Business Meetings<\/a>.” It also strikes me as important that this use of decisions by the whole church was used even when elders were present.<\/p>\nIt would be a mistake to say that because no elders are present, then any organization would do to carry out the work of the church. I can see that when a congregation is gathered, that someone would be asked to coordinate the meeting so that everything can be done in an orderly fashion (I Corinthians 14:40). But I would object to creating a position, such as “president,” where none exists in the New Testament. In most congregations, the person in charge of the meetings is rotated among the men if no elders are present. Women are not placed in charge of such meetings because of I Timothy 2:12.<\/p>\n
A preacher is not in charge of a congregation. In the operation of a congregation, he is simply just another member. He does hold authority (Titus 2:15), but it deals with the teaching of the gospel and the accuracy of that teaching, not the operation of the church. So in a meeting, I might be asked what the Bible says about a particular matter and my answer might carry some weight because of my duties as a preacher, but I, as a preacher, do not decide on my own what a congregation does.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: We have no elders at our small congregation. Do you have information available on the workings of these meetings and its rules? What authority its president has versus its preacher? This probably a funny question to ask, but we do need some advice. Answer: It is clear in the New Testament that congregations did…<\/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_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[1107,667],"class_list":["post-18857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-business-meetings","tag-organization-of-the-church"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":60391,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/a-thought-on-business-meetings-and-elderships\/","url_meta":{"origin":18857,"position":0},"title":"A Thought on Business Meetings and Elderships","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 20, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bill Jackson In any situation involving men laboring together, some decisions are going to have to be made and some course of action must be decided upon by someone if any good product is obtained. In the congregations of God, the thousand-and-one details wherein the work of the congregations\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":94578,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/where-are-the-elders\/","url_meta":{"origin":18857,"position":1},"title":"Where Are the Elders?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 15, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Brad Harrub, Ph.D. Walk into many congregations today and ask a simple question: \"Do you have elders?\" Far too often, the answer is the same: \"No\u2026not yet.\" Sometimes that answer has been given for 10 years\u202620 years\u2026even 40-50 years. But that should cause us to pause and ask a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/shepherd-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/shepherd-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/shepherd-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":19244,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-happens-when-one-of-a-congregations-two-elders-moves\/","url_meta":{"origin":18857,"position":2},"title":"What happens when one of a congregation’s two elders moves?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 29, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: When one elder relocates to another district and there is no one to replace him, who leads the church? Is it the remaining one elder? Please explain to me with clear scripture references because we have this problem at our congregation. Answer: A congregation with only one man qualified\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":84199,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-men-hold-a-monopoly-on-the-business-meeting\/","url_meta":{"origin":18857,"position":3},"title":"Do Men Hold a Monopoly on the Business Meeting?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 7, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Dale Smelser via Sentry Magazine, Vol. 13, No. 4, December 21, 1987 Several articles by me recently on elders, deacons, and business meetings have led to numerous questions about women attending business meetings. I have noted that the business meeting does not have oversight. We cannot substitute another system\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16161,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/business-meetings\/","url_meta":{"origin":18857,"position":4},"title":"Business Meetings","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 28, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In the organization of the church, we read - Eph 4:11 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0There were Apostles and prophets, involved in the establishment of the church. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0There are evangelists (preachers), pastors (elders), and teachers, involved in continuing the work to build up the church. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0C.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Each part, working together, causes the growth of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sermon"","block_context":{"text":"Sermon","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/sermon\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20760,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-the-whole-church-makes-decisions-how-is-it-organized\/","url_meta":{"origin":18857,"position":5},"title":"If the whole church makes decisions, how is it organized?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 7, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I read\u00a0the reply by Ney Rieber, to the question posed by one that was having a problem reconciling with a congregation that does not have elders. These questions come to mind and I hope you can help answer them when you have time or maybe point me toward a\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":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18857","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=18857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18857\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}