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Part II
The
Second
Phase of the Church
Corporate
Relationship Concept
Chapter 10
More Church
Structure Possibilities
The
ideas I will discuss in this chapter are
possibilities for apostles to consider for church structure. It
probably will cause some eye-brows to be raised—some eyes may even roll right up
in the head! But keep in mind that they are
possibilities.
They are capable of coming into
being, but they have to first "bear witness" with those who would be led to
implement them.
Maybe
we will simply be challenged to stop and think where we are going and ask if God
is in it or not. That would be a good place to start. The suggestions made here
are things to ponder. On this journey, we must find our way together.
Everyone A Priest: Tent-making for Everyone
When a
church is designed to involve everyone, starting in spiritual family cell groups
and ordaining leaders from those groups to serve the larger corporate church,
each person readily recognizes their "royal priesthood." There is no chasm
separating leaders and laity because all believers are priests for the kingdom
of God. "But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His
own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out
of darkness into His marvelous light" (I Peter 2:9).
If
everyone is a "priest" and involved in spreading the kingdom
of love, how can you give financial
remuneration for this? The truth of the matter is, you can't be paid,
because where do you start and stop? Hold it, you say! This is too radical.
Shouldn't the "equippers of the saints," at least, get paid?
Maybe
not. I know several denominations in which no one gets paid for doing spiritual
work. They believe laity and leaders alike
should work at a secular job in order to support their Christian witness. In
Acts 18:3, we read that Paul made tents for a living while he preached
the gospel.
An
interesting study of foreign missions was made involving 400
missionaries that helps to give credibility
to this idea. In this study, it was
discovered that the full-time missionary spent 26% of his time
doing actual missionary work. The rest of
his time and energies went into securing supplies, maintaining a house,
entertaining financial supporters and so on in a foreign country.
In comparison, a Christian believer in
that country was working a full-time job and also
doing 24% of church work in his spare time.
Only a 2% difference was found between a
full-time missionary's spiritual work time and a local believer's spiritual work
time.
In light of this, maybe it is
not
too radical to consider that everyone (including leaders) could
have a "tent-making ministry." Secular jobs would support everyone's missionary
efforts or spiritual work. Think of the possibilities of this strategy!
For Apostle Paul, tent-making was a
strategy for reaching the nations.
In II Thessalonians 3:7-9 he says, "You yourselves know how
you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you, nor did
we eat anyone's food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked
night and day, laboring and toiling so that
we would not be a burden to any of you."
What was the reason Paul gave for working instead of being supported
by the people? He says, " . . . not because we do not have the
right to such help, but in order to make ourselves a model for you to
follow." Should we model after Apostle Paul's example of tent-making? It's
something to ponder and take into consideration for the designing of the church.
Franchise Churches Vs. Individual Congregational
Churches
I am calling a local autonomous church an
"individual congregational church" because it is governed by one individual or
church leader leading the congregation. When we look into the business
world, we discover that 75-85% of new
businesses started by a sole
proprietor fail within the first five years. A parallel rate of failure is
found within the first few years of churches started by individuals.
An individual must continually keep his
focus on Jesus and totally rely on the Holy Spirit
to lead him or he can easily fall into an
ownership mentality for his church. When this happens, rather than
getting help from others to build the church, he will focus selfishly
on his own strength and look at the church as "his" church. This "Lone Ranger"
ownership mentality is a surefire path to failure.
Another alternative for church
government could be a franchise type church. The rate of failure of a well run
franchise type operation in the business world is only 3% (in the United
States). Franchise type church denominations also
claim this low rate of failure. Of
course, a lot has to do with how
well the
franchise is serviced to
the customers in the business world or to how well the spiritual needs of the
people are attended in the church field.
Some denominations have had great
success with this "McDonald's franchise-type"
operation where a central office owns all the
buildings. When a new church in a local area needs to be built, funds from
corporate headquarters flow
immediately to this church, and they
have a mortgage- free church built for them. This
has worked well in a capitalistic society because the local congregation
does not have to be involved in handling finances, taking a tremendous
load off the spiritual leaders. Indebtedness often bankrupts churches.
This type of church would require the entire national
franchise church operation to be set up and designed by apostles.
Financial and administrative policy
could be set from this central national office.
Again, it is something to think about.
Are Cells or Celebrations the Main Focus?
In the Old
Testament, the Feast of the Tabernacles was held once a
year. Thousands would come together to stay for a number of days for this
celebration. How could we employ this concept in today's church?
If home cell groups would come together only once or twice a year for a
celebration (including a few days of intensive teaching and training), they
could receive the same amount of teaching as they would receive in a weekly
one-hour celebration meeting during a year's
span of time! The high financial costs of holding weekly celebrations
compared to yearly celebrations is also a factor to consider.
At the
very most, I would suggest that celebrations occur no more
frequently than once a month, because if
they meet every week, there is often a trade off between home groups and
the celebrations. In America, when central celebrations are held frequently, I
have seen people quickly settle into attending
only the highly visible weekly
Sunday morning celebrations, and the home
cells become an appendage of the church. They are not the center of church
ministry as they should be.
Of course, there are many countries in the world today where a lack of religious
freedom does not allow Christians to meet in large celebration groups. In these
areas, the house churches are indeed the
center of the church. In both cases, a particular church's needs have to
be studied closely by the overseers, working in conjunction with the apostles,
until a workable solution is found.
Each
central celebration needs to be closely studied, and factors
such as talents, giftings and anointings available should be taken into
consideration before the overseer would decide what would work best for the
particular situation in his local area.
Senior Citizen Missiology
The Great Commission challenges all Christians to go to the nations to preach
the good news. A Christian missionary is commissioned by a local church to
evangelize, plant churches and disciple people away from his home area and often
among people of a different race, culture or language.
A great many of
those called as missionaries go as young people,
either before they start a family or in the early years of starting a family.
Fewer mature people serve as missionaries. Often mature
people (50 and
up)
are relegated to the rocking chair with no
thought of a missionary assignment to outer Mongolia!
I propose that older people have input greatly
needed in the nations of the world. Although in western culture, age is not
exactly revered, in many cultures it is. Mature people are respected as a source
of wisdom and experience.
A person's
life cycle could be broken down as follows: Ages 0-30
is the time for education, both formal and informal. Ages 30-50 is
the age of achievement when individuals
raise families and develop their
life's occupation. Ages 50 and up is the "age of service" when mature
people with their wealth of wisdom and experience have more time for volunteer
service including social and missionary work. Think what could be accomplished
by thousands of older people and retirees using their senior years to serve the
Lord in missionary service!
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