Are "Church Standards" Biblical?

Apostolic Life in the 21st Century

David K. Bernard

Theology, Oneness Pentecostal, Religion & Spirituality, Apostolic Pentecostal, United Pentecostal Church International, Upci, Christianity, David K. Bernard

5 • 870 Ratings

🗓️ 28 July 2025

⏱️ 15 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Not every church guideline is spelled out in the Bible. Does that make those guidelines unbiblical? Dr. David K. Bernard explores the role of spiritual authority, pastoral leadership, and the legitimacy of so-called “church standards” in this thought-provoking episode of Apostolic Life in the 21st Century. For more on this topic, see Dr. Bernard's book Practical Holiness, available at PentecostalPublishing.com. Enter promo code DKB10 at checkout to save 10 percent on your order. If you enjoy...

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to another episode of Apostolic Life in the 21st century.
0:11.6	We are thankful you've joined us today, and as always, we are so glad to have Dr. David K. Bernard,
0:17.2	General Superintendent of the UPCI with us.
0:20.7	Today's question is actually comes from a pastor who sent us a message. K. Bernard, general superintendent of the UPCI with us.
0:24.9	Today's question is actually comes from a pastor who sent us a message.
0:29.6	He wanted to know about, he wanted us to address or wanted you to address the subject.
0:35.1	I don't think he cared what I thought about this, but he wanted to address the subject of what are sometimes referred to as church standards. So I would define
0:39.4	these, and his question was along the lines of, these would be requirements for church leaders
0:46.3	or maybe even church members that aren't expressly commanded in scripture. Now, he used an example
0:52.3	of churches that would maybe have a requirement that
0:56.9	any man who was involved in a ministry role should, like, for example, a musician or a church
1:02.9	usher, that that man that would be required to wear a white dress shirt and probably a tie
1:09.4	to all services. And obviously, we know the Bible doesn't say anything about white dress shirts and probably a tie to all services. And obviously we know the Bible doesn't say
1:13.1	anything about white dress shirts and ties. This didn't even exist in Bible times. And so we might
1:18.8	assume there's no scriptural support for this type of requirement. So the question is,
1:24.2	are churches that implement these types of church standards, to use that phrase,
1:29.4	violating scripture, or would there be some scriptural support for this?
1:33.1	I would say they're not in violation of scripture, but let's talk about it. Let's expand this.
1:41.2	And for a more broader discussion, you can look at my book Practical Holiness. Now, a lot of times
1:48.2	I hear people using the word holiness standards. I don't actually, I don't really like that
1:53.5	terminology and I don't use it. So let's start with that. The Bible does teach principles of
1:59.7	practical holiness, which we've had several episodes
	...

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