The church is not a franchise 

In last week’s bulletin, we discussed the subject of church funds and examined what you can and cannot use these funds for. What we need to discuss further is the relationship between churches. After all, some religious groups are organized like a fast food franchise. In other words, you might own a local McDonalds, but as a franchise you send money to the corporate head to cover licensing costs, advertising, etc.

Churches of our Lord that you read about in the bible are not franchises. They did not send money to a centralized organization in charge of erecting church buildings, advertising, placing preachers, printing teaching material, etc. Instead, the local churches are self-governing and autonomous. With Christ being the head of the church (Col. 1:18), every local congregation takes care of its own business.

To be clear, God recognizes no universal church of Christ “organization”. There is no pattern or authority for this in the Bible.  The New Testament contains no faithful religious organization larger than the local church. Consider why seven letters were written to seven different churches of Christ in Asia (Rev. 2-3). There was no “head church” to filter a message through. Instead, a letter was written to each independent church.

Of course, this system of organization is very different from most denominations today. Most groups have an earthly headquarters, appoint people to various centralized leadership positions and devise their own bylaws for the organization. These rules are enforced, and those who do not abide by them might be ousted.

As for the Lord’s church as described in the New Testament, a local group that wanders away from following Christ will not have a direct impact on any other church that is His. Why? They take care of their own business and have Christ as their head. A local church may stray, but this will not drag down the “universal” church belonging to Christ. Contrast this with the denominational model described earlier. If the “head church” strays from Christ, then the entire organization will stray (and because they are using a non-Biblical organization model, they are already straying).

Because the churches of Christ are independent, each local group decides what they can afford to do – TV programs, radio shows, paying for a preacher full time, owning a building to meet within, etc.  These are all local decisions – no other church of Christ can interfere with the decision-making.

This does not mean that local churches have nothing to do with each other. In New Testament times, brethren had fellowship with one another. Paul visited many churches and even sent greetings from churches (Rom. 16:16). While Christians are encouraged to visit and worship with faithful congregations when travelling, they do not have a right to interfere with their affairs.

If two local, independent churches are both faithfully following the head – Christ – there should be no doctrinal differences. This makes sense because to abide in Christ’s doctrine of Christ means we are right with our God (II John 9). If you visit a place that teaches different things than where you have been going, that means they do not have the same doctrine. One group might be right while the other is wrong, or they might both wrong. If they differ on doctrinal matters, though, they both cannot be right (I Cor. 1:10)!

As you seek for the truth (Matt. 7:7), keep in mind that the denominational/franchise concept many religious groups use today is not found in the Bible. Instead, there is the church Jesus built (Matt. 16:16; Acts 20:28). Make sure you seek that one.

                                                                                             Chuck