Representative Democracy and Congregationalism

Last week, I was at a conference on Church renewal, Church planting, and Church revitalization. A topic that came up was the host Church's polity, which was elder-led congregationalism. Specifically, an issue that I spent some time discussing with my Pastor was congregationalism. You can go here for a discussion on the topic, or here for an older argument for congregationalism (p.904). 

I went away more or less convinced. Yet I do have a gut reaction that makes me hesitant about giving authority to the congregation as a whole. This probably comes from a fear that the Church will be and, to a certain degree, is plagued with the kind of democratic politicization that defines North American politics. By this, I don't have in mind the kind of democracy in which everyone simply participates in a common mission. That would surely be a good thing for the Church. What I fear and often see is nearly the opposite. The kind of politics we find in Canada involve people expecting their leaders to represent the peculiar interests of their demographic and then making that the criterion by which to judge the effectiveness of their leadership. I have witnessed that kind of crass, lazy "democracy" in Christian settings. People expect the leadership team to have representatives from every demographic: one leader from this side of town, one leader from the 30-somethings, one leader representing the older people from this part of this country, etc., etc.

The Apostles were not dismissive towards those who sensed partiality. The New Testament addresses the issue on multiple occasions and even documents a moment in the life of the early Jerusalem Church where an issue of partiality was addressed in a culturally-sensitive way (Acts 6). Yet the pastoral epistles seem to put a higher value on character and wisdom than representative democracy. Just as parents don't need to have all the same interests or opinions as their children in order to take care of them, Church leaders, if they have pastoral, caring hearts, can and should do a good job tending to the flock no matter how diverse the flock might be.

The Church is called to embrace diversity in class, age, ethnicity, and spiritual maturity (though, hopefully, the whole body would be growing together in that last category). But this shouldn't cause a Church to become over-democratized. There is a difference between a ministry that seeks to build up the whole body of Christ without partiality and a ministry that seeks to appease each demographic equally at every step in every process and ensure that each group has a "voice" in every members' meeting and every decision. The former is surely something to strive for. The latter emerges from an attitude and an environment that is childish, foolish, and, quite frankly, sinful.