Who’s in Charge of the Church (Part 1): Jesus
On 6 April 2025, we held an EQUIP session titled “Who’s in charge of the church?” taught by Pastor Eugene. We have edited the content and published it here. In this first article, we will see how Jesus is in charge of the church.
How many of you have seen Band of Brothers?
Band of Brothers is a HBO mini-series that portrays the real-life experiences of Richard Winters, a World War II paratrooper officer, as he leads his men through challenging missions while ensuring their safety and unity.
I find Band of Brothers so compelling because they have such an encouraging picture of leadership. Oftentimes shows are pretty dark about leadership, but in Band of Brothers, it highlights and showcases Winters' faithful and good leadership that ensures a lot of his men make it through the war, and they accomplish the mission.
Band of Brothers is an example of how good leadership is so helpful and how good leadership is vital and beneficial. In any organisation, leadership matters.
How is the church led and governed? In other words, what is the polity of the church.
Church Polity
Church polity simply refers to how the leadership and authority of the church is organised and structured.
Church polity simply refers to how the leadership and authority of the church is organised and structured.
Different denominations and theological traditions give different answers to the question of polity. We will not have time to go through all the different models, but here is a quick overview of the different polity models out there.
For example:
Episcopal: Episcopos is the word for bishop. These denominations — Roman Catholic, Anglican, Methodist —practice the rule of bishops where every church has a whole hierarchy of bishops across the structure of the church. Finally, there's the pope in the Roman Catholic sense, overseeing the whole Church.
Presbyterian: In the Presbyterian model, they have groups of men that they call elders instead of bishops. The word Presbyterian comes from the word presbyteros, which is greek for elders. There are multiple layers of elders across the structure of the church. In the individual church, there is a session of elders. Above the session sits the Presbytery. In some larger Presbyterian denominations, above the Presbytery sits the Synod. Above the Synod sits the General Assembly.
Independent, elder-rule: It is important for us to distinguish between the distinction between elder-ruled and elder-led as this class proceeds. In elder-ruled churches, the elders are the ones who decide on things. They are the final authority in the church – whether it is the budget, the calling of other elders, etc. The elder rules. There are a lot of such churches in Singapore.
Congregational: The congregation exercises the ultimate human authority in the church, under Christ’s divine authority (eg. Baptists, Congregationalists )
This is what we are going to explore more in this class.
Let us begin by thinking about who is the Head of the Church. That is Jesus Christ, right? So there are three really biblical truths about who is in charge. One, Jesus Christ is the head of the church, the members are in charge, and the elders are in charge as well.
Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church
Jesus is in charge of the church, which He has bought by His own blood (Col 1:18). The church belongs to Christ. He has given himself up for the church, so that he might present the church to himself in splendour, holy and without blemish. Therefore, the church should submit to Christ, who rules over the church by his word (Eph 5:23-24a).
Why does this matter? Ephesians 3:8-11 teaches us that the church makes God’s wisdom known and displays God’s glory.
If Jesus rules over the church with His word, His word is where we turn to for understanding about how the church should be governed. In 1 Timothy 3:14-15, we see that God has not left us in the dark about how we ought to organise and conduct life in His household, the church (“that you may know”). We are to trust and obey God’s word because the church belongs to Him. Jesus has set His church apart to be His witness in the world. Because the church is called to hold up the truth, it must be faithful to Scripture.
We often assume that the world knows better and The leadership structures of the world are often imported into the church, even in Bible-believing one. We can assume that because we live in the world, the world knows better when it comes to organizational structures and leadership. The world enters the church, not obviously through bad doctrine or a false gospel (or sometimes it does) but often through a false leadership model. And it ends up wreaking havoc as it messes with God’s household.
God’s Word is sufficient and clear
In 2 Timothy 3:16-17, we see how Scripture is God-breathed – God’s word – hence, it is authoritative. It is also clear and sufficient. We can understand it for our benefit, and it is profitable so that we may be complete, equipped for every good work.
God’s word is sufficient and God has not left us in the dark or left us to our own devices about how we ought to organize his household. Scripture is enough when we think about how we ought to organize ourselves as a church. Our first resort should not be to go out to the world and think, “How does the world do it?”
And let us see how we can do it here. These verses encourage us to look in and wrestle with Scripture, and see what God’s Word says about what church government ought to look like. It may not give us all the practical details, but it does give us enough – sufficient – so that we can please God in how we organize ourselves as a church. Mark 10:42-43a warns us to beware of worldly notions of leadership as the world sneaks into the church through this back-door.
A common response when I talk to other pastors about polity is that Scripture does not say or that it is not clear. And so, if Scripture does not tell us, we are free to do whatever. The assumption is that Scripture does not state it clearly, we are just given complete freedom to innovate and do whatever we think works. Let us remember that Scripture is sufficient and turn to it to examine and consider what it says.
OK, Jesus is in charge of the church. End of conversation.
Not so fast: Jesus has authorised different offices in the church to do different things. The Bible gives members and elders different job descriptions. Hence, the key question to ask is this: Who is in charge of what in the church?
Jesus is in charge – He is the big boss – but has given elders and members different jobs in His household.
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