I would love to hear you take on whether the gathering that is an hour and a half away from where the preacher is streaming his message is part of the same local church or another church?
I am not baptist. But my understanding is that the Baptist made the message talks about an autonomous local church and those clearly aren't. Unless you consider the six campuses over many counties or States as one local church.
But to your final point. If all those things are local can we consider it a separate local church if it is being governed, the message is being dictated, if the finances are being managed by a bishop (that's what we call.the pastor who controls the ministers in several churches) in another location? Hasn't that abandoned the local church model? Again this is an Episcopalian form of government. It certainly isn't baptist.
1. Multisites make it hard to practice the Lord's Supper and discipline.
2. Multisites if there is a screen showing a sermon elsewhere seems strange and foreign to the expectations of the Bible
3. Multisites may be the same organization if there are pastors together overseeing it, but I suspect you'd need a more Presbyterian model to make this work.
“It is in membership of a local church in one place that the fellowship of the one holy catholic Church becomes significant. Indeed, such gathered companies of believers are the local manifestation of the one Church of God on earth and in heaven.”
“The basis of our membership in the church is a conscious and deliberate acceptance of Christ as Saviour and Lord by each individual.”
“Membership of our local churches is normally consequent on Believers' Baptism”
“To worship and serve in such a local Christian community is, for Baptists, of the essence of Churchmanship.”
The Baptist Doctrine of the Church.” 1948. Baptist Quarterly 12 (12): 440–48. doi:10.1080/0005576X.1948.11750738.
I'd like to see this from other angles. The local church is much more significant I think, than these doctrines hash out.
The pandemic exposed a real weakness in many devout and faithful Christian's understanding of the local church.
For instance, live streamed church services do not and cannot promote true worship as God has laid down in his word.
There is a fountain of God's grace pouring from that pulpit from which we are called to drink and be nourished.
There is communion with him, a bond in blood thorugh His sacrifice.
There is the mystery of how God uses that local body to effect his holy prerogatives.
There is just so much more I think we could say.
I agree. I think it might be helpful to distinguish:
(1) What something is
(2) What something does
(3) What marks a thing
I was specifying #1. You here are speaking about #2 and #3, I think? And I suppose it's all connected.
I would love to hear you take on whether the gathering that is an hour and a half away from where the preacher is streaming his message is part of the same local church or another church?
I am not baptist. But my understanding is that the Baptist made the message talks about an autonomous local church and those clearly aren't. Unless you consider the six campuses over many counties or States as one local church.
But that all looks more Episcopal to me.
But to your final point. If all those things are local can we consider it a separate local church if it is being governed, the message is being dictated, if the finances are being managed by a bishop (that's what we call.the pastor who controls the ministers in several churches) in another location? Hasn't that abandoned the local church model? Again this is an Episcopalian form of government. It certainly isn't baptist.
Just to add some notes:
1. Multisites make it hard to practice the Lord's Supper and discipline.
2. Multisites if there is a screen showing a sermon elsewhere seems strange and foreign to the expectations of the Bible
3. Multisites may be the same organization if there are pastors together overseeing it, but I suspect you'd need a more Presbyterian model to make this work.
More to say ... just quick notes.
Further:
“It is in membership of a local church in one place that the fellowship of the one holy catholic Church becomes significant. Indeed, such gathered companies of believers are the local manifestation of the one Church of God on earth and in heaven.”
“The basis of our membership in the church is a conscious and deliberate acceptance of Christ as Saviour and Lord by each individual.”
“Membership of our local churches is normally consequent on Believers' Baptism”
“To worship and serve in such a local Christian community is, for Baptists, of the essence of Churchmanship.”
The Baptist Doctrine of the Church.” 1948. Baptist Quarterly 12 (12): 440–48. doi:10.1080/0005576X.1948.11750738.