[UntoHim]

Originally Posted by aron

What is the fixed structure of the assembly?
------------------------------
Okay, now to the "heavy lifting" -- who is in charge? We can all say "Jesus is in charge", or "The Holy Spirit leads us", but how is that to play out in the meeting?
------------------------------
So if we reject that model, what to replace it with? I propose the words of Jesus: "If you want to be great in the kingdom, be the least". He deliberately and specifically spoke those words to the disciples when they were arguing about which one of them was the greatest. That is my proposed structure in the assembly. If you go to the meeting, and someone has an 'Alexander Haig' moment, and declares, "I am in charge here", that person has disqualified themselves. We can just smile and say, "Thank you, brother/sister, for your opinion", and continue with our business.

Thanks aron for this thread, really fascinating subject. Well thought out questions.

I’m not quite sure I’ve ever heard something like “the fixed structure of the assembly”. It does certainly rub against what Lee (and others) have taught about the “organic” nature of the Church. Of course there is a lot of scriptural references that would indicate an organic element… “the Body of Christ”, “the bride”, etc, but let’s face it, these “spiritual” terms really don’t help us when it comes to some of the practical, nuts and bolts workings of the local church – the members of the Body that we are in direct contact with. And they most certainly don’t help us with the matter of leadership – local, regional or otherwise.

I think to avoid this matter of official, structural leadership within the Church, and just consider that “Jesus is our leader” is to invite all sorts of confusion, and history has proven that this kind of stance certainly does not prevent abuse. I think the best example of what I am talking about here would be the “house-church movement”. I have personal knowledge and experience of this. The general idea is that “Jesus is our leader” and “every member is as important as the next and so all should function”. But the practical outworking of this is usually confusion, with people just speaking out all sorts of nonsense. The end result is usually that everybody’s time is wasted, the Word is not properly preached or taught, and God is not glorified. Keep in mind, I am NOT talking about simple home gatherings, I am talking about “church meetings/services”.

I think others have mentioned something about “those with gifts” or “gifts to the Body”. This is the key in my view. I think we’re all familiar with these verses is Ephesians 4:.(7,8-10-12)
But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore it says, "WHEN HE ASCENDED ON HIGH, HE LED CAPTIVE A HOST OF CAPTIVES, AND HE GAVE GIFTS TO MEN."…And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ;
To deny that these were already known “positions” (for lack of better word..insert “fuctions” if that suits you better) in the early Church is to me to be quite naïve. The only term here that may have a totally foreign meaning to us in the 21st century may be “prophets”, the others can, and should have, biblical significance and weight for all Christians, I believe.

I’ve probably taken this in a different direction than aron intended. So I would leave it to him to steer us in a different direction if he wants.