Church Government System
Order is not bureaucracy. In the New Testament, structure appears the moment mission outgrows improvisation — and it appears to protect the mission, never to domesticate it.
4 modules · 40 classes
Format
20 hours of teaching
Depth
Enrollment opens soon
Status
What you’ll learn
Most governance training teaches procedure. This track teaches why the procedure exists — and what happens to a congregation when the why is forgotten.
How the biblical pattern of church order emerged in Acts and the Pastoral Epistles
How authority flows between the local church, conference, union and General Conference
How the nominating committee, elections and officer roles work — and how to do them well
How to read and apply the Church Manual and the Working Policy with judgement
Why the Seventh-day Adventist Church adopted a representative form of government
How to run boards, committees and business meetings that serve mission
How the 1901–1903 reorganization freed the church for mission
MODULE 01
Biblical Foundations of Church Order
Acts 6, Acts 15 and the Pastoral Epistles.
MODULE 02
The Representative Principle
Why Adventists are neither congregational nor episcopal.
MODULE 03
Structure in Practice
Boards, officers, membership and the Church Manual.
MODULE 04
Governance for Mission
The 1901 reorganization and structure as a missionary instrument.
Structure is never neutral. It either releases the mission or it quietly replaces it.
ALEX PALMEIRA
Church Government Steps
Order exists to protect the mission, never to domesticate it.
Origins: the Biblical Pattern
Where order appears in Acts and the Epistles.
Representative Principle
Authority resting in the membership.
Delegated Authority
Boards, committees and accountability.
Elections and Officers
The nominating committee, done well.
Renewal
Structure that serves the mission again.
ORDER
Inside the residency
The Church Government Residency covers the constitutional life of the local church and its place within the wider body.
01
Biblical ecclesiology and the origin of church order
02
Forms of government compared: congregational, episcopal, presbyterial, representative
03
The Adventist system: local church, conference, union, division, General Conference
04
The 1901 and 1903 General Conference reorganization
05
The Church Manual: authority, amendment and application
06
The General Conference Working Policy: purpose and use
07
Local church officers: elders, deacons, deaconesses, clerk and treasurer
08
The church board: composition, agenda and effectiveness
09
Business meetings and the discipline of due process
10
The nominating committee: theology and practice
11
Membership: transfer, discipline and restoration
12
Governance pathologies: maintenance, centralization and mission drift
Prochains événements
The Pioneer Cohort runs from November to December 2026 — eight weeks, online and live, Mondays at 7:00 PM. It is free, and it takes twenty leaders.
Prochains événements
Prochains événements
Priority by order of registration. Eight live sessions of 2h30, a guided curriculum and a project applied to your own context.
SIX TRACKS
Church Gospel Centered
Apostolic Leadership Structure
Church Government System
Vocational Holiness
Church Revitalization
Church
Planting
