Shine Bright Like a Diamond
The sparkle of a diamond comes from light that produces three main reflectants. The first ray of light hits the surface of the diamond and reflects to the eye of the beholder. This is called a luster. The second ray, which is called the internal brilliance of light, is light that enters the diamond itself and recaches off the differing angles and perspectives of the internal diamond and exits to the eye of the beholder. The third and final sparkle of a diamond is called dispersion or fire in which the white light enters into the diamond and splits due to the differing edges and corners. This split, in turn, causes a variety of colors that span the rainbow and is perceived by the eye itself.
A diamond, similarly, is analogous to a local church. Meaning, there are many differing angles, edges, and perspectives of authority as to how a congregational model of church polity is to be expressed. However, it boils down to a few central markers that help the covenant community function in an orderly fashion. Being able to identify those traits will assist in a better understanding of how the local church is to be structured and, in turn, how individual members within that covenant community are to take on their God-given responsibilities.
The Contours of Church Authority
The aim of this blog article, then, is to provide characteristics that will assist in identifying the church polity structure of congregationalism. In doing so, we will examine four key characteristics: (1) Christ as head over the church, (2) local church autonomy, (3) the congregation as final appeal, and (4) the elders have persuasive authority. These four traits sequentially bleed into one another; meaning, their ordering is purposeful and gives rise to the next distinctive.
Christ as Head Over the Church. In the epistle to the church of Colossae, Paul writes, “And [Jesus] is the head of the body, the church” (Col. 1:18). The church which makes up the body of believers—Jew and Gentile—submit themselves under the reign, rule, and authority of King Jesus (cf. Eph. 1:22; 5:23; 1 Tim. 6:15; Rev. 17:14; 19:16).[1] He is the great shepherd to which all who profess His sovereign dominion are under His covenantal care (cf. Heb. 13:20-21). Therefore, through their union with Christ, all believers hold to their priest/king mantle and exercise authority in accords to His covenant Word, the Scriptures (1 Pet. 2:4-5, 9; cf. Heb. 9:11-12; for more click here).[2]
There is, then, no other entity whether that be an elder board, presbytery, denominational head, or pope that functions as a final court of appeal on matters pertaining to any given local church. Even Paul an apostle of Christ Jesus exclaims, “Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy, for you stand firm in your faith” (2 Cor. 1:24). In the congregationalist model, Christ as head over the church is truly expressed in the life of the church. As Stephen J. Wellum and Kirk Wellum contend, “The entire people of God are under His direct sovereign rule and authority, including various leaders in the church, whether apostle, elders, or deacons. Only Christ’s authority is absolute, and any transgressing of His authority by a church leader requires God’s people to obey Christ alone and not men (Acts 5:29).”[3]
Local Church Autonomy. Since Christ is head over the church and each member is endowed with His Spirit, each local covenant community—though representative of the universal church within a particular geospatial location (click here for more)—functions autonomously. Meaning, each congregation is responsible to uphold orthodox faith, practice, and mission. As Bruce A. Ware contends, “the final and ultimate authority within a local church does not rest with the elders but with the congregation.”[4] Or said negatively, there is no outside entity that has jurisdictional authority over the local church respectively, hence the term congregational.[5]
For example, when the churches of Galatia embraced a false gospel, the Apostle Paul did not address the leaders nor the elders themselves. Rather, he took up the dilemma with the churches and said, “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you (Gk. hymas; second person plural) in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel” (Gal. 1:6). In addition, when the church of Corinth had a parishioner engaging in inappropriate relations with his father’s wife, Paul addressed the covenant community and exhorted them for not taking action sooner in church discipline against this type of lifestyle. He admonishes them by saying, “Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you” (1 Cor. 5:2; italics mine; cf. Matt. 18:17). All this to say, the local congregation is to exercise authority as the body of Christ because in their union with Christ through the indwelling Spirit they are to function as priest/king (cf. 1 Pet. 2:4-5, 9).
The Congregation as Final Appeal. To this end, the congregation—humanly speaking—is the final appeal in exercising authority amid the new covenant era. The congregation’s authority derives from their union with Christ (cf. Eph. 1:3). To this end, as the Old Testament prophets cited when the Messiah comes, “And 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, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more” (Jer. 31:34; italics mine). Additionally, Ezekiel 36:27 (italics mine) states, “And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”
Consequently, when Christ achieved salvation and ushered in the age of the Spirit, the people of God—Jew and Gentile—are empowered to exercise their priest/king authority in union with Christ. Wellum asserts, “Each member, given who they are in Christ, has a role to play, which means the entire church is ultimately responsible as the final court of appeal for her own affairs under the lordship of Christ.”[6] This is further confirmed when Jesus instituted church discipline and says, “If he (the person caught in sin) refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector” (Matt. 18:17; italics mine). Therefore, the local church—collectively made up of regenerate believers—must actively engage in church life and exercise their priest/king authority in Christ Jesus as the final appeal.[7]
The Elders have an Authority of Persuasion. If the local congregation is the final appeal, what role, then, do the plurality of elders play in the life of the covenant community? Or rather, what authority do the elders have amid the local congregation?
When examining the criteria of an elder, one can see that the standard for an ecclesial overseeing leader is not necessarily an elitism itself. Meaning, leaders are not chosen because of an elite social status within the community. Rather, a man’s qualification for the office of elder is intrinsically tied to faithful living, modeling and imitation of Christ Jesus Himself (1 Tim. 3:1-7; Titus 1:5-16). Being an exemplar of the faith, then, is a rudimentary marker for the office of elder. The Apostle Peter exclaims in 1 Peter 5:1-3 (italics mine),
1 So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed: 2 shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; 3 not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock.
The only additional caveat to the office of elder is an ability to teach (1 Tim. 3:2; cf. Titus 1:9). To this end, Wellum exclaims, “The authority of an elder depends in large part on his faithfulness to God’s Word in doctrine and in life.”[8] Therefore, an elder’s authority is a persuasive authority in which he is to appeal to the Word of God for the people of God to move in accords with the will of God. In saying that, elders are not above the congregation per se. Rather, they are ones in the midst of the covenant community tasked with the responsibility to “equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ” (Eph. 4:12).[9]
The Spheres of Authority
To sum up all the entities of authority associated with the local church—Christ, congregation, and elders—we can see that each office respectively is not necessarily in competition with one another, but rather find harmony and cohesion in governing the new covenant community of saints. In saying that, however, there is a sequential, chronological ordering which informs and fuels their function as authority. Meaning, Christ is the sole, absolute authority in which the congregation’s authority is derived and the elders’ authority operates for the good of the church.[10] Again, these distinct entities work in harmony as a check-and-balance to display the wisdom, power, and Lordship of Christ Jesus within the local church and beyond.
As Covenant City Church seeks to move toward greater faithfulness in exercising these biblical and theological principles within the local ecclesial setting, we hope that this article can be a springboard to conceiving and achieving greater expression of a new covenant community. We long to sharpen the saints and, in so doing, we hope that the introduction to biblical categories will renew the mind through the Spirit for faithful living. Soli Deo Gloria!
Footnotes
[1] See Bruce A. Ware, “Putting It All Together: A Theology of Church Leadership” in Shepherding God’s Flock: Biblical Leadership in the New Testament and Beyond, ed. Benjamin L. Merkle and Thomas R. Schreiner (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Ministry, 2014), 285-288.
[2] See Edmund P. Clowney, “Authority: The Church and the Bible” in The Compromised Church: The Present Evangelical Crisis, ed. John H. Armstrong (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1998), 35-52. See also Michael J. Kruger, “The Apostolic Origin of the Canon” in Canon Revisited: Establishing the Origins and Authority of the New Testament Books (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 160-194. Matthew Barrett, “The Book of the Covenant and Canon Consciousness” in Canon, Covenant and Christology: Rethinking Jesus and the Scriptures of Israel, NSBT (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2020), 41-96.
[3] Stephen J. Wellum and Kirk Wellum, “The Biblical and Theological Case for Congregationalism” in Baptist Foundations: Church Government for an Anti-Institutional Age, ed. Mark Dever and Jonathan Leeman (Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group, 2015), 64.
[4] Ware, “Putting It All Together: A Theology of Church Leadership” in Shepherding God’s Flock: Biblical Leadership in the New Testament and Beyond, 305.
[5] See James R. White, “The Plural-Elder-Led Church: Sufficient as Established—Plurality of Elders as Christ’s Ordained Means of Church Goverance,” in Perspectives on Church Government, ed. Chad Owen Brand and R. Stanton Norman (Nashville, TN: B&H Publisher, 2004), 260. See also Gregg R. Allison, Sojourners and Strangers: The Doctrine of the Church, FOET (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 277.
[6] Wellum and Wellum, “The Biblical and Theological Case for Congregationalism” in Baptist Foundations: Church Government for an Anti-Institutional Age, 68.
[7] The New Hampshire Confession of Faith, which is the adopted statement of faith for Covenant City Church, states in article 13 that the “visible church of Christ is a congregation of baptized believers.” That is, membership of a local church is set aside for those who profess genuine faith in Christ Jesus.
[8] Wellum and Wellum, “The Biblical and Theological Case for Congregationalism” in Baptist Foundations: Church Government for an Anti-Institutional Age, 71.
[9] See Jonathan Leeman, Don’t Fire Your Church Members: The Case for Congregationalism (Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2016), 146-149. Leeman emphasizes the point that elder-led-congregational-rule actually breeds a culture of discipleship in which the elders train the members to engage in their priest/king roles. It is not sheer leadership for leadership-sake. Rather, it is leadership with the aim of members exercising their priest/king mantle.
[10] See Leeman, Jonathan. Don’t Fire Your Church Members: The Case for Congregationalism. Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2016.
McYoung Y. Yang (MDiv, SBTS; ThM, MBTS) is the husband to Debbie and a father to their four children. He is a Pastor of Preaching/Teaching at Covenant City Church in St. Paul, MN and the Executive Editor of Covenant City Church Content Team. Along with his ministerial duties, he is a homeschool dad. McYoung is continuing his doctoral studies at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, MO, and his ambition is to use his training as a means to serve the local church in living life through the Gospel lens.
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