Commitment to the Local Church

Another distinctive of Hope Bible Church is our commitment to the local church.

I imagine that just about every denomination or fellowship of churches has local churches. We can see on main street every kind of church from Baptist to Methodist to Catholic to Brethren. In the past, church history tells the story of many faithful men who helped to grow and spread local churches. In the book of Acts, we see the beginning of the multiplication of local churches from Jerusalem outward to Judea, Samaria, Antioch, the Galatian region, Macedonia, Achaia, and many other places (Acts 9:31).

So it would seem that growing and advancing local churches is true of every denomination. However, not all are committed to a local church centered ministry as the New Testament teaches.

What does it mean to be local church centered? It means we acknowledge that the only organization God has ordained in this present age is the church. There may be plenty of other religious organizations such as missions societies, brotherhoods, creation science organizations, family organizations, schools, campus organizations, radio ministries, publishing houses etc. However, since the priority of what God is doing in the present age is the local church, all these other organizations must be viewed as supplemental to the local church and supportive of the mission of the local church. They have no authority from Christ. They were not commissioned by Christ. God’s authority flows from Jesus Christ, the Head of the church, to the elders/pastors who lead a local congregation (Ephesians 1:22-23). The local church then leads in decision making. Any organization trying to do a good work for the gospel or biblical education, must answer to the local church (Acts 15:22f).

By keeping the ministry centered on the local church, we help to preserve the original commission of the church of Jesus and not let the church get sidetracked onto other goals or purposes (Matthew 28:18-20). Satan would love the church to abandon its mission and pursue good, but lesser, goals. Building up the family is a wonderful work. However, the mission of the church is bigger and better. Defending creation science is quite helpful to support the Bible, but the church’s commission is much greater than that. Reaching youth on the college campus is a good work to do, but it is not the whole work of Christ in this age

Another benefit of being local church centered is that every member of the church sees that he or she is needed in building up the body (Ephesians 4:16). Some will be more involved in evangelism ministries, others in worship ministries, still others in Bible study ministries. Some will be encouragers, while others will give gifts. All will serve in one body. From the moment someone is saved and joins a local church he perceives his place in the greater body and begins to serve Christ there. He learns to love his local church and the people there. He labors for their benefit and expends himself for the ministry of the church.

When Christians lose sight of the primacy and centrality of the local church, their commitment to church and to other believers begins to fade. The church starts to lose workers and energy. Those remaining get tired of having to pull all of the weight. Eventually the local church shuts down and Satan rejoices. Another light for the gospel is put out because believers got more excited about building something else besides Christ’s church. We must never let that happen.

Our commitment to the centrality of the local church helps to ensure it will not happen.