The Local Church: The Origin and End of the Mission of Christ
It sometimes happens that old ideas become interesting or controversial because they have been lost or neglected for so long. What once would have hardly been worth mentioning, becomes novel. Such may be the title of this blog post.
Here is the basic propositions I would like to put forth:
Proposition #1: The effort to make disciples of Christ came from local churches in the New Testament.
Proposition #2: The work of discipling (teaching) both seekers and new converts flowed through and back into the local community of gathered believers during the time of the Apostles.
Here is a short list of observations from Scripture that support the propositions:
1. It is the church that Christ redeemed with his blood (Acts 20:28).
2. Christ is the head of the church, called his body (Collossians 1:18).
3. It is the church that Christ said would storm the gates of hell (Matthew 16:18).
4. The church sent the first missionaries as directed by the Holy Spirit (Acts 13:.
5. All successfull evangelism resulted in the forming of a new local church where it didn’t exist (Acts 19:9). Any successful evangelism where a local church did exist would result in an addition to that local congregation.
6. The guardians of sound teaching was to be pastors in the context of the local church (Acts 13:1, 1 Timothy 3:15). The word disciple means “student”. The work of discipling is to teach. The teaching commissioned and observed in the New Testament is always in the context of a local church and is explicitly given to the local church as its primary role in the world.
7. The application of the doctrine of the church into particular life stages was the purview of the local church (Titus 2).
8. Paul instructed that order be brought to the mission through the structure of the local church (Titus 1:5).
9. Paul expected that order in the church depend on the appointment of qualified elders in the church (Titus 1:5-9).
10. The Holy Spirit gave elders in the church oversight of the new believers for their ongoing care (Acts 20:28).
11. The job of identifying legitimate Christians or excluding false conversions was the job of the local church (Matthew 16:19).
12. Gatherings of the local church were meant to be places where unbelievers could hear the gospel and observe the community of faith (1 Corinthians 14:23).
13. Christ addressed Christians as members of their local churches (Revelation 1-3). When John wrote to the seven churches about the commendations and rebukes, he spoke to Christians as part of those churches. Sometimes he spoke with them as a whole and sometimes he identified a faithful or unfaithful group or individual inside the local church. There was an expectation that all believers work together to fix their errors.
14. God had given gifts to the believers for use in the local churches (Romans 12:3-8). God gave pastoral gifts for the purpose of pastoring in the church. God gave administrative gifts for the purpose of administering and leading in the church. The list goes on.
15. The church is warned to avoid those who cause divisions in the the church (Romans 16:17-18) and have nothing to do with them (Titus 3:10). The New Testament has many warnings about division and the warnings always happen in the context of and for the good of the local church’s unity.
Conclusions:
The Bible does not give any prohibiitions against para-church organizations and I will not either. But what Scripture does do is give overwhelming emphasis on the importance of the local church as the origin and the end goal of the missionary cause. Thus:
We should endeavor that every Christian serving in any ministry be a faithful and well-ordered Christian inside of a faithful local community.
We should endeavor that all disciple making ministries be cooperating with local churches under the direction of qualified elders of local churches in the community where they serve. Local churches should not be dismissed as “uninterested” or overlooked as “irrelevant”.
Seekers and new believers should be deeply connected back into those local churches to be discipled inside of a committed community of Christ. No growing Christian should float from church to church or cherry pick his disciplers from various churches. Sure, churches should cooperate with one another but every new believer should belong inside a committed community.
No believer should ever be baptized or given the Lord’s supper outside of the authority and pastoral care of a local church.
Leadership training should happen inside of a local church and with the permission of the elders of the local church that each new leader comes from. Ministries should not offer training in ministry without high regard for where that young leader gathers and who are his or her pastors.
What do think of the conclusions above? Have you seen the local church disregarded or ignored in the context of missions?