The Study Of The Organization Of The Church
Philippians 1:1 (KJV)
1 Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons:
Christ built the church (Matthew 16:18). That church is made up of the called out, the world over (Colossians 1:13-14). It is made up of the saved (Acts 2:47). It is His spiritual body (Ephesians 4:4).
The church is all over the world. It is made up of hundreds and thousands of individual congregations. Each congregation is made up of many individual members. This means that the government of the church is local. It is not national or international. In other words, the Lord's church does not have an earthly head or an earthly headquarters.
The Bible teaches that Christ is the head of the church. Let us observe the following verses: "And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all" (Ephesians 1:22-23). "For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body" (Ephesians 5:23). "And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence" (Colossians 1:18). Now what do these verses teach? They teach that Christ is the head of the body, which is the church. How many heads are there? Just one! Christ is that one. He does not share that position with anyone else.
Since Christ is that head of the church, that means He is the head of each local congregation or local church. It also means He is the head of each member of the church. Paul said, "But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God" (1 Corinthians 11:3).
Next, each local congregation is to have its own organization. Remember Christ is the head of the church. From among the members, elders and deacons are to be appointed. They are to see after the spiritual and physical sides of things (Acts 6). Notice too that the Bible always speaks of more than one elder over a congregation. Never is there only one elder ruling over them. Neither do you ever have the elders and deacons of one congregation taking control of another congregation. Congregations are to fellowship one another. However, they do not exercise control over each other.
The words elder, pastor, bishop, shepherd, and presbyter all have reference to the same office. So, an elder is a pastor, a bishop, etc. In 1 Timothy 3:1-7 Paul listed a number of qualifications: "This is a faithful saying: If a man desires the position of a bishop, he desires a good work. A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, soberminded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach; not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous; one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence (for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?); not a novice, lest being puffed up with pride he fall into the same condemnation as the devil. Moreover he must have a good testimony among those who are outside, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil." These qualifications are also stated in Titus 1:5-9. Not everyone in the church can be an elder. Only those qualified can be appointed. Even then, there must always be more than one of such men. In some congregations, no male members are qualified to be elders. The men of the church then must take care of the business matters until they grow and develop enough for elders to be appointed.
Deacons are also to be appointed to serve under the elders. They are known as servants. They are to work under the direction of the local elders. Paul lists their qualifications: "Likewise deacons must be reverent, not doubletongued, not given to much wine, not greedy for money, holding the mystery of the faith with a pure conscience. But let these also first be tested; then let them serve as deacons, being found blameless. Likewise their wives must be reverent, not slanderers, temperate, faithful in all things. Let deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well. For those who have served well as deacons obtain for themselves a good standing and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 3:8-13).
We hold as Scriptural and fundamental the principles of local Church government by qualified Christians called elders, and governing in plurality with a “first among equals” as set forth in the Scriptures as the set man principle. In conjunction with the elders are qualified Christians named deacons, who serve both the elders and the congregation (Philippians 1:1). These Christians must qualify according to the qualifications laid down in the Scriptures (1 Timothy 3; Titus 1: 5-9).
That is the local Church is sovereign under Christ’s headship, and all the ecclesiastical power is exercised by each local Church assembled as a congregation and decisions thus made shall not be subject to change or reversal by any other ecclesiastical body. This Church is autonomous, but advice and counsel from aligned spiritual authority, qualified ministers of other bodies of like principals and faith may be sought.
1. Apostle/Senior Pastor (Set Man)
Although Board members can be removed by the minimum quorum as outlined in section 5, the Senior Pastor or Set Man, upon Scriptural qualifications, can only be removed by the total and complete agreement of the Board of Advisors and with the agreement of the Set Man’s up line Spiritual Authority. God’s own law and attitude to His people prohibits an elder to be exalted as a person above other elders, for God is no respecter of persons. Thus elders are equal as person and office. However there are differences of grace-gifts given to them which must be recognized and God “sets” some elder as “first among equals,” by reason of Divinely given abilities and grace. They are not set as leaders because they are better than the other elders, but because God SET them there, equipping, anointing and enabling them to be “first among equals.”
For a plurality, co-equality and chief elder of eldership to function as God intended, eldership must set an example before the Church of unity, teamwork and submission recognition. Elders must submit to Christ as Head of the Body. Submit to each other as elders (1 Peter 5:1-3), while maintaining unity together in the same mind, the same mouth, and the same judgment (1 Corinthians 1:10). Elders must refrain from drawing disciples after themselves and to maintain recognition and not competition among one another.
It is the Set Man’s responsibility to maintain the “threefold cord” of Chief Elder (or Bishop), Multiple Eldership (Presbytery) and the Saints (or Congregation) all aligned under Godly spiritual authority. This is God’s model of a team working together in the Spirit of Christ as God’s method of checks and balances in the government of the local church.
There as total and complete agreement among the eldership is to be our goal, it should be recognized that this is not always possible, in this situation, the Set Man should lead the Eldership in the direction he feels the Lord is leading the church. It must be understood that this situation should be the exception to the rule, and in most cases, prayer and fasting will bring about total and complete agreement.
The Chief Elder presents final decisions for the congregation and speaks as the voice for the eldership as the “Set Man”.
Special thanks to IBTM for these wonderful studies.
