The Blessing of Church Association
I just returned from a trip to New Jersey to help our Great Commission church there. A certain situation had arisen there that was hurting the church. After consulting with the parties involved a solution to the problem was agreed upon and everyone agreed to bury the situation and seek love and unity.
I couldn't help but notice that this positive outcome was a result of the church there in New Jersey being part of a greater association of like-minded believers, in this case Great Commission Latin America (GCLA). They humbly accepted me (and my partner Rodmey) to come into their church and help restore a spirit of peace, love, and unity. What a blessing!
Churches should not be religious islands acting completely independent from the rest of the body of Christ. This kind of independence is foreign to the New Testament, where we repeatedly see interdependent churches - churches working together for the gospel under the supervision of apostles.
In 3 John we see what can happen to independent churches (which always reflects the attitudes of it's leaders). A leader had arisen - "Diotrophes, who loves to be first, will have nothing to do with us." (v. 9) This self-centered leader had pulled his church away from apostolic oversight, he was "gossiping maliciously" against the Apostle John and his ministry team, he did not accept brothers who were coming from John, and kicked out of church any member who did. WOW! Talk about wanting to be #1. Watch out for isolationist leaders who in the name of "loyalty" and "unity" to try to keep the sheep blindly under their autocratic authority.
What was the solution for that church? The Apostle John was going to go to that church and "call attention to what he [Diotrophes] was doing" (v.10) He was going to rebuke that leader in front of the church and restore order and spiritual health to the church. This was to result in a blessing for the church. And churches everywhere that are open to an interdependent relationship with other churches and apostolic leaders will be blessed as well.
I couldn't help but notice that this positive outcome was a result of the church there in New Jersey being part of a greater association of like-minded believers, in this case Great Commission Latin America (GCLA). They humbly accepted me (and my partner Rodmey) to come into their church and help restore a spirit of peace, love, and unity. What a blessing!
Churches should not be religious islands acting completely independent from the rest of the body of Christ. This kind of independence is foreign to the New Testament, where we repeatedly see interdependent churches - churches working together for the gospel under the supervision of apostles.
In 3 John we see what can happen to independent churches (which always reflects the attitudes of it's leaders). A leader had arisen - "Diotrophes, who loves to be first, will have nothing to do with us." (v. 9) This self-centered leader had pulled his church away from apostolic oversight, he was "gossiping maliciously" against the Apostle John and his ministry team, he did not accept brothers who were coming from John, and kicked out of church any member who did. WOW! Talk about wanting to be #1. Watch out for isolationist leaders who in the name of "loyalty" and "unity" to try to keep the sheep blindly under their autocratic authority.
What was the solution for that church? The Apostle John was going to go to that church and "call attention to what he [Diotrophes] was doing" (v.10) He was going to rebuke that leader in front of the church and restore order and spiritual health to the church. This was to result in a blessing for the church. And churches everywhere that are open to an interdependent relationship with other churches and apostolic leaders will be blessed as well.
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