Best Form of Church Governance

Which is the best polity for Church Governance?

  • Episcopal: Bishop, Priest, Deacon

  • Presbyterian: Elder, Deacon

  • Congregationalist: Varies, but usually none


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LinkH

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I think a plurality of elders provides accountability. To me, congregationalism seems like it is taken too far as a reaction against the episcopal system, while the Presbyterian structure seems to be a nice balance.

I read a nice article in a theological journal written by a Presbyterian scholar named Torrence. He explained how, during the Reformation era, Geneva Switzerland looked into history for models for their city government. They discovered that certain Greek-speaking Christian communities in the 300's in North Africa and Syria had 'garousia'-- which translates elders. So they called their city leaders 'elders.' Since church and state were somewhat merged, these 'elders' were very much involved in the church communities affairs. They called their ordained ministers 'pastors' instead of 'elders.' (Maybe that had something to do with the German use of the equivalent 'priest'-- a word derived from 'presbuteros', used to refer to Old Testament descendants of Aaron, like we see in English.) The Genevans associated their 'elders' with 'governments' in I Corinthians 12, not Biblical elders.

The Scottish copied the Genevans and expanded and adapted their church and city government into a nation-wide church government structure. Originally, the Scottish Presbyterians considered their 'pastors' to be Biblical elders, based on the verses they applied to them. But they called this new office 'elder', and over the generations, Presbyterians got confused and many of them thought the made-up office of board elder referred to Biblical elders.

Many other churches copied. So there are churches with unordained, nonpastoral elders, with 'the pastor' who functions kind of like the extra-Biblical 'bishop' but on small local level. How is this Biblical?

This is not Biblical 'plurality of elders.' In the New Testament, we see the apostles appointed elders from within the local assemblies and instructed them to pastor the church of God (e.g. Acts 20:28.)

We also end up with the problem of a misunderstanding of requirements for this important ministry. Since we call our church leaders 'pastors', many people do not think the Biblical qualifications for elders/overseers apply to this role. But they think the requirements apply to the made-up nonpastoral role of committee member which their church calls 'elder.' Denominations will add requirements (education for example) the Biblical requirements, or allow someone who is not Biblically qualified oversee a church because they don't think the requirements apply. Some churches replace the Biblical requirements with an emphasis on having a 'call' and others require a certain level of education.

Then there are churches that have the committee member elder and read in the Bible the duties of elders, and try to encourage their committee-member elders to pastor.

I suppose if you see 'Presbyterian' as referring to a belief in one 'level' of elders and elders being bishops (with your elders being labeled 'pastor') you could say that is more Biblical than the episcopal view it was in opposition to. But if by Presbterian governance, you mean turning the Genevan city government into a church office and creating an extra-Biblical role of board elder, no that's not really Biblical.
 
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bbbbbbb

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There is a verb form related to the noun translated 'pastor'. We see it in I Peter 5 and Acts 20:28. It can be translated 'feed' or 'tend' which obscures it's relationship to the word translated 'pastor.'

Yes, quite true. I find pastor as listed as one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit to the church in Ephesians 4:11. If it is an office in the church, then so must be all the other gifts listed in that verse.
 
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bbbbbbb

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Peter tells the "elders", "Shepherd the flock", in 1 Peter 5:2. And pastors shepherd the sheep. And doesn't shepherding also include overseeing?

The office of an elder (overseer) includes a number of duties such as teaching and shepherding. To limit the office and call the man a pastor is to imply that that is all her does. In actual fact, however, the current definition of pastor requires a single man to do all the work of ministry for the church while the members warm the pews and put their tihtes in the offering.
 
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LinkH

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The Reformed movement may have confusd us a bit by renaming the role of 'elder' or 'bishop' as 'pastor'. 'Pastor' appears to be a function the elders/bishops engaged in rather than the name of their role. Paul was an apostle and he pastored as we see in I Corinthians 9 (who pastors a flock and does not drink of the milk of the flock.) Prophets, priests and kings 'pastored' in the Old Testament.
 
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bbbbbbb

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A gift is "good" and "perfect" (James 1:17). A pastor by gift is not the same as a pastor qualified by maturity (1 Timothy 3:1-10).

There is no "pastor" in I Timothy 3:1-10. In that passage two entirely different words are used - presbyteros and episkopos. We are talking about apples and oranges here when you conflate the two passages to mean the same individual.
 
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bbbbbbb

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The Reformed movement may have confusd us a bit by renaming the role of 'elder' or 'bishop' as 'pastor'. 'Pastor' appears to be a function the elders/bishops engaged in rather than the name of their role. Paul was an apostle and he pastored as we see in I Corinthians 9 (who pastors a flock and does not drink of the milk of the flock.) Prophets, priests and kings 'pastored' in the Old Testament.

I agree. Paul's office was that of an apostle and, as such, he preached the gospel, established new churches, taught the word, and shepherded the sheep, among other things.
 
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LinkH

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There is no "pastor" in I Timothy 3:1-10. In that passage two entirely different words are used - presbyteros and episkopos. We are talking about apples and oranges here when you conflate the two passages to mean the same individual.

Elders of the church are instructed to 'pastor' in Acts 20 and I Peter 5, so in some sense they are 'pastors.' But does that mean they are the only pastors? Could a novice in the faith have a budding gift of pastor before he is qualified to be an overseer? I do think we should get away from the understanding of 'pastor' as the equivalent of the role of overseer. But overseers of the church should pastor.

We certainly should not see 'pastor' as a position over the elders.

In I Peter 5, Peter tells the elders to pastor the flock of God, and tells them about a reward to come when the chief Pastor appears.
 
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bbbbbbb

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Elders of the church are instructed to 'pastor' in Acts 20 and I Peter 5, so in some sense they are 'pastors.' But does that mean they are the only pastors? Could a novice in the faith have a budding gift of pastor before he is qualified to be an overseer? I do think we should get away from the understanding of 'pastor' as the equivalent of the role of overseer. But overseers of the church should pastor.

We certainly should not see 'pastor' as a position over the elders.

In I Peter 5, Peter tells the elders to pastor the flock of God, and tells them about a reward to come when the chief Pastor appears.

The primary purpose of elders is to oversee the flock. Doing that also includes such things as pastoring (shepherding) and teaching.

In most churches today if there are elders they are distinctly beneath the pastor and are generally viewed as being a board of directors, much like a business board. The pastor is the CEO of the church and his board (of elders or deacons) is there to support him.
 
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bbbbbbb

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But, bbbbbbb, Peter gave himself to "prayer" and "ministry of the word" (Acts 6:4); so do you think a pastor should handle administrative things?

First off, the early churches did not have a pastor at all in the sense that we do now. They had gifted elders. They administered, taught, shepherded, and oversaw that flock. There was no property to administer as they met from house to house nor was there a church staff to oversee. Life was not as complicated with a gifted group of elders overseeing the church.
 
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yeshuaslavejeff

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Life was not as complicated with a gifted group of elders overseeing the church.
I read of one pastor that learned this, and then also his congregation. It took them several years in frequent prayer and all along giving up things they had before as a regular congregation.
They ended up giving the mortgage/deed of the property /building back to the 'denomination' they had been in, for free giving it back expecting nothing, peacefully.
Instead, after these years of prayer and obedience , they had over 100 different houses around the city where they met frequently, and occasionally had a larger meeting for worship and fellowship all together as directed by Y'SHUA in prayer over those years.
At the house meetings, many different people from many different churches met with them, without any pulling, prodding or attempts to get them to leave their original church. Simply and basically like 100+ 'oasis' or sources of living water for the people of the city.
 
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bbbbbbb

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I read of one pastor that learned this, and then also his congregation. It took them several years in frequent prayer and all along giving up things they had before as a regular congregation.
They ended up giving the mortgage/deed of the property /building back to the 'denomination' they had been in, for free giving it back expecting nothing, peacefully.
Instead, after these years of prayer and obedience , they had over 100 different houses around the city where they met frequently, and occasionally had a larger meeting for worship and fellowship all together as directed by Y'SHUA in prayer over those years.
At the house meetings, many different people from many different churches met with them, without any pulling, prodding or attempts to get them to leave their original church. Simply and basically like 100+ 'oasis' or sources of living water for the people of the city.

That is really refreshing for me to hear. It is so rare to see this happen today.
 
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yeshuaslavejeff

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That is really refreshing for me to hear. It is so rare to see this happen today.
Yes, it is rare.
I've only seen such prayerful groups actively obeying Y'SHUA and YHWH'S WORD (and known by outsiders for living with YHWH) a handful of times in several decades out of thousands or even tens of thousands of groups.

'Apparently' , there may be a million or more such groups in china; but that is impossible to confirm because none of them are registered with the state/ country.
 
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bbbbbbb

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Yes, it is rare.
I've only seen such prayerful groups actively obeying Y'SHUA and YHWH'S WORD (and known by outsiders for living with YHWH) a handful of times in several decades out of thousands or even tens of thousands of groups.

'Apparently' , there may be a million or more such groups in china; but that is impossible to confirm because none of them are registered with the state/ country.

I am in China as I write this and am teaching with a Bible school with the house churches. What saddens me is that with less persecution the house churches here are adopting many things from contemporary charismatic church in America. Most have a single pastor and not elders and many are hoping to get large with church buildings.

The bad/good news is that the Department of Religion in Beijing is proposing three new laws, which are actually not new at all but have not been enforced since the death of Mao. These are the confiscation of all property owned by unregistered churches (i.e. church buildings and their equipment), no unregistered meetings of more than three Christians, and no Christian instruction or evangelism for anyone under the age of 18. I have mixed feelings about this because the church here was really alive and growing during the period of persecution but now has many nominal Christians.
 
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