Congregational Independence

The denominational world around us is bound together by budgets, overseeing bodies, and organizational headquarters. Churches send funds upward, receive preachers from associations, and can be investigated or expelled if they stray from the group's consensus. That structure may be familiar, but it is not what we find in the New Testament — and if we are serious about restoration, we have to be honest about what the Bible actually shows us.

Direct Relations Between Congregations Were Limited

Churches in the first century knew about each other and cared about each other, but they did not govern each other. When trouble arose in Antioch over the law of Moses, men traveled to Jerusalem to consult the apostles and elders there — not because Jerusalem held authority over Antioch, but because the problem had come from there. When saints in Jerusalem were in desperate need, congregations in Macedonia and Achaia gathered what they could and sent it — directly to the elders of that local church, with no middleman in between. That is the pattern: direct, limited, purposeful contact, but never one church standing over another.

The church at Thessalonica is a beautiful example of what indirect connection looks like at its best. Paul wrote of them: "For from you the word of the Lord has sounded forth, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place. Your faith toward God has gone out, so that we do not need to say anything." (1 Thess 1:8) They were not connected to every other congregation by a charter or a cooperative budget. They were connected by a shared faith and a shared mission — and the report of their faithfulness traveled everywhere on its own.

God's Commands Have a Limiting Effect

This principle is worth sitting with carefully. When God specifies something, He automatically limits what does not qualify. The Hebrew writer makes exactly this point about the priesthood: "For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Judah, of which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning priesthood." (Heb 7:14) God named Aaron's sons. That naming ruled out everyone else — not because the text said "no one from Judah," but because specificity itself is a boundary.

The same logic applies to the authority of elders. Peter wrote that elders are to feed the flock "which is among you, taking the oversight thereof" (1 Pet 5:2). Among you. Not among the churches in your region. Not among the congregations in your association. The authority of a body of elders reaches exactly as far as their own local flock — and no further. Denominationalism, by its very nature, sets one governing body over many congregations. That is not a pattern we can find anywhere in the New Testament.

Supporting Preachers — Direct and Simple

One of the clearest demonstrations of congregational independence is the way the early churches supported preachers. Paul was transparent about it: "You Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving, but you only. For even in Thessalonica you sent once and again unto my necessities." (Phil 4:15-16) The Philippians gave directly to Paul. The church at Corinth was not consulted. There was no missionary society collecting funds and deciding where to deploy workers. Each church dealt directly with the preacher it chose to help.

This is the pattern the restoration movement stumbled over in the 1800s, and it is worth being clear about today: cooperation Bible-style means every congregation and every Christian chipping away at the same world, preaching the same gospel, without any organizational structure binding them together from above. Paul reminded the Colossians that within a generation this simple framework had carried the gospel to every creature under heaven (Col 1:23). It worked then. It can work now.

In Closing

God's pattern is plain: elders, deacons, and saints in each local congregation, doing their own work, funding it from their own treasury, standing in direct relationship with the Lord. We do not need a headquarters on this earth — ours is in heaven. Each congregation stands or falls not on any organizational affiliation, but on its faithfulness to God's word. That is where we want to stand. Let us maintain what has been restored.