I am not aware of any baptist churches with at least one elder except for those who are in between pastors. Elders in teh NT are pastors. There is no separate office of elders. The only question is whether a church has one elder or multiple elders.
Why No Elders In Baptist Churches?
Discussion in 'Baptist Theology & Bible Study' started by kiriath_jearim, Mar 21, 2006.
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Ed -
All the members of the church are ministers. The staff use their vocational calling and gifts to work with various ministry teams. -
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Bob Farnaby Active MemberSite Supporter
The church I'm a member of has a plurality of elders, is reasonably consevative but not really calvanistic (some individuals are, but not the church as a whole). We have one who has the title pastor who does the bulk of the preaching. We also have decons who serve the church in a leadership role.. and overall we don't get too hung up on titles, it's God's work, God's church, we all seek to worship Him and do what we can in the fellowship.
Regards
Bob -
A good paper on the need for church elders is found on:
http:www.bible.org/page.asp?page_id=414 -
The two mentioned above, Capitol Hill and Bethlehem are both reformed baptists which commonly do have elders I believe.
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Look at Acts 20, where Paul calls the elders of the congregaton at Ephesus to him In v.28 he says the Holy Spirit has made them overseers of the Ephesus flock, and urges them to be shepherds (another word for pastor) to His church there..
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I think an elder can be a pastor, and a pastor can be an elder, but that does not preclude the idea that Scripture says there should be multiple elders, nor does it require the preacher to be the pastor and vice versa.
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Some churches ministers are all called Elders and they have 7 Deacons along with a clerk, assistant clerk treasurer and assistant treasurer and thats it. Whoever is the Pastor/Moderator is an Elder for that is what all of the preachers are called. We do not call any Reverand.
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In His grace,
Ed -
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I'll also tack on for free :type:, that I notice most churches have little trouble finding someone to fill the role of Diotrephes.
Ed -
Hey! it works so lets keep marching. lol
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I do think that there were a plurality elders in the early New Testatment churches because there were a number of meeting places (like homes) and preaching stations. An elder to lead each meeting place make sense.
A plurality of equal elders (emphasis on equal) can be a problem. The same problem occurs when you have two equal partners in a business. It creates the potential for gridlock. Any organization, business or church, functions best when there are clear lines of authority and responsibility.
If everybody is boss, you can see the problem. Same if nobody is boss.
I recognize that there is a spiritual dimension that comes into play here. The elder system will work fine and so will the deacon system when you have spiritual men involved. -
Ed -
Tom writes:
"I do think that there were a plurality elders in the early New Testatment churches because there were a number of meeting places (like homes) and preaching stations. An elder to lead each meeting place make sense."
I think there were a plurality of elders in each church with different ministries to the church.
A good paper on this is: http:www.bible.org/page.asp?page_id=414 . -
And, of course, I shouldn't have referred to anyone with leadership responsibilities in a congregation as a boss.
The principles are still the same, though.
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