Problems and the church
by Pat Farish
Problems With Church Organization
A local church of Christ is composed of saints. In a mature church, some of these saints are bishops, and some of them are deacons (see Philippians 1:1). The organization implied in these words allows a church of Christ to work as a church. Each member of this church, each saint, will have a "good works" personally to perform; but there is work to be done by the collective ("the church"), and this is the purpose of the organization provided.
The work of the church is expedited by the organization God has ordained. Paul left Titus in Crete so that he "might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town ..." (Titus 1:5). It is Gods will that every local church be put "in order." This involved the appointment of elders. It is unfortunate that the picture we commonly see of churches today is without the "order" of which Paul wrote.
Some, to combat this, would have men appointed, qualified or not, because "the church must have elders." A reasonable response to this has been to say that while a church should be scripturally organized (i.e. with qualified men serving), a church may be scripturally unorganized, in situations where no plurality of men is qualified. To have unqualified men serving would cause the church to be unscripturally organized.
Most of the time the explaining stops there; but there is one other possibility: a church may be unscripturally unorganized when a plurality of qualified men is available but unappointed. This church is unscripturally disorderly. The last circumstance is grievous. It may occur for a number of reasons: fear of the loss of "power" in the cessation of the "mens business meeting"; squeamishness of some qualified men; or, arbitrary assertions that "we have no one qualified." The antipathy toward the rule of elders seems reflective of the general spirit of anarchy in our society. When a church has qualified men who can serve then a church should cease being scripturally unorganized and become scripturally organized as God desires.
Problems with Church Work
Now, a quick look at some points about the specific work the local church is assigned. In the New Testament local churches were at work. Before the pen of inspiration is laid down we read of the gospel being preached "everywhere" (Mark 16:20), and Paul writes of "the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven ... " (Colossians 1:23). The preaching of the gospel of Christ assigned to the local church, in "all creation under heaven" was accomplished in the first century. Evangelism remains as a responsibility of churches of Christ today.
The sufficiency of this revealed organization, the church, is recorded in the matter of benevolence as well. In the second chapter of the book of Acts in which the beginning of the church is recorded, it is written that "all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need" (2:44, 45). Sometime later a continuing need arose and was being met, as recorded in Acts 6, by a "daily distribution." In connection with this there was a problem: the Hellenists (Greek disciples) asserted that their "widows were being neglected" (verse 1). The apostles solution was to instruct the brethren to pick out men to be appointed over the matter; which they did, and the need was met. This was a situation in which a local church had an obligation which it was able to meet, within its framework and its resources. No other organization or institution was involved.
Another situation requiring benevolence occurred as a result of a famine. In Acts 11:27-30 a prophet named Agabus prophesied of a great famine coming. In verses 29 and 30 it is written, "So the disciples determined, everyone according to his ability, to send relief to the brothers living in Judea. And they did so, sending to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul." Paul wrote of this in the Roman letter, and in both his epistles to the Corinthians.
This circumstance provides the only occasion of funds being sent from a church or churches, to another church; and the purpose was benevolence. When a church sent funds for evangelism, the preaching of the gospel, in every instance recorded in Scripture the funds were sent to the preacher. Paul spoke of his "partnership in the gospel" with the Philippians (1:5). At the close of his epistle he further stated, "And you Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving, except you only. Even in Thessalonica you sent me help for my needs once and again" (4:15, 16).
There are no exceptions. In the Bible, "church-to-church" sending was for benevolence. Money for evangelism was always sent "church-to-preacher." Today many churches solicit congregations to send money to them that they might do evangelistic works that no one congregation could pay for, such as worldwide satellite television programs or national mailings. While these may seem "good" to some they are not good because they are without Bible authority. Let us be content to do as was done in the New Testament, in the worship of the church and in the work of the church.