Does The New Testament Require A Specific Form Of Church Government?
Q: Does the New Testament require a specific form of church government?
A: No. The New Testament gives us examples of all three types of governance: pastor-led, elder led, and congregational committee-led. I believe that God deliberately did not dictate a particular structure for church government, in order to leave it flexible considering different times, different cultures, different people, different giftings, different circumstances, and so on. The New Testament emphasizes not the organization of the church government, but the godliness of the men in leadership.
An elder-led church that’s being led by immature, carnal men is not going to be superior to a committee-led congregational church whose leaders are mature and walking in the Spirit. It’s less about the structure and more about the quality of the leaders.
People often just want to compare. I see this all the time, and I get so tired of this. It’s done a lot of different ways. They want to compare the best of my structure with the worst in your structure. But that type of comparison is like an echo chamber. You’re always going to think you’re doing it better than others, because you’re seeing your own structure at its best, and that’s always going to be better than the other people’s structure at its worst. The reverse is true as well.