2026 Summer Gospel Meeting: James Luedecke - Restoring God's Plan for Elders, Evangelist, & Teachers in the Church

Thank you for being here tonight. We've got a

good crowd. We've had good singing. Thank you

for your participation in the service tonight.

I want to thank Brother Mark for introducing

the topic, the theme of this gospel meeting.

We're going to continue tonight to explore the

idea of restoring New Testament Christianity

and how we are convinced and convicted that we

can do just that by going back to the Bible to

find our faith, find our doctrine, and find our

practice. As Brother Mark said, we're going to

Talk tonight about restoring God's plan for the

organization of the church. And that plan involves

elders, evangelists, teachers, and other offices.

We're going to talk about restoring God's plan

for the organization of His church. We do believe

God does have a plan. He has a pattern. He has

a blueprint for us to follow. And that plan,

that blueprint is revealed to us. It's laid out

to us in the New Testament. You know, when God

has a plan for something, whether it's the organization

of the church, the worship of the church, a plan

for the gospel, or the plan of salvation even,

anytime God gives us a plan, we know that we

shouldn't add to that plan. We also know it'd

be unwise to try to take away from that plan

or to try to substitute God's plan for any other

plan at all. I want us to go to our Bibles this

evening, and the first thing we're gonna do is

we're gonna let the New Testament reveal to us

and show us what the original plan and pattern

was for organization in the church that Jesus

built in the first century. The first thing we

do when we go to the New Testament and study

what it teaches about the church, we learn that

Jesus is the one head of the church. Colossians

1 .18 says he, that's Jesus, is the head of the

body, the church. So we know that Jesus reigns

supreme as the only head over his body which

is his church. Now the church that Jesus built

does not have many heads. The Apostle Peter was

never the head of the church. The Pope cannot

or will never be the head of the church. No man

has any right to claim headship over the church

that Jesus built. Neither does any council of

men or any governing board of men. There's only

one head over Christ's church and that's Jesus

himself. We also learn from the New Testament

it teaches that Jesus only built one body. There's

only one church. In Ephesians chapter 4 verse

Ephesians 4:4

4 it says there's one body and one spirit even

as you're called and one hope of your calling.

One Lord, one faith, one baptism. New Testament

teaches there's only one body. There's only one

church. Now the Lord is not the head over many

different bodies. That is not the teaching of

Scripture. Though we see the religious world

around us, we see a lot of sects, a lot of divisions,

we see a lot of denominations in the religious

world around us, we understand that that's not

the will of God. Jesus never intended to be the

one head over many different bodies. Here's God's

plan for the church Jesus built. He is the one

head over the one church that he built. One head

over one body. Now the one body of Jesus, the

one church that He built, we understand that

it is made up of many different congregations

spread out all over the face of the globe. All

the Christians in a given area come together

to form a congregation of that one church that

Jesus built. Now when we talk about one church

in the form of many different congregations,

we're not talking about many different churches

all found in one place. We're not talking about

Church A here on the northwest side of town and

then a different church Church B on the southwest

side of town and across the street Church E It

wears a different name and Church C is right

around the corner and it's different it preaches

different doctrines and a different gospel We're

not talking about the religious division that

we see so commonly in our communities today that

religious division is brought to us by something

we talked about earlier in the week, the idea

of denominationalism. That's not what we're talking

about when we talk about one church made of many

congregations. We're talking about one in the

same church simply found in many different areas

or many different locations. Just like we see

the church revealed in the New Testament. You

know, Paul wrote letters, epistles to the church

at Rome. He wrote also to the same church, the

same part of the body, but that part of the body

was in Ephesus and Philippi. He wrote a letter

to the church at Colossae. He wrote a letter

to the churches in the land of Galatia and Corinth.

You know, in the New Testament we don't find

many different denominations. Colossae, Corinth,

Galatia, Thessalonica, they weren't all different

denominations. They were all part of one in the

same church. They just happened to be congregations

found in many different places. Here's something

else that we learned when we study the New Testament

concerning these churches. The first century

congregations of the church were autonomous,

meaning they were independent and self -governing.

You could have several different congregations

in close proximity in a given area, but each

congregation was overseen by its own leadership.

It was independent and self -governing, setting

itself apart from the other congregations. We

also find that part of What we see in the New

Testament is there was nothing or nobody or no

board or no hierarchy above the local congregations

of Christ Church. The only thing above the congregations

of the church would be Jesus Christ himself as

the head of the body of the church. Now here's

something else we want to see concerning the

original pattern for church organization. We

want to go back and study the original offices.

that the New Testament authorizes for the church

that Jesus built. We're going to spend quite

a bit of time on this tonight, but I think it's

worth it because it's very important that we

understand these offices. We're going to find

five of the six offices that we're going to talk

about tonight here in Ephesians chapter 4 verse

Ephesians 4:11–12

11 to 12. Ephesians chapter 4, 11 to 12, the

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

Bible says he gave some apostles and some prophets

and some evangelists and some pastors and some

teachers. He gave them for the perfecting of

the saints, for the work of the ministry, for

the edifying of the body of Christ." So here

we find Paul writing to the Ephesians about the

various offices within the church. And the word

office is a scriptural term, so I think we're

okay to use the word office here. But it sort

of sounds very technical in nature. We can think

about these offices as unique sets of roles and

responsibilities. unique sets of roles and responsibilities

for capable, trained, and brothers in the church

to serve in to help the congregation be spiritually

strong. That's what we mean when we talk about

church offices. Now I want to break this passage

down a little bit starting in verse 11. It starts

off there by saying, and He gave some. Who is

He? He is Christ. And what did He give? What

did He give? If we back up in the chapter to

verses 7 and 8, it gives us some insight into

exactly what verse 11 talks about. Verse 7 of

Ephesians 4 says, But unto every one of us is

given grace according to the measure of the gift

of Christ. In verse 8 it says, When He Christ

ascended up on high, He gave gifts to men. So

the resurrected glorified Christ, when He ascended

up to the Father, the Bible says He gave gifts

to men. He gave them talents and abilities and

blesses them with opportunities to serve in these

offices. Now that's significant because these

offices we're getting ready to study were given

by Christ. They are ordained by Him. He is the

one who makes these offices possible and enables

and equips people to serve in these offices.

What offices does it mention here concerning

the church that Jesus built? It mentions five

apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and

teachers. These are five of the six unique roles

and responsibilities that we see when we study

the New Testament church. Now, for what purpose

were these offices given? Were these offices

given just so men could have the title of evangelist

or the title of apostle? so they could have their

picture on the church website and have their

name and the title underneath it so they could

just have the name and hold the office. Is that

why the offices were given? No. No, the Bible

tells us in verse 12 why Christ put these offices

in the church. He put them there for the perfecting

or the equipping of the saints, for the work

of the ministry, that service. for the edifying,

that's the building up of the body of Christ,

that's the church. So each and every one of these

offices was given not just for someone to have

a title and to feel good about serving in some

position. Each one of these offices was given

with the purpose of enabling and equipping and

building up the body as a whole. Now there's

one more office we'll talk about tonight. I don't

know why it's not listed in Ephesians chapter

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

4. I do know it's found in 1st Timothy chapter

3. And that's the office of a deacon, the office

of a deacon. 1 Timothy 3 .13, for they that have

used the office of a deacon well purchase to

themselves a good degree and great boldness in

the faith that is in Christ Jesus. So we find

another office there, the office of a deacon.

And when we combine it with the other five offices

we saw in Ephesians 4, here's what we have. Now

I wanna go down this list of offices and I wanna

talk about each one of them briefly so we get

a good understanding. of what each office is

and why it was important to the church that Jesus

built. And we're going to start there at the

top with apostles. The New Testament church had

apostles. What were they doing? They were witnessing.

They were witnessing to the death, the burial,

the resurrection of Jesus. You remember after

Judas lost his life after he died, The apostles

came together there in Jerusalem and they found

it necessary to select another person to take

the place of Judas. They needed another apostle.

And the Bible talks about how they went about

doing that in Acts chapter 1 verse 21. It says,

Acts 1:21

Wherefore, of these men which have accompanied

with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went

in and out among us, beginning from the baptism

of John, Under that same day that he was taken

up from us, they said, Must one be ordained to

be a witness, a witness with us of his resurrection?

We skip down to verse 26. It says that they gave

forth their lots and the lot fell upon Matthias.

And this man, Matthias, he was numbered with

the eleven apostles. He took the place of Judas

and took his apostleship. What do we learn about

apostles from this verse? The word apostle just

means a delegate or one that is sent out with

a message or one that is sent out on a mission.

That's what the word apostle literally means.

And that's so true of the apostles. The apostles

were the delegates, the ambassadors that Christ

chose and He sent them out with a message, the

message of the gospel to witness and testify

of Him. The apostles, as we saw there in Acts

1, had to be first -hand witnesses of Jesus.

When it came time to replace Judas and his apostleship,

they said, we need to find a man who has been

a first -hand witness of Christ's life, his ministry,

his death, burial, and resurrection. And they

chose a man, Matthias, who was one of those first

-hand witnesses of the ministry of Jesus. And

for that reason, you know, we don't have apostles

in the church today. We don't have anyone living

today who can... Truthfully say they're a first

-hand witness of the ministry the death burial

and resurrection of Jesus Christ However, don't

think for a moment that the Apostles aren't important

to us today. The Apostles are very important

to us today I believe the Apostles indeed do

speak to us today. They don't speak to us directly,

but they speak to us indirectly Through the teachings

that they have left us in our New Testament.

They speak through the Word of God What about

prophets? What were prophets doing in the first

century church? The prophets were revealing things,

revealing messages, revealing truths from God.

You know, Acts chapter 11 talks about a prophet

Acts 11 · chapter mention

in the first century church. His name was Agabus.

In Acts 11, 27, it says, In these days came prophets

from Jerusalem to Antioch, and there stood up

one of them named Agabus, and he signified by

the Spirit that there should be a great dearth

throughout all the world. Here a Christian prophet,

Agabus, he predicts this great global famine

that was going to come. And there were prophets

in the first century church that could do just

that. They could foretell future events. But

you know, there were also prophets in the first

century church who instead of foretelling future

events, they might just reveal new covenant truth

to the church. They might get a message or a

revelation from God containing new covenant truth

and they might speak for God and reveal that

truth to the first century churches. 1 Corinthians

14 talks about those kinds of prophets and how

they prophesied in the assemblies of the church.

It's not so much that they were telling the future,

it's that they were God's messengers and they

were revealing truth from God in the form of

prophecy. So when we think about prophets, we

can think about men who can have a miraculous

gift to foretell the future or just those who

had the miraculous gift to speak by the inspiration

of the Spirit. These were men who relayed messages

from God down to people in the first century

church. We don't have prophets in the church

today. We don't have men with the miraculous

gifts of revelation and inspiration. God is not

speaking through men today. He has given us His

message. We have all things that pertain into

life and godliness in our New Testament. So there

are no prophets in the church today. They've

done their work. Their work was there in the

first century, revealing the truths that we have

today in the form of our New Testament. Just

like the apostles still speak to us today through

the word of God, I do believe first century prophets

still speak to us today through the same word.

The third office we'll look at is the office

of evangelists. What were the evangelists doing?

The evangelists were teaching and preaching the

gospel. Paul told Timothy, who was an evangelist,

in 2 Timothy 4, 2, he said, preach the word,

be instant in season out of season, means be

ready at all times. We go on down to verse 5,

he tells, Timothy but watch thou in all things

endure afflictions he tells Timothy do the work

of an evangelist Paul charged Timothy to preach

the word preach the gospel and To do the work

of an evangelist and that's exactly what evangelists

do the word evangelist literally means one who

proclaims the good news or one who preaches the

gospel You know an evangelist work is going to

include Other things besides just preaching the

gospel, it's going to include equipping the saints

and training men in the church to become teachers.

We're going to read that later in the lesson

from 1st and 2nd Timothy chapter 2 verse 2. Evangelists

are also going to work to train, equip, and to

someday ordain elders and deacons in the church.

We're going to read that a little bit later from

Titus chapter 1 that their job is to set things

Titus 1 · chapter mention

in order in the church. and help it grow to a

point where it can have ordained leadership.

Here's something I think it's very important

for us to understand about the work of evangelists.

An evangelist's work is not restricted or limited

to any one congregation. When we look in the

New Testament and we see its evangelists and

the work that they did we see that they worked

in many different places among many different

congregations So we would say that the work of

an evangelist his work is in the church at large

His work is in the universal church Going from

place to place as he has opportunity preaching

the gospel setting things in order Helping the

churches grow and mature and then helping them

ordain leadership That's a little bit different

from the office that we're getting ready to look

at of elders and deacons elders and deacons have

a important work too, but it's limited to their

local congregations. But the evangelist's work

is in the church at large. What about pastors?

Ephesians chapter 4 verse 11 mentions pastors.

Ephesians 4:11

In fact, that's the only place in the New Testament

you'll find the word pastor. The word pastor

just means shepherd. And the office of a pastor

is synonymous with the office of elders. In the

New Testament, there's one office that's described

with three different names, pastors, elders,

and bishops. All three refer to one in the same

office. What were the pastors or the elders doing

in the church? They were shepherding, providing

leadership for the congregations. Peter wrote

in 1 Peter 5, 1 to 3. He said, the elders which

are among you I exhort. He says, who am I also

an elder? He tells the elders in verse 2, to

feed the flock of God which is among you, taking

the oversight thereof. He says not by constraint,

but willingly. He says not for filthy lucre,

but of a ready mind. Neither is being lords over

God's heritage, but being examples to the flock.

So Peter was an apostle. But apparently later

in his life he also became an elder. He writes

and exhorts the elders of the church and he says,

I'm also an elder. And what does he exhort or

encourage them to do? He tells the elders to

feed, to shepherd, to oversee and lead the flocks.

That would be the congregations of the church.

So concerning pastors, elders, and bishops, they

are shepherds. They are overseers of the leaders

in the congregations. There's qualifications

that must be met for a man to be qualified to

serve in the office of an elder. Those are found

in 1 Timothy chapter 3 verses 1 to 7. Those qualifications

1 Timothy 3:1–7

are also found in Titus chapter 1. And one of

Titus 1 · chapter mention

the important parts of the work of an elder,

as we'll talk more about this later in the lesson,

is that they be teachers. in the local congregations

for which they are shepherding. What about deacons?

What were the deacons doing in the first century

church? The deacons were serving. The deacons

are servants of the church. Church at Philippi

had both bishops, elders, and it also had deacons.

Paul wrote to that church in Philippians 1 .1.

He said, Paul and Timotheus, the servants of

Jesus Christ to all the saints in Christ Jesus

which are at Philippi, he says with the bishops,

and the deacons. The word deacon comes from a

Greek word that simply means a servant or one

who serves. And so that's the work that deacons

were doing in the first century church. They

were serving the needs of the congregation. In

Acts chapter 6, we read that the church at Jerusalem,

Acts 6 · chapter mention

the first church, the early church there, appointed

seven men. to serve the respective needs of the

congregation that they had at that time. Now,

you go read Acts chapter 6, you're not going

Acts 6 · chapter mention

to find the word deacon in Acts chapter 6, and

Acts 6 · chapter mention

the word deacon is not expressly found there.

However, if you study carefully some of the work

that those men were doing and the Greek words

behind the work that they were doing, It seems

to me that they were very much serving in the

capacity of deacons, serving the needs of the

church. Perhaps they were the first kind of deacons

in the church. Perhaps their office, their role

would later go on to become what the church knew

as deacons as the church grew outward from Jerusalem.

In times past, I've referred to those seven men

as proto -deacons, meaning a first of their kind

of deacons that the church had ever seen. Now

there are, just like there's qualifications for

elders, there are also qualifications for deacons.

In 1st Timothy 3 verse 8 to 13, we find the qualifications

a man must meet to serve in the office of a deacon.

And in the last office, teachers. Ephesians chapter

Ephesians 4:11

4 verse 11 and 12 mentions teachers. What were

the teachers doing in the first century church?

Well, naturally they were teaching. The church

in Antioch had multiple teachers. We're going

to talk a lot about the church at Antioch tonight.

Acts 13 verse 1 to 2, it says, Now there were

Acts 13:1–2

in the church that was in Antioch certain prophets

and teachers. And then it's going to name five

of them by name. As Barnabas, that's one. Simeon,

that was called Niger, that's two. Lucius, that's

three. Lucius of Cyrene. Manian, which had been

brought up with Herod the Tetrarch, that's four.

And Saul, five, that's the Apostle Paul. So the

church at Antioch had multiple teachers certain

prophets and teachers five But mentioned by name

and the Bible says in verse 2 that they all ministered

to the Lord They didn't have one man doing all

their teaching. They didn't have one man doing

all their ministering They had multiple men serving

in the office of teacher and they were all ministering

to the congregation through teaching The teachers

in the first century church, of course instructed

and edified built up the body 2 Timothy 2 and

2 says that men that teach in the church need

to be faithful men. We're to train and equip

faithful men so that they can teach others also.

The teaching that happens in the assemblies is

important, but we also need capable men who can

go out and teach away from the assemblies, both

in public and in private settings. Paul said

he taught that way in Acts 20 -20. He says, I

haven't shunned to declare unto you the whole

counsel of God. but have taught you both publicly

and from house to house. Both types of teaching

are important. We also need to pay close attention

to James chapter 3 verse 1. It says, Be ye not

James 3:1

many masters or teachers? Knowing that we're

going to fall under a stricter judgment from

God, God's going to hold us to a higher standard

when we take it upon ourselves to teach others

the Word of God. So we need to be aware of that

higher standard and take our role as teachers

very seriously. So we went through and looked

at all six of these offices that we find revealed

to us in the New Testament. All of these offices

were a part of God's original plan and pattern

for the organization of the church. We don't

have enough time tonight to dive deep. We could

spend the rest of the weekend diving deep into

each and every one of those offices. That's not

within the scope of what we're going to talk

about tonight. Second thing we want to do, now

that we've clearly seen how the Lord set up the

church to be organized, we're going to go through

and survey church history and see how error and

departures slowly made their way into the church

and changed in many ways God's plan for the organization

of the church. One of the first things we see

in the early centuries of the church Concerning

an error, a deviation away from this plan is

the introduction of man -made hierarchies within

the church. This is Ignatius. Well, it's not

Ignatius. It's a painting of Ignatius. Ignatius

lived in the second century. Ignatius was a leader

in the second century church. And some of his

writings have been preserved for us. Ignatius

wrote a letter to Christians called the Magnesians

around the year 110 AD. And I want you to look

carefully at what Ignatius says here. He tells

the Christians in the second century do all things

in harmony with God. That's good. With the bishop

presiding in the place of God. and the presbyters,

presbyter is another word for elders, and the

presbyters or the elders in the place of the

council of the apostles, and the deacons entrusted

with the ministry of Jesus Christ. Do you notice

something here? Do you notice how Ignatius doesn't

speak of just two offices in the congregation?

He doesn't speak of just the elders and the deacons.

He speaks of the bishop. And you know the bishop

here is mentioned first. in such a way that the

bishop is preeminent over the elders and the

deacons. This was one of the very first changes

that was made to the organization of the church

beginning in the very early second century. Now

God's pattern and plan for the congregations

was that they were to be led by elders and served

by deacons, but now here's Ignatius saying we

need to have a bishop. in each congregation over

the elders and over the deacons. Now, it seems

like a slight and subtle change, right? What's

wrong with taking one of the elders and putting

him up above the rest of the elders and calling

him the bishop? You know, if you study what was

going on in the church in the second century,

I believe Ignatius and those who advocated for

this change had very good intentions. They thought

of a hundred good reasons why they should do

this. They thought that this was going to help

the church. In the second century, there were

a lot of heresies that were making their way

into the church. We talked about one of those

heresies earlier in the meeting. We talked about

Gnosticism. Gnosticism was coming into the church,

this false gospel, this idea that Jesus didn't

come in the flesh, that completely corrupted

and changed the gospel. And there were other

heresies. The church was being attacked from

the outside with false doctrines and false teachings

about many things. And the leaders of the church

said, you know what, we've got to take a hard

position against this error and these heresies.

We've got to centralize the power in each congregation.

We're tired of dealing with an eldership in each

congregation. It would just be better to deal

with one man in each congregation and make sure

he is strong in the faith and make sure he is

true to the doctrine. If we can put one man in

each church that will hold on to sound doctrine,

then all the churches will be spared from this

heresy. So you see, they had what they thought

were good reasons to do this. They had the best

of intentions. They were trying to help protect

the church from false doctrine. But what they

didn't understand is this. You know, one change,

even with the best of intentions, leads to another

change, which leads to another change, which

leads to many more changes. And that's what we

see when we study church history. We see over

the next 500 years, by the year 600 AD, a full

-blown hierarchy was established within what

had become the Roman Catholic Church. A hierarchy

consisting of not just, you know, bishops over

the one priest in each congregation, but after

they had all these bishops, you know, that wasn't

enough. They still needed to centralize the power.

They said, we've got all these bishops. We need

somebody over all the bishops. So, they created

the office of archbishop to be over the bishops.

Well, then they had all these archbishops and

they said, that's really not enough either. We

need somebody to be over all these archbishops.

And so, they invented the office of a cardinal.

Typically, how it was back then, the cardinal

was the one man who was over the church of an

entire nation or an entire country. Well, then

once they had the cardinals, they said that's

really not enough either. We need one more office.

We need somebody to be over all these cardinals

who are over all these archbishops who are over

all the bishops who are over all the church.

And they created the office of the pope. What

we know today as the papal office. The office

of the pope. One man ruling over the entire church

on the face of the earth. Now none of these offices

are scriptural. None of these offices in this

hierarchy that developed was not a part. of God's

plan for the organization of His church. It was

invented by men. We would have to conclude that

it has come down to us today as a form of man

-made doctrines and man -made traditions which

are not authorized in any shape or form by the

Scripture. What's the danger in that? We've got

to be careful that we're not adding to God's

Word. God warned his people the Jews in Deuteronomy

4 2 ye shall not add unto the word the word which

I command you neither shall you diminish ought

from it God told Israel in the law don't add

to or take away from my word and that we have

the same warning to us today in Revelation 22

Don't add to the word of God and don't take away

from his word We need to heed the warning of

Scripture be very careful We don't want to be

guilty of adding man -made doctrines and traditions

to the word that has been given to us, to the

pattern, the plan that God has bestowed upon

us. So another thing that developed over the

course of church history, in addition to these

man -made hierarchies that we just talked about,

there was also an ever -growing gap and distinction

between what we're going to call the clergy and

the laity. Let me define those terms. Clergy.

Clergy is viewed as those people who are prepared

and set apart for higher church leadership or

higher church ministry. Here's my redneck way

of describing clergy. It's the people in the

long robes and the funny hats, okay? The people

in the long robes and the funny hats, the clergy.

And as time went on, There was a growing gap

between the clergy, the men in the robes, and

the laity. The laity is everybody else in the

church that isn't clergy. So we're talking about

the lower and common people of the church who

weren't highly educated, who weren't set apart,

who weren't given the privileges to live in a

castle and eat at the table of the Roman Catholic

Church and the people who didn't have the robes,

right, and didn't have the hats. just the common

lower uneducated people in the church. Over a

period of time, the idea that developed concerning

clergy and laity is that only the members of

the clergy, only the priests of the Roman Catholic

Church were allowed to administer the sacraments.

And if you were here earlier in the meeting,

we talked about the sacraments, how the doctrine

of the Roman Catholic Church teaches that the

way every good Catholic goes to heaven is by

faithfully observing and keeping the seven sacraments.

But the seven sacraments are now entrusted to

the clergy, the priests. They are the only one

who can give and administer the sacraments to

the laity. Therefore, the laity is sort of held

hostage. The laity can't serve God properly and

they can't be saved without the priests bestowing

upon them all the rights and sacred privileges

of the sacraments that are held and entrusted

by the church. Instead of the church being one

body made up of many different members and all

the members helping one another and encouraging

one another and building one another up, now

it's a very few at the top and a lot of people

down here at the bottom and the people at the

top will decide whether or not We let you have

the Lord's Supper. The people at the top will

decide whether or not you can get baptized. The

people at the top will decide whether or not

you can get married. It was a much different

dynamic that slowly evolved concerning the organization

and the work and the unity of the church. Here's

the reality, okay? There should be no such thing

as a clergy laity distinction among God's people.

Lord had never intended it to be that way. In

1 Peter chapter 2 verse 9, we learn that all

1 Peter 2:9

of God's people are part of a holy nation and

a royal priesthood. 1 Peter 2, 9, ye, Peter writes

to first century Christians, ye are a chosen

generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,

a peculiar people. If you're a baptized believer

in Christ, you're part of this royal priesthood.

You're a part of this holy nation. In Revelation

Revelation 1:5

chapter 1 verse 5, John says unto him that loved

us and washed us from our sins in his own blood

and hath made us kings and priests unto God and

his father. Notice there, those who God washed

from their sins in the blood of Jesus, he has

made them what? Kings and priests. Every Christian

is a priest and a part of this holy priesthood

we're talking about. And part of our service

as priests in the Lord's priesthood is to present

our bodies as a living sacrifice. that's worthy

and acceptable and that's our reasonable service

in the kingdom. That's what Romans chapter 12

Romans 12:1

verse 1 speaks to us about. Paul begs the Roman

Christians to present their bodies as living

sacrifices for the Lord. The truth is this, no

man has any right to take the place of Jesus

and try to mediate between you and your God.

There is only one mediator between God and men

and it's not the priest, it's not anybody in

a robe or a funny hat. There is only one mediator

first Timothy chapter 2 verse 5 There is one

1 Timothy 2:5

God and one mediator between God and men the

man Christ Jesus Jesus is our only mediator Another

error that slowly worked its way into the organization

of the church Would be the addition and the deviation

of the one -man pastor system now after the Protestant

Reformation of the 16th century After a lot of

the modern -day denominations were established

in the 16th and 17th century, the one -man model

for church leadership, which the Roman Catholic

Church was accustomed to, it was slowly adopted

by a lot of the denominational churches that

were formed out of the Protestant Reformation.

And the one -man pastor system is the idea that

one man is ordained to be the exclusive leader

or one man is selected to be the exclusive teacher

or preacher for each congregation. This man could

wear a number of different titles. Some churches

call him a reverend. Some call him a pastor.

Some call him a minister. Some might just call

him a preacher. But it's the idea that we have

one man who is the leader of our congregation

and one man who does all the teaching for our

congregation. From my study of Scripture, I'm

convinced and convicted that the Lord never intended

for His church to be led or taught only by one

man. We don't find this one -man system taught

in the New Testament. In Acts chapter 14 verse

Acts 14:23

23, Paul and Barnabas are on the first missionary

journey. They're finishing that missionary journey.

They're about to return back to Antioch from

where they started that journey. And the Bible

says in Acts 14 -23 that when they had ordained

them elders in every church, You know they established

these churches and before they go home. It says

they ordained them elders in every church We

notice here that Paul and Barnabas ordained elders

plural in every church They did not ordain one

elder in every church. They ordained elders plural

in every church Also in Titus 1 and 5 Paul tells

the evangelist Titus for this cause left I thee

and creep that thou should have set in order

the things that are wanting and ordained elders

in every city as I had appointed thee Notice

Paul told Titus here to ordain elders plural

in every city. He didn't say ordain one elder

in every city He said ordain elders a plurality

of elders in every in every church acts 1423

and in every city Titus 1 and 5 You know the

one -man system the one -man leader system the

one -man teacher or preacher system the one -man

pastor system is really not needed when we structure

the work of the church according to God's plan

for its organization. Because the Bible teaches

that one of the qualifications for elders is

that they be apt to teach. They be able to teach

in the congregations. And if it was God's will

for the church to be led by elders, a plurality

of elders, and if it's His will for those elders

to be teachers, then we would never have a need

to be led or taught only by one man if we're

following God's model. In 1st Timothy 3, 2, this

is the qualifications for bishops or elders.

A bishop then must be blameless, the husband

of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior,

given to hospitality, and then he says apt to

teach. Elders should be apt to teach because

that's part of their work, to feed and teach

and shepherd their congregation through teaching

the Word of God. We see the same thing with the

qualifications of elders in Titus 1 and 9. Here's

the qualification given to Titus. An elder needs

to be one who holds fast the faithful word as

he hath been taught that he may be able by sound

doctrine. The word doctrine just means teaching.

Elders need to use sound doctrine, sound teaching

both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers.

I want to go back to the church at Antioch because

when we look at the church at Antioch we find

they didn't have the one -man pastor model. In

Acts chapter 15 verse 35 it says, Paul also in

Acts 15:35

Barnabas continued in Antioch teaching and preaching

the word of the Lord with many others also. You

know in Acts 13 .1 we learned that they had certain

prophets and teachers and it named five by name.

Now two chapters later Acts 15 .35 it says, Paul

and Barnabas are back there in Antioch. They're

teaching and preaching and they're doing that

with many others also. They don't even tell us

how many at this point. It just says there were

many others involved in doing the Lord's work

of teaching and that contradicts that that goes

against the common idea, the modern -day idea

of the one -man pastor system. Moving on from

our survey of church history and how error slowly

evolved in the church concerning its organization.

Let's move on to our current day practice. Let's

stop and look around and let's think about our

modern practice in churches today. In many churches

today, I'm not going to say all churches today.

I don't want to paint everybody with a broad

brush. Okay, I don't want to overgeneralize this.

I want to be fair. I'm not saying all churches

do these things and all churches operate these

ways. But in far too many churches today, these

offices have become very much secularized in

nature. And here's what I mean by these offices

becoming secularized. It would not be uncommon

today for a young man to come forward even in

a church of Christ and come to his preacher,

come to his minister. and say, you know what,

I want to be a preacher someday. I want to teach

the Word of God someday. That's a great, hey,

I love it. I love it when our young men come

forward and say, hey, I want to teach. I want

to be a preacher. I want to be an evangelist.

That's great. That gets me excited. But you know,

the answer that's going to be all too commonly

given to young men who come forward and want

to get involved in the work of the Lord, they're

going to go to their preacher and their preacher

is going to advise them. He's going to say, son,

first thing you need to do, is go get you a bachelor

degree from a reputable Church of Christ college.

That's the first thing you need to do. And then

they're going to say, if you can, go to a noteworthy

Church of Christ preacher school, stay there

one or two years, go through the program, and

get you a diploma, a preaching diploma. And with

your degree and your preaching diploma, you then

set yourself up. to produce that clean and crisp

resume that you're going to need, complete with

all the sermon examples and all the references

that you're going to need. And then you go online

and you search Church of Christ preacher jobs

wanted. And there's hundreds of them out there

online. There's churches hiring preachers all

over the country. You send out your resume to

all these churches of Christ that are hiring

a preacher. And if there's a church that likes

your resume, they'll ask you to come and they're

going to try you out. They're going to ask you

to preach and see if they like you. And if you're

lucky, if you're fortunate, they're going to

offer you a position, a job. Now you're going

to have to enter into a legally binding contract

with that church to preach. They're going to

want to lay out all the terms and parameters

of your work. And this legally binding contract

has a lot of moving parts, has a lot of bells

and whistles, such things as moving stipend,

sick leave. Personal leave paid vacation if you're

really lucky you'll get what I've seen on some

of these job announcements You'll get a growth

proportion a growth proportional salary increase

or bonus You know what a growth proportional

salary increase or bonus is It's a clause it's

a term in your contract that says if you grow

the church substantially, they'll give you more

money They'll give you more money. They'll give

you a big bonus if you can baptize 10 people

that year or bring 20 new people into the church

They'll give you a big bonus I've seen that I

have read that in these job announcements of

churches of Christ looking to hire a preacher

But it ain't going to be easy. If you can get

a job preaching at one of these congregations,

it's not going to be easy because you've got

to hold office hours. Those office hours will

be set and laid out in your contract. You've

got to meet a sermon quota, preach so many sermons

a year. You've got to do so many hospital visits

a year, and then you've got to pass an annual

performance review to keep your position and

keep getting paid to be the preacher. I might

have exaggerated some of this a little bit, but

there's not an awful lot of exaggeration in this.

Like I said, I've been a first -hand witness

to a lot of these things, and you can go online

and search Church of Christ preacher jobs wanted,

and you can see the same thing that I'm showing

you here. And I'm not trying to be overly harsh.

I'm not trying to be overly critical. I'm not

trying to say that you're doing something wrong

if you go to a Bible college or a preacher school.

If you go to a Bible college, preacher school,

more power to you. What I'm trying to help you

see is this. In too many places, all too often

church offices have become hardly recognizable

from secular professions. Secular professions.

Let me tell you something else that we see. Because

of the introduction of the one -man system, We

see that many of the roles and responsibilities

in the church have been shifted downward. Let

me show you what I mean. This was the New Testament

blueprint and plan for the church. It was God's

will to have elders leading and teaching, de

-conserving, teachers teaching in addition to

and alongside the elders, and then the members

of the body being active, working, and doing

their part. But with the addition of the one

-man pastor or the one -man preacher system,

here's what happens. We're going to hire a man

to come in and do all or most of our teaching

and preaching for us. We're going to put him

at the top. We hired our preacher, and he's going

to teach the church. He's going to take care

of that. Well, then what are the elders going

to do? He just took the elder's job. What are

the elders going to do? They don't have anything

to do now. Well, the elders are going to become

servants to the church and they're going to serve

primarily in an administrative capacity, sort

of as the unofficial board of directors for the

congregation. And a big part of their work will

actually be hiring and firing preachers. There

will likely be an endless revolving door of teachers

and preachers that they will have to hire and

fire. And they become essentially the governing

board serving in that administrative capacity.

Well, they've sort of taken the job of some of

the deacons What are the deacons going to do

now now the deacons don't have anything to do?

Let me tell you what happens. I've seen this

and look I've seen this in some some of the congregations.

I preach it Okay Some of the congregations I've

preached at and work with I've seen the office

of the deacon Being used in such a way that it's

not really reaching its full potential and full

capacity deacons do a very important special

work in the church But in some places, sometimes,

here's what happens to deacons. Deacons become

solely janitors. That's all they do. That's their

job, just to clean the building. Or deacons become

lawn mowers. They mow the lawn. Or deacons become

tech support. When the mic won't work or the

projector's broke, they fix the mic, fix the

projector. Now listen, those things are important,

and we appreciate people. who clean the building.

We appreciate people who mow the lawn. We appreciate,

I really appreciate it when they can fix this

stuff up here so it's not broken so I can use

it. We appreciate the people who do this. And

there's nothing wrong with deacons doing this

kind of work. But if that's all that a deacon's

work ever is, if that's all that we think of

it as, just someone who is relegated to these

very menial tasks and there's nothing more to

their work, no more significance, I think we

missed the mark. of why we have deacons and why

the Lord's church needs deacons. Concerning teachers

in the church, we don't need teachers anymore,

right? We can just cross that out because we

hired our guy, our preacher, to do all the teaching

for us. We don't need teachers in the church

anymore. And concerning the work of the members,

what oftentimes happens once this system is fully

developed, in a lot of congregations the members

Simply take on the role of making sure that they

give enough money in the collection plate to

meet the budget that's required for all these

people who are serving on staff. The members

become nothing more than a cash cow. The people

who need to make sure they give enough money

to support the preacher and everybody else that

we've got on staff doing all the work. You know,

the members are no longer maybe needed to be

active in doing the work. We just need them to

pay the people who we pay to do the work. This

is a system that has evolved. The roles have

been shifted downward and that's because of the

introduction of the one -man pastor or one -man

preacher system. Something else we see around

us in churches today is many congregations have

elders that rarely teach the Word of God. I believe

the New Testament teaches that elders need to

teach the Word of God. In too many places, elders

contract out their teaching. They contract that

out. They're teaching responsibilities they pass

on to the preacher that they hire. But we don't

find that in the New Testament. Sometimes there's

a mentality that, you know, it's just best to

leave the preaching to a certified and credentialed

professional. to a guy who's been to preacher

school, to a guy who has some higher education

from a Bible college. Sometimes elderships get

to thinking this way. We can't get up there and

teach. We got a higher professional to do our

teaching for us. Here's what we need to ask ourselves.

How did the early church ever manage to survive

without Bible colleges, without preacher schools,

without diplomas and certificates to preach?

without legally binding contracts with sick leave

and incentive bonuses and sermon quotas. How

did the early church ever manage to survive without

all these things that we've added into and made

a customary part of the work and organization

of the Lord's Church? Something else we see in

many churches today is the idea that the preacher

is hired to do all of or maybe even or it might

just be most of the work. Sometimes it might

even be all of the work of the church. Now here's

a statement I think every single one of us would

agree with. A church congregation is not going

to last long if the preacher is expected to do

all the work. There's a church out there where

the preacher is expected to do all the work that

church will not last long Why because every member

in the body has work to do and we need every

member doing their part for the body to be strong

Ephesians 4 11 we read this verse earlier. I

want to revisit it Ephesians 4 11 he gave some

Apostles some prophets some evangelists some

pastors and some teachers What did he give men

to serve in these offices for to do all the work?

Did the Lord give us evangelists or elders in

the church to do all the work? Let me share something

with you about verse 12. I personally have never

been a big fan of the commas in verse 12, okay?

There were no commas in the original Greek text,

by the way. Commas were added, punctuation was

added by the translators, and rightfully so because

it does help make the... the Bible easier for

us to read. But I'm not so sure, I'm not so sure

that the commas in verse 12 are helpful in us

arriving at the original idea behind verse 12.

With the commas in verse 12, it almost presents

the idea that God gave us these offices in the

church for this laundry list of things. Three

things that evangelists and pastors and teachers

need to do. A laundry list of three things. God

gave us elders to equip the saints. God gave

us elders to do the work of the ministry. God

gave us elders to edify the body of Christ. Sort

of a laundry list of things that the men in these

offices do. When you take out the commas though,

it completely changes the meaning of the verse.

Let me show you what it means. This is what I

believe the original intent is. God gave us men

to serve in these offices so that they could

perfect or equip the saints to do the work of

the ministry, to do the work of service so that

the saints who are being equipped to do the work

can edify or build up the body of Christ. That's

completely different. That's a completely different

dynamic. It's not the men in these offices doing

all the work. It's the men in these offices equipping

and enabling all the members of church to get

involved in the work. And I think that's the

original intent. I think that's the meaning because

we see that when we skip down to verse 16. We

see that same idea. Ephesians 4 16. I'm going

to go against my custom and read it in the ESV.

I just think it's a little bit easier to read

and understand. Paul says, From whom? That's

Christ the head. the whole body that's the church

joined and held together by every joint that's

every member in the body with which it is equipped

when each part is working properly each part

of the body each member it makes the body grow

so that it builds itself up in love when we equip

each part of the body to do its work And every

part of the body is working properly. What? The

body grows because it is doing the work of building

itself up in love. So I think it's probably better

for us if we can. I hope that doesn't offend

anybody. If you like the commas in verse 12,

keep the commas there. But I think when we read

verse 12 and understand, Paul's not talking about

one man or a small group of men doing all the

work in the church. He's talking about men in

leadership enabling and equipping the members

to get involved and do the work, and that's what

makes the body strong. Last thing we'll look

at concerning our modern day practice. Because

in many churches today we've accepted and adopted

the idea that we hire men in to be our preachers,

fewer and fewer men are being sent out to far

away places to preach and teach the gospel. More

and more evangelists are being hired in to come

and be the preacher in big churches here in the

United States. And the result is this, fewer

and fewer evangelists are being supported to

go out, to be sent, and to go start new works,

new churches here in the US and in foreign places.

Now, I want to give you some proof of that. This

is a table. This table illustrates the decline

in Church of Christ membership in the United

States. since 1955 to the present day. I want

to draw your attention here to this pink shaded

area. These are the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. The

50s, 60s, and 70s was the era of massive Church

of Christ College and Church of Christ University

expansion. A lot of Church of Christ colleges,

preacher schools, if they weren't established

during this time period, they underwent major

expansion. And the thought and the idea was that

if we invest all these resources in these Church

of Christ colleges and preacher schools, we're

going to send our young people to these schools

and colleges and we're going to train them, we're

going to equip them, we're going to prepare them

and we're going to send them out and they're

going to help the church grow rapidly all across

the United States. That was the idea and that's

a very good idea. But you know what happened?

The exact opposite happened. From 1968, to 2020,

the church saw a 55 % decrease in membership

in the United States, from about 2 .4 million

members in 1968 to a little over 1 million members

in 2020. That might be, you know, charts and

graphs, maybe that's a little bit too technical.

I'm technical -minded. I'm an engineer by trade,

and so I think in terms of graphs and charts,

Here's the point I'm trying to teach. Here's

what I'm trying to show you from this graph.

The one -man professional preacher system has

not helped grow the church in the United States.

It has not helped the church grow. In fact, it

may in fact be hindering the church because we

are sending fewer and fewer men out to do the

work. Instead we are just hiring them in to stand

behind pulpits like this and be our preachers.

Last thing we want to look at tonight, we started

by looking at the original pattern, God's pattern

for church organization. We went down through

the centuries of church history. We saw that

many errors and deviations came into the church

concerning its organization. And we see that

we see many things in our modern day practice

that aren't in line with the Word of God. We're

here tonight, and we're here this week not just

to focus on problems. We're here to try to talk

about solutions Let's talk about some solutions.

Let's talk about some things that we can do to

restore God's pattern for church organization

First thing that we could do these offices that

had become highly secularized we can desecularize

them Workers in the early church were prepared

without Bible colleges and again. I'm not I'm

not trying to condemn you if you Teach at a Bible

college. You went to a Bible college. I'm not

trying to condemn you, but I just want you to

understand this. Workers in the early church

were prepared to serve without Bible colleges,

without preaching certificates, without legally

binding contracts. They didn't need those things

in the first century church, yet we see the first

century church growing rapidly. Consider the

way Paul mentored Timothy. In Acts chapter 16

Acts 16:1–3

verse 1 to 3, He, that's Paul, came to Derbe

and Lystra. Behold, a certain disciple was there

named Timotheus, Timothy. Paul comes to Lystra

and Derbe on a second missionary journey. He

finds this young man named Timothy. It says in

verse 2 that this Timothy was well reported of

by the brethren that were at Lystra in Iconium.

This young man's got a good reputation. All right,

Paul looks at him and sees potential in young

Timothy. And what does Paul do? He says him,

Timothy, Would Paul have to go forth with him?

Paul tells Timothy, Timothy I want you to come

with me and I will train you and I will teach

you and I will show you what it means to preach

the gospel. I'll show you what it means to do

the work of an evangelist. You know this one

-on -one organic mentorship I think is probably

a more effective way of bringing up and raising

up the next generation of leaders, teachers and

preachers in our congregations. It seems to me

that that's the way they trained up the next

generation of leaders in the first century church

in the same way Paul took and trained up Timothy.

So that's what I mean when I'm talking about

de -secularizing these offices. We talked earlier

about all the roles being shifted downward because

of the introduction of the one -man pastor system.

I think we can take steps and take actions that

would shift those roles back upward. This is

where we left it a moment ago with the preacher

doing all the teaching for the church, the elders

serving as the board of directors, the deacons

relegated to being janitors, lawn mowers and

tech support. No more teachers needed in the

church because we hired a man to do all our teaching

and the focus of the membership is just make

sure they give enough to pay the budget of the

church. Here's the first thing we could do to

change all that. We can encourage and I do encourage

preachers, ministers. equip and train men in

your congregation to get involved in teaching.

That's part of the work of an evangelist. Equip

men, prepare men, train men to teach, prepare

men to serve as elders, and elders need to be

teachers in the church as well. Equip the members

to do their part. in the work of the Lord. If

preachers will get busy focusing on this part

of their work, the elders can resume their rightful

place as teachers in the congregation and they

can resume their place of being the rightful

leaders of the congregations. And if we can move

the elders back up to doing that, the deacons

can then take care of the work of serving the

needs of the church like God intended in the

beginning. Guess what? We can encourage men in

the congregation who might not be elders who

might not be deacons, but they might have a a

Talent and ability and a desire to be teachers

in the church. Let's work with those men Enable

them equip them train them to teach alongside

The elders of the church and then instead of

the members of the church just being the people

who fund everybody above them You know, it's

amazing what you can do when people are willing

to serve as elders on a voluntary basis or from

their heart. Deacons are serving voluntarily.

These men are teaching voluntarily. You know,

it's amazing how little your budget becomes when

people are willingly doing this because they

love the Lord and they love the work of His church.

The focus can be shifted away from giving all

the money for these people to work to the members

going back and working and being active in the

congregations. We could take steps to get our

congregations back to what the Lord intended

them to be in the beginning. And you know, if

a preacher can do this, if he can successfully

work over a period of time to affect these kinds

of changes, guess what he can do now? This congregation

don't need him anymore, do they? They don't need

him anymore. They got elders teaching and leading.

They got de -conserving. They got other men teaching.

They got the members working. They don't need

him anymore. They can actually support him and

send him out to a new area as an evangelist so

he can preach the gospel somewhere else and maybe

start a new work, a new congregation somewhere

else. And what's that look like? That looks like

church growth. Instead of hiring these men to

do all our teaching and preaching and dilute

and diminish the talent of the men of the congregation,

Getting all these people involved and working

will actually allow him to go out and work in

other places and help grow the church. And this

is something we can do to help shift these roles

back upward where they need to be. I do believe

we also need to return back to God's original

pattern for elders teaching and preaching in

the assemblies of the church. There's a multitude

of scriptures in the New Testament which speak

to an elder's necessity to teach. Acts 20 and

28, Paul tells the elders to feed the flock.

1 Timothy 3, Titus 1, the qualifications of elders

apt to teach, able to exhort with sound doctrine.

1 Peter 5, 1 to 3, Peter told the elders to feed

the flock. Hebrews chapter 13 verse 7 talks about

Hebrews 13:7

the elders being those who have spoken the word

of God. 1 Thessalonians 5, 12 talks about the

elders as those that admonish the members of

the congregation. There are six scriptures right

there. Six scriptures which make it abundantly

clear that it's an elder's role and it's part

of his role and responsibility to be a teacher

in the church. I'll tell you something else we

need too. We need godly men to step up. We need

godly men to step up. You know what the church

needs? The church needs more fat men. More fat

men. Fat, faithful, available, teachable. Look,

I want to stop just a moment. I want to speak

to you men. Men, we need every brother. We need

every male member of the Lord's body to step

up and do your part and do what you can to help

make the church Strong to help make it grow,

to help make it thrive. What are some things

that we need to do as men? As men, let me just

put it to you straight, guys. Listen, let me

just put it to you straight. In some churches,

we've got far too many men that are just sitting

on the sidelines as consumers. They just sit

on the sideline as consumers of what the church

offers them. We need more men to get off the

sideline and get in the game and become producers.

Producers, not just consumers. Guys, you need

to be leading in your homes. It starts there.

Leading faithfully. honorably as husbands, as

fathers, as the scriptures instruct us. Lead

your homes in a godly manner. Teach your children,

fathers, teach your children. Raise them up in

their nurture and admonition of the Lord. We

need you doing that. We need you doing that.

We need you to commit yourself to be an active

and involved and present member of the body.

We need to count on you to be here when the church

comes together. In some churches you might not

be able to count on the men to be there. Maybe

20 -30 % of the time. They're there one Sunday,

they're gone the next. We can't count on them.

They're not reliable. They're not committed.

Men, we need more of you to be committed, to

be present, to be active and involved in the

work of the church. Guys, you gotta be studying

your Bibles. Gotta be studying your Bibles. Gotta

be sharing your faith. You need to know the Word

of God well enough that you can talk with people

about your faith. Talk with them about the church.

And I know it might require you to get out of

your comfort zone a little bit, but we need you

guys working on developing your talents. Work

on developing your talents. You say, bro James,

well I ain't got any talents. I ain't got anything

church needs from me. You probably got more talent

than you're aware of. You probably got more talent

than you give yourself credit for. And these

are some of the things, guys. We as men need

to take our role, our responsibility seriously.

Look, it's all too easy to make excuses. It's

all too easy to sit back and say, well, somebody

else will do that. Brother so -and -so will do

that. You know, I'm not really needed. There's

so much work to do. And we need everybody in

the game being involved in the work. It's no

time for excuses. It's no time for spiritual

laziness. I want to encourage you men, I'm speaking

to you straight, I'm using pointed words, but

listen, I'm doing that because it's just that

important. If we love the church, if we love

the Lord, let's step up, let's step out, let's

do what we can to be involved in the work of

the church. Let's be fat men, let's be faithful,

let's be available, and let's be teachable. This

is something that as an evangelist I'm called

to do. It's my duty as an evangelist to call

men to this kind of service and this kind of

commitment. Second Timothy 2 -2, Paul tells Timothy,

the thing that thou hast heard of me among many

witnesses, he says the same commit to faithful

men who shall be able to teach others also. Paul's

telling Timothy, what I've taught you Timothy,

you teach to faithful men so that they can go

out and teach others also. So it's that work.

of equipping the members of the body so that

they can be involved in the larger work of the

church. It's so very important. And then the

last thing we can do to help restore the New

Testament pattern for church organization is

we can do the work of sending men out to teach

and preach the gospel. When we set up our congregations

in a scriptural way, when our congregations are

set in order scripturally, As we've talked about

tonight, you know what they can do? They can

support and they can send out evangelists. That's

what the church at Antioch did, right? That's

what the church at Antioch did. Let's go back

and revisit that. Acts 13 .1, there were at the

church at Antioch certain prophets and teachers.

It names five of them by name. It says, as they

ministered to the Lord, they were all ministering

and serving the Lord there at Antioch. It says,

As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the

Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul

for the work whereunto I have called them. The

Lord looked down at Antioch. He saw at least

five men teaching and preaching. The Lord says,

I need two of those men, Saul and Barnabas, to

go and do a special work that I've called them

to do. The Bible says when they had fasted and

prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent

them away. Do you know what they went and did?

This was the beginning of the first missionary

journey. Paul and Barnabas were sent out from

Antioch to teach and preach the gospel in many

places, established new congregations in Lystra,

in Derbe, in Iconium, in Antioch of Pisidia.

You see a congregation that's set in order scripturally

with multiple teachers is able to send men out

to do evangelistic work. The example being the

church there at Antioch. I hope you can see tonight

from our study of the Scriptures that God does

indeed have a plan for the organization of the

church. He has a plan. That plan has been given

to us in the New Testament. I'm here to tell

you that plan has worked well in times past.

It worked very well for the first century church.

The first century church grew rapidly by following

this plan that I've tried to teach you tonight.

This plan, this pattern of church organization,

though it might sound different to some of us,

I may have shared some things with you tonight

that are new. I may have shared some ideas, some

scriptures that you've never heard of. I may

have exposed you tonight for the first time to

a completely new way of looking at the leadership

and organization of the church. And if so, I

want you to understand and I want you to know

that this plan is working very well in many places

today. This plan is working very well here at

North Warren, other congregations in this area

all across this country. There are congregations

I could take you to if you go with me and show

you congregations led by elders, served by deacons,

taught by multiple men, sending out and supporting

three, four, five, maybe even ten evangelists

in other parts of the U .S. in foreign countries.

This plan works. God's plan will always work.

If we will work God's plan, God's plan will work

for us. The question is this, will we trust God's

plan? Despite everything we've ever been taught,

despite everything we've been told, despite everything

we may have ever seen in the church concerning

its organization, will we trust that God's plan

is best? Thank you for your attention tonight.

I really appreciate you being here tonight as

we consider these things We feel like these things

are very very important Very very important for

us to understand clearly And we pray God's richest

blessings on this congregation as it continues

to strive to put this plan into practice. God

bless you all. We're going to sing a song of

invitation. If you're here tonight and you need

to respond to the gospel, you want to be baptized

into Christ, or if you're here tonight and you

need the prayers of the church, we want to help

you spiritually. If there's anything we can do

to assist, please don't hesitate. Make your need

known by coming forward, having a scene on the

front while we stand and while we sing the song

of invitation.