Church Leadership Models

    Christianity has three major divisions, Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant, and at least three different leadership structures.  Catholics and Orthodox have the same leadership structure.  Protestants either have three types of leadership structures with the two subsets or five leadership structures, you decide.  This summary will briefly describe these leadership structures.  Note that these categories are not air-tight, with some denominations using a combination of styles.

    Episcopal:  These churches have bishops:  examples include Catholic, Orthodox, Episcopalian, and Methodist groups.  In the case of Catholics, their head bishop is called the “Pope.”  In the case of the Orthodox, their head is called the”Patriarch.”  Episcopalians (the Church of England in America) have a head bishop who is called the “Presiding Bishop.”  The Methodists do not have one head bishop, instead bishops have authority over their area, called a Conference, and a General Conference, which consists of all conferences, makes decisions for the entire denomination.

    Presbyter:  This leadership role involves churches sending representatives to a larger body where decisions are made.  Presbyterian churches have this type of leadership structure.  Each individual church is governed by elders in what is usually called a “session.”  Individual churches are grouped together into a “presbytery,” presbyteries are grouped together into a “synod,” and synods nationwide form the “General Assembly.”   At each level outside the individual church, both clergy and lay (meaning non-clergy) leaders are involved and make decisions. 

    Autonomous church:  These churches maintain all decisions from within the individual church (called the “local church).  Baptists use this form of church leadership. Churches usually voluntarily join together to form “associations,” associations join together to form a “convention” (such as the North Carolina Baptist Convention), and small conventions join together to form a large “convention” (such as the Southern Baptist Convention).  The larger Convention makes policies; local churches can either choose to join or not.  So all decisions are made in the local church, and the local church agrees with the Convention’s polices and thus are members of that Convention.  But the Convention cannot force the local church to abide by the Convention’s decisions.  If a local church disagrees, then it quits the Convention. 

    These next two are either subsets of the autonomous church or are categories.

    Independent church:  These local churches remain independent in all matters, including no direct connection with associations and conventions.  All decisions are made within the local church.  Often the local church will link with other independent churches for mission work, will get their church literature from the same sources, and educate their pastors at the same schools.  But no formal connection is made with any group. They reject the idea of being part of a denomination.

    Megachurch:  An autonomous church which uses a business model to run the church.  These churches may or may not be formally connected with other churches or denominations.  Since the business model is used, the pastor functions like a CEO and the “shareholders” (the church members) have little to no voice in how the “business” (church) is run:  the CEO/pastor ultimately makes all decisions, hires like-minded staff, and controls the functions of the church.

Questions/comments contact Mark at drnickens@triad.rr.com.

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