Lesson 1.36: Financing The Work Of Independent Churches Of Christ

Loved one, WORK AT YOUR OWN PACE, and please be patient as you study. Reply with ONLY the 11 answers to the exam. The next lesson will then be sent with your corrected exam answers. A beautiful completion certificate will be sent to your email upon completion of all 36 lessons.

Pray for wisdom and understanding as you absorb this Spirit filled, faith building, knowledgeable material (John 8:32). If you would like to comment or ask a Bible question, please do. Lord willing, a Bible answer to your question will be provided.

To the good God of Heaven and Earth be the Glory as His Will is done (1 Corinthians 10:31). We love you with the love of the Lord (John 13:34-35; Ephesians 4:15). The Liberty NW church of Christ, meeting in Portland, Oregon, USA.

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61572427827731

LESSON 1.36: FINANCING THE WORK OF INDEPENDENT CHURCHES OF CHRIST

Loved one, in the New Testament, each local church was taught to do its best to fulfill its work according to its own resources in the collection. The mission of the church includes evangelism to the lost, with edification and benevolence to the saints. Each local church has its own collection or treasury to fulfill this work as a result of the members giving according to their abilities each Lord's Day (1 Corinthians 16:1-2).

Independent Organization And Finances

In terms of organization and financial resources, each local church was autonomous and independent (Acts 14:23). New Testament churches did not finance their mission through business activities such as buying, selling, and investing, but the local members sacrificed and gave into the collection to support the work.

They did not canvas the community asking for donations from sinners in the world. Churches were not taught to become financially dependent on each other. No examples of "mother" churches and "satellite" churches can be found in the New Testament.

For instance, there is no Bible instruction or pattern for local churches donating funds to another church to fulfill the work of evangelism and edification. The New Testament challenges each church to do its own work.

Paul commended the church at Thessalonica for "your work of faith, and labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.... For from you sounded out the word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God-ward is spread abroad; so that we need not to speak any thing" (1 Thessalonians 1:3, 8 ).

Other churches can encourage a certain church by sending a preacher to conduct studies and to edify the brethren, but there is no Bible precept or precedent authorizing those churches to donate funds to another church for evangelism and edification.

The New Testament pattern shows that only when there is an emergency benevolence need, a congregation is authorized to send some amount to relieve the burden of another local church. We can read this in passages such as Acts 11:27-30. When the brethren in Judea suffered for lack of food and other necessities because of a famine, the church in Antioch sent temporary benevolence "to the elders by the hands of Barnabus and Saul" (vs. 30).

At a later time when there was an emergency need in Jerusalem, some churches sent benevolence according to 2 Corinthians chapters 8-9. When there is an emergency among the brethren in one congregation of the Lord's church, if other congregations have available resources, they can make a decision to send benevolence to meet the emergency, then after that no more money is sent. It is not ongoing.

When Paul was visiting churches to gather funds for the emergency need in Jerusalem, he visited the churches of Macedonia. They themselves also experienced poverty, and because of that Paul decided not to ask or expect any amount from them. But these churches in poverty insisted to sacrifice and they gave an amount above and beyond Paul's expectation.

Paul explained how or why they were able to do this: "And this they did, not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God" (2 Corinthians 8:5). It is interesting to learn there was no plan to provide ongoing benevolence to the poor churches of Macedonia. To the contrary, the poor churches of Macedonia insisted to sacrifice and send benevolence to the saints suffering an emergency need in Jerusalem. This shows that even people in poverty can understand and apply the teaching of Jesus, "It is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20:35).

The churches of Christ must do their best to follow God's plan. We cannot jointly organize the churches into a centralized institution, so that funds will be sent to the central headquarters and distributed to certain churches and preachers. This is the man-made plan of the Roman Catholic Church and of the many denominations. Some people cannot image how churches can function without these man-made organizations. For instance, how will preachers be supported without them?

Financial Support For Preachers

If we ask how the preacher will find support to preach the gospel, the Bible reveals God's plan as follows:

1. The preacher will work with his own hands to support his needs the same as Paul did many times (Acts 18:1-4; 2 Thessalonians 3:7-9).

2. The local church where a preacher is teaching can support him if there is sufficient money in the collection as Paul taught in 1 Corinthians 9:14: "Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel."

3. If a local church any place has available funds, it may send some amount directly to the preacher for his needs the same as the church at Philippi sent to Paul time and again (Philippians 4:15-17).

4. If one local church sends support but the preacher is still lacking for his needs, two or more churches can donate support for his needs as was done in 2 Corinthians 11:8-9.

When local churches sent funds to support a preacher, the funds were sent directly to the preacher and not to any human institution, mother church, sponsoring church, or any other agency for distribution to the preacher. Messengers can be chosen to deliver the funds to the preacher in accordance with the instructions given by the local church which provides the support (Philippians 4:18).

If an individual Christian has financial resources and would like to help any church, any preacher, or any other person, he is free to use his personal funds for any right and good purpose. Before a man donates his money into the treasury, it is under his "own power" (Acts 5:4; "under your control").

His first obligation is to give into the collection of the local church where he is a member, but after that, if he has additional funds, he is free to help anyone who has a need especially among the saints (Galatians 6:10). Such a brother loves to share his resources whenever possible because he remembers the teaching of Jesus, "It is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20:35).

In other words, God's plan is for each local church to be indigenous, independent, and autonomous. God made no plan for funds to be constantly flowing from one local church to another local church for any purpose. When there is a system for funds to always flow from one church to another church, this creates dependency and the receiving church will never grow to maturity. If each church is challenged to meet its own needs, the members learn how to take responsibility, how to sacrifice, how to trust in God, and how to challenge themselves to do more and more.

Such a plan involves the necessity of dedication, self-sacrifice, and discipline on the part of every member. This will be painful at times, but this painful process forces each local church to grow to maturity. An infant struggles to exit his mother's womb. An infant struggles to learn to crawl. A small child struggles to learn to walk, and then to run.

If someone will always carry the infant and then carry the child, it is much easier for the child to move from one place to another, but he will never grow to maturity. His struggle is painful at times, but it promotes growth, strength, stamina, and health to the body. That is the same plan God has for each local congregation.

In the meantime, if there is an emergency, God has a plan for temporary help to be sent from one church to another one, but only if there is some available fund in the collection. Otherwise, we can do nothing but trust in God who has many ways to help us which we do not know. God has a plan to support preachers from the collection of churches when there are available funds. Otherwise, the preacher must work with his own hands and trust God to help him even when he does not know how God will do it.

The Church Not A Social Welfare Agency

Preachers often travel in their homeland and in foreign lands to preach to sinners and also to edify saints in congregations from place to place. The arrival of the visiting preacher in a foreign land is not a signal for the distribution of funds to preachers and other saints who have various needs. This is widely practiced in the denominations and even by some preachers among liberal churches of Christ.

The expectation for distribution of funds may become so strong that there is great disappointment and even anger when no funds are distributed. In short, false hopes and expectations are generated by a false system of free flowing funds. There is no plan for ongoing benevolence from churches of Christ to the poor in the Bible because Christ did not establish his church to function as a social welfare agency.

If people and preachers today are looking for "loaves" and "fishes" like some people in John 6, the time will come when they will be disappointed and will go away the same as many people did in John 6. Why did people who were first drawn to Jesus turn away from him? Because Jesus had no plan for ongoing distribution of "loaves" and "fishes."

He made one necessary distribution on one day in John 6 because the people stayed all day to learn from him, but after that he gave nothing, no more "loaves" and "fishes." He showed his compassion in that one distribution, but his primary purpose was to perform a miracle proving He is the Son of God and the Savior of the world.

When they later sought and found him, He rebuked them as is recorded in John 6, "26 Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled. 27 Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed. 28 Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? 29 Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent" (John 6:26-29).

When the people saw there would be no program of ongoing distribution, that is when many were greatly disappointed, and finally they turned away from him.

Jesus Christ came to give salvation not to promise material gain or personal advantage of any kind. "Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many" (Matthew 20:28). "For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke 19:10).

It is hard for many people to understand the church of Christ today because they are searching for material gain and personal advancement. Christ did not come to earth, die on the cross, send the gospel to the world, and establish his church in order to distribute material gain or other temporal benefits but for our eternal salvation. The true church of Christ is not a social welfare agency like the Red Cross or the Salvation Army.

Independent Churches Focused On God

The gospel of Christ creates independent churches in every place, not dependent churches. Our faith and dependence focuses only on God. His Word and His plan is sufficient for local churches to finance and to fulfill their God-given mission.

The Catholic Church and denominations centralize the work of their churches by building human institutions, boards, and headquarters which create programs offering material gain, positions for personal ambition, and security in this life. They focus their faith and dependence on these human agencies and programs rather than on God and His simple plan revealed in Scripture. In some cases, even churches of Christ now wrongly function through similar centralized agencies and programs.

Let us remember: "21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity" Matthew 7:21-23).

God's plan for financing the mission of local churches will work if we will work God's plan! Let us be diligent to do the Father's will, not our own will!