This issue is important as to how God's church governs
itself. What does the New Testament tell
us about how decisions are made within the local church? Part One of this short series discussed the
NT data commonly used to teach congregational polity. This article will take up the other side of
the coin focusing on the NT data used to show a plurality of elders in the
local church.
By way of reminder, we need to remind ourselves what verses
are appropriate to consider in this conversation. But how do we determine what is
appropriate? Two key ideas govern this
process. First, some verses are what is
called "descriptive." These types
of verses "describe" what was actually happening in first century
churches and surrounding culture.
Second, there are verses called "prescriptive." These verses actually tell us or give to us
commands concerning how the church or believers are to function today.
So what verses are interpreted as teaching a plurality of
elders within each local church? The
primary source of evidence (at least from a descriptive view) comes from the
book of Acts. The primary verses come
from chapters 14, 15, and 20. Consider
the following:
Acts 14:23 "and when they had ordained them elders in
every church"
Acts 15:4 "they were received of the church, and of the
apostles and elders"
Acts 20:17 "and called the elders of the church"
The primary important concept in these verses is that that
term for "elders" occurs in the plural and the term for
"church" appears in the singular.
At face value, this is interpreted to mean there are multiple elders
each local church. Evidence for this also appears after the book of Acts within
epistles written to both local churches and to individuals. These are as follows:
1 Timothy 5:17 "Let the elders that rule well be
counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and
doctrine."
Tit 1:5 "that thou shouldest set in order the things
that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed
thee"
Jam 5:14 "the elders of the church"
1 Pet 5:1 "the elders among you"
Each of these verses is interpreted in similar fashion as
teaching that there are multiple elders in each local church. Question: then why do some churches only have
one pastor? Is it because the church is
too small? Is it because no one else is
qualified within the local church? Or is
it possible that these and other verses can be interpreted as teaching each
local church only needs one elder in each local church?
I invite you to search this out. I will address this issue in a third and
final article in this series. Just some
thoughts to consider before the third article:
1. What is ordination?
Associated to this should we ordain every elder in the local church?
2. What is a senior, associate, or youth pastor? Why these adjectives and what NT precedence
if any?
3. What verses teach we should pay elders, and how to decide
which ones to pay or not?
4. What is a lay elder, teaching elder, or ruling elder?
5. What are bishops, overseers, pastors, or elders? How to identify titles and roles?
These are some rough thoughts with (has been pointed out already) may include some grammatical issues. Sorry for those.
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