Eldership

The creation of doctrines around the FiveFold Ministry concept has often led to a neglect of the duties of the Church. Christ appointed the ministers of His Church to do a job and provide the services of Pure Religion through charitable practices, freely giving what was freely received like the Levites before them, who were the Church in the Wilderness. They were public servants of the appointed Kingdom of God of, for, and by the virtue of the people and the ministries of His Church. Providing welfare through the state where men may call themselves benefactors creates a social compact with a corporate body that exercises authority which makes the word of God to none effect and snares the people as surety for debt. They gave up personal wealth being "called out" and relied upon charity. They were not mendicant which would be contrary to the early Church. They were to be in one accord, One Body, as the true Church. 1000 years later in the days of Lady Godiva the Church would look to the Benefactors who exercise authority and the Fathers of the earth becoming entangled in the elements of the world. It is time to repent!

Biblical eldership

Eldership is defined:

1. An older person.

2. An older, influential member of a family, tribe, or community.

3. One of the governing officers of a church, often having pastoral or teaching functions.

This third definition of the word elder or eldership is common among many denominations of the modern Church. The idea that the elders of the first century Church were "governing officers of a church" can be very deceptive and is a misuse of the term. The misuse and application of these words and many others found in the New Testaments have allowed doctrines to creep into Christianity that is destroying the effectiveness of the Church and altering its very nature and purpose in the minds of many people.

Countless church groups and ministries are offering books, workbook, and courses to teach ministers the art and skills of "eldership". They talk about training "leaders in the church", memorizing scripture, homework, assigned reading, and the facilitator’s role as guide to the group to questions and encourage interaction sharing answers, insights, and clarifications through verbally participating.

What this does is cause participants to invest their time energy and even their money in the idea of an elder being an office of the Church established by Christ. That investment causes people to cling to that idea and defend it. The truth is that the term elder was not really used in the early Church to describe an office of the Church.

The term Elder was only noting a position of authority or respect conferred by age and experience within a family. Identifying the true nature of the term "elder" may lead us to comprehend their role in the early Church and the Christian community. Shedding light on what these terms actually meant and how they were used at that time in history may lead us to a greater understanding of the mission of the Church as prescribed by Christ.

The family is the first institution of God. It is from a healthy, viable, and free family that a free and righteous Christian society is born. Anything that does not promote, guard, protect, and strengthen the rights, the prosperity and health of the Families of God is not compatible with the purposes of God.

The spiritual leadership and emotional support of the families of God, from which the next generation of the children of God shall spring, is the Holy Spirit, the Comforter. Neither Jesus nor Moses called out men to be a substitute for the Holy Spirit of God dwelling in the hearts and minds of every man.

The Holy Spirit does not dwell in temples of dead stone built by the hand of man but in the living stones, hearts and minds of the people. This is why it was written that the kingdom of God is within you. For the Holy Spirit to enter in and guide us we need to Repent and seek the kingdom of God and the righteousness of God.

The early Church was composed of congregations of congregations but those congregations were composed of families represented by the heads of families which were called elders. A small group of elders was a congregation or "company" of ten men and their families or what the Greeks called sumposion. There were Hebrew words for congregations or assemblies including qahal and ‘edah . There is another Greek word for congregations or assemblies of ten heads of families which may seem more familiar which is sunagoge.

The elders we see appointed in the early Church were already elders of families. Their appointment was not to positions of authority one over the other but positions of service which helped to connect the companies of elders in ranks of tens and hundreds and thousands a charitable network to provide a daily ministration and relief on a local and international level.

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Study Guide

To repent is to think differently which may require that we revisit the meaning of words that we believed at one time we understood. The study guide to the right, the multiple live inks, and audio files are offered for free to help you understand the gospel of the kingdom as it was understood by the early Church.

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Study Guide

Because the Church is the institution of Christ in order to understand eldership in relation to the early Church you must know the meaning of the term elder and the Church legally defined.

You will also need to now the original meaning of the word Religion and the difference between Pure religion and Public religion.

Audio Podcasts

Questions

If a Church organization strays significantly from The Way taught by Christ and the early Church, acts in a manner fundamentally different or contrary to the doctrines of Jesus, or is established by or goes under another authority other than Christ can it still be the Church established by Jesus, His Church?

200 years ago religion was defined as the "performance of all known duties to God and our fellow men". Politics of the world has become a way to impose duties on our fellow man through force as if we are gods. Religion today is often used to justify that imposition of force on our fellow men.

The politics of the Church is the politics of the word which empowers man to seek “Real piety in practice, consisting in the performance of all known duties to God and our fellow men” unspotted by the politics of the world which is Pure Religion.

The purpose of the Church is the purpose of Christ. The office of that Church appointed by Christ is to feed His sheep by facilitating every elder of every family in their personal practice of Pure Religion. To do this natural elders of every family should freely assemble to choose the best amongst them to connect all the people seeking the kingdom of God and The Way of Christ in a voluntary network of charity and love.

One of the primary qualifications for a minister of the Church or the Levites before them was that they were the head of a good family. They were chosen by the people to serve all the other elders and their families in free assemblies in a network of congregations of ten elders. Once that pattern is established and we understand that the purpose of the ministers includes more than emotional and spiritual support but also the provision of clothing, food, and shelter when needed we may begin to see the mission of the Church.

In Titus 3 verse 5 Paul is giving instructions about the appointment of existing elders to offices of the Church to fulfill appointed duties directed by Christ. There is no reason to believe from the text that the term "elder" was an office of the Church. In verse 6 Paul describes the kind of elder you are looking to appoint is one that is already "blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children..."

Some would say there are no "offices" of the Church but clearly, Christ speaks of officers. The word we sometimes see as "servant" in scripture in Greek was huperetes which is far more often translated "officer". It was also used by the apostles.

Jesus clearly came and took the kingdom from those who sat in the seat of Moses and appointed that kingdom to those who would bear fruit to men he called His little flock. The officers of His government did not exercise authority one over the other but there was rank based on service.

Duties of an elder

Biblical eldership is the performance of the duties imposed by God and Nature of every man who is an elder to their family and to the community as themselves according to the leading of the Holy Spirit within the commandments of God.

The institution of the family is the first institution of God. While the church in general is driven by the Spirit of God that Holy Spirit is only found dwelling in the hearts and minds of every man and woman. The Kingdom of God is within them from generation to generation.

For the next generation to receive the wisdom, values, and spirit of righteousness each family cannot just think or believe they love their neighbor but they must turn that love into competent actions through the natural sacrifice of charity.

For eldership to fulfill its duties it must include the will of God for your family and the next generation and what God desires you do for your fellow man. In order to attend to the weightier matters of Christ we must be diligent in our quest for the righteousness of God for every man. Charity cannot express or fulfill the competent love for and of Christ without an intimate knowledge of needs, cause, and effect of fervent charity upon the recipient of your personal sacrifice. It cannot be righteous without a humble willingness to forgive.

The importance of Eldership to the Church

The Church specific is not an institution of man but of Christ. As a government it operated according to the perfect law of liberty by faith through charity in hope of salvation in this world and in that which is to come. Christ called men out of the world just as Moses called out the Church in the wilderness from the camp of the Golden calf. Jesus was to follow after John the Baptist who followed after his father Zacharia serving as the highpriest in the wilderness. Jesus chose and taught His disciples to be ministers of the people for His purposes which is the purpose of the God of Creation and Nature.

But Jesus as the Christ, the highest son of God, was also the righteous king of Judea and also of Israel. He called out His faithful disciples, His little flock, to be appointed "a kingdom" to serve. He was able to do this because he had taken the kingdom from the pharisees by the words of their own mouth.

Jesus had chosen specific men, tested them over time, and promised to appoint a kingdom to His little flock. while prohibiting them from exercising authority over each other or the people in free assembly like the governments of the world did at that time and do again today. Unless the elders of every family also serve to set the table of the Lord there will be no Eucharist, no communion of the flesh and blood of Christ.

The people were always meant to have the free dominion of God in His Garden as long as they ate of the tree of life dressing and keeping the gift of this domain. Only then shall they be a peculiar people.

Pastoral eldership

Is the pastoral mission of the Church primarily or exclusively "concerning or appropriate to the giving of spiritual guidance"?

"Pastoral care is an ancient model of emotional and spiritual support that can be found in all cultures and traditions. It has been described in our modern context as individual and corporate patience in which trained pastoral carers support people in their pain, loss and anxiety, and their triumphs, joys and victories." University of Canberra

In the modern Church today there is a reference to Pastoral care as "emotional and spiritual" support but the words related to pastor in the Bible suggest, even state, a temporal Pastoral responsibility for the health and well being. The Hebrew word "raah" is not only the word for pastor and shepherd it is mostly commonly translated as "feed".

The Greek word poimen which we see translated pastor in the New Testament is commonly translated shepherd.

The term shepherd as an occupational title reached beyond emotions and spiritual needs of the flock and for 2000 years the Church was heavily engaged in daily ministrations of a temporal needs. The relegation of a pastors duties to primarily a spiritual or emotional caregiver is an apparition of the modern Church.

The original duties of a shepherd are said to be:'

• -to watch for enemies trying to attack the sheep
• -to defend the sheep from attackers
• -to heal the wounded and sick sheep
• -to find and save lost or trapped sheep
• -to love them, sharing their lives and so earning their trust.

Jesus repeated that we were to Feed His Sheep and the apostles and the early Church were clearly rightly dividing actual bread from house to house.

We see the first to preach the kingdom of God at hand was John the Baptist who was the son of Zacharias a high priest of Judea. As the voice of one crying in the wilderness he is telling people to "Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight" because at that time it was "crooked" and needed to "be made straight" because the people had become a "generation of vipers" so that there was a recompense and "wrath to come"

John was calling not just for repentance but "fruits worthy of repentance". They could not just depend upon the fact that "Abraham to our father" ut their generation was going to have to think so differently that they produced "good fruit".

So, "the people asked him, saying, What shall we do then?"

• "He answereth and saith unto them, He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none; and he that hath meat, let him do likewise." Luke 3:11

Those meats were equivalent to the free bread of Rome and the gift, gratuities, and benefits provided by the Sacrifice of the people called Corban but under Herod the Great and the Pharisees that sacrifice became a matter of compelled offerings as opposed to freewill offerings. If the sacrifices of the people were not based on a freewill offering they would make the word of God to none effect.

John was making a clear statement that the straight way of God is to care for the needs of society including food through charity, not by covetous practices and certainly not by compelling the contributions and sacrifices of the people through force like the fathers of the earth and rulers of the gentiles who exercise authority one over the other.

The word meat is translated from the Greek word broma which means "that which is eaten, food". Christ and the apostles provided the distribution of this "meat" for the people translated victuals in Matthew 14:15. We also seem the same word in Luke 9:13 in the same reference to actua food distributed to the people for eating.

The Bible and eldership

In every family, there is to be a king and high priest.

But like the Levites before them, ordained ministers of the Church chosen by the people should meet the qualifications of a trusted elder. But as an officer of the Church instituted by Christ, they must also meet the qualifications and requirements of Jesus Christ as the establisher of the Church.

The people should always look out among themselves and choose men they trust to provide these services. It was the job of the Church to appoint or ordain them over those matters of service. The people retained the power over their choice of votive offerings to support the ministers and services of the Church to the people.

The term ordain is Greek word kathistemi meaning "set in place", specifically "1b) to appoint one to administer an office".

Paul is not ordaining men to be elders but ordaining men who were already elders in their families to be bishops as "steward" of the Church. A steward was "the manager of a household or of household affairs" of the house of God which received the donations of all the elders of families to provide the daily ministration of the people. They were in charge of the "finances" of the polis of Christ, "treasurers or quaestors of kings".

We see in the New Testament "the office of a deacon", "the office of a bishop", and "the office of the priesthood" but there is no office of elder.

Paul uses the term diakonia translated "office" in refrence to himself but diakonia is more often translated ministry. He also uses a word translated office but the word is praxis which actually means "a doing... a thing to be done, business".

Laity

Someone wrote that "Neither the word clergy nor the word laity appears in the Bible." That is certainly not true in the case of laity. For laity are people.

The term Laity has come to represent the people of a religious faith as distinguished from its clergy.

The laity has played not only an important role in the function of the church it duties are an essential element of the kingdom of God. As a free people seeking the kingdom of God and His righteousness, they do not hold any office in the institution of the appointed Church for they are returned to their family and their possessions as free souls under God.

The clergy and the laity must both participating in what was called The Way in order to bear fruit. As Christ appointed them they do not exercise authority one over the other. Unlike the benefactors of the world who are the Fathers of the earth, the natural fathers who are the elders of every family with the guidance of the Holy Spirit must choose The righteous way of the perfect law of liberty.

Unfortunately, many damnable heresies have crept into the modern Church that has lead many to become workers of iniquity while still claiming to be followers Christ.

The Elders of each family were both priests and kings within their own family and the Christian community but to come together as a nation required someone to act as a priest on a national level.

The people of the early Church were gathered in congregations of tens as commanded by Moses and by Christ but they shared what they produced with the national priests of their society in charity to help maintain the community and strengthen its natural bonds of society in a daily ministration of welfare by freewill offerings instead of by force.

The table of rulers which should have been for the welfare of the people was a snare and a trap but the living altars of Abraham, Moses, and Jesus help set the people/laity free.

Such systems of voluntary assistance in society require the people to be diligent in their practice of virtue and their duty to their fellow man in what James calls Pure Religion.

In the ancient text, we see terms like Altars of clay and stone which represented councils of friends and the people or laity they served. Together in love, they provided social welfare needs which strengthened the community without electing a ruler or falling prey to the error of the Balaam.

The Levites as a national priesthood were not originally meant to burn up animals on piles of dead stone but they were a government institution designed to serve the public as a medium for causing the transfer of the offered sacrifices to those truly in need as the deserving poor.

The Pharisees had it wrong but other religious groups reading the exact same Torah at the time of Christ would have little or nothing to do with the bloody mindless rituals of the Pharisees. They considered the Pharisaical interpretation of the sacred scriptures to be a fiction and a fraud.

The deeds of modern Christians today are hated by God and Christ because they have let themselves be conquered by greed and wantonness. As Nicolaitans they are entangled again under the elements of the world into the bondage of The Mire through covetous practices which makes them merchandise and curse children.

Abraham, Moses, John the Baptist and Jesus were all appointed tasks and positions.
When Jesus appointed a kingdom to His little flock He was delegating a responsibility upon them. When He required them to "sell all they had" and follow Him, there was no such command to the general population.
While the ministers sold their property and owned all things common, the purpose of the Messiah was to set the captive free while returning everyman to his family and to his possessions.
Those called out ministers could be called a form of clergy, but their duties, responsibilities, and limiting criteria were defined by Christ and may not resemble modern forms of clergy. The engine that drives the kingdom of God, which is faith, is found in the heart and mind of the individual and it is fueled by the Holy Spirit.
Terms like clergy, laity, elder, father, wife, son, or daughter have their place when properly defined, but neither God nor the Holy Spirit are a respecter of persons.
Like the "Church in the wilderness"—which consisted of those ministers of a "Peculiar people" who were "called out" of the camp of the golden calf by Moses—those who were "called out" by Jesus played a pivotal role in serving the people of the early Christian community through the free practice of "Pure religion".
Certainly the early Church advocated a Daily ministration for the needy of the Christian community that was dependent on Charity only. It was not like the system of Corban of the Pharisees nor the free bread of Rome which compelled the offerings of the people. It was the practice of Pure Religion by the early church that brought them into conflict with Public religion and the Covetous Practices of the World. To understand the clergy of Christ it may be important to distinguish it from the clergyism of the Modern Church and the clergy of the world.
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