Date: May 18, 1998
Dear fellow members of the Council,
As we all know, at our last Council of Elders meeting in late February, our major topic of discussion was that of "Church Government." Various viewpoints were expressed by the members of the Council, but in the end we all agreed: God the Father and Jesus Christ established His N.T. Church Government through a GROUP of Spirit-filled, dedicated and experienced men-rather than through the decisions of ONE MAN. God commissioned twelve apostles to preach to the circumcision (all led by Peter), and also called two special servants of His, Paul and Barnabas, to take his gospel to the Gentiles. Paul was commissioned to be the leader of that Work.
Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong (as God's only apostle in this end time) ruled the corporate organization, the Worldwide Church of God, autocratically-having full authority to make final decisions regarding both Church DOCTRINE and Church ADMINISTRATION. But he never claimed to have been given authority over the "Churches of God" (7th day), which included numerous ministers and thousands of members.
Mr. Roderick C. Meredith and the leading ministers in Global have made it clear that, like Mr. Armstrong, we will follow the biblical form of hierarchical Church Government. However, the early N.T. Churches of God did not have ONE MAN sitting at the top of that hierarchical governmental structure. As noted earlier, Peter held the central position among the twelve postles, while Paul had the leading position on the TEAM of two men (Paul and Barnabas) which God chose to spearhead the preaching of the gospel to the Gentiles.
Thus it is clear that: 1) the BIBLE (Acts in particular), 2) our BYLAWS, 3) and our BOOKLET on "Church Government" all speak with one voice. They all agree that God's Church should be in the hands of the LEADING ELDERS of His Church. In Acts 15, it was the "apostles and elders" who made the final decision. Though there are no apostles in God's Church today, Global follows the same principle of N.T. Church Government by putting into the hands of the "evangelists and elders"-on the Council and the Board-the reins of governance in the corporate organization known as the Global Church of God.
I would caution all of us to be very careful how we mention this matter of "Church Government"-whether in sermons, Bible studies, private conversations, etc. If we handle this important topic with understanding and wisdom, we can avoid causing undue offense to our brethren in the "Church of God" (1 Cor. 10:32). May the Great God give all of us wisdom, grace and genuine love to make certain that all of us do everything within our power to help God's ministers, and our brethren, get safely through this crisis.
We all realize, I am sure, that the PCG follows an autocratic form of Church Government. And, at least some of the UCG leaders have incorporated what appears to be elements of "democracy" in various areas of their Churc Government.
As the "ANALYSIS" paper reveals, God has never endorsed the principle of humans voting His servants (kings, priests, prophets, apostles, ministers, etc.) into office. However, he reveals that His apostles used some form of what might be called "voting"-i.e. giving voice to their individual decisions, as is clearly revealed in the book of Acts (chap. 15 in particular).
I hope you all will find the "ANALYSIS" paper enlightening and helpful. May God Almighty help all of us to remember that where two or three of us gather together in Christ's name, and ask Him to guide our deliberations, He has promised to guide our decisions (Matt. 18:18-20)!
Sincerely, your fellow-servant in Christ,
Raymond F. McNair