Our preacher, Jesse, had a wonderful lesson the other day about those little window panes that are individual but many, and when one of them breaks it does not affect the other panes in the window or door, because they are individual. I've been meaning to write this article ever since he preached that lesson.
He was relating these to the individual congregations of the church of Christ. When Christ set up His kingdom, the individual churches are autonomous, meaning that each one has their own leaders and there is not a hierarchy over other congregations of the Lord’s church.
The door in this picture is different from the example of the one in the Bible lesson though. This picture shows the opposite affect of what Bro Jesse was teaching. You see, this door is sort of hypocritical...it is deceiving. It is a full pane of glass with little wooden dividers that make them LOOK individual.
Bobby threw a rock with the lawnmower, through this door a couple of summers ago...and he didn’t even know it happened until he was through mowing the lawn. I stood there after the rock came in one of the panes and watched and HEARD those panes cracking for about 5 minutes...and gradually the door began to look like this picture.
There are many so called churches in our world today that are deceiving also. They do not have the individual “panes” with their own leadership under Christ. (i.e. congregations) They are set up under a headquarters in certain cities and they have the authority over them as a group.
God did not organize the true church the way man organized their denominations. If one congregation goes astray after false doctrine in the system that God set up, it actually only affects that one congregation. The others are able to remain faithful to the word if they desire. God’s wisdom is awesome in every situation and in everything that He created.
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