Of Saints & Shepherds

In my time as a follower of “The Way”, I’ve witnessed countless attempts of other followers, both well-meaning and nefarious, to take control over the saints. Oftentimes, these are those persons self-described and/or acknowledged as leaders in the local assemblies. This can also be described as ‘spiritual abuse’, and MANY people suffer from this.

In many cases, these leaders, some of whom have been in full-time vocational “ministry”, have gone to great lengths to use the scripture to justify and support their positions. Sadly, as I’ve witnessed different instances of leaders asserting  a form of headship or authority over others, strong-arming them into “obedience” or “submission”, it occurs to me that they’re doing so whilst earning a salary from these very people.

I believe this is a vile and contemptible practice – not merely the practice of taking authority over others, but using the Word of God to justify such actions. Because the modus operandi of these leaders is often to provide methodical scripture and word studies as explanations for their actions, I wanted to do the same. Furthermore, the average attendee in the local church feels like these sorts of studies are fancy and for the well-educated. This often leads to yielding to unscriptural ideas and practices simply due to a belief that because one is educated in an area, they must be a higher authority than us on such matters. Likewise, many simply don’t know how to examine the Greek or Hebrew versions of a scripture, or how to study words and ideas in their context.

My primary goal is to show the complete supremacy of Yeshua (Jesus Christ) – and Him alone as head of/over His Church. I believe there are far too many usurpations to Christ’s headship and authority going on and they need to be opposed for the evil they are.  Even if such usurpations begin with good intentions.

Because these usurpations are almost always done by proof-texting and cherry-picking scriptures, I present ideas here with every New Testament reference to those words in order to have a more holistic view of each concept. I then follow those comprehensive reference lists with my own perspectives and commentary.

This site contains many word studies. These word studies all pertain to words related to, or commonly used in “church” circles surrounding matters of authority and leadership. Each contains a list of every single instance where the given English word under consideration is used in the New Testament, the Greek meaning, and some commentary.

The commentary is my own perspectives, and as perspectives, they should be treated as such – not as something as a dogmatic assertion of truth.

Given the subject matter, and how tenaciously those with perceived power hold on to such, vigorous disagreement is expected. Nevertheless, courteous dialogue is hoped for and invited. All non-civil dialog will be removed in the interest of keeping the discussions centered on pursuing the truth.