Constitution V (a)

One, we are united to be a body that functions together. And we are only that body united when we are functioning under his headship. So we're following everything he's taught us in scripture. We're seeing him as our authority and our savior. And we discussed this a lot through the study of Colossians. And we discussed it a lot already, the first few sections of the Constitution. Let me just read three passages that refer to this. Colossians 118, and he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. Ephesians 122, and he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. 1 Corinthians 12 27 now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it so there are three texts there I we talked about this a number of times I don't see this being that controversial of a issue thankfully this is the this is the most important relationship in the church any any questions about that all right we are members of that body by faith by believing in Jesus as our Savior we are committed to to him as our head and then we have committed to one another to be the particular body of Jefferson Park. Line 96 and 97 then introduce relationships or roles or offices in the church. The biblical offices in the church are elders and deacons. These are the two offices that God has ordained for the church. These are the only two offices that I see as regularly being followed through in the church. Now, there's other giftings and callings. We could go to Ephesians and see there's some are apostles, some are evangelists and so forth. We don't consider those offices necessarily, especially while the office of apostle is not continued today. No one here. Well, I assume no one here actually thinks that there's apostles continuing in the same apostolic authority as, say, a Paul or a Peter or a John. So there's two offices, and here's where we're going to be introduced to really the most significant change in the proposed Constitution as compared to our current Constitution, and that there are elders and deacons. Now, somebody was asking before the study tonight, somebody was asking how many Baptist churches have elders in Albemarle County. I have no idea where this is going to go, but I'm just curious. Raise your hand if you've ever been in a church that had elders. Okay. Is that half? Maybe? Keep your hands up. How many of you were in a Mormon church? Mormon, Mormon group. Okay, lay your hands down. Because they have elders. I just want to make sure. I wasn't going to pick you out and talk to you later. Raise your hand back up. How many of you were in a Presbyterian church? Leave your hand back up. Okay, only... Only five, six. Woody. All right. Stephanie, shyly putting her hand up. All right. Raise your hand if you're in a Baptist church that had elders. One, two, three. Chadwick, where are you? Where were you? Laurel Hill. OK, well, that was one of that answers one of the questions I had. So somebody asked how many Baptist churches in Alamaro County? I know North Side does, where Keith Johnson is a pastor of the church right there. Southern Baptist Church of Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia, they have elders, always had elders. I was very surprised by that. And then Laurel Hill has elders. I also know that the pastor of First Baptist wants to move in that direction, but they aren't in that direction. So there's a question answered. How many churches? Well, at least two that we are in fellowship with. A better question is, does the Bible teach that a church should have elders? So it's not a survey how many Baptist churches have elders. The question is, does the Bible teach we should have elders? Because it's not a Presbyterian thing. It's not a Baptist thing. It's not a Mormon thing for sure. So we want to look and ask, does the Bible teach that there are elders? And we're going to first start by looking at how elders and deacons are taught side by side, because that's the real issue there is how do the elders and the deacons relate to one another? How are they distinguished, distinct from one another? Let's go first to Acts 6. Matthew, can we put Acts 6 up on the board? Is that possible? Without having a scene of nature? If a picture of a cat comes up with a scripture, we're done. I mean, that's. OK, while they're working through the technical issues, let me read our text now in these days, when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution and the twelve. That's the apostles, the twelve apostles, summoned the full number of the disciples and said, it is not right that we should go give up preaching the word to serve tables. Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word. And what they said, please the whole, gathering and they chose Stephen and we can continue. Well, here, I think we actually I don't think we actually see the offices of elder and deacon here. I think we see the prototype. We see a blueprint set forth. We don't see an office of elder and office of deacon necessarily in this text, but I think we actually see what's going to become by God's design the offices. Really, we have the apostles and then we have these other men, these seven who are going to be prototypes of deacons. And it's interesting here. Sorry, I studied with a different Bible. Let me make sure I've got my wording here correctly in verse three. I'm sorry. In verse two, it is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. The word there is deacon, and it's not the noun deacon. It's not the it's not the noun. And if it's the title, it's actually the the verb or the infinitive. It's not right that we should give up preaching to serve tables. And there you see the distinction. If this is a product of elders and deacons, the elders are being set aside. The apostles are being set aside to preach the word. And the deacons or these other men are being set aside to deacon tables. That clear, everyone? So there's a distinction there. Serving the word to deacon tables. I was very much appreciated a meeting with Mike Sprinkle, and he just said, Keith, quit worrying about the properties. I'm here to help you not worry about the building so you can study and pray. I very much appreciated Mike's strong opinion on that, and it was a blessing reminded. This is the problem in Acts 6, and Mike was being a good prophet from Acts 6. I think he's also telling me to get out of his business, but that's OK. I needed to. Verse 4, but we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word. Now, our translations don't do us very much help here because that word ministry in verse four. Is also Deacon. And it actually shows the humility that the office of the apostles, pastors, elders, wherever you want to call that that minister of the word, it's a service of the word. They're going to serve tables. We're going to serve the word. We want someone to help do the service of the work here so that we can be set apart for the ministry, the service, the deaconing of the table of the word and prayer. Again, I don't think this is actually telling us that these are offices being set apart, but I think it's prototyping. It's making clear the distinction that's going to take place. And it's a physical need and a spiritual need, both real needs, both needs that need to be met. And it's easy to get bogged down in the physical needs. That's why I think they're setting that men apart to make sure the apostles and would be pastors are always focused on spiritual. Any questions on that six? It's not as clear cut as the other text, because it's not really deacons and not really elders, but it's really close. I mean, it's everything but the office. Any questions? OK. We can go to First Timothy three and there is a very popular text, there's two lists of qualifications, there's really no need to explain that it's simply that there are men who are set apart to be elders and men are set apart with qualifications. And that's what we think. These are the only two offices that are continuing. They're the only two offices that have that clear here, the qualifications. And so we see these two offices side by side. Philippians 1.1, that's worth going to and reading. It's the introduction that we so quickly sometimes read over. Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus. So there you have the head and the body who are at Philippi with the overseers and deacons. There it's a different word than elders. is the word for overseer, episkopos. The word for elder comes from the Greek, presbyteros. But it's the same office, I believe. So there's the overseer's elders, and there's deacons. Paul has already set apart this church as being put in order, as he would say. So, as I gathered from talking to many Most of the controversy actually has to do with the word elder. So what does the word elder convey? And you can tell me what it conveys, you think, biblically, or what it conveys to you culturally, because we're dealing there. Elder means something culturally, and elder means something biblically. So what does the word elder mean? So what? White hair. OK. Wisdom. Wisdom. White hair and wisdom. Another W. Another W. Let's go. Is there any other words that... No, that'll be alright. We're changing our letters now. Respectable. Alright. I'm going to resist doing that. Are we recording this? All right. Knowledge. Very good. Well, if we look at the word elder, I want us to see first that there are three words that really go to the office of Elder Pastor Bishop. There's three Greek words that we really use six English words to use to talk about. And that's very complicated, isn't it? There's six English words that we use to Translate and talk about these three Greek words that I think all refer to the same office. Our English words are elder, presbyter, overseer, bishop, shepherd, and pastor. The Greek word presbyteros is the Greek word that we usually translate to have either elder or presbyter. Episkopos, overseer, bishop. The next word actually isn't a noun. The word shepherd is only used once in Ephesians 4 to refer to an actual group. Every time the word pastor or care shows up, it's actually the verb. Poimino. Poimino. Shepherd, pastor. And we'll actually look and see how this comes up. All three words are used in two texts. Let's go to Acts 20. We're going to go back to Acts. There are Bibles out in the foyer on the shelves if anybody wants to grab a Bible. Acts 20. Now for Miletus, he's sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him. And when they came to him, he said to them, you yourselves know how I lived among you while the time of the first day I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews, how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable and teaching you in public and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance towards God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and affliction await me. But I do not count myself of any value, nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I have received from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. And now, behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again. Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all of you, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood We're going to stop there. So verse 28 really is the one we want to unpack. Let's just flip right back over. Now to the Ephesus. He called the elders of the church. So he's calling out that office. He's calling the elders, that office, in verse 17. And he says to them, pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock. And so there is an implied pastoring there. There is an implied That actually the word for sheep in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. So the elders have been made overseers. To care for the Church of God, that's the word shepherd. Notice it's the title elder. They're called to oversee. And that overseeing means they care for them. So you see all three words used together for the same people. An elder is a pastor. It was an overseer, all three the same person. But it begins with that title elder. That's what we've chosen. That is the primary word we're using in the document in our inner constitution. So I see that that all three of those words are really from the same person. All right. I'm going to go to first Peter five now. First Peter five. So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed, shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight. He's calling out elders and then he exhorts them, care for them. Verse two, shepherd them, pastor them. elders is the title shepherd is the command that's actually an imperative who God has that the flock among you again the word for sheep implying that the shepherding exercising oversight there that that word is actually in well it's it's an act it's an it's an action so he called elders to shepherd and oversee one noun two verbs but again the main title is elder. As we look at the pastor, which I think is what most people, well, refer to a person in this office of elder. It's interesting, if you study the word, the only time a human office comes up as Ephesians 4.11, usually when we talk about a pastor, it's Jesus. He's equal to 34. He's the good shepherd. He's going to be like, he's going to be the real shepherd. And then John 10, Jesus says, I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep. I'm going to keep them. He's the only one who can truly, effectively ever keep us. Even that passage in 1 Peter 5, and when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfaithful crown of glory. Now the implication there is that he's the chief shepherd and anyone in my office, we're under shepherds. But again, that title is rarely and only this very quickly reference to a human other than Jesus Christ in Ephesians 411. Jesus is primarily the shepherd. So, a couple things I want us to just kind of conclude from Acts 20 and 1 Peter 5. The office of pastor, elder, bishop, all three of those words refer to the same person. More so, whenever those words are used together, elder really stands out as the title. It's the title. Again, it's typically a plurality. We haven't mentioned that yet, but he calls the elders who are in Ephesus in Acts 20. Any questions about that? Because those two texts are really two of the most important texts to be studying as we think about elders, what they do, who they are, why we call them elders. Any questions about that? We're going to do a couple of weeks on elders and deacons. So this isn't your only opportunity. Yeah, Dorian. The Ephesians passage where the pastors are mentioned as a gift rather than as a calling or office. Is there a way to distinguish besides contextual the meanings of the word pastor? The text is this. And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors, and teachers to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. Well, one of the key things here, first that comes off the page, is that it's equipping with the apostles. That's not an ongoing gifting. Why? The understanding that I have as to why we have Only two offices, and not each one of these giftings is an office, is the distinction made elsewhere throughout Scripture. You don't see these as ongoing offices. To be a well-ordered church, based upon kind of a Titus 1.5 reading, order the church well by appointing apostles, it doesn't seem that every church needs to have an apostle, an evangelist, a teacher, a preacher, and so forth. These are gifts that God gives the church, but the offices to order it well are distinct. That's usually just understood from the rest of Scripture. It's the only place it's ever mentioned. I'm wondering, if some elders aren't pastors, would you be considered an elder? Yeah, well the gifting to pastor would be a prerequisite to be in the office of elder. So the giftings are given to us. The offices are distinct because those offices you typically think are going to have those giftings. You can ask another question, Dorian. Yeah, I don't know if I've satisfied your question yet. Well, technically, that's that's kind of what the acts 20 and first Peter five, I think, is saying that you actually can. Those three words are used together synonymously for that one office. The reason we've just chosen elders who have talked about all of them is that it seems to be the primary title. But no, you I think you can refer to That office, with any of those three words, we've chosen elder for that reason. A lot of churches that have lay elders, they also have, they try to distinguish between the pastor and the elder. I don't think that's helpful. We're all one group of equally called and different in gifts, but equal in the calling to the actual office. Yep. We're trying to avoid that as much as possible. Now, when you look at the constitution later, they're obviously whenever someone has been set apart, but we consider the double honor of preaching and setting apart for vocational. There's a lot more to say about that person as to because of the technicalities, but we're trying not to make a hard distinction there. Were you raising your hand or just, okay. All right. Well, that is the, the clearest teaching from scripture, at least I hope I was helpful and clear. But Acts 20, First Peter 5, there's other texts there in the Constitution that really set forth why these words are all used interchangeably. And that's where it gets confusing is that, you know, elder isn't a Presbyterian word. That's kind of one of the main things we need to realize. Elder is the biblical word, even the main biblical word. How pastor caught on? I think because pastor feels warmer. I mean, quite frankly, I think it feels warmer to call someone a pastor than an elder. I think elder conveys an authority that sometimes can be fearful. But as someone was telling me the other day, we have to believe in a benevolent rule. If we believe in God, we have to believe in benevolent rule. We believe in husbands leading their wives. That's benevolent rule. to call on elders to lead us, we have to believe in benevolent rule. 1 Timothy 4.14 is another text that talks about the plurality that references a council of elders. And then Titus 1.5, elders were appointed for every city. And those are new texts that really point us to the fact that there should be a number of elders. We right now are a single elder church, and I don't think that's necessarily helpful biblically. It also isn't helpful for me or for you practically. Any questions? We're going to leave elders and deacons. Again, we're going to have a lot more to say about it as the Constitution goes on. This is just the introductory statement of, you know, ten words. But I wanted to at least kind of point us to the primary tax for elders. I think we're all convinced of deacons. Yes, Georgia. That's something we'll get into later. So it's not an infinite amount. Georgia has asked, how long does an elder serve? I believe that they're three year terms and then they have to be renewed. every three years with a required one year sabbatical every ten years, every seven years. Okay? And now did it come in? Sorry. from another city another church but a Baptist church I believe was Baptist and he had at the time he had served for 14 years and was continuing to serve. Now was he a vocational I'm going to try to distinguish here. All I can tell you is he was an elder that came in to explain. Now our Constitution actually has the parameters that you, when you're called into the office, you're called for three years, then you have to be re-voted in that way. Well, a big part of that is what we'll get into in just a moment, and to the ultimate authority is the body. Yeah, so it's, you can look ahead and see that there actually, there are regulations as to how often and how long someone can serve. Other questions? alright line 98 and 99 but final earthly authority is vested in the assembled congregation this was actually a big part we talked about last week to main tax Matthew 1817 this is where Jesus is giving how you confront someone you go to them one-on-one first if they do not repent or or will respond well, you take another brother with you. If they still don't repent and respond well, you take them to the assembly. And there, Jesus says, that's where you have the authority to bind and to loose. The final authority, according to Jesus' principles for confrontation and discipline, are in the assembly. We even saw that there in Acts 6, didn't we? The apostles called all the disciples together. The whole congregation then set aside seven deacons. That was even there, we saw that. 1 Corinthians 5 verses 4 and 5 was another key text we look at a lot. We looked at a lot last week. The fact that the brothers were to assemble to remove this brother who was not repenting, I think logically means that the ultimate authority is in the body, the assembled body, and they're the ones that brought them in. 98-99 are important. Lines 98-99 are important because it shows where the ultimate authority is. We're going to see the responsibilities of members. The offices are given to us by Christ to bring order to the body. But the final authority is in the assembled congregation. Any questions about that? We're congregational. We're a congregational church because, well, those of us who wrote this And our current constitution is a congregational. That's not changing. You're just voting in a whole new office. Any questions? All right. Let's look at lines 101 and 102. Starting a whole new section, section 1, members. It is the privilege and responsibility of members to attend all members' meetings and vote. Members shall be responsible for. So we're wanting to encourage everyone who is covenanted here to be present at our members meetings. That's what we're calling what we now have as conferences. We're calling them members meetings because it's where the members gather to meet to discuss the life of the church. They're not business meetings. We're not doing business. We're talking about the body of Christ, what he's doing in us, what we're trying to do to progress his kingdom. And so it's it's members meetings. It's about our membership together. So when we gather for members meetings, we expect everyone who is coming together to be present because important decisions are made. First, one of those decisions that can be made on any members meetings or we'll get into how later, how elders and deacons are nominated and removed and so forth. Members recommend and approve elders and deacons. So these are the offices of the church. These are the leaders of the body once a year. the elders will take recommendations from the body. There will be a public asking, who would you recommend for an elder? That is a requirement every year that the elders will ask for recommendations. The reason for that is, we may not see everything going on. I was at a church, we had elders, and there was a fellow who was very silently discipling a number of people. He was quiet, he was humble, he was shy, but he was involved in a number of those lives and we didn't realize it. Until we asked for recommendations and we started to get all these recommendations and we were amazed by how involved this person was in some people's lives. So we want recommendations because we may not see how certain people are involved throughout the body in different ways. We also think it's very helpful to hear from you who is ministering. So the elders will take recommendations. The church ultimately votes in, approves, is the language here in the Constitution, any elder and any deacon. So there, from maybe that, partially that principle from Acts, the body recognizes seven men. Every leader will be nominated by elders, but ultimately we're voting on our own elders and our own deacons. Any questions about that? So the recommendation, and then there's the, they're not elders until the body actually appoints and recognizes them as elders. Yes. It is. I was actually going to say, you know, somebody asked me when I was ordained, you know, when I was coming and. I'm not ordained by the Southern Baptist Convention, I'm ordained by you. The only ordination I really care about is the fact that this body has set me aside to teach and preach, that's another church has ordained me, but I'm not their pastor elder. This body has ordained me. And so every time you ordain an elder, Every time you're voting in an elder you're ordaining that man. We are setting him aside to be a leader in the church over us. All right. Approval of membership in this and discipline matters. Another reason we want all members to be involved in the members meetings. New members they're giving their testimonies. That was just the most fantastic. conference we ever had when 13 new folks gave their testimonies. We got to hear about how God had been working in so many different ways and so many different people. So that's a very encouraging time for us as a body. And then it's making that commitment, those covenant commitments. When they join, we are visually, presently making those commitments with them. And of course, for the difficult matters of discipline, we want to be there to help care for those who need admonition and exhortation. Any questions about that privilege and responsibility of membership? Yes, Chris. If somebody regularly did not come to a members meeting, we would want to know why. If their work shift did not allow them to come, that would not lead us to excommunicate them. We understand that Wednesday night is a much more difficult night to come to, which is most likely when the members meetings will be. Sunday morning. That's that's really what's in view of the regularly assembling together. The church is expected to gather on Sunday morning to praise God who's risen. So we would hope you're here. We expect you to be here. But if there is some kind of situation that keeps you from being here, we understand. Well, the members meeting is replacing what we call the church. take the names and just change them out. At a conference I expect a big speaker and fancy music, hippie messianic music especially. This is all just introductory material where everything else is fleshed out much more. Perhaps this is addressed elsewhere, but I was wondering, shouldn't we have as one of the responsibilities of members to attend worship? That's in the covenant. The covenant is actually the lifeblood commitments we're making to one another. These are the governmental commitments. I should have said that earlier. Thank you for that question to help me clarify that. The covenant that we read two weeks ago, that's where the spiritual body commitments that that is looking all the commandments. This is more of the governmental or it is still spiritual, but it's more how we are functioning together. Does that distinction help, Matthew? I'm going to read one of five or six together, approve of the statement of faith and covenant approval of the Constitution and any amendments. Those are kind of our guiding, binding documents. The Covenant, which is part of the Constitution, which can be changed without the change of the Constitution, and our Statement of Faith. So if ever we were to change those, you would want to be at a members' meeting. We would let you know far in advance if we ever wanted to change those, like we are here with the Constitution. There is no plan on changing them, but you would want to be here for that. Approval of the annual budget and other significant financial decisions. Again, that is nothing changing. That's not changing how we function now. The church is committing to the priorities of the church with the budget. And so by voting in the budget that is prepared, we'll see later by the deacons, The church is committing to support that budget and committing themselves to the ends and purposes of that budget. So, nothing that different. Any questions about that? Approval of our missionaries? Technically, right now, I don't think the church has to vote in missionaries. We've been doing it for the purpose of helping us be more committed to them personally and as a body. But here, if we were to set aside a missionary, a missionary comes as for support, the church body itself would vote to be committed to that missionary. And so there, the body will be voting on who we're either sending. Lord willing, we'll actually be sending people from the body. Very much like we'll be setting someone apart to be an elder, a deacon, we'll be setting somebody apart to be a missionary. We pray that happens. And while we wait for that to happen, we will be Lord willing, supporting other churches missionaries by voting to support them. Any other questions about that? That's actually giving the church a voting privilege that they don't actually currently have. Approval of such other matters as may be submitted to a vote. That's kind of like other duties as assigned. Other things that may come up, uh, things are outside the budget. You know, if you needed a roof, uh, the, the church, you know, those kinds of things, extra expense, those things will be put to a vote. Any questions in those privileges and responsibilities? What you call them is everything. It's very important. Privileges and responsibilities. line one ten through one twelve only members shall be entitled to serve in the ministry of the church non-members may serve on an ad hoc basis with the approval of the elders now withstanding non-members may serve the church for the purposes of administration and professional consultation uh... be able to serve in a church of the privilege of being a church member uh... that's What we believe to be helpful to be able to serve in the body is part of being part of that body. So there we're just trying to mark off who has the privileges of serving and so forth. Obviously non-members are not going to be voting as we would with the approvals there. That's a bigger picture of who serves in the church. Any questions? Yes, Jim. While I am just impressed by your husband's ability to lead us through that, I think we're going to cut him loose. that will not be, that many votes will not be taking place. All, every little role, I mean a lot of us just continue to say, Anne Evick, would you please continue to teach? So, no, those decisions we're trusting the elders with for the most part. Elders are overseeing the teaching. We're going to get into elders more in terms of the more specific duties. So, yeah, most of what we're going to vote on next week for the whole new nominating routine, A lot of that will not be voted on. Yes, Doran? Is there a scriptural basis for not allowing non-members to serve? Is there a scriptural basis? A lot of it has to do with we believe every Christian should be a member of a church. And if someone is here, where are they a member? That would be one issue in terms of just our practical, logical working out of that. Another part is just serving Christ in a body is a privilege of membership. I want, it says that we can allow it, but I want to give opportunities to the members of the church to serve first. I think we have everything we need here to fulfill the service for the most part. I hope that's always the case. So the non-member serving would be a very special instance. I can already think of some instances where we would consider it. But serving the body is a privilege of membership. Does that make sense? Okay. Another reason I want to be very tight on who serves in the nursery. I want to know who they are. I prefer they always be members. I'm thinking that's the policy. I know there was a We were hiring some folks to help us on Wednesday nights that we interviewed, but a lot of the ministry of the church should be done by members because we know them. We just don't ask somebody we don't know to come in and do something typically. We hope that isn't the case, but most of the ministry of the church, they're ministering the body. So it makes sense for the arm of that body to scratch the leg of that body. It's a really bad metaphor, but it's a biblical, trying to use that biblical imagery. Well, there's a universal church and there's a local church, and I believe that we can go back and look at those texts that talk about being a body and being a local church under the headship. It's referring to a local body. There's more references to a local body than a universal body or a local church than a universal church. So I'm not denying the universal church, but we're committed together for the purposes. We want to make sure whoever's serving here is united in purpose, conviction, doctrine. There's just no way to know what someone actually believes unless we've actually asked them. We know them. They've partnered with us or committed with us, vision, direction and so forth. Again, there are times when we may allow it. But for the most part, I want our members to have the opportunity to serve. It would be an odd thing to, hopefully it would always be an odd thing to need outside help. So I'm not denying that there are many gifts out there. It could possibly be a blessing here, just to keep everything moving here is going to require a bit of oversight. Steve, you have something to say or comment on that? Yeah, just that the part of the biblical basis behind that, too, and I think, Keith, you've got us heading in that direction, is the whole idea that if members are involved and something comes up where someone's teaching something that's not sound, you can then discipline them if they're a member. If they're not a member, you you can't really truly discipline them and so I think that's part of the purpose behind that I think the whole idea you address that well last week the idea of most of the references to body and in the Bible are to the local body and membership is a part of that and I think so then we would want to. Primarily, if not exclusively, when we have opportunities to serve, whether it's teaching or something else for the purpose of discipline, we want to be able to call upon members. And that gets back to what you're talking about in terms of there's privileges and there's also responsibilities. And that's part of that mutual accountability that we can do that. We have that function of churches. I mean, I can actually point to I'm not going to get into names and dates and so forth, but I've had to spend entire weeks dealing with non-members who have asserted themselves and you're left powerless to actually do any kind of real correction or admonition. It is a really important principle to make sure that whoever is really serving in real capacities is under the leadership and guidance and under the church's authority. The ultimate authority is right here. Yeah, we can talk later if that's not satisfactory. All right. Other, yes, Coelle. Can you just clarify purposes of administration? Like what, is that printing the bulletin or what is that? Yeah, so the very kind of month, yeah, so for a while Asher was actually going to Kinko's to get the bulletin printed out. We wanted to allow Asher to get the... Hello, Asher, if you're listening. Yeah, things of that nature. There are certain things that are important tasks. We're congregational. Here's one of the reasons I'm committed to a congregational church ministry. I believe in the priesthood of every believer. We're really making a big impact. As you mentioned earlier, everybody who prayed made an impact on you. I hope. Everyone who prayed here should have been making an impact on you. I only chose people who are members to pray. Because I know what I'm getting. I don't always know exactly what I'm getting, but I know you. I know you. So praying with another, that's a very spiritual exercise. So I don't want to outsource my praying. I want to hear you all praying because I know you and I love hearing your heart. That's just one example of how we are built here to be a body unified together. And we could go through a number of examples, I guess. What is a good opportunity for the church to look outside? Sunday school teachers. I don't want to look outside. I want to know who... I want to know what that person's life looks like and their doctrine. And then I want them to teach it. We could talk about the different examples maybe of how you It does give us freedom to choose outside, but it would be a very limited case. You know, we have Fry Springs Chicken Come. They minister to us with their chicken and we're very thankful. But, you know, that's not a real spiritual, well, we could talk about the spiritual nature of chicken. Anyway, we could talk more, but I really want our members, first of all, to have the opportunity to serve. And if there's ever a situation where our members can't do all the service, then I would be concerned as to how important that service would be. What does it look like? Every time we're even raking leaves together on the fall leaf raking day, that's ministering together. That's serving with one another. Alright. I think I finished that section. Almost time to leave, based upon your perception of when this is over. Any other final questions? Again, all the elder stuff, all the deacon, a lot more time for questions and explanation later. Alright. Please feel free to ask any question. Uh, privately send an email. If you have a question, you know, you're just having a hard time formulating it or maybe you're shy. Please don't hesitate. I would love to hear your question and then I'll, I'll answer it either privately and maybe even publicly without telling everyone who asked the question. Let's go to the Lord and pray. Father, you are good. We praise you. We thank You that You've made Your name known to us. We thank You that we get to call You Father, that we know You by that name of care, of nurture, of oversight, of power. We thank You that we know the name Jesus, who has purchased us with His blood, who has risen to give us hope, who is our sure foundation, who is our assurance of salvation. Thank You for the Spirit. May your spirit be knitting together the body here and all you call to this body. May you continue, Lord, to knit us together, to be united under the power and authority of Christ. May when people come in and see and experience Jefferson Park, may they be overwhelmed by our unity under your headship. May that be the first and foremost relationship we are always concerned about. Father, we ask that You would raise up and give us deacons and elders. Help us, Lord, to be well ordered. Give us the right men who will lead and serve. Give us the right men who will care for us and guide us and direct us. I thank You, Lord, for the many gifts You've given to this church. And evangelists and servants and teachers. Help us, Lord, to be unified in those gifts for the one purpose of glorifying You. Father, I thank you for this body and the power you've given it. May we always speak with one voice because your Spirit unites us under your one headship. In your holy name we pray. Amen.