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Vol. 5, No. 1 - April 2000
THE
CHURCH AND THE WORK
Why
the Church Doesn't Work
Sometimes there is a Scriptural principle which hides itself from you, and then, when it becomes clear to you, it serves to unravel more than one knotty problem. And it is generally the case that this Scriptural principle is ignored in the seminaries, radio and TV programs, and in the teaching of the organized church. Once such biblical principle that is absolutely necessary for the proper functioning of the biblical house church is the SEPARATION OF THE CHURCH AND THE WORK. I am indebted to Watchman Nee, who explicates this vital principle in his three-volume book entitled The Church and the Work, which would be well-worth your time to read.
I intend in this issue to discuss four things: (1) Scripturally, what is a "work", (2) Scripturally, how all biblical works are SEPARATE from the church, (3) six church problems that are solved by separating the church and the work, and (4) the extremes of improper integration and improper independence of the church and the work.
Scripturally, what is a work? The key Scripture is Acts 13:2 "...the Holy Spirit said, 'Set apart for me Barnabus and Saul for the WORK to which I have called them.'" The timing of this separation, this "setting apart" of the two apostles for their work was before Paul's great missionary journeys. And the work that was referred to was the work of an apostle, which was planting, teaching, and strengthening new churches. The word "work" is synonymous with "ministry," the term of choice among present-day evangelical Christians. In this case, Paul and Barnabus' work, or ministry, was obviously separate from the church. But, are there cases when "works" were done inside the church? The answer is yes, and here is where my argument for the separation of church and work becomes problematic. Ephesians 4:11,12, and 16 plainly declares that believers are to perform works of service FOR the body of Christ. But that is not to say that the church IS a work. You may think this a distinction of no consequence. On the contrary, it is a distinction, which, if not properly grasped by your church, will likely eventuate in your church's destruction.
You
may think this a distinction of no consequence. On the contrary, it is
a distinction, which, if not properly grasped by your church, will likely
eventuate in your church's destruction.
Let's
look at Ephesians 4:11,12, and 16: "It was he [Jesus] who gave some to
be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to
be pastors and teachers, to prepare GOD'S PEOPLE for WORKS
of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up... From him [Jesus]
the whole body, joined and held together by each supporting ligament,
grows and builds itself up in love, as each part [each saint] does its
WORK." First, notice who does the ministering, the "working."
It's the SAINTS in the church who are doing the works, not the five-fold
ministry who, on the contrary, are rather preparing the saints
to do the works. Second, notice that the church is not the work. The church
is that which receives the work. The people of God do works, in order
to build up the church. The function of an individual believer's work
is not to give the believer something to do to make him feel fulfilled,
it is rather to BUILD UP THE BODY OF CHRIST. The
purpose of a believer's work is NOT to build up his work:
it is to build up the church. It
really doesn't matter whether the worker is sent out from his church as
in Acts 13:2, or whether he's working inside his church as in Eph 4:11,12,16,
the works being done are separate from the church. In the case
of Acts 13:2, this is obvious. In the case of Ephesians 4, it is not as
obvious, but it is still clear that the works being done are separate
from the church. Paul does not say in the Ephesians passage that saints
build up the "work," rather he says it is the church ("the body of Christ")
being built up. The works are an instrumental means for accomplishing
the end, which is the perfection and maturity of the CHURCH.
The practical implication of this is that the ultimate end of an evangelist's work is not to win souls, but to build up the body of Christ. And the
ultimate end of a prophet's work is not to prophesy, but to build up the
body of Christ. And the ultimate end of a teacher's work is not to teach,
but to build up the body of Christ. However, it is quite unfortunate that
today in the church there is a mentality that a Christian's life must
be consumed with his work. He must nurture it. He must be consumed by
it. He must be obsessed by it. But by golly, he must never, ever give
thought to why God gave him the gifts necessary to do the work in the
first place: to build up the church. And the worker, the whole time he
idolizes his ministry, never glances at the neglected bride of Christ.
And as a result, we have workers (usually professional clergy) who ask
not what the worker might do for the church, but what the church might
do for the worker. In fact, what happens is that the work (usually that
of the professional pastor or missionary) becomes identified in the minds
of believers as the church, so that when the believer helps the work,
he thinks he is helping the church. But that is not true, for one simple
reason: the church and the work are separate! Let me use a homely
example to drive home this point. High-fashion designers deliberately
use models who are not the best-looking, and they teach them never to
smile. Why? Because they are interested in selling what adorns the girl,
and they don't want anybody looking at the girl. Ministry-worshippers
are like that, too. They take the gifts of Christ, which are given to
adorn the body of Christ to make her beautiful, and then try to sell those
gifts, even to the extent of making the bride of Christ ugly and unsmiling.
It should be the other way around. The gifts should accentuate and complement
the beauty of the bride, but when the world looks at the bride, they should
see the beauty, and not even notice the bride's clothing and jewelry.
Let's now examine some Scriptural examples of the separation of the church and the work. We've already mentioned Acts 13:2, "While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, 'SET APART for me Barnabus and Saul for the WORK to which I have called them'. So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them, and SENT THEM OFF." You will notice that those doing the "work" were "set apart" from the church, and then they were "sent off" from the church. Let's also look at Acts 28:30,31. "For two whole years Paul stayed their [in Rome] IN HIS OWN RENTED HOUSE and welcomed all who came to see him. Boldly and without hindrance he preached the Kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ." You will notice, that Paul, world-famous by that time, didn't even go to the local church sanctuary and give sermons at the church of Rome. He didn't do that because, one, Christian temple buildings hadn't been thought of yet, and two, sermons hadn't been invented yet either, and three, the commingling of the church and the work hadn't been thought of yet, either. Paul did his apostolic work at his apostolic headquarters, his home in this case. He never tried to go impose his vision on the church and Rome. He let the church of Rome be the church. And the church of Rome let Paul be an apostle. And incidentally, if it be objected that the reason Paul didn't go to the Roman church to minister was due to his house arrest, it should be noted that the Roman government let Paul preach "WITHOUT HINDRANCE." If Paul could minister in his own home with hindrance, what possible objection would the Roman government have in prohibiting him from ministering without hindrance in another believer's home? Besides, if you follow closely Paul's legal travails after his third journey, from Jerusalem to Rome, you will see that he has already endured numerous trials and hearings by Roman tribunals, and always was clearly found by the Romans to be innocent. The Romans knew that Paul was innocent, and were just letting the legal process run its course for the sake of form, probably while they waited for Jewish prosecutors from Jerusalem whom they knew would never show. No, Paul could have ministered at the local Roman CHURCH without hindrance from the Roman authorities, but didn't. He had his own WORK to attend to.
Think about it real hard. Can you come up with one Scriptural example that an apostle directed the local affairs of a church which he visited? Even in Corinth, where Paul visited for eighteen months (Acts 18:11), and in Ephesus, where Paul visited for two years (Acts 19:10), Paul did not impose his ministry on the churches he was visiting. In fact, in the cases of Corinth and Ephesus mentioned above, there is not one Scriptural mention of any ministry in the local churches at all: most mention is made of weekend evangelistic work in the synagogues." Now let's look at some choice quotations from Watchman Nee on the subject of the separation of church and work. "Since churches are the result of the Work, they cannot possibly include it. If we are to understand the mind of God concerning his work, then we must differentiate clearly between the work and the churches. These two are quite distinct in Scripture, and we must avoid confusing them, otherwise we shall make serious mistakes, and the outworking of God's purpose will be hindered." (The Church and the Work, Vol. 2, p. 138.) And again: "There is no scriptural precedent for such work being undertaken by a church, as, for instance, hospitals, or schools, or even ... foreign missions. It is perfectly in order for one or more members of a church to run a hospital, or a school, or to be responsible for mission work, but not for any church as a whole. A church exists for the purpose of MUTUAL HELP in one place, not for the purpose of bearing the responsibility of work in different places. ...all the Work is the personal concern of INDIVIDUAL brothers called and commissioned by God, as members of the Body, and not the concern of any church as a body. The responsibility of the Work is always borne by one or more individuals." (emphasis mine) (The Church and the Work, Vol. 2, p. 141.) My
friend, if you want to be happy for the rest of your church life, may
I suggest you memorize, and meditate upon, the previous two Watchman Nee
quotations? O, what needless pain we carry. There are so many problems
that we face in churches (both institutional and home churches) that would
simply evaporate if we followed the Scriptural wisdom of the separation
of church and work. I'm going to mention six such problems: (1) The Parachurch
Problem, (2) The Numbers Problem, (3) The Politics Problem, (4) The Mutual
Ministry Problem, (5) The I'm Not the Pastor But I've Got a Dream Problem,
and (6) The Unity Problem.
One benefit that house churchers receive from recognizing the parachurch as a work, is that we can feel free to support such ministries as WORKS, and not feel like we are compromising our biblical house CHURCH principles. Do the parachurch organization preach big numbers? Fine. We want them to have big numbers, that doesn't interfere with our beliefs in the necessity for small and intimate CHURCH fellowships.
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Dreams
of ministry placed in the lowly "layman"
somehow never get fulfilled, because the pastor is all the time huffing
and puffing trying to get everybody to "follow his vision."
A closing caveat: the separation of the CHURCH and the WORK does not mean the isolation of the CHURCH from the WORK. It can often happen that believers get excited about the work that God has given them (as well they should be), and they go to church all pumped up ready to talk about it, and nobody cares. This is wrong, because even though the WORK is not a part of the CHURCH's ministry, the WORKER is a part of the church's ministry. That worker should be edified, encouraged, prayed for, prophesied over, healed, taught, funded, and whatever else is necessary to get him out to be a little salt and light in the world. To elevate the CHURCH is not to denigrate the WORK. |
You may send your opinions, flames, weighty observations, etc., to
Dan L. Trotter
work e-mail:
dtrotter@pascal.coker.edu
home e-mail: dantrotter@yahoo.com
Since 09/30/00 this number of people have ignored the Surgeon General's warning and have read this thing, resulting in gosh knows how much mental and emotional trauma: