Why a Family of Churches?
by Andy Rodgers
As you read the New Testament, something you will notice about the earliest followers of Jesus is that they lived quite communal lives. It is likely they would have struggled with the familiar idea of having a “personal relationship with Jesus.”
Instead, together, they had a relationship with Jesus.
Together, they were told to go and make disciples. Together, they waited in the upper room for the Holy Spirit. Together, they devoted themselves to the apostle’s teaching. Together, they shared their resources so there was not a needy person among them. They ate meals, together, with glad and sincere hearts. And, together, they saw men and women being saved daily.
There is no such thing in the New Testament as a Christian who sought to follow Jesus all by themselves.
Many believers in today’s church acknowledge the need for community. We generally see it as beneficial to be a part of a local church where we can be both known and loved, encouraged and challenged to become like Jesus. We readily and enthusiastically agree that individual believers need to be apart of something bigger than themselves. But, a much less common conviction amongst believers today is that individual churches need to be apart of something bigger than themselves, as well.
As much as the New Testament doesn’t promote a vision of life in Christ isolated from other believers, so it also doesn't promote a vision of a church life isolated from a broader community of churches.
We see all throughout the New Testament churches in different places sharing leaders, finances and prayer to see the great commission accomplished together.
In Philippians 1, Paul thanks the Philippian church for their financial partnership in the Gospel.
In Colossians 4, Paul lets the church in Colossae know he is sending them Tychicus to inform them on how Paul is doing and to encourage their hearts.
In Ephesians 6, Paul asks yet another church in a different region to pray for him, that he might boldly proclaim the Gospel in prison.
In Romans 16, it is clear as day that Paul assumes there are many people a part of many different local churches or missionary teams who know each other.
There was an extended family reality to the early church that we often lack in our often competitive, “just our local church” focused culture.There was a local and “translocal” reality to life in the New Testament churches. Pastors weren’t siloed into “their church” to singlehandedly “reach the world for Jesus.” We see throughout Scripture, church leaders partnering with one another to see new gospel works started and/or to encourage existing churches.
Though we see time and time again the early church functioning as an extended family, it could be argued that the reason they partnered with one another so frequently was because the early church was a fledgling, vulnerable movement that had limited financial resources and people. You might be thinking, “some megachurches have budgets that are larger than all of the ancient churches monies pulled together” or “some local church staff teams are larger than the Apostle Paul’s multi-nation apostolic ministry team, therefore we don’t need to partner across church lines in the same way anymore.” Though these are good ideas to process, we truly believe that when the Church operates together, she is more effective in reaching the world around her.
So why do we believe that a family of churches is still a good idea?
1: It allows us to reach places we could never reach on our own.
God has always used people to reach people. The Gospel has always moved through relational networks, and as new people meet Jesus there is a new relational network for the Gospel to move through. There is often a link, or “person of peace,” who opens up a whole region to the Gospel. As we partner together, it allows us to link up with people who connect us to contexts that we would have otherwise never been able to reach.
We dream about planting churches in new places and spaces, whether it be in a township in South Africa, a neighborhood in Ireland or a new gospel work in the 1040 window. This happens as “people of peace” open up new spaces, and the more churches partnering together, the more people and spaces open to plant churches in.
2: We can do more together than we can apart.
While it is true that some large churches have a lot of money and people, the average church is around 70 people in America and much smaller in the 1040 window. When we pool our resources, we can accomplish more. We saw this recently as our family of just 4 smaller churches raised $140,000 for a missionary couple moving to the Muslim world. Also, as we start new church plants, “many hands make light work,” meaning it won’t always be the same church sending away it’s top leaders every time. Sometimes it’s a key leader being sent, sometimes it’s support players, sometimes it’s just finances, but together we have a much better chance to live in the tension of being multiplying, church planting churches while maintaining a stable, healthy church culture, as well.
3: It opens us up to a broader set of leadership giftings.
If siloed, autonomous churches are often subject to one, maybe two, leadership giftings. But the Bible says that there are five important gifts the church needs to become all Jesus intends for her to be.
In Ephesians 4, Paul writes, “And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, equipping the saints for the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ, until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son, growing into maturity with a stature measured by Christ’s fullness.”
Paul is saying that there are different types of equipping gifts that build up the church in different ways and that we will need all of them until the church is perfect, looking identical to Jesus, which (spoiler alert) it doesn’t yet. So as we are connected to other churches and other leaders, we open ourselves up to their giftings and areas of strength that help us all become stronger!
We have seen this countless times when it comes to the different gifts ministering throughout our Restored Family of Churches. When shepherds, like Nicole Pham or Danny Quimlat, minister it often opens people up to being vulnerable with their church families, which then leads to them getting the help they need to experience freedom in Jesus. When evangelists and teachers, like Brad Sarian, preach there is often a sense of revelation regarding what a passage of Scripture says, as well as a desire to see others come to know Jesus. When those with the prophetic gift, like Tom Logue, minister we often experience Jesus’ love through an encounter with the Holy Spirit.
The reality is, when it comes to making disciples of Jesus, we can do far more together than we can apart. Together, we can better make healthy disciple making disciples. Together, we can better plant church planting churches. Together, we can better help others, both near and far, find life and freedom in Jesus as we have ourselves. This is why we belong to a family of churches.
