Who should be church moderator

I don't see a case in scripture for a one-man pastorate. Paul trained pastors, but he was an apostle, not a settled local minister. If the apostles appointed a plurality of elders, why would we want some other made-up system of church government? The use of the word 'pastor' in Ephesians 4:11 doesn't justify the modern understanding of what a 'pastor' is. A pastor is a sheep tender, not a dictator.

Personally, I prefer business to be discussed in an open discussion rather than by Robert's Rules. If we are used to I Corinthians 14:26 meetings, then we can use our normal means of turn-taking to discuss business as well. In Acts 15, before the apostles and elders met, some Pharisee believers stood up and gave their opinion on an issue (which happened to be wrong) but this illustrates how the early church dealt with issues in their meetings. The apostles and elders took turns speaking. They didn't have Robert's Rules of Order back then. It is likely they practiced the same turn-taking methods or similar ones they used to take turns edifying one another in meetings. I can't find where the scripture teaches that the teaching in church must be done by means of the one-man sermon. Rather, the saints took turns speaking, using their gifts to edify one another.

 

The only problem is that the churches in the NT were house churches of about 20 people or so. If you had about 20 people per church you would probably have one pastor. If you will take a closer look at the NT there was more than one system. Who appopinted elders? Where did the elders come from?

If any pastor tries to be a dictator it is unlikely he will be successful anyway. That is true in business and every otheer area of life. The only people who can dictate to others are those who like ocntro and want others to all conform. Those who will conform are those who like structure and want someone to tell them what to do. They are the kind of people who seem to be unable to do much on their own and lead others.

 

Does anyone know of any churches that have a plurality of elders where all of them try to be equal that is a highly evangelistic church? All that I have seen may have started that way but after 20 years or so they are not.

 

I don't see any evidence in scripture that every individual house meeting in Jerusalem or any other church had to have an elder. in fact, it is clear from Acts 13 and 14 that some churches went for a time with no appointed elders. It is quite likely that they were able to have meetings, communion, baptism, etc. without any 'ordained ministry' present when the apostles were away.

It's just guesswork if we say that each house church had one elder. Why would one guess the Jerusalem church had one elder per home meeting? Could it be we are anachronistically reading the modern church system into it? It could be that one elder would rotate among several meetings. This is guesswork also. Maybe one home meting had two or three elders and another did not have one every week. We just don't know. I guess it depends on the physical and spiritual maturity of the people who came to a given meeting.

 

Ok group, Question.
Regular scheduled business meeting on a Wednesday night. One of the proposals of the night (and the most anticipated), is a pay raise for the pastor. Who has the chair now?
P.S. I have seen this happen.

 

Chairman of the Deacons

 

"Where ever two or three of you(those assembled) are gathered in my name there am I in the midst."

A New Testament Church can function without a pastor or deacon--offices which are appointed by the Assembly--not the deacon board or the pulpit committee. The Spirit, The Holy, which indwells all new testament churches leads the assembly, which is tenaciously sovereign and democratic. i.e. No one in this world(pope or potentate)(convention, board or synod) tells her what to do and every member has one vote--the majority prevails.

Have a real business meeting--appoint your own moderator, and dust off Robert's Rules of Order. Ask yourself: "what would Jesus do?"

And come to order.

Selah,

Bro. James

 

I moderate the meetings, and for my years of pastoring I have always moderated the meetings. There hasn't been a problem. Allow for discussion, appoint work to be followed up on and keep the meetings focused on ministry. Our deacons don't discuss finances, we discuss ministry.

 

Moderator is not necissarilly a "pastoral" duty. It is administrative, and I would rather focus on pastoring than administrating any day. I made it a point to delegate as much as possible when I first got to my church in the hopes of doing exactly what the apostles work was in the early church; prayer and study of the Word. I am present at all meetings and participate, always leading and nurturing, but I don't have to be in charge. I will be held more accountable for possibly supressing a future leader than whether I ran a good business meeting. If I am able to allow others to minister and use their gifts than I am doing what God has called me to do; bring the Body to maturity in Christ.

 

No one!

Most Baptist meetings are a waste of time and shouldn't take place.

 

They sure can be . It's easy to come to them without a thought of worship and in the flesh.

 

Why is church business not worship Dr. Bob? I truly respect what you have to say, but shouldn't everything we do be out of worsh for our Lord? If we walk in the Spirit, will we not come to worship and glorify His name?

 

The Greek and Hebrew words most often translated 'worship' refer to the act of bowing down to the ground, often with one's head touching the floor-- that is prostration.

I don't recall ever seeing any literal 'worship' in a Baptist church. Muslims, Greek Orthodox, and the occasional Charismatic 'proskuneo' in the literal sense.

 

In our church, although the congregation elects a Moderator at the 1st conference of each year, to serve throughout the year, it is almost a given that it will be the Pastor. There are, however, exceptions to this rule. Many time when we have been without a Pastor we will have to elect someone else, usually the Senior Deacon, to moderate the meetings.

Our Rules state that if the Moderator is absent for a particular meeting, then the Senior Deacon will serve as Moderator pro-tem until the Pastor returns or until the 1st regular conference of the year comes along again.

As for a woman, I don't really see a scriptural reason that she couldn't be moderator, but I do know that a lot of people would be very, very uncomfortable with that idea, including myself, and it just wouldn't fly at my church. Some people, including my mother, get antsy even when a woman talks during a business meeting. Although there is nothing wrong with it, it's just how her mother was raised in the church, how she was raised, and how I was raised. I suppose that might be a big part of the reason I'm still single.