The universal church never changes from the standpoint of what and who it is.  It is made up of all the saved, and the saved are those who obey the gospel of Christ by believing (Mark 16:16), repenting (Acts 3:19), confessing (Romans 10:9, 10), and being baptized into Christ (Acts 2:38; Galatians 3:27).  However, in this blog, I will be referring to the church in the local sense.  The local church has a specific organizational structure, does a specific work, and worships God in a particular way.  None of these will ever change.  Let us consider these things tonight.

The organization of the local church is simple.  We read of it in Philippians 1:1

Philippians 1:1 (ESV)
¹  Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons:

The local church is made up of elders (overseers), deacons, and saints.  This is the only organization the local church in the New Testament has ever had, and it is the only one it will ever have.

The elders have the oversight over the local church, having received delegated authority from the Lord to rule the flock (Hebrews 13:17).  While we do not have the space to go into detail about the organizational structure of the local church, nor the overall work and duty of elders, it is important to know that every local church had a plurality of elders (Acts 14:23; 15:2; 20:17).  There was never a local church with only one pastor as is common in churches today.

This aspect of the local church is unchangeable because no one on earth has the authority to change it.  If you see a church with one pastor, or even with a head pastor, which is something you never read about in the Bible either, you know that it is an unscripturally organized church.

The work of the church is also unchangeable.  Like the organization of the local church, no authority is alive today to implement any deviations from what we see in the New Testament.  The work of the church is that which is supported by the Lord’s money gathered upon the first day of the week 1 Corinthians 16:1-2).

In the New Testament church, we see three activities—Benevolence, Evangelism, and Edification.  While some churches finance any and everything they think is a good work, scriptural churches only spend the Lord’s money on things authorized by Christ (Colossians 3:17).  The work of the church is the same today as it was in the first century.  It is never going to change because we will never have any new revelation giving us the authority to change it.  Besides, it does not need changing because it is God’s plan, and His plans are always perfect.

The same thing can be said about the worship of the church.  We should worship the same way they did in the first century.  There may be some incidentals that we do differently, but anything that reflects specific authority should be the same.  We should worship on the same day, that is, the first day of the week (Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:1-2).  We should praise God in song, without the addition of musical instruments, just like they did (Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16).  The Lord’s Supper should be observed on the first day of the week as well, using only the fruit of the vine and unleavened bread as the elements (Matthew 26:26-29; Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 11:23-28).  Since we have no authority to change these things, they should remain the same.

The church is unchangeable.  When a group of people add innovations to it, it ceases to be the Lord’s church and becomes a concoction of man.  Let us avoid that at all costs.

As you wind down for the night, think about these things.