My first house church experience

Stefos

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He doesn't teach ever from what I've seen, that is done by different site pastors and even others.
Hi,

May I ask WHY he isn't teaching?

Just because the Lord through someone equips other believers, doesn't mean that person who was used just stops mystically......LOL

If there are health issues, understandable.

Otherwise Why? Has he "retired from the ministry?" That's an Americanism as well.

Believe me, I've heard MANY lines, most have been from weird places in people's minds instead of the written word OR the Holy Spirit.

Stefos
 
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Stefos

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Hi Phydaux,

If you read Corinthians, Paul said:
"God has set some in the church, First Apostles, Second, Prophets, Third Teachers, etc."

He knew about Pastors & Evangelists......He wasn't stupid right?

Soo...In this particular context in God's word it's listing the structure of God's church insofar as importance of placement of a ministry, NOT A PERSON...God doesn't show favoritism!

Pastors & Teachers are not the same.

This is part of the 5 fold teaching amalgam which always conflates Pastors --> Teachers.

I wouldn't be off if I said that there is scriptural proof to show that while Pastors can have a gift to teach, & not all Teachers pastor, Pastors are not the same as Teachers.

Again, each ministry is fit by God together with another for the entire body to grow, not just one persons ministry to grow.

Bye Bye Phy!!!!!!!!
 
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I would guess he is not teaching due to a mutual decision and other things scheduled into his life. Another person might have asked to lead the group. In small churches, leaders are often not paid, or given a small stipend. Full ministry is too much to take on if they have personal bills to pay.

I suspect that God's view of church structure is a lot more flexible than we make it appear.

The Bible does not contain a lot of structural mandates on how ministry should be carried out. There are references to how things happened, and I think God's desire is that we all do something.

We have the early instructions for priests, who did everything from medical to legal mediation, which was carried out for many years. They were chosen by family, not by spiritual depth or theology degree or personality type.

We have reference to split roles in Ephesians 4:11 and I Corinthians 12...
"grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. ... When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.

11 And he [Christ gave, to the church] gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ
Implying all the saints are carrying out some form of ministry.

We are all the church, as defined in other areas of scripture. The gifts were not given by HR contract. The purpose was not to build up the tip of they pyramid, but to equip the whole corporate body.

Judaism and Christianity have always been theocratic at the core: we all answer to God.

This verse was not a structural mandate, but a description of how Christ's blessing and equipping can build up the church. If we add too much legalism to the statement, we miss the point.


Acts 12 mentions Philip as an evangelist, but it could easily just be a description of what he has chosen to do.

Ephesians 2:20 the church is "built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the chief cornerstone.

Acts 20:17 Now from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him.
28 "Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.
"
Elders were elected or appointed:
I Timothy 3:1, Titus 1:5, Acts 14:23, Acts 20

Risks of bad leadership:
II Peter 2:1, II Thessalonians 2:3,I Timothy 4:1

And we have Jesus' instructions for all of us to go into the world baptising and more, speaking of the good news that the kingdom of God is at hand, accessible.
Ephesians 4 cont'd.

We are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
There's a good listing of scriptural examples here:
Five fold Ministry
 
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DanielGarneau

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Hello,

I just joined this forum, and happen to be a member of a small local Church with 60 or less people in total.

We all meet once a month in rented facilities from an Anglican Church. This is an evangelical gathering with worship, songs, organ, preaching, Sunday School for the youngest, a bit on the formal side, in a nicely historical Anglican architecture setting from past centuries.

But our Church has basically been structured around smaller home Bible study groups. When the groups grow up to a size that makes it unpractical because of our homes, we start a new group or merge some members with an existing group that is getting tiny. About 12 to 15 or so would be a good number for our groups. More than 20 or less than 8 is not ideal. But it all depends upon what is going on in the group, as well as in other groups.

Each home group decides what they do, and when they do it. Our group have two to three discussions a month, and one week a month or so is reserved for informal get-together activity, like a brunch in someone's home.

When someone goes through something really aweful in his or her life, we sometimes just pray about that situation and do nothing else. Which reminds me that we try to have some of our home gathering focused on just sharing and praying.

Our groups are for the long term. If one of our member has unbelieving friends, we will integrate them to our own group unless we fell they would be better off in one of the othre groups, because of age, or background, for example.

Once a year we have your conventional business meeting where you vote the budget and that sort of things. That's also a time where we share reports about what is going on within each group, and what other ministries we are involved in as a local Church on a larger scale (i.e. all groups and all people).

God bless...
 
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ezeric

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I was taught that, in the "five-fold ministry," Pastor-Teacher was a single role, not two different roles.

Yes, I was taught that too (and a lot of other things) that I've had to UN-learn.

The kingdom isn't so much about learning but rather letting go of things…dying to things.

This scripture just came to me:

"..always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth."
2 Tim 3:7

-eric
 
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DanielGarneau

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Hi Daniel welcome to the forum.

From on Canuck to another or one brother to another…

The forum is vast, with many places to explore.
You are safe here, blessings in JESUS to you

-eric

Thank you Ezerick. I'm browsing through and responding as I discover. We'll likely cross paths in the days ahead.
 
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ByTheSpirit

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I didn't delve into the man's past yesterday when I met with him. He is shockingly just like myself with many similar likes and views on scripture. I got no funny feeling about him. He told me to clarify that he did not start the house church network there, but rather he is the last original member of the first group. He explained the different positions of people, some Apostles, some pastors (like him), and then oddly enough confirmed my calling to me... So I am not worried about all the little details, we had a great time of fellowship and I look forward to future encounters with him in the fellowship.
 
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