Presbyterian Churches

by Joe Small

Presbyterian churches are a major branch of the Reformed family of churches that emerged from the sixteenth century Swiss reformation. While sharing historical and theological affinity with all Reformed churches, Presbyterians are distinguished by a particular understanding of the nature of the church and its governance. The designation of churches as ‘presbyterian’ indicates their governance by presbyters—both ministers (teaching elders) and ruling elders—chosen by the congregation. Presbyterian ministers and elders serve together in a system of representative assemblies at the congregational, regional, and national levels.

Presbyterian place within the larger Reformed family is suggested by the composition of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, an association that includes churches calling themselves reformed, presbyterian, congregational, evangelical, protestant, free, and united. While the polity of Reformed churches spans a range from episcopal through presbyterial to congregational, a majority embodies some form of presbyterial governance. Those with English-speaking origins are called ‘presbyterian’ while those with continental European origins are identified as ‘reformed’ or simply ‘protestant.’ Different nomenclature and diversity of governance are embraced within a broadly shared historical and theological heritage, however. Thus, the theology of Presbyterian churches is Reformed while their ecclesiology and polity represent a particular, ‘presbyterian’ strand within the Reformed tradition.

Terminological complexity reflects ecclesial reality, for the Reformed tradition is the most diffuse of the ecclesial streams emerging from the sixteenth century reformation. A 1999 survey, The Reformed Family Worldwide, lists over 700 Reformed churches, including ninety-six Presbyterian denominations in the Republic of Korea and twenty-two in the United States! Reformed fragmentation is so extensive that a large number of churches with Reformed antecedents, such as many Baptist churches and churches of the Stone-Campbell movement, are no longer self-consciously or identifiably Reformed.

Reformed churches were diverse from the beginning: Zurich and Zwingli on the one hand, Geneva and Calvin on the other. From these related yet distinct origins, the Reformed tradition has found ecclesial expression in presbyterial and congregational forms of governance, liturgical and free church worship, a high view of Baptism and Eucharist and sacramental minimalism, doctrinal precision and individualistic convictions. Most churches with Reformed ancestry embody some form of the tensions that have been present from the outset, but tendencies are detectable. Churches with Dutch and Scottish roots are likely to be Calvinist and connectional while churches with English roots are more often Zwinglian and congregational. Contemporary Presbyterian churches emerge from the Scottish appropriation of the Swiss reformation and the theological articulation of the Westminster Confession of Faith (1647).

Presbyterian Beginnings

During his exile in the 1550s, John Knox of Scotland spent several years with Calvin in Geneva, ministering to the city’s English-speaking refugee community. Knox’s exposure to Calvin’s theology, liturgy, and church order had a profound and lasting effect. ‘In other places, I confess Christ to be truly preached;’ Knox exclaimed, ‘but manners and religion to be so sincerely reformed, I have not yet seen in any other place.’ The linking of ‘manners and religion’—life and faith, discipline and piety, ethics and theology—has been a hallmark of Reformed church life, and their embodiment in Geneva shaped Knox’s ecclesiology and the distinctive Scottish form of presbyterian polity.

Calvin is important to Presbyterian churches, not simply as the founder of a theological tradition, but because his approach to the church and its ministry has influenced Reformed church life for centuries and is clearly evident in current Presbyterian polity. Together with other sixteenth century reformers, Calvin understood the church as creatura verbi – creature of the Word. The Theses of Berne (1529) typify Reformed ecclesiology: ‘The holy Christian Church, whose only head is Christ, is born of the Word of God, and abides in the same, and listens not to the voice of a stranger.’ In continuity with this foundational conviction, Presbyterian churches understand themselves as communities called into being by the incarnate Word and shaped by witness to that Word in the word of Scripture. Thus the church’s faith, worship, and order must obediently proclaim and reflect the Word. Cultural forms and institutional structures are not signs of the church; even at their best they are only evidence of the power of the Word to transform corporate and personal life. The ordering of church life, its ministry and governance, must be tied to the church’s origin, mission, and goal.

The influence of Knox’s contact with Calvin and his observation of the Geneva church’s order are evident in the Book of Discipline and the Scots Confession (1560), and the Book of Common Order (1564), all largely of Knox’s composition. Yet it fell to another Scot who spent time in Geneva, Alexander Melville, to shape the Scottish Kirk’s distinctive presbyterian polity. The Second Book of Discipline (1581) firmly rejected episcopacy in favor of a thoroughly Presbyterian system of representative church assemblies at local (kirk sessions), regional (presbyteries), and national (the general assembly) levels. This pattern, adapted to the needs of particular churches in other places and times, has characterized Presbyterian churches ever since. Presbyterianism is not limited to the bare structure of its polity, however, for Presbyterian church order cannot be understood apart from its grounding in Reformed perspectives on theology, the nature of the church, and the ordering of ministry.

Presbyterian Theology

From the cities of Switzerland, Reformed approaches to faith and life spread to France, Italy, Hungary, Poland, the Netherlands, Scotland, Ireland, and America. These expressions of Reformed ecclesial life were never uniform, however, for it is an essential conviction of Reformed churches that the people of God are called to confess their faith anew in each time and place. The formulation of confessional statements is understood as part of the mandate of proclamation entrusted to the church.

Freedom and necessity to express the faith locally has always led Reformed churches to be confession-making churches, giving present testimony to their faith and action. In the sixteenth century alone, more than sixty confessions were produced by Reformed churches. The World Alliance of Reformed Churches has published a representative sample of more than twenty-five Reformed confessions from the twentieth century. Each church is responsible for its own confession, and no church is bound by the confessions of other places and times unless it so chooses. The Preface to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Confession of 1967 puts the matter succinctly: ‘The church confesses its faith when it bears a present witness to God’s grace in Jesus Christ. In every age the church has expressed its witness in words and deeds as the need of the time required. . . . No one type of confession is exclusively valid, no one statement is irreformable.’

This confession-making characteristic of Reformed churches distinguishes them from churches that look to a particular creedal era, churches that hold to one formative confession of faith, churches that reside in a continuous development of doctrine, and non-creedal churches. Reformed confessions are public declarations of who and what a church is, what it believes, and what it resolves to do. The occasion for ecclesial confession may result from an internal danger that threatens the church’s integrity, an external threat to the gospel, or an insight into the gospel that is needed by the church and the world. The Presbyterian Church in Cuba provides a contemporary instance of the Reformed confessional impulse in its 1977 Confession of Faith: ‘The Presbyterian-Reformed Church of Cuba confesses its faith as it offers this testimony to the significance that the gospel of Jesus Christ has today for the Church in Cuba . . . as it lives this historic moment of humanity and especially as it proclaims the meaning faith has for us in the midst of the Cuban revolutionary process.’

Reformed confessions are always subordinate and accountable to Scripture, however. The Westminster Confession of Faith (1647), the most widely embraced confession among Presbyterian churches, acknowledges that ‘All synods and councils . . . may err, and many have erred; therefore they are not to be made the rule of faith or practice, but to be used as a help in both.’ Creeds, confessions, and catechisms are vital, but Scripture is the only infallible rule of faith and obedience. A Reformed principle, ecclesia reformata semper reformanda secundum verbum Dei [the church reformed, always being reformed according to the word of God], expresses both the confidence and modesty of Reformed confessions and theological thought. The church is being reformed continuously, not by its own insights or efforts, but by the action of God’s Spirit leading the church into truth through the witness of Scripture.

This radical Scripture principle is forcefully articulated in the Calvin-influenced French Confession (1559): ‘It follows that no authority may be set above Holy Scripture: not antiquity, or tradition, or majority opinion, or human wisdom; not judgments, or pronouncements, or edicts, or decrees, or councils; not visions or signs. On the contrary, everything must be examined, measured, and reformed according to Scripture.’ The preeminence of Scripture is accompanied by distinctive Reformed perspectives on Christian faith and life. These perspectives are not unique to Reformed churches, but are understood as particular angles of vision on the faith of the Church catholic and the affirmations of the Protestant Reformation.

Grace: Within the Reformed tradition, grace is at the center of all that is known and experienced of God. The distance between God and humankind is bridged by God alone, setting people free from anxiety about the adequacy of their lives and the depth of their belief. Neither faith nor works can save; neither is a precondition of God’s love in Christ. Instead, both faith and works are expressions of gratitude for the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. The priority of grace is articulated as God’s free election of a community for salvation and service. Although the good news of election is sometimes formulated as a double predestination to eternal salvation or damnation, this has more often been rejected as unnecessary speculation on the implications of God’s gracious initiative in Jesus Christ. Reformed Christians, secure in the unmerited grace of election, are liberated for thankful response to God’s unconditional love in lives of obedient service. Presbyterians generally understand the priority of grace in terms of covenant, God’s gracious promise of saving care for his people. The covenant of grace is sealed in baptism, nourished in the Lord’s Supper, and lived out in vocation.

Sovereignty of God: The creator of heaven and earth is powerfully present in the world, sustaining and governing all things in the accomplishment of his holy purpose. At its best, Reformed theology has paired the sovereignty of God with God’s gracious love, and the holiness of God with God’s providential care. The Confession of 1967 captures this admirably, when it declares that ‘The power of God’s love in Christ to transform the world discloses that the Redeemer is the Lord and Creator who made all things to serve the purpose of his love.’ Reformed theology never sentimentalizes God’s love, however, for it knows that the Lord is God, not human, the Holy One in our midst (Hos 11:9). Thus the Scots Confession begins by acknowledging ‘one God alone, to whom alone we must cleave, whom alone we must serve, whom only we must worship, and in whom alone we put our trust.’ Reformed emphasis on the sovereignty of God leads to an acute awareness of the dangers of idolatry. More than merely shunning the worship of idols, idolatry is placing trust in any human construction—ecclesial, political, cultural, or personal—rather than in the God to whom we belong, body and soul, in life and in death. Awareness of idolatry’s lures leads to characteristic Presbyterian practices, ranging from simplicity of worship to faithful stewardship to resisting the comprehensive claims of political and cultural systems.

Communion of the Holy Spirit: Reformed Christians have emphasized that faith is not individualistic, but rather originates and is lived out in a community called, formed, equipped, and maintained by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit calls the church to be one, holy, catholic, and apostolic—a distinctive community of obedience and service. The church is to be a sign in and for the world of the new reality that God has inaugurated in Jesus Christ. The church’s response to its calling is always ambiguous, yet the Holy Spirit continues to lead the community into the truth of the gospel. Utter realism about the church and confidence in the Spirit’s presence lead toward church structures that engage the whole people of God. Ordinary people are chosen by the community to serve as ministers, elders, and deacons with the confidence that through them God distributes spiritual gifts to the church. In Calvin’s words, ‘[God] shows himself as present by manifesting the power of his Spirit in this his institution, that it be not vain or idle.’ Presbyterian concern that everything be done ‘decently and in order’ reflects a resolve to shape ecclesial life in ways that keep the church open to the Spirit’s leading and open for faithful witness in the world.

Presbyterian Church Order

Presbyterian churches are committed to a particular pattern of ecclesial governance because they understand that church order and an ordered ministry are indispensable in ensuring the church’s fidelity to the Word. It is well known that Calvin commended four offices of ministry: pastors, teachers, elders, and deacons. It is misleading to think of them as a differentiated quadrilateral, however, because Calvin understood them as plural expressions of the church’s one undivided ministry.

This understanding of the church’s ordered ministries signal two key features that endure in current Presbyterian polity. First, clericalism is resisted. Most continental Protestants rejected the Catholic Church’s pattern of holy orders, replacing it with a pastoral office centered on proclamation. Calvin, on the other hand, constructed a pattern of ministry that breaks down the distinction between clergy and laity by instituting two ‘lay’ ecclesial ministries—deacon and elder. In many Presbyterian churches, elders and deacons, like ministers, are ordained to their office. Second, the church’s various ministries are corporate, not only within each order of ministry, but among the orders. No person can exercise an ordered ministry independently, and no order of ministry can function apart from its essential relationship to other orders.

The communal character of Presbyterian orders of ministry is evident in their exercise within corporate assemblies. Ministers and elders serve together in sessions, presbyteries, and general assemblies. In assemblies beyond the congregation, ministers and elders are usually represented in equal numbers. In congregations, shared presbyterial responsibilities include providing for the proclamation of the word, administering the sacraments, instructing the faithful in sound doctrine, and structuring discipline that ensures free space for word and sacrament to take root in the life of the church and its members.

Worldwide Presbyterianism

Presbyterianism expanded beyond its Scottish roots in two ways: migration and mission. Presbyterian churches in the United States and Canada have their origin in emigration from Scotland and Northern Ireland. Scottish immigrants also established Presbyterian churches in Australia and New Zealand. The largest Presbyterian expansion came from the missionary movement of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The Church of Scotland and several American Presbyterian churches were particularly active, establishing churches in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Particularly vigorous Presbyterian churches were founded in Korea, China, Kenya, Southern Africa, Brazil, and Mexico. While statistics for distinctly Presbyterian churches are unavailable, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches reports in its membership alone more than 75 million Reformed Christians in over 100 countries.

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, once-dominant Presbyterian churches in Scotland and North America are experiencing numerical decline as they adjust to their ‘cultural disestablishment.’ Debilitating splits over doctrinal and moral issues continue to plague Presbyterians of the West, especially in the United States. Many Presbyterian churches in Africa, Asia, and Latin America are growing, although they are challenged by the dramatic rise of Pentecostalism. Presbyterian churches worldwide continue to embody a vision of the church that is characterized by commitment to Scripture, the responsibility to articulate contemporary confession of faith, active engagement with the social order, ministries that are shared by clergy and laity, and structures of governance that are representative of the whole church.

Further Reading

James H. Smylie, A Brief History of the Presbyterians. Louisville: Geneva Press, 1996.

John T. McNeill, The History and Character of Calvinism. London: Oxford University Press, 1954.

John H. Leith, Introduction to the Reformed Tradition. Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1977.

Jean-Jacques Bauswein & Lukas Vischer, eds. The Reformed Family Worldwide. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1999.