Are There Two Types of Elders?
I'm reading through Witmer's "The Shepherd Leader." This is an excellent and challenging book for any church elder. In the third chapter Witmer recalls first how the church strayed from the leading of a plurality and parity of elders. This shift began in the second century but was greatly accelerated by Cyprian in the third century. Cyprian tied church leadership to the Levitical model, with elders becoming priests. “Bishop” became a title that vested a single man with immense authority over the church and its leadership. The biblical idea of elders and deacons began to be restored in the reformation, beginning with Wycliff, advancing greatly with Calvin and his student Knox, the latter two of which split the role of elder into a teaching pastor and a ruling elder. The former was to teach the word, the latter was to “seek the fruit of the same in the people” (Knox.) According to Witmer, these elders were to be men of good character, but they need not poss