What is the church: church polity

Jonathan Leeman, in Baptist Foundations: Church Government for an Anti-Institutional Age, writes, “Polity is what constitutes the local church as a local church. Put another way, polity provides the nexus between the universal church and the local church.” He also states, “Polity is inevitable. The only question is whether one’s polity is coherent, orderly, and, most of all, biblical.”

In an age where institutionalism is often viewed as outdated, restrictive, or merely traditional, many churches have moved away from ordered ecclesiology toward pragmatic ministry. The assumption is often that structure slows down mission, doctrine limits creativity, and polity creates unnecessary barriers.

Leeman explains the importance of church polity this way:

“A church’s polity establishes who possesses authority over the processes of membership and discipline and what role baptism and the Lord’s Supper play in signifying and constituting members as members and the church as a church. Polity creates leadership offices in the church, demarcates their responsibilities and jurisdictional boundaries, specifies who is eligible to serve in those offices, and stipulates the selection process. Polity dictates how significant decisions in the life of the church will be made. And polity delineates the nature of the relationship between a church and other churches or denominational structures, whether those ties are formal or informal, binding or nonbinding.”

In other words, church polity gives visible shape to the church’s life together. It helps the church understand who she is, how she is to function, and how she is to remain faithful to Christ. This is why church government cannot be reduced to bylaws, committees, or organizational charts. At its best, biblical polity is a theological framework for ordering the household of God.

Therefore, every local church must ask not whether it has polity, but what kind of polity it has. Is it biblical? Is it orderly? Does it reflect the teaching of Scripture? Does it protect the gospel? Does it strengthen the congregation?  Does it help the church obey Christ faithfully?

A church without polity is merely a social gathering. But a church ordered by Scripture is a visible expression of Christ’s body, entrusted with the gospel, and called to display his glory to the world.