Christ establish the church, but people create and operate its institutional form. A church is an autonomous spiritual body under the leadership of Christ and governance must provide for ascertaining the mind of Christ. All members have equal rights and privileges in a church, therefore the church government must not obscure the unit of the body of Christ by allowing superior/ subordinate relationship in the structure. Organisation but relate persons to persons and persons to tasks in orderly ways that meets needs, helps persons grow, and facilitate achievement of a church's mission. Church government must provide for both long term and short term activities. Considering the principles and application stated above with regard to church governance, the congregational model of church government would seem to work best and most effectively in the local church.
Congregational church government stresses the role of the individual christian and makes local congregation the seat of authority. At the heart of the model is the belief that the local congregations are to govern their own affairs and this stands in contras to both Episcopacy and Presbyterianism. Two concepts are basic to the congregational model i.e. autonomy and democracy whereby the local congregation is independent, self-governing and has a voice in its affair.
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24 comments:
The Congregational model rest it authority on the congregation. How do we wrestle with the calling of the minister/pastor to the congregation? Does the congregation determines the calling of the pastor or God? If a pastor feel that God is directing the Church to a certain direction but the congregation doesn't feels so. Who should the pastor listen to?
eh...stupid r?
Church represents Christ
Christ is the head of the Church
Why u ask such stupid questions?
Think before asking can?
Like Duh? God lah..who else?
or else what is the Church for?
Lionel Tan, Are you stupid or I am stupid? You seem to ignore every reality that exist. Can you honestly say that you you have lived a life like that? Christ rule every aspect and decision of your life? Stop deceiving yourself? Think before you answer.
When you said the local congregations are to govern their own affairs and this stands in contras to both Episcopacy and Presbyterianism.Can you please elaborate and suggest the negative effect and danger which can pose to their (Episcopacy, Presbyterianism)type of approach?
dear food for thought, the pastor should concentrate on the spiritual direction, whereas the management of the church should be left to choosen few. GB
dear lionel tan, it is definitely a no go with your approach.GB
dera jeromeliew, as far as i am concered there is no perfect model, don't see the negative or postive to any model. GB.
Why i call you stupid is because
you dare not put ur real name
you are not going straight to the point
you are not giving comments at all
you are just simple throwing questions
so that we have to answer in paragraph
simple. I am naive that is true
if not why i am here in a place such as bible school?
what every reality that exist?
reality
Christ is the head of the church
simple
whatever governance we prefer
"who should the pastor listen to?"
like duh...
God right? who else?
Lionel, it is sad and pointless to dialogue with you. If I am a unbeliever blogger I will be stumble by you and all that you say about God or the hope in the Church will be destoryed.
Raising question is for dialogue, to probe and to help the thinking process. If we just comment to agree and not dialogue what is the purposes of a discussion blog.
People raise question because these are real issues. Are the issues raise by food for thought not real life issues? Can we just pretend these things don't happen.
I agree with Joe the pastor must concentrate on spiritual direction, how do we separate the spiritual from the management of the Church? Can we totally separate the management from the spiritual so neatly? This is a good issue to discuss in a Congregational structure.
It would be great if Pastors can release the management for the profesional to handle while he take care of the spiritual part. But most Pastors want to have their say in the management.
dear eunice, if we agree that this is the best approach than it is important that we should implement it, with everybody's consent and i am sure the pastor will be pleased with it too. GB.
dear lets dialogue, very valid question by you regarding how can the separation be made, the separation is between spiritual matters and management matters which will be very effective in my view. GB>
define right model... in what context is it "RIGHT"..
right means biblically right or culturally right or right because u read from some books?...
give me ur piece of mind on what is ur definition about right model
Hi Joe,
I shared your view on church governing model - congregational model. My previous bad church experiences of splitting possibly caused me to be a firm believer that this is the best compares to the others; Though there is no perfect structure, some strongly believes in a deocracy structure as much to the leading in combination with others in both Episcopacy and Presbyterianism.
Dear Bro.Joe
As much as I support your view that the local congregation should govern their own affairs and be independant I still feel such a form of government may give rise to a spirit of independance that might give room for excesses.Take the example of TOG and Pastor Peter Tan for that matter the church did not come under an umbrella body that could have overseen the excesses done by the Pastor and some of the Leaders.There was no accountability to anyone the Pastor
was not able to be corrected by any higher powers and he managed to get the congregation to blindly support him and to give generously to fill his pockets and finally the church came to a disgraceful end/
Dear classmates, let us be more polite and not calling each other "stupid" in our comments coz outsiders are also reading our blogs.
Joe, your idea of "autonomy and democracy whereby the local congregation is independent, self-governing and has a voice in its affair." is well and good except I wonder why Paul had to set up deacons and bishops in the churches he founded.
An after thought; aren't pastors and elders also called to rule and not just meditate on the Bible and pray for Sunday sermons. Please refer to the epistles to Timothy.
dear wall-e jr, my take on 'right' is which best suits the situation and keeping the focus on the Lord in the mid of the decision making. GB
dear freddie, thank you for your view, correctly pointed out by you that we must best fit the needs. GB
dear raymond, i don't deny what you have shared is true but in any goverment there should be check and balances in place. any formulated plan has the possiblity to divert from its orginal course and so controls must be in place 'a system within a system'. GB
dear johnthan, i have stated it from a separation from the spiritual and operational, the model best fit the needs and so i am not contesting against any other model. GB
Looking at your topic "rightful governmental model of the church", it seem that you didn't stand up to a model and stick in it. You rather be open to different model and carefully take the pieces of each model to best fit to the needs of the church.
It may well and wise to do so but will it effectively serve the church or rather distort the strength of each different model of government?
dear jerome, i have choosen what best fits my situation and have mantain that position. if you reflect, than one can deduce that all the various models came about from disatifaction from an ealier model. the important to keep in mind is that whatever model we decide upon, God must be the centre of focus and not to fullfill our own ego.the saying goes, don't make decision for the sake of making decision. GB.
Hi Joe,
There is one issue I would like to seek your opinion. The class especially Pas. Lim mentioned on Theocracy form of governing. Can you elaborate how it works within a congregational structure? Some may say that Epicospal may represents better in that, what do you think? Do me personally, it is not the means of structure we adopt for the church but rather the people understanding and spirituality who are in leadership in allowing God to work through.
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