The New Testament Church: Today? Part 2
This is part two of last week’s article. The leadership of the early church consisted of elder brothers who rose up from within the local body of believers, as seen in Acts 14: 23. The churches knew their leaders, because they often times grew up in the area. Their character was known among the congregation. Their faithfulness as church members, and family leaders, qualified them for positions in the churches. In most all of today’s churches, the church leadership has undergone immense training primarily in denominational seminaries, especially the pastors. In most denominations, the pastors are sent out to serve in a congregation, which would have no real knowledge of the man’s life or character. They would know only that the denomination’s headquarters had sent him. These men would often serve as the head of the local church for a certain amount of time, and the denomination would send a replacement. This Pastor or Senior Pastor would be seen as set apart from the other pastors and elders. Most all of them are paid a full time salary. This was contrary to the “early” church, where some elders may have been financially supported, but were usually self supported. The “early” churches were mostly led by a group of equal leaders.
In most worship services of today, there is a pre- determined order of service that doesn’t vary much from week to week. They have a certain time in which to begin and an assumable ending time. In the early church, the services were found to be flexible, and had no thought as toward the time. There was one service, in Acts chapter 20, which lasted so long that a young man went to sleep and fell from a window. Their service continued as the people stayed all night long talking, after the breaking of the bread, then later brought the young man in alive. We would have shut all of church down, having had this happen in one of our services. In the “early” church, every member was involved in the worship services. In many worship services today, there’s very little congregational involvement.
In regards to Baptism, there are a few things to which I would like to make mention. First of all, baptism in the early church was something that took place immediately, as was possible after salvation. The baptism was also performed by any Christian. The church wasn’t always present when someone was baptized. In the churches today, baptism is usually a special time during a regularly scheduled worship service. Sometimes there are baptismal services, planned only for the baptism. Also today, it is a general understanding that the clergy performs a baptism.
As far as finances are concerned, the early churches probably would not have had budgets. The church gave primarily to ease the financial burdens of those who had need, and to assist the Christian workers. They had very little if any administrative expenses. Today, most churches have finance committees who prepare a yearly budget. The church budgets the majority of its finances towards salaries and building expenses. Then there is a small amount of the annual budget that is allocated for benevolence.
Yes, there are many, many differences in the Church of today, and The New Testament Church. Yet there’s a constant found in Hebrews 13: 8: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” Be Blessed.