Follower Of Christ
Member
The true church throughout the ages has always been a little flock (Luke 12:32).There was a thread recently created which touched on the issue of spontaneity, and whether Christians should be able to go where they want or be confined to the limits of one particular group (which presumably applies to things like only attending one church, for instance).
There is actually a very simple answer to this question IMO, and that's that every believer should be led of the Holy Spirit personally, and any church leader who would usurp the Spirit's control over where they went should be avoided like the plague. The quickest path to a dead faith is allowing oneself to be robbed of His personal leading and guidance. But I believe the problem has arisen over two simple facts:
1. The early church never envisioned a time when what church leadership told you to do and what the Holy Spirit told you to do would be two different things, but they often ARE today, which seems to put obeying one's elders AND the leading of the Holy Spirit at odds with each other.
2. This problem is compounded, however, by the fact that many Christians today don't actually have much a handle of hearing His voice and leading personally, so they wander about wherever they think they feel led. This can exacerbate the problem exponentially, because if they are adrift on a sea without any real direction from God, the slightest things can and will affect them. There is no stability in their life and no commitment, so when the enemy comes against what they are currently doing they will buckle and flee. They also won't know when a situation has changed. What begins as a good church or a good ministry can sometimes be turned in a negative direction, and then the decision will need to be made that it is time to leave. By contrast, a church that was in a bad situation could have a change in leadership or direction and then become a place God would lead people to rather than compel them to stay away from.
Everything depends upon the leading of the Holy Spirit, and this is no longer synonymous with what other Christians or even Christian leaders are sometimes saying, so receiving the knowing of the Holy Spirit personally is of the utmost importance.
Other opinions are welcome.
Blessings in Christ Jesus,
Hidden In Him
The Roman Catholic Church initiated the corporate structure of the so called "church" with a strict hierarchy and priests that do not work for a living, which later got copied by other denominations even though these denominations might have doctrines opposed to the Catholic Church. Paul in 2 Thessalonians 3:7-9 strictly points out that "For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us because we were not idle when we were with you. nor did we eat anyone's bread without paying for it, but with toil and labor we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you. It was not because we do not have that right, but to give you in ourselves an example to imitate."
There you go straight from the Apostle's mouth. A church is a congregation of brothers and sisters which gathers in people's homes, nature etc and worship in the process. Nowhere is the church supposed to have a corporate structure, financial statements, tithed clergy etc. Any minister, or pastor or priest that we believe is appointed by Jesus Christ to lead us cuts us off from Christ which is the head of the church, and we labor in vain.
This is the truth, and you shall not hear it in FOX or MSNBC for they cater to the deluded masses who think they have attained salvation just because they follow certain rituals and though processes established in the local church branch with oversight from some self-righteous directors' board up the corporate level.