PHILIPPIANS 4 9 The things which you learned

PHILIPPIANS 4: 9 “The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you” (NKJV).

CHURCH GOVERNMENT & COOPERATION PERSONAL CHURCH ORGANIZATION AUTONOMY EXTREMES COOPERATION NEW TESTAMENT EXAMPLES Autonomy and Independence “Shepherd the flock of God which is among you [en humin]” (1 Pet. 5: 2) “Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which [en hō] the Holy Spirit has made you overseers” (Acts 20: 28) Elders are “in” the flock over which they watch.

CHURCH GOVERNMENT & COOPERATION PERSONAL CHURCH ORGANIZATION AUTONOMY EXTREMES COOPERATION NEW TESTAMENT EXAMPLES Autonomy and Independence Diotrephes loved “to have the preeminence” (3 John 9) Put those “out of the church” whom John sent (3 John 10) Peter and Gentile converts (Gal. 2: 11 -12)

CHURCH GOVERNMENT & COOPERATION PERSONAL Autonomy and Independence CHURCH ORGANIZATION AUTONOMY EXTREMES COOPERATION NEW TESTAMENT EXAMPLES Congregations were not considered branches extending from some centralized stem. They were independent communities of individuals serving the Lord.

CHURCH GOVERNMENT & COOPERATION PERSONAL CHURCH ORGANIZATION Extreme Views of Autonomy 1. Anarchy EXTREMES “A state of disorder due to absence or non-recognition of authority” (New Oxford American Dictionary) COOPERATION In one sense no one is autonomous. NEW TESTAMENT “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2: 20) AUTONOMY EXAMPLES “Slaves of God” (Rom. 6: 22)

CHURCH GOVERNMENT & COOPERATION PERSONAL CHURCH ORGANIZATION Extreme Views of Autonomy 1. Anarchy AUTONOMY Local church organization is autonomous. EXTREMES “Head over all things to the church” (Eph. 1: 22) COOPERATION NEW TESTAMENT “The Chief Shepherd” (1 Pet. 5: 4) EXAMPLES “Whatever you bind on the earth shall occur, having been bound in Heaven” (Matt. 18: 18, GLT)

CHURCH GOVERNMENT & COOPERATION PERSONAL CHURCH ORGANIZATION AUTONOMY EXTREMES COOPERATION NEW TESTAMENT EXAMPLES Extreme Views of Autonomy 2. Isolation Fellowship with God = fellowship with one another in Christ (1 John 1: 3). “Love the brotherhood” (1 Pet. 2: 17) Paul Galatians (Gal. 1: 6 -9)—Jesus Asia (Rev. 1 -3) Pass “by on the other side” Luke 10: 31 -32)?

CHURCH GOVERNMENT & COOPERATION PERSONAL CHURCH ORGANIZATION AUTONOMY EXTREMES COOPERATION NEW TESTAMENT EXAMPLES Church Cooperation “One real hindrance to brotherhood unity has been an ungodly view of church autonomy. ” He argued that church autonomy “guaranteed that the world will never be evangelized” and thus concluded that autonomy is “contrary to the very purpose of God and is sinful” (Boston Bulletin, “Progressive Revelation, ” Part 4, June 5, 1988).

CHURCH GOVERNMENT & COOPERATION PERSONAL CHURCH ORGANIZATION AUTONOMY EXTREMES COOPERATION NEW TESTAMENT EXAMPLES Church Cooperation “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves” (Gen. 11: 4) “Make us a king to judge us like all the nations” (1 Sam. 8: 5) “They have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them” (1 Sam. 8: 7)

CHURCH GOVERNMENT & COOPERATION PERSONAL Church Cooperation CHURCH Cooperation Debates in the Restoration Movement ORGANIZATION AUTONOMY EXTREMES COOPERATION NEW TESTAMENT EXAMPLES “Congregational Cooperation: A Historical Study, ” by Earl Irvin West: http: //grandoldbook. com/congregationalcooperatio n. pdf David Lipscomb and John T. Poe (1869)

CHURCH GOVERNMENT & COOPERATION PERSONAL Church Cooperation CHURCH Cooperation Debates in the Restoration Movement ORGANIZATION AUTONOMY EXTREMES COOPERATION NEW TESTAMENT EXAMPLES “But when a church finds a work to do which it cannot do alone, how shall it act then? ” (West)

CHURCH GOVERNMENT & COOPERATION PERSONAL Church Cooperation CHURCH Cooperation Debates in the Restoration Movement ORGANIZATION AUTONOMY EXTREMES COOPERATION NEW TESTAMENT EXAMPLES “Precisely as the family acts, when it finds itself unable to roll its own logs, raise its own house, harvest its own grain or pick its own cotton. Let it make known its weakness and wants to its nearest sister congregations or congregation…”

CHURCH GOVERNMENT & COOPERATION PERSONAL Church Cooperation CHURCH Cooperation Debates in the Restoration Movement ORGANIZATION AUTONOMY EXTREMES COOPERATION NEW TESTAMENT EXAMPLES “… And let these congregations without any human organization, say whether they will aid the one asking aid or not and send the aid to sustain the teacher, or feed the poor, as congregations, without the intervention of any human organization…”

CHURCH GOVERNMENT & COOPERATION PERSONAL Church Cooperation CHURCH Cooperation Debates in the Restoration Movement ORGANIZATION AUTONOMY EXTREMES COOPERATION NEW TESTAMENT EXAMPLES “…So soon then as the work is done each congregation is left perfectly free to pursue its own course without any entangling alliances, with burdensome and frail human machinery or with its sister congregations. ” (Lipscomb)

CHURCH GOVERNMENT & COOPERATION PERSONAL Church Cooperation CHURCH Cooperation Debates in the Restoration Movement ORGANIZATION AUTONOMY EXTREMES COOPERATION NEW TESTAMENT EXAMPLES “Two farmers, living as neighbors, work side by side. One has work to do that he cannot do himself. So, he asks the aid of his neighbor. Each farmer, pursuing his own independent course, cooperates. The emergency that necessitated the call for aid ends, and the farmers are left free of any encumbering machinery. ” (West-Lipscomb)

CHURCH GOVERNMENT & COOPERATION PERSONAL CHURCH ORGANIZATION AUTONOMY EXTREMES COOPERATION NEW TESTAMENT EXAMPLES Cooperation in the New Testament No centralized concept of the church (Acts 8: 1, 14; 11: 19 -23; 15: 6)

CHURCH GOVERNMENT & COOPERATION PERSONAL CHURCH ORGANIZATION AUTONOMY EXTREMES COOPERATION NEW TESTAMENT EXAMPLES Cooperation in the New Testament 1. Benevolence “Relief to the brethren dwelling in Judea” (Acts 11: 29 b) “Each according to his ability” (Acts 11: 29 a) “Sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul” (Acts 11: 30)

CHURCH GOVERNMENT & COOPERATION PERSONAL CHURCH ORGANIZATION AUTONOMY EXTREMES COOPERATION NEW TESTAMENT EXAMPLES Cooperation in the New Testament 2. Evangelism “Now you Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church shared with me concerning giving and receiving but you only. For even in Thessalonica you sent aid once and again for my necessities” (Phil. 4: 15 -16)

CHURCH GOVERNMENT & COOPERATION PERSONAL CHURCH ORGANIZATION AUTONOMY EXTREMES COOPERATION NEW TESTAMENT EXAMPLES Must We Follow Biblical Examples? “Learned and received and heard and saw” (Phil. 4: 9) Henderson Meeting (1910) Continent of Great Cities (1976 -present) “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed” (John 8: 31)