The Pastor Has No Clothes!

I just want to honor Jon Zens for sharing truth since 1965. I’ve just recently learned about Jon and read and reviewed a couple of his books. This one is a gem and well worth your time and money. Jon totally debunks the idea that the corporate church and/or even what we call House Church needs a centralized leader/pastor. Below is an excerpt.

We are afraid of doing church without a human leader. Except, the truth is, we do have a Leader – Jesus Christ. Further, the practical reality is that every group will have leadership each time they get together. His Spirit always leads the saints to express Christ one to another in diverse ways; not in a traditional, concrete pro forma format. One sister may share something that becomes the theme that others build on – in one meeting or in several; for a day or for months, even years of interaction. Another time, a brother may tell how the Lord ministered to him in the past week, and that leads to different things, which go on from there. The point is, in organic meetings His Spirit leadership is gracious, fluid and over a period of time involves everyone. If a group looks to the same person time after time to get and to keep things rolling by solely providing the essential content of the gathering, then the living Christ blossoming through all the parts is soured.

Sadly, in this way I am convinced that we are all like Israel – we want a visible king. Read 1 Samuel 8 and see how Israel was not satisfied with having the invisible God as their Leader; they wanted to be like the nations around them who had visible human kings. It underscores human desire of having someone else tell us what vision to follow, where to meet, what to do, and what to believe – in short, to spoon-feed us like children – thus, we reject the Lord’s leadership, substituting a vastly inferior system in his place.

We all will have a king. The crucial question is, will our king be visible or Invisible? Will we run church like the corporations in the world – in other words, be like the world – or will seek higher satisfaction in following the One, whom having not seen, we love?

Do not be mistaken! These behaviors are not limited to the traditional “church” experience. I have seen this phenomenon kill the life expression in simple gatherings just as frequently. It is the existence of pastor-wannabe’s, elder-wannabe’s and former church officials who come to such a group claiming a false non-scriptural basis to “improve” their gatherings. Even among those who have completely left the institutional church, too often there is tendency to look for former “leaders” in past settings to provide the impetus for what takes place in the new one. 

Those from leadership positions in the institutional church must take their ambitions and history of being “up front” to the cross. They must take their proper place as just another brother or just a sister amongst other brothers and sisters. If not, the group will inevitably revert to an institutional form usurping Jesus’ leadership. Simply meeting in a home does not, in any way, ensure that a Christian group functions under Jesus’ Lordship. The pressing issue here is whether or not a person or group takes the place of Christ at the center of any fellowship meeting.