Quote:
Originally Posted by Igzy
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Leaders are not a necessary evil, any more than government is. They are God's way of organizing groups.
Do you know why the Libertarians can't get anywhere as a party? It isn't because they aren't smart, or don't have a message that can resonate. It's because they are so suspicious of organized leadership that they cannot sustain any kind of organized effort to get anything done. They are hamstrung from implementing their ideology by their ideology itself.
In other words, they are like a herd of cats. God can't do much with a herd of cats.
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I get the analogy, but there is a
fundamental difference. In terms of human group - especially a democracy - the populace is the sovereign. Thus, if you don't have a way to organize that populace into a cohesive direction, you will never get anything done. In the body of Christ, Christ is sovereign AND indwells each and every believer.
Simply because humans didn't set up formal organizational structures does not mean the resultant "product" won't have organization. It's just that God will have masterfully orchestrated it.
What sorts of functions do you think the "office" of leadership should play, which can't get accomplished through, say, deferring to the fellow believer who has the particular skill-set/portion that can fill the situational need, but which might be a different person each time depending on the situation?
Example:
Two brothers have a dispute with one another.
Your version: Regardless of who these brothers are or their past relations, go to the pre-identified office of the leader and have him mediate it
My version: The two brothers approach an older, wiser believer, for whom each has respect or a spiritual history, and have him shepherd them through.
In my version, the two brothers might have "wise believer Bob" in common. Another two brothers might have "wise believer Ed" in common.
Just because there isn't a formal "office," doesn't mean their won't be submitting, even a submitting based on the gifts and mutual relationships of the believers.
Apart from teaching, shepherding and mutual fellowship - what sorts of functions do you envision churches doing which would require a structured leadership?
Let me be clear: if an individual is lead by the Lord to develop a
ministry and others chose to join that
work than the initiator of that work is an identifiable leader to whom the others should submit
with regard to the specific burden.
That is different than the church.