Indeed... I'm not suggesting that education of church officers alone is
the answer - just a help.
My recent experience with my PCA church has got me re-thinking the whole church government thing. While I still think that Presbyterianism is the most Biblical form of church government, I wrestle with the way church officers are chosen in, for example, PCA churches like mine.
1. In the Scriptures I find elders
appointed by the Apostles and evangelists rather than chosen by "popular vote" from a pool of candidates, and
2. I find no Scriptural justification for giving greater ecclesiastical authority to "teaching elders" (who
alone are eligible for appointment to many committees and who
alone are authorized to administer the sacraments, etc) than to so-called "ruling elders." Certainly there is Scripture to demonstrate the principle of
"first among equals", such as Peter among the Eleven, but none giving one elder authority over the others.
3. Deacons were chosen in at least one instance by consensus from among the people, but I cannot find a single instance of elders being chosen in such a way.
I'm starting to favor an "EpiscoPresbytalian" approach to church government... I'm disgusted with the way the government of my former PCA church failed so badly, and with the wider failure of the PCA to confront and refute the NPP/FV heresies before they gained so much ground and did so much damage in the denomination over a period of several years. Presbyterian government hasn't prevented
other Presbyterian denominations from apostasizing. But the way Presbyterianism has been
implimented in our Western culture surely demonstrates that the church should revisit it.
Is there such a thing as an EpiscoPresbytalian church anywhere? <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/giggle.gif" alt="" />
