Acts 14:23 And when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed.
I notice that most church traditions I am familiar with bring in elders from outside the congregation. A committee hires a pastor, for example, often a career clergyman, an expert from the outside, who may have gone to school for it. There are churches that hire pastors, the pastor works for a while, then goes elsewhere.
But I see something different in the New Testament. First, I think we need to clarify the difference between a Biblical 'elder' and 'elder' in a lot church traditions. The Greek word for 'elder' is 'presbuteros.' In English, it because 'prester', and later 'priest.' English also used that word for Old Testament kohen, a different group entirely. German got a lot of it's religious language from Old English during the Anglo-Saxon mission, so 'priest' and the German equivalent were a messy terms by the time of the Reformation.
But the reformers considered their ordained men to be presbuteros, elders of the church. The city of Geneva, a city where the Reformed movement was entwined with the government, created a city official called 'elder.' The Presbyterians turned this into a church office in the national church system in Scotland. The Reformed movement called their church elders 'pastors' and these lay officials 'elders.' At first, they applied the Biblical verses about 'elders' to their 'pastors', but later got confused.
So when we are talking about 'elders', we are talking about church leaders, roughly equivalent to what people mean by 'pastor.' Elders of the church are told to pastor the church/flock of God in Acts 20:28 and the opening verses of I Peter 5. Acts 20:28 calls them bishops (overseers) and I Peter 5 tells them to oversee the flock.
We see in scripture that there were 'elders'--plural in every church. Paul saluted the 'bishops'-- plural in the one church in Philippi.
Isn't it good if elders are appointed from within the local church? Shouldn't existing elders have in mine that it is a part of their responsibility to facilitate this, along the lines of II Timothy 2:2?
I notice that most church traditions I am familiar with bring in elders from outside the congregation. A committee hires a pastor, for example, often a career clergyman, an expert from the outside, who may have gone to school for it. There are churches that hire pastors, the pastor works for a while, then goes elsewhere.
But I see something different in the New Testament. First, I think we need to clarify the difference between a Biblical 'elder' and 'elder' in a lot church traditions. The Greek word for 'elder' is 'presbuteros.' In English, it because 'prester', and later 'priest.' English also used that word for Old Testament kohen, a different group entirely. German got a lot of it's religious language from Old English during the Anglo-Saxon mission, so 'priest' and the German equivalent were a messy terms by the time of the Reformation.
But the reformers considered their ordained men to be presbuteros, elders of the church. The city of Geneva, a city where the Reformed movement was entwined with the government, created a city official called 'elder.' The Presbyterians turned this into a church office in the national church system in Scotland. The Reformed movement called their church elders 'pastors' and these lay officials 'elders.' At first, they applied the Biblical verses about 'elders' to their 'pastors', but later got confused.
So when we are talking about 'elders', we are talking about church leaders, roughly equivalent to what people mean by 'pastor.' Elders of the church are told to pastor the church/flock of God in Acts 20:28 and the opening verses of I Peter 5. Acts 20:28 calls them bishops (overseers) and I Peter 5 tells them to oversee the flock.
We see in scripture that there were 'elders'--plural in every church. Paul saluted the 'bishops'-- plural in the one church in Philippi.
Isn't it good if elders are appointed from within the local church? Shouldn't existing elders have in mine that it is a part of their responsibility to facilitate this, along the lines of II Timothy 2:2?
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