Here's a quote from Page Patterson's paper in "Who Runs The Church?"
Even regenerate congregants are still not infallible in discerning the direction of the Holy Spirit. Worse still, some churches such as Corinth in the New Testament era exhibit more than a little carnality among infantile saints. Even more debilitating, everyone knows that unregenerate people hold membership in churches, and this paradigm gives less than mature Christians and even unbelievers a voice in the affairs of the church.
How do you think we get around this?
1 comment:
Hey Deano... my answer is not well formulated but goes something like this. In the balance between eldership (esp. the pastor-teacher) and membership we need to recognise the equal in value, yet different in function role they play. I think decision making is made a heck of a lot easier if the eldership is teaching the gospel at depth to the people. This encourages members to walk after the Spirit and gives them an increasing vision of Jesus. It is true that regenerate members can seek the mind of Christ without the need for any intercessor, but the pastor-teacher gives them the vision of Christ to seek precisely because they are the ones proclaiming the word of Christ in their gospel preaching.
So as the membership is gospelised they are given a key (the person of Christ as revealed in the gospel) by which to judge the options in any given decision. So the membership can test accurately because they truly know Christ because He is preached to them every week by the pastor-teacher. So if a decision is in line with Christ and His gospel it will be carried and if it is not then it will be rejected (even if the bad idea came from the pastor-teacher who in his fleshiness presented a non-gospel idea!!!!)
As for unregenerate members, their complaining against gospel ideas and their support for non-gospel ideas will become clear (because the regenerate membership is growing in their knowledge of Christ, while the unregenerate membership is probably becoming harder and harder against Christ). Eventually they will either leave or get saved.
To sum up my ramble... we can't expect congregational government to function well unless the pastor-teacher is teaching them the gospel at depth and increasing their vision of Jesus. In this way the pastor-teacher leads with his teaching of the gospel and creates the best context where the membership can truly seek the mind of Christ. This creates a gospel culture and a healthy accountability for the pastor as well.
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