Order in the Offices: Essays Defining the Roles of Church Officers, 2nd edition, Mark R. Brown, general editor. Reformed Forum, 2024, xiii + 278 pages, $34.99.

The coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in human flesh is one of the monumental events in God’s great plan of redemption. We confess in the Westminster Confession of Faith (WCF) 7.6:

Under the gospel, when Christ the substance was exhibited, the ordinances in which this covenant is dispensed are the preaching of the Word, and the administration of the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper: which, though fewer in number, and administered with more simplicity, and less outward glory, yet, in them, it is held forth in more fullness, evidence, and spiritual efficacy, to all nations, both Jews and Gentiles; and is called the new testament.

These changes under the gospel have led to different views and disagreement in the church regarding the types and shadows of the Old Testament, the administration of the sacraments, the right form and proper exercise of church government, as well as the offices in the church.

The early church learned that the Old Testament special offices of prophet, priest, king, and Levite were replaced in the New Testament with the extraordinary and temporary special offices of apostle and prophet followed by the ordinary and perpetual special offices of minister, ruling elder, and deacon.

These ordinary and perpetual special offices in the church became confused in the first few centuries of the Christian church as the church government hierarchy developed in the Roman Catholic Church. The early church recognized a difference between the minister and ruling elder, but by the late second century, with the rise of the diocesan bishop, the supremacy of the bishop was established. By the middle of the third century, presbyter had come to mean the parish priest, who was under the diocesan bishop, and the deacon was a first step in attaining priestly office. For example, Athanasius was a deacon and assistant to Bishop Alexander of Alexandria during the First Council of Nicaea from May–August 325, and three years later he succeeded Alexander as Bishop of Alexandria.

John Calvin, John Knox, and other Reformers sought to reform the government of the church from the errors of Rome. The Reformers argued for parity of office between the parish priest and the diocesan bishop, rejecting the distinction between higher and lower clergy. They recovered the biblical office of ruling elder, or church governor, and argued for parity of rule between the minister and the ruling elder.

They were also zealous to maintain a high view of the biblical office of minister of Word and sacrament. It was particularly the preached Word that the Spirit of God used to reform the church. The Reformers taught that the Spirit of God makes the reading, “but especially the preaching of the Word, an effectual means of enlightening, convincing, and humbling sinners; of driving them out of themselves and drawing them unto Christ; of conforming them to his image and subduing them to his will” (WLC 155).

The view that the minister and ruling elder hold the same office is an innovation that arose in Scotland and America in the nineteenth century and continues in the church today, confounding the titles, qualifications, and duties of the minister and the ruling elder and blurring the distinctions between the offices.

With the encouragement of Charles Dennison, Mark Brown published the paperback Order in the Offices himself in 1993, a collection of historical and contemporary essays defending the view of special office in the church, a view recovered in the Reformation and followed in the reformed churches. Although no Christian publisher in 1993 was willing to publish the book, within a few years, several thousand copies of the book in three printings were completely sold out. Thirty years later, Reformed Forum has published a beautiful hardbound second edition of the book with a few additions, including a forward by Danny Olinger, a preface to the second edition by Mark Brown, and a new essay by Alan Strange.

All fifteen essays in this anthology seek to set forth historic Presbyterian polity, in which there is the sacred office of those whom the king and head of the church calls to give their lives to preaching his Word as heralds of the gospel, proclaiming the unsearchable riches of Jesus Christ. The minister is not an elder who teaches, but a preacher who also governs and usually pastors a congregation.

The Westminster Confession of Faith clearly speaks of this holy office of the minister:

Repentance unto life is an evangelical grace, the doctrine whereof is to be preached by every minister of the gospel, as well as that of faith in Jesus Christ. (WCF 15.1)

There be only two sacraments ordained by Christ our Lord in the gospel; that is to say, baptism, and the Supper of the Lord: neither of which may be dispensed by any, but by a minister of the Word lawfully ordained. (WCF 27.4)

We confess concerning the Lord’s Supper:

The Lord Jesus hath, in this ordinance, appointed his ministers to declare his word of institution to the people; to pray, and bless the elements of bread and wine, and thereby to set them apart from a common to a holy use; and to take and break the bread, to take the cup, and (they communicating also themselves) to give both to the communicants. (WCF 29.3)

In the Larger Catechism we confess:

Christ is exalted in his sitting at the right hand of God, . . . and doth gather and defend his church, and subdue their enemies; furnisheth his ministers and people with gifts and graces, and maketh intercession for them. (WLC 54)

Christ hath appointed the ministers of his Word, in the administration of this sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, to set apart the bread and wine from common use, by the word of institution, thanksgiving, and prayer; to take and break the bread, and to give both the bread and the wine to the communicants. (WLC 169)

The sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper agree, in that the author of both is God; the spiritual part of both is Christ and his benefits; both are seals of the same covenant, are to be dispensed by ministers of the gospel, and by none other; and to be continued in the church of Christ until his second coming. (WLC 176)

Historic Presbyterian polity also underlies Larger Catechism 155–160. A few examples are the following:

Q. 156. Is the Word of God to be read by all?
A. Although all are not to be permitted to read the Word publicly to the congregation, yet all sorts of people are bound to read it apart by themselves, and with their families: to which end, the Holy Scriptures are to be translated out of the original into vulgar languages.

Q. 158. By whom is the Word of God to be preached?
A. The Word of God is to be preached only by such as are sufficiently gifted, and also duly approved and called to that office.

Q. 159. How is the Word of God to be preached by those that are called thereunto?
A. They that are called to labor in the ministry of the Word, are to preach sound doctrine, diligently, in season and out of season; plainly, not in the enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit, and of power; faithfully, making known the whole counsel of God; wisely, applying themselves to the necessities and capacities of the hearers; zealously, with fervent love to God and the souls of his people; sincerely, aiming at his glory, and their conversion, edification, and salvation.

In historic Presbyterian polity there is also the special office of ruling elder, or church governor, which the essays in this anthology also discuss. The office of ruling elder is a valuable office in the church, next in order to the ministry of the Word and sacraments. Historic Presbyterian polity preserves this office of government in the church. When the office of ruling elder is confounded with the office of minister, it is always the ruling elder who loses his office. In this case every elder must be a sort of minister, apt to teach and even preach.

The Westminster divines set forth the special offices in historic Presbyterian polity so clearly in The Form of Presbyterial Church-Government, which agrees with the Church Order of Dort (1618):

Of the Officers of the Church

The officers which Christ hath appointed for the edification of his church, and the perfecting of the saints, are, some extraordinary, as apostles, evangelists, and prophets, which are ceased.

Others ordinary and perpetual, as pastors, teachers, and other church-governors, and deacons.

Pastors

The pastor is an ordinary and perpetual officer in the church, prophesying of the time of the gospel.

First, it belongs to his office,

To pray for and with his flock, as the mouth of the people unto God, Acts vi. 2, 3, 4, and xx. 36, where preaching and prayer are joined as several parts of the same office. The office of the elder (that is, the pastor) is to pray for the sick, even in private, to which a blessing is especially promised; much more therefore ought he to perform this in the publick execution of his office, as a part thereof.

To read the Scriptures publickly; for the proof of which,

1. That the priests and Levites in the Jewish church were trusted with the publick reading of the word is proved.

2. That the ministers of the gospel have as ample a charge and commission to dispense the word, as well as other ordinances, as the priests and Levites had under the law, proved, Isa. lxvi. 21, Matt. xxiii. 34, where our Saviour entitleth the officers of the New Testament, whom he will send forth, by the same names of the teachers of the Old.

Which propositions prove, that therefore (the duty being of a moral nature) it followeth by just consequence, that the publick reading of the scriptures belongeth to the pastor’s office.

To feed the flock, by preaching of the word, according to which he is to teach, convince, reprove, exhort, and comfort.

To catechise, which is a plain laying down the first principles of the oracles of God, or of the doctrine of Christ, and is a part of preaching.

To dispense other divine mysteries.

To administer the sacraments.

To bless the people from God, Numb. vi. 23, 24, 25, 26. Compared with Rev. i.4, 5, (where the same blessings, and persons from whom they come, are expressly mentioned), Isa. lxvi. 21, where, under the names of Priests and Levites to be continued under the gospel, are meant evangelical pastors, who therefore are by office to bless the people.

To take care of the poor.

And he hath also a ruling power over the flock as a pastor.

Teacher or Doctor

The scripture doth hold out the name and title of teacher, as well as of the pastor.

Who is also a minister of the word, as well as the pastor, and hath power of administration of the sacraments.

The Lord having given different gifts, and divers exercises according to these gifts, in the ministry of the word; though these different gifts may meet in, and accordingly be exercised by, one and the same minister; yet, where be several ministers in the same congregation, they may be designed to several employments, according to the different gifts in which each of them doth most excel. And he that doth more excel in exposition of scripture, in teaching sound doctrine, and in convincing gainsayers, than he doth in application, and is accordingly employed therein, may be called a teacher, or doctor, (the places alleged by the notation of the word do prove the proposition). Nevertheless, where is but one minister in a particular congregation, he is to perform, as far as he is able, the whole work of the ministry.

A teacher, or doctor, is of most excellent use in schools and universities; as of old in the schools of the prophets, and at Jerusalem, where Gamaliel and others taught as doctors.

Other Church-Governors

As there were in the Jewish church elders of the people joined with the priests and Levites in the government of the church; so Christ, who hath instituted government, and governors ecclesiastical in the church, hath furnished some in his church, beside the ministers of the word, with gifts for government, and with commission to execute the same when called thereunto, who are to join with the minister in the government of the church. Which officers reformed churches commonly call Elders.

The Form of Government of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church sets forth the special office of ruling elder in chapter 10.1:

Christ who has instituted government in his church has furnished some men, beside the ministers of the Word, with gifts for government, and with commission to execute the same when called thereto. Such officers, chosen by the people from among their number, are to join with the ministers in the government of the church, and are properly called ruling elders.

Order in the Offices begins with an essay on the New Testament warrant for the minister of the Word, followed by three essays on church governors or ruling elders. The general editor, Mark Brown, contributed an important essay on the forgotten Thomas Smyth (1808–1873), pastor at Second Presbyterian Church in Charleston, South Carolina, until his death at age sixty-five, which discusses his two key principles of polity. The first key principle is that the biblical presbyter is a minister of the Word, not a ruling elder or church governor. The second key principle is the necessity of distinguishing between the offices of minster and ruling elder for the sake of peace and order in the church.

After chapter 6, excerpts from Smyth’s Ecclesiastical Catechism of the Presbyterian Church (1843), “Ecclesiastical Catechism: Officers of the Church,” there is an essay on Calvin’s view of the distinction between minister and ruling elder, followed by eight more essays, a valuable annotated bibliography of books on church government and officers, and two indexes.

This anthology has two practical goals. The first is to help young men in our churches understand and consider the distinctive calling, training, and functions of the holy office of the gospel ministry. The second is to assist local church leaders and members in developing a clear understanding of the functions and distinctives of the biblical officers in our Presbyterian heritage.

Every man aspiring to the highest and greatest and most glorious calling to which anyone can ever be called, preaching God’s Word in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, should study this important subject. The essays in Order in the Offices provide sound biblical exegesis and a right understanding of historical theology and are an excellent place to begin.

Archibald A. Allison is a minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church serving as pastor of Emmaus Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Fort Collins, Colorado, and secretary of the Committee on Christian Education. Ordained Servant Online, December, 2025