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?<\/p>\nPlease explain to me with clear scripture references because we have this problem at our congregation.\n\t
A congregation with only one man qualified to be an elder does not have an eldership. Elders in congregations are always referred to in the plural (Acts 11:30; 14:30; 15:2,4,6,22-23; 16:4; 20:17; 21:18; I Timothy 5:17; Titus 1:5; James 5:14; I Peter 5:1,5).\u00a0 The consistency in the examples is notable.<\/p>\n
As a result, when a congregation no longer has a plurality of men to serve as elders it must go back to functioning like a newly started congregation, which means having congregational meetings for the men to decide the business that needs to be accomplished.<\/p>\n\t
Thank you for the clarification. The one elder doesn’t want to step down. He asks for a passage from the Bible were an elder stepped down.<\/p>\n\t
This isn’t a matter of saying he is no longer qualified to serve as an elder. The problem is that there is no scriptural support for a congregation having only one elder. He will have to prove that God allows a congregation to have only one elder. As I pointed out, all statements regarding elders in the church have always been in the plural. Since he cannot prove that a congregation can have only one elder, he must accept that he cannot serve as an elder until another qualified man is found in the congregation. If he refuses to accept the situation, then he no longer is following the biblical pattern and is demonstrating that he is no longer qualified to be an elder.<\/p>\n\t
I agree with you, Brother Jeffrey, and I will try to seat with the one elder and the deacons to talk about it using the Scripture you sent me. I just pray that he understands and have the fear of God.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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 to be an elder does…<\/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,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[123],"class_list":["post-19244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-elders"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9489,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-the-current-eldership-select-additional-elders\/","url_meta":{"origin":19244,"position":0},"title":"Should the current eldership select additional elders?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 20, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is it scripturally correct for elders to choose another elder and have him installed by an outside evangelist? The process I'm speaking of was one where two elders announced to a group of the members that the elders would be \"selecting\" the new elder(s) and deacon(s). Shouldn't the \"selection\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":31598,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-should-an-elder-do-if-no-other-elders-left-in-the-congregation\/","url_meta":{"origin":19244,"position":1},"title":"What should an elder do if no other elders left in the congregation?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 3, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: If you have three elders in the church and two elders resigned, what is the function of the elder who is left? He still has a continuing desire to shepherd the flock and the rest of the congregation has no grievance with him. Answer: A man can preach without\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":38627,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-do-you-do-when-the-elders-are-not-listening-to-the-congregation\/","url_meta":{"origin":19244,"position":2},"title":"What do you do when the elders are not listening to the congregation?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 24, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I'm a member of the church of Christ. I just read the article \"Majority vs Elder Rule\". Our congregation is currently going through something that. I, myself, personally have never experienced it. We have elders who are not really being the leaders they should be, and in this\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":68309,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-arent-the-elders-helping-me-to-learn-to-preach\/","url_meta":{"origin":19244,"position":3},"title":"Why aren’t the elders helping me to learn to preach?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 8, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I hope this email finds you doing well. I have a question. I finally got to preach and teach for a month in another congregation. I asked the elders in my church to attend one day and give me pointers. One finally attended, but all the elders said that\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":19524,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-you-know-when-a-passage-is-talking-about-older-men-in-a-congregation-or-the-elders-of-a-congregation\/","url_meta":{"origin":19244,"position":4},"title":"How do you know when a passage is talking about older men in a congregation or the elders of a congregation?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 21, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I was wondering with Elder being mentioned in 1 \u00a0or 2 or 3rd John and refers to a woman. I just remember reading it (II John 1; III John 1). I remember someone mentioning it to me a long time ago and the question I have now is how\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":18943,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/must-elders-have-the-consent-of-the-congregation-in-order-to-serve\/","url_meta":{"origin":19244,"position":5},"title":"Must elders have the consent of the congregation in order to serve?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 1, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Curious what you would have to comment on related to this topic of elderships and having the consent of the Lord's body to serve as elders.\u00a0\u00a0 Flavil Yeakley in his book Church Leadership and Organization\u00a0makes this assertion: \"One thing that has confused some people about the authoritarian style of\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\/19244","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=19244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19244\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}