Yes, it’s true that this post has nothing to do with the Septuagint, but it has everything to do with Scripture and its application to our lives and more importantly to the organization of our churches. I am a member of a Southern Baptist Church and I attend Southern Seminary in Louisville, KY; therefore, I do not speak as an outsider, for Southern Baptists seem to be leading the way in this new invention called multi-site churches along with their slogan, “One church, X number of locations.” See the latest publication from Broadman and Holman on this very issue: Multi-Site Churches. What follows in this post spawned from some stimulating discussions with some friends of mine in the library. Although we are at Southern Seminary to learn technical and sometimes seemingly esoteric disciplines, lunch conversations always seem to gravitate towards matters of the local church, and this topic received a number of lunch conversations.
My basic assumption going into this issue is simple: the view that remains faithful to the clear Scriptural directives and can obey those directives practically should be adopted. Thus any view of the church which would necessarily lead to the disobedience of clear Scriptural directives because of the church’s structure itself should be abandoned. This assumption rests on the idea that the apostles gave clear commands to the local churches, which were able to be carried out and that these commands are not optional or somehow subsidiary to whatever church model one has adopted. Rather the apostles would only endorse a church model in which the members were in a position to obey the clear commands of the Lord Jesus. Read the rest of this entry »
