires us to abide in his Word before all else (John 14:21-24). In fact, this is the only way to love God.

However, it seems that many pastors’ first concern is to make their church a comfortable place so that people will want to come back and to support their church. I don’t want to be too critical, because I know that the head pastor is under tremendous pressures and sometimes shoulders them by himself – a lonely place to be.

Nevertheless, we must first be God-pleasers before being people-pleasers or a success-story. To put anything before our Savior is idolatry and represents friendship with worldly desires, even those desires that are wholesome in themselves:

·       You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. (James 4:4 ESV)

As Jesus had taught, to put anything before God is spiritual adultery:

·       “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” (Matthew 10:37)

As a result, many former church attendees have become disillusioned as they have watched the Church pander to the standards of the world, but the disillusioned have often gone to the opposite extreme by rejecting the Church entirely. Several Facebook respondents have therefore written that, although they continue to believe in Jesus, they now reject all forms of organized religion.

Should the Church be organized? There is no doubt about it. So many NT teachings are predicated on an organized Church, for instance the appointment of deacons and elders:

·       appoint elders in every town as I directed you…For an overseer, as God’s steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it. (Titus 1:5-9)

A church without organization is biblically unthinkable. Even before the NT Church existed, Jesus laid out a role for this organization to address the unrepentant sinner in their midst:

·       “If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” (Matthew 18:17-18)

The Church is the supreme body to proclaim whether or not the sinner is still bound by their sins. Nevertheless, due to our collective sinfulness, we shouldn’t be surprised that the Church can be a messy organism.

The more difficult question is, “What kind of organization?” We should be able to agree that its first duty is to preach and teach God’s Word, even as the world continues to reject it:

·       I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. (2 Timothy 4:1-2)

But what should be the structure of the Church? Even though all believers in Jesus are part of the Body of Christ having equal value before God (Galatians 3:28; I Corinthians 12) as a “royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:9), there remain role distinctions:

·       And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. (Ephesians 4:11-14)

Yet while some of us might be overseers (elders), we are to lead by example and not by the authority of our position:

·       So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings 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)

What does this say about the structure of the Church organization? Should there be denominations? Should the supervisors and regional offices have the right and power to appoint and to remove the elders or pastors from their individual churches? It would seem not, if they are forbidden to dominate but to lead by example. Instead, this must remain the choice of the local church.

But the Apostle Paul claimed that he had the authority to use even a punitive and authoritative oversight (2 Corinthians 13:2-3, 10). However, I don’t think that his example should be normative for today’s Church. For one thing, Paul had spoken with the authority of the Lord Himself:

·       If anyone thinks that he is a prophet, or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a command of the Lord. (1 Corinthians 14:37)

Consequently, his word was as Scripture itself, and he performed miracles to back up his authority. Besides, at the time of Paul and the Apostles, the Church was yet a baby Church. I therefore tend to think that the examples Paul and the Apostles and the fledgling first century churches should not be regarded as normative.

Nevertheless, I do think that there are exceptions, especially in regards to the planting of new churches.

One last consideration: Should the overwhelming responsibility of the church be placed on the back of just one individual?  Even though churches usually have elder boards, these usually leave the preaching and spiritual decision-making to the professional – the seminary-trained pastor.

However, this doesn’t seem to come from a biblical mandate but from convenience. Instead, Paul had directed Timothy to appoint multiple elders in every town (Titus 1:5):

·       For an overseer [elder], as God’s steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it. (Titus 1:7-9)

After all, there is wisdom in a multitude of counselors. Consequently, in order to comply with the biblical model, churches should be moving to the model of shared preaching and teaching among the elders. In fact, the growing hostility towards the Church might even require a return to home churches.