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 goes forward must be decided upon by someone. We shudder to think of a business meeting called, and a vote by democratic processes being used to determine every single item of business from establishing the times for the services to purchasing erasers for the classrooms!<\/p>\n
Many of us remember an earlier time when many places had no elders, and every move the congregation made had to go through the business-meeting process. In so many instances, the work of the congregation was hardly expedited by this method!<\/p>\n
And there is yet another factor in this: Sin and Satan being as they are, in the business-meeting endeavor there is encouragement built in for the most non-spiritual and inactive man to have one of the strongest voices in the work of the church! It is often the case of men not in the leadership then seizing the leadership of the church and thus a congregation can find itself without elders but with a rule by either a non-spiritual man or a non-spiritual clique of the same type men. Thankfully, God has provided for us the better and more spiritual way of conducting the business of the kingdom.<\/p>\n
“For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee<\/em>” (Titus 1:5).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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 goes forward must be decided…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","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":[27],"tags":[123,667],"class_list":["post-60391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-elders","tag-organization-of-the-church"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":18857,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-should-business-meetings-be-conducted\/","url_meta":{"origin":60391,"position":0},"title":"How should business meetings be conducted?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 28, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"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\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":19331,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-congregations-dwindle\/","url_meta":{"origin":60391,"position":1},"title":"Why Congregations Dwindle","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 30, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"by Connie W. Adams It is not uncommon to see congregations that once were large and active in the Lord's work gradually dwindling. The natural question is, \"Why?\" I believe the following reasons must be considered. People moving away Sometimes workers are transferred, or lose jobs and must move elsewhere.\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\/2020\/01\/Old-Pews-300x200.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":94578,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/where-are-the-elders\/","url_meta":{"origin":60391,"position":2},"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":55614,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/congregational-independence-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":60391,"position":3},"title":"Congregational Independence (Moyer)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 7, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer The Scriptures teach local congregational independence and autonomy. What does this mean? The body of Christ (universal terminology as in one body, Ephesians 4:1-3) is not some interconnected web of congregations; rather, the body is composed of individuals (see I Corinthians 12:12-27). Individual Christians ought to seek\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":91347,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/must-a-congregation-support-a-preacher-who-was-hired-by-an-eldership-that-later-dissolved\/","url_meta":{"origin":60391,"position":4},"title":"Must a congregation support a preacher who was hired by an eldership that later dissolved?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 17, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Many years ago, an eldership hired a preacher. 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In Acts 15, we know that there were Jewish Christians who insisted that Gentile Christians must circumcise and\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\/60391","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=60391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60391\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}