Why I Wouldn’t Want The Five Fold In My Church – Part VII
….. because you will have a free-for-all if everyone runs the church. The church is not a democracy but a theocracy, a hierarchal structure, so a senior pastor is needed (hired) to run all meetings, head all programs, and lead in an orderly fashion. Order through control prevents chaos.
By faith, my whole theory of metamorphosis is built around the assumption that the church will be willing to face change, though church history has proven me drastically wrong. Well-established, entrenched institutions oppose change opting to follow rituals and traditions instead. The crux of my metamorphosis theory is that the “structure” of a caterpillar faces total transformations into an entirely different ‘structure” as a butterfly when it emerges from its cocoon. If true, then the current church structure that is a pyramidal, hierarchal
structure of leadership, locally headed by a professional senior pastor, would be in danger of a total reconstruction if the church is in a cocoon of change and revival. What new form of leadership will emerge as the butterfly structure?
I believe it will be a five fold model of believers, peers, leading through their five fold passion, drive, or point of view that is needed at the moment in service to “equip the saints”, help believers mature in their journey to be more Christ-like, and to bring unity to the body of Christ, the Priesthood of Believers, the Church. There will no longer be a clergy/laity distinction, but a family of God, built on peer acceptance as equal brothers and sisters in the Lord, the need for peer diversity, and the networking of distinctly different giftings toward the common good through consensus.
If there is no one hierarchal leader, where does the buck stop? Who is in charge? Who is going to maintain order? Who is going to sail the ship? The current caterpillar structure demands strong leadership, who strive to keep order and avoid situations causing chaos by controlling at any cost. It would oppose a movement of God that would threaten to take its power away. It believes that taking its power away will only create chaos. Church history records their belief that you can’t trust the masses; you can’t trust the laity.
But the gospel is full of paradoxes. One has to die in order to live. One has to lay things down in order to pick them up; that is what Passover is all about. One has to give up control in order to receive it; that is what Pentecost is all about. One has to give up old structures for new to get into the promise land; that is what the Feast of Booths is all about.
I’ve asked over and over again throughout these blogs, “Can you trust the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus Christ to be in charge?” Really, “Can YOU trust the Holy Spirit!” Or do you “fear” that He will bring “chaos”? That is “fear”, not “faith” which is the backbone of true Christianity. Bottom line: Can you trust Jesus?
How do we see Jesus today? Answer: Through his body, the body of Christ, the Priesthood of Believers, His Church! His Church is made up of His children, believers in Jesus Christ, so I ask, “Can you trust your fellow brothers and sisters in the Lord, even though they are now labeled as ‘the laity’ and may be a member of a different sect or denomination than your own?”
Who or what can you trust? The Holy Spirit? Jesus? Your fellow brethren? If you can’t trust all three of them, you have CHAOS, the very thing you fear!
If your trust is still in your current hierarchal church leadership and not in your fellow brethren or if your trust is in your doctrinal decrees, tenants, and theology and not in the Holy Spirit, you are not scriptural.! All those in the book of Acts learned to trust the Holy Spirit. Bottom line: Are you willing to trust the Holy Spirit, or will you oppose Him?