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 Bro.
Turner:
It
is scriptural for one church to assist destitute saints who are
members of another church, without such assistance being sent
through the elders of the other church?
PK
Reply:
Paul
was in “want”, had “affliction” (although he said he
knew how to be content under such conditions) and the church at
Philippi sent to him. (Phil. 4: 10-f.) Brethren from Macedonia
supplied his “want” when he was in Corinth, although Paul
considered some of the assistance received as “wages”. (2
Cor. 11:8-9) We do not offer these cases as exact parallels to
that of the question, but feel they contribute to the solution.
John
urged brethren to show hospitality (assist) traveling saints (3
Jn. 5-8) and the Romans were asked to assist Phoebe while she
was in their city. (Rom. 16: 1-2) These passages seem to counter
the idea that a saint must receive all his help from the local
church of which he is a member. I would add that the “obligation”
of the local church is one of love and concern for a brother,
NOT party rules and regulations that stem from the fact his name
is on the roll.
Circumstances
(dating back to the earliest struggles with the “missionary
society”) have conditioned brethren to think of the local
church as the organizational media for the universal church.
Campbell proposed that the universal church function through the
missionary society — and others countered with the proposition
that the
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universal church was to function through the local church organization. The fallacy
— somewhat overlooked in the smoke of battle — was the
concept of the universal church functioning through ANY media.
”Church of Christ” denominationalism will continue to
germinate as long as this seed is allowed to live.
Saints
who agree to work and worship together collectively make up a
local church — and I believe the N.T. authorizes and
encourages this kind of functional entity. Saints who make up
this local “team” have “team” obligations — but this
is far from saying that henceforth their whole life must emanate
from and be directed by the forces that make this local team
possible.
In
the event of general destitution, where individual and detailed
needs are not known, the overseers of a local church would
certainly be in a position to see that assistance reached the
persons in want. It seems to me this was the case in Acts
11:27-30, when disciples in Antioch sent “relief unto the
brethren... sending it to the elders.”
I
grew up in a community where the “missionary society” battle
was lately fought. I heard preachers stress that we must glorify
God “in the church” (Eph. 3:21) and it was several years
before I studied the passage for myself, and noticed that it
referred to glorifying God as saints, i.e., in the universal
Church, NOT that all must be done through some local church.
(See 1 Cor. 10: 27-31) Saints may function to God’s glory as
individuals, as well as collectively.
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