According to the Bible, the church is a manifestation of God’s kingdom on earth (Isa. 9:7; Matt. 13:47; Col. 1:13). A helpful way of thinking about this is with the analogy of a foreign embassy. Foreign embassies are stationed in different parts of the world to represent their home nation to the country wherein they reside. The church is an earthly manifestation of God’s kingdom under the Lordship of Jesus that represents God’s will and work in the world.
Because God has always ruled over his people, he has manifested his kingdom in different ways throughout the history of the Bible. When we open the first few chapters of the Bible, we read about Adam and Eve, God’s first “kingdom representatives” called to care for creation (Gen. 1:26–27). Over time, God set his kingdom up among the Israelites, and he governed them by kings and prophets. In the New Testament, Jesus sent out his apostles to establish local “kingdom outposts” under the oversight of elders and deacons. Healthy, established churches should have elders and deacons.
Elders are men who are called, competent, and have godly character (1 Tim. 3:1–7). They are called first and foremost by God. This call often manifests itself through an internal desire to serve the church by caring for the spiritual needs of the people gathered there. This “internal call” should be confirmed by the church community. Ordinarily, as an individual serves the spiritual needs of the church, others are able to observe and affirm them in their desire to serve as an elder. The prerequisites for being legitimately called are competency and character. The Bible teaches that elders must be able to teach. Some elders are particularly set apart to this task (often the primary preaching pastor, for example). This means elders must be grounded in the Scriptures in order to instruct in sound doctrine. Competency isn’t enough, however. It is necessary that elders be men of character, respected by both believers and unbelievers for their upstanding life of faith and charity.
Deacons must also be persons of character who are called and competent (1 Tim. 3:8–13). The primary difference between elders and deacons is that the elders oversee the spiritual needs of the congregation, focusing on moral and doctrinal matters for the health of the church, while deacons zero in on the physical needs of the congregation. Deacons are a special class of servants within the church and, side-by-side with the elders, they make sure the church is holistically provided for.
We might call elders and deacons the officers of the church. They aren’t the only officers, though! Every baptized Christian participates in what is known as the general office shared by all believers. We are a royal priesthood, called by God himself to use our gifts in the service of the King. God gathers his people into his heavenly embassy week-by-week, and then he sends us out into the world to represent our King as his ambassadors.
This is the church structure that we find in the New Testament. Jesus is the ultimate king of the church (not the senior pastor!), and he rules over the church through officers, elders and deacons who care for his kingdom on earth. These officers are meant to serve you, the believer, reminding you of God’s gracious promises in Scripture, and ministering to you during times of spiritual and physical need.
