Leadership
We believe that the New Testament model of church leadership is ideally a plurality of biblically qualified male elders. We trust that over time God will continue to bring or raise up additional elders here at Sojourn Church.
Elders, overseers, or pastors?
The New Testament uses three different words to describe the same leadership office in a local church: elders, overseers, and shepherds (pastors).
“Elder” is the most frequently used term for church leaders (see, for example, Acts 14:23; 15:2, 6; 20:17; Titus 1:5; James 5:14; 1 Peter 5:1).
The term “overseer” is found in Acts 20:28 where Paul is speaking to the elders of the Ephesian church, in the qualifications for overseers in 1 Timothy 3:1, a passage that is generally understood to be applied to elders, and in Philippians 1:1.
The New Testament word sometimes translated as “pastor” is more often translated as “shepherd,” and only refers to church leaders in Ephesians 4:11, as “shepherd-teachers,” and in 1 Peter 5:2, a passage where Peter is addressing local church elders, and he tells them to “shepherd” (pastor) the flock of God.
