From time to time, candidates running for office will stop to visit Bronx Bethany during a service. I recall an occasion during which a candidate's staff members walked into Bronx Bethany shortly after the start of The Key, which is our Saturday night service.
The staff members walked in and looked around. I noticed them through my peripheral vision, but stayed where I was and continued worshiping the Lord as the band was playing. Eventually, one of them walked up to me with a perplexed look on his face. He said, "Excuse me. Who's in charge here?" I pointed to the stage and said, "Do you see the young man there, playing the piano? He's the pastor over tonight's service."
Looking back now, I realize that my answer was incomplete. Why? Because even though our pastors oversee various aspects of ministry, they in turn are charged and led by the Holy Spirit of God. (It is a good thing to be a member of a church where the pastors are joyfully, obediently under the charge of the Holy Spirit.)
Paul was a man who, from the start of his ministry, followed the leading of the Holy Spirit. "Now I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin. For I did not receive it or learn it from any human source; instead I received it by a revelation of Jesus Christ... When the One who set me apart from birth and called me by His grace was pleased to reveal His Son in me so that I could preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not go to ask advice from any human being... I was personally unknown to the churches... They were only hearing, 'The one who once persecuted us is now proclaiming the good news of the faith he once tried to destroy.' So they glorified God because of me." (see Galatians 1:11-24 for full text)
In the Church of the Nazarene, there is a small book simply referred to as "The Manual." Like most manuals, it contains policies and procedures. It is intended to help the denomination function to the best of its ability. We Nazarenes are not alone in this venture: many denominations have published guidelines for its pastors, congregants, or both, in an attempt to outline practical helps as we live in our communities of faith. But here is the problem: when a manual becomes the go-to source for all things at the expense of the word of God and the grace of the Holy Spirit who drew us into the faith, then we set ourselves up for all sorts of problems. The early church in Galatia experienced this phenomenon first-hand, and their situation got so out-of-hand that Paul had to write a letter of rebuke and correction.
And, if anyone was qualified to write the letter to the Galatians, Paul was. He knew that legalism, even through the lens of religious duty, would never produce life in the Spirit. He knew that God was glorified not through the proclamation of regulations, but by the proclamation of God's gospel. He knew whose opinion mattered the most. "Am I now trying to gain the approval of people, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a slave of Christ!" (Galatians 1:10)
Who's in charge here?
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