Church Government

All Protestant churches rejected the hierarchical authority of the papacy—the claim that Christ governs His church on earth through the bishop of Rome and a priestly order arranged beneath him. Scripture knows only one Head of the church, and He reigns from heaven (Ephesians 1:22–23; Colossians 1:18).

Yet the reformers did not all agree on what a biblical government of the church should look like. Once the pope’s authority had been cast off, each church was compelled to answer from Scripture a question Rome had long settled by decree: who governs the church under Christ, and how? The answers differed, and the four principal models that emerged continue to shape Protestant churches to this day.

Table C3
Protestant Branch Church Government
Luther — Luther rejected the papal hierarchy but did not replace it with a new ecclesiastical government of his own. In his 1520 appeal to the German nobility he argued that, since rulers are baptized Christians, “the Christian temporal power should exercise its office without let or hindrance, regardless whether it be pope, bishop or priest whom it affects.”1 When the Saxon parishes fell into disorder and no bishop would support reform, Luther asked Elector John, as an emergency measure and “out of Christian love,”2 to order a visitation of the churches. Though Luther himself did not advocate this practice as prescriptive and ideal, thereafter the princes safeguarded the churches in their lands, took part in the appointment and oversight of pastors, and maintained orthodox teaching through visitors, superintendents, and consistories—a system that functioned, in Philip Schaff’s words, “under the sovereign as the supreme bishop.”3 Lutheran
Calvin — Calvin taught that Christ governs His church through ministers of the Word joined by elders chosen from the congregation. Commenting on the “governments” of 1 Corinthians 12:28, he wrote, “From the beginning, therefore, each church had its senate, composed of pious, grave, and venerable men.”4 In the Presbyterian and Reformed churches that grew from his teaching, the locus of authority lies with the gathering of the pastor and lay elders of a congregation, called the Consistory (later called the session by Westminster). An assembly of pastors and lay elders from the churches in a given area is called the presbytery, which ordains ministers, hears appeals, and determines matters concerning the churches. The Westminster Assembly stated the principle: “It is lawful, and agreeable to the word of God, that the church be governed by several sorts of assemblies, which are congregational, classical, and synodical.”5 Presbyterian and Reformed
Anglican — The Church of England cast off the pope but retained the ancient order of archbishops and bishops, through whom ministers are ordained and dioceses governed. What England squarely rejected was the notion of a single bishop over the whole church. In its place stood the crown. The Act of Supremacy of 1534 declared Henry VIII “the only supreme head in earth of the Church of England, called Anglicana Ecclesia,”6 and under Elizabeth I the title was revised to Supreme Governor. The Articles of Religion state the matter plainly: “The Queen’s Majesty hath the chief power in this Realm of England,” while “the Bishop of Rome hath no jurisdiction in this Realm of England.”7 The head of the state is thus also the head of the church in England. Episcopalian
Baptist — Baptists hold that the authority for decision making in the church rests with its local members, who together receive members, exercise discipline, and choose their own pastors and deacons. The Second London Confession teaches that to each church Christ “hath given all that power and authority, which is in any way needful for their carrying on that order in worship and discipline.”8 The church is therefore locally autonomous, with no governing body presiding over it. Associations or conferences of churches are accepted, but they are considered only advisory; their messengers “are not intrusted with any church-power properly so called; or with any jurisdiction over the churches themselves.”9 Congregational

Sources

  • Calvin, John. Institutes of the Christian Religion. Translated by Henry Beveridge. 3 vols. Edinburgh: Calvin Translation Society, 1845.
  • Gee, Henry, and William John Hardy, eds. Documents Illustrative of English Church History. London: Macmillan, 1896.
  • Luther, Martin. “An Open Letter to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation Concerning the Reform of the Christian Estate.” Translated by C. M. Jacobs. In Works of Martin Luther, vol. 2. Philadelphia: A. J. Holman, 1915.
  • Luther, Martin. “Preface to the Instructions for the Visitors of Parish Pastors in Electoral Saxony.” Translated by Conrad Bergendoff. In Luther’s Works, vol. 40, Church and Ministry II, edited by Conrad Bergendoff, 269–73. Philadelphia: Muhlenberg Press, 1958.
  • McGlothlin, W. J. Baptist Confessions of Faith. Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society, 1911.
  • Schaff, Philip. The Creeds of Christendom. Vol. 3, The Evangelical Protestant Creeds. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1877.
  • Schaff, Philip. History of the Christian Church. Vol. 7, Modern Christianity: The German Reformation. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1910.
  • Westminster Assembly. The Form of Presbyterial Church-Government. Edinburgh, 1645.

Notes

  1. Martin Luther, “An Open Letter to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation Concerning the Reform of the Christian Estate,” trans. C. M. Jacobs, in Works of Martin Luther, vol. 2 (Philadelphia: A. J. Holman, 1915), pt. 1, “The First Wall.” ↩
  2. Martin Luther, “Preface to the Instructions for the Visitors of Parish Pastors in Electoral Saxony” (1528), trans. Conrad Bergendoff, in Luther’s Works, vol. 40, Church and Ministry II, ed. Conrad Bergendoff (Philadelphia: Muhlenberg Press, 1958), 271. ↩
  3. Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, vol. 7, Modern Christianity: The German Reformation (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1910), §88, “Church Visitation in Saxony.” ↩
  4. John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, trans. Henry Beveridge (Edinburgh: Calvin Translation Society, 1845), 4.3.8. ↩
  5. Westminster Assembly, The Form of Presbyterial Church-Government (Edinburgh, 1645), “Of Church-Government, and the Several Sorts of Assemblies for the Same.” A classical assembly is a presbytery. ↩
  6. “The Supremacy Act, 26 Henry VIII, Cap. 1 (1534),” in Henry Gee and William John Hardy, eds., Documents Illustrative of English Church History (London: Macmillan, 1896), 243. ↩
  7. Articles of Religion (1571), art. 37, “Of the Civil Magistrates,” in Philip Schaff, The Creeds of Christendom, vol. 3, The Evangelical Protestant Creeds (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1877). ↩
  8. Second London Confession (1677), 26.7, in W. J. McGlothlin, Baptist Confessions of Faith (Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society, 1911). ↩
  9. Second London Confession, 26.15. ↩