The Role of Confessions, By-Laws and Covenants in the Church
- Leonard G. Castañeda
- Mar 29
- 4 min read
For God is not a God of confusion but of peace.(1 Corinthians 14:33)
God is a God of order and desires all things to be done decently and in order (1 Corinthians 15:40). As such documents that seek to express what a church believes and how a church does things are helpful tools that promote order in the local church,[1] objective standards that seek to avoid subjectivity and partiality, confusion and bias in decision-making,[2] and promote unity in the church.[3] We will briefly discuss three types of documents: creeds and confessions of faith, church constitutions and bylaws, and church covenants.
A Confession[4] of Faith answers the question of what a local church (or even a body of churches) believes in. For example, a clear Trinitarian statement affirms the there is one God, who is three distinct persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This shows the church stands together with other orthodox Christian churches that affirm the Trinity and by implication, its rejection of the various versions of anti-Trinitarian heresies.
The Church has a long and rich tradition of clarifying what she believes: One classic example is the “Apostle’s Creed,” probably the oldest statement of faith outside the Bible itself and dating back to the 2nd-4th centuries. Although it was not authored by the apostles themselves, it has served as a brief summary of apostolic teaching that continues to be valuable more than a thousand years after it was written. Other significant statements include ancient creeds that clarified points of belief and refuted heretical views, such as the Athanasian and Nicene Creed, which refuted Arianism, Modalism and other aberrant doctrines that have crept into many churches today.
The early church Reformers and their immediate descendants in the 1500s and 1600s have also articulated their beliefs through confessional statements such as the Augsburg Confession, the Belgic Confession, the first and second Helvetic Confessions, the Westminster Confession and the London Baptist Confession. In doing so, they defined their position on various points of belief such as the authority of Scripture, the nature of the church, and justification by faith alone. This tradition of writing continues to this day as associations, denominations and individual churches seek to express what they believe in.
Church Constitutions and Bylaws uphold the polity and integrity of a local church. What does our name mean? Why do we exist? How are we, as a church, organized and led? What are our core beliefs and distinctive doctrines? How do we implement church membership and what are the requirements to be a member? What is the purpose of church discipline and how is it done? All these are addressed in a constitution and bylaws.[5]
By defining, clarifying and explaining, the relevant processes, we seek to avoid confusion and misunderstanding, prevent both indifference and abuse, and foster a spirit of brotherly unity and love within the local church. For example, the article on church membership defines who should be (and who should not be) a member of the church, and explains how a person can become a member. It also describes what the privileges, duties and responsibilities are involved in being a member of the local church.
Another church document is the church covenant. Simply put, it is a statement of affirmations, encouragements, obligations and promises of the members of the church to one another. It is called a covenant because it mirrors the biblical concept of covenants, which are formal commitments made by the parties of the covenant to each other. In the same way, to sign and affirm the church covenant is to express one’s commitment to God and to the members of the local church. Think of them as promises, as vows, between believers, especially in a local church, to love each other, to walk together in the light of God’s word, by the power of the Holy Spirit and under the headship of Jesus Christ.
Now, indeed all these documents are fallible documents made by fallible men, and may be amended in the light of Scripture, which serves as the highest and only infallible authority of the church. This does not mean that they could be discarded arbitrarily by a church that adopts them, for to do so is to let the church be cast adrift in the sea of subjective error. If one protests, saying: “we will not listen to them because these are mere words of men,” then we might as well discard preaching and teaching the Word of God, and simply read the text and go home. But no church does that.
Properly studied and researched, well-written church documents are ultimately grounded on Scripture, and seek to point the church to gospel obedience and gospel norms, without falling to the overly simplistic and ultimately meaningless statements like “no creed but the Bible.” They represent hours, even years, of wrestling with Scripture, drawing out its implications and pointing the church to the Bible by saying, “This we believe is what the Bible teaches us to believe and say, and here we will stand.”
Being subordinate to Scripture, their contents must be tested (cf. Acts 17:11), and when proven, used as subordinate authorities inasmuch as they align with the Word of God. And elders, tasked with oversight and shepherding the flock that God has entrusted to them (Acts 20:28, 1 Peter 5:2-3) are to lead the local church by teaching these to them.
References for further reading:
Creating Healthy Membership Practices, John Deedrick
Church Planters, Don’t Wait to Put Your Documents in Place!, Joel Kurz
No Creed but the Bible?, John Piper
Why a Church Constitution is More Than a Necessary Evil, Greg Gilbert
Which Church Documents? And Why?, Aaron Menikoff
Your Constitution is a Theological Document, Greg Gilbert
[1] 1 Corinthians 14:33,40
[2] Luke 20:21, John 7:24, Romans 2:11, Galatians 2:6, Ephesians 6:9, Colossians 3:25, 1 Timothy 5:21, James 2:1,9
[3] Philippians 2:2, 1 Peter 3:8
[4] This uses the classic meaning of “confession,” which is to proclaim something. A variant title would be “confession of faith.” An even older term is “creed,” which comes from the Latin word credo, which means “I believe.”
[5] Admittedly, many organizations and churches have bylaws for the sake of complying with incorporation requirements but rarely use or refer to them. We want our bylaws to be organic and relevant documents.
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