Tag Archives: house churches

Some Powerful Characteristics of the House Churches in China

Posted on by

These are some powerful ways that God is working in the house Churches in China. May it stir us to believe firstly that God is real and a living God today. And that He desires to have a new testimony in the West of His Church that trusts Him and glorifies Jesus Christ and not men or miracles! May God do this as we all step out to gather in small gatherings under the Headship of Jesus Christ. And have renewed faith to boldly share the Good News of Jesus Christ.

 

1. House churches are indigenous to China.
House Churches are not affiliated or associated with any organization and certainly have no formal ties with any Christian churches outside China. When the organized churches were destroyed in the Cultural Revolution, traditional forms of Christian ministry were also done away with. The dynamics of house churches, therefore, flow partly from their freedom from institutional and traditional bondage. Without an institutional and hierarchic structure the house churches rely on the Holy Spirit for guidance. Just like the Holy Spirit gave directions to the early Christians the house churches also receive direct instructions from the Holy Spirit.

2. House churches rely on the power of the Holy Spirit.

The house churches operate through the gifts of the Holy Spirit.  At the time when there were few Bibles in China God had anointed a sister with a special charismatic gift of reciting Bible verses. God feeds His people with His word if they hunger for it. A sister in the house churches recounts this testimony: While the family was praying for guidance God spoke to them through interpretation of tongues and gave them a message. God told them they have a mission to warn all the Christians in the free world that they have to prepare themselves for the coming Great Tribulation. The Christians in the western countries will experience the same kind of sufferings and persecutions that the Christians in China went through.

3. The house churches abound with miracles, signs and wonders

It is said over 80% of house church christians follow Christ because a miracle verified the Gospel for them. How else can you convince atheists there is a One True God? “God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will.” (Hebrews. 2:4).

“After singing praises they all knelt down and prayed in unison. Many were praying in the Spirit; some laid hands on him calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Within a few minutes Tong felt the pain in his right thigh was gone. The wound had healed instantly. He was released from the hospital without amputation. Brother Tong showed me the scar on his right thigh. He looked at me and smiled, “This is how I came to know Jesus. Praise God, HalleluYah!” He then picked up the phone and called long distance to a relative in Indonesia and witnessed to him about the Lord Jesus Christ”

4. The house churches receive God’s protection

In order to avoid detection by the Chinese Communist government water baptismal sites are often obscured, remote and hard to find.

At one time over six hundred believers in a certain locality had to be baptized. The leaders had chosen a national holiday because they figured on that day the number of Communist military men on duty would be minimal. The baptism was to be administered at night so that the movements of the believers could be kept secret. They had chosen a river deep inside a mountainous area that could only be reached by walking through a ravine. There was only one way in and a one way out. Thank the Lord Jesus Christ over six hundred believers were baptized into Him without a hitch in the river that night. It was still dark when the believers started walking out of the baptismal site. When they almost came to the opening of the ravine the dawn was beginning to break. They saw something that perplexed them.

There were many guns strewn all over the place, but no one was there. Everybody praised the Lord that the baptism was carried out successfully.

On the following day a house church brother overheard the conversation between two soldiers in the marketplace.

One soldier was saying to the other: “It was weird yesterday. We received information that many
Christians were inside the ravine. We were setting an ambush for them. Suddenly an army of giants appeared.

They had shiny white uniforms. We did not shoot them because the gunshots would let the Christians know we were there. The giants were big and strong and they were coming straight at us with their drawn swords. Every one of us got so scared that we left our weapons and ran for our dear lives. . . .” God protects His Church.

 

 

 

 

Problems With the Current House Church Movements

Posted on by

This article is very powerful and addresses alot of the problems, lack of balance and areas of growth needed in many current house church movements and networks in the West. Brother Andy Zoppelt addresses these in love and we pray these can be received the same way by brethren who read this. This is just part of the full article:

—

 

We in the house church movement in many ways are taking the same path as those in previous movements. We have accurately pointed out the major faults and flaws in the institutional church: pastor, pews, programs, buildings, indifference, denominationalism, hierarchy– the list seems a mile long. We all agree that this institutional system of church is absolutely different from what we read about in the early forming of the body of Christ. It is, without exaggerating, a 180-degree turn from what Jesus and the apostles set up in the early church. At this point we all agree. But have we really looked at the sin in our own camp.

Problems that need to be addressed

1. The spirit of division. Most house churches I have visited are quite content in being “us four and no more.”  Because they are meeting in the shelter of a house, they have turned inward in believing that somehow they are inherently different… even New Testament! Most are having little or no impact on their community, the poor, those in prisons, those in need– and many are not even impacting missions. They easily have forgotten that even the early house church was never meant to be an end in itself. They have forgotten the responsibility of being connected and functioning locally in the city. They reject others meeting in homes in their same area. We now have micro-division rather than macro-divisions.

Jesus made it clear in John 17 that unity was not an option for His disciples. We are either gathering or scattering, we are either for Him or against Him. We don’t have many options if we are truly going to follow Jesus and keep Him at the center. Each group or leader clutches their group as though it were theirs. Whose church is it? Whose people are we? The people are scattering looking for shepherds after His own heart.

2. There is a spirit against leadership. House churches often overreact to the false leadership of the institutional church by denying the biblical need of the five-fold ministry. Their kind of “priesthood of the believer” has denied the ministries function within the body of Christ and denied many of His servants on a universal level. They forget that these ministries are gifts to the church as “God has appointed.” (1 Cor. 12:28-21 and Eph. 4:11)

A tremendous price will be paid by denying those whom Jesus sends and anoints. Our individualism and independence have created a false sense of body ministry. Because we deny the diversity of ministry of the universal church, without which we cannot survive in times of shaking, God has withheld from us His power and presence.

Many individuals feel threatened by the experience and revelation of the five-fold ministry and shelter themselves in isolated home meetings. They have forgotten that the diversity of all ministry is not competition but it complements and builds up the body of Christ. This is one reason that the church has such a low level of maturity.

3. No burden for the needy. Ministry has almost come to a complete stop in the house church. When I was an institutional pastor, we would go to the streets to minister and feed hundreds of people. Even the city of Fort Lauderdale stood up and took notice; they asked how they could help. The local newspaper did a full 2-page write-up on us. We went into the jails and nursing homes. We were a light on a hill. Now I feel disconnected from my local brothers rather than us pulling together. The only burden we have is what we shall bring for the meal after the meeting. If we don’t have His burden, we cannot know His will, nor can we speak for Him.

4. Giving.  Our anti-tithing doctrine has led to a greed where giving is non-existent. It matters little what we believe concerning the tithing issue if our believing doesn’t include giving up our selfish attitude toward our finances to pull together locally and trans-locally. If we don’t support the poor, we are worse than the institutional church. Paul mentioned over and over his concern for the poor. Jesus said the ministry to the poor was a sign of one being his sheep. Even John questioned the presence of the Holy Spirit being in a person of indifference in 1 John 3:17-18

We often think of homosexuality as the sin of Sodom and the reason that God destroyed it. “Look, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughter had pride, fullness of food, and abundance of idleness; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty and committed abomination before Me; therefore I took them away as I saw fit.” Ezek 16:49-50

 

The Powerful move of the Spirit in House Churches in China Is Normal Christianity

Posted on by

This is an excerpt from the Back To Jerusalem Book by brother Paul. It is a powerful challenging book for us in the West. May God stir you to consider reading it. The following is a testimony by brother Peter Xu a underground House Church leader:

—

 

When believers are united around a common goal, we can head there together, putting aside our petty differences.  When we lose sight of our common vision, we stop looking forward and begin to look at each other.  Soon we see each other’s weaknesses and faults, and instead of fighting for the kingdom of God we start fighting each other.

It’s quite simple to tell a strong church from a weak one.  A strong church is one that is a spiritual baby-making center.  Souls are being saved and discipled around the clock and the church is a hive of acitivity.  There is no time for believers to sit around and argue with each other.  There are too busy just trying to clean up the mess these newborn babies make while simultaneously trying to prepare more bottles of milk to keep them fed!  As the father of 2 small children, I well know what struggle this can be!

Some churches are full of people who think it is their calling to keep other people in line so that they don’t get polluted by the world.  This may sound like spiritual activity, and the people who make the most noise about it may look pious, but if their words produced no spiritual life, it is all a waste of time.  It is far better for us to concentrate on preaching the gospel and let God police his church.

Sometimes foreign Christians visit the house churches in China and make comments like, “The church in China is extraordinary.”

This is not true.

“Normal” Christianity for a believer is surely when we live according to the pattern of the church laid out in the word of God.  The church in the Book of Acts did not have remarkable experiences and success, they had what should be normal lives and experiences for any church that claims to have been redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus!  They were the standard for us to follow.  Much of the church in the world today, including in China, is abnormal and unbiblical. May we all fall to our knees and seek the Lord’s help to live out what he accepts as normal Christianity!

 

 

I have come to understand that it is completely impossible for even a single lost person in the world to become a Chrsitian unless a great miracle takes place. Lost human souls are firmly chained prisoners of Satan and his demonic forces. They cannot be argued into the kingdom of God because their problem is not an intellectural one.  Nor is there any point in trying to change their outward behavior if they do not have the inward spiritual life that only Jesus can give. The Bible clearly says that every person outside of Christ is spiritually dead, and a battle needs to be waged for his or her soul.  People living outside the grace of Jesus Christ are trapped by the devil, “who has taken them captive to do his will” (2 Tim. 2:26).

The demonic forces that hold souls captive are far more powerful than we are, in our own strength.  There is not the slightest possibility that we can lead anyone to the foot the cross unless Jesus himself becomes involved.  Only his power can save a sinner.  The good news is that we can be completely sure that Jesus will help us to reach the lost for him, for the word of God says, “He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

God will move in the great power to “retrieve plunder from the fierece” (Isaiah 49:24) because each person who puts their faith and trust in Jesus brings glory and honor to God’s holy name and magnifies the wonderful victory Jesus pruchased for mankind by his death on the cross.  It is only when Jesus gets involved with our lives and ministry that we will start to see others come to know him.  Jesus asked, “How can anyone enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man?  Then he can rob his house” (Matthew 12:29).  It is only when we learn to walk hand in hand with our Heavenly Father that the strongman who dominates the lives of people and whole nations will be bound.

Now Is the Time to start House Churches start with servant leaders

Posted on by

“That which would now develop should not be another exclusive body or sect of Christian people, another denomination. It was to be an expression of the heavenly and universal Church in its unity and calling.” – Bakht Singh

A large number of believers have begun to gather in various homes with a sincere longing to worship God in Spirit and in truth. There are many who have been seeing to understand God’s order for His Church, 1941 there came a paradigm shift in his vision and mission. He began emphasizing the important of local churches that would function under the Headship of Christ. According to the new Testament, the Church includes only those men and women who receive the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour and Lord.

We can see this from Acts 2:47 where the Lord added souls daily to the Church – not to a building, but to a group of people who believed in the Lord Jesus and had received His Holy Spirit.

Every local church should be administered by elders (when possible as that gifting is given by the Holy Spirit) as we see in Acts. “And when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord on whom they believed.” (Acts 14.32) “The provision or appointment of elders in all the churches appears vital to their constitution as a local church.”

THE EXAMPLE OF THE METHODIST CIRCUIT RIDERS

“This group of rough yet broken men would travel the frontiers of America for decades, taking the Gospel to the most remote places in America. In a time of American history where it was easier to stay in one place and live in the comfort of the few cities that existed, these men refused comfort and driven by the ancient dream of Eden to see man and God live in intimate fellowship. They rode on. Over half of them died before reaching age 33 and their annual pay, if any, was around 50 dollars. They did not do it for the love of money, fame nor an affinity towards human comfort. They were absolutely marked by the same determination as Asbury that every home in America would hear and believe the Gospel. When Asbury arrived in America there were a few hundred Methodist followers and a few dozen preachers, but by the time he died there were over 210,000 followers and over 4,000 preachers. America would never be the same because of these wild-eyed revivalists.”

“Their reward: Nothing in terms of societal success and yet everything in terms of the glory of God! These leaders lived for a cause greater than themselves. They were dangerous to the enemy, and powerful in the hand of the Almighty God!”

THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHINESE CHURCH FOR THE WEST

The Western Church needs to do what the Eastern Church already do. They pray for the West because they cannot understand how westerners remain Christians in such affluent societies. That’s true, because persecution always focuses and strengthens the Church as no other circumstance can. We are one body. Pray for the underground Church!

They also have bible college to train leaders. There is no classroom, or enrolments – the bible college is very secret and only selected people attend. They meet in the evenings in peoples homes and study through different topics, learning biblical exegesis, and looking at doctrine and important themes. From this new leaders are equipped to teach others in their own house churches.

The Great Sufferings of the Underground Church in China (audio)

Posted on by

This testimony from brother Edgar is powerful to listen to and humbling. Oh that we would learn from our underground Chinese brethren and go out with apostolic simplicity to share the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Persecution and the Underground Church in China by brother Edgar (mp3 audio)

Brother Edgar shares very powerful accounts of suffering of true disciples of Jesus in the underground Church in China. In comparison in the West we fall so short of the same authentic reality of these simple believers. This message is a informational message but also a call by the Holy Spirit to us in other countries to follow Jesus Christ whole-heartily in revival.

Some excerpts from the message:

“I have nothing to say when the Holy Spirit does not give me a word to say.”

“From the outside china seems closed but we see doors open. We have to carry the cross of Christ and through this way there is never a closed door for the Gospel.”

“It is the Churches responsibility to preach the Gospel to their generation.”

“This Persecution brings purifying and that  brings more anointing.”

 

Coming Persecution To North America and House Church Movements

Posted on by

There was a recent prayer conference call that has been dedicated to praying for the underground churches around the world called: Persecution Watch led by brother Blaine. Gospel Fellowships was asked to come on the call and have a brother share on the burden for persecution in North America and house churches.

Matthew 24:9-14

New International Version (NIV)

9 “Then you will be handed over to be persecutedand put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. 10 At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, 11 and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. 12 Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13 but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

You can hear the recording of what was shared on the call before the Q and A time and prayer time below:

Coming Persecution And The Gospel Fellowships Movement (mp3 audio)

Brother Greg shared about some of the burdens of Gospel Fellowships mostly from the case of coming persecution to the West. He shares some thoughts that encourage believers to consider a different wineskin Church model in the West to House Churches because of apostasy and persecution by even mainstream church denominations.

Some excerpts from the audio:

“Persecution is not something we seek after, it is not something we try to make happen.”

“When the Church is at its best, it is being persecuted the worst!”

“The world as our Lord said hated Me and will hate you also.”

“Our job saints of God is not to condemn the world, its in darkness and sin, but we have come to give the light of God, we are the light, the Church is the light.”

“The Gospel Fellowships burdens. It has been the burden of not just myself or a few others, it has been a burden of the larger body of Christ.”

 

The signs of times calls for House Churches and gatherings of believers

Posted on by

Dear Ones, we feel as time is passing the sins of the nation we live in are becoming more clear and worse and also the sins of the Church. There is a lack of repentance and desire to seek the Lord in many larger assemblies who are indulging the believers in all types of worldly entertainment and foolishness.  God in love is calling for repentance and change. May we each respond to the Spirit in the right way and be open to His direction and leading.

God is calling many saints to gather together in House Churches and other gatherings to be edified and encouraged in their walks with the Lord. Maybe God is calling you to encourage true believers to gather mid-week in your area to have fellowship and worship as the Church.

This Scripture quoted below speaks sadly of the apostasy of the spiritual leaders of the land who were not shepherding or leading the people of God in truth. Is it not beginning to be so also with many in this land?

Jeremiah 5:21-31

New International Version (NIV)

21 Hear this, you foolish and senseless people,
who have eyes but do not see,
who have ears but do not hear:
22 Should you not fear me?” declares the Lord.
“Should you not tremble in my presence?
I made the sand a boundary for the sea,
an everlasting barrier it cannot cross.
The waves may roll, but they cannot prevail;
they may roar, but they cannot cross it.
23 But these people have stubborn and rebellious hearts;
they have turned aside and gone away.
24 They do not say to themselves,
‘Let us fear the Lord our God,
who gives autumn and spring rains in season,
who assures us of the regular weeks of harvest.’
25 Your wrongdoings have kept these away;
your sins have deprived you of good.

26 “Among my people are the wicked
who lie in wait like men who snare birds
and like those who set traps to catch people.
27 Like cages full of birds,
their houses are full of deceit;
they have become rich and powerful
28     and have grown fat and sleek.
Their evil deeds have no limit;
they do not seek justice.
They do not promote the case of the fatherless;
they do not defend the just cause of the poor.
29 Should I not punish them for this?”
declares the Lord.
“Should I not avenge myself
on such a nation as this?

30 “A horrible and shocking thing
has happened in the land:
31 The prophets prophesy lies,
the priests rule by their own authority,
and my people love it this way.
But what will you do in the end?

How Do I get involved with Gospel Fellowships?

Posted on by

There have been many emails of how to be involved in what Gospel Fellowship is doing. We appreciate these comments but want to say first that we believe God is doing the work. There is a movement already of many saints and believers who are seeing the end-times purpose of God, who are seeing that we are the Church not a building. Who are seeing the need to gather in simplicity and trust in the Holy Spirit of God like the House Church movement in China. Who see there is One Church and denominations are dividing the body of Christ in North America.

Gospel Fellowships is not anti-denominational nor anti-church building but we do see that apart from these there can be greater unity and also operation of the body of Christ. Namely Gospel Fellowships is about one thing the Headship of Jesus Christ over the gathering of Believers.  Jesus Christ is to be first and last and everything, He is to be spoken of much and often. The Church is His.

Here are some practical areas of involvement that you an take at this time in no order of relevance or importance:

 

1 – Prayer For a Movement

We believe there is great confusion, division and men leading the true Church who are not truly shepherding the flock. We ask that all true brothers and sisters pray for Gospel Fellowships that God would allow many true shepherds and pastors to be raised up to lead the people of God not to be under them but to lead them to maturity and release them into their gifting’s (Ephesians 4:10-13).  There is great end times confusion and deception that in many ways is already starting to be upon us. We need to see a vital, strong and unified body of Christ in North America. May we pray for all saints everywhere in North America that God would unify and gather together His true elect believers for end times evangelism and true revival.

 

2 – Like us on Facebook:

We are utilizing Google+ and Twitter but Facebook seems to be the easiest tool right now for user engagement and simply connecting as many people as possible into daily updates and announcements. Joining us on Facebook is important for it first says you are a part of the movement of Gospel Fellowships. It also will connect you with other like-minded believers through commenting on updates.  You can also share Gospel Fellowships posts with you friends on your Facebook wall and therefore share some of the important truths being given.

 

3 – Share the Website GospelFellowships.net

You can share the website with others on your blog, it would be tremendous to write a review of the burden of Gospel Fellowships and some of the content of the site. It can be a great way to express your personal opinions of Gospel Fellowships and share them with others on your blog, website or social media. Linking back to GospelFellowships.net will also help us increase in the search rankings for terms like: “House Church”  ”House Church Movement” “Underground Church in China”  etc  and thus many more believers in North America will read the challenging materials.

 

4 – Start to Gather In Small Groups

This is a challenge to start to assemble in small groups of even 2 or 3 believers in Jesus Christ. Our Lord promised where we intentionally gather in His Name He would be present with us (Matthew 18:20).  Your gathering can simply meet for prayer for revival, the body of Christ. Or you could gather to read through one chapter of Scripture together and have a prayer and discussion.  One burden we feel would be good is to verbally pray at the beginning of the meeting specifically asking the Lord to be Head of the meeting and proclaim the headship of Jesus Christ over the Church. Your meeting must be focused on Him.

 

5 – Be involved in regional Gatherings

We are God willing hosting regional gatherings in the near future in many places across North America. The simple burden behind these times is to allow saints to gather together, some from established house churches, some from biblical churches and others who are out of church.  The burden is that in these meetings brothers and sisters would connect with each other and as the Holy Spirit leads be able to find groups to join together in or have 2-3 that meet that could start a new gathering of believers.  There will be 1-3 elder brothers from different backgrounds who will come to share messages on the Gospel Fellowships burden and there will be time for prayer, worship, fellowship and even breaking of bread in some cases. You can see a listing of regional gatherings here and on Facebook we will be announcing each regional time.

 

6 – Principles Book Release / Reviewing

We are releasing the Principles Book which will be a manual in a sense on how to gather as a group of believers. But it is not a how-to book but rather gives principles from the Book of Acts, Underground Churches in China, North and Iran. Also there are articles speaking on End Times burdens for the body of Christ and some practical articles also. Lastly there is a small hymnal, liturgy (scripture and other early church readings), statement of faith and other practical resources for a small house church fellowship to utilize or start with.  You can be involved in “reviewing” the Principles book on your blog or website if you are interested in doing this before its release please email us at: gospelfellowships@hushmail.com and you will receive a PDF copy before its official release.    We are getting the book out in many formats including hardcover, all will be given at cost and no profit will be made. If some house church groups are interested in helping with ordering the hardcovers or would like to receive a large amount of them please contact us also.

 

 

 

Prayer Conference Call discussing and praying into the Gospel Fellowships Movement

Posted on by

We just had a wonderful time on a nation-wide prayer conference call organised by Dai Sup Han called Prayer Surge Now. This is a wonderful ministry that has many precious intercessor brother and sisters involved. We spend 2 hours sharing some of the burdens of Gospel Fellowships as well has having some questions asked and specific intercessory prayers towards what was being shared.

We heard from many brothers: Brother Greg, E.A. Johnston, Mark McCourt and Frank McEleny.  Ranging from sharing about the initial burdens of Gospel Fellowships as a gathering under the headship of Christ to hearing a testimony of God awakening a brother to righteousness the time was full of blessing and encouragement.

You can hear the recording here in mp3 format:

Gospel Fellowships – Conference Call Meeting Feb 16 (mp3)

Here are a few excerpts from the time on the call:

“It’s about the testimony of Jesus Christ, its about Jesus Christ our Lord, its not about men, its not about famous pastors, leaders, its about the Lord Jesus Christ and the testimony of Jesus Christ, this is what this is about.” – Brother Greg

“We are simply servants and simply brothers and sisters, all of us just brothers and sisters in the Lord.” – Brother Greg

“What matters is not the gathering but what matters is the headship of Jesus Christ.” – Brother Greg

“In China suffering and persecution is part and parcel of being a follower of the Lamb.” – E.A. Johnston

“All they have is Christ.” – E.A. Johnston

“They love the presence of Christ and the Holy Spirit. The best way to describe the Chinese Church is they are a pure New Testament Church.” – E.A. Johnston

“I didn’t care anymore about pointing the fingers at anyone else. For the first time in many years the Lord was saying: ‘Mark there is something wrong with you! you need to wake up!’” – Mark McCourt

“What I saw absolutely stunned me. What I saw was 100 people standing to their feet and they were literally glowing with white….     God please show me if this is in the Scriptures…. The Holy Spirit directed me instantly to revelations…..  If you do not wake up I will come as a Thief and you will not know what hour I will come. But you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their garments and they will walk with me in white.” – Mark McCourt

“I think that most Christians agree that the end of the age is upon us. Christ is coming soon.” – Frank McEleny

“When persecution comes there is going to be a separation of the sheep from the goats.” – Frank McEleny

God Himself calls some members of the Body of Christ to leadership

Posted on by

Christian leadership is a debated topic, yet just because of abusive examples of leadership in modern evangelicalism does not mean leadership is not vitally important. This article excerpt by Zac Poonen gives a clear vision and burden so that we should seek and pray for godly leaders to be raised up in house churches and small gatherings of believers.

The true heart of a shepherd and leader will be his desire to see the maturity of the body of Christ to the full stature of Christ. And also to protect the souls of each member of the body from false teaching, the devil, sin and worldly lusts. Leaders who are used by the Lord will bear a greater account to the Lord (Hebrews 13:17).

Here is an excerpt from the Principles Book where this article will be given in full when released:

LEADERSHIP

God Himself calls some members of the Body of Christ to exercise spiritual leadership over others. One of the first things that all such leaders must recognize is that Christ is the only Head of the Body. Headship is never delegated by Christ to anyone. Individual domination in a local church (or group of churches) or in a fellowship of Christian workers, is therefore a positive violation of the Sovereign Headship of Christ.

This is why the leadership prescribed for the New Testament Church is through a body of elders (plural not singular). The elders together are to exercise spiritual authority.850 In Matthew 18:18-20, Jesus said that where two or three gathered together in His Name, He would be present in their midst giving them authority to bind and to free. The immediate context of the passage (see v. 17) seems to indicate that Christ was referring primarily (though not exclusively) to the elders of the Church (being at least two or three in  number) exercising this authority. One person by himself apparently could not exercise such authority. (Otherwise it would have been meaningless for Christ to specify “two or three”).

We are not living today under Old Testament conditions. In those days, God often appointed one man to lead His people – e.g. Moses, Joshua, David, etc., Those leaders were all types of Christ. Now that Christ has come, He alone is the Head of the people of God. And He works through corporate leadership in the Body.

In the early days of the Christian era, the Lord did give a special authority to the eleven apostles and to the Apostle Paul, over the churches, but that was because the Apostles were the foundation stones of the Church 851 and were the channels through which God gave His written Word to the Church. Such a situation does not exist today, and so it would not only be foolish but audacious for anyone to justify his authoritarian actions by reference to Paul’s action as an apostle. It is more likely that such a person may be like Diotrephes rather than like Paul.852

Diotrephes was a self-appointed `apostle’ who wanted to take the lead single-handed in the Church. He is denounced in no uncertain terms by John. Wherever a man today seeks to give single-handed leadership to God’s people, he stands in great danger of leading them back to Old Testament conditions spiritually. This must be borne in mind especially by those with strong leadership capabilities.

No doubt, God does even today, form teams of Christian workers, where a Timothy and a Titus work under a Paul. But this should only be in the initial stages of the formation of the team. As time went by, even Timothy and Titus were considered by Paul as fellow-workers of equal standing and not as junior helpers.

The divinely-ordained plan for leadership in the Body of Christ is through a group of elders (whether for a church or for a team of workers). This is a provision that God has made for the safety of the Church – to prevent any one person’s point of view becoming too dominant.

—-

Footnotes:

850 See Acts 14:23; 20:17; 1 Timothy 5:17; Tit. 1:5; James 5:14; 1 Peter 5:1

851 Ephesians 2:20; Revelation 21:14

852 3 John 9