Churchology

By Henry Leon McNeil

This book was written primarily to autonomous Christian churches and those who serve and worship at them. Many areas covered were reflection of the author's views based on his fifteen years of pastoral experience. Major emphasis was placed on church order. The author wants to make the church aware of what should be the process of calling a pastor, instituting a system of discipline, how to institute various types of regulations. Churchology is designed to define church and pastoral prerogatives, pulpit etiquette, and various protocols. Many of the topics are designed to aid the beginning minister. Finally, in the section entitled "Systemic Povertilization," McNeil deals with social issues that all should be aware of and have knowledge about. Jesus dealt with such issues, and so should we. This book has something for everybody.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: May 14, 2019
• ISBN: 9781644165287

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Churchology

Henry Leon McNeil

Copyright © 2019 by Henry Leon McNeil

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

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Foreword

First, I give honor, thanks and praise to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for allowing me the opportunity to be one of His ordained gospel carrying servants.

I want to thank my wife, Mrs. Leslie Carol McNeil for being by my side during every step of the formation of this book.

I am forever grateful to my deceased father; Rev. Sol T. McNeil and my deceased mother, Mrs. Arnez McNeil for bringing me up in a Christian home and environment at St. John Baptist Church in Camden Alabama.

My inspiration for writing this book started when, after much delay, I accepted God’s call on my life to enter into the servant hood of the gospel ministry. Being raised in Camden, Alabama and being brought up in the old fashioned Baptist traditions, I was not knowledgeable about pulpit etiquette and how one’s behavior should be in the pulpit.

My father and greatest earthly mentor was a Baptist pastor all of my life. However, growing up as a preacher’s kid, I never envisioned myself being a preacher and consequently, I was not paying attention to pulpit etiquette, church protocol etc.

When I entered the preaching ministry on December 24, 1988 my second greatest spiritual mentor, Pastor W. C. Bunton was also my pastor at the Shiloh Baptist Church in Canton, Ohio where I attended. Pastor Bunton introduced me to the church as a new preacher. Oh, by the way, back during that time, in the Baptist tradition, beginning preachers were not called ministers as they are today.

As I was explaining, I was not knowledgeable about pulpit etiquette and consequently, I started making many pulpit protocol mistakes because of a lack of knowledge. Some of the mistakes I made embarrassed my pastor as we would often fellowship with other churches. I made so many mistakes that pastor Bunton assigned me the task of putting together information about pulpit and church protocol. Pretty soon, I was asked to share this information with the other young associates.

During the subsequent years I became a pastor of three different churches. Two of the churches were in the Baptist denomination and the current one is non-denominational. I gained a lot of knowledge in these assignments. After graduating from Ashland Theological Seminary in 1995, I taught ministers at Lighthouse Christian College in Youngstown, Ohio. Later, under the pastorate of Elder J. D. Heard, I taught various classes to beginning Ministers and experience Elders at Elizabeth Missionary Baptist Church in Youngstown, Ohio.

Finally, it is my hope that information within this book will help to bring more order to God’s church.

Introduction

As a Baptist believer, one should know exactly what it means to be a Baptist. But more than that, one should know what it means to be a Christian.

First, a Christian is one who has accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved (Romans 10:9, KJV). Subsequently, their walk, talk, way of life, and all manner of substance with and in them have been changed to reflect the new person. ²²That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; ²³And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; ²⁴And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness (Ephesians 4:22–24, KJV).

If there is no change in his outward behavior, certainly there has been no redeeming value planted in him as does happen when one is converted from darkness into the marvelous light. Paul, writing to Titus, declared: "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost" (Titus 3:5, KJV).

After being regenerated, you have an advocate down here and much to look forward to after this life. And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, that ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel (Matthew 19:28, KJV).

All Evangelical Christians hold that the Bible alone is the complete and sufficient guide in matters of religious faith and practice, yet all denominations have, each for themselves, prepared forms of doctrinal statements, setting forth, more or less fully, the fundamental truths which they understand the Scriptures to teach.¹

Churches without a Pastor

A church without a pastor is like a ship without a sail or a rudder. Such a church is sailing in the stormy seas but has no stable directional system; it is sailing without a GPS. If you are on the seas with no directional tools, you might never find land again. So we have established that every place where God’s people come to worship should have a shepherd in its midst. Nevertheless, at some point in time, a church will face the situation of being without a pastor. Consequently, the goal is to find, through Jesus Christ, a pastor as soon as possible.

It has long been established that in missionary Baptist churches and some other autonomous-style churches, the chairman of the deacon ministry assumes the leadership role when the pulpit has been vacated for whatever reason. Please remember (1) this tradition was established primarily during a time when there were few if any associate ministers in the local church and (2) travel was difficult so the chairman of the deacons was usually the next person in authority left at the particular church.

Also, remember that you are a church under the command of Jesus Christ through the Divine Godhead of the Holy Spirit. It’s been long established that God’s ways are higher than your ways. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts (Isaiah 55:9, KJV).

Consequently, we must yield not to the temptation of