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Who are the Elders?

This is the second installment of my post on church leadership.  Upon further study into scripture, I see that what we refer to as a Pastor is part of church leadership. Biblically a Pastor is an Elder who labors in word and doctrine (1 Tim 5:17).  He is an Elder among other Elders, but not the Elder over Elders. In other words, in the bible there are some distinctions between the Elders in their specific roles. In the 1 Timothy reference above, Paul says Elders who lead well (as opposed to those who don’t) be worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and doctrine, as in (Pastor -teacher Eph 4:11). There is an obvious distinction between some Elders and Elders who are the laboring teachers or preachers. The Elder who works for the gospel’s sake, fulltime,  should get paid (1 Cor 9:6-14). While other Elders, who are qualified leaders — gifted by the Spirit, able to teach, but not really fulltime “employees” of the gospel; rather, they have other jobs, yet still have a role in the church. Paul drives this point home in verse 14,

“Even so the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel.”

This would imply that every church should have (at least) one Elder who dedicates his whole time to word and doctrine, and not be bothered with the restraints an outside job puts on him. For the local assembly, the obvious benefits of having a dedicated, full-time pastor are tremendous. Some modern-day “bi-vocational” pastors effectively weaken their congregation when their attention is occupied by another job. The smallest of churches cannot afford to support a fulltime Pastor, so a side job is often necessary until the church is able to support him. However, based on scripture, the church should strive to reach this goal of supporting the pastor fulltime, and of course the pastor himself needs to be modest and make sure he is not over burdening the church unnecessarily with financial requirements.   

The equality of all Elders, regardless of role, is apparent in the Bible when we look at examples like the Jerusalem council where the decree was given by the apostles and elders(Acts 15). Peter was an Elder but never let on that he had any more authority than any other Elder (1 Pet 5:1). Of course he was an Apostle, which was a special distinction in the first century. Speaking of authority, Peter also made it clear in 1 Peter 5:3 that Elders were to lead by example and not lord (or boss) their position over those God has entrusted them to lead. This makes sense since all believers should strive to meet the qualifications for Elder. They are not special conditions that only apply to certain people; the qualifications are what all Christian men should be. Those that actually and visibly meet those qualifications, are elders and should be recognized. Therefore, by their example, we should be able to see spiritual maturity lived out.

We look to Elders for sound spiritual guidance in our Christian walk. We give those who lead well “double honor” and especially the elders who labor in word and doctrine (1 Tim 5). Also, the Elder who preaches from the Gospel should live by the Gospel (1 Cor 9:10-16). In other words a Preacher should be supported by the Church (if possible) and not any other job. Although this Elder is paid, he by no means has more “authority” than the other elders. Authority only comes from God, and Jesus specifically spoke against lordship, or ruling the church like some kind of boss (Matt 20:25-28). Of course, despite our modern church governments, there is no example in the bible of one man (elder, pastor, overseer) running the show as a solo act. We will get into that more in the next installment.

Next Installment coming soon…………………….