One‌ ‌Kind‌ ‌of‌ ‌Elder,‌ ‌Or‌ ‌Two‌ ‌Kinds?

Our church has been in 1 Timothy chapter three, and there we have been looking at the calling and character of elders.  These are the men that God sets aside to lead, feed, and protect his people.  But for those who have been in different kinds of churches, they may have seen different kinds of elders.  Some churches have teaching elders and ruling elders.  Teaching elders are those doing what is commonly considered the public ministry of preaching and teaching.  Ruling elders are those that do the administrative work of planning, policy and budgets.  Is that distinction biblical?  Should certain elders do somethings and not other things? 

Seeing two different types of elders is not without biblical warrant.  The passages used to justify this are 1 Timothy 5:17 where a distinction is made of some elders who work hard at teaching and preaching and should be given the double honor of wages, Romans 12:6-8 where teaching is distinguished from leading, and 1 Corinthians 12:28 where teachers are again distinguished from administrators.  

However, I don’t think the above passages capture the full biblical picture of offices in eldership.  George Knight III did a study of this issue for his denomination and put together a strong list of reasons for seeing elders as one office not two.  Yet, this one office will contain men who are differently gifted and therefore have different emphasis in their daily function.  Due to gifting, some will preach and teach more, and others will have more oversight duties, but both are in the one office of elder.

Here is a partial list of biblical reasons to see the elder position as one office and not two: 

1. The strongest point is that the two places where church offices are clearly defined, 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1, there are only two offices; elder and deacon.  There are not two offices of elder, only one. 
2. Peter considers himself a “fellow elder” in 1 Peter 5:1 and yet he both ruled and taught.  
3. Paul was ordained with the laying on of hands (Acts 13:3).  This was an ordaining activity for elders (1 Timothy 4:14; 5:22).  As an elder (and an Apostle) Paul was a teacher (Acts 13:1), yet he also took part in the policy and oversight that happened in the Jerusalem council (Acts 15:6).
4. The Apostles (as “fellow elders”) are seen providing the administrating oversight to the early church in Acts 6, yet declaring their call to preaching and prayer.  
5. The Ephesian church leadership is called elders in Acts 20, overseers in 1 Timothy 3 and evangelists and pastor/teachers in Ephesians 4.  These terms are overlapping and applied to the same people who are all doing the same things, which are ruling and teaching. 
6. A plurality of elders were established in every church Paul set up.  When he spoke to them, he spoke to them as one and called them all to the same tasks of teaching and ruling.  Paul’s speech to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20 is a prime example of this.  Acts 20:28 say that all of these men would be overseers, and at the same time they would be shepherding God’s people as they fed them the Word of God.  
7. The church of the letter to the Hebrews also had a plurality of elders though they were not called by this title.  Yet, this plurality of men would all be teaching and sharing the word of God with the church.  (Heb. 13:7, 17) This was not just the job of the teaching elder.  All of the leaders of the church were assumed to be doing this.