Independency and Congregationalism: what's the difference?

John Owen (1616-1683)

A friend asked me to define the difference between Independency and Congregationalism. I used to be a convinced Congregationalist, infant baptism and all. Even though I am now a Baptist, I still hold to Congregational/Independent principles of church government.

The terms are often used interchanchably. But there is a difference in meaning:

Independency defines the relationship between churches i.e. each local church is independent and self-governing under Christ. Local churches may and should work together and express the unity of the body of Christ, but no church is "over" another and no tier of inter-church government stands over the local church. Independents don't recognise the validity of Presbyterian connexions or the Roman Catholic/Orthodox/Anglican hierarchy.

Congregationalism defines the way in which the local church is governed - with the consent of the members, who are meant to be "visible saints". But in classic Congregationalist polity (see John Owen's The True Nature of a Gospel Church - Works vol. 16) this does not mean that the members rule the roost. The eldership has been appointed to rule and govern the church with the consent of the members ( 1 Tim 5:17 etc).

Biblicism: a definition

On Facebook Stephen Dancer of Doggie's Breakfast, asked for a definition of "biblicism", a much used but seldom defined word. Here's my stab at it:

An attitude to the Bible that downplays the witness of the Spirit, sidelines the theological inheritance of the church, denies that truth may be rightly deduced from Scripture, and tends to a wooden, literalistic interpretation of God's Word.

Fair enough, or what?