A Gospel According to Judge Judy?

Sometimes churches that are new or small don’t have men that are qualified (or feel that they are) to serve as elders. What do you do when you have a church, but no elders? What generally happens is that church decisions are made by a majority of the “Men’s Business Meeting.” Where do you read about that in the Bible? You don’t. It would be Biblical for the whole church to discuss issues, pray about them as a group, and then cast lots (see Acts 1:15-26). But Men's Business Meetings aren't in the Bible.

And sometimes the transition from “Men’s Business Meeting” to eldership is problematic… and traumatic. Very often men who are influential leaders in the Men's Business Meeting model are not Biblically qualified to serve as elders. That means that as the congregation transitions to the Biblical model of elders, these men must to some extent to give up power and influence. Sometime they aren’t willing to do that, and they oppose the move to appointing elders. This can be further complicated when these non-elders have served as trustees, which is required by the state for non-profit organizations owning property.

Several says ago, Alan Smith emailed me a new item (under the subject line "So Sad") that tells of a church in Tennessee that showed up for Bible study only to find the doors of the building had been padlocked closed. It seems that a disagreement had arisen among the leadership concerning the issue mentioned above. The church was moving toward appointing elders, some men opposed that (or perhaps the men who would be appointed). They were trustees, and they seized control of the church building, fired the preacher and padlocked the property… all supported by a legally obtained court order. Perhaps we will being seeing the next Men’s Business Meeting of that church held before Judge Judy!

I wonder if at some point someone thought about what Paul wrote about Christians and property issues in 1 Corinthians 6:1, “If any of you has a dispute with another, dare he take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the saints?” Having one Christian standing in court against another Christian only serves to advertise to the world that Christianity doesn’t really work. We are supposed to proclaiming a message of eternal salvation and peace that passes understanding… and we sue each other over property? Paul says, “If you have disputes about such matters, appoint as judges even men of little account in the church!” Even the simplest and least prominent Christian is better to mediate property disputes among Christians than Judge Judy. Paul says this—

⁷ The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? ⁸ Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers. (1 Corinthians 6:7-8)

OK, it’s human nature-- We want to be right. The only thing better than being right is to have the courts tell us we are right and then enforce the rights we have because we are right! Paul says that when we get to that point, we have already lost.

Here's the annoying part. I need to be as disgusted with myself about my infernal need to be night as I am with churches in far away places. It fact, it is much more important that is challenge my own pride issues. It's just not as fun.