This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you. – Titus 1:5
Elders must not appoint believers on the position of an elder. Elders are appointed by knowledgeable and trusted brothers in Christ from another city. A trusted believer must come to a town and look for those who are qualified for the position of an elder and only after that appoint one.
You must reject the authority of church leaders, pastors and priests. The elders must be the kind of servants who can easily be reproved if their teaching is not in line with the teaching of Christ and apostles. They should be mature, wise, kind and able to teach.
The elders must not collect money from believers and use this money as a tool to rule over people. The fellowship of believers is free of charge. When money is collected to help someone, other believers must take charge of it, not the elders. Elders must only oversee.
Small group leaders and “disciplers”
There are no such positions as deacon, small group, cell group or bible talk leader in the church. All these positions have been created by church leaders to dominate over believers. Small group leaders report to church leaders, creating a hierarchy among believers which Christ detests.
In the same way, the recently introduced by modern religious organizations position of a discipler aims to build up a hierarchy like never before. The doctrine of those organisations states that every believer must have a discipler. Discipler means a mentor or spiritual father who dominates over a believer and reports to the small group leader. You must reject the illegitimate authority of a discipler because the only authority over you is Christ:
And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. – Matthew 23:9
Being a slave to church leaders, pastors and priests is a heavy burden. They put a yoke on believers, requesting them to obey their ungodly burdensome commands. You must take the yoke of Christ instead:
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. – Matthew 11:28-30
Different gifts
If you want to be more valuable in God's eyes then you must desire the greater gifts. For example, you can teach multitude of believers in different cities or speak the truth on behalf of the Lord; you can teach; you can even do miracles and healings; you can serve people with your skills or possessions. You can do all according to the gifts you received from God.
Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way. – 1 Corinthians 12:27-31
As you can see from the above Scripture, an apostle, prophet, and teacher are the top three gifts. These three gifts are about teaching because God wants people to know Him and worship Him in spirit and truth:
God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. – John 4:24
When a church leader divides believers into groups and appoints a head over each group, it means that a church leader is domineering over you. Do not give away your freedom which was given to you by Christ. Let no one lord over you:
You were bought with a price; do not become bondservants of men. -1 Corinthians 7:23
Disciples of Jesus Christ must teach each other, encourage each other, and take care of each other with love. This is the godly way to build up the church:
Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. – 1 Thessalonians 5:11
Small groups
The church leaders argue that the practice of dividing believers into small groups derived from Moses who divided Israelites into groups and appointed a judge over them. They refer to the below Scripture:
So Moses listened to the voice of his father-in-law and did all that he had said. Moses chose able men out of all Israel and made them heads over the people, chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. And they judged the people at all times. Any hard case they brought to Moses, but any small matter they decided themselves. Then Moses let his father-in-law depart, and he went away to his own country. – Exodus 18:24-27
If you look who gave Moses this advice, you will realize that this was Moses’ father-in-law by the name Jethro, the pagan priest who knew very little about God:
Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses' father-in-law, heard of all that God had done for Moses and for Israel his people, how the LORD had brought Israel out of Egypt. – Exodus 18:1
Jethro was not supposed to give any advice about The Lord whom he did not know and Moses was not supposed to listen to the advice of his pagan father-in-law. Even though God did not say anything against it, the same type of hierarchy is not acceptable with Christ who is much greater than Moses. Christ detested any sort of hierarchy, but church leaders claim that early church always had small group leaders when they gathered at homes. This is not true. Apostles never requested believers to appoint any sort of small group leaders, so why would disciples have them?
Sheep of Christ
Do not be misled by church leaders, pastors and priests, who claim to be the ones appointed by Christ to take care of believers. They assume to be shepherds and they call other believers their flock. They use words of Christ to Peter as a basis to support their false doctrine:
When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." He said to him, "Feed my lambs." He said to him a second time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." He said to him, "Tend my sheep." He said to him the third time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, "Do you love me?" and he said to him, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep. Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go." (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, "Follow me." – John 21:15-19