Today we will continue to see the second point concerning service.
As soon as a church is established, immediately it should have meetings, gospel activities, and visitation of the saints. All these are the most basic items of service. Hence, arrangement on the side of business affairs is inevitable. As soon as there is service, there is immediately the need of arrangement for business matters. For example, in order to have meetings, there is the need to prepare seats. With the seats, there is the need of cleaning and arranging them before the meeting. In this way, you can see that many affairs will come one after the other. Now we want to consider the principle of handling these business affairs.
Some churches were established by the workers. Initially, the responsibility fell on the workers, and gradually the elders were set up. Some places began with brothers migrating to a place and settling down there. Gradually, the Lord raised up the church through them. With these, the initial responsibility, of course, fell on the shoulders of these brothers. After that, their service became more and more manifested and well-structured, and some co-workers began to go there to set up the elders according to the actual situation there. No matter by what way the church began, the principle for handling business affairs is the same.
This principle is that in arranging business affairs, you should never bring in the way of democracy where everyone discusses and expresses their opinions, and where eventually the opinion of the majority is taken and the decision made. This is the worldly way, and it is different from the teaching and example in the Bible. On the other hand, you cannot be autocratic; you cannot take the lead by yourself alone, with everything determined and decided by you and carried out by you. This is equally unscriptural. The principle of administration in the Bible has to do with the Holy Spirit in the Church.
If a church is raised up in a certain place and the situation there is normal, the Holy Spirit will certainly be there. Without the Holy Spirit, the establishment of the church there will have problems. If we recognize that the church is there, then we ought to also believe and to solemnly recognize that the Holy Spirit is among them. In worldly politics or social organizations, there are only human beings without the Holy Spirit. Ancient politics was a matter of autocratic, sovereign kingship, whereas contemporary politics tends toward democracy. However, there is no Holy Spirit in either autocracy or democracy. The administration in the Church is of the Holy Spirit. With the Holy Spirit, there is neither autocracy nor democracy.