The Biblical Background for Church Leadership

Significant Texts

Titus 1:5 - For this reason I left you in Crete, that you would set in order what remains and appoint elders in every city as I directed you.

• Evidently, according to Paul there is something that remains to be set in order without the appointment of elders in every church.  The local church is incomplete if it lacks the appointment of biblical eldership.

• The appointment of elders was so important that it served as the main reason Paul left Titus on the island of Crete. 

Acts 20:1,28 - From Miletus [Paul] sent to Ephesus and called to him the elders of the church.  'And when they had come to him, he said to them…"Be on guard for yourselves and for 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."

• It is clear that there was a defined, recognized group of men in the church who were referred to as elders and who had the specific and unique responsibility to shepherd God's flock.

• It is not simply the apostles who appointed the elders at the church of Ephesus, it was the Holy Spirit who graciously entrusted them with the office.

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