Dear BPCWA worshipper, In last week’s pastoral, I explained how church membership can affect the faith and unity of the church.  Peace in a church is something that we must treasure.  But membership is not the only thing that can affect how the church will be effective in furthering God’s work. 

Lessons about the church session and elections.  It is easy to put someone into a leadership position but removing the person may not be so easy.  1) Everyone who is considered for leadership positions must hold on to the doctrines that we stand for.  If they are not eligible or if they know that they are disqualified from a leadership position, they should decline to take up these positions.   Someone who is biblically disqualified or does not hold on to our doctrines should honourably turn down even if he is nominated or persuaded to stand for elections.  Anyone who denigrates things as “a BP thing” should never stand for session elections or even be a leader in any other role in BPCWA.  This is because if one does not uphold the BP faith, how can he serve effectively with the session in a BP church?  2) Members must answer to God for their vote.  While every vote is secret to man, God sees and knows our vote.  With fewer communicant members, it does not take many people to swing the course of the church in voting outcomes.  A few votes can make the difference as, unique to BPCWA only and in our constitution, elders (which includes the pastor), require 2/3 votes.  Every member should also scrutinise the nominees to not only ensure that they meet the Biblical qualifications, but also that their beliefs and practices are consistent with our faith.  Either way, members cannot shrug away their responsibility if their hands had a role in voting the wrong leaders in or voting unbiblically, hence turning the church upside down.  Yet, at the same time, we should not vote blindly simply because we want to have officeholders to form the semblance of a Session.  3) Don’t vote with your emotions or for “your party”.  As Christians, we must not view church session elections in the same way that the world views parliamentary elections.  At the recent WA state elections, I walked past a banner that urged voters not to vote “party L” in.  The political system’s thinking is that there should be an opposition just so that there is opposition.  The church session is not a “House of Representatives” to voice your dissension.  As Christians, we must think and vote for our session as Christians, based on whether the candidate meets the criteria stated firstly in God’s Word and our Constitution.  Don’t let emotional bonds cloud sound and objective biblical judgement.  We must assess based on what is biblical and right, not based upon our own thinking of what is “loving” or “unloving”, “grateful” or “ungrateful”.  “Feeling bad” for not voting for someone even if it was the wrong person will eventually result in a bad situation for the church.  4) Church polity is important.  The church is not to be run by “whosoever is willing”.  God sets roles for each officeholder in church, and each leader must know their role.  Biblically, deacons are not overseers of the church, and should not be seen or get used to running the church and making decisions (Acts 6:2).  Ruling elders and others must not contend to be the teaching elder (which is the pastor according to Eph 4:11).  Envy and strife can occur when others begin to look at the pastor and vie for a similar place for themselves.  5) Have a biblically united session, not a session for “show”.  A small session unitedly serving according to God’s Word and for the sake of God’s church is far better than a large session with diverging doctrinal convictions, where each tries to further his own or his family’s agenda.  Something that I yearned and prayed for early in my ministry years was a united session that does all things for God’s sake and His sheep’s spiritual growth. And I thank God for the peaceful session meetings we now have where our aim is only that of doing what is best for God’s church as a whole. 

Lessons about the church’s pulpit and teaching ministry.  The church is the pillar and ground of God’s truth.  What the worshippers learn in church tends to become the “gospel truth” to them.  As such, the church bears the heavy responsibility of what is taught to the worshippers.  We must: 1) Guard the pulpit ministry, as it is the central teaching platform of the church when worshippers are all gathered together.  What they hear over the pulpit is what will shape their understanding of the Christian faith, beliefs, and practices, as well as what the church ought to be.  When God calls a man into the full-time ministry, He gifts them with the gift of preaching and teaching (Eph 4:11).  The pulpit is primarily the responsibility of the pastor (2 Tim 4:2).  Unless there are justifiable reasons otherwise, the pastor should not sit in the pews and have lay people preach in his stead. 2) Be careful who is invited in to preach or teach at BPCWA.  One’s beliefs will be naturally come forth and be reflected in his preaching and teaching.  It is through teaching that indoctrination takes place.  Likewise, it is through teaching that infiltration takes place (Jude 4).  Preachers who are invited in can subtly introduce contrary doctrines and practices and dissensions can arise after that.   This is a particular concern if these preachers have been trained in Bible colleges or are in churches that promote beliefs opposed to ours.  We must practice Biblical separation against such likes as those who are affiliated with Bob Jones University or those who are against the perfect preservation of God’s Word. No matter how seemingly “interesting” or “knowledgeable” the person may be, we must remember Christ’s warning, “He that is not with me is against me” (Lk 11:23).  So, we must be clear where a preacher stands on key doctrines before they can be invited in to feed our church family spiritually.  Worshippers trust the leaders to bring in trustworthy preachers, and we cannot betray that trust for them and their children.  Considering also our church history and that we have worshippers from diverse backgrounds, it is wisest that we focus our teaching engagements with those of like BP faith so that there is no confusion about our doctrines and practices.  3) Scrutinize the materials and music used at fellowships and meetings.  It is important for all our preaching and teaching to be from sound sources that are consistent with the BP faith which we stand and declare.  I can never forget Sunday School materials that printed that infant baptism is a heresy. We were not just allowing it to be taught to our children, we were teaching that to the teachers too, as they prepared for their lessons.  We must scrutinize the materials used.  The Far Eastern Bible College was raised by God and we continue to uphold it in our prayers.  We are not saying that it is the only true Bible College in the world, but because it is an institution that stands for the Bible and our BP faith, it makes the most sense and causes the least confusion when we use their materials and attend their courses. And we thank God for much good material that is available through them.  Should there be a need to use other materials, it must be used carefully and we must biblically refute any material that propounds different doctrines and practices from what we hold on to.  Unsound materials with the social gospel were introduced onto our bookshelves by non-members who were given leadership roles.  Moreover, pop-styled contemporary songbooks were also brought in and used at fellowship meetings. 

These must not ever be allowed again as they will change the church in time.  We must remember that while we are in the church, it is “the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.”  (1Tim 3:15).

Yours in our Lord’s service,

Pastor