• Introduction
    • Acts 20:28 – Feed the Elders were over one church.
    • Acts 14:23
    • Alexander Campbell and others started the American Christian Missionary Society in 1849, which pooled the funds of many churches together under the leadership of a board of directors.
    • In the mid-1900s, a similar apostasy happened in the form of sponsoring churches.
  • Congregational independence is scriptural.
    • Acts 8:4
  • Congregational independence is effective.
    • Colossians 1:23
    • Philippians 4:15-16 – Everyone was able to hear God’s Word without a centralized structure.
    • II Corinthians 11:8-9
    • Acts 4:34-36
  • Congregational independence is a safety measure.
    • When one church wanders away from God’s Word, only that one church is affected. This is not the case in a sponsoring church arrangement.
  • Congregational independence is the Lord’s specified way.