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Resources - Leadership
February 2005
Liberty & Order
Understanding the Church Order as a
Liberating Missional Tool
Rev. G. van Schie
Order - An ‘On the Nose’ Word
You see it often if you look around you, children in shopping malls pulling away from parents trying to break free and run off in whatever direction they fancy. For many in the church today, the concepts of ‘structure’, ‘regulation’ or ‘order’ carry negative baggage which can lead to the temptation to break free.
The reason for this is that these words can suggest a bridling of freedom and a stifling of passion. So it is that Church Order can be seen as little more than a restrictive set of rules that hinder our ability to serve the Lord the best way we can.
The aim of the authors of the Church Order was not to limit the churches by constraining them but to provide them with a simple road map so they might avoid wrong turns that would take them away from Christ’s mission mandate. We know too many examples when the Church Order has been ignored plunging a congregation, Classis or Synod into muddy and destructive controversy. Let’s look at ‘order’ and answer the question ‘why the need for a Church Order?’
“God saw everything He had made and it was very good”
When we read these words in Genesis 1:31 we find God looking over his completed work of creation, standing back and acknowledging it was a perfect job.
In spite of the Fall into sin we observe all around us evidences of what caused God to pronounce His creation to be ‘very good’. In Genesis 9 we find God mentioning some items of ‘order’ that were part of the ‘very good’ creation: “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease." (Genesis 8:22, NIV)
This order in creation is also noted with regard to humanity: "From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live." (Acts 17:26, NIV).
Again we find this ‘order’ carried over into the life of the New Testament church. In a church that boasted about its spiritual gifts, Paul made clear to the Corinthians that God had so ordered the church that ALL its members were special and ALL were necessary. (1 Corinthians 12:24-25, NIV).
When rightly applied, order is a part of what is still very good about God’s creation. The Corinthian church needed a reminder that we all do from time to time: "The spirits of prophets are subject to the control of prophets. For God is not a God of disorder but of peace. " (1 Corinthians 14:32-33, NIV)
In all that we have covered, order need not be a concept ‘on the nose’ among us. Without it we would never be in a position to coexist together as a local church let alone tell others the good news about God’s grace in Christ.
Exploring the Issue Further
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What can you see that in your immediate field of work or study that demonstrates ‘order’.
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Give examples of how productivity is diminished if that ‘order’ is taken away.
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Discuss how important it is to have a Church Order and how do you rate that of the CRCA.
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Read 1 Corinthians 14:26-39 and discuss the following:
a) What different and possibly competing aspects of worship does Paul mention in v.26?
b) How were these to be ‘ordered’ in their use in the church? V. 27-32
c) What was a to be a chief consideration as to this order? v.27 -
Discuss what images the words ‘Church Order’ has brought to your mind up to this time.
a) What role if any has our fallen desire to break free of any restraints to do with this perception?
b) Have bad experiences of the use Church Order led to such a perception. How? -
How do we move positively forward with our Church Order so we are kept from issues that bog us down and instead are freed to pour our energy into Christ’s mandate to nurture those in the household of faith and to seek the lost?
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