Pastorless Church

Heloo Granny, Are there any men in your group that can rightly divide the Bible well enough to lead or maybe the men take turns?
Oh, You are one gutsy woman and I've always admired your stand on the King James Bible.
Take care of yourself, Hugh

 

Hey howdy Granny, Perhaps and I hope you remember me. I am praying for you folks, I met you years ago (4-5 maybe). I always appreciated your stand here on the board and I will never forget you all.

Bartimaeus

 

It's too bad we can't handle things like we did in the old days... A can of gas and match! No more tongue babbling idiots.

sounds harsh, but that's what they did in Tenn back in 1906 when them weirdo's were getting off the ground.

One of the Downsides of our Religious Freedoms... Kooks!

 

Granny,
Sorry to hear about the troubles with your pastor.
I've never heard of Oneness Doctrine.





ex-fundy, I like the icon.

 

You can't be serious.

 

Uhmmm... Yes, I am, it was documented as well.

I never said I was in favor or would do such thing myself.

I mean, it has crossed my mind, But there was one little monkey wrench in the whole plan... common sense! :laugh: You know, Jail stinks, Prison clothes are so unfashonable.... :tonofbricks:

I think you get my drift.

 

The Old Fashioned Way

Didn't you see? He signed his name at the end of the post. :laugh:

 

The Old Fashioned Way

Yes, I know what you mean. Other than those things it would be perfectly acceptable, Right? Who cares what the BIble teaches about that stuff when we are bound by man's law, Right? :smilewinkgrin:

 

Hello Granny! Sorry to hear of everything you and your family are going through. Praying for you all here.

 

Of course I believe in the universal church.. so you may not want to take what I say.... but....

I believe a local NT church is an organized body of believers that meet reguarly to worship God, and believe in the 2 ordinances (Baptism and communion) That is the simplest definition I have.

If you all are doing this, you all are a church.

The next part is the next step... 2 scriptural offices... Pastor and Deacon
But in a small church, deacons may or may not be needed... The office of a deacon was only established after the church at Jerusalem began to grow... 3000 one day, 5000 another day, and that was just men! probably 15,000-20,000 when you include women and children!

And then they only chose 7 men!

In short, If your assembly is a constituted group of believers following the reasons a church exists... Worship, fellowship, discipleship, soul winning, and serving others.. while scripturally baptizing, and reguarly serving communion, you are a church.

 

Are there any Bible colleges or seminaries resonably nearby?You might ask if one of thier more senior students could help on an interum basis.Another shot is you might advertise in the Sword for a bi-voc pastor..

In the meantime it does sound like you are functioning as a church.My prayers are with you.:godisgood:

 

You might think about students from Luisianna Baptist University.How far are they from you. I imagine if you guys came up with gas money and a home made lunch you might be in luck.:godisgood:

 

Sounds like a good time to set yourself apart from the average church and think outside the normal expectation of what church is. Don't do things the same as you are used to doing them, be different. Set yourself apart in your ministry, don't sing, pray, sing, offering and preach. Mix it up. Last week we preached right out of the box just to keep things from turning into a ritualistic worship experience. Just because you have never done it that way before does not mean that it is bad or wrong.

Remember, if the wheel had never changed and developed into something different than what it was when it was created, then we would not have had much of the innovation that we see today. Besides, can you imagine the trouble changing a flat stone instead of a flat tire? :laugh:

 

Granny, I've been away for a week on a work project and just got back. Thanks for your reply. I want to answer without nitpicking, gossip or otherwise to keep this out of the category that others ply in. First of all, your concept of the Church is correct. It is scriptural. Others here differ with me and you and that's ok. I would not break fellowship with them since they want to be wrong (ha ha). Secondly, and specifically, did your congregation have the authority (recognition) from another scriptural church when you started? If you did and the whole congregation withdrew from the pastor, I'd say you still have that scriptural ability to operate as a church. If the sending church recognizes the pastor then you have another issue. You will need to re-constitute the church under another sending church.

This subject has been dealt with with our friends on a few occasions before, several years ago to no avail. As I see it and it might be wrong, if you don't bring one in under any authority then you can't remove one with any authority and that's the way churches operate who have no covenant fellowship or for the lack of a better word "membership". Just showing up and "joining" by constant attendance and participation is not scriptural. You can do that at Wal-Mart.

Thanks Bartimaeus