The Not-So Practical Expression of the Church

[Ohio]

Originally Posted by Hope

I have been reading about a link between the ground of locality and elders over a whole city. Whoa!! Where did this elders business come from? I can never remember an issue being made that the ground of locality equals anybody being over anybody. I thought the New Testament taught elders in every church and elders in every city. Where is the over every church or over every city?

IIRC, the "model" church was Taipei. There were dozens of "halls" with thousands of saints, but only one eldership over the church, and thus only one proper eldership in the whole city. I suppose the "over" part was not alarming to most of us since it is part of "overseer."

I also have had this ongoing dispute about the appointments of legitimate elders. The LC model designates "only the apostle" can appoint them. This thought has created a host of conflicts, because what this really means is that a regional or national leader (apostle? bishop? cardinal?) appoints only those loyal to him, who also turn out to be FT'ers who love to travel, and display loyalties to his appointer (understandably the one who signs the "paycheck") rather than to the local church.

Care to comment on this, Hope?