Fresh off the press, I have written a critique of congregationalism, or congregational polity, and local church membership. Before you assume the worst, please try to wrestle with my ideas and my contentions.
I am in no way implying that we should have no church polity, and I am in no way implying that I reject the local church and the importance of it in the life of the believer. Please don’t start with that assumption.
What I want to do is to show why (a) I don’t think congregationalism is the polity we should follow, whereas I adopt an Elder-Led/Rule model (think John MacArthur), (b) I don’t think we need to implement “local” church membership, since we are already members of the “universal” body of Christ. I believe this has created hurdles and problems in the local church that ultimately hurts non-members.
I expect some push-back and disagreement, but I think it is important for people to voice their thoughts about these two subjects, and since I am very much in-line with Reformed Baptist theology, I certainly want to share my thoughts in a respectful but critical way.
I hope that it will be a challenge to those of you affirm these two beliefs. I hope for those on the fence that you will consider my arguments and my reasoning and land somewhere perhaps where I have, and for those who are fresh to the subject, maybe it will give you something to think about when you enter into discussions with your leaders.
Lastly, a shout-out to my wife who is always supportive and who has been my talking partner for years around these subjects, may it make you proud.
I pray this work will be used for God’s glory.
I look forward to reading it.
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Thank you, I pray it is a blessing!
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In general, I believe the points are valid. I’ve found that many elders view their role as a position versus a service – few are truly “doing life” with congregants. The churches I’ve seen with weak elders are weak churches – usually worldly and shallow. I personally know of a church recently that had a committee of church members (men and women) do a search for a senior pastor – and then bring that recommendation to the elders! Not one person on the search committee was an elder. This is an SBC church. My belief is that most do it to appease the “members” so they feel like they are valued – their input matters. Retention! Very worldly thought.
Practically speaking, I do think it’s incredibly challenging to buck the system – especially if you have a great church that checks most of the boxes, but would disagree on this point. Do you say, well, I’m not going to join and thereby be excluded from some ministry activities? Not ideal, but churches that function as you outline are few and far between – even GCC has membership.
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