The Problematic Position of  Pastor
    by
    Bob Hall


    Please understand at the outset that in this article my purpose is not to condemn pastors, especially those who are very sincere.  I am only trying to point out some discrepancies of how Jesus shepherded compared to how it is done today.  Please judge what I am sharing by the Word of God.
    Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep.”  The word “pastor” means “shepherd.”  I have seen churches that sent off one of their pastors to begin another church on the other side of town.  One of the concerns in doing this was that the new pastor and church would have enough sheep to support them. Therefore, the base church usually sends some families to them in the beginning.  Things have really reversed since the early church.  The church and the pastor were originally created to support the sheep.  Now the church and pastors can’t exist without sheep supporting them!  Pay instead of people has become a primary concern for many pastors.  My Bible calls them hirelings.
    The Proverbs have some good advice for shepherds.  It says, “Know the condition of your flocks” (Prov. 27:23).  I can honestly say that, after being under several pastors in the Richmond area for a period of 15 years, that not one of them ever really knew my spiritual condition, which was usually a lot worse than they thought.  Just seeing them a couple hours a week, I was able to project any image of myself to them I wanted them to see.  Jesus virtually spent all of his time with his twelve sheep.  I have rarely had a pastor I was “under” visit my home, much less spend any time with me, except maybe for an hour or two by special appointment.  Do you think the twelve had to get an appointment to talk to Jesus?  I was under one pastor in the Richmond area two years, in which time he never learned my name!  Was he a shepherd to me?  No, he was just an orator.  However, as a good little sheep, I was expected to tithe and listen to his boring sermon every week.  So many people were in that church that there was not even a remote possibility for him to shepherd in the biblical sense, as the Good Shepherd did.
    Do you think part of the problem could be that Jesus limited himself to twelve disciples and the modern pastor is out to get as many sheep as possible;  the more the merrier.  The average pastor would doubt that twelve sheep could support him.  It is not about the sheep anymore, it is about the shepherd and how he is going to survive, along with the building, secretary, expense accounts, etc.  But if Jesus limited himself to twelve, what kind of presumption would it take for a pastor to think he could handle more than Jesus?  Jesus shepherded his sheep. Today’s pastors are not a shepherds in the New Testament sense; they are more like CEOs of a non-profit corporations.  I have heard people say that their pastor has “a pastor’s heart.”  They say it as if it is a strange thing.  I don’t doubt them at all.  Neither do I doubt that there are many pastors with a shepherd’s heart who are totally incapable of truly shepherding because of the current church system.  The last thing a pastor is able to do under the current system is to shepherd.  Evidently, there is simply no time for such New Testament nonsense.
    The modern pastor sermonizes the Gospel rather than actually implementing it.  Jesus, the Good Shepherd, taught by example.  He said, “For I have given you an example that you should do as I have done to you” (Jn. 13;15).  Paul taught by example too.  He said, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ” (1 Cor.11:1).  Peter talking to shepherd/elders of a church said, “Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, serving as overseers–not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted you, but being examples to the flock” (1 Peter 5:2-3). 
    Back then, on -he-job-training was paramount.  Today, knowledge is supreme.  The Greek word for “knowledge” is gnosko.  Our pastors today are gnosko gurus.  Apparently we don’t need all the parts of the body working together anymore because the pastor has all the knowledge and answers we need. The more Bible knowledge a pastor has, the more he is revered.  How did knowledge ever get so exalted anyway?  Remember the Tree of Knowledge in the garden?  It was in opposition to the Tree of Life.  In the garden it was the Tree of Life vs. the Tree of Knowledge.  Today the Tree of Knowledge has clearly won in the church. 
    On vacation years ago my son bought the game Life for us to play as a family.  I didn’t mind playing the game, but I dreaded reading the directions.  I knew I had to in order to learn how to play the game.  So I did so as quickly as possible and then we got into the game of Life. We had to refer back to the instructions several times in the course of the week while we played the game.  Then it dawned on me what the modern church is like.  The Bible is the instruction book, and week after week we go to hear the pastor give instructions; but we never actually get into playing the real game of “Life.”  If we did, he would be teaching by example instead of sermons.  Some get tired hearing the instructions after a while and want to play the game, but the pastor never seems to tire of giving us the instructions.  Ironically, sometimes he wonders why we don’t play the game.  But the sheep are waiting for the shepherd to lead so they can follow.  It also occurred to me that pastors with a lot of Bible knowledge are like those who know the instruction  booklet very well.  However, I could have memorized the entire instruction booklet of Life without ever having played the game.  Just because a pastor has a lot of scripture memorized and has a lot of knowledge, that is not necessarily any indication he has ever participated in real Christianity.  But sheep are easily deceived by someone with knowledge.
    There is a good reason for all the emphasis on knowledge and doctrine instead of actually implementing the Word.  It takes self-sacrifice to do things like work with the poor.  It is much easier to just look religious sermonizing the Gospel and promoting a favorite doctrine.  In the first church I ever attended, I was “on fire” for the Lord and began to go out to the highways and byways and bring in street people to the church meetings.  I was naive enough at the time that I thought the religious leaders would be pleased with me.  After all, I was hearing sermons every week about doing what Jesus did.  Instead, they were upset that I was bringing dirty, ugly, poor, sinners into their comfortable middle-class social club.  I began to reap persecution from the leaders who didn’t want to get their hands dirty with the real Gospel.  I do not think this is an unusual situation.  I believe most churches today would respond in the same way.  I challenge you to prove me wrong!
    Let’s consider just one thing Jesus did often and taught by example: casting out demons.  He made sure all of his disciples knew how to do this.  People brought their sick and demonized to the early church for help.  Imagine bringing in a demonized person to a typical church service today.  If you do, you are the one who will probably get cast out!  But if a person afflicted with demons can’t get help in today’s church as they did in the first church, where can they go for help?  Isn’t casting out demons part of what Jesus commanded us to do (Mk. 16:17)?.  Many pastors in my area absolutely forbid the casting out of demons in their church!  Doing the things Jesus did would wreck their prim and prudish social gathering.  What ever happened to WWJD?  “Demon” or “demonized” is found 86 times in the New Testament.  “Sermon” is found zero!
    Another contrast of today’s church compared to the New Testament is buildings.  Jesus didn’t need a building for ministry.  For today’s pastor it is essential.  Jesus went out after the lost.  Today, I suppose the lost are to come into a church building and get an appointment through the pastor’s secretary. Yes, Jesus had access to the temple court, but the temple was destroyed only 40 years after his death.  That didn’t hinder the early church at all.  The New Testament clearly says we are the temple of God, the church, not some building.  A king with subjects needs a building with a raised stage and pulpit for speaking; a humble shepherd with sheep does not.
    How do shepherds rank in the New Testament?  In Ephesians 4:11 we find the only place in the Bible where the word “shepherd” is translated “pastor,” and it is in the plural.  There it gives us a list by rank of the five-fold ministry.  “It was he that gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”   Here we find the apostles, prophets and evangelists outrank pastors in the New Testament.  If anyone does not believe this look at 1 Corinthians 12:28, “God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers . . . ” Although pastors are not mentioned here, they could be the teachers listed as third.  If not, then they do not even rank third in God’s hierarchy.  Yet I have rarely seen a pastor in today’s church be subject to a prophet.  I have always heard pastors say that prophets must be subject to the pastor.  Where is that scripture in the Bible?  Today’s pastors have taken authority not given them in the New Testament.  In the Bible a shepherd was a lowly position.  Today, it is exalted even above any of the other five-fold rank.
    Another thing I would like to examine in this passage is the “preparing God’s people for works of service.”  Although I have often heard from the pulpit that the pastor is preparing God’s people for works of service by his sermons, I have rarely ever seen anyone actually prepared and sent out.  Sometimes, those who get tired of doing nothing but listening to sermons and finally go out and do something are accused of going off without the pastor’s permission in rebellion.  I assume by observation the average Christian today is expected to sit and hear sermons for at least 30 years before ever thinking about being sent off for ministry.  And  sermons, instead of an example, is what is suppose to prepare them!  In the New Testament Jesus prepared his disciples for three and a half years and then He left so they had to do it on their own.  How many pastors have you seen prepare their people for three and a half years and then send them off?
    It seems Jesus and Paul wasted their time showing us shepherding by example.  It’s a shame they didn’t have the foresight to see that today’s progressive church would invent sermonizing the sheep instead of shepherding them. That could have saved them a lot of trouble, and the New Testament could have been much shorter.  According to our tradition, we don’t need their methods anymore because we have created better ways.
    It is my view that the current church is so distorted from the biblical picture that there is virtually no resemblance.  One of the main reasons is the false role of the pastor we have patented.  Today’s pastor is something totally foreign to the New Testament.  His job description would much closer match today’s corporate executive than a biblical shepherd.  I cannot help but wonder what would happen in the church if some courageous pastors actually tried to imitate the Good Shepherd’s example as recorded for us in the Bible.  It would probably cost them everything at first:  job, money, reputation, position, and most of his current sheep.  But maybe, just maybe, God is looking for such a man – that would do something as outrageous as follow His example.





   

    The Harlot or the Bride?
     by
    Bob Hall


    Since the time of Sarah and Hagar, two women have been in God’s house.  The temptation is to create children after the flesh instead by the Spirit, a temptation unfortunately Abraham fell into.  To this day the problem still has not been resolved over that mistake.  The fighting in Israel today dates back to Ishmael and Isaac.   Eventually, Abraham separated the two women and the child of the flesh from the child of promise.  The two women and their sons are always eventually separated after hard lessons have been learned.
    When Jesus came the first time, once again two streams or women were in God’s house.  Some were hungry hearts who gladly accepted Him and His message, and others were those who eventually cried out, “Crucify him!”  The Lord separated his bride from those spiritual adulterers before returning to Heaven.  He took away the authority of those Sadducees and Pharisees and gave it to a rag-tag group of nobodies.  He bypassed the religious system of His day and created the New Testament church. 
    The Pharisees and Sadducees had their doctrines wrapped so tight concerning the coming of the Messiah there was no room for adjusting mistakes.  They decided to kill Him rather than to change their traditions and cherished false doctrines.  Do you think possibly the end-time church could miss it in a similar way?  Or do you think there could be no human error in the end-time doctrines of the church, and therefore the Lord MUST return according to our understanding of Scriptures?  What if He doesn’t?  Will the religious system try to kill Him again?
    Because Jesus is the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, the end is always similar to the beginning.  Once again the church leaders all have their doctrines worked out about how He is going to return.  Although the many camps do not agree with each other, they are all convinced they are the ones who are right.  The fact that already things are not going according to their end-time doctrines does not seem to faze them.  For, once a doctrine is established on the end-times and embraced by a people, usually God Himself is not even free to change it, at least in their minds.  So when God begins to implement His end-time plan, many will miss it again, just like they did the first time He came.  That statement alone is against many people’s end-time doctrine, for they are convinced there is no way they could miss it.  When the established harlot church system begins to persecute God’s called-out bride because she is jealous and ignorant, the harlot will think she is doing God a favor.  Likewise Saul (later Paul) and the Pharisees thought they were doing God a favor by persecuting the New Testament church.
    Once again two women are in God’s house, the harlot and the bride.  God has already begun the separating – calling out to his true bride, “Come out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues” (Rev. 18:4).  The harlot is too blind and drunk (on false doctrines and the pleasures of the world) to see she is a harlot, dreaming the bridegroom is still coming back for her.  Just in case she has any doubts about it, she has her end-time doctrines and false prophets and pastors to prove she is right.  Or she can go to a bookstore and pick up a book written by a Babylonian prophet to comfort her.
    Many churches have come out of Egypt.  Historically, all of the Israelites made it out of Egypt.  But not many Israelites ever made it out of Babylon.  They were too comfortable there.  Many churches and people today will never make it out of Babylon either.  The spirit of Babylon is the spirit of the world with all of its lures and pleasures.  Since the church has been doing things according to the ways of the world for so long, it has now “sanctified” and incorporated those ways.  The last thing she could ever see is that she is really the harlot of Babylon.  She could never imagine that she would be bypassed like the first century Pharisee system. Many Christian leaders and authors have made money from the American Gospel Enterprise. They would have much to lose if we ever got back to New Testament Christianity.  They have too much vested interest in the Babylonian system, like the Pharisees of Jesus’ day.
    Another type we can examine to explain what the Lord is doing in this hour is Saul and David.  The traditional church system is like Saul doing things his way instead of the Lord’s way.  Scripture tells us Saul was a head taller than anyone else (1 Sam..9:2).  Like many Christian leaders today, his head or headship was preeminent, not the Lord’s.  He didn’t inquire of the Lord before acting like David did.  The prophetic word came forth that the kingdom was being taken from Saul and given to David.  However, Saul did not give up his throne, even after the word from the Lord.  He jealously fought to stay in power and continually threw spears at David either literally or by his words.  Eventually, his flesh ran out of self-power, and the Philistines conquered him in battle.  They cut off Saul’s big head and Israel lost their man-head.  But God had already poured his holy anointing oil on a another not-so-prominent head, who only wanted the Lord as his head.  He would lead Israel as a shepherd king, inquiring of the Lord every step of the way, and implement God’s government God’s way.  He was not his own head. He was the Lord’s under-shepherd, the man after God’s heart, not men’s.
    I believe the allotted time for doing things man’s ways is running out for the church. Hosea 6:2 says, “After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us that we may live in his presence.”  Since a day is a thousand years to the Lord, we have entered into that third day of which Hosea speaks.  God is going to begin to restore the fallen tabernacle of David.  Now the Spirit is calling those out of the false Babylonian system to start rebuilding the ancient ruins.  However, as the David company begins to leave, the Saul system will become very jealous that it is losing control over the sheep, even though they have never truly shepherded them and have been fleecing them the whole time.  The Saul system will accuse the David company of usurping his throne, when in fact his time is up and he is usurping David’s.  Saul will begin to throw spears at the David company.  Wherever possible, it will make use of the worldly government to persecute them.  In other words, the harlot will ride the back of the beast to try to harm the called-out bride.  The beast is the worldly governments whose methods she has incorporated to do church.  This is the same thing the harlot Pharisee religious system did in the first century.  She got Rome to crucify the Lord and then to persecute the bride of the Lamb.  History has a way of repeating itself.  Once again the harlot is going to ride the beast to accomplish her unrighteous goals; but as did Rome, the end-time government will also turn on the harlot and kill her.  This will be her reward for receiving favors from the beast for all her harlotries – death.
    Ezekiel goes on to say that God will place over them David as their shepherd and the Lord will be their God.  Most people hold this David to be the Lord.  Others believe it will be a man in the end-time whom God will raise up.  Regardless of who it will be, Jeremiah makes clear God will raise up many shepherds after His heart who will shepherd the flock as He would, and not for financial gain.  “Then I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will lead you with knowledge and understanding.  In those days, when the numbers have increased greatly in the land, declares the Lord, men will no longer say, ‘The ark of the covenant of the Lord.”  It will never enter their minds or be remembered; it will not be missed, nor will another one be made.  At that time they will call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord.  And all nations will gather in Jerusalem to honor the name of the Lord” (Jer. 3:15-17).  Obviously, this is in an end-time setting.  A time is coming when God will replace most of the current shepherds.  God has already prepared many “Davids” after his heart. Most of them were run out of the institutional church by spear point a long time ago.  God has had to prepare them while they bore reproach “outside the camp” like their Lord.  The new shepherds will replace the old ones and prepare God’s true end-time bride, without selfish motives.
    In the book of Esther, Vashti, the former bride, was replaced by a bride more humble, more beautiful, and more pleasing to the king.  Vahsti was too busy and significant in the courts of Babylon to do such menial things as come into the king’s presence.  In contrast to Vashti’s attitude, Esther was willing to risk her life to come into the king’s presence.  “If I perish, I perish,” she said.  Mordecai was God’s David of the time.  Mordecai had prepared Esther outside the palace of pomp and prestige of Babylon.  Her beauty was not just external; it was inner beauty and character.  The king could not resist her.  She didn’t need to take a bunch of religious baggage into the king’s presence; she brought herself.  “When the turn came for Esther (the girl Mordecai had adopted, the daughter of his uncle Abihail) to go to the king, she asked for nothing other than what Hegai, the king’s eunuch who was in charge of the harem, suggested” (Es. 2:15).  Her goal was to please the king with herself, not with things the other women took into his presence.
    The current harlot church system has become as obsolete and defiled in our day as the Catholic church had become in Martin Luther’s day.  It has become an old wineskin.  Many pastors are going to be dismayed, wondering why people are leaving their churches in the next couple of years.  They will think to themselves, I did everything I knew to do.  Being part of the old wineskin, God is not able to pour His new end-time wine into them or their church system.  They would not be able to receive it. Although some of the old guard will be willing to be changed and be used, most are too stiff-necked.  Rheumatism has set in. Their wineskin would explode and the new wine would be wasted.  The old system is too rigid with man-made structure, doctrines, and traditions to be flexible enough for the new wine. Rigor mortis has set in.  Therefore, the Lord is pouring the new wine into the structure and leadership of an entirely new wineskin.  The new wineskin can expand with the true doctrines of the end time and other revelations and graces the bridegroom wants to pour into it.  He saved the best, most powerful wine for the end.  If it is currently available in the church system, it is not His best.  That’s the cheap stuff (Jn. 2:10).
    About 4000 years ago, two women were in Abraham’s house that had to be separated before Abraham and his child could go on.  Paul tells us those two women represent the true Zion and the Jerusalem of the flesh (see Gal. 4). Then, 2000 years later, again two women were in God’s house.  Jesus separated his bride from a false Pharisaical system.  Now, another 2000 years later, again two women are in the same house.  One is riding the beast; the other will be persecuted by it.  Once again a separation is beginning.  God is calling his true bride out of another false Babylonian system.  One woman will go to the marriage feast of the Lamb.  The other will go to her destruction.  One woman loves the things and pleasures of this world; the other “Did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death” (Rev. 12:11b).  Which group will you be a part of, the harlot or the bride?

    Discerning the Lord’s Body
    by
    Bob Hall

    In 1 Cor. 11:29 Paul tells the Corinthians, “All who eat and drink without discerning the body of the Lord eat and drink judgment to themselves.”  I have always heard this taught, like everyone else, that this means we need to do something like repent for all our sins and meditate on what the Lord did for us on the cross.  I do not dispute that we should do something like that.  But to say that is what Paul is saying here is to ignore the context of that chapter plus the next three chapters.  The body Paul was talking about is us.  We are the body of Christ. 
    In that chapter, Paul was rebuking the Corinthians for not considering and treating all members as equals at the supper.  Some of the more wealthy members were not waiting for the poor and eating the food before they got there.  Therefore, he goes on to summarize his point at the end of the chapter in verses 33 and 34, “So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for each other.  If anyone is hungry, he should eat at home, so that when you meet together it may not result in judgment.”  Paul gives a clear warning here that when we come together and do not discern the Lord’s body – that is, consider all the members as equals--God will send judgment.
    Paul goes on to explain exactly what he meant by “discerning the body” in the next three chapters so that no one would miss it.  So how did we miss it so far?  He explains that the body has many different parts, and we need to all give and receive as a part of the Lord’s body.  This is what their meal was all about.  It was supposed to be a picture of “discerning the body.”  Everyone came together and brought something, if they had something to bring, and everyone ate the meal together.  That should happen spiritually as well.  We are all parts of one body, but we need to discern that we need all the parts.  He goes on to say, “What should we do then, my brothers?  When you come together, each has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation.  Let all things be done for the building up” (14:26).
    First, I should mention that we do not come together to eat a meal together like they did.  We have reduced the “Lord’s Supper” to an assembly line ritual that it was never intended to be.  I am convinced if Paul came and saw a “church” eating a little cracker and drinking a little shot glass full of grape juice in solemn meditation, he would not have a clue what we were doing.  And he would be shocked if he found out.  That is the first thing we are doing wrong when we come together.  We have traded true fellowship for ritual religion.  We have traded the picture of the body eating a meal together into a picture of some strange ritual.  Nevertheless, this ritual is a good picture of  how we are “discerning the body” – we are not.  Therefore, we are “eating and drinking judgment to ourselves.”  I realize I am in danger of coming against deeply rooted traditions of man here, and almost nothing is more immutable than a tradition of man.
    What we do discern is one part of the body-- the pastor.  We see and hear him week after week “feeding” us knowledge to the exclusion of discerning the rest of the body and their gifts.  The passage quoted above about all having something “when we come together” is totally ignored as if it never existed.  And against scripture we come together week after week to hear a sermon by the pastor.  Where does it say in the Bible we are supposed to meet every week to hear a sermon?  It doesn’t.  It is unscriptural.  It says “When you come together, each has a hymn, teaching, revelation, etc.”  It does not say, “When you come together to hear the sermon . . .”  In fact, the word “sermon” is not even found in the Bible!  We are not doing what Paul said to do when we meet together, so how can we be called a New Testament church?  At best we can say that we come together to hear a sermon about the New Testament church.  It’s like taking a history class on the New Testament Church.  But when we come together we are supposed to be the church, not receive head knowledge from one part.  Instead of being a body, going to a church meeting has become a spectator sport.  We all go to see what show the pastor is going to put on this week.  We pay him to perform.  Imagine Paul observing us going to watch a professional for a couple of hours once a week and calling it “church.”  Do you think he would be incredulous?
    We have failed to discern the body, and most of the people’s gifts have long since withered on the vine.  At the same time we have inflated the position of pastor into something very unscriptural.  It is assumed the rest of the parts of the body are not needed or desired, only the pastors.  If at our meals (at home) we only ate one food week after week we would get sick for lack of nutrition derived from the other foods.  This is the picture of Lord’s Supper – everyone in the body has something different to offer.  We need it all or we will get malnutrition.  “If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be?  If the whole body were hearing where would the sense of smell be?  But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one as he chose.  If all were a single member, where would the body be?  As it is, there are many members, yet one body” (12:17-20).
    So, if it says so clearly in the scriptures what we should do when we come together, why in Jesus’ name is it not done?  There are many reasons.  I will name just a few of them.  One, the pastors are afraid that if they actually allow a New Testament meeting, it would quickly get out of control.  No doubt there would be some growing pains in this.  So lets just throw out what Paul said should be done in a meeting and invent one that the pastor likes and suits his artificial role.  OK?  We seem to be alright with this.  Week after week we come and hear one part of the body, the pastors mouth,  while the rest of the body sits there week after week like so many dumb sheep.  Far from being fed, the rest of the body gets sick and dies on the pews spiritually.  I’ll cover the true role of the pastor in another article.  For now, let me just say that for the time it takes to prepare a sermon every week, along with being a venerated CEO, the true biblical responsibilities of the shepherd are almost totally neglected. 
    Another reason they are afraid to implement a New Testament meeting is that some people would leave because they came to see the show and not participate. That may cut the finances of the church and could even affect pastors’ paychecks, God forbid.  Fear of losing their jobs and positions is a major factor.  In other words, the New Testament is ignored for all the same reasons the Pharisees crucified Jesus.  It is better for the pastors to throw out vast amounts of Scripture and pretend they are not in the Bible, or claim that they do not apply to a modern sophisticated, professional church.
    Some who allow home groups say that we can do those things in the home groups.  I am all for that.  However, I still have a problem with the artificial Sunday meeting with the sermon because there is no biblical basis for it.  Sure, there should be times for teaching, but where does it say that the Pastor was supposed to do it all, and every Sunday?  On the contrary Paul said again,

How is it then, brethren? Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation.  Let all things be done for edification.  If anyone speaks in a tongue, let there be two or at the most three, each in turn, and let one interpret.  But if there is no interpreter, let him keep silent in church, and let him speak to himself and to God.  Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge.  But if anything is revealed to another who sits by, let the first keep silent.  For you can all prophesy one by one, that all may learn and all may be encouraged.  And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets
(1 Cor. 14:26-32).

    Can you even imagine the above happening at the average church?  But if it is not happening, is it really a New Testament church meeting or an invention of man?  The sad thing is what we have created and allowed to exist is so far from a New Testament church that God is going to have to tear it all down and rebuild.  So, many pastors will end up losing their jobs anyway in the re-building process when Elijah comes.
    How long will we dumb sheep put up with this?  Will we continue to allow just a few choice members of the body to dominate at our expense?  The false system will be burned in the fire that will test all things.  Many have already come out of the false system at the cost of reproach outside the camp.  I personally have no illusions that the church is going to come out of their cherished man-made traditions except by severe judgment and persecution.
    When we come together, “Let all things be done for edification” (v.26).  If all the members and gifts are not being exercised, we are not being built up (edified).  We need to learn to discern the body.  We are the body and all of us should be a recognized part of it.  We all need the whole body.  As it is, we have a paraplegic body.  Judgment has already fallen for us not discerning the body and many are sick and many have even died.