TimbauxRioux said:
Is there a New Testament model that should be followed that resembles what we see as churches today?
In his book
The Church at the End of the 20th Century, in a chapter titled "Form and Freedom in the Church," Francis Schaeffer drew eight norms out of the New Testament, which consistute the
sine qua non of a local church. To paraphrase:
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[*]There should be local churches made up of Christians. The local church is not optional.
[*]Congregations meet together in a special way on the first day of the week. Historically, Christians have always met on Sunday because that was the day the Lord rose from the dead.
[*]There must be officers (elders) that are responsible for the local church. "They had appointed elders for them in every church" (Acts 14:23). At least some of them are responsible for teaching and preaching to the church (1 Tim. 5:17).
[*]There must be deacons responsible for caring for the local church with respect to their material needs. Schaeffer believed that the contemporary church has dropped the ball on this score.
[*]The local church must take discipline seriously.
[*]There are specific qualifications for deacons and elders. See 1 Tim. 3, of course.
[*]There is a place for form on a wider scope than the local church. Denominational structures of some sort are not necessarily bad.
[*]The church practices two sacraments:baptism and the Lord's supper. We would tend to call them "ordinances" instead, but remember that Schaeffer was a Presbyterian, and he was using the term "sacrament" in Calvin's sense (a sign or symbol), not in the Romanist sense (a means of justifying grace).
[/list]
That, Schaeffer argues, is what the New Testament says a New Testament church looks like. Inside the form of the biblical norms, there is freedom: how many elders or deacons to have and what their specific duties are; the org chart of the local church or denomination; whether they meet in a purpose-built structure, rented facility, or private home; the specifics of the Sunday service liturgy; how often to have communion or baptisms; and so forth.
In other words, as long as those eight norms are met, there's no basis to say that one faithful church is more "New Testament" than another because they meet in a home or not, the leadership consists of trained, professional clergy or lay elders, and whatnot.