Aaron Erhardt

Jul 28, 2026

The New Testament speaks of the church in two senses — universal and local. The universal church consists of all the saved everywhere (Matthew 16:18; Ephesians 3:10). It has no organization except Christ as the head and heaven as the headquarters. The local church consists of the saved who work and worship together in a particular locality (1 Corinthians 1:2; 1 Thessalonians 1:1). It does have a specific organization as revealed in the New Testament.

God’s arrangement for the local church is quite simple. For instance, the Philippian letter is addressed to the overseers [elders], deacons, and saints (Philippians 1:1). That is the proper organizational structure of a congregation. Preachers are usually included among the saints in this text, though they have a distinct “work” (2 Timothy 4:5) just as the elders have a distinct “work” (1 Thessalonians 5:13).

A study of the New Testament reveals that congregations in the first century had a plurality of elders. For instance, the church at Jerusalem had elders (Acts 15:4), the church at Ephesus had elders (Acts 20:17), and the church at Philippi had elders (Philippians 1:1). The churches in Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch had elders as well (Acts 14:21–23). The divine pattern is “elders in every church … in every city” (Acts 14:23; Titus 1:5). We never read about one man acting as “the pastor” over a congregation or one man acting as “the bishop” over a diocese in scripture.

Elders are responsible for flock–feeding (1 Peter 5:2), example–setting (1 Peter 5:3), soul–watching (Hebrews 13:17), sheep–caring (Acts 20:28), and mouth–stopping (Titus 1:11). To do this well, they must not only have a good knowledge of the scriptures, but they must have the courage to be confrontational when necessary.

Members should willingly yield to the authority of elders. Paul said to respect and esteem them “because of their work” (1 Thessalonians 5:12-13), and the Hebrews’ writer said to obey and submit to them “for they are keeping watch over your souls” (Hebrews 13:17). May God help us to fulfill our roles according to God’s Word!