Hello, all.

It has been very interesting these past few months, which
included a week-long visit from Donald and Joyce Dunn of New
Zealand in conjunction with Open Church Ministries.  We are
Central Truth Ministries and local representatives of Open
Church Ministries through Kingdom Company in Pennsylvania.  With
the advent of visiting relatives, the fourth of July, and
numerous other events and activities, little time was left for
the visitations that we usually perform with various churches
throughout this area in helping them to integrate, or even
reorganize, their existing structures into openness and
small-group fellowships.  There have also been the international
message conferences in which I have engaged in various
discussions with church leadership and laymen alike over the
openness and home church issues through local computer BBS
(Bulletin Board Systems).  There have been some wonderful
advances as well as some setbacks.  I would like to share some
of these with you, and it would also be nice to hear from you on
your own experiences and thoughts.

Perhaps the best place to begin is with our local area
activities with existing churches.  It is compelling to first
point out that existing churches are difficult, after their
kind, to work with in effecting change.  There are many of you,
I am sure, that can relate in how some churches react to its
mere mention.  Change can be a major undertaking with the
governmental style system of leadership that exists in most
churches.  After having approached several pastors here in
Wichita and other smaller towns around the area, the response
has been surprisingly good in many cases.

It is interesting to find just how many churches have already
been integrating small-group fellowships (and/or Bible studies,
perish the thought), and even some openness in the main service.
One thing seems to be somewhat of a problem, however, and that
is the fellowship groups being treated as just another of the
many programs already existent in some churches.  It has become
very important to express to these churches that the fellowship
groups MUST be the lifeblood, the very backbone, of their church
in order for these groups to last for very long.  The
alternative - failure.  If experience is not a good enough
teacher, then nothing else will be enough to convince anyone of
this most important aspect we, and many others, have become all
too familiar with.  There is one gentleman in a Wesleyan church
whom inherited a number of problems.  I say this because the
people are somewhat hardened against home fellowships due to
having already tried them before, and failing miserably.  This
pastor confirmed my suspicions in that the leadership at that
time had handled these groups poorly, therefore their ultimate
demise before this newer pastor was hired in.  We have a
seemingly hard road to travel with this church, but rely on the
Lord to give us wisdom in how to handle this unusual, though not
too uncommon, case.

In the opposite spectrum, there is a Nazarene church in the area
that had already been enjoying openness in their services before
I came along to discover them.  Their pastor is a very
interesting man whom I have enjoyed tremendous beginnings of
fellowship. He, however, is a man that has become quite burned
out from pastoring through the traditional system of liturgy and
sermonizing with moderate congregational involvement, and is
quite ready to leave his church once he finds a good paying job
in order to build from a more Biblical model as seen in the
first century church that was so much more successful than what
we see in today's conventional churches of North America.  It
takes time to integrate change in most any church, and there
seems to always be those that refuse to accept such changes. 
Most have embraced the openness, but others are sticklers for
the old, traditional ways.  His dream is to build numerous home
churches with their multitudinous benefits that perhaps many of
you have already become very familiar.  It is a pleasure to
visit this church and help out in any way possible.  May God
bless and prosper him in the midst of his struggles for
endeavoring to serve the Lord with his all.

Now I will describe a third dimension.  I recently called a
pastor whom I had given a pamphlet and tape (three weeks prior)
on the open church while visiting in order to "check them out". 
The call to find out if he had read the pamphlet took a very
shocking turn. After finding out that he had not yet read the
pamphlet (but had every intention of doing so when the chance
presented itself), he then asked me what church I attend. 
Informing him that I did not attend a regular church due to my
numerous travels to different places in this ministry, he then
pushed his question one level deeper by asking if I had ANY
church home whatsoever.  In response, I said that I did not have
a church home in the conventional sense, but that we have a home
fellowship that meets once a week.  He then asked who our pastor
was.  I, of course, informed him that we do not have a pastor. 
(I had completely forgotten to mention the fact that one of the
people in our group IS an ordained Nazarene minister whom does
not lord over our group in the least.)  Upon hearing this, he
promptly informed me that we HAD to have a pastor; that we had
to be under the authority and leadership of a pastor in order to
be a truly Biblical gathering of believers and for myself to be
recognized by the Lord in ANY form of ministry.  This is in
direct contradiction to verses like 1 Cor. 16:19, Rom. 16:3-5,
Col. 4:15, and Philemon 2. When people add dynamics to the word
of God that simply do not exist, they are walking on very
dangerous ground. There is no mention of pastors being over
these home churches, but there are those that would have us
believe otherwise, regardless of insufficient scriptural backing.

It was very difficult to keep my exasperation from being evident
over the phone.  After advising him that the word "pastor" only
appears once in the New Testament WITHOUT any job description,
he quickly disagreed, accusing me of being a "King James only"
advocate.  (What this had to do with our discussion can only be
guessed at.)  The conversation was becoming quite ludicrous.  I
made it clear at this point that reliance on any one particular
version is farthest from my personal approach to studying the
Bible, but that I delve into the Hebrew and Greek; therefore
destroying this man's attempt to discredit Biblical truths on
the basis of Bible versions.  Further questioning and discussion
was not sufficient enough to prompt him in providing references
to back his outrageous claims of leadership being a requirement,
from God's word, for EVERY person or group that gathers together
or is involved in some form of ministry for the Lord.  There is
no evidence that Paul had established leadership immediately
after leaving the nine churches he had planted in the Gentile
cities throughout his travels.  It IS quite evident that the
leadership was established LONG after Paul had left.  To convey
even more absurdities, this pastor rebuked my logic of Paul not
being under the leadership of a pastor.  He, on the other hand
(from what I could understand) attempted to establish that Paul
HAD in fact been under a pastor, whom (supposedly) was Timothy.

Folks, it cannot be stressed enough to people that authoritarian
leadership has no place in the body of Christ.  Not only are
this man's ideas completely false and founded upon NO Biblical
grounds, the body of Christ has only ONE Master, and that is
Jesus.  A true follower of Jesus Christ would never seek to
place anyone under their own, or someone else's, authority.  We
are all servants of the Most High.  One is our master, and that
is the Lord.  All of us serve different functions, not
positions.  It has become quite clear that our society is very
positionally oriented.  It is a truly sad day when ANY pastor
and/or church is a reflection of the decadent society around us.
Our government seeks to gain more and more control over the
people, which would make our founding fathers weep to see what
has become of this great nation.  When individuals and
institutions seek to achieve the same leadership structure
designs as the authoritarians of our own government, consider
where you are and if you should continue being party to this
type of unscriptural church or ministry organization.  We are
all equals in Christ Jesus. When someone tries to tell you to
submit to other's authority in a non-Biblical manner, watch out!
Leaders in the church are due double honor, but it is not to be
demanded nor usurped.  A true leader under the headship of Jesus
will EARN integrity and honor rather than demand it.  It will be
due them not only from the Bible, but also from their actions
that are a direct reflection of their hearts.  Teaching
philosophical rabble lends little to no credence to ones
ideologies.  Bible colleges and seminaries are not what makes a
true leader under the headship of Jesus Christ.  The Lord
Himself establishes those of HIS own choosing, as seen in
Jeremiah 4:15.  Though there are different functions, such as
apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor-teacher, deacon, elder, and
overseer, it is very clear that these are not authoritarian type
positions, but simply functions in the body of believers.  One
need only dig into the word of God to understand this with
verses like Matt. 20:25-27, Mark 10:42-44, 1 Cor. 9:19-20, 1
Peter 4:10-11, and Eph. 4:11-16.

Space does not permit to cover our conversation further, but it
should be sufficient to understand that the leadership of the
first century church played a very important role in
administering what was needed in accordance with their God-given
roles in the body of Christ, which was "...for the equipping of
the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the
body of Christ," (Eph. 4:12) NKJV.  The leadership is also
instrumental in maintaining the centrality of Jesus Christ in
the gatherings.  The idea that the pastor is the one in charge
of everything falls through under its own weight for lack of
scriptural evidence.  "We are ALL called to be servants, not
masters," as Randy Cotita so eloquently put it. When a pastor
begins to display traits of a master rather than a servant,
people need to be wary of such an individual.  Our loyalty to
God is not measured by our following pastors and our regular
attendance to a particular church.  Jesus said that where two or
three are gathered together in His name, He is in their midst.
Let nobody take you captive by deceptive theologies and
teachings.

To illustrate further the role of the present-day pastor, let us
look at the system of sermons. The oratory (sermon) is a
man-made practice that replaced solid teaching rooted in sound
doctrine (before Sunday School came into being).  People can
hear the most lustrous sermons from a great orator, and still
leave the sanctuary just as empty and devoid of badly needed
fellowship as at any of the many other band-aid programs that
have been employed in our churches to make up for this lack. 
All of this exists as a problem due to  1 Corinthians 14:26 not
being adhered to in the main gathering when everyone is together
in one place.  Everybody should be allowed to contribute in
accordance to what Paul was saying here. Alas, this is not the
case due to the preeminence of liturgy, the pastor, and the
establishment of the service as a time for worship and sermons
ONLY.

A couple of years ago I stepped down from serving at a church
whose senior pastor is the president, his wife is the
vice-president AND treasurer.  After firing his board of deacons
for inquiring as to how much he was making and where all the
money was going, he soon afterward declared before "his"
congregation in one of his sermons, that he is worth at least a
quarter of a million dollars per year for all the responsibility
and work he does to keep "his" ministry running smoothly.  This
alone should set off red warning lights.  To make matters worse,
this same pastor attempted to borrow money from a Kansas City
based Mafia organization due to "his" ministry being some $11
million in debt at the time.  Of course, "his" congregation is
not aware of this.  The Mafia turned him down due to his being a
credit risk.  We see here the dangers of becoming an island unto
one's self.  If ANY of you ministers, then you are fellow
workers with God (1 Cor. 3:9).  Never fall into the trap of
placing a monetary value on your service to God and others. 
Reliance on God to manage and sustain a ministry placed into
your hands, no matter how large or small, is of utmost
importance.  This simply illustrates how human and susceptible
even pastors are to the things of this world.  For this very
reason, and others, I speak out (with Biblical backing) against
the present-day practices of the one-man-band we call the
"pastor".  Pray for him and your church. Pray that the
centrality of Jesus would always be the dominant force in ALL
the gatherings.  There is NO Biblical evidence that our
present-day pastors are serving in the same way and capacity as
the Old Testament and first century pastors. Pastors should be
placing themselves out of a job by reproducing themselves.  In
this manner, the Gospel would have reached every corner of the
globe long ago.

Other obvious differences also become apparent upon a deeper
study of the early church during the time of the apostles and
the Old Testament.  Remember when the Israelites were under the
leadership of the judges (plural)?  God did not want the them to
have a king (singular) in charge of everything.  The people
insisted on having a king anyway, just like all the heathen
nations around them.  We see the result of this through the
numerous problems this nation had throughout the Old Testament
with its being destroyed time and again for the idolatrise of
their kings and the people themselves.  When Paul sent Timothy
out in the New Testament, he was sent out to establish elders
(plural), not pastors (singular).  Let us also consider 1 Cor.
6, where we are taught to bring disputes before the saints
(plural), not pastors (singular), rather than the secular
authorities since we will judge the world.  This is some
powerful stuff that so few bodies of believers know of, much
less practice.

By this same example, we should ALL be making disciples of those
around us (even in our own neighborhoods) just as Jesus
commanded. Alas, instead of obedience, most have chosen to build
a system of churches that has spent over $1.8 billion in the
past eight years for growth, and yet attendance has declined by
well over 1 million. We hear sermons about the need for good
stewardship, and yet so little example is shown from many of the
very ones preaching this message. Money, programs, and fancy
buildings are not the answer to growth and bringing people to
Jesus.  Maintaining the centrality of Jesus Christ IS the
answer.  When growth becomes the goal, that in itself tolls the
bell of trouble.  On the other hand, when growth is the result
of our doing things right in the sight of God, then there has
been true accomplishment to the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Brothers and sisters, root yourselves in God's word rather than
being tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine and teaching
coming from pulpits, televisions, radios or any other media that
we receive from.  Each and every one of us is accountable for
what we ultimately choose to believe.  We will not be able to
point our finger at Jimmy Swaggart, Benny Hinn, Billy Graham,
our pastor, or even our Sunday school teacher. The eyes of the
Most High will be upon YOU, and YOU alone.  I even encourage you
to check the things that I have presented to you rather than
accepting it all at face value. 

As for the computer networks, these too have been a tool in
which to sharpen ones alertness to the pure truths presented in
the Bible as a whole.  I have engaged in much discussion and
debate over the open church and home church issues.  Most have
been con, and some pro. With there being many pastors that tie
in to these networks, they have made a vigorous defense of the
man-made system of churches and their overbearing liturgical
practices.  This defense has proven difficult to convincingly
overpower with scriptural truths due to teachings and traditions
of men being so deeply rooted in many people's lives.  For
example, to have heard all ones life that tithing is a
scriptural truth that is still in effect today as a requirement
is very hard to turn away from.  Most have been told all their
lives that giving to a church that absorbs the "tithe" into the
building, programs, staff, material, lawn care, and numerous
other expenditures is synonymous to giving unto the Lord.  This
could not be further from the truth.  Perhaps I will cover this
in more depth through another article at a later date.

In summary, it has become quite apparent that interpretational
conjecture is very pervasive in today's understanding and
apologetics in defense of modern-day churches practicing "order"
through stringently dominant liturgy. Many pastors and laymen
alike have indicated that the absence of the liturgy would
result in total chaos.  This, of course, is prejudicially built
upon a premise that adults cannot conduct themselves in an
orderly fashion without the clergy orchestrating everything from
the pulpit by use of dominance through liturgy in the service.
It need not be said (but I will anyway) that there are many
reasons for this mindset: pride, traditions, ignorance,
authoritarianism, sectarianism, denominational methodology,
religiosity, conjectural analysis of scriptural truths, and
numerous others.  In spite of all these adversities the church
and the world throw our way, the Lord has given us strength to
stand up against these tides in order to reach those that have
an ear to hear.

On a more positive note, there is a large Baptist church in the
area that God may very well be preparing for us to effect His
perfect designs.  A gentleman that has retired from this
particular church first thought Rutz's pamphlet was cultic.  My
co-laborer asked him to prayerfully read it again and seek the
references from the Bible that are provided.  He did so, and
returned with a report that it was all very scriptural and true.
This man may very well be the foot-in-the-door that we need in
order to reach this church.  Praise to the Lord!  Pray for us,
as we will do for you, brethren in Christ Jesus.  God bless you,
each and every one.  If there is anything I can help with by way
of encouragement, information, questions, debate, seminars, or
whatever, let me know.  If I am not able to take your call
personally, please leave a message and I will get back to you
ASAP.



Eldon Angle Central Truth Ministries (316) 524-5263



EAngle@AOL.com