The ONLY REVEREND

HUG of Christ's Statement about Church Leadership is this:

"The Lord Jesus Christ alone is Holy and Reverend and the One Head

of the One Church of God, which is composed of many house churches, led by His ministers, the overseers/bishops, who labor in the Word of God, and are authorized to have final decision, assisted by servants/deacons; commissioned by God to establish multiplying house churches in order to win souls for Christ, edify the saints, preserve Biblical doctrines and train leaders. (Psa 111:9; Col 1:18; John 10:14,16; 1 Pet 2:25; 5:2-4; Rom 16:5; Col 4:15; Phlm 2; Acts 20:28; 1 Tim 4:6; 5:17; Titus 1:5,7,9; 1 Tim 3:1,2; Phil 1:1; Heb 13:7,17; 1 Thes 5:12; Acts 14:21-27; 2 Tim 4:5; 2 Cor 5:20; Eph 4:16; 1 Tim 3:15; 2 Tim 1:13; 2:2)

HUG of Christ Fellowship Pure Grace believes that the LORD JESUS CHRIST alone isthe Holy One, The Reverend One and the Only Shepherd or Pastor of His Flock, which was Israel in the past. But He is the One and Only Head of the Body of Christ. All believers in Christ are members of the One Body of Christ.

We believe that Jesus alone is worthy to be called "REVEREND" and "PASTOR". That is why we don't call our ministers as "pastors" but "bishops". Why? For Jesus Christ alone is the "ONE SHEPHERD" of that "ONE FOLD" (John 10:16), Israel.

Bishops are not above the pastor. The Biblical teaching is that the Pastor is above the bishops. Why? because JESUS is the ONLY PASTOR. The LORD is my Shepherd (Pastor) Psalm 23:1. Dispensationally speaking, Jesus was the PASTOR of Israel, His Flock, but today, Jesus is the HEAD of the Church, which is His Body. The PASTOR of Israel is the same as the HEAD of the Body of Christ.

How about the bishops? The bishops or overseers are the leaders of the local churches. God through His Word, in His revelation to the Apostle Paul, our apostle, the last apostle, and the dispenser of the grace of God, teaches that there are only two offices in the local church, namely, the office of a BISHOP, and the office of a DEACON (1 Timothy 3:1,10), or the "bishops and deacons" (Philippians 1:1).

Paul calls the leaders of the churches as "BISHOPS" and not pastors. So we must obey that. Let us follow Paul in following Christ.

We, the leaders of the HUG of Christ Fellowship Pure Grace are BISHOPS. GOd's Word, the Holy Bible, which is the KIng James Bible is our Sole authority. God's Word says, we are BISHOPS and NOT PASTORS, for CHRIST IS THE ONLY PASTOR AND HE ALONE.

Tradition teaches that "BISHOPS" are "Roman Catholic" idea of leadership. NO! The Roman Catholics are wrong about it. The Catholic teaching about bishops is that Bishops are the overseers of Dioceses and not of parishes (local churches). That is not what the Bible teaches.Protestants and evangelicals followed also the footsteps of Rome. They call their National leaders as Bishops while the local ministers as pastors. Is that what the Bible teaches? No.

When Paul wrote his epistle to the Philippian church, which was a local church of Philippi, in the province of Macedonia, he addressed the saints together with their "BISHOPS AND DEACONS". Who were those BISHOPS? They were the overseers of the local church of Philippi and not of the province of Macedonia. Remember, there is nosuch thing in the Bible as "PROVINCIAL CHURCH" or "REGIONAL CHURCH" or "NATIONAL CHURCH" or "DENOMINATION". But when the Bible calls the church as the church, it is the Church in the city, such as the Church of Ephesus, the Church of Philippi, the Church of Corinth. But when it pertains to provinces such as Macedonia and Galatia, the Bible says "churches of Macedonia" (2 Corinthians 8:1), and "churches of Galatia"(Galatians 1:2). So if there is no provincial or regional churches, then there are no provincial or regional overseers, such as what tradition calls "DIOCESE BISHOPS" or "REGIONAL PASTORS" or "PROVINCIAL PASTORS" or "SUPERVISING MINISTERS". No! There are no such things as those terms in the Bible!

When the Bible talks about the church it is the CHURCH IN THE CITY. When there are churches in provinces, they are not called as "CHURCH IN THE PROVINCE" but "CHURCHES in the PROVINCE".

So if the Bible teaches that if it is called the church it is the city church, then the church leader is called Bishop. So the bishop is the leader of the local church. In the local church, there is only one bishop (1 Timothy 3:1) and many deacons (v.8).

Local churches or house churches can have an association of bishops of the house churches, but still they remain equal before the Lord. The superior of the bishops is no other than the Lord Jesus Christ. THE HUG of CHRIST Fellowship Pure Grace is an association of Bishops and at the same time a local church.

So the chain of command is this:

THE HEAD JESUS the HOLY and REVEREND- then the BISHOP - then theDEACONS - then the CONGREGATION of SAINTS.

The form of government which we believe as BIBLICAL is the CHRISTOCRATIC FORMof Government or the THEOCRATIC Form of Government. It means that the AUTHORITY in the CHURCH is its ONE HEAD: THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. Then next to His authority, are His subordinates, the overseers of the flock, which the King James Bible calls "BISHOPS". THE REVEREND JESUS IS THE AUTHORITY, and HE delegates the oversight to the BISHOPS. So the final decision in the church are the BISHOPS, for the LORD AND PASTOR JESUS gave them the authority.

We reject the so-called Congregational Form or Democratic Form of Governmentwhich is not Biblical. IN the HUG of Christ, we have no election. We, the bishops appoint leaders. Our method is by "appointment" or "ordination" according to Titus 1:5. We don't agree with election. It is wordly and carnal. The church must not imitate or pattern after the world (Romans 12:2). We have our own pattern in God's Perfect Word. We must hold fast to the form of sound words (2 Timothy 1:13). That is our pattern. Our questions must be: "What does the Lord say?" or "What does the Bible teach?" "Is it what is written in the Bible?". These are the questions we must always ask.We must always consider the Bible as our Final Authority and not the words of men or the traditions of religions.

It does not mean that because it is the tradition of churches and religions for thousands of years, it is the authority. No! The BIBLE WILL ALWAYS REMAIN THE AUTHORITY! Okay? Our traditions teach that our church leaders are PASTORS. But the Bible teaches that they are BISHOPS. So what must we follow, tradition or the Bible. Tradition teaches that the right form of church government is DEMOCRATIC. But the Bible teaches it must be THEOCRATIC. Then what must we follow? tradition or the Bible? Of course we must obey the Bible and not the traditions for the BIBLE IS OUR SOLE AUTHORITY.