Church Organization

In the beginning: The early Church was organized the same way as the synagogue, though many Bible translations obscure this fact. Both the Church and the synagogue were led by one or more presbyters, which means elder and became the English word priest. If there were several elders, the leader was called the episkopos, which means supervisor and became the English word bishop. In the early days, bishops rode circuits, as the Apostle John did (Revelation 1-4).

Deacons were the invention of the early Church. Their function is incompletely described in the New Testament, but they seem to have been administrators. Thus the early Church consisted of congregations served by deacons, run by priests, and supervised by bishops. Or if you dislike words of Greek origin, we could say that early congregations had a board, ministers, and a district superintendent.

However, if you get twenty people from different backgrounds to study the Bible in order to determine what the Bible says about how the Church should be organized, you will get about forty answers. They will all have very cogent arguments for their positions. Probably the reason why there is so much disagreement on this subject is because the New Testament doesn’t prescribe church government so much as it describes it. Here are some terms that are used by various churches and their general definition.