There is a compelling exegetical case for congregational church government. That case is so compelling that structuring a local congregation in any other way seems to be disobedient to the pattern of polity laid out in the New Testament. While there are many other passages, these key passages indicate not only how the early church functioned, but that this was laid out in scripture as the Holy Spirit-led solution to the problems of church management.

Church discipline is a congregational responsibility.

There are two key areas in which the biblical pattern is accountability to the congregation—the entire church body—and where decision-making is assigned to the entire church body. These are in financial accountability and in church discipline. Let’s start with church discipline.

Jesus establishes the pattern for settling sin matters between brothers, and church discipline in Matthew 18:15-17. The three-step process starts with one-on-one confrontation. If that does not settle the matter, then it goes to mediation before one or two more trusted parties. We would assume that if the goal is to settle the matter, the mediators should be trusted by both the accused and accuser and be people of wisdom and good reputation.

But the key aspect of this passage is that the final verdict is determined by the church (the congregation, the assembly). In Greek culture, the ecclesia was the voting body of any city. In our context, we would call it the electorate. This was not just the crowd that showed up for worship. It was the group of people that “had final control over policy.” When New Testament writers used this word, they used it deliberately and the members of the ecclesia knew exactly what their privileges and responsibilities were. The function of the assembly in Matthew 18:17 is a perfect reflection of this contemporary use of the word. For the sake of clarification, we might consider reading the word congregation as voting assembly instead. …

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