The Not-So Practical Expression of the Church

[Cal]

Originally Posted by Shawn

In every fellowship regardless of its size or affiliation there are a few mature ones who stand out, who have a good apprehension of the word and who have led proper lives as christians. You know brothers whom you feel you can confide in and whose wisdom in answering tough questions with practical, yet spiritual answers have been a help to you as you make tough decisions in your life. You can find the rest of the qualifications in Timothy and Titus.

These are elders.

There is not an arbitrary light that shines on them from the heavenlies that singles them out by God to be appointed as Elders; they simply have, whats the word from the other forum, uhh, let me remember, oh yes, Gravitas!

I'm sorry to add a little humor to how a previous poster considered the choosing of elders, but it helps to make my point; that Elders have walked the walk and will be so recognized by fellow members of their fellowship.

If there is a need to be apointed by apostles, the apostle will look for ones who have a position in the church of respect of others as well as some of the elements as described above. I do not see how it can be more simple than that.

Shawn

Hi Shawn,

You explanation really boils down to validation by personal assessment of qualifications. But it doesn't at all address what happens when there is disagreement on the assessments. Right, one group can follow one set leaders and another can follow the other set of leaders, but the LC model doesn't allow for this.

So your point still doesn't answer the question of how can you know which set of elders are in fact the ones over the whole city, or how you can know for sure who the apostle is.

Take Toronto, or Columbus, or any of these contested cities. Who are the real elders? And for that matter who is the real apostle now, Titus or the BBs? These are questions which cannot be answered definitively.

You ideas sound good in theory. But as I said before they can't do the heavy lifting of the real world problems of the LC model. When there has been disagreement of this kind in the past the result has been anger, accusations, recrimination without resolution.

As I said before, if the one city-church principle is really viable, then there must be a better means of solving these problems than simply pretending that it is evident to everyone exactly who the elders are and who the apostle is. Your claim of "simplicity" is being refuted by situations in real cities as we speak. Real people have been hurt by their being expected to pretend simplicity exists where there is none.