Last week during the American Thanksgiving, we went to the Okanagan Valley to explore a Church Planting oportunity.
The Spiritual need is there, and the people we met in the area had a heart for a bible proclaiming, evangelical movment to begin afresh in the region.
We have determined to pursue this for the present and see God's leading as we continue on this path.
It is a good oportunity for us to spend time now formulating the most Biblical model of Church that we can determine, from a study of Scripture first, and foremost, and secondly the works of Christ centered, churches throughout history that have proved faithful.
As Baptists we believe in the autonomy of the local church. This is to safeguard the flock from catholic style hierarchy, which had often persecuted and usually dominated the local body of Christ. However, the opposite extreme of pure democracy, one member, one vote congragational governence, with no regard for any authority of any kind, has also destroyed any number of churches.
Any view of Church governance needs to be not only informed by Scripture, but rather imposed by Scripture. Balance needs to be found, I would suggest, in voluntary relationships among sister churches. In a future post I will attempt to illustrate my vision of modified congregational government, and model for interchurch cooperation.
