Who Governs the Church if We Follow the Bible?
Posted: Thursday, October 28, 2010
by Denny Smith
Who governs the church ought to matter a great deal to all those who want to be Christians and Christians only by following what the Bible says. I know of no other way to be just a Christian, that and nothing more, other than to follow the Bible as closely as humanly possible. That means one must ignore the traditions of men in religion and must ignore all teachings that cannot be found in book, chapter, and verse in the New Testament.
One of the easiest ways to test one's religion is by comparing how the church of which he is a member is being governed compared to the teaching of the New Testament on the subject. The New Testament is very clear on this matter making it simple to find the truth and thus simple to see whether or not we are in a church that is a New Testament church. If it is not we ought to get out of it.
"Christ is head of the church" (Eph. 5:23 NKJV) and whatever is done in the church or anywhere else is to be done "in the name of the Lord Jesus" (Col. 3:17 NKJV), meaning by his authority. Jesus has all authority, "All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth." (Matt. 28:18 NKJV) We cannot step outside the authority of Christ found in his word and set up a way of governing the church to suit ourselves. Well, let me revise that a little we can but if we do we are in rebellion against the head of the church and against the one whom God the Father gave all authority to. We disrespect him and his word when we do so and involve ourselves in sin by supporting such a set up.
Christ did provide for government, oversight would probably be a better word, within local congregations of churches of Christ (Rom. 16:16). As just stated, in the prior paragraph, those who would be governing within a local congregation were given no rights to step outside his word, to add to it, to take away from it, or do anything that would take away from Christ's headship of the church. His word, his authority, has to be respected by those who would be appointed as overseers of the local congregation in a locality.
While the apostles lived they had authority in the church (they still do through their writings). To disobey an apostle who was speaking the word of God by inspiration was the same as to be in disobedience to the one who gave the inspiration God himself. The brethren at Corinth who received instructions from the apostle Paul were not free to disregard those instructions because he was not present with them and was not one of them. However, the apostles were only 12 in number, could not be everywhere at once or know about every group of brethren in every hamlet throughout the Middle East, Southwestern Asia, and Southeastern Europe nor were they going to live forever.
Church oversight or leadership was needed on the local level. This God provided for in the appointment of elders in the churches, each church having a plurality of elders with no one single elder being the boss elder. In Acts 14:23 when Paul and Barnabas were on their first missionary journey the text says, "So when they had appointed elders in every church, and prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed." (NKJV)
Paul wrote to Titus, "For this reason I left you in Crete, that you should set in order the things that are lacking, and appoint elders in every city as I commanded you." (Titus 1:5 NKJV) Where there was a church, a congregation, there were to be elders appointed provided there were men within it that met the qualifications that Paul gave to both Timothy and Titus for the appointment of such men. One can read about these qualifications in1 Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:5-9.
Now please read carefully and understand that the words elder and bishop refer to the same individual. This is easily seen in Titus 1:5 where Paul tells Titus to appoint elders and then in verse 6 begins giving him the qualifications for such men going on through verse 9 but refers to these men in verse 7 as bishops he says, "For a bishop must" (compare Titus 1:5 with Titus 1:7). These bishops were not like bishops in the Catholic Church today but ruled with other like bishops, or elders, in the local church only.
They did, however, rule in the church. This can be seen in 1 Timothy where Paul says one of the qualifications is that an appointee must be "one who rules his own house well for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?" (1 Tim. 3:4-5 NKJV) In the book of Hebrews we are instructed to "obey those who rule over you, and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give account." (Heb. 13:17 NKJV) The elders were to take care of the local church of God of which they were members and from which they had been appointed ruling it in accord with God's word.
In the book of Acts, chapter 20 verse 17, Paul called for the elders of the church of Ephesus to come meet him at Miletus (read it for yourself). One of the things he said to them was this, "Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood." (Acts 20:28 NKJV) Several comments are in order on this passage.
Take note that they had a flock to oversee and that flock was specific - the Christians in the church at Ephesus from whence Paul had called them to come to Miletus. They were elders in the church at Ephesus. He did not tell them to go and try and oversee the flock at Colosse or the one at Derbe or any other such place. The flock they had been appointed to oversee was specific it was the flock at Ephesus and nowhere else.
The modern day idea people have of a bishop, as in Catholic bishop, is nowhere found in the Bible. Remember that an elder is a bishop, they are one and the same (Titus 1:5 compared with Titus 1:7). There was no such thing as single bishop rule over even a single congregation let alone over multiple congregations spread out over a wide area. As is the case with most of Catholicism, no Bible required, none wanted for authority, will be ignored if found, and burned if we could go back to the Middle Ages and ownership barred from the public. (As you can tell I am a politically correct person right? But, you have to remember Catholics claim authority for the church and thus do not need Bible authority from their point of view.)
However, the Bible foresaw the development of Catholicism and of the bishops seeking of greater power than what was granted to them. Paul, in talking directly to the elders at Ephesus (and remember an elder is a bishop, one and the same) said to them, "Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves." (Acts 20:30 NKJV) Now no one can deny what Paul said and no one can deny who he was talking to when he said it.
The second thing I want to note from the Acts 20:28 passage is the fact these men were to be in charge of the church at Ephesus as overseers. When decisions needed to be made and plans made for the specific work of that church it was their duty to see to it and to oversee it. It is not the purpose of this article to go into all the work of an elder so I leave it at that. Our purpose is to define who is to do the governing of the church.
Thirdly, they were to shepherd the church of God of which they were made overseers. The word shepherd refers to their duty to guard the flock, feed, and care for it. They were "pastors" of the church as per Eph. 4:11. But, please note that they were pastors in the plural, not the singular. The idea men have today that one man can be the one and only pastor of a congregation is unscriptural. Such a character cannot be found in the pages of the New Testament. No New Testament congregation ever was led by a single person, not one. If you have a pastor in the denominational sense of the way the word is used today you are not a New Testament church in your organization and government. Find the church that had a single pastor in the New Testament. That is a challenge. It cannot be done.
The truth is the word "pastors" (as per Eph. 4:11, the only place where it is found) means shepherds and the Greek there (poimenas) should have been translated by the word "shepherds" to be consistent. To prove that the word pastors as used in Eph. 4:11 is the same as "shepherds" see how the Greek is translated in that passage in the English Standard Version which I here quote. "And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers." (Eph. 4:11 ESV) See also Young's Literal Translation which also uses the word "shepherds" instead of "pastors." Barnes, the well known Bible commentator, says this is the only place in the New Testament where that particular Greek word is rendered "pastors" rather than shepherds. My own research has found the same.
All of this contrasts greatly with the way most churches today are governed. In the New Testament each congregation was totally self-governed by men appointed as elders after having met the qualifications that were given by the Holy Spirit via the apostle Paul's instructions to Timothy and Titus for such. There were no national or international bodies that ruled all the churches. There were no Popes or rule by a single man designated as "the pastor" as per some denominations today. Each congregation through its elders made its own decisions about its work based on New Testament teaching concerning what that work was and how it was to be done.
God made the provision to govern the church this way, not me. Do not grow angry with me for simply pointing it out. It is his way. Man has to decide whether they are going to abide in God's way or go their own way. There is little doubt but what most will go their own way for that is their preference my way or our way, not God's way. What this simple little study does do, even if it does not change minds, is show one whether or not he/she is in a New Testament church. You do not have to judge anyone to do it. All you have to do is look at the church's government. Who governs the church where you are at?
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)"That means one must ignore the traditions of men in religion and must ignore all teachings that cannot be found in book, chapter, and verse in the New Testament."You would be missing so many good things.
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