While spiritual coverings are important for Churches, ministries, pastors and individual Christians for accountability sake and to do more for the Kingdom of God in these end days, it is my opinion as one bishop of the World Fellowship of Moravian Revival Church (WFMRP) that Jesus Christ is our covering!
We should all, whoever we are, as believers in Christ, daily seek the covering of Jesus Christ as our Savior, Lord and Master. Christ is our protection from the enemy, our authority as believers in Christ, and our living family relationship is centered, or as a fisherman, I can say, anchored literally in Jesus Christ! Christ is the head of our Church.
Also our Moravian heritage tells us that Christ is the head elder of the Church. Symbolically in any of our Church meetings, we always think there shoujld be an empty chair where Christ sits. Christ is the head of the Moravian church. He assures our Unity.
For accountability sake, it is critical as Christ’s return is imminent, that we as believers stand together, worship together, and work together as shown through our Moravian Covenant for Living (Brotherly Agreement). We agree to work together in God’s love to support one another in the faith.
I like the way the Moravian Church (Unitas Fratrum) when speaking of shared authority recognize that it is “shared leadership”. For the WFMRC nothing is confidential apart from church disciplinary matters taken care of by the elders of the local Church. Leadership is shared among ministers, board members of the local Church, and even those sent by Christ to help us. As a bishop I can never be seen as a ruler to control others. Instead, we WFMRC bishops should be seen as pastors to pastors.
Certainly, we are all under the grace of Christ. We are blessed through our unity and willingness to work together. We believe that we should not rob the church of our gifts and resources. And we do better to share the Gospel and build God’s Kingdom of love by organization rather then individually.
And lastly, finally, a main point is that we should not think we have a strict top-down protective coverening. But recognize instead that leadership is respected and it is critical especially when we see it as a necessary gifting from Christ to establish, to preserve, and assure that the Church is visible and transformative where we live.