Do you think that the doctrine of the Trinity implies that each local church should ideally have 3 Elders?
And do you think the nature of the Father and the relations of the persons suggests that there should be some kind of "lead" Elder?
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
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8 comments:
1 Tim 4:14 'the body of elders'/'the council of elders'
Are body or council normal ways of describing three or less people? Unless it was the elders from more than one church?
Acts 13:1 'there were prophets and teachers' in the church at Antioch.
Is it too much to presume that these five men were the church leaders there? Perhaps before eldership had become even a semi-official term.
Thank you, Josh.
Interesting Scriptures.
Acts 13:1 - among the church leaders, sure. Not sure if they would have been THE leaders or the elders. As you say, who knows when Elders developed, though they seem to have been pretty early. OT & intertestimental roots, I guess. The Apostles are called elders too aren't they?
On 1 Tim 4:14 - the word is presbuteroi which as far as I know just means elders - KJV "presbytery" - though I am no expert! I don't think we can tell how many there were. I think elders from other local churches is very likely as in ordinations today. Helpfully makes the point that each congregation is not totally independant. Elders are elders in the universal Church of God not just in one congregation.
I imagine there were more than 2 - not wait for one elder to die then appoint a 3rd? We will need new elders from time to time and we need to be encouraging new people. (Deacons - trainee elders?).
3 would seem a good general rule to me.
Yes interesting. You're right, I don't think we can tell either way from those verses.
3 could be a good guide, but for a large church it would seem a bit small... Should number of elders vary with church size? Would seem sensible to me - a church of 3 people could still be a church.
And what about church planting? Send out an elder? Or start a church with no elders and have a few appointed?
Maybe a church is too large if 3 elders cant pastor it effectively with the help of deacons, administrators etc?
Church planting: make 3 new elders? Better, send one and make two new ones?
Presumably Acts 2:42-47 is a church. 3,120 people? Maybe less, assuming some of the converts were Jews not from Jerusalem who left. Still, that would be a big church. Why limit it to three elders?
Clearly that period was different etc. Other than parallels with Trinity, any biblical reasons to limit it to 3 elders?
Well, maybe. Certainly part of the church. Did they also meet from home to home in smaller church / congregation groups? That seems to have been the case later with the churches eg in Rome. There is a church in a town, and a world wide church but also a church that meets eg in Chloe's house etc.
No other biblical reasons spring to mind.
3 is helpful in the case of a tied vote!
More people is harder: worse relationships, slower etc.
Oh, just remembered, a biblical argument about the size of a church would be "we all partake of one loaf". There is apparently a limit to how big a loaf can be?!
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