Frank Walton | Hartselle, Alabama, USA
I appreciate greatly the desire of zealous brethren to spread the gospel of Christ to a lost and dying world. I have been to over 1 dozen countries to preach the gospel and to encourage faithful gospel preachers and brethren there. I plan to make other trips, Lord willing.
In the New Testament, without centralized organization or universal machinery, the early church preached the gospel and “turned the world upside down” (Acts 17:6). How did they do it? We have the same “pattern of sound words” (2 Timothy 1:13) to use today. God’s plan will work if we work God’s plan! We can do all things through Christ (Philippians 4:13, John 15:4-5).
With Christ’s Word revealed by the apostles and prophets, we read that evangelists, pastors and teachers were given for the equipping of the saints, to speak the truth in love, to protect saints from religious error and mutually edify one another (Ephesians 4:11-16). This happened by individuals working wherever they went, and by the collective unit of the local church, “the churches of Christ” (Romans 16:16).
In the New Testament, there is a clear distinction between individual work and effort, as compared to the local churches work (1 Timothy 5:16; Matthew 18:15-17). The divinely ordained collective unit for worship and spiritual training we read in the New Testament is the local church (Philippians 1:1, 27). The local church is God’s collective organization specifically set up to be God’s Bible school as “the pillar and support of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15). In Revelation 2-3, we see 7 churches that were the Lord’s lights in the world, and each congregation was autonomous and independent of each other. There was no organizational harness tying churches together, so each acted autonomously and independently under Christ, without centralized human oversight.
In aiming to “speak the truth in love,” I do not understand why brethren want local churches to support their humanly-organized and designed Bible school or college or institute that is apart from the local church to work in place of what God gave the local church to do. Again, the local church is God’s collective organization specifically set up to be God’s Bible school as “the pillar and support of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15). Nor do I understand why some want to set up a humanly designed school of preaching, in midst of churches that should already be doing this work, and we do not see such in the New Testament of supplanting of the local church with a human organization.
How were preachers trained in the New Testament? They either worked directly with an individual preacher, as Paul trained Timothy (Acts 16:3) or we see local churches working in truth to edify (build up) itself in the truth by teaching and training (1 Thessalonians 5:11; 2 Thessalonians 2:15-17; Hebrews 10:24-25). We don’t see a human organization acting to supplant the local congregation or usurp its divinely assigned function. Again, God’s plan will work if we work God’s plan! What is it that a human-devised school of preaching (of which we read nothing in the New Testament) is capable of doing that a strong local church is incapable of doing? Do you think man’s wisdom is better than God’s?
Individuals have more latitude in judgment that what is specifically ordained for the local church (1 Timothy 5:16). Why? Much more instruction in the New Testament is given to us as individuals, and most of what we do for the Lord daily is as an individual Christian. The exception to this is what we do collectively in the local church, which would therefore be more restricted or specialized. A confusion and blurring between the distinction of individual duties and work versus congregational duties and work has led to many problems in church history.
Such confusion led to the unbiblical organizing efforts in first 5oo years after the establishment of the church. This corruption of the Lord’s simple plan of a plurality of qualified men in a local church as elders (Acts 14:23) went to the acceptance of one bishop over the elders in the congregation, which grew to a diocesan bishop overseeing a group of area churches, to later patriarchal bishops began overseeing a larger area, to finally the Pope in Rome overseeing the universal church in 606 AD. This organizational change didn’t happen overnight! Error crept in gradually with small changes to the local church organization, with unintended consequences.
Later, even restorationist preacher Alexander Campbell, who called for a restoration of “the ancient order of things,” said the universal church is commanded to preach the gospel to all the world, without a specific organization to do it (Matthew 28:18-20), therefore in his mind there was a need for a Missionary Society (a human organization founded in 1859) to be “a more efficient organization” for churches to contribute to for world evangelism. Error and division resulted in the USA in the 19th century because many conservative brethren insisted that this went beyond what God authorized, that in local congregations each was to teach, develop, and do their own work independently in preaching the gospel. They taught there was no New Testament authority for a human organization for churches to work through, to do their work for them.
How do we know there is a difference between individual responsibility and action vs. collective responsibility and action? Individuals are to work in economic enterprise honestly (Ephesians 4:28), but the local congregation is not authorized to go into economic enterprises to raise money or even provide vocational training. Rather its training is spiritual training of the soul and character. Individuals are to be salt and light in the world (Matthew 5:13-16), and we may exercise political and civil rights (Acts 25:11), whereas the local church as a collectivity (made of those individuals) have no right as a congregation to preach politics or enter the congregation into civil political campaigns. Not everything a Christian may do is the assigned work of the local church.
In the New Testament, the Lord has his school of preaching already set up! It is the framework of the local church “as the pillar and support of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15). Is teaching and training preachers part of supporting the truth? Yes! Is the local church an “optional” arrangement that may be shunted aside by the wisdom of men for a “more efficient” human scheme? No! Then, it is the work of the local church, with sufficient maturity and personnel, to train gospel preachers.
Timothy was told to work in the local church and teach (1 Timothy 1:3). He was later told by Paul to train preachers and teachers (2 Timothy 2:2). This can be done individually or collectively in the local church, yet we read nowhere that men may set up an organization to act in place of the local church. If local churches are deficient in numbers or competent personnel, then we need to go back to the Bible and build up these churches by teaching truth and urging them to grow up in Christ! This is what was done in the New Testament (Acts 2:42, 6:7, 9:31, 16:5). It is a false dilemma and a form of situation ethics to say that since some churches aren’t presently able to train preachers, therefore we must set up a human organization to do it for them. Let’s go back to the Bible! Such efforts will equip members of the local church to grow and mature and become more responsible.
Elders are limited in their oversight and work of equipping saints in the local church (Acts 14:23, 1 Pet. 5:1-4, Acts 20:28). This is how “pastors” (elders) equipped the saints and built up the body of Christ (Ephesians 4:11-16). The same would apply for “evangelists” to equip members and prospective preachers in the local church. Evangelist may travel and teach the Bible individually to anyone at anytime, as Paul did with Timothy (Acts 16:3), but we do not read in the New Testament of a local church contributing to a human organization to do its work in place of it doing its own work. Why do some brethren think a local church, with sufficient numbers in members and mature workers and teachers, is insufficient to train preachers?
In the New Testament, churches sent money directly to preachers and not to an intermediate organization to do its work for in its place (Philippians 4:15-18, 2 Corinthians 11:8). We need to get back to the New Testament pattern of preaching the Bible, converting people with the power of the gospel (not social programs), building up the local church so it can train and equip members and preachers. We also see that the local church was not a world relief program (which is an individual duty, James 1:27).
I saw in Jamaica several years ago, and it can happen in any poorer country, if young men in poverty see that they can get support at a vocational/boarding school to teach the Bible, this is a huge physical temptation to escape poverty and act like you want to be a preacher. (There are reports of the corrupting power of money in similar efforts in the Philippines, India, Peru, etc.) One cup/container churches and liberal churches (pro-instruments of music in worship, women preachers, etc.) offer prospective preachers financial support if they will adopt their respective doctrines. Once a physical conduit of regular American money is in place to a foreign country, history has shown that it tends to have a corrupting influence on those who want to receive it, as well as those who control it.
However, following God’s simple plan to teach the Bible to build up local “churches of Christ” (Romans 16:16) has worked in countries like Ethiopia and is also now working well in Mozambique. When I first went to Ethiopia in 2000, the churches were stagnant or declining, laboring under the mission system of centralized oversight and control by sponsoring American churches and human organizational oversight called a mission as an adjunct to the local church. After several “conservative” American preachers started to come to Ethiopia in 1999 to regularly teach the Bible and advocate the simple New Testament pattern to build up local churches, independent of a human organization, several Ethiopian preachers wanted to be free of this unscriptural man-made mission plan in Addis Ababa. The result was very fruitful! After Ethiopian men proved they were trustworthy and reliable as preachers, then they sometimes received some direct financial support (mostly partial not full-time) to preach the gospel. Growth and strong churches were developed. Young preachers were being mentored by older, mature preachers, either individually or in a local church. There are now over 350 conservative, independent churches in Ethiopia striving to follow the New Testament pattern; there have been over 23,000 baptisms in 14 years!! God was causing the growth for doing God’s work in God’s way!
This is same New Testament pattern being duplicated in Mozambique with over 1,000 baptisms in the past 2 years! However, this was not always the case there. The churches in Mozambique had been in decline, going from a peak of 300 churches of Christ to about 80 three years ago. Why the decline? American money had stopped coming in to fund benevolence programs, etc. Yet, preachers that had gone to Ethiopia started going to Mozambique about 3 years ago, simply teaching the Bible, building up local churches to do their own work, and the Lord’s wisdom in building up the kingdom is being vindicated before our eyes again. There have been over 1,000 baptisms in the last 2 years!! God’s plan works, brethren!
I humbly ask, “Where is the scripture that authorizes a man-made school of preaching for local churches to support?” _________ (please fill in the blank if you can). Again I ask, What is it that a humanly designed school of preaching can do that a strong local church is incapable of doing?? I believe nothing! So, why not work to follow the New Testament pattern of teaching the Bible to build up local churches (Acts 2:42, 6:7, 16:3-5), to equip them to do their work of spiritual work of teaching members, and teaching in local churches to develop preachers?
Be very careful brethren about thinking our human schemes and organization can improve upon the Lord’s New Testament pattern. I realize many such efforts are well-intentioned in theory to help advance the kingdom. Yet, let’s not supplant the Lord’s way with a human scheme. God’s ways are superior to man’s ways (Isaiah 55:8-9). Let’s do Bible things in Bible ways. Back to the Bible is always right. The Lord has promised to bless such scriptural efforts (1 Corinthians 3:6).
In brotherly love and love for truth,
Frank Walton
