More Restoration Needed?

Just out of college in 1974, I was experiencing a spiritual renewal. I had wandered from my faith during my late high school and early college years, attending Southwest Missouri State University. Now, I sought a renewed Christian walk, challenged by a roommate who had converted during my senior year. We were living together in a rented trailer off campus. He had been very worldly, no church background, but had recently started dating a Christian lady who got him going to church. He would come back to the trailer asking me questions about the Bible that I should have been able to answer. I could not. It was a wake-up call to my faith. 

I had grown up in an independent Christian Church in my hometown. I gained good biblical knowledge there under the tutoring of preachers, elders, and Sunday school teachers, but like many young men had strayed due to the influence of friends and culture. Now (1974), determined to regain my Christian momentum, I was going to study Christian doctrine, the various churches, and go wherever that process took me. After a year of reading through the Bible and then studying the New Testament with an eye to the teachings of Jesus and His apostles on topics of salvation and church polity, I regained my bearings. To my surprise, it brought me back to the independent Christian Church of my youth. 

These churches are part of what is called The Restoration Movement. Started by a variety of men in the early 1800s as a back-to-the-Bible effort, they eventually merged, and this non-denominational movement formed. Over the course of time a variety of biblical teachings were “restored” to their proper functions, such as baptism by immersion for the forgiveness of sins and the gift of God’s Holy Spirit, the frequent (weekly) observance of the Lord’s Supper, and elders as shepherds and overseers of the local church, without denominational governance.

It has been a wonderful journey for me, finding service opportunities through the years in the churches within this fellowship. I am now seventy-two-years old and although I’m thankful for all that these Restoration Movement churches have accomplished, I must ask: Is our restoring work done? Are there other topics that need to be examined?

Here is a case in point. I see a general gravitation within Restoration Movement churches toward adopting a very denominational perspective on pastoring the local church. Our churches have, through the years, held that the local elders are the pastors; those words “elder” and “pastor” are used to depict the same group of men in the New Testament. We have sometimes said that a hired, full-time “preacher” is one of the elders, which my current church in Lebanon, MO agrees with (Southern Heights Christian), and thus such a person could rightfully be called a pastor. Not the pastor, but a pastor. The term elders is consistently plural in both the Old and New Testaments. The elders must have the characteristics described in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1.

First Timothy 5:17 is also referenced, where we are told, “Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.” Elders are to be teachers, but this individual teaches and preaches, thus worthy of double honor (pay?) for such service. Yet in current times I see many churches calling all their staff “pastors” and separating that term from the eldership.

Typically, the term “elders” is used as a noun, and that group of men “pastor” (verb) the local church. In other words, “elders” refers to who they are, “pastor” refers to what they do. They are shepherds, plural, doing pastoral work. An example: When the Ephesian elders came to encourage Paul in Acts 20, it was this group of leaders, not an individual, who came to pray and wish him well. Using the term pastor (singular, noun) for the individual who preaches (or does any hired ministry) is how many use the term today, as our culture gives it this twist.

This “staff pastoring” tendency in more recent years has another aspect that has existed for a long time in many churches. I’m talking about employing a “preacher” to preach to the congregation, rather than to go into the community and evangelize. Woven into this concept is the odd standard of allowing this Sunday sermon to be both edifying to the church and evangelizing to the visitor, who may be a non-Christian. Where do we see such a practice in the New Testament? I’m not saying there was never a visitor or non-Christian among those gathered on the first day of the week, but the focus appears to have been on disciples breaking bread together, studying the apostle’s doctrine, and praying (Acts 2:42), not on making this an evangelistic event.

In modern times we mix these elements, giving an invitation to the community to come “worship” with us. Then we make efforts not to offend them with too much Christian doctrine, lest we drive them away. We thus cheat our church members out of in-depth Bible study, and risk offending both the non-believer and the believer in such a way. This practice becomes less effective as the culture becomes critical of the church and resists any invitation to visit. It is an odd thing, when you stop to think about it, but we have become accustomed to it over many years of practice, a historical model more European than biblical.

So, I ask: Is there need for restoration in these areas?

When it comes to using the term “pastor,” my advice would be to comply with an old Restoration Movement adage that goes “Call Bible things by Bible names and do Bible things in Bible ways.” Concerning the topic of the preacher mixing church edification with evangelism, the same may apply but it may be a more complex subject to deal with, difficult to unravel what the churches have been steeped in as tradition for so many years, but worthy of our study. It may require new church plants to adopt a new model of what the church looks like on a Sunday during their gathering, and a new model of how we approach evangelism.

There is nothing carved in stone on these topics, no “thus saith the Lord.” God has given us the freedom to function with flexibility where there is no command. I am familiar with the Restoration Movement slogan: In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty; and I would venture to say these things fall in the non-essential realm. Certainly, the last phrase of that slogan applies: In all things love. All I am asking is that we remain true to our calling as Christ-followers, using God’s Word as our source of faith and practice, and true to our movement, continuing to seek appropriate things to restore. 

Rick Willis is a member of Southern Heights Christian Church in Lebanon, MO, where he has served as a small group leader and elder/pastor.