What Is This Thing Called Polity? Three perspectives

What is this thing called polity? Well, it's . . . um, ah, polity is . . . That's it. Polity is. Just let it go at that.*
* (If you insist, polity means the way we govern ourselves as a church. Now go on and read more about it.)

No, on second thought, let's not let it go at that. Polity is either the egg or the chicken--and once in a while scrambled or stir-fried--in all manner of Presbyterian work. Though certainly not omniperfect, it does seem to be omnipresent.

So rather than turn to the experts (who at times tend to be even more dull than some think polity is), have a look first at how polity is viewed by a couple of real people who studied it in a seminar and found it downright interesting:

Perspective One

Polity is not a dusty code binding our behavior, but a vibrant call
from a living God
By Ruth Workman

What is a Presbyterian? Many might define our denomination as a group fond of eating. Virtually no events take place without the sharing of food.

Others see Presbyterians as a conglomeration of committees, a people who make decisions only through deliberations of groups of people. How many Presbyterians does it take to change a light bulb? As many as there are members on the session or the committee.

It is true that we Presbyterians do things in a deliberate and orderly fashion, and that committees are dear to the heart of Presbyterian process. This thing called polity is the oil that keeps the machinery running smoothly--the rules that allow groups to function and help us to correct any malfunctions.

Polity describes the bodies that will govern our church, the rules they will follow, and the responsibility they hold. However, more than a dusty code binding our behavior, polity is a vibrant call from a living God, the head and heart of our church, into mission, proclamation of the gospel, and the struggle to achieve justice in our world.

Ruth Workman, a member of Morrisville (Pa.) Presbyterian Church, is on the staff at Langhorne (Pa.) Presbyterian Church as associate for nurture. She is also a spiritual director, offering individual direction and guided retreats. When she wrote this essay she had been a participant in a seminar on Presbyterian polity conducted at Princeton Theological Seminary by Joyce Tucker, director of the PCUSA Committee on Theological Education.

Perspective Two

Presbyterian polity gives us the framework for living out the "great ends of the church"
By Kevin Dill

Junior high ministry is frustrating. If you have worked with young people this age, you know that even a gathering of two or three can degenerate into chaos in short order. Devotional times, in particular, are often dominated by a cacophony of voices interjecting tasteless jokes, put-downs, or puzzling non sequiturs.

Taking this as a given, the task of helping junior highs to understand the responsibilities and privileges of belonging to the Body of Christ is a difficult one. That is why, as a veteran junior high leader, I have developed some rules for our meetings.

In general, these rules have to do with building community, by treating each other in a Christlike manner. So, for instance, when someone else is speaking, we do not interrupt or criticize that person until the speaker has finished.

Do I need to state the obvious here? We do not call each other Bologna Head or Skunk Boy. Not because name-calling is impolite, which it is, but because to do so undermines the basic trust, openness and quest for intimacy that defines a community. Good rules do more than restrict. They inform, enable and instruct. The best rules prepare the field for planting rather than fencing it in.

I would argue that our junior highs learn significantly more about being the church by following the rules than they ever learn from a year's worth of my devotional talks. Presbyterian polity (you knew it was coming) in its best sense functions the same way. Our Book of Order not only makes theological proclamations, but it also provides us with a framework for incorporating those proclamations into our relationships. In other words, it allows us to live out the "great ends of the church." It provides us with a way of being the church that is intimately related to theology.

Presbyterian polity, admittedly imperfect, is something all Presbyterians can be proud of. Not only is it a decent and orderly way to get today's business done, it is a framework for becoming the church of tomorrow.

Kevin Dill, formerly associate pastor of the Hopewell (N.J.) Presbyterian Church, is pastor of Calvary Presbyterian Church in Riverton, N.J. When he wrote this essay he also was a participant in a seminar on Presbyterian polity conducted at Princeton Theological Seminary by Joyce Tucker, director of the PCUSA Committee on Theological Education.

Perspective Three

If you want to go from Point A to Point B, our polity tells us the best way to travel
By James E. Andrews

When Presbyterians are accused of "doing their thing" it often means that we are engaged in a dispute over how to make a decision, or how to reorganize the structure for a program or even the whole church. We are famous for doing things in a way we can describe as "decent and orderly."

We got that way because of our ancestors. Churches that took up the Reformation just ahead of us focused on theological conflicts and retained many older elements of church government. The churches from which we developed were also concerned with theological reform, but the Reformation had moved along far enough for our ancestors to struggle with the shape of the church, its structure, as well as the soul of the church, its faith.

Reformed people in Switzerland, Germany and Britain wanted the church to be shaped by its faith, not only by the human traditions. The very word Presbyterian describes a particular way of organizing and governing the church through groups of elders, which is the English word for presbyter.

Some very major leaders of this denomination and its predecessors have said polity is the glue that binds us together. But it is much more than that--it is a way to make sure that our actions reflect the most important concepts that grow out of our faith in Jesus Christ.

Those who seek to be members of a Presbyterian church are not asked to approve of our polity, they are asked to profess Jesus as Lord and Savior, and to be united with other Christians who share a common faith and a common way of working together in mission. The content of our faith is expressed in our Book of Confessions, and one of the most basic concepts of the confessions is the idea of the unity of believers, the vision that God calls all Christians to be united in a single body called the church.

The purpose of our system of polity is to keep the community united in the faith by providing a way to make decisions and settle disagreements. We can be together in mission, even with fellow Christians of very different churches, because our polity provides a number of guideposts for the journey, showing us how faith can be worked out in practical situations.

Our polity is a matter of liberation within limits, rather than conformity to rules. Of course there are things we consider no-nos. We do not permit people to be full members of two congregations at the same time, or permit pastors to be installed without the approval of a large majority of the congregation. The key question is always: "How do we get from Point A to Point B in a way that preserves the integrity of our faith and the bonds of our unity?"

As our understanding of the faith grows we often modify our polity to keep up with what we learn. For example, only a generation ago Presbyterians decided that the punishment of excluding people from the sacrament of the Lord's Supper was no longer a good way to preserve unity among the faithful, so we dropped excommunication from our polity system.

If you want to move your membership to another congregation, the Book of Order will tell you that one session writes another to accomplish the transfer. If you want to start a new congregation, that same book will tell you how presbytery develops a group of folks into a new church. Polity is a guide to Christian living in the Presbyterian family. Its answers to your questions will help you take part in the life of the Presbyterian Church and share in the lives of its partner churches around the world.

One word of caution--polity is catching. You will find it so helpful you will apply it in other places where groups of people struggle for common goals. People will begin to think of you as one of those decent and orderly Presbyterians who can always suggest a way to go about electing officers or setting up a shelter for homeless people. People like that sometimes end up being clerk of session, or even worse, stated clerk of a presbytery, synod or General Assembly.

James E. Andrews, now retired, was stated clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). He lives in Decatur, Ga.