Another noteworthy truth concerning the church which the local assembly
must put into operation is that gifts are given for edification of the church.
Since edification involves growth or expansion, we are therefore concerned at
this point with God’s program for the expansion of the church. The church is
the unit on earth today through which God pleases to spread the Christian
faith. Each church should always be
concerned with spreading out, with reaching new constituencies, with propagating
itself, with seeing other assemblies brought into existence.
As has been pointed out previously, the risen Head of the church has
provided gifts for the church, and it is as these gifts are properly exercised
that the church growths.
Gifts For Today
It was mentioned earlier that originally there were five gifts -
apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. It was suggested that
the first two were concerned primarily with the foundation of the Church, and
that, in general, the need for them passed when the complete Word of God was
given in written form.
That means that we have three gifts today - evangelists, pastors, and
teachers. However, the probability is that the “pastor-teacher” gift is just
one gift, in which case only two of the gifts would be operative today. We turn
now to the purpose of the gifts and how they function.
Why Gifts are Given
The purpose of the gifts is set forth in Ephesians 4:12, 13. “For the
perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the
body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the
knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the
stature of the fulness of Christ”.
Now upon first reading this verse in our King James Version of the
Bible, one would think that these are three separate reasons why the gifts were
given: namely (1) for the perfecting of the saints, (2) for the work of the
ministry, (3) for the edifying of the body of Christ. However, is this what the
passage teaches? A study of other versions reveals that it is not.
The Revised Version, for instance, indicates that in the second and
third instances of the use of the word “for” the word is better translated
“unto”. The verse then reads, “For the perfecting of the saints unto the work
of ministering unto the building up of the body of Christ”. This then reveals
not three reasons why the gifts were given, but rather one reason alone - to
build up the saints in the faith, so that they in turn can do the work of ministering
(or serving), so that the body of Christ will be built up numerically and
spiritually. It is the saints who are to do the work of ministering.
The Truth Illustrated
We might illustrate this truth by a diagram (1). The circle in the center depicts, let us say, the gift of a teacher.
He ministers to those in the circle around him, so that they become perfected
(that is, built up in the faith), and they then go forth to minister to others.
In this way the church grows and expands. It is the divine method of reaching
the greatest number of people in the shortest possible time.
According to this divine pattern, the evangelists and pastors and
teachers always have in view the idea of reaching, training, and equipping
others to do the work of ministering.
Although not every Christian has the gift of an evangelist, a pastor, or
a teacher, yet every one is expected to engage in Christian service. Every
member of the Church should be a worshipper, a soul winner, a Bible student, a
propagator of the faith.
This important obligation is further stressed in 2 Timothy 2:2. “And the
things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to
faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.’’
Once again this can be illustrated by a diagram (2).
Now this plan produces benefits that are apparent at once. It results in
a rapid expansion of the Christian faith. Individual Christians become mature
through exercising their God-given functions. By thus becoming mature, they are
less susceptible to the teachings of the false cults so current in the world
today. And the Church thus expanding and maturing gives a more accurate
representation of the body of Christ upon earth.
The System Common to Christendom
Contrast with this, the system which is so common in Christendom today.
One man is selected as minister of a church. He preaches the sermons, baptizes
the converts, conducts the communion service, and otherwise generally performs
most of the religious duties of the congregation. The people listen to the
sermons faithfully week after week, but in an unfortunately large number of
cases, would be quite unwilling to assume any active participation, reasoning
that they are paying someone else to do this for them. Too often they become, in
short, sermon-tasters, with little real personal acquaintance with the truths
of God’s Word. And the ever-present danger is that these people, reared in an
evangelical environment, remain mere “children, tossed to and fro, and carried
about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning
craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive” (Ephesians 4:14).
The present system we are speaking about is illustrated in diagram 3.
Here the minister has his congregation and they dutifully attend the
services; but having done so, they go back to their occupations, with little or
no personal responsibility to do anything about what they have heard. obviously
what one minister can do in such a situation is very limited. On the other
hand, if all or most of those people were active for the Lord, the progress
would be remarkable.
It was such considerations that caused Alexander Maclaren to write: “I
cannot but believe that the present practice of confining the public teaching
of the church to an official class has done harm. Why should one man be for
ever speaking, and hundreds of people who are able to teach, sitting dumb to
listen or pretend to listen to him? I hate forcible revolution, and do not
believe that any institutions, either political or ecclesiastical, which need
violence to sweep them away, are ready to be removed; but I believe that if the
level of spiritual life were raised among us, new forms would naturally be
evolved, in which there should be a more adequate recognition of the great principle
on which the democracy of Christianity is founded: namely, “I will pour out My
Spirit on all flesh—and on My servants and on My handmaidens I will pour out in
these days of My Spirit, and they shall prophesy.
The Clerical System Examined
This discussion of one-man ministry brings to the front the questions,
“What about the clerical system? Is it scriptural? We shall now seek an answer
to these pertinent queries.
By the clergy we mean a separate class of men humanly ordained to the
service of God, and, in addition to preaching and teaching, usually given sole
authority to perform the rites and ordinances of the church.
At the outset we would gladly recognize that many men who have held the
clerical position have been outstanding servants of Christ and have been
wonderfully used of Him. To many of them and their ministry, both oral and
written, we owe a profound debt of gratitude which we gladly acknowledge. All
such believers in the Lord Jesus, we readily embrace as our brethren.
But we must face honestly and squarely the fact that the idea of a
clergyman is not found in the New Testament. Nowhere does one find one man in
charge of a church. (At the end of the epistle to Titus, the subscription says,
“It was written to Titus, ordained the first bishop of the church of the
Cretians, from Nicopolis of Macedonia”. However, no one contends that this
footnote was part of the original text. It was added by the translators, who,
of course, were biased in favor of clericalism. The Revised Version omits the
note altogether.)
What does the New Testament Say?
Not only is the idea of the clergy unsupported by the New Testament,
but, we believe, it is contrary to the teaching of the New Testament.
First of all, it violates the principle of the priesthood of all
believers (1 Peter 2:5, 9). In the Old Testament, there was a separate caste of
men standing between God and the people. In Christianity, all believers are
priests, with all the privileges and responsibilities that go with priesthood.
In practice, the idea of a one-man ministry effectively silences the worship
and hinders the service of Christian priests.
Secondly, the clerical system often prohibits the free exercise of gifts
in the church (1 Corinthians 12 and 14), by arbitrarily limiting ministry to one
person or an official group of persons.
Again, it often confines the administration of the ordinances to a
priestly caste, whereas Scripture makes no such distinction.
The principle of salaried ministry, which almost invariably accompanies
the clerical system, inevitably involves responsibility to some higher person
or persons. This higher authority may exert pressure on a minister by imposing
artificial and unspiritual standards of attainment. For instance, it is common
to judge a man’s effectiveness by the number of persons added to the church
roll during the year. Not only is this not a true measure of effective
ministry, but it creates the strong temptation to lower the standards of
reception in order to make a better showing. The servant of Christ should not
thus be bound, fettered, and hampered. He should ever be the Lord’s free man
(Galatians 1:10).
Clerisy caters to the ever present danger of gathering people to a man
instead of to the Name of the Lord. If a man is the attracting power in a local
church, then the attraction is gone when the man leaves. If on the other hand
the saints gather because the Lord is there. then they will be faithful because
of Him.
In practice, if not in theory, the clergy has served to obscure
effectively the truth of the headship of Christ (Ephesians 1:22), and in some
cases to deny it completely.
If it be contended that the bishops of the New Testament are the same as
the clergy of today, we would reply that the New Testament contemplates several
bishops in one church (Philippians 1:1), and not one bishop presiding over a
church or a group of churches.
It is undeniable that many men in the clerical position are gifted
servants of Christ to the Church. However, they did not become gifts by human
appointment or ordination but by the work of the Lord Jesus Himself. They are
responsible to so minister that the saints will be built up for active service,
and not so that the saints will become perpetually dependent on them.
The evils that have flowed from human ordination of men who were not
called of God are manifest and need no elaboration here.
Finally where one man is primarily responsible for the teaching ministry
of the church, there is no system of checks and balances, and thus there is a
danger of one-sided interpretations, if not of evil doctrine itself. Where the
Holy Spirit, on the other hand. has liberty to speak through various gifts in
the church, more facets of the truth are brought to light, and there is greater
immunity from error where all the saints are assiduously comparing Scripture
with Scripture.
Conclusion
Thus, though much blessing has often flowed from the ministry of men
representing the clerical system, we believe that it is not only not God’s best
but that it is seriously detrimental to the best interests of the Church.
God’s way is for the gifts to minister to the saints, then for the
saints in turn to go forth to do the work of the ministry. The local assembly
should recognize this important principle, and do nothing to hinder its free
development. As the saints thus minister, unbelievers will be saved, saints
will be edified, and new assemblies will be brought into being.
