Most believers assume that the New Testament church is really a collection of autonomous congregations and that local majorities are the only majorities that really, finally matter.
The General Assembly’s New Form of Government Task Force breaks from that mold by giving voice to the missional, connectional, and therefore biblical polity to which we aspire. As Presbyterians attempt to reform themselves according to the Word of God, it is encouraging to see a biblically grounded connectionalism in the new, revised, proposed Form of Government (nFoG2).
The current FOG makes the helpful distinction between the universal and the particular church. This distinction borrowed from the Westminster Confession of Faith has guided Presbyterian reflection on ecclesiology from its beginnings in North America. The nFOG Task Force has taken this distinction and adroitly reframed it in order to address our own generation.
The first important thing to notice about the proposed G-1: it takes up congregations. It acknowledges that the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church meets in particular congregations in particular locations. By abandoning the distinction between “Church” and “particular church,” the nFOG reinforces the biblical and confessional foundations of the PC(USA)’s polity. It is worth looking at the proposed language in detail:
The congregation is the church engaged in the mission of God in its particular context. The triune God gives to the congregation all the gifts of the gospel necessary to being the Church. The congregation is the basic form of the church, but it is not of itself a sufficient form of the church. Thus congregations are bound together in communion with one another, united in covenant relationships of accountability and responsibility, contributing their strengths to the benefit of the whole, and are called, collectively, the church. (G-1.0101)
Initially, it is clear that the congregation is the church. The capitalization here matters. The Church is the body of believers called out from all times and all places by the Lord. The church is our particular expression of that reality in the PC(USA). The opening sentence makes the important point that congregations are the church engaged in mission in a particular context. Congregations exist not for or unto themselves but to serve the mission of God in a local community. Because congregations exist to serve the purposes of God they are gifted by God with everything necessary to be the Church; namely: the preaching and hearing of the Word of God, the right administration of the sacraments and discipline. These foundations are then fleshed out in the third sentence. “The congregation is the basic form of the church but is not of itself a sufficient form of the church.” Again this serves the missional nature of the proposed Form of Government. People don’t encounter the “Church.” That is, no one is evangelized or experiences the community of faith outside of a local context. As salvation and effectual calling are particular, so is our experience of the Church.
This language makes clear that congregations are the basic way in which people encounter the church. This prevents the polity from relying on the rather abstract distinction between the universal and particular nature of both the visible and invisible Church — categories that are helpful in theological reflection but are an added and antiquated burden on contemporary polity.
On the other hand, this language also makes clear that the church is not simply a collection of congregations.
In other words, the proposed FoG asserts that a “congregation is not of itself a sufficient form of the church.” Congregations are fully the church; they do not, however, fully contain the Church.
This is where contemporary Presbyterians encounter most of their difficulties. Our American Christian culture assumes that congregations, local churches in a particular context, are the most basic and therefore the truest form of the church. This is simply another form the secular culture of individualism writ large. The proposition is that I join a congregation and therefore we are the church. Congregations become corporate individuals who then congregate in more or less convenient ways to advance the cause of the greatest number of corporate individuals.
Frankly, this kind of reflection on ecclesiology is the least attested in scripture; it simply is not there to be found. Congregationalism is not a biblically convincing form of polity. It requires a reading of the Acts which gives tremendous local autonomy to the several congregations and then treats the resolution and commission of the Assembly in Acts 15 was to be received as a hearty recommendation. In some recent thought, this view has also forced a distinction between church councils and the church. The thought being that the church and a church council are two different things. The fact of the matter is that the council of Acts 15 was a clear case of the larger part of the church governing the smaller.
Biblically speaking, Presbyterian and Episcopal polities have the high ground. Press a bit further, and the monarchical episcopacy fails precisely because there is no warrant in scripture for an office higher than pastor with a view to the oversight of ministers in a particular context. The clear teaching of scripture with respect to polity is Presbyterian.
Put plainly, presbyteries and not local congregations are the foundation of polity. This is what lies behind the third sentence of the proposed G-1.0101, “Thus congregations are bound together in communion with one another, united in covenant relationships of accountability and responsibility, contributing their strengths to the benefit of the whole, and are called, collectively, the church.” Our denomination is governed not by a collection of congregations, but by a collection of presbyteries; thus it is that presbyteries are represented at synod meetings and the General Assembly.
This is a place where the Westminster Confession of Faith speaks with its characteristic clarity. Chapter 31 “Of Synods and Councils” makes precisely the Presbyterian point. Synods and councils rule the church because of the way the church is organized. A.A. Hodge sums this up arguing that “All church power is vested by Christ in the Church as a whole – not as a mob, but as an organized body. As organized, the Church consists of presbyters or bishops and the people, and the people represented by lay or ruling elders” (The Confession of Faith, p. 373). The gifts of God are given to the Church; they are given for, but not to, congregations. It is the church gathered in presbyteries that supervises the work of the church and of congregations. The FoG Task Force reminds us that congregations, though basic to the church, are not a sufficient form of the church. The gifts of God were given to the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. That Church is not a loose association of congregations. The church is an organized body that overseas the work of congregations. Local majorities, though important, never ought to be confused with the considered will of the church or as a measure of faithfulness and orthodoxy.
Rufus Barton is pastor of First Church, Martinsburg, W.Va.
