Government
The Reformed Presbyterian uses a Presbyterian form of Church government - members of each congregation elect elders (who must be male, as this is believed to be commanded in the Bible, and who must also be members of the congregation). These elders, along with the minister or pastor of the congregation make up the "Session" of a congregation. Ministers are known as "teaching elders", others are known as "ruling elders". The teaching elder is not in authority over the ruling elders; neither are the ruling elders in authority over the teaching elder.
Read more about this topic: Reformed Presbyterian Church (denominational Group)
Famous quotes containing the word government:
“The government of the world I live in was not framed, like that of Britain, in after- dinner conversations over the wine.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Good government is the outcome of private virtue.”
—John Jay Chapman (1862–1933)
“In using the strong hand, as now compelled to do, the government has a difficult duty to perform. At the very best, it will by turns do both too little and too much. It can properly have no motive of revenge, no purpose to punish merely for punishment’s sake. While we must, by all available means, prevent the overthrow of the government, we should avoid planting and cultivating too many thorns in the bosom of society.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)