CHURCH GOVERNMENT: THE ORGANIZATION OF THE CHURCH James A. Udu

We undertake a study in the next four lessons of the divine plan for the organization of the Church. The scriptures furnish us unto a plan of Church government as well as a plan of worship and work. To believe in and accept God’s word as a divinely inspired and therefore all sufficient then requires recognition of the completeness and perfection of the organization of the church. To undertake to improve upon the Church by reorganization, adding to, or failing to respect God’s arrangement for it is to express dissatisfaction with God’s ways. We should be moved by the spirit of faith to be satisfied with doing God’s work in God’s way. The Church of God is able to do all that God wants done upon the earth.

1. Two uses of word “Church” In New Testament:
1. Universal, comprehensive sense including all saved of the earth Matt. 16:18; 1 Tim. 3:15; Eph. 1:22,23. In this sense the family of God, Body of Christ, Kingdom of God, are the same. No organization in universal sense, knows no authority but Christ and His word. Whoever does the will of God and obeys the Gospel belongs to it Acts 2:41, 47.
2. Local Churches, limited sense including all God’s people in one community. 1 Cor. 1:2; Rom. 16:16; Acts 14:23; 5:11; 8:1). ” In Jerusalem” Acts 13:1; 15:22). ” In Antioch”.