So what did the original organization structure look like? The apostles created a blueprint for the church, and set them in motion by assigning leaders to oversee their basic conformity and adherence to sound teachings (1 Cor 4:14-17, Titus 1:5, 1 Cor 11:6). It's obvious that each church was not a simple cookie-cutter mold, though, and eventually took on their own personalities as they matured. Some churches even had different sets of giftings (Acts 13:1). While they adhered to the same basic teachings and way of life, the letters to the churches in John's Apocalypse makes it clear that each church had their own issues. Much less formal, the original church was far from an establishment, and in fact could cease to exist should its members all disappear. The apostles knew that God's new temple was no lon
ger made of stone, but rather inside the believers themselves (2 Cor 6:16). Paul's letter to the Ephesians describes the church as the body of Christ; should God's people depart, the body (His church) could theoretically also disappear, forcing God to have to raise up stones to worship him. In contrast, the church today as an entity can legally purge all of its members, and still exist on paper. Its executives can erase everything and go back to the drawing board without losing their corporate church status, bank account, or even their church building. But the church didn't used to be an establishment. There was no tax status, physical building, or any property to be owned by "the church".
In short, God's plan for the original church was concerned more with the heart and growth in Christ than in formal, corporate government. Isaiah made it clear that, since the beginning of time, God has been more interested in the state of the heart than orthodoxy:
The Lord says: "These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men. Therefore once more I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder; the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish." Isaiah 29:13-14
This theme is also present in Psalm 40:6-8, cited in the New Testament:
First he said, "Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them" (although the law required them to be made). 9 Then he said, "Here I am, I have come to do your will." He sets aside the first to establish the second. Hebrews 10:8
So if the church didn't function as an establishment, how did they operate? The original church lacked the corporate ownership of any property and insisted on meeting in homes (Col 4:15, Phm 1:2, 1 Cor 16:9, Acts 2:46) and on public property (Acts 2:46, 5:12). They clearly had the financial resources, and even the land, to build a dedicated facility (Acts 4:34-37). With 5,000+ men in the church early on, and people being added daily to their numbers, it would have made sense to us, today at least, to build a mega-church - but this didn't happen.
Some argue this was because of persecution, but persecution would not begin until the stoning of Stephen much later, and at this point in history, the church was very well respected and even revered by the community (Acts 5:13-16). In spite of this, there is no record of abandoning home churches or public gatherings for a dedicated facility during the time of the original apostles. Perhaps they were too busy preaching the gospel to be concerned about a building project, or perhaps they continued meeting in public venues so they could be among the people. All we know is that they had resources and opportunity, but remained a non-entity.
In fact, the apostles had already learned that the Kingdom of God wasn't about building out infrastructure long before there even was a church. The first building program on record started and ended with Peter, whom God Himself abruptly shut up while babbling on about building shelters for Moses and Elijah at the transfiguration (Mat. 17:4). A pastor I know once commented on this event saying, "it seems that every time there's a move of God, someone wants to start a building program". It's interesting to consider that the church was founded upon Peter, who, after that experience, would have been the least likely to build the church out as an organization.
