Simple Church Minute 4--ordination (revised)

            As I wrote a period of time ago, I am going to attempt to republish the first blogs I did, the two minute versions of Simple Church Minute, with improved footnotes for anyone wishing to review where I got these ideas from.

This is read at a really fast pace to get into 2 minutes.

4—ordination
My name is Tom; this is Simple Church Minute.
            In the early church, elders came about through time.  In the world, an elder meant one of the older, experienced persons.  In the church, it meant one not just physically older, but experienced as a believer, who had grown to spiritual maturity.  It was not a title as used today.  There are three places where elders were recognized, and in one, First Timothy chapter 3 verse 1, there had been 14 years between the time of the founding of the church and the recognition of elders.  This recognition was only recognizing seniority and godly service these persons had been doing in all those intervening years.  A believer should be growing day by day into this role from the day of first believing on Jesus to the day one passes away, without regard to whether there is any person to comment on it.
            The word “ordain” did not mean to place into an official position.  In the early church, there was only one office—head of the church, occupied by Jesus.  Ordain meant to recognize and endorse what was already taking place, insofar as believers desiring to serve Jesus.  How did ordination get its meaning of placing a person into an official position?  The ordination ceremony was borrowed from the Roman ceremony for appointing civil servants, even to some of the words used in it.  By the 3^rd century, ordination became a ritual that marked a person passing from laity to clergy.  After the Edict of Milan, which made Christianity legal in the Roman Empire, church leadership became interconnected with the societal structure of Rome.  Gregory of Nyassa said the priest, as was the title at the time, by ordination was (quote) invisibly but actually a different, better man. (unquote)
            That was far from what the apostles taught the early believers.  First Peter 5 verses 2 and 3 directed, which commands, “shepherd, serve, willingly, not dishonest, eagerly, not as lords, examples.”  This is not to be critical of traditional church pastors; almost all honestly desire to see the church of Jesus go forward.  Its just that there isn’t solid scriptural precedent for our traditional structure.
            You can email me at simplechurchminute@gmail.com.  For more info on organic church*, visit http://www.simplechurch.com/ or (an area’s local website).  A transcript of this talk is at tevyebird.blogspot.com, in the blog dated April 29, 2012.
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On the recording, at this time, it says, “house churches.”  While that phrasing is OK, to say “organic church” is better.  I comment on that in blip 94.
            The ideas included in this talk can be found in George Barna and Frank Viola’s book, Pagan Christianity, pages 123-130, which, in turn, will have copious footnotes of historical sources.

Simple Church Minute 40--covering

40—covering

My name is Tom; this is Simple Church Minute.

            In the early church, there were leaders, but no flow chart type hierarchy such as one would find in government, military, business, or our modern institutional churches.

Jesus is the head of the church; we are told that in Col. 1.18 and Eph. 5.23. Each believer can be prompted by the Holy Spirit.  Believers might be apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors/teachers, elders, deacons/deaconesses, presbyters, workers, overseers, servants not as a matter of an appointed office with title, but according to faith, gifting, experience, character, and obedience to the Holy Spirit.  The Revised Standard Version has First Timothy chapter 3 verse 1 say “office of an elder”, but that is not in the original language.  This is an example of a translator putting in, possibly without realization, his cultural experience instead of what the writing actually said.

            Just one generation after the the apostles trained by Jesus, the idea of covering crept into the church. Cyprian of Carthage taught that every believer was accountable to a spiritual authority, with only the top person in a hierarchy being accountable to God alone.  This structure solidified in middle ages Catholicism, the Reformation removed some layers, but the idea never disappeared.  The covering doctrine reappeared in the charismatic flavor of the church under the teaching of Juan Carlos Ortiz in Argentina and the New Wine Magazine writers in the U.S.  All this runs contrary to the priesthood of all believers in which ministry is functional, organic, and shared by all believers before God.

            You can email me at simplechurchminute@gmail.com.  For more information on simple forms of honoring Jesus corporately, visit http://www.simplechurch.com/, or locally at (local website).

Simple Church Minute 4--ordination

This is read at a really fast pace to get into 2 minutes.

4—ordination

My name is Tom; this is Simple Church Minute.

            In the early church, elders came about through time.  In the world, an elder meant one of the older, experienced persons.  In the church, it meant one not just physically older, but experienced as a believer, who had grown to spiritual maturity.  It was not a title as used today.  There are three places where elders were recognized, and in one, First Timothy chapter 3 verse 1, there had been 14 years between the time of the founding of the church and the recognition of elders.  This recognition was only recognizing seniority and godly service these persons had been doing in all those intervening years.  A believer should be growing day by day into this role from the day of first believing on Jesus to the day one passes away, without regard to whether there is any person to comment on it.

            The word “ordain” did not mean to place into an official position.  In the early church, there was only one office—head of the church, occupied by Jesus.  Ordain meant to recognize and endorse what was already taking place, insofar as believers desiring to serve Jesus.  How did ordination get its meaning of placing a person into an official position?  The ordination ceremony was borrowed from the Roman ceremony for appointing civil servants, even to some of the words used in it.  By the 3^rd century, ordination became a ritual that marked a person passing from laity to clergy.  After the Edict of Milan, which made Christianity legal in the Roman Empire, church leadership became interconnected with the societal structure of Rome.  Gregory of Nyassa said the priest, as was the title at the time, by ordination was (quote) invisibly but actually a different, better man. (unquote)

            That was far from what the apostles taught the early believers.  First Peter 5 verses 2 and 3 directed, which commands, “shepherd, serve, willingly, not dishonest, eagerly, not as lords, examples.”  This is not to be critical of traditional church pastors; almost all honestly desire to see the church of Jesus go forward.  Its just that there isn’t solid scriptural precedent for our traditional structure.

            You can email me at simplechurchminute@gmail.com.  For more info on organic church*, visit http://www.simplechurch.com/ or (an area’s local website).

On the recording, at this time, it says, “house churches.”  While that phrasing is OK, to say “organic church” is better.  I comment on that in blip 94.