Presbyterian church government

Christ the only head

Presbyterian churches take their name from the way they are governed. The New Testament word for an elder, presbuteros (πρεσβύτερος), is the root of the English word ‘Presbyterian’. Yet before Reformed churches say anything about elders, they confess who the church belongs to.

And God put everything under His feet and made Him head over everything for the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

Ephesians 1:22-23

"He is the head of the body, the church" (Colossians 1:18). The Westminster Confession says it without qualification: "There is no other head of the Church but the Lord Jesus Christ" Westminster Confession 25.6. It goes on: "The Lord Jesus, as King and Head of his Church, hath therein appointed a government in the hand of church officers, distinct from the civil magistrate" (30.1). Two things follow. The church's government belongs to Christ, not to the state or to a strong personality. And the authority of church officers is borrowed: they are stewards who administer his word, and they may not bind anyone's conscience with rules he has not given. The flock is not theirs; it is "the church of God, which He purchased with His own blood" (Acts 20:28).

Elders, overseers and deacons

At Miletus, Paul "sent to Ephesus for the elders of the church" (Acts 20:17). A few verses later he tells the same men that the Holy Spirit "has made you overseers" (Acts 20:28). The letter to Titus does the same: Titus is to "appoint elders in every town", and Paul goes straight on, "As God's steward, an overseer must be above reproach" (Titus 1:5-7). Matthew Henry reads the passage as describing "pastors, here called elders and bishops" Matthew Henry. The Reformed take such passages to show that elder and overseer, episkopos (ἐπίσκοπος), are two names for one office. Even Peter writes to the elders "As a fellow elder" (1 Peter 5:1).

Elders who lead effectively are worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching.

1 Timothy 5:17

Presbyterians read this verse as distinguishing, among the elders, those who rule and those who also labour in preaching and teaching: the ruling elder and the minister of the Word. Others take it simply to mean that some elders give more of their strength to teaching. Beside the elders stand the deacons, the office of mercy. When widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food, the apostles asked the church to "select from among you seven men confirmed to be full of the Spirit and wisdom", so that they themselves could devote themselves "to prayer and to the ministry of the word" (Acts 6:3-4). Paul later describes the kind of people deacons must be (1 Timothy 3:8-13).

Calvin's Ecclesiastical Ordinances of 1541 ordered the church of Geneva in four offices, pastor, teacher, elder and deacon, with a consistory in which pastors and elders met together Calvin, Ecclesiastical Ordinances. A century later the Westminster Assembly's Form of Presbyterial Church-Government set out the offices of minister, elder and deacon and government by assemblies The Form of Presbyterial Church-Government. Whether the minister is best called a ‘teaching elder’ or holds an office distinct from the elders is still discussed among Presbyterians.

Elders together, in assemblies

Presbyterian government is government by elders together, never by one. When a dispute over circumcision troubled the church at Antioch, Paul and Barnabas were sent "to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question" (Acts 15:2). "So the apostles and elders met to look into this matter" (Acts 15:6). Their letter began its ruling with "It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us" (Acts 15:28), and Paul and his companions "delivered the decisions handed down by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem" from town to town (Acts 16:4). Presbyterians see a pattern here: a wider assembly, gathered under the Word, can settle a question for many congregations, which then keep its decision together.

So the church has courts at several levels. The session (in Korean, 당회) is the minister and elders of one congregation. The presbytery (노회) gathers ministers and elders from the churches of a region. The general assembly (총회) gathers representatives of a whole denomination, and some Presbyterian churches have synods between presbytery and assembly. Continental Reformed churches follow the same pattern under other names: consistory, classis and synod Church Order of Dort. Elders are chosen by the congregation, and in presbytery and assembly ministers and ruling elders sit and decide together. The Westminster Confession holds that "For the better government, and further edification of the church, there ought to be such assemblies as are commonly called synods or councils" (31.1), and adds with humility that such assemblies may err, so that they are a help to faith and practice, not their rule. The Korean churches, too, formed a presbytery first and a general assembly later; that story is told in Presbyterians in Korea.

Other churches read the same passages differently. Episcopal churches hold that bishops in succession from the apostles keep the church one and continuous with the apostolic church. Congregational churches hold that each local church governs itself under Christ by the common mind of its members, hearing in Jesus' words "tell it to the church" (Matthew 18:17) a charge to the whole congregation. The doctrine course's lesson ‘What the church is’ sets these views side by side.

Discipline that restores

Government in the church also means discipline, and its aim is to win people back. Jesus taught a patient order: speak to your brother privately, then with one or two others, and only then tell it to the church (Matthew 18:15-17). The goal is stated at the start: "If he listens to you, you have won your brother over" (Matthew 18:15). Paul says the same: "you who are spiritual should restore him with a spirit of gentleness. But watch yourself" (Galatians 6:1). Augustine, explaining Jesus' words, writes: "For our rebuke should be in love, not eager to wound, but anxious to amend" Augustine. The Belgic Confession counts the exercise of discipline among the marks of the true church; it rejects human laws that bind the conscience, but holds discipline according to God's Word to be necessary Belgic Confession, Art. 29 and 32. Westminster says church censures are necessary first of all "for the reclaiming and gaining of offending brethren" (30.3).

Be shepherds of God’s flock that is among you, watching over them not out of compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not out of greed, but out of eagerness; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.

1 Peter 5:2-3

No polity is perfect, and Presbyterian assemblies have at times become places of pride and division. But the intention is plain. No officer is lord, every officer is accountable, and all stand together under the Word to care for the flock. Matthew Henry writes: "Christ is the chief Shepherd of the whole flock and heritage of God" Matthew Henry. Members pray for those who "watch over your souls as those who must give an account" (Hebrews 13:17), and elders serve looking for the day when the Chief Shepherd appears.

Practice