How does a Presbyterian Church work?
Article by Russ Grinter | Minister
Many of us that are new to Reforming might not have been to a Presbyterian Church before, and even for those of us who have we might appreciate some helpful Presbyterianism 101. So I do pray that this short summary is helpful!
For some definitions:
‘Session’ comes from the Latin word ‘sessio’, which means ‘to sit and meet’. We use this word to describe the functioning body of local church leadership that requires at least two elders and one minister to form a Session.
‘Presbytery’ comes from the New Testament Greek word, πρεσβύτερος (presbuteros), is the word used for ‘elder’.
For a more comprehensive look into how the Presbyterian Church of Victoria works (part of the Presbyterian Church of Australia), please do check out our Code Book here.
You can see from the diagram below how different official groups of the church work in connection to one another. You can also see where Reforming fits in nicely as a local congregation.
What all this means for us is that we value connectedness to other courts and bodies in our church, and we value transparency and accountability. These are things that so important for churches, because we are to be above reproach in our leadership and church-wide culture.
Presbyterians believe in the gospel (good news) of Jesus Christ, who is God’s powerful Saviour who rescues us also reforms us. Jesus is the Christ, the king, the man who is God. Jesus lived among us in our world, died in our place on a cross to take our sin and rose again to new life for our hope. The good news is that having defeated sin and death, the biggest problems of all time, Jesus is the rightful king. This is the gospel message, Jesus is Lord. In a world of bad news, that’s good news.
Reforming is a reformed church that belongs to the Presbyterian Church of Australia, our denomination.
Being ‘reformed’ means the Bible is our supreme authority and we hold to the reformed confession that is the Westminster Confession (document or online version).
Being ‘reformed’ means we have a biblically big view of God, and because He gives us grace He gets all the glory.
Being ‘reformed’ means we “glorify God and enjoy Him forever”.
Then what does it mean that we are presbyterian?
The word, ‘Presbyterian’ is a word from the Bible points to what we believe and how we work.
In the New Testament the original Greek word, πρεσβύτερος (presbuteros), is the word used for ‘elder’. We reckon that Jesus knew what He was doing when His Bible says it’s healthy for a church to be cared for by overseers, elders. So a Presbyterian church isn’t just headed up by one personality, but is cared for by a team.
As Presbyterians we believe in team-based ministry of elders and in the way churches relate.
Because we believe that God’s Word is true and has authority over elders and all of us, we therefore believe it with common understanding across churches. This common understanding of faith that we share as Presbyterian churches in Australia is the Westminster Confession of Faith, this is our subordinate standard.
The Confession is the subordinate standard, the Bible is the supreme standard. So most of all we would love you to read the Bible and meet Jesus there, contact us if you’d like to do that.
Here below are some words from the PCV Code Book, that describe how things work like leadership and membership in a local Presbyterian Church, like Reforming.
