• Historical overview of perversions in church organization and leadership
    • Catholic church
    • 1849 – missionary societies
    • 1950s – sponsoring churches
  • Acts 2:42 – the start of the Lord’s church
  • Acts 11:30 – elders appointed in local churches
  • Acts 8:4 – Persecution scatters Christians, who go everywhere preaching the Word.
  • Titus 1:5 – This verse implies that a church can exist even without elders. A church should strive to develop men who are qualified to be elders so it can do the work God has assigned more effectively.
  • Congregational independence is effective.
    • Congregational independence is practical.