The Church v2 11 Independence Autonomy and Cooperation of Local Churches 2
Each local church is responsible for deciding on and funding their own work. The New Testament clearly reveals 9 things local churches are authorized to do. But, over the years, many have not been satisfied with every local church being independent from one another in overseeing and funding their own work. They have proposed ways where local churches can cooperate together in preaching the gospel and helping needy saints. But, often these cooperation plans involve centralization of local churches where human organizations or local churches decide for all contributing local churches what work is going to be done and how much money is to be allocated to it. The New Testament teaches that churches can cooperate together but never to destroy their independence in overseeing and funding their own work. Let us study how this can be done to avoid plans that have originated from denominations rather than the apostles’ teaching.
