Government in the New Testament Church - Assignment Example

Government in New Testament Church Jesus Christ founded the New Testament Church to be an essential part of the life of the believer’s life. Therefore, it is crucial for Christians to have a proper knowledge as to what is a true New Testament Church and how it functioned. The word ‘church’ in the new testament derives from the Greek word ‘ekklesia’ which means a local body of people, or a called out assembly. The Greek used the word ‘ekklesia’ to mention political assemblies that were convened to carry out local affairs of local government. But Jesus used the Greek word to refer to his own followers who believed in his teachings and were baptized. Thus it becomes obvious that he intended the word in a spiritual context rather than a political one. In the New Testament, the word ‘church’ is never used to mention a building. Actually, early believers did not even have specific places for worship. They used to meet in public places and private homes. So in the New Testament the word ‘church’ means meetings of the baptized local believers to profess their adherence to the teachings of Jesus Christ. It is possible to describe the church mentioned in the New Testament as explosive, exciting, and revolutionary. “Explosive, because the church was growing by large numbers on an almost daily basis. Exciting, because there was a sense of wonder, amazement, and expectancy among the believers. Revolutionary, because the message proclaimed by the church, the lifestyle emerging among those who believed in the message, and the spontaneous worship of Jesus Christ, the Risen Lord, shattered the religious setting of first-century Israel.” 1 There is a common misconception regarding the origin of the New Testament Church that it was started on the day of Pentecost. But Acts chapter 2 verses 41 says “Then they gladly received his words were baptized, and the same there were added unto them about 3000 souls.” So it is very clear that on the Pentecost day around three thousand people were added to the already existing body of believers. Moreover, Acts chapter 1 verses 15 says “In those days Peter stood up among the believers (a group numbering about a hundred and twenty).” So it is very clear from the above discussion that New Testament Church had a beginning much before the day of Pentecost. The next question to be answered is when did new statement church start and who started it. “No mortal man founded the New Testament Church; it was Christ who instituted the church.” 2 So New statement church was started by Jesus Christ at the beginning of the ministry. It is very clear from the following excerpt taken from Mathew chapter 4 verses 18-22. “The calling of the first disciples as Jesus was walking beside the sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net in to the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me, “Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” At once they left their nets and followed him. Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.” (Mathew 4: 18-22) We have already seen that the word church derives from the new statement Greek word ‘ekklesia’ which means a called out assembly. The New Testament Church started with Jesus Christ calling out his disciples. Jesus Christ not only established the church but he is the foundation of the church too. Gospel of Mathew chapter 16 verse 18 says, "Upon this rock I will build my church (Matt. 16:18). What was or is the rock on which the church of Christ is established? It is the bedrock foundation that Peter had just acknowledged -- namely, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 3 After Jesus Christ’s death many churches were started in the nearby areas due to missionary activities. According to Acts 1: 15, when Jesus Christ died, there were only 120 believers, but the early church started growing rapidly. “The Church grew to 5,000 by the time of Acts 4:4. This growth brought some serious persecution.” 4 Though when Jesus Christ founded the New Testament Church, he did not give any clear instructions on how church should be organized. “As an institution Christ founded the church while on earth, left it in care of the apostles and prophets with delegated authority.” 5 There is no mention of pope, cardinals, archbishops or vicars. But it does not mean that early New Testament Church was not properly organized or it was devoid of leadership. After Jesus Christ’s death the apostles had authority over the body of believers and it is evident in Acts 1:20-21, where Peter is discussing substitute for Judas Iscariot. Moreover Acts chapter 2 verses 42 says “They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to the fellowship to the breaking of bread and to prayer” (Acts 2:42). Again in chapter 6 of the Acts of the Apostles refers to the need of appointing seven people with full of spirit and wisdom to serve in physical matters so that the twelve disciples could concentrate on propagating the word of God. So it is very clear from the above discussion that at the beginning of the New Testament Church that it was Apostles who had taken up the leadership roles in the church. The church was responsible only to Jesus Christ. Each church appointed its own officers and exercised control over its governance. The newly started church had Jesus Church as its head, a common faith and a common baptism. Yet these churches were autonomous. Most of the decisions were taken by consensus. There was no central authority to exercise control over any decision making process. Many Christians believe that, seven people who were chosen to assist Apostles on their ministry were the first deacons. The meaning of the word ‘deacon’ is servant. It is possible that in the early church the Greek word ‘diakonia’ refers to distribution or the action of serving rather than an office, so it may not be a reasonable suggestion that those seven people would be called deacons. As the early church spread rapidly, it has become a necessity to appoint local people to positions of authority, as the Apostles could not reach everywhere. In Acts chapter 14 we find that “Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust.” So it is very clear that the elders in the church occupied a prominent position in church governance and Acts chapter 11 verses 29-30 says “The disciples, each according to his ability, decided to provide help for the brothers living in Judea. This they did, sending their gift to the elders by Barnabas and Paul.” (Acts 11:29-30). So we find that Apostles, Deacons and Elders led the early church. But in first Timothy, where Paul writes about the selection of church leader he uses an altogether different term i.e. overseer. Paul says Timothy “Here is a trustworthy saying: if anyone sets his heart on being an overseer, he desires a noble task.” (1 Timothy. 3:1) The word overseer derives from the Greek word ‘episkopos.’ The King James Version of Bible translates it as bishop. Many theologians point it out as a new development. A development of an up-and-coming hierarchy but it is difficult to agree with this idea because in Acts chapter 20, verses 28 Paul says “Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseer. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood “ (Acts 20:28) It is evident that Paul considered the office of elder to be identical with that of bishop or overseer. The five- fold Ministry In Ephesians chapter four, Paul talks about five-fold ministry. Paul says, “It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for work of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” (Ephesians 4: 11-13). The question to be answered is how five fold ministry of apostles, evangelists, prophets, pastors and teachers differ from ministry of elders. It is possible that the terms ‘overseer’ or ‘elder’ are general terms which are used to indicate those in spiritual leadership; where as apostle, prophet, evangelist, teacher and pastor are precise words describing diverse roles of leadership. For example, Paul asks Timothy who was obviously an overseer to do the work of an evangelist. Paul tells Timothy, “Keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.” (2 Timothy 4:5). It is evident from a detailed study of New Testament that the early church had no strong central office and most of the churches were autonomous. It is clear that each local churches had several elders who have different roles in the administration. Though Peter was the leading apostle and resided in Rome, it is very difficult to describe him as ‘the first pope.’ By a detailed study of the New Testament we can easily come to conclusion that the church was integrated by brotherhood and love rather than by a central government. Each local church was autonomous and was led by a group of deacons and elders. The 12 apostles were given respect because of their association with Jesus Christ but they were not considered as perfect. In Galatians chapter 2 Paul writes, “When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong.” (Galatians 2:11). Whenever a grave problem arises, all the church leaders came together to find a solution to it. They considered Jesus Church as their head, a common faith and a common baptism. Yet these churches were autonomous. Most of the decisions were taken by consensus. There was no central authority to control. There are basically two officers Pastor and Deacon. Pastor is also known as Elder and Bishop. Elders were supposed to refute false teaching. They were also expected to be the role models for the believers and train them in apostolic tradition. The Deacons assisted pastors in their duties. They looked after the temporal and material needs of the believers such as giving food to poor and financing church etc. Deacons were supposed to be very spiritual because they looked after the money in the church. Pastors took care of the spiritual life of the believers, and concentrated on teaching from the word of god and prayer. Elders were supposed to be men of character whose responsibilities included teaching, overseeing, protecting, encouraging, equipping, guiding and reproving. Whenever a believer refused to follow instructions of elders, elders were supposed to refer the matter to the whole church. Final authority rests with the church corporally. But at the same time, we should not forget that there is no conflict between leadership of elders and the corporate responsibility of the church. On the one hand, they had elders leading by examples and on the other hand, the church corporately takes the final decision on flocks. Elders were given respect due to position god had placed them. According to Acts 20: 17, “the elders were given positions of overseer and shepherd.” It suggests managerial and supervisory functions for the elders. Moreover, it is very evident that there is hardly any difference between elders, overseers and shepherds and even pastors in the time of New Testament Church. It can safely be assumed that all the words, more or less, refer to the same office. The current difference between them is purely artificial and without any scriptural basis. As far as church discipline is concerned, the entire church was involved. (Mathew 15: 15-17). The word church in the New Testament is used to mention a variety of churches such as house churches, citywide churches, and even universal church and no church has official jurisdiction over any other churches. Each church was guided by a plurality of elders. But there are no ‘senior’ or ‘junior’ elders. An elder’s main authority is based on his skill to persuade the church members to follow Jesus Christ’s teachings. But he was not to ‘lord it over them’ and was supposed to lead by personal examples. Paul is given a clear list of requirements to be met before appointing an elder. (1 Tit 1: 5-9). The persons who met the requirements were appointed as elders. Now the question to be answered how many elders were appointed for each church? Was there only one elder per church? Or several elders per church or only one elder was appointed for several churches? According to Acts 14: 23, Paul and Barnabas “appointed elders in each church”. It suggests several elders were appointed for each church. Authors of Bible, generally, use the term ‘churches’ when referring to large geographical areas. For example, the bible refers to “the Macedonian churches” (2 Cor 8: 1), “the churches in the provinces of Asia” (1 Co 16:19), “the churches of Galatia” (Gal 1:1), “the churches of Judea” (Ga 1: 1) etc. but there were no nationally organized church or organized regional church. The main reason for the division among the churches was geographical location. But there were also mentions about universal church (Ep 1: 22-23, 3: 10, 21; Col 1:18) to which all the followers of Jesus Christ belong. It has to be pointed out that the universal church was spiritual and unseen with no worldwide earthly organization. So it is very evident that all the churches in New Testament were combined under Jesus Christ as its head, but there were no earthly organization to bind them together. Even without the help of an earthly organization, churches extended co-operation to one another voluntarily because of the feelings of spiritual oneness o life in Jesus Christ. Conclusion Jesus Christ started the New Testament church in Jerusalem. During his lifetime, church had only limited number of people. After the death of Jesus Christ, due to the activities of the 12 disciples the church grew rapidly worldwide despite persecution. These churches were autonomous in nature. There was no central organization to rule over the numerous churches. Though Jesus did not give any detailed instructions on how church should be governed; he raised 12 disciples and trained them up for the future ministry and they gave leadership to the new converts. As it was not possible for them to concentrate on propagating the teachings of Jesus Christ as well as the administration of it, they selected men of character to assist them. They were, generally, known as elders but were given different designations at different time. But they were not the final authority in matters related to the church. It was the church itself that took the final decision. Work Cited A Believer’s Guide to New Testament Church Planting. Yes, We Can. International Mission Board, SBC, 2001, accessed 10 April 2007; available from http://ministrytravel.com/yeswecan.pdf; Internet. Abram, Cooper P. The Biblical Basis of a New Testament Church. accessed 10 April 2007; available from http://www.bible-truth.org/church.htm; Internet. The holy bible, new international version, international bible society, Colorado: Colorado springs. Fulford, Hugh. The Church was Founded by Jesus and on him. Mike Scott, 1998-2006, accessed 10 April 2007; available from http://www.scripturessay.com/article.php?cat=books&id=9&pagenumber=2; Internet. Flurry, Gerald. Unveiled At Last: The Royal Book of Revelation. Philadelphia Church of God, 2007, accessed 10 April 2007; available from http://www.thetrumpet.com/index.php?page=book&id=1255§ion=1322; Internet. Cole, Claude Duval. Definitions of Doctrine. Volume III. The New testament Church. accessed 10 April 2007; available from http://members.aol.com/dwibclc/cole-3.htm; Internet. Read More