In order to serve the Lord among His children in the most proper way, we must know the relationship between the work, or the ministry, and the church. If we consider the record and the teachings in the Acts and all the Epistles in the New Testament, it is clear that the ministry is something closely related to the church yet still different from the church. The church was formed on the day of Pentecost. Before that day, there was no church in Jerusalem, but something else was there, something closely related to the church but different from it. That was the work, or the ministry, among the apostles under the leadership of Peter. Then after the church in Jerusalem was established, the ministry in the hands of the apostles with Peter was still there as something related to the church and entirely for the church but different from the church.
If we read Acts 13, we can see that in Antioch there was also a church, and there again was something related to the church and for the church yet different from the church. This was the work, the ministry, among a group of the Lord’s servants, which included the apostles Paul and Barnabas. In the following chapters of Acts, the relationship between the ministry and the church is very clear. Before the churches were established in many localities, the apostle Paul went to those places to work, and it was his ministry that brought the churches into being. Then after those local churches were produced and established, the work still remained there. Therefore, from Acts 2 to the end of the book, we can clearly see that there are two things in parallel; one is the church, and the other is the ministry, the work.
It is clear that the work in the hands of the apostles under the leadership, the headship, of Paul was one hundred percent for the church, yet it was not something of the church. It was not in the hand of the church, in the government of the church, or under the direction or control of the church. The church in Antioch did not send Paul and Barnabas to the work. In the church there was no mission board to send missionaries to the foreign field. Paul and Barnabas were not under the direction of the church in Antioch; rather, they were separate from the church in Antioch. However, they were related to it, and what they went to do was completely for the local churches established around Antioch.
The apostles did not do any work for themselves; what they did was completely for the local churches. They were a group of workers of God very much related to the churches, and they worked to produce, establish, edify, and build up the churches. However, they were not of the local churches, neither of Antioch nor of any of the other churches established by them later, and they were not sent by the churches or controlled by the churches. They were separate from the churches, and their work was separate from the churches. When they went to the church meetings, they acted as members of the church. They were simply brothers in the church meetings, the same as the other brothers. As co-workers of the Lord, however, they were not apostles of the church in Antioch, of the church in Ephesus, or of any other local church.
The ministry, the work, has much to do with the churches and is one hundred percent for the churches, yet it is not of the church. It is not under the control or direction of the church but is directly under the control of the Head, the Lord Jesus. The principle is the same with the churches. All the churches have much to do with the ministry and the apostles, but they are not under the hand or control of the apostles; they are directly under the headship of the Lord Jesus. The ministry does not control the local churches, and the churches do not control the ministry. Both the church and the ministry are directly under the control of the Head.
It is the Lord’s intention to keep human hands off the work and off the church. The Lord does not want to have His ministry under the hand of a local church. It is not right for a church to hire someone to serve the Lord and send people to work for Him. This puts the Lord’s servants under the hand of men and almost makes them the servants of men. Many missionaries, for example, must submit a written resignation when they leave their field.
When I was young, a certain person in my family was a graduate from the best seminary in China, and she became a preacher. She would often speak about her job, saying, “Next year I will resign from this church and take a job in another church.” We would ask her about the terms of her employment, including her salary and traveling expenses, and then we would encourage her to take the better job. However, the Lord’s intention is to keep His work and His workers directly in His hands and not under human control.
In the same way, the Lord intends to keep the local churches directly in His hands. According to the first three chapters of Revelation, the Lord is the One who walks among the golden lampstands. He is the only One who supervises all the churches. All the churches are under His hand and headship. The Lord does not agree to have human hands come in. This is a very basic principle.
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