Local Church Meetings
Scripture has relatively little to say about the exact manner in which a congregation should conduct a meeting. We can glean various bits of information from the book of Acts and from the epistles of the apostles regarding first century church meetings, but in almost every case the information is found within historical contexts, and the facts of history do not provide a sound basis to determine general church practice. The historical record of what any particular church has done does not mean that another church must embrace the same form of assembly. The principles of sound biblical interpretation preclude the establishment of any particular doctrine or church practice based on the historical passages of scripture.
When we read, for example, that Jesus went into a synagogue on the Sabbath day or that a church met on the first day of the week, neither of these historical facts forms a valid basis to establish either Saturday or Sunday as a mandatory day in which a church should meet. Authoritative doctrine and practice must come from biblical instruction, either from Jesus or from the apostles, but not from history. The histories of the Gospels and Acts only tell us what has happened, not what must happen in every case. Thus, we are left with relatively few direct instructions about how or when a church should meet. We may glean from this absence of direct biblical instruction that churches are largely free to organize their meetings in whatever way a congregation might find preferable or convenient.
Among the questions a newly formed congregation must address is the time and place of their meetings. These issues are not addressed in scripture, so a congregation is free to choose the time and place for its meetings, but the church must decide based on the direction of the Lord. Since the church lives under the theocracy of God and not a monarchy or democracy, the congregation must depend on the Spirit to lead the congregation to agreement on these matters. When all the members agree that the church should meet at a certain time and in a certain place, the church has discerned the will of God for the church. Having once determined the will of God for the church on any given matter of place, time or procedure, that aspect of assembly cannot be changed except by the subsequent agreement of all the members. No member holds unilateral authority to change anything which the church has previously sanctioned by agreement.
Although the specific details about first century church meetings are virtually absent from scripture, a few general principles about church assembly appear in Paul’s instructions to the Corinthian church in 1 Cor 14. Sadly, most church organizations ignore Paul’s instructions here, particularly when his instructions do not suit their particular theological paradigm. These inspired instructions must be embraced by every faithful church. When a church rejects any of these apostolic instructions, such rejection of the word of God is evidence of apostacy and false doctrine.
Over half of chapter 14 discusses prophesying in respect to speaking in different languages. Paul’s main point in this passage is to prefer edification of the church over self-edification. He said the ability to speak another language was good, but that speaking a language common to all the members was superior. Edification cannot occur unless the members understand what is being said. If a member would speak in a language which cannot be understood, those utterances are essentially useless to the members of the church. Thus, Paul instructed those who speak languages not commonly understood by the local congregation to be silent in the church unless someone could translate the message for the edification of the whole congregation.
Edification is the goal of fellowship, and fellowship is the main purpose for meetings of the church. The church does not meet for worship. Christians worship God every moment of every day, and we do not need to meet together in order to worship God. Certainly worship is inherent in church meetings, but fellowship through edification, exhortation and encouragement is the primary reason a congregation meets together. Fellowship is impossible without meetings, but the faithful of God worship Him continually whether or not we are assembled together.
One of the most ignored teachings of Paul is the privilege granted to every member of the Church to prophesy. Paul first suggests the possibility that an unbeliever might be convinced to believe in God through the prophesying of all the members, and then he explicitly grants every member of the congregation the right to prophesy. Notice how many times "all" appears here, referring to the entire congregation.
"But if all prophesy, and there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all:...For ye may all prophesy one by one, that all may learn, and all may be comforted."
(1 Cor 14:24, 31)
Within the context of maintaining decency and order in meetings, Paul asserts that all the members may prophesy, but that they can only speak one at a time. This may seem like common sense, but Paul wanted to make sure that each member was honored and respected while each member presented what the Spirit inspired him or her to say. Members should not talk during the presentation to comment, ask questions, heckle, disagree or to otherwise interrupt the member who is speaking. Decency and order must be maintained at all times in local church meetings.
In addition to maintaining proper decorum, Paul plainly states that all members may prophesy. If all members may prophesy, speaking opportunities in a faithful church cannot be restricted to church leaders or to those a leader might choose to speak. Nobody can be denied the right to speak in the meeting of a faithful church. Members are only required to exercise godly patience as each one awaits his or her turn to speak. In local meetings of the Church of Heaven, every member has a biblical right to speak in an assembly of the church.
The concept of prophecy has a much narrower definition in mainstream Christian culture today than it did in the culture of the first century churches. In order for Christians today to understand what Paul meant when he discussed prophecy, we must consider the biblical definition of prophecy found in 1 Cor 14:3.
"But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort."
Paul’s definition of prophecy is much broader than it is today, and he did not limit prophecy to the prediction of future events. The biblical concept of prophecy includes any inspired message spoken for the edification, exhortation or comfort of the congregation and generally brings most sermons into its purview. Thus, from a biblical point of view, there is no difference between prophecy and any other type of inspired speaking.
In order to emphasize that prophetic speaking is not limited to men, Paul gave the following instruction for female prophets in 1 Cor 11:5.
"But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head."
Although the question about whether a woman should wear a hat in church meetings can spark heated debate, there should be no question about whether or not women can prophesy in church. Paul states expressly that women may pray and prophesy. Since Paul plainly allows women to prophesy, and the Bible defines prophesying as speaking to men and gives the definition in the context of church assembly, we may only conclude that women may prophesy in church, women may speak in church, and women may speak to men in church. Any prohibition against women speaking in assembly has no biblical basis.
Although a woman’s right to speak in church seems irrefutable from the perspective of prophecy, a woman's right to speak is brought into some question based on another verse.
"Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law." (1 Cor 14:3)
How can the scriptures allowing women to prophesy in church be reconciled to this verse, which apparently forbids women to speak in church? If this verse cannot be reconciled to those plainly allowing women to prophesy, we have found a clear contradiction in the word of God and the scripture is broken. Since we know scripture cannot be broken, (John 10:35) we must find a way to reconcile 1 Cor 14:34 with the rest of scripture. The solution to this contradiction involves addressing two issues: 1) a mistranslation; and 2) the context of Paul's direction. When these issues are resolved, you should be able to see that this verse does not forbid women to prophesy—to speak under the inspiration of the Spirit—in an assembly of the church.
Let us first consider how the word "speak" has been subtly mistranslated in this verse. The Greek word underlying "speak" in this verse is laleo. Consider the definition of laleo from Strong's Greek Dictionary.
NT:2980
laleo (lal-eh'-o); a prolonged form of an otherwise obsolete verb; to talk, i.e. utter words:
Strong's dictionary tells us that the Greek word laleo does not mean to speak in the sense of giving an orderly discourse. Greek has several words which carry various nuances of meaning, including speak, talk, utter or say, and these words are often lumped together and simply translated "speak." Unfortunately, such a sloppy approach to translation has produced a very misleading expression here. The Greek word laleo means "to talk" or "to utter words" in the sense of arbitrary or undefined vocal expression. Laleo does not mean to give an orderly presentation of information on a subject. Paul would not have used laleo in this context, if he wanted to prohibit a point by point discourse, a sermon or prophetic speaking. The Greek word indicates that Paul did not allow the women to arbitrarily talk in church without waiting their turn to be properly recognized.
Let us now consider the context of this verse. The literary context involves avoiding confusion and maintaining order. (v. 33) All of us understand how difficult it is to concentrate on the message of a sermon when cell phones ring, when children cry or even when people whisper to one another. Imagine how much confusion members would create, if they arbitrarily interrupted the speaker to ask questions or to offer comments. Paul was dealing with such a situation in the Corinthian church. Apparently, some of the women were eager to learn, and they were interrupting the speaker to ask questions. Paul gave the prohibition to "talk randomly" (literal Greek) in the context of maintaining proper decorum and having respect for both the speaker and the other members of the congregation. Paul admonished the women to ask their husbands at home, if they wanted to learn anything, so it is clear that these women were motivated to speak in order to learn about what was being discussed. They were not trying to prophesy, teach or present their own instructional material. Paul did not expressly deny women the opportunity to address the congregation at the proper time, but he was dealing with some of the same issues which pastors today must occasionally address when congregational activity disrupts the meeting and causes confusion.
We can also consider the cultural context of the first century, where men completely dominated society and women were largely relegated to the status of slaves in respect to their husbands. Even in Jewish religious culture, women were separated from men and had their own court at the temple. Women rarely attended the synagogue, because men were responsible to teach their families at home. The Christian practice to require men and women to assemble together was unprecedented at the time, and few women had previous experience regarding the manner in which men met together and exchanged ideas. Therefore, we should not be surprised that Paul needed to give women instructions about how they should conduct themselves in local church meetings.
More Bible students reach false conclusions by ignoring the context of a passage than for any other reason. Those who prefer to silence women in assembly and subject them to men in their congregations lack any incentive to examine the context more closely in order to understand what Paul really intended to convey in his statement. Consequently, a woman’s right to speak in assembly is denied in most mainstream churches, and women suffer widespread discrimination in nearly every aspect of church life throughout the Christian community. However, in local congregations of the Church of Heaven, no such discrimination exists.
We can now consider three important instructions about church meetings in the Bible. All three of these instructions are misunderstood in the mainstream Christian community. Most church leaders misapply the first instruction, ignore the second instruction and are stumped by the third. The first two issues are addressed in the gospel of Matthew, and the third is found in Hebrews.
The first instruction for church meetings is found in the Sermon on the Mount. This admonition for churches has been turned on its head and applied to individual church members. Jesus' words do not address us as individuals, but they address us collectively as a church.
"Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal." (Matt 6:19)
The second person plural pronoun "yourselves" indicates that Jesus was speaking to the assembled disciples as a body, not as individuals. If this instruction was for us as individuals, none of us could have savings accounts, run software on a computer or buy a house or a car. None of us could own anything. However, Jesus wanted us as a local church to depend entirely on Him for all our spiritual provisions, so He instructed the disciples and, by extension, every church congregation not to store up anything physical on earth. The Church in heaven has no physical needs, so each local church on earth must reflect the spiritual reality in heaven by not storing up any treasure on earth.
Consequently, a faithful congregation will not take up any offering for the purpose of storing up that treasure on earth. The historical record of the book of Acts shows that every offering collected by the first century churches had a specific purpose and that each collection was immediately dispensed to those who needed that assistance. The first century churches did not store up any treasure on earth, so faithful congregations of the Church of Heaven honor Jesus' words and do not lay up any treasure on earth. Every offering taken up by the church must have a stated purpose and be immediately dispensed to those in need—to those for whom the offering was specifically collected. When members of local congregations assemble together for fellowship, regular church offerings are forbidden by scripture.
The second instruction for church meetings is found among Jesus' instructions to the apostles. Jesus had taken the twelve disciples, later apostles, aside, when the mother of James and John came to Jesus to ask a favor of Him for her sons. Jesus politely admonished them and then gave them the following instruction:
"Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them, but it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your [servant]; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your [slave]." (Matt 20:25-27)
Jesus' instruction specifically addressed who the apostles should be and who they should not be. Church leaders are not to be like the rulers of the Gentiles or like the great ones in the world. The rulers of the world rule over their subjects, and authorities exercise dominion over their subjects. Gentile rulers and authorities are able to do what they do, because they have been granted the privilege to be who they are. They are rulers, and they are authorities. Jesus expressly denied the apostles the privilege to be rulers or authorities.
Therefore, when a local church meets, no member may exercise dominion or authority over any member or over the church generally. The members stand as equals before God, because God is not a respecter of persons. (Acts 10:34) God does not favor one member above another. Every member sits at a proverbial round table, where there is no head of the table. Jesus Christ sits above the table in every meeting of every faithful church in order to direct the actions of the members by the Spirit. There are no ordained authorities or church offices in the Church of Heaven, consequently, no hierarchical authority exists in a meeting of the local church.
The third instruction regarding church meetings is found in Hebrews. The book of Hebrews discusses a number of issues which can lead to apostacy, and one of them is the failure of the Hebrew brethren to continue to meet together. The scattered Hebrew brethren were experiencing trials of perseverance and endurance, and, in the process of encouraging them to remain faithful, the author of Hebrews put his finger on the single most important principle regarding church assembly in the Bible. His stern admonition warned of serious spiritual consequences, if this principle is violated.
"And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins." (Heb 10:25-26)
Church attendance is imperative for the faithful of God. This admonition advised the Hebrew brethren that their salvation would be in jeopardy, if they continued to refuse to assemble together on a regular basis. God requires regular assembly for every faithful believer, and those who are forsaking the assembling of themselves together may find that their sins can no longer be forgiven. This stern scriptural admonition is ignored by 90% of professing Christians, the vast majority of whom only show up to a church meeting on Easter and Christmas. Those who attend so irregularly without a valid reason cannot be accepted into the Church of Heaven. All the faithful of God meet regularly for fellowship, so the body of Christ can be bonded together as closely as possible on earth, even as it is indeed bonded together as one united body in heaven.
Local church meetings are governed the same way the Church is governed in heaven. In heaven, the Father is the Ruler of the Church. He has created the laws which govern the Church, so no man has the right to make rules for a church. Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church, so no man holds any authority to direct a church. The Lord lives in each member to give each of us personal direction from within. The Spirit is the Power of God to strengthen, protect and care for the Church, so no man has any power to manipulate or control a church. Church leaders may teach, edify, exhort or comfort the church, but they stand as equals with every other member of the church. Money plays no role in church meetings, because a congregation must trust entirely in God to provide for the needs of the church. God wants members to love one another and care for one another, so He facilitates interaction by requiring regular church attendance. Local church meetings are sanctuaries of freedom and equality, where churches function on earth to reflect the same freedom and equality granted to the members of the united Church of Heaven.