Today God is doing a work of recovery within the Church. There is so much that has been instituted and established by man that has become a part of the Church. I read a book by Watchman Nee several years ago entitled "Revive Thy Work". This book is all about how over the years the truths that were lost through the church being plunged into darkness are gradually being restored.
This is what Watchman Nee said concerning the "pastor system" that we have in today's Church. "We must reject the pastor system, for the single pastor arrangement is wrong; even a ten pastor arrangement is wrong. There should not be one person, nor should there be only a few persons." Nee goes on to say a few pages down: "Because there are so few Pauls, we must not wait for such spiritual giants to appear. We believe that the time has come for the whole church to work, to save, and to preach the gospel. THE WAY OF THE INDIVIDUAL IS OVER. Indeed, this is the day to follow the way of the body. We must be one heart with God. We criticize denominations, and rightly so, denouncing their brand of sacerdotalism; but we are no different in principle from them if the service of the church is monopolized by a worker plus a few elders in the place of all of the brothers and sisters laboring together."
Here are some other quotes by Nee that are very interesting and enlightening: "The fundamental principle of church service is that the members be of one accord. The Bible does not teach majority rule. It teaches one heart and one mind."
Brother Nee talks a lot about the need to get the "one talent members" to participate in the church. These one talent members are the members of the body that are not necessarily in the fivefold ministry, but each member has a gift, to build up and edify the body. The leadership of any church needs to see the body as a whole and to activate the gifts and callings of each individual member of the body. It is because of only a relatively few members participating in the church that there is such lack. The ones that do participate are often overworked and involved in doing things that God has not called them to do to fill the void. Nee says this about the one talent members: "The principle of the church service is to involve all the one-talent people. But as we have said before, when the one talents come forth, the flesh will also be present. Hence for the church to be a church, all the one-talent brethren must participate and authority must be exercised. Everyone needs to contribute, and everyone must obey. To have the exercise of authority but without the one-talent members participation does not constitute the church. On the other hand, to have the one talents' contribution but without the practice of authority and submission will cause confusion. The problem with the church lies in not encouraging the one-talent saints to function, though in fact the church is composed mostly of such saints. The ruin of today's church is due to the burying of her one talent members."
"Authority alone is empty; and to have only the one-talent people is confusion. But the presence together of both the one-talent factor and the exercising of authority constitutes the church. In obeying authority the fullness of authority comes to us. If people really know how to set aside their self life, there will be no problem in obedience."
"The Church has been on the earth for a long time now. Yet God has never once asked anyone to manage a church, neither has He called upon a few more advanced brothers to set up a church. To the contrary, the services of the local church are all governed by the Holy Spirit." "Let me say to each of my beloved brethren in the work, that notwithstanding how strong your ministry may be, how rich may be your gift, and how useful you are, you are a Nicolaitan if you monopolize all services. You have nothing to boast of; rather, you must confess your sin. Your personal piety will destroy the church instead of building it up. The right and correct way of work is to lead all the brothers and sisters into service. More service or less service is not the issue here. The pressing issue before us is that everyone must serve. Unless all serve, there is no church. Here, then is today's way: the work must be done by the entire church; it is the church and not just a few individuals, that preaches the gospel. No matter how well you each work, you become a Nicolaitan if you are a substitute for other people in the body of Christ. You may have a ministry but do not, as a consequence, have the church in reality. However successful may be certain so-called spiritual giants or great revivalists, their works are a failure if they fail to bring in body ministry."
"What is Nicolaitanism? (Revelation.2:6, 15 ) "But this you have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitanes, which I also hate... So have you also those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes, which thing I hate" The meaning of the word Nicolaitane is quite revealing. It means "conquering the people." Nicolaitanism developed into the clergy- laity system that we have in most of the church today. What is wrong with this is that the Lord never intended that one group of people in the church (clergy) would rule and reign over another group.(laity). The following scripture is addressed to Shepherds and overseers in the church of God: "Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight therof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre (greed for money), but of a ready mind; Neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being examples of the flock." (1Peter 5: 2, 3).
