Ecclesiology

Ecclesiology is the study of doctrine as it pertains to the life of the church itself. As a broad category, it asks questions such as:

• Who is the church?
• Must one join the church?
• Where lies the authority of the church?
• What is the church called to do?
• How should the church be governed?
  

This post deals with the last of those questions. How will our church be governed? How will we structure our leadership? This is a big question. How would it work with the four of us? Or four or ten of any combination of us and others? Central to this area are questions of:

• biblical precedent
• relative authority
• practical efficiency
  

I am currently reading "Biblical Eldership" by Strauch for his insight, and have contacted Jonathan Leeman of 9Marks Ministries to pick his brain since he is doing his PH.D. on Ecclesiology right now. Hopefully he will respond.

In the meantime, I want to get your thoughts moving. Below is an outline of the major popular options as highlighted by Mark Driscoll in his book, "Confessions of a Reformission Rev." All quotes are his words, and do reflect his biases. Below is merely an explanation of the models. None of this is a biblical argument for anything, which notably is a major flaw in contemporary thinking that opt solely for what works...as if God has nothing to say at all about church structure.

1. Congregational Ecclesiology:

• Authority flows: Congregation to Staff to Pastor
• "the congregation holds the highest authority in the church. Practically this means that the congregation votes on church matters and that some form of majority rules, basically like a democracy. The staff and pastor are essentially seem as employees of the congregation and although proven that these types of churches are marked by longevity, they have difficulty growing for lack of a clear leader."
  

2. Senior Pastor Ecclesiology:

• Authority flows: Senior Pastor to Staff to Congregation
• "here the Senior Pastor is God's specially anointed man and functions as the highest authority in the church. Under the senior pastor is a staff that works for the pastor and is supposed to implement his vision for the church. The people in the congregation are the customers to be taken care of by the pastor and his staff. This model borrows it organizational structure from corporate business, with a CEO, employees, and customers. Church using this model have a high potential to grow large quickly because they have simple and decisive leadership. But they are also prone to make big mistakes, dumb ideas, and heretical doctrines if it comes from the senior pastor, since he is not functionally submissive or accountable to anyone"...also puts ongoing life of the church in danger if say the Pastor gets hit by a car and dies.
  

3. Elder Ecclesiology:

• Authority flows: Senior Pastor to Elders to Staff to Congregation
• "here you have a team of senior leaders that were mutually submissive...and a model that took into account the need for insight and accountability of other qualified elders...however, when I inspected elder-governed churches, they did not operate as a team of equals with a first-among-equals leader. Instead, a strong senior pastor still sat as the highest seat of authority in the church. The elders did function as peers of the senior pastor, but they were mainly unpaid volunteers who were good businessmen. They were generally godly but were not skilled pastors. They functioned well in this system because it was much like the corporate business structure they were accustomed to, with a CEO, a board of directors, employees and customers. But rather than functioning as fellow pastors, they instead were more like a corporate board that approved the plans brought to them by the senior pastor and his staff and gave generously to help underwrite the fundraising. Under the elder board that focused on business were staff members who were recognized as pastors by not as elders. The staff pastors generally knew the Bible, the people in the church, and the day-to-day needs of the church far better thatn the men on the elder board who were leading them and making decisions that they were supposed to implement.
  

4. Purpose-Driven Ecclesiology:

• Authority flows: More from the bottom up through service and gift based ministry yet with a Pastoral staff guiding a team of core lay ministers...The power is in the people and every member ministry. This one's unclear to me beyond that.
  
• Created by Rick Warren - read "Purpose Driven Church" for a clearer explanation.
  
• "here the goal is to move as many people as possible into leadership at the center of your church. This is accomplished by having various classes to train people for ministry and to prepare them to become more vitally invested in the church. Positively, Warren's model: 1)moves Christians in the church from being customers served by their pastor to being ministers serving according to their spiritual gifts. 2) shifts the duty of the pastor from doing ministry for Christians to training Christians to do the ministry as Ephesians 4:11-13 teaches. 3)It puts lost people on the church organizational chart and had the church existing for them and not just for the Christians already in the church. 4) It puts the mission of evangelism at the forefront of the church."
  

5. Emerging and Missional Ecclesiology:

• Authority flows: Father-Son-Spirit to Elders to Deacons and informs the membership and attractional / missional ministries of the church.
  
• Created by Mark Driscoll with help of the Gospel and Our Culture Network (GOCN).
  
• Includes the following elements which touch on all the ecclesiological questions listed above (structure item are listed first):
  
• Jesus is the Senior Pastor to be followed by the power of the Holy Spirit.
• Jesus mediates between the church on earth and God the Father in heaven (this sort of negates any lingering Catholic ideas on priests being a valid mediator for the saints)
  
• Structure is rooted in biblical theology not secular organizational theory.
• The church has leaders but is not organized by hierarchy.
• Elders are a qualified team of co-equal male pastors who are player-coaches both leading the church and training people for ministry.'
• Deacons are qualified male and female pastoral associates
• Members are church leaders who give their money, service, prayers, and time to the advancement of the gospel and submit to discipline if needed.
• God rules over both the church and culture as Lord so that ministry extends beyond the church and into culture.
• The church exists to welcome and convert lost people.
• The church labors to be as culturally accessible to lost people as possible.
• A clear gospel thread binds everyone and everything together on Jesus' mission.
• The church has tow simultaneous missions: going out into culture (missional) and bringing people into God's Kingdom (attractional)
  
• A membership class is used to filter the wrong people out of the church and the right people into the church.
  

Finally he puts forth some concluding observations after his study of current church structures.

• Jesus did not make the church organizational chart.
• Much is patterned after various kinds of secular organizations.
• Many have no gospel or theological convictions.
• Many structures do not have a mission outside the church and do not consider lost people.
• Many do not take into account any surrounding cultural engagement.
• Many are simply arguing over leading from the top down through authority or from the bottom up through service.
• Many bog down from either too much hierarchy or too little leadership.
• Many are static organizational structures that are not moving on a mission.

Peace out,
Kyle