Congregational Churches

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Today I am a sold out Prebyterian (PCA) but over the years I have been involved in many different kinds of churches, every one until now was "congregational". I hope that our Independents and SBC'ers will understand that this isn't a personal attack on anyone but today I have a problem with Congregational churches in general. Let me explain:
It would be very simple to point out that the Kingdom of God is not a democracy and that is probably a worn out phrase. But my experience has been that when a church is congregational in it's government either one of two things happen. (1) You have a pastor with a group of yes-men "deacons" (elders) and with this unbridled power the pastor is tempted to be abusive with that power. As a matter of fact, in my experience they have all ultimately abused their power, some to a lesser, some to a greater degree. (2) You wind up with a wimpy pastor who is a yes-man to his deacons and they become tyrants, going through pastors like Carter through liver pills. In either instance there is no one for the pastor or the deacons (elders) to answer to. In MHO this is why so many Baptists churches are grasping so hard to force their people to adopt the Baptist Confession. You have to have some point of authority. In our case however (the PCA... not that we're perfect by any means) if someone gets crazy, just one phone call away is a greater authority... under God but over the local Church.

Due to time lack of time I would just like to answer one of your points. The reason why most "congregational" church governments fail is that they are not really congregational at all. Congregationalism calls for a plurality of elders or (pastors) as well as deacons who function as church members with the duty of administering the local churches charitable functions(Acts 6:1-7) and so forth, not usurping the authority of the Pastor. The office of Elder/Pastor is clearly differentiated from that of deacon in the NT (1Tim.3) What you have probably seen is a group of deacons who function like pseudo-pastors. I would invite you to take a look at an RB church with a plurality of elders where the office of deacon is properly administered and see if the same problems persist. Personally I have never witnessed an issue in such a church.
 
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