Eldership

[aron]

Originally Posted by aron

I keep thinking of the verse that starts Galatians chapter 5. "For freedom Christ has set us free..."

Paul was free to set up leadership in the new fellowships as he saw fit; we seem to be free to set up leadership, or not, as we see fit.

...I have found that when we focus on the structure we tend to ignore the Lord. I think of Nee's "The Normal Christian Church Life" as a paragon. It is as scripture-based a template for organizing the fellowship(s) as one could want; but it turns Paul's "freedom" into "the letter of the law".

I was reading 1 Cor. 9 this morning: "Am I not free?...do we not have a right to eat and drink? Do we not have a right to take along a sister to wife, even as the rest? (vv 1,4,5).

To me, the real "imitation" of Paul is to say "Aren't I, also, free?", and not to slavishly adopt his eldership-appointment patterns, his church-organizing admonitions to Titus and Timothy, and such. If we take the letter of Paul, and not the spirit, we are slaves again. Ultimately, that is my whole problem with the so-called "Bible-based" organizations I've dealt with, including the LC model.

I suppose I'm just repeating myself here, but it's probably worth repeating.