Last week we emphasized the organization of the local church. It is important to see that denominational churches do not look anything like the church we read about in the Bible. Am I being overly critical by stating this? No, I am merely stating a fact.

The New Testament church, in the local sense, was made up of elders, deacons, and saints (Philippians 1:1). When a local church had pastors (another term for elders), it always had a plurality of them, not just one like you see in most churches today.

Another important characteristic of a local church in the New Testament was that they were all autonomous. The word autonomy means “self-governing.” A casual reading of the New Testament will show that local churches in the first century were independent of each other. For example, the churches of Asia Minor were all self-governing. The church at Corinth was distinct from the churches of Galatia, etc. Since we are commanded to do all things according to the pattern (Hebrews 8:1-5), we must be careful to always maintain the autonomy of the local church. When a church fails to do so, it shows itself not to be a New Testament church.

One area where the autonomy of the local church is often violated is in the work that it does. Let us briefly consider that work.

The Work of the Church

The local church has a three-fold work given to it by Christ (Ephesians 4:11-12). When we talk of the work of the church, we are not talking about what the individual Christian can do, but what the local church does with the money that it raises from the offering on the first day of the week (1 Corinthians 16:1-2). That work involves evangelism, benevolence, and edification. Notice that the work of the church is not social. It has no business (because it has no authority) using the Lord’s money to engage in social recreation or entertainment, nor to get involved in any kind of secular education.

Building colleges, maintaining daycare centers, etc., is not the work of the church. Providing people with a place to exercise physically is not the work of the church. Attempting to solve all the ills of society is not the work of the church. I know that denominational churches do these kinds of things regularly, but the question is do they have authority for it. The answer is no. If one thinks that these social and recreational activities are authorized, he should be able to confirm it by the New Testament. Where did the first-century church ever use the Lord’s money for such things? If scripture cannot be found showing that it did, it is unauthorized by Christ (Colossians 3:17).

The work of benevolence, evangelism, and edification referred to in Ephesians 4:12, is the only work that we ever see a local church doing in the New Testament. Not only that, but we should also realize that since God specified in His Word that this is the work of the local church, no other organization (camp, college, or publishing company) is authorized to do this work. Too many brethren have ignored this fact over the years, but if we are to teach denominations that they must restrict their work to what is taught in the New Testament, we must do the same ourselves (Romans 2:17-24).

If you attend a local church that does not follow the New Testament pattern (including its organizational structure and the work that it does with the Lord’s money), you need to look for a church that does. The Brown Street church of Christ is such a church. The members of this church are far from perfect, nor do any of us claim to be. We are simply saints trying to grow in Christ and become better Christians all the time. Nevertheless, all that we do is in keeping with the New Testament pattern. This should be the goal of every local church.