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Management structure of the church
The head of the church is Jesus Christ. He reveals to the Church the will of the Father through the Holy Spirit. Through the scriptures, the Holy Spirit teaches and empowers the church to serve the needs of communities. The Worldwide Church of God endeavors to follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit in the care of its congregations and also in the appointment of elders, deacons and deacons and leaders. (Colossians 1,18; Ephesians 1,15-23; John 16,13-15; Ephesians 4,11-16)
Leadership in the church
Since it is true that every Christian has the Holy Ghost and the Holy Ghost teaches each of us, is there any guidance in the Church at all? Can not it be more Christian to view ourselves as a group of equals where everyone is capable of any role?
Various Bible verses, such as 1. John 2,27, seem to confirm this notion - but only if taken out of context. For example, when John wrote that Christians did not need anyone to teach them, did he mean that they should not be taught by him? Did he say don't pay any attention to what I'm writing because you don't need me or anyone else as a teacher? Of course, that's not what he meant.
John had written this letter because these people had to be taught. He warned his readers against Gnosticism, the attitude that salvation through secret doctrines was achievable. He said that the truths of Christianity were already known in the Church. The faithful would not need any secret knowledge besides what the Holy Spirit had already delivered to the church. John did not say that Christians could do without leaders and teachers.
Every Christian has personal responsibilities. Everyone must believe, make decisions about how he should live, decide what he believes. But the New Testament makes it clear that we are not just individuals. We are part of a community. The church is optional in the same sense as responsibility is optional. God lets us choose our actions. But that does not mean that every choice is equally helpful to us, or that everyone is equal to God's will.
Do Christians Need Teachers? All of the New Testament shows that we need them. The Church of Antioch had teachers as one of its leadership positions3,1).
Teachers are one of the gifts the Holy Spirit gives to the Church (1. Corinthians 12,28; Ephesians 4,11). Paul called himself a teacher (1. Timothy 2,7; titus 1,11). Even after many years of faith, believers are in need of teachers (Hebrews 5,12). James warned against the belief that everyone is a teacher (James 3,1). It can be seen from his remarks that the Church usually had people teaching.
Christians need sound teaching in the truths of faith. God knows that we grow at different speeds and that we have our strengths in different areas. He knows because in the first place he is the one who gave us those strengths. He does not give the same gifts to everyone (1. Corinthians 12). Much more, he distributes them so that we work together for the common good, helping one another, rather than being set apart and pursuing one's own business (1. Corinthians 12,7).
The one Christians are gifted with greater ability to show mercy, some for spiritual discernment, some for serving physically, some for exhorting, coordinating or teaching. All Christians have the same value, but equality does not mean being identical. We have different abilities, and although they are all important, not all are the same. As children of God, as heirs of redemption, we are equal. But we do not all have the same job in the church. God uses people and does not distribute his gifts as he wanted them, according to human expectations.
Thus, God uses teachers in the church, people who are able to help others learn. Yes, I admit that as an earthly organization, we do not always choose the most gifted and I also admit that teachers sometimes make mistakes. But this does not invalidate the clear testimony of the New Testament that God's Church actually has teachers, that this is a role that we can expect in a community of believers.
Although we do not hold an office of our own called "teachers," we expect that there are teachers in the church, we expect that our pastors know how to teach (1. Timothy 3,2; 2 Tim 2,2). In Ephesians 4,11 Paul summarizes pastors and teachers in a group by grammatically calling them as though this role had twofold responsibility: to feed and to teach.
A hierarchy?
The New Testament does not prescribe a particular hierarchy of leadership for the Church. The Jerusalem Church had apostles and elders. The Church in Antioch had prophets and teachers (Acts 15,1; 13,1). Some passages of the New Testament the leaders call elders, others call them stewards or bishops, some call them deacons4,23; titus 1,6-7; Philippians 1,1; 1. Timothy 3,2; Hebrews 13,17). These seem to be different words for the same task.
The New Testament does not describe a detailed hierarchy of apostles to prophets to evangelists to pastors to elders to deacons to lay members. The word "about" isn't going to be best anyway, as these are all ministry functions created to help the church. However, the New Testament encourages people to obey the leaders of the church, to cooperate with their leadership (Hebrews 1 Cor3,17). Blind obedience is not appropriate, nor is extreme skepticism or resistance.
Paul describes a simple hierarchy when he tells Timothy to appoint elders in the churches. As an apostle, church founder, and mentor, Paul was above Timothy, and Timothy himself had the authority to decide who should be an elder or a deacon. But that is a description of Ephesus, not a prescription for all future church organizations. We see no endeavor to bind every church to Jerusalem or to Antioch or Rome. That would have been impractical anyway in the first century.
What can be said about the church today? We can say that God expects the church to have leaders, but he does not specify how those leaders should be called or how they should be structured. He left these details open to govern in the changing circumstances in which the Church is located. We should have leaders in the local communities. But it does not matter what they are called: Pastor Pierce, Elder Ed, Pastor Matson, or the church servant Sam may be equally acceptable.
In the Worldwide Church of God, because of the circumstances we find, we use what can be termed an "episcopal" model of governance (the word episcopal comes from the Greek word for overseer, episkopos, sometimes translated bishop). We believe this is the best way for our churches to have doctrinal soundness and stability. Our Episcopal model of leadership has its problems, but so do other models, because the people on whom they are all based are also fallible. We believe that given our history and geography, our organizational style can serve our members better than a Congregational or Presbyterian model of leadership.
(Consider that all models of church leadership, be they congruential, presbyterian, or episcopal, can take various forms.) Our form of episcopal governance differs drastically from that of the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Anglican, Episcopal, Roman Catholic, or Roman Catholic Lutheran churches).
The head of the church is Jesus Christ and all leaders in the church should strive to seek their will in all things, in their personal lives as well as in the life of the churches. The leaders should be Christlike in their work, that is, they must strive to help others, not to favor themselves. The local church is not a working group that helps the pastor to do his job. Instead, the pastor acts as a promoter to help members in their work - the work of the gospel, the work they should do for Jesus' sake.
Elders and spiritual leaders
Paul compares the church to a body that has many different members. Its unity does not consist in similarity, but in cooperation for a common God and for a common purpose. Different members have different strengths and we should use them for the benefit of all (1. Corinthians 12,7).
The Worldwide Church of God ordinarily appoints male and female elders to serve as pastoral leaders. She also appoints male and female leaders (who may also be called deacons) by proxy.
What is the difference between "Ordination" and "Authorization"? In general, an ordination is more public and permanent. Authorization can be private or public and can be easily revoked. Proxies are less formal, and are not automatically renewable or transferable. An ordination can also be revoked, but this only happens in exceptional cases.
In the Worldwide Church of God we do not have a standardized, exhaustive description of every church leadership role. Elders often serve as pastors in churches (primary pastor or assistant). Most preach and teach, but not all. Some specialize in administration. Each serves under the supervision of the primary responsible pastor (the overseer or episkopos of the congregation) according to their abilities.
Church service leaders reflect even greater diversity, with each (we hope) serving according to his or her ability to serve the needs of the congregation. The pastor in charge can empower these leaders for temporary tasks or for an indefinite period of time.
The pastors seem a bit like conductors of an orchestra. They can not force anyone to play the baton, but they can be instructive and coordinating. The group as a whole will do much better work as players pick up the characters they are given. In our faith community, members can not fire their pastor. The pastors are selected and dismissed at the regional level, which includes church administration in the US, in collaboration with local elders.
What if a member thinks a pastor is incompetent or is leading the sheep astray? This is where our episcopal governance structure comes into play. Doctrinal or leadership issues should be discussed with the pastor first, then with a pastoral leader (the overseer or episcopus of the pastor in the district).
Just as the churches need local leaders and teachers, pastors also need leaders and teachers. Therefore, we believe that the Global Church of God's headquarters plays an important role in serving our communities. We strive to serve as a source of education, ideas, encouragement, supervision and coordination. Certainly we are not perfect, but we see in it the vocation given to us. It is exactly what we aim for.
Our eyes must be on Jesus. He has work for us and a lot of work is already done. Let us praise him for his patience, for his gifts and for the work that contributes to our growth.
Joseph Tkach
