Tyranny of the Majority

I have not written a serious, churchy post in awhile. I think it is because even though I am an assistant pastor, discussing church things have been hard for me.

Why? Well, let me just say from a few hard experiences in my time in ministry thus far. And, while most of those hard times come from my own sin, there is something else at work and indeed at work in the church in America that has spit it's poison into much of evangelical Christianity.

I am talking about the tyranny of the majority.

My church is currently training the guys who will be elders. In the PCA, we have elders that rule the church and they are divided up into two classes, Teaching Elders and Ruling Elders. The Ruling elders are lay folks elected to eldership by the congregation while the Teaching Elders are formally trained in seminary, etc.

Anyway, we were talking about what sort of church we would be in if we were not presbyterian. It was interesting to see that most, if not all of the guys in the training said they would be baptists or some other form of congregational style of church government. I think I shocked them all when I said I would go the other way, to the Episcopal side.

I guess my reasons are plenty. You could chalk it up to my catholic upbrining, my desire for the ancient and holy in worship or as my wife might say, I like the dramatic. But, really, it comes down for me to what I call the tyranny of the majority.

Protestants, especially in America, are chronically allergic to the idea that a bishop and a priest should be in charge. They talk about how one man can be corrupted by power, etc. I think that is most certainly true and a valid argument to a degree. The argument then runs that people can be trusted to elect their leaders and pastors themselves. Which then assume an opposite error, that the majority is not sinful.

I am not sure what to think of this reasoning. I am sure I have overstated the case, but really that is the heart of it. But sin cuts at everything. The Majority do make mistakes, sinful tragic ones. The Majority can make tragic assumptions that lead to broken lives, broken people, broken churches and broken pastors. Or, really, someone leads that majority into those things, which brings out the irony: One man brings about the corruption of many.

So, what to do with that? For me, right now, the answer is what we do in the PCA, there is a give and take, between the congregation and its leaders. Give and take between the local church and the presbytery. The system is by no means perfect and has many flaws, but it works for now. I think the important to remember is that the Gospel has to be the center or nothing, not presbyterian, not congregationlist, nor Episcopal system of government will work.