Form of church government
In addition to the doctrines of regenerate membership, the headship of Christ and the priesthood of all believers, Baptists have also defended the principle of congregational government of the local church.
This is not to be understood purely as democratic government (although principles of democracy usually apply at associational and denominational levels) but the government of Christ administered by the church members through the power of the Holy Spirit. From John Smyth's day until the present day the congregational 'church meeting' has been the primary decision-making instrument of Baptist churches [although this is now changing in many of our larger NSW churches].
Smyth argued that it was not the pope nor the bishop nor the church elders (nor the pastor) but the congregation who ruled the visible church, coining the phrase "saints as kings." Garrett links the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers with the principle of congregational government by suggesting that the latter is an expression of the former.
As with previous distinctives, congregational government is not unique to Baptists; Congregationalist churches share the principle. Further, if one stresses congregational government as a Baptist distinctive, one must also acknowledge that it has no overt scriptural basis.
More in the next post....
Rod Benson is a NSW Baptist minister and ethicist. He attends Dural Baptist Church.
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The Vulnerability of Baptist Polity
Rod may well be right to say that congregational government has no overt scriptural basis, but I would maintain that there are good scriptural indications which point in the direction of congregational government.
One of the weaknesses yet strengths of Baptist Polity is that it is more malleable than people are wont to imagine. Within the kinds of structures that both the Particular and General Baptists set up there was room for flexibility - the "solo pastor, deacons and church meeting" model which seems to have prevailed in many English speaking Baptist churches up until the past was certainly not the only model in the 17th century. The 17th Century confessions seem to allow some variation: pastors as elders; other elders alongside pastors; limited elder rule, as well as much more circumscribed elder leadership with congregational rule.
Baptists are congregationalists in the sense that the local congregation is a church complete and need not belong to some mundane supervenient structure to be considered as a 'proper' church. Baptists are also committed to congregational polity in the sense that the local membership is the highest earthly authority in the church. I think congregationalism in the first sense is easy to defend, but congregationalism in the second sense is harder to defend scripturally, though a case can be built.
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