Ceil-1;:
as well as something in the New Testament about a bishop only being married once.
1 Timothy 3:2, 1 Timothy 3: 12, and Titus 1:6 are the standard verses to support that doctrine. (I don’t have my e-Sword resources installed, otherwise I could cite the verses from the Torah, Writings, Prophets, Gospels, and Non-Paulian Epistles, and Revelation that support that doctrine.)
My concern for them is the responsibility of taking on for themselves a position of authority, thereby making themselves responsible for the souls in their congregation.
Not an issue. The reason why depends upon if one is Arminian, Calvinist, both, or neither.
- Where does the authority over their prospective congregants come from?
This looks to me like yet another example of a “home church”. One of the elements of “home churches” is that there is no distinction between laity and clergy. In theory, nobody claims authority over anybody else. (I don’t have the scriptural support for that memorized. It is somewhere in my working notes.)
OTOH, this could be a church splitting into two, or more parts. The divorcee may be the victim of a church seething in turmoil, that has decided to use him as the focal point, rather than the real issues that everybody is upset about. If this is the case, then expect to see ordained clergy at the same time as the church rents a place to meet at.
If, by “authority”, your concern is with “Apostolic Succession”, that concept isn’t part of Protestant theology.
The only authority clergy have, is that which is granted by a specific individual, to a specific member of the clergy. That usually doesn’t go much further than making sure the sermon is short, to the point, and “comfortable”.
- How do they think they will be able to escape the same pitfalls as their current pastor?
If there is really only one issue, that being the divorcee, then it is easy to escape. If more is involved, then how they intend to avoid that pitfall depends upon a number of other factors.
they are still discerning the move.
To me, this implies that there is a lot more than a divorcee being hired. That being the case, the economics of starting and running a new church are being worked out.
can you comment on whether you think they are on dangerous ground?
Starting a new church is not easy. The biggest hurdle are:
- Money. Some churches never cross this hurdle.
- Leadership: Who runs the church?
- New members: Where do they come from?
- Where to meet: Private home, rented storefront, share a church, other;
- How to meet: Type of service. Frequency of services,etc;
- Affiliation with other churches;
How difficult it will be for them to run a new church depends upon the experience that they have had in running churches. And their ability to adapt to a different set of circumstances.
Theologically, I can’t say.
Is it better to stay in a church whose leadership obviously condones that which is unscriptural, or to stay and try to persuade them to change their ways, or wait until the church kicks you out for raising unpleasant issues?
