Elders, Deacons, & Church Leadership

At a basic level, the NT teaches two leadership offices in the local church: elders and deacons. Broadly speaking, the elders are the spiritual overseers and the deacons administrate the practical needs of the church.

The term “elder” in the NT is synonymous with “pastor” and “overseer” (Acts 20:28; 1 Pet. 5:1-2; Titus 5:1-7). When they are referenced in the Bible, they are always spoken of in plurality. In other words, churches are not to be led exclusively by a single pastor, but rather by a council of biblically qualified elders (1 Tim. 3:1-7; Titus 1:5-9). Within the council, the elders are led by one who serves as “first-among-equals,” usually the primary teaching elder, which in our case, is me (1 Tim. 5:17). At Bridgeway, our Deacons primarily oversee policy, property, and financial accountability in order to free the elders to practice spiritual leadership.

Many churches today practice variations of this form of leadership. Some consider their paid pastoral staff as their elders, others compose their eldership of exclusively volunteer laypersons. In our situation we have a combination of paid and unpaid elders. As the primary teaching pastor, I am currently the only paid elder at this time.

The primary responsibility of elders in the Bible is spiritual leadership (i.e. pastoring). Elders primarily do this through exercising oversight and teaching/preaching. Under Jesus Christ, the Head of the church, the elders serve as undershepherds who provide gentle, loving, caring, Christlike leadership to the people of God. As faithful shepherds, their activities often focus on:

• Feeding the flock (teaching the Word of God)
• Nurturing the flock (counseling, discipling, praying for the sick)
• Leading the flock (providing vision and direction to the church)
• Protecting against wolves (confronting false teachers, predatory people)
• Disciplining the flock (correcting wayward sheep in love)

We had a very special moment this past Sunday as we celebrated the installation of two new elders. After a long period of training and examination we commissioned Stan Philips and Jim Santistevan as elders. Both men, already functioning as spiritual leaders, are great assets to our church family. Until now, I have been the sole elder at Bridgeway. It is our conviction to follow Jesus’ humble example of servant leadership as we lead by serving and serve by leading.