The Christian Evangel 1/13/1915 page 3
Pastors, Evangelists and Churches
I am really glad for the interest there is among so many during this year in the direction of earnestly contending for Bible Order in this great movement of Spirit baptized saints. Much of the work that has been done, up to about a year ago, has been purely evangelistic: and not until the last couple of years has there been much written or said about the need of Assemblies being set in order. Because of an absence of such teaching among us on a whole, a good many have the idea that we did not need any authority to be set in the church. Paul recognized the need of order (
Titus 1:5) and the need of rulers in the church.
Heb. 13:7, 17, 24. These were to be men called of God as Elders. The elders for the assembly (
1 Thess. 5:11-14) and a presbytery (eldership, A.S. Worrell’s trans.) for the oversight of the work in general.
1 Tim. 1:14. Of course these rulers were not to rule as lords over God’s heritage nor to usurp undue authority.
1 Pet. 5:1-3.
May we, as a movement, see this truth and fall in line and yet steer clear of a machine of ecclesiasticism . From many, many places the call is coming for men that are pastors, and thorough ground work to be laid. Simply coming into a new field and getting people through to God is not enough. They need also be to fed and nurtured that they grow up in God.
Eph. 4:11-15. Hitherto, the man who did not did not have lots of outward fizz, as it were, in the way of physical manifestations was not appreciated, in some quarters, at the least. I do not mean to say a word against manifestations as I dearly love to see them, but I am merely correcting an error among them.
Usually one with an evangelistic gift has more or less of this, and can make more of a stir, and his ministry is important in opening up new fields, as well as to assist the pastor in stirring up an assembly, and to put new life into it.
Sometimes when a good evangelist comes along the saints are all taken up with him and begin to desire him for their steady pastor. They then become dissatisfied with their old pastor, who has been steady and faithful through the thick and thin of the fight. The saints may be honest in this, all right, but it is a trick of the enemy to bring confusion and disorder in the assembly. The fresh and rousing evangelist is not the fellow who will usually stay with the assembly when it is going through its dry and sifting state; and neither is he the one who usually feeds the assembly. Both of these are qualified officers in the church and the normal church cannot get along without either of them, but they must each of them keep in their place.
Some pastors are also evangelists, and some evangelists are blessed with the ability of a pastor. But if one is a pastor without the evangelistic ability, he should do his best to also do the work of an evangelist.
2 Tim. 4:5. If an evangelist is where he must take oversight of an assembly, at least for a time, he should try and settle down in his spirit of wanting to move when the fight comes on, and be determined to do the work of a pastor until God sees fit to raise up one for that particular assembly.
Above all things, not work against each other. When we believe that one is in his place and fulfilling his office, let us be faithful in in reproving and admonishing them. I have never had the misfortune to meet such a condition, but I feel that this advice is timely for us. I recognize a spirit working in some quarters, in late months, on this line of becoming dissatisfied with the present leaders and desiring a change. It is of the devil and is caused by the demonical spirit of this age. It is the same spirit of unrest who is the direct cause of it. His nature is given in
Job 1:6-7 and 2:1-2. God asked him where he came from that day, and he said, “From going up and down in the earth, and to and fro in it.” His demonic hosts have the same nature -Jesus told us that “when the unclean spirit goeth out of a man he walketh about seeking rest and findeth none.”
Luke 11:24. See also
1 Pet. 5:8. The people whom Satan controls and who are possessed by spirits are said to be, as a consequence, “like the troubled sea whose waters cannot rest.”
Isaiah 57:20,21. This explains the reason for an much itching for travel and unrest everywhere. This also explains why there is so much unrest among saints. When we have our eyes truly fixed on Jesus and enjoying the blessings, we don’t think of wanting a change with our leaders unless they are unworthy of that position. Neither do we think of wanting a change in our residence, viz, to move to some other town, etc. The Holy Spirit is the opposite Spirit to the one that I have just mentioned, and He is a spirit of rest and contentment, even when things do not always go just as we might entirely desire.
“When he giveth quietness, who then can make trouble.”
Job 34:29. “This is in the sight of God of great price.”
1 Pet. 3:4. We are told to make this theme a study of how to be quiet.
1 Thess. 4:11. “The fruit of righteousness is sown of them who make peace.”
James 3:18.
Independence, Oregon.
I wonder how much of this article is autobiographical ?? Did Morse refer here to his pastorate in Independence, Oregon ?
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