The Christian Eldership

When we turn to the Christian Church we find that the eldership is its basic office.

It was Paul's custom to ordain elders in every community to which he preached and in every church which he founded. On the first missionary journey elders were ordained in every church ( Acts 14:23 ). Titus is left in Crete to ordain elders in every city ( Titus 1:5 ). The elders had charge of the financial administration of the Church; it is to them that Paul and Barnabas delivered the money sent to relieve the poor of Jerusalem in the time of the famine ( Acts 11:30 ). The elders were the councillors and the administrators of the Church. We find them taking a leading part in the Council of Jerusalem at which it was decided to fling open the doors of the Church to the Gentiles. At that Council the elders and the apostles are spoken of together as the chief authorities of the Church ( Acts 15:2 ; Acts 16:4 ). When Paul came on his last visit to Jerusalem, it was to the elders that he reported and they suggested the course of action he should follow ( Acts 21:18-25 ). One of the most moving passages in the New Testament is Paul's farewell to the elders of Ephesus. We find there that the elders, as he sees them, are the overseers of the flock of God and the defenders of the faith ( Acts 20:28-29 ). We learn from James that the elders had a healing function in the Church through prayers and anointing with oil ( James 5:14 ). From the Pastoral Epistles we learn that they were rulers and teachers, and by that time paid officials ( 1 Timothy 5:17 ; the phrase double honour is better translated double pay).

When a man enters the eldership, no small honour is conferred upon him, for he is entering on the oldest religious office in the world, whose history can be traced through Christianity and Judaism for four thousand years; and no small responsibility falls upon him, for he has been ordained a shepherd of the flock of God and a defender of the faith.