The PCA’s system is often described as grassroots because elders from ordinary congregations participate in presbytery and General Assembly. Decisions are not handed down by bishops or imposed by a distant hierarchy. Instead, pastors and ruling elders from the churches themselves gather to deliberate and vote. This participatory structure is one of the great strengths of Presbyterian polity. 

From time to time someone will wrongly describe the polity of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) as a kind of functional congregationalism. The reason for this misunderstanding usually is due to authority in the PCA beginning with the local church session and flows upward through presbyteries and the General Assembly. So they conclude that the system must really be a bottom-up model that resembles congregationalism. But that conclusion misunderstands both Presbyterianism and congregationalism.

The PCA practices what we usually call Grassroots Presbyterianism, but grassroots participation is not the same thing as congregational autonomy. The two systems operate on fundamentally different principles.

Courts, Not Independent Congregations

Presbyterianism governs the church through courts, not through independent congregations.

In the PCA those courts are:

• the Session (local church)
• the Presbytery (regional body)
• the General Assembly (national body)

These courts are not advisory committees. They exercise real authority because Christ has entrusted the keys of the kingdom to the church (Matt. 16:19; 18:17–20). The Westminster Confession reflects this biblical pattern:

“For the better government and further edification of the church, there ought to be such assemblies as are commonly called synods or councils.” (WCF 31.1)

Congregationalism functions differently. In that system the local congregation is the final authority. Outside bodies may advise or assist, but they cannot bind the conscience of the church.

Presbyterianism rejects that model. Authority is exercised through connectional courts of elders who deliberate together for the good of the whole church.

The Session Is Not the Final Authority

This means that in Presbyterianism the Session is the lowest court, not the highest authority.

Sessions govern the life of the local congregation, but they do so within the constitutional framework of the church. They are accountable to the presbytery, and both are accountable to the broader church through the General Assembly.

Elders themselves illustrate this connectional structure. Ruling elders may serve in a local congregation, but they are ordained as officers of the church of Jesus Christ more broadly, and teaching elders are examined and ordained by presbyteries rather than by congregations alone.

This is why Presbyterian churches are bound together by shared commitments:

• Scripture
• the Westminster Standards
• the Book of Church Order
• the lawful decisions of the courts of the church

A session cannot simply decide to disregard those commitments because of local preference. That would be congregationalism.

Presbyteries Possess Real Authority

One of the clearest distinctions between Presbyterianism and congregationalism is the authority of presbyteries.

Presbyteries examine and ordain ministers, oversee the health of churches, receive and dismiss congregations, hear appeals and complaints, and exercise discipline when necessary.

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