Leadership Structure In the First Century Church: Who’s in Charge Here?

Jesus has ascended. Gifts have been given. People are joining the Church.  Apostles are planting churches and discipling converts. Prophets are prophesying, sharing words of knowledge and wisdom. Evangelists are spreading the Good News of Jesus. Homes are becoming houses of eucharistic worship. Heads of households are organizing feasts for the Lord’s Day gathering. People are being baptized. Conflict arrises. Tensions rose between the Charismatic leadership of traveling prophets and preachers and the Local leadership. Unity must be held onto. Instruction must be given. False doctrine begins to spread. The Gospel must be defended. But who is in charge? Is anyone in charge? Is everyone in charge? 

As the Gospel spread and the Church grew leadership had to be both flexible and rigid. Flexible in it’s ability to adapt and change to challenges and ministry realities and rigid in it’s commitment to it’s Christological dogma and Apostolic faith and practice. “The Acts of the Apostles and Letter to James suggests that the Jerusalem church and Pauline churches consisted of a fluid group of leaders, including elders, prophets, and social leaders” (Dr Coulter, Pentecostal Theological Seminary). 

This was a participatory community. From the men and women in the Upper Room selection of Matthias to replace Judas, guided by prayer and the Holy Spirit, to the house churches in Asia Minor and Rome, church leadership had to be dynamic, conciliatory, and Spirit-led. First century ministry practice was led ministry teams - from Jesus sending out the 12 and the 70 in pairs through the Apostolic ministry of Paul and Barnabas, Barnabas and John Mark, Paul and Silas, Paul and Timothy, etc, leadership was found in gifted individuals in council with one another.  Because of the early Jewish nature of Christianity, believers in Jesus would meet in the Synagogue on Sabbath and then in homes on the Lord’s Day. As Christianity spread throughout the world and Gentile’s accepted Jesus as the Messiah, it became less of a Jewish sect and required new leadership structures. This was a Christocentric religion with a Pneumatology of egalitarian outpouring. Eventually Christianity would move away from the shadows of Jewish Religion as Pauline Christianity took root. A more hierarchal structure emerged. This was not about leadership power but leadership authority. It was about preserving proper doctrine and teaching. In the late first and early second century Roman Christianity house-churches gave way to Churches of the City or Region where the house-church leader (male or female) was part of a community of house-churches. An elder/presbyter (or bishop) would assist in the oversight of the churches in the city. Syrian Christianity would also see the rise of a three-fold office of bishop/elder (presbyter)/deacon.

The Holy Spirit gifted the church body - both a biological and political metaphor - so that the needs of the church body could be met. And needs did arise. Caring for the poor, orphans, and widows. Organizing weekly gatherings. Managing finances and resources. Preaching the Gospel. Recognizing spiritual authority. Baptizing converts. Making disciples. Paul, himself recognized as an Apostle by the Council in Jerusalem led by the Apostle James the brother of Jesus, sees needs being filled not be offices but by giftings. God gives gifts to meet needs, those gifted lead in the work of the ministry. In his Epistle to the Ephesians Paul instructs the church as an apostle (a messenger), prophet (revealing God’s will), evangelist (proclaimer of the gospel) , and pastor-teacher (a shepherd who instructs with authority) that these ministry gifts are to function in the church to bring the church to maturity. An individual may have one of these gifts, all of these giftings, or any combination of them. Paul’s point isn’t in the office but in the function. As the four-fold ministry gifts of 1) apostle, 2) prophet, 3) evangelist, and 4) pastor-teacher equip the saints to service (a deacon in practice) the whole church is built up to oneness in faith and knowledge of Jesus so that we all, the whole local church, becomes mature, filled with the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Everyone becomes a deacon in function even if not a deacon in the ecclesiastical use of the word. Mission over system. Roles defying the office, not the office defining the roles. Men and women sharing in leadership structure. 

In my thought-for-thought translation of the Greek in Ephesians 4:11-16 we see this, “So God truly gave the apostles, and prophets, and evangelists, and the pastor-teachers to equip the saints to be servants who build up the local church body of Christ so that together we attain unity in the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, a complete mature church filled with the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. So that you will no longer be like a child unable to swim who gets swept away by the waves and storms that are the schemes of cunning deceitful crafty men. Speak the truth in love. Each of you grow into the head of the body, Christ. He is where the body joins together and is held together. Every joint in the body working together, for the growth of each one into a building of love.” 

Who was in charge of the church? Jesus. How does He lead? By gifting men and women to equip the church. Why? So the church may grow up into a healthy body. How are you using the gifts God has given you? What needs does your local church have that you can serve in? If you have a leadership gift, how are you equipping the church under your care? Who is in charge? Jesus. Are you answering His call?