Eldership and Family Integrated Churches

Speaking of eldership....

I thought it might be encouraging to see that we are not out on a wobbly limb by ourselves on this.

The number of churches recognizing the truth of scriptural eldership has multiplied over the last several years ... especially churches influenced by the family reformation movement of our day.

Why?

Family integrated churches are typically born of a radical reexamination of modern church life in the light of Scripture. When these churches lay aside tradition and take a fresh look at the New Testament pattern of church leadership, many come to the same conclusions we have.

Take a look at this excerpt from the "Biblical Confession for Uniting Church and Family" from the National Center for Family Integrated Churches.

This could not have stated our position more exactly if we had written it ourselves!

ARTICLE V -- Church's Leadership and Ministry

We affirm God's revealed pattern in Scripture that the church be led and fed by a plurality of biblically qualified elders whom the Holy Spirit raises up from within the local church, who equip all the saints to do the work of ministry, and who may or may not be remunerated (Acts 14:23; 20:28; Eph. 4:11-12; 1 Tim. 5:17-18).

We deny/reject the two unbiblical extremes of our day: authoritarian, one-man leadership/one-man ministry that impedes the biblical functioning of the body, and leaderless house churches that disregard the biblical necessity of elders.

When it comes to scriptural principles, we ought to be willing to stand alone. But sometimes it's encouraging to see a brother or two standing beside you!