A LOCAL CHURCH IS INDEPENDENT AND AUTONOMOUS

By W. Frank Walton


The Lord established one church, which is the one body of all saved individuals (Matt. 16:18; Col. 1:18; Eph. 4:4). This depicts a direct, vertical relationship between God and the baptized believer. In the New Testament, we read of many local "churches of Christ" (Rom. 16:16). This is a horizontal relationship with a "team" of saints. The local church is the only collective organization of God's people in Christ's Word.

Note that all the seven church of Asia were represented as "seven lampstands" (Revelation 2 & 3). Each was independent of the other, since each stood or fell on its own merits. The actions or decisions of one church was not imposed on another congregation. A local church is "autonomous," in that it is "self-governing" under Christ and His Word, with qualified overseers delegated to lead. There is no convention, conference, church council or organizational harness that ties together or dictates to local churches.

DEVIATIONS IN CHURCH ORGANIZATION

Perversions in church organization has plagued the history of the church. In the second century A. D., a presiding elder was elevated over fellow elders as the bishop. Then, to combat various heretical views in circulation, centralization of power was seen in a city bishop in the largest church overseeing area churches in a diocese. By 325 A.D. at the time of the first universal church council, called by emperor Constantine, there were 5 metropolitan bishops that oversaw all the churches in the Roman empire: Rome, Constantinople, Jerusalem, Antioch, and Alexandria. The bishop of Rome declared himself "the first among equals" (note the sly oxymoron). The Protestant Reformation revolted, among other things, against the centralized power in the Catholic church's Pope. However, Protestant churches evolved by setting up denominational machinery of church councils and conventions to organically tie their respective sectarian congregations together. That's why a denomination is an organizational concept: a named church of local churches, claiming to be less than the whole universal church.

Then, among heirs of the "restoration movement," the Christian Missionary Society was set up in 1849 in Cincinnati, Ohio with Alexander Campbell as its first President. It was organized to "more efficiently" pool resources of churches to preach the gospel. Preachers Tolbert Fanning (founding editor of the Gospel Advocate) and Benjamin Franklin opposed this as an unscriptural organization that infringed on the independent, autonomous nature of local churches. In the early 1950's, the Fifth and Highland church of Christ in Abilene, Texas undertook a "brotherhood work" by preaching the gospel over radio by The Herald of Truth. It solicited congregations to send and pool their funds under the elders there. Almost 5,000 churches of Christ sent money to the Fifth & Highland church.

PROBLEMS WITH THE SPONSERING CHURCH ORGANIZATION

1. Elders Have No Authority Planning Work Beyond Their Means. The recent "One Nation Under God" campaign was a sponsoring church arrangement by one church in Cookeville, Tennessee that solicited funds from churches of Christ, so it could mail out evangelistic "cartoon" flyers in newspapers all over the U.S. In the New Testament, the only "needy" churches were benevolent cases that a church was "in want" through no fault of its own (2 Cor. 8:13-15). Churches sent money to other churches to relieve their temporary benevolent need, not so the receiving church could in turn do the work for the sending church.

So, elders have no scriptural right to plan a work of evangelism beyond the ability of the local church to pay for. It is not a "needy church." When a church tries to do a work of evangelism that it cannot fully support and asks other churches to help pay for its "pet project," then this work has become a "brotherhood work." This attempts to collectively activate the church universal. Note that the Catholic church and Mormon church use this scheme of church organization, that sees the whole church universal activated in collective action under centralized control. In the New Testament, there is no organizational harness for the collective action of churches. If a church can send some of its money to another church for the sponsoring church to do some of the sending church's work, what Bible passage would stop them from sending all of its money to the sponsoring church? Where is the logical stopping place?

2. Elders Have Limited Oversight. Elders are charged to "shepherd the flock of God among you" (1 Pet. 5:2). Their oversight begins and ends with the local church. The pooling of funds by several churches under one Eldership makes this sponsoring Eldership the unscriptural overseer of a "brotherhood work." They have no divine authority to solicit funds from other churches for them to oversee in some brotherhood campaign. A church loses oversight of its funds when it sends it to the sponsoring church. The receiving church then decides on how to spend the money. Such creates "chief seats" that elevates one church over others. No local church is to be seen as "inferior to the rest of the churches" (2 Cor. 12:13).

Churches in the New Testament sent directly to the preacher they were supporting (Phil. 4:15f; 2 Cor. 11:8), not to a centralized organization or church. By each church doing its own work concurrently with other churches, the gospel spread all over the world (Col. 1:23). (For a more detailed study of this question, you may like to get a copy of the tract, "The Church and Organizations," which is in our tract rack.)


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