I, unfortunately, have decided that I’m going to have to leave my church due to their unrelenting BLM support and (of course) racism towards anyone who isn’t openly supporting it. When I joined this church in 2012 it was great, it was extremely spiritual and wasn’t extremist in any sort of way. They were very open and accepting of all beliefs, and I never felt ashamed to be there.
Now the entire church is only discussing how white people need to pray on our inherent evil towards minorities. One of our ministers is a black woman who was very accepting until BLM first came into existence. After that she set up a church protest to go protest the execution of a black man who had raped and murdered a woman and her child. I was NOT down with participating with that, and really considered leaving after that incident but ultimately decided to stay. From there she and another minister made it known she was not a Trump fan and now all of the leaders there are calling all white people racist. They also just recently said even other races were racist if they didn’t support BLM.
It wasnt super obvious until these past few months, but from then on things kept becoming more extremist and unaccepting. This is not a place where people can celebrate differences in thought or beliefs.
Have any of you guys had to leave a church or a community due to the rising racism of BLM / all the other shit going on? I honestly never thought I’d be hard pressed into leaving, but I don’t feel peace or love there anymore. I don’t even know how to go about finding another place to worship because I’m sure my church isn’t the only place where this is happening.
There are no "offices" in the Church. That is a tradition of man.
Sorry friend, whoever taught you that was mistaken.
“The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task.” 1 Timothy 3:1 ESV
You do realize that the English bible is translated from Greek? You can either get a literal translation of the Holy Bible such as Young's, or you can get a Strongs Greek/Hebrew concordance.
"office" as is being used in prior comments is nowhere found. Roles in the Church as stated by the New Testament are titles of function, not titles in and of themselves.
You will frequently see people refered to as a "deacon" but the word is a transliteration of "daikonos" which is the greek word for servant.
YLT * Stedfast is the word: If any one the oversight doth long for, a right work he desireth.*
The ESV and many other translations translate "episkope" to "office of overseer".
Even without being a Greek scholar you can look up G1984 (the strong's reference for this greek word) and cross-reference it against every place its used in the New Testament to understand its context.
I have no reason to lie to you or mislead you. I am not a theologian but I have spent 30+ years studying this topic. I grew up in legalism and religion.
The Church is one. It is the body of believers and an overseer is simply someone who wishes to provide oversight to the body of believers.
I do! Both my Master's Degree (M. Div) and PhD of Theology involved using the original languages and working with the Greek and Hebrew manuscripts.
Your background lets me get a bit more theological.
There is a distinction between the priesthood of all believers (referenced most obviously in 1 Peter 2:5 (ἱεράτευμα)) and the more specific office of public ministry which is spoken about using a variety of terms (overseers, ministers, pastors, teachers, deacons, elders).
You can see the distinction very apparently in Ephesians 4:11-12 as it describes those who are in the office of public ministry as an office instituted by God for the sake of equipping the saints (καταρτισμὸν τῶν ἁγίων).
Ephesians 4:11 "And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ"
Other references to the functions and distinctions of the office may be found here:
John 20:21-23 "Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”
Acts 20:28 "Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood."
1 Corinthians 4:1 "This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God."
1 Cor 12:29 "Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles?"
Edit: Also it is MOST certainly true that we are one in Christ. "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3:25-28).
But that's not saying that sex distinctions go away. That's talking about salvation. Note the context in verses 23-26. We are free in Christ from the Law, it does not condemn us as insiders or outsiders, or in any way. We are forgiven! This doesn't mean that we are less than we were before, but more!
The original gripe I had with your post about women preaching, was semantics and its still semantics. I've seen this wordplay used many times in the Churches of Christ to support their traditions and legalism.
There is no "specific office of public ministry". This is a completely made up designation. I state this because the Church is not a political body. It was never hierarchical, it is only Christ and his bride. Peter warned elders among the flock not to lord over people in their care. We could have lengthy arguments about autonomy versus the Catholic nature of the Church. I have no stomach for it.
There is only the body of believers and those who oversee, serve it, proclaim the gospel, shepherd it and the older wise ones who are worthy of respect. These roles of believers all intersect at many points. Men and women are capable of many of these roles. I've spent many years offended at people behaving in certain ways among the Church. I'm over it. 1 Cor 9:20-22
The problem with your limitations is that they make the bible refute itself and they can chain the expression of the Holy Spirit. A great example is Timothy's "qualifications for a deacon", yet we see Phoebe referred to as a deacon in Paul's writings. So what is it then? Do you wish to go to great lengths to prop up your tradition or do you just want to leave it at a Deacon is not an office/title with a capital "D"... diakonos simply means "servant".
I know where this wordplay can go because I've experienced it a thousand times. I'm a pharisee among pharisees (my Pauline reference) you could attempt to use my response to try and cast a semantic spiderweb about me where your hermanuetic can be demonstrated as being superior to mine.
I'd rather you simply ponder what I've said. You've stated to us all you are a Lutheran, you have a doctorate, you have deep theological knowledge..... I'd simply ask you to ponder what I've said. Don't let your phylacteries get too wide and don't forget the most knowledgeable, religious authorities of the day crucified your Lord... and they did it because they thought he was in error.
Matthew 11:30