Rev. Dr. Glenn C. Nestlerode

A Word from the Pastor

Disciples of Christ-Who Are We?  Who’s in Charge Here?

Different churches are organized in different ways. Consequently, leadership must be exercised in different ways in different churches. All churches understand Christ to be the true head of the church, but each Christian body must discern through scriptures and the movement of the Holy Spirit what they are called to do at a certain times.

The Catholic model gives us a single human being, the pope, who is understood to be speaking infallibly for Christ when he speaks about church matters and teachings. (The official teaching about the pope’s infallibility is only about 130 years old, however.)

The Catholic church and most other churches are set up in a rather hierarchical way with authority descending from one source and being spread out to wider and wider groups of clergy authorized with descending amounts of authority.

In many denominations bishops decide what pastors will serve which churches. In almost all churches pastors have authority to do things that lay people do not because lay people are at the bottom of the authority pyramid. Disciples structure authority in a somewhat unique way that sometimes puzzles people raised in other churches.

The seminary I attended was a Methodist school with a large Disciples presence as well as a smattering of Presbyterians, Episcopalians and others. We had a weekly chapel service that was sometimes a source of strained relationships because Disciples are so much less hierarchical than these other churches.

In each of these other churches, communion can only be served by an ordained member of the clergy. That meant that a faculty or staff person or an outside pastor would be needed to celebrate communion. We Disciples don’t believe that you must be ordained to preside at the Lord’s Supper. When Disciples were planning the worship service we would have one of our own students preside at the communion table. This really bothered some of the folks from other denominations who felt that we must not be doing communion right because we didn’t have the right official in place to do the service.

Our church is this way partly because we were shaped in a democratic age and grew up in the context of the American frontier. Partly because we distrusted church hierarchies, we have been cautious about not creating our own. Rather than having a single person or even a national council which sets policy and determines the course of the church, we have always relied on covenantal agreements and persuasion to get things done. Neither our General Minister and President or our General Board or our General Assembly can command our churches to do something. They do not have the legal or ethical right as they do in so many others churches.

Yet, we have made promises to work together with our General and Regional church manifestations. So we are not to function completely independently. In our denomination we are called to work collegially with the other parts of the church. Many so-called non-denominational churches proudly proclaim that they are free of denominational authority. To me, it seems that they simply can’t get along with anyone else. They set themselves up as their own authority and just avoid the relationships that come with being part of a wider church.

Most non-denominational churches give their local pastor a kind of pope-like authority based on his charismatic personality. Disciples churches expect their pastors to be as non-hierarchical as their church structure. In many non-Disciple churches the average lay person is expected to toe the line and agree with what the pastor says from the pulpit because the pastor is seen as the authority. In the Disciples church we have always placed too much emphasis on freedom of opinion and the need to think for yourself to accept this approach.

In one Elders meeting here at Edmonds we were talking about what to do when you disagree with the pastor. One elder responded by saying, "I think its good when I disagree with the pastor, because it makes me go back and study the scriptures for myself to make up my own mind."

That is a very Disciple way of thinking!

P.S. I have been writing about Disciples identity for much of the past year. Are there things I’ve left out that you would like to hear about? Are there any aspects of Disciples identity, history or policy that you would like to see discussed in this column? If so, let me know.

Send mail to edmondscc@earthlink.net with questions or comments about this web site.
Copyright © 2005 Edmonds Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Last modified: 08/25/05