Church Questions
As the Lord begins to build His end-time Church, brought into freedom from the religious chains that have bound her for so long, we will again see the Church meeting in accordance with what we read in scripture; no formal style meetings run by a clergy hierarchy (nicolaitanism) but rather gatherings of believers assembling in the power of the Spirit, each one having a psalm, having a teaching, having a revelation, having a tongue, having an interpretation; all things done for edification, as Paul describes in 1Cor.14:26 when the whole Church assembles, Jesus truly being the Leader. Not that this pattern has not been sought or practised before. It is no new thing. Yet it has to be the way the Church meets when Jesus is truly Head of His gatherings.
John G Lake wrote of this aspiration in March 1927 in a letter to Charles H Parham. These men were at the centre of the move of God that began in the early twentieth century which they called 'Pentecost'. Despite the manifestation of great Holy Ghost power the saints of that time had many unanswered questions as that move of God began to wane and men began to organise that which had clearly been brought about by the Spirit of God. After thirty years of strenuous ministry under a huge pressure John G Lake's health began to be affected causing him to slow down. For three years he describes his ministry as being at a 'snail's pace'. With the enforced quiet and semi-rest he describes getting an expanding vision and a profound conviction that, if this was the real Pentecost, there must come out of it, eventually, the thing that Pentecost produced in the early church, and that was the real body of Christ.Not a church but the Church; not an organisation, but the real organism that they had always recognised; not an ecclesiasticism, nor a dictatorship, nor bureaucracy; but a group of Holy Ghost baptised souls which dwells and through which is manifest, the life of the Lord. Although written over eighty years ago it is this very same thing that we are still working towards. This focus for the true Church in this age is still the same. So, as we recover the correct way of being Church there are many questions that arise. In this section, therefore, we will endeavour to consider some of these questions.
The Question of Church
Perhaps the question being posed in this section is one the reader may not have asked before, or perhaps the reader may already consider that they have a satisfactory answer. Whichever, I hope to convey what I believe is perhaps one of the biggest dilemmas the Church faces - to understand the correct concept of the Church and Church Government. With the answer comes the reality of true sons being led by the Spirit, both individually and corporately.
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The Woman Question
One of the big questions that always arises amongst those zealous to get things right is the role of women in the Church. Thinking they are following scripture there are strongly held views which result in the level brotherhood of all believers turning into a male hierarchy. The following paper endeavours to consider this question