When there are no elders in a congregation and the church chooses certain men to lead, is this scriptural?<\/p>\n\t
I probably would need more information to answer your question. Much depends on what you mean by “lead.” During worship service, there are men who lead various parts of the worship. “How is it then, brethren? Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification<\/em>” (I Corinthians 14:26). For instance, we call the man who leads singing at a worship service the song leader.<\/p>\n A preacher also holds authority. “Speak these things, exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no one despise you<\/em>” (Titus 2:15). The nature of his duties naturally causes him to be a leader in a congregation, yet congregations can invite a preacher to work with them without elders. This is seen in the fact that preachers were involved in getting elders appointed in congregations (Titus 1:5; Acts 14:23).<\/p>\n There is some debate about whether deacons can be appointed without elders in a congregation. I haven’t found a satisfactory argument against it, and I have found some hints that deacons might have served independently of an eldership. Men cannot be appointed who do not meet the qualifications (I Timothy 3:8-13) and they only serve in the task appointed them, such as keeping the treasury for the congregation.<\/p>\n A congregation cannot appoint men to oversee the congregation who do not qualify as elders (I Timothy 3:1-7; Titus 1:5-9). When a congregation as never had elders, it should be clear that at some point men will be appointed to serve as elders. Thus leaders will be appointed where elders have not currently been present.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: When there are no elders in a congregation and the church chooses certain men to lead, is this scriptural? Answer: I probably would need more information to answer your question. Much depends on what you mean by “lead.” During worship service, there are men who lead various parts of the worship. “How is it…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[667],"class_list":["post-17133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-organization-of-the-church"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":19809,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-i-stay-with-a-congregation-that-pays-its-song-leader\/","url_meta":{"origin":17133,"position":0},"title":"Should I stay with a congregation that pays its song leader?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 8, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I attend a small church of Christ.\u00a0We have no elders or deacons.\u00a0We\u00a0pay a man to lead singing, which obviously is wrong.\u00a0What should I do?\u00a0 Will this cause him to lose his salvation?\u00a0Will I lose mine if I continue to worship there?\u00a0He is the only one among the men capable\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":35777,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-a-man-give-a-woman-permission-to-lead-a-part-of-the-worship-service\/","url_meta":{"origin":17133,"position":1},"title":"Can a man give a woman permission to lead a part of the worship service?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 10, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: This past Sunday something very disturbing happened in our worship service. Our song leader said that he as a man in the church was giving permission to a woman to lead a song. I was very disturbed by this because I don't believe that a man has the authority\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":36159,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-i-do-wrong-bringing-up-an-issue-about-when-the-collection-should-be-counted\/","url_meta":{"origin":17133,"position":2},"title":"Did I do wrong bringing up an issue about when the collection should be counted?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 18, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My wife and I moved to this community several years ago. We've been attending the church and have grown increasingly active through the years. I now teach both on Sunday morning and Wednesday night and we help where we can. Our church has a normal weekly attendance under 100,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7887,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-cant-women-lead-singing-serve-at-the-lords-table-and-lead-a-prayer\/","url_meta":{"origin":17133,"position":3},"title":"Why can’t women lead singing, serve at the Lord’s table, and lead a prayer?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 26, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have been struggling with women in worship. I know that men are to be elders and deacons. I know men are to be preachers. What I'm not sure on is why women cannot lead singing, serve at the table and pray. I have found some Scriptures that give\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16773,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/who-can-give-communion\/","url_meta":{"origin":17133,"position":4},"title":"Who can give communion?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 5, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: We have a doubt about administering communion; that is, who can give communion? We are seven who as started a church and now it has grown to 30 people. We have one leader but none of us is ordained. Now, who can give communion? Or should we find an\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":69287,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-a-non-christian-serve-in-worship\/","url_meta":{"origin":17133,"position":5},"title":"Can a non-Christian serve in worship?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 14, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a great deal of respect for your website and the articles on it. However, I don't agree 100% with everything. I have worshipped in congregations that have and don't have a fellowship hall; neither bothers me. The congregation installed elders and deacons, which has caused some problems.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17133\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}