Originally published in 1993, this anthology of Presbyterian studies of church office is now back in print, thanks to Reformed Forum. The second edition adds a chapter by Alan Strange and an expanded and updated annotated bibliography (itself an informative read); altogether, seventeen entries, enhanced with subject and Scripture indexes, and now in an attractive cloth edition.
All Presbyterians agree that the church is governed by “presbyters.” But what is in mind when Scripture mentions “bishops” or “elders” or “pastors”? How ought we to distinguish those who preach from those who rule? Herein lies division among Presbyterians today. These essays defend the three-office view (ministers, governors, and deacons) of historic Presbyterianism. Editor Mark Brown’s skillful gathering and editing of diverse voices underscores the depth and breadth of this tradition, including OPC and PCA authors, the great ecclesiological voice of Old Princeton, Charles Hodge, and Presbyterian voices from the British Isles. A particular pleasure for the reader is discovering the “forgotten” Thomas Smyth (1808–1873), the Irish immigrant who pastored First Presbyterian Church in Charleston, South Carolina, for over forty years.
In the last two centuries the two-office view (that combines ministers and ruling elders into one office) has gained popularity, especially among Southern Presbyterians in what Iain Murray calls the “great agitation” of the nineteenth century (135). He blames James Thornwell and Robert Dabney for championing a position that Hodge and Smyth decried as “novel, anticonstitutional, and revolutionary” (98). (Although the case is made by other contributors, including editor Brown, that Thornwell and Dabney themselves were essentially three-office.)
One consistent theme running throughout the anthology is the importance of the Old Testament for new covenant church polity. The question of how Christ rules his church must begin with the Old Testament, where we find the governing role of elders, notes Edmund Clowney (37–39), Smyth (89), Robert W. Eckardt (146), Leonard Coppes (179–184), Robert Rayburn (196), and Strange (248). Clowney perceptively notes that when Luke introduced elders in Acts 11:30, he sensed no burden to explain who they were, because he could safely assume his readers understood the Old Testament background. Charles Dennison argues that this biblical theology of office is lacking in many current studies that restrict themselves to “New Testament argumentation” (238).
As one would expect, proper attention is devoted to key New Testament texts. Regarding 1 Timothy 5:17, where Paul directs honor to elders who rule well and especially those who preach and teach, Strange notes that “there remain considerable exegetical differences in interpreting this verse” (250). Some of those differences are found among the Princetonians and even with the contributors to this book. The text is a challenge to all Presbyterian views of office, and Clowney puts the matter well: that ministers and elders are both called elders “by no means demonstrates that their office is identical” (51).
Another important consideration is the qualification of elders to be “able to teach” (1 Tim. 3:2 and 2 Tim. 2:24). Eckhardt explains that Paul cannot refer to a general teaching ability, because this is expected of all believers (Heb. 5:12). Rather, he describes the public ministry of the Word, and if this is demanded of all elders, “we are required to make them all preachers” (65).
Two-office advocates often claim their zeal is for the “parity of elders.” However, several contributors remind us that historic Presbyterianism focused not on a parity of teaching and ruling elders but rather a parity within the ordained ministry, and specifically against a prelacy that elevates bishops to higher status and power over other ministers (93). Broader pleas for parity, Strange warns, risk heading in either one of two unpresbyterian directions: a practical episcopacy that “clericalizes” the church or a functional congregationalism that denies the set-apartness of ministerial office (252). The latter refers to the egalitarian temptation that is the focus of Gregory Reynolds’s chapter. Reynolds takes care not to suggest that an egalitarian impulse birthed the two-office view, but he warns that the popularity of the position under cultural conditions that render it plausible may yield unintended consequences, such as the devaluation of preaching and an erosion of ministerial authority in the church.
Readers will not find complete uniformity on historical assessments among the contributors. John Calvin’s teaching on office, for example, has divided interpreters in the past, and it prompts disagreement in this book. Peter Campbell argues that Calvin himself was inconsistent (70). But Jeffrey Boer comes to Calvin’s defense: “Calvin’s statements are regularly misemployed,” he claims, and Boer presents a way of reading Calvin consistently (118–119).
Boer captures the spirit of all the contributors when he expresses less interest to “press the numerical point” than to guard a “clear-cut distinction between presbyters with both teaching and ruling authority and presbyters with ruling authority” (124). There are hybrid positions that propose “two-and-a-half” offices or “two orders of elders,” many of whom are, as Reynolds observes, “functionally three office” (205). However, this book raises questions about the coherence and sustainability of such models.
Three decades ago, it was liberating for me to read these essays as a recently ordained ruling elder. Rather than diminish my sense of calling, it clarified my ruling authority while allowed me “to focus on the application of what the minister teaches from God’s Word” (217). Rereading these essays today, I am even more impressed with the timeliness of their arguments. Respect for governors cannot come at the expense of confusion about pastoral ministry. Ambiguity on this matter obscures the genius of Presbyterianism and disrupts the health of the church. Order in the Offices directs us to respect all offices while maintaining the sacred office of ministry, which historic Presbyterianism has always claimed is “first in the church, both for dignity and usefulness.”
The author is a ruling elder at Reformation OPC in Orlando, Florida, and professor of church history at RTS Orlando.
Order in the Offices: Essays Defining the Roles of Church Officers, Mark R. Brown, general editor. 2nd ed. Libertyville, IL: Reformed Forum, 2024. Cloth, 277 pages, $34.99.
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