Orderly Meetings

But everything must be done decently and in order.
(1 Corinthians 14:40 Holman Christian Standard Bible ©®)

That sentence has been used by many people in my hearing to try to control the amount of investment that can be made by “folks in the pew” in a meeting.

Various invocations of it have produced different rules, like these:
• 1 prophetic word per meeting, and have the pastor judge it before the congregation hears it.
• No tongues.
• No tongues without interpretation (which is difficult to control, since the tongues message has to come before the interpretation, so if somebody speaks in tongues, but no one is willing or able to interpret, who’s fault is it?)
• Nobody says anything that isn’t in the bulletin
• No testimonies unless cleared with the pastor

95% or so of the meetings that happen on any given Sunday morning (or Friday evening) will have completely ignored the previous 14 verses in chapter 14, in which Paul was describing meetings in Corinth, in which “each one” had a song, a teaching, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation, and in which “you can all prophesy one by one.” Pastor wasn’t mentioned. We got pastor-led congregations from Martin Luther. That was a step beyond the Roman mythology-styled temple priesthood, but didn’t get things back in the hands of the Head of the body (King Jesus).

Any time you are gathered with a group of believers that can be formed into a circle, ask if anyone has a song, or a teaching, or something that needs an interpreter of tongues, or a prophecy. Don’t be surprised if the Head of the ekklesia steps into leadership and something astonishing and Life-imparting happens. Be surprised if it doesn’t.