On 4 September, 80 church ministers gathered for the third Healthy Churches Conference in Richmond-upon-Thames. Organised by Jonathan Worsley (Kew Baptist Church), John Samuel (Duke Street Church, Richmond), and Robin Weekes (Emmanuel Church, Wimbledon).
This year’s topic was on authority in the life of the local church. Tricky questions, such as: ‘What biblically makes a group of Christians a church?’ and: ‘Under what circumstances would a church remove a professing Christian from its membership?’ were pondered by Anglicans and Independents alike. Navigating these conundrums was former political scientist and current editorial director for 9Marks Ministries, Jonathan Leeman. In three sessions titled: The Authority to Gather, The Authority to Bind, and The Authority to Loosen, Leeman unpacked what the Bible teaches about con-gregationalism, church membership, church discipline and the ordinances.
Biblical pattern for church?
However, perhaps the most interesting aspect of the day came at the very beginning. Leeman stated that there seemed to be two underlying assumptions amongst evangelicals today: 1) the Bible does not prescribe a normative pattern for church polity, and 2) church polity is not of great importance because it has no relation to the gospel itself. Against the first assumption, Leeman argued that the Bible does, in fact, prescribe a normative pattern for church polity – and that rather than pitting ‘elder’ texts against ‘congregational’ texts, evangelicals need to put all passages of Scripture together, and read them in their wider biblical-theological context. Against the second assumption, Leeman contended that the gospel creates a gospel order (a church polity) which protects, proclaims, and presents the gospel. Accordingly, church polity not only directly relates to the gospel, but has a direct impact on the credibility and clarity of the gospel. Polity is obviously not the gospel, but it is of gospel importance.
