Of all the stuff ministers talk about sometimes the most foreign to our ears can be Presbytery and Synod. We have a vague understanding that it is a place where the pastor and an elder go three times a year and then we get a boring report about the stuff that went on there. Rarely does it seem like those things have much of an effect on us. Well in today’s confession help we are going to talk about why being a Presbyterian, with a Synod and a Presbytery is a great help to us in our daily Christian life. It may seem like I’m trying to make exhilarating and important what can’t really be made exciting (like a root canal, though some people probably think Presbytery is like getting dental work done). However, the blessings of our form of government is something we should praise and give thanks for as believers in Christ Jesus.
First of all as Presbyterians we believe that we are part of something bigger than ourselves. In other words we understand that each local assembly of believers (what we normally mean when we say ‘church’) is not out on an island all alone. We have more than merely a tangential relationship with the people at Clover ARP, or Blacksburg ARP, or Smyrna ARP. It is not just that we band together to do stuff that one smaller congregation couldn’t do themselves. There is an organic union between brothers and sisters in Christ. Each of these congregations is a local expression of the one church of the Lord Jesus. So for example when an Elder and I go to Union ARP Church in Richburg, SC in a couple months while we are going as representatives of Bethany ARP we are not heading there as independent envoys like the U.N. or something. We are meeting together with the larger body of the Church. One way to think about this is that if you work for Duke Power every building is not its own autonomous company, but the local office is part of the larger whole. The same is true for the Presbytery and for the Synod. That’s why it is important for us as Presbyterians to remember that we do not have a “vertical” or “hierarchical” church polity, but a horizontal one.
The Church just expands in size as we move from local, to regional, to national.
Each church in the denomination we call the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church is equal and every minister and elder have the same authority, no matter how large or small their churches may be, or how famous or not their delegates might be in the larger world. We have what we call “parity” in our courts.
Presbytery and the General Synod are just a larger expression of the embassies of Christ located in Rock Hill, SC or Fayetteville, TN and NC, or Silver Spring, MD. Now, to get into one of the sections of the Confession as to why these larger bodies are biblical let’s look at the basic duties of the Presbytery and Synod. Here is section 3 of Chapter 31 of the WCF:
It belongs to synods and councils, ministerially to determine controversies of faith and cases of conscience; to set down rules and directions for the better ordering of the public worship of God, and government of his Church; to receive complaints in cases of maladministration, and authoritatively to determine the same: which decrees and determinations, if consonant to the Word of God, are to be received with reverence and submission; not only for their agreement with the Word, but also for the power whereby they are made, as being an ordinance of God appointed thereunto in His Word.
We see here that unlike the Southern Baptist Convention, as an example, the judgments made at Presbytery or Synod are not just pious advice. We believe these bodies to be ministerial in purpose and authoritative in their decisions. The most often cited example of this can be found in Acts 15. Not accidentally if you go and read that chapter it is a perfect image of what a Presbytery/Synod meeting looks like. There is a problem which is ongoing in a local congregation. That issue is brought before the larger body, discussion is had, there is a moderator who oversees the meeting, not as a bishop or a pope, but as one given the role of making sure the meeting operates smoothly, and then after deliberations a motion is made and passed which is then passed back to all the churches to put into place. It really is that simple, and that beautiful. Again, it may make me seem wacky (not that I need help) to describe this process as beautiful, but when you consider the alternatives, either anarchic independency where every church is its own power, or episcopacy where a chain of command imposes rules on the local church without their necessary consent it shows the attractiveness of the method.
Another thing we see marked out in the section above is that there is a protective purpose in these bodies. They are, “to receive complaints in cases of maladministration.” What this means is that if you have a dictatorial jerk of a pastor then you have the ability to appeal to the Presbytery and get rid of him. You are not just stuck with that guy unless you can get muster a majority of the church to vote him out; or wait for the Bishop to act. The rights of the minority are protected in a Presbyterian church. This also means on the flipside that congregations cannot bully pastors. They likewise are given safe harbor by the Presbytery. It’s worthwhile to remember here that at both the Presbytery and Synod the court that is handling the situation is made up of men that are not unaccountable non-elected bureaucrats, but are fellow members of the Church who confess the same faith, were baptized in the same water, and wave the same flag as you.
I hope this has been a helpful introduction to what those bodies that we often hear about, but don’t often get the chance to experience are all about. Bethany will actually get the privilege of hosting Presbytery in the Spring of 2023 and I welcome you to come and check out the goings on for your own edification.
Here is a short little piece by Mark Jones that makes the case for why everyone should be a Presbyterian!
https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/why-you-should-be-a-presbyterian/
Blessings in Christ!
Rev. Benjamin Glaser
Pastor, Bethany ARP Church