Hierarchical Leadership has no place in the body of Christ
The church as an organisation or institution has no power to
save. It doesn’t matter how old the church is or how young the
institution. When Jesus told Peter ‘upon this rock I will build my
church’ He was not speaking of a hierarchical organisation or an
institution. These produce every work of the flesh but not the fruit of
the Spirit. He was speaking of a people who would be His body; a people
with new life; the life of Christ.
Hierarchical leadership has no place in the body of Christ. It is necessary for every member
of the body of Christ to recognise his or her responsibility in spreading the
gospel and minister as a part of the body of Christ. Accountability within the body of Christ does not come from hierarchy; it
comes out of responsibility to build one another up in Christ. We are all accountable to Christ as the Head of the church, but
we are also accountable to one another because every part of the body is essential
for the whole body.
It is time for leaders to be accountable and lead by
protecting the church from those who seek only to control the body of
Christ. We need leaders who will be like Luther who stood against
hierarchy and brought back the doctrine of salvation by faith in Christ alone;
or Tyndale who defied both King and church to give the English the Bible in their own language; or William Carey who defied
religious bigots and took the gospel and the scriptures to India. We need
leaders who recognise that to go and teach all nations means to turn our back
on selfish ambitions like building a church to lead, or an institution to
control, and to give our lives and abilities to selflessly lead people to
salvation in Jesus Christ.
We need a reformation
where traditions and churches with hierarchical leadership are left behind and
Christ crucified is once again preached to a world lost in sin. The only
message the world needs to hear is this ‘If any man be in Christ He is a new
creation, old things have passed away behold all things have become new’.
I am a Christian
because I received new life in Christ when I was 21 years of age. I have a
living experience, a relationship with Jesus that is built upon the truth
revealed in the Bible. I have never doubted my salvation since the day I
was saved. When I received new life in Christ I became a new creation, and
nothing and no one can ever take that away. But I have had big problems
with the church as an institution. Heaven is not an institution and neither
is the church that I believe in. I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ
for it is the power of God unto salvation, but I am ashamed of the church as an
institution because it is self seeking and worldly and everything the gospel is
opposed to.
We have
exchanged the ministry of the body of Christ for a professional ministry.
Jesus did not send out His disciples to preach their best messages.
He sent them out with His life and He sent them with a message that will bring
life to whosoever believes. It is necessary for the whole body to be
involved in ministering life. When Christians meet together they are the
body of Christ because the resurrected life of Christ is in them.
Ministry is not only singing, preaching and praying at a Sunday meeting; it is
the life of Christ expressed through His body. When we look at the
church of the New Testament it is evident that the church is not sent to
minister with mere words but it is called to minister life.
When believers
get away from tradition and hierarchical leadership then the church can get
back to true Christian fellowship. It is only then that the world will
know the disciples of Christ
by their love one for another.
Steve
Dulwich
Bible Teaching
Program (Kolding, Denmark)
