Jesus is king, Jesus rules the church, the church is the visible representation of Jesus, and Jesus has uniquely tasked the church with missions. Add these four claims together, and you begin to understand why a rightly governed church is crucial to the spread of the gospel…. Not only that, Scripture tells us Jesus’ rule is actually good. Our sinful natures have a hard time believing this, but it’s true. Therefore, insofar as aspects of Jesus’ rule are variously delegated and reflected in the life of the church, that, too, is good.

Guy Prentiss Waters. How Jesus Runs the Church. Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2011. 176 pp. $14.99.

What is the last popularly written book you can think of that argues for a particular brand of church polity? Or, on a more audacious note, what evangelical writer or leader can you point to in the last century who believes “church government is a critical part of Christian discipleship” (xx)?

Ever since George Whitefield found the Baptists and Presbyterians more amendable to his revival work than his fellow Anglicans, talk of church polity has been on the outs among evangelicals. Post-1960 neo-evangelicals especially want their ecclesiology served “mere.” This lets us downplay the topics that cause Christians to bicker—like church government.

Liberal Protestants, too, have called for “more community” and “less institutional authority” ever since Friedrich Schleiermacher borrowed language from the Romantics to pit religious experience against what he viewed as the Enlightenment’s rationalistic formulations of doctrine.1 And these instincts show up in Vatican II’s definition of the church, which prioritizes the “people of God” metaphor over the more hierarchical “body of Christ” metaphor.

What, therefore, do we make of Reformed Theological Seminary (Jackson) professor Guy Prentiss Waters’s claim that “properly functioning government is critical to the church’s faithfulness as the missionary agency which Christ has appointed on earth” (xxvi)? Or, “For the church to carry out the Great Commission faithfully, she must be governed well” (xxvi). Or, even more outlandish: “Biblical church government, then, is a tremendous pillar and support to the church’s faith, a signpost of the church’s great hope” (149).

Crucial to the Great Commission? Pillar to the church’s faith? So Waters writes in his book How Jesus Runs the Church.

In fact, I believe he is exactly right, and he serves churches tremendously by helping to put the topic of polity back on the conversation docket. Consider Acts 6. Immediately after the Jerusalem church and the apostles resolve a division in the congregation with an organizational solution, we learn, “So the word of God spread. The numbers of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith” (Acts 6:7).

Something similar occurs in Acts 15 and 16. The apostles and elders make a once-for-all decision on requirements for church membership. And once news of the decision spreads, “The churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers” (16:5).

Starting Points

Waters’s theological starting points are as follows: Jesus is king, Jesus rules the church, the church is the visible representation of Jesus, and Jesus has uniquely tasked the church with missions (xxiii-xxiv, 41-48). Add these four claims together, and you begin to understand why a rightly governed church is crucial to the spread of the gospel. A disorganized church filled with bickering and unresolved disputes is hardly an attractive witness. And a community filled with hypocrites and heretics does nothing for the gospel cause.

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