How is the church to be governed?

Ishmael LaBiosa: Welcome to the You Ask Podcast, where the goal is to answer common questions about Christianity. Let's listen in as Pastor Rusty answers today's question. Today's question is: how is the church to be governed? Now, this is an area that I've actually been quite interested in, and I've struggled a bit to get other people interested in it because. When you raise the topic of church government, it sounds too close to like church politics and a lot of people lose interest immediately. I would actually propose that if your church is struggling, that potentially part of the struggle is a struggle of church government. Because if a church is set up in a certain way, then it is inclined to do certain things. things. If you were to come to ⁓ Liberty Baptist and Appomattox, we are now more common the way we are set up in church structure as other Baptist churches. But twenty years ago, most Baptist churches had a pretty similar structure, and that was a senior pastor, a board of deacons, and a congregation that had to vote on everything at a monthly business meeting. And here's my two cents, that that particular church structure actually created some vulnerabilities for churches that they ultimately probably had to address. So let me talk a little bit about what I think the Bible says, and then I'm going to give you a few models of church government so that you can think through this carefully. Now There are three different offices that I see in the New Testament. The three offices are the office of apostle, the office of pastor, or elder, or overseer. Those three terms are used for one office, and I'll show you why I think that to be the case, and then the office of deacon. Okay, so apostle, pastor, Deacon. Those I think are the three offices. Now, apostle, the way I understand the Bible is, which is not, this is very consistent with how the the large majority of you here is that the apostles, it the word apostle can mean a broad sense, like we have received grace and apostleship. So that means like one cent out on mission. But many times. When the term apostle is used as an office, it's a much more restrictive sense. And here's the reality after the New Testament was over, the apostles no longer functioned. That's kind of the simple turn of phrase. To be an apostle, you needed to meet certain criteria, like see the risen Jesus and walk with him and all these type of things. And if you didn't meet that criteria, you couldn't be an apostle. I think it's noteworthy that the disciples, the 12 disciples, become apostles. And then obviously Judas betrays Jesus, so he isn't going to an apostle. And then a new apostle is chosen to replace Judas, Matthias. But as we continue to go through the book of Acts, apostles die and aren't replaced, apparently, because there's nobody who meets the qualifications to be an apostle. So Let me just say this quickly. It's not my main point. That apostles are a one-generational group, and once they have died off, they no longer function. That means that there's two groups that do function in the present day, and that's the office of pastor and the office of deacon. Now, this is a little difficult for people to get their head around that the main word. For the office of pastor in the New Testament is actually the word elder. And the least used term for the office of pastor is pastor. So I'm not exactly sure how that happened, but that the least used term in the New Testament for the office of pastor is pastor. The most used term is elder, but the most common term we use is pastor. This can make confusing when you read the New Testament because you're looking like, well, where are the pastors in the New Testament? Well, there's the use of the term pastor is almost not there. There's only a few. few places, but the term elder is everywhere. Now I want you to notice that the term elder, the term overseer, and the term pastor are used interchangeably. And one clear text of their interchangeable usage is Acts chapter 20, verses 17 through 28. And so I'm just going to read verse 17 and verse 28, but you could read the whole paragraph you wanted to. It says, now from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called for the elders of the church. Notice the term elders. And then it says, be talking about the same group in verse 28, be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among whom the Holy Spirit has appointed you as overseers. Notice the word overseers. And then to shepherd. Actually, the word pastor means shepherd. Here's a clear case in point that. Elder overseer and pastor are used as an in interchangeable term for a singular office. Now, what has been kind of a tough pill for some churches to swallow, it seems, that that the office of pastor is talked about in the plural, not in the singular. It says right here, I mean Acts 20. And he called for the elders of the church. Now, I I'll say this very clearly that the New Testament doesn't know anything of a solo pastor. Does that mean your church can't have a solo pastor? Well, I guess it can, but I'm just saying you look at the New Testament model, and what you see is what we call a plurality of pastors or a plurality of elders. And churches do this different ways. They have like a larger staff of pastors who are paid. By the way, pastors can be paid. That's a not my point of today. Actually the Bible commands that to be the case. Some people are quick to point out, well, Paul wasn't paid. Yes, Paul wasn't paid precisely because he says I could be paid, but I choose not to be paid because of the context in which he was in. That's a whole nother story for another day. But he relinquishes his Right to do that. And in other contexts, like in Ephesus, he actually tells the Ephesian church they ought to adequately compensate their pastors. Nevertheless, you can have paid pastors, you can have paid pastors, you can have non-paid pastors. But bottom line is, it appears that the New Testament church had a plurality of pastors. And then the office of pastor is differentiated from the office of deacon. And The way this goes is I say pastors lead and feed and deacons serve. It's very important that it doesn't mean that pastors don't serve. That's clearly not the case, but there is a division of duty here. And I think this clear division of duty sometimes gets obscured in churches. That that deacon ministry is a minister of mercy to the poor, to the widow. That is where deacon ministry is to be tilted. And as the term pastor says, a pastor is a shepherd, a pastor is an overseer, a pastor is one who leads the flock and who feeds the flock through teaching. And so these are two different offices with two different functions. And with the over maybe professionalism of the pastorate, you hire a pastor in and you delegate everything to him. And I think that is a very Bad model because ⁓ the church is usually not engaged and the pastor is usually overwhelmed. Now, let's talk a little bit. That's what the Bible says. Now, I just want you to hear what people do with the biblical data. Because Church government can either be kind of top-down or bottom-up or some type of in-between. So let's talk about top-down. You you might think of like an episcopalian type of government where there are many churches that the church itself has not a lot of say-so. Actually, in some churches, they don't have any say-so at all, as far as like the people within the church, a bishop or an archbishop. Kind of sets the pace and says, this is what is going to happen. And then the church is kind of beholden to that bishop or archbishop's word. Now, to some Baptists like myself, I used to be rather mystified by this because I would say, well, where in the world is that in the Bible? And that a bishop would say, and so I've heard their arguments, but I think most people who would hold to like a top. Down type of government like this, that a group, a board, or a person outside the church dictates to the church, they would look at the biblical data and they would say this, listen carefully. They would say, I do understand that in the New Testament that pastors and deacons kind of were the guiding principles, and I understand that I mean the elders led, the deacons served. The apostles had a lot of authority, clearly, in the in the New Testament, but they died out, so there's no more apostles around. Even those who would affirm a top-down type of government wouldn't acclaim themselves to be apostles. They would say, however, listen carefully to this. However, after the book of Acts, you get the book of Acts, but this is a true statement. Into the second century, so the New Testament's written in the first century, into the second century. Bishops did emerge. That is a fact of church history. And so the the churches that embrace a top-down type of government say we don't necessarily embrace a quote unquote biblical model of government. We embrace an ancient model of government that was the product of the flowering of the church outside of the first century. And I hope that makes sense to you. Some Protestants say we have to go back to the book of Acts, and others say, no, we need to develop from the Book of Acts. If you look around, the majority of church structures are top-down. There is someone that outside the church kind of tells the church what they are to do. And I do not see evidence for that type of model within the New Testament, but that type of model clearly was developing outside the New Testament very early. Okay, full stop. Now, there's the other side of that is congregationalism. And some people have accused congregationalism as nothing more than like a form of American democracy. And Well, there might be some truth to that. I mean, in America, it's like one person, one vote. And so that carries over into the church. But I actually do see some evidence in the New Testament for the church collective, the local church, having some say so. For example, in the area of church discipline that Jesus brings up in Matthew chapter eighteen, Jesus actually says that if a brother's offended you go to them and then you bring two or three. But then i after that it's the whole the whole church has a say so in it. So that seems to be that the church was the one who was kind of guarding the gate of moral purity. And and that also seems to be the case. Well the apostle Paul in first Corinthians five, there's an issue of immorality that he says needs to be addressed. But it seems to have been addressed and the person actually repented. And in Second Corinthians, Paul says the punishment inflicted by the majority. So there are two texts that I can think of, one by Jesus, one by Paul, that seem to show that the church collectively has authority. And if from that congregationalists say, well, the church, we've got to make all the decisions here. The the problem I would say with that is while there are those texts, the the New Testament also seems to say that that you ought to listen to the pastor. You ought to o obey the leaders. Those those phrases are there. And so this makes us struggle. What is the right form of government? And this is where I've landed. I say that the The church is the ultimate earthly authority. The gathered local church is the ultimate earthly authority. Now, if you're going to have congregationally g governed churches, you need to make sure that the people who are members of that church are Christians and that they it would be nice if they're spiritually minded. Because if you get a group of people that aren't spiritually minded and they start making decisions, well, their decisions won't be very spiritually minded. But I still, at the end of the day, say that the congregation is the ultimate earthly authority of the church. Jesus clearly the ultimate authority, but when it all comes down to it, somebody's got to make the final decision. I think, however, that the church should give some authority away to the pastors. I like to say it like this: the church is the ultimate authority, but it can't be the only authority. In Baptist life, Sometimes we have like almost collapsed, I think, because I I've been in plenty of been affiliated with plenty of Baptist churches that literally everything that the church did, the church had to vote on. That is a very poor model. I think the church needs oversight, but then the church needs to kind of free some other people up to do things. So I think that's a that's something to watch out for. The congregation is the Ultimate earthly authority, but can't be the only authority. Certainly every decision should be made by the whole church. Nothing's going to get done that way. And then what about the pastorate? Well, I think that consistent with the New Testament model, I think a plurality of pastors is a good idea. Now that's not always possible in every church because there's maybe not enough qualified people to have a plurality of pastors. But I just think for both accountability and for sharing the load. It's just prudent to have a plurality of pastors. And then lastly, I would say that the pastorate needs to be separate from the deaconate, meaning pastors and deacons need to be understood as different offices, and that pastors lead and feed as a primary function, and deacons serve as a primary function. And that certainly doesn't mean that if you have a full-time pastor, he should be caring for the congregation, but not alone. He should have deacons who are helping him in that. Here is what I would say might be a takeaway from this. If you're listening to this podcast, you ought to go find a copy of what I call your constitution and/or bylaws and see how your church is structured. And what might be the case. Is that some of the church's turmoil is actually related not just to spiritual immaturity, although that may be part of it, it might actually be rooted in structure. And I think thinking very carefully about how the church is structured, how decisions are made, what are the biblical offices, how do they function, what are their purposes, will do a lot to clarify things. So that the church can move forward more effectively. Thank you for listening to the You Ask Podcast. This is a ministry of Liberty Baptist Church, and we pray this podcast enables you to more faithfully live out your Christian life.

Acts 20:17–28