The Institutional Church

Filling in while Josh and Katie Higgins are away, Steve Patton preaches on what he calls the institutional concept of the church: the view that the church is a worldwide organization needing schools, agencies and boards to carry out its work. He traces it from Constantine forward, through the Reformation and the Restoration Movement, to the American Christian Missionary Society and the postwar sponsoring-church arrangement that divided churches of Christ. The application comes closer to home, in members who hand personal responsibility to the congregation: let the church be the church.