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Organizing the Body of Christ

The Church and the churches need to to be properly organized. When members of the body of Christ see this, they come with power they never had before.

  1. Responsibility of Elders

    Their Responsibilities

    It is the responsibility of every saved man to serve the Lord according to his capacity and in his own sphere. God did not appoint elders to do the work on behalf of their brethren; after the appointment of elders, as before, it is still the brethren’s duty and privilege to serve the Lord. Elders are also called “bishops” (Acts 20.28; Titus 1.5,7). The term “elder” relates to their person; the term “bishop” to their work. “Bishop” means “overseer,” and an overseer is not one who works instead of others, but one who supervises others as they work. God intended that every Christian should be a “Christian worker,” and He appointed some to take the oversight of the work so that it might be carried on efficiently. It was never His thought that the majority of the believers should devote themselves exclusively to secular affairs and leave the church matters to a group of spiritual specialists. This point cannot be overemphasized. Elders are not a group of men who contract to do the church work on behalf of its members; they are only the head-men who superintend affairs. It is their business to encourage the backward and restrain the forward ones, never doing the work instead of them, but simply directing them in the doing of it.

    The responsibility of an elder relates to matters temporal and spiritual. They are appointed to “rule,” and also to “instruct” and “shepherd.” “Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially those who labour in the word and in teaching” (1 Tim. 5.17). “Tend the flock of God which is among you, exercising the oversight, not of constraint, but willingly, according unto God; nor yet for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as lording it over the charge allotted to you, but making yourselves ensamples to the flock” (1 Pet. 5.2,3).

    The Word of God uses the term “rule” in connection with the responsibilities of an elder. The ordering of church government, the management of business affairs and the care of material things, are all under their control. But we must remember that a scriptural church does not consist of an active and a passive group of brethren, the former controlling the latter, and the latter simply submitting to their control, or the former bearing all the burden whilst the latter settle down in ease to enjoy the ...