Ex-Church of Christ Support Board

Pitts S2C wrote:So if they qualify as an Elder then we can call them 'Pastor' correct? Of course not, even when biblical it's against the teachings of the coC and they are the final authority (on everything).

The COC minister who performed my marriage listed "pastor" on the marriage certificate as his title. He's also qualified and "ordained" (does COC say that?) as an elder.

Lev

Pitts S2C wrote:So if they qualify as an Elder then we can call them 'Pastor' correct? Of course not, even when biblical it's against the teachings of the coC and they are the final authority (on everything).

Nah, that's when the Matthew passage gets invoked -- we don't call the elders Pastor, either -- or we didn't in any church I've been part of, anyway.

What contortions CofCs will bend themselves into to avoid the appearance of evil, i.e., using terms that they insist are inappropriately commandeered by the denominational world. No conservative CofC I've ever known will approach the word "pastor", even for elders...it always seemed to be "elders" or perhaps "shepherds" - never pastors.

A church a lot of my family attends was without a minister for a while when they were in between. They are a large congregation, so they had a rotation of some very able men to preach each week. The people enjoyed it and it gave them a fresh perspective each week. Then they hired a full time guy. I couldn't help but think, why not save that money and just keep doing what they were doing? I told a COC acquaintance what I thought about it and he said I needed to be careful about caring what the people like because that's what got some Old Testament figure (can't remember which) in trouble. Out of context much??!!

F. LaGard Smith wrote a pretty scathing critique of this in his book "Radical Restoration." He's a patternist, himself, and he absolutely flayed open how the Church of Christ 100% does not follow any sort of pattern, but rather participates in a cafeteria-style Christianity. The book is a fascinating read. I do not agree one little bit with his conclusions, but I did enjoy seeing him hoist the COC by its own petard and absolutely eviscerate many of their practices. Reading this book was the touchstone that directly led to my own exodus from the denomination (and ultimately, from Christianity altogether.)

GuitarHero wrote:F. LaGard Smith wrote a pretty scathing critique of this in his book "Radical Restoration." He's a patternist, himself, and he absolutely flayed open how the Church of Christ 100% does not follow any sort of pattern, but rather participates in a cafeteria-style Christianity. The book is a fascinating read. I do not agree one little bit with his conclusions, but I did enjoy seeing him hoist the COC by its own petard and absolutely eviscerate many of their practices. Reading this book was the touchstone that directly led to my own exodus from the denomination (and ultimately, from Christianity altogether.)

I don't recall much about that book other than that he essentially wanted the church to give up expensive church buildings and return to a model of meeting in homes and centering their worship and the Lawd's Supper around meals. I also seem to remember a brotherhood flap in that he discussed the appointment of city-wide and local elderships (kind of like, you know, things the NT mentions) instead of the "band of independent and loosely affiliated Greek city-state" model that the CofC has followed for years.