Churches need elders: both down and up
Churches aren’t buildings but people, so conflict is no surprise. Scripture recounts an abundance of conflict within the New Testament church, but notice what these conflicts accomplished:
[W]hen you come together in church, I hear that schisms exist among you; and in part I believe it. For there must also be factions among you, so that those who are approved may become evident among you. (1Corinthians 1:18-19)
God’s Word explains divisions within the church bear the fruit of making it clear who has God’s approval. Painful as they are, church fights are used by the Lord to clarify who is right. Since truth is precious, this is a blessing. But how does God make it clear who has His approval?
Elders are church officers God calls to declare who does and doesn’t have His approval.
When Moses appointed one elder for every ten sons of Israel (Exodus 18), those elders’ purpose was to heal divisions by judging conflicts. This continued in the New Testament where Scripture records Apostolic commands that the elders silence schismatics (Titus 1:10-11); and concerning conflicts, that elders make judgments and lead souls to repentance, forgiveness, and restoration (Galatians 6:1-2). Our Lord prayed that His disciples would be one as He and His Father are One. Naturally then, elders are called to work to this end. They are to guard and restore the unity of the church until that day when we arrive at our true Home where abuse, envy, hard heartedness, heresy, and divisions are no more.
In recent years, this Biblical office and calling of elders to resolve conflict has led many non-Presbyterian churches to change their governance structure so their congregation is led and governed by elders. No longer is it just one elder who serves as the congregation’s pastor with discipline being the responsibility simply of the assembled members of the church.
Jonathan Edwards would approve of this change, returning to a number—to a plurality—of elders.
Centuries ago in Northampton, Massachusetts, Edwards served a church that was congregational in polity, and Edwards lamented the prevalence of congregationalism’s “unsettled, independent, confused way of church government.” In a letter to the Rev. Mr. Erskine dated July 5, 1750, Edwards wrote:
...as to the presbyterian government, I have long been perfectly out of conceit [lost any favorable view] of our unsettled, independent, confused way of church government in this land; and the presbyterian way has ever appeared to me most agreeable to the word of God and the reason and nature of things....
What is this “presbyterian way?”
“Presbyterian” is a transliteration of the Greek word presbyteros—”elder.” Although many think “presbyterian” indicates the congregation or denomination baptizes infants, this is not the meaning of the word. “Presbyterian” simply designates a church governed by elders. This is the reason Edwards would have approved of churches returning to governance by elders.
Scripture is not perfectly clear about all facets of church governance. Many have wished it were otherwise. Still, Scripture clearly lays out three basic principles.
First, as the Gospel spread from city to city across the Roman Empire where Christian churches were planted, each of those churches was governed by elders:
After they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying, “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.”
When they had appointed elders for them in every church, having prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed. (Acts 14:21-23)
Elders were appointed “in every church,” so it is good and right for us to return to this New Testament pattern.
Second, among all the elders who together “ruled” the church, the Apostle Paul designated some “who work hard at preaching and teaching,” commanding they be given “double honor”:
The elders who rule well are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching. (1Timothy 5:17)
Historically presbyterians have referred to the elder whose work focuses on “preaching and teaching” as their “pastor.” He is the elder who feeds them God’s Word each Lord’s day, and thus these men are called “pastor,” a word derived from the word “pasture.” Within God’s flock, it is typical for these men to be treated with “double honor.”
Be careful to honor your elders. Their work is not easy. Yet be even more careful to honor those who work hard at preaching and teaching—who pasture you. God Himself commands they be honored "especially."
Third, when the elders in the church of Antioch were hopelessly divided, the New Testament shows they appealed to another authority to help them resolve their conflict:
Some men came down from Judea and began teaching the brethren, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” And when Paul and Barnabas had not a little dissension and debate with them, the brethren determined that Paul and Barnabas and some others of them should go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders concerning this issue....
When they arrived at Jerusalem, they were received by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they reported all that God had done with them. But some of the sect of the Pharisees who had believed stood up, saying, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to direct them to observe the Law of Moses.”
The apostles and the elders came together to see about this word. (Acts 15:1-6)
Down through church history, this appeal by the elders of the church of Antioch to the church of Jerusalem to settle their conflict has been called “the Jerusalem Council.” Across twenty centuries of conflicts, heresies, and divisions within one congregation, it has been the habit for that congregation’s elders to appeal to the elders and pastor(s) of other congregations for help resolving their conflict. This pattern laid out in Acts 15 is still followed today in churches around the world.
Summarizing these three principles of New Testament church governance:
Elders are to be appointed in every church.
Elders who work hard teaching and preaching are “especially” to be given “double honor.”
Divisions within one church that aren’t being resolved locally are to be submitted to the officers of other churches for their consideration and judgment about how to restore their own congregation’s purity, unity, and peace.
This is the Biblical case for adopting a presbyterian structure of church leadership and government. It is Biblical for a plurality of elders to maintain and restore the unity of their own church, but also to serve as a court of appeals ready and willing to help restore the unity of other churches.
In our book explaining the work of elders titled Elders Reformed, Pastor Von Hagen and I have outlined some of the benefits of presbyterian church leadership. We hope we have done so in a non-dogmatic way. The book includes some advice for the elders in a newly elder-ruled church, giving some recommendations and warnings for elders within their congregation which has recently moved to elder rule.
Yet regardless of whether the office of elder is old or new in your church, I recommend Elders Reformed to those who want to grow in their understanding of the Biblical foundation and responsibilities of this God-ordained office.
With this short summary of the Biblical office of elder, let’s look more closely at this account of Acts 15 laying out a Biblical method of peacemaking when it is the pastors and elders themselves who are in conflict.
Typically, churches with a plurality of elders have meetings of their pastor and elders at least monthly. Within historically presbyterian churches, this combined group is called the “session,” and their meeting the “session meeting.” (This word “session” comes from the Latin sessio, “to sit.” So session meetings are sitting meetings of the church’s officers, the church’s authorities. This entire group of sitters in these meetings—ruling and teaching elders, elders and pastors together—have come to be called a church’s “session.”
In the home, unity or conflict within the family flows from the unity or conflict of the father and mother. Just so, unity or conflict within the congregation flows from the unity or conflict of the elders. Maintaining peace and unity within the church’s session is difficult work, and when that work is not successful, the church knows this full well and suffers from their shepherds’ division.
We must not fool ourselves about this.
Division is common within churches’ marriages and families. Division is also common between individuals and families within the church. So then, sadly but predictably, division is common within churches’ sessions (elders boards).
Here is a Biblical recommendation for resolving divisions within a church session—the governing board of elders and pastor(s).
Let’s come at the matter from a different direction.
Churches that have adopted elder-rule for their own congregation should finish the task by establishing elder-rule for their session (elders board), also. It is not just the sheep who need help with conflict resolution. Shepherds need this help, too.
When the pastors and elders themselves are in conflict, they need to have a court of pastors and elders above them to whom they can make an appeal for help resolving that conflict. I write “above them” to indicate that, just as they have responsibility for those church members who are below them, so the pastors and elders themselves need other pastors and elders above them. They need fellow pastors and elders they can turn to for help; men over them in authority they have promised to submit to and depend upon for counsel and conflict resolution.
This is the reason the title reads, “Churches need elders: both down and up.” A court—whether secular and civil or Christian and ecclesiastical—needs a court of appeals. Authority should flow both down and up. Autocracy is not Biblical, whether we’re speaking of a single Czar or a single session.
This appeal up to higher authority in the church is on display in Acts 15 where Scripture provides the history of the Apostle Paul and Barnabas opposing the Judaizers who had come to them from Jerusalem. Arriving at the church of Antioch, these men were dividing it and destroying souls (see Galatians) by teaching that Gentiles couldn’t be saved unless they got circumcised. This led to the church in Antioch appealing to the church in Jerusalem for resolution of their congregational conflict. When we say the church of Antioch appealed to the church in Jerusalem for conflict resolution, elders were appointed in every city, so it was the elders of Antioch appealing to the elders of Jerusalem.
Some men came down from Judea and began teaching the brethren, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” And when Paul and Barnabas had great dissension and debate with them, the brethren determined that Paul and Barnabas and some others of them should go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders concerning this issue. (Acts 15:1-2)
We’re not speaking about who leads the elders in their pastoral work within their own congregation. Among historically presbyterian (elder-rule) churches, this task has normally fallen upon the pastor who has what is best understood as a "first among equals" calling. Is this first among equals simply a function of pastoral pride and self-seeking?
No.
Anyone who has worked with animals knows the animals trust and are devoted to the man who feeds them. Thus it is only natural that the weekly preaching of the senior pastor as the principal feeder of the flock leads to the flock trusting him in a way that the rest of the pastors and elders can’t help but acknowledge. For this reason it is normal for the other members of the session to seek and establish the senior pastor’s leadership of their session (if this is not already constitutionally established). The normal order of authority in presbyterian churches is for the session to be comprised of the pastor(s) and elders, with the pastor moderating.
Let’s leave it at that. I know some disagree, and God bless you.
The main concern being addressed here is the frequent lack of understanding by formerly congregational, but now elder-rule presbyterian churches, of the need to provide for conflict resolution and accountability for the elders and pastors themselves. When moving to elder-rule, the question that must be asked is who shepherds the elders themselves?
To make it clear why this is a critical matter needing attention, consider how many times we all hear of conflicts among the pastors and elders of a church? How many times have the pastors and elders of our own churches been known to be in conflict? How many times are pastors in conflict with their elders? How many times are elders in conflict with their pastor? How many times are congregations mad or attacking their pastors or their elders?
When a church has established a relationship of accountability with a group of churches—say five or ten—these conflicts may be taken to the pastors and elders of those churches for help on those occasions when the conflict is deep or longstanding enough to have resisted resolution
Historically, churches have called this group of churches they have agreed to be in submission to their "presbytery." If your own congregation lacks such help in resolving serious conflicts, find one and join yourself to likeminded churches. If you are looking to start a presbytery or wish to join one, contact Evangel Presbytery. Both paedo and credo baptists are welcome.
It would be a joy to hear from you. You may send an email to our stated clerk: Pastor Alex McNeilly: clerk@evangelpresbytery.com.
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity! (Psalm 133:1)