Church Government

Question 1

Who is the head of the church?

Answer 1

Jesus Christ

Question 2

How does Christ exercise His authority in the church?

Answer 2

Through Word and Spirit by the ministry of men.

Question 3

List at least two principles of Presbyterian Church government.

Answer 3

God alone is Lord of the conscience
Godliness is founded on truth
Officers are elected by congregational vote
Church power is ministerial/declarative

Question 4

Can the church “bind” men’s consciences? Why or why not?

Answer 4

No. The church’s power is declarative, not legislative.

Question 5

What is the Constitution of the PCA?

Answer 5

Our doctrinal standards (WCF, WLC, WSC) and the BCO (form of government, rules of discipline, directory for worship)

Question 6

What is the visible church? Who are its members?

Answer 6

The visible church before the law, under the law, and now under the Gospel, is one and the same and consists of all those who make profession of their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, together with their children. The visible church includes all those denominations which maintain the Word and Sacraments in their fundamental integrity.

Question 7

What is the power of the church? How does it differ from that of the state?

Answer 7

Ecclesiastical power, which is wholly spiritual, is twofold. The officers exercise it sometimes severally, as in the preaching of the gospel, administering the Sacraments, reproving the erring, visiting the sick, and comforting the afflicted, which is the power of order; and they exercise it sometimes jointly in Church courts, after the form of judgment, which is the power of jurisdiction. The power of the church is exclusively spiritual; that of the State includes the exercise of force.

Question 8

What is a particular church?

Answer 8

A particular church consists of a number of professing Christians, with their children, associated together for divine worship and godly living, agreeable to the Scriptures, and submitting to the lawful government of Christ’s Kingdom. Its officers are its teaching and ruling elders and its deacons.

Question 9

What is a mission church?

Answer 9

A mission church may be properly described in the same manner as the particular church. It is distinguished from a particular church in that it has no permanent governing body, and thus must be governed or supervised by others. However, its goal is to mature and be organized as a particular church as soon as this can be done decently and in good order.

Question 10

What two kinds of members does the church have? What are their respective rights and privileges?

Answer 10

6-1. The children of believers are, through the covenant and by right of birth, non-communing members of the church. Hence they are entitled to Baptism, and to the pastoral oversight, instruction and government of the church, with a view to their embracing Christ and thus possessing personally all benefits of the covenant.
6-2. Communing members are those who have made a profession of faith in Christ, have been baptized, and have been admitted by the Session to the Lord’s Table.
6-3. All baptized persons are entitled to the watchful care, instruction and government of the church, even though they are adults and have made no profession of their faith in Christ.
6-4. Those only who have made a profession of faith in Christ, have been baptized, and admitted by the Session to the Lord’s Gable, are entitled to all the rights and privileges of the church.

Question 11

What permanent officers has Christ given to his church?

Answer 11

Elders and Deacons

Question 12

What are the qualifications for an elder?

Answer 12

• learned: competency of human learning
• irreproachable: blameless in life
• orthodox: sound in the faith
• teacher: apt to teach
• pious: exhibit a sobriety and holiness of life becoming the gospel
• responsible: rule his own house well
• repute: have a good report of them that are outside the church

Question 13

What are the duties of an elder?

Answer 13

8-1 and 8-3

• bishop/pastor: oversight of the flock of Christ, visitation of the sick and infirm, pray, comfort, nourish, and guard
• Presbyter/elder: be grave and prudent, an example to the flock, and govern well the church
• teacher: expound the Word, exhorts, convinces the gainsayer

Question 14

How are teaching and ruling elders alike?

Answer 14

8-9 Elders being of one class of office, ruling elders possess the same authority and eligibility to office in the courts of the Church as teaching elders. They should, moreover, cultivate zealously their own aptness to teach the Bible and should improve every opportunity of doing so.

Question 15

How are ruling and teaching elders different?

Answer 15

8-4 Different giftedness and calling
8-5 Different functions/roles - Word & Sacrament; ambassador (to beseech sinners); evangelist (to bear ridings of good news to ignorant and perishing); preacher (to proclaim the gospel); steward of the mysteries of God (he dispenses the manifold grace of God and the ordinances instituted by Christ)

Question 16

What is meant by the “parity” of ruling and teaching elders?

Answer 16

8-1 These titles do not indicate different grades of office, but all describe one and the same office.

Question 17

What are the duties of deacons?

Answer 17

9-1 The office is one of sympathy and service.
9-2
- minister to the disadvantaged (sick, friendless, distressed)
- develop the grace of liberality in church members
- devise effective methods of collecting and distributing the gifts of the people
- care of the property of the congregation
9-6 - hold conferences

Question 18

What are the qualifications of deacons?

Answer 18

9-3
To the office of deacon, which is spiritual in nature, shall be chosen men of spiritual character, honest repute, exemplary lives, brotherly spirit, warm sympathies, and sound judgment.

Question 19

Name the courts of the church

Answer 19

Session
Presbytery
General Assembly

Question 20

What is the proper or original jurisdiction of each church court?

Answer 20

11-4
Session - over a single church
Presbytery - over what is common to the ministers, Sessions, and churches within a prescribed district
General Assembly - over such matters as concern the whole church

Every court has the right to resolve questions of doctrine and discipline seriously and reasonably proposed, and in general to maintain truth and righteousness, condemning erroneous opinions and practices which tend to the injury of the peace, purity, or progress of the church. Although each court exercises exclusive original jurisdiction over all matters especially belonging to it, the lower courts are subject to the review and control of the higher courts, in regular gradation. These courts are not separate and independent tribunals, but they have a mutual relation, and every act of jurisdiction is the act of the whole church performed by it through the appropriate organ.

Question 21

What officers must each court have? How are they chosen?

Answer 21

Moderator - pastor in a church session; elected in presbyteries and GA
Clerk - elected by members to the court

Question 22

What are the members of a church session?

Answer 22

Pastor, Associate Pastor(s), and Ruling Elders

Question 23

What are the main duties of the session?

Answer 23

12-5
Maintaining the spiritual government of the church
- oversee spiritual vitality of church members, exercising discipline where appropriate
- examine, ordain, and install officers; oversee deacons and individual officers
- approve actions of special importance affecting church property
- call congregational meetings, superintendent Christian education, and take up collections
- rightly order worship
- execute lawful injunctions from higher courts

Question 24

Who are the members of Presbytery?

Answer 24

13-1
The presbytery consists of all the teaching elders and churches within its bounds that have been accepted by the Presbytery. When the Presbytery meets as a court it shall comprise all teaching elders and ruling elders as elected by their Session.

Question 25

To what church does a minister belong?

Answer 25

13-2
A minister shall be required to hold his membership in the Presbytery within whose geographical bounds he resides, unless there are reasons which are satisfactory to his Presbytery why he should not do so.

Question 26

How is an ordained minister received into a Presbytery?

Answer 26

13-5
Ordinarily, only a minister who receives a call to a definite ecclesiastical work within the bounds of a particular Presbytery may be received as a member of that Presbytery.
13-6
Ministers seeking admission are tested on
- Christian experience
- theology
- Sacraments
- Church History
- biblical languages
- bible knowledge
- church government
- views

Question 27

How is a church received into a Presbytery?

Answer 27

13-8
The presbytery, before receiving into its membership any church, shall designate a commission to meet with the church’s ruling elders to make certain that the elders understand and can sincerely adopt the doctrines and polity of the PCA as contained in its Constitution. In the presence of the commission, the ruling elders shall be required to answer affirmatively the questions required of officers at their ordination.

Question 28

What are the main duties and responsibilities of the presbytery?

Answer 28

13-9
The presbytery has the power to receive and issue appeals, complaints, and references brought before it in an orderly manner.
- candidates, examinations, and shepherding of ministers
- review of sessional records
- manage pastoral relations between ministers and congregations
- call evangelists, hold ministers accountable
- enforce lawful injunctions of higher courts
- condemn erroneous opinions
- establish, dissolve, divide, and merge congregations
- church planting and vitality
- overture GA