Biblical Eldership Church Leadership

Bible-Based Leadership Structure

Furthermore, church organizational structure matters because struc ture determines how people think and act. Ultimately, structure deter mines how things are done in the local church. I find it ironic that some evangelical leaders in America are more concerned about the structure of the United States government than the structure of the local church. I doubt that many evangelical leaders would say, “It doesn’t matter how the US. government is structured as long as there is some form of leadership.” Yet, that is precisely what I have heard some evangelical leaders say about the local church. In practical reality, church structure often takes precedence over theology. In his book, Liberating the laity, R. Paul Stevens shares how he tried to equip the people in his church for doing the church’s ministry but failed because—as he discovered—the governmental struc ture of the church required him to do “the ministry.” He writes, “Struc ture, I discovered, is important; there is no point in saying that every member is a minister if the structure of the fellowship ‘says’ the exact opposite—by making it hard for people to discover their gifts or to exercise loving service.”1 The fact is, no society—religious or secular—can ever afford to be careless about the structure of its government. This is especially true of the Christian community because great and precious principles are at stake. People who are deeply involved in the actual operation of a local church know from personal experience that the government of the church affects every aspect of the inner life of the church and that it is an extremely relevant topic. There are highly critical doctrinal issues involved in church polity that thinking, concerned Christians cannot avoid without becoming irrelevant Christians. Who would dare call the issue of women’s ordi nation irrelevant? It is without question one of the most dominate is sues in church polity today. Interestingly enough, the one stubborn topic that has caused the greatest hindrance to unity for the worldwide ecumenical movement is the issue of church order. The point is, the structure of the church both reflects and determines our theology and beliefs. Since the structure of the church matters both practically and theo logically, we must ask if there is a scriptural base for insisting on one form of church government. I believe there is such a base and that church government by a plurality of elders can be honestly and rea sonably demonstrated to be the teaching of the New Testament.

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