I am always interested to know how people think these days about the ministry.
I have grown up in a church where you say ,God called me, then you go to seminary for SEVEN years and then you become a "Dominee" (Preacher/pastor) That denomination has no other offices of the five fold ministry. They then "beroep" (Call) these preachers by letter and if he feels its a better move, he will move to their congregation. So its like a bit of a contest, who can "beroep" the best one.The dominee is the chief-pin and rules alone. He does however have a "senode" (senate) that is ruling all the churches and they meet to decide, what the people may or may not sing. They decide if people should drink communion out of one cup or many small glasses (the court is still out on that one, a few congregation have now split into two, because of this, the "Cups" come together in the morning service and the "Glasses" later in the morning. They have their own "dominee" so there are now two that use one building.
Then I moved churches and landed in a tongue speaking Baptist church.(they do exist
) They who felt "called" then did the same kind of thing.But this church then left the Baptist fold and became just a "Christan Church" . The pastor put his sons through Bible school and left the church to them, when he died. They are now pastors too (both the sons) They inherited the family business.He rules an army of sub-pastors too.
I left them too.
The next church had a pastor who was "called" as well, and a whole lot of other men, that was "called" to be sub-pastors.(Like the previous church ) (I have looked for that one, but cannot find it in the Bible) Here too, the pastor ruled the church alone, and what he said was law. No other five fold ministry have say in this ministry. Kind of like a chief in charge. His wife, is also now a pastor, because she managed to go through Bible school as well. Her certificate says she is now a pastor too. One of the sub-pastors (a divorced guy) said he is going to lead the marriage counseling session on Tuesdays. The Chief pastor, said (considering this guys track record) this is a bad idea. Now this guy has a lot of money (LOTS) so he upped in a huff, and opened his own church at his house. Just built a chapel and opened the doors for the faithful. He is now Chief Pastor and major counselor for those who have trouble in their marriage. Soon enough, he too will have his sub-pastors.
I really wanted a church, so I bit my tongue and stayed until a traveling (I think he called himself a prophet) person, preached and started throwing non-existent "keys" into the audience for people to catch, so that they could "unlock" the things the promise, so that they can get the new car or house that they are in faith for. A lot of people also spent more time on the floor out cold, than were listening to the "sermon" about how to get rich. One woman ran in circles and made a sound like somebody who is one fire, and even did the same moves. Nobody helped this obviously demon ridden person to get free. She kind of always ran in circles in mostly all the meetings. Most people were praising God for this manifestation of the devil, which the pastor said was actually the Holy Spirit. So they left her. All the sub-pastors also agreed that this was from God.
I left them too.
This is getting long, but the real question is:
If we were to ONLY look at the Bible . HOW did God ordain elders? How does the five fold ministry happen in the Bible. Is it through a Bible school? If we have to go to Bible school, then why is Bible school only for people who wants to become a pastor? What about the poor other four from this ministry? Why do we only then pay pastors, and again: What about the four other ministries? (Not that I think we should pay anybody for ministry .....we are told to share all good things with them,I think that is good. If somebody ministers for free, as they should, you can bless them with money or something else.)
So to be fair, we should have a diploma in Pastoring, and Prophetering (Could not resist that one, because I think they have a course in something like that ), Apostleship, Evangelist, and also a diploma for the ministry of Teacher.
Why does this upset me: Because they are saying, that an institution will
teach you a gift and then give you a degree telling people, how they think, that in their opinion, they have now qualified you in your...........GIFT ! ( Humans are so silly.)
LOL OK that is a huge stone that I just threw into this bush.
C