What about 'worship leaders'? Christ gave some to be prophets, some to be Apostles, but none to be worship leaders. People move from one church to another because the 'worship' is supposed to be better, usually meaning that the new church has a guitarist who does great riffs. Brothers, these things ought not to be.
Bro. Marvin,
Seems to me that possibly you're taking the NT
way too literally in some cases.
To take your interpretation out to its fullest extent, apparently you think that, say, nursery attendants are
UNSCRIPTURAL because a person can't find them mentioned in the NT.
That's because NT church meetings weren't held in "church buildings" such as we have today. Matter of fact, these "church buildings" are a relatively modern concept....Probably no more than 1,000 years old--which would be some 10 centuries after John penned Rev. 22:21. Guess all modern-day "church buildings" are "inventions of the devil" and must immediately and permanently evacuated and destroyed since they really are places wherein pagans worship Baal, or Dagon, or the Roman emperor, etc., correct?
FWIW, John didn't make those chapter and verse divisions in our Bible, nor did any of the people from Moses to John do so in any of the 66 books in our Bibles. Since they were later additions (Probably 12-13 centuries
after our NT was finished.), one could conclude that these also are
UNSCRIPTUAL since God didn't include them when He inspired the human authors to pen His inspired, infallible Word. Using your line of reasoning, that's an easy conclusion to draw, isn't it?
Getting back to 1st cent. "church" meetings. They were usually held in 1 or 2 private houses--if they were fortunate enough to have a house/houses in which to meet. In many situations some "church meetings" were held outdoors in the elements; others were forced to literally go underground in caves or catacombs and hold their "church services" in secret.
How'd you like to have to sit on a very uncomfortable, rocky floor during a "church service" that usually lasted much longer than a hour or so?
At least you wouldn't have to get up earlier for SS that may be taught by someone reading directly from a printed SS quarterly because SS's as we know them today are only about 200 or so years old. Oh yes, my NT is strangely silent on SS's. Guess SS's are grossly
UNSCRIPTUAL too (not to mention
printed SS quarterlies, which probably didn't come into common usage till about 1900 or later).
And what about those nursery attendants I mentioned above? According to how I could possibly interpret your criteria for something being Scriptural or not, even the
suggestion of even having a nursery separate from the "corporate church service" needs to be totally erased from any "church planter's" mind--If a person can't find it mentioned in the NT, by golly, it's something some "messenger of satan" must have devised, right?
And what about having a song accompanied by a well-trained guitarist or a violinist or a pianist or a flutist, etc.? I can't see why that,
per se, is a blatant violation of the NT.
Nothing thrills this old sinner saved by grace more than popping in a CD of Sir Colin Davis conducting the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in the grand choral finale of Handel's
Messiah with the words he took from Rev. 5:9-14 and form the numbers "Worthy Is the Lamb That Was Slain" and "Amen" choruses.
Maybe that doesn't move you like it does me. Maybe you don't care much for Baroque-era "classical" music like I do.
That's OK with me because I don't read anywhere in the NT where our Lord demands of any of His children to enjoy only one genre of music and no others.
Moreover, I do enjoy some Christian music that was composed after 1950.
The Gaithers' "Because He Lives, I Can Face Tomorrow" was written sometime in the 1970's. We sung that song on Easter morning, 2003, when my TN ANG wing was deployed to a Saudi AFB only 200 mis. from Jerusalem. There wasn't a dry eye in the crowd of BDU-clad troops after we finished singing that song only 1k ft. from a Saudi highway on which none of the people in the cars on it were going to an Easter Sonrise service at their local mosque.
The late Dottie Rambo's "We Shall Behold Him"(c)1981, is one I hope I'll remember for the rest of the time God let's me live on earth.
At the church of which I've been a member for over 20 years, we have what's called a "blended music service." Some songs are newer, post-1950 ones, some are pre-1950, and some combine both era songs--"Amazing Grace" and Isn't Grace Amazing?" is just one example that popped into my mind as I'm typing this post.
How you do worship service might be different than we do it at the church in which I belong. One thing about which you can be sure is that our worship services aren't exactly the same as the Ethiopian congregation we sponsor, nor is it exactly the same as the Korean congregation we sponsor either. Most of them don't speak English, and most of us don't speak their native languages either.
Does God accept our different worship languages and styles? I believe He does, and probably every missionary both yours and my church supports that's on some foreign field would say the same. I'm sure our dear BB friend and missionary to Japan--John of Japan--would tell you that he certainly believes God accepts the worship services he's had to conduct over the years he spent in Asia.
In fact, nowhere in my NT do I find any specific "rules" or "order of service" or how many songs we must have, or when the announcements must be made, or how often we must observe the Lord's Supper (or must it be "open," "close," or "closed" communion), or anything like that.
Then there's the radio and TV and satellite downlinked programs of the last 90 or so years. What about them? Should they be put off the air because they aren't specifically mentioned in the NT--much less the OT? Your strained interpretation might lead some folks to conclude that they should be....And the sooner the better! Right?
Maybe your NT does have all these many details by which we
MUST CLOSELY ADHERE listed, so that her "candlestick" (Rev. 1:20) won't forever be removed--maybe yours does--but I seriously doubt it.
Why have I spent my time typing this post to you? Basically to let you know that I personally believe that the God we call Our Heavenly Father gave us some common sense He expects us to use when it comes to things He chose not to include when He inspired the 8 or so people to write what we call the NT some 2,000 years ago.
Hopefully, you think that way too....At least I
HOPE you do. Do you?
