The Church by C. S. Longacre

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jul 21, 1909

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 36, No. 28.

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The Church

By C. S. Longacre

III. Errors in Church Government

By C. S. Longacre

Fruitful Fig-Tree, showing figs and few leaves

Individual Independence in the Church

While it is true that the Head of the church is Christ, and that no human being or earthly representative is to take the place of this Head, it is just as true that the church is a unit, a body, an organization in which all its members are “fitly framed together.” This of necessity defers individual independence, for in that case each individual is a head, and there would be as many heads as there are individuals. In this case the organization would not be “fitly framed together.”

Individual independence is forbidden in laymen as well as in church officers. To the laymen the Lord says: “Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves.” To those who bear rule over others the Lord says: “Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint [force], but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being ensamples to the flock.” Because government and authority have been perverted into tyranny, it does not follow that these are evil in themselves.

Only as the Holy Spirit is the motor in church machinery is the machine a safe and profitable one. Without this vital factor, the machine will kill its master and organization becomes a coffin which encloses a corpse. If the Spirit of God dwells in the men who make the plans, and again when they execute them, then there will be fulfilled the vision of Ezekiel the prophet, “When the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up; . . . for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.”

Commercialism in the Church

In the modern methods of church administration in many denominations, it is the spirit of commercialism that controls instead of the spirit of holy consecration and truth. Many a minister has the boldness to stand before a poor and needy flock and tell them that the Lord has called him to another field, when the sole inducement is a “fatter salary.” Men are elected as trustees and treasurers who have a reputation for hoarding money. In this way the church often puts a premium upon covetousness. The business men of the church are often the shrewdest policy workers in the business methods of the world, and under the maxim, “Business is business,” they nurture a dark brood of evils which drive away the Holy Spirit from the courts of the house of the Lord. Mr. Moneybags is pitted against Brother Rich-in-Faith, whose purse is neither long nor full. Mr. Worldly, in such a church, has more to say in determining the methods and measures of church life than Mr. Meek. Thus the church organization becomes a ponderous machine, and is “run” as any other machine. The crucial and only question to settle is: “Does it pay?” If the minister does not make it pay, if he is not a good “drawing-card;” if he does not smooth down the rugged text to “itching ears,” he is quietly handed his resignation papers, and another is engaged who will make it pay. In order to make it pay, every foul spirit and method is invited into the sacred sanctuary, and it is transformed into a den of robbers and money exchangers.

No wonder D. L. Moody, the great evangelist, denounced the present church administration in the following scathing words: “Your fairs and your bazaars won’t do, and your voting, your casting ballots for the most popular man, or the most popular woman, just helping along their vanity. It grieves the Spirit; it offends God. They have got so far now that for twenty-five cents young men can come in and kiss the handsomest woman in the room. Think of this! Look at the church lotteries going on in New York. Before God, I would rather preach in any barn, or in the most miserable hovel on earth, than within walls of a church paid for in such a way.”

This grieving away of the Holy Spirit as the guide of the church and these moral corruptions were mentioned alike by Paul, Peter, John, and Jude, as indeed they had been by Christ Himself, as prevailing conditions

of unbridled profligacy in the last days, the “perilous times” of the great “apostasy” and “mystery of iniquity.” O, what a world of trouble and evil consequences the churches could have avoided if they had allowed the Lord to guide them in financing the church. “Return unto Me, and I will return unto you.” “Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed Me!”—“in tithes and offerings.” Mal. 3: 7-10.

God Would Guide the Church

As of old the church needs to be “hewed by the prophets.” Hosea 6: 5. For centuries the church has been “tossed to and fro, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive.” Eph. 4: 14. This precious “gift” was and still is God’s chosen agency to guide His church directly and visibly. O, that the church to-day might remember that the things which befell Israel in rejecting God’s chosen messengers anciently, will befall them if they imitate their stubborn course. “Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.” 1 Cor. 10: 11.

What was it that befell ancient Israel? Let the Lord Himself answer: “And the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by His messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because He had compassion on His people, and on His dwelling-place: but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised His words, and misused His prophets, until the wrath of God arose against His people, till there was no remedy.” 2 Chron. 36: 15, 16. Our attitude to-day toward God’s chosen instruments determines our attitude toward God, and where we would have stood anciently—on the side of rebellion or on the side of submission.