When my children were young, they enjoyed books with pages full of nothing but black dots and numbers. As they connected the dots, an image would begin to appear. They were outlined pictures of simple things in life, yet, these pictures were usually not recognizable until the dots had been properly connected.
The same is often true regarding biblical principles concerning the New Testament church. It sometimes takes years for some of us to “connect the dots” of biblical truths in such a way that a clear and accurate picture is recognized.
Such was the case for me after more than twenty years in traditional “pastoral ministry.” I could read, understand, and even believe the individual biblical “dots and numbers.” Yet drawing all the lines and making the connections took me awhile.
I would like to briefly share with you how I came to understand and practice the truths of the New Testament Church.
Shortly after coming to know Christ during my senior year of high school (Dec. 1970), I had the desire to go to school to study the Bible and “learn how to preach.” I knew nothing about spiritual gifts, church government, etc. I just knew I was hungry to learn the Word of God.
In the fall of 1971, nine months after being saved, I began attending a well-known Bible institute in Grand Rapids, MI. There I began to grow spiritually. It was also there that I met and married my dear wife, Nona.
I was told that after three years of intense Bible training, I could graduate and be “ordained to the pastoral ministry.” I would then be called “the Reverend Mike Fitzhugh.” Though the title had a nice ring to it, I did not feel I would be ready to assume the leadership of a local church after having been saved for only four years. At the time, I did not realize that such a position was not scriptural. My hesitancy had more to do with my lack of Bible knowledge and lack of spiritual maturity.
Not thinking that I was ready for leading a local church at age 21, I transferred schools and continued to major in Bible and pastoral studies. In three years I completed my degree and was ready, willing, and desirous to be a “pastor.”
In 1977, we moved to Wisconsin where for a time I was an “associate pastor,” primarily working in Christian education and with youth in a local church.
In the spring of 1979, at age 26, I finally realized my dream: to become the senior pastor of a local church. Now I would be able to study the Word, and teach and preach to my heart’s content (or until I was totally exhausted, whichever came first). I was in a little fellowship in north-central Wisconsin, preaching to a group of believers who truly loved the Lord–and loved us as well. Many of them were age sixty or older. How patient they were with such a young greenhorn!
I remember arriving at that little Baptist church one day when one of the young people called me by my first name. Immediately, one of the older sisters mildly reprimanded the teen and made it clear that I was to be called “Pastor Mike” or the “Reverend Fitzhugh.”
By that time, I didn’t really care for the term “Reverend,” so I accepted the title of “Pastor” from then on. This little incident would initiate an almost twenty-year study of what the Bible teaches about truths relating to the church.
Having been given a little book by William MacDonald called Christ Loved the Church by a college friend in 1976, I began to study more about New Testament Church principles. In that little Baptist church we spent about nine months going over many (but not all) of the principles having to do with leadership and church government, the priesthood of the believer, spiritual gifts, etc.
As a result of our study, the men of the church saw that many of their traditions were not in line with the Scriptures. So they revised their church constitution and by-laws to reflect more accurately what the Bible taught, especially in relation to local church leadership. This was very encouraging to me.
…From 1982 through January 1997, I continued to study and teach certain New Testament principles. At the same time I was involved in pastoring churches in Minnesota, California, and Michigan, as well as being involved in a well-known, world-wide Christian radio ministry. During those years, I came to some rather “radical” conclusions. At least they were radical when compared with the traditional, evangelical thinking today. Radical, but biblical!
A belief in a plurality of elders. That is, a plurality of godly, spiritually qualified men who lead and feed the flock of God, as opposed to a “professional single man ministry.”
The truth that each local church is autonomous. Not merely self-governing (many do that with no regard for Christ as Head) but that each assembly is subject to the only Head of the Church, the Lord Jesus Himself. I came to understand that the church is not a democracy, with congregational business meetings held according to “Roberts Rules of Order.” Instead it is a theocracy, where Christ is Lord.
The non-existence in Scripture of a single-man ministry. God does not expect one man (or one man and his associate pastors and secretarial staff) to be responsible for all the ministry that goes on in a local church. How often I felt the burden (as well as the guilt and fatigue) of being expected to be an expert teacher, counselor, visitor, VBS director, youth speaker, evangelist, helper, encourager, etc., as if God had endowed me with all (or at least most) of the spiritual gifts.
The great need for a functioning priesthood of Spirit-filled believers who exercise their gifts in ministering to one another in the Body of Christ. This not only eliminates one man ministry, it also leads to a healthy, functioning body, which accomplishes Christ’s work in the world.
No professionalism in ministry. God never intended that “ministry” in Christ’s church become a professional career, wherein church boards hire and fire pastors and teachers, in accord with their own desires and standards for performance.
Principles concerning women’s roles in the church. I also came to see that the teaching of God’s Word concerning men’s and women’s roles in the local church are the same today as 2,000 years ago. Men are to lead and speak in the gathered assembly, while women are to “keep silent” (1 Cor. 14:34-35; 1 Tim. 2:11-12). This has nothing to do with superiority vs. inferiority, but with God’s design.
The little country church in northern Michigan of which I was pastor from 1983-88, and from 1992-97, had prospered during the last five years. People were being saved. Many were baptized. And Christians were growing as we studied together.
For almost a month, I had been involved in an in-depth (and at times agonizing) study of this very important passage. The principles of headship were not new. What was new to me–the visible head covering for the woman, and the uncovered head of the man, as symbols to communicate the truth of headship. Was it for today?…The Spirit would not allow me to come to any other conclusion.
In February of 1997, I preached two messages on 1 Corinthians 11:2-16. What happened? The positives, first. The people went home and dug into the Scriptures. One lady had as her goal “to prove Mike wrong.” But instead, she ended up coming to the same conclusion. In fact, she said that her understanding and practice of the headship principle changed her attitude toward her husband and saved their floundering marriage.
In fact, within the next month, at least half of the women began to cover their heads at the meetings.
On the other hand, there were negative repercussions. Within a month, fifty percent of the congregation (of 120 persons) left and said they would not be coming back. That was very difficult; we had known some of these folks for almost fifteen years.
As time went on, over the spring and early summer, additional families left the fellowship. There were many different reasons given. Yet it was clear that we were involved in intense spiritual warfare.
Accusations, slander, and harsh criticism flourished. Relationships and long-term friendships were severed. It would seem that the enemy had won a victory. In fact, it would be easy for me to think that I have “crashed and burned,” as one man predicted would happen when all this began last March. In fact, I am typing this article in an office where the shelves are empty, my books are all packed, and we are getting ready to move to another city.
Yet I’m reminded of the words in 2 Cor. 4: “…troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken…For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look…at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
I don’t claim to have a perfect understanding of God’s Word, or of the New Testament principles which we have come to know and love. Yet I can say that by the grace of God, the “dots” of biblical truth are being connected, a relatively clear picture has emerged, and now we desire to allow the Holy Spirit to take His infinite palette of supernatural hues and “color” His work of art. Then someday, we will be able to turn the pages and gaze on the most beautiful masterpiece there ever was. Then we will certainly say, “To God be the glory, great things He hath done!”