The Primacy of the Local Church

Back in Ephesians 4:11-12—And [Christ] gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers. For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ—the Apostle Paul lists the “office gifts” that God has given to equip individual believers so they can go out and do the work of building the Body both internally and externally. This leads us to the all-important question: Where is this equipping to take place? Where is the equipping of the saints to occur? Where do the office gifts operate? Can this equipping be done anywhere, by anyone, or by any organization? May we say plainly: This equipping of the saints is to be done in the Local Church. The men spoken of in verse 11 are in the Local Church, for the local church is the training ground for ministry.

Tragically, however, the Local Church is increasingly de-emphasized today, often being relegated to the past and accused of being “outdated,” “narrow,” “limited,” and “old fashioned.” Many advocate a freedom to “minister as they see fit,” without being “confined or shackled to any one church.” But we here submit that this is unscriptural. Why? The reason is, and please get this, God has created a physical entity to deal with a physical world. God chose to create something physical to deal with something physical. This in not because God is limited but because man is limited; God knew that He had to come down to our level with something physical.

To illustrate, I greatly appreciated reading about an incident told by pastor and prolific author Warren Wiersbe. He tells of a free-lance missionary who visited a pastor friend of his asking for financial support. He asked the missionary what group he was associated with. His answer was, “I belong to the invisible church.” The pastor then asked, “Well, what church are you a member of.” He again received the answer, “I belong to the invisible church!” By now the pastor was getting somewhat suspicious and asked, “When does this invisible church meet? Who pastors it?” The missionary became incensed and said, “Well, your church isn’t the true church. I belong to the invisible church.” The pastor’s response, which may we add was based on Biblical principle, “Well, here’s some invisible money to help you minister to the invisible church.” That incident again shows that there is a physical entity with which God is dealing with a physical world. In other words, the Universal Church ministers through the Local Church. Even a casual reading of the New Testament shows this to be the clear precedent.

How vital it is today that we recognized that the Local Church is the functioning organization of the Universal Church. In fact, the Universal Church (that Body of Christ of which all Christians are members) cannot even function properly without the Local Church, for the local church has been ordained of God to carry on earthly ministry. That is why the Apostle Paul founded local churches throughout the known world of his day. To deny the primacy of the Local Church is to deny the very foundation of New Testament ministry.

The Local Church is the training ground, training Christians to be witnesses of Christ. This truly is the beginning of what is commonly called “church outreach.” Dear Christian, you are the outreach. The Local Church has been ordained by God for this task of training Christians for ministry.