The administration of a local church should not be under the control of any high church. Among the local churches, there is no center; there is no high church or low church; there is no archbishop above the bishops and no bishop over the elders. All the local churches are on the same level, and all the elders, as the overseers, also are on the same level; and each eldership administrates only its own local church.
After being established by the gifted persons and having its elders appointed by the gifted persons, a local church still needs the ministry of the gifted persons who established it and appointed its elders, for its building up as a living testimony of Christ. This aspect is fully proven by the case of the church in Ephesus which received the ministry of the apostle Paul (Acts 20:17-35) without any termination, until the apostle was martyred (Eph. 6:19-22; 2 Tim. 4:6).
Among the local churches, there is no absolute autonomy in the administration of any local church, nor is there any federation among the churches. The business affairs of a local church are absolutely local, but all the other matters, especially its testimony for Christ and its fellowship, should be both local and universal, and should be the same and common among all the local churches. This is strongly proven by the seven local churches in Asia (Rev. 2—3). Although they differed from each other in their localities, in their situations, and in negative things, they, as the seven golden lampstands, were absolutely identical for the testimony of Christ. The seven lampstands are absolutely identical in nature, in shape, in appearance, and in function (Rev. 1:12-13). Thus on the one hand, the Lord treated them separately by writing an epistle to each one, respectively; on the other hand, He treated them corporately by addressing the seven epistles as one epistle to them all, and charging each one of them to hear what the Spirit said in all the seven epistles.