Bible Authority

Lesson 19: The Work of the Church

Introduction: The local church has been commissioned to do four things: 1) preach the gospel, 2) edify itself, 3) care for needy saints, and 4) worship. These aspects of the work of the church will be our subjects in the next few lessons.

Evangelism is the primary work of the church. It is to carry on the work that Jesus began in spreading the good news of the kingdom of heaven (Matt 28:19-20; 1 Timothy 3:15). Thus it is not surprising to find that the early church was an evangelistic (Acts 4:31; 6:7; 12:24; 19:20) church.

The Work of Evangelism

In the NT the gospel was spread by the work of

A. Individual Christians (in various roles). Acts 8:4 (when scattered); 2 Tim 3:14f (in the home).

1. The local church. 1 Thes 1:8; Acts 11:26.

B. How local churches spread the gospel.

1. By sending preachers out. Acts 11:19-23; 13:2f and 14:26-28.

2. By financially supporting a preacher.

a) a local preacher. 1 Tim 1:3; Titus 1:5; 1 Cor 9:14.

b) a preacher in another place. Phil 4:15f.

C. How local churches provided financial support to preachers:

1. In every case in the NT, we find, without exception, that the money was always sent directly to the preacher. That is, the money was not sent to the church where the preacher worked so that church could pay him.

a) The NT example preserves the autonomy of each local church. When following the NT pattern, no one church is directing the affairs of another church.

2. One church could provide a preacher’s support. Phil 4:15f.

a) Philippi sent a messenger to Paul with the money. Phil 2:25.

3. Or several churches could provide for a preacher’s support. 2 Cor 11:8-9. Note again the direct delivery of the support.

a) It is important to note that here is a Biblical pattern for how two or more churches may work together in evangelism.

D. The NT picture is that the local church is fully sufficient to do the work of evangelism; the apostles used no other organization than the local church.

II. Some modern practices in evangelism among some Churches of Christ.

A. The sponsoring church arrangement.

1. In this arrangement several churches send money to one “central” church, which then pools the money and uses it for evangelism (paying preachers).

2. The popular Herald of Truth began in 1950 as a sponsoring church effort. The College church in Abilene, TX was the first sponsor, but in 1952 sponsoring was taken over by the Highland Ave. Church of Christ in Abilene, TX.

a) The Highland Ave. church accepted money from other churches to fund the program. By 1954 over 1000 different local churches had sent money. By 1964 they had received funds from over 2700 churches (the Herald of Truth budget in 1964 was $2,239,250), and claimed support from 1 out of every 10 churches of Christ.

3. A more recent example is the “One Nation Under God” campaign of 1991, sponsored by the Sycamore Church of Christ in Cookeville, TN.

B. The missionary society.

1. The missionary society is an organization that is set up to pay preachers, print Bible materials, distribute tracts, etc. This organization is funded by churches.

2. Among those coming out of the restoration heritage, the first such organization was the American Christian Missionary Society (1849). A more recent venture is the World Christian Broadcasting Corp. (1982).

3. Nowadays the Herald of Truth is basically a missionary society sponsored by a church.

It is our contention that the sponsoring church arrangement and the missionary society are unscriptural, for the following reasons:

C. There is no Bible authority for either one of them.

D. The missionary society impeaches the sufficiency of the church to do its work. It says in effect that the church cannot do the work the Lord gave it to do, or that the human institution can do it better.

E. The sponsoring church violates the NT pattern of each church sending money directly to the preacher.

F. The sponsoring church arrangement involves an arrangement in which elders (of the sponsoring church) oversee work that is not “among them,” or in which elders delegate part of the work “among them” to another local church, and thus violates 1 Pet 5:2.

G. The sponsoring church actually makes an organization larger than the local church. It is nothing other than an attempt at centralization.

1. Could it be that a mistaken view of “brotherhood” is behind this?

2. As noted above, there is a Scriptural way for several churches to cooperate in supporting a gospel preacher, but the NT knows nothing of a centralized cooperation. In short, it destroys the autonomy of each local church.

H. The sponsoring church does work beyond its own financial means. There is no NT authority for this.

III. Arguments in favor of the sponsoring church and the missionary society examined.

A. “These are just expedient ways of preaching the gospel.”

1. A thing must be lawful (authorized) before it can ever be considered expedient. Where in Scripture is it authorized?

2. The fact that it has caused so much division rules it out as an expediency.

3. It is highly questionable that these things are really expedient after all.

a) In 1964 the Herald of Truth spent $196,000 on fund-raising, $219,400 on payroll, and $177,500 on answering mail (at an average cost of $14.79 for every letter received). Is this an expedient use of church monies?

b) In the case of the missionary society, part of the money collected goes to maintaining the society itself; not all of the money collected is used for evangelism. Again, is it expedient to create an organization which uses the Lord’s money needlessly?

4. The sponsoring church and the missionary society is not a method, but an organization. It is not a “how,” but a separate organization which the church is paying to do the work of the church.

B. “There is no difference between a church sending money to the Herald of Truth and buying Bible class materials from a religious bookstore.”

1. Yes, there is: the former is making a donation so that the Herald of Truth can do its work, the latter is buying a service or supplies so that the local church can do its own work.

C. It is sometimes argued that the Philippian church was a sponsoring church, which paid Paul from funds collected from the churches of Macedonia (2 Cor 11:8-9; Phil 4:15-16).

1. The passage in Phil 4 refers to the time when Paul first began preaching in Macedonia; the passage in 2 Cor 11 is about Paul’s preaching in Corinth. That is, these passages are not discussing the same situation.

2. If the situation is that Philippi collected funds from Macedonian churches and paid Paul, then Philippi alone paid Paul, and Paul should not have said “I robbed other churches” (2 Cor 11).

D. “Look at how much good they are doing.”

1. The results do not justify the existence of unscriptural organizations and arrangements.

Consider this:

E. If the sponsoring church and/or missionary society is authorized by Scripture, then it is not optional for churches to contribute to them; every local church must contribute if this is part of God’s word. Any church that does not contribute is in error.

F. The only way the current situation (differences in practice between churches of Christ today) could be justified would be under both of the following circumstances:

1. If the NT mentioned (or in any way sanctioned) the use of sponsoring churches or missionary societies, and

2. If some NT churches contributed to these and others did not. That is, if it was clearly optional in NT times.

The Work of the Church: Edification

Before we go any farther into our study, it would be good to remind ourselves of a basic fact: the local church is a group of Christians, but not every group of Christians is a church. What is the difference? A church is a group of Christians in a particular locale who have united together for the purpose of doing the work and worship assigned by the Lord to the group. They are acting as the church only when they are purposefully functioning as one, as a body, uniting their efforts and resources to do what the Lord commanded the group to do. They are most what they are when they are assembled together, but the assembly is not what makes them a church. They are still the church even when not assembled in one place together when they are considered as the body of Christ. One Christian does not make a church (at any time), a group of Christians does not necessarily make a church, and just because a group of Christians is doing something does not necessarily mean the church is doing it. It depends on the purpose and intent, the deliberate unity, behind what they are doing.

The difference may be illustrated by noting the difference between a pile of shingles and a roof, the difference between a barrel of links and a chain, the difference between a company picnic and a group of people who work at the same company getting together and having a picnic. Christians may do things together without acting as a church when they do so (see the differences in Matt 18:15-17).

What is edification?

The Greek word used in the NT (stem : oikodom--) denotes:

In a literal sense, “to build, erect, construct.” Matt 7:24; Mark 12:1; Acts 7:47; etc.

3. In a figurative sense, “to build up, to strengthen, to establish, to benefit.”

a) Thus “edify” means to build up spiritually, to increase in faith and spirituality, to grow as Christians, to be morally stronger, etc.

4. Note the contexts of the following passages:

a) Rom 14:19 -- mentioned along with peace.

b) Eph 4:12-15 -- maturing spiritually. It is related to Christian spiritual growth.

c) 1 Cor 14:3 -- mentioned along with exhortation and consolation.

d) 1 Thes 5:11 -- mentioned along with encouragement.

G. The importance of edification for the church is immediately apparent.

1. Christ wants His church to be ever-perfecting itself, so that it is constantly becoming more holy and more effective in spreading the gospel.

2. When we are first added to the church we are spiritual babes, and edification is needed to get us out of spiritual infancy and into maturity in Christ. The church will never be able to do its work well unless it is increasing spiritually.

H. Edification is spiritual, in keeping with the spiritual nature of the church. cf. Jude 20; Col 2:7.

1. Matt 16:18 -- the church is “built” on faith, and it is in that faith that the church is built up(cf. Acts 16:5; Phil 1:25).

2. It is basically something we do for each other. 1 Thes 5:11; Rom 15:2; cf. 2 Cor 10:8; 12:19; 13:10.

How were the early Christians edified?

I. The early Christians were edified by the teaching of God’s word.

1. Eph 4:12, 16. In this context Paul is discussing Christ’s gifts to His church. The offices listed in v 11 are the gifts Christ gave to His church for its edification (v 12).

a) That is, when the men who fill these offices serve the church faithfully in them, the end result is the strengthening of the church. Christ designed His church to be self-edifying. That is, it does not need a human addition to be edified!

b) Every one of the offices mentioned in v 11 has at least one thing in common: they are all teachers of the word of God to one degree or another. Clearly, the church is edified by the teaching of the word.

2. Acts 20:32; Eph 4:15; Col 2:7.

J. The early Christians were edified by their worship together.

1. 1 Cor 14:3-5, 12, 26. Paul recommends prophecy to them (instead of tongue-speaking) as the best way to edify the church. Thus the church was edified by the presentation of God’s word to the assembled group.

a) cf. Heb 10:24f

2. Our worship together thus has a dual purpose: to glorify God and Christ, and to build ourselves up. cf. Eph 5:19 and Col 3:17.

K. We may edify each other with encouraging words. Eph 4:29; 1 Thes 5:11.

L. Love edifies.

1. Eph 4:16; 1 Cor 8:1. When you consider the nature of NT love (agape) -- how it is sacrificial and how it seeks first the good of others -- it is easy to see how love builds us up spiritually.

2. cf. 1 Cor 13:4f; Rom 15:2.

The church-supported college.

M. Among churches of Christ the church support of colleges was a dominant issue around the time of the second world war. This period saw either the establishment or the growth of the following schools: Pepperdine College (now Pepperdine University), Abilene Christian College (now Abilene Christian University), Freed-Hardeman College (now Freed-Hardeman University), David Lipscomb College (now Lipscomb University), Harding College (now Harding University), Tennessee Bible College, and others.

N. The premises upon which churches have supported these colleges have traditionally been:

1. The colleges teach the word of God, and the word of God edifies, hence the college is a means of edifying the brethren.

2. The colleges provide training for men to become gospel preachers in the Lord’s church, and thus they serve an important need for the church (“look how much good they are doing”).

O. The church-supported college examined:

1. The NT pattern is that the local church is fully capable of edifying itself with the word of God and with worship (see above). No NT church sent money to a college so that the college could edify the saints. The college takes the work of edification away from local churches.

2. Since the college does not serve one local church but ostensibly exists to serve all local churches by training preachers, it is an attempt to construe a group larger than the local church. That is, it exists to serve “the brotherhood.”

3. The church-supported college involves the church in secular education, for which there is no NT authority.

4. The same general considerations that were studied regarding missionary societies apply to the colleges as well. Either way the church is sending money to a human organization so the organization can do the work God gave to the church.

5. The Bible nowhere says that a gospel preacher must have a formal education in order to preach. All that is required is faithfulness to the Lord and a willingness to do the work of an evangelist. If a man does not need a college education to preach, the argument that the college serves an important need by training gospel preachers disappears.

P. Can a group of Christians (not a church) get together and create a college?

1. Yes -- just as a group of Christians can get together and operate any other business without being a church as they do so.

2. No Scripture has been violated as long as:

a) they do not operate the college (or business) with the purpose of acting as, or its being, a church, and

b) they do not use or accept church money for it

IV. Fellowship halls.

A. Many churches of Christ have built kitchen facilities and dining rooms, and some have built gymnasiums. Again, these have been defended on the basis of edification.

1. Along with these are often found church-sponsored ball teams, youth rallies, etc.

B. Are fellowship halls a means to edification?

1. The use of fellowship halls, etc. for edification betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of what edification really is. See above. Recreation, sports, eating common meals together, etc. are not edification in the Biblical sense of that term!

2. It is not uncommon for such facilities to be used to attract people to the worship service, nor is it unusual to see these facilities being used for purely social reasons (birthday parties, memorial dinners, etc.).

a) In addition, many churches charge a fee for those who attend these social gatherings, involving an unScriptural means of raising money for the church.

b) Nowhere did the apostles use or condone the use of physical enticements to attract people to the church. The early Christians attracted the lost with the good news about Jesus Christ.

C. Is it wrong for Christians to eat together, play ball together, etc.?

1. No — in fact it is good for Christians to spend time with each other socially. But it is not the work of the church to sponsor, support, or promote these things.

2. Christians may gather together for social (or other) reasons -- and they may pool money to do so -- but it is not the work of the church, and they may do so only with the understanding that they are not acting as the church in these things.

Conclusion: Not just any activity which makes us feel good or which involves spending time with each other is edification in the NT sense. Furthermore, it is important that we edify ourselves in the same ways the early Christians edified themselves. Their examples constitute the pattern for us.