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Q1. Who is the head of the church?
Jesus is the head of the church, which is His body.
Colossians 1:18
And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.
He runs His church through the leadership He appoints. As the church is Gods', so also the leaders are authorities representing God. Any rebellion against the leaders is a rebellion against God.
Q2. Who are the leaders of the church?
In the church we have the following roles / titles.
Ephesians 4:9-13
9 (What does "he ascended" mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions ?
10 He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.)
11 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers,
12 to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up
13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
In the first century church there were apostles (Jesus' own disciples) and prophets who were responsible in laying the foundation of the church. Once the foundation is laid, there is no need to lay it again. That is why we do not have any apostles and prophets in our age.
The titles used in our churches for ministry leaders are elders, evangelists and teachers. We do not use the title pastor, though it is a Biblical title. Most of our leaders are evangelistic in role, meaning those who are not permanent in any city, but are moving from city to city to evangelize the world. Pastor is more a title for a shepherd who does not move from city to city, instead shepherds his people in a city.
Ministry staff work to build / shepherd the church.
The church is led by a team of evangelists and womens' ministry leaders. The team is headed by lead evangelist couple and elders.
Elder is a special role in the church.
Q3. How does one become an elder in the church?
The Biblical requirement is that, there be at least two elder couples together. No one couple can be elders.
Titus 1:5-9
5 The reason I left you in Crete was that you might straighten out what was left unfinished and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you.
6 An elder must be blameless, the husband of but one wife, a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient.
7 Since an overseer is entrusted with God's work, he must be blameless--not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain.
8 Rather he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined.
9 He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.
All the children of the elder must be disciples.
In South Asian region, as of now we don't have elder couples. An elder must be treated with respect, be careful before you bring any charge against them.
1 Timothy 5:17-19
17 The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching.
18 For the Scripture says, "Do not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain," and "The worker deserves his wages."
19 Do not entertain an accusation against an elder unless it is brought by two or three witnesses.
Q4. How does one become an evangelist?
When the leadership recognizes some brother who is fruitful and has talent and heart to lead people, then they invite him to join the full time ministry as a trainee intern. The evangelists of the church train such an intern, like Jesus trained his apostles by taking them around with Him. We do not believe in training ministers in a seminary because Jesus didn't send His disciples to a seminary. However, our ministry staff have some theological training.
When a trainee intern is fully trained, the leadership appoints them as Evangelists.
As for sisters, the Bible teaches the older women to teach the younger women.
Titus 2:3-5
3 Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good.
4 Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children,
5 to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.
Younger sisters are to be trained by the older sisters. As the evangelists train other evangelists, their wives are given the title of Womens' ministry leaders (WML). They in turn train other trainee interns (sisters). When such interns (sisters) are fully trained, they are appointed as Womens' Ministry Leaders.
Teacher is a role to help mature the church in the Biblical knowledge.
Other titles for leaders.
There are other leaders who help the main leaders of the church. They are Bible talk leaders, family group leaders, zone leaders.
The Bible talk leader leads the Bible talk once a week and is responsible for his group of 5 to 10 disciples. A family group leader is in charge of more than one Bible talk. A few family groups put together form a zone and the zone leaders are responsible for them. A few zones together form a sector. Usually full time staff lead a sector.
However, the title leader used in the Bible mainly refers to the appointed leadership roles like Elders, Evangelists etc.. and not for any other role. So, leaders at lower levels must be careful and not use the scriptures like Heb.13:17 to exercise their authority.
Hebrews 13:17
Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.
The higher the leaders' responsibility, the maturity is likely to be higher. If you were to have a relationship problem with any of the leaders at whatever level, try and resolve it with that person, if it doesn't get resolved go to the next level of leadership and so on until you are resolved. It is not right to slander to other people, especially with those who can't do anything to solve your problem.
Matthew 18:15-17
15 "If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over.
16 But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that 'every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.'
17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.
Though the leaders are appointed, it doesn't mean you follow them if they are doing evil. Especially regarding matters of money, you have to be careful. You are not obliged to lend money to a leader just because he is a leader.
Q5. How are we organized in our region and all over the world?
In the South Asian region, all churches in a region (like West, North, East, Kerala, Bangalore, Chennai, Coimbatore) are put together and are lead by regional leaders.
The following are the regional leaders:
West : David and Monica Noronha.
North : Prakash and Joyce D'sa.
East : Mark and Jasmine Pitchamuthu.
Kerala: Saji and Sheeba Alex.
Bangalore : Dinesh and Caroline George.
Chennai : Jerry and Rosa Uttangi.
Coimbatore : Raj Mohan and Rani Paul.
All the regional leaders alongwith elders and teacher couples form the main leadership of the church. This group of leaders is lead by Geographic Sector Leader.
South Asian Geographic sector includes the following countries:
India, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Bhutan, and Afghanistan.
The couple leading our geographic sector is:
Dinesh and Caroline George.
A few such geographic sectors are all put together and lead by a World Sector Leader.
We have few such world sectors. All the world sector leaders together with kingdom elders forms the top level of leadership in the world.
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