Don't Fire Your Church Members: The Case for Congregationalism

Church membership is not just a status, it’s an office. Members don’t need leaders to fire them from the responsibilities given to them by Jesus, they need leaders to train them. When pastors do, the church grows in holiness and love, discipleship and mission. Not only that, the complacency and nominalism that characterizes so much Christianity is put on notice. Conversations about biblical church government have been on the outs among church leaders for at least a century. The pragmatic question “what works?” is the first many church leaders ask. And there is a place for prudence. Not all churches should look the same. But some things are biblical basics. One is that Jesus gives every church member an office in its government: to assume final responsibility for guarding the what and the who of the gospel in the church and its ministry. And this “church work” is integrally connected to proclaiming and living that gospel in the world. A second basic is that Jesus gives leaders to the ch