The Highway Forums General Discussion Open Forum How are Elders Trained?

John,

What is written in the "book" and how things are actually practiced I highly suspect and have seen personally, can be very different. If you have taken the time to read through the individual posts in this thread, you can clearly see that not one person has seen in practice what the "book" says. Now, this is mainly in regard to Presbyterian-type churches, but the abuse of the Eldership as taught in Scripture is even more abused and/or ignored in Independent churches. So, if your particular local church has a plurality of Elders who are 100% equal in authority in actual practice and where all of the Elders are "apt to teach", and the Deaconate isn't viewed as either a stepping stone to Eldership or a second-class office of the church, then your church is blessed. <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

In His grace,