“Now concerning our brother Apollos, I strongly urged him to come to you with the brethren, but he was quite unwilling to come at this time; however, he will come when he has a convenient time.” 1Cor. 16:12
How are local churches, and specifically local church leaders, intended by God to relate to one another in the Body of Christ? We can see from the passage above that they do relate, but not so much in a the hierarchical authority structure we might have assumed. It is more a matter of mutual humility, respect and affection than of apostolic authority. Apollos would come at Paul’s bidding in due time, but only on his own schedule as he understood it under the Lordship of Christ. He is not on Paul’s schedule.
This points to the importance of treasuring cooperation among autonomous local churches, rather than demanding conformity to some higher level of organizational authority. The Network of Neighborhood Churches is an autonomous local church. Though we meet as one local church in many neighborhood gatherings, rather than meeting several times in just one location, we are still one local church. We believe our way of meeting is best, or we would not be doing things this way. Other churches are free, under the Lordship of Jesus, to do what they believe is best. But we can still be in fellowship with fellow ministers within Christ’s body in what the Puritan Fathers called a “consociation.”
We further affirm that like-minded believers in every metropolitan area of the world would be wise to constitute themselves into their own separate, autonomous but similar, Network of Neighborhood Churches to serve their own area more effectively. And we are happy to help. If anyone agrees with our reforms, they are always welcome to adopt them and even to use our name.
This, again, is the meaning of being in consociation as opposed to being in association with some kind of denomination. We can walk together in mutual respect and affection, rather than by legal or organizational authority.
We endeavor to join with like-minded, Elders & Deacons from various churches, movements and denominations, to encourage and support one another in the Great Commission. This can be done simply through shared ministry activities rooted in mutual affection, and driven by a desire to help.
Ministries such as Together for the Gospel, The Gospel Coalition, Household of Faith Fellowship of Churches, The Northwest Association of Conservative Baptists and etc, are all greatly appreciated and their work is recommended and supported by our Network of Neighborhood Churches.