Lords or Servants

Jim Reeves

Description

Lords or Servants is a refreshing look at the Scriptures as they reveal God's plan for leadership in the church. Learn what the Scriptures say about authority in the church. What are the various leadership roles in the church and how are they to be administered? What is the meaning of "servant leadership? Learn the answers to many questions regarding God's plan for leadership in His church.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie

Informations

• Publié par: First Edition Design Publishing
• Date de parution: 24 janvier 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781622872596
• Langue: English

Extrait

Lords or Servants
Jim Reeves


First Edition Design Publishing
Lords or Servants

Jim Reeves
Lords or Servants
Copyright ©2013 Jim Reeves
ISBN 978-1622872-59-6

January 2013

Published and Distributed by
First Edition Design Publishing, Inc.
P.O. Box 20217, Sarasota, FL 34276-3217
www.firsteditiondesignpublishing.com



ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this book publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means ─ electronic, mechanical, photo-copy, recording, or any other ─ except brief quotation in reviews, without the prior permission of the author or publisher.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version ® . NIV ® . Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

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Printed in the United States of America
Table of Contents

DEDICATION
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
PREFACE
Chapter One - Back To Basics
Chapter Two - The Crisis: Leadership
Chapter Three - The Kingdom Of God
Chapter Four - Who Rules The Church?
Chapter Five - History Of Elders
Chapter Six - Not So Among You
Chapter Seven - To Be And Not To Be
Chapter Eight - The Servant-Shepherds
Chapter Nine - Who Makes The Decisions?
Chapter Ten - Let The Servants Serve
Chapter Eleven - Qualifications Or Characteristics?
Chapter Twelve - Questions And Answers
A FINAL WORD
DEDICATION
This book is lovingly dedicated to my wife, Donna, whose constant love and support through the years have been my strength. Her insights, as a result of our years of work with churches, have been invaluable and her many hours of work on the computer have made this book a reality.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Reuel Lemmons (1912–1989), whose kind comments are on the back cover, passed away shortly after this manuscript was first printed for limited distribution. He was a minister for fifty-three years. He served as editor of a leading religious publication, Firm Foundation , from 1955 to 1983. He also edited Action , a periodical published in the interest of world-wide Bible study, and for five years he edited Image magazine. Lemmons preached on every continent and in seventy-nine countries. He lectured often at Christian colleges and served on the boards of trustees of Abilene Christian University and Pepperdine University.
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A very special thank you goes to Sharon McDaniel for editing this manuscript and offering many valuable suggestions.
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All scriptures quoted are from the New International Version of the Bible unless otherwise noted in the text.
PREFACE
Christian people must always remain in the forefront of the restoration movement. It is not ever right to accept what has been handed down from our fathers without question. We must dis­cover the truths of God’s Word for ourselves. We must also train our children and grandchildren to go to the Source Book for their religious beliefs. Some of the claims made by followers of the restoration movement have destroyed the searching spirit. “We’ve got the truth!” So we and our children have stopped looking for it.
It is time we looked again! Unless we are willing to be challenged on every point, every generation, we will cease to be the Lord’s church. Denominations are born from adherence to tradition rather than Scripture. We must ask again and again, “What does the Bible say?”
It is my earnest plea that, as you read and study this book, you will also “…examine the Scriptures daily to see if these things are true.” (Acts 17:11) May the Lord bless you in your search for His truth.
Jim Reeves
From the cowardice that shrinks from new truth,
From the laziness that is content with half-truth,
From the arrogance that thinks it knows all truth,
O God of Truth, deliver us!

~ Ancient Prayer
Chapter One - Back To Basics
“In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe” (Hebrews 1:1-2).
“We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. For if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation? This salvation was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will” (Hebrews 2:1-4).
The writer of Hebrews warns us to pay more careful attention to what we have heard, the word of God , so that we do not drift away. Drifting has always been a problem within the church. Since the church was first established in Jerusalem, Christians have had problems with drifting. As we read through the pages of the New Testament, we find warning after warning against drifting. The apostle Paul warned about the time coming when men would not endure sound doctrine. Instead they would listen to people who said what they wanted to hear (2 Timothy 4:3). This was not a problem peculiar to the first century. It has continued down through history. It is what led to the great apostasy and the dark ages. This period of blackest history did not occur overnight but took hundreds of years to develop through the slow process of drifting. During our own times men of God have warned us over and over again of the dangers of drifting away from the Word of God. It needs to be said again, “Brethren, we’re drifting!”
We need to get back to the basics of Christianity. We need to get back to the Bible as the ultimate authority in matters of doctrine and practice. Men are always prone to judge things by what is currently acceptable. In every area of life, whether it is business, fashion, transportation or whatever, the acceptability of a par­ticular thing is based upon what is going on around us. This idea may help to promote a peaceful society in which to live, but when it comes to faith in God, we simply cannot afford to approve of things in the church just because they are accepted by a majority of those around us.
Too often in the church today questions regarding doctrines and practices are answered with statements like, “brother so-in-so says...” or, “all of the preachers in this area agree...” or, “a certain Christian College teaches this.” These statements are often given as the standard by which questions are to be settled. Preachers are not the standard. The brotherhood is not the standard. Christian colleges are not the standard. The standard of faith and practice should be the Bible, and only the Bible. “The Holy Scriptures are able to make you wise unto salvation.” Verse sixteen of this same letter says, “All scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:15-17). Paul warns us about compar­ing ourselves with ourselves in 1 Corinthians 10:12 and in Galatians 6:4 he says, “Test your own actions.” Test them against what? There is a standard by which we can test all the things we do and teach in religion. That standard is the Holy Bible. We must get back to the Bible. Everything must be tested by the Word of God.
The religious world has drifted a long way from the truth. Concerning salvation, the popular belief today is, “As long as you are honest and sincere, it does not matter what you believe or practice, you will be saved.” When one tests that with the Bible it will not stand the test! Regardless of what religious people in the world today believe and teach, the Bible still says, “Repent and be baptized every one of you....” The religious world needs to get back to the standard...the Bible.
The Church of Jesus Christ needs to pay more careful attention to some of the things we do and teach. We seem to be entirely too willing to accept traditions and non-Biblical teach­ings as doctrine. We judge our actions by whether or not they are acceptable with the brotherhood. We want every Christian everywhere to be exactly the same. We want all congregations to be exactly alike. We want them to look alike, meet at the same times for the same hours, have the same programs, the same schedules, paint their buses the same way, have the same name over the door, dress the same, etc. There is nothing wrong with people doing things in the same way, but there are some problems inherent within the idea that every congregation must be identical in every way. (I do not speak of differences in doctrine.) When we begin to impose our own ideas and opinions, our own traditions, upon the Bible and upon those who try to follow Christ, and when we begin to demand that every single member of the Lord’s church everywhere be just exactly like we are...then we become like the Pharisees and teach for doctrine the commandments of men (Matthew 15:9).

DANGER!
There are two great dangers in this trend. First, any drifting will be most difficult to detect. If everybody is doing everything at the same time and in the same way, then we are following each other, and it becomes extremely difficult to detect any slow drifting. There is great pressure in the church today for everyone to agree with the way things are now being done. There seems to be more pressure in some churches for a Christian to agree with the “brotherhood” than for him to study and be in harmony with the Word of God! The Bereans were commended by the apostle Paul for searching the scriptures daily to see if he spoke the truth (Acts 17:11). If the inspired apostle Paul needed to be c