An elder is one who is spiritually mature. Bishop literary means overseer, he is a leader in a local ecclesia. The word "pastor" is gotten from "pasture" which is connected to shepherding. A pastor is a shepherd, his responsibility is to feed the sheep i.e preach, teach and mentor the young ones in faith. In the first century to the second century these three words were used interchangeably to refer to the same person. Yes, the elders are the pastors and the bishops of the local ecclesia.
"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: Shepherd [pastor] the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers [bishops], not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly;" (1Per 5:1,2).
Here Peter is asking the elders to pastor the sheep (not their own sheep but God's sheep) which is in their locality, and serve as bishops willingly (nobody is forcing them to be bishops, they are just taking up responsibilities as elders). As you can see, the elders were to pastor and serve as bishops.
"From Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called for the elders of the church. And when they had come to him, he said to them: “You know, from the first day that I came to Asia, in what manner I always lived among you... Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers [bishops], to shepherd [pastor] the church of God which He purchased with His own blood." (Acts 20:17,18,28).
Now, notice that scripture was referring to elders (plural), these elders are the bishops (plural), and they are to pastor the church. In the first and second century there were more than one elder/bishop/pastor in an ecclesia.
"Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust." (Acts 14:23).
This verse made it very clear that in each church there were many elders. An ecclesia is a direct democratic government. The people are the government, they rule by themselves. The ecclesia is a council, however in every council there are the central caucus. Among the twelve disciples we have the three (John, Peter and James). Back in school when I was a member of the fellowship executive, there was the central executive which was made up of a very few members of the executive. The reason there have to be a central caucus is in order to make certain decisions faster
The democratic system allows decision making to be very slow. It is slow because everybody is involved and every opinion must be considered. Now, there are some situations that require quick decision making. This is where the central caucus is used. In an ecclesia, there are some sensitive situations that will not be suitable to bring to the whole congregation, so the council of elders takes care of it. The work of the elders is not to take government from the hands of the people. The people have a right to government and they must be allowed to exercise that right.
Being the overseers does not mean you'll make all the decisions for them. If you do that then you are stripping them of the right that God gave them as his people. Who are you to take away the right that God, in is transcendent wisdom, gave his people? No Christian leader, no matter how anointed, has the right to take away government from the people. You cannot take their money and make all the decisions on how it should be spent, you don't have such a right. God didn't give any Christian leader that right, it is an ecclesia matter.
Anyway, sponsoring a ministry is different from welfare issues in a local ecclesia. Like I use to say, church as practiced today is just ministry. They are ministries of individual ministers. So when you give to them you are contributing to their ministry and they can do whatever they like with the money. But in an ecclesia (a real assembly or Christian community), the people discuss everything together — it's a direct democracy. So the bishops are the central executive, they are not the whole of the executive, and whatever decision they make they will still answer to the general executive (the whole members of the ecclesia). They must be transparent to the people and the people must respect them as their elders.
Now, church as ministry (not assembly) is not supposed to have elders, bishops or pastors. That structure is not designed for church, the structure is meant for the ecclesia. The only thing that church is supposed to have are ministers. Yes, teachers, minstrels, prophets, evangelists, apostles, exhorters etc. Notice, these people are not found in ecclesia. The ecclesia is not the place for teachers, minsters, prophets, evangelists and apostles. In an ecclesia everybody are brothers and sister. If you are a teacher, the moment you walk into an ecclesia to fellowship, you become a brother/sister.
It doesn't matter who you are — your ministry or your title — the moment you enter an ecclesia for the sake of fellowship, you are nothing but a brother/sister. However, one can come into a ecclesia to minister (I have explained this before, like when Apollo came and minister to the ecclesia in Corinth). Such ministry is in transit because the ecclesia is not the home of ministry, it is the home of fellowship. When ministry is through, normal ecclesia commence, and everything goes back to fellowship mode where everyone is allowed to share as brothers and sisters. Then there are elder brothers and elder sisters who play special roles as bishops and pastors.
This post is part of a series. Below are links to the other posts in the series.
The Pastoral Office (1); Organic Process
The Pastoral Office (3); Church Vs Ecclesia
The Pastoral Office (4); Comparing The Practices In Different Centuries
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