"Leadership"

According to the Lord's word in Matt. 23, no one should be called father, teacher, master, etc. That is, no one should be a leader like the world has its leaders. In the world the leaders are over all their followers. However, in the kingdom of the heaven it is totally different. The Lord Jesus said that He didn't come to be served but to serve. Paul always identified himself as a bond slave of Jesus Christ.

If anyone desires to be a leader in the church, he must realize that he will not be over the saints but that he is entering into slavery. The saints will be over him and his life will be to serve them.

The Lord's view is absolutely different from that of the current practice in today's Christian world. Today, each church has its pastor who is in charge of the church and is over everyone. The Christian church in America has become a business and many pastors make a very good living from it. This is a worldly system just like a big corporation in the world. So it behooves each pastor to produce a big church in order to provide him his income and the power structure to give him his position and popularity. Does this sound like the church in the New Testament? In these institutions many of the members will go to their pastor for help, prayer and all spiritual things instead of going directly to the Lord Jesus as He intends them to do. America Christianity has evolved into the clergy/laity system that is hated by the Lord Jesus in Revelation two.

It is not the Lord's intention that any man would take the place of the Lord Himself. He is our Father, our Teacher and our Master. According to the new covenant everyone will know the Lord from least to the greatest among them.(Heb. 8) Christ indwells each believer and is well able to speak to and lead each one.

None of the Lord's people need a human "leader." They need the brothers who have been entrusted with the New Testament ministry to perfect them unto the same ministry and unto the building up of the body of Christ. But these brothers are not over the saints. They are only there to serve them the reality of Christ and then get out of the way so that the Lord can be in reality the head of His body and watch Him be the real leader among the saints.