Hi Philip, thanks for the question, its a good one!

In Presbyterianism, the power of the church resides not just in the special office of elder, but in the church as a whole. The church, the body of Christ, calls its own ministers and elects it own elders. But once those men are elected, the exercise of church power and authority is given to those in the special offices.

On the flip side, our book makes allowance for the people to request the Presbytery to dissolve the pastoral relation between itself and the pastor. In such a case, the Presbytery would hear from both the congregation and the pastor, and make a decision. This is a good way to go. I have seen pastors who were abusive to the sheep and needed to be removed. I have seen others who were attack by the sheep who wanted something other than the truth. In this way the Presbytery serves a third party arbitrator who seeks to get to the truth of the matter.

That is a long way of going about answering your question in the affirmative. There is an avenue for the congregation to make a no-confidence vote which the Presbytery must take seriously.

Does that make sense?

Thanks for the correction. This is helpful.

Even civil dictators know that they cannot govern without the consent, and perhaps even positive approval of the populace. So while a congregation cannot depose a minister, might we say that they have a de facto vote of no-confidence that a presbytery would be foolish to ignore? (I’m presbyterian, or at least try to be!)