Thoughts on Structure
A trip through the mail bag lends us the voices of a solider in Afghanistan, a young girl in Canada, an honest man California and a congregation in Tennessee, as they sort through their God Journeys. And then Brad and Wayne take on one of their most often-asked questions: "Are you saying there is no structure to the body of Christ?" Not at all. Structure is a valuable asset when it is designed to facilitate what God's doing in our lives, and an incredibly damaging substitute when it only seeks to replace it.
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I am still part-way through this week’s episode, so you may have already covered this, but it occurred to me that those passages in the Bible that refer to elders, deacons etc. who would have some sort of leadership or shepherding role are not referring to those people themselves being in leadership, but that Jesus THROUGH those people would be exercising HIS leadership role.
Oh, here is another thought: We so confuse ourselves with mis-using the word “church” to mean the “local church”, a building, a congregation etc. that I wonder whether it would be a good idea for each of us, when considering a particular question we have about church to first put it in context by remembering that there is one church, it is a living body, and that this one body that is living is the body of Christ. I think a lot of our questions about leadership, structure etc would then immediately be answered by reminding ourselves of this.
I’ve had to replay the podcast twice, because I love the quote about expectations – “Expectations are remembrances of what we’ve not experienced yet” – or words to that effect. Very profound.