As we are still discussing the important subject of church government, which will also become a pattern for the coming kingdom government, the first principle in establishing and maintaining true spiritual authority is keeping the Lord as the Head of the church. Even the most perfectly biblical form of church government can be used to supplant His headship if we do not keep this main thing the main thing.
It was King David who established the throne, or seat of authority, which Christ sits upon. If there is a single phrase that describes how David did this, it is the phrase that is actually used the most in relation to David, which is "...and David inquired of the Lord." He prayed. He sought the Lord's mind and heart for every major thing. He then obeyed what was revealed to him.
The greatest spiritual leaders will always be those who are the greatest followers of the Lord. These always give more time and attention to the Lord than they do the people. If we would get closer to the Lord than the people, we would be far more beneficial to the people than we would otherwise. In all that we do and build, we must seek the mind of the Lord. He will be the One who builds His church. If He does not build it, there can be a lot of good accomplished by our own efforts and projects, but they will not be a part of His kingdom and will not have true, lasting fruit. As Abraham, the father of faith demonstrated, those who have true faith are seeking to be a part of the city that God is building, not man. It is not a matter of just doing good, but of doing God's will. Our pursuit is not just God's government, but God Himself.
The New Testament does give some general guidelines for church government, but they are actually remarkably general for such an important matter. The reason for this is His government requires seeking Him more than government. His government is very simple—it is to abide in the King, knowing His voice and doing His will. As Paul warned in II Corinthians 11:3, "But I am afraid, lest as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds should be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ."
To stay on course, we must keep the simplicity of devotion to Christ. We will lose this simplicity quickly and things will start getting complicated fast when we take on the people's yokes in place of Christ's yoke. We do this by responding to human needs instead of simply doing what we are shown to do. If we take His yoke it will be easy, and we will actually find refreshment for our own souls by doing His work.
Always being devoted to maintaining the simplicity of devotion to Christ, the simple biblical pattern for local church government is that it is to be overseen by the elders who are called and appointed to this position. To support the elders, deacons are appointed for service when it becomes needed, so that the elders and equipping ministries of the church can devote themselves to the Word, prayer, and their calling.
The Apostle Paul came through a region, preached the gospel, established the new believers into a fellowship, and within just a matter of months came through again and established elders in each of these congregations. How could any of these new converts have qualified as elders that fast? It is apparent that even these elders were quite immature, but immature government is better than no government. During the few months in which there was really no government in the local church, Paul allowed those who had the gift and calling to leadership become manifest. He then came through and appointed them.
Again, it is better to have an immature government than no government. It is also better to have almost any form of government than no government, but to have the right form is even better. We do not just want to establish a government, but we want to see the Lord's government, His kingdom, established with His people. Our ultimate goal should be to see every individual so close to Him, knowing His voice and doing His will, that they do not need anyone standing between them and the Lord. However, this must be the goal, not the beginning of government. Just as the Lord heals through those He has given gifts of healing to, and speaks through those He has called to be prophets, the Lord leads through His appointed leaders. However, leadership's goal should be to help establish the Lord's authority with His people, not their own, so that they are needed less and less as leaders.
In the Old Testament government of Israel, which the New Testament church government was modeled after, there was a king and his court, and then there were elders who sat in the gates of their cities and judged the local issues. In the New Testament, Jesus is the King, and He has His court of apostles, prophets, and elders who are called to a general sphere of authority representing the King. When Peter and John were called elders, it was not elders of just a local church, but they were recognized as elders universally in the body of Christ at that time. Likewise, we have a few spiritual leaders today who are of such stature and respect within the church that they are universally recognized and respected. It would be wonderful if such could sit together in council. We can expect those of that stature to one day do this.
After this we have local church elders. Their counterpart in the biblical nation of Israel would be the local elders who sat as judges in the gates of the cities and towns. They were not directly on the king's court, but they still represented the kingdom on the local level. Some of these might rise to the stature of members of the king's court if they did their jobs with excellence. Likewise, today many ministries are of such significance and excellence that they are suddenly promoted in stature to a more universal level.
As we have covered previously, in Old Testament times, the gates of a city all had a specific purpose of function. One may have been for the military, another for the nobility, another for the merchants, another for the trash to be carried out of, etc. The elders at each gate had authority over their gate, but not the other gates. For example, the elder over the merchants' gate would have authority to determine if a certain merchant would be able to enter their city and sell their products there. The elder may want to inspect the products, the measures used for weighing, etc. before determining to let a merchant enter the city. These elders had a responsibility for their city and only wanted to allow in those who would be beneficial to it.
Likewise, New Testament church elders should have specific authority over the realm or sphere that they have a ministry or anointing in. For example, there may be elders over the "healing gate" who are responsible for allowing ministries of healing to come, or for ensuring that ones with integrity are raised up in the church. Ideally, they should have this gift themselves and be discerning of the true gift so that what is released to the people is truly beneficial. The same should be true of the "prophetic gate," the "worship gate," the "teaching gate," the "children's ministry gate," etc.
As in the Old Testament, elders should have specific authority and not general authority. The elder over finances may not have any real wisdom or authority in children's ministry and should not have authority over it. However, the elders all need to sit in council together, and may have authority or influence with each other, but not over each other. For example, even though the elder of church finances should not have authority over the children's ministry, he must have influence there because of budget considerations. Even so, elders that are just appointed as general elders over the congregation without being given a specific domain or sphere of authority can cause problems.
Elders are almost always referred to in plural in Scripture, and of course "two are better than one . . . a cord of three strands is not quickly broken" (Ecclesiastes 4:9, 12 NIV). Even so, there should be one designated leader of each group of elders over a "gate," though that lead position can, and usually should, be changed from time to time.
As we also saw when Moses first appointed the seventy elders over the congregation of Israel, they were chosen from "among the elders" (see Numbers 11:24). There were probably thousands of elders in the camp of Israel, but only seventy were chosen for leadership or to be governing elders. The point is there are many elders who have proven faithfulness and wisdom over time, who should be honored as such, but not necessarily given authority to lead in the church.
Now let's apply this to "the goose principle," where the leader is changed periodically so as not to wear him out or slow down the whole flock. These who are now "drafting" behind someone else should still be honored and respected as elders but, at least for a time, not be burdened with the responsibility of leadership. They may still have wisdom for the elders who are presently sitting in "their gate," but they should not have authority to dictate policy except when they are seated there.
If all of this sounds too complicated, it really isn't when it is implemented in the right sequence and timing in a church's development. Even if a congregation has a church government which needs serious reorganization, this can be done in a very simple, peaceful, and edifying way. The genius of the biblical form of government is its simplicity. Even so, every system of government, including church government, can gravitate toward becoming an impersonal bureaucracy fast if the most important element of church government is not maintained as the main purpose and devotion of the government—which is to do the Lord's will.
Again, we only have true spiritual authority to the degree that we are abiding in the King. All authority must be exercised with Him, seeking His mind and heart. This does not mean we have to pray and receive an answer for every petty little decision, as we should be appointed to a position because we have matured to the point of having His mind and heart in most matters, but we are to still seek Him continually. There will be issues that almost all are confronted with that we will need to receive wisdom or direction from Him about.
