Redeemer Church of Dubai: UAE

Congregationalism: The Who, How and What at Redeemer

by Glen Jones on December 2, 2010
Category:

Last week we had our second members meeting for Redeemer Church of Dubai. At that meeting Dave Furman asked me to give a short talk on congregationalism and what it looked like for us. Here’s a brief summary of what I shared:

• What is congregationalism?

Historically, many godly men have tried different ways in which to govern a church. Some of those ways include having one man at the top (pope, archbishop etc) with tiers of leaders underneath, denominational synods and assemblies, and/or multiple elders over one church, a single elder over one church. In fact the variations numerous.

But ultimately, how an individual church is governed boils down to who is making the decisions and what kind of decisions do they make?

At Redeemer, the elders have made a decision that we would be congregationally led, because we believe it to be the consistent implication of many passages in the New Testament.

As we read through the New Testament we get glimpses of the early church’s governance which only make sense in light of a congregational approach.

Congregationalism, as Mark Dever put it, is simply the understanding that the last and final court of appeal in a matter of the life of the local church is, and should be, the local congregation itself. So that means that no external body can mandate something for a particular congregation in matters of discipline or of doctrine. 

Passages that give us windows into congregationalism are Matthew 18:15-17; 1 Corinthians 5; 2 Corinthians 2; and Galatians 1:8.

In each of these passages we see that ‘the church’ has a voice and uses it to maintain the purity of the church (that it consists of believers), and to guard sound doctrine.

• So what does that mean practically?

Well, firstly, it means that we have a lot of freedom outside of those areas to apply biblical wisdom as to what’s best in any given cultural context. These are areas that God has given to the church elders and deacons to the church for.

It also means that at Redeemer, the church as a whole (members) will vote on these areas:

• Voting in members (guarding the purity of the church)

This past Friday we voted in 28 new members. Each one was brought to the church by the elder who did their interview, and an opportunity for questions was given followed by a motion to bring them into membership at Redeemer, after which someone would second. The process also allowed the current members to get to know who’s coming in to the church, and promotes a culture of discipleship in which we are all looking out for one another.

• Voting out members

There are only two occasions in which we would vote someone out of membership.

The first is those who are leaving for good reasons – like leaving the country or city. In those cases we want to encourage them to get plugged into a good church, and to leave well by resolving any relationship issues with members of Redeemer.

The other and more sobering occasion would be voting out a member as the final stage of church discipline – basically because of unrepentant sin.

• Voting in elders/pastors

As a means of protecting the doctrine of the church, we consider it the responsibility of the church to vote on bringing in elders and pastors, as they are the ones with the role of teaching sound doctrine. Elders are God’s gift to the church as servants and shepherds for the church, so we as a church need to exercise wisdom and discernment as we bring new elders on.

• Voting on the budget

Lastly, at Redeemer we will also vote on the budget for the coming year. The way we use our money is a spiritual decision and reflects our priorities and trust in our King.

Finally, no matter what our cultural background, whether we were a multi-cultural or mono-ethnic church, there will always be things that we are going to disagree on to varying degrees. We need to honour Christ in the way that we hold our opinions lightly and the gospel truths firmly.

Glen Jones