The Main Points Of Church Government And Discipline

In this work, Love sets down the plain teaching of Scripture demonstrating Presbyterial Government. It is a simple, but profitable, short, but sound teaching on the subject. Though the work is shorter than most works on the subject, there is a great deal of matter in a few words. It is a brief but yet biblically solid work so that not only the weak may be instructed, but the strong also established in the truth. There has always been a debate surrounding church government, concerning the question, “What is the best oversight of the church that could be had by Christ’s people while the church militant is established in the world?” Mr. Love will demonstrate, in catechistical form, that Presbyterial Government is of Divine Right, and is the best means for governing the people of God under Christ as a church body. The government of the church by Presbyters or Elders, who have the rule (Heb. 13:7, 17, 1 Tim. 5:17), and the keys of Christ’s church (Isa. 22:22, Rev. 1:18, 3:7), as well as power to remit and retain sin (John 20:23), are those who feed and govern the flock (1 Peter 5:2, Acts 20:17, 28), and are over people in the Lord (1 Thess. 5:12). Such men, as Love masterfully demonstrates, are Guides, Leaders, Bishops, Governors, and Pastors. And it is by this Divine Right that Christ rules his church in a Presbyterian form of church government. His section on the support of the church, minister and tithing is worth the cost of the volume alone. This work is not a scan or facsimile, has been carefully transcribed by hand being made easy to read in modern English, and has an active table of contents for electronic versions.

Perspectives on Church Government presents in counterpoint form the basic models of church government which have developed over the course of church history with a view toward determining which is most faithful to Scripture. Each chapter will be written by a prominent person from within each tradition—with specific guidelines dealing with the biblical, historical, and theological issues within each governance tradition. In addition, each writer will have the opportunity to give a brief response to the other traditions.

Just as the government structure of Russia differs from that of the United States, and both differ from that of Great Britain, so it is with church government. Yet, as the institution governed by God's written word, the church must find and defend its governing structures using that word--the Bible. In this book, Dr. Simon Goncharenko argues that it is, in fact, possible to identify a specific preferred model of church polity within the Bible and to model our current church structure after Scriptural precedent.

Many pastors conceive of the church budget as primarily a financial tool, but in fact it is primarily a pastoral tool. A church's philosophy of ministry is locked into its budget, and so the budget will either stifle or accelerate any attempts to move a congregation toward a biblical model of church health. As such, the church budget is a far more potent pastoral tool than many church leaders realize. Budgeting for a Healthy Church examines each section of the budget in light of Biblical principles to show how a church budget can lock in healthy approaches to ministry. Whereas most books on church budgeting are "how" books, explaining how the budgeting process should work, this is a "what" book, helping church leaders determine the pastoral implications of what they choose to fund in their budgets.