This is a continuation of the thoughts I had yesterday. The first part is that there is indeed a structure of offices within the church. The text then moves in two directions — one is the more excellent way of love, and the second is a cut to the gospel where Jesus has compassion for the people for they are without shepherds.

1 Corinthians 12:27-13:3

12:27Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. 28And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers; then deeds of power, then gifts of healing, forms of assistance, forms of leadership, various kinds of tongues. 29Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? 31But strive for the greater gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.

3:1If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Gospel Matthew 9:35-38

9:35Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness. 36When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

via Daily Lectionary Readings — Devotions and Readings — Mission and Ministry — GAMC.

The question is how we hold in balance the need for structure and the need for love. Now… love may be gentle and kind, but it asks for the best and wishes the best.

And the best for the church is the structure of scriptures. I am agnostic on bishoprics, I think elders leading congregations (or elders of churches in a city forming a consistory) fits into the biblical model.

However, it is God who appoints. And God does not care about levelling. God cares for balance and love. The Diggers — who squatted on land and dug it up to live — have spiritual descendants in the Zimbabwe Veterans who invaded the (white) Farmers land, beating and killing, and then reducing its production. One of the books I lost some years ago is a 20 volume encyclopaedia of agriculture that my grandfather had when he was doing is farming training. In those days, most work was done by hand. By 20 or 30 farm labourers. After the period of the commonwealth (The diggers had a communist manifesto. They submitted it to the Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell) the crown did not reform much, but during the next 100 years the franchise was extended, and there was a re emphasis that the gentry had a duty to protect their workers. This was not perfect.

But legislating levelling, and communism, and no structure does not work for us. We are not built that way. (There is a whole bunch of people inventing hypotheses that argue for some evolutionary reason for this. I’d simply say that God likes structure and order, and we are like him).

The main thing, is being part of the body. The structure is around protecting. Protection means you need protectors — spiritual warriors — who will be like the prophets of old, and say unpopular things. Who will change things at times by force, throwing the money-changers and the careerists out of the temple. Who will deal gently with the fallen, broken and penitent, but harshly with the proud and power hungry.

Those, folks, are masculine characteristics. We will not be able to sit in a circle and get consensus. People are harassed and harried. We need a spine. We need structure. And we don’t need this kind of trash.

There are a few Assembly committees where women outnumber men on the committee. Six of the forty-one standing committees of the General Assembly have more women than men within their membership. It is possible, with a balance such as this, that power sharing might occur within these committees.

We should not be counting men and women, and we should not be applying either a socialist or a feminist paradigm of power on the structure we have. The structure should be based on that which is outlined in scripture. And one of the key points of balance (apart from God appointing people, not man) is that there is no power without service and submission. The greater the power, the greater the service and submission.