In the Forward to Viola's book, Hal
Miller notes that:
"The institutional church often
knows, at least vaguely, that the New Testament church was a very
different kind of beast, yet it goes on its way in blithe disregard
of the way the early believers were church.
It may even
claim that the Bible is its sole authority in "faith and practice"
and still virtually ignore its practical authority with respect to
the practice of the church.
"Relational
churches, like those in
the New Testament, are different. They are not trains, but groups of
people out for a walk. These groups move much more slowly than
trains--only several miles per hour at the fastest, but they can turn
at a moment's notice. More importantly, they can be genuinely
attentive to their world, to their Lord, and to each other
"Like trains, institutional
churches are easy to find. The smoke and noise are unmistakable. Relational churches are a bit more
subtle. Because they don't announce their presence with flashing
lights at every intersection, some believe that churches like those
in the New Testament died out long ago. But nothing could be farther
from the truth. Relational churches are everywhere. I personally have
been meeting with one for more than twenty years. Still, groups like
ours are quietly walking together, not bothering to call undue
attention to ourselves, because we are simply pilgrims together.
Hal Miller
Salem, Massachusetts
Reviewing some of Viola's
views:
Viola isn't using
"institutional churches" in the old (anti-anti) sense but notes that:
"I could have just as easily called them "establishment churches,"
"basilica churches," "traditional churches," "organized churches,"
"clergy-dominated
churches,"
"contemporary churches," "program-based churches," and so on. Despite the fact that this phrase is an
inadequate linguistic tool, it seems to best capture the essence of
most modern assemblies today.
"Namely, I am
referring to those churches that operate primarily as institutions
that exist above,
beyond, and independent of their individual members;
are organizationally centered on professional pastors
and staff;
are constructed through
programs more than relationships; and are
unified on the basis of special doctrines or practices.
See the Purpose Driven Cult, Max Lucado,
etal
Viola speaks of "the church
that is organic
in its construction, relational in its functioning, Scriptural in its form, Christ-centered in its operation, and
Body-oriented in its unification." The
neo-pagan seeker forms of worship does just the opposite: it sees the
professonial performers (preachers, song leaders, singers, dancers)
as performing the worship for the audience.
He then calls for a new
wineskin but it is new in
that it is the same
one Jesus established
as the framework for His church, His body. He notes that:
"The theme of
"church
renewal" sits lavishly
upon the tongues of countless Christians today. You can't go very far
in the Christian world without hearing an exhortation on the
necessity for greater
unity in the Body of
Christ, the importance of the priesthood of all believers, the urgent
need for destroying all
man-made barriers, the
increasing demand for fuller spiritual power, and the radical call to world-wide evangelism. While none of these themes is new or
original, they are now capturing the attention of many modern
Christians.
While he acknowledges good in
many of these movements He notes that the True Spirit is from "The
ordinary Christians whom God is using to summon His church
back to the simplicity
and vitality of New Testament practices.
The "new" wineskin wine is
"routinely repackaged into old wineskins." The old wineskin was
Judaism. Surprisingly, those who promote a NEW wineskin pick for
their paradigm ancient Judaism whose under-law worship was, by God's permission, taken whole cloth
from Babylon's Tower of Babel filtered through Egyptian religion and
Canaanite Baalism:
"By the old
wineskin, I mean those traditional church structures that are patterned after the old Judaic religious
system--
a system which:
separated God's people into two separate classes,
required the presence of human mediators, erected sacred buildings, and laid stress on outward forms.
"The facets of the old (Jewish)
wineskin are many: the clergy/laity distinction, the spectator-performer styled church meeting, the single pastor system, the program-driven worship service, the passive priesthood, the edifice complex, etc. All of these facets represent Old Covenant forms in New Testament
garb.
"Accordingly, the
present cry of the Spirit for genuine renewal will never become a
reality to those who ignore His concurrent voice regarding the call
for a new wineskin--one that represents
the fresh wineskin
that was fashioned and formed by those who had been directly entrusted
by the Lord Jesus with the new wine of His Spirit.
"This is not to suggest that
the New Testament supplies us with an ironclad, meticulous blueprint
for church practice. In fact, it is a gross mistake to try and tease
out of the apostolic letters an inflexible written code of rules for
church order that is as unalterable as the law of the Medes and
Persians (such a written code belongs to the other side of the
cross).
On the other hand,
the New Testament does provide us with a number of clearly defined
principles
and practices that are to govern God's spiritual house. And it is
these principles and practices that comprise the "Divine pattern" for the ekklesia (church).
In chapter 11 Viola outlines
some of the things we should not do in order to allow the Biblical
model to shine through: Russell Lipton writes,
"What we must guard
against (and this applies with heaviest force to readers who do agree
with this material) is mere mental assent to the church as an
'issue.' We live in a day of issues. Paul
referred to issue-followers as those with tingling ears. He did not treat them gently. This
church, this Bride for whom Christ as a heavenly suitor bore the
cross, is no mere 'issue.' Around her completion revolves issues of
life, death, reward, shame, heaven, hell (Does the Church Matter?).
Echoing the old theme of
Alexander
and Thomas Campbell
Viola notes that:
"To be quite
candid, unless the
extra-biblical clergy / sectarian system is dismantled in a
particular church, efforts to reach God's highest desire will be
forcefully challenged.
The following disheartening results are commonplace whenever an
attempt at Biblical renewal is made within a typical institutional
church:
the pastor feels
threatened; the congregants resist the disruption of the status quo;
the staff
is thrown into a panic for fear of division; and the masses misconstrue what is taking place.
Before we discuss the Lord's answer to the problem of the
contemporary church, let us take a brief look at some modern
movements that have sought to renew it.
We should keep in mind that
Viola speaks of a return to the New Testament order as the "radical
renewal" and the only "new/old winskin" which counts. Next, Viola
speaks to the Seeker
forms of commercial religion (See Revelation 18)
"The
superstore
megachurch trend is
just one example of a failed attempt at fully renewing the church.
These event-driven, shopping mall churches have created specialized
boutiques for every sociological slice in America today--from single
parents, twelve step recoverers, homebuilders, premarital couples,
parents-of-adolescents, Generation Xers to working mothers,
businessmen, actors, and dancers. Advertised by extraordinarily
gifted marketeers and driven by a formidable "growth-industry" mentality, megachurches attract
thousands every Sunday into their enormous amphitheaters.
"Using the latest
church growth
strategies,
organizational methods, and marketing techniques,
"churches of this ilk are quite
successful in swelling (ferment from the old "wineskin" ks) their
ranks. They provide flawless multimedia worship, pep-rally like
religious services, high-tech visual effects,
- tightly scripted gospel
orations
- mingled with a heavy dose
of comic
relief,
seamless choreographed
drama presentations, frequent visits from
featured celebrities (Note: "The Idolatry of out of town Talent") whose clothes are always
color-coordinated, and a zillion splinter interest groups designed to meet every consumer need. To top it off, megachurches offer these
mass-market religious resources to the public in exchange for minimal
commitment, low visibility, and little cost. Stated simply, the
megachurch movement is built on a corporate
business paradigm
that utilizes a market-driven approach to building the kingdom of
God.
"Unfortunately, those believers
who are attracted to these large, flashy, organized Wal-Marts of the
American religious world can hardly find a place in their hearts for a simple,
unextravagant meeting centered around the person of Christ
alone. For them,
choosing between a lavish supermall church and a "house church" is
like choosing between the flamboyant supercenter mall and the corner
grocery store.
"The weakness endemic to the
superstore church is that it so emphasizes the "church scattered"
dimension of the Body of Christ that the "church gathered" dimension
suffers great loss. By focusing all attention on being
"sensitive" to the comfort zones of "seeking" unbelievers, most
megachurches have failed to adequately disciple their new converts
into radical abandonment to Christ and nurture close-knit communal
relationships with other disciples.
What is more, the
business
machinery that drives
these mammoth institutions obscures the spiritually authentic and organic nature of the
local assembly
Viola notes that the
"methods used are often just as carnal as the system from which it is supposed
to deliver people. In this way, the gospel has become trivialized,
commercialized, and emptied of its power, being viewed as just
another "product" in our consumer-obsessed culture." The result, if
history counts, is that the new Seekees
inculcate their
neo-pagan worship practices into the old group and take
control.
You, then,
must subscribe to the new Seeker form in order to
extablished your lapsed membership even if you did pay for the church building.
Pagan methods to attract
pagans, therefore, produces a pagan church. Not too surprising, is it??
"In a word, the megamall church
of modern pop-Christian culture bears little similarity to the
simple, Spirit-dependent, Christ-centered, spiritually dynamic,
mutually-ministering churches of the first century that turned the
world upside down (Acts 17:6).
Restoration Movement
Pulled Under a Wave
There have always been genuine restoration movements.
The Campbell's, along with many others, movement was infiltrated by
an old Third Wave of the so-called Second Great American Awakening. Barton W. Stone was an honest
Seeker but he believed that restoration meant
a revival of charismatic proofs that one had been saved. It is not
surprising that charismatic influences always try to infiltrate and
cut short genunie restoration movements of getting back to the
original "wineskin" or still better - "ceremonially pure earthen
vessels" in which Jesus packaged the Water
of the Word.
Viola uses the term
"restoration movement" as the clergy-dominated system of charismatic
power:
"In addition to the
superstore church, the recent "third-wave movement," and its cousin, "the restoration movement," have been two highly influential
players in the renewal game. These corollary movements, populated
mostly by charismatics and Pentecostals, stress the restoration of
apostolic power, apostolic miracles, and apostolic ministry. For
brevity sake, I will call these related movements third-wave-restoration.
"The dangers of beginning with
the Spirit rather than with the cross are numerous. For one thing,
"it can easily lead
a person into an unwholesome quest for power without
character--mystical experience without godliness--unrestrained
soulish
excitement without
sound discernment--and demonic
counterfeits without spiritual reality.
"In this regard, not a few
Christians desperately seeking
individual renewal are routinely packing their bags and
flocking to the various "Christian Meccas" of revivalism sponsored by
third-wave-restoration churches.
The Commercial Change Agent movement is one such "spirit" moved
effort. Their theme, articulated by Lynn Anderson is in
Navigating the Winds of Change. Lynn will use these methods
under the theme of Lifting up the Name of the Lord at Jubilee 99. His
methods are borrowed from the commercial world and are implimented
using mind control techniques of streams of unconsciousness created
by rapid-fire music which leaves no time for the mind to kick in.
This is part of the employment
of commercial Musical Worship Facilitators to help "lead the
worshippers into the presence of God." Because the songs are
self-composed by people believing that they are inspired; and because
they believe that the loud music has spiritual power, we have to
define them as neo-pagans.
Viola notes that:
"Because of their
desperation to be touched by God, many of them have become open
targets for every
new wind of
doctrine or experience
that blows
through the doors of the church, regardless of whether or not it has
any Biblical merit (Eph. 4:14). In this connection, many in the
third-wave have developed an unhealthy dependence upon
phenomenological experience--a dependence that, like that of an
addict, drives them to travel far and wide to acquire the next spiritual fix. Such
a dependence not only obscures the role of Scripture as the main
source of individual spiritual sustenance, discernment, and
communion with the living Christ, but it equally fosters an
unhealthy (and sometimes pathological) spiritual instability.
Many of those feeding efforts
such as Jubilee 99 actually claim that God sends you to the bookstore
to buy their latest commercial wares. They even claim for their book
what God claims for the Bible! Some, I am told, believe that they are
apostles or prophets. After noting some good, Viola notes that those
who claim to be "new wineskiny" don't really mean it if the new
freedom interferes with the dominant pastor:
"Quite frankly, the
pastor is
king in the typical third-wave-restoration
church.
"Consequently,
congregants who have been truly renewed with the new wine of the
Spirit find very little
freedom to fully
function in their gifts during a typical church service. While
third-wave-restoration churches may boast about possessing "the new
wine," they have confined it to an old, leaking wineskin--one that
inhibits mutual ministry, relatedness, freedom, and vibrancy.
"The old wineskin that is
employed merely reinforces the "sit-and-soak" mentality that plagues
the Body of Christ today.
Along with the new freedom is
the lust for ecumenical meeting with others and a superstitious
understanding of "sectarianism" to define those, like Jesus, who will
not dance to our tune.
"Christian
guruism" is also epidemic in third-wave-restoration churches. High-powered teachers, prophets, and apostles are copious in
the movement and are revered
as spiritual icons, basking in the limelight of fan-club followings.
"A typical renewal
crusade is not dissimilar to a rock concert whereby the featured celebrity gives an encore
performance and takes his bow in the Christian limelight. It is not
uncommon, for example, for church members to arrive hours early to
secure a prime seat to hear the latest circuit teacher who has come
to town.
"Ironically, the very
experience that multitudes in this movement are seeking to achieve
can only be found in the New Testament church.
When one tastes "Body life" as God has ordained it, they will be cured of the unbridled urge
to travel "to and fro" to attend the latest "hot spot" of
renewal. Instead, they
will discover true and long-lasting refreshment and stability
within the church of
their locale.
"To spin the metaphor, in
seeking to ride the latest spiritual wave, many
third-wave-restorationists
have been
caught in the undertow of a clergy-dominated ecclesiastical
structure.
What is more, some have been
bitten by the sharks of counterfeit spiritual experience and are now
drowning in the murky waters of Christian mysticism and charismatic
clericalism.
Imprisoned in a
Cell
While Viola is in favor of small churches without Babylonian appendages, he warns
against cell
groups as just longer
tentacles for the dominant clergy or pastor to expand his power and
to flaunt it:
"Another attempt at
renewal in recent years, more promising than the former two, has been
the emergence of the "cell church" model. Cell churches are based on a two-winged approach to doing church.
They provide a
weekly "cell group" meeting (set in a home) and a Sunday
"celebration" meeting (set in a building).
The small cell meetings are
designed for fellowship, ministry, prayer, and evangelism, while the
large group meetings are designed for preaching and worship. While there is much that can be
commended in the cell church movement--especially its emphasis on
close-knit connectedness, one-anothering, and Body ministry--its
greatest weakness lies in its leadership model.
"Although the cell church has
sought to renew the institutional church by providing a context for
corporate relatedness and mutual functioning,
it has
left the
unscriptural
clergy system untouched! Endemic to cell churches is a top-heavy,
hierarchical leadership structure that works against the community.
Thus, "the
longer leash" is an apt
metaphor to describe the cell church model.
"That is to say, the
congregation is given a measure of church life as they meet together
weekly at someone's home.
Yet through a
highly organized
hierarchy, the pastor controls the gatherings and steers them
according to his own wishes.
While those professionals
making
merchandise out of
selling church
growth schemes -- as if
Christ the Spirit needed modern apostles -- Viola shows that the
"preacher count" is sold as a joke but it is just a lie. That is why
one new program after another is hatched from viper's eggs to keep
from correcting the real problem:
"That the cell
church model looks impressive on paper is beyond dispute (cell church
manuals are replete with elaborate flow charts and catchy
organizational graphs). However, it is found wanting in real life
experience. It deserves our applause for its denunciation of
"program-based"
churches that find themselves mired in bureaucratic structures. But
it warrants our disapproval for its blithe espousal of a
rigid, multi-layered,
hierarchical leadership structure.
Not only does this
structure undermine Biblical principle, but it makes each cell an extension of
the
pastor's vision
and burden, thus
burying the believing priesthood under layers
of human hierarchy.
"Accordingly, the cell church
model violates the very principle it claims to uphold, i.e. that
the church is an organism made up of individual "spiritual cells." In stark contrast, each "cell group" is nothing
more than a facsimile of the same Body part (the single pastor), rather
than a true representation of the diversified unity that marks the
Body of Christ. Stated simply, the mere addition of home meetings
(cells) to the clergy-dominated church
structure fails to go far enough in providing a concrete expression
of the full ministry of every believer and the functional Headship of
Christ.
Isn't it interesting that those
who charged you a thousand dollars a sermon to create the problems
want a raise to help you solve them? Viola is aware of this when he
notes:
The Symptom
Masquerading as the Cause
"In order for genuine church renewal to
occur, we must distinguish between the symptom and the root of the problem. Along this line, Elton Trueblood has
rightly said, "The basic trouble [with the institutional church] is
that the proposed cure
has such a striking similarity to the disease" (The Company of the Committed). Conferences for burned-out clergy,
cross-denominational unity gatherings, support groups for pastors who
suffer from "sheep bite," and workshops presenting the latest church growth
strategies are vivid
examples of Trueblood's penetrating observation.
"All of these supposed "cures"
merely coddle
the system that is responsible for the church's maladies. They simply treat the
symptom while ignoring the real culprit, and hence, the same drama
continues to play out on a different stage.
It is the
clergy/sectarian system that inhibits the rediscovery of face-to-face
community,
supplants the functional
Headship of Christ,
and stifles the full ministry of every believer.
Thus, all attempts at renewal
will be short-sighted until the clergy structure and denominational
system are dismantled in a local assembly.
- At best, such attempts will
bring limited change.
- At worse, they will invite
open hostility.
Noting that you cannot tear
down a dangerous tower by beginning at the bottom: "The only way to dismantle a tower is to
proceed from the top down. And this requires that the dismantling
process begin from the top.
In like
manner, local assemblies will never reach God's end if the clergy /
denominational structure is not abandoned.
Renewal movements that merely
transplant Biblical principles into institutional soil will never succeed in realizing the full purpose of
God.
The Call to Leave
the Clergy-Dominated Profession
Jesus told the Christians that He would send them a
sign so that they could
"get out of
Jerusalem." When the
Romans surrounded Jerusalem the Christians knew that this was a sign
but how to get out from under both the Jewish clergy and the Pagan
invaders.
With God's supervision, the
Romans then momentarily "retreated" and like a poodle chasing a
tiger,
the Jewish leaders sought to follow and attack.
While both Romans and the
Jewish Clergy-dominated system (priesthood bought as highest bidder)
was "absent without leave" from Jerusalem all of the Christians fled
and not a one died.
However, the Jews had to
retreat back to Jerusalem where with supernatural help, the Romans
burned down the old structures and a million Jews died even after
fighting over and devouring their own children. There is still time
to get out!
"In this
connection, we thank God for the thousands of Christians who have
left their clerical
professions, laid down
their high-powered hierarchical positions, and abandoned their
sects to become simple brethren in the Lord's
house.
It is among such
that the Lord has found a clear basis for His own building.
"As would be expected, those
who have left their salaried, clergy positions have paid a tremendous
cost. Such a thought strikes a sensitive chord in the heart of the
average paid, religious
professional.
"For this reason
many will resist such a notion, reacting in a way not dissimilar to
the silversmiths of Ephesus who withstood Paul's message because it
"endangered their craft" (Acts 19:24-27).
"Therefore, unless those in
clerical positions are ready to openly examine and obey the New
Testament teaching that bears upon the issue, any discussion on the
matter will remain for them a highly flammable topic that can easily
turn torrid.
"It is critical to stress at
this point that clerical leaders need not be despots in order to hinder
mutual ministry. Without doubt, clergy are typically well-intentioned
and gifted Christians who sincerely believe that God has "called"
them to their profession.
"Some are highly stylized and regulated benevolent dictators. Others are spiritual tyrants with a Machiavellian quest for power who imprison and freeze
the life of their assemblies."
- The Machiavelli FAX of Life Resisting
Change
- ---Machiavelli Prince Ch3-Ch6-Ch7
- ---Mein Kampf Vol 2, Ch5,
Ch8,
Ch11
"The point is that clergy
need not use
vicious forms of pedagogy and authority to be injurious to
Body life. The
mere
presence of the
one-up/one-down hierarchical model of leadership suppresses mutual ministry, no matter how nonauthoritarian in
temperament the cleric may be.
The mere presence
of clergy has the deadening effect of conditioning the congregation
to be passive
and perpetually dependent upon its leadership.
"Christian Smith makes the
point lucidly:
"The problem is that,
regardless of what our theologies tell us about the purpose of
clergy, the actual effect of the clergy profession is to
make the Body of Christ
lame. This happens not
because clergy intend it (they usually intend the opposite) but
because the objective nature of the profession inevitably turns the laity into passive
receivers.
"The role of clergy
is essentially the centralization and
professionalization of
the gifts of the whole Body into one
person.
"In this way, the clergy
represents Christianity's capitulation to modern society's tendency toward
specialization;
clergy are
spiritual specialists, church specialists. [Pulpit minister,
associate minister, involvement minister, musical worship minister,
youth minister, singles minister, marrieds minister, seniors
minister, divorced minister and....]
Everyone else in the church are
merely 'ordinary' believers who hold 'secular' jobs where they
specialize in 'non-spiritual' activities such as plumbing, teaching,
or marketing.
"So, in effect, what ought to
be accomplished in an ordinary, decentralized, non-professional
manner by all church members together is instead accomplished by a
single, full-time professional--The Pastor.
"Since the pastor
is paid to be the specialist in church operations and management, it
is only logical and natural that the laity begin to assume a passive role in
church.
"Rather than contributing their
part to edify the church, they go to church as passive receivers to
be edified. Rather than actively spending the time and energy to
exercise their gift for the good of the Body, they sit back and let
the pastor run the show ("Church Without Clergy," Voices in the
Wilderness, Nov/Dec '88)
[Even heard "preaching" is an
act of worship]
"The average believer is
probably unaware that his notion of leadership has been shaped by
centuries of ecclesiastical and bureaucratic history (about 1700 years worth!). The clergy concept is so
embedded in the thinking of most modern Christians that any attempt
to deviate from it will meet fierce opposition. For this reason most modern believers are just as
resistant to the idea of dismantling the clergy as are the clergy
themselves. The words of Jeremiah have pertinent application: "The
prophets prophesy falsely and the priests rule by their means; and
my people love to
have it so" (Jer.
5:31). Thus, "clergy" and "non-clergy" are both responsible for the
ailments of the church.
"Only the necessary task of
rethinking the church in its Scriptural context will enable us to
distinguish between the Biblical notion of the church and the
institutions today that pose as churches. In this connection, let us
briefly isolate some of the differences between the Biblical and the
institutional paradigms:
The Institutional
Paradigm
Is
sustained by a clergy
system
Seeks to
energize the laity
Renders the bulk of its congregants
passive-in-their-pews
Associates church with
a building or a denomination that one joins
Is rooted in unifying those
who share a special set of customs or doctrines
Thrusts "ordinary"
Christians out of the
holy of holies and chains them to a pew
Places its priority on religious programs while keeping its congregants at arms-length,
insulating them from one another
Spends most of its resources on building expenditures and pastor-staff salaries
Operates on the basis that the pastor/priest is the functional head
(while Christ is the nominal head)
Enshrines and protects the clergy-dominated, program-centered system that serves as the driving machine of the organized church
Builds programs to fuel the church and views people as
mere
cogs in the machine
Encourages believers to participate institutionally
Separates church
(ecclesiology) from personal salvation (soteriology), viewing the
former as a mere appendage to the latter
The Biblical
Paradigm
Knows nothing
of a clergy system
Does not recognize a
separate class called
laity
Makes all members
functioning
priests
Affirms that people do not
go to church nor join
the church, but they are
the church
Is rooted in an unreserved fellowship with all Christians that is based upon Christ
Liberates all believers to
serve as ministers in the context of a non-clerical, decentralized
form of church polity
Places its priority on
face-to-face, shared-life relationships, mutual accountability,
openness, freedom, mutual service, and spiritual reality--the very
elements that were built into the fabric of the New Testament
assembly
Spends most of its resources on "the poor among you" and apostolic workers and missions
Operates on the basis that
Christ is the functional
Head through the
invisible guidance of the Holy Spirit through the believing
community
Shows a revulsion for the clergy system, for it quenches the sovereign exercise of the Holy Spirit (yet it
lovingly embraces every Christian within that system)
Builds people together to provide the momentum for the
assembly
Invites believers to participate relationally
Forges no link between personal
salvation and the church; sees the two as inextricably intertwined (hence, Scripture has it that when
people were saved, they simultaneously became part of the church and
immediately gathered together)
To make the point better by
someone else somewhere else, the Biblical paradigm represents
"the winning back
to God of things ordinary and the desacralisation of things made
sacred (by human hands)." Yet because the traditional paradigm has
been so entrenched in the minds of so many Christians, the mere
notion of "coloring outside the lines" of this model and constructing
a new matrix by which to think about the church can be quite
terrifying. The unfortunate result is that those who have not had a
paradigm shift regarding the church will either ignore or oppose
those churches that fail to fit into the traditional paradigm, even
if it is at odds with the New Testament.
"In the eyes of those who see
the world through institutional glasses, unless a church meets in the
"right" place (a building), has the "proper" leadership (an ordained
pastor or priest), and bears the "correct" name (one that indicates a
"covering"), it is not recognized as an authentic church. Instead, it
is dubbed with innovative terms like "para-church," which subtly
suggests that it is something less than an authentic church. So in
the minds of those who have not yet grown weary of running on the
program-driven
treadmill of
institutional "churchianity," that which is abnormal is considered
normal while that which is normal is regarded as abnormal. This is
the unhappy result of not basing our faith and practice upon God's
Word. In making this same point, Jon Zens shows a wealth of insight
saying,
It seems to me that
we have made normative that for which there is no Scriptural warrant
(emphasis on one man's
ministry), and we have
omitted that for which there is ample Scriptural support (emphasis on
one
another)...we have
exalted that for which there is no evidence,
and neglected that for which there is abundant evidence ("Building
Up the Body: One Man or One Another?," Searching Together, Vol.
10:2).
In like manner, Alexander Hay
laments the dilemma of the contemporary church saying,
"Tertullian found it necessary to say,
'Custom without truth is error grown old.' There is not a little in
our modern church order and practice that has no Scriptural
warrant. Yet because it
has long been the custom, it is accepted without question as an
essential part of Divine order (New Testament Order for Church and
Missionary).
Frank
Viola's articles can be found here:
Kenneth
Sublett
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