The Beauty of Wesleyan Polity

            One of the sweeter blessings of ministry is a home visitation. Sometimes the occasion calling for a pastoral visit may be more positive, and other times the tone is a somber one, but they are sweet blessings nonetheless. The minister is invited into a very personal, and dear place where people grow up, grow old, and do everything in between. Their home has its own rules, rhythms, sounds, and smells. There is something lovely about its established identity. The same feeling is often brought on when itinerant preaching. A minister comes across completely unique families with their traditions and ways of doing things. In both cases, for all the meaningful and eternal matters, the biblical groups are much more alike than different. Anytime the family of God gathers as a local assembly, there is a uniqueness to the way they function, based on Scriptural stipulations as well as the heritage and history of the tradition or denomination they ascribe to. It’s a beautiful thing to observe the strengths of each structural form, and what such things prioritize and highlight in regards to a local congregations ecclesiology.

            One of the starker differences in ecclesiological form pertains to local church polity. Not only does polity constitute the given assembly as a local church, it also establishes its connection to the universal church.[1] In this manner, clear and biblical polity gives a nod to the catholicity of the church in the way it links the local body to the universal one. Furthermore, it is a nod also to the distinctiveness of a local congregation via their discerned rules for biblical self-governance.

            Sound polity is most often clarified in terms of governance, association, and membership. Generally speaking, there are three main types of church governance within Protestantism, namely, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, and Congregational. The episcopalian model has centralized authority that resides in Bishops and other officers of clergy, whereas the presbyterian model is made up of different representative assemblies with individuals usually voted on or appointed to. Finally, in the congregational model, authority remains with the local church.[2] In his book on congregational church administration for Baptist churches, The Doctrine and Administration of the Church, Paul R. Jackson speaks to the problems of the episcopalian model saying, “Scripture and history also witness to the dangers of centralized authority that exalts individuals into a place of power. Such government results in the grossly unbiblical division between the clergy and laity, and subjects the people to a few ecclesiastical leaders in a way that God never intended”.[3] This is a sound assessment of the very church government model that has recently led to the term “United Methodist” becoming an oxymoron, due to the opinions of the majority being stifled by the ruling few, and speaks to the critical ramifications of sound church polity.

            There are many respectable qualities of both the Presbyterian and Congregational models of church government. The beauty of The Wesleyan Church’s polity is that it takes the best qualities from each of these two forms, and does well to implement them in a way that the organized denominational structure, as well as the uniqueness of the local church body are preserved in mutual flourishing. The local board of administration is made up of laymen as well as clergy, with rules in place to prevent abuse of authority in regards to the pastor and LBA alike. There are many individuals who may not have the ministerial education, experience, or calling to be part of a plurality of elders that usually reside over a congregational church, whose God given experience and gifts are a continued blessing to their local church. Scripture speaks of the church as a royal priesthood, and this designation is given to all believers, not a mere few.[4] Sound polity in the local church must acknowledge this fact, but must do so all the while maintaining its ability to govern under the leadership of those called to be overseers administrating, elders teaching, Shepherds guarding, and deacons serving.[5]

            Polity regarding membership in The Wesleyan Church is predicated on a familial vision, as well as a threefold value rooted in discipleship. These threefold values are believing, belonging, and becoming. A member of a local Wesleyan Church must be a believer in Christ generally, but also more specifically in the established doctrines enumerated in our Articles of Religion. The local church aims also to be a place where its members can belong. This reaches back towards that familial vision we have, which can be observed in the New Testament Church, and explicitly in the Words of our Lord Himself.[6] Finally, membership in the local church gives its attention to what we all aim to become in Christ. The local church is a place where iron sharpens iron, so that we might help one another onward in our perseverance and progression in sanctification. Candidates for membership must be interviewed by the church board so that an assessment can be made of the individual’s testimony of regeneration, baptism, conduct expected, and acceptance of church doctrines delineated in The Discipline of the Wesleyan Church. In terms of the local church polity beyond this, in order to represent the congregation on the LBA, an individual must be a member of the local church.

            Such matters aforementioned only scratch the surface of Wesleyan polity, but still highlight our high regard for Scripture, and our respect for all the individual giftings it expounds. Sound polity in the Wesleyan spirit is unapologetically dependent upon the notion that Scripture is our authoritative compass, and driven by an “all hands-on deck” mentality that moves us steadily towards its delineated heading.

CITATIONS:

[1]   Jonathan Leeman, Baptist Foundations: Church Government for an Anti-Institutional Age (Nashville, Tennessee: B&H Publishing Group, 2015), 2.

[2]   Paul R. Jackson, The Doctrine and Administration of the Church (Arlington Heights, Illinois: Regular Baptist Books, 2014), 36.

[3]  Jackson, 34.

[4]  1 Peter 2:5-9, But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

[5]  See 1 Timothy 3:1-13, as well as Titus 1 and 2.

[6]  See Matthew 12:46-50.