Theodore Beza once pointed out the strategic nature of good church government by considering it as Satan’s chief opposition: Satan “hopes that it is easier to overthrow it [i.e., the government of the church] than to overthrow the foundation which is doctrine.” Why, if Beza is correct, is church government vulnerable, and what makes it so necessary? Moreover, how has the history of church government pointed out that necessity? That is the focus of this introductory essay. Beza is surely correct in his contention that laxity in applying biblical principles of church government leads eventually to erosion of doctrine in the church. Therefore, we ought ever to be assiduously conforming church polity to biblical norms.

David W. Hall & Joseph H. Hall, Paradigms in Polity: Classic Readings in Reformed and Presbyterian Church Government, 3.