Is Church Autonomy a Myth?

An age-old challenge for the churches of Christ

One of the biggest blessings we have in the churches of Christ is our practice of church autonomy.

At the same time, it has also long been one of our hardest challenges to solve.

Where Rome, Westminster, and the Eastern Orthodox along with most of the post-Reformation denominations have a hierarchical structure that goes to either one man or one governing body at the top, we practice autonomy in which each congregation answers directly to the authority of Christ.

Mostly.

But there are obvious limitations to autonomy.

If a church decides to add a Star of David and a Muslim Star and Crescent Moon in order to reach a wider audience, I think we’d all agree that autonomy doesn’t allow for that.

If a church hosts an LGBT+ support community, I think we’d all agree that autonomy doesn’t allow for that.

Progressive or conservative, everyone agrees there has to be a line somewhere. The Progressives might draw the line too far afield, and the conservatives might draw it a little too close to home, but we all agree that there is a line.

While the lampstand terminology of Revelation 2-3 is a needed reminder that this is ultimately under Jesus’ authority and not ours, there are still practical implications we have to navigate.

Do we attend an areawide hosted by the church with a woman preacher or a band on stage? What about the church with a nativity scene in the foyer? What about the church with a kitchen in the building?

Depending on who you are, that list spans a spectrum from “absolutely not” to “not a problem.”

That’s not even to mention the peer pressure that goes on regarding associations. “Oh, you fellowship that guy who believes such and such? Well if you’re with him then you’re not with me, so make your choice.”

That doesn’t sound like autonomy, does it? Still, we’re left with the challenge to figure out what does sound like autonomy.

Our structure is essentially nuclear family vs. extended family.

It’s our house vs the cousins’ house. I raise my kids a certain way, and my siblings raise theirs a certain way. There are a lot of similarities, but there are also some differences. That’s ok. I don’t have to force my style on them or judge them for the differences.

Yet, there is a line at which we would stop hanging out with certain cousins. If their house is unsafe or a den of temptations, we’re not going over there for dinner. All of this is a matter of degrees, but that’s usually what’s missing from the discussion.

Essentially, autonomy means a church is allowed to make their own decisions, so long as they actually are a church.

Which, to be fair, makes perfect sense. But that’s where things get sticky: who decides what is and what is not a church?

You’ll often hear the terms “sound congregation” and “unsound congregation.” These are entirely unhelpful. They only mean what the speaker wants them to mean.

So, a church we agree with on all the major things can be stamped with the scarlet “U” of unsoundness because they mentioned they might allow for disagreement on some minor issue. To hear some tell it, there are about 8 sound congregations in the entire nation.

In place of the sound/unsound scale, I propose a different framing that’s admittedly still subjective, but at least a little more descriptive.

Differing

Once again, everybody is going to sort these boxes differently, but for the sake of clarity I’ll stick my neck out and offer a few of my own.

Differing will largely be on Romans 14 issues in which we don’t have any explicit teaching laid out in Scripture. So, Christmas and Easter sermons should be in the box of differing. Whichever side you’re on, you might see that the church across town does it differently, but that doesn’t make them erring or apostate.

These should be the cousins you see from time to time, but will sometimes decline the invitation depending on the nature of the gathering.

Erring

The thing about erring is that it is more severe than simple differences, but it also leaves room to acknowledge that there is still agreement on the vast majority of issues. This prevents the “one strike and you’re out” mentality that so often invades these conversations. The erring brother is still a brother, though the fellowship grows more strained.

For example, opening the Lord’s Supper up to everyone is an error I’ve addressed extensively here. I believe it’s a big deal that they badly need to correct, but they are still brothers. There would even be certain worship styles that you and I would agree are clearly in error and against Scripture, putting them beyond a simple disagreement, yet are also not the signs of an apostate church. Failing to correct certain sins would be another. “Tolerating Jezebel” is a Biblical example of a church committing such an error while still being considered a church (Revelation 2:20).

These are the cousins that will naturally be at arm’s length. There’s probably not going to be a lot of close, one-on-one fellowship, but you’ll say hello and catch up a bit at the family reunion/areawide.

Apostate

The apostate church is the one that is in open rebellion, setting themselves against God. It’s not that they are off by a few degrees—they’re pointed in the wrong direction entirely.

Again, I’m only giving my rankings here, but rejection of an essential like baptism, or open endorsement of a sin like homosexuality would certainly make a congregation apostate. In the New Testament, forcing requirements of the Law on Christians was a sin that rose to this level (see Galatians). Giving hearty approval to those who rebel against God was also given as a sign of open, unrepentant sin (Romans 1:32).

These, of course, are the cousins we don’t see anymore because they’re not welcome at family gatherings.

Under the sound/unsound binary, all three of differing, erring, and apostate can be put in the same box marked “unsound.” That means autonomy does not allow for any difference or getting anything wrong, even minor things. Under that standard, every New Testament congregation would have had to cut off every other one.

We have to have levels of distance and concern beyond a simple in or out. Within this, we can also mark trajectories and notice when someone goes from differing to erring, concerned that they’ll continue on into apostate. But being in one category cannot be made equivalent to being guilty of all three. There has to be levels of disagreement, because…

If autonomy means that other congregations are free to decide for themselves until the minute they disagree with my congregation, then I don’t believe in autonomy.

Autonomy can’t mean everything goes, but it has to mean something does. Namely, it has to mean having the ability to differ beyond what times you meet on Sunday and what color the carpet is. If we can’t have that, then we had better write down a full creed and confession so we can know when a congregation has crossed the line into “unsound.” If you’re going to operate like a denomination, don’t do it halfway.

But I don’t think it has to be that way. Obviously there is a whole lot to sort out here. The one thing I dislike about writing articles like this is that it’s the easiest thing in the world for the reader to nitpick and blast the points without doing the precarious work of revealing where one draws the lines of their own.

What I put in Erring, you might put in Apostate. Or, what I put in Erring, you might put in Differing. That’s fine. Just show your work. Good men of God have been working on this problem since far before I was born, and it will likely continue for the foreseeable future.

So, the question I’ll leave you with is this:

Are we willing to live with the discomfort that autonomy inevitably brings, or will we just give lip service to the idea while refusing to practice it?

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For more on this issue: the last two Think Deeper Podcast episodes (here and here) addressed some of these things, along with my appearance on In Between Sundays. And, I highly recommend this discussion between Caleb Robertson and F. LaGard Smith that covers many related subjects.

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Notes

As the year winds down, I hope you’ll consider subscribing or becoming a supporting subscriber! No article on Monday (12/23), but I will be sending out some kind of free thank you gift to the supporting subscribers. Thank you all!