The below article was written by Buff Scott, Jr. You can contact Buff and sign up for his Reformation Rumblings newsletter by emailing him at renewal@mindspring.com.
The universal biblical principle, found throughout, is that in the assemblies of the early saints all gifts were shared mutually. The “hired hand” today interferes with and disrupts this principle. Do you suppose Paul had the professional minister in mind when he told the Roman believers they were “able to instruct one another” (Rom. 15:14)? Surely he was not referring to a one-man instructor! And was Paul coming off the wall with a lot of nonsense when he told the believers at Colosse they were to “teach and admonish one another” (Col. 3:16)? The one-man admonisher was nowhere to be found.
In the early assemblies there was a mutual exchange of praises, teaching, sharing, and singing. No one person did it all. The Thessalonians were told to “encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing” (1 Thess. 5:11). When we substitute this “one another” arrangement with a counterfeit system, such as the professional minister, we are guilty of disrupting heaven’s blueprint for spiritual growth.
We need to be reminded that if a congregation can import a man and pay him a big salary to do all or most of the public speaking, the same congregation can import another man and pay him a healthy salary to do all of the singing, and still another man to do all of the praying-for a salary, of course. Well, you get the idea. The principle that allows one allows the others.
To state it more explicitly, if importing specialists to feed the flock is heaven’s way, all of our gifts can be performed by proxy. As a result, all we need do is warm a pew and wait till heaven arrives. For, after all, we’re paying others to do our ministries.
Take a look at our house assemblies, usually referred to as “house churches.” Where’s the pulpit minister? He’s not needed! Why? Because all attendees contribute their share, as God’s grace abounds within them, and as He confers a diversity of gifts among them. Why in the name off good sense are we incapable of conducting our “church services” in the same fashion? The reason is because we have gone professional. We have abandoned common ground in favor of skilled specialists. We want the world to know how sophisticated and refined we have become. So we go all out to import the best and build the fanciest edifices. We have adopted idolatry, just as surely as we have substituted a bogus system.
When will it all end? In the trash-heap of by-gone religions unless we wise up and address our deficiencies and get back to the basics of edifying and strengthening one another. The situation will not improve until and unless we rediscover the “one another arrangement,” as is so clearly defined in scripture. May God open our hearts and minds to do just that.
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