House Church Talk - Look who Jesus Chose

[Glenn Frank]

Does anyone think maybe that the gifts mentioned in Eph 4, while they might
very well speak of church leaders, might also speak of the Body in general?

For instance... There might very well be those gifted as evangelists... or
Pastors... But they might not necessarily be elders or official leaders of
the church.

Just because one is gifted in a way like that and is called to equip the
body for service does not necessarily mean they are also a 'governing elder'
or anything like that.

I think part of the church has ignored this section of Ephesians because
they think it is only talking to the 'clergy' and is not relevant to
'laity'.





On 4/25/04 7:18 AM, "Dan Beaty" <dlbeaty at copper.net> wrote:

> Glenn,
> 
> Any room on that soap box for me?
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Glenn Frank" <glennfrank at earthlink.net>
> 
>> Yet we see that Jesus made them in to Leaders...
>> When they were filled with the Spirit...
>> 
>> True, there are some people who will take on more overt roles as leaders
> in
>> the church, but all believers are called to be leaders of some sort. That
> is
>> where the fallacy of the "clergy and Laity" distinction is in error.
>> Everyone in the body should be active, not passive in their role in the
>> church body. Otherwise they are not fulfilling the many "one-another"
>> commands. Distinguishing some as clergy and others as laity only breeds
>> incorrect assumptions about the levels of leadership and responsibility in
>> the church.
>> 
>> (Ok... I am down off my soap box now)
> 
> That is my main reasoning that "silent women in the assembly" seems
> inconsistent to what God is doing today in house church, and other small
> group settings. There are so many places in the NT where "every member, the
> functioning of every part, every gift " is emphasized. This is not to
> downplay leadership, as some have done, and even some attempt to eliminate
> it altogether. The real need is to release every gift, including the
> equipping gifts, so that the whole body can be built up.
> 
> Dan B.
> 
> 
>    
>   
>

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