2025 Week 24
Hello, Springers!
We are moving toward the time this year when we will seek nominations for church officers. As we do so, I want to make sure you understand this privilege and duty, and so I’ll be writing and teaching on this topic. My hope is that our church’s organization will reflect the love of Christ as much as our worship and service.
Have you ever used the phrase “stay in your lane”? I think about this phrase every morning when I swim.
In my swimming lane, I’m free to swim the workout I want. Sometimes I make big splashes wearing fins when I kick. Or my arms flail as I swim butterfly or backstroke. This is all well and good when I have the lane to myself. Most mornings, though, the pool is busy enough that I share a lane with someone else.
When I share the lane, I have to stay on my side. I consider how to tailor my workout so that it isn’t disruptive to the person swimming next to me. I vary my speed, stroke, or timing depending on what is helpful.
Swimming is the ordered workout I do. My lane is the jurisdiction (place) where I am allowed to do this exercise.
So too in the church, there is the power of order and jurisdiction. Order is what we do, and jurisdiction is where we do it. These are the terms our book of church order uses to describe how churches in our particular denomination organize themselves.
It says:
Ecclesiastical power, which is wholly spiritual, is twofold. The officers exercise it sometimes severally, as in preaching 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. (BCO 3-2)
The paragraph above comes from the PCA book of church order (BCO) on the duty of church officers. Besides the distinction between order and power, notice the distinction between the idea of joint and several. Some things officers do severally (i.e., separately, or individually). Other things we do together, or jointly.
This is similar to my swim workout. Sometimes I operate severally (individually) in my own lane, and other times I’m sharing the lane jointly with someone else. Whether I’m alone or sharing the lane (jurisdiction), the goal is a good workout.
We live in a world full of suspicion about power dynamics in institutions. There is a mistrust of institutions, whether they be religious, business, or government ones. Many of us have witnessed power being corrupted in institutions, so it makes us hesitant to trust one another in local organizations.
That is one reason why the officers of the church are elected by the people of that congregation.
Think about this:
The power which Christ has committed to His Church vests in the whole body, the rulers and those ruled, constituting it a spiritual commonwealth. This power, as exercised by the people, extends to the choice of those officers whom He has appointed in His Church. (BCO 3-1)
I appreciate this application of what we find in Scripture. The power of Christ is at work in the whole body, the church. Christ is King and Head of his Church. Yet there is also an organization of the church between those who lead (or, as it says, rule) and those who are led. Throughout the New Testament, you see Christ at work in his church and how there are officers of the church who serve under Christ for the good of his body.
During this season, if you have questions about how our church organization works, or if you want more information on the distinctives of our branch of Christ’s church, please be sure to ask. If you do, then we are guaranteed to have a season of trust-building, followed by a season of rejoicing as we grow together.
in Christ,
Pastor Tag