Following Jesus Is a Group Project
Today’s message is about church government, or church polity. In this series on the church, I’ve said repeatedly that following Jesus is a group project. When Jesus calls us to himself, he also calls us into a group. Of course, many of us don’t like group projects and would prefer to do things on our own because its more efficient that way. But apparently Jesus didn’t want to grow and mature us through efficiency, but rather through community, through churches. But how should these communities organize themselves?
Three Forms of Church Government
There are three main ways that churches have organized themselves through the centuries: episcopalianism, presbyterianism, and congregationalism.
Episcopalianism places the church’s ultimate authority, under Christ, in a bishop (Gk. episkopos). Bishops appoint and ordain other bishops and presbyters, priests, and deacons who serve underneath their authority. The bishops rule the churches of a specific region. The presbyters and priests serve specific churches. The deacons serve the bishops and presbyters. Examples of episcopalianism are Anglicans, Methodists, and Roman Catholics.
Presbyterianism places the church’s ultimate authority, under Christ, in the elders (Gk. presbyteroi). Presbyterians make a distinction between teaching elders and ruling elders, though collectively they govern the church. They also form “presbyteries,” or groups of the all the teaching elders and one ruling elder from all the churches in a given area. The members of the presbyteries in a region form a synod. Some of these teaching and ruling elders are selected to form a general assembly on the national level. Examples of presbyterianism are the Presbyterian Church of America and the Christian Reformed Church.
Congregationalism places the church’s ultimate authority, under Christ, in the members of the local congregation. Each church is autonomous, meaning that it governs itself. There’s no person or structure or hierarchy presiding over the local church. There are elder-ruled congregationalists who say that final authority belongs to the elders of an independent church. And there are elder-led congregationalists, who say that final authority belongs to the gathered congregation as led by the elders. Examples of congregationalism are Baptist churches, Bible churches, and free churches such as the Evangelical Free Church of America.
Elder-Led Congregationalism
The form of church government that I’ll be explaining today, and the one our church has adopted, is elder-led congregationalism. This may not be the way you describe our church to your friends, but it captures two very basic and very biblical ideas. These two ideas can be summarized like this: Church members have a job and elders train them for their job. Or, to say it another way, church membership is a job and the elders do the job training.
The New Covenant Makes Elder-Led Congregationalism Possible
All of what I say here about elder-led congregationalism is built on the theological truths and promises of the new covenant. In the Old Testament, God said that he would make a new covenant with his people. Through this new covenant, he’d forgive their sins, give them a new heart, and enable them to obey his commands. He’d write his law on their hearts and give his people his Spirit (Jer. 31:31-34; Ezek. 36:24-27). These promises are for every single member of God’s new covenant people.
Part of the new covenant promises are directly pertinent to our discussion of elder-led congregationalism. The Lord said that every member of the new covenant would have equal and direct access to him and to the knowledge of him. Jeremiah 31:34, “No longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.” Because the Holy Spirit lives in every member of the new covenant, every member has a basic knowledge of God through the gospel.
The glory of the new covenant is that you don’t have to go to seminary or read lots of books to know God! Everyone who’s in Christ has a new heart with the law of God written on it and has the Holy Spirit in them. Therefore, every member of the new covenant is both able and responsible to carry out their job as church members.
Church Members Affirm True Doctrine
What is a church member’s job? A church member’s job description is simple, but extremely important. Church members affirm true doctrine and true believers. Jonathan Leeman, in his little book, Understanding the Congregation’s Authority, says that church members are responsible for the what and the who of the gospel.
Let’s start with how we as church members guard the what of the gospel, or our responsibility to affirm true doctrine. Because all believers have the Holy Spirit, all believers are responsible and able to separate the true gospel from a false gospel. Every Christian is able and responsible to affirm true doctrine.
This is all over the New Testament. In his first letter, the apostle John tells his readers to “not believer every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.” They can know which spirits are from God because “every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God” (4:1-2).
The apostle Peter tells his readers to “take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 3:17-18).
The apostle Paul tells the churches of Galatia to get rid of anyone who preaches a wrong gospel (Gal. 1:6-9). Paul says that the church, not the leaders, should have nothing to do with anyone, even himself or an angel, who preaches a distorted gospel. His assumption is that church members outrank angels and apostles if the gospel is being compromised.
What’s the upshot of these texts? The point is that the apostles put the authority to guard the gospel in the hands of the churches, not in a bishop or presbytery or pope. The members of a local church, because they have the Holy Spirit, are able to discern truth from error and therefore responsible to promote truth and get rid of error.
These letters I read from were all written to ordinary Christians, not trained theologians or pastors or people with seminary degrees. The point is that every follower of Jesus is able to distinguish good teaching from bad. Theological training is great, but the only thing churches need to guard the gospel is the Spirit and the Scriptures.
The way this truth works itself out in elder-led congregational churches is that the church has the authority to choose and remove its teachers. The members of a church have the ability and responsibility to select teachers who know and love the gospel, teach it faithfully, and live according to it. They have the ability and responsibility to remove teachers who do not.
This means that if I ever begin to distort the gospel, or preach a gospel contrary to the one we find in the New Testament, you need to fire me. A church and its elders may not agree on every particular point of doctrine, but if the elders start promoting a false gospel, the congregation functions like an emergency brake and keeps the whole church from driving over the cliff into heresy.
Another way this works itself out in a local church is that the church is responsible for the church’s doctrinal statement. If the church’s doctrinal statement promotes a false gospel, then the church should work to correct that. The church as a whole, not just its elders, is responsible to guard the gospel.
Church Members Affirm True Believers
Church members affirm true doctrine and true believers, the what and the who of the gospel. The second part of a church members job description is that they must affirm true believers, or the who of the gospel. Because all believers have the Spirit, all believers are able and responsible to discern a true knowledge of God from a false knowledge of God. In other words, all believers are able and responsible to assess each other’s professions of faith. Practically, this means that church members have the authority to receive and dismiss church members.
Jesus calls this authority “the keys of the kingdom” in Matthew 16:19. In verse 18, he tells Peter that he’ll build his church on “this rock” and that the powers of evil won’t stop it. Then he says that he’ll give Peter and the disciples the “keys of the kingdom” for “binding and loosing.”
What is the “rock” that Jesus is referring to in verse 18? Many Protestants argue that the “rock” is Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. But can a church be built on mere words? Confessions come from people, so it seems that Jesus will build his church on people who believe the right gospel words. Jesus isn’t building his church only on people or only on words. He’s building his church on people who confess the right words, on people who confess him as “the Christ, the Son of the living God.” In other words, Jesus is building his church on true confessors.
This helps us understand what Jesus means by the “keys of the kingdom of heaven” in verse 19. The “keys of the kingdom” refers to the authority given to the church to evaluate a person’s gospel words and life in order to determine if they’re a true gospel confessor or not. Jesus is giving Peter and the apostles the authority to do what he had just done with them.
Jesus says that Peter’s answer came from the “Father who is in heaven,” and now he gives him the authority to speak on behalf of heaven when he “binds” or “looses” on earth. This language of “binding and loosing” was used by Rabbis when deciding whether a particular law applied to, or “bound,” a person in certain circumstances.
In Matthew 18, this task is handed off to the church (vv. 15-18). Jesus gives the church the authority to do the “binding and loosing.” He puts the “keys of the kingdom” into the hands of the local church. If someone is unrepentant of serious sin, Jesus calls the church to take action. The church, as the body of Christ filled with the Spirit of Christ, represents Christ on the earth and functions like Christ in deciphering who true gospel confessors are.
The church cannot make a person a citizen of heaven or remove someone as a citizen of heaven. But they can affirm who the citizens of heaven are. Whoever is holding the keys of the kingdom has heaven’s authority, not to make a Christian, but to declare who is a Christian.
This means that becoming a member of a church is like visiting your nation’s embassy if your passport expires when you’re out of the country. The embassy can’t make you a citizen, but they do have the authority to declare that you are a citizen.
Members of a local church are responsible for protecting and preserving the gospel by affirming and disaffirming gospel citizens. It’s the congregation that’s supposed to act to make clear who represents Jesus to the world, not just the elders. Jesus in Matthew 18 and Paul in 1 Corinthians 5 tells the church, not the elders, to remove people who’re living contrary to the gospel.
When the pastors or elders say to the church, “Hey, it’s our job receive members. It’s our job to discipline. It’s our job to guard the gospel,” they weaken Christians and promote complacency and nominalism. This is why we spend time in our member meetings seeing members in and out. It’s not just that the elders want you to know who’s joining. We want you to exercise the authority Scripture gives you. Otherwise, we’ve effectively fired you from the job Jesus gave you. Congregationalism means that the members of the church own the ministry of the church.
Know the Gospel and Know One Another
To do your job as church members well, we need to know the gospel and we need to know one another. We should be growing in our understanding of the gospel by reading the Bible and talking about it with others and by reading good Christian books. We need to know that a Christian is someone who knows that God is holy and who admits that they’ve sinned against him, someone who has put their faith in Jesus and Jesus alone to save them from the righteous judgment of God, someone who’s living a lifestyle of turning from sin out of love for God. We need to know that a Christian is someone who believes the gospel and pursues God and godliness.
Our job as church members also means that we need to know one another, that we need to be actively involved in each other’s lives. Jonathan Leeman states this well: “The job here is bigger than showing up at members’ meetings and voting on new members. It involves working to know and be known by your fellow members seven days a week. You cannot affirm and give oversight to a people you don’t know, not with integrity anyhow. That does not mean that you are responsible to know personally every member of your church. We do this work collectively. But look for ways to start including more of your fellow members into the regular rhythm of your life.”
What Should the Church Vote On?
Congregationalism is about the church affirming true doctrine and true believers. Think of it this way, when you’re baptized into the name of Christ, you become responsible for the family name. That responsibility comes with the authority to exercise the keys, to receive and remove members of the church. No one wants their family name to be smeared. Followers of Christ wear Jesus’ name before the nations, meaning that we have a responsibility to protect his name against false doctrine and false confessors.
Congregationalism doesn’t mean that the church votes on every decision that must be made in the church. So what should the church vote on? The primary things the church should vote on are leaders and members. Churches guard the what and who of the gospel as they choose or remove elders and deacons and as they receive or dismiss members.
Congregational churches will often vote on the church’s annual budget because the budget shapes the nature of the church’s gospel ministry. Some churches vote on other things like the sale or acquisition of property and amending the church’s constitution and bylaws. Leeman says that the principle that should inform when the whole church is needed to make a decision is, “Does the matter impact the congregation’s ability to protect the what and the who of the gospel?”
To effectively do their job, church members have the responsibility to attend church regularly, grow in understanding the gospel, attend member’s meetings, and disciple other church members. All of this should be done, as we’ll see next, as church members follow their leaders.
The Elder’s Job Description
As I said, elder-led congregationalism means that church members have a job and elders train them for their job. We’ve considered the job description for church members, now let’s look at the job description of the elders.
As we’ve seen, there are several passages in the New Testament that give authority to the gathered church. But there are other passages that give authority to the pastors or elders. Hebrews 13:17, “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.” In Acts 20:28, Paul refers to the elders in Ephesus as “overseers” who were appointed by the Holy Spirit. Peter tells the elders to “exercise oversight” and “shepherd” the church (1 Pet. 5:2).
So, under Jesus, who’s in charge of the church? Some passages give authority to the church, some to the elders. How do we reconcile these texts?
A good place to start is to make a distinction between two different kinds of authority: the authority of command and the authority of counsel. The authority of the elders is an authority of counsel, not the authority of command. Someone with the authority of command can enforce their instructions. Princes have the sword to enforce their commands and parents have what the Bible calls “the rod.” But there are other authority figures who aren’t sanctioned to enforce their commands. Husbands, for example, have authority over their wives, but aren’t authorized to enforce their commands. They can instruct, but they can’t impose.
How does this relate to churches and elders? Churches, with the keys of the kingdom, have the authority of command. They can enforce their decisions through admitting or removing someone from membership. The elders, by contrast, have an authority of counsel. Like husbands, they can instruct but they can’t impose.
This is one reason why elders must be “able to teach” and why Paul’s letters to Timothy and Titus emphasize teaching over and over again. An elder doesn’t use his authority to force. Rather, he teaches. He does the slow, repetitious, patient work of instructing a people to grow in godliness. As Leeman says, “A forced act of godliness is no godliness.” This is why an elder must be patient, kind, tender, and not quarrelsome. His authority of counsel works for growth in the long run, not forced outcomes in the short run.
What, then, is the job description of the elders? The elders are called to lead the church by their teaching and by their example. Through prayerful and patient teaching and through their godly example, the elders lead the church to exercise their authority with wisdom and care. Or, to say it another way, the elders teach the members how to wisely use the keys of the kingdom.
Paul says in Ephesians 4 that the ascended Christ gives the church leaders (v. 11). And then Paul tells us what their job is (v. 12). The pastor-teachers, or elders, have the job of training the church to do the ministry of the church. The congregation has the keys and the elders show them how to use them. The elders train the church to know the what and the who of the gospel. The church needs gospel teachers giving them oversight so that they can wisely fulfill their responsibilities of affirming true doctrine and true believers.
If the elders are exercising their authority of counsel well and faithfully, the church should submit to their leadership. The only time they shouldn’t is if the elders depart from Scripture or the gospel. But as long as faithful and godly men are leading the church, then ordinarily the vast majority of votes in a healthy church will be unanimous and uneventful.
By the grace of God, this has been our experience at Preston Highlands. May God continue to bless us with godly leaders and with a congregation who joyfully follows their lead and takes their responsibility seriously.
Jesus’ Discipleship Program
What have we learned today? We’ve learned that elder-led congregationalism means that church members have a job and that elders train them for their job. Church members are responsible and able to affirm true doctrine and true believers, the what and the who of the gospel. Elders are responsible to teach the church how to wisely use the authority Jesus gave them.
This is Jesus’ discipleship program. Jesus wants his people to guard his gospel and his bride, and he’s given them his authority to do this work.
What a high calling and great privilege! With this authority comes responsibility. Church member, you’re responsible to act if I start preaching another gospel. You’re responsible to make sure that our member candidates understand the gospel. You’re responsible for one another’s discipleship to Christ. You’re responsible to remove a member whose life and profession no longer agree. And your elders are responsible to train you for this work. When you add all this up, you get Jesus’ discipleship program.
Elder-led congregationalism means that church members are called to more than passively showing up for 90 minutes on Sunday and living in anonymity the rest of the week. It means we need to jump in head-first and start doing the hard and rewarding work of studying the gospel, building relationships, and making disciples.
I say “rewarding” because Jesus said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). As we turn our hearts and our lives outward to others, we’ll find a joy that comes from living for something bigger than ourselves, namely, the preservation and growth of God’s gospel and God’s people.