Congregational Autonomy is a Divine Plan

By Gbenga Fabunmi

Theme: Growing in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior (2 Pet. 3: 18).

Preamble:
On the 4th of March, 2009, we were gathered like this in this auditorium to discuss this same topic Congregational Autonomy is a Divine Plan, and that was eight years ago. I like to inform this gathering that to the glory of God, I am still keeping a copy of my presentation then with me till today.

Truth is always constant! The word of God, being the truth (Jn. 17: 17), is settled forever in heaven and nothing or no one can either change it or improve on it (Ps. 119: 89; Rev. 22: 18 & 19). It is my belief that I am not going to disappoint anyone here this morning if no new thing(s) is or are found in my present presentation after eight solid years that such has taken place here because the government of the Lords church is a divine plan!

The New Century version (NCV) of the holy Bible beautifully renders the book of Ephesians chapter one and verses twenty-one to twenty-three like this: God made Christ more important than all rulers, authorities, powers, and kings. Christ is more important than anything in this world or in the next world. God put everything under his power. And God made him the head over everything for the church. The church is Christs body. The church is filled with Christ, and Christ fills everything in every way.

Having established it that the word of God is superior to any human manual or creed, we can now proceed to show that congregational autonomy is a divine plan.

Meanings of Some Terms.
We need to explain some of the words used in the coinage of our topic, Congregational autonomy is a divine plan in order for us to have a clear understanding of the matter before us.
Congregational  it is an adjective meaning people assembled at a church service. Compare congregate (verb) which means flock together.
Autonomy simply means self-government or self-governing.
Divine means of, from, like God or a god
Plan means method thought out in advance (Source: The Oxford Mini Reference Dictionary).

Note: The meaning of our topic, Congregational autonomy is a divine plan is, therefore, God has thought in advance the method of government which he wants for the assembling of his people (Eph. 3: 9  11). The plan thought out in advance for the governance of his own people is self-government. The church government is autonomous, that is self-governing. We read in Acts of Apostles 14: 23, for example, AND WHEN THEY HAD ORDAINED THEM ELDERS IN EVERY CHURCH, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed (emphasis mine, GF).

The Churches of Christ in the New Testament Period.

No church was either superior or inferior to another church. All the existing local assemblies of the Lords church were equal before the founder of the church.

And when this epistle is read among you, cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and that ye likewise read the epistle from Laodicea (Col. 4: 16).
For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints (1 Cor. 14: 33).
The Apostle Paul ordained same doctrine in all churches (1 Cor. 4: 17; 7: 17).
For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them (Mt. 18: 20; Rev. 3: 8).
The Jerusalems conference (meeting) was not to settle dispute between/among local churches. The dispute was between certain men which came down from Judea on one hand and Paul with Barnabas on the other hand (Acts 15: 1  2).

Note:
The issue involved was a doctrinal one.
The men claimed to have come down from Jerusalem to Antioch trying to show that they had the backing of the apostles in Jerusalem (Acts 15: 24). And since the apostles were the custodians of the word of God then, the only reasonable thing to do was to follow the certain men to where they have come from to settle the matter (Acts 15: 2, 24).

Concerning the Organization of the church of Christ
Elders (overseers) were ordained in every city/church (Acts 14: 23; Tit. 1: 5; cf. Phil. 1: 1). From the heavenly authorized organization of the church, we can deduce without fear that the local church of the Lord is organically independent whether it is in the city or rural area and whether it is a little flock or a big one.
The elders of the church at Ephesus were to mind the business of all the flock, over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers (Acts 20: 28). This means that the authority of the elders of a local church does not extend to a nearby local church which has not put elders in place (cf. 1 Pet. 5: 1  2; read 1: 1).
Liberality and sharing among the saints (both individually and collectively) was a matter of self determination and willingness (Acts 11: 27  30; 2 Cor. 8: 1  4; cf. 1 Cor. 16: 1  4; 2 Cor. 9: 5  7).
Note: Nobody was coerced to give anything (2 Cor. 8: 3), and there was no pooling of funds together by churches but individual churches sent their relief through their own messengers (1 Cor. 16: 3  4)

“Congregational autonomy is a divine plan: The Seven Churches in Asia Minor as a Case Study.

The Lord addressed each local church separately and the recipient of the letter to each of them is called the angel of the church (Rev. 2: 1, 8, 12, 18; 3: 1, 7, 14).
Only two out of the whole seven (Smyrna and Philadelphia) received commendation from the Lord Jesus Christ because he knows the work of each of them (Rev. 2: 8  10; 3: 7  13).
The remaining five local congregations (i.e. Ephesus, Pergamos, Thyatira, Laodicea and Sardis) also received what was due to each of them, based on their individual unfaithfulness to the Lord, who has all authority over the church (Rev. 2 & 3).
Note:
We believe that there were more than seven churches in the then world when John wrote the book of Revelation. So, we believe that the church of the Lord, wherever it may be located today will surely resemble, at least, one or more of these seven churches in Asia Minor. Take note that figure seven (7), as used in the book of Revelation, stands for perfection or completeness. Therefore, the Lord sampled these seven churches in Asia Minor to show a variety of the global pictures of his church in different locations.