The Road to Ruin

W. Carl Ketcherside

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     The modern one man minister system in "The Church of Christ" is the sectarian pastor system in disguise. Calling those who engage in it "located evangelists" only white washes a system which is without divine authority and exists in opposition to God's plan of edification for the saints. The idea of hiring a man to do what all are required to do appeals to a lazy, untaught and unconsecrated membership. The special reverence given "The Minister" pampers the pride of the graduate of a seminary who seeks a position of professional status in the community. Of no small moment is the fact that many wives of "Ministers" bask in the social prestige accruing to the office which has been created by the clergy caste among us.

     It is not implied that all who are hired as "The Minister" of a congregation are necessarily hirelings, in the modern usage of the term. Many are tireless and self-

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sacrificing men, but this is true of the clergymen in many denominations. They are victims of circumstances, and lack the courage of conviction required to launch out into the deep through faith in God. A half century ago, the idea of elders hiring or firing a local minister was unknown to restoration- minded churches. But even then conditions were ripening for it to occur.

     Brethren were wrapped up in the task of converting men to the Christ. The cause was growing so rapidly and there were so many demands on their time they could not stop to consolidate their gains. They did not train their converts nor develop elders. Men were appointed as bishops who were untaught and unable to cope with changing situations. They had to turn elsewhere for help. In desperation, human institutions were created to supply the need. Every human institution to do the work of the church is a monument to the mistakes of the brethren. Through "ministerial courses" in Bible Colleges men were trained to take over the work and handle it with professional ease for a fee. Under their skillful manipulation congregations grew in size, and made the mistake of thinking that size meant strength. Discipline disappeared as the criterion for a "successful ministry" became the number on the church roster and the increase in contribution. "The church budget" was introduced and pressure methods of exacting money to keep the machinery moving were inaugurated.

     Congregations began to bid for the services of "big preachers." To secure a prominent name as window dressing on the sign in front of a huge cathedral-like building, meant constantly increasing salaries. Special inducements were offered in contracts. Congregations went into the real estate business. They built attractive residences for the "Ministers" although a few decades ago, gospel preachers decried parsonages, rectories and manses as symbols of a decadent sectarianism. Now a full- fledged pastor system is in vogue and a vicious circle is created. The college seeks to place its alumni in favored pulpits for advertisement; the alumnus seeks to recruit from his congregation ministerial students for his alma mater, and the church pays the bill. Scores of sincere individuals are drawn into this whirling vortex of politics and business and think they are doing God service. Many need to be pitied, for they blindly follow blind leaders.

     Can "The Church of Christ" be rescued? It is doubtful! It is contrary to all history that a people once started on this giddy path can be checked short of rampant sectism. They now have millions invested in human organizations and money considerations alone would keep them from returning to the old paths! Perhaps if bombs rained upon our cities to blacken and destroy our material temples, ruin our gadgets and drive us to dens and caves of the earth, we might see ourselves in a proper light; or if dearth, famine, plague and depression reduced us all to an equality with no one to whom we mighty turn except to the Lord, we might find a proper sense of spiritual worth. Otherwise, pride, power and pelf will continue to be motivating factors eating like gangrene at the vitals of the body.

     What can be done by those humble servants of the Lord who love Him and His Cause, and who weep over the fate of Zion? They must with earnest devotion find the place they can fill in the Kingdom and dedicate their life to service. So long as brethren desire to be ministered unto, there will be those to do the ministering for hire; the answer is to make every disciple of the Lord a minister through love for God rather than for gain. Godly men must be trained as bishops. Here is our greatest need! The respect for God's eldership must be restored. In short, all Christians must be opposed to the clerical system which steals away their rights and privileges, and relegates most of the congregation to the position of a laity. All must resist the drift away from the simplicity of the divine arrangement and the ancient order.