The Church Is Not A Democracy

…and it does not operate “through democratic processes.”

I really wish our confession of faith had been thought through a little better at this point. It appears to be self-contradictory, though I’m sure that is just appearances. But when writing a confessional statement that is designed to speak to the person in the pew it pays to write with more clarity than this.

Of course, this confession doesn’t say that the church is a democracy, only that it functions as one in the decision-making process. But this is an error. It would have been far better to use the language of congregationalism or one of the various images given for the church in the New Testament - perhaps the body image or the building image. However, when any red-blooded American reads the language of democracy in a confessional statement it will be impossible for our form of civil government NOT to have an overriding impact on the average person’s understanding of what’s under discussion.

In addition, the New Testament church did not operate as a democracy in the American political sense. Yes, it was a flattened organization. I think it is likely that the early church used the leadership model of the synagogue, for the most part, as they formed local fellowships of Jesus followers. Yet, both Peter and Paul make it clear that every individual is an earthen vessel in which the Spirit of God resides. Every one of us is a brick in the building and there is only one capstone. And it isn’t the pastor, the chairman of the deacons (or his wife) or any other person in the church. Christ is the head, the capstone. The rest of us are body parts and bricks.

Not just any body parts and not just any old bricks, mind you. We are body parts in the body of Christ. We are bricks in the temple of God. Nevertheless, apart from the head the body parts are dead. Apart from the capstone the building will crumble.

Modern notions of democracy (and “democratic processes”) bring to mind contentious parties who vote at the polls to see which side will get 51% of the vote. And that is often what the work of the church is reduced to. Democracy allows people to have their own agendas. Everyone thinks their agenda is right and best. But in the church we give up our agendas. What we think is right and best gets laid on the garbage heap for what God determines to be right and best. And God isn’t counting votes.

He didn’t count votes with Gideon. He didn’t count votes at Kadesh. In fact, in the Scriptures we often find God overcoming man’s objections to God’s direction. But that is not how church typically works “through democratic processes.” That is certainly not how government works through democratic processes. We know what we think is best and right and we push that through.

A while back there was a Southern Baptist church that was having a dispute about the man who was their pastor at that time. Some wanted him to leave. They took a vote on a Wednesday night and the vote was split right down the middle. Exactly. One of the deacons left the meeting to go and get his daughter from the youth department. He brought her in to the meeting so she could cast the deciding vote. And she did.

There was nothing in the church’s constitution and bylaws to prevent that sort of thing and there was nothing there that said there was anything wrong with those actions. They acted through democratic processes. Technically one could say that they acted in conformity with the Baptist Faith and Message.

One of the passages often used to support this democratic process is in 1 Corinthians where Paul instructs the church regarding what to do with the man who was living in sexual sin with his stepmother. Paul didn’t take apostolic action, he told the church to take action. And we assume they did so.

However, to read that passage as an independent congregational action under the Lordship of Christ is a stretch. Paul writes, “I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing.” He didn’t follow that up telling them that, “If I were you this is what I think you should do….” Instead he is very direct and his words are in the imperative: “When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.” Not a suggestion. Not a request. A command. Paul was not an officer in the church. He was not an elder. He does not tell them to settle this according to who gets the majority vote. In this case there were two authorities greater than their congregational authority. One was Paul’s own authority. The other was the authority of Christ.

No. The church is not a democracy. It is a theocracy.

When it comes time for our church to vote on some particular issue I often tell our folks that if they do not have a pretty clear sense of direction from God, if they have not prayed about this issue or direction, if they do not sense a movement of the Spirit, they should not vote simply because the church constitution grants them that privilege. The church’s head is Christ and the church is to do what Christ leads us to do. If we don’t know what that is we dare not simply take a shot in the dark or even do whatever it is that we think is right.

This is why Divine guidance is so important to the church.

There is a joke that has gone around for a while now that says that church splits are our way of getting involved in the church planting movement. Church splits are too often the result of churches “operating under democratic processes,” processes which they have learned, by and large, from the ever contentious political scene. We can do better. We are called to do better.