Order in the Offices: Essays Defining the Roles of Church Officers (Second Edition)

The second edition of Order in the Offices, edited by Mark R. Brown, is an essential guide for navigating the complexities of church governance in an era of confusion and conflict. This compelling anthology calls Christians to embrace the biblical model of church leadership, providing a convincing case for the historic three-office view of ministers, elders, and deacons.

Grounded in Christ’s teachings on church government and enhanced by one revised and one new chapter, Order in the Offices offers a rich blend of theological depth and practical wisdom. The diverse essays work together to illuminate the vital importance of maintaining clear distinctions between offices, demonstrating how this framework preserves the church’s integrity and effectiveness.

This book serves as an indispensable resource for church leaders, theology students, and laypeople across denominational lines who desire to deepen their understanding of biblical church structure. By returning to these foundational principles, readers will find their understanding of church governance reinvigorated and their engagement in their church’s life and mission bolstered.

278 pages.

The republishing of Mark Brown’s Order in the Offices is another opportunity to receive the ecclesiology that was largely lost over the last generations to an egalitarianism run amok. This well-researched anthology makes a compelling case that the three-office view is but the classic Reformed view. Far from diminishing any of the other offices—it buttresses those—it re-elevates the office of minister that has suffered from a well-intended egalitarian erosion for years. Every officer in the church should read each of these fine chapters for a revival of Presbyterianism. Would that every single Session would read this work together.
—David W. Hall, Senior Pastor, Midway Presbyterian Church, Powder Springs, GA

In a time when pervasive egalitarianism can erode biblical notions of office in the church, and especially the specific task of the minister of the Word, this second, and slightly expanded, edition of Order in the Offices is most welcome! This is an excellent collection of stimulating essays that examine the biblical foundation of the classic Reformed and Presbyterian understanding of the offices in the church. The careful reader will be richly rewarded with a new appreciation of God’s gift of the minister of the Word and the elders in the church and their distinctive duties. May many read this book. Highly recommended!
—Cornelis Van Dam, Professor Emeritus of Old Testament, Canadian Reformed Theological Seminary, Hamilton, ON

I am gratified that Reformed Forum has republished this volume of essays on the distinction between the three ordinary offices of the church: ministers, elders, and deacons. The neglect of this subject in recent literature betrays a lamentable disinterest in what the Belgic Confession terms “that spiritual polity which our Lord has taught us in His Word; namely, that there must be ministers or pastors to preach the Word of God and to administer the sacraments; also elders and deacons . . . that by these means the true religion may be preserved, and the true doctrine everywhere propagated.” As the Belgic Confession confirms, the argument of the authors for a three-office view represents the historic consensus of Reformed theology on the question.
—Cornelis P. Venema, President Emeritus of Mid-America Reformed Seminary, Dyer, IN