God's View of the Local Church

My message last week regarding "God's View of the Church" needs some clarification. At the same time I intend to say more about the Local Church this week.

In God's view the Local Church is not one of the Churches in a city or town or village where christians have a choice to make which Church to attend. In fact it is the only Church in a residential locality. This locality can be a city, a town or a village. For example, there is only one Church in Corinth (1 Cor. 1:2), and one in Thessalonica (1 Thess. 1:1). Paul also wrote to Titus, a young pastor, to advice him to put things in order in the Church at Crete and to appoint elders in the Church of every city (Titus 1:5).

In the New Testament Church there is unity of the Local Church and plurality of leadership in a locality. In other words, God's order is, one Local Church with many leaders. But man's order is just the reverse in most cases - many Local Churches with only one leader in a Chruch. If we are to study carefully the Book of Acts and the Epistles we will notice that God does not authorise nor accept plurality of Local Churches within a residential locality, nor He authorises unity of (or singular) leadership within a Church.

Spiritual Leadership

The function of the spiritual leadership in the Local Church is two fold - to rule and to teach. These tasks are carried out by overseers or bishops. Their main qualification is possessing eldership, with a high degree of spiritual maturity. The spiritual ministry is that of a shepherd or pastor. The deacons take care of the material ministry.

To rule

Matthew 18:15,16,17 gives an example of how the Local Church should deal with a sinning brother. Notice that the final "Court of Appeal" is the Church which must have plurality of leaders, because obviously one leader will not do the job properly.

To teach and to decide on the right doctine

Acts 15:22 to 28 gives an example of how the Church in Jerusalem gave the correct teaching to Gentile christians in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia. Christians are to abstain from things offered to idols, from eating of blood, from eating of animals strangled, and from sexual immorality. Notice that the decision was made under the direction of the Holy Spirit made manefest in the Body of Christ. The Holy Spirit does not speak to a single elder. Paul said in 1 Cor. 2:16, "We have the mind of Christ". No where else can we find in the Scripture that says any single believer has the mind of Christ.