The Evangel Dean Basic Training Resource Handbook

A PPENDIX • 295

B. The problem with the Hodges Three-Selfs Paradigm of Church Identity

The Melvin Hodges paradigm emphasizes the need for indigenous independence in church starts and development. According to Hodge, churches must be self-governing (the indigenous church controls its own affairs and direction), self- supporting (the indigenous church supports its activities and leaders on the basis of its own funding and resources), and self-propagating (the indigenous church produces outreach and mission through its own efforts, evangelizing, discipling, and reproducing daughter churches). This paradigm is problematic if by “self” we mean completely separate and autonomous from the influence and support of any other congregations. 1. No church can be fully autonomous (i.e., a law to itself; we are all connected to apostolic witness, to the communion of saints, and to our common head and source, the Lord Jesus Christ), Eph. 4.4-6. 2. Likewise, no church can be expected to meet its own needs entirely; the apostles defined self-support in ways that ignored Hodge’s element of complete indigenous support (e.g., the Jerusalem famine and the Macedonian offering, cf. Acts 15, 2 Cor. 8-9). 3. The early Church was a network of congregations and their leaders bound together by their common parentage by the Holy Spirit and their shared oversight by the apostles, along with their shared persecution and opposition from both Jewish and Roman sources, e.g., 1 Cor. 12.13; 2 Cor. 11.9. 4. Urban churches today desperately require the benefits of ongoing connection, oversight, partnership, and support from one another. a. Scattered, alienated, and disconnected flocks: the importance of the unity of the Church in our witness to Christ, John 17.21-23. b. Under-supported, financially strapped congregations: need for interconnected livelihood and growth of urban congregations, 2 Cor. 8.1-4; Acts 11.27-30.