9Marks Journal: Confessions, Covenants, & Constitutions (42期：教會的信仰告白、教會之約和章程：如何構建你的教會)
How to Organize Your Church
“Scripture is the only document our church needs!” Have you ever thought that? Okay, fine. But I have a few questions for you. First, who exactly would you say Jesus is, and can I get baptized in your church if I, like, totally disagree with you on his divinity? Also, is it okay for me to call myself a member of your church and—you know—never, ever attend? And—last question—who in your church, generally speaking, decides who the pastors are? I mean, does the church just kinda know? The Spirit tells them? Or, maybe, you personally speak for the Spirit! Yes, Scripture should be a church’s sole authority. But the confessions, covenants, and constitutions of a church articulate what the members agree the Scripture teaches on what they should believe, how they should live, and how they should be governed. Church documents are a prosaic topic, to be sure. But they facilitate unity. They protect a church from being governed by the passions of the moment. And they force a congregation and its leaders to be careful, deliberate, reflective, and, hopefully, biblical. Not bad, for a boring old administrator’s job. To put it another way, church documents are kind. It is kind to tell people what you think up front. It is kind say what you will expect from them or how disagreements will be resolved. Imagine a husband and wife, a year into marriage, realizing they have dramatically different views about commitment and faithfulness because they never bothered with vows. “Ah, that’s just paperwork!” Or, imagine your boss asking you to do one thing when you thought your job was something else because you never had a job description. This is what church documents are for—letting everyone know what their job is, and what covenant faithfulness looks like. Believe it or not, we at 9Marks get questions about church documents perhaps as much as any other topic. And my guess is that a lot of our pastor-readers are not surprised. They know how crucial good documents are. For reasons like these, we offer this edition of the 9Marks Journal to help you think through different aspects of confessions, covenants, and constitutions, as well as a couple of other documents. If you have follow up questions, try the 9Marks Mailbag, or just ask an older, wiser pastor! We pray this is useful.
「聖經是我們教會需要的唯一文件！」你曾這樣想過嗎？
好吧。但是我有一些問題問你。首先，你認爲耶穌是誰？如果我完全不認同耶穌的神性，我可以在你的教會受洗嗎？
或者，我稱自己是你教會的成員，但是你知道，我從來不參加主日，這樣可以嗎？
最後一個問題：一般來說，在你的教會由誰來決定牧師人選？我是說，教會是否還滿確定的？聖靈告訴他們的嗎？或者，也許是你個人替聖靈代言而已！
是的，聖經應該是教會唯一的權威。但是信仰告白、教會之約和章程表明教會成員所認信的應當持守的聖經教訓、他們應該如何生活以及如何治理教會。
教會文件肯定是很乏味的話題。但是它們促進合一。它們保護教會免於感情用事的治理。它們也促使會眾和領袖謹慎、深思熟慮、自省、常存盼望以及合乎聖經。對於一份枯燥老舊的行政人員工作而言，這並不算糟。
另一方面說，教會文件是有益處的。它可以告訴人們你最看重的東西。它也幫助他人瞭解你對他們的期待，或者分歧如何得到解決。
想像一對夫妻剛進入婚姻一年，意識到他們在有關委身與忠心的認識上有顯著的不同，因爲他們之前從來沒有爲誓約而費過神。「啊，哪只不過是一紙文件而已！」或者，想像一下你的上司要你做一件事，而你卻以爲你的工作是做別的，原因竟然是你從來沒有職責說明。
這也是教會文件存在的原因：讓每個人瞭解他們的職責所在，以及忠於盟約的含義。
信不信由你，九標誌事工收到的有關教會文件的問題可能和其它話題一樣多。我猜我們中間許多的牧師讀者對此並不會感到驚訝。他們知道好的教會文件有多麼重要。
基於這個原因，我們奉上本期期刊，幫助你思考信仰告白、教會之約和章程以及其它一些文件的不同方面。如果你有進一步的疑問，可以搜索九標誌中文網站的九標誌問答，或者你可以諮詢一位更年長有智慧的牧者！我們禱告這些資源對你有用。
