Preacher-Pastors

Our preacher is our pastor. He is a public speaker not a gospel preacher not a teacher and does nothing at all like Jesus. Members of the church of Christ do not call their preachers, Pastor, but that is what most of them are. They do the work of the Elders, while the Elders do the work of the Deacons, while the Deacons do the work the members should be doing while the members sit and listen and contribute money.

 

When Jesus left this earth he had 120 or so followers doing what he told them to do. What is important to us was not important to Jesus. A British Anthropologist, Robin Dunbar has concluded the maximum number of people we can relate to is 150 so mega-churches don't work.

 

To be fair churches today have dug themselves into quite a hole. We have accumulated a large amount of debt requiring large "cheerfully given" contributions. Jesus never accumulated debt.  Also, most preacher-pastors look to "their" congregation for their income and are therefore limited as to how much of Jesus' teachings they can teach. Jesus did not have that dilemma.

 

John 6:53-54   

    So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.  [54] Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 

 

John 6:56   

    Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. 

 

John 6:66   

    After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. 

 

Jesus was not interested in marketing to the masses. When Jesus invited potential followers he expected, required more than the crowds were willing to accept and he appeared to be comfortable with that. He focused on the few who remained.

 

Followers of Jesus must embrace Jesus even though crowds left him because of his hard sayings. Today followers of Christ today have values and ideas that are unbiblical and that contradict the bible we claim to believe.

 

It is past time to rid the church of public speakers. What the church Jesus established on Pentecost needs is preachers who will, as the apostles did, make disciples and teach them to observe all that Jesus has commanded and followers who will follow Jesus.  Our only option is to do what the crowds did during Jesus' ministry, leave him because of the hard sayings.

 

What Happened to Doing Things the Bible Way?

The oversight of the local church is to be exercised by mature brethren raised up by the Holy Spirit from within the local congregation. Most congregations today entrust the spiritual leadership of the congregation and the vast majority of the public ministry to a solitary Pastor, who is chosen from among the professional clergy, imported from outside the congregation, and promised a fixed salary for his services. This is a drastic departure from the scriptural pattern?

Cause Without a Mission/Vision

 

Ray,

 

Remember several years ago when the Men's meeting considered ad nauseum developing a Vision Statement or Mission Statement? In their book "It's Not the Big that Eat the Small, It's the Fast that Eat the Slow" Jason Jennings and Laurence Haughton write:

 "The fastest companies in the world---those that get to market fastest---don't waste time sitting around a conference table processing visions with the creative types from HR They don't need to. They share something bigger and stronger. Each has a cause that they use to launch crusades."

 The authors define

Cause: that which gives rise to an action, a motive, a principle, a belief or purpose

 

Vision: something perceived in a dream, trance, spell, or stupor: something supernaturally revealed to a prophet.

 

Unlike missions and visions, which are generally created by committees and sufficiently watered down to please everyone, offend nobody, and motivate no one, a cause comes from a defining moment in the leader's life.

 

It occurred to me our problem is GSMCOC has no leader to have a defining moment in their life.

 

I remember the process of documenting a mission and a vision at Mead Corporation and the authors are dead on. Mead Corporation had a mission and vision but no cause and now there is no Mead Corporation.

 

 

Thanks, John Jenkins
865-803-8179  cell
Gatlinburg, TN

Email: jrjenki@gmail.com
Blogs:
http://littlepigeon.blogspot.com/
http://alumcave.blogspot.com/

 

 

"If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would have told me, 'A faster horse.'"

 

---Henry Ford

Question on Beginning

 

Hi Rick, Al:

 

Last night you appeared to imply there was a beginning prior to the beginning in Genesis 1:1. What other beginning do you have in mind?

 

In John 1:1 the term beginning appears in reference to the creation and the origin of matter. It refers to period prior to all created things in which nothing existed. When Jesus was with God in the beginning he was with God in the creation of all things.

Thanks, John Jenkins
865-803-8179  cell
Gatlinburg, TN

Email: jrjenki@gmail.com
Blogs:
http://littlepigeon.blogspot.com/
http://alumcave.blogspot.com/

 

 

"If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would have told me, 'A faster horse.'"

 

---Henry Ford

AntiChrist?

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance says the word translated "antichrist" means "an opponent of the messiah." The word may mean either an enemy of Christ or one who usurps Christ's name and rights. Jesus warned against "the false Christs" and "the false prophets" see Matthew 24:24.

 

Jesus and the Christ are separate issues see Acts 9:22 and Acts 17:2-3. As Caesar and Pharaoh were titles, the term Christ is a title not Jesus' last name.

 

In 1 John 4:3 John mentions that to refuse to confess both the deity and the humanity of Jesus is to promote the spirit of the antichrist. In 1 John 2:22 John says the liar mentioned in verse 21 is as the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Many false theories were being passed around at the time John wrote these letters. The Gnostics claimed that Jesus and Christ were two different persons; that Christ merely appeared to have flesh, but in reality did not; and that Jesus did not have divine origin. The affect was to deny Jesus' deity and the Christ's humanity.

 

In verse 18 and 22 the word antichrist is used to identify those who had the character and attributes of the great antichrist to come. The one who taught such things was promoting the same purpose and spirit as antichrist and therefore could have the same designation.

 

When Peter attempted to discourage Jesus from carrying out his mission Jesus called him Satan. See Matthew 16:21-23.  It was not Satan it was Peter promoting Satan's agenda rather than God's agenda. When one promotes the agenda of Satan he can be considered Satan or the same as if Satan was doing it; when one promotes the agenda of the antichrist he can be considered the antichrist or the same as if the Antichrist was doing it. By extension for one to do something to promote God's agenda would be the same as if God were doing it.  Christians claim they are the face of God to the world and the hands and feet of God to the world.

 

Apparently the coming of the Antichrist was an event generally expected by the Church. But John is more concerned with directing the attention of Christians to the antichristian forces already at work. He says teachers of erroneous views of the person of Christ, the Ebonites and Gnostics) are the antichrists.

 

My guess is the identity of the Antichrist is lost in the figurative language of Revelation and possibly Daniel. W.B.West Jr in his book "Revelation through First-Century Classes" believes the beast who made war on God's people for three and one-half years in Revelation 17 and Daniel 7, 8 was Nero and possibly the antichrist. While I do not know, I am confident the people to whom John wrote understood and they knew and therefore the antichrist came in their time.

 

I doubt that false Christs and false prophets exist today. If we go by the simplistic definition that anyone who teaches other than what the church of Christ teaches are false this or that we leave no room for honest error and at the same time declare ourselves perfect.

 

Congregations Beware!

 

Relentless positive attitude suppresses crucial information from within a congregation. Members will avoid mentioning unsettling information because they do not want to be seen as being negative. Most people do not want to be a "nitpicker." Gradually, the relentless positive attitude will change the group to a bunch of "yes-men."

 

Leaders must understand that while leaders may be able to force people to act the way they want them to act it is impossible to force people to think the way the leader wants them to think.

 

Congregations beware!

2 Chronicles Does Not Mean Christians

2 Chronicles 7:14 is misused and abused.

 

[14] if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 

 

 

God  is talking to Solomon about Israel. God is not talking about Christians. Christians have no land.  

 

2 Chronicles 7:14 in context:

 

2 Chronicles 7:13-15   

    When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people,  [14] if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.  [15] Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place. 

 

 

It was Peter Not Satan

In the following verses Jesus was speaking to Peter not Satan. It can be understood that Peter was promoting Satan's agenda over God's agenda and in that way he was acting as Satan's proxy. Satan was an angel with not more or less powers and influence than Gabriel and Michael.

 

Matthew 16:20-23   

 

    Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ. From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, "Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you." But he turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man."

 

Christians are Focuses on Themselves.

James 1:17   

    Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. 

 

James is telling his readers the motive which prompts such giving, as well as the gifts themselves, originates, not with men but with God who is in heaven. All that is good ultimately derives from God. Of course everything God created was good. When Satan influenced Eve to sin that brought sin into God's creation. One can honestly say that everything that is good comes from God, even though God was not specifically active in proving that good and everything that is not good comes from Satan even though as James tells his readers "But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire."

 

If one believes God gives, to them specifically, food for example they must explain why Christians worldwide starve to death for the lack of food. If one believes God will protect them or their property from danger and damage they must explain why innocents such as children and animals suffer abuse and death when they have done nothing to deserve such treatment. If one believes God gives them physical health they must explain why Christians world wide die from the vary causes healthy Christians pray to avoid. If one believes God answers prayers for the sick they must explain why amputated limbs have never been re-grown; why major illnesses have no cures and why God has difficulty healing the more serious forms of cancer; etc.

 

Christians spend more time seeking health, safety, comfort and security for themselves than they do spreading the Gospel to a lost world.