Autonomy of the local church

Acts 14:23
Acts 15:22-23
Titus 1:4-5
James 5:14
I Peter 5:1-3

 

I hope the sermon is not this Sunday!!!

The doctrine is not plainly declared in Scripture, it is derived from examining the way each local church set up its elders and governed itself.

With this in mind, three verses stand out for me:

“To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:" (1 Corinthians 1:2, ESV)
(a two-fer; local and universal church)

"And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed." (Acts 14:23, ESV)

"Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood." (Acts 20:28, ESV)

Rob