Lesson 4

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Class Notes

LESSON 4 The Role of the Elders

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n the previous lesson we learned about the responsibilities of the pastor, as described in Scripture. Though there is confusion in the minds of some people about the role of the pastor and the role of the elders, Scripture points out very clearly that Christ has called and gifted some people to a special ministry of leadership, divided into five categories: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. These people in New Testament times, and even today, often had a mobile ministry, moving from place to place as the Holy Spirit led them. But we also see in Scripture that there was leadership in the local church that was more or less permanent. The book of Acts tells us how the ministry of deacons arose from a need in the church. However, Acts does not tell us how elders in the church came about. The first mention of elders in the New Testament church is in Acts 11:30. The elders are in place in the church in Jerusalem, without any explanation how this aspect of church government came about. The probable explanation is that the concept of elders had a long-standing tradition among the Jewish people. In other words, the church adopted a system that was already in place in the Jewish culture. In this lesson we will study the development of the role of elder beginning in the Old Testament and then tracing it to the New Testament. The goals of this lesson are: •

To understand the different roles that elders have played down through history and how the position of elder was introduced in the church.

To understand the general role of the elders in today’s church.

To evaluate the role of the elders in your church.

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