Conducted Their Own Services
Every church in New Testament times, as it was set in order by inspired men, did its own teaching and preaching, and did its own work in every variety of doing good. It is a strangely interesting, and yet a most obvious fact, that none of the churches established by the apostles had a "preacher", or a "minister", as churches patterned after the denominations have today. The members of every New Testament church conducted their own worship and services, in observing the ordinances and appointments delivered unto them by the apostles, and, in so doing, did their own teaching and preaching. The divinely ordained apostolic order made the New Testament churches then, and makes them now, the best instructed and most thoroughly informed people in the world. The school of the Great Teacher, which is the church, is the only institution on earth in which the learners can receive a Christian education.
In calling attention to this most obvious fact, that the members of every New Testament church conducted their own worship and services, and did their own teaching and preaching, we also call attention to the fact that the Word of God clearly and plainly commands the churches to sustain those who are giving their time to preaching the gospel. "Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel." (1 Cor. 9:14.) Every Christian, every member of the church, who loves the Lord, and who wants to see the glorious gospel preached to all who are in their sins and lost, rejoices to give, and to give until it hurts, to sustain, and to sustain liberally, those great and grand men who are giving their time to preaching the gospel. All should have the highest regard for such men and for their labors in the gospel.
When we say that no preacher should settle down with any church to do the work of its elders, we certainly are not making war on gospel preachers. We certainly are not preacher-haters. We know from experience the sacrifices and hardships that are a part of the life of a gospel preacher. What we plead for is for the elders to do the eldering and let the preachers do the preaching.
We humbly and kindly submit, that, if the elders would do their own work, that they expect "the preacher" to do, and if they would hold themselves responsible, instead of holding "the preacher" responsible, for the size of the crowds, and for the size of the collections, and thus let "the preacher" devote his time and labors to evangelizing, to going "from house to house", from street to street, over its neighborhood, talking, teaching, telling those in every home, what Jesus and his apostles command "every creature" to do to be saved, I say, if the elders of every church would get back to the apostolic order of things it would revolutionize every neighborhood and evangelize the world in thirty-five years, as it did in New Testament times.
There is a vast and vital difference between a church supporting a preacher to teach, preach, evangelize, "publicly and from house to house," and a church employing a preacher to settle down with it as its "minister", to visit its sick, to keep up its attendance and to keep up its collections and to do the work in general that the apostles teach the elders and the members themselves to do. The one is a great, grand and good work, that would electrify the community. The other is borrowed from the Man of Sin and chokes the advancement of the gospel by building up a huge, palatial cathedral and a powerful clergy to dominate it.
No enemy of the gospel can successfully resist it when it is clearly and plainly preached. The church of Christ occupies the one position that all other religious bodies must come to. It stands upon "the Bible, and the Bible alone," upon a "Thus saith the Lord," either in an apostolic precept, or in an apostolic precedent. There is no other ground upon which to stand. It is, truly, "the Bible and the Bible alone", or nothing. The things that Jesus commanded his apostles to preach to every creature to do to be saved furnish the only divine assurance any man can have that he is saved. All who want to claim the assurance of Christ that they are saved must abandon all humanly originated theories of how to be saved and come to what Jesus commanded the apostles to preach to every one "unto the end of the world."
The members of the church, then, the members of the local congregation, are taught by the apostles through the Bible to conduct their own observance of the ordinances of divine service. One of these five ordinances is the teaching, instruction, edification and exhortation of the congregation. When "the whole church be come together into one place" all of the brethren were taught, and are now taught, by inspired men to take an active, personal part in so doing.
To learn how the church functions and how it "builds itself up in love," should be the continual and prayerful effort of its members. They can learn "how to behave themselves in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth" only from the Bible. They cannot learn what the church is, or how it functions, from the teaching and practices of the denominational churches around them. The denominations were originated by fallible and uninspired men and are governed by the wisdom of men. They were founded and their work outlined by presumptuous men who thought there are areas in the service of God "where there is no pattern" and that, therefore, they may use their human wisdom to decide what God will accept. Christ established his church, and, as its head, directs and governs it through the teaching of his apostles. "Teaching them to observe all things, whatsoever I commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." (Matt. 28:20.) Jesus is with the apostles today in teaching his commandments through the Bible, as he was when they did it in person while alive.
The New Testament clearly and plainly shows that no inspired man, after preaching the gospel in a new place, and thus establishing a new congregation, ever settled down to stay with them any longer than to get them started. He left them to grow and develop by doing their own work. Only by doing their own work could they grow and develop. To stay with them and do it for them, as do churches built around a clergyman, would keep them in infancy and powerless to conduct their own worship without the presence of "the minister." "And some days after, Paul said unto Barnabas, Let us go again and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the Word of the Lord, and see how they do." (Acts 15:36.) They did not remain with any place any longer than was necessary to start them off. Paul suggested that they return "and see how they do."
We humbly and most respectfully plead that the elders of the churches be elders in truth and verity, and that they actually do the work of elders, and not be simply figurehead elders, or elders in name only. "This is a true saying, If any man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work." (1 Tim. 2:1.) "Remember your rulers, who have spoken to you the Word of God; observing carefully the issue of their conduct, imitate their faith." (Heb. 13:7.) "Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves; for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account that they may do it with joy, and not with grief; for this is unprofitable for you." (Verse 17.) Elders cannot "watch for the souls" of members whose names they do not even know and with whose manner of living they are unacquainted. They cannot hire it out. They must personally give account. "And when the chief shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away." (1 Peter 5:4.) Being an elder is a wonderful work and has a wonderful reward. We humbly beg the elders to work at it. It cannot be farmed out.
We also plead that the deacons be deacons and that they actually do the work of deacons. They are appointed to supervise and direct the activities of the whole church and the expenditure of the funds "laid by in store upon the first day of the week" for the care of the poor and needy. If they would be deacons in fact, and not in name only, every congregation in its own neighborhood would provide its own orphan home, old women's home, relief society and every thing else suffering humanity needs. It is the only way to have such an institution in every neighborhood where it can actually meet the necessities. A general institution to do the work of thousands of congregations, which is to say, meet the necessities of thousands of neighborhoods, is a miserable failure.
We plead that the evangelists evangelize, that they actually "do the work of an evangelist." The church of Christ has the truth. If it were taken to the people, "publicly, and from house to house," the results would be glorious. The only way to evangelize the whole world, as was done in New Testament times, is for the church, which is every local congregation, to return to the apostolic order of things. That they may so do is our prayer in Jesus' name.