It’s amazing how many “pastors” think that Christ is head of the Church …

Only if they’re allowed to dominate and monopolize our assemblies.

And that we must be reduced to spectators under their tutelage, rather than gathering to be the church …

Because they alone are qualified to teach and minister to us.

They are not elders who pastor and teach, as Scripture commands, to equip God’s people for ministry one to another and building up each other.

Instead, they are like Diotrephes, who John openly rebuked in his third epistle for wanting to be preeminent in the church …

And like the Nicolaitans (meaning “to dominate over the people” in the Greek), who God commended the church at Ephesus for rejecting in Revelation.

What’s even more amazing is how many people likewise think it’s not really “church” …

Unless they also have a Diotrephes or Nicolaitan dominating their assemblies too.

Now don’t get me wrong:

I’m not saying such “pastors” aren’t charming, sincere or well intentioned. Often they are.

Rather, I’m saying they too have been misled by post-New Testament human traditions …

And as a result have prevented their churches from becoming the fully multi-gifted, multi-functional and multi-part Body of Christ as God intended.

In contrast to the prominence of such “pastors” and their mono-churches these days, here’s what God explicitly commands in His Word:

“Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.” 1 Th. 5:11

“As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace.” 1 Pet. 4:10

“What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up.” 1 Cor. 14:26

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom …” Col. 3:16

“I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another.” Rom. 15:14

“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” Heb. 10:24-25

“If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?” 1 Cor. 12:17

The New Testament says that leaders in the church – including those who function as “pastors and teachers” – do not have a monopoly on ministry, but instead are supposed “to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ …” Eph. 4:12

Finally, we are not to be the church based on “human cunning… Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” Eph. 4:14-16

So let’s re-dedicate ourselves to learning to be the church once again, as the New Testament actually commands it …

And begin to leave unbiblical mono-church – and those who continue to promote, dominate, and profit from it – behind.