Reading different theological perspectives. Historical readings express their authors' perspectives, including Arminian and Reformed or Calvinist traditions. Inclusion does not make an author's position settled CTS doctrine. Read with Scripture and the assigned material. A supported answer from another evangelical perspective should be assessed on its reasoning, not penalized simply for differing from the author. If an automated score rejects such an answer, ask CTS for review.

Master’s Assigned Readings (all five)

M.Div. and Th.M. students read all five assigned selections and take their separate exam after activation. The test page states the current rule; valid earlier completions remain valid.

Optional Honors (choose three)

Honors is optional on every track. Certificate and Associate students may read three honors selections without a required-reading exam. Honors does not replace either master’s exam.

The Master's textbook test: read The New Directory for Baptist Churches (selections) — Edward T. Hiscox, then take its test: twenty fill-in-the-blank questions, drawn from forty; eighteen right passes. Each answer is marked right or wrong at once. Correct answers and explanations are available after the attempt passes. It is separate from the reading test on the five digests below: passing one does not pass the other. On the M.Div. and Th.M. tracks both tests are being introduced; each test's page says whether it is in force yet. Until then any student may take them, and a pass is kept in your record.

The Master's reading test: separate from the honors invitation below. Honors asks you to read any three of these digests; the Master's test covers all five. It has twenty fill-in-the-blank questions, four from each reading, drawn from forty; eighteen right passes. Each answer is marked right or wrong at once; correct answers and explanations are available after the attempt passes. You may try again after a short wait. The test is being introduced: its page says whether it is in force yet. Until then any student may take it, and a pass is kept in your record.

Honors option: Complete any three of the five readings below. These readings supplement the course and do not replace its units or examinations.

On this site: Each of the five readings is a Chapala Theological Seminary digest, written by CTS, available in English, Spanish and French here on the site — every one opens directly from this page, with nothing to download. Each card names the work its digest is made from.

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Reading 1 · The Nature of the Church

Called Out and Gathered

A CTS digest of Edward T. Hiscox, The New Directory for Baptist Churches (1894), ch. II, “A Christian Church”

Hiscox defines a church as a local company of regenerate, baptized believers united in covenant under Christ alone. He studies the word ekklesia, weighs the creeds, redefines the four marks of the church, rejects any confederation of churches or rule by the state, and gives practical counsel on constituting, recognizing and disbanding churches.

CTS DIGESTRead the full digest — opens right here

The Chapala Theological Seminary digest — an original summary written by CTS, available in English, Spanish and French, readable offline. This is the CTS digest, not the full original source text.

Called Out and Gathered: What a Church Is

A Chapala Theological Seminary reading — Hiscox’s chapter on the nature of a Christian church: a local, covenanted company of believers under Christ alone

A CTS digest of Edward T. Hiscox, The New Directory for Baptist Churches (1894), chapter II, “A Christian Church.” The original is in the public domain; the short quotations below are from it.

New Directory, ch. II
Primary source
1894
Edward T. Hiscox

A word before you read. Hiscox wrote for Northern Baptist churches in the United States at the end of the nineteenth century. He writes with conviction and, at times, with sharp words about other communions that a Christian writer today would put more gently. CTS presents his chapter as one strong and historic statement of Baptist church order, not as the only Baptist view and not as a description of CTS’s own governance. Where other Christian traditions see things differently, this digest says so fairly.

1.A Pastor’s Handbook for More Than a Century

Edward Thurston Hiscox (1814–1901) was born in Rhode Island, the colony Roger Williams had founded on liberty of conscience, and he spent his long ministry as a pastor in New England and New York. He was not a professor writing for scholars. He was a working pastor who saw that young churches and young ministers needed a plain guide to church order. His first Baptist Church Directory appeared in 1859. A shorter Standard Manual for Baptist Churches followed in 1890, and in 1894 he published this much larger New Directory, more than six hundred pages long. CTS reads five of its chapters. Hiscox’s manuals have been widely used for well over a century. Churches have used them to write covenants, run business meetings, receive members and handle conflict. They have also circulated in Spanish under the title Manual para las iglesias bautistas, and many Baptist pastors in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean learned church order from them. To read Hiscox is to read a book that has quietly shaped thousands of congregations.

2.Ekklesia: The Called-Out Assembly

Hiscox opens with a definition he will defend through the whole book. A church is “a company of regenerate persons,” baptized on a profession of faith, “united in covenant” for worship, teaching, the ordinances and service, accepting Christ as “supreme Lord and Lawgiver” and His Word as the only rule of faith and practice. He then studies the Greek word ekklesia. It is made of ek, “out of,” and kaleo, “to call.” In a Greek city the ekklesia was not a crowd. It was the lawful assembly of citizens, called together to decide public affairs. Hiscox counts the word about one hundred and fifteen times in the New Testament, a hundred and ten of them for the Christian church. In more than ninety of these it means a visible, local congregation: the church at Corinth, the churches of Galatia, the church in a house. In a few places, such as Ephesians 5:25 and Hebrews 12:23, it means the whole company of the redeemed in heaven and on earth. So there is the visible, local church and the invisible, universal church. Hiscox insists that the local meaning is “first and ruling.” For him, the universal church is real in God’s sight, but it has no officers, no meetings and no earthly organization. That is why he refuses to speak of “the Church of England” or any national church as a church in the New Testament sense.

3.The Kingdom, the Church and the Creeds

Jesus spoke of the church only twice, in Matthew 16:18 and 18:17, but of the kingdom many times. Hiscox carefully distinguishes the two. The kingdom is the spiritual reign of Christ in human hearts. The church is its visible, organized expression, “not a perfect counterpart, but an imperfect representation.” A church may contain some who are not in the kingdom, and the kingdom contains many who belong to no church. Hiscox then lays out the definitions of the great traditions side by side. Roman Catholic theology, through Cardinal Bellarmine, defines the church by one faith, the same sacraments and the government of lawful pastors under the Pope. The Orthodox add the hierarchy. The Anglican Thirty-Nine Articles and the Lutheran Augsburg Confession speak of a congregation where the Word is purely preached and the sacraments rightly administered. Baptists, Hiscox notes, have attached “less importance to creed statements” than most other bodies. They respect their confessions but are not bound to them. He quotes the London Confession of 1644 (which he dates 1643), the Second London Confession of 1677 and 1689, adopted in America as the Philadelphia Confession in 1742, and the New Hampshire Confession of 1833. All of them describe a church as a company of visible saints, baptized on confession of faith and joined to the Lord and to each other by mutual agreement.

4.The Marks of a True Church

The ancient creeds name four marks of the church: one, holy, catholic and apostolic. Hiscox accepts all four, but he redefines each. Unity is real, because there is one body, one Spirit and one Lord, but it is not the joining of many congregations into one great organization. It is the spiritual “Communion of Saints” among all who are born of God. Holiness belongs to a church because its members are meant to be born again, “new creatures in Christ Jesus,” even though no member is perfect. Catholicity does not belong to any one body that claims the name. Every congregation of believers that honours Christ’s people in every nation is, in his sense, catholic. Apostolicity lies “not in succession, but in possession”: a church is apostolic when it holds the doctrine, spirit and life of the apostles, not because its ministers can trace an unbroken line of ordinations. Hiscox also speaks to his own people here. Some Baptists of his day claimed that an unbroken chain of Baptist-like churches could be traced from the apostles to the present. This view was strong in the Landmark movement and is still held by some Missionary Baptists and others. Hiscox thought it unprovable and unnecessary. What matters is that a church follows the New Testament now, whether the historical chain “may never have been broken, or broken a thousand times.” CTS notes that Baptist historians still discuss this question, and believers on both sides love the same Lord.

5.Under Christ, Not Under the State

A church, Hiscox says, is “not a confederation” of congregations under a bishop, patriarch or pope, or under a presbytery, synod or conference. The New Testament speaks of “the churches of Galatia” and “the churches of Asia,” in the plural. Each church receives its authority from Christ alone. Members give up a little personal freedom when they join, but the church’s real charter comes from the Lord who said, “On this rock I will build my church,” sent it out with the Great Commission, and promised to be with it always. Neither parliaments nor courts can grant or cancel that charter, and neither can bishops or conventions, because such bodies are made by churches and do not make them. Two limits follow. A church may exercise authority only over its own members, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 5:12. And its authority is “moral and spiritual” only. It cannot tell members what to eat, wear or do for a living, unless their conduct brings reproach on Christ. Christians should be good citizens and obey the law, but when human law contradicts God’s law, “God is to be obeyed rather than man.” Here Hiscox stands in the long Baptist line of religious liberty, from Thomas Helwys and Roger Williams to John Leland, who argued that the state has no right to rule the conscience.

6.How Churches Are Born, Recognized and Closed

Churches are related by comity, that is, by courtesy and brotherly love, not by government. No church may discipline another. No member may vote in another church. No pastor may minister in another pulpit without an invitation. Yet churches exchange letters, receive each other’s members, respect each other’s decisions and join in associations for missions. Hiscox then gives practical steps. When believers in a new place see the need for a church, they pray, take counsel, obtain letters from their churches and meet to adopt a covenant and articles of faith. A simple resolution, voted together, makes them “a Church of Jesus Christ.” Hiscox warns against long constitutions and bylaws, “never necessary, and often more trouble than help.” He also warns against starting weak churches where many already exist, and against new churches born of quarrels, which he says seldom prosper. A council of neighbouring churches may be called to recognize a new church. This is wise but optional: a church is no more a church with the council’s approval and no less a church without it. Finally, a church may sometimes need to disband. That step requires prayer and counsel, letters for every member, care for property and a final vote.

7.What a Baptist Pastor Takes from It Today

Hiscox gives today’s pastor a clear picture of the local church: a covenant family of believers, gathered by the gospel, accountable to Christ, and free under God to order its own life. That picture still travels well. In Mexico, in Cuba, in Brazil, in Nigeria and in Kenya, Baptist congregations often begin exactly as he describes: a group of believers in a new neighbourhood, a mother church that sends members with letters, a covenant read aloud and a vote. Many conventions in Latin America and Africa still give pastors a manual based on Hiscox or written in his pattern. They use it when they organize a church, prepare a covenant or ask neighbouring churches to recognize a new work. Pastors today should also hear his warnings. Planting a church out of a split rarely brings blessing. A heavy constitution can choke a small congregation. A church gets its authority from Christ, not from size or money. At the same time, CTS students should understand other traditions fairly. Presbyterians believe that local churches are joined by elders in presbyteries and synods, as a safeguard of doctrine and fairness. Anglicans, Catholics and Orthodox see the bishop as a sign and servant of the church’s unity across time and place. Methodists value their “connection,” in which churches share pastors and resources. Pentecostal bodies differ widely: some are fully congregational, some mix congregational and presbyterian features, and others follow a strong pastor or overseer. Hiscox’s sharp words about these bodies reflect his era. Today Baptists can hold their convictions firmly and still speak of fellow Christians with respect.

8.Taking It to Heart

For reflection. Hiscox says a church is a company “called out” and gathered under Christ. Does your congregation look more like a called-out assembly or like a crowd that happens to meet in the same building? If your church had to be constituted again tomorrow, what would you write in its covenant? Where do you see the danger of a church that depends on buildings, ritual or numbers rather than on the presence of the Spirit? And how can you hold Baptist convictions while honouring believers in other traditions?

Select

Reading 2 · Church Membership

Living Stones

A CTS digest of Edward T. Hiscox, The New Directory for Baptist Churches (1894), ch. III, “Church Membership”

A church is “a society under law to Christ,” so Christ, not the church or the pastor, sets the terms of membership. Hiscox names four conditions: a regenerate heart, a confession of faith, baptism and a Christian life. He explains how members are received by baptism, letter or experience, and how they leave.

CTS DIGESTRead the full digest — opens right here

The Chapala Theological Seminary digest — an original summary written by CTS, available in English, Spanish and French, readable offline. This is the CTS digest, not the full original source text.

Living Stones: A Regenerate Church Membership

A Chapala Theological Seminary reading — Hiscox on who may belong to a church, how members are received, and how they leave

A CTS digest of Edward T. Hiscox, The New Directory for Baptist Churches (1894), chapter III, “Church Membership.” The original is in the public domain; the short quotations below are from it.

New Directory, ch. III
Primary source
1894
Edward T. Hiscox

A word before you read. This chapter states the heart of Baptist church life: a church should be made up of people who have been born again and have confessed Christ in baptism. Hiscox writes as a careful pastor, and many of his practical notes are still wise. Some of his customs belong to churches of his time and place. CTS presents his view as a historic Baptist position and notes where other Christians, and other Baptists, practise membership differently.

1.Built Together as a Dwelling of God

Hiscox begins with a builder’s observation. The character of a building depends on its materials, and the character of a church depends on its members. Believers are “builded together for a habitation of God, through the Spirit” (Ephesians 2:22). People often call a church a voluntary society. Hiscox agrees, but only in part. No outside power can force anyone to join a church or force a church to receive anyone. Yet joining is not optional for a believer in the sense of being unimportant. Christ has ordained that His followers gather in such brotherhoods. So a church is “more than a voluntary society: it is a society under law to Christ.” That one sentence explains much of what follows. Because Christ sets the terms, membership is a serious matter, to be studied and kept with care.

2.Who Sets the Terms?

Hiscox makes five short points before he lists the conditions. First, Christ Himself has fixed the character of those who are to form His churches, and it does not change. Second, therefore no church may alter those terms, and the pastor has still less right to do so; the candidate has least of all. Third, the blessings of church fellowship come when the church follows Christ’s pattern. Fourth, decline in doctrine and life comes more often from admitting unconverted members than from almost any other fault. Fifth, a spiritual membership is the best protection for a faithful ministry. Where godliness rules in the body, it will demand a godly pastor; but “a carnal membership will endure, and even demand a carnal ministry.” Hiscox sums it up with the prophet’s phrase from Hosea 4:9, “Like people, like priest.” Pastors today often think the pulpit shapes the pews. Hiscox reminds us that the pews also shape the pulpit.

3.Four Conditions of Membership

Hiscox names four conditions: a regenerate heart, a confession of faith, the reception of baptism and a Christian life. A regenerate heart comes first. It is not enough to be respectable or moral. A member must give good evidence of being “a new creature in Christ Jesus.” Hiscox contrasts this with churches that admit people of good character who are willing to be taught, and that baptize infants, expecting regeneration to happen within the church. Baptists, he says, must insist on a regenerate membership “in practice” as well as in theory. A confession of faith follows. The church must have some evidence that a newcomer shares its faith, and the main evidence is the person’s own word: “with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:10). Baptism is the ceremonial condition. A person enters the kingdom by the new birth, but enters the visible church by confessing that new birth in baptism, buried and raised with Christ. In the New Testament the order was simple: they repented, believed, were baptized and were added to the church. A Christian life completes the picture. In apostolic times baptism followed faith almost immediately. Today some time usually passes, and in that time the church should see conduct that fits the confession. If a person still loves the old companions and old pleasures, the profession is hard to believe.

4.Telling What the Lord Has Done

The “old Baptist way,” Hiscox says, is for each candidate to come before the church and “relate their experience,” telling what the Lord has done for them. Pastors and deacons may talk with candidates first, but the candidate must still speak personally to the church, and the custom “should be heroically maintained.” Hiscox does not accept shyness as an excuse: if a heart has been changed, it can say something about it. Yet his notes are pastoral and wise. Not everyone can tell a dramatic story, and those with the most remarkable story are not always the most surely converted. New members may know little doctrine; the church is “a school of sacred learning” where they will be taught. In minor matters “large Christian liberty” should be allowed. What convinces hearers is less the words than the spirit in which they are spoken. And Hiscox rebukes pastors who hurry people into membership with a few easy questions and a quick vote. Such a church may look prosperous because baptisms are frequent, but its strength is weakened. One note stands out for its time. “Neither age, sex, race, past character, nor condition in life” should keep anyone out of the church if there is clear evidence of saving grace. Written in 1894, that sentence still challenges every church that is tempted to welcome some kinds of people more readily than others.

5.Three Ways In

Hiscox wants no grand ceremony for receiving members. Yet he thinks churches make too little of the act. In every case the essential step is the same: the church votes to receive the person. Not the pastor alone, nor a board, nor a committee, but the congregation decides, so that the whole body gives its welcome. Committees may examine candidates first, but their work is only preparation. There are three ways in. By baptism, a new believer tells the church of his or her faith and is received on being baptized. By letter, a member who moves brings a letter of commendation and dismission from the former church, which certifies good standing. By experience, a person who was baptized but has lost membership in some way gives an account of conversion and is received without rebaptism. A fourth case, restoration, brings back a former member who was excluded and has now repented. Hiscox advises that candidates be received by a unanimous vote, so that no one is taken in “to the grief” of any member, though factious objections should be set aside. He rejects any fixed waiting period as unscriptural, while advising patience in unclear cases. The pastor then gives the right hand of fellowship, often at the Lord’s Supper. In some churches, especially in the South, every member comes forward to shake the new member’s hand, a custom Hiscox finds “more expressive.” All members then have equal rights, “without distinction of sex, age or condition.”

6.Three Ways Out

Membership, for Hiscox, is meant to be lifelong. No human power can keep a person in a church against his will, yet joining is done “as unto the Lord,” not as a matter of convenience. Christians belong inside the fold. There are therefore only three ways out: by letter to another church of the same faith, by exclusion through the church’s discipline, and by death, which moves a member from the church on earth to the church above. His notes are full of practical sense. A letter is usually valid for about six months, and until it is used the person remains a member of the church that gave it. No member can simply resign; the church must act. Nor may a church push an unwanted member out by forcing a letter on him; that would be exclusion without a fair process. Members who move far away should transfer their membership instead of holding it in one church and worshipping in another. A church may keep a separate list of people it has lost track of, but “dropping” names must never be used as discipline or to get rid of a troublesome member. Hiscox closes with honest realism. No church is perfect, and members will sometimes find each other a burden. But those who belong to Christ “bear one another’s burdens” and do not break fellowship by unkind means.

7.What a Baptist Pastor Takes from It Today

Hiscox’s conviction that the church should be a fellowship of the born again remains the centre of Baptist identity. It shapes how pastors in Latin America and Africa receive members today. In many Mexican, Cuban and Central American churches, a candidate attends a baptismal class, gives a testimony before the congregation or the deacons, and is received by a vote in the business meeting, often called the sesión de negocios. The “letter of transfer” still matters, though migration means that many members move between countries and between cities quickly, and churches must decide how to welcome people whose former church is far away. In Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya, Baptist churches commonly require months of instruction before baptism, a practice close to Hiscox’s concern that conduct should confirm confession. Pastors can also learn from his cautions: do not rush numbers, do not let membership become a list of names, and welcome people of every class and race. Other Christians answer the membership question differently. Presbyterians, Anglicans, Lutherans and Methodists baptize the infants of believers and receive them into the covenant community, later calling them to confirm their faith. Many Pentecostal churches share the Baptist emphasis on personal conversion, often adding membership classes and sometimes a testimony of the Spirit’s work. Some Baptists today also differ from Hiscox. Some receive believers baptized by immersion in other churches without rebaptism, and some practise more open communion. These are serious questions on which faithful people disagree.

8.Taking It to Heart

For reflection. Hiscox says that “a carnal membership” will tolerate and even demand a carnal ministry. How does the spiritual life of your congregation shape what it expects of its pastor? If you were asked tomorrow to tell the church what the Lord has done for you, what would you say? How does your church receive new members, and does that process build real fellowship? And are there people your congregation welcomes less readily because of class, race or past life?

Select

Reading 3 · Church Officers

Shepherds and Servants

A CTS digest of Edward T. Hiscox, The New Directory for Baptist Churches (1894), ch. IV, “Church Officers”

Hiscox argues that the New Testament knows two offices only: pastors, also called bishops and elders, and deacons. He describes the pastor’s preaching and visiting, his call by congregational vote, his moral authority and fair support, and the deacon’s real ministry of service. CTS adds other traditions and the views on women in office.

CTS DIGESTRead the full digest — opens right here

The Chapala Theological Seminary digest — an original summary written by CTS, available in English, Spanish and French, readable offline. This is the CTS digest, not the full original source text.

Shepherds and Servants: Pastors and Deacons

A Chapala Theological Seminary reading — Hiscox on the two New Testament offices, how pastors are called and supported, and what deacons are for

A CTS digest of Edward T. Hiscox, The New Directory for Baptist Churches (1894), chapter IV, “Church Officers.” The original is in the public domain; the short quotations below are from it.

New Directory, ch. IV
Primary source
1894
Edward T. Hiscox

A word before you read. This is the longest of our five chapters and the most practical. Hiscox writes as a pastor who had seen good and bad ministries, healthy and unhealthy churches. He argues for two offices only, pastor and deacon, and he criticizes the episcopal system sharply. CTS sets out his case, notes how other traditions answer it, and presents the different Christian views on women in church office without taking a side.

1.Officers Serve the Church

Every organized society has officers, and so does a church. Yet Hiscox makes a point that surprises many readers: officers are “not essential to the existence” of a church. A state does not cease to exist when its president dies, and a church does not cease to be a church when its pastor leaves. It was a church before it had officers, and it chose them from its own members. If all of them resigned, the church would elect others. Officers are important for a church’s health and work, but the church comes first. Hiscox then asks what the officers of a church are, how they are chosen, what they do and where their authority comes from. He insists that the answer must come from the New Testament, not from later church tradition. And his answer is that there are two offices only: pastors and deacons.

2.Bishop, Elder and Pastor: One Office

The New Testament uses three words for the first office. Episkopos, usually translated “bishop,” means an overseer. Presbyteros, “elder,” came from the synagogue and was used especially among Jewish Christians. “Pastor” means a shepherd who leads, feeds, guides and guards the flock. Hiscox argues that these words describe one and the same office. In Acts 20:17 Paul calls for the elders of Ephesus, and in verse 28 he tells the same men that the Holy Spirit has made them overseers. In Titus 1:5–7 the men Titus must appoint are called elders and then bishops. Philippians 1:1 greets “the saints … with the bishops and deacons,” as if that were the whole church. Hiscox calls a long line of historians as witnesses, many of them from churches with bishops: Neander, Mosheim, Gieseler, Schaff and the Anglican Dean Alford. Neander put it neatly: the name “elder” showed the dignity of the office, while “bishop” showed its duties. So the later threefold order of bishops, priests and deacons, compared to the high priest, priests and Levites of Israel, has no basis in the apostles’ use of these words.

3.How a Higher Order Arose, and How Others See It

How then did bishops become a separate rank? Hiscox gives a historical explanation. While the apostles lived, they were honoured as unique. After them, pastors who had known them received special respect. The older churches in great cities gained influence over newer rural churches, and one presiding elder in each church gradually took the title of bishop. Over centuries, he says, this grew into a powerful hierarchy. The apostles, he insists, had no successors in their unique office. Here CTS asks students to hear the other side fairly. Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican Christians point to Ignatius of Antioch, early in the second century, who already describes one bishop leading each church with elders and deacons. They see the bishop as a God-given guardian of sound teaching and of unity across time, a view called apostolic succession. Presbyterians agree with Hiscox that bishop and elder are one office, but they distinguish teaching elders, or ministers, from ruling elders who govern with them. A growing number of Baptist churches today also have a plurality of elders, which many of them see as closer to Acts 20. Hiscox’s two-office pattern remains the most common among Baptists.

4.The Pastor’s Work

The pastor’s special work is “the shepherding of the flock.” He should care about members’ daily needs, but his aim is to win souls to Christ and build up believers. The pulpit is “the stronghold of his power.” If a pastor cannot hold the people by sound and well-prepared preaching, Hiscox says, he cannot hold them any other way; tricks to draw a crowd do not last. He warns equally against pastors who neglect study and trust their gift for speaking without preparation. Pastoral visiting matters too. The pastor must know his people in their homes, and they must know him outside the pulpit. Visits should be short and spiritual, neither gossip nor gloom. The pastor oversees all the church’s work, spiritual and practical, but must not “lord it over God’s heritage.” He should care for children and youth without neglecting others, and avoid favouring any social class. Hiscox adds a strong Protestant note. Ministers are not priests who offer sacrifice or stand between God and people. All believers form “a royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:9), and Christ is the one Mediator.

5.Calling, Authority, Tenure and Support

Calling. A Baptist church chooses its own pastor by the free vote of its members. No bishop, synod or council can appoint one. Hiscox advises a meeting announced on two Sundays, and a vote of at least three quarters; a wise candidate should not accept less. The church should know a man’s record, not just a few “flashy or fascinating sermons,” and should avoid hearing many candidates in turn. A man of deep piety is better than “the brilliant platform declaimer.” Authority. The pastor has no power to command or punish. His authority is moral: it rests on character, faithful teaching and persuasion. He should be loved and honoured, not treated as a superhuman figure or as a puppet. Tenure. The ideal pastorate is lifelong, but Hiscox knows it is rare. Some pastors stay after their usefulness has ended; others leave too quickly over small troubles. A pastor should flee “Church quarrels” as he would a plague. Support. A church should pay its pastor generously and on time. Gifts such as a bushel of potatoes must never be counted as salary. If a church cannot support him, he may work with his hands, as Paul did in tentmaking. Here other polities differ. In Methodist churches a bishop and conference appoint pastors to congregations, and in Presbyterian churches the presbytery must approve a call. Hiscox notes that even there, congregations rarely keep a pastor they do not want.

6.Deacons: Servants of the Church

The word diakonos means a servant or minister. Hiscox traces the office to the Seven chosen in Acts 6 to care for widows, so that the apostles could give themselves to prayer and the word. The Seven were chosen by “the multitude of the disciples” and set apart by prayer and the laying on of hands, and Paul later gave qualifications for deacons in 1 Timothy 3. So the office is permanent. Deacons care for the sick and needy and for practical affairs, and they serve as counsellors and helpers of the pastor. The number, usually two to seven, is up to the church, and many churches now elect deacons for terms of three years. Hiscox regrets that ordination of deacons has fallen into disuse in many places, so that the office is treated as “little more than a committee.” He also rejects the idea that deacons exist mainly to pass the bread and cup at the Lord’s Supper; anyone can do that. A good deacon is “a peculiar blessing” to pastor and church. Yet deacons are not a separate governing board, and they should not meet as one without the pastor. Other practical tasks belong to a clerk, who keeps the church’s history; a treasurer; and trustees, whom the law in many places requires to hold property.

7.Women in Church Office, and the Pastor Today

In 1 Timothy 3:11 Paul speaks of women in a passage about deacons. Hiscox thought these were probably not deacons’ wives but deaconesses, women appointed to serve the sick and other women. Since women were the more numerous and often the more effective in works of mercy, he saw no reason why such helpers should not be continued. On the wider question of women in church office, faithful Christians hold different views, and CTS presents them side by side. Complementarians believe that men and women are equal in worth but that Scripture reserves the office of pastor or elder to qualified men, while welcoming women in many other ministries, and some also as deacons. Egalitarians believe that the Spirit gives gifts without regard to sex and that all offices, including pastor, are open to qualified women, citing women like Phoebe, Priscilla and Junia. A third approach stresses team ministry, in which men and women serve together in leadership teams, while churches decide locally how to name and order those roles. Baptist conventions in Latin America, Africa and elsewhere follow different practices, and a Baptist church, being self-governing, decides this question for itself in the light of Scripture. As for the pastor today, Hiscox offers lasting counsel: preach well, visit faithfully, lead by persuasion, avoid quarrels, honour deacons as real ministers, and ask the church to pay its servants fairly. In much of Latin America and Africa, where many pastors are bivocational, his permission to work “as Paul” did, and his rebuke of churches that neglect their pastors, are both still needed.

8.Taking It to Heart

For reflection. Hiscox says a pastor’s authority is a “moral force” earned by character, not a power to command. Where do you see pastors in your setting leaning too far toward control or too far toward passivity? How could your church give deacons real service instead of a ceremonial role? How does your congregation care for its pastor’s support? And how will you teach the different views on women in office with fairness and charity?

Select

Reading 4 · Church Government

Under Law to Christ Alone

A CTS digest of Edward T. Hiscox, The New Directory for Baptist Churches (1894), ch. VI, “Church Government”

Hiscox compares prelatical, presbyterian and independent church government and defends the independence of each local church under Christ. He sets out six limits on that liberty, rejects the “interdependence” of churches, and finds proof in Matthew 18, Acts 15, the Epistles and church historians. CTS adds how other traditions read the same evidence.

CTS DIGESTRead the full digest — opens right here

The Chapala Theological Seminary digest — an original summary written by CTS, available in English, Spanish and French, readable offline. This is the CTS digest, not the full original source text.

Under Law to Christ Alone: Congregational Church Government

A Chapala Theological Seminary reading — Hiscox on the independence of the local church, its limits, and the New Testament evidence for it

A CTS digest of Edward T. Hiscox, The New Directory for Baptist Churches (1894), chapter VI, “Church Government.” The original is in the public domain; the short quotations below are from it.

New Directory, ch. VI
Primary source
1894
Edward T. Hiscox

A word before you read. This short chapter is the centre of the course. It explains why Baptist churches govern themselves as congregations under Christ, and why they cooperate with each other without being ruled by any higher body. Hiscox argues firmly for his view. CTS also sets out, fairly and briefly, how Episcopal, Presbyterian, Methodist and Pentecostal Christians read the same evidence.

1.Is There a New Testament Pattern?

Hiscox begins with an honest question. Does the New Testament reveal a form of church government? Some scholars say no: God left the matter to Christian wisdom, and different forms suit different places. Most Christians believe a pattern is at least outlined, and, as Hiscox gently notes, each tends to believe it is the form used by his own church. He begins with humility. No group of Christians “has attained to all the truth,” and all who sincerely seek to know and do God’s will are blessed by Him, as Peter learned in the house of Cornelius (Acts 10:34–35). Still, if the apostles, guided by the Spirit, organized churches in a certain way, we should follow them. The New Testament gives no formal plan, but its many incidental references, Hiscox believes, show clearly how the first churches were governed.

2.Three Forms of Church Government

Hiscox names three main forms. In the prelatical or episcopal form, power rests with bishops and the clergy, as in the Roman Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican churches. In the presbyterian form, power rests with a ladder of representative bodies: the session of the local church, then presbyteries, synods and general assemblies, as in the Church of Scotland and Presbyterian and Reformed churches. In the independent or congregational form, power rests with the members of each local church, as among Baptists and Congregationalists. Baptists, he says, hold that a church is a congregation of baptized believers, joined by covenant, “self-governing, and independent of all others,” yet in friendly fellowship with churches of like faith. A church cannot make laws; it only carries out the laws Christ has given. The members govern together with equal rights, and in matters of opinion “the majority bears rule.” The pastor leads by teaching and by wisely presiding at meetings. Hiscox puts it in a memorable phrase: “His influence is paramount, but not his authority.” In a vote he has one vote, like every member. The deacons have even less claim to control. Decisions belong to the body.

3.Independence and Its Limits

Each church, Hiscox says, is “under law to Christ alone,” and the New Testament is its only statute book. Yet he immediately adds that no human freedom is absolute, and he names six limits. First, a church is limited by the laws of Christ. It is “administrative only,” not legislative. It interprets Christ’s laws for itself, not for others, and no outside body may impose its interpretation. If a church acts foolishly, there is no human court to punish it, only the judgment of public opinion and the withdrawal of fellowship by others. That is better, he says, than destroying liberty. Second, in matters of property and legal rights a church is subject to the laws of the state, though never in doctrine or worship. Civil courts usually respect a church’s own rules, stepping in only when those rules have been ignored. Third, some argued that churches are “interdependent,” bound to a wider fellowship as members are bound to a church, or as states are bound to a federal union. Hiscox calls this “a fiction.” If it were true, the wider body could receive, discipline and exclude churches, and the result would be prelacy or a de facto Presbyterianism. Churches may help and advise each other, as Antioch sought advice from Jerusalem, but that does not change who governs. Fourth, critics say Baptists are too independent. Hiscox answers that the faults lie in people, not in the plan, and that centralized systems have troubles of their own. Fifth, a church’s liberty is limited by its members’ rights. It may separate from a member whose faith or conduct it judges contrary to Scripture, but it may not force belief or punish dissent except by separation. Sixth, a church is limited to its mission. It cannot become a business, a political party or a learned society, though it must stand for virtue and support works of mercy.

4.The Evidence of Scripture and History

Hiscox finds his first proof in Matthew 18:15–17. When Jesus speaks of settling offences, the final step is “tell it to the church.” There is no appeal beyond it. Christ named no presbytery, synod or council, only the local church. His second proof is Acts 15. When Antioch was troubled over whether Gentile believers must keep Jewish customs, it sent Paul and Barnabas to Jerusalem. They were received by “the church, and the apostles and elders,” and the reply was sent with the consent of “the whole church.” Even the apostles did not act alone. Hiscox reads this as one independent church giving advice to another. Third, the apostles wrote their letters to churches, not to a system of churches or to their officers, and they expected each church to choose officers and to receive, discipline and exclude members. Fourth, the risen Lord addressed each of the seven churches of Asia separately in Revelation 2–3, holding each responsible. Hiscox then quotes historians. Mosheim wrote that in the second century each church was “a kind of small independent republic.” Schaff said the apostolic church, far from being supported by the state, managed its internal affairs “with equal independence.” The Baptist leader Francis Wayland wrote that with each church “all ecclesiastical action commences, and with it all terminates.” Hiscox concludes that in their independence Baptists stand on New Testament ground.

5.How Other Traditions Read the Evidence

CTS students should know how others answer Hiscox. Presbyterians read Acts 15 not as one church advising another but as an early council whose decision bound the churches, since Acts 16:4 says Paul delivered its decrees to them. They value elders in presbyteries as a check on local error and a protection for members and ministers. Episcopal churches, Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican, see bishops as servants of unity and continuity, and they point to the early spread of the office in the second century. Methodists describe their churches as a “connection.” Pastors are appointed by a bishop and conference and move among congregations, which helps weak churches receive pastors and keeps the gospel moving. Pentecostal churches vary widely. Some, like many congregations of the Assemblies of God, combine congregational self-government with district and national bodies that credential ministers. Others are governed more centrally, and many independent churches follow a strong founding pastor or an apostolic network. Each form has strengths. Each, as Hiscox saw, can also be misused. Baptists believe congregational government follows the New Testament most closely, and they should hold that conviction humbly, honouring brothers and sisters who read Scripture differently.

6.Cooperation Without Control

Independence does not mean isolation. Hiscox speaks warmly of fellowship, help and advice between churches. Baptist churches form local associations and larger conventions to send missionaries, train ministers, publish literature and care for the needy. These bodies have no authority over a church; a church decides for itself whether to join, give or leave. An association may withdraw its fellowship from a church that departs from the faith, but it cannot govern that church. Councils of messengers from neighbouring churches may be called to advise on recognizing a church or ordaining a pastor, and their advice is respected but not binding. This pattern has spread around the world. The National Baptist Convention of Mexico, the Brazilian Baptist Convention, the Nigerian Baptist Convention and many others are fellowships of self-governing churches. They are joined in the Baptist World Alliance, founded in 1905. Hiscox’s principle explains why these bodies speak with moral authority rather than legal command.

7.What a Baptist Pastor Takes from It Today

For a pastor today, congregational government is both a gift and a discipline. In many Latin American churches the monthly or quarterly sesión de negocios, the business meeting, is where members vote on budgets, officers, new members and the call of a pastor. Hiscox’s principles keep such meetings healthy. The pastor’s influence should be strong, but his authority should not be absolute; he is one vote among many. In cultures that admire the strong leader, the caudillo, this is a real protection for the flock. Yet congregationalism has its own dangers: a powerful family, a faction or a careless majority can harm a church as much as any bishop. That is why Hiscox stresses the rights of members, fair procedure and the law of Christ above the vote. His remarks on civil law are also timely. In Mexico, for example, churches since 1992 may register with the government as asociaciones religiosas in order to hold property, and in many African countries churches must register as associations or trusts. Pastors must obey these laws in temporal matters while keeping the church’s spiritual life free. Hiscox would remind them that a legal board serves the congregation and never rules it.

8.Taking It to Heart

For reflection. Hiscox says the pastor’s “influence is paramount, but not his authority.” How would that principle change the way you lead a business meeting? Where have you seen congregational government work well, and where have you seen a faction or a strong leader misuse it? How does your church cooperate with others without giving up its freedom? And how can you explain Baptist polity to Presbyterian, Methodist or Pentecostal friends with both conviction and charity?

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Reading 5 · Church Discipline

Restore Such a One

A CTS digest of Edward T. Hiscox, The New Directory for Baptist Churches (1894), ch. VII, “Church Discipline”

Discipline, for Hiscox, is training as well as correction, and it must be done “in the spirit of meekness.” He sets out three laws of Christ’s house, the three steps of Matthew 18 for private offences, a patient process for public ones, and strong protections for the accused. CTS reads it pastorally, with care for the vulnerable.

CTS DIGESTRead the full digest — opens right here

The Chapala Theological Seminary digest — an original summary written by CTS, available in English, Spanish and French, readable offline. This is the CTS digest, not the full original source text.

Restore Such a One: Church Discipline in Love

A Chapala Theological Seminary reading — Hiscox on the purpose, spirit and procedure of church discipline, read with pastoral care

A CTS digest of Edward T. Hiscox, The New Directory for Baptist Churches (1894), chapter VII, “Church Discipline.” The original is in the public domain; the short quotations below are from it.

New Directory, ch. VII
Primary source
1894
Edward T. Hiscox

A word before you read. Church discipline is a painful subject. Many people have been hurt by churches that disciplined harshly, and many churches have been hurt by refusing to deal with sin at all. Hiscox wrote to correct the second error, but again and again he insists that discipline must be gentle, fair and aimed at restoration. CTS reads this chapter pastorally. Some of his examples belong to his own time, and this digest adds today’s concern for the protection of the vulnerable.

1.Law and Life

Every society that works well needs rules that its members keep, and the church is no exception. Its laws, however, are divine, “few and simple,” and not burdensome. Hiscox knows that laws alone are a dead letter without the life of the Spirit. But the Spirit works in harmony with the laws Christ gave. His summary is memorable: “Life to energize; law to guide.” To many ears the word discipline sounds harsh and punitive. Hiscox reminds us that it comes from the same root as disciple, a learner. In its large sense discipline means training. He distinguishes formative discipline, the teaching, worship and fellowship that shape believers, from corrective discipline, which deals with offences. He gives most space to the second, but not because the first matters less. He also makes a striking observation: in his day the common danger was not too much severity but “too great laxity.” Pastors find it easier to let things drift. Yet churches that patiently restore healthy discipline often find new harmony, and sometimes revival.

2.Three Laws of Christ’s House

Before any procedure, Hiscox names three “laws of Christ’s house.” If these were known and loved, he says, most discipline would never be needed. The first law is for every disciple: the law of love. “Love one another; as I have loved you” (John 13:34). Love would prevent suspicion, jealousy and bitterness. The second law is for the offender: the law of confession. If you remember at the altar that a brother has something against you, go first and be reconciled (Matthew 5:23–24). This applies whether or not you think the brother has good reason to be hurt. The third law is for the one offended: the law of forgiveness. If a brother sins against you and repents, forgive him, even seven times in a day (Luke 17:3–4), and “until seventy times seven” (Matthew 18:22). Hiscox then answers a common mistake. Personal forgiveness does not abolish church discipline, just as a father who forgives a child does not abandon family order. Nor does forgiveness mean that trust returns at once: “Confidence lost is slowly restored.” Yet a sincerely repentant brother must be treated with real goodwill, not suspicion.

3.The Purpose and Spirit of Discipline

Hiscox sets out six principles. The object of discipline is to prevent or remove evil and to protect the good, “for the edifying of the body of Christ.” It must never serve personal prejudice. Its aim is to reclaim the wandering and to keep the church pure. The spirit of discipline is decisive. It must not be arrogant or vindictive, but full of “fraternal solicitude, of gentleness and love.” If the offender senses a desire to condemn, the whole purpose fails. Hiscox says Galatians 6:1, “restore such a one in the spirit of meekness,” deserves to be “inscribed in gold” on every church wall. The right of discipline belongs to every church by the nature of its life together, as Matthew 18:17, 2 Thessalonians 3:6 and Titus 3:10 show. The duty of discipline follows: a church that neglects it is unfaithful to its members and to Christ, though it should never go looking for faults. The limit of discipline is the law of Christ and the covenant members accepted. Merely personal matters, not against Scripture, are not grounds for discipline. Finally, the result sought is to heal the offence or, if that fails, to remove the offender. As soon as the erring person turns back, the work in ordinary cases should end.

4.Private Offences: The Three Steps of Matthew 18

Hiscox divides offences into private and public. A private offence is an injury, real or supposed, done by one member to another. It concerns those two people alone, unless it cannot be settled and must go to the church. For such cases Christ gave a clear procedure in Matthew 18:15–17, and Hiscox calls it “a positive law” for His churches everywhere. First step: the offended person goes to the offender alone and tells him his fault. Notice that the injured one goes first. The offender ought to go too, but he may not know he has given offence, and the injured person, having done no wrong, is likely to go in a forgiving spirit. The goal is to “gain a brother,” not to humiliate him. No one else should be told. Second step: if that fails, the offended person takes “one or two more.” They serve as witnesses if the matter reaches the church, and as peacemakers who may help reconcile the two. Third step: if that also fails, the matter is told to the church. It now becomes a public matter, and both parties accept the church’s decision. Only if the offender refuses to hear the church is he excluded. Hiscox adds that anyone who takes a private grievance public before following these steps becomes an offender himself, and that officers should quietly help members reconcile before a case ever reaches the church.

5.Public Offences and Their Treatment

A public offence is not a wrong against one person. It is a breach of Christian morals or of the church’s covenant, a scandal to the name of Christ, and so the whole body is concerned. From the letters of the New Testament Hiscox lists examples: teaching false doctrine; refusing the church’s lawful authority; stirring up division; immoral conduct; a disorderly life; a covetous spirit that refuses to share the church’s burdens; an arrogant spirit that seeks to dominate the church, like Diotrephes in 3 John; and suing fellow members before unbelievers, which Paul rebukes in 1 Corinthians 6. He explains that the command “not to eat” with such persons refers to the Lord’s Supper, not to ordinary social life. The treatment is gradual. A member who knows of the offence should first go privately to win the brother. If that fails, he should consult the pastor and deacons. The church may then send a committee “in the spirit of meekness and love” before calling the person to answer before the body. If he disproves the charges, or confesses and makes amends, the case should end there. Only after “patient, deliberate and prayerful labor” has failed should the church withdraw fellowship. Hiscox also warns about two kinds of members: those with “so keen a scent for defects” that they always want someone disciplined, and those who oppose all discipline. Both need moderating.

6.A Fair Hearing and an Open Door

Hiscox’s notes on procedure are remarkably protective of the accused. A church should not even begin a case unless the charge is highly probable. The accused should receive copies of the charges and the names of accusers and witnesses, meet them face to face, bring witnesses of his own and answer for himself. Records should be accurate, and he may have a copy. “The very justice of Christ’s house should incline to mercy.” The pastor, as moderator, is not a prosecutor or a partisan but must keep order and fairness, and if he is personally involved he should leave the chair. Pastors and deacons are subject to the same discipline as everyone else, though accusations against an elder require two or three witnesses (1 Timothy 5:19). Most moving are his words about what follows. A church that finds it has acted unjustly should correct its error quickly, without waiting to be asked. Members still owe “a duty and a service of love” to those who have been excluded. They should pray for them and treat them kindly, hoping they will come home: “Follow them with blessing; they may be saved.” And the church should gladly restore any excluded member whose repentance is real.

7.What a Baptist Pastor Takes from It Today

Hiscox gives today’s pastor a balanced pattern: take sin seriously, but always aim at restoration, follow Christ’s steps, keep matters as private as possible, give a fair hearing and leave the door open. Many churches in Latin America and Africa still practise discipline, often by suspending a member from the Lord’s Supper for a time and then restoring him or her publicly with joy. Pastors there, as everywhere, must avoid two dangers that Hiscox named: harshness that drives people away, and laxity that leaves wounds untreated. Some churches in the past disciplined people for matters that were customs of the time rather than commands of Scripture, and Hiscox’s own rule, that only what is “manifestly contrary to the Scriptures” deserves discipline, corrects that. One modern concern must be added. Discipline must never be used to protect someone who abuses others or to silence those who report it. Paul’s rebuke of lawsuits among believers concerns ordinary disputes; it does not forbid reporting crimes such as the abuse of children or violence in the home to the civil authorities, who are “sent by him for the punishment of evil doers,” as Hiscox himself quotes from 1 Peter 2. The vulnerable must be protected first. Other traditions handle discipline differently. Presbyterian churches entrust it to the elders of the session, with a right of appeal to presbytery. Methodist churches follow procedures in their Book of Discipline. Catholic and Orthodox churches join discipline to confession and penance under a priest and bishop. Pentecostal churches often rely on the pastor and a board of elders. In the Baptist pattern the congregation decides, which places a heavy duty on every member to act with humility and love.

8.Taking It to Heart

For reflection. Hiscox wanted Galatians 6:1 “inscribed in gold” on every church wall. Is your church more at risk of harshness or of neglect? When someone has wronged you, do you go to that person first, or tell others? How can a congregation keep its door open to those who have been excluded? And what steps has your church taken to make sure that discipline never shields an abuser or silences the vulnerable?

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Further Study: Six Public-Domain Works

These six works are for further study, for the student who wants to go on reading. They are not part of the honors reading above: that stays as it is — the five CTS digests, any three read in full and recorded on your honor. All six are in the public domain; each link opens the work online, and most can also be found in the Internet Archive or Project Gutenberg. Most are in English: the Chrome browser can translate a page (right-click, “Translate to…”; on a phone, the browser menu).

The Chapters Not Assigned · Hiscox

1. The New Directory for Baptist Churches

Edward T. Hiscox · Philadelphia, 1894

Read the chapters the textbook leaves out: the ordinances, worship and councils, and the chapters on baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

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The Earlier Manual · Hiscox

2. The Baptist Church Directory

Edward T. Hiscox · 1860

Compare this earlier, shorter manual with the 1894 Directory to see what Hiscox revised, and keep the two editions apart when you quote.

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Historical Background · Armitage

3. A History of the Baptists

Thomas Armitage · New York, 1887

Read it for the historical background of the Baptist churches whose order Hiscox describes. Armitage’s judgments are his own nineteenth-century interpretation.

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A Generation Earlier · Haynes

4. The Baptist Denomination

D. C. Haynes · 1857

Read its account of historic Baptist doctrines and institutions, written a generation before Hiscox’s Directory.

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Confessional Contrast · 1644

5. The London Baptist Confession of Faith (1644)

Particular Baptist churches of London · 1644

Compare its articles on the church with Hiscox’s polity, and check which textual witness the online text follows.

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Historical Comparison · 1689

6. The Second London Baptist Confession of Faith (1689)

Particular Baptists · first printed 1677; adopted 1689

Read its chapter on the church beside Hiscox’s chapters on church government and discipline; check which edition the online text follows.

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Honor attestation: By selecting three readings above, you affirm that you have read those three digests in full. The digests are CTS-authored summaries that may include brief excerpts or adaptations of public-domain works.