Who’s in Charge of the Church (Part 2): Members
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. The first article focused on how Jesus is in charge of the church. In this second article, we will see the role that members play.
Imagine a Members’ Meeting where someone comes up with a proposal to paint the church brown. Member A says, “Oh we should paint the church building brown”. Member B stands up and angrily disagrees.
So they go to and fro – brown, white, brown, white. Finally the church members recognise that they have reached an impasse the votes are split. To solve this, they call in a church consultant.
The church consultant comes in, talks to the leaders, talks to the members, and finally announces that it will be painted beige. Problem solved.
Is this what Members’ Meetings should be about? Some of us may have experienced such meetings and sometimes, a fight breaks out too. That is a sad truth and it is not surprising that congregationalism has a bit of a bad reputation. Talk to any Baptist pastor and they will tell you that Members’ Meetings are not fun.
We may think that Members’ Meetings are divisive and chaotic. At such meetings, people bring up their views without a consensus. Things get messy. Why would we want to be congregationalists? Why not just be elder-ruled and save ourselves the trouble?
And, if the members of a church are in charge, does this mean that the church is merely a free for all democracy driven by personal agendas, opinions or preferences? This is not what we mean when we say that members of the church are in charge. In fact, this is what I call a “Judges 21” polity. In Judges 21, we read that everyone did what was right in their own eyes. This is certainly not a good model.
Thus, the kind of fractious, divisive Members’ Meeting with everyone just airing their opinions and people saying they are not happy is not biblical congregationalism. That is Judges 21 polity and not biblical congregationalism.
Man’s role as God’s image bearers
To understand what congregationalism is, let’s go back to the beginning.
In Genesis 2:15, we see that man’s role is to work and keep the garden to grow and guard God’s dwelling place, i.e. His temple. To work means to grow, nourish, nurture and bring it to greater health and thriving.
Man is responsible for promoting and protecting the holiness of God’s place.
The garden is not just a nice patch of green and Adam was not just a gardener. The garden in Genesis is God's temple, God's dwelling place, where He reveals His glory. Man’s responsibility is therefore to promote and protect the holiness of God’s place. God sets the agenda and gives the mandate and Man is God’s image-bearing deputy.
But in the rest of the Old Testament, we read of the repeated failure of God's image bearers. Adam, Noah, David, Solomon failed. Solomon's descendants had some good kings, but many of them failed. Even the temple was destroyed. The Old Testament really is a story of God's image bearers failing in their task to grow and guard God's temple.
Jesus the perfect image of God
Then Jesus comes along. Jesus is the new and better, the new and better Adam, the true and better Adam. He is the new king in David's line. He's the one who is perfectly in the image of God.
In Colossians 1, we see that He is the image of God. Hebrews 1 tells us that He is the exact imprint of His nature. Where the former image bearers failed, Jesus succeeds. He obeys the Father perfectly, even to the point of dying on the cross for the sake of others. He is the ultimate Good Shepherd (c.f. John 10).
Jesus saves sinners as God's representative and He renews the image of God in sinners like us so that we can now be God's image bearers, reflecting His image. We do that individually, but even more so we do that corporately as God's church. That's why it is no coincidence that the church is described as a temple in Ephesians 2.
The church as image bearers
We are God's temple made out of living stones. Living stones are renewed image bearers created anew in the image of the image bearer, Jesus Christ (1 Pet 2:4-6). As renewed image bearers – new Adams and Eve – we have a job to do in God's temple. The same job that God gave to Adam all those years ago in Genesis 2 is still our job today through Christ to grow and guard God's temple. Except it is not a physical garden now – it is the church. We are to grow and guard God's church and this is something all of us do.
This is why Scripture talks about us as a royal priesthood in 1 Peter 2:9. It is not just the leaders of the church, but all believers who are a part of this royal priesthood. Meaning that all of us are priests-kings who serve under the ultimate priest-king. And the ultimate priest-king has given us a job to do in his temple.
Imagine this. Someone gives you a job with responsibilities. You are to be there by 9am from Mondays to Fridays. Monday comes around and you do not show up. Tuesday comes around and you are not there. Wednesday, same thing. Thursday, Friday. And the same thing happens the following week. What does the boss do? The boss will probably have a long conversation with you and emphasise the importance of showing up for work.
Regenerate members equipped to do God’s word
This is also true for us as we think about church. As members, we have a job to do and Jesus wants us to show up in particular ways that His word tells us how. When we think about congregationalism, we are actually giving God's people instructions, a job description: This is what you all are supposed to do because you are Jesus's priests-kings exercising responsibility in His temple. So we need to show up.
Some of us may have kids that are old enough to drive or recall the time when we first allowed our kids to drive. We definitely want to make sure that they are properly trained and pass all the required tests, before we hand them the car keys.
So when the Bible talks about members being in charge, members are given the car keys but what qualifies them? Are we back to this free for all?
In Jeremiah 31:31-34, we see what qualifies us to be priests, kings. It is the new covenant and it is how God changes our hearts.
Notice the language. The language is so strong in Jeremiah 31:34. Under the new covenant, they all know the Lord. They are all converted, all regenerated. That is the difference between the new covenant people and the old covenant people of God.
We are qualified to hold the keys because God is working in our hearts by His Spirit. He is converting us.
The church is not simply a group of people who want to get together and spend some days together. The church has to be a gathering of the regenerate people of God.
This helps us to understand the nature of the church. The church is not simply a group of people who want to get together and spend some days together. The church has to be a gathering of the regenerate people of God. The church is made up of the redeemed, regenerate, transformed people of God.
If the church is not redeemed and transformed and regenerate – imagine if you hand someone the car keys, what is going to happen? There is going to be an accident or a wreck.
So what the Bible says about congregationalism depends on the faithful understanding of Jeremiah 31 and the faithful practice of church according to the truths of Jeremiah 31. It means we need to ensure that the church, the members of the church are truly regenerate because we are going to give them the car keys. We never want to hand the keys to someone who is not regenerate, whose heart has not been changed.
The work of regenerate members
Let us now get to some specific matters. Let us turn to Matthew 16:13-9 and consider how we exercise our responsibility as priests and kings. In this passage, Jesus comes to Peter, asks him, who do you say I am? Peter gives the answer on behalf of the apostles and confesses that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. And Jesus blesses him as it is a faithful confession of who Jesus is.
Jesus commands Peter, and by extension the other disciples as well and says that He will build His church on the who of the gospel people. But what is it about these people? They confess the what of the gospel faithfully. Jesus begins to build His church, on the foundation of the apostles (the who), and the what of what they confess about Jesus.
In Matthew 18:15-20, we see that the keys are entrusted to “the church” (Matt 18:17). The gathered church, as one assembled body, exercises its authority and guards the gospel by watching over one another’s life and doctrine. Jesus makes us stewards of one another’s faithfulness and discipleship.
Notice how Jesus refers to the church and not a small council of leaders, deacons or a small group of people. Jesus gives final authority not to a small subset of members of the church, i.e. elders or whichever group we have in leadership, but He gives the authority to the church itself. And in the church, the members are qualified because they are regenerate (Jer 31). Regenerate members are able with the help of God's spirit, to make decisions that honour Christ.
These passages in Matthew 18, 16 and Jeremiah 31 all go together and that is how these connections are being made across the Bible. This is why Jesus can confidently hand the car keys to the church because it is a gathered church as one assembled body that exercises its authority. This is where we get our understanding of congregationalism, and perhaps where we disagree with our Presbyterian brothers and sisters.
In church discipline, members are protecting the holiness of God's people.
Practically, one aspect of growing and guarding the temple (as we saw in Genesis 2) is to exercise church discipline. Why? Because in doing so, members are protecting the holiness of God's people. If someone who claims to be a Christian is not living a consistent life of holiness, then the church is given the authority by Jesus to bring this person's life under the spotlight to exhort this person to repent and to live a life that is consistent with the gospel. That's what it means to be a priest-king. It means that as a member, I cannot be indifferent to the spiritual well-being of my brothers and sisters. To not do so is akin to not showing up for work and being irresponsible.
According to Scripture, God has given members the responsibility to be faithful priest-kings, to watch out not just for our own life, nor just for our family's life, but the life of God's people, the church. This is what is happening in Matthew 18 with the exercise of church discipline. So together, the members of the church guard the gospel by watching over one another's life and doctrine. Jesus makes us stewards of one another's faithfulness and discipleship and we are responsible for the spiritual well-being of our brothers and sisters in the local church when we covenant with one another in membership.
What this means for us practically
This is what it means to be a member. A member does not mean we just sign a form and I appear on someone's register. It is not administrative and it is not sentimental. It is a job and in order to carry out the job, we need to show up, know the people we are doing the job with and do the job. Only then is this membership meaningful.
Meaningful membership simply means that we are committed to love and serve one another for our mutual good and up building in Christ. That is the job that we have been given and Jesus tells us in Matthew 18, that one application of that job is to exercise faithful loving church discipline. The members of the church are responsible for the membership, the discipline and doctrine of the church.
Every Christian has been equipped for gospel ministry. Who we are (those who believe the gospel) gives rise to what we’re called to do (guard the gospel). In Matthew 28:18-20, we see how on Jesus’ authority, His disciples are to make disciples. This is how we grow the gospel. The keys of the kingdom are put to practical use in disciple-making.
Congregationalism gives all believers a job to do in the work of disciple-making. In baptising, we seek to recognise who is a true gospel confessor. In teaching, we want to pass on the true gospel confession.
This is what we strive to practice here at GBC. Let us say Tom comes along and says he wants to be baptised. Who determines whether Tom can get baptized? Is it the elders? Actually, it is not the elders. Based on what we have seen so far, the elders will interview Tom to find out as much about Tom as we can. But ultimately what the elders would do is that they would then take that and bring a recommendation to the members. The elders would have done their due diligence, heard his conversion story, observed his life and now bring him before the congregation and recommend that he be baptised upon the profession of his faith.
The final authority lies with the members, and that is one of the most important things that we do as members, because we are guarding the who and what of the gospel. If among our members, someone knows Tom's life and someone says, “Hey, wait a minute. Do you know that this is happening? Do you know that Tom actually doesn't believe these things?”, the whole process pauses and the elders will need to find out more. The elders will go back to Tom and investigate. Members are so vital in bringing up some of these things that the elders may not have line of sight as members may know Tom better than we do. But the final responsibility lies with the members to exercise that.
This is what we do at Members’ Meeting where we vote to receive members. This is also how we “show up for work” as members. When we vote, we are saying that this person is a true gospel confessor, as best as we know. Of course, we cannot know every single person and therefore we do rely on the leadership of the elders to do a lot of that work. The elders are tasked with that responsibility to find out and the members would kind of follow the elders as we lead the church to make these decisions together. So I'm running ahead of myself. This is where the elders come in, but more on that later.
Decision-making belongs to the gathered congregation. But the bigger picture is that there is work to do, an office to fulfil: establishing and building up churches. Christians are responsible and able to affirm what is true doctrine. Christians are responsible and able to affirm who belongs to the gospel. We exercise this responsibility as members of a local church.
Biblical congregationalism is not a democracy. The members of a church represent not themselves, but God. As his deputies, God has given each Christian a job to do in growing and guarding the gospel.
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