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Don't Fire Your Church Members: The Case for Congregationalism, by Jonathan Leeman
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Church membership is not just a status, it’s an office. Leaders shouldn’t fire members from the responsibilities given to them by Jesus—they should train them! When members are trained, the church grows in holiness and love, discipleship and mission. �Complacency and nominalism are diminished.
Jesus gives every church member an office in the church’s government: to assume final responsibility for guarding the what and the who of the gospel in the church and its ministry. �Similarly, Jesus gives leaders to the church for equipping the members to do this church-building and mission-accomplishing work.
In our day, the tasks of reinvigorating congregational authority and elder authority must work together.� The vision of congregationalism pictured in this book offers an integrated view of the Christian life.� Congregationalism is biblical, but biblical congregationalism just might look a little different than you expect. It is nothing less than Jesus’ authorization for living out his kingdom rule among a people on mission. �
- Sales Rank: #378890 in Books
- Brand: B & H Publishing Group
- Published on: 2016-01-15
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.00" h x .43" w x 6.00" l, .65 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 208 pages
About the Author
Jonathan Leeman�an elder at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, DC,�is editorial director at 9Marks, occasional lecturer at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Most helpful customer reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
Want A Thorough Case for Congregationalism? Read This Book.
By James D.
Jonathan Leeman’s book, "Don’t Fire Your Church Members", is an adequate and thorough defense of elder-led congregationalism. Furthermore, the book gives a brief rebuttal throughout of other forms of church government common throughout history such as Presbyterianism and Anglicism. Leeman’s contention is that church government should be neither oligarchy nor democracy, but rather a fusion of the two and as Leeman states, the whole book is “a meditation on an element: the relationship between congregational rule and elder leadership as prescribed in scripture.”
Leeman’s argument flows in an orderly fashion working first from the concept that each believer is a priest-king in the same vein as the first Adam before the fall from Genesis 1:28. Believers are then commissioned to protect the church/garden while pushing out to expand the boundaries of the church/garden through evangelism. The middle of the book interacts mostly with Matthew 16 and 18 as Leeman reaches the conclusion that believers are given authority to make assessments on what accords with sound faith. The authority to make such assessments is very clearly seen in the layers of accountability seen in Matthew 18. Matthew 18 seems to clearly show that the buck stops at the congregation’s door when it comes to protecting the gospel integrity of a church. Leeman closes the final third of his book with what can mostly be described as less scholarly and more practical advice about what elder-led congregationalism looks like.
Readers should not be mistaken, "Don’t Fire Your Church Members" is not light reading. Leeman is not using simple proof texts to make his argument; rather he is utilizing a comprehensive textual-historical-theological rubric to hammer home his points. Careful reading is required to follow Leeman’s early arguments about the believer as priest-king and the believer as the keeper of the keys to the kingdom. At times the work has an overabundance of information such as in Leeman’s historical defense of democracy.
Early in the book Leeman makes the claim that congregationalism “better guards against nominalism, promotes Christian growth and equips the saints for fulfilling the church’s mission.” If one agrees with Leeman’s thoughts throughout the book then they can only arrive at the same aforementioned conclusion. Enabling members to exercise their God given authority to possess the keys to the kingdom means necessarily that the elders must work diligently to teach and instruct those same members lest they make a mockery of the gospel through their decision-making.
One of the greatest strengths of Leeman’s work in this particular book is his consistent rebuttal of proposed arguments against congregationalism and yet his willingness to admit where tension may exist amongst the great points made against congregationalism. This format gives the reader an adequate response to the objections to congregationalism and Leeman also recaps most of those objections in the appendix.
For as much as the book is theological and scholarly, it really shines in the latter half with nuggets of practicality. What does congregationalism practically look like? Leeman does not command a specific method of doing congregationalism but he does at least propose numerous times what it could look like and much of those examples come from his own church experience. His practical suggestions stand in stark contrast to what many conceive congregationalism to be. Congregationalism is not for the purpose of members voting on the color of curtains, rather congregationalism is for the purpose of protecting and proclaiming the gospel. Leeman very clearly brings much of the book to a point on page 104 when all of his arguments converge into the singular conclusion that congregationalism is the best method for preserving the so called what and who of the gospel.
When it comes to receiving a thorough review of elder-led congregationalism readers of "Don't Fire Your Church Members" will find themselves fully satisfied with the wealth of information and yet at the same time longing for a work more accessible to pass off to lay-leadership. Leeman writes with conviction and authority and if the reader sticks with the book they will not be confused about what elder-led congregationalism is and how it affects the church.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
A must read for every pastor, elder, and churchman (and lady)
By Jvalenti
If you are looking to make the NYT best-sellers list, a book on church polity is probably not your best choice of subject matter. Yet, if you cherish the local church, its health, and its gospel witness, you might take up the task of writing on church government. And even among the small contingent of those qualified to write authoritatively on such a subject, one would be hard-pressed to find someone who has taken up the task with as much passion as Jonathan Leeman. After three weeks of labor over a mere 182 pages, due to copious highlighting and note-taking, I can concur with Mark Dever that, "this book is almost certainly more important that you realize."
The bedrock on which the rest of the book is built is that there is no authority in the church except where the Bible gives it. Leeman's goal, then, is to show that the Bible has given guidelines for how authority ought to be granted and employed within the local church. His conclusion is that the gathered church members have been given this authority and that they exercise the keys to the kingdom through the ordinances of baptism and communion.
Baptism is an opportunity for church members to guard the "who" of the gospel in that baptism makes a positive affirmation concerning their citizenship in the kingdom and membership in a church. It makes one a part of the many. On the other hand, he asserts that communion takes the many and binds them as one as the church members, "re-ratify" their commitment to Christ and his people.
As a whole, I am convinced by Leeman's arguments. The problem, however, is that Leeman does little to move the conversation towards specific ways in which church can move towards the congregationalism that he proposes. He subtly rails on campuses and multi-service churches - claiming that true congregationalism cannot be accomplished with a body separated across multiple services. But he offers no solutions - leaving those of us with multiple services to either spend a few million on a new building or create separate member groups and elder boards for each congregation. Neither of those are legitimate options for many churches.
But just for fun, let's assume that a church is one service but does not have a history of well-led congregationalism. The lead pastor reads this book and thinks, "I'm on board Leeman. Now what?" The history of the church is that the staff leads, the elders provide some support and deal with big issues, but their opinion is, "you guys are the ones who went to seminary, so we trust you." Let's also assume that this is a basic view of the church - they trust the pastors and staff members to move the church forward. The view of baptism has been a bit lax and the membership list has never been closely guarded so it is full of names of people who have, perhaps, lapsed into apostasy or have left and belong to other churches. So weekend attendance is around 1700 and the membership list is half of that. Where do you start? I demand another book Jonathan Leeman!
Despite the lack of practical help, Leeman's writing is biblical and persuasive. But it is not always as understandable as one might like it to be. While the book is academic in nature (it is published under B&H's Academic label after all), a thorough treatment of the topic at hand demands this sort of precision. I am concerned that many well-meaning church members (or potential church members) may give up after the first two chapters. I am used to reading on a seminary level, but even I was still a bit confused after the first 60 or so pages. To his credit, Leeman irons it all out and there are several "ah ha" moments where the arguments finally took shape in my brain.
Regardless of some minor difficulties in the beginning, this is a book that I immediately recommended via email to the elder team at my church and which I continue to recommend to others. I'm continually working it out in my heart and mind as well. Leeman's style is to build his case chapter by chapter. So just as it might be hard to see the light at the end of a curved tunnel, you may discover that the beginning chapters leave you a bit unclear on the big picture. Keep pushing - it will all come together. And when it does I think those who chose to read this book thoroughly will be greatly rewarded with an exquisite view of the potential of church polity. Leeman takes a subject that causes a chill to shoot down the spine of many a lead pastor, and shows its value in the body of believers.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Best argument for congregationalism out there.
By Pen Name
Leeman introduces the book by presenting the prevailing church polities, addressing five challenges in understanding congregational polity, and offering his thesis. “Ultimately, this book will present a biblical-theological and systematic case for pastor-led or elder-led congregationalism” (16). In chapter one he presents hermeneutical principles for discerning what Scripture says normatively about polity. In chapter two he offers a biblical theology of congregationalism, reaching back to Adam to argue God installed him in the office of priest-king. Leeman argues that this office is crucial for understanding congregationalism. In chapter three he explores the keys of the kingdom in Matthew 16, arguing that they represent the authority Christ gives his church on earth to affirm the who and the what of the gospel. Why does this matter? According to Leeman, “Elder-led congregationalism makes every member a priest-king, and it trains them for the work. In so doing, it guards the gospel, matures the Christian disciple, strengthens the whole church, fortifies its holy integrity and witness, and
equips the congregation to better love their neighbors in word and deed” (16).
In chapter 4 he describes the office of church member and how it was understood throughout church history. He demonstrates that congregationalism isn’t simply a western idea but finds is foundation in in the early church and stems from Jesus’s authorization of the church. In chapter 5 Leeman describes the different kinds of authority that are at work in elder-led congregationalism. The elders lead the church by equipping the congregation to make decisions that are central to the integrity and right order of the church (members and doctrine), and by making decisions for the congregation on secondary issues. In chapter 6 he examines Acts 15 to see if it advocates for a presbyterian polity (it does not) and describes how churches can work together for the sake of the great commission. He concludes that while churches are independent in their authority, they are likewise interdependent and should not go it alone. Finally, in chapter 7 Leeman describes how to organize a healthy congregational church. This begins with creating a gospel culture, kingdom structures, and rightly preaching and administering the ordinances.
Biblical, theological, and practical. The best book on congregationalism out there!
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