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Question:  You emphasize “the Church” a lot at The Haven, OPC.   I’ve been hurt by the way church leaders have used their authority in other churches I’ve been in.  Can you help me with this?

Pastor Bill responds (pt. 2): 

Sadly, too often church authority can be abused rather than used as the Lord intended it.  The popularity of books like Churches That Abuse, The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse, and Recovering from Churches that Abuse show that you are not alone in the hurt you have experienced in some churches.   The church is a place in which people are meant to find guidance for their lives. It is all too easy for church leaders to replace Christ’s authority with their authority.  And it is just as easy to replace the gracious, long-suffering love of God in Jesus Christ with the harsh, impatient and lordly dictates of aggravated overseers. Truth becomes ugly, and people are turned away from the Lord rather than attracted to him.  The fallout from that is disastrous. 

The Bible teaches that there is to be submission to leadership in the church:

  • We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you… (I Thessalonians 5:12)
  • Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to .give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.  (Hebrews 13:17)
  • Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders, i.e. probably a reference to church elders (I Peter 5:5).

But the Bible also teaches that this authority is to represent the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the only King and Head of the Church.

  • I, Paul…entreat you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ. (II Corinthians 10:1)
  • …the authority that the Lord has given me for building up and not for tearing down.  (II Corinthians 13:10)
  • .…not domineering over those in your charge, i.e replacing Christ’s lordship with your own, but being examples to the flock. (I Peter 5:3).

We say that authority in the church is “ministerial and declarative not magisterial and legislative.”  Church authority is to declare the Word of God, ministering it in the name of and in the character of Christ.  It is most emphatically NOT authority to govern by human decrees in an overbearing, pompous, and arrogant manner.

What does the right use of church authority look like?   We’ll consider that next week...

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