Perspectives on Church Government: Five Views of Church Polity Book

The various church polity structures are presented (The Singular Elder led Church, Presbyterianism, Congregationalism, The Bishop Led Church, Plural Elder led Church) by men in their respected camps. After each presentation there are rebuttals from each contributer. I found that it was refreshing to hear each argument clearly presented from biblical, historical, practical, and experiential angles. The rebuttals were not costic, but honest and charitable. At the end of the book I came away with a greater understanding that there probably is one clear way of polity that God knows, but He decided NOT to be too clear about it Scripturally to us. Therefore, church polity is more of a dynamic that each church must decide based on biblical convictions. Some things are clear (i.e., Elders, Deacons, Priesthood of all believers, etc.), but the exact details of how this fleshes out in polity is NOT clear. Therefore, instead of being bound by non-essentials that divide, churches should stand on what is clear biblically then be free in their interpretation of implementation. Also, church history arguments were presented in each camp to support their views but caused the most division between their viewpoints; however, there was the most agreement when each used Scripture to describe their viewpoint (commonality) until they went further to apply how to implement what they found in the Scriptures.