How Far Does an Elder’s Authority Go?

Editor’s note: This article is part of an upcoming issue of Church Matters on pastoring the conscience.

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How far does an elder’s authority go in the local church? This question assumes at least two things:

1. That elders, in fact, have authority to direct church members.
2. That their authority has limits.

The Bible teaches both truths. Paul refers to elders as those who rule (1 Tim. 5:17). He commands Titus, whose job was to replace himself with elders, to “exhort and rebuke with all authority” (Titus 2:15). Hebrews 13:17 directs hearers to “obey your leaders and submit to them.” Or consider that the interchangeable New Testament titles for the office—elder, shepherd, overseer, leader—all connote authority.

Yet Scripture never portrays elders wielding absolute authority. Jesus alone reigns as head of the body, monarch of the kingdom, and chief shepherd of the flock. Yes, believers must obey their leaders and submit to them, but leaders must give an account (Heb. 13:17).

That much seems clear. Less clear is to what extent an elder can “exhort and rebuke with all authority.” What can an elder legitimately tell a church member to do, and at what point does he exceed his jurisdiction? Must a church member submit to an elder’s instruction on, say, drinking alcohol, fertility treatment methods, attending a home Bible study, or trick-or-treating? Where’s the line?

The simple answer is that the line is the Bible. An elder has authority insofar as he says what Scripture says, because what Scripture says, God says. But that raises a further question. What do we mean by “what Scripture says”? Does that mean an elder’s authority involves nothing more than quoting Bible verses? Can he appeal to good and necessary consequences from Scripture or moral principles derived from the Bible?

Perhaps rather than a line, we need to think of the limits of an elder’s authority more as a sliding scale of certitude. By “certitude,” I don’t mean confidence in the Bible’s inspiration or authority. Rather, I mean the certitude of our interpretation of Scripture. The Bible is infallible, true, and clear. We, however, still read it through imperfect lenses on this side of heaven.

An elder therefore must calibrate his language and tone based on his level of certitude. At the high-certitude end of our scale are issues where an elder can say without hesitation, “You must do or not do this or that.” At the low-certitude end are issues where an elder speaks more tentatively. He might say, “Let me share my perspective, and I’d also like to hear what you think.” Consider the following categories of authority triage, moving from high-certitude to low.

Category 1: Clear Biblical Teaching

Let’s start with the most certain exercise of elder authority: If the Bible clearly commands something, then an elder can command it. If a church member is having an affair, an elder can confidently rebuke him and exhort him to stop because God says in his Word, “You shall not commit adultery” (Exod. 20:14). An elder can direct a church member to attend church regularly (Heb. 10:25), not file a civil suit against a fellow believer (1 Cor. 6:1–11), and forgive a repentant brother from the heart (Matt. 18:21–35). When God’s Word speaks plainly to a member’s situation, an elder should speak boldly.

That may seem obvious, but elders today need encouragement to speak boldly. Western culture holds authority in suspicion, especially here in the US. Our current societal mood can tempt church members to view every exercise of authority by an elder, no matter how gentle, as “spiritual abuse.” Every inconsistency in leadership is evidence of a sinister conspiracy. Elders, in turn, may shy away from saying what God’s Word says for fear of being accused of bullying.

But elders should never water down God’s Word on matters of sin and righteousness. An elder may need to warn the stubborn adulterer that, unless he repents, his infidelity will ruin his family, contradict his assurance of salvation, lead to church discipline, and ultimately sink him to hell. An elder has the authority to say all that.

Category 2: Church Documents

Church documents refer to things like a church’s doctrinal statement, statement of faith, membership covenant, bylaws, and perhaps formal position statements on particular issues. I put these documents at the higher end of the certitude scale because, at their best, they aim to summarize biblical teaching. Doctrinal statements distill what the Bible teaches about core theological truths. A membership covenant encapsulates what the Bible says about how believers should live together in a congregation. Bylaws flesh out the Bible’s instructions for church order. Ideally, you should read a church document and say, “Yeah, I can see where they get that from Scripture.”

Furthermore, church members presumably joined the congregation having agreed with those documents. They understood that this particular church interprets and applies the Bible in these particular ways, and they voluntarily submitted themselves to those documents by joining as members.

As the shepherds of the church, elders can authoritatively exhort and direct members from the church’s core documents. An elder could gently but firmly say, “Despite being ‘baptized’ as an infant, you should be baptized as a disciple because that’s what the Bible teaches, which is also in our church’s statement of faith.” Or he could say, “You should be giving regularly to missions because our church covenant includes that commitment.”

I pastor a church in Florida. Last year, Florida had a ballot initiative that would have enshrined abortion rights into our state constitution. Not only does the Bible trumpet the sanctity of image bearers in the womb, but our church has a formal document committing us to a pro-life stance. Therefore, I confidently urged church members in writing and from the pulpit to vote against the ballot measure. In God’s mercy, the measure failed!

Category 3: The Elder’s Conscience

With this category, we move from the bright white certitude of biblical command, past the off-white confidence of church documents, to the gray area of an elder’s own conscience and moral reasoning. One might argue that at this point we have crossed the line of an elder’s authority and entered the realm of mere opinion.

But not so fast. Think for a minute about a Christian’s conscience. Even before conversion, our conscience can rightly condemn us because it still retains some correspondence to God’s moral law, however imperfect. After conversion, God’s Spirit begins recalibrating our conscience to align with God’s Word. Ideally, an elder has spent significant time meditating on the Bible so that his internal moral compass has come to align more and more with God’s will. Just because an elder speaks from his conscience doesn’t mean his views are merely another hot take. He’s making a moral judgment increasingly informed by Scripture.

This category encourages an elder to share his conscience with church members, albeit less assertively. Instead of saying, “You must do this because the Bible says so,” he might use more nuance like, “Having wrestled with God’s Word, here’s where I’m at in my own thinking, and I encourage you to consider this perspective in light of the Bible’s teaching.” This allows an elder to share strong convictions while humbly acknowledging his fallibility. It’s less an authoritative command and more like authoritative persuasion, less like Paul rebuking Peter and more like Paul persuading Philemon. The elder is not so much binding another’s conscience as discipling another’s conscience.

Here are some topics that might fall into this category: IVF in light of the sanctity of life, watching R-rated movies and M-rated TV given the command not to lust, voting for a particular candidate in an election due to the morality of their platform, remarrying after a divorce (assuming it’s not covered under category 2), or allowing your homosexual child to stay in your house overnight with a same-sex partner. Category 3 issues typically revolve around the application of clear biblical teaching to specific situations.

Elders, don’t be afraid to talk about these matters with church members and share your moral reasoning. Help them see how you move from text to application. In so doing, you’re discipling your people to think biblically about complex issues, even if they reach different conclusions.

The safest way to tackle complex issues of the conscience is in conversation. Be judicious about how you share your views on these matters from the pulpit. Even with careful nuancing in a public setting, people can misunderstand you, and without some sort of follow-up interaction, you won’t even know they’re confused.

Category 4: Wise Counsel

I place wise counsel at the far, dark gray end of the certitude spectrum. By wise counsel, we’re not so much talking about what a Christian should do but how to do it. Wisdom helps us flesh out God’s Word at the street level, in the nitty gritty of life.

Imagine an elder shepherding a brother fighting pornography. The elder might wisely counsel him to dump his smart phone for a dumb phone to limit internet access. Having a smart phone isn’t a moral issue (category 3). Rather, it’s a matter of prudence. Similarly, he might advise someone to think twice about taking a new job that pays a little more but will relocate his family away from the church where they are thriving. He could gently give tactical tips for discipline to a parent who’s struggling with an unruly child.

Does an elder have the authority to dispense such advice? Yes. The title “elder” implies a seasoned saint who has wisdom to impart (1 Tim. 3:6). But the elder must be careful not to serve up his counsel with the “thou shalt” ladle. Nor has a church member sinned by ignoring the elder’s game plan. This is often where authoritarian churches and cults cross the line. They confidently tell people whom to marry, which car to buy, and what time to wake up each day, and then they label any deviation from those commands as sinful rebellion. That’s true spiritual abuse.

Category 5: Adiaphora

This final category includes, well, everything else. Adiaphora means “indifferent matters” like preferences, opinions, and sensibilities born of personal experience, cultural background, and generational tendencies. Examples might include opinions about Halloween, food restrictions, gun ownership, homeschooling, recycling, tax policy, Harry Potter, music styles, tattoos, electric vehicles, pet adoption, holy days, cloth diapers, and vaccinations. And these are just topics from American culture. Add in cross-cultural complexity, and the list balloons.

When it comes to adiaphora, an elder should exercise his authority not by espousing a particular view, but by urging believers to accept one another, not judge one another, and not cause one another to stumble (see Romans 14–15). Elders should help believers develop a broad category of Christian freedom.

Let’s take the categories and apply them to the issue of alcohol. Here’s what an elder might say under each category.

1. Clear Biblical Teaching: “Don’t ever get drunk. And don’t offer a drink to someone given to drunkenness.”
2. Church Documents: “Our church covenant does/doesn’t address the use of alcohol.”
3. The Elder’s Conscience: “I choose not to drink in public because I never know who’s watching. I don’t want to inadvertently hurt my witness to a non-Christian or confuse and discourage a church member who has a different conscience about alcohol. I encourage you to consider this practice.”
4. Wise Counsel: “If you do imbibe, you’re wise to stop at one drink.”
5. Adipahora: “Whether you choose to drink responsibly or refrain completely is between you and the Lord.”

Conclusion

There may be additional useful categories. And you may think certain issues listed above should be bumped up or down the scale. But regardless of how you slice the pie of certitude, my argument is that elders need to fine-tune the exercise of their authority by adjusting the dials of confidence and humility depending on the issue. Let us pray with Solomon, “Give me now wisdom and knowledge to go out and come in before this people, for who can govern this people of yours which is so great?” (2 Chr. 1:10).