The church in Anchorage is a local church which is affiliated with other local churches. We take no other name than the city we are located in, just as the churches in the book of Acts did. Local churches have a long history which dates back to the time of the Lord Jesus. The Lord mentioned the church twice in the Gospels. Matthew 16:18 and 18:17 where he said “I will build my church” and “tell it to the church”, respectively. This is a universal church which includes all believers regardless of time and space. It also exists specifically with regard to time and space (Matthew 18:17), i.e. the local churches.
After Jesus’s resurrection from the dead about 3,000 people in Jerusalem repented, believed, were baptized, and continued in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles (Acts 2:38-42). They gathered daily in the temple and in their homes, partook of their food with exultation and simplicity of heart, praising God (Acts 2:46-47)! The first use of the word “church” in Acts refers to the believers in Jerusalem as simply “the whole church” (Acts 5:11), meaning the called out (congregation), or assembly (Greek ekklesia). In Acts 8:1 they were referred to as “the church which was in Jerusalem”. This is the first church established in the Bible in Acts and it included all the believers living in Jerusalem. The record concerning the establishing of the church in its locality is consistent throughout the New Testament (Acts 13:1; 14:23; Romans 16:1; 1 Cor. 1:2; 2 Cor. 8:1; Gal. 1:2; Revelation 1:4, 11).
The practice of meeting as the church in its city was lost throughout the centuries. In the 19th and 20th century, this practice was recovered. In Anchorage, Christians began to meet as the church based on locality, in the 1980’s. In addition to meeting on Sunday, we gather in the homes of the church members for prayer, fellowship, and reading and studying the Bible throughout the week.