Daily Thoughts from Acts: The Importance of Church Governance (Acts 14:19-23)

But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having persuaded the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. But when the disciples gathered about him, he rose up and entered the city, and on the next day he went on with Barnabas to Derbe. When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.  (Acts 14:19-23 ESV)

You must grant that in their endeavor to dissuade people from believing that Jesus is the Messiah, these Jews were quite passionate.  They traveled from their home towns to Lystra to counter the message of Paul and Barnabas.  Paul they find and encourage the people of Lystra to kill him by stoning.  It appears a miracle of healing takes place here since the crowd was surely right that they had thoroughly stoned Paul.  Even if they had “merely” pummeled him within an inch of his life he could not have gotten up and been able to travel the next day.  Paul goes back into town and no doubt causes many to think that perhaps he is a god.

He and Barnabas immediately go to Derbe, again perhaps to reduce the persecution against the church that their presence and preaching might cause, and we are told that they had much fruit for their labors.  But instead of heading to the next new town after that, their purpose is to revisit on the way back all the places where the gospel and a church has been planted.  It is time to return home for some reason, no doubt at the Spirit’s direction, and to bolster the work that has been done.

There is one church to each community, each town.  And one of the most important ways for these congregations to be strengthened is in each church they appoint elders as leaders, men who, though they have not been Christians long, nevertheless demonstrate maturity.  It has always been the case in every community that leadership has been exercised by men of character and maturity, usually older men.  And this was true of Jewish synagogue communities.  These churches are synagogues (the word simply means coming together), coming together communities within a community or city, a coming together of people of like faith.  Recognizing these leaders gives an official stamp to their leadership and a stability to this little community.

We know from 1 Timothy 3 that the qualifications for these elders are moral and spiritual.  They must be men of reputation for character, not hungry for money, addicted to wine, or prone to combativeness.  They must not have more than one wife and be faithful to her, with children (if they have them) who demonstrate good training.  And they must be solid in the faith, able to represent the gospel accurately.  Paul does not establish any connection between the church in each city with one another, though were representatives from each church in each locality to meet for edification or strategic planning that would surely be valuable.  If there is any bishop-like authority or leadership of these churches it is Paul’s and Barnabas’ leadership.

The other thing Paul and Barnabas do to strengthen the souls of the believers is preaching, urging them to continue in the faith, no doubt with promises of divine reward for those who do (James 1:12; 2 Timothy 4:8), and reminding them that entrance to the kingdom is not a bed of roses but entails many tribulations.  They are not promising freedom from suffering but just the opposite.  They are saying there is a cost to follow Christ and that it is worth it.

The missions strategy of Paul, Spirit-inspired we must believe, is to begin the preaching of the gospel in the local synagogue, if there is one, begin with the people who have the most background to comprehend the truth, attend that preaching with miracles, and assure those who believe that persecution will result but that it is the norm for those who follow Jesus.  The strategy is to stay long enough to get a fledgling community of believers established, no doubt meeting regularly in homes to encourage one another in their new faith, and then to move on to a new community, returning after a short time to bolster the faith of each new self-governing church and to appoint leadership from within the new community, leadership that in one sense has already risen to the top, already demonstrated maturity.  Then these churches must be left to fly on their own.

Did Paul correspond with these churches after returning home?  That is certainly the pattern with other churches that we see in our New Testament epistles, epistles or letters sent to speak to the issues being confronted by each locality.  We also learn of traveling teachers and evangelists going from church/city to church/city to minister (Acts 18:24-28; 3 John).  Networking is naturally occurring.  The only authority beyond the local church is the apostles, who won’t be on the scene forever, of course.  Church governance is still developing, but it exists and is crucial for the success of the church.