When Jesus rose from the dead, he sent out his apostles to be witnesses-first, in their own hometown; Second, to their own nation; then to the adjacent nations; and finally, to the other uttermost parts of the earth-Acts 1: 8.
This Commission was given primarily to the apostles when they were alone with Jesus, but it had to involve the whole body of Christ in its outworking. It was the responsibility of these apostles to see that this commandment was fulfilled. Local elders and local churches, once they are “envisioned”, can pool their resources to fulfill that Commission. Therefore, a city church with a plurality of Apostolic ministries and many local churches together can more realistically respond to the call.
1- “Jerusalem”-picture of the home city
To reach “our Jerusalem” would mean planting new local churches in new communities within the geographical boundaries of the present city church. These new local churches would then become part of the one city church. From the beginning, they would receive full support from all the resources of the city church and would grow without any sense of isolation.
Two ways to plant new local churches:
A) From an existing local church. After a local church has been established for some time, we often find a group of believers may begin to attend that church from an adjacent area which is some distance away. They are drawn by the life and fellowship this local church provides. However, it may become hard for them to become fully involved because of the distance and time travel. It is also difficult to persuade their friends, relatives, and contacts in their own area to make the journey to the distant church and even harder to have any significant impact upon their own community.
To solve these issues, a new local church can be planted using this existing company of believers as the foundational core group of the new work in their immediate geographical area. The elders of the existing local church must agree to maintain oversight over the newly planted church during its early days. They must also supply whatever gifted ministries are necessary until the newly planted church has reached maturity and has all these ministries available from within itself.
Then local elders should be appointed in the planted church and the governmental ties of the mother church severed, leaving strong relational ties in place. The new church would at all times firmly remain part of the city church and continue under the overall Apostolic government in that city.
B) By direct planting out into a new, unreached area. In this case the apostles, prophets, and evangelists from the city church would receive direct revelation from God concerning an area in which there is no existing community of believers. They would then direct an evangelistic thrust into the target area to produce a group of new converts from which a new church would grow. During the growth period, eldership oversight would be provided from a nearby local church. Once the new church was established and had developed mature elders of its own, the governmental ties would be cut and only the relational ties would remain. The newly planted church would remain firmly planted as a part of the city church and would continue under its Apostolic government.
The goal of a city church should be to have at least one functioning local church in every significant community over the entire geographical region for which it has responsibility.
2-“Judea”-picture of the home nation
Going to Judea, the home nation, would mean planting churches beyond the region where the city church is situated, but within its own national frontiers. The aim would be to eventually raise up new churches and provide new bases for apostles and Ephesians 4: 11 ministries across the nation. In this way, a network of strong city churches would be established gradually, to provide covering and exercise spiritual government to a broader national base.
Apostolic ministries from existing city churches would exercise fatherly governmental authority over these embryonic city churches during their formative years. But when they reach maturity, the governmental ties would again be cut to leave only relational ties. All these different Apostolic centers would have strong relationships among them and work together in partnership, particularly over state and national issues, no one center would permanently exercise any governmental control over any other.
It would also be necessary to plant many new local churches in the surrounding smaller communities. Not all local churches are destined to become city churches. It is unrealistic to have or imply that expectation. When new churches seem destined to remain as solid local churches, then they need to be plugged into the nearest city church and draw the benefits of city life from that source to void becoming too local and narrow-minded in their outlook.
Established city churches need to be prepared to serve the local churches of the region and beyond, including those that are not integrally part of them. In this way, the big city churches can give the surrounding local churches the blessing and encouragement of their strong city life. It must be done in a spirit of genuine servanthood, seeking only to serve and not to occupy or take ownership. In this way, the city churches can run conventions, Bible schools, internships, training programs, and so forth for the whole region and beyond, thereby greatly enriching the entire body in that region.
3- “Samaria”-picture of surrounding nations
Like the early church, our goal in preaching the kingdom to every nation must be to evangelize these nations and to establish effective home-grown city churches within them. These would provide a suitable base for emerging Apostolic teams and would develop independent apostolic and prophetic ministry.
When we go to surrounding nations, we should be looking for key people with Apostolic and prophetic potential within those nations, as well as evangelizing the people at large. Once again, these developing Apostolic ministries and the embryonic city churches would remain under the oversight of mature apostles and develop city churches until they come to maturity. Then the governmental ties would be cut, but the loving relational ties and servant attitudes would always remain.
4- “the uttermost parts of the earth”
The strategy for this part of the Commission is the same as for the surrounding nations, except that these apostles and their teams may travel to any part of the world as God directs them. Some city churches or regional centers have a call from God to serve many different nations in this way. The goal is always to identify local independent apostles, prophets, and other Ephesians 4: 11 ministries and teach and train them until independent Apostolic teams and full-grown city churches are established in that nation.