Church Government

How is the church to be organized and governed? This is a thought that has occured to me over the last few months as I have sought to deal with how our church is organized and how it gets activities accopmplished.


I have always desired to have a pretty flat church. What I mean by that is I believe the church is here to set people free to do ministry in Jesus name. I like to show a loot of trust in the people that volunteer at our church that they can handle challenges that God has laid before them. i ama firm believe that if we are going to grow you have to make the decision to let go of control and trust people.

I also say flat in that I don't want to have a lot of heiarchy and red tape in the church's organization.

With that being said the Bible does lay out a certain hiearchy and order in how the church is to be governed.

1. Of course, Jesus Christ is the leader of the church.
2. Then secondly, the Bible is pretty clear that the elders are the overseers of the local church. They are in charge of the church and oversee the activities of the church. They are called to hold people accountable to the faith and to see the church is God honoring.

3. The Elders fulfill four functions in the chruch
A. They establish church policy (Acts 15)
B. They have oversight of pastoral matters (Acts 15)
C. They are called to a ministry of prayer (Acts 6:1-7)
D. They are involved in the ministry of word (Acts 20)

Next week, we'll talk about the role of the Deacon.