Elder (Christianity)

An elder in Christianity is a person who is valued for wisdom and holds a position of responsibility in a Christian group. In some Christian traditions (e.g., Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, Anglicanism, Methodism) an elder is an ordained person who usually serves a local church or churches and who has been ordained to a ministry of word, sacrament and order, filling the preaching and pastoral offices. In other Christian traditions (e.g., Presbyterianism, Baptists, Plymouth Brethren), an elder may be a lay person charged with serving as an administrator in a local , or be ordained to such an office, also serving in the preaching (in this case referring to teaching done during church gatherings) and/or pastoral roles. there is technically a distinction between the idea of ordained elders and lay elders, often the two concepts are conflated in everyday conversation (for example, a lay elder in the Baptist tradition may still be referred to as being "clergy", especially in America). Particularly in reference to age and experience, elders exist throughout world cultures, and the Christian sense of elder is partially related to this.

Elders are mentioned in a number of New Testament passages. Individuals such as James had a significant role in the Jerusalem church and the Council of Jerusalem. In reference to churches in Antioch, Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra and Derbe, Paul appoints elders as a key step in organizing a new church and instructs Titus to appoint others. Paul spoke directly to the elders in Acts and warned them to "be on guard for themselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made them overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood."^{[Acts 20:28]}

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