Lesson Fourteen Faithful Shepherds David Lipscomb 1
“Controlling the church by virtue of authority of office is unknown in the scriptures. All should seek to control simply and only through the authority of truth, impressed by lives of godliness, purity and love. ” -- David Lipscomb -- 2
John D. Rockefeller and the Standard Oil Company of Ohio. 3
Rockefeller’s name became a symbol of a new form of business organization that emerged in America in the three decades (1870,80,90) following the Civil War: the corporation. 4
PRESIDENT VICE PRESIDENT TREASURER SECRETARY 5
Corporate forms of ownership had emerged in the railroad companies of the 1850 ’s and 1870 ’s by the had become commonplace. 6
The day of combination is here to stay. Individualism has gone, never to return. John D Rockefeller 7
The new corporate order not only transformed the way America did business; more profoundly, it transformed basic cultural values and the ways people thought. 8
“Even the most rationally designed skyscrapers will presented themselves as statements of implacable power.” 9
It was inevitable that the corporate an managerial revolution that so shaped American society would effect the American churches. 10
We might say that Protestant denominations also followed the pattern of “ incorporation. ” Organizational efficiency and centralized control became key concerns of the growing urban churches. As a result, denomi- national agencies and bureau- cracies steadily proliferated. 11
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Not only did he become a crusty foe of the missionary societies promoted in the restoration movement, he also opposed the concept of an “ official ” eldership. He did not accept that elders in a “ officers ” congregation were because an officer was “one who is appointed to do a work which he could not do without that appointment. ” 13
Thus, a sheriff can arrest someone by the authority of his office, but a person without such official power cannot. Lipscomb was emphatic that Christ’s church has no officers in this sense. 14
Lipscomb believed that elders being called “ officers ” of the church rested on a mistranslation of I Tim. 3:2.(sic) I Tim.. 3:1 … . This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desires a good work. He asserted that a literal translation would read, “If any one desire overseeing he desires a good work.” 15
The work of elders is to instruct, admonish, encourage, and strengthen the disciples and direct in worship. Lipscomb said: “But cannot they do this as well before as after their ordination, and is it not the duty of every Christian to have this same care one for another and for the well- being of the church as a whole?” 16
Elder’s work is “a work in which any may engage, but which is especially assigned to certain ones on account of fitness of character and aptitude for the work.” 17
“We believe that no Lipscomb: office in the church invests with a particle of authority. ” “ Office [simply] means duty – it places upon one the obligation to do a certain work. It gives no authority or power. The elders are not to rule by official authority or power but to do it in love. ” 18
Lipscomb’s view: The authority of elders did not reside in any office or appointment but was simply a moral authority rooted in character and faithfulness. “Controlling the church by virtue of authority of office is unknown in the Scriptures. All should seek to control simply and only through the authority of truth, impressed by lives of godliness, purity and love.” 19
Given this view of elders’ authority, Lipscomb was clear about how one became an elder. It was not by election or appointment. It was not by stepping into some office. It was by doing the work of an elder. One becomes an elder or deacon “just as carpenters and blacksmiths are made, by laboring, studying, practicing the things in which they are engaged .” 20
The congregation then simply recognizes their work. It does this, not by holding an election , but by “looking out from among themselves,” that is, by conferring together to see who possesses the qualifications and who is already doing the work. 21
When the congregation agrees on who that is then “the Holy Spirit has already appointed such bishops and deacons.” To him, formal ordination was not necessary. “So far as we have observed,” he wrote in 1877, “the electing and setting apart of officers has been a complete farce in the churches.” 22
“The usual plan of appointing them [elders or deacons] is for a few of the active and influential brethren to confer among themselves, as to who carries the most weight and would make the church most respectable, with respectable people, agree among themselves, some one nominates him publicly, a few vote for him, the rest do not vote, not liking to vote publicly against a brother, they … get two or three preachers and officer to lay their hands upon the heads of those elected, kneel down and pray, and then declare him inducted into office. ” – D. Lipscomb -- 23
Any man or set of men who attempts, “to exercise authority in a church by virtue of some official appointment,” wrote,” he or to assert that they have rights and authority as officers above others and assume to exert their rights, without the full approval of the members ,” are lording it over the flock. 24
A church’s decisions should be the decisions of the church as a whole, Lipscomb thought, not “arbitrary rulings” based on the elders’ authority. Elders should “voice the judgment of the church. They can do this only by consulting all.” This means that they must consider the “complaints and desires of the humblest member.” 25
To Lipscomb, “an official board of elders and deacons” creates different expectations. People tend to assume that such officers have a special authority – that they are assigned work that no one else can do. So, members elect their officers then assume that “ it is the officer’s duty to look after the church interests and the members can rest at ease. ” 26
William Lipscomb, David Lipscomb’s brother took the position that: Such an unscriptural system tends to regard Christians as “fledglings with mouths agape ready to receive dainty morsels provided and prepared by human manipulation.” It views them as “ timid lambs ” needing “ watch-dog protection .” Christians certainly need encouragement and exhortation from wise old Christians, he added, but not the control of “ the so- called eldership .” 27
Lipscomb’s E.G. Sewell, long-time editorial associate {at the Gospel Advocate} fully shared the Lipscombs ’ strictures against “ officialism. ” After surveying each use of the term “ elder ” in the New Testament, he insisted that the term referred to nothing more than age. It was never used as an official term, but referred to only the “senior members” in a congregation. He even argued that the “elder women” in I Tim. 5:2 “ are just as much officers as the older men are. ” Neither were actually “officers” in the church, he concluded; rather, both made up the “senior members” who led the congregation by their example and teaching. 28
Lipscomb and his circle of editorial colleagues stood firmly against the tide of “ incorporation ” that swept America and the American churches in the late nineteenth century. Worldly forms of power and authority, however efficient and cost effective they might prove, they had no place in God’s scheme of things. 29
God’s kingdom, they felt, stood in sharp contrast to all the kingdoms and institutions of this world. God was creating a new order, and one day God would establish that new order over all the earth. In the meantime, Lipscomb thought, God sought wise and willing workers, not elected officers, to lead the way. 30
NEXT WEEK A SPECIAL LESSON ON ELDERS, CHURCH GOVERNMENT AND WHERE WE STAND TODAY 31
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