The Local Church

6 · Defines the key questions polity answers (who runs the church, who decides, how are they accountable, how are churches connected), introduces the concept of 'nuanced Presbyterianism' by explaining the Greek etymology and the regional structure of elder-led governance, and outlines the sermon's focus on local church elements

So go online and read it. What we're going to do in this miniseries isn't give you a massive detailed analysis of the whole polity. We're going to give you the bird's-eye view of an explanation. So it's gonna answer questions like, this is what polity does, who runs the church? It'll answer questions like, who has the authority to make decisions? How are those decision-makers then held accountable, right? Is a local church formally connected with other churches? Does that connection mean that a local church has methods of accountability? Those are the kind of things we see explained in our polity. So how would we describe our new polity? It would be sort of a nuanced Presbyterianism. Now some of you are thinking, "Oh, Presbyterianism, that makes sense." And others are like, "Presbyterianism, I've heard the word and don't know what it is." Well, Presbyterianism comes from the Greek word presbuteros, which is the word that gets translated as elder in the New Testament. So Presbyterianism upholds the government of the church by elders. That's what Presbyterianism is. At its core, the Book of Church Order is basically a Presbyterian church government in the sense that elders from local churches are gathered together in regions, and they gather together in those regions to accomplish things like church planting, ordination, and accountability. Our churches are connected. They're not independent and autonomous. And that connection is felt most explicitly at the regional level. So with the Sovereign Grace churches in Minnesota, with the new church that's being planted in Sioux Falls, with all the churches, Lord willing, that will be planted throughout the Midwest in the coming years. That will be our region. So what we're gonna do in the series is look at both the local and extra-local dimensions of the polity. Today we're going to hone in mostly on the local elements. Now these two things are tied together, the local and the extra-local, so we're by necessity going to tip over into some of the other ones as well. But this morning we're mostly going to look at the local elements. That's going to be our starting point.

7 · The pastor establishes his credibility by sharing his personal journey through both Presbyterian (Dutch Reformed) and Baptist (congregational) church governance traditions, positioning himself as having an 'open-eyed perspective' that has seen the strengths and weaknesses of both systems while maintaining Presbyterian convictions

So with that end in mind, I want to give you a little bit of my background when it comes to the subject of polity and church governance. I grew up— the church of my youth was not just Reformed, it would have been like big R Reformed, which is to say it was Dutch Reformed. So think like the Canons of Dort. Like that's kind of the background I grew up with. My whole family on both sides is either all RCA, Reformed Church in America, or CRC, Christian Reformed Church in America, which is just to say that Presbyterian forms were the norm. Dutch Reformed is just the Dutch version of Presbyterianism, which is the English version. In college, however, I was introduced to John Piper and Desiring God, and I actually became a member at Bethlehem Baptist Church. I got baptized as a believer. You know, I was baptized as an infant. I came to the conviction that believer's baptism was the biblical practice, so I was baptized really biblically for the first time as a believer and became a member of that Baptist church. And I attended college and seminary at Bethel University, which is a university, a school in the Baptist General Conference to which Bethlehem belonged. So it was a Baptist institution where I got my undergrad instruction and my seminary instruction. So all that to say, I've had experience in two, but not all of the polities that are out there. And that's shaped how I've understood things. Both Presbyterian, so elder rule through interconnected churches, right? And experience with independency, autonomous congregationally local churches. So I say all that to say I've seen some of the blessings and the warts of both systems firsthand. And there's no immaculate polity that's going to make everything that happens in church life blissfully perfect. That happens when Revelation 21, which we read earlier today, happens. When Jesus returns and sin is eradicated, that's when the former things pass away. But it is still good to consider what is a biblical approach to polity. And so I still trend in Presbyterian convictions, even though I've experienced a degree of Baptistic independency. But I like to think it's an open-eyed perspective. I'm not all like glitzy-eyed that Presbyterianism is the be-all end-all that's gonna usher in the new heavens and the new earth a century early.

8 · Pivots from personal background to the sermon's first major theological point about Christ's headship over the church

Now I say all that to say that's how you would define our polity. The first point I want to make about our polity is that it recognizes something essential and crucial. And that is that Christ is the head of the church.

9 · Establishes the methodological shift from expository to topical preaching for this series, then grounds the doctrine of Christ's headship in Ephesians 1:22 and 2:19-22, emphasizing Christ as head, cornerstone, and the one in whom the church is being built as God's dwelling place

Now you're going to notice this morning into this series, it's more of a topical series. So we don't have one text that we're going to. Typically at Providence, we like to go to one text and preach through one text. It gives me guardrails as a pastor. This is the text, this is the authority over me. Usually we're expository in our preaching. This morning we're going to be topical. So we're going to jump to a bunch of different texts. Hopefully most of them will pop up on the screen and you can follow along that way. Our first text that highlights Christ as the Head of the Church is Ephesians 1:22. It reads this, "And He put all things," God, "put all things under His," Christ's, "feet, and gave Him as Head over all things to the church, which is His," Christ's, "body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all." And then in chapter 2, Paul continues and says this, "So then you all are no longer strangers and aliens." but you are fellow citizens with the saints. You are members of the household of God built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God, by the Spirit. Christ is the Head of the church.

10 · Establishes the foundational theological claim that all authority in the church is derived from Christ, who is the head and cornerstone, and that any human or institutional authority is necessarily subordinate to and dependent upon Christ's authority as expressed through Scripture

We see in the book of Ephesians and really throughout the whole New Testament that the fundamental answer, the biggest and best answer to who has authority in the church? Jesus Christ. That's who has authority. That's where authority comes from. He alone is the cornerstone. As Colossians 1 says, Christ is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. Implication being, verse 18, He is the Head of the body, the Church. The Church is created and ordained by God to advance the mission of His Kingdom, to make a people for Himself. A people for Himself that will proclaim the glories of Jesus the head of that body, the cornerstone of that temple. So that means ultimately Jesus is the one who rules the church. Everyone who's a part of the church is submitted to the lordship and the leadership and the authority of Christ. So it means also any authority that a man or a denomination takes up as a biblical expression of polity. So as they search the New Testament and say, this is what we think polity and faithful church governance looks like, any authority they find or derive from these pages is connected to the primary authority of Jesus. So that means any authority any human institution or person has is a derived authority. It's derived from Christ's authority and extended through Christ's word.

11 · Intensifies the significance of Christ's headship by warning that any polity not founded on this principle is fundamentally flawed, using strong pastoral language to drive home the non-negotiable nature of this theological foundation and its practical implications against despotic leadership

That's just not a concept to mention. I'm not just saying that to get that out of the way so now we can get to the real nuts and bolts. That's significant. If your polity doesn't start there, I don't care what your polity is, your polity's wrong. Your polity has screwed up the foundation. Your church building might look really cool, but when stuff starts getting rocky, you'll find out it's built upon nothing. That is something we must grasp. We must hold on to it throughout this series. There shouldn't be despots or dictators. There shouldn't be popes in church governments. Christ rules His church.

12 · Explains the transition from Christ's earthly presence to His heavenly rule, traces the progression from apostolic leadership in the early church to elder leadership today, and clarifies the Book of Church Order's position on apostolic cessation while maintaining a category for extra-local gifting without creating an ongoing office of apostle

Now, Christ isn't ruling from the earth right now. He's not on earth physically. He has still a resurrected body and He is in heaven at the right hand of God, right? The right hand of God the Father. It doesn't mean He's not ruling, but it means He's ruling from a distance, but promises there's a day when He will come back and return. Until He returns, He has left officers in place to extend that rule and authority in His stead. That's the purpose of the Church. It's the institution to do that, to walk through that. And initially, who led the Church? In the early chapters of Acts. The disciples become the apostles, right? And the apostles are given the leadership of the church. Now this polity, our Book of Church Order, doesn't have an ongoing office of apostle. That's one thing that's different from the old polity. It doesn't have an ongoing office of apostle. It still believes there's an ongoing apostolic function, which is to say we think God still gifts men with the ability to express extra-local leadership. But it wouldn't say that there's an ongoing office. So the question then becomes, where does that authority of the office of apostle go? Well, it rests primarily in the books of the New Testament and the Scriptures that the apostles endorsed. That's where you see the teaching and the weight of apostolic authority in this book. That's why the authority of elders is a derived authority. It's derived from Christ. Through the inspiration he gave to the apostles and the books they endorsed as being inspired scriptures. In other words, the BCO has a category not for the office of apostle, but for gifted men in local churches to be deployed extra-locally. Does that make sense? So you have a category in our book of church order to make sure that when a guy is clearly gifted in substantial ways, he can be released into ministry to maximize that gifting. But it also recognizes that with the cessation of the office of apostle, the primary means by which God holds people accountable and leads and rules his churches now is through elders.

13 · Signals the shift from the first major point (Christ's headship) to the second (elder rule) and explicitly connects the two as sequential theological foundations of the polity

That's our second point. Christ is the head of the church, and our polity recognizes the priority of elder rule.

14 · Establishes from Acts 14 that even in the midst of intense persecution and rapid movement, Paul and Barnabas prioritized appointing elders in every church, demonstrating that elder leadership was not optional but essential to the apostolic understanding of what constitutes a properly formed church

Now, when we say that apostles were the first people expressing the most authority, humanly speaking, in the early church. That's not to say they're the only authority, is it? In the New Testament, we see not just apostles, even while the church is in its infancy, there are elders. And the apostles actually take pains to appoint elders to rule in churches. A couple of texts bear this out well. In Acts 14, Paul and Barnabas are going through a whole region of the ancient world, in the Mediterranean world. And they're in Derbe and Iconium and Lystra and Antioch. They're going from place to place and they're facing persecution. And even though they're facing persecution and they're being pushed out of these areas, the text says something very helpful and profound. They're making disciples. So persecution is breaking out, they're chasing Paul and Barnabas, it's these crazy stories you read in Acts. People are coming to faith in Christ. And even in the face of persecution, Paul and Barnabas make sure, Acts 14 tells us of this, Verse 23: When they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed. Here's the point. Even in the midst of this insane world where Paul and Barnabas are making disciples, the Jewish people in the synagogue are getting mad and kicking them out of the cities, the Roman citizens are getting upset, they're facing persecution, they're getting driven out of these places. Before they go, they do everything they can to ensure that these people who have become disciples get formed into churches. They're not just independent Bible studies sitting around, people just kind of getting together, hobnobbing. They make sure churches happen. And because they're making sure churches happen, they make sure elders happen. Because those churches need leadership. It says they appointed elders.

15 · Demonstrates from Acts 15 that at the Jerusalem Council—where the gospel itself was at stake—elders gathered alongside apostles to make the decision, establishing both the authority of elders in theological matters and the pattern of congregational affirmation of leadership decisions

Likewise, in Acts 15, what happens in Acts 15? A historic moment of the Jerusalem Council, right? And so you've got the craziness that's going on in Galatia. Had that series last spring on Galatians, right? You've got the Judaizers and the circumcision party, and the gospel's getting muddied. There's this idea that you have to have Jesus plus circumcision to really be saved. Yeah, faith in Jesus is important, as important as you have to be circumcised. And Paul says, absolutely not. That is not the nature of the gospel. The gospel is grace. The gospel is achieved through faith. It is the gift of God. You don't earn this. And so this dispute arises and Paul and Barnabas decide, "We're going to Jerusalem." They're actually set apart to go to Jerusalem and they go to have this theological dispute settled. And this is a huge deal. The very heart of our faith as we have it in the Scriptures was at stake in this debate. Now think of who exists in Jerusalem, right? All the bigwigs. You're going to Jerusalem in the book of James that we just read about. James is in Jerusalem. James is there. Peter is in Jerusalem. Paul and Barnabas are going to be in Jerusalem. So you've got apostles all over the place. You know what's interesting about Acts 15? It's not just apostles who gather together to make this significant decision. Acts 15 explains that when they gather, they gather to hear the ruling. It's the apostles and the elders. They gather in Jerusalem to hear this theological issue. And the apostles and the elders hear the evidence and they weigh the evidence and then they make a decision. And the congregation is informed and hears the decision and it's good to the congregation. They say, "This is good. This is right." And they affirm it. It's right that our apostles and our elders lead us. And Jerusalem, that council makes a decision that affects the theological wherewithal, the theological description, the theological substance of every Christian church that's been created; that's been planted. So you see the significance of elders.

16 · Concludes the biblical case for elder priority by showing Paul's instruction to Titus to appoint elders in every town in Crete, establishing that from the earliest church history, elders were the normative leadership structure in local churches

And then finally, Paul is leaving Crete. He's planted a church in Crete and he leaves Titus, one of his co-workers. Titus is like the guy like Timothy. Timothy is the more famous one. And he leaves Titus in Crete. This is what he says in Titus 1:5, "This is why I left you there, so that you might put what remained into order and appoint elders in every town." So this letter is written to Crete, but there's clearly this sense of Crete has a surrounding area where there's churches popping up. And he says to Titus, "Make sure there's elders in all those towns for all those churches." Those churches need to be led. So from the earliest chapters of church history, the highest human authority in the local church outside of the apostles is the local elder.

17 · Synthesizes the biblical evidence into a theological claim that elder-led church governance is representative (not top-down or democratic), grounded in Scripture's consistent testimony, and functions as the means by which Christ the Chief Shepherd extends His rule through His word

Christ rules the church. He is the Chief Shepherd. But He extends His rule through His Word. And this gets stated in the Book of Church Order, but it bears repeating. The ubiquitous, consistent testimony of Scripture is that churches are led and pastored and taught by elders, and they are under the authority of Christ as their head because they are under the authority of Scripture. Now, that's not a top-down polity. Neither is it inherently democratic polity. It's a representative polity. Built upon the place where the New Testament speaks most clearly about the nature of church government. That Christ as head and elders as under-shepherds are meant to rule and exercise authority in the churches.

18 · Extends the doctrine of elder rule to its extra-local expression, arguing that the unity Christ calls the church to is made visible when elders from different churches work together in formal ecclesiastical unions, not merely informal fellowship, while maintaining that all elder authority is derived from fidelity to Christ's lordship as expressed in Scripture

So the unity Christ calls us to finds expression when these elders in local churches work together with other elders to build ecclesiastical unions of churches. Groups of churches who don't just kind of like each other and when they're at a conference together, make sure they go out to a restaurant and hang out. But that there would be elders from different churches in different cities who would say and recognize, we are together. We are united for the sake of the Gospel. We are building and showing and making visible what is invisible. Namely, that there is a universal church over whom Christ is the head. That's what elders are doing. But again, elders have a derived authority. This Book of Church Order is very clear to state it's granted to them only by extension of their fidelity to Christ's lordship, and that lordship is expressed specifically in this, in his inerrant and authoritative word.

19 · Establishes a crucial distinctive of the Book of Church Order: the equality of all elders regardless of title or vocational status, arguing that elder/pastor/overseer are synonymous terms describing the same office with the same responsibilities for teaching and pastoral care, rejecting any category of decision-making elders who don't pastor

So consequently, elders within a modified Presbyterian system serve as Christ's representatives. They're an extension of Christ's care and leadership. The authority that Christ gives to the church resides in his word and finds expression through the ministers of the word, the elders. The unity Christ calls us to finds expression when those elders work together. One of the great strengths of Presbyterian government, so elder-ruled government, is that it promotes robust, healthy elderships in their proper ruling function with regards to teaching and membership and discipline. And one of the strengths of our Book of Church Order is the way that it safeguards the biblical reality that there is no distinction between elders. So one guy might have the title of senior pastor or lead pastor, but he's not more of an elder than another guy. An elder is an elder is an elder. One guy might serve full-time as an elder. 3 guys might serve full-time as an elder, and you might have 1, 2, 3 guys that serve bi-vocationally. They are all elders equally. There's no biblical category for subgroups of elders. The terms are used synonymously: elder, pastor, overseer. The same position. The same responsibilities to teach and to care. No category for guys that just sort of get to make decisions but don't have to pastor people. Don't have to be teaching people. Aren't responsible to make sure they know their theological head from their feet. All elders are pastors with the same calling and commission.

20 · Catalogs the specific responsibilities of elder rule from multiple New Testament texts: oversight, ruling, mediating disputes, judging doctrinal issues, guarding and transmitting the gospel, raising up new elders, weeding out false teaching, and wielding the keys of the kingdom through preaching, sacraments, and discipline

Here's what that means. The priority of elder rule means these elders have oversight over the church. 1 Timothy 5:2-3. And they're responsible to rule the congregation. 1 Timothy 5— sorry, the first one was 1 Peter. This one's 1 Timothy 5:17, 1 Timothy 3:5, also in 1 Thessalonians 5:12, Hebrews 13:7, 17, and 24. Elders, the priority of elder rule shows us, elders are called to mediate disputes between brothers. 1 Corinthians 6:5. We're not like the secular world. We shouldn't be where we run off to court every second, every chance we get because something doesn't go our way. If it's a dispute with another brother or sister in Christ, one of the callings of the elder is to come taking the Word with them, their authority, tucking it under their arm, pulling it out, opening it up, and helping them to mediate, to be reconciled, to walk in peace, and to establish the unity of the Church. Elders are called to judge in doctrinal issues like we see in Acts 15. In other places, the charge that Paul gives to Timothy and Titus: guard the good deposit entrusted to you and raise up faithful men who will do the same thing. You know what you need in your churches? You have to find elders. You have to raise up these elders. You have to teach them the Scriptures. They must be ministers of the Word of God. They must know the Word of God so they can teach from the Word of God. So they can protect the flock with the Word of God, that they can guard the good deposit of the Gospel. Weed out false doctrine. Call out false teachers. Christ calls them to use the keys of the Kingdom to bind and to loose. Matthew 16:19, 18:18, John 20:23. The keys of the kingdom are the preaching of the gospel, the right preaching of the word, the administration of the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper, and the exercise of church discipline. And elders are called to lead the church in exercising rightly those keys.

21 · Emphasizes the sobering weight of the elder's calling by appealing to Acts 20:28, highlighting that elders shepherd the church that was purchased with Christ's blood, making the responsibility both precious and weighty

That's a lot of stuff, right? If that sounds like a sobering calling, it is. Consider Paul's words in Acts 20:28. To the elders, pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. Take care. Pay careful attention. The NIV says, "Keep watch over yourselves and the flock." Jesus was put to death to purchase these people, to make them His precious possession. And you, elder, you, under-shepherd, are now given the role and the responsibility to do this well.

22 · Transitions from the discussion of elder rule to congregational involvement, noting continuity with Providence's historical practice while introducing the next major section on the congregation's role

That's the priority of elder rule. We've had other sermons that talk on elder rule, so I don't think this is an unfamiliar concept. It's similar with how Providence has always operated— the priority and the significance of elders leading the church. The next piece that we see in the Book of Church Order in terms of the local church is the call and need for significant and robust congregational involvement.

23 · Establishes the theological claim that while elders serve and lead for the congregation's spiritual health and joy, the congregation is not passive but has specific roles and responsibilities in the life and decision-making of the church

There is a specific role and responsibility for the congregation in the life and the decisions of the local church. Elders serve and lead for the health and the joy of the congregation. So in other words, the job that elders have is to make sure that all of you are healthy. Not to say that you're not having a temperature, but that you're healthy spiritually, that you know the Word of God, that you know the Gospel, that you cling to it well. And to make sure that you're joyful in that. That you see the connection between the gospel and the happiness that you have in Christ. Not like glib happiness, like deep, million miles deep, founded on the Word of God joy that substantiates your faith in the midst of every trial and hardship. That's the calling of elders. But that doesn't mean the congregation is passive or that the congregation is uninvolved in the decisions and the directions and the mission of the church. It's not the idea that you've got however many elders you have and those are the only people that are really doing anything in church. Not at all. That's not a healthy church. The congregation is called with roles and responsibilities.

24 · Explains how the Book of Church Order balances elder authority with congregational participation by emphasizing that elders are part of the congregation (not separate from it), that the congregation must provide counsel and submit to leadership, and that elders must actively listen and respond to congregational needs and concerns

And the Book of Church Order does excellent work of carefully articulating the character of elder rule within the congregation. It's just another way of saying it's not like there's the congregation and the elders. The elders are in fact, a part of the congregation. The elders are a part of the body. They're not separate from the body. It gives a very beneficial exhortation of the congregation's role, that the congregation has to have involvement in counsel and support and submission to the eldership's rule. Conversely, it exhorts the elders to consider and to listen and to respond to the needs and concerns of the sheep. So this whole idea of the priority of elder rule, that's not like carte blanche written to pastors to say, "Hey, you rule as long as you got your Bible with you. You can do whatever you want." No, you do it as a pastor, as one who cares for the flock and cares for the congregation, gives heed, has his ear to the needs, to the concerns. Doesn't just value feedback, wants feedback.

25 · Provides a concrete personal example of healthy congregational feedback through an email he received with theological concerns, demonstrating the kind of engaged participation the polity calls for while humorously addressing fear of pastoral retaliation

Which also highlights and underscores the role of the congregation to give feedback. To care enough to give feedback. I got an email a week and a half ago maybe. It was really helpful feedback. It wasn't really helpful feedback because it was like, "I agree with everything you're doing. You're the best pastor ever." Like it was a long email just saying, Here are some concerns and some thoughts I have about things theologically as they pertain to our church. I want you to be aware of them. I have no right as an elder to read that email and to go off and just be all grumpy the whole afternoon. To go moaning and groaning, "Oh, people, stiff neck, they won't be led." No. Now sometimes you get emails and the person's being a fool. You have to decide whether you're even going to respond to it or not. But this wasn't one of those. This was an email of somebody in the church just saying, "I want to be faithful to my role. I'm a part of this congregation. I want you to know, here are my thoughts. Here are my concerns." We need that as your pastors. Don't feel like you can't send those emails. Don't feel like we're not going to talk to you for 2 weeks if you do. We just won't talk to you for 2 days. Just kidding. Totally kidding.

26 · Establishes the theological foundation for why elders must care about congregational feedback: because elders will give account to the Chief Shepherd for how they cared for the flock, making pastoral attentiveness a matter of eschatological accountability

When we hear that, it helps us. It helps us to know and listen and respond and give ear to the concerns of you, the congregation. And we care about that because we are men who will one day have to give account. That's biblical language. It says those men who are called to be elders and ordained and set in as elders There's going to be a day when they stand as under-shepherds before the Chief Shepherd. And they're going to have to give account for how they cared for the flock. And if your vision of being an elder is that you just put your earbuds in, crank your iPod up, and sit there and fall asleep in the meadows while the sheep wander into danger, and you ignore their bleeding and their cries, that's not going to be a pleasant day.

27 · Makes a crucial distinction between the congregation's vital roles in church life and decision-making (feedback, counsel, input, prayer, spiritual discernment) versus granting the congregation governing authority, arguing that robust participation does not equal governance

The congregation plays a number of important roles in the new polity. Now, I say that while also recognizing it's still important to distinguish the vital roles and responsibilities of the entire congregation in the life and decision-making of the church versus granting an authority to the entire congregation to govern the church. Do you see the difference between the two? There is a right role and responsibility of the congregation. You have a job to do at Providence. Give us feedback. We like encouragement too. But give us your thoughts. Give us your input. Help us. Guide us. There is wisdom in a multitude of counselors. Help us to know how you're reading Scripture. Help us to know as you're praying and seeking God's will how you're feeling led by the Spirit. That's helpful for us. That is your role and your job, but there's a difference between that and viewing it as the role and right and privilege of the congregation to govern. There's a difference between those two.

28 · Illustrates healthy congregational participation from Acts 6 (identifying needs, affirming leaders) and Acts 15 (observing decisions, affirming leadership), arguing that congregational affirmation is distinct from congregational governance and represents proper biblical engagement

It's a noble biblical desire to ensure that all members of the church are properly exercising their gifts, that they are contributing to the life of the church. A little side note, if you're not contributing to the life of the church, that means you're not a healthy member. Little tidbit to store away and think about. That's the kind of things we see in Acts 6:3 with the proto-deacons being raised up, right? They bring to the attention of the leaders of the early church, "We got women starving. These widows, they need help." "Oh, thank you for letting us know. Let's find some men that can lead you. These men seem suitable to you to be led?" "Yeah, we affirm these guys are godly. They've got character." "Great." Let's put them in place. Acts 15:22, the congregation's there in the midst of this whole council. They're observing what's going on. And it gets done, and the apostles and the elders have conferred, and they've discussed, and there's been debate. And as you'd expect, Peter and Paul do their thing. They're eloquent guys. They get the gospel right. The gospel prevails. And you know what happens? The congregation doesn't just sit there and say, "Well, that was nice. Let's go home." They see it all. And they say, "It's good to us as well." I don't think that means the congregation's ruling. I don't think it's like the apostles and the elders are wringing their hands like, "Oh, what if the congregation vetoes us and says the gospel is you have to get circumcised?" No, I think it's the congregation playing their role, saying, "Yes, you're leading us, and we see that leadership as right and true, and we affirm it."

29 · Balances the warnings against pastoral domineering with the caution against reading American democracy into Scripture, arguing that healthy churches require both qualified elders and engaged members practicing robust communication and respect, but without conflating participation with equal governing authority

Sadly, it's possible for pastors to domineer those in their charge, and so it's imperative that pastors avoid leading in a dictatorial way, that pastors avoid creating a church culture that doesn't foster and encourage vibrant congregational participation in the life of the church and the key decision-making of the church. However, accomplishing the goal of full biblical participation of the entire congregation doesn't mean that final governing authority must be handed over to the entire congregation. As much as we are good Americans, we can't read democracy as we might see it into every page of Scripture. And it's also just recognizing we have a representative government anyway, right? Healthy churches require qualified, responsible, and accountable elders, as well as actively engaged members. Mature churches practice robust communication, cooperation, interdependence, and respect among all its members, including elders and other congregants. But that doesn't mean at the same time you experience equal authority or responsibility.

30 · Makes a vulnerable pastoral admission about the need to improve communication, invites specific feedback on communication strategies ahead of the elders' retreat, and addresses the practical issue of congregational disengagement during announcements, calling for mutual responsibility in the communication process

Just as a note on this, like the robust communication thing. Dave and I are just realizing, man, we want to improve in our ability to communicate with the church. We want robust interaction with the congregation. We got to get better at communicating. We can always improve at communicating. You want to know a way to give us feedback? Give us ideas. We're going on our retreat next week. So we're going to spend time— actually, it's this week now. We're going away for 3 days to pray, to consider the next ministry year, the church, all sorts of things. We're going to be considering specifically in one portion of that, how can we better communicate? How can we better stir up robust congregational involvement? It would be great feedback if you just gave us, hey, here's a few ideas I would have about communication. Matt Brodine already sent us an email about it. It was helpful. Send us more. I can't promise you we're gonna implement all of them, but we want to try. On the flip side of that, we can get up here and communicate, but you've also got to be listening, right? I get that the most likely time in the whole service to check out if you're a member of Providence is when? Announcements. Should I go get a drink of water? No, you shouldn't go get a drink of water. Everyone that's in this room right now, You are of age, and when I say of age, I mean unless you're the infant my wife is holding, you are potty trained, which means you can control your bladder for an hour and a half. I'm sure you can. You can come a minute and a half early on Sunday morning to use the restroom. They aren't the prettiest restrooms, but the toilets do flush. And so you can come in here for that hour and a half and stay engaged. And during announcements, be intentional to listen to the things we're communicating. We don't just throw anything in the announcements. We put things in there strategically that we think the church needs to know about. Because we want to communicate to you. But we recognize announcements isn't enough. So strategize with us.

31 · Synthesizes the preceding discussion and signals the transition to the final major section on mutual accountability, listing the key elements: Christ's headship, elder rule, and strategic congregational involvement

Back to where we're at. Those are all significant aspects of what it means to be a healthy church. What it means to be a mature church. The congregation has to be strategically involved. You have to be elder-led and ruled, the priority of that, you have to recognize Christ as your head. And you have to recognize as well, as we consider this last little point about the local church, the concept of mutual accountability.

32 · Clarifies the scope of the sermon by noting the office of deacons won't be addressed in detail, briefly defining it as a non-ruling service position that is installed rather than ordained and often temporary, before returning to the main focus on authority and accountability

Now again, I said this is not an exhaustive detailing of the BCO. You guys would be asleep already if we were trying to go through this point by point. So we're not even touching on deacons. That's another thing Dave and I are discussing. This other biblical office of deacons, that's not a leading position. It's not a ruling position, it's a position of service. Putting forward qualified, gifted people to serve the church where needs arise. You don't ordain these people, you install them. It's not a permanent position like an elder. It's often a temporary one. We gotta think about that, but that's not really pertaining to our look at the local church and who has authority and how is authority exercised and how is authority found accountable, which is our last point.

33 · Introduces the concept of mutual accountability by establishing that while accountability has always existed informally through regional leadership, the new Book of Church Order formalizes these processes in writing, making clear structures for bringing concerns about elders while distinguishing legitimate accountability from divisive behavior

There's mutual accountability between the elders and the congregation. This is an area where our new book of church order is particularly helpful. It's not that there was never accountability before. There has always been accountability for providence in every Sovereign Grace church. I hope you've heard prior to me getting here, I hope you've heard me say it because I know I have, that if you've got a beef with me, come tell us. Inform us. If we've sinned, we want to repent. And if you have a beef and you feel like we're not repenting, that there was recourse with Rick as our regional leader to bring it to him and to let him know. That's not free license to be divisive, to be rumor mongers, to build up factions to try and destroy the church. But elders are called to be accountable. 1 Timothy 5:17-19. What's great about our new book of church order is what was informal before has now been formalized. It's now been put down in writing.

34 · Establishes the biblical basis for mutual obligations in accountability: elders must exercise humble, servant-hearted authority, and the congregation must respond with respect and submission, unpacking Hebrews 13:7 and 17 to show how remembering, considering, imitating, and obeying faithful leaders serves both the congregation's good and the leaders' joy

Ultimately, elders must exercise their God-given authority in leading local churches. Now, that's a biblically circumscribed authority. It's a servant-hearted authority. It's a humble authority, but they have it. Likewise, a congregation has to respond and respect and submit to its elders. That's the teaching of Hebrews 13:17 and 7. Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Now that is meant to be a sentence where it's like, remember your leaders, pray for them, hold them. It's kind of the picture, I think, of Moses. You know, just he's standing there in the battle and they're holding, they remember, they're holding his arms. And there's this tender term that the author says, those who spoke to you the word of God. God. They're feeding you with the bread of life. Consider the outcome of their way of life. Make sure they're living the way they should be living. And if they are, imitate their faith. Verse 17: Obey those leaders. The implication being, of course, verse 7, that your leaders are faithful, that they're good, that they're godly. If they are, 17, obey your leaders and submit to them For they are keeping watch over your souls, that Acts 20:28 idea, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.

35 · Distinguishes between legitimate accountability and sinful divisiveness through a story about anonymous critical letters signed 'Your Thorn,' then argues that healthy submission to leadership requires a context of vibrant, respectful congregational participation

There is a place for accountability and there's a place for submission. If you're just always a cantankerous jerk in church, Heard a story in seminary. Maybe it's just an apocryphal story and it's not true, but at some point I'm sure it has some vein of truth to it. There was a pastor supposedly who consistently throughout the years of his ministry would come up to the pulpit and he would find a letter addressed to him. It was always letters with really sharp critiques, and it was always signed "Your Thorn." That's not the kind of accountability the Bible's talking about. That's not what it means to submit to your leaders. That's what it's called to be sinful and divisive. But good leadership, godly leadership, the kind of leadership where submission works, only happens in a context of vibrant, healthy, respectful, and fruitful participation from every member.

36 · Establishes the theological equality of all believers in Christ despite functional differences in roles, using marriage as an analogy, and argues that elder qualifications primarily reflect general Christian maturity rather than creating a super-Christian category, concluding that effective church mission requires every member's active participation

Church members don't have a lesser status from elders. Does that make sense? It's not like elders, everybody else. It's not like Dave, everybody else. It's not like Matthew, well, he's the senior pastor, so then Dave, then everybody else. No, it's the congregation equal before Christ. All believers share an equal standing. They're all united with Christ to the same amount. He's our common head. We're all sheep under His common care, under His common authority. Each member from the newest believer to the longest serving elder are equal partakers in the blessings and the privileges of salvation. So it's like a marriage. Even though there's different roles and responsibilities that exist, there is no fundamental distinction of equality between believers in the body of Christ. There is no fundamental distinction of equality. Elders aren't super Christians. They're not more justified. No. In fact, the qualifications for elders, aside from being able to lead and teach and handle the Word of God, all the other qualifications just basically say they should be growing in godliness just like every other member of the congregation. Each member plays a vital role in the mission. Not just the elders. Your church is broken if the only people doing ministry and mission are the elders. Your church won't work. Your elders will get burned out. You won't accomplish what God has called you to do as His church.

37 · Establishes the New Testament's democratization of the Spirit (contrasted with Old Testament selectivity), arguing that all Christians are equally indwelt by the Spirit, equally children of God, and part of the priesthood of all believers with equal access to God's word, rejecting the clergy/laity distinction while maintaining that governance responsibility is not universal

All Christians— get this— all Christians— major difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament— all Christians are indwelt by the Spirit of God. Now, in the Old Testament, people are regenerated by the Spirit of God, but only the select few. The prophets, the kings are anointed with the Spirit, are filled with the Spirit. Not so in the New Testament. The good news of Jeremiah and Joel, what happens when Christ comes? God says, "I will pour out my Spirit on all people, and your sons and your daughters will prophesy." That's the gift of the Spirit for everyone indiscriminately. Everyone is an equal partaker in the gifts of the Spirit and should hunger equally to be filled with the Spirit. All Christians are children of God. They all get an equal share of the inheritance of Christ. They all belong to the royal priesthood, a beautiful Reformation idea of the priesthood of all believers. While the church as a whole does not have responsibility for the governance of the church. Does that make sense? Each member contributes greatly to the health or demise of the church. The rule of elders in no way contradicts the prerogatives and the liberties given to every person who's in Christ. All believers have access to God's word. All believers stand under the authority of God's word. And that's why the historical distinction between clergy and laity is just wrong. It was meant to kind of make this like extra category where we get special privileges and we get special access, we get special revelation. No. We're all part of the priesthood of all believers.

38 · Extends the marriage analogy to illustrate how healthy elder-congregation relationships work: like a good marriage where the husband seeks and values his wife's counsel and she joyfully recognizes his leadership responsibility, creating a relationship of mutual respect and joyful unity rather than begrudging submission

It's like a healthy marriage. Again, the description. A husband's leadership and authority shouldn't create begrudging submission from a wife. Her counsel is sought. She should be quick and free to give her input. If she's a wise wife and you're not a dumb husband, you should want it. And yet the wife recognizes the God-given responsibility of her husband to lead. In a similar way, because elders are fundamentally a part of the congregation themselves, the relationship between elders and the congregation is meant to be one of joyful unity, working together like you would imagine and picture the best marriage.

39 · Defines the complementary responsibilities of elders (proclaim and guard the gospel) and believers (stand firm, strive together, walk worthy of the gospel), arguing that faithful pastoral leadership should win glad congregational affirmation and forge unity rather than requiring dictatorial force

Elders are to proclaim and guard the gospel. What a charge. And believers are to stand firm in one spirit and strive together for the faith of the gospel. What does Paul say in Philippians? Walk in a manner worthy of the gospel. Your leaders are called to proclaim it and protect it, and you are called to respond and engage and live in light of it. You don't look like the world in the way you live. You have been bought with a price. You've been washed with the blood of Christ. Reflect the gospel which has purchased you. If your leaders are faithful, they're preaching it. The best pastors aren't dictators. They're leaders that are loved and supported by the church they also belong to. And so their instruction and leadership should seek to win a congregation's glad affirmation. It should forge congregational solidarity.

40 · Describes the characteristics of good pastoral leadership (humble instruction, effective communication, member deployment, appropriate involvement in planning) and the natural result (joyful participation and free submission based on trust) rather than forced compliance

When pastors lead well, they exhibit humble instruction and informative communication and effective teaching and the training and deploying of members into ministry and appropriately involving all people in the church, involving all the membership appropriately in the leadership's thinking and plans. When that happens, the congregation becomes joyful participants and they submit freely out of established trust in the men that God has given them.

41 · Provides a concrete example of the elder-congregation accountability process in action through the building decision, detailing how the elders gathered input from financial advisors, care group leaders, and researched rental options over two years before presenting to the congregation, demonstrating the consultative rather than dictatorial approach

Great example is the building. To kind of pull the curtain back on the process, Matthew and Dave— so Matthew 1.0, Matthew Hoffman and Dave, along with the care group leaders and especially the finance team— had been considering even before I got here the details of the building, the affordability of the building, the feasibility of the building with the budget. And so when I got here, we continued to talk about that. And for 2 years we discussed, Dave and I as elders, bringing in the counsel of the financial advisory team, members of the congregation gifted with numbers to help us have accountability, to give us their counsel, as well as sitting down with care group leaders and hearing their counsel and advice as it pertained to that. And as we gathered and compiled that information, we even set aside a couple of guys to go out and explore in a preliminary fashion What's the rental market like out there? Not because we were sending those guys out with a dictate, "Hey, go find us a rental space. We're selling the building." But because we thought it'd be good to have an idea when we stand before the church and say, "We're thinking about what to do with the building and the budget." That we'd have some idea to answer the question, "What's the rental market like?" "Well, gee, that's a good question. We don't know." That was the only reason behind it. The purpose of that is to gather input.

42 · Continues the building example by explaining the family meeting presentation process, acknowledging the complexity of receiving diverse input, emphasizing that the building is a tertiary matter that shouldn't divide, and noting how the new Book of Church Order formalizes the accountability processes that are being practiced

And then the purpose of the family meeting is to stand in front of you and basically walk you through, here's where we are. What we feel really confident in is we gotta knock out the walls like we did back there, step 1. Step 2, we wanna push the screen back and we wanna build a riser for the stage. Get some better lighting and some better sound. An inexpensive do-it-yourself remodel so we can fit people in the church. And then we think we need to explore all options because we've got a tight budget situation and an expensive building. Explore do-it-yourself renovation options. Explore the possibility of selling and renting. We are still far on the front end of that process, and every step along the way in that process, we're gonna want more and more heightened input from you, the church. We're gonna want to hear what you think. Now, keep in mind, what's tricky about this is even after the family meeting where we ask for that input, Several of you were faithful to give it, and it kind of came from all over the place. So you had folks of different persuasions with different counsel, and that's what makes it tricky to walk in unity on a tertiary matter like a building. This is not what unites us, and it should not be what divides us. But as we walk and try and discern how we want to walk that out, We will and need to get more input from you. More formal levels of input. And we want to do that. Because that's a form of accountability. There is health in that formal mutual accountability. And that's one of the great things about the Book of Church Order. It becomes more formalized.

43 · Catalogs the congregation's accountability responsibilities: following discipline decisions while ensuring they're biblical, evaluating elder candidates, affirming or raising concerns, bringing charges against sinful leaders, and rejecting false teachers, using Paul's rebuke of the Galatians as an example of congregational failure in accountability

The congregation has a responsibility to follow the eldership's leading and exercising church discipline. But the congregation also has a responsibility to ensure that church discipline is being practiced wisely and biblically. The congregation has a responsibility to evaluate the nature of candidates put forward as elders. They have a responsibility to give their affirmation, to share their concerns. And they have a responsibility to bring charges against a leader who's in sin. All believers are responsible to reject false teachers. All believers are responsible. Paul's charge against the Galatian church isn't just, "Your leaders are a bunch of knuckleheads who couldn't figure out the Gospel." It's a charge against the congregation. "You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched all of you?" The congregation had a responsibility to hold their leaders accountable. And part of the reason you're in the muck you're in is because you failed in your responsibility.

44 · Continues cataloging congregational rights and responsibilities (approaching God, studying Scripture, weighing preaching, financial support and accountability) while clearly stating a boundary: the congregation does not have the right to fire pastors through quick votes or orchestrated mutinies

All believers have the right to approach God freely through Christ, to study the Scriptures for themselves, to weigh the validity and the faithfulness of the Word of God preached. All believers are called to financially support the ministry of the church and to bring accountability to how those funds are being spent. That said, The congregation, while it has significant formal ideas and processes of accountability, is not free to pastor fires— to pastor fires— to fire pastors however they see fit. You know you've jumbled it when you've jumbled it so bad nobody even knows how you jumbled it. The congregation isn't free to fire pastors. With a quick vote. With a belabored, intentional mutiny that simmers for months.

45 · Tells two vivid stories from a conversation with a former Baptist pastor: one where a congregation gutted his salary and preaching schedule while he was on vacation, effectively forcing him out without firing him, and another where a pastor returned from sabbatical to find himself locked out of the parsonage after a congregational vote, illustrating the abuses possible in purely congregational governance

It was so fascinating. I realize I'm going over time. On the flight to our inaugural Council of Elders meeting, we're going to see about that next week, how this extra-local piece works. I'm on the flight, we're going to practice our first experience of this nuanced Presbyterianism, and I'm sitting next to a guy and he pops open his Bible and he's reading a commentary on his computer, not his Bible, sorry. And I look over and so I just kind of strike up a conversation. Oh, he works for Logos, this Bible software company, and he's trying to sell me on the merits of Logos. I use a different application. It was fine. So I said, "Well, how did you get into that?" He said, "Well, I used to be a pastor." "Oh, well, what happened? What led you to this?" And he tells the story of Baptist pastor in a church, congregationally oriented. He goes on vacation. A week and a half later, he comes back and they had held a congregational meeting. And they had voted to decrease his salary by 95%, and had voted to give the congregation the right to set the preaching schedule, and had limited his times in the pulpit as the senior pastor to, I think he said, 6 times in the upcoming year. Effectively, they didn't have the guts to actually fire him with the vote. They just said, "We're gonna make it impossible for you to support your family by what we do with the vote, and we're making it so that you're not our primary teacher with the vote." And I'm trying to care for him, at the same time giving him a hard time because he's wearing a Texas hat. You've got to give a guy a hard time if he's wearing a UT hat. And so I'm kind of talking, and he said, well, it could have been worse. He said, I had a buddy who actually a couple months later got back from a 5-week sabbatical and pulled into the driveway and went to open the door to the parsonage, the house the church owns, and they changed the locks. Because they voted to change it.

46 · Argues against purely congregational governance while acknowledging Presbyterianism's flaws, asserting that the Book of Church Order's strength is formal mutual accountability with appeals processes—elders can appeal to regional bodies if fired by local elderships, and members can appeal discipline decisions to regional bodies, creating bidirectional accountability

I don't think a congregation should be able to do that. I think there should be accountability in the same way that an elder has accountability. Now, there are plenty of horror stories of Presbyterianism run amok. Let's not pretend it's like this impeccable, oh, this— if we go here, it's gonna make this glorious utopian universe. This polity won't be the be-all end-all, but it needs to be faithful, it needs to be careful, and there has to be mutual accountability. And that mutual accountability for both members and pastors is spelled out in the Book of Church Order, that there is a process by which you bring charges against an elder. And if the local eldership hears those charges and upholds them and says, you're right, We're going to fire the elder. That elder has a means of appeal to that regional body. In the same way, a member, if they feel like they were done wrong in a church discipline case, has the recourse of appeal to that regional body. I think they were wrong. I think I've been repentant. I think they misunderstood how this all went down. Mutual accountability that's spelled out and laid out.

47 · States the foundational principle that no polity structure—however well-designed—can function without godly pastoral character and engaged, submissive congregational participation

No church polity can work without the necessary qualifying character on the part of the pastors and a corresponding engagement and faithful submission on the part of the congregation.

48 · Uses the Lord of the Rings as an extended metaphor contrasting Denethor (the unfaithful steward who hoards power and doesn't long for the king's return, creating a fearful, dark city) with Faramir (the faithful steward who prepares for the king's return and joyfully surrenders authority when the true king arrives), illustrating the difference between faithful and unfaithful eldership

Christ is the head. God gives leaders for the good of the church. Give you one final illustration. Love the Lord of the Rings. Lord of the Rings You've got the character Strider. And everybody finds out eventually that Strider is actually Aragorn. He's the heir to the throne of Gondor, the White City. But for centuries, I think it's actually millennia in the storyline, the kings of Gondor have been gone and the White City has been ruled by stewards. For our purposes, we'll call them undershepherds who rule the city and care for the city. And at the point in the history of Middle-earth that we see the story taking place, the steward of Gondor is Lord Denethor. And he's this unfaithful, twisted steward. He doesn't long for the return of the king. In fact, when Aragorn disguised as Strider comes into the city, he mocks him and doesn't respect him, disregards him. And there's actually an interchange between Gandalf and Denethor where Gandalf says, "Authority is not given to you to deny the return of the king, steward. You are not the king, you are a steward. You are not the chief shepherd, you are an under-shepherd." And Denethor replies, "The rule of Gondor is mine and no other's." And you see just the twistedness of his heart. Eventually Denethor dies, throws himself off the edge of the building as he burns. But his son, Faramir, is a steward of a different sort. He's a faithful steward, a faithful undershepherd longing for the return of the chief shepherd. And you even see it in the nature of the White City. Gondor under Denethor's reign is fearful. It's a dark place. But after Aragorn defeats the Dark Lord, Faramir returns to the city and sets things right. And as a faithful steward, unlike his father, he prepares the city for the king's return. And when the king returns, He doesn't reluctantly hand over his mantle. He prepares a city joyful for the return of the king. The king has come back! Aragorn will reign! And Faramir, with joy, sets down his office, willingly, gladly, to live under the right rule of the true king.

49 · Applies the Lord of the Rings illustration to the church, contrasting the vision of power-hoarding elders creating fear with faithful elders who long for Christ's return and create joyful anticipation, calling the church to embody Faramir's faithful stewardship rather than Denethor's twisted rule

That's a picture of how the local church should operate. Not elders hoarding leadership and authority. Elders longing for the return of the King. Not a people in darkness fearful because of the leadership of their twisted stewards. But a city joyously celebrating when the King returns in victory.

50 · Signals the transition to closing prayer

Would you bow your heads?