More on Elders and Baptists
My friend Randa asks a good question in the comments on my last post. Where do I find in scripture that elder leadership should be in a congregational context? Where does the Bible teach that the whole church ultimately has responsibility for issues of discipline and doctrine? I thought the answer was worth a blog post in its own right, as it's a bit more lengthy than would suit a comment.
I draw a distinction between normal leadership and ultimate authority. God has indeed given elders to his church to lead and shepherd the flock. Those who are Godly men, apt to teach, especially those who normally have the responsibility of publicly teaching the Word of God, are to be the ones who lead, shape and guide the church in its normal life. Church members, in turn, have an obligation to submit to and obey the leaders God has given them, so long as they don't teach or practice contra the Scriptures.
That said, however, the congregation--the church as a whole--still bears responsibility before God for what goes on in the church. This matters in three principal areas: doctrine, discipline, and, by inference, membership.
First, the church as a whole is responsible for ensuring that the Gospel is clearly preached and that heresy and false doctrine are kept out. Hence, Paul's taking the members of the church in Galatia to task for having allowed false teachers to creep in and spread a false gospel. The whole letter is written to the church as a whole, not to some group within the congregation--not just the men, not just the elders, not just the pastor. The implication is clear: the whole body has responsibility to see that disease does not gain a foothold.
This carries over to the area of discipline, as well. In 1 Corinthians 5, Paul screams at the entire church for allowing the immoral man to continue as a member of the body. He tells them how to deal with such sin in the assembly: cast the offending member out! Whether it took an action of the whole membership or not to effect the punishment, Paul clearly is speaking to the whole congregation when he tells the Corinthians they've done wrong in failing to admonish their brother properly.
Here it may be helpful to raise the old distinction between formative and corrective discipline. The kind of discipline we see in 1 Cor. 5, Matt. 18, and 2 Thess. 3 is corrective discipline. It takes affect when a member of the church has sinned or offended a brother, and it is aimed at restoring him, by his repentance, to fellowship and "walking orderly." This corrective discipline is, as we saw above, the responsibility of the whole church. But by far the most common type of discipline that takes place in the life of the church is formative discipline. This is the training and spurring on to spiritual growth that comes by preaching, teaching, and iron-sharpening fellowship amongst the members of the church. Formative discipline, as well, is the responsibility of the whole church, though the elders will naturally take the lead in it. All the members of the church have responsibility before God for their fellow members, to know them and build them up by conversation, teaching, and fellowship in the Gospel.
This implies a third area for which the congregation has responsibility: church membership. in 2 Corinthians 2, Paul refers to a sinner who had been disciplined by the church, telling the members of the church to forgive him. He says, "The punishment inflicted on him by the majority [of the church] is sufficient for him." Whether this refers to the man from 1 Corinthians 5 or another who had been disciplined and removed from fellowship, it's clear that the previous action had been done by a vote of the whole congregation. That's why he speaks of "the majority." If members of the church are removed by a vote of the congregation, this implies that there's a clearly defined membership, and that the congregation is the body that takes members in as well as seeing them out.
For more on this topic, see 9marks.org, Phil Newton's book Elders In Congregational Life: Rediscovering The Biblical Model For Church Leadership , and Biblical Foundations for Baptist Churches: A Contemporary Ecclesiology by John Hammett. For a look at what Baptists from the sixteenth to the twentieth century have had to say, check out Polity; Biblical Arguments on How to Conduct Church Life (A Collection of Historic Baptist Documents) by Mark Dever.
I draw a distinction between normal leadership and ultimate authority. God has indeed given elders to his church to lead and shepherd the flock. Those who are Godly men, apt to teach, especially those who normally have the responsibility of publicly teaching the Word of God, are to be the ones who lead, shape and guide the church in its normal life. Church members, in turn, have an obligation to submit to and obey the leaders God has given them, so long as they don't teach or practice contra the Scriptures.
That said, however, the congregation--the church as a whole--still bears responsibility before God for what goes on in the church. This matters in three principal areas: doctrine, discipline, and, by inference, membership.
First, the church as a whole is responsible for ensuring that the Gospel is clearly preached and that heresy and false doctrine are kept out. Hence, Paul's taking the members of the church in Galatia to task for having allowed false teachers to creep in and spread a false gospel. The whole letter is written to the church as a whole, not to some group within the congregation--not just the men, not just the elders, not just the pastor. The implication is clear: the whole body has responsibility to see that disease does not gain a foothold.
This carries over to the area of discipline, as well. In 1 Corinthians 5, Paul screams at the entire church for allowing the immoral man to continue as a member of the body. He tells them how to deal with such sin in the assembly: cast the offending member out! Whether it took an action of the whole membership or not to effect the punishment, Paul clearly is speaking to the whole congregation when he tells the Corinthians they've done wrong in failing to admonish their brother properly.
Here it may be helpful to raise the old distinction between formative and corrective discipline. The kind of discipline we see in 1 Cor. 5, Matt. 18, and 2 Thess. 3 is corrective discipline. It takes affect when a member of the church has sinned or offended a brother, and it is aimed at restoring him, by his repentance, to fellowship and "walking orderly." This corrective discipline is, as we saw above, the responsibility of the whole church. But by far the most common type of discipline that takes place in the life of the church is formative discipline. This is the training and spurring on to spiritual growth that comes by preaching, teaching, and iron-sharpening fellowship amongst the members of the church. Formative discipline, as well, is the responsibility of the whole church, though the elders will naturally take the lead in it. All the members of the church have responsibility before God for their fellow members, to know them and build them up by conversation, teaching, and fellowship in the Gospel.
This implies a third area for which the congregation has responsibility: church membership. in 2 Corinthians 2, Paul refers to a sinner who had been disciplined by the church, telling the members of the church to forgive him. He says, "The punishment inflicted on him by the majority [of the church] is sufficient for him." Whether this refers to the man from 1 Corinthians 5 or another who had been disciplined and removed from fellowship, it's clear that the previous action had been done by a vote of the whole congregation. That's why he speaks of "the majority." If members of the church are removed by a vote of the congregation, this implies that there's a clearly defined membership, and that the congregation is the body that takes members in as well as seeing them out.
For more on this topic, see 9marks.org, Phil Newton's book Elders In Congregational Life: Rediscovering The Biblical Model For Church Leadership , and Biblical Foundations for Baptist Churches: A Contemporary Ecclesiology by John Hammett. For a look at what Baptists from the sixteenth to the twentieth century have had to say, check out Polity; Biblical Arguments on How to Conduct Church Life (A Collection of Historic Baptist Documents) by Mark Dever.
posted by Jeff at 8:46 AM
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