Leadership Offices Within The Church
Leadership Offices • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Tonight, I would like us to venture into a study on the Leadership Structure of the church as outlined in the Scriptures.
For tonight, we are going to focus on the two main leadership offices that are clearly spelled out in the Scriptures, which are the offices of Elders and Deacons.
To be clear, there are several different denominations who feel that there are other offices of leadership that are outlined in the Scriptures, but we will get to those another night. But the offices of elders and deacons are almost universally recognized as leadership offices within the church. They are mentioned more often than these other offices, and the teaching surrounding these two offices are much clearer. The qualifications for both of these offices are outlined in 1 Timothy 3, whereas some of these other offices have no qualifications listed at all, at least not in an organized fashion as 1 Timothy does with the offices of elders and deacons.
Elder
Elder
To start with, I want us to look at the office of an elder. The NT uses three different words when outlining this office:
Elder (presbyteros) - speaks of maturity and character
Overseer/Bishop (Episkopos)- speaks of oversight and leadership
Pastor/Shepherd (Poimen) - speaks of caring for and feeding the flock
The NT uses these terms interchangeably:
17 From Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called for the elders of the church.
28 Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.
Notice how in verse 17, they called for the elders of the church. We said a second ago that the term elder refers to spiritual maturity and character. It speaks of spiritual oversight of the church.
But then in verse 28, when addressing these elders, he speaks of their responsibility to both oversee (Bishop) and shepherd (Pastor) the flock. So we see here that these three different responsibilities are not outlined by three different offices, but rather fall under the same office, which is that most commonly referred to as an elder, as it is in this text.
Another example of this is found in Titus 1:5-7
5 For this reason I left you in Crete, that you should set in order the things that are lacking, and appoint elders in every city as I commanded you—
6 if a man is blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of dissipation or insubordination.
7 For a bishop must be blameless, as a steward of God, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money,
Once again, we see both the roles of spiritual maturity and character (elder) accompanied by that of spiritual oversight and leadership (Bishop).
Again in 1 Peter 5:1-3
1 The elders who are among you I exhort, I who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed:
2 Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly;
3 nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock;
Here, we see all three roles blended into the same office once again. There is that of the elder, the Shepherd, and the Overseer/Bishop all expected of the same office, which is called that of an elder.
So this in and of itself helps to outline the primary role of the elder, or what we commonlyl refer to today as the Pastor:
Preach and Teach
2 Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.
2 A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach;
Guard Doctrine
9 holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict.
Shepherd the Flock
2 Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly;
Lead the Church
17 Obey those who rule over you, and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you.
Pray for the Sick
14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.
Equip the Saints
11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers,
12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,
The role of elder within the church is that of spiritual leadership. They are tasked by God to set a Godly example through spiritual maturity and character, to exercise spiritual oversight and leadership, and to care for and feed the flock of God that has been entrusted to them, among other things.
They are to be viewed as the highest office of spiritual leadership within the church and they are to function in that role as God designed.
Something else to notice is that almost everywhere you look in the NT concerning the office of elder, it is always plural. You cannot find a single instance in the Scriptures where only one elder was appointed to a local church. Each church was led by multiple elders:
4 And when they had come to Jerusalem, they were received by the church and the apostles and the elders; and they reported all things that God had done with them.
22 Then it pleased the apostles and elders, with the whole church, to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas, namely, Judas who was also named Barsabas, and Silas, leading men among the brethren.
23 They wrote this letter by them: The apostles, the elders, and the brethren, To the brethren who are of the Gentiles in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia: Greetings.
17 Let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and doctrine.
1 Paul and Timothy, bondservants of Jesus Christ, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, with the bishops and deacons:
14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.
Qualifications for the office of elder is found in 1 Timothy 3:1-7 & Titus 1:5-9
Deacon
Deacon
It is important to note that the office of a Deacon is separate and distinct from the office of elder. Over the years, especially within the Baptist Church, these lines have been blurred, to where nowadays, these offices almost operate as one in the same. But this is not what the original design of the church was.
To be fair, there are a number of reasons for why this has happened:
Somewhere along the way, the office of Elder stopped being desired. Notice this verse:
1 This is a faithful saying: If a man desires the position of a bishop, he desires a good work.
The office of an Elder, of what we call the office of a Pastor, is not exactly the easiest job in the world for various reasons.
When you accompany that with the massive growth of the American church for several generations now, you have more local churches than you do called men of God who are willing to step into that role of spiritual leadership.
This led to a lack of spiritual leaders. So oftentimes today, you see only one elder/pastor within each local congregation.
In my opinion, this is unhealthy for the church for various reasons, but it is where we are. Each local church normally only recognizes one Elder at a time.
Now, when there is only one elder, and then that elder leaves the local church for whatever reason, the church is left without the spiritual oversight that this man provided to the church. Over the years, when this happened, the church then leaned on the next office of spiritually recognized men within the church to step up and carry that mantle, which were those in the office of Deacon.
This has happened so much so that today there is a common phrase that represents that: “Pastors come and go, but the Deacons will be here forever.”
With this mindset, the previous generations began to elevate the office of Deacon to something it was never designed to be, which in turn places spiritual responsibility on certain men who are either unqualified to be in the role, or simply not called to be in the role.
And somewhere along the way, this new approach to the church offices simply became acceptable and even the normal standard of operation.
Now don’t hear what I am not saying. I am not saying that the office of the Deacon is not a spiritual office. It obviously is. I am not saying that those in the office of Deacon are not spiritual men, they should be and most are.
Acts 6 outlines this very well:
1 Now in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplying, there arose a complaint against the Hebrews by the Hellenists, because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution.
2 Then the twelve summoned the multitude of the disciples and said, “It is not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables.
3 Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business;
4 but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”
5 And the saying pleased the whole multitude. And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas, a proselyte from Antioch,
After these men were chosen, we see Stephen preaching the Word, even to the point of being martyred for it.
We also see Philip being called out into the middle of the desert to meet with the Ethiopian Eunuch to lead him to Christ and to baptize him.
These were great men of faith who modelled the Christian life exceptionally.
With that being said, we must be careful not to elevate the office of Deacon, across the board, above that which God requires of them in the Scriptures, simply because God has used some of these men in this office to do exceptional things.
Acts 6 outlines for us the main reason why this role was created in the first place and what the role entailed:
***Go back through the verses of Acts 6 and talk about this.
The word “serve” in verse 2 is the Greek word “diakonos”, which is where we get the word “Deacon” from. It means “to serve”.
Their main responsibility was to take care of the daily operations of the church so that the elders could focus on prayer and the study of the Word (vs. 2, 4)
It does not outline every single instance where this would be applicable, but it provides a baseline. Anything that can be handled by the Deacons, so that the Elders can focus on prayer and the Word falls under their jurisdiction and responsibility.
Qualifications for Deacons are outlined in 1 Timothy 3:8-13
***Go through qualifications of both Elder and Deacon
Qualifications for Elders:
Qualifications for Elders:
Blameless - Above Reproach
Husband of one wife - Varying understandings of this
“No Polygamy”
“One-Woman Man”
“No Divorce”
“Only one wife period” - once he becomes a widower, he should exercise self-control and keep himself from a second marriage. (1 Timothy 5:9 - widows disqualified if they had married more than once)
Temperate - well balanced
Sober-minded - self controlled
of good behavior - respectable
Hospitable
able to teach - should be able to handle the Word of God faithfully. Doesn’t mean that they have to preach publicly often, but means they should be able to use the Word of God effectively.
not given to wine
Some say no wine at all
Others say no drunkenness
not violent
not greedy for money
gentle
not quarrelsome
not covetous
rules home well
not a novice - must not be a recent convert
Good testimony - Must be the same inside and outside of the church
Qualifications of Deacons:
Qualifications of Deacons:
Reverent - Respectable
Not double tongued - sincere, honest, and unhypocritical
not given to much wine
not greedy for money
Men of faith - They should be devout believers and have strong faith
Practice what they preach - Same as having a “Good Testimony” for the elders.
Tested - Let them have a trial run to see how they do. This trial run should not be short either.
Blameless
Wives must be: (Not listed amongst the Elders)
Reverent
not slanderers
temperate
faithful
Husband of one wife - See notes above
Rule house well - Same as above
