In one of his letters, Paul urges his disciple Timothy: “Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you” (1 Timothy 4:14). The Greek word that is used in that verse is presbuterion, and it poses the question: What did the body of elders look like in Ephesus? Thankfully, we know more about church leadership at Ephesus than we do about any other church in the Bible, because we have an account of Paul’s farewell message to the elders at Ephesus in Acts 20:17-38.

Before we look at those verses, let’s consider the three ways that the Greek word ekklēsia is used throughout the New Testament. It is used in the same three ways that we might use the English word family.

First, ekklēsia is used to describe a single House Church. This is a bit like when someone asks you who you live with and you reply: “With my family.” By that you mean your parents and your siblings, or if you are older and are married, you mean your spouse and your children.

Second, ekklēsia is used to describe all of the House Churches in a city. This is a bit like when someone asks you who you are going to share your Christmas dinner with and you reply: “With my family.” This probably refers to a much larger group of people than you share your house with. It may include your parents and grandparents, your siblings and their spouses, your own spouse and your children, your nephews and nieces, and your Great-Auntie Ethel.

Third, ekklēsia is used to describe all of the churches in the world put together. Theologians refer to this as the “church universal”. Jesus is coming back for one Bride, not for many brides, because there is only one church across the world. This is a bit like the moment when a wedding photographer shouts out: “Now for a photo of all of the bride’s family!” By that, they don’t just mean the group of people that share Christmas dinner with her. They mean everybody in her family tree. Uncle Dennis who has flown in from the other side of the world gets included in the photo. So does the estranged cousin that nearly didn’t get invited to the wedding at all. The wedding photographer needs a wide-angled lens to accommodate such a large group of people who all consider themselves to be part of the bride’s extended family.

It is interesting that the Bible never uses the word ekklēsia to refer to one church in a city as opposed to another church in that same city. The idea that a town may have a Baptist church, a Methodist church, a Catholic church and an Orthodox church isn’t there in the New Testament – let alone the idea that it may even have a First Baptist church, a Second Baptist church and a Third Baptist church within easy driving distance of each other. This is important, because one of the objections that is often leveled against House Churches is that “they don’t do eldership properly” – but the fragmented way that we traditionally think about church across a city isn’t very biblical at all. A person may dislike how eldership works in a House Church, but they cannot take the moral high ground about it. It is at least as biblical as traditional ways of doing it.

Coming now to Acts 20:17-38, we can tell that these are elders of ekklēsiai in the first sense of the word, since Paul reminds them that he exercised his gift of teaching “from house to house”. Each of these House Churches would ideally have more than one elder, since eldership tends to be plural in the New Testament (see Acts 14:23). Leading as a team makes the burden of church leadership feel much lighter. It safeguards against the devil’s attacks against church leaders, since if one falls down another can continue leading while helping their fallen comrade. It also makes it easier for churches to multiply, since a House Church barely misses a step when God calls one of its leaders away to new harvest fields elsewhere. Jesus sent his first disciples off in pairs when he entrusted them with simple tasks, such as finding transport or booking a table for dinner (Luke 19:29-30, 22:8-12). How much more should we expect him to do this for such an important task as leading his beloved ekklēsia!

We can also tell in Acts 20:17-38 that these elders somehow formed one citywide eldership team together. They do not meet with Paul separately. They all listen to him together. This is presumably the presbuterion – the body of elders – that Paul is referring to in 1 Timothy 4:14. Before I met the disciple-makers from Africa and Asia, I rather assumed that “the body of elders” referred to a handful of old men who met together on a Thursday evening to discuss the running order for Sunday and to chew over pastoral challenges together. The body of Ephesian elders that we meet here, in Acts 20:17-38, is not like that at all.

Most eldership decisions can be made at a House Church level because they do not have much impact on the other House Churches. It is a bit like a family deciding what to do at the weekend. There is no need to consult the wider group of uncles and aunts because it doesn’t much affect them. In the same way, every House Church has its elders with full authority to make decisions for its own House Church.

If a family is deciding what to do on Christmas Day, then it might be gracious for them to have a conversation with the extended family that live in other homes. In the same way, if a decision will have a citywide impact, then all of the elders of all of the House Churches in a city may come together to agree a plan in unison. For example, how should believers contextualize the Gospel to the culture of their city? How should they work out the process of discipline and restoration together, without allowing willful sinners to sidestep the process by simply switching to a different House Church down the road?

For a handful of issues, where the approach of the church in one city is likely to impact the churches in every other city, then an even bigger dialogue may be needed. Are followers of Jesus for or against abortion? What is their message to an incoming king or president? How can they collaborate effectively to translate the Bible into every language and to put it into the hands of every unreached people group around the world?

The elders of House Churches play different roles at each of these three levels. It is important that you see that there are biblical and well-thought-through ways for them to do this, but let’s be honest: this isn’t the biggest question for most of us, is it? A far bigger question is how we are to find the first few People of Peace that the Lord has prepared for us in the harvest fields. Let’s not get distracted from this task by endless conversations about church structures. If we keep the main thing the main thing then, by the time we need it, the Lord will help us to recognize the right eldership teams to look after the disciples that we have faithfully made.