Commissioner (Church Delegate)

Definition and Meaning

A commissioner (Korean chongdae, 總代) is literally "one who stands in for the whole." In the church, the term refers to a representative elected or sent by a lower governing court (a council that governs the church) to attend a higher governing court. Commissioners have the right to speak and vote at the higher assembly. They transact the business before the assembly, elect officers, and report its decisions back to the body they represent.

Biblical and Historical Background

Presbyterianism cites the Jerusalem Council of Acts 15 as the biblical basis for representative assemblies. At this council, the church at Antioch sent Paul and Barnabas to Jerusalem to discuss the question of circumcision (Acts 15:2). Presbyterianism takes as a principle of church polity the practice of representatives from multiple churches meeting together to make decisions. By contrast, the congregational tradition, which emphasizes the autonomy of the local church, holds that the decisions of higher assemblies are not binding on the local congregation.

Korean Presbyterians organized the Independent Presbytery in 1907, and in 1912 the first General Assembly was constituted from representatives sent by the presbyteries. This structure, in which presbyteries send commissioners to the General Assembly, has since been maintained across the Presbyterian denominations.

Practice in the Korean Church

In Presbyterian churches, the session sends commissioners to the presbytery from among its active elders. Ministers generally attend the presbytery by virtue of their membership in it. Commissioners to the General Assembly are typically elected by the presbytery in equal numbers of ministers and elders. The number of commissioners allotted to each presbytery is based on its size, such as the number of baptized members. At the stated General Assembly held each fall, commissioners take up matters such as constitutional amendments and resolutions concerning heresy, and elect the moderator and other officers.

In the Methodist Korean Methodist Church, members of the Annual Conference and the General Conference are commonly called "representatives" or "members." Both clergy and lay representatives participate.

In Holiness churches such as the Korea Evangelical Holiness Church, the General Assembly is composed of "delegates" elected by the district conferences.

In the Baptist Korea Baptist Convention, the General Assembly is composed of delegates sent by local churches. In the Baptist tradition, these delegates are sometimes called "messengers" (saja, 使者).

Several concerns about the commissioner system have been raised repeatedly:

• Overheated campaigning aimed at commissioners ahead of elections for moderator
• The low proportion of women among commissioners

To curb overheated campaigning, some denominations, including the Presbyterian Church in Korea (Hapdong), have introduced election methods that incorporate the drawing of lots.