Why Members Voting on Members Is Their Most Important Job
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“I’m writing to anyone who already assumes congregationalism. With that in mind, how does voting on members protect the gospel?” - 9 Marks
Teaching New Elders to Be Shepherds—The Baxter Project
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“The real challenge is helping the elders change their focus from a board-of-trustees mentality to a shepherding mentality. In this article I will share our journey of making that change” - 9 Marks
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What did church leadership look like in the first century?
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“The general norm in the first century seems to be that churches were led by multiple elders/overseers/pastors. Some see this plurality as a command. I’m not sure it quite rises to that level.” - DBTS Blog
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Leading a Congregational Church Through Constitutional Change
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“In the past decade, my church has undergone two changes to our constitution…. As leaders, we did some things well and some things poorly in both changes. I think we did significantly better the second time around.” - 9 Marks
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Should pastors hand over ministries to their children?
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“If there is no one sent to me by God, I will assume that God sent my son to take over the leadership role in the ministry.” - C.Post
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What Job Titles Should Churches Use? Two Simple Rules
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“the first English Baptist confession, John Smyth’s (1609), lists ‘bishops and deacons.’ The First London Confession of 1644 lists ‘pastors, teachers, elders, deacons,’ while the Second London Confession of 1688 returns to two: ‘bishops or elders and deacons.’ In fact, nearly all Baptist confessions mention only two” - 9 Marks
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Why Our Church Moved from Elder-Rule Polity to Elder-Led Congregationalism
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“Put simply, because Jesus said so. Five words compelled us to make the shift: ‘tell it to the church’ (Matt. 18:17).” - 9 Marks
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Do Elders Receive Their Authority by Congregational Vote?
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“Although elders are recognized by the congregation through a vote, they do not derive their authority to teach and oversee from the congregation but from God.” - 9 Marks
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Edgar Mullins' Axioms and 2022 America
Edgar Mullins was the fourth president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. I recently finished his classic The Axioms of Religion: A New Interpretation of the Baptist Faith (Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society, 1908). His is a refreshingly simple exposition of Baptist Christianity. I’ll provide a sketch of Mullin’s position here, and note some of its implications and possible rebukes for modern Baptists in 2022 America.
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From the Archives – Did Americans Invent Church Voting?
There are legitimate questions for Christians to ask as they study their Bibles and become active in a church. Some questions are worth pursuing endlessly (questions about the character of Christ, for instance). Others have their limits, particularly when little or nothing is directly said in the Bible about them. As the discussion becomes long and drawn out, it also becomes, well, odd. We become either speculative or dogmatic without substance, since there is little in Scripture that substantiates our arguments.
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